Author's Note: Nothing has really changed, plot-wise. I'm just re-uploading this chapter because I made a few changes to a few lines. Most of the spoken dialogue is taken straight from the Dino Crisis script, with some tweaking of my own. Also, documents and memos contained come from the game. Documents are in boldface type, computer monitor wording is written in bold and italics. So, on we go!
Chapter One: Initial Venturing
In the quiet of the night, the remaining three—Regina, Rick, and Gail—stood in a small, fenced-in enclosure in the backyard of the facility. The sky itself seemed to be cloudier, gray clouds moving quickly over the moon. Other than that, the only other sources of light came from night lights throughout the backyard. Regina and Rick stood in a corner; Gail looked once more at the surroundings. Behind him, straight ahead of Regina, was a gate leading to a door, most likely one of the side entrances of the facility. Closer to them stood the guardhouse. Behind the two, another gate led to other parts of the facility. Once sure of himself, Gail looked at the two, a stern look across his face.
"Ok. This is the first checkpoint. Playtime's officially over, kiddies." He looked behind him again, his gaze fixated on the guardhouse. "Something's wrong," he added, "the lights in the guardhouse are out."
Rick was quick to chime in. "Umm…maybe this has been a wild night of partying for the guards—you know, a little song, a little dance…"
Apparently that line of logic didn't sit with Gail, and he crept toward the door, his gun ready. His motions slow and deliberate; he raised his gun with one hand and began to open the gate. Rick began to follow, and Gail stopped his action, and turned his seemingly cold stare to Rick.
"Stay here, Junior," Gail ordered, his voice stern. "Leave the rest to me." With that, he went through the gate. Regina walked to Rick, who seemed slightly miffed.
"Did you hear what he just called me?"
Regina sighed. "Forget it. Just let Gail handle this." No sooner did she say that when both their wrist intercoms beeped, a green light flashing from Gail telling them the area was clear. Both of them walked through the gate, and once through, they stopped.
"Okay. Let's do this," Rick began, Regina crossing her shoulders. "I'll infiltrate the facility and occupy the Control Room on the first floor. I should have access to all the security systems from there. I'll contact you as soon as I've cleared the room."
Regina nodded in agreement, and Rick left it at that, running quickly to the entrance, then disappearing into the building, leaving Regina alone. Her path veered to the left, and no sooner did she turn round the guardhouse, did she see Gail squatting, his gaze scrutinizing the ground, his brow furrowed. Piquing her interest, she ran over to him, and noticed a dark stain on the ground, probably blood. Gail held a bullet in his fingers.
"Let me guess. This is some of your handiwork, right?" she asked casually, unfazed by Gail's demeanor.
"Hmm…" Gail replied, thinking. "The brass is still warm. These guards were shooting at something very recently."
"So who were they fighting?"
"This wasn't much of a fight. I don't think these guards hit anything before getting sliced and diced. Whatever they were shooting at came in right through there." Gail gestured with his hand to the large, gaping hole in the metal fence ahead. "Ripped right through the steel fence."
Regina walked over to the large rip and closely examined it. "Well, the hole is nice and clean, but I still say you could have done this."
"Very funny. We still need to figure out what happened here. Continue to sweep the area." Looking ahead, she could see another gate leading to another fenced area. A quick glance in that direction, and she made out a lock on the gate. Going into the facility would do nothing, Rick could take care of that, and so she was left with exploring the rest of the backyard. She backtracked, walking back through the gate she came in, and when she did, her intercom beeped.
"Regina here."
Rick's voice came over the intercom. "Rick here. I'm in. The place is deserted, though. I have a bad feeling about this…"
"How's the progress going with that security system?" Regina asked.
"That's the thing," Rick replied. "I don't know what's going on here, but it looks like all the power in this facility has been cut."
"Same here," she agreed.
"As long as that's the situation, there's not much I can do. Why don't you see if you can gain access to the backup generators on the ground level? They should be right near your position."
Gail walked through the gate behind her.
"I'm on it," Regina ended. She turned around to face Gail. "What are you doing here?"
"I caught the last part of your conversation," Gail said. "Let's go outside." Gail proceeded cautiously to his right, going through the gate. Regina followed close behind. The passageway to the backup generator was fenced, and took a turn to the right. Gail stopped and looked ahead, and saw a bloodied corpse ripped in two on the ground, lying in a puddle of blood.
"That's disgusting," Regina said casually.
Gail squatted down to further examine the corpse. From the look of the body, he was a guard. "This guy's been eviscerated. Something tore his intestines straight out. The blood hasn't even started to clot yet."
"Look at those tooth marks," Regina pointed out. "It had to be some sort of…animal."
Gail rose to his feet. "Come on. Let's move on." Looking ahead, the two could easily see the door to the Backup Generator room.
"That must be the generator room," Gail said. "I'll stand guard here. You go inside and take a look around." Without a comment, Regina went inside. The room was simple enough—a rather large room, with a huge generator sitting in the middle. The walkway veered to the left, and Regina noted a glass case with four objects—batteries—inside. To the left of the case was a control panel of sorts: four levers with a corresponding color. Looking once again at the case, she noted that the four batteries were color-coded, and below the glass, four buttons. The levers, in order from left to right: red, blue, green, white. The batteries were out of order: red, white, green, blue. She pressed the button to the far right, and noticed that the position of the green and blue batteries reversed. With that knowledge, she pressed the buttons in sequence until the four batteries matched the four levers. Reaching to her right, she pulled the levers in order, making the batteries lock into their respective sockets. On the generator control panel, four lights lit up, and the generator hummed to life. Almost within a second of the generator's activation, her intercom beeped.
"Thank you, Regina," Rick said. "We are back online. I'm gonna see about getting through the security system."
"Anytime. I'm on my way to the Control Room now." Her work done, she made her way for the door, when suddenly the sound of gunshots filled the air, machine gun fire coming from just outside the door. A brief pause, and she heard a muffled hiss, followed by more gunshots. A scream cut through the fray, piercing Regina's ears.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
This was followed by the sounds of metal and another hiss, followed by the cease of the gunfire.
Gail!
Flinging the door open, Regina ran out back onto the passageway, grabbing her handgun. Just ahead, she saw a puddle of blood on the stone ground, and the next thing she noticed—whoever he was, he was dragged, the blood smeared along the ground for another thirty or forty feet up the walkway. With her gun raised, she walked cautiously, following the trail of smeared blood to where it finally ended. Lying on the ground was the torso of a guard, his face twisted and contorted. The fence next to the mutilated guard had another tear, very similar to the one Gail spotted earlier.
Could he…?
Regina squatted, peering through the large hole.
"Gail!" She called out. She was looking face down off a cliff, seeing nothing but ocean below.
"Gail!"
Another hiss cut through the eerie stillness. Regina picked up on it, and stood up slowly, her gun still drawn. A few seconds later, another hiss could be heard. Quickly, she pointed her gun in the direction of the strange sound. Suddenly she heard something sounding like footsteps, moving very quickly, running across the top of metal crates straight ahead. With one large leap, the figure leaped, and landed just feet from Regina.
What the hell! A…dinosaur!
Wasting no time, the creature lunged at her. Regina dove out of the way, the creature's head missing her by inches. She fired two rounds into the creature's reptilian skin, blood coming out of the inflicted wounds. Reorienting herself, Regina made a beeline for the gate to the backyard, with the dinosaur giving chase. Its powerful legs far exceeded Regina's, and would be on her in seconds. Regina fired three more rounds, hitting the creature, but failing to reduce its speed. Its mouth opened, revealing two rows of sharp teeth, and then leaped into the air, claws outstretched. Regina dove again, and she fired another couple rounds into the creature's underside, sending it to the ground. The reptilian creature let out a feral roar, a sound of which Regina never heard the likes of. Without a second to waste, she climbed to her feet and scrambled for the gate as the creature leaped upright.
Shit—shit—shit—
She threw the catch open and slammed the gate shut, then drew her gun and fired three more rounds through the fence, all of them finding their mark in the creature's massive head, skin and blood flying off the monster as she fired from point-blank range. Finally, the dinosaur let out another piercing screech, then collapsed to the ground, twitching slightly as blood slowly trickled from its wounds.
She collapsed against the fence, her back pressed against it, her chest heaving, breathing heavily from the most unusual encounter.
What the hell was that thing? A dinosaur? But how? How could a creature like that be…be alive? Aren't they supposed to be extinct? How could they be running around on this island? What kind of freak show is this facility doing? Maybe Rick's uncovered something…
Regaining her composure, she walked quickly through the gate leading to the rear entrance, whereupon her wrist intercom beeped.
"Good news!" an excited Rick said, "I got the control system back online. What's the situation over there?"
"It's Gail!" Regina replied, her breathing still heavy. "I lost him."
Rick laughed. "So what's the bad news? Did you run into some guards?"
"You're not going to believe this," Regina began. "He was attacked by some sort of dinosaur!"
A few seconds of silence passed between the two before Rick let out a hearty laugh of disbelief. "Now that's a good one! So, who was it? Barney? For real, what's going on over there?"
Regina's mood changed to one of annoyance. "This isn't a joke, you idiot! We were just attacked by a big-ass lizard!"
Rick chuckled. "Alright. Head on over to the Control Room and we'll sort out this whole situation. Rick out."
Regina sighed, and jogged quickly to the door, gun loaded and ready. She cracked open the door slightly, slowly moving herself through the threshold into an empty hallway. It was a dimly lit hallway, the walls metallic gray. The hall turned at a right angle to the left a ways down, and the entire right wall of the hallway was lined with large glass windows, big enough for anyone or anything to crash through. Regina walked briskly down the hallway, quickly darting to the left only to find her path blocked by a laser security gate. Just ahead, several large laser beams cut across the hallway, preventing anything from getting through. To her immediate left stood a door, and a few feet in front of her, a metal grate lay on the floor. Reaching for the knob, it turned, but the door didn't give.
Damn. Probably locked from the inside.
Looking up in the ceiling, she noted an opening wide enough for someone. Hanging from the ceiling was a long cord, a grapple attachment at the end.
Rick was here.
Regina attached the grapple to a belt loop, and pulled on the cord slightly, triggering the pulling mechanism. Once inside the piping check passageway, she walked ahead with ease, looking for where the walkway would end. The path veered to the right slightly, and she saw Rick's handiwork just a few feet ahead. At the opening, she slowed her pace, drew her gun and aimed it downward. Other than the dull hum of machinery reverberating through the pipes, she heard no sound, no dull thuds or sounds of anything amiss. With slow and deliberate movement, she dropped to the floor and quickly looked around. Not hearing anything out of the ordinary, she walked down the dimly lit hall to where it curved to the right. Almost immediately, she spotted the door labeled: "Control Room 1F." With a mechanical hiss, the door opened upward to reveal a small room, brightly lit by the screens and monitors that lined the walls. Straight ahead was another door, and in the center of this industrial gray room, Rick sat in the center, his fingers working quickly over a keyboard, one of many in this room.
"What's our status?" Regina asked, the door closing behind her.
Rick chuckled. "This security system is a snap for me. Real amateur stuff." He turned in his swivel chair, facing Regina. His face drew a look of curiosity. "So, what exactly happened to Gail? You said that he was attacked by a dinosaur?"
Her eyes grew wide. "Yeah. I couldn't believe it…I just hope he's still alive. Anyway, our first priority is to complete the mission."
Rick scoffed. "What we oughta do is just call in the chopper and get off this deathtrap."
"That's a great idea, but Cooper has the radio—and he's missing," she pointed out.
Out of the corner of her eye, Regina spotted one monitor not working, and her curiosity was aroused. "What's with this monitor?" she asked, walking toward it.
"That's the security monitor for the underground area. The camera's offline," he replied.
"I take it then power still hasn't been restored to the area?"
Rick turned around, facing her once again. "Exactly. They must have that area wired to a different power system than the ground level."
"We can investigate that area after we finished our sweep of the ground level."
"Okay, then I'll take care of the shutters that are blocking the way. You work your way in, grab the Doc, then rendezvous back here," Rick said, turning once more to the keyboard.
"All right," Regina said, walking to the door. Once more, the door opened and as she walked back into the hall, she said, "Keep me informed." Rick nodded, and Regina took a left, seeing as to what else was down the Control Room hallway. The end of the hall grew dark, probably a couple of bulbs burned out.
I'm starting to wonder where those things are coming from…
She noticed a stairwell leading down, probably into the underground. Deciding not to investigate that area just yet, she turned around and headed back the way she came. Walking quickly past the Control Room, the hall veered left, and she decided she'd investigate what was behind the door ahead, just past the Piping Check grate on the floor. Raising her gun, she turned the knob slowly and quickly entered the room.
The door revealed a small room, brightly lit, gray on all sides of her. To her immediate right, the floor was lined with cabinets, shelves, with books resting on top. To her left, bookshelves lined the wall; all filled with binders and books of sorts. Straight ahead was another door, possibly leading further into the first floor. Next to the door was a computer terminal. Looking down, a dark red, crimson smear stained the gray tiled floor, giving the apparent notion that a body or something was dragged. The smear trailed to the back of the small office before banking right to a small side room. One whiff of the surrounding air confirmed her thought—something reeked of death. Something small and shiny gleamed out of the corner of her eye, resting on top a small pile of disorganized books. Walking quickly, she noted it was a small disk, probably the size of a standard floppy, and to it a label was attached: "DDK Input 'H'." Pocketing it, for it could've been of importance. Where the blood trail would lead, she'd find out in a second, but first she took one glance at the computer, and saw some words. She read briefly on the monitor:
New Employee Education (Email)
Please inform the new employees assigned to this department about the "DDK" system as follows:
The Digital Disc Key or DDK, is a system that secures our most important areas with an advanced locking device. To release the locks protected by the DDK, prepare and set the following two data discs at the locking device near the door:
"DDK CODE DISC X"
"DDK INPUT DISC X"
The type of the DDK you need is identified on the door: "A", "B", etc. If the DDK type you use does not match, you cannot release the lock. Before operating the system, make sure that your DDK type matches the door you wish to unlock.
That's certainly a help.
Following the trail to the small side room, she saw the source—a dead body was dead on the floor, his torso ripped to shreds. He'd been there a while, judging by the coagulated blood. Judging by his uniform, he was probably a researcher of some kind, but no matter. His body gave off an odor rife with fetor, and around his body was a shotgun. Whatever went on in here, he probably went down with guns blazing. Holstering her handgun, she carefully removed the shotgun off his limp body.
Good solid weapon…can hold five shells at once, it looks like. A couple of shells left…I'll need more.
Positioning the strap around her shoulder, the shotgun at her back, and checked his pockets for any ammo, but came up empty.
Having finished her sweep of the Management Office, she rose to her feet, and walked quickly to the exit. Grabbing her handgun, she opened the door, only to find herself in another hallway. A loud hiss, sounding horribly close, alerted her to its presence. Turning quickly to her right, she saw another dinosaur, similar to the one she encountered outside. It was trapped, the laser fence blocking it from advancing toward Regina. The raptor let out a roar, then ran headlong for the vulnerable S.O.R.T. operative—and let out a hiss of pain as it slammed into the lasers, sending the creature reeling back, hitting the floor with a loud thud.
She couldn't help but burst out in a snicker, a sly smile spreading across her face.
"Idiot," she said softly. Her wrist intercom beeped.
"Regina? I took care of the shutter system. You should be able to access their control panels now," Rick said.
She looked at the control panel next to the shutter, and saw the red light switch to green, it now being operative.
"Already? That was quick," Regina replied, a bit surprised.
"Hey, girl…just get going."
Regina chuckled, and just looked at the raptor. Once more, it let out a hiss, and then sprinted to her again, only to hear the zap and get sent back again. Knowing that she'd have to head that way, she stood still and fired off several rounds into the creature's thick head, one getting its eye, spewing blood and sclera everywhere. She ejected the spent clip out of the handgun, slammed a new one in, and fired another round or two before the creature breathed its last.
Dirty pool, I know…but you're blocking my way. Plus you have the power to kill me. I'm entitled to a little dirty pool now and then.
Turning around, she walked down the hall, and hung a left to a dead end. Three doors stood ahead of her, two on the right, one straight. The one closest was marked "Locker Room." Next to it was a symbol denoting that it was a bathroom. The one ahead was a shiny metallic gray, a symbol emblazoned onto it, probably the facility's logo or something. The lock was electronic, accessible via keycard, judging by the apparatus. Starting at the closest one, she went into the Locker Room. As was expected, it was a men's locker room, judging by the pin-ups of almost-naked women wearing what amounted to twine to cover their nipples and lower genitalia.
Or, possibly a women's locker room, you never know…
A couple of chairs and a table stood at the center of the room, lockers lining the walls. A single piece of paper was partially hanging off, and a couple of doors stood open. Walking around the perimeter, she saw nothing of interest except the paper. Curious, she read:
Before tonight's experiment, the chief and Dr. Kirk will be having a meeting at the 2nd floor lounge at 1:00 p.m. Those who are scheduled to guard should keep a preponderant eye on the area in front of the Chief's Room, and the surrounding vicinity. Before taking positions, be sure to re-supply your ammunition in the custody room. The weapon storage in the custody room can be opened with the combination, "0426". Also, we have received information that spies have sneaked into the facility recently. If anything happens, you may have to enter the rooms of the chief and the professor in order to ensure their safety. You will find the disk that contains the information you will need to access their rooms on top of the locker. That's all for now.
Hmm…
She stood up on a chair, and sure enough, there indeed was a disk on top the set of lockers facing her. She folded up the paper, pocketed it, walked to the lockers, and reached up to grab the disk. She examined the disk closely, and saw the label: "DDK Code 'H'."
Well, well, well. Now I've got both the H disks…now, where do they go?
Back out in the hall she went, quickly making her way to the next room over, the restroom. As expected, it was empty. On the floor was another grate, the entrance to another pipe check open in the ceiling.
Not yet…
She checked all the stalls for Kirk, came up empty. With nothing else of import, she exited to the hall, fished out the yellow key she found from the dead researcher, and inserted it in the reader. The reader let out an error buzz, the red light flashing.
Nope.
An about face, and she walked quickly back through the hall, seeing the dinosaur she gunned down a few minutes ago, its red blood pooling on the floor. Snickering softly to herself, she reached up, pressed a button on the control panel, and deactivated the shutter. Her foot tapped the creature softly. No response. No recoil or sudden movement from the raptor. Leaping over the downed reptile, she opened up the double doors, and walked into a huge, expansive room—the main entrance of the facility. It was a wide open space, with a door to the right, one straight ahead, and the huge set of double doors to her left. Also ahead, a staircase leading up to the second floor, where one could look over and see down. The logo of the facility—a shield, black background; inside, a red circle with a red outline of something resembling a three-pronged boomerang—was prominently displayed on the floor. Going up the sides of the shield were two long, thin leaves.
Ok…where to next? Don't wanna go upstairs just yet. Let's see…main entrance…nah-uh. That goes outside…don't wanna risk it, in case something's out there that I can't handle. However, I might find something I need. That door to the right…maybe. The door straight ahead…maybe. I'll go to the closest first, see where that takes me.
Running across the shiny, tiled floor of the main entrance, her footsteps echoed throughout the large area. She ran behind the staircase, to the first door on her right. Upon close inspection, she saw some sort of reader next to the door, a disk reader with two slots and a screen next to them.
This must be that DDK that was mentioned…
Looking closely, Regina saw the letter N above the top slot.
Well, that won't work now, will it?
She moved counterclockwise to the next door, and found herself on familiar ground—the door led back to the first hallway she came through. She recognized the laser shutter blocking her path the first time. Walking over to the control panel, she deactivated it, and walked back to the main entrance.
Might as well head outside…
Holstering her gun, she grabbed the shotgun, cocked it while walking, and pressed a button beside the large double doors. She stepped out into the cool, moonlit night, a sea breeze moving across her face. It was a large walkway area, fenced in by tall shrubbery. Down a ways to her right was a security booth of sorts, a large metal fence beside it, closed shut. Visually sweeping the area, she saw no sign of any of those raptors, but still kept alert, taking stealth-like steps down the stone path. There was some damage done here, some of the shrubs uprooted and lying haphazardly in the path, some of the stone broken, rubble in places. As she made her way down toward the guardhouse, she heard a strange sound—not the sound of crashing waves below, but another creature, sounding far away, airborne. It let out a high pitched call, almost like a hawk. Glancing up, Regina spotted nothing. She quickened the pace a little, and saw what was fast becoming a familiar sight—a guard lie on the cold stone, gouged, destroyed, ripped in two, his blood already dried. Moving to get a better look, she also noted a raptor a couple feet away from him, lying dead as well, two large holes in his abdomen, probably from point-blank shotgun blasts. Her rational mind was slipping further and further into confusion, the obvious and apparent becoming blurred. What the heck were dinosaurs doing existing here? What kind of freak show is Kirk running?
This mission is getting stranger and stranger by the second…
The guard's face seemed to have been ripped off; a massive rip tore down his face, mutilating it. There was no expression—just massive, gaping tears. It didn't look like he was carrying anything on him, but more ammo could be found in his pockets. Moving a bit down to his legs, Regina checked the pockets of the guard—and pulled out a disk, one of those DDK things again. The label was marked as DDK Input "N."
Aha! A clue, Sherlock!
Pocketing the disk, she got up, her search for additional ammo coming up empty, and ran back into the relative "safety" of the facility. Now, with her sweep of this part of the first floor completed, she decided to head upstairs to the second floor. At the top, a door stood straight ahead. With her shotgun at the ready, she took slow, deliberate steps toward the door. She opened the door, and suddenly she heard the familiar screech of a raptor.
"Ooof!" Regina moaned, something slamming into her with amazing force.
In a second, the raptor landed on top of her, the creature's body a quick blur to her eyes. Regina fell as the reptile's weight landed on her, her back hitting the floor hard, nearly falling on her shotgun, the dinosaur's clawed foot inches from her face. It let out a piercing cry, and raised its head in triumph.
"Now you die," Regina said through gritted teeth. She grabbed her shotgun, placed the muzzle on the creature's belly, and fired the weapon. A deafening blast sounded throughout the second floor as one shell slammed into the creature, ripping a massive hole in its stomach. Guts, blood and skin flew everywhere, over the floors, onto the walls. Chunks of bloody, hot skin hit Regina, and she shielded her eyes. The blast propelled the creature several feet into the air, away. There was no coming back, the creature dead instantly, a puddle of blood quickly pooling at its carcass several feet away. With the sound of the gunshot still ringing in her ears, she rose to her feet once again, wiping dino parts off her gray uniform. Taking another second to get herself straightened, she ran a hand through her short, straight red hair and walked quickly down the hall. The hall opened into a wide space, and she realized that she walked into a lounge of sorts, couches ripped apart to her right, pieces of slashed blinds, foam padding, and broken glass from the shattered windows lying all over the floor. A hundred feet or so away was another door leading off somewhere, one to her left, and one in the lounge area. Next to that one was another of those disk readers. That room had to be of importance—the door itself appeared wooden, a sharp contrast to the rest of the facility with its cold, industrial metallic gray. Walking to that door, she found out why it was so important—it was marked "Chief's Room." Glancing over at the disk reader, she noticed the letter H above the top slot.
Well, well! Let's see what this whole thing's about!
Reaching into a pocket, she pulled out the two DDK "H" disks.
Which one goes in which one? Trial and error, I suppose.
She took the "Code" disk, placing it into the top slot. The reader beeped, and a message appeared on the screen next to it: "Input DDK Input H in bottom slot."
"Simple enough," Regina said to herself while placing the next disk in the slot.
Reading…33...67...100. DDK Disk…verified.
Code: H B C E F A G D I
DDK: B C F G I
Password:
She drew a look of confusion.
Of course. Never as simple as it seems. Now what is this…hmm…the password has something to do with the Code and Key letters…now, there are matching letters here…B, C, F, G, I…if I remove those, I get H, E, A, D. I get "Head." That's it!
"Oh, you think you're so smart, don't you?" Regina said, a huge grin spreading across her face as she punched in the word "head" on the keypad.
Password: HEAD
Checking……………………………………matched!
The door has been unlocked.
Her handgun drawn, she entered the Chief's Room—and saw a human, sitting propped up at the front of a desk. From her observation, he was a scientist, his front and his face stained with blood. His blood-stained hand clutched his side, but to no avail as a slight pool of it formed on the carpet. He was breathing heavily, but erratically, as if he'd probably die at any time from blood loss. To say he was badly injured was an understatement—more like fatally wounded.
A survivor!
Regina quickly ran to the researcher's aid, kneeling down by him. With seemingly great effort, he lifted his head, his facial expression registering pain as he did so.
"Are you from the rescue team?" he asked gravely, his voice hoarse.
"Uh…I…um…" She stammered. "Yes…yes, I am. Do you know where I can find Dr. Kirk?"
His bloodshot eyes grew wide. "Kirk!" he tried to exclaim. "That fool…what's he plotting now?"
Regina drew a look of curiosity. "What are you talking about?"
He lifted his arm. "Here. Take this." Regina took the object from his hand.
"What's this for?" she asked. He gave her another one of those DDK disks.
The scientist began to slump over, moaning in pain. "Told…me…"
"What?" Regina asked, reaching out for him.
"Extremely…vital…" he whispered, before falling to his side, his eyes closing, his breathing ceased.
She sighed, disappointed at the loss of the scientist. Whoever he was, he didn't like Kirk.
Ahh, thank you.
Looking at the familiar-looking disk in her hand, this was the second for the "N" lock, the Code disk.
Getting up, she looked around the room. It looked like someone of high rank would indeed be here, the wall behind his desk lined with plaques, the shotgun catching her eye. To her right, the wall consisted entirely of glass, offering a view of the facility, the cloudy night sky, the moonlight trying to peek through the cloud cover.
A dull thud, soft, was picked up by her ears.
Pocketing the disk, she walked over to the varnished wooden desk, the usual accoutrements neatly placed on the desktop. She opened the drawers, maybe hoping to get lucky—
Found ya!
In the bottom drawer, the Chief kept a small box of shotgun shells. To her surprise, it was full. She took some to reload the shotgun with, then took some to put in a pocket.
Another thud, sounding closer
Footsteps?
Her sweep done, she began to walk for the door—
CRASH!
Suddenly, the massively, seemingly disproportionate head broke through the window, sending Regina to the floor. It let out a deafening roar, then rammed its head into the desk where Regina was, easily splintering it. Its huge, yellow, reptilian, Sauron-like eye moved, searching the room. It lunged forward, its jaws agape, and grabbed the dead scientist, easily swallowing him in one gulp.
What the FUCK! No—this can't be--! You have GOT to be kidding me!
Before any other rational thought flew into her head, she screamed, and fired her shotgun, one solid round at point-blank range into the monster's thick skin, sending pieces of it flying. It let out another roar, and lunged at her. She dove for the floor, missing the creature by a foot. Suddenly, her mind realized one clear thing, one thing that she wanted to not believe, couldn't believe, but here it was, trying to kill her--
It's a fucking T-Rex!
END chapter. Finally, after nearly two years, I've written the next chapter. My apologies to those who have been waiting so long…as always, reviews welcome.