Waves crashed against the rocks and lapped onto the sandy beach as the helicopter circled overhead. The pilot kicked the tail around as the wind swirled, giving the man hanging out the right-side door a perfect view of the beach, the spotlight shining on the Tyrannosaurus Rex standing firm in the sand just fifty yards away.

        The team had been tracking the Rex for several hours, waiting for it to make its way to the beach as it did every day at about midnight every day. The Rex was known to travel down to the beach just after a late-night feast and drink not from fresh water, but from the ocean, in an odd display of consistent behavior.

      Salt water. Animals had a unique ability to self-diagnose when their body spoke of the need for additional resources or nutrients. Like modern-day animals such as dogs, who eat grass when they have upset stomachs, the Rex appeared to drink from the ocean three to four times a week, sparking a theory that it lacked sodium in its diet.

    Former scientists employed on the island believed that because of the tropical climate and the constant perspiration to regulate its own body heat, the Rex needed sodium intake to replenish what it sweated out. It didn’t get the sodium needed through normal consumption, so as all animals did, it sought it out.

  Yes, scientists believed reptiles from millions of years ago not only regulated their body heat just like humans did, but they understood their own nutritional needs and could self-diagnose. The only difference was sports drinks weren’t available for an animal of Max’s size to replenish the body with the sodium it lost. Even so, a massive animal like a Tyrannosaurus consumed hundreds of gallons of water every day. Quenching such a thirst would be seemingly impossible.

      Years churned as scientists observed the remote island that was used as a dumping ground for genetic experiments, both failures and successes. From a distance, using the most advanced unmanned aerial technologies, experts in fields of genetics, paleontology, ethology, and large-breed veterinary medicine all studied the behaviors of the Jurassic and late-Cretaceous occupants of the island with an intent to better understand their health and behaviors.

     Nobody thought the animals would last long in a foreign environment, but evolution and resilience were associated within certain tropical climates. The animals didn’t just survive, they thrived; shining a bright light into the conditions dinosaurs spent millions of years amongst.

     The radio crackled as the technician in the ops center on the modified warship anchored off the coast asked, “Good copy on the Rex?”

      “Bravo One is good copy on the target,” the co-pilot reported.

         “Status?”

         “South beach. Appears to be—”

        As it lunged forward, the T-Rex, which island employees had nicknamed “Max” or “Mad-Max” to some, cut the co-pilot off, and in a split second closed the gap between the hovering helicopter and where he once stood. In defiance of beliefs that the tyrant king was a sluggish but strong carnivore with an appetite for destruction and chaos, the Tyrannosaur moved incredibly fast.
      With a clap that echoed over the sound of the aircraft’s rotor wash, the powerful jaws snapped closed, just missing the landing gear bars running parallel to the aircraft, and the Rex stepped back and let out a deep, frustrating roar that cracked the glass of the helicopter’s side windows. Narrowly escaping the Rex’s jaws, the pilot pulled up on the stick at the last second, preventing the thirty-million-dollar custom adventure helicopter from becoming a crushed Pepsi can.

    As the pilot regained control and hovered over the beach again, the crew member in the back hanging out the side door positioned himself. With the Rex in sight, he regained his composure with a deep breath, admiring the massive bulk of the Rex before he reached inside for a large, stainless-steel rifle about four-foot long with a massive scope and raised it to his shoulder. Through the scope, the crosshairs focused on the neck of the large carnivore—its greenish-tan skin filling up the entire sight picture—and then pulled the trigger. The CO2-powered rifle barely bucked in his hands as the tranquilizer dart exited the muzzle and landed in the Rex’s neck with precision, which triggered an anger-fueled piercing roar with a shake of its massive head.

      The tranquilizer, specially formulated to take down large eight-and-a-half-ton dinosaurs like the Rex standing below, worked within milliseconds. Since they couldn’t just walk up to the Rex and give him a shot in the arm, they had to use a high-powered air gun from a safe distance, which limited penetration depending upon angle, air density, and angle.

     Given the factors, they believed it might take a few seconds before the Rex felt the effects of the tranquilizer.

    They were right. It needed a considerable duration. And the distance wasn’t safe by any means. They were at a convenient biting height.

     The angry Tyrannosaur snapped its jaws and bellowed a roar as the pilot pulled up and put space between the aircraft and agitated beast. The shuffle of the aggressive carnivore threw sand around the beach as he shook his head to free the tranquilizer dart and spun around in circles looking for danger. Soon the Rex would grow sluggish from the tranquilizer; the co-pilot radioed the medical team, spotlighting the hazard.

    “Medic One, this is Bravo One. Cleared to move in…” the co-pilot said over the radio.

    “It’s too early,” the crew member in the back said, with the rifle still in hand. “Give it a few more seconds.”

     “No time! We don’t know how he’ll react to the new tranquilizer!” the co-pilot said back.

      The massive predator quickly turned at the glowing amber light that illuminated his silhouette from the headlights of the medical team’s truck, penetrating through the dense leaves and brush of the forest just to the south of the Rex. The shadows of legs thick as tree trunks and sharp, foot-long teeth cast dark outlines on the sand as the medical team moved into position. Scared, the Rex roared out loud as a warning not to get closer. The driver slammed on the brakes and buried the front tires of the truck into the wet sand, then tried to put it in reverse, wedging the vehicle into the Earth.

        The back tires spun, throwing sand up behind them. Four-wheel drive only buried the truck deeper into the sand. Between the disturbing spinning tires and fledging sand, and the glow of the headlights, the Tyrannosaur known as Mad-Max grew intrigued. Curiosity spiked. Rage flowed as the heart rate increased. Max was not feeling the effects of the tranquilizer.

     Crew members in the helicopter directed over the radio for the medical team to move out, as the Tyrannosaur moved towards the truck, leaving massive, three-toed footprints in the white sand with every step that echoed like thunder. The driver continued to press on the gas, hoping the tires would catch traction as the Rex came closer into focus.

    “Load another dart!” the co-pilot yelled. The crew member slung the rifle over his chest, pulled back on the bolt handle and exposed the rifle’s breech. A stainless-steel syringe with protruding grid fins ejected, and another replaced it. The crew member pushed the bolt back into the breech, but it wouldn’t seat properly.

     “It’s jammed!” the crew member yelled out loud.

   The co-pilot gritted his teeth. “Try another round! Hurry, or they are going to die!”

        “All I have are non-lethals!”

       The Rex approached the medical truck, and the driver let off the gas. Within, the occupants halted as the creature lowered its head near the driver’s window, gazed in, and blinked. His basketball-sized eye of amber dilated, and the passengers could all hear the deep rasps of the Rex breathing before the shudder of its muscles pushed the dart from its neck.

       The pilot swung the helicopter around for another shot, this time hovering closer for maximum penetration. Scientists estimated that the Tyrannosaurus Rex had protective skin anywhere between three and six-inches thick, so the closer they go the better chance they had to achieve deeper penetration into the tough hide. They had to get closer. Max was the biggest Tyrannosaurs out of the six they’d studied.

        There was such a thing as too close.

       The Rex focused on the truck, so while the crew member readied the rifle, the pilot dipped the helicopter’s nose until they hovered just above the Rex’s bulky head again. At less than thirty feet off the deck of the beach, the rotor wash kicked up wind in every direction in a swirling vortex of sand and dead palm leaves. The Rex even lowered its head to block the wind, distracting it from attacking the truck.

   Through the crosshairs, the crew member could see the base of the neck, where the skull met the jawline, and pressed the trigger. The dart bolted from the rifle and lodged in the Rex’s neck, who groaned at the prick of the dart and turned his attention towards the hovering helicopter. In an uncharacteristic reaction, the Rex turned its massive head, squatted down on its legs, and jumped into the air. Snapping shut, the jaws barely missed the helicopter’s railing.
     Again putting the truck in reverse, the driver of the medical truck tried to dislodge them by rocking the truck back and forth to gain traction. In the acceleration and commotion, the Rex jerked its head, stomping down on the truck’s hood with an irritable roar. Metal groaned as the hood collapsed, and steam billowed between the cracks. The Tyrannosaur’s weight pushed the vehicle’s nose deep into the dense sand with another bellowing roar of satisfaction that tailed off at the end.

     The occupants looked up in hopes that the tranquilizer was starting to work.

      Stumbling, the Rex lowered its head to the ground, sharply jerking it back up before biting the truck roof and tearing away metal with its jaws in a defiant final act before sedation took over. The helicopter’s spotlight flashed to get the Rex’s attention, who in turn dropped the hunk of metal from its jaws and looked to the sky.

     Looking out the window, the co-pilot saw the Rex staring back with nervous anticipation. He could see in its eyes that the Tyrannosaurus was fighting the tranquilizer’s effects. It felt scared. Unsure of what was happening. Consumed in the moment’s chaos, only by force. Ready to defend itself against man and machine, who sought to bring him down.

  The fight lasted only moments more before he collapsed to his side in the sand, and the Rex was slumbering face-first on the beach as the waves lapped up against its snout.

    The helicopter departed, and the medical team radioed for help to the backup team, who stood by just down the beach, their eyes on a pack of raptors through their front windshield two hundred yards into the jungle.

      Raptors moved in silence; each footstep deliberate and tactical. They were the ultimate predators; fierce, and intuitively smart hunters. If the backup team had eyes on them, the odds were, the raptors had been watching them for far longer.

   The team needed to administer the medication to the Rex, wake him up, and get the hell out of there. Raptors could close the distance of a few hundred yards in thirty seconds or less when at a dead sprint. There would be no time to react. Survival would be a long shot. The backup team needed to keep eyes on the raptors and hope the medical team more with purpose.

    The driver of the backup team brought the radio to his mouth to warn the medical team when he heard an audible twill outside the truck.

     “What was that?” the driver asked. The man in the passenger seat looked out his window and then back out the front windshield. The raptors were gone.

       “Where did they go?”

      The audible twill was heard again, this time closer.

       The driver looked to his left, outside the driver’s side window. Two raptors stood not even five feet from his door; their eyes locked on his every movement. Two more approached the passenger door, their footprints imprinted in the sand from the tree line.

   Down the beach, the medical team unloaded their gear and administered two-foot-long vials of medication to the Rex and then took two more equal-sized vials of blood for testing. They all froze in place at the sound of gunfire down the beach and looked at each other in worry. Bright orange light mirrored off the sand, and someone yelled before everything went silent.

      Groaning, the Rex shivered and rolled its bulky head back and forth. Even though they hadn’t administered the syringe to wake him up, the sedation was already wearing off. The extra dose had metabolized faster than the lab anticipated, and an already furious Tyrannosaurus was about to awaken.

     With labored breaths, the Rex shifted in the sand, still lethargic from the tranquilizer, and the crew ran towards the tree line for shelter as he rose to his feet, stumbled and then gained his footing.

      An audible twill came from behind them as the crew knelt in the brush to watch the Rex. Through the greenery, another audible twill followed as two raptors poked through the brush and hissed a flash of hundreds of razor-sharp teeth.

     The last thing they all heard was the bellow of the tyrant king as he reared his head up to the moon and let out a horrifying roar that shook the Earth.