Chapter 9 - Imbroglio:

Author's note:

I'm so sorry, time just got away from me, didn't it? But here it is, the next chapter of Tedium. Alright, let's hop right on in!

XXX

Peace... he was finally at peace. He observed his surroundings. He was on a tranquil beach, water gently lapping at the sand. The sun was setting, casting bright colors across the sky. "Am I dead," he wondered aloud.

If he was dead then this must be the afterlife. But there was no one to meet him here. He was alone on the beach. So he sat down in the sand and closed his eyes. He never had much time to just relax when he was alive.

He had never actually meditated before. He never really felt the need to, and he really didn't have the time. But he had time now. So he sat in the sand with his eyes closed and just meditated. And he meditated and meditated until it felt like hours had passed.

He slowly opened his eyes, expecting the sun to have gone down. It hadn't. It was still setting in the sky, almost mocking him. He could have sworn he was meditating for several hours, but the sun said differently. Then a thought came to mind, he must have no perception of time in this place. Which made sense, he supposed. He would be here for the rest of eternity, but he wouldn't be able to tell if an hour or a century had passed.

If this was actually purgatory, then where was God? Shouldn't he have been greeted by a divine being? Sure, he had never believed in God, in his own mind, he was more Godly than God. He had always thought there would just be nothing, but he wouldn't actually "exist" to comprehend it. But this strange beach begged to differ, but yet, there was no God.

Or maybe he wasn't actually dead. But then where was he? He didn't exactly remember the last thing he had done, but he was fairly certain he had dropped to the floor. Maybe he was just dreaming, but then why wouldn't he wake up? "Hello?" he asked out loud, as if expecting an answer. If he was dead, and this was purgatory, then perhaps there were others here. Then he wouldn't have to be alone.

Being alone was actually the worst, he realized. Throughout his life, he had claimed that being alone never affected him, he worked "alone," he lived "alone," and he died "alone." But he was starting to recover his memories, and he knew these statements to be lies. He had never truly been alone. There was Sam, who had worked faithfully by his side for so long. And although no one lived at his house with him, he was hardly ever there, he mostly spent time at his lab... with Sam. And he technically didn't die alone either.

Yes... Saber was there with him. His memory was still fuzzy, but he knew Saber was there with him. He had a daughter. Although she wasn't made the conventional way, she was his flesh and blood. She was perhaps his greatest accomplishment. Even when stacked up against his other God-like achievements.

Lonesomeness was starting to set in like an abyss. He was never really alone in his real life, he just pretended he was. It was sad and pathetic, really. How did people withstand this crushing feeling? As if he was drowning. His call had gone unanswered. There was no one else here. If this was purgatory, then perhaps each person gets their own personal beach. Or maybe it's different for each person.

Or perhaps, however unlikely, he was the only person in purgatory. Everyone else had either gone to heaven or hell, and that is why he suffered alone. Or perhaps he was the one in hell, and he was being tricked. A cruel trick at that, but one of the most painful ways to suffer through eternity was being alone.

He stood up quickly. There was no way he could last an eternity here alone. There had to be something to do, something to accomplish. He paced nervously around the beach. It seemed to stretch infinitely in each direction. And it was empty, there were no rocks, no shells, no animals, and no trees. No life of any kind. Just the sand and the water.

Maybe there was something he had missed. Maybe he just needed to find a way to summon God. That might work... he was slowly descending into madness. He tried digging a large hole first. But each time he tried to scoop up some sand, it phased right through his hands. As if he was in some computer simulation. He tried drawing in the sand next, perhaps he just needed to ask for help. But each symbol he drew disappeared as quickly as it came.

He was at a loss, and rapidly approaching the brink of madness. He had one last idea. And it was easily the stupidest of them all. He remembered that people would shout to their dying loved ones, "don't go into the light." Perhaps the solution was to head towards the light. He waded into the water and swam towards the sun.

He didn't swim much when he was alive, which was why he seemed to be making such slow progress. Unlike the sand, the water felt real. He floated in it and he could propel himself through it. But he didn't feel wet. The water was not wet for some reason. He ignored it and kept swimming. He would find a solution later.

He swam and swam and swam but he was no closer to the sun. "Idiot," he said to himself, "The sun is in the sky, why did I think I could reach it?" He wasn't supposed to reach it, he was just supposed to get closer to the light. But all he has accomplished was losing the beach. Now he was trapped in an endless sea of blue.

He tried to turn around, but he had gotten disoriented and lost the way to the beach. He must have been swimming for hours... or maybe days. He couldn't tell, he wasn't getting tired and the sun wasn't going any further down. So he kept swimming towards the sun. Maybe if he got directly underneath it, something would happen.

Something strange started to happen as he continued to swim. There was a new object in the sky. It was white and he could see the craters on its surface. It was the moon. And it was drifting towards the sun. There was going to be an eclipse.

That made him swim faster. Something told him that if he did not solve this puzzle by the time the eclipse happened, it would be lights out for him. The sky became darker and darker until the moon covered the sun, and it was pitch black. He didn't make it in time.

He waited for the inevitable to happen, but he was still floating in the water. His eyebrows scrunched together, confused. Maybe there was no puzzle... perhaps he should've stayed on the beach. But it was too late to be thinking that. He had lost the sun, and with it, his sense of direction. He could've been out here a thousand years and not known it. Who knows when the sun will return to guide him?

Suddenly, the world began to shake. The water began to retreat around him. His feet touched something solid... it was another beach. But this time, it had an end in sight. An island had just surfaced beneath his feet. He didn't question why it happened, he was just happy he was no longer floating. He would wait for the sun to re-emerge before continuing.

Slowly, it became brighter and brighter. But not with the fierce red of the sun. Instead, it was the gentle white shine of the moon. Somehow, the sun had moved during the eclipse and was gone. His brain tried to comprehend it, but he decided a different question was more important, "Should I wait for the sun, or should I keep going using the moon?"

He didn't have time to answer. As he thought, the moon became blocked by clouds. Light was taken from him again. The clouds were dimly lit by the moon, but it was not nearly enough to consider continuing his journey. The clouds grew darker and darker until they looked like thunderclouds... and the moon's light was completely quenched.

There was a bright flash! and a bolt of purple lightning struck the island. Electricity crackled in the air, but he was unharmed. The clouds quickly dispersed, leaving the moon to light the world once again. "The moon doesn't make its own light, it reflects the sun," he mused aloud. But he wasn't completely sure now. He had no idea where the sun had gone, it was as if it had just disappeared. Perhaps this moon made its own light, but he wasn't quite sure there was a real answer.

He investigated the place the lightning had struck. It had managed to leave a crater when he could not even leave a dent. Even his footprints didn't show up in the sand. The crater was still smoking, but it looked safe otherwise. He approached the crater cautiously.

He jumped back when something crawled out of the crater. It left a thin trail of smoke behind it when it walked towards him. His eyes widened, he recognized this creature. It was Dr. Freeman! Why was he here? Was he dead too? Instead of voice those questions, he could only say, "I'm not alone."

Or perhaps this was God taking a familiar form. But before he could ask, Dr. Freeman spoke, "Dr. Wu?"

"Are you God?" he asked.

"Not exactly,"Gordon chuckled as if this wasn't the first time he had been mistaken for God before. He was wearing his normal attire, but he was missing his glasses. The lack of glasses seemed to suit Dr. Freeman rather well. There was nothing to distract from his unnatural violet eyes. It gave him a wild, violent look that, when combined with a sharp scowl, showed he was a man on a mission. Or that he was about ready to kill someone out of annoyance.

The longer Wu stared into Gordon's eyes, the weirder things became, as if Gordon's mere presence distorted this world. Stars began to blink into existence. Some were dim and some shone with intense brilliance that would have distracted from the moon if they were any closer. The water began to lap at Wu's feet, the sea was reclaiming the small island. But the water was no longer the soft blue color, it was a harsh red, like someone had died in it. "You aren't supposed to be here," Wu realized.

Gordon didn't answer for a moment as the scenery continued to change. The moon was turning a rich purple color, making the night sky even darker, allowing even the dimmest starts to shine just as bright as the brightest had earlier. They seemed to approaching him too, as if he had been put inside the Millennium Falcon going into light speed. The moon had changed positions too, it was now directly above him. The island had moved while he had been staring at Dr. Freeman. "No," Gordon admitted, "But, I'm helping speed this along."

The sun was starting to rise behind Wu. But it didn't cast the same red color as before. No, it was a mix of greens and yellows that hurt Wu's head. "What's going on? What are you talking about?" Wu cried out, clutching his aching head. A beam of light shone down upon Wu and Gordon from the purple moon.

The ground began to rumble and the entire island flew up from the water, the light from the moon acting like some sort of tractor beam. "It's time to wake up," Dr. Freeman said. The island flew faster towards the moon. Wu only held his head tighter, as if his hands were the only thing keeping his brain from tearing in two. "Wake up!" Gordon commanded again, walking towards Wu. He placed his hand on Wu's head and closed his eyes.

Wu's eyes snapped open. He remembered now, he had passed out. After Owen had transformed and attacked him. He felt something kick him, "Wake up." It was Dr. Freeman! That was a very weird dream.

Wu rolled over and stood slowly, "I'm up. How long was I out?" He rubbed his eyes.

"You weren't out for very long," Dr. Freeman said. Wu turned around to look at the man who had been kicking him. The first thing that Wu noticed was the large gun slung over his shoulder.

"Is that…" Wu started.

"A minigun? Yes," Gordon finished. Tranquilizer darts with purple feathers were draped over his shoulders. He looked like the Punisher… if the Punisher wore a lab coat. He was also not wearing his glasses.

"Was that intended for me?" Saber growled. Wu flinched when he saw that the Indominus had stuck her head inside the viewing room.

"Originally, but you know I don't need this to stop you," Gordon replied. He walked over to his desk and opened one of the drawers.

"Do you even know how to work that thing?" Saber hissed.

"No, but that's why I have the instructions," Gordon said, pulling out a sheet of paper from his desk. He laid the paper down flat and began to read from it. Taking one of the ends of the strip of darts, he pushed it into a slot on the side of the minigun. It fit in perfectly. He lightly pulled the trigger, causing the barrel to rotate briefly, "Ah, there we go," he exclaimed.

"That's it?" Saber deadpanned. She was expecting something… more.

"Don't be fooled by its simple appearance, this minigun can fire darts at nearly five hundred rounds per minute. That's over eight rounds per second," Gordon said. Saber only snorted. "Come on, you're driving," Gordon said, pulling Wu along with him.

"Why?" was all Wu could muster as he was dragged out of the lab. He couldn't help but think about his dream, Gordon was there. He had thought that his mind had projected Gordon because he was the one trying to wake him. But he had a nagging feeling that the thought was wrong. After all, he had never seen the good doctor without his glasses on, yet that's how he appeared in his dream. Wu wasn't sure if that was coincidence or not.

"It's so boring here… I wonder when they'll let me out," Saber mused to herself. She pulled her head out of the viewing room and stomped off to her nest. She could hear Dracul's roars in the distance. They called for blood. Saber found it harder and harder to resist the call herself, finally she let out her own roar, "Happy hunting!"

XXX

The red Raptor rushed through the brush. He had no idea what that thing was inside that paddock but he was sure glad it seemed trapped there. He did notice that she smelled like him… but she looked nothing like him. It did not help that she had almost taken his head off.

He kept running. It was not worth going back and seeing if he could catch the man he was after. He struggled to remember why he wanted to kill the man, but he knew that it was important.

He wasn't sure where he was supposed to go. He looked behind him, slowing to a halt. That's right, that thing was still in her cage, she could not give chase. Why was he so afraid of what could never catch him? There was no way that he could be dragged back to her.

Unless… that man that he had passed when running from her cage. That man had not been the least bit surprised by his appearance. In fact, the man looked about ready to give chase! The red Raptor's instincts had screamed "stay away!" The man with purple eyes was dangerous.

The Raptor clicked his large claw against the ground. That's a habit that he didn't remember… oh that's right. He remembered now, the four Raptors stuck in a cage. He was supposed to free them! How had he forgotten? He hoped that they wouldn't be too mad at him.

The Raptor stuck his nose in the air, trying to catch their scent like he did before. But the rain was coming down too hard, it was impossible to smell anything. He gave up trying to smell them and started to think instead. He remembered back to the day he met them, he had smelled the White One then too. If he remembered correctly, the White One was located directly behind him when the other Raptors were directly in front of him.

So the red Raptor took a deep breath and continued going straight. He would run into the clearing eventually. He decided against running. Although he could see just fine in the dark, the rain made it difficult to keep reliable traction. The forest thickened ahead and he didn't want to run into any trees.

He walked for several minutes until he finally reached a clearing. He paused before walking out into the opening. He remembered that there were men last time. Instinct told him that he didn't want to get caught.

Although his night-vision was working fine, the rain made it harder and harder to see at a distance. He could see their paddock just fine, it was much too big to miss, but there were several blobs circling the paddock that he couldn't make out. He was sure the blobs were humans. If they were unarmed, then when they saw him, they should run.

But if they were armed, they would open fire on him. He wasn't sure how many humans there were, or if they were armed. Was it worth the risk? The red Raptor dug his claws into the muddy ground and squinted to try and make out the blobs. But it was hopeless.

The best he could tell was that there were only two guards on this side of the paddock. Of course he had no idea which side of the paddock he was on. One of the guards was walking away from him, with his back to him, but the other one was motionless. There was a chance that this blob wasn't actually a human.

The red Raptor decided to take that chance and make his move. If he couldn't see well in the heavy rain, he doubted that the humans could see any better. He decided to attack the one with his back to him. If the other blob was a guard, he shouldn't be able to react in time to save himself.

XXX

God, I hope this works, commander Hamada thought as he and the rest of ACU deployed. They surrounded the entrance to the Cretaceous Cruise, leaving plenty of room for the Spino to maneuver. They didn't want to be crushed. "Five seconds," Hamada said out loud to prepare his team.

Several of the ACU knew firsthand how dangerous the Spino was. They had watched as their brothers in arms had been killed by the beast on Isla Sorna. Hamada knew that Wu had wanted a DNA sample of the Spino, but he thought bringing the beast here was an awful idea. He knew that he would eventually be fighting the damn thing after it had escaped, he had been dreading it all week.

"Three… two…one…" Hamada said. ACU crouched low, preparing themselves for the upcoming battle. They could not let the Spino go any further. If it retreated back into the Cruise, then they could just have construction put in a bigger gate, trapping the beast inside at least for a while. Long enough so they could go and get bigger tranquilizers.

The gate to the Cretaceous Cruise was a flimsy thing when compared to some of the paddocks in Jurassic World. It was actually two swinging doors that connected and were held together by a magnetic lock. The doors were made from steel only a half a foot thick. Because a river ran right through the cruise, the doors did not touch the ground.

The doors would open inwards to allow boats and other watercraft inside before shutting and sealing, but the Spino easily forced the doors open outwards. One of the doors flew off its hinges while the other one bent far out of commission. The Spino let out a victory roar, but ACU did not open fire. The Spino had not detected them yet, they still had the element of surprise.

ACU waited for the large Spino to lumber into their kill zone. The moment the Spino stepped into the zone, Hamada opened fire. The moment he pulled the trigger, the other ACU soldiers fired as well. Every single dart they fired out of their gun hit the Spino, who quickly became enraged. "Move!" Hamada shouted.

He and the soldiers around him stood and began to maneuver around the battlefield. They ran circles around the beast, careful of the muddy ground, hoping to confuse it. The rain impacted the Spino's vision as it failed to swipe away several ACU members. They kept firing at it, even after it grabbed two of the soldiers.

Fire. Pump. Fire. Pump. Fire. Pump. Hamada kept his gun working until he ran out of darts. He cursed and jumped out of the way just in time. The Spino's large claws swiped over where he just was. The beast was disoriented, but it wasn't enough to save four of the soldiers.

Hamada tossed the used shotgun to the ground and pulled the second one off of his back. The ACU shotguns were difficult to reload. They basically had to be taken apart for a new clip to be put in. Which was why many of the ACU opted to carry a second shotgun on their backs for emergencies. And the Spino was not slowing down despite tanking hundreds of tranquilizers.

WHAM! SMASH! SNAP! The Spino was actually speeding up. It had learned ACU's little running pattern and managed to catch several of them by surprise. The Spino used its tail to its advantage, throwing the soldiers a fair distance each time it connected. The Spino also began using its jaws, snapping into the soldiers and ripping them to shreds. Blood washed away immediately due to the rain.

Hamada had command of over fifty ACU soldiers. He had taken thirty to deal with this threat. Twenty-five had died in less than five minutes. He called in for back-up, but he doubted the other twenty soldiers could do much without larger tranquilizers.

What ACU didn't know was that most of their tranqs weren't even penetrating the Spino's tough scales. The Rex tranqs could put a T-Rex down in under ten minutes, but they had trouble going into the larger Spino. Hamada was beginning to lose hope. Unless back-up arrived soon carrying larger tranqs, they will be unable to put the beast to sleep.

And then Hamada was the last one alive. The Spino had killed each one of the remaining ACU slowly. The Spino bit their limbs off, or cut them in half, the Spino even swallowed one of them whole. One or two of the soldiers were left thrashing on the ground, blood pouring out of their wounds. Their screams cut into Hamada, who stood stock still as the Spino approached slowly, savoring its last kill.

Hamada only had one dart left. The Spino got down on all fours, clearly planning to kill the commander with its jaws. The two stared at each other unwavering. The Spino's emerald fire glared into Hamada's cool, black steel gaze. Neither blinked as Hamada raised his weapon and aimed for the beast's eye.

The dart would definitely penetrate the eye. Perhaps the beast would retreat in order to nurse the wound. Or maybe this one dart could turn the tide of battle when reinforcements arrived. In either case, Hamada would not die in vain, and he would go down fighting.

The Spino growled when he realized where Hamada was aiming. He respected the little human standing alone against unconquerable odds. The Spino knew that he would receive a battle scar from this worthy foe, and he promised to give Hamada a warrior's death.

Hamada squeezed the trigger harder and the Spino's jaws parted, but they both froze when they heard the sound of a truck's engine. Back-up, Hamada thought. But it wasn't the back-up he was expecting. Both Hamada and the Spino turned to look for the approaching vehicle, having forgotten each other. The truck appeared out of the rain like a ghost, it didn't help that it was white.

XXX

The red Raptor launched himself at his opponent with a screech. He barreled the soldier over and bit into the back of his neck with a satisfying crunch. The Raptor staggered when he was hit on the shoulder. The blob he had spotted from afar was indeed another soldier. The Raptor charged at him too, running in a zig-zag pattern to avoid the gun fire. The Raptor snapped this soldier's neck too.

Neither were particularly clean kills and neither were silent. If there were more enemies, they had definitely heard him. The red Raptor waited to see if anymore guards would round the corner, but no one did. Assuming it was safe, he poked his head around the corner. No one was there.

He ran a circle around the cage, trying to find the entrance. Once he found it, he let out a loud bark, calling his pack to him. He had no idea how to open this cage, but perhaps one of his pack did. He was sure that they were hiding in a dry place… but surely they shouldn't be taking this long. He barked again.

No response. He was starting to become worried. It wasn't raining so hard that they couldn't hear each other, so why weren't they answering? Shouldn't they be happy to hear him? Well, he did forget to come back for them, so perhaps they were upset, but he was here now! "I'm here to free you!" he called out in vain.

Again, nothing. If he didn't know any better… they were gone. No, they couldn't be gone. Were they dead? Had they been moved? Had they already been freed? the Raptor wondered. No, that couldn't be it.

But he couldn't rule it out as a possibility. He remembered from somewhere that there was another free Raptor running around. Perhaps that Raptor freed his pack and became their alpha. The red Raptor made up his mind, he was going to wait out the storm and then go and find his pack. If there was no way for him to become alpha, then at least he could still be a part of the pack.

The Raptor turned around and started to walk away. Suddenly, the ground came out from underneath him. Something wrapped around him and threw him up in the air. It was a net of some sort. The Raptor struggled and tried to cut the rope, but the net was made from nylon cables. His struggles were in vain.

Dozens of guards emerged from the forest. It was a trap! They were lying in wait for him, he didn't detect them because of the rain. "Well look-y here, we've caught ourselves a Raptor!" one of the men said. He was a large man and was the only one unarmed.

A name popped up in the Raptor's head, Vic Hoskins. For some reason, that name made bile rise in the Raptor's throat. His instincts screamed enemy. But he was trapped and could not move. He continued to struggle, hoping to at least claw the man. But the holes in the net were too small for his arms to stick out.

"He sure is struggling, isn't he?" Hoskins chuckled. He motioned at one of the guards to bring their truck around. Hoskins had moved the Raptors from their cage to a secret location. He had no idea where Grady was, but he wasn't responding to his calls. That means that Owen wouldn't try to stop him. And Barry was… out of commission.

He was going to take the captured Raptor to the others and kill it. Hopefully the other Raptors would respond to his commands, then he wouldn't need Grady anymore. If the Raptors didn't respond, then he'd just kill them too. They'd be a lost cause at that point. Then he could explain to Owen that he just didn't want him to interfere in the Raptor euthanization, he'd be none the wiser and they could start over. He hoped that it was worth going through all of this trouble to gain control over four Raptors. It would all be pointless if they could get Wu to make them a hybrid.

XXX

Ah, I'm a bastard aren't I? I left you on a cliffhanger. And a pretty nasty one too. But don't worry, I've still got plenty more in me. The next chapter will not be the last. Oh… and I'm still looking for Spino-Rex names, haven't decided yet, so keep them coming!