The monorail was not in operation, so I had to trek down the tracks, all the while being cautious of sections that would collapse under my feet. I even had to maneuver around a derailed train in front of a gate with the words "Jurassic World" on it in blue letters.
What was this "Jurassic World"? Some sort of theme park?
After stepping through the gate, a large pool of some sort stretched across the entire area, with some sort of boardwalk on the other end. The whole place was empty. What happened here? Carefully, I kept my balance on the bridge over the pool, gulping when I saw the murky water below, as if they held something down there. Some sections of the bridge were falling apart or gone, so I had to jump across them to not plummet into the water. Thankfully, I managed to cross without falling in. I exhaled a sigh of relief when I reached the boardwalk with various shops, a restaurant and an arcade on both sides. They all looked completely destroyed. There was another building directly down the path called the "Hammond Innovation Center". Hmm. Maybe I could find something useful there.
Like the rest of the place, the lobby was in ruins. My mind itched for more answers. Barely-functioning holograms flickered in and out, as if fighting to stay alive. Exhibits lay everywhere, some explaining mass extinctions and others covering paleontology. A particular exhibit caught my eye. Moving closer, I read the sign, which explained that Jurassic World started out as a dream for one man.
That man, John Hammond, wished to create a half-theme park, half-zoo on this very island, filled with living, breathing dinosaurs. He called it "Jurassic Park". I had to pause reading for a moment to get this all through my head. How did he manage to bring these prehistoric animals back from extinction?
The exhibit said that Hammond to managed to achieve his goal by extracting dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes preserved in amber. Jurassic Park was scheduled to open in 1993, but a disaster occurred. A technical failure caused the dinosaurs to escape from their enclosures and wreak havoc on the island. Jurassic Park was shut down and never opened to the public.
That is, until more than 20 years later, Hammond's dream finally became reality. A new theme park opened on Isla Nublar, and it succeeded where Jurassic Park could not. The new park was called "Jurassic World", which over 20,000 visitors arrive each day. And it ensured complete safety for the tourists.
As I finished reading, I knew there was more to the story. Apparently, Jurassic World suffered the same fate as Jurassic Park: a technical failure that allowed its ancient exhibits to run wild, causing the park to shut down and never reopen. Which meant I had to be careful, or a single moment could be my last.
But was it really a technical issue that brought the park to its knees? Or was it something else? I had to find out. I needed to search every inch of the park for clues about what happened.
I exited the Innovation Center and pulled out a journal from the bag I found on the ship. I wrote down what I discovered in bullet points along with questions I had, like "Was there more?", "How many dinosaurs are on the island?" and "How long since abandonment?" As soon as I finished the last question, a loud snap ringed in my ears, and I froze as something clamped down on my shoulder.