Note: First, this chapter contains a document from the game, which is highlighted in boldface type. Second, (and this only applies to you if you have played the game and are reading this) I took out the short, brief part where Dylan hops into a tank in the Edward City Warehouse Quarters and has a romp with the T-Rex. It's a short, brief section of game which has no real impact on the main story. I figured in the last chapter, with a romp with the Allosaurus, immediately having the Triceratops on their tails right after, followed by the ambush in the field outside Edward City…let these guys have a break! Third, thanks for the reviews! So far, all of them have been good, which is wonderful encouragement…even though I've been writing fanfic for almost 3 years, I've never taken on the task of novelizing an entire game…it's very hard. It requires much playing of the game, in which I have a notebook to take careful notes (including hand-drawing the maps of each room as to get an accurate description of direction, location, etc; taking notes describing the scenery of each location, and the cut scenes.) Luckily, I don't have to copy the script word for word, and the memo files—the script and memos were found on GameFAQs ). Now, onto Chapter Eight!

Chapter Eight: Uneasy Familiarity

Initial Location: Outside Edward City

The sounds of a chopper flying overhead caught the attention of the two surrounded soldiers. As Dylan could see it approaching them, flying low in the sky, he instantly recognized it at once, a military chopper, army-grade, equipped with a payload of six missiles, three under each wing.

Maybe…?

The innermost circle of raptors remained in that spring-loaded crouch, ready to spring, hissing their eerie hiss. As one of them let out a shrill cry, they heard a whistling sound in the air, a quick moving, displacing of the air that hung for a few seconds before cutting out—and a rocket exploded, crashing into the ground with amazing force, sending a bright show of reds and oranges, and as they quickly turned into the direction of the sound, they could see smoldering, charred dinosaurs hurtling through the air, shot in a wide arc. Seconds later, another missile rammed into the ground, the smoke trailing through the air as it hit directly into a pocket of six or seven, sending the carcasses flying through the air, one or two of them hitting the ground near them. Regina could hear the sick crunches of bones snapping, blood and smoking, blackened remains of fried dinosaur visible.

Seeing the roasted reptiles suddenly became too much for Regina's mind to take in—those wide, watery eyes, the carcasses missing limbs, the smoking, reeking, foul fetor exuding from every pore, every scale, staring her right in the face. Her body was overtaken by a wave of nausea, the taste of bile entering her mouth. She gagged, and as she was trying to will herself not to vomit, she could hear the sounds of another missile letting fly through the air. The air filled with the sounds of shrieking, panicked raptors, fleeing. As the next one slammed the ground, the blast filled the air, sending another three or four of the reptilian creatures to their abrupt demises. The helicopter flew closer, and Dylan looked inside, trying to make out the identity of the pilot. He could make out a light-colored cowboy hat, and a face with black face paint under the eyes.

"David!" Dylan cried, waving his arms frantically, trying to signal David down.

"You're toast!" David yelled, slamming the fire button once more, one more projectile flying through the air with quick speed, firing into the field below, the missile leaving a smoky trail as it weaved through the air before slamming into a pocket of fleeing dinosaurs. As that group exploded, Dylan and Regina began to run toward the descending helicopter. The danger was over now—the remaining raptors were fleeing. Once again, they were saved by the cowboy. That was two now. The two soldiers caught up to the helicopter as it landed in the tall grass.

"Boy, am I glad to see you," Dylan exclaimed. "You don't know how much."

"Come on, you two—hop in. I saw something in Edward City," David said, and as soon as Regina sat, David pulled a lever and the chopper was airborne again, quickly descending altitude as he veered right, flying higher, until Edward City came into full view, smoke trailing from it.

"There's something going on down there—I see movement," Regina noted.

"There's a pair of binoculars here somewhere, get a better look. I need to know where I can land this thing," David said. Below her feet were such a pair, and when she looked through, she was graced with a terrible sight, and her chest began to feel tight, as if someone was squeezing her. There was a battle going on as they flew—the streets all filled with soldiers, civilians, men, women, children, engaged with a huge mass of raptors. She could see soldiers flailing as raptors tore their arms off, some leaping into the air and slashing people to death.

"Oh, no," Regina said softly.

Some were shooting at them, some with success, some not. Regina scanned the area, and saw a running child, a boy, get caught inside a chasing raptor's jaws. She could see the expression of intense pain on the child's face as the raptor's jaws easily sliced through the doomed human. Dinosaurs tossed the people of the city around like they were rag dolls, then feasted on their corpses.

"Dylan—they're fighting down there—the survivors are fighting the dinosaurs," she said firmly.

"What's happening?" he said, concerned.

"They're heavily outnumbered, Dylan—the dinosaurs are too much for the people…" she started, before her voice trailed off.

His facial expression grew angry. "No, god damn it! NO, NO, NO!" His face began to get red, his fists clenching in seething rage. "David, can you get us there any quicker?"

"I'm going as fast as I can, and I can't push her any more," he cried over the roar of the chopper blades. "Where can I land?"

Regina scanned the rest of the city, and saw a large area of tarmac just at the city entrance. "By the entrance, do you see that large opening?"

"Yes, I do…I was just thinking that. Brace yourselves, guys!"
The helicopter dipped suddenly, and Dylan felt a quick feeling of motion discomfort as the chopper began its quick descent.

God, please, let us get there in time, let us save at least whoever is left, please.

Minutes later, the chopper touched down on the tarmac just outside the city entrance, and when David turned the engines off, the three made a hasty exit, their weapons drawn, looking to get into the fray that Regina spotted from the air. The smell of gunfire, smoke, the acrid odor of sweat and death washed over the city entrance. As the two took careful steps forward, all three of them seemed to realize at once—

--it was quiet. Not a sound could be heard; no cries of raptors, no sounds of gunfire, no sounds of people. The situation didn't look good at all, and as they turned a corner, their thoughts were confirmed. Laid out as far as one could see, bodies and carcasses, mutilated and bloodied lined the city streets. The ground was littered in debris and remnants of spent ammo. Guns lie in scattered pieces along the ground, enveloped in blood. The three could see the horrified, pained expressions on their faces as their final moment ended in a cold, bitter, painful death. Innocents with missing limbs were among the raptors with shotgun blasts in their bodies, the blood flowing from all the wounds, flowing everywhere, flowing out into the streets, into the drainage systems, flowing, running, everywhere. Crimson was the color. Fresh, glistening, new. The siege had ended in the destruction of all living things here. The cold reality of it all was starting to sink in—the survivors were no more, victims of their own pride, victims of a government, victims of unfortunate circumstance. This was their entrance into the once prosperous Edward City, named after the man who created the Third Energy, Dr. Edward Kirk.

David Fork broke the silence. "These people were the only ones left. There aren't any survivors now."

Dylan's voice grew solemn. "So we failed. We fucking failed." He kicked a rock out of anger, flying up out of sight, landing on a newly-made corpse of a soldier.

"Look," Regina began. "We still have the objective of retrieving the data on the Third Energy research."

David shot Regina a nasty look. "Dude, even if we get the data, how do we get back to our time? Didn't you say that the activator for the gate's been destroyed? You did, right?"

Regina shot back a stern look at the annoyed cowboy. "That's why we need that data." David threw up his hands in the air in disgust. "If we study it, we might be able to build another gate and go back."

David's voice grew louder, and more heated. "So you're fuckin' telling me—"

"Whoa, whoa, hold it!" Dylan shouted, raising his hands in the air, motioning for silence. "Since there's nothing else we can do, we should all split up and look for the data."

David sighed, turned and began to walk away without saying another word, heading further into the city.

"David?" Regina called. "David!"

No response. David disappeared through a door some distance away.

"Dylan, there looks like a building of some sort straight ahead. See it?" He nodded.

"I'm gonna go through this door behind us, check that out. Any problems, signal me."

"Ok. See ya," he concluded, a note of skepticism in his voice. A few seconds later, she went through, and he was alone. With nothing else to do, he walked through the street of dead bodies, spent weapons, maimed carcasses, and blood, until he got to the building. A sign outside, hanging by one nail and riddled with bullet holes, said, "Drug and Supply Store." As he entered, his boots stepped over glass, and the familiar smell of crossfire and decay lingered here too. On the floor to his left, there was a dead raptor on the floor, a large hole in his side, probably administered by a shotgun wound. Dark, dried blood had stained the tiled floor, and he concluded that this was some time ago. The shop was lit by one florescent light, flickering on and off. In the center, bins filled with merchandise had long since been deteriorated and destroyed. All along the walls, storage and display cases had their glass panes broken, doors hanging by a hinge. Ivy was starting to creep in from one of the shop windows.

As Dylan went behind the register and accompanying counter, papers were all over the floor, and as he looked at the handwriting, he noted that they were papers containing facts, figures, statistics, tables, and inventories of the items in the store, daily sales, etc. Nothing of use. However, he noticed a marble composition notebook next to the open register, devoid of money. He picked up the notebook, and as he opened it, he saw that the pages were yellowed, but the writing still legible and clear. Judging by the entry-like style, this was probably a diary or journal of some kind. Curious, he jumped ahead to the last entry, and read:

I underestimated the idea of trying to protect human territory. The plan to clean out the dinosaurs intruding into the city failed. The humans in this world are about to be extinct. We should have never laid our hands on the Third Energy. The military folks still don't get it even after all this. Their plan is to fire the Third Energy Missile in this area of the jungle and wipe the whole area out.

They plan to take the Third Energy disk to the Missile Silo in the Jungle and input the data in the warhead. The missile is scheduled to strike this area at noon tomorrow. It's either the missile first or us first... who knows?

So the government wants to eradicate all their errors by blowing this entire world up. Typical of American government. Try to cover up their own stupid blunderings by destroying the evidence. Such the American way. Now we have to head back into the jungle, to that Missile Silo, wherever it is. I think I remember seeing it on a map back on the Patrol Ship.

He pressed a button on his intercom to tell Regina and David this latest info, but static greeted his ears.

"Regina? David? This is Dylan, anyone read, over?"

Nothing but static.

"This is Dylan. David! Regina! Do you copy?"

More white noise.

"Damn it. Looks like I'll have to find them now," he said aloud to himself. He turned around, his exploring of the shop done, and headed back out into the quiet street. He walked quickly to the door that Regina went through, and when he entered, it was like entering an abandoned area. This small section of city, with its apartment-like buildings, provided living quarters. A guardhouse some feet away from Dylan's position had been abandoned, as thick ivy vines covered most of the small edifice, long, thinner tendrils of green ivy branching out along the ground, snaking up the sides of the apartment buildings. It was reclaiming what was originally Nature's. A door was at the other end of this small section, and since there was nothing here, he followed the path to the end, and he ended up back out onto a street.

Free of the bloodied mess that seemed to exist in every crack, crevice, nook and cranny of the city, this section seemed pretty quiet and normal. Then again, normal took on a different meaning here, the definition ever changing. Despite the lack of total and utter carnage and ruin, cars still lined this section, their windshields broken, the doors bent, tires missing or deflated, or overturned. Concrete and tarred rubble still scattered the area, and up ahead, a section of road was missing, a large gap between this section of road and the next. He walked slowly toward the gap, his eyes searching for anything that so much as moved—be it human, dinosaur, what have you. He tried to radio for the other two again, and still got only static. Wave interference, the probable cause.

How could we be so blind? This is the result of our meddling, the result of our thirst for how we can utilize something meant for good and turn it into something horribly, horribly wrong. Shouldn't our rulers get this by now? Was the staggering cost of human life that made this whole mission doomed from the start on any of the minds of those in charge? Shouldn't there be a LESSON learned from all this? We're fucked. For even us remaining to survive, we need to get that data on the Third Energy, and once we have the data, what will happen? Will we finally get out of here? Will the government use it to their own ends, and create a similar incident? What about those helmeted people? Are they still around, or did the government take those too? All I wanted to do was to leave behind my troubled past, better myself, be somewhat of a hero, you know? But what with all this clout of conspiracy and devastation…I'm having second guesses about being in this man's army.

A shot suddenly rang out, and Dylan felt the breeze by his ear as an odd-shaped disk flew by him, flying away, over the edge of the road. He took one glance down, and saw a decent drop—enough to kill a person if they fell over.

…the fuck?

He looked around frantically, until his eyes fell upon a rearview mirror, and saw what was becoming a familiar, annoying sight. The startled T.R.A.T. soldier turned around quickly, and saw one of the helmeted people pointing a strange gun at him from very close range. She walked slowly toward him. Unfortunately for him, he had run out of room—engaging the female in combat would be dangerous, since one wrong move would kill him. She pointed the weapon at him, and he raised his hands in the air.

He was caught, and couldn't do a damn thing.

"You got me," he said softly, defeated, his head bowed. A loud cry shot out of nowhere, and in an instant, Dylan recognized the face of the girl he handcuffed on the hovercraft. The helmeted one looked behind her, and Dylan dove out of the way as the girl leaped onto the helmeted one, the mechanical red eye glowing brightly. The blond-haired girl knocked the gun out of her hand, and she grabbed the other, slamming her hard into a car. Her face was twisted in anger, and Dylan could only watch with bewildered amazement as the two grabbed each others' faces, clawing viciously at each other. The helmeted female suddenly grabbed a hold of the girl's neck, and began tugging hard on something, and sounds of ragged gasping and gagging filled the air. Before he could say a word, the girl raised her knee, placing it quickly and firmly into the other's stomach, causing her to double over in pain. An object, a necklace of some kind, flew from her neck, hitting the tar. The girl crouched to the ground, taking in mouthfuls of air. In an instant, the other ran at the girl, and letting out a determined grunt, rammed her elbow into the running woman's stomach, causing her to reel backwards, her hands clutching her stomach in obvious pain.

"Hey!" a voice called in the distance, female.

With a look of sheer determination, the blond girl grabbed the weaker other and dragged her to the edge, and with one loud grunt, she lifted her, and threw her over the edge. The girl looked downward, and a second or two later, Dylan heard a sick thud as the female fell, landing on the ground below. It would be the end of her.

She stood there for a little more time, looking at the lifeless body of the mysterious woman below, lying in a crumpled heap. Dylan got up, began to walk to the girl to help her, thank her, and she turned around, her face changing immediately from one of killing intent to one of panic, the same look Dylan saw when he first met her back on the ship. He reached out a hand to calm her down, but she let out a scared cry, and immediately started running back, running away, scared. She flew past Regina, who was walking up the road toward Dylan. She made no motion to capture her, and when she got to Dylan, she was breathing heavily, catching her breath from running.

"I caught the tail end of that. What happened here?"

"One of the helmeted people came out from nowhere and had me cornered," he began, speaking firmly. "The girl we had on the Patrol Ship came and fought the woman, threw her over. She saved me."

Regina smirked. "Aww, the girls must love you."

"I'm serious." He saw the necklace lying on the ground, and he reached down and picked it up. "This came off our girl's neck—" He stopped in mid-sentence, and a strange look came over his face, one of surprise, maybe as if he knew something, remembered something. Familiarity. The necklace he held was made up of a silver chain, with a stone of amethyst, cut and polished to a smooth oval, set inside a small case.

"What? What's wrong?" Regina asked.

"This is just starting to creep me out," Dylan replied.

"Huh?"

He looked at Regina.

"This is my sister's necklace."

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End of the Chapter. Oh, I'm liking this. For those of you who have played the game, you already know what's coming up. As always, send me those reviews! In a few days, Chapter Nine will be up. Hope you like this story so far.