CHAPTER 2: ENDANGERED

Kenyan Wildlife Preserve-Ranger Office: Warren Crawford sat in the Ranger's Office the day after they took down the pirates that had stolen weapons. The preserve's Game-Warden, Malcolm Bener, scolded him.

"HOW COULD YOU LET THAT-THING-OUT HERE?" Malcolm yelled. "YOU KNOW HOW DANGEROUS THAT THING IS?"

"I would hope so, sir," Warren smiled.

"Your little monster went on a killing rampage in the preserve!" Malcolm continued to yell at a lower volume.

"Yes, she killed a lot of pirates. So what?" Warren questioned.

"No, she ripped them to PIECES!" Malcolm yelled as he slammed his fist onto his desk. "And she killed some of the animals on the preserve!"

"She did what?" Warren paused as Malcolm began to walk around the room.

"She killed 5 gazelle! THEY WERE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES! There are only a thousand left in the world!"

"Ah, a handful won't hurt that number," Warren leaned forward.

"Yes, it will," Malcolm stopped moving. "Nature has a balance. Natural predators, like lions, kill within the limits of nature. They don't eat too much, and when they do, nature reaches a balance. That's the problem with humans and that beast of yours; they don't know when to stop. That monster out there should be extinct and I'm going to keep it that way."

Warren stood up as Malcolm reached for a rifle, "I can't let you do that."

"I can't let killers loose," Malcolm yelled. "If she was a person, a hunter, I would have killed her by now! I have to set an example!"

"NO!" Warren withdrew his pistol and put it to the ranger's head. "I can't let you do that. For many reasons."

"I swear to God, I'll kill you, too," Malcolm poked his rifle into Warren's stomach, gritting through his teeth. "Give me one good reason I should let you take your little science project with you."

"Pick up the phone," Warren nodded to the telephone on Malcolm's desk.

"What do you mean?" Malcolm asked as the phone began to ring as he finished talking. Malcolm picked up the phone and began to whisper into it. Finally, he hung up and turned to Warren.

"So...?" Warren waited.

"You're...you're free to leave," Malcolm choked as he rubbed the back of his head. "I never want to see any of you again, especially not on this preserve. You understand?"

"Yes," Warren nodded as Malcolm walked him out, the ranger still holding the rifle.

"You have a lot of friends in high places," Malcolm told Warren as they stepped outside. "Watch yourself with that...thing. Don't let what happened last night happen to people. Innocent people, I mean."

"I won't," Warren stepped into his team's truck. "It's my job."

Warren drove back to the town where his team was staying until they received their next mission.

MEANWHILE:

Somewhere off the coast of Central America: Nicholas Lynch, a pilot, sat in the cockpit of the transport plane he'd been flying. His head was placed on the dashboard and his body was slouched over. He had very little memory of what had transpired before his waking up.

Nick slowly pushed his body off the dashboard and looked up as his vision began to regain focus. There was light, but it was splotched and obstructed. Nick could feel blood trickling from a wound on his head. Welcome to The Jungle was playing on his CD-player he brought on each of his flights. He touched the wound and began to regain memory. Something had happened with the plane...he had to crash-land on an island.

He could feel humidity and heat from behind him, figuring that the cockpit must have been separated from the rest of the plane. He turned his head to see if his copilot was still him. Nick could barely see as his eyes met the light coming from behind him. His vision began to lose focus.

"Andy? Andy, is that you?" Nick asked as his vision slowly came into focus on the man sitting beside him. "Must be unconscious."

Nick tried to unsnap his seat-belt, but discovered it was locked in place. He knew Andy always carried a knife with him. Nick leaned over to grab Andy's knife when his vision came back. Andy was dead with a sticky, blackish-green substance smeared all over his face and his right arm missing.

"Oh God," Nick muttered as he fell back in his seat.

A Dilophosaurus jumped onto Andy's lap, the copilot's arm in his jaw. The dinosaur cocked it's head to it's side as it dropped the arm on the ground and chirped.

"GET AWAY!" Nick yelled as he fumbled with a pistol on his leg. He quickly pointed the gun at the dinosaur when a goop was throw into his eyes from another source-a second Dilophosaurus. The two dinosaurs hissed as they jumped on Nick and began to eat him. The pilot fired wildly, but it was too late. He was already dead.

Nearby, a day later: a group of survivors from the wreckage sat huddled around a damaged radio, trying to get the machine to work.

"This thing isn't going to work," a soldier grunted as he swatted away flies from his face, fumbling with the radio. "All we have been able to do is send out a faint distress signal. It'll take them a week to find us."

A loud roar echoed through the jungle as birds began to fly through the air. The sound of branches and twigs crunching followed, growing farther away for the moment.

"What was that?" a soldier asked, aiming his rifle at the jungle as his friends patched up each other's wounds.

"As far as you're all concerned, this jungle is the worst place on earth. At least for us, anyways," Charles Nytrund, a glasses-wearing special-agent, explained. "We're stuck here for now. Let's just hope they send people who know what they're doing to find us."

"Where are we?" a young soldier asked.

"Welcome, to Jurassic Park," Nytrund extended his arms.

MEANWHILE:

Warren stepped out of the truck where he found Desmond already waiting for him.

"We got a new mission?" Warren asked.

"A rescue-operation off the Coast of Costa Rica," Desmond explained.

"All that is is water, save the islands chock full of dinosaurs, right?" Warren laughed.

"Exactly," Desmond handed the file to Warren. "I guess we fight fire with fire, right?"

"I guess so," Warren scanned through the file.

Jonah stepped outside with Ana, "So, when do we leave?"

"Right now," Warren ordered. "Those people need all the help they can get."