I'm sooorrryyyyy for the lengthy delay in posting. Work- and food poisoning- can push a few things back. But alls good again and the story is back on! Enjoy and review as always!

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Maisie pulled her thoughts together as she jostled against her seatbelt. The car was racing away; with her mind racing faster. She couldn't go back to the lab! She wouldn't get another chance... Owen and Claire might not find her! She watched up front, where Sergeant Terry kept a rigid control on the steering wheel. He'd talked with Dr. Inger, leaving when the others had brought Blue in. He'd also ordered Owen to stay behind. So where was Owen... her head hurt so much! Maisie just wanted to close her eyes-

Don't be tired. She ordered herself, narrowing her eyes on her door. And don't be scared.

She needed to do this before the base got too far away. Sergeant Terry was dialing a number on his cell as Maisie gripped her handle, flipping the auto lock. Air rushed in, shocking her face with humid darkness.

"Hey, what-"

Maisie let the door fly open, coughing at the dust that whipped inside. She smelled the salt again as she leaned out; it threatening to suffocate her! But she braced as Sergeant Terry slowed. Jump and run, jump and run!

Every muscle in her body was ready to. Sergeant Terry was reaching, ordering her back in. Only an alien sound stopped her at the last second. Maisie's head jerked up to see the allosaurus running like mad to catch up with them. She squinted through the dry cloud to be sure she was seeing right. How did it get out of its cage? Is the trike out too?

A yank on her hair pulled her back into the car. Braking, Sergeant Terry pushed her onto the floor where she could see his angry face. "Don't do that again!"

Maisie, dazed, tried to focus as he twisted, pulled her door closed, and threw the car back into drive. Claws scrapped at the rear window as the car reeved and resumed its speed. This shoved Maisie against the seat, shooting pain up her back. What was she on? Coughing out the last of the dust, Maisie pulled herself back into the seat. Sergeant Terry was back on his cell, swearing under his breath. Maisie inspected the floor, moving her feet as she rubbed her head. A walkie talkie!

"You better plan on meeting me halfway!"

Maisie looked back to see Sergeant Terry hissing into his phone. "I've gotta ditch this car and you'll take yours!... Yeah, the intersection... you WHAT!?"

The car sped up. Maisie pushed her foot over the walkie, letting her tears fall. She looked back, the allosaurus growing farther away, veering to the right of them. There was too much dust for her to see anything else. Sergeant Terry's phone snapped shut, drawing her attention again. He stared at her, hard and cold. It choked Maisie with fear, but she breathed. "The army's going to follow you."

"They'll follow the dinosaurs." Sergeant Terry gained on the scant hills that'd lead to an asphalt road. The car bumped and he hit his palm against the wheel. "An easy job! Heck of a time for me to believe that."

Maisie wiped her tears away. "Let me go."

Sergeant Terry eyed her, like she was making a joke. Maisie didn't look away. "It's just causing trouble for you."

"It's all this trouble that'll cost the doc." Sergeant Terry curved as they entered the hills. His eyes continued to shift, as though a dinosaur would pop out at any moment. "Her and Gavrill... cost them a lot."

He sensed Maisie's gaze become a glare. "Hey, just because the world's collapsing doesn't mean my finances have to."

I need to get out of here. Maisie watched out the window, keeping her exhaustion at bay. "I... I don't feel good."

This irritated him. "Dr. Inger has that medicine for you. Just lay down."

Maisie did, watching the rearview mirror. If she put her head behind the driver's seat, he wouldn't see her. He wouldn't see the walkie talkie when she picked it up either.

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"We're done awaiting orders!" Colonel Placer yelled in his subordinates' faces. "Those animals are dying tonight! We'll use their trackers to-"

"Sir." Private Seaver interrupted, chin and stance erect. "With all due respect, Sergeant Terry can only allow that."

Colonel Placer tightened his grip on his belt, looking across the footprint of destruction the triceratops and the allosaurus had left. They'd ripped through a tent and six more men before breaking free into the desert. Any seconds they wasted on protocol, they wasted civilian life! Placer turned back to Private Seaver. "Where is Terry?"

Private Seaver's eyes showed her discomfort. "We don't know."

Placer closed his eyes for some sort of control. "And the point of this conversation?"

It wasn't like their funds had been evenly spread before, but now, rather then targeting the defeat of terrorists, they had to make dinosaurs go extinct... again!

"I'm leading three hummers out." Placer pulled back from Private Seaver. "Eight men to each hummer. The trackers are headed southwest-"

There were no further objections as they built up their firepower. Two minutes, and they were ready to move out. Placer got into the front vehicle, the tracker screen ready and beeping. The driver had the headlights on, brightening the barren valley ahead.

"Colonel Placer!" A solider stopped him from closing the door. He looked puzzled, holding up one of their walkie talkies. "Something... odd's coming across our frequency."

Placer took the walkie, not seeing how they had the time-

"What happened with Owen?" a small persisted through the static. "Is he still alive?"

Owen Grady? Placer's brain clicked with the name.

"Wouldn't know." A gravely tone belonging to Sergeant Terry answered her. "He's not good at following orders."

What was this? Colonel Placer looked back up, but the solider was just as clueless. Yet, that voice familiar...

"The dinosaurs are following us." the child was speaking again. "And Owen's going to find you. I'd just give up-"

"Maisie." Placer said aloud. That was the girl from the tent earlier. What was she doing with Sergeant Terry?

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Claire's hand was suffocating Owen's arm, but he was sharing the same disbelief as her. In the lead of having the most injuries, he was letting Claire drive, while he tried all the channels on the walkie talkie. His hope had been contact with the army base, lead them to Inger's 'secret' facility. Maisie's voice was the last thing he expected to hear.

"Where are we going?"

"You want me to let you out right now!?" Terry threatened her question. "Stop talking!"

Maisie breathed. Somehow, the walkie was on and Terry didn't know it. How was she pulling that off? What was she doing, taking a risk like that?

She's thinking like me, that's what. He realized. He switched the channel and Claire about veered off the road. "What are you doing!? That's her-"

"We've got to figure out a plan and he can't hear us make it." Owen told her before the freak out went any farther. "And Franklin needs to know about this channel. Maybe he can find a backchannel, get the army out to the base-"

"We'll be coming up on the intersection soon, won't we?" Claire, big surprise, wasn't listening. "We can stop him there... but Inger has that medicine with her. Maybe we should wait until they've given it to her-"

Owen pushed himself in. "Is this best for her?"

"What!?" Claire's foot jolted on the brakes. "Excuse me?"

"I'm not saying we don't save her." Owen made himself clear. "But after we do... is she safer with us, or just more vulnerable?"

Claire's face flustered splotchy and red. "Why is that even a question?"

"Like it or not, you're the more emotional of us," Owen pointed out, adjusting his weight from his damaged ribs. He didn't like pressing this now, but with everything rushing ahead of them, he knew they had to be honest with themselves. Maisie was too important... "So I have to ask it; are we what's best for Maisie? Iris knows her, she can provide for her-"

"You know Maisie doesn't care about that." Claire insisted, accelerating another five miles. "And neither do I. Where is this coming from, Owen?"

Owen eyed the road, following where it ran between the valley and the Sierra Nevada. "Wu was right. I knew from the start what InGen hoped to breed the raptors for; giving them commands to respond to. I took the responsibility of that and botched it. I don't want to repeat that with Maisie."

"So what, we just back pedal and pretend she never happened?" Claire's disbelief climbed with each word. A tense breath passed between them, until Claire forced her knuckles to relax on the wheel. "Maybe- we took her in for selfish reasons. Call them that, but..." her eyes pierced him. "I won't regret that decision."

Owen rested his head on the seat. "Me neither. But if it goes south..."

He let the silence pound at his head again. Gavrill was in the wind. Dinosaurs were putting the world at risk, and not just the ones that were alive, but the ones that would be created. People weren't going to stop... unless he and Claire stopped them. And what would happen to Maisie in the meantime?

"Owen," Claire entered in again, the car slowing for the first time. "While I'm enjoying this adult conversation, could we deal with-"

Owen opened his eyes and immediately forgot his future worries. The t-rex ahead of them restored plenty of old worries to deal with.

}{}{}{}{

With Blue, the trouble had been the hemorrhaging and needing a transfusion. For Wu though, it was the opposite. The bullet was in his ribs somewhere, causing his lung to pool with blood. Franklin had hurried back with a first aid kit, but the care it offered was minimal. The walkie beeped. "Zia, Franklin-"

Zia jumped from her taught position, keeping pressure against Wu's torso. Franklin picked up. "Yeah, go ahead."

"Try channel six." Owen advised. "That army base is using it. You can get some people over there, help with Wu."

"And prove his innocence." Zia nodded to the dinosaur infested lab. She gritted her teeth as Wu released another raggedy breath. Anything she could use to treat him was in there... but so were crimson-mouthed compsognathus. Wu gulped, opening his eyes through a sweaty forehead. "Dinosaurs between me... and death. You probably find it poetic."

"You're not going die." Zia told him. Even for him, she couldn't accept that. Wu raised a brow at her. "What's the point... it's all dead anyway."

He was talking about more then his body. Zia eyed the semi-automatic Owen had left them. Five dinosaurs... how many bullets did she have? Zia steeled. "Franklin-"

But suddenly the gun was in Franklin's hand, his arm following the rest of his body to the doors. "Something happens to you, who takes care of him?"

"Wh-" Zia gaped, her hands leaving Wu. "Hold up!"

Wu leaned forward in pain. "Yes, wait... the samples."

Both paused to look at him. Wu lifted his hand, eyeing the blood over his fingers with an eerie gaze. "Dr. Inger took binary samples from the girl. In there." He coughed, flecking the floor with red dots. "You'll want them destroyed... before you bring the army here."

Zia's gaze turned eerie now; and suspicious. "The next great discovery of the science frontier... and you're okay with keeping it a secret."

"Why?" Franklin pressed, moving back from the doors.

Wu let three or four beats pass. "The freezers are already conpromised. It's... just a matter of finding the nearest drain." He pulled himself and Zia moved to help. "We can't open another Pandora's box... before the other one's been closed."

He doesn't seem to have a solid answer. Zia watched Wu, baffled. Still though, Franklin couldn't go in there. "Franklin, I need you to put pressure-"

There was a hiss as Franklin keyed himself inside, catching the acute attention of the compies. Gun in front of him, Zia felt Franklin's panic as he stepped in. The compies watched them new creature approach, blinking and wondering. The color drained from Zia's face as the doors closed. Has he ever fired-

BAM!

A compie went down- as did Franklin with the kickback.

"Get up!" Zia yelped. He couldn't hear her, but Franklin was swinging and shooting, pushing the remaining pack away.

"Advance, advance... advance."

Zia looked back at an ashen Dr. Wu. He coughed, wetting his lips with more blood. "That's what it always was. What we could accomplish in ten years was challenged by what we could accomplish in five."

"This your moment of confession." Zia rolled her eyes, reexamining the bullet's entry. She was torn, as Franklin downed another dino... only to find himself out! But she stayed kneeling, putting a hand into the first aid kit. "I need to siphon the blood out, give it somewhere to go."

"I was the first approached by Hammond." Wu wiped at his lips, somehow remaining refined. "Laura Sorkin and I... the privilege of it still overwhelms me."

"That almost sounds like humility." Zia opened her pocket knife, razor-focused on the skin between Wu's ribs. She cut too wide or too high, he'd bleed out.

"I wonder what Sorkin would think of all this." Wu went on. "If she'd be childish enough to say 'I told you so'."

Zia gave up derailing his guilt trip. She needed to get this incision right. "She didn't agree with playing God?"

Wu's eyes faltered on the glass into the lab. "She was willing to ask the questions no one else would. And now, what we thought we could control..."

Zia followed his pale gaze to see Franklin kick a compie into a pile of shattered glass. She didn't blink as he dove forward, swept a shard up... and stabbed the compie straight through the neck! Zia's throat dried. She bolted up to the doors, banging on them. "Franklin? Franklin!"

Franklin spun as a compie leapt for his shoulder. The claws knocked his glasses off, but Franklin cleaved to the glass, stabbing again. Zia gasped, tears fogging her own lens. Why did seeing this sadden her... because she wanted the lovable, enduring geek Franklin back. These doors needed to open, NOW! "Franklin!"

He started, dropping the dead dinosaur and the glass. He touched his clawed cheek, then looked about in a daze for the gun and the keycard. Zia stepped back as he made it to the door. They clicked open, revealed his heavy breathing and shaking body. Did he even see her?

"I..." he looked around, like he just realized his glasses were missing. "I did that... you can... help him now."

Zia pulled him into a hug, keeping her tears against his trembling shoulder.