Triangle

Journal Entry I: Triangle Expedition, July 8th, 2009
Today, we received a green light to go ahead on the Triangle Expedition, which was a journey into the heart of mystery, The Bermuda Triangle. Twenty men and women were joining me, Professor Jennings, on a trip to the Triangle. For those of the readers of this journal who do not know already, The Bermuda Triangle is an area Southeast of the Southern tip of Florida, a huge triangle-shaped section of ocean where ships and airplanes often went missing. We were going to investigate it. Various books have already been written on it, but this is the first recorded scientific explanation. It is rumored that mysterious things exist in the Triangle that are not found anywhere else. There are other, crazier guesses too, things about gigantic extinct animals, never-before seen creatures, or even extra-terrestrials. But I hope, with my research and exploration, I will destroy these conspiracy theories with modern science. I must admit, I am a little frightened, but the sense of adventure and bravery conquers it. I hope that isn’t stupidity as well. Our team will be selected over a week, with five other scientists and the rest sailors. Then we will depart. I am so excited!
Journal Entry II: Triangle Expedition, July 15th, 2009
Three hours ago, we departed and soon after leaving, we entered the formal border of The Triangle. We took readings of the water before and after we entered the Triangle, and I was both surprised and delighted to find definite differences in the water. For example, when we first left, the water was warm, 82ºF, normal for Florida. But when we entered the Triangle the water rose to a temperature of 95ºF, abnormally high for those waters. It was so warm, that my colleagues and I pulled on our swimming trunks and jumped in. The boat stopped, and some of the sailors jumped in as well.
My five partners for this trip are as following: Doctor Martinez Velasquez, who is a woman studying extinct animals and plants, Doctor Martin Manes, who is a man studying island life, Doctor James Tallie, another man studying island life, Doctor Julia Forterey, a woman studying water patterns, and finally, a man named Doctor Devon Laskey, who studies microbiology in plants and water. I made quick friends with all of them, and we are all having dinner together. I suppose there’s not really any other way, but it’s nice. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get dressed for dinner.
Journal Entry III: Triangle Expedition, July 17th, 2009
This trip just keeps getting better and better. Yesterday, I went up on the mast, accompanied by the captain, who is named Bater Nuomi. He’s a nice man, and we talked for hours up on the mast. It was wonderful up there, sea spray splashing in my hair, wind whistling around me, and the smell. Fishy and salty, it assailed my senses sharply. I could have stood there for hours, it was so amazing.
Velasquez and Laskey were in the bathroom for three hours yesterday, barfing up every meal they have had so far on the ship. The rest of us were fine, and the captain assured us that our sick colleagues would soon get their “sea legs.”
This is paradise to me, though. I love the ocean and the water, it all just seems so wonderful to me, every inch of the water filled with tiny little microorganism ecosystems, microscopic underwater cities. There is always something new on the boat, it never gets boring. The other day the captain caught a new species of fish, at least we thought it was new until Velasquez identified it as a prehistoric fish a Gogonasus, a fish that was extinct or at least presumed to be extinct over one hundred million years ago. The catch definitely shows promise and results for the expedition.
Journal Entry IV: Triangle Expedition, July 20th, 2009
Well, Velasquez and Laskey are better, and this ship is still paradise to me, but trouble is brewing. Dark clouds on the horizon are foreshadowing a foreboding storm. About three hours ago, Captain Nuomi ordered all the scientists below deck. The boat is rocking violently and I am about to go up on deck to check the situation. Wish me luck!
Journal Entry V: Triangle Expedition, No idea of date.
When I stepped out onto the deck, all was chaos. Sailors were running everywhere, rain was pouring down in buckets upon the deck. The captain was up at the wheel, chained to it, pulling fiercely at it and shouting orders. I started towards him, and then I realized I was on a rising slope. A huge wave was swelling the boat upwards. I slipped backwards, sliding down the boat. I managed to grab onto the door I had just come out of, if I hadn’t I would have fallen into the black water. I waited for the boat to slide over the top of the wave, but it didn’t. The boat kept flipping, it wasn’t going to make it. It was capsizing, turning over. My hand slipped from the door, and I fell to the water. I remember hitting the water and then black.
I woke on a sandy beach. I was lying spread eagle. I got up slowly, shakily then coughed violently, spitting sea-water onto the golden grains of sand. I stood, my legs were weak at first, but I stood firmly after a minute of balancing. I rummaged through my pockets. Nothing but ten pencils, my journal, and a destroyed cellphone. I told myself not to panic and surveyed my surroundings. I was on a coastal shelf, on some uncharted island in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. Then I saw them. Two figures covered with sand. I ran over to them and flipped them over. One was James, the other Martinez. I shook them both, James awoke quickly, and I recounted all that had happened. Then Martinez. She didn’t show any signs of life. James and I looked at each other, and we dived to her.
I felt for a pulse, nothing. James started mouth-to-mouth, and between his breaths, I did CPR. We worked for an hour, trying to get her to live, but to no avail. She was gone.
Journal Entry VI: Triangle Expedition , No idea of date.
James and I quickly went into the jungle that was at the border of the shelf, cleared a space and made a shelter. There were strange coconut-like fruits everywhere, and I knew how to separate saltwater. We built a shelter.
The only odd thing about the island so far is that there was no animal life, or any trace of it. No tracks, no droppings, nothing. We talked over this for a while then went to sleep.
Journal Entry VII: Triangle Expedition, No idea of date, Day Two Island
When I awoke this morning, to my horror, there were little black slug-like creatures all over my body. When I pulled one off, I found it was covered with blood. They were leeches! I screamed, and tried to brush them off, but they were firmly affixed. Peeling them off individually would take hours. James, who was covered with the same creatures, woke to my scream and screamed himself. He tried to brush them off and came to the same conclusion as me; you had to peel them. We looked frantically around our small shelter, and then had the same idea at the same time. Salt. The ocean. We tore through the jungle, sprinting to the shelf, then out onto the beach, and reaching the water, diving it. The leeches detached instantly, dissolving away into the water.
The next night we prepared for the leeches. With the salt from the separation of the saltwater, we spread a border of it around our shelter, and sprinkled it inside the shelter as a precaution. We talked for a little while, and then drifted off to sleep.
Journal Entry IIX: Triangle Expedition, Day Six Island
On this day, four days after the “leech incident” we saw another animal. I saw it through trees, a banana colored shape, but, no, it couldn’t be. I looked closer and gasped. I beckoned to James. He came over and when he saw what I saw, his mouth hung open in utter shock and amazement. It was a giraffe. But no ordinary giraffe, this one was gigantic. Not just big, but gigantic. This animal must have been at least fifty feet tall, its stomach twenty-five feet off the ground. We stared at the incredible beast, and then realized it. The Bermuda Triangle rumors were confirmed. It made me happy and scared at the same time. If there was a giant giraffe, what else could live here.
Journal Entry IX: Triangle Expedition, Day Seven Island
We went hiking today. The island is built in rings, first the beach, then the jungle, then a smooth rock face that isn’t very steep. In the middle of the island there is a giant volcano. We don’t know if it’s active, but today we’re walking up to check it out. Right now, we’re resting on a little lip on the cliff face. It’s unbelievably hot, and both of us are sweating profusely. The shade cools my face, and tiny little beads of sweat dry.
We are now climbing the rock face, and the heat is getting worse. It radiates from the ground. Without the makeshift banana leaf shoes I made us, our feet would be on fire. A drop of sweat falls from my face and hits the ground. After three seconds it evaporates, hissing and steaming.
Finally, James and I reach the lip of the volcano. Looking down, it’s obvious the volcano’s active. Orange-red lava steams fifty feet below the top, air bubbles swelling and popping. I stare at the surface, and the heat waves distort it, so it looks almost clear. Suddenly a wave of hot air shoots up and pushes us back. Something golden appears in the middle of the sea of lava and gets bigger.
A man, made of gold, rises slowly out of the lava. I want to run, but we are frozen with fear and astonishment. He rises up twenty feet, and shakes himself, like a dog. Streams of lava flow off of him, flicking against the stone walls of the volcano. He then shoots upwards, to where we are. We stare at him for a moment and he stares back. And then he speaks.
One word, in a voice so sharp it could cut steel. “Leave,” The word snapped us out of our trance and we turned to run, but before we could go anywhere, he snapped his arms upward, and the volcano erupted. Not out, but up. A wave of hot air coming off the streams of lava hit us, and we were hurled backwards, up and away. The last thing I saw before blacking out was a tiny golden speck, disappearing into the clouds, followed by a stream of lava, which was turning black and hardening. Then blackness.
Journal Entry X: Triangle Expedition: August 1st, 2009.
We woke up at the same time, staring at each other. We were on a beach and according to a sign, in Florida. We had no idea how we got there. All that I had salvaged from the expedition was my journal.
The weirdest thing was that on the beach, there were no people. On the road, there were no cars. We walked for hours, trying to find some hint of civilization. Then we saw it. A the end of the road. A city.
The city was destroyed. Houses uprooted, littered everywhere, the road torn from the ground, bending into the sky like some crazy signpost. It took an hour to scour the city, to find someone.
The person was covered in bruises, left arm at a crazy angle, but he was still awake. Barely. He said one word, one word before he blacked out. “Hurricane,”
It had to be caused by that golden man, and his trail of lava. There was no other explanation. The storm we had faced on the ship wasn’t even close to this big, and it would of died out. Anything bigger, and we would have seen it, or at least felt waves from it. It had to be that man. What have we done?