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Primal Prey Chapter 8 (Repost)
By Strider_Aragorn
Chapter 8
The Valley
Near the centre of Isla Sorna, 180 miles west-southwest of Costa Rica
The men kept running through the forest, brown trunks slipping past Thorne as he dodged hanging vines. Thorne tripped on a tree root, got up, and kept on running. Thorne’s legs began to seize. He couldn’t run this far. He looked at his watch. Surprised that it still worked, he checked the time. They had been running flat out for fifteen minutes. Thorne reckoned that they were well and truly out of reach of the tyrannosaur.
“Alright, everyone,” Thorne announced, stopping, “Time for a rest”
Apparently, ‘rest’ meant walking briskly through the jungle still. Jack spat. His glands were salivating severely. He didn’t like lots of spit in his mouth. After a while it began to—
“Hey,” Jack said abruptly. “What was that?”
“What now?” asked Johnn irritably.
“Jack, you sure you heard something?” questioned Thorne in tolerant tones.
“No,” said Dodgson. “He’s right. Listen”
Thorne stopped, listening for a minute. Then, he heard a low trumpeting noise. It seemed to carry a long way. It was coming from the direction they were heading in.
“What’s that?” Johnn said quickly, obviously frightened.
Thorne loaded his handgun. He walked slowly forward, gesturing the others to follow him. Jack, Dodgson and finally Johnn edged after the leader. Soon Jack saw the edge of the forest, and, beyond it, green hills or fields. He caught glimpses of the valley beyond the forest through gaps in the jungle’s edge. Thorne looked out.
“Jack,” he whispered. “What’re they?”
Jack crept cautiously forwards. He looked out of the jungle, and gasped. There, in the middle of a green, grassy, hilly valley was a herd of herbivorous dinosaurs.
“Are they dinosaurs?” asked Johnn. “I thought there was only one dinosaur island. Unless we came full circle and hit Nublar or whatever”
“No,” said Jack. “Did you notice the tyrannosaur’s colourings when it attacked our chopper?”
“No, usually, when you’re about to be eaten alive by a T-rex, you notice its teeth”
Jack ignored Johnn’s irritability. “It was black with red stripes. Or at least, dark grey with red stripes on its nose, I didn’t notice the body …”
“Yeah,” added Thorne, “It had a dark grey body with reddish orange stripes down its back”
“Meaning what?” asked Dodgson, frowning.
“Meaning, we’re on a different island,” explained Jack. “Because on Isla Nublar, the tyrannosaur was green, with brown stripes”
“The tyrannosaur was green with brown stripes,” mocked Johnn in a stupid voice, turning away.
“Well, the tyrannosaurs could’ve been bred. There might be lots of them”
“No,” said Dodgson. “A: They’re fiercely territorial, and B: InGen only bred on female T-rex. InGen only bred females on Nublar”
“Well what about the velociraptors back on Nublar?” pointed out Jack. “Two were males”
“How’d you tell?” asked Johnn, turning back around.
“Look, if you’re gonna-”
“No, Jack,” said Thorne soothingly, “He’s got a valid point”
“Fine. It’s obvious. The bigger one was brown. The smaller ones were bright, striped and had crests on their heads”
“Meaning …” prompted Johnn.
“For God’s sake, the males want to be colourful to attract a mate. Meaning, the dinosaurs on Nublar are breeding”
Dodgson frowned. “How?”
“You expect me to know? I’m not God”
“No offence. We’re all a bit tired”
“Yeah,” said Thorne. “We should find shelter somewhere. On the far side of the valley, I can see some buildings. What do you say?”
“As long as there’s no dinos, I’m happy,” replied Johnn.
“Yeah, me too,” agreed Dodgson.
Jack hesitated. “We’ll need to make sure there are no carnivores around first … oh, all right”
“All right gentlemen, let’s move it,” shouted Thorne.
The four men emerged from the forest into the bright sunlight. Jack looked at the herd of herbivorous dinosaurs. He was astounded to find that there were several different species of dinosaurs. As they neared the dinosaurs, Jack too could see the buildings on the other side of the valley.
After a quick count, Jack found that there were six brachiosaurs, eighteen parasaurolophus, two dozen hypsilophodonts and four adults ankylosaurs and one juvenile. He observed that the six Brachiosaurus were situated at spaced intervals, and as the smaller animals grazed, the brachiosaurs watched with benign expressions on their faces. When one of the men got close, within a dozen metres of one of the animals, the closest brachiosaur would trumpet loudly and the smaller herbivores looked up for a while, inspecting the visitors.
Jack was sad to leave the herd. Seeing the big animals brought warm feelings to his heart. He could only assume, as a palaeontologist, how the animals would behave. He didn’t even guess that dinosaurs from different time periods in history would interact together in this way.
As they neared the buildings, Jack looked back one last time at the herd. He saw the young ankylosaur honk at them, moving apart from the main group. Then one of the larger adults, a reddish one, came out and nudged it back, its spiky back heaving with each step.
Then the Parasaurolophus that was largest, with a great red horn, gave a long, low, mournful cry. Jack was sad to leave the herd.
2/15/2003 7:54:54 PM
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