The day had finally come.
4:00 AM flashed on Owen's alarm clock. Legs swinging over the side of his bed, he felt almost giddy as he hit the alarm off.
He knew it would be dangerous. He knew it would be painful at times. He knew that there was a lot he didn't know. But this is who he is, no matter what might come, he is going to get back to doing what he loves. Blue was still out there.
When he was a Seal the day before deployment he would always make a note of doing all the things he loved most so that when it would get its hardest he could think back to the good.
He had cow tails, long pulled caramel with sugar inside, specifically to eat before they left. He would get a caramel frap with Barry at 6 and would find one of the tech guys that brought his dog. The dog was a border collie Australian shepherd. The dog, named Lacy, reminded him of the one he had as a kid. He'd give Lacy a good belly rub and then prepare to leave, all before 9 pm.
But there was one other thing he knew he needed to do.
So after a shower, a longer one than usual, appreciating the warm, clean water, he walked down a level to Claire's room. Giving a knock, he waited for her.
"Morning," he said before she could open her eyes halfway to the light beyond the door.
Once her sea blue eyes reached his, a smile split his face.
"Owen, it's 4 AM," she groaned.
"4:21, actually," before saying anything else he walked up to her and picked her up. Letting out a yelp, she went into the air, but as if muscle memory had kicked in, her legs wrapped around him before a half second slipped by.
Startled awake, he could feel her heart beat thrumming through her.
"Owen, what the hell," she said a bit breathlessly.
"I just wanted to do that one more time," he said looking into her eyes.
Something flashed across her eyes, "One more time, You know you're coming back right?" She said looking at him angrily. He thought it very cute to see her straddling him, while also trying to yell at him.
He chuckled,"Yeah, I know. I just wanted to see you in the morning one more time before I go, because it'll be three weeks before I can see the sight again."
That's what he needed. He needed to see her and remember her in his t shirt, a little mad, and just as beautiful as he remembered before dinosaurs became his daily visual.
"The 'sight' of me, is this funny to you, waking me up like this," she said annoyed.
"No, not funny, gorgeous," he smiled. She blushed.
Even if it was 4 AM, he was right that he'd be gone today, the idea made her stomach drop and the only way to stop it was to press as close to him as possible. So she let her guard down, kissing him until he finally let her go back to bed. It didn't matter though, she couldn't fall back to sleep with the words One more time ringing through her head. She had a feeling she wouldn't be sleeping much more anyways.
Everyone gathered together at the Innovation Center. Packs had been assembled. The Gate would be opened in 10 minutes and it would be open for 1 minute allowing for the 30 of them to run in as fast as possible, but closing before anything out there could get in. The idea was practical, but a bit cold when the thought that they'd be trapped out there with said beasts nonetheless. Nothing about this was warm though. It was a terrifying mission. Yes, they trained. Yes, they were as ready as they could be, but how do you prepare for what awaited them. Courage would be the most vital asset any one member could possess, Owen just hoped they all had enough to last them the completion of the mission.
"Alright, we have 5 minutes now till the door opens everyone form a line," Owen yelled to the group."Once we get on the other side we will break into groups and push on from there," he finished.
The group assembled a line. Those not going stood to the side nervously shifting as if not sure to say goodbye, or to wish them luck, unsure of what should be said before a group of their closest friends go willingly into the most dangerous place in the world.
"Well knock 'em dead, kids," said Lowery finally.
The group laughed. The tension loosened a bit.
Claire stood behind the group. Staring outright at Owen, trying to remember everything about him. Scared that if she missed a detail, he'd slip away.
Turning from the group, he saw her pursed brow. 2 minutes before the door opened.
He tried to give her a smile that would reassure her. She realized he was looking at her and saw his sheepish smile. She gave a half smile before a pain flashed across her eyes.
She almost ran from behind the group of people watching.
She wanted to throw her arms around his neck, have his arms instinctively wrapped around her as she kissed him hard. She wanted to blush at the sound of a few whistles and yells from the group around them couldn't part them. 30 seconds.
From across the landing he saw that familiar pain in her eyes. She would always get it when she looked at the scars on his back or when she'd shake him out of a nightmare. He wanted to smooth the crease between her
Just then a loud beep cut across the landing, the door lifted. Owen turned back to the group as the first in line was squeezing through the opening.
The door closing almost as soon as it opened. As his broad shoulders snuck through, the wall shutting behind him, she felt half her breath catch in her stomach. She knew she would only breathe out when he was back in her arms.
She was left staring at the cement where he had been standing only moments earlier.
On the other side, Barry did a scope with a few of the others to layout their positions and begin correspondence with Head Quarters through the ear pieces.
Owen and James laid out the map creating lines based off the actual land to decipher their paths. The animatronics were craned over the side of the wall and were checked by the tech members of each squad.
Finally all finished, the night had fallen. Camping just outside of the wall it seemed their first day would be no different than any night before except that it would be slept on the jungle floor.
10 people stood watch while the other 20 slept, rotating every 3 hours.
Owen took first watch.
Staring into the jungle, he looked for flashes of scales, or ruffling of leaves. He knew that if something dangerous was lurking behind leaves and darkness, he would need to be alert. He could sense a nervousness from the men and women that were on watch with him.
Speaking so that those near him could hear, he said, "I don't want to be the one to tell you that animals can smell fear. I think you all know that, but I also won't be the one to lie to you, and say there's nothing to fear out there.
But what I can tell you is that humans have this funny way of pretending they aren't as wild as the jungles, oceans, and world around them. We teach ourselves to feel civilized, superior, but in doing so we have distanced ourselves from the truth of our foundation. We are no greater. We are no stronger. We are just as susceptible to the whims of mother nature as any beast. We are not a different wild, we are just different animals. Just the same difference as a bee is to a wasp, are we different from dinosaurs.
So I won't tell you not to be scared, I will tell you instead that we are nature too, and these animals no matter how fierce are in this world the same as you. We fear what we don't know, I know that we are animals just as they are and we are more dangerous than they could ever imagine."
When he finished and the sound of cascadas cascaded back into the air, he saw the shoulders of his squad relax. He felt a confidence brew between them.
When the morning came they started off in their different directions. Before Owen was 30 minutes on his path, he felt goose bumps rise on his neck. Walking at the head of the group he turned suddenly, Zach knocking into him.
Owen, we can see movement to your left. It looks pretty big whatever it is. Lowery's voice came over his earpiece.
"Argh- What the he-"
Zach was cut off by the look on Owen's face. He looked like one of his own raptors, poised to pounce.
Whispering, he said, "There's something, or somethings in the trees over to the left."
Using signals, he indicated to the group to form a semicircle flank, spreading 10 meters between every two people, as each person would stay with one person.
Owen's partner was a woman named Paula, dark skinned, with a buzz cut that had stripes to her scalp that crossed from her temple to the back of her earlobe, she was a fearsome person.
As they crouched in the bush, he looked over to her, "We will be the first to make a move."
She nodded while still keeping her eye on the scope of her tranq.
Metriacanthosaurus, or Metris as they called them prior to the Jurassic World catastrophe, were dinosaur eating, terrifying animals that in containment were interesting to look at for their camo like stripes, but at the moment were a few of the last animals Owen was hoping to come upon on the first day.
The group did not know that was what they were dealing with. After all, the camo was quite effective in actual practice, but Owen knew that would have to be it.
Holding up the number three, he informed the group what animal it was they were dealing with, they had created a sign system for situations such as this.
Thump- thump- thump
The Metris was running in their direction.
"NOW" Owen yelled.
Guns blared as they all jumped from their hiding spots, two darts hit the target. Swaying the Metris tried to bare its teeth only to have his eyes roll back in his head.
The group relaxed. That was a mistake.
Turning too late, the two to Owen's right looked right into the eyes of a female Metris. Darts flew out at her hitting her, but not before she had clawed them both to the ground. Falling, as the tranqs set in, the two, a man named George, and another named Wallace just escaped being crushed.
Blood from the claw began to seep from George's shoulder, Wallace was less impacted as the claw was at the end of its swing when it came to him and only his knee had a bit of a cut.
Running over, Denise, the medical member of the group began to stop the flow from George's shoulder.
Owen barked at the rest of them to form a circle around the three as best as possible.
Wallace wasn't moving. Shock, Owen guessed.
We can't see you the camera you're at has a leaf in front of it, What happened? Lowery buzzed into Owen's ear.
Keeping his searching gaze, he whispered back, "We got the first one, but there was its mate behind us. She's tranquilized now, but two guys were clawed."
When it seemed clear there would be no other attacks, Owen turned to the wounded.
Is everyone ok? It was Claire this time.
"I think George will need stitches. Wallace is fine," He surveyed quickly.
"This is going to hurt a lot at first, but then it will get better, bite this," reaching for a small stick on the ground, Denise handed it to George.
Putting on his bravest face he put the stick between his teeth. The sewters went in smoothly, his teeth only made a small dent in the stick.
"Lowery, I thought you said you had visual on the whole park," Owen said a bit of anger seeping through.
Well, I mean we can see every 10 meters through dense brush, but there's hundreds of miles and only 10 of us at head quarters. I don't know if you expect us to have 100 eyes, but even though I do consider myself god like,in fact, I am not God. Lowery bit back.
"I need you to do better than that, Lowery. We got lucky, you may think this is some video game you're at the controller with, but in real life you don't get a reboot when you get hit. You die and that's that." Owen said
Silence.
Owen, you can't put that on him. We are doing what we can. Claire again.
He didn't respond.
Back at head quarters, Claire surveyed as Barry made quick work of the herbivores hearding them with sound waves no differently than cattle.
James was making swift but careful progress towards the wall. Watching him, she recognized similarities to Owen in his wariness. Military. He was a marine. His mission seemed the most uncertain of the three, but so far he had only dealt with a few semi-dangerous Suchomimuses. The plan was to tranquilize them and use the wrist shocks watches that lowery and his team created to shock the animals to move only in the direction of their specific containment sectors. Headquarters controlled the gates to the sectors. It was a bit cruel. But they didn't have the time or the money to think of a more humane tactic. It was affective. When Owen had heard the plan before, he had argued it to the ground, but Claire told him that unless he'd rather them die because of abandonment, they'd have to survive this way.
Watching from HQ, Claire could still see the conflict in his shoulders everytime they put down another animal. But she couldn't imagine letting him or anyone go out there without a way to control those prehistoric beasts.
Sometimes when she'd spot the T-Rex in a camera far off from Owen, terror would trickle down her spine. They were getting closer and closer. The T-Rex looked hungry too. Getting desperate, Rexy began to get vicious about kills. Claire wasn't sure how many tranquilizers would be need to bring her down, but she didn't think there'd be enough.
Owen had the same thought. The tranqs worked quick but they wore off quick too. They had already had a few close calls when putting on the wrist shocks. Once, Paula was putting it on a terodactyl when it woke up as she was strapping it, if Owen hadn't been watching she would've died.
Zach and Serena had become the second in command to Owen. Proving themselves to be the most athletic of the bunch second only to Owen and Paula.
It was clear that Serena knew Zach was interested in her. It wasn't clear if it was returned but it surely wasn't shunned.
Owen watched amused as Zach pulled every move in the book to impress her.
You know, I think you pulled that one before too. Claire spoke in to Owen's ear piece. Owen laughed. Zach had just pulled off his shirt pretending to look at something on his back, while simultaneously flexing. Oh and all of it right in front of Serena.
It was night time, they were now a few miles out on Rexy, with her feeding, sleep wasn't an option.
Laughing he responded,"Well, I don't believe I ever did that. Subtlety is key."
Oh, subtlety is it? I think it unlikely that when you first met me and then decided in the next moment to ask me out, that you were being very subtle.
"Well being direct has never lead me astray before, but I'm not one to try to use my body to impress."
That's a straight lie, Claire laughed.
"Are you saying that you've been checking me out?"
No comment. He could almost see her side quirked smile.
He laughed, stopping abruptly to cough.
Are you getting sick?
"No, no, think something just caught in my throat," he lied
I miss you.
"You're just saying that cause you're thinking of me shirtless," he smiled.
You're right.
"Go to bed Claire, it's late"
You're not sleeping, why should I?
"Because I miss you too, and I won't be able to kiss away the crease between your brows that you have right now, if you worry yourself to death."
He could hear her smirk through the phone : Good night,Owen.