Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar – Chapter 44: Hunt of the Ceratosaurus
A/N: Hi guys! Sorry I'm publishing this late. I had such a busy week last week. So busy, I was behind in writing my fanfiction. But it's now published and this is a pretty busy chapter we've got here! And it's a pretty long one too! Who knew I'd be able to stretch it all the way to almost 6,000 words?! That's a lot! You might also be interested to know that, of course, I'll be coming to the end of my story soon. But the problem is . . . I'm not too entirely sure how I want this story to end! If you guys have any ideas, please feel free to let me know. I obviously can't use everybody's ideas, but I'll do what I can. Hope you all enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.
Eric increased speed toward the source of the sound. The wind rushing past the car nearly blew Stanley's hat off his head.
"Ha, ha!" Stanley exclaimed. "This is what I am talking about, man! Full speed ahead!"
The terrain was dusty and pretty soon a cloud of dust had kicked up around the vehicle as Eric sped onward. He was really enjoying this ride – no speed limit was in place to slow him down, there were no competitors like at a NASCAR racetrack, and there were no boundaries; his driving options were limitless!
One of the soldiers pointed forward and yelled, "Look up there!" As they drove forward, they saw that they were approaching a large herd of sauropods – Brachiosaurus to be precise. The mighty giants shook the ground as they walked quickly toward the east. Around the stampeding herd were seven medium-sized, red-headed carnivores stalking the herd.
"OK," Kelly began, "I know I've seen them before . . . Ceratosaurus?"
Eric nodded. That's when he noticed several human figures running in the midst of the brachios, probably trying to stay clear of the Ceratosaurus pack. "Hey! I think I see the folks we're looking for! In the middle of the herd!"
"How do we get to them without getting trampled by those sauropods and eaten by Ceratosaurus?"
"Here's what we'll do: we'll just race as close to the herd as we possibly can with this jeep. Then we'll somehow get our group's attention and they can run in our direction."
"Good idea," Stanley admitted, "but you forgot about the Ceratosaurus. If we race that close to the herd, we'll be a target for them for sure. No, I have a better idea."
One of the soldiers spoke up. "You do remember that we're carrying guns, right?"
Eric said, "True, but sometimes reptile tranquilizers take a little time to work. Take a look at those brachiosaurs! You might need ten of those just to make one feel slightly drowsy. At that rate, it could take all the darts we have in stock to sedate just a few of the dinosaurs; darts we could use for something much more dangerous."
It was deafening being in the middle of the stampede as Levine and his group kept pace with the sauropods. Fortunately, they weren't "running" very fast, so they didn't have to struggle with keeping up, just to avoid getting underfoot. This is too dangerous, Levine thought. We've got to get out of this herd before someone gets trampled. He moved to the left to avoid a sauropod foot slamming down against the ground.
"How long do you think we can avoid getting stomped on?" Lex asked.
Levine shrugged. "Just try to avoid their feet best you can. It's all we can do. And try to keep to the middle where the younger individuals are; we're less likely to be stepped on."
Suddenly, a juvenile Ceratosaurus – older and larger than the juveniles seen earlier – raced into the herd. A sauropod tried to kick it away with its foot and missed. He roared and snapped at a juvenile Brachiosaurus. The herbivore bellowed in surprise and whipped its tail back in forth. The predator raced away in time and toward the humans. It opened its jaws and charged!
"AH!" everyone screamed. They quickly dodged to the right and a huge sauropod foot came between them and the predator. At that moment, the sauropods – panicked as ever – began to rapidly disperse, leaving the humans exposed. This is what the predators were waiting for . . . not for the humans to get exposed, but for the limping brachio to be easier to attack. The Ceratosaurus knew their time had come and ran toward the weakling, clicking their claws in anticipation.
"They're going for the straggler!" Tim exclaimed. Unfortunately, the straggler wasn't too far behind Levine's "gang" and if the predators wanted a kick, easy-to-access snack . . . well, I think you can easily speculate who's they'll aim for. "We need to get away from this sauropod or the carnivores might like to have us for lunch too."
"You're probably right," Kailey agreed. "Come on!"
Quickly as possible, they started running toward the main herd of brachios now ahead of them as they resembled. The Ceratosaurus pack closed in on the straggler. Despite the fact that they were in danger of being hunted by the theropods, Levine couldn't help but admire the Ceratosaurus' strategy: the attack wasn't as coordinated or forethought as those of raptors, Troodon and to some extent, the Tyrannosaurus, but they were splitting up the herd of sauropods to isolate the weakling and bring him down. He always figured that Ceratosaurus wouldn't be able to bring down such huge animalsand he never figured they'd hunt in packs. He thought that the hunting of sauropods was mostly done by larger Jurassic carnivores, such as Allosaurus, Torvosaurus and Saurophagonax. After all, there had been no evidence of pack-hunting members of the ceratosaur family.
For now, none of the dinosaurs were paying much attention to Levine and the others . . . that is until the juvenile glared over at the humans and growled; he charged. Considering the adults would bully him around the kill once it was made, he figured it wouldn't be such a bad idea to get a quick snack.
The group stopped to take a short rest. Levine observed, "I think they're paying attention to the straggler."
Rob shook his head. "Not all of them! There's one coming out way!"
The dinosaur was undeterred as it swiftly approached its prey; the eyes were coldly set on its intended victims. Lex's eyes grew large; she screamed in terror and started running.
"Wait for us, Lex!" Tim yelled as he and Kailey darted after her. The group didn't have much else of a choice so they followed the other three. Suddenly another Ceratosaurus ran past the juvenile and called to him. The juvenile growled in reply and reluctantly followed – apparently the older individual was his mother.
As the group stopped running and looked back at the hunt, they watched as the Ceratosaurus surrounded the limping Brachiosaurus. The mighty giant roared loudly to try and drive the creatures off by stomping its good front foot and swishing its tail, but they wouldn't relent. They continued to circle persistently. Finally, a Ceratosaurus ran up and bit into the sauropod's wounded leg. The behemoth moaned in pain and shook its foot to get the predator off. The carnivore backed up and growled up at the mighty beast.
"Well, I'm glad I'm not him," Rob said as they all caught their breaths.
Lex nodded. "Yeah, he's not going to last much longer."
"I'm just so glad we escaped!" Kailey exclaimed, and without thinking, she wrapped her arms around Tim and kissed his cheek. Realizing her mistake, she looked at the rest of the group – fortunately, their eyes were still on the hunt and had not seen her. Tim pulled her in close, wrapping an arm around her waist and he kissed her forehead.
They continued to watch as the relentless carnivores mobbed the Brachiosaurus – they'd mostly go up to him with a mock charge, but occasionally, some of them would bite into his legs and feet, especially the one that was wounded. As one Ceratosaurus ran toward the front of giant, the sauropod apparently decided he had had enough of this and he rose onto his hind feet. The Ceratosaurus knew what was coming and started running the opposite direction and narrowly missed being squashed as the giant slammed its feet back to the ground. But the sauropod moaned in pain as it landed on its injured foot and its leg buckled. A few seconds later, the Brachiosaurus' whole body crashed to the ground with a loud thud and was quickly consumed in the cloud of dust it created. The ground shook and the creature moaned again; now that it was down, the Ceratosaurus knew it would not get back up, so they approached to start the feast.
Levine looked to his right and saw that Kailey was taking more video footage of the action. He grinned and put his binoculars in front of his eyes to get a better look at things. The dust settled and the Ceratosaurus went up to the down, but still alive sauropod and bit into the thick hide. The Brachiosaurus was already weak and couldn't do much to fight back. Levine knew that a medium-sized predator like Ceratosaurus could never hope to bring down a healthy adult; the only way they could eat sauropod flesh was to kill a weak one like this (and to do that they'd need a pack) or find a dead one.
Rob shook his head as he watched nature unfolding before his eyes. "Man, that poor brachiosaur. I've seen more things in the last few days than I ever expected to see in my lifetime. I'm going to go crazy if I don't get home soon." Just then, he heard what sounded like a car honk. No . . . that can't be, he thought. "OK, now I'm hearing car honks. I'm already going crazy."
"I heard it too," Lex said.
The car honk came again. The group looked to the right and saw a jeep about thirty feet away driving in their direction . . . and Eric Kirby, Kelly Curtis Malcolm, a guy in a safari outfit and a ranger's hat and ten or so soldiers!
Tim winced. "No . . . way. Are you guys seeing this? Is that a mirage?"
"No," Kailey answered with a grin, "I see it too and mirages don't make noise!"
"Hey guys!" Kelly cried. "You gonna walk or catch a ride?"
"Woo-hoo!" Levine exclaimed. "Let's get up on out of here! We're rescued!"
Without further ado Lex, Rob and Levine started running toward the approaching vehicle. Kailey grasped hold of Tim's hand and they followed.
Meanwhile, at the kill, a male Ceratosaurus was quickly bumped out of the way of a larger individual. He roared at the bully, who roared back in return before viciously snapping at the smaller dinosaur. The smaller male growled in defeat; he didn't want to engage in fighting a larger creature, not only because he could get seriously hurt, but his relatively delicate nose-crest could be broken, and if it was broken, he wouldn't have a good chance of getting a mate this year (the crests are used to attract females). The larger Ceratosaurus were quickly getting access to the healthiest and best parts of the sauropod. Even though there was enough for everyone, they wouldn't let the slightly smaller individuals anywhere near that portion of the dinosaur.
The Ceratosaurus male was about to start sinking his teeth into neck muscles when suddenly he heard an unfamiliar sound – a honking horn. It was quite unlike any honking sound he'd heard before. He looked up and saw several humans yelling and running toward a jeep. The predator growled . . . who said he'd have to settle for neck muscles when he could still have the chance to sink his teeth into juicy livers or intestines he'd been longing for? He turned and started toward new prey.
The jeep sped toward Levine's group, while Levine and the others continued running toward their goal.
"You know," Rob began, "I feel so much better about myself already! For a while there, I was debating whether or not we'd be getting off this island at all!"
"I always thought we would," Lex told him, "I just thought we'd have to get to the coast and build something to get off the island."
"I'm feeling better than when I started opening presents on my birthday as a kid, or when I got my first bike or when I–"
A roar from behind interrupted Rob's sentence. The group glanced back and saw that a male Ceratosaurus was coming in their direction . . . fast!
"OK, good feeling's gone," Rob said. "Pick up the pace!"
The group didn't hesitate to obey. Kailey and Tim, who were (initially) intentionally lagging behind, ran faster, not wanting to meet their end when they were so close to a rescue! From all the running and walking he'd already been doing all day, Tim's legs were burning and his feet ached. OK, Tim, keep running! he encouraged. Don't let a hungry dinosaur get the best of you! Just keep running! Pushing aside his tiredness, he moved his legs even faster than before, dragging an equally fast Kailey by his side.
"Hurry! That Ceratosaurus is going to get them!" Kelly screamed.
"I know!" Eric cried back. "Hold on tight!" he pressed the gas and the jeep jilted forward, throwing everybody backward. Stanley was standing prior to this and was roughly thrown off his feet before landing on one of the soldier's laps.
The soldier glared at him.
"Sorry about that!" Stanley apologized.
Eric exclaimed. "Woo-hoo! I love the fast lane!"
He raced up to where Levine's group was and abruptly hit the brakes, throwing everyone forward. "Hop in, guys! Quick!"
Levine's group hustled into the already packed jeep. Because soldiers were already taking up most of the seating, the survivors had to pile on top of the soldiers in order to fit.
Eric looked forward and saw that the Ceratosaurus was getting ever closer and would be on them in a moment. "Hope everyone's secure, because we're heading out of here!" He pressed the gas again and he drove forward, toward the Ceratosaurus. Then he swerved the vehicle, kicking up dust, and drove away from the predators. The Ceratosaurus growled; the dust made it hard to see his prey. "Eat my dust, Ceratosaurus! Ye-haw!" Eric exclaimed as he pressed the gas even harder and they began driving back north.
Behind them, the dust settled. The Ceratosaurus shook his body to get rid of all the dust Eric had kicked up. He'd missed his opportunity to get a free meal . . . or had he. He glanced back at the Brachiosaurus lying on the ground and saw that there was a spot around the stomach region where the other Ceratosaurus weren't feeding! Letting out a loud growl/cackle, he ran back to the now-dead or dying dinosaur and sunk his teeth deep into its flesh; he ripped out bloody globs of meat. Blood drizzled down his chin; he cackle/roared to himself – he was content.
Grant's team, now joined by Malcolm, Sarah and Chuck, had left the helicopter and approached the strange facility in the middle of the jungle. The pilot was staying in the helicopter in case the group needed to make a quick getaway (Malcolm's recommendation). It seemed bizarre to them that such a complex facility would be this far away from the main parts of the park. The sequence of buildings were surrounded by a tattered fence and it looked like no one had been in this area for a long time. They walked toward an archway and the gate underneath it that was the entrance to the facility and stopped. Clouds of steam and mist floated around the area, giving it an almost mystical appearance.
"This place is so cool!" Taylor said. "Where do you think the steam is coming from?"
Dr. Sorkin rubbed her glasses clean with her sleeve. "Probably from the volcanic vents beneath us. This area isn't far from the Geothermal plant, we're just several hundred feet above it."
"So you have no idea what this place is, Doc?" Ryan asked.
"No, I don't," Dr. Sorkin answered. "It looks like this could have been some type of laboratory, but I have no idea why it's so far away from the rest of the park."
Malcolm shook his head in disgust. "Sounds like InGen didn't really want you to know what they were up to after you left their labs. This place gives me the creeps."
Grant nodded. "Still, we might as well know what this place is while we're here."
"Think Biosyn has anything to do with this?"
"Biosyn?" Grant raised his eyebrows.
"Oh, that's right. You weren't around when we learned people from Biosyn were on the island."
Dr. Sorkin, Taylor, Ryan and soldier #1 and #2 looked back at Malcolm in surprise.
"Biosyn?" Dr. Sorkin asked. "They're on the island?"
"Yes. We got word from Rebecca earlier that they'd captured a Biosyn pilot flying his helicopter near the island. He revealed that Dr. Lewis Dodgson and some other people came to the island to collect dinosaur eggs. Once they got the eggs, they figured they'd be able to make a great deal of money and save their company from bankruptcy."
"Hmph," Ryan muttered, "serves them right if they have to file for Chapter 11. All that company ever does is steal the ideas from scientists who do the real work and inventing. No wonder they've got so many lawyers."
"Hey," soldier #2 began to say, "remember that guy we saw last night?"
Sarah frowned. "What guy?"
"We were walking into a field when we saw a man being attacked by a Dilophosaurus pack. They blinded and killed him pretty quick."
"That must be the guy we saw earlier. His name was Howard King, and I think he's a scientist at Biosyn. Anyway, he's dead and gone now. We found the compies scavenging off his remains."
Ryan nodded and gestured toward the gate that separated them from the laboratory village. "Well, we're going in aren't we?" He pushed on the gate and it opened surprisingly easy.
Malcolm shivered as he walked in. Sarah noticed and asked, "What's wrong, hon?"
"I don't know. I guess I'm still bothered as to how easy the finding and rescuing of Grant's half of the team was. It just seems like . . . normally what happens when we get involved with anything InGen related, something bad keeps happening."
Suddenly the sound of a human yelling was heard was sounded from behind. It appeared to be coming from the direction of the helicopter! The yell was then followed by a characteristic screech and a "help call". Grant and Ryan looked at each other in horror.
"Raptors?" Taylor asked worriedly. She was answered with nods from the rest of the group.
"Oh no, you don't think they got our pilot, do you?" Chuck asked.
The others shrugged and Ryan, Grant, Sarah, Malcolm and Chuck rushed toward the source of the sound, hoping it wasn't too late. "You guys go into that laboratory! Don't wait on us!" Grant called. Dr. Sorkin started to follow them when Grant held her back. "No, you're staying here."
"Why? Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I can't do the action stuff," Dr. Sorkin objected.
"But you know this island and its dinosaurs more than any of us. We need you alive."
With that, Grant and the four others left.
Dr. Sorkin turned to the people remaining: Taylor and soldier #1 and #2. "Well, come on you guys, let's get into that laboratory. Hopefully it's safe inside."
The pilot stumbled backward out of the helicopter with a crowbar in hand and fell onto the ground, narrowly dodging the attack of the alpha male Velociraptor. He leaped into the chopper and shrieked loudly. His orange-colored skin and black stripes made him almost look like the reptilian version of a ferocious tiger, but somehow even more dangerous. The pilot got up on his feet and started running the opposite direction and found that he was now facing three more raptors – two subordinate females and an alpha female. The male raptor jumped out of the chopper and growled. He leaned forward to attack before being fiercely reprimanded by his mate. She snapped at him and he recoiled.
Then the alpha turned her attention back to the pilot. This isn't good, the pilot thought, maybe I can outsmart them . . . if only I could think of a way to do that.
He started slowly backing away from the pack of vicious killers. Then the pilot wielded the crowbar like a weapon, swishing it back and forth at the progressing raptors that had now trapped him against a large rock. He swung the crowbar again, this time at the male raptor, but he dodged and snapped at his human prey.
"Get away from me, you creeps!" the pilot yelled. He swung the crowbar again and this time it was grabbed by the alpha female. She swiftly yanked it from his grasp and threw it in another direction. Now the pilot was defenseless.
Grant led the group back through the trees toward the clearing where they landed the helicopter. Their hearts were racing, and they hoped that their pilot would be alright. Maybe those raptors attacked one of the Biosyn team members, Grant thought. They pushed through the trees and grimaced when their fears were realized: the pilot's back was against a large rock and four raptors were slowly approaching him. They're toying with him.
But all to soon a subordinate raptor attacked the pilot and threw him to the ground before the alpha attacked him with maximum ferocity. She leaped into the air and landed on the pilot; the pilot screamed as the other raptors joined in on the attack. Though the raptor's bodies blocked the action taking place, what was happening was evidenced by the sounds being heard: the dinosaurs tore into the man with their claws and teeth. The two subordinates were quickly ripping into the pilot's stomach and tearing out his guts. The pilot stopped screaming by this point.
Sarah looked away from the action and buried her face into her husband's chest. Grant spied the alpha female's killer claw on her left foot; it was red, making it clear that she'd used her lethal weapon to make the kill.
"We're too late," Malcolm said, darkly. "I think he was the only one who knew how to fly the chopper."
"Yeah, he was," Grant responded.
The raptors continued to feed, squabbling amongst themselves. The alpha female occasionally snarled or snapped her jaws at the others, but overall there wasn't too much fighting taking place. Just then, a subordinate raptor sniffed the air and raised her head above the kill, revealing her blood-covered jaws and red-tinted teeth. She saw Grant, Malcolm and the others standing nearby.
The raptors suddenly looked in the group's direction and hissed in surprise. The alpha female yelped and rose her neck quills in a gesture of aggression.
"You know, I had a feeling the adventure wasn't over," Malcolm said.
The raptor hissed and the rest of the pack looked up in surprise. The alpha female and Grant's eyes briefly met – these were not only the same raptors they'd met in the Visitor Center, but also the same raptor's they met in the network tunnels the day before. The alpha pair growled a threat at the humans, the quills on her neck fluffing out.
"Now what?" Chuck asked, cocking his gun.
"No, wait," Sarah cautioned. "You won't be able to sedate all of them quickly enough, just slowly back away. If you fire now, they're going to charge and attack. Just back away slowly and as calmly as you can . . . maybe they won't attack. Don't look them directly in the eye."
"You sure that's going to work?" The female raptors began to edge closer toward the group, stalking. The male remained near the pilot's corpse.
"It works with lions . . . sometimes."
Grant and the others obeyed Sarah, slowly backing away as the Velociraptors slowly approached them. It wasn't clear exactly what the raptor's intentions were at this time. Chuck clutched onto his gun with trembling hands, unsure. Actually, his whole body was shaking, hyperventilating with fear. Sweat poured from his face and looked like it would have formed a lake beneath him.
Suddenly the alpha lunged forward and snapped her jaws. This was more than Chuck could handle and he fired his gun. The raptors shrieked and bolted forward as Sarah had predicted and the humans turned to run.
Grant, followed by the Sarah, Malcolm, Chuck and Ryan, raced through the jungle; the female Velociraptors hurried after them. Grant pushed his hat further onto his head to avoid it slipping off. Based on their speed, the raptors should have been on them already, but Grant had kicked some leaf litter in the dinosaurs' direction, stopping them long enough to get a head start.
Rushing out of the forest, the village was in sight and not too far away! I can see the village from here! Grant thought. Come on, Grant! You've survived more raptor attacks than you can shake a stick at! Don't let them get you this time!
A few seconds after the humans left the forest, the trio of Velociraptors sprinted into view. Now out in the open, they'd be able to run top speed – much faster than a human being is able to run.
Malcolm glanced over at Chuck and exclaimed, "You have a working gun, don't you? Shoot the raptors!"
"I won't have time to aim and shoot!" Chuck replied. "Even if I'm able to shoot one, the other raptor will attack somebody. I've got tranquilizers, not a machine gun."
"I have an idea!" Sarah said. She removed her water bottle from her safari jacket pocket, opened the lid and splashed the contents in the predator's direction. The dromaeosaurs yelped in surprise and slowed their pace, trying to recover from the watery surprise.
The moment Grant and the others ran underneath the archway, he and Malcolm closed the entrance gates. By the time the raptor's leaped to action, they were too late. They growled and shrieked from outside, but all they could do was peer between the bars, wishing there was a way in.
"Ha! Ha! Way to go!" Chuck exclaimed.
"What I tell you guys?" Malcolm asked. "I thought it was a little strange how we rescued Alan's group so easily."
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Well, on the bright side, we're safe from the raptors."
But suddenly, the alpha female leaped onto the fence surrounding the village and growled.
Sarah frowned. "Or not . . . everyone to the laboratory!"
The group was back on the run again as the alpha female leaped off the fence. A few milliseconds later, her subordinates did the same thing. The three raptors called to each other and the hunt was back on. Grant knew that they couldn't afford to stop until they reached the laboratory. Once inside, they'd have to hope that there were no ways that the carnivores could use to get in.
But all of a sudden, the two raptors abruptly stopped the chase. They looked around the area and cawed lowly, their quills tucked close to their heads. The humans didn't notice the raptors had stopped until they reached the door of the laboratory.
"What's up with them?" Sarah asked. "They're not coming after us anymore."
Just then, Dr. Sorkin opened the laboratory entrance door and glanced at the raptors. "Something seems to have spooked the Velociraptors," she noted.
The raptors began to backtrack their steps nervously. The alpha female tentatively sniffed the air. Her head lowered and she cackled; there was definitely something about the area she didn't like. That's when the characteristic "help call" of the alpha male echoed from the forest. She made a short, loud bark to respond before she and her subordinate darted toward the fence, leaped over and ran out of sight.
"Where do you think they went?" Taylor asked, coming up behind Dr. Sorkin.
Grant shrugged. "Something about this area seems to make them nervous and what was probably the alpha's mate was calling. Looks like we're safe from them for now."
The lobby to the laboratory was nothing special. It was definitely rundown after more than two decades of no use; several benches were lined up against the wall and provided seating for everyone except Dr. Sorkin, Malcolm, Sarah and Taylor, who was pacing around the room. Silence filled the room for about five minutes before Taylor spoke up.
"This is so bad!" Taylor exclaimed. "Did we loose the pilot?"
"We did," Dr. Sorkin admitted. She turned to Grant. "Nothing you could have done, huh?"
"No, we got there too late," the paleontologist answered. "I guess we're out of pilots now."
"No worries," Ryan said cheerfully. "All we have to do is contact the Lexico team back at the USS Mars and they'll send another chopper to get us out of here."
Sarah shook her head. "Sorry, the pilot had it last."
Ryan groaned. "Oh great. So we're stuck again!"
"Boy, I do hate being right all the time," said Malcolm. "I thought the rescue was too easy." He looked at his watch: it was 3:50 p.m. At least we've still got several hours of daylight left.
"Maybe there's some way we can communicate from this building," Dr. Sorkin suggested. She glanced around the lobby: aside from the benches, the only other thing in the room was a desk with a broken chair and two doors, one on each side of the desk, the one on the right was a bathroom. The word InGen was on the front of the desk. "I guess we might as well explore the rest of the facility."
Grant nodded in approval. "Good idea, Laura. We'll also be able to spot any helicopters flying over the area. Alright, Malcolm and Ryan, you guys can come outside with me. We'll check around the perimeter. You can come too, Chuck, since you're the only one around here with a working tranquilizer gun."
"And we're just going to stay here?" Dr. Sorkin asked.
"Yes, go see what you can find in that room to the left. There's got to be something useful in there."
"Hey guys!" Taylor exclaimed from a far corner of the room. She was kneeling next to an old cardboard box. Taylor grinned as she held up an old walkie-talkie two-way radio set. "If someone's got some batteries, we can keep in communication with each other."
"I have batteries!" Chuck said.
Eric kept driving until they reached the tropical forest once again. It felt so good to be out of the hot, now-setting sun. He pulled the jeep to a stop and looked at the fuel symbols on the dashboard. Eric frowned and said, "Hmm, we need to watch the fuel usage on this thing. I'm not sure how much longer we'll last."
"It would have lasted longer if you hadn't been driving like a maniac out there!" Kelly yelled between giggles. She turned to Levine and the others. "Bet you're glad to be away from those predators."
"Definitely," Lex said. "Thanks for the rescue."
"No problem. Now all we need to do is get back to the Visitor Center and get you guys back to the ship."
"Can we get out?" Stanley asked. "It's tight in this vehicle."
"Of course," Eric answered. "Let's all–"
The soldiers rushed out of the vehicle, glad to be out of car. The others followed suit. Within the next few minutes, everyone was sitting in the shade of the trees, not anxious to climb back into the cramped jeep.
Levine looked over at Stanley. He knew he'd seen him before, but he couldn't remember exactly where. "Have I seen you before, Stanley? You look familiar."
Stanley said, "Well, I was a guest on a few wildlife television shows."
"That's right!" Tim exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "I remember! You were one of the guests on the show Life of a Ranger and you showed the viewers how you guys darted and tracking collars on elephants!"
"Yes! Yes! I was on that show several times! So did you guys see a lot of dinosaurs on the island before we found you guys? We followed your tracks and it seemed like a tyrannosaur chased you."
"Oh yes," said Kailey. "After we left the Visitor Center due to a raptorattack, we ran into a herd of Triceratops and a pair of hunting Tyrannosaurus rex. They only managed to get Ben, one of the soldiers with us at the time. Tim and I weren't likely candidates to survive but–"
"You're telling me!" Tim interrupted. "That T. rex was so close I could feel its hot, smelly breath. Man! It didn't smell good at all! It was just about to grab us in its jaws when it heard its babies calling and she left us. Thank goodness the Biosyn team bothered the young tyrannosaurs."
Eric winced. "Wait, you saw the Biosyn team?"
Levine told Eric, Kelly and Stanley how they watched the angry T. rex parents return to their young. He told them how Dodgson and the others in his group tried to stay perfectly still; Baselton was eaten anyway.
"Then," Levine continued, "the T. rex mother chased Lewis and his sister away. We don't know what happened to Dodgson, but his sister, Halley, bumped into us . . . hey, where is Halley?"
"I haven't seen her since the Ceratosaurus attack on the sauropod herd," said Tim.
Levine went on, "We're not sure what happened to her either. Maybe the Ceratosaurus got her while we weren't looking."
"Serves her right if she got eaten," Rob murmured. Kailey bumped him in the arm. "What? She was really annoying."
Then Levine unzipped his backpack and retrieved his computer.
"What are you doing?" Kelly asked curiously.
"Just getting out my computer so I can obtain more information from the list of emails we've been reading periodically."
"Emails?" Stanley asked. "What emails?"
Levine grinned. "I'll show you."
Grant cautiously led Malcolm, Ryan and Chuck out of the safety of the laboratory. He looked from his right to his left, several times, to make sure the raptor's hadn't planted a trap of some kind. He'd been trapped by raptors more than once, and each time he escaped had been a fortunate break. If it were up to him, he would never have really come to this island in the first place. But considering Lester had "requested" him to come on this mission, he didn't really have much of a choice. After all, Lexico was responsible for financially supporting his dig sites until his previous sponsors returned to him.
Malcolm said, "You know, Grant, I'm shocked you didn't loose your hat already."
"I almost did. One of the soldiers got it back for me after it fell off my head in the mosasaur attack."
"Oh, that reminds me, we found your deflated boat at the side of the river."
Ryan gasped. "You did?"
"Yeah. Considering there weren't any footprints, we figured the boat washed ashore far from where you guys did."
"That mosasaur is a mess! It seems to be everywhere we go when we're in the water. Why she wastes time on something much smaller than her I'll never know. I mean, surely InGen cloned some type of large marine reptiles for that lizard to eat."
"None that I know of," Grant told him. "If a predator's hungry enough, they'll go for anything they can find."
The group rounded the corner of the laboratory and saw that before them was the row of large enclosures aligned in a giant U-shape, with the "legs" facing toward them. The fences were electrified at one time, but now the wires were either withered or torn to shreds by the animals when they escaped. The area seemed somewhat eerie, and they all felt like they were being watched by something . . .
"This was definitely a laboratory they used to recreate some of the dinosaurs," Grant explained. "Then after they grew to a certain size, they'd probably place them in these enclosures."
Suddenly, the sound of twigs snapping was heard nearby. Grant and the others stopped walking and faced the direction of the sound.
"Please tell me those weren't raptors . . ." Grant whispered.
A/N: Wow! There were quite a few dinosaurs in this chapter! As I promised, Velociraptor made a comeback! If didn't already affirm this before, the group of raptors seen in this chapter is only a portion of the most pack, which is seen when the raptors first appear in the story are elsewhere on the island doing . . . whatever raptors do in their pastime I guess! Lol! Anyway, I don't think this will be the last time raptors make an appearance in the story. T. rex will also be back pretty soon as well. Anyway, though I'm still working on this story, I've already been thinking about what story I'd like to do next. I can't wait to start working on it! Please check out my poll, favorite and/or follow the story, write a review if you haven't already and I'll publish Chapter 45 real soon . . . as in, this Friday! R&r!