26. DIGGING FOR A TREASURE
Based from the movie Jurassic Park 3 written by Peter Buchman, Alexander
Payne, and Jim Taylor
Thursday, July 14, 1999 Isla Sorna, Valley
Roland Tembo stood at the cliff edge of the island near the Valley. He seemed to be looking at something down at the bottom where the waves were crashing. Suddenly Ajay Sidahu came toward him with Ed James not far behind.
"Mr. Rossiter will have nothing to do with what we found," Ajay said. "He's too busy arguing with the Biosyn Harbor Master on the radio. Mr. James said he'd take a look though."
"Well then," Roland began, "come forward and have a look Ed."
Ed James walked over to where Roland and Ajay were standing and looked down to the bottom of the island. He saw what both men where looking at and his face turned from confident to confused.
"How did that get there," James asked.
"Do you honestly think that I can answer that question," Roland asked.
"Not really," James replied. "But I was hoping that you would know anyway."
At the bottom of the cliff was a small white boat that looked to have been attacked. It was rocking back and forth as the waves hit the cliffside, but it seemed to not want to leave its small harbor.
"Must have been from Grant's team," James implied.
"Are all of your explanations because of Grant's team," Roland asked.
"Look the reason why Grant's team is here is because a boy and someone else came out to this island parasailing," James said. "Something went wrong and they never returned to the Costa Rican Mainland. That has to be the boat in question."
"Should we go down and have a look," Ajay asked.
"I don't know if it's too safe to be climbing down the cliffside, just to look at a boat," Roland replied. "However, I would be interested in knowing what attacked the boat and whoever was driving it."
"What makes you so sure that the driver didn't make it out before the attack," James asked.
"Because of the blood in the boat," Roland replied. "It's everywhere on that bitch. If you weren't so blind you would've saw it by now."
Roland Tembo was said to have great eyesight, and never missed a shot when it came to his game hunting. There was very little that could get passed him. Even his ears had perfect tone for a man of sixty. Most people thought he had eyes in the back of his head.
"Yes I do see it Roland," Ajay said squinting through his glasses. "I guess it's time for me to buy news glasses or something."
"I'd suggest contacts," James said. "They're a lot more comfortable and reliable."
"I'll give that some thought," Ajay said.
"Holy mother in Heaven," Roland said stretching his neck. He was still looking out toward the ocean.
"What is it," James asked.
"What kind of dinosaurs on this island can swim," Roland asked.
"The Tyrannosaurs must certainly can," James replied. "There is also some kind of aquatic species on this island. Plesio. something. Why do you ask?"
"What I'm seeing can't be either of those," Roland replied. "It's too small."
"Would you like for me to go get the binoculars," Ajay asked.
"Yes," Roland sharply replied. "Make it fast my friend."
Ajay ran away from the two men and back to the vehicle where Rossiter was standing and still arguing into the radio.
"Do you know what you are seeing," James asked.
"I don't want to even speculate," Roland replied. "It's too bothersome to me."
Ajay suddenly returned panting heavily. "Here you are Roland."
Roland took the binoculars and looked out at the Pacific Ocean. James and Ajay stood silently and waited for Roland to say something. Roland suddenly brought the binoculars back down from his face and sighed. He began to walk back in the direction of the vehicle shaking his head. Ajay and James looked at each other in confusion and then ran after Roland.
"What was it Roland," Ajay asked. "What did you see?"
"Something disturbing," Roland replied.
"And that is," James asked.
"The Velociraptors on this island can swim," Roland replied.
James laughed. "That's not possible. Raptors don't know how to swim. That's the only thing that keeps them from being the perfect predator."
Roland turned around. "Well, looks like they've finally evolved into the perfect predator. I don't know how, and I don't know why, but however it was, we don't want to stay here long enough to find out. We'd better hope that the rescue team gets here soon. By the way. Where's Darris?"
* * *
Darris Sumner went through the jungle to get the baby Tyrannosaur only a few yards away from the Valley. It was primary forest, the growth so thick that almost all sunlight was obscured. Darris saw the poor animal lying in the dirt still badly injured thanks to Rossiter. Darris almost felt sorry for the animal, but his job was to carry out Rossiter and Roland's orders.
Darris suddenly realized that he had to use the restroom badly. He walked a little farther into the foliage clawing forward until he finally found a suitable spot to relieve himself where no one else would see. He cleared away a bunch of leaves and debris and raised his hand to his belt buckle.
He froze, hearing something in the bushes beyond. He glanced around, head darting, alert to any danger. There was nothing there. Just a few distant animal calls, and some scurrying around to his left. Darris snapped his head in that direction. At first, he saw nothing, but as he moved closer, gun extended in front of him, he saw a small dinosaur, a Procompsognathus.
"It's not polite to sneak up on people," Darris said.
He pulled a steel rod out of a loop in his belt and touched it to the Compy's back. The blue bolt of electricity cracked and danced over the Compy's body and it convulsed in pain. The wounded Compy scurried back into the jungle, whimpering.
Darris clambered through the foliage ten or twelve paces, pushing aside two large palm fronds, and stepped out into more jungle. He stopped, puzzled, not sure if he went back or forward. He looked behind him. He paused, recalculating the path he took coming into the jungle, muttering to himself, gesturing with his hands, retracing his steps. He adjusted his angle slightly to the right and headed off in that direction. But after five or six hard-fought steps, he stopped again. There was still nothing but jungle.
"Hey Roland," Darris yelled. "I went to use the restroom and got turned around! Yell to tell me where you are!"
Darris' cries were faint, and couldn't be heard out in the valley because of the baby Rex's cries of pain.
Suddenly Darris heard the scurrying sound again, this time from his right. He adjusted his angle again and scraped through the foliage, moving faster and faster. Panicking, he tried to run, but the roots rose high out of the ground in the jungle, and he tripped on one and fell flat on his face. He looked up. The scurrying sound came again, this time ten times louder than before, like a hundred different feet coming at him. Darris gasped as something rushed in at him. He whirled to his right. Whatever it was rushed in from that side as well. Darris scrambled up into a sitting position and laughed. He was surrounded by at least forty Compies now, the same as the one he wounded.
For a long moment they just stared at him. Slowly, he brought his gun around, to pointed it at them. "You've got to be kidding me?"
As one, the Compies shrieked and hurled themselves forward, covering Darris' body. Their teeth and claws flashed as they each tried to grab a scrap of his flesh, tearing savagely.
Darris screamed and flailed, waving his arms and legs wildly. Some of the tiny animals lost their grip and sailed off, smashing into trees or the ground, but dozens of others hung on, and Darris fell over backwards, now lying on his back on the ground. Hysterical, he fought like hell to get to his feet, screaming, shaking, and swatting the Compies loose. He spun, and that tactic seemed to work, as the Compies themselves began to panic and dropped off of him. But he also lost his grip on his weapon, which went flying, landing in the thick foliage five or six feet from him.
Losing the attack, the Compies turned and darted away in masse, stopping ten yards away from him. But they turned and regrouped, facing him in a line, hopping up and down, chirping and shrieking.
Darris bounded into the foliage, looking for his gun. But the Compies followed him in and he was forced to flee, abandoning his lost weapon. Ten feet on, he stopped, knowing he was screwed without the gun. He turned to face the pursuing compies. They stopped. Darris charged them, shouting, waving his arms. The Compies turned and ran. Darris stopped. The Compies stopped. They stared back at him. There was a moment of quiet, and then they started to hop again, chirping and squealing.
Darris, tired of this game, turned and ran away. The Compies followed. He stumbled along, exhausted. He reached the edge of a stream that ran under the foliage, and his feet slipped on the stones. He fell, into the rocky stream.
Behind him, the army of Compies poured over the little hill he just crested. They disappeared for a moment, down an incline, and then swarmed over his body.
In a frenzy of splashing, Darris shrugged them off and crawled away, through the stream. He got to his feet but fell again, this time over a log. A geyser of water splashed up in the air behind the log as Darris dropped out of the Compies sight. The Compies leaped over the log and disappeared, throwing up their own splashes of water. There was screeching, chirping, and the sound of tearing flesh mixed with Darris' screams. More Compies leaped over the log and splashed into the water below, the geysers that shot up were pink. And then they were a deep, deep red.
* * *
Robert Muldoon drove the boat while Peter Ludlow showed him a map of the island that they'd found on the boat. They were on the jungle river moving through the interior of the island. Paul, Amanda, and Eric were sitting on the floor of the boat huddled in a corner. However Eric was in the middle of the huddle because the two parents were still angry at one another. Guitierrez, Daniel, Nash, and Grant were at the end of the boat. Grant had his head in his knees just listening to himself think. Nash was fiddling around with a rope that he'd found in the boat. Guitierrez watched Daniel writing things on his notepads.
"It's just amazing that you still have that stuff," Guitierrez implied. "After all we've been through on this island, you somehow managed to keep that briefcase. And that's including when we fell from the caged section of the Aviary."
"I supper glue my hand to the briefcase handle," Daniel joked.
Guitierrez laughed. "What are we doing here? I mean seriously, I know that you came here to investigate Biosyn, but you're pretty young to be taking on a company."
"I was assigned to the Biosyn case not too long ago, I will stay that much," Daniel Talon admitted. "However, the EPA felt that I was the right man to team up with Bob Morris."
"And why is he not here," Guitierrez asked.
"Family issues," Daniel replied. "He trusts me with this case. He knows that I'll pull through for him."
"But those cloths," Guitierrez said. "You just look too young to be here working on something so dangerous."
"Listen," Daniel began, "is this getting anywhere, or are you just trying to distract me? I really don't have time to be dealing with your crazy assumptions on who is the best for the job that I was assigned to do and on how young I am. You don't know shit about me, and I barely know you. Ya know, I could ask you the same things. Why did you come to this island for?"
"To learn," Guitierrez replied.
"To learn what," Daniel asked. "The only thing you can learn on this island is how to get eaten."
Guitierrez smiled. "You see, as I'm sure you already know, I'm a Biologist. It's my job to learn, and this is especially true for this island. One of the top things that Biologists study are animals, and dinosaurs are animals, and since these are alive, then there are reasons for Biologists to study them. Before dinosaurs were only studied by Paleontologists, but now they get to step aside and let us take over for once, and that is what excites me most."
"But these creatures were created by InGen," Daniel said. "I'm no dinosaur expert, but even I have noticed some things that just aren't right, like the Velociraptors. Aren't that species of dinosaur supposed to be really small?"
"Yes," Guitierrez said. "You are right about that. However, most of the other animals are very accurate to what we would think to be real dinosaurs. The Tyrannosaurus Rex is a great example of that. The king of the dinosaurs seem to rule over all of the other dinosaurs on this island, and that you can easily tell because of how many times the Rexes have tried to attack us. And as far as I can tell, the herbivores look like perfect matches to the animals that we've always known them to be. There are a few others as well I'm sure of, but I'd rather not discuss them. You seem to be getting annoyed with me, so please continue with your writing."
"Thank you," Daniel said. The EPA agent turned back to his writing, and Guitierrez just turned to look out the side of the boat.
"So this is the Worker Village," Ludlow said, pointing at a spot on the map. "There isn't any communication there right?"
"Yes," Muldoon replied sighing. "We've been through this already, Peter. The only possible place to make communication is with the emergency radio in the shed."
"But that building is right beside the-,"
"Don't talk so loud you bloody fool," Muldoon scowled. "There is a child here."
Just then everyone heard a catchy tone of a satellite phone ringing. Amanda started to scream, but Paul put his hand on her mouth.
Nash then saw something on land. He used a flashlight on it. He saw it was a large pile of something but couldn't quite make it out. "Mr. Muldoon, pull the boat over."
Muldoon did so, grabbed his gun, and got off with Nash and Ludlow following. "Everyone else stay on that boat," Muldoon commanded.
Nash stuck his hands in the pile and started searching through it. "Help me," he said while he searched.
Muldoon and Ludlow started going through it as well searching while the phone rang. Ludlow found it in his pile. He pressed a button on the phone hearing a beep. "Paul Kirby's line, Peter Ludlow speaking," Ludlow said, pausing while listening to the voice on the other end. "I'm sorry I don't think he's going to be able to get someone for you for at least a few days."
Muldoon yanked the phone from Ludlow's hand. "Hello," Muldoon said into the phone. "Listen, you need to help us. We're on Isla Sorna. You need to send rescue immediately. Hello?"
"They'd already hung up," Ludlow said.
"Bloody hell," Muldoon yelled.
Just then they all saw a large animal coming toward them. It was a Carnotaur. The animal stopped when it saw them. It smelled the air and roared at the people. The animal started charging toward the three people. Muldoon pulled up his gun to fire at the animal, however the creature completely disappeared from sight.
"Shit," Muldoon yelled. "Get back on the boat!"
The three started running at full speed toward the boat when Muldoon and Ludlow heard a screaming sound. They stopped and turned around to see Nash being ripped apart by the Carnotaur. Nash's ankle had made him unable to keep up with the other two men and it cost him. The dinosaur had its mouth on Nash's head twisting it apart from the rest of his body as blood spilled out of the poor fallen mercenary.
Muldoon and Ludlow ran back to the boat, and started off again down the jungle river to get as far away from the Carnotaur as possible.
Ludlow walked up to Paul to give him the news. "Mr. Kirby, there's a women named Crawford that wants you to send someone to represent her in the stock market."
"Okay," Paul laughed. He really didn't feel like laughing after seeing the only remaining mercenary on his team die. He'd put a lot of money into those guys and the last one of them was now dead. It was beginning to seem to him that only scientists were needed for an expedition like this one, because people with guns always died. One thing was for sure, he didn't feel like laughing, but did anyway and he wasn't sure why.
Eric stared at Alan Grant as he sat on the corner of the barge, hunched over, his eyes closed, hand over his forehead, as the boat floated down the river, away from the area that Nash had died. The boy could guess what the doctor was thinking, something solemn that was for sure. Slowly, he approached from behind and then sat down on a crate next to him. This startled Grant quickly looking up.
"Oh, hello, Eric. How are ya doing," he asked forcing a smile.
"Are you doing ok," Eric replied to the question with another question, for his was more important. "I'm really sorry about Billy. He sacrificed his life to save mine." At that, a small, glimmer lit in Grant's eye.
"Just what Billy would do. It was good of him. He proved himself," he whispered, seeming lost in another world. Within that second, the glimmer left his eyes and he became dark, bowing his head again. "'You're just as bad as the people that built this place.' That was the last thing I said to him, Eric. It was wrong of me to say so, because it wasn't true. And I knew it. I was just angry." Eric looked at Grant, nodding. "You, see, I've come up with a theory. There are two kinds of kids - the astronauts and the astronomers. The astronauts are very exited. They want to go off into space and experience things first hand, living their dream. Whereas astronomers, the Paleontologist, stay a close distance away from space to observe, and don't want to risk anything. And Billy was the astronaut, and I was the astronomer."
"I know what you mean." Eric was about to continue when the trees on the side of the river broke and beams of light shown on them. Slowly he turned to see a magnificent sight and slowly stood up. "Dr. Grant, look," he whispered. Grant turned to see what Eric was in awe of.
Before them was the vast, green field in the middle of the valley that they had seen all too many times this trip. Huge herds of herbivores: Brachiosaurs, Stegosaurs, Triceratops, Hadrosaurs, and Maiasauria, moved across the land with splendor, hooting, growling and calling. They moved gracefully. The giant long-necked dinosaurs loomed over the smaller Hadrosaurs, sipping from the river. It was all so peaceful and beautiful. The Biosyn Hunters were nowhere to be seen, which made Grant worried.
The curious Brachiosaurs moved over the boat as it drifted through the water. Their necks bent low to get a better look at Grant, and the others. They let out long echoes through the valley. Eric could feel their hot breath on his neck. He slowly turned to Grant. "Can I be the astronaut now," he smiled. After he paused for a moment, Grant smiled and nodded.
Eric reached out and gently patted the head of one of the Brachiosaurs. On the other end of the boat, the six others smiled at watching the boy. Grant also smiled remembering how happy Lex and Tim were to first touch the long necks on Isla Nublar. Eric reminded Grant of Tim and of how much the boy loved dinosaurs. Both of them had read his books and Eric had even read Malcolm's book.
Grant looked over to Eric and smiled again. "When you read Ian Malcolm's book what did you think of it?"
Eric turned back to Grant and smiled. "I don't know, I thought it was preachy. And there was all this stuff about chaos, everything's chaos. The guy seemed kind of high on himself."
Grant laughed. "Well now there's more then one thing we have in common."
After allowing Eric to stroke the Brachiosaurs for a moment, the herbivores moved away and continued walking. Birds soared in the sky past their heads and the other dinosaurs in the valley continued. "You know something, Dr. Grant," Eric asked. "Billy was right to want to experience this."
"Well, I will say this. I can blame the people that made this place, but not the people that want to see it," Grant smiled, nodding.
Eric suddenly started digging in his pocket for something. "I almost forgot that I wanted to show you something." Eric then pulled out a fossilized claw and handed it to Grant.
"Wow," Grant said, holding the object. "It's a raptor claw. I have several of these back at my dig. They're fossils."
"Mine's new," Eric smiled, taking the claw back from Grant. And with that, the boat left the dinosaur valley peacefully, drifting on, down the river as the sun started to go down.
As night fell over the island of Isla Sorna, the boat continued to go down the river, but it felt a lot more ire then it had been feeling. Everyone was very quiet as they moved along.
Paul approached Grant who had the yellow Nokia Satellite phone in his hands. Grant was staring down at it, not really seeming to know what he should do.
"All you have to do is press the on button and start dialing numbers," Paul whispered.
Grant gave Paul an evil stare. "I'm waiting until we get a little farther away from this area to make the call. There's something evil here. I'm not sure what yet, but I can just feel it."
Suddenly there was an ear splitting screeching sound coming from all sides around the boat. Everyone darted their eyes around in all directions. Then Muldoon looked to the shore and saw what it was to his own horror.
"Velociraptors," Muldoon yelled.
Grant ran over to where Muldoon was standing. "Don't worry. They can't get over here. Raptors can't swim if you remember."
"I know but with those bitches you can never tell," Muldoon said.
Just as those words left Muldoon's mouth the Raptor that he'd spotted jumped into the river. The two men stood there in shock at what they'd just saw. Suddenly there were more splashing noises as three more raptors jumped into the water and started swimming right toward the boat.
"Holy shit," Muldoon yelled going to get his gun. He reached out with his right hand and grabbed it. Muldoon ran back to Grant's side. "You guys better find ways to protect yourselves!"
Suddenly a Raptor jumped up onto the boat and screeched at Muldoon before he was shot in the head. The Raptor fell off the boat and back into the water.
"Do you have an explanation for this Alan," Muldoon asked.
"Evolution," Grant simply replied.
Another Raptor jumped onto the ship and crashed right on top of Guitierrez. The man screamed as the animal came in for the kill, but before he could, he was shot in the head as well falling to the deck of the ship. The final two Raptors then surfaced on the side of the boat where no one was standing. The two Raptors stalked slowly toward the people, but Muldoon was aiming and ready for both of the Raptors to attack. However, as soon as Muldoon took aim to fire on the two Raptors, there were two gunfire shots from the opposite side of the shore, and the people watched as the Raptors fell the ground dead.
Everyone turned their attention to where the gunfire came from and saw two figures waving at them as the boat continued downriver. Muldoon smiled realizing that one of them was his brother, and waved back before returning to the boats controls.
"Well Mr. Talon," Muldoon began, "Looks like your enemies just saved your ass."
"Indeed they did," Daniel said sighing with relief. "Indeed."
Payne, and Jim Taylor
Thursday, July 14, 1999 Isla Sorna, Valley
Roland Tembo stood at the cliff edge of the island near the Valley. He seemed to be looking at something down at the bottom where the waves were crashing. Suddenly Ajay Sidahu came toward him with Ed James not far behind.
"Mr. Rossiter will have nothing to do with what we found," Ajay said. "He's too busy arguing with the Biosyn Harbor Master on the radio. Mr. James said he'd take a look though."
"Well then," Roland began, "come forward and have a look Ed."
Ed James walked over to where Roland and Ajay were standing and looked down to the bottom of the island. He saw what both men where looking at and his face turned from confident to confused.
"How did that get there," James asked.
"Do you honestly think that I can answer that question," Roland asked.
"Not really," James replied. "But I was hoping that you would know anyway."
At the bottom of the cliff was a small white boat that looked to have been attacked. It was rocking back and forth as the waves hit the cliffside, but it seemed to not want to leave its small harbor.
"Must have been from Grant's team," James implied.
"Are all of your explanations because of Grant's team," Roland asked.
"Look the reason why Grant's team is here is because a boy and someone else came out to this island parasailing," James said. "Something went wrong and they never returned to the Costa Rican Mainland. That has to be the boat in question."
"Should we go down and have a look," Ajay asked.
"I don't know if it's too safe to be climbing down the cliffside, just to look at a boat," Roland replied. "However, I would be interested in knowing what attacked the boat and whoever was driving it."
"What makes you so sure that the driver didn't make it out before the attack," James asked.
"Because of the blood in the boat," Roland replied. "It's everywhere on that bitch. If you weren't so blind you would've saw it by now."
Roland Tembo was said to have great eyesight, and never missed a shot when it came to his game hunting. There was very little that could get passed him. Even his ears had perfect tone for a man of sixty. Most people thought he had eyes in the back of his head.
"Yes I do see it Roland," Ajay said squinting through his glasses. "I guess it's time for me to buy news glasses or something."
"I'd suggest contacts," James said. "They're a lot more comfortable and reliable."
"I'll give that some thought," Ajay said.
"Holy mother in Heaven," Roland said stretching his neck. He was still looking out toward the ocean.
"What is it," James asked.
"What kind of dinosaurs on this island can swim," Roland asked.
"The Tyrannosaurs must certainly can," James replied. "There is also some kind of aquatic species on this island. Plesio. something. Why do you ask?"
"What I'm seeing can't be either of those," Roland replied. "It's too small."
"Would you like for me to go get the binoculars," Ajay asked.
"Yes," Roland sharply replied. "Make it fast my friend."
Ajay ran away from the two men and back to the vehicle where Rossiter was standing and still arguing into the radio.
"Do you know what you are seeing," James asked.
"I don't want to even speculate," Roland replied. "It's too bothersome to me."
Ajay suddenly returned panting heavily. "Here you are Roland."
Roland took the binoculars and looked out at the Pacific Ocean. James and Ajay stood silently and waited for Roland to say something. Roland suddenly brought the binoculars back down from his face and sighed. He began to walk back in the direction of the vehicle shaking his head. Ajay and James looked at each other in confusion and then ran after Roland.
"What was it Roland," Ajay asked. "What did you see?"
"Something disturbing," Roland replied.
"And that is," James asked.
"The Velociraptors on this island can swim," Roland replied.
James laughed. "That's not possible. Raptors don't know how to swim. That's the only thing that keeps them from being the perfect predator."
Roland turned around. "Well, looks like they've finally evolved into the perfect predator. I don't know how, and I don't know why, but however it was, we don't want to stay here long enough to find out. We'd better hope that the rescue team gets here soon. By the way. Where's Darris?"
* * *
Darris Sumner went through the jungle to get the baby Tyrannosaur only a few yards away from the Valley. It was primary forest, the growth so thick that almost all sunlight was obscured. Darris saw the poor animal lying in the dirt still badly injured thanks to Rossiter. Darris almost felt sorry for the animal, but his job was to carry out Rossiter and Roland's orders.
Darris suddenly realized that he had to use the restroom badly. He walked a little farther into the foliage clawing forward until he finally found a suitable spot to relieve himself where no one else would see. He cleared away a bunch of leaves and debris and raised his hand to his belt buckle.
He froze, hearing something in the bushes beyond. He glanced around, head darting, alert to any danger. There was nothing there. Just a few distant animal calls, and some scurrying around to his left. Darris snapped his head in that direction. At first, he saw nothing, but as he moved closer, gun extended in front of him, he saw a small dinosaur, a Procompsognathus.
"It's not polite to sneak up on people," Darris said.
He pulled a steel rod out of a loop in his belt and touched it to the Compy's back. The blue bolt of electricity cracked and danced over the Compy's body and it convulsed in pain. The wounded Compy scurried back into the jungle, whimpering.
Darris clambered through the foliage ten or twelve paces, pushing aside two large palm fronds, and stepped out into more jungle. He stopped, puzzled, not sure if he went back or forward. He looked behind him. He paused, recalculating the path he took coming into the jungle, muttering to himself, gesturing with his hands, retracing his steps. He adjusted his angle slightly to the right and headed off in that direction. But after five or six hard-fought steps, he stopped again. There was still nothing but jungle.
"Hey Roland," Darris yelled. "I went to use the restroom and got turned around! Yell to tell me where you are!"
Darris' cries were faint, and couldn't be heard out in the valley because of the baby Rex's cries of pain.
Suddenly Darris heard the scurrying sound again, this time from his right. He adjusted his angle again and scraped through the foliage, moving faster and faster. Panicking, he tried to run, but the roots rose high out of the ground in the jungle, and he tripped on one and fell flat on his face. He looked up. The scurrying sound came again, this time ten times louder than before, like a hundred different feet coming at him. Darris gasped as something rushed in at him. He whirled to his right. Whatever it was rushed in from that side as well. Darris scrambled up into a sitting position and laughed. He was surrounded by at least forty Compies now, the same as the one he wounded.
For a long moment they just stared at him. Slowly, he brought his gun around, to pointed it at them. "You've got to be kidding me?"
As one, the Compies shrieked and hurled themselves forward, covering Darris' body. Their teeth and claws flashed as they each tried to grab a scrap of his flesh, tearing savagely.
Darris screamed and flailed, waving his arms and legs wildly. Some of the tiny animals lost their grip and sailed off, smashing into trees or the ground, but dozens of others hung on, and Darris fell over backwards, now lying on his back on the ground. Hysterical, he fought like hell to get to his feet, screaming, shaking, and swatting the Compies loose. He spun, and that tactic seemed to work, as the Compies themselves began to panic and dropped off of him. But he also lost his grip on his weapon, which went flying, landing in the thick foliage five or six feet from him.
Losing the attack, the Compies turned and darted away in masse, stopping ten yards away from him. But they turned and regrouped, facing him in a line, hopping up and down, chirping and shrieking.
Darris bounded into the foliage, looking for his gun. But the Compies followed him in and he was forced to flee, abandoning his lost weapon. Ten feet on, he stopped, knowing he was screwed without the gun. He turned to face the pursuing compies. They stopped. Darris charged them, shouting, waving his arms. The Compies turned and ran. Darris stopped. The Compies stopped. They stared back at him. There was a moment of quiet, and then they started to hop again, chirping and squealing.
Darris, tired of this game, turned and ran away. The Compies followed. He stumbled along, exhausted. He reached the edge of a stream that ran under the foliage, and his feet slipped on the stones. He fell, into the rocky stream.
Behind him, the army of Compies poured over the little hill he just crested. They disappeared for a moment, down an incline, and then swarmed over his body.
In a frenzy of splashing, Darris shrugged them off and crawled away, through the stream. He got to his feet but fell again, this time over a log. A geyser of water splashed up in the air behind the log as Darris dropped out of the Compies sight. The Compies leaped over the log and disappeared, throwing up their own splashes of water. There was screeching, chirping, and the sound of tearing flesh mixed with Darris' screams. More Compies leaped over the log and splashed into the water below, the geysers that shot up were pink. And then they were a deep, deep red.
* * *
Robert Muldoon drove the boat while Peter Ludlow showed him a map of the island that they'd found on the boat. They were on the jungle river moving through the interior of the island. Paul, Amanda, and Eric were sitting on the floor of the boat huddled in a corner. However Eric was in the middle of the huddle because the two parents were still angry at one another. Guitierrez, Daniel, Nash, and Grant were at the end of the boat. Grant had his head in his knees just listening to himself think. Nash was fiddling around with a rope that he'd found in the boat. Guitierrez watched Daniel writing things on his notepads.
"It's just amazing that you still have that stuff," Guitierrez implied. "After all we've been through on this island, you somehow managed to keep that briefcase. And that's including when we fell from the caged section of the Aviary."
"I supper glue my hand to the briefcase handle," Daniel joked.
Guitierrez laughed. "What are we doing here? I mean seriously, I know that you came here to investigate Biosyn, but you're pretty young to be taking on a company."
"I was assigned to the Biosyn case not too long ago, I will stay that much," Daniel Talon admitted. "However, the EPA felt that I was the right man to team up with Bob Morris."
"And why is he not here," Guitierrez asked.
"Family issues," Daniel replied. "He trusts me with this case. He knows that I'll pull through for him."
"But those cloths," Guitierrez said. "You just look too young to be here working on something so dangerous."
"Listen," Daniel began, "is this getting anywhere, or are you just trying to distract me? I really don't have time to be dealing with your crazy assumptions on who is the best for the job that I was assigned to do and on how young I am. You don't know shit about me, and I barely know you. Ya know, I could ask you the same things. Why did you come to this island for?"
"To learn," Guitierrez replied.
"To learn what," Daniel asked. "The only thing you can learn on this island is how to get eaten."
Guitierrez smiled. "You see, as I'm sure you already know, I'm a Biologist. It's my job to learn, and this is especially true for this island. One of the top things that Biologists study are animals, and dinosaurs are animals, and since these are alive, then there are reasons for Biologists to study them. Before dinosaurs were only studied by Paleontologists, but now they get to step aside and let us take over for once, and that is what excites me most."
"But these creatures were created by InGen," Daniel said. "I'm no dinosaur expert, but even I have noticed some things that just aren't right, like the Velociraptors. Aren't that species of dinosaur supposed to be really small?"
"Yes," Guitierrez said. "You are right about that. However, most of the other animals are very accurate to what we would think to be real dinosaurs. The Tyrannosaurus Rex is a great example of that. The king of the dinosaurs seem to rule over all of the other dinosaurs on this island, and that you can easily tell because of how many times the Rexes have tried to attack us. And as far as I can tell, the herbivores look like perfect matches to the animals that we've always known them to be. There are a few others as well I'm sure of, but I'd rather not discuss them. You seem to be getting annoyed with me, so please continue with your writing."
"Thank you," Daniel said. The EPA agent turned back to his writing, and Guitierrez just turned to look out the side of the boat.
"So this is the Worker Village," Ludlow said, pointing at a spot on the map. "There isn't any communication there right?"
"Yes," Muldoon replied sighing. "We've been through this already, Peter. The only possible place to make communication is with the emergency radio in the shed."
"But that building is right beside the-,"
"Don't talk so loud you bloody fool," Muldoon scowled. "There is a child here."
Just then everyone heard a catchy tone of a satellite phone ringing. Amanda started to scream, but Paul put his hand on her mouth.
Nash then saw something on land. He used a flashlight on it. He saw it was a large pile of something but couldn't quite make it out. "Mr. Muldoon, pull the boat over."
Muldoon did so, grabbed his gun, and got off with Nash and Ludlow following. "Everyone else stay on that boat," Muldoon commanded.
Nash stuck his hands in the pile and started searching through it. "Help me," he said while he searched.
Muldoon and Ludlow started going through it as well searching while the phone rang. Ludlow found it in his pile. He pressed a button on the phone hearing a beep. "Paul Kirby's line, Peter Ludlow speaking," Ludlow said, pausing while listening to the voice on the other end. "I'm sorry I don't think he's going to be able to get someone for you for at least a few days."
Muldoon yanked the phone from Ludlow's hand. "Hello," Muldoon said into the phone. "Listen, you need to help us. We're on Isla Sorna. You need to send rescue immediately. Hello?"
"They'd already hung up," Ludlow said.
"Bloody hell," Muldoon yelled.
Just then they all saw a large animal coming toward them. It was a Carnotaur. The animal stopped when it saw them. It smelled the air and roared at the people. The animal started charging toward the three people. Muldoon pulled up his gun to fire at the animal, however the creature completely disappeared from sight.
"Shit," Muldoon yelled. "Get back on the boat!"
The three started running at full speed toward the boat when Muldoon and Ludlow heard a screaming sound. They stopped and turned around to see Nash being ripped apart by the Carnotaur. Nash's ankle had made him unable to keep up with the other two men and it cost him. The dinosaur had its mouth on Nash's head twisting it apart from the rest of his body as blood spilled out of the poor fallen mercenary.
Muldoon and Ludlow ran back to the boat, and started off again down the jungle river to get as far away from the Carnotaur as possible.
Ludlow walked up to Paul to give him the news. "Mr. Kirby, there's a women named Crawford that wants you to send someone to represent her in the stock market."
"Okay," Paul laughed. He really didn't feel like laughing after seeing the only remaining mercenary on his team die. He'd put a lot of money into those guys and the last one of them was now dead. It was beginning to seem to him that only scientists were needed for an expedition like this one, because people with guns always died. One thing was for sure, he didn't feel like laughing, but did anyway and he wasn't sure why.
Eric stared at Alan Grant as he sat on the corner of the barge, hunched over, his eyes closed, hand over his forehead, as the boat floated down the river, away from the area that Nash had died. The boy could guess what the doctor was thinking, something solemn that was for sure. Slowly, he approached from behind and then sat down on a crate next to him. This startled Grant quickly looking up.
"Oh, hello, Eric. How are ya doing," he asked forcing a smile.
"Are you doing ok," Eric replied to the question with another question, for his was more important. "I'm really sorry about Billy. He sacrificed his life to save mine." At that, a small, glimmer lit in Grant's eye.
"Just what Billy would do. It was good of him. He proved himself," he whispered, seeming lost in another world. Within that second, the glimmer left his eyes and he became dark, bowing his head again. "'You're just as bad as the people that built this place.' That was the last thing I said to him, Eric. It was wrong of me to say so, because it wasn't true. And I knew it. I was just angry." Eric looked at Grant, nodding. "You, see, I've come up with a theory. There are two kinds of kids - the astronauts and the astronomers. The astronauts are very exited. They want to go off into space and experience things first hand, living their dream. Whereas astronomers, the Paleontologist, stay a close distance away from space to observe, and don't want to risk anything. And Billy was the astronaut, and I was the astronomer."
"I know what you mean." Eric was about to continue when the trees on the side of the river broke and beams of light shown on them. Slowly he turned to see a magnificent sight and slowly stood up. "Dr. Grant, look," he whispered. Grant turned to see what Eric was in awe of.
Before them was the vast, green field in the middle of the valley that they had seen all too many times this trip. Huge herds of herbivores: Brachiosaurs, Stegosaurs, Triceratops, Hadrosaurs, and Maiasauria, moved across the land with splendor, hooting, growling and calling. They moved gracefully. The giant long-necked dinosaurs loomed over the smaller Hadrosaurs, sipping from the river. It was all so peaceful and beautiful. The Biosyn Hunters were nowhere to be seen, which made Grant worried.
The curious Brachiosaurs moved over the boat as it drifted through the water. Their necks bent low to get a better look at Grant, and the others. They let out long echoes through the valley. Eric could feel their hot breath on his neck. He slowly turned to Grant. "Can I be the astronaut now," he smiled. After he paused for a moment, Grant smiled and nodded.
Eric reached out and gently patted the head of one of the Brachiosaurs. On the other end of the boat, the six others smiled at watching the boy. Grant also smiled remembering how happy Lex and Tim were to first touch the long necks on Isla Nublar. Eric reminded Grant of Tim and of how much the boy loved dinosaurs. Both of them had read his books and Eric had even read Malcolm's book.
Grant looked over to Eric and smiled again. "When you read Ian Malcolm's book what did you think of it?"
Eric turned back to Grant and smiled. "I don't know, I thought it was preachy. And there was all this stuff about chaos, everything's chaos. The guy seemed kind of high on himself."
Grant laughed. "Well now there's more then one thing we have in common."
After allowing Eric to stroke the Brachiosaurs for a moment, the herbivores moved away and continued walking. Birds soared in the sky past their heads and the other dinosaurs in the valley continued. "You know something, Dr. Grant," Eric asked. "Billy was right to want to experience this."
"Well, I will say this. I can blame the people that made this place, but not the people that want to see it," Grant smiled, nodding.
Eric suddenly started digging in his pocket for something. "I almost forgot that I wanted to show you something." Eric then pulled out a fossilized claw and handed it to Grant.
"Wow," Grant said, holding the object. "It's a raptor claw. I have several of these back at my dig. They're fossils."
"Mine's new," Eric smiled, taking the claw back from Grant. And with that, the boat left the dinosaur valley peacefully, drifting on, down the river as the sun started to go down.
As night fell over the island of Isla Sorna, the boat continued to go down the river, but it felt a lot more ire then it had been feeling. Everyone was very quiet as they moved along.
Paul approached Grant who had the yellow Nokia Satellite phone in his hands. Grant was staring down at it, not really seeming to know what he should do.
"All you have to do is press the on button and start dialing numbers," Paul whispered.
Grant gave Paul an evil stare. "I'm waiting until we get a little farther away from this area to make the call. There's something evil here. I'm not sure what yet, but I can just feel it."
Suddenly there was an ear splitting screeching sound coming from all sides around the boat. Everyone darted their eyes around in all directions. Then Muldoon looked to the shore and saw what it was to his own horror.
"Velociraptors," Muldoon yelled.
Grant ran over to where Muldoon was standing. "Don't worry. They can't get over here. Raptors can't swim if you remember."
"I know but with those bitches you can never tell," Muldoon said.
Just as those words left Muldoon's mouth the Raptor that he'd spotted jumped into the river. The two men stood there in shock at what they'd just saw. Suddenly there were more splashing noises as three more raptors jumped into the water and started swimming right toward the boat.
"Holy shit," Muldoon yelled going to get his gun. He reached out with his right hand and grabbed it. Muldoon ran back to Grant's side. "You guys better find ways to protect yourselves!"
Suddenly a Raptor jumped up onto the boat and screeched at Muldoon before he was shot in the head. The Raptor fell off the boat and back into the water.
"Do you have an explanation for this Alan," Muldoon asked.
"Evolution," Grant simply replied.
Another Raptor jumped onto the ship and crashed right on top of Guitierrez. The man screamed as the animal came in for the kill, but before he could, he was shot in the head as well falling to the deck of the ship. The final two Raptors then surfaced on the side of the boat where no one was standing. The two Raptors stalked slowly toward the people, but Muldoon was aiming and ready for both of the Raptors to attack. However, as soon as Muldoon took aim to fire on the two Raptors, there were two gunfire shots from the opposite side of the shore, and the people watched as the Raptors fell the ground dead.
Everyone turned their attention to where the gunfire came from and saw two figures waving at them as the boat continued downriver. Muldoon smiled realizing that one of them was his brother, and waved back before returning to the boats controls.
"Well Mr. Talon," Muldoon began, "Looks like your enemies just saved your ass."
"Indeed they did," Daniel said sighing with relief. "Indeed."