Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar – Chapter 28: T. rex Attack
A/N: Alright T. rex-fans, as promised, we've got an excellent T. rex-filled chapter here that I know you all will enjoy! I really hope this chapter lives up to your expectations.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.
A female Triceratops rushed past Tim as he, Ben, Rob and Lex dove and ducked their way through the stampeding herd to attempt unite with Kailey and Levine.
"Still see Kailey?" Lex asked.
"Yes!" Tim answered. "She's over there!"
All of a sudden, the roar of the female Tyrannosaurus was heard behind them. Tim looked back and saw that the T. rex pair were keeping up with the herd while running along its rim; female and her mate were trying to single out a victim.
"I can't see anyone else!" Kailey exclaimed loudly as she ran alongside Levine.
Levine glanced around the stampeding herd; he and Kailey were running the same direction as the stampeding herbivores and had to constantly dodge them in order to not get trampled.
Then Levine saw a baby Triceratops run by alongside its mother. The mother Triceratops bellowed and roared almost constantly, trying to keep the T. rex pair in her sight at all times – unfortunately, this is hard to do with a large neck frill.
Kailey looked around and suddenly noticed four human figures not too far away. "I think I see Lex, Tim and the soldiers," she told Levine. "I think they're headed this way!"
Levine nodded and just then, a Triceratops came rushing towards them. It let out a loud bellow to signal its approach.
"LOOKOUT!" Levine exclaimed. Levine pulled Kailey out of the way, but he was too slow and the animal hit both of them with the side of its body as it ran by. They collapsed onto the ground amid the stampeding herd.
"NO!" Tim exclaimed. He, Lex and the two soldiers finally reached the location and found them lying on the ground.
"Think they're OK?" Lex asked worryingly.
Rob said, "I don't think they were hurt too badly. Check for a pulse."
Tim bent down next to Kailey and placed his finger on her neck . . . he felt a pulse. Rob did the same to Levine.
Rob nodded. "I've got a pulse too." Tim smiled and turned his attention back to Kailey – she had knocked pretty hard considering the black bruise on her forehead, but she'd be alright.
The male T. rex rushed into the herd and singled out a victim – a young male Triceratops, probably only a sub-adult, and it appeared to have a slight limp. The predator growled to his mate and she responded with a loud gurgle-like sound. The two plowed into the herd toward the creature as they worked their way through the herd, avoiding colliding with the running Triceratops' horns. The limping Triceratops also wasn't too far away from the Murphy siblings and the soldiers.
Tim watched as the T. rex pair ran toward their intended prey. He found the creature quite menacing in appearance and felt a rush go through his body. I haven't felt like this since the time that T. rex totaled that safari jeep over 20 years ago. Man, that thing's a monster! Tim felt like he and the others were in some bygone era – a time when these huge, terrifying predators used to stalk the earth and shake the ground with great force.
The last members of the Triceratops herd finally ran past Tim and the others, leaving the limping Triceratops open to attack. The female T. rex moved in for the kill.
Meanwhile, Kailey and Levine finally came around. Kailey looked up and saw Tim kneeling next to her.
"Hey . . ." she began.
Tim looked down and smiled. "Glad you made it." He helped her to her feet and she embraced him for several seconds. For a moment, Tim was in heaven.
"Thank you," Kailey whispered before letting go.
"Well . . ." Tim began, "technically, all I did was check for your pulse and–"
"Then thanks for 'checking my pulse'," she said with a grin.
"What happened?" Levine asked Tim. "Feel like I just got hit by a train."
"You're not that far off," Lex told him.
"What do you remember last?" asked Tim.
Levine looked thoughtful. "Well . . . we were caught in the Triceratops stampede when the T. rex pair attacked and . . . I can't remember anymore."
"You didn't miss much," Kailey told him. "I remember exactly what happened: a Triceratops' side ran into us and I guess we were knocked out for a minute or two."
Levine nodded. "No wonder I feel like I've been hit hard.
"Look at that guys!" Tim said as he pointed to the dinosaurs nearby.
The group turned to see the T. rex pair slowly circled their prey. The semi-limping Triceratops watched their every move. His body may not have been at its strongest state, but he was ready to fight off a T. rex. The Triceratops began to flush blood into his crest, making it turn bright red. Tim knew that this served as a warning for the giant tyrannosaur to stay away. But the T. rex weren't listening.
Tim chortled in awe. "This is a classic dinosaur battle right here," he said quietly.
"You're telling me," Levine said.
This is incredible, Levine thought. Ever since childhood, Levine had wanted to see a fight between the greatest predator that had ever existed and one of the most well-armed herbivores that ever existed. However, he never expected that he'd be able to witness such an event. Since they stood about 40 feet away from the face-off, Levine figured they were a good distance away to avoid getting unwanted attention.
The female T. rex suddenly made a mock lunge and the Triceratops reacted accordingly. He moved forward in an attempt to nail the predator with his horns; the predator was too agile and the herbivore missed.
That's when the male T. rex came in and sunk his teeth into the animal's flank. The Triceratops roared in pain. The female T. rex came forward, aiming for the distracted herbivores neck. But then the Triceratops wheeled around and whacked the female's jaw with its frill! The female backed away a couple feet before roaring in surprise. She shook her head to regain her equilibrium.
The male T. rex let go to get a better grasp on its prey when the Triceratops gave a hefty whack to its legs with its tail and began charging away. The T. rex pair roared in fury as the herbivore ran off to rejoin its herd. The predators were too tired to go after another chase, so the "Kings of the Tyrant Lizards" had missed their kill.
"They almost had that herbivore!" Kailey exclaimed.
"Yeah, but even the most successful predators fail more often than they succeed," Tim explained.
Just then, the T. rex couple realized that they still had a chance at a meal when they looked over at Levine and the rest of his group standing some tens of feet away. The predators made low growling sounds.
Tim chuckled nervously. "You know what . . . I think the T. rex are considering their next dinner course."
Tim's words were proven true when the dinosaurs turned toward the group of humans standing nearby. The female emitted a loud, menacing roar.
Levine turned and started towards the forest. "We should start leaving now!"
The others obeyed and took off. Behind them, the Tyrannosaurus roared again and the pair began chasing after new prey.
Now around 3:45 p.m., the USS Mars was making steady progress toward Isla Nublar. They were several hundred miles from the coast of California and were headed south. At the moment, the members of Lester's new team are settled into their respected guest rooms on the ship.
"Where are those towels?" Sarah questioned loudly as she rummaged through the large shelving units in her and Malcolm's room aboard the USS Mars.
"What are you looking for, honey?" Malcolm asked her.
Sarah sighed. "I couldn't seem to find my washcloths that I packed, so I decided to use the little white towels that were already on the ship, or at least supposed to be on the ship . . . but I can't find those either."
"Well, I'm sure they have some somewhere on the ship. I can't believe that they wouldn't have any on board."
"No, I can't seem to find any of those little white towels either," Lester told Sarah and Malcolm. He picked up a walkie-talkie radio-like gadget and after turning it on, he said, "Rebecca, didn't you have some of the soldiers load those crates containing little white towels onto the ship?"
"I think so," she responded from the other end of the radio. "Yes, I remember now. The towels were all placed in a large black trash bag and that in turn was placed in a transportation crate. You can't find any? They're normally a bunch in every sleeping-quarter room on this ship."
"If I'd found them, I wouldn't be asking, would I, Rebecca?"
"No, I guess not. I'll see what I can do."
With that, Lester turned the radio off and returned it to his desk. "So there you have it. Nobody knows where the towels are."
Malcolm nodded. "Alright. I guess you'll have to wait on your shower, Sarah."
"Yeah, probably won't have one till we return to the mainland in that case," Sarah agreed. Malcolm and Sarah exited Lester's room and walked onto the deck of the ship, looking out toward the endless ocean. "It's really beautiful, isn't it?" Sarah asked.
Malcolm nodded. "Yes, it is. I can't believe I got talked into coming on this mission."
"Don't worry about it. We'll be fine. All we have to do is reach the island, find the first group and leave the island. It's that simple."
"It's a little easier said than done. Besides, we might have Biosyn exploiting the island, remember?"
"Oh, yeah, I forgot. But how bad can it be."
Malcolm pointed out over the ocean and said, "As endless as it seems, somewhere in the horizon is Nublar and the first research team."
The roar of the Tyrannosaurus echoed into Levine's ear as he and the others ran for the forest as quickly as they could. The dinosaurs' footsteps and verbal sounds could still be heard behind them.
"Don't look back!" Levine exclaimed. "It will only slow you down!"
But Kailey looked back anyway and gasped in fright – the T. rex weren't far behind and they didn't have to run anywhere near top speed to close the gap between them and their prey.
"Just keep running to the forest!" Lex said.
"We're nowhere close! I'm not sure we'll make it in time!" Rob told the others.
Just then, Ben began feeling in his pockets and he found something. Quickly, he fished out a small hand-held tranquilizer gun!
"I just realized that I had a gun in here all along!" he exclaimed to the others (who didn't hear him and continued running).
Without waiting an extra second, Ben cocked the gun and aimed it at the female T. rex who was heading rapidly in his direction. The dinosaur let out a loud bellow as she approached him and she opened her jaws for an attack.
"Alright, I got this," Ben told himself. He took aim and pulled the trigger . . . nothing happened. Something then occurred to him: Oh my gosh! I didn't load this earlier!
He looked up and saw the face of the female Tyrannosaurus rex as she cast her giant shadow over him. Ben turned to run when he was suddenly scooped into the dinosaur's jaws. He screamed in pain as the animal lifted him 20 feet into the air. The creature shook her head rapidly from side to side and a loud cracking of bones was heard.
Life left Ben and the female Tyrannosaurus presumed to let her meal roll down her throat. Then she roared before charging after her mate to continue chasing down the rest of the humans – this dinosaur was still hungry!
Levine ducked underneath overhanging foliage as he successfully entered the forest, but this was no time for celebrating! No sooner had the last person (Lex) entered the forest did the male T. rex stomp into view.
It takes the predator only a few seconds to spy its prey and it goes after it once again, followed by his mate.
But suddenly, Kailey's foot hit a large tree root and this caused her to fall to the ground.
Tim looks back and panics. Oh no! She's going to be dino-food! He quickly went over to her to help her up.
"You OK?" he asks.
"Yes . . ." Kailey begins. Her eyes grow big as she looks past him. "LOOKOUT!"
Tim whips around to see the female T. rex glaring directly at them as the male chases the rest of Levine's group into the jungle. She opened her four-foot long jaws, preparing to bite and scoop up her hapless prey when Tim grabbed a rock he found on the ground and lunged it directly at the dinosaur's eye! The Tyrannosaurus roared and shot her head up into the air as if this would help rid her eye of the pain. Tim spared himself and Kailey a few extra seconds to escape, but they also succeeded in making the dinosaur even more angry!
"Let's go back onto the plains!" Tim exclaimed to Kailey as he yanked her onto her feet and the two of them began running. The female T. rex's eye finally stopped hurting and she looked over in the human's direction. Letting out an angry bellow, she starts back after them.
Levine continued to run as fast as he can into the jungle, not wanting to be the T. rex's next meal. Then he realizes something: there's no more noise from the dinosaur.
He came to a sudden stop.
"Why are we stopping?" Rob asked as she and the others gasp for breath.
Lex looks around the dense jungle. "I think we lost them," she says.
But all of a sudden the male T. rex barged through the jungle foliage near them and ushered a loud roar before he charged toward them with a great burst of speed.
"He's back!" Levine exclaims and they start back on their run with a five or six-ton monster behind them.
As he ran, Levine timely spotted a hole in the ground at the base of a large tree, probably dug out by a small animal. I think we'll all be able to fit in there, Levine thought.
"In here guys!" Levine told the others as ducked into the hole. The bottom of the small hole was full of moist soil, but at least it wasn't a T. rex's stomach. Behind him, Lex and Rob climb into the hole just mere seconds before the Tyrannosaurus nearly caught them in his tooth-filled jaws. The creature made a low guttural bellow as he lowered his enormous head toward the hole. His head can't fit inside, but the T. rex can easily see his prey.
Levine gulps; he closely watched as the dinosaur's golden-colored eye scanned the hole. Levine knew that even though these dinosaur's weren't anywhere nearly as intelligent as the raptors, these dinosaurs were still pretty clever and might find a way to get them if given enough time. This is just great, Levine thought. We've been separated from Grant's half of the group, and now we've become split again! We can't afford anymore group splits!
At that moment, the tyrannosaur rose its head out of the Levine's view. Maybe it was leaving? But no: the tyrannosaur grunted and placed the tips of its large toes into the hole before dragging them back, and then repeating the process – the tyrannosaur was going to try digging its prey out!
Halley returned to the rest of her group with Dodgson's backpack. The baby T. rex trio was still cowering in front of a large rock six feet away.
"What took you so long?" Dodgson asked. Without waiting for a reply, Dodgson snatched the bag from her and proceeded to pull out a extendable pole with a lasso made of wire on one end, otherwise known as a snare (similar to the ones used in The Lost World to catch a dinosaur by its neck). "All we need is one of the babies," he told the others.
Slowly, Dodgson, Halley and Baselton walked toward the baby T. rex; in his hands Dodgson was holding the snare, ready to catch one of them . . . suddenly, the baby T. rex darted from the rock and tried to run past the humans. But Dodgson quickly wielded the snare around, looped it around the neck of the largest of the babies and tightened the loop. As he lifted it up into the air, the baby shrieked and squirmed with all of its might while the other siblings ran into a nearby bush to hide.
"I got it!" Dodgson cried. But even so, he struggled to keep the baby suspended and told Baselton, "I have some tranquilizer darts in a little container in my pocket! Get them quickly!"
Baselton did as told and pulled a small container out of Dodgson's right pocket. He opened it up and got a syringe out. "You need to keep it still!" Baselton exclaimed.
"I'll help!" Halley said. Dodgson placed the spasmodic baby on the ground and Halley rushed forward to place her hands on the dinosaur to keep it still. The dinosaur opened its jaws and closed them on Halley's left arm. "OUCH!" Halley exclaimed as she tried to yank her arm away. But the dinosaur's sharp teeth wouldn't relent.
"It needs to be still in order for me to use the dart," Baselton exclaimed.
"Don't you think I know that?!" Dodgson snapped. The baby dinosaur let go of Halley's arm (which was now covered in blood and bore deep marks) and began making a different call than before: this one was a loud, long high-pitched moaning-like sound. The other babies began making the noise too and the sound echoed through the forest.
Kailey and Tim ran as fast as they could out of the forest with a seven-ton Tyrannosaurus rex not far behind. The creature made a loud bellow as it thundered after them. In a few more seconds, the dinosaur would be on them and would snap them up in no time at all. The dinosaur emitted a roar and its shadow was soon baring down on them.
"We're dead meat!" Tim said. The T. rex's head lunged forward and Tim bumped himself and Kailey out of the way just in the nick of time and they fell onto the soft grass. Great, I've extended our lives by a few seconds, Tim thought sarcastically. The pair looked up at the monster glaring hungrily at them. "I'm sorry I got you into this," Tim apologized.
"I'm sorry too," Kailey admitted.
The T. rex roared loudly as she brought her jaws down to the prey and Tim closed his eyes, waiting for the bone-crunching bite . . . but instead heard a long, loud, high-pitched moaning sound coming from the jungle. He opened his eyes to see the T. rex lift her head back to her normal height and she sniffed the air – something wasn't right. She immediately started walking toward the jungle with haste. Her footsteps began to grow lighter and lighter as she increased distance between her initial prey and herself.
"What happened?" Kailey asked.
Tim shrugged and began to laugh. "I have no idea, but I'm glad it happened! We've survived an encounter with the most notorious flesh-eater the planet has ever known!"
Lex let out a loud scream as the male T. rex forged his head into the hole. Now that the hole's entrance was wider, the dinosaur could easily fit its head inside and it attempted to grasp at its prey.
"I never thought it would end like this!" Levine exclaimed. The dinosaur opened its jaws and snapped violently at the humans in the hole, but still its head couldn't reach them.
Rob said, "It can't reach us yet! It will only be a matter of time before it does!" And he was proven correct when the creature pushed its head deeper into the hole – it was no more than a meter away from its targets. The dinosaur roared in frustration as it snapped its jaws. The roar sounded a great many times louder than it normally did because of the small space of the room.
Levine kicked the dinosaur in the snout with its foot, only making it more upset. It began to thrash its head around the hole to make it even wider. Levine squeezed himself even tighter toward the back of the hole next to Lex and Rob. I don't think we'll make it this time, he thought. I'll never get to know what those nests were that we found at the dig site were, and I'll never get to finish that television series, and I'll never get to dig up the first complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus and I'll never get to . . .
The dinosaur suddenly stopped thrashing around and stood motionless. It exhaled, meaning Levine, Rob and Lex got good whiff of the breath of a Tyrannosaurus. Lex gagged. The dinosaur was motionless except for the movement of its nostrils and eyeballs – it was listening to a long, loud high-pitched moaning sound from outside. Quickly, the dinosaur pulled its head out of the hole and marched away.
Everyone was silent until the sound of the beast's footsteps were no longer heard.
Levine whooped. "Hey! We made it! We were that close to being a T. rex's dinner and it left!"
Lex pinched her nose with her fingers. "P-U! Someone needs to talk with Rex about some dental hygiene, seriously! I can still smell its breath."
"You're telling me," Rob agreed. "When was the last time he brushed? I guess the rule is: if you can smell a tyrannosaur's breath, you're way too close! Let's get out of this stink hole!"
Levine nodded and he and the others climbed out of the hole to look around. The T. rex were gone. That's when Kailey and Tim appeared behind them.
"Hey guys!" Tim greeted.
"Oh my gosh!" Lex squealed. "Timmy!" She hugged her brother.
"Great, we're not separated anymore," Kailey said. "Where's Ben?"
The others scanned the area with their eyes, but there was no evidence of another human in the vicinity. There was only the silence of the forest since the birds all went quiet when the T. rex came around.
Rob shrugged. "You think the rex got him?"
"Maybe . . ." Lex said. She cupped her hands over her mouth and called, "BEN?"
"Shh!" Tim ordered. "The T. rex just left. They can't be that far away." The group waited in silence for a few more seconds, but there was no sign of Ben anywhere.
"Kind of strange," Kailey began, "but when the T. rex was literally about to devour us, it stopped and walked off into the forest. I wonder why."
"Yeah, I think it heard that loud moaning sound," Levine pointed out. Then he looked thoughtful. "You know what, that makes me curious. Come on, let's see where they're headed."
Rob coughed. "You don't seriously mean that?" he asked in surprise. "You honestly want to follow the same creatures that nearly killed us? We should take this opportunity to get out of the area before they come back."
"We're here to conduct research," Tim explained. "I mean, those T. rex simply left us here. We need to know why they left. Who knows, maybe we can learn a new way to avoid being a T. rex's dinner next time. You can stay here, Rob, but we're going."
With that, the others followed the dinosaur's trail, which was rather easy to follow thanks to the three-foot footprints they left behind. Now by himself, Rob rolled his eyes.
"You've got to be kidding me!" he told himself. "They're going to get themselves killed!" He slowly started walking back toward the hole where he, Lex and Levine had hidden to escape death. "InGen probably would have been better off bombing the island like they were supposed to do in the first place. Then the jet-skier disappearance never would have happened and we'd never be in this crazy mess. I just hope we can get out of here some–"
The ferns nearby rustled – a creature was hiding in them.
"Yikes!" Rob exclaimed and he took off running after Levine and the others. A moment later, a small Compsognathus leaped from the ferns and chattered.
"Would you just grab the dinosaur and hold it still?!" Dodgson yelled at his sister.
"I can't!" Halley yelled her reply. "It's wiggling too much! I've already been bitten and I'm not getting bitten again."
"Fine! I'll . . . hey!" Dodgson accidentally loosened the lasso from around the dinosaur's neck and the T. rex was free. It quickly got to its feet and began sprinting toward its siblings as Dodgson hurried to attempt to get it back around its neck. But just then, the gurgling-like sound of a dinosaur was heard nearby and both the T. rex baby and the humans froze. About a dozen meters away, not one, but two very large theropods stepped into view. Dodgson gulped when reality struck him – the parent Tyrannosaurus rex had returned!
"We are so . . . dead," Halley whispered.
A/N: Well, how did you like this chapter starring everybody's favorite dinosaur? I certainly enjoyed writing it; it was really nice to write a chapter where T. rex is actually hungry and chasing its prey. Next week, expect more T. rex and see what happens to Dodgson's group know that they've been busted by the Tyrant Lizard Kings!
