by David Lewman
The video showed how the controls worked. “The gyroscopic technology means you’ll always stay upright,” the narrator explained.
In an animation, a gyrosphere got too close to a dinosaur. A red circle blinked around the sphere, and the dinosaur backed off. “And good news for bad drivers: our invisible barrier system will make sure you don’t get into an accident.”
“That sucks,” Zach joked. “You can’t even hit them.”
“Where are they?” Gray asked impatiently.
Zach pushed the joystick. The gyrosphere lurched forward, rolling into a lush green valley where visitors could steer their globes close to roaming herbivores.
Gray and Zach rolled between a pair of Apatosauruses. Their gyrosphere came close to the huge dinosaurs’ swooping heads. Gray laughed, loving it. Zach steered them around a Triceratops and right into the path of a lumbering Stegosaurus.
“Watch out!” Gray cried. “He’ll get us!”
Zach stopped and reversed the sphere, allowing the Stegosaurus to pass. The two brothers were having a great time together.
Then an announcement came through the speakers inside the gyrosphere: “Due to technical difficulties, Jurassic World is now closed. Please disembark all rides and return to the resort.”
“No!” Gray cried. “That was only point two miles!”
Zach watched the girls in the ball ahead of them turn back toward the station at the base of the valley. Then he looked at Gray and saw how disappointed he was. “Come on,” Zach said. “We can stay out a couple more minutes.”
Gray looked torn. He hated cutting the ride short, but he also didn’t want to get in trouble. “But they said we have to go back.”
“Aunt Claire gave us VIP passes,” Zach said. “That means special privileges.” He put a finger to his lips, turned the volume on the speakers all the way down, and pushed the joystick forward.
The gyrosphere rolled into a grove.
Chapter Twelve
Claire watched the monitors in the control room. She saw crowds gathering in the monorail stations, flooding onto the trains. One family held hands, moving together. Family—that reminded her…
She slipped into a side office and quickly dialed her cell phone. “Zara, listen. Take the boys back to the hotel right away.”
She listened to her assistant, then froze. “Slow down. They what?”
As the boys’ gyrosphere rolled through the grove, Zach’s cell phone buzzed. “Hi, Aunt Claire.”
Back in the office, Claire paced nervously. “Zach! Thank god! Is Gray with you?”
“We’re out in the hamster ball thing,” Zach said. “I can’t hear you.”
Claire spoke into her phone frantically. “Zach, listen to me. You need to come back to the—”
But the call had dropped. Zach checked the reception bars on his phone. The screen said, “Service Unavailable.” He didn’t look at all upset. “That should be an app. It drops the call when you’re getting yelled at.”
Then he spotted something up ahead. “What happened here?”
He drove the gyrosphere up to a broken gate in the heavy wall enclosing the area. Bars twisted in all directions. Beyond the busted gate lay a small grove with grazing Ankylosauruses.
Zach’s eyes lit up. “Dude. Off road.”
Gray looked worried. “This isn’t on the map. We’re supposed to go back.”
“I’m just concerned that you’re not getting the full Jurassic World experience,” Zach said, grinning.
He rolled the gyrosphere through the broken gate.
Freaking out, Claire returned to the control room, heading straight for Lowery. He was busy working his keyboard.
“Are there any gyrospheres left in the valley?” she asked urgently.
Lowery touched his screen, bringing up a new display. “They’re all docked or headed back.”
Claire was relieved. Then Lowery spotted something. “Wait, we have one in the field.”
Claire’s relief instantly evaporated. “It’s going the opposite direction of where it should be going,” Lowery added.
“Send some rangers out there to bring them in,” Claire ordered.
Vivian spoke into her headset. “Security, we need a search and rescue team in the valley.”
From the other end of the line came a blast of crowd noise. Then a ranger spoke above the crowd. “It’s gonna be a while. We’ve got our hands full out here.”
Claire grabbed Vivian’s headset, pulling it to her mouth, which twisted Vivian’s head around. “There are two guests missing!” she barked. “You need to make this your top priority.”
“Ma’am,” the ranger said, “we’ve got more than two guests missing. We’ll do the best we can.”
Claire tightened her mouth in frustration and let Vivian’s head go. “Is there someone, anyone, who can come with me?” she asked, addressing the room.
“You mean someone here?” Lowery asked.
“We’re kind of indoor people,” Vivian said.
Exasperated, Claire looked at the monitors. She spotted Owen being manhandled by security guards outside the Genetics Lab. She made a decision and walked briskly out of the control room.
In the visitors’ center, Claire hurried through the crowded chamber. An announcement came over the speakers: “Due to technical difficulties, all our exhibits are now closed.”
As their parents rushed them along, kids tapped the display screens, making realistic holograms of dinosaurs pop up. A kid screamed as his sister surprised him with a hologram of a Velociraptor. Claire passed right through the holograms, paying them no attention.
Finally she spotted Owen near the front entrance. “Owen!”
He turned and looked at her questioningly as she ran up to him.
“I need you,” Claire said.
“Finally you’re being honest,” Owen said.
“I need your help. My nephews are out in the valley. Please. If anything happens—”
Owen could see the fear in Claire’s eyes. He took her aside. “How old are they?”
Claire thought a moment. “One of them is high school age. The other’s a few years younger.”
Owen looked surprised. “You don’t know how old your own nephews are?”
“No, okay?” she snapped.
Zach and Gray rolled into a shady grove where the sun was blocked by a dense canopy of trees. The ground was rocky and uneven, covered by dead leaves.
“We’re gonna get arrested!” Gray cried. “They’ll shave our heads! And if we want root beer, we’ll have to make it in the toilet!”
“What are you talking about?” Zach asked, completely bewildered.
They came upon four Ankylosauruses grazing in an area surrounded by rocks and tall trees. “See?” Zach said triumphantly. “There. You’re welcome. Up close and personal with four dinosaurs.”
“Ankylosaurus,” Gray said. “We shouldn’t be here. And there are five dinosaurs.”
Zach screwed up his face and cocked his head. “Aren’t you supposed to be a genius? One, two, three, four!”
Gray pointed at a reflection in the gyrosphere’s plexiglass. “Five,” he said.
Zach squinted at the reflection. The Ankylosauruses began to run away. Zach turned around and looked out the back of the gyrosphere. A huge dinosaur rose from the trees behind them. He didn’t know its name, and for once, neither did Gray.
Chapter Thirteen
Indominus rex sprinted forward to attack! Zach tried to steer clear, but the beast head-butted the gyrosphere into the Ankylosaurus stampede. The Indominus roared, rattling the sphere’s plexiglass. The alpha Ankylosaurus turned to face the attacker, and the boys were caught right between the two combatants.
“Go! Go!” Gray cried.
“I’m trying!”
The gyrosphere moved, but the Indominus cut in front of it, blocking its path. Zach yanked the joystick left. “Not that way!” Gray screamed.
WHACK! The Ankylosaurus hit the gyrosphere with its
mace-like tail, shattering a spiderweb crack in the plexiglass. The ball lifted off the ground, flew a few feet through the air, and cracked against a rock. The gyroscopic mechanism broke. From now on, when the ball rolled, the boys rolled, too.
When the ball finally stopped, the brothers were hanging upside down inside it. They watched as the Indominus attacked the Ankylosaurus with its long, sharp claw. “We’re safe in here, right?” Gray asked, terrified.
“Of course we are!” Zach said. “These things are dino-proof! They’d have to be, right?”
BRRZZZT! Zach’s cell phone lay at the bottom of the sphere, buzzing.
It was Claire, calling as she climbed into a Jurassic World SUV with Owen behind the wheel. “Pick up, pick up, pick up,” she pleaded.
Zach was trying. He reached his arm toward the phone.
“Zach…,” Gray whispered.
“Almost got it,” Zach said, stretching his fingers.
Gray looked up and saw the Indominus staring at them from above. “Zach…Zach…”
TICK. TICK. The beast tapped on the glass with her claw. CRACK! The boys screamed as the claw broke through the glass! The Indominus brought her massive jaws down on the gyrosphere, trying to wrap its mouth around it. The boys stared down its throat. Its breath fogged the glass. Its teeth cracked the glass. Just when it seemed the ball was too big for the creature’s mouth, it unhinged its jaw, widening its bite.
The brothers desperately kicked their feet. The Indominus lifted the sphere three feet off the ground and slammed it down onto the rocks! CRASH! The bottom of the sphere broke, leaving an open hole.
Zach saw a way out.
He unbuckled his belt, then helped Gray unbuckle his. “Get ready to run. You ready?”
The Indominus’s mouth was completely around the gyrosphere now, stopped only by the metal rings that held it together. Zach pulled Gray free, and they scrambled out the open hole and onto the rocks. The Indominus lifted the sphere—
“Run!” Zach cried. Then he grabbed Gray. “No, wait!”
Zach sheltered Gray with his body as the Indominus smashed the globe down around them again. It lifted the sphere once more.
“NOW! RUN!” Zach yelled.
The boys took off. The Indominus whipped the broken ball around, sending it flying. Her nostrils flared as she sniffed the air, turned, and followed the boys.
Zach and Gray ran through narrow woods. “Go, go, go!” Zach cried.
“I’m going!” Gray replied, just as the Indominus crashed through the jungle behind them.
At the end of the long, sloping grove, the boys ran right up to the edge of a waterfall that dropped twenty feet into a pool. They stopped. Looked back.
The Indominus was charging straight toward them.
“Jump!” Zach shouted.
“I can’t!” Gray said. The waterfall seemed way too high.
“We have to!” Zach insisted. “Now! One, two—”
Zach grabbed Gray’s hand and they jumped. The Indominus snapped the empty space they’d stood in a second before.
SPLASH! Zach and Gray hit the water and plunged deep below its surface. The Indominus looked over the edge, snorted in frustration, and stomped off into the jungle.
Gasping for breath, the boys broke the surface. Zach dragged his brother onto the muddy shore. Their arms were around each other as they choked on water and tears.
“You jumped!” Zach managed to say. “That was awesome!”
“It had seventy-four teeth,” Gray said.
Zach laughed. So did Gray. Then their laughter quickly turned to tears. They sobbed, thankful to be alive.
Chapter Fourteen
Back in the control room, Lowery watched footage from the Indominus’s paddock. “Check this out,” he said to Vivian, who slid her chair over. “It can camo, right?” he said. “But watch this infrared footage.”
The red-purple outline of the dinosaur blended into the foliage.
Vivian’s brow furrowed. “The only way it could hide from a thermal camera is if it could change its heat signature. But no animal can do that.”
“This one can,” Lowery said.
From behind them, Masrani said, “Show it again,” trying to keep the anger out of his voice.
In the Genetics Lab, Masrani confronted Dr. Wu. “What purpose could we have for a dinosaur that can camouflage?”
Dr. Wu poured tea. “Cuttlefish genes were added to help it withstand an accelerated growth rate. Cuttlefish have chromatophores that allow the skin to change color.”
“It hid from thermal technology,” Masrani said angrily.
Dr. Wu looked surprised. Even pleased. “Really?”
“How is that possible?”
The geneticist thought a moment, then said, “Tree frogs can moderate their infrared output. We used strands of their DNA to adapt it to a tropical climate, but I never imagined—”
“Who authorized you to do this?” Masrani snapped.
“You did,” Dr. Wu said. “Bigger, scarier. ‘Cooler’ was the word you used in your memo.”
The doctor got up and walked through the lab, carrying his cup of tea. Masrani followed him, staying close. “What you’re doing here, Dr. Wu, what you’ve done…they’ll shut down this park, seize your work, everything you’ve built. You are to cease all activities here immediately!”
Dr. Wu remained cool. “Nothing in Jurassic World is natural. We’ve always had to fill gaps in the genome with DNA from other animals. You didn’t ask for reality. You asked for more teeth.”
“I never asked for a monster,” Masrani said.
The geneticist shrugged. “Monster is a relative term. To a canary, a cat is a monster. We’re just used to being the cat.”
Claire and Owen drove through Gyrosphere Valley in his beat-up SUV. “What is that?” Claire asked, spotting something.
It was an Apatosaurus, lying on its side, still.
Owen drove all around the dinosaur. “Are we safe in here?” Claire asked nervously.
He got out of the SUV and cautiously approached the Apatosaurus, running his hands along gashes on her front legs. He saw a bite mark at the base of its neck.
“It didn’t eat her,” he said. “It’s killing for sport.”
The Apatosaurus made a low sound. It was still alive. “Oh, no,” Owen said, hurrying to its head. He rubbed it soothingly. “I’m sorry, girl. I’m sorry.”
Though she was frightened of the huge animal, Claire forced herself to get out of the SUV and go to Owen’s side. The Apatosaurus made one last murmur. Her eyes went still.
“Oh, no,” Claire said. “Is she…?”
Owen nodded. He looked at the tree line, angry. They heard a muffled roar in the distance.
Owen walked over a small hill and discovered six more dead Apatosauruses. His eyes filled with rage.
Back in the SUV, Owen and Claire drove into the shady grove of trees. “There!” Claire cried, pointing. Claire and Owen got out of the SUV to investigate. They weren’t happy with what they found: the shattered remains of an empty gyrosphere.
Chapter Fifteen
Owen carried a powerful rifle with him, meant for taking down a T. rex. He examined the broken gyrosphere and found something jammed in the metal rings. He pried loose a massive dinosaur tooth. Claire’s face went white.
She spotted Zach’s cell phone. Tapping it on, she saw he’d missed seven calls from her. She slumped to the ground, moaning, “No…no…”
“They made it out,” Owen told her.
She looked up at him. He was pointing to the mud. There were footprints—sneaker prints. Claire felt a wave of relief rush over her.
They followed the footprints to the edge of the waterfall, where they abruptly stopped. “Oh, god,” Claire said. “They jumped.”
“Brave kids,” Owen said.
Claire started screaming for them. “Zach! Gray!” Owen clamped his hand over her mouth. She struggled loose and said, “Hey! I’m not one of your trained animals!”
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“Listen,” Owen whispered. “Those boys are still alive, but we won’t be if you keep screaming like that!”
Claire nodded. That made sense. “You can pick up their scent and track them, can’t you?” she said, speaking quietly.
“I was with the Navy, not the Navajos.”
“So what, then?”
“You go back. I’ll find them.”
“We’ll find them,” she said.
Owen shook his head. “You’d last two minutes in that jungle. Less in those ridiculous shoes.”
“If anything happens to those boys, I—”
They stared at each other. Claire looked determined. She clearly wasn’t going to back down. Owen sighed. “Okay, but let’s get one thing straight. I’m in charge here.”
He shouldered his rifle and climbed down the steep rocks. Claire followed.
They never noticed that they’d been standing in an enormous Indominus rex footprint.
Deep in the jungle, Zach and Gray splashed across rocks in a river. “We won’t have to worry about water since it’s a rain forest,” Gray said. “And caterpillars are high in protein. They can keep us alive for weeks.”
“Mm-hmm,” Zach said, even though he was thinking, No way am I eating caterpillars.
“You know, this is what it would’ve been like,” Gray said.
“What?”
“If dinosaurs never went extinct. People just walking around scared all the time.”
“People wouldn’t be here if dinosaurs never went extinct,” Zach said.
They emerged onto a narrow dirt road. Gray noticed a fresh pair of tire tracks. He knelt down and studied the tracks, figuring out which way they led. “That way,” he decided, pointing.
The brothers ran down the road, but soon the tracks veered off into the vegetation. Worried, Zach and Gray followed the path of broken tree limbs down a hill until they came to a Jurassic World maintenance vehicle that had crashed into a rock wall.