Chapter 110: The new king of the dinosaurs

The zoo reopened to the public just after lunch. Although there were still several hours to go before the mysterious 'new king of the dinosaurs' was revealed, visitors had already flocked to make sure they didn't miss their seats. Although Mega Beast Park had always been very busy, that day hit an unprecedented peak. The zoo's coffers received more money than ever and the guides had their work cut out to manage all the visitors. Oddly, all the animals seemed a little restless that day. However, zoo curators blame the massive numbers of people for that. Even if they couldn't still enter, the enormous size of the new enclosure can already make the customers dream. "Have you seen how big it is? Who knows what it will contain!" "I cannot wait to see. According to the news, it's something gigantic!" "Why do you think they didn't use the electric fence?" "Maybe this animal is so big that it can't be contained by it... or maybe it's shockproof!" "According to the news this dinosaur could easily take down any predator. What can be powerful enough to defeat a t-rex?" Theories, speculations and hypotheses found excellent ground in the huge tide of visitors. And not only among them: even on the Internet and on social networks a real battle to the death was taking place. "Everyone knows that tyrannosaurs are the ultimate product of evolution. Consequently, this dinosaur has to be a very similar one, maybe just a little bit bigger" "The tyrannosaurus had the privilege of receiving the word 'rex', meaning 'king', in its name. It's time that it loses its title?" "If the dinosaurs' king scepter passes to someone else, then we should change the nomenclature as well" "I don't think it's just a tyrannosaurus-like animal. There are a lot of dinosaurs similar to the t-rex, like the giganotosaurus or the mapusaurus, but that doesn't make them more powerful. In my opinion it is something profoundly different" "Aaaah, damn! Why does the sun take so long to set? Curiosity is devouring me!" It continued like this for hours. In fact, one of the fundamental laws of humanity was that people loved to argue about anything. The advent of social media had only taken this feature to the extreme. And since the 'new king of the dinosaurs' was the hottest topic of the moment, everyone on the Internet was constantly talking about it, and this only increased its fame which in turn made people talk even more. Of course this only benefited Ludlow, attracting more and more visitors to the zoo and pouring money into his pockets. When the doors to the viewing galleries of the new enclosure were finally opened in the late afternoon, visitors swarmed inside them, to the point that guards had to intervene to avoid excessive crowding. There were more spectators there than in a football stadium! From the viewing galleries you could see the inside of the enclosure, which was more than a hundred square meters wide. The habitat was built to be a kind of plain, with a small artificial pond and some trees and rocks to create atmosphere. In the center of the enclosure was a gray platform of about thirty square meters, certainly the point where the animal would be introduced into the enclosure: everyone was convinced that there was some sort of cage underneath and that at the right moment it would be pulled up. The walls of the enclosure were more than twenty meters high and almost twice as thick. The panoramic galleries were contained within them, raised at least ten meters above the ground. They were spread evenly over the entire enclosure, except for a point in the north, where there was instead a sort of raised stage fifteen meters high. As the sun began to set, the lights in the enclosure came on, illuminating it brightly, and entertainment music began to play through the speakers. Food and souvenir vendors roamed the viewing galleries, trying to get viewers to buy anything. Hammond and his guests arrived slightly late due to traffic, but luckily their seats were reserved in the front row. Apparently Ludlow wanted to make sure that his uncle could well admire his victory. The group sat down in their seats and silently waited for the moment of revelation to arrive; some of them, like Ian and Sarah, had mournful faces, others like Billy and Alan were eager to see the creature for themselves, and others like Kelly were simply a little curious. Finally, exactly at eight o'clock in the evening, as he had promised, the small figure of Ludlow appeared on the stage. The crowd cheered and he replied with a bow. Although he couldn't hear the applause because of the glass, he had inserted some microphones in the galleries so he could hear the reaction of the spectators and act accordingly. "Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome!" he spoke, and his voice was broadcast throughout the enclosure on the loudspeakers. "Thank you for your presence and for your warm welcome. I assure you that coming here tonight will not have been a waste of time! I'm here today to introduce you to the greatest and most powerful creature ever exist!" The crowd erupted again in cheers and screams. Ludlow waited a full three minutes for the applause to subside, enjoying their sound. Although he hardly ever attended shows, after years of openings he had learned how to engage the audience, and even though he was starting to get old he still hadn't lost his touch. "It was the ruler of its world. The natives who live there call it 'the Great King of the Forest', and not without reason. No creature could ever threaten its absolute dominance. It is the supreme pinnacle of all evolution! The most majestic creature that has ever appeared in this world!" The music intensified. Ludlow silently thought that he had chosen the right notes: the sounds were perfect for creating atmosphere. "And yet, this eternal king of all animals has fallen, and now it presents itself to you as a prisoner! Man's wit and intelligence have won even against the ruler of the forest! And now it is here, ready to be shown in front of all of you!" Ludlow raised his arms to the sky: "So, let's admire the new king of the dinosaurs!" The gray platform in the center of the enclosure began to rise, revealing how everyone expected a cage below. The crowd held a breath as a gigantic-sized sail began to emerge from underground, followed by a monstrous crocodile face, gigantic claws, and a body so large that even some sauropods blanched. The creature lifted its head and struck the bars with its strong claws, making them rattle so loud that it could even hear them through the glass. After that, it let out a roar so ferocious it made the spectators' blood run cold. The reporters, the first to recover, took bursts of photos. The common visitors also began to photograph the animal with their cell phones. Thanks to the presence of numerous youtubers who were taking advantage of the situation to do a live, then, even the social networks were inflamed. "It's... It's extraordinary!" "It isn't possible! Such a huge predator cannot exist!" "My God, look at that claws! It could kill a t-rex with one punch!" "That's not a dinosaur, that's a mythological monster!" "If I found it in front of me, I really think that I would die of fear!" "Look at that eyes. It really looks mad" The discussion was everywhere, in the stands, on television, on social media, everywhere. With the power of technology, everyone was admiring the creature, and everyone was ecstatic. No one had ever even imagined the existence of such a large beast! Hammond's eyes were wide as he looked at the animal, and so was Billy; Alan, on the other hand, seemed about to faint. Even if he had seen photos of the spinosaurus, seeing it live was a different experience altogether. "I would have never imegined..." he whispered as he watched the growling, furious creature inside the cage. "It is the top of the top of all animal life! 29 meters long and more than nine meters high, it weighs fourteen tons and has more than three hundred teeth!" Ludlow went on to list the characteristics of the beast one after the other. "Its skin is so thick and hard that normal bullets bounce off of it! It has the strongest bite in the entire animal kingdom, enough to crash a car effortlessly! It has claws as big as swords and legs that allow it to run at thirty kilometers per hour! We called it 'Spinosaurus ingens'!" The spinosaurus in the cage roared furiously and started butting at the bars of the cage. The bars cracked dangerously and the entire structure began to warp. The spinosaurus even started biting the bars, breaking them repeatedly. The weak steel of the cage was no match for the most powerful bite ever to exist in nature. The spectators began to get scared at that scene. Even though there was still the fence to separate them, they were used to seeing docile and peaceful animals. Even in a world where dinosaurs existed, the animals that appeared in zoos were tame creatures deprived of their wild temperament. This spinosaurus, on the other hand, seemed crazy. Ludlow realized the mood of the audience and quickly called attention to himself: "Now we will open the cage and allow it to enter its new home! It may take a few minutes to settle in, so don't be surprised if it behaves strangely!" Under his command the electronic cage lock unlocked and the door began to open. It didn't have time to open completely: as soon as it noticed it was moving, the spinosaurus charged and smashed the door with its head. Once outside, it arched its back and let out a roar, so loud it shook the reinforced glass of the viewing galleries. It started running from one side of the fence to the other, throwing head and shoulder against the walls and roaring furiously. Its eyes darted from side to side looking for any opening. "It wants to go out" Ian murmured without changing expression. "It's looking for a way to escape" "But it can't do that" Alan said. Ian grumbled. "I wouldn't be so sure. If moved by enough determination, any living thing finds a way" The spinosaurus kept hitting the walls for several minutes, then finally began to slow down. It seemed to be out of breath and furiously stared at the fence. Eventually, it turned and headed for the artificial lake. "It seems to have finally calmed down" Ludlow said, breathing a sigh of relief. "See? It just needed a few minutes to acclimatize" The audience cheered again. Unbeknownst to them, however, Sobek had no intention of stopping. The humans were too dumb to realize that he was just acting the silly, captive dinosaur character. After all, he didn't want humans to understand his true intelligence. But intelligence wasn't needed when you were a living tank. Sobek could easily act and still be able to do what he wanted to do. Let humans also enjoy that show: very soon, the show would have turned into their worst nightmare.