Owen's head throbbed. He was certain it was the throbbing that had woke him up. His eyes were dry and scratchy, his mouth felt full of cotton, he was voraciously thirsty and had to piss like a racehorse. His stomach was woozy, and as he opened his eyes found it hard to focus on anything he was looking at. Owen considered the 'hair of the dog,' but frowned seeing the empty tequila bottle and several empty beers. They were all littered in the yard around him.
He relieved himself in the yard. His nearest neighbors were four miles away and he liked it that way. Owen stumbled up the stairs into his cabin. He'd completed it some months earlier and then built a small barn, and was now slowly fencing in his property. He had a small paddock already built, with several pigs in it. They watched him expectantly through the low bars of their pen, grunting and oinking waiting to be fed.
Owen popped four ibuprofen and drank water straight from the kitchen faucet. Though it had been a few weeks since Claire left him, this time she had left him for sure, taking Maizie with her, he swore he could still smell her perfume. He almost expected to see her coming down the stairs, sleepy eyed and in her robe. She had left him because she was tired of being the other woman. Though Owen had tried to admit that he didn't care about Blue, he kept a wall map in his workshop with push pins of her sightings, a scrapbook of any news story with her mentioned. He worried about her.
Since the release of the dinosaurs into upstate New York they had spread across the US. They had been classified as endangered species, and killing them was illegal, but when the carnivores attacked livestock or people, Owen was certain that they'd been put down. The big T-Rex, like Blue, was the only one of her kind left, and the T-Rex's absence would be noticed. Using a goat being flown from a helicopter they managed to lure it to Yellowstone where for the time being they were just keeping it fed.
Blue however was treated more like Bigfoot sightings. Owen searched daily for any news to her whereabouts, having to sift through what was actual sightings and bullshit. There were sightings all over of her, but Owen knew how far she could travel so it was unlikely she was spotted in New York one day, and California the next. He mostly searched for missing pets, missing people (though it did seem that she wasn't eating humans) or livestock attacks that involved slice marks that matched her powerful claws. It would seem that she was living near people but also avoiding contact with them. It was one of the things he and Claire had fought over.
"Just go get her!" Claire would shout at him. Owen was stubborn to a fault.
"And do what? Bring her here?" Owen would shout back.
When they had drove down the coastal highway in one of Lockwood's vehicles, a Jeep Wagoneer with Maizie in the back and pterodactyls flying over the water, they had made a decision to use the Lockwood fortune to recapture the dinosaurs and take them to the Sanctuary Island, as was the original plan. It broke Maizie's heart to learn that the island didn't exist. Also the Lockwood fortune didn't exist anymore either. Mills had spent it on creating the Indy Raptor, and getting the dinosaurs from Isla Nublar to New York. The 100 million that he'd made auctioning them off went into his own personal account. All Maizie had was the house, some miscellaneous properties, and some stocks. Mills had liquidated everything else. So Maizie and Claire had moved into Owen's cabin when he had finished it.
Then Claire did what she did best, she organized. She pulled together people to help get the dinosaurs tagged so they at the very least could be tracked, and people could be warned if they wandered too near communities. They fought over using Owen to find Blue, so she could be tagged too, and Owen refused. For the 3rd time he was leaving her to her fate, like he had when they left her on Isla Nublar the first time. The 2nd time was them in upstate New York, but he had asked her to come with him, he would personally take her to Sanctuary. And now when Claire needed him to find her, he refused. What he didn't expect was her to find him...
Bacon was Blue's favorite treat. It was why Owen had the pigs. It wasn't because he expected her to show up at his little farm, but more of a memorial. He raised pigs because they were her favorite. He eventually figured he might have a couple of cows, couple chickens, and a couple of goats to roam the 80 acres he owned. He had even thought about buying Maizie a pony.
Owen considered changing his clothes, considered a shower, and decided he'd skip it. He rubbed his face, feeling the length of his whiskers, he wasn't going to trim either. He looked at his cell phone, laying on the counter, charging. It was fully charged and the display let him know it was after 1 PM. It also let him know that he had missed several calls and texts from Claire and Maizie. Before he could listen to the dozen or so voicemails and read any texts, there was a knock on his front door.
Cell phone in hand, he opened it. Standing before him were three men, all in black suits, one held a black briefcase, and all looked armed. Owen had pretty good instincts and instincts told him not to let them into his home.
"My name is Nicolai Ginovaeff," the man spoke with a heavy Russian accent and looked vaguely familiar to him. "I have a proposal for you." Owen should have slammed the door and ran.
"Not interested," Owen replied firmly.
"You haven't heard it yet," the man continued.
"Don't need to," Owen stated.
"I'm prepared to make you a very rich man or a very dead one," Nicolai said. Owen knew he shouldn't have answered the door. He kept his mouth shut, for once. He realized these men were Russian mafia and he had seen them at Eli Mills dino auction. Owen had half hoped they'd been eaten, but it seemed they escaped. "I want to hire you to find the velociraptor." Owen's brows shot up, but he shouldn't have been surprised. He had half expected someone to attempt to reach out to him to find Blue. She was one of a kind, a near perfect weapon. With her DNA, labs could clone hundreds of Blues. Her being unable to be found was keeping her protected from those that would exploit her. Owen keeping his distance from her also was protecting her.
"I don't know where she is," Owen said honestly, "Even if I did I wouldn't let you take her." He was certain he was signing his own death warrant, but he'd never give Blue to the Russian Mafia.
"Very well," Nicolai stated and stepped aside, Owen was fully expecting to die. The man behind Nicolai had a shotgun in his hand which he raised and shot Owen in the chest. The force knocked him backwards and he crashed into the stools next to the kitchen's island. The man racked another round into the shotgun but it would seem that one shot was all it took. Owen was unconscious from the bean bag round that had hit him.
"Burn the house, if he won't find the raptor for us, he won't be finding it for anyone," Nicolai ordered.
Owen heard groaning and it took a moment to realize it was coming from himself. His entire body ached, which was weird because he was certain he was dead. Smoke was filling his nostrils and he began to cough involuntarily. He tried to drag himself to his feet, but moving his arms caused tremendous pain to his chest. What had they shot him with? He searched for holes or blood and saw none. Not far away he saw the little bean bag that must've bounced off him. He never wanted to be shot with that ever again. He wasn't processing things clearly, partly from the hangover, partly from the bean bag round to the chest. This was not how he had planned to spend his Thursday.
His front windows crashed inwards from a large gray creature that had just burst through them.
"Blue?" Owen asked incredulously between hacking coughs as he attempted to roll over and look at her. She wasted no time, grabbing at him with her hands, attempting to be careful not to slice into him, but she had to get a purchase on him. Blue dragged him back out the window and onto the lawn in front of the cabin. Black smoke roiled upwards through the broken windows. She put Owen down and then stepped back, giving him distance.
Owen coughed as his lungs tried to discharge the smoke and suck in clean air. His body ached and now he was covered in small cuts from being dragged through the broken window. He had had no idea that Blue was living so close to him. Had she watched him while he built the fence or the barn?
"Thanks Blue," he said to the sleek velociraptor with her stunning blue stripe. She was majestic and as graceful as a bird. She was leaning down, not hovering over him, but gazing at him with what Owen assumed was concern. "I'm okay. I think." He slowly rolled to his knees and and then up to his feet. Blue backed up again. She was not the cuddly type even though as an infant she had been empathetic and had nuzzled Owen to cheer him up. Since being an adult, and though he had no fear of her attacking him, she'd only let him pet her once. She leaned down, watching him.
"I appreciate seeing you again," he talked to the raptor, "but people are looking for you. I don't want them to find you." Blue was considered the second smartest creature on the planet, that is if man was the smartest. Owen knew that she understood him, she may not understand every word he said, but she understood a lot. He finally got to his feet.
"Why are you even here?" He asked. Not that he wasn't grateful as he watched his house burn and there was nothing he could do about it. He could see flashing lights and hear sirens, but they were faint, the cabin would be mostly gone by the time they arrived. She turned and ran, Owen expected her to run back into the trees that surrounded his house, but instead she moved to the barn, ducked through the open door and ran back to him. She had something almost round and pale brown in her hands. It was larger than a softball and she carried it with extreme care. Blue was holding an egg, a velociraptor egg.