Jurassic Park Broken Lives

Chapter 44: Silver Claw's Wrath

Disclaimer: I do not own Jurassic Park

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Author Note: I don't have the time I used to for writing so I will try to update when I can. Because of several Private Messages and general comments, I put a two part poll on my user page that addresses what several people have brought up recently and in the past I have said no to.

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Silver Claw paced quickly back and forth, his breathing was heavy and each breath was filled with an insurmountable anger. His vision blurred with rage and he was clicking his claw on the ground. Few birds were willing to pass overhead but the ones that did, he snarled at and then leapt in an attempt to catch them midflight so that he could tear them to pieces. Anything that got in the way of saving Amanda was going to die. All his thought was bent upon that goal and nothing not even a fence was going to get in his way. There was no way he would let the humans escape and their only way to leave was by the way they came.

Silver Claw started for the building. If he could not get Amanda yet there was going to be no way they could get away with her if he did loose track of them. Zenith and Tessa would have to decide what they were going to do once they found Ellie. He was not going to help. The remaining green would have to wait and he should know better than to get in his way or else he too would suffer Silver Claw's wrath.

The leaves of the undergrowth slapped his snout and chest as he ran and in several cases the branches covered in thorns pierced his hide causing long trails of blood to roll down his side but he didn't care. It would heal over time. The wound he could not bear was that in his heart. Amanda was his life, his mate, and his soul mate. If anything were to happen to her nothing would be safe from him. All would come to death if they dared to defy him and then he too would die.

In the distance he could hear the calls of Zenith and Tessa but he did not answer. Swiftly and quietly like a shadow in the night he raced through the jungle with an unwavering pace. In took him only minutes before he burst from the jungle and started across the field towards the helicopter and the rotting copse of the spinosaurus. At last he came to a stop beneath the tower of the helipad. He looked up and snarled with even more anger. No matter what happened, humans always seemed to separate him from his love, no more!

Silver Claw jumped as high as he could, only a few meters short of the top, and grabbed onto the wooden beams that crisscrossed the structure. He gripped what he could with his teeth and arched his back, placing his feet in a higher foothold. He continued doing this several times until his head looked out over the platform. Barely anything remained of the nest that the large birdlike creature had made and it was obviously not coming back now. Just then, Silver Claw noticed a pair of boots and realized that there was someone still watching the helicopter.

A deathly grin slowly grew upon his snout and he showed his teeth. This would be the first of many to feel his wrath this day. Quietly, Silver Claw climbed on the platform and looked in the open side of the helicopter. There was in fact a man there but also a woman, they were sleeping. They had their guns by their side but it was obvious that they were not expecting anything else he would not have made it up the tower. He began to circle to the open door at their side.

He felt it hard to silence himself. His anger was so much that he wanted to just jump on them and slay then where the lay, but he resisted. With a silent and precise motion, Silver Claw grabbed the guns, one by one, and threw them over the edge of the structure. He heard the light thud as the guns hit the ground and he showed his teeth. Before he woke them, he checked to make sure there were no more weapons around them or in sight and then he grabbed the male by his boots and dragged him out of the helicopter. The man did not wake as he hit the wooden platform and so Silver Claw dragged him to the edge.

A muffled cry caught his attention and Silver Claw looked back to the female that still lay in the helicopter. She was awake however and had her gaze fixed upon him. He saw the terror in her eyes and she reached around realizing there was nothing she could use to defend herself. Silver Claw snarled and raised his only killing claw.

"Jim!" The woman shrieked suddenly. The man awoke and his gaze met Silver Claw's in an instant. Silver Claw could smell the fear and see the sweat the poured down his pale face. Silver Claw snarled and the man backed away as fast as he could, not realizing where he was. A short lived scream came from him as he fell over the edge and a then a crack. Silver Claw glanced over the edge quickly to see his broken body lying next to the guns. He moved slightly but quickly ceased and remained motionless. He was dead.

The woman tried screaming but it came out only as a wheeze as if she was trying to draw breath but her throat was constricted. Silver Claw quickly approached her and leapt on top of her. He looked her in the eyes and raised his claw over her abdomen. But then something happened the he did not expect. He saw Amanda beneath him. However, he knew it could not be so. He looked around and then everything around him seemed to melt and then he found himself standing near the trailers again.

Those people were gone by now, what was happening? Suddenly, he saw himself and Sophia approaching the door to the trailer, ready to kill the humans inside. The door began to open and he shouted but it did not stop. He watched helplessly as the other Silver Claw leapt onto Amanda and then suddenly he felt light as if he was falling and everything returned to normal. He looked down at the woman beneath him. It was not Amanda but that woman he was going to kill.

The idea of killing her suddenly made him sick to his stomach. He couldn't do it now even if he wanted to. Gently he stepped off of her and stuck his head in the front compartment of the helicopter. He could still destroy it. Silver Claw grabbed what he could and ripped it, he found wiring and pulled it out as far as it would go without breaking and then he cut it with his claw. Sparks began to fly from the controls and one of the sparks landed on a sweater in the passenger seat. A small flame began to burn. His job was done he thought as the flames began to spread quickly.

Silver Claw jumped out of the helicopter to see the woman already running for her life and going down the stairs. He however moved to the edge and looked down. It was not high enough that he would cause himself serious injury if he jumped and so he did. He hit the ground and the muscles in his legs twitched painfully but it was not serious. Silver Claw headed towards the building just as the human got off the stairs and started for there as well. She shrieked and made a mad dash for the safety of the build with Silver Claw on her heels.

Just as he reached the corner to enter the building, the helicopter exploded. Silver Claw was hurled to the ground and a sharp pain exploded from his back and his chest. His vision flickered and he saw no more…

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Ellie's heart raced. She was running from the humans that had just shot the female green raptor and Amanda. Her eyes were darting back and forth searching the foliage for movement even though it was doubtful that she would see the remaining male before it was too late.

Ellie stopped for a moment to catch her breath and then the attack came. She was hurled to the ground so hard that she saw stars in her vision and it took her a moment to recover but when she did, her gaze met that of the remaining green. In his bright blue eyes she could see the rage that was consuming him, probably because of her shooting the other with him and the female.

"Beg for you life human and I might spare your life!" The male hissed sadistically. He pressed most of his weight on Ellie and had one of his claws over her abdomen. He twitched his claw enough that it tore a hole in her shirt that was a few centimeters long. "Beg for your life!" He shouted.

Ellie looked at him but said nothing. She couldn't understand most of what the raptor had said but she knew the general idea. "No," Ellie said while she reached into her right pocket. She received a hiss from the male and felt the cold, dirty claw puncture her skin but only enough to cause an enormous amount of pain. It was however not life threatening. Ellie screamed and swung her right arm at the raptor's side. Immediately he leapt away with a shriek louder that her own.

The male cursed and snarled. Tremors shook his body and he seemed to twist towards the point where Ellie had stabbed him. His left arm was hanging limp by his side. He looked at Ellie and snarled. "Next we meet human, I will kill you!" He turned and ran into the jungle.

Ellie stood panting. She had one hand covering her wound and the other holding the bloodied pocket knife. Suddenly, she dropped the knife and fell to the ground clasping her stomach. The wound it seemed had been aggravated when she stood up so quickly and she only made it larger and all the more serious. She put as much pressure as she could and it seemed to slow the bleeding. She knew she had to get out of the area because if experience told her anything, there was always another predator nearby. But first, she had to bandage her wound.

Ellie looked around but she knew she would not find anything useful around and she knew that her sleeves would do the trick. With a sigh, she stuck the knife into the hole that the raptor had torn in her shirt and hacked at the material. Once she was done, she realized that it was not enough. The cut was up and down, not across. She looked around frantically. There had to be something she could use.

A sound of rustling leaves caused her to freeze. She looked slowly over her shoulder to see the muzzle of a green. Her heart skipped a beat. Tremors ran throughout her body, she was going to die.

"Ellie," a familiar voice said softly. It was Zenith. Ellie sighed with relief and turned to face him. She was close enough that his foul breath washed over her and she shivered. It was not something she thought she would smell again after she left the island, the breath of a carnivorous dinosaur. "Your hurt," Zenith said softly and lowered his head to her wound. A long bead of drool rolled down his jaw and hit her bare skin.

"Yes I am. Do you think you could get me back to the cave? I left my stuff there." Ellie said. Zenith nodded and lowered himself so that she could get on. Ellie looked down for a moment and saw the reddening around his one foot. "What happened there?"

Zenith looked down. "I don't remember. It's not that bad though." He began to walk when Tessa came out of the brush. She stopped when she saw the blood on Zenith's side.

"I hope that's not yours Zenith," Tessa said but then saw the cut on Ellie's stomach. It was hard to tell exactly where the cut was because of the blood coming out of it was well as the blood smeared around. "That male attacked you?"

"He got the worst of it," Ellie said with a slight snicker in her voice. "I don't think he'll have use of his arm again." Ellie felt that she needed to prove that she was stronger than she appeared for some reason around Tessa even though she didn't really care what the raptor thought of her.

"What do you need to treat that wound?" Tessa turned away into the jungle with Zenith trailing behind her. Once she was informed of what Ellie needed, she told Zenith to go to a different place that was safer that the cave. Zenith stopped and looked at Ellie when she nodded in agreement, he started in the direction. With a final glance, he saw his mother disappear out of sight in the direction of the cave.

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Silver Claw awoke with a great heave and serge of pain throughout his body. His vision was dark but slowly it came into focus. Before him lay a smoldering piece of the tower, parts of the helicopter, and a weapon that he had missed but it was bent to the point it was no longer a treat.

He shook his head. He felt his heart throbbing and could hear it in his ears. When he tried to stand however, he couldn't. Silver Claw looked to his back to see one of the seats over him with a large metal rod through it and into the ground. A sharp pain caused him to howl in agony and he knew exactly what had happened, his chest again was hurt. It was not as serious as last time but he again had broken a rib.

Birds flew overhead screeching in panic. Something large was coming. Silver Claw looked at around but he could not see past the tall grasses. The wind however shifted and he recognized the smell, a ceratosaurus. Silver Claw struggled to free himself but his chest prevented him from doing so. In moment's he heard the heave footsteps of the carnivore growing ever closer. Soon, the short but large head emerged from the grasses and into view. It was a bright red in color and had a horn at the tip. A male in the mating season was the only reason it would be that color which made it all the more dangerous.

From what little he had heard about them, when they had a mate, a ceratosaurus would bring meals to the female in order to mate with her or else she would attack him on sight and more than likely kill him. An explosion shook the earth and a large piece of metal landed on top of Silver Claw. It was glowing in spots and only centimeters from his snout. The ceratosaurus however continued to move about. Then the relative silence was broken by a crunching and snapping of bones. The dinosaur had found the body of the male.

Silver Claw curled his tail as much as he could so that it would not be in view of the ceratosaurus. The footsteps closed in by him and he watched helplessly as the metal above his head vibrated. The great breaths of the dinosaur shook the air and then Silver Claw could only watch as the snout came into view at the end of the sheet. It sniffed heavily and then disappeared. Suddenly the sheet of metal was ripped away and the ceratosaurus stood staring at him.

Silver Claw snarled in defiance as the ceratosaurus moved closer to him. Its mouth opened and from the ground, Silver Claw could see the blackness of its throat and the long rows of teeth that would greet him before he reached it. A loud crackling sounded from the distance and the ceratosaurus bellowed in pain. It bit down on the chair by mistake and ran away into the jungle.

As fast as he could, Silver Claw jumped to his feet and saw that the humans were coming his way. They were armed and already aiming for him. The girl, whose life he had spared, was with them and had a look of revenge on her face. He however was too injured to even think of attacking them head on so he hobbled away from them as fast as he could using the building to hid himself as he made his escape. As the humans reached the corner of the building, Silver Claw entered the jungle. A single shot was fired at him but the bullet hit a tree not far from his head and he continued without further trouble.

"I'll find you yet Amanda," Silver Claw said as he turned towards the camp where the humans held his mate. He would not attack them headstrong again. How could he with his injuries? Once he was there, he would have to work out a plan to free Amanda and then Sophia if she were still alive when he got there.

The light gurgling of a stream came from somewhere nearby and so he slowly turned in the direction. He was too thirsty to ignore it. Silver Claw emerged from the foliage and saw the crystal clear water twinkling in the sunlight. He sniffed the air and then began to drink. He staggered a few times and but managed to keep his balance. As he turned into the jungle to head to the camp again, dizziness overcame him and he fell into a cluster of dry roots. They broke and he found himself in an underground tunnel. His eyes closed and he began to sleep…

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Kari opened her eyes and yawned. She looked at Cassandra and showed her teeth. This human was nothing like those described by her elders. If all humans were like her, she would rather live with them than with her own kind. Maybe the human lover was on to something when he chose to be with his human. Maybe it was just the females that were kind and maybe it was the males that were described in those stories. It didn't matter anyway. Kari shrugged it off and slowly slipped out from underneath Cassandra.

She stirred slightly but did not wake. Kari quietly walked out the door and headed down the tunnel. It crept her out that she could see the water around her but the material had lasted this long, it should last for a while yet, she hoped. At last Kari reached the ladder leading out of the tunnel and looked up. The hatch on the top was still open. With one look back, she began to climb. It was painstakingly long with several times that it seemed that she was going to fall but finally she peered out of the top. The building was clear so she crawled out.

Birds sang songs of joy and songs of sorrow. The wind rustled the leaves in the trees and rippled the surface of the water. Kari squinted as she stepped into the light and had to wait as her eyes adjusted to the difference. Soon she could see however and as with the building, the area was clear around her. Several leaves swirled and then sank to the ground near the jungle's edge but not much else moved.

Kari licked her parched lips and headed to the jungle. She knew better than to drink the water from the channels close to the sea. There had to be a stream nearby anyway so she moved silently as she passed the first trees of the darkened boarder of the jungle. If she found some food, she would eat her fill and take Cassandra some. Hopefully she would eat it.

The idea of Cassandra being a kind of adopted daughter entered Kari's mind again and made her show her teeth. It was a pleasant thought, having a daughter even if it wasn't one of the same species. It would only get harder to return her to her own kind as time went on however and Kari knew she would probably miss Cassandra's company. First things first however and that was their survival.

It did not take long before Kari could hear the gurgling of a stream and quickened her pace. A splash up ahead however made her freeze. It could be just a fish but then again, it could be another predator or prey. She heard no more sounds and proceeded cautiously, sniffing the air quietly for any hint of danger. She smelt the flowering plants but nothing else.

Kari stopped. The stream lay just beyond the bushes ahead of her. She sniffed the air once more but could smell nothing out of the ordinary and there were no sounds that would make her cautious of her surrounding so she slowly peered through the foliage. The stream was clear and calm save the odd ripple. On either side were muddy banks that glistened in the light. A flash of silver caught her eye. A fish lay flailing on the shore near a small cluster of rocks.

Instinct took over and pounced. The fish wriggled between her teeth but soon she had it chewed up and the movement was nearly gone. She tossed back her head and swallowed the fish whole. It was not like other, larger creatures where she could not digest the bones so she felt it was alright just to eat it as it was. A twinkle across the bank however made her realize what a mistake it had been to pounce on the fish. Slowly filling with water, a footprint, appearing to be that of a raptor, sat on the shore opposite. It was only minutes old and then she heard the rustling.

Kari turned to see a large male raptor leap out of the bushes beside her. It had dark blue scales, a red stripe going from head to tail, over a dozen feathers atop its head, and a pair of crimson eyes fixated on her. Before Kari could react however, a second raptor jumped out. It was a female with peppered white hide, a dark ridge and amber eyes.

Instinctively, Kari bowed her head in submission hoping that they would not kill her. She looked back and forth, there was no where to run and no where to hide. She could not fight off two raptors on her own, not when the got the jump on her. There was nothing she could do but wait. She dared not speak incase they attacker her because of it and she had to get back to Cassandra soon before she awoke.

"Who are you?" The male said raising his feathers in dominance over the submissive female. He waited a moment and stepped forward slightly with his claws ready to leap at a moments notice.

"K-K-Kari," she managed to say, "Please don't kill me." Kari stepped into the stream so that she was not closer to one than the other incase one of them made the first move.

"What are you doing here?" the male asked. He eased up upon hearing her frightened tone.

"Hunting and getting some water," Kari spoke quickly. Her eyes darted between the two and also the jungle to see if there were more in hiding of if there was any sort of path she might escape by.

"Are you by yourself?" This time the female asked the question. Her voice was soft and pleasant to hear but just as easily misleading. The female tensed her legs slightly and looked around warily as if unsure of her surroundings.

Kari didn't want to answer because she knew both answers made more problems than solutions. She decided she should find out if they were going to be hostile, "maybe. What are your names and what are you doing in my new home?"

"Your new home," the male said in near shock. "This land belongs to our pack, who are you to lay claim to it." He stepped forward menacingly but stopped short of a full out assault.

"I am Sunayana and this is my mate Blaze," the female said in a more forgiving tone than the male. "This is our pack's territory so why are you here."

"Well," Kari swallowed slightly, "Sunayana, I've left my pack and came north looking for a new home, maybe a new pack if they would be willing to accept myself and one other." Kari knew she was taking a risk when she said it but she didn't know how to deal with other raptor packs and she knew it may be the death of her.

"One other you say," Sunayana looked around. She took two large steps forward and with her snout only centimeters from Kari's side, she sniffed, taking in any scents that clung to her, "Another female? Is she from your old pack as well?"

"Yes," Kari said, "and no, she isn't exactly from my pack. I'm not going to show you where she is though until I know you won't harm her. She's my daughter."

"Your daughter," Sunayana said softly, "I can understand that. It seemed you're quite the fighter by the number of scars on your back and sides." Sunayana circled around until she stood by Blaze and gently touched her tail to his.

"No, those are from the males of my pack trying to forcefully mate with me." Kari moved away from the two raptors slightly, they gave her a chance but she wasn't going to take it just yet. "Why are you here, I don't think I've seen you around. Were you the ones that killed the humans?"

"Humans," Sunayana questioned. "There were humans here?" She lifted her head and sniffed the air more heavily than before. "I smell nothing that would make me think there were."

"There are some buildings nearby that I found them in, or at least were in." Kari hoped they would not go investigate if she told them that the humans were dead. "I believe they were all killed. I looked for the bodies this morning however and they were gone."

"Could you show us where these buildings are?" Blaze asked. He saw the hesitation however as Kari tried to come up with an answer. "Your daughter is there isn't she?"

"No," Kari said quickly and loudly. "She most certainly is not. Those human buildings are dangerous and she could get hurt in one of them." Kari felt as if she should run now and try to loose them before heading back to the buildings and getting Cassandra out of there.

"We should still check it out anyway incase there are more humans there," Blaze said. He started to turn slightly and then noticed the tension in Kari as she watched him.

"What are you going to do with the humans if you find any," Kari quickly in hopes of delaying them. "Are you just going to kill them?" Suddenly several birds flew overhead chasing a larger bird, the sounds they made were atrocious and loud. Kari dared not look up as she saw the two raptors before her look up.

"Not unless a human attacks us first," Sunayana said. "We understand humans better than you could possible know. We know what they respond to and what they'll do more than likely. I don't feel like killing any of them even if they attack me first." Sunayana looked down. "You probably would though."

Kari snarled and raised her claws instinctively but then realized that she was making herself appear more of a threat than anything else. She quickly backed down and lowered her head again. She knew full well that she now looked suspicious of hiding something.

Then the sound came that made Kari's heart sink. "Where are you? Where did you go?" The words spoken in the human language drifted through the air directed to Kari but unbeknownst to Cassandra other predators were lurking about…