Part 4
The sandstorm, roaring like some wrathful god, engulfed the area with its abrasive projectiles. Everything for miles around was soon engulfed in sand; the smaller plants were entirely buried and the tops of the denuded large plants were barely visible. Even the diictodon burrows couldn't escape the storm and their entrances were soon buried. The little reptiles huddled together and waited the storm out. The Gorgonops continued on walking through the storm, as her eyes tried to withstand the abrasive sand. She spat sand out of her mouth. The large predator continued walking, half-blind, before collapsing from exhaustion and dehydration. Drew and Alice waited out the storm in their tent, which had been put up in a hurry before the storm came. "I assume this is how everything died out?" Alice asked, as the storm roared outside. "No. It'll just get worse from this point onwards", Drew replied; the Great Dying would last millions of years, leading to a massive extinction all over the world. This was only a small portion of it.
The storm was violent, powerful… and short. After about five or six hours, the storm began to clear. Alice slowly opened the tent and popped her head out. Everything was buried under sand. The smaller plants were entirely buried and the tops of the denuded large plants were barely visible. Even the diictodon burrows hadn't escaped the storm; their entrances had been buried. Alice looked around to see if anything was still out there and saw a very disturbing sight.
The Gorgonops was lying on one of the sand dunes, motionless. Alice slowly walked up to the unconscious Gorgonops, to see if she was still alive. As she got closer, the gorgonopsid lifted its head briefly before putting it back down. The Gorgonops' tongue lolled open as its breathing got more laboured. Alice continued to examine it, saying "She's probably severely dehydrated. Laboured breathing, lack of energy; those are all signs of malnutrition and dehydration. Well, she's living in a dying world, isn't she? Sad, really; an apex predator reduced to this…"
Drew spoke, "So, what do we do with her? Send her through the portal?" Alice shook her head, "Right now, she's clearly too weak to move on her own; the stress of transporting her might be too much. Right now, I'd say it's best if she stays here long enough for her to recover enough to at least be safely brought back to the park for further treatment." Drew said "So, what's the plan?" Alice gave him a look and matter-of-factly said "What she needs, right now, is water. She's probably severely dehydrated; if we want her to regain her strength, rehydrating her is the perfect place to start."
As Alice said this, she grabbed a large water bottle with a teat on the end and walked towards the unconscious animal, gently forcing the bottle between the therapsid's lips and squeezing it. "Poor thing", Alice muttered, "You must be so thirsty. This'll help you out." The Gorgonops briefly woke up and regarded Alice for a second, before weakly closing her eyes and beginning to suck on the bottle, planting her head on Alice's lap. As she continued to drink, Drew couldn't help but stifle a chuckle; she looked like she was bottle-feeding a lamb. Well, a large carnivorous sabre-toothed lamb.
Deciding to help her later, he continued looking for where the diictodons were, walking towards the burrows where they had been earlier. Eventually one popped its head out of the sandy burrow, followed by their mate. After a few minutes, every Diictodon was looking at him from their burrows. Drew took this chance and used a piece of lettuce to lure every single one of the little reptiles into the portal and into the park. When that was over he walked over to Alice and the Gorgonops, who was breathing more steadily as her body metabolised the welcome hydration. "Thank goodness you're here Drew. I think we can send her through the portal. How about Rey for a name?" Drew looked at her curiously, "Why?". Alice shrugged, "After the Star Wars character". Alice poured the remaining water into a trail near the portal. The newly named Rey got to her feet and began to weakly move towards the portal. Together, they led the large predator out of the wasteland of a desert, and to Prehistoric Earth, her new home
The Permian extinction was the greatest in the history of the world; over 90% of life on Earth had gone extinct. However, Drew and Alice's efforts had saved at least a handful of those species. The Permian area now had four desert themed enclosures. The scutosaurus herd occupied the largest paddock and were now either feeding on the shrubs or drinking from the lake. The rhinesuchus pair swam through their new home, a large freshwater pool. The diictodons had set up new burrows in their new paddock. And, in their paddock, the Gorgonops had begun to set a pecking order, with a large female putting herself on the top of the pecking order.
This was also the place to test Jack and Collete's new plan; apparently, they'd had to contact Darrel Reyes, the park's mechanic for something that Jack had enigmatically billed "a surprise". Drew, Nikolai, Alice, and Kyle were all waiting outside the pen to see what he had planned. "Cynthia asked Jack and Collete for help?" Drew asked. "I should just fire her already." "Don't count him out just yet", Alice assured him, "Jack's pretty good at lateral thinking; he's probably worked something out." All Nikolai had to say, "I'll believe it when I see it."
Cynthia was talking to Jack and Collete, who were standing with Darryl. Jack was holding a remote control, moving a small vehicle around the ground, which revved past them. It was a strange vehicle; it looked like a remote-controlled car, only much bigger. In fact, it was the size of a moped. "How's this for dealing with the carnivores?", Jack said, with a triumphant smirk on his face.
Darrel explained, "It works on the same principle as a remote-controlled buggy; someone controls the device using a remote control. It can pull over 50 times its own weight; it can be driven around to give the predators some exercise. It's undamageable; it's made of Teflon, which is hard enough that not even the biggest predators can pierce through it. It's crush-proof, fire-proof, bite-proof… even bulletproof." "Basically", Jack said, "it means that no-one has to be harmed, there's no risk of damage and it gives the predators some exercise". Cynthia than showed a demonstration of the device, driving it around the Gorgonops paddock, with a large piece of meat attached to it and the Gorgonops gave chase. This went on until the largest of the gorgonopsids grabbed the meat from the back of the device. As the gorgonopsids tucked into their meal, Cynthia drove it back outside of the pen. "Impressive for something that had to be created in a couple of hours", Jack said as he gave a small glare as Drew.
Drew was about to counter Jack, but then he took a look at Cynthia. She gave him a withering look; as if to say "One of your team did this… aren't you going to thank them?". Drew sighed before addressing the blonde. "Cynthia, I'm sorry I doubted you. You've clearly proven me wrong. You are now an official member of the rescue team", he said before turning to Jack. "And Jack, welcome back", he said, with a smile. In the park bar, everyone was cheering at Jack's victory. Jack smiled; he'd saved Cynthia's job, and managed to prove himself to Drew. He'd gone from a pariah to the hero of the hour. Everyone was happy, except for someone at the back who gave Jack and Drew a withering stare…
Next time the team heads to the behind to the Triassic to save the most successful animal ever
(a huge herd of tusked reptiles move into a canyon)
While they also deal with interpersonal tensions
(Jack turns around to see someone spying on them)
And the humble beginnings of a great lineage
(A small reptile catches a dragonfly)
All next time on the season finale of Prehistoric Earth: Life and Death Promised!
Animals rescued:
Scutosaurus: 27 (15 male, 12 female)
Rhinesuchus: 2 (1 male, 1 female)
Diictodon: 12 (6 male, 6 female)
Gorgonops: 5 (2 male, 3 female)
