Chapter 106: Organizing an uprising

"Escape?" Carnopo shook his head. "Don't dream. I don't know if you've noticed, but you're locked in a cage, like me" "I could go out at any time. Look" Without getting noticed by the humans Sobek lowered one of his claws on one of the bars and cut it as if it were butter. The carnotaur gasped at that show of strength: cutting the reinforced steel like that was an unprecedented feat! "If you are so strong, why don't you escape right now?" "Because now isn't the time. I didn't let them caught me just to leave here empty-handed" Sobek answered. Carnopo clenched his teeth so hard that they screeched. "Did you let them caught you? Are you crazy by chance? I'd give my life to get out of this fence, and you..." "... and I'm the answer to your hopes. I'm here because I want you to escape with me. You and all the others" Sobek interrupted him, emitting a smile when he saw the amazement make its way on the face of the carnotaur. "Let us all escape?" The suspicion quickly returned to Carnopo's voice. "Why should you do this? We don't owe you anything" "Because a dinosaur alone, even if powerful, remains weak" Sobek replied simply. "Lots of dinosaurs together, instead, are strong" Sobek had deliberately used a quote from Caesar, the chimpanzee from the 'Planet of the Apes'. The famous phrase 'apes together strong' always had a big impact on the hearts of the viewers. Even Carnopo wasn't indifferent to it. That sentence was both mysterious and explanatory, perfect for the purpose: Sobek hadn't revealed his goal, but he had revealed why he wanted more dinosaurs with him, which was to have more strength. And this from the point of view of every living being was perfectly logical. The carnotaur snorted, clearly unsure of his thoughts, then he asked: "And can you really free us?" "I can prove it to you. But first you have to do one thing" Sobek replied. "You must join my pack" Carnopo didn't understand. "Why? What does it has to do with..." "Just say yes. Trust me" Sobek said to him. Carnopo chewed the air a couple of times, then took courage: "Okay, I accept. I'll be part of your pack". The System interface instantly confirmed his words. "Gorgeous. Then let me make you some welcome gifts!" Sobek replied, immediately sharing the [Linguistics] and [Powerful bite] skills. Carnopo felt a strange energy pass through him and for a moment he was frightened, fearing that he had ended up in some trap; but then he sensed something different in his body. His jaws seemed to have grown stronger, more robust, giving him a sense of power like never before. He ran into the thick of his grove and there he bit a stone; before his eyes, it crumbled under the pressure of his bite. The carnotaur was amazed. He quickly returned to the edge of the fence. "How did you do it?" he asked. "I have some powers. Quite a lot, actually" Sobek replied. "Now I've passed you two. I gave you the most powerful bite ever and the ability to talk to other dinosaurs". He emitted a smirk. "Now are you willing to listen to me?" Carnopo didn't even try to think of refusing. He was in a situation completely unknown to him, he was unable to consider it from a logical point of view. All he could do was listen to his mysterious interlocutor. "Good. So here's what you need to do..." ************ "Hey, Hank, did you see? The good Carnopo is angry with the newcomer" one of the guards who were watching Sobek pointed to the enclosure of the carnotaur. The other guard nodded. He too had noticed it: for a while Carnopo had come out of his shelter and had aimed at the spinosaurus locked in the cage. The two had been growling at each other for ten minutes now. "I guess they don't like each other" laughed the other guard, Jack. "Although I wonder what Carnopo wants to do. Come on, if this beast here were free, it could certainly kill that carnotaur with a sneeze" "I guess it's like children when they come here. As long as there is the fence they make any grimace at the animals. But if you remove the fence and they immediately run to cry to mom" the guard named Hank laughed. "I bet that if that beast were in the enclosure with him, Carnopo wouldn't think twice about running away" Suddenly the carnotaur turned and ran to the opposite side of the enclosure. "Mh. Apparently they didn't even need to be in the same enclosure" Hank laughed seeing the scene. ************* Big Al was the leader of a three male and two female allosaurus pack. Unlike Carnopo, they lived in a shared enclosure and even a bit larger. Big Al was a nine and a half meter long theropod dinosaur, a record for allosaurs. He had reached that size thanks to the constant care of the zoo veterinarians. He had been brought there when he was still very young and had lived like a pasha ever since. Even though he had lived in captivity, Al wasn't happy. For some reason, he always felt some sort of pull to the outside of the enclosure, even though he knew he couldn't climb over it. And even when he looked at the meat that was brought to him, he felt a sense of emptiness in himself, as if he wished it had legs and ran away. Al was born in the wild and remembered the hardships of catching even a lizard, but he also remembered the excitement that the hunt brought, and the pride when it ended in success. Getting food alone was tiring, but the sense of accomplishment that came with sniffing the prey, following the trails, finding it, chasing it, and finally catching it had never felt it again. Even when he played with the other allosaurs he didn't perceive that sensation. He was fifteen years old now and he felt his life was terribly boring. Even though he had everything in the zoo, all he wanted was to get out of the enclosure and go back to hunt, if only for one time. But he knew this was impossible: the fence could not be crossed. Only one was able to make it: the other dinosaur that was in the enclosure next to his. It had large horns on its head and very short arms. Al had seen that the dinosaur had once managed to escape, since it had run right in front of his fence. Even if they later recaptured him and brought him back to his enclosure, that dinosaur remained a heroic figure to Al. It could be safely said that Al saw him as human kids saw sports champions or music idols. That dinosaur's enclosure was right next to hers; only a fence divided them. Every day, Al would go to that fence hoping to see his hero. Even though he couldn't tell him anything, since they spoke two different languages, he was happy just to keep him some company: he knew that this dinosaur lived alone. That day was no different from the others. Unlike his companions who remained at the man-made pool of water, clearly visible for the tourists to see, Al went to the fence and waited. And the other dinosaur came, coming out of the grove where he often hid. The two looked at each other for a moment, then the dinosaur spoke: "We need to talk" Al jumped back, walking a couple of meters away. "You... can you speak my language?" he asked breathlessly. "Now yes. I'll explain you why" the other dinosaur replied. "The time for our revenge has come. Tonight we will leave here". His lips curled into a smile, showing the underlying teeth. "Dinosaurs together strong" ************ Old Li was a seven-ton old ankylosaurus. He was bigger than most of his fellows, because he had reached the ripe old age of sixty. That's why humans call it 'Old'. Old Li thought that nothing could surprise him at that age, but that day he found out he was wrong when, walking near the fence, he found on the other side a large allosaurus that spoke to him. "Sorry, this is important. Listen to me carefully..." ************* While carnivores were kept in separate enclosures, herbivores almost all shared the same enclosure, living together in perfect harmony. Taurus was still a young and energetic triceratops, but he too could be frightened by the unknown. And when an ankylosaurus had approached him to speak to him, he had almost jumped. "Listen to me well. Tonight we escape..." ************* A group of large synoceratops were drinking from the artificial pool when a triceratops approached them, shocking them with its words. "Listen to me carefully. It is of utmost importance..." ************** The utahraptors lived in an enclosure directly attached to that of the herbivores, and often went to the border looking at them ravenously. It was clear that they wanted to jump on him. However, that day the herbivores did not ignore them, but some of them ran towards them. "A rebellion is about to start. Be ready..." ************ Utahraptors were excellent jumpers, and flailing in the trees quickly attracted the attention of their neighbor, a massive, clumsy-looking ceratosaurus. "An uprising is about to take place. Here's the plan..." ************* Very quickly, the news spread throughout the zoo. The dinosaurs had talked very shyly to avoid letting humans know that they were communicating. If they had understood this, they would have become suspicious or at least they would have called some jokers in white shirts to formulate some bizarre theory. Of course, according to Sobek's instructions, all the dinosaurs had always asked the others to join the pack first. In doing so, Sobek had passed to all [Linguistics] and [Ambush]; these powers had trusted them. When Carnopo returned, everything was ready. "Everyone knows everything" he confirmed, then he continued: "The power plant is next to the baryonyx cage. To get there, you have to go through my enclosure, then that of the allosaurs..." Sobek wanted to get to the power plant for a very specific reason: if he destroyed it, all the fences would be blown. He wasn't sure if he had a chance to search on Internet about it, so he asked the dinosaurs to calculate the route for him. "Perfect. Tell everyone to get ready. I will act with the favor of darkness. Remember what I told you" Sobek said to him. "You don't have to worry, we have it in mind" Carnopo replied. "You can act whenever you want" Sobek was satisfied. "Good. Now roar at me, like you're scared or angry with me, or the humans might get suspicious" ************* "Hey Hank, Carnopo is back!" Hank barely looked up at the spot indicated by the other guard. In fact, the carnotaur's head was once again attached to the fence, and its eyes didn't move from the new dinosaur. "Damn. They really dislike each other" Jack said seeing them growl at each other again. Hank arched an eyebrow. He had been working in that industry for a few years and that behavior seemed strange to him. More than an attempt to intimidate the opponent, it seemed more a way of... communicating? His suspicions were sidetracked two seconds later, when Carnopo let out a roar in the direction of the new dinosaur. In response, the spinosaurus thrashed furiously inside the cage, continually hitting the steel bars with its shoulders, hips and head. The carnotaur at that sight ran away. "Hey, hey, calm down! Calm down!" Hank exclaimed, patting the dinosaur's side. He was thankful that the cage immobilized it, or he would never have dared to touch it. "Keep your cool! Take it easy!" After a few seconds the giant dinosaur finally calmed down, but it continued to breathe noisily in clear anger. The two guards heaved a sigh of relief. "Damn. I think that Carnopo stepped on the wrong opponent's toes. This guy is a psychopath!" Hank exclaimed listening to the furious breath of the animal. It was clear as sunlight that it wanted nothing more than to go out and chase the carnotaur. The two guards weren't as calm as before. As long as the dinosaur stayed quiet it wasn't much of a challenge for them, but now that it had shown its aggressive side, they were more nervous than ever. They didn't know why, but they felt that this animal could come out of the cage if it wanted to. Fortunately, after just half an hour, the employees came to take it to the new enclosure, freeing them from onerous employment. The dinosaur was dragged away and carried underground through a tunnel, until it came to a huge door. This opened, revealing an empty chamber inside, large enough to hold it. Once there, they left the cage and closed the door. Finally the cage opened and Sobek was able to move again. He really needed to stretch his bones. However, this was not the time to fool around: thanks to his extraordinary sight, he could see the infrared cameras even in the dark. While he technically didn't want to do anything weird, he didn't like being watched. So he pretended to be full of energy and ran across the room smashing the cameras with his tail, pretending they were random accidents. When he finally finished he allowed himself to inspect the walls of the cell. As he imagined, they were covered with bars. This was not a room: it was a cage that would have been pulled up at the time of the performance. Apparently, humans wanted to make things awesome. "Good. As they wish, I'll give them the best show they've ever seen!" Sobek laughed in his mind. ************* "Hey! The spinosaurus is smashing the cameras!" In the control room of the park, some technicians realized that the newly arrived dinosaur was destroying any electronic device, even if not voluntarily since, technically, it was just running around in circles. When the last camera went out, one of the technicians asked: "What do we do? Do we repair them?" "And how? Going in there? I don't know about you, but I'll not enter in that cage" another technician replied. "What does it matter if the cameras are broken? That animal can't go out anyway and thanks to the sensors we can still monitor its heartbeat and make sure it's ok" "I completely agree. We will think about repairs tomorrow, when the spinosaurus will be in the enclosure" another one said. "That poor beast has been immobilized for over a month. Let's leave it alone while it stretches its bones!"