3
Gray sat up in bed as the sun began to peek over the horizon. He couldn't remember the dream that had woken him, but his heart was still racing.
He tiptoed downstairs and made his way into the kitchen, where a familiar redhead was already sipping a cup of coffee and looking out the window.
"Aunt Claire?"
She turned and smiled. "Hey, sweetie. What are you doing up?"
He rubbed his eyes and hopped onto a stool at the breakfast bar. "Can't sleep."
"Yeah, that seems to be a pattern around here."
"I keep thinking I hear dinosaurs, but then it turns out it's just Zach snoring or a dog barking or the air conditioner." He fiddled with the salt shaker. "Do you think it'll ever go away?"
"I don't know," his aunt said honestly.
"I was doing better," Gray confessed. "Now it's like I'm right back where I started."
Claire knew the feeling.
"Let's talk about something else," she suggested. "You're starting high school in the fall, right? Are you excited?"
Gray shrugged. "I don't know. I'm pretty much a nerd, and every movie I've ever seen says that's not a good thing to be in high school."
Claire smiled. "You can't believe everything you see in the movies."
Gray adopted a wide-eyed expression. "You mean Iron Man isn't based on a true story?" he asked sarcastically.
They both laughed, turning as someone else entered the kitchen.
"Morning," Zach mumbled, shuffling to the table and burying his face in his arms.
"Couldn't sleep, either?" Claire asked sympathetically. She took the answering grunt as a 'no.'
Gray reached for the coffee pot, pouring another cup. He added two sugar cubes and set the drink in front of his brother. Zach raised his head at the inviting smell. He took a sip and smiled.
"Thanks. Owen's still asleep?"
Claire shook her head. "He said he was going for a run." She checked the time on the microwave. "He should be back any minute."
As if on cue, they heard the front door open and shut. Owen loped into the kitchen, grinning.
"Good morning, sleepyheads!"
"It's seven o'clock," Zach pointed out, yawning.
"I've been up since five." Owen said ruefully. "Old habits die hard." He sat down just as Karen entered the room. She slipped into the last chair at the table and watched as Claire switched on the little television on the counter.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to find the news."
"Oh, Claire, let's not—"
Claire stopped channel surfing when she recognized the CNN banner. The screen was split between a woman in a newsroom and a male reporter in the field. He was mid-sentence.
"…committee has reconvened to assess the situation and recommend an appropriate course of action. After the San Diego incident in '97, measures were put in place in the event of a repeat episode, but they weren't designed to address a situation of this magnitude. There has been difficulty procuring the necessary supplies, and containment will be an issue."
The female reporter nodded in solemn agreement. "Have any of the dinosaurs been recaptured at this point?"
"Yes, there has been one successful recovery. A pachycephalosaurus was found not far from Benjamin Lockwood's estate and was tranquilized. We have been assured it is securely detained and is being kept in an undisclosed location until a more permanent solution is determined. Meanwhile, stories are pouring in from all over the west coast of dinosaur sightings. A pack of compsognathus were allegedly spotted in Carson City. A tourist in Santa Rosa raised the alarm over what turned out to be a native skink."
"Jay, what's the danger of these false dinosaur sightings?"
"Well, Samantha, it's the story of the boy who cried wolf. If officials waste their resources attempting to respond to every potential threat, they won't be sufficiently prepared when an actual emergency happens."
"Right. Viewers, please take note. Be vigilant, but remember that not every shaking branch equals a prehistoric predator and sometimes a lizard is just a lizard. One final question—has the Dinosaur Protection Group released any kind of statement in the wake of the incident?"
"No, the DPG has been surprisingly mute about this situation. There are rumors that Its organizer, Claire Dearing, the former operations manager at Jurassic World, was present at Lockwood Estate that night, but we have been assured that Ms. Dearing is not a suspect at this time."
"Thanks, Jay. In other news—"
Claire clicked the TV off. "I can't believe there haven't been more incidents yet."
"Well, Lockwood's place was in the middle of nowhere," Owen mused.
"Do you think maybe they're covering stuff up?" Gray asked. "I mean, to keep people calm?"
Owen exchanged a look with Claire. He hadn't thought of that, but it wasn't hard to imagine.
"I think it'd be tough to hide a dinosaur attack from the public, but it's definitely a possibility if it happened in a rural area."
"It isn't like a T-rex is going to be able to sneak around without anyone noticing," Zach pointed out. "They're kind of big. And loud."
"Yes, but some of the smaller dinosaurs aren't so obvious and are almost as dangerous." Claire looked sideways at Owen and pursed her lips. "Like Blue."
"What about Blue?" Maisie stood in the doorway.
"Hey, look who decided to wake up!" Karen greeted her warmly. "At least one of us got some sleep."
"What's going to happen now?" Gray pressed.
Owen leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, rubbing his hands together.
"I don't know," he said honestly. "I guess the government will try to get all the dinos rounded up and take 'em somewhere."
"They won't hurt them, will they?" Maisie asked anxiously.
Owen exchanged a look with Claire. "I'm sure they'll do whatever they can not to," he said carefully.
Maisie's lip trembled.
Zach broke in. "What about the ones that got sold off?"
"They'll probably be harder to find," Owen acknowledged.
"People are gonna get hurt, aren't they," Gray said quietly. It wasn't a question.
"We don't know that," Claire said too quickly.
Zach was reminded suddenly of three years ago. 'He's scared. It's okay to lie when people are scared!' The grim expression on Gray's face showed he wasn't buying it this time.
Maisie hung her head. "This is all my fault. I let the dinosaurs out. They were dying and I just didn't know what to do. And now everyone's panicking."
"Hey, hey," Owen waved his hands. "You weren't the one who collected them for a freak auction. This is all on Mills. Whatever happens now, it is not because of you."
Claire nodded emphatically. "If anyone here is at fault, it's me. I encouraged genetic experimentation in the first place. If I hadn't let them make the Indominus, they would never have been able to make the Indoraptor."
"How 'bout this?" Karen said loudly, standing up. "Everybody stops blaming themselves, and instead of thinking about what we could have done, we focus on what we should do now."
"Breakfast!" Gray chimed in.