Chapter 17: It's All Relative

              Alan was carefully walking down the maintenance road. It was pitch black in the area he was in. As he was walking, he heard a helicopter, and then moments later, he could see the lights from it. It had just taken off from the northwest corner of the island, and was going directly south, away from him. He stood there for a minute, watching the helicopter's progress. That's when he first heard a strange noise, like deep breathing. He looked in the direction of the noise. He could see the electric fence, which was running alongside the maintenance road. The fence looked different from the fences on Jurassic Park. There were thick steel bars, going vertically, up to about 50 feet or so, Alan guessed. There was a bit of a gap between the vertical bars, telling Alan that whatever was on the other side of that fence, was pretty big, since they weren't worried about it getting through the bars. The sounds seemed to be coming from the other side of the electric fence.

              Alan, against his every instinct, walked toward the electric fence. For some unexplained reason, he needed to know what the source of the noise was. After walking up a tiny embankment, he reached the fence and looked inside. There was nothing, but blackness and silence. He frowned, as he could have sworn that the sound was very close. He turned around and started to walk back toward the maintenance road.

              With his back to the electric fence, he heard a different sound this time. A low growling sound. He quickly turned around. He still didn't see anything, but blackness. That's when he realized that the blackness he was seeing, was actually a part of a very large dinosaur. The dinosaur that had been tranquilized by Jacob earlier. It had been leaning up against the fence, unconsciousness, breathing deeply. It was very much awake now and looked cautiously around. Alan suddenly became panicked, when he realized that the dinosaur was, indeed, leaning up against the electric fence. The only thing standing between himself and that dinosaur, was a fence. A fence that was obviously NOT electrified, since the dinosaur was leaning on it.

              He didn't move, as the dinosaur pushed itself away from the fence. He watched, as it walked a few steps away from him, sniffing the air. The helicopter was still flying around in the southwest corner of the island. The lights, from time to time, would shine toward where Alan was. As the lights came his way, he was able to see the dinosaur. It looked like it could be a T-Rex. It was a little smaller than what Alan had run into in the past, but it was definitely a very qualified carnivore. Alan watched it turn around, toward him. He stayed unmoving, as the dinosaur continued to sniff the air. Now that the dinosaur was looking directly at him, Alan was able to get a much better look at it. The helicopter lights illuminated it, once again. It had a distinctive shaped head. Alan recognized it as Albertosaurus.

              As he identified the species in his mind, the Albertosaurus glared at him. He didn't think it was possible for it to see him, but while looking directly at him, it roared and charged at the fence. Alan swore to himself, as he turned and ran. He could hear the steel of the electric fence bend, and finally give away. A section of the fence fell to the ground with overwhelming power. Alan felt the ground under his feet shake, as the fence hit the ground. He glanced back once, and wished he hadn't, as the Albertosaurus was in hot pursuit.

              Alan quickly ran toward the ocean, knowing it was an absolute dead end. He felt he had a better chance if he could get back to the paddock, where he could hopefully hide in the safety of the trees. He turned around. The dinosaur was right on top of him now, which was the only thing that worked to his advantage. Had he continued to run forward, the Albertosaurus would have certainly snatched him up. When he turned around, the dinosaur was in the process of lunging toward him, so he was able to barely get past the jaws and run the opposite way. He ran right in between the legs of the massive dinosaur, quickly turning to get out of the way of the muscular tail. The large beast was still tracking him very well, though. It had pivoted on its hind leg, and continued its pursuit. Alan did his best to maneuver between the trees and bushes, in an attempt to stay one step ahead of it. The cat and mouse chase went on for about 10 minutes. After running and ducking for quite a while, he noticed a building, just to the right of where he was. He took a hard right turn and headed in that direction. The Albertosaurus saw the tiny human switch directions and continued to pursue him.

              Alan continued to run. He was getting tired and worn out, but he forced himself to keep moving toward the building. As he got closer, he grimly realized that the building was on the other side of the electric fence. He reached the fence, quickly turned sideways, and tried to squeeze through the thick metal bars. After a little discomfort and slight panic, because the Albertosaurus was just about to him, he finally managed to squeeze through and fall to the other side. The safe side. He slowly stood up, a little wobbly, and continued to run toward the building. From behind him, he heard that same frightening sound of the dinosaur breaking down the unelectrified fence. It continued to charge at him, roaring occasionally.

              He finally made it to the door of the building. He took a fast glance around the outside of the building. It was very much under construction. There weren't even any windows in it yet. He wasn't even sure that going into the building would help, since it looked like the Albertosaurus could probably just destroy it in a few attacks. After looking back, and seeing the wide-open jaws of the Albertosaurus almost to him, Alan decided to take the chance. He opened the door, ran inside and slammed the door shut behind him. When the door shut, the inside of the room became pitch black. He couldn't even see his hand in front of his face. He just stood away from the door, trying to catch his breath.

              The Albertosaurus ran, at full speed, right into the building. It easily took out the entire room Alan was standing in. He was thrown to the floor, as the dinosaur walked into what used to be a room with a door. Now that the room was gone, the moonlight helped to light up the area. Alan could see that there was another door still standing on the opposite end of the building. It was a very big door, and there was light coming out from under it. It looked like some sort of security door. Alan quickly began to crawl toward it. The Albertosaurus found the human once again and resumed its pursuit.

              Alan managed to make it across the room. A part of the fallen wall was draped across the floor, held up by a few tables that were apparently in the room. Alan crawled under the fallen wall and continued to head toward the large door. The Albertosaurus lost track of the human, as Alan disappeared under some of the rubble. It stopped for a few seconds, looking for signs of him.

              Alan made it all the way to the door. He was still on the ground, when he tried looking under the crack at the bottom of the door. The gap wasn't very big, but he could still see into the next room. All he could see, from his level, were desks, chairs and file cabinets. There was definitely light in this room. He slowly brought his hand up and tried pushing on the door, but it wasn't budging. As he was trying to think of what to do next, he thought he heard a noise coming from behind the large door. He immediately thought it was probably another dinosaur. He immediately started to have horrifying visions of being trapped between two dinosaurs. When the overwhelming feeling of giving up overcame him, he heard crying from the other side of the door. Suddenly, he had hope again.

              "Hello?" He whispered under the door.

              The crying stopped, but there was no other response.

              "Someone there?" He whispered.

              There was still no response. Alan glanced back to see where the Albertosaurus was. It was getting very close to him. It had carefully walked up to where the wall had fallen. It was moving things around with its snout, searching for him. He knocked harder.

              "Hello? Please, if there's someone there . . . please let me in there," he pleaded.

              Alan looked back under the door. He could see a shadow moving around now.

              "Look. There's a very big dinosaur out here that is ready to have me for dinner. Please, open the door."

              The Albertosaurus was able to pick the wall up with its snout, exposing Alan on the floor. It tossed the mangled wall aside and was finally able to see Alan again. It roared loudly and began to advance toward him.

              "Oh, god," Alan whispered.

              When the Albertosaurus was just about to him, Alan heard another noise from behind the large door. To his surprise, and delight, the person behind the door sounded like they were unlocking it. The door opened. Alan couldn't see who was on the other side. He crawled into the room, turned around, and slammed the door shut with his feet. He hurried back up and tried to figure out how to lock the door back, but it was very complicated. He could hear the giant footsteps of the Albertosaurus on the other side of the door. He frantically looked around the room for whoever opened the door, but they must have been hidden.

              The Albertosaurus banged into the door, in an attempt to knock it down. The door was very durable though, as it stayed in place. Alan threw his weight into the door, hoping it would assist in holding the door closed. The Albertosaurus came in for another attack. This time, it managed to jolt the door open. Alan was thrown violently backwards. It felt like he was flying through the air slowly. Then, with a very sudden and painful landing, he struck the floor.

              Alan looked at the door. It was spring loaded and had shut again when the Albertosaurus withdrew. He tried to get up so that he could try locking the door again, but found it very hard to do so. His entire body ached and his chest was heaving. He ignored the pain and started to get back up. He was struggling to get back to his feet, when he caught a glimpse of someone running past him. It was a little girl. She ran up to the door and started pushing and pulling the levers and switches on the door. In just a few short seconds, she had the door secured. The Albertosaurus was still ramming the door, but it was getting nowhere.

              Alan decided to stay on the floor where it was much more comfortable. He was watching the little girl as she locked the door. When she turned around, he noticed she had a large gash on the side of her face.

              "You okay?" He asked the girl.

              She looked at him and was about to answer, when it was obvious that she recognized him.

              "Dr. Alan Grant?"

              "Yeah," Alan said, breathing heavily. He managed a slight laugh. "What's left of him, anyway."

              The girl laughed. Alan smiled.

              "So . . . you must be Jodie, is that right?"

              Jodie seemed very surprised that Alan had recognized her.

              "Uh, yes. Yes, I'm Jodie."

              Alan was still smiling. He attempted to get up. When Jodie noticed he was having difficulty, she went over to him and helped.

              "Thanks," Alan said. He was able to see her face injury up close now. "What happened?" He asked, pointing at the gash.

              "A jeep accident."

              Alan was about to ask more questions, but then he noticed Jodie was starting to tear up.

              "Hey, it's going to be all right. I'm here to get you out. To rescue you."

              Jodie had kept her emotions under control, up until this point. But now that an adult was in the picture, she began to think about the horrific events that had taken place the day before. She looked at Alan and suddenly felt the urge to hug him. She hesitated though. She felt a little awkward. She began to cry, as every emotion she had been hiding while on this island, started to emerge.

              Alan pulled her to him and embraced her. She cried harder. Alan held onto Jodie very tight for several minutes, while Jodie worked on composing herself. Then, she suddenly remembered the dinosaur that was outside the door.

              "What was out there?" She asked, not moving from his arms.

              "It was an Albertosaurus."

              Jodie looked up at him.

              "What does that look like?"

              "Kind of like a T-Rex, but smaller."

              Jodie let go of Alan. She was starting to get herself back together now, as she wiped away her tears.

              "How do you know that? I mean, couldn't it be a few different dinosaurs?"

              "Yes, it could have. It's mostly an educated guess, really."

              Jodie nodded. She was still very nervous about the whereabouts of the dinosaur.

              "Is it gone?" She asked.

              "I think so. It's not trying to get in here anymore, so that's a very good thing."

              Jodie nodded again. Alan looked around the room, trying to figure out where they were. Jodie spoke up.

              "Dr. Grant, are you here alone?"

              "No. There's a few more of us. At the moment though, they've seemed to have lost me."

              Jodie laughed a little bit.

              "It's good to finally meet you," she said.

              "Same here," Alan said, smiling.

              "I've been hiding in here for quite a while," she said.

              "Do you know what this place is?"

              "Not really. I've just been hiding. Then, I heard the outside room fall down, and you knocking on the door. You scared me to death."

              "Sorry about that. I would like to thank you for opening the door."

              "You're welcome, Dr. Grant."

              Alan smiled. He was still very much out of breath.

              "You can call me Alan, if you want to."

              "Okay."

              Alan looked the rest of her over. She was wearing jeans and a ripped up, muddy, short-sleeved shirt. Alan guessed that it used to be red. She had several bruises on her arms and several rips in her clothes. She had long brown hair that was put up in a ponytail. Under all the mud, she was a very pretty girl. Alan was suddenly angry. Envoy shouldn't have taken innocent children for leverage.

              "I am so sorry that you got involved in this mess," Alan said.

              "I can't say I'm happy about it, but I've been holding my own."

              "Did you see Tim and Lex?"

              "Tim and Lex? The kids that were on that first island with you?"

              "Yeah, that's them."

              "They're here, too? Wow. No. I haven't talked to anyone, except for two guys named Jacob and Bodan. And a few other bad people."

              "So Bodan and Jacob are both here? On the island?"

              "They were. Some huge dinosaur attacked our jeep and I ran away from them."

              "What did the dinosaur look like?"

              "It was big. It sort of looked like one of those Spinosaurus things, but it didn't have a sail."

              "That could only mean two possibilities. Suchomimus or Baryonyx. Why in the hell would Envoy develop such dangerous creatures?" Alan rambled out loud.

              Jodie was about to say something, when the Albertosaurus began ramming the outside of the building. It had gone around the fairly large building and was trying its luck with the other side. The entire room shook. There was one single window in the room they were in. It was about the size of three standard windows and the Albertosaurus was looking through it.

              Alan grabbed Jodie and the two of them quickly hid behind a desk that was close to them. In all the commotion, Alan was still able to notice Jodie wincing as he pushed her down behind the desk. He noticed a large rip on the back of her shirt. She adjusted herself so that she was fully leaning on him. That seemed to make her pain less severe. Alan rose up to peak over the desk. Jodie grabbed his shirt and pulled him back down.

              "Please, don't do that," she whispered in a panicked voice.

              Alan nodded and stayed down, behind the desk. The Albertosaurus continued to ram into the building, knocking out the glass from the window. The glass flew across the room, some of it falling on Alan and Jodie. Alan covered up Jodie, as shards of glass dropped on him. Jodie was holding onto him very tightly. He could feel her shaking. He just continued to hold her, as the room started to fall down around them.

              "I think we have to get out of here," he whispered to Jodie.

              "I'm scared. I don't want to go anywhere."

              They were running out of time. The Albertosaurus was now working on the weak spot in the room, the broken window. It was sticking its snout through the empty window, shaking the entire outside wall. The wall began swaying back and forth.

              "Okay, Jodie. We've got to go. Right now. Can you open that door again?"

              Jodie was beyond frightened now. She barely even heard what Alan said.

              "What?" She asked, her voice trembling.

              "The door," Alan said, pointing toward it. "I need you to open it again, okay?"

              Jodie nodded. Alan began to crawl toward the door, trying to stay hidden behind the desks. Jodie followed, but then stopped suddenly. There was a very different and very severe pain in her right thigh.

              "Alan," she whispered.

              He looked back at her. She was holding her leg and crying. He crawled back to her and took a closer look at her leg. There was a large piece of glass dug into her leg. It was buried deep inside, with just the wide tip sticking out. Jodie looked at it closer and, gripping the tip, yanked it out.

              "No, wait," Alan said.

              As Jodie pulled, blood sprayed everywhere. She yelled in a panic, as she saw the blood. She had the piece of glass in her hand. She had pulled it completely out. She threw it in anger.

              Alan quickly put his bare hand on the wound, pressing as hard as he could. The blood was still flowing though. Jodie, naturally, began to panic even more.

              "Oh, my god. Oh, my god," was all she could manage to say.

              "It's okay, Jodie. Hold right here," Alan said, moving his hand, when Jodie put hers there. "We just have to find something to stop the bleeding. Here, use this for now."

              Alan found some papers scattered on the floor. He gathered them up and handed them to her. He desperately looked around for something better. In the search he picked up the piece of glass that Jodie threw. It was bloody and almost as big as his own hand. Jodie's wound could prove to be very severe, if they didn't get the proper treatment. He needed to stop the bleeding right now. There was a closet near the window, just to the side of it. He crawled toward it.

              When Jodie saw that Alan was crawling the opposite way from the door, and toward the creature, she became very concerned.

              "What are you doing?" She whispered.

              Alan didn't answer. He reached the closet and opened it. The snout of the Albertosaurus came back through the window at that moment. Alan was only a few feet away from it at this point, but he kept calm and continued to look through the closet. He found some blankets. He gathered them up, stood up, and tossed them toward Jodie.

              Jodie caught some of them and dragged the rest close to herself. She was very worried about Alan. He was still standing right next to the wall and the dinosaur still had its snout in the window. Its eyes were shielded by the wall though, so it couldn't see into the room.

              Suddenly, the Albertosaurus removed its snout and became very quiet. Alan was still standing by the window, so he couldn't see what was going on. He looked at Jodie, hoping she could see what it was doing. It didn't take long to figure out what it was doing.

              "Watch out! Get down!" She yelled.

              Alan dropped to the ground, just as the Albertosaurus rammed through the window again. This time, one side of the wall gave away and the outside wall began to sway again. Alan looked into the closet again, trying to find something to defend himself with, as the wall was just about ready to collapse. All he could find was a broom. He lifted the broom from the closet and crawled under the window. He could feel the breath of the dinosaur on him, as he adjusted the broom. He lifted the broom and jammed it into its snout, as hard and as far, as he could.

              The Albertosaurus let out a painful roar and withdrew its head from the window. Alan and Jodie looked at each other. Both of them breathed a sigh of relief. Alan peaked out the window to see where the Albertosaurus went. Jodie tensed up, as he looked out the window a little bit longer than she was comfortable with.

              "Alan. Where is it?"

              "I don't know. I think it's gone."

              Alan stood up and stuck his head out of the broken window and looked both ways. There were no signs of the Albertosaurus. He hoped it really was gone. He turned around and took a good look at the room they were in. The dinosaur managed to loosen one side on the outside wall, but the room was still in tact. The room withstood the attacks. Alan walked up to Jodie, who was still next to the desk they were hiding behind.

              "How you doing?" He asked, as he knelt down next to her.

              "I'm not sure."

              Jodie still had the papers pressed up against her thigh. They were totally soaked in blood. Blood was also dripping from her thigh onto the floor. He gently removed the papers. Jodie winced.

              "Sorry."

              "My leg, below the knee, is numb. I can't feel it."

              "We just need to get the bleeding stopped and you'll be fine."

              "I hope you're right," Jodie said, tearing up again.

              Alan picked up a blanket and tore the border off the top of it. While he was doing that, he kept an eye on the window to make sure there wasn't an unwelcome visitor. He worked on ripping more of the blanket up into small pieces. He took the small pieces that he made and put them on Jodie's wound, and then he grabbed the border piece he had ripped off first. He looked at Jodie.

              "I'm going to need to lift your leg up, so that I can wrap this around it."

              "Okay."

              Alan nodded. He lifted her leg as gently as he could, but there was no way not to hurt her. She cried out in pain, as he put her leg back down. He tied the blanket border snugly above the gash. Jodie screamed again.

              "Okay, done," he said.

              "Thank god," she said, gasping.

              Alan gave her one of his looks. She managed to smile.

              "There. Now if you don't move too much, you should feel much better in the morning."

              "What time is it?"

              Alan looked at his watch. He was amazed that it still worked, after the little swim he had taken.

              "It's about Midnight."

              "Wow. I guess it is time to go to sleep. My curfew is usually 10:00pm at school. Are we going to sleep here?"

              "Yeah, I think so."

              "What if that thing comes back?"

              "Well, I think that being inside a building would be better than being under a tree."

              "Yeah, good point."

              Alan looked down at her leg.

              "Hey, look at that. The bleeding has just about stopped."

              Jodie looked down. She looked at Alan and nervously smiled.

              "Thanks."

              Alan nodded. He got up and started to spread the other blankets around on the floor, behind another desk. When he had them the way he wanted them, he looked back at Jodie.

              "Let's get you over here, on the blankets and away from all of this blood on the floor."

              Jodie thought that was a good idea. She just didn't want to think about moving. Alan came over to her and knelt down again.

              "Ready?" He asked.

              "Yeah, as ready as I'll ever be."

              "Okay, put your arms around my neck."

              Jodie did what she was told. Alan gently picked her up. She cried a little bit, but mostly she just clenched her teeth. Picking up Jodie hurt Alan a little bit, too. His entire body was still aching from being tossed across the room. He carried her over to the blankets and gently put her down. He situated the ripped blankets over her wound, and then he walked over to the light switch. He turned the light off, making the room instantly black. He waited for his eyes to semi-adjust to the dark, and then he sat down beside Jodie. He reached over and grabbed the other blanket that was on the side and covered them both up with it. He laid down next to her. Jodie quickly moved and ended up laying on his shoulder. Alan looked back toward the broken window. The moonlight was shining through it, and to his relief, there were still no signs of the Albertosaurus.

              "Good night, Alan."

              "Good night, Jodie."

              She smiled in the darkness. She was holding onto his arm, as she closed her eyes, hoping that the Albertosaurus didn't decide to make a return visit.

Chapter 18: Distress Call

              Henry Wiggans walked into Hammond's office, holding a piece of paper. The office was newly decorated and was located on the first floor of the mansion. As he walked in, Hammond looked up from his desk.

              "Hello, Henry."

              "Sir, I have some news," Henry said.

              Hammond looked at his watch. It was quite late.

              "At 1:30 in the morning, you have news?" Hammond thought that Henry looked stressed. "Something bad?"

              "Yes, and no, sir," Henry said, looking down at the paper in his hand. Hammond stared at his assistant, waiting for the bad news. Henry continued. "They made it to the island. But there was some sort of problem with the boat. We received a distress call in morse code, just a little bit ago."

              "Oh, my," Hammond whispered.

              "We weren't able to make out the entire message, but here is most of it."

              Henry handed the piece of paper to Hammond. He read it to himself.

              SOS.......911. SEND........RESCUE.......WEST DOCK. BOAT DOWN. SUPPLIES GONE. AT LEAST TWO DEAD.........GRANT......MISSION ABORTED...

              "Any idea who sent this?"

              "Most likely, one of the mercenaries, sir. No idea which one, though."

              Hammond slowly stood up. He had been sitting in his office chair, for several hours, looking over papers. His body wasn't ready to stand up freely yet. He leaned on the desk, supporting his body with his hands.

              "Okay, Henry. This is what we'll do. Get some of our people over to the Baja Peninsula. Have them assemble a rescue team and have them stand by for further instructions."

              Henry had grabbed a notebook from the desk, and was rapidly writing everything down.

              "Get it all, Henry?"

              "Yes, sir. I believe so. I'll get working on this right away."

              Henry left the office in a hurry, leaving Hammond alone with his thoughts. He hoped that Alan, Ellie and Ian were unharmed. He didn't want to find out that one of them, were among the "at least two dead". He sat back down, as his thoughts drifted to that island. What might have caused their boat to go down? What could have possibly been there, to stop them from docking on the island? Or maybe they did dock on the island, and were taken away by some of Envoy's men? No. If that were the case, there would be no time for a distress call. Unless, one of the mercenaries was able to secretly send it?

              The questions were running through his mind so fast. Hammond finally had to shake his head, in an attempt to clear it, since there were no obvious answers appearing. Whatever might have happened to all of them, one thing was clear. If he didn't hear from someone soon, he would pay for another expedition over to Isla Norte. He had to get his grandchildren back safely. He just had to. They were his whole life now, really. They usually amounted to his only visitors. His daughter hadn't spoken to him in quite some time. They had said some very unpleasant things to each other in the past. She went as far, as to ask him not to attend Tim's graduation. He didn't want to be the cause of another family struggle, so he obliged his daughter, much to Tim's sadness.

              Missing the graduation wasn't all the bad, anyway. It had worked better into Hammond's plans. After all, that cleared his schedule, so that he could go meet with Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant. He had made it his life's obsession, to stop anyone who might try to capitalize on his dinosaur research. He had gone through great lengths, to make sure that the technology developed on Jurassic Park be patented in his name. He still remembered the day when InGen tried suing him over the patents. They had lost. He had succeeded in tricking them all and had been selling bits and pieces of the technology, ever since. Not the technology to produce dinosaurs, but the breakthrough computer systems (the gene sequencer supercomputers), the development of hatching different animal species in ostrich eggs, and the selling of the unique ways of incubation to interested companies. John Hammond was more wealthy now, than he had been when he created Jurassic Park.

              No matter how much money he had, no matter how many people he had working for him, and no matter how many companies depended on his patents, Hammond couldn't stand to think about losing any of his family members. He would do anything in his power to bring Tim and Lex home.

© 2002 by Yvonne Bartha