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Jurassic Park: Alternate Ending
By the ARK
JURASSIC PARK:
Alternate Ending
David Richardson
What has gone on before:
Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Donald Gennaro, in an effort to find the nesting site of the velociraptors to count the number of eggs, set out following a tagged baby raptor to the nest site before the Costa Rican government bombed the island. The raptor jumped down a small hole. Armed with gas grenades and protective gas masks, they follow. Gennaro, the last to go down, finds the tunnel getting tighter and tighter, soon he blacks out…
Gennaro awoke from the unconscious with a start. He couldn’t see a thing. Wait… He saw two vague figures. Everything was out of focus. He was ready to throw up, but something held him back; it was something he knew that he shouldn’t do. What was he doing here, anyway? Of course! The dinosaurs… The nest. He stiffened.
His vision was soon back in focus. He saw Grant and Sattler leaning over him. Nothing was said. When Gennaro opened his mouth, someone – Grant or Sattler, it was so hard to tell in the darkness – pointed to his left. He rolled over and nearly groaned with pain. It took all sorts of effort to keep his mouth shut. Before him – in a man-made cave – was a nest. No, the nest. Adult raptors guarded the few exits while the babies scampered about. They were raised above the nest by about 15 feet.
The light chirp of a baby raptor froze Gennaro.
Grant was too engrossed in the behavior of what was apparently the Alpha Female to hear the sounds behind him. Ellie’s tap on the shoulder startled him almost to the point of falling in the nest. Grant quickly turned and saw what Ellie was frantically pointing at. Behind the whimpering Gennaro, two raptors were play fighting. In one instant, dozens of questions raced through Grant’s mind. He looked around to see where the raptors came from. His answer was a staircase.
Grant’s breathing quickly intensified. His well-ordered plan was falling apart by the second. They were vulnerable. They had to get out of there. His first thought was to try to crawl back up the hole, but then they would have to pass the baby raptors. All the other exits were protected by the watchful eyes of full-grown raptors. He would use the teargas, but it caused animals to writhe around, which would make counting the number of eggs impossible. He could feel the adrenaline pumping.
Unlike the hurriedly running mind of Grant, time for Ellie Sattler almost seemed to stop. The recent strain had been too much for her. She was suddenly free of any emotional attachments.
But only for a moment.
Gennaro’s screaming brought her back into hurried real-time with a snap. The baby raptors were now examining him. Gennaro’s loud noises brought the adults at full force. While the 15-foot difference was too much for them to jump, soon one of them would find the open staircase.
Ellie tugged at Grant, who was busy thinking. He turned and she, pointed to Gennaro, who appeared to be in shock. They both went to him. Time was of the essence. The raptors had found the staircase.
Grant heard the telltale click of a raptor claw echo. He had survived this far, he, well he wasn’t too sure about right now. Gennaro’s only problem seemed to be shock. Why did we bring him along? The low growl of a raptor nearing sent a chill down his spine. Grant reached for a gas canister and nearly pulled the pin until he saw that Ellie had no mask on. He had planned diverting the raptor’s attention with the grenade, but there was no time.
No more time. No more chances. A raptor was in their midst. Suddenly, Grant got up and ran straight into the unsuspecting raptor. The raptor was momentarily stunned.
“Masks on!” He yelled. And then he pulled the pin.
Ellie watched wide-eyed as Grant lunged at the raptor. His yell was pointless. Her mask had fallen off in the tunnel. She had nowhere to go. As Grant pulled the pin out, the dazed raptor bit hard into his leg, causing the grenade to harmlessly fly off down a corridor on the raptor’s level. He screamed with the pain of the deep cut.
In pure rage he kicked the raptor in the head, knocking it out. Running on pure adrenaline, he shoved the heavy body in the path of the staircase. A futile effort. The raptors could jump high into the air.
As Ellie watched, she heard a groan behind her. Gennaro.
While the others had been hurriedly thinking of ways out, Gennaro had passed out. When he awoke, he immediately assessed the situation. There was only one way out as he saw it. For about the first time in his adult life, he was going to do something unselfish. Ellie calling his name did not even make him look at her.
He got up and jumped over the raptor. He leaped down the stairs 3 steps at a time, knocking down the next ingenious raptor. He ran towards the nearest passage out. He gave it his all. The raptors followed him. It had worked.
Grant watched in horror as the raptors all headed down that narrow corridor. He had completely underestimated Gennaro. There was no time for regrets, however. They had only a small window of time open to them. He grabbed at the dumfounded Ellie, and – if it was possible – ran faster than Gennaro had. He randomly picked a passage and ran down it, Ellie right behind him.
A scream came down the passage. It was very loud, probably just magnified throughout the cave. He came to a split in the tunnel. He went right. This went on for about 100 yards. In front of him was a T-junction. He hoped against hope that this wasn’t a huge labyrinth. He glanced right and saw that it led back to the nest. What he saw to the left would haunt him for the rest of his days.
The raptors were all fighting over something. It was Gennaro.
Ellie was horrified at the sight of the raptors tugging at Gennaro’s body. Too horrified to see the raptor snarl. She could not pry her eyes from the sickening sight. Grant had to grab her by the collar and pull. The raptor was yards away from Ellie. Then she through up on it. The puke landed straight onto the face of the oncoming dinosaur. It stopped at this.
The other raptors were still feasting. Ellie turned heals and ran with Grant. They weren’t going to make it. Stop thinking negative. Oh, heck.
The raptor finally decided to chase after them. Being able to run faster than humans, it quickly gained. Heading back to the nest, Grant through a gas grenade in front of them. Just as they cleared it, it exploded. Ellie had the presence of mind not to breathe. The raptor had no such luck and succumbed to the toxic fumes. Ellie was still too close to the gas to breathe a sigh of relief.
Grant knew that they were not home free yet. They still had to exit the maze. He and Ellie randomly ran down paths and corridors. As he turned, he was blinded by sunlight. It took a few moments to realize that they had done it! They were free! He and Ellie looked around and saw that they were on the beach. In the distance they saw a helicopter.
It was leaving without them.
They watched in horror as the helicopter slowly faded into the distance. Grant remembered Muldoon’s warning that the Costa Rican government was going to firebomb the island. He looked at his heavily damaged watch. They were out of time. He could hear the faint rumble of jet engines getting louder. He turned to Ellie, who had not heard the growing rumble.
“Listen.” He commanded. Ellie didn’t understand.
“Come on!” he yelled with all possible urgency, motioning back toward the maze. Ellie, suddenly realizing what was happening, ran with Grant. Just as they made it inside, they heard the first missiles strike. The eruptions became louder and louder. The ground rocked beneath their feet as they ran deeper and deeper inside. Large chunks of rock fell from the ceiling. Ellie stumbled. As Grant moved to yank her up, a huge chunk of rock fell down where he had been, blocking off their present route. They ran with all their might.
Ellie felt the temperature start to rise. It soon became unbearable. She looked back to see a large fireball sweeping down the corridor. It was rapidly gaining on them. She fell about a foot behind Grant, who was running, oblivious. She saw an offshooting passage and yanked Grant into it. Grant, not questioning Ellie’s judgement, followed her down the passage. The fireball roared past them, harmlessly. Soon, the rumblings slowed, and then halted altogether. After a few cautious minutes, they followed the scorched path of the fireball outside.
They came to a wasted landscape. Fires still raged in the interior of the island. Ashes floated out in the ocean. All of the vegetation that still stood was rapidly burning up. Not a square inch of the island was left unharmed, as far as she could see. Ellie got on sand dune and surveyed the landscape. She could see the remains of the compound in the distance. It was rapidly coming down. The only sound to be heard was the crackling of fires. Her face was ashen.
They were doomed to die on this wasteland.
Grant did not feel the same sense of foreboding as Ellie. He didn’t have time. He was already trying to think of ways out, without success. He remembered all of his personal views on survival. A panicked man is a dead man; there is always a way. Right now the latter didn’t seem to be true.
He knew that he had overlooked some crucial fact. Or, just something he should have guessed. He drew a blank. He looked for something – anything – that could be used as a signal. Fire was out of the question, and everything that he saw was charred or burning. Time was of the essence, as the area would surely be declared a no-fly zone by the Costa Rican government.
He got up on the dune with Ellie. He looked around. Far-off, he noticed an untouched area of land. Then it hit him. Firebombing from a plane was too imprecise. They would come in with helicopters, or better yet, ground forces to make sure that the dinosaurs were all dead. Squinting, he could make out no less than 3 unburned areas. He quickly explained his idea to Ellie.
“It’s worth a shot.” Ellie said without enthusiasm. She felt that Grant was just grabbing at straws, but didn’t say so.
“Let’s go.” She said blandly. They got off of the dune and walked along the beach. Grant tried to set a brisk pace, but Ellie kept lagging, so he decided to slow to her pace. She slowed even more. Grant knew that they were wasting precious time. Suddenly, he began to sprint, not stopping for anything. Ellie was forced to hurry.
Soon, the adrenaline began to wear off, and he was forced to slow down. Ellie kept up with him this time. After about 10 minutes walk, they reached an undamaged area. They stopped and sat on the highest hill that they could find. Ellie instantly fell asleep. Grant tried to keep watch, but fell asleep. A helicopter awoke him.
The pilot muttered something to himself in Spanish. Something to the spirit of: ‘What happened here?’ The firestorm had ravaged the island. His orders were to destroy all that was left standing. It was not a job he relished. He had always been distrustful of explosions. He came to a lush, green area. As he prepared to fire his first missiles, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was a person.
Since no orders had been given as to what to do in this situation, he set the plane down. A man and a woman ran toward him. He opened the door for them. They hopped in, the man muttering “Gracias” over and over again.
“Se habla Espaniol?” He questioned. The man shook his head.
The pilot said nothing and finished bombing the island.
The woman looked half-conscious and her head fell. The man shook his head, knowing that he would not leave Costa Rica for a long time. He sighed and looked out the window at the burning island. He thought that it was like a miniature of when a comet first destroyed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. He rolled his head around to remove all of the knots that he had gotten on the island. He wondered how the others where doing. Especially Malcolm, his injuries were putting him in and out of a coma.
Grant tried in vain to sort out all that he had learned on Isla Nublar. He was amazed at how people could be so stupid, and so smart at the same. The whole island, in retrospect, was a disaster waiting to happen. Put it was still brilliant. He took his last look at the cremated island known as Jurassic Park.
5/19/2002 12:29:43 PM
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