Anguirus111 Note: I have no doubt that if any of the dinosaurs in my story could be considered the main villains, it'd be the dimetrodons. Granted they haven't shown up for very long in any of my stories, but they're extremely deadly and even though Michael Crichton was probably speculating when he came up with their ability to cloak into their surroundings perfectly in The Lost World, the team could only spot their moving of the jungle around them and not the dinos themselves. It left quite the impression on me when I first read it. I hope they show up someday in a Jurassic Park movie, I'd see it the first day if that ever happened.
Sorna: Unit 17 made their way solemnly down the road as they watched out for any signs of dinosaur presence.
"So what exactly is a dimetrodon?" asked Carly.
"How can you not know?" asked Jake shuddering involuntarily. "Everyone here knows. Hell I don't think any of us will forget what happened when we bred the first one."
"I worked on Nublar," said Carly. "I don't know what happened on this island! Hell I didn't even know this island existed until I got transferred here on the boat. I was supposed to be a tour guide back on Nublar, not here."
"Does anybody want to explain to Carly why the dimetrodons are the real terror on this island?" asked Jake to the other members.
"Not particularly," said one of them. "We'd just as soon rather forget really."
"Well I need to know," said Carly. "I remember you mentioning that there was some debacle involving them and their creator, but you didn't explain much more than that."
"A debacle is putting it nicely," said Jake. "When we first bred a dimetrodon, the instant it reached adulthood it vanished, literally. We didn't want to risk another A1 incident so the creator of it, Dr. Langstrom, went to go find it but he never came back. We then sent out some teams to go find out, what happened to him, but they were promptly slaughtered. Eventually we discovered that the dimetrodons had a type of camouflage even greater than a chameleon, the thing blended into the background scenery so well the cameras and motion trackers couldn't even spot them. We then cordoned off the area and beefed up the motion trackers to detect branch movements and jacked up the sound recording system. But now that we've lost all power to the fences and we killed power to those other two systems well before then to pour more juice into the fences. But now that those dinosaurs are loose and quite possibly lysine mad, we're all in trouble."
"So when were you planning on shipping those dinos to Nublar?" asked Carly. "Assuming it hadn't been overrun."
"Never," said Jake before he yanked up his rifle and aimed it a noise he thought he heard. A flock of birds came tearing out of the trees and Jake slowly lowered his rifle.
"Never?" asked Carly. "How is that possible?"
"Because of a little thing called The DNS List," Jake explained. "A list Henry Wu and I came up with to make sure that certain dinosaurs would never be placed in a situation where they could bring harm to innocent civilians."
"Oh," said Carly. "So why make them in the first place?"
"That is the burning question," said Jake solemnly. "Why did we do it? Why did we intentionally breed super predators that could potentially tip the scales against humanity?"
"Why?" Carly prompted.
"I don't know," said Jake. "And that is ultimately what scares me the most. More so than the deinonychosaurs, the dimetrodons, the spinos, what we did here is our fault. I thought I understood this before, but I really had no idea until now, when we're truly forced to face the consequences of our decision. I think that ultimately is what Jeffrey wanted me to realize. Oh sure I could claim that I knew what was really happening on this island, but I could never acknowledge it to him. But now, now I understand but it's too late to do anything about it, all that's left now is to survive. Survive to see that this doesn't happen again."
"That reminds me of another thing Ian Malcolm once said," Carly said thoughtfully.
"What?" asked Jake about his cousin, whose current situation he new little about.
"I was eating lunch in the cafeteria when I overheard a heated argument coming from the dining area. And I distinctly remember something Dr. Malcolm said, something about how the scientists there stood on the shoulders of geniuses and without thinking about whether or not they should be creating these dinosaurs, they instantly turned around and tried to make a profit off of it. Then he said: 'What you call progress, I call the rape of the natural world.' I always found that interesting for some reason, guess I know why now," said Carly shivering as she looked around at the encroaching jungle.
"Sounds like Ian to me," said Jake nodding. "Always the optimistic pessimist, at least before I endangered his life by sending him to Nublar."
"Oh," said Carly confused, but she chose not to pursue it. At that instant the ground began shaking.
"Oh shit," said Jake hanging his head low. The team moved to the sides of the road as a massive almasaur appeared and walked across the road. The team looked up at it extremely daunted by the thing's tall size, before it vanished from sight.
"They move in herds my ass, Dr. Grant," said Jake remembering something he'd read from Alan Grant once.
"I think he was referring to brachiosaurs," one of the workers commented.
"Meh," said Jake shrugging. They walked to the flattened path the almasaur had made in the jungle and looked down it. Jake looked at it thoughtfully before he dug out his map and looked at it.
"Although I am reluctant to suggest this," Jake began. "If we follow the path that almasaur made through the jungle, we could easily cut a half a day off of our journey to the motorpool."
The rest of the team shuddered at the prospect of traveling through the jungle at all.
"Look, we don't have much of a choice," said Jake. "By my estimates if we keep walking down the road to the motorpool, by the time we get to it and to Embryonics Adminstration, it will already be under attack from the dinos…or worse."
The team grew even more depressed at that prospect.
"Either come or don't," said Jake. "But I'm going."
The scientist began walking down the trampled path with trees having been pushed all over the place. The team looked at each other sadly before following Jake in. Jake slung his rifle behind him as took out his Long Colt again. Though he didn't want to have to use the weapon, he felt safer having it on hand than not.
"Penny for your thoughts," said Carly coming up next to him.
"I was just thinking about why we don't have any portable motion trackers," said the scientist. "They'd probably come in handy right about now."
"You said they couldn't detect the dimetrodons anyway," Carly pointed out.
"Yeah, but some assurance is better than none," Jake responded. As Carly was about to respond, a distinct hooting noise was heard. The team instantly dropped to the ground, save for Carly who Jake had to yank down.
"What?" she demanded. "It's only an owl."
Jake held a finger up to her lips as he put on a pair of protective goggles. The rest of the team put on theirs as well before Jake handed an extra pair to Carly.
"What?" began Carly confused.
"Put them on," said Jake. "And be quiet. We've got dilos."
Carly knew what dilophosaurs were, they'd been on Nublar before she had left and she knew what they were capable of.
"If we stay low, they probably won't notice us," said Jake. At that moment a dilophosaurus emerged from the tree line. But this dilo was very bloody and had several bite marks around it. It turned around and slowly began looking around frantically before its frill popped open and it fired a glob of venom at some unseen object still beyond the trees.
"What do you think it's firing at?" asked Carly confused. The dilo continued looking around frantically before it spotted the team on the ground. It looked at them confused before resuming its search for its unknown target.
"Something it can't see," began Jake solemnly. At that moment the branches parted but then closed with nothing apparently having emerged from them.
"That was weird," said Carly confused.
"Oh my God," said Jake in shock. The dilo began firing more and more venom at the still moving branches.
"The hell is it shooting at?" demanded Carly.
"You can't see it?" demanded Jake.
"No," said Carly. Jake groaned as he realized Carly hadn't spent countless hours looking at photos of a camouflaged dimetrodons in an effort to see if he could recognize them easier.
"There's a dimetrodon stalking that thing," said Jake. "But the dilo can't see it, it can only sense it."
"You're crazier than that thing is," said Carly shaking her head as she watched the spectacle. But then out of nowhere the dimetrodon dropped its camouflage and seemed to appear out of thin air. Carly began screaming before Jake clamped his hand over her mouth.
"We've got to get out of here now," said Jake. He motioned to the team and the abruptly got up and began firing at the two dinosaurs in front of them. The two dinosaurs went down in a hailfire of bullets as Unit 17 tore down the pathway. Dinosaur roars erupted from the trees as Jake swung his rifle around and began firing blindly into them.
"Lay down a suppressing fire and fall back!" Jake shouted as Carly covered her ears from the loud gunshots. More dinosaur roars were heard as the whole jungle on both sides began shaking violently.
"RPG shots left and right!" shouted Jake as he continued firing. The worker with the launcher nodded and popped off one shot to one side of the path and one to the right causing massive explosions to go off. The jungle then erupted as over a dozen dimetrodons appeared, sans cloak, and chased after the group.
"Sir!" shouted the worker. "Shouldn't we stay and fight?"
"No," said Jake shaking his head. "For everyone you see I bet there's at least another two that are cloaked! Our only chance is to outrun them; we don't have enough ammo to hold out forever."
The workers nodded and continued capping off some shots behind them. Jake meanwhile swung his rifle around and scanned the area in front of him with it. Spotting something that satisfied him, he fired. A roar erupted as blood spurted from out of nowhere and a dimetrodon dropped dead in front of them. Carly's jaw dropped as she briefly slowed to look at the thing before Jake shoved his rifle at her.
"Reload," he said simply as he grabbed the one she was holding and cocked it.
"I'm not your servant!" Carly complained over the noise of yet another explosion behind them.
"It's either that or start firing," said Jake simply as he continued scanning the ground in front of them.
"Fine," Carly huffed as she opened the barrel and began pouring in more rounds. A couple minutes passed filled with just gunshots and dinosaur roars.
"We've got to stop this soon," said Jake beginning to breathe heavier. Carly nodded.
"And we've got to anticipate this noise drawing more unwanted attention," she said. Jake nodded in agreement. As if fate was on their side, the pathway the almasaur had left behind conveniently led to a nearby river.
"Guess it was thirsty," Jake thought. "Well it's our advantage now."
"You'd better not be thinking what I think you're thinking," said Carly.
"Guys," said Jake slinging his rifle. "Let's go for a swim!"
"Oh no," said Carly with dread. Then the two leapt into the water and were immediately swept downstream. The rest of Unit 17 capped off another few shots before leaping in as well. The dimetrodons instantly skidded to a halt and roared angrily at the departing humans before slowly turning around and trundling off.
The team meanwhile was being tossed and turned in the river as they were quickly and rapidly being drawn further and further along it.
Several miles away over the Pacific Ocean: The wind currents coupled with warm water indicated a disaster waiting to happen. And it came when a tropical storm began brewing and instantly set out on its way east.
San Diego: "And so concludes my report on the current situation on Isla Sorna," said Ed Regis. "Jake Whitacre seems pessimistic about this next part and I can't say I blame him given how well you've handled that island, but all the same I pray that you make the right decision and get those people the hell off that island."
The image shut off as the report concluded and the Board looked at each other hesitantly. Hammond, who had shown up to listen to the report felt even worse than usual.
"So what do we do now?" asked Lucious. Peter Ludlow just sat there apprehensively.
"I-I don't know," he said truly at a loss for words. None of them had known just had badly the situation had truly deteriorated to on Site B.
"I suppose we could ignore it," he said finally. The Board went into an uproar over that.
"What do you mean ignore it?" demanded Samantha. "People are dying over there!"
"And they could easily present us with liability suits," Ludlow pointed out. "The amount we'd loose over lawsuits regarding their deaths would be greater than any lawsuits involving them themselves. And we aren't dealing with ordinary circumstances here either."
"I'm not hearing this," said Samantha shaking her head. "Are you saying we should let them die?"
"I don't know why I'm saying!" Peter shouted. "I'm just know that Ingen does not need this right now!"
Silence descended on the group.
"This is my fault," said Hammond finally. "I should've done something, I should've said something. Now it's my fault Site B is being turned into a Lost World and there's nothing any of us can do about it."
More silence.
"He's right," said Lucious finally. "I don't think we have much of a choice anymore, this isn't just something we can continue to ignore."
"Yeah," said Samantha sadly. "That's the problem with reality, even when we ignore it, it still doesn't go away; case in point."
She pressed a button on the remote and on the big screen where earlier Ed Regis was seen giving his report, a thermal scan of Sorna popped up.
"What are those?" demanded Lucious. On the screen were numerous yellow pinpricks all over the island.
"Our best guess: explosions," said Samantha darkly. Some of eyes bugged out from across the Board.
"My God," said Hammond looking up at the scan.
"This scan is actually a couple weeks old back when the fighting first started," Samantha explained. "Here's a progression of it for every day since then."
The image shifted and this time the dots were further inland, then further, inland, then further inland, and so on until the final image rolled by and froze on screen.
"They're being boxed in," Samantha explained. "And at this rate they'll have nowhere to run in about two weeks. And as bad as it sounds, this is the least of our worries right now."
"What could be worse?" demanded Ludlow disbelieving her.
"This," said Samantha pressing another button on the remote as the weather channel came up.
"It is official folks a new tropical storm has just materialized off the coast of Costa Rica today. They're calling it Tropical Storm Clarissa, but there's no doubt it's not going to remain that way much longer. Thanks to the warm waters still left behind in the wake of Tropical Storm Bert, this storm has the potential to become a whopper of a hurricane. But don't worry folks, it appears it's just going to follow Bert and once again smash into Los Cinco Muertos again. Oddly enough that's just about the third storm in as many months to hit that island chain, but thankfully the islands are uninhabited that I must say if you are on those islands, I'd get off ASAP," said the announcer. "Well, back to you Bob."
Samantha shut off the monitor.
"Do we even still have the resources necessary to get those people off that island?" asked Ludlow finally.
"Not in the timeframe necessary to get them off before this 'Clarissa' hits it," said Lucious reviewing his notes. "Most of our pilots were moved on to other areas where their services would be better suited and we sold off most of the helicopters in Costa Rica to cover our financial losses incurred over the loss of Nublar. And we still have yet to clean up the mess that's still going on over there."
Hammond became even more downtrodden over Fox's diatribe, but he did not speak up about it.
"So what do you propose that we do?" asked Lucious to Hammond.
"I-I don't know," said Hammond at a loss for words.
"There may be another option," Samantha mused.
"Which is what exactly?" balked Ludlow.
"That Pharmaceuticals CEO, John Brown, has been attempting to do everything in his power to get those people off that island for months now. Perhaps he'd be willing to negotiate some kind of deal with us," Samantha suggested.
"Absolutely not," said Ludlow immediately. "He just wants us off that island so he can steal all the technology to further bolster his company's wealth."
"I don't think so," said Samantha lightly disagreeing with him. "He's offered to buy the technology off of us to help us reduce our debts for a long time now and if he was to steal the technology and we found out, we could easily sue him and win. And besides, that technology isn't going to be functioning for much longer after Clarissa tears that island to pieces. I say we give him the benefit of the doubt on this one, for all we know he'd be willing to pay us to get those people off. Either way, it'll be no financial loss on our part, you can't argue with that Peter."
Ludlow remained silent in the face of that logic.
"Then it's settled," said Hammond. "Samantha since it was your suggestion, why don't you make the arrangements. Until then, this meeting is adjorned."
The Board got up to leave, except for Samantha, but Ludlow walked over to her anyway.
"If he steals anything this is on your head," he said simply before leaving. Samantha watched him go as the doors to the boardroom finally closed.
"The joke's on you Ludlow," said Samantha angrily as she pulled out her cellphone and pressed speed dial on it.
"Hello," said the voice on the other end.
"Congrats John they bought it," said Samantha into it.
"Excellent," said John Brown on the other end. "Thank you Sam this means a lot to me."
"Now can I quit Ingen and come work for you?" asked Samantha hopefully.
"Not yet sis," John laughed at the other end. "If you leave now Ludlow could finally accuse me of industrial espionage."
"Like he couldn't already," snorted John's younger sister. "He knows we're related you know, he's not that stupid."
"Of course he does, but if he were to accuse you of anything without proof then you could openly act against in spite," John responded. "Anyway thanks for the call I'll get on it right away."
Pause.
"Are you in San Diego?" asked Samantha confused before explaining. "This line is too clear of static for you to be anywhere else."
"Yeah but not for long," John responded. "I have an errand to run and then it's right back to Costa Rica to supervise the evacuation of Sorna."
"How's Sarah dealing with all your traveling?" asked Samantha.
"She knew how much I traveled when we were dating, so this is nothing new to her," said John. "Though after this whole Ingen Debacle is over I'll be able to finally slow down."
"You know J," began Samantha hesitantly. "Based on our report, Jake's done some pretty bad things on that island. I'm a little bit worried that when you rescue him he may not be the same person he was when he left."
"Yeah I know," John responded mournfully. "But he wanted me to run one final errand for him and it still gives me hope that he still retains some flicker of his humanity yet."
"What errand?" asked Samantha, her interest piqued.
"Sorry, classified," said John abruptly. "I'll see you soon."
The line went dead and Samantha scowled before getting up and leaving the room as well.
San Diego: Stephanie Sandelder sat in her apartment reading a report from Ingen on what was going on regarding Isla Sorna that she had 'stumbled across'. She sat there both shocked and dismayed at its findings. Stephanie tossed the folder onto her coffee table in disgust as she slowly sipped her cappuccino. At that moment there was a knock at her door so she quickly hid the folder under a cushion on her couch before composing herself and opening the door.
"Hello," said the person on the other end in a dark business suit with heavy sunglasses. "I'm-."
"John Brown. I know," said Stephanie shaking her head. "I still remember you. You said Jake was wasting his time teaching me Economics."
"Yes well," said John a little put off by her accusations. "I was wrong. But this isn't about you and me, it's about Jake."
"What about him?" demanded Stephanie. "Come to say he's a madman? He's not, no matter what he's done, no matter what's become of him, he'll still always be the same person I knew."
"I know," said John nodding his head. "May I come in?"
Stephanie sighed. "Is this going to be a long visit?"
"No," said John. "I have to make arrangements to evacuate Sorna."
Stephanie's eyebrows shot up at that as John entered and sat down on her couch.
"Ingen finally budged?" she asked. "I'm surprised I didn't hear about that."
"Yeah, especially since you made off with one of their reports," John snorted.
"How did-I don't know what you're talking about," Stephanie stammered.
"Relax, Samantha agreed to cover your tracks, just make sure she gets your report when you're done with it," said John as Stephanie sat down next to him.
"Is that all you wanted to say?" asked Stephanie. "Then you can go now."
"No that's not what I came here to talk about," said John sadly. "I came to speak about Jake."
"I told you. No matter what happens to him I will always stand by him," said Stephanie. "I made a promise to him that I would and I intend to see that promise fulfilled."
"And I'm just here to tell you that Jake has gone down a path that's going to take him a long time to recover from," said the CEO. "I don't think I'll be able to help him and I don't think you'll be able to either. This is a road Jake has to travel down alone."
"Yeah well I'm still quitting Ingen," said Stephanie resolutely. "They hurt Jake and I'll be damned if I'm going to continue working for them."
"I wouldn't do that," John advised. "Being a secretary at Ingen is a very well paying job period and to give it up would be mistake. It'll certainly earn you more than going into psychology at any rate plus its steady income."
"In case you haven't heard, Ingen's going down in flames," said Stephanie angrily. "I'm going to be fired soon! Hell I'm surprised I wasn't fired already!"
"There's a reason for that," said John. "I made sure that you weren't. You work for Samantha, Samantha works for me. She's not going anywhere and neither are you."
"You're not the boss-," began Stephanie.
"If you want to help Jake you will leave him alone," John repeated.
"Why?" demanded Stephanie.
"Because the only thing Jake cares about right now is your safety. He's…smitten with you," said John slightly disgusted. "Sure he won't openly admit it but we both know it's true. He'd do anything to protect you and I suspect that's why he's doing what he's doing on that island. If you suddenly are without a job, Jake will do whatever he can to get you one and that will only further hinder his ability to recuperate from his ordeal on Sorna. I can't and won't allow it. One day he'll come to his senses and you and him can do whatever you damn well please I don't care. But until then all I ask is that you leave him alone."
Stephanie looked absolutely crushed to John and he wasn't happy about being so blunt, but he had more important things to do at the moment.
"You're a bastard," said Stephanie finally.
"I don't have much of a choice," John responded. "Because this isn't about me and it isn't about you, it's about Jake. He will come work for me but I seriously don't expect him to spend a single day doing any real 'work'; at least not until he has found his way again."
Stephanie sighed again.
"You know Jake was the best thing to ever happen to me?" she demanded. "He actually cared who I was for a change. He was always there to help me out whenever I needed it. When I needed a job to help foot some of the bills for college, he got me a job at Ingen just days later working directly under him. My girlfriends to this day say he's just waiting to take advantage of me but it's been five years since I first met him and he's yet to suggest or demand anything of me. Now you say I should move on, how?"
"With this," said John as he snapped his fingers. A pair of workers came in hauling a crate that they set down on the floor and instantly pried it open. A rumble erupted from the cage as a protoceratops tore itself loose and instantly bounded onto the coffee table and into Stephanie's arms where it cooed happily. Stephanie looked at the thing in shock before she began scratching the creature's chin where it gurgled happily.
"Steviesaurus?" she said in shock. "I-I don't believe it. I thought I'd never see you again."
Stephanie broke down in tears as she cradled the dinosaur close to her.
"How did you get your hands on her?" asked Stephanie sadly.
"I hopped by Sorna a couple weeks back and asked Jake if he wanted me to mail anything for him. This was it," said John simply as he got up to go.
"He also wrote you a letter," said John giving it to her. "And I know raising a dinosaur is going to be difficult so if you need anything the local Pacific Pharmaceuticals branch will provide it to you no questions asked. Food, places to take her for walks, anything, don't hesitate to ask."
"Why so nice all of the sudden?" accused Stephanie.
"Because it's what Jake would've wanted me to do," said John finally and with that he left with his men leaving Stephanie alone with her dino. Reluctantly Stephanie picked up Jake's letter and read it.
Stephanie, by now I'm sure you've read or at least know what I've done on this island. I make no excuses for what I've done, you know that, but I just want you to know that you shouldn't fear for me, or just plain fear me because of what I've done. I'm still Jake Whitacre, nothing's going to change that it is just that lately I've found that I've lost my way. One day I'll find myself again and then I'll see you two once more. Good luck and see you in the future. Jake Whitacre.
Attached to the letter was the photo of Jake, Stephanie, and Steviesaurus together on that happy day so long ago and Stephanie tore it off and looked at it solemnly as Steviesaurus roared mournfully at the photo.
"Don't worry," said Stephanie. "We'll see daddy soon, we'll see him soon. Just…please be safe Jake that's all I ask."
Sorna: The water in the river rippled back and forth before Jake Whitacre and Unit 17, soaking wet and extremely muddy, emerged from it and stalked off into the island.