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Leviathans Re-Written (Act IV)
By Vader
I would truly like to thank everyone's support in the project of revising and completing Leviathans. It's been a very enjoyable and learning experience and I feel that I couldn't have done it without everyone giving me such great support. So, I have nothing to say but Thank You.
-Vader
ACT IV - PART A: GOODBYE
The cages full with dinosaurs within them were lined up in front of the Pangaea research dome at night. The massive vehicles that had transported them to that spot had been parked close by. More of the beasts were still roaming around Pangaea, and the researchers were hurriedly gathering them for their trip. The first half of the Pangaea animals, which were now caged, would begin their journey of being taken to the coast the next morning. They would then be loaded onto ships, and taken back to where they had originally except from - Isla Nublar. And then the dream and the reality that was Pangaea would completely end.
Russell sat with his cup of coffee, sitting on a crate, staring at all cages. In his sad state, he lifted his hand up, grasping the cup, and took a sip. The drink was no longer hot, but had become a luke-warm temperature. However, Russell didn't care, for all he could focus on was he would be forced to abandon how this extraordinary place, what had become his home for the past years, what had become his favorite place in the world, which was so awe-inspiring. From behind, Amy approached. "Hey, I'm sorry," she whispered, sitting next to him, patting him on the back, against the mournful calls of the herbivores in the cages.
"It was better when they were free. That's for sure," he stated, motioning toward the cages. He seemed very solemn that moment, but a smile just barely managed to creep through. "I remember when were planning our wedding, sitting on the balcony over the dinosaurs that were drinking from the river-" and suddenly, Russell stopped himself, he smile fading, pondering memories of a love that had crumbled. "Well, you know that story," he sighed.
Amy nodded slowly, looking at him with tears welling in her eyes. She loved this place just as much as he did, and she could not help but feel pained about it. But for the longest time, something else had been paining her, something different, something she had lost many years ago and something that, after now listening to him, she knew he felt saddened by to a mammoth degree as well.
"I am so sorry," she said with utter remorse.
"No you aren't," Russell replied in a subtly harsh tone. "If you had truly loved me, you wouldn't have left me in the first place."
"That's not true. You know the situation was different. I regret abandoning you with all my heart. I've always regretted it. And as long as we follow separate paths away from each other, I'll look back at with tears." She gulped. "Even to the day I die." She stared at him longer, until finally, Russell turned to look into her beautiful face, shocked by what she was now divulging. They edged closer when suddenly, they heard a small voice from the cages. And it wasn't that of a dinosaurs' . . .
Russell could barely make out the nearly indistinguishable words of ‘hello' and ‘help' coming from ahead on them. He glanced at Amy, who was focused on the origin of the voice. He slowly got up from the crate, walking forward. Amy quickly followed. The words were gone now, but there was a very faint moaning sound, and then a quick yelp. "Is anyone out there?" the voice came louder, only it seemed to come from a younger person this time.
"We're here! Where are you?" Russell replied, still unable to tell where this person was.
"Inside the Giganotosaurus cage!" came the reply. Their minds racing as to how and why somebody would be inside one of the cages, the worried Russell and Amy dashed over the largest cage amongst the circle. Sure enough, they could hear the voices much closer now, from inside the pitch black shadow of the looming cage.
"Who is it?" came the voice of the other person.
"It's Paul and Amy. Who are you?"
"I'm Dr. Drakon! Nathaniel's in here with me, Dr. Russell!" The returning voice sounded a bit shaky and dazed against the backdrop of the loud, steady breathing of the tranquilized predator inside along with them.
"Why are you in there?! What happened?!" Amy exclaimed, taken by a wave of surprise.
"We had been hunting for this fellow and we were locking him into the cage. All I remember is being jolted inside and then it all went black. When the rest of the researchers came back, we must have been unconscious while they transported the cage back here to be taken to the dock."
"It was triceratops," came the voice of Nathaniel. "They had been stampeding and had knocked up inside. I saw it. They must have felt threatened by all of the captures in the area by the researchers."
"The Giga is still asleep, isn't he?" Russell asked.
"Yes. You'd better get us out of here before he wakes up. I'm right by his jaws and I can't see a thing," Drakon informed them.
"How long ago was he tranquilized?" Amy asked with wariness.
Drakon just sighed. "I'm sorry but I can't remember. Nat?"
"Neither can I," Nathaniel chimed in.
Russell leaned down and squinted, peering through the slits that had been made in cage in order for the animal to breathe. The inhales and exhales seemed calm, and from what he could tell, there was no sign of it waking up at the moment. It seemed that just as he thought that, there was an irregularity in the breathing as the animal gave a subtle moan and a grunt.
"Hurry!" Drakon breathed with intensity.
Russell realized that Drakon would almost certainly be killed if the beast woke up with him in there . . . right by it's mouth. "Alright. I'll open the top briefly for you to climb out. Amy go and get your tranquilizer at your jeep," Russell told her. Amy nodded and ran off to fetch her gun.
With a grunt, Russell pulled himself upward to the top of the cage. He placed his foot in the grid on the side of the metal and pushed upward, landing himself on top of the giant structure. He investigated the locks and bent down to begin to undo them. He heaved and tugged the lock out of its position as Amy returned with her gun. The Giga's groans were becoming louder now as Amy ed her gun, ready to shoot if the beast should escape.
Trying his best not to make a sound, Russell carefully creaked open the top of the cage, using all his strength to do so. "Ah!" came a shriek from below as the carnivore bellowed.
"What's the matter?" Russell snapped, a little annoyed that they had made noise.
"It's using its tongue to feel my leg," Drakon shivered. "Please hurry up!"
With a final push, Russell moved the lid of the cage up and over, immediately reaching down to grab for Drakon. "Easy now," he whispered and he grabbed his arms to swing him upward. Drakon used his legs to push up and over the head of the animal, which had begun to swivel and give low roars. "Amy, better get up here! Quick!" Russell called down below. Amy started climbing up right away just as Drakon was helped out of the cage and climbed down.
Waking up with a large groan, the beast slammed its head against the side, causing everyone to come close to falling. Inside the cage, Nathaniel fell down and slammed right on top of the Giga's arm, breaking a finger. The beast howled in pain and anger as it's eyelids slowly slid open, its beaming yellow eye flicking right over to gaze into Nathaniel's face. "Amy!" Russell cried, reaching down for Nathaniel. He ed up his arms, pulling him upward.
Amy finally jumped on top moving her gun downward. She shot into the darkness of the cage, nabbing the creature's neck with slightly off aim. Yet it would take two more darts to tranqualize the animal again. The Giga roared, bringing itself upward and knocking the side of the cage before Amy could take another shot. With a full-blown roar, the beast shook its head back and forth, getting rid of its slight doziness and swiping its jaws at Nathaniel. Russell fell backward, pulled Nathaniel out of the cage and went tumbling over the side. The cage rocked back and forth as Amy quickly tried to stabilize herself to get another shot. "Oh hell!" she whispered repeatedly as she rushed to get the job done. The beast slammed the side of the cage again, propping itself up and smacking Amy's body off the top of the restraint. It stood up leaning forward and crashing over its cage, bolting forward for the humans that now lay on the ground.
Russell, Drakon, and Nathaniel all went running. Amy leaned forward to retrieve her gun, but was forced to leap away as the toppled cage slammed over, crushing the weapon. She swore silently, following the others in running away from the cages, back towards the dome to get help. Behind them, the Giga angrily toppled over the other cages around him, destroying the locks with its jaws and setting many of the animals loose to run in a fury. The angry predator quickly turned the vehicles that had transported the cages into piles of rubbish on the ground, destroying and ransacking the kidnappers' tools that had brought him here.
The humans burst into the halls, where everyone was already aroused from their desks by the loud roaring and crashing coming from outside. Russell didn't have to notify anyone to get their weapons ready as fast as possible, for they were already doing it. "What happened?" Lintino questioned, running up to Russell.
There wasn't much time to explain as one of the triceratops from outside came charging through the doors of the dome, overturning every desk and computer in its path, shattering everything to the floor. The researchers did their best to fire upon the animal, no longer using tranquilizers, but machine guns. "No! Don't kill it!" Drakon yelled protectively.
Everyone was ignoring him. There was no choice now. Their personal safety was at stake as the angered trike destroyed many book shelvs in the library as many ran, trying to shoot behind them as they did so. Outside, the chaos continued as the herbivores stampeded across the vehicles and sheds. Now, Pangaea was everyone but what it once was - a peaceful and beautiful paradise filled with calm and respectful research. Drakon's dream had been ruined.
As the dinosaurs continued to ransack all over the headquarters of Pangaea, Drakon and Lintino rushed over to the announcement booth as fast as possible. "Attention! Attention! Abandon the Pangaea research headquarters! Break for the emergency tram immediately!" Lintino announced into his speaker as his voice ran through the small city. About three researchers were determined to stay and fight the stampeding dinosaurs, but the rest followed their orders and went rushing to where the communication towers were.
Russell ran with Amy, Drakon, and Nathaniel across the Pangaea headquarters grounds. Nearby, the dinosaurs that usually came for a drink from the river had scattered in fear, and the pteranadons that nested on the rocks above the flowing water had taken off along with their young for protection. Russell could not bear to see what had been his home for such a long time be ruined and completely fail.
"Russell!" came a voice from behind. He whirled around to see Rick in a wheelchair, turning his wheels across the mud with his hands, unable to keep up with the men that were running ahead of him. Without hesitation, Russell ran back to his old friend, taking the handles on the back of his wheelchair and running, helping him catch up to everyone else. Ahead he saw Amy making a quick call to a rescue helicopter to meet them at the southern pad.
Just behind the green brush, there was a long, wide track that ran on a paved roadway through the midnight jungle. Atop it was a sleek, grey tram, ready to speedily transport everyone to their rescue. There was a small driver's car, that contained the controls to the tram, big enough to fit just two people. Behind the driver's car were two, much longer cars in which all the passengers were flooding into, hooked together. Russell wasted no time in pushing Rick's wheelchair into the tram and into a secure position. "Thank you, buddy," Rick said, discontent with his poor situation of not being able to walk, as the rest of the people filed in.
Russell smiled back, giving his friend a pat on the shoulder as he raised his head to take one last, long look at Pangaea. It would be the last time he would ever see it again. "Goodbye," he whispered to himself, a single tear rolling down his cheek. And then the doors slammed shut, and Drakon, who was at the controls with his son by his side, turned everything on, and the tram went springing away from the buildings and into the darkened jungle.
ACT IV - PART B: TRAM
The emergency tram traveled along its narrow path, carrying the researchers of Pangaea to the south in order to be rescued by helicopters. It was a squeeze inside the vehicle, and everyone was jammed together. The back car of the tram, the last one, wasn't as crowded as the one it was attached to that was ahead of it, and in that last car, Russell sat with Amy close by and Rick to his right. He sat with his head hung low, tormented by everything that had happened. Pangaea had failed its purpose and had turned into everything the researchers and Dr. Drakon had strived so hard for it not to be. Now, without cleaning up after themselves, everyone had been forced to abandon it and leave everything behind.
Outside, the large leaves of the plants that were around the tram slapped against the windows as the slender transporter gradually increased it's speed. Dr. Drakon stood above the controls, too shocked by what had just happened to talk. Nathaniel looked up at his father, understanding what it must feel like to see something that you literally put much of your life into just crumble in an instant. "Dad, I'm sor-" before Nathaniel could finish, gasped as he spun his head forward the bulky figure that had just come bolting forward alongside them.
There was a loud roar as the giant the animal stomped on the side of the tram. Everyone worriedly looked outside of their windows, only able to see the large muscular feet raising up and down to pound the ground as the creature walked. Dread filled Russell's body, replacing the sadness he had been focusing on. "It's the Giga. Oh please God, no," he pleaded until his breath as the side of the tram was knocked, jolting everyone inside around.
The tram began to increase speed when, up ahead, there was a wide clearing. But what was strange about it, that made it unlike any other clearing in Pangaea, was that there was no grass, just rock. A wide, rugged, earthquake had fault split the earth in two, leading down into a deep, dark chasm below. The fault had been there for many years, far before Drakon ever set to work on building Pangaea. The tram's track had been set right over the large crack to carry it safely across.
As the tram began to speed over the fault, the loud, booming footsteps of the pursuing animal were close by. Just a few seconds after the tram's running over the chasm, there was a strong and sudden slam as the boom of a footstep sounded. The tram track had been unable to hold the weight of both their pursuer and the tram. There was a loud crack and a split as everyone in the tram cars were thrown to the floor. The two tram cars were suddenly sent flying downward as the track broke, snapping away from the driver's car that went speeding away ahead of them. "Brakes!" Amy yelled, as she slammed a panel on the roof of their car.
The first passenger car went shooting of the track and into the pitch black oblivion of the deep earthquake fault. With a loud screech, Russell, Amy, and Rick's car slowly came to a halt, hanging. Everyone's mind raced at realizing what had happened. They looked with horror as they listened in the silence and then finally heard the loud destruction of the other car far down below them.
Dr. Drakon and Nathaniel, meanwhile, had stopped the driver's car, looking behind them. The track was bending nearly exactly vertically downward into the chasm. The infamous Giga reached it's snout downward and tried to get a hold of the remaining tram car to catch it's prey, but it was unable to reach it. With a frustrated bellow, and a glance at the driver's car on the other side of the wise chasm, it went storming off to the side and disappeared from sight. Drakon quickly put the driver's car in reverse and drove it backward to the edge of the chasm, staring downward as the remaining tram's brakes clung into the hanging track. He and his son desperately reached out for the tram, as if they could reach across the wide chasm. Even though it was impossible, they refused to give up, reaching forward desperately.
Inside the clinging tram, the brakes were beginning to fail. With a loud screech, the tram jolted forward as it slid farther and farther down the broken track to the end. Russell looked upward, to where he could see the pale outline of Drakon and his son looking at them against the dark blue sky. He then looked back downward, into pure blackness, as the tram car had almost reached the end of the hanging track. In that moment, he felt something he had never felt before: complete hopelessness. There was not way out of this one.
He could not change the fate they would experience in just a few moments. But he could decide what he would do with his last moments of life . . .
He turned to Amy, and she looked up at him, both having solemn looks on their faces. Then she threw her arms around his neck and they came close together, embracing. They shared a passionate and intense kiss, knowing it would be their very last. Tears streamed down both of their faces, finally rejecting their painful past almost near the end of their lives. "We will die knowing we love each other," Russell whispered in Amy's ear as they emotionally shed tears.
After another moment, Russell turned and embraced Rick as well, saying a last goodbye to his good friend as they clung ly. No more words needed to be spoken after that, as Russell, Amy, and Rick all put their arms around each other ly, shutting their eyelids with a knowing that everything had been set right between them in the end. And then the tram ripped off from the last bit of the hanging track and plunged away to meet the end of it and all the people in it, once and for all time.
Drakon and Nathaniel sat on their knees, hunched over, unable to accept what had just happened, unable to move. It all seemed like just a dream, an un-real nightmare. But deep inside, they knew everything was real. And in that moment of black silence, before they had any more time to soak everything in, there was a thud. Followed by another. It took a moment for the two survivors to register what that meant. The predator was returning.
Nathaniel bolted up and leapt into the driver's car. Inside, he realized, his father had not followed. He looked backward, seeing Drakon still hunched over, staring down the shaft. "Dad!" Nathaniel called as another thud came. But Drakon didn't want to get up, he didn't want to keep living. What was his life, what had been his single focus in life, had ended with tragic consequences. He didn't want to keep on living . . . he didn't feel worthy.
"Dad please!" Nathaniel screamed. But then Drakon woke up from his frozen daze at hearing that call. The call of his son, the person he loved more than anyone else, along with his wife. And he knew that he despite his emotions, he could not just crumble, he had to get up and keep moving forward . . . especially for Nathaniel. He then got up, turned and raced into the driver's seat. Immediately slamming on the controls. "Let's see if we can out run him, son."
ACT IV - PART C: THE END
Drakon and his son drove across the remaining track of the tram, now determined more than ever not to be encumbered, and to make it to their rescue. They would get to that chopper. They would do it for Russell, for Amy, for Rick, and for everyone else that had died that night.
The Giganotosaurus came out of the darkness, roaring. It had gone alongside the earthquake fault until it had ended and then followed it back around to the other side. Now, its prey, the two humans in the small driver's car, were his for the taking. The race was on. The animal powerfully built for running unlike any other predator in it's league. As the small, metallic tram raced forward, the Giga brought its huge teeth up close, with a massive roar as the occupants inside looked back with fear. Yet the Giga did not yet realize it had come into another animals territory now. Not would it have the time to . . .
The body of a female Tyrannosaurus Rex came slamming out and head-butting the side of the Giga to defend it's territory with a mighty roar. Drakon and Nathaniel sped away as the predators warily circled each other with low, threatening, grumbles. They slammed into each other again as the Rex whipped the side of the Giga with its tail, slapping the head. The opponent nearly fell over because of this, and bent low to snap at the Rex's feet. It managed to cleave off the back of the Rex's ankle as it howled in pain, its bone exposed.
The Giga lunged again, having the advantage of height over the Rex, coming down on its neck. Before it could get a good, grip, the Rex struggled out of reach, circling back around to wham it's head into the Giga's underbelly. It made a few calls into the air that sounded like short, quick bursts of growls as its enemy clutched the small arm of the Rex, ripping it clean off.
The Rex turned back around, smashing against the back of the Giga and taking a chomp out of it's tail. The Giga craned its neck backwards to sink its teeth into the side of the Rex's face, ripping across it's eyeball and tearing it out of its socket. The Rex, unable to see out of it's right eye, stomped away for a moment waving its head around to try and see its opponent out of its remaining eye. But it was too hard to see and the Giga went strait for the Rex's neck once again, slamming it into a large boulder nearby. flowed from the damage to the Rex's entire head as the Giga crunched down hard on the neck. It slammed the Rex against the hard, cold rock again. One lat time it severely forced the Rex's head into the boulder as its cranium was fatally damaged with a crack.
The Giga came downward to begin eating the Rex, when out of the blue, quick thumps were heard from behind. Surprised, the hunched over Giga began to whirl around when it felt teeth sink in to its own neck. It saw standing above him a under side of a male Tyrannosaurus. The Giga never had time to finish his meal as the male Rex curled his jaw forward and to the side, making a sickening snap in the Giga's neck. It gave a triumphant roar for avenging the death of its female mate.
The driver's car sped up to the rescue pad as the helicopter landed. It slowed down as Drakon and Nathaniel jumped out running up the stairs. The copter didn't bother to slow its whirling blades, for the pilot wanted to get away from this place as soon as possible. As the door to the craft slid open, the rescue man in the back looked at the two people that were approaching with surprise. "Where are the others?" he asked. Drakon slowly shook his head in response.
"We are the only ones left," he simply stated. After pausing, the man nodded and held out his hands to help them inside the aircraft. Drakon and Nathaniel sat down in the back seat, immediately strapping themselves in, ready to get out of that horrid place.
As the helicopter rose into the air, far above the remote area of Brazil, Drakon sighed, knowing that Pangaea really had turned into a horrid place. Pangaea had been a dream of his to start, not only because of the dinosaurs, but also to fill a void. A void related to something that he himself and that he felt all humans had lost a long time ago, something he couldn't pinpoint. And Pangaea had seemed to complete his, life and all those that had lived there.
Pangaea was over now, he knew, as he sadly looked down at the paradise that had been lost. It wasn't much of a comforting thought. But with his arm around his son, as the helicopter left Brazil, Drakon knew that what was a comforting thought was that everyone, that had lived in Pangaea, including Russell and his friends, never would have traded the wonderful and awe-inspiring time they had spent there for anything in the world. That was truly beautiful.
THE END
1/16/02 9:36:29 PM
(Updated: 1/16/02 9:55:23 PM)
(Updated: 1/16/02 9:58:51 PM)
(Updated: 1/16/02 10:01:11 PM)
(Updated: 1/16/02 10:59:34 PM)
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