"Ngh?! Hmph! Ngh—hngh! Ngh—"
Owen was crawling across the grass in a bizarre, frantic fashion, emitting incoherent groans that made him sound like a vengeful spirit returning from the grave.
Red-hot lava pursued him, but fortunately, the terrain here was relatively flat. The flow wasn't moving at extre speeds, and thanks to several natural obstacles, Owen was maintaining a tenuous lead in this deadly race.
"No!"
A fallen, rotting log blocked his path. Owen was forced to wriggle over the trunk like a mudfish.
Sizzle...
The lava made intimate contact with the deadwood, emitting a sharp, hissing cauterization sound.
Thud!
In the nick of ti, Owen rolled over the log, successfully kissing the dirt on the other side.
"Ugh... ah—"
As the sedative finally began to wear off, he pushed himself up against the yet-unscorched log like a zombie rising from the earth. Standing in a contorted posture, he watched the horrific sight of the forest being swallowed by the molten tide.
…
"Hello? Can anyone hear ?"
Trapped inside the control center, Claire and Franklin were doing everything in their power to save themselves.
Aside from Claire's repeated attempts to contact the outside world, the only sound in the quiet room was the frantic clicking of Franklin's keyboard.
"Hello? Hello!"
Seeing that the comms were dead, Claire slamd the radio onto the desk. She stood up, scanned the room, and cursed under her breath.
"I've tried everything. The main doors are jamd shut," Franklin reported.
A warning beep from the computer punctuated his words.
"My dad told this job would improve my social skills. Thanks a lot, Dad. Way to screw over your own son."
Even as he muttered his complaints, his hands never slowed, dancing across the keys with lightning speed.
Beep—
He hit the Enter key. This ti, there was no alarm, only a short, lodic chi of success.
"It's open. Where does this lead?"
A side tunnel door slid open, drawing their attention. Claire hesitated for a mont, scanning her mory.
"To other parts of the park. Maybe we can evacuate through the maintenance tunnels."
A faint red glow pulsed deep within the tunnel, then vanished.
"What was th—"
Before Franklin could finish, the ceiling of the control room answered for him. A glob of molten lava dripped from above, narrowly missing their clothes.
"Lava! Lava!"
"Change of plans, no tunnels!"
Franklin shrieked, and Claire imdiately vetoed her own suggestion. Getting trapped by lava in a confined maintenance shaft would be a guaranteed death sentence.
Scanning the room, Claire finally spotted an ergency escape hatch. However, the "hatch" looked more like a vertical chimney with a ladder.
"It's stuck! Get a chair!"
Claire couldn't budge the ladder assembly inside the shaft, so she shouted for Franklin to grab a stool.
The lava on the floor began to spread more aggressively, painting the entire room crimson. The searing heat was enough to make one's skin crawl.
…
"Baryonyx, Ceratosaurus, Giganotosaurus... prioritize tranquilizing the carnivores."
On a large clearing near the coast, Carlo had led the main herd to the designated area. This spot was close to the harbor where the human ships were docked, and the connecting road was flat and unobstructed, perfect for a rescue operation.
Carlo lay prone on the ground, comforting the Giganotosaurus family while waiting for the humans to dart them.
Of course, he was faking his unconsciousness.
Whish—thwack!
Tranquilizer darts flew from the treeline, thudding into the mbers of the Giganotosaurus family one after another.
Feeling the sting, the Gigas let out faint, low growls, attempting to stand guard. But under Carlo's soothing presence and the overwhelming wave of lethargy, they all eventually slumped over into a deep sleep.
"Giganotosaurus family neutralized," a rcenary reported into his comms. He prepared to target the next dinosaur, but a voice crackled back through the radio.
"Give all the Gigas two extra doses of sedative. We have records of this species waking up prematurely."
In reality, the other Gigas weren't a major concern; even if they woke up mid-transit in their cages, it wouldn't be a disaster. The real worry was Carlo. If this "Big Boss" woke up with a case of morning crankiness, he could dismantle the ship piece by piece.
"Copy that."
Several more darts hissed through the air, all finding their mark on the Giganotosaurus family.
[Torpor: 1,367 / 143,800.5]
[Torpor: 752 / 143,800.5]
[Torpor: 0 / 143,800.5]
Hmm. Took ten seconds for the counter to reset to zero. They're getting better.
Carlo lay motionless on the ground, his breathing steady. If not for the faint flare of his nostrils, the capture team might have thought he'd gone into shock from an overdose.
While the humans were still at a distance, Carlo checked on the status of Dad, Mom, and the three little ones. Because the parents had been darted before, they seed to have developed a slight resistance; they would likely recover in a day. The three little ones, however, were being sedated for the first ti, so they would probably be out for... Wait, Kafka, why is your resistance so high?!
Kafka: Don't ask a night owl questions. I wake up when I feel like it.
As Carlo scanned his UI, more dinosaurs were being sedated all around him. The rcenaries hidden in the forest were using bolt-action rifles, and they were reloading so fast their arms were nearly giving out.
Vroom—
The roar of a heavy engine approached. A Jeep pulled up alongside the Giganotosaurus family, though it kept a respectful distance.
"These are the targets the boss specifically ntioned?"
The volcano was still raging, and the heat in the air made everyone instinctively tense. The n in the Jeep were no exception, resorting to small talk to bleed off the pressure.
"Yeah. Boss's orders, we take every single one of them."
"All of them? These few will take up half the ship. This doesn't seem like the most efficient choice..."
Indeed, from the perspective of "saving as many species as possible," taking five Giganotosaurus and the mountain-sized Carlo was a logistical nightmare. But dinosaurs with superior genetics always had certain privileges.
"Don't worry about the boss's business. We just get them off the island. Though that biggest one... is he going to need three heavy-lift choppers?"
"Probably. I heard one of them is pretty sick, though. We're taking that one too?"
One of the rcenaries seed strangely interested in the corporate decision-making, but a teammate with better internal connections shut him down.
"Don't sweat it. A certain doctor said to ensure their safety at all costs... he'll figure out a way to deal with the sick one."
The man paused, then added:
"In case you didn't know, that doctor is the one who brought them back to life in the first place."
———————
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