Chapter 1: The Portal

"Jurassic Park? Well, yes, I guess you could call it that. This is a game preserve. The dinos here are protected. That's why the fences are there. It keeps them in and the public out. Our computers didn't indicate any breaks in the fence system, though, so how'd you get in here?" McKinley looks genuinely confused. "Where did you folks say that you were from?"

"Central Park? Heh, if that's Central Park in New York then you're a long way from home! This is the West Coast Dinosaur Preserve, south of Los Angeles. I don't know anything about a portal, though. Never heard of such a thing. Wait! No dinosaurs... anywhere?" Now William eyes you suspiciously. He wears a name badge above his right breast pocket that reads "McKinley" and his uniform looks vaguely like that of a game warden. He also wears a badge on the left side that looks very official. The fine print on it is difficult to read, however. He does seem to be speaking English; his lips are in sync with his words.

"Of course. C'mon, we'll take my truck back to the security building." He leads you to an ATV parked nearby and you all pile in. The ride to the security building is brief and after a short time, you are inside a fortified building filled with computers and monitors. McKinley offers you a coffee and takes a seat behind a row of monitors that show various locations on the preserve. He clicks a few switches and the views change. "Nope, no breaks in the fences," he says aloud.

From everything that you can see, you are in North America, though there are two large areas blocked off on the west coast and in Florida, indicating that they are dino preserves. The one on the west coast is labeled, appropriately enough, the West Coast Dinosaur Preserve. The one in Florida is labeled Walt Disney Dinosaur Preserve. The west coast area stretches from south of Los Angeles to nearly halfway to San Diego. "The West Coast Preserve is 400 square miles, bordered by the 5 and the 15. The Disney preserve is by necessity a little smaller, though."

"The year is 2022." McKinley replies.

I ask him some basic questions: like who is prime minister, who won the <<notable event>><<notable year>>, who won WWII, latest release by <<famous band>> does he know who Elvis is, etc...... just to eliminate the parallel universe hypothesis. We might be in our own familiar world.....

"Sorry. I don't keep up much with British affairs, so I don't know who the PM is. The Cubbies took the series in 2016, the first time since 1908! The Allied Forces won WWII, defeating first Hitler and then Japan. The 46th President is Joe Biden, who succeeded Donald Trump. Elvis was a rock-and-roll singer. He died sometime in the 80s, I think. Do I pass?"