Among the Shadows of Death (a Jurassic Park fic)

Chapter 2

Note: Ed Regis is a book-only character and he acted as their guide and myeah, enjoy!

~ Lixian

An employee guided them around and finally let them into their rooms. "Well, hello there neighbour" Alex turned to the sound and there was Ian. "Heh, hello to you too Ian." he said while opening his door and stepping inside the amazonian themed room. It wasn't finished yet, that was clear, but it looked pretty decent. Alexander sighed and started to mumble, reasoning with himself, "Ian is right, this is wrong. All of it." On the heli, Ian explained everything. His reasoning why Hammond's project would fail and something would go wrong. He couldn't help but be heavily intrigued by the Chaos theory, also the way Ian explains it. "But it's masked, hidden away. They stuck a pretty picture above this island that is on its very end; the verge of falling and crumbling down. The lengths people go to for money is insane."

"You're absolutely right about that" leaning against the doorframe stood Ian. "You forgot to lock the door. Meh, actually that isn't really needed anyway." "What if the dinosaurs are high on steroids and growth hormones?" "I- What do you mean? That they accelerate their growth?" Ian walked closer to him "Yes, pumping them up with the hormones they're supposed to develop in the time of, say, 3 years. It's the only possible reason for there to be 238 animals in a time of 5 years. This would mean that no dinosaur here is comfortable but actually really cranky and irritated, making them even more aggressive." Ian seemed to fully realise what he meant and looked half shocked at Alex "Shit, you're right. Being right all the time isn't exactly easy, argh-" "You two should come right away for the tour" Ellie said standing in the doorway. She saw the way the two were looking at her. "What? Something the matter? What's wrong?" "Nothing Ellie. Not yet, just theorising about this place."

-

They got introduced to Dr. Wu who started to guide them around the lab and other rooms. After leaving the hatchery and leaving the 150 eggs behind them, they entered a room labelled as 'Nursery'. The room was circular with toys spread around the floor. "What've you got here today, Kathy?" Wu asked the lady working there. She was sitting on the ground interacting with the animal in front of her "Not much. Just a baby raptor" Just?? "Let's have a look" She stood up and the little raptor came into view.

The animal on the floor was about a foot and a half long, the size of a small monkey. It was dark yellow with brown stripes, like a tiger. It had a lizard's head and long snout, but it stood upright on strong hind legs, balanced by a thick straight tail. Its smaller front legs waved in the air. It cocked its head to one side and peered at the visitors staring down at it. "Aww, that's actually really adorable for it to be so murderous" Alex commented.

"Velociraptor," Alan Grant said, in a low voice. "Velociraptor mongoliensis," Wu responded, nodding. "A predator. This one's only six weeks old." " I just excavated a raptor," Grant said, as he bent down for a closer look. Immediately the little lizard sprang up, over Grant's head into Alex's arms. "Ohw- Am I even allowed to do this?" "It's alright, they can jump," Wu said. "The babies can jump. So can the adults, as a matter of fact."

Alexander held on to it and noticed that the little animal didn't weigh very much. He was amazed by the creature in his arms, its little head was inches from his face. 

"Will it hurt him?" Ian asked, amazed but also scared of what could happen. "No, she's friendly." "Are you sure about that?" asked Gennaro with a look of concern. "Oh, quite sure. At least until she's a little bit older." Wu answered their concerns for them. "Woah, she doesn't have any teeth yet. Not even egg teeth?" "No, raptors don't have them.They break the shell with their nose and the nursery staff helps them further."

Alan went into a confused conversation with Wu about what they do in the wild. Only to discover that they don't let the dino's breed into the wild by their 2 precautions taken with every animal. The radiation and they're all female. Ian was sceptical about the radiation and confused about the gender certainty. So he started to explain a perfectly reasonable argument and asked questions towards Dr. Wu that got the researcher answering with a 'duh' tone in his voice. All Alexander could do was laugh at the questions and adore the baby dino.

The little velociraptor sniffed him and rubbed her head against his neck. Alex snickered in response to her breath being ticklish. Alan came up beside him and eyed it critically. He took her little hand and inspected the three little fingers."Do you mind?" he asked, Alex handed her over and Ian dared to approach him again. He inspected her and turned her around and felt her tail. The little one started to squeal and wriggle until their guide told him to leave her alone. He handed her back to Alex, who started to calm her down as he felt her heartbeat racing from the interaction.

Ian stared at it, not daring to touch it or interact with it. Alan stood there again examining the creature from a distance as it hissed at him. "Fascinating" "Could I stay a little longer?" Alex asked their guide. "Not right now, the tour in the park itself is about to start so you'll be able to see the others." On the way back, Ian finally succeeded in irritating Dr. Wu, making the doctor reveal the way of the lysine-procedure. The control room was busy at the moment so our guide allowed us to take a look at the full grown velociraptors.

The four of them arrived at the pen just in time for their feeding protocol. "They should all be eliminated," a man said to be Robert Muldoon entered. Alexander couldn't agree more. They might be animals but they aren't supposed to be here. As Alan, Ellie and Robert were talking, Ian spoke up. "So uh, do you have a partner of any kind?" this caught the other male off guard. "I- No? Not gonna lie, that was random as fuck." "Yeah, sorry. I realise that too now." "But, uh, what about you?" "I'm always on the lookout for a new partner, heh" "Many exes?" "Hmm, some ex-Mss Malcolms too." "Yeesh, must have cost some money." "Ah- haha, yeah that's...that is one way to look at it. Most people say that it's sad or greedy. Something like that, but I like your view on the matter more." "Thank you?" Ian laughed at his confusion, thought it was kind of adorable too for some reason.

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Note: ...myeah, uhh I don't know, I'll try to do notes every chapter

~ Lixian