"Alright. Feel free to take some time and look around, ask questions to the staff. I have some business I have to take care of. Please excuse me". Professor Bryce exited the hatchery in a hurry after getting a call on her radio. She took her little cart, which all the employes of the park had, and drove all the way to the other side of the island to a facility kept away from the park itself. The area was closed off by several towering electrified fences and huge steel doors.
When the professor finally came to a stop she was greeted by two other staff members. A tall slim man with a worried look plastered on his face, and his assistant, a shorter woman with bright blonde hair who had an equally worried expression.
"Ray!", Professor Bryce yelled as soon as she exited her cart. "Where is it"? She was in a panic. The man gestured her in the direction of the building they were standing besides.
"The caretakers found it not half an hour ago. No one's touched it yet". The Professor's face grew pale white. Her nostrils were on fire from the smell. Still, she got down on her knees to take a closer look. "I don't need to tell you what it looks like, but this enclosure is only for Edmontosaurus and even if they decided to attack each other none of them would be able to rip it apart like this.
"This one was one of the newborns"?
"Yes. Four months old". Professor Bryce got up from the body and walked back threw the enclosure door into a room filled with camera monitors that kept an eye on everything in this area of the island. "Bryce, we checked over the footage. So far we haven't been able to find anything. From the state of decay on the body the attack could have happened as far as a week ago". Bryce sat down and dropped her head into her hands.
"Ray, that Edmontosaurus was eaten, there's no doubt about it. None of the other animals in that enclosure would have, or could have done that, and the only carnivore on the island are the Rex's".
"Yes, and their enclosure was built in a thirty foot ditch in the ground so something like this couldn't happen".
"Then what could have done it!", she screamed. "Sorry Ray. This just doesn't make any sense. Nothing on this island could have gotten into their enclosure and killed one".
"But something did".
The sun was beating harshly on Eddy's head, further irritating him.
"Come on Double D! Why do we have to wait here for Ed to get off that thing, I'm dying over here!" he yelled.
"Calm down Eddy, Ed will be finished shortly and then we can go somewhere with a little more shade. Screaming about it will only make it worse".
"This is the best day of my life!" Eddy heard Ed scream. Ed was riding on the back of a Parasaurolophus, commonly called a 'Duck Bill' Dinosaur. Edd walked over to the fence the animals were running around in.
"Excuse me." Edd said to the employe working the "ride". "How did you manage to train the animals to allow people to ride on their backs like that"?
"Same way people train horses and other animals. These guys are no different, just a bit bigger. They're sweethearts. Just have to be gentle with them is all".
"Interesting. And who is that man over there inside the cage"?
"That's one of the caretakers. One of the people who feeds, trains, and looks after them. He keeps an eye out for any odd behavior. They're more calm when he's around. They're very docile creatures but anything can happen, so we like to have every precaution ready, just in case".
"What are the collars for? I've noticed only the larger animals have them on".
"They're shock collars. We've only ever had to use them once or twice, and it was with a caretaker who was being a jerk to them. But if a person is in danger we can give a large shock to the animals to, I wouldn't say "calm them down", but to no longer be a threat to a persons life". A buzzer went off, signaling Ed's turn on the animal was over. The caretaker helped Ed carefully get down and gave the animal a treat while patting it's large head.
"Bout' time lumpy. Come on, I'm starving. Double D, where's the closest food cart"?
Back at the hatchery Marie and her group were getting a chance to speak to one of the Scientists who helped bring these animals back to life. She was patiently waiting to get a chance to talk with him but everyone else had him cornered. She looked around the room and saw another scientist hovering over some eggs. She figured if she wasn't going to get to talk directly to the guy responsible for this, then the guy he works with would be just as good.
"Hello", she said, looking at his name tag. "Tim". The man looked up from the eggs and greeted Marie.
"Hello." he said with a smile. "Can I assist you with something"?
"I hope so. You work with him?" she asked, pointing to the other scientist.
"Yes, I work directly with Richard. If you have any questions..."
"Marie." she said, forgetting she never introduced herself.
"Marie. Did you have any questions"?
"A few yes. The one I'm most interested in is if you make dinosaurs that aren't made for the park. Are there other spices elsewhere on the island that you have for studies"?
"There are other dinosaurs on the island, but they're all identical spices as the ones in the park".
"I've read a lot about how some people believe this company may want to engineer dinosaurs as weapons. I thought that was ridiculous".
"It's absurd. In this day of age what could a dinosaur do that a tank or plane couldn't? Besides, the only dangerous dinosaurs we have on the island are the T-Rex's, and they're enclosure was built in a huge hole so they have no way to escape". 'Beep beep' "Oh, look at that. Time for my lunch break".
"It's already noon? I wanted to go see the Rex's before I went out to lunch".
"I can take you if you want. We can swing by one of the food carts and get something to eat and I can take you down to the caretaker's area for the Rex's. Get a much closer look then anyone else". Marie lit up and agreed immediately. She had every intention of picking his brain the whole time as well. And try to get him to pay for her lunch.
Professor Bryce was examining camera footage across multiple screens while Ray was in another room trying to get a hold of somebody on the phone. Bryce had spent the better part of two hours looking over various recordings.
"Professor, some of those tapes aren't even from the Edmontosaurus area. Why are you looking them over"?
"Maybe one of the other cameras caught something. We're working blind here, any chance to help us figure this out". Her eyes glued to the screens, Bryce didn't notice Ray had gotten off the phone and was now standing besides her.
"I got in touch with Henry. He's on his way here now. His helicopter should be here in a few hours".
"Henry Wu"? Ray's assistant asked. "The chief geneticist? Why would he want to come down here"?
"To check out the body. He was insistent on seeing it in person, not just pictures. Felicity, would you mind going with the caretakers to check the enclosure for cracks, holes, anything that could let something in it"?
"Of course Professor".
"Why would Henry want to see the body? Seems odd Ray".
"Bryce, did that camera fall over".
"What"? Sure enough, one of the cameras appeared to have come off it's hinges and fallen to the ground. "Jesus, why didn't anyone report that!" Bryce checked the time stamp on the video and got out her radio to call one of the caretakers who found the body, insisting on knowing who was in charge of watching the cameras on the day. After a lot of screaming Bryce was told that a man named Jeffrey Turner was on camera duty that day. He had been sick for a few days and not at work, so she decided to check the area out for herself, find the camera, and see how it managed to come down. Though she hoped it was just something like loose screw she had a feeling it wouldn't be so simple.
"Is it irritating having to ride a boat for an hour or so everyday just to get to and from work"?
"Actually Marie, to avoid that very problem Jurassic Park had condos built on a separate part of the island for employes to stay at. I live there, as do most of the others. How's the food"?
"Amazing. Glad there was a cart not selling meat. This salad is amazing".
"Glad you like it. We're here". Tim lead Marie through a small bridge and down an elevator to the caretaker area of the Rex's. Due to the obvious danger of the animal extra precautions were taken to prevent any sort of incident. The public was only allowed to be so close, however the caretakers could get much, much closer. They had a viewing room disguised in the tapestry of the Rex enclosure that allowed them to see them up close and monitor their health and behavior. The room was completely undetectable by them. Even if they knew there were people there they couldn't do anything about it. The room had feet of durable metal lining it's walls, bulletproof glass, everything they could get their hands on. Even a charging Rex couldn't get through to them.
There was only one other man in the viewing room when Marie and Tim entered. Tim introduced him as Samuel James. Chief caretaker of the Rex's. He had the unpleasant task of working hands on with them. Marie was in awe of the room. It was filled with monitors displaying areas of the Rex enclosure. She didn't see anything on the monitors, but she felt the ground shake a little bit.
"Mom's close." Samuel said looking out one of the windows. Marie rushed besides him. She became speechless as a Rex approached. The room they were in was about 20 feet off the ground and it was just barely taller then the creature. "Amazing, isn't it"? Marie could only nod her head. She then saw a little Rex running by the bigger one's feet.
"Did you guys name the kid yet?" Tim asked.
"Chomper. He's pretty big for being so young. We're thinking he's going to grow bigger then Tyrant. Not looking forward to that".
"Who's Tyrant?" Marie asked, still looking out in awe of the animals.
"Tyrant is the father. Chomper is the little guy, the one you're looking at is Bessy, the mother".
"They all live in the same enclosure? I always thought the mother would raise the children alone and the father would go off".
"It's a rather odd situation really." Samuel explained. "Once Chomper was born Tyrant stopped hanging around Bessy, but seems to make an effort to spend time with Chomper. When Tyrant and Bessy cross paths she's the one who shows aggression and he'll normally just leave. Unless Chomper's with her".
"How much bigger is he then her"?
"Quite a bit, actually. Bessy is around 17 feet tall, and 30 feet long. Tyrant is around 23 feet tall and just under 40 feet long. Hopefully you'll get a chance to see him".
"Bryce, I don't like the idea of being out here right now. We have no idea what's going on. God forbid something is actually out here and we get caught with it".
"Grow a pair Ray. There can't be anything out here." she said, trying to convince herself more then him. "Look, there's the camera". She ran over and picked it up off the ground and examined it. Checking for any kind of marks from nails, teeth, anything. She sighed in relief when there was no such marks and it just appeared a screw came loose.
"Oh my god!" Ray screamed, falling backwards.
"Ray what's wrong!" she cried. Ray didn't say anything. Just pointed to a bush nearby. Bryce checked it out and immediately threw up a little.
"Guess Jeffery wasn't sick after all".