What if the Indominus rex Was Never Created?

Note: This is the second part of the *Jurassic Park: What If:* series, and was written by Palaeontologica.

**June 23, 2018**

**Isla Nublar, 120 miles west of Costa Rica**

The emergency siren blared, a sound loud enough to be heard across the park. Typically, this was relegated for asset-related incidents, such as the escape of a *Suchomimus* two months prior. But then, this wasn’t a typical day. Mount Sibo, the volcano to the north-east of Isla Nublar, was waking up. As the crowds below panicked, the alarm calls of dinosaurs began echoing out across the park.

“Please remain calm,” said a clear, yet obviously stressed voice over the intercom. “The evacuation helicopters are inbound.”

Yet it didn’t help. The resort’s Main Street was flooded with panicking people, and the security team’s best efforts to quell the situation were in vain. A few people were already dead—not from the volcano itself, but from the ensuing panic.

Inside the engineering room, Claire Dearing noted, things were just as bad. In the rush to evacuate, one of the staff had stumbled and bumped into a piece of equipment, though she didn’t know which one at first. Claire herself was obviously stressed.

“Technical malfunctions in Sector 5,” one of the technicians frantically said. “We’ve just lost power in the *Carnotaurus* paddock.”

“Can’t you bring the power back up?” Claire asked. “We don’t want even more deaths before the volcano’s even erupted. It’ll probably be hours, but still, we don’t want unnecessary drama.”

One of the monitors started beeping. The technician ran over and frowned. “The geothermal power station’s gone haywire. Power’s out throughout Sector 5 now.”

“Wait, what about the raptor paddock?” one man said.

Claire looked on in disbelief, as did most of the staff. If the geothermal power station had been knocked out, then—

“We’ve lost the raptor paddock, too,” the technician said, frowning.

Claire felt an intense fear boiling up inside her. The raptors were man-eaters—Masrani Corporation had known that for years, and ever since the attack on ... no, she didn’t want to think about that.

She looked at the remaining staff and inhaled. “The evacuation helicopters are still coming,” she said. “We should make out way to the helipad. If worst comes to worst, at least some of us will make it out of here—”

“What?” interjected Lowery Cruthers, “*Alive*? Claire, the last thing we want to be doing is to wait for them outside. We have to stay *inside*. Besides, if the volcano erupts, we might only have to wait for the rescuers to dig through the ash.”

Claire’s face flushed in anger, “Lowery, what do you think this is? A goddamn *Dante’s Peak* fanfiction?! You seriously think the last thing we need to worry about right now is staying in our fucking offices?!” Claire looked around as she spoke, her eyes landing on the technicians at the desks. “We’re not talking about waiting for them. We’re talking about escaping the ash if this thing hits the fan, whenever that is!”

Lowery held his ground, “We can’t possibly predict how bad the ashfall will be. If the ash isn’t bad, then it’s certainly not going to hurt if we hunker down inside. We need to wait out the eruption.”

Claire was about to say something else, but then there was a distant rumble. On the CCTV cameras, the fleeing crowds almost entirely stopped. The people stared, transfixed, to the west. She realized what had happened straight away, and started walking towards the door.

“Claire, what are you doing?” Lowery said. Claire ignored him, and within a few moments she was out the door.

She walked down the hallway. The ground beneath her feet seemed to vibrate, dust falling from the ceiling, but she didn’t seem to notice as she made her determined trek towards the exit. After a few moments, Claire Dearing entered the code into the keypad and pushed the door open. When the door opened, and when Claire looked out, she realized that she was wrong—very wrong. And at the same time, she realized that help wouldn’t be coming in time.

In the distance, the side of Mount Sibo broke free, and the pyroclastic cloud started coming straight at them. Claire knew it was too late to retreat, and so she just stared as the huge cloud barrelled into Main Street, flinching almost imperceptibly as the Innovation Centre collapsed, only to be engulfed by the wall of death. Jurassic World had fallen. There was no hope for those who remained as the pyroclastic flow kept coming.

Claire was only dimly aware of Lowery and a couple of security guards pulling her back into the engineering room. The door slammed shut, and yet, the distant rumble became louder.

“Claire, are you crazy?” Lowery shouted in her ear. Claire didn’t resist as she was pulled deeper, into the part of the engineering room which was built into the mountain—she was too shocked to. The deep rumble of the pyroclastic flow became progressively louder, growing until her ears popped. Then, there was no sound. Just ringing.

The wall burst open, and the pressure wave struck Claire in the face.

Then, there was nothing.

When the evacuation and rescue craft arrived, nothing remained of Jurassic World. The surface of Isla Nublar had been practically sterilized by the eruption, with only the north-eastern portion remaining intact. The dinosaurs, as well as thousands of tourists and staff, were dead.