I'm sorry for the error in the previous version. It was my mistake, and I apologize for making you all wait for it to be fixed.
April 7, 2022 Isla Sorna
"Are you absolutely sure you know what you're doing, Mac?" a man in full khaki clothing asked, shifting his grip on the rifle he was holding. "What if that Spinosaurus that was on the news report is nearby? We don't have the juice to take down anything much larger than a stegosaur."
The man walking ahead of him, dressed in the same clothing, shifted his hat so that the large brim blocked the sun from getting in his eyes and laughed. "Quit your worrying, Jeff. InGen's records show that it hatched forty years ago. Dinosaurs don't live very long, it's probably died of old age by now."
The second man, Jeff, shook his head worriedly. "But they're said to live for a century." he said.
Mac laughed again. "Quit your crying, already. It doesn't really matter how old it can get anyway, it's a big dino. We'll hear it long before it hears us, and then we can retreat to safety." He checked the radar map on the high-tech visor he wore over his eyes and nodded. "Now, come on. That pack of hadrosaurs is only a few thousand meters away now."
"Trust me, a Spinosaurus isn't what you should be afraid of." a voice suddenly said from the trees.
Both poachers raised their weapons to face the source of the voice, eliciting a laugh from the source.
"Now, now, no need for violence." the voice said, and with a rustling of leaves and underbrush, a man stepped into view.
He leaned sideways on a tree trunk and nodded towards the poachers. "Put the weapons down already, I'm not the biggest danger here either."
The poachers simultaneously blinked and lowered their rifles, surprised. The man wore an old pair of jeans and a faded t-shirt under a tan military vest. He was dressed like he was hiking in the Andes, rather than in the middle of an island populated by dinosaurs.
"Who are you?" Jeff asked gruffly. "Are you a ranger?"
The man laughed. "Really? A ranger, here? If there were any rangers here to begin with, they've all been eaten by now." he said lightly, as if they were just discussing the weather.
"Do you realize where you are?" Mac asked. "This is Isla Sorna, the most dangerous place on Earth, and you're acting like it's Tahiti." He was already on edge by simply being here, but this man's laid-back manner was just plain unnatural.
The man laughed again and shifted his position, stretching his back before leaning on the tree again. "I'm well aware of the dangers here. And Spinosaurus isn't really much of a threat, you know. It's the raptors you've gotta worry about."
Jeff smirked and raised his rifle. "We can deal with raptors." he said.
The man's eyes seemed to flash at he glared at the poacher. "Well, now, you've gone and made me angry. You don't have long to live. Why don't you spend your last precious moments doing something other than killing innocent animals?" he said, a definite threatening tone lining his voice.
Jeff smirked. "Oh, you think you're some kind of wise guy, huh?" he asked. "We're in the top of our field. Nothing gets past our tracking sensors without us noticing." he bragged.
The man looked to either side, then back at the poacher with a look of faked confusion across his face. "Then why didn't you notice the pack of Utahraptors that have surrounded us?" he asked.
The poachers looked at him blankly. "What Utah-" Jeff began, but was cut off by a scream from behind.
He whirled around to see Mac flat on the ground, with a raptor's foot pressed firmly on his back, holding him down, and with a second raptor's head lowered, sniffing his face.
Mac looked at Jeff, a silent look of pure terror across his face. "Help...me...please…" he managed to say, before screaming again as the Utahraptor on his back pressed its 13-inch toe claw partway into his vertebral column, causing him to become paralyzed with the sudden, sharp pain of his spinal cord being severed.
Jeff stared in shock at his partner and the pair of raptors around him, then glanced back at the other man.
"What are you still doing here?" he yelled at him. "Run for your life!"
The man smiled. "Oh, now you're noble." he said. "Why should I run? They wouldn't hurt their alpha." he answered, grinning widely.
Jeff looked at him in shock , so startled that he was unable to react as two more raptors leapt out from either side of him and slashed the claws on their forearms across his back and chest, as a third ripped the rifle out of his hands.
He collapsed to the ground and stared at the man standing in front of him, untouched by the raptors and still grinning.
His final memory was of one of the raptors stepping up to the man and bowing submissively to him.