Finale – Hell's Labyrinth

Have you ever heard of chaos theory?

For those who don't know, chaos theory is the branch of mathematics that deals with complex systems that are sensitive to slight changes in conditions, so that small alterations can give rise to strikingly great consequences.

Say, you hit a pool ball, and it starts to careen off the sides of the table. Hypothetically, you should be able to tell its path – however, you can't. Little things start to build up and throw any prediction you might have way off.

Or… say a random technical fault, combined with a power outage from a lightning strike, leads to some of the most dangerous animals in history running loose.

And that is where our story begins.

. . . . .

"Storm still isn't letting up."

Jack Denham looked out of the window of the small staff outpost, watching the wind roar and the rain lash the ground in La Brea Grand Vista. Sitting by the table a few feet away was his assigned storm prep partner, Collete Dubois. Turning to her, Jack sighed, "Be honest here – tonight's gonna be pretty lousy, right?"

Collete shrugged, "You build in Florida, you get storms. At least we prepared everything."

This was true. They'd spent the last hour preparing for the storm – all the enclosures were locked. The storm covering tarps had been secured into place over the La Brea Aviary Complex and all the birds were all inside. With the exception of the bull Columbian mammoths, all the inhabitants of the main herbivore paddock had been shepherded into their barns, as had most of the carnivores.

At the thought of all this, Jack let a small smile of relief come on his face. "Yup. We got finished ahead of time..." He suddenly stopped talking, a look of wary confusion on his face. Then he looked out the window once more. "Ok," he managed to say. "You're absolutely certain you set the dire wolf paddock gate to full lockdown?"

Colette raised her eyebrow, a confused glare now on her face. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

"The same reason I'm suddenly seeing it wide open?" Jack responded in confusion.

Collete squinted and looked out of the window to notice something…the gate to the dire wolf paddock was open! Her eyes widened. "I could have sworn I'd locked it." "Well, no matter," said Jack. "It shouldn't take too long to remedy this little detail." This agreement made, the duo hurriedly put on their rain ponchos before running out towards the dire wolf paddock, coming to a stop right at the gate. As they squinted from this position, they could see the entire pack still in the paddock. Then Jack and Colette looked at the electronic locking device...

"That explains it," Colette said as she pointed out how the device appeared to have shut down somehow. "Must have been a small power failure or something like that." She began to draw out some heavy-duty zip ties and a padlock. "Fortunately, this gate will be easy enough to close manually so that we can resecure it with these backup locking supplies from there." Trying to collect himself, Jack said in agreement, "Right, we'll just close up the door and tell Drew about this issue once the storm's…"

Suddenly, a snarl from Nero as he looked in the direction of the next-door paddock led Jack and Collete to turn and see the Pleistocene coyote pack now outside their den and curiously walking up to their paddock's open gate. At the sight of Dag, his hated rival, Nero took two steps forward and snarled, his face just an inch away from the outside of his den.

However, it now seemed that, for once, Dag wasn't interested in challenging Nero. Jack and Collete couldn't help but notice how confused the coyote looked at the whole situation. Suddenly Dag sniffed the air and went rigid, before his entire pack disappeared into the undergrowth. Jack and Collete turned and looked at each other – they'd have to round them all up…

Another growl from Nero, but this time directed upwards towards the air, suddenly turned Collete's eyes to the sky. Her eyes widened in horror, and she screamed "Duck!", as a large, black shadow swooped above her and Jack, soon followed by another. They looked up to see Rocco and Laverne flapping menacingly in the air above them.

Jack's eyes widened in shock. "What the...?" Jack and Collete looked at each other – what on Earth was going on?

. . . . .

At Hell Creek Formation, Leon and Adrian were at the main herbivore paddock alongside Cass, Horace, and Mohinder as they all worked to keep the residents calmed and safe. So far, everything seemed to be in working order. The ornithomimus herd were all gathered peacefully at their nests to rest through the storm, whilst the triceratops and torosaurus were all browsing nearby, with the pachycephalosaurus scouting for potential threats. The edmontosaurus were all gathered by the lake, leisurely drinking while watching over their nests. Finally, Custer and the two ankylosaur herds were all gathered around the trees, browsing. The doors to the barns were open, allowing the chance for shelter.

"I'd say everything looks good here," said Cass, nodding her head in approval. "Just need to determine how we're going to get the edmontosaurus eggs into the barns if something happens." Leon noticed that Cass was looking nervously out into the park, and said, curiously, "Worried about Tina?"

"Yup," Cass stated, "We don't get on sometimes, but she's still my sister. I hope she and Alice are safe, wherever they are." Horace placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Cass," he said. "I'm sure your sister will be fine." Cass smiled warmly at Horace. "Thanks Horace," she said.

"For what it's worth, I sort of get how you feel," said Mohinder. He nodded his head. "My colleagues in the sauropod keeping division can be a real handful to work with. But even so, I still wouldn't wish any harm against them."

"I'm sure Alice will be fine, too," said Leon, looking meaningfully at Adrian. "You and I both know she can handle herself."

Adrian chuckled, a grin on his face. "No kidding."

Leon turned to the group and said, "Storm's getting nasty, but at least the animals should be safe…" He was interrupted by the sound of Custer bellowing, an alert look on his scaly face as he looked in the direction of the paddock's gate. Suddenly, the sound of a loud creaking noise from the direction of the gates reached the group's ears, and they looked to find the paddock gates now open. With the brief exception of Custer, the dinosaurs were uninterested, but the keepers were concerned. "OK, that shouldn't have happened," said Mohinder.

Cass walked over to the open gate, taking care not to disturb the edmontosaurus herd. She reached the interior control panel and pressed the close button; but there was no response. She pressed that button again, with no response. She said, almost mute with horror, "I think the power may have just gone out."

"That's not good," said Horace.

"No kidding," said Adrian, praying that this was an isolated incident – there were plenty of animals he didn't want to see running around.

Cass looked back at the gates, and then back at her companions. "I'm not sure if I can get the gates closed manually," she said. "Or at least not on my own. We could all do it together, but that leaves us open to attack – we also need somebody to stop any animals from getting out."

"I'll call Drew," Leon said as he drew out his communicator. "See if he has any recommendations."

Horace raised his eyebrow. "You really sure he can be trusted?", the hoofstock keeper asked. Leon gave Horace a withering look. "He can be flippant at times, yes, but I still trust him."

He got his communicator working and began attempting to initiate a call to Drew. "Drew, this is Leon speaking. Do you read me?" Static hissed back. "Drew? Do you read me?" Leon asked, "We have an issue at the Hell Creek herbivore paddock, and we might need your assistance. Over." Still no response. "This can't be good," said Mohinder. "Drew! Do you read me?!" Leon shouted, "I repeat, there is a problem at the Hell Creek herbivore paddock, and we need your help! Over!?" No response.

By this point, Cass had re-joined them, "It's the storm, isn't it?" "No idea," said Leon, still holding the comm in his hand. "But whatever's going on, it looks like Drew won't be available to help us. Or anyone else for that matter." "In other words, we're on our own," said Adrian.

"In that case," Horace stated, "I guess we sit tight – we've got to keep the herbivores from getting out, or anything else from getting in."

"Yeah," said Mohinder. "Fingers crossed nothing happens."

. . . . .

Drew silently whistled as he watched the storm wail outside. "Hooboy," he thought to himself. "I wouldn't want to be outside right now." He checked his watch. "I hope everyone's alright."

"Komandir."

Drew jolted in startled shock at his desk, turning his head in time to see Nikolai standing at the door. "You need to learn not to sneak up on people."

"The technicians wish to speak with you in the main control room," said Nikolai, ignoring him. "The storm, it seems, has done something to the systems."

. . . . .

"About when did you first notice this?"

"About five minutes ago, sir," said junior technician Ramsey Gray.

The two were currently in the main Control room, with head technician Alexander Pierce, his deputy Darrel Reyes, and Kyle and Nikolai. "We've been trying to find out what's wrong," Pierce said, "But it's unclear. Might have been a lightning strike – we don't know what systems are affected."

Drew nodded his head. "Makes sense." He thought to himself. "Why don't we try a full system restart? Maybe rebooting it'll solve the issue."

The technicians all looked at each other, clearly considering what Drew had suggested.

"I suppose it's worth a shot," said Pierce. He looked to Ramsey. "Let's get to work." "On it, boss," said Ramsey as he prepared to initiate the restart."

"Excellent," said Drew. He nodded his head. "Let's get started".

At this, all the other staff members in the room surreptitiously looked nervously into each other's eyes, as Ramsey finished entering in the necessary code and pressed the enter key to activate. "There," he said. "Now all we need to do is wait and pray it works." At the exact moment he said this, the lights began to dim, as the shutdown began.

. . . . .

"Thanks for the assistance, private," said Linda as she, Khatin, Yolanda, Will, Matt, and Kaisumi walked alongside David Doody towards the main entrance to the Prehistoric Park veterinary facility. They and multiple other vets and researchers had just spent the past hour preparing for the storm. "I must thank you for the help, getting everything secured for the storm," said Khatin.

"Hey, it's no problem," said Doody, a wide smile on his dark face, "I'm always happy to help. And please, call me David. We work in different divisions, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends."

Linda chuckled, rolling her eyes in mock annoyance. "Try telling that to Kyle and your captain," she then said.

"Yeah," David admitted, nodding his head with a look of stoic acceptance on his face, "Yeah, there is that. It's annoying some days, watching them argue."

"I can certainly see why Jack seems to really like hanging around you," Yolanda said, giggling slightly afterward. "And your colleagues for that matter."

"Happt to hear that ma'am," David chuckled, nodding his head immediately afterward. "Like I said, I'm always happy to help."

Will let out a low chuckle. "Better late than never," he stated.

"No kidding bud," Matt agreed. Kaisumi chuckled, shaking her head side to side in bemusement.

Khatin and Linda nodded their heads. "Well, we're not too much further now from the exit to this facility," said the former as he noticed an appropriate sign that he recognized as being not too far away from the veterinary facility's front entrance. "Best of luck getting back to Control."

"Thanks mate," said David, flashing the chief researcher a thumbs up. "I could probably say the same to you and your division. It will probably be a nightmare for you and your underlings to get back to the main research facility if the storm's gotten bad enough by the time you start on your way back there. Especially considering how you'll have to escort those two ornithomimus hatchlings you've been fostering in the process."

The sound of chirping from behind the group caused them to turn their heads to look in that direction. Sure enough, Flotsam and Jetsam were following close behind Khatin and his three young assistants, staring intently upward towards the man who'd been playing father to them. Khatin sighed and shook his head in bemusement. "You just have to always follow me around; don't you?" The two young ornithomimus chirped and swung their tails playfully, much to the amusement of Will, Matt, Kaisumi, and even Yolanda. David chuckled as well, directing a meaningful look towards the park's chief researcher. "Father of the Year award goes to Dr. von Schorzberg ladies and gentlemen," he stated jokingly.

Suddenly, a low, humming sound caused the group to see the lights beginning to flicker..The entire group gaped; eyes widened at the sight of the apparent power outage. "Ok," Will stated, his face now turning rather pale as he realized just how much more serious this situation was starting to look then he'd thought. "This definitely isn't looking good." "No kidding," Matt groaned. "There aren't any eggs still incubating in there are there?" Kaisumi worriedly asked. Yolanda's eyes widened. "There's still that harpactognathus egg..."

An electronic groaning noise filled the air, and the power started slowly coming back on throughout the veterinary facility. "Ok, looks like things might be alright after all," Yolanda then said. "At least as far as the power's concerned." "We should probably still check to make sure everything's still on the right settings," Flotsam and Jetsam, equal parts confused and nervous, chirped and warbled while looking to Khatin as if asking him what to do.

David nodded his head, already starting to surreptitiously prepare his tranquilizer rifle. He looked to Linda and Khatin. "I'm starting to get the feeling I may need to stay here a bit longer." "Me too," Khatin agreed, directing a brief look at Flotsam and Jetsam. Linda turned her head to Yolanda and the three young researchers. "You four go back to the main building and tell everybody else to hunker down just in case."

. . . . .

"The system's been compiling for eighteen minutes, or twenty. So, one or two minor systems may go back off again before the restart is fully finished."

Drew tapped his feet impatiently at the chief technician's summation – restarting from the power outage caused by the storm had been going on long enough. Couldn't this go any faster?

Suddenly, Jack Denham's voice screamed into Drew's walkie-talkie; "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Picking up his walkie-talkie, Drew said, confused, "What do you mean?" Jack's voice was frantic, "Something must have gone wrong with the electronic door locks. The dire wolf gate opened, but they didn't leave. The Pleistocene coyote gate opened, and they've all gone. The teratorns got out, too; they just tried to attack us..." His voice disappeared and was replaced by static in mid-sentence.

Drew turned to the technician, an angry glare now on his face, "One or two small systems, Pierce?"

The head technician shrugged. "The electronic door locks must have already been affected by the lightning strike before we started the full system reboot – they should have restarted with everything else."

"What?", Drew said, quietly, "But wouldn't that mean...?" Suddenly, he heard Darrel's voice, tinged with shock, saying, "Uh, Drew? Look at the cameras."

Confused, Drew turned to look at the cameras…and his eyes widened at what he saw. On one feed, several Draconyx were milling about by the homotherium paddock, browsing on a tree. This was interrupted when a homotherium suddenly ran out and snarled at the iguanodonts, causing them to walk away.

On another feed, Gideon the Stegosaurus warily circled a majungasaurus who stared at him, bemused, and paused to curiously nip at Gideon's tail spikes. On another camera, an Ornitholestes hissed at a browsing Columbian mammoth, who ignored the smaller animal. And on yet another, Matilda walked down a path, roaring to the heavens above.

"According to this, the gates have been down for the past half hour," Darrel said, "Some of the animals must've realized the doors weren't working and taken that moment to walk out. The animals are free in the park; mingling with each other."

The full gravity of the situation hit Drew – the animals were loose in the park. Who could say what chaos the animals could cause interacting with each other? And what would happen if they left the park? They could head for Sarasota City, just miles away, possibly killing dozens of people. Or they could escape into the swamps and kill or be killed by alligators, pythons, bears, panthers, deer…utter pandemonium!

"Oh God."

"Well? What are you going to do about it?"

Wincing, Drew looked behind him in time to Kyle staring coldly at him.

"This can wait until later," Nikolai curtly broke in, "Focus on the now – we have to resolve this crisis first. Grudges can wait."

In that instant, Kyle turned his gaze towards Nikolai, an almost murderous look on his dark face. "Look who's talking. Pot calling the kettle black, much?"

Nikolai narrowed his eyes. "Really?", he growled, "Things have gone to hell – this is beyond a worst-case scenario. Get the closest members of your team here, now." Kyle glowered at this.

Drew gritted his teeth, mentally cursing, 'I am really getting sick of you two'.

Kyle pointed his finger accusingly at Nikolai, "Why would it matter?! You've never thought of my team as competent!"

"That's rich, coming from someone who has such little faith in them!"

"And what's that supposed to mean?!"

"Oh, come on Kyle, do I have to spell it out?! You have no faith in Denham – just like the komandir! Denham is one of our Deputy Keepers – one of our section heads no less – and you have no respect for him at all!"

The other staff members present looked witheringly at Drew. In that instant, it was clear that they were all silently saying, "You going to do something about this?!' Drew cursed himself – he'd been letting those two act like idiots for months. Well, no more.

"Well, forgive me for being skeptical. His basic approach for any situation is 'pull a plan out of my arse and if it doesn't work, improvise'. That's not really a strategy, is it? More a cock-up."

"He may act the fool, yes, and he's an odd character, but we have plenty of odd characters here. However, there is someone remarkable in there – you just need to see it! How can you accuse me of having no faith in your team if you don't have any faith in them yourself!?"

"Don't you dare, you-"

"SHUT UP!"

Everyone turned their attentions to an enraged looking Drew, who then pointed his finger accusingly at Kyle and Nikolai. "OK! So, you both have issues with each other! BIG DEAL!" He gestured towards the security camera footage, "DON'T YOU SEE THAT WE'VE GOT BIGGER CONCERNS?!

A nearby technician scoffed, rolling his eyes in derision, and muttered, "Like he's one to talk."

Drew gave the technician a glare, and exhaled icily, before turning back to Kyle and Nikolai. "Look," he spat. "I'm sorry, alright? I was too hands-off, too ignorant… and things slipped past me. I should have been more attentive – maybe I'd have been able to resolve Jack and Leon sooner or something like that. You kept on telling me 'Show proper leadership', – well, this is me showing proper leadership. There are bigger things at stake than your egos right now – everything we've worked for could be gone in a night. Are you going to let that happen – or are you going to swallow your pride and work together?"

For a few seconds, dead silence hung in the air, before Nikolai and Kyle looked at each other. And then they hung their heads. "My apologies komandir," said Nikolai. "I lost my temper." "Yeah," Kyle admitted awkwardly, "I shouldn't have."

Drew took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "Good," he said. "Now, let's get to work on saving the park." He looked to Pierce, Darrel, Ramsey, and the other technicians. "Any progress on fixing the issue?"

"Um," Ramsey stated as he quickly took a look at the data on his computer. "Ok, yes, I think we can find the bug and fix it – however, it's going to take time."

"How long?" Nikolai asked.

"Hours", said Darrel. "Once you've got animals back in their paddocks, you're going to have to lock the gates manually."

"Shit" Kyle growled.

Ramsey said, "Even worse, comms have gone to shit due to the storm – those people at the far end of the park might as well be on their own. But you can't be sitting around waiting for things to clear up – it's time you don't have."

"Best get started now, then," said Drew. "Alright guys," he said. "Let's get to work." He looked to Nikolai and Kyle. "Get everybody who you can contact here – we need all hands-on deck. Tell the vet offices to expect new arrivals and tell them to fortify the place – if a predator gets in, we might have a massacre."

. . . . .

Leon, Adrian, Cass, Horace and Mohinder were all on high alert as they kept watch both to make sure none of the herbivores got out and that nothing else got in. So far, they weren't receiving anything from Control – this didn't help their nerves.

"This is insane," said Cass. "Tell me about it," Horace grumbled in agreement, before looking up at the stormy sky. "First major storm and everything seems to be going wrong. We don't know what's going on outside here."

"The gates have opened," said Mohinder, "Who's to say what's escaped?"

"And with our comms gone wonky, anything could happen, and we wouldn't be able to warn anyone!", Leon snarled before then looking bitterly at his communicator.

A chittering interrupted them, and the group looked to see three Compsognathus in the paddock. "And there we have our answer," said Leon. "Whatever's happened clearly affected the whole park."

"Uh, Leon?", said Horace as he pointed his finger at the small dinosaurs. The rest of the group looked closer…and their eyes widened in horror at the sight of the compys running towards Carina's nest!

Cass bolted over to head the compys off, snatching up a manure shovel and yelling "OH NO YOU DON'T!", before placing herself between the compys and Carina's nest and slamming the shovel down on the ground, startling the three small carnivores into jumping backwards in fright. Cass snarled, "You want these eggs? You're gonna have to go through me first!"

The compsognathus hissed and snapped at her...only to be immediately quietened by Carina appearing from behind Cass and looming menacingly over them before letting out a loud honking bellow for good measure. The little carnivores bolted in an instant, running out of the paddock gate.

Once the compies were gone, Cass and Carina looked at each other, as Cass lowered her shovel and Carina relaxed. "Thanks," she said, reflexively, to which Carina snorted and nodded before returning to her nest. As Cass walked back to her friends, Mohinder chuckled, "You picked right, Horace." Horace and Cass both looked at each other and blushed.

"Thanks," Cass responded, "Still, we should probably be thankful that it was only the compys…"

The sound of a low barking cough caused the group to turn to see the pectinodon pack come loping through the gate. The herbivores, on the arrival of the troodonts, immediately went on edge, making threat gestures - even Custer narrowed his eyes and snorted menacingly.

"Damn it," Leon hissed. "This looks problematic," Adrian said, silently, as he drew out his tranquillizer rifle, "Where's Jack when you need him?" "He might not be useful here – he said he was having difficulty with them and the talos," Leon confirmed. "The troodonts are too smart for that."

The alpha male pectinodon, Butch, let out a raspy snarl as he advanced towards them, followed by the rest of the pack.

Butch let out a series of barking coughs and the pack burst into a run as the five keepers raised their tranquilizer guns and aimed them at the charging troodonts, ready to fire if necessary. Carina got up and charged towards the pack and the troodonts briefly halted – however, they were ultimately unbowed as they simply ran right past her and circled the keepers menacingly.

For several minutes, the keepers and troodonts remained still in a tense standoff. "You really sure we can tranq them all?" Mohinder whispered, to which Cass hissed back, "You got any better ideas?". "What about your animal speech device?" Horace asked Leon in a whisper. "Don't you have anything on there that could scare them off?" "There's no guarantee that'll work," Leon whispered in reply. "It might make things worse."

Butch's mate Cassidy snarled and tensed, preparing to lunge at Adrian...

...only to hiss in surprise as Cirrus unexpectedly came diving down from the sky and slammed his head into her, knocking her to the ground as the mighty pterosaur subsequently came to a landing nearby. The whole pack recoiled in shock as Cirrus shrieked, his neck extended to full length as he screeched aggressively. The pectinodon hissed and snarled, to which the pterosaur walked towards them, looming over them silently, until they went quiet and retreated.

The five keepers gaped in surprise at what had happened. For their part, the herbivores were immediately on edge – to them, Cirrus was a predator.

Realizing this, Horace and Cass looked to Adrian. "Think you can handle getting Cirrus calmed down?" Cass asked. Adrian jolted, briefly caught off guard, but he quickly thought to himself, took a quick look at Cirrus, and said, "I shouldn't have too much of a problem getting him under control."

"Good," said Cass. She looked to Horace. "Think you can help me calm down all the herbivores here?" Horace nodded his head. "Yup – shouldn't be too difficult." "I'll help, too", said Leon. "I'll take care of Custer," Mohinder added in. "Out of all of us, I'm the one who's worked with him the most."

The group split up to get to work on calming down the Hell Creek herbivores and Cirrus. Adrian walked up to Cirrus, whistling softly to get the pterosaur's attention. Cirrus promptly turned to face Adrian upon hearing the whistling, warbling warily at first before then softening his gaze as he recognized Adrian. "It's OK, Cirrus," Adrian said calmly, slowly extending his right hand towards the quetzalcoatlus in a placatory gesture. "Everything's alright now. We're all safe here."

Cirrus warbled, turned to face Adrian, and slowly walked over to him, before gently placing the top of his head on Adrian's shoulder. Adrian smiled, and rubbed him under his beak. "Good boy Cirrus," he said. "Like I said, everything's going to be fine." But even as he said this, he couldn't help but feel nervous. Something in his mind was telling him – this night would not end well...

. . . . .

"Let's keep it moving everyone," Kyle said as he, Nikolai, and all the keepers and security team members they could assemble got ready to go out into the park.

Nikolai nodded his head at the sight of the teams that he and Kyle had set up all working as fast as they could to prepare. But even so, he couldn't help but feel a reasonable degree of worry about the more unpleasant possibilities to potentially unfold. "Here's hoping we're not too late when we finally head out there," he stated.

"You and me both," Kyle grunted in agreement.

"Mr. Taymor!"

Kyle and Nikolai, looked to see Alice Denham and Tina Cheng, both exhausted. Alice panted, "We came as soon as we could..."

Nikolai said, quietly, "It's good you did. Thank you." said Nikolai. Kyle nodded in agreement, "Anything you might have seen on your way here?"

Alice shook her head, "No. Most of the animals we saw hadn't left their paddocks." Tina said, "Has anyone here heard from Jack or Cassandra? Because we've been trying all day and we can't reach them."

Nikolai shook his head. "I'm afraid not. The storm's screwing with the comms as well. The people on the far side of the park might as well be on their own."

Alice groaned in half irritation and half fear. "This can't be happening," she hissed.

"Don't worry Ms. Denham," said Nikolai, comfortingly, "I'm sure your brother's perfectly fine." Kyle snorted, "Yeah. He's been through worse." He turned to Nikolai, "He was with Collete last time I checked – you worried about her?"

"Nyet." Nikolai said, "I am sure they can handle themselves – they'll be safe together." He looked to Tina. "And yes, I'm sure we'll be able to say the same about your sister."

"I certainly hope so," Tina hissed in a half haughty and half nervous tone.

"If you say so," said Alice.

"You're both free to come along with us," Kyle added. "We'll probably need all the help we can get."

"Count us in then," said Alice. Tina nodded.

At the sound of the front door opening once more, all the keepers and guards present looked in time to see John Willoby and Calum Fox enter the building, the latter accompanied by a pair of dromaeosaurids. These were Smith and Wesson, two brothers amongst the rescued saurornitholestes pack that Calum had spent the last month and a half training to serve as his personal 'scent raptors'.

"Sorry we weren't here sooner, boss," said John as he lowered the hood from his rain poncho. "We came as quickly as we could."

Calum nodded his head in agreement. "We needed to make a stop to get Smith and Wesson – we figured you needed all the help you could get."

Alice raised her eyebrow. "Did you see anything?"

"Yes," said Willowby. "Most of the animals appear to have stayed in their paddocks – however, a few of the Ajuga Formation herbivores have escaped."

"We'll just have to keep our eyes open for them," said Nikolai, to which Kyle nodded, "You two are free to help us out if you wish." He pointed at Smith and Wesson. "Those two could be useful."

"Count us in laddie," said Calum as he flashed Kyle and Nikolai a thumbs up as John gave a curt nod, with Smith and Wesson letting out their distinctive barking coughs in unison afterward.

"That's good to hear," said Alice, starting to feel slightly more hopeful about the chances of finding Jack safe and sound.

"What did we miss?"

Now the entrance hall was graced with the presence of Peter Farnsworth, Joe Bristow, and Anita Watts. It was Peter who had just spoken, and he nodded his head. "Came as soon as we could."

Bristow nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah – until we got the call, first sign we had something was up was when one of the dimetrodon ran past us – couldn't tell which one it was. From what I hear, a lot of the others are out too." "Looks like we're going to have our work cut out for us," said one of the other security guards in the area.

Nikolai nodded in agreement. "Indeed. Whilst not all the animals have escaped, we'll certainly have plenty of stuff to keep us busy while the technicians are working on trying to repair the bug."

Peter raised his eyebrow. "I'll help the technicians with fixing the bug – the more hands the better." "I could help as well," Anita chimed in, drawing out her communicator in the process. "Since the storm's messing with the comms, I'll help the tech guys see if they can fix it."

The assembled keepers and guards all looked to Kyle and Nikolai, who both nodded in agreement. "That certainly does sound like a helpful idea," said Kyle. "Agreed," said Nikolai. He looked to Peter and Anita. "Permission granted. You two can stay here and help the technicians."

"I suppose I'll stay here to," said Joe. He prepared his tranquilizer rifle. "All the techies around here are gonna need somebody in case something gets in."

Nikolai nodded his head. "Works for me." He looked around the room at everyone assembled, and then he and Kyle raised their respective tranquilizer rifles. "Enough talk," said Nikolai. "Time to get to work," said Kyle.

"Yes sir," said all the other assembled keepers and guards in unison.

. . . . .

"Come on, come on," Collete growled, trying her best to successfully get a call through on her communicator while a slightly nervous Jack stood right next to her. At the moment, the two were still standing by the dire wolf paddock, trying to figure out what to do. "Where the fuck is everyone!"

Suddenly, in what seemed like a miracle, a familiar voice crackled into Collete's communicator. "Hello? This is Watts! Do you read me?"

Collete promptly tightened her grip on her communicator, a clear look of relief on her face at the successful contact established with Anita. "This is Dubois," she panted. "What's your status?"

"I'm at Control," Anita responded from the other end of the line. "Me and Farnsworth are working to help the techs fix a bug in the system."

"Some kind of power failure's going on," said Peter's voice from the same end as Anita. "Electronic locking system is off – we tried a full system reboot, but it didn't do anything, and now we've got damn near the entire park on the loose!"

Collete mentally cursed. While she had suspected that the problems weren't limited to La Brea Grand Vista, the confirmation was still shocking enough. "Well Jack and I are still at La Brea Grand Vista," she said. "What do you recommend we do?"

"Just try to stay put," said Anita. "But if necessary, either move to elsewhere to stay safe or see what you can do to help round up any loose animals you see and manually resecure any unlocked paddocks you can find."

"And tell Denham to be careful out there with you," Joe Bristow's voice chimed in. "His sister's already worried sick enough right now as is."

The static suddenly started getting especially loud and frequent. "Damn it," Anita growled. "The frequency's starting to go all wonky again. Just do what I told you, OK? We'll try to call you back later if poss..." Static completely took over.

"Watts? Watts!", Collete screamed, but her connection was gone once more. Sighing, she ended the call and looked to Jack. "Alright Jack, you heard her. What do you recommend we do?"

But Jack barely heard her, his eyes widened in shock at the news. Every animal was loose! Thoughts racing, Jack came to one conclusion; he needed to get to Hell Creek – the dromas were tamer and could…

His thoughts were interrupted by his noticing a small theropod walking towards him. He recognized it instantly. It was Oliver, the male Morrison ornitholestes. He breathed a sigh of relief. The ornitholestes were, to an extent, docile and could be handled safely. Bringing him back wouldn't be a problem.

But then Oliver suddenly whipped round and hissed at him, at which point Jack noticed something wasn't quite right with Oliver. His eyes were bloodshot and his pupils had contracted to slits. He walked with a slight limp and an almost maniacal gleam in his eyes. His mouth foamed with saliva; in fact, he looked almost rabid. He charged at Jack with a shriek, his claws stretched and his mouth open.

Jack barely had time to react as the theropod ploughed into him, knocking him to the ground. He attempted to crawl silently away, but Oliver noticed him and pinned him to the ground. Collete lifted her tranq gun as Jack struggled, but couldn't shoot Oliver without the possibility of hitting Jack. As Jack looked with horror, Oliver stood over him, outstretched his claws and hissed anticipatorily. Jack screwed his eyes shut, knowing what was coming…

Suddenly, a furry grey shape slammed into the Ornitholestes – Oliver only had time for a squawk of outrage as he was knocked to the ground. Jack, disoriented, looked up to find a large dire wolf standing between him and the Ornitholestes. Jack squinted to notice a distinctive patch of white fur on his back; this was Nero. Oliver, rising to his feet, screeched with rage at the new arrival, to which Nero growled a reply.

Nero and Oliver circled each other, pausing occasionally to snap or hiss at the other before Oliver pounced at Nero, attempting to bite him. In response to this, the dire wolf grabbed the theropod's arm and pinned him to the ground. The prostrate Oliver twisted under the dire wolf and whacked him on the snout with one clawed hand, leaving three long gashes. In return, Nero pounced back into the fight and went for Oliver's leg whilst the theropod was distracted, pulling him to the ground once more. That seemed to have done the job; Oliver lay, groaning, as Nero turned to Jack, turning his back on Oliver. Jack smiled, "Yeah, I'm alright."

Suddenly, and without warning, Oliver jumped on Nero's back, as the dire wolf howled in pain. Baying for blood, Oliver let out an almost maniacal screech as he bit and clawed at Nero repeatedly, leaving injuries on the dire wolf's back. For a few minutes, wolf and theropod bucked around like some sort of demented rodeo; Oliver clinging onto Nero's back for dear life whilst the dire wolf tried to dislodge him.

As Jack and Collete moved away from the fight, it looked briefly as though the Ornitholestes was going to prevail. However, in a blur of twisted limbs and confusion, Nero bucked Oliver off his back and headbutted him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Oliver's head impacted against the floor and he crumpled into a heap. Seeing that his opponent was unmoving, Nero howled in victory, joined by the rest of the pack, celebrating both their alpha's victory and the fact that the pack was safe from this threat. All of the pack; Jack and Collete, it seemed, counted amongst them.

Jack walked up to Oliver. Much to his relief, the Ornitholestes was still breathing – however, he was unconscious. Jack breathed out in relief; at least they didn't have to worry about him trying to kill them. Jack turned to Collete and said, "He's out cold."

Collete nodded, "We'll have to take him to the vet station ourselves. We'll load him in the back of the jeep and drive to Control." Jack nodded, "Yeah – first, however, we need to get the dire wolves back to their paddock."

Jack and Collete turned to Nero and his pack to shoo them back to their paddock – however, Nero sat to the ground, rooted to the spot. He and his pack were clear; Jack and Collete were not going anywhere without them. At this, Jack sighed, "Fine – you can come with us".

Walking up to an unattended Jeep, Jack turned to Collete. "Do you have the keys?"

"No." Three seconds later, she opened the door with a crowbar.

After loading Oliver in the back, Jack got in the passenger seat, whilst Collete hotwired the Jeep. Once she'd gotten it started, she turned to Jack, "Where do we go?" Jack breathed out, "Hell Creek – I want to both get the dromas and check if my friends are OK." In response to this, Collete put her foot on the pedal and the Jeep drove slowly through the park, the dire wolves running alongside it.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, back at the Hell Creek herbivore paddock, Cirrus and the five keepers were still gathered in the centre of the paddock while the various herbivores were roaming about the paddock. It had been at least an hour now since the initial intrusions – however, everyone was still on guard. But now, Leon had at last drawn out his noise broadcasting device and gotten it set up.

"So long as we're positioned between the herbivores and the gate," Leon explained. "The right sound could be enough to get the herbivores to stay away in case of another attack." Adrian nodded, "Good plan."

The sound of a hooting grunt caused the group to turn their heads in time to see none other than a curious Einstein standing near Cass. The pachycephalosaurus hooted and leaned his head meaningfully towards Cass; Cass chuckled, and gave her pachycephalosaur companion a light pat on his domed head. "It's OK, Einstein," she said. "I'm alright." Einstein grumbled in affirmative. Horace chuckled. "Don't worry, big guy – everything's going to be fine."

"Yeah," Mohinder said, with a note of trepidation in his voice. The sound of leaves being torn from a nearby tree caused Einstein, Cirrus, and the five keepers to turn and see Custer browsing peacefully. Mohinder chuckled. "Well at least someone's finding time to relax." The rest of the group all chuckled in agreement.

Suddenly, a light rumble erupted in the ground, with an ominous looking ripple occurring in a nearby puddle. In an instant, Cirrus and the other herbivores went on edge. Even Custer was nervous. Horace turned to Leon, "What's got them spooked?" Leon tensed, "Something big is coming." A few seconds later, a low snarl split the air.

Everyone watched, rooted to the spot, as an allosaurus stepped out of the gloom. Like the pectinodon, it had bloodshot eyes and was frothing at the mouth. Mohinder said, quietly, with trepidation clear in his voice, "That's Big Al. The allosaurus fragilis pack's beta male – he's in charge when Santino and Demona aren't around."

Big Al hissed, his red eyes narrowed and now looking even more intimidating than usual thanks to their bloodshot status, turned his head behind him and bellowed, before beginning to slowly move towards the five keepers, now joined by the rest of the pack – whilst Santino and Demona were absent, this was hardly reassuring. "Oh crap", Leon said.

The herbivores reacted in an instant, the larger ones forming a phalanx around both the smaller herbivores and the younger members of their herds, with Custer standing at the lead. At the approaching allosaurus, they all bellowed menacingly - as if in solidarity, Cirrus joined in. The allosaurus began to advance towards the herd, snarling.

At this, the five keepers nodded their heads and readied themselves. "Alright everyone," said Adrian. "Hope you're ready." The five keepers tensed up, tranquilizer rifles at the ready...only for the animals to end up beating them to the punch in defending themselves.

Three of the subadult allosaurus attempted to go after the edmontosaurus, only for two to pause and start hissing in discomfort at the hadrosaurs' honking bellows – the one subadult that hadn't yet paused tore its way to the edmontosaurus, only for a smack to its face from Carina's tail to send it stumbling back. The subadults snarled in rage and discomfort, only for Carina to advance, rear up on her hind legs, and come down again – intimidated, the subadults slunk off.

The remaining three subadults decided to go after the easier meals Cirrus and the five keepers presented, only for Cirrus to vault into the air and dive-bomb them, making sure to avoid their snaps. Eventually, deciding no meal was worth this trouble, the young allosaurus trio slunk off.

The adult allosaurus, meanwhile, fared little better. The other male found itself hissing in rage and staggering as if off balance as the pachycephalosaurus bombarded it with attacks, whilst the three females snapped at the adult ceratopsians and ankylosaurs, who formed an intimidating phalanx of horns and armour whenever one tried to get past – in the end, the four adult allosaurus slunk off.

The only allosaurus left was Big Al, who was finding himself outmatched against Custer. With a swing of his tail, Custer sent the allosaurus stumbling, as he snarled, regained his footing, and turned around to bellow and snap his teeth at the sauropod's right front leg. This effort was foiled by a light thrust from Custer's left front leg, knocking the allosaurus off balance. Big Al panted and lunged for Custer again when, with a swing of his neck, Custer slammed his head against the giant theropod's chest, sending him sprawling.

The allosaurus righted himself to see Custer looming over him menacingly. All courage dissipated, Big Al hurriedly turned tail and fled, following the rest of the pack.

Once all the allosaurus had departed, Custer lead the herd in a triumphant bellow, with Cirrus adding his own warbling shrieks to the chorus. Once the chorus had ceased, Leon turned to the animals and smiled. "Well done", he said quietly, "Well done." A smiling Cass turned to see Einstein walking up to her, placing his domed head against her shoulder. "Oh, stop it, you big softy," she said affectionately. Leon smiled at this, before a grunt from Custer caused them all to look to see Cirrus and the herd all looking nervously at the open gate – anything could come in. The five looked at each other – they needed to savor the lull.

"Let's start getting the herbivores herded up into the barn," said Horace. "At this point, I'd say we've waited long enough." He pointed at the edmontosaurus, which were all still gathered at their nests. "We'll save the edmontosaurus for last. Aside from Custer, they're the biggest – we can also work out how to move their eggs while we're working on getting the rest of the animals into the barns."

"Sounds like a plan to me," said Cass. She looked to Mohinder, Leon, and Adrian. "Come on boys," she said. "Let's get to work."

. . . . .

As the alarm blared in the Prehistoric Park vet offices, Linda Eberhart screamed into her walkie-talkie, "Drew, where the hell are you? Drew, the alarms don't just choose to go off! We've just had to tranquilize four carnivores that weren't where they should be and place them under heavy security! What's going on?!" There was no response. Linda rolled her eyes, typical. Didn't he realize that this was important? The vet offices were full of sick and injured animals; if some predator got in the vet offices, there would be a massacre.

Seeing her frustration, Khatin turned to his colleague and said, "Any luck?" Linda breathed out, "No – I haven't gotten through to him."

"Figures," Will spat, "Wonder what he's found to occupy his time instead of listening to us?"

"You do realize that we're currently having trouble contacting anyone right now?" Kaisumi asked. "I know," Will growled, hanging his head irritably. "But my point still stands."

"I hear you mate," said David, directing a glare towards the high security veterinary holding chambers where Frida, Salvador, Kenge, and Komodo were currently being kept under heavy guard. The four carnivores had been caught outside, sniffing around in search of food, and had been tranquilised. Something was wrong – they needed to talk to Drew.

"Whilst I agree totally," said Khatin, "Drew is still our boss, so he has to know that something is going on." "No kidding," Linda said. Sighing, she lifted her walkie-talkie and tried again, "I have patients in here and I need to know whether to put the vet offices on lockdown! Drew-"

Suddenly, Kyle's voice chimed in through the radio, "Linda, where are you?" She responded, "Kyle, what's going on? I'm in the rehab section, I need to know whether to put the vet facilities on lockdown." Will, Khatin, and the rest of the veterinary and research staff present all directed their full attention as Kyle's voice crackled over, "There was a containment failure; a lot of the animals have escaped. We're tracking them all down – however, we don't know the full scope of the incident and we can't reach everyone. Put the vet offices on lockdown – we'll send any injured animals we find to you. There are secure places around the park we can keep them before someone comes and picks them up." Nodding, Linda pushed the lockdown button and the exterior doors were locked shut; nothing could get in, nothing could get out. "Alright, the building's locked down."

Khatin said, "Ja, and not a moment too soon." Linda turned to her colleague, confused, and said, "Why?" However, it was not Khatin who spoke next, but Yolanda, "Boss…look out the window."

A confused Linda turned to look out of the window to see the plumadaemon flock walking around, sniffing the air, in search of food. Sniffing the air and looking up to the window, one of the plumadaemon narrowed its tiny eyes – it smelled prey.

"Oh crap."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, not too long after ending his call with Linda, Kyle and his team had arrived at the Santa Cruz Savannas zone and were taking a quick round of time to observe the area around them – from what they could check from the security cameras, things so far looked promising.

"The animals from the main herbivore paddock seem to have stayed put – some are in the barns to get out of the storm," said the guard in question as he continued looking over the security footage within the Santa Cruz staff outpost. "However, Sid and Dermot are unaccounted for. None of the birds or smaller animals have escaped either."

"Sounds good Winters," Nikolai stated into his communicator. "What of the larger carnivores?"

"Now there's the problem," Winters responded. "The theriodictis and protocyon are sticking to their paddocks, as are Broken Fang's pride and most of the arctotherium However… Kronk's missing, as are Raul, Carlos and the terror birds. Also, you might want to keep an eye out for..."

"Let me guess?" Alice stated as a snarling Otrera walked along the trail, sniffing around for food. "The dimetrodon?"

"Correct, I see two of them," Winters responded. "The other is sulking around by the main herbivore paddock."

"Got it." Nikolai nodded. "Thanks Winters. Stay where you are for now and keep watching the cameras. We'll see if we can handle things from here." "Roger that captain," said Winters before he ended the call. Nikolai looked to Willoby. "You find Raul, Carlos and the terror birds – we will take care of everyone else. Take Smith and Wesson with you." "You got it boss," said Willowby. "As you wish captain," said Fox as he gave Nikolai a salute. Their orders received, Willowby, Fox, and eight other security guards accompanying them headed off to do as Nikolai had said, with Smith and Wesson eagerly rushing off alongside their trainer. Once they were gone, Nikolai looked to the remainder of his and Kyle's team. "Alright, now let's start by seeing if we can get Otrera out of the way." Alice drew out her tranquilizer gun and pointed it in Otrera's direction. "I'll see if this gets through whatever's got her in such a snit," she said as she looked calmly through the sighting feature and put her finger on the trigger.

A few minutes later, Otrera was successfully tranquilized; at which point she was safely carried over to a nearby trap zone. "Excellent work," said Kyle. "Now let's see if we can find Rommel."

The group's next stop was the theriodictis paddock. The theriodictis pack had only remained a small distance, and they all looked curiously at the humans who'd now arrived, with Dogo yipping at Alice. Alice let a small smile come on her face at the adorable sight. "Good to see you, too." She looked at the still open paddock behind the theriodictis pack, and then back at her companions. "Let's see if we can get them to go back home."

Through a mixture of gentle coaxing and offerings of meat, the whole pack were peacefully led back into their paddock – once they were in, Alice and the rest of the group departed and carefully resecured the paddock gate with zip ties and padlocks. "Right then," said Tina. "What's next?"

The sound of hissing and squealing split the air before anyone could answer her, and the entire group looked in to see Rommel and Dermot fighting viciously. At that moment, Rommel, panting, gasping, and riddled with bruises and cuts, was losing – by contrast, Dermot was uninjured. At the fight, Nikolai looked to Kyle. "You think you can get him?" Kyle nodded his head, already preparing his tranquilizer rifle. "Let's find out," he said as he cocked the gun.

Rommel snarled and lunged at Dermot's head, only for Dermot to knock him to the ground with a swing of his tail. Hissing in outrage, Rommel tried to hurry back to his feet, only to then be knocked on his side when the glyptodont rammed his head against him. Rommel hurriedly dodged a blow from Dermot's tail, before moving to retreat. However, Rommel only made it a couple feet before he was successfully darted by Kyle's tranquilizer rifle, spending a few minutes spinning around in a drunken stupor. Dermot stared blankly at the now thoroughly unconscious Rommel, and then looked directly towards Kyle and his team while letting out a confused sounding squeal.

Kyle nodded his head. "That takes care of that," he said, privately feeling very relieved that Rommel hadn't been too badly injured over the course of his encounter with Dermot. He looked to his team. "Alright, now let's see if we can lead Dermot away from Rommel and back to the main herbivore paddock before we then..."

A low snarl interrupted him, and he and the team looked to the left just in time to see Kronk suddenly charging straight at them, his eyes red rimmed and wild and his jaws violently salivating as he bared his mighty jaws. The staff went rigid as the giant short-faced bear snarled and walked towards them, before going to a stop right in front of the team, rearing up to full height, and roaring...

...only for a massive furry paw with ridiculously sharp claws to swing against Kronk's chest with a resounding smack, sending the bear stumbling backwards as a megatherium shambled out into view. Sid let out a bellow of challenge, to which Kronk roared in reply. Kronk lunged for Sid's left arm, to which the megatherium backhanded Kronk in the face, sending the bear stumbling backwards. Kronk roared in outrage, before Sid pounded the ground in front of him and bellowed in reply. At this point, Kronk decided discretion would be the better part of valour here, and he hurriedly began to retreat. Nikolai took this opportunity to dart the retreating bear and he came to a stop before collapsing in a clearing. Sid bleated in triumph as he stared placidly towards the humans.

Tina whistled, shook her head side to side in amusement, and then looked to Kyle. "Well, that was certainly good luck." "Regardless," he then said before clasping his hands together. "Let's see if we can get him and Dermot back into the paddock. We'll deal with Kronk later."

Within the next half hour, and with a considerable amount of hard work, the team managed to successfully lead Sid and Dermot back to the Santa Cruz Savannas main herbivore paddock, before locking the gate. A few minutes later, they were joined by Willoby, Fox, and the rest of their group, with Smith and Wesson following close behind.

"We managed to re-secure most of the paddocks," Willowby explained, "We also managed to find Raul and Carlos. However, a couple of trees appear to have been uprooted by the storm and are now blocking the most immediate path from here directly connecting to the La Brea Grand Vista zone. So it looks like we're gonna have to try to take a longer route." He looked apologetically at Alice. "Really sorry to say this lass, but you might have to wait just a little longer to find out what's happened to your brother."

Alice nodded her head, a look of stoic acceptance on her face. "If you say so," she managed to say.

"Let's not dawdle then," said Kyle, "Now that all the escaped Santa Cruz herbivores are back in their paddock, we need to resecure the gate. And once that's done, we need to hurry up and get Rommel to the same trap zone that we placed Otrera in and then resecure the aviaries and other paddocks in this zone before we head off after Kronk."

"Agreed," said Nikolai. He lifted up his communicator and initiated a call. "Winters? This is Koshkin. Keep an eye out on the networks – see if you can find anything from Denham and Collete." "Roger that," said Winters. Nikolai ended the call and slipped his communicator back into his belt. "Denham," he mentally thought to himself in reference to Jack. "Wherever you are, don't die. Don't let me down."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, in the Hell Creek Formation zone, Jack and Collete drove down the path, the dire wolf pack following them. As Collete drove, Jack lifted his walkie-talkie, "Aaron, come in? Carmen? Hugo? Maria? Anyone?" Static was the only response. Jack put down the walkie-talkie, and said, a note of worry in his voice, "Oh my God, what could have happened to them? Anything could have gotten in…" Collete smiled gently at him and said, "Calm down…for all you know nothing may have happened at all."

Suddenly, Carmen's voice came crackling into Jack's walkie-talkie, "We need help here now!" Collete gave an awkward smile, surprisingly for her, as Jack urgently picked up the walkie-talkie and said, frantically, "What's wrong?" Carmen's voice came out so rapidly "I can't explain it, but the Pleistocene coyote pack have escaped and gotten into the forest building! We're trying to protect the animals in here, but we need help!"

By sheer luck, it was at this very moment that Jack and Collete arrived at the Hell Creek forest building. Stopping outside, Collete reflexively turned to the dire wolves and said, "Wait outside." Amazingly, the dire wolves obeyed, and Collete and Jack got out of the jeep with no trouble. Walking towards the Hell Creek forest building, he and Colette heard a frenzy of barking, squawking and hissing. They opened the door to find utter chaos, with Aaron, Hugo, Maria and Carmen trying to protect the animals from the predators. Aaron was currently standing protectively in front of the scapherpeton tank while pointing his tranquilizer pistol threateningly at a pair of Pleistocene coyote. Carmen and Maria were standing together at the now closed to the brodavis, basilemys and axestemys exhibit, keeping their own tranquilizer pistols aimed at a quartet of coyotes crouching before them. Hugo, meanwhile, was standing nearby the alphadon paddock and spraying a fire extinguisher to keep two coyotes away.

Jack let a smile come on his face at the sight of all this. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. He looked to Collete, a giddy grin on his face. "Looks like we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us? Big damn heroes?" Colette let a perplexed look come on her face. "A Firefly reference? Seriously? At a time like this? You dork!" "Look who recognized it," Jack responded, cheeky grin still on his face.

"Banter later, Jackie!" Aaron yelled, as he kept his tranquilizer pistol aimed at the two coyotes, "We're still in need of assistance here!" Jack and Collete both blushed in embarrassment. "Right sorry," Jack said as he got himself focused once more on helping his friends. Collete nodded her head in agreement, drew out her tranquilizer rifle, and hurried off to see if she could help. Jack was just looking around to see how he himself could assist when his gaze zoomed in on Dag advancing towards Kaa.

"Hey!", Jack yelled, causing the coyote to turn to look at him, before he could deliver a killing bite on the snake. Jack, almost reflexively, grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed it in Dag's face, using the coyote's disorientation to run over and pick up Kaa after she was dropped from the surprised Dag's jaws. Temporarily disoriented, Dag walked towards Jack, snarling – he wouldn't be cheated of his prey so easily. Suddenly, Nero charged into the Pleistocene coyote, knocking him to the ground. Dag darted for Nero's throat, but the larger wolf dodged it, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pinned him to the floor. Nero snarled at the prostrate coyote, enabling Jack to carry Kaa to safety as the coyote's eyes widened. Deciding that it wasn't worth challenging the larger wolf, Dag bolted.

At the same time this happened, Collete turned to see a coyote squaring off against Geronimo.

"Thanks for the help," Maria turned to Collete, who smiled in reply.

With the coyotes gone, Jack, Collete, and the four other herpers used the lull to take stock. Whilst the remaining animals were herded back into their pens, several animals were injured – Kaa, Toby, a brodavis with an injured wing and a trierarchuncus with an injured leg, among others.

"How did that even happen?" Collete asked, "You closed and locked the doors to their exhibit and everything."

"One of the coyotes got in – fortunately none of the animals were killed," Carmen grumbled, her eyes narrowed as she briefly directed a withering glare at Hugo. Hugo glowered right back at her. "I was busy trying to help Aaron," he hissed. "What did you expect me to do? Teleport?"

"Calm down now," Jack said. "Arguing isn't going to help anybody."

"Jackie is right," said Aaron. He gestured towards the injured animals, "We need to get these guys to the vet ASAP."

With the injured animals placed in transport crates onto the jeep – making sure that they were nowhere near Oliver, the six resecured the Hell Creek forest building's front and back doors with padlocks and then set off for the droma paddock. Once they had arrived, Jack turned to his teammates, "Right, they might not recognize you lot, so maybe you should stay back…" Suddenly, the sound of a canine snarl, followed by a raptor's hiss, caused Jack and Collete to bolt towards the paddock, with Nero following them.

Following the sound, they saw Duke, standing between the droma nest, facing off against Dag. Clearly the coyote had a theme tonight - picking fights he couldn't win. Suddenly, Dag went for Duke's leg, to which Duke replied by biting him by the scruff of the neck. Droma and coyote struggled with each other for a few minutes, before Duke wrenched his leg free. Using the momentum of his tail, Duke hit Dag in the chest, knocking the coyote to the ground.

In between Jack and Collete, Nero sat, with a look of satisfaction on his face, watching Duke beat up his hated rival. Eventually, Dag, deciding to retreat, tore off in Jack and Collete's direction – as his enemy ran past, Nero couldn't help but make a quick snap at his tail as the Pleistocene coyote ran off into the night yet again.

Jack's four herper buddies whistled silently. "Well that's one way to get rid of them fast," Hugo muttered.

Suddenly sniffing the air, Duke hissed angrily at the sight of the dire wolves and his pack mates burst out of the bushes around them, circling the wolves, Jack, Collete, Hugo, Aaron, Carmen and Maria. The dire wolves positioned themselves between the team and the dromas and Nero stepped forward and snarled threateningly at Duke. Suddenly, Jack got up and placed himself between Nero and Duke and said "Stand down." As the dromas circled the team warily, Jack lifted his arms, holding his hands out to Duke and said, "Stand down."

The dromas continued circling them tensely, and the dire wolves looked ready to fight. Suddenly, Duke relaxed, turned to his pack and squawked to them. At their alpha's call, the dromas' bodies relaxed and they took a step back from the humans. Collete turned to Jack and said, "Are they going to attack us?" Jack sighed happily and shook his head, "No; I think Duke told them to stand down" Aaron turned to Jack, grinning, "Well done Jackie! Now, what's the plan?"

Jack turned to look at Duke, who cocked his head inquisitively, "We take them with us – we'll need all the protection we can get. Now, if we go down this road, we've got a straight trip back to control."

. . . . .

"They're almost in," Watts' voice droned from a communicator as the squawks and screeches of the plumadaemon echoed from outside the main veterinary hospital – the phorusrhacids had surrounded the front entrance, meaning that injured animals had to be smuggled in using the back entrance.

Trying to ignore the din from outside, Linda gritted her teeth as she examined the injured leg of a female Lourinha dryosaurus who'd been found by the Lourinha herbivore paddock, having barely escaped the bite of a foetodon. The situation out there was apocalyptic – several dozen injured animals, some critical, had been sent to the vet offices so far.

So far, it was lucky that none of those animals had died. However, she wasn't going to tempt fate by saying that. She was brought back to reality by the squawks of the plumadaemon, as well as their kicking and pecking at the door.

She knew that if the phorusrhacids got in, it'd be a massacre – many of the animals were injured and couldn't fight back. And of the ones that could… Her attention was turned to the sound of Frida and Salvador roaring and Kenge and Komodo hissing from the air from down the hall.

Matt silently whistled, "We'd best be glad that those holding chambers are secure," he said. "We'd be stuck between a rock and a hard place."

"No kidding," Khatin agreed, trying to keep his mind off the worst-case scenario, "If the plumadaemon make it in here, there'll be a massacre." "Yup," Linda grumbled.

As the terror birds' squawks and screeches added to the crescendo of the night, she breathed out.

Focus. Taking deep breaths to stay calm, she continued checking on the wounded dryosaurus. And at the same time this happened, Yolanda stood by a nearby window and looked nervously out at the terror birds waiting at the door. Upon seeing her, the leader narrowed his eyes at her – this was a siege.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, at the Morrison Formation herbivore paddock, most of the animals were sitting out the storm, some browsing on some of the nearby foliage or drinking from the nearby lake, keeping an eye out for predators. Suddenly, a dryosaurus turned its head and sniffed the air, before letting out a shrill alarm call, putting all the animals in the area on alert. And in that instant, they all gaped in surprise and alarm, as Matilda emerged from the gloom.

A bolt of lightning went off in the distance, illuminating the tyrannosaur as she let out a bloodthirsty snarl before she then began to silently move towards the herbivores, her bloodshot eyes contracted to slits and her jaws violently salivating as she scanned the herd, looking for potential meals. The larger herbivores began to stamp and bellow in an attempt to drive the tyrannosaur off, whilst the smaller herbivores hung back, hoping that the company of more intimidating targets would ward off this predator. Only the larger sauropods remained mostly calm.

Matilda continued her unyielding advance, occasionally snapping and snarling. Suddenly, Bron the apatosaurus came charging towards the tyrannosaurus in a mock charge – unbowed, Matilda snarled at him. Suddenly, the mighty apatosaurus reared up on his hind legs and slammed his front feed to the ground, before letting out an earth-shaking bellow, causing Matilda to stand rooted to the spot – challenging this larger animal was an incredibly bad idea. Breaking off the attack, she decided to find an easier target.

In the end, she found one, in the form of Gideon. The large male stegosaurus had been browsing separately from the herd when the tyrannosaur had arrived. Noticing her arrival, Gideon turned towards the tyrannosaur, bellowing, pounding his front feet, whilst swinging his tail vigorously. When the tyrannosaur did not back off, he turned sideways to her, and his plates flushed a deep-red brown. Matilda took a few steps back at this intimidating display, but did not retreat.

. . . . .

"That should do the trick," Nikolai said as he securely locked the door to the trap zone that he, Kyle, and their team had just returned the tranquilised Kronk to his paddock. "Fortunately, we got things cleaned up here fast enough," Kyle noted. "Well let's not question our good luck then boss," said Tina. "Agreed," said Alice, "Morrison Formation's the closest…"

A savage roar suddenly split the air from the direction of the Morrison Formation zone, followed by a loud rhino-like snorting. "I have a bad feeling I know what that is," said Nikolai. "Agreed," said Kyle. "Come on!"

A few minutes later, the entire assembled team burst into the Morrison Formation in time to see Gideon and Matilda in a stand-off. Matilda lunged her head forward, as Gideon dodged the bite, before swishing his tail menacingly at her. Matilda, snarling in displeasure, dived towards the stegosaurus, mouth open… This proved unwise for her, as Gideon swung his spiked tail right towards her head. Matilda barely avoided losing an eye as she dodged the blow, before snarling at the stegosaurus, who pawed at the ground and bellowed defiantly, as he and Matilda circled each other.

This stand-off lasted a few minutes, with Matilda occasionally pausing to snap at Gideon's tail. But eventually, Matilda decided that she'd had enough, and she sank her teeth into the end of Gideon's tail. The Stegosaurus bellowed in pain as he struggled to free himself from the tyrannosaur's bite. Eventually, however, he managed to shake her free, the momentum knocking her to the floor. Struggling to her feet, Matilda turned and retreated – no meal was wort this. Gideon bellowed triumphantly in her direction, swishing his tail from side to side.

Alice whistled silently at the sight of this. "Well that could have gone a lot worse," she noted.

"Agreed," said Kyle. He looked at Nikolai and everyone else in their team. "Check if any of the Morrison herbivores are missing – then we can resecure the paddock."

The sound of allosaurus bellowing coming from somewhere in the distance caused the entire team pause. "And while we're at it," Kyle continued, "we'd best see if we can round up the allosaurus as well for good measure."

. . . . .

Elsewhere in the park, the Jeep headed down the trail from the Hell Creek forest building, followed by the dire wolf and droma packs. So far, things had been uneventful, with no further encounters with escaped animals thus far. However, it was important not to tempt fate…

Suddenly, Nero stopped, sniffed the air snarled, followed by a hiss from Duke. Getting out of the Jeep, whilst making sure Oliver was still unconscious and the injured Hell Creek animals were secured, Jack, Collete, Aaron, Hugo, Maria and Carmen ran to where the droma and dire wolf packs were standing. There seemed to be absolutely nothing in the area the two packs were looking at. Aaron asked, "Erm, Jackie… what did they smell?" Suddenly, a low, throaty squawk came from the air and Nero and Duke looked to the sky.

Jack and Collete then remembered; Rocco and Laverne the teratornis were still loose. They and the four herpers had barely any time to react, as Rocco and Laverne landed in front of them. Jack and Collete took that moment to notice that they had the same gleam in their eyes Oliver had. Cornering the six humans, Rocco and Laverne spread their wings and hissed anticipatorily. Suddenly, Hannibal and Imilce the argentavis slammed into the two teratornis, squawking menacingly, before looming over their smaller opponents. Rocco and Laverne, eyes widened in terror, launched themselves into the air, seemingly in retreat, before turning on Hannibal and Imilce and attacking them, prompting the two larger birds to take to the air as well.

In the clearing, Jack, Collete, Hugo, Carmen, Aaron and Maria, accompanied by the droma and dire wolf packs, watched the dogfight. Hannibal jabbed Rocco with his beak, leaving a wound on the teratorn's wing – Rocco screeched in pain and moved for Hannibal's neck. Hannibal managed to move his neck to the left, dodging the teratorn's beak and jabbed the smaller bird again. Rocco screeched in pain and slashed at Hannibal's chest with his talons, leaving three long gashes on the argentavis' chest. Hannibal let out a pained caw and buried his beak in Rocco's chest, dislodging him from his chest. The teratorn landed on a large branch to reorient himself, before lunging at Hannibal again. At the same time, the still airborne Imilce and Laverne continued to tussle as well, swinging their taloned feet around at each other and thrusting at each other's necks with their beaks.

Jack turned to Collete and quietly said, "Any idea on who's going to win?" Collete gave a concerned look as the fight continued – it was honestly either way. Hannibal and Imilce had size and power on their side – however, Rocco and Laverne made up for the deficit with speed and ferocity. Dodging a blow from Hannibal's beak, Rocco dived straight for Hannibal's right leg and began tearing at it with his beak. Hannibal screeched in pain as Rocco pulled away, his beak covered with blood.

Hannibal was forced to land, with Rocco pursuing him and both teratorns landed at opposite ends of the clearing, facing each other. The two circled each other, screeching and hissing, sizing each other up. And all while Imilce and Laverne remained too busy dealing with each other in the sky to descend down to their respective mates' defence.

It was Rocco who struck first, diving for Hannibal's injured leg, when suddenly, the dromas dived in. Rocco screeched in outrage as the dromas circled the enraged teratorn, dodging his attempts at attacking them. Unlike the last time, however, he was quickly overwhelmed. Bindi grabbed Rocco's leg, Jane grabbed his wing and Duke grabbed the back of the teratorn's neck. They all bit down in unison and a fountain of blood issued from each bite mark. Rocco gave a feeble, pained squawk and limped off, leaving a trail of blood behind him. The dromas screeched in triumph. And then, with an agonized sounding squawk, an injured Laverne came crashing down on her back with a thud right next to Rocco, warbling weakly in clear pain while Imilce descended gracefully down to a landing directly behind Hannibal.

Despite the fact the two smaller teratorns had tried to kill him, Jack still felt sympathetic to them both. These were two of the only teratorns in existence and he would not let them die. But how to get them treated… Fortunately, he had the solution when Rocco slowed down and suddenly collapsed without having moved too far away from where his mate had landed. He heard Carmen's voice say, "We have to get them to Dr. Eberhart or they're going to die!"

Jack and Collete picked up their radios in unison. The crackle of static confirmed what they'd, deep down, suspected; the radios were still down. "Shit," Collete growled, "Comms are still blacked out." "If we don't get them to the vet station, Rocco and Laverne are both going to die," Carmen repeated. Jack hurriedly drew out some spare medical supplies he'd been carrying in his belt. "Hopefully this will buy us all time to get them there." Rocco and Laverne's wounds were cauterized and sutured; it was a temporary measure until Dr. Eberhart could properly treat them. The group still couldn't get in touch with Control, so they'd have to travel to the vet facility first. And from there, after loading Rocco and Laverne into the back, the group got back in the jeep and resumed their trip, now with the argentavis joining them.

Whilst they drove back to the vet station, with Duke and Nero's packs following close behind and the argentavis flying above them, Jack was deep in thought; the teratorns and Oliver had all suffered from the same symptoms, bloodshot eyes, dilated pupils, foaming at the mouth and extreme aggression. Was it some sort of disease? Some sort of toxin? Something else entirely? His mind, however, ventured out of that questioning. He had to remain focused; they had to bring Rocco and Oliver back to the vet station to be treated and rendezvous with control. They could worry about the particulars later…

His thoughts were interrupted by Collete silently cursing, "Shit." He looked up to see what the problem was – about a mile down the road were the unmistakable forms of the Torvosaurus. Jack said, quietly, "Well, we can't go this way, can we? They'll see us." He sighed, "Buckle in, kids, we're gonna have to take the long way round."

. . . . .

Leon, Adrian, Horace, Cass, and Mohinder shook their heads side to side in half bemusement and half annoyance. At this point, the edmontosaurus herd were the only inhabitants of the paddock who hadn't yet been successfully herded into the Hell Creek herbivore barns, due to their reluctance to leave their nests. Cirrus stayed some distance away – the edmontosaurus would see him as a predator.

"Well this certainly isn't going smoothly," Mohinder grumbled. "Oh really?" Cass snorted. "What gave it away?"

Horace sighed. "You'd think she and her herd would be willing to at least trust you right now Cass," he said. "Especially considering how often and long you've worked with them at this point." "No kidding," Cass said bitterly, hanging her head irritably. "I could try using one of their recordings," Leon suggested. "Or maybe even a t. rex recording if you think that might help."

"Need some help?"

Eyes widened, the five keepers inside the paddock looked towards the paddock entrance just in time to see Kyle, Nikolai, Alice, Tina, Willoby, Fox and Smith. At the sight, Adrian gasped in relief, "Man, are we glad to see you."

"Likewise," Alice said, flashing a mock salute towards her Malaysian American keeper companion as she and the rest of her group calmly entered the paddock. Or at least, except for Tina, who tore right past everyone and went straight towards Cass and immediately wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug while also leaning her head er. "Thank God, you're okay," Tina managed to whimper, small tears of relief sliding down her cheeks, "I was worried about you." After a few seconds, Cass returned the embrace, "I was worried about you, too – I'm glad you're alright."

Eventually the two sisters ended their embrace, still smiling at each other. "What took you so long?" Cass eventually managed to say. Tina smiled warmly, "Let's just say we had to take the scenic route."

"That's one way to put it," Kyle stated. "Da," Nikolai agreed, "We've just spent the last couple hours traveling through the park and rounding up animals." Alice snorted, rolling her eyes in mock annoyance...only to then direct a concerned look towards Leon and Adrian's group. "Have you seen Jack anywhere?"

Adrian's eyes widened, as did those of Leon, Mohinder, Horace and Cass. "Has something happened to him?" Adrian asked.

"We don't know," said Kyle. "We've been trying to find him," Nikolai added in. Alice's shoulders slumped, a dejected look of worry on her face, "You really haven't…"

Leon shook his head, "Sorry Alice," he said. "Last I heard, Jack was at La Brea when everything started going to shit." Alice hung her head, a worried expression on her face.

Tina walked over to her colleague and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Alice," she said. "Trust me, I know exactly how you're feeling right now. Hopefully, he's still alive."

"She's right," said Horace. He nodded his head. "Believe me, he may be a pain in the butt at times, but he'sour pain in the butt. And from what I know of him, it will take a lot more than a measly hurricane and mass escape to take him out." Leon nodded in agreement, "Yeah, And trust me, I don't mean that lightly." Cass, smiling, said, "And besides, last I remember he was with Collete. If anyone can keep him safe, it's her."

Alice let a small smile come on her face despite her lingering worries about her brother's safety. "Thanks guys," she managed to say. "You're welcome," said the six keepers who'd now worked to reassure her. Nikolai, however, had his eyebrow raised and his usual stoic glare focused directly towards Cass. "You calling my number two scary?" Nikolai asked, his usual stoic glare and deadpan tone making it hard to tell if he was being serious or joking around. Cass's eyes widened and her face slightly paled as she realized what she'd just said about Collete in front of the chief of security. "Um...well, I..."

"No matter," said Kyle. He nodded his head and looked to all the assembled keepers and guards. "We can engage in further chit chat later. Right now, we'd best get back to work." He gestured towards the now half wary and half confused edmontosaurus herd and their nests. "Starting with getting the edmontosaurus and their eggs into the barns and resecuring the paddock gates." The sound of a low warbling squawk caused the entire group to look to Cirrus, who was still watching confusedly from nearby. Kyle pointed at the quetzalcoatlus. "And getting him back to the quetzalcoatlus aviary and resecuring it."

"You heard him everyone," said Nikolai, stoic glare still on his face as he nodded his head. "Let's get back to work!"

If Leon and Adrian's group were at all surprised by Kyle and Nikolai's working together so well, they didn't show it. "Yes sir," they all said in unison.

. . . . .

Now joined by the argentavis, Jack and Collete's group drove down the dirt track to Control, and hopefully an unobstructed alternate route to the veterinary facility. Suddenly, Duke stopped and snarled at something – Nero and Hannibal replied in kind. Getting out of the car, the team looked around, "Anything could be out here…"

Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted before it had even truly begun by a loud, reverberating call. The humans backed up against each other, surrounded by the dromas and dire wolves and with the argentavis still hovering in the air above them, as the calls echoed all around them and shapes darted through the gloom. Seconds later, with only a brief squawk of alarm in unison from Hannibal and Imilce to warn the group, the pectinodon burst out from several different angles, surrounding them. The troodonts circled them, snarling.

Watching this, Jack said, quietly, "Wait for it!", before turning to Collete and nodding. Collete nodded in reply and slowly lifted her tranq gun towards the nearest pectinodon. There was a brief moment's hesitation, before she fired, hitting the troodont in the chest. The rest of the pack scattered, whilst the one Collete had hit loped forward, as if in a drunken stupor, before collapsing. With the pectinodon now reeling from the surprise attack, Collete yelled, "Hurry! Pick them off before they get away!"

In response, Jack shot at a pectinodon that was running past him…totally missing it. Nearby, Hugo raised his tranq rifle and, in the blink of an eye, he managed to tranquillize a pectinodon that ran past him with a single shot. Looking at him, Collete lifted her tranq gun and darted a pectinodon near the wall outside the quarantine pens, which collapsed to the floor. Hugo lifted his tranq rifle and darted the pectinodon Jack had missed. That left four. Looking at what was going on, Jack raised his tranq gun again at the nearest standing pectinodon, at point-blank range, and fired…this time successfully hitting the troodont.

Five pectinodon had been darted and knocked out – the remaining three, however, two of them pack leaders Butch and Cassidy, had bolted…into the Carboniferous house! Jack turned to the rest of his group and said, "Get this lot secured. Duke and I are gonna find these guys before they cause any havoc in there." At that, he and the alpha male dromaeosaurus rushed off into the dome.

Jack and Duke walked through the dark building, searching for any telltale movement or noise that might reveal a pectinodon – complicated by the fact that the troodonts had better low-light vision than either of them. As they moved deeper into the dome, the sound of an occasional rustling was the only thing that gave them any indication of the pectinodon's presence. Suddenly, a snarl from behind them made the two turn to see the pectinodon surrounding them, as Duke walked towards them and snarled. However, the pectinodon suddenly stood rigid and looked behind Jack and Duke. Jack and Duke turned to see Felix the Arthropleura looming behind them at full height.

Unnerved by this unfamiliar creature, the three pectinodon decided discretion was the better part of valour, and they began to run away. As the pectinodon bolted out of the door, Duke snapped at one's tail. Lifting his walkie-talkie, Jack said, "Look out, guys. The last three pectinodon are coming your way."

As the last of the troodonts retreated, Jack sighed, "Well, that was easy." He turned to look at Felix, "Thanks, big guy." The Arthropleura chittered a reply before he lowered himself to ground level and crawled off back into hiding.

After a quick check that everything inside the building was alright, they exited and locked the airtight doors.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, Kyle and Nikolai's group had arrived at La Brea Grand Vista. The group had gotten straight to work on rounding up as many escaped animals as they could find, resecuring all the paddocks, and finding where Jack and Colette. Could have gone.

Fortunately, the first two were surprisingly easy tasks. Most of the herbivores had stayed in the main paddock, as had most of the aviary birds – only the teratornis were missing. Of the carnivores, the homotherium, most of the arctodus and American lions had remained in their paddocks, whilst Dag and his pack, who they'd found before they'd left Hell Creek, had been returned to their paddock.

The female ornitholestes, who had miraculously still been skulking about in the area, had been tranquilized and moved over to a trap zone to be kept in she could be transferred back to her paddock at Morrison Formation. However, the exact whereabouts of Smokey remained unknown, as did those of the dire wolf pack. It was also unclear whether Diego and Shira had left their paddock. Whils traces of Jack's scent had been found in various portions of the zone that had been investigated so far, there were still no clear hints as to just where he'd gone.

"Don't worry lass," said Fox as he continued to keep a close eye on the still determinedly sniffing and searching Smith and Wesson. "We'll find your brother eventually." Alice nodded her head. "I'm sure we will," she said confidently. Suddenly, Alice noticed Eshe, standing. Then Eshe noticed Alice, at which point she walked over to her primary keeper, letting out a low chirp in the process. Alice smiled, and lightly patted the American cheetah on the head, "Good to see you, girl." As the cheetah nuzzled her, Alice looked to her colleagues, "Think any of you can help me round these guys back up into their paddock?"

Leon, Adrian, Horace, and the Cheng sisters turned out to be able to do so, and the six young keepers managed to peacefully lead Eshe back into her paddock; at which point they then manually closed the gate and resecured it. "I'm gonna go check and see if we missed anything," said Leon once this was done.

His five companions nodded their heads in understanding. "Just be careful," said Alice, "I know you've worked with Diego and Shira the most out of any of us, but they might see you as a threat."

"And keep an eye out for Smokey," Horace chimed in. "We still don't know where he is at the moment. He's the biggest carnivore loose."

"Understood guys." Leon nodded his head. "I'll try to call you for help if anything goes wrong.", before heading off further towards the La Brea carnivore paddocks.

As he explored, he took careful note of as much as he could. The homotherium and American lion groups had been recaptured – the dire wolves were gone, as were the Pleistocene coyotes. And so far, he still saw no sign of Smokey or Diego. "Just need to check the smilodon fatalis paddock now," he whispered under his breath as he headed towards the paddock in question. "And then I'll join back up with..."

Suddenly, he went rigid, as he heard something large move through the bushes – too big to be Diego or Shira… Moving so fast it was a blur, a large, dark brown shape burst out of the clearing, Leon dodged it in time to see that it was Smokey, his eyes visibly bloodshot and his jaws foaming as he bore his teeth in a snarl. Leon gulped, eyes widening and face paling as he realized just how badly he'd now screwed up. "Oh shi…"

With an angered snarl, Smokey came barrelling towards Leon! Quivering in shock and fear, Leon barely even had time to fully process all this before Smokey came to a stop right in front of him, reared up to full height, and lifted his right paw for the killing blow...only for something to suddenly lunge in from the left and slam right against Smokey!

Growling in surprise, Smokey was sent toppling over and completely off balance, at which point he and Diego briefly rolled around across the ground. The two eventually split apart, snarling and growling with hatred in their eyes.

Realizing that it would be wise to get to as safe a distance as possible, Leon hurriedly rushed off as far away as he could without letting Diego and Smokey get out of range for his tranquilizer rifle. And as he watched, Diego and Smokey, eyes narrowed and teeth gritted as they glared at each other and snarled in fury. In that instant, Leon had no idea for sure just which way the incoming battle would head. Smokey quite obviously had size, strength, and power on his side – Diego, however, had speed, agility, and ferocity.

Then, as if on the flip of a switch, Diego pounced on Smokey! Roaring in rage, the two began to wrestle, biting and clawing at each other. Smokey won out this fight and pinned Diego for the killing blow...however, Diego wriggled out of Smokey's grip and latched himself upon the mighty bear's back. Roaring in pain, Smokey bucked and shook, in an attempt to dislodge his foe, as Diego began clawing at Smokey's back, maintaining his grip on his opponent. Eventually, Smokey charged one of the paddock walls, at which point Diego jumped off the bear's back and landed to the ground, standing protectively in front of Leon – as a result, Smokey's head banged against the paddock wall.

Exhausted and bleeding from wounds on his back, but unbowed, Smokey roared at Diego, who roared right back, and prepared to charge ...only to be sent sprawling to a halt as a tranquilizer dart suddenly flew in and struck him in the chest. Smokey walked around, as if in a drunken stupor, before collapsing. Diego stared in confusion at his downed rival, before snarling in triumph.

Leon looked in the direction the guilty dart had come from, a sheepish look on his face. "That obvious I'd need to be rescued again huh?"

Alice shrugged, lowering her tranquilizer rifle in the process. "Eh, it happens to the best of us," she said reassuringly. Kyle and the rest of the group came into view. "Excellent work for taking down Smokey, Denham," said Kyle. He then looked to Leon. "And good job, Gilbertson for finding him."

Leon chuckled. "Thanks." A low growling from Diego caused the group to look in the sabre-toothed cat's direction as he stared meaningfully Leon's way; almost as if asking him if he were alright. Awkwardly, Leon flashed a thumbs up in the smilodon's direction. "I'm good," he said. "Thanks for the save." Diego growled, gave a curt nod, and then leisurely loped back into his paddock.

Leon and Alice smiled at the sight of this, and then nodded their heads. "Let's get this paddock closed and resecured," said Leon. "Agreed," said Alice before she then pointed at the tranquilized Smokey, "And while we're at it, we'd better also get Smokey moved somewhere secure."

"Read my mind," said Kyle. He looked to the rest of the assembled team. "Let's get to work!"

. . . . .

Outside the vet offices, the plumadaemon were getting bolder – and getting smarter, scouting around the edges of the building, trying to find an alternate way in. Linda looked out of the window nervously – she didn't want to imagine what would happen if the phorusrhacids got in.

Suddenly, Jack's voice chimed in through the radio, "Linda, where are you?" She responded, "Jack, is that you? I'm in the rehab section – the plumadaemon have been besieging us for the past few hours." Jack's voice crackled over, "We've got a bunch of animals that might need treatment – we had to lock down the Hell Creek forest building and the Carboniferous building. As for the plumadaemon? Don't you worry, Doc; the cavalry is here!"

Confused, Linda turned to look out of the window to see a Jeep driving madly through the rain. She squinted to see Collete Dubois at the wheel, with Jack Denham in the passenger seat, and all four of the latter's close friends in the herpetology division clustered together in the backseat area. The plumadaemon recoiled in surprise as the Jeep came to a stop some feet away from them – perhaps even more surprisingly, Duke jumped on the Jeep's hood and screeched loudly at the plumadaemon, before jumping off and advancing towards the phorusrhacids, hissing.

A few seconds later, Duke was joined by both the rest of his pack and Nero and the dire wolves. They surrounded the plumadaemon, snarling at them as the phorusrhacids squawked and kicked at them in reply. The stand-off was interrupted when, suddenly, Hannibal and Imilce flew down and landed by the dromas. Hannibal spread his wings and hissed menacingly at the plumadaemon, with Imilce doing the same from right next to him.

The presence of the droma and dire wolf packs, as well as the two argentavis, was all the plumadaemon needed to retreat. As the phorusrhacids tore off into the night, Jack turned to Collete and said, "That was easy." About two minutes later, the front doors opened and Linda emerged from the building. Jack turned to her and said, "Doc! Thank God you're OK. What happened?" Linda smiled, "Thank you for driving the plumadaemon off – let me see whatever patients you have for me." The injured animals from the Hell Creek forest building were unloaded, as were Oliver and the teratorns. The dire wolf and droma packs, as well as the two argentavis, had brief check-ups for minor injuries they had sustained. Yolanda and several other vets and researchers also came out to observe what was happening, as did David.

"You say they were all bloodshot eyed and foaming at the mouth?" David asked.

"Yes," said Collete. "Or at least Oliver was. The birds didn't have the foam at the mouth, but they did have the bloodshot eyes."

"That small detail aside," said Carmen. "Yes, that is correct."

"Just like Frida, Salvador, Kenge, and Komodo," David noted. He looked to a nearby Khatin. "I think we might be on to something here."

"I quite agree," said Khatin as he looked to Linda. "We should take a look." Flotsam and Jetsam chirped happily from nearby as if in agreement with their adoptive father.

"Agreed," said Linda. "As soon as I've finished this round of checkups, we'll get down to it."

"Let's hope no one else gets hurt in the process," Yolanda stated. She pointed at the three carnivores. "Because it looks to me like these guys really took a beating."

"Well at least everybody's OK," said Jack. His eyes then widened as if he'd just remembered something. "And now that I think about it, does anyone here have their communicator working? I think I should contact Alice and let her know that I'm alright."

"We can try," said Yolanda, drawing out her communicator and looking at it forlornly, "But it might not work..."

Suddenly, a low, deep growl, like an alligator, reverberated from behind them all. Linda, Jack, Collete, and everyone else in the area, rigid with horror, turned around to see a saurophaganax standing behind them. Everyone stood, rooted to the spot as the theropod before them scanned the area coldly. He looked an intimidating sight and, before it, they felt as insignificant as mice. They began to slowly back away from the giant, in the hope that he wouldn't follow them. Suddenly, the giant allosaur paused and sniffed the air, before turning its head to look at them. Every creature present went rigid; they'd been found.

The theropod let out a low snarl, before turning towards the assembled, regarding them with a vicious coldness. In an instant, human, dire wolf, droma and argentavis all scattered, in an attempt to confuse the theropod, who snarled irritably. Eventually, however, his gaze fixed on Jack, Collete, Linda, Duke, Nero and Kaa, hiding behind the Jeep and moved, slowly and surely, towards them.

As the saurophaganax's remorseless advance continued, Jack looked at the dinilysia, wrapped around his arm and said, "Kaa, go! I don't want you to die here!" Ignoring him, Kaa tightened her grip – even in the face of certain death, she wasn't going to leave him. At the saurophaganax's advance, Nero and Duke stood forward, with the former growling protectively – a futile gesture, but… Jack shut his eyes – at least, he hoped, the end would come quick.

Suddenly, their thoughts were cut off by a large, hooting bellow. The saurophaganax went rigid in confusion; he recognized the sound. The allosaurid turned to see Arlo come charging out from the mist.

The saurophaganax hissed at the sauropod's entrance; in response to this, Arlo let out a low, trumpeting bellow of challenge. The saurophaganax understood the intention – if it was a fight Arlo wanted, he'd get one. The saurophaganax whipped round and sank his teeth into the end of Arlo's tail and bit down hard. Arlo bellowed in pain, with the saurophaganax springing back before the tail could bludgeon him in the face.

The two creatures circled each other, sizing each other up; each waiting to see who would make the next blow. Suddenly, Arlo swung his neck and head like a club, hammering into the saurophaganax's torso, knocking him off balance. Although he had taken a blow that would have killed most animals, the theropod dived back into combat, grabbing Arlo's left humerus. Arlo let out a pained bellow and attempted to wrench free; eventually, he kicked the saurophaganax in the chest, forcing him to lurch backwards.

Turning to his opponent in rage, the saurophaganax threw back his head and roared at the apatosaurus, who, in response, reared up on his hind legs and brought them down with such force that the ground around him shook, before emitting a bellow so loud it deafened everything around him.

Snarling in rage, the saurophaganax went into retreat. Once he was sure that the saurophaganax had gone, Arlo lowered his head, as if to check if Linda was okay. Linda sighed and said, "Yeah, I am, big guy." "Guess Shorty taught him to stand up for himself", Jack chuckled, and Collete rolled her eyes, trying to hide a smile.

"I see you guys made it out alright."

Jack, Collete, and Linda turned their heads in time to see a relieved looking David, Aaron, Carmen, Hugo, and Maria standing nearby, with the rest of the vets and researchers coming out of hiding soon afterward as well. Even a still slightly fearful looking Flotsam and Jetsam had come out of hiding and were standing as usual right at Khatin's feet.

For their parts, Nero, Duke and Kaa regarded the massive sauropod nervously, as did Hannibal and Imilce – yes, it saved their lives, but it could easily crush them into paste. Eventually, realizing that the sauropod would do them no harm, all five gave Arlo a respectful nod, which the sauropod replied in kind. Letting out a hooting bellow, the sauropod walked off into the night. Once Arlo had gone, Jack, panting from the exhilaration said, "OK, what now?"

David's communicator suddenly went off. "Hello?" Anita's voice rang out, surprisingly without any static present. "This is Watts! Do you read me?" David answered. "This is Doody, over?" "Good news," said Anita. "I think we may have gotten the comms back online."

"That's good to hear," Jack said out loud, "I'd best see if I can contact Alice whilst I can – she must be worried sick". David ended the call, and Linda and Khatin nodded before looking at everyone else once more. "Alright everyone, let's get back to work," said Linda. "We've still got a lot to do."

. . . . .

Drew was looking carefully through Hell Creek, a tired smile of relief on his face as he saw that, with the exception of the dromaeosaurus, pectinodon, and t. rex paddocks, all the enclosures there had been successfully resecured. It seemed everything was coming back under control...

The sound of snarling and bellowing snapped him out of his thoughts of rest. Eyes now narrowed in determination, he mulishly bulled his way over to where he heard the noises coming from, at which point he caught sight of Santino and Demona, challenging Vhagar and Balerion the torvosaurus. "Of course I'm the one who'd end up dealing with them personally," he grunted under his breath. As much as he loved a good challenge, he needed a plan…

A low crocodile-like bellow from right behind him jolted Drew out of his thoughts, and he turned his head in time to see Terrence standing right behind him, his scaly head inches away from Drew's face as the ring of dark brown feathers around his neck ruffled and hung limp in the heavy wind and rain brought about by the storm. A flash of lightning went off, illuminating Drew and Terrence as the two stared at each other, the latter looking as waiting for Drew to give him a command. Drew thought carefully to himself as he looked at the t-rex. At twenty feet long and eight feet tall, Terence was smaller the other four – however, it was better than nothing. Smiling at the tyrannosaur, he said "Let's get 'em boy!" With a loud yell, he turned towards the four dueling Jurassic theropods and burst into a run towards them, with Terrence letting out a loud roar before tearing towards the four theropods.

Santino, Demona, and the two Torvosaurus heard Drew's yell and Terrence's roar, at which point they halted their duel long enough to direct confused glares in the duo's direction, their bloodshot eyes narrowed and foaming jaws temporarily closed. But as Drew and Terrence continued to charge towards them, they all roared in unison, their bloodshot eyes blazing with rage and jaws open to the fullest as they then prepared to charge towards them in kind. Suddenly, two additional snarls alerted the four theropods to Rexy and Tyrannor charging towards them.

In that instant, the four Jurassic theropods bolted, with Drew and all three of the tyrannosaurus rex in hot pursuit. Soon, Drew and the tyrannosaurs were quite clearly starting to gain on them, at which point the hostile quartet split up to try to further evade their pursuers, with Santino and Demona heading to the left while Vhagar and Balerion headed to the right...only to end up barrelling right into a pair of trap zones! Drew and the three t. rex came to a stop at the area where the trapped Jurassic theropods were now located, the former grinning triumphantly at this stroke of luck. "Perfect," he thought to himself. "That ought to hold them."

His communicator unexpectedly rang, and he swiftly answered it. "Luczynski, over?"

"Good to hear you, fearless leader," said Jack's voice from the other end of the line, surprisingly devoid of static. Drew let a smile come on his face. "Well hey there Jack," he said. "Where've you been?" "Long story," Jack responded. "But right now, we've all managed to meet up together at the veterinary facility. And a bunch of us will be heading back to Control to discuss what's still left to be done now that the comms have been fixed."

"Sounds excellent." Drew flashed a thumbs up at thin air. "Tell the others I'll meet them there." "Roger that fearless leader." Jack hung up. Drew looked behind him to see Terrence, Rexy, and Tyrannor still hanging around behind him. He would clearly need to real quick round them back up to their divided paddock first.

After a considerable amount of effort and caution, Drew finally managed to get the three tyrannosaurs to their paddock. And from there, it took several more cautious minutes of coaxing and offerings of meat to get Rexy and Tyrannor all the way into their section of the paddock. Once they were in, Drew closed the gates separating them from the territories of Terrence and Matilda and secured them shut with heavy duty padlocks, before turning to get Terence back into his paddock. However, it was clear that the adolescent male T-rex was staying put.

"Fine", Drew sighed, "Come on."

The two headed back to Control.

. . . . .

Half an hour or so later, multiple key staff members involved in the ongoing crisis had gathered around in the main entrance room of the main staff headquarters, and were now waiting for Drew to arrive.

"It must have been exciting," Yolanda said, an almost giddy looking smile on her face as she sat next to a panting and exhausted looking Leon. "Being face to face with Smokey like that." Leon whistled. "You wish," he managed to gasp. "I was terrified out of my mind. If Diego hadn't shown up, I'd have been dead by now for sure."

"We all have our close calls in this line of business Leon," said Adrian, a smile on his face. "There's no shame for you to have had one of your own tonight."

Alice nodded and directed a relieved smile at Jack. "I'm glad you're alright," she then said. Jack chuckled. "Don't you worry Ally," he said. "This park ain't getting rid of me that easily." "Damn right it isn't," said Collete, who turned to Alice, nodded curtly and said, "He may not have made it easy, but I kept him safe." Alice gave her a small smile, "Thank you."

"I just hope it won't prove too difficult to figure out what was going on with the carnivores that underwent that unusual state of hyper-aggression," said Will. "Especially the ones that ended up bloodshot eyed and frothing at the mouth." "You and me both bud," said Matt. "Not to mention that it won't take too long to cure them of it in the event they are capable of as much." "I'm sure Dr. von Schorzberg and Dr. Eberhart will be able to do all that," Kaisumi said, clearly quite optimistic about the afflicted carnivores' chances of coming back to normal even in spite of the apparent severity of their current unexplained condition. "In fact, I'm sure that they'll have all the time in the world to work on nothing but that once we've gotten all the current other issues unfolding around here resolved."

"That's certainly an admirable thing to hope for," said Khatin, Flotsam and Jetsam chirping and warbling in seeming gratitude as they lay curled up in a warm towel that they were wrapped up in as Khatin cradled them.

Linda nodded her head in agreement. "Indeed. And believe me; as soon as we've got the time, curing the infected carnivores of that rage craze inducing virus they're apparently infected with will be one of our top priorities."

The sound of someone clearing their throat quietened everyone in the room and they looked to the front door again to see Drew walk in, with Terrence the t. rex standing idle not too far outside. Duke, Nero, and their respective packs snarled warily at the sight of Terrence, as did Smith and Wesson, whilst Hannibal and Imilce warbled warily. Drew raised his hand as if to forestall comment, "Yes, I know that Terrence is outside behind me. I tried to get him into his paddock, but he refused to let me leave without him. So here he is." He then looked to Kyle, a serious look on his face. "Kyle, progress report, please."

Everyone was taken aback by the bluntness in which Drew had put it. He was clearly not fooling around anymore – this crisis, it seemed, had spawned a whole new Drew.

Kyle stepped forward and said, "It seems the disaster was largely concentrated in certain regions of the park – in most, it seems, there were very few, if any, escapes. Of those, my team managed to bring things under control at the Santa Cruz, Morrison and La Brea sections, whilst Leon and his group were able to keep the Hell Creek herbivores from escaping and protect them from attack. And, of course, you, alongside Terence, were able to recapture Santino, Demona and the Torvosaurus." Drew smiled at the memory.

Continuing, Kyle said, "Things seem to be under control at the wider Hell Creek and Carboniferous sections…" He paused, "thanks to the sterling efforts of Jack's team, who also drove the plumadaemon away from the vet station." Jack gave a little bow at this, and Nikolai, in a rarity for him, smiled. "The aquarium is in perfect working order, with no escapes or damage," Kyle continued. "And all of the stragglers have also been herded back."

"However,", Kyle sighed, and said, "Matilda's still unaccounted for. She is the big loose end at this moment". At this, Drew smiled, "Oh, don't you worry about Matilda – I've got a plan…and it's a cracker."

The team looked at each other – now this was a Drew they recognized.

. . . . .

Matilda was now at the holding pens area, observing some nearby freshwater holding tanks, before lowering her head and drinking, grumbling in satisfaction whilst she was finished.

Suddenly, the sound of a shrill snarling caused her to turn her head and look behind her in time to see Duke and his pack, plus Smith and Wesson circling behind her, snapping and snarling. The adolescent tyrannosaur bellowed at them, before preparing to charge… when suddenly, she was dive-bombed by the argentavis, who dodged her attempts to snap them out of the sky – a few seconds later, the sound of wolf-like snarling caused her to look to her right in time to see Nero and his pack, yellow eyes agleam with predatory fury and teeth bared in vicious snarls. At the new creatures, Matilda growled, her bloodshot eyes narrowed warily, as she prepared to attack...

Suddenly, a tyrannosaur roar split the air from her left! In a flash, she turned her head in that direction, and then began to bolt off in the direction she'd heard the sound while the dromaeosaurus, dire wolves, argentavis, and saurornitholestes rushed after her in pursuit.

For what felt like an hour, Matilda barrelled off in the direction of where she'd heard her apparent rival's roar, her animal pursuers still close behind her. But, suddenly, she changed direction, bolting off into a different direction, managing to shake off her pursuers, who snarled in disappointment. At which point Jack, Leon and Alice winced and cursed from their hiding spots alongside Yolanda, Collete, and Will. "Damn it," Leon growled, "She figured it out." Jack lifed his communicator, after calling the dromaeosaurs, dire wolves and argentavis back to him, "Um, fearless leader? Your plan? It's gone south. She managed to shake us off."

"Copy that. Initiating Plan B."

The six staff members in hiding raised their eyebrows. "Plan B?" Yolanda asked. "What Plan B?" Collete asked.

Suddenly, everyone went rigid as they heard the revving of a motorcycle engine. Everyone turned to see a security motorcycle, with Drew on it, emerge from the gloom, with Matilda, prey drive activated, running after it. Drew turned to look at the adolescent tyrannosaur with a giddy smile, running her on a merry chase. However, turning a corner, his luck ran out; Matilda managed to catch up, lowered her head and rammed the motorcycle, destroying it and sending Drew flying from his seat.

Flying through the air, Drew hit the ground hard; dazed, he looked up to see the tyrannosaur headed towards him. Matilda moved towards him slowly, but surely, regarding him with a vicious coldness. Suddenly, a loud roar froze Matilda in her footsteps. Out of the gloom, Terence emerged, hissing at Matilda, who snarled in reply. The two circled each other, sizing each other up.

The brief standoff was interrupted when the two Tyrannosaurus charged at each other, head on. A violent shoving match ensued, with the two tyrannosaurs occasionally breaking off to snap at each other. This shoving match was interrupted when Terence charged towards Matilda, head lowered. Matilda let out a single hiss of outrage as her brother impacted in her side, knocking the wind out of her. She quickly recovered, however, and swung her massive head so it impacted into her brother's flank. Terence snarled in discomfort and promptly snapped at her tail, missing merely by inches, to which Matilda replied by delivering a bite to the flank. Even with the low dawn light, Drew could see the fight was approximately equal; there was no way to tell who was going to win…

Suddenly, an idea came to him – grabbing the horn, he blared it as loudly as he could. At the sound, Matilda paused and turned to look at Drew. Terence took advantage of the temporary distraction by grabbing Matilda's neck, spinning her 180 degrees and headbutting her in her centre of gravity. In a daze, she crashed to the ground. Matilda took a few minutes to recover – however, before she could right herself, Terence walked up to her, secured her body with one massive, taloned foot and grabbed her neck in her jaws, holding on to her. Matilda struggled to free herself from the jaws of her brother, but his grip was strong. Eventually, Terence let go and took a few steps back. Matilda got to her feet and snarled, to which her brother replied.

It was at this moment that Leon and Jack managed to come walking into view from behind Drew, having split off from the rest of the group. "Well, this is certainly one way to take her on," said Jack.

The enraged Matilda straightened herself back up to full height, turning her head away from Terrence and straight towards the humans. Drew, Jack, and Leon tensed; she might be heading for them. Suddenly, Matilda jolted in shock and began turning around in circles, as if in a drunken stupor, to which all others present gave a confused look. Matilda eventually turned around to reveal several tranquillizer darts in her side and chest. Drew, Jack, and Leon squinted to see Collete and some of the security team standing nearby, each holding a tranq gun.

After a while, Matilda finally lost her struggle against the hallucinatory effects of the tranquilizers, and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious. For a moment, Terence just stared uncomprehendingly at the downed Matilda. But then, after a tense moment, he finally seemed to relax; it was clear that the battle was over. And so, lifting his head to the sky, he let out an earsplitting roar of triumph. Panting in relief, Jack lifted his communicator and said, "Nikolai? The Code Red is officially stood down."

. . . . .

(Three Hours Later)

Three hours after the disaster, the clean-up had begun; the remaining escapees were being herded back to their enclosures, the injured animals were being treated, the ones afflicted with the strange unnatural rage inducing condition were being observed, and things were slowly beginning to return to normal. And Drew was in the thick of it, coordinating efforts across the park.

"Right, the technicians are pretty sure all systems are back to normal. However, they're still going to keep an eye on the paddock gates for a good long while. I've told them to tell me if anything pops up."

"Have you finished analysing those blood samples? It would be nice to know why some of the animals went nuts. Good, keep at it."

Looking at the cameras, he noticed something and lifted his walkie-talkie, "Glad to hear round-up is going well. However, there might be something in the La Brea herbivore paddock though – could you check it out?"

Watching this, it occurred to Nikolai that Drew had given more orders in the last three hours than he had in the past year. Once Drew lowered his walkie-talkie, he turned to look at Drew and sighed. No time like the present to say this.

"Drew…I've had doubts for a while."

Drew looked to Nikolai, his eyebrow raised in confusion. "About what?"

Nikolai sighed; there was no tactful way to say this. "You. With your leadership, I mean." Drew looked at him, flabbergasted. "My what?"

Sighing again, Nikolai continued, "I've had misgivings from the outset – on the day of the first mission, you acted rather flippant about my concerns. You failed to resolve the tensions between Jack and Leon and the tensions between myself and Kyle, until when they became too glaring to ignore. Furthermore, you used Leon as bait for Vhagar during his escape; and as for your staggeringly immature reaction to-"

"ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT, I GET IT!"

Drew was quite aware on how petulant he must have sounded at that moment, but it was rather wounding to one's pride when someone listed all your faults like that. Regaining his composure, he sighed, "It must have been hell putting up with me." Nikolai smiled, a rarity for him and said, "Komandir, you have no idea." Drew chuckled, "Yeah, I was an asshole, wasn't I?" Nikolai nodded, "That you were. Still, you seem to have learned something." He paused, "Somebody once said to me that times of crisis bring out the best in people – in your case, that seems to be true."

Drew smiled. "Yeah, you could say that." He looked to the security monitors, smile still on his face. "You could say that."

. . . . .

(One Week Later)

One week later, things were back to normal; or as normal as they could be. All the animals were back in their enclosures, happy, healthy, and behaving normally, including the ones that had been under the influence of what had been termed "the Hate Plague". It was unclear as to what had happened; the vets were still running tests on Oliver and Rocco's blood samples, among others. However, everyone was kidding themselves in believing that there'd ever be a definitive conclusion and explanation on what had happened.

The staff, meanwhile, were all doing quite well over the days following the incident, which had been dubbed the "Shutdown". As Leon entered the park bar, Jack threw all caution to the wind and waved Leon over. As Leon sat down, Jack said "Hey." Leon gave him a perplexed look and raised his eyebrow. "Why did you want me to come here? I should be helping with the clean-up."

Jack smiled and responded, "Oh, don't worry, I'm sure someone's going to fill in. I just wanted…to talk. Just have a little chat and a drink, before getting on with our days." Leon kept his gaze focused on Jack, half concerned and half uncomprehending. "What about?"

"Stuff."

"What do you mean?" asked Leon.

Jack smiled, "What happened last week, for starters. It's weird, isn't it? Why all the carnivores went bonkers?"

Leon moved to correct him, "Well, not all the carnivores. Diego and Shira didn't."

Jack smiled. "The dromas didn't. Terence didn't. Eshe didn't, the dire wolves and Pleistocene coyotes didn't. Who's ever going to say what happened? It's probably just going to remain a mystery. Yet, it wasn't the strangest thing to happen last week…I read the incident reports; Diego fought off Smokey when he tried to attack you."

Leon scoffed, "That's not the strange thing; Diego was just being territorial. I just happened to be there. Nero, however, he saved you from Oliver. I read the incident report for that. Alpha wolves will fight to the death in defence of their pack. All of their pack."

Jack smiled, "Yeah…I wonder what he'd have done to you after Gogo Reef…Remember Gogo Reef?" Jack sighed.

Leon nodded, "You called me a hanger-on. You said I was useless and you hated me." He hung his head. "Honestly, you really reminded me a lot of the two students I knew back in middle school who were especially keen on calling me a freak and tormenting me."

Jack smiled, "Hey, hey, I meant the hanger-on bit. I thought you were a walking textbook. That you were only hired because you were best mates with the boss." He sighed. "I didn't say I hated you; that I'm wrongly accused of. You annoyed me at times, but I never hated you. Not once." He paused briefly. "Did you hate me?"

For a moment, Leon was stunned at what he'd just heard, before his face fell, and he looked awkwardly around the room. "A little bit." he said. He hung his head. "I mean, you should've told me all that before. I thought you did hate me from the way you acted." Jack smiled, "I didn't know what you thought about me. And, I mean, I was wrong about you – you can do it." He chuckled, a small smile coming on his face. "Amazing how things change huh?", he then said as he gave Leon a good natured elbow to the side.

There was a brief pause. Then Leon gave Jack, who was still chuckling slightly, a quizzical look and said, "Can I get on with my day now? And…thanks. For telling me that." Jack smiled, "My pleasure." Leon nodded; and as he got up to leave, he turned to Jack and said, "What did you mean by amazing how things change?" Jack smiled again. "We couldn't have had this conversation before." Leon gave him a quizzical look, "You said this on the majungasaurus mission… why couldn't we?", to which Jack responded, "Because we weren't friends before."

Leon briefly stood still, caught more than a little off guard by Jack's response. But then, after what seemed like an eternity, he smiled, gave Jack a nod and left.

Next time on Prehistoric Park Reimagined:

Phase 2 starts with a trip to Antarctica!

(The portal opens up in a temperate forest)

To bring back the polar dinosaurs.

(A pair of crested theropods roar at a herd of sauropodomorphs.)

With a few surprises .

(A pair of dilophosaurus-like dinosaurs hiss and snarl at the two crested giant theropods while standing near a dead sauropodomorph.)

Meanwhile, the park receives some very important guests.

(A group of men and women in suits stand by the entrance to Control while a helicopter lies docked on the ground behind them.)

Including a blast from Drew's past!

(A tennis shoe clad foot steps down from the helicopter from behind the men and women in suits.)

All next time, on Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Spirits of the Ice Forest!