Alpha Team Posted on March 31st, 2003 Vinod - My entire upper body was sore from swimming nearly 50 yards across the water, the most I ever swam in my life. I was also a source of food for several microscopic organisms who made their way up the sleeves of my torn t-shirt and my shorts, it still stings. I am now laying on my back against the wet sand of the shore of the island. With my reserve strength and some sea weed I ingested, I make way to the person in the life jacket. I walked up behind her. She wasn’t aware of my presence because she didn’t move. She was laying face down in the sand with the life jacket on. I turned her over and could hear the waters crashing against the shore in the distance. I lightly smacked her right cheek, no response. I screamed, “hello, are you OK ?” Still no response. I look around again to hear the waves crashing and to check if the T-Rex is in the vicinity. No T-Rex. When I looked back down at the girl, she starts to cough and spits up water. There were bubbles coming out of her nose. She jumps up and start to swing at me. She successfully lands several punches against my face and ribs. She starts to scream, “Where am I and who are you ?” “We’re on the island and my name is Vinod.” “Sam!?”, she says. “Who is Sam ?”, I ask “I was on the boat with him!” She takes her hands and covers her face. “We were on the boat, and Sam gave me the life jacket.”, she screams. “What is your name ?”, I asked, but for all I cared, her name was Wilson. “Crystal.” She stands up and looks around. She looks toward the western end of the beach and just runs. “Wait, Crystal hold on”, I scream. But she wasn’t going to stop. I ran and tripped over a tree log. I look up and she well over 20 yards away from me. My knees are bloody from the scrape against the tree. And I still feel something from the water crawling on my back. I started to run. The sun was introducing itself. She was treading the sand like an Iraqi in Desert Storm. I was right behind her now. “Crystal, wait !!” She didn’t even turn around. After a few minutes of trying to catch up to her, I eventually was running beside her. “Crystal!!” She looks at me with a blank expression. “Are you fascinated with Gilligan’s Island ?”, she asks. We both looked straight ahead and on the ground as we were running side by side. “What do you mean by that”, I asked. “Look, Sam is swimming with the fishes and I wanna get the hell off this island. I just wanna jump into bed and listen to some Convention songs” I thought, Convention songs…she must be getting tired or delirious. We stopped running now. She bends over with her hands on her knees. Her breathing was fast. She points ahead without saying a word and I look in the direction she was pointing. I see nothing but water, sand and seagulls fighting over a piece of fish. “And ?”, I say. I wasn’t being patient, but we both wanted to get off this island. “When we were stranded in the boat, Sam made contact with a Tanker ship named Estonia” “No way!!” ”Yes” “And they agreed to rescue us at the harbor area. They should be there momentarily.”, Crystal says. “Lets go wait by the harbor area”, Crystal suggest. We both head towards the harbor. There was dense shrubbery and trees in the harbor area. I decided to walk near them as Crystal decided to sit in the sand. She decided to take the calm approach as I decided to pace impatiently. My mouth was dry, adrenaline was surging. I walked over to the shrubs. I see Crystal get up because she sees something approaching the harbor, hopefully the tanker. We were about 30 yards apart. I turn away from the harbor plank and Crystal for a moment and look toward the trees. I turn back to Crystal. She takes her jacket off and swings it around in the air. She walks out further into the harbor plank. I began to walk toward her. The tanker was on its way. I was making my way towards the plank when suddenly something plunges against my back sending me plunging into the sand. Crystal sees me and starts screaming. I wiped the sand and salt out of my eyes. I couldn’t believe it. It was the same T-Rex that devoured Becky. Poor Becky, you can’t even say she went in peace. The Rex was behind a large tree and made its way out on to the sand. One of his legs looked limp and useless. He was dragging his foot in the sand, but was making his way towards me. I am definitely having a bad day. I reach the plank and see the tanker in the horizon. We both walk out to the edge of the bank. Crystal waves the life jacket to get the attention of the crew man standing on the deck with binoculars. The Rex was now at the mouth of the plank. It seemed hesitant to walk on it. It puts one foot out on the plank, and then the Rex, Crystal and I along with wooden logs all go crashing into the ocean water. It was freezing cold. Great. We were both underwater get baptized. There were logs that were once part of the plank floating around us. As we make way for the surface of the water, a log with a gigantic splinter inserts itself into Crystal’s leg. She reaches the surface screaming. The Rex was struggling in the water. It cried out once, but it was muzzled by cold ocean water. Two lifesavers are thrown out from the tanker as a team of crewmen jump on life boats and paddle towards us. The crewman dragged us on the boat. After changing into some warm clothes, we were graciously served a buffet style dinner while the TV was on. A TV commercial about some website called www.indaphatfarm.com comes on as I sink my teeth into a chicken wing and fries…its all over……. 1 love to all the brothers and sisters who died before me……	_______________________________________________________ Chapter 5: Fade to Orange “Nice Job” said Sam, as Crystal entered the doorway of the bridge. “Now lets see about getting this radio working.” A few minutes passed. “Hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me? We are trapped on an island in the Caribbean. We are the downed survivors of Flight 274. We are in dang…” the connection crackled and then there was silence. Sam screamed and slammed his fist into the radio. Lightning cracked in the distance and gray clouds were starting to move in. “Sam, we need to signal someone before that storm hits us, so stay by that radio, I will go looked for supplies” said Crystal. Muttering to himself, Sam began to fiddle with the radio, in an attempt to fix it. Soft rain began to pelt the yacht, as the thunder grew ominously closer. Crystal returned 15 minutes later with some water bottles and some Power Bars. Suddenly, the radio crackled to life. “This is the tanker Estoria, to whom am I speaking with?” came the crackled but welcome reply. “Tanker Estoria, my name is Sam John, I am one of 2 survivors of a downed flight in this area. We are on board a yacht in the harbor of this island. We need immediate help; many people have died on this island. Where are you?” There was a pause. “I copy that Sam, you are on the island of Isla Sorna, and I know of the harbor in which you speak of.” “I will inform our Captain of your location, but it will take us at least 2 hours to reach you.” “Roger that Estoria, please hurry” “Sam, one more thing, we are picking up a massive storm in your area, so be advised.” Click. The yacht began to rock back and forth as if to reiterate what had been said. “Well, at least someone knows we’re here” Crystal said in relief. “Yeah, tell me about it” Sam replied as he slumped against the door in total exhaustion. “Now all we need to do is……” “Crystal, grab on to something, QUICK!” But before Sam could even get up, the ship lurched to the side as a massive wave hit them, throwing Crystal into the wall, and pasting Sam against the doorway. The ship groaned as wave after wave began crash into it. “Get your life jacket on, quick! This ship is going down!” Shouted Sam. “There is only one” Crystal shouted over the roar of the squall around her. “You take it then” CRASH Sam was again thrown to the floor as the biggest wave yet hit the ship. The yacht was beginning to list sharply to its port side. “We have to get off this ship” Crystal screamed. Making their way on to the outer deck of the listing ship, Sam and Crystal held on to the railing. That was when the final wave hit. Crystal screamed as she was thrown overboard into the violent sea. Kicking for everything she’s worth, and struggling to bring up some air reserves she fought to get to the surface. Breaking the crest of the water’s surface, Crystal gasped for air. She knew what had saved her, it was the life jacket. She frantically looked around for any sign of the yacht, but it was gone, and so was Sam. She was all-alone, in the very violent sea. ----------------------------------- The T-Rex lowered its huge head and crunched down on Becky from the waist up, lifting her clear out of the small paddleboat. In doing so, the Rex collided with the rear of the boat sending it and Vinod hurtling toward the sea. Throttling it’s head upward, the T-Rex gulped down the rest of its meal and roared loudly at the moving paddleboat, as if to warn it never to return. Slowly turning its massive body, the Rex moved back toward the jungle. Vinod fought to maintain his sanity. There was blood all over the paddleboat, and he was covered in it. To make matters worse, the waves were beginning to kick up, and what looked like a major storm, was brewing. When Becky and Vinod had first jumped into this paddleboat, they had not been able to find any kind of paddle, but as Vinod looked around, he noticed a hidden compartment near his feet. Upon opening it, he saw 2 click-together paddles. The owners must of made the compartment so the paddles wouldn’t wash away if simply left lying around. Paddling as hard as he could against the ever-increasing waves, Vinod made his way toward the center of the harbor. To return to shore would mean certain death, Vinod concluded to himself. Because there were no life jackets, Vinod belted himself into the seat of the paddleboat and began searching for somewhere to seek shelter. That was when he saw it. The clouds were very dark, and the rain was coming down, but the orange color of a life jacket bobbing up and down in the distance, was unmistakable. Vinod began to paddle as hard as he could toward it. He managed to paddle quite a bit, and in doing so, he never saw the large wave coming up behind him. The boat shook violently and flipped over, sending him underwater. Frantically grasping for his safety belt, Vinod finally broke through it and made it to the surface. Gasping for air and holding on to the overturned boat, he desperately tried to flip it back over. But it was no use. The waves were too strong around him. Vinod knew that this boat would eventually go down, leaving him trapped with no way to stay afloat. But if he could make it to that life jacket, then he would have a chance. Estimating it at about 50 yards away, Vinod swam toward the orange. Tiring, Vinod stopped for a second and swam in place. Looking back in the direction of the over-turned paddleboat, he realized that is wasn’t there anymore. Filled with terror and a new determination, he swam for his life toward the orange life jacket. What he saw when he reached it shocked him to his core. There was someone in the life jacket…..and she was alive! Jurassic Park HQ | Bravo Team's HQ | Alpha Team's HQ	Bravo Team Posted on March 31st, 2003 Crystal -  Cold. The guilt was unbearable as I floated on the water’s surface. Why did Sam have to die? Why was everyone else dead? They all died meaningless deaths. …and why was I still here? I saw the island in the distance. The sky was gloomy, but something eerie in the air lingered. The water beneath me was black and endless. I had to get back to the island as fast as I could, else I would be pulled under to my watery grave by a 10 foot wave…or by something else. I swam for what seemed like hours. I tried to turn around, but this huge wave submerged me. I fought my way to the surface, and found myself trying to breathe. I couldn’t stand this any longer. Thoughts of giving up entered my mind. But something caught my eye. Dead ahead of me, lay the lifeless body of Sam…floating. I couldn’t stand to see this body, that was alive only a couple hours before, that saved my life. I had to respect him. I decided that I’d pull him back to shore, and try to bury him somehow. This would take longer, but it was something I had to do. I started swimming again, but this time I didn’t stop. Waves would come out of nowhere and submerge me time and time again, and I tried my hardest to keep a hold of Sam. The next wave was too powerful, and his body was swept away into the murky darkness of the sea. I couldn’t stand this anymore. I was too tired to continue swimming, and I lost hope of ever being found. My mind was swirling with thoughts of what I should do…Where was that tanker?! I was thinking for such a long time, and I was coming in and out of consciousness. The next wave that hit me sent me swirling under water and I was gasping for air. I was too tired to move, and I just floated….till I saw something. With the howling of the wind, the constant sight of massive waves, I thought I was bound to start hallucinating. But I saw with my own eyes something moving, a dark figure moving towards me… I froze. Was this a shark? No. How could it be. It couldn’t swim like that in this kind of weather. I started swimming the other way, but every time I looked back it was gaining on me. Suddenly something grabbed my jacket from behind and I was dragged under the murky mess of the ocean… When I finally came back up, I was in complete disbelief. I could now see the figure who was following me. “Who the hell are you!?” I blurted out. The guy, who seemed pretty tall, said: “I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past hour or so…are you frickin deaf?! ” “How’d you get out here???,” I asked….so then he explained. His name was Vinod, his eyes bloodshot and cuts all over his face, his beard covering most of them. We talked for sometime…but then the madness started. The whole time he kept blabbing on and on about some site of his and how he ‘lowed’ Malayalam songs. He would sing them over and over again and he was so off tune. I had to punch him in the face so he’d shut up. He lagged behind me as I swam, afraid to talk…the sky was finally clearing by now. Now he started up again talking about his site again and how much he loved watching Yan Can Cook and his homemade remixed tapes of Malayalam songs…I was about to die…then I heard a loud siren…THE ESTONIA WAS FINALLY HERE!!! I started screaming at the ship and they finally let down a life preserver….I turned back to let Vinod get in the preserver, and he was still singing as they reeled him onto the ship. They pulled me in a couple minutes later, and I had a huge gash across my leg that I hadn’t noticed till now. I was finally safe…and across from me stood Vinod with 3 boxes of donuts, 4 buckets of chicken, and 2 quarts of ice cream-who he alone was going to eat. He was still talking about his site while he stuffed his face. I stood in disbelief…this would be something I’d never forget. I’d lost so many friends, and why was I still here? ::Dedicated to Jay Brimley:: ::R.I.P.::