First Aid - Central Isla Nublar
"Mr. Masrani, can you hear me?" Vivian hadn't left her boss's side since he was recovered, and she'd anxiously watched as Masrani slowly came to. His injuries were patched up, and he'd slipped in and out of consciousness. Vivian hoped that this time he stayed awake.
"Vivian...?"
"Mr. Masrani! How do you feel? Are you all right? No, of course you're not all right—how did you get here? When are you from?"
"Ah...one at a time, please," Masrani said, putting a hand to his aching head.
"How did you get on the island? We've been secluded for—um—nobody really knows, anymore."
"My timing was, eh, a little bit off," he said. Vivian frowned in confusion. "It should be December for me, but I came late, it seems."
"I'm not sure what you mean," she replied. "We're all—this weird thing happened, with time—Atlanta knows more, she could tell you—"
"Time...it is just our perception," Masrani said, slipping away from the waking world. "The reality is that all of the moments, all of the moments there have ever been, are dreams...time is one. That is why the T. rex is an amazing creature, no? Its vision is based...on moments..." For a moment, Masrani seemed a little more lucid again. "My pilot, is he...?"
"Your pilot...didn't make it," said Vivian.
"What a shame...he was a good fellow..."
And Masrani was out cold once more, Vivian's confusion no lesser.
***
Jurassic World Control Room - Central Isla Nublar
"Barry, we've got a REDLINE activation on Gyrosphere Valley," Lowery said into the intercom. "Looks like there's something going on down there, could be a dino from the old Park gotten loose. Want us to dispatch ACU?"
"Yes, send ACU in. I'll send Owen with them; if the old Park's raptors are loose, he will know what to do. I would go myself, but..." He lowered his voice. "I do not want to give Hoskins the wrong idea about who should be running the bridge."
***
First Aid - Central Isla Nublar
"Mr. Masrani. If you're feeling wakeful enough, there are some things I need to ask you."
"For now, I am feeling fine. Ask away, Henry."
Running a hand through his graying hair, Dr. Wu looked down at the notes he had prepared. A lot had gone on since the event that required his attention. "I need to know from what date and time you came before arriving on this island. I believe you're aware of what is going on here?"
"I have heard many things, Henry," said Masrani. "And yet, I am not certain how much you know of what is going on here. You deny knowledge of the truth of this event, and yet you act as though you have prepared for it."
"That's not important right now," said Wu. "I have...suspicions about what is happening, but I need more information to know for sure. Such as the date and time of your departure from reality, as well as how you managed to get to this island after its isolation."
Masrani sighed. "I was certain that I had the right date; December of this year seemed right. It seems I did not know for sure. I was late. The island...it still looks like it is there, in reality. Perhaps it has its own versions of us there, living lives that are ours, but not ours. But as with everything on Isla Nublar, time split in two for me when I came here."
"Everyone else was plucked from a point in their past," said Wu. "But you say that you voluntarily came here, from a point in what to us would appear to be your future?"
"That is what I did," said Masrani, closing his eyes and lying back. "I have...a little more choice in this matter than others. It is only a little thing, but I had to make sure that I learned as much about what we need to do before it happened. It is a sort of...cheating." He chuckled weakly. "But I was not expecting to be drawn into the void. We had to ram the atmosphere to get in. I suppose I do not think of everything."
"We can come back to that later. In the meantime, how much do you know about Indominus rex?"
"How is she?"
"She's fine. Are you aware of her origins?"
"You said she is part T. rex, but intelligent, with parts of other dinosaurs. Is there more to her?"
Wu considered this. He had thought that, if Masrani was from the future, he would have learned about the hybrid's purpose from Wu by then. If Wu had not disclosed the real reason he'd created it even after they expected the event to occur, he must have had good reason for it. "Nothing important. You need rest, Mr. Masrani. I'll speak with you again later."
***
Gyrosphere Valley - Central Isla Nublar
Owen's arm was still in bad shape, but it wasn't enough to keep him from wanting to go out into the field with ACU. They'd approached the location where the warning beacon had been activated, but at least for now, nothing out of the ordinary was in sight. A few dinosaurs rested and browsed nearby, but all of them looked like Jurassic World stock.
"I'm not seeing our REDLINE," mused Owen. "You fellas see anything in the trees?"
"Nothing," confirmed one of the ACU men, who had donned infrared goggles. "Just the normal birds and shit. Nothing big enough to eat you." He turned around, scoping the area one more time to be sure—
"GAH! Watch where you're running!" The trooper removed his goggles and jumped in surprise again. "Dr. Wu, sorry sir, what're you doing out here?"
Wu panted from his run. "They're—they're in the ground," he said. "I was on the hill, saw them come down—buried in the dirt, there's maybe eight of them. Growing."
"Eight of what, Dr. Wu?" Owen asked, stepping forward.
"I—I'm not sure," he said. "But they can't be safe. I haven't been able to test their genetic material yet, but if I'm right about what I think—"
He was interrupted by a loud rumbling sound as something knocked their vehicle off its wheels. The two troopers still sitting in it jumped as it rolled over, the ground bulging underneath it. All their guns were suddenly trained on that spot, all eyes fixed on the mysterious movement.
"That one of 'em?" Owen asked, pistol in his good hand.
"It's...bigger than I expected," said Wu.
Without warning, whiplike tendrils burst from the ground all around the bulge, one of them gripping a trooper in its coils. They all whirled around and opened fire on it, severing the appendage, but the others didn't seem to react to the loss of the one: they continued to whirl around, grasping at whatever was within reach.
"Everyone fall back!" shouted Owen, trying to get out of reach of the tentacles. One of them swiveled around to face him, folds on its ends opening up to reveal a bizarre eye on the inside—a violent shade of pink, with an X-shaped pupil in the center. Without a moment's hesitation, he shot it cleanly in the middle of the pupil, continuing to back away.
The blind tentacle swung around, crashing into the overturned vehicle and twisting itself around the door. It tore the door off of its hinges, throwing it aside a moment later; this decapitated another of the tendrils, and the remaining ones grabbed the blind one by its base and tore it out of the ground. Vomit-colored fluids drained from its severed end. As the tentacles threw aside their maimed member, the humans took the distraction as an opportunity to back away.
"Wu, if you know anything about this, now would be a good time to tell us," said Owen.
"Its biology is like nothing back home," began Wu. "Obviously, the appendages operate autonomously, but they may have a ganglion hub somewhere in the central disc that allows communication and sensory input—"
"English, please," said Owen.
"The tentacles see and think on their own, but the creature's body may have a kind of...neurological connection, like a brain," said Wu.
"Aim for the middle!" shouted Owen, and they opened fire again. The tentacles whirled around in confusion, some of them exposing their eyes to locate their enemies only to have their eyes blown out by gunfire. The vehicle was the nearest large object, and the tentacles apparently took this to mean it was the source of the danger and wrapped around it, dragging it toward the bulge. Or were they trying to protect their body?
The dinosaurs, meanwhile, were getting agitated, and some of them were turning and fleeing toward the open field. As they did, more tentacles erupted from the ground, grasping for the dinosaurs. Owen watched in horror as an entire Stegosaurus was dragged, spiked tail flailing uselessly, toward a circular maw that emerged from the ground, consuming the dinosaur plates and all. Others were downed, tripped up by tentacles wrapped around their legs.
The creature nearer them had begun to shift, dirt spilling out of the way, as bullets put holes in the vehicle between ACU and the monster. Suddenly, a gaping mouth shot forth, exposing itself and the thousands of sharp, hooked teeth that lined its jawless edge. As the vehicle was forced into it by the tentacles, the creature emerged fully from the dirt.
"Holy mother!" Owen shouted, unable to tear his gaze away.
The creature was enormous, easily the size of one of their Apatosaurus, and its toothy ring was directly on top of its body and surrounded by more tentacles than they had expected. Around its body, below the mass of tentacles, were sixteen insect-like legs, each ending in two-toed feet with enormous claws. The way its legs moved didn't even make sense; they should have overlapped one another as it staggered from its pit, but somehow they moved fluidly, never so much as brushing against each other. On its underside was a pair of oar-shaped appendages, the inner side of each one covered in foot-long spines dripping with a dark red substance. Between these and its legs, there were countless vine-like strands that descended into the dirt, which it snapped off as it stepped away from where it had emerged. As its mouth gulped their vehicle down whole, the mouth retracted back into its position at the top of the monster's body, its contents apparently vanishing—there was no way that it could have swallowed that so easily, but it was just gone, as though its mouth were a black hole.
The other creatures, farther away, were emerging as well, sights set on the fleeing dinosaurs. ACU managed to open fire on the one facing them, but if it could feel the holes put into it by their bullets, it didn't show any sign of it. They backed away into the trees as it approached, hoping that its size would stop it from following, but one by one it tore the trees from the ground with its tendrils, swallowing them as well.
"I've got an idea!" Wu shouted. "The trees—the creature was rooted to the ground when it came up. It may be able to pull its own roots up, they could hold the key to its weaknesses!"
"Lure it back to where it came up!" Owen called. They began to make their way back around to the initial attack site, the creature following them. They gathered close to one of the trees nearest the pit, hoping it would tear that one away to get at them too. But it hesitated—perhaps it understood their ruse.
"Gotta get its attention," a trooper next to Owen said. "I'm gonna hit it from underneath!"
Before Owen could stop him, the young man had rushed out, skidding to a stop under the beast's underside. He aimed straight up between the spiked palps, where he could now see a small mouth-like opening. But before he could get a shot off, the palps swept downward, catching him in between their spiked pads. His chest was pulverized, and they tossed him aside in a bloody mess.
Owen rushed over, though he knew that the man didn't have a chance of survival.
"No—no, what were you thinking?!" Owen shouted, both angry and panicked at once. "Come on—come on, there's gotta be something we can do for you—"
"Owen," he wheezed, barley able to speak. "On the belly. There's a hole—" He coughed, spitting up something that wasn't blood. Owen would have felt for a heartbeat, if he was even certain that the man had a heart left. He wasn't moving anymore.
"Get back over here!" another of the troopers shouted. Owen hadn't heard as the creature surprisingly quietly moved itself directly over him, sixteen legs on all sides. He looked up to see the mouth-like hole in between the palps. The creature's brain must be right up there.
The monster pulled itself up, and Owen barely had time to register what it was about to do before he was already rolling out of the way. Its body slammed to the ground on top of the trooper's corpse, and Owen darted for the tree, his bad arm aching from the roll. A tendril snagged him by the leg, but he pulled a knife free from his belt and hacked it off, stumbling toward cover. The monster clambered back to its feet, moving toward them.
"It's going to attack," said Wu. "When it does, move aside so it grips the tree. The roots should still be attached—" Before he could finish his analysis, the tendrils whipped out, and they all dove aside, Wu being dragged with them. As Wu predicted, it snagged the tree, instinctively pulling it out of the ground. As its roots came loose of the dirt, they all saw monstrous tendrils intertwined with the wood, a strange color that was both black and red at once, neither organic nor artificial. They were being pulled out with the tree toward the monster's mouth. For a moment, Owen thought they would snap, but the alien roots held true, being dragged out of the dirt. Other trees began to fall as they were pulled down too, the roots going farther and farther away.
Finally, something larger was pulled up from the dirt, something with a slimy sheen and a bulbous body. It had no features other than the mass of root-like tendrils attached to its top, but as it was indelibly drawn toward the monster's mouth, the roots began to act defensively. They extended over the monster, pulling away from the ground and binding its tendrils, trying to stop itself from going down the throat. But it was too large to fit; even as the monster's teeth wrapped around the slimy skin of the bulb from which it had hatched, it clogged the monster's gullet, becoming stuck. The monster staggered around on its insectile feet, finally toppling over. Its palps swung apart and together again in agony as it struggled to breathe through its smaller hole, making an audible whistling noise.
"That should give us a clear shot to the neuronal hub!" shouted Wu. "Aim for that hole!"
ACU didn't hesitate to comply. Every gun was trained on the opening underneath the monster's body, and as they fired, that strange fluid began to spill out of the hole, first as a trickle and then as a torrent. Finally the legs stopped moving; the tentacles continued to swivel around, but individual bullets put a stop to each.
"Dr. Wu, tell me that sonofabitch is dead for real," demanded Owen.
"I...I believe so," said Wu, running a hand through his black hair. "We now know for certain how to kill them. That young man...what was his name?"
"Rod Zblinski," one of the troopers said. "Our newest recruit. 'Least he was at the moment he got plucked out from the past."
"That poor man," said Wu quietly. "But if it hadn't been for him, we might not have found the ventral stoma. He may have saved us today."
On the plains of the valley, carnage was left in the wake of the creatures' attack. The pits where they had emerged remained obvious, so tracking down the pods the monsters had hatched from would be easy. And not all of the creatures had been so successful in their attack: one of them lay on its back, half its legs broken and most of its tentacles missing, its mouth a mangled wreck. A beaten but alive Ankylosaurus lying on its side nearby told the rest of the story, bits of monstrous tissue caught on its spikes and tail club. Another monster had apparently choked trying to devour an Apatosaurus tail-first, the dinosaur moaning in pain but the monster's legs twitching helplessly. The webbing of its mouth was torn open, its teeth embedded past the dinosaur's hips. Owen walked up to the monster, its palps swishing around weakly, and put a bullet directly through its disc. The legs convulsed once and then stopped moving altogether.
The corpses of mutilated dinosaurs lay across the fields, and the remaining monsters were off in the distance, ambling around and casually swallowing whatever they could find. Now that they knew how to kill these creatures, the survivors shouldn't be so much trouble; Owen was already visualizing strapping a machine gun to a Jeep and just driving beneath the monsters and firing straight up. He was just thankful that none of them had headed for Main Street. The loss of life would have been much greater had they done so.
***
Bridge - Beneath Isla Nublar
"Say it again, Owen. My mind is not believing what my ears are telling it. What kind of creatures did you see?"
"I dunno, Barry. Like nothing I've ever dreamed of," said Owen. "It was like nightmares comin' out of the ground. Wu said they were something that came through the hole in our sky; must've slipped in after Lowery did his analysis. We've got Drs. de Lange and Harding up there lookin' over the dinos, but I'm not sure we can save the injured ones."
"And we are certain that all the creatures are dead?" asked Barry.
"We saw eight come out of the ground, and Wu says there were eight pods growin' in the dirt," said Owen. "We've dug up eight pods, turned 'em all into salsa. Killed eight monsters, too. Lost one of our own to the first of the bastards, shot up the rest in armored trucks. Wu's taking samples, seeing if he can figure out what the hell those things are. Talked to Atlanta already, but she doesn't seem to know anything about this particular part of our situation. We're all in the dark, as best I can tell."
"Take a rest, Owen. We should keep an eye on the hole from now on, shoot anything that comes through. Soon we will have a better idea of what we can do from the bridge, but for now the most important thing is that we can keep all these people safe. And you need to recover yourself." He clapped Owen on the good shoulder. "You've been up against more than anyone could have imagined today."
