Chapter 28: Updates and Plans

              Daniel was busy checking park integrity, when he heard Ethan's voice on the walkie talkie. He picked it up.

              "Yeah, what is it, Ethan?"

              "They get the T-Rex under control yet?"

              "Yeah. Jacob just radioed in that it's asleep. They're transferring it now. They found the damned thing all the way by the lab."

              "See, I told you! You have to be aware of the unexpected, Daniel. The lab is very, very close to the right portion, you know."

              "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, you can come back now."

              "Where's Mr. Bodan?"

              "On his way to the lab, with Smith."

              "The lab? Why?"

              "The lab tech, what's his name again?"

              Ethan took pride in knowing everyone's name who worked on Isla Norte.

              "His name is Norman."

              "Yeah, well . . . Norman . . . called us in a panic, saying something had gotten out in the lab. We can't seem to get a hold of him now, so Bodan and Smith went to investigate."

              "I hope he's all right," Ethan said.

              "I'm sure he is. You know how weekend help is, Ethan. They're not the most highly qualified people in the world."

              Ethan didn't respond to that. He just continued with his questions.

              "So, did you find the Raptors yet?"

              "No. I was able to get two more cameras working. In the mall and in the lab. Only one room each, though."

              "That's going to be like finding a needle in a haystack. Those dinosaurs move very swiftly. They might run right past that camera, and you would never know."

              "I know that. I'm recording. I'll watch it in hour intervals, until I spot them. Hopefully, they'll go into one of those buildings."

              "That's impossible to predict," Ethan said.

              Daniel was getting irritated. He had already been chewed out by both Bodan and Jacob, and was growing tired of people second guessing his decision-making skills.

              "Just get the hell over here, Ethan."

              There was a silence for a few seconds. Then, Ethan finally answered.

              "Okay."

              Daniel put the walkie talkie back down on the desk, and went back to checking on park security. He suddenly thought of something and picked the walkie talkie up again.

              "Ethan?"

              "Yeah?"

              "Before you leave Control Room 2, could you somehow get the monitors in the lab working? I know that there are only a few cameras working, but it could help Bodan, when he gets there."

              "Okay, Daniel," Ethan said, thinking about how long that task might take. "I'll have them up in about 20 minutes."

              Daniel looked down at his watch.

              "Good enough. And then come back here, when you're done. Mr. Envoy is coming here in less than two and a half hours."

              "Envoy is coming here? Why?"

              "Never mind that. Just get back here. We've got to get this park under control before he gets here."

              "You got it. I'll be there soon."

Chapter 29: Attack Of The Raptors

And for those keeping track of such things:

12 raptors total

1 left in paddock

1 caught under crate

2 in lab

8 left in mall area

              Alan quickly began to move, trying to use the wall to help himself up. Tim and Jodie were helping him, while Lex quickly got up and started to head for the small room the Raptor had been trapped in. She knew she would hold everyone up, so she tried to get a head start.

              "Wait! We need to go the other way," Tim said.

              Tim and Jodie had managed to get Alan to his feet. Jodie was on his right side, holding him up, and Tim was on Alan's wounded side, being as careful as possible. They all continued to look at the Raptor. It was moving slightly and snarling, as it attempted to get out from under the heavy crate.

              "It's not getting up. The crate is holding it down," Tim said.

              Lex nodded and changed directions, coming toward the others. As she got away from the door, she heard more high pitched snarling, coming from the other side of the door. Or at least that's where she guessed it was from. She limped quickly to the others, who were about to pass by the Raptor, under the crate.

              "There's more Raptors behind that door," she said, pointing in the other direction.

              Alan's pain was very much under control, at this point, because of the drugs Lex had given him. He was becoming more clear headed, as time went by, since he didn't have the pain to sidetrack him.

              "How could they be behind that door? Both doors are spring loaded," Alan asked.

              "I was thinking the same thing," Tim added.

              As they were trying to solve the little puzzle, the solution revealed itself. The Raptors weren't on the other side of the door. They were traveling over the top of the air ducts, far above the humans. They had made their way past the tiny sealed up room, and had found the retreating humans in the long hallway. The Raptor, in the lead, dropped down, and fell through the ceiling tiles, landing on the floor awkwardly. The others dropped down through the hole that the first Raptor had made, one at a time.

              Lex limped past the Raptor trapped under the crate, and had to move out of the way, as it attempted to slash at her. She had finally made it to everyone else, without further incident. They were all looking past her, so she turned around. She counted the Raptors, in horror, as they continued to jump down from the hole in the ceiling tile.

              "One, two, three . . . holy shit . . . four . . . " Lex said, as she moved backwards, toward Alan and company.

              There were five Raptors, in all, when they were finished jumping down. The first one stood up from its fall, and began to walk closer to one of its wounded, the Raptor trapped under the crate. The other four cautiously followed, peering confusingly at the humans.

              "Okay, everyone," Alan whispered, "very slowly . . . go through the door."

              They all backup up to the door, while the lead Raptor continued toward the trapped Raptor on the floor. Jodie was closest to the door, so she opened it up. The room was still very dark, but she had come from that way, so she had an idea of what was in that direction.

              "There's a monorail entrance somewhere on the second floor of this building. Earlier, I saw a sign that said so."

              Lex was feeling pretty hopeless at this point. The Raptors were so close to them. The thought of getting on the monorail, and away from the dinosaurs, was very encouraging.

              "Maybe, if we're lucky, it'll actually work," she said.

              Alan shrugged and looked at Tim. Tim nodded at him.

              "It's worth a try. We really don't have another option," Tim said.

              Jodie helped Alan across the small room and they made it to the door, which was located to the left. Tim quickly closed the door they had just came from. He looked for a lock, but there wasn't one. Jodie opened up the door on the left, and all four of them went inside to the next, much larger, room. Tim was the last one through this door, too. He shut it and looked for a lock again. This time there was one, so he used it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Ellie and Ian were now inside the middle section of the lab. The door that connected the hallway and the middle section was wide open. They had gone inside. There were no signs of the Dilophosaurs or the Raptors. The door going to the third section of the lab was also open. Ellie ran across the room and shut the door. Ian shut the door they had just came from. The two of them stood in the middle of the room, staring at each other. Neither of them could piece together the events that had just transpired in the other room.

              "What the hell happened in there?" Ian asked, out of breath.

              "I guess it's lucky for us that the Dilophosaurs would rather fight with the Raptors," Ellie said.

              "Yeah. And Ellie, thanks for yanking me back to the living."

              "You're welcome," Ellie said, smiling.

              Ellie looked around the room. There were file cabinets, off to one side and some sort of huge metal rack in the middle of the room. She walked toward the rack and walked around to the other side of it. On the other side, there were several monitors, arranged in a straight line. About 10 of them. They were all turned on, but there was nothing but snow. She walked to them and followed them one by one. As she walked, monitors 1, 4, 5 and 7 flashed on. She was directly in front of monitor 5 and it startled her. As she looked at it, she smiled.

              "Ian, come here."

              Ian was messing with some file cabinets on the other side, trying to get them open. He wasn't having any luck though. They were all locked and very hard to pick open, so he went over to her quickly. He was about to ask what she wanted, when he saw what she was looking at. Monitor 4 was the inside of the lab. The inside of the middle section, near the file cabinets, right where Ian had just been. There was a very good chance that the bad guys knew where they were now. And if that wasn't alarming enough, monitor 5 was even more shocking. It was a view of some unknown building and Alan could be seen very clearly in the picture. There was a young girl and a tall young guy standing very close to him. And it was only seconds before Ian and Ellie saw another girl limp into the picture from the left side. It was obvious that it was Jodie, Tim, and Lex.

              Ellie was very relieved to see that Alan was still alive. Ian noticed something else and was amused by it.

              "Would you look at that? The guy singlehandedly found all three kidnap victims. What does he need us for?"

              Ellie slightly laughed and then looked closer. Alan had his left arm bandaged up and she was now able to tell that Tim and Jodie were helping him walk. All of them were looking to their left and walking backwards.

              "Oh, god. He's hurt. And it looks as though something is in there with them."

              Ian looked closer, too.

              "I think you're right," he said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              This new, and much larger room, that Alan found himself in, had a staircase in it. It was located at about the half-way point of the room. Jodie tried to help Alan make it to the staircase. Lex was right behind them, trying to keep up. Tim had fallen behind, as he began to look around the big room they were in. They were in what looked like a room with merchandise overstock. There was a desk, complete with a wooden chair. There were also piles and piles of T-shirts everywhere. Tim noticed a few interesting, and possibly useable, things on the desk and a nearby shelf.

              Alan looked back.

              "Tim! Come on!" He yelled.

              Tim looked at him.

              "Alan, I have an idea. You guys get to the stairs. I'm going to try and distract them."

              Alan was about to protest, when Tim interrupted him.

              "Go. I'll be fine. Honest. Just go. Please, get Jodie and my sister out of here."

              Alan still wasn't sure, but he nodded at Tim and continued to go toward the stairs.

              The five Raptors had managed to get the trapped Raptor out from under the crates. They all focused on the door, in the small dark room, and easily jarred it open, after only a few strong hits with their bodies. Then, all of them concentrated on the door to the left, throwing their weight into it, shrieking and snarling the entire time.

              Tim gave one last look at the door, that the Raptors were now banging into, and then quickly went in the direction of the desk. He ran to the desk and grabbed one of the interesting things that he had spotted. Lighter fluid. Then, he spun around, pushed the wooden chair to the floor, and kicked at it, until it broke. He grabbed some of the overstocked T-shirts and wrapped a few around one of the chair legs. He reached for the lighter from a nearby shelf, and lit his makeshift torch.

              As the fire began to develop, the hinges of the door finally failed and fell to the floor. The door of the room slowly started to open. Two Raptors were in the lead, with the rest of the pack a short distance behind. There were six in all, including the one that had been trapped under the crates.

              Tim stared at the seemingly fearless dinosaurs, as they walked menacingly toward him. He waved his torch around and yelled at them.

              At first, the Raptors weren't very spooked by the fire, but as the two in the lead drew closer, they started to feel the heat of the strange object the human was swinging around. They backed up, all the while snarling and shrieking at Tim.

              Alan made it to the staircase and began the long climb up. Jodie was helping him and Lex was following behind. She was having a very difficult time navigating the stairs. The pain in her leg seemed to be getting worse. Alan glanced behind him, to see how Tim was doing. To his amazement, Tim was holding the Raptors at bay. The fire was really working. As Alan was looking behind him, he noticed Lex having trouble. He turned to help her. The three of them managed to get to the top of the staircase. Jodie smiled, as she noticed the signs for the monorail.

              "We need to go to the right," she said.

              Alan nodded and shouted at Tim.

              "Tim! Get up here! Go to the right!"

              Tim never took his eyes off of the Raptors. He continued swinging his torch.

              "Okay, okay. I'm coming."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              As Ellie and Ian were trying to figure out what they were all backing away from, Raptors came into camera range and quickly advanced toward Alan and company. They continued to watch monitor 5. They had watched Alan, Lex and Jodie make it up the stairs, and then they watched them disappear to the right side of the screen.

              "Where are they? What building are they in?"

              "I don't know," Ian said.

              He examined the monitors more closely, for any evidence of Alan's location. There was nothing. They continued to watch the screen, as Tim appeared. He had made a torch and was waving it at the Raptors. Ian smiled.

              "Now that's a very good idea," he said, nodding. "Most everything is afraid of fire."

              Ellie was thinking the same thing, but the Raptors were getting very close to Tim.

              "Why isn't he running?" She asked.

              "He's giving everyone else a chance to get away."

              "Everyone is already up the stairs. He needs to run," Ellie said, very concerned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Tim was backing up, toward the staircase now, but the Raptors seemed to be getting a little braver. They were taking small lunges at Tim, and then backing up again. One Raptor, in particular, was getting closer than Tim was comfortable with. He grabbed the lighter fluid from his back pocket, opened it, and began to splash it onto the lead Raptor.

              The Raptor quickly stopped and stood up on its hind legs, in a defensive posture, when Tim dowsed it with lighter fluid. It growled at him, making him even more nervous. As the lead Raptor lowered back to the ground, Tim threw his torch at it, catching it on fire immediately. There was so much lighter fluid on the Raptor at that point, that it practically burst into flames. It began to cry and wail, as it stumbled along the concrete floor, going in circles.

              The other Raptors panicked and ran backwards, lightly bobbing their heads from side to side, trying to figure out what had happened to their leader.

              Jodie was still following the monorail signs, as she helped Alan walk quickly. She finally stopped and smiled. Alan and Lex were smiling, too. After making several turns, they had found the monorail station. There was one monorail car, just sitting and waiting for them to use. Jodie and Alan quickly made their way to the monorail car and went inside. Alan was starting to feel a little dizzy, from all the running, but he still turned around to make sure that Lex was coming. She was. She was almost to the car.

              Tim had run up the staircase at a tremendously fast pace, and was sprinting toward the monorail car. The Raptors were finally mustering up enough courage to attempt to go past the burning Raptor. They edged closer and closer to the lead Raptor, which had fallen to the ground, dead.

                            Alan was trying to figure out how to operate the monorail car. They were in the front car, the car with all of the controls, but nothing was lit up. There was no power. He frantically looked around for a power switch. He found one, but when he flipped the switch, it did nothing. There was clearly no power to the entire car. He looked outside of the car and spotted a small control booth, just ahead of where Tim was running.

              "Tim! Turn the power on to the car! Right there!" He yelled, pointing frantically to the tiny control booth.

              Tim wasn't sure he understood. He slowed down a little bit.

              "What?"

              Alan was still pointing, and now Jodie and his sister were also pointing in the same direction.

              "The control booth. Right there! Turn the power on. The car isn't working!" Alan yelled again.

              Tim quickly went inside the control booth and desperately looked for some sort of switch to get the monorail operational. He found a button with potential. He pushed it. There was a whooshing noise that spread all around the area, and then some lights that weren't illuminated on the monorail car before, suddenly lit up.

              The Raptors had finally made it past the fire, and were in hot pursuit of the humans once again. They were running up the staircase.

              Alan looked down and happily noticed that the switch under his hand, now had a orange glow coming from it. He flipped the switch again. This time, the power to the car came on, as the orange glow changed to a green glow. He quickly looked at the rest of the controls, trying to see which one might close the sliding doors on the monorail car. None of the levers, switches, or buttons were labeled. And they're were quite a lot of them.

              "Lex, help me out here. We need to get the doors closed when Tim gets in here."

              Lex was yelling to Tim to go faster, as he ran toward the monorail car. She glanced over at Alan, and then limped toward the controls. She studied the levers, switches, and buttons. After only a few seconds, she pointed to the one she believed to be for the sliding door. She limped away, to check on Tim's progress. Jodie had taken her place in the yelling department.

              "Tim. You're almost here. Hurry. Hurry, Tim!" She yelled repeatedly.

              Lex came up next to her and joined in. Alan was standing in the front of the car, with his hand hovering over the button Lex had told him to use. Sweat was running down the side of his face, as he anxiously waited for Tim to get into the car.

              The Raptors were all the way to the top of the staircase, and taking swift steps, easily gliding through the middle of the room, and through all the turns. They were almost to their prey.

              Lex noticed how close the Raptors were getting.

              "Tim! Hurry! Oh, god, hurry!" Lex yelled to her brother.

              Tim didn't dare look back. He knew he didn't want to know just how close the Raptors were to him. Their snarls and shrieks seemed to be right up against his ears. He was running, as fast as his legs would take him. He was totally exhausted, but he continued on. His fear was keeping him on the go. He reached the monorail car, and the girls got out of his way. With a giant last leap, he landed inside the car, diving head first. He managed to flip right over and smack against the opposite edge of the car, his body coming to a sudden, and painful halt.

              When Tim made a successful jump, Jodie and Lex turned to Alan at the same time.

              "Close the door!" They shouted in unison.

              Alan was already doing just that. He pushed the button Lex had told him to, and the sliding doors began to close. They were closing painfully slow, though. The Raptors were definitely moving faster than the closing doors. The carnivores made it all the way to the car, and mimicking Tim, leapt toward the sliding doors. In the excitement, Alan accidently leaned on the button with his hand. Pressing the button for a continued period of time, made the doors slide quicker! The doors closed with a click, just as the Raptors threw their bodies at the monorail car. It was too late for them to get to the humans. They simply bounced off of the reinforced windows and doors, confused by what had happened.

              Tim was still sprawled out on the floor of the monorail car, breathing quite heavily. Jodie was next to him, checking on him. Lex watched in horror, as the Raptors continued to throw their bodies at the door. She turned her head toward Alan, but didn't take her eyes off of the dinosaurs.

              "Alan, get us moving," she said.

              "I'm working on it. I'm working on it," Alan said, as he was trying to decide on which lever to move.

              He decided on the lever all the way to the right. He moved it up and the monorail started to move slowly forward, and away from the mall station. All four of them began to relax some, as the Raptors gradually disappeared from sight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

              Ellie and Ian were still standing in the lab, near the monitors, so that they weren't seen by the cameras. After Alan had disappeared from the screen, and Ellie saw Raptors in pursuit, she had been very quiet. Too quiet. Ian could tell she was about to explode with fear and anger.

              "Ellie, they could have made it," Ian said, hoping that he was right. "No, they probably made it."

              Ellie just looked at him. She had no feeling in her eyes. Then, suddenly, she filled with rage and began to hit the equipment in front of her, in pure frustration. Ian tried to stop her, but she ended up pushing him away.

              "You don't understand, Ian! I can't lose him now. I can't. Not now."

              She began to knock monitors down, letting them crash to the floor. Ian just moved out of the way and let her take out her frustrations on the defenseless equipment. She repeatedly hit the strange looking buttons, lined up under the monitors. As she was screaming Alan's name out loud and beginning to cry, she heard his voice. She instantly stopped moving and listened closely.

              "Ellie?" Alan asked.

              She was flooded with emotions, as she looked around the lab, trying to find Alan. He was nowhere to be seen.

              "Ian, where is he?"

              Ian was looking down at the strange buttons Ellie had been hitting. There were tiny labels affixed to the buttons. Ian smiled.

              "Intercom," he answered.

              Ellie was too happy to even think.

              "What?"

              Ian laughed.

              "You pushed the intercom button, down here," Ian said, pointing. "You must have connected with Alan somehow."

              Ellie started pushing all of the buttons again, calling for Alan each time. Finally, she pushed the right one. It was labeled M. intercom.

              "Alan?" Ellie said, for the fourth try.

              "Yeah, it's me. Where are you?" Alan answered back.

              "Oh, my god. You're alive!" Ellie said.

              "We're in the lab," Ian added, answering the question Ellie had just ignored. "Where are you?"

              "On the monorail."

              Ian and Ellie exchanged curious looks.

              "Monorail?" Ian asked.

              Alan could be heard laughing.

              "Yeah, it's a long story. Where should we meet?"

              "Where does the monorail go?" Ellie asked.

              "Well, according to this track map Jodie has found, the next stop is the Visitors Center. It's on the right portion of the island. On the East coast, about the middle of the portion."

              "Okay, that's where we'll meet you, then. The Visitors Center." Ian said.

              "Good, good. See you guys there. And Ellie? Be careful," Alan added.

              Ian laughed.

              "What about me, my friend?"

              There was a slight pause.

              "Well, yeah . . . okay. You be careful too, Ian."

              "Gee thanks."

              Ellie was about to suggest that they get moving, when she noticed people standing in monitor 4. The lab monitor.

              "Ian . . ." she began to say, but was then interrupted.

              Patrick Bodan was standing in the middle section of the lab, right where the camera was pointed. Another man was with him, and both of them had guns. Bodan smiled, as he gestured Ian and Ellie over and away from the monitors with his gun.

              "And I thought all that I would find here were escaped dinosaurs," he coldly said.

              He looked at Ellie and Ian very carefully, and then a few seconds later, recognized them.

              "Dr. Malcolm. Dr. Sattler . . . or should I say Degler?"

              Ellie couldn't understand why this man knew so much about her. She didn't respond. Bodan continued to talk, smiling the entire time. He had been in the room long enough to hear the conversation between them and Alan.

              "Visitors Center. Good plan. I haven't been to the Visitors Center in quite a while. Let's all go pay a visit to it, shall we?"

© 2002 by Yvonne Bartha