5 Star Treatment?

Malcolm felt dizzy, tired. He felt as though a whole bottle of Valium tablets had been shoved down his throat. His vision swam with swirling colors and blurry, discolored shapes. His mouth felt dry, parched. As he shakily raised a hand to his lips, he felt that they were wet, with saliva. He realized that he was lying on something hard and smooth.

Trying to stretch out of the tangled mess of limbs that he had returned to consciousness in, he felt his arms and legs hit several thin, hard rod-like objects. Through his blurred fog of vision, he thought he saw that the objects were floor-to-ceiling in front of him. He thanked whatever Gods there were out there that the droning dizziness that he had felt was gone. He shook his head, trying to clear his vision. He stared at the vertical rods again.

'Strange,' he thought, 'They look just like bars.

He sat up, and felt dizzy again. Before he lowered himself to the ground again, he thought he saw Ellie and Grant in two cages that looked small enough to contain a small pony. He sighed, lying down on his back in a fetal position.

A thought suddenly appeared in his mind like a knife stabbing into the heart of an assassin, screaming out the words, 'I'M IN A CAGE!"

He abruptly sat up, and saw that Grant and Ellie were in two separate cages opposite his cage. Shiny silver padlocks reflected the room's white lights from where they held the cage's doors locked. He stared and tried to stand, hitting his head on the cage's roof.

He fell down to his knees, cursing. He had forgotten that he was in a cage. The events that had occurred right up to his being drugged with Ludlow's goon's infernal tranquilizer darts suddenly rushed back, and he recalled everything. They had shot him with one of those darts, and had obviously done the same to Ellie and Grant as well. He looked around again, but there was no fourth cage in sight.

"Where are you, Marty?" he shouted at the ceiling, feeling a dozen pinpricks of pain stab into his head at that action.

He turned at a hissing noise, and saw that the room's door had opened. From his approximately 1-meter high vantage point, he saw several curly wisps of white smoke billowing around on the floor as a shiny metal cart whose wheels didn't squeak was wheeled into the room, with a pair of boot-clad feet behind them. He heard a woman's voice humming. The cart stopped.

The boots walked up to his cage, and the person wearing them squatted down outside his cage. It was a woman with flaming red hair, and ice-blue eyes. She was wearing a white lab coat, with an ID tag hanging from a chain around her neck. The tag read, 'Ruso, Lori: Head Scientist'

"Are you awake?" she asked, standing up.

"Nice hair."

"Thank you, Dr. Malcolm. How was the shot of 'Tα'?"

"What the heck is that?"

"A mild tranquilizer that Venn, Chang, and I formulated. We use it to knock out compies."

"Oh. How long was I out?"

"At least 5 hours, Dr. Malcolm. Your friends, Drs. Grant and Sattler, should be awakening soon," she said, as she opened a fridge in a corner of the room, allowing him to see rows of glass test tubes in racks arranged orderly inside. She took out a tube, and closed the fridge. He saw Ellie and Grant stirring in their cages.

"Why the 5 star treatment?" he asked.

"5 star it is, for you three. Your friend got seven stars."

"What did you do to Marty?"

"Not me. Ramon, the capture crew captain. He used 'Tβ' on Dr. Guittierez, a massive overdose, given that Marty was so underweight."

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU INJECT HIM WITH?"

"Don't shout please, the walls reflect the sound uncomfortably well. 'Tβ' was formulated for use on raptors, which weigh in at around 90 kilograms or so. Your underweight friend here weighed 50 kilos only. That's almost a double dose," she said, and he heard the snap of powdered latex disposable gloves being pulled on. Ellie and Grant were awake now, and were staring around blankly, "We formulated 'Tα' (alpha) for compy-sized dinos, 'Tβ' (beta) for Raptor-sized dinos, 'TΔ' (delta) for herrerasur-sized dinos, 'TΩ' (omega) for hadrosaur-sized dinos, 'Tγ' (gamma) for rex-sized dinos, 'Tθ' (theta) for sauropods, 'Tρ' (rho) for aquatic dinos, 'Tμ' (mu) for dactyls, and TΣ (sigma) for euthanasia."

"So he's dead, then?"

"Guess who's on the cart in front of me?"

"Marty? Is he alive?"

"Stop asking stupid questions, Dr. Malcolm. Of course he's dead. As dead as a doornail. I'm gonna cut him up like a frog in Biology 101."

"BITCH!" Ellie shouted, sounding woozy. She stuck her hand out of the cage she was in and showed Lori Ruso the Finger.

Lori shrugged, "It's just your middle finger, nothing more. And I'm cutting him open to determine the exact cause of his death. Or at least see what effect 'Tβ' has on humans."

Ellie and Malcolm heard Grant muttering something about the lack of respect for the dead, and heard the unmistakable clink of metal objects on a metal tray. They heard a soft click of a scalpel blade being fixed onto its handle, then Lori started humming rather loudly, drowning out any soft noises.

"Oh, my," Lori's voice drifted down from above their heads.

"What?" snapped Grant, who was now adjusting his cowboy hat.

"His trachea has collapsed. This is an indication of anaphylactic shock."

"Ana-what shock?" This from Malcolm.

"Anaphylactic shock. In English: severe allergenic reaction. Like a peanut allergy. A tracheotomy would have been necessary to save him."

"So he died from this dinosaur tranquilizer that he was shot with," said Ellie, staring venomously at Lori.

"Aha. You win the million dollar question."

"Very funny," grumbled Malcolm, shaking his head.

"Let's talk about happier things," Lori said, as she continued her vivisection of Guittierez's body, "How's Muldoon, my ex-colleague? The last time I saw him, broke his nose."

"He's dead," was Ellie's flat reply.

They suddenly saw a scalpel drop to the floor, and Lori bent down to get it.

"The therizinosaur must have clawed him pretty badly, huh?" Lori said, as she discarded the disposable scalpel blade.

"FUCK YOU, bitch," exclaimed Grant, his eyes flashing with anger, "Robert died and you don't give a shit?"

Before Lori could respond, the door to the room slid open, and two immaculately clean, polished leather shoes walked in. Behind the leather shoes were six boots, all rugged looking. The leather shoes stopped, and they could see that the trouser legs the shoes were attached to were expensive Armani suit pants.

Ludlow's voice drifted down, "We're letting you go, you three. But visit us again before the park is open and I'll let the guards use… What's the sauropod tranq, Lori?"

"'Tθ'."

"That's the one. Now good bye to you three nitwits."

Ellie, Grant, and Malcolm suddenly felt a pinprick on their arms, and saw the 'Tα' dart sticking out of their arm. The world faded to black….

xxx

They returned to consciousness in Rodrigo's office. The diminutive harbor master looked upset.

"You see, senor, why I didn't let you go to Isla Sorna. There are not nice people there."

"You knew?" croaked Ellie, having a dry throat.

"I knew that there were strange things going on there. But know I know that it's the dinosaurios people that are doing their devilry there."

Ellie hissed out several words through gritted teeth, "I'll be back. In two years."

She fell unconscious after that.