This chapter is a bit shorter and also kinda filler... oh well. Enjoy!
"Next time we have a chance to escape, how about we actually go instead of yapping about," Lizzy grumbled. "This is why I should've drove."
In the cell next to them, Owen shot back, "You ran into two trees that time I let you drive my jeep on Isla Nublar. You driving would've ended up worse."
"I don't know," Emily muttered from her spot on the floor of her and Lizzy's cell. "This couldn't get much worse."
"You can say that again," Briana said with a sigh. She was sitting in the back of the cell, hand pressed against a stab wound in her leg that she'd only just told them about. Apparently, she'd gone poking around the boat while the rest of them were sleeping.
It fell silent for a moment before Claire softly said, "Do you remember the first time you saw a dinosaur?"
Emily worried the edge of her hat, murmuring, "Like it was yesterday…"
"The first time you see them," Claire continued, "it's like a miracle. You read about them in books, you, see the bones in museums. But you don't really, believe it…"
Emily stood, pacing to the front of the cell.
"They're like myths. And then you see your first one alive…"
Emily finished, "And it's beautiful. But we know now how dangerous it is to assume it's all just beauty."
"You know that better than anyone," Lizzy added.
It was silent again for a moment before Owen softly said, "This isn't your fault Claire."
"But it was." And it wasn't Claire who answered.
Emily's head snapped up, and she fixed her gaze on Eli Mills, standing in view of both cells.
Mills continued, addressing Claire, "I told them it wasn't smart to get all of you involved, but, well, we needed the raptor."
"Come on," Owen ignored what Mills had said, "You're a smart guy. You could've, started a foundation, cured cancer. Instead, you what? Illegally traffic dinosaurs?"
"I saved those animals."
"Sure," Lizzy shot back, "you saved them from the volcano, but then you lied to everyone about what you're doing with them and threw all of us in cells."
Claire added, "You betrayed a dying man for money."
"I admire the idealism the both of you have, but we all exploited these animals. At least I'll admit it."
Briana limped up to the bars, "What you're doing here is illegal. Nothing Jurassic World did ever was."
"She—" Mills pointed at Claire, "—authorized the creation of the Indominus Rex. You exploited a living thing in a cage for money. How is that different, huh?" He stalked to stand in front of Emily, which was the first time she noticed Wheatley behind him. "And you, Owen, the man who proved raptors could follow human command. Elizabeth, you helped him. And Dr. Grant, you wrote every bit of it down. Did the three of you never think about the applications of your research?"
Emily's stomach sank.
"How many millions a trained predator might be worth? Dr. Grant, you especially. You turned in all your notes to the Jurassic World labs without a second thought…" Mills chuckled. "You're the parents of the new world."
Emily sucked in a breath, trying to keep her composure up. Mills were right. She'd just, fed Jurassic World all the information they could ever have wanted… raptor pack hunting patterns, how they fed, how the bonded with Owen, with Lizzy. Without a second thought.
How could she have been so stupid?
Lizzy stepped up beside Emily, and without warning, shot out an arm, grabbing Mills. Anger seeped into her voice as she pulled his arm through the bars and twisted it.
"Keep going and I'll break it."
Wheatley raised his gun, "Let him go."
Briana murmured, "Lizzy, relax."
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't break your arm."
"Let him go," Wheatley repeated, gun leveled right at Lizzy's head.
Emily held her breath.
Lizzy slowly released Mills' arm, and stepped back, glaring daggers at him.
Emily chuckled, and stepped farther forward, "Really, I don't know how you think you're going to get away with this. Alan Grant will raise hell when I don't return his calls. And if you think he's bad, just wait till Ellie Sattler comes after you."
Mills straightened, the right side of his face already blossoming with bruises. He chuckled, "We already told him you're dead." He took a step forward, getting up in her face.
"Alan Grant thinks his daughter died on Isla Nublar."
Emily's heart skipped a beat. Her father thought she was… Oh God it would destroy him. She stopped hearing what Mills was saying as he walked to the other cell. There was a ringing in her ears, and she fought back a wave of panic.
Shit. She'd managed to keep it together so far. But her father thought…. No. She wouldn't panic. She could panic after this was over. There was no way in hell she was going to let Mills get under her skin.
Clang.
It was followed by a groan from Mills, and a snorted laugh from Lizzy.
"What…?" Emily asked.
Briana was smirking as she quietly said, "Claire smashed his face on the bars."
Emily forced a grin, forced herself to react normally as she shoved down the last of her panic. She let out a breath. By the time she'd fully calmed down, Mills was gone.
"Look," she said, "Sam knows we're alive, but who knows what they'll do with him."
"And I'm inclined to say that we shouldn't just wait around," Briana said.
Lizzy nodded, "You still have hair pins Emily?"
"Yes." Emily took one out and passed it to Lizzy.
Lizzy crossed to the padlock holding the cell door shut and crouched down. "I used to have to pick the locks into my brother's rooms. And sometimes the shed when Dad lost the key." She inserted the hair pin into the padlock and began wiggling it around.
In the cell beside them, Emily could hear Owen whistle, and then there was a loud clang. A Pachycephalosaur ran out into the middle of the room and ran into a pillar. It shook its head and slowly meandered down the hall. Owen and Claire cautiously came out of their cell.
"Got it!" Lizzy exclaimed. The padlock clicked and fell to the ground. Lizzy stood and pushed the cell door open.
Owen turned around, raising an eyebrow.
"I picked the lock," Lizzy was grinning as they all came out of the cell. "Much more efficient than a Pachy."
Owen shook his head, playfully knocking her on the shoulder, "Not bad."
"Thanks."
Emily jammed her hat on her head, turning to Briana, "You get all that on tape?"
"All of it."
"Good."
Claire turned to face them and gasped, "Oh my gosh!"
Emily turned, following her gaze. And watched a little girl run around a corner. She swore softly. Great, just what they needed.
Claire and Owen hurried after the kid, Lizzy right behind them. Emily brought up the rear. When she rounded the corner, the girl was clambering into a dumbwaiter.
Claire glanced over her shoulder, softly saying, "That's Lockwood's granddaughter."
Emily moved forward, stopping between Owen and Lizzy. Owen slowly moved forward, his voice gentle as he said, "Hey. Hey kid. You wanna come out of there?"
Lockwood's granddaughter shook her head, tears streaking her cheeks.
Owen stopped, glancing at Claire for help. Claire took a step forward, "You remember me?"
The girl nodded.
"My name is Claire. What's yours?"
"Maisie. Maisie Lockwood." The girl had an English accent.
Claire motioned for them to come forward, saying, "These are my friends."
Emily tipped her hat up, mustering a soft smile for the girl.
"This is Owen, Lizzy, Emily and Briana."
The girl leaned forward a bit, "You're in those videos. With the velociraptor, Blue."
Owen grinned, "Oh yeah? You like dinosaurs?"
Maisie nodded.
"Which one is your favorite?" Emily asked.
Maisie paused, then quietly answered, "Quetzalcoatl."
"Those are really cool, I like them too." Emily stepped forward, "How about you come down from there, and we can tell you everything you need to know about dinosaurs."
"And lots about Blue," Lizzy added.
Briana gave Maisie a smile as she stepped forward, "We'll keep you safe too."
Maisie nodded, and slowly climbed down, setting her feet on the concrete floor. She couldn't have been older than ten.
Emily crouched down, an idea forming in her head. She was sure that Lockwood had no idea what was going on here. No idea what Mills was doing.
"Kid," Emily said, "we need a little help finding your grandpa. Can you take us to him?"
Maisie shook her head, shoulders tensing.
Owen spoke, "You made it down here all by yourself, huh? Brave kid."
"Looks like you could use a friend," Briana softly said.
Maisie hesitated, then surged forward, throwing herself at Owen.
"He's gone," she sobbed, clinging to Owen.
Owen put a tentative arm around her, glancing up at the rest of them. He spoke softly, pulling back to look Maisie in the eyes, "Listen, we were just about to go find our friends and get the heck out of here."
"You wanna come with?" Briana asked.
Emily added as Lizzy ruffled Maisie's hair, "We could use your help. Especially if you like dinosaurs."
Maisie glanced between the five of them and nodded.
His phone was ringing. Again. He'd stopped hearing it.
The microwave was beeping, reminding him that the lasagna he'd been reheating was warm.
And his TV was on. The remote had long since fallen from his still hands. He was glued to the screen.
The news anchor spoke, "We've been following the crisis on Isla Nublar closely in the past weeks, as Mt. Sibo, the island's volcano, grows closer to erupting. The U.S. Senate hearing determined that no assistance would be given to the dinosaurs still on the island."
"This morning, the Benjamin Lockwood Foundation, owned by an old business partner of John Hammond, released a statement that they had sent a team to the island to try and rescue some of the dinosaurs before the eruption of the volcano."
"The Costa Rican government released a statement around dinner time today, saying that at 4:30 PM, Mt. Sibo had erupted. Our public outreach correspondent, Cathy Vanderbilt, reached out to the Lockwood Foundation, wanting to know if they had been successful."
"We received a response from the Lockwood Foundation less than ten minutes ago. Cathy is here to tell you all about it. Cathy, over to you."
He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, his heart beating.
"Thank you Arnold. The Lockwood Foundation was kind enough to provide me a statement to read."
"Our extraction team was able to rescue multiple species before the eruption of the volcano, including the island's beloved Tyrannosaurus Rex."
He huffed in annoyance. This was not the information he was looking to hear.
"Unfortunately, we regret to inform you that not all of our team was able to make it off the island in time. We send our deepest condolences to their families." Cathy Vanderbilt paused, turning a page. "The members of the team that were unable to make it off the island are as follows; Claire Dearing, former operations manager at Jurassic World; Owen Grady, former velociraptor handler at Jurassic World; Elizabeth Greene, former assistant velociraptor handler at Jurassic World. Franklin Webb and Dr. Zia Rodriguez, Dinosaur Protection Group members."
The news anchor paused again, and his hands began to shake.
"Briana Rodgers, former ACU Commander at Jurassic World; Dr. Samuel Ruiz, former paleoveterinarian at Jurassic World."
His heart skipped a beat, and he breathed, "No…"
"Dr. Emily Grant, former Advising Paleontologist at Jurassic World, and survivor of Jurassic Park."
Alan Grant sucked in a breath that came back out as a sob.