Chapter 6

After the door shut behind Owen and Zia, Lowery turned back to his workstation and Claire pulled up a chair, sitting down beside him. "Okay, let's see about those cameras," Claire suggested.

Lowery nodded and started tapping away at his keyboard, accessing a few different programs and changing settings. Soon, the right and left side of the main screen was populated by numerous small boxes, each representing a different potential video feed. About half of them were filled with just static. The half that were providing potential feeds were giving back mixed results. Some were clear, and looking at their feeds was like time traveling back three years before the Jurassic World incident. Others were now obstructed, as plants grew and covered the lens, or the camera had shifted off its original axis and was now pointing mostly at a wall or fence post.

"That's actually better than I hoped," Lowery commented, after he and Claire had taken a couple of minutes to browse through the different feeds.

"Yeah," Claire nodded absently, her gaze caught on a camera out near the Triceratops territory. She could just see at the far reach of the camera an adult triceratops with a baby triceratops following behind it.

Lowery followed her gaze and sighed, "I guess that confirms that picture."

"Yep," Claire said tightly. "Someone's definitely been back on here. I guess the main question now is, what for?"

"And are they still here?" Lowery added, which made Claire whip her head around to face him. "Well, come on. We don't know when that picture was taken. There's nothing to say we're the only humans on the island. It's a big place after all."

"Oh god," Claire rubbed at her temples, feeling a migraine growing. "This was a bad idea, wasn't it? Coming here, I mean."

"Well, yeah, probably," Lowery winced.

"Why did you come? You know I wouldn't have forced you to," Claire asked.

"It's like I said that day, the first park was legit. But," Lowery shrugged, looking away from Claire. "I loved it here. I've always loved the dinosaurs. But I've never seen them really just be before. They've always been an animal in a cage. I guess I just wanted to see them free."

Claire was about to ask him another question when the radio on the desk crackled to life. "Hey, guys?" Owen's voice came through. "We found one of the old park jeeps. We're going to take it most of the way to her, it'll save us a lot of time."

"Copy that," Claire replied back. She looked at the map again, finding the two dots that represented Zia and Owen. They were moving faster across the screen now, following along the old roadways. She followed the road they were on along the map, looking ahead to see if any dinosaurs were close by. But, for now anyway, their path looked good. "You're route looks clear, but check in every five minutes and we'll do an update," Claire passed along.

"Copy that," this time it was Zia who responded.

Putting the radio back down, Claire asked Lowery if he could get her set up on the next workstation so she could take control of flipping through the camera feeds.

"Why?"

"I want to see if I can figure out who or when people have been on the island," Claire replied. "I don't really know how this is going to help, but... maybe?"

Lowery nodded and set her up at Vivian's old station. Once she was good, he went back to his desk and started typing away.

"What are you doing?" Claire asked, pausing in her search.

"I want to see if I can get a few other systems online," Lowery replied. "Who knows what might be useful."

x x x

Owen and Zia were able to take the jeep most of the way to Blue's location. They had continued to check in with Claire and Lowery, and aside from passing relatively close by to a herd of Brachiosaurus, they hadn't encountered any other dinosaurs. Owen figured the sound of the jeep was probably actually working in their favour, keeping the smaller dinosaurs away. The herbivores they weren't as worried about (big or small) as they knew unless they pissed them off, they wouldn't be interested in them. They were worried about the carnivores, but the closer they got to Blue the less likely it was that they would run into any others. Carnivores were pretty territorial.

"Okay, we're going to be going by foot now," Owen updated Claire and Lowery. "We don't seem to be too far off." He then turned to Zia, not bothering to press the talk button, as he told her to hang back. As they only had the one radio, they decided that she'd stay within sight range, but as far back as she could. Owen wanted a chance to approach Blue one-on-one first.

It took them 15 minutes more to close in on Blue's location, as they were walking slowly and carefully through the jungle. They were trying not to make a lot of noise, while also trying to not sneak up and startle Blue either. It was a fine balance.

Finally, Owen held up a hand in a fist, letting Zia know to stop where she was. He straightened up, walking forward into a small clearing. "Blue?" he questioned, gaze darting about. There was no response. "Come on Blue, I know you're here." This time, there was a rustling coming from his left. Almost before he could swing his head in that direction, Blue jumped out from in front of him, mouth open in a loud screech. Owen was thankful for all his years working with the raptors, as he managed to not even flinch at the sound, just standing up taller, holding one hand out in front of him, the other pulling his clicker from a vest pocket. "Hey girl, it's so nice to see you," he sweet talked the dinosaur, who was now staring at him, head tilted to the side. When Blue took a step forward, Owen shook his head, clicking the clicker a few times. "Stop. Stay right there Blue." Blue moved forward again, and Owen's tone became more forceful. "Blue! Stop it!"

Blue backed up a step, chittering away at him. It was not the first time that Owen had wished he could speak raptor. It had been clear to him from the first moment he laid eyes on the baby raptors that they had a complex language. The way they would look at each other and appear to have these long debates; trilling, screeching and chittering away. And the body language – their body language was so expressive.

"Good girl," Owen gave her a big smile. He lowered his hand, reaching into his vest pocket, and pulling out a piece of jerky. "Look what I brought you. Your favourite!" He held it up in the air and Blue tilted her head looking at it, before looking off to his right. "Oh come on, you love this," Owen tried to persuade her, dangling the treat. Blue glanced back at him, and he tossed the treat to her, but it just bounced off her snout as she rejected it. Instead, her gaze went back to his right, her head tilted like she was listening for something.

"Zia?" Owen asked cautiously, also looking where Blue was. But there's no reply, and he hadn't heard her moving. He found it doubtful that she would approach when he hadn't given the signal yet.

For a moment, it was as if time froze, with both Owen and Blue staring off at a clump of bushes, before it raced forward in double time. There was the slight sound of something whizzing through the air, before Blue roared, a tranq dart sticking out of the side of her neck.

"Zia?" This time Owen's call was in surprise. He didn't think she had a tranq gun.

But before Zia could even say something, Blue had charged towards the bushes. At the same time, a few men were emerging, and Blue jumped on one. There was a cry of pain, before one man called out "Don't shoot her!"

Owen felt like he was spinning, trying to track what was going on, his gaze jumping from Blue to the other few men and back again. He vaguely heard Zia call his name as she emerged from the bushes behind him.

Then there was a loud shot and Blue stumbled, before finally falling to the ground, still.

Owen had the rifle off his back, the real rifle, not the tranq one, in half a second, and he moved himself in front of Blue, facing the men. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Owen roared. "And who the hell are you?"

"That's none of your business," the balding older man, the one who appeared to be in charge, stated calmly. "Thanks for your help, though."

"Help?" Owen looked at them blankly, grip tightening around the trigger.

"We've been trying to track her down for days now," the man nodded at Blue.

"Let go of me," Zia's cry caused both men to look towards her. Another male had her in his grip.

"If you don't let her go..." Owen said angrily, raising his rifle threateningly.

"Oh, I don't have time for this," the bald man replied, lifting his own gun back up and shooting Owen with a tranq dart. Unlike Blue, Owen only managed to stay stunned for a couple of seconds before he hit the ground, out.

"Owen!" Zia cried out, finally breaking free from the other man's hold, racing towards her friend. She dropped to her knees beside him, pulling the tranq from his chest. She looks at the dart, and was happy to see that it appeared that very little of the tranq actually made it into Owen. Thank god for leather vests.

She stood up, pulling her own rifle off and swinging around to face the men. "Back away or I'll shoot."

"Really?" the group leader complained. "I just shot your friend, you don't think I'll manage to shoot you first?"

"Who are you?" Zia demanded.

"Like I told your friend, none of your business. Now, step aside, unless you want to be shot, too."

Zia held her ground for another couple of seconds, before letting her rifle dip down. She turned back to look at Owen, before moving her gaze past him to look at Blue. "I hope you've got medical supplies with you," she told the guys who were closing in on Blue. "She's going to die if you don't stop the bleeding."

"Dammit, Bill, I told you not to shoot her!"

"I can help," Zia offered.

"You?" The bald man looked at her with disbelief.

"I'm a paleo-vet. This is my job," Zia rolled her eyes. She pulled her backpack off her back and started rummaging within it, pulling out gauze and other supplies. "Let me at her."

There was a moment of hesitation on their part, before the men parted ways and allowed Zia access. As she fell to her knees beside Blue, she reached out with the gauze to start clearing the blood so she could examine the wound. The watch on her wrist as she moved her arm caught her attention. Claire and Lowery! Hopefully they were aware something had happened.

"I don't know what your plans are, but I'm not going to be able to save her here. I need to be able to get the bullet out. And she might need a transfusion." Zia let them know, pushing down hard on the gauze, hoping to stop or at least decrease the blood loss.

"We just need her well enough to transport," the bald guy shrugged. "Do whatever you need for that."

"You're not listening to me," Zia shook her head. "Until I can get the bullet out and stitch her up, she's not going to survive without me. If you're taking her somewhere," Zia paused to take a deep breath, before pushing ahead with what she knew was probably a stupid plan. "If you're taking her somewhere, you need to take me with you."

x x x

Both Lowery and Claire were too busy with their tasks to notice when Zia and Owen's dots stopped moving. They had known they were close, but Owen had asked them to hold off using the radio unless it was an emergency. He didn't want the radios to spook Blue.

As there were no cameras out near the location, besides staring at some blue dots on the map, there wasn't much they could do. So, they had both turned back to their own monitors, Claire still examining the various video feeds while Lowery typed away trying to access other systems and see what he could get into.

"Whoa," Lowery pushed away from his desk slowly, his chair rolling back a foot.

"What's up?" Claire looked up from her own monitor, turning to look at him.

"I think," Lowery took a deep breath. "I think someone else is in the system."

"In the system? What do you mean?" Claire wheeled her chair closer to Lowery who had moved back to his desk.

"I've been poking around, seeing what information is still accessible. I was hoping that maybe something would give us a clue about who's been here. To be honest, I wasn't sure what I might find, and actually expected to find nothing. But," Lowery pointed at the screen, "look at the dates. They're recent. Someone's been opening and modifying files this past week!"

"Wait, how is that possible?" Claire stared at the screen intently, as if she looked hard enough the dates would change. "I mean, is it possible that someone's off island and is accessing this?"

"No," Lowery shook his head. "I've been trying to see if I can get the cell towers back online, so we'd at least have limited access to the internet. But I've had no luck. That's the only option right now. The only way they could've been accessed–"

"–Is if someone was on island," Claire finished for him slowly. They both turned and looked at the door behind them. The unlocked door behind them. "Um, do we know if they're on the island right now?" Claire asked, her voice coming out almost in a squeak.

She'd barely finished talking when the two of them had jumped out of their chairs, racing for the door to try to lock it. In the end, they pulled a heavy table in front, and some chairs in front of that. At the very least, they'd have warning if someone tried to enter.

They were just calming down, heart rates returning to normal, when an alarm started beeping on the main screen.

"Oh what now?" Claire groaned, turning to look. She didn't see the alarm at first, expecting it to be on the map. It took her a moment to realize that it was the heart rate monitor for Owen that was flashing as his heart rate had suddenly fallen.

Claire grabbed for the radio, fearing the worst. "Owen? Zia?" she called into it. Silence greeted them. "Owen?" She called again, her voice starting to get tinged with anger. "Is anyone there? Can anyone copy? Somebody answer me! What is happening?" She was practically screaming into the radio, but there was still silence.

"Oh god," Lowery was pacing the floor now. This was too much like that day. Watching the ACU team go out, and then one by one the heart rates flatlining. "Not again. This can't be happening. Not again."

Claire's eyes were glued to the screen, watching Owen's heart rate tracker. It was continuing to thump along. It was steady, just slow. "I don't get it, if Blue attacked him," Claire said slowly, because that's where her mind had gone, "Shouldn't it be racing? Or…" She didn't bother with the alternative, feeling a lump rise in her throat. What had she done? She shouldn't have allowed Owen to come. She reached for the radio again, desperately pleading for him to answer, but there was still no response.

"Wait, what's happening now?" Lowery asked, pausing his pacing as the dots on the map caught his attention. "Whose dots are those?" It was a rhetorical question, as he was already back in his seat typing away. On the screen, where they knew Blue was located, there had been three dots clumped together. However, now two dots were moving steadily away, towards the East side of the island.

"Where are they going?" Claire asked, having expected the dots to be heading back for where they had left the jeep.

"It's Zia and Blue," Lowery stated, looking away from his monitor and back up at the dots on the screen. "That doesn't make any sense. Zia's heart rate is fine. How would she get Blue to go with her?"

"Why would she leave Owen?" Claire asked, eyes still focused on the moving dots. "What's over on the East side of the island?" She continued, before answering herself. "The docks! But, why would Zia be going there? And how is she transporting Blue?"

"How would she even know how to get to the docks?" Lowery asked. He looked back over at Owen's heart rate data, which was continuing to thump at its steady, slow pace. "I think we may have an answer as to whether we're alone on the island."

"Why would they leave Owen?" Claire was alternating between looking at his heart rate data and the dot representing him.

"Maybe they don't know he's alive?" Lowery winced as he said it, but gave a shrug when Claire looked at him. Even as her heart clenched, she found she didn't disagree.

"I...we need to go to him," Claire managed to sound firm and tough. Even if she didn't feel that way inside. "We can't leave him out there."

"He told us not to move," Lowery reminded her.

"Yeah, well, that was before something happened to him," Claire dismissed his concerns. "We've got a tranq gun and we'll find a jeep. But… how are we going to find him?" Claire paused, her plans feeling like they were about to fall apart. The island wasn't small, and Zia and Owen had walked for a while away from the jeep.

"With this!" Lowery held up his tablet. "I need a few minutes, but I should be able to get it to pick up the tracking signals. I wasn't able to get any of the off island internet working, but I did get the intranet up."

Lowery immediately plugged in his tablet, setting it up, while Claire packed away all their belongings. She didn't know what their plan would be once they reached Owen, but she didn't want to assume they'd be coming back to the control room. After packing the bags, she pulled up the feed for the East Dock, taking in the few boats that were bobbing in the water. She had looked at the feed earlier, and it didn't look any different now. But boats were boats. She had assumed all of the ones left had been abandoned. And the quality of the security feed wasn't making it any easier to examine their condition.

Once Lowery was ready, they shut down most of the systems again, before moving the barricade away from the door. Taking a deep breath, they pushed it open and stepped out.

Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed to date. Especially my loyal reviewers - Shian1998, Elise-Collier (also an amazing beta), Claire-Grady143, ShanteRenee, Camazotz, Nadin, and MissFit.

I read each and every review and while I've been struggling with this story, I'm happy to say that I'm finally making progress again.

Oh, and if you haven't, check out my new collection of one shots (only one so far) called Snapshots. They take place in my Full Circle universe and will likely be mostly fluff for a change.