SURVIVAL

1 - A Business Proposition

One and a half weeks later...

Off in the distance of the Kenyan savanna, a dust cloud followed a black Mercedes. It made its way down the winding, dirt road leading to John Hammond's Animal Kingdom. Within minutes, it was at the employee's only access gate. A guard stepped out of a tiny security shack to the check the vehicle passengers' IDs. Satisfied, he opened the gate and waved the men through. The vehicle continued down the narrow drive and passed by the visitor's center, animal examination, and processing offices before finally proceeding to the game warden shack, not far from the primary zoo complexes.

The driver coasted to the front door and stopped centimeters from a concrete tire stop. The back passenger door opened to reveal a man in his mid-forties wearing a smoky grey suit and thin, gold-framed glasses around icy blue eyes. He ran a hand through his hair, making sure it was in place and proceeded to the office. To any other person he was just another wealthy business executive. To those affiliated with InGen and John Hammond, he was Peter Ludlow, one of the higher executives of InGen.

Upon entering, laughter from three of the game wardens inside the office ceased. The smiles on their faces quickly sunk to expressions of shock as one of the wardens, a black man with an African accent, questioned. "Can I help you with something?"

The suited man nodded and smiled for professionalism's sake, but frowned to himself when he saw who he sought wasn't in the office. "Yes, I am looking for Terrence Mitchell." The black man opened his mouth to respond, but the suited man cut off any words he was about to say. "I suggest you not bother telling me he isn't here as I am already aware of that. Just tell me where I can find him. Okay?"

Inside the animal examination lab and releasing the restraints on a tranquilized warthog was Terrence, him oblivious to the suited man entering the animal examination lab. The room went eerily quiet when the man came into the room, as it was known to happen, and spoke. "Ah, yes. There he is! Mr. Mitchell."

Terrence strained to look over his shoulder as he reached over the warthog to unfasten the buckles around its front hooves. He instantly recognized the approaching man and became curious. "Good afternoon, Mr. Ludlow." Something wasn't right to have one of the InGen top executives there and without warning. "Something I can help you with?"

Ludlow answered. "Yes, actually, there is. Perhaps we can talk about this in private, hmm?"

The game warden shot his partner, an African man close to his age, a stare. "Take care of this, will you, Amadi?" Terrence strode away and joined the CEO as he slid the thick leather gloves off his hands. "So, what's this about?" Once outside the lab, Ludlow released a breath he had been holding and wrinkled his nose. The air outside didn't smell any better than the foul air inside. Ludlow's gaze drifted to his left to see the animal holding pens not far away. Terrence smiled behind eyes that squinted against the sun and continued. "That's a good day after they've been cleaned, too."

Framed eyes shot back over to the smiling man. It puzzled Ludlow on how anyone could stand to work in such a horrid smelling environment. "Yes, I'm sure. Anyway, down to business. I understand you spent some time working with I-10 HY?" Terrence arched a brow in question, Ludlow grumbling. "That...mistake."

"Sir, no offense, but I've worked with a lot of mistakes since coming here."

The CEO's mouth drew in, making him look as though holding in a bite of food he'd instead spit out. "You might know her as Pet."

The game warden crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head to the side. "Oh."

What was this man up to? Why, all of a sudden, was someone interested in her? Terrence had heard rumors of what had happened at Hammond's other animal attraction and wondered if this had anything to do with it. Eager to find out, he decided to play along with the other man's interrogation.

Seeing how it was obvious Ludlow rather disliked the hybrid, Terrence mirrored that for what he hoped would yield better results. He snorted disgustingly and shook his head. "Yeah, I worked with her before. What about her?"

Ludlow could hear the contempt in the man's tone and smiled in relief. "I take it you two weren't on the best of terms, then?"

Terrence shrugged. "She had a bit of a chip on her shoulder. I'm not exactly sure if that was from associations or genetics, but either way, I was glad to see her gone."

"I see." A devious smile twisted the CEO's features. "InGen has a business proposition for you, in that case. One that could get you a nice little promotion..." Ludlow gestured around him, "Maybe land you a nice pay raise and get you out of this stench pool, at that."

Now Terrence was further intrigued. Not that he minded working at the zoo. He loved almost everything about this job, except when it came time to clean the animal holding pens. Regardless, he wouldn't mind a pay raise. That, of course, depended on what he was about to get himself into.

Terrence's brow subtly creased and his eyes cut down on the suited man. "What did you have in mind?"


A marker pen crossed out another date on a calendar hung up in the Jurassic Park game warden office. It had been twelve days since the incident, the date of the occurrence circled and highlighted. Pet sighed and clipped the lid back on the marker and tossed it into a cup on her desk. She plopped down in her desk's chair and blinked back the pools of tears formed in her eyes. She leaned back and tried her best to not think about any worse case scenarios. She couldn't help it, though.

Hammond promised he'd come back for her once he was able to. He said it would only be a few days, yet he hadn't shown. Given it being twelve days since she had been left behind, she felt Hammond's coming for her was drawing close if even at all. Someone would have to come back to the island, eventually, considering all the equipment left behind. Not to mention the security risk the computers posed to InGen should anyone happen across them when exploring the island. Pet's eyes shot to the phone on Muldoon's desk and debated if she should try and call someone on mainland or not. It was something she had thought extremely heavy on some three or four days after being abandoned. But then she remembered what Hammond said. InGen wanted her dead and planned to shoot her on the spot should she have left the island with the other survivors.

Pet frowned and sighed a quivering breath. She had never felt so alone as she was now and wiped at her teary eyes. When she was left in Kenya, at least she had a few people there to talk to that she liked. Even her new partner and Muldoon's replacement often provided some decent conversation, never mind his hyperactive personality. Here, there was no one to talk to. Sure, she could always talk to the dinosaurs that roamed around outside, but at the possible expense of her life.

Thinking about the other island inhabitants brought up a burning curiosity. Why were the animals still alive? Wasn't the Lysine Contingency supposed to take effect? Hammond made mention to her to not worry about the dinosaurs. Yet here she was worried about the dinosaurs. Some weren't so much of a threat or danger since they were herbivores. But the carnivores that had managed to escape their enclosure were the most significant threat. The Tyrannosaur was the worse nuisance of them all. At least the beast could be heard in approach, what with its thunderous footsteps and all.

Then came the Dilophosaurus. Their trills and barks were unique and gave Pet a chance to prepare herself against them. Otherwise, she had to rely on her keen hearing and animal instincts to know if something was right or not. Anytime something didn't feel right, it most likely wasn't, and she didn't stick around for too long to find out for sure.

In her exploring the island for anyone else possibly left behind, like her, she found nothing but corpses. It further depressed her, except when she saw the mauled carcass of Nedry. The sight, while rather revolting, brought a smile to her face. Oh, the irony of. She still couldn't figure out why the hell he crashed the island's defenses. She could tell he was heading to the docks, which was understandable since there was a hurricane battering the island, but why be so nervous about it? The hybrid figured him a coward anyway, and this just confirmed it.

Pet's golden yellow eyes fell on a picture on her desk depicting her, Muldoon and Jophrey standing over her first successful solo kill; a gazelle. She took the picture in her clawed hands and forcefully slammed it, face down, onto the desk to shatter the glass. Carefully, she slid the image out of the broken frame and folded it up to shove into a pocket of her backpack.


The sound of a helicopter's rotor echoed through the still air of the foliage-covered mountain passes of Isla Nublar as it made its way to the helipad. Terrence watched the ground become closer when landing and brought his rifle closer to his chest. He wasn't sure what to expect and didn't want to take any chances. Seated all around him were armed men also ready should something bad happen. Terrence's eyes scanned the immediate area surrounding the landing area.

He had been told there were dinosaurs on the island and though while skeptical, couldn't admit to being surprised. After all, the company that owned the island had created something using prehistoric DNA. Why not go all the way and create a living, breathing dinosaur? In his visual searching, he also expected to see a dinosaur or familiar face but saw nothing. When the helicopter landed, everyone got out and rushed to the side to prepare for their mission.

Seeing how he was in charge of this mission per Ludlow's order, he didn't want to screw it up. Especially given the amount of money he would be receiving should the task be a success. If the primary target were found alive, he would get one-hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. Should, by chance, the target be found dead then the awarded amount would only be seventy-five thousand dollars. Both situations based on if he provided sufficient proof. It didn't make sense to him. Seemed like something so crucial to InGen would offer more of a reward, dead or alive, considering the target themselves could destroy the company if discovered by the public. Either way, the rewarded amount was more than what Terrence had or would earn in a year.

He slung his rifle's shoulder strap around his neck and looked back to the team he had been given, courtesy of Ludlow. Where did he find people like these? They looked more like guerillas than game hunters, and it made the man uncomfortable. Something told him to watch his back around these guys.

Terrence felt as though they had already wasted enough time and he stood up from where he knelt. He called out. "Alright, gentlemen. Keep your eyes open. We don't know what all is out there, still, so be careful. Call out anything you see." The group of eight men collected their bags and followed their team leader, though many of them preferred not to.

Terrence unfolded a map of the island and followed the road from the helipad that would take them to the visitor center. He knew if Pet were going to be anywhere it would be there. They hadn't gotten far into their journey, though, when the stench hit them. Something large was dead nearby, and it caused several people to bring their hands to their faces in repulsion. Not affected by the smell, Terrence went off the path and strode through the jungle growth. Up ahead was a clearing where he saw the source of the foul stench. Laying roughly two-hundred yards away was a dead Brachiosaur. Its corpse had been fiercely mauled by something large and its long neck gnawed away from the rest of the body. From what Terrence could tell, it had been dead maybe a week.

One of the other hunters in the group emerged from the overgrowth and joined Terrence, choking back an urge to be sick. "What in the…And this was supposed to be a park?"

Terrence looked up from the carcass to see a breathtaking sight that took his off mind off the dead animal. Off in the distance and gathered around a plentiful water source were many more dinosaurs, but well and alive. There were six other adult Brachiosaur with various other species nearby Terrence couldn't identify. He was used to animals of the savannah, not the prehistoric era.

As much as Terrence wanted to enjoy the moment, he couldn't. He had a job to do. "No time for sightseeing. Let's keep going. Chances are, whatever killed this thing," he gestured to the dead dinosaur with his rifle, "is still out there so be alert."