Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar – Chapter 17: The Tyrant Lizard King

A/N: T. rex only got a short appearance in Chapter 16, so I decided to give him a WHOLE CHAPTER! Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.

Standing beyond the log Dr. Sorkin and the others were hiding behind was a large dinosaur – Tyrannosaurus rex to be precise. The monster stood 17 feet tall, over 40 feet long and didn't look like the kind of creature you'd want to meet in a dark alley (or anytime, for that matter!). The creature boasted jade green skin coloration with dark greenish-black stripes; similar to the one seen during the Kirby Incident of 2001, only larger and older. The brow ridges over its eyes gave the impression that the animal was not in a good mood in the slightest. As it stood almost motionless in the forest, Tim watched with horror as the dinosaur's eyes swiveled in their sockets ever so slightly and its chest rose and fell with each breath.

Tyrannosaurus rex, Tim thought, the most terrible dinosaur ever to exist . . . or one of the most terrible anyway! The raptors and Spinosaurus are pretty bad too. Tim studied the tyrannosaur's teeth – the largest teeth were six to seven inches long, not including the root, which made them double that length.

After a couple seconds, the Tyrannosaurus moved its head from side to side as it surveyed its domain. Then his nostrils began to flare as he issued a terrible bellow. This beast was hungry for prey. The ground shook as the dinosaur began slowly walking toward the log they were hiding behind.

Ryan and the other two soldiers quietly cocked their guns. "That does it," he whispered, "I can't wait any longer. I'm going to show this dinosaur who's boss."

"Don't do that!" Dr. Sorkin cautioned quietly. "Reptile tranquilizers can sometimes take a while to work. If you shoot the animal, we might still be running for our lives. Just stay quiet and calm and it might miss us."

The breath of the dinosaur could be heard as the animal approached the log. Then the Tyrannosaurus started walking to its right and stopped at a large, low-growing bush-like tree. It stuck its head into the foliage and a few seconds later, the dinosaur's head reappeared with the carcass of a small dead dinosaur in its jaws. Flies were buzzing around it, but food was food. The Tyrannosaurus walked out of the area with its prize.

Only then did Dr. Sorkin and the others come out of hiding.

"Alright, that was way too close!" Ryan exclaimed.

"That was way too awesome!" Levine said. "A living, breathing Tyrannosaurus rex; the most feared predator of the Cretaceous was just several yards away from us. That creature must have been at least five tones in weight, probably more! Simply awe-inspiring."

Dr. Sorkin smiled. "Yeah, the Tyrannosaurus was intended to be the star attraction of Jurassic Park before it shut down. It wasn't so cool to some people when it got out and started eating everyone."

"One victim in particular just so happened to be John Hammond's lawyer, right?" Tim asked. "None of us actually saw him being eaten, but I think Ellie and Robert Muldoon found his remains near the attack site and Grant heard him scream loudly as he helped Lex and I out of the turned-over jeep." He laughed. "Don't know why that guy chose to hide in the bathroom though! I mean, it would have been better to stay in the car with us! Look who's still alive!"

Kailey giggled. "Another thing Ian didn't put in his book."

"Yeah, he left out a lot," Levine added. "And worst of all, Ian had the park publicist Ed Regis get eaten, when in reality, he successfully made it off the island before the power even went off! But back to the topic of the tyrannosaur, I'm just glad it didn't know we were here."

"Oh, it probably smelled us," Dr. Sorkin corrected him. "Tyrannosaurus had one of the strongest senses of smell in the history of life on earth. A lot of scientists believe that this dinosaur was nothing more than a scavenger, but it was much too designed for being a predator. It even had binocular vision!"

"Did anyone notice that it just carried the prey away though? Why didn't it just eat it? I mean, that dinosaur wasn't that big. It could have been swallowed in one bite by those five-foot jaws!"

Dr. Sorkin looked thoughtful. "Like I've said before, we didn't have a lot of time to actually study the dinosaurs InGen was recreating much, but if they're anything like modern predators, it might have been carrying it back to a nest."

"A nest?" Kailey asked. "That could be an important part of our study."

"You're right," Levine agreed. "We should follow it!"

"How so? We'll loose it."

Levine shook his head and gestured toward the set of three-foot footprints made in the ground by the giant dinosaur. "I don't think we'll loose this dinosaur unless it walks upon some type of ground that doesn't make footprints well. Come on! Follow me!" With that, Levine, Dr. Sorkin, Kailey and Tim followed the trail the Tyrannosaurus made in its exit.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Ryan called after them. "What if it finds us following him and it attacks us?" The four scientists disappeared from view. Ryan shook his head. He turned to the other two soldiers and said, "What are we going to do with them? They're going to get us all killed." Then he cleared his throat to do an imitation of Dr. Sorkin's voice saying, "'Don't shoot the dinosaurs! How would you feel if you got a needle shot into the side of you? Tranquilizer doesn't work immediately.' For crying out loud! We're supposed to defend the team from the dinosaurs so that they can conduct their study, but we can't do that if we don't do our job!"

"Speaking of our team," one of the other soldiers said, "they're getting away."

"Oh, you're right. Let's follow them."

"This looks like an interesting email, Grant," Lex announced. Grant hurried over to read it. Taylor was still standing in the corner waiting for them to hurry up.

Why are these emails so important? Taylor asked herself. Couldn't they wait until after we go to look at the dinosaurs.

"What's it say?" Grant inquired.

Lex read, "'March 26, 1992,

Dear Hammond,

Thanks for your last visit to the island. As usual, things are progressing wonderfully. The Jurassic Park construction workers are doing a terrific job blueprinting the hotel section of the Visitor Center. I'm sure that once Jurassic Park is open to the public, the hotel will be a great success, especially since the prices are so much lower than your average 5-star hotel! LOL. Anyway, here is the list you requested of dinosaurs we've successfully transferred into the park: Tyrannosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, Gallimimus, Compsognathus, Segisaurus and Parasaurolophus. As our Dilophosaurus aren't mature yet, they're still not ready to be released into the park and are still on Sorna. Our Velociraptors are still on Sorna as well. We've been waiting to transport eight of our Velociraptors because of their terrible aggression. I mean, you dare not stick your hand in their cage or you'll be in the hospital for sure! The Proceratosaurus pack we've recently cloned is also acting up. Thanks to a recent breakout, we almost lost it in the wilds of Sorna. Fortunately, Muldoon's tracking smarts saved not only our progress made on the park so far, but also the lives of lots of people! You should have seen that Proceratosaurus try to escape Muldoon's trap, though. Even though it lacks the ferociousness of T. rex and the raptors, it's still really a tenacious predator. So are our Herrerasaurus, come to think of it. They've tried to get out several times, but unlike the raptors, they aren't as good at checking the fences for weaknesses. Thank goodness for that! Next time you come to the park, could you please tell me why on earth you wanted Segisaurus AND Compsognathus? They're almost the exact same dinosaur except for their names. I'm not sure it's worth having both in the park . . . oh well. It's your opinion that matters. The construction of the Les Gigantes is doing really well. The head chef Alan Richard seems really excited about working at what will become the greatest theme park in the history of the world. Of course, the restaurant won't be nearly ready until January because most of the construction crew's time is being used for the Visitor Center and other facilities themselves! The last thing I wanted to say was to say thanks for sending those blueprints for the Marine Exhibit. I'll check out the DNA samples we have to see if we have any marine creatures worth cloning (after all, not that we have the DNA for it, but a trilobite would be a very boring creature to bring back from extinction).

Sincerely, Henry Wu'

Seems to me like they had a lot going on during 1992."

Grant nodded. "Hammond never said anything about a hotel? But I guess that makes sense; as it's rather impractical to send the park guests back to the mainland when the park closed for the night. I think we've done enough of this kind of research for now."

"What next do we have to research?" Lex asked. "Don't tell me we're going with Dr. Sorkin and the others."

"No, we need to go back into the Visitor Center. Maybe there's some information there we can retrieve."

"What part are we going in?"

Grant grinned. "No better place to go than where all the magic happened – the hatchery. If they have computers in there, Levine can probably figure out how to extract the information from them."

"Great! We can finally get out of this trailer!" Taylor exclaimed.

Lex looked out the window and up at the sky – dark clouds were forming overhead. She said, "Looks like we might have a storm tonight."

Levine led the others quietly through the forest, following the trail of the Tyrannosaurus they were following. The great animal made steady progress through the jungle. Finally, the animal paused and sniffed the air. The human followers froze instantly, not wanting to be caught by the awesome creature. Fortunately, the group was downwind, so the Tyrannosaurus couldn't smell them. Instead, it placed its posterior over a tree stump. After a few seconds, the dinosaur lifted its posterior from the stump and continued walking.

With haste, the humans walked up to the stump to see what the dinosaur did . . . and Ryan grimaced – the stump was lightly covered in dinosaur droppings.

"Well," Ryan began, "on the positive side, at least he didn't take his bathroom break right in the middle of the pathway."

"It was scent marking," Dr. Sorkin told him. "That's an important thing to do if he's going to keep a territory. Otherwise, the dinosaur wouldn't have enough food to feed itself because of competition from other tyrannosaurs."

For several more minutes, the group followed the T. rex as it made its way through the forest. As they walked, the forest was getting denser. Finally, the behemoth stopped in a clearing. Levine and the others stayed crouched behind a small mound of earth at the edge of the clearing. The clearing was small, but large enough for several large tyrannosaurs to move about. Just then, as the tyrannosaur entered the clearing, another one made its presence known. Tim gasped when it rose to its feet from a sitting position – this Tyrannosaurus was even larger: it must have been around 18-20 feet tall, was about 42-45 feet long and weighed seven tons. This must be a mated pair, he thought, that's right, because tyrannosaurs pair off after mating.

The female Tyrannosaurus growled loudly at the male. The male bellowed humbly in submission – he knew exactly who was in charge here! Unlike her mate, she was a slightly different color – a cinnamon color with light gray stripes (similar to the one seen during the 1997 Isla Sorna expedition). With the dead dinosaur still in his mouth, the male tyrannosaur lowered his head as his mate sniffed him suspiciously. After determining that he was in fact her mate, the female Tyrannosaurus calmed down and lightly nuzzled his snout with hers. Kailey turned the clicking sound on her camera off and snapped some photos.

"The larger one is the female," Dr. Sorkin whispered to the others. "In tyrannosaurs, the females are larger than the males, but they're both very aggressive."

"How would you know?" Kailey asked. "The only living T. rex you worked with were females."

"True, but Alan and Ian have had encounters with male T. rex in the past, and they're just as aggressive as the females. It's no wonder you'd want to avoid one!"

Ryan nodded. "So, can we outrun these guys? I know in Ian's books that he says the T. rex are fast runners, but he might have exaggerated on that a bit like he did on everything else."

"That's one thing he didn't exaggerate on. These dinosaurs are quite fast for their size, reaching 25-32 mph in short bursts. They don't always run that fast though because it's too easy to trip at those high speeds and–"

"–at those speeds if a tyrannosaur fell it could kill itself," Levine finished her sentence.

"Exactly right. The adults normally run anywhere between 11-25 mph when pursuing prey. Though even that's faster than most of the prey they hunt! With faster prey, they rely on the ambush technique."

All of a sudden, some small dinosaurs rushed from the foliage on the opposite side of the clearing. They looked quite similar to the T. rex pair, but they were only around three feet tall and seven feet long. They also had rather lanky legs, a slightly more elongated skull and large eyes. The three animals quickly approached the T. rex pair, creating high-pitched squeaking and shrilling sounds. The male T. rex leaned toward the little dinosaurs and made a low bellow.

Dr. Sorkin – who was peering through her binoculars at the dinosaurs – smiled. "It's a family unit. Two parents and three chicks, how cute! Just as I suspected."

"But there's no nest," Kailey pointed out.

"Correct. These babies are probably only a few weeks old, just having left the nest. By this age, the adults have started taking them on hunting trips so they can observe how their parents make a kill. They're too young to actually help with a hunt, but they learn by watching their parents. This particular time, it looks as if the parents are still bringing them food."

Despite its ferocious nature, the parent T. rex appeared very docile, even doting to their youngsters. Below them, the tyrannosaur chicks eagerly chirped for their dinner. The father obeyed. By opening his jaws, the dinosaur carcass fell to the ground in front of them and they began to chow down. Digging into the flesh, sounds of munching and snarling could be heard. Whenever a baby's head reappeared from the carcass, it was colored red with blood around the jaws. At this rate, they'd soon finish the carcass, as it wasn't that large.

"They look like the perfect family," Levine observed. "The parents will go to any length possible to protect their young ones. This is incredible!"

"See what InGen was missing out on when they decided to make this place a theme park instead of a nature preserve?" Dr. Sorkin asked. "They missed out on instances like this. With only female dinosaurs, there wouldn't be a dinosaur family."

"But some of the females would have changed into males anyway, even if the park didn't shut down," Tim argued.

"True, but if Jurassic Park had been in operation long enough to see that the dinosaurs were changing genders, they probably would have replaced their original stock with dinosaurs that hadn't been mixed with frog DNA."

Kailey winced. "Wait a minute! I thought InGen only brought one tyrannosaur to Isla Nublar. Where'd the other individual come from?"

Dr. Sorkin shrugged. "Hey, they didn't tell me about a lot of stuff before the park broke down. Maybe they transported some other tyrannosaur individuals to Nublar without my knowledge."

While the Tyrannosaurus chicks ate their meal, the parents sat off to the side and watched their offspring.

A little tear ran from Ryan's eye as he watched the adoring scene – a scene featuring one of the most ferocious predators ever to exist on the planet behaving . . . parental, even dotingly. Kailey glanced over at Ryan and giggled. "I saw that, tough guy."

Ryan blushed. "What? Oh, that was nothing. I just got a little dust in my eye. Nothing more."

Just then, dark clouds in the sky above moved in and slightly darkening the forest – these clouds were the same ones that Dr. Sorkin and the others saw at the North Dock. The Tyrannosaurus pair looked up at the sky and growled lowly.

Levine and the others looked up as well. "Hm, looks like Nublar's going to be expecting a chance of rain showers today."

But after he said that, a large rumbling sound echoed across the island – thunder.

"I take that back, it seems the weather forecast just changed to afternoon thunderstorms," Levine added as some raindrops began to fall from the sky.

"Maybe we should leave this family of dinosaurs alone," Dr. Sorkin announced. "Believe it or not, we've obtained much information from just sitting here watching."

"We have?" Kailey asked. "What did we learn?"

"We'll talk about it with Dr. Grant later. Our study is far from done, of course, but we've achieved a lot considering that we've only been here one day." So the group quietly left their spot at the edge of the clearing and went into the forest along the trail they arrived on to head back to their jeep. Once arriving at the jeep, Ryan began driving them back to the Visitor Center.

Grant, Lex, Taylor and the three soldiers bearing guns and bright flashlights in the Visitor Center area walked slowly into the building itself. Since the sun was setting and a thunderstorm was making its way over the island, the building was darker inside than before.

"Why couldn't we leave Taylor outside with a solider?" Lex asked.

Grant answered, "Because we might need all three soldiers in here. It's darker, so we can't see in here so easily and predators could be lurking anywhere. We don't want to be caught by surprise."

"Where are we going, Dr. Grant?" one of the soldiers asked.

"We need to get to the Hatchery and see what information we can obtain from there. Then we'll get back to the trailers and spend the night until tomorrow." He looked up at the bungee cord still latched to the top of what used to be the staircase in the Visitor Center. "Looks like we'll have to climb up here again."

"Wow! This place is so cool!" Taylor exclaimed. "This is even better than the hotel we're going to in Hawaii! We're going up to the second story of the Visitor Center? Cool!"

Just then, a voice boomed from Lex's sat. phone saying, "Hello! Lex? Are you there? Over." It was Lester.

Lex put the phone up to her face and said, "Yes, I'm here Lester. What's up?"

"Well, unfortunately it seems we won't be able to make it to the island tonight. This storm's just too rough. Do you think you can hold the girl there until morning?"

"Yes, I think we can," Lex answered. "Just don't worry, we'll bring her back safely. After all, we don't want any nasty law suits when we get off this island."

"No, we don't. What did you say her name was?"

"Taylor Simmons."

"Alright. I'll make sure someone notifies her parents about her whereabouts. What progress have you made so far?"

Lex thought for a moment before answering. "Not a whole lot, I guess, but we've found the culprit for the mysterious disappearances of those jet-skiers."

"Really?"

"Yes, it's some kind of . . ." she turned to Grant. "What was it again?"

"Tylosaurus," Grant answered, "a species of Cretaceous mosasaur."

"Right." She spoke into the phone. "Grant says some kind of Cretaceous mosasaur. You know: big 50-foot prehistoric sea-lizard with a mouth full of teeth and a bad attitude."

There were a few seconds of silence and Lex imagined that Lester was probably nodding in acknowledgment at what she said. "Do our scientists think it will be a threat to the world's population considering it's not contained?"

"Dr. Sorkin says it's a coastal creature, not venturing out into really deep water. That explains why it's not killing people all over the planet! So they don't think it will be a problem so long as people stay away from the island."

"Alright then, we'll look into the matter later. Will you be OK for the night."

"Yes, of course we will. So . . . I guess I'll talk to you later?"

"Sounds fine, bye now."

"Bye."

She turned back to the others. "Ready to move on?"

Grant nodded. "Yeah, let's climb up before it gets dark on us."

After making their way up, they started slowly walking down the hallway, passing the Control Room. Lex grinned.

"This is all coming back to me," she said. "I think the hatchery is this way."

Taylor spoke up. "You know, Lex, Dr. Malcolm didn't really give you a lot of credit for rebooting the computer system. Making Tim older and having him be computer-specialized."

Lex giggled. "Yeah, he sort of made me the annoying tag-a-long in the book. But Ian felt that Tim didn't get enough of a role in real life, so he sort of switched us around – except Tim still liked dinosaurs and he wasn't as annoying as I'm portrayed in the book."

"Hey guys!" one of the soldiers shouted from further down the hall. "I think I found the hatchery!" The others hurried to where he was and peered through some windows in the wall. Through the windows, they saw the unmistakable room otherwise known as the hatchery.

"We've found it," Grant told the others. He went over to the door and opened it.

Jeep-01 pulled into the Visitor Center clearing and parked. Everyone got out and scanned the area.

"Where is everyone?" Tim asked. The others could only shrug.

Ryan shook his head. "Let's hope they weren't scared away by . . . a something-a-saurus."

"I don't think so," Dr. Sorkin objected. "At least, not by a large predator. Tyrannosaurus would have definitely left footprints. As far as I know, there aren't any other large carnivores on the island."

"Look here everyone," Levine said as he gestured toward the door of the trailer. "There's a Post-It note attached to the door."

Dr. Sorkin peeled the sticky note off of the door and read, "The others and I went inside to the Visitor Center Hatchery, meet us there. Alan Grant."

Kailey said, "So we need to head to the hatchery in the Visitor Center. Where is it?"

"I remember where," Dr. Sorkin answered. "Follow me."

Dr. Sorkin, Kailey, Tim, Levine, Ryan and the two other soldiers walked up the steps leading into the Visitor Center. After they had disappeared into the building, a small group of Compsognathus feeding nearby suddenly looked up, glancing around the clearing . . . the little dinosaurs then ran as fast as they could back to the forest as a larger animal stood almost motionless in the foliage at the edge of the clearing.

Stepping out into the open, looking toward the the Visitor Center, the creature sniffs the air. The reptile's breathing increases as its body prepares for a potential hunt. There are new forms of prey in the area, and this animal attempts to try them out. It takes a step forward, placing its scaly foot and two of the three sharp toe claws on the ground. Hissing softly to itself, this creature is ready for the hunt.

A/N: How did you all enjoy this chapter? Please don't write nasty comments because the T. rex that appeared in this chapter didn't do anything . . . violent, per se. But don't worry, the T. rex will be back . . . and they'll will be hungry! In this chapter I really wanted to show the more tender and caring side of T. rex, as it's often depicted as a ferocious killer that's always looking for its next meal. By the way, I've recently added a poll for this fanfiction story, in which you can choose which main character in the story is your favorite. Please be sure to check it out! Anyway, see you next week!