|
Primal Prey: Chapter 13
By Strider_Aragorn
Chapter 13
terror returns
Area 52, January 2000
Thorne slowly brought the helicopter down to the ground. With a soft bump, the skids connected with the tarmac helipad. Thorne looked out. He saw many things; three large domed buildings, and a smaller, squarish one. He also saw fences, different areas of fencing, and immediately it clicked.
He knew that Dodgson had purchased this land some time ago; he knew that Dodgson was after embryos back in 1993; and he guessed that Dodgson already had DNA. And from what Thorne heard on the radio, he guessed that there were carnivores here.
As he scanned the fence he found what he was looking for: a huge gaping hole, and some trampled wires. He looked to the next fence along. That one appeared undamaged.
As he got out he heard breaking glass. He heard some people screaming, some shouting, then silence. Thorne signalled to Bosley to stay behind the chopper. Thorne ducked and looked out under the helicopter. Three small shapes darted around the nearest building, then hopped up and down on one spot. They lowered their snouts, for they had snouts, and unmistakably sniffed the ground.
Thorne felt his blood run cold. He had studied dinosaurs since 1993, and was as close an expert on the subject as Horner and Bakker. But, Thorne surmised, Horner and Bakker haven’t been hunted before. As Thorne looked out, he tried to classify the animals he was watching. In the brilliant light he could see clearly: long snout, big claw, long stiff tail; definitely a velociraptor. Probably mongoliensis, judging from the size.
As he watched, one of the animals jumped excitedly—nearly three metres into the air—and landed next to a small, short metal pillar. It had a red light and a green light on it. The raptor looked from one to the next. It was solving a problem. It had intelligence. The raptor looked at the red, then green switch, then back again.
Then it bumped the red one with its snout. Nothing happened. It cocked its head. Then, it bumped the green switch. With a whirr, the ground below the raptors began to move. They all hopped off as a door rose slowly. When it reached a forty-five degree angle, all three animals disappeared, leaving the door open.
“Wh—wh—wh,” stammered Bosley.
“What?” suggested Thorne.
“Wa—s,” tried Bosley, nodding.
“That?”
“Yeah, wh—what was that?”
“You just saw a dinosaur, bud. Get your gun”
“A dinosaur?” breathed Bosley. He quickly pulled his pistol from its holster, loading it. “What kind?”
“Velociraptor mongoliensis,” replied Thorne.
“Are they dangerous?”
“Are you afraid of everything?” snapped Thorne. He was tired. It was past midnight and he was still awake. Just then, from behind them, Thorne heard a soft thudding noise.
Both men whipped around to see what it was. No sound was heard. Thorne peered out. The darkness was pressing in on his eyeballs. All he could see through the impenetrable gloom was the white lines of a fence—they were in the shadow of the helicopter.
Suddenly they were thrown into light. Simultaneously, they heard a great creaking sound. Thorne spun to jump into the helicopter—which wasn’t there. Instead, two massive legs were planted in the ground a few feet away. Then the helicopter smashed to the ground, a few metres to the left. Thorne lifted his head to peer up the animal’s three-toed legs to the pale underbelly, then green flesh, two tiny forearms, and a huge boxy head—looking right at him.
Thorne was frozen with fear. He saw intelligence in the expressionless, reptilian eyes. They swivelled in their sockets, and looked at Bosley. Bosley was trembling, shaking, his teeth making an awful racket. The animal snorted. It was a tyrannosaur. Thorne had had no idea that Dodgson had T-rex embryos. Amidst his complete terror, he noticed several differences in this specimen from the ones on Isla Nublar and Sorna. For one, the size.
Before he could contemplate more, the huge carnivore lowered its square head and clamped its powerful jaws around Bosley, who had gotten up and was a few feet away from Thorne when the rex got him. Screaming, he was lifted into the air, straight past Thorne’s head. Then, before he could change his mind, Thorne ran for his life, straight through the tyrannosaur’s legs, and over to the wrecked chopper. He cowered behind it.
The Tyrannosaurus was finished eating. It sniffed the floor delicately. It looked straight at the helicopter, where Thorne was hiding. He loaded his gun. The tyrannosaur regarded the noise for a moment, then turned away. It was gazing into the fence. Behind it, pale shapes were moving. Pale, twenty-foot-long shapes.
The tyrannosaur roared. It was different from the genetically engineered tyrannosaurs’. For one thing, it was more primeval, as if this animal was only hunting to survive. It didn’t attack the things beyond the fence, but one of the shapes attacked the fence. There was a hissing noise and brilliant white sparks illuminated the fence. There, on the far side of the fence was four Dilophosaurus. They were twenty feet long, fully grown, and stood half that length tall. Each specimen had a crest on its head, that, when looking at it from the front, formed a V-shape. Dilophosaurs were among the first carnivorous dinosaurs to be able to move their noses without moving the rest of their head. This early development was marked by a sort of dent near the front of the upper jaw.
The huge animal that had attacked the fence landed on the ground, twitching. It had burn marks down its side, that sizzled. The smell of burnt flesh floated over to Thorne and he blanched. The tyrannosaur didn’t take any notice. It just watched the remaining three standing dilophosaurs.
One of them lowered its crested head and took a bite out of the hind leg of the fallen dinosaur. The electrocuted animal stayed down, its nerves apparently not responding. The other two dilophosaurs moved in too, and began eating at their fallen comrade.
Then was Thorne’s chance, while the tyrannosaur was watching the feast. He picked himself up and sprinted for the closest building, burst through the door and found it was devoid of people.
5/7/2003 4:59:46 AM
Comment on this fan fiction!
|
|
|
