Chapter 9: Hunted

Grant opened his eyes slowly. He had a blistering headache and his right leg was searing in pain. He tried to look around where he was, but his vision was still too blurry. He looked down at his leg and noticed a very large piece of glass had struck just below his knee. He touched it slightly, but immense pain shot up his leg and he threw his hand back.

This is going to hurt, he thought. I have to be quick.

He grabbed the piece of glass and pulled it out, screaming as he did. Blood spurt everywhere. He quickly ripped off a part of his sleeve and wrapped it tightly around his leg where the injury was. That would at least hold him until he got back to the park.

The car, he found out, was upside down. He was sitting along the roof. Looking around the car, he noticed Ellie was dangling off her seatbelt. Her hair was frizzy and loose, and her arms were covered in blood. Grant checked her pulse, she was still alive. Tim was laying on the roof as well. Blood was trickling down his head, probably from blunt force after hitting the steering wheel. He was groaning.

"Dr. Grant?" Tim mumbled. "Are we dead yet?" His words were barely coming together.

"No, Tim. We're fine right now. Can you get up?" Grant asked.

Tim was able to push himself up to a sitting position at least, but not without a few grunts of pain. But he was alright. In the meantime, Grant was helping Ellie get out of her seat. Her seat buckle was stuck though. Grant looked around for something to cut her strap with. He grabbed the Glass he pulled out of his leg earlier and used it to cut the strap off. Ellie plopped right into his arms.

"How do you feel Tim?" Grant asked while trying to wake Ellie up.

"I think I may have a few broken ribs after that, but I'll manage. I look worse than I feel." Tim said. And he was right, blood was still flowing off the top of his head. There were several cuts and bruises up and down his legs and arms.

When Tim found the energy to move, he kicked open the driver side door and dragged himself outside. Grant did the same, pulling Ellie with him as he went. It was already dark outside with the half moonlight shining on their faces. There was no telling if the Indominus was around or not.

Ellie finally came to, and she wasn't happy. "God, I feel like truck was dropped on me." She said.

"Not a truck, at least not yet?" Grant said

"What are we going to do now?" She asked. "We can't exactly take the car now."

Tim looked at his watch, or what was left of it. "Well, first things first, we need to back to the park." He looked at his radio, which was completely destroyed. "We have no radio at the moment, and we need to find help."

"Agreed," Grant said, "Any idea what direction help might be?"

Tim pointed behind them, towards a long pathway. "There," He said, "if we continue down this way we can reach the employee tunnels and make it back to the main street before anything else happens."

The path didn't look very safe to either of them. If Grant needed to run, he'd have a hard time now with his leg and all. But what choice did they have? They could either live to see another day, or die trying. Grant and Ellie have already come so far as it is. They weren't going to give up just yet.

They had only made it maybe a mile on the path, before Tim stopped suddenly. Grant wasn't paying attention and almost ran into him.

"Tim, what's wrong?" Grant asked.

Tim was silent. He didn't move a muscle.

"Tim!" Grant yelled.

"Shhhhhh!" Tim hushed. Something wasn't right. He was tensing up and stared off towards their right, fixated on something behind the trees. Grant couldn't see anything. It couldn't have been the Indominus, they would have heard it coming.

Something small and yellow whisked through the trees. But it was too fast for Grant to make out. Tim was still tense, frightened even. Then Ellie began to clam up. She saw something too. Grant could not for the life of him figure out wh-

Oh no, Grant thought. He knew exactly what they were, and he knew why Tim and Ellie were so disturbed. Velociraptors. They're hunting us.

The first one leapt from behind the bushes towards Ellie. It knocked her down with great force, pushing against her body with its large toe and strong foot. The Raptor stared at her, its mouth opening up slowly, showing off its razor sharp teeth. Its Head lunged toward her face. She was only just able to block it as its jaws came to a close, but only for a second. The raptor pulled back, getting ready for another go. Grant found a large branch on the ground next to him. In a quick second he grabbed the branch and whacked the raptor off of Ellie, knocking it on its back. He was able to see it more clearly now.

"Delta?!" Grant said confused.

But there was no time to think they needed to run now. Grant and Tim helped Ellie back on her feet fast, and then they took off. Grant was having trouble due to his leg injury. All he could do was limp into a run. Ellie and Tim stayed behind him to help push him forward.

The next attack came from both sides. Two raptors, this time it looked like Charlie and Echo, jumped out of the trees and just grazed their heads with their big claw. They barely missed them by ducking just in time. The Raptors made a quick turn and pounced again towards them. Charlie managed to stick herself onto Tim's Back. He yowled in pain as her big claw dug into his spine. Grant took the branch and swatted Charlie on his head, disorienting him and forcing him off of Tim. They weren't sure how long they could keep this up. The Raptors tried again, this time from the front. It was Echo who charged at them headfirst now. Grant readied the Branch. He waited until Echo was just inches near him. Echo opened her jaw, getting ready for the kill. She pounced, and Grant threw the branch into her mouth, causing her to gag and choke on it.

Where is Blue? Grant thought. There was no sign of her anywhere. Blue was essentially their leader, so she couldn't have been far behind. Velociraptors were known to distract their prey before the main event. So where was she hiding? And also, how did the raptors even escape their cages?

The path was coming to an end and fast. They were getting closer to the park. Grant could see the big, yellow roof from the Innovation Center. But the Raptors were still coming. He could hear them running alongside them, calling out to one another, devising a plan.

"Keep Running! We're almost there!" Grant shouted. Ellie was crying the entire way, scared to death of what might happen. Grant was looking around frantically for Blue. She was waiting for the perfect moment to strike, when she knew they would all be caught off guard.

The door to the park was coming up fast now. They could see it only a few feet away. They were going to make it. But then something dropped from above the trees and landed on Grant, knocking over Ellie and Tim to the ground. It was Blue.

Blue stood on Grant, digging her claw into his skin with each tap of her foot. She lowered her head down and sniffed. Grant could smell the decaying breath from the animal as it got closer. He couldn't move, because with each movement he made, Blue dug even further into him. She flipped him over on his belly so he could see her face.

Grant could see Ellie and Tim cornered by Charlie, Delta, and Echo. Echo started first with Tim and dragged him out. She started to bite around his legs and hands, scratching him up all over his body. Blood was going everywhere. Ellie screamed as Charlie grabbed her by her leg and threw her against the trees. And all the while, Blue continued to stare at Grant. Grant couldn't lay there while his friends got eaten.

"GET OFF ME YOU OVERGROWN LIZARD!" Grant shouted. He swung at Blue with his fists, but that only made her angry. She pushed his head down with her other leg, the claw piercing his forehead. She slowly brought her head down, opening her mouth, getting ready for a feast. Grant closed his eyes and waited for it to happen. This was it, he thought. This is how I die.

But nothing came. He opened his eyes to see that the Raptors all had stopped what they were doing. They stared off into the distance, before Blue called out to them. Blue took one last look at Grant, and ran off into the forest, the rest of the raptors following close behind.

He immediately got up to check on Tim and Ellie. Ellie wasn't too bad. She was just shaken up. Tim on the other hand didn't look good at all. The Raptors had torn off one of his ears. Blood was oozing out from the side of his head. His leg was twisted in the opposite direction, and his arm was crushed from the weight of the raptor. But he was still breathing.

Ellie acted fast to help stop the bleeding. She took some cloth from her pocket and wrapped Tim's head in it. "Grant, apply pressure here, now. We need to close the wound." She pulled a lighter out of her other pocket and flicked it on.

"Tim, I'm sorry, this is going to hurt sweetie." Ellie said.

Grant removed the cloth from Tim's ear as Ellie brought the lighter closer. She made contact with the wound, and Tim was screaming intensely. It was horrible to watch, and even worse to feel. But it had to be done. Ellie finished it up in a few seconds, but he still passed out from the pain. At least he wasn't going to die anymore. But he couldn't move on his own, so Grant and Ellie helped him up and carried him to the door.

"How could this night get any worse?" Grant said to Ellie.

"Don't you jinx us now Alan!" Ellie said.