Jurassic Park: The Broken Lives Saga by Dinohunter55
Chapter 11: The Wilds of Isla Sorna
Silver Claw looked over the bridge while Amanda and Ellie were arguing over the map. Ellie wanted to follow the road until they reached the airstrip while Amanda wanted to follow a mountain ridge to a pass where they could cut across to the airstrip.
In the slow moving water, Silver Claw saw small fish snapping up insects along the surface. A larger fish lurked in the murky depths, a hint of shadow in the water. He quickly lost interest and joined the arguing women. He grabbed the map from Amanda and walked off with it in his jaws.
"Hey," both protested.
"Silver Claw," Amanda said and caught up to him. "You're going to damage it."
Silver Claw held it a little tighter when Amanda tugged at the edge. She dared not pull hard lest she tore it and he knew it. He led them over the bridge and then turned north.
"I guess we're going your way," Ellie grumbled. She shouldered her pack into a more comfortable position.
After a few minutes, Silver Claw released the map. Amanda looked it over quickly and tucked it away in her pocket. She gave him a flick on the side and he gave her a little shove back with his hip.
The jungle was not as dense as it was in the western part of the island though the undergrowth was taller between the wider gaps of larger trees. It thinned further until they reached a vast open plain. Herds of various dinosaurs grazed the field. Silver Claw saw brachiosaurus, parasaurolophus, corythosaurus, stegosaurus, gallimimus, and a few others darting among the larger dinosaurs.
"Wow," Amanda said, "Look at them all."
"Is this part of the pack's territory?" Ellie asked.
"Probably," Silver Claw said. "We should move as quickly as we can to get through it. Depending on where their nest is, they may use this place as a primary hunting area or somewhere similar to it nearby."
"How you do decide where to build your nests?" Ellie shifted the backpack on her shoulder.
They hugged the treeline where it was densest along the base of the mountain ridge. A few trees formed denser pockets further out among the grasses. At the opposite side of the valley, the trees grew densest on the far side of the river leaving much of the space between for short to medium length grasses.
"We tend to find somewhere that is safe enough to lay eggs and raise hatchlings with a clean water supply. Often it's in areas that large predators avoid yet close enough to multiple hunting grounds." Silver Claw said. Amanda translated. "Areas where the trees are large and close together or where the terrain is dangerous to the largest predators are preferred. Once a pack is in an area long enough however, most predators avoid the nest. A full pack can take down the largest animals if they aren't caught unaware."
"Oh," Ellie thought on it for a while. "Does a pack go far from the nest usually?"
"No, a pack will stick close to the nest and only venture to the edge of the claimed territory to mark it for everything else to know the boundaries." Silver Claw said. "Sometimes a few will venture beyond to scout out the locations of other packs or figure out the territorial ranges of other carnivores. I never got to do that though. I was stuck at the nest always."
"Ah," Ellie unshouldered her pack to grab a drink from one of several water bottles stashed in her bag.
"Do the different packs talk to each other often?" Amanda asked.
"No, not unless it's regarding something important and there are rules that we all follow," Silver Claw said. A herd of parasaurolophus caught his eye and he wished to hunt them. Perhaps in the future Amanda could help with larger prey. "When two territories touch it is usually a source of meeting and conflict but that hasn't been an issue for a while. Our pack wiped out most of Tyrannous's pack during the last conflict. I do not know if they survived for long after that or how many are left. This pack might know if there are any survivors. Otherwise the remaining packs have been spaced out enough to avoid each other."
"What's that from?" Ellie pointed at a tree. It bore a series of large scratch marks down the bark.
Silver Claw went up and sniffed the tree and then the ground. "These are from a baryonyx but it's not recent. It likely hunts along the river mostly."
"That's good." Ellie said.
A shadow passed overhead as a small pteranodon wheeled above them. It disappeared briefly as it passed in front of the afternoon sun. The pteranodon remained above them as they continued to walk.
"Is it following us?" Amanda said as she used her hand to block out the sun.
"It kind of looks like it," Ellie said.
"Then we need to move out of sight," Silver Claw said and headed deeper under the jungle canopy.
"Why," Amanda said as she nearly tripped to keep pace.
"Those things usually lure in carnivores," Silver Claw said.
"Why would they do that," Ellie said.
"They circle over easy prey or carcasses and then eat what's left when a predator is done. Some of the predators use them to find food. My pack did." Silver Claw said. "It may just think I'm going to eat you and then it can take its fill after but I don't want to risk it attracting something larger."
Ellie chuckled nervously but picked up her pace.
Under the canopy, they lost sight of the pteranodon. It must have lost them as well as a few minutes later its cry came from much further down the valley. They did not slow their pace however. The ground rose up and they saw the pass between the mountain ridges. The river flowed nearby.
They would want to move quickly through the pass to avoid anything that might stumble upon them.
Tyrannous searched the building and found nothing. He had returned to the structure in the early morning only to find the fence in ruins. Clearly, the spinosaurus had attacked but he saw no blood to suggest a kill. The faint scent of Amanda and Ellie lingered in the hallways. All three probably survived the attack.
Since he last saw them, he had traveled south to a remote area of the island. A hint of a trail during his hunt with Amanda roused a curiosity in him. He had found nothing but hints. A few velociraptors were alive in the southern part of the island but they lacked a nest and therefore were elusive, never staying in the same place twice. The only place they stopped near frequently was a small pond fed by multiple waterfalls. A long mountain ridge divided much of the southern area in half and the swamps near the coast hindered his tracking.
He gave up on finding them but would return in time. He did not have a territory to call home. Instead, Tyrannous wandered the island, frequently scavenging the kills of other predators or killing smaller creatures. Since the conflict left his pack dead, Tyrannous had searched the eastern redwoods for the raptor responsible for leading his pack to their defeat. He never found him but knew that he was alive somewhere. Only recently, did he give up on that and turn his search for Seth. However, he was dead it seemed.
Tyrannous picked up the trail in the garage. The three had used the tunnels again. He considered following it, or at least checking out the sheds to find out from which one they departed.
A spinosaurus roared in the distance. How unfortunate that the spinosaurus pair chose this area of the island to meet for mating. The place had the least amount of other large carnivores however. The hyper aggression of the male was likely what brought it to kill Silver Claw's pack Tyrannous figured. They were a threat to its mate. It was the only one baring the scars of a velociraptor attack. The pair had since separated. The male was wandering north to the coast while the female east to the inland regions. It seemed she did not see this area as suitable to lay her eggs.
He remembered a time before the spinosaurus were on the island. They had come south sometime around the conflict between his pack and Silver Claw's pack. Tyrannous guessed that they came from one of the other islands to the north but had no way of knowing for sure. They could swim the distance while he could not. Though like him, they had no fixed territory and wandered the island, occasionally disappearing for a while before one or both appeared again.
Tyrannous considered returning to the redwoods for a time. On the other hand, he could chase Silver Claw and the humans but that served little purpose other than a mild feeling of accomplishment he would feel from another velociraptor and a few more humans to his total killed. He went to the road and decided that he would follow it for a while until he made up his mind.
Distant thunder rumbled. A downpour blanketed the island. Ellie grumbled to herself. She hated the rain and now she was soaked. Amanda and Silver Claw seemed unbothered by it.
The rain put her mind back to when she was on the rock, trapped and alone. She shuddered at the thought. It was a long few days that she suffered the exposure to the elements. She wanted to go home and sit under a warm blanket.
"How much further do you think it is?" Ellie called out over the rain.
"I'm not sure," Amanda shrugged.
Ellie saw the slight shiver in Amanda. She was cold as well.
Thunder grew louder. The wind rocked the canopy. A branch snapped and tumbled to the ground nearby. Silver Claw froze suddenly. He reared up and listened to something only he could hear.
"Run," Silver Claw said.
They did. Silver Claw led the way. Amanda trailed a little behind and Ellie brought up the rear.
"What is it?" Ellie called. He heart hammered. Fear gripped her mind and she started seeing shadows leaping out all about her.
Silver Claw did not hear or chose not to speak.
Ellie ran as hard as she could until her breath tasted metallic. She felt the growing cramp in her legs. She felt a little light headed. Wet leaves slapped her in the face as branches caught her hair. A few branches took a souvenir. A low rumble vibrated Ellie to her core. Something large nearby growled. She felt a tremor through her feet.
They burst from the jungle onto a long broad road. No, not a road, it was the airstrip. Without a word, the three instinctively ran to the long low building along its edge. The sheet metal was thin but it had no windows. Amanda was the first through the door, then Silver Claw, and finally Ellie.
Ellie looked back over her shoulder just as a young bull tyrannosaurus rex exited the jungle. The door closed and she prayed that it had not seen them.