Jurassic Park III (Norminah)

Chp. 11: A Rough Night

A full moon passed behind clouds as the group of four traveled further downstream. Thunder quietly rumbled while lightning flickered in the distance. Lauren was still at the wheel, watching the river get more and more narrow. She was cautious to avoid the banks that were approaching. As the barge began to round another bend, a familiar, high-pitched sound pierced through the darkness. Muffled but unmistakable, it was the ringing satellite phone. Everyone exchanged looks of sheer panic, expecting the Spinosaurus to leap out at any moment. Normani scanned the riverbanks.

"Keep quiet," she uttered.

Lauren cut the motor. As soon as she did so, time seemed to stop as everyone stood posed for action. The barge finished rounding the curve as the ringing grew louder. The suspense was excruciating until their eyes widened at where exactly the ringing was coming from – seven mounds of dinosaur dung. They sat on the patch off treeless, flat ground just beyond the riverbank. As Normani considered the sight, an idea popped into her head.

"Find it," she said, jumping out of the boat and over to the bank, "before it stops ringing!"

Lauren and Meagan followed her lead, Micah prepared to do the same before Meagan stopped him.

"Stay in the boat, Micah," she urged.

The three adults sprinted toward the source of the ringing, bracing themselves and holding their breath before plunging their arms into their respective dung-heaps. After a few moments of the disgusting search, Lauren spoke up.

"I've got something!" she exclaimed. "I think I found it!"

Normani and Meagan turned to the raven-haired woman as she cleared away the clinging defecation. To their disappointment, what Lauren ended up finding was a beeper. The three women sighed before returning to the bleak task, shoveling the excrement with their arms.

"I've got it!" Meagan exclaimed after a while.

She pulled out the satellite phone, Normani smiling in relief before grabbing it. She pressed a button and put it to her ear.

"You, too, can own a time share in beautiful Guadalajara. Enjoy a meal in one of our four-star restaurants, explore our coral reefs, or just walk on the beach..."

Lauren and Meagan heard the recorded voice and let out a collective, heavy sigh. Satisfied that something finally went right, Normani shut the phone off. In all the excitement, none of them noticed a fierce horned Carnotaur right behind them. The giant creature approached them, its eyes fixed on theirs as the three women froze in their spot. But as it got closer to them, it caught a whiff of the lingering stench that the adults now had on them from digging in the mounds. Thinking twice about its choice of meal, the Carnotaur turned and walked away back into the jungle.

After drenching themselves in water from the river, the women got back on the barge, Normani making sure to clean the satellite phone as best she could. The device's battery level indicator was flashing.

"Whatever you do," Lauren said, "don't call the U.S. Embassy. They won't do a damn thing."

While Normani was thinking of who to call, Micah's attention got hooked onto something in the river.

"What's that?" he asked aloud.

The adults looked down in the murky water. Just below the surface was a shimmering wave of silver passing underneath the boat. Almost immediately after, a single fish jumped from the water. Then another, and another after that.

"Bonitas," Normani observed.

"Something must've spooked them," Micah said.

Another roll of thunder sounded, this time much closer.