This chapter is dedicated to SupergodzillaSailorCosmos for favoriting this story. It encouraged me to continue to write. Thank you! :) If anyone would like me to write anything specific, even something else besides this story, just PM me to let me know. I won't promise anything, but will entertain the idea, and answer you at least.
Warning: this story may contain graphic violent content. Parental discretion is advised ;)
The jeep pulled up to the main guard tower. Regina knew security for the island kept the main weapons locker there, and other supplies. It also acted as a sleeping quarter for some of them. By now, it was dark, and still raining.
Inside the tower, Regina helped herself to the weapons locker. Thankfully, someone had left it open. She had just finished loading an M16 magazine full of rounds when a hallway light cut on.
It was Bob, one of the security team.
"Regina..." he seemed to ask more than state.
"Hi Bob. I'm just getting some supplies." She said.
"I was sent to grab some supplies myself."
"Oh? Are the others in the complex?" She asked.
"Yes'sum. Mr. Hammond and the others." He paused uncomfortably. Regina just waited patiently.
"... 'cept for Mr. Hammond's grandkids and Dr. Grant. It's a shame. They're either eaten or out there somewhere running for their lives."
She assumed a cold demeanor, like she had no emotions, and changed subjects. "Are those flashbangs, or smoke grenades?" She pointed out some blue canisters in the locker.
"Stun grenades? Yeah"
"Thanks." She took two of them. "I'm going to search for them."
Bob gawked at Regina as she took an M16 down from a rack of rifles. "But, a girl like you dosn't stand a chance against those monsters."
"Bob, there's something you don't know about me..." Regina said, slapping the magazine into place with a sly smile. *Ka-chik!* "I'm ex military."
After a few more moments of scavanging Regina offered to drop him off at the complex. It was only a few yards away, but he took her up on it because of the rain. That's what Bob told himself at least, anyway. It was dark...
"Good luck, but I'll go with ya if you let me drop these supplies for a minute."
"It'd be better for you to stay and keep a perimeter here with the others. That way two of us arn't wasted if..." She just trailed off.
"Well, alright."
As Regina pulled away from the curb her nerves began to bother her. Those kids being in danger was her fault, and so she had to do something about it. "C'mon Regina, you can freak out later." She thought to herself, and pushed the emotions away.
The two giant Jurrassic Park doors loomed ahead of her like gaping jaws welcoming her in. She dimmed her lights, and finally parked cutting them off with the engine as well. She cracked the window just an inch to better hear. There wasn't anything out there that she could hear. Just the patter of rain still.
Opening the driver side door, she stepped out, and scanned the area as she approached the massive theme park entrance. The two doors were agape by at least a foot. Someone hadn't shut them fully. She cautiously peered through, then shoved them open, and hurried back to the safety of the jeep.
After having rolled through the gate a few yards the jeep violently swerved. Regina had jerked the wheel when the walkie talkie crackled to life unexpectantly. She had forgotten she even had the infernal thing.
"Claire, this is Hammond. can you hear me?"
"Yes." She took a deep breath and relaxed.
"Thank you... from the bottom of my heart. But please, do be careful."
His voice was more faint momentarily and it sounded as if he had murmured, "It's all my fault." She pretended not to hear.
"Where were they when Dr. Grant and your grandkids disappeared?"
"In front of the T-Rex fence."
"Great!" Regina had almost blurted out. Of all the times for Nedry to have turned off the security. She wasn't feeling any pity for him.
"We saw footprints leading from their jeep, and believe they are somewhere in the t-rex section. Since the t-rex has managed to get out it should be free of any trouble. Just watch out on the road. that's the last place it was seen."
Just then the headlights splashed over a giant footprint, which appeared to be angled as if whatever it was had went offroad. She dimmed her lights and cracked the passenger side window so she could hear better from that direction. She didn't hear anything and continued down the road until she came to some structural and bamboo debris. One of the tou jeeps had been wrecked and "What the?!" Regina thought Was that a leg in the road?
The giant hole in the fence was obvious, and opposite side of the road a hut had been flattened. "What a scene this place must have been earlier," she thought. Regina found herself leaving the safety of the vehichle once more to quickly verify what type of leg it was she had spotted on the road. thankfully, it just appeared to be a goat or other type of farm animal that was regularly fed to some of the meat eaters.
A few minutes of travelling further and she found an access gate to the t-rex habitat. It was a maintenance entrance. She had to manually get out and shut the gate behind her after she pulled forward, since the power was out. Regina continued on searching as best she could for any signs of the children or Dr. Grant, but it was slow going since by now it was dark outside.
"Ka-clack!" A loud sound of what looked like a gnarly dinosaur arm bounced down off the jeep roof and down onto the hood. She almost screamed, but the limb lay motionless, for that is what it was-just a limb of some sort. A small tree limb. For a moment she puzzled over what had happened when she heard what sounded like someone yelling to get her attention.
"We're up here." They called in chorus. Regina just waited, and parked.
Pretty soon she heard them scurrying down a tree and Dr. Grant opened the passenger door. "Mind if we get a lift?" He asked.
"Sure. That's why I'm here." She answered.
the kids clamored into the backseat, and he seated himself once they were in.
"Are you all okay?" Regina asked.
"As good as can be," the boy answered.
"I'm just ready to take a shower and go to bed," The girl added.
"What happened, exactly?" Dr. Grant asked.
Regina involuntarily gripped the steering wheel trying to think on her feet.
"I think the power went out." She pretended to speculate.
As they began to pull away and roll towards the other side of the habitat Dr. Grant noticed the m16 that Regina had apparently brought with her. "Wow, you're prepared." He examined the weapon. She smirked. "Yeah, just thought it might be helpful, ya know?"
"Whoa, awesome! Can I hold it?" The boy asked.
"No!" Everyone answered together.
Minutes later, they found themselves back at the visitor's center. "Wow, icecream!" The boy exclaimed as he helped himself to some. His sister got herself some late dinner as well. "We spared no expense," Mr. Hammond chimed. The old man and his grandkid's had already embraced one another in relief. Dr. Grant and Sattler had as well, except they had kissed on the mouth... for a few moments.
Regina had turned away and pretended to be watching the doors and windows. By now she was beginning to wonder exactly how much Mr. Hammond and the others really knew about the security going out. Every once and a while she looked back towards the group as they talked and made plans. They would wait until morning light to have a helicopter come and evacuate them. It would be more safe doing it that way.
Apparently, Dr. Malcolm, the chaoticist had been wounded, although was in fair condition, and the lawyer had been eaten. Chaos theory had been more practical on the island than law. Regina almost laughed out loud and turned away again to get her composure. Muldoon was now telling the others that there should be an inner ring of the center to retreat to, in case dinosaurs made their way into this less easily defended area.
There were simply too many large windows and openings there. After all, it wasn't built for defense. They agreed on the embryo room as the inner ring to hide in.
"I wonder where Otacon is," She thought to herself. By now he had almost certainly told about her stealing the embryoes. But then again, he didn't know her name, so as long as she kept a distance from him he couldn't point her out. Plus, everyone might be too distracted right now with actually surviving to worry about it. By the time it would become a matter of investigation she would be gone.
"I'll stand watch here." She offered. Muldoon and Mr. Hammond looked her way.
"Are you sure?" Mr. Hammond asked.
"Yeah, I'll be fine."
"She's ex military." Bob added.
"Okay, you and Claire stay here, and we'll try to get things back online." Muldoon said.
For a split second Regina had forgot her alias, and was thankful Muldoon had refreshed her memory by using it. Mr. Hammond came over quickly first to thank her.
"Thank you so much Claire. You don't know how much bringing my grandchildren back means to me."
His eyes met hers for a moment, thanking her, but also searching. It was if the two of them had a secret agreement. Perhaps he had already forgiven her.
"I'm glad I could help." Regina found the words as they stumbled out.
The others retired towards the embryo room, and Regina was left in the lobby for a few seconds alone. It was quiet, and she began to start feeling the day's drain on her. If she sat down she might fall asleep, so she continued to stand, especially with the soft whisper of air conditioning. A hallway door clicked and Bob emerged. He had saw the others back towards the embryo room and then returned to help keep a perimeter.
"Muldoon said he would check out the other end of the center before heading this way."
"Okay." She said.
Suddenly the lobby lights cut on, and a few noises went off like telephones or the intercom perhaps. "Otacon must have gotten things back online." She wondered out loud. Bob just stared forward into the dining room his face was pale.
There was a silouette moving behind the dinosaur mural painted on one of the glass displays. They could hear the "Click-click-click" of talons on the tile floor. "Hold the door for me, and I'll cover you until you get there." Regina said under her breath. Bob snapped out of it and shakily hurried to the door.
"$# ! It won't open!" He gasped. "It must be because it was reset.
The only place they could retreat to now was the kitchen, and they would have to go through the dining room to get there! "the kitchen!" Regina yelled as she shouldered her rifle and fired a burst towards the silouette. The glass mural shattered into a thousand pieces revealing a raptor on the other side. It screamed from pain and surprise darting away from the loud noise.
She didn't wait to see what it would do next, but spun and booked it for the dining room. "Aaahhh!" Bob yelled as he was pounced by another raptor that had came from out of nowhere.
Regina levelled the m16 and squeezed a burst of hot lead into the raptor's midsection. Parts of it's back erupted into the air with chunks of blood and bone. It staggered and tried to escape but collapsed, twitching and spasaming as it's blood pooled out onto the polished white floor. Regina backed into the dining room doorway propping herself up against the frame. "Bob! Bob, can you make it over here?" "Ohh." He moaned, and began to try and stand up.
The lobby was eerily quiet, like the eye of a storm. No doubt the raptors were planning another way to come at them. Regina switched looking over her shoulder and then into the kitchen just in case one had managed to get in there. It didn't look like any of them had made it.
He limped over to her and leaned against the door frame. "I need you to see which direction the kitchen leads to while I watch the door." She said. Bob just moaned and she took it as an "Okay," because he continued limping that way.
"We've made contact with some raptors." Regina said into her radio. "Bob is injured, and we are trying to hold up in the kitchen. Can you get the door to the hallway unlocked, or tell us how to get to you?" Her eyes skimmed over the dining room before she kicked two rubber door props out and shut the two swinging kitchen doors, then pushed a cart behind them to brace them from swinging in. It wasn't much but would at least make a lot of noise and slow the raptors down if they pursued.
Bob had spotted a first aid kit on the wall and opened it for some bandages. "I don't think there is a way out of here, other than the loading dock for trucks." He said. that would lead outside though, exactly where they didn't want to be. She helped him wrap his arm to apply pressure and slow the bleeding
"I missed it. Havn't they answered you by now?" He asked.
"Otacon, do you read me? We need the door to the hallway unlocked." She asked into the radio. There was only silence. " #$! they must have went to the control room." Bob swore.
"this is Muldoon," came a voice over the radio. "Otacon barely made it back here alive. If you can get to the lobby hallway door we can manually open it for you."
Neither of them wanted to hear that. "Wait, if the raptors are in the control room, we could slip out the back here, and Muldoon could open the stairwell door. We need to go while we still have a good idea where they are." "Okay." Regina said.
They made their way to the back of the kitchen and through the storage area where dry goods were kept. It was beside the freezer room. "Here, fill this bag with food until I get the dock door open." Bob said handing her a sack.
Regina examined the shelves for food items that didn't need to be cooked. Mini cereal boxes, crackers, canned peaches and fruits, etc. she also took as many bottled waters as she could fit into the sack.
The metal shutter door squeked open much louder than either of them wanted, so Bob only opened it just enough for them to sit on the dock edge and hop off, because that was all they really needed anyway. Bob looked out before dangling his legs and hopping out, and Regina passed the bag to him and did the same. Thankfully, there weren't any loud noises outside, except for the thunder.
They walked briskly across a parking lot. "Here, I'll carry that for you since it's too much for your hurt arm right now." She offered. Bob had to be coaxed, but gave in, handing her the sack. "Okay, we're here." Bob said over the radio as they approached the side door. Just then a strange noise grabbed their attention, and both spun around.
It was a dilophosaurus. "Get back!" Bob yelled, pointing his pistol at it. It almost ran out of reflex, but kept an eye on him, and turned to face him again. the door clicked open behind them. "Get to the door and I'll keep an eye on our friend here. Hurry." Bob said.
Regina ran to the side door, eyes on Muldoon. It was all so strange, the thunder was picking up, getting closer and closer, or was that her heartbeat racing in her ears? The ground felt shaky like she couldn't trust her legs, or get to the door quick enough. Muldoon's eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open. He reached out to help grab the bag in her hand, and help her inside.
Regina couldn't help but look back, just as Bob fired his pistol at the dilopphosaurus. It screamed in fear and ran. She couldn't tell if he had hit it, but then the huge jaws of T-Rex clamped down on top of Bob and he was gone! She felt arms pull her inside and the next thing she knew she was sitting on the floor in the stairwell and the door was shut.