Chapter 3

What Nightmares Are Made Of

Horror crossed Dr. Ben Hildebrand's face as he saw the human sized, striped monstrosities move out of the foliage from different sides, having singled out one of the Parasaurolophus, as Eric had called them, and went in for the attack.

He wanted to see the expression on Eric's face, but Ben was too preoccupied with his own reaction to this, as the creatures ripped into the Parasaur. All of the other Parasaurs and Apatosaurs moved away from the area, stampeding from the attack scene, but that wasn't the focus of what Ben observed. His attention remained entirely on the attack.

"Raptors," Eric whispered.

Ben put a hand over Eric's mouth, hoping that would be enough to keep him from continuing to speak.

Other Raptors that hadn't been involved in the initial attack tried to move in to get some of the prize and got snapped at for their trouble from the ones that did all the work.

'That's strange behavior,' Ben thought to himself in observation.

Those Raptors turned tail and rushed off after the stampede, but one of them stopped, looking right at the structure. It craned its neck upward.

Ben pulled Eric quietly further back into the structure, hoping that they wouldn't be seen.

The Raptor finally turned and took off after the others.

As the Raptors that had claimed their prize worked on finishing their meal, Ben pulled his hand away from Eric's mouth and sighed.

"Something's not right," Ben whispered, taking a seat.

Eric sat down beside him. "What do you mean?" he asked in a whisper.

"The hunting behavior is too savage," Ben replied. "And there were so many of them."

Eric raised an eyebrow. "Do Archeologists usually know a lot about animal behavior?"

Ben also raised an eyebrow in return. "I'll have you know that most fields require a few classes of study here and there outside of the field they're majoring in. I took a few Biology classes in college, and I'm telling you, that isn't normal."

Eric shrugged. "These animals aren't normal. Those were, what I can only figure to be Velociraptors, but they were too tall. They were closer to the size of Utahraptors, but I swear they look like the ones you'd find in Mongolia. I think …"

The animals below screamed out.

Ben risked a glance over the railing and saw the Raptors leaving. "We should be fine now."

Eric nodded. "I hope so. I'm tired."

"Rest," Ben said. "I doubt those things will return any time soon."

"What about you?" Eric asked.

"I'm too exhilarated right now," Ben replied. "Besides, that one Raptor that looked up at the structure… It has me a little on edge."

"You think it knew we were up here?" Eric asked.

"I think it knew that the structure was here and had some kind of memory of it," Ben replied. "Dr. Levine's team must've gotten attacked. We may not want to stay here forever."

"Still want to make for the village?" Eric asked.

"Not right yet," Ben replied. "It'll be night before long. We'll just have to hope that we're safe here for now and go forward tomorrow. Now sleep."

Eric closed his eyes and slumped down, curling onto his side.

Ben moved around the structure, looking at the random equipment all around, some of it sporting the TMFS logos. "Not like you to leave equipment lying around, doc."

He moved to a camera setup and looked out to where it was pointing.

"Oh, wow," he whispered to himself. "Talk about a lost world."

In the near valley, stretching as far as could be seen, was a picturesque scene of herbivores, most like the Apatosaurs and Parasaurs from before, but there were also others that even Ben recognized from his youth: Stegosaurs and Triceratops. There were others farther off that he couldn't quite make out, but it felt as if he had traveled back in time to a land long forgotten.

After what felt like an eternity, Ben turned back to the camera. "If Richard Levine was here, he must have wanted to keep watch of the animals with further studies from the mainland, where he'd be safe." He smirked. "Sorry, Richard, but I need to keep someone I love safe more than you need your research."

Ben glanced to the sleeping Eric and then back to the camera, moving it to where the angle would face where Eric slept. He then moved back over and sat down beside him, so that he as well would be in view. Ben wanted to sleep, but that one Raptor's look upward toward the structure made him hesitant to do so. Instead, he did his best to occupy his mind.

At first, all he could do was stare forward in shock. Then, anger set in moments later. His research was being tampered with, and Dr. Richard Levine wasn't amused.

Standing beside him, Dr. Jack Thorne couldn't help but laugh.

"What the hell is so funny?" Levine asked.

Thorne shrugged. "Ya know, I thought there was a chance your idea of observation wouldn't work, but I never believed it would only take a couple days for it to be proven. I figured a Rex or one of the other larger dinosaurs would completely knock over The High Hide, because there was a game trail right beside where we set up, but I didn't think other people would show up there."

"I want to know how they found out about Site B in the first place," Levine stated in annoyance. "I was about to leave the country. Now I have to go back to that damn island."

Thorne chuckled. "You were just released from the hospital for your Compy bite, and now you're going to go back there?"

Levine pointed at the monitor, showing the man and the boy in The High Hide. "They're on your property and messing with my research!"

"Well, I left The High Hide there, so the structure is technically now in possession of the dinosaurs."

Levine crossed his arms. "You're getting a real good laugh out of this, aren't you?"

Thorne nodded. "More than you know." He pointed at the man on the screen. "That's Dr. Ben Hildebrand. That's all I need to know about why he is on the island."

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Levine asked.

"He's an Archeologist," Thorne told him. "One of the best. Only thing that doesn't make him Indiana Jones is the fact that he doesn't look like Harrison Ford."

"What place does an Archeologist have on that island?" Levine asked. "He doesn't study dinosaurs. He doesn't even study animals."

"No, but Sorna had natives living there before the Germans bought it," Thorne said. "Dr. Hildebrand is probably looking for their ruins."

"You expect me to believe a coincidence like that?" Levine asked.

"No," Thorne replied, moving for the hotel room door. "But I wouldn't expect Dr. Malcolm to follow you back to that island, nor is he going to let you go back without a fight."

"Why wouldn't he return with me?" Levine asked. "Ian has a hero complex. He sees someone in danger and rushes to the rescue."

"He and Dr. Harding have lives to get back to," Thorne replied. "And you have to get those kids back to the states. You're going to have a lot of explaining to do to their families."

Levine groaned. "I'd rather face that pack of Velociraptors again."

"Too bad," Thorne said. "That's my job now. I'll get a team together, and I'll extract them myself."

Thorne opened the door.

"Make sure to turn my camera back to the valley!" Levine called after him.

Thorne rolled his eyes and closed the door, moving off down the hallway. He would need to make several calls, find out if anyone knew that Dr. Hildebrand was out in the field, and if they even knew where he'd gone. Going back to that island wasn't on Jack Thorne's to do list, but Hildebrand was a good man. He didn't want to see anything happen to him or that kid either for that matter.