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Primal Prey: Chapter Five
By Stryderman
Chapter 5
Nublar’s Animosity
Isla Nublar, November 1993
Jack Long woke suddenly. Someone was shaking him. It was Hawke, his tall form outlined against the window of the helicopter; unmoving green hills.
“We’re here,” smiled Hawke. He helped Jack up, who yawned. The two men got out of the helicopter, where a second chopper, a good deal smaller than the G-Group’s, with a grey paint-job instead of the G-Group’s camouflage.
“Stand back, Mr Long,” informed Eye. “We’re going to destroy their transport.”
“You mean you’re going to blow up their chopper?” blurted Jack.
Eye grinned. “No, we thought we’d paint it pink and have a swingin’ party. Stand back, this is about to blow your mind.”
Jack stood back, on a brown dirt path. Eye placed a small, round, flat object on the side of the helicopter. A red light flashed on the metallic surface. The three soldiers ran for cover. Eye crouched next to Jack, behind an outcropping of some greenery.
“Three,” counted Eye, “Two … one”
There was a massive bang and the other team’s Bell 206 exploded into a huge, white-hot fireball, engulfing it. The G-Group’s helicopter stood a few metres away, undamaged. Jack and Eye were hit with the concussion, and both men rocked a bit. Then the fire subsided, leaving a smouldering wreck of twisted black metal, charred steel winding randomly from its frame. Bits of fiery debris rained down, some splashing into the pool of water next to the helipad with a hiss.
Eye stood up. “Well, they’re not going anywhere in a hurry”
Jack eyed the blackened ground and frame, noting the burning seats in what had once been the cockpits.
“No matter wether they’re going anywhere or not,” said Thorne, emerging from his hiding place, “We’d better get moving. Better find those men and arrest them. By the way,” he continued, walking over to Jack and gesturing that they should all head along the dirt path, “I can tell you now why you’re here. We’re here to do two things: firstly, stop one ‘Lewis Dodgson’. He’s trying to steal some dinosaur embryos, don’t ask me how Hammond knows. That’s right, dinosaur DNA samples. Hammond also doesn’t know why Dodgson’s doing what he’s doing. You’re here to guide us. There are dinosaurs on this island, as in, big lizards that stomp around and hurt stuff.
“Secondly, we’re here to protect you from the dangerous dinosaurs. Apparently Hammond bred some dangerous dinosaurs on this island. That’s why we’re armed, you know, just in case a T-rex decides it’s hungry and goes after you.”
“T-T-rex?” Jack stammered, “There’s a Tyrannosaurus on this island? Wow. What else?”
“I’m not sure. Hammond mentioned something about a Para-saurus or something.”
“Parasaurolophus?”
“Yeah … anyways, he mentioned brachio-somethings as well …”
“Brachiosaurus!”
“… And, like, dilo-raptor or something. No, wait, dilopho-something and some kind of raptor.”
“What? Wow, an island with Parasaurolophus, Brachiosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Dilophosaurus. Surely the carnivores were contained?”
“Well yeah, but some numb-nuts shut down the power and the, uh, dinosaurs got out.”
“Ah.” John paused, thinking. “So what was this, some kind of zoo?”
“Yeah. Well, an amusement park called Jurassic Park.”
“No wonder I’ve never heard of it. Now I know what Hammond meant when he said he made a fatal mistake. Who shut down the power?”
“Hammond employed a guy called Dennis Nedry. He was a computer nerd, and could hack anything.”
The men reached a forest, with the path running through it, and the trees interlocking above to create a roof.
“So what happened to this Nedry character?” asked Jack, “Did Hammond fire him?”
“No,” replied Thorne. “He didn’t have to.”
“Explain?”
“Somehow got himself killed by that dilo-whatever.”
John felt a leap of excitement under coursing his troubled thoughts. “Ah.”
Presently, the four men reached the end of the tunnel. A great, green field filled their view. Jack gasped as he saw a pair of Parasaurolophus grazing gently, their red head-crests bobbing slightly. The animal was beautiful and graceful, its curved neck extending from its humpy back, its long tail balancing the dinosaur with precision.
A whole herd of animals drifted unnerved across the field. Brachiosaurs and parasaurs mingled with gallimimus, small ostrich-like affairs, and payed no heed to the humans. Jack wanted to sit down and just observe them all. He was giddy. He was in his element. Then a long, grating roar drifted across the field, which seemed intensely hostile. All of the herbivorous dinosaurs looked up, food dribbling from their alarmed mouths. Then, as one, they turned and headed away from the group. Jack felt his legs crumple in awe. He sat cross-legged on the ground.
Jack noticed three men running across the field in the G-Group’s direction. Two of them looked very strong, and were carrying guns. As the group of three men came within earshot of the other group, they started yelling.
“Get off the island!” one of them yelled, the smallest man. Jack got up and squinted, shading his eyes.
“Strange,” murmured Thorne. “Hammond said four men.”
“Get off the island!” reiterated the man. The three men were closing in on the G-Group.
“Freeze, all of you!” bellowed Thorne in a professional voice.
“Get off the island!”
The men were getting closer now, and Jack could see their faces in the sunlight: masks of terror they were.
“I said freeze, or I’ll shoot! I’m serious!” shouted Thorne as he levelled his gun.
It turned out that he was. He raised his gun and fired. Fire exploded from the end of the gun. The man on the far left sprinting to the G-Group yelled and fell to the ground, four spurts of blood exploding from his body.
“The rest of you, freeze!” yelled Thorne, positively furious.
The other men finally relented. They stopped, close enough to the G-Group for the men to find distinguishing features on the men’s faces.
“You Dodgson?” asked Thorne in a commanding voice.
“Yeah,” replied the shorter man.
“And are you Dash?”
“Johnn,” grunted the taller man, panting for breath. Both faces were pale and drenched in sweat.
“Commander Rob Thorne, leader of the G-Group, Specialist Animal Division of the CIA-”
Thorne was stopped mid-sentence by the sound of an animal. It was a high-pitched squealed mingled with a deep throaty roar. It was terrifying, and Jack spun around, trying to identify the sound. It seemed to come from everywhere at once.
Then he saw two objects speeding their way. The one at the front, the biggest, was making the noise. Two straggling parasaurs ran as fast as they could towards the lake, away from the smaller dinosaurs. Flecks of light rain fell down from the darkening sky, splashing on Jack’s hand as he shielded his eyes.
Jack thought for a second as he looked back to the carnivores bearing down on them, running swiftly across the field. What were they? Deinonychus? Velociraptor? As the dinosaurs grew closer, he judged their size.
“Jack,” said Thorne quickly, “You’re the palaeontologist here. Do we run?”
“We run,” Jack breathed. “Velociraptor mongoliensis… run as fast as you can!”
“Where?” cried Thorne. Then Jack noticed the other raptor. It was by far the biggest, about a foot taller than the other two. The big one stood about six feet tall, its long skull packed full of curved, serrated teeth. Its large, intelligent eyes glared at the men as it picked a target. It had dull brownish orange, pebbly skin.
The other two raptors had bright green stripes running down their orange backs, and a feathery crest adorned their heads.
Each of the raptor’s feet had a massive sickle-like claw on the second toe. They looked lethal as they flashed in the sunlight.
The group of two raptors changed its direction very subtly, as if the two groups were exchanging instructions.
Jack shivered. “Away! Back to the chopper, now!”
All six men turned tail and ran back to the path. Too slowly, Jack realised too late. The two raptor groups converged. The two smaller ones cut Eye off from the group, running in between him and the rest of the group. The third, the leader of the pack, leapt into the air, six feet at least into the air, scythe-claws out, and slammed into Eye, who fell to the ground.
The other men ran on, into the forest, trying to put as much space as possible between them and the monsters. After a while, about halfway through the jungle, supposed Jack, they stopped and rested. Thorne and Hawke levelled their guns at Dodgson and Johnn.
“You in front,” ordered Thorne, gesturing to the path.
Dodgson walked in front, Thorne pointing his gun at him, followed by Johnn and Hawke. Jack brought up the rear. They walked at a moderate pace, and Jack soon got his breath back. Within sight of the end of the trees, Jack froze.
“Wait …” he said.
“Halt! What?” demanded Thorne.
“Shh …”
“I don’t hear anyth-”
“Shutup!”
“What the hell are you doing?”
Thorne was about to continue, but then he heard it too: a soft crunching noise. They were soft footfalls. They were coming from the right. Then, from the left, a very soft hoo noise.
“For goodness’ sake, it’s just a stupid owl!” cried Johnn. “You’re a fraud! Call yourself a comm-”
Johnn didn’t finish his sentence, because, halfway through the word ‘commando’, Hawke got smacked on the face by some black, sticky goo that burst from the right-hand side of the path. Hawke cried out in pain, and, as Jack watched in horror, two—no four animals emerged, two from each side of the jungle.
They were extremely odd. About twenty feet long each, with two crests atop each elongated snout, they were seemingly primitive predators. But they were still dangerous, and, as the first one smashed out of the undergrowth, a frill shaking around its head, the first thing Jack noticed was its teeth—dozens of them. From the impact of the globule of venom, Hawke had reeled off to the left, into two more of the dinosaurs.
All of the men ran. Hawke made an attempt to escape, but the most brightly coloured of the dinosaurs placed its large foot onto Hawke’s back. With a yelp, he hit the ground, the dinosaur’s foot on his back, pinning him down. Jack turned back to help.
“Go!” shouted Hawke. “Get out of here!”
The alpha male dinosaur reached down, its crooked upper jaw closing around Hawke’s vulnerable neck.
Jack did as he was told, and ran after the others, bursting into the sunlight. The predators of the island had apparently made their territories obvious.
1/16/2004 12:06:38 AM
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