Conorontology's Safari Lodge

Muldoon braced in the back of the Jeep Wrangler, eyes trained on the Stegosaurs marching ahead of the vehicle.

“Beta team has the triceratops situation under… well.. Something resembling control” the driver called from the cab.

“The Stegos are herding along the beach” Muldoon called from the back. “That could be a problem since the auxiliary power generators are right in their path”

“Roger that” the driver returned. He picked up the radio revciever to beta team. “This is alpha team, heading to the Stegosaurs now, they’ve spilled out onto the beach.”

At that moment, the thundering of a helicopter’s blades roared overhead.Muldoon’s head snapped up.

“Now what?”

“Hammond.” Muldoon insinctively recognised the silver and blue livery of the chopper. “Just what we needed. That man’s timing is uncanny.”

“Let’s get a move on!” The Jeep accelerated up the beach towards the Stegosaurs, who had begun to enter the treeline.

Muldoon raised the tranq rifle, steadied his shot against the bouncing roll cage of the Jeep, and fired. The dart plunged deep into the Stegosaurus’ scaly hide, and yet it kept on.

“C’mon, thos tranqs would kill an Elephant back in Kenya…”

After a few moments, the Stegosaur eventually began to faulter and slumped to halt. Muldoon didn’t waste any time; he swung the rifle around and darted the remaining animals.

“That’s it, that’s the last. Break off!”

Within minutes, Muldoon had brought the herd to a standstill.

“Finally” exclaimed the driver. “That was relatively a piece of cake!”

Muldoon remained unmoved, still icy stern. Beads of sweat trickled down Muldoon’s forehead in the beating sun. “If only the T Rex cooperates as much…”

“Where should we start looking for-” the driver was cut off as the huge head of the rex erupted from the treeline and slammed into the Jeep. The rifle went of in Muldoon’s hands, as he was sent flying from the vehicle as it was thrown into the air.

Muldoon landed hard on the sand, the wind taken out of him. When he came to, he saw the crumpled remains of the Jeep, set ablaze by a fuel leak. His driver was surely dead.

A low growling, accompanied by the sound of tearing flesh floated down the beach. Bracing himself for a Tyrannosaur attack, he slowly turned his head up the beach.He saw the rex crouched over a fallen Stegosaurus. The opportunitst must’ve gone for one of the tranqed animals, and swiped the Jeep by mistake.

The good thing was the rex’s attention was taken. The park warden’s eyes refocused on his trusty SPAS-12 shotgun which lay a short distance up the beach, also thrown from the wreckage.

Careful to keep his movements to a minimum, Muldoon slowly crawled toward the firearm, eyes not wavering from the feasting rex.

His hands grasped the cool metal of the stock, and he carefully brought himself to his feet. He trained the barrel of the SPAS on the Tyrannosaur, and wincing, pumped a new tranq round into the chamber. No change.

He brought the weapon up to his eye, and fired the round at the dinosaur.

The Tyrannosaur bellowed and its huge head shot around as the dart pierced it’s neck, the eyes of the ancient predator chilling Muldoon to the bone. It roared, attempting to frighten Muldoon into moving and thereby revealing his position.

The rex continued to roar, but Muldoon stood firm.

“Lesson number one.” Muldoon whispered under his breath.

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”