Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine. Any lines from the books are hers too. It's all hers. I also don't own Jurassic World or Park or any lines from the movies. I just don't.
Jurassic Job II
Gale's head throbs as he pushes his way through the crowd and avoids getting dive bombed by winged devils. He's going to have one hell of a goose egg on his head come tomorrow.
"Watch out!"
Instantly Gale looks upward, but finds himself instead pulled to the left to avoid a fresh pile of dung. One more gift from the not so friendly skies.
Keeping an eye out for more piles, they finally run into the bakery Mellark works at, slamming into the door so hard Gale is surprised it didn't shatter.
"Peeta!"
"Mellark! Get your ass out here!"
Mellark pops up from behind the counter, a pastry blender gripped in one hand and a spatula in the other. His tense expression eases when he sees who has run in.
Gale's eyebrows rise. "What were you going to do? Bake them into a pie or frost them?"
Looking sheepish, Mellark just shrugs. "I saw dinosaurs eating people through the window and just grabbed whatever was closest. Don't judge, man."
Not having time to badger Mellark anymore on his poor, and quite frankly baffling, choices of weaponry, Gale rolls his eyes and jerks his thumb back toward the still frantic crowd. "We need to get going to the petting zoo to get Katniss before we go to the resource pool."
Hearing Katniss' name snaps Mellark's attention and he drops his spatula and pastry blender before jumping the counter.
Before they can get out the door though, Mellark makes a strange squeaking noise and runs back to the counter. He dives over, his ridiculous pink converse flailing around in the air for a moment before he pops back, bouncing on the balls of his feet, a box in his hands.
"No use letting good cupcakes go to waste," he says with a smile. "I doubt the Snow family is going to be picking these up for the grandkids birthday anyways."
Deciding it isn't worth his breath to argue that now is not the time to be stealing from work, Gale grabs Madge's hand again and starts for the door.
He doesn't make it out before it's pushed back at him, nearly hitting him in the nose.
Finnick and Annie barrel in, followed closely by a very windswept looking Katniss.
She must've run into the other two during her mad dash to get to her boyfriend, who she probably, and very reasonably, thought might need rescuing.
Since Mellark had been prepared to fend for himself with a couple of kitchen utensils, she clearly knows him well.
Glad to be able to skip finding her, Gale sighs.
"I guess you got the call," Finnick manages to rasp out as he tries to catch his breath.
"Those stupid birds attacked my triceratops," Katniss growls, glaring out the window. "We had to open the gates and let them run out to the grassland to their mothers. Hopefully they can protect them."
Peeta nods somberly.
"They will." He opens the box and pulls out a cupcake. "Eat this, you'll feel better."
Still grinding her teeth and glaring, Katniss takes the offering, eating it angrily as she plots her revenge against the creatures that dared assault her babies.
"Oh! Can I have one?" Annie asks, looking delighted at the prospect of dessert.
Gale makes a disgusted noise. "This isn't the time for a picnic!"
Finnick frowns. "Don't be such a killjoy, Gale. There's always time for dessert. Annie and I were on our weekly extended lunch break. We hadn't even gotten through the appetizer."
Gale fights back the urge to tell him that he doesn't care, he and Madge hadn't even gotten that far, but he manages to swallow it back.
"Well, since we're all here, we need to get to the Innovation Center for the resource pool," he says instead.
"I'm not a resource," Mellark points out.
Before Gale can tell him he only came after his idiotic ass because Katniss would skin him alive if he left her dope of a boyfriend trapped in the middle of a catastrophe, Annie pipes up.
"Peeta, you have cupcakes."
Finnick nods. "Annie is right. Peeta, you are the most valuable resource."
Much as he wants to point out that literally any of them can carry a box of cupcakes, Gale doesn't. There'll be time to point out what morons they're all being later.
"There aren't as many anymore," Madge finally tells them after looking out the window at the sky, trying patiently to get them back on track. "We should probably get going."
Throwing the door open, the group runs out, through the now thinning crowd, toward the Center.
The building is in sight, and Gale is already mentally going through the evacuation protocols, when Madge stops in her tracks, her hand slipping from his.
"Madge, come on!"
She's not looking at him though. Her attention is all on some dumbass tourist in a floral shirt and hideous board shorts, sitting at one of the small lunch benches that line the edge of the road.
Gale groans and grabs at his hair, standing it on end. Not this asshole. Wasn't he supposed to be on vacation in Jamaica or something?
Haymitch is a friend of Mr. Masrani, had been a friend of Mr. Hammond too, is a major investor, and he practically lives on the island. Gale can only assume he has to make the island his main home because he's banned from most of the world, probably because of his drinking.
Beyond that, he's also an old family friend of the Undersees.
When they'd first come to Ilsa Nublar, Madge kept quiet about her connection with one of the biggest donors to the park's research.
"I don't want people to think I used my family to get this job," she'd told him, after he'd seen her having lunch with the filthy old drunk.
Gale had nearly bitten his tongue at that. It was exactly what he had been thinking.
Ever since he'd met her on the ferry he'd been determined to figure out just how a girl like her had ended up in such an unglamorous job. Jurassic World was in a nice location, that was true, but it was hardly the kind of place a girl like Madge Undersee fought to work at. She shouldn't be working at all.
"I want to make my own way in the world," she'd said. "I didn't even tell Haymitch I'd applied. I didn't want him making any calls. He was as shocked as anyone when I told everyone I got in. I got this job all on my own."
The way her jaw had set and she'd narrowed her eyes, daring him to prove otherwise, had impressed him. She'd probably had to defend her every move her whole life, make people listen to her and see that she was capable of achieving things without her family carrying her through for years.
He'd felt a little bad after that, ashamed really. She was good at her job, great even, better than her supervisor for sure. Of course she'd gotten the job on her own merits.
Sometimes Gale still wants to laugh at her about it though, especially when she worries about getting canned for bending rules. How she thinks she could ever be fired for something as stupid as getting a decent meal, with a connection like that, he isn't sure. Maybe she doesn't realize that even if she doesn't ask for it, Haymitch would never let her get booted.
Still, she's kept her friendship quiet, only a handful of people know about it, just to keep the gossip away.
Honestly though, if Gale had a so called friend like Haymitch, he'd want to keep it quiet too.
Granted, he hangs out with Thom...
"Haymitch!" Madge starts to run across the now almost vacant road to the table, and, grudgingly, Gale trots after her.
Raising a half drank margarita up, Haymitch smiles at her. "Strange weather we're having, huh, sweetheart?"
"Better than Sandals, I think, since you're here and not there. Like you're supposed to be." Madge crosses her arms over her chest and sets him in a stern look.
He shrugs and sips his drink. "Had a little...misunderstanding with the concierge."
Probably got in a fight in one of the spas again, Gale thinks irritably.
Shaking her head, most likely to dislodge all the awful possibilities that could've resulted in yet another banning for the bastard, Madge sighs. "Nevermind. They're evacuating the island. You need to come on. You can come with us to the Innovation Center."
Haymitch takes another drink. "I'll get down to the ferry-"
"Get your ass up and come with us or I'll drag you!" Gale snaps, before Haymitch can make some half baked excuse for why he can't come.
Gale might think it would be some kind of twisted justice if one of the pterosaurs picked the old jackass up and drop him in the drink a few dozen times before eating his worthless hide, but Madge wouldn't. For some unfathomable reason, she likes Haymitch, and not seeing her upset is enough reason to save his ass.
Looking indignant, Haymitch stands, drink still in hand, and gives Gale a cool smile. "Lead the way, numb-nuts."
#######
Half an hour later they've packed most of the panicky, tired, and frightened tourists on the ferries, including a very annoyed Thom.
"Thanks for taking me with you," he grumbles under the blanket he'd been given. "Worst. Friend. Ever."
"You did say to pretend not to know you if anyone saw us," Gale points out. And multiple people had seen them.
Thom mumbles something that sounds like 'not what I said' and 'asshat', but then flops down and goes to sleep.
Gale is forced, to his loud and frequent protest, into the medical station on the ferry shortly after that.
He's fine of course, he's not like a lot of other people, with punctures and claw marks, but Madge frets over him just the same. It's pleasant, but being able bodied ends up meaning he has to help carry some of the injured and help get the makeshift infirmary in order.
When he's finally released from his job as a human gurney, he finds Madge standing at the back of the boat, arms crossed over the rail and squinting back at the island shrinking in the distance.
"Do you think they'll be able to catch all the flyers?" She asks, her voice almost lost in the sounds of the sea against the ship.
Gale shrugs. He doesn't tell her, but killing them would probably be the kindest thing for them actually. They're out of place, out of time-literally-and letting them run wild in the world at large would only threaten the delicate balance of the planet.
"Annie and Finnick were worried about Mosa. They say she'll starve in her tank."
Gale leans into the rail beside her, back to what is now the failed experiment that was Jurassic World. "Probably."
There's nothing they can do for her now. The mosasaur will likely starve in her tank, and there's no hope of helping her.
She can't be released into the wild, that's for damn sure, and it isn't reasonable or feasible to want to fly her meals a dozen times a day. Unless something falls in, she's doomed.
In the distance something roars, Gale thinks it's the T. Rex, he's almost positive it is. He smiles to himself. She's a tough girl, Brutus will be beside himself that she's still alive despite whatever was rampaging through the island.
They still aren't one hundred percent sure what happened, but from the rumors they'd heard, InGen had bit off more than it could chew, creating a beast they had no hope of controlling, and it had gone about as well as could be expected.
"For the sake of the dinosaurs that have a chance, I hopes that monster those scientists conjured up dies quickly," Gale says as the roar fades away.
Nose wrinkling up just slightly, Madge frowns.
"Monster is a pretty harsh word for a creature just acting on instinct. Cats are monsters to canaries, and people are monsters to almost everything else."
"Well, I'd like to keep us at the top of the food chain for a while longer."
So if he ever meets up with one of the idiots that dreamed up that nightmare, he's going to make sure they can't make the same mistake twice.
Madge, turns away from the island and leans into Gale's side as he wraps an arm around her shoulder and kisses her hair. It still smells wonderful.
"We're unemployed now, you know?" She finally says.
A little smile, a little self depreciating, twists up on her lips. Then a snort of laughter escapes.
"I'm unemployed," she laughs. "I told you I'd lose my job if we snuck into Winston's"
Gale rolls his eyes and pulls her to his chest, tangling his fingers in her hair. "You'll be the family shame."
Grinning, she props her chin on his sternum and looks up.
"Maybe we should bum around Florida for a while. Stay at my grandparents."
Gale laughs. "Yeah, Margery would just love that. She always did think I'd end up jobless."
"Okay, well we have theme park experience," Madge points out. "Maybe we can get jobs at Disney while we're there. At least if the attractions break down there the animatronics don't try to eat the tourists."
Kissing the tip of her nose, then her lips, Gale chuckles.
"Not getting eaten is always a plus for a job prospect."
His hands drop a little lower on her waist and he pulls her closer while trying to figure out just where the closest closet is on the deck when Madge sighs.
"So I guess your family won't be coming down for Christmas after all, huh?"
Gale just groans.