Jurassic World: Apocalypse – Chapter 1: Raptor Breakout
A/N: For those of you who don't know, the story you are about to read is the sequel to my last story: JurassiQuest. If you haven't read JurassiQuest, I suggest you read it first before reading this story. However, as if you either have already read the last story or don't want to read it, here is a recap: "After using InGen's time portal to travel through time to study dinosaurs, Dr. Grant and the rest of his team, called JurassiQuest, became marooned in a different time period. For days, they tried to survive several dinosaur encounters before running into the Dinosaur Valley Tribe, an indigenous group of people who were on their way to the 'Island of Temples'. Not having a better option, the JurassiQuest team joins the tribe and soon, thanks to a revelation by Matthew Redman, another stranded time-traveler, learn that they have really come not to the past, but to a terrifying future after some catastrophic event destroyed civilization and allowed dinosaurs to roam the entire planet. Meanwhile, in the present, InGen scientists Dr. Henry Wu and Dr. Claire Dearing successfully genetically-engineered their first dinosaur under the scorn of Dr. Laura Sorkin, who believes using the techniques they used to clone the dinosaurs will be a huge mistake. InGen has since teamed up with Masrani Global Corporation and together, are now preparing to bring the discovery of cloned dinosaurs to the entire world!" Now, "Jurassic World: Apocalypse" takes place five months after the end of JurassiQuest. My readers, prepare to embark on an incredible adventure as we become reintroduced to several characters from the previous story and load of new ones...including some rather famous characters that appear in the Jurassic Park movies...Please enjoy!
PS. This story is rated "T" for mild violence (that is, nothing gorier than what is seen in the Jurassic Park films and/or novels, and I won't normally even go that far). No sexual content or foul language will be in this story.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.
Isla Nublar...2 miles from the coast of southern Texas...3 a.m.
The alarm blared and the emergency lights flashed as the female Velociraptor – the alpha of her pack –leaped on the top wire of the usually-electrified fence. As with other members of her species, she had a long snout, large light-sensitive eyes capable of superb night-vision, sharply clawed forearms, a long tail for keeping balance while running, strong legs and, her most prized weapon: a sickle-shaped claw – six-inches long – on each foot. Using her intelligent brain, she had figured out that the fence's power was out and she and the rest of the pack could make their escape. As the other members of the pack tore through the thin wires with their claws and teeth, the alpha female jumped surveyed her surroundings. There didn't appear to be any armed humans in the vicinity, but just in case, she sniffed the air. Smelling no humans nearby, she growled to her pack and she leaped from the fence. Finally, she was free! Summoning the rest of her pack, she began moving away from her holding pen and toward the forest. She and 11 other Velociraptors were now roaming free!
"Hurry with that Assessment Control Unit!" Arnold yelled. "The raptors have escaped again!" He watched anxiously as he watched the raptors escaping their enclosure from his computer security camera feed in the park's Control Room.
Simon Masrani, Claire Dearing and Henry Wu rushed over to where Arnold was. They looked at the screen.
"How many raptors have escaped?" Henry asked.
"All 11 Velociraptors are now free in the park, including the Big One," Arnold responded. "I've already sent out the Assessment Control Unit. They'll be on them in a flash."
"This can't keep happening," said John Hammond from the back of the room. "This theme park's opening in almost a year. We can't have raptors constantly escaping like this. This is the third breakout in the last month."
Masrani nodded. "Yes. They're getting better and better on these escapes."
At the back of the room, next to Hammond, was another man leaning against the wall. He wore a blue shirt and a brown vest over that; his pants were dark-colored and his face bore no expression of concern whatsoever, as if the raptor breakout was nothing new to him. This was Owen Grady, chief dinosaur researcher and an expert on raptors. "Has the Utahraptor broken out yet?" he asked casually.
Arnold typed in some commands on the computer. "No, no. She's still contained. She doesn't seem to notice her fence's power is out. We need to get it restored right away though."
Owen nodded and grabbed his EMD and handgun from the gun cabinet. "Alright, I'm heading out," he said. Without further ado, he rushed out the door.
In the Assessment Control Unit building, dinosaur wranglers quickly geared up for their dangerous mission. This was nothing new to them, for as a team, they had already saved the park from several raptor escapades. Vic Hoskins, a large man in a tan-colored uniform, was in charge of the ACU, which was part of the InGen Security Division.
"Let's move, move, move, men!" Hoskins declared. "Those raptors aren't going to contain themselves!" As he began issuing specific orders to his men, he looked over toward three of his wranglers: Daniel Cafaro ("D-caf" for short), William "Billy" Yoder and Oscar Morales. "Alright, I want you three to take the jeep and start tracking those raptors."
"Where's Owen?" Billy, the mid-20's/early-30's year-old wrangler asked. "We need him out there."
"He'll be here in a minute. Just go. I don't want those raptors to get more than 200 feet from their enclosure."
"I'm here," Owen said as he entered the room. "Let's go kick some raptor-tail."
Billy nodded and the three of them hopped into one of the vehicles and drove off, followed by the other wranglers.
Katashi Hamada, another dinosaur wrangler, Hoskins and Owen had ridden to the Raptor Paddock using Owen's motorcycle. Instead of searching the island's jungles for the escaped dinosaurs, Owen's plan was to come here to, quite literally, track the creatures from where they broke out. The Raptor Paddock was set a little ways from the rest of the theme park; in the darkness of the wee hours of the morning, the area was dark and eerie. This place was coated in thick fog tonight, limiting the visibility. Fortunately, Owen was a veteran of raptor-wrangling and if anyone knew how to avoid being eaten by these animals, it was him. There were two species of raptors in this paddock area, and a separate enclosure for them, situated back to back from each other: one species was the troublesome Velociraptors, and the other was an even larger species called Utahraptor. The Velociraptors were more aggressive and more prone to breakout, but Utahraptor was not far behind. Fortunately, there was only one Utahraptor specimen in the park.
Owen, Hamada and Hoskins left the motorcycle at the edge of the clearing and edged toward the paddock.
"OK," Owen said, holding up his EMD, "here's the plan: we're going to slowly make our way to the Utahraptor paddock and turn the power back on. We don't want to have to get her back into the enclosure if we can prevent her from escaping in the first place."
The three men reached the paddock and, backs against the building, began moving toward the power box for the Utahraptor. Hoskins, an expert with such things, fisted his hands, ready to turn the power back (which was just around the corner) on as quickly as possible.
Just then, Arnold's voice boomed from Owen's walkie-talkie radio sitting in his vest-pocket: "Owen, are you there?"
Owen answered. "Yes, I'm here."
"The Utahraptor–"
"I know, we're about to turn the power for her paddock back on."
"No. Listen to me. Don't go around the corner. Repeat, DO NOT go around the corner. She's already escaped."
Hamada gasped. "Oh dear."
As if on queue, a low trilling sound came from around the corner. Owen held his breath as he peering around the corner of the paddock and saw the creature stooping over the body of an ACU wrangler. Like the Velociraptors, Utahraptor had a long snout, large eyes and sharp claws on its hands and feet (including a nine-inch-long sickle-shaped claw on each foot); but there was one notable difference between the two species: Utahraptor was far larger than its 5-foot tall cousin, standing 6-7 feet tall and around 20 feet from nose to tail. It also sported a double row of quills down its neck that could flare out like hackles. Owen grimaced as the dinosaur plunged its head into the felled wrangler. It placed its foot on the corpse to hold the meal to the ground as it pulled its head back, ripping flesh from the victim. The Utahraptor swallowed her food and continued to feed.
"Did you send out a wrangler by the Raptor Paddock recently, Hoskins?" Owen asked.
Hoskins shook his head. "No. Just the three of us were supposed to come out here." He sighed before continuing. "I keep telling my men to never go against my orders. Most obey me, but there are always those rebellious few. Why don't they listen? Is he wearing a green rubber band around his right arm?"
"Yes."
"As I suspected, that's Ronald. He never listened to me."
Owen began to cock his gun; unfortunately, this small noise reached the Utahraptor's ears and she looked up in Owen's direction. The dinosaur stood up to her full height and snarled.
"Get back, get back!"
Owen breathed quietly as he remained almost motionless. He was listening intently for the sound of the raptor's footsteps. Finally, he heard them. The dinosaur was moving slowly forward, growling in an almost unheard tone. Little did the Utahraptor know that Owen already had a plan. He quietly held his EMD steady, his fingers lightly over the trigger, ready to fire. As Hamada and Hoskins were no amateurs, they knew Owen always was formulating a plan when in dangerous situations like this. The raptor's nostrils flared as it appeared around the corner–
WHAM! Owen's fist slammed into the dinosaur's snout. The raptor was not expecting this and stepped back, growling in surprise. Then Owen leaped from behind the corner and fired a few rounds of a strong electrical charge from his EMD. The raptor screeched loudly as it spasms due to the unexpected electric shock. The aggressive Utahraptor bowed its disoriented head as it glared up at Owen, snarling a threat.
"You're not fooling anybody, girl," Owen replied as if the raptor was actually casting an insult. "You'll be out in five...four...three...two..."
The Utahraptor growled as collapsed to the ground, knocked unconscious. "...one." Owen casually turned to Hoskins and Hamada and said, "You're gonna want to get this dinosaur back in her enclosure as soon as you can. She won't be knocked out for long. I've got to catch up with the other wranglers and help out with those raptors."
Hoskins and Hamada nodded and Owen was off. He hopped on his motorcycle and drove back into the forest.
The Big One growled to the other 11 members of her pack. They moved swiftly through the jungles. In her nostrils was the scent of humans; saliva dribbled from her jaws as she anticipated her next kill. She knew that heading this close to the rest of the park would bring a higher risk of getting recaptured. But this risk was easily outweighed by the prize of human flesh. If they were quiet, they might be able to escape human-detection...for a while.
A pair of Laquintasaura – small ornithopod-like omnivorous dinosaurs, virtually harmless to humans and therefore kept free-roaming throughout the park – were grazing on the forest floor just up ahead. The raptors instantly were drawn to the sight of potential prey. However, one of the Laquintasaura looked up, squeaked and both of them scampered out of sight. These dinosaurs had never seen raptors before, but they instinctively knew that they presented a threat. Unfortunately, what the Laquintasaura also accomplished was allowing the raptors to see that they were near one of the park sidewalks. Big One snarled and slowly crept her way toward the edge of the foliage. Her reptilian eyes spied three humans walking up the pathway towards her. They were janitors, hauling back two large trashcans they had just emptied into the dumpster.
Her tail twitched as Big One watched the humans edge closer and closer. She quietly cawed to get the attention of the rest of the pack. The other raptors moved into position. The humans were edging closer now, so they avoided using vocal calls to communicate, but instead relied more on their eyes and body movements. They all waited for the Big One to give the signal...
Big One raced out into view, roaring loudly. The janitors saw the threat and began to flee.
"The raptors escaped again!" one of them said. "I knew that alarm wasn't a fire drill!"
The other Velociraptors followed suit and attacked! Big One leaped into the air and with her claws ready to inflict devastating wounds, she crashed into one of the janitors, slamming him to the ground. The janitor could only scream as she and another raptor or two sliced into the victim's flesh. Big One's sickle claw slashed at the man's ribcage to flip him over. Then she slashed down into the man's stomach, slicing his gut open so he could be consumed. In fact, Big One and the other two raptors didn't even wait for the man to die, they feasting as the man was still alive, trying in vain to fight for his life which was slowly ebbing away.
The other two men ran as fast as they could away from the remaining eight Velociraptors. But the raptors gained ground fast and before a few seconds had passed, another janitor was brought down and remorselessly killed. The final janitor (with six raptors behind him) ran to a nearby "danger alarm button" on a light post. He reached the post, lifted up the plastic cover and pressed the button.
"Please, please, help me!" he cried into the microphone located just below the button. "The raptors are over here and they've–"
A raptor lunged forward, crying out loudly, and snatched away from the pole. After being thrown to the ground, he screamed and suffered the same fate as the other two men. The raptors squabbled and fought amongst themselves to retain their pecking order; naturally, Big One got first choice to the kills.
Arnold listened to the janitor's desperate pleas just as a raptor soon overtook him. A high-pitched scream filled the room. Quickly, Arnold punched some keys on the computer and the security camera feed for the area of the attack appeared on screen. He grimaced at the sight of the Velociraptors feasting viciously on the janitors' remains. He shook his head. This can't keep happening. That's four men lost in just under half an hour! At least we know where the raptors are now.
He called Hoskins on the radio. "Hoskins, I've located the raptors. They're–"
"How many?"
"All of them. They're located on that pathway leading to the Botanical Gardens."
"Of course. Thanks for the update."
Having just received the update, Owen rode his motorcycle in the direction the ACU was heading. He finally caught up with them as they rode through the jungle. He rode up alongside Hoskin's vehicle.
"I've already got people loading the Utahraptor back into her pen," Hoskins declared.
"Good," Owen replied. "We're heading to the Botanical Gardens, correct?"
"Yes."
"OK. I'm on it."
With that, Owen raced ahead of them.
Big One looked up in alarm when the sound of a revving motorcycle reached her ears. The sound grew louder and louder; the other raptors heard it too. Big One emitted a series of quick moan-like barking calls and the pack knew what to do. The raptors ran from the kill-site and back into the forest. They began heading north, away from the Botanical Gardens. Just then, a headlight flashed their direction as Owen attempted to cut them off.
"Going somewhere tonight, girls?" Owen asked.
The Velociraptors roared at Owen and charged toward him to attack. The raptors were very familiar with Owen and knew he was associated with their recapture. Perhaps if they killed him quick, they would be able to avoid being placed back in their paddock.
"That's right, girls," Owen said under his breath. He swerved to avoid running into the pack of carnivores and drove away, fast enough to stay out of reach but slow enough for them to keep up. Little did the raptors know that Owen was actually using himself as bait – he was leading them right to Hoskin and his men.
All of a sudden, Big One found out the trap as one of her pack members got shocked with a powerful electrical pulse. The creature spasmed as it fell to the forest floor. More EMD shots were heard as ACU vehicles full of dinosaur wranglers rushed into view.
"Alright! We've found the raptors!" Billy exclaimed. He leaped out of the jeep D-caf was driving alongside his friend Oscar. Oscar Morales had well-muscled arms and lots of experience working with InGen Security – he'd been working with them for 12 years prior. Over this time, he'd been assigned the responsibility of training Billy five years ago and ever since, he, Billy and D-caf had been almost inseparable.
"Ready, Oscar?" Billy asked.
"Let's do this!" Oscar agreed.
They raised their EMD's and began to fire, as did the other wranglers. The raptors were thrown into a state of confusion as one by one, many were taken down. Big One saw a gap and ran for it. Somehow, she and two other females were able to slip past the barricade of firing dinosaur wranglers...at least for a moment.
"Hoskins! We've got three free-roaming raptors at 3:00!" one of the wranglers yelled.
Not wasting another moment, Oscar hopped onto one of the motorcycles and drove after them, Owen and a couple other wranglers not far behind.
The trio of Velociraptors ran as fast and stealthily as they could, trying hard to avoid detection by the humans. Finally, the raptors found themselves standing before a large paddock they had not seen before; it was similar to the Raptor Paddock, but much larger. Big One sniffed the air – she caught a whiff of another theropod hidden behind two large wooden doors. Just then, between a small crack in the door, Big One saw a red-colored eye peering out at her. The eye's owner growled quietly. What type of carnivore was contained behind these walls?
Big One had no more time to speculate, for she got sight of Owen, Oscar and the other wranglers making their way toward them. Big One called to the two raptors with her and they sprinted back toward their own paddock. They had nowhere else to go.
At the paddock, workers had just finished returning the downed Utahraptor to her enclosure. Some were even in the process of fixing the fence she had broken out of. Big One noticed that one worker named Jophery was making some repairs to the fence of the Velociraptor's paddock. Big One screamed as she raced toward him. Owen saw this and shouted, "Everyone! Get to safety!"
The workers heard this, saw the threat and panicked. As the workers fled, Owen drove up to the side of the Raptor Paddock, allowing the ACU to take over.
"Get those raptors back in that cage and take 'em down!" Oscar yelled.
The other wranglers began shooting at the raptors. Jophery was unable to escape out of the enclosure except by the means of a ladder that led to the elevated catwalk above. He frantically clambered up as fast as he could. Owen walked up along the stairs on the side of the enclosure onto the catwalk.
"Look out!" Owen said to Jophery.
Suddenly, Big One leaped up and snagged hold of Jophery's leg. Jophery cried out in pain; Owen grabbed Jophery's hand in a desperate attempt to stop him from falling. But the Velociraptor refused to let go!
"Shoot her!" Owen ordered. "Shoot her!"
Wranglers came up along the sides of the Velociraptor enclosure and began blasting the dinosaur with their EMD's. Unfortunately, before being brought down, Big One gave a mighty pull with her head, causing Jophery to loose his grip on Owen and he fell into the raptor's cage.
A/N: Needless to say, I decided to start out this story with a bang! I know this chapter might seem confusing to some; if that is the case for you, hold on, because I'll be going into further explanation in Chapter 2. What did you guys think of this chapter? Was there enough action for you all? If you enjoyed Chapter 1, please be sure to favorite, follow and review this story, because next week, I'll be publishing another awesome chapter. Spare no expense!