Chapter 1: The Calm Before The Shit Storm
*A/N: Hello there! I've been following Jeralee's fanfiction for Jurassic World called Mad World and I wanted to try my hand at it. Please keep in mind it has been well over a year since I have written anything, so I'm a bit rusty. Here goes!*
My footsteps padded softly against the cool wood flooring betraying my current mood. I'd been pacing back and forth for hours in a futile attempt to tire myself out. I hadn't been able to fall asleep the past few nights ever since the briefing I'd had with Hoskins earlier that week.
I hated his guts, this guy had absolutely no morals! NONE! The nerve of this guy was something else entirely and it made me sick! The worst part of his madness was that me, an ex member of the Canadian Forces Military Police, was forced to do this or be rendered homeless and unemployable.
Nostrils flaring, and jaw clenched I stormed over to my glass window and let my anger get the best of me by smashing my fist into it. Not the brightest idea, I'll admit, but it was my only outlet. Fortunately only the best architects had outfitted the employee "shacks" as I lovingly referred to them as, with high density glass, virtually impenetrable by even a .50 cal.
Unfortunately though, I'd have to explain to the nurses why my knuckles were now bleeding profusely if I decided to walk into medical. Another con to my idiotic reaction was that my co workers would play 20 questions with me if they saw the bandage.
I sighed staring at my hand as I made my way to my private bathroom and cleaned my wounds. After cleaning myself up I checked my watch... 5:40 A.M. 'another 5 minutes and my alarm will go off, I guess I should get ready" I thought to myself as I walked over to my alarm that was sitting atop my blonde nightstand and shut it off before opening the top drawer and grabbing my closet lock key.
I shuffled over to my closet and unlocked it, one of the many things I'd learned from the military was to always lock my kit, be it personal or work. Back then it had been as part of a daily inspection and avoiding whatever punishment my staff chose during basic or when I was on course. Now it was mere habit and sake of security.
After picking out my clothes for the day and tossing them onto my bed haphazardly, I made my way into the bathroom once more to continue to get ready for the day ahead.
After completing my morning ritual, the same as most other people's, I got changed into my clothes which consisted of a plain white tee, jeans, and my black CSA approved swat boots I grabbed my wallet, keys, InGen ball cap, cell phone, and Kevlar gloves before heading out the door and locking my room up and leaving the building to my car.
As I left the building I noticed the sky was dark and grey as if threatening to drench me right then and there, frowning I looked for my car amidst the sea of cars before me.
After a minute I'd found mine and began my walk to it. Unfortunately due to me working late I never got the good parking spots in the front or even the half decent ones in the middle, nope, I was always stuck parking at the back.
Unfortunately, my building wasn't job specific. It was a mixture of security personnel, mechanics, and some attraction grunts. The scientists had it made, what with their own apartments or houses, if they'd had family. It brought me back to my days in the CF (Canadian Forces), where the regular NCM's (Non-commission members got shit shacks that were meant to be condemned while the officers got only the nicest of rooms, and to themselves!
Where as most NCM's had to either share their room with anywhere between 1-3 other people depending on the building you lived in, or shared a mod. I shook the memories from my thoughts just as I approached my car, nothing overly fancy, just a 2015 Chevy Cruze in a nice dark emerald green that had metal flakes in the paint.
By fancy I mean, sure, it's a brand new model but, it was by no means a lambo or a camaro. I hopped into my car and started it up before leaving the lot and heading to the Tim Horton's on the south side of the park, the one closest to my detachment's building.
If there was one thing I had that was my little piece of home it was the Tim Horton's. My own little piece of Canada. After grabbing my coffee, a large triple triple, it was only a 5 minute drive to work. When I approached the gate I flashed my wallet that held my ID to the worker on gate duty and he nodded his head before letting me through.
After finding a parking spot I made my way into the small security compound and through all of the checkpoints before finally making it to the briefing room.
Like most military rooms it was small in size, with plain white walls and simple white tiling for the floors. The floors were a little scuffed up with some black polish stains from our boots with scratches from wear and tear over the duration of the park having been open.
A few easy to set up tables with black chairs were placed neatly in the room facing a small podium, and behind it a large white board spanning the entire back wall for only God knows why.
The list of security detail for the day was already posted, my heterochromic eyes scanned the list before finally landing on my name. 'Ford- raptor paddock'. I sighed inwardly 'so it starts today huh, let the games begin I s'pose'. Not long after that thought, did another member show up.
Kowalski, not an overly huge fan of myself, strolled in with the cockiest swagger one could possibly manage before plopping into the chair that faced the podium head on. After a moment she turned her upper half over the back of her chair to face me and smirked.
"Looks like I got the ultimate posting yet again today, front gate, can you say Gucci?"
"Nothing good ever comes easy" I responded flatly, not even looking in her direction.
"Hmph. Whatever Ford, you're just a bitter old dog with no bite. Go ahead, take the shit postings, Hoskins still won't take you off his shit list"
"Don't care"
Before Kowalski could fight back, the rest of today's crew started filing in. My friend, Louis "Lou" or "Louie" Douglas came straight to the back of the room and sat down next to me. He was silent for a moment before turning to face me.
"I got roaming, east side, I could come grab you for lunch, sound good?" he looked at me with a small hopeful smile, I could tell by his tone that he'd seen my posting and was trying to cheer me up.
No one liked the raptor paddock posting, it was incredibly boring all you did was sit around, except for every hour when you ran the risk of losing a limb whenever you went to jiggle the doors to make sure they were locked. Hoskins was surely punishing me for my outcry against his plans a few days ago. Sure seemed like he wanted a possible 'loose end' gone.
"Yeah sure, why not"
"Ok, I'll take my lunch at 12"
"Okie doke"
Soon after the discussion of what would surely be the main highlight of my work day aside from clocking out, Hoskins strolled in. Dressed in a tan button up short sleeve and jeans with steel toe boots, he looked like he was trying to be an operator, but more obese.
"By now, you guys should have seen your postings, I don't have much to say today, you all know your jobs…" he trailed off to glare at me like a warning.
"But what I do want to say is be careful, keep what we've talked about between us, no one need be the wiser, not everyone would take kindly to the help I want to give them, so keep that in mind and make myself, and InGen proud…dismissed" he finished while watching everyone leave.
"Will do sir!" Kowalski piped up cheerily before saluting him and leaving. That was a piss off but I shoved it off as I stood up and went to leave with Lou. I wad just about to get to the door when Hoskins stopped me.
"Ford, I'd like you to stay behind please"
Lou reluctantly left, his tall muscular form slowly leaving my sight. I turned around faced him, my face expressionless.
"Yes, sir?" I responded flatly before he strode over to me from his podium.
"Now, I'm not gunna accuse you of anything or expect any resistance but, I wanna make sure you and I are…on the same page"
"Yes sir, we are"
"Good, good... now I just want to let you know that I don't like putting you there at the RP posting but…I need every hand on deck for this, and lots of people will follow you to hell and back, and really this is all for the greater good. You understand that right?"
"What I understand sir, is that you want me to coerce Mr. Grady, by any means necessary, I believe were your exact words...into showing the militaristic potential that the raptors could possibly hold, to some people who's morals too only point south"
He frowned and shook his head disappointed in my lack of both manners and co-operation.
"Miss Ford, need I remind you of the repercussions you face if you don't go through with this" He said solemnly as he gingerly placed a meaty hand on my shoulder, I looked at him with disgust and removed it from my shoulder.
"No, you needn't. May I be dismissed for duty sir?" I asked with a bitter tone. He looked into my eyes before nodding his head, and with that I turned sharply on my heel and walked off to the locker room. Once I got there I noticed Louie was leaning on the locker next to mine, already kitted out and ready to start his shift. Everyone had cleared out and left except for him, and now myself thanks to Hoskins. I tried smiling to Louie who just returned my facial expression with a raised eye brow and crossing his arms over his chest. I sighed and opened my locker.
"So, how 'bout them Blue Jays eh? Heard they got a win last night"
"Cut the shit Riley, what happened in there after the briefing?!"
"Holy shit Lou, maybe you'd like to scream that louder so that all of Jurassic World can hear you"
He shifted his 6'8 muscular frame to move closer to me. Lou was an ex U.S. army Infantryman, and always the gunner given his massive body and arms, easy to tell. His dad had been in the Infantry as a gunner himself and met his wife on a deployment in Haiti. Big ole Lou was made during the 6 months his dad was stationed there, his dad eventually married her out of love for her and brought her over to the states about 3 months later where Lou was born. He was milado, and all kinds of gorgeous, but had been my friend for far too long and married one of the girls working at Jurassic World, another person I deemed a friend named Eliza Mandeville, now Eliza Douglas, she worked as a scientist, and was the only one I could stand.
She personally worked directly under Dr. Wu, who I had learned was the head of developing the dino's. Eliza was a gorgeous woman, hands down, model gorgeous. She wasn't overly tall, much like myself, I'd give her about 5'3 max, with long straight blonde hair, usually pulled up into a pony tail and or bun, and always wore cute trendy glasses. She was the hot librarian just about every guy dreamed about, they were seriously the most gorgeous couple in all of Jurassic World. Seriously, they looked like a celebrity couple! Lou snapped me out of my thoughts by waving a hand in my face.
"Huh? Wha-?"
"I said, sorry for being so loud, but I was worried about you alone in the room with the lunatic we call a boss"
"Oh, right. It was pretty much just him 'ensuring my co-operation' that and touched my shoulder with his greasy ass hands" I responded casually with a shrug of my shoulders as I grabbed my tan chest rig and slid it on over my head before securing the side buckles.
"Riley that's sexual harassment! You could get him removed from this place!"
"Oh yeah sure, I'm sure with this idea he has his investors will have him well protected both in career and cash, so there's no point in trying with something so small, I gotta find a way and the right person to leak this plan to…problem is I'm not sure who is trustworthy yet"
"Well, you're an idiot for one—"
"I'm aware" I half joked as I grabbed my hip holster next.
"Anyways, secondly, if you're going to expose him, it's gotta be soon Ry, or the plan will go through and we'll both be unemployed and probably…dealt with"
"Again, I'm aware, I'll figure something out, you'll see"
He nodded thoughtfully before patting me on the shoulder and reminding me that he'd be picking me up for lunch today and that Eliza would be meeting us there as well as he hooked me up to my radio before leaving me to start his shift. After locking up my personal work locker I headed to the half door beside the locker room and waited while the attendant grabbed my P226 and extra mags with stun rounds. I thanked the woman, who was often not much of a conversationalist before holstering my gun and heading to the company vehicle parking lot. Once I got to the lot the attendant, an older man by the name of Don came out of his booth to greet me.
"Good morning Riley!" He sang with a grin plastered on his weathered face. His kind blue eyes twinkling cheerfully. Don Ralton was one of the few people at the park that I considered my friend. He was an older man in his late 60's with a nice tight crew cut hairstyle white as the pure driven snow. His skin was tanned a nice olive color from the days working in the park much like the rest of the workers…aside from the fucking scientists. I digress, Don had the bluest eyes I had ever seen, and they were so piercing you'd swear he could see into your very soul. More often than not, and probably from the amount of time we'd been working together, he could tell how I was feeling on any given day of the week, even if I have the blankest facial expression any human can muster.
He was a very intuitive man, and unfortunately, very unappreciated by most. I still remember how thrown back he was when I first said 'good morning' to him on my first day of work. He'd explained to me after that most of the InGen employees were either rude and acted like he wasn't there or just didn't care much to give him the time of day as he was 'just a lot attendant'. However, that's not my style, while yes, in certain areas I don't talk much I do try and go out of my way to say a hello or talk to people be it employee or customer. I mean seriously, no one likes an asshole. Anyway I beamed a perfect pearly white grin at him (the dental perks at Jurassic World were insane) as I shook his hand firmly and pulled each other in closer to pat each other's backs, the most friendly way we were allowed to greet each other at work. Professionalism and all.
"Hey Don! How are ya?"
"Oh y'know, 'nother day, 'nother dollar, how about yourself?"
"Could be better, could be worse I s'pose" I replied casually as he fished for my company vehicle key and handed it to me before popping back into his booth and grabbing a clipboard. He jumped back out, he was a pretty spry man for his age, and handed the clipboard over to me. I pulled out a pen I'd kept on the left side pouch of my chest rig and signed next to the vehicle number I was assigned for the day, and in big black bold print, the number 13 stared me in the face almost mockingly. I let out a short chuckle, Hoskins had a sense of fucking humour alright. 'Really. Fucking. Funny. A regular FUCKING comedian' I thought to myself as I placed my pen back in my pouch and handed the clipboard back to Don.
"There ya go, all accounted for" I piped up.
"Excellent! But what on God's green earth was that about?" He said handing over the key and raising a confused eye brow at me.
"Hoskins, he placed me on Raptor Paddock security and now if you'll take a gander at my vehicle number" I said held up the key tag like I was Vanna White with the most sarcastic smile I could manage. His face snapped to frustration and he shook his head as he sighed.
"'Scuse my French here 'n' all but what in the fudge is this boy's issue?"
"Oh, you'll know soon enough"
"C'mon Miss Ford, you know you can trust me" I looked at him and sighed, I knew he was right, I just didn't want him in the crossfire if shit went rolling downhill.
"What I can tell you Don is that, shits about to hit the proverbial fan, and I can't say much more than that for your own safety"
"Whatever you say Riley, just know that I'm worried about you" I smiled genuinely at him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I know Don, I know" and with that we walked to my vehicle in silence. I hated to worry him like I was but I had to protect him, and the only way to do that right now was by not telling him what Hoskins had in mind so that he wouldn't wind up being a possible patsy for Hoskins' shady investors. I started the black Jeep Wrangler up and waved good bye before driving out of the parking lot and eventually off the compound to begin the drive to the raptor paddock.
When I arrived I couldn't help but marvel at the sight of it all. Big ass barbed wire fences that reached ridiculously high complete with a number of interconnecting grated walkways. I stepped out and shut the car door behind me before adjusting my ball cap as I looked up still admiring the intimidating the view. I was so busy gawking at the structure before me that I'd hardly noticed a large black man stand beside me until he waved a hand in front of my face.
"Oh sorry, situational awareness apparently goes for a shit when I see shiny things, hi I'm Riley Ford, I work security with InGen" I said holding out a hand which he looked at strangely and took an awkwardly long moment before finally deciding to shake it, keeping a weary expression on his face as he looked at me.
"Would it help if I admitted that I hate my boss too?" I watched him as he visibly relaxed and flashed me a big grin stretching from ear to ear.
"Yes, actually, sorry my manners have escaped me, I am Barry. I work with the raptors here"
"Well, pleasure to meet you Barry. I'll be stuck here for God knows how long"
"Is it so bad?"
"It certainly isn't the most loved posting my peers have gotten"
"Hm. Fair enough, I'm not even sure what security is needed around here. They have us"
"Too true, but it's where Hoskins sends the folks on his shitty take of the 'naughty list'. You don't do much but every hour check the paddock doors to make sure they're still locked…and then either get your hand and/or fingers removed, or you luck out and only have a minor heart attack"
"To be fair, your boss is inconsistent, the raptors have not had a chance to get used to anyone"
"No need to be polite, let's be honest here, he's a fat bastard that goes full retard on a daily basis. As for your raptors, no explanation necessary. I get that they're animals, animals don't like random people with no familiarity just walking up to their pen and on 'their territory' no less…I get it"
Barry smiled at me, the second genuine one since I'd met him only moments ago.
"Come with me, I think you should meet the team"
"I would but that Jeep's lovely leather seats are telling me to go bake my sweet little tushie on them"
"Or you could 'check´ the gates and everyone happens to be there, OR we need you to walk on the catwalks and make sure they're secure, y'know…for our safety" I laughed a genuine hearty laugh and nodded, he responded with a big laugh of his own and patted me on the back and led me up the staircase to the catwalks.
Once I got to the top my jaw dropped, I could see majority of the paddock from where I stood. I walked over to the railing of the catwalk that faced the centre of the paddock and held tight to it as I leaned ever so slightly over the rail and waited. Soon Barry approached me with a few men and introduced me to them, after a few handshakes we shared some laughs before I felt the catwalk vibrate and we were loudly interrupted.
"OI! YOU!" We all turned to face the voice that stopped us mid-sentence, it was a guy around my age, rugged and manly looking as all hell storming towards us, and all I could do was stand there and look confused…and let's be honest here, probably like an idiot too.
*A/n: That's it folks! Chapter 1 is up with Chapter 2 to follow it sometime tomorrow. I hope everyone liked it! Feel free to drop me a PM and let me know what you think*
