Survivor Story - Kong: Skull Island (Captain James Conrad Love Story)

6. Monster Hunters

"Good, now that we're all armed and ready-" Philip, machine gun already in-hand, turned towards San and Brooks, gun pointed at them. "I think it's time you told us what's really going on here."

"Whoa, man!" cried Brooks, holding up his hands in surrender. Both he and San jumped back. 

"Oh my God!" cried Nieves, practically jumping backwards, even though Philip's gun was pointed nowhere near him. 

This was the same for Tilda - his gun was nowhere within shooting range of her, but she still lifted her own rifle instinctively. 

"Philip, stand down," ordered James, holding up a hand.

"Jesus!" cried Mason. 

"Not until I get myself some answers. Someone had better start talking!" Philip did not move.

"We're just scientists!" Brooks tried to defend. 

"Philip, stand down." James reached out and placed a gentle hand on the man's arm, but his tone was firm.  "You're in shock - everyone is. But try to stay calm. Pointing weapons at each other will get us nowhere, and certainly won't get us the answers we want and need."

Slowly, eyes locked on his fellow tracker, Philip lowered the gun. Brooks and San let out relieved sighs and exchanged a glance.

"Some answers would be nice, I have to agree," James told them, less violently than Philip had.  "Do you know anything? About why we're really here?"

"An ulterior motive? Do tell," urged Tilda.

"I knew this trip seemed fishy," added Mason.

Brooks sighed, and he and San exchanged a glance. "Okay, yes, scientific research wasn't the only reason we wanted to go on this expedition - but that is definitely one of the reasons.  In fact, it's why I'm most interested in this trip-" He paused to clear his throat when James gave him a look that said, 'Get back to the point'. "It's Randa who's into the monster investigations.  He's always saying that, 'this world doesn't belong to us.' He's convinced there's creatures, ancient creatures that used to inhabit the earth, and some that still do."

"What sorts of creatures?" asked Tilda, already scribbling in her notebook.

"Big, scary ones."

"Like the thing that greeted us so warmly?"

"Yeah, just like that. He thinks it could be useful to the U.S. government to have information about that kind of thing - before the Russians get it first."

Here, Tilda stopped scribbling, but only for a moment.

"If anyone believes him, that is."

"Yeah, I mean, we saw that thing, and I'm still not sure if I believe it myself," said Mason. 

"It's call the Hollow Earth theory. Randa hired me cause I wrote a paper substantiating what most people thought was a crackpot idea - still think is a crackpot idea. That there are these massive, underground spaces isolated from the surface world."

"Passageways," added San.  "Randa believed this island may be one of those."

"An emergence point, for those that live below, ancient species like what we just saw. I thought he was out of his mind." He shrugged.  "There, happy?"

"Nope," said Slivko. 

"Let's move.  Stay close and stay alert - we saw who greeted us-" James cast a glance towards the scientist monster-hunters. "-And we have no idea what else is out there." 

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"This is Slivko, do you read? Anybody out there? We're headed North to the exit location. Everyone here seems way too calm right now about what happened..." Slivko was desperately trying to make contact with anyone else from their party, but to no avail - so far.  He wasn't about to give up.  "Anybody there? Do you copy?"

"We're out of range, Slivko," James reminded him.  "Save it for when we get closer to the group."

"Thank God," sighed Philip.  "I thought he'd never shut up."

Behind them, one armed with her camera, the other armed with a machine gun, the photographer-writer duo walked closely side-by-side. 

"Monster hunting," Mason said softly. "That's a pretty big secret."

"Yeah, no kidding.  I guess they couldn't really slap that on the advertisement," agreed Tilda. She looked over to where some birds were hovering over a large pond.  "Well this place certainly has no shortage of wildlife-"

As if on cue, and as though summoned by her words, a giant water buffalo-like creature emerged from the large pond which they were now passing, peeking it's head out to look at them.

"Nobody move," said James softly, drawing to a sharp halt.  "Easy, easy..."

Slivko raised his rifle as the creature slowly approached them.

"Shhhh," whispered James.  "Slivko-" He reached out and gently pushed down the rifle.  "Put it down."

In response,  Mason lifted her camera and took a photo of the creature.

"It's pretty cute," said Tilda. With it's big, wet nose, big eyes, and fluffy fur.

It must have decided they were alright, for it turned and waded back into the water, as though having grown bored with them. 

"So then, onward, Captain?" said Philip. 

James nodded. "Yes, onward."

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"Stay tight," James urged as they proceeded through thick, dense forest. However, it seemed to be suddenly thinning up ahead, revealing broken stone arches. 

"What the hell is this?" asked Slivko. 

"Ruins of some sort," Tilda thought aloud.  "A temple perhaps... Hey Mace, make sure you get some photos of these markings." She pointed to what looked like yellow paint marks, some sort of runes perhaps or a different language, and ran her hands across the dry painted markings. 

Mason held up her camera to do so, then let out a startled gasp, on the verge of a scream.

They weren't alone.

Suddenly, people started moving out of the trees and bushes, having been camouflaged. Most were armed, holding spears. The group backed up into a tight huddle, weapons pointed outward and ready.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

"Nobody shoot, nobody shoot!" ordered James. 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Another voice spoke, and a man ran out from behind the people approaching them, waving his arms.  He was dressed in a pilot's jacket and held no weapon.  "No, no, no, there's no need for that now! Come on, now, everyone keep your wigs on, now!" He turned to the  group with a wide smile beneath his long, bushy beard.  "I didn't believe it when they said you were coming."

(Yay, I was finally able to update because I'm watching the movie again :) I had to get it out of the library cause I couldn't find it on any streaming services.

Thank you for being so patient for updates - you can expect more regular updates from now on! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))