EPISODE 31: THE LONG GRASS

The campers toured the rest of the embryonic facility, most of the facility was old with most of the facility being made back during the 80’s. However some parts of the facility were added in the late 90s. They leave the embryonics labs as they enter the kennel chamber. Empty cages of various sizes filled the chamber. A large theropod shadow is casted on the wall, the silhouette was unmistakably that of a large dromaeosaurid.

“Velociraptor” Kenji whispered. The campers slowly backed away from the cage room as they slowly made their way into the facility. The raptor was unsurprisingly of the western Sorna stock. It was male but its nasal crest was a duller color than the alpha male’s bright red. The campers hid amongst the clutter as the young male raptor wandered aimlessly. The raptor tapped its toe claw on the ground. The raptor makes a disturbing cat-like purr noise as it moves in a very chicken-like manner. The raptor was slowly encroaching upon Sammy who was hiding underneath a desk. A loud crashing noise echoes through the labs. 

The raptor jerks its head away from the desk. Paula could see from her vantage point the raptor peeled back its thin lips into a snarl. It raises its claws. While Sammy could see the raptor’s feet suddenly take flight. The raptor screamed as it bolted towards the direction of the crashing sound. A pachycephalosaurus leaps in front of the velociraptor. It groans territorially. The thick headed herbivore scraps its feet against the ground before charging at the raptor. The raptor leapt onto the two legged herbivore’s back before leaping behind it. The pachycephalosaurus’s moment is thrown off as it crashes into an embryonic tank. The campers bolt from their hiding places, the raptor jerks its head towards the fleeing humans. It smiled at them as it growled. The pachycephalosaurus blocks its path; the raptor growls.

The campers ran out into what remains of the lab's parking lot when they were confronted by the rest of the raptor’s pack. The western sorna raptors slowly encircled the campers. The raptors attention shifted when hearing the crying calls for help within the facility. A male and female sorna raptor break from the pack as they bolt into the labs. The young raptor was cornered by the pachycephalosaurus. It repeats its cries for help as it's pinned under a desk. The pachycephalosaurus prepares to make the killing blow when it is felled by a strike to its jugular. The two older raptors make short work of the domed skulled herbivore before helping their young pack mate. They push the desk off of the youngest before lightly nipping him for being reckless. 

The rest of the raptor pack slowly encroached on the campers. Paula raised her weapon at the Alpha male. A familiar groan emanates from the jungle. The raptors began chirping to each other. The older raptors barked from inside the labs. An ankylosaurus with a misshapen horn bursts from the jungle. The western sorna raptors quickly broke eye contact with the humans as they ran into the labs.

It was Bumpy, behind her was a small herd of ankylosauruses roughly her age. But they didn’t resemble the ankylosauruses from Nublar, they were darker and their faces were red. Yet again the pachycephalosaurus and the other dinosaurs were different here, from the ones from Nublar. These were the survivors of the original Jurassic Park stock and amalgam test stock. Bumpy slowly approaches Ben, she nudges her beak against his hand. She still remembers him after two years of being separated. The raptors watch out from the laboratory’s windows. The raptors stare off as the campers leave with the ankylosauruses.

Meanwhile SynGen mercs contemplate whether to risk entering the long grass. It's been several hours since they waited. Dylan was worried about his daughter, he was torn between following the mission and rescuing his daughter. The mercs heard heavy footsteps approaching, they aimed their guns out at the jungle. A herd of young ankylosauruses came out from the jungle being led by a Jurassic World bred ankylosaurus and with her were the campers and Paula.

“Dad!” Paula ran to her father, “Paula” Dylan to his daughter as they embraced each other.

The mercs and campers heard another groan, out from the tall grass was a herd of older ankylosauruses. The two herds commingle before merging into a single herd.

“This is incredible, I thought Sorna was stripped of its dinosaurs” Norika observed.

“Well like what Dr. Malcolm always said, “Life finds a way” Dylan quotes, “There are a plethora of caves and hiding places on the island, that’s where some of them must had fled”

“How do you know so much about this island? Aren’t you mercenaries?” Betsy asked.

“Eh, not mercenaries' purses were more of a security force. You could say we're a lot like Jurassic World’s ACU,” Dylan explained.

“So what is SynGen? Another genetics corporation?” Arthur asked.

“Synthesis Genetics technologies,” Noriko replied, “We were founded by former Biosyn, Masrani, and InGen employees. Our employer wants to revive Sorna as well as include the rest of Las Cinco Muertes as a dinosaur sanctuary preserve”

The group could hear the distant roars of an allosaurus in the distance. Dylan leads the humans into the long grass, “Be careful, the long grass may provide cover from the larger dinosaurs but on the flip side. It's a hunting ground for raptors”

“Raptors? Great, we just escaped from a pack an hour ago,” Arthur complained.

“We must press on, Arthur,” Betsy encouraged him.

“Why don’t we just feed Arthur to them?” Kenji jokes.

Betsy sighs, “Paula, wait for me,” Betsy catches up with the merc girl.

“Shhhhh, they can hear you,” Dylan whispers.

They slowly traverse through the thick tall grass when Sammy suddenly trips on something hard. “Oww” she yelps. She gasps as she sees the stained brown skeletal human remains and their rusted weapons.

“Come on, we're almost there,” Dylan whispered.

“Who were they?” Sammy asked.

“They were an early expedition force, they were big game hunters hired by InGen under Peter Ludlow’s administration,” Dylan explained.

“Yes my father said something about that, Ludlow didn’t agree with Hammond’s vision in turning Sorna into a nature reserve, Ludlow wanted to remove the dinosaurs off of Sorna for his Jurassic Park: San Diego Project” Kenji explains.

“In the end, Hammond's dream of a nature preserve came into fruition. A year later, InGen was bought out by Masrani Global. Masrani and BioSyn were secretly visiting the island, they made illegal clones of several dinosaur species,” Dylan continued.

They walked past a large rib cage-like structure as they passed through an open metal electronic gate door connected to a cage-like structure that burrow through the large perimeter fence. A metal plaque titled “ingen” was seen hanging above the gate, with its slogan “we make your future” below it. The group counted 18 buildings that comprised the worker village, the village had seen better days, they spotted the decayed remains of a station wagon and two tow aircraft trucks. Beyond the vehicles was a gas station, its windows had been destroyed 21 years ago. There was a geothermal power plant near the very rear of the village. They spotted the tower-like Kiln house and its garage. Then they saw the old boarding house next to the Kiln house.

Further in the village was the Burroughs sector, where there were several residences, a cafe, a general store, there was a collapsed water tower, there was also a saloon, a workers barracks, some bungalows, and a basketball court. At the very back of the village was the operations center. The very heart of the operations on Isla Sorna. They could also see some of the perimeter had been damaged, possibly destroyed from weather and larger dinosaurs. The group slowly navigated the village, large footsteps were heard coming from behind the buildings. Noriko, Dylan and Gail ready their weapons as they take aim at whatever is coming their way. A small herd of parasaurolophus and corythosaurus were hiding off in the village. The group spotted the transmitter tower however it had since been torn down by something big. They slowly approached the tower seeing if they could somehow jury rig it to power up their transmitter but it was no use, the internal wires were hacked to pieces not by tools but by teeth. Dylan removed a large t. rex tooth out of the metal frame, it was old and showing signs of decay. Whoever left this tooth as very big but the tooth wasn’t left there recently judging from its decaying appearance the Rex that left this tooth behind may be as old as Rexy but unlike Jurassic World’s T. rex, this one lived a harsh life on isla sorna.

Tiger striped male raptors and their complete gray stripeless female counterparts slowly return from their extended hunting trip. They competed with the other raptor variants for more than 21 years, their numbers had since diminished since the great ecological collapse but slowly they are recovering. The western sorna raptors may be more intelligent than they were but these nublar raptors were more aggressive yet possessed a lethal cunning mind. They were much smarter than the occasional matancero raptors that made their home in the western interior half of Isla Sorna. The nublar raptors begin sniffing around, the scent of humans puts the raptor pack on alert.

The group quickly searched for a way to escape the raptor pack but there was a way they could hide in the operations center. They quickly made it up the steps of the operation center, they pushed open the double doors that reminded the campers of the old visitor center on nublar. They quickly walked past a mural with the old jurassic park visitor center and ford explorers near a tyrannosaurus with its jaws gaped open and a spitting dilophosaurus. The raptors slowly pass the church as they follow the human scent trail across the village. They are stopped by the hadrosaurus herd. The parasaurolophus and corythosaurus grunt and honk at the raptors. A droplet of water landed on the tiger raptor’s nose. He raises his head up at the sky as the rain falls from the sky. The alpha male jerked his head towards the boarding house. He snaps at his pack mates to keep order before slowly making their way back to their nests. The scent of humans was being washed away.

The parasaurolophus and corythosaurus sought refuge under the tattered awnings of the saloon and cafe. They grunted and honked as the rain sprinkled on their exposed scales. The raptors were on guard as they frequently peered their heads out of the opening.

“So now that the comms tower is destroyed, what do we do sir?” Noriko asked.

Dylan rubbed his face in frustration, he was out of ideas. A thought occurred to him, once he spotted a map of the island. “There is always the summit transmission tower on Mt. Watson,” Gail suggested. Dylan was pleasantly surprised that Gail was thinking the same thing. 

“No good, that mountain is crawling with eastern sorna raptors,” Noriko countered.

“What's with this island, being crawling with raptors?” Ben asked, “Also why are there so many different types?”

“Maybe they were trying to perfect them?” Betsy wild mass guessed, “Think of it, why were the raptors secluded in Jurassic World from the rest of the other animals?”

“According to my father, InGen always had problems when breeding the raptors,” Kenji added.

“Originally, it started out with a single batch of eight raptors” Gail started to explain, “Hammond needed eight more, so another batch was grown from the same DNA culture. However, only one raptor survived once it reached maturity it proved very difficult to restrain her. Once she was brought to Isla Nublar, I heard she killed all but two of the original batch of raptors. I remember my old college Muldoon refer to her as the Big One”

“So what about these tiger-looking ones,” Sammy asked.

“After the incident involving the Big One, there was going to be a replacement batch. But the 1993 Isla Nublar incident occurred, canceling any plans to ship the new raptors to Jurassic Park. At that point we got a call from Hammond to allow the male chromosome to be implanted in this new batch, and were surprised to see the difference in coloration between the males and the females. Then the next thing we were doing was releasing them into the wild, part of Hammond’s nature preserve project. When we directed a satellite to scan the area, we were surprised that the raptors took shelter in the abandoned village, transportation centers, labs and even the communications center” Gail explained, “the rest were as in the documents, the spotted raptors, the eastern sorna raptors and the western sorna raptors were part of the amalgam tests”

EPISODE 32: ANDROCLES’ RAPTOR

Betsy and Paula watched out from the second floor as the raptors continued to monitor the Operations Center. Dylan led Ben and Sammy across from the back to a chain fence, it was already open for a long time now. It was their only way out of the village. Noriko escorts Arthur and Kenji to the fence. Gail went back to the operations center to gather Betsy and Paula. The nublar raptors were growing restless as they stared out from the boarding house at the operations center. The hadrosaurs had moved away just enough for the raptors to seize their opportunity. Gail heard some scuffling behind him. A Nublar raptor screams at the three humans as it gives chase. Making an odd sound as it ran after them.

Gail spun around as he aimed his weapon at the raptors but to his surprise they were gone. The alpha female snuck up behind Gail. Paula and Betsy threw smoke grenades they found at the female raptor. They ran over to Gail as they directed him outside as the female nublar raptor fled. They race through the chain fence door. They traverse south as they head deeper into the mountains. The alpha male barked to summon his pack. He bared his teeth in a death grin as he watched his prey headed through the south gate. Paula trips and falls down a steep hill taking Betsy and Gail with her as they tumble down the steep hill. The tiger striped raptors snarl as they avoid the steep incline. 

The three humans tumbled down the leaves covered hill until they fell into a fast flooded creek. The sounds of raptors hissing and snarling were growing distant as the dromaeosaurids looked for another way down the hill.

Betsy slowly comes too, she had washed upon the side of a creek bed. She felt something was biting her. She realized she was covered in leeches. She looked around but she didn’t see Paula nor Gale. She heard a loud groan, her eyes darted towards an abandoned ducen half bearing the InGen logo on its doors. She sat in the trailer seat, surprisingly the tarp was still intact despite being here for almost 30 years. There she carefully removed the leeches from her body. She looks around for some dry firewood and begins a fire. A pack of compsognathus were lured to the truck by the scent of blood however the fire kept them at bay. Betsy was drying her clothes while she was busy at work fashioning a branch into a makeshift spear with her swiss army knife she kept in her backpack.

She knew the fire would keep the smaller carnivores away but she worried about the larger ones, she looked at her makeshift spear, she was dissatisfied with it. She looked over at the campfire contemplating tossing the spear into it. The sound of a raptor’s hiss-roar caught her attention. She darted her eyes into the forest. She carefully made her way towards, her spear gripped firmly in her hands as she slowly approached the source of the noise. Silence. 

Her heart was pounding rapidly in her chest as she looked around carefully. A raptor’s jaws snapped dangerously close to her neck, she fell on her butt before gaining some distance away from the raptor. She slowly returned to see her predator; It was a western sorna velociraptor. However this one was covered in a light layer of protofeathers around his cranium, neck, shoulders, back, hips, and tail. The red streak of the male variants was brightly red and orange like a fire streak. The raptor continued to growl at her but didn’t budge from his location. 

His leg was trapped in a beartrap. The bear trap looked new because of the lack of rust on it. The metallic claws were digging into his leg, blood was dripping from his wounds. If she doesn’t do something, this dinosaur will die. The raptor began making sadly chirping noises as he called for his pack mates but there was no answer. Betsy slowly watched over the fuzzy raptor, she noticed his cries for help had gone answered. A pack of compys, the same ones that were harassing her at the campfire, were slowly encroaching on the hurt raptor. Firestreak, snapped his jaws around a careless compsognathus before tossing it against the tree. The rest of the compys lept on to the raptor’s back biting at his flesh.

Betsy ran back to her campfire, she grabs a burning branch before running back to shoo away the compys. The small green dinosaurs fled from the raptor. The raptor resuming growling at her but this time he doesn’t attempt to attack her. The raptor licks his bite wounds left by the compys. He grooms his protofeathers, before licking his foreclaws and rubbing them on his cranial quills. Betsy observes Firestreak, he reminds her of a big cat mixed with a bird.

Betsy does her best to examine the bearclaw trap from a safe distance. She goes out to the creek to catch a fish with her stick spear. She manages to catch a fish. She tosses the fish near Firestreak. The raptor was very cautious of it and the human. He carefully sniffs the flapping fish before eating. She had observed with her interactions with the raptor that he had not succumbed to their compys venomous bites. He must have gained immunity to it during his hunts.

A herd of orodromeus and leptoceratops wander in the forest. Then surprisingly a small herd of parasaurolophus slowly made their presence before disappearing into the thick forest. She could spot some more up a hill along with some corythosaurus making a trek to new feeding grounds. 

A loud roar stole her from her thoughts. Betsy drops the burning wood as she readies her sharpened stick spear. A small slender looking tyrannosaurus slowly makes his way through the forest; it was an albertosaurus. Its scales were colored with a mix of mottled browns and tans. The albertosaurus inhales the smoke from the burning branch. He directed his tiny yellow eyes at the girl. He panned his gaze to the injured raptor. The albertosaurus growls as he approaches the injured raptor. Betsy japs her sharp stick into the albertosaurus’s leg. The spear snaps in half due to its poor construction. 

“Oh sh…” Betsy is thrown in the air by the albertosaurus’s tail before crashing against the ground, “ow!” Betsy quickly grabs the burning branch, she tosses it with all of her might onto the albertosaurus’s back. The albertosaurus howls as he turns back around towards the girl. Betsy picks up a rock. The albertosaurus charges towards the girl, Betsy tosses the rock into its eye. The albertosaurus snaps its jaws closed as it reacts to the pain in its eye. Betsy quickly runs over to the bear trap. She pulls the trap open with all of her might. Firestreak quickly removes his leg from the trap. He snarls at Betsy, before darting his red avian eyes towards the albertosaurus. The raptor despite his injuries finds the strength to snarl-roar at the much larger albertosaurus. The albertosaurus returned the gesture. 

Firestreak peeled his lips back brandishing his razor sharp teeth before charging forward. The albertosaurus lunges forward with his jaws gaped wide open. Firestreak leapt onto the tyrannosaurid. He inflicts damage on the albertosaurus’ injured eye with his killer claw. The pain from his leg injury hiss in pain. The albertosaurus bucks the velociraptor off. The raptor tumbled onto the ground. Betsy throws a rock at the side of the albertosaurus’ head. “Over here!” she screams at the albertosaurus.

The albertosaurus roars at Betsy, “Okay…” she spins around as she takes off running. The slender tyrannosaurid sprints towards the girl. Betsy zigzags through the trees as she heads for the deuce-in-half. She opens the passenger’s door before shutting it close. She squeezes herself in the foot area. The albertosaurus approaches the truck. He avoids the campfire as he sniffs the truck’s tarp. The albertosaurus climbs inside of the tailgate, his yellow eye peers through the back window. Betsy was praying to herself. She looks up at the back window, she stares at the albertosaurus as he stares back at her.

Firestreak leapt onto the hood of the truck, hissing at the albertosaurus. The albertosaurus tore his way out of the truck’s back tarp. The albertosaurus steps onto the cab of the truck, the weight from his foot compresses the cab’s ceiling inwards. Betsy quickly opens the door and rolls out onto the dirt. Firestreak snarls at the taller albertosaurus. A familiar sound echoed from the trees. It was another velociraptor. Firestreak chirps in a rapid succession. The sounds of frenzy screams shriek through the forest as a white raptor, gray raptor and a bright orange raptor bolted out from the trees.

The gray velociraptor grins at the albertosaurus as she flares her clawed arms while snarling, the white velociraptor slowly and carefully sneaks behind the albertosaurus. Firestreak hisses in pain, his leg was still bleeding from earlier. The orange tiger raptor charges towards the albertosaurus. The larger theropod sees an opening in the raptor’s attack, Firestreak was their weakest member right now. The albertosaurus ran past the western sorna raptor while head swatting the raptor into the truck before taking off into the creek.

Betsy was watching the whole thing from her campfire, she grabs her shirt before heading off to help Firestreak. His pack quickly trotted towards the human, they hissed at her as they prepared to attack. Firestreak hisses at his pack. The two females and other male raptor stop in their tracks as they watch Betsy intensely. Betsy places her backpack down as she medicates the leg wound before tearing up and wrapping her shirt around Firestreak’s leg. She sticks a medical pin into the shirt to make sure the bandage holds.

Betsy slowly backs aways from Firestreak. He slowly returns to his feet. The gray female takes a step towards Betsy only to be snapped at by the white female. The bright orange tiger raptor gives Betsy an extended stare before turning towards his packmates. The raptors quickly retreat in the forest.

Betsy pulls out a spare shirt from her backpack. It too was wet so it needed to be dry. She hears a twig snapped. She stands up, she stares at the broken truck. She quickly picks up a rock, ready to throw it at whatever is coming. She throws it into the bushes. “Oww!” said a very human voice.

Paula comes out of the bushes rubbing her head. “Paula” Betsy sighs. “Wait, where's Gale?”

Paula shrugs, Betsy frowns. Well at least she has a companion she can actually talk to that doesn’t growl.

“I don’t know, I woke up on the side of a bank and…” Paula was silenced by a distant roar.

“Oh no, not again” Betsy sighs, “It's another slim rex”

“I don’t think its an albertosaurus” Paula corrects, “That sounds like an Allosaurus”