A Whole New World

The man stood. He was taller than most of the men in the group, and passed Deirdre and Sarah in height by almost a foot. His black hair was cut pretty short, and he wore black clothes and a black jacket. He made his way around the table and over to the group to shake everyone’s hands. “Dr. Ian Malcolm, mathematician.”

“Matt Tuck, front man of Bullet For My Valentine,” Matt said. “This is Jay, Moose, Padge, and Padge’s girlfriend, Deirdre.”

“Bullet For My Valentine?” Ian asked. “What on earth is that?”

“It’s a band,” Jay said. “From Wales.”

“Ahh, that would explain your accents. For a minute there, I thought you all hit your head.”

Sarah laughed; the rest gave him a cryptic look. “They need to use the radio, Ian. Is Richard back?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. He and the kids seemed pretty excited to follow the herd of Apatosaurs, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t show up until nightfall. Anyway, a thought struck me earlier; do you remember the speech I gave at the Santa Fe Institute, where Richard challenged my theories?”

Sarah, who was trying to get a signal on a hand-set radio, simply nodded. Malcolm continued: “Do you remember how he opened by stating that dinosaurs were spread across the planet during the Cretaceous period, and that’s how he formed his argument that they still exist on their own?”

“Yes, Ian,” she said. “Do you know how to work this thing?”

He shook his head. “No, I never bother with those. Anyway, he forgot to take one major thing into account: during the Cretaceous, there was only one continent, Pangaea.”

“What’s your point, Ian?” she asked.

“I just find it remarkably funny that Richard’s theory on extinction was both correct, as proven by the animals on this island, and also far from being even remotely true. I mean, they were completely wiped out millions of years ago, but they were brought back to life and here they are, thriving in their own little eco system.”

“Um, Dr. Malcolm?” Deirdre shyly asked.

“Yes, my fine lady?” he said, looking at her intently.

She blushed before continuing, “How exactly are there… erm, dinosaurs, on this island?”

“By a simple matter of genetic cloning,” he said.

The band looked at each other with highly confused faces. “Erm… cloning?” Padge asked. “What do you mean, cloning? You can’t clone humans, but you can clone fucking dinosaurs?”

Malcolm smiled. “I did not clone anything. Have you ever heard of the company InGen?”

The band shook their heads in unison.

“Well,” he started. “About six years ago, a man named John Hammond had a dream: to build a park that you had to see to believe. He rounded up a team of geneticists to extract preserved blood from prehistoric mosquitoes, hoping to find the DNA of a dinosaur. They had success, and eventually were able to create clones from the DNA extracted. There was something wrong with their planning though; long story short, all of the animals got loose, people started dying, and the island that the park was on, Isla Nublar, was closed.”

They stared at him in wonder. “Wait… if the island was destroyed…” Moose started.

Malcolm continued, “Then what is this? This is Hammond’s dirty little secret. The park showed how the dinosaurs were made, but it was only a general overlook. All of the animals in the park were actually manufactured on this island first. This, however, was not destroyed when Nublar was, seeing as how nobody but InGen knew about it.”

“In-fucking-credible,” Matt breathed. “So, there’s been an island with fucking dinosaurs for years now, and nobody knew about it?”

“That’s right,” Harding said. “Sorry guys, our radio isn’t picking up any signal, either. You’re welcome to stay here until we can get you a plane or a boat or something.”

“Awesome,” Jay said, sitting on the small couch in the “living room” area and taking his Gameboy out of his pocket.

Matt smacked his forehead with his hand. “Jay, is now really the time to be playing Pokémon?”

“Yes,” Jay mumbled, turning the highly annoying volume of the game all the way up.

“Dr. Malcolm, what are those dinosaurs outside of the window?” Deirdre asked.

There were two dinosaurs in the ferns outside, watching their every move and looking almost amused. They were about six feet tall, with long tails and sharp teeth. When they moved their feet, the band could see that the middle toe sported a very intimidating claw.

Malcolm’s eyes widened a bit with fear. “Lock all the doors, now. GO!”

Matt turned around and locked the main doors, while Harding went to the second trailer to lock the entrance to that. When they were secure, Malcolm went to the driver’s seat and started the engine, wasting no time in finding a new spot to stop at.

“What were those things, Dr.?” Deirdre asked again. “Are they bad? They didn’t look too big…”

“Velociraptors,” Harding said. “Small carnivores, but some of the most intelligent and brutal animals to ever walk the planet.”

“Oh come on, they can’t be that bad,” Matt said.

“No?” Malcolm challenged. “Did you see the claws on their feet? Imagine that ripping straight across your abdomen, or stabbing clean into your spine. Once you encounter a raptor in person, there’s no chance of surviving.”

“Unless you’re Richard, that lucky son of a bitch,” Harding scoffed. “He managed to escape two different raptor attacks since he’s been here. If those trees weren’t there though...”

“Wait, so they’re smart, but they can’t climb trees?” Padge asked. “Then why don’t we all just sit in trees until the day’s out?”

Malcolm snickered. “Good luck finding one high enough, raptors are also expert jumpers. The trees Richard escaped in were pretty decent size, but I have no doubt that the raptors could have gotten him if the Tyrannosaur nest wasn’t there.”

“Ian,” came a voice from a hand-held radio.

“Huh, I guess the signal is clear,” Harding said. She picked up the radio and said, “Yes, Richard?”

“Where did the trailers go?”

Malcolm grabbed the radio out of Harding’s hand and said in a panicked tone, “Levine, where are you?”

“I just asked you the same question, Ian. We came back to the trailers, but they’re gone.”

“Richard, get yourself out of there, now.”

“Why’s that?”

They heard one of the kids on the other end say, “Something’s moving in the trees over there…”

“Richard, raptors! Get the kids into the Explorer and go!” Malcolm nearly shouted.

There were screams in the other line, and then the line got cut.

“Unlock the door!” Harding instructed. “They’ll be coming back any second.”

The band was freaking out. “But what if those rapper things or whatever you call them have got them?!” Moose shrieked. “What if they follow them back here?!”

“Then we make a run for it!” Harding shouted. “We can’t contribute to their death, though, they need to get in when they come!”

Matt reluctantly reached over and unlocked the nearest door to him. “We picked a very bad place to land.”

“Oi, speaking of landing, where the hell did our pilot go?” Padge asked.

Deirdre gasped. “Oh my God… he never came into the trailer! The raptors probably got him!”

The door of the trailer burst open, causing everyone to scream. A man, dressed in dirty and slightly torn travel clothes, and two children stepped on the trailer. One was a white female, about thirteen years of age and reaching no taller than 5'4 in height, and the other was an even smaller black male. The girl had deep gashes on her left forearm.

“Is everybody okay?” Harding asked, rushing to their side.

The tall man that walked in with the kids nodded; the band took this man to be Richard Levine. “Just barely escaped them, if it wasn’t for the Triceratops showing up and attacking them, we wouldn’t have made it.”

Sarah led the girl to the back and started to dress her wound. The boy made his way to Matt and looked up at him, studying his every move and feature until finally reaching out his hand and saying, “I’m Arby Benton.”

He stifled a snicker and shook Arby’s hand. “Matt Tuck.”

There was a gasp from the back of the trailer, followed by the young girl shouting, “DID HE SAY MATT TUCK?!”

Arby turned to her and nodded. “Yes, he did. You know him?”

The girl rushed forward and squealed. “He’s the lead singer of Bullet For My Valentine, the best band on the face of the planet!”

Matt laughed and offered his hand. “Very nice to meet you.”

She timidly shook it and managed to stutter, “Good…awesome…amazing to meet you! I’m Kelly. Kelly Curtis. Oh my God! The entire band is here!!! I love you guys, you are so amazing and wonderful and-“

She was cut off by Sarah pulling her back. “Kelly hon, we have to get your arm to stop bleeding and cleaned before it gets infected, or it attracts any other animals here.”

“Yeah, I’d like to keep those raptor things far away from me as possible,” Deirdre scoffed. “I do not want my epitaph to read, “Deirdre Moers, maimed by a prehistoric monster.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep them away from you, love,” Padge said, drawing her closer and kissing her head.

“So… you two are together?” Malcolm asked the pair.

Padge nodded. “Yeah, have been for two years now.”

He nodded. “Interesting…”

“Ian, now is barely the time to be discussing our love lives,” Levine said.

“Ow! It stings!” Kelly shrieked from the back.

Matt and Jay made their way back to where the two ladies were seated. Kelly’s arm was on the table, getting alcohol rubbed on three very deep wounds.

“Yikes,” Matt said. “What happened?”

“Velociraptor jumped out of the plants and tried to attack us,” Kelly said, wincing at the pain. “The big one tried to catch me with its’ claws when I got into the explorer, but the Triceratops came and attacked it with its’ horns. Dr. Levine said the females are usually the bigger raptors. Neat, huh?”

The two boys smiled. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone that would be as enthusiastic as you after being attacked by a dinosaur,” Jay said.

She blushed. “Sorry, I’m a bit of a dinosaur lover.”

Matt chuckled. “Don’t be sorry. I have a feeling we’ll all be dinosaur lovers after we get off this place. If we do.”