The mercenaries and the geneticists came out of the tunnels just next to the night show's bleachers.
Moving carefully beyond the backdoor they had just opened, Torres listened and once he made sure there was no one nearby, he led the group along the bleachers, up to their northern end where they went up them quickly, staying close to the dense vegetation on their left in the case they needed to hide.
As they were lights in the nearby Grand Nublarian, they were counting on the night and the ash fall to hide them.
Once at the top, they turned to their left, heading north-east, and entered in the botanical gardens that stretched between the Zoo in the west and the sound in the east.
Thus moving away from the city, they avoided taking the paths and rather cut through the vegetation, aware that the guards were probably searching the area. They saw one through a gap in the foliage, a rider that was going up a path at the top of a nearby hillock and heading west.
Once they were in the middle of an undergrowth so dense that it hid them very well, Torres communicated as discreetly as possible with the transport helicopter and defined a rendezvous point with the pilot.
They then immediately set out again and headed for said rendezvous point, located at the top of a small mound near the end of a dell, located in sight of the Rio Iris' mouth and overlooking a beach along the sound.
They moved down an embankment and reached the paved path that followed a stream in the middle of the dell that ran towards the mound, a little more than two hundred and fifty meters from their position. The winding path was bordered on both sides of various ornamental plants and sometimes it crossed the stream thanks to little stone bridges.
Like if it reduced the oppressive feeling there due to the dense vegetation on the slopes or the curtains and blocks of thickets and tall grass here and there in the dell, the gentle lapping of the stream was soothing.
Seeing the merlin appear in the sky and start its descent towards the mound, the hope of escaping Isla Nublar safe and sound returned to the mercenaries and the scientists.
But as they continued to cross the dell and the helicopter landed, they heard a branch crack beyond a curtain of tall grasses behind them as well as the sound of a breathing, that of an animal hidden among the grass.
They initially feared that it was one of the escaped dinosaurs but the metallic sound of a bit informed them that it wasn't the case and that the animal was much more familiar to humans. Given the context, it only worried them more...
The horse pawed and his rider moved a little on the saddle.
The InGen employees ran and the rider blew a horn, alerting all the guards nearby.
Then, holding in one hand the reins of his galloping horse, he burst out of the tall grass and started to turn over his head the bolas he was holding in the other hand while the horse was catching up with the fugitives.
Other riders arrived from upstream and guards on foot hurtled down the slopes on each side of the dell.
The rider finally threw his bolas towards the group and the weights coiled around the legs of one of the mercenaries, making him fall face against the ground as he ran.
He watched the others flee before their pursuer knocked him unconscious with the butt of his rifle.
The other riders passed their comrade and the guards on foot started to cross the stream.
Arriving near the fugitives, some began to turn their bolas over their heads while others, equipped with tranquilizer dart guns, aimed at the mercenaries.
Other bolas were thrown.
The fugitives scattered and began to make zigzags as the run to better avoid them but one of the mercenaries and one of the geneticists were pinned to the ground and captured.
In the confusion, one of the mercenaries panicked and ran away from the group to fade in the nearby jungle.
Torres, three of the mercenaries, Wu and half of the geneticists started to climb up the mound, panting in their advance while the helicopter seemed so close and yet so far at the same time.
As they climbed, Wu turned around and saw the rest of the group arrive, Preston among them.
They doubled their efforts to reach the base of the mound and catch up with them, but the guards narrowed the distance that separated them from InGen's employees and they were soon within range. One of them, ahead of the others, stopped and aimed at the group.
He shot and the dart thrusted itself in Preston's thigh.
The geneticist pulled the dart out, moaning in the process, and rushed forward to try to escape but his thigh started to go numb and he gradually lost the control of his leg.
A rider burst out of the vegetation on his left and stopped between him and the mound.
"Ivan!" Wu screamed.
Two other riders arrived at the level of the slowest InGen employees and began to describe tight circles around them, blocking them on the spot.
When he was about to faint, Preston was caught by the rider in front of him. He threw the young geneticist across his saddle before riding upstream, taking away Preston before Wu's helpless eyes.
"Professor!" Torres suddenly yelled.
Hoskins' right-hand man suddenly grabbed Wu by the waist and he flattened him on the ground.
Darts whistled over them before thrusting themselves in the grass.
They then got up immediately and rushed to the top of the mound and the helicopter.
One of the mercenaries had already reached it and when he climbed in the cabin, he turned to fire at their pursuers but before he could even pull the trigger, Darbinian, who had seen him preparing to shoot, quickly notched an arrow and shoot while her horse was galloping towards the mound.
The arrow came to pierce the mercenary's throat and while he was holding it and uttering raspy sounds, he fell forward.
Torres and the two remaining mercenaries arrived and nearly tossed the scientists inside the helicopter before rushing in in their turn as arrows and bullets were hitting the aircraft's metal.
Once the last of them had stepped inside the merlin, Torres ordered the pilot to take off.
The merlin lift off and once it was high enough, it made a U-turn and headed east.
Wu and the other geneticists collapsed in their seats, in shock and terribly worried for their captured colleagues.
As he struggled to chase out of his mind the vision of Preston being taken away by the rider, Wu looked up at Torres, who was facing him, and saw him glaring with hate through one of the portholes, looking at the guards stopped on the mound.
"Savages! They are just a bunch of savages, thugs and whores! The only thing that differentiate them from animals is the ability to speak and the fact that they know how to use a gun! They and their pseudo-philosophy, their traditions ... One day, their damn dragon-castle will burn and fall into ruin while the Five Deaths will eat whatever will remain of their archaic order."
Following the sound and the mangroves on its northern side, the helicopter passed over the east docks.
The Anne B was docked and the geneticists and laboratory technicians who had already joined the ship were still waiting for the last load and their colleagues. The merlin then turned north-east, towards the mainland.
"Don't worry about Dr. Preston," he said to Wu. "They were mostly after my men and I, and you."
"And if they interrogate him? Keep him hostage? I will blame myself if something happens to him," Wu worried.
"In which case we will get justice. This insurgency will not last. I cannot wait to see their faces when they will see the USS Errinwright show up on the horizon. If they survive first whatever this night will reserve them..."
As they flew over the Pacific under an ink-black sky, Wu had a last glance at Isla Nublar.
As it was shrouded in darkness, only the fires in its northern part betrayed its presence in the middle of the night. Sometimes, lightning bolts streaked the gigantic plume emitted by the Sibo.
Chased by the northern winds, the plume had taken the shape of a hand that slowly stretched its fingers southward.
