Observing the massive herd of scutosaurs, Drew and Alice decided to wait for them to rest up before trying to bring them through the portal. The stampede could, probably, also lure out the diictodons making them easier to rescue as well. Aside from Drew and Alice, the young female gorgonops was observing the herd intently, but with far less altruistic intentions. She was starving; she hadn't eaten in months. The herd was large, consisting of about twenty or thirty members. One of them had to be weak enough to kill. That question was soon answered when she spotted one wandering off; she had decided on her victim. She slowly got up and prepared to strike.
Unaware of this, Drew and Alice were watching as the scutosaurs feed on the bushes. Alice noted that they didn't chew their food, instead swallowing it whole. Suddenly a cry of pain came out. Everyone turned to see the Gorgonops with blood splattered on her muzzle and a wounded Scutosaurus standing in front of her; this was a first blow. The wounded herbivore quickly ran away, pursued by its predator, while the others got in defensive positions, bending down to hide their unarmoured throats. However, they made no move to protect their comrade; the defensive position was more for themselves than the wounded herd member. The group was a marriage of convenience, brought together for the reason of protection from predators; if you were part of a group there was always the chance that the predator would take the next guy, not you. It was a cold-blooded lottery that paid off often enough to be worthwhile adapting for. Once the predator was out of sight, the herd relaxed and resumed feeding.
Meanwhile, the lone scutosaur eventually collapsed, from a combination of its wounds and exhaustion from the chase. The Gorgonops closed in on her wounded victim, before knocking the armoured reptile over and biting its unarmoured throat. A flex of her jaws and her fangs severed the scutosaur's carotid arteries, killing it. The Gorgonops gave a roar of victory at her kill, before beginning to tear meat off the carcass. While this happened, Drew and Alice just watched. They looked at each other, open-mouthed; nature was both amazing and horrifying.
Back at the park, Jack and Collete had been filled in by Cynthia; apparently, Nikolai and Kyle threatened to have her fired if she couldn't come up with a new way to feed the carnivores by the time Drew got back. Drew had apparently ordered this, since he had deemed the original idea, which involved strapping meat to the end of a Jeep and having the carnivores pursue it, unsafe (for the driver), too risky (for damage to the Jeep) and expensive (the lawsuits from the previous two threats) and had been rejected. Her office had been a strange, cluttered sight; all through her room, papers were everywhere with scrapped ideas… some of which were pretty strange. She explained that she wasn't an outside-the-box thinker, so she wasn't doing well on trying to solve the problem. Jack had offered to help solve the problem; he'd always been good at lateral thinking puzzles.
Jack and Collete had been sitting by the portal site for several hours; Jack had been fielding Collete ideas, which she had, largely shot down. The discussion had briefly stopped so Jack and Collete could supervise the Scutosaurus being transferred to the veterinary pens, and then it was back to thinking. Jack looked at Cynthia's papers and saw the ideas she had were not very creative, technically unfeasible or both. Jack rolled his eyes; Drew was starting to become a bit of a control freak, now that the park was filling up. Or, rather, ever since the Novum board had started to take over the park's management. Drew seemed to have become obsessed with not being made a fool.
If Drew could have put every system on the park under his personal remote control, he would…. Jack's thoughts paused at "remote control". Remote control. Jack's eyes widened in realization. "That's it!" Collete looked at him like he'd gone mad, "What's it?" Jack began sketching to explain the idea he had and when he finished, he asked, "You good with machines?" Collete shook her head, confusedly; to which Jack smiled, "Good thing we know someone who can help." Jack and Collete left, contacting Cynthia to inform them that they had a plan.
Back in the Permian, the scutosaurs had drank the waterhole dry and eaten the majority of the vegetation. As the scutosaurs left, Drew activated the portal. The herd briefly stood, transfixed at this strange, shining light, before heading through the portal into the park, moving as if one single entity. This had left the original residents to deal with the mess the ravenous herd had left. Drew, despite himself, chuckled, "It's like gatecrashers at a party; they wreck the place and they don't even leave a tip." The diictodons could have lasted a little bit longer; they could obtain all their water from the plants they ate, if they had wanted to, but the large gorgonops' kidneys were not so efficient. This was the only watering hole for miles around; travelling through the desert would be hazardous. Desperate for water, the large predator went to the lake bed and began digging for water, as she had seen her mother do several times.
She didn't find water, but she did find what looked like a Rhinesuchus. This one was in its aestivation state and had wrapped itself into a cocoon. This made it an easy meal; one that would, also, provide water, since Rinesuchus could store large amounts of water to serve as a reserve during dry periods. Before she could open the cocoon , a small rock hit her on the head. Turning around she saw one of the strange bipedal creatures that arrived recently tossing rocks at her every time she tried to move towards the amphibian. After a while, the female left her prey and walked off; to find something easier to eat.
Once she left, Drew crept towards the sleeping labyrinthodont and tried to shake it awake. When that tactic didn't work, he carefully opened up the cocoon it had been wrapped in and tossed him through the portal. Hopefully the water would be a good wake up call. Drew's plan had been successful; the amphibian's head immediately came out of the water and gasped for air as it swam around the freshwater pool.
Once Alice lost the Gorgonops, the two of them regrouped and planned to rescue the diictodons. But before they could do, the wind suddenly began to whip up; particularly strange, since it had been a perfectly windless day before. Alice looked at Drew, "Why did the wind just whip up?" . Drew looked at her grimly and yelled, "Take shelter quickly! We're about to have a sandstorm!"
To be continued
