It was going to take at least an hour on the helicopter to get to Utah from the secret lab. Dr. Moreau watched the camcorder disk that was sent to Caswell. His heart squeezed at the sounds of the bones crunching. He closed his eyes trying not to imagine it. Instead, he remembered assigning Rose this job.
He was at his desk with a packet of paperwork. She was sitting in the chair across from him. She was reading through her copy of paperwork. He saw that she was full of vigor and ready to take on anything especially given the chance. He also knew this was a fresh start from the painful experience she had endured.
Dr. Moreau looked down at the next question. He hated asking it but he needed to know. "How long do you think you could survive if the opportunity to present itself?"
Rose glanced up. "Meaning if I was cut off from everything how long I could survive?" He gave a solemn nod. "I can survive in the wilderness by myself for years. Not hard to build self-sustained shelter and I am versed in plants and animals."
Dr. Moreau scribbled that answer down. He headed to the next question. "If this project presented you the opportunity that you must survive on your own how long do you think you could last?"
Rose tilted her head to the side. "Depends on where I am at. Outside the lab, I am able to. Inside the lab, that's a gamble. Don't know what's down there besides the recent reports, but I could try to live the longest I could."
Dr. Moreau nodded as he scribbled again. He let out a breath. "How long would you give us before we announce that you are dead? Including and not including other people in your project."
Rose looked him square in the eye. A serious question. "Give me one and a half months before you pronounce me dead. If I am stuck with someone on this project then give me three. Easier to escape and survive with just one. Harder when its two."
It was nearing a month for her disappearance. He didn't want to believe she was really eaten by those creatures. He had a group look over the items sent with the camcorder disk. He had to be sure on all ends before he announced her untimely death.
As he was getting closer to the illegal lab, a crew was already on the ground infiltrating it.
Lewis brought all the scientists together. He told them if they really trusted him to stand down and cooperate. Their survival would depend on it. He wouldn't be able to help them if they did not cooperate. Some were confused about why they needed to cooperate. Haven't they been cooperating this whole time?
"Stay here, and do what they say, okay?" He looked at his watch. "I will see you all again. I have to get my revenge. Stay put!" He ran out the door leaving them still confused.
The group looked at one another. Some were shrugging. They had no idea what was going on. As it seemed like he just left, two guys in all black with guns came bursting them. They immediately put their hands up.
"You are all under arrest for violating the Endangered Species Act," one of men started to speak. "You have the right to remain silent." He continued on giving them their Miranda rights.
The scientists now understood what Lewis meant. He must have been an undercover agent or he went rogue. Hopefully he could help them out later.
Lewis kept track of Caitlyn. She was running away and thought the better route was to go through the hatchery. He snagged some cuffs off a government agent while he ran past them. He followed her on the grate catwalk. She tripped with her heels her phone sliding out of her hand.
She saw that Lewis was behind her. "Oh, thank goodness. I don't know how but the government found out. We need to get out of here before they get to us. Come with me, we can always get more graboid eggs." She grasped the railing trying to get up.
Lewis went over to her; he grabbed her wrist putting on the cuffs without her noticing as she stood up. He locked the other one on to the railing. She dusted her self off with one hand and let go of the railing with the other. Her hand jerked back. She looked down as Lewis was stepping away. Caitlyn tugged on her hand to see that she was really handcuffed. Lewis was out of reach. Caitlyn jerked her head to look at him.
"Louis, come now, don't do this," she started to plead. "Let's work out a deal. I can offer you double-no-triple the price." Lewis shook his head. "Okay, then you can be a co-partner with me. We can run this company together." Lewis shook his head again. "Alright, name it and I will get it for you."
"Frankenstein," Lewis muttered.
"Huh?" She didn't quite understand him. Caitlyn was confused.
"Frankenstein!" Lewis belted out. "I want you to give me back Dr. Frankenstein!"
"I-I don't know who that is," she stuttered. "Was that the person I shot?" She honestly didn't know.
"No," he shook his head.
"Louis, I-I-I can't help you, if I don't understand," she spoke sweetly hoping he would calm down a bit and be rational.
"Its Lewis," he corrected her. "Dr. Frankenstein was killed by the hands of your brother, Andrew, just to get back into the lab."
It made sense now. "Oh, her." Caitlyn didn't know what the fuss was about for this woman. She knew about her from Andrew but couldn't understand men wanting the same woman when there were plenty out there. She gave him a look of disappointment. "You're caught up in that fiasco too?"
"No," he took a step forward. Caitlyn automatically took a step back. "She is my idol. I wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn't for her influence. I also made a promise with her. I took this journey after getting her advice. All you wanted was money. You didn't care about the research, you didn't care about the creatures, you only cared about your reputation and your money!" He took another step closer.
Caitlyn took another step back. She kicked her phone off by accident. It was vibrating as someone was calling her to pick up. It landed upon the ground below her. The phone kept vibrating. She saw a tentacle come out of the ground. It slithered its way to vibrating phone. The tentacle opened its mouth, lunging at it. The vibrating continued. The tentacle's mouth clasped down, gripping onto it, before disappearing back into the ground.
"You see that?" Lewis' voice got quiet. "We're only a few hundred feet above them. We haven't fed them recently. This is the lot we're doing the fasting experiment on. How long can a graboid go without eating? Would they eat each other if given the chance? It's been a while and I know that phone must taste terrible to them."
Caitlyn gripped the railing on both sides. She was genuinely scared for herself in this situation.
"Don't worry I'm not going to kill you," Lewis smiled. "I wouldn't do that. That's not who I am. I am not you but I am going to leave you here until they come and get you." Lewis started to walk away.
"DON'T LEAVE ME HERE!" She yelled at him. "PLEASE! I'LL DO ANYTHING! Just let me go, okay?!"
Lewis looked over his shoulder. "You may not know this, but they can sense our vibrations even from way up here. My advice, keep quiet." He walked off the grate runway. Lewis wasn't going to kill her. The thought never crossed his mind, but torturing was an idea he did have. He would let the authorities do more of that but he did want to scare her. Make her fear for her life, the same way Rose must have been fearing for her own. The graboids won't be able to reach up to Caitlyn and he didn't really specify who was exactly supposed to come get her. Vagueness can be a scary thing.
Dr. Moreau arrived, taking over the situation. All of the scientists had been arrested and detained in a separate vehicle. Caitlyn's side was arrested and brought to other vehicles. Lewis met up with Dr. Moreau. They discussed what they should do with the live graboids. Lewis was then told to watch over the hatchery with a few teams until further notice.
The two watched a red face Caitlyn being drug by two men. She had been crying thinking she would be eaten by the graboids below her.
"I am going to let the investigation crew takeover," Dr. Moreau informed him. "Since this was an easy takeover thanks to you, you will be rewarded. I am now heading to Perfection to meet up with Jekyll and Hide. Hopefully it will be just as easy." Lewis wanted to ask him a question but he decided against it. "I know what you want to say. I cannot answer that as I do not know either." Lewis nodded. Dr. Moreau headed back out.
At the Proudfoot lab, Andrew watched the screens in the mobile lab. The henchmen were dawning on the last corner of the secret lab. There it was. In all its glory, thrashing about. The last creature to capture. It took all the men down there to catch it and place it inside a cage. The cage was then placed into a few more cages as a protection.
The crew hauled it out of the lab. Another crew cleaned up behind them. Andrew tried calling his sister but no luck. He shrugged it off. He ordered the remaining crew to saddle up and head out. The convoy was nearly ready to head out of Perfection.
Donna saw that the clips stopped. That was odd. She turned down the volume to listen on the last clips to hear what the creature was doing.
Jack gathered his courage and followed El Blanco. Melvin told it was okay. He had to get over his fear somehow. Jack still kept some distance. He didn't want to be taken for some joy ride. El Blanco was speeding to their destination.
The convoy started to head out from the lab area. El Blanco stopped. Jack pulled to a stop. El Blanco turned their path towards a new route.
"What way is this thing going?" Jack wondered out loud. "Hopefully its not some wild goose chase."
Harlowe and Cletus came into the Chang's. Jodi was happy to see them. "Cletus! Donna is listening to some clips but you are also a scientist."
"Yes," he nodded trying to help her.
"Jack just informed me that El Blanco beached themselves," Jodi explained. "Letting out screams. No wounds. I told Jack to follow them. Do you think something happened enough for El Blanco to get out of the ground like that?"
"I don't think there should be anything to combat El Blanco," Cletus thought about it. "412 was an adversary but not enough to make a graboid get out of the ground entirely. They're still following it?"
"Yes-oh and Jack said that El Blanco was trying to communicate with them," Jodi continued. "I was going to ask Donna but she seemed immersed on her side of things."
"Why would a graboid want to communicate with humans?" Harlowe pondered the question out loud.
"Because the other creature is in distress," Donna had heard their conversation. She took off her headphones. "There are no more sounds from the lab because that creature is possibly no longer in the lab. El Blanco has been the only one to communicate with it. Probably communicating for years and now for the creature to send out a distress signal, El Blanco who is on the other side, is trying to help. Graboids can remember certain sounds and vibrations. They know Tyler's jeep as helpful. They don't know that Jack or Melvin is in it. Only that this jeep could be a way to help them."
"So, if Burt's jeep was here, then maybe El Blanco would do the same?" Jodi suggested.
"Its plausible," Cletus nodded. "Similar vibrations or El Blanco has decided both sounds are on the nonthreat side of things. We, as a town, have helped out El Blanco on several occasions. El Blanco knows us to be safe."
"Jodi come in, Larry here," the radio was still in her hand.
"Jodi here, what do you got?" She looked at the rest. All of them were in anticipation.
"Convoy of semi-truck and trailer with surrounding black vehicles coming in hot," Larry informed them. "Make sure everyone is off the road, I don't think they will stop for anyone or anything."
"They must have what's left and is heading out," Donna suspected.
"If they have whatever Mixmaster has become," Cletus looked out the window. "Then they would need to get out of their quickly before it creates something new."
The group headed over to the window. They waited to see the convoy come through town.
"Here it comes," Larry spoke over the radio. "El Blanco is far enough away, right?"
Jodi glanced over to the seismo screen. "Looks like they are coming this way but still a distance out there."
"All of those who are affiliated with Perfection, stand down," a voice came over their radio. "I repeat, all of those affiliated with Perfection stand down." The group looked at one another. Larry and Nancy spotted helicopters coming in hot towards the convoy.
Rosalita could see them where she was from. Casey and Roger were warned to stay inside their lab from the higher ups. Jack pulled onto a rocky road to stop the jeep. Melvin was looking through the binoculars.
The voice continued. "Stay indoors. If you here shooting, get down. We cannot protect you if you do not cooperate with us." Larry and Nancy decided to get off the roof and head down to the others.
"What do you think is going on?" Jodi stepped away from the window but still peered out of it. She was standing next to the wall.
The helicopters were all around the convoy. It stopped midway through town. Ropes were thrown off from the sides with men all in black coming down. Some helicopters had guns on both sides aimed at the people inside the vehicles. The men in black grabbed their guns and slowly walked towards the vehicles.
Some of the henchmen tried to make a run for it. They were shot down. While they were distracted, a man in black opened up a door, grabbed Andrew out, threw him on the ground, and proceeded to punch him.
"Get those vehicles out of here," a voice ordered. "The graboid is coming in hot. We don't want anymore interference."
The men in black did as they were told. They grabbed the henchmen out of the vehicles. A couple of the government agents jumped in and drove off leaving the rest of the vehicles behind them. A few helicopters followed the semi-truck.
As the one man was beating up Andrew, he noticed a red garment in the inside one of Andrew's blazer pockets. He reached in to see what it was. His eyes widened.
"You bastard! You even stole her lingerie!" He proceeded to beat Andrew's face left and right.
"Caswell, that's enough," Cartwright called. He placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. Cartwright injected something into Andrew.
Andrew rolled onto his side, mouth bleeding. He let out a chuckle. "Look, I made you two come together. It's all thanks to me. Ah. I am feeling better. What was in that shot?"
"Good," Cartwright kicked him in the gut. Andrew let out a grunt, moving into a fetal position. "What I have given you now is an experimental drug. It can rapidly heal you. My brother here is going to be the one who gets to interrogate you. Each time you answer something in a way he doesn't like, he gets to hurt you. I, on the other hand, get to heal you. And until we are both satisfied, you will then get to live your rotten, little, miserable life in a jail cell wishing for death. We won't give it to you. We won't allow you to kill yourself either."
"I-I thought that's what you wanted," Andrew was confused and delirious at this point.
"I never wanted Rose dead," Caswell squatted next to him. "I never had the thought that if I can't have Rose, no one else could. That would mean this world would not have Rose in it. That's not a world I want to be in. I don't want to be in a world where I can't see her smile, hear her laugh, and enjoy her presence. I may be obsessed but I would never, ever, ever want her dead."
"You have improved, I'm impressed," Cartwright noticed.
"Oh, seems I have," Caswell tilted his head to the side. "He's right. I usually get angry when it comes to these types of things. I tend to scream a lot. Anyways, I am going to make you wish you had died instead of her. Wishing that you could take her place instead. Dr. Moreau is going to fix me again but it will be well worth it." He pushed Andrew over to tie him up. "Take him with us. Don't kill him but I don't care how rough you handle him."
Two government agents grabbed Andrew and drug him back to the vehicle. The twins could see another helicopter coming in but it was landing where the mobile lab was at. The two looked at one another.
"Make sure he doesn't escape," Caswell ordered as he walked away to the last vehicle.
"Stay here until backup is here to take the rest away, we're going to meet Dr. Moreau at the site," Cartwright ordered. A couple government agents nodded. The two back the vehicle around and drove back up to the site.
Cletus whispered to the rest of the group. "That is the government. We just witnessed something big. I think, hopefully, they will tell us, what all happened." The group was not in hearing range of the twins and Andrew.
Dr. Moreau was staring at the mess in the mobile lab when the twins got there. They looked around their surroundings. It was quiet. Dr. Moreau moved through them to walk out of the desert. He didn't worry about El Blanco, as the graboid was still chasing the semi-truck. However, El Blanco would not be able to go past the rocky terrain.
The three peered down into the opening of the lab. Caswell agreed to head down into the lab. It took an hour to thoroughly search it before coming back empty handed.
"Picked clean as if they were the grinch," Caswell sat down on the sand. "No signs of anything coming in or out of the lab. All the walls are concrete. A few cracks but nothing a person couldn't squeeze through. Everything was gutted. No trace of survival." He looked over to a solemn Dr. Moreau. "Are you going to call it?" Dr. Moreau only gave silence. Caswell scrambled to stand up. He came over to him. "I know I still have my shock collar on and you can shock me to death all you want, but are you going to call her death?"
Dr. Moreau just walked away from him, heading back to the helicopter. Cartwright walked along beside him. "I want the mobile lab back to normal. I want it left there until otherwise. Get a report from everyone in Perfection. Have Twitchell do that. Also have him get a report from Burt and Tyler when they come back, hearing how they just killed the assblaster. I also want a report on Burt's health. He hurt himself on this hunting trip. Word has it, he just hurt himself again trying to kill the assblaster. He's the only one documented to have survived being eaten alive by a graboid. It must be doing something to him like Lewis mentioned. I want an update."
Caswell was walking behind them. The two headed back into the vehicle while Dr. Moreau headed back to headquarters.