Oh wow, has it been two weeks already? Sorry all. Costume prep has kept me from writing. All my creativity went into Halloween and then a theater production. You might not really care about all that, just that the next chapter is here! Have a safe and happy Halloween (if you celebrate the love of eating candy and dressing up). Enjoy!

It felt as if the trek of fifteen miles north from Owen's home took hours instead of the thirty minutes through the back trails and cleverly hidden access roads.

Claire accelerated the four-wheeler she now drove to keep up with Owen. After they had packed a few essentials in the way of gear from his large closet, he dusted off another from his large fleet of motorcycles. There was no way in hell she was going to ride on the motorcycle with him, knowing the trouble he was bound to get into… that and she didn't like the thought of falling off. The sturdy vehicle they drove to his place was easy enough to figure out. Driving herself also allowed her to feel as if she could help Owen instead of simply clutching to his strong back.

It was a new kind of rush to be whizzing through the jungle with him - a sort of unspoken game of tag or keep up ensured. The speed could be addictive, she acknowledged as she turned slightly to divert around a low-hanging limb. The pair decided to head north and not wait for the rest of the team shortly after Claire got done notifying Lowery and finding out that Matthews had indeed triggered the alert and then sent an SOS of sorts to Matthews in the command center.

Much like she had come to expect, Owen instantly got that look on his face – the one she saw when she approached him asking for assistance finding her nephews. Even though he had no reason to run to the aid of a man who would have left the former Navy man to his demise if the roles were reversed, Owen truly wanted to help.

The two of them would be scouts until the others could arrive- the small access roads would not be well suited for the large military grade transport so Barry and the others would have to go a longer route around. The bikes allowed Owen and Claire to make it to their destination much quicker than even Lebens getting the helicopter ready to go. And so they took off into the unknown and relatively uncharted wilderness of the island.

When they got closer to what they both hoped was a dormant volcano, the area looked rather peculiar.

"Where is the compound?" Owen asked as he stopped when the road seemed to widen into a parking lot of sorts leading up to the mountainside..

The base of the volcano was before them, the small clearing where they stopped around then, and then a larger service road leading to the west.

"It should be here." He continued as he put the kickstand down on his bike and shut off the engine. Claire parked next to him and quickly pulled out the tablet.

"It is," She remarked looking at the location of the alarm on the tablet map. "Or it should be…"

Taking a step away from him and the vehicles, Claire watched as her location indicator blinked almost on top of the apparently invisible compound.

"It can't be invisible, this is ridiculous. And the tracker isn't malfunctioning; I can see the others in the transport several miles out." She began looking up from her tablet to Owen, who was walking the perimeter of the oddly placed parking area. "Seriously?" Claire's eyes went wide with recognition.

"What?" Owen asked as he trotted over closer to her location.

"It's below us." She shook her head not really believing it, but it was the only logical answer.

"Like below the volcano?" His response sounded doubtful.

"I remember them saying the volcano hasn't had any activity since the formation of the island thousands of years ago." It was one of the first things she asked back in the interview phase of her getting the job. "Think about it, the best place to hide a research facility with potential shady projects, right in plain sight."

"You have a point," He conceded and began to look closer at their surroundings. "But you have to be able to get INTO this secret base... and I don't see how that is possible."

He certainly made sense with that observation, and Claire too began looking for any signs of an entrance. Wandering closer to the actual mountainside, a glint of reflected light caught her attention. It was something that seemed so out of the ordinary, that Claire couldn't brush it off as nothing.

"I think I've found something." She beckoned him to join her. What should have been a weathered rock face, felt smooth and cool beneath her hand. Knocking on the surface, the pair listened as a hollow echo came from the opposite side.

"Genius." They both smiled realizing the mountain was at least in some part a cover for the private research that the unknown parties wanted to keep hidden.

"Look along there, I'll take this side," Claire instructed as she turned and wondered to what all InGen and Dr. Wu were hiding if they went to this extreme in hiding things.

"Eureka!" Came Owen's voice as Claire looked up after hearing water pour out of his small canteen. "One entrance way, found." The proud look on his face made her roll her eyes yet again.

"Good work, I may keep you around after all." Her reply came as she stood at his side and began to probe the area where the water ran into cracks and disappeared. There was a door around there; the draining water told them it wasn't a normal rock face.

"We going in?" His voice sounded a bit unsure if they should wait for the others or not after finding what appeared to be a well-camouflaged door handle. The surface that the found to be a door was painted and covered with realistic looking material. "I don't want to wait much longer... who knows what mess is in there."

"Same here," Claire confessed. "While I'm quite impressed at the levels of disguising this place, I'm a little afraid of seeing what's inside there."

"Full disclosure, same here," Owen added taking her hand and squeezing it before he began to apply pressure to the door.

"We stick together." The red-headed former manager of the park stated, as she stood back and let Owen attempt to open the gate. The man's somewhat bulky build did little to help pull or push the door open.

"Back up for a second." He motioned for her to get behind him as he pulled his gun from its holster.

"Are you sure that's such a great idea?" The warning signals went off in her mind as she understood he wanted to try and shoot the door open.

"How else?" He questioned as his hand was on the gun and taking aim.

Without hesitation, Claire pulled out her phone.

"Lowery, you have access to the research facility, right? Can you hack the door locks? It shouldn't be too difficult if Matthews got in."

Looking a little disappointed, Owen put his gun back in the vest holster and watched as Claire found an access panel to the right of the door handle he was about to shoot.
Lowery must have given her instructions because after a push of a few keys, the door hissed open.

"See? Much easier." She retorted stepping back and allowing him to pull the solid metal door open.

"Normally I would say 'ladies first,'" Owen began looking into the dark entryway, "but I don't think you'll mind this time."

Claire gave a nod pulling her gun out and taking a deep breath. Lowery had said that he stopped the audio alarms and tried to return the power system to normal, but the darkness gave off an eerie feeling.

As they stepped into the concealed base, their footsteps on the metal catwalk like pathway echoed in the hollowed out mountain structure. Once they were past the small passageway that was carved into the actual mountain, they came upon a massive opening. Looking up, they could see the opening of the now dormant volcano leading up to the sky. The metal walkway continued around in a circle next to the rock surface with a guard rail up where an open space remained in the center.

"Kinda reminds me of one of those Bond villain lairs." Owen murmured.

And indeed it did in many ways - the overarching theme of the structure was industrial and secretive. Add to that, the dim lighting with the flash of red emergency lights from time to time left the pair wondering if it was worth trying to save Matthews. The situation didn't look good – whatever had happened left the building with warning lights flashing and power issues galore.

Maybe whatever was in there and loose couldn't get out. Maybe if Matthews died tried to get whatever was in the depths of this hidden base, the government or InGen would forget their dream of weaponized dinos…

Those were too many 'maybes' for him to stomach, and he knew Claire would agree.

Walking closer to the railing, both Owen and Claire looked down at the opening. From their location on the "ground floor" they could see the levels going down further into the volcano. A ways down, the open space stopped and what looked like some artificial enclosure began. Looking up, they saw scaffolding going up several floors, what looked like almost the half way mark on the volcano.

"Up or down?" He asked not knowing what to really expect. His eyes went to Claire, who had her phone out and scrolling through data on the screen.

"The source of the alarms look to be down five, possibly six levels." She responded showing him the device.

"Any signs of you know who?" The question was straight to the point. Once they found Matthews, they would have the source of the trouble without issue.

"It appears he is locked in a lab of sorts." Claire turned and scanned the area for the stairs heading down. "I've asked Lowery to keep us posted on any other surprises in the building."

"This would be a good time to have that communication piece." Owen sighed, knowing that while it was good they knew where Blue and Delta were, he needed to stay extra close to Claire, who was connected to the others through her comlink.

"Shall we?" Her light eyes met his deeper blue ones for a moment before they began their trek down into their unfamiliar surroundings.

"All these labs," Claire muttered as she descended the stairs behind Owen.

"What was that?" Owen asked quickly giving her a quick glance from over his shoulder. He didn't dare look away from where they were going for too long. All it took was a few seconds for something to jump out and eat them both.

"The size of this place. They had to house a good 20 scientists and staff in here." She continued looking around while she too kept her gun and eyes on the lookout. "I just don't get how they kept this place off the books."

"Where there's a will, there's a way, I guess." He tried to wrap his head around that same logistical issue. There was a lot to hide, but also a lot of people to keep off the grid as well.

The two had made good time going deeper down the staircases inside the massive production of structures and technology.

"We're coming up on the same level where the alarm was triggered," Claire said as she nearly bumped into Owen's back as he stopped in front of a solid wall at the base of the stairs.

"Yeah, I can see that." Owen pointed ahead towards the enclosed structure. The walls were not quite transparent, but from what could be seen, the area looked to be in a fog.

Sparks of electrical wires fizzled from time to time, illuminating the inside area. "I don't know, but from the looks of it Matthews either had a huge party without us or whatever was locked up in there didn't take kindly to being let out."

"Lowery, can you give us a run down on what all is going on in here?" Claire asked into her phone, before putting it on speaker phone so Owen could also hear.

"It is difficult to say." The former control room operator now turned expert hacker replied. "The emergency alarms were triggered, looks like the sprinkler system also went off in certain parts. Actually appears to still be going, so watch out for some flooding rooms." The man's voice sounded amused. Almost too amused that it made both listeners look at each other with a look of worry.

"We'll worry about any puddles later, but it looks like wires are live. Water and live electricity don't make for good company." Owen leaned in slightly towards Claire's phone. He wanted the seriousness of his voice to get through.

"Yeah, I'm working on it." Lowery jumped, the sounds of tapping keys could be heard on the other end of the line. "If I shut off the power, I can't guarantee things will be easier… remember what happened the last time the power went off?"

"Can you at least guarantee we won't get fried in there if we accidently step in a puddle? 'Cause I think I'd settle for a bit of dark rather than electrocution." Owen quickly retorted.

"I'll do my best. Do you see a panel on the wall somewhere nearby?"

"There's one," Claire pointed a few feet away. With a few short steps, the pair was now looking at the unit on the wall. As instructed, using his trusty knife, Owen pried open the box and began cutting wires.

"Weren't we told never to cut the red wire?" His amusement, rather than actual concern came across in his voice as the man on the other end of the phone directed him to indeed cut the one coated in red.

"You wanted not to get electrocuted." The pair of men's banter seemed to blend into the background as Claire took in her surroundings. She was confident that even if the power went out again, the emergency light system would remain active- there would be some light for them. Also, they had some military glow sticks in the pouches on their belts.

These belts do come in handy. Claire considered as she walked back to the entrance of the enclosure. She wasn't completely aware of what all Owen had loaded in the multiple pouches, but knowing him they would all be useful in some fashion or another. Placing her hand on the smooth surface of the enclosure, she closed her eyes wondering how they were going to find Matthews in that mess. Flooded rooms, sparking wires, unknown heat sources in the building. It was a mess.

"Ouch!" Owen's raised voice and the sound of him falling backward onto the metal flooring caught her attention. "Son of a…"

Claire turned and ran the few steps back to his side. Kneeling down she found him clutching his left hand to his chest. Her phone was on the floor, next to him. Lowery's face was seen on the screen shaking his head.

"I told you not to force it."

"Well damn it, how else am I supposed to get into that little space?" The injured man asked as he allowed Claire to check the lightly bleeding skin around his hand.

"You could have asked, I do have smaller hands. So what exactly do you need me to do?" She asked looking down at Lowery on the phone.

"As I was saying, there is a switch that is right behind where the panel sat in the wall. You have to angle your hand in there just right. Apparently someone tried to just shove his hand in."

Kneeling closer to the wall, Claire peered into the mass of wires and metal. She saw what Lowery was talking about and put her hand in. To Owen's credit, it was a tight fit even for her slender hands, but in no time the switch was flipped and the general lighting that had been restored after the power went back on, dimmed.

"How romantic." Owen mentioned as he looked around, instead of the flickering yellow and red emergency lights, they now were a constant glow. Without the other lights, it did make things harder to see clearly.

"You should be able to move throughout the enclosure now without getting fried." Lowery began, "You will have to force open some of the doors if they were set to be automatic. You have to go further down three floors once you enter the enclosure to get to the location of the original alarm."

"I guess we should head in." Claire stood and offered Owen a hand up. The bleeding in his hand had since stopped, but the red scratch marks from the wall remained.

"The sooner we do, the sooner we get the hell out of here."

The air smelled stale as they cautiously made their way into the research heart of the base. How the evacuation for this area had happened, or when it had happened remained unknown. It was something that was bothering Claire as they passed many lab stations with beakers still on them, and desks with notebooks open, simply waiting for its owners to return. The chaos like the command center or other parts of the park did not match what they saw so far.

Guns drawn and remaining close together, the pair continued onward. Claire held Owen's tablet out using the tracker to help guide them in the direction of Matthews.

"Are you getting any communication from the group?" Owen asked in a whisper back over his shoulder.

"Nothing. I think the communication signal is having troubles connecting now that we are so far into the ground." Claire replied thinking it was odd to not hear any updates from Anderson in the command room, or Barry and the other party coming behind them.

"I was afraid of that." Owen sighed. "What about Lowery?"

"His video function is spotty. I think he can still hear us. The call hasn't been disconnected." She stopped to set down the tablet and pulled the phone from her belt pocket. "Not the best of circumstances."

"It never is."

The two went quiet again for a time until they came upon a room that looked worse for wear. Some f other desks were turned over, one looked mangled and others dented or scraped. The sprinklers were also slowly dripping water telling them that a fire might have happened as a result of whatever had happened in the room.

"I don't like the looks of this." Owen crouched down to look at the jagged edge of the metal desk. It was slashed and thrown on its side near a wall.

"After seeing this room I think we can expect that Matthews let something out that shouldn't have been let out." Claire stood by Owen as he continued to marvel at the slash mark on the table. His hands lightly ran down the edge, being careful to not cut his skin.

"And by the looks of it, whatever it is has some claw power."

"You thinking another hybrid around in here?"

"Yeah, it has to be small enough to get in and out of human sized doors, so here's hoping that we're not dealing with a mini wild I-rex."

"I would recommend we wait for the others at this point." The former manager suggested looking around the room and at the door that lead further into the compound. Sooner or later they would meet up with whatever was loose. She would rather it not be only the two of them to meet it.

"That does sound like the smart thing to do." He agreed standing up and once again getting his shotgun ready.

As the pair was about to retrace their path back to the stairwell, a desperate shriek echoed from behind them.
Owen raised his gun, ready to aim and shoot at whatever came. The screams renewed in intensity and horror to the point that the former Navy man turned and walked back the way they were heading.

"Shit, I can't just let him die…" He growled.

"He wouldn't care about you if you were screaming." Claire pointed out the obvious, following him as he approached the door leading towards the screams.

"We both know I realize that… I just can't…" His eyes closed tightly as the cried gained a new level of force. It was too much like in the jungle with the InGen men and the raptors, too much like in his nightmares and memories of the naval catastrophe. He would have nightmares either way. If he helped or if he let it end…

"Fuck!"

And that is where I shall leave you all. Sorry, I know... I'm evil! That means you will just have to wait and see what is going on and what exactly will be the plot device in bringing about the demise of our government asshat!

Thank you to the reviewers! I was super happy to know people enjoy this little story. Although it isn't very little anymore with 14+ chapters and over 61,1237 words! Until next time readers!