Jurassic World: Return to Isla Nublar – Chapter 48: Nearing the End
A/N: Firstly, I'd like to make a dis-acknowledgment and proclaim how annoying my sister was while I was initially trying to write this chapter. She knows I need quiet in order to write well, but she tried to sing and sing and sing so much that it wasn't funny. Of course, she'll probably get mad when she reads the previous sentence, but oh well, she shouldn't have been singing! Second of all, thank you to all my dedicated readers and reviewers for continuing to read this story all the way to this point. You're all going to love this chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.
It was 12:30 a.m. The ride back to the North Dock had been a time of reflection for Lester. Just how successful had their mission been? Now sitting in his office aboard the USS Mars, he wasn't quite sure. He knew they'd lost several soldiers over the course of the expedition. This island was a dangerous place. He hoped never to return to this island, but if the opportunity arose, he figured he'd bring better weapons than this time. In any case, they hadn't officially rescued anyone they came here to rescue yet. Levine, Grant, Dr. Sorkin, Kailey, Tim and the lot were still somewhere on the island. True, Eric was bringing them back, but they weren't actually here at the ship yet.
He pressed a button on his desk phone.
"Yes?" It was Rebecca.
"Contact Eric and find out where they are, would you?"
"Will do, Lester."
"And also see if you can find out if the other search teams have found Malcolm's group while you're at it."
"I will, Lester." She paused. "By the way, Rajesh wanted to see you as soon as possible."
"Rajesh? Again?" Over the past few weeks, Rajesh had been wanting to have an "important meeting" with him. Right now, Lester wasn't interesting in any meeting. "When?"
"He wants to meet with you as soon as we get back to the mainland."
"Isn't he aware we're in the middle of a rescue mission that's involving a lot of stress and anxiety?" Lester sighed. "Alright then."
Rebecca turned on the radio in her office and was able to contact Eric.
"Eric? Are you there? Over."
"Yes, Rebecca, I'm here. What's up?"
"Where on earth are you guys? It's 12:33 in the morning! You should be back by now."
"We got mixed up a couple of times; we're all kind of tired, so mistakes are to be expected."
"Where are you now?"
"We just left the area near the Visitor Center. We ended up passing the Visitor Center completely and winded up close to the Boneshaker Roller Coaster attraction. We took a moment to get a little sleep and we're back on the road. I think we're getting close to the Visitor Center."
"Don't go there!" Rebecca exclaimed. "We've just evacuated! It's too dangerous."
"What's wrong?"
"Packs of True-don or something, they're swarms of them in there and they were so bad we had to evacuate. We lost some of our men."
"Alright then. Where do you want me to go?"
"Come back to the USS Mars. You do know where the North Dock is, don't you?"
"Yes, I think we can make it to the North Dock. We'll see you in a few."
"OK."
Eric's jeep bumped as it drove over a pothole and continued down the road. It had been a long 24 hours for his team: they'd begun their search for the missing research party on the morning of the previous day. Then they'd searched the entire day and finally found them and by the time they accidentally wound up near the Boneshaker Roller Coaster ride, he and the others had been ready for a quick nap (they had someone on guard duty during their nap, of course). They didn't actually go to the roller coaster, but they saw battered up signs for it, revealing that it wasn't too far away.
Eric turned to Kelly. "Tell me where we are please."
"Alright," Kelly responded. She looked on the GPS and saw that they were on one of the tourist roads that would lead them directly to the North Dock. So long as Eric didn't make a wrong turn, they'd be there in just a few minutes. "OK, we'll be coming up on a fork in the road. Keep a left!"
Eric nodded.
Stanley said, "I must say, this adventure has actually been kind of fun."
"You weren't the one getting pursued by hungry dinosaurs all the time," Levine said. He yawned. "I can't wait till we reach the ship so we can get out of this cramped jeep."
Lex nodded. "That's a fact. Couldn't you have brought a bigger jeep?"
"This was one of your jeeps," said Stanley. "We found it on a jungle road, not too far from where the Triceratops stampede took place."
"We didn't drive a jeep that far south," Tim protested. "We had already been chased away from the Visitor Center by the Troodon."
Eric, Kelly and Stanley winced. If the research team didn't park the jeep there, who did?
"Besides," Tim continued, "we wouldn't have dented the jeep as much as it is now."
"I did notice it was dented," said Eric. "I just figured one of you guys was a clumsy driver."
"We never had a chance to dent it!" The jeep suddenly sputtered and began to cough continuously, spatting big black clouds of smoke from the exhaust pipe. "Well whoever dented it should have taken better care of this bucket of bolts." As soon as he finished the sentence, the vehicle mysteriously shut off and rolled forward until the wheels came to a stop, right in front of the fork in the road they needed to make.
"You know," Kailey began, "I think Eric just jinxed it."
"Don't be silly, Kailey." Eric got out of the jeep and slammed the door closed. "Wish I knew a thing or two about automobiles. Unless somebody here knows something about this hunk of junk, we're sunk."
"I do!" a soldier exclaimed. The soldiers and other occupants all exited the crowded vehicle and stood guard around the immediate area.
The soldier who said he could fix the jeep was named Donald and he, Eric, Kailey, Tim, Lex, Levine and Stanley went to the front of the jeep to see what was under the hood. Donald opened the hood and clicked his tongue. "Let's see . . . oh yeah, this thing's had quite a banging in the front."
"Not only the front," Levine observed. "All sides of the jeep have been banged up pretty bad."
Tim stared at the bang-marks curiously. "If I didn't know better . . . I'd say those bang-marks are shaped like they've been headbutted by a pachycephalosaur, Dracorex specifically."
"You know, I think you might be right!"
"But how'd it get way out here if you guys didn't drive it?"
A moment of silence . . .
"You think Biosyn might have stolen our vehicle?" Kailey asked.
Levine nodded. "I bet they did. Why they'd resort to such measures I'll never know. We know they're on the island, so they must have taken the vehicle. They're the only ones on Isla Nublar besides us!"
"In any case," Donald said, "I'd better get to work repairing this thing. It won't be a very good fix without proper tools, but I think I can fix it so that we'll be able to reach the North Dock."
While Donald worked away on the jeep, Kailey looked eagerly at Levine.
"What?"
Kailey said nothing, but raised her eyebrows. This is when Levine got the message. "All you had to do is ask."
"You're going to check out another email?" Tim questioned.
"Might as well. We're just sitting here anyway."
The computer was quickly booted up and Levine scrolled down the list of emails. "How appropriate. There's only one more email that we haven't read. And get this, it's from the very day the Jurassic Park Incident began to take place.
"'June 11, 1993,
Dear Hammond,
It's the wee hours here on Nublar. By the time you get this message, you will have probably safely arrived at the airport in San Jose to come back to the island with Drs. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler. How did your meeting with them go? Speaking of which, how did your bloodsucking lawyer's meeting go with Malcolm. I have a firm belief that once they come and see the park for themselves, they won't be able to prevent themselves from being swept away by these amazing creatures we have here! I mean, who wouldn't? We're the only theme park in the entire world showcasing living breathing dinosaurs. I'm sure you're particularly concerned for the park right now, hoping that it's the best it can be by the time our guests arrive.
Remember the batch of raptors we're incubating in our Nublar hatcheries in the Visitor Center? Well, they're ready to hatch any day now. Hopefully, we'll be able to place them in the Velociraptor Paddock since they won't be influenced by the Big One to break out. Muldoon keeps telling me that the raptors should all be destroyed. I'm just glad that they're not as bad as Dr. Sorkin's Troodons or our Anurognathus. I heard that Harding will be returning to the park today with his 14-year old daughter, Jessie and that your grandchildren will also be visiting the park today. This should be exciting. These three kids could be exactly what we need to keep the investors interested in supporting us! If the park is safe enough for kids, it's definitely safe for everyone else and should give those investors plenty of reasons to keep supporting us. I'd really hate to have to shut down operations, as we've done a great deal of work and research on the legendary animals, especially at our Site B facility.
The mosasaur specimen is doing fine in the Marine Facility. Tylosaurus prodiger is quite a magnificent specimen. She's approximately 50 feet from snout to tail. As I expected, our new marine specialists were shocked to find out what creature they'd been hired to care for. One of them described it as a whale/crocodile hybrid. But anyhow, they're definitely doing a good job keeping the creature happy and healthy. Kathy – one of the specialists – was wondering if we might be able to use the mosasaur in shows at some point, kind of like how the killer whales and dolphins are used at Sea World. I don't think mosasaurs are intelligent enough to do tricks, but who knows? Who ever knew Velociraptors were as intelligent as they are? All the paleontologists I've talked to say that raptors weren't any more intelligent than an ostrich. Hmm . . . I guess that goes to show you just how much we really knew about dinosaurs. Not only is the mosasaur big, but she eats a lot too. It's a good thing she's not able to access open ocean, because she'd probably ruin the global ecosystem.
Another reason why I'm particularly glad about a paleontologist visiting the park is so we can finally know just how close our genetically engineered specimens are to the ones in the fossil record, because in some cases, there's the possibility that a gene glitch could easily alter an animal's appearance or behavior slightly. And maybe I'll be able to quiet Dr. Sorkin on the frog DNA usage! That will be the day!
The raptors have been acting a bit strange today. They seem kind of anxious to escape. They haven't been testing the fences systematically like they were before we started using the present method to feed them, but they will often glare up at their keepers, silent yet imposing. You can sense they want to escape. The Velociraptors also seem to enjoy torturing the cows they are fed, sometimes eating it when it's still alive. I'm glad they can't get out, because . . . well, they'd kill a lot of people and other dinosaurs. We don't need any more fatalities in this park with all this nervous-investors nonsense. At a later date, one might consider studying raptors more closely to learn more about the boundaries between the relationship of raptors and humans.
I guess that's about all there is to tell you. It seems that the island's creatures – including the dinosaurs – have sensed a storm is approaching. It amazes me just how animals can pick up those ques that we don't even know exist. Arnold tells me that there's a storm coming. He'll probably have the island evacuated of all but minimal staff, which doesn't include me, so I'll start wrapping everything up here in the laboratories, both in the Visitor Center and at DNA Project #1. Despite all the difficulties we're having right now, I firmly believe everything will fall into order. The scientists will come to the park, see it's safe and the world will get to see some of the most spectacular creatures ever to have walked the earth.
Sincerely, Henry Wu.'"
"That's the last email, huh?" Kailey asked.
Levine nodded and turned off the computer. "That was the last email Wu sent to Hammond, while working at the park anyway. This was the time they were having a lot of difficulties: they were having countless problems with the dinosaurs, such as the Triceratops getting sick and the raptors wanting to escape. And from another email, we learned that there seemed to be a possibility of the Anurognathus escaping their aviary."
"Cool stuff," Tim said. "I mean, not cool that it happened, it's just cool to read about."
"Wu seems pretty eager to prove Dr. Sorkin's frog DNA theory wrong," Lex observed. "And I recall Grandfather telling me that they'd had loads of computer bugs and computer-related issues at the time."
"Wasn't Nedry working in that department?"
"Yes, he was. There's an interesting story behind Nedry too. From my understanding, he felt like he wasn't being paid enough for all the work he was doing at the park; that was why he wanted to steal those dinosaur embryos for Biosyn."
"Speaking of Biosyn," Levine began, "let's hope Dodgson and his gang died off or something."
Kelly stood at the fork in the road. She looked at her watch: 12:40 a.m. Groaning, she wondered, When are we ever going to get off this island. Let's see, if we're less than a mile from the coast . . . then it's walking distance if we aren't able to get the jeep working.
A soldier went up to her and asked, "Why didn't we bring one the our vehicles to use instead of walking to find the research team, anyway?"
"I guess we didn't think they'd wondered that far away from the Visitor Center. They'd traveled a lot farther than we thought."
"That's understandable, I guess. At least we're almost out of here."
"Yeah."
Kelly noticed that right after the fork in the road, there was a bride leading over a small river. At least it's pretty peaceful around here.
The soldier looked to their left and noticed a peculiar hole in the side of a small hill covered in large rocks – it looked like a small cave. "What's up with that?"
Kelly shrugged and they both walked over to it. Kelly Curtis Malcolm grinned. "Makes me kind of curious as to what's in here." She turned toward the jeep. "Hey guys, you might want to come and see what's inside this cave!"
Eric, Donald, Kailey, Tim, Lex, Levine and Stanley went over to the cave Kelly was talking about and peered inside, but all they could see was darkness.
Levine shrugged. "Just about anything could be in there; it does look like an animal has been living here though."
Eric grinned. "Well, maybe we should check it out. After all, it could be very important to your study. You're here to find out about the dinosaur life, right?"
"That's true." He grabbed a flashlight from one of the soldiers.
"Wait, I was just kidding," Eric said.
"We're here to study dinosaurs, and this is another perfect opportunity."
"Sure, but that hole's large enough for a raptor to climb in.. If you don't want to run into a raptor in the open, why on earth would I want to run into one in a closed area? You do want to survive, don't you?"
"Yes, that's why I'm taking the necessary precautions."
Eric slapped his hand on his forehead. "Terrific."
Kelly winced. "You're not actually going in there, are you?"
Without answering, Levine flicked his flashlight on and shined the light inside – no creature appeared to be in there. Then he proceeded to climb into the hole.
Levine found the cave to be small and very dark, only lit up by the beam of his flashlight. It couldn't have been more than 12 feet in diameter and – PU! – it reeked! Levine couldn't help but wrinkle his nose. "Oh, man this place stinks." I've got to get out of this hole!
He hurriedly climbed out.
"Anything?" Kailey asked.
Levine shook his head. "It just stinks in there."
As they all turned back to face the jeep, they were surprised to see four medium-sized dinosaurs standing next to and behind it. They were peculiar creatures with lengthy necks, long claws on their hands and potbellies. They were curiously sniffing the jeep.
"What on earth are they?" one of the soldiers asked.
"Nothronychus," Tim uttered. "Those must have been the unidentified therizinosaurids Wu talked of in the emails. Cool!"
"They're dangerous?"
Tim shook his head. "No, they're herbivores."
A Nothronychus near the hood of the vehicle stood up straight and tall to emit a braying sound. It then took his sharp claws scraped the hood. Another dinosaur began using its claws on the right side of the jeep. All the Nothronychus started tearing into the automobile with their claws. One of them ripped a car door right off its hinges with relative ease. The humans stood dumbfounded.
"Hey! I just fixed that thing!" Donald exclaimed.
Levine ran toward the dinosaurs and began waving his arms as he shouted. "Hey! What do you think you're doing? Get out of here!"
A Nothronychus took a few steps toward Levine and brayed loudly. He held his clawed hands up and began slashing the air with them; it was ushering a warning to the smaller human to stay back.
"I'll show 'em!" Donald said. He held up his gun when Eric stopped him.
"What would that do?" Eric asked him. "The tranquilizers are not going to immediately stop them. You might make them mad."
"But they're wrecking the jeep!"
"I know. We're not too far from the coast though."
Donald glared at the Nothronychus tearing into the trunk. It mercilessly ripped the trunk door right off, and at that moment the dinosaurs quit their seemingly mindless assault on the vehicle. What were these creatures up to?
"What in the name of the King of Lilliput are those dinosaurs doing?!" Levine exclaimed. "These are herbivores! Why on earth would they need to tear up our jeep?"
A Nothronychus bent down into the trunk and upon rising its head, the humans saw two smaller dinosaurs held in its mouth. The little dinosaurs looked exactly like the Nothronychus – they were a babies!
"Where'd the baby dinosaurs come from?" Lex asked. "That wasn't in the trunk . . . was it?"
The young creatures held in the mouth of the adult squeaked happily, glad to be in the loving care of what was presumably its parent. Even at this young age, the long claws were visible. Soon they'd be used to help the animal forage, but for now, they would continue to grow and strengthen. The mother dinosaur cooed quietly, equally happy to have been reunited with its hatchlings. The dinosaur scratched the side of her head with one of her claws and began walking back into the jungle. The other three Nothronychus each picked up a baby and followed the first; Eric and the others watched as they walked off the road and into the dense jungle, probably back to their nesting grounds.
"What a nice family," Kailey cooed.
"Yeah, well that 'nice family' just trashed our vehicle," Eric said. He and the others were now surveying the damage, and the damage done was great: the trunk had been ripped open from where the hinge once was, the left door had several deep lacerations from the claws, the hood and right car door were torn off, one of the lights was knocked out of the socket, the spare tire had been deflated . . . the list went on and on. Donald growled again.
"I just fixed this thing! Were those baby dinosaurs already in the trunk?"
Levine snapped his fingers. "Aha! So Biosyn did steal our vehicle! I'm not sure how they thought they could get away with it. You'd think they would have brought their own. Apparently they had to leave the jeep in a hurry, because they left the Nothronychus eggs they stole in the trunk. Somehow, the Nothronychus tracked us down and retrieved their babies."
"On the bright side," Kailey began, "we're not that far away from the coast. We're about a mile away, so if we hurry, we'll be there in a short amount of time."
"She's right," Tim said. "Let's get moving so we can get to the North Dock."
Before going to bed, Grant had looked around the trailer they were sleeping in and figured it was a researcher's living quarters, as it contained journals and diaries about various animals they had on the island. Most of the adults were asleep on chairs they found in the dining area. There were only two (very small) beds in the bedroom; Sarah and Ian shared one and Taylor had the other. Malcolm had insisted that Sarah have the bed all to herself so she'd have more space, but she argued that she didn't want to sleep without her husband. "All the more reason to snuggle together tighter," she said.
Sarah woke up. She shifted her head so that she could see the window between her and Taylor's bed; it was covered with a curtain, so she couldn't see outside, but the faint moonlight streaming in evidenced to her that the sun wasn't up yet. She glanced at her watch: 1:00 a.m. Way too early to get up. The sound of falling rain could be heard outside. Strange, she didn't see any clouds before they retired for the night. She tried going back to sleep when she felt a sudden, quick vibration. Her eyes opened again. Sarah felt the vibration once again. What could that have been?
Oh no, I hope that's not what I think it is . . . she thought. She reached over the gap between the two beds and poked at Taylor. (She didn't want to wake Malcolm if she didn't have to since he'd looked really tired earlier).
"Psst! Taylor!" she whispered.
Taylor quickly woke up. "Yes?"
The vibration came again, and again, and again.
"Do you feel that?"
Taylor nodded her head. The two of them looked over at a little cup of water on a side table nearby – with each vibration, circular ripples appeared on the water's surface. This normally meant only one thing . . .
Sarah nearly ripped open the curtains so she could peer outside – she and Taylor's view consisted of the dark U-shaped row of animal paddocks and the Parasaurolophus carcass. They also saw a trio of dinosaurs outside – they were the length of school buses and stood on four legs. With the long crests extending from the backs of their skulls, these were had to be Parasaurolophus. There were two adults, one being of slightly larger and having brighter coloration, and the third was a juvenile, the size of a small pony. Its crest was no more than a slightly elongated bump on its skull.
"Duckbills," Taylor said.
Sarah nodded. "Parasaurolophus."
The three dinosaurs stood almost motionless in the wee-hour rain. The raindrops fell upon their wet backs. For some reason, the dinosaurs seemed rather nervous. The vibrations had not ceased and continued, each getting stronger than the last. The male Parasaurolophus stood on its hind legs, using his heavy tail for balance. Then he emitted a low, long call that echoed through the jungles of the night.
What are you saying? Sarah asked.
At that moment, the male Parasaurolophus dropped back down on all fours and he gestured with his head for the other two hadrosaurs to keep moving. The baby huddled close to his presumed mother as they hurried past the dead and decaying member of their own species, across the village clearing and into the jungle. For a moment, Sarah wondered why they'd been nervous . . . even though she had a pretty good idea why.
Suddenly, Sarah spotted a thick body at the edge of the forest in the direction the Parasaurolophus probably came from. It had a beautiful array of mosaic scales endowing it. She looked upward and nearly gasped in fright as she saw the huge head of a Tyrannosaurus. Standing 20 feet tall, it was a monstrosity. The teeth pointed downward from the upper jaw like daggers, but Sarah knew they really weren't all that sharp. Instead of being used for slicing meat like most other carnivores, this beast was able to crunch through bone with the strongest bite force of any animal that's ever walked the earth (only aquatic creatures like Dunkleosteus and the giant shark Megalodon had a stronger bite).
Lighting flashed, illuminating another tyrannosaur standing by the first one's side. This one was a little smaller – the male.
Taylor's eyes got large and she began hyperventilating. "A-a-are those . . . ?" she asked. Unfortunately, Sarah had to nod. "What do we do?"
"Just stay calm. There's no way they can smell us from out there."
The two humans watched with fear and awe as two of the greatest predators ever to stalk the earth exited the foliage and stopped once everything except their tails were in sight, revealing just how big they really were – the male must have been about 40 feet long, and the female was longer still. Their bird-like feet made huge footprints in the wet soil.
A pair of Tyrannosaurus rex were now roaming the area. The female slowly opened and closed her four-foot jaws . . . she and her mate were searching for their next meal.
A/N: I decided that T. rex should have another showing in the story since it's one of everybody's favorite dinosaurs. This could be the most thrilling T. rex scene in the entire story! I can't wait to publish it. I also liked bringing the Nothronychus back. Anyway, you won't want to miss the next chapter, because you'll get to see just how bad a pair of rexes can be . . . again. If you haven't already, please make sure to favorite, follow and review on my story and I'll see you all next week! R&r!