“What changes?” Marissa said, looking concerned. “What’s it? I don’t like the sound of an it. Its are only in horror movies. Its are never good. They live in sewers an eat people like us.”
“It’s a surprise,” Reece said, picking up a bag rested against the back wheel of his quadbike. He opened it and took out a belt with a sloshing canteen attached. He handed the belt to Marissa. “It’s a good surprise,” he said, squeezing her shoulder and smiling. “This place isn’t as scary as I made out earlier, but I have to lay it thick so people don’t stray, shhh, don’t tell the others,” he added, winking.
He dropped the bag onto the floor in front of the group. “Take a belt and a canteen. Put it on and drink regularly. In this humidity you’ll get heatstroke quickly. You don’t want that and neither do your colleagues, as you’ll end the day’s activities for everyone. We’ve tailored your experiences to make sure the most dangerous thing you’ll face is dehydration. If those canteens aren’t empty by dinner time, I’ll set Becca on you, got it?”
“I hope that’s a promise,” Marty whispered into Ash’s ear. “It’s almost a reason to stop drinking forever.”
“I know, right,” Ash replied. “I think I’m in love.”
“You know she can probably hear you,” Babs said, leaning between the pair. “Your idea of whispering is hopeless. She’s only over there, dummbkopfs.”
“Uhh… I…” Ash burbled, much to Babs’ amusement.
“Okay, saddle up,” Becca said, pulling on a helmet and revving the engine of her quadbike. “Up here on the plateau there are no alpha predators, so we can ride in safety. Move out and take it easy. Let’s give you a taste of what we’ve got planned for the rest of the week. We’ll go slow for the first few minutes so you can get the hang of things.”
“I don’t need to take it easy,” Harper scoffed. “I’ve got two of these on my Montana ranch. This is kids stuff. I was popping wheelies when I was ten.”
The group donned their helmets, mounted their quadbikes and moved off, following Becca and Reece. Over the next half an hour, Ash wore a broad grin as the group weaved down dirt trails through the jungle. The wind rushing against his face was exhilarating and wonderfully cooling. The camerawoman occasionally requested they drive in formation past the camera, or zig zag from side to side. Everything they did was accompanied by a chorus of chattering birds, insect noises and laughter. Ash couldn’t remember having ever had so much fun. Coopers definitely never got to do stuff like this. Ethan wasn’t gonna believe it.
Dusty rooster tails flared from the quadbikes ahead. Ash gunned the throttle and pulled up beside Harper, who suddenly jinked sideways, forcing Ash to take evasive action. He swerved off the path and bounced across the grass that was strewn with fallen twigs. He ducked to avoid a low hanging branch, which glanced off his helmet, forcing his head downwards. His chin smacked against his handlebars. He pulled on the breaks, skidded sideways and glared at Harper, who zoomed off, laughing like an idiot.
“Seriously,” Ash yelled, dabbing his chin and checking his hand. There was no blood. “What the hell, man! You don’t wanna mess, bruv. I will end you…”
He recoiled as he noticed the camera woman filming him from a short distance away. Had she filmed what he’d said? He felt his cheeks burn, so rubbed his chin in an attempt to hide his face. The camera woman let the camera rest on her handle bars. She motioned for Ash to get moving with a flick of her head.
“Please don’t put that in the final film,” Ash said as they rode. “I was just angry at what he did. I didn’t mean it.”
“They’re getting away from us,” the woman said. “You don’t wanna get left behind. Go on.”
Ash revved his engine and took his anger out on the dirt road, which proved to be an amazing antidote. Noticing pterodactyls gliding over the trees, he looked up. They seemed to be tracking the group. He wondered if Reece and Becca knew they were being followed.
Sometime later, Reece raised a hand and slowed with Becca, out ahead of the group. Everyone pulled up beside the pair in a clearing next to a platform that jutted from the edge of the raised plateau. Ash gazed over the sun-splashed tropical island paradise. In the distance, mountains reached towards cotton candy clouds.
“They’re back,” Reece said to Becca, glancing into the jungle at a patch of rustling ferns. “Told you not to feed them.”
“I fed them once,” Becca said, holding up a finger. “One time.”
“What’s back?” Marissa said, her voice rising in panic.
“Don’t worry,” Reece said. “They’re harmless.”
Reece tutted at Becca as a swarm of furry creatures bounced out of the undergrowth. They looked like meerkats, with markings similar to those of a leopard. However, rather than making for Becca, the chittering animals made straight for Reece, tumbling over one another, squeaking and purring. On reaching him, they jumped onto his bike and nuzzled his hands and rubbed their little faces against his chest. Two of them hopped onto the back of the bike and tried to prize open his storage locker, but the latch held it closed.
“Uh, how come they’re going directly to you?” Becca said playfully. “Reece… look at me… now Reece,” she said with mock incredulity. “You haven’t been feeding them in secret, have you?”
“No,” Reece defended. “I… I was throwing out the insects from the traps at base and the critters kind of went nuts for them. Sometimes I come up here and… Don’t give me that look. It’s better than just throwing it all away and… and… well, besides, little Igloo needs his lunch,” he added, scratching the chin of one of the creatures, which purred, its moist little nose twitching.
“You called him Igloo?” Becca said. “A jungle animal, Igloo?”
“Igloo gets cold at night. Don’t listen to the mean lady. I’ll protect you,” Reece whispered to the purring creature, which licked his nose. “Oh, his tongue’s all scratchy,” Reece laughed.
Someone screamed and Ash span around. Marissa was standing on the seat of her quadbike. There was a hoard of pterodactyls hopping on the ground around her. They walked clumsily on the dirt, using joints in the middle of their wings as front feet. One of them hopped onto Marissa’s bike, making her scream ever louder. The pterodactyl opened its mouth, full of tiny teeth, and cawed.
“Don’t worry, Marissa, come on,” Reece said, “opening the locker on his bike and pulling out a plastic bag full of dead beetles, moths and other unnervingly large beasties. The Meerkat creatures and the pterodactyls eyed the bag greedily. “Everything up here is harmless, curious and always hungry, but harmless. It’s amazing how quickly they learned to associate humans with food. I guess we leave a lot of waste. It’s been eye-opening. Here, take one and give it to her,” Reece urged, opening the bag and shaking it in front of Marissa.
“Ohh… it’s full of inse… Ohhh… you want me to put my hand in there?” Marissa whimpered, shrinking away from the bag.
“You come from Brazil,” Reece said. “It’s got more insects than anywhere else on Earth.”
“Yeah, we moved to L.A. exactly because of all the buzzing, flying, biting horrible clicky things.”
“Just take one,” Reece said, shaking the bag more vigorously. “Go on.”
Marissa closed her eyes and whimpered again as she plucked an insect from the bag. With one eye open she offered a dead cricket to the patiently waiting pterodactyl. The bird gently took the offering, then made for the nearest tree, climbed up the trunk, hobbled out along a branch, then jumped, flapping madly, lifting slowly and soon disappearing over the trees.
“You see,” Reece said. “Harmless. You’ve just helped a chick have today’s meal, done your bit for the planet.”
“You mean it’ll give it to her babies?” Marissa said, looking delighted.
“Of course. It’s breeding season. Looks like the girl who developed the FeedMe app is now spreading that love across time and species.”
Marissa smiled and reached for the bag again. She still grima
ced as she selected an insect, but was soon laughing as she fed another pterodactyl.
“I wanna feed them too,” Ash, Babs and Marty cried in unison, dashing forwards.
Beautiful chaos followed as the group filled the bellies of furry and flying creatures alike. Even Harper seemed to be having fun, despite trying to pretend it was all pathetic and silly. When the first bag was empty, Ash couldn’t help but feel sad, but Reece produced a second, bigger bag.
One of the Meerkat creatures lay on the saddle of Ash’s bike, snoring, its full little belly rising and falling. Ash chuckled as he looked around at its companions, who were also lazily reclining across the bikes or in the soft ferns. With the treats all gobbled up, the last of the pterodactyls took to the sky.
“This’s gotta be the best day of my life,” Ash said, turning to Becca and Reece. “Thanks for this. It’s like… it’s… I never imagined my life could be like… like this amazing.”
“Don’t mention it,” Reece replied, “but, you know you’re here because you earned it, right? If anything we should be thanking all of you, for making home a better place. Anyway, you haven’t seen the half of it, thousandth even,” he continued, walking to his bike and pushing aside a ball of fluff sleeping on the bike’s locker. The little creature huffed and waddled into the ferns before flopping down face first, where it snored in the sun.
“The diversity of plants, animals and insects we’re discovering every month is more than humanity’s discovered in two hundred years of fossil records back home. It’s too much to log ourselves.” He pulled a clear box from the bike’s locker, full of sets of glasses which he began handing out. “You can help add to our database. These are V.A.R glasses. Visual Audio Recorders. Pop these on and insert the ear piece. Then follow me to the viewing platform. The glasses won’t activate until I turn them on. When they’re on, everything your pupil focusses on will be recorded. Our computers will sift through the data and add anything new to the database. The glasses’ll also give you a personal tour.”
“You forgot to tell them that if they find anything new, they get to name it,” Becca said. “So long as it’s not rude.”
“We can name things?” Marissa said excitedly, rushing forwards. “Fala sério!”
“That’s right,” Becca said, grinning.
The group stood behind the platform’s railings. They looked over the lake they’d flown over that morning. Behind the lake, a mountain range covered in tropical trees and bushes disappeared into gathering clouds. The lake must have been a few miles wide and was surrounded by green prairielands, dotted with patches of trees. The rippling water looked tantalizingly cool in the rising heat. Ash unhooked his canteen and gulped down a few mouthfuls of water. A huge man-made pillar rose from a foundation set into concrete on one side of the lake. A vast platform was perched on top of the pillar. It looked like something you’d expect a Tie Fighter to land on in Star Wars.
“Is that another viewing platform?” Ash asked, wiping his lips.
“It is,” Becca said. “There are four across the island. They’re all joined by a monorail system. It’s a bit hazy, but you can see a couple in the distance over there, poking above the trees. That one has a swimming pool on it, and a Jacuzzi.”
“No way,” Harper said, leaning over the railings and trying to spot the distant platform. “You don’t have a Jacuzzi out here? Do you really have a Jacuzzi, a time travelling Jacuzzi?”
“Sure do,” Becca replied. “I hope you all brought your costumes.”
“What’s that,” Babs asked, pointing towards a raised white structure that weaved through the trees. It met with the pillar of the viewing platform by the lake.
“Like I said, that’s the monorail,” Becca said. “We use it to travel between platforms and for more intimate viewings. We can use it to follow the animals through the jungle, sort of. It’s the only way to do it as we can’t see through the trees from above and definitely wouldn’t risk moving around on the ground.”
“Not at all?” Babs said. “We’re never going down there?”
“That’d be waaaay too dangerous,” Reece said. “Apart from hungry dinosaurs, there are swamps, tar pits, beetles the size of your feet, centipedes the girth of your arm and flies the size of your fist,” he said, balling a hand.
“Sounds… uh… doesn’t sound so much like fun,” Babs said, grimacing.
“It isn’t,” Reece said. “That’s why we give our guests the VIP view from afar experience, where it’s safe. Much like what we’re doing right now. Everyone got your glasses on?” He asked, checking the group were ready. “Giddy up, here goes.”
Ash was shocked by the sudden sound that flooded into his ear. He’d been looking at a diplodocus reclining in the shade of the lake’s viewing platform. A schematic appeared on his glasses, next to the slumbering beast. It showed an image of a person standing next to the animal, really giving scale to the colossal creature. By comparison, a man barely reached above its ankle. The audio explained how an adult diplodocus could grow to become up to ninety meters long. Fascinated, Ash listened as the audio described what they ate, how long they lived and their main predators, which appeared to be nothing as they were too huge to be taken down, unless sick or very old.
Ash disappeared into a world of his own as he learned about the stegosaurus, with its rows of spinal fins, used for cooling blood in the intense Jurassic heat, much like an elephant’s ears. He also learned about the trees and plants. The island was populated by palms, coniferous sequoias and ferns. Much like Hawaii’s Big Island, it had a variety of micro climates. It could be raining in one part, but bright and sunny a few miles away.
Ash gazed towards a herd of oranosaurus, which were marked similarly to zebras, just these animals had brown and green stripes. They also had a solitary spinal fin that stretched the length of their bodies, from head to tail. They could grow up to seven meters long and weighed up to four tonnes, which was the equivalent to three family cars. The audio continued to explain about one of the smallest inhabitants around the lake, the draconyx. It spent much of its life herding amongst the larger diplodocus and oranosaurus for safety.
The skies were teeming with shrieking pterodactyls and archaeopteryx, which were basically reptilian birds with a light covering of feathery quills. The flying animals ate pretty much anything, so long as it didn’t involve a fight, which could harm their delicate wings. They mainly nested on cliff faces as they were too heavy to take off from the ground. If they ever did get stuck on the ground, they had to climb a tree and jump off, just to get airborne. He’d wondered why the pterodactyls they’d fed moments ago had climbed the nearby trees and jumped, rather than taking off from the ground.
Of the staggering array of dinosaurs, Ash only seemed to be able to locate herbivores. Where were all the dangerous meat eaters? He found it strange how safe he felt and how desperately he wanted to see something savage.
Eventually, his patience was rewarded. The fin he’d seen breach the lake as they landed emerged once more. A snout broke the surface in front of the colossal dorsal fin, nostrils spraying water. Honking dinosaurs dashed from the water’s edge. The glasses outlined the swimming monster with a glowing red line.
“Hey, look!” Ash shouted, pointing, as the glasses explained the animal was a spinosaurus, the largest amphibious carnivore to have ever lived. It could grow up to twenty meters long, about the same size as an adult blue whale.
“There she is,” he heard Reece whisper.
“Up to twenty meters long and a mouth big enough to swallow a man whole!” Harper exclaimed, obviously being presented the same information and audio Ash had received. “It uses its dorsal fin as a sail, to catch wind and glide around the lake, so it doesn’t unsettle the water or make too much noise. Silent killer. I want one. He’d be great at business. Maybe I should employ him.”
“Thank god we’re not going down there with that thing,” Marissa said. “What!” She yelled. “It’s not the biggest meat eater out he
re? But it’s huge!”
Ash was stunned as the audio explained about the plesiosaur, an ocean predator that could reach over twenty meters in length.
“I wish that spinosaur would leave the water,” Marty said. “I wanna see her fully. Come on Mrs big teeth… ts ts ts… come on sweety. Din dins…”
“You’ll get to see her,” Becca said, chuckling. “She usually feeds on Wednesdays. That’s when her friend, sarcosuchus, a twelve meter crocodile, also comes out to play. They seem to hunt together on the same day every week, like clockwork. Then the allosaurus, which are basically T-rex’s, come out of the jungle and gobble down whatever they haven’t finished. You don’t have to watch them feed if you don’t want,” she said, looking at Marissa, who appeared to have frozen solid, with her mouth hanging open, only her eyelids moving.
“Thanks,” Marissa said. “I don’t think I want to see that. I don’t think I’d sleep ever again. Not sure I will already. Not here anyway.”
“Uh… what’s that?” Ash said, pointing to two red dots that looked like pterodactyls, bobbing in the air on the horizon. His glasses didn’t feed him any information other than illuminating the flying creatures in red.
Reece snatched the radio attached to his belt.
“Mo, twelve o’clock and incoming,” he said. “Two, no make that three hostiles.”
“Roger that, we’re already on it. Drones are en-route. You’re safe,” came Mohammed’s crackling response.
Reece threw Becca a concerned look, then subtly tipped his head towards the bikes.
“Let’s move on,” Becca said. “Show’s over here for the day. We’ve got a barbeque prepared and still have that surprise we promised.”
Jurassic Earth Trilogy Box Set Page 10