Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar – Chapter 26: The Triceratops Herd
A/N: OK, I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! Today, I've got a great chapter here! I hope you all are going to enjoy it. By the way, be prepared for the appearance of another carnivore pretty soon!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.
"Are we ready to go yet?" Grant asked the others.
"No, I'm still worn out," Dr. Sorkin answered.
"We can't keep stopping like this. At this rate, it'll be days before we ever get out of here."
"Hey, just be glad I stopped smoking; otherwise, we'd be taking more breaks than necessary."
"I didn't know you smoked," Ryan observed.
"I used to do so. My pack of cigarettes was stolen during the Jurassic Park Incident and haven't had the desire to pick up another pack of cigarettes since. Besides, secondhand smoking's bad for the animals I'd love to work around too. I was more than willing to quit."
Ryan nodded in approval. "Good for you. I know some folks who make it their New Year's resolution to stop smoking, yet by next February, they're back at it again. Oh well. So what's the plan? Do you know where we are yet?"
Dr. Sorkin scanned the area . . . then a smile appeared on her face. "Yes . . . I'm remembering this place now! I think I know the shortest way out of these tunnels!"
"Great!" Taylor exclaimed. "It kind of smells down here anyway."
"Now, there are four ways out of here that we can reach relatively quickly. First, we can attempt to get out of here by going to the Marine Exhibit, or–"
"Marine Exhibit?" Grant asked.
"Yes, that's the exhibit that contained the mosasaur. That's one option and it will take us the longest to reach there. However, it is also the closest to the North Dock. The second exit that I'm aware of overlooks Mt. Hammond, one of the tallest mountains on the island, named after you-know-who. Third, we can attempt to reach one of the field labs. The fourth one closest to us is placed about halfway between the East Dock and the North-"
"Which one's the shortest route?"
"I'd have to say either the one near the field lab, or the one about halfway between the East Dock and the North Dock, but if the North Dock is where we're headed, we should go to the one near the Marine Exhibit. That way, we'll be below ground most of the way there."
"OK, so that's where we're heading next," Ryan concluded. "Let's get a move on, shall we?"
Miles away on Isla Nublar, Kailey, Tim, Ben and Rob were admiring the herd of Triceratops that grazed in the plains, cropping at plants with their parrot-like beaks. Meanwhile, Levine and Lex were sitting in the grass, had reopened Levine's computer and were doing a bit of research in the computer files.
This is the perfect place for a feeding herd of Triceratops, Tim thought. There's plenty of low foliage and grass for them to feed on.
One of the Triceratops shook the dirt off its body and emitted a loud bellowing call. It then drove its horned head into the trunk of a small tree and pushed hard. With a loud snap, the tree broke in half and fell to the ground. Then the dinosaur began eating the leaves that were previously out of its reach.
"You know," Tim said, "Triceratops can snap through branches the thickness of a man's arm. That makes them perfect for munching on these bushes and trees in the plains here."
"Wow, that's thick!" Kailey exclaimed.
"They don't eat meat do they?" Ben asked.
Tim winced. "Don't you think it's kind of obvious?"
"Hey, I was just asking. You ever seen those old, black and white dinosaur-related films like King Kong? They had some ferocious supposed-herbivores in the movie too. Remember the scene when the sauropod eats that guy who was . . . I think he was in a tree before getting eaten."
Tim grinned as he remembered the scene from the movie. Wow, our perception of dinosaurs really has changed a lot over the years!
In fact, Tim knew that dinosaurs had changed a lot over the past few decades; before the 1960's, dinosaurs were portrayed as sluggish, cold-blooded brutes with low intelligence. But as the 1960's came about, paleontologists discovered a dinosaur now known as Deinonychus, and it clearly didn't fit the cold-blooded and unintelligent rule! It was a deadly and agile predator – much like its relative Velociraptor – and had a high amount of intelligence. Fossils proved that dinosaurs weren't the creatures scientists originally thought they were – they were faster, smarter, more agile and in the case of predators, more deadly than ever thought before. These were the animals InGen had successfully brought back to life from extinction.
"So, what's the next email say?" Lex asked.
Levine scrolled down the list of emails until he found the next unread one. He opened it and read:
"'August 4, 1992
Dear Hammond,
Since your last visit, things are going smoothly, especially with the new food we've been feeding the Velociraptors. I think they prefer beef instead of goat meat. The pack has been growing into maturity rapidly. Muldoon believes that they'll be lethal at around eight months of age. They've already begun practicing their hunting skills with mice and rats in their enclosure.
I agree with your decision to give Dr. Sorkin some animals to study at her field laboratory. Not only will this stop her from using the animals we plan to showcase to park guests (once the park's open, of course), but it will also keep her away from our own operations. She's not a bad person and all, but she's definitely delaying our work potential if she keeps bothering us.
By the way, we're going to be shipping in some Parasaurolophus for Dr. Sorkin to study from Site B once they've matured enough. She's also been asking me about recreating her own dinosaurs not only for the park, but also to study.
Oh dear! I almost forgot to mention that the Compsognathus have gotten out . . . again! As you might recall, we originally thought they'd be useful in acting as dung disposal based on Dr. Robert Burke's theory that they ate dung and acted like the Jurassic version of dung beetles to sauropods before they became extinct. The sad thing is that Compsognathus doesn't show the slightest interest in eating dung! They're only eating insects, small animals like lizards, frogs, mice and rats, and carrion. Too bad we don't have a dead dinosaur clean-up problem, otherwise they'd be great for that! I wonder where Dr. Burke got the basis for his theory in the first place! All the other paleontologists I've talked to said there's no evidence for that in the fossil record. Oh well.
But back to the point: the Compsognathus keep escaping their enclosure, and I'm not sure what to do with them. I mean, they're not dangerous and they won't stay in their cage! Should they be a free-roaming species or what?
What's your opinion on the issues I've mentioned? Catch up with you soon!
Sincerely, Henry Wu.'
"So, based on this email, Jurassic Park's creation is going according to plan. They've recreated a number of dinosaurs and brought them to the park. Dr. Sorkin wants to use dinosaurs to study and they're having issues with some of the dinosaurs."
"Who's Dr. Robert Burke?" Lex questioned.
"Well, he was a paleontologist who was known for his crackpot theories about dinosaurs. Many of his theories were proven to be untrue, such as his theory that tyrannosaurs abandoned their offspring, that sauropods gave birth to live young, that Jeholopterus was a bloodsucking, vampire-like pterosaur, that mosasaurs could come onto land to lay eggs, that Smilodon used its saber-teeth to bite its prey in the legs and cripple it and the one mentioned in this email, that Compsognathus was primarily a dung-eater. We have no evidence that Compsognathus was a dung-eater and by 1995, Burke finally dropped his theory. Burke, as you might recall, was a member of the Sorna expedition of 1997 when InGen went to Isla Sorna to capture dinosaurs for Jurassic Park: San Deigo."
Lex nodded as she remembered him. "Oh, that Burke," she said quietly. She had never actually met Dr. Burke, but she'd read a lot about him.
Kailey watched as three smaller Triceratops appeared from underneath the body of a larger one, who was munching on ferns. These individuals were only youngsters – unlike the adults, their horns were rather blunt and pointed more backwards than forwards, as in the adults, their frills were smaller and their eyes were larger in proportion to the rest of the head. At only the size of pigs, they weren't anywhere near the size of the larger Triceratops – presumably their mother.
One of the babies raced away from his siblings and toward another, slightly smaller baby Triceratops nearby. They began to paw the ground and snort loudly, flaunting their tiny frills.
Tim laughed. "Aw, this is so cute. See those young ones over there?"
Kailey nodded. "Looks like their playing."
"They are, and it looks like their about to practice their head-clashing skills. Oh! See?"
Tim pointed excitedly as the baby Triceratops bonked their heads together in a loud clash. Kailey giggled as the smaller one of the two fell onto his side as he hit the ground while emitting a loud, wailing sound. His other playmate pranced around the loser, apparently glad that he had won this "play-fight".
"Look at him, he's acting like he's Mr. Bigshot!" Kailey said, commenting on the winner-Triceratops baby's behavior. He may think he's Mr. Big, but he's nothing compared to the male Triceratops adults, I'm sure, she thought.
Just then, a loud bellowing sound was heard from elsewhere in the Triceratops herd. Both the humans and the other Triceratops looked up and saw that the commotion was coming from – another male Triceratops had entered the area. The new male's nose flared with fury as he flaunted his brilliant six-foot frill and roared loudly.
"Now there's trouble," Tim said as another large bull Triceratops approached him from the herd.
This was the alpha bull, and the new bull wanted to take control of the herd. But this alpha bull won't allow that! The alpha bull lets out an almighty bellow of aggression at the foe. He then begins to flaunt his frill at the opponent, and it rapidly changes from brown to bright red.
"Wow!" Kailey exclaimed. "It's a dominance display!" She turned back to Lex and Levine to get their attention, but they were already watching the action.
The two males began to paw the ground ferociously to determine if a fight was necessary between the two beasts. The rival bull roared and also caused his frill to turn red . . . but the alpha suddenly lunges forward with a mock charge and the rival instantly cowards. Not waiting another moment, he turns tails and runs back into the forest away from the herd. The alpha bull roars in triumph; he's successfully warded off the rival and can now return to eating.
"That was incredible," Lex noted. "How long did you say those horns are, Levine?"
"Um . . . about three to four feet long, they're a great weapon for fighting off predators or rival Triceratops. The rival bull apparently wasn't up to a fight so a show of strength was all the alpha needed to get rid of the intruder."
Kailey nodded at what Levine said. "Cool, but it would have been even cooler to see them actually fighting."
Tim inched a little closer to her. "Maybe another time."
Suddenly, Tim saw the grass in the midst of the Triceratops herd moving. He'd seen the movement before, but thought it was just the wind. Now he knew it wasn't when the head of a dinosaur appeared from the foliage. It was a small two-legged dinosaur with a large head, relatively long neck, legs and tail and stood about three feet tall. It stretched around five feet in length and was covered in bright green skin with white stripes.
"Hey! See that dinosaur over there, in the herd?" Tim asked.
Kailey squinted as she tried to get a good look. "Oh yeah . . . and I think there are more of them."
True to her word, at least twenty of the small dinosaurs were visible dispersed amid the Triceratops. They were obviously herbivorous, because the larger dinosaurs paid no attention to them. Their skin camouflaged them with the grass and other ground plants, so Tim and the others had no idea whether they were with the Triceratops when they came out of the forest or not.
"Hey, Levine! Lex!" Tim called back. "There are more dinosaurs over here!"
The two looked up and smiled.
"Wow! Talk about diversity," Levine said. "What do you think they are?"
Tim winced. "I think they're . . . maybe Hypsilophodon, or some other species of small ornithopod?"
The little sheep-sized dinosaurs were soon grazing among the Triceratops like a herd of modern gazelle or antelope on the African savanna. Kailey zoomed in on one of the Hypsilophodon and took a picture.
Dodgson's eyes were still firmly shut. His head throbbed painfully. All he wanted to do was sleep . . .
But suddenly, he felt a sharp pain on the middle finger of his right arm (it was lying on the dashboard). Oh for crying out loud! Dodgson thought. Can't a man get rest these days?
Maybe he was only dreaming. He tried going to sleep, but the pain was felt in his finger again – it felt like something was biting him. He slowly opened his eyes and saw a little dinosaur grabbing his finger with its jaws – Compsognathus. Then the compy bit down a little harder and tugged on Dodgson's finger.
"Hey!" Dodgson cried as he righted himself and yanked the finger away from the surprised compy, who leaped back in fright. Apparently, it initially thought Dodgson was already dead. "Go pick on someone your own size! Go on! Get out of here!" The Compsognathus made a chattering sound and hopped off the dashboard and landed on the ground outside the jeep.
Then Dodgson looked out the windshield . . . or what used to be the windshield. As you might recall, the jeep had swerved off the road and rammed into a fallen tree; a broken branch from the tree crashed through the windshield.
At least I'm alive, Dodgson thought. He rose his head before accidentally banging it into the tree branch above him. "Ouch!" He looked into the back of the jeep to see that Halley and Baselton were apparently knocked out in the crash as well. "Guess the jeep's totaled," he told himself. Then he suddenly remembered the eggs that were in the back of the jeep! He hoped the containers holding them hadn't been crushed, otherwise they'd have to try and find nests and eggs all over again.
Dodgson got himself out of the jeep and looked around him – the Gigantoraptor was gone, but there was now a small flock of Compsognathus. They curiously watched Dodgson as he moved toward the back of the jeep.
Dodgson found the trunk of the jeep already opened and saw that the containers were indeed intact, but only the eggs from the Nothronychus remained. The Gigantoraptor eggs, he remembered, were not placed into the container because he and the others had to rush to drive away before the dinosaur caught up with them.
"Drat!" he exclaimed. "I bet that dinosaur took the eggs back with it to the nest. Well, I'm not going back. We need to press on, get the rest of the eggs and get off this crazy island!"
Just then, the jeep door opened and Halley stepped out, followed by Baselton.
"Golly!" Baselton exclaimed as he observed the tree branch that had crashed into the windshield. "I guess the jeep's pretty useless. What's the new plan?"
Dodgson looked at the ground as he considered his next course of action.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Halley said while shaking her head. "Great idea not bringing more than one gun, Dodgson. You know, if I'd planned this mission, we probably–"
". . . would end up in a dinosaur's stomach?" Dodgson finished her sentence. "For your information, it was completely your fault for forgetting the sonic device in the first place! Otherwise, we never would have had this issue! So be quiet so I can think."
Halley rolled her eyes and looked at the flock of compies standing nearby. They stood chattering among themselves a couple of meters away, staring intently at the group. What Dodgson and the others didn't know was that this was normal compy behavior; as scavengers, they often arrive on the scene soon after a carnivorous dinosaur has made a kill. The dinosaurs thought that the Gigantoraptor had killed the jeep (of course, the compies don't know that it's not possible to kill a vehicle), and were waiting for the humans to leave before they could continue on scout around the jeep in search of food scraps.
Dodgson looked at the road to his left and nodded. "Alright, here's the plan: we're going to follow this road until we reach something significant. We're not finished with this mission yet. We've still got eggs from those . . . those . . . I forget what their called . . . you know, those long-clawed dinosaurs."
"Nothronychus," Baselton told him.
"Yeah, that. Anyway, we're going to take our stuff with us and scout around this part of the island and look for nests. Once we're done for the day, we'll call the Biosyn helicopter to come pick us up in the morning."
"But how are we going to spend the night?"
"Why do you think I brought extra camping gear?"
Halley asked, "What if the jeep's fixable? If it is, then we can just drive around the island instead of walking."
"I'm no handy-man," said Dodgson. "None of the rest of us are either. Howard might know how to fix it, but I think we all know what happened to him."
"Yeah, because someone insisted on leaving him there."
"Look! If we went back, those dinosaurs would have got us too. We don't have time for stragglers like him. If we're going to save Biosyn, we need to finish collecting the eggs we need. Now, let's continue along this road and get somewhere."
Not having any other ideas, Halley and Baselton helped Dodgson get the egg containers, their individual backpacks (one of which contained the extra camping gear, emergency food and water) and the sonic device and went off down the road.
Dodgson and the remainder of his group continued down the road until they noticed a clearing up ahead.
"Hey! A clearing!" Baselton exclaimed. "That's good news!"
"Exactly, and look what else is there," Dodgson said as he pointed toward the clearing.
"I don't see anything," stated Halley.
"Look between those trees . . . don't tell me you don't see that big building!"
Halley squinted, and then a smile appeared across her face when she saw it – to the right of a medium-sized pond with palm trees growing around it was a large building. The building's exterior was made of concrete and was front lined with tinted glass windows (many of which were cracked and/or broken) separated by columns, and three rotundas, whose domes were given the appearance of a thatched roofing – Dodgson's team had run into the Visitor Center!
"What building is that?" Baselton asked.
Dodgson sighed. "That's the Visitor Center, you lunatic. Let's go take a look and see if the Lexico team is there."
The three of them briskly approached the Visitor Center and found it to be void of humans. They also saw four large vehicles parked in front of the Visitor Center: one trailer and three jeeps. Dodgson grinned slyly. I wonder if these jeeps work.
Baselton observed, "These vehicles must belong to the Lexico team. I really don't believe that they would be in this condition if they'd been sitting out here for over 20 years. Where is the Lexico team anyway?"
Dodgson shrugged as he walked in front of the trailer and stared into the broken windshield. "Well, I really don't think the trailer's still in use. Looks like something – probably a dinosaur – crashed into the windshield." He turned to the others and continued. "I don't think it's a good idea to hang around here too long, because we don't need to get caught. But maybe there's something here we can use."
Halley looked into jeep-01 and noticed the key was still in the ignition. "Hey, this key's still in here."
Dodgson ran over to the jeep. He nodded. "This is perfect. I don't think the Lexico team is around at the moment. Looks like they have more vehicles than they can manage, so we'll just . . . borrow one of them. Then we won't have to walk."
"But I thought you didn't want their team to know that we're on the island. How are you going to return it?"
"We're going to permanently borrow it."
With that, Dodgson hopped into the vehicle and turned the ignition on. Jeep-01 roared to life. Dodgson let out a loud whoop. "We're back in business!"
"Should we check the trailer and other vehicles for supplies?" Baselton asked.
"No, we don't want them to notice that their stuff is mysteriously disappearing. Otherwise, they'll suspect something."
"But they'll obviously notice that one of their cars is missing."
"Just get in the car, would you?" Dodgson asked impatiently.
Baselton shrugged and he and Halley climbed into the back seats, placed their other supplies (egg incubators, camping gear and other resources) in the back. Dodgson then pressed the gas pedal and he drove out of the clearing on the road heading southeast. We're back in business! Dodgson thought.
The Triceratops and Hypsilophodon herds continued their casual grazing and browsing peacefully; the humans watched near the edge of the forest. It was such a peaceful scene. Like a modern herd of bison in America or buffalo in Africa, the Triceratops sampled just about everything they came across and continued eating. These were some of the animals responsible for keeping Nublar's fields and plains wide and open because they'd knock down trees on their search for food.
Kailey continually snapped photographs of the action, especially of the babies. One baby she watched was gazing at her enormous mother feeding. The mother Triceratops would often let her child sample the food she was eating so that she could learn what to eat and what not to eat. The baby Triceratops seemed delighted to be eating with her mother.
The Malcolm's car reached the dock's parking lot and Malcolm pulled to a stop.
"Here we are," Malcolm told Sarah and Kelly. They had just come back from their house to say goodbye to Tracy and Douglass. The two weren't happy about their parents and Kelly having to leave, but as Sarah had said, "Lester's not the kind of guy who takes 'no' for an answer."
The three of them exited the car and walked over to the portion of the dock owned by Lexico, where Eric, Lester, and Hammond watched dozens of Lexico soldiers as they loaded things onto the USS Mars. The ship was still gleaming in all of its glory, ready to take its passengers back to Isla Nublar at around 1:30 p.m.
Lester looked at the soldiers who were loading crates onto the ship and said, "Please check to make sure there aren't anymore stowaway kids aboard! That's the last thing we need on this mission!"
"Yes sir, Mr. Lester," one of the soldiers replied.
"This ship's huge!" Kelly exclaimed.
"Good thing too," Eric said. "I don't want a repeat of what happened to me when I went paragliding!"
Malcolm turned to Sarah and she smiled at him. "You ready for this?"
"In a physical sense, I guess you could say that. But if you're referring to a mental sense . . . well, I'm not. This is bound to be one of the worst ideas in the long sad history of bad ideas if we're not careful."
"But it's not the worst idea in the long sad history of bad ideas," Sarah noted. "Lexico's not bringing dinosaurs to the mainland."
"But human and dinosaur are still mingling. We have absolutely no idea what to expect."
Sarah rolled her eyes and placed her feminine right hand underneath Malcolm's chin. "Everything's going to be fine," she told him. Then she lightly planted a kiss on her husband's lips.
Eric looked at Lester and asked, "So . . . we know dinosaurs still exist on the island, and we know what creature was responsible for the deaths of the jet-skiers, but do we know anything else the team might have found out?"
"Not much, I'm afraid," Lester answered. "We have no knowledge of what happened to the team. All we know is that I failed to contact Lex and when we reached the dock to pick up Taylor, no one was there. Much of the dock also appeared to be ripped apart by something."
Eric gulped. "You don't think that had anything to do with their disappearance."
"Hopefully not."
Eric looked out at the ocean. Gee, I sure hope they're alright . . . well, at least they've got Dr. Grant with them. He's already survived two dinosaur-related escapades. I just hope the others are alright.
Jimmy the mechanic checked the bottom of the ship's hull that was out of the water as a part of his routine "ship-checkup". He really didn't want to make a stop on Isla Sorna to check the ship again! Let's see, everything appears to be fine, he thought as he reexamined his work.
"How's it lookin', Jimmy?" a soldier named Owen asked.
Jimmy nodded. "Pretty good. I just finished checking her out so . . . hold on a second!" He noticed a little bulge on the ship's hull that shouldn't have been there . . . and it had a red blinking light on it! Slowly Jimmy grabbed the bugle and found that it was removable. "What do you reckon this is?" he asked Owen.
Owen came over and looked at it. "Don't think it's a bomb do you?"
Jimmy shook his head. "No, but something's suspicious about this thing . . ."
The ship's captain approached Lester, Malcolm and the others.
"Are you ready to prepare to disembark, captain?" Lester asked.
"Yes, Mr. Lester," the captain answered. "You and the rest of the team can now board the–"
"Mr. Lester!" Jimmy exclaimed as he ran over to them.
Lester sighed. "Please tell me you've run a routine check on the ship. We're not stopping on Isla Sorna again. We almost lost several team members thanks to your forgetfulness."
"I just finished that, sir," Jimmy replied. "But while I was checking the ship out, I found this."
Malcolm and the others looked at the object Jimmy was holding in his extended hand: it was a small round object with a little red flashing light in its center and a suction cup on the back of it. Eric took the object and looked at it in his hand. He gasped when he noticed the tiny printed letters on the back, next to the suction cup: Biosyn inc.
A/N: I'll finish this chapter with that cliffhanger. Thanks to everyone who's been posting their reviews on my story! I enjoy reading every one! What do you think is going to happen next in the story? I'd love to hear your ideas. Anyway, next week, get ready for another carnivorous dinosaur, because it's coming up next week! Until then, r&r!