Free Jurassic Park^TM III Novelization by Scott Ciencin Page A

on the prize.
    GRAGHHHHH-RAGHHHHH!
    Furiously, the Spinosaurus battered the boat, sinking the barge, cage and all, into the river. As the icy water rose in the cage, Alan frantically pressed the phone’s “talk” button.
    “ELLIE!” screamed Alan, praying it was her. Praying she had caller ID or star-six-nine or some other blasted form of suburban tele-technology that would give her a clue he was reliving his worst nightmare!
    “Alan?” Ellie said. “Alan, is that—”
    The deafening roar of the Spinosaurus came again, drowning out Ellie’s voice.
    The water was now up to Alan’s neck. He pressed his face against the bars and kept the phone just over the waterline. The Kirbys struggled beside him.
    “ELLIE!” Alan hollered. “SITE B, ELLIE! THE RIVER—”
    Then the water closed over Alan like a fist. He jammed the phone into his waistband and held his breath as he and Paul tugged desperately on the cage door. All four were running out of air as the cage suffered another jarring impact. Their world tilted to one side and they rose up, as if they were being hauled by an insane machine.
    The Spinosaurus lifted the cage out of the river in its powerful jaws. It shook the cage, trying to find a way in. As the cage toppled, its door swung open and Paul flew out, splashing into the river. He surfaced, out of breath and disoriented.
    Alan, Amanda, and Eric weren’t so lucky. Still trapped in the cage, Amanda screamed as the dinosaur turned the cage upright and reached inside with its long clawed arms. Eric screamed with her as a giant killing claw nearly ripped his shirt.
    Alan tried desperately to think of something to do, but his mind was stricken with terror.
    In seconds, they would all be eaten.
    Near the dock, Paul watched in horror as the Spinosaurus attacked the cage full of food.
    Food.
    His family was
food
to this thing!
    Paul felt his entire body shudder, but he couldn’t escape the truth:
No one can save my family now but me.
    Paul climbed halfway up the abandoned crane arm. He waved frantically and yelled, “Hey! Hey! OVER HERE! HEEEEEYYY!”
    The dinosaur turned, the cage still in its grip, and grunted at the sight of Paul, as vulnerable as a worm on a fishhook.
    RAHHHHGHHHHHHHH!!!
    The dinosaur cast the cage aside and came after him.
    “That’s right, come on, ya big wussbag!” Paul hollered. With shaking hands, he climbed even higher.
    Eric was afraid.
    He’d stayed alive for eight weeks. Managed not to get eaten, or poisoned, or ripped apart. But what did that matter? Now he was facing something more frightening than drowning or being eaten.
    He was about to see his own father torn apart by a ravenous predator.
    “Dad!” Eric screamed.
    Then he felt Alan’s hand grasping the back of his shirt. The scientist practically dragged Eric and his equally panicked mother to the shore.
    Alan watched as his father climbed higher and higher up the crane arm, narrowly avoiding the Spinosaurus as it reached for him.
    “All right, Dad!” Eric yelled. “Keep going!”
    Enraged, the Spinosaurus clutched the steel lattice of the arm and rocked the unstable structure back and forth. Dangling fifty feet over the water, Paul was slung side to side.
    “Run!” Paul shouted to his family. “Amanda, get Eric away!”
    Eric looked to his mother, who seemed to have no idea how to make this impossible choice. Her husband—or her son?
    Eric made the decision for her. “We’re staying. We’re gonna help Dad!”
    The only question was how.
    Alan spotted a shiny object among the debris from the boat. It was a flare gun, with spare flares attached to the handle.
    Picking up the gun, Alan slammed a flare into it. He tried to aim for the dinosaur’s head, but the blasted thing was moving so fast he was sure he’d miss.
    Then he sniffed the fuel that had spilled over the water and another idea came to him. He aimed the gun at the fuel slick and fired.
    WHOOOOOSH!
    The river ignited! The Spinosaurus roared as flames