"Oh, what the fu—"
A miserable human scream echoed through the valley, gradually fading away amidst the sound of water splashing and a heavy object slamming into the ground.
What kind of noise was that?
Led by Giga Dad, the Giganotosaurus family raised their heads and looked in the direction from which the sound had come, spotting only a distant wave rippling across the emerald sea of green forest before it returned to silence.
"ROAR—"
Katyusha let out a loud roar, once again calling out to Carlo.
They had indeed received Carlo's roar earlier and had originally intended to follow the sound to rendezvous with him, but they quickly realized one major problem.
They couldn't pinpoint the direction.
Carlo's roar could resonate across the entire Dolomite Mountains, bouncing and echoing between the peaks so that they simultaneously heard the sound coming from several directions at once!
That was seriously making things hard for a dinosaur...
Consequently, they tried calling out to Carlo multiple times afterward, except that he hadn't received the message at the time because he was busy diving underwater.
"ROOAR—!"
Keep calm; I'm coming to find you.
Fortunately, a change finally occurred this time! The giant dinosaur's roar echoed from beneath the snowy mountain cliffs, carrying information that clearly reached the ears of all the dinosaurs.
"ROAR!" x4
Following a brief moment of stunned silence, a chorus of roaring erupted across the meadow by the creek, joyous enough to rival festive firecrackers during the New Year.
...
"Your sanctuary is... awfully lively."
Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler arrived at the habitat laboratory, guided by Ramsay, BioSyn's vice president. But the relentless chorus of carnivorous dinosaur roars echoing from outside was simply too hard to ignore.
Why was that bad feeling growing stronger and stronger inside him?
Dr. Grant felt a bit puzzled. Shortly after arriving at BioSyn, he and Sattler had run into Dodgson and Malcolm in quick succession.
The former had been rushing around looking frantic for reasons unknown, while the latter remained his usual self, stealthily slipping them an access card.
"Well... sometimes things get a bit like that, but it's probably just normal hyperactive behavior from the animals. Nothing to worry about."
Ramsay put on a thoughtful expression, replying to Dr. Grant with a slightly uncertain tone before quickly steering the conversation back to introducing the dinosaurs inside the small ecological terrarium.
"We've also brought back many purebred species, such as the complete genetic profile of a Microraptor."
In reality, Ramsay himself wanted to choke Dodgson. Dumping the task on him was one thing, but the real problem was that Dodgson was acting like a corpse, telling him zero information, which forced him to double his vigilance and steel his nerves twofold to guard against incoming danger.
"What?!"
Fortunately, his introduction successfully captured Dr. Ellie's attention, drawing the two of them closer to the terrarium to observe.
An individual Microraptor stood inside the terrarium in an exceptionally elegant posture, occasionally shivering or twitching its feathers slightly as if showing off its gorgeous plumage.
"No spliced DNA?"
"No, Dr. Sattler, we don't do that. We aren't that ignorant; this Microraptor is absolute perfection, the closest thing to the ancient era."
Just asking since I don't know: does this Microraptor suddenly jump out from the side of the road and glide hundreds of meters to knock people off their mounts?
Lol.
"Besides that, we've also attempted to reconstruct a Velociraptor. Naturally, not the kind from Jurassic World, their genome is far too hybrid. What we collected is Velociraptor DNA originating from Isla Sorna. Compared to the Jurassic World specimens, it's much purer, though still not entirely purebred; it should be considered genetically modified."
Wonderful. Now I know why my skin is crawling as if a Velociraptor were creeping all over it.
Dr. Grant froze dead in his tracks, still maintaining his hands-on-hips posture as his gaze slowly drifted away from the Microraptor terrarium and toward Ramsay, wearing an expression that clearly communicated, "If you had told me this earlier, I wouldn't have come."
"Cough, cough..."
Ramsay coughed lightly to avoid Dr. Grant's piercing gaze, glanced down at his watch, and then looked back up at the rotating surveillance cameras. He then took a few deliberate steps, leading the two of them into a blind spot of the surveillance coverage.
"Well... you still have quite a bit of time before your departure. Are you interested in touring the facility yourselves?"
For reasons unknown, Ramsay seemed eager to make things convenient for the pair, especially since the two doctors' "motives" for coming here were far from pure to begin with.
"Hm? Sure, absolutely."
Ellie wasn't overthinking things; having just obtained the location of BioSyn's secret laboratory from Malcolm, she was currently itching to gather clues as fast as possible and immediately accepted.
As for Dr. Grant... Dr. Grant had already mentally checked out a while ago.
If someone were to let a Giganotosaurus attack the laboratory he was currently standing in right now, this very second, he wouldn't even flinch. But Velociraptors...? Is it too late for me to go home right now?
"No problem. We'll meet at Railcar 3 in half an hour... Also, the elevator is over this way, not the other side. The other one is the employee elevator, which requires a special access card."
As Ramsay spoke, he raised his forearm to indicate that the access card was worn as a wristband. Was this basically spelling it out in neon letters?
"Got it."
"Half an hour."
Ellie glanced back at the employee elevator direction Ramsay had pointed out, then straightened her head and replied earnestly. The latter reinforced the timeframe one last time before taking his leave ahead of them.
However... why did Dr. Ellie look completely oblivious to Ramsay's heavy-handed hints? That was basically one step away from shouting, "I'm on your side!"
Dr. Grant probably could have picked up on it, if only he weren't currently immersed in an existential crisis of, "Why on earth did I agree to stay in the same building as Velociraptors?"
"Alan? Alan!"
Ellie snapped Grant out of his senile trance. The latter jolted violently, looked over at Ellie, and only felt a wave of relief wash over him upon confirming she wasn't a Velociraptor.
"We need to go."
...
"Cough, cough... Cough, cough..."
Gasping for air and dragging their soaked bodies, Owen and Kayla crawled ashore onto the muddy riverbank.
What the actual fuck?! How is that even possible? How could that possibly happen?! He just went ahead and dove down like it was nothing?!
Turning their heads to look back, the wide river channel remained turbulent. Water eight meters deep failed to conceal the colossal frame of the Giganotosaurus.
Sound of shaking off water.
Carlo stood firmly in the center of the river channel, shaking his body to fling away droplets of water and clinging mud. Having just slammed down from a hundred-meter-high cliff a moment ago, why was he acting completely fine like nothing had happened?
"ROAR—"
The water is a bit shallow.
After finishing his roar to update his family on his status, Carlo looked down to inspect the river water once more. He had originally intended to keep swimming, but the riverbed seemed far too shallow, failing to even submerge his body entirely.
Bro seemed to have gotten hooked on swimming, but for now, it was better to honestly get moving again.
Sound of sniffing.
Lifting his head to sniff gently twice, a familiar scent drifted into his mind, and a wave of joy welled up irresistibly in his chest.
Carlo strode briskly onto the bank, but catching sight of the filthy pair covered in mud, he apparently figured that the muddy ground would dirty his pristine feet as well, so he stepped right back into the river and continued pressing forward along the current.
After all, since he was about to reunite with his family, it was better to keep things neat and clean.
Owen: ?
Why do I feel like I just got snubbed by a dinosaur?
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