Sorna: The team slogged their way onto the bank of the river before collapsing down on it exhausted.
"Nice one Jake," Carly grumbled.
"At least we're still alive, which is more than I can say than if we had stayed back there with those dimetrodons," Jake responded pointedly. When he didn't get a response he looked at Carly who was just staring shocked at a massive cage rising out of the river and attaching itself to one of the walls of the massive valley they were now in.
"Where are we?" asked Carly in awe.
"Right where I wanted us to be," said Jake simply as he slowly approached the cage with the group in tow.
"What is it?" asked Carly confused.
"The pteranodon cage," answered one of the workers looking up at it. "It's the only self-contained cage on the entire island."
"And for good reason," Jake responded. "But what it means to us is that now we're only a half a day away from Embryonics Administration."
"Yeah but that's up above the valley. How do you propose we get there?" asked one of the workers. "Because even you know that we're no match for what's in there."
"That's why we're going to climb the fence," said Jake simply as he walked up to it. Murmurs erupted from the group.
"You're crazy," said Carly.
"Or maybe I'm just going sane in an insane world," Jake retorted. Carly looked at him confused, but somehow had a feeling that that meant more to him than he was letting on. Jake shrugged her confusion off before grabbing the side of the fence upon which he began convulsing and screaming.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" he shouted in pain as Carly screamed and the team dropped their weapons to go help him before Jake suddenly stopped moving. He turned around and looked at the group with a grin.
"Heh, heh, heh," he laughed as the team groaned and Carly smacked him.
"That wasn't funny!" she said upset.
"Sorry, couldn't resist," said Jake as he began to start climbing before Carly stopped him.
"We need to break first," she said. "We're still soaking wet and tired from the dip in the river."
Jake looked down at her and then at the team before he hopped off of the cage.
"Alright," he said. "Fifteen minutes then."
The Unit collapsed on the riverbank as Jake slowly sat down and took out his Long Colt and snapped open the barrel to drain the water from it.
"We all here?" asked Jake. "I got a quick headcount I just want verification."
"Yeah we're all here," someone said relieved.
"Good," said Jake. "Equipment check?"
"We lost some our rifles but we still have our packs and sealed MREs," said one of the workers.
"Oh great, that's just what I was looking forward to," said Jake disgusted as he took one out, opened it, smelled it, and nearly gagged.
"This is your fault that we have to eat these," one of the workers pointed out as they bit into their bar and began coughing.
"Believe me when I say with complete and total honesty that when I had these things put into every bunker on this island I did not expect to ever be eating them," said Jake humiliated. "What about you guys? Did you ever expect to be running from dinos when you first signed on with Ingen?"
"Can't say that I did," admitted one of the workers. "I signed on as an electrician, I had no idea Ingen was even involved with creating dinosaurs."
"I don't think any of us did," said another worker. "What about you Jake, did you know?"
"I had no freaking clue," responded the scientist as he choked down his MRE.
"So what were your expectations when Ingen hired you?" asked Carly curious.
"Just that it had something to do with genetic work," responded Jake. "Henry and I had briefly managed to briefly resurrect a dodo bird using in-vitro fertilization with a normal duck and we figured that's why they wanted us. So that and the fact that Hammond owned a zoo in Kenya led us to believe we'd either be cloning animals about to go extinct or possibly cloning animals that had gone extinct. I suppose the second supposition was correct though I had no idea the specimens would be over sixty-five million years old."
"And when you finally found out?" asked a worker.
"I thought Hammond was nuts,"
"So why'd you continue working there?" asked Carly.
"Because what Hammond was proposing had never been done before," said Jake. "And could you imagine what would happen if you succeeded, you'd be the most famous person on the planet!"
Silence.
"But yeah I never did question about whether what I was doing was 'right' or not," Jake said answering their unanswered question before beginning to laugh. "I remember when someone once told me: 'I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here: it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you want to sell it!' Ian you ass, you were right."
Jake laid down on the bank as the other members of Unit 17 looked at him like he'd gone nuts before going back to their MREs. After a couple moments of silent chewing, the team got up as a collective unit and approached the birdcage.
"Every vertical bar has a ladder in the case that a part of the cage needed to be repaired. I think we should take the one closest to the canyon wall so in the event we do pick up any pterandon attention they'll have a hard time getting at us," said Jake. "Everybody got it? Cool."
The team walked towards the cavern wall and located the ladder and immediately began climbing it.
"Were the pteranodons going to be on the DNS list?" asked Carly after a long silence of climbing.
"No. The cage was in the process of being built on Nublar along with a hotel called The Sky Lodge where tourists could view the pteranodons from a safe distance. Though I think Hammond was trying to set it up so it might've been possible for a Pteranodon to roost there so people could go up and pet it. If Hammond had done that that thing would've gone immediately on the DNS list," said Jake rolling his eyes. "Hammond you can be so naïve sometimes."
More climbing.
"J-," began Carly before Jake waved his hand and she stopped. Jake narrowed his eyes and strained his ears as he attempted to listen for something.
"Confirm?" Jake asked.
"Confirm," said one of the workers. Jake scowled and took out his Long Colt and prayed it was dry enough to fire properly.
"Why don't we just keep climbing?" asked Carly worried.
"We can't," said one of the workers. "They'd be on us in a second."
"But we're on the other side of the cage!" she protested.
"They can still try and force their beaks through mesh covering to try and get to us," said that same worker. "Decoy?"
"Not yet," responded Jake. "Give it a minute."
The flapping of wings was heard in the mist inside of the dome as some of the members of Unit 17 managed to swing their rifles around and aim them into the dome, while still keeping one hand on the ladder.
"Remember: short controlled bursts," said Jake.
"Like you know what you're doing," Carly grumbled before she gasped.
"You need to sleep more," Jake observed as Carly looked up at him in shock.
"How the hell did he know?" she wondered but before she could ask.
"Decoy," said Jake. One of the workers took out a flare gun and fired it into the cage. The burning flare soared through the mist and illuminated a few pteranodons who immediately chased after it.
"Climb," said Jake as the team hastily raced up the ladder. A couple moments later however, an angry shrill was heard coming right at them. Rather than issuing a vocal command, Unit 17 fired in all directions into the cage and moments later a bloody pteranodon carcass slammed into the cage in front of them causing the cage to rattle heavily before the bird plummeted to the ground far below.
"Keep moving," said Jake as he hurriedly scrambled up the ladder. The rest of the team followed suit as more angry bird calls were heard.
"Decoy," said Jake. Another flare went flying out illuminating more pteranodons. This time the team opened fire on the birds rather than waiting for them to chase the burning ball.
"C'mon, just a little bit more to go," said Jake as the shrilling grew louder. Then the pteranodons were upon them. A mass of the birds suddenly appeared out of the mist and began trying to get their beaks through the iron bars to try and get at the team.
"Fire!" shouted Jake as muzzle flashes were seen. Several pterandons were ripped to shreds but still more came. This time their beaks managed to slam into some of the workers causing them to grunt in pain and a couple of them even dropped their weapons to the river below. Then just when they were about to close in, an RPG shot went off blasting a large chunk of rock out of a nearby wall causing is to rain down on the pteranodons who flew off.
"Good shot," said Jake approvingly.
"Too bad it was our last one," responded the worker with the cannon as he put it away. "Now what?"
"How much ammo do we have left?" asked Jake finally.
"Not enough to survive another run in with those things," said a worker below him. "I'm dry."
"Rather than figure out who doesn't have anything, let's find out who does," said Jake.
Silence.
"Oh hell," said Jake defeated. "Carly?"
"I've got a rifle, presumably it's fully loaded," came the response from below him.
"Can you drop it to a worker below you?" asked Jake.
"I'd prefer not to," said Carly. "The worker might not catch it and then we'd really be out of luck."
"Will you shoot it?" asked Jake.
"I don't know," came the response.
"That's not good enough," said Jake. "People's lives are on the line."
"Okay," said Carly hesitantly. "I-I guess."
Some of the workers groaned.
"Jake," one of them began. Jake sighed and groaned at the same time before he held up his Long Colt.
"Alright I'll save us," came his embittered response. "But all you close your eyes and whatever happens you do not ask me any questions alright?"
The workers just looked at him stunned, but nodded as Jake took his Long Colt and popped off the top of the gun revealing a strange apparatus inside, just above the gun's regular barrel.
"John this had better work or I'm going to kill you," Jake thought angrily as he swung the gun around and aimed it inside the cage as more wing flaps were heard along with numerous shrills.
"Decoy," said Jake. Another flare went rocketing off illuminating a huge flock of birds.
"Shut your eyes now!" Jake shouted as he thrust his gun into the cage. He swallowed hard and shut his eyes and pulled the trigger on the gun as the apparatus began blinking before whirring to life. An instant later a blinding flash engulfed the entire area.
"What the hell was that?" demanded Carly. The team was now next to the small building that the entrance to the pteranodon cage as some of the members applied first aid to their comrades who had been injured. Jake meanwhile was sitting on the hood of the car that Dillon had abandoned outside of the cage only a few week prior.
"I can't tell you!" said Jake angrily as he held his Long Colt in his hands that was currently pouring smoke out of the protective covering above the barrel.
"But-," began Carly again.
"Just drop it," said one of the workers. "Jake saved us, that's all that matters."
"And we need to get going," said Jake as he looked down the meadow to the Spinosaurus Pen that appeared to still be intact.
"Roger that," said one of the workers grimly, also looking at the pen. "Do you think it still has power?"
"It should," said Jake. "When we first realized the fences were going to fail no matter what we did, we stored enough power to keep that fence, the deinonychosaur pen, and the Velociraptor pit powered for at least another month or two. Course a couple weeks have passed and if those fences fail, we're never gonna know."
"Have we really been fighting the dinos for two weeks?" asked a worker incredulously. "It feels like forever."
"I'm just guessing it's been two weeks," said Jake truthfully. "It could actually be much more because my watch got fried during that incident with the Megalosaur and the still live fence wire."
The team nodded knowingly. Most hadn't been there, but they'd heard of Jake grabbing a hold of that sparking wire in order to electrocute that Megalosaur that was threatening to eat a member of Unit 6. Few doubted his anger towards the dinosaurs then, even fewer doubted it now.
"Thanks again," said the worker who Jake had saved.
"Just doing my job," responded the scientist. "But we really need to get to Embryonics Administration."
The group got up and approached the vehicle.
"It's going to be a tight fit," said Carly. "Shouldn't we take two trips?"
"Too dangerous," said Jake shaking his head. "We'll all fit…somehow."
"If you say so," said a worker unconvinced before an angry dinosaur roar was heard over the trees causing a flock of birds to erupt into the sky.
"Spinosaurus?" asked a worker as the ground began shaking.
"No," said Jake knowingly. "Gojirasaurus Quayi."
A massive biped emerged from the treeline and roared at them. Jake just looked at it calmly before drawing his trusty Long Colt once again and aimed it at the beast.
"Well we'd best be off," said Jake grimly as the team packed into the vehicle.
He got into the drivers seat and turned the key that was in the ignition. Miraculously the vehicle started up and was soon heading down the road with the dinosaur in hot pursuit.
"Jake," said one of the workers stuck in the back with nothing to do but stare at the dino.
"I'm kind of busy here," Jake shouted back to him. "Make it quick."
"Why isn't the dinosaur lysine-mad?" asked the worker. Jake did a double take as he looked at the mirror and noticed the dino's lack of bloodshot eyes.
"Ummm," said Jake confused. "I don't know."
"Is it a second-gen?" asked the same worker.
"How?" asked Jake. "We only bred one. And if we had there's no way it could've reached maturity this quickly."
"So what's going on? I thought we burned the fields," said the worker.
"We did burn the fields. But somehow I think Hammond managed to pull another fast one on us," said Jake convinced. "I'm beginning to be convinced that he somehow managed to insert a lysine producing gene inside of the dinos genetic structure that would kick in after a certain period of time. Sure a good chunk of the dinos would die, but not all of them."
"You really think Hammond would do that?" demanded Carly incredulously. "How, I thought you and Henry were the chief Ingen scientists?"
"We are," said Jake as he grabbed one of Carly's rifles and took a potshot at the Gojirasaurus. "But that doesn't mean that our finished version was not the final version. If Hammond screwed us over once with those fields, it stands to reason he'd do it again. Maybe he got another team of scientists to do it, I don't know. All I know is that it's as easy to take a gene out as it is to put it back in."
The dinosaur was beginning to draw closer and closer to them.
"And we are experiencing the aftereffects of that now," said Jake dryly. "Anybody have any suggestions as to how to get out of this?"
Silence.
"Oy," said Jake. "Well I'm out of ideas because so far I've been making things up as we go along and nothing's coming to me at the moment. God, here I am about to be eaten by a monster named after my favorite onscreen legend who I conveniently helped bring to life. Irony blows."
A nervous laugh erupted from the group as the dinosaur finally closed the gap between them. But just before it could clamp its mouth on the vehicle, an explosion rang out flinging dirt and debris everywhere. The Gojirasaurus looked around in confusion as more explosions went off all around it before the beast took off for calmer areas.
"Did you find an extra RPG shell?" asked Jake confused.
"No," said the worker confused. "I'm still out."
"Then-," began Jake as from out of the jungle appeared a quartet of Broncos.
"Welcome back to the land of the living Unit 17," the radio crackled to life.
"As opposed to what?" Jake asked humbly.
"The Land of the Lost," a chuckle came from the other end. Jake just rolled his eyes as Carly took the radio from him so he could concentrate on his driving.
"Good thing you're alive, we'd just about given up hope," said the voice again on the other end.
"Status?" asked Carly.
"Not so good. We're now just three fallback positions away from Embryonics Administration being overrun," came the response.
"Damn," said Jake under his breath.
"And what of Unit 6?" asked Carly.
"They didn't make it," said the voice on the other end sadly. "They were led into an ambush and were slaughtered before we could get to them in time."
Jake's hand began clenching the wheel tightly but he remained silent.
"That brings the total up to fifteen, which if Sam has lost that much, means we've lost thirty out of seventy-three people left on this island," said the voice even more depressed.
"Has there been any communications with Sam?" Jake asked softly, which Carly repeated into the radio.
"Long range communications are still down," said the response. The five vehicles emerged from the jungle and stopped in front of Embryonics Administration as nighttime finally appeared overhead. The groups got out and advanced into the building where they were greeted with a roaring applause for having survived two days alone in the jungle. Jake held up his hand to calm them down before descending the stairs into the bay. Jake weaved his way through the small crowd before arriving at the area where the seriously injured were being held.
"Hey Jake, nice to see you're still alive," said Sandy, the worker in charge of this particular area. She wasn't as good as Stormy but she had more first-aid training then the other workers.
"How are they?" asked Jake.
"Some will make, others I'm not so sure," said Sandy remorseful. "We're moving them out of here tomorrow morning at dawn back to the Workers Village."
"Yeah that's what I'd advise," said Jake. "Take whatever escort you need because we're going to do our best to mount a last stand here."
"You think they'll come here?" asked Sandy.
"I have no doubt," said Jake. "Some scientists were here engaging in ELE research with those cages we have inside this building. The dinos know what went on here and they'll attack it en masse I have no doubt about that. But we'll be waiting and we'll be ready."
"Well good luck," said Sandy. "Sorry I won't be around for the fireworks."
"It's for the best," said Jake. "Now get some sleep, you'll need your wits about you tomorrow."
Sandy nodded before checking on a patient and then walked off. Jake sighed before heading up the stairs and into his office. As he sat down, he looked at his dead computer and then at the pile of paperwork in his inbox and outbox. It was week's old but Jake still rifled through it and tossed some of it while filing others away in his file cabinet next to his desk. A knock was soon heard and Carly entered.
"Whatcha doing?" she asked.
"Filing," said Jake matter of factly as he scowled at a piece of paper he was looking at before writing something down on it before putting it in a folder on his desk.
"Why?" asked Carly as she snatched a piece of paper of his desk and reading it.
"DX Virus? The hell's that?"
"None of your concern," said Jake taking it from her and shredding it. "Old news that's no longer relevant. As for why I do it, it calms my nerves. It reminds me of happier times when this paperwork was my only enemy in the world."
"Oh," said Carly disappointed. "Sounds like fun."
"What's on your mind?" asked Jake as he took out his Long Colt and a cloth and began polishing it.
"I can't sleep," Carly admitted. "So what's the deal with you and that gun?"
Jake raised an eyebrow at her before shrugging.
"I made it myself by modifying an ordinary Colt Revolver by inverting the barrel thereby doubling its power," said Jake. "This baby'll shoot through anything guaranteed."
"Why'd you make it?"
"I needed an A in shop class," said Jake simply as he snapped open the barrel and loaded in six more bullets before spinning it and slamming the gun shut.
"Course I didn't figure on being expelled for it," Jake admitted. "But John Brown managed to pull some strings and get me admitted back in just days later."
"That was nice of him," Carly said looking at the gun.
"He does have connections," Jake admitted. "I never did ask him how he pulled that off... Oh well, anything else I can humor you with?"
"Can I see it?" asked Carly referring to the gun. Jake narrowed his eyes at her.
"Why?" he asked confused. "You hate guns."
"Just please humor me," Carly said. "And then I'll leave I promise."
Jake emptied the gun of its bullets before handing it to her handle first. Carly took it and looked at an inscription on it.
"BF Auto Ejecting Double Action?" said Carly confused. "So if shooting bullets is the first action, then the second action is…"
With one swift move she removed the top of the gun revealing the strange apparatus underneath before aiming out Jake's open window.
"What happens when I squeeze this trigger?" she demanded.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said Jake calmly as he leaned back in his chair and propped his feet on his desk.
"Why?" demanded Carly. "Are you afraid of me finding out what this thing does?"
"I was going to say it has a hell of a recoil," responded the scientist. "But that works too."
"What can this gun do?" demanded Carly.
"Why do you care?" asked Jake. "I think you just need some sleep is all; so please hand me back my gun."
"No," said Carly. "I'm going to figure out what this thing does first!"
"Carly," said Jake. "Give me the gun, you've clearly lost it again and you need some sleep. Now hand over the Long Colt."
"No!" shouted Carly. "What's the second action?"
"Classified," said Jake.
"Like hell it is," said Carly aiming the gun at him. "People's lives are at stake and I don't trust you with this!"
"Then keep it," said Jake beginning to get annoyed. "But put it away."
"Make me!" said Carly. Jake groaned and rubbed his nose as Carly's hand began trembling with the gun grasped tightly in her hand. Jake yawned and stretched his arms out before he swung his right arm around so that it backhanded the Long Colt causing Carly to jump and pull the trigger. The device whirred to life and began glowing as Jake dove behind his desk as a massive laser blast tore from the top of the gun and shot out the open window where it slammed into a tree, blowing it up along with the nearby jungle. A mushroom cloud floated up from the ground as Jake stood up and took the gun from Carly before snapping the top back down onto it.
"Don't do that again," he said embittered as Carly fainted dead away from shock. Jake swung open his door and looked down at the agitated group below.
"I was just testing one of the landmines," Jake lied. The group nodded still tense but began to slowly calm down. Jake stepped back into his office and shut the door as he looked at the unconscious form of Carly.
"Forgive them for they know not what they do," Jake grumbled before picking up her unconscious form and depositing it on his couch before closing his window and leaving his office. He descended the stairs and made his way over to Sandy, who was trying to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in.
"This hard floor is the worst," she grumbled as she saw Jake approach.
"Yeah well, functionality over everything else," Jake said with a slight grin.
"What's up?" asked Sandy looking up at him as he squatted next to her.
"I need you to take Carly with you when you head back to the Workers Village," said the scientist.
"Why, what's wrong with her?" asked Sandy concerned.
"She's cracking up," said Jake sadly. "I've seen her loose it on two occasions now and when push comes to shove I think she's going to explode."
"That's too bad," said Sandy. "But it happens to us all sooner or later."
"Yeah," said Jake distantly. "Anyway she's out cold on my couch so pick her up before you leave, I'd really appreciate it."
"Will do," said Sandy. "See you tomorrow Jake."
Jake nodded and left as he pulled out his Long Colt and replaced the six bullets he'd taken out of it earlier. He then found a vacant spot and sat down and rested his back against one of the egg chambers before removing the top of the gun again and looking at it.
"Automated Nuclear Generating Experimental Laser: Armed Recoilless Maser. Otherwise known as the ANGEL ARM," Jake thought ridiculously as he read the inscription written on the second barrel. "I must've been nuts letting you modify this thing John."
Jake sighed and holstered his gun before dropping off into a deep sleep.
Miles away: An army of dinosaurs marched across the island trampling everything in their path, creating a Lost World, as the made their way with certainty towards Embyonics Administration and a confrontation with the worker of Site B.