SITE B
BOOK 1:
DAWN OF THE CLAN
CHAPTER 1
Three days before the Jurassic Park incident…
Maddox ran through the island jungle. It was hot and humid. He hadn't been sprinting for long but already beads of sweat were pouring down his face. His vision went blurry, and his eyes burned from salt. With a quick swipe of his hand the sweat was clear and he could see again.
"Damn it!" He cursed as he ran.
Only moments ago it had been business as usual. He was inspecting a length of electrified fence that had been grazed by a falling tree when he spotted the velociraptor. Now it was fierce on his trail, which should have been impossible.
The raptors were isolated to a very small part of the island, and their strict monitoring was around the clock. Nevertheless this one was here, out in the open, hunting him.
It didn't look like the other ones. This particular raptor had physical features that Maddox had never seen before. Whatever it was, it wasn't something that INGEN had created.
Wet palm leaves struck his face. Gnarled roots grabbed at the toes of his boots. He tripped. He stumbled but caught his balance and kept running.
"All I have to do is make it back to the jeep." He kept telling himself. "If I can make it to the jeep, then I might have a chance."
Maddox burst through the tree line and into an open clearing bedded with lush ferns. There was the jeep. It was right in front of him just fifty feet away. Over the gray paint he could clearly make out the white stenciled markings along the door that read: SITE B.
From the driver's seat his colleague, Earl Brown spotted him.
"Hey, what's the problem?" Earl called out through the open side window.
"Start the engine!" Maddox screamed. "Earl, start the damn engine!"
Earl was staring at Maddox with a confounded slack jaw and wide eyes. He couldn't comprehend what the issue was.
Then from out of the bushes to Maddox's left a second raptor sprang. It lunged through the air and crushed him to the ground. Earl observed in horror as Maddox was brutally disemboweled.
At the tree line the first raptor rapidly emerged. With a deafening eagle scream it charged towards Earl.
"Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!" Earl fumbled with the set of keys dangling from the ignition.
As the engine cylinders rumbled to life he gassed up the motor and popped the clutch. With a spin of tires and flying mud the jeep sped off. As sections of twenty-five foot tall electrical fencing zipped by Earl rode first gear all the way to the red line. He pounded the clutch and threw the stick into second barely easing his foot off the gas long enough for the transmission to shift.
Suddenly the jeep shuddered hard and rocked on its suspension. Earl knew there was a raptor on the roof.
The massive killer claw on the dinosaur's hind foot came thrashing through the jeep's cloth top. With its fore claws the raptor peeled apart the fabric, and its scaly head came in. With a shriek the carnivore snapped at Earl.
"What the hell?" He said as he saw how different this raptor looked from the other ones.
Beyond its black and red scales this animal had a flowing collar of feathers down its neck like a lion's mane. Short prickly quills covered the rest of its body, and they stood straight with aggression as the raptor snapped again.
Earl pressed himself against the driver's door and shook the steering wheel. The jeep swerved but the raptor was relentless in its pursuit to hold on. Earl reached for the glove box. There was a tranquilizer pistol inside. His fingers grazed the latch, but the raptor kicked its foot in and sliced all the tendons in his forearm with its killing claw.
As blood poured onto the passenger seat Earl recoiled his hand, screaming in pain. The jeep hit a rut in the dirt road, and the steering wheel flipped to the side. With only one arm Earl couldn't control the vehicle. The jeep swerved and sideswiped the concrete barrier at the base of the electric fence. It hit another rut and spun off the road in the other direction. It rolled into the woods, flipping over several times before it slammed into a tree and lay to rest upside down.
Earl was out cold. Radiator fluid gushed from a burst hose in the engine. One unbroken headlight beamed off into the jungle while a sharp electric tone repetitively donged to let Earl know that the lights were still on.