Ch 10:
Driving a four-wheeler down bumpy jungle paths is a learning experience. It took Sierra a couple months to get the hang of it. Even longer to get used to driving it in the rain when the roads were muddy or the rain was hitting her right in the face.
Carrying some kind of breakfast or drink carrier added a certain challenge to the trip, though she'd mostly mastered it. Of course, when she had three drinks in the carrier instead of two, it threw the weight a little off-balance.
It didn't help that she was running late and driving a bit faster than she normally would.
She pulled in and parked the four-wheeler in her normal spot. She hiked her bag strap higher up on her shoulder, drink carrier and bag in hand, and hurried into the research center. She reached Owen's office at a slight jog, causing Owen and Barry to look up at her abrupt entrance. Owen was sitting at his desk looking at a computer, Barry leaning over from behind his chair.
Owen looked pointedly over at the clock on the wall, a bit unnecessary since there was a clock on the corner of his computer screen, before looking back at her. "Your shift started eleven minutes ago."
Sierra rolled her eyes, knowing he was partially joking. "Sorry. A delivery guy showed up at the bungalow right as I was starting to leave. So that slowed me down a bit, and then I got stuck in the breakfast rush at Starbucks. But I brought coffee and breakfast." She set the drink carrier and bag of food on the desk, taking her own drink and sandwich before pushing it toward them.
"I think she's buttering us up." Barry joked, pulling a cup from the carrier and checking the label before taking a sip.
"I would never." Sierra joked exaggeratedly, taking a sip around her smirk.
Owen snorted, taking a blind sip of his coffee while typing something on his computer.
With her drink in one hand, Sierra pulled the mail they'd got that morning from her bag, taking a peak at the two letters addressed to her. She flipped through the unopened envelopes, debating if she should open them now, or if she could handle the curiosity of not opening them until later.
"What'd you got there?" Barry asked, making Sierra peak up at him. The question caught Owen's attention and he looked up from his computer.
"Oh, just a couple more letters from colleges." she admitted. She'd received almost a dozen letters from colleges in the last few months. Nothing like acceptance letters or anything, just colleges reaching out to students her age that meet certain traits or requirements.
"Anything that interests you?" Owen asked, his attention focused on her now.
Sierra shrugged her shoulders slightly, looking once more down at the two letters. "I haven't opened them yet,…but this one is from University of Florida."
"What stands out about that one?" Barry asked curiously. "Have you heard of it before?"
"Well,…not a lot." Sierra admitted, fiddling with the corner of the letter. "But I've heard they offer an undergraduate in Zoology,…which is helpful if you want to be a vet."
Owen and Barry exchanged amused glances.
"I thought you only wanted to be a vet when you were five." Owen smirked slightly at the reminder, making Sierra wrinkle her nose at him.
"I did." she admitted. "Last year I thought about going to school to be a paleo-veterinarian." She'd helped take care of the raptors many times since they hatched, but especially in the year since officially becoming an intern. She'd done a lot to assist the scientists and paleo-veterinarians, including patching up minor injuries and taking blood tests. She loved it. "But then I figured I might have more options if I just become a vet, and maybe have some kind of minor in paleontology."
"Sounds like a plan." Owen agreed mildly.
Sierra nodded before shoving the letters into her bag. "But anyway, what are we doing today?"
It was mid-December, and the park was gradually getting busier as Christmas breaks and vacations started, causing more and more guests to arrive each day. Owen wanted to get in at least a few more good days of training with the raptors before some of the interns and handlers left for their own Christmas vacations. The raptors had been a bit more snappy and restless the last couple days, possibly sensing the hustle and bustle of the park or something. So, they hadn't been as cooperative as normal. Owen, Barry, and Sierra bounced a few ideas off each other on ideas to get the raptors to pay attention better on this particular day.
It was eventually decided to have the raptors chase a couple things, like a pig or two, to try and take some of the edge off their energy. They might let them catch one of the pigs so they weren't too hungry. If they were too hungry they wouldn't want to focus on training, either.
So, they released two pigs, one at a time, and let the raptors hunt and eat them. The third pig, they let run through the paddock, raptors in hot pursuit, before opening the small door for it to escape to safety.
Sierra watched from the outer walkway with Barry and some of the other handlers as the raptors raced into the clearing, sliding to a stop. They looked around intently for their missing prey.
"Hey!" Owen called, gaining the raptors' attention from up above them. "Okay. Eyes on me."
Delta, Charlie, and Echo looked intently up at him while Blue barely spared him a glance before looking eagerly around the clearing in search of her prey.
"Blue." Owen called, clicking the clicker. "Blue!"
Blue snapped her head up with what Sierra considered a bit of attitude. Owen pointed at her. "Watch it. Charlie." he warned when Charlie started snarling. "Hey, don't give me that shit. Delta, lock it up." he ordered when Delta started getting agitated. He waited for them to hold mostly still for a couple seconds before clicking the clicker. "Good. Aaand…we're moving." he added, one hand up as he started walking down the walkway, turning one of the corners where the paths met in the middle.
With their eyes watching him intently, the raptors followed him. It wasn't a smooth or flawless transition. Blue snapped at Charlie for getting in her way. Charlie spun around to move to the back, accidentally swatting Echo with her tail, earning another snapping set of jaws.
"Hold!" Owen commanded when he reached the bucket that held the dead rats they were using as training treats. He made the raptors hold the position for a few seconds before praising them and clicking the clicker again. He reached into the bucket and grabbed rats he then tossed to Charlie, Echo, and Delta. He then grabbed the largest rat, which he tossed to Blue.
"Hold! Eyes up!" The raptors raised their heads almost in perfect unison, eyes fixed intently on Owen. Once more, he made them hold it for almost five seconds. Finally, he called, "Go!" with a simple hand gesture, releasing the raptors to run off into the jungle.
Cheers and congratulations erupted from the men around the paddock. Barry made his way out to where Owen stood on the walkway for a high-five and a celebratory hug. Sierra followed, a huge grin on her face. Owen just looked relieved.
Until Vic made his way out onto the walkway with them.
"I was starting to think we hired the wrong guys, but damn, you got 'em eating out of your palm."
Sierra pressed her back into the railing as Vic basically shoved his way past her like she didn't exist. She was very mindful of the last time she pressed into the railings, which ended in her falling into the paddock below. Glancing over her shoulder at the ground, she couldn't believe how she didn't break anything. Maybe it was the soft ground?
"You came on a good day. It's not usually a happy ending." Owen responded, his voice dull at having to communicate with this particular man.
"Is that why you're not sending in your reports?" Vic asked knowingly, causing Owen to glance past him at Sierra. It was both their responsibilities to write the reports. To be fair, she was supposed to type the reports out based on Owen's notes, which he wasn't the best at keeping up on.
"We've been busy." Barry answered.
"Not too busy to cash your paychecks." Vic joked.
"Uh, what do you need, buddy?" Owen finally asked, wanting to get this over with.
Sierra couldn't see Vic's face as he responded. "A field test."
She did see Owen roll his eyes as he turned his back and walked away.
Sierra's eyebrows were high on her forehead as she met eyes with Barry. Vic scurried after Owen and began a low-voiced debate. Barry shook his head as he headed in the opposite direction. Sierra unhooked the bucket of rats from the railing and followed Barry. She caught up with him when he stopped to talk to a guy with paperwork for a feed shipment. Barry looked over the list of what was delivered, briefly informing the man they needed a bigger variety of live feed for the raptors to hunt before signing for the delivery.
They finished just in time to meet back up with Owen and Vic, who had made their way around to the outer walkways of the paddock.
"Nature gave us the most effective killing machines 75 million years ago, and now we know they can take orders." Vic was saying as her and Barry reached them.
"We finally make progress, and that's the first thing he says?" Barry cuts in, him and Sierra coming to a stop next to Owen and Vic. "Make a weapon?"
Vic looked away in annoyance. "Come on, gents. It's grownup time." Vic went on as they all started walking around the paddock toward the stairs. "So, you can run along, sweetie." he added over his shoulder to Sierra. She grimaced at his back when he faced forward again. She briefly wondered how long he'd last if he fell into the paddock. It'd be like the raptors' biggest, slowest pork dinner yet.
Vic started going on about the downsides of drones and technology.
"Yeah, but that tech's not going to eat them if they forget to feed it." Owen countered.
"Look, look at these creatures." Vic stopped next to the railing to gesture into the paddock. Sierra looked down in time to see Echo race into the bushes. Delta was looking after her, as if debating following. Blue was looking up at them on the walkway, tilting her head as she glanced among them, as if, on some level, she understood what they were discussing. "They've got millions of years of instinct in their cells, instinct that we can program. Their loyalty cannot be bought. These guys are gonna run straight into the enemy's teeth, and eat 'em, belt buckle and all."
Sierra tilted her head slightly, a couple of his sentences rolling around in her mind. First he says they could program the raptors' instincts, but then he says their loyalty can't be bought. Seemed a bit counterintuitive. Then, his last sentence made her think about how he had a belt buckle.
She really needed to stop with all thoughts that lead to him being eaten. That couldn't be healthy.
"What if they decide they wanna be in control?" Barry asked, causing Sierra to look past him at Vic standing on his other side. She wanted to hear this. In the past year, Blue had been pushing at Owen more and more. As the natural leader of the pack, there were times she didn't seem content to just be the Beta. Sometimes she seemed to look at Owen with trust and respect, but other times she wanted to challenge him, as if she wanted to be the Alpha. It was a touchy time, Owen compared it to a rebellious teenager, but more serious. Barry's question was a valid one.
"Then, we remind them who is. We terminate the rogues. Promote only loyal bloodlines." Vic answered promptly, causing Barry to laugh and shake his head. "What? What's so funny?" he asked as Barry just walked away without answering. Sierra shook her head, too, following Barry until they walked side-by-side and leaving Owen to deal with Vic's ego. She passed her brother the bucket of rats as she passed.
"I swear his time in the military killed his brain cells or something." Sierra muttered to Barry. "For one, you kill one of the raptors, you'll have to kill all of them. They won't obey you if you kill their sisters. Two, he does realize there's no "bloodlines", right? The dinosaurs on this island don't breed. They're made in a lab."
Barry chuckled again. "That's why I let Owen deal with him. The man only seems to remember things that are useful to him, while helpfully forgetting the important details."
Sierra was quiet for a moment as they walked. "You think he'll get what he wants? The raptors being in a war?"
Barry sighed. "I don't know. If InGen gets what it wants, probably. But it won't work the way he wants it, no matter how arrogant he is. If anything, the most likely outcome will be he gets the field test he wants, the raptors will turn on any human they come across, and then the raptors will be killed."
Sierra swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat, her eyes going into the paddock. Blue had stopped watching Owen and Vic, instead looking into the bushes where Echo had run off. Meanwhile Sierra noticed Charlie and Delta were glancing up at her. That was the answer she expected, but the one she'd been dreading. She knew she shouldn't have allowed herself to get attached to the raptors. Everyone in her life who she cared about ended up leaving or hurting her. Her mom, her dad, the couple friends she'd had over the years in school. Even Owen had left her for the Navy when he turned eighteen, though he still kept in touch, and later adopted her.
But the moment those raptors hatched and looked up at her with those big, adorably-intelligent eyes, she'd been hooked. And now, she didn't think she could handle losing them, especially to someone like Vic Hoskins.
Sierra turned and rested her arms on the railing, leaning on her arms. Barry patted her shoulder, seeming to get where her thoughts went, before he walked away. He knew what she was going through. His K9 partner, Astrid, had passed away just before he took the job with InGen.
Sierra rested her chin on her forearm, silently watching the raptors in their downtime; in their element. She heard Echo call from out in the trees, and Delta let out a call in response. She loved watching them communicate. It was like a tiny peephole into their level of intelligence. To the untrained eye, it was no different to a pair of dogs barking. But she could tell it was more. She'd seen them use those calls right before doing something together, moving together perfectly.
A loud clanging sound shook Sierra out of her thoughts, making her stand up straight.
"Pig loose! Pig loose!" a guy was yelling, running around the paddock with a long catch pole in his hand. He was on the opposite side of the paddock from Sierra, running like an idiot. He ran out onto the walkway more toward the middle of the paddock. Hearing the familiar squealing, Sierra looked down into the paddock below in time to see the familiar shape of a pig racing across the open clearing. The guy, who she thought might be new, stuck the catch pole down into the paddock. It was a blur. She thought the loop might have gone around the pig's neck, but then a gray blur raced out of the trees and snatched the pig up.
The guy was yanked right over the railing.
A painful jolt went up Sierra's spine when he hit the ground. Her eyes were fixed on his body laying on the ground, but she saw Blue and Delta's heads snap to attention, staring intently at their new prey.
"No." Sierra whispered. "No, Blue! Don't!" she called, but the raptors ignored her. The man sat up and started frantically scooting backwards to get away. Delta started stalking her way around one side, while Charlie popped up on Blue's left, the two starting to approach the man.
People started running around, several grabbing big guns of some kind.
"Owen, no!" Barry's voice called from below, making Sierra lean over the railing and look down. Owen crawled under the gate before running into the paddock, yelling for people to hold their fire. Instead of moving slowly like he did when Sierra fell into the paddock, Owen raced right into the middle of the action, sliding to a stop only when he was between the three raptors and the new guy. Probably because the raptors had mainly displayed curiosity with Sierra, but were now displaying obvious hunting behavior.
Owen had his hands up in the usual signals. Sierra looked down again at the new guy as he continued scooting backwards. Then she caught a glimpse of a couple dark-skinned arms reaching out to pull him to safety. Barry.
Owen was focusing mostly on Blue, quietly telling her to stand down. It was nearly silent all around the paddock as everyone watched with baited breath. He obviously wasn't focused only on Blue, as that would be suicide. Right as Sierra realized Delta was trying to creep around behind him, Owen called, "Delta, I see you. Back up." turning his head to look right at her.
Delta screeched at him.
Owen continued to slowly inch back, and part of Sierra wished he'd move a bit faster. He then had to warn Charlie to back up, too, though it did little to discourage any of the raptors.
He told Barry to close the gate right as Sierra noticed Echo creeping out of the trees, clearly planning on coming at Owen from behind. Their typical hunting strategy. Sierra held her breath, her hand clenched around the handrails. She heard the gate start closing, and it was a few tense seconds before Owen turned and dove under the gate. The raptors screeched and dove after him, hitting the metal bars with a loud clang.
Sierra sighed, slouching against the railing in relief. The raptors quickly seemed to get bored now that their free food was out of reach. Charlie quickly wandered off, then Blue went in the opposite direction, then finally Delta. Echo, however, paced a bit by the cage bars, looking down at something.
Pushing away from the railing, Sierra made her way down the stairs and toward the holding pen that Barry was just exiting. She tried not to grimace when she noticed Vic was still leaning against the bars watching, as if this was some interesting action movie.
Looking through the cage bars, she couldn't help grinning when she saw that Echo was crouched down by the cage, her sharp claws curled and teeth bared as she pressed her snout between the bars. When the new guy looked back and saw her only a few feet away, Sierra was sure he wet himself.
"Well, that added a little excitement to the day." Sierra joked as Barry came up beside her.
Barry laughed a little. "I told Owen he should have let them eat the new guy."
Sierra swatted his shoulder. "That's terrible." she laughed. "Anyway, is there anything else I need to do today? Or do I get the rest of the day off?" she joked slightly. She kinda wanted to look around the park a bit. She still needed to figure out Christmas presents and figured it couldn't hurt to check out the park.
Barry shrugged, glancing over his shoulder as Owen joined them. Thankfully, Vic had left.
"You could probably take off. I'm going to write out an incident report quick on what just happened, but there's not much else to do." Owen told her, having overheard her question. Behind him, a medical professional was walking with the new guy back toward the research center. He didn't appear to be limping or injured, mostly just in shock.
Sierra nodded in agreement. "You don't need me to help fill that out?" she checked.
Owen snorted. "Nah, I've got it. You take off before I change my mind."
Sierra gave him a mocking salute before hurrying into the center to grab her bag and leave. After a quick drive on her four-wheeler, she ended up at Main Street, which was horribly crowded. She hesitated before just wandering down the street, taking a look at all the shops and businesses to see if she got any ideas.
She could get Owen or Barry some camping gear from Columbia Sportswear. She could get a dorky safari hat or a Jurassic World camo-colored shirt from Jurassic Traders. But then she spotted some postcards of Jurassic World and got an idea. She had a camera in her bag, which she sometimes used to document the raptors' progress. But maybe she could find some cool photos of the island and put together a sort of scrap book for Owen for Christmas.
Grinning at the idea, she looked around for where her first stop should be for photos. There were a few cool things right on Main Street she could photograph. Her eyes were drawn way down to the end of Main Street, where the lagoon was, making her grin widen. The Mosasaurus feeding show should be starting soon.
Hurrying down the street, she wove in and out of the crowds until she reached the ticket-taking booth. She flashed her wristband, which let her in for free and without waiting, and hurried to find a good seat. There was already a decent crowd, so half of the seats were taken. There had to be hundreds of people already seated. She finally found a decent seat next to a couple boys.
"Is this seat taken?" she asked them politely. One of them looked about her age, while the other looked maybe ten or twelve. They had the same nose and eye shape, but the younger one had almost fluffy, lighter brown hair and blue eyes. The teenager had darker brown hair and dark eyes. She didn't know how the older one was wearing a hoodie and long pants. Even though it was December, it was still in the high 70s.
The younger boy smiled up at her, revealing dimples and shaking his head. "No, you can sit there." Sierra smiled in return, thinking he was adorable.
"Thanks." she said, taking a seat next to him. She noticed the older boy was staring at her. When she met his eyes, instead of looking away like a normal person, he just kept staring.
Self-conscious, Sierra looked away and started digging through her bag. She knew she probably looked gross; her dark auburn hair was in a braid and was probably frizzy from the humidity, and she knew she had a light sheen of sweat covering her skin. And she was dressed in a pair of khaki shorts and a blue short-sleeved shirt. This was just how she usually dressed. She never really bothered with her looks, especially since she was usually working with the raptors and didn't see a lot of other people outside of that.
"I'm Gray." the little boy introduced himself, making her look over at him. "This is my brother, Zach. What's your name?"
"I'm Sierra." she introduced herself, smiling again. This kid's smile was contagious. "It's nice to meet you." she glanced over at Zach to include him in the statement, though his staring was still creeping her out a bit. She'd never had teenage boys give her any attention before.
"You have a wrist band like us." Gray pointed out, looking at her wrist. Sure enough, both boys had a wrist band like she did.
"Yeah." she answered in surprise. "My brother works here." she said after a moment. "What about you?"
Gray glanced back at his brother before answering, "Our aunt works here. She was supposed to spend the day with us but she was too busy."
Sierra nodded in understanding. Though she was a little surprised that their aunt would let them wander a park this crowded without an adult, especially with a kid as young as Gray. It's not like Isla Nublar was immune to kidnappers and creeps. "Is this your first time being here?"
"Yeah. I can't wait to see everything. We already watched the T-Rex feeding." Gray answered excitedly while Zach started looking at his phone. He clearly didn't share his brother's enthusiasm.
She grinned slightly at Gray. "I bet you'd both like the Gyrosphere Valley. You get to drive around the open grounds in a giant, reinforced glass ball, getting close to a lot of the big herbivores." She had a feeling Gray would like the educational videos that played in the Gyrosphere, and maybe being up close and personal with some of the dinosaurs would get Zach interested in something other than his phone.
Gray beamed up at her. "That sounds so cool. Zach!" he turned and shook his brother's arm. "We have to do that next! Please?!"
Zach gave his brother an annoyed glance before looking past him and staring at Sierra again. Her smile at Gray's antics slowly slipped from her face when their eyes met. Blushing, she looked down and started fiddling with her camera.
The stands started quickly filling up, and Gray easily distracted Sierra from the pressing crowds with a barrage of fun facts and questions. She wondered if his brother let him eat sugar for breakfast or something. He just never seemed to stop.
"Did you know the Mosasaurus has a second set of teeth in it's upper jaw?"
"This Mosasaurus has a bite force of 13K. That's higher than the T-Rex."
"How long are you visiting your brother? Is he way older than you? Zach is four years and seven months older than me."
Sierra glanced past Gray at Zach, who was watching them from the corner of his eye. She noticed he rolled his eyes at Gray's comment.
"Um, Owen's actually fifteen years older than me." she admitted. "We have different moms. And,…I'm not really visiting him. I live here on Isla Nublar with him."
That actually seemed to pull Zach's attention from his phone, making him look at her again while Gray's face lit up.
"No way! That's so cool! Do you live in one of the hotel rooms? Or do you have a house? How do you go to school? What does your brother do?"
"Dude, chill. You ask too many questions." Zach finally spoke up, jabbing his elbow into Gray's back.
Gray's face fell and he sat back in his seat. "Oh. Sorry." he mumbled.
"It's okay." Sierra assured him gently. "And, um,…My brother and I live in a kinda bungalow near the lake. I have a private tutor that I meet with during the week, but I have to take a boat to the mainland a few times a year to take my finals. And…my brother's part of a research project."
Gray's smile came back, but it was more subdued. "That's cool. So,…what about your parents?"
Sierra pursed her lips slightly. It'd been a long time since she really thought or talked about her parents other than a passing thought or memory. "I haven't seen my parents in almost five years."
Gray's face fell again. "Oh. Sorry. Did they divorce?"
Sierra tilted her head slightly. "I couldn't tell you. Probably. Our dad and Owen's mom divorced before I was born." she spoke without thinking. Zach gave her a knowing look. "But like I said, I haven't seen or heard from them in years."
Thankfully, even innocent little Gray seemed to sense she wanted to change the subject, so he started spouting off more fun facts, most Sierra didn't know. Finally, the show started as the host stepped out onto the small platform. Soon, the host was giving the typical speech of facts that honestly weren't as interesting as the ones Gray was listing.
As they started rolling a dead Great White shark to hang out over the lagoon, Sierra turned on her camera and got it ready. Beside her, she could hear Gray trying to get Zach's attention from where he was just looking at his phone again.
The Mosasaurus breached the water with a roar, it's jaw stretching at least 20 feet before chomping down on the shark. Sierra made sure to snap several photos as it did so, though her eyes were honestly more focused on the actual animal than the small screen on her camera. The crowd around her gasped and 'ooh'ed, everyone filming with their phones. When the Mosasaurus came down, it dropped into the water and sent a huge wave splashing over the stands. Even though she expected it, Sierra still got completely drenched in cool water.
"That was awesome!" Gray's voice next to her was nearly drowned out in the cheers and laughter of the crowd. Grinning widely, Sierra turned and saw that even Zach was smiling and laughing with his brother, no longer looking at his phone.
The stands lowered down until they could see through the glass into the lagoon, watching the Mosasaurus swim and eat the rest of her lunch. Sierra made sure to get a few good shots of that as well. Gray was doing the same next to her, and she noticed Zach was clapping and laughing still.
The massive crowd slowly stood and made their way out of the stands, being directed by some employees for a smooth exit. With the crush of people, Sierra somehow ended up staying close to Zach and Gray as they all made their way back out onto Main Street.
"That was awesome!" Gray said for probably the fifth time. Sierra flipped her braid in front of her shoulder and tried to wring her wet hair out a bit, smiling at Gray's enthusiasm. "So, what are you doing now?" Gray asked.
Sierra thought for a moment. "Not sure yet. I was thinking of taking the Gondola over the mountain. I'm trying to get some photos of the best views on the island." she explained. "But if you guys want to go to the Gyrosphere Valley, you'll need to get to the Monorail station at the end of Main Street." she suggested, pulling out her phone to check the time. "A Monorail leaves every 20 minutes. If you don't get there in the next ten, you'll need to wait for the next one. It'll take you anywhere in the park, you just need to get off at whatever stop you want. They have maps at all the stations."
Zach nodded, giving her a small smile. "Great. Thanks." He hesitated for a moment before adding, "Maybe we'll see you around."
Sierra smiled slightly, trying to ignore the fact that she was blushing. "Yeah, maybe you will. Have fun!" she called, starting to make her way toward the nearest Gondola station.
AN: How long did it take you to figure out we were at the beginning of the movie? And what did you all think of Sierra meeting Zach and Gray? What are you hoping to see happen or change from the movie? Review and let me know! Thanks!
