I had watched Conrad and Hank just enough to pilot the Ploat with a measure of success. That, coupled with my resolute determination, turned us into a force to be reckoned with. I was going balls to the walls fast, skipping like a stone over the water, disturbing the peaceful dawn with a maxed out engine roar.
"Which way?!" I yelled at Houston when we approached a fork in the river.
"How would I know?" He cried.
"Seriously?! A geologist with no sense of direction?!" I snapped.
"Go that way!" San told me over the noise as she gestured to the left.
I obeyed without question and turned us that way. This route led us into a gorge with a high rock wall to our left and thick jungle to the right. I prayed we wouldn't run aground or get stuck in too narrow of a passage.
"Get up top," I told San, handing her the binoculars from the cubby by the helm. "Look out for shallows and let me know if it gets too narrow up ahead."
"Houston!" I yelled, getting his attention. "Keep and eye and ear on her for me!"
He nodded affirmative.
We went along fine in the narrow stretch, though it went on far longer than I would have liked. I didn't know if we would come out in the right place. I didn't know where the right place was either. I refused to entertain the notion of how improbable it was that we could find them at all, or the statistical likelihood that they would all be alive. I just kept my hopes and the throttle up.
"It's widening out again!" San informed us.
The river became quite large again as we met up with another fork of it, but our view to the left was still obscured by the mountain. I wished we could get past it faster but the end was in sight. It was then we started to hear the noise. It sounded like something was wrong with the Ploat almost and I was on the verge of panic. There were some thuds and grumbling and a loud sort of bang, but we kept up our speed with no issue, no smoke, no sign of trouble, and were finally about to come out from under the shadow of the mountain.
When that rock wall gave way to the unobstructed view, I echoed that last sentiments of Bill Randa. Coming our way was a huge skull crawler, at least twice as big as the one we'd already encountered. It's hard to read the expression of a creature that wears it's skull on the outside, but this one seemed to me to be more aware and deliberate in its actions. It wasn't a mindless predator like the last one was. It was a deliberate killer, a sentient being. This brought a whole new sense of dread to me. I hoped Packard had not succeeded in killing Kong, he would be our only hope against this. What if it got off the island? There was no telling how much destruction it would be capable of.
"It's them!" San cried, pointing at the water as she looked through the binoculars. "It's them!"
I saw a few small figures struggling to run in the shallow water, and I swear I noticed a red bandana. My heart performed some crazy acrobatics, swelling with relief that at least some of them were alive and we had found them, and plummeting with the stress of that thing bearing down on them.
"Houston," I bellowed. "I hope you're better with that gun than directions."
He looked at me, confused, till I nodded behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the turret and I saw him smirk. We had a plane machine gun.
What happened next I'll never forget. A geologist, biologist, and accountant unwaveringly steered a boat made out of world war 2 aircraft straight into the face of monster. Houston got the gun working like a dream in no time at all and was showering the thing with bullets before I could be surprised. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to slow the thing down but merely pissed it off. I could make them out now. Conrad was in front, followed by Reles, Mills, Hank, and.....
Slivko.
They were bee lining it right for us but so was that thing. Noticing the predicament, Conrad set to luring it after him and away from the Ploat, which both luckily and sadly worked. I slowed down so we could pick them up while Houston desperately tried to reload the machine gun. San came down and her and I began helping the men onto the Ploat. It was strange sensation, like I was two people at once. One was pumping with adrenaline and was only thinking of the next move to stay alive. The other just had the same thought over and over: Slivko is still alive, He's still alive.
We pulled up Hank followed by Reles who both scrambled over to help Houston with the machine gun. I was trying to watch what I was doing, keep an eye on Conrad, and one on Slivko. Right when I was sure I was about to watch Conrad die, the now familiar roar of Kong filled the air. San and I had just pulled Mills aboard then and we all sort of froze as the skull crawler turned to face the source. Kong, looking a little worse for wear, emerged onto the scene. Conrad seized the moment of distraction and started booking it back toward the Ploat. Slivko had paused to look as well and was still staring.
"Slivko!" I barked.
He snapped his head back around to look at me.
"Get on the boat!" I ordered, hand outstretched to help him.
He obeyed and grabbed my hand, sending a bolt of electricity to my heart. He was really there, he was really alive.
"Where's Conrad going?" I asked, noticing him change directions.
"Mason is on the ridge," Slivko replied, pointing it out to us.
Kong and the Skull crawler were getting closer to us as they fought and I instinctively grabbed Slivko's arm.
He turned from the nearing violence to me and looked me square in the eye as he grabbed my shoulders, blocking the horrifying scene.
"Maybelle," He began, his brown eyes full of remorse below his worried brows. "Before anything happens, I am so sorry I left you. Please forgive me, I'm so sorry, I never should have-"
I cut off his rambling attempt at what I'm sure he thought could be his last words. We didn't have time for so many, we needed to get it together and survive. So I put my hands on either side of his face and pulled him in, pressing my lips to his. It wasn't a passionate kiss like you see in movies, it was solid and still, but I think it said everything I needed it to say. It wasn't quick either, even though our situation was urgent. It needed to be long enough to remember, just in case. I had to make sure I knew how his lips felt and how he tasted. Just in case.
I finally pulled away and we both took a deep, much needed breath as he looked so deeply in my eyes I though he might be able to read my mind. I hoped he found whatever he was looking for in them before everything started going wrong.
"He ain't getting up!" Mills yelled.
We turned our attention and saw the Skull crawler pinning down Kong who appeared to be caught in the chains of some wrecked ships in the lagoon. Reles and Hank finally got the machine gun ready again and began firing at it to distract it and give Kong a chance. It stopped just before delivering a death blow to the giant primate and turned to us. Satisfied that Kong was firmly tied down, it turned to us again. The bullets weren't effective enough against it, it was probably like firing a BB gun at a rhino. But without it holding him down, Kong began to struggle against the chains with a herculean effort. Still, it was approaching us too quickly, it would be on top of us before he was free for sure. Everyone who could get their hands on a gun was firing at the monster, hoping for a miracle.
And a miracle we got.
From on the ridge we heard the pop of a flare. It sizzled like a firecracker as it made a straight trip into the creatures eye. At first it just paused, a little confused about what had just happened, until the flare finally popped. It roared in pain as it desperately clawed at its own face, trying to dislodge it. I looked up at Mason on the ridge who had just bought us some time. It was just enough, too. As the crawler was still recovering, Kong freed himself. We watched as a huge boat propeller slammed into the creature and slammed it into the ridge. Mason was knocked from the top, but thankfully was falling over the water and not solid ground, there was a chance she could survive it. Still I was worried for her. Conrad yelled her name and I saw him running that way.
Kong and the skull crawler had a brief struggle before he dealt a blow with the propeller, slashing its throat open.
All together we cheered as the thing fell, lifelessly. San and Houston hugged and Slivko pulled me to him, one arm around my shoulders and one holding my head to his chest. Kong didn't take time to revel in his victory, he went straight to where Mason had fallen and reached into the water.
"Oh my god, he's saving her," I said, pulling my head away to get a better look.
He scooped her out and we saw her small shape in his hand. She wasn't moving. Our worry for her increased when the Skull crawler suddenly moved. It moved just as fast as I did as I screamed to get Kong's attention, everyone joining me. He turned and just barely lifted his forearm in time to block the massive jaws. He tried to fend the thing off one handed, keeping Mason as far from it as possible. Its sinister forked tongue shot out and wrapped itself around Kong's wrist, trying to pull it into it's mouth.
"No!" I cried, covering my own mouth with my hand.
Why wouldn't this thing die? I was so aggravated, this needed to be over, enough people had died.
The skull crawler succeeded in pulling Kong's whole arm down its throat. Kong roared in outrage and fought back, eventually we saw his fist emerge, the Skull crawler's internal organs following suit. It fell limp once more. This time only Hank cheered.
"Come back from that, you son of a-"
the rest of us watched as Kong opened his fingers and observed Mason. He walked to shore, near to where Conrad was, and gently set her down where we couldn't see her. Conrad raced over that way and disappeared from sight too. Kong wearily stepped back and looked at the corpse and our little ploat nearby. He took a deep breath and let out a mighty roar, beating his chest proudly.
"Way to go big guy," Hank smiled and saluted him.
Mills and Reles looked much how I felt, like 20 years was just shaved off our lifespans. Slivko and I were still holding onto each other and I felt him sigh. I looked up at him and he looked down at me, from my eyes to my lips and I blushed, remembering what I had done earlier. I had given him my very first kiss. I wasn't even sure if I knew how to kiss, I had probably botched the whole thing. In the heat of the moment, things were too crazy for me to be self conscious, but now I was. He seemed to be leaning down toward me until Hank interrupted.
"Look!" He yelled, pointing at the shore.
Conrad and Mason stood there waving at us.
"Let's go pick them up," Hank said as he went over to the helm. "Let's get her started back up, Slivko?"
Slivko cleared his throat with a disappointed look before giving a small apologetic look and going over to help Hank.
I noticed Mills staring off into the distance, looking quite sad. I finally did a mental assessment of the survivors and noticed that Cole and Packard were missing.
"Mills?" I called softly, walking up to him.
He turned to me, a tear escaping which he quickly wiped away.
"Cole?" I asked simply.
He shook his head, biting back more tears.
"I'm sorry," I told him, pulling him into a hug.
"I'm sorry about Jack, too," He told me, patting my back. "Oh, that reminds me."
Mills pulled away and set down his pack, rooting in it for a moment before pulling out a well worn black notebook. It was Jack's.
"We found his things, where it happened," He explained sadly. "Figure you could take it home to Grace and Billy."
Tears were now falling from my eyes as I ran my hand over the cracked leather cover. I nodded to Mills but was unable to speak. Reles also came over and patted me on the back.
We were close enough to shore now and we helped Conrad and Mason aboard. Mason and I immediately hugged.
"Are you ok?" I asked, finally choking back the tears just enough.
"Yeah, I'm ok," She assured me. "Thank God you got here!"
"Thank God you fired that flare!" I countered.
"What exactly happened?" She pulled back and asked me.
I pursed my lips in thought as to what to tell her.
"You don't want to know," I told her once I decided that being down a monster's throat was not a pleasant piece of information.
"Alright, who wants to get out of here and get to the rendezvous point?" Hank piped up, steering the ploat away from the shore.
We all gave an exhausted affirmation to his sentiments. I stood at the front of the ploat, the sun finally coming out and shining on us. A flock of white cranes flew over us as we skimmed the sparkling waters. I looked down at the book in my hand and my relieved heart turned into a grieving one again. I knew there was nothing more than this to take home with me, but it would never be enough. Strong arms wrapped around me from behind as Slivko rested his chin on my shoulder.
"Is it Jack's?" he asked softly.
I nodded, tears falling again.
"I'm so sorry, May," he said just as soft as before as he pressed a kiss to the side of my head. I held onto his arms and leaned against him as the sound of distant chopper blades reached our ears, soon cutting through the clouds in front of us.
It was finally over.