"What're we gonna do?" Julie asked.

"We'll hafta make a jump for it," John called back. Margo's eyes were wide. "It's gonna hurt, though." As the trees got closer, John rammed into the Triceratops, hoping to force it back. His tactic was unsuccessful. "Better do it now," he suggested, easing the speed.

"Go, go!" Max yelled at Julie, standing. Julie stood, easing out the window. She held her breath and leaped, remembering to roll when she hit the ground. Max went next.

"Get moving before he makes us hit a tree," John said to Margo. Margo paused. "Hurry!" Crawling into the back, Margo eased herself to the window, leaping as the Jeep continued to slow. John took one last ram against the Triceratops' body before he opened the door. There was a tree directly ahead. John leaped clear, rolling in soft grass. When he stopped, he watched the Triceratops force the Jeep into the woods. It smacked with a crunching jolt against the trunk of a large tree, crushing the hood and motor. The Triceratops doubled back; lowering its head as it rammed the side of the vehicle, tossing it deeper into the trees. The dinosaur stopped, gave a satisfied snort and returned to its herd.

"Everyone okay?" John asked as his companions caught up to him.

Margo tightly wrapped her arms around John's neck. "I didn't see you jump," she said. "I thought you were still in the Jeep when the Triceratops hit it."

"I'm okay," John assured her, giving a tight squeeze. "We better get moving."

Far down along the edge of the trees, the Tyrannosaurus Rex headed in their direction, keeping a careful watch of the Triceratops. "Doesn't this guy ever give up?" Margo asked.

The light was nearly gone now, night settling in. Strange noises emanated from the shroud of trees. Looking ahead at the total blackness and, then, back at the approaching nightmare, John gave a slight shove forward. "Let's go." The quartet ran into the forest.

For several minutes, nothing but trees seemed to be their company. From behind, vibrating footfalls of the Rex echoed toward them. Tree branches snapped as its massive form, menacingly determined, cleared its own path. Rushing water to the left gave John another thought. He led his friends deeper into the unknown.

At the bank of the river, water rushed by, deeper than where they'd crossed near the Stegosaurus herd. "We gotta cross," John said before anyone spoke. Margo, Max and Julie flashed him a questioningly gaze. "We gotta loose our scent so he looses it," John explained breathlessly. He stood at the very edge. "Don't fight the current. Swim across. It'll push you downstream. Pull yourself out on the other side." With his instructions complete, John stepped in, eventually diving forward. He was swept along, but swam like he'd told the others to do.

Margo looked at Max who gave a nod. She went next, gasping from the cold, swimming with all her strength. Max and Julie went together.

On the opposite side, John stood, straining against the darkness to see his friends. Margo was a few meters to the left. He rushed to her side, helping her from the suction of the unrelenting water. Max and Julie came over to them together. "We did it," Margo said, smiling with joy.

"Let's move quickly and quietly," John said, picking their path through thinning trees. In the vast distance, the frustrated Tyrannosaurus Rex made noises, trying to flush his prey out.

Making their way to another open area, they were met with an agricultural compound. Rows of tomato plants, corn and fruit trees stretched as far as they could see. "Food," Margo said softly. "Man, am I hungry." She plucked a few ripe tomatoes, walking with John to the left toward a bright white light.

John took a small selection of fruit from the nearest trees as Margo took the first bite of her tomato. "I wonder what's over there," Margo said, referring to the light.

"I don't know," John replied. The Tyrannosaur's calls drew nearer. "We'd better figure it out fast," he added, gazing back into the forest. They jogged, approaching a small series of buildings. A huge silo filled with corn had the white light raised high over the compound's structures.

"Think we can wait out the night in one of those?" Max asked.

"I hope so," John returned. To the far end, there was a house. John turned the doorknob when they climbed up the stairs. The door opened. "Thank God," he smiled, walking in, sitting on a couch at the far end of the wall. "Don't turn any lights on." He then took a bite of a pear, his stomach aching. Margo ate her tomatoes, sitting with him.

At the window, finished with an ear of corn, Max watched the T-Rex slowly scan over the fields, searching for them. "Shit, here it comes again."

John walked over to Max, looking out the window. The dinosaur searched methodically, its head moving slowly around. "It's confused by all the vegetable scents," John deduced. "We'll stay here and see if we can wait it out till morning. As long as we don't make any noise or try to leave, we should be safe."

Margo was at his left side. "What's that bright star up there, John?" she asked, taking another snippet of tomato, pointing to the sky.

"Enyo," John replied. Margo gave him an inquisitive glance. "That's the asteroid that hits tomorrow," he explained.

"Strange name," Margo said.

"Not really. It's poetic justice. Enyo was the ancient Greek goddess of destruction."

"In that case, I agree," Margo said, her eyes drifting back to the brilliant point of white light. "How'd it get here?"

"Astronomers think there's a very large area beyond the solar system where comets and asteroids lurk," John began a soft dissertation. "They also think our sun has a dark companion they've called Nemesis which passes through this ring of debris, sending some of the objects hurtling into the inner solar system."

"Nemesis?" Margo echoed.

"Another Greek goddess," John explained. "She constantly persecuted the rich, proud and powerful." Margo looked at him as if annoyed. "It's interesting the Greeks had goddesses doing so many terrible things." Margo gave a playful grin. "Even Nyx was the goddess of night."

"That's okay," Margo chided. "Christianity blamed the fall of man on a woman. Poetic justice is that, women are the cause for the persecution of men." She smiled, her eyebrows raising.

John simply grinned. Then, overpowered by their condition, he yawned. "We'd better get some sleep," he said. "We don't know when Enyo's supposed to impact and we don't know how far from ground zero we are. Besides, we still may have to out-smart and out-run the T-Rex tomorrow."

Returning from the peaceful blackness was like waking into a nightmare. At the edge of consciousness, John heard screams and thuds. When his couch moved, John's eyes opened fully, squinting against brilliant sunlight. Margo backed into him, desperately clutching at his right arm. She was wailing in fear.

Sitting upright, John quickly surveyed the situation. A portion of the roof was missing, having been smashed inward. Windows were broken, the walls cracked and buckling. Fully awake, John bolted backward against the sofa when he saw the Tyrannosaur's head through the opening. Narrow eyes peered down at the cornered victims, the Rex almost grinning.

"This way!" Max called from behind, Julie at his side. "I think there's some passages leading from the basement." Margo pulled John up, the pair racing through a doorway and down ancient wooden stairs. Bare light bulbs provided the only light down, swinging on suspended wires.

Outside, the T-Rex sounded a mighty roar, arching its head backward. It lunged down, snapping at the roof, pulling up another section between dagger teeth. Tossing it to the side, the Rex raised its back leg, slashing forward, slamming claws through the corner wall. It shattered, falling inward, the forward wall lazily toppling to the ground. With another solid kick, the king of the dinosaurs managed to bring the rest of the roof down, neatly folding it in the middle. Plaster and wooden walls were no match for the animal's fury, fragmenting, ripping away.

"It's in!" Margo screamed at the bottom of the stairs. She bolted to the side where Max fondled the controls to a door. Cursing, Max aimed his gun, shredding the locking mechanism with hot lead. Prying it back, he managed to give them enough space to flee down a passage.

Running blindly, none of them noted the walls were lined with pipes and wires. Red light cast a dim glow. At various intervals, computer's control panels blinked at them. From far behind, dinosaur bellows rumbled through the narrow corridor. "What the hell happened back there?" John asked.

"The Rex waited in the fields all night," Max called back. "It started checking things out and spotted us. Then it attacked."

Ahead, the passage angled to their right, ending with an adjacent corridor, going in opposite directions. Without taking time to vote, they all ran to their right. At a point where the corridor seemed to form a joint, Max sealed the passage. Running up a gradual incline, they were faced with another danger.

A score of juvenile Velociraptors lingered about, staring at the humans curiously. A squeal came from the throat of one with pale blue flesh, its head decorated with feather-like plumage. Instantly, they hopped toward the stalled group of four, taking an attack stance.

A reddish hued demon pounced at John. He blocked a fatal blow with his leg, bringing himself around, kicking as hard as he could at the snake-like face. Stunned, the Raptor paused, taking a new course of action. Leaping straight up, it held onto pipes, seeking a position where it could drop down on John. Keeping his eye on the raptor overhead, John also tried to kick away a smaller infant.

Pulling back, Max opened fire, neatly taking down about half of the attackers. Julie held her hands pressed to her ears, the deafening echo in the corridor thundering with inhuman power.

Picking its chance to score, the Raptor overhead swung down at John, it's claws out-stretched. At the last possible instant, John sidestepped it, slamming its leathery body with a powerful roundhouse kick. While it struggled for balance, Max turned his weapon to it, pelting it with at least half a dozen bullets. Turning back to fleeing Raptors, Max pressed his advantage, firing up the corridor.

Spraying bullets punctured pipes, severed hoses and created sparkling firestorms as equipment was destroyed. Hissing steam billowed into the dim red, obscuring visibility. An explosion further ahead sent an orange ball of fire rocketing toward them. "Hit the dirt!" John commanded, falling on his abdomen. His companions followed his lead, the fire swirling angrily by, doing nothing more than singing them.

"Do you think you can cut the Rambo act for five minutes?" Julie demanded of her partner, scrambling back to her feet. "Are you trying to get us killed?"

"'Scuse me for trying to save our asses," Max returned bluntly.

"That explosion probably cleared the way," John hypothesized quickly. "Let's move." He jogged, avoiding hot steam. When he reached the breach in the tunnel, John found there was a masonry wall beyond, separated by a gravel roadway. Jagged metal and sparking wires hung in the opening. Without warning, the awful smell of a thousand dead things wafted to him. "Move!" John bellowed frantically.

Max and Julie, several meters behind, were cut off when the skull of the Tyrannosaurus Rex burst inward, jaws snapping, seeking anything to kill. Backing for a second, it's massive head smashed inward again, pulling apart the framework of the tunnel. It bellowed a long roar, biting at tubes along the opposite wall. Fortunately, the dinosaur's head was too large to fit full inside.

"Max! Julie!" Margo screamed and looking back as she and John sprinted forward.

"Keep moving!" John shouted above the T-Rex's earthquake-like roar. "We'll have to regroup later. Right now, we gotta get outta here." Rex pulled a section of the tunnel's other wall apart, determined agility and size lending it the power to gradually rip the metal walls loose.

Further up, John brought he and Margo into a factory-like area. The huge complex, its concrete block walls lined with pipes and catwalks, not the refuge he'd hoped to find. Picking a reluctant path around machinery, John ascended metal stairs, leading Margo into storage areas.

Heading deep into the facility, John stopped along side another door, doubling over, and his breathing quick. Margo, catching her breath first, peered into the room. "John, look," she said softly, tugging at the arm of his shirt.

He turned around, catching the rare glimpse of a Velociraptor making a nest. The female sniffed the ground, circling an area. She used hind legs to scratch and throw dirt away, like a dog digging a hole with its front feet. She lay in the hole, burrowing around to make it the correct size. "I don't think this'll be safe enough to stay in either," John considered upon seeing the Raptor. He started walking toward a series of doors, trying several before one opened.

Outside, John and Margo found themselves at the edge of a forest, a vast beach along a blue ocean shore to their left. A volcano spurted small ash clouds into an unobscured sky straight ahead. Reptilian birds soared through the skies like bats accustomed to daylight. Herds of Sauropods lazily stepped into the water. Parasaurolophus herds ambled their way along the beach.

In the ocean, past the shallow water shelf, Plesiosaurs snapped at circling Pterodactyls, their long necks almost easy enough to mistake for Sauropod necks. They stalked the waters in small pods, pulling nearby fish into their jaws. Huge fins in place of legs reminded John of whale fins.

Walking forward, staying at the edge of the trees, John and Margo gawked in wonder, for the first time, taking in the beauty of a world long dead. Sunlight created beams of golden rays pouring down through tree tops stretching up into the blue sky. Chattering insect sounds filled their perceptions. Sticks crunched underfoot, hoots and howls of forest creatures ever present.

John noticed blurred movement to the right. He saw a smaller dinosaur running. Its scarlet hide was thick and callused, dry. Feather-like head plumage blew back as it ran. Other scrambling sounds came from behind. John and Margo turned, expecting the worst. However, a scarlet Velociraptor pack hunted, preparing to ambush some unsuspecting dinosaur headed toward the forest.

The hunters stopped by a grouping of trees having low hanging branches. They crouched down and began leaping upward. Perfectly, they landed on branches, ducking behind others. Some used a hand to bend a branch back to keep an eye on the path. Their hissing stopped, the forest becoming still.

A taller animal lumbered along on hind legs toward the trees. Its mouth was crudely shaped like a duck's bill. The dinosaur trumpeted through its nostrils, eyes scanning the area. It appeared timid. The Velociraptors waited like statues as the beast came closer. Their eyes narrowed like gun fighters in Grade-B movies. Their stance was steel framed. The Hadrosaur took another step. One of the pack hunters made the subtlest of eye movements.

The attack came fast. Smaller animals leaped from the trees onto the larger dinosaur's back, hissing, squealing. Sickle claws ripped flesh open, the Hadrosaur rearing violently, trying to swing them away. Its tail lashed out like a whip, slammed into one, breaking its neck. The hunter clattered to the ground, groaning with an unearthly sound, taking several moments to die.

Others leaped up, making quick cuts with claws, jumping back, and repeating the maneuvers. The large animal yelped in pain, driven to madness. It spasmodically thrashed around; tail convulsing until it toppled over with a loud thud. Sickened, John and Margo watched in horror as the blood bath feast commenced.

A roar unlike anything John ever head came from behind, making him jump. Turning, he saw the Tyrannosaurus Rex charging in their direction. The Velociraptors ate, undaunted by the Rex's sudden appearance. The fiercest hunter the world ever knew was after the humans.

Running forward, everything seemed to move in slow motion. Thumping footfalls of the T-Rex drew closer and closer. Neither John nor Margo looked back. They didn't want to face certain death and stare it down. It'd be terrible enough to die in the maw of the hunter without having to see it.

John heard a sound reminding him of a jet flying overhead. All activity ceased. Even the enraged Tyrannosaurus paused with question, looking upward. John stared into the sky. "Enyo," he whispered.

A brilliant yellow fireball left a white trail of smoke as it fell. The growing point split into two segments. The smaller disappeared over the horizon while the larger impacted much closer, landing in the ocean, near the horizon.

The thermal pulse turned everything into a photographic negative for a split second. An orange ball of fire rose into the sky, swelling into a beautifully surreal mushroom cloud. A slight breeze gusted, the ground trembling. An impossibly huge wall of water raced toward them.

The Rex may have sensed danger, as awe-struck as John and Margo, but it was already too late to act. Everything around them caught on fire. A crackling sound slammed into the forest, blowing John backward. Margo was no longer at his side. The shock wave flattened every tree, lifting dirt and rock, sending all sailing. The T-Rex, the dead Hadrosaur and the Velociraptors were lifted, carried on the violent breeze. Everything around John exploded with fire, bursting into flames, igniting as if doused in gasoline.

The process reversed itself. Flattened trees were pulled to the opposite side, some snapping clean. Blowing fires seared everything a second time. Debris was sucked back toward the mushroom cloud in a gigantic vacuum. Tyrannosaurus Rex was included, floating through the air like a helpless bird caught in a storm.

The mushroom cloud blackened rains of fire falling like a melting umbrella. Shooting higher, spreading out, a black disk spilled like ink across the blue canvas of sky. The first tsunami slammed into the coastline, pulling John into its hellish grasp, taking every living creature with it several miles inland, washing bedrock clean of soil and life.

Behind the wheel of his car later that night, John paused behind another when the railroad crossing gates lowered, blocking the road, blinking red lights and bells suddenly coming to life. "Man, that was so good," Margo was saying, still raving about their experience in Virtual Reality. Max and Julie agreed from the back seat.

"Was it worth the money?" John asked, smiling. "Did you get all the thrills you paid for?"

"Damn right. All that, plus more," she confirmed.

Four diesel locomotives rumbled by, the InGen logo painted on their sides. "Hey look there," John pointed. "Talk about coincidence."

The train gradually slowed lines of boxcars clattering by. One, approximately a half size larger than all the others was supported on quadruple axles, its height twice as high. It was also wider. The InGen train halted, this boxcar sat in front of the crossing, blocking traffic in both directions.

"Oh, c'mon," John grumbled, frustrated. From his rearview mirror, John saw vehicles behind him, pinning him in line. He slapped the palms of his hands against the steering wheel, his attention drawn back to the oversized railroad car.

A low-pitched rumbling reached John's ears. Squealing metal followed. John's adrenaline rushed. He sensed danger, his heart hammering against his ribs. He blew the horn, looking backward, motioning to the car behind him to back away.

Margo screamed. John snapped around, his face going pale.

The side of the boxcar ripped from the inside out, night black claws tearing an opening through thick steel. The entire side exploded from a powerful blow, the roof lifting. John's eyes bulged as the Tyrannosaurus Rex raised to his full eighteen-foot height, calling out with a metallic shriek.

Stepping forward, the T-Rex got its foot under the car in front of John, lifting it up and backward, sending it flying into cars behind him. It lunged downward, ripping the roof off John's car effortlessly. Spitting it to the side, Earth's worst nightmare bent forward a second time, enclosing its teeth around John's body.

With the simulation concluding, John stood inside the spherical configuration, his eyes wide once the visor was removed. Sweat beaded on his forehead, his breathing ragged. InGen Virtual Reality Technicians unfastened his arms and legs, helping pull wires away. Stepping down, John looked at faces waiting in line to spend large amounts of money for the thrill of a lifetime.

Margo, Max and Julie all wore John's flabbergasted expression. They were disconnected, feeling the strange sense of having actually left one reality for another. "Dudes, was it as cool as they say?" someone in line asked. John flashed him a blank look. "Must be," the waiting patron concluded. "They're zoning like zombies. Man, I hope my fifteen minutes is as good as theirs."

"Fifteen minutes," Margo softly repeated. "It felt like days."

"It's the best Virtual Reality Program I've ever done," Max said, smiling weakly. Julie, unsure of her footing, held his hand.

"The programming and everything stimulating the brain makes it feel longer," John offered his explanation to Margo's statement. He looked back as four more people being connected to the equipment.

The young quartet passed under a huge wooden gate