Jurassic World Special Edition Junior Novelization Read online

  Up on the building’s roof, Hoskins ran onto the empty helipad for a direct view of the chaos down in the resort. He looked strangely thrilled as he watched the terrifying action below.

  Zach and Gray ran with Zara out of an alley onto Main Street. They saw the Pteranodons and Dimorphodons swooping down and attacking helpless tourists. “Oh, god,” Zara gasped. “What’s happening? What—”

  WHOMP! A Pteranodon swiped Zara off the ground and carried her into the air, screaming. WHOMP! A second Pteranodon stole Zara from the first, snatching her right out of the other’s claws. The two fought over their prey, flying out over the lagoon.

  Then they dropped her.

  Zara plummeted into the water. SPLASH! A hulking shadow moved in the lagoon. THMMM! THMMM! The two Pteranodons dove in after Zara, slicing through the water. One of them grabbed her in its jaws and swam to the surface.

  With Zara in its mouth, the Pteranodon splashed about, flapping its wings, trying to take off. But the reptile couldn’t get out of the water. Then WHOOSH! The Mosasaurus exploded out of the lagoon, engulfing the Pteranodon and Zara in one gigantic bite.

  Owen and Claire ran onto the resort’s boardwalk with ACU workers. Owen carried a rifle. The ACU workers battled the flying reptiles with electric spears and tranquilizer guns. Unfortunately, the tranquilizer guns brought huge Pteranodons and Dimorphodons crashing down onto the guests below.

  Zach and Gray ran out onto the other end of the boardwalk searching for their aunt. Zach spotted a Pteranodon diving down at them. “Run!” he yelled.

  They ran, but the reptile dove too fast. Zach grabbed his brother and shoved him out of the way as the Pteranodon skidded to a stop on the asphalt.

  BRAAAAAK! A diving Dimorphodon attacked Owen. He struggled with the reptile, its wings flapping and its mouth screaming at him. Claire picked up a tranquilizer rifle and swung it like a bat, cracking the Dimorphodon in the face. She jabbed the rifle into the creature’s belly and fired. It screeched and flew backward, sedated. Owen, amazed by Claire’s actions, jumped up and kissed her.

  Then Claire spotted her nephews through the crowd of panicking tourists. “Zach! Gray!”

  “Aunt Claire?” Gray shouted.

  Zach’s eyes swept right past her, not recognizing this barefoot woman covered in blood and dirt and dinosaur manure.

  Gray grabbed his arm and pointed. “That’s her!” Then he looked again, unsure. “Is that her?”

  They ran toward their aunt as she ran toward them. When they reached her, they expected to be yelled at, but Claire pulled them into a tight hug. She ran her hands over their faces and through their hair, finding blood on Gray’s forehead.

  “What is this? What happened to you? Where did you go? Why didn’t you come back? Where’s Zara?”

  Owen trotted up behind Claire, dirty, carrying a rifle. The boys looked up at him. “Who’s that?” Zach asked.

  Claire stood up and straightened her hair. “We work together.”

  A team of InGen security contractors in polo shirts burst into the control room. Hoskins stormed past the security guard.

  “Simon Masrani’s death is a tragedy,” he said. “The mission now is to prevent further loss of life.”

  Lowery and Vivian looked at each other, confused. “Uh, who are these guys?” Lowery said.

  “Glad you asked,” Hoskins answered. But he gave no further explanation.

  Lowery looked alarmed as InGen contractors took over every position in the room.

  “You’re all relieved of duty,” Hoskins told the Jurassic World employees. “I’m putting a new team on the ground.”

  Chapter Twenty

  At sunset, a private military helicopter flew over the ocean toward Isla Nublar. InGen soldiers rode inside, carrying automatic weapons.

  BRAAAAK! A stray Dimorphodon flew by in the opposite direction, shrieking at the chopper.

  One of the soldiers lifted his weapon and shot a burst of gunfire at the flying reptile. It crumpled in midair and plunged into the sea.

  The helicopter landed on the helipad. Hoskins ran under the whirling rotor blades and climbed in. Inside, an InGen contractor reported, “We’re gearing up the animals now.”

  “How long till they’re ready?” Hoskins shouted over the noise of the chopper.

  “Hard to say,” the contractor answered. “Some of the handlers are pushing back.”

  Hoskins smiled coldly. “Then push back harder.”

  The door slammed shut, and the helicopter rose into the sky.

  Owen led Claire and the two boys through the crowds. Park employees scrambled to contain the chaos as best they could.

  Claire pulled out her phone. “Lowery, I’m on my way back to you.”

  In the control room, Lowery checked over his shoulder and ducked into a side office. He spoke in a low voice. “Bad idea. Apparently the Jurassic World board assigned emergency powers to InGen’s private security division. They’ve taken over in here. That guy Hoskins is in charge. He’s got some insane plan to use the raptors.”

  Claire narrowed her eyes, angry at having her authority undercut by Hoskins. “What do you mean, ‘use the raptors’?”

  VROOM! The InGen helicopter buzzed overhead. It cut a straight path over the resort, flying past the chaos without stopping to help the people below. It was headed for the Raptor Research Arena on the east coast of the island.

  Owen stared up at it, filling with rage. “Take the kids,” he said to Claire. “Get off the island.”

  Before Claire could answer, they heard the screams of hundreds of frightened people. At the end of the alley, a wooden gate leading to Main Street burst open. Scared tourists stampeded down the narrow corridor straight at Owen, Claire, Zach, and Gray. They backed away from the mob, but there was nowhere to run.

  Owen spotted a mobile veterinary unit behind them. “Get in!”

  Zach and Gray scrambled into the fortified vehicle between Claire and Owen in the front seat. Owen gunned the engine, threw the vehicle in reverse, and backed away from the approaching tide of people. “Drive! Go!” Zach and Gray yelled.

  BRRAAAAK! A Pteranodon landed behind the crowd and reared up, spreading its wings. If the tourists were panicking before, now they were going absolutely berserk, climbing over each other to escape from the creature.

  Owen swerved into a side alley and backed away from the insanity. There was nothing he could do.

  “Can we stay with you?” Gray asked.

  “Oh, honey,” Claire reassured him, “I will never leave you again, ev—”

  “No, him,” Gray and Zach said in unison.

  She realized they meant Owen.

  Night had fallen. Bright lights lit up the Raptor Research Arena. InGen workers unpacked military gear: infrared cameras, satellite tracking collars, and weapons.

  The four Velociraptors were penned in steel squeeze cages. Bars hugged their bodies to keep them from attacking their handlers. They stared through the gates at the front of the cages.

  Barry watched uneasily as a pair of contractors attached cameras with infrared lights to the raptors’ heads. One of the contractors turned on a wireless tablet computer. On the screen, he watched the feed from the camera. He could see whatever the dinosaur was seeing.

  Hoskins approached Delta, holding up his hand. “Hey, you!” he called. “Look up here! Right here!”

  “It’s a she,” Barry said. “And she looks at what she wants. Usually what she wants to eat.”

  Delta looked straight at Hoskins, locking her eyes on his. On the tablet computer, Hoskins’s face filled the small screen.

  Headlights hit Barry, Hoskins, and the Velociraptors. It was Owen, pulling up in the mobile veterinary unit. He jumped out of the vehicle and headed straight for Hoskins.

  “Finally, the mother hen shows up,” Hoskins sneered.

  WHAM! Owen punched Hoskins, hitting him hard. Hoskins stumbled back into the dirt. Two of his InGen soldiers reached for their guns.

  “No, no,�
�� Hoskins said, stopping them. They holstered their weapons. Hoskins wiped blood from his mouth and smiled. “Subtle,” he said.

  “Get out of here and stay away from my animals,” Owen ordered.

  Claire and the boys came up behind him. The four of them were covered in earth and sweat, scratched a little. They looked as though they’d been through a muddy, difficult obstacle course. And in a way they had—with dinosaurs as the obstacles.

  “This isn’t your territory anymore,” Hoskins growled. “Don’t forget—you work for me.”

  “You wanted this to happen!” Claire said accusingly.

  Hoskins shook his head. “How many more people have to die for this mission to start making sense?”

  “It’s not a mission,” Barry said. “It’s a field test.”

  Hoskins paused a moment. Then he said, “This is an InGen situation. We’ll have cruise ships here at first light. Everyone on the island will make it out safe. And if you watch the news tomorrow, you’ll see a story about how we saved lives. Or to be more accurate, they saved lives.” He nodded toward the Velociraptors.

  He stared at Claire and Owen. They had no argument for him. They had to do whatever they could to save the people on the island from the Indominus rex.

  “This is happening,” Hoskins said. “With or without you.”

  Owen looked at Barry. He didn’t have to say what he was thinking out loud. Could this plan of Hoskins’s possibly work?

  Barry shook his head. “They’ve never been out of containment. It’s crazy.”

  Owen looked at Claire. She slowly shook her head no.

  But Owen knew he had no choice. Hoskins was clearly determined to use the raptors, no matter what. “If we do it, we’ll do it my way,” he said.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Owen leaned over a map of the island, giving instructions to the InGen soldiers. “Okay, this is a scent drill. We’ve done it millions of times, only this time the pig’s a little bigger. When they find it—and they will find it—they’ll herd it into the kill zone. There’s only one good target. Do not shoot my animals.”

  The soldiers, heavily armed, nodded and headed out.

  “This could work,” Barry said.

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” Owen said.

  Owen went to check on the Velociraptors. He approached Blue carefully. She was bucking against her camera harness. “Easy,” Owen said quietly. “Easy, Blue.”

  Blue drew close to Owen and tilted her head down. Owen reached through the bars of her cage and placed his hand on her snout. She lightly bumped Owen with it. He examined the camera strapped tightly to her forehead.

  Zach and Gray came up behind Owen, looking cautiously at the Velociraptors. “Are they safe?” Gray asked.

  “Not really,” Owen answered honestly.

  “What are their names?” Zach asked.

  Owen pointed at the raptors one at a time. “That’s Charlie. Delta. Echo. Out front is Blue. She’s the beta.” That meant she was second-in-charge.

  “Who’s the alpha?” Gray asked.

  “You’re talking to him, kid,” Owen said.

  Gray smiled. He thought Owen was awesome.

  Claire walked up, eyeing the Velociraptors warily. “So this is who you’ve been spending all your time with?”

  “What can I say?” Owen answered. “She gets me.”

  Claire managed to smile, even though she was worried about what might happen to Owen once he went out hunting the Indominus rex with these four dinosaurs.

  Hoskins’s voice came over a walkie-talkie. “What’s the holdup? Let’s roll.”

  Owen looked past Claire at the soldiers heading out. “This is a bad idea whether it works or not.”

  Zach and Gray got in the back of the mobile veterinary unit. Claire looked in through the back doors. “I’ll be right up front,” she said reassuringly. “If you need me, just open that window.”

  Gray saw the small window between the back compartment of the vehicle and the front.

  “Put your seat belts on,” Claire said. The boys looked around the compartment. No seat belts. “Okay,” she said. “Then just…hold hands.”

  She closed the door and locked it. The boys sat in the dark, lit only by a shaft of light through the small window. Gray clicked on a flashlight. His legs were trembling. “Nothing’s coming in here, right?”

  Zach realized his little brother was scared. “Remember the ghost in the garage at the old house?” he asked. “I protected you, right?”

  Gray smiled, his face lit by the flashlight. “You made a battle-ax out of a ruler and a paper plate.”

  “See? Nothing can get you while I’m around.”

  “But you’re not always going to be there.”

  Zach leaned his head against his brother’s. “Yeah, I will. Hey, we’ll always be brothers. And we’ll always come back to each other, no matter what.”

  Zach put his hand on Gray’s knee. It stopped shaking. “No matter what,” Zach repeated.

  Back by the Velociraptor pen, Owen unfolded a towel. Inside it was the bloodstained tracking device the Indominus had ripped from its own flesh. He walked down the line of cages, offering the scent to the raptors. They bucked and screeched, eager to find the source of that blood and kill it.

  “Don’t embarrass me,” Owen told them.

  In the control room, Lowery and Hoskins watched Owen give the scent to the raptors. “Incredible,” Hoskins said.

  Owen fastened a night camera to the handlebar of his vintage motorcycle and revved the engine.

  Barry kick-started a Jurassic World ATV. He had a raptor shock stick strapped to his back, a tablet computer with a tracking system mounted to his handlebars, and a headset microphone. “Testing, testing.”

  Owen gave Barry a thumbs-up and looked over his shoulder at Claire in the mobile vet unit. He could see Zach and Gray peering through the small window behind her.

  He held his hand up to signal the young handler whose life he’d saved earlier that day. The handler gripped the lever that would open the raptors’ gates. Owen lowered his hand, and the handler pulled the lever, raising the gates.

  The Velociraptors raced out into the night, searching for their prey.

  Owen peeled out on his motorcycle, following the raptors. Behind him came Barry on his ATV, the InGen soldiers in tactical vehicles, and Claire and the boys in the mobile veterinary unit.

  The night hunt for the Indominus had begun.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  On his motorcycle, Owen sped up, joining the four running Velociraptors, a team of five on the hunt.

  They reached a clearing in the dense rain forest. The raptors slowed down, lowering their heads to the ground.

  Owen braked and shut off his motorcycle. “They found something,” he told Barry in his headset.

  The soldiers spilled out of their vehicles and took up positions among the moonlit trees on the edge of the clearing. A few of them climbed into the trees’ lower branches. They aimed their weapons, waiting.

  Everyone tensed. They could hear the Indominus approaching. The Velociraptors reared up and backed away as the jungle moved and the Indominus revealed itself, coming out of camouflage.

  Hissing, the raptors surrounded their prey. The Indominus looked down at the circling raptors, cocking her head, considering them. Then she roared—a roar that sounded similar to the Velociraptors’ own high-pitched screeches.

  They tilted their heads at the sound, confused. They screeched back. And they relaxed their bodies, looking less aggressive.

  “Something’s wrong,” Owen said.

  “What do you mean?” Barry asked through their headsets. “What’s wrong?”

  The raptors circled the Indominus, curious, almost like a group of dogs checking out a new dog.

  “They’re communicating,” Owen said.

  He watched with dismay as Blue, Charlie, Delta, and Echo took their places at the side of the Indominus. The look in their eyes had changed. The
y were no longer hunting Indominus. The raptors were hunting humans.

  Owen said, “I know why no one in this park would say what that hybrid is made of.”

  “Why?” Barry asked.

  The Indominus and the Velociraptors roared together.

  “That thing’s part raptor,” Owen said.

  BLAM! The soldiers opened fire, hitting the Indominus with multiple rounds. Some bullets seemed to connect, but many deflected off its bony plates. Roaring, the Indominus smashed back into the jungle. A rocket-propelled grenade streaked across the clearing and hit a tree, exploding its branches into flames. The four raptors sped into the jungle, disappearing from sight.

  “Watch your back!” Owen said. “The raptors have a new alpha!”

  The battle was on. They all took off after the dinosaurs.

  A soldier crept through the jungle. Hearing a twig crack behind him, he spun around and found himself face to face with Echo. But she didn’t attack. Instead, the Indominus stepped into the moonlight behind the soldier. He whirled around and raised his rifle, but the Indominus swept it away, then raked her claws across the soldier’s chest. He fell to the ground.

  Nearby, two other soldiers spotted the Indominus. They opened fire but were immediately attacked by two raptors coming at them from both sides. It was over quickly.

  Owen raced past the fallen soldiers near death. He spotted Delta crouched over a body in the distance, eating voraciously. A soldier fired a rocket-propelled grenade right at Delta. BOOM! Owen was thrown back by the explosion. He rose to his feet, disoriented and devastated. Delta was gone.

  In a nearby part of the jungle, Barry raced through the trees, pursued by a raptor. He slid into a hollow fallen tree. THUNK. The raptor landed on the tree. CLICK. CLICK. Her talons stuck in the wood as she walked the length of the hollow tree, coming closer to Barry.

  Reluctantly, he drew his pistol and pointed it straight up through a hole in the wood, not wanting to fire. He pulled back the hammer. CLICK. He saw the raptor’s eye through the hole. It was Blue. She screeched and clawed at the log, splintering the wood.