JURASSIC PARK III

4 - Misled

Six AM came much too late for the five travelers. After a much welcomed, and much too short, hot shower the group was ready to go and loaded back up in the plane. Neither asked the other how they slept for the dark circles under their eyes spoke plenty enough. It was at least another hour and a half travel time before they were at Isla Sorna, and Grant planned to take advantage of it. Pet was, at least, as she was stretched out in her seat with her jacket's hood over her eyes.

"It's your turn to be nice," Grant stated to Billy. "Wake me when we get there." And with that, he reclined his seat's back and rested his hat over his eyes. It wasn't the most comfortable of positions, but it beat the hell out of trying to sleep in a dingy motel.

Thankfully, sleep came swiftly as it swept the scientist away. That was, until he was abruptly awoken post a disturbing dream he had just had. His mind was fuzzy after waking up and for a moment there, was unsure if he was still dreaming or not. Grant's panic filled blue eyes searched the aircraft's cabin as he looked between a slightly worried hybrid and an amused Billy.

"Wake up," Billy called out from his smiling. "We're almost there."

Grant continued to gasp for air while trying to calm his still racing nerves. Pet furrowed her brow at the man. "Alan, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," he wheezed out, forcing himself to an upright sitting position. "Just a little jumpy, I suppose." The man forced a smile for the woman's sake and turned to the window to peer out of it.

Sure enough, just visible between the breaks in the clouds, was the much anticipated Isla Sorna. Another rush of adrenaline seized Grant's chest. It was hard to imagine being at the one of the two places he swore to never go to no matter what. Funny what money could do to a person's judgment.

Instantly, Billy began extracting his camera's various pieces out of his rugged camera bag and began piecing it together. He was not about to miss any opportunity at getting a priceless picture of any type of dinosaur. Let alone, pass up the chance to photograph the beautiful terrain. The plane buzzed over the shoreline and through a mountain pass where a river snaked through the base. Luscious forests painted the underlying vista in an assortment of greens as the passing by cloud cover's shadows danced over it all.

Over a stretch of mountains, the plane went, allowing Pet to see everything that looked so different from above than what she remembered from below. As she continued to peer outside her own window, she could see what remained of a large perimeter fence off in the distance, its posts towering above all else. She was starting to get a sense of where she was just by looking at it.

Towards the front of the plane, Paul and Amanda Kirby were just as glued to their windows as the others were. But they didn't see the land for what it was like their hired companions did. Even after passing over a tree line that opened up to a field of green did they not see the true marvels of the island.

Grant leaned over in his seat to peer through the window closest to Billy, his eyes bright with boyish amazement. There, wandering in a clearing visible beyond the plane's left wing tip was a herd of dinosaur, a Triceratops being the most prominent.

He stated in awe struck, "My God, I had forgotten."

The smile across his features wasn't that of a scientist, but of a man who had a passion for the magnificent creatures. Pet could care less about the dinosaurs outside. She had spent far too long around the different species to bother giving them a second glance. Just watching the senior scientist was rewarding enough. A part of her was glad she agreed to come along. Otherwise, she wouldn't get to witness this moment. But another part of her still had that hair-raising chill of paranoia in the belief anything could happen at any moment.

Even Billy couldn't fight his own exploding excitement and started laughing in overwhelming disbelief that he was seeing what he was actually seeing. In his taking pictures of the herds scattering from the plane's noise, Billy could hear Mr. Kirby say, "We did it honey! We're here," as though in disbelief it would ever happen.

Udesky called from the front of the plane, "Cooper! If you see anything, yell up!"

What? Pet and Grant looked to each other in utter bafflement. How could they not see anything? There were at least four species of dinosaurs breaking out into a stampede, down there, and they couldn't see it? What was wrong with these people?

Cooper yelled back in sarcasm, "No, I thought I'd keep it to myself."

Grant cocked a brow at the man and titled his head to the hybrid. Was it the way the plane was angled that no one could see anything? "I'm sorry. Everyone, if you look out the left of the plane, you can see a whole herd of Brachiosaurus."

Pet blurted out, "Yeah, they're seriously right there! How can you miss them?"

"In fact," the scientist continued, "You can see at the front of the group the alpha male grazing there." But his words feel on deaf ears.

Paul called to the pilots. "Udesky? Nash? How about up front? You guys see anything?"

"Nothing yet, Mr. Kirby," answered the co-piloting Udesky.

As if he was really paying attention to the man in the back. He, too, had found himself distracted by the large creatures dotting the grassy plain. As much as he wanted to keep circling around the open area, admiring the hard to imagine, he knew he had work to do.

Grant was absolutely lost on what to think of these people. Right there! Just as Pet had said, they were right...there! "Mrs. Kirby, look! Out here, you'll see a group of Triceratops-"

Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Nash interrupted the mindless babble from the man. "Mr. Kirby, we have a landing strip. You want me to put her down?"

Pet's head snapped from her left facing window and to the visible pilots. "What? Are you crazy?"

"No!" Paul almost leapt out of his seat. "I told you, I want to circle first...see the whole island."

Billy briefly paused in his taking pictures to bore holes in the back of Mr. Kirby's head in speechlessness. Even Grant was at a loss of words. Whatever moment of care free both men had was gone at the mention of wanting to land. The older man's brow lowered in question. "What do you mean? You can't land!"

"Absolutely not!" Pet backed. "What the hell are you trying to get at, Mr. Kirby? You made no mention at all at wanting to land at any point in time!"

Paul waved a hand in the air to try and both silence and calm the frantic scientists. "Hold on, I can explain..."

Grant wasn't about to be hushed that easily. "You cannot land on this island!" His tone of voice aimed directly at the man before him caused Amanda to sink a bit in her seat. It was obvious he was irritated.

"It will be fine. Don't worry, please!" No matter how hard Paul tried to ease the passengers, it was no use.

"Are you crazy?" Grant got to his feet in hopes of possibly talking sense to the pilots. Surely someone on this damned plane had an ounce of common sense.

"Sit down!" Demanded Paul, him and Amanda also getting to their feet to restrain the man.

Movement from Cooper got Pet's attention as she noticed him sliding off his shades and too, getting up. In a quick motion, he was at the senior scientist and grabbing him by the back of his jacket's collar. A harsh hit to the back of Grant's head knocked him out cold and sent him unconsciously to the aisle floor. That didn't sit well with the hybrid at all.

"Oh shit," blurted Billy and in almost being knocked over by Pet.

In a hiss of a snort, she had jumped to her feet and was lunging at Cooper from over the aircraft seats. Billy knew this was about to get interesting as he checked on his mentor while delightfully watching the hybrid tackle Cooper to the floor in furiousness.

Without warning, a strong pair of hands belonging to Nash had a hold on the frantic hybrid as they yanked her off Cooper. Pet shrilled in frustration and tried to lash out only to find herself thrown over a seat and restrained with an arm twisted behind her back. "Enough!" Nash's voice boomed through the ears of those present. "I ought to have Udesky land this plane and I kick your ass out right now!"

Billy intervened. "Whoa, hey now!"

"I don't care who you are or how much the Kirby's paid you to join this little party, but I will not have you attacking any of my men. Understood?"

Wait a minute. Billy recalled a previous conversation he had with Cooper in which it was mentioned how he knew the Kirbys through their church. Now he was one of Nash's men? What was going on, here? Whatever it was, he was almost certain Grant wasn't going to happy.

Billy took hold of one of Nash's hands restraining the woman and calmly spoke. "The last thing you want to do is piss her off any more than already. The only thing keeping you safe at this moment are those shoes." He gestured to the woman's booted feet with a downward nod of his head.

What was this nerd talking about? "What?"

"Just let her go. She won't cause any more problems if you just let her go."

From the front of the plane, Udesky called out. "Circling back around to the airstrip. I'm bringing her in, Nash."

Pet snorted. "I'll disembowel the next son of bitch who dares lay a hand on Alan...or on Billy, too, for that matter."

Paul and Amanda looked nervously to the other. Who was this woman and what had they gotten themselves into? Billy continued. "Veronica...stop it." An aggravated hiss of a snort came from the woman.

Frustrated and knowing there was other stuff needing to be done, Nash harshly released the woman and gave her a final hateful glare before returning to the cockpit. She followed the man with her eyes while massaging her sore wrist. Movement from Cooper shifted her watch back over to him, both people carefully keeping tabs on the other.

The plane began to descend as the tiny airstrip could be seen through the front windshield. Udesky called out, "Everyone, I need you to get back in your seats and buckle up!"

Billy returned to his seat, but Pet had no intentions of leaving Grant's side. She took hold of a seat's armrest while keeping a hold on the still unconscious man. The aircraft rattled in its touching down and soon, came to a slow. Before the engines had even shut down, Cooper was out of his seat and at the back netting containing several heavy-duty cases full of who knew what.

Nash left the shutdown procedures to his co-pilot while he joined the other in the back with the equipment. It didn't take long for certain cases to be moved to the outside of the plane, the Kirby's close on the other men's heels down the small stairway. Pet was on full alert. Why had they landed? They were told they couldn't land. They should not have landed.

Pet started gently shaking Grant to wake him. "Come on, Alan, wake up." Nothing. "Wake up, honey, come on." Still nothing.

That was when Pet started hearing Amanda calling out loud on a bullhorn. She was calling out for someone. The hybrid looked to Billy and shook her head. "I knew there had to be more to this than what we were told."

Pet quickly started unlacing her boots, further worrying Billy. "I don't think you want to do that around these people."

"Oh yeah, I do." She ripped off one shoe and began unlacing the other. "Try to wake up Alan. I think he'd want to know about this." A few shakes of the unconscious man later, Billy watched his mentor start to wake. "He's starting to come to."

Grant's groggy eyes blinked in dismay as he propped himself up. The plane wasn't moving. "Billy, tell me we didn't land."

Pet snorted. "Oh yeah, we landed alright."

Amanda could be heard calling out, "Eric! Ben!"

Grant looked between Pet and Billy, the younger man stating, "I think they're looking for someone."

The hybrid leaned over a seat to look out the window. "People actually, seeing how that twit is calling for two people." She then looked down at Grant trying to sit up. She offered him a hand and helped hoist him to his feet.

The plane spun around in circles in his suddenly standing up. He leaned against a seat back for support while Pet and Billy helped stabilize him. The younger man questioned. "You alright, there?"

With a nod of his head, Grant grumbled, "Yeah," and went for the open hatch. Pet picked up his hat that had fallen under a seat and handed it back to its owner. The man was quick to replace it to his head when walking out of the plane.

Paul saw the remaining passengers emerge from the place and questioned. "Dr. Grant, are you alright?"

The next person to ask him that was about to get hit, next. "Who hit me?" Questioned the senior scientist.

"I'm sorry we had to be so-" but Paul's trying to explain was abruptly cut off.

"Who hit me?"

Paul was beginning to feel like a cornered animal with the way all three scientists were glaring at him. He quickly reverted this aggression towards the primary culprit. "That would be, uh, Cooper." He pointed to the armed man disappearing into the forest with a rather sizable gun in hand.

Grant's eyes widened in curiosity and in panic. Suddenly the wanting to resolve why he was hit was erased from his mind. "What are they doing?"

Pet cocked a brow at Cooper. "Oh, for crying out loud! Don't tell me you people are out here to hunt!"

Paul, once more, attempted to explain things. "Setting up a perimeter to make the place safe. These guys are good!"

"Safe? What?" Now Pet was even more enraged. "Of all the-"

Grant cut her off. "Trust me, on this island, there's no such thing as safe!" He pointed to the plane behind him without taking his tempered gaze off the man before him. "We have to get back on that plane!" He then pointed to Amanda still obnoxiously calling out into the wilderness. "And tell your wife to stop making that noise! That is a very, very bad idea!"

Billy could hear Pet's low growl from where he stood and watched her from the corner of his eyes. She said in a rather dark, humorously way, "Ring, ring! The lunch bell is rang. Come and get it..." She snorted and deviously smiled at Billy.

He wasn't sure if that comment was intended for all of them or the Mrs. only. Something told him he didn't want to ask.

Paul sharply turned and called for the woman. "Amanda! Amanda! Honey, Dr. Grant said that's a bad idea!"

The woman could barely hear what was being said other than who was calling to her. She turned and faced the four people. "What?"

Pet buried her face in her hand and shook her head. Was that woman really that oblivious to the obvious? Again, the Mr. yelled out to the blond woman, "He says it's a bad idea!"

"What's a bad idea?"

A load roar answered Amanda's question and fearfully, she turned around to re-face the forest line. That didn't not sound good at all. Mutually shared horror overcame the group. Billy's eyes widened as Grant's heart stopped in his chest in remembrance of the all too unforgettable occurrence called Jurassic Park.

Paul unblinking eyes remained fixated in the direction of the roar. "What was that?"

Pet rolled her head on her shoulders and clenched her jaw in anger. "What Dr. Grant was trying to avoid happening had anyone listened!"

Billy breathless stated, "Its a Tyrannosaur."

Grant shook his head. He had heard a Tyrannosaur and this sounded nothing like that. "I don't think so. It sounds bigger."