As always, thanks to those who have reviewed this story.

Chapter 7

Tracking down a jeep turned out to be easy enough, and it didn't take long before they were bumping along the jungle road. Claire was driving while Lowery used the tablet to direct them and keep an eye on dinosaur locations.

Similarly to Zia and Owen, they had an uneventful trip across the island, and soon they were pulling up beside the jeep that Owen and Zia must have taken. They parked beside it, choosing to carry forward on foot as well. They couldn't be sure, that if there were others on the island, that none of them had stayed behind with Owen. Although, they weren't going to be much of a surprise if anyone had stayed, as they weren't being all that quiet as they trudged through the tall, overgrown plants.

They moved much faster than Owen and Zia had, and it took them less than 10 minutes before they were entering the same small clearing where Owen had found Blue. Except instead of a raptor, they found Owen unconscious on the ground.

Claire raced to his side, dropping down onto her knees, as she reached out tentatively for him, resting a hand gently on his chest, feeling it rise and fall. She was so glad the heart rate monitor had told her he was alive, because looking at him as they had entered the clearing that wouldn't have been her first thought. She looked him over carefully but couldn't see anything obviously wrong with him; no blood, no teeth marks. Nothing that would indicate a raptor attack.

"Owen?" Claire called out softly, the hand that wasn't on his chest combing through his hair. Now that she was there, and knowing that he was alive and not obviously injured, she was realizing that he looked as if he was asleep. "Owen, can you wake up?" She asked, hand brushing down the side of his face, before moving back through his hair. There was a slight groan from him, but nothing else.

"What's wrong with him?" Lowery asked, dropping down on his other side. "He doesn't look hurt."

"I don't know," Claire replied. The hand on his chest crept higher, resting over his heart, where she could feel it steadily thumping along. She brought her other hand down, shaking him gently as she called out this time. "Owen! Wake up!" Another groan, but still no movement. She shook him harder, pressing down accidentally on his chest, and his eyes popped open briefly as he let out a loud groan.

"Ughgh," Owen mumbled, but he didn't move. His breathing remained shallow and sharply contrasted with Claire nearly gasping for air.

Claire could feel his muscles twitching below her hands, but he wasn't actually moving. "Owen. You need to WAKE UP!" Claire told him loudly. "Come on. Please, wake up!" As tears started to gather in her eyes, a lump formed in her throat. Shaking him more forcefully, his eyes finally opened and looked around dazedly until they settled on her face.

"Claire," he slurred out, eyes locked on hers.

"Owen," Claire let out a sigh of relief. "What happened? Where's Zia? What's wrong?" The questions tumbled out of her while her breathing normalized.

"Claire?" Owen slurred again, his eyes going wide as he tried to move, but his body didn't respond. His eyes darted from side to side, but it didn't change that his body was motionless.

"Owen? What's wrong?"

"Can't move," Owen managed to get out.

"What do you mean you can't move?" Claire cried out, her hands fluttering over him, not sure what to reach for or what to try. In the end, she rested one hand back on his chest, feeling his heart starting to race, as the other reached back up to start combing through his hair again, trying to settle him. "Calm down," she murmured quietly. "It's going to be okay. I'll make sure it's going to be okay." Reflexively, she leaned forward. Her lips on a collision course with his forehead.

"Hey, Claire? Owen?" Lowery interrupted the moment. Claire's head whipped around and both sets of eyes turned toward the voice. "Look what I found." Lowery held up a tranq dart, not unlike the ones they had found in the ACU storage area. Owen's eyes went wide. "Owen, were you hit by one of these?"

"Yeah," Owen replied. He would've added a nod, but he was still finding it impossible to move.

"Well, it's still pretty full," Lowery commented, look at at the dart carefully. "I doubt you got much, which is good, because these have enough to take down a dinosaur." He looked at Owen, still lying prone on the ground. "Well, I guess you probably got enough. But, I think it should start to wear off soon."

"Where's Zia? What happened to Blue?" Claire asked rapid-fire, unable to hold onto one thought at a time. One thing she continued to hold onto, however, was Owen. Her hand had stayed over his heart.

"Shot her," Owen groaned out, closing his eyes briefly.

"Who shot her?" Claire asked at the same time Lowery stuttered, "They shot Zia?!"

"Not Zia," Owen shook his head, pleasantly surprised when it actually did move ever so slightly. "Blue."

"Zia shot Blue?" Lowery looked confused.

"No," Owen groaned. "Men shot Blue. Then me."

"Oh," Lowery replied.

"Wait, men, plural. How many? Do you know where they went? Why Blue? Why would they take Zia?"

"Three. Four. Not sure," Owen looked confused. "Zia's gone?" He started looking around the area as much as he could from where he's lying.

"She and Blue appear to be headed to the east docks," Lowery held up his tablet and pointed out the moving dots so Owen could see.

"Docks. Huh," Owen continued to look confused. He tried to shift again, and this time, he found he could start to wiggle his fingers. "This sucks."

Lowery and Claire didn't feel strong enough to attempt to move Owen and so they settled into more comfortable positions beside him. They were going to need to wait for the tranq to wear off enough for Owen to be able to move on his own. Taking a deep breath, Claire picked her hand up off his chest and grasped one of his hands. To her relief, he squeezed back ever so slightly. A small smile appeared on her face along with a faint blush.

"I wonder where they're going," Lowery was musing aloud, his head still bent over his tablet, watching the dots. They were nearing the East dock now. "I mean, obviously a boat, but…"

Claire had settled cross-legged behind Owen's head. She had helped him (well, really she did it all) lift his head into her lap, and now had one hand unconsciously combing through his hair, trying to keep him calm.

Owen had closed his eyes, resting as he waited for more feeling to return, enjoying the feel of Claire's hand, but not wanting to draw attention to it, as he wasn't sure she was even aware of what she was doing. With his eyes closed, he could pretend they were out on one of their camping adventures, maybe relaxing by a lake. They'd sat like this before, Claire often with her phone or a book in her other hand. It brought back good memories. Memories that roused his senses and gave him motivation to push harder against the paralysis.

His eyes startled open when something wet landed on his forehead. He looked up to see silent tears sliding down Claire's cheeks. He attempted to brush it away and was surprised and grateful when his arm mostly obeyed his command. His movements were sloppy and his hand landed a little too heavily against her cheek. Claire flinched at the contact, her own eyes, which had also been closed, opening in surprise.

"Sorry," Owen grimaced. "I still don't have total control yet." He did, however, manage to brush away her tears. He took a quick glance over at Lowery to confirm he was distracted before he asked softly, "Why are you crying?"

"You could've died," Claire clutched at his hand, holding it against her cheek and letting her head rest against it. "Zia could've died. I never should've told you…"

"Whoa, wait a minute," Owen shook his head. "I'm glad you told me."

"Why? You wanted to get shot? Always been wondering what it felt like to get hit by a tranq gun?" Claire scoffed. "You could be building your cabin right now."

"Claire," Owen sighed, his eyes closing briefly as he thought over his words carefully. "Unless you're saying that none of us should've come–which is something I do agree with–I want to be here."

"Why?" Claire was staring down at him, her gaze searching his as if she could find answers just from his look.

"You're here," Owen replied simply. "This might suck, and it really does, but I'd take this over getting a call…" he trailed off as his mind started offering up hundreds of potential horrible scenarios. And he didn't actually want to voice the one he feared the most, the one where no one knew where they had gone and instead, one day, he finds out she's just missing. And probably with a "presumed dead" attached to the phrase. The thought made him shudder visibly.

"I'm so sorry," Claire told him, her other hand leaving his hair, so she could clutch the hand she was holding with both hands, her forehead resting against them. "I'm so sorry."

Shifting, Owen gently tested out his limbs and found that while his fine motor skills may be still lacking, he had basic control again. He moved himself up into a sitting position, as he pulled his hand out of Claire's grasp. She was watching him carefully, eyes cautious. Once he was sitting up and he could look her eye-to-eye, he held her gaze. "Claire…" he realized as he started to talk that he didn't even know what to say. He knew what he wanted. He wanted off this damn island. He wanted them all to be back in California. He wanted to be lying in a hammock, preferably with Claire, listening to the sounds of the birds and having no thoughts about dinosaurs.

He got lucky as a rustling sound from the bushes drew everyone's attention.

"What's that?" Lowery asked nervously, already on his feet.

"You tell me?" Owen asked, struggling to his feet as Claire helped him up. While his mind was clearing up fast, his body still felt drunk, not quite obeying the commands his brain was sending. Or obeying them a little too late.

"The tracking system doesn't show anything…" Lowery trailed off as the bushes rustled again.

"Yeah, well, something's in there," Owen snapped.

"The triceratops!" Claire exclaimed, causing both to look at her in confusion. She quickly clarified. "The baby triceratops. If the animals are breeding, there are dinosaurs here that don't have trackers."

"Um, I think we should probably get going now," Lowery suggested, shifting nervously.

"Agreed," Owen nodded.

"Where are we going?" Claire asked, as the three of them started walking out of the clearing, moving steadily away from the bushes that were still rustling.

"For now? Anywhere but here," Owen replied. The overgrown plants were hiding vines and roots that could be tricky enough to navigate on a good day and Owen was struggling to stay upright, seemingly everything tripping him up right now.

"I think we should aim for the jeep," Lowery suggested, leading the way, his tablet held in front like a map.

"Okay," Claire agreed, sidling up beside Owen. She tucked herself against his side, causing him to drape his arm over her shoulders. Neither she nor he said anything as they continued to stumble forward through the forest.

Reaching the jeeps, Claire and Lowery headed straight for the one they arrived in, as they had left some of their bags behind. Claire led Owen to the passenger side, even though he tried, half-heartedly, to aim for the driver's seat. "Yeah, right," Claire had raised an eyebrow. "Like we're letting you drive in this condition. You'd probably drive us off a cliff." They both knew it was an exaggeration – his coordination was getting better with each passing minute – but he settled into the passenger seat without complaint as Claire climbed in to drive and Lowery plopped into the back.

"Where next?" Claire asked, starting up the jeep.

"We should be phoning the pilot. Get him to come pick us up," Owen suggested. "Best thing we can do is get the hell off this island."

"What about Zia?" Lowery said. "We can't leave her behind."

"Where is she now?" Claire asked, turning in her seat to look at Lowery. He leaned forward, holding the tablet between the front seats so all three could view. "They're at the East dock now. They've been there for maybe 10-15 minutes. Must be getting ready to leave." Zia and Blue's dots are hovering just off the edge of the island. "I think they're already on a boat."

"Well, we're not going to be able to get to the docks before they can leave," Owen reminded them. "And unless you two have figured out where they're going, our best bet is still to contact the pilot to get us out of here."

"They might not be in a rush to leave," Claire suggested. "We found evidence that they've been in the computer system. We might be able to get there before they leave." She was backing up and heading in the direction of the docks before Owen could say anything. She risked a glance over at him. "We have to try."

Owen just sighed, nodding in acceptance. He looked around the vehicle before asking, "What do we have for weapons now? I've still got my knife…"

"I've got my knife," Lowery supplied.

"And we have the one tranq gun," Claire nodded to the backseat, where she'd placed it once they got back.

"We're not very well armed for going up against mercenaries," Owen pointed out. He had woken up to find his two rifles missing. It had been expected, but that didn't make him any happier about it. He assumed he only had his knife because it had been strapped to his back and they hadn't bothered to search him carefully.

"Well, we only had one gun when we went up against the Indominus," Claire said weakly. "We survived that."

"A gun, 3 raptors and a T-rex," Owen reminded her.

"Do you want me to find the T-rex?" Claire asked. "I'm sure Lowery can locate her for us."

Owen just glared at her in response, not bothering to dignify it with a comment.

They drove in silence for a while, interrupted only occasionally as Lowery updated them as to which dinosaurs were nearby. They had to take a detour at one point to avoid a herd of triceratops, but besides that, the roar of the engine and the use of the tracking seemed to be working in their favour. As they got closer to the docks, Owen finally spoke up again.

"Let's not go storming in there. Where can we go such that we'll be able to get a good view of the area?"

"Um, I don't think it matters," Lowery replied. "Zia and Blue are moving, and it looks like they're headed out to sea."

"Let me see," Owen reached for the tablet, but Lowery just scooted forward again, holding it over the seat back so both of them could see. The two dots were moving away from the edge of the island. "Where are they going?" Owen wondered aloud again.

"If they're headed east, probably Costa Rica," Lowery suggested. "North, or North-East would likely mean back towards the US."

"What about south?" Owen asked.

"South?" Claire stopped the jeep so she could also look at the tablet. "They're going south?"

"That's what it looks like," Owen nodded, tapping a finger on the screen above the dots. The three of them watch the dots for a couple of minutes, and they appeared to be following the coast line to the south, not that they'd gone far yet.

"Maybe they're trying to stay close to the island before they head across?" Lowery wondered. "The tracking isn't going to work once they get farther from the island. Even now, it could also just be the system struggling to figure out where to place them from the data it's getting."

"What should we do?" Claire asked again.

"Let's go down to the docks," Owen said after a moment. "Maybe we can figure out who they are. Maybe they left something behind."

They still decided to park a bit away from the docks and close the gap by foot. Claire remembered seeing more than one boat bobbing beside the dock, and they couldn't be sure if more than one of those belonged to whoever had come over.

Owen led the way, insisting that the other two stay behind him, as he was the only one armed with a gun (having taken the tranq gun away from Claire). Lowery was happy to obey, and Claire had started to argue, but one look at Owen's face had convinced her to stop.

Lowery still had the tablet in his hand and was watching the progress of Blue and Zia. They were still expecting them to stop moving, when the tracking system finally lost their signal, but they had continued to move south, following the shoreline.

At the dock, there was a large bunker, not unlike the first one they had encountered earlier that day, although Claire knew that this one didn't connect to the tunnel system, as the dock was located too far from the main park. Behind the bunker were the actual docks. It was quite elaborate, as it had berths for large ships as well as small slips for smaller boats. As the three of them rounded the bunker, they found two boats left tethered to the dock. One looked to be a fishing boat while the other was a … yacht?

"Wait a second," Claire paused, looking at the boats. "On the feed, I definitely saw that smaller boat, but I couldn't tell that this one was here." She gestured towards the yacht, the name Jurasship, clearly written on the side.

"What's special about that boat?" Owen asked. "I mean, besides the question of how does someone forget about it for three years?" He was staring at the yacht in awe. It must've been over 40 feet long, and he just knew it was expensive.

"It's, I mean, it was, Masrani's," Lowery answered. "He was really proud of that boat… and the name he came up with."

"Yacht," Claire corrected out of habit. "Sorry, he always got on my case when I called it a boat."

"Why's it still here?" Owen asked again. "A yacht like that… it's not going to be cheap."

"His wife hated the thing," Claire replied with a shrug. "She got really bad seasickness. I guess she forgot about it?"

"Wish I had enough money that I could forget about something like that," Lowery mumbled, and Owen nodded in agreement.

"We might not need the plane after all," Owen said as the three continued to gawk at the yacht. "We could just cruise home in that."

"Steal a boat?" Claire looked shocked and appalled.

"Oh, so that's your line, is it?" Owen joked, coaxing a small smile from her. "I'm not suggesting we steal it, just merely borrow it."

"Weren't we going to try to figure out who those people were?" Claire ignored Owen.

"Right," Owen nodded. "Where's their boat now, Lowery?"

"They're still hugging the coastline and headed south," Lowery said after pulling up the map on his tablet.

"Do you think…" Claire trailed off, shaking her head. "No, that doesn't make sense."

"What?" Lowery asked. "Do you know where they're going?"

"No, well, not for sure anyway," Claire replied. "Just… there's nothing south, unless, well, unless you're trying to go south-west."

"Oooh," Lowery looked down at the map slowly, nodding. "Actually, that could make a lot of sense."

"What makes sense?" Owen asked, not following them.

"Sorna," Claire and Lowery replied in unison.

Owen still looked confused, so Claire explained. "Isla Sorna is about 80 miles southwest of here. It's part of chain of five islands called Las Cinco Meurtes."

"The five deaths? Really?" Owen looked disbelieving at them.

"Hey, we didn't name them," Lowery jumped in, holding his hands up in defense.

"Sorna is, or was," Claire continued, "the location of Site B–"

"Oh, I've heard of Site B," Owen nodded. "Jurassic Park's other research location."

"Right, it's where all the dinosaurs were bred for Jurassic Park. And where the T-rexes that ended up in San Diego came from," Claire paused, looking thoughtful. "There aren't supposed to be any dinosaurs left there. When Masrani started Jurassic World, they moved all those dinosaurs over to Nublar. No point starting completely from scratch."

"So why do you think they might be headed there?"

"Well they're taking Blue somewhere. And what better place, besides right here, is there, for a dinosaur? I mean, it's not like most people have an area built that can withstand a dinosaur in their basement. No one's supposedly been on the island in years, but those buildings were built to withstand dinosaurs. Hurricanes and the jungle aren't quite as savage."

"It's also way more discrete then trying to bring a dinosaur into the US," Lowery nodded. "Yeah, I totally buy that that's where they're headed. If they continue to hug the shoreline, we should be able to confirm when they turn west."

"We still have no idea who they are…" Claire sighed. She looked down at the docks and then at the building behind them. "They were in the computer system. Let's see if they accessed it here." Claire and Lowery turned and headed towards the bunker. After a few steps, they realized that Owen wasn't following them. Turning back, Claire saw him heading down towards the dock. "Where are you going?" She called out.

"You guys go to the bunker," Owen waved them away. "I'm just going to take a look at the Jurasship. Who knows, maybe we can use her." He shrugged, then turned back towards the dock. Claire and Lowery exchanged shrugs of their own before heading into the bunker.

x x x

Owen joined them in the bunker about an hour later. He was wiping his hands on some towel he'd found, and Claire could see a streak of grease on his forehead, where he must have reached up at some point without realizing it. She found herself smiling at the big grin on his face.

"That yacht is awesome," Owen said, his face glowing. "I'd love to own something like that."

"You have fun?" Claire asked, her gaze sweeping up and down him. "How're you feeling now?'

"I think it's completely worn off," Owen dismissed her concerns. "Jurasship was kept in really good shape. The three years left floating here don't seem to have done much damage. I mean, the upper deck is a bit of a mess, but I think we can use her. You guys have any luck?"

"Nope," Lowery groaned, shaking his head. "I mean, they've definitely been in here. But we can't tell who they are. Just that they don't seem to be all that good with computers, because they weren't able to get the tracking system online. But they did get into a lot of the lab files." Lowery paused, scratching his chin for a second before he tilted his head as he debated something internally. "I think they must have had some knowledge of the system. Our files were pretty siloed, so that people only had access to what they needed. Getting into any of the silos, like lab or tracking, wouldn't be easy on it's own, not without having some first hand knowledge."

There was silence for a few moments while everyone absorbed that, before Claire added, "Oh, and we've confirmed they're headed to Sorna – they've turned west." She looked questioningly at Owen. "If the yacht's in good shape, could we sail it there?"

"We could," Owen replied hesitantly.

"Great. We should get going. We won't be too far behind if we leave now."

"Not tonight," Owen held up a hand. "Look, they've got well over an hour head start, and if it's about 80 miles away, it's going to take us around four hours to get there."

"All the more reason we need to leave now."

"It's going to be dark in a couple of hours," Owen reminded them. "We are much safer, as much as I hate to say this, here then we will be on a boat in the dark. Besides," he shifted uncomfortably, already knowing what he was about to say wasn't going to be well received. "I don't think it's a good idea for us to go after them. We've got pretty much no weapons and we have no idea what will be on that island. I know you often think otherwise, Claire, but I don't have a death wish."

"But Zia–" Claire started.

"I know they've taken Zia, but how does us going there solve anything?" Owen tried to be the voice of reason.

"We can't leave her. And we can't tell anyone else," Claire argued back. "If we don't try to help her, we don't know what they'll do. We're here illegally. If we tell people what we know, we're going to be the ones in trouble. And they left you…" Claire trailed off, feeling a lump in her throat. She swallowed roughly, trying to ignore it. "Owen, they left you and probably thought you were dead. What's to say they're not going to…" She couldn't bring herself to say it, but the solemn mood settling over the room made it clear that they all knew what she meant. "Owen… if not us, then who?"

Thanks for reading. It's honestly really discouraging to write when there's very little feedback. Honestly, reviews are the best currency you can pay a fanfic writer, as it let's us know that our piece is being enjoyed and not just being shouted into the void.

I write for fun, but I'm also always actively trying to become a better writer. So, whether you enjoyed this chapter or hated it, I'd love to know. Maybe a question about something you're now wondering about? Something you found confusing? Maybe a favourite line or lines? Mine are:

"A gun, 3 raptors and a T-rex," Owen reminded her.

"Do you want me to find the T-rex?" Claire asked.