Note: Holy fuck, I almost forgot about this contest (Fireplace no. 3, Butterfly Effect). Thank God, I had my notebook next to me. And produced this. I don't really remember writing it, even. Pity, the writing style's pretty neat.
This is what happens:
A butterfly flaps its wings in Peru.
That's it. You could stop there. Except not really, because the butterfly changes everything. Think I'm kidding? Pay attention.
A butterfly flaps its wings in Peru.
Dennis Nedry refuses Lewis Dodgson's offer. When the tropical storm hits Isla Nublar, he does not turn all systems off so that his escape will not be noticed.
Unfortunately, a tree is struck by lightning. When it falls, it causes a short in the electricity near the rex paddock, where the tour is currently paused. The electric fence fails, and a glitch in the system causes the cars to freeze in place.
The older rex, attracted by the scent of Parasaurolophus just across the road, breaks out of its paddock. It notices the strange, scentless cars in the road and stops to investigate.
Dr. Alan Grant attempts to distract the rex by misdirecting it with a road flare; Dr. Ian Malcolm attempts the same and forgets to stop running after throwing the flare. The rex nips playfully at him, decides he isn't worth the time, and throws him. He breaks his leg in the fall.
Tim uses the car radio to contact HQ. His message reports that the Tyrannosaurus Rex has escaped, the fence is down, and Dr. Malcolm is injured.
Muldoon and Ellie have already set out -- as soon as the fence went down and the cars stalled, Hammond sent them out in case of an escape such as the rex's -- and they arrive soon after Tim radios for help. Muldoon tracks down and sedates the rex, then puts out a radio call for an animal pickup as soon as feasible.
Back at HQ, Nedry has overridden the bug causing the cars to stall, and the cars begin moving once more. Tim, Lex, and Dr. Grant are all returned to the Lodge. Ellie and Dr. Malcolm take the gas Jeep back to the Lodge, where she telephones the mainland for an air ambulance. Muldoon remains behind, awaiting the arrival of the animal transport team.
The animal transport team arrives and moves the rex back into its paddock; the fence repair team arrives soon after and goes to work. Muldoon returns to the Lodge, and within the space of an hour and a half after the lightning strike, the rex wakes up. It tries the fence, and is moderately stunned by a bolt of electricity.
Shortly before dawn, the storm ends. An air ambulance from San Juan arrives for Dr. Malcolm. The remaining guests gather in the dining room for a head count and discover that the lawyer -- Edward Regis -- is missing. A rescue party is quickly assembled and about to set out when Mr. Regis stumbles into the Lodge, soaking wet and spattered with mud, but uninjured and alive. When he is questioned, it is discovered that after fleeing the Jeep where he was last seen, he walked back to the Lodge from the rex paddock along the Jeep tracks.
Dawn arrives, and John Hammond decides to push back opening day an additional year -- time to finish construction and fix the bugs exposed by this alpha test. The total number of injuries is two -- Malcolm's broken leg, and a laceration suffered by an animal transport team worker. The count of deaths is one -- a high school student from California working on the fence repair team who accidentally electrocuted himself. When investigated, it is discovered that the student was illegally employed and behaving in an unsafe manner. It is decided that InGen will pay a small cash settlement to the family. Construction continues.
About six months after, a culling program begins among the breeding animals -- those with rana DNA. Culled subjects are sent to other Jurassic Park facilities under construction, where they are promptly and securely sterilized. The genetic code of the next generation of animals is radically retooled, replacing any strands of rana code with avian genes. Male animals are removed for study.
Jurassic Park opens at last. Ticket price is sky-high, but early visitors, like life, find a way. Within the first year, profits are shockingly high, and ticket price is lowered to a more affordable sum.
It will be fifteen years this summer since Jurassic Park opened. I should know. My mother was pregnant with me when she stepped through the gates on opening day. I was born almost exactly a month after she left the park -- not quite to the minute, but give or take a half-hour, I was born a month after she flew out of Jurassic Park. There are a lot of pictures of my beaming mother in the history books -- the argument was that if a heavily-pregnant woman could enjoy herself safely in Jurassic Park, the park was safe for anyone. Visiting the park was a family tradition when I was small -- it was my birthday present, a two-week trip down to Jurassic Park. The raptors have always been my favorites -- weirdly intelligent, man-size. Unnerving in the over-human way chimps are.
There's always been speculation over what would have happened had Nedry accepted Dodgson's deal. (I've always wondered what would have happened had mammals dominated the Mesozoic? Would dinosaurs rule the Earth today? But as someone I know would say, that's a different box of rocks.) Michael Crichton, a rather popular author of science fiction for the masses, even wrote a book dealing with the idea, in which he gruesomely detailed the deaths of many of the first visitors. Hammond, Wu, Nedry, Regis, and a multitude of others meet their demise in the novel (as does Dr. Ian Malcolm, whom I've never had the opportunity to meet in person, to my shame). A popular film was produced of the novel, displaying remarkable advances in computer rendering of lifelike animals. Had it been produced in a different world, I imagine it would have sparked the imaginations of millions of children. But this is a world where standing face-to-face with a dinosaur weighing tons more than you is a reality relatively easily attainable. We have no need for fantasies like that. But I wonder sometimes how things would have turned out, had Nedry accepted Dodgson's offer.
A butterfly flaps its wings in Peru.