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Isla Sorna:
My Island Survival
Part III
By Gloverboy23/21
Chapter 1: A Famed Life
Josiah's POV-
Fame. That was what started for me after my return to Enid Oklahoma. Newspapers, television, book publishers—they called me at home, followed me even to my school garage where I worked. It was hard to get away from them. Two men even offered me money to put my face on some T-shirts, and a few jeans in a company that wanted to come out with a line of Josiah Clover Survival gear.
I tolerated it. It didn't bother me in the slightest. Unlike Eric Kirby, who had since transferred out of the school, I was not uncomfortable about sharing my experiences on the island to anyone who came up and asked.
It had been two months since my return and the whole of Enid was a buzz with talk about the video footage and pictures I had 'leaked' on the internet a couple of weeks later after I had come back home. People at my school hounded me during my time at lunch in the staff's room where I ate. And when they weren't doing that, they were bothering me during my work time in the garage.
Questions after questions poured in. More students arrived to talk to me.
But I held my ground. I wasn't going to falter under these people and shoo them away like Eric and his family did back in 2001 after their experience on the island. Instead, rather then tell them off, I had people meet me in the school's library. The teachers agreed to this and I was allowed to use the back rooms to speak to anyone who wanted know about my weeks on Sorna.
Adults wanted to talk with me as well. Teachers and staff wanted to know about the animals and how they were doing. Rather then tell them about the dinosaurs, I agreed to bring the footage and photographs to school and show everyone in the auditorium. The teachers debated about this at first. I didn't want to rush them or anything, but I knew that this was the chance I was waiting for. I rubbed my thumbs and forefingers together, waiting for an answer to come out of their mouths.
After four minutes of waiting, they finally agreed.
The following Friday was when I was going to present my well-earned works to the school. That meant I had to work fast in four days in getting things ready. Using my USB 64G stick, I worked on pasting, editing, and re-posting my videos and images into separate galleries. All in all, it looked really good. The pictures were lined-up perfectly and the video footage was neatly posted and lined.
All that was left to do was show it to the people in the auditorium on Friday.
It came to no surprise to me that the auditorium on Friday afternoon was going to be packed with students, both young and older. The podium on the stage was setup for me and Rita had agreed to operate the laptop with my stuff. The screen was also brought down for the showing. Was I going all-out on this? Probably. I wanted to show everything that I had done on the island, but I would have to keep my presentation semi-brief.
When the auditorium was quite, I walked up onto the podium and the vice principle, Mrs. Neely, handed me the microphone. A lot of eyes, camera phones and cellphones alike were on me. But I swallowed my nervousness and began to speak.
I quickly recounted my adventures on Isla Sorna, dominating the stage like a polished professional. My mother, whom had come in early to watch my speech presentation, sat in a chair upfront with the teachers. She grinned at me proudly and I paused to grin back at her. At first, when I had come home from my nine week stay on Sorna, she had been worried out of her mind that I had been overdue on the tenth week. She was even more astounded and at a loss for words when I had told her the truth of where I had really been. I never knew a mother could be angry, sad, relieved, and happy all at the same time. It hadn't been really easy for her to take as well when I told her about my brush with danger with the dinosaurs. She really needed a good coffee after that one.
I continued my speech as people started taking pictures. But the auditorium remained quiet. Only a few students spoke above a whisper to each other. And unlike Alan Grant's fossil lectures, nobody was leaving the auditorium in a hurry at of boredom.
It was finally time for the footage and slide-show. Everyone in their seats hunched over, excitement on their faces. Rita, after getting a signal from me, started with the video footage first.
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Taking a swig of water next to the podium, I sat down on a chair, my throat tired from talking. The video footage I'd shown had gotten a lot of cheers, clapping, and shouts of approval. Even some of the school staff got in on it. When the video was running, I had to narrate some parts that were difficult for the students to understand. And even though some of the images were shaky and some times blurry, everyone liked it. They especially like the parts with the raptors. And I never missed a beat when I told the crowd that I fought alongside them to protect their territory, too. A lot of younger students, boys mostly, wanted to bombard me with questions about the raptors. I could easily guess why—many teenagers wanted to know about the raptors of Isla Sorna and of Nublar, but Grant and the other survivors hadn't cooperated in giving much away to the public.
It was time for the inevitable slide-show on the projector. Everyone settled down as the images on the screen appeared and I was one again standing at the podium and narrating, using a long rod to point at specific stuff and explaining it. I was able to show a few things to the students in the auditorium. It wasn't the whole gallery of pics, but it was better than nothing. Many people in their seats oohed and exclaimed, clearly enjoying what they were seeing. As I spoke about the dinosaurs and the habitats that they lived in, I was careful not to mention the translator earpiece device. That was my own little secret that I was keeping to myself.
It didn't take long for the next bell to ring and for the teachers to usher their students back to their classes for end lessons. When school ended and it was time for the buses, the teachers and Vice principles allowed some of the students to stay behind if they wanted to so that they could speak with me.
I was more then happy to answer some questions, but I was short for time. October time was busy-time. My work at the garage was keeping me busy at repairs. I had to earn some money to put in my bank account. Save-up a little during the holidays when they arrived. And the end of October had come quckly.
As the assembly departed and the auditorium emptied, I stayed behind at a table outside the hallway so that I could do the questions-and-answers thing. It wasn't much of a line of people though. More like a whole bunch of enthusiastic fans. Good thing my mom was there to help. Even though I could have been able to handle it, I was beginning to feel some of the pressures of being famous.
It was finally time for the students to go home and I was more than glad to go to mine.
I walked through the front door of my house and immediately went upstairs to my room. I sat down at my desk and reopened the letter that me and my mom had gotten a few weeks ago. It had come in as a invite to a General Assembly for November 1. The insignia was that of the Government survival school. I knew of that school and knew that one of these days I was going to get an invite. My mom had everything ready for me in case I wanted to go.
A knock came to my door and mom poked her head in.
"Honey, are you okay?" She asked, her warm eyes with concern.
"I'm fine, mom," I said, reassuring her. "I'm just a little tired from the presentation at school."
I looked up at the wall and smiled at the photographs I had taken for my personal self. The one in the middle showed me and my raptor friends together; Tholestes, Terias, and Fern. The final day I had left the island months ago.
Mom saw the way I was looking at the photographs and she sighed.
"It's still hard to believe you were friends with them," She said.
I didn't look at her. It was true, even for myself. Being friends with the very dinosaurs that had killed the group of INGEN hunters, and the Kirby's mercenary rescuers was hard to believe.
"Well, you'd be right about that," I said softly.
"Listen," Mom said. "This whole thing with the General Assembly November 1...you don't have to do it if you don't want to."
"No, mom," I said, looking at her. "The public needs to know what is happening on that island. With the dinosaurs. A lot of minds need to see that these animals," I pointed to the photograph of me and my raptor friends, "are not genetically engineered theme-park monsters."
My mother smiled again as she closed the door, leaving me to my thoughts. I turned back to look at the photograph and sighed. I hope that the assembly went well. By next Monday, I would be showing my documentary to the world. I just hoped it went well.
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This is the first Chapter of my New Story.
Others might take a long time to upload, but that's the way I work.