Disclaimer: Ya'll know the drill, I don't own a damn thing *pouts*
Ok, I'm so loving this roll I'm on right now! And I love all of you reviewers more than words can express! Your kind words just make my day! This chapter is for the awesomeness that is: YouHadMeAtSkinTightJeans, xXxKaraBeckerCutterxXx, bayumlikedayum, Midnight Cheesecake O.o, Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967, Damico, shippolove844, DarkFireAngel00, ninjacat5, and mysterygirl123! You guys rock! Enjoy chapter 21!
Item number 87 of things to never to do again: jump off a bloody cliff.
I hit the dirt hard, probably cracking a rib or two in the process and then proceeded to roll the rest of the way down. It wasn't the smooth, almost-controlled roll of kids in their grandma's yard; it was more of a painful tumble the whole way down.
It felt like I rolled forever and by the time I hit the bottom I was dizzy as hell. Groaning, I rolled onto my back, grabbing my left bicep where a rather sharp rock had cut into it on the way down.
Glancing up the slope, I swore, rolling as fast as I could to get out of the way of the oncoming body. It was Blaine and he finally stopped with a low moan right where I had been seconds before.
Everyone had made it down-a little worse for wear-but alive nonetheless. I looked back to the top of the cliff; the two Carnotaurus were at the edge, their massive weight sending rock and dirt cascading down towards us. They roared, the sound sending chills down my spine as their eyes still fixated on the six of us.
One took another step forward, clawed toes reaching over the edge. "Move!" I shouted, seeing the land start to give way under the heavy creature. We scrambled up and I mentally cursed as I felt a jab of pain shoot up from my left ankle.
The trees down here where thinner and more spread out, they were useless for climbing and for hindering giant predators, so our only choice was to try and make it to the compound. I glanced behind us in time to see the land give way beneath one of the beasts. The other backed off, giving out another roar before turning and disappearing.
The second crashed to the ground on his back, his tail and back legs flailing as he tried to right himself. I turned back around, picking up my pace to catch up to the rest of the group. It didn't take long before I could feel the ground shake from our pursuer.
I caught sight of silver ahead of us through the trees and I would have let out a sigh of relief had I not been panting from the run. We finally reached the large metal doors that led into the building and we slammed into them to try and force them open.
"It's locked!" Kurt shouted after our attempts proved useless. I turned and pressed my back into the metal door as the Carnotaurus headed towards us, saliva dripping from his jaws.
My heart clenched as the fear seized me, there was no hope. This thing was going to kill all of us and no amount of fighting back or praying was going to save us. I was going to do both though, no way in hell was I going down without a fight. My hand wrapped around the knife-not that it would really do any good- but I would be damned if I just sat there and let myself be killed.
I can honestly say, I have never been so happy to hear a bigger predator's roar in my entire life. The sight of the giant Spinosaurus had me letting out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding.
I had seen this animal take down the Tyrannosaur with little trouble, this smaller cousin of the rex didn't have a chance. The animal seemed to realize this fact, as he backed into the trees, his skin changing from the brilliant red to the muted greens of the land around him to try and hide.
The Spinosaurus had seem him enough and quickly charged after him. I couldn't help but stand transfixed as the sailed predator latched onto the Carnotaur's tail with his massive jaws, forcibly dragging him back into the open. The chameleon dinosaur roared in pain and anger, his large feet dug into the ground as he was drug.
Twisting, the Carnotaurus attempted to get a hold of the Spinosaurus, but the super-predator simply let go of the tail, dodging out of the way of the oncoming jaws and latching onto the no-longer camouflaged animal's neck. A twist and a snap and the fight was over, our pursuer crashing to the ground in a mass of flesh and prehistoric muscle.
My heart was pounding away so loudly in my ears I half expected the Spinosaurus to hear it. But whether he realized we were there or not, he ignored us, choosing instead to gorge himself on his kill.
I felt a hand on my arm, tugging me away from the scene as the animal let out a victorious roar. I looked towards the owner of the hand, seeing Billy silently telling me to get a move on. Everyone else had gone passed the door and towards the other side of the building where hopefully there would be an open door.
I snapped out of whatever trance the fight had put on me and followed him, pausing only a moment later. "Billy." I whispered, looking back to the still feasting Spinosaurus that was no longer alone.
I nodded towards the two smaller animals that had joined the giant predator. I had expected the larger creature to snap out at the two, to chase them away or kill them too. I hadn't expected the animal to take half a step back from the kill and nuzzle the little things. Startled, I realized that the two were infants, old enough to leave the nest but too young to do much of their own hunting.
The two were slightly bigger than a raptor, their faces not quite as long as a crocodile. There was slight ridges on their backs where the sails were coming in. It was fascinating really, to see how different the young ones looked from their parents; and how the adults cared for their babies.
"Come on Lexi." Billy whispered in my ear, his arm wrapping around to my other side as he pulled me along.
Luckily we did find an open door, and quickly shut and locked it as soon as we all made it through. I wondered idly if that would come back to bite us all in the ass later. Sure it would keep the young Spinosaurs from coming in right now, but there was no telling what was already in here.
It looked in slightly better condition than the other compound had been in. The plants hadn't quite taken over the reception area just yet and most of the windows were still intact. As I looked around I realized that this building hadn't been finished when InGen abandoned the island. There was half a painting of a T-rex behind the desk with Jurassic stenciled above it. Paint cans still lay scattered around the artwork, some spilled over and dried to the floor.
I moved behind the counter, sighing as I noticed the wiring was all there, but no electronics had been installed in here yet. No computers, no phones and no radios. We moved deeper into the building and I kept my head on a swivel, looking around every which way. I didn't want a repeat of the raptor incident from last time. Not that they had a reason to track us this time, I glanced over at Billy as the thought came to mind.
He remembered the last time just as well as I did, and kept his eyes moving as he checked for any potentially man-eating animals that could be hiding out in here.
The sound of smashing glass had all of us freeze as we tried to figure out what the hell that was and where it came from. I wondered if it was something coming through one of the windows from outside, but the crash was too loud and too close to be an outside window.
I pulled the knife from its sheath, gripping it tight in my hand as I crept around a corner, silently motioning for the others to slowly follow me. There was a noise that I couldn't make out as it echoed throughout the building, reverberating off of the walls and making the sound impossible to place.
We continued at a snails pace down the hallway, coming upon an open doorway. I looked in, it was just an office, or what was supposed to be an office. It hadn't even been completely painted and I could spot a paint brush sitting on the top of an open can. The room was otherwise empty, no source of communication to the outside world and no source of the breaking glass.
I continued on, reaching the end of the hallway after checking out at least six incomplete and empty rooms. Poking my head around the corner, I slightly raised my knife hand, waiting to strike out at whatever could pounce on me from the other side.
There were vending machines, at least four and one of them had a shattered glass door. Well, at least we found the source of the noise, now it was just a matter of figuring out who or what had done it.
Just out of sight I could hear a low muttering and the crinkling of whatever had been in the vending machine. Then the footsteps started. I held my breath as whatever had the quick pace head towards the vending machines from the other entrance to the room.
I dropped my hand, and let out a relieved sigh as I heard the angry British accent of none other than Roland Tempo. "Do you want every bloody dinosaur to know where we are?" he growled.
I turned to look behind me, seeing the relaxed and relieved expressions crossing over everyone's faces. Purposely, I tapped the knife's blade against the wall before stashing it back into its sheath, slowly stepping into the doorway. "Roland." I nodded towards the man, almost crying out in relief as I recognized the rifle he had in his hands.
He lowered it as he realized we weren't dinosaurs coming to eat him and nodded to each of us in turn. "Good to know we're not the only ones left alive." He stated, shaking hands with Billy and the captain. I looked down towards the three men than had broken into the vending machine. They were busy stashing away some of the food into a backpack; a second bag lying full just a few feet from them.
I stepped next to Roland, looking over my gun in his hands. It looked to be in near perfect condition; filthy, but usable. "Find anymore of those?" I asked, nodding towards the powerful rifle.
He shook his head, "None that could be save." I sighed but let him keep the rifle, he was probably a better shot than I was anyway. Giving the gun one last look, I nodded towards the three men still stuffing the bag.
"Who are they?" I asked quietly, having my suspicions of why they were on the ship in the first place.
"Brian, Jack and Carter. Didn't care to ask for their last names." I couldn't help but crack a grin at that.
"Roland?" I said after a moment. The rest of the room was a buzz of quiet conversations between everyone else and I had a feeling this would be the only chance I got to ask this question without everyone hearing. "Did you know we'd land here?"
He knew I wasn't talking about the compound, and I saw his face darken drastically as he took in the meaning of my words, "If I had I wouldn't have gotten on that bloody boat."
I nodded, relieved he hadn't willingly signed up for round 2 on this island. "This way, there are others." He spoke up, catching the attention of everyone else in the room. Glaring at the three men than had cleaned out the vending machine, he turned and headed back the way he had come, leaving us to follow or not.
Billy came to stand next to me, slipping an arm around my waist and resting his hand on my hip. Normally this would bug the crap out of me, ordinarily I would shrug the man's hand off with a threat of losing said appendage. Usually I hated being touched, especially in ways like this.
I could have blamed the island, said it was just the stress getting to me, that I wasn't myself. But the only thing the stress did was prevent me from lying to myself. It didn't matter where we were, there was just something about Billy that prevented me from pushing him away as I had done all of the other guys that had tried to come into my life. This man had snuck himself into my life and now there was no way he could leave it without leaving behind the evidence of him being there.
I shook my head, shoving the thoughts out of my mind; this wasn't the place to try and figure out what made this man so different, I could figure that all out later. In the meantime, I had to wonder when we had started walking. Damn him and his ability to distract me even in potentially dangerous situations.
We made it down several bland looking hallways before Roland stopped at a closed door, knocking twice and waiting only a few moments before the sound of a lock being undone was heard and the door swung open.
It was probably supposed to be the cafeteria, judging from the many tables thrown about. Some still in one piece while others had been crushed by who-knows what. There were seven others sitting around the room, including the one that had answered the door. They were all men, I noticed, realizing that my observation of no other women or children on the ship had been accurate. All of the passengers had been brought by Kane to help carryout his hair-brained schemes.
It put our numbers up to seventeen and as I looked at all of the men's faces, I knew not everyone would make it off. There were too many of us, it would be impossible to go anywhere unnoticed.
"How much of the compound have you explored?" Scott asked once the door had been shut up tight behind us.
"From the door we came in to here." Roland responded, pointing towards a corner of the room where a blanket had been thrown over a lump. A very human shaped lump. "Fanned dinosaur spit something and got him in the eyes. We hid out in here until the creature when away. He was paralyzed and died that night."
"Dilophosaurus." Billy stated immediately, tugging me closer –if that was possible-to his side.
Roland looked like he really couldn't care less about what the damn thing was called, just that it had killed someone and could possible be lurking about somewhere nearby.
"Alright, we need to find someway to establish radio contact, Kane said he's got people waiting for his signal to come and get us." I stated, letting my voice carry over the others but directing it to Roland. It was easy to tell that he had become the leader of this group and I briefly wondered how well it would work with both of us in command. We'd both been to this island before, and neither of us were the 'following orders' type of people.
Scott looked around the room before heading over to the corner by the body, ripping something off of the wall before returning to us. I looked down at the paper in his hand as he held it so all of us could see.
It was an emergency escape route, showing where all of the exits were and safety rooms should the building catch on fire or –heaven forbid-it be invaded by dinosaurs. I could have kissed the captain had Billy not still had such a tight hold on me. And once again I was slightly distracted by the fact that I usually would have gotten extremely sick of it by now, but instead, I enjoyed the feeling.
I mentally shook my head-again, I really needed to put some space between myself and that man- and looked over the chart. Thankfully, some of the lights were working and made it so we could actually see the paper, and that gave me some hope we could find a working radio or phone.
"There." Roland, stated, pointing to a small spot on the map that read out 'Control Room'. It was definitely promising, and if that failed to produce anything, we could try the Communications center set a little off of the map.
I knew that would be the best place to start, but it was separated from the main building, which meant going outside to get to it. It would be too risky as a first resort, so we would try the control room first, and pray no one would have to go outside to try and get to the communications center.
"So who's going?" Scott asked in a quiet voice. No one spoke up for a long moment, it could be a suicide mission if there were dinosaurs in the building. But it would be mass murder if no one went and we sat in here waiting to die.
Billy's hand on my hip tightened to the point of bruising when I finally spoke up. "I'll go."
I never was one to sit still after all.
I figured that would be a good place to stop, perhaps you'll come back to see what happens next? Please review and tell me what you think!
~Black Wolf-Dog~
p.s. Don't forget to vote on how you want to see Kane bite the dust!