The Best Of Both: Camp Cretaceous OC

No Escape

Out in the searing heat of the Montana deserts, was a humble dig site. But they were not digging for any kind of mineral or oil. They were digging for bones. Real, authentic Dinosaur bones.

Down in a cave system his team had discovered, Doctor Alan Grant led a group of young teens into the largest chamber they had found so far. The sunlight flitted through the cracks in the ceiling above, illuminating the whole place. 

All round, other diggers worked, chipping carefully away at the stone all around them, knowing any chip of stone, any shovel of dirt could reveal something wonderous underneath.

It was this feeling right here, the anticipation of it all is why he kept digging when so many others had quit. Nobody seemed to care about the Dinosaurs that had lived so many years ago, now that they were back and alive again in the real world. But they weren't the real deal, they were not authentic, and it was this reminder that Alan tried to convey to this young school group today.

"If you look, if you dig, you will find the rock," Alan said, gesturing to the other people around him. "And it is in the rock where the stories, the history, sits. And it is in those stories where Palaeontologists like myself make real, authentic discoveries about the Dinosaurs that had once dominated the Earth".

One girl let out a loud laugh at something on her phone, and quickly shoved it into her friends face to show her. Alan sighed in mild annoyance at the sight before turning to the other teens. Many of them were much the same, either on their phones or looking utterly bored.

Alan decided not to take it personally. He never did.

"But what's even the point anymore?" One kid spoke up, a young boy. "Dinosaurs are every where now, and those ones are alive. What's even the point of digging for old bones now?"

Alan gave the kid the same answer he gave all the others who asked. "Because those animals out there are not Dinosaurs," he explained calmly. "They are genetically engineered creatures who simply wear the guise of Dinosaurs. There is nothing to be learned from those things out there, the only real Dinosaurs that have ever or will ever exist, are here in the ground with us".

"Doctor Grant!?" A voice called from the hole in the ceiling. Alan looked up and saw a man standing at on the surface, looking into the cave. "You have a visitor!"

Alan excused himself from the group, not that any seemed to care or even listen and returned to the surface. He walked over to the man who had called his name, who pointed over to his tent. Alan looked at the man in annoyance, knowing nobody but him was allowed in there, before speeding over to the tent.

He pulled the cover back and stepped in, freezing as soon as he recognised who had their back turned to him. The woman turned around and a smile appeared on her face as soon as she saw him. "Doctor Ellie Satler," he said, breathlessly.

"Alan Grant," Ellie nodded to him, reciprocating the greeting.

Alan's mind blanked upon hearing her voice, lost in memories from times long passed. It felt like forever ago when they were working on a dig just like this one, but at the same time, it felt like it had all happened just yesterday, when the day John Hammond showed up in their caravan, and everything changed.

Many things, many people, did not survive the fallout of Jurassic Park. Their relationship was among them. But standing here, with her again after so many years, in the exact same desert. For a moment, he almost believed he was back in time, when things were so much simpler.

"Uh... Can I... get you a coffee?" He spluttered.

The woman chuckled at his nervousness, her smile practically lighting up the whole room. "I would, but maybe not at midday... I can do tea, though".