Jurassic World: Apocalypse – Chapter 28: Love in the Time of the Pterosaurs
A/N: First, I apologize for publishing this chapter late. I was busy finishing up my Nanowrimo novel over the past week and was not able to write another chapter of this story. Well, I have finished my novel, so I can continue to write and publish chapters for this story! I know a lot of you were really looking forward to me continuing the story. Here is another action-packed chapter with tons of chaos and near-death instances. Who will be the heroes? You'll have to read to find out! Please enjoy!
PS. One of my readers asked when we would see the JurassiQuest characters again. My answer? Soon. Very, very soon! Stay tuned!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Jurassic Park except the very characters I've made up.
Owen quickly sliced through the jungle on his motorcycle, now carrying an additional passenger. They had to reach Main Street fast or else chaos would break loose. Over 20,000 people would be overtaken by a flock of hyper-aggressive pterosaurs.
"How far are we from the park?" Masrani asked.
"Not too far," Owen answered. "It's right around this turn."
Owen's cycle erupted from the foliage and raced onto the bustling pathway of Main Street where he was nearly overrun with fleeing people. Their worst nightmares had become a reality. A flock of pterosaurs were swooping down upon the tourists and everyone was scrambling to not be picked off by these fliers. Owen, Claire and Masrani hopped off the bike.
"Of all days," Claire said. "I've gotta find my nephews! Do you think they're here?"
"Maybe," Owen said.
Suddenly, more screams came from a nearby hotdog vendor as an adult male Tyrannosaurus rex charged into it, which caused dozens of hotdogs to litter the ground. The man selling hotdogs screamed and took off, eager to avoid the colossal monster. Thankfully, the T. rex seemed more interested in the smell of hotdogs than a human, and he began to feed on the wieners.
"Where's ACU?" Claire asked. "They should be taking care of this before things get anymore out of hand."
"They were cleaning up other asset escapes elsewhere on the island," Masrani said. As if on queue, dozens of troopers rushed onto Main Street with EMD's and other non-lethals, making a path for themselves through the terrible mob.
ACU commander Roger yelled to the other troopers. "Alright, guys!" he called. "Fire at will!"
The troopers fired shot after shot at the flying reptiles. A Pteranodon went down and crashed onto the ground, followed by a pair of Dimorphodon and another Pteranodon. Owen held up his tranquilizer gun and pulled the trigger, shooting a Dimorphodon in the shoulder. Owen grinned. "Oh yeah, now we're cooking with gas!"
Avoiding the sharp beak of another Pteranodon, Logan led John, Matt and the girls through the crowd and toward the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo. Here, pterosaurs tried to attack children and their parents as they hustled away from the attraction.
"What are they going to do about the baby dinosaurs?" Katy asked.
"Who cares," Logan said. "Just hop in."
The nine of them made it over the fence that separated them from the juvenile Triceratops. The young three horns yelped in fright as a hungry Pteranodon lunged forward. It grabbed one of the baby's by the saddle with its clawed feet and began to try lifting it into the air. Fortunately, it was too heavy and the pterosaur dropped the baby and landed on the ground. As the juvenile trike fled, the worn-out flier cast its sights on Logan and his friends.
"This place isn't any safer than Main Street!" Matt exclaimed. "I'm out of here!" He leaped over the fence and ran away.
Logan agreed. "Right behind you!"
The Pteranodon emitted a raspy squawk and ran toward the kids on four legs. Surprisingly, the creature wasn't cumbersome on the ground at all, but graceful in its movements. However, such gracefulness was overlooked at a terrifying moment like this. As soon as the last person – Isabelle – had crossed the fence, the Pteranodon leaped right over it, using its long arms to pole-vault it forward. Logan and the others hurried down the path with the pterosaur close behind.
"Where do we go now?" Emily asked.
"I don't–" Logan stopped mid-sentence as another dinosaur stepped out onto the path. It was none other than the juvenile T. rex, only about seven feet tall but every bit as tenacious. The juvenile tyrant growled, forcing Logan and the others to stop in their tracks. "Drat."
The T. rex took a step forward and emitted a low-pitched squawk. The Pteranodon behind the teens came to a halt as well. Sensing competition for food, it shrieked at the T. rex. The T. rex snapped its jaws in reply, slowly side-stepping the teens. The pterosaur made the first move by making a mock-lunge at the rex, causing it to recoil in surprise. The T. rex opened its jaws and charged at the flier before pulling back at the last moment. Though not designed as a fighter, a Pteranodon could still deliver a nasty wallop to the juvenile rex.
Chloe pulled on Logan's arm to get his attention and pointed to the next closest attraction: the Pachy Arena. Logan shrugged and everyone followed him away from the T. rex/Pteranodon battle. Upon running beneath the archway that served as the entrance for the Pachy Arena, the teens saw several Pachycephalosaurus kept in a large concrete pen. Beyond this was the arena itself, where the dinosaurs would be displayed during show times. With its large, domed head, Pachycephalosaurus, Logan thought, That's one weird-looking dinosaur. The Pachycephalosaurus herd looked up and grunted curiously at the humans. Logan breathed a sigh of relief – at least these dinosaur's weren't likely to eat them.
"I think we lost both of them," Anna figured.
"Yeah, I think you're right," John agreed. With a sigh, he added, "I don't know how much running we could do."
Chloe asked, "What are we going to do now?"
"It's too dangerous to go out there," Emily told the others. "Maybe we should stay here for a bit. We've got the archway over us, so maybe the pterodactyls won't see us."
Logan nodded. "Yeah, let's just hang tight here until...do you guys hear that?"
Matt shook his head. "Hear what?"
Everyone was quiet, and they heard a low sniffing sound. Logan quietly peaked around the corner and his jaw dropped – it was the juvenile T. rex. The creature had apparently sent the pterosaur packing and was using its keen sense of smell to track down Logan and his friends.
"What is it?" Chloe whispered.
Logan mouthed: T. rex.
"Which one?"
"The one that was after us before."
As it slowly approached, sniffing the air as she went, Logan and the others squished themselves into a tight corner, hoping the pachysaurs would draw the rex's attention instead. The Pachycephalosaurus instinctively moved away from the near side of their paddock. The juvenile rex looked up at the dome-headed herbivores and snarled. The Pachycephalosaurus snorted a threat. Knowing these dinosaurs could be potentially dangerous to a small-sized tyrannosaur, the juvenile decided to ignore them, following the scent of her original prey.
"What's next?" Anna whispered. "We're trapped."
"I say we run for it," Matt suggested. "Slowest person gets eaten."
"Well, if we end up running you two go last," Logan said, pointing to John and Matt.
John was about to remark when the rex snarled again; she was so close that the they could all hear the hissing of her breath...suddenly the rex released a high-pitched roar and turned around. Logan peaked from behind the corner again to see that the dinosaur was being approached by a pair of ACU troopers. The troopers fired a pair of shots from their EMD's and the T. rex collapsed to the ground.
One of the troopers nodded, "Good job, Miller."
Miller smiled. "Thanks, Meyers. What are we going to do with her?"
"Just leave her here for now until we get the pterosaur and T. rex situation on Main Street under control. Better this girl than the others that are wreaking havoc."
Logan came from hiding. The troopers looked up at him as he asked, "Is she dead?"
"No, she's knocked out though," Meyer's answered. "She'll be inactive for a while." Meyers noticed the other teens as they too came from around the corner. "You guys OK?"
"We're fine," Katy told her. "What's going on? Why's everything running free?"
"We had a bit of an incident. But everything will be back under control very soon. Miller, you wanna take these guys to the evacuation site?"
"Sure. Follow me kids."
As Miller led the teens from under the archway and out of the Pachy Arena, he looked out over the lagoon and noticed several objects floating in the water near the monorail trackway. He gasped. "Those are people out there!"
"How'd they get out there?" Chloe asked.
Emily said, "See the helicopter on the trackway? It probably crashed and they jumped out. Isn't the lagoon where that water dinosaur lives?"
"Yeah," Miller answered with a nod. "We need to get 'em out of there." He picked up his walkie-talkie and set the frequency to contact commander Roger.
"That thing just got her!" Tom exclaimed. "It brought her underwater!"
"We know, we saw!" Alaina told him.
"We have to rescue her!"
"I'll rescue her!" Oscar declared. As he was about to dive under, Billy grabbed his shoulder. "You sure about this buddy?"
"Don't worry, I've got this."
With that, Oscar took a deep breath of air and submerged. The water was crystal clear and expansive; he could see from a great distance away. Not far from where he was, Oscar spotted a large cloud of blood from the Pteranodon the mosasaur had caught. In fact, the great flier's wing was still floating in the water, ripped off by monstrous jaws.
I hope that thing didn't eat the girl, Oscar thought. It could eat her and the Pteranodon in one bite.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Brianna, floating motionless in the water. Her frail body must have been knocked out cold by the impact of herself hitting the water from the great height. Since she wasn't floating, Oscar thought she might have swallowed water at some point, which meant he needed to get her up to the surface as soon as possible. He swam over to her and grasped her in his arms.
It's OK, Oscar thought. You're safe now.
Just then though, he saw more movement from the depths of the lagoon – about 10 yards below him was the ominous shape of the Mosasaurus. The great marine reptile swam slowly beneath him, propelled forward with her shark-like tail. In her jaws was the body of the Pteranodon, now lifeless. In one motion, she swallowed the pterosaur, sending it down her gullet. Thankfully, it didn't seem to spot Oscar yet, but he knew it wouldn't be long before she did, and a reptile of this size needs to eat a lot.
The flat foundation at the base of one of the pillars holding up the trackway served as a refuge for Dr. Sorkin, Dr. Harding, Jess and the others. They quickly swam to it so they could be up and out of the water, away from the monstrous jaws of the Mosasaurus. The adults sat on one side of the platform while the teens sat on the other side. There wasn't any real reason for this other than the comfort found in hanging with one's own peer group. Gray dragged his fingers through the water, admiring how deep this lagoon was.
"How big do you think this lake is?" Gray asked.
"Big," Zach answered.
"But how many pounds?"
"That doesn't make sense."
Tom continued to stare at the lagoon. Come on, Brianna, he thought, you had to make it.
"Hey, you OK?" Alaina asked, taking a seat beside him.
"No I'm not OK! Brianna just got taken under by a mosasaur, Oscar's down there probably fighting for his life, and we're stuck out here with a flock of Pteranodon overhead! They'll probably come down here and attack us any moment now! Of course I'm not OK!"
Alaina was taken aback by this. "Well, sorry I asked!"
The two of them were silent for a moment. Tom groaned and rubbed his head.
"Sorry," he apologized. "I'm not really mad at you anyway."
"Apology accepted."
"Brianna's probably dead...and it's all my fault."
"Whoa, dude," Zach said, butting into the conversation. "You can't think like that."
"How is it your fault?" Alaina asked.
"Well, I brought her onto the gyrosphere didn't I?"
"The gyrospheres are way on the other side of the island," Jess told him. "I hardly think that anything that happens there would apply to anything that happens here."
"But if we hadn't gone on the gyrosphere," Tom argued, "we'd never have been attacked by the I. rex, then we never would have gone into the jungle and made it to Dr. Sorkin's lab, and then we wouldn't have met up with D-Caf, Oscar and Billy, flown away from the lab on their chopper and land here."
Gray looked up from the water and at Tom. "Wouldn't the I. rex have attacked Dr. Sorkin's lab anyway?"
"Yeah," Alaina agreed. "And besides, none of this could have been predicted. You can't just blame yourself. None of this is your fault."
Jess added, "She's right. Sometimes bad things just happen on their own."
Tom nodded. "Yeah, you guys are right. Thanks."
"Anytime," Alaina said.
"But what are we going to do now?" Gray asked. "We're stuck out here."
Jess looked up. "Hey, my Dad has a radio! He can get someone to help us!" She turned to Gerry. "Hey, Dad! Don't you still have your radio?"
Gerry nodded. "Sure, I've still got it, but..." he retrieved the radio from his pocket. It was covered in water. Upon shaking it, water could be heard sloshing around inside. "It's ruined." He threw the radio into the water.
"It's unfortunate that no one installed communication systems out here," Dr. Sorkin said. "Emergency phones or anything."
"Yeah well I guess getting stuck out here thanks to a pterosaur escapade wasn't on InGen's mind when they built this structure," said Billy. "Guess we should have gotten pterodactyl insurance, hey, D-Caf?"
"Pteranodon insurance," Gray corrected. He turned back toward the water and gasped. "Hey! It's Oscar!"
Everyone looked up to see that Oscar had appeared at the water's surface with Brianna holding onto him tightly. They were swimming toward the pillar! Everyone cheered.
"See what I told ya?" Billy said. "I knew Oscar would bring her back. Oscar's invincible."
"That's not the only good news!" Jess exclaimed. She pointed to a small motor boat making its way across the water with three ACU troopers on board. "We're gonna get out of here!"
Finally the boat pulled up alongside the pillar, letting the survivors on board. Commander Austin looked at them and smiled. "You guys, OK?"
"We are now!" Dr. Harding confirmed. He turned to Oscar. "How's the girl doing?"
"She fine," Oscar answered.
Brianna was coughing up lots of water, but at least she was alive. Tom and Alaina hugged her, glad to see she was safe and sound.
"Well, we're not quite safe yet," Commander Austin said. "That mosasaur's still down there and the Pteranodon probably won't hold off an attack for much longer. Let's get you guys back to complete safety."
The Pteranodon shrieked and fell to the ground, joining the other fallen members of her species.
Owen grinned. "Hasta la vista, birdie!" he said.
"Good shot, Owen," Claire congratulated him.
"Thanks."
Assisted by an ACU trooper, Masrani had gone to the Innovation Center so he could monitor the activities in his park, while Owen presumed to help ACU shoot pterosaurs out of the sky while Claire watched. Another Pteranodon flew overhead and, again, Owen made a successful shot. By now, ACU troopers were taking down pterosaur after pterosaur. Even the male Tyrannosaurus rex had been tranquilized. Main Street was being cleared of tourists as the frightened people piled into the monorail station where they'd be able to get to the South Dock (unfortunately, they were unable to get beyond that point due to power outages there). When a Dimorphodon attacked a child that was running past, Owen shot it, saving the child and causing the pterosaur to stumble.
"Man these guys are quick," Owen said.
"Owen!" Claire shouted. "Look out!"
But her warning came to late as a Dimorphodon came careening from the sky and attacked Owen! He was swept off his feet and knocked to the ground, forcing him to drop his rifle. The pterosaur aggressively attacked Owen with its sharp, interlocking teeth while Owen was trying to keep those jaws as far away as possible with his hands. But the pterosaur wasn't going to give up this assault easily.
"Get off me!" Owen cried. "You blasted winged creep!"
Claire suddenly picked up Owen's gun and fired a shot at the Dimorphodon. The pterosaur squawked and fell to Owen's side. Under the effects of the tranquilizer, the pterosaur found it hard to rise itself. It cawed quietly at Claire who shot another dart, causing it to pass out. Owen rose to his feet and looked at Claire. Her red hair was all messed up by the day's adventure; her body was no doubt covered in sweat from the tropical heat; her clothes were tattered and ragged around the edges from the close scrapes with death; but there was something about her that Owen saw in those bluish-green eyes of hers that she had never seen before.
"Um..." for once, Owen was at a loss for words. "Thanks."
Claire held out the gun for him to take. "No problem. Here's your gun."
Owen took the gun and surprised Claire by taking her by the shoulders. Feeling no resistance, he pulled her in close and kissed her on the lips. She kissed him back with just as much passion. Despite all that was happening around them, just for a few precious seconds, there were only two of them in existence in the entire universe. Owen finally released Claire and she stepped back, taking deep breaths.
"Aunt Claire?"
Claire looked to her left in surprise to see Gray and Zach standing nearby!
"Zach! Gray!" Claire exclaimed as her nephews rushed to her and they embraced. "Oh my gosh! What happened to you guys? You're all wet."
"Our gyrosphere was busted by the Indominus rex," Gray explained, "then we were rescued by Oscar, D-Caf and Billy and then we were chased by a pack of raptors near Dr. Sorkin's Field Lab and then we went into the helicopter again and fell into the lagoon and then–"
"Who's that?" Zach interrupted, gesturing toward Owen.
Claire hesitated before giving an answer. "Just a guy I work with."
"Owen!"
Owen smiled when he was approached by his old friend Billy. "Hey, man! How was it hanging out 'in the company of killers'?"
"You heard me singing that?" Billy asked with a sheepish grin.
"Well, you weren't exactly quiet. It's great to see you alive though, man."
"Yeah tell me about." Turning to Dr. Harding, Dr. Sorkin, Oscar, Tom, Commander Austin and the others, he added, "It's great to see you all alive, actually."
"We've had quite a day, Owen," Dr. Harding said.
From the section of Main Street near one of the restaurants, the female Tyrannosaurus was heard giving a loud growl as she laid her body down on the ground. The tranquilizer was doing its job and she was beginning to fall asleep.
"That thing was terrorizing this place?" Alaina said. "Glad it's restrained now."
"You're telling me," Commander Austin said.
Claire scanned her surroundings. "Well, now that everyone's safe and sound, let's get cleaned up and go indoors. I need to be in the air-conditioning."
A/N: Aw, Claire and Owen finally had their moment! That was by far one of my favorite parts of the movie. And why not? Owen and Claire's kiss was the first on-screen kiss in the Jurassic Park franchise (even our other favorite JP couples, e.g Ian Malcolm and Sarah Harding and Dr. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler, didn't kiss on-screen). We also had a close escape by Logan and his friends. Do you think they will meet up with Tom, Alaina and Brianna? If so, what do you think will happen? Well, until next time, please be sure to favorite, follow and review this story and I'll publish another chapter very soon! Spare no expense!