Act Two – The Present
Chapter Sixteen
Beth burst into the restroom they all used, ignoring the dank stink and fumbling with the squeaking faucet. Her hands were shaking, fingers itching. Her chest couldn't decide if it wanted to keep her breath in her lungs or pant it out. She managed a coughing splutter as the tepid water fell into the basin, her hands scooping up palmfuls of it and splashing it onto her face, trying to cool the heat that burned there. She gripped the basin, steading her hands, and looked into the grime covered mirror.
The face that looked back was calm, focused, the body now rigid. Not at all conveying a face and body suffering with the pounding adrenaline inside. Adrenaline she had felt before. It was her eyes as well. They were just so still. Still, unblinking and unfeeling. Just like before, when she had felt like this. Almost like the eyes and face of a stranger. Maybe it needed to be like this. To deal with things like what had just happened. To deal with that last look in Jill's own eyes, at the blood smeared window, right before she'd been dragged away and torn to pieces. It had helped last time. She hoped it would help again.
She took a long deep breath, holding it for a moment before letting it out. She closed her eyes, and of course she saw her Mothers face, and then the inevitable wondering of what she would have made of all this. Nothing but horrified disapproval, Beth was sure. Not that it mattered any more of course. She'd put that disapproval behind her forever. Through sheer force of will. Much like she'd need now.
Downstairs the doors started banging and the voices started shouting. Beth dragged a hand down her face, flicking away the last of the water, and then turned the faucet off and swept out of the room and down the steps to the source of the commotion. Felt only right to be there. Especially as she had a nasty feeling her present position with her work was now under threat. People were not happy. She supposed it was understandable.
She found an empty seat in the common room, one of the uncomfortable ones, but that hardly mattered. She tucked herself into it and leant forward, hands clasped together between her knees while she watched everything in front of her. It was like watching a theatre performance, with an ensemble cast specialising in raw anger and borderline panic. With poor Sam Summers at the centre of it all. Perry steered him through the room and into a chair, all while a maelstrom swirled around them in the form of Redgrove, England, Dr. Wu and Dr. Morgan. Carl Mortimer hovered at the back, looking pale and angry, and twisting the shotgun in his hands.
"Someone explain this to me! Immediately." Dr. Wu was looking from face to face, his voice taking on an unusually strong tone of command. "I am told we have lost Dr. Manning? Is this some sort of joke?" Wu made a sort of humourless snigger, fingers of one hand fussing at the air in front of him. "Because last I checked, she was not a set of car keys."
There was a moments awkward silence. England looked just as aggravated as Wu, his moustache bristling and lots of throat clearing. Redgrove was itching at an eye, looking like she was taking a moment to compose herself. Perry was trying to offer Sam a bottle of water, half his head turned to the conversation that was heating up. Sam didn't look much interested. Carl let go a heavy sigh, his face pinched.
"It was my fault." He shook his head, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. "I let her get out of the car." Wu rounded on him.
"And then what happened? What has happened to her!?"
"She's dead." Beth had spoken the words without meaning to. They just jumped up out of her. Now Wu's eyes swivelled to her, as did everyone else's.
"Dr. Weaver?" said Wu, that tone of command switching to a flicker of disbelief. His eyes had widened. He looked round at Redgrove. "Is this what you meant!? One of my team is dead!?"
"Apparently," said Redgrove. "And this is why I protested in the first damn place!"
"Carl, the instructions were clear!" This from England now. For a man with one arm it didn't stop him from gesturing effectively. "Why did she get out?"
"She said she wanted a sample," said Carl, shaking his head in response. Looked like he was trying to swallow a jagged rock. "There was a…a dead one…we thought it was dead, at least…I don't…" Carl was looking increasingly confused. Redgrove huffed.
"What exactly happened Carl?" she said. "And what exactly killed her?" Redgrove's voice had cracked just the slightest bit at that last question. Carl frowned.
"Velociraptors," he said. The word looked like it had visibly stung Wu and England. Redgrove's frown had reached new depths.
"Tell me everything,'' she said. "Every detail. Now!" There was an urgency in her voice. Not panicked, just…insistent. Carl had sat down, dragging his hands through his hair and scratching at his scalp like he had a hell of an itch. Sam was looking at him, his eyes intent.
"Must have been a pack of them,'' said Carl. "They'd made a kill, this morning. Wasn't far from the track we use. Thought we would just drive on past, but one of them was in the road." Carl sniggered, seemed somewhat innappropriate. "Funny, I know what these things are like, but they didn't attack then. They just seemed…curious."
Dr. Morgan waved a hand at no one in particular, his face scrunched up in confusion.
"What do the damn details matter?" he said. "Jill is dead! She has…she had children..."
"Who will forever be haunted by this loss, yes,'' cut in Redgrove, her eyes hard. Dr. Wu raised his chin at Dr. Morgan.
"The details may matter,'' he said. "The velociraptors were always the highest danger on this island. They can be problematic in the least, I am given to understand." Wu turned back towards Carl. "What else happened?"
"The pack surrounded us at one point. We had to get out of there fast. We hit one of them, with the car, on the way through. But that was the last of them I thought. They didn't follow us. We watched out all day, from the lab at the Aviary. Nothing." He sighed heavily. It struck Beth then how completely absorbed by her work she had been. She'd not really worried once about the prospect of them being followed and attacked at the lab. Even with Sam and Carl fluttering around like they had. As ever, her work had been the focus.
"And then?" prompted England.
"We were on our way back," carried on Carl. "There was one by the road, laying on the ground. Exactly where we'd clipped it with the car. I thought… I guess we all thought it was dead."
"And Dr. Manning wanted a sample from this animal?" said Wu. Carl nodded. "And then it attacked?"
"Yes. But, not right away,'' said Carl. He sounded unsure now. Redgrove was frowning again. "Dr. Manning had got as far as drawing blood from it before it attacked."
"Why would it not attack immediately?" said England.
"Why indeed,'' mused Dr. Wu.
"Perhaps it was unconscious,'' said Redgrove. "Perhaps the needle wakened it."
"How is it you escaped and Dr. Manning did not?" said England, thumbing an end of his moustache. Carl squinted.
"She'd left her car door open,'' he said. "One of the raptors collided with it when I shot it. Dented the whole side of it and slammed it shut." He glanced at Beth, and it felt for a moment like that squint was turning into a frown that went further than trying to recall something. Beth resisted the urge to narrow her eyes at him. "The door must have been damaged, by the collision. Dr. Manning was unable to open it. Or Dr. Weaver from the inside… I was in the car when she was…It was just so fast…"
"What does all this matter?" said Dr. Morgan suddenly, visibly frustrated. "You're all acting as if there's going to be an enquiry by the fucking cops or something!"
"Dr. Morgan is right,'' said Redgrove. "We need to move on from this." She looked over at Sam. "You, Summers. Do you have anything to add to this debacle before we revise our position?"
"Revise our position?" said Dr. Wu. Beth straightened. This sounded exactly like what she was afraid of. "Our position is unchanged."
"A woman has died, Dr. Wu. One of your own team. We need to re-evaluate everything. Certainly your side project at the aviary must come to an immediate halt."
"Mr. England," said Wu calmly, almost icily. "I believe your colleague is mistaken." England's moustache bristled again, almost in sync with Redgrove's vibration of incredulous shock.
"Catherine, I'll pick this up with you afterwards," he said, clearing his throat. "For now though, we continue with Dr. Wu's project."
"Kurt…" she started. England raised his hand for silence. She did not look happy. Beth didn't like the look in her eyes. It was the look of someone opposed to further work. Beth tapped her fingers together. Redgrove went back to Sam.
"Sam? Did you have anything to say?" She sounded irritable. Sam looked up slowly. He was pale. He just shook his head.
"It happened as Mort said,'' he managed. "It was like…" He shook his head.
"Like what?" said Redgrove. Sam sighed as if he was in pain. Probably was from how much he had vomited.
"Like a trap,'' he croaked. "As if they had planned it." Wu looked curious, while Dr. Morgan looked sceptical. Redgrove looked interested though. Sam coughed. "The way that scarred one looked at me."
"Scarred one?" said Redgrove, brows meeting for a split second. Sam nodded, looking pained again.
"One of them was scarred. Burn scars, all down its body. It looked at me today. Looked right at me." Redgrove had gone quiet, her frown returning with new strength.
"They are intelligent,'' said Wu, almost an air of admiration in his voice now. Redgrove was looking at Sam with a renewed interest though.
"It watched us,'' went on Sam. "That scarred one. Watched us as we drove away. I should have done something…" He put his head in his hands. Beth saw Redgrove's hands opening and closing. The woman turned to England very quickly, pulling him aside.
"Kurt, we need to take this seriously. If this work is going to continue, we need to be mindful of everything that happened today. Everything that Carl and Sam have said."
"I agree,'' said England. "But our security measures here at the main facility are appropriate. One woman's unfortunate death, however tragic, should not give us cause for alarm."
"That's not what I mean, Kurt. These velociraptors that Carl and Sam have described. I think we need to consider them more carefully."
"Animals, even intelligent ones, are just animals," said England. "We've all done the reading Catherine." He sighed, as if tired. "We've all heard the stories."
"Some of those stories have merit,'' said Redgrove. The iron behind her voice could not be missed. "Ray Arnold and Robert Muldoon would attest to that."
Kurt was looking unhappy now, the air of a man back peddling quite noticeable. "Their deaths were only suspected as being the work of the raptors. Nothing was ever confirmed."
"The last person to see Robert Muldoon alive reported he was tracking the damn things! You know this! How much more confirmation do you need? Kurt, Robert Muldoon was an experienced warden and hunter. From what I've read. A man like that is not killed easily."
"Catherine, I understand your concern, but this is my decision."
"You mean Wu's decision?" she shot back. He glared at her for a moment.
"He and our employer are paying the bills, need I remind you."
"It's not just this though, is it?'' she hissed, pulling him further from the others. Not far enough to be out of Beth's earshot though. "Something else is going on here. The damage to the lab. The names of this Marsden person, and Anna Michaels, showing up on the logs. Something is happening here, and we need to find out what or Wu or whoever the fuck writes the checks isn't going to cough up a cent."
"Keep your voice down,'' said England. "Whatever you think is happening, I am entrusting you to find out. If anyone here isn't who we think they are, then you need to find them and find out what they're up to. I've enough on my plate with Wu and his damn demands and now a dead scientist, let alone all this ballshit about haunted bones and skulls out there that's got everyone pissing their pants about demented lunatics from four years ago!" He huffed, shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Look, we'll discuss this later. It's been a long day." He cleared his throat and turned away, stomping off and steering Wu away and into a dim corner for further discussion on who knew what.
Beth watched Redgrove, watched the way she stood, those hands opening and closing again. The woman turned and regarded Beth for a moment. Regarded her with the same look that Carl had given her. Or was that Beth's imagination? Felt a bit difficult to tell the difference given what had happened today. Redgrove snorted and swept out of the room, vanishing upstairs. Beth felt a knot of tension release at her leaving.
She'd been half worried the bitch would start up again on the whole notion of, what had she said, revising the position. Beth twisted her lips at the thought. If they stopped now, before they'd really even begun, then it was all for nothing. Everything Beth had done would be for nothing. Jill would have died for nothing. The thoughts sickened her. This was not how you made progress. Risks had to be taken. Hard choices had to be made. Henry knew it, and Beth knew it. Beth had done it, even. She thought back to her life before this all started. A life of stubbornly ignoring the mediocre humdrum. A life with Oliver. She felt a scratch of longing, and guilt. What would he have made of all this? She stifled a snort of amusement. He wouldn't have known where to start.
She watched as Elliot and Alejandro appeared, followed by the others, probably from the canteen. Valerie and Hal were chatting away to each other, while McCallister and those British pilots laughed and jabbed at each other as if on their way home from a night of drinks in town. All oblivious to the horror of what had happened.
Beth watched that change as they all noticed the ashen faces of Carl and Sam, watched the way they all realised that something was wrong. Heard the gasps and disbelieving questions as the same story got recycled. Saw their eyes widen and heads shake in strangled horror when they were told what happened to Jill. The realisation she wasn't coming back.
All Beth realised was that the whole episode was already beginning to be pushed from her mind. She knew she shouldn't. Knew she should be agonising over the horror of what had happened. Likely should be feeling the grief and trauma of seeing another person ripped apart, piece by bloody piece.
But it just wasn't there inside her. There was just the will, no, the hunger to move on from it. To not let it get in the way of what they had come here to do. Was that not what Jill would have wanted? Beth almost nodded to herself, admitting she might well be under the spell of self-delusion. But what harm did that ever do anyone?
Someone dropped down into the chair beside her, fabric of their sterile suit rustling and creasing as they sat back with a sigh. Pat touched her forearm, offering a gentle squeeze.
"Hey. You ok? You haven't said much." His face was the genuine face of friendly concern.
"Not much more to say is there?" she said. She took a breath and blew it out as if it had a great weight to it. Felt like that was what she should do. Some show of dealing with the situation, in a calm and thoughtful way that displayed she was aware of the gravity of Jill losing her life. Took a bit of an effort to dig out the enthusiasm. Now she was just feeling tired. Maybe the day was now catching up with her and she'd have a breakdown when she tried to sleep. Would the nightmares come then? They didn't last time.
Pat was just nodding sagely though. "Not much you can say,'' he echoed. "Christ knows how her family will find out. Doesn't seem right."
"Probably some hollow lie about an accident at wherever they think she is,'' said Beth, rubbing at her eyes. A hollow lie that they might deliver to Oliver one day if anything were to happen to her no doubt. Or to Pats family. Or any of them. All lies. Necessary, but hollow. Rarely was a lie any different in her experience.
"Just can't believe it,'' he murmured. A few moments silence hung between them, both just staring at the quiet comings and goings of the others. Felt appropriate considering the mood of the room. Pat started fidgeting after another silent moment. "Did you bring back your research from the Aviary? Or Jills, by any chance?"
"No,'' sighed Beth. "Wasn't really any chance at all." Pat drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair thoughtfully.
"Course,'' he said. "Can't imagine what it must have been like." Beth glanced at him. He was nibbling at the inside of his cheek. Beth found it mildly annoying.
"What is it?" she asked. He made a pinched face.
"It's nothing. Only, Jill was going to show me what records she made today. I was intrigued by the side project. And…" Pat looked like he was wrestling with something. Beth raised her eyebrows, not so much intrigued herself but just keen for Pat to spit it out. Her patience had somewhat depleted. Pat made that face again. "And we wanted to do a quick review of it. Tidy some things up before you went back. If you go back, I suppose."
The thought was a concerning one. Beth felt a flash of panic, held back solely by Henry's belief all would continue regardless of the concerns and fettling of England and Redgrove. Beth shook her head.
"I'm sure we can collect it in the morning. It's all still in the car anyway."
"I'd have preferred to get a head start on it," said Pat. He nodded at Henry. "Dr. Wu would value the time saved, I'm sure." Beth nodded in admittance to that. Henry did hate wasting time. "Perhaps we could just head down there, just to get the files?"
"Now?" said Beth. Pat shrugged.
"Why not? It'll only take a moment."
"One moment, please, everyone! Your attention!" England's voice boomed across the room, drawing faces and looks of expectation. "Given todays…events, we have taken the decision to lock down our movements for the next twenty-four hours. Nobody is permitted to move beyond this room, the dormitory and the corridor outside for the use of the wash room. Is that understood?"
There was a few seconds of loaded silence, most faces equipped with that look caught between morbid fascination and indignant surprise that any kind of restriction was being placed on them. Beth certainly felt the latter. What good was this when they basically lived in a lock down facility anyway? She glanced at Dr. Wu, seeing an imperious frown on his face, but he seemed to be nodding along as if he agreed with this course of action. Seemed ludicrous, given the time this would now waste. Pat just huffed, his fists clenching together and then back to drumming. Beth looked at him and wrinkled up her face.
"That answers that then," she said. "We'll grab the data when they let us out again."
Pat just drummed his fingers.
XXXXX
Jill screamed. A shrill, gurgling scream full of pain and accusation, and Beth snapped awake. She was clammy with sweat, and her heart was doing it's level best to beat its way out of her chest. But she just lay there, in her cot, staring up at the ceiling and listening to the gentle snores and breathing of everyone around her. That scream seemed to echo in her head, giving her that chance to listen to the nagging doubts and voices that whispered alongside it, before she pushed it away defiantly. It would do no good to dwell on it now. She pulled her watch from under what passed for her pillow and checked the time. She'd only come to bed two hours ago. Felt like longer. She looked down at herself, realising she'd not even bothered to undress properly. Must have just laid down in her pants and top and closed her eyes.
There was a gentle thump, from somewhere downstairs. She held her breath for a moment, unsure if she'd heard right. Everyone was asleep around her. She slowly glanced about, seeing the lumpy shapes of the other women and some of the men around the end of the half-assed attempt at a screen to give them just that modicum of privacy. Not that it really bothered Beth anymore. She closed her eyes, willing the cunning opponent that was sleep to come back to her.
But then the slightest murmur of a voice hummed from downstairs. That muffled buzz that could only be a human voice. Male too, judging by the depth of the sound. Sleep suddenly didn't stand a chance of getting back into the game as Beth propped herself up on an elbow.
The murmurs continued, just about, and Beth found herself slipping from her cot into her boots and carefully threading her way through the rows of sleeping shapes. She barred her teeth in concentration as she sidled past Redgrove's cot. The woman's curtain of dark hair was across her face, making her head look like the disconnected head of a mannequin that had been thrown down. It was somewhat unsettling. Any moment now Beth was sure it was rotate round to glare at her. But Redgrove just went on sleeping.
Beth slid through the door and crept down the stairs, itchy palm against the wall and finger tips hissing against the surface as she moved. In the darkness, Beth could see the glow of light coming from somewhere. She wondered if she should be moving more cautiously, but why should she? It was likely just someone couldn't sleep. Sam maybe? He seemed the sort.
She stepped into the common room, fully expecting to see him in the corner where he'd spent most of the evening. Fully expecting him to look up and smile at her and give her more of a reason to think about him and the way his hands move. The circumstances of their meeting now would be like something out of a bad romance novel, but Beth felt her skin prickle at the thought for some reason.
Only it wasn't Sam.
Pat and Perry looked over at her suddenly, wide eyed and clearly caught in the middle of a conversation they didn't think would be interrupted. Seemed a bit silly to Beth, considering it was happening just below a roomful of people who could wake just as she had done. She put it down to the idiocy of men.
Pat's look of surprise turned very quickly to conspiratorial smile. He gestured her over, his voice turning from low hum to excitable whisper.
"Beth! Good timing!"
"What are you both doing?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow. There was a very noticeable air of two people about to do something they probably shouldn't. Beth gave in almost immediately to the urge to be a part of it. There was just something in Pat's eager face, and Perry's cautious one.
"Perry and I, well, it was Perry's idea after we got to talking earlier…" He looked over Beth's shoulder, maybe thinking others would hear. "…Well, we're headed down to the car to get yours and Jills data!"
"Now?" said Beth. "It's the middle of the night!"
"No better time! Especially as England and Henry have grounded us all!"
"Redgrove locked all the doors though,'' said Beth. "And the elevator shutter. We've no way out for a day." Pat just grinned.
"Ah! That's where Perry comes in." He gestured at Perry, whose face had morphed into a frown now. He looked down at her, his eyes looking like sunken hollow pits in the shadow of the gloom around them. Pat grinned again. "Perry?"
"Follow me then,' he said, and all of a sudden he and Pat was slipping away through the darkness. Beth had a moment to make her decision. Stay or go. A moment was all she needed though. The giddy thought of stealing through the darkness to retrieve her research for further work diminished all potential scolding's from Kurt England or Dr. Wu. That impulsive side to her, which seemed to be getting more and more actively lately, couldn't resist. She darted after them and gently closed the door behind her, following Perry's flashlight as he and Pat made their way down the corridor.
A wind had picked up outside, buffeting the grubby windows and whistling through the cracks and holes. It helped mask their creeping footsteps. The familiar shapes of stacked furniture and other unknown articles used to barricade certain sections of the corridors came and went, far less alarming than the first time she'd seen them. Funny how you got used to it after a short time.
They took the turning to move towards the direction of the elevator, but Perry stopped them some distance from the shutter. He crouched by a knocked over filing cabinet that was leant against the wall, and with a sniff, pushed it along without too much effort.
It revealed a vent cover, dusty and dented and locked with small bolts top and bottom. Perry slid the bolts and pulled the cover open, the deeper darkness of the vent shaft opening up before them. Looked big enough for a person to crawl into, which is exactly what Beth guessed was about to happen. Perry sniffed again and shone his flashlight down the shaft.
"This'll take us to the level below,'' he murmured. "There's a maintenance room, not far with a door that'll take us outside via a service ladder. It'll drop us a hundred yards or so from the car."
"Let's get going then,'' breathed Pat, near vibrating with energy. It was quite infectious. Beth found her hands were twitching, eager to be following them as first Perry then Pat got onto their hands and knees and vanished into the vent shaft. She took one last look down the corridor, into the black nothingness, and then crawled into the vent.
The metal was cold against her skin, the air inside the vent cool if not a bit dusty. She had to cough once or twice, try and clear the dryness in her throat. She sounded like England, clearing his throat every five minutes.
The vent descended at a gradual angle, but that was her only sense as she followed the dark shape of Pat, his shoes squeaking and dragging against the metal as he crawled. He moved swiftly, for a middle-aged man. Beth found she was breathing hard by the time she emerged out of the vent, a small sheen of sweat tickling at her temples.
She got to her feet, guessing at her new surroundings from the half-glimpsed shapes and space from Perry's flashlight.
They were in a new corridor. No, not a corridor, a landing of some sort. One side opened up like a dark chasm, the railings of a banister creating a lattice of shadows across the far wall. Beth could not see what was below. Perry closed the vent cover, sliding one bolt home.
"This way,'' he hissed. He led them along the landing, moving swiftly, his body looking a bit more rigid and tense. Beth felt it herself. It felt different of a sudden, being outside of the safety of their secured environment. Beth realised how dangerous this was. The giddy excitement was easy to enjoy when you knew you were behind a barricaded set of doors and locked shutters, tucked away in the depths of the building. Now they were out into the wider lab, Beth realised anything could be lurking in the shadows. Funny how the darkness suddenly felt alive in that moment. Like a thing watching them.
She rubbed her fingertips against her palms, scratching almost, the nerves tickling away at her insides. Had to swallow the sudden lump in her throat. Her heart thumped in her chest, so loud she expected Pat and Perry to look round at her. How the Hell had she found herself in this position? Seemed she'd strayed into borderline insanity all for the sake of getting some files and folders of data and research that weren't going anywhere. An absurd situation, now that she thought about it. And she felt a stab of annoyance at herself and at Pat for being so insistent. Was this really necessary?
But then she'd nodded along hadn't she. All caught up in anything that was remotely connected to her work. Any chance to make progress. Any chance to impress. Any excuse to push ahead and into the recently made space of Wu's team. Which was worth anything.
She let a held breath out slowly, opening her hands as if steadying herself, and followed Perry through an ajar door, darkness within shrinking from his flashlight.
The room was small and smelt strongly of damp and old oil. Metal storage racks lined two walls, with an assortment of unidentifiable things for, presumably, a range of unidentifiable jobs. The more identifiable took the form of buckets, tool boxes and spools of wire or chains. Mouldy boxes of what looked like electrical equipment and cables bulged on the top shelves, threatening to spill out like a mass of seething worms. Metal poles in various lengths and thickness were stacked in a corner.
A small door was set into the far wall with a heavy looking handle, the faded sign of a hazard warning beside it. Perry's light shone on the door for a moment, and then with a huff he pulled it open and the wind blew in at them. The noise of it filled the room, a mewling howl, surrounding them and then fading and then surrounding them again. The door they'd entered through blew shut, while any loose item or half broken ceiling tile was possessed with a life of its own, the sound of things flapping and slapping mingling with the groan of the wind.
Perry turned to look at both of them, his eyes dark patches of shadow from the way he held his flashlight. It almost looked comical. "You know what's out there. You especially Dr. Weaver."
Beth nodded quickly. It wouldn't do to look timid now. She found she didn't feel timid, of a sudden. She felt ready. Perry nodded back at them once.
"Good,'' he said, switching the light off and plunging them into complete darkness. Darkness enough to test anyone's ability to be ready for going out into the night where predators waited. Beth's eyes gradually adjusted to the dark. Perry hadn't moved. "We can't use any flashlights out there. You need to talk, you keep it to a brief whisper. Understand? There's a ladder outside this door. At the bottom, we regroup, we move to the car and we get what we need. Then we get the hell out of there."
More nods. Bit more of a pulse picking up now. "If we see or hear anything that even looks like it has a tail and teeth, we run. A two-minute warning is two minutes too long. We just run. You got that?"
"Goes without saying,'' said Pat. Beth nodded her agreement, pushing down that thought of Jill being snatched away. Don't dwell on it.
Perry grunted, and then he was hopping up onto the door frame and disappearing down into the dark of the outside, the gentle thumps and clangs of the ladder creating a steady rhythm. Pat followed, moving swiftly, and then it was Beth's turn.
She'd moved without even thinking. Taken that deep breath without thinking. Just moving on the impulse. She climbed up onto the frame, one hand above to stop her smacking her forehead on the top edge and the other fishing about in the dark for something to hold on to.
Her fingers brushed a metal edge, and her eyes picked out the bar of a cage built around the ladder. Rusty flakes of metal were dislodged by her hands and snatched away in the wind as she shimmied around and placed her feet on the rungs below, and then she was moving down. Hand over hand, looking down into the dark and seeing nothing. Looking left and right through the cage frame into the dark and seeing nothing but the grey walls of the lab vanishing off into the further night.
The wind dragged at her harder now. Whipped her hair into her face. She stopped to brush it out of her eyes and behind an ear but the wind just whipped it right back. Behind her she could hear the edge of the jungle, branches and leaves heaving and thrashing in the strong breeze. Sounded like an enormous creature, hissing and breathing in time with the wind.
"Ow! Jesus, watch it Beth!" Pat was slapping at her feet suddenly, made her near jump out of her skin. She looked down, seeing the pale shapes of his hands right next to where her feet were placed. He didn't look happy. Below him, she could see Perry wriggling and wrestling with something, his back braced against what looked like the lowest edge of the ladder's cage. The ground was still some ten feet or so below that.
She could hear some cursing, and then a sudden thump and squeal of tortured metal. There was a series of grating clacks and then the squeal abruptly stopped. Beth squinted below, seeing the outline of the lowest section of the ladder, still shuddering from its sudden movement. Perry gave it a kick, then another, then cursed. His face looked up.
"Fucking thing. Heads up, the ladders stuck. Bit of a drop to the ground now."
Perry climbed down the last few rungs and then hung for a moment, legs swinging, before dropping to the concrete below. He pressed himself to the wall, a dark shape melting against the dark backdrop of the lab. Wasn't long before Pat joined him, and then all of a sudden Beth was there, feet on that final rung and looking down at the ground.
Must have only been a drop of five or six feet, but it seemed higher. Took her a moment to figure out how best to wiggle down the ladder, losing the use of her feet and trusting in the fickle strength of her arms and her ability to hug the ladder in some ungainly embrace. Not the most graceful thing she'd ever managed, but she managed it.
She hung for a moment, her own legs swinging, and then she dropped.
The ground sent a jarring jolt up through her feet and into her knees. She winced, wobbling for a moment as she found her balance. Pat gently took her arm and guided her against the wall, a roguish grin on his face.
"Glad you came?" he whispered into her ear, grinning as if this was all a game. Didn't matter that earlier that day one of their friends had been torn apart. Didn't mater that they were disobeying the orders of those in charge. There was just the intoxicating rush of willing to dare to do this. She nodded back at him.
They flitted alongside the buildings wall, hunched over, like convicts escaping a prison. Maybe that's why this felt so easy to do. A show of defiance against the tyrannical word of those who called the shots. Beth's heart beat faster, the throb of it in her throat like a drum beat. It was almost like the rush of being in the lab, searching for the answers in a dark maze and shining the light of discovery on every revealed clue, every solution.
Perry had said the car was roughly a hundred yards away. Felt like half of that as suddenly they came to the alleyway they left the car in beside the old, battered elevator entrance. They stopped at the corner, backs to the wall, as Perry slowly peered around the edge, checking.
Beth eyed the equally old and battered perimeter fence that stood, or leant, just in front of the jungle edge. The winds were revealing the less stable fence posts, and Beth watched with a fascination as they swayed in the breeze.
Her eyes drifted the black mass of the jungle beyond, that writhing creature that somehow managed to watch everything around it with that air of complete disinterest. Just a spectator to its surroundings. And Beth felt like it was watching them now, only it was a bit more interested than it should have been.
Her shoulders prickled. So easy for your mind to play tricks on you, but it was always easy when you were creeping along at night on an island as notorious as Sorna. Easy to imagine a swarm of animals from another age just watching and waiting beyond that treeline.
Beth gasped, her heart skipping a beat. She was sure she'd seen movement. Between the trees, a shape. But, it couldn't have been. It wouldn't make sense. It had been only a split second. Less than that. But that's all it had taken to see the shape of a person. A man, maybe. In the trees. Like a spectre, vanishing into nothingness the more she looked. There was no sign now. Just the trees. Ever watchful.
She blinked, and then Perry was hissing at them, gesturing for them to follow. She scuttled round the corner after Pat, still hunching. The car sat where Sam had brought it to that skidding stop, a still and silent dark shape. Quiet a far cry from the growling vehicle it had been earlier as Sam had driven it through the jungle. There was a gentle jingle, and Perry pulled a key from his pants, fingers brushing at the door as he felt his way for the lock.
The car made that clunking noise as it unlocked, while Perry made that satisfied noise men tend to make when they feel they've accomplished something. He pulled the front passenger door open, and the interior lights came on, illuminating the inside of the car and casting a golden glow against the nearest wall.
Beth hesitated. She could see the dent that velociraptor had made when it had collided with the rear passenger door. Jill's door. The door that still had her bloody hand prints on. Beth stared at it, the unavoidable truth that Jill's life had been balanced on this door.
"Where are the files?" hissed Pat, slipping around the other side of the car and opening the rear door, his head sticking inside and casting about. Perry was rummaging in the front seat, Beth couldn't see what for.
"The trunk,'' said Beth. "We put them in the trunk."
Without a word Pat shut the door and almost pushed past Beth with more force than was needed to get to the trunk. He was inside in a moment, rummaging and tutting as he rifled through the packs and bags, chucking what had been Sam's into the back seat.
"Here, this one's yours by the looks of it,'' he said over his shoulder as he passed Beth's pack to her. She hugged it to herself, tight as a lover, and then slipped her arms through the straps. She was already looking forward to the morning now, perhaps finding herself a quiet spot to go back over the data within and tease out any new answers or approaches for when she was back in that aviary lab.
And she would go back, she promised herself.
"Gotcha!" hissed Pat, and Beth peered over his shoulder as he flicked through the files that poked out of what had been Jill's pack. Familiar files, as most of it had been Beth's work anyway. Not that anyone wanted to remember that it seemed. But Pat hovered on just one file that Beth didn't recognise. Hovered for just a moment for her to read the top of it in the yellow glow of the light.
Project Regenesis.
He glanced at Beth, gave her a smile and then tightened the strings on the pack and swung it onto his back. Perry tapped the top of the car, getting Pat's attention.
"Hey, pass me that pack there." Perry was pointing at the one Pat had tossed into the back seats. Sam's pack. Pat leant forward, straining, but couldn't quite reach the strap. Perry tutted. "Fuck sake, I'll do it." He shut the front door and then pulled the rear door open. The dented one. Jill's door. He stood still for a moment, frowning at it, looking at that dent. At the blood.
He blinked, and then leant inside and grabbed the pack and shut the door without another frown in sight, fussing with the large machete strapped to the side. Beth had frowned though. Frowned and nibbled the inside of her cheek. Nibbled and nibbled as Jill's screams filled her head.
If it had opened like that earlier, there'd be no screams in her head. There'd be no nagging and jagged bit of glass in her stomach, twisting and digging away until she pushed it aside, smothering the memory. Refusing it. It just did no good to dwell.
Perry and Pat shut the trunk and door almost in unison, the unsaid agreement between all of them that it was now time to go. Perry locked the car and then they were moving. Back out from the alley. Back alongside the wall. The dark cylindrical shape of the ladder cage appearing ahead. The bark of a velociraptor carried on the breeze swept across the space between them and the ladder.
They all stopped, nearly bumping into each other. Perry looked round from the front, eyes wide. Probably how Beth looked herself. She was just beginning to believe they'd all imagined it when the second bark echoed from the trees. Beth couldn't tell if it was in front or behind them. The wind, hissing past them, seemed to hiss with a building terror that Beth was not ready for.
Even knowing the animals were out here. Even with what happened earlier. It had just seemed so easy to risk it. Funny how that risk seems like a towering mistake when that sound cuts through the night.
The breath caught in Beth's throat. It was there. At the fence, looking at them. Looking at them as if it couldn't believe three people could be so suicidally stupid. Its head was twitching and cocking from side to side. Had it been there all the time? Just waiting for them to be caught in the open? Beth found it very hard to breathe now. Her hands were clutching at the straps of her pack.
"Fuck," breathed Pat. "Fuck…"
The knob in Perry's throat was moving up and down very quickly.
The raptor nudged at the chain links of the fence with its snout. Nudged again. It stood up taller, looking to its right, in the direction the gate lay that led directly into where they were standing. It looked the other way, as if considering which option was best. It raked at the fence, barked, and then took off running in the direction of the gate, becoming a dark blur.
"Run!" hissed Perry. And then they were running, sprinting with a desperation that dug into every muscle. Gone was any semblance of covertly stalking through the night. Beth's eyes hurt from having them open so wide, her jaw already aching from clamping and clenching her teeth together. Her boots pounded the ground, trying to keep pace with the two men ahead. Pat was fastest though, sprinting ahead of Perry and reaching the ladder first.
The ladder that hung six feet from the ground.
It had seemed daunting to drop from the thing a few minutes ago. Now it seemed utterly impossible to jump and haul yourself up onto. An intensely horrible prospect when a velociraptor was coming for you in the darkness. There was a bark, and a snarling screech.
"Come on!" yelled Pat. And in one fluid movement he leapt and caught the rungs well above the most bottom one, his hands moving with enviable speed, one over the other as he hauled himself up. He got a knee on the bottom rung, and that was all he needed. Her accelerated up the latter without looking back.
Beth and Perry stood at the bottom, caught in that awful decision of who should go next. Beth looked from Perry to the ladder, hoping that by some miracle the next gust of wind would lift her up light as a feather and fly her to the top. No such miracle seemed forthcoming.
She felt an intense need to piss right then.
"Go!" yelled Perry. "You first!"
That was all the invitation she needed. She did her best to imitate how Pat has jumped up there, climbing each rung as if it was easy. Turns out a life of studying in a lab leaves you at a disadvantage when you need to pull your own body weight up, as well as a pack full of paper and files.
She hung there, hopelessly, legs kicking at the air and arms burning with a fire she'd not felt before in her life. Her muscles protested at the sudden use, even pumped full of the adrenaline. They just wouldn't obey. All Beth managed was a sort of wheezing whimper as she tried to pull herself up.
A chorus of barks erupted from the night, and Beth felt sure her bladder would be the next thing to disobey her.
Something touched her. For a moment, she thought that gust of miracle wind had arrived on time. But with a gasp of shock she realised it was Perry's hands, right on her ass and pushing her up with a speed she wasn't prepared for. She scrambled for the higher rungs, holding onto her bladder and the metal bars as the relief flooded through her that her feet were now on the bottom rung.
She climbed, that wheezing whimper coming again as she moved. There was a blur of something. Something in the dark and moving with horrifying speed. She glanced down, seeing Perry had jumped and was hauling himself up beneath her, eyes wide.
He was on the ladder when the raptor pounced, that snarling screech filling her ears. She watched, stuck fast with the shock as the animal flew through the air, claws flexing and mouth yawning wide. It didn't seem possible to end any other way. But Perry slid around the ladder like an acrobat, holding onto the other side as the raptor crashed into where he'd been stood. Claws raked and shrieked against the metal, and Beth screamed as the ladder wobbled from the force of the impact. The raptor thudded to the ground, skidding and looking upwards at them, its teeth bared.
"Fucking go!" yelled Perry, and Beth scrambled up. Scrambled up as Perry climbed from the other side, swinging back around to her side as he got to the bottom edge of the ladder cage.
She dared not look down. She just kept climbing. Seemed so much further to the top than it had before. She was panting, couldn't get the breath in quick enough. Her head was hurting, pounding with an ache. She looked down, needing to see, screaming again as the raptor pounced. It slammed into the bottom of the ladder, somehow clinging there and snapping at Perry's heels as he climbed. Her hands buzzed with the jarring vibrations of the impact.
It dropped back to the ground, coiling itself, head fixed on her and Perry.
She climbed higher. The door above was in sight. Just a few more feet. Not far at all. Below, the ground was being swallowed by the dark, and the raptor with it. Made it worse. Where had it gone? Perry was just beneath her, breathing hard and urging her on. As if she needed any encouragement.
There was a screech, rising in shrill pitch. An awful sound. The entire cage around the ladder shook. Beth glanced down and saw the animal on the cage, on the outside, and climbing. A hideous mockery of a person climbing, those clawed arms and feet dragging itself up, pulling it bar by bar closer to them.
Beth reached the door, nearly falling on through it. Pat was there, wild eyed and panting. Helping her up, hands pulling at her. Beth swatted him away, half panicked he was a vicious animal ready to tear her apart. Like Jill had been.
She whirled round as Perry reached the top, saw his furious face of terrified concentration. Saw the raptor behind him as it appeared. Saw its own expression of furious concentration. Swift as a snake it darted its head between the bars of the cage, jaws snapping down on the pack Perry carried. He managed a sort of strangled yelp as he was dragged backwards, eyes wide and hands grasping.
The raptor was growling like a maddened dog as it thrashed at the pack, claws sliding and grabbing at the cage for purchase. Perry was stuck, straps pulled tight around his shoulders, his arms flailing awkwardly while he fought to keep his feet on the ladder, head ducking and hunching to keep away from the jaws of the raptor. He was shouting, yelling, cursing. Trying to wriggle free of the straps.
Beth just watched. What could she do? She'd barely managed the climb without collapsing from terror and exhaustion. Her hands just gripped the bottom of the door frame. She was filled with the sudden urge to shut the door. To leave Perry. To shut the awful nightmare of what was happening out there away. Shut it and lock it. What could she do?
There was a ripping sound, and one of the straps on Perry's pack began to split. Perry wriggled again and his arm came free, his body twisting quickly to free his other arm from the pack. The raptor still held it in its mouth, thrashing from side to side. He grabbed onto the ladder, gasping and spitting. And in one movement, reached over to the handle of the machete on the pack and pulled it free..
There was no ringing of steel like in the movies. No bright flash of steel. Just a very solid and wet sounding thwack as Perry chopped the blade into the raptors head. The raptor hissed, shying away from the blade and dropping the pack. It bumped and clattered down the ladder. And then the raptor darted through the cage again, even more furious. Even more full of murderous intent and hunger. Perry yelped as he held the blade cross ways and the raptors mouth pushed against it. Rows of razor pointed teeth inches from his face.
They hovered there for a moment, almost like a man wrestling playfully with his dog and its chew toy. And then with a growl Perry yanked sideways. The blade slashed across the raptors mouth, drawing a spray of dark blood and a terrible shriek from the animal. It retreated, darting away from Perry and his machete. Hissing and spitting, snapping at him but not attacking. It stared at him for a moment and then dropped away from the cage, landing somewhere in the dark with a heavy thud.
Perry fell through the doorway, gasping for breath, while Beth stared down into the dark, watching the dark shape of the raptor below. Another had joined it now. They were looking up at her, she could tell from the way they moved. She couldn't see their eyes, but they were watching her. And then with a hiss they darted away into the night.
"They're gone,'' panted Beth, feeling the relief and closing the door, leaning her forehead against the deliciously cool surface.
But Perry was shaking his head as he scrambled up to his feet.
"They won't be gone. They'll be looking for a way in. We need to go! Now! We aren't safe."
"Looking for a way in?" said Pat. "They can't know where we'll be now. Aint like they got a map!"
"They'll know,'' said Perry, making for the door. "We need to move right now."
"And how do yo…"
"I just fucking know!" hissed Perry, spinning round and glaring at Pat. "These things…I just know."
That seemed to stun Pat into silence. With a sheepish nod, he followed Perry out of the maintenance room, Beth close behind. That feeling of relief had been well and truly replaced with the itching dread of moving through the silent darkness of the building now. Dark and silent like a grave.
They shuffled along the landing, keeping close. Beth was sure she heard noises, far off in the depths of the lab. Thumps and bangs. Creaks and groans. The sounds of a haunted house. With very real ghosts looking for them.
They reached the vent cover and Perry quickly slid the bolt free, pulling the cover and kneeling down. He nodded at them, and Pat was fastest again. He shrugged his pack off and was into the vent in a flash, pushing his bag in front of him. The bumps of his movements seemed enormously loud.
"You next Dr. Weaver."
But Beth hesitated, eyeing that tiny bolt on the vent cover. A vent cover with thin slats. Thin enough for someone with slender fingers. She shook her head.
"I can close the bolts,'' she whispered. "I'll go last." Perry looked bewildered.
"Dr. Weaver, this isn't the time to…"
"Exactly my thoughts!" she hissed, shooing him into the vent. "You go next. I can crawl backwards and close and lock the vent. If we leave it open…" She let the thought of that register in him. A thought he'd clearly had but was fast running out of time to ponder. He huffed.
"You be right behind me then! And make sure of that bolt!"
She nodded, feeling ready to burst with the frantic energy of knowing they might be found. And worse. Perry took her pack from her and crawled into the vent, his heels disappearing into the darkness. She didn't wait a moment longer than she had to.
She shuffled into the vent backwards, pulling the vent closed as she went. It clicked into position and she slid her fingers through the gaps, metal painful against her skin. She winced, searching for that little bolt, seeking it and seeking it and clamping her teeth hard together in a silent snarl of sheer determination. Where was it? She was surely so close? Her fingertip bruised the edge and the breath rushed out of her, a gasp of relief. And the raptors walked past the vent.
She froze, mouth open and heart thumping and finger still on the bolt. She'd got it half-way and was now looking at the passing feet of two, no, three velociraptors. Their claws clicked as they walked, a purring thrum echoing through the darkness with them.
One of them stopped just past the vent. Beth could smell it. A strong scent of earth and animal, quite unlike anything Beth could imagine. The purring was steady, and then it started sniffing. Sniffing and sniffing. Beth saw those clawed feet, with that enormous sickle claw tapping and clicking the floor, slowly turn. Turn towards her and the vent. The purring was getting quicker, a prickling snarl working its way in between each purring breath it took.
The dangling claws of its hands drifted into view. They swayed languidly, as if being dangled and swayed by a puppeteer, the slow movement of such dangerous things almost hypnotic. There was a distant bark and screech, from down the landing. In the direction of the maintenance room, Beth thought. Hoped.
The raptor by the vent twisted away, maybe looking in the direction of the commotion. Beth felt that bubble of impulse again, and she took her chance and slid the bolt the rest of the way home. There was the faintest of clicks as the metal connected with its housing, and the raptor snarled and wheeled back towards her as she pulled her fingers back through the slats.
A snout appeared, nostrils flaring and lips rolling back from the teeth. The thrumming from the animal was all around her, echoing in the vent. Beth shrank back, rigid with terror in the dark. Certain in a moment it would rip the cover away and drag her out.
But then there was a new sound.
It came from the dark, beyond the raptor. Beyond the railings on the landing and from the depths of the darkness. A grating sound. Something metal, being dragged across another metal surface. As if someone was sharpening a blade. A big blade. The raptor stiffened. Beth saw its body visibly twitch in surprise. Its snout retreated, and she could see if was turning.
And then the laughter came. It started as a gurgle, wet and croaky. Then it built in volume, turning to a cackle and then a horrible hacking laughter, something awful. Something maniacal. The laugh of a madman. Beth didn't understand it. Who could possibly make a sound like that? Her skin was prickling just listening to it.
It was worse, somehow, than the noise of the raptors.
The other two had appeared now, dashing up to the railing, feet up on the banisters edge and bodies coiling, and then they were hissing. Hissing like angry snakes that had had their nest kicked and had only one thing in mind now. With a snarl and bark, they leapt over the banister, disappearing into the blackness. Beth could hear them padding away. Towards the laughter? It was impossible to know where that was coming from. But they were moving away from her, and that was all that mattered.
She took a wheezing breath, wiping snot from her nose. Ignoring how close she had just been to discovery. With a grunt she began the crawl backwards, shuffling awkwardly and using her knees, hips and elbows to wiggle.
It seemed to take forever, a lonely fight against nothing but gravity and her own trembling limbs. But all of a sudden she back out into the familiar corridor, and Pat was helping her up while Elliot locked the vent and pushed the cabinet back across it. As if it had never been disturbed at all.
She nearly fell into Pat's arms, just needing to feel a friendly body to lean against and get her breath back. To fight off the pulsing adrenaline of terror. And to try and forget that laugh.
But then Pat cleared his throat, and Perry winced, and Beth saw that Redgrove was stood there by them all, arms crossed and eyes livid like some sort of permanently pissed of statue.
"Well,'' she said, her flinty voice sounding not in the least bit amused. "I can't wait for this."