Australia

She couldn't remember anything from her life. Not her name, not her age, not her past, not even how she came to wake up in a giant desert. She probably wouldn't have even remembered what she looked like if she hadn't found a small pound to show her reflection when she first woke to a land of nothingness. She only remembered some basics of the civilization she came from. All she truly remembered from her past was the pain...the unbearable pain that racked every fiber of her being, screaming for it to end. She would wake in the middle of night sometimes, screaming bloody murder as she believed what felt like hundreds of large firey hot spikes shoot through her abdomen, chest, and leg. Each spike piercing straight through to the other side of her body...but she was always thankful that it was a dream.

Now, at midday, she stared into the very pound that reminded her what she looked like two years ago. Her wavy brown hair lay stagnant on her shoulders as she scanned over her own features with her deep blue eyes. She appeared sad to herself. Sad because the place she now called home was being destroyed by the people digging an extremely large hole in the ground. She watched them every day, undetected, hoping they would just pack up and leave to go back where ever they came from. It probably was a place similar to where she had once come from too.

She often thought about asking the digging people to take her back to the place where they came from, but each time she rememinded herself that the barren land she adapted to was her home now, despite her hate for it. Besides, she always felt like if she went back to their civilization that something major in her life would be missing. Something that being surrounded by loads of people would only make it worst. Not something in her new home; no, it was something that her heart craved and ached for each and everyday that she had left behind in her previous life, but she could never recall what that something was. A person perhaps? Maybe...

"I don't know." The woman finally sighed, taking a seat at the pound's edge. "I just wish I knew something." She laid down with her bare feet in the water. "I've been out here in solitude for two years going on three now. I've had to wear and wash the same shirt, bra, and shorts this whole time. I've had to survive off snakes, bugs, kangaroos, and this pound. And on top of that I still don't remember my name. I need someone to come and save me from this absolution of a depressing life." The woman got up and traveled the short mile to her humble abode that was a structure of rocks which formed a small cave-like indention for her to sleep in. "I need someone to come and pull me out of this hell hole of a home. Someone who actually may want to help me remember who I am." She kicked a stone across the dusty ground. She huffed in aggravation of always being alone and lonely. She placed her hands over her constantly aching heart. "Even if someone did come and get me, I dobut they could fix this hurt and longing in my heart anyway...so what's the point of even leaving here."

XXXXXX

"Are you ready?" The question didn't really need an answer because Daren was leaving no matter what, but he asked as a curtesy to everyone.

"Yep." Jonah responded.

"Ready." Kevin replied

"Set to go." Jessica nodded.

"I'm ready." Sam answered.

"Alright, good. See you on the ground." Daren shouted as he jumped backwards off the cargo plane. Samantha, doing skydiving for a hobby, jumped next. Kevin stepped on the edge of the platform and started to have second thoughts.

"Why of all things did he pick skydiving to sneak in unnoticed." Kevin whined.

"Need help?" Jonah asked. Kevin nodded. Without warning, Jonah shoved Kevin into the open space of the sky.

"Thank yoooou." Kevin shouted as he fell towards the ground.

"Just don't forget to pull the cord!" Jonah shouted between chuckles. He looked at Jessica who was wide-eyed in shock. "Want me to push you too?" He offered.

"Please?" Jessica positioned herself on the edge of the platform. Jonah gave her a slight nudge, but she didn't move. He tried again with the same results. Jessica had gripped onto the sides of the open bay door. With a hardy shove from his foot on her back, Jessica went flailing into the open sky.

Jonah shook his head as he watched her fall before taking his leap out of the plane. "WOOHOOOOO!" He shouted as he spun rapidly towards the ground.

Daren tapped his foot as he waited for everyone to meet up at the agreed upon location. He, Sam, and Kevin were already there. Only Jessica and Jonah were left now. After another two minutes of waitng, Jonah came floating down to earth under his parachute, directly on the spot the group was waiting.

"We gotta do that again sometime." Jonah said in excitement.

"Where's Jessica?" Daren sounded like he was losing patience.

"She jumped before me. She should have got here atleast a minute ago." Jonah replied.

"Help! Someone! Please!" Everyone could faintly hear Jessica's voice calling out.

"She's this way." Kevin pointed, leading the way to her.

"Anyone! Some help please!" Jessica whined. It took two more minutes to find her hanging by her parachute from the high branch of a tree, and an additional three minutes for Jonah to climb the tree and cut her down. She landed flat on her bottom with a thump.

"Let's move. We're burning daylight." Daren adjusted his backpack and marched into the bramble of dried trees and bushes. The group all followed him. "We're going to set up base camp five miles from Larry's dig site so we're close enough to observe, but not be detected." Daren seemed much more tactful and sharp than his usually self. His tone was stale, and body motions stiff.

"What about the dinosaurs? They can't stay on the plane the whole time." Jessica sounded worried for them. She had grown even more accustomed to the ancient animals in the short time Daren was out of comission. Especially since he was out cold for an additional week after seeing the picture of what was suppose to be Sarah.

"The plane will land on a nearby private runway strip and the dinosaurs will track us to the camp from there." Daren explained. "Cipher's nose will pick up our scent, and they'll be at the base camp by nightfall...Sorry we couldn't bring Sasha, but she doesn't have enough training yet." Daren directly addressed the last part of his statement to Jessica.

"It's fine. I doubt we could fit in the plane with a T-rex, a pachycephalosaur, two raptors, and a baryonyx anyway." Jessica said. Daren just nodded his agreement. The next 20 minutes of walking were silent after that. The group pretty much kept to themselves. Daren stopped walking every now and again to check a map to make sure they were heading in the correct direction. When the sun was beginning to set is when Daren fianlly stopped in a loctaion where there was a large open area surrounded on all sides by dry trees and shrubs.

"Here." Daren dropped his backpack and started taking out parts to assemble a camping tent. "This is where we'll be sleeping for tonight. You might want to turn in soon cause we're going to be getting up really early."

"Can't we eat something first? I'm starving." Jessica's stomach growled loudly in agreement. Her face turned scarlet. Kevin, Jonah, and Sam burst into laughter at the same time. Daren, however, continued to construct his tent, unphased. When he didn't even give the slightest of chuckles, his companions began to really worry about him.

"If you want to make something to eat make, we're going to need a fire." Daren said. At that moment, Cipher poked his head through the barricade of trees into the camp. He gave a low growl, signaling the other dinosaurs it was ok to enter. The two birds of prey, and the pachychephalosaur trotted into the open area to happily greet their partners followed shortly by Cipher himself. He just laid down next to Daren, who had just finished constructing his tent. Daren hurridly gathered some fallen limbs from the surrounding trees and placed them in the middle of the area. "Light it up, Cipherdias, please and thank you." Daren requested of his partner. The T-rex simply inhaled a bit and then huffed with great force. The result was a stream of flame shooting from his nostrils to the pile of dried branches, lighting them ablaze. Daren nodded approvingly to the rex and then retreated to the confines of his tent.

"He must be really on edge." Sam noticed. She was finishing the construction of her tent.

"It's probably because this whole Sarah thing has got him this way." Kevin said as he finished setting his tent up as well. He pulled out a pot from his pack, and a stand so it could go over the fire to cook food. He set it up over the fire, with much distraction from Vector bouncing all around him.

Jonah sighed as he took a seat in front of the campfire. He poured water from a canteen into the pot. "It's my fault he's like this. I showed him the picture. Who knows, I'm probably wrong. Sarah might not be here. It could've been someone totally different." Pach, the new decided name of his partner, gave Jonah a reasuring nuzzle.

"Don't fault yourself Jonah." Kevin encouraged. "You're hardly ever wrong when you use your technology."

"I guess." Jonah shrugged as he pulled a cord on a small plastic container he took from his cargo pocket. He threw it over his shoulder, and as soon as it hit the ground a fully constructed tent popped into being from the container.

"Maybe once this mission is over, we can search thuroughly for Sarah." Sam yawned.

"Then we'll finally be able to meet the brains and beauty behind the whole Research Jurassic Park idea." Jessica yawned.

"I think I'm turning in for tonight." Sam spoke through another yawned.

"I might be joining you soon." Jessica agreed. "But I still want to eat first."

Sam looked around the camp site curiously. "Aren't you going to make your tent before you eat?"

"Oh, well...um...I'm sleeping in the same tent as Kevin." Jessica smiled sheepishly. Sam's jaw dropped. "Not like that! I swear!" Kevin's face reddened as the the implication sunk into his mind. He would normally interject at this point to dispell any bad thoughts, but he learned it was best to let Sam and Jessica have their disputes.

"Just...just..." Sam was pretty upset. She and Jessica knew sleeping in such close contact with a guy was likely to set her little nympho side off, which would then become a whole new problem for the entire team. "Just don't break your promise you little...little...argh!" Was all Sam was able to say before retreating into her tent for the night. Pod quickly stationed himself in a sleeping position in front of her tent opening.

"What was that about?" Jonah inquired while dropping noodles and some herbs into the boiling pot of water.

"N...nothing. It was about nothing." Jessica blushed furiously.

Midnight, on the dot, Daren roused from his sleep and left his tent. The fire was beginning to dim, but Jonah and Kevin were still sitting around it.

"Couldn't sleep?" Kevin asked? Daren nodded.

"Us too." Jonah huffed. Daren sat across from them and stared into the dying firing. No one spoke for a while.

"Dude...what's up?" Kevin interrogated. "You've been like this since you woke up a couple of days ago. What's going through your head?"

"I..." Daren sighed. "I don't know."

"Bull-Shit." Kevin accused. "Is this because of that picture Jonah showed you?" Daren kept quiet and contiuned to stare into the fire. Kevin had his answer.

"Daren, I can't possibly imagine how you feel at the moment," Jonah began, "but right now we need you to focus on the mission."

"I know." Daren responded, looking up from the fire. "It's just...she might be out here...somewhere."

"I promise you, if she is, we will find her." Jonah reasured. "Cause she was...she is my friend too, and I do miss her."

"And the photo was taken near Larry's digsite, so she is probably close by." Kevin pointed out.

A smile tugged at Daren's lips. "Yeah, you're right. She was nearby which means she should be close by us too." A little excitement began to trill into Daren's voice.

"Don't get too excited just yet." Jonah warned. "We still have a mission to complete before we can go searching for her."

"But once we're done we can devote our efforts to finding her." Daren felt slightly better now. He still wasn't his old self, but now atleast he was better than he had been before.

"Daren."

"You guys hear that?" Daren turned his head to check the surroundings, but everything was extremely dark.

"Hear what?" Jonah raised an eyebrow.

"It sounded like someone said my name." Daren peered into the empty black area he believed the sound had come from.

"It was probably just your imagination." Kevin offered.

XXXXXX

She watched them from her hiding spot in the bushes. She wastched them for a while just sit and talk. Their campfire had drawn her interest in the dark. Not mush was visible in the dark except for what the dying fire illuminated which was only the two males near the fire. She wanted to approach them and join their conversation. She wanted to tell them about her situation and ask for their help, but fear kept her at bay. They didn't appear to be with the group digging the giant hole, though. They seemed much more friendly, more somber as well, but still very friendly. One of them, the taller one, seemed so familiar. Like she had seen him before.

After a while the woman decided she should probably leave since the males weren't doing anything interesting. She couldn't hear their conversations very well anyway. She was getting up from her crouched position when another figure, a male, entered the fire's illumination. She couldn't see his face, just his back. Her interest had been piqued again. She stealthily navigated her way through the thick shrubs and trees to get a better view of the newcomer. When she finally found a good position she was able to see all the faces of the men. An involuntary gasped escaped her when her eyes fell upon the new person's face. For some reason her heart fluttered with delight, quickening her heartbeat, and her palms began to sweat. A flash of broken memories rushed through her mind; all of them were brief flashes of the newcomer's face and nothing else. All of them were unbelievably vivid in detail. A word involuntarily escaped her mouth.

"Daren." She spoke in a soft voice with an affection she didn't quite understand fully. Was that the man's name? Cause apparently she had spoken it loud enough to grab his attention. "Damn it!" The woman cuursed under her breath. Her hand shot to her mouth to keep it closed.

"You guys hear that?" He was scanning the area for the source of the sound.

"Hear what?" The taller of the two guys across from him asked.

"It sounded like someone said my name." The guy that was now obviously was Daren seemed to be staring directly at the woman, but she knew it was too dark for him to see her. As long as she didn't make anymore sounds or movements he wouldn't find her.

"It was probably just your imagination." The shorter man said.

"Maybe." Daren started to move towards the woman's hiding spot.

"Oh no." The woman begin to slowly back away from the campsite. If she ran they would definitely hear her and pursue. All was going well. She was easing her way out of ear shot, but something caught her right foot on a step back. She fell butt first onto dried branches. The snapping sounds were loud enough to get all three men's attention. "Shit." She cursed. She could see Daren hurrying to her location. He drew a combat knife from a sheath on his boot. She tried to stand and run, but was forced to her knees when pain shot through her right ankle when she put weight on it. "Shit." She cursed again, holding her ankle in agony. She must have twisted it when she fell. She wouldn't be able to get away fast enough now. She was crippled, and Daren was only a few yards away. "I'm going to die." The woman whispered to herself in tears. She closed her eyes and awaited her fate.

AN: Here's an update. Next chapter the dinosaur that's benig dug up will be revealed...and probably wreak some havoc in the capital of Australia. Yay haovc!