Chapter Seven
1966
I could tell Ian wasn't the happiest camper to be surrounded by girls at my birthday party. Him and my older brother were the only boys there, and Ian didn't exactly want to leave his side, unless I wanted to play with him, which I did a lot throughout the day. I even popped a water balloon on his head, which he wasn't too happy about. But my best friend Donna wanted to play with my new Barbie dolls after we had cake and presents, and I didn't exactly want to say no.
Before everyone had left, with Ian being one of the last besides little Summer, who was crying in the back because she skinned her knee (my Mom was currently taking care of it), I walked over to him and nudged him. He looked at me, his new glasses a little too big for his face, and it made me giggle.
"What?" he asked.
"Your glasses." I giggled more. Ian looked away, taking them off.
"Don't start. I hate these things."
I smiled a bit, nudging him again. He looked at me, raising his eyebrows.
"So… I like the gift you gave me." I smiled more. "How'd you know I wanted that doll?"
"I heard you mention it when we were out with your Mom. So, I saved up my ice cream money." Ian shrugged. "It's not a big deal."
"Well I still like it anyway." I smiled, hugging him. He hugged me back before pulling away.
"You wanna see what my brother got me?" I grinned. Ian nodded. "He said that Mom can't know though. She didn't even know he had gotten it for me."
"Okay." Ian nodded again. I dug in my pocket, pulling out a black switchblade knife. Ian's big eyes got a bit bigger. "Whoa!"
"I know! We can't play with it, though. Jeff said it was only for self-defense." I put it back in my pocket.
"Ian! Your mother's here!" I heard my Mom call from the back door.
"I gotta go." Ian put his glasses back on. "I'll see you Monday, Kerri. Happy birthday." He smiled, hugging me one more time before hurrying off to go home.
"Bye!" I waved at him.
When I came to, Alan, the kids and the rex were nowhere to be seen. I was laying half in a Tyrannosaurus footprint, half on the ground. The bathroom was torn to pieces, and blood stained the walls of the stalls, though it seemed as if the rex decided she wanted a bit more of Gennaro, since the leg that was ripped off was gone. I sat there for a moment, listening around for the rex's thuds. When I didn't hear anything, I got up and made my way over to where the stalls used to be. I pulled my hair out of my face, as it was covering my eyes, and began to look around the rubbish piles of the bathroom.
"Ian," I called quietly, just in case he was awake. My hand brushed something, which turned out to be a Gennaro arm, with bite marks and a bone poking through, and I screamed, throwing it away from me.
"Shhh…" I heard from a pile of rubbish. My eyes lit up.
"Ian?" I asked quietly, hoping for another response. "Ian?"
I heard mumbling to my left and I hurried over to it, taking some rubbish off of it. Underneath was Ian, somewhat conscious. I shook my head, looking him over. He seemed to have a bit of a cut on his forehead, but as I looked more, I noticed his leg bent at an odd angle and bleeding almost profusely.
"Oh, God," I looked at it, my hands hovering over it.
"Please don't… Don't touch it," I heard Ian whimper.
"I'm not, I'm not. I promise." I promised him, trying my best to look away from it. "We've gotta do something about this leg." I shook my head.
"Oh, I-I know, I feel it." Ian sighed, his color draining a little bit from his face. I saw him look up to see it and I leaned in front of his leg.
"Don't look at it." I shook my head. "Don't."
"That bad, huh?"
"Ian, trust me. It looks as if a bone could poke through if you move it."
Ian swallowed hard, shutting his eyes. I started to take his belt off—which, I could tell, was already halfway off, seemed like Ian beat me to the idea—and his eyebrows raised up a bit.
"Kerri, uh, I know we're alone, but now?" He joked. I couldn't help it. I laughed, a bit harder than I should have. I saw him smile weakly, looking up at me. "Making a tourniquet?"
"Yeah." I nodded. He nodded for a moment.
"I was going to, but I didn't have enough energy to get my belt off. I had to take a break."
"Don't worry, I've always have had more energy than you when it came to stuff like that," I joked. Ian got a huge grin on his face.
"Oh, I know."
"You're so nasty. Here you are in pain, and all you can think about is sex?"
"What can I say, I'm a-a masochist." Ian joked, and I snorted quietly. I got his belt off as gently as I could and slid it under his thigh.
"You let me know if this hurts at all, okay?" I told him.
"Oh, you'll know." Ian nodded, all the joking out of his system. I nodded and began to wrap the belt around his thigh. I reached in my pocket with my free hand, grabbing my old switchblade from my pocket, opening it and notching another hole for it after the last one to make it a bit tighter.
"That good?"
"Mhmm." Ian nodded quickly.
"Too tight?"
"No." I heard him force out. He opened his eyes after a moment, sitting up and saw me shutting my switchblade. "You still have that old thing?"
"Of course I do. Jeff gave it to me." I answered simply, examining the cut on his forehead. Ian looked up at me with those brown eyes of his, and I tried to ignore them, but I couldn't after a moment. "What?" I smiled a bit.
"Nothing." Ian shook his head weakly. I sat up, setting my switch on the ground. I grabbed the edge of my tank top, beginning to rip it. "What're you doing?"
"You'll see," I ripped it a bit on both of the seams, about a good two inches, before taking it off.
"Whoa," Ian's eyes got wide. "What—"
"I'm making a bandage for you, I'm not getting naked." I answered quickly, blushing deeply. I opened my blade back up, cutting my shirt all the way through the front. After, I shut my blade again and put my shirt back on. I folded the makeshift bandage a couple times before setting it on Ian's head, putting a bit of pressure on it to make it stop bleeding. "How do you feel?" I asked. "Lay back."
"Well, honestly, I've felt better." Ian laid back and shut his eyes for a moment before looking at me again. "How about you?"
"Oh, I'm scared as hell." I whispered. "But I'll be okay."
"How'd you escape the Tyrannosaurus?"
"I fainted."
Ian laughed quietly. "Well, if it works, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah."
"What about Alan and the kids?"
At this, I shook my head. "I honestly don't really know, uh… I know he went to help them, but I'm not sure if…"
"If they survived or not." Ian finished my sentence.
"God, I hope they did." I sighed, lifting the bandage to check on the blood flow. When I noticed it wasn't as bad, I just held it in my hands. "Why was Hammond so stupid, I don't understand." I shook my head.
"I thought I disliked him, but now I hate him." Ian snapped a bit. "You know, uh, I wouldn't be in this mess if-if it wasn't for him. My leg wouldn't be broken, no one would be missing, uh, just…" he trailed off, anger on his face. I nodded.
"I know." I bit my lip for a moment before undoing his shirt.
"Oh, Kerri," he joked. I rolled my eyes.
"I'm checking your torso for wounds. Don't get yourself excited." I told him, opening his shirt and examining his chest. Once I saw nothing was wrong there, I calmed down.
"I can't help it. If I see a-a beautiful woman unbuttoning my shirt, I just can't help myself." He joked. I hit his torso lightly.
"Cut it out," I blushed a bit. I kept my hand on his shirt, on the part where the buttons would button up, rubbing it in between my thumb and forefinger. The rain began to lighten up, soon becoming nothing but a mere drizzle. I looked at Ian, who put his hand over mine. "I guess this is what you wanted to talk about?" I asked quietly.
"Well, I imagined it in a hotel room or, you know, some-someplace dry. But yeah."
I smiled a bit, shaking my head. "Um… Ian, I…" I looked at him, holding his hand in mine, smiling at him.
But not for long.
I saw his eyes widen. "Kerri,"
"What?"
"You still have that flare on you?"
"Yeah. Why?"
That's when I felt the thud. My eyes widened.
"Uh, that. That's why." Ian swallowed hard, his eyes wide as saucers. He looked around me as I heard the Tyrannosaurus roar loudly. I didn't turn, but I began to shake. "You need to light that flare and distract it."
"But—"
"Gennaro was dinner, you wanna-you wanna be dessert?" Ian hissed, the fear evident in his eyes. He wasn't watching me though. He was watching every movement the Tyrannosaurus made.
Since we were staying still, she couldn't see us, but I knew he was watching her. He wouldn't hardly blink half the time he was watching her so intently. My grip on his hand tightened, and I swallowed hard.
"Kerri…" he said quietly. "She's not facing us." His voice was as even and calm as he could get it, but I heard it shaking a bit. "Stand up slowly and-and try to get her attention with the flare."
I swallowed hard, trying to calm myself down. "Let me know when she's looking." I said quietly, as I began to cover him back up with the rubbish.
"What're you doing?" He looked at me for a moment, eyes still wide.
"Don't look at me, pay attention to her. I'm covering you back up just in case." As I went to put some rubbish to cover his face, he grabbed my wrist gently. I looked at him.
"Kerri, I-I just wanna say, uh—"
"I know." I nodded, kissing his forehead quickly as I stood up. I took a deep breath, taking my flare out of my back pocket and lighting it. I held it up high and the Tyrannosaurus quickly turned her head to face me. "Ian, stay still, I'm going to succeed with what you just tried to do."
"Kerri—" Ian started but I cut him off.
"Hey!" I yelled at the carnivore, who roared. I started running towards the trees around us, away from Ian, from the broken stalls, from anything and everything that I could. I felt her running behind me, and I could tell she was beginning to pick up her pace. This is what these animals loved to do. Dinosaurs—carnivorous ones—loved the hunt. The thrill of it, the catch and the kill.
But I would be damned if I would give her the satisfaction she wanted.
I tossed the flare towards some trees and hopped behind one quickly, watching as the Tyrannosaurus roared, running after the flare. I smirked to myself, having bested her. I felt her walk off, the thuds getting further and further away from me, her roars more and more distant. Swallowing hard, I took a chance, looking out from behind a tree. She was nowhere in sight.
Taking another chance, I began to sprint away from the trees and back into the clearing where Ian was. My mind was running a million miles a minute, at least it felt like it. I had so many things running through it. I didn't even know what to think.
It took me until last year to get over Ian. He was my first everything. And I mean everything. First love, first kiss, everything.I wanted to think there was some kind of hope for us. And, last year, I finally convinced myself that there was no hope, so I moved on as best I could. I guess that's why Ian's marriages after us never lasted long. He wasn't completely over me.
In the clearing, I saw Ellie and Muldoon, who were frantically looking around.
"Alan!" Ellie screamed.
"Grant!" Muldoon's voice echoed a bit. I saw Ellie bend down, a bit of a ways away from Muldoon as I got closer. "I think this was Gennaro," I heard Muldoon say.
"I think this was too," Ellie added.
"Oh, God," I stopped after a moment, catching my breath. Both Muldoon and Ellie looked over me and made their way over.
"Kerri are you okay?" Ellie asked.
"Are you hurt?"
I shook my head, panting as I tried to catch my breath. My lungs were on absolute fire. Roaring was heard not too far from us, and the three of us jumped.
"I think it's ahead of us." Ellie said.
"It could be anywhere." Muldoon clarified. "With the fences down, it can wander in and out of any paddock it likes."
"I guess… you know about the T. rex then?" I stood straight. "I had… I had the last flare. I tossed it into the trees over there," I pointed beside me. "But I guess she had her own ideas."
"Sounds like it." Ellie looked nervous. Ian groaned beside us, and Ellie hurried over to him, pulling the rubbish back that I put over him to hide him. "Oh, God. He put a tourniquet on." She observed.
"I did. It was his idea, but he was too weak," I knelt down on the other side of Ian, checking his head wound once again.
"I'm glad someone did. Ian." Ellie called his name. "Ian!"
"Remind me to thank John for a lovely weekend." Ian grumbled, his eyes still closed. The Tyrannosaurus roared again and all of us, save for Ian, looked up quickly.
"Can we chance moving him?" Ellie asked as the roaring continued. Ian sat up, fear etched on his face.
"Please chance it."