Chapter Six

KELLY AND HIS MEN HIKED FURTHER into the island, nearly disappearing in the thick jungle foliage. They moved in silence, only speaking when they paused to check their surroundings.

Kelly became increasingly nervous as they continued. His mind would wander to the roar they had heard earlier – and he wondered what Dodgson had neglected to tell him. Surely Dodgson would have known that leaving out key information could mean death. Yet here they were – on a remote island, sneaking into a top-secret laboratory of some sort, with what sounded like some sort of monster running around. There was a reason they had quit government work. Kelly didn't like being left in the dark.

He snapped out of his thoughts when Mathews spoke out loud. "Heads up."

They shouldered their weapons as Mathews began to distance himself – walking ahead of the others. When the gap was sufficient, the other team members fell back into the staggered line formation. Mathews reached a small clearing – but there was something interesting on the other side.

"What the hell?" Briggs whispered as Kelly and the others watched Mathews cautiously cross the clearing.

He was crouched low, the fully extended stock of his CAR-15 pressed deep in his shoulder – in a ready-to-fire position.

He reached the other side of the clearing and looked up at a twenty-foot-tall, electrified fence that extended as far as he could see on either side. Every so often there were large, rectangular warning signs that read:

DANGER

10,000 VOLTS

Mathews chuckled to himself as the other men slowly joined him. "It's a… a fuckin' fence." He turned to Kelly. "The hell did you get us into?"

Kelly gestured toward the fence. "Evidently nothing, yet."

"We're just supposed to walk around it?" Davies shifted his weight.

Mathews studied the top of the fence. "No guard towers."

"Must be an access gate or an entrance somewhere." Briggs chimed in.

Kelly ran his hand through his sweaty hair. "Decisions, decisions." He studied the fence itself. There was a heavy concrete base that ran the length of it, with solid metal posts that stood high. Each post had yellow and blue lights atop it, and between the posts were thick electrified cables. Between the cables were thinner wires, set in hexagon patterns. It would be impossible for the men to crawl through. "Lights are on, I assume the fence is on. Walk the perimeter it is, I suppose."

Mathews checked his watch, which had a compass embedded in the rubber strap. "Entrances might be tied to cardinal directions. We're closest to due south."

Kelly shrugged. "Sounds fine to me."

Mathews nodded, to no one in particular, and headed off. They all fell into their formation, guns in a relaxed-ready position, as they gradually left the clearing and followed the fence from the jungle.

Mia approached the back of the Visitor Center, pausing to check each direction on nearly every step. She finally reached the concrete wall and followed its gradual curve until she stepped inside the Garage ramp. The door was closed, and she wasn't sure how much noise it would make when it opened.

Instead, as she rounded the curved side of the Center, she was struck by realization. The park was still under construction – and there was a large doorway that was unfinished. The giant double doors had yet to arrive, and so a large white tarp covered the opening.

She could hear the crinkle of the tarp in the wind as she got closer. She checked the jungles around her, the large decorative pond in front, and the tops of the rotundas on the Center – and then carefully entered the opening.

It was a disaster inside. The two huge decorative skeletons were destroyed – half hanging from the ceiling and half in hundreds of pieces on the floor along with splattered and smeared blood. Oh my God.

Mia immediately shouldered her tranquilizer rifle – finger on the trigger, ready to fire. On the ground was a Velociraptor. It had huge puncture marks, inches in diameter across its midsection.

She stared at it through the scope of her gun. The blood was done pooling out – it had coagulated. There were no signs of life – the green eyes wide open, the mouth still parted from some dying scream.

She approached it slowly, trying to keep her eyes trained on it while also checking around her. After watching it for another moment, she finally decided that it was dead and knelt to inspect it.

The puncture wounds were deep and cut clean through muscle and organs, probably even bone – and the spaces in between them were bruised and crushed. There was no doubt about it – the Tyrannosaurus had killed it. But why hadn't it eaten the raptor?

She looked around her again – high in one of the hanging display skeletons was another Velociraptor – splayed out dramatically, dripping with blood. She used the gun's scope to look at the creature. It too suffered from a Tyrannosaurus attack.

Mia began to sweat. Where was the third one? The raptors were pack animals, not loners. The last one must have been killed elsewhere, or else it would be close by. She shook the thoughts from her head – she still needed to find if there were any survivors. She steeled herself and headed to the Control Room.

She quietly walked up the concrete steps that bordered the circular walls of the Visitor Center, peering down the hallway as she reached the second level. She quietly opened a door to a narrow corridor and stepped inside.

The dimly lit hallway had large, circular windows on one wall and a floor-to-ceiling curved window on the opposite wall. This was the corridor between the Center's moving Theater room and the control rooms. The Theater was meant as an attraction for future guests – they could sit and ride the moving seats as they watched Jurassic Park's staff in the Cryogenic Chamber – where some animals were hatched and some low-level DNA processing was done – and the Control Room, where the department heads oversaw all functions in the park. It made several staff members uncomfortable – at a moment's notice, the park's visitors could see what they were doing, but Hammond insisted. He thought it would humanize the park and create appreciation for the work being done.

Mia cautiously walked down the hallway and noticed one of the large windows into the Control Room was broken. She aimed her tranquilizer gun and peered around before trying the heavy metal door. It was locked.

She looked inside and saw several computer monitors tipped over, desks were messy and unkempt – and is that a shotgun?

She strained her eyes to see in more detail. It was one of Muldoon's shotguns: a SPAS-12. It looked like it had jammed – one of the shells was still caught in the loading tube near the pump. A loud metallic bang interrupted her thoughts. Is there someone else here? She spun to find the source of the sound but failed. She waited for it again.

After what felt like hours, she heard it again. It was coming from the other side of the Center, underneath her. She aimed her tranquilizer gun and carefully walked back to the Lobby. She made her way down the concrete steps and back at the dead raptors. She peered through each room on the main floor, careful about the noise of her footsteps – the gift shop, the buffet tables…

She heard it once more. It was coming from the kitchen. She leaned her shoulder against the door, inching it open until she could squeeze through. She fought the urge to call out, asking if anyone was there. It struck her odd how strong that urge was.

Her eyes roamed the room before finally settling on a large metal door across the kitchen. It was probably a freezer door if she had to guess. It was locked, but she could see the metal was kind of buckled…

Was someone in there? She thought about approaching it – and then her heart raced, her face flushed, and she immediately felt foolish. There's a fucking dinosaur in there. And it was probably the last raptor.

She turned to leave the kitchen just as the door was hit one more time – destroying the small chain lock and scattering it in pieces over the floor. From inside the freezer, the Velociraptor let out a blood curdling screech as it jumped out. The animal had a wild, furious look in its eyes – but Mia was already sprinting down the hallway.

She didn't want to look back. She could hear the heavy, padded feet slamming against the tiled floor – the freezer was wet, and the dinosaur was having trouble getting traction.

She swung her head to look to her sides as she ran – looking for a door that looked sturdy enough to keep it at bay. Nothing looked suitable yet. The raptor let out a short screech – she could hear the toes hitting the tiles as its pace quickened.

She panicked and darted into to a door near the back of the Lobby. It had a keypad, and her hands shook as she tried to type her number in as fast as she could. Please, don't mess this up.

The raptor was sprinting now, she could hear it coming toward her – the heavy, thumping footsteps increasing as it got faster and faster.

Mia swung the door open and slipped inside – just as she moved to slam the door shut – the raptor collided with it. Mia had her full weight behind her as she muscled against the dinosaur – and won the final inches of the battle. The door closed and the magnetic lock automatically slid into place.

Mia pulled her tranquilizer gun up and took several steps back, aiming at the door. It shook with the pounding of the animal – the raptor screaming from the other side. It was pissed.

It seemed like the door would hold it back, at least for now. The animal snarled and hissed. It pounded the door and scratched at the seams.

Mia looked around – she had locked herself in a janitor closet. There was no other exit. She backed into a corner and waited.

The raptor snorted at the bottom of the door, trying to smell through the gap near the floor. It was almost making a purring sound as it tried to figure out a way in. It finally gave up, and Mia let out a sigh of relief as she heard it run away.