Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar – Chapter 27: Trouble in the Herd

A/N: Sorry about this being so late! I got sick last week and didn't feel like doing anything! Now that I'm better, I've published Chapter 27! I also forgot to ask last week how you all liked the inclusion of Hypsilophodon in the story? In the reviews, I was asked about including some dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park novel and thought it was a great idea! By the way, I finally figured out how to create a poll. So now you all can vote for your favorite character by just going to my profile page.

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

Lester turned to Jimmy and said, "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 closely. He gasped when he noticed the tiny printed letters on the back, next to the suction cup: Biosyn inc.

"Biosyn . . ." Eric looked thoughtful. "That name sounds familiar."

"Of course it sounds familiar," Malcolm told him. "That's the same name of the company that tried to ruin InGen over 20 years ago."

Hammond shook his head in disgrace. "Just the name Biosyn brings back memories."

Eric looked at him strangely. "Tried to ruin InGen?"

"You remember," Hammond told him. "That's the same company presidented by Dr. Lewis Dodgson; you'll recall that in 1993, he hired Jurassic Park employee Denis Nedry to smuggle several dinosaur embryos from off the island."

Eric nodded. "Oh yeah, I remember them now. But what's this thing doing on the ship?"

Lester shook his head in disgust. "Looks like some sort of–"

"We're ready to embark, sir!" the captain called from the USS Mars.

"Alright, we're coming!" Lester called back. He turned back to the others, took the device from Eric and said, "Once you're settled into your rooms on the ship, meet me in my room. Something suspicious is going on here."

The Triceratops leader let out a loud roar. The great dinosaurs were still grazing in the plains, surrounded by several of the Hypsilophodons. Kailey watched with intrigue as one of the Hypsilophodons nibbled at a low-growing shrub just outside the rim of the herd. The creature wasn't actually feeding on the leaves themselves, but on the berries that were growing in between the leaves. It seemed to fancy them greatly.

"What kind of berries do you think those are?" Kailey asked as she slowly walked over to the shrub to get some close-up shots.

Lex got up and started walking towards Tim, Ben and Rob who were still watching the dinosaurs. "What berries?" she asked.

"See? There are dozens of these little red berries on this bush over here. The Hypsilophodons seem to like them."

Lex shrugged. "Not sure. I'm no botanist."

"Hope they're not poisonous," Levine said as he closed his laptop and returned it to the safety of his backpack before rejoining the others.

"Think they're edible?" Kailey asked.

"Don't know," Tim told her. "But we'd best better not eat them, just in case."

"If they were poisonous, wouldn't the dinosaurs avoid eating them too?"

"Some maybe, but sometimes some creatures have an immunity to the toxins in the foods they eat."

The feeding Hypsilophodon Kailey was trying to approach looked up and made a high-pitched squeaking-like noise.

"Hey, little guy," Kailey cooed. She slowly rose her camera and snapped the photograph. The dinosaur apparently figured that this human wasn't a threat and continued eating. Kailey watched as the dinosaur gobbled up a mouthful of berries before it began to chew them.

She recalled having read that Hypsilophodon and its relatives were one of the few kinds of dinosaurs that could chew their food, so this intrigued her. Kailey made sure she got shots of the dinosaurs horny beak as it tore berries from the branches of the bush.

Lex turned to Tim and said, "You know, we should probably be getting a move on before the sun gets too low in the sky to give us much light."

"We've got plenty of sunlight left," Ben told her. He checked his watch and continued saying, "It's 2:30 p.m. How far away do you reckon the North Dock is from here?"

"Hard to say," Levine explained. "We have absolutely no idea how far away we are from anything. Gee, I sure wish InGen had made some landmarks we could use to navigate by that were tall enough to see from just about anywhere on the island. Then we'd have an easy job of finding out where we are. We should probably just continue walking the way we were heading before we saw the Triceratops."

Lex said, "Then we'll have to go into the jungle to go around them, unless we want to risk causing a stampede of six to 12-ton behemoths! These animals are huge!" She turned to Levine. "Then again, we'll be even longer by going through the forest. It will be a lot quicker if we can go straight through the herd. Are Triceratops dangerous?"

Levine shrugged. "Well, we can't really tell from fossils of course, but if I remember correctly, Dr. Sorkin said that they were mild-mannered around humans when the park was still in operation. Since these are wild animals, no one can be 100% certain. I'd say we try going straight through them to save time, but be extremely cautious."

Tim nodded and turned over to Kailey's direction. "Hey Kailey! We're going to move on now."

Kailey put her camera back in its case that hung around her neck and returned to the others. "So where are we going from here?"

Lex pointed toward the Triceratops. "We're going through the herd."

"So what exactly is this thing?" Kelly asked, pointing at the object Jimmy found that was lying on the table. She, her Malcolm, Sarah, Eric, Hammond and Lester had gotten aboard the USS Mars, settled into their appointed rooms and were now sitting around a large table in Lester's room, beginning a hot discussion about the peculiar object that Jimmy had taken off the ship's hull. Rebecca meanwhile was doing paperwork on a nearby table in Lester's room.

"Well," Lester began as he looked at the device. "We know two things: firstly, this was obviously a product of Biosyn. Biology Synthetics Technologies Inc., or Biosyn for short, is a genetics company founded by Dr. Lewis Dodgson and is very similar to InGen; they were infamously known for their unlawful studies and for stealing ideas and technology from other scientists."

Hammond smiled. "They have more lawyers than actual scientists to avoid going bankrupt due to being sued! InGen on the other hand employed some of the best scientists in the country to actually do the work instead of stealing work of hardworking other scientists . . . spared no expense."

Malcolm made a brief chuckle before Lester continued.

"Yes," Lester said. "And as we also know, they also unsuccessfully attempted to steal several dinosaur embryos from InGen's Nublar embryo facility."

"What's the second thing we know?" Sarah asked, trying to stay on topic. "Do we know what this . . . 'device' is?"

"I was just getting to that. We often use these types of devices in the military – this is a tracking device, or beacon."

"A tracking beacon?" Eric was shocked. "Wait, are you saying that Biosyn probably heard about our plan to go to Nublar, stuck the beacon on the ship and are going to use that to track where we go?"

"That's one theory. We don't know exactly when they attached it though. It's possible that they either just put it on . . . somehow, or they put this on the ship before we began our first voyage to Nublar."

"Which is more likely?" Kelly asked.

There was a moment of silence before Lester answered again. "There's no way of knowing. It's obvious what they want though: they want to know where Nublar is located."

"But why?" Hammond questioned as he fiddled with his walking cane. "You think they're going to try bringing dinosaurs off the island like Ludlow tried to accomplish?"

"We would have seen that," Malcolm protested. "It's got to be a project of smaller scale. The only easy way to transport dinosaurs using small, not-so-obvious scaled methods would be to take small dinosaurs or eggs. That way, Biosyn could, theoretically, track down the island, sneak onto the island in a small boat, plane, helicopter or whatever, get what they want and get out without being noticed."

"Now that's a thought," Eric agreed.

"Yeah, eggs are relatively easy to obtain," Sarah explained. "Once you get past the parent dinosaur(s), all one would have to do is keep the eggs warm. The largest dinosaur egg is only about the size of a football, and most dinosaur eggs were a lot smaller, so they'd be easy to gather and hold until they're brought back to the mainland."

"Come to think of it," Kelly added, "according to rumor, isn't Biosyn close to filing for bankruptcy? I think have a theory: what if Biosyn is sending – or already sent – a few people to the island to get dinosaur eggs – which would be worth probably hundreds of millions – to save their company?"

"I knew something was going on," Malcolm said. "What if our team is being held hostage by the Biosyn team, if they're already on the island? Maybe that's why they're not contacting us."

Sarah winced. "Uh oh, I think I'm hearing another book coming on. What would you entitle it? Jurassic Park III: Biosyn Strikes Back?" (A/N: Malcolm never wrote a book about the Kirby Incident, so this is why his next Jurassic Park-related book would be entitled JPIII)

"Very funny, Sarah."

"If we could get back on topic please," Hammond began. "Whatever Biosyn's up to, we must stop them! They're not only threatening having another dinosaur escapade on the mainland, but also threatening the lives of the dinosaurs on the island. If they started poaching them or something . . ." he shivered. "I can't even bear the thought."

Lester sighed. "Great, as if losing our team wasn't enough, we possibly have Biosyn exploiting the island! As if things couldn't get any worse . . ."

Dodgson continued to drive along the bumpy jungle road in jeep-01. It's a good thing the Lexico team's on the island now, he thought. Otherwise, we'd have to call the Biosyn helicopter back early.

"So how far are we going to continue driving?" Halley asked.

"Until we find another sign of dinosaurs," Dodgson told her. "See anything of note, Baselton?"

Baselton looked out of the jeep's window and stared outdoors. "Nothing of any interest. Maybe there isn't anything around here. Would it be a good idea to take a break and try to think of a better way of tracking down dinosaurs?"

Dodgson nodded. "Yeah, I guess. I want to check on the dinosaur eggs we've already obtained anyway."

So Dodgson pulled the car to a stop and the three of them got out. This part of the jungle was much like the rest – full of trees of various sizes, smaller ground-covering plants and rocks; nothing particularly special. Dodgson went to the back of the jeep, opened the trunk and unlatched the egg containers. Inside, the five little eggs sat peacefully, all snug and warm.

Dodgson grinned. Hey, if we don't get any more dinosaurs on this expedition, these eggs alone will be more than enough to not only save Biosyn, but also to revolutionize the world of bioengineering!

"The eggs are warm, right?" Baselton asked. "If they're not warm–"

". . . the eggs will die," Dodgson finished. "Yes, I'm well aware of that. Why do you think I was checking on them?"

"You think dinosaur eggs would make good omelets?" Halley inquired.

"Honestly, Halley? Only if you want to be living in the poor house when we get back to the mainland! Speaking of eggs, we need to plan our next egg capturing attempt and make sure it works out better than last time!"

"Can we take a break while we do our planning?" Halley asked. "'Cause I'm getting hungry!"

Baselton looked into the forest and smiled. "I think I see a spot in the forest a couple hundred yards that way with some large logs we could sit on over there. Maybe we could build a fire as well so we can ward off the dinosaurs?"

"No, we'll sit in the car," Dodgson answered.

"The car seat's hurting my posterior," Baselton objected.

"Fine," Dodgson said. "Let's break over there. And Halley, hand me that sonic device right now. If we run into some predator, we're not going to have a repeat of what happened last time!"

Dodgson, Halley and Baselton reached the spot Baselton had been speaking of and looked around – this spot in the jungle wasn't exactly what you'd call a "clearing", but the area looked like it had been disturbed much earlier by dinosaur activity.

The three humans sat down and Baselton opened the small bag containing his lunch: (yes, you guessed it!) fried egg yokes, this time with a little barbecue sauce for dipping. "Tasty stuff!" Baselton exclaimed as he bit into his lunch. Juice from the egg yoke rolled down his chin.

Halley rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's about as tasty as chopped liver that's been sitting out in the sun covered in flies and honey mustard salad dressing."

"No, that is disgusting."

Halley rolled her eyes again and prepared to bite into her sandwich when she saw a pair of eyes watching her through a bush, no more than five feet away. The eyes were yellow with black, round pupils in the center. Whatever it was, it was probably a predator, because its eyes were facing forward, rather than out to the sides as in most herbivorous creatures.

Halley leaned over to Dodgson and asked, "Am I seeing things, or is that really there?"

"I don't see anything," her brother responded.

"Right in that bush, see it?"

It was several seconds before Dodgson put his lunch back in his bag and stood up to get a better look. "Yeah, I see it. See that pair of eyes in the bushes over there, Baselton?"

Baselton paused from eating to take a look. "I don't see one pair, I see three!"

At this, the three of them got up and went over to the bush. Indeed, three pairs of eyes watched Dodgson's group. These apparently were small animals, but Dodgson needed to know what they were. So he kicked the bush and, as expected, the animals ran out into the open.

The three dinosaurs were only around three feet tall and seven feet long. They also had rather lanky legs, elongated skulls, large eyes, mouths full of sharp, little teeth and long tails. As they raced from the bush and toward a large rock, they emitted high-pitched squeaking and shrilling sounds. Then they turned to face their apparent new threats, slightly cocking their heads.

Baselton chuckled heartily. Dodgson looked over at him, slightly puzzled. "Well, what are those things?"

"Don't you know? They're baby Tyrannosaurus rex! They're probably only a couple of months old."

The little T. rex bore their ferocious-looking teeth and emitted their best attempt at roaring. Being quite young, their roars sounded a bit too high-pitched. Being much smaller than their parents, they weren't nearly as terrible-looking, but they were trying their best.

Dodgson's puzzlement face turned into a slick smile as Halley said, "Well, too bad we didn't find a T. rex nest, then we could have stolen those eggs."

"Who says we need to steal eggs?" Dodgson asked. "Halley, run back to the truck and grab my backpack. I need a few things from it."

Halley turned and went back toward the jeep. Dodgson cracked his knuckles in anticipation, but different thoughts were running through Baselton's mind: If the baby T. rex are here, where are their parents?

"Hello! Just us!" Levine exclaimed as he led Rob, Ben, Tim, Lex and Kailey through the Triceratops herd. They were actually about halfway through this herd, which as you'll recall was consisting of 20-30 individuals. "Just us! No need to worry!"

"Why are you talking to the Triceratops?" Kailey asked.

"Just letting them know we're here," he answered. "I learned that the best way to navigate around rhinoceros is to let them know where you are at all times; since they have such bad eyesight, rhinos charge at just about anything they can't see well because they don't know what it is. So I figured, why not do the same with Triceratops. If they know where we are and we don't surprise them, they shouldn't attack."

Lex nervously watched as a rhinoceros-sized Triceratops looked into her direction. It was obviously a juvenile or teenager considering her horns were pointing upwards instead of forwards. She let out a snort before she resumed feeding. Despite their fearsome appearance, the Triceratops appeared to be quite mild-mannered and most didn't give the humans much attention. They just continued feeding.

The Hypsilophodon on the other hand, looked up when they saw the humans passing by. Being rather curious creatures, they didn't appear to know what to make of these strange, upright-walking life forms. But as they got used to the humans being around, the Hypsilophodon continued to feed like with the Triceratops peacefully.

Kailey edged a little closer to Tim. "Amazing animals aren't they?" she asked him.

Tim nodded. "Yeah, they're really beautiful. I just wish we could . . ." his voice faded as he noticed a sense of agitation in the Hypsilophodon. They had all quit feeding and were standing in their most aroused posture – their heads held upward in an S-like shape. They looked from the right . . . and then to the left . . . and then to the right again, scanning the area.

"Just us!" Levine continued to proclaim. "Nothing to fear here–" Tim grabbed his shoulder. "What?" Levine asked.

"Notice how the Hypsilophodon aren't feeding anymore?"

But no more than a second after he'd said that, the little dinosaurs continued their peaceful grazing.

"Never mind," Tim said.

Suddenly, a flock of small Compsognathus and several Hypsilophodon sprinted swiftly from the forest where Levine's group had entered the plains. It appeared that they were running from something . . . and that's when an even larger dinosaur burst from between the thick jungle trees and strode into the sunlight on two giant feet. It had a large forehead, filled with sharp gruesome teeth, a large body, tiny arms, strong back legs and a thick tail. The adult male Tyrannosaurus rex stood to his full height, opened his maw and boomed out a loud bone-shattering roar.

Kailey nearly went into a panic as the beast charged toward the herd of peaceful herbivores. "T-t-t-t. rex!" she exclaimed in fright.

"Come on!" Levine yelled. "I'm not waiting around here! Let's go!" And the others followed Levine as they headed in the opposite direction of T. rex.

The herbivores acted accordingly – the Hypsilophodon joined the ones that fled from the forest began sprinting in the opposite direction of the predator. The creatures were so nimble that they quickly were at the speed of around 40 mph in a few seconds. Pretty soon, they were well away from the Triceratops herd.

The Triceratops adults began make emit loud cries. The young were quickly gathered together and the adults strode out toward the foe. Pretty soon, the adults were all facing the T. rex and formed a wall of horns. The tyrannosaur stopped running and roared in an attempt to frighten the herd. But the Triceratops weren't going to fall for that trick! Instead, they stood their ground and bellowed and roared back at the predator while showing off their four-foot long horns.

The humans came to a stop. "Wow!" Lex exclaimed as she and the others looked back. "They've formed a barricade in front of the youngsters!"

"And the sub-adults and teenagers," Levine noted. He quickly drew out his camera and took a photograph of the action.

"That T. rex doesn't stand a chance," Ben observed. He was right – the 17-foot tall, 40-foot long, 6-ton predator was no match for a herd of fully-armed 10-foot tall, 30-foot long, 6-12-ton behemoths with horns and frills.

Tim smiled. "This is great! For a minute I thought we'd be running for our lives again."

Lex initially agreed . . . until she saw movement in the trees nearby. "I wouldn't be so sure, Timmy."

"What do you mean?"

Suddenly, another Tyrannosaurus burst through the forest/plains barrier and bellowed loudly. The Triceratops turned her direction in surprise – the female T. rex was also joining in this hunt! She echoed out a loud roar and began running toward the unexpected Triceratops herd.

Unsure of what exactly to do, the Triceratops alpha male bellowed in fear and he broke ranks, running away from the herd. With the wall broken, the rest of the herd began to panic and started stampeding away from the two tyrannosaurs . . . and into the direction of Levine's team!

"RUN!" Tim exclaimed and the others obeyed. They took off in the opposite direction of the incoming herbivores, but the Triceratops were much faster. Their pillar-like legs were strong and they soon caught up to our group.

The T. rex pair chased swiftly after their prey – this hunt was going precisely as planned: trick the herd into believing that only one T. rex was hunting, have the female charge and make the herd disperse and then they'd catch and bring down a Triceratops together, not only for them, but to feed their offspring.

The first Triceratops thundered past Levine and the others, followed by the others. There was so much confusion that they almost failed to notice a Triceratops come running in their direction. The group dodged the large creature, but in doing so were now split up amongst the frightened dinosaurs!

"AHH!" Lex exclaimed. "Where is everyone?"

"I'm right here!" Tim told her as he grabbed onto her arm. Rob and Ben came running towards the siblings a few seconds later.

"We don't need to be split up again! We must find the others!"

"Where are they?"

Tim looked around him, but all he could see were large Triceratops stampeding past . . . until he saw Kailey and Levine a few yards away!

"I see them!"

"I see them too!" Rob exclaimed.

"Where?" Lex asked.

Tim pointed in the correct direction. "This way!"

Lex obeyed and the four of them ran. They quickly dodged a large Triceratops as it passed them. Tim knew that they needed to get everyone successfully out of the herd and into the safety of the forest. But he also knew that this was easier said than done . . . much easier!

A/N: I'm glad to say that the T. rex parents are back . . . and they're hungry! As you can imagine, not only do they have to feed themselves, but their youngsters as well, so naturally they're going to try and capture anything that's edible. Also, you might have noticed that, despite Triceratops being one of everyone's favorite dinosaurs, it has very small parts in the Jurassic Park series (excluding Jurassic Park: The Game). Have you noticed that? That's one reason why I have Triceratops in quite a few chapters. Anyways, that's all for this week. Next week, we'll see if Tim and the others can escape the stampeding Triceratops and T. rex and if Dodgson will get to take home a baby T. rex or two. R&r!