Gyrosphere Valley - Central Isla NublarDr. Suzanne de Lange shook her head sadly as she looked over the carnage the monsters had left in their wake. Fortunately, the creatures had all been killed, and the dying dinosaurs put out of their misery, but it wasn't enough to cover up the horror that the day had seen.
And we're still running out of air, she reminded herself. Things weren't getting better.
"Another one over here," called Harding, motioning her over. He'd found a badly wounded juvenile Parasaurolophus, barely on its feet, half-concealed in the bushes. The creature shuddered, terror in its eyes.
"Let's get a look at her," said de Lange quietly. She didn't really want to see any more dinosaurs die today—if they could save just this one she'd be happy. "How bad are her injuries?"
"Looks like she got off better than some of the others," said Harding. "Lacerations are deep, and the left ulna and radius look shattered, but only a few wounds are still bleeding. The others are clotted...if we get an MVU over here quick, we might be able to set her arm, disinfect, check for internal injuries." He picked up his handset, and the dinosaur gave a pitiful whine.
The sound of an approaching vehicle got de Lange's attention; for a moment she thought it was the MVU arriving, but that was too soon. Instead it was a jeep, the kind the park administrators used. The door opened, and the pristine white coat and red hair gave Claire Dearing away in a heartbeat. De Lange hadn't dealt with Claire personally very much, but she'd heard Claire could be a headache. Owen had used the phrase "hot on the outside, but with an iceberg for a heart" once. Just from looking at her, it was obvious that Claire didn't spend much time outside; she wasn't even remotely dressed for fieldwork (seriously, heels? On this terrain?), and looked pale as death. Or maybe that was just from seeing the destruction.
"Drs. de Lange, Harding—tell me you've got good news," Claire said as she approached. "I was informed of an attack—oh, God, is that dinosaur injured?"
"Not just this one," grunted Harding, trying to approach the young hadrosaur to observe more closely. "Not sure how much blood you've ever seen, or if you're familiar with organs on the outsides of the body—come here, kid, we're gonna help you!—but out on the plains, it's worse than this."
"Whatever they told you back at the Control Room, it can't remotely convey how bad things look out here," said de Lange. "If you really want to see—and honestly, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't—I can show you, just over the hill here and past the treeline. There were around eight of some kind of unidentified creature, and we've documented twenty-nine of our own animals lost. Most of them were just swallowed whole, but the ones that weren't..."
Claire took a deep breath. "Asset management is my responsibility. I should see personally what happened out there, no matter how bad it might be."
De Lange considered this for a moment. Maybe Claire wasn't as bad as people liked to say. "If you insist on looking. I promise you, though, the Valley's not a pretty sight."
***
Bridge - Beneath Isla Nublar
"Boom! There we go!" Arnold exclaimed, looking over a three-dimensional holographic map of the island. He had managed to conjure it up using some of the strange alien control panels, and just now he had located a few blinking yellow points on its translucent surface.
"Find a way to patch up our sky?" asked Owen.
"Not exactly, but I did find a way to keep our air in here," he said. "In the maintenance tunnels, is what I mean. See, the old and new tunnels intersect with a third set that aren't on any of our maps, probably embedded in the island itself along with the bridge. 'Til now, we didn't have a way to map them, but with this, we can. The blinking yellow lights are points where the alien tunnels break the surface—and from what I see here, and the detail on this thing is goddamn near perfect, those are security hatches or airlocks or something of that sort."
"So we just get all the people into the tunnels..." began Barry.
"And seal up the airlocks behind 'em," finished Arnold.
"This man is practical—I like him," said Barry, smiling. "Mr. Arnold, I am glad we have people with clear heads like you on this island."
***
Jurassic World Control Room - Central Isla Nublar
"Good news, folks," Owen's voice crackled into Lowery's radio. "We've got a way to save everybody, whether or not our atmo-hole gets fixed."
"We'd all love some good news up here," said Lowery.
"Turns out, there's a set of hatches where the alien tunnels hit the surface of the island. Looks like they might be airtight. Get everybody in through those, seal off the park tunnel openings, close up the hatches once we're all in, and we've got a contained atmosphere," said Owen. "We're still figuring a way to read the alien instructions, but we're getting there. Between Arnold, Barry, Hoskins, and me, we've got plenty enough experience with deciphering codes. We'll have it done in no time."
"That is fantastic, Owen, best news we've had all day," said Lowery. "I'm gonna let Claire know about this. Bet she'll be pumped when she hears."
"We got work to do down here. Lemme know what she says. Bridge out," said Owen.
Lowery dialed Claire's number from his terminal, but there was no reply.
"Dammit, Claire, where are you?" he muttered to himself.
"You might try the phone, if you can't get her from the terminal," said Vivian, glancing over. "I've been having some trouble with mine."
Lowery walked to the back of the Control Room, glancing around as he did. They were only making a vague imitation of order in here; Zara was frantically pacing around on her cell phone with somebody, Sorkin was still sulking in a corner where they'd left her hours ago, and Atlanta was trying to calm down a panicking tribesman who looked like he'd stepped right out of the fifteenth century. Wu had come in six or seven times in the past few hours, asking for seemingly-random pieces of data from around the island. It was a good thing the visitors from outside weren't all seeing this right now, or they might have a riot on their hands.
He dialed Claire's number again, but still there was no answer. He didn't even go to voicemail; she was just straight-up not answering her phone. It wasn't like her, and it was a little concerning. But there was no telling if something weird had happened to knock out some of their communications.
Sighing, he turned to Zara, who had just hung up her own phone in frustration. Before he could ask anything, she put put up a hand to stop him. "If this is about the churros, I am not in the mood to talk about it," she insisted. "I've already gotten five complaints about—"
"No, no, no, this has nothing to do with churros," said Lowery, mentally questioning why churros were a problem right now. "I can't get a hold of Claire, do you know where she said she was going?"
Zara sighed. "She went to Gyrosphere Valley, she wanted to see the damage. You know what, I'll get her. Anything to get out of this...this." She waved her hands around at the Control Room. In the background, Sorkin had started ranting about something to do with the lagoon.
"Thanks," said Lowery.
***
Gyrosphere Valley - Central Isla Nublar
Claire wasn't sure whether she was going to cry or vomit. She'd seen dead animals before; seven years of work at the park certainly had shown her her fair share of accidents and deaths of assets. But this was more than she was prepared for. Like de Lange had said, most of the fatalities had been consumed entirely, with nothing left, but the ones that remained were a horrific sight to behold.
The carcasses of the monsters had flooded the surrounding areas with a thick crimson fluid, which she was assured was not blood; she wasn't certain if that made it any less sickening. The fluid had mostly soaked into the soil, but the grass where it had done so was withered into brown straw at best and burned away at worst. The dinosaur carcasses were another story; rather than simply riddled with bullet holes, they were torn apart, sometimes totally in half, with bone sticking out where it didn't belong and organs sometimes meters away from the bodies they had been ripped out from. Only three of the bodies were mostly intact; a Triceratops relatively near them, a Parasaurolophus halfway across the field, and an Apatosaurus off to their left.
Claire was speechless. She'd ignored her phone buzzing, though she knew somebody would be up her ass about that later. She was not in any state to talk right now. She hadn't been this close with a real dinosaur in years, and this was how it would happen? She remembered back to her first experience with a dinosaur on this island—a gravid Apatosaurus laying its eggs—and how she'd felt back then. How had she become so disillusioned? How had she taken all of this for granted?
Movement nearby caught her attention. The Triceratops's leg had twitched. "Oh, my God, that one's alive," she said. Dr. de Lange looked over warily; she'd checked that animal over herself, apart from some lacerations on the face it had looked unharmed, so she'd assumed its injuries were internal, but it had lacked a pulse. She found it singularly odd that it would suddenly recover. Maybe it had just been a muscle spasm.
"That one was dead when I last looked it over," she said. "Something's wrong, Ms. Dearing, I think we should leave it."
"No, no, Doctor, the assets are—these animals are my responsibility," said Claire, approaching the creature. "If anything can be done for them—"
Suddenly, mechanically, the dinosaur swung its head into an upright position. Without flexing its leg muscles its body rolled upright and stood as though pulled by strings, swaying on the spot. Then, without warning, all of its muscles tensed up, and its skin squirmed as though something were beneath it.
"Something's not right," said Dr. de Lange again. "Get back to the vehicles. We need to go, now!"
The apatosaur carcass stirred as well, and off in the field they could see the third mostly-unharmed corpse begin to move. The apatosaur didn't stand up immediately, but its head turned to face them; though its eyes were too damaged to open, its mouth opened slowly, unhinging like a snake's with a crack of breaking bone. A bright orange eye, not unlike those on the monsters' tentacles, glowed from the inside of its mouth. The trike turned to face them as well, and its own eyes were a milky white while the two halves of its neck frill rolled back to reveal neon teal alien eyes like on the apatosaur. Its horns cracked, a blue-green slime oozing out.
"CLAIRE! RUN!" screamed de Lange.
They sprinted for the vehicles, all three dinosaurs in pursuit. Neither of the women looked back, but they could hear horrible screaming noises and flesh tearing behind them.
"What in God's name is going on over there?" called Harding as they rounded the hill.
"No time! Get in the jeep!" shouted de Lange. Their ATV might be faster, but the jeep would be better defended. The two of them leaped in, Harding just behind them. A second later, trees were blasted out of the way as some unseen force exploded the ATV.
Standing in the new clearing was the mutated Parasaurolophus, its head crest having split and grown into a huge set of amplifier-like growths. They were so large that they obscured most of its face, though they could see purple alien eyes at a strange position on its cheeks. It inhaled deeply, a spiky pouch on its throat inflating as it did; de Lange realized a second later what it was preparing to do. She gunned the engine and they shot off. With a resounding boom, the dinosaur let loose the air it had stored out of its mutated crest, and dirt erupted into the air where the concentrated blast of air struck.
The other two dinosaurs had disappeared, but the Triceratops showed itself not too long afterward. It charged into view, its horns having grown into jointed insect-like limbs and its back bearing armored spikes jutting out at all angles. With a terrible roar, it lunged at them, and they swerved away just in time. The parasaur was charging alongside them now, trapping them in between the two mutant dinosaurs.
"Both of you, hang on!" de Lange shouted. She slammed on the brakes, and both dinosaurs were suddenly ahead of them. The parasaur was the first to wheel around, the trike's bulk carrying it forward before it could react. She then hit the gas again, driving them straight at the parasaur. It began to inhale for another air blast, but before it could let loose, de Lange slammed the jeep into it. The air sac was punctured by the jeep's grill as the dinosaur toppled, and spikes shot out of it in all directions. One shattered their windshield; the jeep began to spin out, but she got it under control again.
The trike was starting to charge, and now that they weren't moving as fast Claire could see that its horn-limbs were adorned with huge barbs like the stingers of a scorpion, each flexing and dripping with venom. Small tentacles had sprouted from the edge of its frill, and a quick glance at the parasaur lying next to them confirmed that it was also starting to grow similar tentacles around its neck. The trike picked up speed as de Lange desperately tried to get the jeep moving, but one of its tires was snagged on the parasaur's tail.
Moments later, the trike stopped just a few meters away. Something else had gotten its attention. The juvenile parasaur they had been trying to save earlier had stumbled into view, staring with exhausted fear at the mutant version of itself. Before it could react, the trike turned its head, staring with its gigantic alien eyes.
"No!" Harding shouted, but it was too late to take action. They watched in horror as the mutant trike's tentacles shot out and snagged the young parasaur, dragging it toward the creature. When it was close enough, the three stinger-horns set to work puncturing its hide over and over, its skin sizzling where the venom touched. The dinosaur wailed in agony, but soon was silenced as venom burned through its throat. Soon, all that was left of the dinosaur was its skeleton.
But now the jeep was moving, the wounded mutant having rolled over in an attempt to get back up. They could get back to the main roads and away from the mutants in just a few more—
CRUNCH!
Something slammed into the hood of the jeep, throwing Claire and Harding from it and knocking de Lange into the passenger seat. The apatosaur towered over them, drawing its tail out of the hood; the underside of its tail had sprouted two- to three-foot spikes all along its length, and tentacles were beginning to appear on its legs and around its neck. More spikes had appeared on its neck's underside, and along its sides holes had opened to allow it to breathe while an eyeball occupied its throat. It turned its gaze upon them, stepping over the jeep much more quickly than it should have been able to.
Claire struggled to her feet, pulling Harding up after her. "Come ON!" she shouted at de Lange, who was trying to get out of the jeep still. The apatosaur's tentacled leg slammed down on the back seats, catapulting the veterinarian out of the vehicle.
All three of them rushed for the cover of the trees as the three mutant dinosaurs charged them down. All but the parasaur were too wide to fit, and so they began tearing trees up to make their way through. The parasaur darted in between the trees at them, seemingly en route to intercept before they could get out of sight.
"Up this hill! It's the only way!" shouted Claire. Harding and de Lange looked doubtful, but by now, the low roads were too far away to reach before the mutant parasaur caught up to them. They ran up the hill as fast as they could, already tired but too afraid to collapse. With a crash, the apatosaur tore down a whole row of trees with its tail, and the trike had dissolved even more with its acidic venom.
The parasaur was the first to reach them, but as it drew within a few feet of reaching the humans, it stumbled and fell, groaning in pain. It inhaled to blast at them, but without its storage sac all it could manage was a steady gush of air. The trike reached them second, and let out a bellow as it plowed into the ground, staggering back to its feet and snorting. The apatosaur didn't bother to try, having seen the failure of the others. It stood over them, menacing but out of range.
"That...that's the border...of their zone," panted Claire. "They...they can't...get any closer."
"The tracking tags," gasped de Lange. "They...they still work...of course..."
She had to admit, she wouldn't have known that the zone border was up that hill. It made sense, but she hadn't memorized all their exact locations; it would take someone who had spent years staring at maps of the park to get all those committed to memory. And Claire had managed to run all the way from the attack site to the top of the hill without kicking her heels off—de Lange had to admire her for that.
"Oh—oh, my God, are any of you hurt?" someone said, rushing up the road with several test tubes in hand. Claire recognized Henry Wu, but he looked different somehow. "I didn't realize the transformation would happen so quickly, none of my tests with lab animals had such a—"
"Dr. Wu?" asked Harding. "How long have you been here?"
"I've been in the field studying these creatures since they first broke through the barrier, why?" asked Wu.
"How did you manage to get from the lab to here so quickly?" Claire asked.
"The...the lab? I haven't been to the Visitors' Center today," said Wu. "Are you all right? You seem...disoriented."
"Excuse me, Dr. Wu. What year did you arrive here from?" asked de Lange.
"1990," said Wu. "I'm not sure why that's...important?"
Claire, de Lange, and Harding looked at one another.
"I'm not sure how this is possible, but that's becoming the norm," said Claire. "We need to get you back to the Creation Lab. There's someone that you should...meet? I'm not entirely certain that's the right term, in this case."
***
Hammond Creation Laboratory - Central Isla Nublar
"Now this...this is interesting," said Wu, feeling as though he were looking at an old photo album. "If my theories are correct, this means it's possible to commit one's self to events unfolding on this island more than once."
"I'm not sure I understand," said Wu, both in awe and a little afraid. "What do you...I...we, mean by committing ourselves...myself? To events more than once?"
"In the years since you last knew we've learned much more about what's really happening on Isla Nublar," said the older Wu. "What you and Hammond planned for was only the beginning. I'm prepared to do more than staff this ship. I'm prepared to finish what it started, millions of years ago, when its original inhabitants crashed through into reality. When you and Hammond began building here, you committed yourself to being a part of the plan to give this ship a crew. But now, it's twenty-five years later, for me. I committed myself to a new plan. A plan to save us all."
"Dr. Wu," interrupted Claire. "You've known about this. You should have told us everything. What is this? Why are we here? What the hell is going on?"
"I couldn't divulge too much information until we were certain it would happen within our lifetime," said the older Wu. "The ship would have taken a long time to charge—there was a margin of error of a decade, and that was in our most hopeful simulations. I'm operating under Masrani's orders not to speculate too much. Until he recovers, we are operating on a need-to-know basis, and currently, you do not need to know."
"If I may," said the younger Wu, "I'm under no such obligation. I'm not even certain what importance Sanjay Masrani's son has in this. Would I be at liberty do discuss what I know?"
"Now is not the time," said the older Wu. "Had you gone on to become me, you'd understand eventually. They can know when they're ready." He turned to Claire, de Lange, Harding, Barry, Zara, and Owen. "What I need all of you to do is this. Continue bringing the visitors into the maintenance tunnels; this ship runs on personnel, it'll begin to die if anything should happen to too many of them. Any dinosaurs that can be saved should be brought into the tunnels as well. They're especially vulnerable to any mutagens present in this place. Find a way to fix the hole in the atmosphere if you can, and above all, ensure the safety of Indominus. I've worked too hard on her to let her come to harm."
Young Wu raised his hand. "Who exactly is Indominus?"