CHAPTER 326
"Damn." Ms Murdock looked at Thorne, Reuben, and Dr. Levine, and then she said to Kyra, "They made it after all. Looks like I owe you $150.00."
"I wouldn't sweat it too much," Kyra replied dryly. "It's not like anyone is making it off this island alive," she said it only half joking.
"I'm sure you're right," Joan smiled, "But I'll take that bet. $150.00 says the annoying paleontologist makes it."
"Her? Really? I would've thought you'd simply bet on yourself." Kyra laughed.
"Usually I would," Joan shrugged, "but not even cats have as many lives as I've burned in the past few days."
Kyra shook hands with Ms. Murdock. "Ok. It's your money." She turned to Seth and said, "what's your bid?"
Seth didn't answer. He shook his head and turned away from them. His eyes drifted around the room for a moment. They were in a garage of some kind, but there were no cars or trucks, just dune buggies.
Behind him he heard Ms. Murdock saying, "we'll rest here a bit. After this, nowhere else will be safe enough to stop."
Beyond the row of dune buggies Seth made his way to the far side of the garage where there was a large bay door made of a heavy duty mesh. Light from outside shone in here and was the only thing illuminating the garage. Seth approached the door and curled his fingers through the holes in it. Looking past the metal mesh he saw a wide rocky clearing with dirt and grass throughout. Beyond that there was jungle and cliff side. He also heard the faint rush of water and remembered that the river flowed through the giant cage he was peering into.
"So, just between us, what's your bet?" Dr. Levine's voice came up beside Seth.
Seth looked at her cold and dull, then he turned back to the enclosure. He remained quiet for some time and then said, "I don't care."
"About what?" Levine asked.
"About anything. It doesn't seem to matter anymore." Seth stared.
Dr. Levine nodded, but she said nothing.
After a while Seth uttered the words, "both my parents are dead."
"Life doesn't fight fair," Dr. Levine spoke plainly.
"What do you know about it?" Seth mumbled.
"As much as the next person," Levine said. "You live long enough, and you pay attention, it's easy to see."
"So what's the point of doing anything at all?" Seth looked up at her.
"I find that capturing some of the moments is worth it. Of course that's just me." Richard peered into the enclosure thoughtfully.
Seth felt a shove at his back. He turned around. Kyra was standing there holding up two bags of beef jerky. "Original or teriyaki?" She said.
Seth shook his head. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten, but he wasn't feeling the least bit hungry.
"It's all I could find. It was under that workbench over there." She nodded.
Seth stared blankly. "I don't think I'm hungry."
"Eat." Kyra shoved the bag of teriyaki into his hands.
Seth sighed, "I think it's just going to make me sick." Nevertheless he started to eat, mostly because Kyra was giving him a look that said she wasn't backing down. As he stuffed a few pieces reluctantly into his mouth he gave Kyra a curious brow. "You and Ms. Murdock are getting strangely chummy."
Kyra shrugged, "I think her crazy is the only thing keeping me sane. It's sort of like denial. You know, like pretending this whole thing is fun or something."
Seth shook his head and turned back to the enclosure.
"What, does my coping mechanism offend you?" Kyra made a mocking gesture with her hands. "It's better than moping myself into a self destructive depression."
"How is it that the two of you got mixed up in all of this?" Dr. Levine interjected by asking Kyra.
"Our parents worked here. We were visiting for the summer." Kyra tore into the pack of plain beef jerky with her teeth and started chewing the largest hunk she could find in the bag.
Levine nodded slowly. She stared into the cage for a time and then asked, "Can you tell me anything about that dinosaur outside? The creature with the long snout and the sail on its back."
"It's trying to eat us. What else does it matter?" Kyra said through her chewing.
"It's just that it seems a little unnatural. Like the raptors, something is out of place."
"They were kind of hush about it. My Dad and Ms. Murdock were its only handlers. Aside from a couple of high up people, I think my Dad and Ms. Murdock were the only ones who even knew it existed. That's all I know." Kyra thought a moment and then added, "I overheard an argument or two. My dad would be having these conversations. I wasn't supposed to hear. I even saw it once. They kept it in a restricted access enclosure. He told me to stay in the truck, but I caught a glimpse. They called it spinosaurus."
Dr. Levine's eyes lit up with thoughts. "I never would've guessed it looked quite like that."
"That was part of the arguing, "Kyra finished her large hunk of jerky and grabbed another slightly smaller piece. "They had made two spinosaurs with the same DNA, but they patched up the missing parts of the code differently. My Dad called that one Version B and the other Version A. They didn't know which one looked more like the real spinosaurus, and somebody said something about destroying Version B."
Dr. Levine was glowing a bit. "I'd love to see what Version A looks like."
"You can't." Kyra said. "Version B ripped its head off."
Richard frowned, "Damn." She continued staring into the enclosure.
A loud raspy caw echoed down from somewhere above, and a broad shape swooped into view. A creature with wings the breadth of a tiny airplane flapped against the air. Using powerful strokes it settled its hind feet down in a controlled way and then folded itself into a crawl. With the short hind legs at its back and the hands on its wings the animal moved in somewhat of a bat-like fashion. It landed only about fifty feet out and immediately was walking toward the mesh garage door.
Richard took note of the long pointed beak and similarly long pointed crest on the back of the animal's head.
"Pteranodon." She smiled.
By the time the pterosaur was half way to them three more had landed. They all started following the first, and by the time the first reached the door there were twenty pteranodons on the ground.
The first pteranodon walked right up to Richard and banged its beak against the mesh with a loud caw. She jumped and laughed a little as the door rattled. The pterosaur matched eyes with her and paced several times. The creature puffed its chest and then opened its wings. With a single beat it flapped and a wall of wind hit Richard's skin. She squeezed her eyelids and laughed again. After this the animal settled a bit and simply pounded its hands upon the dirt like a restless gorilla while periodically trilling and knocking its beak upon the mesh door. By now, all twenty animals were grouped around the door, but Richard kept her eyes on the one.
"You're a proud one, aren't you?" She grinned.
The animal squawked and then spread the two halves of its beak wide like it seemed to be yawning or stretching its jaw muscles. The pteranodon made a clicking sound with the back of its throat and then shut its mouth.
"Hm." Richard's face lost all of its sparkle and glow, and she frowned.
"What?" Thorne said.
Richard hadn't realized that he and Reuben had joined them at the door.
"You look disappointed," Thorne said. "It's a flying dinosaur. What's there not to be impressed about?"
Richard ignored the fact that he had called a pterosaur a dinosaur and replied, "It's got teeth."
"I've got teeth!" Reuben mumbled.
He was eye to eye with another one of the pteranodons, dangling his watch before its face like he was using it to pick up a psychic reading. The pterosaur made several futile attempts to snap at it before turning away in frustration.
"Pteranodons are not supposed to have teeth. Many pterosaurs do, but not pteranodons." Dr. Levine shook her head as her eyes lowered.
"Well I doubt we dug up every dinosaur that ever existed," Thorne said. "Maybe these ones are different."
"No, Mr. Thorne." Levine shook her head further. "I'm afraid this is a genetic foible."
Richard stared back into the enclosure and pondered deeply for a time.
Beside her, Thorne looked into the cage and said, "I don't know, doctor. They're still very impressive to me."
"But not real," Levine said. "My original presumption was perhaps the most accurate. I was chasing a science project not a lost world."
"They look real enough doctor," Thorne said.
"No," Richard kept shaking her head. "I got caught up in the illusion of this place, but it's just that, simply an illusion. I thought perhaps they got most of it right, or even some of it, but the closer I look, the more it unravels. They had two different versions of the same species of spinosaurus running around, and they had no idea if either one was remotely accurate. There's an albino Tyrannosaurus rex. These pteranodons have teeth, and amidst all the chaos on the helicopter I still happened to take note that there were several physical anomalies amongst a very small population of velociraptors. I'm beginning to wonder if any of these creatures would hold up against a magnifying glass, let alone a microscope." Richard sighed heavily, "no, Mr. Thorne. This poses a huge problem. If they're making such simple mistakes as these pteranodons having teeth, then the work can't be trusted. These creatures cannot be called dinosaurs or anything of the like. These creatures may be nothing more than… genetically engineered monsters!"
Dr. Levine ended her rant and fell into deep thought.
Thorne shook his head and said, "you're the expert, doctor."
He looked into the enclosure at all the pteranodons watching them from the other side of the mesh. As they paced the area there was an eerie caw and trill among them. Their weird eyes had a piercing stare. The strangeness of it was akin to the bizarre gazing eyes of a goat, only with a genuinely dangerous spirit. Thorne didn't like them at all.
As he continued to watch the pteranodons the sound of a bear horn blared through the garage with a sudden blast of noise. Thorne and everyone else in the garage flattened to the ground with their ears covered, and the pteranodons took to the air in a hurricane of flapping wings.
As the noise subsided up the cliff sides of the enclosure in a sharp echo and the pterosaurs dispersed out of sight people slowly began to lift their heads to find that Ms. Murdock was the one standing over them with the bear horn in hand.
"Break time is over," she said. "That horn will only work a couple of times, so let's get a move on."