Jurassic Park: A New Dawn. EPI 1: Amber Alert.
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"Life will not be contained. Life breaks free.
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The mechanical droning of the helicopter's rotors faded as the aircraft disappeared into the black curtain of the ash-filled sky. As Kenji Kon stepped off the landing pad, the wet cloth Brooklyn had handed him had already turned cold against his face.
"Kenji!" Darius Bowman shouted. "The headquarters need us now: the fire's spreading out of control!"
Kenji blinked incredulously. "Seriously? Doesn't this place have a fire-suppression system?"
"It did," Yaz corrected, already jogging towards the soot-covered Jeep. "The power outage knocked it out. That's why we're needed."
"I don't think I signed up for a firefighting mission," Kenji murmured.
They dashed through the ashy ferns to the solitary Jeep. They climbed in quickly and started the engine, but were met with:
"Oh, heck no!" Kenji groaned.
Before anyone could complain further, a deep rumble reverberated through the valley, shaking ash from the trees and rattling the car windows. "What was that?" They exclaimed.
Brooklynn swallowed hard. "I don't know. It sounded like a tree falling or something?"
Darius exhaled sharply. "Okay then. Everybody out! Push!"
They scrambled back into the mud, slipping and shoving as they clawed muck away from the tires, their heavy breathing growing louder by the moment. The Jeep rocked, lurched, and finally tore free with a wet "slap!" of suction. The smell of smoke was almost overpowering now; they could see the red glow of fire. Sammy coughed hard, doubling over for a moment.
"Guys... the fire's... right behind us... Close the doors... Keep the air off. And don't forget your rags!"
Darius jumped into the driver's seat. "Everyone in!" They slammed the doors shut just as the orange glow behind them brightened, accompanied by a resounding crash.
The group looked around in panic. Suddenly, they heard footsteps.
The footsteps were getting closer.
Kenji's voice revealed his panic. "Perfect! Because this night wasn't bad enough already." Yaz paled as she stared out the back window. A grim shadow moved between the near-burning trees.
Not wanting to alarm the group any more than they already were, she mustered all the self-control she had left and said:
Darius didn't need to be told twice. He stomped on the gas.
The Jeep jerked forward just as a green Tyrannosaurus Rex—Buck—burst from the black wall of smoke with a deafening roar that shook the valley.
He was right beside them! Close enough that the heat of his breath fogged the dirty windows. The Jeep bounced violently over roots and rocks. Branches whipped past. The engine screamed its protest as time slowed down.
"Must. Go. Faster." Darius muttered, panic rising.
The Rex furiously growled and tore through the cloth of the roof, barely missing their heads in the process.
"Watch out!" Sammy screamed.
Buck let out another deafening roar and surged forward with terrifying speed. His massive head swung sideways—
and smashed the Jeep off the road.
The Jeep cartwheeled of the road, weightless for a split second, flipped over a rock into the air, and then smashed through the ice of a frozen lake.
The thick Ice held for a second—then shattered.
The world disappeared into freezing water and darkness. The roof was open so the water poured in like a waterfall. Kenji fought the buckle and his own adrenaline with shaking hands until it finally clicked free. He kicked upward, lungs burning, and burst through the surface with a gasp. He miserably clawed his way onto the slippery ice.
One by one, the others surfaced, scrambling onto the slick, cracking ice and shivering uncontrollably.
Sammy hugged herself, her teeth chattering. "W‑what do we d-do n-now?"
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Meanwhile, in the emergency headquarters...
Dr. Henry Wu nervously paced his office in Biosyn's emergency headquarters. "Where are those kids? We sent them a message hours ago. They should have been here by now."
"Henry," Dr. Ian Malcolm suddenly voiced, "I've spent my entire life warning people about this, and I'll do it again. Nature does not cooperate. It does not negotiate. It does not care about your stupid schedule. And yet here you are, waiting for it to behave. Go get those kids. Now." He said, his fatherly instincts unexpectedly kicking in.
Wu grimaced. Malcolm was infuriatingly right—again. "Fine. I'll do something. Just leave."
"No, I'm quite fine right here, thank you very much." Ian retorted.
Wu sighed. He could never win an argument with this man! He grudgingly picked up the phone and dialed the ISRC.
"Hello, this is Raphael Torres. What can I help you with tonight?"
"I'm Dr. Henry Wu, from Biosyn Corporation. There's a fire in Biosyn valley—a very major one—and we need support."
"What? No one has reported anything like that. There were rumors of smoke, but-"
"And we need a search and rescue," Wu cut in.
"For whom?" Torres asked, suddenly on full alert.
"Five kids. We sent them a message around 7:30, but they never responded. They should have arrived by now. We're afraid something's happened."
"Oh no. We'll send a helicopter immediately. What time did the fire start? Why aren't there firefighters already?"
"That's... that's a conversation for later." Wu hurriedly finished giving the necessary information and left the room.
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Raphael Torres sprang into action. He gathered his team, briefed them, and within minutes, three C‑5 Super Galaxies were airborne, along with rescue helicopters, air support, and medical supplies.
As one of the planes dipped low over the burning valley to drop water, the crew spotted something.
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"Hey!" Darius shouted. "I hear a plane!"
"How are they gonna see us?" Brooklynn asked skeptically.
Darius grinned. "Turns out, I had flares in my pack in a waterproof bag." He lit one and fired it into the sky, its sparks dancing like fireflies against the dark.
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"Radio Tower 304, Radio tower 304! This is C‑5‑01," the pilot said. "We got a flare from the ice. The kids are found, located approximately 37.121° N, 14.426° E. Please support helicopters with medical supplies. There's also a—oh—what's that?"
His copilot squinted. "Looks like a car."
"Yeah, a car is in the water. It looks like they crashed. Yikes."
"Copy that, C‑5‑01. Sending a helicopter and support team now."
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The helicopter descended onto the fragile, cracked ice near the crash victims.
"Get in!" The pilot yelled over the loud whine of the rotors.
The kids tried walking towards it, but the slick ice and opposing winds made it impossible, so the pilot had to turn the aircraft off—a dangerous move.
The five scrambled into the cockpit and were greeted immediately by the stuffy, warm air. The pilot was just starting up when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement.
A blur of fiery red and blue raced across the slick ice. In an instant, a young Pyroraptor latched onto the side of the helicopter, digging his razor-sharp talons right into the glass!
"What do we do now?" The five exclaimed in unison.
"I'll try to shake him off!" The pilot yelled.
He pushed the throttle to full as he lifted off the ground. The young dinosaur realized this and suddenly stopped its attack, clinging to the side of the aircraft for dear life.
But the pilot dived, then spun, then lurched around till the raptor lost its foothold and fell to its death on the ice below.
"Phew! That was close! Yaz said. "I thought we were goners for sure!"
"Hehe, yep," Darius said, trying to shake off his fear,
"Guys," Sammy said, "The forest is still on fire. We are probably going to have a break and get right back to it."
"Yeah. So when we get back to the headquarters, what work do we have to do?" Darius said, still reeling from the attack.
"Well," the pilot said, "firefighting is our main priority, as well as animal care and rescue. As a matter of fact, Yaz and Darius, you're assigned to animal care, Brooklynn, water and park restoration, and Kenji?"
"Wait," Brooklynn interrupted, "can I join Darius? Like, I mean, after the water system is restored?"
"Um, we'll have to check with the others on that one," the pilot responded, "but it should be fine. Anyways, Kenji?"
"You know how to fly by any chance?"
"Ok, then. Kenji and Yasmina, you are assigned to firefighting efforts. Ya'll fly in a Canadair CL-415."
"Nice!" Sammy said, though deep down she was terrified of flying.
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Valletta, Malta.
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Kenji and Sammy climbed into the cockpit of the Canadair CL-415; both were still exhausted from the night.
"We're almost done after this, I guess," Kenji said, relieved, as he clicked his harness into place.
"I hope so," Sammy said. She stared out at the flickering runway lights. "The past months have been...bad. I'm ready for a break. A real one."
Kenji guided the plane toward the runway, the engines growling under them.
"I've been thinking," he said, eyes on the windshield, "nothing's ever going back to normal. Dinosaurs are everywhere now. Even the North Pole. They're not leaving.
And y'know... What Dr. Malcolm said tonight was right. Life really does find a way."
Sammy let out a shaky breath. "Yeah, but I'm done. I can't keep doing this stuff. It's too much."
Kenji's shoulders tensed as he decided to keep quiet.
He flipped his headset's mic to his mouth; "Radio Tower 304, requesting clearance for takeoff on runway 67P."
"415 01, you're cleared. Do you copy?"
The plane thundered down the runway. Sammy gripped the armrest so hard her knuckles went white.
"Ok, um, I guess I'll just say it: I hate flying. This is like... my nightmare."
Kenji gave her a small, reassuring smile. "Hey! We're good. My dad taught me how to fly back on Isla Nublar. He was... really good at it."
His smile faded just a little. Sammy noticed and decided to change the subject.
"So, what are you gonna do after we get back?" She asked.
Kenji didn't answer. He accelerated the plane and started climbing into the night sky, banking east toward the drop zone. Once they reached cruising altitude, he let out a long breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.
He thought about his dad. The ache was still there, but he pushed it down. Tonight, at least, he was doing something that mattered.
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11:24 P.M.
Biosyn Valley, Italy.
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The fire in Biosyn Valley had burned the once beautiful sanctuary almost completely down to ashes.
The fire, started by Lewis Dodgson's final act of desperation, had become a raging inferno. Its heat cracked the stone and turned the once-lush Italian canopy into a firework show of embers. The air was thick with the smell of ash, burning flesh, and foliage, making every breath a battle for the dinosaurs still left behind in the valley.
Even at the central lake, the water offered no comfort; the snow and ice weren't enough to halt the fire. A herd of Parasaurolophus and Pachyrhinosaurus stood knee-deep in the icy and muddy shallows, their haunting bellows echoing off the valley walls.
The social structure of the herds had completely disappeared.
Mothers, blinded by the smoke and ash and driven by the instinct for survival, struggled through the mud, inadvertently abandoning juveniles that shrieked for them.
The panic was so thick that it signaled an easy target for the valley's remaining predators.
Shadows emerged from the tree line. A young Yutyrannus, its proto-feathers singed and matted with soot, and its agile partner, a Nanotyrannus.
They moved with deadly precision.
The Yutyrannus let out a low, vibrating growl, signaling the beginning of the hunt. In the chaos of the shoreline, they spotted a juvenile Corythosaurus. The crested herbivore was hopelessly stuck in the thick, quicksand-like mud of the bank; its leg was trapped beneath a half-submerged log.
With no foliage left for an ambush (and without the need for one), the predators abandoned stealth for a brutal, open-ground sprint. The Yutyrannus jogged, its heavy footfalls sending up sprays of water, knowing there was no need to waste precious energy.
However, the Nanotyrannus was faster, a blur of motion that slammed into the Corythosaurus with
enough force to snap the sapling it was clinging to. Before it could even register the impact, the Nanotyrannus delivered a quick, clean slash to the throat.
Life faded from the Corythosaurus with a hiss as the predators began a voracious feast, tearing at the cooling flesh with a desperation known to few.
Their success was short-lived, however. Above them, a Biosyn observation tower, its structural integrity melted, groaned as it swayed from the intense heat.
Finally, the steel shrieked as it gave way, collapsing in a cloud of sparks. The feasting pair never looked up. The weight of the tower flattened the beach in an instant, burying the hunters and their prey beneath a mountain of white-hot wreckage.
In a narrow gorge to the west, the situation was even worse. A herd of Stegosaurus found themselves funneled into a dead end, halted on either side by fire. The dinosaurs rampaged in circles, their massive, spiked tails swinging blindly, striking the canyon walls.
As the flames hinted at their plated backs, the oxygen was suddenly sucked from the air, leaving the giants to collapse one by one; their heavy armored bodies piling up in the narrow pass as the inferno claimed the gorge.
A few hundred feet away, the tragedy took a more intimate form. A large nest of eggs lay at the base of a scorched cliffside. The heat had already cracked the unhatched shells, but one lone hatchling had emerged into a world of red heat.
The infant, barely able to find its footing, chirped in a high tone, calling a parent that would never return. It ran toward the edge of the nest, its tiny claws clicking against the charred earth, but the wall of heat was an almost visible barrier.
The hatchling's lungs, designed for the crisp valley air, were no match for the carbon monoxide pouring from the brush. It staggered, its movements becoming sluggish and erratic, before it finally collapsed onto the smoking perimeter of its birthplace. As the flames began to lick the edges of the nest, the infant's eyes closed, the world fading into a black haze.
Suddenly, a sound shattered the roar of the fire. A massive, thundering torrent of chemical-treated water and foam cascaded from the overhead cliffs, hitting the valley floor with the force of a tidal wave.
The valley's automated fire-suppression system had finally been restored.
The water hit the burning nest with a violent hiss, turning the fire into a wall of white steam. The water swept over the unconscious infant, dragging it and the remains of the nest into the darkness of the water. The fire was dying, but the valley was now a cold tomb. In the sudden silence that followed the crashing water, the only sound left was the purr of cooling stone and the distant, fading cries of the few survivors lost in the dark.
Kenji throttled down the plane and made a low pass over a section of the burning forest. He flicked his floodlight on and slowed down—dangerously—just in case there were other planes in the area, which there were.
"Hey, mind if I ask you to push that button over there?" He said, pointing.
Sammy shot him a sly look. "Sure, why not?" She pushed the flashing button with a sharp click.
The mighty plane trembled as the cargo bay opened. Lights flashed; cautions beeped as a thousand gallons of water came thundering out in a torrent onto the ground.
Kenji grinned as he pushed the throttle to pull power. To his amazement, the valley was dark!
"Radio tower, radio tower," he contacted in excitement the other pilots and the radio tower, "The fire's extinguished! Biosyn Valley is stabilized!
"Congratulations, 415 01, you have extinguished the Biosyn Fire! You may return to the point of origin."
"Roger that. Returning now!"
"Wow!" Kenji said, half-relieved, "that was sick!"
"Yeah! I sure don't like flying, but that was awesome!" Sammy said, giddily hopping under her harness.
He had just completed the ascent to cruising altitude when suddenly the aircraft's radar alerted him to an aircraft dangerously close to his. The red warning light flashed frantically as sirens went off in the cabin.
He struggled to keep a calm demeanor.
"Kenji, what's going on?!"
"Relax," he said, "it's just turbulence," though deep down he knew it wasn't.
Instantly, the plane began to lurch and shake as an ear-splitting shriek was heard over the engine's loud roar.
A group of young adults and teenagers team up with returning characters from the Jurassic Park franchise to save the last remaining dinosaur
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time!
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