Disclaimer: John Hammond, InGen, Jurassic Park, Isla Nebular and Isla Sorna are all things that I have unconscionably stolen from Michael Crichton's novels Jurassic Park and The Lost World, as well as the movies of the same name. I have drawn on both forms of media (the books and the movies) for this story. It does not follow one or the other specifically… it is implied that John Hammond is still alive in this story, but I use dinosaur elements from the books… and a few that were in neither. None of the characters from Jurassic Park or Lost World, in either variation, appear in this story. Instead, I have chosen to plunk down a new set of characters on the island. Well, I guess that's all there is to say, except… enjoy the story.
Los Cinquo Muertes Chapter 1: Survey52
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Barely two hours later, Meiller was still patrolling the edge of the perimeter. He knew that Benny was probably right – that whatever it was that had gotten caught by their hastily assembled perimeter had taken fright at the sound of the clanging instruments and ran off back into the jungle. But Meiller's training was too ingrained to allow for someone – or rather, something – to breach his perimeter and go unidentified, if not unmolested.
Besides, it gave him something to do.
He understood that it was for the best that his men and him stayed with he bulk of the team to protect them should anything untoward occur. The hunter, P.J., had experience in dealing with animals that surpassed Meiller's, and was used to providing security for small, mobile groups. But having to remain inactive, having to depend on somebody else for their salvation… the concept itched Meiller's mind. It went against both his personality and his training.
Meiller kept on walking, following the string fence, and closing in on the segment where the alarm had been raised earlier. He had gone around the circumference of their encampment several times, and although he knew that his clockwork pacing – some would say stalking – was starting to unnerve the surveyors, he saw no reason to stop now. As far as he was concerned, he'd be perfectly happy to just keep on walking around until the helicopters got here; this afternoon, if Richley's mission was successful.
Meiller then noticed that several instruments were lying on the jungle floor. Puzzled, he knelt down near a pot and a barometer. The rope was still there; tied around any convenient outcropping, linking the instruments to each other and to the stakes they had planted into the ground at regular intervals. Meiller glanced towards the nearest stake, and saw that the string was still tied around it. He got up and walked over to the next stake in the line, but that one also had the limp rope tied around it.
Which meant that the rope had been severed somewhere in the middle along this junction. He picked up the rope in his hands and started playing along it, letting it slide across his palm and he slowly paced the interval between the stakes. About two-thirds of the way through, he found the place were the rope had been cut, the stands on the end frayed.
No, not cut. Gnawed. Meiller was certain of it. Even a person who'd never used a knife in their life wouldn't have left fraying marks so far away from the actual cut – and on both the top and the bottom. Something had chewed through the rope. Although there was no way to be certain, Meiller had a strong gut feeling that whatever that something was, it was also the creature that had set off the alarm earlier. It was just too much of a coincidence to believe that these two events – occurring at the exact same spot in the perimeter – were unrelated.
He wasn't sure just how smart these animals were, but if they wanted to get into the camp without raising the alarm, cutting the rope was exactly the thing to do. It wasn't a very comfortable thought.
Meiller quickly glanced over his shoulder, taking in every detail of the encampment behind him in a second as he'd been trained to do. There wasn't anybody around, dinosaur or human. Presumably his teammates were on the other side of the camp, under the tarp, a spot that had become something of a communal center since they'd put it up yesterday to block out the rain. This was good: he wouldn't have to worry about any team members accidentally getting into his line of fire, should things come to that.
As quietly as he could, Meiller removed his rifle from his back and brought it to bear, instinctively checking to see if his clip was full (it was) even though he hadn't used the thing since they'd been attacked by the Rex three days earlier. Slowly he advanced into the gap, gingerly stepping over the fallen instruments. Scanning all sides, he walked into the jungle. He'd do a quick search of the surrounding area, making sure that there weren't any immediate threats in the vicinity, before returning to the encampment and alerting the others.
A few steps into the jungle, Meiller stopped, estimating that this was far enough. He didn't want to go off into the jungle, after all, not alone, and not before telling the others about the hole in the perimeter. Keeping his rifle steady, Meiller started a slow, sweeping arc of his surroundings.
He froze. There, right in front of him, was a dinosaur. The jungle foliage blocked most of its body from view, but Meiller could see its head, standing at about the same height as a human. Typically reptilian, with a tapering snout, its forward-facing eyes seemed to be staring right at Meiller. The dinosaur let its jaw drop open slightly, revealing a twin set of wickedly sharp teeth.
Slowly, as to not startle the creature, Meiller thumbed the release on his rifle and took a bead on the beast's head. The dinosaur didn't react at all, but kept staring at Meiller, looking as if it were grinning.
Suddenly, Meiller heard movement to his left and saw, out of the corner of his eye, the ferns and plant shift as something approached rapidly. Before he had the chance to fully turn and meet this new menace, another dinosaur popped out of the jungle not even a meter away from him.
"What in blazes?"
Meiller swung his rifle around, firing as he went, hoping to hit the animal despite its proximity. Without warning, a massive force slammed into his side, knocking him to the ground and causing a surge of pain to radiate from the side of his head were the forgotten first dinosaur had slashed at with its teeth. Before he could try and scramble back to his feet or at least out of the way, the dinosaur arched its head back and brought it down on the injured side of his temple with a resounding cracking sound. He felt something break and give in, then searing pain, then a spreading feeling of wetness, and then nothing.
53
DISASTER
The sound of Meiller's weapon discharging in vain was, to the members of the survey team, the first indication that something was wrong. Although apprehensive after the first perimeter breach that morning, the drudgery of their forced inactivity had quickly dulled their newfound alertness. By this time, everyone had returned to whatever he or she had been doing – or rather, not doing – all morning long.
Benny was still going through their electronic encyclopedia in a trailer, with Alice reading over his shoulders. Nothing she was reading was making her feel any better about their situation, but she was riveted to the flickering scene nonetheless, like a passerby who cranes his neck to get a better view of a car wreck on the side of the road. Only this team, her father's team was the wreck.
Their three remaining trailers had been set up in a triangular fashion, with the tarp against the rain set up using the foldable shelters in the center of that triangle. Benny and Alice were in one; Folker was leaning against another, reading over the data on their newfound fruit source for the umpteenth time. Next to him, one of Meiller's soldiers was leaning against the trailer's siding, using his rifle to prop himself up.
The other soldier was in a similar position, accosted against the third trailer, the one that faced – and therefore hid – the portion of their camp's perimeter that had been disturbed that morning. The other four team members – Peter, Stanley, Calvin and John, the "generalists" – were resting on or against crates under the tarp, exchanging light conversation.
When the sound of a rifle firing echoed loudly through the jungle canopy and into their little encampment, everybody looked up, instantly alert, trying to find the source of the sound. It only lasted a second, and was cut off abruptly.
Benny and Alice rose from their spot at the computer terminal and rushed over to the window on the right side of the trailer. From their angle they could see the rest of the camp, and part of the jungle, but not the critical part that was blocked from view by the third trailer. All they could see was the other team members glancing at each other in confusion and apprehension, puzzled as to the source and meaning of the gunfire.
Those who had been longing or sitting stood up, but made no move in one direction or another. All their senses had gone into full alert mode, scanning the area surrounding them, their bodies refusing to move until their minds could comprehend the source of the danger they were all feeling and react accordingly. The chambered nature of the jungle canopy had made identifying the direction from which the sound came a difficult task.
Finally, the lone soldier who had been leaning against the third trailer began to walk along the trailer's side, keeping his rifle up and ready. He had been the closest to the sound and thought – though he wasn't sure – that it had come from somewhere behind the trailer. Tentatively, he walked around the corner of the trailer and glanced towards the jungle. Before his eyes had time to register the fast-moving shape heading in his direction, it was upon him, knocking him backwards onto the ground and tearing at the flesh on his face, cutting off his abortive scream as it ripped the meat off his jaw.
In the camp, it was like a floodgate had opened up: the previously anxious immobility gave way to a wave of motion as more dinosaurs came pouring around the side of the third trailer and the humans turned to flee across open ground towards the possible refuge of the jungle. Two of the creatures sprinted into the crates under the tarp and, leaping over the wooden obstacles, brought down Stanley and John.
Peter barely had time to cover two meters of ground before another dinosaur literally cut him off, darting perpendicularly across his path, it's head snaking out and seizing his throat, dropping him to the ground with a strangulated cry. Calvin actually made it all the way to the edge of the jungle, but his mind was filled with senseless terror and little else, so he completely forgot about their perimeter. He tripped over the low-lying string, causing the instruments to swing wildly and hit each other in a cacophony of sound as he sprawled onto the muddy ground. He spun himself around just it time to see a gaping map and twin sets of serrated teeth descending towards him.
At the same time, Folker had started running alongside the second trailer as soon as he saw the dinosaurs come pouring into the camp. He'd reached the corner and had the nearby jungle in sight when he felt a massive weight slam into his side, sending him to the floor. Well-honed and muscular from years of outdoor activities, Folker rolled onto his side and kicked, connecting with something and managing to push it off somewhat. The dinosaur had other plans, however, and brought one of its hind legs around in an arc, the wicked claw on it's outer tow slicing through his shirt and along his side, cutting deep into his flesh.
Folker heard a large popping sound and suddenly the predator standing above him flinched back, emitting a painful cry. Folker saw parts of the creature's body explode outwards, it's blood splashing onto him. As it collapsed next to him, Folker saw the soldier who'd been resting near him, his rifle still pointed at the fallen beast, the tip smoking.
Folker started to get to his feet, his side screaming in agony. He was about to thank the soldier who had, in effect, just saved his life, but instead he cried: "Look out!"
Before the soldier could turn around, another one of the beasts slammed into him from behind. The soldier's legs gave out under the dinosaur's weight, his spine bending at an awkward angle as his head hit the side of the trailer. It's prey at it's mercy, the dinosaur brought it's head down and began tearing at the flesh at the back of the soldier's now-misshapen neck, leaving little illusion as to the soldier's status.
Hoping that the cadaver would keep the beast occupied, Folker resumed his flight towards the jungle, keeping an arm pressed against his wound. Pain radiated from it, somehow making the world around him sharper and more precise. He either saw or remembered their perimeter (afterwards, he couldn't recall which), and leaped over the string "fence". Something in his side shifted when he landed, sending out another wave of pain, but Folker did his best to ignore it as he ran into the jungle.
In the chaos of the attack, Alice and Benny, at the windows of the trailer, witnessed the savage ferocity as their teammates were brought down. Both of them recognized the animals that had besieged them from the computer encyclopedia: Velociraptors, significantly larger than the one that had been illustrated on the screen. Alice had screamed and backed away from the window when she saw Stanley and John fall to the dinosaurs' powerful limbs and wicked jaws.
The dinosaurs – those that weren't busy tearing asunder their newfound meals – moved in a blur of motion, fanning out like wildfire. Benny saw one of the running figures heading their way moment before it's snout hit the window in the right flank of the trailer. Benny, shocked, recoiled violently, lost his balance and tumbled to the floor. Alice screamed again and pressed herself against the opposite side of the vehicle as the dinosaur snapped its jaws against the glass, trying in vain to chew through it.
"The window!" Benny cried out, pointing at the window in the opposite side of the trailer, just behind Alice, as he quickly got back to his feet. Seeing understanding spread across the young woman's face, Benny glanced around the trailer to see if there was anything that could be of use. In doing so, his eyes fell not on a tool or instrument, but on something even more pressing.
The door. The trailer's door had not been closed (there'd been no reason to) and Benny could see a sliver of outside light teasing through the opening. It was no great deductive feat to realize how deadly this could be in their current circumstances.
Benny quickly crossed the distance in the small trailer separating him from the door and, not bothering to waste precious time in slowing down, slammed his body against it. The creatures outside detected either the sound or the slight motion of the closing door, because suddenly Benny felt another force at the door, pushing against him. Unprepared for the assault, the door slipped open a notch. Benny redoubled his efforts and got it to close again, this time clicking the lock-bolt into place. When their friend outside the trailer took another run at the door, it shuddered but held.
For now, anyway. The door and locking mechanism had never been designed with ramming dinosaurs in mind, and Benny entertained no illusions about being able to stay inside the trailer for very long. Which was why, at the same time, Alice had spun herself around and turned to face the window in the left side of the trailer. She pulled it open and, after a moment's hesitation, stuck her head through.
She looked on both sides very quickly, intent on pulling her vulnerable head back into the trailer at the slightest sign of trouble. Fortunately, the area appeared devoid of animal life, the only movement coming from the ferns in the wind. If it wasn't for the sound of the soldier's rifle firing, one couldn't have guessed looking out this side of the trailer that something had gone terribly wrong.
Using a crate that had never been unloaded as a boost, Alice pushed herself through the window. Although she was slim and fit through easily enough, there was nothing graceful in her jerking motions as she tried to slide her body across the thin threshold to the outside world. Finally, gravity being what it is, the weight of her upper body was sufficient to cause her to lean forward enough so that her feet left the crate, and the rest of her came sliding out. She was thankful that the previous day's rain had made the ground soft and muddy, because it made her landing easier and muffled the sound.
She quickly picked herself off the ground, looking around wildly. She turned back towards the window where Benny, having assured himself a few moments of respite by bolting the door, had just slipped his head through.
"Don't wait for me," he whispered harshly, hauling himself up. "Go, to the jungle."
Benny, who wasn't as thin as the female teenager, had a harder time getting his body through the window. He had to struggle to get his shoulders through the opening, twisting his body awkwardly. At least, he reflected, the noise of the dinosaur trying to break down the door to the trailer was covering the noise of his attempts at egress.
He finally managed to pull his shoulders through the window and began to slide the rest of his body outwards, pushing against the side of the trailer with his hands for leverage. Looking up, he saw that Alice had reached the edge of the jungle and stopped just inside, looking anxiously at him. He felt like screaming at her to keep running, but was afraid the noise might draw unwanted attention. At least her continued presence meant that there were still alone on this side of the trailer – in his convoluted position, he couldn't see his surroundings very well.
He fell out awkwardly, flipping forwards and landing on his back. He hesitated a moment before getting up, listening intently. It took him a few seconds to realize he couldn't hear the dinosaur trying to break down the door anymore. Which meant one of two things, neither of them good. Either it had given up on the door, in which case it might be prowling as he lied there in the mud, or…
With a squeal that sounded like a cutting iron on a metal plate, the velociraptor's reptilian face darted out of the window above Benny, gnashing its jaws uselessly. Benny backed away on his hands and feet, slipping in the mud. Finally judging that he was far enough from the 'raptor, Benny rose to his feet and started towards Alice.
"Run!" he screamed at her, unmindful of the noise now. If that dinosaur's high-pitched whine hadn't drawn the attention of it's friends, nothing would. Alice turned around and took off, Benny following suit shortly thereafter. The raptor in the trailer rose it's head upwards and began emitted a set of guttural barks. Looking back, Benny saw a pair of raptor coming around the bend of the trailer and dart into the jungle after the fleeing humans.
Blood pumped loudly in his ears as he ran with all the will he could muster, weaving his way through the trees and jumping over rocks or gullies when he saw them. He tried to keep Alice in front of him at all times, following her plowed path through the jungle foliage. Behind, he knew that those creatures were still pursuing. What he'd seen of them, and read off the encyclopedia, suggested that these things were fast runners. It was only a matter of time – and not much time, at that – before he was overtaken.
Barely thirty seconds into the race, and he was having difficulties breathing. Sweat beaded off his ebony forehead. His legs were aching, and he was afraid that they might cramp up. It wasn't fair; the human body wasn't designed with these predators in mind.
The thought sparked off an idea, even as he narrowly avoided tripping into a stream. There were others fast predators, lions and cheetahs and such. And before humans had developed even the most rudimentary forms of technology…
"The trees!" he cried out. He spotted Alice, a running blur, zigzagging her way through the jungle. "Alice!" She turned to look at him. "The trees! Get in the trees!"
Alice spun back forwards, not slowing down even for a second, and cast her eyes towards the branches. She spotted one favorable-looking low-hanging branch up ahead, and by the time that she identified it as such she was almost under it. She jumped up, grabbing the branch with her hands. The momentum of her flight caused her to swing upwards, and Alice instinctively coiled her body inwards, wrapping herself around the branch. It wasn't hard from there to right herself and stand up, looking for a higher perch. There was another branch close by, and she grabbed it and pulled herself up, hopefully out of the dinosaur's reach.
Benny saw Alice jump up and figured that he'd better try that branch as well – it was better for them to stick together, and he couldn't be certain to find another favorable tree fast enough. He leapt as he reached the branch's height, but due to his greater weight wasn't able to get enough momentum to swing himself upwards like Alice had. Struggling with a force born of desperation, he lifted his body to the branch's height, feet kicking the air.
Alice was screaming encouragements or warnings – he couldn't tell. But the sound of her voice helped him orient himself as he pulled his upper body onto the sturdy branch, swing his legs upwards. Knowing that time was rapidly running out, Benny didn't even bother to look around before he pressed his feet against the branch and jumped towards the direction from which he'd heard Alice.
His hands connect with wood and he seized it as hard as he could. Just then, he felt something large pass beneath his feet. Panicked, he struggle to pull himself up as he glanced downwards and saw that the lead velociraptor had made a jump at him, smashing against the branch as it soared through the air and coming crashing down on the other side. If he hadn't jumped, the dinosaur would have hit him and sent him sprawling to the jungle floor.
The other raptor, however, had been slightly trailing and so didn't make the same mistake as its partner. It waited to have clear the low-hanging branch before leaping into the air. Benny screamed as he felt something connect with his foot, and a sudden weight dragging him down. Just as suddenly, the weight vanished, and felt Alice gripping his forearms, trying to help him up. Benny reached the branch and pulled himself onto it, lying on his stomach against the wood. Looking down, he saw the second raptor spit out his shoe.
The other raptor pulled itself back to its feet. Both dinosaurs tried jumping up at the two humans in the tree, but couldn't get sufficient height. Benny let out a sigh and relaxed somewhat, though he made certain that none of his limbs were dangling. They were safe… for now.
54
SITTING IN A TREE
"Do you think that they've left?"
Benny glanced leaned over his woody perch and glanced down at the jungle floor below. Neither of the raptors were visible, but that didn't mean much.
After a few failed attempts at jumping up to get at the humans in the tree, the pair of raptors had simply mulled about below, prowling around the tree trunk in no clear pattern, perhaps waiting for one of them to slip and fall out. Benny and Alice, however, had remained perfectly still, not daring to move overmuch lest they fall off their branches and into the hands – or rather, jaws – of the awaiting raptors.
Benny wasn't sure how long they had been in this tree, being stalked by the dinosaurs below. He hadn't been wearing his watch at the time of the attack, so it was still in the trailer. From the position of the sun, he estimated that it was sometime around noon when the two raptors – having come to the conclusion that the tasty morsels in the tree weren't coming down – had both scampered off at the same time.
Benny didn't trust it, however. It would be much too simple for them to have simply run off out of their sight, lying in the bushes, waiting for them to come down before springing out for the kill.
"I don't know," he finally told Alice. "But we shouldn't go down. They might still be there, waiting."
She nodded. After a moment, Alice said: "We can't wait up here forever, though."
"No," Benny agreed. "We can't."
"We'll have to come down eventually," she continued. "For food and water."
"Yes, I know," Benny said absently, trying to work things out in his mind. "When we do come down, it shouldn't be anywhere near here. Even if those two things have left, we're still pretty close to the camp and the…"
Benny hesitated. It wasn't easy talking about what had just happened. Neither of them had spoken a word while the raptors were below, but he figured they had to come to terms with what had happened eventually. To pretend that everything was okay could very well be fatal.
"The smell," Benny finished. "The smell of blood and meat will attract all kinds of predators and scavengers. This place could very well become a hotspot of activity soon, and we need to be as far removed as we can."
"But how?" Alice asked. "It's a bad idea to climb down here, but how do we get anywhere else without getting down?"
Benny stood on his branch – more motion than either of them had dared up to this point – and looked around.
"The trees are pretty tightly packed. If we get high enough, I think we might be able to keep moving using the branches."
"That's not very safe," Alice pointed out. "One slip, one weak branch, and we go sprawling to the ground, maybe breaking something in the process."
"It's certainly safer than trying to come down anywhere near here," Benny answered.
There was another moment of silence as that set in. "So where do we go?" Alice said after a while.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, do we just pick a direction at random here, or do we actually have a destination in mind?"
Benny thought on that for a while. Alice was right: they needed to set their goals right now, to work out some kind of plan. If they just stumbled through the forest for now, they might regret it later.
"The clearing," he finally said. "We should try and reach the clearing."
"The clearing?" Alice replied incredulously. "The one with the T-Rex? Didn't P.J. say that was a likely game trail?"
"Yes," Benny conceded. "But it may also be our best bet. Think about it: the lake in the clearing is the only natural source of water we know of on this island. I realize that watering holes attract predators, but we need water. We'll still try and stay in the trees as much as possible, coming down only we necessary."
"And what if we bump into something that can actually reach into the trees?" Alice asked, picturing the towering form of the Tyrannosaurus in her head.
Benny didn't have an answer for that. Instead, he said: "The clearing would also be our best chance of escaping the island."
"What do you mean?" Alice asked quickly, a surge of hope audible in her voice.
"The helicopters that your father went to contact should be arriving sometime today. With the camp gone to hell, our best chance of being spotted from the air would be somewhere in the open. That clearing would be the most obvious place to look for someone; everywhere else had nearly impenetrable tree-cover."
"Okay…" Alice sounded hesitant, but willing. "Do you know what direction the clearing is in?"
Benny blinked. That hadn't occurred to him. "Uh…"
"Figures." Alice stretched. "Okay, let's see. We were heading south, towards the mountain in the centre of the island, so naturally the clearing would be to our north. And north is… that way. I think."
"Not exactly an encouraging diagnostic."
"Well, what do you want me do to? It's mid-day; there practically aren't any shadows to base myself on."
"Should we wait for the shadows to get longer?"
"No, I'm pretty sure I got it right. Besides, the longer we wait here, the less hours of daylight we'll have left once we get to the clearing." Alice seemed enthused now that the possibility of escape was at hand again. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we'll get there."
"Well then," Benny said, rising to his feet on the branch, "Lead on."