JURASSIC PARK
11 - Life Finds A Way
Muldoon drove around back of the visitor center and stopped shy of where Hammond stood. He looked weary and stress stricken. "Where are my grandchildren?" He came around the Jeep to study Malcolm and nearly panicked when seeing the mauled man. "What happened? Where's Dr. Grant? Where are the kids?"
The game warden got out of the Jeep and slammed the dented in door. "That bitch Tyrannosaur broke loose!" With Ellie's help, the injured man was lifted out of the vehicle and supported as they made their way to the back entrance. "Took out one of the vehicles and trashed the lavatory."
"Define 'took out.'" The older man opened the back door for the three people and was quick to follow behind them.
"As in, it was completely smashed and thrown over the wall."
Hammond stopped in his tracks horrified. Given Malcolm's condition, it had to be the vehicle he was in that got destroyed, right? "Which vehicle was this?" He quickly hobbled in stride to catch up the best he could. Damn this limp!
To the control room the four went, though slowly up the stairs given Malcolm's inability to adequately climb them himself. Even with assistance, the process was still slow. "The first one," answered Muldoon, regret deep in his voice. They arrived at the control room and as carefully as possible, laid the wounded man down. The game warden looked at his longtime employer with deep sympathy in his eyes. "I'm sorry, John."
Hammond leaned against a handrail for support, his head hung low and eyes cast downward. "What about Pet?"
Muldoon stared at the wealthy man from the corner of his eye. Did Hammond actually inquire about Pet? "She's with Dr. Grant and the children."
Brief hope flashed in the man's eyes as he looked up at the warden. "You're certain of this?"
Muldoon nodded. "Ellie and I saw her footprints with the others' going into the jungle."
Hammond looked to Ellie, kneeling down and trying to provide medical aid to Malcolm. "Is this true?"
The woman nodded. Muldoon continued. "If there's any one person on this shit hole I'd trust to keep them safe, it's her. She knows the island and knows everything about each species in the park. Knowing Pet, she's already on her way here, now."
Hammond nodded in acceptance and grimly studied the faces looking at him. "You're right." He heaved a breath. "I'm going to step out for some fresh air. Keep me posted on anything should someone find out something."
Without another word, the man gradually made his way out of the room and down the hallway. Within minutes, he was out of sight and going who knew where.
Hours drug on that felt endless. Every time Muldoon checked the time, it was only minutes after the last time he checked it. Nervously he paced around the control room, which made Malcolm more on edge each time he spun on a heel to walk in the opposite direction. Muldoon could be heard, mumbling something to himself. Malcolm dared not ask him to repeat it even though he was curious about what was being said. He had a feeling he didn't want to know, anyway, given how some of it sounded more like profane rants than anything else.
Midnight slipped by, followed by one AM and then two AM. Muldoon sat in a chair with his face buried in his hands. It was now pushing close to six forty-five, which meant the sun was starting to rise.
The warden mumbled to himself. "Come on, Pet. I know you're out there. Come back."
Curled up against each other in a tree were Grant and the two kids, sound asleep and oblivious to the sun rising over the horizon of treetops. Still stretched out on a tree limb and resembling something more of a cat was Pet, her arms, and legs dangling from the limb.
The four looked at peace until the stirring of something nearby started to wake Grant. A Brachiosaur had made its way to the tree and was now leaning in for a bite of vibrant green leaves not far from the man's foot. Lazily he cracked his eyes open and boyishly smiled at the majestic creature munching not far from the tree. The heavy breathing of the beast woke Lexi, it taking her a minute to realize the newcomer's presence.
The panicked teen quickly scurried away from the looming animal's head and yelled, "Go away!"
The excitement suddenly woke Pet as she jerked awake, almost falling from the limb. She dug her claws into the tree and tightly wrapped her arms around it to keep herself from falling. Not exactly how she wanted to be woken up, and she glared angrily at Lexi. Her attention didn't linger on the girl for long when she noticed the visiting dinosaur.
Grant tried to calm Lexi. "It's okay. It's a Brachiosaurus."
Tim squealed in delight. "It's a Veggie-sauraus, Lex!" A what? Pet cocked a brow at the little boy in her gradually sitting up. Tim neared the edge of the tree, his nose now barely three feet from the dinosaur's. "Mmmm! Come on, girl!"
Behind him, Grant fought to break a small branch off the tree to use as an enticement to lure the dinosaur closer to the group. "Alright..." He waved, motioning the dinosaur to them. As if it was going to work really, but it was still cute to see, and Pet readjusted herself on the large limb to watch the unfolding scene. "Come on, baby."
Grant extended the collection of leaf-laden branches to the grazing animal. It growled, sending the three people in slight recoil. Pet snorted back at the dinosaur rather than flinching. Within moments, the Brachiosaur leaned in and took hold of the offered branch.
It almost took Grant with it when tugging on it. "I'm not letting go!" Every time the animal pulled back, so did the man. Eventually, it gave up and allowed itself to be brought closer to the excited people. It was now close enough to pet, Grant and Tim quick to do so.
Pet laughed. "Looks like you got yourself a new friend, Dr. Grant."
"So it seems," he chuckled back excitedly. He was like a kid on Christmas Day playing with his favorite toy.
Tim pointed at the animal's head where its nostrils were. "Looks like it has a cold."
Grant nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Maybe."
The three people were so overcome by the dinosaur that they didn't notice Pet looking a bit upset. She frowned at seeing the dinosaur sick and knew precisely how it felt. It wasn't just a cold the creature had, but something potentially life-threatening.
Lexi was starting to move in closer to the dinosaur, her still unsure about it. "Can I touch it?"
"Sure," Grant answered, caressing the tip of its snout.
Stretching, Pet answered. "Go ahead. It won't hurt you. They're quite friendly."
"Just think of it as a kind of big cow," the man added. Grant smiled at the hybrid, noticing something off in her saddened blue-green eyes.
Lex inched in a little closer. "I like cows." Though this was far, far from being a cow.
Its head, alone, was the size of a cow and its neck as long as an apartment building was high. Yeah, this was definitely no cow. When she reached out to touch it, the creature moaned in what Pet could identify as pain and reared its head back. What happened next took everyone by surprise when it proceeded to sneeze all over Lex. Some of it landed on Pet, but that didn't stop her from busting out in laughter. This wasn't the worst she ever had happen to her as she distinctly remembered the time a sick lioness at the zoo in Kenya threw up on her. Now that was horrific.
After Tim overcame his fit of laughter, he called out to the dinosaur, "God bless you!"
Lex couldn't move. It was as though she had become petrified in stone with her hand still outstretched as streams of snot oozed from all over her. She felt like she was going to be sick and whimpered. If this was any sign of how the rest of the day was going to go, she was sure it was going to be a bad day.
Out of the tree, the four descended and finally, back onto solid ground. Grant couldn't be happier and neither could Tim. When Lex was offered assistance in her downward venture, she refused any and all help. Mostly because she was still bitter about being bathed in Brachiosaur snot first thing in the morning.
Pet was still smiling about it, never mind her being partially subjected to the same treatment. "This reminds me of that time I accidentally spilled cooking oil all over the place... and on me. Who knew the handle to the pot was going to break off the same time I was going to start straining the oil."
Lexi grumbled. "I'd rather be covered in cooking oil than...this!" She grimaced, trying not to think about what she must look like at that particular moment. The teen tried to wipe as much of it off her as she could off her arms, only to find it oozing between her fingers in the process. "Yuck."
"Great," Tim blurted. "Now she'll never try anything new. She'll just sit in her room, never come out and play on her computer."
Lexi snapped back, "I'm a hacker!"
"That's what I said. You're a nerd."
Pet sighed and shook her head. She was so glad she was an only child. There was nothing to envy when it came to sibling rivalry. The two squabbling kids continued ahead, paying Grant no mind or his discovery.
Pet did, however, and stopped to back pedal to his location. "Hey, kids!" The hybrid waved over the two, pausing in their arguing to look at the calling hybrid.
Lex and Tim rushed to the tree root system to find Grant knelt down over what remained of hatched eggs. He tenderly picked one up and held it out for Pet to see. As if she couldn't look at the others laying at his feet.
"You know what this is?" Grant inquired.
The kids knelt down on the other side of the root to observe the two people and to see what the excitement was about.
Pet looked from the eggshell and to the man. "Yeah, it's an egg."
"It's a dinosaur egg," he stated breathlessly. His amazed expression was priceless.
Guess Pet didn't see what the excitement was about a bunch of...wait a minute. Grant saw the realization hit her. It surprised him that it took so long. Pet frowned. "Ah shit."
"The dinosaurs are breeding." He spoke the words before she could even open her mouth to say the same thing.
It didn't make any sense. Pet picked one up and began to study it. Tim took the shell from the much older man and began to look at it as well. "But Grandpa said all the dinosaurs were girls."
Pet interrupted. "Were supposed to be girls, anyway."
She got up to follow several little tracks leading away from the next nestled at the base of the tree. She blanked out what was being said in exchange for focusing on her thoughts. Something wasn't right here. How many more dinosaur nests were there out there? What other species had managed to do the same thing? One T-Rex was enough. She didn't want to imagine a second, third or more for that matter.
The tiny tracks continued in a group pattern and disappeared into the overgrowth of the tree line. Grant hated to admit it. "Malcolm was right. Life will find a way." He set down the second shell he'd been analyzing and stood up, approaching the hybrid. "Veronica..." At first, Pet didn't immediately register the man speaking to her. Her new name still sounded so alien to her. "Veronica!"
Pet snapped back to reality to stare wide-eyed at the man. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Did you know about that? That this could happen?" Grant pointed to the nest.
"What?" The hybrid stared blankly at him, to the nest and back to him. She was just as surprised by this as the others. "No, no I didn't. I mean, I get the whole frog DNA and sex change theory, but that was taken into thought when the DNA was merged to fill in the gaps."
"How many more of these nests are there?" Grant sounded a bit demanding as well as shaken.
Pet wasn't liking the tone in his voice and took it as challenging. "How the hell am I supposed to know?" Grant watched her human blue-green eyes begin to favor a more yellow-green color with the threatening change back to their more normal raptor ones. It startled him a bit. "This wasn't even supposed to happen!" Pet aimed a clawed hand at the nest.
Grant wanted to argue with the young woman but could see she knew about as much as he did at that particular moment. "Alright, fine. Do you at least know what species that is?"
Pet shrugged. "My best guess, something from the Ankylosaurinae subfamily? I could be wrong, though. I've only dealt with adults, not young, since being here."
Lexi grew uneasy. "What's an Anky...whatever you just said?"
Grant answered, trying to keep a tether on his growing frustration. "It's an herbivore, Lex. Nothing to worry about."
"Oh."
The hybrid glanced around them. "Whatever it is, though, this is obviously its territory, and personally, I don't want to stick around to find out what laid those eggs." She turned and left, continuing in the direction they had been doing in. "I'd suggest keeping up."
Roughly an hour later, Pet stopped and motioned for the other three to remain quiet. Grant studied her, daring her to make mention of hearing or sensing danger.
Pet cocked her head to the side to listen more closely. "Water. I hear water."
She began to shuffle to the source of the sound. The other three followed behind her, not wanting to chance getting lost. She collapsed to her knees by a creek and dipped her hands in the fresh, rushing water.
"How safe is that to drink?" Grant debated on doing the same but didn't want to chance getting sick from any bacteria. This was foreign soil, after all.
Pet sipped the water, smiling. "It comes from a spring a few miles upstream."
"Ah."
Tim pushed by the others and joined the hybrid, drinking the refreshing liquid. Grant was still hesitant as he didn't trust anything, especially water, from an unknown source. Bad memories from an excursion in Nevada, once. It wasn't pretty and something he didn't want to repeat.
Lex joined the three, but not for a drink. She hastily began washing the dried remains of Brachiosaur mucus from her arms, face, and neck. She'd only been dreaming of washing off since initially getting sneezed on.
Upon contact with the water, her skin became slimy again, and she grimaced at the feeling of. "Gross."
