"How do you steer this thing?!"
"Lean back, Kenji! Lean back!"
The hang glider, which had been soaring gracefully moments ago, suddenly pitched into a steep dive, hurtling straight toward the Great Lake.
"Too low! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH—!"
Carlo stood by the lakeside, watching the glider plummet toward the water. At the last second, it yanked upward at a 30-degree angle, its base skipping across the surface and carving two long, white plumes of spray through the water.
Amusing.
It wasn't just Carlo; the Stegosaurus and the other herbivores had all stopped to watch the spectacle, curious as to what kind of "white bird" had just crash-landed in their home.
"Watch out! We're gonna hit!"
"Go right!"
Another scream echoed from above. Carlo looked up to see a second glider hurtling directly toward him. He took two calculated steps back, feeling the rush of wind as the white wings swept past his face. His eyes followed the glider as it streaked from right to left.
THUD.
Dirt flew everywhere as the nose of the glider buried itself in the soft earth.
Very amusing.
Carlo decided these kids were actually quite entertaining. Every day they managed to come up with a new way to keep things interesting.
He strolled forward, gently took the frame of the buried glider in his teeth, and hoisted it out of the mud.
"Oh... is it morning already?"
Brooklynn looked dazed, her head lolling as she tried to get her bearings. Yasmina, with her athlete's constitution, fared better; after a moment, she managed to help Brooklynn over to a nearby rock to sit down.
Ignoring me completely? That's cold.
Carlo set the glider aside, looking helplessly at these two humans who didn't seem to view him as a threat anymore. They were just like the Parasaurolophus hatchlings, carnivores were right in front of them, and they didn't even think to run.
Leaving the girls to their recovery, he waded into the lake to retrieve the second crashed glider. He didn't know what this thing was made of, but he figured it was better to haul it out before it contaminated the water.
The artificial lake was barely four meters deep at its center, nothing to Carlo, but for Kenji and Sammy, it had been a near-death experience.
"Cough... hack..."
Kenji spat out a mouthful of water and crawled onto the bank. He gasped at the air as if he'd never tasted it before, letting out a giddy, hysterical laugh of relief. Carlo stepped onto the shore dripping wet, glider in mouth, and dropped it next to the first one.
"Oh... uh, thanks, Big Guy."
Kenji lay sprawled on the grass like a starfish, only lifting his head enough to watch Carlo walk away. Once Sammy caught her breath, she fumbled for her walkie-talkie.
"Darius? Darius, come in!"
Silence. Not even the hiss of static.
Rumble—
Dark clouds began to gather, a sudden flash of lightning illuminating the sky. A tropical storm was imminent.
Maybe I should bring Mom and Dad to the lake... Carlo mused. The last tropical storm had truly traumatized him.
Drip.
A single raindrop landed on the tip of Carlo's snout. He let out a sigh of relief. Just rain. No fire this time.
"Roar—"
He let out a low call. To most herbivores, that sound would be terrifying, but to the young Parasaurolophus, it was the most comforting sound in the world. The "toddlers" had grown too large to fit into the Simosuchus burrows anymore; instead, they all scurried over to huddle against Carlo's flank.
…
"Why?! For God's sake... WHY?!"
Darius was reaching his breaking point with the wildlife on this island. They had just escaped the Tyrannotitan's territory only to run smack into the Alpha Carcharodontosaurus.
It seemed like every carnivore outside the Primeval Ecological Zone was completely deranged. Since when did dinosaurs have such eccentric personalities? Why were they roaming all over the island?
Rumble—
Thunder cracked, startling Bumpy as she ran alongside the boys. She slammed her tail into the ground, spinning around to face the pursuing Carcharodontosaurus, threatening him to stay back.
The Carcharodontosaurus skidded to a halt, staring at this armored dinosaur he'd never seen before. He sniffed the air, trying to memorize the scent. But then, he froze. He tilted his head back, inhaling deeply, catching a specific scent layered within the forest, a scent that signaled a clear claim of territory.
In the wild, that scent meant a top-tier apex predator was nearby.
He decided Bumpy wasn't worth the trouble. He detoured around her, his heavy footsteps fading into the deep forest. His broken right arm swung limply as he walked, giving him a bizarre, almost comical gait.
"Haha... I've finally lost it. Since when do predators ignore a claim like that?" Darius muttered, clutching his head.
Whir-whir-whir...
The rhythmic thrum of helicopter blades cut through the air. Ben and Darius jumped, hidden in the brush, their despair instantly turning to elation.
"Hey! Over here!"
But the helicopter didn't see them. It banked sharply, heading straight toward the Main Street.
…
"No sign of the Indominus rex carcass on Main Street. Over."
"Paddock Nine search complete. No carcass found. Over."
The radio chatter in the ship's control room was a chorus of failure. The technicians were baffled.
"Dammit, how is that possible?" a staff member growled, slamming a hand onto the desk.
"We've retrieved the final surveillance footage from before the blackout. It's uploading now."
A moment later, the main screen flickered to life. The footage showed the aftermath of the Indominus's death. And then, they saw it.
They saw Carlo dragging the Indominus rex and dumping it into the Lagoon.
"Wait... what?! Is that dinosaur insane?!"
…
Lightning tore through the sky, illuminating the pitch-black, cloud-covered night. Gale-force winds whipped at the staff members' rain ponchos, tearing them into tatters.
"Why do we always pick this kind of 'atmospheric' weather for these missions? Does the boss think we need the mood lighting?!" a technician grumbled, tapping away at his control panel.
With a sharp beep, the massive gates to the Lagoon slowly ground open. Below the surface, a faint light could be seen moving through the water.
"Marine One, the gate is open."
"Copy that."
The submersible glided into the Lagoon. In the darkness, the depths looked no different from the Mariana Trench... perhaps worse.
The sub's lights caught a skeletal remain. The pilot, a man with a steady hand, prepared to move in with the bone-saw, but a younger technician stopped him.
"Wait..."
The pilot, assuming the kid was just nervous, didn't stop. "What is it? Nothing in here could have survived for six months."
The younger man didn't answer immediately. Instead, he asked, "Don't you think that skeleton looks... a bit different from the target's?"
The sound of the underwater saw abruptly cut out. Realizing the boy might be right, the pilot flicked on all the submersible's floodlights.
The light pierced the murky bottom, revealing not one, but over a dozen different skeletons littering the floor of the Lagoon. It was a prehistoric graveyard.
"Oh... God..."
In the pitch-black water just beyond the light, a massive shadow began to move.
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