Chapter 20

Southern Fields

The ground was hot underfoot. Wu trudged along behind Sarah, who was supporting Malcolm. They had just passed beyond the jungle once more, into a field that stretched away into the distance for several miles. The grass was around ankle height, and it waved gently in the mid-afternoon breeze. The air seemed to ripple close to the ground in several places, as if heat was being emanated from the ground itself. They were all breathing heavily after the trek through the densely packed jungle, and their clothes were darkened with sweat.

Wu looked out over the plain, and squinted in the glare. There was the odd tree scattered around, but other than that there was very little foliage.

"Where are we?" asked Guiterrez from the back of the group.

"The Southern Fields," said Wu, looking at the heat waves as they rose steadily from ground level.

"Well, is it me, or is it hotter than ever?" said Malcolm, hopping slightly on his good leg.

"Yeah," said Tim, sitting on a boulder that was sticking out of the ground to catch his breath, "as the island's origin is volcanic, there are still some places that heat up. This activity is most apparent at the southern tip of the island, which is why we situated the geothermal plant around here."

Wu already knew all of this; he had worked here long before Tim had even visited the island. But he just let him talk, focusing on the field ahead of them. Like the field around the geothermal plant, the grass was being eaten by something.

"Okay, we've reached the fields," said Guiterrez, "where do we go next?"

"The lagoon," said Anderson, "which is…?" he looked to Tim for assistance.

Tim pointed diagonally across the field, in a direction where the jungle in the distance seemed sparser. "That way, if we walk across the field, we can be there in three quarters of an hour-"

"You know," interrupted Guiterrez, scratching the back of his head, "the last two times that we've been confronted with a wide open field on this island, we've walked ever so boldly right through it. And you know what happened? We got chased by that bloody… Metria-thing! Twice!"

Wu couldn't help but nod his head. He was right; it was foolish to do so again.

"You think it's wise to do so again?" finished Guiterrez.

"There's nothing out there to attract predators," said Sarah, shrugging.

"Yes, the same was true for the last time," said Wu, "and we still got chased. It'd be better to skirt the edge, go around. It'll take longer, but we'll be safer. If the Metriacanthosaurus or anything else comes near, we can still climb a tree and escape."

Tim nodded from his position on the rock, still breathing deeply. "Alright, fair enough; we'll go around."

Which is how they found themselves ten minutes later, dodging among the ferns that lined the tree line. Wu placed his feet carefully, trying to avoid the gnarled roots that littered the ground, and concentrated on ducking and weaving through the thick palm leaves. It was stiflingly hot in the confines of the jungle, and as he felt sweat drip down the back of his neck Wu was starting to think that the risk of attack was worth the relative cool of the open plain.

"You know we're going to need a break sooner or later," panted Guiterrez from behind him.

"We will," called Anderson from up ahead, "but I'd prefer to find somewhere safer first."

Guiterrez chuckled quietly. "Safe," he muttered quietly, so that only Wu and Rodriguez could hear, "trust me, I've seen enough to know that on this island there is no such thing as safe."

Wu couldn't agree more. He had hoped never to see this island again after he heard of the incident on the island over a decade before. He had never truly trusted Hammond or the company itself; it was far too secretive, far too incompetent. They had tampered with technology which they never fully understood, technology which most of them could never understand. They hadn't developed it themselves; and they hadn't taken the proper precautions. And most of all, they hadn't done any of it for all of human kind. They had done it in haste, in secret, and for profit.

A movement from in front of him broke Wu's train of thought. Anderson had raised his hand, palm extended. Wu gathered that he wanted them to stop. Slowly, Anderson went into a crouch. Without question, they all copied him in unison. Wu frowned; he couldn't see any reason for the alarm. Anderson was now sliding his rifle down from its position on his shoulder, clicking the safety button off.

And then Wu heard a snuffling sound in the jungle ahead of them. It was barely audible at all, just a quiet sniff. Almost like a horse. A vice like grip of panic grasped Wu's chest, and he struggled against the sudden urge to break cover and run. But Anderson remained completely calm, raising the rifle to eye level, training onto the trees where the sound had came from. The sound came again, this time a little louder and higher pitched.

"John?" hissed Tim.

Anderson waved his hand frantically, signaling for him to be quiet. He then pointed upwards, towards the tree tops. Without a second's hesitation, they all stood up as one and leaped for the nearest branch. Wu grabbed a low overhanging vine, and swung his legs up as fast as he could. His heart pounded against the inside of his chest as he heard a low growl, and he scrambled upwards. He reached a small recess where the branches diverged from the nearest tree trunk, and leaped into it. He was twelve feet up, and fairly confident that he was safe. Looking around, he saw the others to the left of him, taking refuge in the tree next to his. Malcolm had his eyes closed, and appeared to be grey, wheezing as Sarah shot worried look at him. Anderson was still on the ground, now taking slow steps back, towards Wu's tree.

Wu's blood was rushing in his veins, and his breathing was shallow and erratic. Anderson grabbed the trunk of his tree, and with a last look at the underbrush where the sounds continued to emanate, he climbed the tree so fast that he almost appeared to be running upwards.

He hoisted himself up and sat beside Wu, breathing deeply, and training his rifle on the ground below.

"What the hell is that?" asked Guiterrez.

At his voice, there was a high pitched bark, and the ferns below them shook. An animal the size of a hippopotamus stepped into view, its heavy footsteps crushing the tree roots with ease. It was dark green in colouration, and had a massive bulk which distended several feet. It had a double row of green-reddish pentagonal plates running along the length of its back, tapering as they approached the end of the tail, which had four lethal looking, meter long spikes protruding from its side. Its head was tiny in comparison with its body size, ending in a beak like snout.

Wu watched in fascination as the animal loped into the small clearing below them, its ribcage slowly rising and falling. It appeared to pay them no attention at all, and Wu wondered whether it was capable of sensing them at all from their height. He laughed quietly to himself, smiling as the tension left him.

"That's a…that's an erm…" stuttered Guiterrez.

"Stegosaurus," said Wu, nodding.

Once again, at the sound of their voices, the Stegosaurus barked, and shuffled around on its forelimbs, clearly agitated. It rolled its head from side to side, as if trying to get water out of its ears.

"We're confusing it," muttered Rodriguez, looking at the Stegosaur with mingled interest and incredulity.

"They weren't the smartest of the dinosaurs that we cloned," said Wu, sitting back in the recess where he was crouched, "their brain to body ratio makes them very dim when compared to dinosaurs like the Velociraptors."

Now the Stegosaur had given up on rolling its head, and had turned to the right, towards the open plain that they had avoided. It shuffled off with a clumsy gait, its tail swinging from side to side with each step, held high above the ground.

A few minutes later they had all reached the ground, and were sitting on a log which the Stegosaur had knocked down. Anderson had swung his rifle over his shoulder, having checked the surrounding jungle and found nothing.

"I should have expected them to be here," said Tim, taking a gulp of water from his Evian bottle.

"How come?" asked Rodriguez.

"The Stegosaurus paddock was originally enclosed within the southern fields," said Wu, wiping the sweat off his forehead with his shirt sleeve, "I guess they never left. Either that or they periodically migrate between here and somewhere else."

"Why do you say that?" asked Tim, frowning.

"Well, the area around the geothermal plant had grass shorter than it should have been. Right Sarah?...Sarah?"

Wu looked over at Harding, who was crouched over Malcolm. She had a worried expression on her face as she inspected his leg. Malcolm still had a slightly grey tinge to his skin, and was breathing shallowly. His eyes were half closed, and had a glazed appearance. Sarah had removed his bandages, and was staring at his bite wound. The five inch long gash was looking red and angry, and was beginning to close up. The brownish dried blood on the bandage was speckled with green smears. As Sarah unzipped her bag and pulled out a roll of fresh bandages, she shot Tim a fleeting glance.

Wu felt suddenly uncomfortable. He knew that there was something odd going on with Malcolm. But he didn't want to believe what he was seeing. And it was very unlikely anyway; perhaps it was simply an ordinary infection.

"I'm curious to how the Stegosaurs have survived," said Tim. He was clearly averting his gaze from Malcolm, as he had turned towards where the Stegosaur had departed.

"What do you mean?" asked Sarah, re-bandaging Malcolm's leg.

"Well, the Stegosaurs used to ingest a very rare type of berries that caused them to get sick every month, at the end of their migration route."

"The lilac berries?" asked Wu, surprising himself as he remembered that scrap of information from his working days at the park.

"Yeah. Used to give them imbalance, diarrhea, disorientation in most cases. But InGen had several fatalities. And we only bred a dozen or so. So by now they should have died out."

Wu shrugged. "Why don't we go take a look?"

Anderson looked up sharply. "What?" he said.

"Well, we're never going to be back here again. If we're ever going to find out, it has to be now."

Tim nodded immediately, but Anderson was frowning. "We need to keep moving," he insisted.

"It'll only take a few minutes," said Wu, standing up.

Sarah shook his head. "Ian needs to rest," she said firmly.

"Well," said Wu, putting on his pack, "that's fine. I, Tim and Anderson will go take a look, you guys can stay here. We'll be back in a minute."

Wu pulled back the fronds in front of him, and stared out at the open plain of the Southern Fields. He couldn't help but smile as he saw a whole herd of Stegosaurs which were stalking across the grass, growling and groaning.

"Should have died out, huh?" breathed Anderson.

"There must be at least 15 of them here," whispered Tim. "Four adults, eight sub-adults and three infants, from the look of them."

"…How?" asked Anderson, staring at them in amazement.

"Well," said Tim, "before you visited the island, Dr. Harding reported that the Stegosaurs may be ingesting the lilac berries when they took in stones to help digest their food."

"Dr. Harding? Sarah worked here?" asked Anderson.

"No, Dr. Jerry Harding, the head veterinarian," said Tim absently.

Anderson frowned for a second, but shrugged.

"I never read about any of that in the archives," continued Tim.

"Well, it was only reported on the day that we all headed home for the weekend. I doubt it would have been sent back to the mainland before Nedry shut down the park systems."

"Okay, so they ate the berries when they took in the stones," said Tim, "but why are they still alive now?"

"They could have developed immunity," suggested Anderson.

"No, I don't think they could have done, not this fast," said Wu, shaking his head.

"Then what?"

"Well, the berries could have simply all been eaten."

"But wouldn't the Stego's have died out long before that?"

"Not if there were other animals eating them too," said Wu, shrugging.

Tim raised his eyebrows, and then shrugged. "Makes sense," he said finally.

Anderson grunted, and stood up. "Well, you've got your answers. Now let's get back to the others. We need to get going."