Jurassic Park III and ½: The Lost Hat

Part III: Chapter I

Alan began to pace back and forth, the stick he used to prod the fire still clutched in his hand. He kept muttering things under his breath; probably things to do with 'those damned raptors' and his beloved hat. He didn't know why the bird-like dinosaurs would want the hat, but he could only assume they were either hungry, curious, or more intelligent than anyone had originally thought. He, for one, dearly hoped it wasn't the latter.
Billy continued to sit, watching Alan carefully. He wasn't quite sure of the true meaning of all this, but it seemed Alan didn't know either, so it was alright. And while a number of questions began running through his head, such as, 'where did the fake come from?', 'why did the raptors have it?' and 'what'll they do once they discover we have it?', the most important was definitely, 'what will we do next?'. However, now was not the time to be thinking about such things. Tomorrow, perhaps, they could find the tracks and solve a few of these questions once and for all.

.·•·.

When Trevor woke up – needless to say, quite unaware of the night's events – he found Billy and Alan having some more baked beans and discussing something in a low voice.

"Hello," he said cheerfully, hopping over to Billy and sitting down next to him. "What're we doing today?"

Billy and Alan stopped talking abruptly, surprised by the sudden appearance of their young friend.

"Hi, Trevor," said Alan, shooting a warning glance at Billy. "We were thinking of going down to the river after breakfast."

"Okay," replied Trevor, grabbing a can of beans and a spoon, apparently not concerned as to the reason why.

"… fine then," said Alan uncomfortably, who was only doing all the talking because Billy had insisted he learn how to talk to kids.

The rest of the meal was spent in silence.

.·•·.

After Trevor finished off his beans, Alan organized everybody and they headed off to the river. They very carefully made their way through what could be called the 'gate', picking their path with caution. The riverside was deserted, though, which for some reason made Alan very nervous indeed, though the reason was probably the majority of the Pteranodons had left the same day they did.

Once they had crossed over, Alan turned to Billy and asked, "So, where was it?"

Billy squinted, looked left then right, forward and back, before nodding and pointing downstream. "Somewhere along there." He began to walk in said direction, followed by Trevor and finally Alan, who was busy keeping a look out for any sort of threat, Velociraptors high on the list.

Stopping a few feet from the riverbank, Billy pointed to a hard, cracked patch of what might have been mud at one point. Around a suspiciously oval space, Alan could clearly see the imprints of what he knew to be raptor footprints. They had been here… but would they return? It was highly possible, of course – nobody had time enough to guess how far the raptor's territory stretched; they were too busy running. Anyway, it was irrelevant. What really mattered was it was now confirmed: the Velociraptors had gotten hold of the hat.

Once Alan had finished prodding the footprints with a stick and circling the area (while Billy and Trevor watched nervously), he turned to his two companions and said, rather simply, "So?"

"So?" repeated Billy.

"So what do we do next?" asked Alan impatiently with a glare. "Do we follow the raptors, or what?"

"Well—"

Billy was cut off by a thud that seemed to be getting louder as it got closer and closer…

"Nobody mo—" said Alan, as the thudding gave way to a roar and a Tyrannosaur broke free of the forest on the other side of the riverbank.

End of Part III: Chapter I
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything except Trevor, blah blah. Don't sue me. Please&thankyou.
A/N: Um. UM. I'm really really sorry for the a) shortness and b) complete idiocy of this chapter. I blame the sickness that is currently wrapped around my head, causing everything I say to come out completely and totally muddled. Don't kill me. Please? That last chapter probably has to be redone, among other things. Again, a complete apology from my side as I stab myself repeatedly with a fork in the hope of killing these blasted germs. x.X