Chapter Fourteen

KELLY FELT INTENSE FEAR in the moments that followed. Mia had started sprinting down the path, and she was almost beyond eyesight. He wondered for an instant if she had taken the opportunity to leave them. He shouted "Go!" as the jungle around them came alive with the rattling sounds of the dinosaurs' frills. The small one he had hit with the tranquilizer was long gone, crying in the bushes. He started to rush forward, forgetting about loading another dart in the rifle. He could hear Mathews behind him, firing shots into the jungle.

Mathews was trying to be conscious of his ammunition usage. He was squeezing off one or two rounds at a time – not taking the time to aim carefully at any of the dinosaurs. It was a tactic the men had used before to create covering fire. Sometimes, all it took was the act of shooting toward your enemy to discourage them. As the group ran, he was spinning behind him and trying to keep the dinosaurs at bay with the sound of the gun and the whizzing of bullets. If I happen to hit one, good. Maybe it will just scare them off.

The adult Dilophosaurs towered over the juveniles. They were fifteen or twenty feet long, and both were running at the group.

Mathews ran out of bullets, ejected the empty magazine, and loaded a new one in his gun - trying to aim a little more accurately at the two full grown dinosaurs. It looked like a few of the bullets hit their marks. All the Dilophosaurs stopped running, and the two adults stood high on their back legs, screeching loudly.

The further they ran down the road, the quieter the animals were. They're not following us anymore, Kelly thought. The hissing and the coarse screeching were fading into the distance. God, they sound horrible. The hooting that the small dinosaur made almost sounded curious – docile. The sounds they made when they were aggressive were completely different – the stuff of nightmares. It wasn't so much a roar as it was a raspy attempt at a roar. They sounded ugly and extremely intimidating.

Mia began to slow her pace, feeling safer now that she was far away from the animals. She heard Mathews shooting every so often, and suddenly remembered the gun she had slung around herself. She put her hands on her face, wiping the sweat, feeling foolish for not shooting as well. She had just ran – fight or flight. She was shaking, and she crouched, trying to catch her breath and calm down. As her lungs stopped burning, her attention shifted to her skin. The Dilophosaurus had spat venom at her, and the black tar-like substance had smacked her right below the collar bone. Her skin was starting to burn – a tingling sensation: like someone had poured a weak acid on her.

She got up and walked to the edge of the road, picking a large, broad leaf from a plant and began to wipe the venom off with it. As she tossed the leaf into the road, she looked up to see the men jogging toward her. Good, they're all there. She felt guilty about leaving them – but they would probably understand.

Or not. As she slowly walked to meet them, she noticed Mathews had his gun trained on her. She stopped in her tracks and held her hands up – she could start to smell the burnt gunpowder and the barrel of the suppressor was trickling smoke. Shit.

Kelly was loading another dart into the tranquilizer gun as he approached Mia. "Tryin' to leave us?"

She shook her head. "I just – I didn't think-"

"That's right, you didn't think." Kelly looked at Mathews, who had the gun trained on Mia. He put his hands on his hips. "That wasn't very nice."

Mia's face started to flush with a seething anger. Kelly's tone could not possibly have been more condescending. She didn't want to piss them off more, but she couldn't help herself. "Thought you were professionals. Try to keep up."

Davies groaned from the back of the group. "Ah, just fucking shoot her already."

Mia began to shake again. Is that what they were planning to do?

Kelly shook his head. "He doesn't mean it." He gave Mathews a look, and he finally lowered the weapon.

"I'm sorry," Mia admitted, "I'll try not to do that."

"It would be preferred."

"I panicked." She sighed. "Did anyone else get spit on?" She looked at the members of the group – Davies was looking pale. He looked clammy, though it was impossible to tell if the sweat he was drenched in was caused by the jungle or a fever. The velociraptor bite might be infected. It would not be unheard of – not that the raptors were venomous, but that any animal bite may introduce bacteria or pathogens under the skin of the victim. The microscopic organisms multiply, and infection ensues. "I'll have to look at your arm soon."

Mathews raised his hand, almost comically. "I got hit here," he pointed to his neck, "and my hand. Burns like hell."

"Yeah, mine too." She pointed at her clavicle. She walked to the side of the road and grabbed another leaf, using it to wipe the rest of the foamy, slime-like substance off Mathews. "It'll go away after a while."

She led the way again, walking further down the path. She began to shake, and her heart raced as she thought about what Davies had said. He seemed so casual in his remark. She had assumed that the desire for survival would have outweighed any decisions like that – but perhaps it was necessary to their survival. They were basically mercenaries, after all. Had they planned to kill her the whole time? Why hadn't they done it yet? She had already explained where the East Dock was – it was just a matter of following the service road at this point. Maybe they planned to do it once they boarded one of the Ranger boats.

Yet, Kelly had given her his rifle. She still carried it. Was he trying to buy her trust momentarily with it? Did he think she wouldn't use it? He might be right – she hadn't used it so far. In her panic to escape the Dilophosaurs, she had forgotten she had it.

She tried to think of her own survival. Maybe that meant leaving the men behind. I can't leave them to certain death. It just was not in her to do so. She had to find a way to secure her own safety – maybe it meant threatening them? She wasn't sure.

They approached a small ravine and the road entered a tunnel through a small mountain, a signpost at the entrance was labeled 'East Dock,' and an arrow pointed upward. Mia's train of thought was broken when they approached – something was crossing the road – a line, or a cable. For a moment, Mia thought it might be one of the electric fence cables, pulled taught at waist level.

"The hell is that?" Kelly said as they got closer. "No way."

It was connected to a Jeep, sitting atop a hill to the right of the road. The stone and mud looked slippery; no doubt waterlogged from the rain the night before. The Jeep's lights were all off, the doors both closed. The tow cable ran from the winch, across the road, and to a large tree on the left.

It must have been someone last night. Mia thought. One of the park staff must have been late and taken a Jeep to the East Dock. When the staff evacuated, it was protocol for them to take the island's only bus. It was more of a utility vehicle with a lot of extra seats rather than a typical bus – it was a large, rugged, six-wheeled vehicle modified for off-road usage that was painted like the Safari explorers: green and yellow with ride stripes. Whenever an event dictated moving a lot of staff, the vehicle was used. As with all the other vehicles on the island, the 'last man' driving left the keys in the ignition.

Not that it helped Mia, the bus was probably parked at the East Dock. It did mean, however, that someone had missed the bus to the docks and tried to drive a Jeep there. Mia wondered if the person was still inside the Jeep or if they had run the rest of the way. Or maybe they're dead. She shuddered at the thought.

Kelly began to move past her. If the Jeep were functional, it would be a hell of a lot faster than walking the rest of the way. He cautiously approached the ravine, scanning back and forth with the tranquilizer rifle. There didn't seem to be any movement.

Mia kept close behind him, trying to see past him into the vehicle. It was Jeep #12 – outfitted with searchlights on the light bar and a tan cloth-top. She could see the passenger side's plastic window was ripped apart. That doesn't look good. Whoever had driven it had probably been attacked. She raised her rifle, looking around the ravine and the surrounding jungle.

"Body." Kelly said, inching up the rocky hill. Mia stood her ground on the road at the bottom of the ravine. She felt her heart race as she heard and processed Kelly's word.

Mathews quickly joined Kelly at the top of the hill. Both men had their rifles drawn and were inching toward the vehicle – both eyes open, scanning the inside of the Jeep as well as the jungle around them.

Mia was getting nervous. What if it's still here? She wasn't even sure what animal could have attacked the Jeep. Maybe it was a Dilophosaurus – they were pretty close.

Kelly could see some something moving inside the Jeep. "Movement." He said in a coarse whisper. Mathews gripped his rifle harder, peering inside. The sunlight of the afternoon made it difficult to see inside the darkened vehicle, and Mathews tried to adjust his position to see better. Kelly desperately wanted to clear the vehicle. It was almost a miracle it was here – a gift from above, perhaps. He positioned his body sideways and Mathews approached the door head-on. He stopped a few feet from it, and Kelly stretched his arm toward the door handle of the driver's side.

Kelly nodded slowly. One… two… three. He pulled the handle up and swung the door open, quickly stepping back to keep the doorframe clear. Mathews rushed forward a step, ready to fire.

Inside the Jeep was a yellow form, stained with bits of red. It took a moment for the men to see what it actually was: the dead, maggot-covered, half-eaten body of Nedry. A dozen or so small, green dinosaurs scattered like cockroaches in bright light. They hopped out of the vehicle – some ran underneath the Jeep, others sprinted into the nearby jungle.

Mia only caught a glimpse of them. They were no larger than a chicken – standing only a foot or so tall. They had long, thin tails and a slender neck. "Compies?" She wondered out loud as she made her way up the hill.

"What are those?" Davies asked, following her.

They shouldn't be here. Mia's mind kept repeating that statement.

"What are they?" Davies was getting frustrated.

"Compsognathus. InGen thought they might not be good for the park because they're sort of… unimpressive. But it turns out they eat pretty much anything, from pest rodents to carcasses and dung. They thought it might be good to have them around for cleaning up some of the dinosaur shit on the island." She tried to sound matter of fact, but something kept nagging at her. They bred these on Isla Sorna, not here. She tried to be careful of her wording – the men did come to steal embryos, after all. If they knew there were more embryos – a lot more embryos on another island – they might try to steal those, too.

Stealing the embryos was not a financial concern for Mia. InGen would make the lost money back somehow. The bigger concern was the ethical one – if a company would hire mercenaries to steal something, what lengths would they go once they discovered they could create actual dinosaurs? The thought was unnerving. Irresponsibility could create an entire ecosystem collapse, cause countless deaths, create extinctions of other species…

It was certainly evident that InGen had been quite irresponsible with the creation of dinosaurs, there's no telling what another company would do.

"Dangerous?" Davies asked.

Mia shook her head. "I wouldn't think. Don't test them though."

Kelly nodded toward the Jeep's dashboard. "You think it still works?"

Mathews shrugged. "Worth a shot."

Kelly reached over, keeping his face – and nose – turned away from Nedry's remains, and tried the keys in the ignition. Nothing happened. He looked around the dashboard – nothing lit up. "Damn, battery's dead."

Mathews headed down the hill, scanning the area. Mia and Davies were examining the jungle near the Jeep, looking for the tiny green dinosaurs. As Mathews reached the road, he began to look around. Something caught his eye near the edge…

He bent over to get a closer look – it was a cracked pair of glasses. Poor bastard didn't even see what got him. He picked them up and glanced them over. No blood or dinosaur spit – to Mathews, it seemed like they just slipped off Nedry's face.

Something else caught his attention in a muddy pile near the edge of the road – something blue.

Kelly continued searching the vehicle. He wanted to order his team to check for that damn Barbasol can, but he had a feeling Mia would object to that. Still, the opportunity was too great to give up. Here was their inside man, albeit dead, on his way to the boat. The package must be here somewhere. Leaving alive was more important than securing the package and getting paid, but if all it took was a little bit of disgusting effort to get both, why the hell not? He took a deep breath and began to rummage through Nedry's clothes, careful not to get the dead man's intestines or any of the maggots on himself.

Mia knelt near the edge of the jungle, trying to get closer to the Compsognathus. She wanted to get a clearer view of them – she hadn't actually seen one in person before. She only knew what Harding, Wu, and Hammond had discussed about them. Despite being cautious, she found them sort of cute. "Come here, little guy. Let me get a look at you."

The little green dinosaur peered at her behind some leaves - its big black eyes looked like marbles. Its skin seemed to shine in the light, almost like it was iridescent. It chirped and made some noises before hopping forward a step. Mia thought it was remarkable how bird-like it was. Even like a small bird, it seemed to prefer to hop instead of stride. She paid attention to the noises it made. She frowned. "You don't really sound familiar." The second she had seen them, she had wondered if these were the culprit of the sounds near the Raptor Pen the night before. Her stomach dropped as the little creature made more inquisitive chirps.

They did not sound the same. She became increasingly worried. If the raptors could breed… maybe she had heard their offspring. Davies chuckled softly, shaking Mia from her thoughts. "I guess this one is kind of cool, isn't it?"

Mia nodded, "Yeah," with a small smile. It alarmed her how much Davies' personality changed from moment to moment. His injury and fever must be agitating his probably already short temper. She turned back to the tiny dinosaur. How did you get here? She tried to examine it and glanced into the jungle behind it – seeing a small handful of others perched on fallen logs or under ferns, watching her intently.

They obviously had some sort of group dynamic or instinct, perhaps relying on numbers for survival in such a dangerous era as the Mesozoic. They might have traveled in a group. But how could these little things cross the nearly 90 miles of ocean between Nublar and Sorna? The only way is by helicopter or boat.

Boats. The cargo ships from Sorna. With the revelation of potential breeding, all it would take was one dinosaur to escape Sorna's facilities. If it was gravid at the time of escape, it could lay eggs either in the wild at Sorna or here on Nublar after hitching a ride – like European rats spreading to the Americas via trading ships in the Sixteenth Century. An invasive species of dinosaur.

Mathews dug in the mud with his boot, unearthing the blue plastic he had spotted. Is that a shaving cream can? It was the small flat lid to a mud-covered, red-and-white striped can. His heart began to race. He couldn't believe his luck. Holy shit, it's the embryos! He quickly took stock of the rest of the team – nobody was looking at him, and that park employee was messing with something in the jungle. He stooped down and grabbed the Barbasol can, swiftly stuffing it in one of the military pouches on his belt.

He would have to find a way to discreetly tell the rest of the team later.