Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar – Chapter 46: Camouflaged Predator

A/N: This chapter's a little long, but that's because I'm really trying to wrap up the story. I think I'm finally developing a potential ending in my head. If you guys have any ideas, please be sure to let me know, because I need them. Anyway, please enjoy!

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

Several hours had passed. It was 6:15 p.m. The sun had mostly disappeared behind the treeline and horizon. In the light of dusk, Eric continued to drive onward down an old jungle road.

"Was this area part of the tour?" Stanley asked.

"I don't think so," Tim said. "We went pretty far south on our journey. I think most of the park was in the mid-eastern side of the island. They also had almost all of the dinosaurs contained within a perimeter fence, as you all probably remember."

"Except the raptors," Lex reminded him. "Of all the dinosaurs, they should have been the ones to be under maximum security, along with the Troodon, and the Anur . . . anrognathos?"

Kailey smiled. "Anurognathus. Never seen living ones before, but I sure hope we don't run into 'em. They sounded pretty vicious based upon the email. How far do we have to go to get to the Visitor Center?"

"Not sure," Eric said. "It took us pretty much all day to find you guys, and we weren't exactly making a beeline toward your location, so who knows? I don't think it will take that long to get there though."

Just then, the group came up to a ragged and worn out gated wire fence that crossed the road. Eric pressed the breaks and came to a stop. The sign on the gate said: 10,000 volts! Do Not Touch!

"Well, we're going to have to get past, by the looks of it," said Kailey. "Think it needs to be turned on to push it efficiently?"

"Maybe, but that's not how we're going to find out!" Eric said. He pulled the car in reverse.

Lex gulped. "You're not doing what I think you're doing . . . are you?"

Eric grinned and slammed his foot on the gas pedal. The jeep lurched forward and zoomed toward the gate with alarming speed! Everyone was either screaming out of excitement or horror as the jeep crashed into the gate, knocking the gate doors right off their hinges and Eric continued down the road.

"Oh, yeah!" Eric exclaimed. "This is what I'm talking about!"

"Slow down!" Lex cried. "We'll hit something!"

"I'm watching where I'm going, thank you!"

Eric zoomed down the jungle road with no care in the world.

Dr. Sorkin tapped her thumbs on the windowsill of the laboratory lobby. Unfortunately, there wasn't much for her and the others to do while they waited for a hopeful rescue.

"I'm bored," Taylor complained. "You'd think they'd have left behind a checkers game set. Or chess or something."

Malcolm sighed as he starred out another window. "You know, I sort of predicted that this rescue mission wasn't going to go as planned."

"Is there anything that you're not predicting?" Ryan asked.

"Look, I have nothing to do with it. It's the Chaos Theory. It never ceases to amaze me just how many people aren't willing to pay closer attention to the mathematics. If they did, it's quite safe to assume that many of the world's problems might be fixed."

"Why don't they listen?" Dr. Sorkin asked.

"Because the implications of the Chaos Theory suggest very large consequences for human life. That's why this park failed. This theory is larger than Godel's theorem, that everyone's talking about, or Heisenberg's principle. What makes Chaos Theory different from the aforementioned is that they concern everyday life."

"But what is Chaos Theory?" inquired Taylor. "I never heard about it in school."

"It's more complicated than most grade school children can comprehend. Let's see, where to start . . .? Have you heard of nonlinear equations?" Taylor shook her head. "Strange attractors?"

"Ian, she's 11," Sarah told him. "If most adults can't grasp the Chaos Theory, how can expect an 11-year old to?"

"Alright then. Let's start at the very beginning." Malcolm paused. "Physics tell us certain behaviors in things around us: like planets orbiting, spacecrafts going to the moon, pendulums, springs and rolling balls. The behavior of things such as those are regular and reoccurring. They're called linear equations and mathematicians can solve them with ease. However, there are other behaviors that we can't use physics to explain, such as water exiting a faucet, air moving over an airplane wing, the weather and anything having to do with turbulence, just to name a few things. Several decades ago, the Chaos Theory was invented to explain such occurrences. The Chaos Theory was invented in the hope of being able to predict weather; however, while we're able to guess what it will do next, tiny differences in the nature of the atmosphere can completely alter it."

"Mind explaining that in English?" Chuck asked. "You lost me."

"OK. If I use a cannon to fire a shell of a certain weight, at a certain speed, and a certain angle of inclination, and then I fire another cannon with the same weight, angle and speed as the first, what will happen?"

"They'll land in the same place?" Taylor guessed. "That's all there is to the Chaos Theory? That's not hard to understand."

"Yes, they'll land in the same place, but no, that's not how the Chaos Theory works. What I've just described is a linear dynamic. You can do the same thing multiple times and get similar results. But the weather, for instance, isn't like that. If I start with a weather condition of a certain wind speed and humidity level, and I start with another weather condition with a certain wind speed and humidity level, the two weather conditions will be quite different from each other. Consider the butterfly effect. A butterfly that flaps its wings in Los Angles and you could get rain instead of sun shine in Florida."

"So now you're saying butterflies control the weather?" Ryan asked sarcastically.

"No. That's one of the many things that can alter it. Tiny differences in two almost identical weather conditions can end up becoming very different from each other. This is called a nonlinear dynamic."

"The Chaos Theory is just random and unpredictability? That's what you're saying?"

"No. We actually can find hidden regularities within the complex variety of a system's behavior. That's why one can use the Chaos Theory to study everything from the stock market, to rioting crowds, to brain waves during epilepsy, to theme parks."

"It's still over my head."

"OK, let's say a drop of water fell onto your hand and it rolled down the left side of your arm. If another drop were to fall in the same place again, tiny variations of the way the blood moves through your blood vessels and imperfections in the skin may cause the drop of water to run down the other side of your arm. The droplets will never repeat and have a vastly different outcome. That's unpredictability."

"I'm still lost."

"I get it," Taylor said.

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Sure."

The sun dropped further from view and the lobby increased in darkness.

"We need to find a light source," Grant said. "Believe me, you won't want to be sitting around in the dark."

"I'm sure there's a generator in this room somewhere that we can use to power the lights on the ceiling," Dr. Sorkin told the others. "I just have to find it."

The others began to race against time to find a fuse box that would allow the power to come on. Finally, soldier #1 found one behind the desk. Unfortunately, something had fried it and so the box was useless.

"Drat!" Ryan exclaimed. "Great, now we'll be in the dark."

"I've got a flashlight," Chuck said.

"Me too, but that's not going to help much. Who's to say the moon's going to necessarily be out tonight. Even if it is, no one knows whether it's going to be bright enough for us to see. We need a plan."

The sun sank again and the room grew even darker. Chuck, Ryan and the other two soldiers flicked their flashlights on. Fortunately, they hadn't been using them much over the last few days, so the battery should last them a while, perhaps the whole night, even if they had them on the whole time. But even still, they'd need more light to see properly.

"Malcolm, Chuck and I can go outside and look around for some power box or something before it gets even darker," said Grant. "I'd reckon it will be as dark as it's going to get by 6:45." It was 6:33 p.m. now.

"Alright, but hurry," Dr. Sorkin told them.

The men nodded and left the lobby.

The moon was high in the tropical sky above them; it was looking slightly smaller than last night's moon, so therefore it didn't give off as much light. The sounds of diurnal (daytime) birds, dinosaurs and bugs was now replaced by the chorus of nocturnal insects and amphibians. Chuck took the safety mode off of his gun and the Malcolm borrowed Chuck's flashlight to light a path.

It was then that Grant noticed some three-toed theropod footprint about 15 feet away from him. Actually, it wasn't just one footprint, but a whole set of them. "See those footprints, guys? I don't think they were there before."

Malcolm shook his head. "No. They weren't. All the more reason to be on the lookout."

The three men rounded the laboratory. The back of the laboratory faced the center of the four rows of eight mobile trailers in the village – four on the right of the laboratory and four on the left. Near the left building farthest from them was a large power box. They'd found it!

"Great, we've found it," Chuck said. "Now we just need to go back and fetch Dr. Sorkin."

"Why didn't we just bring her out with us anyway?" Malcolm asked.

"Out of all of us," Grant told him, "she's the person who knows most about the dinosaurs and the island. We need her alive."

It was as dark as night after they went back, retrieved Dr. Sorkin. Once they were rounding the laboratory, Grant noticed another theropod trackway, about 20 feet behind them. He shivered at the thought that carnivores had been here not too long before them.

"What type of dinosaur do you reckon made that trackway?" Malcolm asked.

"With all the unknown dinosaurs InGen bred on this island, I've no idea," Dr. Sorkin said. They continued walking, slowly and cautious. This time when Grant looked back, he saw the trackway was still about 20 feet behind them. That's strange, he thought, maybe it's not as far away as I thought.

Grant became bewildered as he continued looking at the prints when the ground in front of the nearest footprint sunk to form another footprint! The paleontologist blinked, believing he was seeing things. But all to soon, a left footprint appeared in front of the previous one.

"Please tell me I'm seeing things," Grant said to the others. Malcolm, Chuck and Dr. Sorkin looked back, stopped walking and winced. "Weren't the footprints further back than that?" Dr. Sorkin asked.

"Yes, there are new footprints forming!"

True to Grant's word, a right footprint appeared. Chuck's breath came in ragged, frightened gasps. His hand shaking, he grabbed the flashlight from Malcolm and shined it over the footprint revealing a scaly, clawed foot in place of the footprint – the foot of a carnivore! Chuck moved the beam upward and followed a thick leg connected to a body and chest before moving the beam up again to see a neck and eventually, the toothy-jaws of a theropod!

Chuck gasped and the dinosaur quickly side-stepped out of the beam and became invisible again, betrayed only by its footprints.

"I . . . I don't believe it," Dr. Sorkin gasped.

"I don't believe myself," Malcolm said. "It's an illusion."

"Don't you get it? It's a dinosaur that camouflages itself to–"

Suddenly the dinosaur made itself seen as it bounded toward the humans. Standing 10 feet tall and 25 feet long, its skull was boxy and short, with a pair of crest-like horns over its eyes. It had an unusually long neck for a theropod and a strong-looking chest, but its clawed arms were tiny incredibly short. Its legs were powerfully built and the dinosaur balanced itself on its thick tail. The dinosaur's true colors showed through and struck fear into the hearts of its human prey – the animal's body was a dark black color, but the dinosaur's head was white and covered in flaky-looking scales; red eyes of the dinosaur made it look just as terrifying as the Troodon.

The dinosaur roared loudly as it opened its jaws for the attack!

"Look out!" Grant exclaimed and the humans ran out of the way as the dinosaur closed its jaws on thin air. It roared again; the humans took off toward the power box and the pursuit began.

"What is that thing?" Chuck asked.

"It's a Carnotaurus sastrei!" Grant answered. "And we're not going to make it to the power box before that thing gets us!"

Dr. Sorkin glanced back and saw Grant was right. The animal bounded after them on its bird-like legs and jaws agape. The creature's hideous appearance caused her heart rate to increase dramatically. In a few seconds one of them would die.

Then Dr. Sorkin spotted a large piece of construction tube, about 10 feet long with a diameter of three feet, just beyond the row of trailers to the right. "Get into that tubing!" she exclaimed. The group swerved to the right and missed the Carnotaurus' jaws. But the carnivore was light on his feet and but didn't fall too far behind.

Chuck wheeled around and lifted his gun into the air. He fired a dart and it landed on the animal's snout. The Carnotaurus halted its attack and rose up to its full height in pure rage. It roared into the night sky and waved its tiny arms around wildly. It shook its head from side to side as it tried to dislodge the dart. The dinosaur leaped around the immediate area, hoping this would help get rid of the dart. Then it crashed its side into a nearby building, causing half of it to crumble under the animal's weight.

"Did you hit it?" Malcolm asked Chuck.

"Sort of. I was aiming for the thigh so I could knock it out quicker, but it's moving so fast that I missed."

"Try now."

"He's still moving too much!"

The Carnotaurus looked back at its prey; they were climbing quickly into the tubing. The dinosaur roared and charged. Its bull-like head dove into the tubing and Grant – the person in most danger – leaped back to avoid the jaws. Unfortunately for the Carnotaurus, its head was too large to fit through the tight space and it recoiled.

"It's really tight in here," Malcolm said. "I'm sure this isn't good for my back."

"Just relax, Ian," Grant told him. "I'm sure that once it's learned that it can't reach us, it will give up and leave."

But suddenly, the Carnotaurus walked over to the side of the tube and rammed its hefty head into it. The tube started to roll wildly with its occupants still inside. Dr. Sorkin screamed in surprise as the four of them rolled around as if inside a washing machine.

"Not this again!" Grant exclaimed.

Sarah looked up toward the window – she heard more screaming.

"What is going on out there?" Ryan asked. "Is that human screaming or some animal?"

"I'm pretty sure it's human. Something bad is happening out there. We need to go."

"I agree."

"Do we really have to all go out there?" Taylor asked. "I'm scared of the dark when I'm outside."

"You can stay here actually," Sarah told her.

Ryan glanced out the large shop-display-sized window for several seconds as he noticed a trackway of footprints about ten feet away from the front of the laboratory. He didn't remember seeing those footprints there before, and the worst part was that he could have sworn he saw new footprints creating themselves in the ground. He called the others over for a look. The footprints were slowly making their way toward the laboratory.

"Strange," Sarah started, "I don't know how to explain it."

"Maybe an invisible animal is making the footprints," Taylor suggested.

Ryan scoffed. "Don't be silly."

"Why's that silly? There are plenty of animals that can camouflage themselves that way: chameleons, cuttlefish . . ."

At that moment, the footprints got even closer to the building and that's when they noticed dozens of sharp theropod teeth that seemed to be suspended in the air; a pair of beady eyes were staring in their direction – it might have been able to see them through the glass of the window. Then the humans gasped.

"What's going on here?" soldier #1 asked. "An invisible dinosaur? How is that even possible?"

"It's not invisible," Sarah told him. "It's camouflaged. Somehow, this dinosaur is able to blend in almost accurately with its surroundings, like a cuttlefish or octopus."

Suddenly, the animal's feet began to backtrack. Sarah recognized this behavior before from those years she spent studying predators in Africa: this carnivore, whatever it was, could see them through the glass. It was stalking them and gaining momentum for an attack!

"Everybody get back!" Sarah exclaimed. Not a moment later the glass shattered as the Carnotaurus' head rammed into the glass; its horrifying head and blackish body came became visible and the animal stormed into the lobby! "It's a Carnotaurus!"

"Oh my gosh!" Ryan yelled as everyone leaped back to avoid the predators toothy jaws. The Carnotaurus roared loudly as it stepped into the building, hungrily eying its prey. Its tail swished from side to side a few times. The dinosaur was so tall, that it had to crouch in order to walk through the lobby. "Got any ideas?"

"What's that?"

"How do we get past this bloke?"

"I, uh . . . I'm still trying to figure that part out."

The dinosaur's nostrils flared like those of a raging bull. It was looking for signs of weakness in its prey. The jaws opened, ready to attack. Ryan knew what he had to do. He quickly drew out Oscar's machete and held it before him.

"Go now!" Ryan exclaimed as he ran away from the group and toward the carnivore with the knife in his hands. The others reluctantly obeyed, not having any better ideas and they fled out the door.

The Carnotaurus went for Ryan with an open maw. But Ryan was prepared and swiped his knife forward . . .

Sarah, Taylor, soldier #1 and #2 quickly ran away from the laboratory and toward the row of buildings on the left.

"We shouldn't have left him there!" Sarah said.

"I know," soldier #1 said, "but we haven't a choice. Unless you had a better idea."

The four of them ran to the nearest building and stopped to catch their breaths. Suddenly, a loud human scream was heard from the laboratory, followed by the roar of the Carnotaurus . . . then silence. Sarah shook her head. "I don't know if he made it."

Sarah didn't feel good about what had just happened, but regardless of her feelings, she had no time for crying over the loss. There had to be a way to stop the dinosaurs from attacking.

Taylor glanced over to her left and saw a long construction tube just beyond the other row of trailers. Another Carnotaurus was fiercely banging its head into the tube, trying to get at the prey inside. "There's another one of those dinosaurs over there," she whispered. "I think Dr. Grant, Malcolm and Dr. Sorkin are in there."

Sarah nodded. "Looks like it. We need to get that dinosaur away from them . . ."

Taylor noticed she was standing next to a large red towel someone had left behind. The towel was ragged and covered in filth. "Glad I'm not doing laundry," she said.

"Yeah, it's pretty disgusting . . ." then a strange thought occurred to Sarah. She also noticed an old broomstick leaning up against the same building they were at nearby. She grinned. "Get me that broomstick. I have an idea."

eee

The snarl of the Carnotaurus was amplified by the tube's shape as it banged its head into the tube again and again. The tube had ended up rolling into the wall of one of the buildings and was providing a great object for the dinosaur to headbutt in an attempt to break into it.

"How long is he going to do this?" Chuck asked.

"Who knows," Grant answered.

The headbutting stopped as another Carnotaurus approached the first one from behind the laboratory. She shook her head a few times and blinked. Despite being slightly smaller than the first, she was still a large and menacing-looking animal. The first Carnotaurus – most likely the male – snarled at the female. The female snarled back and she went out of Grant's group's view. All was quiet. The group waited for a minute or two. Had the giant predators left the area?

"I think they're gone," Chuck announced. "I don't hear anything. No roaring or footsteps."

"I'd still be careful though," Dr. Sorkin said. "We know that these dinosaurs can stalk their prey very quietly."

"Much like a jungle cat, you might say," said Malcolm. "I guess there's only one way to find out if their actually gone."

"I'll go out," Grant said.

Grant peeked his head out of the tube. He glanced to the left and slowly scanned to the right, being careful not to miss any details. Then he climbed out of the tube and continued scanning the area. Maybe they did leave, he thought. Just to be sure though, he took another slow step. Then it happened.

The Carnotaurus couple appeared a couple of strides away on each side of him. They charged. Their teeth were exposed and Grant ducked back into the tube just before the beasts collided with each other head-to-head. The male roared loudly and snapped his jaws at the female. The female returned fire and latched her teeth onto his snout. The male struggled to get free of her grasp, but it was no use. He then pushed in her direction and shoved her into a nearby tree. The female retrieved her footing and kicked the male with her right foot. The male finally conceded and the two dinosaurs walked back to the tube, disappearing right before the human's eyes.

"I didn't think they left," Grant said.

But that's when Grant and the other four people noticed soldier #1 and #2 appear from behind a trailer. They were each carrying a broomstick and bore a red towel torn in half on the top. The predators could not be seen, but their growling gave away their presence. Then the male Carnotaurus suddenly leaped into view and ran toward soldier #1.

"He's coming!" soldier #1 cried. He held the towel in front of him as the dinosaur came into his direction. But then he whisked the towel to the left and the dinosaur missed its target. Then the female came and did the same to soldier #2, who briskly whirled the broomstick around to avoid the Carnotaurus' jaws. The two soldiers continued their act, using the towels as decoys for the Carnotaurus to attack before quickly swishing them out of the way of those jaws. In fact, the theropods weren't actually after the soldiers at all: they were after the flags!

"I get it!" Dr. Sorkin exclaimed. "They're using the red flags like bull fighters do in Spain. Ingenious!"

"Actually," Malcolm began, "those are towels."

"Regardless, now's our chance to get to that power box."

"How's that going to help the situation any."

"Just trust me, I have an idea. We need to go now!"

The four of them nodded and briskly ran toward the power box. Unfortunately, the female Carnotaurus took notice. She roared and charged at the group.

"Hey! Get back here!" soldier #2 cried. "This towel's so much more interesting than them! Get back here!"

The soldier chased after the dinosaur with the towel and broomstick, but the dinosaur was much faster and was quickly closing the gap between it and Grant's team.

Sarah and Taylor watched as soldier #1 intelligently swished the "flag" out of the way of the male Carnotaurus' jaws. He snapped on nothing but air and growled angrily, running right past the target. He then turned around and glared ferociously at the red towel. Soldier #1 held it firm and steadily; he could sense that the dinosaur was preparing for an attack . . .

And the attack came! The Carnotaurus ran forward with the anger of an enraged bull . . . if bulls had sharp teeth, anyway. But soldier #1 was prepared. He jinxed the the dinosaur missed again, running past the target. "O lay!" soldier #1 cried. He looked around for the carnivore, but it had disappeared once again. "Where'd it go?"

But Sarah spotted the footprints it was making . . . and it wasn't far from the soldier. The Carnotaurus appeared once again and attacked! "Look out!" Sarah exclaimed.

Soldier #1 turned to see the dinosaur headed straight for him; he had not expected it to turn and charge so soon. He lunged the towel and broomstick at the hungry beast and leaped out of the way. Now distracted with the red towel, the three humans could make their escape. They went around the corner of the building. The sound of growling and ripping was heard as the monster tore into the towel. Unfortunately, the carnivore quickly found out that the towel wasn't fleshy at all. Sarah peaked around the corner to see that the Carnotaurus, now turned a chalky white color, began scenting the air. It bobbed its bulldog-like head up and down to extract the scent molecules it was looking for. Slowly, the monster turned nearly invisible. The area immediately around the building was covered in concrete and wouldn't leave footprints. The only thing betraying its presence now was the raspy soft sound of its breath and its hardly seen outline. The creature sniffed the ground and began slowly making its way toward Sarah.

"It's coming this way," Sarah whispered. It surprised her just how quickly the animal was able to turn from being a ferocious hunter to a quiet stalker. It was right around the corner by now, so close Sarah could feel its breath.

Taylor whimpered, trying hard not to make a sound. Her eyes watered and tears began to form. "Do you think it's going to get us?"

"Shh."

There wasn't much for them to do; if they continued around the corner, the dinosaur would simply follow them; if they stayed put, they'd be found too. Running wouldn't help, because they knew just how fast these animals were. Finally, the Carnotaurus snout appeared around the corner, inches from Sarah's face. Sweat formed on her brow as she stared horrifyingly at the animal's tooth-lined maw. It growled lowly; its nostrils contracted and expanded; its tongue rose and fell with each breath.

"It's coming this way!" Grant exclaimed as he, Dr. Sorkin, Malcolm and Chuck rushed toward the power box.

Meanwhile, the hungry Carnotaurus' footsteps could be heard as it bounded after them. The agility of a creature this large (which was still being chased by soldier #2) surprised Grant, but he didn't take the time to show his fascination. They were no more than 15 feet from the box. But they might not make it at the speed they were traveling.

Suddenly Chuck whirled around and fired another tranquilizer out of his gun. The animal yelped as the needle sunk into its thigh. Unfortunately, the needle wasn't secure and quickly fell out. But it did cause the animal to run away from them and behind a nearby building.

"Sorry, I'm new at this," Chuck said.

"How new is 'new'?" Malcolm asked.

"This is my first mission in the military."

Malcolm sighed. "Nice."

"Is it gone?" Dr. Sorkin asked. "I wish we had some sort of thermal imaging device; night-vision capabilities or something. Then it wouldn't matter if it camouflaged itself. We'd still be able to see it."

"I don't see it anywhere," Malcolm said, "but that's not to say it's gone. We're standing on concrete now, so we won't even be able to see its footprints."

They stood still for a moment before slowly making their way back to the power box . . . still no sign of the beast. Just in case, Chuck held his gun ready for action should the creature show up. Dr. Sorkin bent down next to the power box and she opened the latch. Inside were the typical power controls she was used to. The best news was that it didn't appear to be damaged. OK, Laura, think fast, she told herself. The paleogeneticist quickly got to work.

Malcolm noticed a low-growling coming from nearby. He looked to the right and saw the faint outline of the creature, blending in almost perfectly to the background . . .

"Hurry up, Laura," he said, "this is going to be bad."

Dr. Sorkin said, "I've almost got it . . ."

The Carnotaurus roared and thundered toward them. Chuck was just aiming his gun when suddenly . . .

Slowly, Sarah, soldier #1 and Taylor backed themselves into a corner, hoping for the best. They squeezed tightly together as the Carnotaurus finally set its eyes upon them. It had them trapped . . .

Suddenly light posts all around the village (similar to street lights) were lit up and loud music started to play out of the speakers that were attached to the light posts. The Carnotaurus yelped in surprise and looked up at the lights, blinking its eyes rapidly. Its shook its head to relieve itself from the loud music, but it didn't help! In order to blend in, the animal tried its best to camouflage, but the contrast in lights made this difficult and its attempt was pitiful. It began backing away from Sarah, Taylor and soldier #1.

"Wait a minute," Sarah said. She turned to soldier #1 and asked, "Do you have your flashlight still with you?"

"Yeah. But we don't need it now."

"Give it here. I have another idea."

The soldier obeyed and Sarah flashed the light beam over at the Carnotaurus. The animal looked in her direction and growled, as if he'd already been pestered enough by the bright lights and loud sounds. Sarah shook the beam of the flashlight across the dinosaur's skin. Its skin tried to change to match different light, moving and stationary, but it was failing miserably. Sarah was now able to herd the animal into the center, behind the laboratory and between the two rows of buildings in the village.

Grant, Malcolm, Dr. Sorkin, soldier #2 and Chuck watched as the male Carnotaurus recoiled from the attack. He looked around nervously as if he'd been caught and his skin failed to blend in to the different light tones.

"What an unsightly carnivore," Malcolm remarked, now that he could see the carnivore in a fully-lit environment.

"Good call on the music," Grant complimented Dr. Sorkin. "The music is disorienting them."

"That wasn't me," Dr. Sorkin said as she closed the power box back. The men all looked at her, puzzled. "All I did was get the power and lights on."

The male Carnotaurus took several steps away from the humans and crouched, staring up at the harsh light posts above him; behind him, they noticed Sarah was driving the female back with nothing more than a flashlight.

"Sarah's OK!" Malcolm exclaimed.

"Hey guys!" Sarah called. "Use your flashlights and help me drive off these creatures."

The music boomed through the speakers; it was obvious that the Carnotaurus didn't like it one bit! Then, on top of the music, a human voice emitted from the speakers.

"Hello, hello, hello everyone!" the voice called. "You're listening to the Ryan Muldoon channel, coming to you live from Isla Nublar!"

Malcolm grinned and shook his head. "Ryan, Ryan, Ryan . . . oh well, it's getting the job done."

Ryan announced as if he were doing a real radio show, "If you're a one-ton reptilian predator with camouflaging capabilities, I'm going to have to ask you to leave the area immediately as we start our flashing light show."

Then the lights simultaneously began to grow dim before going back bright again. Ryan continued to repeat this process, and the dinosaurs didn't like it. Their skins were desperately trying to blend into the surroundings, but couldn't adjust fast enough. Soldier #2 and Chuck turned their flashlights on and began waving the beam in front of the male Carnotaurus. The creature growled and turned to run.

"Let's go!" Chuck exclaimed. The male Carnotaurus met back up with his mate and, now cornered by three people with flashlights, they growled and turned toward the forest, running for the cover of darkness as fast as their legs would carry them. Finally they were out of sight and invisible once again.

The music was turned off and Ryan strolled out of the laboratory.

"You never cease to amaze me, Ryan," Dr. Sorkin said.

"That was so awesome!" exclaimed Taylor. "How'd you do it?"

"Well, there's a pretty intricate audio system back in the lobby nobody noticed," Ryan explained. "I was going to come out and help you guys when I realized that we could probably scare the dinosaurs away with loud noises and bright lights. When the power came on, I was able to boot up the system. There's a good variety of cassette players back there too."

"Cassette player? What's that?"

"The ancestors to CD's," Grant answered. "You're 11, right? They're from before your time, Taylor."

"What I'd like to know was how on earth you guys seemed to know that the lights and sounds would scare the dinosaurs away," Malcolm said.

"The Carnotaurus can camouflage into just about any environment," Sarah began to explain. "There are only a few creatures in the world that have that ability. However, the Carnotaurus can't change the color of their skin fast enough to match their surroundings if they're moving quickly. They also can't do so in constant changes in the amount of light in certain environments. Therefore, it's logical to conclude that Carnotaurus are nocturnal, ambush predators. That's also why they reveal themselves when they attack.

"Right," Dr. Sorkin agreed. "And with all the lights we just turned on, they aren't able to hide anymore. And loud noises startle any animal that's not familiar with the noise. I'm just glad we're all safe."

"We should probably get back to the laboratory," Grant concluded. "Raptors and tyrannosaurs won't be held off by bright lights and loud noise for too long."

"We can't," soldier #1 said. "One of the dinosaurs crashed into the glass window. But maybe we can stay in one of the other trailers until we're rescued, preferably the one where the power box is."

Grant nodded and everyone started walking in that direction.

"You know," Malcolm said, "I can think of a number of ways that the previous scenario provides a great case for the Chaos Theory–"

Ryan grumbled, "Not this again," before darting off toward the building.

"See? I'm right again. Nobody could have predicted that Ryan would suddenly just dart off ahead of us like that." Then everybody else started walking ahead of him. "There's another example." He chuckled to himself. "Now I'm just standing here by myself, uh . . . talking to myself. That's Chaos Theory."

"Come on, Ian," Sarah called.

A/N: So there you guys have it: Carnotaurus, one of my favorite theropods. I've always wanted to do this scene, ever since I first started working on this story. I decided to have the Carnotaurus bear white-heads and black bodies because I figured that would add an element of scariness to them. This coloration is based on the color pattern for the Dinosaur Revolution T. rex. You can look it up on the internet to see what I mean – it's scary! I also enjoyed adding a little bit of information on the Chaos Theory (for some reason, my sister can't stand it when I mention the Chaos Theory. Hopefully she won't get to mad when she reads this . . . of course, she'll probably get even madder when she reads this sentence . . .). Anyway, remember, if you guys have any recommendations for the ending, please be sure to let me know. Of course, depending on how many ideas I get, I won't be able to to all of them, but I'll see what I can do! In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to ask, favorite and follow this story if you haven't already and r&r!