"Go on, big guy."
Darius tossed the onion chips and the signal flare into the wilderness. The scent of the food caught the Nasutoceratops' attention, and the dinosaur began trotting toward the green hills with small, heavy steps.
Darius stood with hands on hips, watching the scene with satisfaction. It felt just like the times he had lured stray herbivores away from camp back on Isla Nublar, everything was so practiced and fami—wait, wasn't my job actually to capture it?!
"Uh…"
"Well…"
"Ah..."
Forget it.
Darius stood dazed for a moment before remembering he had escaped Isla Nublar long ago. Perhaps it was a lingering symptom of the disaster? He often dreamed of life on the island; even now, walking down a city street, he would instinctively veer away from dense shrubbery.
He still wasn't used to it… neither the human world, nor this new world where humans and dinosaurs coexisted.
He had heard that Yasmina joined a club specifically for helping people adjust to the presence of dinosaurs. What was it called again? He'd have to grab Sammy and the others to go visit her sometime.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
An abrupt sound of applause erupted from behind him. Darius turned to find a middle-aged woman wearing a standard D.P.W. uniform.
Noticing his gaze, she stepped forward and extended her right hand. Darius reached out and shook it.
"I'm your current superior. Call me Ronnie," she said, her voice steady. "We spoke on the phone. It's a pleasure to work with someone of your caliber."
As Ronnie gave a brief introduction, Darius felt a strange sense of déjà vu. For some reason, the first sight of her reminded him of Roxie… a similar, peculiar sense of pressure?
(Note: Roxie was a character from Camp Cretaceous in Volume 1, one of the two adults overseeing the kids.)
"Thanks for the compliment, Ronnie… ma'am. I'm sorry I let that Nasutoceratops go… I mean, our target creature."
Darius, still new to the professional world, acted somewhat reserved, trying his best to appear humble and leave a good impression.
"I know it was a Nasutoceratops… but its departure doesn't change much. Rather than a containment unit, I view us more as a hazardous emergency response organization. Humans have to learn to coexist with dinosaurs eventually; mindless containment is futile."
Darius had grown up quite a bit. In the past, he would have rambled about dinosaur facts that most people couldn't follow, but now he thoughtfully added a few words of explanation.
However, Ronnie didn't need his explanation; she had her own views and knowledge regarding these paleobiological entities. She led Darius toward a vehicle, speaking as they walked:
"Honestly, when I first saw you on the news, I thought you were just some child star hyped up by corporate interests. But looking at you now… it seems I was overthinking it."
Ronnie opened the door and slid into the driver's seat. Darius walked around to the passenger side, climbed in, and buckled his seatbelt.
"Those days were hell, but looking back, they don't feel quite so grueling. The only sad part is that I actually encountered rescue teams a few times, but they were either eaten by dinosaurs or they just… refused to help and abandoned us. Anyway, where are we going? My Jeep is still at the city entrance."
Vroooom!
Ronnie donned her sunglasses and slammed the accelerator, peeling out toward the outskirts of town. The sudden G-force sent Darius scrambling for the "oh-crap" handle.
"Sorry to hear that… but we're heading out for real business now – tracking the Giganotosaurus. The tracks he leaves behind won't wait around forever for us to investigate. As for your Jeep, staff members have already been dispatched to recover it."
"Slow down! Aaaaahhh—"
The car sped past, nearly breaking the sound limit, leaving nothing but a blurred trail in its wake.
…
Carlo was positioned among the green hills, about a kilometer from the town entrance. He lay flat on the slope, exposing only half of his head to observe the human city.
As dusk settled, the vehicles on the elevated highway turned on their lights, appearing to Carlo as tiny, moving sparks. The sparks belonging to Ronnie and Darius moved at high speeds; even from a kilometer away, Carlo took notice.
The two individuals tracking the Giganotosaurus left the city, gradually moving further away from Carlo's position.
That car is definitely speeding…
Carlo complained silently to himself. He slowly backed down the slope and let out a low huff to call his family together to discuss their plans.
Several hours of observation had allowed him to identify the peak times of human activity: morning and evening. Since they had to keep moving, why not split their travel into two shifts to avoid those high-traffic windows?
"Roar…"
Starting today, our migration will be split into two sessions: noon to afternoon, and midnight to dawn.
Compared to migrating all day long, this would not only help them recover their strength but also accommodate Kafka's behavioral habits.
"Roar…"
No problem, Boss.
Katyusha replied with a soft huff, and the other dragons followed suit. Although Carlo phrased it as a discussion, none of them were going to object to his proposal.
The moon had climbed into the night sky before the light had completely faded. Though this caused a slight error in the dinos' perception of time, it was of little consequence.
Carlo was about to tell his family to rest a bit longer when Katyusha interrupted.
"Roar…"
Boss, there's one more thing.
"Roar?"
What is it?
…
Under Darius's "guidance," the Nasutoceratops had wandered into the wild. It climbed over one green hill, trudged down, and began ascending another.
Finding its favorite food wasn't easy, but settling for some fallen leaves and fiber wasn't out of the question.
Suddenly, as if sensing something, it froze.
Hoot. Hoot.
The nocturnal forest seemed a bit too quiet; there were only the calls of unfamiliar birds, but the Nasutoceratops instinctively felt something was wrong.
"Aunnng-roar!"
Suddenly, Katyusha lunged out from the right with terrifying speed. Her roar forced the target to turn its frilled head, but little did the herbivore know, this was exactly what Katyusha wanted.
Creeeeeek.
Katyusha clamped her jaws onto the horn furthest from her, while using her neck to brace against the horn closest to her, pinning the creature's head down.
"Aunnng—"
The Nasutoceratops let out a mournful cry, trying to pivot its body to shake Katyusha off, but it immediately felt a biting sensation in its hind leg.
It was Karl.
Not only that, but Kafka joined the coordinated assault, charging from the same side as Katyusha and slamming into the Nasutoceratops.
The three dinos combined their strength to flip the ceratopsian. Karl moved in quickly for the finishing blow, tearing open the creature's throat.
Standing atop the hill, Carlo and Giga Dad watched the familiar hunting display, lost in thought, as if reminiscing about days gone by.