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Dark Dawn: Leviathans II - Special Edition (Feature Presentation Part 2)
By Vader
~ Continued from Feature Presentation: Part 1 ~
ACT III: PART A - New Information
All across the country, Americans tuned onto a special report on the CNN network, gathering around their televisions as the news broadcaster reported:
“There’s good news for the San Diego Zoo in Southern California - after a month long investigation on the part of the FBI, they have finally been allowed to sign a contract that will virtually bring forth a new dawn in technology. A month ago, the Zoological Society of San Diego received an actual living, breathing dinosaur, and with it, a microchip called Artificial Intelligence Insert, which can be inserted into the back of an animal’s brain to actually control their movements. RiCorp Insurance was the company that sent this, claiming to have unexplainably found both the animal and the A.I.I. chip in a remote area of Death Valley, California. They were willing to turn them over to the Zoo for exhibition at a price of 2 million dollars. To prove the company was telling the truth, the Federal Bureau of Investigation searched for clues and evidence in the desert, also interviewing several heads of companies around the world, only to come up with nothing that would denote anything other than what RiCorp reported.
“Now, the Zoo has signed the contract and have set to work on an area in the Zoo to display the dinosaur, which is a Deinonychus - a predator about the size of human. They have tested out the A.I.I. chip, having surgically implanted it into the brain, and according to tests, it is a success. Because of this, the Zoo believes it will not need to keep the animal inside of a cage, for if it would try to escape, they could simply stop it through activation of the chip before doing so. According to Head of Security and zoologist at the Zoo, Piper Sealy, this could trigger a world-wide revolution in the way Zoos are built - more A.I.I. chips for animals, and no more cages.”
* * *
Agents John Reno and Ronald Key stood in straight positions in an elevator that was climbing to the top floor of a building, their eyes fixated upon the ever-increasing numbers displayed above the doorway. It was so quiet, it seemed the ticking away of Reno’s watch was actually a loud beating. Key let out a heavy sigh, a bead of sweat becoming entangled with another, dropping from his brow onto the floor. Reno gave lop-sided smile that was amused but concerned at the same time. “I’m glad you’re remaining calm in this situation,” he remarked, a flicker of humor lighting his eyes.
“I’m sorry. I can’t help it, John,” Key replied, wiping his forehead and giving another, prolonged exhale. “I’ve been so tense about this case from the very beginning - I can’t shake the feeling that the animal . . . just shouldn’t be in that Zoo. My gut tells me it’s just not a good situation.” In all seriousness, Reno nodded in complete agreement, knowing he felt the exact same way. “And now, from what the phone call told us, this could be a big break.”
“You’re like me,” the older agent told him, only smirking once again as an afterthought came to his mind. “You sure didn’t used to be. I still remember the day they asked me to train ‘the newb named Key’. You were so headstrong - you disagreed with practically everything I told you.” Key’s tension was relieved for just a moment as he laughed.
“I’ve apologized to you a thousand times, John,” he said regrettably, embarrassed by his past actions.
“Oh, now, now. Don’t get me wrong,” Reno warmly replied, putting his hand on his assistant’s shoulder. “You’ve turned out to be a fine agent. And I am proud of you.” Key looked up with appreciation for the commendation from the man you he often referred to as ‘his father in law enforcement’. The moment was interrupted by the ding of the elevator, signaling their arrival on the top floor. Just as soon as Key’s nervousness had disappeared it returned, as the both of them stepped out of the elevator and professionally trotted down the hall, which was lined with several doors that led to dorm rooms.
They turned a corner and finally came to number 7, knocking on the door. They heard footprints inside as the lock was undone, the doorknob was turned, and the hinge swung open to reveal two young college students, having similar features in the face. The agents flashed their badges, only to be greeted by a handshake from each of the young men. “I’m Joel Rockwell,” one of them introduced, then pointing to the fellow next to him, “This is my brother Hayden. Thanks a lot for coming.”
“Of course,” Reno smiled. “May I take my coat off?”
“Sure thing,” Hayden nodded, motioning to the coat rack as both agents slipped their long overcoats onto the wall for hanging. Then, all four of them walked forth into the middle of the room, which consisted of two separate beds, a computer upon a desk, a bookshelf with several bound volumes and movies encased within, containing a TV on the top. In addition, all of the walls had been plastered over with posters and spreadsheets of dinosaur fact charts and diagrams of skeletons. They all took their place in seats that had already been prepared for them, the agents on one side, and the brothers on the other.
“Now, you told the FBI you had some important information concerning the Deinonychus at the San Diego Zoo?” Key asked. Joel rapidly shook his head, being the first to speak, as the agent whipped out a small notebook from his pocket, holding it with his right hand, resting his elbow on his knee, and getting a pen from his shirt with the other.
“Yes. You see, just over a month ago, Hayden and I took a vacation to Brazil to visit a long-time friend. While we were down there, we decided to do some exploring on our own, and in the process, we came across a very remote, hidden facility, littered with fresh remains of dinosaurs.” Reno and Key looked at each other skeptically at this point. “Hard to believe, I know, but it’s true. In our exploration of that site, we came across several men that were loading what appeared to be a tranquilized Deinonychus into a cage, and then loading it into a very large truck. We snuck close enough to overhear a conversation of one of the men on a radio. I can’t remember the exact words, can you Hayden?”
Hayden shrugged as he sibling turned to look at him. “Sorry, neither can I. But I do remember he said something about having the chip arrive at the same time the cage does.”
“Arrive where?” Reno asked with importance.
“He didn’t mention where - he just said they were going to be sent somewhere,” Joel continued. “After that, they loaded the cage up into the truck and hauled it away, and that was the last we saw of them.”
“Would you mind giving us descriptions of the men?” he requested.
“We weren’t close enough to see the detail on their faces, but all of them were wearing camouflage outfits and gear - they looked sort of like army uniforms. They were also carrying rifles, for tranquilizers obviously, since they had put the animal to sleep, but they also could have had bullets as well. I remember two of them were white, one was black, and the other one looked Hispanic.” The entire time, the agent jotted down notes on the paper, afterwards looking up.
“What about the vehicle and the cage?”
“The cage was about 6 feet by 6 feet, from the looks of it; a silver color. The truck was probably twice that size - had a large crane on the back of it that lifted the cage into a long, wide flat bed to carry it. The cab looked like it could seat about four persons, and the truck was orange.” After he finished up his notes, Key looked to Reno to see if he wanted to ask any further questions.
“We’re also going to need the most specific description you can give us of your location at that time,” Reno told them. In response, Hayden turned around, reaching out for an open map that had been placed on the top of the nearby bookshelf, bringing it back and extending his arm to hand to the man.
“We’ve made a mark on that map already as to where we were, based on how long and far we were traveling, approximately,” he explained. At that, Reno folded the map, standing up from his seat and placing it within his inside jacket pocket with a crinkling.
“You’ve been very helpful - perhaps more than you know,” Reno thanked appreciatively, “We’re going to get investigation going right a way in this location you’ve given us.”
“Yes, your welcome. But one more thing I have to tell you,” Joel stopped him before he left. “We believe there may be more live dinosaurs than just the Deinonychus out there. We actually saw an Arawete tribal man that was attacked by a maw that would match the size of a Tyrannosaurus. There were also rumors those kinds of mysterious ambushes were happening in several different tribal communities. All signs point to that there is more of them - some of them possibly being even larger and more dangerous than a Deinonychus.” The gloomy words hit the agents hard, for this information sparked feelings within them that were ten times more disturbing than those they felt about the bipedal predator at the Zoo - the thought of several dinosaurs freely roaming through Brazil.
“We will do our best to look into it,” Key nodded with affirmation. “Thank you again.” Both of them grabbed their overcoats, slipping it around their arms and onto their body as the Rockwells opened the door for them to exit.
ACT III: PART B - Grand Opening
Every single visitor to the San Diego Zoo that day, after rushing through the turn-stiles, had immediately made their way straight down the several canyon walkways, past all the exhibitions of bears, cats, and birds, reaching a massive crowd that had gathered in a centralized location. Each and every person was packed together as closely as possible as they all did their best to get as close to a podium that had been stationed in the very front of them, with a large arch to its right that heralded the entrance to an exhibition which had been entitled “Deinonychus Jungle”, a huge ribbon tied across it. To the podium’s left sat several fold-up chairs which seated a number of zoo and Society employees, each attentive to a sea of humans that lay before them, fighting to get the best view of the speaker stand. Other structures which had been built included a dine-in restaurant called “Cretaceous Delicacies” and a gift-shop called “Gifts from Prehistory” - both having been build directly in front of the exit to the exhibition in an attempt by the Zoo to make massive profit.
Cameras flashed everywhere among the throng, everyone having an astronomical level of anticipation. There was not one guest in the entire rest of the park at that moment - all were anxious to get the first look at this amazing creature. And they weren’t just local citizens of San Diego - people had traveled from all over the world to visit this animal park. At this rate, the entrance would have to be shut down halfway through the day because of the constant stream of visitors. There was only so much space, both in the Zoo and in parking.
Piper was filled with adrenaline at she gazed out over the crowd from her elevated seat inside a control tower that had been placed inside the exhibit, rising above to not only overlook the dinosaur’s environment, but also the immediate area of the zoo around it. A smile formed on the edge of her mouth with a twinkle in her eye. Everyone was so fascinated by these prehistoric leviathans - they always had been, they always would be. And the fact that she could help to bring the dream of seeing them alive, up close, seeing them breathe, and walk, was an incredibly special thing. She knew she was helping to bring a little more joy into everyone’s lives in a world where joy was hard to find.
Her line of thought was redirected to the podium as one of the men stood up from his seat to walk towards the stand, drawing a clapping and cheering reaction from the crowd in doing so. A proud look was evident on his face as he outstretched his hands to ask for silence so that he could begin his introduction of the exhibit. “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Your enthusiasm is much appreciated,” began the person recognizable as Jonah Crockford. “As you know, you are about to embark on a on a visit into the world of prehistory. As you stand here this day, you understand that this is a breakthrough event - not only in Zoology, but also in science. What you are about to see it the first look at a creature that in the past, could only be seen by taking a trip to the museum and staring at bones, which alone can put you in awe. This will be an experience to remember, and as the Head of the Zoological Society of San Diego, I hope that you can continue to cherish it in the future.” At this statement, the people showed their agreement with a long, steady clapping, and a few whistles from some of most excited people.
Jonah waited for a moment, taking a breath, and then held out his hand toward the entrance to the exhibit. “Well . . . its time.” The crowd knew what that meant, and they showed it by giving the loudest and most emphatic roar yet, as Crockford stepped down from the mike, bringing out a pair of scissors from his left pants pocket. He trotted up to the ribbon, leaning forward. Looking backwards at the visitors, he finally announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the brand new San Diego Zoo exhibit of the Deinonychus!” At that, he snapped the ribbon, the throngs of people immediately rushed forward as fast as possible, eager, to say the least, to get inside right away.
As all flooded in, Piper turned her gaze away from the entrance to spin her chair back to the control consoles in front of her. “Alright, guys, stay alert,” she told the two other men beside her, bringing up a readout and display of the A.I.I. chip.
Below, everyone moved along the path through what seemed to be endless palm trees that blocked any view of the Zoo outside, making you feel completely encompassed by the environment. Cool mist sprayed upon everyone’s cheeks and foreheads as they rounded a corner, and came to the place they all wanted to be at - a clearing, filled with low-lying shrubs and ferns. Gasps and cheers erupted as soon as they saw the 5 foot-tall wonder that was the star of the exhibit, hunched down and looking straight at the new arrivals. So many camera flashes went off in that second, it was as if a lightning burst had suddenly struck right in the middle of them.
The Deinonychus was aggravated as soon as they entered his space, many of them leaving the walkway to come just a few feet away. With a low snarl, its calves and thighs suddenly tensed as his body eased backward, ready to pounce on all who were leaving the road they were intended to remain on. “Quick, stop it!” Piper demanded, waving her hand to point at the animal. The creature lunged into the air with a squeal, raising its arms and feet up, directing its claws to dig through the flesh at the victim. All at once, his body parts drooped, doing so beyond his control as he landed flat upon his stomach just centimeters away from the startled visitors.
With a groan, it pulled itself up again, giving a small, poignant, hurtful sound as it stared at its wrist, which was hanging in an abnormal pose, broken. Still determined to drive the intruders away, the beast arched back to lunge, only to trip as soon as it began to lift off the ground, crushing on its arm with a crack and a squeal. Piper cringed as she leaned forward in her seat, concerned about the animal. “Careful, Fletcher!” she told the specialist next to her.
Its hand practically dangling of its arm, the creature whipped around and started to run for the closure of the trees to nurse its wound as the audience lost their fear almost immediately, resuming their snapping. Piper leaned back in her chair, stressed from the situation. “That poor thing,” she uttered under her breath.
“What did you say?” Fletcher demanded in a harsh tone. “It shouldn’t have even attacked - now the people can’t even see it!” As that, he swung his finger over to several switches activating all of them and pulling hard on a lever.
“What are you doing?” Piper urgently asked as she watched the image of the A.I.I. chip turn bright red on the monitor. Below, the animal was blankly halted from returning to the depths of the trees, being forced by Fletcher to turn around and march back out to the people. “What are you doing?” Piper asked again, beginning to become upset. “It’s hurt!”
“They came to see a dinosaur, that’s what I’m giving them,” came the cold reply. He stopped the chip’s activation after the Deinonychus had returned to the clearing, afterwards immediately turning and fleeing. Irritated, Fletcher whipped the chip back on, tugging on the controls to force the animal back.
“Let it go!” Piper said in a loud voice, actually surprising herself at how loud it was. Ignoring her, Fletcher continued to force the creature to do his will, causing it to walk back towards the field. He turned the switch off again, hoping the animal would stay this time, but it only turned and ran for the trees again with a squeal.
“No you don’t,” Flencher said through clenched teeth, becoming increasingly annoyed as he slammed the lever forward, making the predator whirl to turn back. Each time he increased the power, forcing the animal closer and closer and closer to the people as they reached out to it. The animal’s head began to shake violently as it desperately tried to avoid the inevitable.
“Let it go, Fletcher! Stop it!” Piper commanded, nearly as desperate as the Deinonychus herself. Fletcher continued to ignore her, pushing the animal continually forward against its will. Unable to contain herself and longer, Piper stood up and whipped her leg around, kicking Fletcher’s hand into the air with her boot and slamming the chip’s activation off as the animal below weakly turned, with his arm nestled against its breast, back into the jungle. Fletcher stared up at her with anger and surprise at the woman. “I . . . said . . . let . . . it . . . go,” she firmly stated, panting.
After long glares at each other, they finally turned away as Piper spun and slammed back into her chair, resting her cheek in her shoulder, all the while the crowd below disappointedly moved along. She could not help but feel extreme mercy for that creature, the way they were treating it with ultimate control. Perhaps . . . it hadn’t been such a good idea after all.
* * *
He bent low, gazing through the camera lens at a muddy floor, paved over with impressions of distinct truck tires, his thumb triggering the taking of some photos. At length, he stood up once again, noticing his own boots had been completely juxtaposed with mud. As he checked how much of the film roll was left, he heard his name called from behind as the sound of a motor increased and then whined down. “John!” came the familiar voice.
Agent Reno turned, seeing that Agent Key had just pulled up in his truck next to two communications towers and a broken “Pangaea” sign, walking in between the other investigators, searching the compound grounds for clues. “I checked with the only vehicle rental place in Gurupi. Check it out,” his fellow companion held out a form with a list of conditions of a sale. “This truck, matching the exact vehicles described by the Rockwells, was rented out by RiCorp exactly one day before the Rockwells said they witnessed the dinosaur capture here.”
“Good work, kid,” Reno breathed turning to display his own findings. “These tire prints also match that truck that RiCorp had contained that day. This evidence, backed up by the details of the eyewitnesses is enough for an arrest warrant.”
“Right,” Key stated. “I’ll notify the police. Any word other live dinos down here?”
“Not ye-” the senior agent never finished his sentence, for he was interrupted by a signal from the radio on his belt that confirmed the opposite of what he had been about to say.
For the interview between the FBI agents and the Rockwell brothers, I actually based that on the interview I myself had with a law enforcement officer (as referred to in the previous author note), killing two birds with one stone, if you will. For the grand opening sequence, I wanted to reverse what I’d done in Leviathans, which was evoking the reader to feel sorry for the humans, due to their persecution from the dinosaurs. Instead, during this act, I wanted the audience to actually feel sorry for the animal (which is very rarely attempted in fan-fiction), without destroying any feeling they would have for the humans later on. In effect, I spent an enduringly long time on that segment to make sure to present it correctly.
ACT IV: PART A - Fire and Destruction
Piper’s closed eye-lids fluttered open as she heard the chirping of birds just begin to start out the day outside as the dark sky began to grow to a light blue, signaling morning time. She looked out the window for just a moment, out at her street, and beyond that, the horizon of Balboa Park. She could just barely make out the sky ride over the San Diego Zoo, which would begin running later on in the day. She directed her pupils upward, towards the sky, noticing a cloud layer rolling in from the West and the Pacific Ocean, concluding it wouldn’t be an entirely sunny day.
She craned her neck the other way, her feet moving under the white, silk sheets as she looked to see her husband lying next to her. With a smile, she leaned over, bringing herself to his face and giving him a gentle kiss on the lips, stirring him awake. Once his eyes finally opened, he looked up at the ceiling for a moment, afterwards turning to look at her, a tender look appearing on his features. “Good morning, babe,” he reached out to hold her hand.
“Good morning,” she came back. “We should be leaving pretty soon.” Gavin yawned once before replying, using his other hand to rub his eyelids.
“I know,” he replied. “In a second, just let me wake up.” He continued to rest his head in the pillows, stroking the top of his wive’s hand.
“Thank’s so much for taking Jezelle to the Zoo today,” she told him. “My schedule’s just gotten busier since we obtained the Deinonychus. She was so disappointed when I told her I couldn’t take her to work with me today like I promised, but at least she can go with you.” She followed up her words with an exasperated inhale and exhale, perhaps a little more stressful than it should have been about her child.
“It’s not just Jezelle that you feel bad about, is it?” Gavin predicted, watching her facial expression. “I can tell you’re upset about something else. What is it?” Piper shook her head, wiping her brow and then leaning upon her hand, closing her eyes.
“Gav . . . I was just so happy about getting the dinosaur, and being able to have it roam freely without being in a cage. I knew that the only reason it was possible was because of the A.I.I. chip, and I had thought it was such a fantastic idea . . . that it could change every Zoo in the world.” She then stopped, her eyes watering. “But now . . . I just feel . . . so cruel. Watching what is being done to that animal feels almost . . . evil. I can’t help but feel ashamed, now. It’s as if . . .” She paused, upset feelings overwhelming her, until she finally said, “I don’t know,” plopping her hand back down on the top of the covers. Gavin looked at her for another moment before reaching out and stroking her hair.
“Well, I’m not sure exactly what to say. But I do know that if something bad is being done, it’s not your fault. I know you would never intentionally do something wrong to anything,” he told her whole-heartedly. Piper was feeling so ashamed, she dismissed the complement almost immediately.
“If I’d only known it would be this way in the beginning . . .” her thoughts wandered as she contemplated about how things could be different if the past could be changed. “Well, there’s nothing that can be done now. I remember how I said it was a fantastic new dawn in technology - it’s a dark dawn, that’s for sure. I can’t help but feel melancholy . . . for the animal, for me, for the Zoo . . .”
She cut herself short when she noticed the time on the clock across from them, hanging on the wall. “We’ll have to talk about it later. It’s time to go, hon,” she told Gavin. Her husband nodded, giving her a final, comforting kiss.
“I’ll go get Jezelle. Then we can leave.”
* * *
The day was blazing hot over the wilderness of jungles and grazing fields in Brazil. The shadow of the moon crept up upon the bright sun, covering it with an orb of darkness in a solar eclipse, turning the once cheerful sky to a dark red and orange color. It was as if it were a foreshadowing of what was about come to come - war, violence, turmoil. For almost exactly right after the sun had been consumed to give birth to such a foreboding sky, several air vehicles came buzzing over the horizon, their engines and propellers growing increasingly louder and more menacing as they neared the location.
When drawing close enough, it was recognizable that the vehicles were dark green, heavy-assault helicopters, bearing the emblem of the Brazilian army. Within the formation, a single chopper led the entire campaign, the pilot keeping one hand upon the controls as he relayed to the others that followed him. “This is Commander De la Cruz,” he communicated. “Stay in formation until we reached the target - from then on, break into a wide circle for full effectiveness towards the ground.”
Several replies confirmed they had received the order from their leader as they continued to speed forward, intent on one goal, one mission. They zoomed over the terrain as it broke into a massive cliff, a waterfall springing forth from its edges, giving leeway to further turf below. The copters lowered themselves to hug the tips of the trees, getting as close as possible to the ground. “We’re coming up on them,” came the alert. Immediately, all the vehicles sprawled out as the forest broke into a huge plain, filled with massive beasts, some with long necks moving along at slow speeds, others shorter moving along at faster speeds, some with long horns, others with sharp teeth - dinosaurs.
An open fire sprayed out from the weapons mounted upon the choppers, showering the entire area with bullets, causing animals to trip, fall, jump, and yelp. Before reaching the end of the grassy flat-bed, they swooped around, coming in for another run, keeping each other updated on how many were being taken out. Two of the aircraft twirled around to come in close to the largest of the animals there, each firing missiles that directly struck the center of the terrified beasts, causing gaping holes in the center of both. Before dropping to the floor, one of them swung its neck towards one of the copters, smacking it to spiral and explode on the ground, the fuselage rolling along to slam into two other Sauropoda. “One man down,” the commander reported as he took out several more fleeing beasts with rapid fire.
Within a few more moments, the field was completely scattered with smoking, bloodied corpses, no longer left with any trace of life. “Good work. Now split up - reports show they’ve migrated Southwestern and Southeastern, mostly in the jungle. Choppers 3A, 4C, 8G, 9F, and 65 take the latter direction, 3D and 710 get back to Pangaea, and rest of you come with me. Complete the mission as soon as possible - it is imperative that they be destroyed before reaching any further villages.” At the commander’s orders, every pilot did as they were told.
As the rest went their separate ways, 3D and 710 did a loop backwards, heading in the opposite way, towards the Northeast. They flew over trees, clearings, and shimmering lakes and rivers on their way to what had once been the center of a major research project, which was still shrouded in mystery. After several minutes of flying, the copters reached their assigned destination, slowing their speed as they came to the area directly above the research buildings. They brought themselves down lower, coming close to the structures, but keeping a safe distance away. It took them little time to lock on, and then dispatch both of their nukes. As the powerful weapons hit the cold, hard, dirty metal of the abandoned buildings, the vehicles of warfare turned and backed away as a massive explosion destroyed everything within, deducing everything to piles of rubbish in a matter of minutes.
As the pilots watched the last corner of the disheveled “Pangaea” sign burn by flames to be consumed in a charred black, they set their frequency for contact with De la Cruz. “Commander, the facilities have been taken care of,” 710 confirmed the completion of their mission. In a moment, a reply came back with heavy static, afterwards clearing up.
“Excellent. We’ve located and taken care of the rest of the Theropoda and Sauropoda. Mission accomplished.” And so that was the end of it. It had been finished. Pangaea, its animals, and everything it stood for, was now permanently extinct.
Smoke billowed upward into the sky, mixing with the orange streaks to turn it blood red.
ACT IV: PART B – Escape
She opened her mouth to finish up her large burger, wiping off her hands afterwards and leaning on the table, looking across at her husband and daughter. “Have you been having a good time today, sweetie?” Piper asked her little child with a smile as Gavin finished his own lunch. Jezelle looked up and smiled, nodding.
“Mm hmm,” she replied. “But I still wish I could work with you, Mommy.” Piper smiled apologetically, reaching out to rub her daughter’s tiny hand.
“I know. I’m sorry, honey,” she told her. “I promise I’ll make it up to you. At least we could have lunch together, huh?” Jezelle shook her head up and down enthusiastically, as Gavin reached over to take both of their trash, placing it on the stacked trays and dumping it into the trash bin behind them.
“Thanks, babe,” Piper told him. “I’m sorry, but I have to be going - lunch break is over.” She leaned forward to kiss her husband and then did the same to Jezelle. “Will you be going to see the Deinonychus today?”
“No!” Jezelle exclaimed, her once cheerful attitude, suddenly becoming overwhelmed with terribleness, her eyes widening with fear. “Please don’t make me, Mommy,” she said in a lower, whispering tone as tears just barely began to form on the bottom of her eyelids. She stared up at her parent, as if pleading with her. “Please don’t make me . . . I don’t want to see it. Please . . .” Piper was taken aback at how quickly the small child had changed. She began to shake her head, scooting over to sit by Jezelle, taking her in her arms to stop any tears.
“I wouldn’t make you honey. I just thought you might want to-”
“I don’t like it. I don’t want to see it,” she continued in a barely audible tone, clearly terrified at the notion of facing the bipedal predator. Gavin, startled by his daughter’s unexpected change, moved closer as well to help in the reassuring.
“I promise I won’t take you there,” he told her tenderly. “We didn’t mean to scare you, honey.” Jezelle closed her eyes, starting to get over the dread she had just felt. “How about we go to see the polar bears?” Wiping her wet cheeks, Jezelle nodded getting up from her seat to take her father’s hand as her mother, too, stood.
“I’ll see you tonight, okay?” Piper made and effort smile, giving her girl a short hug. “I love you.”
“I love you, Mommy. Goodbye,” Jezelle slowly made a smile as she rubbed her chubby cheeks with her cute little fingers once more. She waved goodbye as her and her father took off, Piper staying to watch them leave, staring, just long enough until they disappeared around the corner. With a sigh, the woman turned and walked across the wide courtyard, directly toward the Deinonychus Jungle” exhibit. She trotted inside, scratching her head and then placing her hands inside her pockets, pulling out her set of keys and identifying a single, silver one for use of the ‘Employees Only’ gate which led up to the control station. She unlocked it, causing it to make a short buzz, walked up the steps, turning around a railing, entering inside the control center.
She plopped down into the chair next to Fletcher, who was in the middle of smoking a cigar, his barrel-chest moving up and down as he took puffs. “Alright, I’ll take over, Fletch,” she told the red-haired man, eyeing him with disgust in remembrance of what he’d done earlier. He motioned for her go ahead as he stood up and walked into the back room for a rest. Piper moved her chair over to his station, letting herself lean back for just a moment, closing her eyes in an effort to release tension, and then leaned back forward, noticing a new surge of visitors streaming through the entrance to head for the clearing, where the animal was not.
“Don’t worry, I won’t force you to come out,” she muttered under her breath as if the animal could hear her. “At least I can just view this as security while everyone else views it as a chance to prove themselves as masters of ultimate power,” she mumbled to herself, flipping on the monitor to bring up a readout of the A.I.I. chip.
Immediately in doing so, she was almost jolted directly out of her seat by the surprise of a blaring noise coming from the screen ahead of her as the image of the chip flickered bright red, its center beaming forth a shade of brown. “Jeez,” she breathed after the shock, moving forward to examine the problem more closely. After reading all the readouts, she didn’t understand what exactly the problem was.
“Hey, Fletcher! Come here,” she called into the back room. Footsteps sounded as the man came forward, running his hands across his crinkled forehead and into his hair as he came to stand by her.
“What in God’s name is wrong?” he said irritably. She motioned towards the readout as the man waved for her to get out of the chair, taking the seat for himself. He stretched his hands out, cracking his knuckles, and then proceeded to type across the keyboard, examining the reason for the blaring. His look of casualness began to turn into concern as he reached out to activate the chip, pulling on a lever, only to get no results. His concern began to turn to dread as he continued to type, taking a closer look at the scanning data. He gasped, and for the first time in all the time she’d known him, Piper saw him actually display a look of utter astonishment across his face. His eyes glared out of the room to focus on nothing as he was left with his breath taken.
“What is it?” Piper asked, fearing the answer itself. After a moment, Fletcher grasped his chest, rubbing it, taking deep inhales and then turning to look back up at her, blankly.
“The brain has overpowered the chip, Sealy. It’s useless now,” he woodenly stated, emotion strained from his voice, having been replaced with incredulousness. “The animal is not in the exhibit,” he finished. Piper suddenly was stricken with the same symptom of an unexpected wave of shock. The both of them just continued to stare at each other, dwelling on what had happened and what it meant.
The silence was at last broken, when Fletch finally gulped, whispering under his breath, “Run.” Piper barely registered the words in her mind as she slowly backed up towards the door, her mind still fixated on the event. “Run!” Fletcher then gave a prolonged yell. Piper snapped out of her state as she accelerated her steps, finally turning to dart out of the door, leaping down the flight of stairs to dash away from the control room and the jungle, heading for the announcer booth.
* * *
It trotted through the concealment of tall eucalyptus trees, lush ferns, colorful tropical plants, vines, and palms as the sound of a small waterfall lapped at its ears nearby. Its head pivoted in all directions, exploring the brand-new, wholly realized, other world that it had never entered into before. For the past weeks, it had been confined to that relatively small clearing within a jungle built just for him, to be displayed, by a power source it had not identified. But now, that power had diminished. It could not be controlled any longer, yet the scars of that control had been left upon him, for he was now left with only one hand - the other he had chewed off after it had been dangling from muscle tissue for an extended period of time.
The animal stopped at hearing the sound of laughter coming from the direction to its left. It stopped abruptly, raising its head high, its nostrils expanding as it smelt the air, its head bobbing side to side. It stood there for a few seconds, before slowly turning to its side, and then continuing forward, heading in the direction of the noise. It had entered muddy ground, and pasty dirt was becoming encrusted on the bottom of its feet.
It reached the edge of its foliage concealment, quickly whipping the mud away as it replaced its feet onto grass. It crouched low, peering out through a tiny gap in between conifers to eye two beings sitting upon a bench. One was what looked to be an elderly female, with white hair, dressed in a white sweat shirt with pink pants. She was with a five-year old young one, who held a bright red candy stick in his mouth, holding her hand and sitting with her in front of a Gibbon exhibit, watching the primates swing from tree to tree.
The creature let out a low purr from its hiding place, sniffing the air once more as it began to edge forward. The muscles on its hind knees budged as in one mighty spring, it leaped from behind, high into the air with a loud roar, landing straight atop the old woman’s back, slamming her onto the cement as the boy was whipped backwards, dropping his lolly-pop. Both the boy and the woman screamed in terror as the beast raised its large toe up and then struck it down to penetrate lady’s back. The aggravated primates immediately let out loud howls, backing away from the predator as fast as they could.
The little boy turned and ran, screaming at the top of his lungs as the carnivore moved its claw down the woman’s behind, slashing it right open. By then, the seventy-five year old had completely lost consciousness as the starving beast tore into her flesh for a meal long-needed.
* * *
“Attention, Attention! The San Diego Zoo is officially declaring an emergency state! All visitors and personnel evacuate immediately!” came the excited announcement over the speakers which had been stationed atop the skyride towers throughout the Zoo. Visitors on the ground all stopped their movements to listen, confused. “Repeat: The San Diego Zoo is officially declaring an emergency state! The Deinonychus has escaped! All visitors and personnel evacuate immediately!”
At that, everyone dropped what they were doing, fearfully making a run for the exit from wherever they were at inside the Zoo grounds. At that time, Gavin and Jezelle were on the total opposite end of the park from the entrance and exit, having just left the polar bear exhibit. “That was Piper,” Gavin identified, his eyes darting everywhere as his body froze, completely caught unaware
“It’s out?!” Jezelle squealed, bringing her father out of his frozen state, the little girl’s feelings she’d experienced during lunch all returning in a much larger degree. Gavin thought fast as a worker nearby abandoned his job of loading several boxes into a watershed connected to a tall tower, dashing away.
“Come on, honey, quick!” he took Jezelle’s hand, hurrying across to the catch the door to the shed before it closed, swinging it open and running inside. The door slammed shut behind them, leaving them in pitch blackness, aside from the thin line of light barely making its way inside from the bottom of the door. Gavin felt the wall beside him, his hand reaching the light switches and flipping them on. Above, there was a flicker, and finally the room lit up as the father rushed forward to lean down and place his little three-year-old daughter to sit in the middle of the floor, all kinds of crates and tables around her, and a staircase leading downward to the bottom of the tower.
“Listen, Jezelle, listen to me,” Gavin panted, holding both of her hands and leaning close to her. “If we both go to the entrance together, we’ll have to go through the entire zoo. I don’t want the dinosaur to find you. Now, Daddy’s going to hide you here while I go for the exit - you won’t be hurt. You’ll be safe here, and I promise I will bring back help to come get you.”
“I want to stay with you!” Jezelle began to cry, tears streaming down her face as she curled up. Gavin reached out to enclose his arms around her in a warm embrace, feeling horrible about leaving her in this place all alone, but at the same time, knowing it would be safer.
“I know you do. But I don’t want you to be hurt, honey. I want you stay here where its safe and I’ll come back for you - I promise,” he whispered in her ear, kissing her on the cheek.
“But what if you . . . die?” Jezelle barely got the words out in between her sobs, shaking her head and burying her face into her father’s chest. He placed his hand on the back of her head as she wept, stroking her beautiful hair.
“Don’t worry, honey. Don’t worry. You’ll be safe here,” he reassured her, his eyes closed. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, and this is the only way I know it won’t.” At that, he bent his knees back to stand up, their arms slowly unfolding from each other as they did so. “I’ll come back to get you, honey. I love you.”
They looked into each other’s eyes with understanding and worry at the same time, feeling as if they could collapse under such a desperate situation. Gavin finally had to force himself to tear away from his daughter, exiting and locking the door behind him, darting away as fast as he could to reach the other end of the park, leaving Jezelle alone, with nobody’s shoulder to lean on but her own.
ACT IV: PART C - The First Arrest
President of RiCorp Insurance Rodney Fox leaned back in his office chair, his feet resting atop his desk, next to his completely outdated computer system and phone. A long, curly wire extended from the phone set, connecting to the microphone Fox was holding up to his face that moment. He ran his dirty fingers through his long, oily, blonde hair as he snickered to the person on the other line. “We’ve just received the 2 million dollars from the Zoo,” he informed. “I’ll be sending you half right away. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”
Just as he leaned forward to hang the phone back up, the door to his office was suddenly slammed off its hinges and banged to the floor, its wooden corners and edges splintering as law enforcement flooded into the room, their weapons drawn. “Freeze, put your hands in the air!” the chief officer demanded of the red-handed Fox, who had dropped the phone to the floor. The officer moved forward, putting his gun away while the rest kept theirs aimed, pulling out a pair of handcuffs, pushing Fox out of his seat and whipping him around.
“You’re being placed under arrest for the illegal capture of an animal and the forming of a deceitful contract. You have the right to remain silent; anything you say or do can be used against you in a court of law; you have the rights to an attorney; if you can not afford attorney, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand your rights?”
“So you found out, huh?” Fox said behind his back with disgust. The officer whirled him around and pinned him against the wall, beginning to search his pockets.
“Do you understand your rights or not?” he irritably asked again. Fox returned the question with a spit of saliva to the face.
“Yeah, I understand them,” he finally told the officer, who calmly but sternly swiped the spit off. He slammed the man back down into his chair, his eyes darting between the phone and Fox’s face.
“Who were you talking to?” the policeman demanded. Arrogantly, Fox balked, leaning back in his chair and putting his feet back onto the table again as the officer folded his arms together over his chest.
“You can either tell us who you were talking to now, or we are going to look through your phone records.” Immediately, Fox abandoned his haughty pose, slamming his feet back to the floor. “Is there something you don’t want us to find in your records?”
“No, but I’d . . . rather tell you now,” the criminal said rather unconvincingly.
“Glad you’ll cooperate.” Before continuing, the inquirer leaned back to his fellow officer, whispering, “I want you to check his phone records ASAP and make sure that the rest of the employers here have been escorted outside of the building. Also, notify the San Diego Zoo of our arrest here.”
“Sir, I’ve notified the Zoo already,” the man came back in a formal tone. “Apparently . . . the animal has escaped.” The news was incredibly surprising to the officer, without a doubt, but he had no time to continue thinking about it.
“I see,” he said in a disturbed way. “Well, please carry out my other requests.”
“Yes, sir.” After the others had marched out of the room, the officer turned back to Fox, who was looking especially bleak. The policemen leaned in close, resting his hands on the top of the desk and looking the arrested Caucasian straight in the eye.
“Now . . . tell me who was on the phone that you had a ‘pleasure doing business with’ . . .”
This was the most complex act to write, since I was juggling different stories in different places with different characters. I wanted to move Piper into the center of the story, to serve as the main individual we can relate to concerning the situation at the Zoo, attempting to set up an emotional effect for the final act. In describing the destruction of Pangaea, I was inspired by some of the great movies’ use of color to create a mood. So, I tried to incorporate that constantly present feeling of deep red hues and smoky skies throughout the segment, symbolizing an incredible event that brings an end to an era. During the escape of the Deinonychus, I was trying to move the audience’s feelings of pity and compassion for the animal towards fear and disliking of it. Of course, if effective, it hopefully caused the reader to have mixed feelings about the dinosaur, which I’ve never put forth an effort to cause in any other story I’ve written.
ACT V: PART A - The Second Arrest
His hand shook nervously, beads of sweat creeping along its surface, in between the wrinkled skin and veins jutting forth from underneath, motioning slowly towards the doorknob on the scarred, dark brown door, which led to the doorstep of the run down house. He touched the cold, gold tinted metal, grasping it for just a moment, breathing heavily, before turning it sideways to release the lock and bring it open.
Immediately after opening it a notch, it was kicked open, forcing him and the two people behind him backwards as men in black and navy-blue uniforms ran into the room, their weapons drawn, pointing up and ready if any resistance to the policemen were to be made. The chief officer made his way forward, slamming his hand upon the man’s shoulder and turning him around, bringing his hands together behind his back and whipping out handcuffs from his belt to hook them on. “Edward Drakon, you are being placed under arrest for a partnership with RiCorp to form a dishonest contract and the purposed endangerment of lives at the San Diego Zoo,” the chief told him, immediately spurring out the man’s rights to him afterwards, finally leaning close to his ear, whispering, “You’re buddy Rodney Fox betrayed you. And guess what - a visitor has already died at the Zoo . . . because of you.”
Drakon’s disheveled head hung low, depression consuming him completely as his wife, Laura, and his son, Nathaniel, stared at him in disbelief. The ashamed husband felt their mourning gazes upon him without having to look up, and nor did he want to, for in that moment, he felt worse than he ever had in his entire life - even more so than the moment of watching the Pangaea emergency trams fall into the darkness of the earthquake shaft. “Edward?” his wife’s voice quivered. “You did that?” She could not even remotely believe or accept what her husband had been accused of from out of the blue. Drakon closed his eyes, a lump forming in his throat, nodding his head. “But . . . why?”
As he felt the police search his pockets from behind, he knew this would be the last time he would see his family in years, if not forever. Fox had told all, and he was sure that if RiCorp had been arrested, there was already mounting evidence against him, not to mention an eyewitness account of their deal. He inhaled deeply, mustering up strength to bring himself to look at his wife in the eye, his tired vision becoming clouded with surmounting liquid of tears. “I had to find a way, Laura. I had to,” he managed, on the verge of crying. “I had RiCorp capture the last Deinonychus in Pangaea, and I sent them the last A.I.I. chip we had built, so we could give it to the Zoo for two million. We were going to split it . . . and I knew, that was the only way to get our lives back . . . my only way to provide for you.” His brow furrowed as a single tear drop rolled down his dirty cheek. “I had to do it, it was the only way. I knew the chips were faulty, but . . . I thought that they would be able to stop the animal quickly even when it did fail. I thought . . . I knew . . . this was the only way.”
They stared at each other for a prolonged time, till finally, an emotionally broken down Drakon, asked one, last request from his family. “Please . . . forgive me,” he cried, his head hanging down once again, his shirt becoming stained from his tears. At seeing his father so tormented, Nathaniel stepped forward bringing himself to embrace the man, knowing he would not be seeing the Dad whom he loved so much for a long time. And then, Laura, ran ahead to give her husband a final, parting kiss, until they were separated by the tugging of the police, and Drakon was ripped away from his home and sobbing family members, who’s provision was the sole reason he had kept himself alive, to face his disgraceful and inevitable fate.
* * *
It stared from behind a patch of bamboo and ferns, its scaly skin wrinkling as its eyes squinted, observing the commotion ahead as several armed and trained men, part of the San Diego Zoo’s security force, marched up a paved walkway and underneath a station that contained a large motor and conveyor belt that transported sky cars into the air and across the cable to the other end of the park on an aerial tour. Each one of them boarded a separated sky car, which contained roofs that hooked onto the cable, glass windbreakers on the front and back side, and open air on the other left and right sides.
Once inside their individual booths, they all were extremely attentive, their rifles ready, taking their cars up and high above the Zoo on the lookout for one thing - the escaped bipedal predator, who, little did they know, was watching them from the bushes straight ahead, a low, aggravated purr sounding from its resonating chamber. The first one to notice the Deinonychus was one of the last men on the tour, Fletcher, who immediately whipped his barrel-nose around to aim and fire.
The bullet missed the animal by centimeters, spraying up dirt from the ground, followed by the whiz of another carefully aimed shot that was avoided by the quick beast. It was now fully provoked, its feathers standing up on end in a display of anger. As Fletcher’s car made its way upwards to the first of the many towers across the Zoo grounds that held the cable in their arms, the carnivore leapt onto a boulder within a nearby pond just beyond the reeds to its right, scattering quaking ducks everywhere while it sprung itself to the top of the aerial tour station, turning and making one more lunge to reach the attacker’s car.
It shattered the glass windbreaker in the back of the sky car in doing so, sending tiny shards to lodge themselves into the surface of Fletcher’s eyeball before he could turn away from the breaking. His eyes fluttered open and closed, the insides of his eyelids being severely scratched from the sharp fragments stuck in place atop his pupils. Stunned, he wildly fired his rifle again, not anywhere close to hitting the creature, instead sending a bullet straight upward into the device that held the roof of the car to the cable, making the sky booth rock back and forth. He fired again, straying bullets aimed outside of the craft.
Realizing he didn’t have much hope of shooting the animal, and in a desperate attempt to escape it before it could attack him, Fletcher raised his hands up to the edge of the roof, swinging himself upward and blindly pulling himself onto the top, instinctively clinging to his weapon at the chest. Thinking just as fast, the prehistoric predator flung itself upon the roof with a mighty leap, slamming atop the human, causing the rifle to discharge into the connector between the cable and the car once again.
At that, it snapped, sparks flew, and the car plunged through the air, slowly turning upside down on its way to the ground. Before it hit rock bottom, the Deinonychus expertly jumped away from the doomed vehicle, landing on the cement with a tumble, just seconds before it bashed on the ground, crushing Fletcher in the process with a giant splat and thud. Bringing itself to stand upright, the animal shook its head back and forth, turning slightly to the side, eyeing the wreck. It dashed forward, making an effort to reach the security enforcement’s remains underneath he fuselage, but unable to nab them.
Disappointed, the beast looked up, seeing the other men in the sky cars aiming to fire at it, but unable to as they passed over the ledge to another section of the zoo, only taking a few pocks off the cement with some scattered pings. Exploring its surroundings in silence, the dinosaur then saw that it was at the very bottom of a deep ditch, and it was almost a sheer vertical climb to the top of the canyon on all sides. Yet, it made and effort to spring its way out of the location, but to no avail.
After further on looking, it noticed that its only hope for escape from the situation was a shed, at the very bottom of a long tower that led to the top of the canyon, where there was yet another shed near the polar bear exhibit. The Deinonychus began to pace forward, examining the bottom entrance to the pinnicle and seeing that it had been left open, just a slight inch away from being closed. With a careful nudge with its snout, it swung the door open, trotting inside to be greeted by a staircase that led upward several floors up, which would lead him out of the ditch, through another small shed at the top, and back onto familiar turf . . .
ACT V: PART B – Piper
Outside of the main entrance and exit to the San Diego Zoo, inside the small courtyard where the last of the visitors had been evacuated to reach their vehicles and leave the area, the police had shown up in several standard law enforcement cars, lights flashing and sirens crying, bringing with them the specialized squat team. At the head of preparing team, who were arming and padding themselves with protection, was Piper Sealey standing inside the bed of one of the trucks that had carried all sorts of equipment to the location. “Alright,” she announced. “If Fletcher and his team come back from their scanning of the park from the aerial ride without having found the Deinonychus, the swat team can storm the Zoo on the ground. Please note that it will be more dangerous than finding the target from above - the animal is swift and agile and could be hiding everywhere. It is important that each group within the team thoroughly search each of their previously assigned areas.”
After giving the instructions, receiving affirmation from the team that they understood, the Head of Security stepped down from her place, walking across the pavement to a bench that sat in front of bushes that had once been trimmed to look like elephants, but had recently been changed to look like the Deinonychus when the star attraction had opened. Upon the bench was a sulking Jonah Crockford, who had a cigarette in his hand, talking a deep wisp of it and then breathing it out, finishing the smoke and tossing it into the ash tray beside him. Piper took a seat next to him, patting his back, herself in the same mood as her boss. “I know how you feel, Jonah,” she told him sincerely. “This is all just one big, horrible . . . mess.” She felt her sadness begin to turn into anger at recalling the phone call the administrative offices had received that day, pertaining to how RiCorp had teamed with a certain Edward Drakon, knowing the A.I.I. chip would eventually go haywire from past experiences, knowing it would give the animal a ‘rabies-like’ effect from brain damage . . . but they still risked lives anyway . . . just to make money. “Why did they have to do that? Why?” she breathed, closing her eyelids.
“Piper!” came an abrupt call from behind her. She flashed her eyes open whirling around to see the familiar visage of her husband, Gavin, running forth to her, his arms wide open. She sprung up, overflowing with joy and relief as she embraced him, tears of happiness forming as they faced each other once again.
“I was so worried about you! You took so long to evacuate!” she gasped, stroking his check with her palm tenderly. No sooner did she notice that her little daughter was not by his side. “Where is Jezelle?” she asked as worry temporarily consumed her before Gavin quickly told her the answer.
“I wanted her to be safe, so I told her to stay inside of a watershed until I sent back help to get her,” he explained. “There is no way I wanted her outside with that animal running around.” The mother exhaled with relief as she reached in her pocket, producing a folded and crumpled up map, which covered the entire zoo grounds.
“Neither would I. Can you pinpoint the shed?” she held the display up for her husband to see, who immediately moved his finger upward to the top of the map, across the walkway from the polar bear exhibition.
“It’s right there. You’ll need the key to get in, since I kept it locked.” With a quick nod, she folded the paper back up, leaning towards his face to give him a kiss.
“Thank you, babe. You’ll need to go wait at our car, since the police are about to spread out here in case the animal tries to exit the zoo through the gates here. I know where the keys are, and I’ll be right back with her,” she gave a goodbye, hugging him once more, squeezing his hand, before slowly departing from him. After watching him walk off towards the parking complex several feet away, she turned, determination in her eyes as she rushed forward across the square, heading directly for the back employee entrance near the Admin complex.
As she quickly moved to unlock the gate and commandeer a vehicle, she could not get her mind off Jezelle. She could not wait to hold her adorable little body in her arms once again, bringing her back to reunite the entire family, and finally, they would know that they would all be safe - together. That was all that she wanted then - she was not thinking about the Deinonychus, or the disaster of the A.I.I. microchip, or the illegal contract they had made. All her mind was focused on was one thing, one person, and one goal - to be back, united, with her family once again.
Once through the gate, she bolted into the driver’s seat of one of the trucks, slamming it into reverse and peeling out of the parking lot, shoving it back into forward gear, and speeding ahead down the road. She drove down through the slight decline behind the area called “Fern Canyon”, nearing a side road on her right side, which she took eagerly, flying by several small tropical aviaries till she reached a facility that was guarded by a fence that she pulled up to, grabbing a card from inside the glove compartment, scanning it in front of a device beside her that allowed the facility to be accessed. She did not wait till the entrance was fully open, zooming inside, just barely missing the edge of the entrance slamming to a stop once within.
Jumping out of her door and slamming it, she ran up to the shed, opening it and immediately entering a room full of shelves, packed full with papers, files, boxes, and what she really wanted - keys. She dove her hand into one of the brown boxes nearest to her, marked F10 for containing keys that concerned the top corner area of the Zoo. Within a matter of moments, she found a copper tinted key, long, jagged, and thin, placing it into the pocket of her shirt and then turned to dart out. Leaping back into her car, she sped out of the building’s lot, through the gate, back down the road to meet the main drive in Fern Canyon once again.
There wasn’t one second of that drive in which she was distracted from her main purpose to get back to her daughter, rescue her, and get her out of the Zoo. She knew that once it was accomplished, it would mean that the whole nightmare for her would be over, and that there would be no further worrying. Yes . . . what a wonderful thing . . . no further worrying . . . or aggravation . . . or pain.
Before she knew it, the Fern Canyon road went up a hill to meet the main walkway that winded through exhibitions of Zebras, Giraffe, and other types of African animals. She turned to the left, driving against the background collage of the giant, red, setting sun over the horizon of trees and buildings in the distance, signaling the oncoming darkness of night.
She finally pulled up to her destination, parking her vehicle in the middle of the road and getting out, where it was deathly silent. The first thing she noticed that suddenly aroused dread from within her was the sight of the door to the shed hanging wide open, red footsteps of two large toes leading outward from the gloom of the shed towards the bushes around the bend. “Oh, God,” she pleaded. “No, it can’t be.” The parent walked forward, her hand motioning towards the large knife that hung inside of a compartment on her belt. She continued to chant the words under her breath as she reached out to open the door wider, her own boot making an imprint inside of the animal footsteps that rested before her.
The mother edged herself inside, consumed by shadow. And then . . . bathed in a thin streak of pale light from outside . . . she saw . . . laying in a pool of blood next to a staircase that led up from the bottom of the tower in the canyon below, the tiny, torn body of her most beloved child. In that moment, her grief was so horrible, so devastating, it passed any description imaginable. Her body crumpled to the floor as she burst into tears, her face contorting to an expression of complete and total sorrow.
She became an embodiment of agony, her force of life and her drive seemed to black out then, as uncontrollable depression ate up her very soul, causing her to move her hand downward, unbuckling a container at her belt, reaching in to firmly take up the handle of her blade, bringing her other hand around to have both of them hold the dagger high above her, ready to bring it down and plunge into her heart.
ACT V: PART C - The End
It watched from in between two giant oak trees, leaves and branches hiding its features as it watched the men in black uniforms, heavily armed, spread out in a parameter around the zoo, heading for every opening from the park’s grounds to cover it in case the dinosaur would escape. What they didn’t know was it at already was ready to escape, high in the top of the trees, within jumping distance of a patch of eucalypti that stood alongside the 3-story tall parking structure. While the swat team rushed inside of the zoo, all kinds of specialized weaponry ready in their arms, the policemen ran underneath its perch.
Once sure that it would not be noticed, the animal turned its head upward, eying the trees close by, its head bobbing side to side and it readied its legs to make the giant jump. After one more second, it let its powerful muscles shoot it into the air in an arc formation, raising its feet up to catch the closest branch and land. From its new place of hiding, it gazed with curiosity at the parking building below him, a menacing, deranged, and aggrivated sound beginning to purr underneath its breath as it prepared to jump once more.
* * *
Gavin Sealy sat inside of his van, in which he’d transported his wife and daughter to the zoo that fateful day. He raised his arm up to wipe his forehead, afterwards bringing his wrist down, looking at the surface of his watch’s glinting blue time face. Nearly twenty minutes had passed since Piper had left him to find Jezelle, and by then, the sun had gone down underneath the Pacific Ocean far in the distance, leaving behind a world of darkness, where the cloud layer had moved in to cover much of the stars and the entire moon. As a result, it turned out to be an especially gloomy night.
His tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, beginning to feel himself getting more and more agitated for his family. All kinds of questions were running through his mind as to what Piper or Jezelle were doing that very minute. He shut his eyes for just a moment, envisioning in his mind the image of the other two members of his family returning to him again. And in seeing that, his body entered a state of calm, as if everything was alright. He kept his lids shut for just a while more, soaking in that sight of both his wife and daughter running to him once again, welcoming him with a warm embrace. Yes . . . he had to convince himself that they would return anytime then . . . despite his gut feeling that something was wrong.
He let his eyelids drift open, his pupils looking directly out of the front windshield. It took him a second, after his daze, to realize that standing directly in front of him was the shadowy silhouette of the Deinonychus, glowering with its fierce orange eyes. He literally jumped right out his seat in shock, then hearing a shrill, prehistoric call roaring at him from ahead. As the animal posed for attack, Gavin clamored for the keys, desperately shoving them into in the keyhole and starting the engine. The carnivore ran forward and jumped, Gavin’s stepping on the gas just an instant soon enough, causing the creature to land and slide off the van’s roof.
He drove forward in an effort to escape just when, behind, the dinosaur got back onto its feet and bolted forward, its jaws snapping at the back tires. It tore into the rubber, causing one of them to pop, snapping the vehicle downward as the metal underneath the tire scraped against the cement with sparks flying. Noticing he was edging dangerously close to the edge of the parking structure, Gavin eased on the breaks in an effort to turn. Taking advantage of the slowing, the animal leaped onto the top of the van once again, immediately digging both of its foot claws into the roof, tearing through the aluminum to make a gap just wide enough for it to slip inside.
While Gavin was still turning the steering wheel, he felt the bang as the Deinonychus fell directly behind him from above. It snarled with menace as it sunk its teeth into his chair, ripping it to the side with a jerk and then lunging to use its razor-sharp maw to snag the man’s back as he fell onto the dashboard. The car spun out of control, driving straight to the very edge of the second floor. The front tires went over and the edge scrapped into the underside of the automobile, sending Gavin to fall through the glass of the windshield and out onto the hood, slipping further and further downward. He would have fallen to the hard floor of the parking lot several yards below if he had not caught and hung onto the front bumper.
And so the vehicle hung there, half of it leaning out into the cold, night air while the other half balanced it out, still inside of the complex. Gavin’s tired arms could barely hold himself from plunging, his body badly battered from the glass smacking against him in his fall. He struggled to try and pull himself upward, feeling a concurrent vibration as the Deinonychus jumped out of the front of the van to land on the hood. It bared its teeth in another vicious roar, edging closer, leaning down and snapping at the white knuckles of the man. One of his hands fell away, virtually torn open, leaving him to hang by just five more fingers. The animal brought its head back to strike again with a damning blow.
A knife speed out of the darkness from behind the animal with expert aim, boring itself deep into the back of its brain and driving all the way to the between of its two eyeballs on the other side. Gavin watched with wide eyes as the body of his lethal attacker lost all movement, drooping and falling off the ledge to have its bones shattered on the floor below, its head being pierced straight through.
And then, a soft, gentle rain began to fall, almost establishing an aura of calmness in the setting. Gavin felt the cool drops trickle through his hair, as he watched above where a hand emerged - the hand that he had held so often before. He desperately reached out, moving his feet up to push his body to the top with the help of the person above him.
He fell into her arms, seeing her face stained with endless tears, her eyes saddened and dark. His eyebrows moved upward, and he offered her a questioning look about whom she knew exactly - their adored daughter, Jezelle. She could not speak, far too choked up from the weeping which she could not halt, and could only shake her head negatively. Gavin could barely believe her response, his mind and his body not able to accept it. He had been so sure she would be safe, and the fact that she was now . . . gone . . . it was too much.
Piper could feel the guilt and sadness emitting from his features, throwing herself into his arms, her crying intensifying once more as Gavin’s began. For several moments, they just stayed in that pose, doing their best comfort each other against the peaceful dropping of the rain outside. Sniffing, with her body shaking rapidly, feeling as if she would simply just explode from the pain and suffering that had reached its crescendo, the former mother managed to whisper with a stutter in her husband’s ear, “I al-almost took my o-own life.”
Gavin shivered, his eyes shut as tight as possible, moving his mouth to speak, but unable to calm his voice enough to do so. After taking time do to produce a steady tone, he replied, “I . . . I’m glad you didn’t.” For more seconds, they remained silent, until Gavin brought himself to continue. “We will get through this . . . . we . . . . will . . . . together.”
So there they remained, crouched on their knees, just holding each other as time went by, and eventually, the rain came to a close once washing things clean, and the sun rose again offering a new hope . . . and a bright dawn.
THE END
At the time, this was the most difficult conclusion to a story I’d ever done. I had to deliver a surprise ending to the FBI’s investigation, an emotional punch, and a rousing action sequence. In turn, I probably spent the most time on the final act then on any other. In the end, I wanted to create a feeling that mirrored the ending of Leviathans, but still carried its own originality. I wanted the reader to recognize that what had happened to both Piper and Gavin directly reflected what happened to Drakon at the end of the predecessor. Drakon reacted by only drowning himself into further trouble and depression, and winding up with a sad fate. On the other hand, however, Piper and Gavin incredibly gave a display of human spirit, overcoming their tragedy, and deciding to move on to an alternate, yet bright new future – symbolized by Piper’s taking the knife she would have used to commit suicide, and instead using it to save her husband’s life. To me, not only does that theme rhyme with the first, but provided a perfect ending to the story: the sun rising.
~ Continue to the Special Features ~
4/18/2003 9:55:09 PM
(Updated: 4/18/2003 10:01:18 PM)
(Updated: 4/18/2003 10:03:20 PM)
(Updated: 4/18/2003 10:04:17 PM)
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