Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar – Chapter 34: Searching for Clues
A/N: In this chapter, we're going to see what happens to Marcus and Larry and if the Lexico soldiers can save them in time from the hungry mosasaur. You're going to see a lot of Stanley's superior tracking skills as he and the rest of the Lexico rescue team search for clues to find out what happened to Grant, Dr. Sorkin and the other members of the research team. Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.
Marcus rose his head out of the water and caught his breath. The helicopter he was piloting had been taken down by a mosasaur and water had entered the chopper at an alarming rate. Marcus and Larry were now in dangerous waters, far more dangerous than any other on earth! Larry's head rose out of the increasing amount of water in the chopper next to his friend.
"This chopper's waterlogged!" Larry exclaimed. "We've got to get out of here!"
"Alright," Marcus answered. "But where do we go once we're out of here?"
"Who knows."
Marcus and Larry struggled to get their doors open, but they were jammed shut. Of drat! Marcus thought. Why on earth did we install that high-tech locking mechanism in here?
A few months prior, Marcus and Larry's chopper had a locking mechanism installed that only allowed the chopper to be locked and unlocked using the bottom on the dashboard to prevent intruder break-ins. Unfortunately, now that the chopper was half-submerged in water and quickly filling up with water in the hub, the chopper's electronics were useless. And to make matters worse, the glass windows were reinforced, making it hard to break out of them.
"We're going to drown!" Marcus yelled.
Larry glanced out the window and shook his head. "Don't be too sure about that. Look out there."
Marcus obeyed and gasped when he saw the tiny silhouette of the mosasaur swimming in their direction, and it was approaching fast!
"What on earth is that thing?" Larry questioned.
Marcus could only shrug. "Some marine dinosaur InGen cloned (he didn't know mosasaurs weren't dinosaurs). Based on the size of that thing, it will be able to crunch this chopper up in a few bites – it'll kill us in the process."
"Then what are we waiting for? Maybe we can open these doors by force. Start pushing!"
Rebecca watched as several Lexico soldiers attached the first of three zodiac boats to the crane which would drop the boat into the ocean below. Jimmy the mechanic was watching as well.
I don't know what those soldiers think they're going to do in those little boats, Jimmy thought to himself. "Won't the mosasaur bite right through those little boats?" he asked.
The captain of the USS Mars shook his head. "No, despite their appearance, these boats are tough. They've got a tough metal skeleton underneath the plastic outer-coat and if the mosasaur decided to bite, it wouldn't hold on for too long."
"Why not?"
"Take a look." The captain and a soldier slightly lifted the bottom of the boat to reveal several rows of sharp spikes. Jimmy gasped as the captain continued. "No sea monster's biting through that! I'm sure mosasaurs have a really strong bite force, but it will have to release its toothy grip on the boat the instant those spikes poke its gums! As Hammond always says, 'we spared no expense.' Unlike the Biosyn team my men are rescuing, we're prepared!"
"Let's get these boats in the water," Rebecca ordered.
The captain nodded and gave the signal. As soon as the boat was attached to the crane by metallic claws, three soldiers climbed inside it and the metallic claws released their grip. The boat plunged downward until it hit the ocean with a splash. One of the soldiers turned the boat's motor on and they were off! The process was repeated with the other two boats.
Rebecca looked across the water at the mosasaur, which was also swimming toward the sinking helicopter. She turned to the captain and asked, "Think they can reach it in time?"
"Well, there's only one way to find out, isn't there?" he answered.
Water was rising as the helicopter continued to sink, fast! Marcus shoved his body at one of the doors again and again, but it wouldn't budge. Larry was doing the same with the other door, to no effect.
There's got to be someway out of here, Marcus thought. His glance fell upon the dashboard again. He knew the buttons to control the helicopter's functions didn't work while wet, but just maybe he'd be fortunate. He pressed the button and a brief electrical charge ran from his finger and through the rest of his body. "Ouch!" he exclaimed. OK, that's not going to work . . . but this might!
He saw an ax on the floor of the chopper and snatched it up. Aiming for weakest point on the window on the right side of the chopper, he slammed the ax into the window and it smashed into smithereens! Water poured into the hub, but Marcus and Larry could escape!
"Let's get out of here Larry!" Marcus told him. Larry nodded; the two men dove under the water and swam out through the side window into the open ocean. We made it! he thought with glee. But his feeling of success didn't last when he got a look at the approaching Tylosaurus. The creature was like none he'd ever seen before – its large set of jaws and teeth and reptilian head looked like that of a giant monitor lizard. Its eyes which glared fixedly on its prey and forked tongue which occasionally flickered in and out of its mouth also reminded him of a monitor lizard. But its speed, flippers and tail fluke made it also slightly resemble a shark. But this creature was far worse than any shark living today. Even though it was more than a hundred meters away, it was closing the gap between itself and its prey fast.
Not sure how else to escape, Marcus and Larry swam to the chopper and this time climbed out of the water and clambered onto its side, which was bobbing barely out of the water.
"InGen really should have stuck to cloning land dinosaurs," Marcus said to Larry.
Larry shouted, "Look! The Lexico team's sending boats this way! Are they rescuing or arresting us?"
"I don't know."
Just then, a small wave overcame the chopper and brought it under the water, causing the two men to fall into the ocean. Marcus and Larry's heads reappeared on the surface and Marcus began waving his hands around wildly at the approaching zodiacs.
Larry slapped Marcus' shoulder and said, "Are you crazy? If they know we're from Biosyn, you know they'll arrest us, right?"
"I'd be arrested any day if it means I'll escape being dinosaur food!"
Larry glared angrily at Marcus. "Fine! You get arrested! See you in the funny papers, Larry!" With that, Larry started paddling toward the island. This actually isn't that bad, he thought. No way that dinosaur's going to choose me over those boats and multiple people over there!
Far below, the mosasaur reached the chopper as it continued to sink toward the depths. Its huge jaws opened and slammed shut on the chopper's tail. The reptile shook itself from side to side until the tail was ripped off from the rest of the chopper. It was now that the mosasaur realized she'd been fooled – there was nothing edible inside. Perhaps this hunt was all in vain . . . or was it?
The mosasaur looked upward and saw one human swimming toward the island all by himself and a zodiac boat approach another man who was floating at the surface. The monster's forked tongue flicked outward and back into the mouth – she was tasting the water for the scent of food. The mosasaur quickly became excited and swam toward the surface, quickly increasing in speed. She opened her jaws for the attack!
"Don't do this, Larry!" Marcus yelled. "You're better than this!"
Seeing it was hopeless to try and get Larry to change his mind, Marcus looked back at the closest zodiac.
"Climb in!" one of the soldiers (the "lead soldier", so to speak) exclaimed to Marcus as the other two zodiacs pulled up alongside. Two other soldiers assisted Marcus in climbing into the boat. "Where's your friend going?"
Marcus looked back at Larry and shrugged. "I guess he's going to try and reach the island."
"That's mere suicide! Doesn't he know there's a monstrous reptile in the water?" The lead soldier turned to the zodiac on his right and said, "Go get him."
"Yes sir!" was the reply.
Larry heard the sound of a motor boat behind him. Oh no! They're coming to get me!
Positive that he wouldn't tire before reaching Nublar, he paddled harder and harder. However, the sound of the zodiac continued to get louder. Fine! I'll just have to play hard-to-get!
Larry took in a deep breath to prepare for a dive when suddenly a pair of monstrous jaws erupted out of the water around him and snapped shut! Larry screamed as the mosasaur quickly submerged with a newly caught meal. Once again underwater, the predator shook her prey from side to side and presumed to swallow her prey whole. Then the creature swam into the depths, leaving behind nothing but a pool of blood.
"Well . . . can't say we didn't try," the lead soldier announced after he, the other soldiers and Marcus had watched the action. He lifted his walkie-talkie to his mouth and said, "We're on our way back now, Captain."
All three zodiacs were lifted onto the USS Mars where the soldiers were greeted by the captain and Rebecca.
Rebecca frowned, "Couldn't reach the other guy in time?"
"Afraid not," the lead soldier answered. "He made the dumb decision to try and out-swim the creature."
"What was that dinosaur?" Marcus asked.
"Not a dinosaur," Jimmy answered. "Tylosaurus proriger, species of sea-going lizards called the mosasaurs." Rebecca and the captain looked at Jimmy in surprise. "What? I do my research."
"Anywho," the captain said to the soldiers, trying to get back on topic, "Take this man and lock him in one of the unused guest bedrooms. We'll question him on his knowledge of Biosyn later."
"Yes sir," the soldiers answered.
Marcus wasn't necessarily glad about being locked up, but he felt very fortunate to be alive, a fate he wished Larry had been able to share with him.
"Rest in peace, Larry," Marcus whispered.
On the dock of the ship, Rebecca continued to gaze across the water. The captain came up alongside her. "Something wrong?"
Rebecca shook her head. "Oh, nothing's wrong. I'm just taking a minute to do nothing." She was silent for a moment until she noticed a large pool of blood still floating in the water nearby. "That mosasaur sure leaves its mark."
"Yes, yes it does. Speaking of the mosasaur, there it is now." He pointed to a dark shape moving just underneath the water's surface. The two watched as the creature's undulating body swam toward and into the mouth of a large river.
"What a Jurassic predator," Rebecca whispered.
"It's Cretaceous, actually."
Rebecca smiled and slapped his arm.
The rescue mission Lester had coordinated was different from the research team's mission in many aspects. Firstly, Lester had two dozen Lexico soldiers to fight off predatory dinosaurs. Also unlike before, there were only two vehicles – one was a jeep that led the way through the jungle (and was being driven by Eric) and the other was a trailer (like the ones used by the research team but with only one section instead of two that were connected by an accordion). The trailer was going to be sent back to the USS Mars if they found a suitable place to set up camp.
Next to Eric sat – or rather stood – Stanley, who was looking out in front of the vehicle to make sure they stayed on the road with relatively fresh tire tracks from. In the middle seats were Kelly and Hammond, while in the rear sat Sarah, Malcolm and Lester. The Lexico soldiers were in the trailer behind the jeep.
"How are we doing, Stanley?" Eric asked.
"The tracks are still somewhat fresh," Stanley responded. "There must have been a rainstorm on the island recently because of all these puddles in the road, but I can still tell where they went."
"Please tell me we're going to be stopping soon," Lester said. "It's not comfortable being squished in the back here."
"Relax, Lester," encouraged Hammond. "We'll be at a stopping point soon. If my memory serves me, I believe this road leads directly to the Visitor Center, which would probably be a terrific place to set up camp. Of course, it was in much better condition when the park was in operation. I tell ya, we hired the best road maintenance crews to keep these roads and the Visitor Center in check. Spared no expense."
Sarah asked, "What's the plan once we reach the Visitor Center, Lester?"
"Well, I haven't thought out all the details yet," began Lester, "but once we set up camp, we'll split up into groups – large groups – and use Mr. Safari-Tracker Man to find the missing team. Not a difficult plan to figure out really."
"You didn't count the part about the possibility of running into carnivorous dinosaurs, though," Malcolm reminded him.
"Oh no, this time we're prepared Dr. Malcolm," Hammond argued with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. "We've spared no expense on soldiers and equipment. Don't worry, we're not making the same mistakes again!"
"No, you're making all new ones . . . again! You said that before we went on the '97 expedition and what happened?"
"This time we're prepared."
Ian rolled his eyes and decided to not try and continue the argument. Was there a chance that he was wrong for once? Would this rescue expedition actually go according to plan?
Sarah looked out the window at the beautiful jungle trees, bushes and other foliage. "It's really amazing out here. Too bad we didn't get any results from the team before they went missing. I'd love to know what kind of dinosaur life survived for all those years after the park was abandoned."
"Well, you'll be finding out very soon!" Stanley exclaimed. "There's the Visitor Center just up ahead!"
Stanley was right. Hammond gasped with delight when he set his eyes upon the Visitor Center – it was almost just as he remembered it. For him, it was sort of a trip back in time, back to when they first began construction on this beautiful island.
"Here we go!" Hammond exclaimed.
A flock of Compsognathus scattered as the the jeep entered the clearing, followed closely by the trailer. One of the first things Eric and the others noticed was the three vehicles from the research team parked near the pond!
"Hey! I think we've found them!" Kelly exclaimed.
"Maybe," Malcolm agreed. "Let's go check this out."
Eric parked the jeep and as soon as the soldier's trailer parked nearby, they all rushed out to inspect the area. The soldiers quickly formed a barricade around the area and began to look for signs of predatory dinosaurs. Fortunately, they found none except a few compies.
Eric, Malcolm, Sarah and the rest of the rescue team walked briskly toward the research team's two jeeps and trailer.
"Anyone here?" Lester asked. The only sound they could hear were jungle noises.
Sarah sighed. "I guess we were all a bit too hopeful. Do you think they went into the Visitor Center?"
"I don't know," Malcolm began, "but something definitely attacked them." He pointed up at the trailer's broken windshield. "What do you think it was?"
"Only one way to find out," Stanley answered. The group watched as he scanned the area for clues. First, he found footprints from the team that led into the Visitor Center. "Well, this proves they did go into the Visitor Center."
"But no one goes in there yet," Lester told the others. "Not until I give the OK. Who knows what kind of creatures might be lurking in that building."
Then Stanley traced the footprints that left the Visitor Center and shook his head. "Alright, here's the deal with these footprints," he began to explain. "There are two sets. The first one consisted of the entire research team – plus the little stowaway girl – and they all entered the Visitor Center, but there's another set and this one consists of only one person; he's walking out of the Visitor Center. Based on its slightly different appearance, this set is slightly older than the rest of the first set of tracks. He continues to walk this way, back toward trailers." Stanley led the group back towards the trailers. "See, here's where it gets interesting: this man – or woman – is about to enter the trailer when he suddenly turns around. Then he slowly walks around the back of the trailer and stops."
"Do you get anything he's saying?" Malcolm asked Sarah and Kelly. "Cause I'm completely lost."
Kelly smiled. "Basically, Stanley believes the whole team entered the Visitor Center, and then slightly later, one member of the team exited the Visitor Center and walked toward the trailers. But just before he got in, he stopped and went around the back of the trailer where he stopped again."
Malcolm nodded. "OK, now I'm caught up."
"But what made him stop?" Lester asked.
Stanley grinned slyly. "This is another interesting bit here. See these tracks here. This person saw an animal here and stopped. I'm unaware what creature made these tracks. Perhaps Dr. Harding can give an identification."
"I'll see what I can do," Sarah responded. She walked over to the tracks Stanley was talking about and gasped. She knelt down to the ground to get a better look – the footprints consisted of only two toes and they led straight from the jungle to the side of the trailer. I know exactly what creature this is, she thought. Eric walked up beside her and frowned.
"Well?" Hammond asked curiously.
"Raptor," Eric and Sarah whispered at once.
Sarah continued, "Definitely Velociraptor prints. There are only two claw prints because one of the claw is held up off the ground."
"Yeah," Eric agreed, "the Killing Claw!"
"So a raptor got him?" Lester was trying to reach conclusions.
"No, at least, not yet," Stanley told him. "See, the raptor turned and faced him and the person ran back around the rear of the trailer. But the raptor was too fast and beat him to the other side. Then, from behind, another raptor strikes and the two close in for the kill. After that, you can tell by these drag-marks along the ground that the raptors dragged him into the jungle to feast on him." With that, Stanley began walking past the soldier's barricade and toward the jungle.
"Your not going out there without a soldier!" Lester exclaimed.
"Maybe we should split up and look for clues?" Hammond inquired. "That way we'll be able to know what became of the team faster."
Lester nodded in approval. "Alright, you stay here. Malcolm, Kelly and you three (referring to some soldiers), follow us into the Visitor Center. Sarah, Stanley, Eric and you two (again referring to some soldiers) can go find out what happened to . . . whoever that guy was." He turned to Malcolm. "Let's go in."
"So what's going on here?" asked Eric.
"OK, so working together this is where the raptors dragged their victim through," Stanley answered.
Stanley, Eric, Sarah and two soldiers were still trying to solve the mystery on who the raptors had killed and dragged into the jungle. They had not gone far when they found a mangled body of bones lying at the base of a tree with several Compsognathus scavenging from the remains. Sarah grimaced – most of the flesh had been eaten (even much of the face flesh and skin, thanks to the compies) and the body was quite unrecognizable.
"Compsognathus longipes," Sarah classified. "There were tons of these guys when we were on Isla Sorna in 1997."
Some of the Compsognathus looked up at the humans and chirped before returning to their feasting. Sarah, Eric and Stanley slowly approached the body. When they saw them coming, the Compsognathus chattered amongst themselves and dashed a short distance away. They wanted first dibs on the carcass once the humans were finished investigating it. Sarah knelt down in front of the carcass.
"It's a male," she said. "Based on the attire that's left, I believe it's one of the Lexico soldiers."
"They really didn't leave much, did they?" Eric asked. He went next to Sarah and found an ID card lying on the ground. He read, "'Roger Macerate'. Yeah, this was one of our soldiers."
"Hey guys!" Stanley called from a short distance away. "You might want to have a look at this!"
The soldiers, Sarah and Eric rushed to the scene. Stanley had entered a small clearing with a large building in its center. The building was relatively long and had a raised catwalk path around it. In the building's center was a paddock surrounded by a tattered and almost non-existent once-electrified fence.
"Oh my gosh!" Eric exclaimed. "This must have been some kind of paddock." The group walked up the stairs that led to the catwalk and peered into the paddock – the ground inside the caged area was quite low from where they stood and small trees and other plants were so overgrown that they actually couldn't see the ground.
"Think they went in there?" one of the soldiers asked.
Stanley shook his head. "No, there were no human footprints in this clearing until we came here. But this is incredible. What type of dinosaurs do you think they kept in here."
"Hard to say, but I think this was the raptor enclosure," Eric stated. "Remember, after they introduced the Big One to the pack, the pack was so ferocious that they had to move them out of their normal paddock and to a temporary paddock. Yeah, this was probably for raptors."
"Those raptors are amazing jumpers if they jumped out of this paddock!"
"Yeah, that's why they took extreme precautions . . . and they still escaped once the power went out! Believe me, raptors are one of the most deadliest dinosaurs InGen ever recreated. Don't let their relatively small size fool you! They're fierce and deadly; they'll use numbers to bring down prey."
"How on earth did you survive eight weeks alone on Sorna with raptors?"
Eric could only shrug. "I guess because I was out and about only when necessary. Most of the time I was hiding in some man-made structure." Eric dove into his back pocket and retrieved the six-inch raptor claw he'd obtained while on Isla Sorna.
Stanley's eyes nearly bugged out. "Wow, that thing is the bomb!"
"Yeah, they use this little weapon to finish you off. And they're not polite about it either. They'll pierce into your throat with this, or they'll disembowel you. And the worst bit is, you're alive when they start to eat you. Half the time, I don't know how I survived for eight weeks on that island alone."
Sarah looked at her surroundings – during this time of morning, the jungle air was cool and the sounds of tropical birds filled the sky with their morning chorus. This was joined by the sound of distant dinosaurs. It really is another world out here, Sarah thought. This place is amazing. I've only seen compies, but I firmly believe that most if not all of InGen's creations survived. The environment looks almost untouched. It's so pristine.
Just then, a loud squawk got her attention. She looked up and saw several large pterosaurs circling in the distance. "Let's see," she whispered to herself as she brushed some hair back away from her face. "Long crest at the back of the head . . . those have got to be Pteranodon longiceps." The great pterosaurs glided on their great 25 foot wingspans; their wings didn't engage in much flapping. Sarah knew that even though Pteranodon was capable of powered flight, they often glided over the thermals that rise over land in order to gain lift. Doing this instead of constant flapping saved energy.
Stanley turned to the rest of the group and said, "We should probably get back to the others."
Eric nodded in agreement.
A/N: What do you think of Stanley's tracking skills? In this chapter, I thought it would be kind of cool for Eric, Sarah and Stanley to go back to the raptor paddock that we haven't seen since the first film (as you might recall, it didn't even appear in Jurassic Park: The Game). Forgive me for not including the Dodgson's, Grant's group or Levine's group in this chapter. I felt that this chapter should really be devoted to the rescue team and, of course, finishing up the mosasaur attack from the last chapter! Next week, you can read more about the three aforementioned groups and a bunch of other cool stuff. Until then, r&r!