Jurassic Park

Dr. Roberta Carter, who goes by Bobbie, sits in a clinic in Bahía Anasco. Through the downpour, a helicopter from the nearby InGen resort drops down outside the clinic. A red-haired man named Ed Regis jumps out alongside two crewmen carrying a hurt man no older than 18. He has a “big slashing rip along his shoulder” (3), but when Bobbie asks what happened, Regis tells her it was a construction accident. Bobbie can clearly see many deep lacerations, as if the man has been “ripped open” (3). She proclaims that the man appears mauled, but Ed vehemently denies it. The man, though deeply wounded, manages to utter a phrase to Bobbie: “Lo sa raptor…” (5). There is an awful smell of death coming from the wounds, and the paramedic refuses to assist Bobbie any further, believing it to be the curse of a supernatural creature called a hupia. Out of nowhere, the man sits up and violently vomits blood before falling onto the floor and dying.

Mike Bowman and his wife Ellen and daughter Tina are driving their Land Rover through the lush jungles on the west coast of Costa Rica. The family is on vacation, but Ellen secretly planned the trip to arrange some affordable plastic surgery. She is insecure about her age having just reached 30. Tina is using the vacation as a chance to learn about the animals that live there; she is a curious and aloof child. They finally reach a clearing, and Ellen shows her characteristic worry when Tina goes running off towards the beach. Tina hopes to spot a sloth, but in the meantime marvels at all the beautiful birds around her. She sees something rustling in the bushes, and a somewhat large lizard crawls out. When it realizes Tina has no food, it crawls up her arm and onto her face. She begins screaming, and her parents run after her calls.

Tina is found by her dad with bites and a “foamy saliva” (16) all down her arm, which begins to swell the moment he picks her up and carries her to the Land Rover. Mike drives his daughter to the nearby hospital and the swelling spreads to her neck. Thankfully, they arrive in time and Tina is well taken care of. Neither the doctor nor Tina’s parents are sure what type of lizard attacked Tina, because it walked on its hind legs and seemed to make a chirping noise. A biologist named Marty Gutierrez explains it is a “striped basilisk lizard” (18). He states that Tina’s reaction was an allergy to reptiles. However, in the picture that Tina drew, the lizard has a longer neck and two fewer toes than it should. The family leaves the hospital with both the doctor and biologist in doubt about what type of lizard it really was.

Gutierrez sits on the beach wondering about the lizard attack. He cannot find any evidence of basilisk lizards attacking humans and doubts his classification. He hears from a local that many infants have recently been attacked in a similar way, and Gutierrez concludes it must be a new species of lizard. A howler monkey passes by and Gutierrez notices it is eating a lizard that looks exactly like the one Tina described. He shoots a tranquilizer dart at the monkey, which drops the lizard and runs off. Gutierrez ponders what he should do with his find, believing he has discovered a new species.

A doctor sends the “partially masticated fragment of unidentified Costa Rican lizard” (25) to a tropical disease lab at Columbia University for further testing. Meanwhile, in Bahia Anasco, a midwife is tending to a mother when she hears a chirping sound from the baby’s room. She opens the door to find three lizards there, and the baby has been torn apart. The lizards run out into the night, “chirping and squealing, leaving behind only bloody three-toed tracks, like birds” (28).

The lab in San Jose, Costa Rica uncovers some interesting results from the saliva sample. In a twist of fate, a technician named Alice Levin who works in a lab down the hall happens to walk by and see the picture that Tina drew of the lizard. She comments that it looks a lot like a dinosaur. Alice suggests they send the sample to the Natural History Museum. The head of the lab, Dr. Richard Stone, insists that it cannot possibly be a dinosaur. He shuts the sample up in the freezer and states that nothing further shall be done with it.