Meet Jessica Zindane

Okay, I have never liked interviews. Always questions questions questions. And they always want answers, I know that’s the point, but I don’t have to like it. MY name? You already know my name. Okay okay, my name is Jessica Zindane, everyone calls me Jess, except for you and my dad. Dad does it because he’s, well, Dad. I think you only do it to annoy me. Yes Yes, you don’t have the same emotions as me, but the end result is the same. For all your talk of being dispassionate, there’s a rebellious streak in you. You’re here now, aren’t you?

Right. Moving on. Are you using one of your crystal thingies to record this? It’s amazing what you can do with those things. You’re like Spock, but with scales. Who’s Spock? Oh, a character from some stories my dad likes. Sometimes I think he was trying to be like his heroes when he came up with the crazy idea that stuck us here. Not that he could’ve predicted this, not in a million years, but going to a country with hostile people and an even more hostile environment was just begging for trouble. Coming here, wherever here is, was just icing on the cake.

Well, I guess it really started when my mom went missing. Both of my parents are archaeologists, and they frequently went on a lot of digs together, but this trip she went with a professor from another university. It’s why I didn’t go either. No, I’m not an archaeologist, I’m only nineteen. I went with them whenever I could though. I liked getting out, seeing exotic places, and living in the rough. It was probably for the best, my generation usually had their heads buried in their phones. They miss a lot of good stuff.

A phone, um, it’s for communication, but these days it’s used more for shouting at the air than talking to each other. But that’s neither here nor there. I like being more self-sufficient. My younger brother didn’t go on these trips, he is much more into studying. He likes technology, we don’t use crystals, but our tools can do some amazing stuff too.

Yes, I got side-tracked again. When my mom went to, well, I guess it doesn’t matter where, the name wouldn’t matter to anyone who listens to this. When she went there, she never came back. She called my dad when she got there and called him once on sat phone when she got to her camp, but that was the last we heard from her.

After a week or so, and my dad yelling into the phone a lot, the locals sent some people to look, they found the camp, but no people. No signs of a struggle. They found tracks leaving the camp, but none returning, they tried following the trail but lost it at a nearby river.

We were crushed. We feared the worst. My dad wouldn’t accept it though. It took weeks of effort, but he managed to secure permission to go search for her himself. He thought he could keep it from us, that was dumb. Of course, I knew what he was doing. So did my brother. We pretended like we believed him when he told us he was going on a minor dig and would be back in just a couple of weeks. I even smiled when he apologized for leaving, claiming this project’s deadline was locked or he wouldn’t go.

Well, he went, and I followed. So did my brother, he can be surprisingly observant when he’s not reading. I didn’t want him to go, I knew I would be barely able to take care of myself in that jungle, but I could until I caught up with Dad. I knew how he felt though, so I couldn’t refuse him. We used up most of my savings flying there, and timing it was a bitch, we had to make sure to find Dad when it was too late for him to send us back after all, but we did it.

Ah, the look on his face when we ambushed him at the dock was priceless. Shock, amazement, anger, pride, all rolled into one. As I hoped, his guide was unwilling to wait, and the timetable didn’t allow for sending us back. I think, though, that he couldn’t refuse us just like I couldn’t refuse my brother.

His boat was full, he had equipment and supplies to last quite some time. We rented a smaller boat to follow along in, and the guide would take the smaller one back. Wound up being more convenient in the long run, well, would have been more convenient. If we had ever made it to the camp.

I still don’t understand what happened. That damned thunderstorm came out of nowhere. we couldn’t see, our boats were rocking madly, the river went nuts. Then the earth started shaking, there weren’t supposed to be earthquakes there. the guide, I never caught his name, went overboard. I heard a scream suddenly get cut off, I think he went right under. The river had turned into rapids. I saw Dad holding onto the supplies for dear life, Tim and I were doing the same on our boat. Thank God everything had been locked down. It was supposed to be to protect our stuff from theft, but it served a more useful purpose here.

Then there was a waterfall. I didn’t’ think there were any in that area but down we went. Down and down and down and it felt like forever, then I think we fell into the water, but everything went black.

Hey, do you have something to drink? Suddenly I’m parched. Thank you. Wow, that’s pretty good. What is it? Oh right, side-tracked again.

I woke up in the jungle. My head hurt at first and things were a little blurry, but as my vision cleared, I could see I was in a different jungle. The trees were different, and bigger, a lot bigger. The river was different too. Wider. When I looked up at the sky, it was still blue, but the sun seemed more orange than yellow. A bit further down the river I could see my dad’s boat, thankfully on the same side of the river as us.

Timmy! I looked around frantically, but he was in the back of the boat. I crawled over and touched his shoulder, he moaned and started moving. I could see Dad standing up on his boat and waved to him. We came together on the shore and hugged each other tightly, just plain relieved to see each other.

Then we heard the growling. It was deep, it sounded like it came from something big. I didn’t want to, but I slowly turned towards the source of the sound. Further down the bank, past Dad’s boat, was a goddamn dinosaur. I mean, at the time, I could barely process it. I was shocked, but it was a T-Rex. We just stood there, like deer caught in the headlights, until it roared and started for us. We jumped and ran too.

Dad led us away from the river, towards some nearby cliffs. I was so scared, I didn’t look back, I just kept running. I could feel the earth shake from the dinosaur’s steps, but I couldn’t tell if it was gaining. I assumed so; it should be faster than us. We didn’t reach the cliffs; we ran into a small hill. It had a sheer face that we ran towards. we could see a cave, and we scrambled up some rocks and climbed onto the overhang in front of the cave.

The T-rex was right on us. We tumbled into the cave and went to the back. The beast was going crazy, but it couldn’t reach us. The cave opening was too narrow for its monstrous head. We huddled together for what felt like hours until it finally gave up and wandered off. We slowly let each other go, but we didn’t get up. Just sat there panting, tying to absorb everything.

Well, no, we didn’t talk for a few minutes, even Dad was a bit wild-eyed after everything. Tim finally summed it up pretty good when he said, “what the FUCK is happening?” Even Dad didn’t bitch about the swearing. Dad just kind of staggered to the entrance, put a hand on the wall, and looked outside. I joined him, there was a decent sized clearing around the hill, with some boulders of various sizes strewn about.

Um, how much detail do you want here? You’ve seen our cave before. Right, details details. It would be a little inconvenient getting up and down to the cave, but it would b bearable under the circumstances. Hunh, looking back I realize I had already accepted we were going to be there a while.

“were not on Earth anymore” I said. With that orangeish sun in the sky, it wasn’t a question.

“No, we’re not,” Dad agreed, “I want to say it’s a dream, but it’s too real, so it has to be a nightmare.” He straightened up, “And it’s a nightmare we won’t wake up from if we don’t get a handle on this situation.” He clapped his hands, clearly trying to invigorate himself. “First things first, our supplies. I think our big friend has wandered off, but I’m going to go to boats and make sure. Stay here. If everything is clear, I’ll come back, and we’ll get everything.”

He looked at us both and we nodded. “I don’t know what is going on, and I’m not going to pretend I have a plan yet, but we WILL get out of this. I promise.”

We murmured agreement as he left but both of us knew it was more to reassure us than anything, and it didn’t really work, but it was good to keep moving. I looked around, the cave itself was fairly clean, and the entrance wide enough to provide plenty of light.

Tim and I, we just sort of looked at each other, not saying anything. We couldn’t. We guilted Dad into bringing us along, we had only ourselves to blame……..and we felt like we WERE to blame. Well, we weren’t supposed to be there in the first place. It might have been a dumb move, but his plan had been to go alone. What would have happened if we had listened to him? Maybe he would have gone a different way that day, or not gone at all, or maybe not even wind up in this god-forsaken jungle at all.

I know, I mean I know that now, he probably would’ve wound up here anyways, and if he had come here alone, he would almost certainly be dead, any of us would. This place is fucking dangerous and even having each other’s backs we’ve still had close calls. Dinosaurs, alien creatures, the natives. Everyone is pissed off or hungry.

So, Dad finally came back, we were relieved, we had been nervous since he left. He dropped the bags he brought with him with a sigh. He told us that as far as he could tell the coast was clear and everything was undisturbed. He wanted to get it all now before anything else happened.

It wasn’t that far to the river, and I was surprised at how familiar but alien the flora was. What I did recognize was bigger than I was used to. It almost seemed…...healthier. Like everything was on steroids. Um, enhanced. I mean, you’ve seen that pear tree. We call them pears. One of them is the size of a soccer ball! On our world they fit in our hands. Yes, a lot of what we see here can be found on our world, but smaller. And a lot of it can’t be found on our world. Some of it I’ll miss, most of it I won’t.

We got everything in a few trips, The boats were a concern. It was getting close to sunset and Dad didn’t want to be outside at night. We did a good job soaking ourselves, but we managed to get the two boats tied to the trees. We could only hope they’d still be there in the morning when we returned.

That night wasn’t fun at all, we took turns standing outside while we changed clothes. Then Dad used a portable stove to warm up some soup. While we ate, he told us after checking on the boats in the morning, we would begin to explore the immediate environs. Both to try to retrace our path getting here, and if need be look for sources of food. He had plenty of supplies, but they wouldn’t last forever. He hoped a long-term solution wasn’t needed, but he suspected it would be.

One part of the night was good though. I stepped outside and was absolutely stunned at the night sky. I had no idea how much light pollution ruined the view at home, here the stars shone so brightly, and there were two moons!!! ha! there are two moons, but that first view of them was incredible. I’m used to only one moon after all,

Dad joined me, standing next to me. “Damn! That’s quite a view.”

I asked the question that had been nagging at me since we arrived. “Do you think she’s here?”

There was a long pause, finally he replied “My gut tells me she is. We need to make sure either way. We’re going to find her. If not here, we’ll get home somehow so we can find her.”

“Would you like some fries with that? I asked.

Dad laughed “hell no, onion rings.”