A brief history on this story. I wrote the first draft of it when i was in Grade 5 - One of my earliest stories, and THE earliest that is still around. I had written three other stories around that point - one about a gigantic Earthquake that some friends had to survive, an alien invasion, and a sequel to the alien invasion, all of which have since been lost. I had recently read the novels for Jurassic Park and The Lost World and was heavily influenced by them, to the point where parts of the story could probably be called as plagiarism, lol. I had also made a home toy movie with my Jurassic Park and various dinosaur toys called Triassic Park, and a lot of scenes from this were lifted pretty much directly from that, which I have also since-lost.
When I was in Grade 10, I decided to re-write the story and add much more into it to make it longer. Now I'm touching up the writing of it - not changing, adding, or removing anything as I still want it to be the same crappy story, just easier to read. All I'm doing is updating the style of the writing and making the dialog flow better.The DinoHunters
By Jeff Long
Fourteen-year old Raymond Roberts was one of those kids who often told tall tales to make himself look better to his peers and to make his life look more interesting. Of course by Grade Nine, which was his current grade, not one single person believed anything he said anymore, including his very few friends.
Which is why no one believed him when he arrived at school one morning, immediately shooting his mouth off about his uncle having been attacked by a Procompsognathus. While most everybody had no idea just what the heck that was, Raymond’s chubby glasses-wearing best friend Alan, rolled his eyes.
“Do you really expect people to buy that?” he asked in a thick French accent. “Dinosaurs don’t exist anymore.”
“This time I’m telling the truth!” Raymond argued. “He came across some island while he got lost doing his boat tour thing, and he was only on the island for a few minutes before one attacked him!”
“Uh-huh,” Alan said, not buying it for one second. “And on this island, are there magical fairies as well?”
Chris, Raymond’s other close friend, who had been standing there quiet all this time, finally spoke up. “Isn’t there something in the yellow pages about these people called the DinoHunters?” Chris didn’t believe Raymond’s story anymore then Alan did, but he also didn’t want to be completely against his friend either.
“Yeah,” Alan scoffed. “But they’re stupid jerks. Nothing but a couple of fakes, just out to squander people out of their money. If dinosaurs really did still exist, scientists would be all over it and it would be on the News like crazy.”
Raymond couldn’t believe this! For once he was telling the truth, but not even his best friends believed him! Before the hurt Raymond could continue his side of the argument, the school bell rang and everyone in the halls, including the three boys, moved off to their first class of the day.
***
Once school was let out for the remainder of the day, Raymond was picked up by his father David and his heavy-set Uncle Joe. Raymond told them right away about these people called the DinoHunters that were listed in the yellow pages.
“They’re just con artists,” David stated, but then saw the disappointed look on his son’s face and decided to humor him. “But I’ll give them a call later.”
David fully believed something happened to his brother Joe while on that island, as Joe had never once lied to him before, however he also thought that his brother was mistaken in calling it a dinosaur. His son though, seemed to be hooked right up on the idea and was not backing down like on most of his other wild theories and stories.
If it made both Raymond and Joe happy, David would check into these so-called DinoHunters.
***
Scott and Jade, a brother and sister in their thirties, sat at a table in their large fancy well-kept house, eating supper together. It was amazing that their house was so well-kept, as they didn’t have a maid and Scott’s unshaven face and wrinkled clothes pretty much matched his cleaning abilities.
When the doorbell rang, Scott threw his fork down on the table. “God damn it,” he mumbled. “Those damn bible thumpers always find a way to interrupt something good.”
As Scott began to stand, Jade quickly shot to her feet. “Let me get it,” She said quickly. She had a good idea as to who it was, but just incase it was more door-to-door religious fanatics, she didn’t want them to have to come across her brother at the moment. Scott hated them more then just about anything else in the world.
When Jade left the room to go answer the door, Scott sat back down and prepared to eat. Just as he was about to take a bite of the food off his fork, Jade called out to him, “Hey bro, come out here! Our guests have arrived!”
Scott rolled his eyes and quickly took the bite, savoring every second of it before standing up. Guests? He didn’t know they were having guests over. Curiously, Scott tried his best to straighten his clothes and then walked out into the living room.
Standing before him were three people - Two adults and one kid. God, Scott hated kids. He hated them almost as much as religious fanatics. “This is Mr. David Roberts,” Jade explained to Scott. “That’s his brother Joe and his son Raymond.”
Scott nodded at them, but was still confused as hell as to what exactly was going on. He looked at Jade questioningly. Jade picked up on the looked and explained, “They called earlier…” When she saw that her brother was still confused, she went on. “About the job…”
Scott’s eyes went wide as if a veil had been lifted. How on Earth could he have forgotten that? “My apologies,” Scott immediately said as he shook everyone’s hands. “With all the bozo’s out there prank calling us, I didn’t think anything of your call at the time.”
“Completely understandable,” Joe stated, a huge smile of joy emerging on his face. He had been worried for a minute that they had arrived at the wrong house, but was thankful to know that they hadn’t.
“So which one of you sighted the creature?” Scott asked as Jade offered them all a seat on the plush leather couch.
“I did,” Joe stated.
“Can I get you anything to drink?” Jade asked them, interrupting the current conversation. Scott shot her an annoyed look and she quickly quieted down and sat on the seat next to Scott.
“And what kind was it, do you know?” Scott continued.
“A pro…procom…” Joe stuttered over the name.
“Procompsognathus,” Raymond finished for him.
Scott glanced at the kid, then back at Joe. “How sure are you that it was a Compy?”
“Well,” Joe explained. “Raymond here is a dinosaur fanatic. He can name off more dinosaur names then I’ve had girlfriends, which if you knew me when I was in my prime, is quite a lot.” Joe chuckled but soon saw the blank look Scott was giving him and decided to get to the point. “I gave him a vivid description of what I saw and he almost immediately pinpointed the species.”
“I see,” Scott said in almost a whisper, thinking things over in his head. “Tell me the whole story from the beginning.” Joe spent the next half an hour explaining to Scott about his Boat Tours company and how when he was out just sailing by himself, he got lost and came across an island that wasn’t on any of his maps and so he decided to explore it. It wasn’t long before a small green and yellow lizard jumped him from the bushes and chased him back to his boat.
“I know of this island,” Scott said at the end of the story. “It is one of very few places on Earth that is indeed, home of real living dinosaurs.” Raymond’s face lit up so brightly, he could light a runway at night with it. While Joe’s face almost matched Raymond’s, David was still unsure of what to make of all of this. As far as he was concerned, these people were still con artists. They had not yet done anything to prove otherwise.
"If you'd like, we could take you there," Scott said. "Hunt a few of the beasts or whatnot."
“What’s the fee?” David asked. Scott’s reply was definitely a large sum of money, but a lot less then David was expecting. They talked into the late hours of the evening, discussing all that there was to discuss on planning such a trip.
At the end of the night, once David, Joe, and Raymond left the self-proclaimed DinoHunters’ house and were driving back home, Raymond begged his dad to let him bring his friends with him. David didn’t even want Raymond there, but didn’t trust him home alone for such a long time either, and with doubting heavily that there were any dinosaurs on that island, he didn't really have a problem bringing his son.
“We’ll talk about it later,” David said to his son, not wanting to discuss it at the moment and hoping that Raymond would let it go and forget about it eventually.
***
Two weeks later, Raymond and Alan were standing outside their school, waiting in the freezing sub-zero temperature for Raymond’s father to pick them both up. Snow blew around angrily as the beginning of a snowstorm started a half hour before. Luckily the students were let out of school early before the storm got much worse.
During the previous week, Raymond had managed to convince his dad to let just one of his friends come. He played on his father’s cynical side and went with the ‘There probably isn’t even anything there and these people are scammers’ approach. Secretly though, he wanted to prove to Alan that dinosaurs really did exist and he wasn’t just making it up. Alan, wanting to be there for when Raymond discovered that it really was just a scam, convinced his parents to let him ‘go on a vacation with the Roberts family’. Of course he left off the ‘potential dinosaurs’ and ‘uncharted island’ parts.
“Your dad better hurry up,” Alan chattered his teeth noisily as he straightened the straps for his two dufflebags on his shoulder.
“I think I see him coming now,” Raymond answered, shivering. As the distant car got nearer and more visible, Raymond saw that it was indeed his father. “Yeah, that’s him, come on.”
They walked towards the car as it slowed to a stop a few feet away. Relief flooded the two boys as they got inside the warm car and out of the freezing cold. “Everyone set?” David asked. The two boys nodded enthusiastically in return.
***
After driving through rush hour traffic and blinding snowfall, they arrived at a near-empty dock, most of the other boats having left before the water could freeze over into ice.
As the packed car rolled to a stop in the parking lot of the dock, they saw three figures standing on the plank leading to the small boat. Two of the figures were definitely Jade and Scott, both clearly recognizable despite being bundled up in thick winter jackets. The third was one that David did not recognize. He was a male that seemed to be in his thirties, with short-cut hair, glasses, and a fidgety stance to him. It gave David the impression that he was even more anxious then Raymond had been.
“Be sure to lock the doors,” David said to his brother and son as the three of them stepped out into the falling snow and closed the car doors.
When they approached the trio waiting for them, Scott noticed the addition of an extra kid. “Who the **** is he?”
David gave Scott a stern look for swearing around kids, but answered, “That’s Alan. Raymond’s friend.”
“This ain’t no family picnic at Disneyland,” Scott grumbled. “Where we’re going, Alice in Wonderland actually eats the tourists.”
Deciding to move to the offensive, David nodded at the third mystery person beside Scott. “And he is…?”
Scott looked at the man, then back at David. “That’s Jessie Carter. He’s a Paleontologist.”
Jessie Carter had heard about the DinoHunters years before, and had been pestering Scott to bring him to one of the dinosaur locations, however Scott kept refusing. He only went to hunt the animals and if a Paleontologist went, all he would want to do is study the animals and create a media frenzy. Not to mention probably give Scott a lecture on how the animals should be studied, not killed. However, he recently upped his usual offer by including quite a lot of zeros at the end of his cheque. Scott would have been an idiot if he refused. However he did lay down some ground rules, such as absolutely no video cameras, and no telling the media of it when they return.
“When do we get going?” Joe asked, breaking up the rising tension between Scott and David. “It’s freezing out here.”
“We should get going as soon as possible,” Jade answered him. “The skipper is a personal friend of ours that has brought us over the ocean many times in the past. I imagine he’ll want to get out of here before the water freezes too much.”
Raymond and Alan ran up the plank, rushing past all the adults. Jade chuckled at them as she turned and followed them onto the boat. “Follow me you two, and I can show you where to put your stuff.” She turned back to Joe and David, who was still involved in a stern staring contest with Scott. “You two coming?”
Joe patted his brother on the back. “Come on, let’s get going.” They walked around Scott as they met up with Jessie, shook hands, and then followed Jade. Scott and Jessie then boarded the ship and removed the plank from the dock.
Within ten minutes the boat was slowly chugging out of the small harbor and into the wide-open ocean.
