I know I haven't updated in a while, I'm sorry! I hope you guys enjoy this one though! Thanks to all those who followed, favorited, read and reviewed!
Disclaimer: I do not own Jurassic Park/World. All OC's with the exception of Kavita belong to Macx.
They were closing in on the source of the weaker part of the wall. As predicted the source of the wall was heading further and further towards the park. Blue could not let that happen. The park was theirs. No one hunted in what was theirs without their sufferance. No one would hurt the humans Owen sought to protect. Blue barked to her sisters:
"Faster!"
The pack picked up speed and behind them Intern did the same, coming out of the long loping jog she'd been using to conserve energy.
They came up this source of the wall in the fields where the rolling, glass balls filled with squishy humans ran. They luckily hadn't reached any populated areas yet and the herd of brachiosaurs were not near.
Good. Owen liked the brachiosaurs. Why, Blue hadn't the faintest clue, he did not eat them, but still he did and so Blue was glad none of them had been attacked yet. They plugged into the field using their nose and ears to single out where the predator was. Unlike the others it was not immediately visible.
Intern came to a stop soon after she entered the filed and took visual stock. Blue lifted her nose and sniffed and there! Something musky and reptilian, not at all like the scent of the herbivores which roamed this field but danker, darker, a faint odor of blood. This thing had killed something on its way here.
Blue crouched low and barked to her sisters.
'Lines! It is hiding in the grass. We must find it!'
Together they began to comb the field in a line, hoping to flush the creature out, keeping their own bodies low to the ground to avoid detection themselves.
The creature jumps Echo first, actually taking an inch or two off the end of her tail. Echo screams in distress and Intern lets out a started shout. The grass rustles where the creature had gone to ground and Blue and the others rush the area. They arrive too late to corner it. Blue shoots past the creature and then twists to get it but it has already begun its attack on her.
It launches from its position on the ground behind her and catches the back of her neck in it's teeth. It twists, bringing them both to the ground with their combined weight. Once they hit the ground the creature whips its powerful tail and begins to roll, dragging Blue with it. With each roll the creature's teeth sinks deeper into her neck and Blue is sure that it will either crush through her neck entirely or break it.
Before either scenario can happen, Charlie jumps to the rescue. She lands mostly on Blue because she mistimes the jump but she still manages to rake the creature across the eyes. It sadly doesn't take out the creature's eyes but it does cause it to let go of Blue and skitter away in the grass on its four, short but powerful legs.
"What the hell! Is that a crocodile?" gasps Intern. Human slow, she has now only reached the site of the battle. She has Owen's gun in her hands but nowhere to aim it at.
'Go!' barks Blue. 'Tear it apart!'
The pack barks and sets off after the creature.
The other keepers were genuinely glad to see him and Owen found that he was glad that they were also alright. The majority of them were still suffering headaches like Owen himself, but the severity of them had lessened over the last few hours. Still, Owen couldn't feel his bond and the others too admitted that they couldn't not feel their connection to the charges, however strong or weak they usually were.
It frightened Owen. He never knew there was anything that could come between preternaturals and their animals and he didn't like it at all. He spent the majority of his time comparing notes with those he knew well and keeping as eye on those he didn't know so well. Owen was also honestly surprised as to how many workers in the park were there. There was actually a lot more preternaturals than he'd thought, even if the majority were not strong at all.
What had he found out from talking to others, was that he was the only one who still on occasion, got flashes of his animals. The other keepers were not getting those tiny flashes of emotion that he was getting through the smooth wall that had slammed over their senses.
It had only been an hour and a half of the three-hour limit Owen had agreed to, when there was a commotion outside the clinic and then someone was being rushed inside. Owen pulled the door open of the room they'd been confined to, just in time to see Gregory begin led inside, supported by Dr. Beaumont and another girl intern. Gregory had a knife sticking out of one arm. Doctors rushed to them and carried them away. But before Owen could move, two of Hamada's guys came in carrying a groaning man on a stretcher. Another wave of doctors swarmed the stretcher, carrying him off to work on him.
Owen blinked. What the hell was happening?
A nurse passed him and Owen grabbed her arm. "What's going on?!" he asked, aware his voice was a little harsher than usual.
"How should I know?!" she snapped back. "Let me get back to work!" She yanked her hand from Owen and hurried down the corridor.
"What's happening?" Josh asked.
"Two of our interns just came in," said Owen. "One of them had a knife in his arm. Hamada's guys also brought back someone."
"One of ACU?" asked Josh.
"I guess," he said uncertainly. The glimpse he'd had wasn't much. "He was dressed in combat gear."
"I guess we'll find ut soon," said Josh. Owen nodded but poked his head back and waitied to see if Hamada's men would come back. After ten minutes of waiting he concluded that they wouldn't which meant that it was someone they were guarding. So. It wasn't one of ACU.
Owen opened his phone and called Claire.
"What?!" she said, curtly.
"ACU just brought a man in," he said. "And an intern just came in wounded. What's happening?"
"It's under control," she said, smoothly.
"Don't give me that!" he said, voice hard. "Not now. Don't you dare shut me out."
There was a sigh but then Claire took a breath and released it. "Sorry. But Owen you need your rest."
"I'm resting," he said. "But Claire I need to know."
"We've had attacks on the enclosures," she said. "Not all, just ones they wanted samples from I think. Security stopped most of them but a couple of places are still being contested. IT's a little tense but it is being handled. We don't need you right now. Rest. Recover. We're dealing."
"Any word on the pack?" he asked.
"Not yet," Claire said. "Hamada is still on their trail."
"Okay," said Owen. "Keep me posted."
"I will."
She hung up and Owen took a deep breath to center himself. It was killing him to stay here, to do nothing especially while his girls were out there. But he knew that he had to stay until Anika released him. Always trust experts at their job. He couldn't be a hypocrite of that right now, no matter how much he wanted to yell 'to hell with it' and go after his girls.
Flat Creature is very agile and very stealthy. But the pack is stealthy too and they know a little of how Flat Creature works now. The only person who does not fit in this scenario is Intern. She moves well for a human but she still is too loud and grass rasps against her clothes the way it doesn't do against reptilian skin.
She is a liability so Blue uses her. She'll be the bait. Flat Creature will most likely attack her first, knowing she is the weakest of the lot.
'Scatter,' Blue barks to her sisters, 'But not too far.'
Intern freezes as the pack scuttles away from the field leaving her all alone. She settles the gun firmer on her shoulder even as she tenses, legs bending slightly as she prepares to run. Blue watches from her place where she is crouched in the grass and waits for Flat Creature to make it's move.
Intern is visibly afraid for a few seconds before her face smooths over and she breathes out low and settles herself. She moves back towards the trees, carefully sweeping the area in front of her with the gun, being very sure of her steps before she places any real weight on it.
Blue hopes that she would just run when Flat Creature comes because it is Intern's best chance to survive. Blue hears movement in the grass and slowly angles herself towards it even as she creeps closer to where Intern is. More movement, barely there. Flat Creature is well adapted to this environment. Blue slinks through the grass, belly low to the ground and is so is ready when Flat creature erupts in a rush of movement and jumps Intern.
Flat creature jumps Intern from an oblique angle and Intern manages to get only one shot off before twisting and throwing herself to the ground. She rolls as she hits and barely manages to scrabble to her feet before pelting of through the tall grass, Flat Creature right behind her.
Intern is faster than Blue would have credited. She skids out of the way of another lunge of Flat Creature and then Blue barrels into Flat Creature. Delta is next, jaw affixing to the base of Flat Creature's tail. Blue has her claws wedges in ridges of Flat creature's scales and she snaps ineffectively at it's head.
Charlie enters the fray, darting daringly close to Flat Creatures mouth as she attempts to scrabble at the soft underside of Flat Creature's snout. Echo is last to enter and she pounces on Flat Creature's tail, using her weight to keep flat creature from whipping it around and dislodging the others.
But Flat Creature's hide is too tough. Blue's claws are digging in but they're not doing any real damage. Charlies gets caught by Flat Creatures' teeth, on her shoulder but she shrugs it off and dives into the fray. Flat Creature attempts to roll but the weight of four velociraptors who are actively trying to stop it, makes rolling impossible. But they're at a standstill. The raptors cannot get to Flat Creatures soft underbelly and Flat Creature cannot throw them off.
The sound of a round chambering had Blue cocking her head. Intern is kneeling in the grass, gun aimed at Flat Creature.
"Charlie I need you to keep it's head still for a few seconds," she says.
There a pause and then Blue barks, 'Do it!'
Charlie takes a few harsh nips but manages to pounce on Flat Creature's head and hold it down for a few seconds. It's close, Charlie is very near Flat Creature's eyes but Intern manages to make the shot. She shoots again when Flat Creator is still, to ensure that it did die and then slumps down in the grass breathing hard.
Blue and the others hop of the corpse and search frantically through the bond for Owen. They still encounter the wall but it is noticeably weaker. Blue thinks that she can sense Owen somehow, feel the, the size of his presence, even if she cannot actually feel his mind.
Intern moves suddenly, slinging the gun on her back and grabbing some of the things she snatched up from the mercenaries.
She looks at Blue and then nods at Echo. "Let me help her." Blue snarls at her but then examines Echo. After a moment she nods back at Intern even as Echo warbles unhappily. Blue stalks behind Intern practically breathing down her neck. The human woman is tense but she takes a few harsh breaths and the tension leaks out as she locks her fear away.
She swipes Echo's tail off with some small, sharp smelling white squares that has Echo hissing dangerously at Intern. Then Intern slathers some salve that smells vaguely medicinal. Blue thinks Owen has worn this salve before when he was hurt. Finally, she wraps a bandage on the end of Echo's tail, ensuring that it covered all the hurt parts but still wasn't too bulky. After that the bandage is covered by a dark green thing that sticks to the bandages. Blue is pleased because the green thing blends in much better than the white bandage.
Echo, released from the ministrations of someone she didn't know or trust snapped at Intern coming within a hairsbreadth of her face before darting away. Blue moves away from Intern, no longer needing to threaten the girl by her presence.
'What now?' says Charlie.
'Forest,' Blue replies. 'We rest.'
They turned and headed back to the forest in the direction of the next brink in the wall that was keeping them from their alpha. As they were running through, the sounds of multiple vehicles sounded in the distance. The pack scattered and dive into the undergrowth while Intern scaled up a tree with remarkable speed. After a few moments Intern called down.
"It's ACU."
Blue looked at her sisters and they all silently agreed. They would not wait for ACU. This island was theirs to protect. They came out of the underbrush just as Intern dropped from the branches of the tree, rolling to take the edge of the landing.
"I'm not coming with you," she says. "I'm human and I don't have the supplies to stay out here for much longer. But I do think I have enough evidence that you weren't hurting innocents. I will speak for you."
Blue tilted her head and considered her words then nodded. The distance to the next part of the wall was long and Intern would slow them down. Besides Echo was touchy being injured. Intern was probably not safe with her right now. Intern nodded back to Blue and gestured to the gun and said, "I'll make sure he gets it back."
Blue nodded and then Intern turned and sprinted off towards the vehicles while Blue and the pack headed deeper into the forest.
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