Chapter 6: Escaping!
Out on the edge of the island, a stand was built. Thousands of people were gathered in it, waiting for something big to appear. Even Tails and Knuckles were in the stands. Knuckles was on his phone, texting his girlfriend while Tails was listening to a woman tell information about the dinosaur in the water. "The Mosasaurus was thought to have hunted near the surface of the water where it prayed on anything it could sink its teeth into, including turtles, large fish, and even smaller Mosasaurs." the woman spoke over the microphone. Then, she pushed a button, making a crane with a giant, dead, Great White Shark dangling from its hook. "Okay, folks," the woman continued, "let's see if she's still hungry after already eating today."
The crane halted when it was now over the big, mass of water. "She's a little shy, so, be nice and give her a round of applause when she comes out." Tails was shaking Knuckles and trying to get his attention. "Knuckles, Knuckles! The Mosasaurus!" Knuckles looked up from his phone. Suddenly, a gigantic, terrifying, gray, Mosasaurus jumped out of the water! It grabbed the shark in its big, powerful jaws with a growl! Everyone in the stand, even Knuckles was amazed at this! Then, it fell back into the water, splashing a giant wave over everyone in the crowd! They all cheered and clapped their hands at this. "Oh, my God! That was awesome!" a now soaked Tails cheered, shaking his brother in excitement. Knuckles was wet and so was his phone, but he was flabbergasted and amazed at the gigantic beast. He had a big smile on his face at last!
Then, the stands lowered themselves. "Hold on tight. We're gonna give you an even closer look at our Mosasaurus." the woman over the microphone announced. Sure enough, the audience could now see through a glass window, the awesome dinosaur! It was still eating and chomping at the dead shark which was leaking blood into the water. It was giant and scaly with what appeared to be hundreds of teeth in its mouth! "It has 88 teeth!" Tails exclaimed, taking a picture of the Mosasaurus. "Wanna see something else cool?" Knuckles asked his little brother. "Yeah!" the yellow kitsune replied with optimism. Both brothers clapped.
Meanwhile…
Rouge had driven Shadow to Paddock 11 where the Indominus was. After getting out of the car, he stood and stared at the giant walls surrounding the habitat. "We've been pre booking tickets for months." Rouge explained, walking beside him. "The park needs a new attraction every few years in order to reinvigorate the park's public interest. Kinda like the space program." She led Shadow up the stairs. "Corporate felt genetic modification would up the wow factor." she added. "They're dinosaurs. Wow enough." Shadow stated. "Not according to our focus groups." Rouge replied. "The Indominus Rex makes us relevant again." Shadow chuckled, "The Indominus Rex?" he asked, still chuckling. "We needed something scary and easy to pronounce." Rouge replied, annoyed. "You should hear a four-year-old try to say "Archaeornithomimus"." she turned towards him and then walked into the room. "You should hear you try to say it." Shadow joked, following her.
Once they were in the room, Rouge went to the control panel and started typing things into it. "So what's this thing made of?" Shadow asked, walking to a window and looked into it. "The base genome is a T. rex. The rest is… classified." Rouge replied, messing with her short, white hair. She turned towards Shadow. "You made a new dinosaur and you don't even know what it is?" he asked with a smirk. "The lab delivers us finished assets, and we show them to the public. "Can we drop a steer, please?" she asked to the person working the crane. The worker was a big, purple cat with black and yellow eyes and a construction hat and uniform. (A/N: Big the Cat.) Big nodded and messed with the buttons and put down his sandwich. "How long has the animal been in here?" Shadow asked Rouge. "All its life." she replied. "Never seen anything outside these walls?' the ebony hedgehog continued to ask. "We can't exactly walk it." Rouge joked. "And you feed it with that?" Shadow asked, pointing to the giant crane which held a giant piece of rib meat. It set it down on the ground. "Is there a problem?" Rouge asked, not really getting it. "Animals raised in isolation aren't always the most functional." Shadow explained, keeping his focus on the crane. "Your Raptors are born in captivity." Rouge pointed out. Shadow peeled his eyes away from the window and over to Rouge.
"With siblings," he said, walking towards her, "They learn social skills. And I imprint on them when they're born. There's trust." He halted and turned back to the window. "The only positive relationship this animal has is with that crane." he pointed to it. He was silent for a moment but then replied, "At least she knows that means food." to her. "So, she needs a friend." Rouge sighed, "We should schedule play-dates? That sort of thing?" she asked Shadow in joking manner. "Probably not a good idea." Shadow replied, keeping his focus on the glass.
Rouge moved forward a little and tapped on the glass. The Indominus wasn't showing up. "Where is it?" she wondered. "Is it in the basement?" Shadow asked her, "Is there a downstairs? Maybe it's in the rec room." he joked. Rouge lightly shook her head. "It was just here. We were just here." the ivory bat girl walked over to the control panel and started typing on it. It beeped and then it started scanning the area. The first few cameras beeped, saying, "No thermal signature detected". "Oh, shit." Big said. All the camera results came up negative.
It wasn't in there!
Rouge's mouth gaped, her teal eyes shrunk slightly. "That doesn't make any sense." Big said, popping the last of his sandwich in his mouth. "These doors haven't been opened in weeks." he turned his head towards Rouge and then moved his swivel chair over to the window to look for it.
Shadow was over by the window, looking at something.
"Were those claw marks always there?"
Rouge turned around and looked at Shadow. She slowly walked over to the window and looked where Shadow was pointing. Sure enough, there were giant claw marks on the wall. "Do you think it…?" Rouge looked at Shadow who looked back, biting his lower lip. They were silent for a moment and Shadow slowly looked back at the wall. "Oh, God." Rouge whispered, her eyes dilated. Rouge then started walking towards the door. "She has an implant in her back. I can track it from the control room." Shadow took one long look at the claw marks on the paddock's wall.
This was bad…
Later…
Rouge was in her car, zooming down the road, on the phone with control. "We have an asset out of containment. Put ACU on alert. This is not a drill!" she warned.
Meanwhile…
Silver was talking to Amy. He kind of liked Amy and loved talking to her. "So, even though I didn't meet him until I was 13, I definitely considered Mephiles to be more of a dad than my real dad." he told Amy. Suddenly, there was a beeping sound on the big screen. There was a red dot focused on an area. Then, Silver heard the phone ring. He picked it up and put it up to his ear. "Yeah, hello?" he spoke into it. "Silver," it was Rouge, "Get me coordinates on the Indominus." she commanded. Silver looked at Amy, who looked back. However, he did as he was told. "Okay, yeah. I'm doing it right now." he typed some buttons on the control panel.
Antoine came into the control room to check on everything, and he walked over to where Silver and Amy were.
Meanwhile…
Shadow had decided to check out the paddock. So, he grabbed Big and took him into the paddock with him. There were animal skeletons from the Indominus' daily meals all around, but they weren't much of an issue. Dinosaurs gotta eat too. There was someone inspecting the wall where the giant, white claw marks. It was a blue, male hedgehog with a gray mustache and gray, bushy eyebrows, and black eyes. (A/N: Uncle Chuck.)
When Shadow and Big got over to the wall, Shadow slowly ran his glove-covered hand over one of the claw marks. Then, he stepped back and looked up at the rest of the marked up wall. "That wall is 40 feet high." Big pointed out, looking up. "You really think she could've climbed out?" he wondered. "It depends," Shadow answered.
"On what?"
"On what kinda dinosaur they cooked up in that lab..."
Meanwhile…
Back at control, Silver had just gotten the coordinates, but… "Wait, what the hell?" he wondered. "It's in the cage." he told Rouge over the phone. (An: Oh, shit!) Rouge's face turned blank for a second. "Wait, no, that's impossible. I was just there." she replied. "Rouge, I'm telling you, she's in the cage." Silver replied. Then, there was a beeping on the screen. Antoine looked up as Silver brought up video feed from the security camera. He and the others saw Shadow, Chuck, and Big in the cage! "Wait… There are people in there." Silver pointed out.
Rouge gasped and her face looked shocked and scared and worried all at the same time. "Get them out of there…" she whispered. "NOW!" she snapped. Amy tuned in her headset to Paddock 11. "Paddock 11, this is Control. You need to evacuate the contaminant area!" the pink hedgehog said in a serious and scared tone.
Back in the Cage…
The three men heard Amy over the radio, but it was all distorted! Shadow turned around in response. The only thing that was clear was, "Paddock 11." then, "Paddock 11, do you copy?" Big pressed the response button on his walkie talkie. "Come again?" he responded.
"It's in the cage! It's in there with you!"
Upon hearing this, the three men panicked! Shadow said, "Go!" and he and the others started running. Well, Chuck and Shadow did; Big was so fat, he was having a hard time keeping up. The purple cat then halted when he heard and the trees rustling and knocking over! He whimpered in fear and headed back to the wall. Shadow and Chuck halted when giant feet stood in their way. The Indominus Rex was blocking their way! They looked up at the massive dino as it growled softly at them. They turned around and started running the other way! Shadow in front, Chuck following closely behind.
Suddenly, Indominus grabbed Chuck in her massive, long claws! Screaming could be heard through the radio in Control. Amy looked scared, Silver looked shock and so did Antoine. Then, there we audible cracks and gurgles heard through the radio as well.
Rouge could hear all this too. She looked worried and scared.
Back in the cage, Big was pressing buttons on the control and scanning his hand to open the really big door. Shadow was running towards the door, whilst behind him, the Indominus was tearing apart Uncle Chuck, who was now dead, and eating him. Blood splattered all over the trees and ground.
Once the door was open enough, Big squeezed his large body through the door and was out.
In Control…
Antoine and the others saw the door opening still. "Close the door." the orange coyote commanded to Silver. "We can't lock him in there with that thing." the silver hedgehog retorted. "Close it now!" Antoine ordered, pushing the button himself.
"Somebody, talk to me!" Rouge spat over the phone, "What is happening?!"
Shadow was still running from the Indominus, who was chasing him! Meanwhile, the door was still closing. And Shadow noticed this and screamed, "Shit!~" The Indominus growling and trying to snap at him, knocking over trees on her way.
Shadow managed to roll into a ball and get through the door. Once he was out he unrolled and kept running! However, the door was not fully closed and the massive, hybrid dinosaur broke her way through the tiny gap! She was almost out, but still got stuck in the door. Shadow rolled underneath a car as the Indominus finally got out!
Shadow silently watched as the Indominus took slow steps further away from the cage. Shadow saw Big hiding in front of one of the white cars owned by the park. He looked scared and worried. He looked behind the right side of the car for the dinosaur which was actually on the left side. Though, he saw her tail and that made him whimper in fear.
Suddenly, the Indominus flipped the car up causing it to crash beside the Jeep Shadow was hiding under! This made Shadow flinch as the car crunched and the glass windows shattered everywhere! He flipped over on his stomach and looked at Big. Big looked back at him with a whimper and a frightened look. He knew that the dino was just right above him.
Then, she snapped her powerful jaws down onto Big and brought him up! Blood leaked from above signaling that he was dead.
Shadow's ruby red eyes shrunk and shook. He knew he had to cover up his scent. He quickly reached into his pocket pulled out a pocket knife. He brought it up to a tube under the Jeep and cut it. Instantly, orange gasoline poured out from the cut tube. Shadow closed his eyes and mouth tight to keep from damaging them. Then, he spread the rest all over his body and laid still and silent.
The Indominus slowly walked around the destroyed white van and knelt down beside the black Jeep. Shadow slowed down his breathing his racing heart, and closed his eyes. The dinosaur leaned its snout and blood covered jaws and teeth down to smell for anyone else who might be trying to hide. Shadow flinched and shivered at the menacing growl it gave.
Then, he heard booming footsteps lead away from the area. He leaned up slightly and saw it leaving. Once they were out of ear range, he flopped his head back down on the gravel road and sighed in relief.
That was a close one…
Done! Also, Happy New Year! It's 2016! I thought it would never come!
Shadow: My New Year's Resolution is to try and stop collecting guns for a while. My room is packed with them!
Mine is to listen better and try to finish my stories before I start any new ones.
Shadow: Good choices… Good…
R&R!
