This lab gave Maisie deja vu of her visit to Mr. Mills' hidden basement; cages, long counters of equipment, tall cabinets, and glowing machines that hummed under low blue lighting. It was at the bottom of a drab gray building, under an office space of abandoned desks and cubicles. Maisie was cramped and weak from being jostled on the gurney, but ordered herself to keep up with the driver's- Mr. Aldovich's- cold grip on her arm. While he wasn't tall or bulky, there was something mean and horrible that laid beneath his still face. Something Maisie knew not to provoke.
Dr. Inger stopped at a set of glass doors, swiped a card against the pad, and led Maisie into a corridor. Maisie started at the sound of scrapping metal and noticed the moving bodies of compsognathus in one of the cages. They waved their little arms through the bars, eyes twitching and ravenous. Maisie swallowed, remembering her last encounter with them. Her eyes shifted to the bigger cage alongside them and gaped at the pterodactyl that peered back at her. She wondered at their presence, then it occurred to her. More samples.
Dr. Inger crossed the main lab area, vials of Maisie's blood and tissue coming out of her jacket pocket. Maisie's arm burned at the thought of skin the doctor had scrapped off. Another swipe of her card and she took them into the next room, separated only by thick glass. Maisie felt the chill and realized it was a preservation room. She's putting my skin in there...
Why was that thought so terrifying, even with restless dinosaurs nearby?
"Over here," Dr. Inger exited the preservation room. She took Maise's hand gently- too gently. "I've arranged a special place for you."
She meant the closed off corner of the room, where hazmat suits hung next to a curtain. Maisie pulled back.
"...and we'll need to scan for any bacteria we might have missed." Dr. Inger was explaining. She dropped Maise's hand to switch her jacket for a lab coat. "Your body is one of delicate condition, Maisie. We can't be negligent with it."
Maisie looked down at her hands, her feet, and each of her arms. How many times had she stared over them? Her scalp would tingle in that eerie sense that she wasn't in control, wasn't in charge of her body...
"You can rest after cleaning up." Dr. Inger was pulling a few chemical bottles from under a sink. "I have someone coming to meet you; someone to help me take care of you."
Maisie shook her head, locking her arms at her sides. "I don't need any care. And I don't want to be here."
Mr. Aldovich kept her from backing up, but Dr. Inger stopped him with her eyes. "I'm certain you have some calls to make."
He looked amused by her dismissal, but left. Dr. Inger waited for the doors to close, then coaxed Maisie to the counter with her chemicals. "This is where you need to be right now, Maisie. "You're sick-"
"I'll get better." Maisie insisted.
"It's not that simple." Dr. Inger attempted a hand on her shoulder. Maisie drew back and Dr. Inger held her hand up, as though calling a truce. "I've looked over your test results. Your sudden interaction with the world exposed you to germs and elements your body is unequipped to deal with. Without understanding the situation, people like that Dr. Lewis can't help you."
Maisie wouldn't admit that her head pounded and her muscles still ached. Dr. Inger, however, wasn't fooled. She gestured to the chemicals resting in their glass bottles. "Portioned correctly, these are the antibiotics I'm using to fight your body's virus. They need to be administered every three hours."
Maisie rubbed her shoulder, stiff from when Dr. Inger had pricked it in the ambulance.
"Would your grandfather give you any regular medications?" Dr. Inger asked, opening a drawer of instruments. "Did you ever have any special check-ups?"
"No." Maisie's fists clenched. Dr. Inger nodded gently, like she understood Maisie's frustration. "Please understand your significance; and how important it is that you answer these questions."
Maisie said nothing. The compies continued their scrapping. Dr. Inger released the tight bun of her hair with a sigh. "Maisie... are you aware of how cloning happens?"
Maisie felt her face tighten.
"I can explain it," Dr. Inger's chest swelled with pride. She lifted up a syringe, marked in millimeters. "I've studied your beginnings and can tell you a lot about yourself. But you have to trust me."
The confusion only added to Maisie's headache. She did want to know... the how, the why, all of it. She was tired of only having questions. But Claire and Owen had promised they'd find out together. She couldn't be alone when she finally got her answers. She wasn't strong enough. Maisie shook her head. "This isn't about telling me who I am. If it were, you wouldn't have taken me!"
Dr. Inger's stare turned to awe. "You're a marvel, Maisie. You know that, don't you?"
She made it sound so grand. But she wasn't seeing Maisie when she said it. Maisie thought of Grandpa and the light in his eyes when he saw her. She thought of Iris, always after her to wash up and stop sneaking up on her! Then there was Owen and Claire... people that loved who Maisie was, not what she was.
"When you're ready, kid." Owen had told her.
I'm not ready." Maisie told Dr. Inger boldly. The same she'd told Owen and Claire. "It's my body and my decision."
"Oh," Dr. Inger's voice took on an edge. "Is that what the Gradys told you? Maisie, there's more at risk here then just you. Your grandfather was sick for a long time, yes?"
Maisie hesitated, but nodded. Dr. Inger came forward, finally getting a hand on her shoulder. "Others like him are sick, with no way to get better. But your creation opens the possibility for them to heal. Reproducing cells and organs to replace the ones that are damaged. Giving people a way that they don't have to die."
She had a hand on each of Maisie's shoulders now, eyes intent on her face. Maisie didn't focus on them though. The compies' hungry screeching and the lab's machinery had faded out. She only heard the flat whining of Grandpa's monitor, telling her that he was dead. Maisie's chest ached when she thought about him; she still cried.
Dr. Inger's voice pitched with eagerness now. "That's just one example of what your DNA-"
A sudden beep interrupted her. "Dr. Inger, it's here."
It came from the intercom on the far wall. Dr. Inger rushed over to click the button. "Back entrance. The elevator will bring you straight down."
She didn't give Maisie time to react, only pushed her closer to the curtain. "I know this seems cruel, but it will get better. It's what's best."
"For you." Maisie challenged. Dr. Inger drew the curtain with a heavy sigh. "I'll be back in a minute."
Maisie looked over the cot and dresser that the curtain hid. How long did Dr. Inger plan to keep her here? Besides that, what was so important for the doctor to leave her alone? Maisie stepped back into the middle of the lab, gazing cautiously through the sealed doors, into the hall. Dr. Inger was gesturing and talking to Mr. Aldovich and two other men. One was Aldovich's physical opposite and the other wore a suit. His eyes shifted, found Maisie, then lit up. He seemed to mention her, but Dr. Inger pulled him back into their conversation. Maisie moved closer, to find them huddled around a cart.
The big man held his gun on it, shifting his position. Maisie strained to see and her breath caught when she spotted claws and a bright-striped tail. "Blue?"
}{}{}{}{
"We're getting arrested." Franklin's thin chest heaved up and down. "I'm going to jail, I'm going to rot in a cell-"
Shut up! Zia wanted to yell at him, but kept herself still behind the shape of the back tire. She'd been going around to the driver's side of her car, unable to be by Dr. Wu anymore, when the army caravan had announced themselves. She huddled there out of the heat of their floodlights, wondering if she could buy time or was avoiding the inevitable.
"Relax," Owen coached to Franklin. "Probably just here for me. It's not like you did anything wrong."
Franklin meeped. Claire huffed out her building anxiety. "What?"
"I might... be in possession of... things that aren't mine."
"Stand down!" Colonel Placer, the ringleader, repeated. Zia bit her lip, eyeing the edge of the skimpy forest behind the gas station. Between it and them, was a propane tank...
"We don't have any weapons!" Owen was trying to reason. "Placer, listen-"
A warning shot cut him off. Zia sneaked a peek, watching her friends' feet- and Dr. Wu's go still. "Owen Grady and Franklin Webb, you're under arrest."
"I don't know what you've been hearing-" Dr. Wu decided to join in.
Six feet. Zia argued with her tight, pounding heart, gauging from her hiding spot to the tank. Six feet... take it!
"My orders are my orders." Colonel Placer stated, just as a giant moan overshadowed any noise of Zia shuffling behind the propane tank. She looked back at the two army hummers and a semi hooked to a lowboy trailer. The stegosaurus strapped down on it let out a second moan. Zia let herself gape. Our road hog from earlier.
"You want to worry about two civilians on top of a dinosaur." Claire pointed out.
"Did your orders come from Sergeant Terry?" Franklin mustered in, hands locked behind his head. "Ya'know that guy's MIA too-"
"Face the car!" a solider ordered. And they wouldn't ask again. Zia stayed low until she had her back to the brick of the station, safe in shadow. But she couldn't stay here. Zia looked down at her shoulder-strap purse. She'd modified it a few years ago with some stitching skills the Marine Corp gave her. It was now a half purse, half first-aid kit.
"My husband was lied to by Sergeant Terry," Claire was demanding the army men listen to her. If they knew what was good for them, they'd do it. Zia did a quick run of her supplies... then gave a slow grin. Times like this I'm really glad I'm certified.
She zipped it up and stuck close to the wall, reaching the northeast corner. The forest offered her thin branches, but Zia kept her arc wide, step by cautious step, until she was a several yards up the road. She hunched down, clocking eight soldiers, including Colonel Placer. And despite an occasional glance back, no one was watching their six. Franklin had their attention for the moment, making feeble gestures at his laptop.
I'll take whatever distraction I can get. Zia paused, listening to her own breath contain itself, playing out her future movements once she left her cover behind. She had an odd thought then... was this what a carnivore felt before it leapt out? Smelling its sweat, harboring control over a pounding heart... until just the right...
Zia skidded down the few feet and darted across the road, hitting the back of the lowboy trailer. She pushed her heart down from her throat, waiting for the boots to march out and surround her.
"He was keeping separate files when your whole purpose is to locate the dinosaurs." Claire was at full froth now. "Use your brain for half a second and ask yourself why! Why wouldn't he share this information?"
"You can ask him when we get to the base." Colonel Placer matched her frustration. "You're going to follow us-"
Zia hurried past the stegosaurus' tail, hand in and out of her purse as she came up on her shoulder. "Ok girl, flex that muscle for me."
She ran her hands below the shoulder plate, until the scales thinned and a vein revealed itself. Zia withdrew the syringe from her purse, uncapping it with her teeth. An emergency stash of pure adrenaline... all for Steggy here!
"Hey!" a soldier cried out as Zia jammed the thin needle between her scales. The stegosaurus shuttered and pulled away... really, that hurt? Zia looked up at the two soldiers now trained on her. Instinct took over as the stegosaurus' head raised its head, eyes turning like pins. The straps across her neck and back raised with her. Kind of easy since Zia had unbuckled them on her end. She dove under the trailer, even while it teetered with the stegosaurus' weight. Shouts raised up as the army's attention was pulled toward the trailer and its escapee.
Zia crawled under, the asphalt scrapping through her jeans, throwing dust in her throat. The trailer wheels rocked with the stegosaurus' fight for freedom, but Zia didn't let it distract her. She cleared the trailer and ran, sensing the swing of the dino's spikes behind her.
Owen was on top of things, needing a second to twist Colonel Placer's gun out of his hands and knock him to the ground. Placer started to get up, but Owen cocked it. "We both know you've got better things to do."
The rest of the soldiers were focused on the raging stegosaurus now. Zia screamed as a soldier was flung past her, hitting the side of the semi a few feet from her. But she kept on, joining the others in making for their cars. Owen had Claire by the waist, passing her the gun as he took the driver's side. Zia soared across the hood of her car, remembering the keys on the console. "FRANKLIN!"
Franklin and Dr. Wu hopped in as Zia ignited her car awake. She peeled out, heading for the gap between the semi and the forefront hummer. Their guns flashed at the stegosaurus, adding to her confusion. The stegosaurus roared and charged another solider with her head. He flew back, hitting the side of Owen's car this time.
"Oh man." Franklin spoke for all of them, clutching his laptop like a life preserver. Following this, the gunfire increased; as did Franklin's tight expression. "I'm so over this! Shooting or dinosaur trampling. Neither is how I want to die!"
"You're not going to die!" Zia maintained speed so as not to lose Owen. As Zia passed, the stegosaurus whined in pain. She risked a look, as it stumbled to its knees. Her eyes now held panic and fear, multiple streaks of blood over its skin. Zia looked away, throat tightening.
Dr. Wu's heavy breathing cut in on the somber moment."I... can't believe..."
"You never seen one outside a lab?" Zia guessed, blocking the mistiness from her eyes. C'mon, this' what needed to be done-
"The hours and resources to build her DNA from the ground up." Dr. Wu leaned his head back. "They're not a wonder anymore, but a threat? People can be so irresponsible!"
Franklin twisted a glare on him. "And you can't?!"
Dr. Wu said nothing, only glared back. Zia kept her focus on the road ahead, Owen's car blazing the trail for them. But that look- and the gunfire- stayed with her as she sped them away.
}{}{}{}{
Yeah, it was about time Zia got her own POV! Also, Blue's back!
Having a blast writing this, hope you guys are having a blast reading. Lots of snow days right now, so I'll be quicker about writing the next few chapters. Let me know your thoughts, they're always welcome!