Chapter Text
"Darius? Do you have any snacks? Anything? I'm starving," Brooklynn asked, her voice laced with a faint, hopeful exhaustion.
Darius didn't look away from the road. The windshield wipers on the old Jeep groaned, struggling to keep up with the torrential rain that turned the valley into a blurred, grey nightmare.
"Sorry, B. I was in such a rush to leave the safe zone... I didn't think to grab anything," Darius replied, his knuckles white as he gripped the steering wheel.
He glanced at the fuel gauge, then back at the dark road. "But we'll reach Kenji's place soon. He's probably got a fridge full of food waiting for us, right?"
Brooklynn leaned her head against the cold glass of the window, staring out into the pitch-black shadows of the valley.
"I hope so. Because right now, there's nothing out there but empty hills and trees. The nearest gas station is at least thirty minutes back, and we haven't seen another set of headlights in over an hour."
She shivered. The silence of the valley was too loud. It wasn't just empty; it felt hollow.
"Wait—HUH?! NO!"
Darius slammed his foot onto the brake pedal. The Jeep fishtailed, tires clawing at the rain-slicked asphalt. Inside, the world became a blur of motion.
One… two… the vehicle lurched to a violent stop, the headlights cutting through a cloud of kicked-up dust and steam. The bumper was inches away from a massive, plated flank.
It was a Stegosaurus.
It hadn't just crossed the road; it had bolted across like a panicked animal fleeing a fire.
In the darkness, the creature was a jagged silhouette of rage. It didn't keep running. Instead, it spun around, its massive beak snapping at the air.
"Eh! No!" Brooklynn cried out, bracing herself against the dashboard.
The Stegosaurus let out a high-pitched, unnatural shriek—a sound far too desperate for a herbivore its size. It swung its thagomizer, the four-foot spikes whistling through the air before slamming into the pavement.
The ground shuddered. Inside the Jeep, water bottles rattled in their holders, and the steering wheel vibrated under Darius's white-knuckled grip.
"Darius... go backward! Now!"
Darius didn't hesitate. He slammed the Jeep into reverse and floored it. The engine roared, pulling them away from the swinging tail just as the Stegosaurus let out one final, ragged groan and disappeared into the darkness of the treeline.
A heavy, ringing silence followed. Darius killed the engine, his chest heaving.
"Hoo," he exhaled, leaning back into the seat.
"Darius... what was that?" Brooklynn asked. Her voice was steady, but her left hand—the one made of sleek, matte-black carbon fiber and hydraulics—clenched involuntarily, the subtle whir of the motors audible in the quiet cabin.
"A Stegosaurus," Darius whispered, staring at the empty road where the dust was settling. "But that behavior… it makes no sense. They're territorial, sure, but that wasn't a defense. It looked… angry? No, it looked insane."
Brooklynn didn't answer. She was already staring out the side window, her neon-green eyes searching the impenetrable shadows where the giant had vanished. She needed to see. She needed to know what had just happened.
Darius sighed, glancing out his own window as well. There was no sign of the creature. The only thing left behind was the sound of the rain drumming against the roof and the heavy scent of wet earth.
"Ugh," Darius muttered. He pulled the latch, opened the car door, and stepped outside into the mud.
"Wait, Darius, what are you doing?" Brooklynn quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and followed him out into the downpour. "Isn't it dangerous?"
"Relax... I'll be careful," he called back over his shoulder.
He took a few cautious steps toward the treeline, his boots squelching in the dirt. "Brooklynn... you can stay in the car if you want. I... I got this."
Brooklynn hesitated, the cold rain immediately soaking through her jacket. She looked down at her left arm—the matte-black prosthetic that was no longer real. She sighed, the subtle whir of the arm's internal motors barely audible over the storm. "No, I'm going with you." Her voice was soft but firm. "I... I can't let anything happen to you."
She pulled out her phone, the powerful LED flashlight cutting a sharp, clinical beam through the mist.
But no matter where she looked, the dinosaur was nowhere to be found. It was as if the valley had swallowed it whole.
"Brooklynn? Let's go. It's probably gone by now," Darius said, his voice low as he stepped back toward the safety of the Jeep.
"Wait…" Brooklynn whispered, her head tilting as she strained to listen. "I heard something."
Both Darius and Brooklynn stayed quiet for a few seconds, the only sound being the heavy rain drumming against the Jeep's hood.
"What? I... I didn't hear anything," Darius responded, his voice low.
"Shhh... follow me..." Brooklynn whispered. She began to lead Darius away from the road, her movements careful and deliberate. Darius couldn't hear anything over the storm, but he knew better than to doubt her. If Brooklynn said something was out there, he followed.
"There! I think that's it!" Brooklynn called out, her flashlight beam cutting through the mist.
They rushed over.
There it was. The Stegosaurus had collapsed only twenty yards from the road. Its massive, majestic plates were dull and coated in a layer of slick mud.
They didn't hesitate. They rushed toward the fallen giant and knelt beside it in the churned-up earth.
"Is it alright?" Brooklynn asked, her voice tight with concern.
"It's sick... or injured," Darius murmured, his hands hovering over the animal's heaving flank.
They weren't afraid. After years of surviving the impossible, they had the experience to know exactly what a dying animal looked like.
But as Darius reached out to touch the creature's side, he heard it—a sound that didn't belong to the wind or the rain. Something sharp. Something rhythmic.
He quickly turned around. "Brooklynn?"
Brooklynn stayed quiet, her breath hitching in her throat. A second later, she heard it too—a low, rhythmic clicking against the stone, followed by a raspy hiss that seemed to vibrate in the humid air.
Horror washed over her features as the realization hit. They both knew exactly what that sound was.
A raptor.
They turned back slowly, their eyes straining against the darkness until it finally stepped into view.
There was a Raptor standing at the edge of the light. Its milky, clouded eyes locked onto them with a hollow intensity, its powerful legs slightly coiled as if it were about to spring.
"Raptors?" Brooklynn gasped, her voice barely a whisper against the rain.
"Brooklynn... behind me," Darius whispered. He stood up slowly, his movements fluid and practiced. He held his hands out, palms flat and fingers spread—the universal stance of a man who had spent his life studying predators.
It was a move he'd seen Owen Grady use a dozen times, a silent plea for respect in a language only a hunter understood.
"Hey..." Darius spoke, his voice low and steady as he backed up toward the passed-out Stegosaurus. "It's okay, girl. Calm down... calm down."
"Darius, does it have any friends?" Brooklynn asked, her eyes darting to the dark treeline.
"I don't think so... if it did, they'd be here by now."
The Raptor let out one more shrill scream as it approached, its sickle-shaped foot nail clicking against a stray rock, ready to launch. But then, it stopped.
The tension in its muscles didn't snap into an attack; instead, the Raptor rushed past them toward the Stegosaurus.
"Woah." Brooklynn let out a ragged sigh of relief. Being in this situation again felt like a cruel déjà vu. The memory of the Atrociraptor—the flash of teeth, the agonizing pain, and the loss of her arm—pulsed in her mind like a phantom limb. She subconsciously gripped her prosthetic, the matte-black surface slick with rainwater.
The Raptor wasn't interested in them. It was interested in the dying Stegosaurus.
"Aw, no... poor thing," Brooklynn murmured as the Raptor laid a heavy claw on the Stegosaurus's flank.
Darius reached out, his hand gripping Brooklynn's shoulder. It was a firm, grounding weight—a silent reminder that they were still in the middle of a kill zone.
"It's going to finish her off. There's nothing we can do."
Brooklynn let out a long, ragged sigh, her eyelids fluttering shut as she turned her head away.
But the kill never came. Just as the Raptor leaned in, it hesitated. It began to sniff the Stegosaurus, its nostrils flaring with a rhythmic, frantic energy as if it were checking for a hidden trap. The predator slowly circled the dying giant, its head tilting at sharp, confused angles.
"What's it doing?" Darius whispered, his voice barely audible over the steady rhythm of the rain.
At the sound of his voice, Brooklynn slowly opened her eyes. She expected to see a bloodbath, but the patio was still. There was no gore, no sounds of a struggle—just the Raptor, hovering over the Stegosaurus like a ghost.
Finally, the Raptor stopped sniffing and let out a choked, clicking sound. It looked at Darius one last time—not with hunger, but with something that looked like disgust. Then, without a sound, it turned and vanished back into the shadows.
"Wait. What's going on? Why didn't it finish her off?" Brooklynn asked, her voice trembling with confusion.
Even Darius was at a loss. This defied every rule of nature he had ever studied. "Raptors are smart... they're opportunistic. It wouldn't just walk away from a meal like this. There's something wrong with that Stegosaurus, Brooklynn. Something so wrong that even a starving predator won't touch it."
He looked Brooklynn in the eyes, searching for the shared courage that had gotten them through Isla Nublar. Slowly, he gathered himself and walked toward the fallen giant.
The Stegosaurus let out one more tiny, rattling scream before its head hit the mud with a heavy thud. The life was draining out of it, but as Darius scanned the body with his light, he saw the impossible: there wasn't a single bite wound. No claw marks. No struggle.
He knelt beside the dinosaur's head, pressing a palm against its cold, rough skin. Brooklynn stayed back, her breath hitching. Even after everything they had seen, the sight of a dying dinosaur still sent a jagged chill down her spine.
"Wait... Brooklynn?" Darius's voice was thick with terror. "Get over here."
"What?" she asked, stepping forward reluctantly.
As the beam of Brooklynn's phone landed on the dinosaur's face, Darius reached out and gently pulled back its lip. A thick, oily black sludge began to drip from its gums, pooling in the rain.
"It's being killed from the inside," Darius whispered.
Brooklynn's expression shifted instantly from fear to a cold, professional focus. She didn't hesitate; she hit the record button on her phone. Whatever this nightmare was, the world needed to see the truth.
Suddenly, a sound cut through the silence of the valley—a high-pitched, mechanical whine that seemed to vibrate in the very center of their skulls. It sounded like a swarm of angry hornets, but sharper, more synthetic.
"Wait... Brooklynn, Brooklynn!"
Darius noticed it first: a single, blinking crimson eye hovering in the mist just thirty feet away. The drone was sleek, matte-black, and silent save for the hum of its high-speed rotors.
"A drone! We're being watched!" Darius scanned the ground, his heart hammering against his ribs. "Brooklynn, the rocks! Throw them! We can't let it get a clear shot of our faces!"
He scrambled to the ground, his fingers digging into the mud until he found a heavy, jagged stone. With a desperate shout, he hurled it toward the red light.