Chapter 27

Life Will Find A Way...


Some Moments Ago...

Echo was known by many to be the more aggressive and rebellious of the four since birth. She was nippier than most; anyone that was around when she was young risked having their fingers or toes bitten off it, not careful. She had challenged Blue for her position and had the scars to account for that behavior.

But right now, it was something she had to hold back. 'For now,' she thought.

Once the pack had split up in the field and separated to cover more ground, she found herself feeling like hundreds of needles were barely contacting her hid as she went into the human camp. Moving like the wind, the beaten-down grass helped hide her steps as she moved like the wind between tents and small buildings. From how far the tree line was now and how she could see the top parts of a large ship near the beach, she had to be further in the camp than she honestly thought possible.

When she heard the sound of what seemed like a group of humans, four if the different tones in the voices approached her spot, she quickly dived into a darkened tent with the flap just briefly whipping back like a gust of wind had moved it.

Peering just one keen eye through the gap, she watched as the four gradually came closer and closer. With a glance behind her to make she had some option of an escape route, she was a bit surprised to find a set of small coots with 2 lining each wall.

When the voices reached the front of the tent and paused, Echo quickly put two and two together and ran towards the back of the canvas, pushing away the flap and speeding out before the men entered. Weaving between a duo of vehicles, she was surprised to catch a brief glimpse of green and black moving past her.

"Delta?" Echo whispered just enough that when the raptor was close, she could hear it.

When she did hear it, said raptor nearly let out a surprised shriek when the brown and tan snout popped up speaking.

'What are you DOING?!' Delta mouth to her with evident anger and shock. If it were anything else, you would be guaranteed that she would have mulled it by now.

Echo, ever resilient as she was, rolled her eyes at her sister's reaction.

"Looking for our pack-mate. You?"

Delta wanted to respond to that. She knew plenty of human curses that would perfectly fit this situation that any old sailor would be proud to hear. But it wasn't the right situation, and with more restraint than Echo thought she had, she huffed and dashed away towards the east side of camp.

Feeling the little bit of mischievous nature come and gone, Echo pressed on. Dashing through one tent in just two steps without waking up the three men that were sleeping in it. She came to a larger path that had obvious signs of vehicle use; further down she could see and hear more humans still going about.

'Why are there so many of them at night? Don't they sleep at all?'

Scents, there was at least a dozen of them, all around her from several yards away to-

"Have you heard anything for the away team?" A voice said coming around the corner with the matching sounds of three sets of boots coming towards her.

Without much thought, she dived into the open tent to her left. Staying low with very slow and shallow breaths as one eye peaked between the flaps to watch the three walks passed the tent. They seemed to continue on further away, but then another set of footsteps came from that direction. Then suddenly a vehicle came roaring by with more humans passing.

Huffing she tapped a claw against the ground impatiently. Mental cursing on how she was basically stuck in here until the coast was clear or she would go out claws slicing and start the attack early.

Then there was movement to her left and the sound of water splashing. Immediately on guard Echo got low and faced what was also apparently occupying the tent with her.

A guard who was just finishing his night stood a bucket sink at the back of the tent with a mirror hanging from the metal supports. He had a bottle of water, can of shaving cream, aftershave, and his knife. Holding his chin up that was partially covered in cream as he brought the knife up and carefully started to cut away at the stubble around his jaw while humming to himself. Taking off what he felt was a decent amount before flicking it into the bucket and washing it off with the water.

Echo stayed perfectly still at the moment. Silently cursing herself as to why she didn't even remotely smell a human in here. That cream along had a smell to it that told her that he was in her for some time. A glance outside and she could still see lights and shadows moving closely on the other side. She had to wait for the best opportunity to escape before anyone noticed.

Looking at the man she crouched down low to try and blend in with the shadow he cast. She honestly felt that Delta in this situation would be better fitted for this given how she actually had black in her colors. But she digressed, staying low watching him while listening to the outside.

Flicking off the last of the shaving cream, the man put his knife on the edge of the bucket and examined his work. Despite the overhead light it was a bit hard to see in the mirror that had seen better days. Grim and residue from unknown material stained the edges of the glass while the very middle was still precise for most users. But something was off on how there seemed to be a faint brown smug on the right side that he knew for sure wasn't there moments ago.

Confused, the man tried wiping away the object with a little water on his thumb. When it didn't go away, he wondered what it was and, to Echo's surprise, spun around and almost immediately locked eyes on hers. Neither moved, not even the sound of the outside world or their breathing was heard in the brief pause between them.

That was until...

"AAHHHH!" The man screamed at the top of his lungs. Spinning around as his left hand grabbed his knife knocking the bucket over.

In a rush of adrenaline and instinct Echo screeched and lunged at the man just as fast. Using her momentum and body weight to knock them both through the back of the tent into the path.

With her hind claws pinning his arms down she went to swift at him to silence him, but fate had other ideas. The combined noise and sudden commotion brought the attention of anyone nearby that stood shocked to see their fellow soldier on the ground being attacked by a velociraptor.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

"ITS GOT PARKER!"

"SHOOT IT!"

'Oh, shit...' the last one that came to Echo's ears made her swiftly reconsider her course of action. Leaping off the downed human who tried to take a swipe at her bolted down the path as loud claps of gunfire came from behind her. Bullets whizzing passed as she dived around a truck that gained twelve new holes.

In her haste to get away, Echo didn't realize she was running back through the vehicle pool they had previously scouted through when entering the camp. Weaving around trucks, jeeps, and transports till she found herself near the back corner. With how tightly parked the vehicle were it was difficult to find a big enough gap for her to jump through.

Taking a hard left turn she didn't expect to collide with a force doing the same in her direction that made another voice let out an 'ow' upon impact and both stumbling back. Shaking off the sudden dizziness Echo looked forward to finding it was actually her sister in front of her rubbing the sore spot on her head.

"DELTA!" She nearly shouted at her sister. The green and the black raptor was a bit surprised and taken back by both the loud saying of her name and appearance of her sister but that wasn't what started making her blood boil.

"ECHO, WHAT DID YOU-" that was a clanking sound near their feet. Looking down they both found a small metal canister slowly rolling towards them.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" A voice shouted.

Without even thinking the two bolted over the object back into the open as they weaved back and forth dodging gunfire. Echo involuntarily kicking it under a transport truck as the last moment of its existence ended.

However for one man, realizing what just happened and what he had just done only had one thing to say,

"SHIT-"

*BOOOOOMMMM*


Still marching through the forest with much faster haste than earlier, Rexy could smell the human camp quickly approaching. Most of what was categorized as 'armored rams' that would do most of the wrecking; Athena, in particular, was very anxious to do some more ripping and tearing. Inda had already split off and dived into the forest to do her own thing. What that was made Rexy a bit alarmed and concerned about what the hybrid had in mind. If this plan worked, by now the sisters should have found Alex and bring him back. If he was under guard then three would stay and one would come back to tell them of the situation.

They were just nearing the edge where the lights of the came across the field was visible. It was the waiting game now. For the best possible outcome, it was the level of restraint everyone had to have before acting on it. Something that most carnivores that didn't just run at the first prey they saw have in abundance.

*BOOOOOMMMM*

All heads snapped to the direction of the sound and sudden flash. Some of the wearier flinched back at the sudden prospect at what they were about to walk into. Rexy, on the other hand, thought of a few things. Either a stupid human did a stupid thing, Inda was already terrorizing the camp, or the sisters were already in trouble.

Yeah... Restraint was a little weak for them all at the time.

Without saying any words she reached for the sky and let out half command/roar that echoed through the trees. Though from afar, the latter was most definitely heard.


While the one-man knew that his life was about to descend into a level of hell he really didn't see coming was panicking, everyone in the camp that wasn't aware of the situation was fully aware now.

The explosion of almost the entire car pool rocked the entire area so much that anyone asleep was immediately out of their tents putting on their uniforms as others raced to try and put out the fire that was expanding across the grass around the camp. Major Moore, who not even 30 seconds ago was on a satellite phone talking to one of this operation's head advisors, found himself present in the middle of gunfire, screeches, yelling, some cursing, and explosions came from what seemed like everywhere.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!?"

"Sir!" A trooper that still hadn't finished putting his uniform back on stood before him, "Rogers said that they found something running around the camp. Some reported that it looked like a velociraptor attacked Charles in his tent."

To say that the Major was a bit surprised would be saying Midway was an accident.

"Major!" An African man came running up to him and quickly saluted.

A brief glance at the man's name tag was what Moore needed to get started, "Dodson, what the hell is going on." It wasn't as much of a question as it was an order.

"Sir, witnesses say that a guardsman was attacked in his tent by a velociraptor."

This caught Moore off guard. This island was supposed to be animal-free from all accounts. It was impossible for that to be here. "Where did it come from? Are there any more? And what the hell was that explosion." The last one came out more like a disappointed father asking his son where the family car was when its missing.

"The explosion was from a grenade. Apparently someone tried to corner one and blew it up but it got a truck instead. So far they've counted three distinct assets. We don't know how many more there-"

In the distance like a mighty shockwave, an earth rumbling roar burst from the forest. Any form of a bird that was asleep in the trees all flying into the sky away from the source of the sound. It was so loud that even those firing paused for a moment to look in its direction.

"What the hell now..." Moore muttered thinking who the hell supplied them with information about this rock and if anything was left out about what was on it.

For the raptors, they all smirked, something that anyone looking would actually be shocked to see a dinosaur with an actual full-on smirk, at what was coming.

Like a fleet of freight trains in a race shaking the ground around them did a storm of roars from the treeline break out into the field in a full stamped of prehistoric giants towards the camp.

Shocked to see suck a massive collection thundering towards them many people had just moments to spare before the first triceratops came smashing its horns into a transport truck and ripping the rear half clean off the chassis. A group of at least six ankylosauruses started head-bashing through tents stomping on anything that they could.

Some soldiers tried taking shots with the high calibers. Having to quickly run, turn and aim without being crushed. But the problem with the ankylosaurus was the reason why they were like living tanks. Several shots peppered their bodies with their natural armor taking the brunt of the hits. Several areas that were weaker or not armored was where most of the damage was done with small jets of flesh and blood erupting out. Despite these hits that did count, the men couldn't hold until the animal focused on the one shooting and charged. On unfortunate man was unlucky enough to try to come up behind it and fire only to have the dino's mini-wrecking ball of a tall come swinging around and sending him nearly 30 feet back into a tent with a heavy crash.

A group of at least five jumped onto the back of a Jeep hoping to get some distance while two stood in the back. But as the car fired up, the entire front end of the car sunk to the ground with both tires buckling under the sudden strain as a dark bluish dilophosaurus looked down upon them.


In the air just above the chaos, the flock of pteranodon came flying through. The group itself divided; one dive-bombing anyone that was unfortunate to have their backs to them be suddenly picked up and carried off. The other that was much higher fanned out across the battlefield. Among them, Tracks kept his eyes out on each of the small buildings that made up the camp. Nearly a third was already a wreck and from his view, Rexy was already making her way towards the beach in her warpath. But his mission wasn't to destroy but to locate. Many times he saw the raptor sisters running around, but not Blue.

He knew that either she was taken down early, something EVERYONE knew wasn't a possibility given her stubbornness, or she found Alex.

When he spotted a fairly large building that was a bit more complex and sturdy looking than the others, he immediately dived down lower just to see the faint red cross on the sides. Coming down to the ground in a brief thud he swiftly entered before anyone outside could notice. With how clean, brightly lite, the smell of chemicals and organized it was he knew he was in the medical tent. But not even going five feet in did he spot what was so out of the ordinary.

Over in one of the corners with dozens of machines, Blue sat pressed up against a bed with her head arched over the side rails with her head laying onto of Alex's hand.


Back outside Moore was having a difficult time trying to make sense of the situation.

Half the camp was gone within three minutes from a stampede of dinosaurs from the forest, half of that was already on fire, explosions from vehicles getting crushed or accidentally detonated by gunfire, it was just like what Owen Grady said.

It was just like D-day.

Licking his lips he tried thinking of something. He wasn't prepared to be suddenly attacked by every creature on this island and they weren't even prepared for something like this.

"Sir! Orders?!" A soldier shouted to the Major running from where a flaming truck that was hurled into the air smashed into the ground nearly crushing four others.

With no other feasible options, the Major decided on the best course of action, "PULL BACK! EVERYONE PULL BACK!" Moore shouted over the gunfire and roars.

It wasn't much of an order, but more of a desperate attempt to get somewhere in this mess. Several men started running towards the beachhead, with a few trying to provide suppressing fire to cover those coming from further in from being attacked.

At least a group of thirty-plus came running to the ship. But when they got just at the crest of the hill that went down to the shore, they were shocked to see several flyers attacking the boat — trying to peck away at anyone with a weapon and grabbing those who didn't. Some were catching two people at once and flying them towards the camp. Some men tried to shoot them down, some landing their marks, but most couldn't pull the trigger for risking hitting the people.

'Thump.'

The ground shook like an underground bomb had just gone off. Many of the soldiers looking around for the source, some looking off towards the burning wreck of the vehicle pool. But Moore knew that it wasn't from there.

'Thump'

It was much, much closer than anything in the camp. A small spray of sand came off the ground like a small explosion as a large divot seemed to form out of nothing.

'THUMP'

There was a trail of the disturbance coming up along the sand. Though the holes were barely visible between each other, the set that was in front of them between them and the ramp was enough to know that something was there.

"Sir! Massive thermal reading!" One man shouted pointing ahead of them. With his helmet still on and the visor down, he and a very few others got a clear image of something huge in front of them.

It was if the world had suddenly warped and broken, the men's view was suddenly filled with a large white mass easily as big, if not bigger, than a t-rex standing between them and a remote chance at freedom.

Inda had always prided herself at being able to sneak on prey in a way that most would either resent or envy her for her abilities. While she did hate what the humans before did to her she couldn't deny that some were perks to her liking. As the saying goes, one's misfortune is another's fortune. And unfortunately to those in the past and now present, she had pulled the same trick that they just never learned.

There it was again, the moment that any living thing had, fight or flight. They had tried fighting and that was now the result of their camp now half decimated. When that didn't work they choose the next best thing and that failed them epically.

Though for a few in the crowd...

"RUN!"

It was still relevant to some capacity. And that's exactly what they did.

Inda roared out with a bellowing tone that to anyone would sound like a demonic undertone. To anything else not human, it sounded almost like laughter that made even a few glances in her direction wondering what she was thinking now.

Gunfire ran off again as some tried peppering the hybrid. With the stronger calibers, Inda was actually surprised to feel a bit of painful stinging whenever a bullet hit its mark. Her white scarred hide was starting to get riddled with red spots like an allergic reaction to something with some spots drawing some blood. But all that for just a little drop of blood.

Though to some, it would be called a tactical retreat, it was more like a wave of panicking shoppers on Black Friday surging into the nearest Best Buy racing across the field. They nearly covered most of the same ground they ran previously before Rexy came to a roaring entrance.

Flanked by Athena and a stegosaur to her left and right, respectively. At first, the men thought that maybe the two giants were going to fight each other. Some had seen the aftermath of what had happened at Jurassic World when their CEO let out the rex. Maybe they were no longer the focus and needed to get out of the way of the incoming bloodshed swiftly.

But that train of thought quickly hit the breaks when several other large animals started emerging from the camp — slowly encircling the group with either rex at the ends. Some were quickly toiling with the idea of using the higher caliber rounds that were meant to do some serious damage to creatures like these. They knew the effects of said round to a human and looked at how that turned out.

They prepared to aim and fire at some of the bigger gaps between the wall but stopped when they realized that the animals around them were covered with stuff. Not like it was just stuck to their bodies, it was too organized and fitted to their shape to just be randomly cluttered. It almost looks more like body armor they would wear in combat than just pieces of junk.

They weren't running in fear from the carnivores next to them. Carnivores weren't leaping at the chance to gored on a grand meal standing ten feet next to them. The Rexes didn't attack and they all remained in tight formation.

Everyone stood there, sweating rivers with shaky legs that made them feel like they were in a 10.0 earthquake.

This wasn't normal. This was beyond normal or whatever form of normal you could get with dinosaurs. They were working together, almost like it was planned out with the Rexes being the apparent leads of the group coordinating the others. It both shocked and amazed many. To see such a mixed cast of beings that were usually on two completely different ends of the spectrum working like a single pack of animals made the animal caretakers in the group amazed.

For Major Moore, it worried him as much as the secret service finding out there was a terrorist in the same building as the president. Armored dinosaurs, the hybrid literally ambushing them, raptor scouts, it was like a prehistoric military operation. He knew about theories that the animals were smarter than they appeared. Anyone with a deep passion for animals would tell you that. Hunting in packs wasn't anything new-just look at wolves. But this was much more than what that concept proved.

"Sir," a soldier next to him spoke. Bringing him out of his thoughts back to the situation, "orders?"

"Hold tight. Do not open fire until I say." There were a few whispers of 'yes, sirs' but nothing more.

In truth, if they had a couple of RPGs and grenades present, they would go out guns blazin' ('Mercia). First would, of course, be the predators would be the first that would need to be taken down. Both rexes, especially the hybrid, would need the heaviest focus. From what he saw there were three velociraptors, if there was more he didn't know, but if so or not it would mean they would need to be dealt with as soon as possible with how fast they could move around this mess.

But then they would have multi-ton herbivores running around and possibly just stomping them into the ground. One glance at the triceratops next to the t-rex made him agree with that idea when it made eye contact with him. Its eyes narrowed for a moment with a loud snort. As if challenging him to do something to set it off.

Then to add more fuel to the fire that was waiting for its spark to unleash hell several pteranodons came from the boat dropping others into the huddled group and swooping back to either land in the space between them and the living wall or on top of it. Oddly enough a trio came flying low from further in the camp towards the tree line. Two breaking away to join their brethren and the other came and actually landed on the t-rex's head.

Many waited to see the beast lash out and attack the pteranodon for doing such a thing. But it did the exact opposite of what any of them would think. It seemed to tilt its head to the said that the flyer was clear to and glance up. The flyer in question crouched down as if someone would tell a whisper to another when people were present.

The look in the rex's eyes was evident to all. First, it was natural like it was moments ago, then its eyes widened with what the men had to guess was a surprise of some kind. Then, when the flyer seemed to be done with what it was doing and flew off back where it came from, it turned to the group with a clear sign of an animal that was thoroughly pissed off.

It marched forward with enough force in each step if it meant to obliterate the ground under it. Coming up towards the group with its gaze moving over each soldier before it landed on Moore. Unlike the others oozing fear, he was probably the only one remotely collective at the moment.

Though that was severely being put to the test when the dinosaur came up to him, lowering its head down to brings its eyes closer to him with rage behind that was like they wanted to burst him into flames. He prepared himself as physically and mentally as possible; ready for either an ear bleeding, point-blank roar or to be swept off his feet and devoured.

But after what was a grueling ten seconds, neither came to be.

Instead, something completely different did.

"What..." to say that such a word had powerful effects on people was an understatement from the looks of utter shock that all the humans present gave off.

A dinosaur, a giant T-Rex that was standing close enough to the Major that just a single step and she could chomp him down to his boots, said in clear English with a deep, drawn-out exhale that blew into his face.

"Did you do... to... my...HUMAN!?"


Sometime ago...

Blue stood motionless at the sight of her beloved human. His broken, near-frozen form that was only broken by the small rise and falls of his chest that had several tubes running to it. Around him, in a semi-circle, he was surrounded by machines that glowed and beeped with wires leading all over him. A heart monitor to his left beeped ever slowly yet steadily like a runner just about ready to drop tired. The low hissing sound of air passing through up a tube to a mask covering most of his face. And to even the most sensitive of hearing the steady drops of IV.

He made no moves to acknowledge her presence. He was in a state far worse than when he was sick. At least then he could still move and sometimes talk.

But this...

To her, he might as well be dead and simply turned into a puppet with the controller making it look like he drew in a breath.

*BOOOOOMMMM*

The sudden sound felt like it blew her hearing out and made her jump from one world to another. She felt the ground under her move and even the building shake a little from what had happened outside. Not too soon either did she hear Rexy roar her war cry.

They were coming. They were coming to make the humans pay. She had succeeded in the first part of her mission of finding Alex knew it was impossible for the second. She knew she had to find someone and alert of them of his location to avoid accidental damage that could possibly indanger Alex even more than he was now.

But Blue couldn't. It was like fighting instinct over rational thinking. She legs refused to move away from the bed and head back to the herd that was probably now storming the camp if the sounds of roars and guns told her anything.

She did move but only towards Alex. Coming up to his right side as she nudged his exposed hand. Feeling how very little warmth it held compared to two nights ago. She couldn't' stand it. Literally, slowly she eased herself down to the floor as a dog would next to a couch or chair. Gently laying her head down on the space between his hip and hand to look up to him.

"Blue..."

She nearly jumped she heard her name called. Looking up with wide eyes to see if it was Alex, but he was still the same. When a new but familiar smell came to her she whipped around and was surprised to actually see Tracks standing some distance away with the look of shock and worry in his eyes.

He looked back between her and Alex. Looking for what to say and ask of her. But all but Blue gave was a solemn look before turning and laying back down.

Tracks said nothing as he dashed out of the tent, no doubt to go find Rexy and tell her of the situation. But Blue didn't pay much attention once she focused back on the human's face. Still no change. With a deep sigh, she readjusted herself to be further up to where she was nearly up into his arm. Avoiding the wires and large amount of bandage around his chest as she closed her eyes and let life around her be as is as she felt that if her eyes were closed like his they could still see every moment.

"Please..."


AN: 11/11/19 8:29 pm

At the time of this note being written Chapter 27 only has the very first sentence done. For most of the day, I pondered over what to do given how there are literally 50 days at the moment before 2019 is gone. Meaning that the time span between the last 2 chapters can't be done again. I'm right now debating on where to end this story as to how big the next 2 chapters will be with Chapter 29 possibly being the ending with 30 being an epilogue (of varying size).

To give the briefest run down 27 will focus on the 'Dino vs. Human' war on Pena and Alex's state for the future. 28 is currently in limbo depending on how far 27 goes and 29 will focus on the repercussions. 30 (and if there is still more to be added possibly 31 to set up something in the future. Highly debatable.) will be the grand aftermath.

Current projections if I buckle down again as I did with 26 to get it nearly 70% completed in one day is that 27 will hopefully be ready and out before Thanksgiving. 28 will maybe be 2-3 weeks after that and 29 will be hopefully in the time before Christmas up to New Years

If I don't make it before New Year hits Jan 1, I'm gonna edit on the current latest chapter as an 'extended edition' to try and tie up some stuff and the story will be deemed 'Complete' by its current state.


11/21/19 1:36 am

In a spur of the moment, I managed to crack down 2,000 words tonight. Might be able to do it again hopefully within the week and get this done sooner than expected. Currently pushing for a 5,000 chapter by the end of the weekend.


11/26/19 4:14 am

I had originally thought that I would get this done later in the next 2 days. But I guess I had a bit more drive to get this chapter done within the span of 2 days time (though it's about 2,000 words smaller than I would like it.)

I don't feel that proud of this chapter as it probably could have been plugged into the last one or have a longer continuation. But it was mostly dedicated to the fact that no matter what situation the dino vs. human battle will always fall into the dino's victory. Next 2 chapters are still planned to be released on schedule with 28 possibly starting and hopefully, have 2,000 words tomorrow for another 5K plus chapter.