Susan set Baselton on the floor. He moaned and tried to stand up, but immediately slid down against the computer. Less then ten minutes ago the group had raced into a complex of buildings, with raptors hot on their heels. The closest building was this one, which housed the CRAY XMP computers that powered the entire island through geothermal energy. Anouther building in the complex was the power plant that obtained the geothermal fuel, and another was a cloning lab where the dinosaurs had been bred. The first task, though, was to help Baselton. He had been torn up pretty bad by the Raptors, but fourtunatly the group had been able to find a medical kit. Susan worked diligently and soon had the injuries cleaned and bandaged. She had stopped the bleeding, but the real problem was whether he could walk or not. If he couldn’t walk, he would very likely not survive.

“Hey, I found a table over here to lay Baselton on,” Dr. Frost called from the adjacent room. With a grunt, Susan and Jeremy lifted the man up and carried him to the table. Baselton collapsed back, breathing heavily. “He’ll be okay,” Jeremy said, reassuring himself more then anything. Cooper peered out the window, which was protected by sturdy steel bars. “It looks like the Raptors have left,” he said. “That’s not good,” said Dr. Frost, “They must know something we don’t. There must be something here that they don’t want to mess with”. Cooper exhaled long and low. “This just keeps getting better and better,” he remarked.

Suddently, Nick burst in from the computer room. “Look at this!” he cried, waving a torn and yellowed sheet of paper. “Careful with that, it’ll disintegrate if you’re not careful,” said Dr. Frost. Nick handed the paper to him. It read:

“Do you know what this means?” Susan said, shuddering. “Yes,” said Nick, “Hammond wasn’t happy with the animals he bred, so he had his scientists change them. Alter the DNA in order to create what he thought the dinosaurs ought to look like, instead of what they really were like. In the case of the Velociraptor, Hammond wanted a larger animal, and he wanted to do away with the fuzz. And so the man got what he wanted. A crazed killing machine, completely uncontainable. The Raptors got out and took control of the islands”. Dr. Frost snorted. “Serves him right,” he said, “I don’t see what was wrong with the real creature, its beautiful. But that’s what happens when you mess around with nature”. Jeremy nodded, understanding. “It says the completed Raptor was version 3.2, which means that they made over thirty kinds until they got one the liked. We saw the original, actual animal earlier today and Hammond’s version. Do you think think the other versions are still on the island?” Nick shook his head. “I doubt it,” he said, “because all the versions in between would probably only be bred once. The line that interests me, though, is “DNA is unstable”. I take that to mean that the animal is prone to mutation and rapid evolution, which did occur. The Raptors here were able to mutate with frog DNA, and later, several of them suddently had giant brains and feathered quills”.

Night fell, but nobody was able to get any sleep. Baselton had awoken, and even he was sitting upright, listening to the discussions of the group. For the past few hours, Nick had been gathering and reading every memo paper he could find in the building. “It says here,” he said, “That Velociraptor was not the only animal Hammond’s team was tampering with. So far I’ve found information on changes for Spinosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Dilophosaurus and Coelophysis”. Susan thought for a moment, then said, “It looks like he wasn’t bothering with herbivores like the Triceratops, but only the carnivores that would attract the most tourists”. Suddently, Cooper stepped forward. “You know, if these dinosaurs are not, for lack of a better term, real, then I see no purpose in you treehuggers defending this island. You said yourselves that this was the only avalible opportunity for us to see an extinct ecosystem. But this isn’t the real prehistoric ecosystem, its full of genetically altered mutants. I see no reason for you people to keep up this silly charade, just let us blow up this hell hole and be done with it!”

Jeremy was about to loose his temper, but the sound of scraping metal stopped him. “Where is that sound coming from?” whispered Dr. Frost. Nick turned in a circle, and then he saw the window. Chewing on the metal bars was a Raptor, but it was nothing like the ones that had attacked them earlier. This beast was larger and more heavily built. It was also a stark black color, with big, green eyes for seeing in the dark. This was a mutation that was specially formed for hunting at night. Nick stepped back. How long had the Night Raptor been chewing on the bars? Already, two of them had been chewed through entirely. Once he finished this one, there would be enough space for the animal to get inside and kill them all.

“Go! Go!” Nick cried, picking up Baselton and racing away. The others follwed him toward the door. Nick flung it open and found himself looking into the face of a second Night Raptor. He slammed the door and raced up the stairs, dragging Baselton behind him. The injured man wasn’t making any noise. Was he asleep? Unconcious? Dead? The group raced out onto the balcony. Nick moaned when he realized that this was a dead end. Down on the ground level, the door flung open and the Night Raptors charged in, shrieking viciously. Suddently, there was a thump. Susan looked up just in time to see a third Night Raptor slide down from the roof, landing right in front of her. The predetor leaped to its feet and barred its claws.

Susan kicked it, but the Night Raptor grabbed her foot in its mouth. Susan screamed and fell to the ground. The animal released its grip for a moment, but it was enough for Susan to squirm free. “Into the trees!” Nick called, jumping from the balcony onto a branch in the nearby tree. The others follwed, but the Night Raptors weren’t far behind.

Jeremy tripped on a heavy object. It was a tank of gasoline! The first thought that came to his mind was that they could fuel one of the jeeps lying around the area, but that wasn’t an option while they were running from the Night Raptors. Instead, he laid his hand out on the tank. The nearest predetor slashed at it, but he pulled his hand away, and the Night Raptors claw struck the metal, tearing it open. The gasoline leaked out. One of the animals slipped on the liquid, knocking over the other predators. Jeremy struck a stick arccross the torn metal, and managed to create a spark. Within an instant, the entire building was up in flames. The Night Raptors howled and shrieked, unable to escape the terrible blaze. Jeremy grabbed hold of the tree and pulled himself out of the way just in time. He climbed up to the rest of the group, calling to them, telling them to get as far away as possible. Down bellow, the Night Raptors attacked each other in their confusion, finally collapsing in a bloody heap. Shorly after, their mangled bodies were cooked and incinerated by the fire.