Notes
Soundtrack suggestions:
The Black Monkeys' attack:
- The Carnival – James Horner, Mighty Joe Young (From 01:56 to 04:45).
- Monkeys kidnap Mowgli – John Debney, Jungle Book (Up to 01:29).
- Bail Out – Jerry Goldsmith, Congo (Up to 01:40).
- On the Tank – John Williams, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (from 00:10 to 03:22).
- Belly of the Steel Beast – John Williams, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
- Siege – Marc Streitenfeld, Robin Hood.
Theo and Zaza:
- Keep calm and Baryonyx - Michael Giacchino, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
- Smilodon Attack - Dominik Scherrer, Primeval (Up to 01:37).
-o-
"We have to go. I saw two of Wheatley's guys heading towards the front of the train," Franklin informed the couple. "I think they have a prisoner with them."
As Claire and Owen struggled to their feet, the young man stared intently at the keeper.
"You asshole! You could have killed me by throwing me like that, like if I was a potato sack!" He reproached him.
He then turned to the fallen park director.
"I'll never go back in a vehicle driven by you again. You're a danger!"
"Danger will soon become my nickname with all the things that are happening around me," she replied.
After peeking inside the wagon, Owen ventured inside and his two companions followed.
"What do we do?" Franklin asked as they walked past a large shipping crate containing a Panoplosaurus, hidden from view and asleep.
"We have to try to get as many people on our side as possible," Owen replied. "The keepers would be a good start."
"Are you suggesting to start a mutiny and take control of the train car by car until we confront Torres in the locomotive?" Claire asked him.
"Kinda."
"To the Midway cars then!" Claire said.
"There is no guarantee that the way will be clear," the keeper explained. "Our pirouettes will have been useless if we are captured a few cars further."
"If we can't pass inside the cars, we'll pass outside of them," his girlfriend concluded.
After passing two smaller transport crates each containing a Placerias, they exited the wagon and as the rail cut through the jungle and passed over several meanders of the Celeste, Owen stepped inside the next one, asking Claire and Franklin to stay outside for a moment. This wagon was shorter than the previous one, with two rather bulky transport crates, each large enough to contain a bison-sized animal. The first of these crates was that of the Udanoceratops, and from the second came a kind of growl, that of a Pachycephalosaurus. There was no one in that wagon, but just as he was about to call his two companions, Owen heard someone approach the door at the opposite end of the wagon. The keeper came out without delay and discreetly told Claire and Franklin to hide. When the new arrivals, actually Brice and a guard, had finished crossing the wagon, the trio had disappeared.
Unaware of their presence, the veterinarian and the guard entered the Placerias' and the Panoplosaurus' wagon. They crossed paths with Theo and Fanny there.
"I didn't know you were on that part of the train. I thought you were with your comrades," the InGen guard said, lowering his weapon.
"Have you heard from them?" Fanny suddenly inquired.
"They repelled their attackers. They have no dead on their side, only minor injuries," the guard replied. "One of our Chinooks will pick them up and take them directly to the port facility."
"Good," the blonde mercenary said, reassured. "And your helicopter, the one we saw in the last pastures?"
"They managed to land. The two guys who were on board are just injured. Thank God."
Fanny nodded slightly and the guard's gaze fell on the Gavilanes carried by Theo.
"We've got a little present for you," she added. "Where can we leave it?"
The guard's radio sputtered.
"They have a prisoner?" Torres asked.
"Affirmative," the guard replied.
"Escort them and make sure they deliver him to your colleagues."
"It's good to know we're trusted," Fanny ironically commented.
"But Mr. Le Goff asked me to escort him," the InGen guard told his boss. "He wanted to check if the animals are okay."
"He'll wait a bit."
"Except that the sun is setting," the veterinarian pointed out in annoyed tone. "I would like to be done with that as soon as possible!"
"I can escort him," Theo said. "You'll help them with the prisoner," he told Fanny.
She and the guard nodded in approval.
"I'm taking the prisoner to the car," the latter informed Torres.
"Good," he replied. "Interrogate him and let me know."
The guard and the blonde mercenary began carrying the Gavilanes to the guards' wagon, leaving Brice with Theo. The two walked to the opposite end of the wagon.
"I didn't pay attention to the animals on the way, but none seemed hurt," the Englishman said.
Brice widened his eyes because the mercenary had spoken not in English but in French.
"Let's see if that's the case," the veterinarian said.
As the scenery became steep-sided on either side of the rail, the two men exited the wagon.
"You speak French?" he asked shortly after.
"Un petit peu," Theo replied in Molière's language. "My mother is from Kent but I was born in France."
"Where?" Brice inquired, curious.
"A town in Brittany. Fougères."
"Fougères? Hey, I know people from there!" Brice exclaimed.
After hiding from Brice and the guard by clinging to the side of the Udanoceratops' and Pachycephalosaurus' wagon, the couple and Franklin had taken a nearby ladder to climb on the roof. When the guard returned with Fanny and the captured gangster, they hunkered down and waited for them to pass. Now they were crawling to the next car, which was not a freight car like the two they had just passed through, but a passenger one. Thinking that the guard was coming from there and that there had to be more inside, the trio doubled in caution and decided to continue on the rooftops until at least the Midway cars. As they passed onto the next one, the trio heard a rumble, which grew louder and louder, until a large waterfall appeared to their right around a bend. Ahead, the train twisted along the rail, built on a ledge on the east side of a great gorge, magnified by the last glimmers of the setting sun. Although the exit of the gorges was only a little less than ten kilometres as the crow flies, the difference in height between the latter and the top of the waterfall was so great, about a thousand meters, that the rail meandered abundantly to ease the descent while the train had to slow down to travel safely. If they remembered correctly what had been said during one of the meetings, the couple knew that the crossing of the gorges would take two hours. It was the longest stage of the trip to the coast.
Crawling in front of his two companions, Owen stopped when he reached a skylight and stopped Claire and Franklin with a hand gesture. He turned his head towards them, put his index finger in front of his mouth and then pointed it towards the skylight. He whispered:
"Guards."
He began to crawl around the skylight cautiously, and Claire and Franklin copied his example.
Beneath them, Fanny awaited Theo's return while some of the guards tended to their injured comrades with the help of two veterinary assistants. The captive Gavilanes had been seated in a corner, and one of the guards was watching him. The mercenary, seated nearby, also kept an eye on the gangster.
"You're a veterinarian, not a doctor," one of the injured whined while one of the assistant veterinarians approached him. "Where is the nurse?!"
"Stay quiet. Some dinosaurs are more cooperative than you!" The assistant retorted
Once the guards' carriage was behind them, Claire, Owen and Franklin sped up. Between them and the Midway cars, characterized by the presence of two decks, there were four freight cars. They got up and while trotting, they started to look for an access. Seeing almost none by the freight cars, just a locked skylight before the first Midway car, and preferring to enter the train as carefully as possible, they continued. They passed over the two Midway cars, found no skylights on the roof to possibly signal their presence to the keepers, continued and although there were several skylights on the cars beyond, they were either impossible to open without breaking the window, or they were too small for an adult person to pass through. They decided to go and try their luck by the tarped wagons located even further towards the front of the train.
At the same time, the locomotive reached the entrance to a tunnel dug into the slopes and one after another the wagons disappeared into the darkness and when it was the turn of theirs, a freight car located behind the tarped wagons, Claire, Owen and Franklin flattened out. The crossing of the tunnel was very short however, only a few seconds, and as soon as it was behind them, the trio got up and resumed their advance. But soon after, they froze when they saw about twenty dark human figures moving quickly on top of transport containers about two hundred meters away. A dozen of them were heading towards the locomotive, the rest in the opposite direction, jumping from container to container.
"Who the fuck are those guys?!" Claire wondered, in a voice that mixed surprise and fear.
The strangers indeed seemed to have appeared out of thin air as there was nothing on top of that part of the train a minute earlier. The couple quickly realized they must have jumped on the train at the tunnel's exit and remembering Rankin's words about the rest of his team, they knew it had to be the latter. The Shitpiercer was once more threatened.
They briefly considered getting in the way of these new assailants, before remembering that they only had Owen's knife as a weapon, as they had left the others in the jeep, not to mention the fact that the boarders were too numerous. Confront them openly would be madness, while the first of the Midway cars was about forty meters behind them. The boarders would be upon them before they could reach it and warn the passengers. They had to hide, but where? Since the guards' car, they had seen no platform on which to descend before entering inside the train through a door, as it was articulated by bogies on this portion, in order to allow an easier movement of passengers.
As he just came up with an idea, Owen took out his knife, bit the handle and while keeping it in his mouth, he went to hang on the edge of the wagon, urging his companions to copy his example. Once stabilized, the keeper took his knife and dug it into the tarp. As soon as he had created an opening big enough, he motioned for Claire and Franklin to go ahead.
One by one, they passed through it and landed against a transport cage similar to the one that had briefly contained Blue, with opaque walls featuring small holes. On the wagon's roof, they perceived a trampling, that of the boarders' feet as they ran. The sound of their running faded quickly and not hearing anyone open the door to flush them out, the trio let out a sigh of relief. But awakened by the noise, the animal contained in the cage let out an irritated hiss. By reflex, Franklin, then stuck against the cage, recoiled but Owen immobilized him. Behind them, there was no wall but only a tarp. If they leaned against it too much, the keeper feared they would enlarge the tear and end up tipping backwards, off the train. Peering into the holes, they saw a bipedal dinosaur between five and six meters long, with a bright red body with dark stripes, a white belly and yellow spots: An adult Herrerasaurus. Continuing to hiss, the animal had its mouth ajar, showing off its blue mouth and tongue. In the same wagon, there were two other similar cages, with each also containing an adult Herrerasaurus.
Hesitating between continuing to the head of the train to find Torres or turning around to help the passengers repel the new attackers, the trio remained hidden for a moment between the cage and the tarp.
Dressed entirely in black, hooded and wearing ski goggles, the twelve boarders running towards the back of the train were not Gavilanes but members of another gang that Jeremy Rankin had recruited: The Black Monkeys. Arriving on the Midway cars, four stopped and looked for entrances while the other eight continued. When they passed on the freight cars between the Midway cars and that of the guards, their steps were heard by Fanny, who was then in the process of joining the centre of the train. She took out her phone and called Theo.
"You'd better turn back," she told him. "I think we've got company..."
But before all the passengers could be warned, the eight companions of the four Black Monkeys stopped at the Midway wagons arrived at the guards' carriage. After spotting the doors, they first blocked them, then smashed the skylight and threw smoke grenades inside the car, startling the guards and the other people inside. At the Midway cars, their four accomplices also took action, entering the train without throwing smoke grenades however, having deemed it unnecessary. Like the guards, the keepers and veterinarians were taken by surprise.
"We have to help them fend off these guys," Owen declared.
"I know, but Torres is on the other end. We have an opportunity, let's reach him while we can," Claire argued. "If we help them, who says the guards won't arrest us afterwards? Once in their grasp, we won't be able to do anything... Torres will have us thrown to the crocodiles! Let's catch him before we get caught!
Her boyfriend looked in the direction of the Midway cars.
"Fuck…" he hissed.
"Guys? Wouldn't it be better if we stay hidden here? Franklin asked them.
"No," Owen replied.
"We must keep going," Claire said.
But just as they were about to leave their hiding place, someone approached, coming from the next car. The trio remained crouched in the half-light between the herrerasaur's cage and the tarp. They heard a radio crackle.
"We're under attack!" someone shouted.
Knowing that it was probably a guard, the couple and Franklin hoped to not be flushed out.
"We're being attacked?! Again?!" Alexander Singer asked in a fearful voice.
"I'm afraid so," Torres replied.
"Alexander, hide in the toilet," Horatio said authoritatively to the Dinosaur Protection Group's founder.
He didn't need to be asked and went to the toilets at the back of their car, just behind the generator car.
"Hide too, Mr. Bingham," Torres suggested to the keeper, who was acting as head keeper since Juan had stayed at Site D.
However, the Englishman had already taken a pistol and joined the InGen soldier and the three guards, none other than the Pierre-John-Henry trio, who were preparing to leave the car in order to help the besieged. Torres had ordered the other soldier in the room to stay with him.
"My colleagues and the animals are threatened. I won't sit idly by," Horatio replied.
The soldier nodded to Henry, and the latter opened the door.
"Let's go!" The soldier shouted as he rushed out of the carriage, followed by the three guards and the keeper.
But no sooner had he opened the door that he was shot in the head by a sniper lying on top of a large container beyond a long flatcar which should have accommodated the containers of two of the carnotaurs. The soldier collapsed and as half a dozen Black Monkeys, accompanied by two men armed with assault rifles, ran towards their wagon, John and Horatio dragged the body of the soldier away from the door. Pierre and Henry immediately closed the latter and barricaded it while the attackers tried to break it down. Soon they heard the Black Monkeys climbing onto the car. The InGen employees looked at the windows on either side of them. If they stayed there, they were going to be surrounded.
"To the generator-car! Fall back!" Torres shouted.
He, Horatio, Alexander, the three guards, and the remaining soldier exited the passenger wagon and entered the generator car, with the latter firing at the Monkeys who were entering the wagon through the windows and skylights, managing to shoot one down.
While returning to the central wagons, Theo and Brice saw the Black Monkeys on the top of the guards' carriages.
"Am I dreaming or there's fucking ninjas on this carriage?!" Theo exclaimed, flabbergasted.
"Worse, yamakasis!" Brice said after seeing one making acrobatics. "You just need hookers and Audis and you'll think you're in something produced by Luc Besson! I think Costa Rica could do without a French import like this one."
They heard the trapped guards' shouts. Keeping his rifle in one hand, Theo drew his pistol and handed it to Brice.
"I'm going in. You know how to use this?" he asked him.
The veterinarian took the gun, checked its magazine, and turned the safety off.
"Of course I know how to use a weapon. Let me remind you that I'm a veterinarian."
Theo nodded.
"If you have to use it, imagine that they're rabid dogs you need to put down."
Then the mercenary dashed towards the wagon of the guards.
At the front of the train, Marion Grewal, an athletic woman of Indian descent, slung her sniper rifle over her shoulder and climbed down from the container to join Dorian Faraday and Eric Aubrey, her two companions, at the entrance of the passenger car. Aubrey, a tall and slender blond with an elegant moustache, turned towards her.
"They went to hide in the generator car," he told her.
Inside the wagon, Faraday, a man of medium height but broad-shouldered and a little well padded, gazed at the Black Monkeys gathered near him.
"Come on, you macaques! Climb on the roof and take control of the locomotive! Hurry up, we don't have all evening!" He yelled at them.
As the Monkeys complied, Grewal and Aubrey went to join Faraday and the trio of British mercenaries moved cautiously into the generator car.
Having just seen a tear in the tarp on his left, behind one of the transport cages, the InGen guard turned on his flashlight and began to walk around the cage.
Just as the beam of his lamp was about to illuminate the couple and Franklin, he heard another noise to his right, coming from the next wagon, and turned his head in that direction.
"Stop!" He shouted while raising his weapon. "Stop or..."
He collapsed before finishing his sentence and from his hiding place, the trio saw one of the boarders join the lying guard. The thug stared straight ahead for a brief moment, then dragged the guard between two cages. In a hurry, he didn't try to hide it between the cages and the tarp, and thus he didn't see Claire, Owen and Franklin. The Black Monkey then passed into the next wagon and the trio heard him move away. Owen crawled up to the guard and leaning over him, he saw that he had a dart stuck in his neck. He then put his fingers on the latter and was reassured to find a pulse, although it was weak. He then returned to Claire and Franklin.
After making sure that there were no other guards in the next tarped wagons, the Black Monkey walked back through the one where the fugitives were hiding and returned to the Midway wagons, where things were not going as planned.
Indeed, the keepers and veterinarians didn't intend to give up without a fight and after some trickery from them, the three Monkeys who remained there were caught off guard. At three against thirty, they were outnumbered and one had already been neutralized. While Marisol tackled him to the ground, her colleagues tied up the thug who moved like a calf just caught by a cowboy. Meanwhile, the other two, soon joined by the one seen by the trio of fugitives, were fighting hand-to-hand against other keepers and vets. Although they did not hold back their blows, they did not use their pistols, knives, or shurikens against the civilians, as if they did not wish to kill or seriously injure them. Rather, they were looking to get out of the fray to flee. The keepers and the vets were lucky that the Black Monkeys seemed to follow a code of honour because the situation would not have been the same against Gavilanes.
In the guards' car, the situation was just as chaotic. While the guards were looking to get out of the smoky carriage, the Gavilanes undid his bonds and began to lash out at his captors, attacking them with a knife he had stolen. To better protect himself from the smoke, the gangster had thought of raising his scarf up to his nose and was therefore a little more comfortable than the coughing panicked InGen employees. However, they pulled themselves together and tried to stop the thug, who had already stabbed one of their own. It was then that six of the eight Monkeys entered the car through the skylight and joined the fray.
Suddenly there was a crash on the roof, then a second and they saw one of the Monkeys fall from the train, land in the middle of the bushes next to the rail and begin to slide down in the gorge. Having noticed this, one of the Monkeys came out through the skylight to see who had shot his comrades. He was also neutralized in the next second.
Soon, someone started banging hard on the door and eventually kicked it down. While fighting one of the Monkeys, Valentine Taylor saw that it was Theo. As most of the InGen guards and the two assistant vets rushed out of the carriage, the English mercenary walked over to the nearest Monkey, grabbed him and knocked him after punching him hard in the face. Due to this unexpected turn of events, the Monkeys changed their strategy and the three still standing began a retreat, leaping nimbly from the benches to reach the skylight but Theo shot one in the back before he could get out. One of the other two wanted to shoot the guards fleeing the wagon but he was suddenly shot in the shoulder and very much in pain, he knelt down and screamed. The last guards were surprised to see that the shooter, posted at the entrance of the tarped wagon which followed that of the guards, was Brice.
"What are you waiting for? Tie up that asshole!" The vet ordered them.
Inside the wagon, Theo's eyes fell on the body of the Gavilanes, inadvertently killed in the melee. Suddenly, the mercenary felt a searing pain in his chest and saw that a shuriken thrust in it. With a grunt, he took it off and looked up at the skylight, above which the last Monkey was staring at him. The latter fled and after letting out a curse, Theo gave chase, getting out of the carriage to climb on the roof. The Monkey, who was heading towards the front of the train, was already well ahead.
In the middle of the train, two of the Monkeys had ended up cornered by the keepers in an animal transport wagon, just before the two Midway cars.
"Get them!" One of the keepers shouted.
While one of the thugs opened the sliding door behind them, the other bought time for him by confronting the approaching group of keepers, consisting of Alfredo, Pasqual, Nala and Mark. The four of them threw themselves on the Monkey, who did not have the time to retaliate properly, but the other managed to open the door. He looked outside. The train was taking a ledge and just beyond the edge of the railway, the ground formed almost a sheer drop. If he decided to jump, he would have to be very careful. If he jumped too far and/or at the wrong time, he could tumble all the way down to the bottom of the gorge. It was then that Mark, repelled by the other Monkey, inadvertently jostled him.
"Entschuldigung!" the German keeper exclaimed.
Startled, the thug lost his balance, tipping out of the Shitpiercer. He could only cling at the very last moment with one hand to the outside handle of the wagon's door. With Nala, Alfredo, and Pasqual subduing the other Monkey, Mark stood by the open door, unsure what to do about the thug hanging over the edge of the cliff. Should he help him despite the fact that he was among the attackers or should he make him fall, and be responsible for his death? Very uncomfortable with the idea of dooming another man to death, Mark reached out his hand to the Black Monkey.
As he just wanted to survive, the masked man attempted to grab it with his free hand, going as far as trying to swing towards the keeper. His head being turned towards the latter, he did not see the large branch jutting towards the rail.
"Watch out!" Mark shouted.
But it was too late and the thug hit the branch head-on and let go of the door handle. Given the speed at which the train was traveling and the dimensions of the branch, thicker than a bodybuilder's arm, the keeper feared the blow had seriously injured or killed the Black Monkey, who now laid motionless on the edge of the railway, threatening to slide towards the sheer drop at any moment.
"Scheiße!"
Locked in a cage a few feet away, the juvenile Baryonyx stared at him with wide, astonished eyes.
Meanwhile, Allison and Judd had chased another of the Black Monkeys. When they were about to catch up with him in the wagon which followed the two Midway cars, one which contained the Pelicanimimus' transport crates, the thug turned around and seeing that they were alone, he wanted to intimidate them by making a whole series of lively gestures with his hands which they believed to be some sort of martial art figures. Those were interrupted when a sudden detonation sounded and blood spurted from the Black Monkey's skull. Then the latter collapsed dead in front of the keepers who only noticed then that Fanny had joined them. Too shocked to react, Allison and Judd looked at the mercenary, who was standing behind the fallen thug. She looked at him and in a blasé voice, she said:
"Yeah yeah, we got it... You should avoid wasting your time like that in your next life, you lousy show-off..."
She then raised her gun vertically and blew on the end of its barrel. That's when they heard someone running on the roof.
Chased by Theo, then several wagons behind, the fleeing Black Monkey passed the Midway wagons and seeing a broken skylight in his path, he jumped into the opening left just before the mercenary could fire. Landing in sight of Mark, Alfredo, Pasqual and Nala, he got up immediately to resume his flight. The two Costa Ricans and the Kenyan decided to chase him, leaving the German with the Monkey they had neutralized, instructing him to take her to the Midway wagons.
Seconds earlier, Claire, Owen and Franklin had decided to leave their hiding place near the cage to go to the front of the train. But hardly had they had the time to pass the two other Herrerasaurus cages as well as a third in the next wagon that they had to hide again when they heard the Monkey arriving.
Although he saw them disappear behind one of the large transport cages, the Costa Rican gangster ignored them and continued. Half a dozen wagons from the one with the broken skylight, the fugitive stopped to turn around. Seeing that the three keepers were quite far behind and thinking that the mercenary must be even further behind, he knew that he had time to accomplish a misdeed. Their attack may have failed, but the Monkey did not intend to leave without complicating the passengers' trip. He had stopped in this specific wagon after hearing a hoot in a large cage to his left. Noticing that the cage's opening was controlled by a box, he hastened to sabotage it.
When Nala and her two Costa Rican colleagues entered this wagon, the Black Monkey managed to open the cage's door and immediately fled, going outside and taking care to close it behind him, so force the cage's occupant to go only in one direction. The keepers initially wanted to rush to the cage to close it before it was too late but seeing the end of the occupant's rather thin jaws as well as its long teeth, they refrained and knew that it would be suicide . They had to consider another strategy and for now, falling back was the best thing to do. They began to back away, slowly, making as little noise as possible, hoping to not trigger the predator's attack. Hearing them move away and driven by curiosity towards this new environment which the train was, the predator left its cage entirely and the keepers, then a wagon away from it, froze in horror for a moment. It was one of the dilophosaurs, Zaza. Nala, Alfredo and Pasqual were aware that she could, at any moment, not only dash and catch up with them quickly, but also spit venom on them. They resumed their retreat and with the door to her right closed, the dilophosaur moved in the opposite direction, slowly, cocking her head sideways to watch the retreating keepers.
Hidden behind a transport cage two wagons from that of the dilophosaurs, Claire, Owen and Franklin saw the three keepers backing towards the centre of the train. Seeing that they seemed to be holding their breath and their eyes were wide, the fugitives wondered what was causing their dread. Was it one of the boarders? Or something else?
A snort, coming from the cage which separated the two trios, startled them. Peering through the holes, Claire saw a quadruped animal the size of a hippopotamus, with a pinkish underside and a midnight blue upperside tinged with moss green. The skull, long and massive with a purple-mottled face, was its most striking feature, as it had several sets of horn-like structures growing on the sides of the head while the maw contained large canines. It was Clafoutis the Estemmenosuchus, a synapsid from the Permian era, a creature older than the dinosaurs. Due to its strong smell, comparable to that of swamp or compost, Franklin kept one hand in front of his nostrils and mouth. It was then that they heard the Dilophosaurus' characteristic soft hoot and the dread felt by the three keepers spread to the fugitives.
While Alfredo, Pasqual, and Nala moved on to the next car, the Dilophosaurus arrived by the Estemmenosuchus' cage. Picking up new smells, the dinosaur turned its head towards the cage and approached its nostrils from it. Fearing that she would flush them out, Owen pulled out his knife, a derisory weapon against an adult Dilophosaurus. The latter began to sniff with vivacity but irritated by her presence, the Estemmenosuchus emitted a dull growl before striking the walls of its cage with its skull. Surprised, Zaza stepped back, hissed and unfolded her frill for a short moment before folding it back. Due to the mammalian reptile's strong scent, she had difficulty distinguishing those much weaker of Claire, Owen, and Franklin. She decided to ignore the cage and what it could hide.
Suddenly, the Dilophosaurus heard someone stumble and looked back at the keepers. One of them, Alfredo, had just tripped over one of the cables which stabilized one of the Herrerasaurus cages. The predator's gaze was fixed on the keeper with the goatee, and aware of their situation's precariousness, Pasqual and Nala hastened to help their colleague to get up and to run for their lives. The Dilophosaurus spat, but the venom only crashed two or three meters behind the keepers. The predator changed her strategy and instead lunged forward to run after them.
As soon as she was far enough away for her liking, Claire saw an opportunity and snuck out of their hiding place. Followed by Owen and Franklin, she rushed to the Dilophosaurs' wagon.
While she has had left the herrerasaurs' wagon behind her, Zaza heard them and stopped to look behind her and hesitated for a short moment between the two trios. With the couple and the IT technician being too far away, she finally decided to resume her pursuit of the keepers, who were still running and were about to escape her. Their objective was to reach the Midway cars because the first, unlike the wagons they had to cross, had a door which was theoretically capable of holding back an adult Dilophosaurus.
Two wagons away, Mark and other keepers were crowded together.
"Don't stay there!" Alfredo shouted at them.
The German and his colleagues went into the first Midway car, and one of them decided to prepare the door. He pulled on it but it did not come and remained blocked. After trying again unsuccessfully, he let out a curse.
"The door is jammed!" he screamed.
Having heard him, Alfredo, Pasqual and Nala redoubled their efforts and the others had to fall back beyond the next door, the one between the second Midway car and the Pelicanimimus' wagon.
Alerted by his comrade and having lost the Monkey, Theo decided to abandon the pursuit and turned back, returning to the Midway cars. If he had decided otherwise, he would have seen Claire, Owen and Franklin get out of the Dilophosaurs' wagon and climb onto the container transported by the preceding wagon. Between it and the passenger car behind the generator car, a small score of transport containers were lined up and attentive eyes would have seen the fleeing Monkey running up them towards the locomotive. From where he was, the latter saw one of his comrades fall from the locomotive.
Seeing that the passenger car was open, the Monkey rushed into it and saw the three English mercenaries beyond the opposite end, at the entrance of the generator car. While Aubrey and Grewal were backed against a wall, Faraday was shooting at the defenders.
"They repelled us!" the Costa Rican announced.
Aubrey sighed.
"What happened?!" he questioned him.
"We were taken by surprise by one of the mercenaries. The Gavilanes did their job poorly!"
Faraday turned to the masked thug.
"Well you too obviously! So join your colleagues and help them take the defenders from behind!" He ordered him
The Monkey nodded and headed for the exit.
"We have to gain ground! Hurry up!" Faraday growled.
Half leaning against one side of the carriage, Alfredo, Pasqual and Nala caught their breaths while Judd and another stood close to the door of the Midway car, listening to Zaza on the other side. Behind them, the other employees were agitated while Fanny wondered how they were going to solve this predicament.
"We've got nothing to tranq her!" Mark suddenly exclaimed. "The rifles and doses are on the other side."
"Shit…" Marisol grumbled.
"How are we going to do this?" Allison wondered fearfully.
"Wait, you're saying you can't neutralize her?" The mercenary asked.
"We need someone to go in the car and take them," Alfredo suggested.
"It would be a suicide mission. We can only succeed if someone distracts her," Pasqual pointed out.
When some started looking at her, Fanny shook her head.
"I've seen what those nasty creatures can do. I wouldn't volunteer unless you offered me a big reward, and I doubt you'd be able to have one ready for me with your keeper's salaries," she told them.
"InGen is paying you to keep us safe," Alfredo reminded her.
"That doesn't mean we're cannon fodder!" The mercenary retorted, with her tone getting angry.
"Dinosaur fodder actually…" Judd corrected her.
Fanny let out a groan.
"We'll see what we can do with Theo. Think of a plan in the meantime. You know this animal personally, I don't. Is it still behind the door?"
"No, she's moved away…" someone replied.
Still walking back up the train, Theo passed by the skylight the Monkey had jumped out of during the chase. With the dusk light fading, the mercenary had difficulty seeing if there was anything in the wagon below him and although Fanny had warned him about the escaped Dilophosaurus, he leaned over the skylight to look inside the carriage. Suddenly, darkness fell around Theo as they passed through a tunnel. The light returned a few seconds later, but in the carriage's darkness, Theo could make out the sinister silhouette of a long and rather narrow head with twin crests.
"Oh shit..."
He barely started getting up when a ball of dark substance crashed on his chest. The Dilophosaurus spat on him.
Not intending to give her the time to aim for his face, Theo preferred to fall back on his buttocks in order to be out of reach of the Dilophosaurus. He hurriedly crawled back a meter or two on the carriage's roof, then stopped to stare at the venom splattered on his shirt.
"Lovely…" he sighed.
He got to his feet, carefully walked around the skylight and continued, passing over the Midway carriages. Several cars beyond them, he saw a group of InGen guards moving on the roofs.
Reaching the wagon where the keepers and veterinarians had taken refuge, Theo stopped at the first skylight on his way and opened it. Fearing that it might be another boarder, the InGen employees had immediately turned, projectiles in hand. With a hand gesture, Fanny invited them to relax.
"You're there," Theo noticed. "No deaths on your side?"
"Nope. I don't know how things are going in other parts of the train but we're all alive here," Marisol answered.
They saw the spit on his chest.
"I see you've met Zaza," the Costa Rican keeper remarked.
"Zaza?" Theo repeated.
"She made you a widower's tie," Judd observed. "You got lucky. One facial and you would have been blind."
"You called that bitch Zaza?" The English mercenary asked them in an incredulous tone.
"I can't let you say she's a bitch, you Schweinehund!" Mark replied. "Do you have a problem with this name?"
"Whether her name is Zaza, Bessie, or Hostile 17, I'm afraid we'll have to kill her," Theo said.
"Kill her? That's out of the question!" Mark protested. "Blaeda depp! Hurensohn!"
"She's a threat for this entire bloody train," Theo retorted. "She needs to be dealt with before someone opens one of the doors and lets her escape. The ACU might be able to track her down but who guarantees they'll find her before she kills someone out there?"
"We have to put her back in her cage, we agree on that!" Marisol said. "What we mean is that there are alternatives to bullets."
Fanny intervened:
"They're right, Theo. Our job consists a bit in escorting those animals. InGen won't be happy if we kill one while its death could have been avoided."
"Then why don't you volunteer, Fanny?"
"Because you're already on the roof and I'm too small to reach it," his comrade replied casually.
"Du bisd doch z blaed zum sheissn," Mark muttered, looking at Theo with contempt.
"What did you just say, you effeminate Bavarian?" the Londoner growled.
"Nothing important…"
"You just need to make her move away from the rifles and the tranquilizers in the car you just passed... Try to lure her into a dead end," Marisol explained.
"In a dead end?!" Theo repeated. "She's not going to offer me to play cards you know."
"Pray for us to arrive in time," Alfredo told him.
"Great! And how do I protect myself from her spits? I don't want to end up like Stevie Wonder!"
"Take that!"
They threw him the balaclava and the ski goggles of the Monkey killed by Fanny.
"And if you see anything that can be used as a shield, take it," Judd advised him. "Dilophosaurs spit but also kick. And like kangaroos, they can knock you down… in addition to gutting you."
As Fanny looked at Judd oddly, a little embarrassed that he had used the word shield in Theo's presence, the latter made a barely perceptible nod.
"Find an improvised shield, noted," he said in a neutral tone.
Judd then asked him to help him climb on the roof, because he, Nala and a few others were planning to split up at the skylights between this carriage and the one where the other Dilophosaurus was still locked up. They wished him well, and as he strode atop the dilophosaurs' wagon, Valentine Taylor and several other guards ran past him, weapons in hand. Noticing their haste, Theo knew that the locomotive and Torres' wagon were probably under attack as well, and that it was pointless for him to ask for help with the Dilophosaur's situation. He watched them walk away.
Laying on their stomachs on top of the large shipping container within sight of the locomotive and the first two wagons, Claire, Owen and Franklin watched helplessly the head of the train being besieged. Gunshots echoed inside the carriages and they had seen one of the Monkeys fall from the train after trying to enter the locomotive. As the fight's outcome seemed uncertain, the trio were reluctant to continue.
'Torres is probably entrenched either in the locomotive or in the generator car. Let's take advantage of the fact that his guards are busy with the attackers. We'll take the roof and grab the weapons of whomever we come across," Claire said.
Just as she was about to straighten up to get out of the container, Owen grabbed her arm.
"Torres is beyond our reach. Crossing this shootout would be suicide," he pointed out. "Do you want to take a stray bullet?!"
"I agree with him," Franklin said.
Claire looked towards the locomotive without saying anything for a moment and realizing that her boyfriend was right, she struck the top of the container with her fist.
"Dammit!" she swore.
"And we wouldn't have had time," the IT technician added.
Turning around, the couple saw that he was looking behind them. Further behind, they saw a group of guards going up the train, jumping from container to container.
The trio couldn't move forward, backward, or jump off the train. They were still in the gorge, in the middle of nowhere. They had no idea where the nearest village was, or even if there were roads nearby. If they ever got lost while trying to get out of the gorges, they would be in trouble, especially since they had no water or food. They were cornered.
"Shit!" Claire hissed.
Calculating the guards' speed, Owen knew they would be upon them shortly and that they had time to seek a hiding place only by the container they were on. They could hide between it and the one behind, but one of the guards just had to decide to look down and they would be spotted. It was very risky and surrender seemed to be the best possible solution from the Raptor Whisperer's perspective, even if it literally meant walking into the lion's den. Unless…
Half a dozen meters behind them, a hatch opened inside the container. Owen turned around, crawled over to it, and seeing that he could open it in time if he hurried, he hailed his companions.
"Over here!"
They crawled up to him and given the container's large dimensions, a dozen meters long and about three high, Claire knew that it had to house either one large animal or several medium-sized animals. Apprehensively, she leaned over the hatch and seeing which one was contained below them, she opened her mouth and shook her head slightly.
"No, you have to be kidding me…" she complained.
Noticing in turn the approach of the InGen guards, one of the Monkeys saw fit to inform his accomplices.
"Guards are coming!"
Struggling to make progress in the generator car, Rankin's three mercenaries were still exchanging fire with the defenders. Taking advantage of the fact that he was protected and that Aubrey and Grewal were covering him, Faraday was pensive for a brief moment.
"All of you, get out! Slow them down!" He ordered the Monkeys.
The Costa Ricans obeyed and then he motioned for Grewal to get out of the van and try to take the defenders from behind. Maybe she would have a better chance than the Monkeys.
The remaining four left the front of the train and headed towards the guards. When they passed over the large container, the couple and Franklin had already disappeared.
After a brief exchange of fire during which one of their own fell, the Monkeys charged the guards and a hand-to-hand fight broke out atop the container of Boomer the Metriacanthosaurus, two wagons from where the fugitives had disappeared. Hearing the noise, the dinosaur woke up and curiously looked towards the hatch on the roof. When the arm of one of the guards, that of Valentine, passed between its bars, the predator suddenly straightened up and opened its jaws to grab it. But they closed in the air, as Valentine had pulled out his arm just in time. Frustrated, Boomer growled. However, another arm passed between the bars and in the blink of an eye, the Metriacanthosaurus grabbed it, tugged a little and ripped it off, causing its owner to scream in pain.
Standing a few feet from the hatch, Valentine was defeating one of the Monkeys. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the one who had just been amputated trying to straighten up and raise his pistol with his remaining hand, but one of the guards shot him in the head. As for the last of the thugs, he was projected out of the train with a well-placed kick.
On the generator car's roof, Grewal witnessed the Monkeys' defeat and immediately informed her two comrades.
"The Monkeys are KO! We're going to be sandwiched!"
In her earpiece, Faraday growled:
"Jeremy isn't going to be happy. We clear off!"
While the InGen guards closed in, Grewal looked to the right of the rail. Amidst dense vegetation, the terrain sloped steeply. She began to calculate her jump and when bullets started to whistle around them, she darted towards the trees and was greeted by the lashing of foliage before landing on a branch.
Faraday and Aubrey also jumped off the train and disappeared from the defenders' sight as they slid down the steep slope among trees and brush. Once at a respectable distance from the rail, the two mercenaries tried to slow their descent and clung to the first rock or tree they came across.
Her situation on the branch being precarious, Grewal wanted to fix it by reaching for the tree to which she belonged but just as she began to move, the branch cracked under her weight and with a scream of surprise, she began to slide down the slope.
"Marion!" Aubrey shouted.
While the fall dragged her towards a steep cliff a bit further down, she was fortunately caught by Faraday.
"I've got you, sister," he said.
Her fall interrupted, Grewal was able to stabilize her feet and find grips for her hands. Once out of danger, she thanked Faraday with a nod. Without him, she would have ended up in the bottom of the gorge.
Meanwhile, Theo was carrying out the mission entrusted to him. Although the Monkey's balaclava and ski goggles protected his face and eyes from any eventual venom splash, the mercenary was far from feeling safe and without any shame, he would have admitted that he was scared. He glanced over his shoulder at the door at the other end of the dilophosaurs' wagon. As he made his way towards the Midway cars, he looked at the large cages to his left, considering going to take refuge behind them as soon as he would be spotted by the crested dinosaur. He hoped to find in time a corner wide enough for him but also narrow enough to not let Zaza reach him, which was far from easy, as dilophosaurs were rather thin for their size.
The mercenary passed through the Estemmenosuchus' wagon, then that of the adult herrerasaurs, where he saw the body of the guard behind one of the cages, the one that the fugitives had seen when they were hidden. Thinking he had been killed by Monkeys and having other priorities, Theo didn't stop to check him. He finally arrived at the four wagons which separated them from the two Midways cars and on either side of the central aisle, transport crates were lined up. They were smaller than the cages seen by Theo shortly before, but as he didn't cared about their contents, he did not linger to look inside their sides' small holes and their occupants, small carnivores, contented themselves to chirp, coo, or hiss when the mercenary passed by. Whereas the crates of the first two small carnivore wagons were large enough to hold an animal the size of a panther or a wolf, those of the third of these wagons were a bit smaller, containing animals the size of a lynx or a medium-sized dog. In one of those, Kim, the female Velociraptor which had caused so much trouble the day the couple and the DPG trio arrived, peered at Theo with wary eyes.
Following a series of bends until then, the train arrived on a more or less straight section of rail and when it was the turn of that part of the train, the small carnivores wagons and those following them ended up aligned, which allowed Theo to see up to the first Midway car. In the one before the latter, he saw the Dilophosaurus, leaning towards one of the cages. The mercenary immediately hid behind an obstacle, as he didn't want to be spotted before the right moment. From his hiding place, he heard a hiss, not that of his target but that of the cage's occupant, the young Baryonyx, probably worried by the proximity of the large crested predator.
Turning around, Theo spotted the wagon's skylight and discreetly, he went to position himself below and above it, he saw Nala. She looked at him and he started a countdown with one of his hands. Once he got to zero, he coughed and stamped his foot before stepping back.
Hearing the noise, Zaza raised her head and turned it towards the front of the wagon. Curious, she left the young Baryonyx and went to investigate the noise's source, approaching Theo who had just crouched behind a crate.
Standing above the Baryonyx wagon's skylight, Judd saw Zaza leave and yelled:
"She's taking the bait!"
At the next skylight, one of the temp keepers repeated the message, shouting it to another at the following skylight and so on, relaying it to the skylight on top of the wagon where the bulk of the keepers and vets were. If they had decided to proceed like this instead of letting Theo text Fanny, it was because they feared that a sudden lack of phone signal would ruin their plan.
"Go!" Marisol ordered the temp veterinarian who had volunteered to fetch the tranquilizer.
He opened the door of the Midway car and dashed quickly and nimbly towards the opposite side of the car, where the suitcases containing the tranquilizers' doses were. Theo prayed that he would return to his colleagues in time, so that they could close the door and prepare the tranquilizer while he remained hidden, expecting to reveal himself only when they would come out, in order to distract the Dilophosaurus while the InGen employees would shoot at it.
Alas, Zaza heard the vet and turned away from the mercenary's hiding place. Seeing that the keepers had opened the door, she immediately rushed in that direction. Theo let out a curse.
"She's coming back!" They warned the volunteer.
Having just slung one of the tranquilizer guns, the temp vet grabbed one of the suitcases and turned around, rushing towards his colleagues while the Dilophosaurus crossed the other Midway wagon. Too busy running, Zaza didn't spit, relying on her speed and her teeth to grab one of the humans. The temp reached the threshold of the door, but just as they were about to close it, it was blocked by the front of the Dilophosaurus body. The keeper holding the door tried to prevent her from entering with all his strength, but it was in vain as a simple sideways push from the dinosaur pushed the door back and sent the keeper slamming into the wall behind him. Stunned, he collapsed to the ground and after crossing the threshold, Zaza immediately spat venom towards the group of employees massed a few meters from her, splattering the neck and lower face of one of the temps with black substance. Panicked, he cried out and began to gesticulate, desiring to remove the venom from his skin. In their crates, the Pelecanimimus stirred in fear and some of the temporary workers, losing their composures in the face of a rampaging dinosaur, fled. In the ensuing melee, Mark was only narrowly able to grab the gun and the briefcase, as the vet who retrieved them ended up yielding in to fear. While the Dilophosaurus hissed and reared upright with her frill extended, preparing to pounce toward the nearest employees, pounding sounds were heard. Those coming from behind her, Zaza stopped, wondering what was causing them. It was then that someone whistled at her.
"Oi! Cunthead!"
The Dilophosaurus turned around and saw Theo in the passage between the two Midway cars. Having deemed it too cumbersome, he had put his rifle not far away, thinking that his handgun would be enough should the worst happen. Taking advantage of this, the keepers and veterinarians still in the wagon moved away from her.
"Face someone of your size!" The mercenary added while making big moves and hitting the nearest metal wall.
Zaza heard a door close, the one between the Pelicanimimus' wagon and the next one. The keepers and veterinarians had escaped her. The crested dinosaur hissed in displeasure and angered by the pounding as well as the mercenary's attitude, she gave in to his provocation and rushed at him. He fled.
"Hurry up Mark!" He heard one of the keepers shout.
My life is in the hands of that Boche poof. I'm screwed, Theo thought while Zaza closed the distance between them.
Aware that she would catch up with him before he could open the door of the toilets at the end of the first Midway car, Theo suddenly turned, taking the stairs to the upper deck instead. The stairs being rather narrow and forming a sharp bend, he hoped she wouldn't dare take it. She proved him wrong by following him up the stairs, even though she climbed them with far more difficulty than he did, threatening to stumble with every step she took. Flabbergasted by this, Theo lost his concentration and stumbled against a step, knocking him forward. By the time he straightened up, Zaza's jaws were almost within reach of his feet. They darted forward, snapping just behind his heels. The mercenary reached the upper deck, stepping out on an aisle surrounded on both sides by luggage.
"Bollocks!" He groaned when he noticed that the aisle ended in a dead end.
Continuing, Theo stopped in the middle of the aisle and turned to face Zaza, which was finishing up the stairs. When she reached the top, she hissed and unfolded her frill, intending to intimidate him before striking.
While eyeing each other, the two adversaries studied their surroundings. Unlike the lower deck, the ceiling was too low to allow the dilophosaurus to stand upright and kick like a kangaroo and as her glands had to produce venom again, she had no choice but to use her jaws as weapons.
When she lunged forward and opened her mouth to bite him, Theo grabbed one of the bags next to him, a large silver duffel bag he had spotted seconds earlier. Noting that it was quite light, he put his arm through between the straps and the bag, lifting it up and brandished it like a shield just as Zaza projected her head forward to bite. When the teeth sank into the bag, the Dilophosaurus froze for a brief moment in surprise, then pulled her jaws back… before striking again, this time aiming for Theo's belly. He parried this new attack with the bag, hitting her from above. After hissing vehemently at this tougher-than-expected opponent, she backed up to the top of the stairs, and as Theo wondered what she was planning to do next, an idea sprung up in his mind.
If I could make her fall by dragging a suitcase in her path… She's tall but not very sturdy. By leaning on her and keeping her jaws closed, I might be able to hold on until the keepers' arrival...
He did not have time to execute it because she charged him without any warning and hitting him with full force, she knocked him down. Now on his back and unable to lift the bag in this position, he ended up entirely vulnerable. As the keepers weren't still there, he decided to draw his pistol with his free hand.
It's my life or hers!
But when he reached for his pistol, he realized it wasn't there.
I gave it to the vet…, he recalled.
Just when she wanted to lunge forward to bite him on the neck, Zaza staggered and Theo had just enough time to roll sideways before the Dilophosaurus collapsed on her side next to him. He noticed the presence of a hypodermic dart stuck in the dinosaur's neck and sitting up, he saw Mark and Brice at the top of the stairs. The first held the tranquilizer gun in his hands.
"Bitteschön," Mark said, looking at the surprised mercenary.
Theo looked at him oddly, ignoring the meaning of that word.
"It means you're welcome," the veterinarian explained, passing his colleague to lean over Zaza.
Mark then looked at the tranquilized predator.
"Oh… Schatzi…" he said plaintively.
Theo stood up, passed the keeper and the Dilophosaurus, then descended to the lower level. He found Fanny there and a group of employees passed them to take the stairs. One of the guards came to meet the two mercenaries, handing them a radio.
"Torres wants to talk to you," he informed them.
"Have you seen Mrs. Dearing or Mr. Grady and Mr. Webb?" The director of InGen Security abruptly asked the two mercenaries.
"I think I saw them in a jeep while the carnotaur dealt with the attackers," Theo said.
"And on the train?"
"We haven't seen them," Fanny said.
Torres let out a sigh and turned to Alexander Singer.
"I'm afraid Mr. Webb is in the hands of these dangerous individuals."
"Oh God…" The DPG founder huffed, worried for his colleague.
"That's all I wanted to know," Torres told the mercenaries. "Have some rest in the Midway cars. You'll meet your colleagues at the port."
Leaning back in the corner of the carriage and applying a piece of cloth to a scrape on his scalp, Horatio looked at Valentine and the three other guards standing in front of Torres. The keeper then turned to Alexander.
"Let's go see if the animals are okay," he proposed before grabbing a flashlight.
Torres looked at one of his subordinates.
"Go with them," he ordered.
The guard nodded and followed the two men out of the carriage. The director of InGen Security then asked the others to report.
"Is the rest of the train secure?" he asked.
"Yes sir. All the attackers we encountered have been neutralized," Valentine replied. "Several were taken prisoner."
"Good. Lock them up. They'll be taken care of once we're at the port."
One of Valentine's colleagues cleared his throat.
"What do we do with the bodies of those who died?"
"When we'll pass over the river, throw them overboard," Torres ordered quietly. "They'll feed the crocodiles and the fish. We don't have time to explain to the authorities what happened."
The guard swallowed.
"Yes, sir…"
"You may leave," Torres said in a more audible voice.
The three guards turned on their heels and left the carriage in their turn.
Climbing back up the ledge, Dorian Faraday, Marion Grewal and Eric Aubrey reached the rail, crossed it and went to rest under the trees on the other side. While Grewal and Aubrey inspected with their flashlights the minor injuries they had received during the assault and the slide, Faraday pulled out his phone and called Rankin.
"Jeremy. The train is still moving. We had to retreat. There were too many defenders."
"Fucking hell!" his boss exclaimed. "And the Monkeys?"
"All dead or captive. They were unable to deal with the guards and the keepers."
Rankin sighed audibly.
"Screw Padilla and Iglesia! Their men were worthless! Where are you?"
While Faraday relayed their current coordinates to him, they began to hear the roar of a helicopter. As a precaution, they went to hide deeper in the vegetation and turned off their lights. Listening carefully to the sound, Aubrey knew it was a large aircraft and his guess was confirmed when a Boeing Chinook in the colours of InGen Security passed by them, following the gorge downriver.
"Keep climbing, there's a road less than a mile from your position," Rankin informed them soon after. "We'll send you the extraction coordinates in a minute."
"Copy that. We're going," Faraday answered.
The mercenary put his phone away and as soon as his two companions were ready, he led them towards the extraction point. As they climbed the slope in front of them, they couldn't help thinking that if Rankin had incorporated Adrian Bentley, a decent element when he wasn't drunk, into the assault squad and left Doctor Scherrer somewhere safe before joining them too, they could have taken the front part of the train in time and make it derail.