World of Raptors: King of Thieves

= Prologue =
To many minds, it is hard to imagine Egypt without imagining vast deserts and pyramids.
And it should be even harder to imagine an oasis in Egypt.
70.6 million years ago, a drought had hit Cretaceous North Africa, causing thousands of animals to die from hunger, or thirst.
And to make things worse, a disease spread amongst life on Egypt. This had been a mutated rabies virus, that could now infect non mammalian creatures, including dinosaurs.
Lake Mto was one of the last places in Egypt that could be called a paradise. An animal living here would probably not believe that there was a massive drought, followed by a plague that had been spreading while they had been having the time of their life.
But recently, even in Lake Mto, life began to struggle to survive. The drought was slowly approaching, an impending doom. Animals from all over North Africa migrated towards Lake Mto, bringing with them the risk of rabies.
A male Carcharadontosaurus saharicus was one animal migrating towards Lake Mto, that carried the rabies virus. Initially, he showed no symptoms, but as he dawned closer to Lake Mto, vile drool oozed from his mouth, and he became extremely aggressive towards other dinosaurs. An Aegyptosaurus lay dying of thirst, unable to make it towards the waters. She had been so close, yet so far. The Carcharadontosaurus lunged, tearing into her skin, but did not eat her. He bellowed, charging towards the lake.
A herd of Ouranosaurus stood, drinking the waters from Lake Mto. In the far distance, there was a male Rugops, contemplating whether an Ouranosaurus would make for a good lunch. In the lake itself was an entire group of Spinosaurus. Spinosaurus tend to be mostly loners, only getting together during the mating season. And in such desperate times, there was an almost visible tension between the Spinosaurs. Every Spinosaurus seemed stressed, and most of them carried scars from numerous disputes among each other.
The male Carcharadontosaurus roared, scarring the herd of Ouranosaurus. A female Spinosaurus emerged out of the waters, and hissed at him, but the Carcharadontosaurus slowly approached, drooling. The Spinosaurus knew that there were too many risks fighting a rabid dinosaur, and she hissed submissively, swimming onto the water.
Another Rugops came to drink the water, but upon seeing the rabid Carcharadontosaurus, turned back and fled.
The Carcharadontosaurus saharicus arrived at the lake, and began to sip some water. Besides the Carcharadontosaurus, a Paralititan came and began to drink some water.
He did not like sharing any water. He lunged onto the Paralititan, and tore it’s head off, roaring loudly.
Having found himself a meal, and water, the Carcharadontosaurus layed on the ground. His mind was unstable though, and he found himself resisting rest. He got up, and ate from the carcass, before making himself through the oasis, in search of a dinosaur to fight.
And he came across a Bahariasaurus. The two squared up against each other, and the battle was bloody. But the Carcharadontosaurus was victorious.
Lake Mto was also home to a family of melanistic Carcharadontosaurs. The drought had caused most of their offspring to perish, leaving only one melanistic daughter. While her father had been fully melanistic, her mother was only semi melanistic.
The adult female caught the eye of the rabid Carcharadontosaurus.
A few days passed after the arrival of the rabid dinosaur, and the male Carcharadontosaurus was returning from a hunt. He carried a Plesiosaurus corpse in his jaws. This would not be enough, but it was all he could catch. While the juvenile Carcharadontosaurus stayed healthy and well fed, her parents starved themselves so that she could reach adulthood, and carry on their bloodline. One could count the number of ribs the adults had, and the silhouette of the male’s skull was almost visible.
The adult male was not ready when he was attacked by a rabid male, who bit hard on to his right leg, and tore off a chunk of meat. The wounded one roared submissively, dropping the carcass. He could not afford a battle. He turned to limp away, but the other one grabbed him by the tail, and tore into his flesh, and began to eat him, while he was still alive.
As nighttime spread, the semi melanistic female knew that something was wrong. She bellowed for her mate, but couldn’t get a reply. She and her daughter set off to find him. They came across an unrecognizable corpse, but they both recognized the scent of the carcass.
And they also recognized the feeling that they were being watched.
The rabid one lunged, and slammed his head, knocking over the adult female. He roared, scarring the young female. The rabid male chased after the young female, opening and closing his jaws, spilling drool on the jungle floor. He had her cornered near Lake Mto, and got ready to kill her. The young female closed her eyes.
She heard the noise of wings flapping.
The young female opened her eyes, and saw an Alanqa flapping her wings, and pecking on the rabid male.
The two of them had gotten too close for comfort towards an Alanqa nest.
The rabid Carcharadontosaurus tried to bite the Alanqa, but the he felt the young Carcharadontosaurus ran and bit his right leg.
Now being attacked by two separate animals, the Carcharadontosaurus began to panic, and stomp his feet.
Just then, out of the jungle, the adult female charged out, and grabbed the rabid male by the neck, pushing him towards Lake Mto. As they entered deeper water, the adult female grabbed and pushed the rabid male’s head into the water.
Bubbles came out of the water, and soon stopped. A rabid male had passed out. The adult female brought her head up, and put a foot atop his head, until the rabid male died.
As the evening came, so did the rains.
The flowing water washed and buried the carcass of the rabid Carcharadontosaurus in mud.
70.6 million years passed.
The year was 240 BCE, and Pharoah Ptolemy I of Egypt arrived to see the news. Builders digging up a site to build a new temple had come across ‘Dragon Bones’.
This was the skeleton of the rabid Carcharadontosaurus.
“So, it is true” Ptolemy said. “My family is from Macedonian Greece. I think that this may in fact be a dragon, a son of the War god Ares. Primitive Beast, son of Ares.”
A temple was built for the Primitive Beast, but after Ptolemy I’s death the temple was long forgotten. Citizens of Ancient Egypt had heard of a temple housing the remains of a dragon, but did not know where it was.
Until 30 BCE.
Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar had arrived to conquer Egypt, after the death of Queen Cleopatra VIII. He had Cleopatra’s son, Caesarian, killed, so that there would be no competition.
Two Roman guards, one of a majestic horse, arrived. “Ave, Caesar!” he said, holding his arm out. “We have unearthed a long-forgotten temple, and I think you would want to see this.”
Octavian, also known as Augustus Caesar followed the two soldiers into the Roman camp, which had been set outside the temple, which had been broken into.
Besides the skeleton, there was a pile of gold, and various other treasures. Augustus Caesar inspected the skeleton.
“So, the legends are true. There are dragon bones here!” Caesar said. “I declare this, The Primordial Tyrant! Son of Jupiter!”
Augustus Caesar had the skeleton transported on a ship.
But the ship drowned in the Mediterranean Sea during a storm.
And here the skeleton lay for nearly two thousand years. While the ship rotted off, the skeleton lay on the seabed.
Up until the year 1951.
An oil rig had been built in the Mediterranean Sea, right over the skeleton. The skeleton had been unearthed, and transported to a boat.
“It’s one of those dinosaur things alright” the one in charge said. “Let’s leave it for now. We’ll check on it tomorrow.”
But that night, the oil rig was attacked by Soviets.
To cut down of England’s supplies, Joseph Stalin had ordered his soldiers to raid the oil rig.
The operation was led by Maksim Vasiliev, the grandfather of Vsevolod Vasiliev, who would later go one to become the CEO of Xoblar Genetics.
          
There were many gunshots, and many died that night.
Maksim arrived and examined the skeleton.
“Now this is something!” Maksim said. He presented this to Joseph Stalin.
“Meh. What good is this? You keep it, Vasiliev” Stalin said.
And so, Maksim bought the fossilized skeleton into his house. But it was soon forgotten.
Until the year 2023.
Vsevolod Vasiliev grunted.
“That bloody T. Rex! First, he kills my Zhong. Now, he takes away my right arm. That bloody T. Rex!” he yelled, as doctors tended to him.
“Mr. Vasiliev?” Vsevolod had a visitor.
It was Paul Seymour, who had been a survivor of the 2023 BioSyn Valley incident.
“Yes?” Vsevolod asked.
“We found this in the barn of your ancestral home.” Paul showed Vsevolod an image of what remained of the rabid Carcharadontosaurus.
“It looks like a Carcharadontosaurus saharicus” Paul Seymour said.
“Huh?” Vsevolod said. He looked at Paul Seymour and nodded.
“This is not the end” Vsevolod said.
Four months passed. The new Carcharadontosaurus, now a female, had been genetically modified to grow up into an adult when she was just six months old. Now at just two months of age, she was already as large as a Velociraptor.
In an unknown facility, two African animal handlers stood, throwing dog treats at her.
Nkosi Okoye, a tall, dark man, spoke. “Real Shetani, isn’t she?”
His companion, Mradi Fagbure spoke in Swahili. “Ndio, ndio. Yeye ni Shetani.” he nodded.
Mradi was shorter than Nkosi. He held a candy bar in his right arm.
She had been named Vengeance, and was aggressive from the get go, probably due to her DNA belonging to a rabid dinosaur.
She ate another dog treat, before walking closer and sniffing at the candy bar.
“Oi!” Mradi yelled. “Real Kosa, creating her.”
“Oh, she’s a bunch of Taka. But the boss treats her like an Uru. So, what to do?”
Vengeance lunged again, grabbing the candy bar, and eating it, wrapper and all.
“Get the whip!” Nkosi told Mradi. “This training session is about to get interesting.”
Mradi went towards the gates. They had been shut, but Mradi yelled, “Open the gates!”
From behind him, there was a scream.
Mradi looked behind just in time to see Nkosi being assaulted by Vengeance.
“Oi!” Mradi yelled, running towards Vengeance. Vengeance dropped Nkosi’s corpse, and looked at Mradi.
“No…” Mradi half whispered. He turned and fled, and began to bang on the gates.
Vengeance advanced onto Mradi, and battered him.
All Mradi could do was scream, and pray to his gods, hoping for salvation.
Unfortunately, his prayer was never answered.
= Chapter I =
“What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world.”
                                                                                                       -Albert Einstein
“Within fifty to a hundred years, a new class of organisms is likely to emerge. These organisms will be artificial in the sense that they will originally be designed by humans. Their impact on humanity and the biosphere could be enormous, larger than the industrial revolution, nuclear weapons, or environment pollution.”
                                                                                                            -Doyne Farmer and Aletta Belling, 1992 
December of 2024 brought with it a much welcome holiday season for everyone. It had been a busy year for many, and they were looking forward to spending time with their friends and family.
But not everyone would have that luxury.
The Velociraptor was six feet tall and dark green. Covered in feathers and poised to attack, it hissed loudly, its muscular neck thrust forward, jaws wide.
Tim, one of the modelers, said, “What do you think, Professor Levine?”
“No menace,” Levine said, walking by. He was in the back wing of the biology department, in the University where he had found his new career. Richard Levine was on his way to his office.
“No menace?” Tim said.
“They never stand like this, flatfooted on two feet. Give him a book”- he grabbed a notebook from a desk, and placed it in the forearm of the animal- “and he might be singing a Christmas carol.”
“Gee,” Tim said. “I didn’t think it was that bad.”
“Bad?” Levine asked. “This is an insult to a great predator. We should feel his speed and menace and power. Widen the jaws. Get the neck down. Tense the muscles, tighten the skin. And get that leg up. Remember, raptors don’t attack with their jaws too often- they mostly use their toe-claws,” Levine said. “I want to see the claw raised up, ready to slash down and tear the guts out of its prey.”
“You really think so?” Tim said doubtfully, glancing at the Christmas tree that he had spent an entire day decorating. “It might scare little kids…”
“You mean it might scare you.” Levine continued down the hallway. “And another thing: change that hissing sound. It sounds like somebody taking a pee. Give this animal a snarl. Give a great predator his due.”
“Gee,” Tim said, “I didn’t know you had such personal feelings about it.”
“It should be accurate,” Levine said. “You know, there is such a thing as accurate and inaccurate. Irrespective of whatever your feelings are.” He walked on. The modeler annoyed him, although he had to admit Tim was just a representative of the current, fuzzy-minded thinking- what Ian Malcolm called “sappy science.”
Levine had long been impatient with the arrogance of his scientific colleagues. They maintained that arrogance, he, knew, by resolutely ignoring the history of science as a way of thought. They ignored the incidents at Jurassic Park, at San Diego, at Jurassic World, and so on. They pretended that history didn’t matter, because the errors of the past were now corrected by modern discoveries. But of course, their forebears had believed exactly the same thing in the past as well. They had been wrong then. And modern scientists were wrong now. No episode of science history had proved it better than the way dinosaurs had been portrayed over the decades.
It was sobering to realize that the most accurate perception of dinosaurs had also been the first. Back in the 1840s, when Richard Owen first described giant bones in England, he named them Dinosauria: terrible lizards. That was still the most accurate description of these creatures, Levine thought. They were indeed like lizards, and they were terrible.
But since Owen, the ‘scientific’ view of dinosaurs had undergone many changes. Because the Victorians believed in the inevitability of progress, they insisted that the dinosaurs must necessarily be inferior-why else would they be extinct? So, the Victorians made them fat, lethargic, and dumb- big dopes from the past. They perception was so elaborated, so that by the early twentieth century, dinosaurs had become so weak that they could not support their own weight. Apatosaurus had to stand belly deep in water or they would crush their own legs. The whole conception of the ancient world was suffused with these ideas of weak, stupid, slow animals.
That view didn’t change until the 1960s, when a few renegade scientists, led by John Ostrom, began to imaging quick, agile, hot-blooded dinosaurs. Because these scientists had the temerity to question dogma, they were brutally criticized for years, even though it now seemed their ideas were correct.
But recently, a growing interest in social behavior, and the opening of Jurassic World, which housed genetically modified assets rendered as dinosaurs, had led to still another view. Dinosaurs were now seen as caring creatures, living in groups, raising their little babies. They were good animals, even cute animals. The big sweeties had nothing to do with their terrible fate, which was visited on them by Alvarez’s meteor. And in the last decade, dinosaurs had become birds.
And this new sappy view produced people like Tim, who were reluctant to look at the other side of the coin, the other face of life. Of course, some dinosaurs had been social and cooperative. But others had been hunters- and killers of unparalleled viciousness. For Levine, the truest picture of life in the past incorporated the interplay of all aspects of life, the good and the bad, the strong and the weak. It was no good pretending anything else.
Scaring little kids, indeed! Levine snorted irritable, as he walked down the hall.
“I admit it’s discouraging,” Tim said, after Levine had gone, to his friend, Mary, who had arrived to see what happened.
“Richard Levine?” she laughed. “Irritating, isn’t he? He has a worldwide reputation for being a pain in the ass.”
Tim grunted. “I’d say.”
“He’s wealthy, is the problem,” Mary said. “You know the Becky dolls?”
“No,” Tim said, giving her a glance.
“Well, every little girl in America does. There’s a series: Becky and Sally and Frances, and several more. They’re Americana dolls. Levine is the heir of the company. So, he’s a smartass rich kid. Impetuous, does whatever he wants.”
Tim nodded. “You have time for lunch?”
Mary smiled. “Sure.”
Richard Levine walked into his office. In truth, he was bothered by what had happened at his office just yesterday. That incident meant trouble; Levine was sure of it.
Elizabeth Beverly, his assistant, had been standing behind her desk, tidying papers, getting ready to go home. She handed him his faxes and said, “Happy holidays, Professor. I’ll see you in January. Where are you going this December?”
“Australia” Levine said, and pulled out a box titled BioSyn’s Box Jellyfish Antidote. “Apparently they found some sort of ancient aborigine ruin, and want me there.”
“And the antidote?” Beverly asked.
“I plan on visiting the beach there” Levine replied. He riffled through the faxes: conference dates, requests for reprints… nothing interesting.
“Okay. Thanks, Beverly.”
“Oh. And the photographers came. They finished about an hour ago.”
Richard Levine stopped moving, and his eyes opened wide.
“What photographers?” he said.
“From Chaos Quarterly. To photograph your office.”
“What are you talking about?” Levine said.
“They came to photograph your office,” she said. “For a series about workplaces of famous scientists: mathematicians, paleontologists, paleobotanists, zoologists and archeologists, they said. They had a letter from you, saying it was- “
“I never sent any letter,” Levine said, gravely. “And I’ve never heard of Chaos Quarterly.”
He went into his office and looked around. Beverly hurried in after him, her face worried.
“Is it okay? Is everything here?”
“Yes,” he said, scanning quickly. “It seems to be fine.” He was opening the drawers of his desk, one after the other. “Nothing appears to be missing.”
“That’s quite the relief,” Beverly said, “because- “
Levine turned, and looked at the far side of the room.
His diary lay on the ground.
“Did they photograph that?” he asked, pointing.
“Yes, they photographed everything. Does it matter?”
Levine went through the diary. It mostly had a few photographs he had taken of the dinosaurs at BioSyn Valley, and a list of the dinosaurs that had appeared on the mainland, that were outside of InGen’s list.
And his schedule.
Levine wondered what they had wanted of the schedule.
“They were a very nice group. Very polite” Beverly said.
Levine nodded, and sighed. “It’s all right, Beverly.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, it’s fine. Have a good evening, and happy holidays.”
“Good night, Professor Levine.”
Levine sighed, remembering the incident.
“Mathematicians, paleontologists, paleobotanists, zoologists and archeologists, eh?” he asked himself.
Alone in his office, he dialed Ian Malcolm. The phone rand, and was answered.
“Ian, this is Richard. Were you, perhaps visited by some group called Chaos Quarterly?”
“Indeed” Ian Malcolm answered. “They’ve gone through my schedule while I was away.”
“Listen, I’ll call to check on the others.”
Richard Levine called Sarah Harding, Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler. He got the same reply.
They had all been visited by Chaos Quarterly.
Just to make sure, he called Owen Grady’s residency. Claire picked up the phone.
“Hello?” Claire answered.
“Claire?”
“Yes?”
“Claire, this is Richard. From last year? Xoblar Genetics? Or, as it’s called now, Xoblarcorp.”
“I remember. Richard, hi! How are you?”
“I’m fine. Were y’all, by any chance visited by Chaos Quarterly?”
“Yes. They came, asking to photograph the residency of the former manager of Jurassic World. Owen told them to get lost.”
“Huh? I had been visited, and so have Ian, Alan, Ellie and Sarah. We’ll talk later, Claire. I have to make a few more calls to see if my suspicions are clear.”
“Alright, goodbye, Richard.”
Richard Levine dialed his former teacher, Anton Fonseka.
“Sir, this is Richard. Were you by any chance visited by Chaos Quarterly?”
“Chaos Quarterly?” Anton asked. “No.”
“Alright, Sir. I got to go.”
Richard Levine dialed the phone again. “Hello, Marty?”
Martin Guitierrez answered. “Richard? Hi, it’s been a while!”
“Were you, by any chance visited by a Chaos Quarterly?”
“No.” Martin said. “Why? What’s up?”
“Well, everyone who was involved in the Xoblar Genetics incident last year that had also had angered it’s then CEO have been visited by them.”
“Oh. Richard, you are at the university, right?”
“That would be correct.”
“I’m at the Texas Zoo, with Jack Thorne. You remember him, right?”
“Yep.”
“Let’s talk this over during lunch over there, then?”
“I’ll be there.”
Richard Levine stepped out of the university, holding his box of Jellyfish antidote. He noticed a cab driver watching his every move.
Levine ignored it, and set out into the zoo. It wasn’t too far.
Richard Levine walked into the zoo, and called Martin. He was in the café, with Jack Thorne.
= Chapter II =
“Now, why would Chaos Quarterly, or as you suggest, Xoblar Corp want you guys? Did you call any of the other survivors?” Martin asked. “And Vsevolod Vasiliev is dead, right?”
Richard nodded.
“I doubt the company would be out for revenge. They went through a tough legal battle, and lost a lot of money, and had to rebrand the company. And you didn’t really hurt anyone.”
“Besides Vasiliev.” Richard said.
“Vsevolod is dead! They found bone fragments of his right arm in a pile of T. Rex feces!”
“I know, I know, Marty. But while he was off on his own, couldn’t he have contacted someone, and told them to make sure to get rid of us? We experienced first-hand what he was capable of. And even if his master was dead, the person Vsevolod told to get rid of could want to fulfil his last known wish. Chaos Quarterly visited us, but not other Xoblar Genetics employees, nor did they visit famous scientists like they told my assistant they would.”
Jack Thorne sipped down a cup of De-Caffe. “That seems a little far-fetched, though, Richard. Xoblar Corp would not be looking to associate itself with the past. They are trying to rebuild their image. Ms. Bing is a good CEO.”
Sally Bing was the daughter of Edward Bing, the founder of Xoblar Genetics. Xoblar Genetics had been founded in 2002 to find a cure to the illness Edward’s wife was suffering from. However, she died in 2006. But Xoblar Genetics continued, hoping to find a cure to the illness. After Edward Bing’s death in 2012, the company’s ownership was originally offered to Sally, but she rejected it, deeming it not part of her field of interest. So, Edward Bing’s nephew, the son of his sister, Thomas Oakson, had stepped up and taken the job.
But in 2022, during an investor’s presentation, several animals had escape. The fault had been transferred to Thomas Oakson, who supposedly fled the country, and not Xoblar Genetics. Vsevolod Vasiliev, then a mercenary had taken the role of CEO.
After the incident at BioSyn Valley in 2023, Xoblar Genetics had faced numerous lawsuits, and had been responsible for the deaths of 29 people. 13 people had also been injured, and the company had to pay for the hospital fees.
Sally Bing had now all of a sudden become interested in the company. She stated that she wanted to continue her father’s legacy, and had also hired another nephew of Edward Bing, her first cousin Osborn Dyere, the child of another one of Edward Bing’s sisters. The two cousins were the last known relatives of Edward Bing, despite Dyere only being ten years old when Eddie Bing had died. Osborn Dyere had taken the role of chief geneticist, and the company had been rebranded into Xoblar Corp.
But Sally Bing’s intentions with the company were still relatively unknown. She had purchased a lot of land in the country Chad, Africa, including the lake, and after finding several sponsors, she had expanded the lake, and built a small preserve inside. There had been previous attempts to expand Lake Chad, but they had all failed due to being too costly. This allowed Sally Bing to easily complete it.
When Sally Bing had proposed the idea to make the plot of land in the middle of the lake dinosaur territory, there had been a ton of backlash, but she had struck it down relatively quickly. Due to the newly expanded Lake Chad, millions of people now had access to water.
Soon, a fence had been built around the bank of Lake Chad, with a bridge connecting the mainland to the island. This place was larger than Isla Nublar, and Isla Sorna. Relatively quickly, multiple buildings had been constructed, while dinosaurs began to roam freely in Isla Chad National Park.
The opening of the new National Park was imminent, and just the previous week, Sally Bing had announced that she, inspired from Willy Wonka from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, would be inviting five lucky people to go and be the first to visit the park.
However, unlike Willy Wonka, she wouldn’t be hiding golden tickets in Chocolate Bars. Instead, she’d personally gone and chosen people who had bad experience with dinosaurs previously. The people had been contacted, and agreed to visit.
And just yesterday, the five winners had been announced.
“Lex Murphy, Methuka Senuth, William Morpurgo, Rovinu and Chithira”  Sally had announced.
“Poor fools, don’t know what they are bringing themselves into” Richard had said, watching the news.
Osborn Dyere had been no angel either. At just 22 years old, Dyere was generally agreed to be the best geneticist of his generation, perhaps the best in the world. But most people disliked him, finding him pompous and arrogant. True, even Richard Levine could be arrogant at times, and had earned the nickname ‘the Praying Mantis’, due to having a tendency to bite the head off of people who had dared to disagreed with him. But Dyere was known to take it too far, and many people who disagreed with him disappeared without a trace. It was generally agreed that Dyere would be behind their disappearance, but there was no proof of that.
Osborn Dyere had worked on the creation of Vengeance, and had always been extremely egotistical, earning the nickname ‘The Selfish One’ during his school years. Dyere was noticeably unstable at times when he lost in an argument, which often resorted to a fight.
Last month, Dyere had been on the news, giving his opinions over two recent dinosaur attacks.
The first had been Jack Latimer, who had been trampled by a Triceratops in California. The second was Judy Parr, who was found to be mauled by an unknown entity in India. CCTV camera footage revealed that this had been the same unknown creature that was spotted in America and had interrupted an Extinction Now! Event just two years prior. People believed that this creature had stowed away in a boat, and reached India.
This was none other than the Spinoraptor. A malicious, vicious hybrid between the Spinosaurus and Velociraptor, which had also been cloned by Xoblar Genetics, but the public didn’t know that.
“Well, there’s nothing I can do, nor that I want to do. What matters is that progress can continue” Dyere had said.
In fact, there was captured footage of an escaped Dimetrodon attacking a BioSyn worker, taken in 2022. Dyere had showed the image and said that things like this should be expected now.
“This William Morpurgo, he lives nearby, doesn’t he?” Levine asked.
Jack Thorne nodded. “He’s got a bunch of contacts. All black-market dealers. He supplied this zoo with a Cryolophosaurus and a Qianzhosaurus in 2020 and 2021, respectively. He says that they were found attacking cities, but there are no records of that. He is a businessman, this Morpurgo. Always buying and selling dinosaurs, illegally. Why Xoblar Corp wants to associate him, I don’t know.” Jack Thorne sipped some more coffee. “I don’t know about the other three, but John Hammond’s granddaughter was also invited, right?”
“Yeah, Lex” Martin said. “I’ve met her a few times. Supposedly she and her brother visited Jurassic Park during 1993. They probably want her to get close to the Hammond name. Although one of them was involved with Xoblar Genetics earlier, and had tried to expose them, but was shut down by officials. Wonder why he’s been allowed back.”
“Yeah, Methuka Senuth,” Levine said. “I remember the case. Always knew that it was bound to fail. Xoblar Genetics was gaining power amongst the government. Even when someone from a rival company revealed about Vsevolod’s soviet ancestors to try and destroy his reputation, it didn’t work.”
Levine got up. “Well, it’s been nice seeing you again, but I should probably get going.” Richard Levine looks at his wristwatch. He opens the door and heads out, and stops to look at the Qianzhosaurus enclosure. It was way too small, he noted. A moat surrounded the tiny stretch of land that the Qianzhosaurus could call home.
A man wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a vest walked past Levine, as if waiting for something to happen. The sound of a helicopter approaching could be heard, and Levine watched as it flew closer to land, dropping off a massive wooden piece over the moat, forming a bridge.
The man ran, and opened the gate.
“Hey! What are you doing?” a zoo keeper yelled, but it was too late. Upon seeing the gate to freedom, the Qianzhosaurus rushed out, and lunged at the zoo keeper, picking him up.
Levine froze, but he could see that the man in the khaki shorts wasn’t done. The man fled towards the Cryolophosaurus enclosure. Levine turned to run behind him, but he saw that he was too late. The Cryolophosaurus was out, and hissing.
Richard Levine turned and fled, but he saw that he couldn’t be able to get into the café.
The helicopter had left the sight, but the Qianzhosaurus had been attacking the other cages, freeing several animals.
A pack of six spotted hyenas stood right outside the café door, laughing. Levine could see Martin Guitierrez and Jack Thorne inside the café, signaling at him to go. A scarred hyena, probably the matriarch, approached Levine, still laughing. Levine froze, but the hyena matriarch ran pass him, followed by her pack, and Levine turned to see them after a Moose. The hyenas grabbed the moose, and that was just one of the many things happening at the zoo.
A Bengal tiger roared, towering over the carcass of a Cheetah that she had just killed. She watched as several coyotes chased after the guests, who’s fleeing had triggered their hunting instinct. And a cougar wondered around, aimlessly.
Levine looked and saw an angry warthog charging towards him, before it was killed by the Cryolophosaurus. Levine ran into the giraffe zone, and was amazed at what he saw.
The Qianzhosaurus’s mouth was bloodied. The corpse of a Reticulated giraffe lay on the ground, a chunk of flesh torn off of its stomach. Three other giraffes stood in the background, watching, and cornered towards the wall. An Indian Leopard was waiting for a chance to feed on the carcass, and so were a pack of Timber wolves. Several Hanuman langurs stood perched on trees, hooting.
The Qianzhosaurus continued to tear flesh off the giraffe, while the warning calls of the langurs spread. From behind Levine, the Cryolophosaurus emerged, and it lashed out on to Levine, who ran towards the sides last minute. The Cryolophosaurus hissed again, and turned towards the Qianzhosaurus, biting onto it. The Qianzhosaurus tried on shake itself off, but the Cryolophosaurus continuously pounded it onto the ground, before the Qianzhosaurus lay critically injured. The pack of grey wolves carefully approached the dying Qianzhosaurus.
The Cryolophosaurus then approached out of the giraffe enclosure, until a white rhinoceros charged, wounding it in the abdomen. There was a painful bellow, and blood shot of the Cryolophosaurus’s belly and mouth. It collapsed onto the ground, and could do nothing as the matriarch hyena and her pack surrounded it.
By now, Levine had rushed out of the zoo, and saw the cab that he had noticed monitoring him before.
“Good man!” the cab driver called out. “Come!”
Levine hesitated, but when he heard a painful bellow, he ran into the cab and closed the door.
“To where, sir?” the driver asked. He was a bearded man with cauliflower ears, his beard and hair untidy. He wore some sort of chain, connected to a bottle of some sort, containing some green liquid.
“Towards Medford hospital” Levine said.
“Why are you heading to the hospital all of a sudden, sir, are you ok?” the driver asked Levine, as he drove on.
“Oh, my house is over there” Levine told him.
“Right opposite the hospital, or besides it, Professor Levine?” the driver asked.
Levine froze.
“You didn’t mention your name, right?” the driver sighed.
It was at this moment that Levine noticed a third entity in the cab. It was the same man in the khaki shorts and vest. He also had a chain with a bottle connected to it. The khaki shorts man had an extremely boyish face, and he smiled at Levine, with his mouth open. He touched the bottle that was connected to his chain.
“Poison, Professor Levine. In case any of us are caught, but we could also use this one you” he said.
The cab swerved.
“Hey! Medford is that way!” Levine yelled, pointing.
“Gabe, do the thing!” the driver said.
Gabe, the man in the khaki shorts, took out a tissue, and grabbed Levine’s face, holding Levine’s nose with the tissue. Richard Levine passed out.
= Chapter III =
Methuka Senuth stood with a bowl of fish and some bananas, right outside his house. He whistled.
It was an ordinary day in Sri Lanka. The news of what happened at a zoo all the way over at Texas hadn’t reached anyone yet.
The Jet Black Dilophosaurus lifted its head from over a drain, and jumped out.
It was a different type of ordinary.
After what had happened at Isla Pena in 2022, Methuka had quit being a pilot, and had started his own company, Senuth Enterprises. He owned many centers all over his country, and had plans to expand overseas.
The Jet Black Dilophosaurus had been a rescue, that he had decided to take with him.
Methuka threw the pieces of fish in the air, which the Dilophosaurus caught. After finishing the bowl, Methuka whistled once again, and the Dilophosaurus jumped back into the drain.
Methuka wondered down the road, passing a Triceratops, a Sinoceratops and a Nasutoceratops. All three of them were fed two bananas each.
The Dilophosaurus had earned the nickname Jet Black and held it for two years, while the Triceratops had been named ‘Arjuna’, the Sinoceratops ‘Chantal’ and the Nasutoceratops ‘Nevith’. While the Dilophosaurus was from Xoblar Genetics, all three ceratopsians were Masarani Variants, that had wondered towards the street where he lived, and after he fed them once or twice, they got used to him, and tame towards him. It had now become a habit, even though most of the foliage around the place had been consumed.
“You know you can’t keep them forever” a voice came from behind. It was Swetha, one of Methuka’s neighbors.
“I know. And that’s why I took the trip offer” Methuka told her.
“I guessed that it was probably why” Swetha said. “But you think that Xoblar Corp is the greatest choice? It’s basically Xoblar Genetics, with a new name.”
“I have had my past experiences with the company, but it’s the only choice I have. The DFW and the DPW both don’t have any place to put dinosaurs anymore,” Methuka Senuth said.
“Heard what happened at Goripure just yesterday?” Swetha asked.
“I like to stick to Sandasirigama,” Methuka said. Sandasirigama was the town in which he was staying, right in the heart of the big city. Goripure was a few blocks down, and was more of a jungle than anything. The people there were very poor, and a small jungle had spawned and was slowly reclaiming the village. “But what happened?”
“You know Bastian?” Swetha asked.
Methuka nodded. “He was a bad debtor, that I know. But he always worried about not being able to pay the money off, so I said that it’s a gift. Two hundred thousand is a pretty big loss though. And he kept saying that he wanted to repay me. Only managed to give two hundred, poor guy.”
“You won’t be getting the rest of the money” Swetha said.
“What happened?” Methuka froze.
Goripure had been built at the edge of a large canal, and most of the villagers made their living by fishing there and selling the fish. But most of the fish there were drenched in all sorts of chemicals, and no one bought the fish they sold. They also had a chena, selling whatever crops they could, working together. The villagers could only afford the bare minimum.
A rich man, Babun Appu, and his wife Bandi Akka, had built a mansion in the corner of Goripure.
“We like how it offers a break from the busy city” Bandi Akka had told when asked about why she had to move there.
Babun, or as his neighbors mockingly called him, Baboon, lived in a mansion alongside several servants. He grew fat eating good food, and his mansion held twenty rooms and a pool. Babun was known for housing several exotic pets, specifically wild pigs and jackals, but these animals were animals that were pests to rural villagers, and thus he could keep them.
Many citizens of Goripure had been jealous and spiteful over Babun, and Babun returned the favor. All of his food waste was spilt on the ground, causing a massive flock of crows, pigeons, and a whole army of rats to find a home at Goripure.
But when the eruption of Mount Sibo threatened the extinction of dinosaurs on Isla Nublar, long before Eli Mills sent a rescue mission to save dinosaurs off of Nublar, Babun hired a ship to capture some dinosaurs. They managed to transport a pack of Monolophosaurus, eight of them. But Babun had no place to store them, and had them transported over to his mansion.
Big mistake.
They broke out, and ended up killing Babun, Bandi Akka and all of their servants. The mansion was then claimed by the Monolophosaurs, as even though it was a nice house, and could provide homes to many, the citizens of Goripure left it to start a jungle.
And slowly the jungle began to spread. The jackals and wild pigs escaped, and the Monolophosaurus population began to grow. The jungle began to claim other houses. People that lived closest to Babun’s mansion abandoned their homes, saying that it would bring bad fortune.
And the rest were all killed by a Monolophosaurus, or had a family member killed, causing them to move out.
“In another ten years, this place will go to the dogs. All of our huts will be left to get trampled by elephants!” one woman had said, weeping.
By now, there were many pockets of land on earth that was reclaimed by dinosaurs, where no one went, some saying that ‘dragons live there.’  And Goripure was one of those places. Only the people who lived at the edge of Monolophosaurus territory were always at risk.
Everyone who could find a new place to live left Goripure, maybe far off in the rural place, leaving only eight houses, as people whose houses were close to the developing jungle left their houses and settled down in a house further off.
“Yesterday, early in the morning, there was another Monolophosaurus attack” Swetha said, as she stopped a taxi. “I’ll pay for the ride” she said. “To Goripure.”
“What happened?” Methuka asked.
“I only just heard of the news,” Swetha told him.
The taxi parked in front of the road that was Goripure. Swetha led Methuka down the road, and most of the people stood where Bastian had been killed. The body lay where it had fallen, and leaves had been raised over it to shade it from the sun. People made sure that there was always someone to keep away pigs and jackals. A policeman had also arrived to inquire, and the leaves were removed. A swarm of flies’ ross and hung buzzing in the air above the corpse. The body had not been moved: everyone was too afraid to do it. They said it could be cursed. Bastian lay on his face, and had several wounds. The heat of the afternoon had bought with it the faint smell of decaying human flesh.
“What happened?” Swetha asked.
“Yesterday morning, I woke up to go fishing, when I heard a scream. I always carry my rifle with me in the mornings, and I ran towards the source of the screaming. When I came, though, it was too late. I saw Bastian lying on the ground, with a Monolophosaurus on him. But I still shot the devil, on the hip. In roared, and ran off, that way.” A villager said, and pointed towards the jungle.
Bastian’s house was now the closest to the jungle. He lived with his parents, who were around fifty years old. But one could look at them and say that they were around eighty or nighty years of age. All day they begged in the streets, and whatever money they made were spent on their medicines. Bastian managed to supply them with some fish and vegetables to eat with their coupon rice that was supplied by the government. But now, the two of them would probably be moved to an elder’s home, as they had no living relatives.
“Mudalali,” a villager said, addressing Methuka. Mudalali was a local term used to respectfully talk to a successful businessman. “Mudalali, what shall we do now? Bastian is gone, and with him is another house. But we have now where to go.”
“Aiya,” Swetha said, addressing the villager that had shot the Monolophosaurus in the hip. “Can I have your rifle?”
“Yes, but what for?” the villager went and bought back the rifle.
“To correct injustice” Swetha said, and went in to the jungle. She climbed up an old jack tree, which had once supplied the villagers with many meals, but was now part of the jungle. And she waited.
Pretty soon, a pack of three Monolophosaurs arrived, with one limping. Swetha could see a bullet wound on the hip. She aimed the rifle at the limping Monolophosaurus, and shot it dead.
The Monolophosauurs collapsed.
The other two looked up at Swetha, and began to climb up the jack tree, biting in the air. Swetha reloaded, aimed, and shot another Monolophosaurus in the back. It hissed, and she reloaded and shot again, this time on the head.
The dinosaur fell off the tree.
Swetha began to climb higher, until she knew that the branches could no longer support her weight.
She knew that the rifle only had three rounds. But as the third Monolophosaurus almost got her, she hit it with the butt of her rifle, and it fell down, onto then ground.
Swetha slowly climbed down, to see the injured dinosaur lay on the ground, hissing and bleeding.
Swetha didn’t want the dinosaur to suffer, but she had no way to end its misery. She hoped that maybe a few jackals could come and finish it off, and went back into the village.
“I’ve left them a warning, and you all shall be safe, for now,” Swetha smiled. She turned to Methuka. “You think Xoblar Corp may want to do something about this?”
“I don’t think they’ll care. Who’ll pay for this? The Monolophosaurs are harming poor people. They only care about profits. Maybe get the DFW or DPW here. They won’t be able to rehome them, but maybe have a fence built” Methuka told the villagers, and went up the road. He stopped. “And also, give the man a funeral. Moving his body might not give you a curse, but leaving it to rot like this might.”
“Ok, Mudalali” the villagers said.
= Chapter IV =
“A pack of Monolophosaurus taking over a village, a pair of dinosaurs causing chaos in a zoo, what else, what else?” Irene Colts asked her maid, Ira.
“Well, Madam, maybe you should consider the offer from Extinction Now!” Ira said.
“Now, Ira.” Irene said. “These dinosaurs could mean a lot of money. Selling them, displaying them. It just has to be done in the right way. Extinction Now! will just destroy that potential.”
“But they plan to raid Xoblar Corp, and if they don’t, there shall be another dinosaur park. These people, how many times will they fail before they finally give up?” Ira asked.
“Well, Ira,” Irene said. “It’s basically human nature, to go on and on until you achieve your goals. Just look at the fight mankind put to be able to fly. So, I guess, they shall never give up. Plus, I want to be able to unleash a Spinosaurus or something on a group of teenagers.”
“You don’t mean that, right, Ms. Colts?” Ira asked.
“Oh, I do” Irene said. “But I think that the dead dinosaurs will still be valuable, just less than living ones. So, maybe I should take up the job.”
“Why were you even contacted in the first place?” Ira asked.
“Mr. Ludlow and I used to date, and we always had a strong opinion against dinosaurs. Eric, I mean Mr. Ludlow, lost his father to two of them, Ira” Irene said. “Pack my bags, Ira. I shall be leaving for Puerto Cortes tomorrow.
Eric Ludlow sat hunched in a dark corner of the Chesperito Cantine in Puerto Cortes, nursing a beer. Besides him, Jackson, his personal pilot was enthusiastically devouring a plate of huevos rancheros. The egg yolks ran yellow across the green salsa. It made Ludlow sick just to look at it, and he turned away, but he could still hear Jackson licking his lips, noisily.
“Get out of here! Eat over there!” he yelled at Jackson, and pointed towards the opposite corner.
There was no one else in the bar, except for some chickens clucking around the floor. Every so often, a young boy would come to the door and throw a handful of rocks, before running away, giggling. A scratchy stereo played an old Elvis Presley taped through the corrode speakers above the bar, and Ludlow hummed “Falling in Love with You,” while trying to control his temper. He had been sitting at this dump for nearly an hour.
“Eric!” Anthony Smith came entered the bar.
“I’ve been waiting for nearly an hour!” Ludlow shouted at him. “Where are the others?”
“On the way. Irene stopped with the other two to get a cup of coffee” Anthony said.
“Damn coffee” Ludlow yelled.
“Eric!” Anthony said, sternly.
Anthony Smith was the son of Aaron Smith, one of Christoph Bauer’s trainers. Aaron Smith had been killed by the Super raptor, and Anthony Smith shared the angst that Eric Ludlow held over losing a parent to dinosaurs.
“Were you close with your father?” Eric Ludlow had asked, when Anthony Smith joined Extinction Now! “I was, kind of.”
“I barely knew the guy” Anthony Smith said.
“Me too, to be honest” Eric Ludlow said. “But still, if it weren’t for those damned dinosaurs, both of them and many others would still be alive.”
Eric Ludlow was the current president of Extinction Now! And he was leading an elite team to raid Isla Chad National Park, and kill all prehistoric animals there. He had contacted three people from Extinction Now!, as well his ex-girlfriend. And along with him and his pilot Jackson, they plotted to attack the place.
But first they needed to plan on what to do, and what to take.
And for that, Eric Ludlow needed everyone here.
And they weren’t.
“WHERE IS EVERYONE!?!” Eric Ludlow screamed.
Jackson had finished his meal, and pushed his plate aside. He jumped and hid behind a trashcan, having past experience from Ludlow’s temper tantrums before.
Just then, two men and Irene Colts walked into the bar.
“Hey” Irene said.
“Where in god’s name were you!” Steam could have been rushing out of Ludlow’s ears.
“Relax” said one of the men, Theobold Cunnigham. He had often been bullied about his family name, until he had stabbed his bullies in the stomach. From then onwards, he had been feared. Theobold chewed an until cigar, and carried a bag with him.
“What’s in the bag?” Ludlow asked.
“Bottles and guns” Theobold told him.
“Eric, change of plans. Ira is coming too” Irene said.
“What?”
Ira walked in, timidly.
“Hello, Mr. Ludlow” she said.
“What?” Eric Ludlow yelled.
“I know it is last minute, but we can work with that, right?” Irene asked.
“No!” Ludlow yelled again.
Derog Rease, the other man told Ludlow to calm down.
“I am calm!” Eric Ludlow yelled.
“Well, then all there’s left to do is plan our invasion” Irene said. “Now, todays Friday, the 12th of December, and those people leave for their trip on the 18th of December, and are to come back on the 24th of December, on Christmas Eve. We should arrive on Friday, the 19th.”
“Good idea” Eric said, squatting on the ground, and taking another sip of beer.
Richard Levine opened his eyes. He was in a jail cell, but it appeared to be located in a hotel room of some sort.
“Where am I?” he wondered, aloud.
= Chapter V =
Humans, or Homo sapiens sapiens, was generally regarded as the smartest animal to ever walk the earth. And Velociraptor was regarded as the second most intelligent animal on the planet.
BioSyn Valley, located in the Dolomites Mountain range in Italy, had been under the supervision of a company twice, in the span of just two years as well. Once again government property, BioSyn Valley hadn’t had a human visitor in over a year.
Blue the Velociraptor was out hunting, after recently having a clutch of chicks’ hatch. She and Red, an Atrociraptor, had started a courtship, and after being together for a year, they had decided to start a family.
Blue climbed up a pine tree. She had to find food for herself, her mate, her 6 chicks, her two young adult daughters, her sister-in-law and her two brother-in -laws, alongside two friends of hers, who were somewhat her packmates.
So, she lay still, and at last a herd of Triceratops came down the track. First came an old boar, his horns shining white in the shadows, followed by many sows and young trikes.
The young ran here and there, in and out among the sows. As they passed, one of the little ones ran near the pine tree, and Blue jumped down. She sprang and caught in in her teeth, and leapt with it into a bush. There she sat, and the little Triceratops whose neck was caught up in her jaws screamed to its mother. All the little ones ran together screaming, and stood on one side, and the great boars, and the young boars and sows ran around the pine tree, looking at Blue, who was partially hidden among the bushes. The Triceratops herd made a great amount of noise. Blue rushed to the pine tree with the heavy Triceratops calf still in her jaws, and dragged it up as she climbed the tree.
And old sow, who had laid the egg which had hatched into the little Triceratops in Blue’s jaws, put one of her fore feet against the trunk of the pine tree, looked up and bellowed, “Come down, Yakkini, she-devil, thief! Are you afraid of an old sow? Come down!”
(Yakkini means she-devil)
But Blue laughed, and bit the little one in the back so it died. He shouldn’t suffer for too long, she thought. “Go your way, mother. There are two adolescents and six hatchlings at home in the cave, and they are very hungry. Not to mention my other pack mates. But every year, you drop so many eggs, that the whole valley swarms of your spawn. I see eight sons and daughters of one of your older children, and multiple siblings of your dead son. Please, go your way, mother.”
The old sow and her mate were very angry, and for a long time they charged around the pine tree, looked up and cursed Blue. Blue understood the pain they were going through, but it had been a weak since her chicks had had anything to eat, which happened to be a thin Gallimimus.
“Curse you, Yakkini!” the old sow bellowed, and turned to leave with her herd.
Blue stood and watched them, and licked the blood which dripped from the Trike’s back.
“I’m sorry” she whispered after the old sow.
Blue climbed down the pine tree, with the carcass hanging on to her jaws. She dragged it close towards a cave, and began to bark loudly.
The bushes began to shake, as Blue’s Velociraptor daughters, Beta and Zephyr showed up. Now nearly fully grown, they were almost as large as Blue herself.
And then Red showed up, and nuzzled Blue. Out of the den six chicks emerged. Three females and three males.
Athena was the oldest Velociraptor-Atrociraptor hybrid, and looked almost identical to Zephyr, for both looked like Blue without her signature stripe. Only, Athena had non pronated arms, compared to her siblings and mother, who all had pronated arms. Of the whole bunch, she was the most adventurous, and enjoyed spending time with her Aunt Ghost, who often took Athena with her when going hunting, so that Athena could watch from a safe distance, while someone guarded her.
Amber was the second oldest, and was completely red, like her father, although she was a darker shade of red compared to her father, Red. And she also had the hint of a stipe like Blue’s, only this time a reddish one.
Jolt was the oldest male chick, and also Blue’s oldest son. He had inherited stripes, similar to his father, and his Uncle Tiger, and late Aunt Echo. His head shape was also different as it was bulkier compared to his sisters, but similar to his brothers.
Alicia was the youngest of the girls, and had bright blue eyes. She was completely brown, and looked like an InGen Velociraptor from Jurassic Park. While the rest of her siblings, besides Atrocity, had been more playful and adventurous, Alicia was a timid one, and preferred to stay nearby an adult, most often her father, who she was obviously fond of.
Ash was the second oldest of the boys, and even though their age gap was a few minutes, it mattered a lot amongst the siblings. He also had Jolt’s head shape, which he shared with his younger brother Atrocity as well. He was named due to his coat colour.
Atrocity was the youngest. He was closest to Blue, and while he was still somewhat adventurous, he often preferred to stay in a safe distance. He was the runt of the clutch, and the lazy one in the family.
Of course, cross breeding between a Velociraptor and an Atrociraptor did have its downsides, as Atrocity and Alicia did have a very weak immune system, and even the others weren’t that healthy either, compared to their parents. Beta often stood close by to her siblings, worried that something might go wrong. While in a way, she was their half-sister, she and Zephyr both considered Red as their father figure by now, and considered the six hatchlings their full siblings.
The six of them were now two months old, and were slowly growing stronger, which gave Beta hope that they’d grow healthier.
Besides Blue and Red and their children, Red’s siblings also lived within the pack. Tiger and Panthera were Red’s brothers, and they both competed for the role of the ‘fun uncle’. Ghost seldom showed any affection towards them, but when she did, she made it clear that she loved the six of them very much.
There were two other members in the pack, but they mostly stuck to themselves, rarely taking part in hunts, and only coming to feed, or provide the pack with food.
The old BioSyn facility had now become a boneyard after a battle had taken place there. This had been where two Velociraptors, or rather Venatosaurus saevidicus, named Kera and Buruda had been killed by Satan, a Deinonycanis menaechmus. After their deaths, their brother Spirit and their adoptive mother Moguera had dragged their remains to where their half-brother Furious lay, who was also killed by Satan.
That very day, Spirit and his siblings had found out that Moguera was not their biological mother, and alongside Furious, they had learned about their father, the vicious and snarky Super raptor. And on that very day, Spirit had lost the mother he had only just discovered, both of his sisters, and his half-brother.
This had left its marks of Spirit, who was now a loner, wandering BioSyn Valley. He was also worried that he might become like his father, an arrogant beast. Spirit sighed, watching the Erucaraptor flying after a Moros, ready to make a kill. Spirit planned on chasing the hybrid away after it had made its kill, when he heard Blue’s barking. He ran off.
Spirit’s biological mother had been a Velociraptor named Ser. According to Moguera, Ser had left to find more Velociraptors, right after Ser had laid her eggs. And that was the last Moguera had seen and heard of Ser for 14 years.
Moguera on the other hand lay on the forest floor. Bones were scattered around her. These were the last remains of Furious, Kera and Buruda. Moguera often spoke with the bones, and seldom moved away from the spot. She had been born in Jurassic Park on 1993, the same year the park was abandoned. Here, she managed to form a new family with three adoptive parents, and several siblings, including her brother Adam.
Unfortunately, her adoptive parents would be killed when she was just a year old. Moguera and her siblings had been taken to Isla Sorna on a boat, and here she would meet a new family. All was well until 2009, when human being arrived on the island, and with the help of the Super raptor, killed her entire pack, and transported her off to India. It was here she would meet Ser, and they would team up to kill the Super raptor and his humans. However, the Super raptor had managed to leave his mark on Moguera’s life.
She bore his son, who she named Furious, and she also raised his children with Ser, who she named Spirit, Kera and Buruda, after Ser left.
And now she had lost Ser, Furious, Kera and Buruda.
Moguera sighed.
“It’s just too hard,” she told Furious’s skull, which was partially buried in mud. “And why did he have to take you three from me?”
Spirit, after arriving towards Blue’s den, tore off a leg from the carcass, and left towards where his mother was.
“Here you go,” Spirit said, dropping the leg on to the ground. Moguera began to chew chunks of flesh, and after she was done, Spirit ate the leftovers. Afterwords, he left Moguera, and wandered off, with the Triceratops leg bones in his jaws. He would chew on them later.
Spirit walked towards a den. This would be a nice place to relax for the day.
He lay on the ground, chewing on the bones. He had been rather popular amongst Blue and Red’s chicks, due to him also being a hybrid himself. Spirit spent his days exploring BioSyn Valley, and sometimes he’d return with a few treats for the siblings, including Beta and Zephyr. Spirit also held a bit of guilt, as at one point he had turned against the mix pack, and joined Satan.
All of that was more than a year ago, but it still seemed like yesterday.
From under the cave, there was the noise of hissing.
The source was a Carnoraptor named Ember. She was the last surviving member of Satan’s hybrid army. She was one of two Carnoraptors that had been on Satan’s side, the other being her eventual mate, Snake. While Snake had been killed at the BioSyn facility, his legacy had survived, in the form of three Carnoraptors.
“Get out of my territory!” Ember hissed, crawling out.
Spirit looked at Ember in visible disgust. He continued to chew on the bone, ignoring Ember.
Ember hissed again, and began to climb the rocks. “Don’t make me come there!”
Spirit stood up, dropping the bone on to Ember’s head. “I was just leaving” he licked his lips.
Ember growled, and began to bark. Her three daughters crawled out.
Three adolescent terrors. They bit each other as they crawled out, snarling and hissing.
Ember shrieked, and they stopped.
“This fool shall pay the ultimate price for crossing your mother, right?” Ember asked. The three sisters nodded.
While relatively unknown, Snake had a venomous bite, which all three of his daughters had inherited. They had also inherited Ember’s ability to camouflage.
Tui was the oldest of the three, and the most brutal. She liked her prey alive, and would torture it before killing.
Kea, the second born, was noted by Ember to be extremely fast.
Toffee-Nose was the youngest, and would often laugh for seemingly no reason what so ever. In fact, neither one of the trio would ever speak a word, and would respond with hisses, growls, snarls or laughter, in the case of Toffee-Nose.
The three of them jumped onto the boulder, with Kea landing right in front of Spirit. Spirit snarled, and slapped Kea with his tail, causing her to fall.
“How dare you!” Ember growled, and Spirit looked behind him. There were a few trees behind him.
His stomach was in knots, and his heart was beating fast, as he ran and quickly climbed up a tree. He hadn’t anticipated that it’d get this far. Spirit once again looked at Ember in disgust. It was her former alpha that had taken away his family.
Hissing and snarling, Kea and Tui began to claw on the tree, before then turning against each other for some reason.
Toffee-Nose began to laugh, and then shot up the tree and stayed, latched onto it, and continued to laugh.
Spirit rolled his eyes.
“Really?” he asked, looking at Ember. “Really?”
“Oh, shut up!” Ember snapped. Spirit sighed, and jumped off the tree. He trotted off, ignoring the hybrids.
Back at Blue’s den, different trouble was stirring.
The One-Eyed Allosaurus was an old enemy of Blue’s. She carried many scars, from a battle with a Majundasuchus, and also an encounter with tree T. Rexes. But her most prominent injury was her missing eye, which she received two years ago, during an encounter with Blue, Beta and Zephyr.
After she rediscovered Blue a year after their original encounter, the Allosaurus had stalked Blue, plotting to kill her.
She had made several attempts to attack Blue, but all had been rather futile. But the Allosaurus had been rather successful in a different manner.
Due to her eye injury, the One-Eyed Allosaurus had been rather unsuccessful in hunting. She did not starve, but she struggled. After finding Blue again, she had started to eat Blue’s meals.
However, Blue had a plan on what to do about this. Most of the meat would be torn into pieces and taken deep into the den, or up a tree.
But the Allosaurus noticed the Triceratops carcass still intact.
She roared, and Blue hissed back. “Get inside!” she barked.
“Well, hello, BrightEyes,” the she-Allosaurus said, mockingly. BrightEyes had been the nickname of Satan’s towards Blue, and after learning about it, the One-Eyed Allosaurus used that nickname for Blue.
“Get out!” Blue hissed.
The Allosaurus lunged at Blue, but Blue jumped towards the sides, and pounced on to the back of the Allosaurus. The Allosaurus rushed, lunging towards the den, and grabbing a boulder with her jaws. Blue shrieked, and sunk a claw into the Allosaurus’s skin. She leapt off the Allosaurus and snarled. Realizing that trying to pull a boulder away would be pointless, the Allosaurus lunged onto the Triceratops carcass, and stomped off.
While everyone had had their fill, they would still need the carcass to eat later. Ghost climbed down the tree she was in, and began to chase the Allosaurus, soon followed by Tiger and Panthera.
Chunks of flesh fell off the carcass, as the Allosaurus noticed she was being chased. She dropped the carcass, and roared.
“The carcass is mine now” the Allosaurus smirked, and tore off some flesh off of the carcass.
Ghost growled as she approached the carcass, unable to watch it being diminished.
The Allosaurus looked up, and looked at Ghost with her one remaining good eye. “Atrociraptor” she said. “Leave now. I only have a rivalry with your alpha, and her two older daughters. Lest you want a rival out of me, leave.”
“And what makes you think that I don’t consider you a rival?” Ghost snarled.
The Allosaurus tore off some more flesh, and swallowed it. She licked her bloodstained lips, and bit off a bone. She looked at Blue, and roared towards her. “This is the one I want, not you.”
“We shall see about that!” Ghost got ready to pounce onto the Allosaurus, before she noticed Tiger’s warning glance. “Don’t, Sister, don’t” he said.
While the Allosaurus had stomped his way away from the den, the carcass had gotten considerably smaller, with chunks of flesh falling everywhere. Ghost collected the chunks with her jaws, with Tiger and Panthera occasionally helping her. She’d have this stored in the den, so that the chicks could eat it.
There was a rumbling noise, as the Tarbosaurus cow emerged. She let out an elephant like noise, exploring the valley. The Tarbosaurus cow began to drink some water off a stream. An Arizonasaurus passed the Tarbosaurus cow, who at first growled at the Arizonasaurus, but upon recognizing the Arizonasaurus from when the Tarbosaurus cow was in the nursery, she ignored it. The Tarbosaurus looked up at the sky, and saw something she hadn’t seen in over a year.
Helicopters.
= Chapter VI =
There were many helicopters, and most had large metal cages attached to them.
The words ‘Xoblar Corporation’ were written on the doors of the helicopters, and in one of them, a conversation was going on.
“Send some helicopters over there” a man said. His name was Bandisinghe, and he was from Sri Lanka, and he was a man of the forest, and was quite out of place atop a helicopter. He would not have been there had it not been for his duty to Vsevolod, who had him uprooted against his will from the jungle he loved, because of his skill as a bowman and a tracker. He was usually sent on expeditions to capture dinosaurs.
The man he was speaking to was Paul Seymour, the head of research at Xoblar Corp. He nodded to what Bandisinghe said, and asked, “Well, where shall we be landing?”
“Over there!” Bandisinghe pointed towards a vast horizon.
A couple of helicopters set towards the horizon.
“Tarbosaurus! 5’o clock!” the pilot yelled out.
“Well, we need to capture that, alongside the Erucaraptor, Oxalia and that Velociraptor from India,” Paul Seymour began. “The rest shall be up to the others.”
The Oxalia shrieked, as several people surrounded it.
“Don’t surround it!” Bandisinghe yelled. “You don’t surround an animal, unless you are asking to get attacked!”
“Listen to him!” Paul Seymour ordered. “He’s lead multiple expeditions before.”
The Xoblar employees obeyed, and moved backwords. The Oxalia continued to hiss.
“Move back slowly!” Bandisinghe yelled. “Have any of you encountered a leopard or a sloth bear? Never ever run away. This can kick in a chase instinct. You all! Make loud noises by clapping your hands, shouting and wave your arms. This makes yourself appear bigger and increases your chances of the dinosaur backing down and walking away. And you all! Fire as it walks away.”
Several of the mercenaries looked at each other with confused looks, but obeyed. Several of them yelled, causing the Oxalia to submissively shriek, and back away. And then several other mercenaries shot the dinosaur with tranquilizer darts.
The Oxalia, unconscious, collapsed, and was soon loaded into one of the cages.
The group of mercenaries soon approached Moguera, who sat near the bones of her children.
“Thate Velociraptor, right?” Paul Seymour asked Tsi Chang, who was next to him.
Chang nodded.
Several of the mercenaries approached Moguera, who sensed the danger.
“Idiots!” Bandisinghe yelled. But it was too late.
Moguera jumped onto a mercenary, and began to maul him to death, tearing him apart, while she was being shot. However, she soon collapsed, tranquilized.
“Now, for the Tarbosaurus and Erucaraptor.” Chang said.
Back at the Carnoraptor facility, Ember was unamused.
She watched Tui and Kea fight over a stick while Toffee-Nose laughed in the background.
“Look, Satan,” she said. “They are hopeless.”
Her mind travelled to the events of the previous year.
Ember had finished building her nest, and decided to join the rest of her pack. But, after receiving no response, she set off, tracking down the scent of her mate, Snake.
When she arrived at the abandoned BioSyn facility, she was in for a shock.
She found the corpses of her pack members, including that of her mate, Snake, alongside torn of spikes, which she recognized to be that of her alpha, Satan.
But Ember couldn’t remain shocked for long, as she was almost grabbed by Rexy, who also happened to be there, unnoticed by the shocked Ember.
Ember pounced out of the way just in time. She hissed, as ran away from the T. Rex. Ember snarled, and followed Satan’s scent.
She came across a pack of Dilophosaurus, and hissed at them menacingly. One individual, who’s jaws were drenched in blood, hissed back, but moved away with the rest of its pack.
Satan lay, his body torn and bloody.
Ember moved closer towards him.
He was still breathing.
“Satan?” she barked.
Satan began to cough. He may be alive, but he was still dying. He looked up weakly at Ember.
“Which one art thee?” he asked. (Which one are you?”)
“Ember.”
“Ember… Alloweth not me beest f'rgotten.  Avenge mine own death.  Avenge our packeth.  This wast all yond rapt'r's doing.  BrightEyes's. Thou art going to beest nesting?” Satan looked at her. (Don't let me be forgotten. Avenge my death. Avenge our pack. This was all that Raptor's doing. BrightEyes's. You are going to be nesting?)
Ember nodded.
“Raiseth thy children to holp thee endeth h'r, and h'r packeth.  Avenge our packet, Ember” Satan began to choke. (Raise your children to help you end her, and her pack. Avenge our pack, Ember.)
Laying his head back slowly, he rested his eyes toward the blue sky. Before he closed his eyes for the final time, he smiled. “Alloweth not me beest f’rgotten.” He said, as he slipped away into his endless sleep, surrounded by nature.
“No…” Ember stuttered. “No! Don’t leave me!”
“No…!” Ember yelled, in the present day. Her three daughters looked at her, each with a questionable face.
“I’m fine!” Ember hissed. She shook herself, and got up, snarling towards her daughters. “Come on! We are going to the watering hole.”
The watering hole was already occupied by a herd of Parasaurolophus and a flock of Gallimimus, alongside the old Triceratops sow and the One-Eyed Allosaurus.
Ember hurried towards the water and began to sip, when she noticed a familiar face.
In fact, the other dinosaurs did too.
This was Blue, followed by her pack, minus Beta, Zephyr and her chicks, and Moguera and Spirit. And the watering hole was located in her territory.
And they had had many experiences with Blue prior.
“Not her!” a Parasaurolophus groaned.
“She killed my grandma!” a Gallimimus yelled.
“She killed my son, and taunted me!” the old Triceratops sow bellowed.
“It’s because of her that I have only one eye!” the One-Eyed Allosaurus roared.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Blue sighed.
Ember smirked. “She’s probably planning on hunting again, so beware!”
The dinosaurs began to mutter among themselves.
“Oh, shut up!” Ghost growled. “Come on, Blue. We’ll go somewhere else.”
Back in the den, Beta and Zephyr were fast asleep, and unknown to them, their younger siblings were coming out of the cave.
“I’m hungry!” Athena whined. “Where’s Mother and Father?”
“They should be here any minute now…” Alicia said, looking around. “Maybe we should go back in.”
“Relax,” Ash said, making a proud chest. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
The six siblings made their way deep into the jungle.
Into the boarder of their territory.
A Gallimimus ran pass them, followed by a pair of Velociraptors.
“Dinner!” Jolt yelped. “Let’s go get it!”
“What about those two. The big ones?” Alicia asked.
“Trespassers! Let’s go deal with them!” Amber said.
Reluctantly, Alicia followed her siblings, and spied on the two Velociraptors from the safety of a bush. These were Alpha, and her mate Quilliam, who had managed to kill the Gallimimus.
“The audacity! That was our dinner!” Athena jumped out of the bush.
“Well, if this isn’t a… pleasant surprise?” Alpha said. “Where is your pack, young raptor?”
“My parents and uncles and aunt are out hunting, my sisters are asleep, and Auntie Moguera and Uncle Spirit are no where to be seen,” Ash said.
“Spirit? He’s your packmate?” Quilliam asked. “I’ve often met him at the borders of my territory.”
“Speaking of territory, you are in ours, and that is our food you are disembodying” Atrocity said.
“Oh, aren’t you hilarious!” Quilliam laughed. “You are in our territory, kids.”
The six siblings exchanged glances.
“Usually, you’d be killed for something like this. But I have chicks of my own. In fact, the two of us welcomed some newer additions to our family!” Alpha said. “Once, humans stole two of my eggs. I had to have the entire pack chase them, and we had to kill one of them. Finally, there was this one human that could talk to us, I’m not lying. He had the eggs returned to us. Do you remember, Quilliam?”
“Ah, those were the days” Quilliam said.
“Blah, blah, blah” Atrocity said. Athena jumped onto Alpha’s face and bit her nose, while four of her siblings stole the Gallimimus carcass.
Alpha growled.
“Oh, it’s okay…” Athena giggled.
“I’m going to kill you all!” Alpha said, charging towards the chicks, biting in the air.
Quilliam shrugged, and then snarled, charging towards Alicia, who stood frozen, until Athena ran up to Alicia and pulled her away.
Alpha began to chase the chicks around a boulder, before swiftly changing her direction, and almost biting Jolt.
It was at this moment that Beta and Zephyr began to bark and arrived out of the jungle. The six chicks rushed towards them and stood behind them.
“These can’t be your chicks. You don’t look older than my last litter” Alpha said.
“That’s right, they are mine!” Blue barked, emerging from behind.
“These brats are yours? My condolences!” Quilliam said.
“Excuse me?” Blue snarled.
“I’ll let them go this time, but next time I see them, I’ll have them killed,” Alpha growled.
“Uh-oh, she must be related to Ghost” Red said, and received two murderous looks from both Blue and Ghost.
Alpha growled. “I mean it. And I’ll be taking my dinner back, thank you very much.” Alpha and Quilliam pulled the Gallimimus carcass. “Also, leave my territory. When I return, I hope to not see you.” And with that she left.
Blue began to walk out of the territory, with her younger chicks following her, their backs low.
“What on earth where you thinking?” Beta asked Alicia.
“I tried to make them stop, but they just wouldn’t listen!” Alicia whined.
“You should’ve woken one of us up, then” Zephyr said.
“Then they would hate me!” Alicia whined.
Beta sighed, before picking up Athena from her jaws. “Mother, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll have a talk with Athena” Beta said in a muffled voice.
“She needs a strict talk with her parents, not one of her older sister’s stories!” Blue said.
“Mother…” Beta said. She stayed back, with her sister.
“You are the oldest, Athena. You should know better.” Beta said.
“It’s not fair!” Athena said. “Just because I am the oldest doesn’t mean that I should be an extra parent.”
Beta sighed.
“I didn’t ask to become the oldest. And technically, I’m not. You are!” Athena said.
“I’m just telling you not to do anything stupid. There are lots of dangers out there. And you won’t always be so lucky.”
Athena nodded.
“Now, let’s go home. I expect Mother shall be waiting for us.”
Beta was right. Upon their return, Blue began to bark at them.
“What were you thinking?” Blue scolded them.
“Well, obviously you six weren’t. You could have gotten your selves killed!” Ghost said.
“And what if those two had decided to attack you for real after all?” Blue asked.
“Then we would have fought back, right Tig?” Red asked. Tiger laughed.
“Thank you for your input into raising our children, Red” Blue said.
“You are being a little too harsh, Blue” Red said.
“A little?” Blue barked.
It was at this moment the team sent to capture the Erucaraptor had made their way towards Blue’s den.
“A mix-pack?” Tsi Chang exclaimed. “Of Atrociraptors and Velociraptors?”
“Those chicks…” Paul Seymour said. “They don’t seem like either of those species. What are they?”
“They look like Velociraptor and Atrociraptor hybrids…” Chang said.
“What?” Paul exclaimed. “Is that even possible?”
“It would appear so” Chang replied.
“This is unnatural. Does the leopard of the jungle mate with the dog of the village?” Paul asked.
“This is nothing really” Bandisinghe said. “The wild buffalo seeks cows I the village herds And don’t let me get started on those ligers and tigons and leopons and wolf dogs. Plus, natural hybrids… the boss will pay us a lot for this.”
“We don’t have any space for them. We can’t just take the chicks. We shall need the parents too, and best not to separate them pack” Paul said.
“Drop the Erucaraptor. Maybe we’ll come back later for her” Chang said.
He grabbed a tranquilizer dart, and began to fire, hitting Blue and the Atrociraptors.
As they collapsed, Beta and Zephyr got into a defensive position.
“What’s going on?” Alicia asked.
“I don’t know” Zephyr said.
Several other darts hit Beta and Zephyr, who too soon collapsed. But Zephyr managed to bark out “Help!” before she fell.
“No need to tranq the chicks! Just load them, and quick!” Paul said, running towards them.
The six chicks stood frozen, and were soon grabbed and shoved into the crates, into which Ghost, Red, Tiger, Panthera, Beta and Zephyr were kept too.
One mercenary went to load Blue.
She stopped after hearing the noise of stomping, and saw the One-Eyed Allosaurus slowly approaching her.
The Allosaurus had seen the unconscious Blue. Now was her chance.
“Protect that Raptor! Shoot the Allosaurus!” Chang yelled.
But the female Mercenary was frozen, too afraid to move.
The Allosaurus ran up to her and bit her, waist above. Her bottom half stood up right for a split second, before falling. The Allosaurus swallowed her top half, along with the rifle.
The Allosaurus got ready to finish Blue off, but heard a rumbling noise, and was immediately knocked over by the Tarbosaurus cow, who let out a trumpeting noise.
The Allosaurus got up, and hissed, while the Tarbosaurus bellowed back. Grunting, the Allosaurus charged, but to no avail, as she was knocked over once again when the Tarbosaurus slammed her head on to the Allosaurus.
The Allosaurus got up and hissed submissively, before running away.
The Tarbosaurus then picked up what remained of the female mercenary, and began to eat, when three sedative darts struck her, causing her to fall as well.
“Tarbosaurus was on the list” the mercenary that fired the darts said, sarcastically.
“We got what we came for, let’s go” a nervous mercenary said. Paul Seymour nodded.
“Load up the dinosaurs!” he said, when he noticed something through the trees.
It was Spirit, charging towards them.
Paul pointed. “And that one. I want that one” he said.
Spirit came closer, hissing. These humans, again? he thought. They mean bad news.
A mercenary fired a net launcher onto Spirit, and he struggled inside the net.
“Load him into the same cage as the Velociraptors, Atrociraptors and what ever the hell those hybrids are going to be called raptors,” Paul ordered.
“Vasilaraptors” Tsi Chang said. “I like that name. And, I’m sure as hell that the boss will too.”
Paul nodded, and had the cages loaded into the helicopters, and transported out of BioSyn Valley.
= Chapter VII =
Outside Isla Chad National Park, Sally Bing stood. “It’s getting too windy. Let’s get this over with.”
Sally Bing was dressed in a medical coat. Completely dressed in white, she looked out of place in the wilderness. You could only see her eyes, and even those were covered by a pair of safety goggles. She wore a mask, gloves, everything you’d expect someone to be wearing in a hospital during a deadly pandemic.
Next to her was Charles Seymour, the younger brother of Paul Seymour. Charles too was dressed in the same attire as Sally.
“Now, several dead primates have been found in the vicinity of the park” Charles Seymour said, in a reasonable, organized voice.
“Who found them?” Sally asked.
“A couple of nosy environmentalists. They’ve complained to the company, and were demanding to see the park, until they were infected as well.” Charles told her.
“What evidence was released?” Sally questioned him.
“A couple of photos of dead animals. A bonobo, some baboons, and a few monkeys.”
“Hell, animals die in nature all the time. I mean, remember the business of those slashed cows? It was supposed to be aliens from UFOs that were slashing the cows. Finally turned out the cows were dying of natural causes, and it was decomposing gas in the carcasses that split them open. Remember that?”
“Vaguely. But, Sally, I’m not sure we can just deny- “
“Yes. Deny.” Sally said.
Charles decided to change the subject.
“One of the utility buildings caught fire last week. Not sure if we are ready to open the park just yet” he said.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. There was a nest of rats in the building too. Buggers got fried, literally. I hate the smell of burning rat fur, don’t you?”
“Never had the experience.” Sally said. “How did the rats even get it?”
“Up through the toilet bowl” Charles said, and noticed the confusion on Sally’s face. “Oh, you didn’t know? Rats do that all the time, it’s just a short swim for them to get in. ‘Course, if it happened while you were sitting it’d be a nasty surprise.” He let out a laugh. “Problem was the contractor for the buildings didn’t bury the leach field deep enough. Any how rats got in.”
Sally nodded, and followed Charles Seymour. He led her into a secluded area.
“So one patient got away, and we tracked him for a while. He had managed to spread it, but thankfully we could get it contained again” Charles said, and showed her the rotting carcasses of several people, gorillas, bonobos, Olive baboons, Patas monkeys, Tantalus monkeys and Senegal Bushbabies. Some of the bodies had started to bloat and blood containing foam had begun to leak from the nose and mouth. Sally almost threw up after seeing this. Swarms of flies flew around.
There were other workers, who were also dressed in the same medical kit.
“We went all over Africa looking for the infected” Charles told Sally. An entire village had been infected at one point.”
Sally nodded.  Independent and rebellious, Sally had been a Shakespearen scholar at Havard, before she decided in her word, that, “Shakespear is f*cking dead. For God damn centuries. There is nothing new to say. What’s the point?” and had transferred to MediaTronics and become a computer programmer. She had written a lot of code there, but had quit the job to become the CEO of Xoblar Genetics, swiftly rebranding it to Xoblar Corp. When her father, Edward Bing, founder of Xoblar had died, she was offered the job as CEO, but had rejected it. When asked why she wanted it now, she had replied that she wanted to honor her father.
However her plan of honoring the late Edward Bing was not standing next to some rotting carcasses.
Charles Seymour whistled, and the other workers threw petrol over the rotting corpses, causing a massive swarm of flies to rise into the air, their buzzing noise erupting. Once every carcass was drenched in petrol, Charles Seymour grabbed a box of matches, and lit the bodies on fire.
All corpses were swallowed in the flames.
= Chapter VIII =
The 17th of December 2024 was a busy day for Xoblar Corp. All of the candidates to requested to fly to Chad on that day, with tickets being paid by Xoblar. Sally Bing also requested all Xoblar Corp employees, besides a selected few leave Isla Chad National Park, and head towards Godowa, one of the park’s other facilities.
“Only the heads of the company, as well as the ranger team and the security guards, including Norman Newman can stay. And also Kateryn, Cranmer, Catherine, Gregory, Edward Brandon, Jane, Katherine, Anne Johnson, Loisal, Matilda, Vikram and the McCringes will be permitted to stay. Keep in mind that this entire operation must be a success, and we don’t want any risks” she announced.
“Isn’t sending us all home a risk?” a worker had asked her.
“Too many cooks, remember?” Sally said.
Paul Seymour had been tasked with bringing the guests into Isla Chad National Park.
And so, the next day, Paul Seymour, alongside Vikram, one of the other Xoblar Corp employees drove a Toyota. A second Toyota, driven by Charles Seymour was also there, to carry the luggage.
Paul got down, and met with the five people waiting at the rendezvous site. He shook hands with Lex Murphy, William Morpurgo, Methuka Senuth, Rovinu, Chithira Lethnura, and then escorted them into the Toyota.
As the two Toyota’s arrived closer towards the massive gates, which immediately opened, leading the Toyotas into an airlock. A second gate stood in the way. The earlier gates closed, and the gates ahead opened.
“Here in Lake Chad, we have two main guest areas. One is located a bit close to the utility area, while the second, known as the Valley of Death. Completely just a guest area” Paul Seymour said.
“Now by any chance, how would you know if a dinosaur were to escape this park?” Rovinu asked.
“That’s an excellent question!” Paul Seymour said. “We’ve got most of our technology from Xymos Technology, and they’ve provided us with a computer system that keeps in track of how many animals we’ve got in the park. There are plenty of detectors that showcase what we’ve got here, but only if the species date had been submitted. Otherwise, the animals are just ignored. Let me show you what I mean.”
Paul picked up the phone and dialed Charles.
“Charlie, you go off to the hotel lobby. I’m taking the guests to see a Rahonavis.”
Paul Seymour drove the Toyota towards the lake.
“You see, part of the reason we could finish construction here so quickly was because we weren’t the first to attempt this. Now, Lake Chad has shrunk as much as 95% since the 60s, and it provides water to more than 20 million people living on the edge of the Sahara Desert. The UN always had plans to expand it, one such plan being building a channel from the Oubangui river through Central Africa to the lake.  But that cost 9 million euro, and the UN can't afford that. Many people tried to construct this before they went bankrupt, and so, we were able to finish this off within a year.”
He drove into a system of caves. Caves which had Ammonite fossils engraved into the walls.
“Wow!” Lethnura said.
“Stunning, isn’t it?” Paul asked. “And this was all natural. This cave system was always there. We are now under the lake too. We thought of making tours around these caves.” Paul grabbed a flashlight and shined the light across the cave, and spotlighted a pile of bones. “And those bones don’t belong to dinosaurs. You see, before we had plans to make a dinosaur preserve, someone had cloned a species of dromaeosaurid known as Rahonavis. A pack of them live here, but they aren’t detected by the computers, because their data hasn’t been entered. They used to live off of the local wildlife, but now I guess they eat other dinosaurs. Or rats.”
Paul continued to shine the torch, before he caught some movement.
“We hardly see a Rahonavis out of the Ammonite caves. So we theorized that they live off of animals that come into this facility. We have some genetically modified goats, pigs, chickens and cows that grow faster and breed faster living here. They supply food to most of the carnivores here.”
“I remember them, from Isla Pena.” Methuka said.
“That’s interesting” Paul said. “And I’m trying to get the Rahonavis to stalk us.”
Shining the light around was enough to get one Rahonavis to leap out of some stalagmites, shrieking.
It was there for a split second, and was soon gone.
“Now, we’ve recently found out that there is a tunnel that leads out of the park, but so far, nothing unwanted has come in. Besides antelope that is. We have motion detectors to see what comes in and goes out. So far, nothing from the park has even wandered here. But outside dinosaurs and prehistoric beasts have…” Paul explained. “Fossils or Rahonavis show it barely larger than your hand, but these ones are as tall as a large dog” he added.
“So, there is an entire ecosystem that has been left undetected in your park?” Lex asked.
“Miss Murphy, relax. We have learnt from our predecessors, including ourselves, and your grandfather” Paul said. “Now, you won’t be seeing the ammonites for a while, so say goodbye.”
The Toyota drove pass a skeletal cave, with bones hanging everywhere.
“What on earth happened here?” Lex asked.
“Animals think that they’ve found shelter here when trying to escape a predator like an Allosaurus. But in a way, this place is worse” Paul said, and shone the headlights towards the bones. “Afrocyon. There haven’t been any new prey animals coming to this area in a while, so I’m sure that she’s a little hungry.”
The Afrocyon roared, but soon began to dig through the bones.
“How long was she here?” Lex asked.
“We don’t know. We think before the construction began, maybe as early as 2018 or 2019. A few workers were exploring the caves, and were almost killed. That happened like three months ago. It was then we discovered the secrets over here. Previously, we knew about the Rahonavis, but not of the other three species.”
“Other three?” William exclaimed.
Paul nodded. The Afrocyon began to approach closer towards the Toyota, so Paul drove pass it.
It was a half hour drive before they saw anything else.
“We are getting close towards the other side of the lake. Out of the park” Paul said. This is where the other two species live, although one tends to explore and wander towards the places that we came from.”
“There are multiple tunnels here. How do you know which ones to follow?” Methuka asked.
“I do a weekly patrol around this place. And explore all the tunnels. Used to have a GPS tracker. Now I know this place like the back of my hand.”
The Toyota parked outside a pile of rotting antelope carcasses. However, most of the carcasses were just skin and bones, with not even a fly in sight.
There was however, one dinosaur.
“Tyrannosaurus?” Morpurgo asked.
Paul shook his head. “Not every large carnivorous theropod is a T-Rex. This one is called a Kryptops.
The Kryptops grunted, sniffing the air for any potential meals. Seeing the Toyota, it roared, and charged towards it, slamming its body on to the jeep.
“Don’t fret, it keeps doing that over and over again” Paul whistled. “Oi!”
The Kryptops growled, but left the Toyota alone. However, it followed the Toyota, hiding in the shadows.
“He is trying to see if we shall lead it towards some food,” Paul explained. “And we will.”
He drove on, and turned into a tunnel. There was a beam of sunlight.
“Are we at the other side?” Lex asked.
Paul nodded. “And over there, you can see a Prolibytherium.”
The Prolibytherium stood next to some rotting mossy branches, on with mushrooms had grown. The Prolibytherium began to chew on some mushrooms.
“There’re eight of them” Rovinu counted.
“There’s more of them,” Paul said. “Probably in the other tunnels, or out inside the park, or the park’s boarders.”
“Where do they get hydrated?” Lethnura asked.
“There are small pools of water here. Coming from little cracks in the cave. We in fact worry that this cave will collapse soon. But so far, no signs of anything dangerous” Paul said. He began to reverse the Toyota into a corner, and began to drive back towards the Ammonite caves. The Prolibytherium herd followed.
“They’ve noticed the Kryptops, and will probably be with us for a while” Paul explained. “But they should leave soon.”
They didn’t.
The Kryptops had followed the Toyota and the Prolibytherium herd for an hour now, with the Afrocyon not far off.
The Toyota came to a halt when Paul pointed towards a pack of Rahonavis. A Velociraptor, Bambiraptor and multiple chicks stood, surrounded by them. A Rahonavis carcass lay on the ground.
“Look!” he said.
But what had happened while they were gone?
= Chapter IX =
It had all begun in the morning. Blue and her pack had been in Lake Chad for a while, and had failed to find Moguera. Or find out where they were.
They hadn’t even found a place to stay yet.
“Chicks, stay here!” Blue told them, pointing towards a bush. “We’ll be back, hopefully with either dinner or Moguera. Or both.”
And she left, alongside Beta, Zephyr, and the Atrociraptors. Spirit was to patrol the territory for a potential den site.
And during the time Paul was showing everyone the Kryptops, the chicks had an unfriendly visitor.
Mnyama was a Bambiraptor, and almost as tall as Blue. He arrived, and began to sniff around.
“I know you are in there, chicks!” Mnyama shrieked. “Let’s make this easier for both of us. Come here, chicks!”
No response.
Mnyama licked his lips, and slowly approached the bush, rustling the leaves with his arms, causing the chicks to run away.
Mnyama laughed. “You can’t outrun me, chicks! Get back here. I need to eat too, you know.”
He chased after the chicks. Blue had chosen a bush located close to the Ammonite caves to keep her chicks. The six of them scurried into the cave.
“Now stop right there, you li- “ the Bambiraptor said, before something pounced onto him.
That something was Spirit.
“Hurt those chicks,” he said, “and that’ll make you stupider than you look. Which would be quite impressive.”
Mnyama pushed Spirit off and bolted into the Ammonite caves. Spirit hurried after him.
The six Vasilaraptors had just arrived deep into the caves, and lay panting.
“What was that?’ Alicia asked.
“I don’t know!” Atrocity panted.
“What was what?” someone giggled.
“The thing that chased- “ Athena stopped talking. “Wait, who was that?”
There was a chorus of giggles, as an entire pack of Rahonavis emerged.
“My my my, what do we have here?” a female Rahonavis asked.
“I don’t know. They look like us, but without feathers. That seems so wrong…” a male Rahonavis said.
“Maybe that’s a hint that we should eat ‘em!” a second male Rahonavis laughed.
“Maybe we will, Farid, maybe we will,” the female said, giggling. She turned towards Athena, and bit the air right next to her. Athena jumped, terrified. The female Rahonavis’s packmates began to laugh.
“Tell me, weird creature, what are you?” the female asked.
“I’m Alicia, daughter of Red and Blue, and talk to my sister with respect!” Alicia snapped. Immediately she regretted her choice, and took a step back.
“Red and Blue? Why weren’t you named Purple?” the female said, and her pack laughed.
“That’s enough chit chat, Tish. Let’s eat!” the first male told the female.
“Not so fast, Rahisi” the female, who was named Tish said. “First, we need to make this more interesting.”
Farid giggled.
“Weird creatures, we will give you ten seconds to run and hide. Allows us to work up and appetite, and gives you a chance of survival. Or gives you a chance to think of survival.” Tish laughed.
Rahisi snarled, and bit the air. “That’s your cue to run, creatures!” Rahisi giggled.
The six Vasilaraptors darted into multiple directions, while Tish stood with her eyes closed. Slowly she opened her eyes and smirked.
“Get them!” she said.
The entire pack of Rahonavis ran after the chicks, biting the air, almost grabbing them. Tish, Farid and Rahisi cornered Ash, and got ready to kill him, when Tish was attacked by Mnyama, who grabbed Tish and pounded her onto the ground. Rahisi and Farid charged and pounced onto Mnyama, but Spirit grabbed and threw the two of them away. Ash’s siblings rushed to stay besides him.
Spirit turned to Mnyama and growled.
“Look, you take three of them, and I’ll take three of them. Deal?” Mnyama asked.
Spirit continued to growl. “Get lost.”
Tish slowly got up. “Mnyama…” she said, disgusted.
“Tish…” Mnyama barked back.
“I thought you’d be wise not to come back here. Clearly,” Tish said, “I was wrong. When your dinner clearly knows that they want to feed us, and not you, take the hint!”
Mnyama snarled.
“Look, if you want, I could talk with my pack and give you some food to eat for a while, if you’d let us go” Spirit said. “And if you don’t let us go, I could slaughter you.”
Mnyama sighed.
Tish looked at Spirit. “Why don’t you have any feathers?”
“Why do you have feathers?” Spirit asked. “You look like a Pyroraptor.”
“What’s that?” Farid asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe this strange raptor comes from a different place where Pyroraptors roam” Rahisi answered him.
“That would be correct” Spirit said.
“Well, I think I’d like a foreign meal!” one of the other Rahonavises said.
“Should I remind you that carnivores don’t usually eat carnivores” Spirit said.
“They eat everything” Mnyama sighed.
“About your proposal, no. I’d rather eat you. Sophie is right. We’d like a foreign meal. And add some local delicacies too. Like, say for example, Mnyama!” Tish laughed.
The one named Sophie ran and leapt onto Spirit, who grabbed Sophie by the neck and crushed it. Sophie’s lifeless body lay on the ground.
It was then the Toyota arrived, brining with it a Kryptops, Afrocyon and Prolibytherium.
= Chapter X =
Realizing that they were cornered by predators, the Prolibytherium began to panic, and a stampede began. The Afrocyon was kicked and killed by a Prolibytherium, while a few Rahonavises began to attack the Porlibytherium herd, and the Kryptops.
The Kryptops grabbed a Rahonavis and smashed him onto a stalactite, and the cave roof began to crack.
“This cave is under a lot of pressure already…” Paul said. “This is not good.”
Spirit noticed this too, and soon water began to flow out of the crack on the cave roof, and the crack began to expand.
Spirit lowered his body, and grabbed Athena. In a muffled voice, he said to the other chicks, “climb on!”
The other five Vasilaraptors pounced onto his body, and latched onto him. He then charged and jumped onto the Toyota, which had already begun to make the journey out of the cave.
Mnyama noticed this too, and ran after it.
Paul drove as fast as he could, although at one point the cave roof gave in, causing water to flow right onto the Toyota. Amber nearly dropped onto the ground, but Spirit caught her in the nick of time.
Just as the entrance to the Ammonite caves was in sight, the cave roof gave in.
The cave roof collapsed, and the force of the water tore of the Kryptops’s body, revealing it’s bones. The cave was flooding, and the animals that weren’t killed in the impact had to risk drowning.
A few Rahonavises and Prolibytheriums began to swim towards the surface, but they had one problem.
A pack of Nothosaurus swam and began to hunt the Prolibytheriums, while a juvenile Dunkleosteus continued to feed on the Rahonavises. Only a few Rahonavises managed to swim to shore.
As the Toyota emerged out of the cave, Spirit and the Vasilaraptor chicks jumped off. They watched as the cave entrance flooded. There was some blood in the water, and Alicia looked away. Chunks of flesh floated on the water, along with feathers.
Just then, Mnyama leapt out of the water. He collapsed on the ground, and passed out.
Spirit took the chicks and left.
“What on earth happened over there?” Rovinu asked.
“It was nothing…” Paul said.
“Imagine if you didn’t make it here on time? We are in a place infested with killer dinosaurs, and we die of drowning. Like who does that?” Morpurgo asked.
“We couldn’t have died from drowning. The Toyota would prevent water from getting in” Paul said.
“Then we’d die of suffocation from the lack of Oxygen. I want a refund!” Morpurgo yelled.
“No, we won’t die from suffocation. We could swim out of here, worst case scenario” Paul said.
“Into a land full of killer dinosaurs!” Morpurgo yelled.
“After I tell some rangers to come here. They’d be at the cave entrance” Paul explained. “No one was going to die here. Something like that wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“It’s a shame, though” Lex said. “Those caves were beautiful. I mean, the entrance area, with all those Ammonites.”
The Toyota drove on, towards the bank of the lake. Paul’s phone rang, and he answered it.
“We’ll be there soon!” he said, looking tired. Methuka tapped on the jeep door.
“Are those prehistoric plants?” he asked, pointing towards the river bank.
“Yes” Paul said, parking the jeep and cutting the call. We cloned them using fossilized seeds. There’s Sigillaria, Calamite, Clathropteris and Paraoxopteris. Beautiful, aren’t they?”
“We wanted to give an authentic prehistoric feel to this place, with both the fauna and flora. And we like to believe that we succeeded.”
“In making an environment where animals whose prehistoric counterparts didn’t live in the same place, and/or time live together?” Lethnura asked.
Paul ignored him, and continued driving.
“Would all the water flood out of the two cave entrances?” Morpurgo asked.
Paul Seymour shook his head. “The cave entrances are in ground level. Both of them. As so is the lake. So, no.” Paul pointed far off. “Over there, we have an emergency helipad.”
“Why is it so far away?” Morpurgo asked.
Could you stop asking so many questions? Paul thought to himself. But instead, he said, “If there are dinosaurs inside our facility, we don’t want the risk of having dinosaurs in the emergency area either, now do we?”
Spirit arrived with the Vasilaraptor chicks.
“Where have you been?” Blue asked. She stood with a Sivatherium carcass behind her.
“Blue, don’t panic, but we were attacked by a strange feathered raptor, and the chicks ran into a cave, where we were attacked by more strange feathered raptors.” Spirit said. “But this time, smaller.”
“What? Are you ok?” Red asked.
“The cave collapsed, and there was water everywhere” Jolt said.
Unknown to Blue, she was been watched.
Ember stood, smirking. “Strange feathered raptors, eh?” she said to herself. “Let me see what that’s about.”
Ember ran, looking for Spirit’s scent. She found in, and followed.
Mnyama opened his eyes, and coughed up water. He looked around him.
A much smaller Rahonavis pack stood, glaring at him.
“My home, my family, all gone!” Tish wept.
The Bambiraptor stared at them. “Maybe become water raptors. Go and swim, hunt and eat fish. There’s plenty of food down there” Mnyama pointed his tail towards the cave.
Farid and Rahisi snarled at him. “Maybe, we should eat you. There’s plenty of food inside you.”
“Now, now, that won’t be useful” Ember emerged.
“Another featherless raptor! What is going on?” Rahisi asked.
“This one has horns!” Farid said.
“You attacked Blue’s kids?” Ember asked.
“Blue from Red and Blue?” Tish asked.
“Yep” Ember replied.
“Then yes. We attacked her chicks.” Tish answered.
“That was clever of you, but also foolish. You need to rid your land of Blue. But not by killing her chicks. By killing her. And her mate, Red. And his brothers. And sisters. And their friends. After that, Blue’s older daughters. Then the chicks. Then that Pyroraptor who killed Snake.”
“Again, with the Pyroraptors. What are those?”
“They look like you, raptors with feathers. But larger. About that one’s height. “Ember pointed at Mnyama.
“So, you know Blue? Why should we rid our land of her?” Tish asked.
Ember smirked.
“Long ago, I lived a very happy life. Me and my mate Snake lived amongst a pack of hybrids. We were-“
“Hybrids?” Rahisi asked.
“That’s what people called us while we were captive. Maybe I should begin with that.” Ember said. “Anyway, we were led by our alpha, Satan. Originally, all of us were captive, set as slaves for people. But Satan freed us. But one of the dinosaurs, Blue, supporter of the humans, was not happy with this. So, she had her pack kill everyone in our pack, including Satan. And she swore to destroy every other dinosaur in the world. And that’s why she came here. Me and my daughters, who Satan took in as his own prior to his death, are trying to stop her. Satan asked me to have someone avenge him. He was hoping that it would have been one of my daughters, but I get less hopeful of that as everyday goes by. But maybe one of you could?”
Ember looked around the crowd. There was one Bambiraptor and a pack of eight Rahonavises.
“Where are your daughters now?” Rahisi asked.
“I left them in a field of elephant grass” Ember said.
“Well, why don’t you try the big beast?” Mnyama asked. “He is also being held captive by humans.”
“Who?” Ember and Tish both asked.
“Come with me. I’ll show you” Mnyama said.
Mnyama lead Ember and the Rahonavis pack towards an enclosure, in which a now adult Carcharadontosaurus lay, asleep.
“Wow!” Ember said. She looked at the bars. “These are large enough for us to throw one of those chicks of Blue’s in. She and her pack would climb in and get eaten by this one.”
Ember smirked. She began to bark loudly.
Vengeance the Carcharadontosaurus opened his eyes. He got up, and walked towards Ember.
“So, this Satan of yours, he took in your daughters. No kids of his own?” Tish asked.
“Well, there was Mogui, who was his kind of adopted son. But I haven’t seen Mogui in a while, so he may be dead. And anyway,” Ember said, “Satan has a new daughter.”
Vengeance bellowed.
= Chapter XI =
The Toyota arrived into the Xoblar Corp building, where Sally Bing stood, waving.
“Welcome!” she said. She whistled, and Bandisinghe ran carrying five warm wet towels. He handed it to each of the guests. Bandisinghe then ran back, and returned with a tray with five glasses of orange juice.
Sally escorted the guests into the hotel.
“When we are up and running, this hotel will be the premium part of the park. The other guests get to stay at the Valley of Death” she said, beaming in such a way that she was smiling ear to ear, both literally and fugitively.
The song “Jingle Bells” played on the radio. Rovinu looked around, seeing a massive Christmas tree and a Christmas crib. There was a statue of Rudolf the red nosed reindeer, with a Santa Claus figure atop it, holding a Christmas crane.
The Santa figure waved at everyone, and got down and walked towards them, still holding the crane.
“Ho! Ho! Ho!” Santa Claus said, in a Russian accent. “Have you all been good children?” he asked.
“Methuka Senuth smiled. This was irritably cute. Lethnura nodded.
“Good!” Santa said, before putting the candy crane down, and pulling toffees out of his pocket.
“Ho! Ho! Ho!” Santa said, throwing toffees in the air. “Mery Christmas!”
Santa grabbed the candy crane and walked towards a maintenance room. He looked back, and nodded towards Paul Seymour. Paul walked towards Santa, and both of them went inside the maintenance room.
“What took you so long?” Santa yelled.
“Calm down Vsevolod!” Paul said.
“Look, I need to dispose Richard Levine soon. Next up would-be Alan Grant. I’d yell at him ‘Grant! You took me for granted! Now I want you dead. Grant me my wish!’” Vsevolod Vasiliev said.
“Please stop” Paul said.
“I’ll go and check on Levine” Vsevolod said. “Now, what exactly happened down at the Ammonite caves?”
“How do you know?” Paul asked.
“Paul, I have sensors placed there. I know everything that goes on here. Sally maybe the CEO to the public, but I’m your boss, do you understand? You can only make one mistake, understand? And you already made your mistake. You and your team went and brought some useless Vasilaraptors instead of my Erucaraptor. Always stick to the wishlist. How did you feel when Santa left you socks instead of what you actually asked for?”
This man is insane, Paul thought. “Sorry, Vsevolod.”
“And one more thing! Stop addressing me as Vsevolod! It’s Mr. Vasiliev, or Sir! Not just Vsevolod down the road.”
Paul Seymour sighed. “You are acting like a child.”
“Well, I can’t go out of here. I had to be bought here in a transport crate. Obviously, I’d act like a child. I’m rebelling.”
Paul Seymour shook his head. He left the maintenance room. Soon after, Santa Claus too arrived out of the room, and walked out of the hotel, towards the kitchen, where Richard Levine sat in a cage.
“Where am I?” Levine got up and asked. “I keep asking the people here, but get no reply. I’m just fed the left overs, taken to a windowless toilet, brought back here, and the cycle continues. What is the meaning of this?”
“Do you not remember me, Levine?” Vsevolod asked.
“Yes, I do. From Christmas!” Levine yelled. “But now that you mention it, your voice does sound earily familiar. No, it can’t be…”
“Ho! Ho! Ho!” Vsevolod laughed. He left the kitchen.
Half an hour later he returned, holding a rifle. Vsevolod now had a artificial arm where his right arm once was.
“Richard Levine” Vsevolod scowled.
“Vsevold Vasiliev?” Levine gasped.
“Forgive me for bringing you here like this, and leaving you like this for a few days, but I tend to hold a grudge.” Vsevolod said. “You’ll be with your grandfather shortly.”
“My grandfather is dead” Levine said, horrified.
Vsevolod left, laughing.
Three men and a woman arrived.
One was Frank McCringe II, or Frank McCringe Junior, son of Frank McCringe the first and Sandra McCringe. The others were John and Josh McCringe, the twin sons of Frank McCringe I and Barbara McCringe. The woman was Alice McCringe, wife of Frank McCringe II, and the mother of his son Frank McCringe III.
Frank McCringe II walked towards Richard Levine, and grinned, flashing the keys to the cage. He walked closer and closer, and stood there.
Levine looked at Frank II. He held his hand through the bars, and grabbed Frank by the shirt, pulling him closer. Frank yelled, and his half brothers rushed to his help, but not before the keys on his hand were yanked by Richard Levine. Levine opened the cage lock, kicked Frank II, and bolted out, with the other three too afraid to go after him. Levine knew where he was. Running out would be risky, but still safer than staying here. Although…
“What day is it?” he wondered aloud.
“The 18th of December, 2023.” Vsevolod said, from outside. He pointed the rifle.
Richard bolted the other way as Vsevolod fired. Vsevolod ignored Levine. He’d deal with him later. But for now…
“WHO LET HIM OUT!?!” Vsevolod roared.
“He grabbed me by the shirt” Frank McCringe II grunted.
“He didn’t mean to” Alice pleaded.
“I don’t care” Vsevolod said. He pointed the rifle towards Frank II. Josh and John stepped aside.
“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” Frank II yelled. But Vsevolod didn’t listen.
The noise of gunshots echoed.
Frank McCringe II fell backwards, writhing and screaming in pain. Blood poured out of Frank’s stomach. Alice ran up to Frank, and kneeled down, crying. Josh and John arrived and began to comfort him.
Vsevolod turned and left.
Richard Levine burst into the hotel room, and ran into the lobby, where Sally Bing sat alongside the five visitors, and Osborn Dyere, chatting.
“Vsevolod Vasiliev” Levine panted. “Is alive!”
“What?” Methuka Senuth got up.
“Yes. I. Am.” Vsevolod said from behind. He held the rifle towards Levine. “You five!” He addressed the five visitors. “You are never leaving this place. I am Red in tooth and claw.”
= Chapter XII =
Richard Levine stood frozen, before Vsevolod put the rifle down. “Have I ever told you how I survived a T-Rex attack?”
“We all know one happened” Rovinu said.
“It was a year ago. My, time flies. It feels like only a few months ago. Anyways,” Vsevolod sat down.
“I was just walking in the woods of BioSyn Valley, when suddenly, Owen Grady ran pass me. Two adult female Tyrannosaurs followed. I managed to get out of the way just in time. I thought I was safe, but then I remembered the adult male. As if on cue, the male T Rex arrived, and lunged. I managed to dodge, but the T. Rex still grabbed my right arm, and separated it from my body. Amputated, I rolled into a pond nearby. The Rex ate my arm, and walked towards the pond. I took a deep breath and dove down. The Rex roared into the water, drops of blood dripping into the pond. I didn’t come up until I was sure the Rex was gone. By then, I felt faintish. I had lost a lot of blood. Weak, I walked up hill, and made my way into BioSyn Valley. My, what a bloodbath of a sight it was. But there was an abandoned satellite phone there. I called it, and soon, made it to the hospital.”
Vsevolod smirked. “But what about the aftermath?” he asked his audience. “Well, Paul Seymour here sent for a chopper, and I was transported to a hospital. Later, after a lot, and I mean a lot of threatening, we got the doctors and nurses to keep quite about this. I was now a wanted man, and so, I was declared dead. Tsi Chang became the temporary owner of Xoblar Genetics, and paid a ton of lawsuits off. After multiple legal battles, Xoblar Genetics was rebranded into Xoblar Corp. And Sally Bing was offered the job as CEO. All that time, I was there, the mastermind of it all. Isla Chad National Park is going to be my greatest accomplishment. And not just that, I’d like you to know that I’m planning on investing on shares in other companies. Any of you any good at accounting? ‘Cause that’ll be your job while you are here. We’ll send your salary to your families, saying that you died on your way here. There shall be a car crash close to the park. On what we’ll say is your journey back. I’ll release a dinosaur there, and say the corpses were eaten. And then I’ll-“
“You are crazy” Lex said.
“You have no idea” Paul Seymour said. “He had the body of a dinosaur victim taken and frozen, so that he could do some observation on that.”
“It’s not like I’ve got much to do here!” Vsevolod said. “Plus, the corpse was one of our own workers. We were having a little breakthrough a while back.”
“What sort of break through?” Rovinu asked.
“Nothing” Vsevolod said. Paul frowned. “But if I had known what kind of risks I was taking, I’d never have gotten close to that body.”
“Does this have something to do with those primate carcasses found in proximity to the park?” Lex asked.
“No!” Vsevolod yelled. Paul Seymour however nodded. Vsevolod glared at him.
“Well, how about a tour, eh?” Vsevolod grinned.
Blue stood, motionless. Her eyes were on a Doracatherium.
“Dinner” she smirked.
The chicks were in a bush nearby, with Spirit, Tiger and Panthera close by. Red and Ghost were with Blue.
The Doracatherium was on alert.
Ghost glanced at Blue. Blue nodded. The three raptors charged towards the Doracatherium. The Doracatherium bellowed, and began to stomp, when suddenly, Spirit let and alarm call.
Blue called off the hunt, as the Doracatherium bolted into the wilderness, and alongside Red and Ghost, ran towards the bush.
“They are here!” Spirit said.
“Who?” Ghost asked.
Spirit lowered his head, and began to sniff. “Rahonavis.”
Ghost sniffed too. “That weird smell?”
Spirit nodded. He got into a defensive position.
Something pounced on to Tiger.
It was Mnyama.
Tiger snarled, before stopping.
“What do you want?” Tiger said, taken aback. Mnyama looked like he had seen a ghost.
“Sorry.” Mnyama said, stepping off Tiger. He turned and pounced on Panthera.
There were many snarls, as the pack of eight Rahonavises attacked.
Ember emerged out of a bush.
“Blue…” she said, smirking. “This is for you, Satan!”
She attempted to pounce on to Blue, but Red charged and pinned Ember on to the ground.
Spirit grabbed a Rahonavis, and disembodied it. He barked loudly. “Stop!”
The Rahonavises stopped attacking, and Mnyama and Panthera stopped fighting. Ember and Red turned their heads towards Spirit.
“Look, we aren’t in the mood for any of this. Last year, I lost my siblings, and a mother I just discovered I had. And then I learnt about this father of mine, and it worries me that I’ll turn into him. And now the mother that raised me is missing. We’ve got to find her, if we even can. We are in a new land, with no place to stay, and we are hungry. Our last kill was stolen by a family of Allosaurus. I know that you are hurting, but-“
“Hurting?” Tish cried. “I just lost so many pack members, and my home. You can’t even feel half of the pain I feel. And according to this weird horned raptor, your alpha killed her entire pack too. We’ve got to stop you before y’all kill anyone else.”
“What?” Blue asked, confused.
“Mkadi!” Tish growled. “Attack! Avenge your sister, Sophie!”
The Rahonavis named Mkadi growled. Then he stopped. “Well, it was this one who killed Sophie,” he said, pointing his snout towards Spirit.
“On her command!” Ember jumped in, pointing her snout towards Blue.
Mkadi nodded, and pounced on to Blue’s back. Red pulled him off, and bit him, crushing his neck.
Mkadi’s lifeless body fell on the ground.
Tish gasped, horrified.
Farid nuzzled her.
“That was my cousin!” Tish said, tears pouring out of her eyes.
“I’m sorry, but you attacked us first.” Red said. “What did you expect? Please, just leave us alone.”
“We shall be back, and you shall regret arriving here!” Tish said. She and the remaining five Rahonavises left, alongside Mnyama. Ember watched them leave. “We’ve barely begun, Blue.” Ember smirked, before following the pack.
= Chapter XIII =
The tour was about to start. Methuka Senuth sighed. He didn’t want Vsevolod to pretend to be his friend. Both of them knew the truth. Vsevolod was being overly nice towards the visitor.
Methuka stood in the safari jeep. Richard Levine had also decided to join the tour.
“So,” Rovinu tried to start a conversation. “You survived an attack from a pair of Tarbosaurus?” he asked Methuka.
Methuka nodded. “Along side many other dinosaur attacks,” he said, smiling. “Ah, that was a day I’ll never forget. You also had a little encounter with something, right?”
“Yutyrannus and Teleocraters” Lethnura said.
“I do not like to hear those two words, ever.” Rovinu said. “Every time I do, the hair on the back of my neck stands up, and sends chills down my spine.”
“How many of them were there?” Methuka asked.
“There were three Yuties. Although first we had to only deal with one. Then, the other two appeared.” Rovinu said. “As for the Teleocraters, more than you could count.”
“Try having to spend the night on a tree, alongside being hunted down by Velociraptors and hybrid dinosaurs.” Richard Levine said.
“Nothing compared to having a T. Rex attack you during a rainstorm. Or being attacked by Velociraptors and having to hide in the kitchen” Lex said.
The jeep began it’s journey through the park.
Vsevolod watched from the monitor. “Poor fools” he said. “Don’t know what they are in for.”
“What are they in for?” Paul Seymour asked. “Look, Vikram and Bandisinghe are in there as well. And those people did nothing to you. Neither did Levine, for that matter.”
“I don’t like to take risks” Vsevolod smiled. He switched the tab in the monitor. Let’s see how the species count is doing in this park.”
Species  = Amount
·       Tyrannosaurus Rex = 3                 
·       Tyrannosaurus regina = 3
·       Carcharadontosaurus = 1
·       Spinosaurus = 1
·       Allosaurus = 5
·       Afrovenator=3
·       Alanqa = 5
·       Arcylotherium=12
·       Antilihyrax=18
·       Ceratosaurus=2
·       Coelophysis=15
·       Dinofelis=6
·       Dodo=40
·       Doracatherium=19
·       Dracovenator=8
·       Falcatodon=5
·       Giraffatitan=4
·       Hipparaon=9
·       Homotherium=4
·       Kaprosuchus=12
·       Leptostomia=12
·       Lesthosaurus=18
·       Majungasaurus= 3
·       Giant Ground Sloth= 2
·       Andrewsarchus= 10
·       Cave Bear=1
·       Hyaenodon=12
·       Daeodon=12
·       Long Horned Bison=20
·       Maip=3
·       Megaceroides=20
·       Meganthereon=9
·       Pachycrocuta=10
·       Pelorovis=39
·       Plesiosaurus=12
·       Rugops=1
·       Simbakubwa=2
·       Sivatherium=19
·       Suchomimus=5
·       Apatosaurus=10
·       Ankylosaurus=13
·       Smilodon=2
·       Velociraptor=5
·       Atrociraptor=4
·       Vasilaraptor menaechmus? =6
·       Deinonychus=6
·       Bambiraptor=1
·       Dakotaraptor=3
·       Luanchuanraptor=2
·       Tianyuraptor=2
·       Pelicanmimus=1
·       Archaeornithomimus=50
·       Struthiomimus=50
·       Gallimimus=50
·       Euoplocephalus=16
·       Dryosaurus=16
·       Nigersaurus=5
·       Ouranosaurus=12
·       Parasaurolophus=26
·       Minmi=20
·       Tarbosaurus=1
·       Saurophognax=1
·       Diracodon=1
·       Monospondylus=1
·       Torosaurus=12
·       Triceratops=19
·       Sinoceratops=19
·       Arizonasaurus=3
·       Edaphosaurus=2
·       Oxalia=1
·       Nasutoceratops=19
·       Brachiosaurus=4
·       Ichthyosaurus=20
·       Elasmosaurus=5
·       Tylosaurus=1
·       Attenborosaurus=5
·       Styxosaurus=5
·       Nothosaurus=5
·       Salaraptor=2
·       Tanaconda=1
·       Dunkleosteus=1
·       Giant Lamprey=12
·       Pteranodon=20
·       Dimorphodon=5
·       Tropeognathus=3
·       Tapejara=2
·       Geosternbergia=1
·       Dsungaripterus=1
·       Gryposuchus=5
·       Nudasuchus=5
·       Postosuchus=5
·       Sarchasuchus=1
·       Deinosuchus=1
·       Titanaboa=1
·       Gigantophis= 1
·       Sanajeh=1
·       Tanystropheus=1
·       Tentosaurus=18
·       Dilophosaurus=9
·       Megalania=1
·       Pentaceratops=12
·       Tuojangosaurus=12
·       Pachycephalosaurus=13
·       Diplodocus=3
·       Archelon=15
·       Protostega=15
·       Stegosaurus=12
·       Carnoraptor=4
·       Kaiwhekea=3
·       Gorgonops=1
·       Scutosaurus =3          
·       Erucaraptor = 0
·       Compsognathus = 39
·       Moros =  40
“Aren’t there any monitors for Pena?” Vsevolod asked.
Paul Seymour shook his head. “We’ve only got the monitors tracking our active facilities, such as Southeast Greenland and Gondowa.”
“Let’s check on Gondowa” Vsevolod asked.
“I think we should first pay attention to the tours” Paul Seymour said.
Vsevolod scowled.
“But Gondowa’s fine too” Paul said.
·       Dilophosaurus=5
·       Compsognathus=16
·       Moros=17
·       Daspletosaurus=1
·       Albertosaurus=1
·       Concavenator=2
·       Aliromus=1
·       Kaiwhekea=3
·       Pcynonemosaurus=2
·       Barsbolia=10
·       Pachycephalosaurus=13
·       Apatosaurus=3
·       Diplodocus=3
·       Gallimimus=29
·       Triceratops=13
·       Parasaurolophus=12
·       Eotriceratops=11
·       Camptosaurus=10
“Good” Vsevolod Vasiliev said. “Switch the monitor onto the tour.”
Paul obeyed. The tour was watching a grazing Sivatherium.
“See?” Vsevolod said. “Everything is all right. Now, put Southeast Greenland National Park on the monitors.”
Paul nodded.
·       Carnotaurus
·       Baryonyx
·       Allosaururus
·       Prognathodon
·       Cave Bear
·       Cave Wolf
·       Pleistocene Coyote
·       Panthera blythea
·       Smilodon
·       Giant Cheetah
·       Xenosmilus
·       Giant Jaguar
·       Cave Lion
·       Homotherium
·       Machairodus
·       Kelenken
·       Gastornis
·       Titanis
·       Phorusrhacos
·       Elasmotherium
·       Megaloceros
·       Quagga
·       Dodo
·       Platybelodon
·       Eohippus
·       Long Horned Bison
·       Parasaurolophus
·       Ankylosaurus
·       Stegosaurus
·       Apatosaurus
·       Wolly Mammoth
·       Colombian Mammoth
·       American Mastodon
“Where is the species count?” Vsevolod asked.
“There was a glitch in the system, so we don’t have any way to count the species over there yet.”
“That makes this whole thing useless. What is this supposed to be, a species guide?”
“We hope to get it up and running soon” Paul said, sounding tired.
“You better.”
Paul Seymour switched back to the tour. Vsevolod yawned.
“That’s a pack of Deinonychus” Paul said. “Good to see that. Carnivores are rather appealing.”
“They are just sleeping” Vsevolod said.
The tour had stopped to watch the pack of sleeping Deinonychus.
Vsevolod dialed the phone. Vikram picked it up.
“Yes?” Vikram asked.
“Show them what I want to see. Sleeping Deinonychus, not for me.”
“What?”
“GO!”
“Yes, sir!”
“And don’t… patronize me.” Vsevolod yelled over the phone.
The vehicles started up, and went down the road.
“What’s happening?” Lex asked.
“Vsevolod’s orders” Vikram said.
“You know,” Richard Levine said. “I just love how you just call him Vsevolod. No sir, no Mr. Vasiliev, just Vsevolod from the street.”
“I just called him sir” Vikram said.
“Out of fear. What has he done to gain your respect?”
Bandisinghe sighed. “There’s no use of trying to reason with him. He’s already out of his mind.”
Levine raised an eyebrow. Vikram shook his head.
The jeeps drove on for a while, before coming to a halt.
“Don’t make any movements” Vikram whispered. He slowly pointed towards a shrub forest.
There was a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
This was the Tyrannosaurus Stag, brought over from Isla Sorna. The Stag prowled the forest.
“This Rex isn’t supposed to be here” Vikram said.
“What do you-“ Lex began, before she heard a thundering roar.
The Stag roared back.
“He’s challenging him” Bandisinghe said.
An older Tyrannosaurus walked out of the forest.
“Is that…” Richard asked.
Vikram nodded. “That’s the infant from the San Diego incident.”
= Chapter XIV =
The older Tyrannosaurus, Junior, lets out a warning. The Stag slams Junior with his tail, expecting the older opponent to not be an issue. The two Tyrannosaurs square up to each other, roaring.
“Bravo!” Vsevolod clapped. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”
Junior lunged, grabbing the younger Tyrannosaur by the neck and slammed its body on to the ground. Blood splattered on the ground, and the Stag broke free from Junior’s grip. Exhausted, and noting that this fight just isn’t worth it, the Stag roars submissively, and leaves. Junior blows out some air from his nostrils, before roaring.
“That’s it?” Vsevolod yelled. “Really?”
“I mean, what did you expect, really?” Paul Seymour said, before immediately regretting his choice of words. Vsevolod glared at him. “Let’s lighten up the atmosphere, quickly.” Paul Seymour said, turning the radio on. Vsevolod muttered something, before humming to the tune of ‘Blue Christmas’.
The tour jeeps continued down the valley.
“We are going to visit the other side of the park, to see if we can spot any more dinosaurs” Vikram said.
“Vik, it is getting late. Turn back.” Paul Seymour said.
“There’s two hours of day light left” Vikram replied.
“Turn back, Vik” Paul said, hoping that Vikram would get the message.
“No” Vikram replied.
“TURN BACK!” Paul yelled.
“Why?” Vikram asked.
“Why?” Vsevolod asked.
Paul Seymour pointed at the cameras.
But it was too late.
A herd of Parasaurolophus rushed past the jeep, nearly knocking it over. Behind was a female Tyrannosaurus, also from Isla Sorna.
“The Hind” Paul sighed.
The Hind approached the jeep, growling.
“Don’t move” said Vikram. “Rexes won’t kill you unless you move.”
The Hind began to sniff the vehicle, which was too much for William Morphurgo, who yelled and jumped out of the vehicle.
“Oh blood hell” Paul Seymour said.
The Hind roared, and got ready to hunt Morpurgo, until Vikram started the jeep and began to drive, honking. The Hind chased after the jeep instead.
The Hind chased after the jeep, until the jeep, having driven in zigzags, tired her down. She stopped chasing after them, but roared at the jeep.
“Time to get that arse back” Vikram sighed.
Morpurgo had not stopped running. He ran until he came across a Rahanovis carcass. He screamed.
Morpurgo’s scream attracted the unwanted attention of Athena, who came and sniffed Morpurgo, curious of this weird creature. Morpurgo gave a dry chuckle, until Athena bit him. He screamed and kicked her. Athena barked and ran into her den.
Morpurgo sat down, wondering what he should do. He didn’t notice Red approaching him from behind. Not until it was too late.
Vikram drove around for the remaining two hours, while Paul Seymour searched the cameras to see if he may still be alive. After Vikram called off the search, Paul decided to rewind the recordings, and saw William Morpurgo head towards the Raptor Den. A new jeep was sent, but all they brought back were some human bones with bite marks.
“Well, that’s rather… unfortunate” Vsevolod said.
“Unfortunate?” Paul Seymour stuttered. “A person just died, and all you can say is unfortunate? Really?”
“Sacrifices must be made in the name of progress. Now, let’s eat!” Vsevolod got up.
Vsevolod walked into the dinning area. “The park is still not open, so all we have to offer is Pizzas and Chinese food. Water is all we can offer as beverage, and for dessert, we have Chocolate Biscuit Pudding and Strawberry Ice Cream.”
Richard Levine checked the Menu. There was a wide variety of foods. However, Vsevolod was handing out an entirely different set of menus. A bunch of A4 papers, with hand written text.
“Now, we do hope to one day include an all you can eat buffet here, but that’s for the future.”
Levine checked the menu.
1.     Triple Chicken Pizza
2.     Sausage Delight
3.     Vegan Pizza
4.     Hot batter Cuttlefish
5.     Kung Pao Chicken
6.     Beijing Roasted Duck
7.     Ma Po Tofu
8.     Sweet and Sour Pork
9.     Egg Roll
10.  Butter Naan
11.  Hot Pot
Levine ordered the Kung Pao Chicken. He noticed Vsevolod get up, as if he was ready to make an announcement.
“We have wine!” he says happily.
Vsevolod’s appetite is prodigious. He eats as if he has not had a single meal since he left BioSyn Valley. Levine watches as Vsevolod eats and eats and eats as his face grows redder and redder and sweats so much that Bandisinghe must stand at his side, wiping his face with a clean napkin. Bandisinghe has a pot of vennison with him, and some honey. Bandisignhe wipes Vsevolod’s damp neck with the napkin, before washing his hands, takes a bite out of his meal, washes his hands again and wipes Vsevolod’s forehead.
Meanwhile, Vsevolod called for more wine to be poured in to his glass, and for more dishes to be served onto his plate. He greedily gulped down all the food, having had enough dinner, orders for some chocolate eclairs. After eating the eclairs, he licks the chocolate off of his fingers and calls for some pizza.
Richard Levine gets worried that Vsevolod will make himself ill. He glanced at Sally Bing and Osborn Dyere, and wonders if they would dare to suggest that Vsevolod must wrap up his meal. Everyone else has finished their meals, but Alice McCringe brings dish after dish to satisfy this mountain of a man.
Surely this big moon face will stop? Levine wonders. This is unhealthy and the way he eats is downright unsanitary. 
Finally, as Alice brings one final dish for her husband’s killer, Vsevolod yelled, “No! No! I’ve had enough.”
Vsevolod glances at everyone else at the table, and smiles. He wiped the glistening fat from his mouth. “What a feast!” he says, making a proud chest. “What a celebration. Well I am chocked with food, and my belly aches. I’m going to sleep.”
It’s almost as if William Morpurgo didn’t die  Levine said to himself. He had heard of people who ate to the point of nausea, but he had never seen one.
Until now.
= Chapter XV =
Richard Levine sat at the hotel library, reading the Michael Crichton novel Prey. Paul Seymour walked up to him.
“You need to get out of here. You and the…. Golden ticket winners.” He said.
Paul Seymour had been around, following judges and lawyers and Xoblar employees alike, and he had overheard many secretive conversations between Vsevolod and the lawyers in secluded gardens. He’d witnessed some criminal exchanges too.
“There is no justice, it’s just big talks with big books and bigger buildings. For offers of big money they change their judgment. Especially when someone powerful is entangled in the net. I’ve seen what went down during the rebranding of Xoblar, and it isn’t pretty. I can tell you, there may be law, but there is no justice.”
“Someone powerful?” Levine asked.
“Vsevolod. Many lawyers were bribed into hiding his existence.  Surely you noticed that Xoblar Corp is more than just a genetics company. It’s growing into a Quasi- governmental organization, and might one day be the next VOC or EIC.”
“Those were trading companies.” Levine said.
“Vsevolod is willing to trade with people. The dinosaurs aren’t just here for entertainment. He wants to breed them, to sell for military purposes, and for agriculture purposes. Even for food. And it’s not just dinosaurs. He has prepared prehistoric and genetically engineered plants. And mammals. And the individuals he sells will be infertile. I’m sure he dreams of having his own colonies one day.”
Levine stood, wondering what Paul was going to say next.
“Look at his reaction to Morpurgo’s death. Nothing. He has no idea of the value of life. He has no idea of the value of anything. He does not care for the people he puts in danger. And I just stood, smiling in the back ground, watching as it all happened. The Tarbosaurus duo, the hybrids, and the Carcharadontosaurus. I could have done something to stop it, but I didn’t. I am not apologizing. I’m just saying that you are listening to someone who will never sleep peacefully ever again. And I know that my karma, that his karma, will catch up to me. I don’t have a chance to escape. But you do.”
“Escape? How?”
“You know how to drive?”
Levine nodded.
“Perfect. All we have to do is-“ Paul stopped, hearing the noise of a helicopter.
“What the hell?” he said.
Paul Seymour and Richard Levine watched the helicopter circle the building premises.
“Must just be some tourists” Paul said. “Trying to get a glimpse of some dinosaurs?” he hopefully suggested.
“Why do you sound scared?” Levine asked.
“It could be the police” Paul said. “Sit down. You see, Vsevolod had a female Carcharadontosaurus cloned specifically to kill you guys. But she was essentially untrainable, and even went to kill two of her trainers. Vsevolod decided against putting her down, but also decided that her food should be cheaper. And that’s when we started feeding sheep extract.”
“Oh god” Levine said. “They don’t even use those at zoos.”
“Yes, and soon enough, we found out the dinosaur was spreading a disease. The DX Piron. We also learnt that it only infected people.” Paul looked to the ground. “We had to isolate everyone with symptoms, and keep them their till they died. One person escaped, and had some gorillas die because of that.”
“And?”
“We managed to contain the disease, and the Carcharadontosaurus is kept in an enclosure over here. If she were to escape, she could cause the next pandemic, and human kind might not survive it.”
“You keep animals enclosed here?”
“Some times. Sick animals, injured ones. We only have two cages, and both are full. One has the Carcharadontosaurus, and another has a Spinosaurus we- um… kidnapped from a remote facility close to Nublar.”
“What?”
“We had that Spinosaurus with us before. Needed him again for our research. Plan to return him by the year end. We now have four different large therapods, Tyrannosaurus, Tarbosaurus, Carcharadontosarus and Spinosaurus. We just needed to bring our Giganotosaurus, and then we’d be ready for our research.”
Richard Levine’s eyes widened as Paul Seymour said the following.
“We have someone who has donated a lot of money for the company, who is keen on ending human kind for some reason” Paul said. “Vsevolod allowed him to use the dinosaurs as part of his research.”
“I can’t believe it” Levine said. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Just then, the helicopter landed within the facility, and Paul Seymour watched as several people got down, and one lit a match.
“What are they doing?” he asked, and just then they sky exploded with fireworks.
“Why on earth are they lighting fireworks here?” Levine asked. “To wake everyone up?”
“No.” Paul said. “To scare off the dinosaurs.”
Paul watched as the group lit more and more fireworks, and he watched as several dinosaurs stampeded in the distance.
The group then made their way towards the hotel.
They were led by Eric Ludlow.
“Within the next 24 hours, this place will be nothing more than an unpleasant memory” he grinned, grabbing his rifle and shooting at the window, having seen Paul Seymour. He missed, but managed to shatter the glass.
“What the hell?” Vsevolod roared, having been woken up.
“We are being raided.” Levine said.
“By whom?”
“I’m guessing, Extinction Now!” Levine said.
= Chapter XVI =
Blue snarled at the sky, while her chicks scattered, looking for a place to hide. Red growled warningly, while watching sparks fill the nighttime sky.
And it wasn’t just sparks in the sky they had to worry about.
A herd of Parasaurolophus ran in their direction, bellowing in fear. Blue growled, but the Parasaurolophus herd continued to charge towards her. Blue watched as they ran past her, knocking onto each other. Red and the rest of the pack stood from a safe distance.
Blue rushed to join them, upon seeing the Triceratops sow galloping close by.
The sow caught Blue’s scent, and turned towards her. She bellowed.
She was going to avenge her child.
She charged towards Blue, who stood in a defensive position, but swerved and turned towards Blue’s chicks. The sow bellowed again. These chicks might one day grow up to kill more of her descendants. She will make sure that doesn’t happen.
The sow charges, chasing after Athena, until she is chased towards a creak. Athena falls into the creek, and the Triceratops watches victoriously, until Red dives into the creek and grabs Athena. He pounces onto land, and watches the Triceratops leave.
Red nuzzled Athena. “Your heart is pounding…” Athena said.
“I’m just tired” Red told her.
Athea knew not to believe that that was the only case. “Father,” she said. “Were you scared of the Triceratops?”
“I wasn’t scared of the Triceratops” Red said. “I was scared for you.” Red and Athena walked towards the rest of the pack. “Where’s the Triceratops?” Red asked.
“There” Blue pointed with her chin towards the carcass of the Triceratops. Junior loomed over the carcass, and roared, his teeth soaked in blood. A smaller Tyrannosaurus approached her. Junior growled at her, before realizing that this was a female. A potential future mate. Still, Junior continued to growl at her. This was Regina, a Tyrannosaurus regina specimen. 
The two Tyrannosaurs continued to roar at each other, before Junior tore of a chunk of flesh, and swallowed it whole. He then ate another chunk of meat, before leaving. Regina could keep the carcass, and maybe she’d return the favor.
Back at the Hotel lobby, everyone was panicking. Richard Levine was running around aimlessly, while others had hidden down under desks and chairs.
Several people entered the lobby. The leader yelled “Everyone Freeze!”
It was Eric Ludlow. He pointed a rifle towards Vsevolod.
“Mr. Vasiliev, you are coming with us” he said, smirking.
“Enough!” someone yelled from the back. Methuka gasped.
It was Alan Jonah.
“No, you are dead” Methuka said.
“You!” Alan Jonah pointed a finger towards him. “From two years ago at Pena. And dead I almost was, if I hadn’t acted quickly.”
“Excuse me, who is this guy?” Eric Ludlow asked.
“One of the reasons I will never ever sleep peacefully again” Paul said.
Alan Jonah pointed a gun towards Eric Ludlow, and addressed the other Extinction Now! members.
“Look, your hearts are in the right place. What you are doing isn’t. It isn’t the dinosaurs that must face extinction. It’s the ones that brought them back in the first place.”
“So, humanity?” Theobold asked.
“Exactly” Jonah nodded.
The other Extinction Now! members pointed their fire armour at Eric.
“Seriously?” Eric Ludlow held his hands up. “Et tu brute?”
“Don’t take it personally, you won’t be the only double cross today” Jonah told him, before pointing his gun at Vsevolod. “Mr. Vasiliev, you are under arrest for the murder of Frank McCringe Jr.”
“But.. but that’s what you wanted…” Vsevolod stuttered.
“He was on our side” Jonah said. “Now, I’m in charge.”
“What?” Vsevolod gasped.
“Stings, doesn’t it?” Eric Ludlow chuckled.
Jonah pointed the gun towards Eric. “Oi! Quite! Is this a joke for you?” he yelled.
Seeing an opportunity, Vsevolod ran out.
“I’ll deal with him later” Jonah said.
= Chapter XVII =
Vsevolod ran out of the facility, holding a knife. There were a few fence posts lying around, with sharp points. He walked to the garage, and tore the tires of all vehicles but three. Three he’d use, later.
Then he rushed towards the Extinction Now! helicopter. Jackson, the pilot, and Ira were sleeping there. Vsevolod climbed into the helicopter, and stabbed Ira as she slept. He then proceeded to stab Jackson, and quickly beheaded them, sticking their heads over fence posts. And after that, he began to demolish the engine of the helicopter, rendering it useless. Satisfied, Vsevolod headed back inside.
Alan Jonah led the remaining people into one of the labs.
“What the hell is that?” Rovinu asked, pointing at a pair of robots lying on the ground.
Osborn Dyere began to talk.
“Vsevolod kept pushing for the creation of this robot that worked via some host, which would be the brain of someone who died. We were never successful with this project.”
“Worst Christmas ever” Lethnura said.
There was some noise coming out of a cot that lay at the side of the lab. Jonah walked towards it, and carried a baby dinosaur up.
“You want to explain that?” Methuka asked.
“Certainly. This is a hybrid we call Ultimasaurus efremovi. A chimera between your favorite dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex, Tyrannosaurus regina, Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis, velociraptor mongoliensis, Triceratops horridus, Ankylosaurus magniventris, Stegosaurus stenops, as well as some modern animals, such as Dendrobates tinctorius or the Dyeing poison dart frog, Hyperolius viridiflavus or the Common reed frog, and the Cuban crocodile and golden eagle. This is Talon, the Ultimasaurus, the spiritual successor to Deinonycanis menaechmus, the alpha hybrid that took down the Xoblar Genetics facility at BioSyn. Also a spiritual successor to the Indominus Rex, the creature that took down Jurassic World. Talon will be feared for one day, he will be the sole ruler of this planet” Jonah said, proudly.
Richard Levine and Lex Murphy exchanged nervous glances, while the others brushed it off as Jonah being cuckoo. The two of them knew that with the discovery of genetic power, something like this was only inevitable.
Talon jumped out of Jonah’s arms, and began to walk around the lab.
Meanwhile, not far off, Vsevolod Vasiliev had entered the control room. He scowered around the controls, before setting all gates to OPEN. Vsevolod smirked, before then shutting down the power. He then took out a pocket knife, and began to cut the wires to ensure that no one- absolutely no one- would ever manage to switch anything on again. And then, he walked off. He wasn’t done yet.
Jonah looked around in dismay, learning that the power is out.
“Guys…” Seymour said, stuttering. “Vsevolod probably shut the power off.” He rushed towards the window, and sighed in horror. “And he has also set the gates open. Which means, he has probably released the Carcharadontosaurus and Spinosaurus.”
Paul Seymour rushed to a nearby phone, and began to dial.
“Hello, Russel?” he called. “You are at the Top of the tower at the Valley of Death, right?”
“Right” a voice answered.
“Look out and check the Carcharadontosaurus cage. Is the gate open?” Paul asked.
There was silence for a while, before the voice replied. “Yes.”
Paul Seymour sat down.
The sun began to rise into the sky.
Not too far from the Valley of Death was the enclosure that housed the Spinosaurus. It was a rather long and narrow cage, going through a jungle and a desert. Sobk, who was sleeping in the jungle section, awoke to the sound of the gate opening. Immediately, it wandered into the desert section, and rushed out.
Sobk sniffed the air. He was free once more. He let out a thundering roar, before charging towards a herd of Apatosaurus by an artificial river.
The leader of the Apatosaurus herd bellowed. She charged, slamming her body into the Spinosaurus, who grabbed her neck with his jaws, and began to pull him towards the river. The other Apatosaurs charged towards the Spinosaurus, slashing their tails onto the giant.
Sobk roared fiercely from the waters, before lunging his teeth onto the nearest Apatosaurus. But the Apatosaurus is quick to react, and swings her head onto the Spinosaurus, causing him to let go. The Apatosaurus herd uses their sheer size and strength to their advantage, swinging their long tails and delivering crushing blows to Sobk's body. But the Spinosaurus is relentless, its powerful jaws snapping and claws slashing as it fights to overpower its opponents.
Amidst the chaos, Sobk manages to isolate one of the smaller Apatosaurus from the herd, its razor-sharp claws tearing into the herbivore's flesh with savage ferocity. But before Sobk can deliver the fatal blow, the rest of the herd rallies to its defense, surrounding the Spinosaurus with their massive bodies and driving it back with a united front.
Enraged and bloodied, Sobk roars in frustration as it retreats from the battle, its primal instincts compelling it to seek out easier prey elsewhere. The Apatosaurus herd stands victorious, their bodies battered but their spirits unbroken as they return to grazing peacefully in the open landscape near the river.
Sobk’s roars reach the facility.
“I’ve… I’ve heard that roar before…” Methuka said.
“Spinosaurus aegypticus. We stole that individual once more. We plan on returning him before the year is over.” Paul Seymour said.
“Look, do you think that the Spinosaurus could kill a Tyrannosaurus rex?” Eric Ludlow asked.
“Not sure. Depends on the circumstances. Why?” Osborn said.
“The other one? The Carcharadontosaurus?” Aaron Smith asked. “He just wants to know if they could kill the Rex from San Diego.”
“It could do far worse” Paul Seymour said. “That thing… must be stopped.
Sobk rampaged across Isla Chad National Park, hunting for prey. He stopped, and began to sniff in the air.
= Chapter XIX =
Paul Seymour pointed at a photo of the dead corpse of a Yutyrannus being unloaded onto something.
“That is not a photo” he said.
“What about this then?” Lex asked, pointing at a picture of an Allosaurus looming over a gazelle carcass.
“That is fake. But that’s not the point” Paul Seymour assured her.
“Tell Xoblarcorps’s accountants to prepare more liability columns?” Sally Bing asked. “Look, Paul, I understand where you are coming from, but revealing this information to the public won’t help anyone. We must protect my father’s legacy.”
Paul Seymour ignored her.
“That!” he said, pointing at the Yutyrannus in the photograph. “That is one of the three Yutyrannuses involved in the 2023 Dry Zone Botanical Gardens incident.”
“What?” Rovinu and Lethnura said, practically at the same time.
“After everyone was evacuated, we raided the place, collecting the corpses” Paul Seymour explained. “We examined the Teleocrater corpses. They were hypervores, but we didn’t know that. 0.001% of the Carcharadontosaur’s DNA is Teleocrater DNA.”
“You idiot” Lethnura said, face palming.
“A majority of the Carcharadontosaur’s DNA is from a Carcharadontosaurus saharicus fossil found in Vsevolod’s basement. Alongside this, it has American bull frog , pit viper, green sea turtle, vampire bat, king crab, grey reef shark, alpine ibex, crow, rufous hummingbird, mugger crocodile, stag beetle, great white shark, box jellyfish and black mamba DNA.” Paul Seymour said. “This has caused the creature to become a hypervore, as well as have aggressive instincts, longer lasting brain cells, cardio strength and the ability to use echolocation, hyperefficiet blood, which allows it to survive harsh hostile environments, a strong immune system, increased bone density, intuitive learning, rapid metabolism, skin toughness, tooth hardness, a cartilage skeleton and venom. But that is not all.”
Paul Seymour opened a bottle of water, and poured a glass, before proceeding to drink from it. “The Carcharadontosaurus has teeth that can cause severe bleeding, and also a sort of rage mode, where it just goes killing everything. It’s an agile predator with an acute sense of smell and hearing, and it has a poisonous tail, like a skink, only the venom is equal to that of a box jellyfish. And it can inject venom when it wants. But that is not where it ends. You see, after she mauled two of her trainers, we started feeding her sheep extract.”
“What?!?” Levine said. “Even zoos know not to use that.”
“Well,” Paul continued. “After words, Vengeance the Carcharadontosaurus bit several employees, which made them ill. We quickly quarantined them, and had to put them down and burn their remains. The ashes were thrown into Lake Chad.”
“That’s revealing to know, knowing that many families now depend on this lake for water” Methuka said.
“One person escaped, causing several primates to get infected. Only primates. We managed to contain it, but the DX Piron as we call it, could mean the extinction of mankind. We need the Carcharadontosaurus killed or something.”
“If she escaped, it wouldn’t be the worst thing” Alan Jonah said.
“I’ll let him speak, shall I?” Paul asked. He grabbed his phone out, and scrolled through it, before presenting them with a recording.
“For at least thirty years, observers have been predicting that genetic engineering, computer programming and nanotechnology would eventually merge. That is what we are trying to achieve.” The recording said.
“With this mindset, what isn’t possible?” Charles Seymour said.
= Chapter XX =
Sobk the Spinosaurus stood. His sleek, sail-like dorsal fin rippled in the gentle breeze as he stood with a powerful presence, his eyes gleaming with a mix of exhaustion and excitement from his recent hunting and rampaging.
Facing him was Junior the Tyrannosaurus Rex, a formidable predator with sharp, serrated teeth and a menacing growl. Despite his smaller size compared to Sobk, Junior exuded an air of confidence as he locked eyes with the Spinosaurus.
The two giants stood motionless for a moment, their chests heaving with each breath as they assessed each other. Sobk, weary from his recent exertions, let out a low, rumbling growl, his gaze never leaving Junior's.
Junior responded with a deep, thunderous roar, his massive jaws opening wide to display rows of razor-sharp teeth. His eyes burned with intensity as he met Sobk's gaze, a silent challenge passing between the two predators.
Despite the tension in the air, neither Sobk nor Junior made a move to attack. Instead, they remained locked in a standoff, each refusing to back down from the other.
Suddenly, Sobk's growl softened, his exhaustion evident as he took a step back from Junior. The Spinosaurus lowered his head slightly, a sign of respect towards his fellow predator.
Junior, sensing Sobk's weariness, also relaxed his posture, his growl fading into a low rumble. He nodded his head in acknowledgment of Sobk's gesture, a silent understanding passing between them.
As Sobk the Spinosaurus trudged wearily through the dense jungle, his exhaustion weighing heavily on his massive frame, he was suddenly jolted from his thoughts by the unmistakable sound of approaching footsteps. He turned to see Vengeance the Carcharadontosaurus emerging from the shadows, her predatory gaze fixed squarely on him.
Vengeance wasted no time in launching herself at Sobk with a thunderous roar. Despite his weariness, Sobk summoned his remaining strength and met her head-on, their massive bodies colliding with earth-shattering force.
The jungle echoed with the sounds of their ferocious battle as Sobk and Vengeance locked jaws, each determined to emerge victorious. Sobk's tired muscles strained against the onslaught of Vengeance's powerful blows, but he refused to yield to the relentless assault.
With a mighty roar, Sobk managed to gain the upper hand for a brief moment, driving Vengeance back with a series of well-placed strikes. But his exhaustion soon caught up with him, and he faltered, allowing Vengeance to seize the opportunity and deliver a devastating blow that sent Sobk crashing to the ground.
As Sobk lay sprawled on the jungle floor, his breath coming in ragged gasps, he watched helplessly as Vengeance towered over him, her triumphant roar echoing through the trees.
With a satisfied snarl, Vengeance turned and began to make her way towards the nearby lake, her hunger sated and her thirst for victory quenched. Junior watched her departure with a mixture of admiration and wariness, knowing that he had just witnessed the raw power and ferocity of one of the jungle's most formidable predators.
As the jungle fell silent once more, Sobk struggled to his feet, his body battered and bruised from the fierce battle. With a weary sigh, he limped away from the scene, his thoughts filled with a newfound respect for the dangers that lurked within the ancient wilderness.
Vengeance began to sip the water, before suddenly diving in. She swam through the water, and noticed a juvenile Dunkleosteus heading her way. She grabbed the Dunkleosteus by the tail, and swam to shore before the Dunkleosteus could bite her. She then left the bony fish at shore, before diving back in.
= Chapter XXI =
Paul Seymour dialed his phone. A security guard picked up.
“Mr. Seymour?” he asked. “I’m at the shore. Near the dock, actually.”
“Perfect” Paul’s voice came from the phone. “Listen, I need you to see if you can spot a Carcharadontosaurus anywhere from the dock.”
“Bloody hell. That escaped?” he asked, parking his car and stepping out. He walked to the dock, while munching on a chicken and garlic bun.
“Nothing to see, Mr. Seymour” he said, with his mouthful.
Just then Vengeance rose up, grabbing the security guard with her jaws and diving underwater. His screams where the last things to be recorded as the phone fell into the lake.
“Hello? Hello?” Paul yelled. He cut the call and dialed again. Still nothing.
Meanwhile, Vsevolod stood in front of Mogui. He had gotten used to entertaining himself by electrocuting the lion. Vsevolod had been venting his frustrations on Mogui.
The lion stood growling.
A ranger rushed out of the lab. “I’ll take a jeep to the Valley of Death. We’re talking about the Car-car” she said.
Meanwhile, at the Valley of Death, several park rangers travelled through the jungle.
“We’ve got people working around the edge of that hill” a ranger said. “Must warn them.”
At the edge of a hill, a bus stood dangling. It was a rescue drill. Park employees sat on bus seats, as they planned the rescue. One employee sat on the glass window at the back, chuckling.
Suddenly the back of the bus was ripped apart, revealing the jaws of Vengeance. She roared, ripping apart the employees, one by one. She licked the blood off of their corpses, before continuing to kill more.
When the rangers arrived, the bloodbath was over. They looked in horror at the annihilation that had taken place there.
“What the hell” a ranger said. He picked up his phone. “Seymour, the drill site has been destroyed by the Car-car. No one has survived.”
Just at that moment, they began to smell a foul odor. It smelled like a garbage dump. A stench of Sulphur, rancid rotten flesh and spoilt eggs lingered.
The rangers turned towards the source of the smell. It was Vengeance. She roared. Her breath stank of urine. A few flies buzzed around her.
The rangers screamed, and began to run, but to no avail, as Vengeance devoured them.
“Oi!” a voice screamed. It was the female ranger, who had driven towards the Valley of Death. She had seen the corpses of Jackson and Ira, but had decided to ignore it for now.
Vengeance looked up at her, before continuing to slaughter the rangers, until there were none left. All while the female ranger continued to honk.
Finally, Vengeance turned towards the ranger’s jeep, and charged. She drove, hoping to lead him into the cage.
Instead, she drove into a herd of Euoplocephalus, that began to panic after seeing the Carcharadontosaurus. One swung it’s club at the jeep, destroying the engine. The ranger stood helplessly, as Vengeance approached her amidst the chaos, and grabbed her, before swallowing her alive.
Vengeance then turned her attention towards the Euoplocephalus herd. There were 16 of them. She roared.
A few minutes later, a lone Euoplocephalus stood, wandering around the corpses of it’s herdmates.
Back at the facility, Vsevolod was setting Mogui free. He held a cattle prod in one hand, as tased Mogui with it.
Mogui roared, grabbing the cattle prod and tossing it on the floor. He then turned towards Vsevolod. He growled.
“Oh shi-“ Vsevolod said, as Mogui began to maul him. Vsevolod screamed, as Mogui inserted his claw into Vsevolod’s skin, tearing it. Vsevolod managed to kick the lion off, and limped away to the hallway where the others were.
Alan Jonah was outside, having packed everything into a jeep. He was getting ready to drive off, along with Talon. Eric Ludlow had gone to sleep in one of the rooms, while everyone else was having a discussion in the hall.
Vsevolod dashed in, bloody and bruised, with just adrenaline keeping him going. Mogui roared, appearing right behind him. He pounced.
Vsevolod grabbed Bandisinghe and shoved him towards Mogui, who began to rip the man into shreds.
Vsevolod bolted into the ball room, and rushed up the indoor balcony. Mogui dropped the remains of Bandisinghe, and roared, charging after Vsevolod, while everyone else scattered outside.
Vsevolod held the wall with his hands, and noticed the immense bleeding. Vsevolod eyed the chandelier, and remembered his escape years prior.
Seeking all of his remaining energy, he jumped onto the chandelier, as Mogui roared. The chandelier could not carry his weight, and he went crashing down.
Vsevolod scrambled out of the window, and limped out of the gates, into the open jungle.
Alan Jonah had already left on his jeep. The commotion had woken up Eric Ludlow, who had immediately rushed outside, and driven out in the remaining jeep. The remaining people had also headed out of the facility into the jungle from a side gate.
Vsevolod looked behind him.
What am I thinking? He asked himself. He walked towards a stream, and washed the sweat and blood off of his body. Vsevolod looked at the facility. He could see a group of people heading out, as well as Mogui also charging out, and sniffing the air, looking for him.
Vsevolod sighed. He looked at the sky. Dark clouds loomed in the sky, and soon, a few drops of water began to fall upon him. Vsevolod sighed, as he quickly limped through the forest.
= Chapter XXII =
The Saurophoganax sniffed in the air. Something had been here, if the scent markings left in her territory were any indication. She sniffed at the urine again. Like a binturong’s urine, it let out the scent of buttered popcorn.
She recognized this scent. It belonged to the caged dinosaur. She let a series of roars. 
Soon enough Vengeance the Carcharadontosaurus appeared, and roared at the Saurophoganax, which returned a submissive growl. Vengeance stared at the other carnivore, and roared.
Immediately Vengeance charged at the Saurophoganax, before stopping. It was a bluff charge. The Saurophoganax stood in a defensive position, growling.
Vengeance grunted, before turning away, and leaving.
= Chapter XXIII =
Rain poured down heavily on the group, as they made their way through the jungle.
“Best Christmas ever!” Lethnura said, sighing.
“What is that?” Rovinu pointed at a small hill not too far away.
A pack of Maip macrothorax stood above the hill. They let out a series of dolphin like whistles.
“Maips!” Lex yelled.
Richard Levine yelled. “Don’t move. Don’t trigger it’s hunting instincts.”
Levine watched the Maip pack for a while, thinking.
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