Dinosaur Hunter Read online

  CONTENTS

  How to be a hero

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  I HERO Quiz

  About the 2Steves

  About the Illustrator: Jack Lawrence

  Copyright

  If you liked this, you’ll love…

  Also by the 2Steves...

  How to be a hero

  This book is not like others you have read. This is a choose-your-own-destiny book where YOU are the hero of this adventure.

  Each section of this book is numbered. At the end of most sections, you will have to make a choice. Each choice will take you to a different section of the book.

  If you choose correctly, you will succeed. But be careful. If you make a bad choice, you may have to start the adventure again. If this happens, make sure you learn from your mistake!

  Go to the next page to start your adventure. And remember, don’t be a zero, be a hero!

  You are an animal tracker, famous for photographing and filming big game. Your expertise means you are often called on to dart endangered animals with sedatives so that they can be studied by scientists and veterinary surgeons or moved to a safer place away from poachers and hunters.

  After a long day tracking a jaguar that has been living a little too close to villagers in Guatemala, you have succeeded in finding the big cat at last. You are just about to dart the animal so he can be moved to a safer environment in a more remote area ... when your satellite phone goes off.

  Go to 1.

  1

  “This is General Sanchez of the Mexican Army Special Forces,” squawks the phone. “We have an emergency. A new cenote has appeared in Yucatán province.”

  You know that a cenote is a deep, water-filled sinkhole, created when the roof of an underground cavern collapses.

  “I’m sorry, General,” you say. “I don’t see how I can help.”

  “Dinosaurs have emerged from the cenote. It seems they have been trapped in the caverns below it for millions of years. They are coming out. Now will you help us?”

  To refuse to help, go to 14.

  To agree to help, go to 22.

  2

  It is dark as you set off in the jeep, using GPS to find your way to the cenote.

  The forest roads are dirt track, muddy and rutted. Progress is slow.

  You turn a bend in the road. In your headlights, you see movement in the trees ahead.

  To try to creep past whatever is causing it, go to 21.

  To use the jeep’s searchlight to see what it is, go to 13.

  3

  You raise the dart gun and fire at the bodies you can see in the torchlight. You bring two down. But a third picks up the torch in its powerful claws, crushing it.

  Now you cannot see; but you can hear that the rest of the deadly predators are closing in on you.

  There is only one escape.

  Go to 27.

  4

  You spot a small cave mouth and head for it. But the velociraptors race in pursuit, and they are much faster than you are.

  When you feel their breath on the back of your neck, you know there is only one way out.

  Go to 27.

  5

  At first light, you find your way onto a forest road that is crammed with fleeing villagers. They tell you they have been terrorised by a giant reptile.

  From their descriptions, it sounds like a Tyrannosaurus rex.

  To track down the T. rex alone, go to 43.

  To use the radio to call for support, go to 49.

  6

  When you arrive at the gate, the priest is looking up into the angry sky. He is chanting with outstretched arms. To your astonishment, the storm clouds break up and disappear.

  The old man turns to you. “My people are in danger,” he says. “You have come to help them, so I will help you.” He hands you a medallion, decorated with a feathered serpent. “This amulet is sacred to our ancestors. If you are in deadly danger, call for help and their spirits will return you to this time and place.”

  You seriously doubt this but you take the medallion and thank the priest.

  It is late afternoon when you return to the briefing room. “We need an aerial survey of the cenote,” you say.

  “Yes,” says Duarte, “but is it too late to start today?”

  To set off at once, go to 19.

  To wait until the next day, go to 42.

  7

  You decide to take cover in the wreck and wait for daylight.

  Hearing a rustle in the bushes all around you, you light a hand-flare to drive off any predators. But the flare sets fire to spilled fuel from the jeep, which instantly becomes an inferno. You are driven back, weapon-less, into the forest - which is suddenly full of hungry reptilian eyes.

  Go to 27.

  8

  You seize one of the vines trailing from the collapsed roof, and swing across to the island.

  The dinosaurs are reluctant to take to the water to follow you, but you cannot stay where you are. The countdown you have set on the charges has begun. Time is short!

  To try to climb to the surface, go to 23.

  To call up the helicopter, go to 25.

  9

  You run up one side of the pyramid-shaped ruin, hoping to find shelter in the small temple on the top.

  But the many steps are hard to climb, and the velociraptors spot you. They climb the steps easily. Soon they are closing in on every side. There is no escape.

  Go to 27.

  10

  You surface and reach for the rope by which you came down.

  But with all the weight of the diving gear, you cannot climb quickly. You look down and see the monster rising from the depths, jaws gaping to engulf you.

  Go to 27.

  11

  You snatch a flare pistol from the emergency pack and fire.

  The flare explodes in the pterosaur’s face. It flies away, screeching with alarm. You guess it has been underground so long that it can no longer stand bright light.

  As the helicopter flies again over the cenote, you point down at a ramp made of earth and shattered rock leading from deep inside the earth to the rim of the hole.

  “That’s how the dinosaurs are getting out,” you say. “If we can destroy that ramp, they’ll be trapped again. But we’ll need explosive charges, and I can’t see anywhere the helicopter can land.”

  The Sun is setting as you return to the army base.

  To wait for
daylight to act further, go to 42.

  To return at once to the cenote, go to 31.

  12

  “I need bolt cutters!” you cry.

  The winch-man drops you a pair. Hanging upside down, you cut through the ropes holding the rest of the ladder beneath you.

  The ropes snap apart. The T. rex falls back and the helicopter lifts away. It has just cleared the lip of the cavern when the charges go off. A vast cloud of dust and debris bursts from the hole. When it clears, you see that the ramp has collapsed. The dinosaurs are once again trapped in their underground lair!

  go to 50.

  13

  The bright beam of the searchlight reveals a heavily armoured dinosaur with a clubbed tail - an ankylosaurus. It is not happy about being disturbed! It gives an angry roar and charges the jeep.

  You try to drive away, but the jeep’s wheels spin uselessly. It is stuck in the mud!

  To get out of the jeep and run, go to 36.

  To try to free the jeep, go to 29.

  14

  “Either this is a joke,” you say, “or you’re crazy.”

  The voice on the phone becomes angry. “If you won’t help, we’ll find someone else. Your hunting permit for Mexico is revoked.”

  The call cuts off. You realise you have made a mistake. You were due to film a major wildlife series in Mexico next month.

  Several hours later, as you head for the local airport, your phone rings again. “We still need your help, Señor.” General Sanchez sounds desperate.

  “I thought you were finding someone else,” you say.

  “We did. He didn’t work out.”

  “You mean a dinosaur got him?”

  “Si.”

  You gulp. That sounds bad. But nobody ever said hunting dinosaurs would be a walk in the park.

  Go to 22.

  15

  Dropping your equipment, you run for your life.

  It’s no good. The velociraptors are more powerful than you, and much, much faster, and now you don’t even have a torch!

  As the pack closes in, you take your last chance to survive.

  Go to 27.

  16

  You wade into the swamp. The mud gives off a strong smell of rotting plants, masking your scent. You are under cover by the time the velociraptors appear. But you have been lucky so far. You will need a plan to deal with them.

  As you emerge from the swamp, you find a large animal trail. You risk lighting a match, and find the tracks of a large dinosaur, probably a triceratops. The tracks give you an idea.

  To steer clear of the tracks, go to 35.

  To follow the tracks, go to 28.

  17

  “We can’t risk waiting,” you say. “The weather could change. Let’s just trap as many dinosaurs as we can.”

  You head for the cenote, unslinging your backpack of high explosive charges. A roar brings you to a halt. You look up to find that the Tyrannosaurus rex has been hiding and guarding the head of the ramp, possibly looking for easy prey.

  And it’s just found you!

  Go to 27.

  18

  The moment you enter the water, you are mobbed by clidastes - crocodile-like marine reptiles. They are ferocious and, at four metres long, too big for you to handle.

  There is only one escape.

  Go to 27.

  19

  You order the helicopter to be prepared for take-off.

  Soon, you are flying above the dense forest of the Yucatán. The cenote is a dark hole far below and you can see dinosaurs moving among the trees.

  Hearing a terrible screech, you look up. A huge flying dinosaur, a pterosaur, is diving towards the helicopter.

  To try to escape the pterosaur, go to 46.

  To shoot it with your dart gun, go to 37.

  20

  You use the drones to watch as the dinosaurs head down the ramp.

  Duarte points at the drone operator’s screen. “The T. rex seems to be guarding the top of the ramp. Can we drive it away?”

  You shake your head. “And sunlight doesn’t seem to bother it. We need to find another way in.”

  You explain to Duarte that many cenotes are connected by underground rivers. “If we can find another one, I’ll use the scuba gear to reach the dinosaurs’ cavern.”

  The drones locate another cenote nearby. You get suited up in diving gear and abseil down into the deep hole.

  On reaching the water, you dive to look for a passage into the dinosaurs’ cavern, only to find yourself face-to-face with a gigantic marine reptile - a liopleurodon.

  To swim for the surface and escape, go to 10.

  To dive deeper and escape, go to 32.

  21

  You turn off the headlights and creep past the disturbance.

  Moments later, there is a splash and the jeep starts to sink. In the darkness, you have driven into a swamp.

  You rev the engine to try and reverse out. The noise attracts a heavily armoured dinosaur - an ankylosaurus.

  The creature roars with anger and starts to pound the jeep to smithereens with its powerful, clubbed tail. You realise that you have come to the end of the road.

  Go to 27.

  22

  “All right,” you say, “I’ll help.”

  You are flown to Yucatán by a Mexican military helicopter. The sky is dark with storm clouds as you land at an army base.

  An officer steps forwards and salutes. “I’m Captain Duarte. General Sanchez has ordered me to see that you have all you need.”

  In the briefing room, you examine maps showing the positions of the cenote and dinosaur sightings.

  “Our scientists,” says Duarte, “think these creatures were trapped in the caverns when the K-T meteorite strike killed all the other dinosaurs, sixty-six million years ago.”

  You give Duarte a list of equipment you will need. She frowns. “Drones? Scuba gear? What do you need those for?”

  Before you can reply, a corporal appears at the door. “Sir, there’s a Mayan priest at the gate. He says he must speak to you.”

  To agree to speak to the priest, go to 6.

  To refuse, go to 34.

  23

  You try to climb using vines and tree roots. Both are slippery, and your progress is slow. You are only halfway to safety when the charges start to go off. You have just one hope for survival.

  Go to 27.

  24

  You switch on an electric torch and make your way through the forest, using animal trails to guide your way as you hack through dense undergrowth.

  Hearing a noise behind you, you drop the torch and hide. Peering through the leaves, you see several wicked-looking dinosaurs gathering around the light - velociraptors!

  To use the radio to call for help, go to 47.

  To run, go to 15.

  To use the dart gun, go to 3.

  25

  You grab your radio. “I need the helicopter!”

  “I’m sending it in now,” crackles Duarte’s voice.

  The helicopter appears, descending through the hole in the roof and firing flares to drive off the pterosaurs. A steel ladder dangles beneath it. You grab it and start to climb. But the T. rex lunges across the lake and grasps the last rung of the ladder in its mighty jaws!

  To call for a gun, go to 44.

  To call for a flare, go to 39.

  To call for bolt cutters, go to 12.

  26

  You slip away without a sound. Smelling a sweet perfume, you belly-crawl into a grove of frangipani trees, hoping that their scent will mask yours. It works! From your hiding place, you watch the velociraptors go by.

  You crawl out of hiding and keep moving until you emerge into a small clearing. In front of you stands a ruined Mayan temple. To your left is a swamp, to your right stands some tall trees.

  But a crashing noise from behind you tells you that the velociraptors have picked up your scent again.

  To hide in the temple, go to 9.

  To climb a tree
, go to 38.

  To wade into the swamp, go to 16.

  27

  You grasp the medallion. “Spirits of the Maya, help me!”

  There is a burst of light and a mighty, rushing wind. You find yourself back at the gate of the army camp.

  The old Mayan priest looks at you sorrowfully. “You cannot help my people if you perish. You must choose more carefully next time.”

  You thank the priest and head for the helicopter. You have a job to do...

  Go to 19.

  28

  You follow the trail, being deliberately noisy to attract the velociraptors.

  Hearing a noise behind, you turn to see the pack on your heels. You speed up, and almost run full-tilt into a grazing triceratops.

  You dodge past the startled dinosaur, but the velociraptors arrive just in time to bear the full force of its anger.

  The roar of the triceratops and screeches of the velociraptors tell you that a battle has broken out behind you, but you don’t wait around to see the result!

  Go to 5.

  29

  You floor the accelerator. The jeep lurches forwards and breaks free of the mud.

  The dinosaur gives chase and barges the jeep, using its tail to smash the bodywork.