••• A MAJOR SPOILER FROM THE EVOLUTION OF CLAIRE IS A BIG PART OF THE FOLLOWING ONE SHOT •••
Claws and teeth had become her worst nightmare. There was a time in her life, back when she was young, when Claire Dearing thought of herself as a fierce and fearless young woman. She was not scared of anything; she was confident and capable of dreaming big, of fighting for what she wanted. She would stand tall and she wouldn't allow anyone to tell her she couldn't do something, she could do whatever she set her mind on. The fact that she had started as an intern and become the second in command at a multimillion dinosaur amusement park was just a small fraction of her testimony.
That time when she believed herself to be made of steel was long gone. Her brain playing inside her head the most tragic event of her life over and over again as she ran through the Lockwood manor along with Owen and that little girl. The three of them trying to escape the insisting pray instincts of Dr. Wu's latest creation.
This was the third time she was doing this, and it never got easier. It was still as terrifying and as emotionally and physically exhausting as the first time. That damn clicking the Indoraptor tapped with his claw against the wooden floor sending shocks of electricity up her spine to her brain. It was the sound she hated the most, since the first time she had ever heard it, it haunted her mind. To her, it was the equivalent to a door screeching in the middle of the night triggering the darkest of nightmares in a kid's mind.
It didn't show, but she couldn't keep her eyes away from Owen. She had her reason. Living this terrifying moment beside him was something she was grateful for, but at the same time she wished he weren't in this situation.
How did she manage to drag him to this twice already? She had been the one to ask him to come with her and help her look for her nephews. What was she thinking when she begged him to join her out there with a hybrid loose? And now, he didn't want to go back to the island and she had guilt-tripped him into joining her. In all fairness, she never thought it would end up this way. Now here he was, crawling around trying to escape yet another predator. It was all her fault, she had lived the past fourteen years of her life with a heavy sense of guilt and here she was fearing to add his life into the countless ones on her list, but Owen's would belong right on the top, with his right below.
Claire was a smart woman, she learned from her mistakes. She thought before reacting, it was a good thing she was a fast thinker. She had learned to adapt. She was terrified of the beast hunting them, but she wasn't scared of confronting it. All her senses were on alert, hearing carefully where the predator would step, if his breathing could be captured by human ear.
She had to remain calmed, even if her whole body was threatening to collapse on her, even if it took for her to demand her legs to move around when they were tired and shaking under her pants.
The sound of glass breaking and the heavy weight of that thick log against them brought her back to the worst night of her life. That afternoon she had spent running from the Indominus Rex didn't even compare to the life altering encounter she had with the first raptor ever in Jurassic World. She never talked about it, she couldn't without breaking down. Not even to Owen even when it was ironic how she had gone from almost being killed by a raptor and have the guy she liked die in her arms after being lethally injured by one, to falling head over heels with the one man who had proven raptors could follow orders.
Or maybe it wasn't ironic at all, but meant to be. Maybe that's what gave her a sense of safety when she was with him. This was not the same, she sure wasn't used to running away from these animals by now — how could one ever get used to that? But what made these last two encounters different from the first one was that she had Owen. She had been trying to act tough around him the first time, proved that she could last more than five minutes in her 'ridiculous' shoes, but even in the middle of chaos it must have been evident to him that she was always seeking shelter in him, that she needed him to pull through.
She opened her eyes after the impact just to find those damn sharped teeth and glowing eyes on them. She couldn't do much but try push him away. It was just like that one night, woman and beast face to face maybe with the difference that this time she wasn't alone, at least not physically. All she could see as she kept pushing that log was a nineteen year old trying to fine the inner force it took to beat that animal's impulse to jump on her and kill her.
She was tearing up already by the time she let out a painful loud cry as her skin was ripped opened by the black beast's claw. She was already trapped in her worst nightmare by the time Maisie ran off, but watching the Indoraptor ran after her just made it worse.
The last time she had to say goodbye to a boy she liked was not how she would have wanted it to be, a smile is all she got before Justin had ran off to distract that raptor. She was breaking down from the inside, about to ask Owen to do something similar. Except this time the sacrifice wasn't for her, it was for that little girl.
She kissed him to reassure him that she would be fine, but she was saying goodbye. She kissed him to inject strength in him, but she was letting him know that she loved him. She kissed him to let him know they would be okay, but she was actually having a last moment with him.
Run, she hated that word. She kept saying it only when it came to survival. Such a fun little action, kids ran when they were playing, lovers ran when they were teasing, and all she could assimilate it with was to move fast and avoid getting eaten.
She could hear the Indoraptor screeching, and that horrible calling sound it made. She couldn't even feel the pain in her thigh through the one in her heart. Fear overruled pain. She had been a great multitasker since she was young, but for once in her life she was glad her brain couldn't handle two different feelings at the same time. She was only scared, not longer in pain. She couldn't lose time, it was time to adapt.
It took her a couple of minutes to come up with a bandage for her wound, it was deeper and the kind that sting the most. She found a way to stand up and with slow steps taught herself how to limp her way upstairs.
Adapting had become a second nature to her, she did it by instinct now — just like those carnivores. She was not a fucking prey, she was a predator and the most dangerous kind. She was running her way upstairs, crying her pain out as she did but she had to be fast.
Moving through branches seeking for Justin and slipping through the jungle searching for her nephews would never compare to this. The walls around her almost claustrophobic, there was no place to hide. She still couldn't keep her brain from not shutting the fuck up and stop making her feel like that one night. Her hands were shaking as she held onto things for support on her way to Maisie's room, she was following the mess the Indoraptor had left behind and the one she figured Owen had used to find her.
God, she hoped he had found her.
She finally made it into the little girl's room, or what was left of it. She looked around and tried stay strong and not think the worse, except she had already lived the worst once before. She was no stranger to the feeling of having your heart sink into your stomach and the feeling of wanting to throw up.
She looked around to find everything destroyed, the bed and the furniture had been slammed against the wall and were nothing but shatter wood. There was broken glass everywhere, her green eyes found Owen's gun and slowly bent down. She could barely hold it up, it was too heavy for the weak strength she had in her trembling fingers.
"Please be alive." She begged to herself as she found the strength to pick the weapon up. How could he, though? The room looked like nothing had made it alive out of there expect that monster. The path of destruction led to this room, so they had either made it out of the window alive or dead but one thing was for sure, she was going to blow up that son of a bitch regardless. It was time to show him who was the predator here.
Claire checked the weapon for ammunition but it was empty, she figured Owen had used all he got on that animal. She remembered how they had tried to stop the Indominus the same way and it didn't even tickle. The stupid weapon was useless, she figured. She was about to throw it to the side when she remembered what they have said about the new hybrid and his response to the laser; maybe she wouldn't be able to blow his brains off, but she'd come up with something.
Claire stood up by the edge of the window and looked down. Great, time to face the oldest of her fears; heights. She had no time to be a chicken. The man she loved and that little girl might need her help and she was going to save them.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, for a second she truly thought about doing this with her eyes closed. It took her a second to opened them and want to slap herself for being that stupid, "get yourself together Claire, adapt." She took another deep breath.
Steady and slow steps would get her to the other side, so she needed to be patient and take this with calm. She was trying not to look down, if she did she knew she would fail. Claire Dearing was not one to fail. She had a mission and one step at a time, inch by inch, she was walking closer to it.
She looked up, and that's when her heart was filled with reassurance. The emotional and physical strength she needed to make it to the glass roof across from her was now in front of her.
Owen and Maisie were still alive, the rain was making this more challenging that she thought. The structure where she was slowly walking over slippery, but she got this.
"Hey..." She shouted out while clanging the weapon against the metallic structure under her feet. It was her turn to bring her worst fear to face her and distract it from the person she loved. It was her turn to have the predator look back over and come face to face with her.
She had made it over just in time, she had adapted to survive, and this time around; save the one she loved.