Ch 9:
Maisie stared at the computer screen. At the video of Charlotte Lockwood. Of her mother.
Everything she thought she knew for the last four years, which, admittedly, wasn't much, had been turned on it's head. She wasn't sure if she could trust Henry Wu and his words, but these videos were hard not to believe.
Her grandfather hadn't cloned her. He let people believe that to protect her mother's reputation. Because obviously what would people say about a scientist who cloned and gave birth to herself? Especially back then. The idea of cloning alone made people uncomfortable, but cloning people?
But personal conflict aside, Maisie knew she needed to get out of here. Henry Wu might have the right idea, wanting to use her DNA to fix the locust problem. But the people who kidnapped her and brought her here? Lewis Dodgson? She didn't trust these people's motives.
But she couldn't leave them.
Maisie glanced off to the side of the computer, toward the far wall. There was a small cage that held two small, pacing raptors.
Beta and Kilo. She'd officially named them. They were hissing and pacing. Kilo would occasionally ram into the cage. But Maisie noticed that when Beta would look at her, the little raptor would tilt her head and chirp. Maybe she knew that Maisie was on her side?
Maisie couldn't leave without them. But how was she supposed to escape with them?
Movement from the corner of her eye made Maisie jump slightly. Turning, she saw a scientist standing next to her at the table. He was tapping at something on an Ipad. At least, she assumed he was a scientist given his white lab coat. But he seemed rather young. Maybe a student or intern?
The young man glanced down at Maisie and gave her a small smile. And suddenly he looked familiar. He had fair skin, blue eyes, and light brown hair that had a slight curl to it. But something about him looked-
Maisie's eyes widened. It was Gray! Claire's nephew, Zach's younger brother!
As if he could read her thoughts, his smile widened infinitesimally. He set his hand on the table, and when he pulled it away, Maisie realized he'd set some kind of black bracelet device on the table. She'd seen people use it a few times since she arrived. It unlocked doors.
With another small smile, Gray turned and walked away, leaving Maisie's mind reeling with possibilities.
She looked over her shoulder. She could see Dodgson and Wu arguing through the large window. Snatching up the bracelet off the table, she approached the cage that held the raptors.
"Let's get out of here."
Meanwhile
The flight from Malta to Italy was much shorter than the flight they took from California to Malta earlier. In less than two hours Kayla's plane was flying over the snowy mountains of Italy. There were patches of small talk along the flight. Sierra randomly announced a news update on an Ipad that there was an official sighting of a Plesiosaurus in Loch Ness, Scotland, which lead to some jokes about there finally being a real-life Loch Ness Monster, and some debate on how it could have gotten there. Claire pointed out Loch Ness was technically connected to an ocean, so it was possible.
Mostly, however, the ride consisted of planning. Kayla knew quite a bit of inside info on Biosyn, which would help getting in and finding Maisie.
Hopefully.
Sierra was turned slightly in her seat, which was behind Owen's. This way she could more easily talk to Zach, who had taken a seat on the floor of the doorway. There were a couple seats along the wall in the back of the plane for when they landed, but for now he was fine on the floor.
"Okay, in and out. We find your girl and go." Kayla announced, grabbing the radio and starting to talk into it. "Tower, this is N141, request a land for freight delivery, over."
"Uh, N141 negative." a woman responded. "We've been advised you're carrying unauthorized passengers, over."
Sierra and Claire exchanged a worried look.
"Copy that, Tower, be advised. Shipment is perishable." Kayla answered easily. "We need immediate clearance, over."
"Uh, negative. Return to point of origin." the voice responded.
Kayla began repeatedly pushing the button on the radio when she next spoke into it, "Uh, you seem to be breaking up, or are you hearing me on your side?"
Sierra smirked slightly.
"Nice try, Kayla. They will down your bird." the woman's voice responded with much more confidence than before.
"Who is this?" Kayla asked, no longer pretending the radio was breaking up. "Is this Denise? You do not want me to start spilling secrets, Denise. You remember Dubrovnik."
Sierra and Zach exchange a curious glance, Zach even shrugging slightly from his seat on the floor.
There was a long, tense moment of radio silence. Sierra doubted they were going to be able to just smoothly fly to Biosyn now. It was clear that someone had been tipped off on their arrival.
Sure enough, an alarm started going off. Sierra looked between the front seats at the dashboard. There was a small rectangle held in place with duct tape, with a flashing 'WARNING' sign.
"What's that?" Owen asked Kayla, who was looking all around with clear agitation.
"Uh, that's the, uh, the Aerial Deterrent System. Keeps the airborne life away."
"Why is it blinking?" Claire asked warily while Zach pulled himself up to his feet.
"Because dead ass Denise and the Tower just turned it off. We gotta get out of this airspace right now." Kayla answered instantly. Zach moved back to the cargo space, sitting in one of the seats and buckling himself in. Sierra watched him worriedly, but when he met her eyes he nodded calmly. She nodded in return, but an eerie, familiar sound made her look up.
"That's another plane, right?" Owen asked, even though they all knew it wasn't.
"Not exactly."
Another screech sounded as a large shadow passed over the plane. None of them could look away. They all had their heads tilted back as they stared up at the ceiling. A large, brown wing passed over a window.
"Is that a-?"
"Quetzalcoatlus." Kayla answered. "Late Cretaceous, should have stayed there."
The Quetzacoatlus seemed to pass over them and disappear. A breath seemed to be released from everyone.
"Okay." Kayla smiled in relief. "It's cool. We're good."
Almost as soon as she said the words, there was another screech and something hit the plane, making it lurch and shake. Sharp talons pierced the windshield, sending shattered glass into the plane. Those same talons then ripped through the roof of the plane, shredding the metal like flimsy paper.
Orange light drew Sierra's attention out the window. They all stared in horror as one of the engines burst into flames. The Quetzacoatlus then stabbed it's beak into the roof of the plane before flying off, leaving the plane to plummet.
"This plane is going down!" Kayla yelled over the chaos. She looked over her shoulder at Claire and Sierra. "If you're going to eject, do it now! The only two chairs are those two!"
"You don't have parachutes?!" Owen yelled.
"I wasn't expecting company!"
Sierra's breath was coming in gasps as she stared out the window. The smoke and flames were blurring the otherwise beautiful view of the mountains as they got closer and closer. A lot of the information was going in one ear and out the other at the moment.
Suddenly, Owen was kneeling on the ground between Sierra and Claire. Sierra's eyes were forced to focus on her brother instead of their impending doom.
"We gotta get you two off this plane!" Owen yelled over the noise. Sierra's pounding heart dropped into her stomach.
"What?!" Claire shrieked.
"The parachute is going to open automatically. If it doesn't, you pull this lever, do you understand me?" Owen asked, his tone going military as he looked both women in the eye, gesturing to the lever near Claire's head. A hand grabbed Sierra's and pulled it up. Sierra turned her head to see Zach behind her seat. He made her hand cover a lever near her own head. Her brain made the pieces click. This was the lever she needed to pull if the parachute didn't open. While she was plummeting to the earth below.
"Claire!" Owen yelled when Claire seemed too flustered to comprehend. "If it doesn't open automatically, you're going to pull this lever here behind you, okay?"
"Ten thousand feet!" Kayla yelled from up front.
Owen turned to Sierra, making sure that she was, indeed aware of where the lever was.
"Sierra,…you're going to be fine. You and Claire are going to find Maisie and save her. And you're going to find the raptors, and make sure they get home. I know you can do that." He shoved a radio into one of her pants pockets. "You and Claire can keep in touch with these. Okay? I'll find you later."
Sierra swallowed a lump in her throat, but nodded once firmly. When Owen turned to give a similar speech to Claire, Zach squeezed Sierra's shoulder. She turned to see him crouch down next to her, but slightly behind her seat since there wasn't a lot of room in the cockpit.
"He's right, we're going to find you both when this is over." Zach spoke near her ear so she could hear him and still have some privacy. "You're the strongest person I know. If anyone can figure this out, and save Maisie and the raptors, it's you." Zach stared at her, his brown eyes looking between her blue eyes. "We've got stuff to talk about, so you can't die on me." he finally joked.
Sierra huffed a slight laugh. "Same to you."
Zach gave one last nod before disappearing back into the plane, likely buckling back into his seat back there. Owen and Claire likely had a similar conversation before Owen sat back down in his own seat. Sierra met her brother's eyes briefly, setting her jaw in determination. She took one more deep breath before yanking on the lever.
Her seat shot up like a rocket launcher. She instinctively screamed, icy wind biting into her cheeks and her head whipping back and forth even though she tried to tense her neck and keep it in place.
It felt like it took forever, and Sierra was wondering if she needed to pull the lever for her parachute, when it finally released on it's own. Her spinning abruptly stopped as her chute opened up, drastically slowing her descent. Sierra sucked in a deep breath of icy air, releasing it in relief.
That relief was short-lived.
She spotted movement and glanced over. Claire was hovering several yards away from her, her own chute thankfully having worked as well. But past Claire Sierra spotted several pterosaurs flying toward the redhead.
Sierra soon couldn't worry about Claire. Because the flock of Pteranodons were attacking her, too. Sierra's hands clutched tightly to the harness that was strapped over her chest as the huge pterosaurs lunged at her. Talons grabbed at her. Sharp beaks stabbed way too close for comfort. The wind kept whipping Sierra's hair into her face so she couldn't hardly see the attacks coming. She was bumped and jostled, her seat spinning in the air. When her chair suddenly lurched and tilted, Sierra looked up to see that one of the parachute straps had been cut. This caused the chute to fold in on itself, fluttering uselessly in the wind as Sierra once again was plummeting toward the ground.
She lifted her arm, fighting against the harsh wind to reach the lever behind her head. She grasped it and yanked hard, releasing the other parachute. It helped, but it didn't stop her from having a harsh landing. Feet first, she hit the treetops harshly. Branches hit and whipped at her as she crashed through them. She lifted her arms to try and shield her face, clenching her eyes shut and hoping she wouldn't hit the ground too hard.
But it wasn't the ground that stopped her fall. Her body lurched to a stop, her seatbelt straps lurching into her chest and stomach, briefly knocking the air from her lungs. Her eyes snapped open and she found herself staring down at a pond less than three feet from her face. She was still strapped into her seat, her legs dangling and feet almost touching the murky water below.
Sierra took in a careful, shaking breath. She was almost too nervous to move. Turning her head, she carefully peaked upward. Her chute appeared to be stuck in the tree branches above her.
Swallowing, her shaking fingers started fumbling with her seatbelt. She didn't exactly want to fall into the pond below, but she figured falling after getting unbuckled would be preferred over falling into the pond while still strapped into the seat.
She felt the seat lurch, and quickened her efforts of getting unbuckled. When it finally clicked, she clumsily fell into the pond below with her arms briefly getting caught in the straps before she landed with a splash. She'd managed to suck in a lungful of air before being submerged.
Kicking out with her feet, Sierra was relieved when her feet touched bottom. Stumbling and getting her feet under her, her head broke the surface of the cold, filthy water. The ground was sludgy and her feet sunk into the muck, but when she stood upright the water only reached her waist.
She stumbled and tripped, but managed to make it to land, dragging herself out of the water and up a muddy bank until she was well away from the water. There, she collapsed and leaned against a tree trunk. She panted and tried to catch her breath, shoving wet, muddy strands of hair from her face. When she was finally able to catch her breath, she figured she should probably try the radio and see if she could reach Claire. Maybe the redhead landed as well.
Sierra reached down toward her pocket, her hand finding the familiar lump that she knew was the radio Owen had put there. But before she could pull it out, some bushes nearby rustled, catching her attention.
Sierra stared straight ahead, not breathing as she watched the bushes wave.
Maybe it's Claire. Maybe it's Maisie, and she'd escaped. Maybe it's Gray. Maybe it's a starving carnivorous dinosaur looking for an easy dinner.
The last one seemed most likely.
The bushes parted and out stepped a dinosaur.
It walked on two legs, and was about the same height as Sierra. It's skin was shades of green, yellow, and a hint of brown. It had a rooster-like comb on it's head and a shorter skull with a small snout.
Sierra briefly recognized it from one of Gray's dinosaur books back in the day. It was a Deinonychus.
A carnivore. A pack hunter.
She was so screwed.
AN: A brief glimpse of Gray! Was anyone excited about seeing him? He'll be back later in the story. And now Sierra and Claire are lost and separated in the jungle. Wonder what's going to happen.
Let me know what you all thought of this chapter! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed this story so far!