Goodbyes

Bright blue light peaked through the Plexiglas walkway which created a pleasant rippling effect on the carpeted floor. It seemed that the walkway was suspended by its own means but through his time working here he knew that it was attached to the transparent sea tank wall. Charlotte looked around in amazement at the wonder of engineering presented by the walkway. He had found that other than to celebrate Chiyo's birthday Charlotte's university had sent her for 'practical experience' which included tailing the Deputy Head Keepers. The black under her eyes indicated that she was not coping with a night's worth of drinking and an accompanying early morning. The only more volatile combination could be a tonne of pure potassium and a gallon of water.

"Did I make a right tit of myself last night?" she asked tepidly in her slight Scottish accent.

"A bit," he laughed which made her groan. With Chiyo not drinking Charlotte had taken it upon herself to drink Chiyo's share of the alcohol available. What resulted was her spending the night hugging Quint for being Chiyo's friend and trying to ring her favourite pizza delivery in Edinburgh to deliver to Prehistoric Park.

"It must have been a good pizza place for you to want one from here!"

"They're the best," she replied "Me and Chiyo used to get one every Saturday. My Christ my head hurts! Please say we're not going near any form of hadrosaur today!"

They continued further up ahead. The early morning sun casted its bright rays easily through the clear waves of the sea illuminating the walkway a very bright blue colour. Up ahead there was some elevated seats with a rabble of people happily and eagerly chatting away in varying accents of English although quite a few had the headphones which spoke in different languages hanging on their shoulders. As it was Halloween a few of the children were dressed up as an assortment of ghouls, mummies and other demons of the night. Dani saw him and started to wave at him. It was the final day of her holiday; in just a few hours they would be getting back on the boat to the mainland and away from the primeval world of Prehistoric Park and the amazing memories it had for them. Yesterday though Amy had a memory which she would rather have forgotten.

Yesterday

"What did you get Chiyo for her birthday?" Saeed asked him as he unlocked the door. They wobbled slightly as the waves lapped softly against the plastic walkway which led to the door. To be more environmental the park architects had attached some rafts together to lead to the staff centre of the exhibit. Most likely to avoid disturbing what lived in the water below.

"Some Marvel comics and Maria got her this CD from a band that she likes. You know the one where the singers scream all the time," he replied "You?"

"Got her this shirt with some superheroes on it," Saeed said smiling "Didn't stop hugging me for a few minutes. Sweet girl she is."

The room smelt heavily of salt water. No water could get in but it definitely did nothing to hinder the overpowering smell of the saline water. Jordan was always amazed by the exhibit design of Prehistoric Park. They had copied Hagenbeck Zoo where most of the barriers to the exhibit were natural barriers and any actual fencing was tactfully hidden. Saeed had told him though that originally there had been a few bits of fencing where Bob hadn't managed to construct a natural barrier or where fences were needed for using the transport vehicles. Staff knew not to do anything stupid near the barriers but it was decided that guests couldn't be trusted and in some places actual barriers put up. This was a prime exhibit exemplifying this. There was a slight cliff face which dropped into the exhibit which was full of mangroves submerged in tranquil blue water while the rest was a golden beach. Out of sight was a series of submerged rocks which stopped the denizen within from making a bid for freedom via the Isla Sornan sea. Added on somewhat painfully obvious was glass panels spanning the ridge of the rocky cliff.

"Can you see the bugger?" Saeed asked rubbing his short wiry beard "Come to scare me out of my skin again? Where are you?"

"Come on the quicker we get out some food the lower the chance that you'll have to get back into your skin!" Jordan replied.

"Cheeky bugger. While you head-butt deer a giant snake always seems too eager to get me." The smiled on his face showed that he was joking. Feeding the serpentine denizen was a simple affair. To remotely resemble an appealing, realistic meal they simply had to attach a sheep sized carcass to a cuboid metal machine with a motor locked inside. In practice this machine would make the carcass go around the water aimlessly until the hunter attacked and the shock would disentangle the machine from the carcass. It also happened to be more humane than live prey. They attached the machine to the carcass as Saeed opened a hatch (with apparent trepidation) which they forced the 'animal' through. As it splashed into the water they could see it spin off over the clear water sending white flecks as it went.

"Isn't that your sister and that the person who thought pterosaurs enjoyed junk food?" Saeed asked. He looked up and saw Amy standing hand in hand with Dani pointing at the floating carcass as Shaun was poking something in his hand.

"Fancy saying hi. We don't need to see the Asiatosuchus germanicus for a bit," Saeed said.

He nodded and they went up to see his relatives. Dani was kneeling down eagerly looking through the glass panes which stood over two metres high easily. Shaun was busy on his phone and Amy was standing a bit further back with a face contorted with fear. He could see why. She was scared of snakes and a nearby sign read Gigantophis garstini. A snake over 10 metres long would not help her phobia any further.

"Hi Jord," she said warily "Who wanted to stop this thing from being extinct!"

She gave a small yelp as from behind one of the mangroves in the warm water a long, serpentine black and green shape emerged. It moved following a pointed head in an S motion through the clear water. Like a child Shaun lent on the glass panel and started banging on the glass. Jordan started to stop him but something stopped him; snakes often hunted through vibrations but surely it couldn't sense the idiot's banging of the glass. This proved to be a bad judgement. The water exploded and with an audible clang against the transparent glass the Gigantophis tried to seize Shaun. Amy shrieked and swore loudly which made Dani shout: 'Mummy said a naughty word!'.

"You bastard! You bastard!" she yelled hitting Shaun's arm "You knew it would do that."

"Soz Amy. We had the glass it couldn't do anything," he laughed.

"Sir please you were told on arrival not to disturb the animals," Saeed warned him.

"It was just a laugh. Aw shit I dropped my phone. Aw it's all smashed!" he moaned as his phone had a large crack on it like a spider's web. There was at least some justice.

Now

One of the tour guides holding a microphone stood in front of the crowd. He recognised her as Chantelle Antióne from Cote d'ivoire, even through her green makeup which made her look like a reptilian swamp monster, as she tapped her microphone. She spoke in a very noticeable French accent.

"Welcome everyone to Megalodon Currents! I hope you've had a nice day. Look here's our Megalodon keepers ready for today!"

Jordan saw two people in scuba suits jump into the water from the safety of the yacht. They were braver men than he was as they went in without the shark cage; saying that the four Megalodon keepers were the biggest men and women that he had ever seen with nerves of iron. He heard Charlotte say something that his mother would have slapped him for saying (one of the words rhyming with 'clucking'). If he hadn't known about Megalodon behaviour he would have agreed with her but nevertheless he could never get in the water unprotected with the giant shark.

"Megalodon could grow up to 17 metres long and lived all across the world's oceans from 23 to 2 million years ago. Ours comes from the Pacific Ocean at that time. Oh look the keepers are putting in the pulse emitter; sharks are attracted by electromagnetic waves and this device picks them up. Megalodon in the wild hunted whales and they can also be attracted by whale song but we don't want to make a hungry one come!"

There was a large gasp from the audience and Charlotte. From the murky black abyss came a giant shark over twice the length of a great white. The great shark had a small cleft under the mighty bottom jaw, had a body perfectly streamlined like a torpedo and whose top half was completely black. He found people's assumption that the Megalodon was simply a large great white strange. Although he assumed that must simply be people wanting to fit some sort of familiarity with a primeval creature. The shark swam slowly up to the keepers with her fins shifted backwards as far as they could go.

"This is Lamia the park's female. She is forty years old and has been able to have pups for ten years. Megalodon can mate at thirty years and can live to be 90! Look she's swimming slowly with her fins backwards. That means she is friendly. Sharks have personalities just like us but Lamia is a bit of a touchy shark" He could definitely agree with that. "She only likes her keepers. If she was swimming quickly with her fins forward that means she's angry. Megalodon swim in the dark waters and their streamlined bodies let them blast upwards ramming a whale for them to eat. They are skittish though; a whale can easily injure a shark so they have to be careful!"

"Watch this," he whispered to Charlotte who still looked groggy from her hangover.

The keepers left the sea and onto the safety of the boat. Lamia started to submerge back into the dark depths of the water. There was a large splash coming from the boat and a huge chunk of meat bobbed over the surface. On cue the audience gave a cry that was a mixture of wonder and consternation as like a large black bullet Lamia sped towards the surface. She slammed into the carcass sending a wave of blood across the formerly placid surface. Her eyes went white as she swallowed part of the carcass.

"Everyone give a hand to Lamia!"

The excited crowd started to dissipate and Dani ran over to hug Jordan. Amy kissed him on the cheek.

"I'm going to miss you. When I get back we'll Skype," she said with her eyes welling up "Thanks so much for getting us tickets. Dani's loved it so much. Give my love to Maria. And you." She turned and hugged Charlotte. "It's been a pleasure meeting you and give my love to Chiyo."

Shaun nodded his head in Jordan's direction and gave a slight grin in Charlotte's direction. He hugged Dani just before her parents picked her up. He didn't know when he would next see his family. With some regret he joined Charlotte in doing that days' worth of jobs. Compared to the excitement that they had with the largest shark in existence the day was relatively relaxed. After emerging from the walkway they rubbed the brightness of the sun from their eyes. One bad thing about the underwater walkways was the fact that your eyes never accustomed quickly to the change in light. The cool waves protected your eyes from the harsh beams so on the land it hit you hard.

"Where to first?" Charlotte asked.

First stop happened to be the Liliensternus. Charlotte wanted to stay longer to watch the early dinosaurs tear apart the meal that they had given them but if they were going to get their jobs done it meant that watching the Liliensternus would have to wait until another day. Their roaring caused Charlotte to cringe each time; it must have been like being knocked over the head with a hammer each time the dinosaurs roared when you had a hangover. Luckily for her the next stop didn't involve loud noises. It was hard to be loud underwater.

"Those sea scorpions best be as quiet as land ones!" Charlotte grimaced as they opened the staff door to the Aquarium. Their feet created metallic clangs as they thundered up the stairs to the storage room. Inside were a variety of mobs, buckets and cleaning products for janitors to use in the human section of the building but he headed straight for the refrigerator door which shone dull silver in the low light. A refreshing wave of cold swept over them as he opened the door. Inside they took chilled buckets full of fish and molluscs for the aquatic inhabitants.

"For the ones that we're feeding today you have to fill fish in these," he told Charlotte gesturing to something that looked like a crudely made plaster cast fish. He didn't envy Charlotte filling the baits full of fish. It was overpowering already without a banging headache to boot. With Charlotte looking distinctly green he ushered her up another set of metallic steps. Blue light scattered above them on the roof cast by the water of the tanks below them.

"This one," he said.

Charlotte lent on the railing to see the resident. Crawling over a rock was a black scorpion like creature but instead of a formidable stinger it had what seemed to be a paddle for a tail. Another one was slowly moving across white sand creating lines as it went. Although not the largest arthropod present in Prehistoric Park the Pterygotus were still titans. Jordan picked up one of the plaster cast fish and dropped it with an audible splosh into the tank. It sank to the bottom of the tank but was quickly smashed in half by one mighty claw. Copying Jordan Charlotte dropped another into the water and the other duly smashed it in half. Soon the scorpions had broken open all of the plaster cast fish.

"Just one more thing to feed in here," he said. They descended back down the stairs and they grabbed a dead feathered chicken as well as some passion fruit from the refrigerator. Jordan took them deeper into the Aquarium, so far in fact that the light had changed from a light blue to a light green. In the water below instead of a large armoured sea scorpion was a shoal of sparkling Megapiranha. He dropped the chicken into the water and half the shoal vanished in a swirling vortex of bubbles. They dropped the fruit into the water which caused the rest to swirl around the fruit. Quickly the feeding frenzies had ended with no sign of the fruit being present but the unfortunate chicken had been reduced to a series of white bones.

"You hungry?" he asked. It was well past noon and they had been up for hours. Even before they had said bye to Amy and Dani in the shark walkway they had been up seeing to the Haast's eagle, Nothosaurus and Huia. He thought that she had done very well, especially after the male Haast's eagle had swooped down and almost took her head off.

"Starvin'" she replied eagerly.

They traipsed off the office where the Head and Deputy Head Keepers kept their items during the day. Grabbing their lunches they headed off to the nearest benches (happening to be the ones nearest to the Visitor's Entrance) and sat down in the cool shade. It had turned into a glorious day with the sun happily high in the sky devoid of dark clouds with the cool mists of Isla Nublar cooling them down. A large model skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus beamed toothily down at them with the long jaws of a Spinosaurus just opposite the King of the Dinosaurs where the two acted as formidable entrance to Main Street. They had been caked in cobwebs and spiders with today being Halloween. Past the model skeletons were the multitudes of hotels, restaurants, shops and the museum holding actual fossils of the park residents.

"Chiyo loves your present," she said "She said that she would make my lunch for me today but she only made half of it because she was too busy reading! That book the two brothers gave her must have been expensive though. I can't believe they actually knew Tolkien!"

He nodded in agreement. The brothers obviously meant the elusive Green Stripe and Cicada; the two mysterious co-founders of the park with Hammond. Nigel had told him last night that they (seemingly) didn't have any children and had some sort of grandfatherly affection for Chiyo who viewed them in turn as doting grandfathers. For her 21st birthday the day before they had given her a red leather bound edition of The Lord of the Rings signed by the author himself with an apologetic note that they couldn't be there to celebrate with her.

"Chiyo loves them to pieces. It's amazing that right now my brother is dressing up as a vampire to go Trick or Treatin'. You can't tell in this sun!"

A flustered Nigel popped around the corner but his attire caused them to burst out in laughter. He was dressed as a vampire with his face painted white with red coming from the edge of his lips to simulate blood. Apparently being dressed as a vampire in the middle of the day when the Costa Rican sun as at its highest was not something very comfortable.

"Boy is this costume boiling!" he panted. Jordan could see some of his white makeup running down his face as he sat down. "Chiyo has found this hilarious; she's been calling me Bela Lugosi all day! It's been hectic today trying to organise everything for tonight!"

He had heard about the night's affairs. It included the park staff organising a monster themed party for children around Main Street, a ghost walk for older guests where people would tell tales of the island's gory past and some of the Neanderthals were going to treat some guests to horror stories told between tribe members. If they were in the right area the guests were also allowed to personally witness a Dromaeosaurus hunt at midnight. A few staff members had even been roped into dressing up to jump out and scare people on the ghost walk. Although he hated them he had chosen to go watch horror movies with Chiyo and Charlotte over dressing up.

"Bob's got his werewolf costume for tonight," Nigel laughed "Oh no…"

There was a high pitched scream and a gaggle of people ran to the Visitor's Entrance around the corner. He noticed a few non-keeper staff members among them who were dressed as various monsters. In the various staff offices was a board saying when famous people would be arriving at the park. Two days ago a new name had appeared in the boards: the famous pop-star Zach White.

"I hate it when people like that come," Nigel uncharacteristically sighed "So far when they've come they've expected to be treated extra special like to pet the animals or something like that. Wait I shouldn't say that he could be different…"

Judging how he swaggered into view with him gesturing to his admirers Jordan had a feeling that Nigel's initial bias could very well be justified. He had flyaway bleach blonde hair with a red pork pie hat, a white shirt with half the buttons undone, his signature butterfly tattoo on his forearm on show and his hands slightly wedged into his too tight jean pockets. Some of his entourage wearing similar outfits followed after him. One of the park staff whose job was to give guests the introductory talk hastily followed him.

"Sir I need to ask you to follow me. We have an introductory talk where we…"

"I don't need no talk," he laughed in a way that made Jordan want to personally introduce him to Lamia while he was covered in whale fat and emitting whale songs "What's there to talk about? I got me my fans and I'm gonna take a few selfies for Instagram. How about one with me and a big T Rex just chillin'?"

Nigel sighed. He could tell that Nigel much preferred his managerial role before when the most pressing issue was how to save animals from extinction. Now he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He needed people like Zach White to endorse the park so they could keep it open and eventually release some of the residents back into the wild. Without endorsement from some people who thought that the sun revolved around themselves many people who would have been less than willing to come to Prehistoric Park would be convinced. Yes many people would come because they had extinct animals or that people like David Attenborough and paleontologists like Robert Bakker liked the park but it would mean nothing to people who thought that a singer was more important than stopping extinction itself. People like Zach Write could be seen as a necessary evil.

"Cicada once said something very wise to me about someone similar to him," Nigel said "'Narcissism will elevate someone to greatness but leaves dismay in its wake'. I have a feeling that he'll be right again."

The Next Morning

He walked through the early morning fog to the Deputy Head Keeper's Office with Maria, Chiyo and Charlotte.

"I'll be with the Microraptors for most of today so I might not see you," she said to Charlotte. She gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving for the small feathered dinosaurs. The others pushed open the door to see Bob and Winston chuckling with delight. Someone had setup the projector to show a blown up picture of Bob where he had brown fur stuck haphazardly across his body with fake fangs lodged into his teeth.

"I've seen to have made Winston howl with laughter," Bob joked as Conor, Zhun, Saeed and Mary arrived. "Okay now here's who you are with today."

He smiled as he found out that he had been paired with Maria to generally see to the park's inhabitants. The first job for the day would be to attend to Messel Forest which was home to some of the strange animals from Eocene Germany. They crossed a wooden bridge into a pleasant tropical area where the sun was peeking through the thick branches of the trees casting light shadows on the soft earth. The exhibit nearest to them was easy to see that it had been designed initially for solely realism for the animal but had been retrofitted for public safety. It had a deep moat to stop the inhabitant from getting across but large panels had been added to stop members of the public falling in. Most likely the staff fencing was around the back. A groggy Gastornis with her massive beak stared at them, half shielded in the shade of an orchid tree.

"We're putting food out at Messel Shrub," Maria said chirpily. She was always a morning person. Messel Shrub was an exhibit holding some of the most bizarre animals that he had ever seen. Like with the Gastornis exhibit it had panels surrounding a moat but this one was far smaller and shallower compared to the other moat. There were far more trees in this exhibit and in the early morning he could not see the small inhabitants running around thanks to the shadows casted by the thick trees. Maria guided him to a small white building attached to the side of the exhibit. Upon entering there was a small door leading to inside the enclosure as well as a large metal table.

"All of them or just a few?" he asked. This exhibit was home to numerous animals with a variety of feeding habits.

"All of them. I love these guys so much. I could never imagine anything cuter," she replied. He decided to bite back saying that she had said the exact same thing about the Smilodon cubs. He took some fruit from the cupboard and started dicing it into more sizeable chunks as Maria reached into the adjacent fridge to lay dead frogs and lizards on the table. It was amazing that InGen could grow already dead things in their labs; must be more economical than shipping in tonnes upon tonnes of dead animals for the ravenous appetites of the carnivores.

"Ready?" he asked. She nodded and he opened the door to the exhibit. It was much more humid in the exhibit than inside the small building. There were a few platforms nailed to the trunks of the occasional tree which he placed liberal amounts of the diced fruit onto. A few branches of grapes though he scattered on the floor as Maria did the same with some meal worms and the dead reptiles and amphibians. There was a small chattering sound and he saw a black lemur like primate with a striped black and white tail scurry down from the tree to start eating the fruit.

"Hello girl," he said to the Darwinius. The primate looked at him with great amber eyes before continuing with her meal. When they had dried up their supply of food he and Maria headed back for the staff building. He had to swerve though to avoid a shrew like Lepticdidium which had hopped into his path.

"What's our next stop?" he asked placing his hand softly into hers.

"Purussaurus Floodplain. We have to check the pH of the water," she replied smiling "Nigel has a love of crocodiles so whenever he went on a mission some of us keepers would make bets whether he would bring one back or not. Caused a big argument between Jon Isia and me because he kept on saying that Crassigyrinus was basically an amphibian crocodile."

"Did you win the argument?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said nonchalantly "We asked Nigel's opinion and he sided with me. Jon left a few weeks later; had a nasty run-in with Ivan the Caspian Tiger. He was fine but his pride dinted a bit."

They jumped onto the monorail. Lazily he rested his head on Maria's shoulders and let her long chestnut hair rest on his cheek. She sighed happily and stared out of the window. It would take some time for the monorail to get to where the Purussaurus swam. Although it was partially obscured by Maria's silky hair he could see some of the exhibits dart below; the open plain cum aviary that housed the Europasaurus and extraordinary Archaeopteryx, a massive fern plain where he saw a giant Iguanodon look curiously at one of the trucks giving guests a tour of a lifetime (Gyrospheres only could hold a few people so the park had vehicular tours as well), then they passed over a blue sea where he could see the long graceful neck of an Elasmosaurus pierce the clear water. It dawned on him that only six months ago he had been hard broken, unemployed and living with his sister; now he was with someone who he loved dearly, was in the greatest job in the world with the greatest people that he could ever be friends with. Prehistoric Park didn't only save animals; it had saved him.

"Wake up daydreamer!" she laughed. They got up and headed towards La Pampa Plains on Isla Muerta. There was no direct monorail route to the Purussaurus exhibit so they would have to go through the Plains to get to the monster caimans. His heart dropped though. The exhibit to the giant terror birds the Kelenken (a steep drop in the earth to the open plains where the ridge was protected by fencing) but there was Zach West and his egotistical entourage gawking at the birds within.

"They're not so scary," he heard Zach yell with the one cue laughs from his cronies "Just an ostrich!"

Bob and Charlotte came walking up to them with a look of dismay on Bob's portly face at the sight of Zach. He could understand why. He had heard that last night Bob had to stop Zach from yelling at the Dire Wolves for 'not doin' anything', something which he did unsuccessfully dressed as the Wolfman.

"How ya' doin' you two?" he asked "I think soon…What the hell is he doing?"

Zach had started to climb up the fence and before anyone could do anything he was over one side. He effortlessly jumped into the enclosure and in triumph held his arms above his head gesturing to his adoring gaggle of followers. He went further into the exhibit through the long grass to where the Kelenken were. Instantly the keepers ran to the adjacent staff house and grabbed some whistles before running through the long grass themselves (Charlotte being forced to stay inside due to not being qualified). Zach was getting closer to the terror birds who stood staring at them with their beady eyes.

"Look they're even running away from me!" he yelled.

Three of the Kelenken ran around the side but they weren't running away. One went behind him, one to the left and one to the right. Jordan could see the one still in front of Zach was vibrating its throat; it was giving orders to kill. The one on Zach's right suddenly darted towards him and brought his massive head down. If Zach hadn't jumped out of the way in time the Kelenken could have smashed his skull in two. Instead he escaped with a nasty gash on his arm. The other three started to stalk closer and closer towards him. Quickly Bob placed his whistle to his lips and blew. No sound came out but the Kelenken darted their long necks upwards startled. The others copied and in a frenzy of irate low squawks the Kelenken ran off. With half his arm smeared in his own blood Zach sheepishly approached them.

"I…it almos…t kill…killed me!" he whimpered.

"Of course!" Bob yelled in anger "It's a bloody carnivore! They are hunters!"

Dr Paulson soon arrived on the scene closing the wound. Luckily the Kelenken had only grazed him or otherwise he would have needed far more than a few stitches. Jordan was personally surprised that the terror bird had broken Zach's arm judging by the way they hunt.

"I want him out of my park!" an angry voice yelled in a broad Scottish accent.

He was surprised to see that Hammond in all white shirt, shoes and trousers had been the origin of this outburst. Waving his walking stick in the air and with him being red in the face Jordan couldn't help but notice how much he resembled an angry Deinotherium.

"He's abused staff, disturbed the Dire Wolves and now he's even disturbed the Kelenken," his demeanour then changed when he saw Bob, Jordan and Maria "I am so glad you three were there. You've stopped a possible PR disaster!"

Ushering up a feeble smile he thanked them and started to walk off. He dropped his walking stick and grabbed his left arm. Hammond fell to the floor.

"John! John!" Dr Paulson yelled "Get me my things quickly he's had a heart attack!"