Chapter Three
THE JUNGLE looked completely different at night. The lush green landscape was transformed into a pitch-black void, the pale moonlight highlighting only glimpses of foliage. The rain made everything move – the jungle seemed alive.
Mia walked cautiously down the sandy path to the Raptor Pen. She kept the flashlight off, moving only by moonlight. She was careful not to step on any branches or twigs – hoping that the concealment of darkness and the noise of the rain was enough to hide her presence.
Unfortunately, it might also conceal the presence of the raptors. She wondered how much of her stealth effort was in vain – if the raptors were out, and hunting her, she didn't stand a chance.
Hunting me. She shivered at the thought. She moved beyond the Worker's Village and deeper into the jungle. The path was narrow, and the open jungle met the path on either side. Her heart was pounding furiously.
She began to make it to the clearing – a huge sandy area with the Raptor Pen in the middle. The Pen itself was made of concrete – a rectangular enclosure with a viewing platform around the outside, four feet off the ground. From the floor of the platform was another four-foot concrete wall, and on top of that was a five-foot-tall, electrified fence that surrounded the open roof. On one end of the Pen was a tall guard tower that overlooked the enclosure. All-in-all, the top of the fence stood nearly fifteen feet from the ground.
How high did Muldoon say they could jump? She couldn't remember. She noticed a faint light amidst the falling rain…
Mia felt very relieved. On top of the fence posts were amber lights that glowed dimly in the rain. This meant the fences had power.
Well, at least now they have power. Who knows if they did before? Mia took a deep breath. She still wanted to check the enclosure and make sure the raptors were inside. She slowly made her way toward the staircase to the balcony, straining her ears to hear anything.
There was a chirping sound. What the hell was that? She jerked her head to look at the jungle around her. It was a high-pitched sound, like a chatter or a chirp. It was not the raptors – they usually communicated in screeches or a sort of bark – with depth to it. This sounded smaller – but the smallest dinosaurs they had on the island were the four-foot-tall juvenile Dilophosaurs. They had a unique hooting call, like an owl. Even if the Dilophosaurs had gotten out, their enclosure was several miles from here, near the Tyrannosaur. It could not have been them.
She paused to listen – trying desperately to pick any sounds out from the downpour of rain. She couldn't hear anything. She couldn't see anything either – the entire jungle was moving, leaves swaying up and down from the force of water droplets.
She gave it another moment before giving up. Probably a bird. I'm just being paranoid. She turned and climbed the stairs – hunched over – until she was on the viewing balcony. She kept her hunched posture – only her eyes peered over the concrete half-wall.
She looked down into the enclosure, but it was the same as the jungle – no unique movement – one giant, undulating forest. Instead, she focused on the fences and traced the wires with her eyes. She followed the entire perimeter of the fence, and with a sigh of satisfaction, concluded that there were no breaks.
The raptors had not gotten out. The power to the Raptor Pen was likely never off. What a relief. She peered down into the enclosure again – but she was going to have to use the flashlight if she was going to see the raptors.
She clicked the light on and pointed it down into the enclosure. She half expected them to jump at her immediately – but she didn't see anything. She strained to hear any sort of footsteps, breathing, snarling – anything. All she could hear was the steady white noise of the rain falling. She tried to look harder, as if she could will herself to have better vision – but to no avail.
Mia was getting frustrated. It's too damn hard to see! She heard the chirping again – another chatter like sound, a little deeper this time. It still sounded like it belonged to some sort of petite bird. She whipped her head around, shining the light into the jungle behind her – and saw nothing but the soaked leaves.
"Damn it!" She coarsely whispered and turned her attention back to the Raptor Pen. She scanned the enclosure, back and forth several times. She was looking for any sort of pattern to the movement – rustling foliage that followed a path, plants abruptly stopping…
I can't see a thing! She tried to wipe the falling water away from her eyes and brushed her dark hair out of her face. She stuck her head closer to the fence, trying to hear any of the raptors making a sound – but all she could hear was the pounding of the leaves on the water. She made another scan, front to back…
And then she saw a single, green eye with a vertical pupil. Staring right at her.
It was one of the Velociraptors. Now that she saw it, she could make out its brown and black scales. It blended incredibly well with the shadows of the leaves and dirt. It was standing broadside to her – and she could only just make out the outline of its slender, thirteen-foot-long form.
It stood perfectly still; the head tilted. She watched it for a moment… more than a moment. It was chilling. It never moved. The translucent nictitating membrane flashed over the eye quickly. Mia knew that several animals possessed a "third eyelid," mostly reptiles and birds. They protected and moistened the eye while maintaining vision.
It doesn't want to lose track of me. The thought made her break into a cold sweat, despite the heat of the tropical island. Without moving the flashlight, she looked to the sides of the raptor. You see one, you see the others.
Sure enough, she noticed two more pairs of eyes staring at her – the dilated pupils reflecting the spill of the flashlight like a cat's eyes. In fact, their behavior at the moment struck Mia as very feline. It was as if you'd caught a house cat in the middle of stalking a mouse.
The raptor on the right seemed like it was mid-stride, with both feet planted on the ground. Its head faced Mia and its tail was perfectly straight and still. The one on the left was in more of a crouched position, its arms held close to the body and the head slightly bobbed forward.
They are fucking creepy. Everything about them was unnerving. The way they stood, like six-foot-tall bronze statues of birds – not moving a single muscle; the rain and leaves falling and brushing against them.
What if Muldoon placed decoys in the enclosure? Maybe he had tried to get them accustomed to more members in the pride. She became frantic. Maybe they did escape after all. She couldn't remember how high they could jump…
She moved the light over to the raptor on the right, watching it intently through the pouring rain. Was it breathing? She strained her eyes…
Yes, very slowly. It was controlling its breathing, almost a still life. But it was breathing. These were the raptors. She let out a sigh as she realized how foolish she had been in her worry. She shined the light back to the center – and that raptor was gone. There was no sign of it. It had disappeared into the underbrush, silently, like a ghost.
Mia started to sweat even more and her spine chilled. She wondered if they knew they couldn't get her. Anyways, she had her answer. They were here, hadn't escaped, and the fences were still on.
Mia slowly let herself down the stairs and back to the sandy ground. She felt unnerved still, like she shouldn't turn her back to the Raptor Pen. It was that eerie feeling of something watching you, and it took a great deal of effort not to sprint to the path.
Instead, she rounded to the edge of the jungle where she had heard the chirping – a last ditch effort to find the culprit. As she expected, she couldn't see any animals moving in the dripping brush. Oh well.
She took one look back at the Pen – and shivered – before heading down the path to the Worker's Village. Now that she knew the raptors were still housed, she felt much better. Perhaps the roars of the Tyrannosaurus have just carried extra far, or maybe it was just being louder during the storm. Maybe none of the fences were off, and it was just a localized power issue with the buildings.
She reached the Lodge and tried the door one more time. She hadn't really expected it to work, since the lights outside the building were still off, and it didn't.
She decided she would head back to the emergency bunker and wait until morning.
