Jurassic Park III and ½: The Lost Hat

Part II
Chapter II

They were in the Aviary.

Every shadow, every noise seemed to haunt Billy. Every step he took seemed to pull him deeper into his fear. He could sense the dinosaurs. They were everywhere all at once. Watching, waiting. Waiting for him to drop his guard.

Then they'd attack.

It would be sudden. One of them would strike, and then the others would come.

Billy wouldn't let them.

Never again.

Billy was not nervous, even if it looked that way. He was anxious. He would have liked nothing better than to leave the island immediately, escaping the hungry, carnivorous dinosaurs. But that would only be an option once they had the hat.

And they didn't have the hat.

As the trio walked as quietly as they could across not-so-random walkways, it seemed they were trying to be… inconspicuous. Or at least, Alan and Billy were. Trevor didn't seem to realize the danger they were in. But then again, he hadn't had an encounter with a dinosaur yet. To him, dinosaurs were… unreal. He couldn't comprehend they were actually living, breathing animals. Living, breathing, man-eating animals.

Not that anyone could blame him. Alan himself hadn't appreciated the power of InGen until he had seen the Brachiosaurus, and even then he hadn't truly known until the T-Rex attack.

It was sad, really, the ignorance of some people.

And then came the screech.

It seemed Trevor was going to find out how powerful dinosaurs really were at last.

.·•·.

"Uh oh."

That statement had been made by Trevor. Alan and Billy were too busy running, which would probably have been considered the wise choice. They weren't being cautious about it at all, and when Trevor rather stupidly turned around, he saw why.

In front of him was a Pteranodon. It was bigger than Trevor thought it would be; it had a length of at least eight feet. Its leathery wings were folded by its sides, as it approached the youth in its clumsy walk.

Trevor stood transfixed. He would probably have suffered a horrible, horrible fate if the Pteranodon hadn't squawked. Trevor broke out of his stupor, and followed Alan and Billy at a much faster pace.

The Pteranodon tried to follow, hobbling along. It had no chance of catching up with Trevor, however, so consented with doing the worst possible thing it could do under the circumstances – call for help.

Billy didn't look back. He hoped Trevor was alright, but he couldn't bring himself to look and see. Alan was, rather surprisingly, ahead of him. They were making rather good progress when the second Pteranodon attacked.

The second was a lot bigger than the first. But Billy didn't have time to register that, ducking his head and throwing himself to the floor. Alan continued to run as he was already considerably out of range of the Pteranodon's beak.

Billy doubled back, but now he was trapped between the two flying reptiles, Trevor next to him. The bigger Pteranodon seemed to sense Alan behind it, taking off and landing in front of him, so Alan had to do the same as Billy. End result? Billy, Alan and Trevor were stuck in between two raving, angry animals with sharp beaks.

.·•·.

Billy was in a tricky situation. He could see a possible way of escape, but he was quite sure Alan wouldn't like it. He himself didn't like it. But it was the only way.

Prodding Alan in the back, Billy whispered his plan to him hurriedly. Alan stared at him as if he was insane (he wasn't quite sure he wasn't), but nevertheless passed it on to Trevor, who merely stared at the floor as if paralyzed.

"On the count of three… one… two…"

Billy didn't have time to say 'three'. The bigger Pteranodon screeched and lunged at the three, 'beak' open and dripping saliva, wings out.

Billy pushed the other two off their narrow walkway, and they fell, down into the depths of the dreaded Aviary.

.·•·.

Alan landed with a thud, very nearly missing the edge. Sitting up with a groan, all he needed was a brief look around to see that both Billy and Trevor had landed in the same fashion, and Billy was already helping Trevor up. And out of the corner of his eye, Alan could see what he assumed to be an exit.

It was a boring, gray, barred door, which only let the tiniest bit of light through. If it weren't for that light, Alan probably would never have seen it, it blended in with the wall so well.

Pushing himself up, the by now extremely battered paleontologist glanced upwards to see if he could spot any sign of their pursuers. And sure enough, peering over the edge of the walkway above was what Alan presumed to be Pteranodon #1 looking rather confused. It wouldn't be long until it thought of coming down to see where its prey had gone, and it would probably bring along a friend or two.

"Billy," he whispered, edging over to where the younger man stood. "Billy, there's a door over there. Let's get out of here."

Billy glanced over to where Alan was pointing, and nodded. "Okay."

Trevor just stood there, looking as clueless as ever.

The three swiftly moved over to the door (Trevor needed some prodding), but as Billy made an attempt to open it, it turned out to be locked.

"It's locked," pointed out Billy.

"… we know, Billy," said Alan, rolling his eyes.

"What?"

This comment came from Trevor, who seemed to be completely and totally out of it. It earned him another eye roll from Alan, who made another attempt to open the door.

Needless to say, it didn't work.

"So what do we do now? Wait for the Pteranodons to get us?"

"If that's the only course of action…"

"… if that's the only course of action, I'll eat my hat."

"Which one?"

Alan ignored Billy, apparently deep in thought. "Maybe…"

"Maybe what?" asked Billy, looking around nervously. The Pteranodon's head had disappeared, but he could hear it calling out.

"Maybe," said Alan slowly, "we could get one of them to… knock the door down? I don't know exactly how strong they are, but if we could lure that big one over here… it's worth a try."

Billy blinked at Alan disbelievingly. "You can't be serious."

Unfortunately, Alan was serious, which was why Billy found himself jumping up and down in front of the door only a few moments after, trying to attract the attention of a very angry ten-foot long dinosaur.

.·•·.

Alan had taken Trevor with him into hiding. Well, not really hiding, more of a squatting somewhere next to Billy, pressed against the railing. The only reason Alan wasn't helping Billy was that somebody needed to spring out at the last minute as a precaution, and it had been deemed Trevor was just plain useless, no offence meant, of course.

The plan had many things wrong with it. The human side of it was counting on there being no more than two Pteranodons, and that the second wouldn't be big, strong or hungry. You couldn't really guarantee anything with prehistoric animals, since everything about their behavior was mostly guessed. Alan didn't even deal with the flying reptile section, which meant he didn't know enough about Pteranodons to tell how they hunted.

This understandably increased the risk of being the Pteranodon's next meal.

Now he half wished he had listened to that talk he'd been given on Pterodactyls in college.

Alan didn't have time to wish any longer though, as all Billy's jumping around seemed to be producing some results. Two Pteranodons had been flapping around above them, eventually spotting Billy and deciding to have a look to see what the blurry moving thing was. Screeching, they both dove simultaneously, approaching from different sides. It almost looked as if it were intentional.

Neither Alan nor Billy had the time to appreciate this, however, as the flying reptiles were moving very, very fast. So fast that Billy almost didn't duck in time, and Alan almost didn't jump out, diverting their attention and sending the smaller one towards the door. It hit it, and fell to the floor, temporarily stunned. The other, bigger one screeched loudly, making a quick recovery. It managed to corner Alan with one swift move, snapping at him to keep him there. Alan probably would have become Pteranodon-food if Billy hadn't yelled and jumped on its back. Alan made a getaway, ducking under Pteranodon #1's wing and hopping over Pteranodon #2 to reach the door. Trevor was already there, pushing and shoving against it to try and make it open, but to no avail. Desperately, Alan gave it a final pull, which, surprisingly, managed to open it. Ushering Trevor out, he motioned for Billy to get off the dinosaur's back and follow Trevor, which Billy managed to do without mortally injuring himself. Alan hopped out after him, slamming the door shut just in time as Pteranodon #1 gave a furious scream and threw itself against it.

Luckily, the door didn't budge. Apparently, neither of the three had thought to pull instead of push.

End of Part II: Chapter II
A/N: Well, that's three chapters up. o0 You'll have to wait a while for the next few. School's really beginning to pile up on me and stuff. I only have time to write on weekends, when we're not out of town. So.. yes. Anyway. I also have no idea where I'm going to go from here. I know exactly what's going to happen in the last few chapters, but unfortunately my little brain can be very stubborn at the worst of times. Sorry. x.x
DISCLAIMER: For the third time, I own nothing except the plane, the air hostess, and Trevor, not necessarily in that order. Oh, yes, and Cuddles, though he doesn't make an appearance just yet. :]