Disclaimer:I do not own any rights to Jurassic park.

Chapter 10: Raptors

Malcolm looked up at the skylight in his room, the sky above was a beautiful blue. He then turned to his window he looked out across the island to the east, past the visitor center and infirmary. Three long, curving, bare trees stuck out from the rest of the trees in one area toward the south. Malcolm soon adjusted his eyes and saw the trees move gracefully dipping and swaying every so often. He knew that the trees were actually the heads and necks of Brachiosaurus a herbivorous dinosaur. One animal threw its head back and a loud, low, trumpeting call drifted on the wind to the Safari Lodge. Six more necks craned out of the trees and a chorus of trumpeting calls rang out across the view from the window was breathtaking.

Malcolm examined the windows. They were made of thick glass. He assumed they were tempered. Again he looked out the window. He saw Robert Muldoon enter the visitor center, the gates that led into the park and then something odd. An animal moved across a grassy field between the outer perimeter fence and the enclosure perimeter fencing. It walked on two legs, balanced by a thick, stiff tail. Bobbing its head it continued forward like a large bird.

Malcolm stared awestruck by the site of an animal out of its enclosure already. It turned its head and bellowed as two more animals emerged from the jungle south of the field. They were a yellow brown color with black stripes much like a tiger's. Malcolm knew they were velociraptors. As the two new additions caught up with the original animal they darted for ward covering the two hundred yard expanse of the field in a minute or less. They went into the dark jungle that surrounded the field.

Malcolm quickly went to tell Grant what he had seen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grant stared unmistakeably dumbstruck by the news Malcolm had just relayed. He had burst into Grant's room without knocking. His eyes were full of an obvious, and to Grant familiar terror.

"Oh no." Grant had said seeing Malcolm's eyes.

"Three raptors," Macolm said coolly, his eyes betraying the calmness in his voice, "three raptors in the field outside."

Grant had stared and then turned to the window scanning the area for the raptors.

"They went into the jungle but they were there." Malcolm said pointing to the large field not far from the massive wooden gates for the Park.

Grant headed for the phone. Beside the grey phone was a book with the numbers of several offices and services in the Park. He dialed the number for the park warden.

It rang twice and then a man answered saying, "Muldoon."

"It's Alan, Robert we have a problem."

"What's wrong?" asked Muldoon.

"Raptors." Grant replied.

"WHAT!"

"Three raptors, in a field." said Grant.

"Impossible Dr. Grant. We didn't breed any raptors." Muldoon said.

"Well Ian saw three of them and honestly I think he would know."

"Where were they?" asked Muldoon.

"A field to the right of the tour path by about two hundred yards. They went into the jungle though."

"I'll go and check, I just want to go get a car and a gun."

"I'll go with you, Robert." said Grant.

"...OK, I'll be over in about ten minutes."

"See you then." said Grant hanging up the receiver.

"I'm going too." said Maolcolm.

Both left the room and headed for the elevator. As they stepped in Tim Murphy gave them a quizzical look and asked,"Hey where are you guys go-" before the doors closed cutting him off. They reached the large lobby on the first floor and headed for the door. They sat and waited for Muldoon who arrived screeching to halt in front of the lodge.

"Kents watching the video monitors for the raptor's but nothings been seen yet." Muldoon said as the two sat down in the car.

"Here we go!" he said as he sped away towards the field.

They sped down a dirt road that led past the visitor center. A cloud of dirt blew up behind the Jeep as they came to a gate that led past the visitor center fencing. The flew out past the gates and made a sharp turn off the road. Muldoon steered along a small lawn that led to the field. He jumped out with a shotgun firmly in hand. Darting forward Muldoon soon realised he had no idea where the animals had gone.

"Well show me where they bloody were?" Muldoon bellowed at Malcolm who all of a sudden seemed ashen and fearful, still sitting in the car.

Grant had been slowly making his way ahead of the car peering into the jungle. Malcolm was staring in the same direction.

Muldoon turned and saw it standing on two legs. It's stiff tail moved in small arcs as it stared back at the people. The raptor was a brown color with dark stripes, obviously one of the animals that Malcolm had seen. Muldoon looked at it with sudden rage and confusion. No raptors had been created to his knowledge but here was a velociraptor only about one hundred yards away. Grant spun around suddenly aware of what was happening.

He hollered to Muldoon but his voice was lost to the wind.

It wasn't until this point that Muldoon had realised how far from the jeep he was. He soon saw the other raptors charging from the sides of the field angling toward the jeep. The jungle ended only about two-hundred yards from the Jeep which sat almost in the dead center of the field. The raptors charged across the expanse with an extreme speed . Muldoon turned to run but realised he could never make it. One of the flanking raptors had charged almost straight at Muldoon. He unfolded the stock of his shotgun and shouldered it waiting for a decent shot. He aimed and rested his finger on the trigger. As he began to squeeze the trigger, his vision was suddenly blocked by a jeep.