Chapter Twenty-One

They were insane. They had to be. It was the only explanation to why they were following four velociraptors further into the woods. And the same raptor who had lunged at Carol the first time they had seen the dinosaurs was right in front of them. It looked back every few minutes to make sure they were still following. Daryl didn't know how long they had been running, but his sides burned and his bow was going to leave multiple bruises on his back from where it kept banging against him. Luckily, they had been able to eat, drink and get a good night of sleep. Otherwise, the run would have probably killed them.

Finally, they came to a clearing and the three raptors that had run on in front of them were waiting for them. The fourth raptor made noises to its buddies as if to apologize for taking so long.

"Well, we can't run forty fuckin' miles an hour," Daryl growled between deep breaths as he bent over.

"Right," Carol answered, mirroring his position.

The four raptors approached and on instinct, Daryl pushed Carol behind him. They all tilted their heads to the side as if to ask 'Why would you do that?'. Daryl couldn't believe he was acting as if they were talking to him. Maybe he was really going insane. Running from dinosaurs that wanted to eat you did that to a person, he supposed.

"I'm fine, Daryl." Carol stepped from behind him and stood at his side. "I think if they wanted to kill us, they would have by now."

"Unless they're playing some kind of sick game." He looked each one in the eye, letting them know that he wasn't fooled. "Blake created them, after all."

The raptor with the vest still clamped between his teeth, jerked its head and started to walk in the direction they had been running in earlier. This time, Carol and Daryl knew what that meant and they followed.

"Merle is never goin' to believe this when I tell him," he muttered.

"Neither is my mom."

"No one is goin' to believe us. They'll think we're crazy."

Carol gave him a small, reassuring smile. "At least we can be crazy together." She reached for his hand and intertwined their fingers.

Up head, through the thick brush and trees, Daryl spotted something made of wood. As they got closer, he saw what it was. "It's another cabin," he said in awe. "They led us to another shelter." Night wasn't upon them and wouldn't be for a few hours, but at least they now had some place to stay.

Just then, the front door swung open. Daryl went for his bow, but the raptors stayed put. "Get away!" A woman screeched and in her hands was a rifle. "Get the hell away from us!"

Though the woman's hair was sticking up at crazy angles and her eyes wild, Carol and Daryl recognized her immediately.

"Maggie."

Shane felt like he was in a damn horror film running from a chainsaw-wielding maniac. The image was almost made complete when Andrea, who had been running in front of him tripped and fell. Shane quickly grabbed her by the arms and hurled her back to her feet. Unfortunately, this allowed the T-Rex to gain some ground on them.

"Can we not be a typical blonde for one moment?" He growled and pulled Andrea along. Of course, it could have happened to any one of them. But it just so happened to her.

"Can you stop being a typical asshole for one moment?" Andrea snapped back and wrenched her arm free. They did all this while still running. They were catching up with the rest of the group, but the T-Rex was catching up with them.

From the looks of the rest of the group, they had no idea where they could run to. The woods were behind them, now, and the T-Rex would have just ploughed through the trees, anyway and it didn't look like it would be slowing down any time soon. Shane wondered if, once it was done feasting on him and Andrea, would it still go after the rest of the group. Would two people be able to satisfy their hunger?

Rick was leading the pack with Lori and Michonne hot on his heels. Shane and Andrea brought up the rear. When Shane looked up to try to spot Rick, he was shocked to see his friend there one minute and gone the next. It was as if the world had swallowed him up.

"What the hell?" Andrea practically shrieked, seeing the same thing. "Where did he go?" Her eyes were wild as she looked at him.

"Don't know." Shane watched as Lori and Michonne stopped running for a few seconds, and then they disappeared, too. The sound of the T-Rex's thunderous footsteps went to the background as Shane and Andrea watched each of their group members disappear into the ground.

Finally, when they reached the spot. They found that it was some kind of bunker. Shane narrowed his eyes, not remembering ever seeing it before when he had been driving around the area on his golf cart. However, if it weren't for Andrea, he wouldn't been able to see it either. She grabbed his hand and jumped, dragging him with, just as the T-Rex's jaw snapped in the area he had been standing in.

They landed in a heap about eight feet down and Michonne and Tyreese were pulling them through a doorway. Up above, the dinosaur roared its frustration.

Once Shane got his bearings, he looked around the bunker. It resembled a bomb shelter, completely encased in concrete. There were a few beds and chairs scattered throughout. In the corner was a tiny kitchen. Sasha and T-Dog were searching the cupboards, which seemed to be stocked.

"Blake must have planned for this," Rick's voice drew Shane's attention and he saw that his friend was lying in one of the beds, looking pale.

"He broke his arm when he fell," Lori answered the unspoken question.

"I'm not complaining, though," he chuckled and winced when it jarred the arm on his chest. "It got us this place. We all would have been dinosaur food." Shane gulped, remembering how close he had been to being eaten.

"So, what do we do now?" Shane asked.

The roar outside seemed to answer his question.

"We wait in here until the T-Rex is gone," Rick answered. "We'll rest up. Eat. And then, we should start heading to the main building. We have a reference point, now, since this is where you worked."

Shane nodded. "I can get us back."

"Good." Rick nodded as his eyes start to drift closed.

"Pain meds," Lori said. "Luckily, there were some here. In fact, there was a lot of first aid supplies."

"Like Rick said, Blake has been planning this," Shane spoke. "This is some type of sick game to him and we're the damn pieces."

Carol flung herself into her friend's arms, who received her gratefully and started to sob into Carol's hair. Daryl feeling a little awkward, stepped forward and placed a hand on Maggie's shoulder squeezing briefly before letting go. "I am so glad you're okay!" Carol cried, tears coursing down her own cheeks. "Daryl and I were so worried." She took a step back, looking looking Maggie over. "Oh God. Is Gl-?"

"He's okay. For now." Maggie wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. "He's inside resting."

"Can we see him?"

"Of course." Maggie grabbed Carol's hand and with Daryl behind them, they walked into the cabin.

"I'm pretty sure this is the one we found earlier," Daryl leaned forward and said to Carol.

"I think it is, too," she agreed.

Maggie let go of Carol's hand and walked to the room on the side. The door was open and Daryl and Carol went to stand in front of it. On the cot, laid a pale-looking Glenn. He was naked from the waist up, but most of his torso was wrapped in white bandages. His eyes opened when he heard Maggie walk in the room and they landed on Daryl and Carol.

He smiled weakly. "You guys are alive."

"Yeah." Carol walked into the room and knelt by his side. Daryl followed, but remained standing. "We were afraid that you and Maggie wouldn't be." She reached for his hand and squeezed.

"Almost didn't make it. One of the raptors got me good," he said indicating to the bandages. "A little harder and my guts may have come out."

"Don't say that," Maggie said sharply. It was clear that in the last few days, Maggie's emotional state had been worn thin. Carol didn't blame her, though. She would have been the same if Daryl had been the one laid up in bed.

"You wouldn't believe how we were able to find your ass," Daryl spoke.

"How?"

"We were led here," he started.

"By the raptors," Carol finished.

"What?" Glenn and Maggie gasped at the same time.

"And they didn't want to eat you?" Glenn's eyes were wide. "Before one of them slashed me, they were looking at Maggie and I like we were steak dinners!"

"These were the raptors Blake had in the enclosure. They've been fed regularly," Carol said.

"The ones that chased us into the river looked starved," Daryl said.

"So, Blake made more raptors but starved them," Maggie growled. "That man is sick."

The three of them agreed with Maggie. "But that doesn't explain why those other raptors led you here instead of killing you," Glenn spoke. "One of them wanted to get at Carol the first time it set its eyes on her."

"I don't know why they didn't kill us. I'm mighty grateful, but still..." Daryl looked over at Carol and shrugged. "Maybe because it knew us?"

"I don't know."

Glenn moved to sit up in the cot, but winced hard and flopped back down. Maggie was instantly at his side, almost pushing Carol out of the way in her haste. "Glenn, you can't be moving around so much." She ran a hand down his face before turning to her two friends.

"He needs medical help. I had nothing to stitch him up with and I only have so many of these bandages left." She quickly blinked back tears. "We need to get him out of here. I saved him from the raptor, but if infection sets in..."

"We'll get him out of here," Daryl vowed.

"But how?" Carol asked. "We can't carry him all the way back to the main building. He can barely move as it is."

Daryl thought for a moment. "One of us can go to the building, find one of the jeeps and come back here with it."

"You aren't going alone." Carol said firmly, knowing exactly who that 'one' person Daryl was thinking of. "I'll come with."

Milton hoped Eugene was able to do something on his end. Like send a fucking army to the island. Otherwise, he didn't know what else he could do. Calling 911 didn't seem like a good idea. They would probably think it was a prank call and hang up on him.

He pressed his back against the wall by the door of the telephone room and raised his eyes heavenward. "Please, let him send someone soon." He didn't know how much longer he could hide out here before Blake or Jenner caught him. He wasn't very good at being sneaky.

Now, it was time to get the hell back to his room and Milton never felt more afraid in his life.

Carol and Daryl ate something quick and rested a moment before they decided it was time to head to the main building. Daryl shouldered his bow and Carol exchanged her knife for Maggie's rifle.

"There's plenty of weapons I can use here," the other women said as she handed over the gun. "Including some grenades." Maggie looked as if she would take great pleasure in blowing up a velociraptor or two.

Before they stepped outside, Daryl stopped Carol with a hand on her arm. "Remember Blake saying that he couldn't see us on the cameras when we were out here?"

Carol nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, what do you want to bet that they're back at the main building watching all of us run for our lives."

"Sick bastards..."

"You got that right. We don't want them to see us coming, so let's stick to the woods before we get to the raptor enclosure. I don't know where the cameras are located from there, but we'll just have to keep a sharp eye out."

"Got it."

"Okay. Be careful."

"You, too." She went on her tiptoes and kissed him on the mouth quickly.

When they stepped outside, immediately the four raptors from earlier appeared. On instinct, they held up their weapons, but they didn't attack. The leader stepped forward and jerked its head, like the last time and indicated for Carol and Daryl to follow.

Carol shrugged. "They led us here last time. I say we trust them."

Daryl didn't know about trusting the raptors, but they had led them to Glenn and Maggie. Maybe they knew a shortcut to the main building. "All right," he finally said. "Let's go."

I've been dying to write this since I saw the last Jurassic Park. They see Daryl as their Alpha (like Chris Pratt's character) and since Carol is Daryl's mate, they've accepted her, too! :)

Thanks for reading!