I didn't forget my friends, I had just been overconfident for a moment because they'd figured out how to restore the security system, and I thought Zelda needed my help at the time.
Now, of course, we had trouble.
I'd heard a few shots and human screams, both while on the staircase, and even now outside the booth. Although worrisome, I supposed it better than the silence of death.
The broken windows all had pointy shards poking up, spotted with dinosaur blood. That's why, though expecting it to be locked, I tried the door handle first.
Nope, had to go through the window frame.
I picked up the busted Nintendo console, using it to bash away glass fragments. Kind of awkward, that, had to sort of jump up and do a basketball move with it.
I climbed up on the sill, hanging from the frame as I peered in.
A rifle lay on the floor, smoking, spent casings scattered all over the carpet. On the desk lay Cassie's left shoe.
No dead human bodies. I breathed a sigh of relief. Speckles, Horsey and Streaktail paced the floor, all craning their necks upwards. Apparently someone had removed a ceiling panel and climbed inside, pounding sounds and shaking ceiling tiles indicating where the large humans may have gone.
Speckles and Streaktail jumped up on desks, knocking coffee mugs and monitors and paperwork to the floor. A tower crashed down, followed by a shattering snowglobe and a cup full of noisy writing instruments.
Speckles crouched, winding up like a spring. To my astonishment, she cleared enough height to bash her nose through a ceiling panel. Her claws hooked on the frame.
She snarled, snapping at something with her teeth.
A little girl's scream.
"Cassie!" I pulled myself up and jumped through the window frame.
Horse Forehead growled, leaping at me with claws extended.
I avoided getting disemboweled, but her body thudded against me and I flew backwards into a desk. A monitor fell forward onto a keyboard, its tower banging loudly on the floor a second later. Something chipped and broke off.
I struck Horsey in the face with a keyboard, then, as the tower's weight brought the monitor down, smacked her with that too. It probably would have knocked her out cold if it had been a bulky CRT, but no, just one of those new flat models. Still stunned her for a moment.
I glanced over her body. Speckles had changed location, sniffing and craning her neck toward a different section of ceiling tiles.
She jumped up again, this time not even using a desk. We Velociraptors should definitely start our own basketball team.
Her nose burst through. Her teeth snapped. Another scream, this time Lex's voice.
I rushed to stop her, but Horsey rammed her body into me. I banged against a swivel chair, which toppled and upset a trash can, discarded half full Mountain Dew spilling out on the floor.
I kicked Horsey in the head, jumped onto her back. Again, kinda kinky, but we won't go into that.
Lex screamed again. Speckles had collided with a ceiling tile directly beneath the girl. I could tell by the way the tile resisted instead of flying all the way up.
A boot shot out from the dark, smashing Speckles in the face. She chomped on the leather in anger.
She didn't stay up there long. Guess she didn't bite down hard enough on the boot or something. Down she fell to the floor.
The ceiling tile collapsed. Lex dropped from the compartment with a scream.
I glimpsed a rough hand grabbing her by the scruff of the neck. Didn't get to see what happened after that, as Horse Forehead and Streaktail chose that moment to gang up on me, smashing me into the carpet. Streaktail flashed her claws, preparing to disembowel, Horsey leaning over with her teeth bared to rip into my jugular.
"Weirdo!" (Okay, so I paraphrase the naming noise other raptors use to describe me). A supple, and rather shapely green body sprang from the window above me, crashing into Streaktail. They hit a desk.
Although relatively sturdy, the impact caused the wood and aluminum object to lift off its supports, causing a tidal wave of unpleasantly crunching debris: Older style glass and tube monitors shattered, plates on hard drives cracked and broke off, brittle mice snapped apart, a football guy bobblehead became decapitated, a giant cup of soda, diluted with melted ice, spilled out all over the floor, a stapler, pens, pencils, stacks of paper, a printer, toy dancing hula girl and a power supply. Quite a mess on the carpet.
Zelda and Streaktail growled and fought each other.
Although I worried for my girlfriend, I knew the humans had worse problems. I got up, rushed to help Lex, but by then she had already disappeared inside the ceiling somewhere.
Speckles sniffed and turned her head, peering with interest at dimples appearing in the bottom part of an aluminum air duct.
She jumped up, banged her head into the metal. I suppressed a laugh, and probably would have grabbed some popcorn and watched the idiot try to break through, but that's when Horsey slashed me in the leg.
Zelda stood on top of Streaktail, and had been stomping her semiconscious when she noticed what had happened. "Weirdo!"
"It's Albert, honey! Albert!" I frowned at my bleeding leg, jumped back when Horsey came in with another slashing attack. I jumped out of the way, forcefully shoving a swivel chair into her. She clawed at me, but I kept pushing the chair until she ended up trapped beneath a desk.
Bang! Speckles struck the vent again.
She made a snarling sound that translated as "Rats!" or "Foiled again!" then a "Follow me" noise as she climbed up on a desk.
Speckles quickly jumped from desk to desk and sprung through a window.
Streaktail shrugged my girlfriend off her body, giving her an insulting "Poop dinosaur's mating partner" sound. She hopped up on a table, following Speckles into the hallway.
Horsey, likewise, insulted me, abandoning the fight.
Alone with me in the control room, Zelda attempted dinosaur first aid by licking my wounds, but I shook my head. "We should go."
The other raptors had followed the banging sounds in the vents, and their noses. I unfortunately had to do the same, as I had no close where those vents trailed off to. It seemed like nonsense to go back downstairs...
Bang, thud, bang. Horsey, Speckles and Streaktail rushed to the staircase, still watching the ventilation system. Nonsense it is, I thought.
Clank. The humans opened a panel on the ceiling, way above those scary skeletons in the main lobby.
I thought, surely they wouldn't do something dumb like climbing down that thing and running out the front door, right?
Umm...
The T-Rex skeleton and the Brachiosaur had scaffolding set up around them. They hadn't finished setting the bones up yet, I guess. Conveniently enough for a tall adult human, the scaffolds stood within reach of the vent.
Speckles made a grunting noise that meant "Seriously?"
Horse Forehead answered with a "Dumb-dumbs" sound, rushing down the staircase.
A considerable gap between the stairs and the nearest skeleton, but I'd seen Speckles do her `Air Jordan' move a few minutes ago, so I crept up after her, just in case.
Once firmly standing on a scaffold, Grant helped Tim down, then Lex.
The blonde woman hopped down on a wooden plank, gesturing frantically to Cassie, still within the ceiling vent. "C'mon!" she mouthed, spreading her arms.
The girl hesitantly jumped. The woman caught her, but her footing became unsteady, the board wobbling beneath them. Wide eyed, she righted herself, catching her breath.
Cassie had lost her other shoe somewhere along the line. She climbed the scaffolding in her socks.
Speckles eyed the humans hungrily, edging into a pouncing stance.
"And here we go."
Obviously my presence on the stairs did not go unnoticed. Horse Forehead rushed up behind me with a growl. Streaktail, a few steps lower on the staircase, whirled around to face me. Then Rattlesnake, now fully recovered from being clobbered, came running up to join them.
Grant climbed onto the Brachiosaurus skeleton, followed by his companions. It did seem like quite a distance for our enemies to jump. Maybe they could escape from this unscathed...maybe.
Streaktail clawed me in the face. Horsey leapt and tackled me against a wall. I rolled and tumbled backwards down the stairs, landing right in front of Rattlesnake.
A snarling noise, implying "There's only room for one male in this pack." He snapped his teeth at my jugular.
I rolled out of the way, but he caught some surface skin in the process.
Zelda rushed down to aid me, but then yelped as Streaktail's claws raked across her chest. I jump kicked her foe in the head.
I glanced over the railing for a second. The blonde woman and Cassie had reached the tail of the Brachiosaur skeleton, Lex near the front. Grant and Tim climbed down the bony midsection. The groaning sounds and breaking bolts indicated these skeletons hasn't been built to withstand such weight. Still holding, though.
Speckles climbed up on the railing, lean muscles winding up for a super jump. I lunged for her, but Horsey cut me off, throwing me down the stairs again.
When I got up, Speckles had already landed on the middle section of the giant skeleton. The bone sculpture cracked in half from the weight, the two sections twirling like strange tightrope acrobats.
Grant and the others stayed on the skeleton, but Tim rolled off and landed on the floor.
Rattlesnake caught me looking, spotted the boy, and hurried down the steps.
I pounced on him, but Streaktail stabbed me in the tail with her claws. Agonizing, having those wounds reopened.
As I scuffled with her, Rattlesnake descended further.
Zelda tackled Rattlesnake to the staircase landing.
Rattlesnake growled about her being an idiot for being with me, how she betrayed the pack, Zelda responding with a brilliant `Forget you!' Well, that's the basic gist of the conversation. Without things like vocabulary and sentence structure, a short burst of noises pretty much got their points across.
I imagine their dialog would have continued in greater detail, had the Brachiosaurus skeleton not chosen that moment to shatter into roughly a hundred pieces.
I flinched, watching the blonde woman drop to the floor, using her body to shield Cassie from a shower of bones.
Lex hit the floor nearby, getting struck by an assortment of small skeleton pieces.
Zelda continued arguing with Rattlesnake, basically stating `Weirdo is ten times the male raptor you are, you got all these females, but you're just one raptor' and `Who are you to tell me who I can and cannot date?' And he was like, `I'm the Alpha Male here, and what I say goes.'
Horse Forehead, in the meantime, stood at the railing, watching the skeleton falling apart.
Streaktail, unfortunately, being a touch smarter than her other pack members, noted how the humans had deposited themselves safely on the floor and made themselves easy prey. She quickly pushed past Zelda and Rattlesnake, to the lobby.
I jumped on her, knocking her head into the railing.
The middle section of the Brachiosaur broke free of the tether, crashing down around Tim. I winced and looked away.
Fearing him already dead, I ran down the stairs, hoping to at least save the others.
The moment I set foot on the lobby floor, a shower of bones came crashing down on Speckles' head. Dead or just unconscious, I didn't know which.
To my surprise and delight, I found Tim completely alive and well, just kinda imprisoned within the fallen rib cage, like some character in a He-Man cartoon.
Grant helped him out of there, stealthily leading Tim, Lex and Cassie toward the exit, the blonde woman bringing up the rear.
Streaktail emerged from behind a wall of plastic sheeting. She must have slipped past me while I'd been rushing to help my friends. Horse Forehead crept out from behind the big rock supporting the T-Rex skeleton.
Cassie yelped. Speckles, apparently recovered from her concussion, had emerged from the pile of bones. Nobody noticed until she slipped past the blonde and nipped the little girl in the back, dragging her away.
The woman spun around, but the second she moved, Rattlesnake came charging at her, teeth and claws bared threateningly.
"Cassie! No!" I grabbed a random bone and sprinted after the child.
A weird bone. They'd strung it together with wires. Perfect for twirling.
I had a fair distance to cover, and despite Speckles' injuries, she had no difficulty dragging Cassie through that building at great speed. I think Cassie's traction-less socks may have aided somewhat in her abduction.
I pushed myself to run faster, but didn't feel confident about catching her before she shredded my little friend to pieces.
I whirled the bones around like nunchaku.
Hammond never gave me a real set of the weapons, but after watching them being used by cartoon characters, and Bruce Lee, I built pairs of my own with various craft materials, drum sticks from a musical experiment, string, rope, rib bones from a meal..although not an expert, I learned how to not strike myself in the face, and how to use one like a bolo.
"Cassie! Duck!"
Once she obliged the best she could (with teeth in her back), I flicked the bone weapon at her attacker.
The bone nunchucks whipped through the air, striking Speckles in the head. She winced in pain, momentarily releasing her grip on the girl.
As I ran to snatch Cassie out of harm's way, the girl casually picked up the bones, cracking Speckles across the face with the dangling free end. My jaw dropped when she rammed the handle into our enemy's teeth on the rebound.
I rushed up to her. "That was awesome! On my back, Kung Fu kid!"
"You volunteered!" she squealed, jumping on. It felt good to have her so cheerful after losing her father like that.
I dashed away with Speckles snapping angrily at my tail. "She bit you," I said to the girl. "You all right?"
"Yeah, she just tore my clothes." Her shirt did look raggedy.
I put more distance between us and Speckles. "How'd you learn to do nunchaku?"
"My dad had a pair in his den, and I had a few bored moments...also, I watched you."
"Awww!"
Zelda darted up beside me with Tim on her back. "Awroarbwaurr."
I grinned. She's been practicing my name! "Close enough."
When I glanced around, I didn't see the other humans, Just Tim. "Where's your friends?"
"Hiding. Shit!"
Thoom boom boom!
The entire front end of the lobby darkened as a huge scaly shape loomed into view.
Rexy.
I and Zelda skidded to a halt, rapidly backpedaled.
Smash! Crunch! Bang! Down came half of the glass and metal front entrance.
Upon seeing me, Rexy furrowed her eyebrow ridges, making that "Not you again!" noise.
She roared, the message being "Now you're going to get it!"
"Auroarrgh!" In my peripheral, I noticed Zelda nodding to my left.
She quickly dashed beneath the staircase, Tim ducking his head to avoid hitting his head on the steps. I followed her in.
Speckles, only a few feet behind me, let out an agonized shriek.
I trembled as I watched Rexy casually snap her teeth through my fellow raptor's body and gulp her down. "Oh my God!"
Zelda gave me a consoling nuzzle.
"You're right. No raptor deserves that."
The T-Rex gave me a grunt that said "What you going to do about it, weenie?"
My girlfriend growled and crouched like she intended to attack, but I just shook my head. "Baby, we don't have a chance." I pointed to Tim to further discourage her.
She reluctantly bowed her head.
Rexy stepped back, looking around the lobby and making grunts to the effect of, "Nice place!"
When she noticed the skeleton, though, she backed away in horror, stomping off somewhere else.
The other humans hid behind a boulder. Grant hissed to the children, waving them over.
Tim dismounted and ran to him. Cassie shifted on my back, preparing to join them, but I stopped her, pointing to a green shape creeping around the other side of the rock.
Streaktail. The raptor gave me a nasty smile.
Grant waved to Cassie, but I gestured "No!" making frantic pointing motions toward the green shape.
The man didn't get it. He just nodded, like, "Yes, this way."
When the blonde woman tapped his shoulder and whispered, his eyes bulged, facial color lightening a few degrees as his pupils darted sideways. They all rushed toward me.
Snap! Rexy's giant mouth came down again, and Streaktail was no more.
"That was my female!" Rattlesnake shrieked to the giant monster dinosaur.
"What are you going to do about it, tiny?" Rexy answered. I'm paraphrasing, of course.
Horse Forehead rushed around the giant's other side. "Those were my friends! Die, you big meanie!"
She jumped up, slashing Rexy's big stomach with her comparatively tiny disemboweling claw.
It didn't work so well, so she ended up sinking her teeth into a massive fold of flesh.
"Horsey!" Rattlesnake yelled. "Don't!"
Too late. Rexy lunged and bit the poor girl in half.
While all of this happened, Grant ushered Tim, Cassie, Lex and the woman toward the front entrance, making great effort to avoid the giant reptile, hiding behind objects, that kind of thing.
Cassie, fascinated by the fighting dinosaurs, lagged behind the rest. And then, when Grant urged her to run, her slippery socks lost traction, and she did a faceplant on the floor.
I rushed to her, and with the help of Zelda, got her up on my back.
Rattlesnake, furious about having lost so many raptors he loved, kept fighting the large lizard.
Then Mickey came rushing out of the dining room. "You leave my mate alone!"
I didn't hang around to see what transpired next.
We all made a mad hustle out the building's shattered front end and down the staircase.
Seconds later, a park Jeep came zooming up to meet us, with Mr. Hammond at the wheel. It seemed Grant had found some communications devices and made the arrangement in advance.
I often saw Hammond in a white suit, but now he wore a Hawaiian shirt, and looked a bit wind swept and disheveled.
Lex, Tim and the woman jumped in.
Grant hurried to the passenger door. "Mr. Hammond, I've decided not to endorse your park."
"After careful consideration," Hammond replied. "So have I."
"Ummm..." I stammered. "So where does that leave me?"
The old man gave me an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Albert. I can't take you with me...Or your friend. (Nice going, by the way, I was getting worried about your socialization)." Hammond winced at the sound of raptor shrieks. "But if it's any consolation, I do have a `summer home' of sorts to the south of here." He dug in the pocket of his khakis. "You can stay there. It's quite comfortable. I spared no expense."
I stared as a set of keys landed on the pavement in front of me. "I can stay at your place? Really?"
"You think I'm going to stay here and die?"
"Oh." I picked them up.
Grant waved urgently to my little friend. "C'mon, Cass. We need to go."
To my absolute shock, Cassie shook her head no.
"So sorry about your father. He was a good man." Hammond flinched as the entire T-Rex skeleton collapsed with a deafening crunch. "You can come live with me, Cassie. I'll take good care of you..." He nodded in Tim's direction. "Isn't that right, kids?"
Tim and Lex looked...a tad uncertain. I mean, both of them almost died...
Grant hopped out, offering his hand. "Cass. You can't stay here. Just look behind you."
She did. The color drained from her face.
Cassie dismounted, gave me a hug...My girlfriend she rubbed on the head like a dog.
I smiled sadly. "Good luck."
Zelda whimpered, echoing the sentiment.
Cassie got in the Jeep.
The humans wasted no time vacating the premises. You could practically hear the sonic boom as they sped off for the hills.
Rexy roared, deafening and scary. Zelda gave me an anxious nod toward the scene of destruction behind us.
"I know, babe. Let's go."
We fled down the hillside together, casting anxious glances backwards, hoping Rexy wasn't following, or hungry for a snack.
No hope of seeing Cassie, Hammond, or any of my other human friends again. From now it would just be me, Zelda, and an island full of dinosaurs.
I jingled the keys to Hammond's summer house. Guess it wasn't all bad.
THE END
[0000]
Just had to write something to end this. I have some ideas about continuing this story, but I don't think anyone's reading this anymore. Not sure if people didn't like the gender switch (hey, it was in the movie and book!) or the names of the raptors, or Muldoon, Cassie's dad dying (also in the movie), or something else.