The Island of Evolution Mission, The Beginning of the Extreme Salvage Team

Chapter 5 Bear's Lodge, Second Nation ♦

Barcara Kician

March 23rd, 1865

Chirrut and Bulldog raced each other across the open terrain of former Wyoming, letting Sassy track Oscar from above. He leads us near Bear's Lodge when suddenly he wheeled and dropped Lydia out of the sky! She pulled her chute, slowly floating down. We drove over to pick her up, the wild wind throwing her around.

"That's just like Sassy to throw one girl away for another!" Lydia laughed. Sassy's figure shrunk away as he flew closer to the massive stone tower. We quickly reached the base of Bear's Lodge where Lydia blew her special whistle. Nothing happened, just demon giraffes circling above. Martin told her to let him try, but again to the same result. We continued to circle the base of Bear's Lodge when Lydia noticed a cave!

We started towards it when Magnus's cackle stood in the way. He sniffed some more then shivered. He stops us outside of the entrance, his battle axe appearing in his hand. His icy blue eyes darted around the dark mouth of the cave, a snarl stuck on his face.

"There's a Rattler in there, dangerous critter them are!" he growled out as his body shook. "They are massive, psychic-powered snakes that can spit acid! They hunt sauropods and Thunder Terrors like you'd see a snake hunt a mouse!"

"However, I'm also getting Oscar's scent in the cave and another, less familiar scent. I can't place where it is from, it's like a recent memory slipped away." Magnus said while his shoulders slumped. Clearly, we had to go in after Oscar, regardless of the danger. If Fallon didn't kill us, then Katalina might. She and Oscar had truly bonded during the circus events.

"Thomas! Radio Fallon and" I started when he interrupted me saying the radio was down, either we were out of range or our radio was broken. He was already trying to troubleshoot what was wrong, so I left him to it. Magnus started pacing the entrance, trying to see in, but the sun caused the cave to be in total darkness.

"Well, young pups, let us get this done and over with quickly," Magnus growled as he headed towards the cave entrance. Paige shouted out that the stone didn't look that natural to the area, something about trying to hide sandstone amongst the phonolite porphyry. She ducked back into the turret and blasted the entrance, revealing a larger entrance that could fit the vehicles in!

"Well I'll be! That is why you carry a diverse group of adventurers I guess! Haha!" Magnus chuckled as he hopped into Bulldog and took off, being reckless with my work again. I climbed into Chirrut and followed him, but almost ran over him as he stopped suddenly. We saw what looked like a Thunder Terror mid-roar, but nothing happened as we waited and rolled forward.

I pulled my night vision goggles down to see better, waited for my eyes to adjust, and saw that the Thunder Terror was dead, a well-done taxidermy job. It fooled even Magnus, but to be fair, he was already on edge. When he still didn't move, I poked my head out to shout at him when Lydia cried out in fear!

I hopped out and rushed over to see what was wrong with Magnus only to be almost hit with his tomahawk! It flew right by my head, bouncing off of Chirrut! I took cover behind Bulldog, yelling for someone to toss me some rope. Lydia cleared out of Bulldog and scrambled deeper into the cave. I cursed as the stupid cover was up, then got whacked in the back with a coil of rope.

Thomas started firing the driver's gun just into the air, but it kept Magnus and her ducking for cover. When Magnus gets too feral, she sometimes tries to take over. She is some demon or animal spirit tied to Magnus' soul. His hairy form and how they escaped the first island are all thanks to her.