Chapter 36: Isla Norte TV

              Marcus Envoy was the last one to wake up, after a very long night. He looked up and saw Daniel typing on his laptop computer. He looked at the clock on the table. It was 5:06am. Envoy, Bodan, Jacob and Daniel had called it a night and stayed at the employee section of the lodge, on the second floor. The same lodge Alan and company were in. Neither party knew of one another.

              "What are you doing, Daniel?"

              "Checking park integrity, Mr. Envoy. I want to make sure nothing has escaped, or that Ethan didn't change things again."

              Envoy was still shocked about Ethan. He wanted to get Daniel's take on the whole thing.

              "What would make young Ethan betray us?"

              Daniel was about to try to provide a noteworthy answer, when Jacob spoke up. He was on the other side of the room, getting some guns ready.

              "He seemed to know Ian Malcolm. I think he has been working for Hammond the entire time," Jacob said.

              "Well, that is just unforgivable, if true," Envoy said.

              Bodan had been out in the hallway. He walked in, just catching the last part of the conversation.

              "Ethan will pay, Mr. Envoy. I can assure you of that."

              Envoy nodded.

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

              While asleep on the fifth floor of the lodge, Ellie was having another dream. This time, though, it wasn't a nightmare, like it had routinely been. This time it was pleasant. She was dreaming about the first time her mother had met Alan Grant:

              Ellie had been dating Alan for about three months at that point, and had finally talked Alan into having dinner with her mother, Patricia. Alan had talked to Ellie's mother on the phone twice, and he was very aware that she did not want Ellie to have anything to do with him. She had actually told him personally, that she thought he was too old for her daughter and that teachers shouldn't take advantage of their students in that way. Understandably, Alan was not looking forward to the in person meeting, but Ellie had convinced him that it was the right thing to do. For some reason, Alan was frightened of Patricia. Ellie had figured that her mother had said a lot more things to him. Things that he just neglected to mention to her.

              Ellie stirred once, smiling in her sleep, as the dream continued.

              Now she was at the restaurant with Alan. Her mother had been late, so she and Alan sat at the reserved table, waiting. Since her mother was flying in, just for the occasion, Alan had let Patricia pick the restaurant. She had picked the second most expensive restaurant in all of Montana. Ellie tried to protest, knowing that Alan had insisted on paying before he even knew where they were going, but Alan had told her not to worry. She watched him look nervously around, as they waited . . . and waited. Finally, her mother showed up, about 30 minutes late. Alan had quickly gotten up, to assist Patricia with her chair. Her mother's response was civil and courteous, but somewhat standoffish. Ellie could see that she was having a very pleasant time making Alan nervous. After about an hour, Ellie could see that her mother was warming up to him slowly. Very slowly, as she could see the whole ordeal was torture to poor Alan, but she decided to let the two of them sort it out. Eventually, they did sort it out, and Alan was magically able to become one of Patricia's favorite people.

              Ellie smiled in her sleep again, as she was coming to the good part. She fondly remembered this as being when her mother had started to like him.

              They were about ready to leave the restaurant, and Alan had stood up to assist Patricia with her chair. An unsuspecting waiter ran into him with a tray full of food, hitting him in the head with it. Alan had fallen down, and soon after, all the food on the tray came falling down on top of him. Ellie could still hear him yelling.

              "Ouch! What the . . . ? Hey!"

              Still dreaming, she remembered looking over at her mother. Patricia was laughing. She was laughing so hard, she hard tears in her eyes. The waiter, totally embarrassed by what had just happened, simply ran away back into the kitchen. Ellie had helped Alan up, and when the two of them had looked at each other, with her mother laughing in the background, they started to laugh, too. Then, Ellie heard Alan again.

              "Ouch!"

              Ellie woke up, as she realized that Alan wasn't talking in her dream. He was really saying ouch. She sat up in the bed, stretched out a little bit, and was reminded immediately about her hand hurting. She winced, as she got up from the bed and headed to the bathroom, which was where Alan's voice was coming from. She reached the open door of the bathroom and peered inside. Lex was already awake and she was taking another look at Alan's shoulder. Ellie watched, as Lex pressed and examined all around the wound, making Alan mad . . . again.

              "Ouch. Will you stop that? I'm fine."

              "I just wanted to check for an infection," Lex said, continuing the examination.

              "Quit being a baby," Ellie interrupted.

              Alan looked up and saw Ellie standing in the doorway. He instantly smiled at her, in that warm and loving way that he used to, all those years ago. Then his mood changed some.

              "Oh, hey, look at that," he said, glancing at Lex, "now you can examine Ellie, and leave me alone."

              Lex shook her head.

              "Okay, okay, you can go. Just let me put a new bandage on that."

              Ellie watched Lex bandage Alan up, and then he quickly got up and walked into the bathroom doorway. He stopped right next to her. She looked up at him, and when she did, he quickly kissed her.

              "Good morning, sunshine," he said quietly.

              Ellie smiled, her arms crossed in an attempt to stop her hand from hurting.

              "Good morning," she whispered back.

              Lex was still in the bathroom. She had watched Alan kiss her. As Ellie came into the bathroom, Lex laughed.

              "I guess you two got along very well last night."

              Ellie had already been smiling, but she somehow managed to smile even more.

              "You could say that, yes."

              Lex laughed again.

              "Well, let's get your hand fixed up. Ethan brought me some medical supplies. He and Ian had gone out to do something with the computer control rooms earlier, and when they came back, he handed me a first aid kit."

              "Where did they go?"

              "They went to turn off some of the park systems and reboot them. And Ian said they also did something to every jeep that they found along the way."

              "Any idea what?"

              "No, Ian didn't have a clue. He said Ethan had attached something to the inside of the glove compartments."

              Ellie was impressed.

              "That's great. It seems that Ethan thought of everything. What a bright kid," Ellie said.

              "And good looking, too," Lex added.

              Ellie laughed.

              "And he's just about your age."

              "Yeah."

              Ellie noticed that Lex was looking a little uncomfortable about the subject, so she changed it.

              "So, what can you do for my hand?"

              "I've got a hand splint here. Let's try that."

              Alan walked back into the bedroom, moving his arm around, checking for mobility. It was healing very well. He was very lucky to have Lex. Holding his shoulder, he sat down on the side of Jodie's bed. She was still sound asleep. He reached over and gently shook her awake.

              "Hey, Jodie. Rise and shine," he said.

              Jodie opened her eyes, looked around the room, and then rested them on Alan.

              "What time is it?" She asked, groggily.

              "5:30am," he answered.

              Jodie sat up.

              "Are you crazy? 5:30am? Why are we up so early?"

              Alan laughed.

              "I get up everyday by this time. This is not too early."

              "Oh, man. You are crazy," Jodie said, snickering and stretching.

              Alan ignored that last remark.

              "Well, now that you're up, I'm going to see what Ian, Ethan and Tim are doing," Alan said, getting up slowly.

              "Yeah, okay," Jodie said, laying back down.

              Alan looked back at Jodie.

              "Get up. I don't want to have to pull you out of bed."

              "Okay, okay. I'm up. I'm up," Jodie said, getting out of the bed.

              Alan smiled.

              "Good. The shower is empty. Go use it."

              Jodie laughed.

              "You sound like a dad."

              Alan shook his head, and then went into the next room. Ian was the only one in the room and he watching television. He looked up, as he saw Alan come into the room.

              "Did you know that on Isla Norte, you can get Triceratops rides?"

              "What?"

              Ian pointed to the television.

              "Yeah, according to this station here, you can ride a real live Triceratops . . . for a very big fee, I'm guessing."

              Alan laughed. He walked over to Ian, and the two of them watched the television. In the lower right hand corner of the screen, were the words Isla Norte TV.

              "Do we get any other channels?" Alan asked.

              "Nope. This is it, I'm afraid," Ian answered.

              "Where's Ethan and Tim?"

              "Ethan is on the balcony, doing something with the laptop. He said he needed to be outside. Tim is taking a shower."

              Alan nodded. They continued to watch Isla Norte TV in silence, for about 10 minutes.

              Ethan was on the balcony, making some final tweaks on a program that he had written. If all went well, when he executed the program, he would get complete control of the Isla Norte computers. He had been working on it, almost from the time he started working for Daniel, about 5 months. Everything was ready to go. He came back into the room and handed a walkie talkie to Ian and Alan.

              "I'm sorry, but I only have three walkie talkies. I wasn't expecting to need any more than that."

              Alan and Ian nodded.

              "This should be enough," Ian said.

              Ethan nodded.

              "Okay, everything is set. At 6:00am, I'm going to take over the computers."

              Tim was out of the shower now and dressed, watching the television with Ian and Alan. All three of them looked at Ethan.

              "How?" Ian asked.

              "I've written a program. It's long and complicated . . . and probably a very boring topic. It should override the entire park system, taking away any control that Daniel has."

              "Wow. Impressive," Lex said from the doorway of the other room.

              Ethan turned and smiled at her.

              "Thank you."

              Ethan walked back out to the balcony and Lex followed. She turned to look at Alan.

              "I looked at Jodie's leg. It's fine. I bandaged it up for her."

              Alan nodded and smiled, as Lex went to the balcony. Tim was closest to the balcony and he could hear Ethan and his sister talking about computers. He didn't understand much of what they were saying, but it was quite impressive. Tim looked at Alan. 

              "Well, at least she has someone to admire, besides you."

              Alan nodded and walked back into the other room. Jodie was sitting at the small table in the room, all cleaned up, looking through a copy of National Geographic Magazine that was in the room. Ellie was just coming from the bathroom, fully dressed. Everyone was ready to go. Alan looked at the clock on the table. It said 5:48am. In twelve minutes, everything was going to change, hopefully, for the better.

Chapter 37: System Malfunction

              Daniel was checking a few park systems, when suddenly the computer screen went blank.

              "What the hell?"

              Daniel checked to see if the laptop had somehow gotten unplugged. It was plugged in. As he was trying to figure out what had happened, he noticed that the power meter was still in the lower right hand corner of the screen. The computer was still running, but the entire Isla Norte program was gone. Bodan approached him.

              "What is it?"

              "The system . . . the system shut down."

              "Well, bring it back up."

              Daniel looked at Bodan. He had an idea of what had happened to the system, and he knew that Bodan would never understand.

              "It's not that easy."

               Bodan came closer to Daniel, watching the computer whiz type frantically. Daniel was able to make it into the system BIOS, but couldn't get any farther.

              "I think Ethan may have done something. None of my passwords will work."

              Jacob had gotten up by now, and was making his way over to Daniel and Bodan. He had a rifle in his hand, swinging it by his side.

              "Can't you just fix it?"

              Daniel realized that he was the only computer literate person in the room.

              "I don't know. I'm working on it."

              Envoy stood up.

              "Okay, okay, boys. Give Daniel some room, so that he can work out the problems," Envoy said, interrupting.

              Bodan and Jacob backed up away from Daniel, as Daniel kept on typing. He tried to follow Ethan's footsteps over the last few hours. Ethan had physically shut down the power in both the Main Control Room and Control Room 2, and then had restarted. This made it impossible for Daniel to bring up any files. After about 15 minutes went by, he looked at his employer and finally spoke.

              "Mr. Envoy. Ethan has ran his own program over the top of mine. But he hasn't yet physically turned off the power in Control Room 3, so if I can get there, I'll be able to . . . hopefully get into the computer there and re-install my program over the top of his."

              Envoy nodded and looked at Jacob and Bodan.

              "One of you should go with him," he said.

              Bodan volunteered. He stocked up on firearms and left the room. Daniel grabbed two walkie talkies and quickly followed him. They went down the stairs, to the first floor, and out through the large glass doors. Bodan found the jeep that they had left there, the night before. There were two other jeeps there, as well. They got into it, with Bodan in the driver's seat. He started it, and then he swore, as he started to feel drops of rain coming down on him. For the time of morning, it was darker than usual. The sky was a hazy kind of gray, as a summer storm approached the island.

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

              Alan and company had made it out of the room. Everyone was in good spirits, knowing that they were to be rescued in less than five hours. Ethan made his way to the front of the group to get their attention.

              "Okay, I've written down all the instructions to turn the power off to Control Room 3, and then how to reboot the systems and load my program into memory," Ethan said, handing everyone a sheet of paper.

              Alan nodded, as he took the paper. He folded it and put it in a pocket. Everyone else did the same.

              "And on the back, is how to open the Pterodactyl Aviary."

              "Why would we want to open that?" Lex asked.

              "I've attached a high frequency bird repeller to all of the jeeps. Dr. Wu had told me that the device makes the Pterodactyls go crazy with anger. They attack anything close to the device, so I'm hoping that either Bodan or Jacob will try to take a jeep to Control Room 3, after Daniel figures out what I've done."

              "Good idea. But won't that just be freeing the Pterodactyls?" Ellie asked.

              "Yeah, but they don't like very many foods, so I'm hoping that they'll come back to feed. Dr. Wu said they had gotten out once before, when they were smaller. All four of them came back after about a day."

              "So, you're going on that? You're just hoping they come back? Wonder if they get free and decide to attack some helpless person on the mainland?" Alan asked.

              "Well, we're just going to have to hope for the best. It's the only option I could think of. Bodan is going to have guns and brawn on his side, so I thought I'd even the odds up a little."

              Alan nodded.

              "Good point. I'm beginning to understand now," he said.

              Ethan smiled.

              "So, if something should happen to me, someone has to get to that control room and shut it down, " he added.

              "I think we need to stay optimistic, Ethan," Ian said.

              "You? Optimistic? Wow," Alan said, surprised by Ian's remark.

              Ellie hit Alan in the arm. Ian smiled.

              "Maybe I'm evolving," Ian commented.

              "Maybe we all are," Ellie added, looking at Alan.

              Alan smiled. They continued their way down to the first floor of the lodge. Lex was the slowest getting down the stairs again, and this time Alan and Ethan were helping her. Tim laughed to himself, as he watched his sister get assistance from both her first crush and her current one. Ian was in the lead, with Ellie and Jodie right behind him. Jodie was carrying the precious laptop computer. Alan, Lex and Ethan were following behind, with Tim heading up the rear. Ian made his way to the main entrance of the lodge, and opened the giant glass door.

              With the door open, the sound of a jeep running could be heard. Ethan tried to warn Ian to close the door back, but he had already done so on his own. It was already too late, though. Bodan had spotted them. He fired off several shots in the air, letting them know he had seen them. When he realized that they weren't surrendering, he started to shoot into the building. The giant glass door shattered, as bullets began whizzing by in every direction.

              "What are you doing?" Daniel yelled, ducking in the jeep.

              "Capturing them alive is no longer important, Daniel. We need to simply stop them from getting away now. There's no more time for messing around."

              "But Mr. Envoy wouldn't ---"

              "I don't care. Shut up and get out of the jeep, Daniel."

              Daniel was very afraid of Bodan, so he did what he was told. Bodan was already running toward the front entrance of the lodge. Daniel ran after him. Bodan slowed down, as he reached the door. He looked at Daniel.

              "Stay here for a minute. Radio Envoy and tell him to send Jacob down here quickly. When you're finished, come back in here."

              "Okay," Daniel said, putting the walkie talkie to his mouth.

              "Oh, and Daniel?" Bodan asked. Daniel looked up at him. "Get a damn gun from the jeep before you wander in here."

              Daniel nodded, as Bodan went into the lodge cautiously, gun drawn.

              As Bodan started shooting at the glass doors, it forced the group to split up. Glass was flying everywhere, when Alan grabbed Ellie and pushed her to the left. Ethan pushed Lex and Jodie to the right, and Ian followed them. Tim just dove to the ground, as a stray bullet hit him. Lex saw her brother hit the floor, holding his neck.

              "Timmy!" She yelled.

              Ian turned around to see Tim on the floor. He hurried to him, but as he did he yelled to Ethan.

              "Get Jodie and Lex out of here!"

              Ethan nodded and quickly urged Lex into moving. She did, with a little protest, but she knew they had to take cover. Bodan was most likely coming in after them. Ethan had taken the laptop from Jodie, and thought that she was following them. She wasn't. She was just standing there, in disbelief, as she watched Ian get to Tim.

              Ian bent down to check on young boy.

              "You okay?"

              Tim looked up at him. Ian could see that he was bleeding from the neck, but it didn't look too serious.

              "I think I've been shot," Tim said in shock.

              "I see that, but it looks as though it's just a graze. There no real damage."

              "You sure? It hurts like hell," Tim said.

              "Pretty sure. Come on. Let's get out of here before Bodan crashes the party."

              Tim nodded and let Ian help him up. They quickly made their way to the right, following where Ethan and Lex had gone. Ian had turned Jodie around and persuaded her to go in a nice manner. She nodded, giving him no trouble.

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

              Alan and Ellie ran to one of the side entrances on the west side of the lodge. As Alan was running, he heard Ian's voice on the walkie talkie, that was attached to his belt. On the run, he grabbed it and pushed the button down.

              "Yeah?"

              "Alan. Ethan and Lex are on their way to the third floor. Tim, Jodie and I are on the second floor. We're all okay. Where are you?"

              "Can't Bodan hear our conversation?" Alan asked.

              "No. Ethan altered these radios, so that we're talking on a different frequency. Don't worry about it."

              "We're on the first floor, near one of the entrances to the west."

              Alan suddenly heard Ethan's voice.

              "Alan, go outside, there should be a jeep parked right there. You don't need a key. All of the jeeps are rigged to just start when you turn the ignition. Get to Control Room 3 and restart the power."

              Alan was sure that he wouldn't be able to restart any kind of computer, but Ellie was with him, so he knew she could do it.

              "Okay. I'll let you know when we're done it."

              "Okay," Ethan said.

              Alan attached the walkie talkie back to his belt, while he and Ellie headed for the door. There was a jeep outside, just like Ethan had said. After a quick look around, they made a dash for it.

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

              Just as Daniel was coming into the lodge, Bodan was coming back out. He almost ran into the confused Daniel.

              "Where are they?"

              "They've scattered. But I heard a jeep starting from somewhere out here. Did you see anything?"

              "No. I wasn't really looking, though. I was talking with Jacob. He's on his way out. He was worried about leaving Mr. Envoy alone, but he's coming."

              "Envoy can take care of himself," Bodan said, as he started to walk around, counting how many jeeps were still there. There were three to start with, and there were still three. He was very puzzled. Then, off in the distance, he could see a jeep moving at a very high rate of speed, toward the dinosaur portion of the park.

              "Oh, shit. Daniel. Get in the damn jeep. Our friends are making a run for Control Room 3."

              Daniel nodded, as the two of them ran toward the jeep.

Chapter 38: Computers and Pterodactyls

              Alan stopped the jeep just before the door of Control Room 3. They had been in touch with Ethan on and off, so that Ethan could keep opening and closing the security gates for them. The jeep skidded off to the right, as it came to a stop in the mud. Ellie ran out and headed toward the door and what was left of Control Room 3. About half of the building was still standing, after the Baryonyx had fallen on it. Alan ran around to the back of the building, to shut the power off. He quickly flipped the switch, waited the 2 minutes Ethan had told him to wait, and then flipped it back on. He ran back around and into the building. He was soaked, from head to foot. He stepped over some of the debris in the room and searched for Ellie. She had been looking for a working computer, and after he flipped the power switch back on, she found one in the front. She glanced at him and he nodded, telling her that the power was restarted. The two of them were completely in sync with each other, once again. They didn't even have to use words. She nodded back and leaned down, beginning to adjust the keyboard. Up until that moment, Ellie had forgotten about her hand hurting. As she grabbed the keyboard, she cried out in pain, holding her hand.

              Alan was looking around the room, when he heard her cry in pain. He hurried over to her.

              "You okay?" He asked.

              Ellie nodded.

              "Yes. It's just . . . I can't type, Alan," Alan stared at her. "I need you to do it," she said.

              "Huh?"

              Ellie smiled.

              "I need you to type. On this computer. You can type a few words, can't you?"

              Ellie thought that he looked absolutely frightened by what she was proposing. She got up.

              "Come on. Get over here and type what I tell you," she said.

              "Okay. Okay," he said. Alan knelt down by the computer. He just stayed there, staring at the screen. "Now what?" 

              Ellie laughed. There was a black screen on the monitor with just one orange box in the middle. Obviously the login screen.

              "Type the user name MORGAN and the password LAPORTE."

              Alan did what he was told. She hovered closely behind him, reading what the screen said.

              "Now, type 020270071342 on the keyboard," she said.

              Alan did what he was told. The computer beeped, as they watched the next screen come up. It was the exact screen that Ethan had described on the paper.

              "Now type SET SERVER=ED030248," she said, reading off the paper.

              Alan typed it in. After a few mistakes and a few times of Ellie yelling at him, the command finally worked. The screen that came up was blue with a yellow border all around the edges. It had ten blank boxes, one right under the other, placed in the center of the screen. Ellie turned the paper over.

              "Now, tab down to the third blank box, and type ACCESS PADDOCK SECURITY," she said, as she looked at the paper again.

              Alan did what he was told. He was amazed that he knew where the tab key was. The screen switched again, to yet another login screen.

              "Good, good. User name is MALCOLM. Password is CHAOS," Ellie said.

              Alan shook his head, as he typed what she told him to. A security grid popped up, with a graphical representation of the electric fences.

              "Now, hold down the ALT key and push F7."

              "ALT key?" Alan looked at her strangely. "Look, talk to me like I'm 2 years old, okay . . . because I have no idea what the ALT key is."

              Ellie laughed. She reached over him and held down the ALT key herself. Alan glanced at her, as her face was now very close to his. She looked at him.

              "Now push F7. Up there, on the top row," she said, gesturing at the keyboard with her head.

              Alan held his gaze on her for a few more seconds, and then he looked back at the keyboard. He pushed the F7 key. Another small window appeared on the screen. Alan looked at Ellie again.

              "How was that?" He asked her.

              She smiled. She slowly leaned forward and put a hand on his face. She gently kissed him.

              "That was very good," she said. "See? Computers don't have it in for you, after all."

              He returned her smile with one of his own. The computer beeped, making them both bring their attention back to the task at hand. Ellie looked back down at Ethan's notes.

              "Okay, now we need to let the little demon birds out. Choose the Pterodactyl Aviary. Press PA."

              Alan pressed the P and A buttons on the keyboard, bringing up the data on the Pterodactyl Aviary.

              "Now turn off the electricity there," she said. "Press 9, for off."

              He did what he was told. He was beginning to get the hang of the whole computer thing. The computer beeped again and warned about the electricity being off in that paddock. A screen came up asking for a confirmation. Alan hit the Y key for Yes, even before Ellie had to tell him. The screen turned a light shade of red, indicating a electricity problem. The graphic representing the Pterodactyl Aviary was flashing on and off.

              "Now what?" Alan asked.

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

              Bodan's jeep was racing toward Control Room 3. Daniel was in the passenger seat, holding his laptop tightly, as Bodan maneuvered the jeep. They had gone through the tunnel, which gave Daniel a small obstacle, but he had figured out a way to get the gate open. He had used a screwdriver, found in a toolbox in the back of the jeep, and opened up the keypad. After a few shocks, and some frequent swearing, the security gate, on both sides of the tunnel, opened and stayed open. The jeep continued on, passing by the unfinished building, where the Albertosaurus had rampaged through earlier.

              "How long is the reinstalling thing going to take?" Bodan asked, in a very irritated manner.

              "About 3 minutes, as long as they haven't restarted the servers."

              "Well, let's hope they didn't get too far ahead of us. Damn Grant. I should have killed him when I had the chance."

              "Yes, probably, sir."

              "Shut up, Daniel."

              "Yes, sir."

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

              Ethan and Lex were still very well hidden in one of the utility closets on the third floor. Ethan had his laptop ready to go, while Lex held on to the walkie talkie, waiting for Ellie to come back to the radio. After what seemed like forever, Ellie's voice was finally heard.

              "Lex? We're all set here . . . I think. The computers are up and the electric fencing in the Pterodactyl Aviary has been shut down."

              Lex handed the walkie talkie to Ethan. He pushed the button.

              "Good, good. I'm almost certain that Bodan and Daniel are on their way to you, so in case this doesn't work, I would hide if I were you."

              "We were planning on it," Ellie said.

              Ethan handed the walkie talkie back to Lex and began to type commands into the laptop. He was turning on the high frequency repellers, one at a time, hoping to find the right jeep. The jeep that Bodan was using. If he turned them on in five minute intervals, the Pterodactyls were expected to stay together, as they attacked the source of the noise. When he was finished typing, he looked up at Lex.

              "God, I hope this works. If it doesn't, Bodan will find Alan and Ellie."

              "It'll work, Ethan. It has to. They're going to be just fine."

              Ethan nodded at her. They were squeezed into quite a small space, and Ethan couldn't help glancing at her over and over. She was a very beautiful woman, he thought to himself. He started to think that if he made it off the island in one piece, that he should maybe ask her out. He smiled, as he went back to checking the repeller time schedule on the laptop.

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

              Ian, Tim and Jodie were on the second floor, when they ran into Jacob. He had been patrolling the second floor, since that's where his room was. Jacob spotted them almost immediately. He yelled for them to stop, but they didn't. They ran down the hallway and turned quickly out of gun range, as he had fired several shots at them with his rifle. He missed them.

              Ian slowed down, as they passed a vending machine. Handing the walkie talkie to Jodie, he gestured for Tim and Jodie to go and hide a little further up the hallway. Tim was concerned about what Ian was doing, but he knew he didn't have time to argue. He grabbed Jodie's hand and they hurried up the hallway.

              Jacob came barreling down the hallway, rifle in the ready position, and ran right past Ian. Ian emerged from his hiding spot and tackled Jacob from behind, hoping to get the edge over the larger man. He managed to do just that, as Jacob hit the floor with a gasp, knocking all the air from his lungs. His rifle was jarred from his hands, as Ian began to punch at him.

              Tim came running to assist, while Jodie just stayed back, behind the safety of an ice machine. Tim and Ian managed to hit and kick Jacob enough times to keep the large man on the ground. After a few minutes, Tim grabbed the rifle and struck Jacob in the head, knocking him unconscious. Ian was still on the ground, when Tim had hit Jacob. He looked up and smiled.

              "You're always knocking that poor guy out."

              Tim smiled. Jodie came out from behind the ice machine, clearly happy that the events transpired the way that they had.

              "Let's get out of here and find Alan," she said.

              Ian looked at her.

              "Good idea. Let's get all of us back together and get the hell out of here. Jodie, can I see that radio?"

              Jodie handed the walkie talkie to him and he pushed the button down.

              "Ethan? Do you read me? Ethan?"

              A few seconds passed by, and then Lex's voice was heard.

              "We're here and we're okay," she said.

              "Tim managed to knock Jacob out . . . again. So it's safe to come down." 

              "Okay," Lex said. Ian could hear her talking to Ethan. She came back to the walkie talkie. "Ethan says to meet us on the third floor. He says we'll take the monorail to the mall. Control Room 2 is right next to the mall."

              "Well, Ethan would know. Okay, we'll meet you on the third floor."

              "Ethan says to just follow the monorail signs."

              "Okay, we'll be there in a few minutes. We're on the second floor right now," Ian said.

              Ian grabbed Jodie by the hand and they started to go up the stairs to the third floor. Tim was right behind them. Ian glanced at him on the way up.

              "How's the neck?"

              "It's okay, I think."

              Ian nodded and the three of them continued to the third floor of the lodge.

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

              Bodan was driving extremely fast. The rain had started to come down harder, and it was pelting his skin pretty hard. Daniel was still in the passenger seat, trying his best to keep his laptop from the rain. As they were driving, Daniel thought he had heard some sort of a squawking noise. He looked around, but didn't see anything, so he figured it was just the storm. Bodan noticed him looking around.

              "What is it now, Daniel?"

              "Nothing. Nothing."

              Bodan shook his head and continued. It wasn't long before he heard the noise, too. It sounded like a flock of birds. He slowed the jeep down, looking around. It was hard to see, though, because of the rain coming down so hard. He stopped the jeep.

              "Do you hear that?" Bodan asked Daniel.

              "Yes. Yes, I do."

              "What the hell is it?"

              Bodan's question was answered in that instant. As the jeep sat there, stopped, it was attacked from above. Bodan suddenly felt sharp pain at the base of his neck, as something was attacking from the air. Daniel was scared to death. He tucked himself down into the floor of the passenger seat, as far as he could manage, holding his hands over his head. He had no idea of knowing that the very thing the Pterodactyl's were angry with, was sitting in the glove compartment, above his head. The high frequency repeller continued to work, as the prehistoric birds kept snipping away at the intruders, trying to stop the repeller from making noise. The four Pterodactyls had already attacked some of the other jeeps, looking for the source of the frequency, and had succeeded. Bodan and Daniel's jeep was one of the last ones, in addition to Alan and Ellie's jeep, parked by Control Room 3. But this time, instead of just finding an empty vehicle, the Pterodactyls found two humans, making them even more enraged.

              Bodan was able to reach around and grab one of them, throwing it from his body. It just came back, even angrier. He finally opened the jeep door and made a run for it. The Pterodactyl attacking him followed him for a few seconds, soaring several feet above his head. The agitating sound seemed to go away, the farther it flew from the jeep. It surrendered its prey, turned around, and went back to the others, leaving Bodan alone.

              Daniel was still in the jeep, as the three Pterodactyls were continuously attacking both himself and the glove compartment. One of them managed to tear a hole in it and find the repeller. The bird instantly destroyed it, striking at it with several thrusts from its beak. The fourth Pterodactyl appeared from above, its two and half foot wingspan gliding down toward Daniel. He looked up, just in time to see its sharp and long beak, coming right for him. It was the last thing he saw, as the bird dug its beak deep into Daniel's face, squawking and screeching the entire time. The other three joined in, squawking and peaking at him. Daniel screamed for help, but Bodan was already quite a distance away, and he wasn't about to come back. Soon the screams stopped and Daniel's limp body became the first meal that they ever had, that wasn't in a mush-like, pasty substance.

              Bodan continued to run in the rain. When Daniel's screams stopped, he slowed down and looked behind him. He had a gun, but the walkie talkie, the laptop, and the only computer expert, were all left behind. Things were beginning to look very gloomy for Patrick Bodan.