The group left the aviary. Chris carried the minigun, while Ryan placed the ammunition in his backpack.

Up above, the pteranodons and dimorphodons circled, still dazed by the alarm.

"We'll need our other guns that we left behind. The ones we took from Mantah Corp are out of bullets," Chris said.

Ryan nodded. "But one step at a time. Let's do some recon first."

Ryan, Chris and the campers climbed up a hill that overlooked the Mantah Corp camp. They relied on the vegetation for cover as they laid underneath the brush. The light drizzle of rain would help, as well.

Across the camp, Mantah Corp guards, scientists and businesspeople were busy tending to their work. But a small group near the center caught Ryan and Chris' eye.

A brunette woman was standing next to guards, their hands grasped around her arms and her own hands were zip-tied. She appeared to be talking to who appeared to be the commander of the entire operation.

"Jesus," Ryan whispered. "That's Shannon!"

"Sorry, man," Kenji said quietly, placing a hand on Ryan's shoulder.

"Well, this changes everything. We can't simply storm in there now," Ben said.

Chris nodded his head. "Forget spray and prey. We're going to have to tip-toe in."

Suddenly, footsteps were coming from behind. Accompanying that were the sounds of talking and moving flashlight beams. Someone was coming.

"Stay down and don't move," Ryan whispered as the campers gasped.

He and Chris slowly crawled towards the approaching patrol. There, taking off his raptor claw necklace, he tightly gripped it like a knife.

The guards then stopped, with their backs turned. Ryan nodded to Chris, and the two emerged from the bush.

Ryan plunged his raptor claw into the neck of his target, while Chris put his into a headlock. However, he broke free, throwing Chris over his shoulder.

Before either one of them could react, the guard grabbed his radio and called for help.

"This is Onyx 2! I got eyes on the tangos in sector 5! I repeat, the tangos are in-"

Chris clubbed him over the head with a large rock. Whether he killed him or knocked him out, he didn't know, and he didn't have time to know, because more guards were coming from both the left and right.

The campers stood up.

"What now?" Sammy asked, assisting Yaz in standing.

"I'm going to distract them, so you can get away," Ryan said.

The campers protested instantly, along with Chris.

"Listen, brother." Ryan placed his hands on Chris' shoulders. "I'll be fine. Best case scenario: I'll get Shannon out and maybe steal some transportation, end this whole op here. But I can't do that if we're all taken."

Ryan then turned to the campers.

"Guys, I understand that this hard to swallow, but remember what I said back at the old visitor center. I don't want to know what they'd do to you, especially, you." Ryan looked towards Sammy.

Opening his backpack, Ryan took out the USB that contained the indoraptor information, handing it to Chris.

"They're probably after this, so keep it safe, along with the kids."

Chris took the drive, a tear forming in his eye. Ryan also gave him the minigun ammo, sensing they would need it for later.

Darius ran up to the two.

"You can't go, Ryan. We need you."

Ryan took his dog tags off.

"Listen, Darius. When Chris and I were in the army, our unit had a special tradition. Whenever we'd go off to battle, we would give our buddies staying behind our dog tags. This was our way of promising that no matter what, we would come back, alive and in one piece."

Ryan gave Darius his tags, along with his raptor claw, stained red in blood.

"Think you can take care of that for me? It would look nice along with your tooth."

Darius nodded slowly, still distraught that Ryan was staying behind. He walked back to the others, who were also unhappy.

"Behave yourselves, now." Ryan tried his best to smile.

The campers nodded. Some were crying, while others couldn't look at him in the eye.

"Now, go. Get out of here." Ryan pointed to a side of the hill that the guards were not advancing from. One by one, they slid down and disappeared into the jungle.

Chris was the last. Before heading for the tree line, he looked one last look back at his friend. Ryan nodded in response, and Chris vanished.

"Hands! Show us your hands!" a guard shouted, finally cornering Ryan. There were at least a dozen personnel, all their rifles trained on him.

Ryan did so without resistance. Deep in his head, he wondered if this was the best move. Well, it was too late now. No going back.

"Greetings, young man," one of the guards said. It was the same one Shannon was talking to.

"I am Eric Dominguez, head of Mantah Corp's expedition division. You have something of peculiar interest that we'd like."

Eric was a tall, bald Caucasian with a graying beard. His arms were covered in tattoos. He spoke in a deep and raspy voice.

"What would that be?" Ryan asked, now being placed into cuffs.

"Data. Intel about another one of Doctor Wu's hybrid animals. And a kid that was camping here by the name of Sammy Gutierrez."

"No idea who or what you're talking about."

Eric lowered himself until his face was millimeters from Ryan's. Ryan was close enough that he could feel Eric's breath and smell his sweat and mosquito repellent.

"You're lying," Eric said after looking over Ryan. He took a guard's rifle and bashed Ryan's head with the buttstock, knocking him out.

Snapping his fingers, Eric ordered, "Take him away. His little girlfriend will make him talk."

Ryan woke up. His vision was blurred, but as it came into focus, he sat himself up.

Taking a glance around, he realized that he was locked in a cage. Beyond the cage was a large tent, almost the size of a large room. His hands were free, though, but his head still throbbed, where Eric struck him.

Speaking of Eric, he entered the tent.

"Wakey wakey," he taunted. "I'll ask once more nicely. Where is the data that we seek, and where is Sammy?"

"I still don't know about this data you want. And how do you know Sammy is still alive? There are countless threats out there."

"Well, interesting you ask, Ryan. Earlier tonight, we noticed that the aviary siren was activated. I was curious, so I did some research and found this on the security camera footage."

Eric showed Ryan a tablet and played a video on it. It showed the eight of them discussing and leaving the aviary.

Ryan's face went from pretending to be confused to concerned and terrified, realizing he was exposed.

"You disappoint me, Ryan. Lying to my face once again. The time for nice cop is past us. To be honest, it's okay if you don't know about the data. Sammy can lead us to it."

Eric whistled, and a guard brought Shannon in. Able to take a closer look, Ryan noticed she was beaten and bruised, wearing a dirty tank top, shorts and shoes.

"What did you do to her, you bastard?!" Ryan suddenly snapped.

Before he got an answer, Ryan felt a syringe inject into his neck. Within seconds, he began to feel dizzy and wobbly.

"What… did you do… to me…"

"Gave you a little concoction our chemists came up with. It's a dose of ethanol and scopolamine, mixed with a bit of dilophosaurus venom. Don't worry, at these levels, it won't kill you, but it will make you hallucinate and delusional."

Eric grabbed Shannon by her arm and sat her down roughly.

"Now," Eric said with a sadistic grin. "Let's begin."