Jurassic World: Apocalypse – Chapter 24: Danger in the Bug House
A/N: Yes, in this chapter, we will actually go INTO the Bug House for the first time and let's hope those Suchomimus are too big to follow! Oops, that might have been a potential spoiler...um, change subject! We'll also see Claire and Owen head to the northern region of the island as they try to track down Zach and Gray, but they'll run into a lot more than a couple of teenaged boys! Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.
People busted through the unlocked doors into the Bug House. Billy and Cheryl hurried along with the crowd, knowing the Suchomimus wouldn't be far behind. Upon entering the Bug House, they found themselves in a simulated tropical swamp meant to reflect the lush, swampy forests of the Carboniferous. Rays of sunshine glowed through the glass canopy, causing tropical plants to thrive here – this place was essentially a swampy greenhouse. Giant arthropods lived out their lives in here, and people could view them upon the catwalk that meandered through the enclosure. At present, dozens of large dragonflies with 2 ½-foot wingspans could be seen zipping about on their translucent wings. But the droves of terrified tourists were not interested in seeing giant insects today and most of them fled toward the back exit.
Cheryl and Billy tried to race along with the crowd before they were rudely knocked aside by a large man. The two of them crashed through the wooden railing and they fell into the exhibit itself, landing on the muddy ground.
"There are too many people up there," Cheryl said.
Billy nodded. "Yeah. We'll wait until most of them have left before we go back up."
"And it looks like we aren't the only ones that couldn't stay on the path."
Further down the catwalk, several people were dropping off – either on purpose or incidentally – because they couldn't handle the crowd. All of a sudden, a loud roar sounded from the entrance to the Bug House as the smaller of the two Suchomimus burst inside, knocking down the doors, shattering glass in the nearby windows and damaging the archway. It growled and briskly followed the few remaining people as they ran onto the catwalk. The second Suchomimus was more cautious and took time to sniff the air before entering the building. As the first Suchomimus reached the catwalk, it didn't even pause to consider whether or not the wooden structure could support its weight. It couldn't. The first several segments of catwalk collapsed beneath the weight of the dinosaur. The Suchomimus fell to the ground below with a thud; as it was only a short distance down, it was uninjured.
Billy helped Cheryl to her feet. "Come on," he said. "We've got to hide."
"Can't we try to get to the exit?"
"No time! Let's go!"
Quickly, Billy and Cheryl ran toward the thicker vegetation, hoping they could conceal themselves from the carnivorous dinosaurs. The larger Suchomimus was more careful when it walked into the exhibit; standing alongside the smaller individual, it made a low grunt. They both scanned the area, looking for humans that might be hiding nearby. Billy and Cheryl found a hiding place at the base of a large tree that was surrounded by large ferns. Crouching in the ferns, the two of them were nearly invisible. It's not their sight that I'm worried about, Billy thought.
"Can they sniff us out?" Cheryl whispered.
"Maybe, but maybe the scents around the rest of the enclosure will lure them instead."
A dragonfly buzzed past the larger dinosaur. The Suchomimus snapped at the insect out of irritation. It growled and both it and its partner began to patrol the area, looking for suitable prey. Cheryl watched as a trio of dragonflies exited the Bug House via the open doors by the entrance. There's no telling where they'll go once they're out, she thought. Clutching her boyfriend tightly, she listened to the eerie silence of the enclosure. With the mob of fleeing tourists gone, the only sounds heard was the trickle of water from the ponds and puddles scattered around the Bug House, the drone of dragonflies in flight and the sloshing of large theropod feet as they walked upon the soggy ground.
Billy hugged his girlfriend tightly and kissed her on the cheek. "Don't worry, we'll be fine."
Cheryl stuttered, "I-I...hope so. It's just so—oh my gosh...!" Cheryl's eyes grew large and her heart rate increased dramatically when she saw a creature scuttle out from underneath a log. It was no dinosaur – not even a reptile – and had eight legs expending out of the sides of its body, a large hairy abdomen and possessed a pair of pincers at the front of the head. "It's...it's...it's a–" Billy covered her mouth to stop her from screaming. As with many women, she was arachnophobic – afraid of spiders. But this spider was unlike any spider either of them had seen before: it was about three feet in diameter! Even Billy was tempted to sight at the sight of the creepy crawly, but he knew that would alert the spinosaurs hunting nearby. They couldn't even leave their hiding spot in fear of being found.
"I know you hate spiders," Billy whispered, "but we've got to be really quiet, OK?"
Cheryl nodded, but Billy refused to uncover her mouth. They sat very still as the giant spider continued to get closer to them. It wasn't trying to attack them, but if they alerted the arachnid in anyway, it would likely try to defend itself with its pincers. Finally, the spider reached the trembling young adults; it began to crawl up Cheryl's leg...
Zipping through the jungle was Owen on his motorcycle. Seated directly behind him was Claire. The two of them had left the forest near the East Dock and traveled north until they reached the perimeter fence. After that they traveled westward, following the once-electrified fence. Claire thought Zach and Gray might have wanted to ride the gyrospheres sometime during their visit, so perhaps Gyrosphere Valley is where they would find them.
"See any sign of my nephews yet?" Claire asked, still somewhat frantic.
"I'm looking, Claire," Owen told her. "I'm looking. You'll know when I see them."
"There's the breakage again."
Owen pulled to a sudden stop upon reaching the spot where the Indominus rex had barged through when attacking the gyrosphere Tom, Alaina and Brianna were in. How did she manage to get through that fence? Owen thought. "You think your nephews would go in there?"
"Maybe."
Shrugging, Owen went over the crumbled barrier of what remained of that section of fence and rode into the island's restricted area. The sounds of the jungle were all around them. Owen slowed his pace down a little bit, hoping to catch a sign of any activity. Suddenly, the foliage rustled to reveal that a large animal was approaching. Owen stopped.
"I wonder what that is," he said quietly.
"Well don't stop! Get us out of here!"
"Hold on." Owen got out his EMD and held it out in front of him, just in case.
A few seconds later, the large armored body of an Ankylosaurus ambled into view. Owen smiled when he saw the creature, glad it wasn't a predator.
"I guess the herbivores are happy to have escaped too," Owen said.
"There's another one over there."
Another Ankylosaurus was seen browsing on some low-growing vegetation nearby. Despite the number of dangerous carnivores that had escaped containment so far, the Ankylosaurus seemed like they couldn't care less. The animals just fed peacefully, oblivious to any nearby danger. Not that they had much to fear from predators...at least, that's what Owen thought. In his peripheral vision, he saw a third Ankylosaurus lying on its side, its head twisted in an odd angle. Something wasn't right. He got off the motorcycle and began walking towards it.
"What are you doing?" Claire snapped.
"I'm just checking on this anky over...here...oh my gosh."
"What happened?"
"You'd better come see."
Claire quickly followed Owen and saw that this third anky was dead. There was only one culprit capable of killing such a well-armored beast.
"The Indominus," Owen breathed. "Even T. rex incapable of killing an ankylosaur. But that hybrid simply annihilated this guy...and it didn't eat him."
"Hey, it's another gyrosphere over there."
To their right was the fractured remains of yet another gyrosphere. This one appeared to have been smashed against the ground several times, unlike the first one the ACU soldiers found earlier. The glass around the top was completely shattered and scattered all around the ground. Then, Claire spotted a cellphone lying on the ground near the totaled gyrosphere. She picked it up and turned it on.
"Oh no...Gray and Zach were in this gyrosphere."
"How do you know?" Owen asked.
"This is Zach's phone. I got him this for his birthday. Do you think they–"
Owen whistled to get Claire's attention before pointing to three sets of footprints leading away from the gyrosphere – two were clearly human, the other was from the I. rex. "The I. rex didn't kill them."
"But we don't know if the I. rex got them after they ran away."
"The I. rex's tracks don't follow the boy's for long. The animal stopped here and that's where this set of tracks comes into play." Owen indicated yet another set of tracks, this one of an herbivorous dinosaur. "Definitely Ankylosaurus. Considering it appears to kill for fun rather than for food most of the time, I suspect the Indominus found the Ankylosaurus more of a challenge than two scrawny boys, or maybe the anky saw the theropod as a threat and attacked to defend itself. In any case, the I. rex stopped chasing the boys to fight the anky and eventually killing it. By that time, it appears the boys made it this way."
He and Claire followed the tracks for another 100 feet or so until they faded into a patch of grass in a clearing.
"The tracks are gone!" Claire began to panic. "ZACH! GRAY!"
"SHH!"
"Don't you shush me! I'm not one of your animals!"
"Listen! Your nephews are still alive, OK? But you and I will not be if you continue to scream like that."
Claire took a few deep breaths. "OK...OK...I'm calm. So you can pick up their scent, can't you?"
Owen sighed. "I worked with the Navy, not the Navajo."
"Then how are we going to find them? What do you suggest we do?"
Owen didn't like this. He might have had a crush on Claire since the day he met her, but he didn't want her following him around out here in this dense jungle with carnivorous dinosaurs on the loose. He made up his mind. "We're not doing anything. You're going to go back to the Control Room. I'll find the kids."
"No, I'm going with you." Claire was determined.
"You'll last two minutes out here. Less in those ridiculous high heels."
Claire proceeded to remove her outer coat and folded the sleeves around her waist. Then she rolled the sleeves of the shirt she was wearing up to her elbows. She placed her hands on her hips.
"And...what's that supposed to mean?" Owen asked.
"It means I'm ready to go."
Owen groaned. Apparently, he wasn't going to get Claire off his shoulders no matter how hard he tried. He was going to comment on how she still hadn't taken off her high heels when he instead said, "OK, fine. But let's just get one thing straight. Out here, I'm in charge. You do everything I saw, exactly as I say it."
Claire raised her eyes brows. "Excuse me?"
Owen glanced around the clearing, looking for familiar landmarks. He saw none. "Do you know where we are?"
"I think we're near Dr. Sorkin's Field Lab. Do you think my nephews went there?"
"There's a high possibility of that. Let's go get my motorcycle and ride over there." Owen glanced at his watch: 2:50 p.m. "I hope we find them soon, because we don't want to be out in these jungles when it gets dark."
The spider's first pair of legs touched Cheryl's before it began making its way up. Cheryl was on the verge of screaming, but Billy had to make sure she didn't. Even causing the spider to react might attract the dinosaur's attention.
Come on, Cheryl, Billy thought. Try to keep quiet as long as you–
"AHHH!"
The scream didn't come from Cheryl, but from a man hiding nearby. The spider dropped off of Cheryl's leg and scuttled away, much to Cheryl's relief. The Suchomimus looked up to see a heavyset man running out of the bushes. "SPIDER!" he exclaimed.
The larger Suchomimus roared and thundered after him. The man saw the threat and instantly ran into pond closest to him and dove under; he probably hoped the murky swamp water would conceal him from both the sense of smell and sight of these carnivorous dinosaurs. The Suchomimus quickly reached the pond and dove his crocodile-like snout into the water. It shook its head from side to side, sensing for movement. The smaller Suchomimus ceased its hunt to watch the attack.
"Now's our chance!" Billy whispered.
He released Cheryl and the two of them darted as quietly as they could toward the exit. An ear-piercing cry came from the pond. Billy and Cheryl stopped and turned to see the Suchomimus lift its head from the water – clenched in its jaws was the man it was after. The man, held up by his right leg continued to scream as the dinosaur took its hand claws and sliced into his body. Blood streamed from the man as the Suchomimus inflicted him again and again with its claws. The pain must have been excruciating.
Billy said, "Poor guy."
Then Cheryl turned around and gave a scream of her own. Billy looked in the same direction she was turned and saw that the other Suchomimus was coming towards them, jaws open and claws held forward. Billy looked at the exit and nodded. "This way!"
Cheryl and Billy ran through the exhibit with the large fish-eating dinosaur on their tails. At this point they were only a 30 feet or so from salvation, but before they could exit the building, they'd have to climb the ladder that led back up to the catwalk. Would there be enough time to escape? Billy risked a glance behind and saw the Suchomimus bearing down on them! "We're goners!"
"Billy! What is that?" Cheryl asked.
The two of them came to a sudden stop as a peculiar creature rose up in front of them – it was a giant centipede over 10 feet long! Rearing up, it was tall enough to look a man right in the eye. Billy and Cheryl ran around the multi-legged arthropod. The Suchomimus stopped only for a moment to snap at the centipede, who quickly crawled away from the giant dinosaur. Then the dinosaur was back to its pursuit of the humans. Its enormous shadow loomed over them as it prepared to lunge forward.
"We're not gonna make it, Billy!" Cheryl exclaimed.
"I know!"
Suddenly, a bolt of electricity hit the dinosaur in the shoulders. It stopped and turned to face several uniformed men with EMD's! The Suchomimus roared in surprise and started to move toward the new threat.
"Fire!" one of the men called.
The men fired at will and the dinosaur was hit with shock after shock. Finally, the Suchomimus collapsed to the ground, knocked out cold. The larger Suchomimus was also shot down and fell on the pondbank.
One of the uniformed men approached Billy and Cheryl. He smiled and said, "Hi, I'm Roger, commander of Jurassic World's Asset Containment Unit. Are you two OK?"
"Barely," Billy admitted. "We're a bit shaken up, but we're alive."
Cheryl cast her sights on the downed Suchomimus. "Did you guys kill them?"
"Nah," Roger answered. "We just knocked 'em out. We don't like to kill our dinosaurs here." Roger turned to the other troopers. "Scout the Bug House for any survivors," he ordered.
Another trooper named Meyers approached. "We're also looking for two people by the name of Cheryl Logan and Billy Brennan, have you two seen them?"
"Actually," Billy said, "that's us."
"That makes our job easy then. We're to get you both to the Jurassic World Control Room immediately."
"I wouldn't mind leaving this exhibit," Cheryl said. "It's creeping me out." She was eying the large centipede resting nearby.
"Oh you don't have to worry about the Arthropleura," Roger confirmed. "They're completely herbivorous."
The Arthropleura clicked its pincers before it began moving back into the underbrush.
"What about the giant spiders?" Billy asked.
"They're generally harmless. I mean, they can give you a nasty wallop, but only if you frighten them."
"Nevertheless," Cheryl added, "I'd like to get out of here. Bugs still creep me out."
Owen pulled to a stop when they saw the helipad outside of the Field Lab. A helicopter had landed on the pad, but it didn't appear anyone was around. Without hesitation, he and Claire got off and walked toward the field lab.
"Isn't that the helicopter D-Caf's flies?" Claire asked.
"Yeah," Owen said. "Maybe everyone went into the field lab."
"Dr. Sorkin? Dr. Sorkin?"
No reply. The garage door to the field lab was open, and no one was present inside. Owen began to grow wary and held his gun close. He looked around the room, eying the chemical bottles, chalk board and the large table in the center of the room. It doesn't look like anyone left in a hurry, he thought. I wonder where everyone went.
Claire groaned. "Where are they? Dr. Sorkin? Where are you?"
"I don't think she's here. Maybe she's with the parasaurs."
Not having any better ideas, the two of them left the lab and found a disturbing surprise laying on the ground about halfway between the Parasaurolophus paddock and the lab; lying in a pool of blood was the body of a man. His stomach contents and liver had been gruesomely torn out and consumed, with remnants scattered around his body on the ground. The neck had been gnawed and was probably broken. Aside from the abdominal region and the neck, the body was fairly intact – this made sense because the park's other small carnivores hadn't found the body yet and there were no other scavenging creatures on Isla Nublar.
Claire grimaced and looked away. "I've seen enough dead bodies today. Who is it?"
"It's not the boys," Owen summarized. "It looks like...David Banks."
"David Banks? Dr. Sorkin's assistant?"
"Yeah, and I. rex definitely didn't kill him. She would have eaten him whole. Raptors did this."
Claire's eyes widened. "Raptors? You mean to tell me they left their paddock got past the perimeter fence and all the way this far north?"
"We don't know when they escaped. Raptors can cross this entire island really quick–"
The jungle released the sound of a guttural hiss and Claire and Owen went on high alert. They looked around, only to find no sign of a living creature on the approach. But there was something definitely in the area, and this time, it was no Ankylosaurus! A moment later, a raptor appeared at the edge of the clearing, giving off a loud snarl.
"Oh no!" Claire breathed.
Standing ten feet tall, this was the park's Utahraptor. She stalked out of the jungle, lightly tapping the nine-inch sickle-shaped talon on her right foot on the ground. She hissed again and continued to slowly approach Claire and Owen.
"Just stay calm," Owen told Claire. "She doesn't want us."
"She sure looks like she does."
"No, she wants the carcass. I've worked with raptors, trust me. If she wanted to kill us, she'd charge."
"Then what should we do?"
"Slowly back up."
Claire and Owen began to move away from David's corpse, but the raptor kept a wary on upon them. As soon as they reached a sufficient distance away however, the Utahraptor darted forward and leaped onto the dead man. She aggressively tore into the flesh that remained, and swallowed it down.
"See? This is just like a stroll through the woods," Owen said with confidence. "Cretaceous woods, anyway. Come on, let's go see if Dr. Sorkin is with the parasaurs."
They left the Utahraptor to her lunch and found another surprise at the parasaur paddock. The doors that led into the paddock had been opened, the water tower had been brought down, making the entire area soggy and wet, and an entire rear section of wall had been crashed through by something large. Three-toed footprints littered the scene as well.
"Dr. Sorkin was definitely here when this happened," Owen concluded, "and I think we know what caused all this damage."
A raspy roar came from nearby, followed by a loud banging sound. The banging sound came again, and again, and again. Both Claire and Owen knew that must have been the Indominus rex, and she was close. Without words, they crept toward the gap in the fence and peaked around the edge. They eyed the giant predator standing in front of a maintenance tunnel, which was closed off. Indominus rex bellowed as she continued to pound on the heavy door. Whatever was in there must have been something she wanted badly.
"I bet we've found Dr. Sorkin," Owen said, "and maybe your nephews too."
A/N: How did you all like the Utahraptor cameo in this chapter? She probably will never be one of this story's main dinosaurs, but she'll make a few appearances here and there. And of course, we also had the conclusion to that Suchomimus scene in the Bug House. How did you all like the Bug House anyway? I thought it would be a nice addition to the park. After all, who doesn't like a bunch of giant centipedes, dragonflies and Carboniferous arachnids anyway? Until I publish the next chapter, please be sure to favorite, follow and review on this story and I'll see you all soon! Spare no expense!