As Owen and his team approached the original T-Rex paddock from the first park where Lowery had spotted the Rexy last, a nervous humming fell over everything.
James and his pack had left Owen yesterday having made it to the end of the monorail. They turned north to the center of the island. The smaller group against the most fearsome beast felt ill advised, but the park was running out of time and they had to proceed.
Now, standing outside of the paddock, Owen and his team began planning their moves. This would be easier than expected if Rexy stayed in the paddock, and the control doors could be brought back to functionality.
"Nothing about this will be easy," said Owen. The group zoned in on him making sure to catch every important piece of advice before such a dangerous mission.
"Zach, you and Serena are going to accompany me and Paula to the back of the enclosure. Our team name will be Alpha. We are going to use our sonar shields to push sound into different areas of the paddock to attract Rexy.
"Team Beta will be Samantha and Tim. You are going to run up into the paddocks external control room and see if they can get those doors to close. If they can, we will use the stairwell in the back of the paddock that leads up to one of the windows and jump out of the back.
"Team Gamma, Sean and Kyle will be back there with the net between four trees hooked up to catch us," he finished.
"What happens if the paddock doors don't work?" Tim asked shifting his eyes between Owen and the dirt plan drawn in the ground.
"I will yell Fail Safe and everyone will come from their different positions and shoot as many tranqs as you have until the beast comes down."
That plan did not ease anyone's mind.
Listening over the prompt Claire could practically see Owen's strong jaw and resolute eyes trying to imbue confidence in his crew.
She bit her bottom lip hoping the pressure might distract her from her frantic heartbeat.
After about an hour of silent preparation, the group walked the last half mile to the T-Rex paddock.
Whispering, Owen said, "On my mark, we go in-five" he marked the seconds off with each finger.
"And go."
Tranqs in hand, Owen, Paula, Serena and Zach made their way into the paddock. The control room could only see what was visible on park cameras, but since the Original T-Rex paddock had been closed off during jurassic world's creation camera's were sparse and there were none inside the paddock.
On cue, Lowery said what everyone knew better not to say, "So this is either going to go horribly wrong, or there will be a miracle. Which in my experience, this whole jurassic thing has never had one of those so-"
"Shut the hell up," Claire said before he could recite anymore of her own internal monologue.
The control room fell as silent as the group in the paddock.
By this point Team Alpha was entering the paddock. Team Beta was in the paddock's control room working with HQ's control room on how to close the paddock gates when-
"What the hell?" Zach's voice came over the control room monitors.
"Shh- we don't want to spark Rexy's attention" Owen snapped back.
"I don't think that's going to be an issue."- Serena said.
Claire couldn't wait for this back and forth to end, "What's going on?"
"The T-Rex is dead," said Zach.
Owen was already halfway to the other side of the paddock but turned back to see for himself.
That's when he heard the sound of a dinosaur stirring, ever so faintly from his left.
Softly he said, "Zach, what shape is the T-Rex in, how did it die?"
"It was killed. I mean it looks like it was beaten to death. But it's weird-"
"What?"
"Well, it's not like whatever killed it ate any of it, just killed the poor beast and left."
Claire sucked in a breath. So did Owen.
The Indominus Rex killed for sport.
"We aren't alone in here." Owen said back.
"Owen, we have the lift doors lights on, we think they are operational. Should we go ahead and close them?" Samantha said through the ear pieces.
"Alright listen closely, Zach and Serena we don't have time to get to the back of this place if we are in here with what I think we are in here with.
Get back through the paddock doors, make absolutely no noise.
"Sam, the moment they are out of here close those doors," said Owen.
"Ok, but what are-
"Owen Grady, if your plan is to die, I swear I will kill you myself"- Claire cut off Samantha.
There was a small pause.
"I am close enough to proceed with the original plan. If in fact I am wrong about what animal is in here, it won't be a problem."
"And if you are not wrong?" she said.
But he was already moving to the back of the paddock.
"Ok, we are out,"- Serena said.
"Close the door, Samantha."- Owen said under his breath.
At that moment, a drop of water fell next to Owen's shoe.
It wasn't water.
He felt the heat of the Indominus breath sink down over his head. Shit.
Just then the sound of tons of metal moving against rusted hinges provoked the Indominus' attention and it swung its head away from Owen.
It let out a loud roar, filling everybody's headsets and the whole control room.
Owen took the chance to run full speed in the direction of the ladder.
His head set filled with everyone's voices asking, shouting, scrambling to figure out what to do, what was going on.
Zach and Serena made it out and the Indominus slammed into latched steel.
Zach stood outside of the now closed paddock slamming on the paneling. Hoping the noise would keep the Indominus attention away from Owen.
Owen was mere meters from the ladder when he saw it. The ladder was destroyed.
"The ladder is broken, is there anyother way out of here, anyway at all?" Owen asked.
"None that are in the floor plans, we are looking-
"Man, run-
"Hide-
"Owen, get out of there now-
"What's going on-
Owen realized then he was alone in this. Panic would solve nothing.
The Indominus began to realize its attempt to break through the steel could be revisited later. He had prey to attend to.
Owen was looking for any solution. He was almost without hope when he spotted a latch in the floor a few feet away. The handle peaking out from beneath the leaves, he didn't hesitate.
The Indominus was on top of him by the time he reached the latch. He threw it open and jumped inside right as the indominus swiped at his head.
He fell a few feet before hitting cement. Looking up through the now ripped off door. The Indominus was trying to get its head into the small cavity.
Rolling into his side, Owen coughed until blood came spilling out. Once he caught his breath he looked up at the now empty hole that the Indominus gave up on getting through.
He smiled, "Look at that, I have found your one goddam weakness. You can't change size. Surprised, psycho Wu didn't think of that. Guess I owe him one."
Breathing unevenly he realized what was missing, the noise. Not the Indominus roars, but the head set. He reached up to his ear to find it empty. Turning on his flashlight he panned the ground, it had fallen out in his jump down the hole.
He slipped it into his ear, pressed the button and said, "Well, it seems like no matter how much caramel I eat I am still smaller than a Dino."
A gasp came through the head piece, "Oh my god, you son of a bitch," said Claire.
"Love you too."
"Hey man, I love you too," Lowery said.
"Oh shit, didn't realize I had the whole room still," Owen said back. He heard a collective laugh threw the group. He laughed and caught himself in a cough. Maybe jokes weren't the best move.
He heard the lines cut out and thought his head piece went dead for a second.
"They're gone now," Claire whispered.
It was silent.
"The ladder, it was destroyed, I'm guessing the fight between the I-rex and T-rex broke it. I really wasn't trying to be a hero," Owen said.
"Maybe you weren't planning on dying, but don't pretend like you weren't being a damn hero," her words came out between small gasps. She was crying, she was trying to hide it. You can't hide things from someone that knows you better than himself.
"As usual, you are right."
"I know.
"How are you going to get out of there?"
He flipped his flashlight back on. It met a cement wall to his right but when he turned to his left, "That's curious."
"What?" Claire said.
It lit up to reveal a tunnel that led not towards the park, but towards where above ground a wall barred off the volcano part of the Island from the park. A wall, that James' team was currently checking for damage. By the length of the tunnel it looked like it went on for at least a couple thousand yards.
"Think I may have found a way out, but I'm not sure exactly where out will be."