Part 2
Eventually, the needles on one spot parted and a head on the end of a thin neck parted the ground, stretched up for the first breath of clean air. Jack, Alice and Adrian let out a gasp; they knew what this was. This was a baby Diplodocus; hatched from an egg laid by the longest and most elegant of the sauropods.
However, this new life would soon be woefully cut short. The Ornitholestes, with lightning reflexes, darted towards the hapless creature. Jack, Alice and Adrian watched as its talons flicked out and grabbed the tiny sauropod by the head. With one powerful tug, it pulled the whole sauropodlet out of the ground. Jack, Alice and Adrian could see the baby sauropod in more detail. Even with its comparatively short neck and tail, it was already a metre long. Its dappled green and brown body was stained with egg membrane. However, its fight for survival was already over; the Ornitholestes swiftly killed it with a bite to the neck.
However, the hatchling's sacrifice had not been in vain. As the Ornitholestes eagerly ripped up its meal, other sauropodlets were unearthing themselves around the clearing. This glut was more than a dozen Ornitholestes could cope with; many sauropodlets would die, yes, but just enough would live.
As the hours wore on, several more Ornitholestes entered the clearing, to join in the slaughter. Many, many sauropodlets had died; however, Jack, Alice and Adrian noticed something unusual. After the first one or two, the Ornitholestes had ceased eating them; instead, they just killed them and left the bodies. "That doesn't make sense", Jack said, "They'll never be able to eat all the carcasses, so why do they just leave them there?". Adrian shrugged and said "Hunting practice, maybe?". Alice shook her head and said, "I don't think so. I've heard of something like this before; predators do this when they find themselves with a lot of easy prey that can't outrun them. When a predator's in "kill mode", it's gonna kill until it stops receiving distress signals from prey in its immediate vicinity, rather than stopping and thinking "alright, I got enough to eat with this one. It's like a fox in a henhouse; it'll kill all the hens, but it'll only eat one or two"." Jack commented, "Yeah, they're going to stay here until they get bored; perfect opportunity, wouldn't you think?".
The moving of the Ornitholestes had to be done quickly, before they got bored and left the area. Using a grabbing tool, they each pulled about ten of the sauropodlet corpses towards them. The theropods' gleeful slaughter was interrupted when they realised that someone was trying to take their meat. They dived towards the three humans, like dogs after a tennis ball. Alice activated the portal and the theropods all dived through, moving as if a single entity. After shutting it off, Jack turned to his compatriots and said "Well, that was easy! Let's go and see if we can find some other creatures. Let's see if we can find a river; animals are drawn to water.". Before they left, they turned and gave one last look on the clearing, which still had sauropodlets emerging from it; the immediate threat had been removed, but more predators would find the spawning ground, eventually. They left, the clearing behind them, as more sauropodlets tunnelled their way out into the world.
Meanwhile, in Wyoming, Drew, Cynthia and Leon had found a small pond; all that was left of what once had been a large lake. True to Leon's word, it had been a magnet for animals from miles around. The team hiked down the bluff and towards the small pond; a large pool with giant ferns and horsetails growing around the edge. A small herd of herbivorous dinosaurs stood, either browsing by the lakeside or drinking from the water.
The largest of the dinosaurs by the lake were some twenty-five feet long, with a huge bulky body and diamond-shaped, vertical armour plates along its back. The tail was tipped with dangerous-looking three-foot spikes. But the neck tapered to an absurdly small head with a placid gaze, like a very dumb horse. "Stegosaurus stenops," Leon said, "They're browsers; they use their beaks to crop ferns and those massive spikes were used as defence against predators." Cynthia pointed to the plates on their backs, "What's the function of the plates on their backs? Some sort of communication device?". Leon nodded, "Yes. It's thought that they would pump blood into those plates to serve as a threat display."
Two species of small ornithopod were browsing the stegosaurs down by the lake. The large ornithopods were about twelve feet long and quite robustly built. They were coloured a greenish-brown, with white patches on the belly, sides and tail, with downy feathers along their backs. The smaller ornithopods were much smaller, only about six feet in length. Like their larger cousins, they were fully bipedal, but they were more brightly coloured; leaf-green and white, with a bright blue head. They were scampering about, pecking at the ground next to the larger animals, feeding on their leftovers.
Leon knew what they were immediately, "The larger ornithopods are Dryosaurus. They're known to have a relationship with the stegosaurs of the area with them being lookouts while the others provide protection. Although they're shy, they have strong tails and legs, which could make for painful swings and devastating kicks. The smaller ones are Othnielosaurus, which we think would hang around giant dinosaurs for protection and act as sentries to alert them of predators. "
As the three humans approached the watering hole, however, the nearest stegosaur stamped its foot and bellowed at them. It was clear that they were not going to move any time soon. Drew and Cynthia stepped back; however, Leon moved forward, grabbed an air horn and began blaring it at the stegosaurs. The stegosaurs, their attention turned to the three humans, let out low, indignant bellows at them. Drew and Cynthia grabbed Leon and pulled him aside and Cynthia asked "What do you think you're doing?".
Leon smiled and said, "We make some noise and attract their attention; it's thought that, like rhinos, they had poor eyesight but a good sense of hearing and smell. When they move towards us, we open the portal." Drew nodded and said "Sounds like a plan". As Leon continued blaring, the stegosaurs became more and more angry, blood flushing through their plates, before they all came charging towards Leon. Drew quickly grabbed his portal remote, causing the portal to whirr into life. The stegosaurs all charged through the portal, into the present
The ornithopods looked around with a look of both nervousness and curiosity at where their gigantic protectors had gone. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, Drew pointed his remote and activated the portal. Once the portal was activated, the dinosaurs all briefly stood, transfixed at this strange, shining light, before heading through the portal into the park, moving as if one single entity; once they had all gone through, Drew de-activated the portal.
Meanwhile, back at the park, Kyle and Nikolai had put the Ornitholestes, Stegosaurus, Dryosaurus and Othnielosaurus into holding pens; it had been difficult rounding the smaller animals up, but they had managed. They stood by the portal, waiting for what the teams would bring back next, when, suddenly, the nearby communicator flared into life. A voice screamed into the walkie-talkie, "Hello! Can anyone hear me? This is urgent!". Kyle picked up the communicator, and answered, "This is Kyle. What's the problem?". He recognised who the voice was; Hugo Adams, one of the keepers. Hugo said, in response, "Some of the Coelophysis have escaped! I don't know what happened-". "Start at the beginning, Hugo!", Kyle said, with Nikolai listening intently. "There was something wrong with the door; the lock must have failed! Apparently, it automatically shut off about two hours ago! We managed to close it off, but some of the Coelophysis managed to escape." "How many Coelophysis have escaped?", Kyle asked. Hugo's voice answered "About 30." Kyle's eye twitched in irritation; how come no-one had noticed this? Cynthia had been at the paddock around about the time the lock was supposed to have shut off; how come she didn't report it?
Nikolai, as if reading Kyle's mind, stated "There must have been some sort of malfunction with the electronic locks. Strange no-one noticed.", Nikolai said as he pondered the events, to which Kyle let out an aggrieved groan; of course no-one would have done. Things never went the way they were supposed to at Prehistoric Earth. Resigning himself to his fate, he said "Come on Koli, we've got the next few hours cut out for us; we have to go and round them up." Narrowing his eyes at his hated nickname, Nikolai said. "Yes; this time, however, we come up with a plan together." Kyle glared at him in response and said, "Fine. Any ideas?".
Meanwhile, back in Wyoming, the ground began to shake. Drew, Cynthia and Leon looked at each other in confusion as to what could be causing all the commotion. Drew grabbed his binoculars and looked to see an amazing sight. A large herd of gigantic, grey, long-necked reptiles were coming to the waterhole. He recognised them immediately; they were Apatosaurus, one of the greatest of Jurassic sauropods. He, Cynthia and Leon moved away from the watering hole as the giants approached. The gigantic herd began drinking from the watering hole and grazing from the horsetails and ferns. Some of the older individuals even began digging for water that may have been stored underground. Drew, Cynthia and Leon stared in awe at these magnificent animals; these gigantic dinosaurs made even the most impressive of the previous creatures they had previously encountered look tiny and ineffectual by comparison.
Suddenly, a large, dark shape moved stealthily through the denuded trees, and the entire herd of sauropods suddenly went on edge. It was moving so fast, it was practically a blur. The leader of the herd sniffed the air, and bellowed a loud, trumpeting call. Suddenly, the shape reappeared again, moving closer and closer to the herd. Drew could now get some better detail of it; it was some sort of large bipedal dinosaur, but it was moving so fast, no other features were discernible. Whatever it was, it was scaring the herd who, with a speed that belied their gigantic size, began stampeding. As the giant sauropods charged, they whipped up a flurry of dust that nearly blinded the nearby humans. "Hurry!", Drew, not wanting to miss the opportunity afforded by this, yelled to Cynthia and Leon, "Set up the portal!" The two others suddenly snapped out of their state of shock and began to set up the portal in the direction towards which the herd were stampeding. The entire herd charged through the portal, into the present.
The dust hung in the air for several moments after the herd had left, practically blinding the three adventurers. The team looked around, to see what was going on, as a low growl echoed through the scrub. They soon saw what had put the Apatosaurus herd on edge; a large carnivorous dinosaur was walking towards them, with no signs of stopping. As the theropod moved closer, the dust cleared, fully revealing it.
