Spent this morning watching more videos of that day. I can't stop. It's not a good way to distract myself from my current situation, but it's what I find myself drawn to every time. There's one video I watch again and again. It's from the hotel gift shop: one of the few families that was here. One adult, a man, two kids. Maybe 13 and 9. Two raptors flank and corner them. The kids didn't deserve that. They should be safe at home right now, whereever that was. But if I'm being honest, I don't know if the adult deserved dying like that or not.
The park wasn't open yet. Any families here were specifically invited, and I can only assume that those invitations were doled out to executive friends & family, or investors. Certainly the person who brought those kids here was a fool. Maybe they were convinced by slick marketing materials, or whatever slick spiel some exec gave them. I was at one point. Were they also a greedy fool? Did they stand to make money from this tower of babel? How invested should they be before it's fair to write them off as getting what was coming for them? What amount of greed justifies being eaten alive?
Obviously, this isn't an moral puzzle I can solve. I think about those kids a lot, though.
You would think after watching these videos I would hate the raptors more. I don't. They had less of choice in all of this than even I did. They are hunters, they are ruthless, they are doing exactly what they were born to do. Any anger I feel towards them is just a reflex, a survival instinct. They have taken this island for their own now. I hope I can leave this island, and I will not hesistate to kill any of them to do so. But once I go, I genuinely wish them well. Any human who comes here in the future seeking riches from these animals deserves what happens to them on this cursed island.
I did another sweep of the entire building looking for food and supplies. Didn't find much. A couple packs of peanuts I'd missed in the past, some more empty bottles I can use for water (I've been filling containers with water preparing for the water to run dry), and some rags and some string that seemed useful. My utilty vest is filling up.
In the back entrance of the control center, by the exit leading to the power pylons, I found claw marks in the walls and floor I hadn't seen before. Surely these were new? This corridor wasn't supposed to be compromised as far as I knew. Had they learned the doors? Was I unaware of a new breach somewhere. I made a mental note to go over the camera feeds, but in the back of my mind I think I knew it was futile. The control center is collapsing around me. The raptors will get in, will make their way to the command room. It's inevitable. My fate is not to die here, but on the island, or in the sea. This is what I prepare for.
Back in the command room that afternoon, I continued rooting through computer files, looking for any information that could help me. Even if most of it is useless, it's astonishing how much data there is here, considering the park was barely even open. I've gotten reckless, however, because I opened a file named something like "worm.bin" and it clearly was a virus. Multiple alarms started going off, and about half the park systems went offline. Messages reading "Martin was here" and "You should've paid me" starting filling up the consoles.
I was able to manually override the alarms, and a few of the consoles (like this one) are still functioning, but the lights are still out except for the emergency lights. Cameras are down. The lock systems seem to be turning on and off. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep like this.
The raptors could be in the building right now, I won't know until I can hear their breath. My time here in the command center is up.