I realize I sound like a broken record, but it has been another long and painful day.
Today I attempted to remain inside and near the command room for the entire day. I wanted to re-double my efforts on the radio, and avoid any further exploration or barricading of the control center. The disasters of the last two days have worn on me. I decided on this plan while I was lying awake again early this morning. At the time I was somehow slightly hopeful. Water is still running in the bathroom nearby, and I have enough food for a day or so. The control center was already rapidly falling apart, but the locks and power have held so far. If I stay holed up here in the center of the building, and I can manage to contact someone while my supplies last, then I could be home free, or at least better. I felt I shouldn't be taking any uneccessary risks exploring or moving about.
The day started with a clear plan and even a sense of optimism. Now, I feel numb. A different person decided those things this morning. I don't know what I feel anymore.
I have compromised the security of the command room slightly by propping open the door with an office chair. I need the air circulation, and there are still 3 keycard-required doors between myself and the closest compromised room. I'm calling this safe enough for now.
There's a VHS-TV combo here in the command room. Clearly a personal item someone brought in out of boredom. As far as I have been able to find, there are only two tapes here: a training video on keycard usage and safety protocols, and a copy of the 1985 'comedy' Cavegirl, which was already in the the player. I have avoided playing either of these because my time seemed more precious than that, but today, out boredom, or a need for distraction, I finally tried to watch Cavegirl.
I cannot stress enough how bad this movie is. I have not talked to another human in almost a week and I could not finish watching it. I could not even stand to watch more than maybe 10 minutes at a time. It is attempt at a sex comedy about a high school student who is obviously a dumpy 20-something actor trying to fuck a cavegirl who is obviously a model. It's not worth explaining further. I would not have found this film entertaining or arousing last week and I do not today. I can only assume it was purchased as a joke? Because cavemen and dinosaurs? The fact that it is not only the tape left in the player, but also the only entertainment tape nearby disturbs me.
I don't know. Maybe I'm just lashing out at Cavegirl because I need something to fixate on. I still left the movie playing at a low volume, mixing with the sounds of the island from the camera feed. Every so often I would look over and see a human face, albeit a stupid one, and that felt... sort of normal. When the movie finished I rewound it and started it over.
The first disaster of the day occured at around 8am. I was fiddling with the radio, to no results. For brief moment, I heard a rushing noise and then a crash that shook the entire building, knocking me out of my chair and sending papers and binders flying off the desks. Dust rained down from the ceiling. Several security alarms began beeping. It was as if a bomb had gone off.
The park monorail, which had been presumably parked somewhere for 5 days, had come careening into the second-floor control center station, and de-railed, crashing into the lab area in the first floor. I breifly left to survey the damage, and it can only be described as catastophic. I did not get too close to the wreckage, it seemed dangerous and unstable.
At this point, at least 75% of the control center is compromised in some way, and I am concerned for the structural integrity of the building. Well, I am more than concerned. I am surprised it has not come crashing down on my head, and I do not know what I will do when it does. It is extremely lucky the monorail is electric, because any fuel spills would likely have been explosive. I don't know if the monorail has any batteries on it, those might still be a fire risk.
Somewhat alarmingly, the computer monitoring system for the monorail showed 'all systems normal' and that the train was still resting at the hotel station at the south end of it's circuit. I remember monorail malfunctions being a constant source of irritation for management pre-opening, so it is possible that this has nothing to do with the dinos. The monorail may have just been a shoddily-built death-trap all along. I used the computer terminal to "shut down" the monorail system entirely, but considering how disconnected from reality it a laready seemed, I'm not sure I actually did anything.
So my nerves were already shot by noon, but I was alive and I determined there was still nothing I could do by exploring the wreckage any further. Then, some time around 12:45, the phone in the command room rang.
I thought it was part of Cavegirl at first. Then I thought I was hallucinating. I still thought that as I answered the phone, and it honestly took a moment of hearing another person's voice before I could register what was happening to me.
A woman's voice was on the other line. I didn't have the time to think to write it down. She asked for Sharon. I asked who this was she was. She didn't respond. She said she was sorry for calling like this but she had found this number, and was calling from England, and she was Sharon's friend, and she hadn't heard from Sharon for a week and she was worried. I asked her to not hang up. She asked if I could hear her. I told her I needed help. She said 'Hello?' She told me she could her something on the other line but she couldn't understand anyhting, it just sounded like noise. I started screaming and crying. Please help me. Please get me help. I need help, don't hang up. I don't think she could hear me crying, but I think she started crying as well. She said if anyone could hear this, to please find Doctor Sharon Wright and tell her to call Rachel as soon as she can. That she was sorry again for calling like this. And then she hung up.
I think that call was the worst thing to happen so far. I don't know how long I just stood there, holding the phone. Maybe I was screaming, maybe I was crying. I sort of came to as I realized I was searching the employee database for Dr. Sharon Wright.
She was a genetecist, she was 33, this was her first job after getting her PhD. She was liked by her bosses and colleagues, and considered a valuable asset to the company.
Once I had collected myself a little bit, of course I tried to call back, call the operator, et cetera. No luck. Dead lines, weird dial tones, no connections. I'm surprised I didn't think to try this before, but I doesn't seem promising. I doubt I can fix the phone lines? I don't know.
I also managed to look up myself in the employee database afterwards. I found my file, along with a performance review from May. "Doesn't perform well under pressure. Cagey around biological assets. Fails to project the image of confidence and safety that all park employees must embody. Not reccommended for renewal of contract." I think this was over some concerns I had expressed about the cleaning procudures for the stegosaurus enclosure. Well, Bob Mendell, Chief of Park Logisitics, at this moment I'm alive and you're probably not, so fuck you and your image of confidence and safety.
Every day feels not just like waking up to a nightmare, but realizing I've been living a nightmare for months and didn't know it. I had actually been on an island full of idiots, idiots growing dinosaurs. And maybe I was the biggest idiot for not realizing.
Sometime around here I realized that the Cavegirl tape had jammed. I had rewound the tape again, but I could no longer press play or eject it. Good riddance. I'm over being reminded of people for now.
Eariler tonight, around 6pm, five raptors appeared on camera around the utility buggy garage. They were acting cagey, some interal squabbling. I didn't hear or see any source or particular reason for their appearance. They paced nervously in the lights outside the building.
In a flash of inspiration or madness, I opened one of the automatic garage doors using the computer terminals, startling the raptors. I guess i was thinking that if I could trap a raptor in garage I could kill it, or starve it, or maybe I could injure one or kill one of them by bringing the door down on them. (Which, as it turns out, would not have worked.) One less raptor is definitely good for me, but the raptors did not immediately take the bait. They skittered away from the garage. Slowly, one or two of them inched their way forward, but before long they were interrupted by a loud commotion.
One of the park's two T-rex came charging out of the park, chasing two more raptors, my dark-feathered friend and some other one I don't recognize. A t-rex bellow sounds a bit like a cursed foghorn, or maybe a semi being crushed. An alarming sound, and another one that can be heard from even inside the command room. The t-rexs are definitely the ugliest dinosaurs in the park, they have some sort of skin condition where they grow patches of scabs and spikes of proto-feathers and bits of down all of them. And they constantly get colds so their noses are full of snot. Giant and scary as shit but also a little sad and disgusting.
As soon as I saw the T-Rex, I immediately tried to close the garage door, but one of the raptors had scurried just into the garage, and I had completely forgotten how all the doors have safety features that cause them to open back up if they hit something as they close. So a raptor is in the garage, on one of the buggies, six raptors are fighting a t-rex directly outside, and I'm frantically trying to close the garage door again and again. The T-rex had come in charging, but quickly had become overwhelmed by the raptors' number. It did not seem as wiley or quick on it's feet as the Spino from earlier. It was quickly knocked over and into the garage, damaging the door, bellowing as it thrashed on the ground against the raptors pouncing on its neck. It did quickly get back up on its feet, however, which I did not think it could even do with those arms. It shook off two of the raptors that had been on top of it and ran off back into the perimenter almost as quick as it came, dragging one of the raptors with it. The raptors did not follow, but scattered on their own after a few minutes. I'm not entirely sure what that fight was about, but probably another attempt to use the larger dino against the control center. The garage door is wrecked now, the garage is compromised. I'm probably going to regret that if I can ever contact anyone on the radio. Those utility buggies will be useful.
I felt a little bad for the T-rex. It seemed like a big angry dog, harrased by malicious raptors. I should should probably feel bad for myself, but like I said, I'm a little numb after today.
Despite spending as much time as I could on it today, no luck on the radio. Still faint gibberish on ther ermgency channel and the Spanish recording.
I feel bleak.