I realize that there hasn't been nearly enough Franklin and Zia, but I had to pick and choose my POVs, to avoid the story feeling cluttered. They'll be around from here on out, I promise on the T-rex's wishbone! (No, really, it actually had one. Look it up.)

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The smells were fewer, the farther Blue followed the rocky terrain. She had started there, headed down into the noisy and unfertilized land below, and was now retreating back into it. Food had been easy enough to find, but there were also the guns. There were more of them every day and Blue didn't dare face them without a pack.

Evasion was her best bet. She had been shaking a persistent group for most of the afternoon. She kept upwind, but the ground made her tracks easy to follow. She was keeping a fair distance, torn between preservation and curiosity. They were her only link to understanding this new world, even if they were armed. That, and she was becoming tired... and hungry. If she didn't come across anything soon, she'd have tp pick one off. There were two that kept to the back that she could circle and nab before the front knew what happened.

Blue raised her head and sniffed the air. Her nostrils caught flesh and she made in the direction of the scent. She darted through the late afternoon sun, leaping over a fallen tree. A stream tried to mask the scent, but she crossed it easily, staying hot on the trail. Until it was strong enough to be close by; then Blue stopped to weigh her surroundings. She breathed in, tasting the scent now... and salivating. But she knew that only fools rushed in.

The trees cast their heavy shadows across the clearing. It was breezy, but quiet. Off on the edge, nibbling at the bushes, was the small animal. The animal, however, wasn't all that Blue smelled. She cocked her head, curiosity turning to confusing. The scent was familiar; of her former alpha. She raised her head.. and let out a mild chirp.

The bush beside the animal stirred slightly. That scent was not Owen! Blue cut through the clearing, weight forward, claws expanded. She leaped over the animal and soon saw the wild, nervous eyes of the human in the bush. Blue knocked his gun aside, clamping her mouth around his neck. She wrestled his body up and charged with it like a battering ram into the second human farther back from the clearing. He was knocked down, scrambling for his weapon. Blue speared his hand with her sickle claw and gave a hiss, letting blood drip from her mouth, onto his face. She dropped his pack member atop him, bringing her face close. She breathed menacingly into the human's face, weakened with terror. Neither were Owen... she still smelled him though. Where was he?

More importantly, did she need to kill this one? She was hungry, but one would sustain her. She had already established her dominance. One thing the humans were consistent in was avoiding what they were afraid of. Blue erected from her thoughts with a sudden puff of noise. She moved, but it wasn't fast enough as the net closed over her, knocking her several feet from the bodies. Blue struggled up, shrieking in protest. The binding had missed one of her legs and she kicked out, slashing the thigh of one of the humans trying to surround her. Only to have two more take his place, swooping in to secure the net. She bit and clawed, angry at the distraction. But the net restricted her too much. Not again! Blue fought the panic... until she felt a sting on the side of her neck.

Within seconds, Blue felt her heart and movements lids began to close, but not before staring up at the humans standing over her. Blue wanted to know what her next meal looked like.

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"Owen!"

"Claire." Owen's chest flooded with relief with her voice. Which quickly became angered. "Where have you been!? Why aren't you answering-"

Owen navigated Dr. Wu's car around another abandoned vehicle. They were becoming a staple along their otherwise lonely road trip. The cities had turned to towns, and they'd be entering the foothills soon. Owen found it amusing he couldn't seem to shake the shadows of the Sierra Nevada. He'd been checking the rearview mirror the whole time, even two hours after leaving Palo Alto. He didn't know if Terry and Kolov were chasing them, or had doubled back to Gavrill at the airport. He'd distracted himself by haggling Dr. Wu for his phone. It had taken him this long because the good doctor didn't want blood on it!

"Claire," Owen about shouted over her ranting. "Listen, I'm sorry-"

"No YOU listen!" her words slunk into her 'manager' mode. "Maisie's in the hospital."

The road ahead suspended in Owen's eyes as he processed that sentence. "What'd you mean?"

"What do I mean?" Claire echoed haughtily. "I mean she started shivering and sweating at the hotel and an ambulance took her to Regional Medical!"

Owen tried that image against Maisie's smile and hopeful wave as they'd driven away. Two days ago! He shook his head, seeing Dr. Wu's raised eyebrows. he thought to lower his voice, but there was no point. "What's wrong with her?"

"She caught a cold." Claire stated.

That was underwhelming. "You don't go to the hospital for a cold, Claire."

Claire huffed. "You do when her fever is 104! Dr. Lewis says that her immune system is so low, it couldn't fight germs. Like, she hasn't been exposed to them, something, I don't... WHERE have you been?!"

The desperation in that demand instantly made Owen feel guilty. When Claire dealt with things, she did it on her own and she did it professionally. She didn't crack. This qualified as cracking and she probably didn't know what to do with that.

"I'm sorry," Claire inhaled, pulling her control back in. Owen breathed with her, keeping his own anxiety at bay. "It's okay. How long are they keeping her?"

"Until tomorrow afternoon." Claire's voice composed. "They need to bring her fever down, I have this perception... and she'll need to eat a lot of fish."

"What?"

"It's high in Vitamin B6." Claire explained. She researched on her phone when she was trying to relax. That didn't raise Owen's spirits any. Nor did eyeing the gun in the car's cupholder. "I'll be there in a couple hours."

"I suppose I don't have a say in this." Dr. Wu threw in.

"Zia's already headed up here." Claire was saying. "I cut our conference short; which, we have a lot to talk about."

She didn't know the half of it. Owen accelerated to keep himself calm. "Well, try this on for size. Those orders Sergeant Terry gave me were bogus."

Another pause, then her voice cracked. "What!?"

Owen gritted his teeth, wishing he had more answers. "He needed my help stealing the embryos out of InGen. The ones from Lockwood's estate."

"You found them?" Claire asked. Owen juggled the phone, feeling the sting of his bandaged hand. "No..." He looked over, catching the doctor's sour look. "They weren't there."

Dr. Wu glared back. "As much as I wish I had the answer Mr. Grady, I don't."

"Who's that?"

"Dr. Henry Wu." Owen blew out his breath. "Look, I'll explain when I get there, just don't leave! Keep Maisie somewhere crowded and... don't trust anybody."

"Owen, you're scaring me." Claire's voice tettered on tears. "It's logical people would be going after the embryos, but why use you to do it?"

"Claire," Owen eased off the gas as they rounded a long curve. "We'll catch up when I get there... I love you, okay."

"Love you too." came Claire's earnest reply. Owen would use it to fuel him the rest of the way. He lowered the phone to Dr. Wu. "Dial another number for me."

Dr. Wu simply stared at it. "Secretarial duties aren't part of my job description."

"Neither is eating asphalt." Owen glared between Wu and his door. Dr. Wu laughed. "Neanderthal threats only take you so far, Mr. Grady."

Owen yelled as his cracked knuckles smashed Dr. Wu's nose, knocking his head against the window. Dr. Wu leaned forward, holding his face as Owen shook his hand out. That didn't help, but he needed to do something against the increased throbbing. "I've got someone who can help us. More help then anyone's going to offer you right now."

"Because I've done what's necessary to advance modern science." Dr. Wu removed a hand. Owen seethed. "You wanna compare crimes-"

"I am not about to argue the semantics of morals." Dr. Wu felt at his cartilage. "You signed the same contracts I did, as did Claire."

"Strange I wasn't consulted on any of your DNA splicing." Owen threw back at him.

"You both pushed down whatever doubts there were and you forged ahead because there was no stopping it." Dr. Wu insisted, smacking the phone on the dash. "It's inevitable, Mr. Grady. Progress, improvement. We don't act on it, someone else will."

"Ever hear that ignorance is bliss." Owen glared at the road; preachy scientists really got into his crawl.

"Try ignorance is an insult." Dr. Wu was back to scoffing. "An insult to every fiber of genetic material I have willed into perfection-"

"You gonna dial the number of not!" Owen yelled, knowing he wouldn't stand for one more pretentious sentence. He needed to find some common ground with this guy, but it could wait. Right now he needed information, data. Only one person could get him that.

"Hello?" a reluctant voice answered the fourth ring. Owen breathed out. "Franklin."

"Owen? Man, where are you?! Claire's been trying your phone."

"I lost it." Owen gave the simple version of that. "I talked to her and I'm headed into Nevada now."

"Not through this checkpoint, I hope." Franklin's voice lowered and there was vague movement on his end. "Sergeant Terry just drug your name across all our channels of communication. You're on the wanted list; as in, shoot first, ask questions later."

I wasn't expecting anything different. Owen reminded himself.

"...something about your breaking into InGen, stealing embryos... did you set the basement on fire?"

"No." Owen grunted. "Terry did that as his own countermeasure. Look, none of what Terry's saying is true."

Franklin sighed in relief. "I didn't think so. I wouldn't doubt you, it's just... you know how the mind wanders. There had to be an explanation though-"

"Franklin," Owen gently cut him off. "Your eyes have been glued to maps all day. How do I get around the checkpoint?"

"I've been staring at URLs," Franklin corrected him. "And are you on CA-88?"

"Yeah, we are." Owen was surprised to report. "Is it a straight shot?"

"88 passes too close to South Lake Tahoe." Franklin stated, but Owen heard his brain sizzling behind it. "You'll want to take CA-89. It'll loop you around, but you should've run into anyone at the state line."

"How much longer?"

Franklin mumbled as he configured. "An hour?"

He'd take it. Owen shook his head of the image of Maisie laying in a hospital. She's fine. It's just a cold.

"This might surprise you, but I have other places to be besides your family reunion." Dr. Wu voiced from his seat. "Appointments that I cannot miss."

"Have you missed the headlines of the past week?" Owen glared at him, this time in disbelief. Dr. Wu's eyes narrowed with their agitation. "Enough to know there is a very small window of opportunity."

Owen didn't know what that meant and he didn't care. So he went back to ignoring the doctor. "Franklin, keep doing what you're doing. Let me know if anything new comes up."

"You got it." Franklin promised. With that, Owen hung up, keeping his eyes from the clock. He wouldn't even think about how much faster as jet was then a car. Now, if Dr. Wu would just keep quiet...

"I demand to be let out at the next gas station."

"You don't get a vote on pit stops." Owen growled. Dr. Wu sighed, ripping his coat off under his seat belt. "Whatever animosity you're harboring-"

"You were selling dinosaurs to the world's leading evil powers." Owen summarized. "For weapons! Now those dinos are loose and your buyer friends are threatening me and my family. So yeah, no vote!"

Dr. Wu shook his head, gazing out his window as the mountains outside grew. He kept quiet... for maybe twenty seconds. "I can see your dilemma, Mr. Grady. And yes, it is out of hand. But it the midst of it all, more then one future is at stake here; the future of science." He shook his head. "We've come too far to blow it all on sentimentality."

Owen brewed as he drove. "What's it like, having that thick cloud over your head?"

"I outgrew my blind ambition years ago, thank you."

There was too much irony in that sentence for Owen to respond. He only laughed. "Yeah? And you replaced it with what?"

"Commitment." Dr. Wu's face strained with the word. "To ensure the breakthroughs of genetic engineering, to secure a better future for mankind." He looked at Owen with a pompous chuckle. "You can't even imagine the knowledge we've gained in DNA typing alone."

I have a pretty good idea. Owen swallowed at another thought of Maisie. Was there something in her DNA causing a cold to act like the plague? Had Claire tried calling Iris? Of course she would've... Owen itched his forward with the wrist of his damaged hand. Guess he could let the doc talk, distract him-

"Another call." Dr. Wu eyed the phone as it buzzed. Owen saw Claire's number and picked up. "Claire?"

All he got was hyperventilating, a whisper, more hyperventilating. None of which sounded like Claire and it dried Owen's throat. "What?... Claire!"

"Maisie." Claire burst that word out, like there wasn't enough air. "Owen, she's gone!"

Hyperventilating yet?

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With the Christmas season underway, you'll have to wait til next year to find out the rest! Catch you up January 1st, 2019!

A Merry Christmas to you guys until then!