The Lost Dinosaur |2| Nublar Seven Series

Search and Rescue pt. 1

Hayden

We'd been following Franklin and Dearing's directions for about an hour now. Blue didn't seem to be moving much, keeping to the northwest of the island. Wheatley and Owen had the short-range walkie talkies to communicate with the Comms facility, while I kept mine hidden. Ben and I agreed to only use it for emergencies, but a little update here and there wouldn't hurt.

"Hold up!" Wheatley ordered.

In front of the group, Owen was kneeling down in some mud. It was a clear imprint of a Raptor's footprint, three long fingers in a triangle deep in the mud.

"This is fresh, we're on her territory." Owen said.

"How far is she?" Wheatley said into the walkie.

"She stopped half a mile ahead of you." Dearing said.

"If you wanted a silver lining of us losing the trucks, Blue would've seen us coming from a mile away." Owen gave us a half-smile.

"And now?" Zia raised a brow.

"A half mile, give or take."

"Load out people. Look alive. Stay alive." At Wheatley's words, all his men fixed their hold on their rifles.

"I'll approach her first, you should stand back and wait for my signal. Hopefully she'll cooperate if it's just me." Owen said.

"We got your back, brother." Wheatley nodded.

"Yeah." Owen sighed. "Claire, I'm going to have to track her alone. I'll need you to be my eyes if she runs. Copy?"

"Copy that." Dearing's voice came through.

With a last glance at Zia and me, Owen took off. He started to follow a creek into the woods until he disappeared between the trees. The rest of us walked at a slower pace, eyes and ears sharp for any threat. I tried not to step on the water, but it was inevitable as it was the only place without ferns and palms slapping you in the face. 'Great, wet socks for the rest of the day.' There were dragonflies everywhere, buzzing around, and the air was thicker and more humid here. The morning chill was giving way to the tropical heat, and I was starting to sweat because of it.

There were plenty of plants growing near the water that I recognized. There were those trees with wide leaves that the Brachiosaurus liked to eat, but also were very useful to hide from Pteranodons. The ferns that dinosaurs never ate, probably poisonous according to Darius. There were shrubs with Nublar berries. I promptly shoved a few red ones in my pocket, careful not to take the purple ones. I even spotted some grubs, making me think back to Ben. I really hope he's doing okay, but I knew if someone could find Bumpy, it was him.

As we entered the jungle, the trees were so close together that we couldn't see the sky that well, the high canopy blocking much of the light. Right when we were passing through a rare open area, loud and obnoxious screeches came from above.

"Take cover under the foliage!" I ushered them and everybody crouched near a tree as shadows crossed the sky. Looking up the shadows looked the size of my palm, gray and orange in the distance. But I know the reality up close, with the wingspan of a school bus and beaks like spears, the Pteranodons were among my least favorite dinosaurs.

It took a while for the shadows to disappear, it looked like the whole flock was on the move. We were northwest, a weird place for the flying lizards to be at, considering that their nests were on the east mountains, but with the volcano, this whole island was out of whack.

"Good thing I keep you around." Wheatley gave me a creepy smile as we resumed walking.

"Is that so? Then wouldn't you say I've earned a gun?" I smirked, laying my hand out. At that, he only laughed. "So, what's your plan for capturing the flying lizards? I doubt you managed to do so without the tracking system."