Chapter 5:

Gradually, the shock of Robert's unexpected appearance faded, and conversation around the table began to resume its previous level. Robert had leant back in his chair and was sipping his beer appreciatively. "Ahh," he said, placing another empty back on the table "finest drop I've ever had."

Ellie smiled at the Warden, still a little dumbfounded with him. "So folks, I'm sure you've heard about our improvements to the place, what do you reckon so far?" Robert asked them?

"Well what can I say, it certainly is impressive that's for sure," Ian nodded.

Robert gave a hearty laugh, "That's a change Dr. Malcolm, you with a positive opinion on something? I didn't think positivity played a role in the chaos theory!"

"Very funny Muldoon, believe it or not people change, some even for the better," Ian smirked at Robert.

The banter around the table was enjoyable as everyone filled up on the delicious five star deserts that were being served up. "John, you've certainly found the finest chef's around I can tell you that," Alan mumbled through a mouthful of Port Wine Trifle.

John returned a smile and nodded, "indeed I have my friend, the guests deserve the finest for their money and a positive review is all I ask in return!"

For another twenty minutes the chatter continued, with an all round enjoyable feeling being shared by everyone. John suddenly stood from his seat with the aid of his amber adorned cane and beckoned the guests up. "I'm sorry to leave you staff but there's something I thought I might show our guests this evening, with the full moon and all," John smiled.

Adam Shields nodded knowingly at the old man, "it sure is a nice enough night for it John."

"Indeed it is Adam, so if you'd like to join me, we'll head downstairs shall we," John said, the ever present twinkle showing in his eyes.

He headed towards the door, Ian and Sarah following behind with Lex and Tim behind them. "Well Robert, it was great to see you again, I'm sure we'll be able to catch up again soon before our little holiday's over," Alan grinned at the rugged ranger.

"We certainly will mate, I'll see you folks tomorrow probably, depending on what John's got lined up for you guys," he replied before giving Ellie a kiss on the cheek "good to see you again Dr. Sattler."

"You to Robert, I never thought I would to be honest," she said.

"Ah well, you guys better go, John will start to get impatient, you know how he is."

They bade him and the rest of the staff goodnight before hurriedly following the procession downstairs and into the Visitor Centre Lobby. John made his way across the floor of the Centre to the reception desk where he had a quick talk to one of the women on duty before returning back to the group. "Now, I've got a real treat lined up for you all this evening!" he said excitedly rubbing his hands together.

There were glances being exchanged left right and centre as John waited patiently for something unknown to the guests. Suddenly the girl that John had been speaking to only moments ago made her way over to him and whispered in his ear. "Oh wonderful, thank you Karla," John said as she spoke something to him.

He turned to the rest of them and flashed another smile, "Let's head outside if you'd please."

Alan followed on behind the rest, slightly apprehensive as he awaited John's 'special treat'. The air was definitely cooler now as a slight breeze blew along the road past the visitor centre. The large pond that was in front of the Visitor Centre was lit up beautifully with electric blue lights as water features bubbled and cascaded water.

Waiting in front of the Visitor Centre was what resembled a Safari Tour bus that one might find in Africa. The difference was that it was coloured red and green and had metal frames fitted around each window, obviously for stability. In the front seat of the vehicle were two men both dressed in Jurassic Park uniforms. "Evening Mr. Hammond, good to see you," smiled the man sitting in the passenger's seat.

"Troy my good man, good to see you as well and Jason how are you?" he said, speaking to the driver as well.

"Very well thank you sir, the bus is tuned and ready to rumble," Jason replied.

"Excellent! Well crew, these two strapping young men you see here are the Hardy brother's, Troy and Jason. They operate the tours here at the park but tonight they'll be giving you one of special premium tours we like to call the Starlight Special," John explained.

As the group boarded the bus, each shook hands with Troy and Jason before finding a seat somewhere along the bus. Tim sat opposite his sister close to the front of the bus with Sarah and Ian nestled in behind them. John had chosen his seat right behind Troy at the front, leaving Alan to take a seat midway along the bus with Ellie.

Troy turned around in his seat to face everyone, flashing a big toothy smile as he looked over them all. "Now guys, just before we get things going here we've just gotta run over a few safety rules," Troy began, pulling down a small hand held microphone from above him. "At all times, you need your seatbelts fastened and your hands inside the bus, as you can see the windows are up at the moment so that won't be an issue. Also no moving around once we start driving, we don't want you to fall or anything in case there's an accident, which there won't be," he added quickly "most importantly, don't worry about a thing, the upgrades to the park have been huge, we won't take you anywhere where you'll be in danger so stop looking so worried and let's have some fun."

Troy turned around before adding something to his speech "oh and if you look in front of you to the monitor embedded in your seat, you can see exactly where we are in comparison to the Visitor Centre and also those little dots you can see a fair distance from the car, those are the dinosaurs, green for herbivores and red for the carnivores."

He replaced the microphone in the slot and fastened his own seatbelt, turning slightly to engage in a conversation with John. Alan clicked his seatbelt in and lengthened the strap, giving him room to turn around and see what was happening outside the windows. The last Jurassic Park tour hadn't gone so well, he could only pray that things would be different this time.

Jason turned the key and the bus gave a low rumble before humming quietly on the road. "It's quiet, how did you make it so quiet?" Ian asked quizzically.

Troy answered him, "we use a special fuel formula that's easier on the engine, it doesn't react as much with the oxygen, making sure it doesn't burn so fast giving less noise, it just helps when we want to interact with the dinosaurs and not scare them."

It made sense that they wouldn't want to scare them, getting close to the dinosaurs, while not seeming like such a good idea would be a big hit with the tourists once the park was up and running.

Jason put the bus into first gear and they rolled up the road toward the main gates that loomed omnisciently in the distance. Alan adjusted his position in his seat, staring out the clean windows into the surrounding jungle. Ellie nudged him in the ribs as they passed the giant gates of Jurassic Park, she had a slightly worried expression on her face. It was no secret that nearly everyone on the bus was apprehensive about being outside at night on the island, the fear of anything lurking in the trees was more than intimidating to say the least.

The bus rumbled along for around twenty minutes until they turned off slightly down a short dirt road that ended almost as soon as it began. The bus came to a halt outside a large metal structure that emitted low pulse hum's every few seconds. Wires about an inch and a half thick ran from both sides of what appeared to be a heavy duty gate, and the beginning of a fence. "John, don't tell me we're going inside there..." Ian said worriedly.

"Ian, haven't I told you how safe the park is? I've done this tour a million times and not once has there been a problem," John said as he waited patiently for Jason some of the settings on the onboard computer.

Ian withdrew in his seat, as did Alan. "Alright guys, I can see a lot of you have gone white, relax, this is only a herbivore enclosure and it also has one of our largest lakes on the island within it. That's where we're headed," Jason said as he tried to calm their nerves.

Alan relaxed slightly at his words, but still, things always seemed to go wrong on Jurassic Park and he wanted to be sure. The gates groaned as the steel grated together and the locking mechanism that bound the two halves together shifted. Both halves swung outwards slowly, allowing the bus access to the next part of the waiting chamber. The doors clamped shut behind them, the lock being replaced before the second set of gates began to shift. Once they were clear of the gates they resumed the trail through the jungle on the inside of the enclosure.

Troy spoke again on the microphone, "just if anyone was wondering, you can find out what's in this enclosure by pressing 'map' on the screen in front of you, then just press 'Where Am I?' and you'll get what's going on."

He smiled and resumed conversation up front. Alan decided he'd give his computer a bit of a go and as he watched the little animated car moving along a designated track, he was reminded of the GPS's some of his friends owned in their cars. He saw the word 'Map' written on the top left corner and reached out and tapped it with his finger. The screen changed and a full map of Jurassic Park popped up for him to see. He saw all the boundary and enclosure fences, all coloured differently depending on their voltage amounts. A flashing circle held the words 'Where Am I?' so he tapped that as well and the screen paused a minute before it zoomed in on the car again, this time with a message. He read the message in his head, giving a chuckle at how advanced technology had become. It said "Safari bus 1 is travelling along the eastern road through the Integrated Enclosure, for more information on the Integrated Enclosure, tap HERE."

Alan did as he was told and it brought another page with the species of the enclosure. "The Integrated Enclosure at this current time contains the following dinosaurs, 5 Triceratops, 11 Iguanodon, 2 Ankylosaurus, 4 Brachiosaurus, 18 Gallimimus, 6 Pacheycephalosaurus and 4 Stygimoloch." He was blown away by the information being spat out at him from the computer. He looked up to the front of the bus and called out to John, "John! How does this thing know what dinosaurs are in the enclosure?"

"Ahh, you found that feature did you. Well you see soon after the dinosaurs are born, we fit each one with a small microchip, just so we can keep an eye on numbers but it could come in handy ever should there be a breakout," he explained.

Alan nodded and pressed a return key on the screen, setting the computer back to the satellite of the car travelling. By now they had traversed a fair distance along the winding path and were drawing close to a large blue area on the map. Alan deduced that it was probably the lake that Jason had mentioned earlier. This meant that they were drawing close to their destination. He wondered what John had in mind once they reached this lake up ahead. The bus slowed as they rounded another corner, the vegetation thinning out slightly as they emerged out onto a grassy hillside. They chugged up the hill to the top. As they passed over the hill, the vast lake on the other side began to come into view, its rippling surface shining under the moonlight. "Well here we are guys, welcome to Sunset Lake, she sure is something isn't she," Jason said as he turned off the engine and stood.

The doors opened and John followed Troy and Jason off the bus. Alan followed suit and unbuckled his belt, waiting for Ellie to move out into the isle behind the others. Disembarking from the bus, the air was a lot cooler out in the open with the breeze blowing in off the lake. The grass underfoot was damp and reasonably high. John took in a big breath of air as he looked out over his island. "Well, what do you all think!" he said turning around and giving the biggest smile known to man.

"This is beautiful!" Ellie breathed, stepping forward a step.

"Look down there! By the lake," Lex said excitedly, pointing hastily down towards the water's edge.

Down by the waterside was a heard of Triceratops with the two Ankylosaurus's lumbering along behind them. On the far side of the lake the Brachiosaurus's had their necks held high and were crooning low bellows across the valley. The smaller dinosaurs flitted in and out of the bigger ones, playing games or simply grazing.

"I don't believe it," Ian said "for once, I'm seeing dinosaurs and I'm in no danger of death!"

John shook his head, "for once Ian, it would be nice if you could perhaps compliment on my marvellous creations."

"It's like a postcard," Sarah said softly, taking out her Nikon and started snapping photos left, right and centre.

She wasn't wrong, the way the moon was hitting the still surface of the lake and the wind gently blowing through the trees, it felt like a scene from a movie. "So you see people, Jurassic Park has changed beyond recognition, it's safer than ever," John explained as they all took in the awe inspiring picture in front of them.

For a long while they sat in the waving grass and watched the placid herbivores make their way around until finally they drifted back off towards the trees on the far side of the valley. "I'd say it's time for us to head on back wouldn't you?" John asked as he stretched his weary limbs.

Ellie stifled a yawn and nodded in agreement. "I suppose it is, especially if we have another big day tomorrow," Alan said as he stood from his sitting place in the grass. Alan had to wake Ian from his sleep as they moved back towards the bus. They sat in the same seats as they had sat in on the way to the lake.

Alan took the window seat and placed his hat over his eyes as the low rumble of the bus became audible and the vehicle drove off back up along the track way. After a few minutes Alan became aware of something on his shoulder. He took away his hat to see Ellie asleep on his shoulder, her peaceful breathing making him smile. He brushed some of the hair out of her eyes and replaced the hat, drifting off to sleep with a smile.