What Killed the Dinosaurs
The air is thick and my older sister drank all the Fiji water. We are nearing our last stop on the film location tour and it’s the only one I really care about. The soundtrack plays in my head, dun nuh naah nuh nuh duh nah nuh nuh nuh duh nah nuhhhh.
“And this is where iconic scenes from Jurassic Park were shot,” our tour guide says over the radio speaker. He parks the tour jeep and theatrically brandishes his hand across the scape of tropical fields.
I fumble with my seatbelt in excitement, pull my hat out of my pocket and speed out into the tall grass.
“Sam, is this Paris-freaking-France? Take off that damn beret,” my sister says, catching up with me.
“Language!” Mom yells, trumping through the ferns after her.
Riley looks up from taking a picture of on her phone to roll her eyes.
“Honey, the hat looks nice on you,” my mom says distracted by the tour guides spiel.
“Well, you can’t be in my selfie with that on,” Riley snides for half a second before her jaw drops into an excited smile for the photo. The wooden sign with the Jurassic Park logo on it is in the background.
I pull my hat down lower, using it as a shield…from the heat.
It’s really bright here, this far up on the islands peak. I take a picture on my Polaroid, my sister says I shouldn’t try so hard to be retro but I just like that you get the picture right away. I shake the photo as it develops.
“Although Hawaii is fairly new geologically and didn’t exist until years after dinosaurs went extinct, it’s tropic temperament and destructive nature are similar to Earth’s conditions at that time,” I think our tour guides name is Jerry, yeah Jerry says this and it’s really interesting to me.
“Now, there’s still 80% of Kauai you’ve been missing out on, viewable only by air with our helicopter tour,” Jerry’s sold me already, “This is the only way to see our infamous Jurassic Park waterfall.”
I spin to the lady, “Mom! 80%?!”
My mom faithfully goes to ask him about pricing and I remember the photo in my hand.
“Aw, blast,” I say annoyed.
“What are those streaks of light?” Riley asks, leaning over my shoulder.
The treetops are over exposed; bright lines of red-white light blur the top of the photo. “This things faulty,” I complain.
“You probably did it wrong,” Riley says.
I shrug and ready an insult when suddenly I’m staggering. I grab my sister’s hand and she yanks it away as soon as we’re steady again.
“Just some mild volcanic activity likely, we can start heading back, looks like the sun’s coming down,” The guide doesn’t look anyone in the eyes as he starts herding us back.
I catch a flash of bright light from the corner of my eye and twist to see what looks like a falling sun disappearing behind the mountain.
“What was that?” I ask my sister, she’s looking at her phone again.
“Y-you heard him, volcanic----“ the shaking ground stops her sentence short.
I look up at the sky, the sun still in its place.
People don’t know if they should be panicking and move quickly back to the paved path and the Jeeps.
“No! Look!” I tell my sister, pointing at sky.
The stars, they were falling upon us. I could see power lines swaying and trees shudder.
“What is that?” Riley asks softly.
“Dinosaurrrrrs!” A kid roars from the pack of tourists.
“No, it’s what killed them,” I mutter.
The island shakes in pain as the meteors beat mercilessly into it. Our legs frantically shake down the hill as fast as our adrenaline tells them to. Mom’s right behind us, hands between our shoulder blades. Jerry’s hitting the gas just as Riley swings into her seat.
The car bounces over the aftershocks as space rocks come crashing down. We fly forward as the brakes slam to stop in front of a fallen tree.
Riley is in tears and mom murmurs promises of safety. A chorus of screaming erupts when another ball of fire crashes behind us. People flee the car and Jerry is no where to be found. We get out too, clinging to mom as she starts walking us back towards the island, yelling at other tourists to stick together and head for town. The heat and light is constant as the jungle around us catches fire.
Our jeep bursts into flames and I’m blinded, by light and smoke.
We run.