Chapter 5

The walk to the nearest outpost ended up being uneventful, to the relief of Lowery, Owen and Claire. It was to the somewhat dismay of Zia, who complained as they reached it that she'd been on the island for over an hour now and had still yet to see a single dinosaur.

Approaching the panel by the door, Claire knew this was going to be their first test. If the power had been completely shut down, then the electronic locks on the doors would no longer work, which would mean that even Lowery trying to regain access into their system would be all for naught. No power would mean the end of the adventure before it had even started. She was really hoping on, betting on, the fact that those who shut stuff down would've wanted to make it possible to come back later. Or at least, not as hard as they could make it.

Also, if she, Zia and Lowery were right, if others had been back on the island recently, there was also a good chance that parts of the system had already been turned on again. That they weren't the first to attempt what they were about to do. Not that she was going to share those thoughts out loud. They'd managed to pretend so far that they were only here to try and get the camera's back up running and to take a look at the tracking system if they could get it online. Although, if she was being honest with herself, she knew Owen wasn't buying it.

"Okay Lowery, let's see what you've got," Claire told him as the two approached the door. Zia and Owen were standing with their backs to them, keeping an eye out in case something had been stalking them all along. The lack of dinosaurs was making Claire concerned that very few had survived the past three years. She really hoped she was wrong and was feeling even more desperate to get the tracking system back online to find out.

Lowery tried pressing the buttons, but there were no signs of life and no blinking lights. He pulled down a hidden panel that uncovered some additional buttons and a slot that looked like it was for a usb cable.

"What are you doing?" Claire asked, as he continued to poke away it.

"Trying to figure out if it's got power," Lowery replied. "I'm not sure if it's just turned off or if it's dead. I'm really hoping it's the former. Thankfully," he reached into his bag and pulled out a small tablet and a usb cable, "I brought this with me. I remember the system we used, so I preloaded the software. If it's just off, this should allow us to start it up again." He plugged in the tablet and then tapped away a couple of times until he brought up a program. "Fingers crossed."

Claire held her breath, waiting to see what would happen, although she wasn't actually sure what to expect. Was the door going to spring open? Or would lights or an alarm go off? In the end, it was pretty anticlimactic. A small light on the panel came on, and Lowery turned to her and asked if she remembered what the code was.

"I think so," Claire nodded. Actually, she wasn't sure she could tell you the numbers, but as she reached out, she tried to rely on muscle memory instead. The way you remembered your garage code more by the pattern - that it starts with a 7 and then you go over two, up one, right one. There was a click and then a hiss, and the door beside them slid open. She let out a deep breath, feeling her shoulders relax a smidge. Step one complete.

"We're in," Lowery called out to the other two, although it was unnecessary, as they had already turned towards the door when they heard it opening. The four hurried inside.

"Should we shut the door?" Zia asked.

"Not yet," Claire shook her head. "There should be a control panel over here. Let's see if we can get the lights and basic systems back online first." She headed towards the left wall, finding the panel where she remembered it. Isla Nublar (and the other islands in the small chain) were not immune to hurricane season. So when Jurassic World was developed, they had created a series of these outposts spread across the island that could work as emergency bunkers. It meant a lot of redundancy in systems, but that had also saved them more than once, when a storm would knock out the systems in one area, and they were able to use others to get it back online faster.

Pulling open the panel, she moved aside to let Lowery take a look. She may know about why these buildings exist and where they were located, but that didn't make her any more capable of actually sorting out the systems.

Lowery spent some time fiddling with the switches and plugging his tablet back in. It took longer than getting the door open, but soon lights started flickering on around them. "You can shut the door now," Lowery nodded to Zia and Owen who were still hovering in the doorway. "The basic systems are back online. Mainly the lights and the air filtering system. We need that if we're going to spend any time in the tunnels. I've left the rest of it for now – it'll be easier to work with from the control room."

With another hiss, the door slid shut, locking them inside the bunker. For a moment, there was silence, and then Zia started laughing. "You'd think we were all in a horror movie or something," she managed to get out. It did break the tension, and the four relaxed marginally.

It was Owen who got them moving again, shuffling them off towards the door to the tunnel.

"Why does this feel so creepy?" Lowery asked, as they wandered down the long tunnel. "I mean, we walked these tunnels for years and I never thought of them as creepy before."

"It's too quiet," Claire supplied. "It doesn't feel right without other people walking and talking around us. There was always a … I don't know, hum, I guess. That sound of people working or going to work."

"Just be glad we have the lights on," Owen grumbled. He was finding it hard to figure out how to fit in with the group. It was clear that Claire, Zia and Lowery had all developed a good friendship over their time at the DPG. The moment when Lowery had to unlock Paddock Nine seemed to have shifted something in his relationship with Claire. That, combined with both being highly involved in the fallout of Jurassic World, and they had ended up bonding. Even though Owen had been there during that time, he hadn't developed the same relationship with Lowery. He figured it was sort of how most partners feel when they meet their significant others' coworkers. There's a bond they just don't quite understand. And Zia, with her sarcastic personality and quick wit had fit right in with Lowery. While Claire had come up with the idea for the DPG, it was through the encouragement and backing from Zia and Lowery that she'd actually followed through. All three thought of the nonprofit as their baby.

As they continued through the tunnels, Owen found himself straining to listen for sounds other than the three talking beside him. He was realistic – there was a better than good chance that dinosaurs had got into the buildings since the island had been abandoned. It would be easy enough for the big ones to crash through walls, and the smaller ones, like the compys, were lithe and could easily enter through small cracks. And, of course, there were rats and lizards and other animals native to the island that were likely to get in. He'd seen evidence of rat poop beside the wall in a few places, but he hadn't mentioned it. Rats were the least of their worries.

He breathed out a sigh of relief as they exited the tunnels into the main control building. Claire and Lowery eagerly started forward, looking excited to be close to their former haunting grounds.

"Wait," Owen called out, stopping by a closed door. "I wonder what the ACU left behind. Claire, can you get us in here?"

Claire stepped forward with a nod, pulling her backpack off her back and digging into one of the smaller front pockets. "Yep, just a sec. Assuming the basic systems re-activated all the door locks…" She trailed off as she pulled out her old ID badge from her bag. The ID badges had embedded RFID chips that were used to give employees access to the various employee only areas. Holding her card up to the panel by the door, there was a short beep, and then a green LED lit up and they could hear the lock disengage.

Owen pushed at the door, flicking on the light switch as he entered the room. The ACU had various armoury posts around the island, but this was their main one. He was betting that most of it had been cleaned out during the few trips back to the island post incident, but with the lack of firepower between the four of them, he was hoping that they might end up lucky. He quickly started pulling open drawers and cupboards, rifling through the contents.

"What are you looking for?" Lowery asked, following him into the room.

"Anything that might be useful," Owen shrugged.

Zia, Claire and Lowery all picked different areas of the room, and for a few minutes there was just the sound of drawers being open and items being shuffled around.

"Found something," Lowery was the first to respond, turning to face the others. He held up a bunch of watches clutched in his hand.

"What are those?" Zia asked.

"The ACU used to wear special smart watches," Lowery explained. "It allowed us up in the control room to track their location as well as specifics like heart rate and body temp." He looked around at the others and then shrugged. "Might be useful."

"Good idea," Owen agreed, grabbing one from Lowery and slipping it onto his left wrist (his own watch on his right). He turned back to shuffling through the cabinets as the others also collected watches from Lowery.

A moment later it's Owen's turn to give out an "ah ha!" He was standing in front of a gun locker. It was mostly empty, but there were a couple of tranq rifles left as well as a few boxes of tranq darts. He pulled out the two guns, slipping the strap of one over his shoulder so it rested against his rifle. He looked at other for a moment before holding out to Claire. "Here, you should have a gun too."

"Hey, what about me?" Lowery asked as Claire accepted the rifle.

"I've seen you trying to walk and chew gum," Zia laughed, "No one in their right mind would hand you a gun. We don't want to be shot."

Lowery looked ready to argue, but he took a look at their faces before he sighed and conceded.

"Here," Owen reached out to Lowery, handing over a knife he found. "I think we can trust you with this."

There was a moment where Owen had to bite his lip to keep from laughing and also restrain himself from grabbing the knife back, as Lowery almost dropped it, as he tried to figure out how to hook it to his belt loop. Thankfully, it was sheathed, and no one was hurt.

Owen grabbed the few boxes of tranq darts and split them between himself and Claire, both of them packing them into their bags. He then moved over beside her, and pulled the rifle off her shoulder carefully, and started to give her a quick lesson. He wasn't worried about her ability to shoot – he'd seen her shoot a Pteranodon before. He just wanted to make sure she was clear on how to use the safety and how to load the darts. By the time he was satisfied with his quick lesson, Zia and Lowery had finished going through the remainder of the room. They hadn't found anything else worth taking.

After giving a last quick glance around, the four headed back out into the hallway and headed directly for the control room.

x x x

Entering the control room felt like stepping back into a previous life. Claire had spent a good chunk of every day in that room, checking in on the park's status and dealing with any incidents. She paused just over the threshold, memories washing over her like a tidal wave. Everything about the room now felt wrong. It was too dark and too quiet. While normally the main lights in the room were set on dim, the giant wall of screens more than made up for it, combined with all the light from the monitors at each workstation. Snapping out of her daze, she watched as Lowery headed straight for his old desk, like it was just an ordinary work day.

"It'll just take me a moment," Lowery said distractedly to everyone else, hands already placed on his keyboard, his screen coming to life before him. The other three just hung back, watching as his hands flew across the keys. Slowly the screens in front of them flickered on, the displays cycling through the startup screens. Eventually, it was like staring at a giant Windows desktop.

"Pulling up the map now," Lowery announced, clicking a few more keys. Soon the generic background was replaced by a giant map of the island. Red alarms were flickering all across the map, making it hard to make anything out, as it seemed like the whole island was was one giant alarm. "Give me a minute," Lowery raised a hand, as if predicting Claire's comment that was about to come. "Let me turn off most of the monitoring systems."

"Let's focus on the tracking systems first," Claire asked, stepping towards Lowery until she was standing at his side. "We're not here to fix any of the broken fences, so I don't care about those. I would like to also check into the video feeds, though."

Owen and Zia also moved forward, watching as the map slowly cleared of the blinking alarms. Soon, instead, there were a couple hundred dots spread across the map. About a third of the dots were red, while the rest were green.

"Red vs green… dead vs alive?" Zia asked.

"Probably," Lowery nodded. "More accurately it's working vs not working. The Stygimoloch and Pachysaurus were known for shorting out their trackers."

"What about the Mosasaurus?" Owen was staring at the lagoon on the screen. There was neither a red nor green dot over the area.

"The Mosasaurus didn't have a tracker," Claire answered. "The lagoon doesn't connect to the ocean and it can't survive on land. I'm 99.9% sure it's dead."

"Not 100?" Lowery looked at her in surprise.

"I want to say 100, but," Claire shrugged, "being overconfident didn't serve us well last time. She's had no one feeding her for years now. And the fish population was never all that high in that lagoon to start with. Unless she found an alternate food source..."

"I say we just avoid the lagoon," Owen suggested. "There's no reason for us to go down there anyway." The others nodded in agreement. "Hey, can you pull up Blue?"

"Sure," Lowery replied. "I just need the species code."

"D9." Both Claire and Owen replied in unison. Their eyes shot towards each other, both trapped in the others gaze for a long moment. A soft "ahem" from Lowery had them turning back to the screens.

With a few taps, most of the dots had disappeared, leaving only four on the screen; three red and one green. Two of the red dots were along main street – a reminder of their final battle with the Indominus. The other red dot is off in a wooded area about halfway between Paddock 11 and main street. The green dot, the dot all four were focused on, looked to be part way up Mt. Sibo.

"What's she doing on the mountain?" Claire asked, surprised.

"I'm not sure," Owen also looked confused by the placement. There was nothing known about raptors that indicated that would be their preferred territory. "Lowery, what kind of information do we have on her? Like, is it only her present location? Or is there any sort of historical data?"

"The trackers can store data for about a week," Lowery nodded. "It just keeps overwriting the oldest information when it runs out of space. Let me pull it up."

Soon they were watching the dot move about. Except it never went far, generally hovering around the same location it first pinged on.

"Does that seem normal?" Lowery asked. "I mean, I can check the data but…"

"No, not normal," Owen shook his head. "Something's wrong."

"With the data?" Claire asked, directing her question at both Lowery and Owen.

"No, I don't think so," Owen replied. "I think she might be injured." Owen started sorting through his bag before checking the pockets of his vest, shifting some items around. "I'm going to go check on her."

"Wait! You're going to do what?" Claire was glad it was Lowery who asked that with surprise, so she didn't have to. "Are you crazy?"

"We came all the way here," Owen shrugged. "Besides, it's not like you guys are telling me the full truth about what we're here to do. I might as well do something for myself." Satisfied with the contents of his vest, he dropped his bag to the floor.

"Wait a second," Claire reached out to rest a hand on his arm. "It's not like we're just wandering out among the dinosaurs."

"The tracking system is back up," Owen gestured at the screen. "You guys can help me avoid most of them." He turned towards Lowery. "Can you make sure our watches are working?"

Lowery spared a quick glance at Claire before bringing up the screen for the ACU watches on his local monitor. "Sure. Let me know what number is on your watch, and I'll update the names in here too." The other three quickly fed Lowery the information, and soon alongside the map on the main screen are rectangles showing their heart rates and names. A moment later, four blue dots show up on the map too, clustered tightly together. "Okay, looks like everything is working," Lowery said.

"Thanks," Owen nodded. He turned to Claire. "You said you brought some radios, right?"

Claire nodded, already reaching for her bag. Pulling two out, she handed one over.

"Perfect. I'll be on channel 4," Owen clipped the radio to his belt, adjusting the channel on top. Claire followed suit, turning hers on and placing it on the desk. "Let me know if you think I'm about to run into something."

"Wait!" It was Zia's turn to speak up, and as they all turn to her where they realize she'd been preparing to go to as well. While Owen was leaving his backpack behind, Zia had her's on. "I'm going with you."

"What? No! You should stay here," Owen disagreed.

"You said it yourself, you think she's injured. You'll need me," Zia argued. "I'm a vet, I can help." She hefted her rifle, slinging it over her shoulder with confidence. "Once a Marine, always a Marine. I can handle myself. Trust me."

"Fine," Owen ground out. He turned back to Claire and Lowery. "But you two… You two need to stay right here. I want you to lock that door behind us when we go. We'll come back here, you guys don't come to us."

Lowery nodded in agreement right away, but Claire just held Owen's gaze for a moment, before looking away, not promising anything.

"Hey Owen," Claire said a moment later, bringer her gaze back to meet his again. "Be careful."

She gave him a small smile which he returned, before he said flippantly, "You know me, I'm always careful."

"I do know you, that's why I'm reminding you," Claire rolled her eyes. She looked over at Zia. "Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

Zia just grinned at her friend, her eyes wide as she said, "I'm finally going to see a dinosaur!" She turned to Lowery and stuck out her tongue. "Take that - my card is going to fill up fast."

"We're about to get the camera's back online," Lowery replied with his own grin. "I bet I'll see every species before you even make it to Blue."

"Camera's don't count," Zia shook her head.

"Oh yeah?" Lowery countered. "I never agreed to that."

Before Zia had a chance to get into a debate, Owen tugged on her arm. "Let's get going. We only have so much time."

"We're not done discussing this," Zia called back as Owen pulled her from the room, shutting the door behind them.

Thanks for reading. I know this wasn't the most exciting chapter of the story, but it is needed to move the story forward. Next chapter - DINOSAURS! See you in a few days. :)