A Sound of Thunder

Jack nodded when Mark put his finger to his lips, then glanced down at the walkie-talkie in his hand- their single source of communication with the others, still working even after being dropped several times in the storm outside. Both men were soaked to the bone, shivering slightly, but determined to keep going. The rest of their group was hidden away in the control room, trying to get the phones, the locks, the guns, anything to work.

The control room was down the hallway.

Two blood-craving raptors prowled between them and the hallway.

Jack and Mark were crouched behind a table, and could peer over it to find a clear view of the hallway straight ahead, both raptors, and the open door to their left leading to the dining room. They couldn't be seen, under any circumstances. This wasn't a T-rex. With a Tyrannosaur, all you had to do was lock your joints up, become stock-still, and it wouldn't even know you were there.

Raptors...raptors were different.

"One," Jack counted in near silence,"two, three."

He turned and chucked the walkie-talkie into the dining room, attracting the attention of the carnivores; they stalked into the expansive chamber, searching for their prey under tables and behind platters.

Jack shut his eyes for split second, unable to believe that it had worked. His eyelids flew open instantaneously. No wasting time. No creeping around. That wasn't how raptors worked. He threw Mark's arm over his shoulder and yanked them off of the floor. Jack ran. He ran, more or less dragging his injured friend down the hallway, listening to the raptors realize their mistake and pursue...

The door was there. Jack lifted his leg and kicked it open. With a grunt, he shoved Mark into the control room before following and slamming the door shut, pushing his back against it.

"Get the locks working!" he screamed as Mark joined him in securing the entrance. There was a boom of a huge weight throwing itself against the door, and the two men were jolted back before reasserting their position. "Get the locks fucking working!"

"I'm working on it!" Ken shouted back from where he sat in a precarious position manning the main computer. Wade stood behind him, helping, peering over his shoulder, fingers rapping a meticulously random rhythm on the hard material of the other man's chair, which only increased the anxiety of the situation. "I have to restore full power in order to do that!"

Boom.

"I already rebooted the whole park, what more do you want?" Mark demanded, wincing at the weight he was putting on his right leg in order to keep the door shut. His nose had begun to bleed again, and this only excited the unwanted guests further when they caught the scent.

"A bit less pressure would be nice!" Boom.

"This isn't a vlog, this is real!" Marzia insisted, positioning herself between the two men who were keeping the door heavier on their side, straining herself to help them. "If the doors do not lock, we will die!"

"None of these are loaded!" Marzia's boyfriend Felix called out, flinging a gun to the floor in frustration. Boom. Beady, reptilian eyes gazed into the small window of the assaulted door. Jack screamed at the sight of them.

"There!" Wade pointed at the computer. "Click there, open that file!"

Marzia cried out when the door was struck again.

"Ken!" Mark pleaded.

Boom, and the door opened wide, too wide, too wide; the raptor pushed its head into the space, hissing and eyeing up its prey. Cold eyes, planning eyes, evolved and prepared. A claw scraped at the wrong side of the door, close to the humans attempting to hold it back. There was blood all over its jaws-

"I can't hold this for much longer!" Mark warned, face white with pain. The raptor heard his voice, sensed the fresh blood trickling from his nose, and let out an unearthly shriek, newly excited, pushed in further, wanted it even more now.

Felix cried out as he struck the dinosaur in the head with the butt of a gun. It wailed and relented before pushing back in, but Felix did not let up: With five more blows to its jaw and skull, the raptor backed up enough to allow the other three to shut the door again.

They were back to where they had begun.

Boom.

"Any time would be a good time to get the power up!" Jack yelled from across the room. "Any time at all!"

BOOM.

"Hurry!" Marzia insisted as the door was flung open wider with the force of each impact.

BOOM.

Their strength was waning. The predators knew it. Next time, the raptor would get in again, the other would follow, and there would be no getting them out. Next time, there would no longer be six of them.

"I've almost got it-" Ken was saying.

"Now, now, now!" Mark shouted.

Ken was mumbling to himself, each word growing in volume. "Parkcontrolroomgreenrebootedenter- got it!" He slammed down on one of the keyboard keys, eyes alight with triumph. And just a split second before the door could jar again, the locks slid into place, and there was a universal swell of relief between the six YouTubers. Ken sagged into the chair, Felix held Marzia, Mark sank to the floor. Wade clenched his hands together as if in prayer and Jack leaned against the wall.

Everybody breathed.

The silence was broken by the phone. Ringing. Someone was out there, looking for them. All hearts soared as Wade answered it, conversing too quickly for the rest of them to follow.

"We've got a helicopter waiting on the landing pad," Tyler was informing Wade from the emergency bunker. "I'll drive over, pick you all up, and we'll get the hell out of here. Is everyone else with you?"

"Yeah," Wade replied. "Yeah, there's six of us here. But give us some time, there're two raptors blocking the door. We'll have to climb through the ducts."

"That's fine," Tyler assured, cramming essentials into a backpack and loading his gun. "Just get out of there."

"We will, Tyler, just please h-"

Wade was cut off by the sound of something shattering into a million pieces on his end, and Tyler could hear pandemonium in the background. "Wade?" he cried. "Wade!"

Tyler heard screaming, and nothing else.

"The ladder, Felix, get-"

"There's no ammo!"

"Sean, wait-!"

"They're in, oh God, they're in, they're in!"

"Help him, help Mark, get him up and-"

"Jack, hold on, Jack, don't-"

"They're in!"

The line went dead. The only noise came from the sound of thunder outside.