Chapter Seven

THE EX-MILITARY GROUP finally approached what seemed like an entrance gate. There was a large rectangle of fence that jutted out from the rest, terminating in a double-door arrangement. It had taken them a few minutes to work the door – there was a large metal beam that acted as a lock, and evidently it was magnetic as well. With a hard pull, the beam slid back, and the gated doors were able to swing open large enough for a car to fit through, and Kelly noticed a dirt path that led north.

They entered the fence and shut the gate behind them, scanning the tree lines and the top of the perimeter for any guards. There were none.

"Seems understaffed." Briggs said as they continued their trek inward. "No guards, no visible cameras. Just electric fence."

Kelly thought about this for several minutes. "They're relying on automation and must not be expecting any surprise visitors." He looked at the path, which Mathews was already inspecting.

"Tire tracks, headed north." Mathews said, standing.

"Keep alert," Kelly added, "split into two teams. Mathews and I will take the right side. Briggs and Davies, you take the left."

"Copy that." They each took their respective sides and followed the path from the cover of the foliage. The brush on either side of the path was gradually getting longer, and now the grass was up to the men's waists. After a few minutes, Mathews spoke up. "Gettin' nervous?"

Kelly sighed. "It's getting better by the minute. Just don't wanna get caught with our dicks hanging out." Splitting into two teams had the advantage of giving the enemy two points of contact. If one group stumbled upon an ambush, sniper, or other issue – the other team might have a better vantage point for return fire, to lay down cover fire, or to lay low and wait for their opening to strike. It was a tactic they had used before when expecting something dangerous, and Mathews must have picked up on it. The whole team probably did – but Mathews was the first one to make a comment about it. "Just keep your eyes peeled."

Kelly had just finished his sentence when his footing slipped. He looked down and carefully stepped out of the depression in the ground: it was a three-toed print, at least a few inches deep and several feet wide. As he took a step back, he saw the whole thing. A footprint?

"Hey," Mathews interrupted his thoughts. "That tree moving?"

Kelly looked up and into the brush. There was something brown moving, and the surface looked hard. He shot a glance at his other teammates and gave them hand signals. Movement, twelve o'clock.

Briggs and Davies immediately stopped, crouched into the ferns, and rose their rifles up to look through the scopes. After a moment, Briggs lowered his and shrugged.

Helpful. Kelly thought. He tried to peer into the jungle but lost track of it. Was it a tank?

He heard sticks and branches crunching and tightened the grip on his rifle. Mathews brought his CAR-15 up, ready to fire.

The rustling stopped. Kelly expected to hear a door opening. Instead, a loud and low noise boomed through the air. Briggs and Davies immediately shifted their posture and raised their weapons. Then there was a second noise, more distant. It was the same tuba-like sound. Then a third, even more distant. Is it an alarm system? Kelly wondered.

The animal raised its huge head in the air, above the ferns and brush and seemed to reveal itself. It was a brown-green color, its pebbled skin marked by a long dark stripe. Its mouth ended in a duck-like bill, and a long, thick, curved crest flowed from the back of its head.

"Holy shit," Mathews mumbled. "It's a dinosaur."

Kelly grunted. "A dinosaur?"

"My kid plays with dinosaur toys all the time. It's a Para-something-saurus."

"You're sure?" Kelly was incredulous. Mathews watched the animal as it slowly lumbered away from them. Its front legs were shorter than its hind legs, giving it a hunched appearance as it walked on all fours. The tail was thick and straight, giving it balance. It was thirty-feet long or so – a bit shorter than a school bus, Mathews thought. "My kid has boxes of dino toys. I'm sure. It's a damn dinosaur."

It raised its head and bellowed again, followed by other calls as it walked into a large clearing.

"I'll be damned." Kelly said as he watched it walk away. He wasn't quite sure how it was possible, but the animal did look like it belonged as an illustration in a textbook. He was almost positive he had seen some sort of 'reconstruction' or sketch of it before. If Dodgson hired them to steal dinosaur DNA, Kelly was going to ask for a lot more money. Is that really a dinosaur?

The giant animal quickened its pace as it ran toward the others, which were all bellowing faster now. "We must have spooked them." Kelly thought out loud. They stood in awe and watched the animal join its group – there were perhaps ten of them, and they began to wander in the same direction up a hill.

"Dinosaurs?" Kelly whispered, disbelieving. "Are you sure?" He motioned for his men. Regroup on me. Briggs and Davies sprinted across the path and crouched next to Kelly and Mathews. They were awestruck too, staring at the beasts in the distance. The dinosaurs were a hundred yards or so away now. Kelly motioned toward the group of animals and casually said, "Dinosaurs. Can you believe it?"

Davies stared at the animals with his mouth open and Briggs just kept blinking.

"Like, the extinct ones?" Davies asked. "It's gotta be fake, right?"

Kelly stared with them. "No wonder Dodgson was in such a hurry." InGen had somehow gotten dinosaurs. It was groundbreaking. Nobel-Prize worthy when they went public. Dodgson was probably hoping to steal the spotlight along with the dinosaur DNA.

They were interrupted when the animals began to make more noise, calling out to each other and moving frantically. They scattered in a circle, the way a school of fish did: almost like a single, morphing organism. An organism made of thirty-foot-long cells.

Something else was running in the clearing. Is that an ostrich or something? It had a long tail, was maybe five or six feet tall, and was brown and black. It ran past the bigger animals, sort of zigzagging between the frantic beasts before continuing toward the men. It was running on its hind legs, and it looked like its arms were pulled close to the body.

"What's that one?" Kelly asked, punching Mathews' back.

"My five-year-old plays with plastic dinosaurs. I'm not a scientist."

Briggs shifted his weight as he looked through his scope. The animal was incredibly fast. "Coming right for us." It was making a sort of barking sound – loud and short noises.

Kelly looked around, then back at the running dinosaur. "How do you stop it? Yell at it?" The men shrugged. Kelly cleared his throat, "Hey! Stop! Hey! Dino-" he felt awkward saying the word so loudly. "Dinosaur!"

The running animal finally stopped, perhaps twenty-five yards from the group of men. It crouched down low in the grass, but it wasn't covered completely. The back of its long, slender body rose above the blades of grass and its head faced the men. "The hell is it doing?" Kelly asked.

Mathews shrugged. "It stopped." The animal wriggled its big hind legs, as if it were settling into a more comfortable position – but the head never moved; it looked like it was fixed in space – like a chicken or an owl. The body seemed to move around the head.

"Look, he has claws." Davies observed.

"Huh." Kelly frowned as he looked at it. There were three fingers on each hand, each with a long eagle-like talon. The feet looked like they had two toes, and a third sort of bigger, more curved claw on the inside of the foot. "Not usually a sign of friendly animals."

Briggs studied the animal. The darker markings completely gave it away among the green plants in daylight. The thing wasn't even totally immersed in foliage. "Not very smart."

Suddenly Briggs felt a sharp pain in his ribs as he fell over. He hit the ground with a grunt, and barely had time to open his eyes before a large pair of jaws clamped around his throat and squeezed – the razor-sharp teeth puncturing his arteries and windpipe.

He heard his friends shouting and the low thuds of suppressed weapons firing before his mind got foggy and he lost consciousness.