Dodgson watched the babies moving toward him, with their downy necks and their sharp little jaws. And then he turned to run. In an instant, the big adult brought his head down, knocking Dodgson over. Then the tyrannosaur raised its head again, and waited. Watching.
What the hell is going on? Dodgson thought. Cautiously, he got to his feet again. And again, he was knocked down. The infants squeaked and came closer. He saw that their bodies were covered in bits of flesh and excrement. He could smell them. He got up on all fours, and began crawling away.
Something grabbed his leg, holding him. He looked back and saw that his leg was in the jaws of the tyrannosaur. The big animal held it gently for a moment. Then it bit down decisively. The bones snapped and crunched.
Dodgson screamed in pain. He could no longer move. He could no longer do anything but scream. The babies toddled forward eagerly. For a few seconds they kept their distance, heads darting forward to take quick bites. But then, when Dodgson did not move away, one hopped up on his leg, and began to bite at the bleeding flesh. The second jumped on his crotch, and pecked with razor-sharp jaws at his waist.
The third came right alongside his face, and with a single snap bit into his cheek. Dodgson howled. He saw the baby eating the flesh of his own face. His blood was dripping down its jaws. The baby threw its head back and swallowed the cheek, and then turned, opened its jaws again, and closed over Dodgson's neck.
SEVENTH CONFIGURATION
"Partial restabilization may occur after eliminating destructive elements. Survival partly determined by chance events."
IAN MALCOLM
Departure
The boat left the jungle river behind, and moved into darkness. The walls of the cave echoed the throb of the engines as Thorne steered the boat through the swift tidal current. To their left, a waterfall splashed down, a ray of light on cascading water. And then they burst out, moving beyond the high cliff wall and the crashing surf, into the open ocean. Kelly gave a cheer, and threw her arms around Arby, who winced and smiled.
Levine looked back at the Island. "I have to admit, I never thought we''d make it. But with our cameras in place, and the uplink working, I we expect we can continue to gather the data, until we finally get our answer about extinction."
Sarah Harding stared at him. "Maybe we will, and maybe we won't."
"Why not? It's a perfect Lost World."
She stared at him in disbelief. "It's nothing of the sort," she said. "Too many predators, remember?"
"Well, so it may appear, but we don't know - "
"Richard," she said. "Ian and I checked the records. They made a mistake on that island, many years ago. Back when the lab was still in production."
"What mistake?"
"They were manufacturing infant dinosaurs, and they didn't know what to feed them. For a while they gave them goat's milk, which was fine. It's very hypoallergenic. But as the carnivores grew, they fed them a special animal-protein extract. And the extract was made from ground-up sheep."
Levine said, "So? What's wrong with that?"
"In a zoo, they never use sheep extract," she said. "Because of the danger of infection."
"Infection," Levine repeated, in a low voice. "What kind of infection?"
"Prions," Malcolm said, from the other side of the boat.
Levine looked blank.
"Prions," Harding said are the simplest disease-causing entities known, even simpler than viruses. They're just protein fragments. They're so simple, they can't even invade a body - they have to be passively ingested. But once eaten, they cause disease: scrapie, in sheep; mad-cow disease; and kuru, a brain disease in human beings. And the dinosaurs developed a prion-disease called DX, from a bad batch of sheep protein extract. The lab battled it for years, trying to get rid of it,"
"You're saying they didn't?"
"For a while, it seemed as if they did. The dinosaurs were flourishing. But then something happened. The disease began to spread. The prions are excreted in feces, so it is possible - "
"Excreted in feces?" Levine said. "The compys were eating feces…"
"Yes, the compys are all infected. The compys are scavengers; they spread the protein over carcasses, and other scavengers became infected. Eventually, all the raptors were infected. Raptors attack healthy animals, not always successfully. One bite, and the animal becomes infected. And so, bit by bit, the infection spread through the island again. That's why the animals die early. And the rapid die-off supports a much larger predator population than you would expect - "
Levine was visibly anxious. "You know," he said, "one of the compys bit me."
"I wouldn't worry," Harding said. "There may be a mild encephalitis, but it's usually just a headache. We'll get you to a doctor in San Jose."
Levine began to sweat. He wiped his forehead with his hand. "Actually, I don't feel very good at all."
"It takes a week, Richard," she said. "I'm sure you'll be fine."
Levine sank back in his seat unhappily.