Return To Primordial Island by Rick Poldark (read my book .txt) 📕

Peter heard the doorbell ring as he just about finished setting up the game. Tracey and a few of their old faculty gamer friends sat around the dining room table. Everyone was smiling and laughing, drinking cold beer, and munching on handfuls of chips and popcorn.

He stood up. “I’ll be right back.”

Peter crossed the dining room and living room to the front door. When he answered it, his face fell.

“Hi, Dr. Albanese,” said David Lennox, smiling.

“I’m busy right now.”

Lennox chuckled affably. “I just need a few minutes of your time, and then I’ll leave you alone.”

“I’m not interested.”

“Peter, you don’t even know why I’m here.”

“It’s ‘Dr. Albanese.’ And I can hazard an educated guess.”

“Just a few minutes. I promise.”

Peter sighed and stepped aside, allowing Lennox to enter.

Tracey stepped into the living room smiling. “Who is it, Peter?” her smile faded when she saw David Lennox standing in their living room.

“Oh good! You’re both here,” said Lennox.

“What do you want? We have company,” snapped Tracey.

“Just a few minutes of your time,” said Lennox.

Peter waved him over to another room off the living room. “Let’s step into the den.”

Lennox nodded and followed Peter into the den. Tracey followed, closing the door behind them.

David Lennox looked around at the room lined with mahogany bookcases. In the center sat a mahogany desk, with two plush leather chairs positioned in front of it. To the right was an eighty-six-inch television mounted on the wall. “You have a lovely home. I see you’ve put your stipend to good use.”

Peter turned around and leaned on his desk. “What do you want, Mr. Lennox?”

Lennox chose to remain standing and cleared his throat. “Poseidon Tech is going to be expanding operations on the island. There are other interested parties.”

“Other governments?” said Peter.

Lennox didn’t confirm or deny it. Instead, he flashed his signature smarmy grin. “We need guides. Those with obvious experience on the island. You two, of course, would be paid handsomely.”

“Forget it,” said Tracey.

Lennox’s grin grew wider. “Don’t you want to know how much?”

“No,” said Peter. “We’re perfectly happy with our current arrangement.”

Lennox nodded, his smile waning only slightly. “You’re living the high life now. It takes money to maintain this sort of lifestyle.”

“We’ll do just fine,” insisted Peter. “Now, if that is all…”

“How about scientific curiosity?”

“Fully satiated. I know all I’ll ever want to know about dinosaurs.”

Lennox leveled his gaze at Peter. “It’s a shame. This is all going to go public. The greatest scientific discovery in the history of mankind, and you don’t want to be part of it?”

“We were a part of it,” said Tracey.

“Not officially,” reminded Lennox. “Why don’t you enjoy your time in the sun, take your fifteen minutes? Parlay it into something else you want to do. You could finance more digs.”

“That island, which is actually more of a continent, is dangerous,” demanded Peter. “Who knows what else lurks in that dimension undiscovered?”

“Discovery is fraught with danger,” said Lennox. “The moon landing was extremely dangerous, executed with less technology than exists in your cell phone. Yet, it was a tremendous achievement.”

Peter only glared at him.

Lennox chuckled to himself. “Okay. Point taken.” He reached into the right breast pocket of his designer suit and produced a stiff, off-white business card. “In case you should change your mind.”

Peter accepted it and guided Lennox out of the den. They crossed the living room, and Peter held the front door open. Lennox stepped outside. He turned to say something. “Remember your non-disclosure…” but Peter closed the door in his face.

He sighed. “That felt good. Shall we return to our guests?”

Tracey smiled. “Yes, let’s.”

They returned to the dining room table. Tracey took her seat, and Peter took his. He looked at his friends from over his Game Master screen and cleared his throat. Everyone grew quiet. They all watched him as they sipped beers and rolled polyhedral dice in their trays, practicing. Miniature game pieces sat haphazardly on a well-worn gridded game board.

“Okay,” he began. “Your airplane experiences quite a bit of turbulence as it flies through a massive storm. Lightning flashes outside your window. Suddenly, the plane drops, the cabin loses pressure, and oxygen masks drop from the ceiling. You black out and regain consciousness. You’re on the ground, the torn fuselage open to the night sky.

“Most of the passengers have died, leaving you as the only survivors. Raindrops fall through the opening above you. As you look around and begin to process your predicament, you realize you’ve landed on an uncharted island.

“Off to the right, you see trees moving in the moonlight.” Peter contorted his face and raised his arms, pulling them close to his body for dramatic effect. “A massive Tyrannosaurus rex steps out into the clearing, sniffing the air. It smells its next meal and turns in your direction, letting out a deafening roar.

“Another emerges from the jungle at the other end of the plane, zeroing in on your location. It begins to snatch bodies from their seats, rending flesh from bone. It tosses the fresh meat into the back of its mouth as blood runs down its jowls. Strapped into your seat, you look on in horror.”

Peter unconsciously fingered Lennox’s business card behind the screen, pulling at the corner with his index finger, bending it and letting it snap back.

“What do you do?”

The End

Read on for a free sample of Age of Monsters

Chapter 1

Everybody remembered where they were when the world ended.

When you met them, that was always the first thing people told you – where they were – what they were doing.  What it was like.

Jonah certainly remembered where he had been – out fishing.

He'd almost missed it.