Sorry for the pause... holiday and family gatherings, then birthday parties and baby showers... 'life finds a way' to keep one busy!
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"It swam! It could swim... why could it swim!?" Kayla allowed some of her surface to break, banging the creaky edge of the elevator. Her heart was leaping into every corner of her ribcage... it was so time for a new line of work! She eyeballed Owen to share in the bewilderment only to discover his mass form shivering. She lowered her hand. "Oh no..."
"Ad-d-drenaline's wearing... off," Owen got out, shoulders falling on the back of the elevator. His lips were blue and fingers were curling in. Kayla searched the controls. When's the next floor?
Owen's wet shirt hit the ground, revealing a toned, but pale upper body. The veins along his shoulders and throat were vivid underneath.
"Hold up!" Kayla waved him away from his belt buckle. She pointed at a button. Temp Adjustment.
Owen nodded, folding his arms in and out. Kayla gave a prayer as she pressed it.
"Interior climate adjusting." an automated voice announced, before they were blasted from both sides with warm air. Owen was swept up in immediate relief, leaving Kayla to sweat. But she'd been doing that on several occasions already. She wiped her forehead as Owen grabbed his shirt, fighting for control of his limbs."We need to pause."
Owen twisted his shirt. "No way."
"You're still shaking-"
"I don't rest until it's back at my cabin with my girls." he wrung the shirt even tighter. And it wasn't a pompous action to accentuate his muscles. It was determination, persistence... and survival. Kayla drew the metal doors open, a tight grip back on her taser. We're all fighting for survival now. Just hope the dinosaurs burn out first.
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The trip was seamless, soundless, as they moved beneath the complex. Alan blinked against the strips of light along the ceiling of the subway they found themselves in. But it wasn't just them.
We were supposed to leave with a bug sample. Alan eyed the vial Ellie clung to. Then his eyes trailed across from them. "Something's odd here."
Ellie slapped his arm. "Alan."
"Well," Alan tried recovering from her glare. "There's a child here. What, Biosyn has a daycare now?"
Maisie Lockwood lifted speculative eyebrows. "How old do I look to you?"
"He talks to bones more than people." Ellie explained for him, laughter stifled in her grin. Alan leaned in, the child's last name hardly lost on him. But one thing at a time; that was how he had learned to handle these situations. "What brought you here, I guess... is what I'm asking."
"I was taken." Maisie's feet shuffled. "There's a possibility that my cells could be manipulated into a pathogen to kill the locusts."
Alan shared a look with Ellie, their disbelief mixing with confusion. "Why... would they be lead to think that?"
Maisie's guard rose, arms going tight across her stomach. Ellie leaned in now, until Maisie looked her in the eye. She studied for a minute- soft and intuitive as always. "Charlotte."
Maisie swallowed, fear on the traces of her face. Alan looked between the two again. "Ellie-"
"The group before us." Ellie turned to him, eyes wide and flitting to absorb what she was thinking. His brow raised then, catching on. Jon Hammond had rambled enough about Benjamin Lockwood, how he and his daughter had visited the island mere weeks before them. As though to reassure them of its safety. The irony.
"She really went." Maisie straightened, stunning Alan at her level of surprise. "She was your mother, then. Did she and... your grandfather; they have some impact on the dinosaur DNA?"
Maisie's fear showed in full force now, lips working over the options in her mind. But she had to know something. Despite his own thoughts, Alan didn't view her as dumb. "You see, we came for proof against Biosyn. If there are, certain things you can tell us-"
Maisie's answer cut him off. "Human experimentation is illegal. But I guess you'd have to feel human first."
Alan and Ellie were silent, a familiar sinking hitting Alan's stomach. Ellie moved her sample aside. "Maisie, I can assure you, whatever they did; it's wrong."
Maisie drew her hands back, twisting the fingers together. She watched them, as though they decided her next words. "I'm not..." Her eyes closed on her first tears. "I'm Charlotte's... clone."
Neither spoke, all heat dropping from Alan's face. Their silence spurred embarrassment over Maisie's cheeks. "She wasn't my mother... just my blueprint."
Alan sagged back in the seat, trying to find a ground for this information. Should he have expected this? For them to go too far? Yes!
He eyed this child- pre-teen- with new revelation. When he had first spotted the Branchiosaurus, it had been with disbelief, wonder, followed by the oddest joy. Now, there was just... dread. Clone. A clone?! For what purpose? Had Hammond known? Did-
"Who takes care of you, Maisie?" Ellie interjected, taking Alan out of his staring. Maisie's breath hollowed in ransacked emotion. "Owen Grady... and Claire Dearing with the DPG. We'd been in hiding..." she snorted. "I feel more like a job, then a kid. So, here I am. And I still don't know who I'm supposed to be!"
Alan stiffened as her head went into her hands to cry. He glanced at Ellie, speaking the problem silently. The natural order stemmed from every living thing knowing its place. Lockwood, Dodgson, Dr. Wu, they had upset that order more then ever... and their 'product' was left to pay for it.
Ellie's sigh was sympathic, reaching for Maisie's shoulders. "We'll get you back to them, okay."
Maisie looked up, eyes red on her. "They'll be upset."
"They'll forgive you." Ellie assured her, offering a smile. "Really, the minute-"
Her soothing was cut with the whir and light of the subway. All three held their breath as their car remained frozen, encased in rock.
Must be how my fossils feel. Alan pondered, fingering the wall for the door.
