They walked in silence for a while, eyes peeled on their surroundings. Both sides of the road were flanked with concrete and wire barriers, broken and crumbling, the wire long since snapped. High voltage signs lay in the dirt, their words barely legible. The metal track in the center of the road was barely visible and a little hard to follow, to be honest. They hadn't even realized it was there until Virgil had literally tripped over it.
Alan stumbled, catching his footing before he could faceplant and looking down to see what had caused him to trip. He swallowed uneasily, eyeing up the massive three-toed footprint sunken into the muddy ground. "Virgil," he whispered.
Virgil took a look at the footprint and grimaced. "You wouldn't happen to know what made that, would you?" he asked.
"T-Rex?" Alan tried to put a bit of levity into his voice, but it fell short. Virgil gave him a half-hearted smile anyway, and looked up, only to freeze, his jaw dropping.
Eyes wide with wonder, he reached out and tugged at Alan's baldric. "Allie. Turn around."
Blinking, Alan turned, only to end up gaping himself. Because there, in a break in the trees where the crumbling fences ended, was a large clearing. And in that clearing, that massive green field, stood a large variety of dinosaurs.
Brachiosauruses moved down the bank of a distant lake, far from them but still incredibly visible due to their sheer size. An almost trumpeting sound echoed through the sky, coming from the giant beasts. It almost sounded as though they were singing to each other, their massive necks stretching into the treetops.
Triceratops paced not far from them, a herd of about eight, their massive heads swinging in time with their steps. Their frills weren't the dull grays that Alan remembered from the movies, but brilliantly pattered in neutral tones, their horns nearly as long as his leg. One looked his way, its large yellow eye blinking at him, assessing before moving on.
Gallimimus ran past, easily startled and exceptionally bird like. They were fast, speeding past at such a clip that the two brothers couldn't even count the number of sandy bodies passing through the group of Stegosaurs with their bright red and blue plating. "Oh my God," Alan whispered, gazing at the sight in absolute wonder. The eight-year-old in him was excited again.
He couldn't blame that eight-year-old at the moment.
With the mountainous background, the thick leafy greens of the jungle and the scattering of waterfalls, it looked magnificent. As though they had stepped back in time to a land completely untouched by humans.
It was beautiful.
It was also starting to rain. Not heavily, but it brought a light breeze with it nonetheless, a sharp contrast to the earlier cloyingly thick air. "We should keep moving," Virgil murmured, although he couldn't seem to drag his eyes from the sight.
Alan glanced to his brother and then back to the footprint in the mud beneath them. "Yeah," he whispered, swallowing heavily. "Yeah, that's a good idea." He wiped rainwater from his eyes, the light rain just enough to be doing a good job of soaking them through. Thank goodness for waterproof uniforms, right?
The two of them started moving through the field, not liking the openness, but knowing they had to follow that metal track in order to make it back to the main building. They edged through the tall grass, skirting around smaller dinosaurs with names that Alan couldn't recall, and staying further from the larger ones. They had to pause when a large herd of massive dinosaurs with funky head crests crossed in front of them. "Parasaurolophus," Alan murmured softly, staring up at the creatures that had to be nearly thirty feet long, if not more. They were a brilliant array of oranges and reds, with bright blue crests.
That small part of him was still jumping for joy at seeing dinosaurs in person. Real live dinosaurs, living naturally in the wild. The other, larger, and older part of him, was terrified because he knew just what lived on this island and he wanted nothing to do with any of it.
The parasaurs all froze suddenly, shifting to stand on their hind legs and look around in agitation. Virgil started backing up, holding out an arm and pushing Alan back with him. One of the parasaurs started up a strange honking call. Only for it to be overwhelmed by a sharp, screeching bellow.
Alan froze.
He knew that sound. Once upon a time he had loved that sound.
Virgil looked back at him, wide-eyed, as the parasaurs all took off running. The Triceratops bellowed as well, joining the stampede, the ground trembling with the force of the massive beasts' running. The sky rumbled with answering thunder.
"Run," Alan said, choking on the word. "Virgil! Run!"
And a Tyrannosaurus Rex burst from the trees not thirty feet in front of them, roaring into the sky.
Both Alan and Virgil ran, heading for the trees. The T-Rex clocked onto the immediately, what with them being the slowest creatures in the field. It gave a challenging sound, flexed its large muscles and started after them, massive feet digging into the ground and propelling it forward.
A T-Rex wasn't fast, honestly, only able to clock in at about thirty-miles-per-hour at its absolute fastest, but it was big and could cover a lot of ground with one stride. It caught up to them in seconds. A swipe of its massive head slammed into the two of them, throwing Alan into the trees. He hit a trunk and fell to the ground, breath knocked out of him as he splashed into a muddy puddle.
Virgil's baldric caught on jagged, protruding teeth the size of his forearm and he was tossed into the air. His baldric snapped free at the apex of the toss, wrenching away from his body and throwing him into the trees. He hit the ground hard, his duffle bag taking the majority of the impact, and tumbled down a slight incline, out of Alan's view. The tyrannosaur shook the green belt free of its mouth, giving an agitated roar.
Alan froze, lying prostrate in the mud, and stared up at the approaching beast. He prayed that this monster was more accurate to the movies he had watched than real life; the movies had had the beasts unable to see very well without movement while a real T-Rex had eagle-good eyesight. Better than eagle, actually.
The tyrannosaur lowered its head, not more than a few feet from Alan, sniffing at the ground and giving disgruntled grumbles. Bad eyes, then. Alan forced himself not to breathe, watching carefully. This close he could see the thin white scars on the dark muzzle of the beast, claw marks from a fight that it had likely won, considering it was still standing. Hot, fetid breath washed over him and if he reached out, he could touch those jagged teeth. He lay still, paralyzed by fear and a primal need to not be seen.
Something crashed through the trees nearby, giving a bellow. Another parasaur, lost from its herd, running past. Sufficiently distracted, the Rex turned and pounced, as much as its massive body could do so, lunging at the unfortunate herbivore. And Alan scrambled out of the mud, ducking splinters from a tree taken down by the Rex's tail as he slid down the side of the shallow ravine.
He ignored every aspect of rescue training he had and grabbed his brother, using that same maneuver for a fireman's carry that he'd been practicing in the last world. The sky opened up more at that moment, pouring down rain with a crack of thunder that nearly shook the trees. The thunder was answered by another bellow of the Rex above them, triumphant over having slain its dinner. And Alan moved the two of them further down the ravine and beneath a fallen tree, out of site and under at least a little protection from the rain.
Virgil groaned upon being set down, and Alan quickly covered his mouth, not wanting to draw more attention. "Shh, Virge," he whispered, quickly running his hands over his brother's body, searching for breaks.
"Is it gone?" Virgil whispered, grimacing. Alan shook his head, peering up at the top of the ravine. The Rex was busy eating and it wasn't exactly a pleasant sight. But he kept watching out of both fascination and a need to see the thing leave. A part of his brain recognized that absolute magnificence of the beast, its sheer bulk and intricate patterning, all dark and rough on leathery scales. That part of his brain was mostly being drowned out by terror and adrenaline, though, keeping him frozen beneath that log.
Lighting flashed, thunder cracking soon after. The Rex finished its meal over the course of half an hour, sweeping its gimlet gaze over the area around it before it stomped off. Alan remained tense and wary the entire time, hand over Virgil's mouth, not allowing him to move. A few minutes after the Rex departed, he let out a harsh breath. "It's gone," he answered, nearly laughing with sudden hysteria. He'd seriously thought the worst when the Rex had grabbed his brother. "You okay?" he hadn't found any broken bones, but that wasn't saying much.
Virgil moved, rolling over to his front and pushing himself up with one arm. The other one, his casted one, was held gingerly to his chest. "I'm definitely going to be feeling that later," he grunted, face a bit pale. He knew just how lucky he was to have lived through that. "You?" he asked, eyeing his little brother with a critical eye.
Alan was practically covered in mud and holding his own arm gingerly. But… "I'm okay. Let's go." He tugged Virgil out from under their tree cover and to his feet, practically dragging him up. He wanted, more than ever, to get somewhere safe.
Thunder cracked again, and the two abandoned the metal track going across the middle of the field, opting to stick to the trees instead. Running mostly on adrenaline and panic, they made it across the exhibit and to the perimeter fence in record time. Not far from the large fence, on the other side, they could see the remains of a large white building, coming into view with every flash of lightning. "There's a bunker in the building," Alan gasped, the quick travel having nearly taken it out of him after that Rex encounter.
The fence was broken, the high voltage lines having been snapped some time ago. Nothing was being contained by the fencing, but it did make it easier to get across. They wouldn't have to climb the thing, at least, especially in this storm. That would have been a suicidal move in their current states.
Safely across, they climbed up the crumbling steps of the building, passing the sign that proclaimed it to be the Visitor's Center. The claw marks running through the sign were off putting but they literally had nowhere else they could go.
So, they went inside.