"Everyone, stay focused! The target could appear at any moment!"
By the bridge connecting to the massive island in the lake, a squad of D.P.W. personnel in green uniforms stood in a neat line, taking cover behind a row of matching vehicles.
Fully armed with tranquilizer equipment, they faithfully upheld a time-honored Jurassic World tradition: Treat dinosaur lives like gold, and human lives like absolute garbage.
Granted, this policy was partly because their current targets were worth an astronomical sum, but seriously, this was taking it a bit too far.
"Remember! Our objective is—"
Honk! Honk!
A bright red van came hurtling toward the D.P.W. defensive line. The guards, playing along perfectly, immediately parted to clear a lane.
Ben sat in the driver's seat, easing off the gas. He peered through the window at the heavily armed personnel surrounding them, then asked Sammy softly in the passenger seat:
"Is Yaz still off the grid?"
"Yes! This. Stupid. Phone. Keeps saying network connection failed!"
Sammy aggressively jabbed at her screen between words. Her sheer fury forced Ben to start contemplating the worst-case scenario, or rather, a much darker, grimmer possibility.
Vroom!
Ben's van screeched to a halt before a massive iron security gate. Originally designed to keep dinosaurs in, the barrier was currently being used to keep people out, specifically those trying to flee from the prehistoric threats.
Beep—
A security camera mounted beside the gate whirred to life, swiveling to lock its lens onto the red van. With a green confirmation flash and a soft chime, the heavy iron gates slowly ground open.
Shift—
"Sammy... have you considered the possibility that it's not your phone? What if they're jamming our signal?"
Ben was always overly paranoid, bordering on a clinical persecution complex. Yet, it was precisely this trait that had kept him alive through countless brush-ins with death.
"What?"
Sammy blinked, momentarily stunned. Unlike Darius, who possessed his own distinct deductions and analytical style, Sammy was a social creature who preferred to trust her companions unconditionally.
"I think we're about to find out."
Engine roaring.
Ben kept his eyes glued to the window, tracking the security camera that had been watching them from the moment they arrived. As the van crept forward, the lens followed their every move.
"Whew…"
Ben took a deep, heavy breath and cast a worried glance at Sammy. Everything that needed to be said was written in that look.
"Let's go get Yaz."
He slammed his foot on the gas. The tires screeched violently against the asphalt, kicking up a thick plume of smoke and dust.
The D.P.W. security captain who had just granted them clearance watched the red van vanish into the distance. Staring at the empty road, he slowly unclipped the radio from his collar and brought it to his lips.
"Target has entered the island."
The moment the words left his mouth, he switched the radio channel to prevent his oblivious squad members from overhearing the response.
"Alright, as I was saying, our objective is—"
"Movement!"
The captain was about to resume his interrupted speech when a panicked shout from a lookout sent him ducking right back behind cover.
Rustle... Rustle... Rustle...
A sudden commotion rippled through the sea of green foliage. The sharp snaps of breaking branches echoed continuously, though the disturbance... didn't seem quite as massive as they had anticipated.
"Aunnng!"
Save me!
A Dryosaurus burst from the brush, fleeing at a frantic, kangaroo-like bounding pace, kicking up a flurry of leaves with every leap.
It completely ignored the humans standing in its path, entirely consumed by its desperate urge to escape. Fueled by sheer momentum, its massive leap landed it squarely on the hood of a vehicle serving as cover, forcing a piercing screech of twisting metal from the unlucky car.
Thwip—
A tranquilizer dart struck the Dryosaurus with pinpoint accuracy. The herbivore collapsed almost instantly, crashing heavily to the dirt.
Thud!
The sound of flesh scraping against earth echoed through the silence. Every eye locked onto the fallen dinosaur. The captain, still clutching his tranquilizer rifle, couldn't help but wipe a bead of sweat from his brow.
They had almost let a mere Dryosaurus breach their defensive line, which would have been utterly embarrassing. But... what on earth was this thing running from?
"ROAR—!"
A deafening, eardrum-shattering shriek tore out from the sea of green, causing the hearts of every D.P.W. operative to skip a beat!
Fortunately, they had remembered to wear their tactical headsets. They immediately raised their weapons and aimed toward the source of the sound, thinking they might still have time to—
CRASH!
A massive shadow suddenly engulfed them. The very Jeep that had just been stepped on was airborne, trailing a thick plume of grey smoke as it sailed across the sky and smashed violently into the iron security gate behind the squad.
BOOM!
In an instant, a massive fireball erupted. The resulting heatwave and shockwave blasted outward, successfully catching the operatives off guard and fracturing their formation.
"Fire! Return fire!"
The operatives who hadn't been incapacitated by the blast reacted instantly, raising their tranquilizer rifles and locking onto the attacker's silhouette the second they recovered.
Of course, this wasn't due to superb marksmanship or lightning-fast reflexes; it was simply because Carlo was too colossally massive to miss.
The security captain peeked out from behind his cover, his expression twisting into utter bewilderment as he looked at the surrounding forest, which was barely half Carlo's height.
How the hell did something that big hide in a forest that small?!
Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!
A volley of tranquilizer darts rained down on Carlo. Most of the needles snapped upon impact or ricocheted harmlessly off his thick hide. A few lucky shots managed to wedge themselves into the crevices between his scales, but Carlo merely shook his massive body, sending them clattering to the ground with the rest.
"ROAR—"
"Roar—" x3
From the forest behind Carlo, another booming roar echoed, immediately followed by three responsive bellows.
Four Giganotosaurus charged out from the jungle, understanding their roles perfectly the moment they hit the clearing.
To prevent friendly fire from accidental discharges, the tranquilizer rifles were strictly single-shot weapons. Coupled with the fact that Carlo had completely shattered their firing rhythm, the D.P.W. defensive line was now caught in a critical reload window.
The short-tempered Katyusha scooped up an unfortunate guard in her jaws and began swinging him around wildly, thrashing the environment. She wasn't in a hurry to swallow him; she just wanted to sow absolute chaos among the operatives who had managed to avoid Carlo's initial onslaught.
Kafka, meanwhile, took on the role of securing the kills. To ensure that the guards flattened by Carlo didn't get back up, she either swallowed them whole or crushed them flat beneath her massive feet.
Taking a highly efficient approach to maximize their returns, Karl and Giga Dad worked in tandem to clear out the remaining operatives who were foolishly trying to shoot Katyusha and Kafka.
Guess I don't even need to lift a finger?
Carlo stood frozen in place, his half-executed tail swipe hanging mid-air.
He had actually wanted to show off the new combat skills he'd learned... Oh well, maybe next time.
The human defense line collapsed in a matter of seconds. Carlo took two massive strides forward and tore the iron gate wide open.
These clever humans had realized he was tracking Little White by scent and had laid traps along the main path. However, they had severely underestimated the sheer range of Carlo's olfactory senses.
It was simple: Why walk into a trap when I can just take a shortcut?
"Roar—"
Carlo let out a low rumble, utterly shredding the iron gates that blocked his path, before leading his family directly onto the bridge.
"You piece of— gasp AAARRRGH!"
Hiding beneath a car, the captain hadn't even had time to celebrate surviving the initial carnage before he was snatched up and swallowed whole by a Concavenator that had been waiting patiently for its moment!
The dinosaur had been lurking nearby for quite some time, racking its brain on how to cross onto the island to pursue its prey. Talk about a perfect opportunity.
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