JURASSIC PARK III

5 - Back in A Tree...10 Years Later

"We have to leave! We have to leave now!" Udesky was frantic in his announcement as he emerged from the forest undergrowth.

Right on his heels was Nash, both men pushing past the others when rushing to the plane. Pet hissed a screech. "This is why you were told not to land the damn plane!"

Grant grabbed the woman by her arm and urged her inside the aircraft. Billy questioned, "What about the other guy?"

The hybrid snorted. "He can take one for the team, for all I care."

Udesky replied, "Cooper's a professional. He can handle himself."

A fierce growl rang through the dense forest followed by heavy gun fire. That startled the lingering group even more. They weren't about to stand around, and rushed into the aircraft. Nash had to force some sort of composure over himself as his panicking mind momentarily overshadowed his flight training. He had done this too many times to count and yet, he had forgotten the startup procedures.

He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. "Come on, man, get it together."

He then refocused himself on his task and successfully started the engines. He didn't care if the other passengers were safely secured in their seats or not when beginning to propel the grounded aircraft forward and around for takeoff.

"Give me a hand, Udesky!" called Nash.

He had been so caught up in trying to get the plane started that he had forgotten something important: his own seat restraint buckles. This wasn't happening, this wasn't happening! He was a damn professional, not some fresh out of flight school newbie! The aircraft was starting to gain speed, now, the more Nash pushed the throttle forward.

Sitting in her seat, and death gripping the arm rests, was Pet. She could feel their speed accelerating and wanted to believe there was hope of getting out of this situation before it actually started.

Everyone's eyes were locked forward in their sockets, watching the runway get shorter and shorter. Would there be enough runway for them to take off? That's when they saw a bloodied-up Cooper come running into view.

Paul sat more so on the edge of his seat. "What are you doing?"

"That's Cooper!" Grant exclaimed.

"We can't just leave him! He needs our help!"

"Quiet!" Bellowed Udesky.

The view outside the plane was then obstructed by a large, carnivorous dinosaur with a long snout and sporting a fin on its back. Pet's eyes widened and brow furrowed. She breathed out, "What the-" but her words were cut off by the plane lurching into the air.

In one powerful motion of the dinosaur's sharp toothed jaws, Cooper was swept up. A sharp jolt from the plane impacting the creature sent streaks of blood across the windshield and along the sides of the plane. A prominent light flashed amongst the others on the cockpit's control panel.

Udesky yelled out, "Fuel cut off!"

Shit. That was not what Nash wanted to hear. "We're going down!"

The blue sky, promising an airborne escape, was quickly replaced by the lush green tree tops of the forest. Pet pressed herself further into her seat. "Brace for impact!"

Into the trees they went, limbs snapping and metal crunching against the other's influence. The window was shattered and the wings ripped off as though the plane was a fragile toy. Amanda could he heard yelling in horror through the gut-wrenching sounds of their almost certain doom.

Then suddenly and without warning, the remaining fuselage of the aircraft came to an abrupt stop, sending everyone forward in their seats. It took a couple minutes for everyone to come to and realize the situation they were now in.

Pet grabbed at her neck, feeling a bit sore from the sudden stop, and groaned. "Alan...are you okay?"

The addressed man slowly sat up in his seat and looked around. "Yeah..." He looked over to his protégé. "Billy?"

"I'm alright," the junior scientist answered with in his own composing of himself.

Pet continued. "What about you guys up front? Udesky? Nash?"

"We're alright up here," replied Udesky, sounding a bit shaken himself. "Everyone just stay put."

The hybrid snorted. "Exactly, where are we supposed to go, hmm?"

Grant shot her a negative look. Given their present situation, her snarky comments were not needed at that time. He wearily got up and went to the back hatch. Nash loudly questioned, "Who has a satellite phone?"

Paul was quick to answer. "I do, I do! It's right here!" He began rummaging around in a bag that had been sitting at his feet and withdrew the desired object.

Another snort came from the hybrid. "Well look at that...he did come in use...other than wasting valuable air."

"Enough," demanded Grant. He knew she wasn't going to listen. She never did.

After a try of the hatch's handle, it opened but not very far. He tried to push against it, only to find it useless. It was at least open enough to allow him to peer out and...down...Oh boy, that was a hell of a drop down. Grant was filling a bit dizzy just looking at the ground from his current height. Great. Because this didn't bring back memories from the first island. This must've been what Tim felt like, stuck in a car...in a tree. Damn. This just kept getting better and better.

He closed the hatch and glanced at the many pairs of eyes looking to him in question. "We haven't landed, yet."

Had he been more aware, he would've noticed the vibrations in the pools of water signifying the approach of something rather large. Pet began peeling off her socks, Billy watching her. "Wait, what are you doing?"

Her raptor eyes met his panicked expression. "Preparing for the inevitable."

Paul was confused. "What?" He gazed down at the woman, now barefoot and standing in the aisle. "Oh my God, what the hell?" His wide blue eyes met her animalistic ones and felt a tingle of fear tear down his spine. "What are you?"

"I'm pissed off. That's what."

"Veronica," Grant warned again.

"Damn it, Alan, we're stuck in a tree on an island full of dinosaurs. I don't think I need to remind you of a similar situation from oh, ten years back, do I? You know it as much as I do how this will most likely turn out." A rumble through the aircraft brought a yelp from Amanda and everyone grabbed onto what they could for stabilization. "As I was saying," Pet growled.

The nose of the aircraft was starting to point downwards, a bit, as a bottle of water rolled along the cabin's floorboard. Pet's eyes followed the bottle in its journey to the front of the tree mounted plane when she saw it: a single, green eye through the windshield's shattered glass.

She wasn't the only one who saw it, for Amanda saw it too. She started yelling and tried to get Paul's attention. Pet's breath became heavy in anticipation.

Grant growled, "Keep still! Keep still!"

He wasn't sure how secure the aircraft was amongst the tree limbs and was worried any unnecessary jostling might cause it to break loose. He remembered how easily the SUV from the first island fell from its entanglement in its tree branches and didn't want to take any chances of this possibly being going the same way.

"Relax," Paul began in trying to calm his frantic wife. "What is it? What?"

Pet hissed a screech, "This is going to go very badly..."

Grant was a bit alarmed. Anything that had the usually composed during otherwise dangerous situations hybrid on full alert had him concerned. "What?"

The fuselage started to rattle, again, and even move a little. But this didn't feel like them falling out of a tree. This felt like something had them and was trying to get to them. The metal frame of the aircraft, itself, sounded as though it was being torn apart.

Pet blurted out, "Shit, shit, this isn't good!"

Nash yelled out, "Hang on, everyone!"

Despite the grip Paul had on the seat backs, it was no use. His feet failed him against the further angling of the fuselage and to the floor he fell. He began to slide forwards as he tried to stop himself by grabbing onto whatever he could.

The sounds of stressed metal creaked loudly against the panicked screams of the stranded people as the nose of the fuselage was ripped off. The owner of the green-eyed stare, which was the same long snouted and finned dinosaur from earlier, came better into view.

"Ah shit," Pet whimpered.

The creature reached its snout into the broken off section of the aircraft and managed to clamp itself down on the scrambling Nash's legs. His cries for help were blood curdling. "Help me!"

But there was nothing they could do. Had it not been for Nash's placement, the dinosaur would've grabbed Amanda instead.

A familiar shrill sounded from Pet as she charged over the front seat, knocking aside Paul in the process. She leapt out of the ravaged cockpit and into the air. After hearing the shrill, Grant had a feeling what was coming next and tried to stop her. But he was too slow in trying to reach out her and called, "Nica, no!"

Pet landed on the dinosaur's snout and instantly dug her sickle claws into its flesh. She tried to claw at its face, only to remember that her finger's claws were dulled down. What good she was. It still didn't stop her from compensating by using her toe's claws.

The dinosaur dropped Nash, which Pet was counting on happening in hopes of he could possibly get away. Air was knocked out of the injured man's lungs as he laid on the ground dazed for a moment. That was quite a fall and one he wasn't expecting to take, especially in his condition. But he couldn't, no wouldn't, lay there for long. He had to move it to safety if he wanted to remain living. That is, if there was such a thing as safe in his particular situation. Nash could hear the dinosaur roaring in protest to the attack its snout was receiving.

The carnivore brought a clawed hand to its face and tried to swipe at the attacker. Pet saw this and, in an effort to dodge the three claws, lost her grip on the dinosaur's snout. One good swing of the head sent Pet flying through the air and to a hard landing somewhere in the bushes. Now that that was over, the dinosaur refocused on its previous target.

Thunderous footing echoed behind Nash, him afraid to look behind him until a bone crushing weight stopped him from crawling away any further. His screams of pain were halted in his throat from his ribs breaking beneath the massive foot holding him down.

From inside the plane, all the others could do was watch. Grant, however, was frantically searching the bushes where he saw the hybrid land. "Veronica!" He called out.

Bad idea. The dinosaur heard the call from within the fuselage and abandoned his lifeless prey to stare right at the remaining people. It loudly roared, remnants of flesh dangling from its sharp teeth. The group scurried to the back of the wreckage to avoid being the next meal the creature should obtain should it stick its snout back within the plane.

It finally donned on them that that, too, was a bad idea. Their weight collected at one point caused the fuselage to dislodge from the tree limbs and fall to the ground. Thankfully, the remaining tail section's crumbling cushioned their falling, allowing the impact to not be so severe. It was still enough to steal the air from everyone's lungs, though. But it wasn't over from there. They were now on the ground, meaning in better reach of the ravenous dinosaur.

Large feet passed before their eyes and around to the side of the aircraft. A forceful shove of the dinosaur's snout sent the wreckage rolling over its self. The dinosaur gave another roar and proceeded after its prize. Everyone within the plane saw this and knew; this was definitely not going to be good. The dinosaur charged towards them and they just knew they were sure to be doomed.

Pet started to come to when hearing the fierce roar and blinked back the dizziness that made it difficult for her to get her balance. She must've been knocked out. She then brought a hand to a painful throb at the side of her head and felt a warm dampness with her fingers. When she pulled her hand back, she saw it was blood. She snorted in both pain and annoyance and fought to stand up again.

The dinosaur. Alan. Billy. Oh no. Pet quickly shot her attention upwards where she thought the plane should be. But it wasn't. Had it not been for the forward section of the plane, she would've thought she was looking at the wrong tree. She cried out, "Alan!"

Stumbling forward, that's when she saw Nash. Or what remained of him anyway. His upper torso was gone and all that remained his lower half. She was glad she had a strong stomach and stumbled around the remains to follow the bits of debris and foot prints. Another loud roar and the gut-wrenching sound of metal crunching got Pet's attention. There, roughly fifty yards away, was the fuselage and the dinosaur damn near tearing it apart.

Another fierce shrill escaped the hybrid and she charged forward the fastest she could. She leapt into the air and onto the dinosaur's left haunch. She used her sickle claws to help her climb higher up and hopefully out of its jaws' reach.

Pet yelled out, "Get out of there! Run!"

Grant recognized that voice and the raptor like shrills. He could hear the hybrid call for them to run and knew it was either now or never. "Follow me! This way!"

The group did as told and tore through the forest underbrush to escape. Pet must've struck a nerve when assaulting the dinosaur because it quickly stopped what it was doing to roar out in pain. It quickly spun around and tried to reach the attacker. No such luck. Another quick spin and stamping of its foot shook her loose.

Damn her claws being dulled! Back to the ground she fell and rolled out of the way of being chomped down on. She wasn't sure which way the group had ran and didn't want to follow them for fear of leading the ferocious animal right to them. She shrieked at the dinosaur and ran towards the forest, her thinking she was being followed. That was, until the dinosaur decided to pursue more targets versus just the one.

Pet stopped in her tracks to watch the dinosaur disappear into the dense forest. She decided to follow. She saw it stopped in a small clearing and trying to tear through a group of trees where she figured the others had ran. It didn't take it long to find another alternative and she panicked. She had to find the others before the carnivore did. Just as she was running through the forest to find them, they were running towards her.

Pet called out, "Alan! Billy!"

Grant saw her and felt momentarily relieved she was still alive and alright. As if he had his doubts. "Run, Veronica!"

"What?" Not but half a second later, a Tyrannosaur came into Pet's view. "Are you kidding me!?"

Grant grabbed the woman and drug her behind him when going back the way she had just come. As if things couldn't get any worse, the group found themselves face to face with the big, finned dinosaur once more. Everyone scattered and as Grant tried to run into the woods off to the side he stumbled over a rotted, fallen over tree. Pet rolled away from getting crushed as the Tyrannosaur stepped onto the fallen tree.

Pet screeched at the passing dinosaur and rushed over to the tree to find Grant yelling and obviously shaken. She grabbed him up and now, it was her turn to drag him behind her as they kept low and scurried to safety. Once clear of the two challenging dinosaurs, the two people got to their feet and ran after the others.

Pet rushed past them, saying, "Follow me!"

Paul questioned behind his panting from running. "Do you know where you're going?"

"Yeah, away from here!"

The Kirbys and Udesky were a bit uncertain to follow, but Grant and Billy had no second thoughts. The two scientists stayed close to the hybrid. After a few minutes of running, most of the group was starting to slow down. They weren't quite used to running like Pet. Billy was the closest to being able to keep up with the hybrid's current pace. Thankfully she wasn't running her full speed and probably something closer to a jog for her.