THE LOST WORLD
9 - Plan of Action
The sight was too much for Carter to take. He gagged and grabbed at his mouth, lunging into the bushes and throwing up everything he had just snacked on. Pet was un-phased by the gruesome sight and tilted her head to the side, scoffing. At least they had found Dieter, or what remained of him anyway.
"Great," sighed Roland. "This is exactly why we need to stick together."
Several, chicken sized dinosaurs chirped and emerged from the shrubbery, eager to finish the meal they had started. A couple more poked their heads out of the fern where Carter knelt, sending the man to the wet, pebbled covered earth. One of the Compy jumped onto the man, sending the already panicked man into a frenzy of flails. Pet bent down and grabbed the little dinosaur by its neck and broke it with a snarl. She tossed the dead creature into the rustling bushes where a series of shrieks and chirps filled the air.
The third man in the group helped Carter to his feet as both men glared at the menacing hybrid. She snorted in annoyance and looked down at the mauled carcass strewn about beneath the tree trunk. Roland was busying himself in searching the body for extra ammo and other weapons such as a knife stashed away within a boot.
Roland looked to Pet. "Help me roll him over." She nodded and did as requested, both Carter and the third man becoming ill at the sight.
"Pansies," Pet breathed out, holding the bloody body in place as Roland searched the back pockets.
"Nothing." He stood up and stepped upstream a bit to rinse off his hands. "He had a gun with him...and a cattle prod. I'd like to find them before we head back to join the others."
Pet nodded. "Should be easy enough. Just look between here and where we first stopped before Dieter went missing."
Roland sighed in exasperation. "I'd suggest splitting up to cover more ground..." he looked to the two men, gasping for breath after being sick. "But I think we're better off staying together."
"You mean they're better off staying with us." Pet and Roland nodded to the other in agreement. Right after the group walked away from the body, it was overwhelmed again by the hungry pack of Compy. "Goodbye Dieter," Pet snorted, a twisted smile on her face. "Karma's a bitch."
Just as directed, the group waited at the ridge for their absent companions. And waited, and waited, and waited. Day turned to night and Nick gave up at the thought of continuing on. "Looks like we're camping here for the night."
It irked Ludlow to watch the men that he hired follow the Earth First jerk's direction. He clenched his jaw in anger and went to a decent area to sulk in. He gave a final scowl to the oblivious man before shifting through the pages of maps he had. Carefully he reviewed each one, studying the terrain in hopes of recognizing some feature that would help him identify where they were. Where they here? There was a stream leading through the area and he knew there to be one fairly close by. Or, where they here? The area was quite uneven with hills. Oh, damn it all! In a fit of frustration, he ripped off the top to his flask and helped himself.
A sharp bite startled him at his back and he swatted at it. Another bite at his neck. This time, he killed whatever it was that had bitten him. His eyes enlarged at seeing the dime sized mosquito smeared in the palm of his hand. Was this a natural size for this insect? Not wanting to fall victim to anymore, he fervently dug around in his bag to find a can of insect repellent. Not far from where he sat was Ajay wearing a dead pan expression at his expense. The hunter shook his head at the executive. City folk.
Late night crept upon them as the weight of traveling put the exhausted travelers to sleep. Ajay took it upon himself to be one of the first to keep watch over the camp and made himself comfortable with his rifle cradled next to his chest. Movement somewhere in the black engulfed forest got his attention and he shot his attention in that direction. At first, it sounded like a series of medium sized animals coming towards the camp, but the footsteps were too irregular.
Ajay stated, "Roland," and quickly got to his feet.
Ian had heard it too and he sprinted to catch up to the hiking group. "Did you find him?"
The hunter took a deep drink of the canteen offered to him by Ajay before answering. "Just the parts they didn't like."
Pet snorted a laugh. "Or what they couldn't find." She wiggled her pinky finger. "Who's a little guy?"
Roland smacked the hybrid upside the back of her head, but it didn't deter her from her making light of the situation. She continued to giggle, Roland continuing. "Map." He exchanged the canteen for the map his good friend handed him and flashed a light on it.
Pet leaned in to study it. "We should be about right here." She pointed to their rough location with a clawed finger.
Roland followed the approximate location down to a circled spot on the map. "The operations building is right down in there...about a mile and a half from the base of these cliffs." He drew an invisible circle around the mentioned area with his finger."
Ian looked from the map and to the hunter. "How do you know that?"
"I've seen it. Now the climb down won't be easy."
The hybrid sighed and rhetorically questioned. "What of this little excursion has been easy?"
"We'll let them sleep one more hour." Roland studied the many resting forms of the people dotting the terrain. "And then we'll hit it." He clicked off the flash light and stood up, leaving the other three people to themselves in the dark.
Pet had inadvertently let herself nod off. She wasn't used to all the excitement of running and hiking as she had been in the past. Before, when working with Robert, running and chasing animals was a typical day. Hiking through the savannah and or through the jungle was a joke.
Since being left on the island, her days had mellowed out to a slower pace. Sure, she'd still hunt down the occasional animal but that was a once every three days event. She'd take the meat and make it into jerky to eat over the course of several days before needing to hunt again. She didn't have to worry about running for her life, as she had already staked out her territory and made it well known to other predators that area was claimed. Once in a while a juvenile raptor would wander into it, trying to challenge her only to find itself unsuccessful. Things really had taken to working out for the hybrid. That was, until Ian Malcolm and InGen showed up to ruin it all. Now, it was back to the running and miles of hiking and running.
Roland watched the peaceful hybrid fall deeper into a sleep and debated on waking her. He reached out to shake her awake, but stopped. No. She needed her rest just as much as the others. She needed to stay sharp and alert and the only way to maintain that was to get ample rest. He recalled his hand and sighed, leaning against his rifle. There really was a sense of calm about the hybrid and he smiled. Her eyes opened, them being blue green, and locked onto Roland's. The sense of calm was replaced by uncertainty when her eyes shifted to the golden yellow of a raptor's.
"What is it?" The man questioned.
Couldn't he feel it? That vibration in the ground growing stronger with each passing thud. She sat up and glanced around, sensing the source of the vibrating steps drawing closer until they stopped. The soft growls woke Carter from his slumber, him waking to find what he originally thought to be a nightmare. A T-Rex and just a few feet shy of where he laid. His yelling in Spanish rudely woke the others around him, thus causing a chaotic chain reaction.
The Tyrannosaur loudly roared, bringing people slow to rouse from their slumber wide awake. Another Tyrannosaur joined the first one, further sending the camp's residents into full panic. Pet leapt to her feet and ran towards the yelling people with Roland in tow. The man raised his gun and took aim, pulling back on the trigger. Click. What the-? That's wasn't right. He opened the gun to find two rounds within it, but in closer examination found them only to be casings.
He threw the empty shells to the ground, cursing out, "Bastard," and went to tent housing weapons stores. The hybrid was at his heels. "Remind me to thank your damn Earth First boyfriend for fucking up everything yet again!"
"He's not my boyfriend!" Pet spat back in a hissed growl. She watched Roland go for a heavy case containing tranquilizers. "Do you think that'll be enough for that thing?"
The man loaded a tranquilizer into the chamber of its respective gun, answering. "This is a highly concentrated dose. It'll be more than enough." He looked to the woman. "Go, help the others. I can handle myself."
Pet nodded and bolted from the tent to run after the Rex chasing down the frantic people. Up ahead was a body face down in a mud hole and she visually examined it in passing by. "Tough luck, eh Carter?" The hybrid followed the screams to find one of the Rexes having cornered the people behind a waterfall.
It pulled back its head to reveal Burke dangling from its jaws by an arm. Pet roared a shrill and charged at the Rex, leaping upon its hunch and digging her sickle claws into its flesh. The dinosaur dropped the man to the ground as it spun around trying to shake off its opponent.
The hybrid called out to the wounded man, cradling his mauled arm, "Get out of the way! Run, something, move!"
Burke did his best to crawl away from the lumbering dinosaur roaring in a fit of anger. Pet leapt off its haunch and landed onto the ground, falling backwards to avoid the massive jaws from seizing her in them. Ian ran up to the scene and stopped dead in his tracks. He dared not move when seeing the battling Rex and hybrid. Pet sprang out of the way of getting chomped on again and shrieked out to keep the animal's attention. She snorted and took off running into the jungle with the Rex in pursuit.
Ian rushed to Burke's side and went rigid seeing the mauled, bloody arm. "Where's the others?" About that time, movement beneath the man's shirt startled him.
Burke cried in panic. "S-snake! Get it out! Get it out!"
Ian ripped open the man's button-down shirt to reveal a rather harmless snake. He grabbed it by its midsection and threw it into the brushes at the base of a tree. Burke was briefly able to get a glimpse of its coloring pattern before it was tossed aside. He had never felt so stupid before in his life when realizing it was a nonvenomous snake.
Ian looked back at Burke. "Tell me where the others are!"
The injured man stammered, "I-In th-th-the cave."
"Cave?" Ian looked to the waterfall and ran inside it to find the other people clamoring to each other in safety.
Pet slowed down just enough to let the Rex catch up to her before she attempted another attack on it. She wanted to keep it focused on her and not the people it had been chasing. She jumped onto its leg and raked her claws into its skin, pissing it off and causing it to roar in anger. It stomped its leg and Pet fell to the ground, scampering to get away.
For nearly a mile she kited the beast until she found herself in an all too familiar grassy field. She snorted and barked out in distress, signaling for the field's occupants. Just as the heads of four Velociraptors raised, she ducked down out of site and stopped moving. The Rex erupted from the tree line and into the field, snarling at the small pack coming towards it. It roared and stamped its feet, shaking its body to rid of the predators. Pet saw it as a chance to make her own escape and she did, breaking into a high-speed run back the way she had come.
She was three quarters back when she came across Ian leading the others through the jungle growth. Draped over and leaning against one of the men was Burke, there being a strip of shirt tied around his arm as a tourniquet. Ian looked to the panting woman. "The Rex?"
She shook her head. "You won't have to worry about it." That was a good enough answer for him. The hybrid leaned against her knees and panted for breath. A huff of a laugh escaped her and she looked up to meet the man's taken back expression. "At least it's not raining, right?"
What? "What a bad time for a joke, Veronica." Ian scoffed.
Pet aided in supporting Burke, continuing. "Go on, Ian. Go call for help. Just stay together, whatever you do."
"What? What about you?" His horrified eyes studied the woman. "Where are you going?"
"I need to get this man some help. I'm taking him back to the camp. Straight ahead is the central compound. Go, now, while the raptors are occupied with the Rex!"
"No, no, no, no, no you can't do that! There's a very angry T-Rex back there!"
Pet barked a growl at the man and bared her sharp teeth. "I know what I'm doing. Just get your ass out of here!" She and the other man assisting Burke stayed behind while Ian led the others through the jungle.
