Ch 14:
It was dark by the time the jeep broke through the trees into the clearing around the raptor paddock, but you almost couldn't believe it with how many floodlights lit up the area.
Owen blasted through a puddle, spraying the immediate area with mud and water before he slammed on the breaks. Sierra could see Vic Hoskins leaving the holding cells to meet up with Owen, and all the raptors were in their raptor chutes with men carrying Ipads walking around.
"Sierra, you and the boys stay in the car." Owen ordered before he and Claire got out of the jeep, Claire slamming her door shut behind her while Owen didn't bother. Sierra sighed in annoyance, leaning forward between the front seats in the hopes she might hear what was said. Hoskins was sauntering toward them with a big, arrogant grin on his face, like the cat that got the canary. That soon went away.
As soon as Owen was close enough, he threw a punch straight into Vic's face.
"Oh!" all three kids made exclamations of shock, Zach covering his slight grin with a hand.
"Finally!" Sierra whispered, making a celebratory fist while flopping back against the seat. Zach turned and looked at her with a mixture of amusement and confusion. She ignored the fact that her shoulder was pressed firmly against his in the small seat. "I really hate that guy." she admitted, forcing herself to sit up again to try and hear what was being said.
She needn't bothered. They couldn't hear most of the conversation from the jeep. It was mostly a hushed conversation. Barry joined Owen and Claire, but it was basically the three of them against Vic and a small army of InGen people. But then Vic made a rather loud, self-righteous speech near the end that she caught the gist of.
They were going to use the raptors to hunt and kill the Indominus, and they were going to do it with or without Owen's help.
Owen turned and stormed back over to the jeep, his tense posture making it clear he was pissed. Claire and Barry followed. At a wave of Owen's hand, the kids climbed out of the back of the jeep. Claire quickly wrapped an arm around both her nephews, seeming to still be anxious about letting them out of her sight. Owen, however, reached behind his back. When his hand reappeared, his knife that he always kept on his back was in his hand. He pressed it into Sierra's palm. She watched nervously as he then took a small handgun from Barry. He checked it over, made sure the safety was on, and then looked her dead in the eye.
"You remember how to use this?" he asked seriously. Uncertain, Sierra nodded her head. "You sure?" he checked.
"Yes, I remember how to use it. You've been drilling me on it almost every month for the past few years." Sierra answered impatiently. "Owen, what's this about? What is going on?"
Owen exchanged a tense look with Claire and Barry before turning back to her and holding the gun out to her, the barrel in his hand so she had to take the grip. "Barry and I have to go over the plan with the InGen guys. Basically, we're going to use our Hide-and-Seek scent drill for the raptors to track the Indominus."
"Does he seriously expect them to kill her?" Sierra asked desperately. "Her claws are bigger than their bodies! She could swallow one of them whole!"
"Believe me, I know, and I'm not happy about it, either." Owen assured her, also sounding frustrated, though probably more with Vic than her. "I've made it clear that they can help track the Indominus, but they can't be expected to take it down on their own. That's why there's going to be a bunch of InGen guys with real guns coming along." Owen sighed tensely, his jaw clenched for a moment. Claire and Barry didn't look thrilled, either. "Which brings me to why I'm giving you a gun and knife. Vic is insisting you come along."
There was a long moment of shocked disbelief.
"Excuse me?" Sierra spluttered while even Zach and Gray loudly questioned the announcement.
"Vic has always made it clear that while he doesn't respect you, he knows the raptors listen to you to some extent." Owen explained, still angry and tense. "He's known it from the moment you fell into the paddock. For some reason, he thinks having you along will ensure their obedience." He rolled his eyes.
"Is he completely insane?" Sierra demanded, somewhat loudly. "They listen to me sometimes. They listen to you because you're their alpha, and even then it's a tossup. I can shoot but I'm not trained for this!" she added desperately, holding the gun up limply in her hand, though still unconsciously pointing it down safely.
Owen planted his hands firmly on her shoulders, ducking to look her in the eyes. "I know that. Which is why you will be staying in the back of an armored truck. We will have a set of radios so I can talk to you when we're out there. You have weapons, and there will be an entire line of armed men, me, and Barry between you and any danger. Okay?"
Sierra took a deep breath through her nose, letting it out while nodding. "Okay."
Owen and Barry hurried off to make plans with the InGen soldiers, and Claire went to make accommodations for herself and her nephews during the hunt. Meanwhile, Sierra found herself standing by the bars of the holding pen, looking in at the raptors. She hated seeing them like this, stuck in the chutes and being unable to move. She could also tell they had cameras of some kind strapped to their heads. Her lips quirked up slightly when Echo chittered at her, all four pairs of sharp eyes fixed on her.
Footsteps scuffing the dirt alerted her to Zach and Gray hesitantly joining her at the cage bars. She turned her head, resting her temple on the cool bar to look at them. Both were looking at the raptors, Gray looking curious while Zach looked wary.
"So,…your brother mentioned you fell into their cage once?" Zach checked, looking over at her.
Sierra nodded tiredly. "Yeah. A combination of someone running into me, and me tripping over a stool, ending in me falling over the railing. I fell from way up there to the ground in the paddock." she explained, pointing up at the walkways above the paddock. The boys' eyes followed her finger, their brows high in surprise, and Gray's mouth fell open. "Got a minor concussion and some internal bruising on my back. Other than that, I was pretty much okay."
"But why didn't they eat you?" Gray asked, turning curious eyes back to her. "Are they tame?"
Sierra shook her head firmly. "Absolutely not. They are predators." Her eyes traveled back to the raptors, who were all watching the three kids intently. "I'm not sure why they didn't attack. I was sure Delta was about to at one point." Her lips quirked into a small grin when her eyes landed on Charlie. "I almost wonder if part of it was the jerky I had in my back pocket." At their incredulous expressions she snorted. "One of the raptors, Charlie,…I guess you could say she's food oriented. I had some homemade jerky that I forgot in my back pocket, and she sniffed it out. I can laugh about it now, but she was literally sniffing my butt while I was surrounded by the whole pack because of the jerky in my back pocket."
Zach smirked and Gray laughed.
"But in all seriousness, I don't know why they didn't attack." she admitted. "But I seriously doubt it's as simple as Vic seems to think. They don't just flat out obey me, or even Owen. And I'm really worried about how this hunt is going to go."
"You think they won't find the Indominus? Or do you think they'll turn on all of you?" Zach asked.
"Oh, I'm confident they'll find the Indominus." she answered certainly. "But other than that, I have no idea. They may turn on us, they may attack the Indominus, they may die. A million things could happen. And I don't know what I want to happen." she admitted. At their confused expressions, she elaborated, "Vic wants to use the raptors in war. If this little field test of his goes well, it'll pave the way for that to happen. He'll weaponize them, but I really don't think he realizes how complicated this is. They're not going to blindly obey someone's command, maybe not even Owen's."
Zach and Gray exchanged a glance just as Sierra noticed Owen and Barry returning from the little tent where they'd been going over the plan. Owen entered the holding pen, waving Sierra in with him. He handed her a small black walkie talkie and a bulky, black Ipad device. She clipped the walkie to one of her pockets and looked down at the Ipad screen. It was mostly in shades of green, like night vision, and the screen was split into four sections.
"Everyone going out there has one of these, so you could reach me or anyone else." Owen explained the walkie, giving her a quick rundown on how it worked. "And this is connected to the raptors' cameras." he added, pointing at the Ipad. Sure enough, all four screens showed both her and Owen in night vision, though from four slightly differing angles. But they were clearly from the raptors' point-of-view.
Owen then went from raptor to raptor, straightening their cameras and calming them down. Sierra went to Delta, who looked extra agitated. Sierra ran her hand down Delta's tensed neck, shushing her gently, trying to sooth her. When it seemed to do no good, Sierra tilted her head to look into Delta's eyes. Following her laser-focused amber eyes, Sierra noticed the raptor's attention was fixed intently on Vic Hoskins, who was getting into a helicopter to be taken to the control room.
"I don't like him either, girl." she whispered. Luckily, when Vic left Delta relaxed a bit and became more focused.
Owen spoke a bit with Zach, Gray, and Claire before a guy called that it was time to get going. Sierra patted each raptor goodbye and good luck before following Owen out of the holding pen and toward a large, armored truck.
"This is where you'll be riding with the rest of the soldiers." Owen announced, pulling open the large back doors. "I want you to sit up there, as close to the front as you can. And I want you to stay in this truck at all costs unless I contact you on the walkie and say otherwise."
Sierra nodded once, words caught behind the lump in her throat. So instead, she wrapped her arms tightly around his middle. Within moments his arms were constricted around her back in return.
"It'll be okay." he murmured into the top of her head. "You are my top priority. I will make sure I get back to you alive, and I will make sure you aren't in any danger."
Sierra swallowed and nodded, knowing it was likely an empty promise. He could protect her with everything in him, but that didn't completely eliminate any danger. But she supposed having Owen as a big brother was her best chance of survival at this point. It always had been.
Sierra climbed into the back of the truck, doing as Owen said and scooting as far in as possible, pressing herself into the back of the drivers seat. One-by-one, InGen guys with tactical gear and big guns climbed in with her, giving her weird looks. She figured they didn't like or understand why she was involved, but they likely lacked the guts to say so when Vic specifically wanted her there. She chose to ignore their looks, staring intently at the Ipad in her hands.
There wasn't much to see, as they had released the raptors' heads so they could turn around in their chutes and face the doors that lead out into the park. She could tell by the shifting of the camera that the raptors were eagerly shifting on their feet, ready to get going. She could barely make out the changing shadows and movements through the small slits in the doorways. Owen was moving from one door to the next, holding up a chunk of the Indominus' flesh so the raptors could catch the scent.
The next few minutes were long, but finally, in an abrupt movement, all the chute doors flew open and the raptors shot out. There was no slow start, no hesitation. They just ran. The truck's engine revved, shaking under Sierra's rump and legs before the truck lurched forward. She could hear the familiar sounds of Owen's motorcycle and Barry's four-wheeler outside.
The cameras' movements were erratic as the four raptors wove in and out of the trees, leaping over logs and bushes. Sometimes the raptors would pop into another raptor's camera view, or one raptor would turn her head to show her packmates running at her side. The truck likely wasn't following their exact path, given how big it was.
Eventually, Owen came onto the screens as he drove his motorcycle into the pack's midst. It was hard to tell with the four varying camera angles, but…it looked like he was right in the middle of the raptors for a bit.
Oh, he was probably so smug right now.
Right about then, Sierra heard one of the guys in the front seat mention the raptors being straight ahead, which made Sierra study the cameras a bit more closely. There were less trees and undergrowth on the cameras, so the truck was likely better able to follow the raptors.
Owen's voice suddenly echoed from several walkies in the truck, "They got something."
Sure enough, the raptors suddenly broke into a small clearing, fanning out and looking all around with their heads and noses in the air. Sierra felt the truck she was in slow and come to an abrupt stop. She finally tore her eyes away from the screen as all the men poured from the truck, slamming the doors shut behind them. She was so very tempted to follow them, to watch what was happening in person instead of on this tiny screen that limited her view. But Owen's words rang clear in her head. She was to stay in the vehicle unless told otherwise.
But she wasn't going to miss everything. Standing up, she peaked out the front windshield from between the front seats. The raptors were far ahead, looking through the trees while Owen, Barry, and the other InGen people fanned out with their guns, red lasers pointing into the trees. In the dark, she could barely make out Owen's messy, lighter hair amongst the others, he was crouched behind a fallen tree with his gun propped on top of it and aimed ahead.
At the same moment that Sierra heard the familiar, chilling roar, she felt the truck tremble beneath her feet with the steady, daunting thump…thump of enormous footsteps. Her fingers clenched around the top of the seats, a lump in her throat as her eyes stared straight ahead. She noticed the raptors shifting on their feet, their heads moving about as if trying to catch a glimpse of their target. A few crouched low to the ground, readying themselves for an attack. Sierra desperately hoped it wouldn't come to that.
Then she appeared. Her white head flowing from the shadows like a ghost as she parted the vines and leaves. She seemed to focus primarily on the raptors, as if the humans held little to no interest to her. Sierra tried to take deep breaths, tried to stay calm, but her breathing was shaky and uneven.
Three of the raptors crouched low, and she could just make out their hissing in the silent night. But one raptor, the one towards the middle, kept her head high even in the face of this intimidating opponent.
Blue.
The Indominus got so close to the raptors Sierra was sure she would just snap one up. She couldn't help but flinch when the enormous jaws opened. But then the Indominus…roared? But it wasn't a roar, it was like-
Blue cawed in response. Charlie, Echo, and Delta seemed to look back and forth as this continued, the Indominus and Blue…squawking at each other. Each noise from the Indominus started sounding more and more like…a raptor. When the Indominus finally made a quiet, barely-there chittering sound, it finally clicked what Sierra was seeing in her shock.
They were communicating. But that-that's impossible. Dinosaurs can't typically communicate across species that well. Which means-
She's part velociraptor.
As if her thoughts were a signal, the raptors turned around to look at the group behind them, as did the Indominus. A couple of the raptors were even crouched down and ready to attack.
Panicked, Sierra looked down at her Ipad. To her horror, all the raptors were focused on…Owen.
Gunshots rang through the night, making Sierra flinch. She looked back up in time to see the raptors scatter, the Indominus turning to flee into the trees. One guy shot off some kind of missile or rocket launcher, but it looked like it barely knocked the Indominus over. She got back up and ran off.
The guys all got up and started scouring the jungle, and Owen's voice rang out for Sierra and everyone to hear.
"Watch your six! Raptors got a new Alpha!"
As the men all disappeared from Sierra's view, she looked back down at the Ipad. For now, all she could see were the blurry shades of green that told her the raptors were all moving very quickly through the undergrowth, but she couldn't tell where.
Until some people popped up in a couple of the screens. The raptors were hunting the InGen guys. And Owen and Barry. Her hand went to the walkie clipped to her pocket, debating letting Owen know that the raptors were hunting them. But he probably already knew that. And it could distract him. But she still wanted to warn him. Ugh! Why was this such a hard decision?!
She was expecting it, but the first attack still made her flinch. The raptors moved fast, then suddenly some guy's horrified face and scream were right in the screen before the video fritzed and then showed a body being dragged away.
The videos were all over the place suddenly. Echo's video showed a different raptor leap on a guy. Delta's video caught Delta herself attacking a guy and then dragging him off. Charlie…Charlie was eating. A small, morbid part of Sierra wanted to laugh because of course Charlie was eating. But she was eating a person. Which was obviously not funny.
Sierra looked back and forth between the screen and the front windshield. She didn't want to just stay here, not knowing what was happening. She wanted to talk to her brother, but she also didn't want to distract him.
She wanted her family. She wanted to feel safe. She wanted to know that her family was safe. Owen. Barry. Her raptors. She couldn't lose any of them.
Before she even thought about it, before she thought about how stupid this idea was, Sierra was already opening the back of the truck and hopping out onto the ground below. She looked around nervously, her eyes going back to the Ipad screen. She couldn't place where any of the raptors, or her brother, were based on the video. But she could certainly hear the screaming.
She pulled out the handgun Owen had forced onto her, keeping that in one hand and the Ipad in the other. She doubted the Ipad would be very helpful, at least for the moment, but she figured it couldn't hurt to have it just in case.
Sierra stuck close to the shadows and trees and anything that could hide her as she moved through the jungle, her eyes scanning for even the slightest movements. She knew the raptors could remain virtually invisible unless they wanted to be seen, so of course she jumped at every snapping twig or rustling grass. But she didn't see herself in any of the raptors' videos, so…that was good.
She paused next to a tree, staring out into a small clearing filled with grass that was almost as tall as her shoulders. She could hear the familiar, somewhat morbid crunching of a raptor eating something with bones. She scanned the clearing a bit closer and saw a tail stick straight up out of the grass. She couldn't tell which one it was in the dark, but it was certainly one of the raptors. A quick glance down at the Ipad screen, Sierra figured it was likely Charlie considering what was currently in all the video screens.
A twig snapped nearby and Sierra jumped, pressing herself into the tree trunk and peaking around it. She relaxed minutely. It wasn't a raptor hunting her, it was one of the InGen guys. But when she studied his behavior, she tensed again. He didn't see her standing just meters away from him. He had the missile launcher propped up onto his shoulder, aiming out into the clearing…aiming at Charlie.
Sierra's eyes moved back and forth between the man and the raptor. In the same moment, she saw Charlie suddenly pop her head up out of the grass. Her back was facing Sierra and the guy, but she seemed to be looking at something. Then she tilted her head and made one of her, what Sierra considered, cute little raptor sounds. And Sierra couldn't stay quiet.
"Charlie! Duck!" she screamed as the man fired the missile. She thought Charlie might have ducked or run, but then the missile hit the ground and there was a flash of bright light and a small explosion. Sierra flinched and ducked back behind the tree trunk she'd been leaning on.
It was quiet for a moment, obviously aside from the distant screaming and rustling bushes. Sierra was trying to take deep breaths. She was trying to remain calm. Panicking out here would not do her any good. Maybe she should get back to the truck.
An arm shot out and a large hand clamped down on Sierra's wrist. She shrieked in surprise, dropping the Ipad from the hand that was grabbed as someone swung her around. She was face-to-face with the man who'd fired the missile. And he was livid.
"What the hell were you thinking?! Who do you think you are? I don't care if you think those are your little pets, they're huntin' down my men and slaughtering them! If I have to gut every last one of them, I will, and for that little stunt, I might just make you watch!"
Throughout his little rant, Sierra tried to yank her arm free, smacking at him with her free arm. She belatedly realized that hand also still held Barry's gun and she went to aim it at the man in a blind panic. His grip and his anger were bringing back ill-timed flashbacks of her father's temper.
The man grabbed her other wrist in his other hand, squeezing it until she felt a sharp pain. She yelped and dropped the gun to the ground.
"Listen, you little-"
A gray flash shot out of the bushes and the man's grip was yanked from Sierra's arm. She was yanked forward and spun before she was completely released, ending up face-first on the ground. She could hear the man screaming as she hesitantly pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. She favored her sore wrist, cradling it to her chest as she sat back on her heels and hesitantly peaked up.
A raptor was literally ripping into the man who'd hurt her, blood and all kinds of things scattering across the ground. She tried to ignore that, focusing on the raptor and wondering if she should run or if she was safe.
In the dark, it was hard to tell which raptor it was, but then said raptor lifted her head and a beam of moonlight revealed several barely-visible stripes.
"Charlie." Sierra breathed.
As if hearing her name, Charlie turned away from the dead guy and stared intently at Sierra sitting on the ground. Sierra swallowed a lump in her throat, desperately hoping that Charlie wouldn't suddenly decide to eat her. Sure, Charlie had just saved her, but maybe that wasn't the way she saw it. Maybe Charlie just wanted to attack that guy for the hell of it. Or because he tried to shoot her with a missile.
Sierra tried to stay calm, tried to control her breathing and pounding heartbeat as Charlie approached her. She tilted her head curiously at Sierra as she got closer, making a chittering sound at her. Sierra relaxed minutely. This wasn't the stance of an attacking raptor. Of course, the raptors were intelligent enough to make traps so it could be a trick, but…Sierra sincerely hoped it wasn't.
"Hi, Charlie." Sierra whispered as the raptor moved closer; so close she was less than two feet away. "Good girl. You saved me. Thank you. I-I don't think I have any jerky for you this time." she joked slightly.
Charlie tilted her head the other way, like a curious puppy, her nostrils twitching and flaring as she sniffed. She stretched her neck closer and Sierra's breath caught as Charlie's nose nudged her sore wrist. Her face was right by Sierra's chest. She could kill her in less than a second. But…she was so gentle. Her nose barely tapped Sierra's wrist, warm breath from her nose washing over Sierra's arms and chest.
Sierra relaxed even more at the gesture. "I'm okay, girl. You saved me." she hesitated before lifting her other hand slowly. "Can I-can I take that thing off your head?" she asked hesitantly.
Charlie leaned back and tilted her head again, as if she was trying, or succeeding, in understanding what Sierra was saying. Slowly, Sierra lifted her hand toward the side of Charlie's head. Her eyes switched back and forth from Charlie's amber eyes to the round clip on the side of her head. If she wanted to, Charlie could chomp Sierra's arm clean off. But she stayed still, allowing Sierra to unclip the strap and toss the camera into the bushes.
"There. That's better." Sierra breathed, giving Charlie a smile.
Charlie tilted her head again before she stood up straight, her head turning and sharp eyes scanning the surrounding jungle. Sierra could just make out the screams and guns going off in the distance. It sounded like the pack was all over the place, the sounds coming from every direction.
Sierra slowly stood up, flexing her sore hand. It was feeling better, obviously not seriously injured. She looked around before picking up the gun she'd dropped earlier, making sure the safety was still on before putting it in her pocket, actively avoiding looking at the dead body near her feet.
Then she paused, looking in every direction. For just a moment, everything was daunting. The jungle looked the same in every direction, and she wasn't entirely sure where she was in that moment, since she'd been in the back of the truck that was blindly following the raptors. She didn't know which direction she needed to go. She should probably get back to the main part of the park, but which direction was that?
"Sierra? Sierra, can you hear me?" a familiar, staticky voice came from Sierra's pocket. In the chaos, she'd temporarily forgotten the walkie Owen had given her.
Scrambling desperately for the device, she almost dropped it before she could talk into it. "Owen? Owen, where are you?"
"I'm on my bike heading back to the park. Please tell me you're still in the truck?"
Sierra grimaced guiltily even though she knew he couldn't see her. She distantly heard a couple vehicles, one might have been a four-wheeler or motorcycle. She started walking in the general direction of the noise. "Um, about that…" she trailed off uncertainly.
"Damn it, Sierra! I told you to stay in the truck! I have a raptor on my tail, I can't just swing by and pick you up without leading Blue to you! Just…okay, just find out which way is which and head south. Got it? South. I'll check in every couple minutes. Just be careful."
Sierra swallowed the lump in her throat, already looking for a mossy tree trunk to figure out which direction was south. "Yeah, okay. You, too, Owen. Be careful."
She kept the walkie in her hand, the gun a heavy weight in her pocket as she hesitantly started trekking south. It took a few seconds for her to notice the presence at her side. She stared at Charlie with wide eyes as they walked through the dark jungle, but Charlie was intently scanning the surrounding jungle, as if checking for hidden dangers as they walked. Sierra had temporarily forgotten about Charlie while talking to her brother, and she certainly hadn't expected the raptor to stay by her side. She figured Charlie would go looking for her pack. But here she was, sticking close to Sierra's side.
It made things a little less daunting.
AN: Ta da! Charlie lives! Because I live in a little place called Denial, where Blue doesn't end up all alone.
Plus I always thought Charlie's death in the movie was the saddest. Like, she had just spotted Owen and showed absolutely no signs of attacking him. She tilted her head like a little puppy, and made a cute little sound like "Hey, that's my dad!" And then she gets blown up?! No! I refuse! So, Charlie lives.
Anyway, I'm off my soapbox now. Let me know what you all thought of this chapter, especially everything with Charlie and Sierra.
And who else is excited for Jurassic World: Dominion? I can't wait! Less than a week left!
