Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar – Chapter 39: No Time For Tides

A/N: If you enjoyed all the previous chapters, then you are definitely going to LOVE this one! We've got a little romance between Kailey and Tim (what do you all think of the Kailey and Tim coupling by the way?), Halley Dodgson, a change of scenery for Levine's group and . . . and a little surprise near the end of the chapter! By the way, if you haven't already, please be sure to check out my poll on my profile page where you can vote which characters in Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar are your favorite.

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

Tim and Kailey grasped each other's arms tightly yet gently as they kissed with affection. Then Tim slowly guided his hands along Kailey's back, wrapping her in a warm embrace; Kailey's arms wandered away from Tim's arms as she wrapped her arms around his neck. For a moment, it seemed as if they were the only two souls on the entire island . . . they had entered an imaginative place of peace, satisfactory and romance, a world that could only be shared by two.

Finally, after what seemed like millions of times more since the dinosaurs went extinct, Kailey and Tim opened their eyes and pulled back, holding onto each other's arms; they stared for several moment's into each other's eyes. Kailey blushed and looked down at the ground.

"You know, Kailey . . ." Tim quietly started to say, "you're . . . you're really beautiful."

Kailey nodded. "Thanks. You too . . . in a sort of masculine kind of way." The pair hugged once more before they started walking back towards where they last saw the rest of their group.

That's when a whistle was sounded from behind. Kailey and Tim whirled around to see a small modern tropical bird sitting on a low tree branch, watching them.

"What are you looking at?" Tim asked. The bird chirped at them before fluttering away. Tim looked back at Kailey, who grinned sheepishly in return. "Um . . . when we get back . . ."

Kailey's eyes widened in anticipation. "Yes?"

"W-when we get back . . . I was wondering if . . . um–"

"Hey, Lex! You'll never guess what I found back here!" Levine's voice echoed from several tens of meters away.

Kailey giggled. "That's Levine. We should probably get back to the others so we're not easy targets for some wondering dinosaur."

Tim nodded in agreement. "Good idea."

The sound of metallic whirring was heard as the helicopter carrying Malcolm and Sarah flew above the jungle forest, heading toward a large river that was flowing toward the northeastern portion of the island. Sarah looked through her binoculars again and scanned the forest below through her open window.

"See anything yet?" Malcolm asked as he looked out of the opposite side of the chopper.

"Negative, hon," Sarah replied.

The pilot yelled back, "We're heading toward a large clearing near a river. Keep your eyes peeled for signs of activity."

"Roger."

The pilot flew the helicopter over the clearing. There were no dinosaurs to be seen, but Sarah guessed they weren't too far away considering that this would be prime habitat for grazing herbivores. Wow, look at all that foliage! Sarah thought. It's no wonder dinosaurs survived on this island. Those loads of lush grass all over the clearing and lush shrubs near the river and . . . her thoughts trailed off when she noticed something hidden amongst the tall grass. I wonder what that is. She adjusted the binoculars so that they zoomed in to get a closer look at the object. Sarah gasped, recognizing it instantly – it was the corpse of a human! "Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed.

"Oh my gosh is right!" Malcolm seemed to agree. "It's been out of use for some years, but it still stands strong. Maybe that's where the group is?"

"You could be right," the pilot responded. "I'll set her down so we can get a look."

Without looking up, Sarah said, "What are you guys talking about? It's lying on the ground; it's dead."

"Sarah, buildings don't die, silly."

"I'm not talking about a building, Ian."

Malcolm instantly looked in her direction. "What did you find?"

"There's a human body down there in the grass!" she quickly handed her binoculars to her husband. He looked through them and nodded.

"Yeah, that's a human alright."

"You guys see something?" the pilot asked.

Malcolm said, "Human corpse on the chopper's right."

"OK, I'll set you both down nice and close so you can take a look."

The minute the helicopter landed, Sarah and Malcolm leaped out and darted toward the fallen person lying dead on the ground. Once they reached the body, they found several Compsognathus that were scavenging on it that soon dashed away from the humans.

"Compies are everywhere," Sarah commented.

Malcolm grimaced at the sight of the deceased person lying before them – much of the flesh was eaten off and many bones remained, meaning that whatever killed him must have been a relatively small predator; the scent of decay was heavily present and flies flew around the body. "What do you think killed him?" Malcolm asked. "Or her?"

Sarah shrugged. "It's a male, as you can tell based on the proportion of the ribcage to the rest of the body, but I don't know what killed him. It's a good possibility that the compies got him; we know that they're definitely capable of taking down a full-grown man on his own."

"Well, the compies sure didn't go far." Malcolm gestured toward the flock of Compsognathus chattering and squeaking nearby. "They really want to get back to this carcass."

Sarah knelt down near the carcass and upon closer inspection saw that the few remnants of dry skin that remained had cracked in the harsh tropical sun – it was now peeling upwards, revealing the layer of runny, yellow subdermal fat beneath. Despite the offensive smell of decay, Sarah edged closer, shooing flies away from her face. Based on its appearance, she theorized that it was a recent kill, maybe less than 12 hours old. The reason why there was so little left was due to the fact that something had eaten it. Sarah concluded that person had been killed by a dinosaur, rather than succumbing of, say, an injury of some kind.

The pilot had shut the helicopter off and ran to join Malcolm and Sarah, followed by the only Lexico soldier who had been in the chopper. The soldier held his rifle in a position that would have allowed him to shoot a predator at any moment.

"Find out anything?" the pilot asked.

Sarah nodded. "This man is the victim of a dinosaur attack. I'm not sure what species. Since there's not much meat left, I believe that probably a group of carnivores brought him down and ate him. Compsognathus ate the bits they couldn't eat."

"Maybe it was a raptor?" Malcolm suggested.

"I don't think . . ." she noticed several small, white, triangular-shaped pointed objects on the ground around the dead body. She picked one of them up and grinned – it was a tooth, the tooth of a theropod. She was about to make another theory of what killed the person when she noticed some dry black blotches on the neck and the skin on his face. Malcolm noticed them too and they both knew what dinosaurs didn't kill him. "Oh my gosh," she breathed, "the compies didn't kill him."

"Spitters," said Malcolm, knowingly.

The pilot winced. "Spitters?"

"Dilophosaurus to be precise," Sarah explained. "Dilophosaurus is a relatively small to medium-sized theropod with a double-crested head, sharp claws and teeth. But their jaws are relatively weak; instead of mainly using their jaws to bring down prey, the ones InGen created spit a deadly venom. The venom causes blindness, disorientation and paralysis."

"Doesn't sound like the best dinosaur to meet out here," the soldier said.

"Exactly. Dilophosaurus' weak jaws don't allow it to chew through the bones, so that's why most of the bones are intact."

"I think I found his wallet, too," Malcolm told the others as he bent down to pick up a wallet lying near a shredded piece of the man's pants that was torn off as the Dilophosaurus tore him apart. Malcolm opened the wallet and found a card inside. He read the name on the card aloud: "'Howard King'. Hey, that name sounds familiar. Let me keep reading . . . aha! He works for Biosyn!"

"Biosyn!" Sarah suddenly exclaimed as she put the Dilophosaurus tooth she picked up into her pocket. "So they already have people on the island! This could be potentially bad. Let's hope they haven't made too much progress with whatever they're trying to do on this island."

Malcolm shrugged. "For all we know, they could have ended up like Howard here."

"Didn't you guys say something about a building or something nearby when we were in the chopper?"

"Yeah," the pilot said. He pointed at the small concrete shed near the river. "Maybe we can find evidence that our missing team was there."

Grant took another sniff of the salty sea air that got stronger with every step forward that they made. All we have to do is get to the end of these caverns and get to the coast, he thought. He turned to the others following him and said, "You know, all things considered, this is probably the easiest island escape I've made – way easier than the other two."

"May I remind you about the Velociraptors in the Visitor Center and in the network tunnels?" Ryan asked.

Grant shrugged. "I guess I kind of forgot about those guys. But after that, things have been pretty smooth."

"And you also forgot about the Troodon, the mosasaur attack . . . no wait, two mosasaur attacks . . . and then there's the Dilophosaurus we ran into, three times. So are you suggesting you have another definition of 'pretty smooth'?"

"No, I forgot about those too. It's been a long couple of days and all the predatory attacks we've had kind of run together."

"You're telling me," Dr. Sorkin agreed. "But at least we're almost to the coast."

Soldier #2 said, "Now that we're getting closer, maybe we should start planning on what we're going to do when we get there."

Grant nodded his head in agreement.

"Do you think we could build a fire of some kind so that someone will see us from the air?" Taylor asked.

"Good suggestion," Grant agreed. "That would also keep many of the dinosaurs at bay."

"Dr. Sorkin," Ryan started, "I know this sounds crazy, but is there a way to communicate with the mainland from anywhere near the coast? Everything's run by geothermal power, right? So if that's the case, then it should still work."

Dr. Sorkin replied, "They might. If we can reach the North Dock, there's a chance that the radio systems might work, provided they didn't suffer from any damage."

As the group rounded a corner, their eyes nearly popped out of their heads when they saw–

"The ocean!" Taylor exclaimed. Everyone cheered – finally they had reached the end of the cavern. The mouth of the cavern – which was around 50 or so feet wide and about 30 or so feet high was met by the ocean itself; water flowed freely into the cavern like a river, only backwards, as the water was heading inland, not out to sea.

"I can't believe we've made it!" Ryan said. As far as the eye could see, all they could see out the mouth of the cavern was ocean and bright blue sky – a welcome sight after being in the cave for so long. "What are we waiting for? Let's go–"

His sentence was cut short as a wave rolled in from the ocean . . . and the water level increased several inches.

"Oh dear," Dr. Sorkin uttered. "I think the tide's coming in guys."

"Is that bad?" Taylor questioned.

"Yes. There's no dry land from here to the beach, and at the rate the water's rising, we won't be able to make it out of the cavern unless we swim."

Ryan snickered. "Swim? Are you mad? We don't know how far away the sandy beach is from the mouth of that cavern, and between here and there is the possibility of running into a mosasaur."

Taylor frowned. "Does that mean we can't get out of the cavern."

Another wave rolled in and the water was now reaching half-way up an average adult's leg.

Grant sighed. "It's just too dangerous. We'd have to swim out there just to see where the beach is. We're going to have to find another way."

"Drat! We were this close to reaching the coast, and this happens!" Ryan yelled. "Just great! Drat!"

"Hey guys," soldier #1 said to get their attention. "Look over there. See where the cave branches off into another corridor?"

The others looked to the left and saw another tunnel – its floor was about three feet above the cavern floor Grant's group was walking on and it probably veering to the west. It wouldn't lead them directly to the coast, but it was another way to go without going all the way back the way that they came.

"Alright, guys, let's go this way before the tide comes in," Grant told the rest of his group. Reluctantly, Grant and the others marched into the tunnel as more water quickly rushed into the cavern with every oceanic wave. By now, the water would have been up to an average-sized man's waist. Sighing, Grant gestured for the others to follow him down the cavern tunnel, into the unknown.

It was around 11:00 a.m. – Levine, Tim, Kailey, Lex and Rob continued onward through the open woodland. As they continued walking, the environment began to grow more sparse, resulting in more grasses and shrubs rather than trees. The climate was now a semi-arid one.

"Wow, this island has loads of different habitats," Levine said. He looked up as a large modern bird flew over his head toward the more forested part of the island. The bird was flying too fast for Levine to make a good identification. "I wonder if there are any dinosaurs we haven't yet seen in this part of the island."

Lex shrugged. "Who knows." She then pulled Kailey back and whispered, "So, how did it go?"

Kailey winced. "How did what go?"

"You know . . . you're time with Timmy."

Kailey smiled and gasped. "You set us up didn't you?"

"Well, I might have played a little part in that." Kailey cocked an eyebrow. "OK, I played a huge part in that. A bathroom break was the only thing I could think of to give you two some alone time. But seriously, how did it go?"

"Well . . ." Kailey grinned sheepishly. "He's a nice guy and all if that's what you mean."

"Come on now, did anything happen?"

"Not a whole lot, but he's a nice guy." Of course, Kailey was intentionally skipping details.

"So nothing happened the whole time you guys were alone?"

Kailey grinned. "Let's just say we're a bit closer than we were before."

Lex wasn't exactly content with the answers Kailey was giving her, but she decided to not press the issue any more.

Suddenly, a sharp shriek was heard from nearby and Levine's group stopped walking. It sounded an awful lot like a raptor!

"Velociraptor," Levine breathed. "Anyone see a raptor?"

The others scanned the area and shook their heads.

"At least they're not hunting us," Tim said. "They wouldn't want to make noises if they were hunting us. In fact, they're probably not hunting at all. Still, we should be careful."

I wonder where that noise came from, Levine pondered. He then heard some more Velociraptor-like sounds that seemed to be coming from behind a large boulder. Quietly, he edged closer to the rock and peered around it and saw what he had already figured – there were Velociraptors in the area.

Levine saw as many as 11 Velociraptors – four females, three males and four individuals that were smaller than the adults – gathered around the carcass of a relatively small Parasaurolophus. The dinosaurs were growling, hissing and snarling to each other as they tore into the dead dinosaur's body. Like the ones they had met before, these raptors bore the same coloration and body features – the males were orange with black tiger-like stripes, the females were brown with light gray stripes and both sexes had quills extending from the backs of their heads. A five-foot tall female snarled and sank her teeth into the stomach region of the prey. Pulling back, she ripped out a bloody slab of meat and swallowed it whole. Two of the juveniles fed on the carcass at this time with the adults, but the two others stood near the perimeter.

"See anything, Levine?" Lex asked. Levine nodded and gestured for the others to approach. Lex grimaced when she saw the dinosaurs feeding. "Oh dear, they're completely disgusting."

A male raptor tried to dart in front of a female and get some meat, but she growled ferociously at him and snapped. The male got the message and recoiled. Blood covered the snouts of the feeding Velociraptors, a telltale sign that they had been eating for a while. The male raptor's teeth were also blood red. He took his hand claws and scratched an itch on his snout before he grabbed part of the hadrosaur's thigh in his teeth and yanked it away.

Levine peered through his binoculars. Alright, so this pack seems to have been feeding on the dinosaur for a while, he thought. Hopefully they won't notice us here. I don't believe that this is the same pack that separated us from our other team members. This pack appears to be larger. He then looked over at the two young Velociraptors sitting on the sidelines. Considering a little bit of blood remained on their snouts, Levine theorized that they had already eaten their fill. Incredible, this behavior is rather unlike lions. He knew that after a kill was made by a pride of lioness, the male lion in the pride would take it over and eat as much as he can first. Then it would be the lioness' and the strongest cubs' turn to eat their fill; only after them would the weaker cubs get to eat. Because the strongest individuals get to eat the most in lion society, weaker lions often loose out when food is scarce. This did not appear to be the case with the raptors – they let the whole pack – including the babies – begin eating from the kill as soon as the animal is brought down.

The humans watched as another male Velociraptor snapped at his fellow pack mate when he accidentally invaded his space. The other male snarled, trying to declare his innocence and they continued to feed. Levine found this experience much like the one he had when he had gone to the island of Komodo in the Indian Ocean a couple of years ago. His guide had taken him out into the forests near where he was staying to get an up close and personal encounter with Komodo dragons, the largest non-genetically engineered lizards on the planet (as you might recall, the mosasaur would fit the title of world's biggest lizard); at eight to over ten feet in length, these dragons not only were large enough to kill a person, but on occasion they do. The Komodo dragons had gathered around a small goat and they quickly began eating from it. As Levine watched, he felt almost as if he had been transported back in time to when the dinosaurs were alive on the planet; he was watching real carnivorous reptiles that would happily consume him had there not been a smelly goat in front of them.

Now he was watching real life dinosaurs do something similar. The experience he felt was quite amazing and astounding at the same time. This is unreal, he thought with a grin.

Halley Dodgson shooed an annoying fly away from her face. She wasn't sure where she was, how far she'd gone or how close she was to the coast. All she knew is that she was ready to get off this crazy island.

"Where on earth am I?" she asked. Feeling the heat, she took her water bottle out of her backpack and gasped when she saw that she only had a quarter of it left. "Why do I always drink so much water at once?"

She put the bottle back in her pack and looked at her surroundings – she was in a part of the island that was getting gradually sparser and had more grasses and shrubs than large and tall trees.

That's when she heard growls and snarls from nearby. She had never heard sounds like these before.

I wonder what those are from, she thought. Slowly but surely, she crept toward the sound . . . and that's when she saw 11 dinosaurs feasting on the body of a large duck-billed dinosaur. The dinosaurs had elongated snouts and jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth; their bodies were typical to that of a theropod; quills extended from the backs of their heads; their hand claws were also sharp and dangerous. But the thing that caught her attention the most was the sickle-shaped enlarged claw on each foot. She had never seen one of these dinosaurs alive before, but she knew what they were . . . "Velociraptor," she breathed. She had heard stories about how these dinosaurs worked together to kill many people at once, so she decided to give them a wide birth.

She slowly began moving to the side when she noticed a large boulder she could hide behind! Halley moved behind the boulder quickly and nearly tripped over her own feet when she caught sight of more people. "Yikes!" she exclaimed quietly.

The five other people looked over in surprise and shock.

Levine was caught up in the moment of watching the raptors feed when a young woman appeared on their side of the large boulder, causing everyone in his group to leap with surprise. The woman was dressed completely in goth-style clothes and she had curly black hair.

"Who are you?!" Levine demanded, quietly enough so the raptors wouldn't hear him.

"Um . . ." Halley didn't really want to give an answer.

Kailey spoke up. "There's someone else on the island."

Tim walked over to Halley. "You look familiar. Where have I seen you before? Who are you?"

"I'm . . . uh . . ." Halley's voice trailed off. "I'm Sally Bartholomew."

Rob snickered. "Really? Well in that case, Bartholomew, you might want to tell us what you're doing on this island in the first place."

"I was uh . . . with a tour boat and they came near this island. Then there was this big storm that came by swept me overboard. I then washed up here." The others silently stared at her, as if they didn't believe her story one bit. "What?"

"Really? Then would you like to explain why we saw you with Lewis Dodgson and Dr. Malone Baselton trying to capture a baby tyrannosaur the other day? Yes, I remember the event quite well."

Halley gasped, realizing her cover was blown. "That wasn't me! I'm not Dodgson's brother who came here to the island with him and some other guys from Biosyn to capture dinosaur eggs and babies to bring back to the mainland to save the company from going bankrupt; don't be ridiculous. Besides, my name's not even Halley Dodgson!"

"Alright, I guess we know who you are!" He went up to her and stared right into her eyes. "Lester's going to be really happy once we get back. We know all about you Biosyn people, Halley."

"You know," Halley began, "I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got to get going." She started to leave, but not before Rob grasped her arm.

"Not without us you're not." Rob told her. Unfortunately, Rob's grip was too strong for her.

"Let go!" Halley cried. Rob quickly covered her mouth and everyone froze, knowing that the raptors could probably have heard that. Levine peered around the large boulder and saw that the carnivores were still eating their prey.

Rob uncovered Halley's mouth and said, "You're not going anywhere. You're coming with us. You Biosyn people have always been snooping around, trying to see what rival bioengineering companies were up to. Mind telling us the truth?"

Halley hesitated before answering. "Oh well . . . I guess I might as well tell you . . . Biosyn has been low on money, so my brother, Lewis decided that collecting dinosaur eggs from Nublar would be a quick and easy way to make money. So we were able to locate the island and then Lewis, myself, Dr. Malone Baselton and Howard King came here and started collecting. However, we've had a few mishaps and I'm lost."

Rob nodded before Lex spoke up. "So you're saying the rest of your group is on the island?" Halley nodded. "That's not good. Where are they now?"

"Baselton's a Tyrannosaurus dropping by now and Howard was killed by an angry mother dinosaur . . . I forgot the species. Lewis left me behind, I guess."

"So where were you going now?" Tim questioned.

Halley could only shrug. "I dunno. I was trying to get to the coast. I climbed through some broken down fences a little ways back."

Levine snickered. "Alright, Rob. You can let her go."

Rob winced. "What?"

"Look at it this way: we're all stuck on this island right? If she runs, she'll probably be dead meat all by herself, especially if she can survive about as well as she can make believable tall tales. So really, her only way to survive is to stay with us."

"You've got a good point." He looked at Halley and let her loose. "So what's it going to be, Halley?"

Halley sighed. "I guess I'll stay with you guys," she reluctantly decided.

Tim grinned smugly. "I thought you might."

Levine decided that it was best to leave the raptors next to their kill and leave the area before they noticed that they were being watched by human onlookers.

"So did you really think coming to this island would result in getting rich quick?" Lex asked Halley as they continued walking through the semi-arid grasslands and up a small and gradual rise. Despite being nemesis, Lex and Halley had stricken up a conversation.

"Well, it wasn't my idea," Halley argued, "it was Lewis'. He'd wanted dinosaurs in his company's possession ever since he heard rumors that it was possible to clone one and that InGen had already done so. After that failed attempt to obtain embryos in 1993, the Biosyn scientists tried to recreate their own dinosaurs, but were unsuccessful. Site B was too well protected to try and steal dinosaurs from there, so we set our sights on Isla Nublar. It wasn't as easy as Lewis' plan seemed though; it was easier said than done. Instead of bringing a variety of weapons, he brought one gun and a sonic device."

"You mean that thing that made the loud noise when we saw you guys with the T. rex?"

"Yes, that was the one. It worked great until the cord accidentally got disconnected from the box itself. Lewis always thinks he has everything under control.

Levine, Tim and Kailey were in front of Lex, Rob and Halley. As they led the other three members of the group up the hill, Kailey looked up and smiled at Tim. Tim smiled back.

Closing the space between her and him, Tim grasped hold of Kailey's hand. She gasped with delight.

"Sorry," Tim apologized, letting go.

But Kailey grabbed his hand back and said, "I don't mind." She planted a light kiss on his cheek. "Besides, we're you going to ask me something when we were back in the forest?"

"Like what? Oh, yeah. Um . . . maybe later, when we're alone."

Kailey nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right. This isn't a very private location."

Just then, Levine, Kailey and Tim reached the top of the hill and gasped at what they saw. "Whoa . . ." Levine was speechless.

Before them were vast grassy plains with a few scattered trees and what appeared to be bodies of water – large and small – at various places. "These are the semi-arid regions of the island," Levine told the couple.

Kailey and Tim looked over the area. Tim said, "It's amazing."

"Tiny problem," said Kailey, "where's the ocean?"

"I don't see it from here," Levine responded. He grabbed his binoculars and peered through them. Oh dear, I must have a visibility of several miles and I don't see the ocean anywhere, not even a hint of blue in the horizon except the sky itself. Sweat dropped from his brow and he wiped his forehead. He glanced at the sun above them before looking at his watch: 11:30 a.m. He turned to Tim and Kailey and concluded, "We'd better go somewhere where we can rest for a while; it's getting pretty close to the hottest part of the day."

"Good idea," Tim agreed.

Finally, Lex, Halley and Rob came up behind the other half of their group. Lex grinned. "It's going to be a long walk," she noted. "I thought this island was tropical."

"It is mostly," Levine told her. "But the island has a variety of different regions and habitats. In the northern region of the island where we saw our first dinosaurs, we found open woodlands and marshy areas. As we traveled further south, past the tropical jungles and plains that make up most of the island, we came across the drier open woodlands. Here, we are standing before the semi-arid plains. This is about as dry as this island's going to get though. So we won't have to worry about surviving in a desert. I'd say these semi-arid plains only make up a small part of the island's area though; we should be through it pretty shortly."

"Did we have to go south?" Halley questioned. "Wouldn't going west, east or north be easier?"

"I don't want to change directions too much. If we did, we might get even more lost. By the time I realized we were moving south, I figured we might as well just keep moving in this same direction. It keeps things simple. We should get walking and then in a little while we can rest for a bit."

The others nodded and started heading onto the semi-arid plains.

Kailey looked to the right and noticed a grove of trees just several tens of yards away. At least it's not going to be hard to find shade with all the scattered trees around here. I hope we reach the coast soon. Her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed something in the trees move. Still holding hands with Tim, she stopped walking and unclasped her hands from Tim's. Tim stopped as well.

"What's wrong? See something?" he asked.

Kailey pointed toward the grove of trees and he also noticed the movement. He squinted his eyes and was able to make out the shape of a medium-sized two-legged dinosaur crouching behind the foliage. It seemed to be looking in their direction . . .

Levine, Lex, Rob and Halley noticed that Tim and Kailey had stopped walking. "Hey you guys," Levine called, "we need to keep moving while we can before it gets too hot."

Tim said, "Yeah, we might need to move a little faster than you think . . ."

Lex's eyebrows raised. "What are you getting at?"

Before anyone could answer, twigs snapped and the dinosaur came into view tail first as it dragged a small almost meatless dinosaur carcass into the open. The animal – about 18 feet long and eight and a half feet tall – had a relatively large head with sharp teeth in its jaws, strong arms, tipped with four-clawed fingers, and legs and a long tail. The most unusual feature of this dinosaur though were no doubt the strange horn-like crest on its head and a similar crest above its eyes. The carnivorous reptile had a red-colored head and a grayish-colored body with black stripes (A/N: like the one in Jurassic Park III). Osteoderms (aka small scutes) ran along the middle of its back.

Kailey whispered, "It's a theropod . . . maybe it's an . . . Allosaurus?"

"No," Levine told her. "It's crests are a different shape than those found on Allosaurus. Besides, Allosaurus doesn't have a nose crest . . . or four-fingered hands for that matter."

"Ceratosaurus nasicornis," Tim breathed. "Jurassic predator: up to 20 feet in length, a ton in weight and obviously carnivorous."

So far, the Ceratosaurus hadn't noticed them. It growled to itself and crunched down on its food, trying to extract as much meat off of the bones as possible.

Halley shook her head. "Not good. We should get out of here while we still can." She turned to run, and just before Rob could reach over and grab her, the dinosaur's nostrils suddenly flared. He rose his head high above the grass and set his characteristic stare upon Levine's group. Without warning, the Ceratosaurus emitted a bloodcurdling roar and charged toward the group! Levine and the others turned and started to flee – they were running for their lives once again!

A/N: Ceratosaurus was another one of those dinosaurs that didn't make much of an appearance in the Jurassic Park franchise – it has less than 30 seconds of screen time in Jurassic Park III! I think this dinosaur is really cool, so I figured I'd add it to the story. Just by looking at a picture of Ceratosaurus you'll know that it's a creature you don't want to mess with. Ceratosaurus is another dinosaur I hope to see in the upcoming Jurassic World movie. Speaking of the Jurassic World movie, in case any of you didn't know, it's coming out June 12, 2015 (exactly 22 years and a day after the first movie came out!) and it has been confirmed that it will take place at the new park on Nublar. I can't wait to see it! Now back to this chapter: how did you guys like the twist during Grant's group's part of the story? I could have had them just exit the cave through the cave's mouth, but that would have been too easy and predictable. Little do they know, they still have a lot of adventure coming up! Until next time, r&r!