Tracker? - James Conrad

Packard

Slivko rushed and fiddled with the radio. He could barely talk in anticipation.

"How are we supposed to find them?" Mason asks out loud from beside me. I look around and I can almost hear the lightbulb go off in my head.

"Slivko! Tell them to fire a flare straight up." I rush to the front of the boat, looking out over the vast jungle. Suddenly a red light flashes straight up to the air. I turn to my company.

"We're close! Keep going till we hit beach!" They do as I say and we soon arrive at the shore. I quickly lead them through the overgrown plants until I hear more people. Definitely soldiers. As we reached them hugs were shared all around. Hank introduced himself to the man in charge and saluted him. I laugh lightly at his enthusiasm. They eventually quiet down and stare at me I shift uncomfortably in my spot.

"Oh right. How rude of us. That's Victoria. The Queen of the island." They look at me in awe for a moment before one steps forward.

"I'm Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard." He holds out his hand hesitantly.

"And I'm not going to bite." I shake his hand firmly. Hank laughs lightly.

"Much." I glare at him for a moment and he hushed, looking down. After they've said their hello's and caught up for a little while I stood up.

"We need to keep heading North if we're going to get there on time." We begin walking until a voice stopped us all.

"No! We need to head west. Chapman is still out there! I'm not leaving another one of my men behind." Packard makes us freeze.

"We can't do that." I shake my head immediately. This wasn't going to work out.

"And why the hell not?" Packard squared up to me.

"With all due respect sir.. She is the Queen of the island." Brooks says from behind us. 

"We have a saying here colonel. East is best. West is worse. All the skullcrawlers under our feet? Yeah they travel west. Your friend? Probably dead by now." I wasn't getting twenty men killed for the sake of a dead one. Not on my Island.

"Conrad, you're the tracker here." Packard smirks and turns to James. He looks to me for a while before looking up. Probably calculating the amount of daylight we had left. 4 hours maximum.

"We can make it." He sighed out. I scoffed as they walked the other way.

"You know this is a good group of boys." Hank says from beside me as we begin walking. I scoff and roll my eyes.

"At least we'll all die out here together." I snap, making my voice audible to all of the group.

"Well this is a good group of boys to die with." Hank shrugs to me. I sigh yet again and keep my head down as I walk. Another presence comes beside me and Hank leaves to talk to someone else.

"He didn't have a choice Vic." It was Mason. Her words comforted me.

"We're going to die. Saving a dead man. This isn't a good idea." I shake my head, still not looking up. I get that James had no choice. I'm not mad at him. The fact that he checked the daylight means he knows we don't have much time to do this. That doesn't change one thing.

"Have you ever taken a picture of a mass grave?" This time I look at Mason. She looks shocked for a moment but nods slightly. "Well. Get ready to see the biggest one in existence. I'm sure you've seen enough of them to know it when you see it." I mumble as I notice the jungle and trees thinning out.

We were close to one of the most God awful places on the island. The place that reminded us that the world belonged to the beasts long before the human race existed. I saw it on one of my first days on the island. I never went back. It wasn't exactly a place I'd like to go back to. I was lucky enough to escape with only one long scar trailing the length of my back. As we reached the sandy dunes all the soldiers stood at the top, staring dumbfounded at what they were looking at. I push to the front of them and stare at the huge bones. Each one the size of at least one building. I look at Mason, expecting her to be taking photos. She wasn't. She had tears in her eyes at the sight of the carcasses.

"You're right, I've taken enough pictures of mass graves to know one when I see it." She gulps and looks at me. Causing everyone to do the same.

"Lady and gentlemen. Welcome to the graveyard. The final resting place of Kong's parents. And the last place you'll see if you walk through it." I motion to the desert like land in front of me. They all seemed very hesitant to go.

"You sure about this Captain?" I whisper to James as I walk to stand next to him.

"I was never sure of it. You know that." He quietly says back. I look at Hank who nods and we enter the Graveyard.

"After this there'll be twenty more graves here. Hope some peoples are more shallow than others." I smirk as I walk willingly towards my final resting place.

And so Hell's gates opened.