At the exit of the tunnel, Grady and Sembène began to hear again the waterfall's roar and while the ground was still shaking, they arrived at a junction that overlooked a larger tunnel. They turned left, where the tunnel went down.
However, the sound of the waterfall rapidly decreased in intensity as they ran and after a turn, while the sound of the explosion at the Sibo was a distant dull sound to their ears, they ended up facing a stagnant body of water that had flooded the rest of the tunnel.
They realized that they were on the old road that linked the former circus that had become the pool to the temple in the heart of the mountain and ignoring how many meters there were between them and the tunnel's exit at the bottom of the pool, or even if it wasn't obstructed by a pile of rubble, they turned back and passed in front of the tunnel that led to the proceratosaurs' nest. They continued straight while strange dull sounds reached them, similar to those that could be heard from a bunker during a bombing.
The roar of the waterfall returned quickly and they even heard the dinosaurs' breathing. They saw them again after a turn.
Hiding behind large rocks, the keepers watched the neoraptors and the proceratosaurs step into the water and swim over a few meters before disappearing under the surface and passing under the waterfall.
Once they had all disappeared behind, Grady and Sembène exchanged a glance and looked behind them to make sure that the Indominus was not coming or setting a trap. They even swept the tunnel behind them away with their flashlights to thwart any camouflage attempt from her.
They saw nothing and thinking that she had already left the mountain, they waited a little, the amount of time necessary for the Indominus to lead the Pack elsewhere. They finally moved toward the waterfall while dust and small pieces of rock no bigger than coins fell from the tunnel's ceiling.
They froze in astonishment when they saw that some of them stopped in the air in front of the pool's edge, like if they were levitating.
However, some of the stones began to slide like they would have if they had landed on a rounded object, that had however on its surface structures big enough to block some of the pieces in their slide.
Looking at the waterfall behind, they observed in spite of the weak luminosity that the water of the whole middle part of the waterfall had a weird aspect, similar to that of a bugged or badly drawn texture of an object in a video game that contrasted with the clearness of the surrounding elements, and thus, the flow at this level didn't looked natural.
Among the sound of the waterfall's roar, almost covered by the latter, the keepers heard a sound of exhalation similar to that of a horse snorting. There was an animal with them in the cave, waiting. The sound came from the edge of the pool.
They did not see anything but as one of their initial fears seeming to be confirmed, they slowly oriented the beams of their flashlights towards the waterfall, sweeping it like the light of a lighthouse over the surface of the ocean.
They noticed that where the beams passed over the middle part of the waterfall, the air adopted a whitish colour, identical to the flashlight's beam.
The keepers decided to sweep each one of the cave's walls of the cavern, both looking for the head of the Indominus.
The beam of Grady's flashlight ended up passing over her right eye, the green one, hitherto hidden in the darkness. It had patiently observed them all this time.
Reflexively, the eye blinked and a nictitating membrane covered it.
A rumble was hear and the Indominus finally appeared before the keepers' eyes, gradually regaining her natural colours while she stood motionless seven meters away from them. She was staring at them like a cat about to pounce on a mouse.
She began to move, making the dust and the stones on her back and sides fall.
Totally aware that she would catch them up easily if they decided to ran away, they froze, lowered the beams of their flashlights toward the ground and let her come closer while they tried to accept the idea that death was going to greet them shortly.
Sembène lowered his gaze to the ground and closed his eyes, hoping that his death would be as short and painless as possible.
She began to slowly turn around them, describing tighter and tighter circles, until her clawed toes brushed against their shoes. Grady, as motionless as a statue, had kept his eyes open and his sight was blocked by one of her hind legs.
She slowly made it take off from the ground and passed it close to Grady's body in a back and forth movement, rubbing it against the keeper's torso in a delicate and gracious, almost seductive, way while a gentle rumble was running in her throat, betraying a feeling of pleasure and making him greatly uneasy.
She put her foot down, lowered her body to move on her four limbs and began to describe a new turn around the two keepers, only stopping when her hand was close enough to Grady.
She lifted it and touched Grady's chest with the tips of her claws before raising one to his chin, caressing him carefully, like if he was a robin within fingers' reach of a curious little girl.
Having seen what she could do to defenceless prey, Grady was struggling against panic.
He was swallowing, his fists were clenched and his heart was pounding in his chest.
She then ran her fingers behind him and when he felt the tip of the claws touching his back, he shivered and reflexively, he looked up towards her head which although it was dimly lit because of the flashlights' orientation, it was enough lit for him to discern her face and her eyes.
She was looking at him with her head tilted to the side and her maw shut with the all teeth but the big fangs hidden behind her lips.
Her eyes were staring at him but they did not seemed as threatening as before since the pupil had adopted a round shape.
Grady thought that the Indominus was then as appealing as other predators could be in some pictures, where they were more beautiful than frightening, and the look that she gave him seemed to be gentle but he was very well aware that it was just to better hide her intentions. Despite everything, he was forced to admit that he thought she was beautiful... in her own way.
He only noticed then that she had a more expressive face than those of every other dinosaur since unlike them, she seemed to have facial muscles that allowed her to adopt an array of expressions that rivalled those of many mammals, including primates, and at that moment, he would have sworn that he saw her lips making some sort of a slight smile. Another mystery to clear up with Wu...
He couldn't put his finger on exactly what but there was something familiar about her face.
Searching what, he couldn't look away and his eyes met hers.
Having opened his eyes to see what was happening, Sembène saw that the Indominus' gaze seemed to have completely bewitched his colleague and discreetly, he slightly pinched his arm to distract him enough.
Grady had a slight start that the Indominus saw. She arched her neck back and tilted her head sideways, turning her eyes towards Sembène to give him a terrible look. He looked away immediately, shivering with fear.
Neoraptors' calls reached them at the same moment, coming from the banks of the pool outside as one of the individuals was wondering why the Indominus hadn't yet joined them.
She replied to the calls and like if she had got bored of this little perverse game, she left and, surprisingly, without harming the keepers, as if injuring or killing them wouldn't bring her any interest or pleasure.
She went in the pool in her turn and swam outside of the cave, splitting the waterfall on her way before disappearing behind and joining the Pack.
Grady and Sembene waited a few more seconds, the time to fully regain their senses after this bloodcurdling close encounter, and they finally decided to rush to the pool.
They dived in order to pass under the waterfall and when they surfaced outside the mountain, they saw that the banks were deserted as there were no dinosaurs, nor InGen's troops.
They also saw reddish gleams rising above the vegetation near the pool and as they watched them while they swam hurriedly to the edge, they knew that they were fires that had appeared following the short but intense bombing of the area by the Sibo, which had ended several minutes earlier.
Once out of the water, they did not waste time and began to sprint straight towards the thicket where they had hidden the motorcycles.
