Primordial Chapter 3
Title: Primordial
Author: Aquaseamage
Pairing: None
Genre: Action/Adventure/ Humor
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Takes place during “On Stranger Tides” so spoiler warning
Summary: AU for both OST and JP.
Disclaimer: The characters are not mine. They belong to Disney and Amblin/Universal. This is just for fun.
THE PRESENT
“Man, I can’t believe we didn’t see any dinosaurs!” Eight-year-old Tim Murphy exclaimed as he stomped up the steps of his grandfather’s Visitor Center on Isla Nublar, the strong gusting winds whipping his blonde hair into a mess. A dinosaur book was clutched in his hands. “And then this lousy thunderstorm cut the tour short yet! We were almost at the T-rex paddock, too!”
“Well, I don’t mind…” Lex Murphy, Tim’s older sister, replied as she raced past him up the stairs and opened the ornate door. Like her brother, she was blond and thin. “There’s always tomorrow…”
“Sure, you don’t mind! You’ll just go play with that dumb computer in your room!” Tim groaned as he hurried after her, an ear-splitting crack of thunder sounding directly overhead. Cold drops of rain started to fall and he hurried inside after her.
The adults who had been on the tour with them, Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler, Genarro and Ian Malcolm, left the two cars at a slower pace and followed the kids inside.
John Hammond, their grandfather, stood there is his white suit leaning on his cane. A relieved expression appeared on his face when he saw them. “Oh, I’m glad you made it back in time. We might be getting a hurricane and it’s much safer here, just in case something could go wrong…”
“Yeah, it’s just a park full of giant hungry reptiles that don’t know what century they’re in. What could possibly go wrong?” Malcolm said sarcastically to John. “You don’t know what you’re doing here. Things can and will go wrong.”
John sighed, frustrated. “Please, not in front of my grandchildren.”
“What? You think they don’t deserve to know how dangerous these creatures are?” Malcolm replied. “Even those giant herbivores can kill a person. Heck, even hippos can kill and most people don’t even consider them dangerous. You’re playing god here and I wouldn’t want to be around when it backfires.”
Tim stared at Ian with large eyes, fascinated by the talk of animals killing people.
“I’m sorry that the tour was cut short and that you didn’t see any of the dinosaurs. I assure you they are there.” John tried to sooth Malcolm’s mood, guessing that the man was just disappointed by not seeing anything. “I assure you that this Park is perfectly safe. All of the fences are up and running, all of the animals secure in their paddocks. There is no way for a visitor, even if they were to crawl out of the tour car, to fall into any of the animal enclosures. And please remember, this is a test run.”
“Will I ever get to see a dinosaur, a real live dinosaur?” Tim asked his grandfather. “I really wanted to see one today and all we saw was just dumb old plants…”
“Of course you will!” John assured him with a tight hug. “I can’t control the weather you know and listen to that thunder. Now, why don’t you kids run to your rooms? Supper will be ready in an hour or so…”
Thunder rumbled loudly and heavy rain thumped on the roof overhead. Tim sighed but turned to go to their rooms, his sister alongside him. “How did Grandpa said he made the dinosaurs again?”
“Something about blood from a mosquito…” Lex replied as she walked down the hallway to their rooms. “A mosquito bit a dinosaur and drank its blood. Then it landed on a tree and got caught in some sticky sap. The sap hardened and turned into amber, like that golden-brown stone he has at the top of his cane.”
“I know what amber is!”
“Well, then Grandpa hired diggers and they found the amber and scientists took the blood out of the mosquito and somehow they made dinosaurs…”
Tim paused outside his bedroom door, frowning. “Is that really possible?”
“I don’t know.” Lex shrugged. “I guess so. Where else would he have gotten the dinosaurs from, some secret lost world? That stuff only happens in movies. Science and technology is the future.”
Another boom of thunder exploded overhead and Tim flinched, clearly frightened. “It’s getting louder…”
“Go read your book and you’ll forget all about it. I’m going on my computer…” Lex disappeared into her room, closing the door behind her.
Tim stood in the hallway alone for a moment, staring at her closed door. “Nerd!”
“I’m a hacker!” She shouted at him through the closed door.
“Yeah, whatever.” Tim disappeared into his own room and sat down on his bed, opening the dinosaur book by Dr. Grant. It was fully illustrated with wonderful pictures of each dinosaur and told about each one. He flipped through the pages until he came to the one about the T-rex. “It’s vision is based on movement…how can he know that from just looking at old bones?”
Just then the lights went out.
Unknown to anyone at the Visitor Center, Dennis Nedry had chosen that moment to operate his White Rabbit object so he could steal the dinosaur embryos. John and the others in the main control room didn’t think much of the lights going out, as Dennis had said a few systems would go offline and there was no reason to worry. The computer could only do so many things at once and that meant a few had to be temporarily turned off while the computer did its job.
In the dark, Tim jumped off of his bed and hurried out of his room and busted into Lex’s. Her pale face was lighted by the white light of her laptop. “The lights went out…”
“So? It’s a fierce storm. What do you expect?” Lex said as she quickly powered down the laptop and closed it, putting it inside its padded watertight bag. “I just managed to save my work. I don’t want to wear down the battery…”
“Hacking will only get you sent to jail!” Tim rolled his eyes, unimpressed by her laptop. “I don’t know why Grandpa bought you that thing.”
“Because he knows it’s a good skill.” Lex said as she stood up from her desk, gripping the handle of the laptop bag. “Do you want to go find the adults? What if some of those things get lose?”
Tim exited the room in front of his sister, scoffing at the idea. “Animals never get lose in a zoo. You know that. It’s that weird guy’s talk that scared you…”
They walked down the hallway and paused at an intersection. They were near the area where the scientists worked now and there was a window where one could peer in at them. They had already met Dr. Wu and he had shown them the eggs in the hatchery. Tim had not been impressed. But further down the hall there was another door, one that had always been locked each time Tim had tried it. He had also tried walking around the outside of the building, trying to guess where the door was located so he could hopefully peep in through a window but had been unsuccessful. In the time he had been here, he had never seen anyone go in or out of the mysterious door.
Now it stood wide open, the door ajar.
“Look! That weird door is open now!” Tim exclaimed loudly as he pointed towards it, excitement clear in his voice.
“But we’re not supposed to go in there.” Lex reminded her brother as she tried to pull him the other way, towards the dining room. “You saw it was marked ‘Employees Only’. I really don’t know why you’re so fascinated by it. I bet it’s only Dr. Wu’s equipment, like glass beakers and stuff.”
“Well, I want to go see!” Tim pulled free of his sister’s grasp and stomped off towards the open door. This was the only chance he would get. “Besides, our Grandpa owns this place. He won’t mind if we just take a peek.”
Lex ran after him, her laptop gripped securely in one hand. “Well, you better not break anything!”
“I won’t!” Tim promised as he hurried into the room. He didn’t know exactly what he had expected, but this was not it. The room was empty except for some sort of shimmery curtain that hung just in front of him. If he didn’t know better, he’d say it was a wall of water but that was impossible. A waterfall would move and make a thunderous roar, but this thing was still like a pond on a calm day. Tim just stared at it, utterly confused. “What is that? It looks like a pond turned on its side.’
“It must be some sort of decontamination field…” Lex guessed as she too stared at it. “You know, to kill germs when you pass through it.”
“So there may be dinosaurs in cages on the other side?” Tim asked hopefully as he clutched his book to his chest. He knew that zoos always had animals that were not on display. “Small ones maybe we could look at?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
Cautiously Tim stuck out a hand towards the odd surface, unsure if he should touch it or not.
“Tim, I really don’t think…” Lex started to say.
Then Tim’s finger made contact and he was instantly pulled through the magic gateway. Lex shrieked as he was sucked in and instantly ran in after him. As soon as she passed through, she ran right smack into him, knocking him over into the dirt.
“Some sister you are!” Tim complained as he picked himself up off of the ground, wiping at his striped shirt and the pale blue button front shirt he wore over it. Satisfied he was clean, he picked up his dinosaur book.
“Don’t scare me like that!” Lex frowned at him for a long moment, hoping the rashness of his actions would sink it. Then she lifted her eyes to stare about them in wonder. There were lush tropical plants everywhere; big fronds, twisting vines and even towering trees.
“It looks like a jungle!” Tim exclaimed happily, sensing an adventure just around the corner. But then he scrunched up his face in confusion, his sneaker scuffing at the dirt he had fallen on. It was dirt, as in soil. Why would there be soil on the floor inside of a room? “Uh, Lex, are we still inside the Visitor Center?”
“Well, we must be…” But Lex looked doubtful herself. She tilted her head backward and stared up to where the ceiling should be and saw blue sky. Well, it looked like a blue sky…but it couldn’t be. There was that horrible thunderstorm going on, so the real sky would be black with angry clouds. “It’s not raining as it is outside so…”
Satisfied that they were still safe inside his grandpa’s building, Tim darted forward. “Maybe there’s some dinosaurs in here!”
“Tim!” Lex exclaimed with fear and worry. “Come back here! What if they’re dangerous?”
But Tim didn’t listen and instead darted through the thick jungle plants fearlessly. The ground beneath his feet suddenly gave way and he tumbled down a steep hill, rolling over and over. Lex shrieked and ran after him, her arms out as she tried to balance herself on the steep hillside. The ground seemed eaten away by erosion and storms, with large chunks suddenly just coming loose and sliding down the hill. She almost fell twice but managed to keep her balance through sheer luck. After what seemed forever, she finally reached her brother where he lay and she crouched down by her, her eyes wide with worry. “Are … are you OK?”
“Yeah…” He moaned as he sat up, shoving large clumps of loose dirt off of himself. “I’m just a bit dizzy from rolling down the hill like that…but what’s a hill doing inside the Visitor Center?”
“I really don’t think we’re in the Visitor Center anymore….” Lex stated as she stood and nervously looked around. She could see the steep hill they had traveled down and it looked like a natural dirt embankment to her, one badly eroded by wind and rain. Even as she stared at it, a fine shower of dirt particles slid down the hill to land on top of her sneakers. “We’ll never be able to climb that. It’s all loose and crumbly…”
“But we have to be in it. Where else could we be?” Tim asked, his voice uncertain. He slowly stood up, pushing clods of ground off of his shorts and his bare legs. “Grandpa should be more careful with making this place. I could have broken my leg tumbling down that hill…”
“I don’t know where we are…” Lex turned around and looked the other way. There were more tropical trees she didn’t know the names of, giant green plants and vines. She could feel the responsibility on her shoulders. Since she was eleven and her brother was only eight, it was her job to decide what they should do…the problem was she had no idea. Then something occurred to her. “We need to find a more solid place to climb back up there and get to that shimmery pool thing…”
“Can we look around first?” Tim asked hopefully as he examined his book to see if it was OK.
“Maybe a little. We don’t want to get lost…”
Tim stared at his sister. “Which way should we go? Left or right?”
“Umm…right I guess? It all looks the same…”
The two set off, going slow and careful this time. Tim found a downed tree branch and he picked it up, transferring his precious book to his other hand. He then started whacking the fronds that were in his way with the branch as if it were a machete. “This is a lot better than sitting in my room…”
Lex wasn’t ready to agree yet. She was too busy trying to watch out for roots that tried to trip her and vines she sometimes mistook for snakes. She didn’t like snakes. They could be poisonous and kill you.
They had been walking for about fifteen minutes when they heard the first little sound, a sort of chirrup a bird might make. Lex froze in place, her eyes wide in fright. “What was that?”
A small green dinosaur appeared from between the plants, standing still in front of them. It tilted its head and chirped at them again, as if asking a question. It stood on two legs with its head and tail balancing each other perfectly.
Lex gazed at it, a bit surprised at seeing an actual dinosaur even if it was a miniature one. Still, she wasn’t too sure if she liked it. There was something about it that turned her off, although she supposed some may have thought it to be cute. It was how it was made, its body structure. It reminded her of a tyrannosaur and those she knew were carnivores. “What is it? Do you know?”
“It’s a comp… a comp..so…ganthus!” Tim finally exclaimed, feeling proud that he had remembered its long and complicated name. He stared at it in utter awe. “Just think, Lex, Grandpa really did it! He made real dinosaurs! This little guy here is proof!”
“So we’re in its paddock then?” Lex asked nervously as more chirping was coming from all around them. She crowded closer to her brother, feeling very uncomfortable. “I think we better get out of here! It sounds like there’s a lot of them!”
“I think they’re scavengers. That means they eat dead stuff.” Tim was fascinated by the little dinosaur and wished he had some food to offer it. Maybe he could take it and keep it as a pet? One of the boys at his school had a pet lizard, one with big egg eyes, but it was so boring and almost never moved. It was like having a stuffed museum display for a pet and Tim had been very disappointed. But this little guy, he appeared as if he could be lively and fun to have around! He bent down and stretched out his hand towards it. “Come on, little guy. I won’t hurt you…”
Lex gripped him by the collar and yanked him away from it. “What are you doing? That thing might bite you! Who knows what diseases it might be carrying? We need to go. Now!”
“But..!” Tim protested as he was dragged past the tiny dinosaur who turned to follow them, a loud chirp coming from it open mouth. Tim duly noted that it had a lot of sharp teeth in its mouth and was slightly relieved he hadn’t touched it after all. It could have bitten off his finger with teeth like those.
And then dozens of compies poured from the jungle at them, coming from all sides. Lex screamed as they jumped at her and she batted them away, using her laptop as a baseball bat. One clung to her brown tank top, its claws digging into her skin cruelly and she grabbed it by the tail, yanking it off and throwing it against the trunk of a tree as she ran. It hit the tree with a satisfying solid clunk and fell into the plants surrounding the base. Her brother was hot on her heels, trying to beat on them with his stick. He managed to hit a few but there were always more. Uncaring which direction they ran, they ran blindly this way and then that way, trying to throw off their tiny pursuers. Somehow they managed to outrun the dinosaurs as the compys fell behind.
Lex staggered to a stop, leaning against a tree and gasping for air. She had scratches over her bare arms and her tank top was torn on the side, blood visible through the tear. Her eyes were wild with fear. “Oh, I thought we’d never get away from those things…!”
“Yeah, I don’t think they’re so cute anymore!” Tim frowned as he leaned against another nearby tree, resting. He was scratched up from them, too, but his layered clothing had protected him slightly better. “I thought for sure the book said they were scavengers…”
“They’re more like a hungry wolf pack to me!” His sister looked down at the wound in her side, frowning. It was bleeding a little but didn’t look too bad, but she feared it might get infected. At least it wasn’t a bite… “I knew it was bad when I saw that body shape like a T-rex…”
Tim rolled his eyes. “Just because it walks on two legs does not make it a carnivore!”
“Well, I hope we don’t run into any of the big ones!” Lex stood up and gazed around. She realized she had no idea which direction they had come from during their wild dash for their lives. It all looked the same. How were they ever going to find that shimmering curtain thing ever again? Picking a direction at random, she headed off. “Come on, we need to keep moving. Maybe we can find some shelter or something.”
“Do you think Grandpa will send someone to look for us?”
“Of course he will!” Lex knew in her heart he would, but could they stay alive long enough? “Although I don’t know how a search party could find us in this thick jungle!”
“And until then, we’re having a blast!” Tim said as he pushed plants on the side and hurried in front of his sister to lead the way.
“We almost got killed by those things!” She protested hotly, her eyes flashing with outrage. “How can you be so senseless? This isn’t some holiday. I had to beat those things with my laptop! What if they broke it?”
“We’re having ad adventure, a real adventure.” Her brother countered. “Where’s your sense of daring? It’s good to get off that computer for awhile and do other things!”
“Maybe, but I don’t want to get ate!”
The two emerged from the jungle into a small clearing. They were crossing the grassy field when a huge two-legged dinosaur with an odd reddish face and a horn on its nose thundered out of the trees in their direction. It had a body shape like T-rex and was about twelve feet tall. Upon spotting them, it roared and lunged at them with a mouth full of sharp teeth.
The two turned and took off, shrieking.
TBC...
Author: Aquaseamage
Pairing: None
Genre: Action/Adventure/ Humor
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Takes place during “On Stranger Tides” so spoiler warning
Summary: AU for both OST and JP.
Disclaimer: The characters are not mine. They belong to Disney and Amblin/Universal. This is just for fun.
THE PRESENT
“Man, I can’t believe we didn’t see any dinosaurs!” Eight-year-old Tim Murphy exclaimed as he stomped up the steps of his grandfather’s Visitor Center on Isla Nublar, the strong gusting winds whipping his blonde hair into a mess. A dinosaur book was clutched in his hands. “And then this lousy thunderstorm cut the tour short yet! We were almost at the T-rex paddock, too!”
“Well, I don’t mind…” Lex Murphy, Tim’s older sister, replied as she raced past him up the stairs and opened the ornate door. Like her brother, she was blond and thin. “There’s always tomorrow…”
“Sure, you don’t mind! You’ll just go play with that dumb computer in your room!” Tim groaned as he hurried after her, an ear-splitting crack of thunder sounding directly overhead. Cold drops of rain started to fall and he hurried inside after her.
The adults who had been on the tour with them, Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler, Genarro and Ian Malcolm, left the two cars at a slower pace and followed the kids inside.
John Hammond, their grandfather, stood there is his white suit leaning on his cane. A relieved expression appeared on his face when he saw them. “Oh, I’m glad you made it back in time. We might be getting a hurricane and it’s much safer here, just in case something could go wrong…”
“Yeah, it’s just a park full of giant hungry reptiles that don’t know what century they’re in. What could possibly go wrong?” Malcolm said sarcastically to John. “You don’t know what you’re doing here. Things can and will go wrong.”
John sighed, frustrated. “Please, not in front of my grandchildren.”
“What? You think they don’t deserve to know how dangerous these creatures are?” Malcolm replied. “Even those giant herbivores can kill a person. Heck, even hippos can kill and most people don’t even consider them dangerous. You’re playing god here and I wouldn’t want to be around when it backfires.”
Tim stared at Ian with large eyes, fascinated by the talk of animals killing people.
“I’m sorry that the tour was cut short and that you didn’t see any of the dinosaurs. I assure you they are there.” John tried to sooth Malcolm’s mood, guessing that the man was just disappointed by not seeing anything. “I assure you that this Park is perfectly safe. All of the fences are up and running, all of the animals secure in their paddocks. There is no way for a visitor, even if they were to crawl out of the tour car, to fall into any of the animal enclosures. And please remember, this is a test run.”
“Will I ever get to see a dinosaur, a real live dinosaur?” Tim asked his grandfather. “I really wanted to see one today and all we saw was just dumb old plants…”
“Of course you will!” John assured him with a tight hug. “I can’t control the weather you know and listen to that thunder. Now, why don’t you kids run to your rooms? Supper will be ready in an hour or so…”
Thunder rumbled loudly and heavy rain thumped on the roof overhead. Tim sighed but turned to go to their rooms, his sister alongside him. “How did Grandpa said he made the dinosaurs again?”
“Something about blood from a mosquito…” Lex replied as she walked down the hallway to their rooms. “A mosquito bit a dinosaur and drank its blood. Then it landed on a tree and got caught in some sticky sap. The sap hardened and turned into amber, like that golden-brown stone he has at the top of his cane.”
“I know what amber is!”
“Well, then Grandpa hired diggers and they found the amber and scientists took the blood out of the mosquito and somehow they made dinosaurs…”
Tim paused outside his bedroom door, frowning. “Is that really possible?”
“I don’t know.” Lex shrugged. “I guess so. Where else would he have gotten the dinosaurs from, some secret lost world? That stuff only happens in movies. Science and technology is the future.”
Another boom of thunder exploded overhead and Tim flinched, clearly frightened. “It’s getting louder…”
“Go read your book and you’ll forget all about it. I’m going on my computer…” Lex disappeared into her room, closing the door behind her.
Tim stood in the hallway alone for a moment, staring at her closed door. “Nerd!”
“I’m a hacker!” She shouted at him through the closed door.
“Yeah, whatever.” Tim disappeared into his own room and sat down on his bed, opening the dinosaur book by Dr. Grant. It was fully illustrated with wonderful pictures of each dinosaur and told about each one. He flipped through the pages until he came to the one about the T-rex. “It’s vision is based on movement…how can he know that from just looking at old bones?”
Just then the lights went out.
Unknown to anyone at the Visitor Center, Dennis Nedry had chosen that moment to operate his White Rabbit object so he could steal the dinosaur embryos. John and the others in the main control room didn’t think much of the lights going out, as Dennis had said a few systems would go offline and there was no reason to worry. The computer could only do so many things at once and that meant a few had to be temporarily turned off while the computer did its job.
In the dark, Tim jumped off of his bed and hurried out of his room and busted into Lex’s. Her pale face was lighted by the white light of her laptop. “The lights went out…”
“So? It’s a fierce storm. What do you expect?” Lex said as she quickly powered down the laptop and closed it, putting it inside its padded watertight bag. “I just managed to save my work. I don’t want to wear down the battery…”
“Hacking will only get you sent to jail!” Tim rolled his eyes, unimpressed by her laptop. “I don’t know why Grandpa bought you that thing.”
“Because he knows it’s a good skill.” Lex said as she stood up from her desk, gripping the handle of the laptop bag. “Do you want to go find the adults? What if some of those things get lose?”
Tim exited the room in front of his sister, scoffing at the idea. “Animals never get lose in a zoo. You know that. It’s that weird guy’s talk that scared you…”
They walked down the hallway and paused at an intersection. They were near the area where the scientists worked now and there was a window where one could peer in at them. They had already met Dr. Wu and he had shown them the eggs in the hatchery. Tim had not been impressed. But further down the hall there was another door, one that had always been locked each time Tim had tried it. He had also tried walking around the outside of the building, trying to guess where the door was located so he could hopefully peep in through a window but had been unsuccessful. In the time he had been here, he had never seen anyone go in or out of the mysterious door.
Now it stood wide open, the door ajar.
“Look! That weird door is open now!” Tim exclaimed loudly as he pointed towards it, excitement clear in his voice.
“But we’re not supposed to go in there.” Lex reminded her brother as she tried to pull him the other way, towards the dining room. “You saw it was marked ‘Employees Only’. I really don’t know why you’re so fascinated by it. I bet it’s only Dr. Wu’s equipment, like glass beakers and stuff.”
“Well, I want to go see!” Tim pulled free of his sister’s grasp and stomped off towards the open door. This was the only chance he would get. “Besides, our Grandpa owns this place. He won’t mind if we just take a peek.”
Lex ran after him, her laptop gripped securely in one hand. “Well, you better not break anything!”
“I won’t!” Tim promised as he hurried into the room. He didn’t know exactly what he had expected, but this was not it. The room was empty except for some sort of shimmery curtain that hung just in front of him. If he didn’t know better, he’d say it was a wall of water but that was impossible. A waterfall would move and make a thunderous roar, but this thing was still like a pond on a calm day. Tim just stared at it, utterly confused. “What is that? It looks like a pond turned on its side.’
“It must be some sort of decontamination field…” Lex guessed as she too stared at it. “You know, to kill germs when you pass through it.”
“So there may be dinosaurs in cages on the other side?” Tim asked hopefully as he clutched his book to his chest. He knew that zoos always had animals that were not on display. “Small ones maybe we could look at?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
Cautiously Tim stuck out a hand towards the odd surface, unsure if he should touch it or not.
“Tim, I really don’t think…” Lex started to say.
Then Tim’s finger made contact and he was instantly pulled through the magic gateway. Lex shrieked as he was sucked in and instantly ran in after him. As soon as she passed through, she ran right smack into him, knocking him over into the dirt.
“Some sister you are!” Tim complained as he picked himself up off of the ground, wiping at his striped shirt and the pale blue button front shirt he wore over it. Satisfied he was clean, he picked up his dinosaur book.
“Don’t scare me like that!” Lex frowned at him for a long moment, hoping the rashness of his actions would sink it. Then she lifted her eyes to stare about them in wonder. There were lush tropical plants everywhere; big fronds, twisting vines and even towering trees.
“It looks like a jungle!” Tim exclaimed happily, sensing an adventure just around the corner. But then he scrunched up his face in confusion, his sneaker scuffing at the dirt he had fallen on. It was dirt, as in soil. Why would there be soil on the floor inside of a room? “Uh, Lex, are we still inside the Visitor Center?”
“Well, we must be…” But Lex looked doubtful herself. She tilted her head backward and stared up to where the ceiling should be and saw blue sky. Well, it looked like a blue sky…but it couldn’t be. There was that horrible thunderstorm going on, so the real sky would be black with angry clouds. “It’s not raining as it is outside so…”
Satisfied that they were still safe inside his grandpa’s building, Tim darted forward. “Maybe there’s some dinosaurs in here!”
“Tim!” Lex exclaimed with fear and worry. “Come back here! What if they’re dangerous?”
But Tim didn’t listen and instead darted through the thick jungle plants fearlessly. The ground beneath his feet suddenly gave way and he tumbled down a steep hill, rolling over and over. Lex shrieked and ran after him, her arms out as she tried to balance herself on the steep hillside. The ground seemed eaten away by erosion and storms, with large chunks suddenly just coming loose and sliding down the hill. She almost fell twice but managed to keep her balance through sheer luck. After what seemed forever, she finally reached her brother where he lay and she crouched down by her, her eyes wide with worry. “Are … are you OK?”
“Yeah…” He moaned as he sat up, shoving large clumps of loose dirt off of himself. “I’m just a bit dizzy from rolling down the hill like that…but what’s a hill doing inside the Visitor Center?”
“I really don’t think we’re in the Visitor Center anymore….” Lex stated as she stood and nervously looked around. She could see the steep hill they had traveled down and it looked like a natural dirt embankment to her, one badly eroded by wind and rain. Even as she stared at it, a fine shower of dirt particles slid down the hill to land on top of her sneakers. “We’ll never be able to climb that. It’s all loose and crumbly…”
“But we have to be in it. Where else could we be?” Tim asked, his voice uncertain. He slowly stood up, pushing clods of ground off of his shorts and his bare legs. “Grandpa should be more careful with making this place. I could have broken my leg tumbling down that hill…”
“I don’t know where we are…” Lex turned around and looked the other way. There were more tropical trees she didn’t know the names of, giant green plants and vines. She could feel the responsibility on her shoulders. Since she was eleven and her brother was only eight, it was her job to decide what they should do…the problem was she had no idea. Then something occurred to her. “We need to find a more solid place to climb back up there and get to that shimmery pool thing…”
“Can we look around first?” Tim asked hopefully as he examined his book to see if it was OK.
“Maybe a little. We don’t want to get lost…”
Tim stared at his sister. “Which way should we go? Left or right?”
“Umm…right I guess? It all looks the same…”
The two set off, going slow and careful this time. Tim found a downed tree branch and he picked it up, transferring his precious book to his other hand. He then started whacking the fronds that were in his way with the branch as if it were a machete. “This is a lot better than sitting in my room…”
Lex wasn’t ready to agree yet. She was too busy trying to watch out for roots that tried to trip her and vines she sometimes mistook for snakes. She didn’t like snakes. They could be poisonous and kill you.
They had been walking for about fifteen minutes when they heard the first little sound, a sort of chirrup a bird might make. Lex froze in place, her eyes wide in fright. “What was that?”
A small green dinosaur appeared from between the plants, standing still in front of them. It tilted its head and chirped at them again, as if asking a question. It stood on two legs with its head and tail balancing each other perfectly.
Lex gazed at it, a bit surprised at seeing an actual dinosaur even if it was a miniature one. Still, she wasn’t too sure if she liked it. There was something about it that turned her off, although she supposed some may have thought it to be cute. It was how it was made, its body structure. It reminded her of a tyrannosaur and those she knew were carnivores. “What is it? Do you know?”
“It’s a comp… a comp..so…ganthus!” Tim finally exclaimed, feeling proud that he had remembered its long and complicated name. He stared at it in utter awe. “Just think, Lex, Grandpa really did it! He made real dinosaurs! This little guy here is proof!”
“So we’re in its paddock then?” Lex asked nervously as more chirping was coming from all around them. She crowded closer to her brother, feeling very uncomfortable. “I think we better get out of here! It sounds like there’s a lot of them!”
“I think they’re scavengers. That means they eat dead stuff.” Tim was fascinated by the little dinosaur and wished he had some food to offer it. Maybe he could take it and keep it as a pet? One of the boys at his school had a pet lizard, one with big egg eyes, but it was so boring and almost never moved. It was like having a stuffed museum display for a pet and Tim had been very disappointed. But this little guy, he appeared as if he could be lively and fun to have around! He bent down and stretched out his hand towards it. “Come on, little guy. I won’t hurt you…”
Lex gripped him by the collar and yanked him away from it. “What are you doing? That thing might bite you! Who knows what diseases it might be carrying? We need to go. Now!”
“But..!” Tim protested as he was dragged past the tiny dinosaur who turned to follow them, a loud chirp coming from it open mouth. Tim duly noted that it had a lot of sharp teeth in its mouth and was slightly relieved he hadn’t touched it after all. It could have bitten off his finger with teeth like those.
And then dozens of compies poured from the jungle at them, coming from all sides. Lex screamed as they jumped at her and she batted them away, using her laptop as a baseball bat. One clung to her brown tank top, its claws digging into her skin cruelly and she grabbed it by the tail, yanking it off and throwing it against the trunk of a tree as she ran. It hit the tree with a satisfying solid clunk and fell into the plants surrounding the base. Her brother was hot on her heels, trying to beat on them with his stick. He managed to hit a few but there were always more. Uncaring which direction they ran, they ran blindly this way and then that way, trying to throw off their tiny pursuers. Somehow they managed to outrun the dinosaurs as the compys fell behind.
Lex staggered to a stop, leaning against a tree and gasping for air. She had scratches over her bare arms and her tank top was torn on the side, blood visible through the tear. Her eyes were wild with fear. “Oh, I thought we’d never get away from those things…!”
“Yeah, I don’t think they’re so cute anymore!” Tim frowned as he leaned against another nearby tree, resting. He was scratched up from them, too, but his layered clothing had protected him slightly better. “I thought for sure the book said they were scavengers…”
“They’re more like a hungry wolf pack to me!” His sister looked down at the wound in her side, frowning. It was bleeding a little but didn’t look too bad, but she feared it might get infected. At least it wasn’t a bite… “I knew it was bad when I saw that body shape like a T-rex…”
Tim rolled his eyes. “Just because it walks on two legs does not make it a carnivore!”
“Well, I hope we don’t run into any of the big ones!” Lex stood up and gazed around. She realized she had no idea which direction they had come from during their wild dash for their lives. It all looked the same. How were they ever going to find that shimmering curtain thing ever again? Picking a direction at random, she headed off. “Come on, we need to keep moving. Maybe we can find some shelter or something.”
“Do you think Grandpa will send someone to look for us?”
“Of course he will!” Lex knew in her heart he would, but could they stay alive long enough? “Although I don’t know how a search party could find us in this thick jungle!”
“And until then, we’re having a blast!” Tim said as he pushed plants on the side and hurried in front of his sister to lead the way.
“We almost got killed by those things!” She protested hotly, her eyes flashing with outrage. “How can you be so senseless? This isn’t some holiday. I had to beat those things with my laptop! What if they broke it?”
“We’re having ad adventure, a real adventure.” Her brother countered. “Where’s your sense of daring? It’s good to get off that computer for awhile and do other things!”
“Maybe, but I don’t want to get ate!”
The two emerged from the jungle into a small clearing. They were crossing the grassy field when a huge two-legged dinosaur with an odd reddish face and a horn on its nose thundered out of the trees in their direction. It had a body shape like T-rex and was about twelve feet tall. Upon spotting them, it roared and lunged at them with a mouth full of sharp teeth.
The two turned and took off, shrieking.
TBC...