CHAPTER 13
Dr. Johnson inspected the herbivore/omnivore wing with severe caution. The juvenile raptors had left a lasting wake of commotion in the nursery. Beside her, two baby triceratops rutted at the gate to their cage and snorted defensively in her direction. Stomping around on all fours the two young dinosaurs were a bit larger than a pair of grizzly bear cubs. Without their horns grown in their displays of aggression were null at best.
"Shhh… Quiet down girls everything is all right. You're safe in your cages."
Dianna knew this was true for them but what about her? Was she safe? Was the taser prod in her hand enough? It didn't feel like it.
She paced herself forward delicately. Ahead there was an enclosure full of three-foot tall fluffy gallamimus chicks running in circles. They bleated, crashed into each other, and darted to all corners of the cage. Across the aisle was a six-foot tall brachiosaurus youngling moaning and pounding its front feet.
"Settle down everyone. Settle down." Dianna's voice was a soft whisper. "They can't hurt you. You're ok… I'm ok… We're all ok…" She didn't believe it.
Venturing beyond that she became surrounded on both sides by shrieking pteranodon hatchlings that were clinging to the sides of their cages like bats and snapping at her with fearsome hisses.
"Pssst psst pssst." Dr. Johnson made a noise with her lips. It was a sound that she had found to typically sooth the pterosaurs.
Dianna continued steadily passed the frenzy of flapping leathery wings. She neared the end of the corridor that signified the beginning of the carnivore wing. Where the hallway teed off she paused. Letting her taser prod lead Dr. Johnson spied left and then right before making a right hand turn. With her taser gun held tight she proceeded through the carnivore cages.
On her left there was a young carnotaurus standing four feet tall. The scaly beast had itself positioned stoically against the back wall as it precociously practiced its chameleon technique. The color-changing dinosaur had skillfully copied the grainy, gray, concrete textures onto its skin. Dianna observed as the creature's beady black eye subtly shifted in a gesture that seemed to ask the question, "Can she see me?"
"Yes I can see you Monica. That's a good try though."
The carnivore didn't seem upset, but Dianna continued the dialogue to calm her own nerves.
As Dr. Johnson watched the animal's features they became less defined. The thorny nubs along its back and ribs seemed to fade into the wall. The head with its curving set of bullhorns and pointy teeth was but a devilish ghost.
Suddenly there was a loud thud and a guttural shriek. Dianna whipped her taser prod around. The floor-to-ceiling glass window behind her was dripping with a yellowish-green sludge that she quickly identified as dilophosaurus venom. Beyond the oozing glass were three dilophosaurus adolescents with their rattling neck frills fully spread. The slender bipeds reared their double crested heads and widened their eyes. A disorienting bombardment of colors fiercely shook around their collars as they continued to scream.
"Jerks!" Dianna exhaled.
Dr. Johnson focused her eyes back down the hallway. She could hear Stella squawking anxiously from her cage. The baby rex was kicking at the bars with her hind foot. Then Dianna's sight fell on Bill's body laying in the doorway to the velociraptor enclosure. It was nothing short of a horror film. Jim's body was near by face down in the middle of the cage. The meat around his kidneys bore deep lacerations. Through his tattered shirt and shredded skin his ribs and spine were intermittently exposed.
Dianna shook her head. "Why did you open the cage?"
As she inspected the area she noticed three sets of bloody raptor footprints leaving the enclosure. Two of them went back off in the direction she had just come. The other cut across the aisle to a large air duct.
A vent near the floor had been chewed through but not quite enough for a young velociraptor to squeeze passed.
"Its still in the room…" Dianna thought to herself. "It was trying to escape, and I showed up before it could get away." Dr. Johnson's pulse spiked. "She's still here…"
Dianna's fingers curled around the taser prod. What had she missed? Her mind went to the stack of supply crates near by. A young raptor could very easily be hiding behind them. Clenching her muscles she turned.
Dr. Johnson was faced with a juvenile velociraptor in mid lunge. Its claws were spread. Its teeth were wide. The dinosaur slammed into Dianna with all its weight. Her taser prod knocked aside, and she collapsed backwards. As she fell her head struck something solid, and she blacked out.