Chapter 1 The Island.

1

He shined the trees with his flashlight; his first mistake. Cooper was a rookie making a rookie mistake, and he was separated from his commanding officers who would've reprimanded him for not using basic common sense when on a sneaking mission: Don't wave a flashlight in the air and give away your team's position. Experience hadn't yet taught him the grave consequences of being too frightened to keep your incognito in enemy territory. He was alone. The storm carried him way off his landing zone, as it did with the others. He was so turned around; he did not know how he was going to make it to the LZ, let alone get out of these woods.

All things he was trained for, but now that he found himself in a survival situation, he needed to calm down before he could think straight. He was lost, scared, and alone in the woods in the middle of the night. Or so he thought.

"Captain is going to kill me."

he told himself aloud.

"How am i going to?.."

There was a vibration on the ground, enough to catch his senses. The tremor was like something heavy falling to the ground from far away.

*boooom*

The faint 'booms' occurred in succession, one after the other, indistinguishable from the other, only a moment apart. They were near and coming closer.

Cooper shined his light into the woods, making jerky movements of the wrist, sending the light beam in all different directions, advertising his position further. Any enemy force could see that there was life on the other end of the beam. These were all mistakes he knew better than to let himself commit, but he hadn't been trained on what to do in this scenario. The one mistake, that if his comrades ever learned what had happened to him, they would've understood. Who wouldn't have run?.

He stood still, alerted to the disturbance, but no way to know what it was.

The flashlight only traveled 50 yards before its power dimmed.

It finally dawned on him he shouldn't be waving his light around like that. If there were enemy in the area, they'd easily locate him.

He clicked the light off and almost simultaneously, the pace of the distant tremors came to a halt...then his heart skipped a beat as the tremors suddenly resumed at an even quicker pace. He needed to get out of there, fast. He broke from his stillness, running through the underbrush, trees and dirt of the jungle. Running for his life.

The towering force of nature roamed this area, feeling at home in the damp, dark forest. It was curious about the light flickering from far away in the night.

It made its way through the jungle at a calm pace, causing tiny rumbles in the landscape with every step, carefully advancing to avoid aggravating its surroundings and alerting potential prey. What Cooper didn't know, and couldn't have known, is that when the light ceased and he ran, and it was at that moment he gave himself away to the beast.

Otherwise, its curiosity of the light only lead it within 300 yards of its origin.

The storm masked Cooper's scent well at that distance and when the light went out, the great lizard may have lost interest and continued to stalk the night, none the wiser. But he ran. The worst mistake Cooper made -the last he made- was running away fast and frantic and not considering if he was going towards the LZ or further into the jungle. He was panicking and trying to get away from the danger as fast as he could.

Its binocular vision caught a movement of the tree limbs and underbrush being disturbed and then it locked onto the little pray scurrying away. Its instincts switched on and then it began its pursuit, advancing at a terrifying speed, its long legs making 20 foot strides every step. 300 yards was disappearing fast.

Cooper was going to get winded unless he thought to control his breathing, maybe affording him a little more time. He felt the earthquaking underneath him as he ran, the sound of trees moving snapping and hitting the jungle floor behind him. 100 yards was all that was left between Cooper and death, and in seconds that space was nearly gone too.

The threat was now only 50, maybe 40 yards behind him and closing. Running full speed in a full panic, Cooper now understood that no matter how hard or fast he ran, he wasn't getting away from the living nightmare closing in on him. He felt its hot breath on the back of his neck, heard the deep terrible noises coming from its mouth. He heard nothing like it before in his life. No animal or monster in a movie sounded like this thing. He looked back quickly and caught but a glimpse.

THIS CAN'T BE REAL!

His mind had broken from reason, his body was almost out of strength to keep running, but he could not believe what he saw.

Giant, scaly, powerful legs lifting and coming down, making the staggering quakes in the land that at this range was making it nearly impossible for Cooper to keep his feet on the ground. What Cooper didn't see was just before he turned his head to look. The creature snapped its enormous jaws at him, almost taking him. But a large fallen tree had interfered as its massive head pushed through the solid log and breaking it with ease.

Cooper was just at his limit and finally about to gas and kill over from running and breathing so erratically. He did the last thing he could do. The brief micro instant he had, he came to a halt, turned around, saw what it was, and all at once, comprehended it.

He was out of breath from running, but he found just enough air in his lungs to scream and almost immediately silenced.

He saw the Rex, just like the ones on discovery channel, extinct for millions of years, but he was out of time to think about the impossibility of this creature's presence here and now.

The last thing he saw was its jaws opened as wide as they open and then closing down on him.

The giant bite radius clamped shut at his abdomen fast and violently and Cooper's vision turned red as his body was effortlessly pulled off the ground, snapped into the Rex's drooling mouth.

Slinging the corpse around and chomping down on it with its huge sharp teeth, the Rex didn't stop destroying its pray til it was satisfied. Much blood fell over the jungle.

It released its bite, slinging the remains to the ground.

It fed til very little was left. Its instincts calmed and the mighty lizard returned -now with a full stomach- to stalking the night.

After everything, Cooper was labeled MIA (Missing In Action).

No one, not even his teammates, ever truly knew what happened to Cooper. Except for you and I.

2

Gail broke the lock on the rear gate leading inside the facility.

He stepped through the gate, then broke the lock of the gate after that. Regina and Rick covering his 6 as the three advanced to the security guard station. Gail notices the broken glass on the ground and the window to the security post was shattered.

The power was out in the entire facility (seen from the sky), but the security station seemed to have its own generator. The lights were on here at least; but no one was home. Gal didn't like this already.

He noted the sign that said 'generator this way'

"Rick, you're on. Infiltrate the facility and investigate as you go. Radio when you find the control room; We're going to get the power back on,"

Rick nodded,

"On it," he patted Regina on the shoulder as he moved past her, like he always did with his teammate and close friend. He entered the doors leading in to the facility and the doors swung shut behind him.

"Regina,"

She gave her attention to Gail as he kneeled down to look at something on the ground. As she approached, she could already see what he had found.

"Casings. 9mm. They opened fire in..." Regina spoke.

She observed the window and thought that maybe the fire was directed there, but she then noticed the holes in the concrete wall opposite of the post. Then she put it together.

"They fired the shots from here,"

Using her hand to Circle for Gail the place they were kneeling,

"One man was here and the other in the security post. Likely two boys on the graveyard shift. They saw or heard something. One stays, the other goes to investigate, finds the threat and opens fire."

"What were they shooting at?" Gail asked.

"I don't know. " Regina stood to her feet and walked to the post.

She leaned in headfirst through the broken window and saw nothing; the sound of crunching glass under her boots.

"They bolted. They were attacked and after his buddy opened fire, he ran back to the post. There's no bullet holes or blood, so i don't think what broke this glass was return gunfire" Regina being a forensic expert herself, Gail liked to keep her by his side so he could have more than one trained pair of eyes to examine these scenes.

Gail, still down on one knee, spotted the gap in the gate with the sign that read 'Power' and then stood to his feet and approached carefully. He opened it further, saw it was clear, and stepped through. There on the ground in front of him was a spot of bright red blood, confirming his suspicions that something deadly occurred here.

"They didn't have a reason to knock the window out, less they started firing from inside the uh... Gail?" She looked and found he was not listening to her theory, nor was even present. It was something he often did just to mess with her, as well communicate that what she was analyzing was inconsequential. This annoyed her always, especially in places like this that are already spooky enough, then looking up to realize she's herself. She noticed the gate hanging open.

"... asshole," she muttered to herself, and then went after him. She didn't latch the gate as she stepped through and observed the path in front of her. Then she looked down at her boots and she was almost standing in the small puddles of what was clearly blood.

"Ah..." she said to herself, knowing that Gail was on a trail, like a bloodhound.

She always thought it was cute how Gail would get so in the zone in his investigation that he'd follow a scent trail right off a cliff if she didn't watch him. It was an enduring quality of his. When Gail was onto something, there was no talking, just following him around until he was done;

She spent many long hours tirelessly following him around.

She noted the blood and pressed on down the path with fencing on both sides. Beyond the fence to her right were dozens of large metal trailers in what looked like a storage yard.

To her left was a fence and the ocean. Immediately, there was a deep drop off that was deep enough that someone could fall and get killed.

No doubt why they put this fence up. This path was a decent walk before you reached the front of the building with the generator inside. As she turned the little curve in the fenced path, she found Gail again down on one knee again, and right there before him was all that remained of a security guard.

Regina had seen and was quite used to horrific sights in her years as a cop and an operative of SCOUT, and the sight of bodies twisted and mangled had given her a stomach, but soupy scenes like this were still things she'd rather not see.

The sheer savagery visited on this poor guy surprised her. From the waist down, he was gone. The legs and lower body not present at the scene. One of his arms was missing at the elbow and his throat had been violently ripped out.

His whole body lay ripped and torn in a pool of blood and fleshy pieces.

"Well, that's disgusting," she said frankly, with raised eyebrows.

"This guy was eviscerated, something tore his intestines right out" Gail said, totally engaged with the scene of the crime and with no squeamishness at all.

Regina kneeled opposite of him over the body,

"Look at those tooth marks. It had to have been some kind of animal,"

Gail shook his head. His gut instinct told him that there was something worse than a psychopath running around here. Did an animal attack them and they ran from it? They couldn't kill it with all the bullets they discharged? And where's the other guard?

Gail stood up to his feet.

"Ok, let's continue,"

3.

Rick worked on getting the doors to the control room open. He was locked out until they got the power on.

The hallway was dark, and Rick was feeling uneasy there. He was feeling uneasy about this mission all together.

The darkness in the building made a great cover for sneaking, but Rick realized that there was no one to hide from. No armed security, no scientists, nothing. He had discovered no bodies on his route to the security room. It was eerie and lonely in this vast place.

Not a soul to be found so far. He leaned back against the door and reached for his radio.

Regina heard her radio beep twice and answered it, knowing it was Rick calling to hurry them up.

"Regina, I've reached the control room, but there's not much I can do until you get the power back on. I wish I brought my game gear. It's spooky in here,"

"You just stay put junior" Gail entered the conversation on his radio.

"Leave the power to me" Then abruptly left it.

"What? hey did you hear what he just called me?"

"He's got his nose in a scene. We got a body here. Messy too. A security guard mutilated,"

"Damn, we got a disgruntled worker situation?"

"Oh, you should see it. Looks like the work of a disgruntled grizzly bear. We're working on the power.

Just hang tight and stay frosty"

"One more thing. I haven't located anyone in the building. I guess the security was here to protect the property and the assets, but I figured there'd at least be a few people inside, maybe a researcher or two. I don't think there's anyone in the control room either,"

"Hmm. I don't like that. Just stay frosty,"

"Got it. Rick out,"

He put the radio back in its holster.

Damn a body. The hell is going on here?

The body of that security guard was only a few hours old. The blood hadn't started to clot and rigor mortis had only just seized the leftovers of the body. This man's killer could still be around. Gail lead the way as Regina put her gloved hand on her 9mm Beretta pistol, still in its holster, and walked just like that, ready to pull it at any sign of something that wished to harm her. The walkway ended, as did the tall fences, when they reached the door to the power room. Regina had Gail's back as he opened the door, now having shouldered his Carbine Assault Rifle. He looked inside and saw the semi truck sized power generator. The room seemed just big enough to house it and there was maybe 6 feet of walking room around it. There was no visible threat. He deemed the room safe to enter.

"Clear. Regina, you're on." He said as he stepped back out, his AR no longer shouldered but hanging from his arms just under his chest.

"I'll stand guard. Go inside and get the lights back on in this dump,"

Regina, saying nothing, nodded her head and moved forward and through the door.

She saw how big that generator was and thought this must power the entire facility.

She heard the door close shut behind her, knowing Gail closed it to guard her and the building while she worked.

She walked around the big machine, her boots clicking on the concrete floor. She was looking for a panel or something that could... AH HAH, there it was.

A Series of switches on the wall, 5 large levers all color coded, all with little pieces of paper with the names of different areas written underneath them. A small switch with a little piece of paper taped under it said 'Front Security Station' was switched on. Next to that was one that said 'Storage Yard. All except one were turned off. Simple enough. She only had to switch them all on, mildly enjoying flicking every one of them up in a row.

She turned to see the big machine hum back to life, and the lights above her turned on and illuminated the entire room.

She cracked a smile and said aloud to herself, "let there be light"

Gail stood still, observing everything in front of him, with his back to the door.

With a graying head and a five o'clock shadow, he was an aging veteran still leading a special force team at his age. 27 years of carrying out military operations hadn't slowed him down as much as he thought it had.

No one criticized him more than himself. Married, no kids, divorced and married again, but this time only to the job.

He was an intense man. A perfect soldier and a leader.

The gory remains of that security guard were only 10 yards in front of him.

Where did the rest of him go? Where's the other security guard? What attacked them...

Then an idea occurred to him and he cast his sight to the trailers, studying the tops of them, starting from where the body was and studying back to his position. There he saw something on the side of the 3rd trailer from him, something wet and crimson with the moonlight reflecting off it. The bright moon illuminated the walkway and the body enough to see, but the trailers just on the other side of the fence, not so much.

He heard the rumbling of the generator inside and then the lamps over the trailers came on and there on the trailer, the light revealed the wet spot as blood dripping down from the top of the trailer, then Gail noticed the scratches on the metal.

It happened all at once for him.

From being impatient as Regina took her sweet time inside with the generator to an intense alertness when he understood a dire realization.

Gail possessed a well-honed intuition, with his senses sharpened over the years of doing this job. The threat was close and Gail knew it was stalking him. Had been the whole time. Just on the other side of the trailers, it was prowling around, watching, waiting.

(Stupid! Stupid!) rang loud in his mind.

(Should've seen that! Getting old. Not as sharp as I once I got myself and Regina in a bad spot. What the hell is it!)

He listened. He felt the security guard's killer getting closer.

(There...to my left...There it is...)

Keeping perfectly still, his grip on his AR tight and strong, the situation was clear and deadly and Gail was at a dangerous disadvantage. He was ready for whatever it was to make its move. And when it did, he would turn to it and bring Fortunate Son (his Carbine AR he named after his favourite song by his favorite band) to his shoulder faster than any man or beast could react to, and open fire. He knew he wouldn't have the time or the breath to waste yelling 'contact' to alert Regina, but he knew that as soon as she heard the gunfire, that would be enough.

Now it was quiet. Only the distant sound of the ocean water crashing against the rocks on shore and even that was drowned out by a silence only heard in moments like this where the body honed in on a danger and can hear nothing else but what it focused on.

It was silence...Terrible...Suspended...Silence...Then It moved.

(NOW!)

Loud scurrying from between the generator room wall and the metal trailer screamed as the threat violently scratched and clawed its way through the tight fit, hissing like no animal Gail had ever heard. It sounded reptilian, close to the deep guttural hiss of a komodo dragon, but deeper. It was a large throated creature to make such a loud, frighting noise like that.

Gail turned with such an immediate response, his boots squealed and left burnt tread on the concrete. Facing it now, just as it escaped from the narrow space, there was no time to shoulder Fortunate Son. From his hip, he aimed, and as he pulled the trigger, it leaped for him.

Regina was walking around the generator headed for the door when she heard the gunfire, followed by a loud hiss and then Gail's brief howl of pain before a sudden silence.

"Gail?"

She never heard anything like that, but was more frightened by what sounded like her commanding officer being taken down. No hesitation as she pulled her Beretta from its holster and assumed the Weaver stance. Quick and careful, she approached the door she came in before. She heard nothing coming from the other side now. She grabbed the door handle and pushed down and threw it open and stepped outside, already having both hands back on her weapon, aiming out at the walkway with fences still on both sides. She saw something new. Part of the fence ripped open. She stepped out, leaving the door hanging open behind her. Only Gail wasn't here to close it this time. She proceeded down the walkway, headed to investigate the big hole in the fence.

Now several feet from the door, she heard a thick thud on one trailer and twisted towards the sound, ready to send some lead its way. In full attention, she continued towards the hole, not taking her mind off of the direction she heard the noise.

She was frightened.

Regina was a tough young woman of 31, having been a police officer for 5 years and even becoming a trained FBI agent before she joined SCOUT. Her credentials impressed, but her police work on a case concerning the kidnapping of a little girl and her subsequent rescue earned Regina a shot at SCOUT. With SCOUT is where she'd been for 3 years. In her entire tenure, she had only been this frightened once, at that old house searching, following the sounds of a child screaming for help.

Another sound of something big meeting the metal, now followed by a purring like noise. Like a bird. It sounded like the loud hiss she heard from inside the power room, almost 100% sure it was all coming from the same thing that attacked Gail. No mistake. Whatever butchered those guards is here and might have well just butchered Gail, and now it's looking to butcher her.

She reached the hole and, without lowering her gun, she turned her head to see that the fence was dripping with blood. Past it was nothing but forest below, and beyond that the ocean.

Gail was nowhere to be found here. He could be hurt, but if he fell through this hole in the fence, then he fell to his death. No way to tell. She couldn't see the bottom, just the tops of trees and the darkness underneath them.

"GAIL!" she yelled down, hoping Gail would yell back, but heard nothing.

Out of her sight, behind the trailers, the creature heard her and decided that its bullet wounds were not as important as procuring the fresh meat calling out in the night. In one leap, it was atop a trailer.

She heard the noise and turned to see, and there on the ground was what she failed to notice when she left the generator room. She realized the remains of the security guard now completely gone, and from the pool of blood it once laid was a trail of blood and footprints leading back down the walkway. The footprints shaped odd and very inhuman. In that moment, Regina felt pure terror, and then panic at the sound of fast, heavy thumps coming from the top of the trailer in front of her. It leaped up off the trailer, clearing the fence. It lands on its talon'd feet in front of her where the pool of blood was. Finally, the killer revealed itself.

"What is this!" Regina said to no one in absolute astonishment at this beast. She saw in the flesh that it was a Velociraptor.

It was big, bigger than her, at least. Its claws dripping with blood, its scaly hide reflecting light, its long head, its snake-like eyes, a mouth full of razor blades that made devouring the security guards easy.

There was an actual Raptor in front of her, and it was going to kill her if she didn't act now.

"Shit!" She fired twice before turning and running down the path back to the security post as fast as she could. She heard it pursuing her as the big sharp talons on its feet loudly clicked the concrete, hissing at her every step of the way.

She runs through the gate and quickly turns and slams it shut, latching it just in time as the Raptor crashes against it, knocking Regina down on her butt. From there she aims her pistol at it to fire, but then stops as she realizes she might be safe.

On the other side, the Raptor laid on the ground and looked to be struggling to get back up. Regina then noticed the creature was bleeding. It was injured.

She thought surely two bullets didn't do that much damage, but then she remembered the loud burst of gunfire from Gail.

And it was true. During the exchange, Gail lit him up with ol' Fortunate Son. She understood that that was the only reason she managed to just barely out run it, because it wasn't able to run at full speed. Otherwise, she would've been next on the menu.

She gets up to her feet thinking about finishing the thing off, but she wasn't sure if it was necessary, or that this handgun could even kill this reptilian beast. Before when she bolted, she shot at it and it didn't seem to be bothered by the 9mm rounds. She decided she needed to get to Rick and get away from this thing, rather it was dead or alive. She turned and walked to the next gate and as she grabbed the handle to unlatch it; she heard that purring noise and did a 180 turn to see the Raptor was back up, raring backwards, and then it jumped at least 15 feet into the air, grabbing hold of the top of the gate with its claws.

"Got to be fucking kidding me!"

Before it could hop over, Regina went through the second gate and then slammed it and latched it, too. She wasted no time. She backed away from the gate, took a knee and took aim with her beretta and waited. She heard the *kurrplump* on the other side and then the Raptor approached. She waited for it to climb this gate, and then shoot at its belly when it ascended. It attempted to do just that, but it failed, instead smashing itself against the fence.

She didn't drop her gun yet, but could see that it was too weak to try that again.

The Raptor wailed at Regina, and then turned and retreated in the opposite direction. The animal knew that he was near death and in no shape to pursue this prey any further. Then it was out of sight and then it was gone.

Regina lowered her weapon and stood up. She realized how out of breath she was. Breathing heavy she stepped to a wall and leaned against it, trying to catch her breath. She was back at the security post. Back to some place she knew was clear of danger. But she did not feel safe. As far as she knew, that thing is trying to trick her. Maybe it went off somewhere to lie down and die, or maybe it'll lick its wounds and come back for her. Maybe there's more of them. And how? How are there actual dinosaurs on this island? But at least for now, she was safe. Although she didn't feel safe, not at all. And she wouldn't until she reached Rick. Not for one damn second.

Hello, this is a novelization I'm writing for a game called Dino Crisis. Let me know what you think and I'll post more as I write them.

- Jake