Prehistoric Park: Reimagined

by Nathanoraptor

Join Drew Luczynski and company as they travel back in time and save the amazing animals that time has left behind. Their goal? To bring them back to the safety of the present and give them a second chance. Welcome to the Ultimate Wildlife Sanctuary. Welcome to Prehistoric Park.

29. Breakout!

Finale - Chaos Rising

Drew couldn't help but smile, clear joy on his face as he watched what was currently happening in front of him and foreman Kevin Drake. It had been two weeks since the spinosaurus mission, and the opening was only mere weeks away. Smile still on his face, he flashed a thumbs-up towards the two workmen who were currently hard at work on making some finishing touches for painting the sign above the main entrance to the park. "Looks good so far," he said. "Keep at it."

"You heard him boys," said Kevin, clapping his hands immediately afterward as if to say 'chop-chop'. "Keep at it."

"Yes sir," both workmen said in unison as they continued their work.

Drew nodded his head and looked to Kevin. While he admittedly hadn't interacted with the workmen hired by Percival all that often, the impression they'd given him, plus the horror stories he'd heard from everyone else, had been more than enough to get him to feel relieved when Kevin had knocked some sense into his ostensible underlings. "I'm sure you've probably heard this a million times already," Drew admitted. "But I really am thankful that you were able to get your underlings to stop messing around and start actually being useful around here."

Kevin nodded his head. "You and me both," he admitted before then looking back at the two workmen painting the sign above the park's entrance gate. "I certainly won't deny that getting that deal arranged so that I could work directly under you guys – and reduced exposure to a certain asshole – was a pretty good cut. Of course, money talked." Drew nodded his head. "Still surprised that was all it took," he muttered.

Kevin chuckled. "Never underestimate the power of money," he stated, nodding his head immediately afterward. "I always say, 'Pay a man enough and he'll walk barefoot into Hell'." He then looked back towards the park gate. "Even so, I'm definitely glad that I've since come to appreciate this park for what it is."

At this, Drew couldn't help but let out a slight chuckle, "You and me both." He nodded his head once more, "Regardless, keep up the good work. At this rate, I can already tell that you and the rest of them will probably be valuable here." Kevin chuckled. "I certainly hope so," he stated before giving Drew a slight wave. "Have a nice day."

"You to," Drew stated before he walked through the gate and back into the park. Upon entry, his smile widened as he saw all the signs of just how close the park now was to finishing its preparations for opening day. He had to admit, part of him was honestly still surprised at just how well things had been going in that regard since the day Kevin had gotten off his ass and straightened out the workmen. But regardless, he was not going to deny that he was very pleased indeed at how well things were going. 'Theodore's gonna be so proud,' he thought to himself.

And indeed he had every reason to believe this. After all, just one look at the Main Street Entrance Zone in all its glory was enough to show just how close the park now was to being fully prepared and ready for opening day. And Drew couldn't wait to see how strong of such an impression the rest of the park would give over the course of his current plans to walk through the entire park to observe how much remained to be done. And he had to admit, what the park had managed to achieve was nothing short of impressive. In the span of practically two whole years, many formerly extinct species had been brought back and maintained at the park – and, better yet, the unveiling of the park and its residents, formerly one of the most closely guarded secrets on the planet, was mere weeks away. And he had his entire team, plus the rest of the staff at the park, to thank for it all.

Smile still on his face, he nodded his head. He had to admit, as much as he wasn't usually the type to say as much aloud, the whole enterprise had been a team effort. Privately, he couldn't help but silently whistle at the idea of just how utterly daunting, if not outright impossible, it would have been for him to achieve everything without his team. Then he thought about just how much more difficult and busy his life as both rescue team leader and park manager would become. At this moment, he began to wonder if he was now at risk of biting off more than he could chew...before he then shook his head side to side – e'd never backed down from a challenge before.

Nodding his head, he looked past the large fountain in the center of the area he was standing in and towards the actual 'Main Street' leading away from the front gate and deeper into the park. Yep, all in all, things were going well. And so long as nothing went horribly wrong...

"Mr. Luczynski! Mr. Luczynski!"

Eyes widening in surprise, Drew turned his head to his left in time to see one of the younger assistant technicians, Ramsay if he remembered correctly, coming to a stop nearby, panting and gasping as if he'd been in a particularly big hurry. And as the young technician assistant came to a stop, Drew raised his eyebrow, "Is something wrong?"

Finally managing to finish catching his breath, Ramsay looked straight to Drew. "We need you in the main control room. There's been an incident."

This was more than enough to get Drew's attention. "Lead the way."

. . . . .

Elsewhere, Kyle Taymor sighed as he drove through the park and in the direction of the Birds of Mauritius aviary. In the passenger seat was Uilleam the dodo – who had escaped yet again, and was scanning the air as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Uilleam combined two problems – one, that his kind were completely fearless and quite eager to put up a fight and the other that he himself was quite the escapologist. This had been cute and funny at first… but after a while, it just became annoying. And with just how much was currently riding on the park's grand opening, the constant escapes that Uilleam was engaging in had the potential to become quite irksome indeed...

Kyle suddenly saw a massive shadow in the road...DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF HIM! In a flash, Kyle slammed the brakes on the Jeep, much to his passenger's outrage; and for a brief moment, Kyle and Uilleam both glared at each other once the jeep had come to a stop… before a low trumpeting bellow suddenly split the air directly ahead, and Kyle and Uilleam both immediately went quiet before turning their heads to look ahead. Their eyes promptly widened in surprise when they saw that the large object in front of them that was blocking the road was Big Roy, the large bull paraceratherium. At that moment, he was standing calmly, tranquilly browsing on a nearby large tree. Uilleam and Kyle looked at each other once more, quiet with confusion – how had Big Roy managed to get out? And the Hsanda Gol herbivore paddock was miles away… how long had he been out for? At this thought, Kyle blanched slightly – what else might be out?

And in that instant, Kyle reached for his communicator. Whatever was going on, Nikolai needed to know and get to work on resolving it; and quick!

. . . . .

At around the same time that Kyle had been driving with Uilleam, Nikolai himself had been calmly strolling through the park while engaging in his rounds. He had to admit, he was quite pleased with just how much progress the park had made in opening day preparations over the past two weeks. But even so, he nonetheless made sure to keep his guard up as he continued his rounds through the park. After all, you never when Murphy's law could strike...

The sound of grunting ahead caused him to halt in his movements and look directly ahead of him in time to see a rather odd sight. At that moment, he could see Kuzco the macrauchenia and Pacha the toxodon standing facing each other in the middle of the path Nikolai was traveling down, grunting and bellowing amiably at each other. Nikolai raised his eyebrow, relieved that so far things hadn't escalated to violence, but nonetheless concerned at how the two Santa Cruz herbivores were very outside their paddock. "Something is wrong," he muttered as he reached for his communicator.

Suddenly, the sound of multiple car horns going off split the air, startling both Nikolai and the two herbivores, the latter of which grunted in surprise and moved away. Alarmed, Nikolai rushed over in the direction the noise was coming from. And upon reaching the area where most of the park's jeeps were kept, his eyes widened in visible shock at the sight of the other stegosaurus charging through some of the parked jeeps, evidently viewing them as rivals or enemies of some sort.

At this, Nikolai's eyes narrowed in equal parts wariness and annoyance. Right now, he still had no idea of exactly what was going on. But whatever it was, something needed to be done about it; and quick! It was almost a relief when he subsequently heard his communicator go off. He promptly drew it out and accepted the call without missing a beat. "Koshkin! Over?"

. . . . .

About ten minutes later, inside the main control room at the main staff office building...

"The paddock door locks shut down again?!"

Alexander Pierce sighed – he was not at all surprised that Drew had reacted this way. Roughly fifteen minutes ago, a random fault had affected some of the door lock systems. Drew looked at him, confused, "I thought decentralizing the systems was supposed to prevent this." Pierce sighed and said, "That isn't technically true – it was meant to reduce the severity and scope of any hypothetical problem. And in all fairness, it's more localized this time round – that's the plus." Drew gave Pierce a look, "What's the minus?", to which the technician sighed, "The downside is which areas were affected."

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

On another feed, one of the juvenile sauroniops circled Abrams the ankylosaurus, staring at him, bemused, and paused to curiously nip at Abrams' tail club. On another camera, Nezbit the Velociraptor hissed at a browsing Paraceratherium, who ignored the smaller animal. And on yet another, Tut stalked down a path, looking for prey.

"The areas affected included Flaming Cliffs, Kem Kem, Maevarano, Hell Creek, Ice Age Mount, La Brea, Hsanda Gol…" Darrel said, "Some of the animals must've realized the doors weren't working and taken that moment to walk out."

Ramsay nodded his head. "In all fairness, it's not as bad as last time," he stated. "I mean, for starters, the weather's nicer – and the Hate Plague hasn't made a return appearance so far." He then pointed at Pierce while looking straight at Drew. "And while I was out getting you, Mr. Pierce managed to contact everyone, so it looks like there aren't any problems with the comms." Darrel nodded his head. "Nonetheless," he stated. "This is definitely something we need to resolve."

Drew nodded his head numbly. He was all too aware of just how serious a situation was now unfolding - the park was once again undergoing a mass breakout. Already he was flashing back to the Shutdown as he saw the various animals milling about the park. In that moment, he gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. "Goddamn it," he muttered under his breath. Everything had been going so well.

. . . . .

In the Hsanda Gol exhibit zone, Yolanda was in a good mood as she sat upon a bench in the Oligocene Mongolia desert building, a bubbly smile on her face. She had just finished a routine observation of the Cynodictis – since she still had time, she had decided to take a quick break. She began thinking about Raksha - perhaps she could someday be introduced to them when she was a bit older. At this thought, she then found herself wondering if perhaps she and Alice should pay another visit to Raksha when they were both on break. And then she found herself thinking about Yenna; perhaps she'd have enough time to drop by the hyaenodon paddock…

An alarm suddenly went off, snapping her out of these thoughts. 'What the?' She thought to herself in confusion. The small mammals, startled by the sound of the alarm, hurried off into their burrows, while the macropelobates and crythiosaurus all appeared largely unphased. And in that moment, Yolanda got up from the bench she'd been sitting on and headed towards the building's rear entrance. Part of her knew that it possibly would be wiser for to stay put… but part of her also wanted to see what was going on. "It's probably not that bad," she said under her breath, "I mean, if it were anything, I'm sure there'd be some warning…"

A low grunt interrupted her thoughts and she turned to see a boar entelodont standing ominously near the door. And as Yolanda stood rooted to the spot in fear, the entelodon squealed, baring its discoloured teeth, before pawing the ground like a bull. Yolanda remained paralysed with fear, not daring to move – the entelodont was standing too close for her to risk running away… and there was no way he could outrun him, anyway. She didn't even dare to try to reach for her communicator – any sudden noise or movement could risk attack. But at the entelodont's stare, she realised that she couldn't remain still either. She truly had no idea what to do. Then the entelodont squealed again, and then tensed as if about to charge. ...

A loud whooping from behind Yolanda caused her to reflexively turn her head with widened eyes while Okkoto reared backwards and squealed in surprise. Standing right behind Yolanda were the entirety of the hyaenodon pack, eyes narrowed as they glared at the entelodont, who squealed again, pawing the ground in an attempt to intimidate them. However, the pack stood their ground and snarled and whooped at the entelodont. At that moment, it seemed quite clear that, whilst much larger than them, the entelodont was outnumbered. Eventually, with an angry grunt, the entelodont trotted away.

Panting and gasping in relief, Yolanda looked back to the hyaenodon pack, weakly flashing the beasts a thumbs-up. "Thank you," she managed to weakly say. Danian and Moro let off a low, almost casual snarl, whilst Yenna, meanwhile, walked right up to Yolanda and rubbed her head against the young assistant vet's belly in a seeming gesture of affection. Letting off a low chuckle, Yolanda patted Yenna on the head. "Good to see you to girl," she said. Her communicator suddenly went off, and she reflexively drew it out and answered. "This is Hall speaking. Over?"

"Oh, thank God," said Jack's voice on the other end of the line, "You're alright. Have you noticed any escaped animals?" It took all Yolanda's willpower not to burst out into nervous laughter. "You could say that," she responded. "I've got the entire hyaenodon pack standing right by me and it's only thanks to them that I'm not entelodont chow right now. What's going on?"

"There's been another power failure," Colette's voice responded from the other end of the comm-line. "We just heard the alarm go off and got the news from the captain and knew you were at Hsanda Gol, Jack wanted to make sure you were OK." "Appreciated," Yolanda stated, "What should I do now?"

"Well you can try to lead the hyaenodon back to their paddock and secure the gate there if you want," Jack replied. "But you'll need to be careful - also, try to find a safe place where you can take shelter at. Colette and I were gonna drop by Hell Creek and see if we can find some reinforcements – we can check everything's okay at Hsanda Gol and we'll pick you up on our way."

"Sounds good Jack." Yolanda nodded her head. "I'll see what I can do. And if possible, please let Leon know I'm alright. Knowing him, he'll probably be worried sick." "Don't worry Yolo," said Jack. "Drew contacted me, and he told me that Leon's with him at the control room. Once we get to you, we'll contact Leon and Drew. Just be careful out there."

Yolanda chuckled, "Will do Jack. You too." And at that, she ended the call and looked to the hyaenodons, all of which were currently staring towards her in seeming curiosity. "Right then," she said as she carefully slipped her comm back into its sheath. "Let's see if we can get you all home."

. . . . .

Drew sat in the "nerve center", as the main control room had come to end up called, sighing wearily. It had been at least half an hour now since the mass breakout had come to his attention and he'd just finished working to co-ordinate the response to the breakout from the staff radio networks. As Ramsay had pointed out earlier, things had been different in the Shutdown – communication had been broken down from the storm, so pretty much they were going in blind… and there was also the hate plague. Here, the response could be co-ordinated much more easily, and there was nothing else that could complicate the situation… not that this still wasn't a Code Red.

And of course, their own people were out there either way. Drew looked meaningfully over towards where a visibly nervous Leon was sitting. Leon had first become aware of something going wrong when he'd happened to catch sight of Genghis the therizinosaurus lumbering around the entrance to Ice Age Mount, and he'd arrived at the main control room about five minutes after Drew and been made fully aware of the situation. And it had been very clear to Drew how Leon had been strongly worried about Yolanda's wellbeing - Yolanda had been in Hsanda Gol, one of the areas affected, when the fault had occurred and had largely been radio silent since. "Please be ok, please be ok, please be ok," he muttered under his breath just loud enough for Drew to hear. Drew couldn't help but briefly raise his eyebrow – it was awfully surprising at just how big of a deal Leon was making of it. It was almost like…

Jack's voice crackled in over the radio, "Testing, testing, fearless leader. Testing, testing. You there?"

Drew was quick to answer. "This is Drew. Is everything alright out there Jack?"

"So far so good," Jack responded. "Collete and I just got things secured at La Pampa Plains, and we're about to head over to Hell Creek – we'll get the dromas, check the situation there and track down what we can. And before you ask Leon, Yolanda's alright - Colette and I just finished talking with her on the comms."

Leon leaned forward, a clear look of hope on his face. "Where is she now?"

"So far still at Hsanda Gol," Jack responded. "Don't worry, Colette and I will pick her up – Hsanda Gol's on our route anyway, so we can make a little detour." Leon nodded his head, "Works for me." Drew also nodded his head, "Agreed. Keep us posted Jack." Jack chuckled, "Roger that, fearless leader. Denham out." Jack ended the call...

...only for Kyle's voice to crackle in mere seconds later. "I've still got Uilleam," he stated. "At this point, I'll just have to keep an eye on him whilst rounding up what I can." Drew nodded his head, "As long as you're able to multi-task."

"Glad to hear that Drew," said Kyle. "I should also mention that Nikolai called me not too long ago with some updates. Apparently, Terrence, Tut, and Mahazatra were all roaming near to your position – if you want to get up and contribute…".

At this, Leon looked to Drew. "Close to our position? Wouldn't that mean they'll potentially be getting close to the front entry gate?"

Drew sighed. "Unfortunately, yes." Nodding his head, he returned his attention to the radio. "Thanks for the heads up. Leon and I will be on our way. In the meantime, see what you can do; and keep us posted whenever possible. "Will do," Kyle said before then ending the call.

With Kyle having now ended the call, Drew and Leon looked to Pierce, Reyes, and the other technicians in the control room, all of them currently hard at work on getting the system fault resolved. "Think you guys can handle things from here?" Pierce nodded his head. "Shouldn't be a problem sir," he said. Darrel nodded in agreement, "What he said."

Drew nodded his head, "Glad to hear that." He gestured towards Leon. "Leon and I are gonna head out and make sure Terrence, Mahazatra, and Tut don't go walking out the front gate. Feel free to contact us with status updates as needed." Ramsay smiled, flashing Drew a thumbs up as he did so. "Will do Mr. Luczynski." Drew snorted, "Please call me Drew." This got a brief chuckle out of Darrel while Pierce rolled his eyes. Suddenly, Nikolai's voice crackled in, "Komandir, Matilda is heading for Ice Age Mount." At this, Drew winced, "Shit." He sighed, "Well…try and get there first." Nikolai's voice crackled over, "Don't worry, Komandir. I will." And at that, he ended the call.

"Sorry I'm late."

In a flash, Drew, Leon, and the technicians turned their heads in time to see Cynthia standing at the control room entrance, panting and gasping with her hands on her knees as if she'd done a considerable amount of running to reach the area. "I was just on my way here when I heard the news." She then looked to Drew and Leon. "Regardless, I'm here now. Any way I can help?"

Drew smiled, "You got here just in time Cynth." Leon nodded his head in agreement, "Drew and I were just about to head off to round up Terrence, Tut, and Mahazatra." He then let a small grin come on his face. "But I get the feeling Drew's about to say that you're free to come join us if you want." At this, Cynthia couldn't help but chuckle and flash Drew and Leon a thumbs up. "Well, why not? Let's go."

. . . . .

"Just stay calm now," Alice muttered as she worked to coax the cave wolves, one by one, back into their paddock with offerings of Pupperoni sticks from a bag she'd had on her for a planned later visit to Raksha. By sheer circumstance, she and Will had just so happened to be at Ice Age Mount when they'd heard the alarm start going off and noticed that all the paddock doors were unexpectedly open. From there, after a quick call to Kyle in which they'd gotten up to speed on the situation, the duo had been quick to split up and get to work on seeing if they could mitigate the potential crisis a little by securing the Ice Age Mount paddocks manually and rounding up any of the animals that happened to be wandering about the area. The carnivores, naturally, were the animals whose paddocks the duo had chosen to take care of first.

At that moment, Alice had her eyes primarily on the pack's leaders, the male Maugrim and his albino mate Lupa, who were standing at the very front of the group. She knew that, so long as she got the leaders to move, the rest of the group would almost certainly follow. "Come on now," she said calmly in as soothing a voice as she could manage. "Just come calmly over and get the treats."

Finally, with a subtle movement of his head, Maugrim stepped forward into the cave wolf paddock, with Lupa following close behind. The sight of their parents moving into the paddock was enough to convince their two adult sons, Volkov and Luis, to go into the paddock, followed by their four adult sisters Amara, Jinora, Waheela, and Gomorra. And only after the six young pups, Greywind, Lady, Summer, Nymeria, Shaggy Dog, and Ghost, had joined their parents and older siblings inside the paddock did Alice drop the offered Pupperoni sticks onto the ground for the pack to feast upon while she herself calmly left the paddock, closed the paddock gates, and secured it shut with some provided emergency heavy duty wire that was on hand for situations like this. "Thank goodness that was easy," Alice muttered under her breath as she finished manually securing the gate to the cave wolf paddock.

"Nice work."

Briefly startled, Alice turned her head in time to see Will, who nodded his head and gave her a thumbs up. "One less group of animals on the loose." Alice let out a slight chuckle, "That's certainly true." She nodded her head. "What's the current status on your end?"

Will gestured in the general direction of where the two Ice Age big cat paddocks were located. "Makucha and Sabor were still in their paddock," he stated. "So I was able to close and secure the gate to their paddock without much issue. I should mention though..."

The sound of roaring and whooping suddenly split the air, at which point Will winced. "The cave hyena pack are currently in a scuffle with Simba and Nala – I had to take a detour around them after securing the cave leopard paddock. I would have tried to round them up by myself, but I had a feeling it would be wiser to have backup."

Alice nodded her head, "Smart thinking Will. Lead the way."

And at that, the duo cautiously made their way over towards where, true to Will's word, the cave hyena pack was standing off against Simba and Nala, whooping and snarling antagonistically at the two cave lions as both big cats roared loudly in response. Will winced at the sight of this. "Really wish Leon were here," he muttered, before Alice shook her head side to side. "You'll just have to make do I'm afraid," she muttered before nodding her head. "I'll take care of the hyenas. They know me well, and I should be able to handle them." Will nodded his head grimly, "If you say so."

Fifteen minutes later, Alice and Will had successfully managed to attract the attention of both groups of Ice Age carnivore and lead them away back to their paddocks, before securing them manually secured manually with emergency security wire. And while Will had found leading away the larger cats difficult, he'd managed to do it. "Not bad Will," Alice said, a proud smile on her face as she gave him a thumbs up. "I take it now we just need to check the bears?" Will nodded his head. "Correct," he said before sighing, "It's kinda weird how this is the park's second power failure related mass breakout in as many years."

Alice shrugged. "Regardless," she stated, "the important thing right now is how we get it handled and resolved. And I'd say we're off to a good start." Will chuckled, "True, true." He nodded his head. "Let's check the bears and see if we can contact anyone from there." Nodding in agreement, the two turned around to head for the Ice Age Mount bear paddocks...

...only to suddenly find themselves face to face with the velociraptor pack!

In that instant, Alice and Will both froze, eyes widening as they resisted the urge to scream. For what felt like an eternity, Alice and Will remained as they were, locking eyes with the raptors, who scanned them curiously. Eventually, Nezbit narrowed his amber eyes, a low snarl as he tensed his body in preparation to pounce. Alice and Will winced, gritting their teeth as they braced themselves for the inevitable...

A loud roar suddenly split the air, startling human and raptor alike. Snarling and cawing in fright, the velociraptors jumped in surprise as they, alongside Alice and Will, turned to see Baloo standing just two feet away on all fours, his good eye narrowed ominously as he bared his teeth. Clearly he was not happy to see the velociraptors threatening Will and Alice,. The raptors hissed and snapped at this new arrival, with Baloo responding with nothing other than a cold stare. The raptors stopped and went quiet at Baloo's stillness… before the bear reared up on his hind legs and let out a deafening roar. At this point, the velociraptors snapped out of their rigidness long enough to go rushing away.

Once the velociraptors had fled out of sight and hearing range, Baloo got back down on all fours, just barely managing to avoid stumbling from the weight he'd placed on his crippled leg, and turned his head towards Alice and Will, his facial expression looking almost as if he were silently asking them if they were alright. Will nodded his head, reflexively flashing Baloo a thumbs up. "Thanks, big guy," he said. "Good boy." Baloo let off a low growl, almost in affirmative. Will smiled and then looked to Alice. "We should probably see if we can get him to go back to his paddock and see if anything else got loose."

Alice nodded in agreement. "Good idea. And regardless, we should definitely still see if we can safely close and secure those paddocks."

A sudden commotion of trumpets, snarls and bellows suddenly split the air, causing Baloo, Will, and Alice to turn their heads in the direction these noises were coming from, before Will and Alice tured to look at each other, with Alice stating "We'd better get Baloo back home and secure the bear paddocks, and quick," Alice stated. "Agreed," Will responded with a nod of his head. "Because right now, it seems bigger things are going on."

. . . . .

As it so happened, Alice had been right - for at that very moment Matilda was on the hunt. Every animal ran or hid as the tyrannosaur stalked into the paddock, with even George and Rataxes choosing to stay put. The world went silent as Matilda scanned the area for a suitable target… and, within seconds, locked on to her target – Lyuba, the mammoth calf, too far from the herd to be able to run to them. At Matilda's piercing gaze, the calf squealed in terror as she ran away, trying to hide. Snarling with pleasure, Matilda took off after the mammoth calf, snapping at her heels like a sheepdog. Lyuba tried to run, but Matilda was faster. Hissing anticipatorily, Matilda advanced towards the calf, saliva-laden jaws opening in anticipation – she had managed to separate Lyuba from every member of the herd…

Or so she thought.

A loud trumpeting bellow split the air and the tyrannosaur only had time for a surprised hiss of outrage as a large female mammoth came charging towards her, ramming her side and knocking her off balance. Matilda, barely managing to regain her footing, turned to glare at Martha, who had positioned herself protectively in front of Lyuba, as Martha bellowed angrily at her, to which the tyrannosaur snarled. After a brief stand-off, Matilda lunged for Martha, but only received a slap in the face from Martha's trunk, sending the tyrannosaur spinning. Matilda had barely reoriented herself when a large woolly rhino suddenly came charging out of the undergrowth towards her, with Matilda narrowly avoiding being gored, before, seconds later, another mammoth charged towards her. Hissing in rage, Matilda glared at the mammoths and rhino. Snorting angrily at Matilda, Achilles stood to the right of Martha, whilst Ellie stood to Martha's left making the point clear – if Matilda wanted to get at Lyuba, she would have to go through them to do it.

Matilda snarled at Martha, Ellie and Achilles, in a vain attempt to scare them off. In response to this Martha reared up on her hind legs and brought them down with such force that the ground around her shook, before emitting a loud trumpeting bellow, resonated further by Ellie and Achilles bellowing. They had no frame of reference for anything like Matilda… but they knew that the tyrannosaur wasn't going to get Lyuba. Matilda went rigid – suddenly, this hadn't seemed like such a good idea after all. These creatures were unfamiliar to her – but they were certainly well-armed. And for about a minute, her mind weighed up the decisions...before she eventually began to advance towards the two mammoths and rhino, hissing menacingly. Clearly, she had chosen to fight.

However, as Matilda stepped forward, her movements abruptly became slower and more disoriented, as if in a drunken stupor, before she eventually fell to the ground, with Martha, Ellie and Achilles staring in confusion. A tranquillizer dart stuck out of the unconscious t. rex's back. A short distance away, Nikolai Koshkin smiled – none of the animals had been harmed and Matilda was down. This particular disaster was over. "Excellent work, Martha," he stated under his breath.

A low grunt from nearby caused Nikolai, Lyuba, Martha, Ellie and Achillies to turn their heads to notice Teresa, the matriarch of the larger woolly mammoth herd, looking intently in their direction, with the rest of the herd behind her. And as Nikolai, Lyuba, and her three defenders watched, Teresa nodded her head slightly, as if in acceptance. Nikolai smiled. Clearly Martha and Ellie's defense of Lyuba had earned them some major brownie points at the very least. Nikolai nodded his head, "Every cloud has a silver lining."

"I see you had things handled."

Eyebrow raised, Nikolai turned his head to look behind him in time to see Alice and Will standing behind him. "If that doesn't get Martha and Ellie accepted into the herd, nothing will," Will said. "I'll bet that will make you really happy." At this, Nikolai let off a slight chuckle. "You're certainly not wrong there," he admitted.

Suddenly, his radio crackled into life, briefly startling Nikolai, Alice, and Will, and Nikolai swiftly grabbed onto his communicator. "Komandir," Nikolai said, already having a feeling that Drew was the one calling. "Matilda is down." Drew chuckled from the other end of the line, "Great! We'll send a containment truck to Ice Age Mount as soon as Cynth, Leon, and I have taken care of Terrence, Tut, and Mahazatra."

Alice's eyes widened at the news and said, leaning her head towards Nikolai's communicator, "You worry about those three – Will and I are here with Nikolai. We can handle calling for a containment truck."

"You sure?" Drew asked.

"Yup," said Will. "We can handle things here."

"If you say so," Drew said, before the call.

With the call ended, Alice and Will looked to Nikolai, who nodded. "You go ahead and get the transport arranged," he said before pointing towards the downed Matilda. "I'll keep an eye on her."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, in the Texas Red Beds zone, Kyle was so far trekking on foot through the park, having chosen to leave his jeep parked. And as he continued his trek, he kept his eyes out for escaped animals…while also checking for his annoying feathered companion. Uilleam had proven to be a complete liability, picking fights with pretty much everything he came upon, attracting too much attention. And while Kyle had so far managed to get some of the loose animals rounded up despite Uilleam, it was still annoying…. and, speaking of Uilleam, the dodo was no longer following him.

The sound of the distinctive cooing caused Kyle to turn and see Uilleam, squawking and posturing at Rommel the dimetrodon, who was staring at him in confusion – Uilleam's fearlessness was confusing to the Dimetrodon's mind. Kyle sighed – well, he'd found an escaped animal. And Uilleam was working perfectly as a distraction.

Sighing again, Kyle threw a lump of meat in the direction of the dimetrodon paddock – Rommel took off in its direction, as if he couldn't wait to get away from Uilleam. The dodo walked up to Kyle, a curious expression on his face – Kyle nodded his head, a look of grudging respect now on his face… maybe the dodo wasn't a complete liability.

A sound of three bellows suddenly split the air in the distance. Kyle thought to himself – Uilleam's antics had just now proven surprisingly effective at bewildering Rommel. A thought crossed his mind… "Oh God," he muttered to himself as he walked over to the dimetrodon paddock to both check if there were other escapees. "This is either a really good idea or a really, really shit one."

. . . . .

Tut was currently in a somewhat irritated mood as he stomped his way through the park, his amber eyes narrowed in a glare as he looked around, searching for the source of the blaring noise. He'd simply been exploring the area, searching for food, when the noise had start splitting the air. And to put it simply, he was not amused.

Snarling irritably, he eventually came to a stop at some sort of small river with a large path of strange hardened sand positioned over the centre of it, grading to hardened black on the sides. His eyes narrowed, he took a close look at the river, taking note of how deep it looked. His gaze caught multiple large brown and grey fish with odd fleshy tendrils on their faces swimming sedately about inside the water. Prey – that was good. Tut, moving as quietly as he could, dipped his head below the water, waiting to strike.

. . . . .

"I'm still surprised you managed to get the hyaenodons to return to their paddock," Colette stated, a slight hint of respect in her voice as she, Jack, and Yolanda walked towards the entrance to the La Brea Grand Vista exhibit zone alongside the dromaeosaurus pack. Jack and Collete had picked Yolanda up at Hsanda Gol and swung by Hell Creek to get the dromas. Yolanda chuckled. "I'm honestly as surprised as you are," she admitted with a nod of her head. "And, trust me, it was harder than it looked. I'd bonded with Yenna… which helped, but…."

Jack chuckled. "Hey, not faulting it." Duke let out a barking caw and seemingly nodded his head up and down as if in agreement with Jack's statement. Colette snorted. "Well regardless," she stated. "At least we don't have to worry about the hyaenodon…"

The sound of snarls, yips, growls and roars suddenly split the air from within La Brea. Blanching, Jack, Colette, and Yolanda looked into each other's eyes. Already they had a feeling that things were about to get crazier. "Something tells me we'd better get a move on," said Colette. "Agreed," said Jack. And at that, Jack, Colette, Yolanda, and the dromas all hurried over through the entrance into the La Brea exhibit zone. And not too long after entry, they caught sight of Nero and Dag squaring off near the open gate to the La Brea herbivore paddock – their respective packs spectated. It seemed that the coyote had been cruising for a rematch for a while. Nero snarled, yellow eyes electric with territorial rage as he stared Dag down. Dag snarled right back, his own yellow eyes narrowed in a similarly beastly fashion as he tensed up his body as if in preparation for a lunge. Yolanda winced at the sight of this, "This doesn't look good."

A thunderous bear-like roar abruptly split the air from the direction of the carnivore paddocks directly behind the La Brea herbivore paddock, followed by an equally respectable big cat-like roar from the same direction. The trio looked awkwardly at each other. At this point, they had a very strong feeling as to what was going on – and that they needed to split up.

Jack looked to Colette. "You go see if you can handle Diego and Smokey," he stated. "The dromas and I should be able to handle the wolves and coyotes." Colette nodded her head. "I'll be holding you to that," she stated. "What about me?" Yolanda asked. Jack drew out a spare tranquilizer pistol and handed it to the young veterinary assistant. "Stand by and hold onto that for now," he stated. "You're our backup – hopefully, you won't need to do anything." Yolanda gulped, "If you say so." And at that,Colette split from the group and hurried off in the direction of the La Brea carnivore paddocks while Jack ad Yolanda prepared.

In that moment, within a minute after Colette had departed, Dag finally made his move. With a loud yip, the alpha male Pleistocene coyote lunged forward and sank his jaws into Nero's right thigh. Nero howled in surprise and pain as the coyote bit down – the rest of the pack attempted to rush to his aid, but were blocked by the coyotes. Dag released the leg, his muzzle flecked with blood – under normal circumstances, he wouldn't last in a fight with Nero… but this wasn't normal circumstances. The snarling coyote lunged at the hobbled dire wolf, seizing him by the neck and getting ready to deliver a killing bite to the throat…

...but then Duke suddenly lunged upon Dag, slamming into him and knocking him to the ground. The coyote barely had time to recover his bearings before Duke pinned him down with his sickle claws, snarling. Quiet with fear, Dag turned his head and looked up at the dromaeosaurus. Dag's pack went tense, as if mulling up whether to interfere, before Cassie suddenly pounced upon the area directly in front of them and snarled – the rest of the droma pack followed.

Jack smiled – the plan had worked. "Great work everyone," he stated. "Great work. That'll teach you to pick fights you can't win." Yolanda nodded her head, a half excited and half nervous look on her face as she kept her borrowed tranquilizer pistol pointed in the direction of the coyotes just in case. Eventually, on Jack's signal, Duke snarled again and stepped off Dag so that the coyote could scramble back to his feet and start to lead his pack away from the wolves and dromaeosaurus, now realizing that he'd bitten off more than he could chew. The dromas and dire wolves followed, with Jack and Yolanda close behind – the intent was to herd the coyotes back to their paddock. Jack chuckled, "So far, so good". "You're certainly not wrong there," Yolanda agreed. "But we've still got a lot to do."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, Colette was now standing at the elevated viewing area for the smilodon fatalis paddock, her eyes narrowed as she worked to try to get her tranquilizer gun aimed at Smokey. At that moment, the mighty arctodus was confronting Diego from directly inside the latter's paddock, roaring loudly on all fours while the smilodon stood defensively between him and the entrance to the small den where Shira and the three smilodon fatalis cubs were currently resting. Diego roared right back, his amber eyes blazing with rage.

He and Smokey had been fighting for at least five minutes, both of them had receiving some rather vicious wounds… however, neither of them had any intention of backing down. Diego protecting his territory, mate and offspring… and Smokey cruising for some payback.

Colette gritted her teeth as she watched the tableau unfold. She did not need to be a genius to know how it would all end. Whilst Diego had technically managed to 'defeat' Smokey in the Shutdown, that time had been a technicality – this time, the odds were back in Smokey's favor. And as she continued to watch, she couldn't help but feel annoyed that she had difficulty getting a bead on Smokey – partly due to the rock formation in the way. "Come on, come on," she growled under her breath. "Just a little bit further…"

Eventually, Diego, with a loud roar, bounded straight at Smokey...who promptly smacked him in the face with a swing of a paw and sent him crashing down on the ground. And in that instant, as Diego lay upon the ground panting and gasping, Smokey reared up to full height, as he raised both his front paws in preparation for the killing blow...

...only for a tranquilizer dart to suddenly strike him at the area where his neck met his shoulders. Grunting in surprise, Smokey turned his head as best as he could towards the dart…. Before he suddenly felt tired, and began to stumble backwards, dropping back down onto all fours… before he collapsed onto his side completely out cold. Colette smirked from her post at the elevated viewing area as she kept her gun pointed towards the now unconscious Smokey. "Got ya," she said under her breath.

The sound of running feet behind her caused her to turn her head in time to see Jack, Yolanda, and the combined pack of dromaeosaurus and dire wolves come to a stop. "Everything alright here?" Jack asked. Colette nodded her head and gestured towards the inside of the smilodon fatalis paddock. "So far," she said. "Diego and Smokey will both need treatment, but I managed to tranquilize Smokey before he could kill Diego and his family." Yolanda chuckled, "Leon will definitely be happy to hear that." Colette snorted, "I certainly hope so."

She looked back to Jack. "I trust you were able to get things handled with the coyotes and wolves?" Jack nodded. "You bet," he said. "The coyotes are all secured." Colette nodded, "That's good." She then thought to herself, "So what now?" Jack nodded his head. "I'll go ahead and call a transport over to take care of Diego and Smokey," he said as he drew out his communicator. "And for that matter, we should probably head over to the vets ourselves. Linda and the rest of the vets will probably want you there with them."

. . . . .

In the Yixian forest building, Khatin was on high alert as he stood within the main walkthrough area, his eyes narrowed as he kept watch for any sign of danger. He'd already been in the building when he'd heard the alarms start to go off – and had gotte the lowdown For now, just to lower his chances of getting in danger, or worse getting in the way, he had chosen to stay put inside the Yixian forest building until he received clear orders. He briefly snorted as he caught sight of the aviaries containing the sinornithosaurus, changyuraptor, and eoazhdarcho, taking note of how the doors for them weren't affected. "Certainly wouldn't want any of them loose," he muttered. "The sinornithosaurus in particular." He then looked in the general direction of the front entrance to the central walkthrough area, "And it's probably also a good thing that the carnivores in here aren't gonna be on the loose anytime soon either. If they got in, there'd be a massacre."

However, as he had this thought, his eyes briefly widened as he remembered how, in contrast to the doors and gates for the majority of the park's animal enclosures, the doors to the main walkthrough area, plus the ones that led in and out of the Yixian forest building as a whole, were designed to be manually locked… and they needed to be secured. "I should probably go start securing some of the doors to this building," he muttered to himself as he walked over to pick up his notebook from the bench he'd left it lying around on. "After all, as much as the animals inside this building aren't going to get out, that doesn't mean that any animals outside the building might not try to come inside..."

All of a sudden, Nezbit stalked through the front doorway of the central walkthrough area, with the rest of the pack following. A confusciornis let out a staccato alarm cry – and every animal in the building went on alert, as Khatin stood, quiet as he could, watching the raptors stalk in. The velociraptors hissed, scanning the area and searching for prey…. before Nezbit looked to see Toph, who had been rooting around for food when the raptors had come in… and was too far from the herd to run from them. And in that instant, with a hungry snarl, Nezbit and Zenobia burst into a run towards the juvenile psittacosaurus!

The sight of this swiftly brought Khatin into action. "Nein!" He yelled as he hurriedly rushed to intercept the velociraptors, his notebook clenched tightly in his hands as he brandished it like a weapon. 'There ain't no way I'm letting them make a meal out of her,' he thought furiously to himself. Fortunately, he arrived just in time and yelled "Hey you!" Hissing in surprise, Nezbit and Zenobia turned their heads in the direction of Khatin's voice...

...just in time for Nezbit to get swatted upside the head with the notebook! Screeching in surprise, Nezbit was sent stumbling to the side, crashing into Zenobia and knocking her off balance as well in the process! Hissing and cawing in surprise, the two adult velociraptors could only ineffectually snarl and hiss as Khatin stood protectively between them and Toph. Nezbit's eyes narrowed…

"Hey you!"

All creatures present looked in confusion as Khatin's voice, only reedier and higher, echoed from the tops of the trees. The velociraptors looked up, curious, as Khatin and Toph looked at each other confused… as, seconds later, it was followed by the hoarse squawk of a bepaiosaurus…. before, one of the velociraptors' own hisses and squawks The raptors were scanning everywhere in confusion as to where all these new sounds were coming from, whilst, loking closer, Khatin saw where the sound had come from – Guido. The little microraptor had been gliding between the trees and repeating the sounds.

Snarling, Nezbit and Zenobia turned and led their pack back towards the walkthrough area's front door, the element of surprise clearly being lost. Toph, now clearly realizing how narrowly she'd avoided becoming prey, turned around and hurried off in towards the rest of her herd. Khatin's scientific mind immediately realised this new insight - the microraptors could mimic sounds. Khatin, despite himself chuckled, "Well, at least something new was added to science."

The raptors, seeing their prey gone, paused just long enough for Nezbit and Zenobia to let off a last angry hiss at Khatin before the entire pack stalked back through the doors. Khatin snorted as he watched the raptors depart from the building. "Yeah you'd better run," he growled. With the raptors gone, he took a brief look back at the animals of the forest walkthrough, a relieved smile coming onto his face as he saw that they were already starting to settle down and resume their earlier activities. "Good to see they won't be overly traumatized by all this," he muttered.

His communicator abruptly went off. In a flash, he slipped his notebook under his shoulder and drew out the communicator to answer the call. "Dr. von Schorzberg. Over?"

"This is Koshkin," said Nikolai's voice on the other end of the line. "Where are you?"

"In the Yixian Forest Building," Khatin replied. "I was waiting for orders on where I could provide direct assistance. Didn't want to risk getting in anyone's way."

"Well good news, I've got something you can do," Nikolai responded. "I just got a call from La Pampa. Apparently they need some assistance with rounding up some escaped animals still wandering around that area."

"Copy that," said Khatin. "Tell them I'll be on my way as soon as I've secured the doors." He then thought briefly to himself. "And while you're at it, spread the message to keep an eye out for the velociraptors. I just had to drive them out."

. . . . .

"How the hell have we not already found them by now?!"

Leon rolled his eyes in half amusement and half irritation at Cynthia's statement. "Your guess is as good as mine," he muttered.

Drew sighed. At that moment, he and his two companions had managed to reach the 'staff crossroads'… and there was still no sign of the giant theropods. And as much as Cynthia's recent question wasn't necessarily helpful, he certainly couldn't deny that it was rather irritating that the giant theropods, despite their massive size, had so far still managed to evade detection. With pretty much all the Jeeps occupied, as useful as traveling on foot was to reduce the risk of making noise that would alert the animals, the simple fact remained that such a method of travel was also rather uncomfortably slow in comparison.

At that moment, a sudden beeping split the air. Startled, Drew, Cynthia, and Leon looked to their right in time to see none other than Kyle drive slowly to a stop nearby in a park Jeep. Uilleam, much to the amusement of the three younger staff members, was sitting right in the passenger seat next to Kyle. "Need a lift?" Kyle asked.

Drew, Cynthia, and Leon looked at each other, silently considering Kyle's question. Then they looked back at the head keeper. "I won't deny such a thing could be pretty useful right about now," Cynthia stated. Kyle nodded, "Glad to hear that." He then pointed his finger in the direction behind him. "Because I think I've got a pretty good idea where we might find Tut, Terrence, and Mahazatra." Drew raised his eyebrow. "Probably should have led with that," he then said before looking to Leon and Cynthia. "You heard Kyle. Let's hop in."

Leon and Cynthia nodded their heads. "No need to tell us twice," Leon said as he, Cynthia, and Drew hurried over to the jeep and climbed into the rear seating area behind Kyle and Uilleam. And from there, Kyle turned the jeep around and started driving off in the general direction of the theropods. "Now that I think about it," Cynthia then said, "any idea on just how we're going to lead Tut, Terrence, and Maha away to their paddocks? Or get them to stop fighting if they're scrapping when we find them?" Leon looked to Drew, who was already starting to wrack his brain to think of an idea...

"About that…," Kyle abruptly stated, "I think I have an idea." He took a brief glance back towards Drew, Cynthia, and Leon as he continued driving. "And I know it sounds crazy…" Drew raised his eyebrow, clearly intrigued. "You have my attention."

. . . . .

Elsewhere in the park, Terrence shook his head in irritation at the loud noise. He had been casually walking through the park in curiosity when the blaring noise had suddenly begun, startling him. He'd been wandering as far as he could to get away from the blaring noise.

What he didn't yet realize, however, was that he'd soon have a lot more to worry about. For in that moment, right as he started walking close to the bank of a man-made river that served as a moat between 'main street' and the park proper, Terrence found himself startled when, with a savage warbling bellow, Tut lunged out of the water at him. Hissing in surprise, Terrence barely managed to dodge the spinosaurus, before Tut, like some ancient dragon, let out a loud bellow

Whilst the sight of this new creature Terrence some brief pause, he nonetheless snarled defiantly at Tut, not remotely in the mood to back down, to which Tut snarled in response. Terrence roared right back, crouching down with narrowed eyes as he waved his tail threateningly, whilst Tut hissed in annoyance.

The stand-off was interrupted when Tut lunged towards Terence and fastened his jaws around his neck. Terrence roared in equal parts shock, pain, and rage as he shook himself loose from Tut's jaws before then retaliating by grabbing Tut's left arm. Tut hissed in rage and slammed his free arm into Terence's head, knocking him to the ground. Terrence, still hissing in surprise and pain, narrowly dodged a snap from tut, before charging forward to ram Tut in the chest, sending the spinosaurus stumbling.

Unfortunately for Terrence, Tut was very quick to recover, and with another angry roar, he swung his right arm and delivered a powerful blow to Terence's face. Terrence roared in response and swung his tail at Tut, smacking the spinosaurus in the face. The smack to the face only proved a minor annoyance for Tut, who roared again and reared his head upward before again grabbing Terence's neck. Terrence bellowed in pain as he felt Tut's jaws bite down, and he hurriedly kicked with his left foot at Tut's right leg, managing to deal a minor gash upon the spinosaurus's right shin. Tut screeched in pain and reflexively let go of Terrence's neck...

...only to then suddenly be rammed from the left side by a charging Mahazatra!

Hissing in surprise, Tut stumbled to his right, before quickly managing to reorient himself, whipping round and snarling at Mahazatra, who hissed in reply, before lunging towards Tut, jaws open...only for Tut to deliver a punishing blow to his face, knocking him off balance, before slapping the abelisaur to the ground with a blow from his tail. Mahazatra only had time for a single hiss of outrage, barely managing to regain his balance, before hissing and snapping at Tut alongside Terence. Tut snarled, eyes narrowing as he carefully examined both his opponents. Both Terrence and Mahazatra were around the same age and had fairly similar builds – if either of them were fully grown, they would have stood a chance…. however, they weren't. Tut had size and power on his side, as well as experience – if Terence and Mahazatra didn't pack it… they would lose fairly easily. Lifting his head, Tut hissed, as Tut and Mahazatra snarled in unison...

"Doooo-doooo!"

Tut, Terrence, and Mahazatra went rigid, eyes widened in confusion, before turning their heads to see Uilleam standing nearby and engaging in a rather comical-looking intimidation display, cooing threateningly. And as the three massive theropods stood still, giving the tiny bird a bewildered glare, Kyle slowly walked into view alongside Drew, Leon, and Cynthia. Drew was shaking his head, chuckling, "I'll be damned… it actually worked."

At this, Kyle couldn't chuckle slightly, "Just like you say, crazy works." Drew rolled his eyes in mock annoyance, "Aw, Mr Taymor, I'm flattered you paid attention…"

Eventually, said three massive theropods caught the scent of the four humans, and they turned their heads to face the group - whilst Terrence and Mahazatra let down their guard, Tut still seemed wary. Taking notice of this, Leon looked to Drew and Cynthia. "What now?" Cynthia and Kyle looked to Drew, who nodded his head. "Let's see if we can get them to the vets," he stated. "They're cut up a bit." Then he looked to Kyle. "Leon, Cynthia, and I will lead the theropods - you and Uilleam can com along."

Kyle nodded his head, "Sounds like a plan." He then looked to where Uilleam was currently still engaging in his efforts at challenging the three giant theropods, who ignored him. "And here's hoping I won't end up getting eaten."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, at the veterinary facility, things were proving quite hectic. "Just try to stay calm everyone," Linda stated as she and several other vets worked to escort Orson the 'alpha male' protoceratops and a male gallimimus named Alibaba over to the recovery pens. Both dinosaurs had already been at the veterinary facility to undergo treatment for minor injuries (minor scratches and bruises from a territorial duel in Orson's case and a sprained ankle caused by a particularly unpleasant stumble in Alibaba's case) when the alarms had started going off and word had been provided about the crisis – the current plan was for Orson and Alibaba, plus the other animals currently at the veterinary facility, to be kept in holding or recovery pens where they'd hopefully be safe. "This should all be resolved by the end of the hour tops." Bethany snorted, "I certainly hope so."

The sound of Linda's communicator going off briefly startled the group before Linda managed to reach into her lab coat pocket and draw it out. "Dr. Eberhart speaking. Over?" David Doody's voice was quick to respond from the other end of the comm-line. "It's Doody. Be on alert. I just saw Nezbit and his pack heading towards the entrance to the veterinary facility. They might show up near your location any moment now..."

A sudden barking caw from ahead caused Linda and the rest of the vets present, plus Orson and Alibaba, to look ahead just in time to see the velociraptor pack crouching hungrily ahead of them. Nezbit and Zenobia snarled, and then let out a series of barking caws as they stared intently at the startled group; all while Orson and Alibaba grunted and squawked aggressively in reply. The vets, meanwhile, stayed as still as they could under the hopes that they'd avoid triggering the raptors into attacking. Surreptitiously directing her attention back to her comm, Linda whispered loud enough for David to hear, "Just found them. They're right in front of us." David, immediately understanding the seriousness of what Linda had said, whispered in kind, "Copy that. I'll see if I can find some backup. In the meantime, just try to stay calm – see if you can get them away. Doody out."

The velociraptors snarled again, their eyes narrowing as if they were now waiting for an excuse to lunge forward. Quite noticeably, they all seemed to be focused on Orson… and unless the vets found a means to get the raptors away, he was easy prey…

And it was at this point that Harry, Bethany, and three of the other vets present noticed spare veterinary catchpoles positioned not too far away. They surreptitiously looked to Linda, who nodded her head as subtly as she could, already coming to the same conclusion as them over how said poles could make useful makeshift weapons at the very least – perhaps they could use them to get the raptors into a holding pen. And so, the five vets who'd noticed the catchpoles cautiously reached over and grabbed ahold of them while the other vets gathered around Linda, Alibaba, and Orson equally cautiously drew out airhorns.

The quiet stand-off continued for a few minutes before Nezbit simply snarled at them and barked a command, leading his pack into the undergrowth. Once the velociraptors had departed, Linda looked to her underlings, a proud smile of approval on her face as she nodded her head. "Well, that was tense," she said. "Glad it didn't escalate." Alibaba let out a low warbling squawk, as Bethany nodded her head. "I take it we can get Orson and Alibaba to the recovery pens?"

Linda was just about to answer when her communicator went off once more. Lifting her finger as if to say 'hold that thought', she drew out the communicator and accepted the call. "Dr. Eberhart speaking. Over?" "Drew here," said Drew from the other end of the comm-line. "Kyle, Leon, Cynthia, and I just met up with Doody near the veterinary facility and he said the raptors were stalking around here. Everything ok?"

Linda chuckled. "Don't you worry, everything's good. The velociraptors paid us a visit… but then they left. Everything ok on your end?"

"You could say that," Drew responded. "We've managed to prevent Tut, Terrence, and Mahazatra from trying to exit the park's boundaries, and we brought them over to your neck of the woods to get them treatment for some minor injuries they dealt each other over the course of a brief scuffle. Think you can handle having them around?"

Linda looked to her underlings present, who all nodded their heads. "We should be able to handle Orson and Alibaba from here," said Harry. "Agreed," said Bethany. "I think I see a pen or two we can place them in. Go ahead and meet up with Drew. We'll come provide assistance if you ned us."

At this, Linda nodded her head, "If you say so." And with a turn of her head, she rushed off in the direction of the veterinary facility's main entrance gate, eager to not keep Drew waiting.

. . . . .

A few minutes later, Linda arrived at the veterinary facility's entrance gate just in time to see Drew, Kyle, David, Leon, and Cynthia standing right there alongside Uilleam, Terrence, Mahazatra, and Tut, the latter three with minor injuries – the former two looking worse than Tut. "Not as bad I was expecting," she stated as she took a good look at the three massive theropods. Leon chuckled nervously. "This won't be too much for your team to handle, will it?" Linda chuckled. "No need to worry Leon," she said. "It shouldn't be ." She then thought to herself. "And on a related note, have you seen or heard from Yolanda, Jack and Colette lately?"

Cynthia was just about to respond when Yolanda's voice suddenly yelled, "Here I am!" In a flash, the group at the vet facility turned their heads in time to see Yolanda walking into view, with Jack and Colette slowly cruising behind her on the latter's motorcycle, with the droma and dire wolf packs behind them. Jack took notice of the velociraptor tracks leading in and out of the gateway. "I see there were some unwanted visitors," he stated as he and Colette parked the motorcycle and subsequently dismounted from the vehicle. Linda nodded her head. "Nezbit and his pack," she stated. "They paid us a visit, but they left without any incident." Jack chuckled, "Well, that's certainly good to hear doc." Colette nodded in agreement, "If they had gotten in, it would have been a massacre."

Yolanda, meanwhile, had finally noticed Leon's presence, and she promptly rushed over to him and threw her arms around him in a tight hug, much to his surprise. "Thank God you're alright," she whispered as she kept her arms wrapped tight around him. Leon briefly remained silent and paralyzed in surprise, but then he eventually nodded his head with a smile of his own and returned Yolanda's embrace with his own. "Right back at you," he stated. At this, Jack and Colette directed a meaningful look at each other, a conspiratorial smirk on their faces, whilst Linda, Kyle, David, and Cynthia remained poker-faced.

Drew, however, had was seemingly largely oblivious to the matter. "Right, the big thing we need to do is track down the raptoes," he stated, pointing in the direction that the velociraptors had fled into the nearby forested area. "Especially while the trail's still warm."

At this, the other staff members present looked at each other. Drew did have a point. Jack and Colette looked to Linda. "Think you can handle things from here doc?" Jack asked while gesturing towards the animals present. Linda nodded her head, "I should be able to manage it." She looked towards Yolanda. "Especially now you're back here, Yolanda." Yolanda nodded, breaking off her embrace with Leon in the process. "No problem," she said. "I can help."

"I'll stick around and help," Leon said. The others looked at him, and he nodded his head. "With all these animals around, you could probably use as many hands on deck as possible," he explained before then looking at Tut. "Besides, considering how often I've worked with Tut over the last two weeks, you might have a somewhat easier time handling him in his first time here at the vets if I'm around to try to help keep him calm." As if aware that he was the subject of discussion, Tut let out a low growl. This caused Cynthia to briefly gulp before nodding her head. "I don't see why not," she admitted. Drew shrugged as if to say 'fine by me', and then looked to Jack and Colette. "Think you guys can help Cynth and I track down the raptors?"

Jack and Colette nodded in the affirmative. "You betcha, fearless leader," said Jack. "Shouldn't be a problem," Colette stated, already preparing her tranquilizer gun as she did so. "Will you need your motorcycle?" David asked, gesturing towards Colette's motorcycle. Colette looked to the vehicle. "Don't think so," she said. "At any rate, the noises that thing could make would likely scare the raptors and agitate them into attacking or fleeing. But we can leave it where it is for now, just in case." Drew nodded his head, "Sounds fair to me." He looked to Kyle and David. "What about you guys?"

Kyle nodded his head. "I think I'd best head back out to elsewhere in the park," he said. "See if there's any more animals I could help round up." He then looked to Uilleam. "And maybe get Uilleam dropped back off at Birds of Mauritius while I'm at it." David nodded his head. "I should probably see where else I can be useful," he stated, "There's still a lot that need sto be done."

Drew nodded his head, "Very well then." He looked to Cynthia, Jack, and Colette. "Shall we?" Cynthia gestured towards the dromas and dire wolves, "You sure we won't need their assistance?" Colette and Jack looked to their respective pack animal companions. Whilst they'd certainly be up for it, they'd all suffered minor injuries – Nero, in particular, was still limping from the leg wound Dag had inflicted on him. They then looked to Drew, who nodded his head. "If you think they're in fit condition, let them," he stated. "But if you think they'd be better off staying here and getting treatment straightaway, then that's fine with me. So long as we get tracking those raptors as soon as we can, I'll be happy."

At that, Jack and Colette looked to Cynthia. "We'll let them stay here at the vets for now," said Jack. "Agreed," said Colette. "As helpful as they might be, their health comes first. Besides, it will be four of us against six of them, and four of the raptors are still basically teenagers. So they shouldn't be TOO hard to handle so long as we're careful." Cynthia nodded her head, "If you say so."

And at that, the group split up to get to work on their respective planned activities. At this rate, the park's chances of fully resolving this crisis were starting to look quite high indeed.

. . . . . .

Fortunately for Drew, Cynthia, Jack, and Colette, the raptor tracks were so far still fresh as they followed them into the forested area that the raptors had fled into. As they headed deeper, they heard hisses and caws. They took this as a sign the raptors were nearby, and so they pressed on, already getting their tranquilizer guns ready just to be safe.

Eventually, the team reached a clearing. They looked around cautiously; after all, the raptors could have been anywhere. Drew turned to Jack, "Where are they?", to which the latter shrugged, "Dunno. But we tracked them here. Something isn't right…" Suddenly, the bushes rustled all around them and a velociraptor's barking caw echoed through the clearing. The team looked at each other, with a shocked realization; the raptors had led them into the clearing. This was an ambush. Cynthia in particular looked especially terrified as she came to this realization. "Oh fu..."

Snarling in unison, the whole Velociraptor pack burst out from several different angles, surrounding the team. The raptors sniffed hesitantly, as if deciding whether or not to attack. Hissing, Nezbit slowly advanced towards them and tensed himself to strike… when, suddenly, Duke slammed into him, knocking him to the ground.

In seconds, the clearing went to chaos… the velociraptor pack scattered, running circles around Drew, Cynthia, Jack and Collete as they struggled to aim their tranquillizer guns at the raptors. Unfortunately, they were moving too fast to hit even for three good marksmen… and Jack. Every time it seemed they had a good aim on one, it moved out of the way.

Meanwhile, Duke and Nezbit circled each other, pausing occasionally to snap or hiss at the other before Nezbit pounced at Duke, before the larger droma headbutted the velociraptor in the chest and pinned him to the ground. The prostrate Nezbit struggled ineffectually… yet seemed far too relaxed about this. Duke looked puzzled – unbeknownst to him, it was what Nezbit had been waiting for…

Suddenly, Zenobia jumped on Duke's back and bit down on the back of his neck – the droma struggled to dislodge her… before Nezbit struck, biting Duke in the arm. Against one velociraptor, Duke would have stood more than a chance… against two, however, he was being quickly overwhelmed. "DUKE!", Jack Denham cried out as the droma fell, pinned by the weight of his attackers. Collete lifted her tranq gun – but she couldn't risk hitting Duke. Suddenly, a hiss alerted them to the rest of the velociraptor pack, now circling them and hissing anticipatorily…

Suddenly, the horn's blaring cut through the air and the raptors went rigid. Hissing, they all turned to look at Drew – Duke taking the opportunity to haul himself to his feet and drag himself back to Jack. Turning to Jack, Collete and Cynthia, Drew said, "You guys get Duke to the vet offices… I'll keep the raptors distracted…" At this, Jack looked at Drew, confused, and said "How…" Drew grinned, "Collete, can I borrow your motorcycle?", to which Collete nodded, before tossing him the keys, "As long as you bring it back in one piece." Nodding his head, Drew very abruptly turned and bolted back in the direction of the veterinary facility. The raptors, briefly caught off guard, swiftly snarled and started rushing after Drew, their prey drive activated.

By sheer luck, Drew managed to stay ahead of the raptors long enough to reach Collete's motorcycle. Scarcely daring to breathe, he hopped onto the sleek white security vehicle and as he revved, the velociraptors came out of the forest and advanced towards him, attempting to surround him. However, Drew remained calm, as he continued working to get the motorcycle revved up… before, with a loud mechanical roar, the motorcycle revved into life; at which point Drew took off and the raptors, prey drive activated, snarled in rage before taking off after him once more.

Zooming on the motorcycle, with the raptors in pursuit, Drew lifted his communicator and said, "Linda? It's Drew." Linda's voice crackled in, "What the hell are you doing? Where are you?" To this, Drew grinned, "On a motorcycle, pursued by a pack of hungry raptors. Get Holding Pen 11 ready – should have them with you in about twenty minutes." There was a pause and Linda's voice crackled in from the other end, "Okay…"

For the next twenty minutes, Drew led the raptors on a merry chase – periodically slowing the motorcycle down, allowing them to catch up, before revving up again. There was method in the madness - he had to keep himself from being mauled, yet still keep the raptors' prey drive active. Eventually, he reached the entrance to the holding pens. Smiling, Drew abandoned the motorcycle and ran through the open door, with the velociraptors in hot pursuit.

Drew ran along the holding pens, running past Mahazatra, Terence and Matilda, amongst others, with the raptors in hot pursuit. About midway through, however, he slipped in a dust pocket and ended up sprawled on his back in front of the raptors. Mentally cursing, Drew lifted his head just in time to see Nezbit pounce at him, pinning him to the floor as his amber eyes gleamed with hungry triumph The rest of the pack quickly caught up - at this, Drew sighed and muttered, "Shit", as Nezbit, jaws dripping with drool, prepared to strike at his throat…

Suddenly, a giant crocodilian head lunged at Nezbit through the bars of the nearest holding pen, startling the dromaeosaur into jumping off Drew and backing away with a surprised snarl, with the rest of the pack following him. Drew turned to see Tutankhamun looming over the raptors with his head extended through the bars of his holding pen. At the sight of the gigantic predator, the raptors went rigid with fear… which was just the opportunity Drew needed. Picking himself up off the ground, he took off.

The raptors had only hesitated for a moment, but it was enough to keep Drew one step ahead, as they snapped at his heels like hunting dogs. Running into the nearest holding pen, he began climbing the ladder out, as the raptors snapped and hissed below him. Nezbit jumped up at him when he was halfway, missing his foot by inches, but eventually, he managed to climb out of the pen. And after a few minutes of laying at the top of the ladder, panting and gasping both exhaustion and relief, he turned his head in time to see the four chiefs of staff, plus Yolanda, Colette, Will, and his teammates on the rescue team all gaping at him.

Leon said, quietly, "That was the most insanely reckless thing I've ever seen you do. And I've seen you do some real reckless stuff." Drew shrugged, "No guts, no glory. Anyway, I think we can consider this Code Red officially stood down."

. . . . . .

A few days later, things had gotten back to normal… or as normal as they could be. All the injured animals were recuperating, the park had been repaired, the programming fault had been dealt with, and Uilleam had proven to be an unexpected hero of the breakout. And Drew was sitting in a meeting with Theodore, the latter of whom was currently contacting him via Zoom.

"And just like that, the Code Red was resolved," Drew said, a giddy smile on his face as he flashed Theodore a thumbs up. "With only minor injuries, a bit of potential trauma and zero fatalities." He then let an awkward grimace briefly come on his face, "A catfish or two from the Main Street moat notwithstanding."

"And I am very happy to hear that," Theodore stated, nodding with a look of almost fatherly pride on his face. "And I trust this won't result in any setbacks?"

Drew chuckled, "No need to worry on that front – we should be back on schedule soon." He brushed the back of his head. "Granted, things are still busy – and this is gonna be a big change to the status quo… but we'll manage." At this, Theodore raised his eyebrow. "Has the workload become noticeable?"

Drew paused, his eyebrow raising in equal parts confusion and concern at Theodore's question. "Well...I suppose technically. I mean, managerial duty ain't easy even in the best of times." He looked awkwardly towards a pile of paperwork to the left of the computer. "And now that you've got me thinking about, there's still a bit of paperwork I need to get done, but I'm sure I'll have it all done in time for opening day."

Theodore sighed, "I was afraid you'd say that."

At this, Drew found himself really starting to feel concerned. "What do you mean? Is something wrong?"

Theodore sighed once more, hanging his head as if about to say something that he knew he would not enjoy having to say, "Drew… you're probably not going to like hearing this, but the board has decided that two… co-managers will be joining you. And I have supported that recommendation."

Drew's eyes widened, and his face paled. "What?"

Theodore raised his hand as if to try to placate Drew. "Please don't think of this as a sign we don't trust you," he continued. "It's just that we've gotten some feedback that you seem… overworked. We think that giving you some people for you to divide your responsibilities amongst might be helpful."

Drew narrowed his eyes in disbelief, jaws agape from the weight of the news, "How long ago did the board make this decision?" Theodore sighed. "A while ago – shortly after I visited with Bryce and Percival."

At this, Drew's heart sank further, and he now also felt as if he'd been even more gut punched than before – now he realised what had gotten the board in such a fuss. Barely even able to speak, he only just barely managed to eventually say, "Wha...why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"

Theodore raised his eyebrow. "Would it have helped if I had?"

As this, Drew couldn't help but wince. Clearly, Theodore knew him all too well. And at the end of the day, he couldn't lie to Theodore. "Well, probably not, but… this was a big decision! And it directly affects me! I should have been allowed some say in the matter!"

"And I'm sorry that it had to be made this way," said Theodore. "I truly am." He shook his head, "But at this point, you've been suffering in silence long enough. And I'm no longer going to just stand aside and let you shoulder the burden of management alone when you don't have to." He then looked intently at Drew. "And even without that to consider, the simple fact is that a lot has gone wrong on your watch – two mass breakouts and many smaller issues. And I doubt I need to remind you of the fact that the deadlines you'll need to meet as an administrator are going to get a lot stricter."

"Theodore please," Drew said. "Just give me another chance! I can handle all this on my own, I'm sure of it! And I'm sure the other staff can vouch for me on that..."

"I've already put this by the four chiefs of staff," Theodore interrupted. "And they've all agreed that you need help – Mr Taymor was the person to alert me of these issues." At this, Drew could only sputter and stammer wordlessly as he tried desperately to figure out a response. The sight of this caused Theodore to shake his head. "And at any rate, Ian Fleming said it best; once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, but three times is a pattern. And at this point, I simply cannot allow myself in good conscience to let you remain the sole option for the board to use as a scapegoat."

"But-"

"I am sorry", Theodore said, "But this is not open for discussion. Goodbye."

As the screen blinked off, Drew could barely process the news… what had he done wrong? He hung his head. Surely whatever straw he'd apparently provided to break the camel's back hadn't been that bad? Had it?

ext time on Prehistoric Park Reimagined:

With one week left till opening day, the rescue team gets sent on an extra special mission.

(The rescue team looks glumly around as they stand within a viciously ravaged landscape.)

To save the survivors of an unthinkable disaster.

(A trio of t. rex the same age as Matilda and Terrence dejectedly feast half heartedly upon the carcasses of two older adults the same age as Rexy and Tyrannor.)

From a time where chaos reigns...

(An adult female edmontosaurus bellows loudly at a pack of large bear-sized dromaeosaurs snarling and cawing at her while she stands near the edge of a cliff.)

...death is always around the corner...

(A pair of baby ceratopsians stand by the dead body of an adult of their species, with one frantically pushing at the body with its head while the other squeals helplessly as if calling for help.)

...and the creatures that were once the undisputed rulers of the world...

(A small herd of sauropods bellow helplessly as they struggle to get out of the muddy remains of what used to be a swamp.)

...are brought down to their knees.

(A visibly weakened adult tarbosaurus with speckles on its skin roars weakly at a small pack of velociraptor, which all caw and snarl at it while standing defensively by a carcass.)

But with brand new faces set to join the ranks of the park staff...

(A large group of excited and intrigued looking people come walking through the park's front gate and look around at their new surroundings.)

...could unpleasant tensions...

(Drew tensely shakes hands with a tall blonde man and a vaguely Inuit looking woman with his teeth gritted and his eyes narrowed into a withering glare.)

...be in the cards for the park's future?

(A still glowering Drew cuts the ribbon on the park's opening day a week later, the blonde man and Inuit woman standing right behind him with smiles on their faces as they wave to an unseen figure in front of them.)

All next time, on Prehistoric Park Reimagined: The Great Survivors!