I just want to thank you all for being so patient and understanding. My grandma is doing better, she starts physical therapy soon. My family is still feeling the loss of my cat, but its getting easier. So, again, thank you so much for your kindness!
I almost cried when we came across the large building in the valley below us. It was rundown, the glass on the top broken in and dirty. There were what looked like warehouses in the back of the main building, possibly where they released the dinosaurs when they were grown. It was overgrown, and likely riddled with dinosaurs, but it was shelter. It also had a high possibility of holding food, which that itself was a blessing.
"I bet you Eric's in there," Paul said as soon as he laid eyes on it. "Don't you think? I bet my bottom dollar," he added as he and Amanda pushed ahead and down the hills side.
"What do you think it is?" Billy asked as the rest of us followed.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's the Four Seasons," Udeksy said from behind us.
"Amen," I groaned as I slipped a bit on the grass.
It didn't take us long to make it to the bottom of the hill, maybe five minutes tops. But it felt longer as each step caused our stomachs to growl and howl. Both Billy and I openly prayed that food awaited us there. We had both grabbed a box of granola bars for the plane ride, and more than half of that was gone by now. When we finally reached the clearing, we were greeted by abandoned jeeps and overgrown weeds. The doors to the jeeps were all open, the windows were busted. As we passed by the worn out INGEN sign, I felt a ball of tension settle deep in my gut.
Something bad was going to happen.
Walking in, we all stood close together; Paul, Amanda and Udesky closer to each other while Dad, Billy and I stayed together. It was the Grant genes, we were like pack animals. Stay close, stay alive. It was something that Billy, through his adoption into the Grant family, had picked up.
"Eric!" Paul suddenly called out.
"Paul, don't!" Amanda hissed quietly as we all stared at him incredulously. Did he not remember what happened the last time someone yelled out?
He looked apologetically at us before his eyes caught sight of the phone at the receptions desk.
"What the hell?" Amanda said when none of us moved. She picked it up, placed it to her ear and then placed it back on the desk.
We all began to venture in further.
Billy and I nearly wept in joy when the hallway revealed vending machines.
"Who's got change?" Paul asked as he searched his pockets. "It only takes quarters. I got, like- I got a buck ten."
Billy's answer and solution to the problem was to put his foot through the glass.
"I'm gonna forgive that," I told him as he handed me a chocolate bar. "Hello, beautiful," I said pressing a kiss to the wrapper. Billy grinned at me as he tossed the rest of the food around as we began to move on.
The hallway opened up to a large room, two stories tall, with an observation deck surrounding the sides while the rest of the room descended downwards. Below us were incubators, much like the ones on Isla Nubar. The machines that had been used to turn the eggs were suspended in time, no longer moving and without a purpose. We walked quietly down the stairs as we took in our surroundings.
Hitting the ground floor, I took in the incubators around the room. Some of them had been left open, while others had been sealed shut. But either way, they all had broken glass from something breaking into them and hatched eggs. Life did find a way, I thought to myself as I gazed at one of the incubators.
"This how you make dinosaurs?" Amanda asked.
"No," Dad answered. "This is how you play God."
I stood by Billy as he snapped a photo of one of the infant dinosaurs that didn't make it. They had died young, maybe a week after hatching if their height alone was anything to go by. They were forever suspended in what I had to assume to be formaldehyde. Amanda ventured past us, her gaze fixed on the infants.
"This wasn't apart of your tour, was it?" Billy asked as he stood upright.
My response was cut off by the sounds of Amanda screaming, and a velociraptor's bark. We all turned in shock to see the giant head snap at her from between the containers. We didn't stand there long before we all took off running. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the raptor run along side us from the other side as he raced to get ahead.
Dad took the lead, taking us through blind turns in an effort to get us out and to safety. We all stopped when we hit a room filled with cages.
"This way! This way!" Paul said as he darted to the hall on our right. We ran with him, all of us hitting the back cage. We yanked, and pulled before realizing it was useless. "It's locked!"
We all turned just as the raptor slid to a halt at the end of the hallway and turned to look at us.
"This way! This way!"
"Go! Go!"
Dad, Paul and Udesky dove to the cage on the left as Billy, Amanda and I dove to our right as the raptor came screeching down the hall. We nearly had the door shut when the raptor slammed against it, his whole body straining to get in. As hard as we tried, we couldn't compare to his strength. He forced the door back, which forced us to squeeze together in the small corner, effectively trapped. We all panted as the raptor growled and screeched in our faces, spit occasionally landing on our faces.
"Hey! Over here!" Dad and the others yelled as they rattled their own cage to get the raptors attention.
His growling suddenly stopped, which caused me to look up at him. Our eyes met briefly, brilliant orange eyes meeting my brown ones. For a minute I was floored by the amount of intelligence in them. His head slowly went up, following his gaze I saw what he was looking at. The opening at the top of the cages. Horror filled me as he began to climb.
"Push!" I commanded. "Push!"
With a shout, all three of us shoved at the door. It swung around, hitting the back cage and enclosing the raptor in the same small triangular space we had just been in. Locking it, we temporarily trapped him.
We all turned and ran, Paul and Amanda in the lead this time as Dad hung back to push me and Billy up ahead. However, the two of us froze when the raptor began to caw.
"My God," Dad said amazed. "He's calling for help."
"Come on!" I pleaded as I grabbed his arm to drag him away. "If he's calling for help that means more are on their way!" I snapped at him as we bolted down the corridor after the others.
We could still hear his cries as we ran out of the building and into the parking lot. Racing into the trees, I was acutely aware that we were running blind. This was an unfamiliar part of the island, a place that I didn't even know was here. We had no idea where we were going, or how far we'd get.
We ran into a clearing filled with parasaurolophus' and corythosaurs' grazing. The peaceful giants had no idea what was coming at them.
Boy, were we about to ruin their day.
"Head to the herd!" Dad called.
Either sensing the panic, or just being startled by our appearance, the herd let out bellows as they too began to run. They all let out panicked bellows as they thundered away, narrowly avoiding us as we ran through the chaos. Off to my side I saw Billy trip and fall, and though he got up just as fast I saw him run backwards as if he was looking for something. I tried several times to run over to him, only to get cut off by the herd.
"Billy!" I called.
"Head for the trees!" I heard dad call out.
I veered left, panting as I broke out of the herd. I was several feet away from the forest when I felt something come up behind me. Glancing back, I saw Billy gaining on me. He placed his hand on my back to push me up ahead. Racing into the trees, we both ducked and weaved around the smaller trees. We jumped over a fallen log, Billy quickly grabbing me when I lost my footing. Up ahead of us was a large tree, the closest branch was maybe fifteen feet off the ground, and it looked easy to climb.
"Up, up," Billy panted as we climbed it.
Once we were high enough in the tree, we both leaned against the thick branches to catch our breath.
"My dad?" I panted. "Did you see him?"
Billy shook his head just as a scream filled the forest.
"Udesky," came Paul's voice from the other side of the tree.
"Mr. Kirby!" Billy called as he stood and dragged me up as well.
"Billy?" Paul poked his head up from the other side. They were a couple branches below us.
"Is Alan with you?" Billy asked.
Paul shook his head no as we climbed over to them. I looked over and let out a small scream at the sight of Udeksy's body laying face down on the ground.
"Oh, my God," Paul said horrified.
"Mr. Udesky?" Amanda called. "Mr. Udesky!"
"He's dead," Billy said grimly as he placed a hand on my shoulder.
Udesky's arm began to move.
"Oh, my God, no he's not!" Amanda exclaimed as she began to make her way down to him.
"No, no wait!" Billy said as he reached for her. "Something's not right."
"We gotta help him," Paul said as he went after Amanda.
"No, no no," I moaned softly as Billy and I followed closely behind. I let out a gasp when I saw Amanda slip and fall down past several branches before catching the very last branch.
Two raptors erupted from the bushes, both jumping and snapping at her as she screamed. Paul and Billy made it to her before me, both of them yanking her up back to safety.
"They set a trap," I realized. "They actually set a trap."
There was a set of squawks that sounded from further within the forest. One of the raptors immediately turned and ran towards it while the other stayed behind. He looked from the retreating form of his pack mate before bending down and snapping Udeksy's neck in his jaws. He looked back up to us as Amanda and I hid our faces into Paul and Billy's chests. He growled before, he too, turned tail and ran.
~line break~
We sat in the trees for hours, unwilling to leave in case the raptors came back. Billy had gone all around the tree, calling for my dad in each direction. I had joined him initially, screaming for two hours straight. But as each call came back unanswered, I felt fear settle into my veins. It was a different kind of fear, something that I hadn't experienced before and I didn't like it. What if he was dead?
Finally, as night began to fall, Billy gave up hope that dad would ever answer.
I barely looked up as he joined me. I had moved away from them when the thought had first crossed my mind. I didn't want them to witness the panic attack that I was having. I needed my dad, he was one of the few people who could help keep me grounded when an attack came. When I was left alone for too long and faced with the bitter memories of the first park. Billy helped, he was good at it too, but he wasn't my dad. He couldn't tell me that everything will be okay and have me believe it. My dad was just too calm to doubt his words, to collected to let anything other than confidence seep in.
"How are you holding up?" Billy asked softly.
"Great," I said not at all sounding great. "You?"
He shrugged. "You know me, I suppress till the situation is over," he said. "Right now? My focus is you and getting us all out of here."
"We might not," I whispered. "The raptors won't forget us, they'll keep coming back until we're dead."
"Yeah, but who knows? Maybe we'll get lucky," he suggested. "Hey, maybe they'll snatch my leg."
"If it's your left, we could be twins," I joked weakly.
"There we go," Billy smiled as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders to draw me in close. "There's that morbid humor."
I shook my head, the good mood dampening slightly. "Without dad, I'm the only other "expert" here. I don't think I'm ready to lead us anywhere, especially on this side of the island."
"Hey, you're not alone in this," Billy pointed out. "I'm still here, and you know that I'm not easy to get rid of."
"God, don't I know it," I sighed. "Out of everyone, though, I'm glad it's you whose with me."
"Oh, wow, I beat Nick?"
I laughed softly. "Oh, yeah. He'd be complaining about the entire situation, maybe snapping some pictures and bragging about the cool shots he had."
Billy chuckled. "And smack his gum for good measure."
I smiled as I laid my head against Billy's shoulder, just taking in his familiar scent. "I wonder how piss he'll be when we get back," I whispered as sleep began to take me.
"Very," Billy murmured. "But who cares what he thinks?"
I smiled and closed my eyes, praying that tomorrow would be better.
I'm off for three days (whoo!) so next chapter may be up tomorrow. Polls for the Nick x Becky and Owen x Becky will be closing soon, so vote while you still can! :)
