Chapter 8: Adventures in the Catacombs
Arriving at the airport, Peyton gave the car back to Masrani Corp to the employee before heading to the C-130J. The teen then boarded the C-130J Super Hercules, where she was welcomed by the crew.
"Welcome aboard. We had authorization to bring you from there to Pennsylvania. But the return flight will be done to Juan Santamaria Airport instead. From there, a HH-60G Pave Hawk will fly you to Isla Nublar."
"Got it" Peyton answered as she sat while the pilot started the engines and closed the ramp
Peyton then took a headset, which she put on her ears for the remainder of the flight to Pennsylvania. Arriving at Pitsburgh, she went towards Captain Donnie Watkins, who greeted her and led her to the armory, where she would take some gear, a uniform and military equipment. In the armory, Peyton traded her surplus clothes for an Airman Battle Uniform or ABU. She put her clothes inside her paratrooper rucksack, while she also took a customized Colt M4A1 carbine, a Beretta M9 pistol, a TYR plate carrier with ammunition pouches and a Security Forces beret. Peyton also gave Donnie, the C-130J crew and the other airmen the information they needed to know about Valentina Grady, Project Nature and Project Mother.
Then, she boarded the plane while an airman brought Peyton's rucksack to a CV-22 Osprey bound for Isla Nublar. Captain Watkins came to Peyton and gave her some information.
"The whole uniform you wear was intended for surplus. But leave your gear in the Super Hercules on the flight back. There will be some guys with you"
"Wilco." Peyton yelled as three USAF airmen mounted the plane.
Donnie then gave the plane crew a thumbs up meaning the mission could begin, before going away. The C-13J then took off, flew to Paris, where it landed at Roissy airport. There, Peyton and the airmen exited the C-130J, mounted a train to the Montparnasse railway station, where they took the subway to the catacombs.
Once at the catacombs, an airman then promptly asked Peyton what to do while the teenager was inputting the code 129-358 into her GPS.
"Where to?" the airman asked.
"This way." Peyton told, shouldering her M4A1 with her left hand while holding the GPS with the right one.
The quartet went through the catacombs with the torchlight mounted on their rifles on. As they walked in the dark tunnels, an airman saw many bones in the walls.
"How many dead bodies are buried here?"
"I dunno. Just avoid being one of them." another airman replied.
The group came across a staff-only tunnel, which had walls made of human bones and skulls. These images didn't scare Peyton as she knew the Paris catacombs had been dug to contain bones from neighbouring cemetaries, which had become too small to store more bodies. As they walked in the catacombs, they stumbled on a group of tourists visiting the place. Fortunately, the employee motioned the tourists not to take care of the group, who continued towards their location objective.
The airmen and Peyton arrived to the indicated coordinates, where Peyton found a small hole. She let out her cousin's silver whistle, inserted it in the hole and revealed a door, which opened to reveal then underground lab. Peyton came in first with the airmen following. One of them saw a flask labeled 'Project Mother' and called Peyton.
"Found it."
Peyton took the flask from the airman while the others put the remaining flasks in bubble wrap before putting them in Peyton's pack. After the operation, an airman destroyed the tracker, preventing anyone from finding the lab in the future. As they exited the lab, the fourth airman shut the door tightly, locked it by removing the whistle and covered the hole so that no one would unlock that door. The quartet exited the catacombs, went back to their plane and left Paris for Costa Rica.
At Jurassic World, Owen was standing near his niece with the others, worried Peyton was so late. Suddenly, the glass began vibrating, prompting Barry and Owen to rush out in Main Street, where they saw Peyton abseiling from a USAF HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter before signaling the pilot to fly off to his base. Peyton then came towards the two men, displaying the flask needed. Owen, his daughter and Barry rushed inside the lab and handed Wu the vaccine.
The scientist then injected Project Mother in the toddler's body, stabilizing her. Valentina then slowly woke up and Peyton heard the four-year-old girl's feeble voice.
"Whewe am I?"
"At the lab. I saved your fucking sorry ass. Now I gotta go." Peyton dryly replied.
As she did that, Peyton went back home, where she stopped and took the Colt M1911A1 pistol from her armory, loaded it and examined it. On the pistol grips were the USMC logo, a reference to her great-grandfather and grandfather using it before her. The teenager then put it back in her holster before packing the second M4A1 in her armory and heading to a firing range.
For three weeks, Valentina had to sit in a whellchair pushed by Quinn Kingbird under the supervision of Claire Dearing while Peyton and the other persons in the park were busy preparing for the opening of the Raptor Arena. But first, they had to open the Hybrid Kingdom, the new name for paddock 11.
At the Hybrid Kingdom, Owen, Mike, Marco, his daughter Quinn, Sofia, Alex, Barry and Claire were standing right behind Masrani, Wu and Valentina while Peyton was standing in the watchtower with her M4A1 in hands and her Colt M1911A1 in the holster.
"Now prepare to be really, really scared!" Sofia told the public gathered in front of Paddock 11.
"Let us introduce you to the new kings of Nublar!" Alex concluded as Masrani, Claire, Barry and Owen cut the ribbon.
This gesture officially opened the Hybrid Kingdom, and right after cutting the ribbon, the whole group led the visitors to the observation room, where they could see Arya and Ygrit, alongside the two male hybrids, named Mason and Reznov by Peyton. The teenager indeed dubbed these two new Spinosaurus Rexes after the Call of Duty games protagonists Viktor Reznov and Alex Mason as a pun for Alex and Mike. Dean, Liz, Mary, Liv, Kelli, Rick and Lindy even laughed at the suggestion of the names, though they must admit these two dinosaurs fit their name pretty well.
As Peyton entered in the building, a young social media influencer around her age named Sadie came behind her and spoke up.
"You probably know my friends Zach and Gray Mitchell, and their friend Larry Dunning."
Peyton turned around and aimed her M4A1 carbine at Sadie before seeing Zach and Gray next to her, with their mother Karen and Karen's boyfriend Gary Fitzgerald. Peyton stood down just as Claire came to her sister. The two of them then began a dialogue.
"Hi Karen, how are you?" Claire spoke up.
"Fine, thanks. This is my new guy, Gary Fitzgerald." Karen introduced as Larry shook Claire's hand.
"Hope you have good relationships with Zach and Gray." Claire told Gary.
"Yes, I do." Gary replied as Zach and Gray nodded smirking, as both of them liked Gary Fitzgerald a lot.
Owen then came with his niece next to Claire, followed by Marco and his daughter with Barry arriving last. Sadie then remarked Peyton's clothes were a little worn out.
"Surplus, I suppose." she said
"Nope. My father's. Other clothes have been bought to surplus, others belonged to my grandfather and great-grandfather." Peyton replied.
"Wow, nice pistol" Sadie remarked.
"Colt M1911A1. Fires seven .45 ACP rounds at fifty meters. This one has been used by my great-grandfather, then my grandfather and finally my father before I took it." Peyton answered saying the name of her pistol.
"You're what. Some kind of military descendant?" Sadie asked while Zach, Gray and Larry Dunning came closer.
"Yeah. My great-grandfather fought in World War II, during the Pacific Campaign. My grandfather served in Vietnam and my father served in Afghanistan." Peyton summed up, impressing the four other teens. But Peyton's friends knew about Peyton's ascent, as they themselves had a father who was a US Military serviceman.
Dean came near Peyton with Rick and Lindy in tail, while Kelli and the rest of the group went towards their parents. Sadie then looked at the quartet and spoke up.
"Best friends forever."
Peyton and her friends nodded before joining the others to indulge in some discussions about everything and nothing.
During the conversation, Peyton noticed her cousin was closer to Claire than to Peyton and her father. The teenager therefore called Adalyn, but found herself on Adalyn's voicemail so she left a message before hanging her phone up.
Peyton then saw she missed a call from the Air Force recruiter, whom she promptly called. At the other end of the line, the recruiter answered
"Hi?"
"Peyton Grady, here. It is about my recruitment application, right, Sir?" Peyton replied.
"That's it. The Air Force is rejecting your application. Sorry." the recruiter informed her.
"No problem. I'll try the Marines." Peyton politely told the recruiter before he hung the phone up.
With that, Peyton hung her phone up before feeling it vibrating. It was the Marine Corps recruiter. Peyton pressed the answer button and began the call.
"This is Peyton Grady."
"Peyton Grady, like Peyton Elizabeth Grady?" the recruiter asked.
"Yes, Sir." Peyton answered.
"Good news, you're good for Marine Corps training. Training will begin four days after your eighteenth birthday." the Marine recruiter informed.
"Thank you, Sir." Peyton replied turning to her friends.
"You're welcome!" the recruiter ended before hanging up.
After hanging up her phone, Peyton saw her friends and father looking at her. Without waiting for their answer, she called them out and told them what the call was about.
"I'm gonna be a US Marine."
Mary, Dean, Rick, Lindy, Liz, Liv, Kelli and Owen were speachless, as they heard their favorite teenager would be a US Marine at eighteen years old. Owen hugged his daughter before Kelli tapped her friend's shoulder as soon as Peyton was left to go by her father. Peyton's other friends also shook her hand and fist-bumped her. Suddenly, they saw everyone was looking at them.
"What was that about?" Gary Fitzgerald asked Peyton with Karen and her sons looking on.
"Name's Peyton Grady. In a little more than a year, I'll be a US Marine." Peyton informed him.
As soon as they heard this, the Mitchells and Gary couldn't believe that Peyton would be part of the US military personel. Zach felt ashamed he didn't fit the military recruitment requirements while Gray was shocked that someone could chose such a dangerous option for her life. Larry, on his own side, was now happy someone made something with her life, as his father did in the US Army.
"That's a vewy dumb thing the miwitawy exists in the fiwst pwace." Valentina told provockingly.
"Shut up. Your father never defended his country with his life, now you dare to humiliate your own grandfather." Dean sharply told her.
"My father dodged the draft for Vietnam. I'm proud he never got involved in any war." Claire bragged.
"You should be ashamed. My father served in the US Army from the Gulf War up until 2011 in Afghanistan, where he lost his right leg." Larry defended displaying his father's dogtags.
"We all have a father who now works there, as you probably know. But they were all in the US Military. Mine was a US Army Ranger from Panama to Afghanistan." Rick informed while openly showing Claire a picture of his father during his days as a US Army Ranger.
Kelli also confirmed to Claire her own father was a US Navy Seabee with a single photo of him during his eight years serving in the Navy, while Liz's father was a US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet pilot for twelve years. Liv's father was a USAF F-16 pilot for seven years while Mary's was a US Marine machine gunner for nine years. Dean also showed a photo of his father during the latter's ten-year service as a US Army paratrooper in the 4th Airborne Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.
Claire was shocked so many teens living with their parents in Jurassic World had a father or a mother who served in the US Military. Gary displayed his USMC honorable discharge certificate, confirming he served in that branch for twenty-five years.
Peyton nodded, showing her grandfather's longtime service items. Geoff Grady indeed served from 1968 to 2008 while Peyton's great-grandfather Wylder served from 1942 to 1945 before going in again in 1950 until 1975. Peyton then heard Sadie speak.
"They're right, Mrs. Dearing. They father made numerous sacrifices, you should thank them instead of belittling them. My father currently serves with the National Guard in Sinai."
Before Claire and Valentina said anything, Sadie displayed a photo of her father, making them understand very few persons agreed with them. On the picture was Sadie's father, wearing his full National Guard attire comprising a pair of camouflaged trousers, a moisture-wicking shirt, a helmet-cover-fitted Kevlar combat helmet, a pair of brown combat boots, a camouflaged bulletproof vest and a customized Colt M4A1 carbine.