With the rescue team still a couple of hours away, Audrey couldn't wait. Some people could spend days in the wild and not see a single dinosaur. Others, only minutes. They had to find those kids as soon as possible. Which meant getting out of that tree and finding a vehicle. She looked longingly at those in the compound, surrounded by very angry deinonychus. They were definitely not an option. There was her jeep in the mud, if she could get it out of the mud. That was pretty unlikely on her own. Or she could get to the bunker at the other end of the tunnel she had just told Karlina and the other scientists to get to. The tunnel was about a good couple of kilometres long. A distance she could cover quickly at a run - not so quickly when making sure she wasn't detected. Adroitly, she shimmied down the tree and then stalked her way towards the bunker. She moved swiftly, but stayed aware of her surroundings. There were very few sounds. No bird noises, but some insects. The sounds of a young carnivore in distress would have sent most creatures into hiding for a while. But she was extra alert just in case it was something else that scared them.
She reached the bunker without incident. Closing the solid door behind her, Audrey felt safe for the first time in hours. With safety came awareness of all those things that she had been ignoring. Her skin itched under the mud, she was bruised and battered. She continued to ignore it all though. She had to keep going.
She found the garage and a new jeep easily. Before she left, she sent a quick message to Karlina and the rescue team to say she'd taken the jeep and to not worry about her. The rescue team wouldn't be thrilled having one less jeep to work with, but they would be fine. Audrey had done most of the work for them anyway. She grabbed a couple of extra jerry cans, plenty of water and checked all the supplies. She was fully stocked up. Ready for a rescue. She opened the garage door, closing it behind her vehicle and was on her way.
After the day she had had, she had expected the worst from her drive between the compounds. But most dinosaurs left speeding vehicles alone. They couldn't keep up for long distances and they were unpleasant to follow, especially when they were running on diesel. Even so, it was a far distance between them, taking more than a couple of hours. She pulled into the carpark of the dINo-gen facility. From the outside, it looked like a pair of standard office buildings, though maybe a little wider and less tall, at three stories above ground. A bridge enclosed in glass connected the two identical buildings between the second floors. From her view, nothing looked out of place. She drove a little closer. First the building to the south. The first weird thing she noticed was people pressing themselves up against the glass, trying to see her. It didn't help her ego any to see their faces drop when they realised it was a lone jeep out here. She didn't take it personally. Instead, she drove across to the north building.
She couldn't really see far into the building through the mirrored glass. She flicked on the headlights. They didn't help a lot. She could now see a plant, its leaves strangely two toned. She reversed and tried to get a better angle. Still not much. And then everything! A creature appeared at the glass, looking directly at her. It was no dinosaur! It stood on its powerful hind legs, tilted slightly forward. It's torso was narrow. Under a dark sheen, Audrey was able to see its pecs and abs, all looking startlingly human. That wasn't the worst of it though. At the end of its muscled arms, its hands were tipped with large, fearsome claws that looked as powerful as those of an australovenator. But worst of all was the rounded head. It was capped with a lumpy, boney skull, but beneath that was a horrifyingly human shaped face. The jaw extended out slightly in a muzzle, sharp teeth visible as it hung open slightly. The eyes were bigger than a human's and set back a little. Audrey could see it focus on her. Opening the car door, she vomited on the ground. Realising her folly, she sat up and slammed the door shut quickly, wiping her mouth. "What are these eviscerating fools experimenting with?" She hissed. Before she was able to throw the gear stick into reverse, the creature inside had lowered its head and rammed it at the glass. The window shook, but held. The creature backed up again. Audrey didn't wait a second longer. Her tires screeched as she pulled away. She never wanted the attention of a creature like that ever again!
"Are you alive?" She sent a quick message to Faren. How could anyone survive trapped in a building with a thing like that? Dr. Santos didn't respond immediately. She didn't want to think of the reasons why he couldn't so instead, she drove around the outside of the building. There wasn't much to see. On the far north side she heard some horrendous sounds of dinosaur battles. There was a solid cement wall between her and the sounds which made her think that maybe this section was open to the air. Being a corporation, even Santos didn't know about all the rooms and projects in the building. She continued her path around. So far, it didn't look like any… dinosaurs (she couldn't think of a better word) had gotten out. In fact, once she could no longer hear the dinosaurs, it was eerily peaceful out here. She continued rolling slowly along the stark cement walls. She didn't pass between the buildings. Instead, at the south west corner of the northern building, she continued forward along the back side of the second building. Still nothing. She glanced at her phone for the fifteenth time.
"Yes."
Nothing more. She needed more details! "Are you inside with that THING?" She sent and continued rolling slowly, scanning to her right across the grass looking for any sign of dinosaurs, children, doctors, something.
No response. She reached the end of the second building and turned down the side. The ground echoed for a moment before returning to the soft whirr of grass. She backed up, pulling her door up to where she had heard the sound. Giving a check around her, she opened her door to examine it.
It was exactly what she thought. A ventilation shaft. There was a tunnel under here. She had worked with enough tunnel engineers to know one when she saw it. There was a way for her to get in; to get to Faren. She just had to find it. If she had designed the safety protocols on this place, she would want at least one escape tunnel that could be accessed by people in both buildings - especially since the only way to get from one building to the next was that bridge. Using that thought, she left the compound and drove around looking for a place where she would place a tunnel exit. Nothing that could easily be found, but clear enough to get vehicles in and out. Ideally, she wanted to park the jeep some distance away and cover the ground by foot. But after seeing those… creatures, she was as wary as a botanist on their first time out in the world. So, going slow, she searched the area, finally finding what she had been looking for. A doorway in a mound. And it was wide open.
Audrey couldn't stay in the jeep forever. There were things she needed to see. In front of the doorway was mud. She needed to know what had been past here recently. She pulled up as close as she dared, her headlights surprisingly bright in the falling shone into the tunnel, lighting up the nearest ten metres She prayed the light wouldn't lure anything towards her. Leaving the engine running and the door open, she crouched down by the mud. Footprints showed that several dinosaurs had definitely come out this way. A small theropod running, several larger ones milling, and another small one very strangely balanced. That one was the closest to the small print of a child's shoe. The kids -or at least one of them - had come out this way!
She looked out to the sky with frustration. She wouldn't be able to follow the kids until the morning. But that did mean she could focus her attention on rescuing Faren. She glanced at her phone to see if they had responded yet. Nothing. Climbing back into the jeep, she rifled through the emergency supplies. She would need the night vision goggles if she was going to head down that tunnel. She pocketed a few useful items and slung a pack on her back with more.
Having seen nothing appear in the lit up entrance of the tunnel, Audrey decided there was no better time to head in. She moved quietly and smoothly. Animals hunting in this low light would be relying on movement so she glided like a slow moving dancer. She hugged the shadows of the car headlights, and once past them she was able to turn on the night vision goggles.
The tunnel was long and monotonous. Simple arched walls, just wide enough for two people to walk abreast. The floor was smooth enabling Audrey to continue walking her slow graceful moves. Periodically, she turned off her goggles to check her phone. Three times it came up blank. The fourth time though, a message flashed on the screen. "We're safe for a minute. Can you meet us at the front of the building. Have the car running and message us when you arrive."
The front of the building. Gashes! All this distance in the tunnel for nothing! Audrey turned around to a flash of blue. At first she thought it was the after image from looking at her phone, but then it appeared again. This time it was less a flash, and more like two iridescent blue eyes staring at her. Bioluminescence. Once upon a time, they put bioluminescence into hadrosaur genes to make them beautiful in the dark. But it turned out at least one predator had natural bioluminescence. Assuming dINo-gen hadn't created some other hybrid, this would have to be a stenonychosaurus. Not much in the way of slashing claws, but savage teeth and hypnotic distraction.
Audrey blinked. She knew exactly what it was doing. One in front to hypnotise, two to the sides to attack. There wasn't a lot of room to attack in here, maybe there was already one behind her. Slowly, she raised her hand to each ear. The blue eyes in front danced. A flash to one side, then another, but the dancing eyes inched closer. She flipped the switch on her goggles, and suddenly even the bioluminescence dimmed. Screeches echoed in the small space as she triggered the flash bang. The tunnel lit up like daylight, though through her dulled goggles it was just bright enough for her to make out the bodies of three stenonychosauri arching and flailing.
She didn't wait to see if they would recover. She bolted back down the tunnel. She flipped back to night vision so she wouldn't trip and popped the ear plugs from her ears as she ran. It had taken her almost ten minutes with her slow, graceful pace to reach that distance in the tunnel. No longer caring about detection, she made the distance back in around three, the light from her jeep pulling her forward to greater speeds. She didn't look behind her. Her only chance now was reaching the jeep. She burst out of the tunnel and didn't pause until she was opening the door and diving in. Door shut, breath heaving, Audrey peered back down the tunnel. Nothing appeared.
Still panting, she turned on the car, and reversed away from the tunnel entrance. Slowly, as her breathing slowed, so too did her racing heart. As the distance between them increased, she realised it wasn't that surprising they hadn't chased her. A flash bang was powerful in the daylight, but in that tunnel would have been seriously debilitating. It would be a while before they went after humans again.
Audrey pulled out her phone. No new messages. She almost sent that she was on her way, but scanning the ever darkening world around her, she thought it would be asking for trouble. This was the hunting hour. A time when even with her skills and equipment, she knew it was best to be locked safely inside somewhere. But she was not. Instead she was driving a noisy jeep. Knowing what a beacon light could be, she had long since turned off the headlights and was using the night vision goggles to see with.