Memoir Project, Rough Drafted

Jurassic Park

The bus' tires, carrying a heavy load, cracked through the dry leaves and pine needles of the now natural scenery around us. Even inside, the wave of chatter kept silence from settling anywhere around the van. I chose a place more in the front, where the noise level was more like the flipping a book's crisp pages and the occasional chatting rather than the obnoxious, loud buzz of phone songs mixed with YouTube hits and people screaming at one another from two feet away that occurred in the back.
I sighed. This trip was sucking the life out of me.  It was an Audubon Zoo Volunteer excursion, and we were going to the Audubon Clinic for Research of Endangered Species, which was, supposedly, a forty-five minute drive, but who were they fooling? It felt like several hours had past. I failed to bring my loyal novel that constantly was at my side. Our peppy tour guide/leader, whose name is Stephanie Joseph, claimed that we were in the premise of the area already, bouncing up and down excitedly while she went down the common field trip etiquette rules that I had already memorized by heart. It wasn't until the noise level stopped suddenly, and the whole bus was engulfed in a shadow, did I realize that we had actually reached our destination.
It was familiar. Oh so Familiar. That huge Iron support arch, holding two large wooden doors straight. The sign that you have to crane your neck straight up to see, with the simple abbreviation "ACRES" written on it in bold, green letters, but I didn't see that.
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I saw the huge wooden gate, one torch lit on either side with the sign "JURASSIC PARK" written so proudly across it. The whole area was fenced off and the fences high, like a sort of privacy fence. The dense foliage nearly covered the entire wooden fence, and ferns occupied every single open space of ground there was. The small Jeep was packed to the brim, but everyone was still and excited. Suddenly, the screen towards the front of the bus, originally only adorned with the park's logo, lit up to a map, and a speaker announces "Welcome! To Jurassic Park!" as the gates suddenly opens and the Jeep drives through, not stopping once to consider a single thing.
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"Welcome! To Jurassic Park!" I called out to no one in particular, cupping my hands over my mouth to get the same stadium speaker sound. The bus driver had gotten out to shove open the gate, and all havoc broke loose inside of the bus. He seemed to have a bit of trouble with the doors, they were evidently heavy, but he eventually mustered to kick them open and he hobbled back inside of the bus, causing all talk to immediately die out until it became silent as the plague.

I then found myself facing a welcoming building, the same "ACRES" poster atop the doorway, a shiny cypress boardwalk leading to the entrance of the building, huge spaces of trees and small shrubs on either side of me. I was happy, so I ran. I ran like it was my dying wish to reach the other side of the place, and I had no time to lose. Busting through the door, I found myself facing a large lounge area, where chairs with bright green cushions and small wooden chairside tables adorned the place.
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The inside was the same color as the outside, a yellow cream-color. A huge Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton was placed in the middle of the huge room. Several maroon loveseats were in the left corner, all around a small coffee table with glass middle. On the table sat a few magazines and toys for children, along with an orchid plant. Behind the skeleton was a help desk, and a corridor left the right side more than what I could see. A flight of stairs was aside the desk, turning and giving a good bird's-eye view of the immense T-Rex carcass. Workers all bustles to and fro, some disappearing into the corridor, two take a seat around the coffee table and talk-
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"Novie, we're going back outside."
I reeled out of my daydream in a lighting fast motion, making my head throb miserably. Whoever told me that, I thank. My group was heading back outside again. To another bus. Boy, am I liking transportation vehicles less and less today. . .  

From there, we begin to take a tour of the animal they held out at the area, in a sort of zoo display. First up was a small carnivore. . .
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"Dilophosaurus!" the speaker voice proudly exclaimed. Several sets of vide, curious eyes turned to look at the exhibit behind the electric fence. A "CAUTION KEEP WINDOWS UP" sign rolled into our view, picturing a classic men's restroom human hanging out of a car shape, and a lizard with a stream of black emanating from his mouth towards the person.
"I don't see anything. . ." I whispered silently, face pressed against the cool glass window.
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"I don't see anything. . ." I murmured from inside the van, neck craned so I could see above the student on front of me.
"These cats are shy; don't be disappointed if you can't see them!" Stephanie cheered to us, and we just continued up the road.

The sky had looked bad since the beginning of the day, but it was black now, and a light drizzle was moistening the almost chalky earth, and hitting the metal roof of our truck. Tada-dada-dada-dada-tata-tat was all I heard. We had been stopped for a while in front of a lion's exhibit. He was, allegedly, once a pet, and doesn't attack humans like a normal one would. Eventually, we all filed off of the bus towards the exhibit. And my heart was beating faster and faster.
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The rain was thundering on the top of the small truck, which had come to a total stop due to a power failure. People had left, two by two, until I was left alone in the one van, staring wide-eyed at the enclosure in front of me. My heart was beating a mile a minute, and I was scared. It was huge, with ten-foot drop before it reached the ground inside. The perimeter was enclosed in an electric fence, the bands of thick wire so taut that they looked as though they'd snap like rubber bands if you plucked them. Behind that, the dense foliage inside and heavy rain limited my sight, but it didn't make me blind.
It was like that for a while, my very breathing sounded loud to me, like it woke every bird in the forest. I tried to cool off, I just couldn't. . . Suddenly, the wires snapped, the metal supports falling to the floor. A huge foot stepped out, followed by another, both supporting a huge, stocky body and gigantic head. It was out. The almighty king lizard was out. I was alone. No, wait, was I? In the glass reflection, I saw a girl no older than thirteen, sheet white, with eyes as wide as dinner plates. Her hair was frazzled, and she was shivering like mad. "It's ok," I tried to say, but only a squeak came out. Her lips moved, too. . . That is me, I thought. But suddenly, I didn't care about the reflection. It was beyond the glass that I cared about. It was so close to me, sharp teeth jutting out of its mouth, pacing. . .
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Flicking its tail playfully, the lion paced back and forth behind the heavy iron gate that trapped it. Still, it was too close for comfort.
"Come on," Stephanie egged on. "He won't hurt you."
I couldn't. I was holding a pair of four-inch tongs that were holding a hunk of raw meat. My teeth were chattering, and had been since it walked in the small inside area it had. I really couldn't do this. I couldn't. I liked my hand, thank you very much.
"I-I'll pass," I said quickly, before shoving the tongs in the second person's hands and walking out swiftly, back to the bus. Back to the safe, cold leathery seats with old gum stuck on the back of them and holes punched in the front. Back to the driver, who scowls if you so much as say a peep, who yells at people who sneeze, and who gives you an icy glare if you run up the stairs. The grimy windows that survived God knows what, with stains of all of the sort and that rarely ever open without snapping closed on your fingers. It all never felt so welcoming in my life. . .

Eventually, we were back inside, away from the weather and human-killing creatures. And now we took a walk down the hall. We visited laboratories of all of the sorts, and even got the chance to dance in the fog that was created by liquid nitrogen being filled into a containment unit which held the reproductive materials of many endangered species. . . Wait. .
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They were all extinct. I stood in front of the glass call that held the many embryos of species. The door slid open with a silent hiss, and I walked silently inside. A chill ran down my back. It had easily dropped ten degrees Fahrenheit in here, and strange smog laced around my ankles, creating an eddy of the haze whenever I took a step. It smelled of sterile cleaner, like what you smell in the hospital's waiting room, and all around me stood three-foot tall tin figures, with a shape similar to the one of a gas can you use for the grill. I pulled one open, and more haze drifted down to the floor, making the hairs on my arms stand up. Several of the embryos had been taken, but still there were some labeled "Velociraptor," "Quetzalcoatlus," "Dilophosaurus," and many more. It was eerie, the little buggers in tiny capsules, frozen in the lace of time. . .
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A man came rushing in to shut the nitrogen off, and we had to leave the fog to dissipate into the air, and then we left. Well, back on that horrible, disgusting, pain in life of a bus. I hopped up the stairs.
"Oi!" A sharp voice spat at me. "No jumping up the stairs or you'll break something!" Yep. Paradise, no? Eventually, the bus wheezed to a start, and rattled off, back to New Orleans. My home. I smiled.




             "So, you're writing about something I didn't ever hear much about?" My mom asked. I nodded, smiling brightly.
              "But I did tell you what I did, mom. I went to Jurassic Park."