Karla ran out of the office, seeing the massive waves splashing and rocking every vessel in their fleet. Crew members were swept away and knocked overboard by these waves, and the cages on top of the deck were being knocked from side to side with each new strike.
Her eye eventually caught onto the large behemoth that was protruding from the wave beside the carrier, as well as the small cruiser that was trailing behind it. Because of the mist created by the Mososaurus' waves, Karla had to squint a bit to notice the Jurassic Park logo that was emblazoned on the side of this boat, and squint a bit more to see who was actually inside it.
"It's them!" she snarled as she turned to Kingston, saying "that little freak doesn't leave that table, understand?!"
Kingston took a moment to answer, nodding as she said "yes, ma'am..."
Karla nodded back as she ran across the chaotic deck, heading towards her private quarters to arm herself for battle.
The Mososaurus had moved back around to the second of the three carriers, so Lowery decided to pull the boat alongside the third. "Alright, first stop! Who's getting off?!"
Zia and Vivian, both arming themselves with classic hunting rifles, jumped over from the boat to the carrier's main deck as Grant and Sattler armed themselves as well. Sattler looked to Claire as she said "you guys remember the plan, right?"
"Yeah..." Sattler said back. "Take control here and set the dinosaurs free... you two get the girl..."
Owen nodded back confidently as Sattler and Grant jumped over as well, joining Vivian and Zia as they fought their way through the guards and crew members to get to the cages. Lowery turned to Arnold, saying "here, keep us steady!" as he ran over to Owen and Claire.
"Where do you think they're keeping Maisie?!" Owen said as Claire answered "probably which ever one Sealy's on! Oh shit!"
BRAT-AT-AT-AT-AT-AT-AT! Owen, Claire, Lowery and Malcolm all ducked to the floor as the rapid fire of machine guns came from the watchtower of the first carrier, which prompted Claire to look to where Arnold was at the wheel. "Get us outta here!"
"Hold onto your butts!" Missing an arm meant that Arnold had to put more effort into steering the boat in the opposite direction, which wasn't helped by the continued assault of bullets raining onto them. He remained perfectly calm, however, managing to avoid most of the fire as they headed for the second carrier.
Karla stepped out of her quarters, fully armoured in her usual hunting gear with her crossbow on her belt and a string of hand grenades loosely wrapped over her shoulder. She glared at the small boat as it pulled up on the second carrier, looking to the crew member from the artillery tower above her. "Keep firing on that boat with everything you've got!"
"Alright, some of the bigger cages are on the next one!" Malcolm shouted over to Owen and Claire as they climbed onto the second carrier, fighting through the still violent waves as well as the hail of bullets. "We're gonna head over there and see if we find your kid!"
"Got it!" Owen shouted back, before Claire said "if you get Maisie there, get her on the boat and as far away from Sealy as possible!"
"Will do!" Lowery answered as he took the wheel back from Arnold. "Good luck, you two!"
"What is it?" Kingston answered the radio on her belt, as Karla's voice ranted furiously from the other side. "The Gradys are on the next ship. The second they get near you, shoot them dead!"
"Understood..." Kingston sighed as she cut off the transmission, holding her rifle firm in her grip. Wu was clearly uneased as he frantically tried gathering his things, getting out what appeared to be a tranquilliser shot as he headed over to use it on Maisie. "You guys have this under control, right...? Right?!"
"HE-YAH!" Maisie went wide-eyed as Kingston swung the butt of her rifle into Wu's face, causing him to fall back close to unconsciousness as he hit the floor hard. She looked to Kingston as the latter ran over to her, throwing her rifle on the ground as she began unfastening Maisie's restraints.
"Wait... wait-wait-wait, what are you doing?!"
Kingston stepped back once she had finished releasing the girl, throwing open the door that led to the main deck. "I've not got much to lose... besides, I owed you one. Your parents are on the next ship. You need to get to them now, before she..."
Zzip! The air rushed out of Kingston's lungs as the arrow pierced her back, with the pointed head protruding straight through the left side of her chest where her heart was. Maisie went wide-eyed as she darted forwards, just managing to catch Kingston as she collapsed to her knees.
She cushioned the older woman's fall and lay Kingston on her back, pulling the arrow out of her chest before she looked up to see where it had come from. Karla was standing a hundred yards away on the deck, still pointing the crossbow that she'd just fired.
"You can never get reliable help these days, can you?" she called mockingly as she reached into her pouch to pull out a few more arrows. "Everyone's such a bloody disappointment when you most need them!"
Maisie looked back to Kingston, who panted weakly as the blood started to dribble from her nose and mouth and her eyes began to flutter. "G... go... go now..."
"Thank you..." Maisie held Kingston's hand tight for a few more seconds, feeling it go limp in her own hand as Kingston rested her head back, succumbing to her wound as her last breath was drawn. Maisie could feel her own breath being quicker as she stood up from the corpse, glancing up at Karla as the latter started walking towards her.
"If you want me in your collection..." she shouted angrily yet provocatively as she headed out the door, not breaking eye contact with the predator. "You'll have to kill me first, won't you!"
Karla grinned at this challenge as Maisie started running in the opposite direction, reattaching the crossbow to her belt as she started chasing after her prey.
On the third carrier, Sattler and Grant had managed to get to the lower level, finding the ship's main control panel and taking control of it.
"Should we chance giving the girls some exercise?" Sattler asked with a raised eyebrow, prompting Grant to chuckle as he said "sure, let's chance it..."
He pressed the switch on the panel that linked all of the cages on this carrier, with the assorted yells and screams from above indicating that they'd all been opened.
"They're only herbivores..." Grant grinned as the rumbling of footsteps and the anguished cries of Karla's men continued. "What's the worst that could happen?"
Claire and Owen managed to reach the cages on the second carrier, with Claire quickly realising that the entrance to the ship's lower level, and the control panel, was locked and bolted tight. "Shit... Owen, it's gonna take forever to open all these things one-by-one... we're not gonna get to Maisie in time!"
"Damn it!" Owen slammed his fist against the cage beside him, only for his eyes to widen as he heard the familiar grumble coming from it. He looked up with a grin at the particular dinosaur inside this cage, smugly saying "then again... maybe we won't need to..."
Having reached the lower level of the first carrier, Maisie reached the control panel and did what she'd figured her allies on the others were doing, setting every cag on the ship to be opened. She was hoping that Blue would be among the captives on this same vessel, but she hadn't managed to find her in any of the cages she had passed by. She was determined to keep that raptor safe, even if she had to cross to the other vessels to get to her.
"Gotcha!" Karla snapped as she ran into the room brandishing her crossbow, not noticing Maisie slip past from behind the door until it was too late. "Wait... NO!"
Maisie shut the large, metal door and bolted it tight, having broken the inside of the lock before trapping Karla there, before running back up the steps to the main deck of the carrier. An intense downpour of rain was darkening the already dreary sky around her, making the sweeping waves that the Mosasaurus created seem even more dangerous and threatening.
She had to squint as she looked across the raging waves to the second carrier, her face beaming with excitement as she noticed the two familiar figures standing on the top deck near the cages there.
"OWEN... CLAIRE!"
CRASH!
With some provocation from Owen, the Stygimoloch made light and quick work of the metal door leading to the control panel. Claire was in and out as fast as possible, pressing the switch that opened the cages before rejoining Owen on the main deck.
They all looked at the cages as they opened and the other dinosaurs came thundering out, prompting Karla's men to either run for cover or abandon ship, but they couldn't spot Maisie anywhere in the crowd. Owen sighed in frustration, looking to Claire as he said "she must be on the other sh..."
"Wait... Owen, do... do you hear that...?" Claire's head pricked up and she put a hand closer to her ear as she moved to her left, with Owen also trying to hear what she was talking about.
"Owen... Claire... OWEN!... CLAIRE!" the voice shrieked louder and louder, before they both went wide-eyed at the sight of the figure waving to them from the first carrier.
"MAISIE!"
"Ugh!" Maisie grunted as the butt of a rifle smacked her in the side of the head, sending her spiralling down as she landed back first on the floor of the deck. She immediately tried to clamber back up and retaliate against her attacker, only for Wu to press his foot down hard on her chest and keep her planted to the floor.
"Oh yeah... not so tough now, are you, you little shit!"
Having given up any pretence of politeness and respectability, Wu had discarded his lab coat and was loosely holding the rifle in one hands and a small flare in the other. He cracked off the top of the flare, laughing in an unhinged state as he let the flames sparkle and fizzle in the darkness around them, holding it up above his head as he yelled.
"Sealy, I got her! Sealy...? We're over here! SEALY, where are you?!"
Maisie still grunted as she struggled to get up from under his foot, suddenly freezing on the spot as she heard the sound. That terrible, mysterious, wonderful sound.
Boom... Boom... BOOM...
She glanced to her left at the small puddle beside her, watching the water ripple more and more with each rumbling footstep, becoming more and more volatile as it became closer, and louder. Wu noticed this not long after, still standing still with the flare in hand as he pondered where the noise could have been coming from.
BOOM... BOOM... BOOM...
Suddenly, the rumbling vibrations stopped, being replaced by what seemed to be the sound of a long, cold breath, and a low, grumbling growl. It hit them both like a ton of bricks when they finally processed what this noise was, or rather, who it was, as Wu turned around to see what was standing there behind him.
The T-Rex lowered her head down to the petrified scientist's level, letting out a long, loud, earth-shaking roar (you know the one) that sent Wu stumbling back. Taking his foot off of the girl's chest, Wu dropped the flare as he ran screaming from Maisie in a panic. This attempted escape was all for naught, as the mighty Queen took merely two steps before her large toothy maw ripped him off of his feet.
"YEEAAARRRGGGGHHH!"
Maisie had to look away for a few moments as Wu still squealed and screamed with his last bit of life, but looked up with a proud, awed grin as the great reptilian monarch continued striding onward toward the rest of the terrified crew.
"Thanks Rexy!"
"Hey kid!" her head pricked up at the sound of Lowery's voice, looking to her right to see the boat that was pulling alongside the carrier. She smiled in almost relief as she starting walking over to the boat, only to let out a muffled scream as a hand covered her mouth from behind and dragged her back.
"And where do you think you're going?!" Karla snapped like a snarling jungle cat, with her face now being covered in thick black soot and her hair as unkempt and untamed as the Amazonian rainforest. Maisie wailed and squealed as she tried to escape her grip, her eyes going wide as Karla pointed the crossbow right against her temple.
"How do we get over there!?" Claire shouted worryingly to Owen as they both watched Karla forcefully pin their daughter to the floor again, pointing the crossbow right at her throat now. Owen pondered as quickly as he could, with his eyes and mind eventually being cast to the barely submerged Mosasaurus that was slowly passing by in front of them.
"Wu doesn't need you for his absurd little experiments anymore..." Karla had a crazed look in her eyes as she prepared to pull the trigger. "You're all mine now, dino-girl!"
"NO!" Maisie sent her foot right between Karla's legs as the latter wheezed for breath. She tried to weasel her way out of Karla's grip again, only for Karla to clutch onto a clump of the smaller girl's hair and pull her back as Maisie cried out. Both were overcome with rage and adrenaline as they struggled, with Maisie finally giving into her primal urge as she swivelled around and sank her canines into Karla's wrist.
"Argh, you little...!" Karla sent a fist into Maisie's face that knocked her back again. She took a moment to look at the bloody teeth marks on her forearm, before throwing her crossbow aside as she placed both hands on the child's neck. Maisie continued to struggle as Karla continued to tighten her grip, with her panting eventually turning to wheezing and then to choking.
"Ugh... n... no... no! You... won't... get away with th... ugh!" Maisie could feel her breath seizing up even more as she flailed her arms around, eventually getting one hand on Karla's face as her claws extended to their fullest point. "Get off of ME!"
She could feel the points of her nails cutting into flesh as she dragged her hand down Karla's face. "AAAAAARRRRGGGGH!"
Karla fell back hard on the floor, clutching her face as the blood poured profusely between her fingers, with Maisie shooting back up as the air filled her lungs again. Karla was already starting to recover again, so Maisie trusted her first instinct to dart over to the crossbow before the crazed, enraged hunter could get a hold of it herself.
"Maisie!" Claire's voice caused the girl to freeze on the spot, though she still kept the crossbow pointed in Karla's direction as the latter got up to her knees. The left side of her face was marked by four long, deep wounds that striped down from her forehead to her chin, with there now being a bloody, messy hole where her eye used to be.
"Well-well-well... a family reunion..." she snarked bitterly as the blood leaked from her face onto her hands, looking to Owen and Claire as they stood about 24ft away from their daughter. "How quaint... now... get it over and done with, will you...?"
Maisie looked back to Karla, feeling her hands shake a bit as she tried to keep a grip on the crossbow. "Well, come on then! We've not got all day, deary! Shoot me!"
"Um... I um..." Maisie felt her rage slowly burning out, replaced mostly by a conflict of choice that wrestled aggressively in her mind. She looked between her parents and attacker a few more times, trying to keep her distance as Claire slowly started heading closer to her.
"Maze... honey... you don't have to do this..." she said in a gentle tone that still betrayed a hint of worry, only for Karla to scoff as she said "speak for yourself, Claire... the only way any of you are getting away from me alive is if she pulls that trigger... come on, you little freak... isn't it the human thing to do...?"
"Maze... please..." Claire crept a little closer, only for Maisie to tighten her grip on the crossbow again as she looked to Karla.
"You're wrong..." Owen and Claire both froze as Maisie said this, though Karla remained nonchalant as she said "oh, of course... this is that little speech you were working on, isn't it? Alright, just wrap it up fast, will you..."
"It's not the human thing to do... none of this is..." Maisie remained stern and confident as she spoke. "And... I'm not a freak... I'm not a trophy... and I'm not a stupid little labrat... I'm just a 12 year-old girl, who loves dinosaurs, and loves her family with every fibre of her being... and I'm not a killer, and I never will be... because I'm not like you, Karla Sealy..."
Karla rolled her eyes at this as she knelt up, nonchalantly wincing as her eye socket continued to gush out blood. "Go on... get to your point..."
"My name... is Maisie Lockwood Grady..." Maisie didn't break eye contact with Karla as she lowered the crossbow, while Owen and Claire both watched proudly at who their daughter was turning into right before their very eyes. "And I am more of a human being than you will ever be!"
"Wait!"
Maisie brought her kneecap up and threw the crossbow horizontally onto it, snapping it in half as the cogs and arrows came clattering onto the floor. Karla was initially wide-eyed with shock at the sight of her beloved signature weapon lying in splinters and pieces on the floor, only for them to fixate on Maisie with all the intensity of the fires of Hell.
"You..." she snarled viciously as she reached slowly for the pouch on her thigh holster, grabbing the hilt that was protruding from it. "You little bitch!"
SNIKT! Karla tore the knife from its holster and charged screaming at Maisie, swinging it back and forth with uncontrollable ferocity as Maisie fell back narrowly trying to avoid these furious swipes. A few times Maisie wasn't quite quick enough to avoid the blade and it just nicked her arm and leg, though Karla was more often cutting herself through her visceral clumsiness.
"GAH!" Maisie yelped as Karla's penultimate swipe slashed the blade right down her chest, falling onto her back as she felt her tough skin being sliced open and the blood dribbled down onto her shirt and hands. Karla took a moment to admire this stroke of luck, preparing to thrust her knife right into the heart of her victim before Owen sent his fist straight and right into her jaw.
Karla hit the ground like a sack of potatoes while Owen and Claire rushed over to Maisie and propped their daughter back up. Claire was almost hyperventilating at the sight of the blood that was slowly oozing down Maisie's chest, quickly pressing the sleeve of her own shirt there to keep the thick red fluid inside her daughter's body.
Though it bled quite a bit for another moment or so, Owen could tell the attack that made the injury was too clumsy for the result to be anything more than a flesh wound, so they all exchanged a smile and a laugh as they held each other close. Maisie could feel the tears streaming down her face and the snot dribbling down from her nostrils as she hugged both her parents tight, babbling uncontrollably for a good thirty seconds before she finally started saying something they could comprehend.
"I'm so sorry... I... I'm so sorry I ran away, I'm so sorry I hurt you Claire, I was just so..."
"No... no-no-no, it's okay, Maze, it's okay..." Claire kissed the child's forehead and hugged her even tighter, with Owen still trying his best to remain part of the embrace. "We're just so glad you're safe... Maisie, we... we love you too... you hear that? We love you so much and we've been so worried, but... but we're here now... we're all here together and that's all that matters..."
"Yeah... yeah, it is..." Maisie smiled as she kept her head buried in her mother's chest, before another voice spoke up again.
"Well... isn't that just the sweetest, most sickening sight I've seen all day..."
Owen held his wife and daughter protectively as they all turned to look at Karla, who wiped the trail of blood from her lips as she tried her best to regain her strength and get back up.
"It's over, Karla..." Claire said sternly, but this didn't stop Karla from chuckling as she slowly pulled herself to her knees, quickly tearing the arrow out of her shoulder as she let the blood dribble down her arm. "You've lost... plain and simple..."
"Hmm... the way I see it, I've not lost shit... and if I can't have these dinosaurs, then... ugh... then no one can! AH HA HA HA HA HAAA!" Karla cackled as she tore the pin from one of the grenades on her belt, with Owen, Claire and Maisie all speaking in-sync as they realised how many explosives she was actually wearing.
"OH SHIT!"