The rain pounded on the clad roof, beating it with every drop. Dr. Kelvin Horace was taking shelter in an old shed near the rock cliffs.

“Come on, come on,” he muttered as he tried to get a signal, “Get through, damn it, I’m not going to be stuck here.”

His outdated flip phone was always struggling to pick up a signal, but this storm made it worse. He looked outside to see the rain and fog, blinding him from the rest of the ocean and jungle just ahead of him. The same seabirds cawed and flew to the trees and under the rocks to take shelter.

“Shit, there’s no point,” he lamented, “I mean, the station is just a mile away. I think I can make it.”

He poked his head out of the shed and glanced both ways, and both were covered with a sheet of mist and fog. He knew that he saw the shed on his way there, he just needed to figure out where he came from.

“There!” he exclaimed as he remembered the way back. He darts out and to the right, slipping on some mud and falling.

“Ugh, note to self, be careful while running in heavy rain on a tropical island. Gonna slip.”

It was hurricane season, he knew this when he came out to the Bahamas for his research, but he didn’t expect it to be this bad. He got up and started speed walking to the research base. As he went, the storm got worse, and the closer he thought he got, the more he was pushed back from it.

After about a half hour, delayed by the constant wind pushing him back, Kelvin reached the station. It was a modern, white concrete building. He got to the front door and took his card out of his pocket. He lifted it to the drenched scanner, and after a moment, he hears a click, signaling the doors were open.

“Yes!” he says, yelling from the happiness he was feeling to get out of that dreadful weather.

He stumbles inside and attempts to close the door, but the wind keeps it open. He charged it, barely slamming it shut. He looks around the station and searches for his laptop. The inside was more colorful than the outside, with muted blue tile and platers around with various tropical flowers. He studies around the room and sees his laptop under some papers.

“Alright, clearly that storm didn’t just suddenly appear, so time to see if everyone else got to cover before it hit.”

He opened the laptop, sat down, and clicks on his messages to check to see if anyone warned him and the other researchers of the rain. He was on the island with three other ornithologists, all of them studying a different kind of bird.

“Oh, here’s one from Darla,” he says out loud as he reads an email Dr. Darla Scranton messaged to him and the other 2 researchers.

To Doctors Kelvin Horace, Grace Bennet, and Carl Jayne,

I was recently studying the ospreys by the big river of the island when my phone alerted me of Hurricane Matthew making its way through the Bahamas. I know some of you don’t have the best of technology (I’m talking about you, Dr. Horace) so I hope this gets out to you while you are all still inside and not out in the open.

Sincerely,

Dr. Darla Scranton

[email protected]icloud.com

“Why does she feel the need to put her email? We obviously have it,” he remarked.

Darla Scranton specialized in birds of prey, and she wouldn’t miss the opportunity to see some raptors she wouldn’t normally see in Tennessee. Grace Bennet studied wading birds. She always had a sarcastic exterior and never talked to Kelvin or the others. Carl Jayne was an interesting man and only came for one species, the Bahama parrot. Each of them kept to their area, although they sometimes met up to discuss progress, things Kelvin had no interest in. He came for the sea birds and didn’t enjoy hearing about ospreys or avocets. All he wanted to do was watch albatross and oystercatchers.

“Wait, I was just in a hurricane? Really? How did- wait, I should check on the others.”

He wheels over to another table and picks up a tablet they all use to document their research after returning from the field. Luckily, it also has a tracker for both chipped birds and the other’s locations, since each had to take a tracker with them to the island when they were permitted to come. He checks and sees that Darla and Grace were at two separate research stations.

However, he sees that Jayne is in the middle of nowhere, near the east end of the island. Looking twice, he sees that the tracker isn’t that far from the research station he was staying at right now.

“I shouldn’t, but,” he glanced outside to the rain, “No one should be out there.”

He got up and walked over to a locker, where a raincoat, some umbrellas, and a set of keys sat. Kelvin picked up an umbrella and Jeep keys before walking into the garage. Inside was a 2018 Wrangler and ATVs. Kelvin gets into the Jeep, sets the tablet and umbrella down, and opens the garage door. The wind, which had been plowing against the building for a while, flooded the garage, sending the ATVs back a bit. However, the Jeep kept its traction and sped off into the blinding jungle.

The storm was like a bull, constantly ramming everything it could. I beat against the Jeep, nearly knocking it over a few times as Kelvin drove. He checked the tablet, which showed he was only 10 yards away.

After he saw that the tracker was less than 5 feet away, he hops out into a clearing with the umbrella and tablet. He barely spots the tracker through the rain. It was on the ground, still active despite being soaked by rain, but Carl wasn’t in sight.

‘What the?’ thought Kelvin, ‘Where is he? The government said we needed to always keep these trackers on us, why would he ditch his?’

“Carl!” he started yelling, “Dr. Carl Jayne, where are you! Carl!!”

After a minute of yelling, or trying to overcome the wind’s immense noise, he stopped and walked back to the Jeep for cover.

“Damn it, Carl, where are you?”

He sighed, but then he saw a dark blur fall from a large tree outside. He looked, but couldn’t see anything through the rain. He got out to check and saw it underneath the tree.

“Hey, Carl, is that you?” he called out, thinking he was just taking cover in the tree. But upon getting to it, he saw that it isn’t entirely him, but a piece of him.

“Oh god, what the fuck!?” he yells out, frightened.

He got closer and saw it was his leg, with some of the flesh on it eaten and gone. Then he glanced up and saw the rest of him, in the tree like how a leopard stashes its prey. He saw his eaten body with the other leg on it, then his arm, and then his head. Each looked ragged and maimed, they weren't placed there, but rather thrown up.

“Oh my Jesus l-lord, what happened to him?” he said, speaking his thoughts out loud, “T-There isn’t anything here that could’ve done that, right?”

Before he could do anything else, a roar came from the trees. It sounded like a crocodile but had the undertone of a bull roar. He took to cover in the Jeep, away from Carl’s severed body. The thunder shook the clearing. Lightning lit the area, and it looked like the middle of the day, which showed everything clearly. The tree, Carl’s body, and shaking bushes. Kelvin locked his focus on the bushes, and a large dark figure emerged from it. Another boom and another flash later, he finally got a good look at it. And it had bloody teeth.

It looked like a dinosaur, but that was impossible. It was big, but not enough to swallow a human whole. Its face came to a point, and two horns sat atop its head. Four more surrounded its face, and its body was covered in armored osteoderms. To top it off, its tail had a large club.

It looked to the air and sniffed, before grunting and surveying around it. Almost like it was searching for something. Kelvin climbed over to the backseat and hid, but still kept his head fixed on it. It walked over to the tree with Carl and pulled an arm down, swallowing it whole, before pulling the body down and eating chunks off it. After it was done, it swatted it aside with its tail, as if it found the carcass unappetizing. Then it turned its attention to the jeep.

“Oh shit, the lights are on,” thought Kelvin.

Kelvin quickly ducked to cover, and heard the roar again. He started to feel thumping, and vibrations from growling. It was coming closer.

The thumping stopped outside the door. The jeep shook a bit, a lot more so than the storm had. He held his breath, and he stayed perfectly still. A moment passed, and he looked over the front seat. The creature’s gaze was looking inside through the windshield, and its eyes met his. Kelvin immediately goes back to hiding, and he heard it call. He feels it moving away, the thumps mixing with the rain and thunder, and into the bushes it had previously emerged from.

“Oh god thank you,” he whispers, not wanting it to hear him, “What the hell was that? It looked like a dinosaur it could-”

It was right in front of the car. It tricked him. It roars, quickly runs to the Jeep, and breaks through the windshield to get to Kelvin.