Chapter WARNING: Graphic description of Violence!
Chapter 4: Enter the T-Rex
Kara kept her eyes on Mike getting smaller and smaller as the choppers were gaining altitude.
That stupid stupid man!
Kara squirmed against the agent who grabbed her hand, yelling at her to get back to her seat and freed herself from his hold. Taking a deep breath, as though about to dive into the water, Kara jumped onto the soft grass about 6 feet below.
Kara rolled onto her hands and knees, her whole body running only on adrenaline. She was out of the territory of logic and survival instincts and all she thought about was that Mike couldn't be the one to go. Not like this.
Kara saw the T-Rex looming over Mike who was moving around, waving that red fabric. She gasped when Mike closely missed the jaws which snapped shut right next to his head. He tripped and fell onto his back. An easy prey. Kara rushed to her feet and raised both hands over her head and jumped up and down like a maniac.
"HEY ASSHOLE! I'M RIGHT HERE!"
The T-Rex stopped its procession to eating Mike and tilted its head towards Kara to look at her instead of Mon-El. Finding her more interesting, the dinosaur started running towards Kara before noticing the flying vehicles overhead and they attracted the giant dinosaur's attention more than two humans ever could. Dinosaurs were so similar to a cat. Moving things drove them crazy.
It was only then when it dawned on Kara what she really had done and how big that creature really was. As tall as a ten-floor building and coming at her terrifyingly fast. Kara screamed in fright and fled the scene as fast as she could before getting crushed under the enormous deathly feet. The helicopters, fortunately, were at a safe height and away from the colossal jaws that tried to trap them between the T-Rex's teeth. The huge monster snapped its jaws at the helicopter and growled in irritation when they closed shut at got nothing but empty air.
Kara, not knowing where else to go, ran to where Mike had been standing dumbfounded.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He scolded her as they ran shoulder to shoulder to the more covered area and sought the protection of trees.
Kara frowned at him. How ungrateful! "What, you expected me to just let you die!?"
"You deliberately ruined all my efforts to get you to safety!" He yelled angrily and kicked at a thick vine and broke it from blocking their way.
"I am not a damsel in distress!" Kara stated as she angrily pushed some branches out of her face.
"This is NOT Disneyland! This is Jurassic Park!"
"Don't I know that!" Kara cried.
They didn't have more time for their banter when they heard the heavy footsteps that made mini-earthquakes.
The T-Rex appeared among the trees and grunted when it spotted the tiny humans. Kara and Mike sprinted into a run, trying to outrun the T-Rex that jogged to catch them. Their speed was hopelessly low. Kara yelped sensing the T-Rex's muzzle almost touching her back as its revolting warm and wet exhales engulfing her.
"There!" Mike shouldered Kara to the left where a steep hill suddenly took away their balance and he held onto her as they rolled over the soft plants and came to a halt harshly with Mike taking the impact as Kara landed on his chest with a thud and a whiplash.
The T-Rex didn't miss them from where it was over the hill and was looking for a way to come after them. Mike helped Kara to her feet while searching distraughtly among the tangled webs of branches to find a way to escape. He didn't hesitate to move when he found an opening, prompting Kara to follow him. They hadn't gone far until Mike stopped short.
"In here!" Mike said, pointing at a big gap under a huge old tree roots. He slipped in before Kara could express her disgust and refusal to get anywhere near the stinky mud, and dragged her in there with himself, holding her locked in place with his arms. Kara was practically sitting on his lap and his arms which were pressing over her midsection didn't let her move in the small space. She felt his every rapid pant with her body. His chest touching her back constricting and expanding. His mouth next to her ear, blowing out his tired exhales. Under any different circumstances, Kara would have died in embarrassment, but this wasn't a normal situation. It's not like you're being chased down by a T-Rex every day, right?
When the footsteps grew too close, Mike tightened his hold on her and Kara screwed her eyes shut, holding her breath. The footsteps stopped abruptly, dangerously near them. Kara prayed to any god above who was listening, to let them live one more day.
"AAAAAAA!" Someone yelled and Kara's eyes flew open involuntarily to find the source.
She saw one of the unfortunate rangers, who hadn't been in their already rescued group, yelling and making angry faces at something above him, the trees didn't allow her to see. The T-Rex no doubt. He had his rifle pointed at the beast and shot a few times carelessly as a set of huge jaws closed around his upper body, devouring him and turning his yells into shrieks of pain, before abruptly falling silent.
Mike's palm clasped over Kara's mouth as he predicted the incoming scream she was going to emit. She twisted around and hid her face in Mike's chest, shivering and whimpering against the horrible sounds of chewing and breaking bones. He only held her tighter, one hand pressing over the back of her head.
Satisfied with its hunt, the T-Rex walked away, leaving them in that filthy hole where they were latching onto each other in shock. Kara took too many deep breaths, unable to calm down. They waited way longer after their breathing had turned back to normal and were sure the T-Rex wasn't around, to crawl out of their hiding place. Mike movements were slow and he hissed in pain when he tried to stand up. Kara looked at him in concern. The wound on his chest from earlier was bleeding again.
"Mike, are you ok?" Kara asked and kicked herself internally for the stupid question. Of course, he wasn't ok.
"Yeah, just give me a minute." He took some deep breaths with his hands on his knees. Kara could see the furrow in his brow and the little shakes along his arms. He was in so much pain.
Kara remembered she had some painkillers in her handbag for when she got killer migraines at work. She reached for her bag and didn't feel it. Shoot! She had long forgotten about it in the control room when all this started.
"Let me take a look." Kara approached Mike, desperate to offer him some help, but he recoiled and stood upright despite his injury.
"No, we need to radio the base!" Mike turned her down and reached for his radio, but his hand gripped on emptiness. "Shit! I must have dropped it!"
He looked around for it in distress and walked back the path they had run as his eyes scanned the ground. They climbed back the hill with difficulty and continued the search. It was like finding a nail in a haystack.
Kara copied Mike and scanned the flattened bushes, crushed under the 's feet. She heard Mike grunt in frustration and found him crouching down, holding a smashed black object with wires pouring out of it. The radio had been trampled.
Mike threw away the useless device and rose back to his feet, wiping his hands on his pants. "Let's move. We can't stay here. There should a storage facility nearby. We need to get there before the sun is down."
Kara didn't argue and trusted Mike's perfect sense of direction in this place where everywhere looked the same to her. They walked in silence. Progress was slow with all the blocking vegetation and the detours they had to take to avoid confronting random stray dinosaurs. And then there were the pauses they had to make to regain their strength – mostly because Mike needed them – and they were getting too frequent and close in between.
When Mike waved his hand for yet another stop, Kara decided to speak her mind. "Mike! You're clearly not doing well! Let me help you."
She thought he was going to reject her like before, but one look at his pale face told her he was going to give in and just as she had predicted, he nodded and slipped down by a tree. Kara knelt down in front of him and carefully touched the swollen red skin around the largest wound on his chest. It looked terrible. Kara didn't know much about first aids. She regretted skipping that specific voluntary course back in high school now. If only she didn't dislike the sight of blood, she might have been able to help Mike now. Although she had surprised herself by how she had been handling the sight of the injury thus far.
"I think it's infected." Mike said hoarsely with a wince, proving to be the more knowledgeable one between the two of them.
"What can I do?" Kara asked desperately.
Mike pulled his shirt off over his head with difficulty. Kara blushed a little, unable to turn her eyes away from his toned abs. He then reached for the water canteen he had been carrying on his belt and handed it to Kara. "We should clean it."
Kara took the unwearable shirt from him, but it was so filthy. It wasn't smart to use it on an already infected injury. She looked around for a better option and her eyes fell on her own cobalt shirt that didn't seem too worse for wear. Without hesitation, Kara unbuttoned it, taking it off and was left in the blue camisole she had been wearing underneath. She ripped a piece of the material in the shape of a stripe and used the canteen to pour some water both on the cloth and on the wound. Then as gently as she could, Kara wiped the blood and plasma while trying to ignore Mike's hisses and flinches. He grew calm after a few strokes. When Kara lifted her head to tell Mike she was done, she caught him gazing at her so deeply as if seeing right through her soul. His were eyes rather feverish, his pupils dilated and filled with an unexplainable emotion. They were luring her in and consuming her with their profoundness. Her eyes diverted briefly to his ajar inviting lips.
Their trance came to an end when a sound from behind Kara broke their concentration. They both looked at the direction alarmingly and Kara huffed in ridicule when she saw it was just Donny, observing them rudely. She reached for a rock nearby and threw it at the ugly Pterodactyl, missing him by many inches.
After he left with an offensive growl, Kara turned to Mike and chuckled awkwardly. They were similarly befuddled with the current that had been going on between them. Kara busied herself by making a rudimentary bandage out of the remains of her shirt for Mike's wound. She didn't mind ruining her expensive shirt. It was worth it if it helped to save a life. Furthermore, it was too hot to wear that anyway. She felt more comfortable now in her camisole top.
"Thank you, Kara." Mike's voice made Kara look back at him. "Not just for this… thank you for coming back to save me."
Kara shook her head. "Don't mention it, Mike. You've saved me more than once."
They nodded at each other, and Kara remembered the promise he had made to her. "And just so you know, I'm not gonna let anything else happen to you either. I promise. Besides, my boss would kill me if I don't get him that interview with you. We weren't finished!"
Mike grinned at her sweetly and it seemed he was doing a little better. "Let's get to that storage faster. It shouldn't be that far now." He sighed and rose to his feet. Kara watched him carefully, ready to step in should he need to lean his weight on her.
The duo resumed their track and Kara tried hard not to stare at Mike's muscular back. It didn't help that sweat was glistening on his skin, making it far more distracting.
Indeed the building Mike had mentioned wasn't much farther. Kara saw the grey short structure built among the trees with a metallic locked entrance. Mike opened it with his key card, which was surprising since all systems had been shut down, and allowed Kara to walk in first while holding the heavy door.
"This isn't a storage facility!" Mike claimed in confusion when they found themselves in a lab that looked very different from the one Kara had seen in unit 13. Very futuristic and cutting edge looking. What made it even more suspicious was the fact that the computers were running just fine.
Kara froze when she turned right and saw a Raptor unconscious on a table with wires attached to its head. "Mike?" She called urgently and Mike was by her side within seconds.
"What the hell?" Mike cursed and moved forward to inspect, but he was stopped by the masked man who suddenly showed up. He was dressed in a dark uniform with a black ski mask over his head and held a real rifle to Mike's chest. That gun was no tranquilizer, Kara could tell and he looked nothing like the Park's rescue team.
"Hands over your head." He ordered.
"Who are you? What is going on here?" Mike asked in furry, refusing to do as he was told.
"I said put your hands over your head." The armed man repeated in a threatening tone and Kara shivered to herself. What had they gotten themselves into?
"And I SAID, what the HELL is going on here!" Mike backfired.
The man hit Mike on the head with the hilt of the gun instead of an oral answer. Kara yelped and jumped forward to catch Mike as he fell to his knee. Now he had a new injury on his head.
"What is going on?" A new voice asked wearily and Kara saw another man walking in, wearing suits followed by another similarly masked and armed man. She couldn't believe her eyes. She recognized him. He was the billionaire genius scientist Maxwell Lord, owner, and the CEO of the Lord Industries.
"Sir. They have intruded and were trying to compromise the operation." The first guard explained and Kara rushed to correct them.
"No! Please, we were just trying to find a safe place. We didn't mean to do anything."
Maxwell Lord shook his head in disappointment. "How many times did I say deactivate the keycards? But would he listen…" He mumbled to himself.
Mike finally overcame the disorientation. "Who are you? What are you doing with that Raptor? This is against the policy!"
"You think I'm the one behind this Mr. Matthews?" Max Lord scoffed and upon seeing the surprise on Mike's face, he continued. "Yes, that's right. I've done my homework and I know every single person working in this place. I know who you are Michael Matthews. Bachelor of Paleontology at Metropolis University, turning your back to your family name and fortune to serve five years in the army and quitting it to pursue this job." Kara couldn't believe what he was hearing about Mike, but there was no time to duel on it as Max walked closer to them, his eyes studying Kara now. "However, I don't know you."
"I'm nobody." Kara blurted out nervously.
"You're not nobody. An unforeseen complication in my plans, that's who you are." He stated, shaking his head.
"What is that supposed to mean?!" Mike stood up with his fists clenched. He wasn't going to give in to these people so easily. "You are the one behind all this! Are you not?"
Lord ignored his questions, which in a way could be considered a confirmation, and nodded towards his pawns. "Get them to the back room with the others."
Mike put himself in front of Kara protectively. "You're not taking us anywhere!"
Kara's heart elevated fast in fear of what was going to happen next. She put her hand on Mike's shoulder and bit her lower lip anxiously.
"Don't make this harder than it already is Mr. Matthews. You have nowhere to run and I believe you don't wish to spend the night out there with those monsters you love so much?"
"Do you have ANY idea what you've done!? How many people are dead because of you?!" Mike yelled at him furiously, not caring about the mercenary who was pushing him back.
Maxwell Lord didn't even regard the accusation and spun around to leave. Mike wrestled Lord's guard, but unfortunately, he wasn't at his prime strength with his chest wound and the strain of all the activities and was overcome easily when his hand was twisted locked behind him and pinned to the ground and the barrel of a gun pressed to his head. There was nothing Kara could do but watch fearfully as he had his forehead pressed to the ground, panting heavily.
The man took away Mike's gear belt and knife and practically dragged him across the lab since he was seemingly incapacitated and the second one scowled and pointed his gun at Kara to move. She had no intentions of leaving Mike, so she complied with raised hands and started walking on shaking legs.
The odd bunch reached a door at the end of a corridor where another one of Max Lord's disciples was standing guard. He opened the door and nudged Kara with the barrel of his gun to step inside. Kara frowned at him as she did. Mike was thrown into the room after her and fell sprawled on the floor with a grunt of pain.
"Hey! He's injured!" Kara finally found her voice as she went to help Mike. His silence was seriously worrisome. "Wait! Please! He needs medical attention!"
She begged the masked men but the three goons walked outside as though being deaf and locked the door behind themselves. Kara gritted her teeth and stirred Mike to his back. His eyelids were half open, his skin hot and clammy to the touch.
"Mike?" She called in concern as she gently patted his face. To her horror, he didn't answer and his eyes closed shut. His fever was too high.
"What happened to him?" A voice asked and Kara for the first time realized they weren't alone in the room and there were two others looking at them in wonder and hesitation. The man - the owner of the voice - was standing closest to them and was wearing a white lab coat with round glasses and a cute bowtie which looked silly on him. He was looking between Mike and Kara with concern.
"He's- He was attacked by a dinosaur. His wound is infected." Kara explained in a thick voice. She was terrified of losing Mike so shortly after promising to keep him safe.
The brunet man came to kneel beside them. He untied the pitiful bandage that had been misplaced by all the commotions and studied the ugly looking cut on Mike's chest. It looked far worse from when she had cleaned it not even an hour ago.
"Is he dying?" Kara suddenly asked with tears in her eyes.
"Not if I can help it." He finally raised his head and met Kara's frightful expression.
"Hey, don't worry. Look my name is Barry Allen. I'm not exactly a doctor, but I've been to med school. I know how to help him." His assurance made Kara's heart beat hopefully again.
"Thank you." Kara sniffled and gave Barry a shy smile.
The kind stranger jumped to his feet and dashed to the shelves close by, to get the things he needed to help Mike and Kara wiped her tears as she watched his rapid movements while keeping a hand on Mike's shoulder. The room was stacked with boxes and standing fridges filled with tubes and capsules. Kara's eyes wandered to the only other person who was sharing their unfortunate fate.
The girl sitting in the corner hugging her knees, had blond hair like Kara, but more curly. Kara noticed she was wearing a lab coat too. They briefly made eye contact without saying anything.
Barry returned very fast with a handful of packages and syringes. He tore open a thin rectangular package and picked two sterile gloves and put them on. He poured a colorless liquid on a gauss which Kara instantly recognized when the sharp smell of alcohol stung her nose. It was Ethanol. Perfect substance to disinfect a wound.
The lab assistant started cleansing the deep gash. Kara was happy Mike had passed out at this point, otherwise, this would have hurt like a bitch. When Barry picked a curved nail and some special sewing thread, Kara refused to continue watching. She scrambled back, trusting Barry and went to sit close to the girl.
"H- Hi. I'm Eve." She introduced herself and Kara shook her outstretched hand immediately, glad to be distracted from Mike for a little while.
"Kara." She simply stated.
They regarded each other for a few seconds with sad faces.
"Do you know what's going on here?" Kara asked in hopes that at least one person could answer what was happening.
Eve fidgeted with the fringe of her white coat nervously before replying. "It was just a normal day and we were working and suddenly these people broke in and put us here."
"Did they say what they want?"
Eve shook her head. "No, they just forced Barry by holding me at gun's point, to give the password to login the system and since then they hadn't even come to check on us and nothing has happened. The power went out once though." She added.
Kara sighed. This was so infuriating. No one seemed to know what was going on and what seemed to be a simple glitch in the system had turned into a hostage situation and felony by mad scientists.
It didn't take long for Barry to finish stitching up Mike and bandage him nicely. He was really fast, like a flash. They pulled Mike to a side and Kara found some foams somewhere and used them as a pillow to make it more comfortable for him. Luckily they had a water tab in the room and Kara used it to wet a gauss and put it on Mike's forehead to keep his fever down.
Something told Kara it was going to be a long night for all of them.
