Taking the Next Step

Back at the Visitor's Center, Hammond was pacing lividly, though it was hard to tell over what.

"I will kill Nedry," he growled. "I will kill him."

Muldoon followed him back and forth to try and get him at ease, but their knitting was interrupted as the door burst open. In stepped Dr. Sattler, followed by the Grangers in slippery yellow raincoats with the park logo printed in red and black.

"Dr. Sattler!" Hammond gasped. "Mr. and Mrs. Granger! Perhaps you've found a sign of him?"

"Who?" Paul puzzled.

"Dennis Nedry, our chief programmer," Muldoon explained. "He practically ran the whole park himself until now. Probably from the loo, he was that big."

Paul and Jane hung up their raincoats, wrinkling their noses and bearing their front teeth, not unlike their daughter, whose eyes widened although this was no discovery to her.

"Where's Harry?" Hermione squeaked. "He should have been back by now."

"It seems Nedry put a stake in those plans, kid," Muldoon dismissed. "He shut the whole park down from vehicles to perimeter fences in all but one paddock."

It was here that made Hermione's parents perk their heads behind them, but they noticed their daughter biting her lip, which was a sign that something worried her.

"I don't suppose... you mean tour vehicles as well?" Hermione presumed with hesitation.

"I'm afraid so," Muldoon confirmed.

"Harry!" Hermione gasped, not hearing Dr. Sattler simultaneously gasp.

"Alan!"

If Harry were with Hermione, her cat's curiosity would be in full swing watching Arnold scroll through masses of incomprehensible computer commands, his cigarette practically burning his lips.

"Can't you do anything to get the system going again?" Sattler requested. "I mean, what's hanging us up?"

"I ran a key check on every stroke Nedry entered today," Arnold replied, gesturing to the screen.

"It's all pretty standard stuff, until this one: Keycheck /space-o keycheck off safety-o. It's like he doesn't want anybody to see what he's about to do. But this next entry is the kicker; .obj. Whatever it did, it did it all. But with Keycheck off, the computer didn't file the keystrokes. Only way to find them now is to search the computer's lines of code one by one."

"How many lines of code are there?" Sattler asked.

"About two million," Arnold replied.

"Two million," Sattler sighed. "Great."

"Robert," Hammond requested. "I wonder if perhaps you would be good enough to take a gas jeep and bring back my grandchildren.

"Sure," Muldoon agreed, heading for the door.

"I'm going with him," Sattler decided.

"So am I," Hermione added.

"Not so fast, young lady," Paul interjected, stepping in his daughter's way.

"Dad, my best friend is out there, stranded in a powerless car!" Hermione insisted.

"That may be..." Paul reaffirmed, shifting an uncomfortable gaze to Hammond. "And I'd react as such too if my trust was breached. But one must be quick to point out the dangers of the outside world, case in point, unhinged predators."

Hermione bit her lip again as tears began to swell and Paul and Jane stepped in to comfort their daughter. Hammond had stopped his pacing and joined them with a look of condolence; pale, sweating, and leaning on his cane.

"John!" Arnold called, twice. "I can't get Jurassic Park back on line without Dennis Nedry."

Back on the tour path, Ford 7 was still crushed and sinking into the mud. Harry, with his skinny frame, was able to slip out through the window easily, though he felt a slight fang of disappointment that his new clothes were covered in mud from the ground.

But Harry knew he was lucky not to lose his hat, as in hindsight, he was not immune to any girlish cries for help;

Back through the window Lex's top had gone from purple to brown, and so had her face.

ForHarry, this was not unlike the near-fatal encounter with a basilisk he'd had a month prior. Quickly, he grabbed Lex in his left hand, catching something else in his right, before using it to get a tighter hold on her.

"Harry!" she sobbed, repeatedly.

"I've got you Lex!" He reassured her.

Truthfully, he had no issue pulling Lex out, as she was about his scale, apart from the couple of inches separating the hair off their heads.

Harry's head shot up as he heard the sound of more footsteps in the mud. He was relieved to find it was only Dr. Grant finally catching up to what was left of Ford 7.

But as Harry was already ahead of him, Lex was nearly out, except someone else was grunting.

"I'm stuck!" Tim cried. "The seat's got my feet!"

Once Lex was out, Grant crouched down to help Tim, but out in the mud, on her knees, all she could do was scream, to which Harry clasped his hand over her mouth before it could go into his ear.

"No!" Harry whispered.

"Don't move," Grant added, now huddling next to them. "She can't see us if we don't move."

Harry tried to resist the urge to roll his eyes, as he didn't see Grant get next to him. But the Rex's head was looming above them, three-toed feet sinking into the mud, her sniffer blowing Grant's hat off his head.

As they were all kneeling, Harry felt the hat land at the joint behind his knees. As if she could hear it drop, the Rex spun Ford 7 to its other side, still searching for the rest of her meal. Harry, Grant, and Lex were all jerked in the same direction, Harry still grabbing onto Lex as she tried hard to stop crying.

But he felt Grant's hatrolling tohis heel and was fast to kick it off like a football, catching it before they had to freeze again.

Now, it was Tim's turn to scream as the Rex continued butting the car. The others kept their heads down, but they'd forgotten they were on the edge of the road, and as the Ford swerved their way, they'd tumbled backwards, onto the fence separating it from the paddock.

They kept calling Tim's name, but the front of the car was thrust into their path, and with the rain still pouring, they were ready to slip off the damp edge, a long way down to the forest floor.

As they tried to watch their footing, Grant spotted a few loose wires from the fence, along with Lex slipping in circles around Harry's feet.

"Harry!" he gasped, throwing him a wire. "Grab her and shimmy down."

"What about you?!" Harry cried.

"I'll follow you," Grant promised. "Just go!"

"Come on, Lex!" Harry ordered.

He finally threw Grant his hat before grabbing Lex's right hand, accidentally spinning her around his back, to which she thrust her arms around Harry's neck, bringing out a slight choke.

Harry would have claimed it was totally unexpected, though someone of Grant's age would have thought differently, had he not been so caught up in the heat of the moment.

Even so, Harry grabbed the wire and shimmied over the edge, before breaking with his feet, thankful the wire was at least slippery.

"Don't worry Lex," he gasped. "Hermione says I slide into bottomless pits all the time during the summer."

"What?!" she cried.

"Forget it!" he yelled.

Perhaps Harry had spoken too soon, since the front of the car was now peering over the edge, right above their heads.

Suddenly, there came another metallic twang, as Harry and Lex spotted Grant sliding down a loose wire to the right.

"Grab ahold!" he called.

Harry kicked off the wall with plenty of might and swung towards the other wire, Lex's grasp on his neck tightening as they missed the first pass.

"Lex, the other wire!" Harry choked as he sprung off again. "Now! Grab it!"

Hardening the chokehold with her left arm, she stretched out her right and finally grabbed the wire as the hood of the Ford was completely over the edge while the rest of it sailed into the nearest tree below.

Lex had watched the whole thing with terrified eyes, knowing her brother was in that car. Yet that didn't stop her from hanging tightly to Harry, who was sliding down the wire with the ease he had in flight on a broomstick.

Grant, too, followed them to the bottom of the paddock as the Rex's roar carried off into the distance.

At the base of the concrete wall, a man-sized drainpipe emerged, collective rainwater pouring from the end. Grant stuck his face and hands in to wash off the mud, as well as any gashes they would have taken.

Harry awaited right behind him, but still he remained within Lex's hold as she kept coming up short of breath, her eyes still wide.

Once Grant was finished, he faced the tree where Ford 7 awaited, its headlights still on.

"Timmy!" he called. "Tim!"

Receiving no reply, he dashed back to the drainpipe, where Harry was taking his turn to wash up. Lex was completely stiff, although she seemed to move ever so slightly if the water dripped onto her.

"Are you two alright?" Grant interjected.

"I am," Harry replied with a clean, straight face.

He sprinkled some water drops on Lex's arms to loosen her up, but Grant still had to pry her from Harry's back.

"Lex..." Grant began. "Listen! Listen to me Lex. I'm right here. I'm going to look after you, but I have to go help your brother. So, I want you and Harry to stay here and wait for me, okay?"

"He left us!" she cried, still ramrod. "He left us!"

"But that's not... what I'm going to do," Grant finalized, pulling her close. "Okay?"

Lex nodded her head as Grant handed her back to Harry, who was still gathering water.

"Here," he offered.

He gently poured water into her hands, as she slowly began to scrub them, before going back to get more. With two hands, he gently scrubbed at the mud off her face, which gradually seemed to calm her down, as she was now breathing slower and deeper.

Once finished, he climbed into the drainpipe and held out his hand for hers. As he pulled her up, they seated themselves on the edge, finally loosening up to the sound of running water.

Harry exhaled as he noticed Lex shifting quite close to him, being that this whole space was much more intimate.

"You saved my life," Lex whispered.

"Sure," Harry shrugged after a pause.

He held up a finger before reaching into his left pocket, removing its contents and sticking them in the water, still perfectly concealed. Lex leaned forward curiously, before Harry took his hands back out.

She noticed he was also squeezing water out of his hands, thus it had to be something soft.

"What's that?" she queried.

"I saved this for you," Harry explained.

In his hands, he presented Lex with her cap, which had been off during the Rex attack.

"Thanks," she gasped.

"You're welcome," Harry concluded.

Lex took the cap, a faint smile stretching across her face as she cradled it in her hands, probably thinking it was too soggy to put back on.

Glancing out the pipe hole, Harry spotted Grant climbing the tree, up to the car. He was beginning to feel sympathy for Tim, remembering one of Dudley's other birthdays.

Vernon's confrontation with him the other night was bad enough, so Harry was glad he wasn't up a tree. Being thrown up there by a Tyrannosaur was certainly worse than being chased up one by Marge Dursley's bulldog.

Also, Tim was up higher than Harry had been, given how small the Dursley's backyard was. Watching him and Grant clamber down, he felt a pang of envy at the ease they were moving.

Still, another part of him felt that wasn't a fair assessment; it was so ambient, one could hear a twig snap, or in this case, a branch;

Quite a few of them, actually, as the Ford was diving out of the tree, headlights first, after Grant and Tim, his cries echoing across the paddock

"Go!" Grant kept ordering. "Go, Tim!"

The car was dropping slowly, but even as Grant and Tim's feet were back on the ground, the car was rested against the tree trunk. Time was short until the ambience was broken again, here by the springing of metal struts.

"Go, Tim!" Grant repeated.

They climbed out of a root they'd landed in and ducked as the Ford came crashing down upon them one last time, miraculously catching them through the sunroof.

"Well..." Tim panted. "We're back... in the car again!"

"At least you're out of the tree," Grant sighed.

Back inside the culvert, a sound like that crash was more than enough for Harry;

"Come on," he whispered to Lex.

He jumped out of the pipe and raced towards the fallen car, Lex would have followed, if not for the tears still in her eyes.

"Dr. Grant!" Harry called. "Tim! Are you alright?"

He got on his knees as a hand, smaller and scrawnier than his own, popped through the open door. Harry quickly pulled Tim out, which was a much easier task than helping Dr. Grant.

"Thanks, Harry," Grant exhaled. "Where's Lex?"

"What are you talking about?" Harry puzzled. "She's right here with..."

He turned around, but Lex was still hiding in the pipe, slowly banging her head against it.

"Okay," Grant sighed. "Okay."

From his back pocket, Grant removed a yellow-bordered pamphlet printed with the park logo, unfolding it to reveal a sort of park map, really nothing more than a cartoonish green speck on a blue background, with mere labels pointing out the various sections of the island.

"Where'd you get that?" Harry asked.

"The Visitor's Center," Grant replied. "Picked it up during the slide show."

Harry and Tim leaned in to get a look for themselves, but even they weren't immune to the confusion.

"Well, we can't go back the way we came," Grant concluded. "What we have is a free-range T-rex on the road, fences on either side. If we meet her between here and the lodge, we'd have problems. But what this means, is that this whole paddock is empty."

"Why don't we get Lex first?" Tim suggested.

"Right," Grant murmured, putting the map away.

Harry, once again, was a step ahead as he waited at the mouth of the drainpipe, Lex only sticking her face out of the shadows when she saw him.

"Lex, come on!" Harry begged.

As he felt Dr. Grant place a hand on his shoulder, there were two pants going through him; one was relief that someone was there to help him. The other was irritation over his attempts to communicate with Lex being treaded upon.

"Lex, you're going to have to get out of there," Grant insisted. "Hiding isn't a rational solution; we have to improve our situation."

But Lex still wouldn't move, even after Grant pulled Tim over, yet Harry could tell that was a last resort for him.

"Tim's out here," Grant continued. "He's okay."

Harry glanced back at them before straightening his hat and climbing back into the pipe, seating himself next to Lex, who seemed a more relieved by now.

"It's okay, Lex," Harry whispered. "We're just going to walk back, we'll all be together."

"It's safe?" she pleaded.

"It's safe," Harry promised.

"Okay," she muttered.

Harry took Lex by the arm and slowly led her out of the pipe, joining Tim in trailing Dr. Grant through the paddock. Lex remained close to Harry, which would have been uncomfortable had circumstances not been what they were.

"Might be kind of slow, but it can't be more than three or four miles," Grant reassured them straightening his own hat, though it was evident he was still nervous.

"I'd hoped the rex finished feeding by now, but let's not kid ourselves," he continued. "After all, a carnivore can eat up to twenty-five percent of its body weight in about one sitting, so she's probably just ready to move on to the main course by now..."

"Dr. Grant," Harry interrupted. "Not be rude or anything, but really, given what we went through a few minutes ago?"

"Of course," Grant realized, shaking his head.

Off in the distance, another roar blew across the paddock, but all except one appeared to ignore it.

"Do you hear that?" Lex whimpered.

"No, we're okay," Harry insisted, grabbing her tighter. "We're okay."

As they kept walking, Dr. Grant glanced around for a safe place to hide, mostly to the trees towering above them. But over his shoulder, he noticed Harry struggling to carry a sleepy-looking Lex on his shoulder.

"You guys look pretty tired," he mused. Why don't we find someplace to rest?"

Another roar across the savannah was all Grant needed to make his point as they came upon probably the largest tree he could find with tangled branches.

"Like, say, about now?" He suggested. "C'mon! Hurry up! Like this tree?"

"Why are we hurrying if there's nothing wrong?" Lex asked with a tinge of sarcasm.

"What if we fall?" Tim whispered.

"Now's not the time for questions!" Harry dismissed, uneasily. "Now's the time to climb!"

He started up the tree first, stretching down from the first branch to pull Lex and a begrudging Tim up, Grant staying behind to give them an extra push.

"I hate trees!" Tim complained.

"Yeah, join the club," Harry agreed.

"They don't bother me," Lex shrugged.

"Yeah, you weren't in that last one," Tim retorted.

Upon reaching the top of the tree, Harry placed another hand on Lex, Grant doing the same to Tim, both too tired for any more arguing.

With their backs against the tree, the children sat dangling their legs, while Grant climbed up to a higher branch to try and get a better vantage point.

Before them was an incredible jungle view, under a magenta sky slowly turning to violet. But most striking of all were dozens of long necks with reptilian heads, looming over the brush.

"Hey, those are brontosauruses!" Tim exclaimed.

"You mean brachiosauruses," Harry corrected. "We saw plenty of them when we got here."

"No, no, it's okay to call them brontosaurses," Grant assured them. "It's a great name. A... romantic name of sorts. It means... thunder lizard."

"Thunder lizard..." Tim mused, an ear to ear grin stretching across his face.

"Speaking of which..." Grant teased.

Gestured to Lex still nestled remarkably close to Harry, both of whom were blushing, yet still too tired from all the heat.

But Grant wasn't disappointed over his chance for a laugh being ruined. The eyes of the three males in the tree widened as a soothing chorus of hoots, like the call of a whale, echoed across the park.

"They're singing!" Grant gasped.

Harry eyed Grant curiously, for this kind of excitement was not unlike Hagrid's, as he circled his hands around his mouth like a didgeridoo and let out a low bellow of his own.

He had to admit, it wasn't a bad impression, considering five or six of the brachiosaurs were turning heads in their direction, hooting back with strings of leaves in their mouths.

Remembering a previously hidden talent of his, Harry maintained his fixation on the brachiosauruses like the python he'd set on Dudley at the zoo.

"I wonder if..." he muttered while Grant continued his blowing.

"No, no, stop!" Lex begged "Stop! Don't let the monsters come over here!"

"They're not monsters, Lex," Grant explained. "They're just animals. These are herbivores."

"That means they only eat vegetables," Tim teased. "But for you, I think they'd make an exception."

"Tim," Grant scolded.

"Well, I hate the other kind," Lex concluded.

"They're just doing what they do," Grant furthered.

If Harry were at the Burrow, he'd have expected this kind of teasing from the younger Weasley sons, which would have prompted a death glare from Mother Molly. That and his experience with his recently departed relatives was enough for him to keep his mouth shut.

"Dorkatops!" Lex chaffed.

"Straight-A brainiac!" Tim retorted.

"Could you guys possibly stop that for a minute?" Harry requested.

Recalling more home drama within the Burrow, Harry resigned to leaning against the tree as Grant climbed off the branch and settled in next to him, wincing a bit like he'd felt a slight pinch in his rear.

Shifting a little, Grant removed a long, curled talisman from his back pocket. From its shape, it looked like a sort of claw, which Harry could only guess had to be a dinosaur, given he hadn't seen a curled tooth before.

Harry noticed Grant's hold on the claw seemed bittersweet, as if this old fossil had once been priceless to him.

Grant, meanwhile, glanced over at Harry with a different kind of sympathy than he had for the others;

Both of them wedged themselves on either side of him, Lex a touch close Harry, looking quite content with him. That, along with most Harry's other reactions that day seemed to speak in tones similar to his clutch.

As Grant put his arm around Tim, he dangled the claw over the tree branch, though it seemed even kids could spot troubling thoughts in adults.

"What are you and Ellie gonna do now if you don't have to dig up dinosaur bones anymore?" Lex asked.

"I don't know," Grant shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to evolve too."

Harry felt a pang of guilt, as brightening the mood wasn't his strongest suit, but not for long.

"What do you call a blind dinosaur?" Tim asked.

"I don't know." Grant shrugged. "What do you call a blind dinosaur?

"A Do-you-think-he-saurus," Tim replied.

Harry, Grant, and Lex laughed, but it seemed Tim wasn't finished yet.

"What do you call a blind dinosaur's dog?"

"No idea," Harry chuckled. "What?"

"A Do-you-think-he-saurus Rex," Tim finished.

The others kept laughing as their eyes finally began to close, but one pair remained open.

"Alan," Lex whispered. "What if the dinosaur comes back while we're all asleep?

I'll stay awake," Grant suggested.

"So will I," Harry agreed, leaning up a little.

"No, Harry..." Grant insisted

"All night?" Lex pleaded.

"Yes," Harry promised.

Lex smiled as she closed her eyes, laying her head on Harry's shoulder, who watched Grant drop the claw to the ground. Harry smiled sadly, knowing his gamekeeper friend had a heart too soft to resort to the same thing.