Hey followers! I'm determined to finish the story first, so you can expect another update soon. Hopefully you're still hooked, I try my best to keep it exciting! Thanks for your support! (And a merry christmas to those of you that celebrate it as well! )

Chapter 12

"What?!"

Once he had returned to the encampment, Ivan had gone back aboard The Russian Jewel as soon as he could. He didn't want to stay a minute longer on that godforsaken island. Showing up on the vessel empty-handed however raised more than a few questions with the head of the expedition. As he reported the misfortune of both his and Aleksei's undertaking , Pavel's anger rose to new heights.

"Yes, all of them." he continued.

"How?!"

"There were these things -.."

"Velociraptors."

Pavel was not to only one to have walked away from the fight. The man next to him had gladly followed his squad leader's example in turning his back on the rest to save his own skin. What the man unfortunately had not foreseen was that Pavel wasn't a man who was keen on failure among his soldiers.

"Yes, those!" Ivan nodded frantically.

"And those things had weapons too?" the Russian asked cynically.

Ivan had heard this tone before. It was dangerous to continue making excuses, even if those excuses were the truth. His comrade on the other hand did not possess this knowledge.

"No, but they were so fast! They jumped us before we even knew it and -.."

*BANG*

The mercenary looked at his chest in astonishment. The blood started flowing rapidly from a hole that wasn't there before. With an expression of utter disbelief his eyes locked onto Pavel before the life vanished from them completely and he fell aside onto the deck.

"So…" Pavel continued.

Coldblooded as he was, he was unshaken by the fact that he had just shot one of his own men. He breathed onto the barrel of his revolver and took out a handkerchief to polish it until it blinked in the sunlight. He paid no attention to the body that was dragged away by two bystanders.

"If I understand correctly, you, a group of heavily armed men, lost to a pack of ancient brainless reptiles?"

Although what Pavel stated was incorrect in more than one way, Ivan knew better than to argue with him.

"I'm sorry that we failed you. We were-.."

"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT YOU FAILED ME!"

Pavel's phone rang and he answered with an aggressive voice, annoyed that he was interrupted in the middle of punishment. He might not like it when his men disappointed him, he sure loved making them pay for their mistakes. The man on the other side of the line also knew this, thus he started the conversation by making humble apologies to avoid getting chastised as well.

Meanwhile, Ivan waited. He was angry but powerless. Pavel's outburst was completely unjustified in his opinion. His boss had not seen these creatures, he had no idea what they were capable of. As the conversation on the phone proceeded, his boss's voice became less sharp. A grin even appeared on his face when he hung up. This was either a good sign, or a very, very bad one.

"You know, Ivan. I was inclined to make sure you'd suffer a fate even worse than your pal over there…"

The fact that Ivan had no clue who the corpse was that was being thrown overboard was irrelevant at this point. Pavel never paid much attention to such details in the first place, let alone that it was worth the trouble now.

"…but you are in luck."

"W-what?"

Ivan, who expected a severe and immoral penalty was left speechless by this abrupt and apparent fortunate turn of events. Pavel walked to the side of the ship and leaned on the railing.

"From what I've just heard, it seems that your stunting has led to something good after all."

Even though it was impossible for Ivan to understand what this was about, Pavel shook his head and sighed loud as to indicate that he found his interlocutor to be slow-witted. He gestured and Ivan went over to stand next to him. Pavel pointed at the transport that was headed for The Russian Jewel. Ivan's eyes became twice their normal size.

"Are those-.."

"Yes Ivan, they are." Pavel replied, slapping his hand on the man's shoulder, "And we caught them thanks to your incapability to do anything properly, isn't that ironic?"

"Sir! We need you at the bridge!"

"What for?" Pavel asked unkindly.

He didn't like to be summoned anywhere, no matter what the urgency.

"You'd best hear that from the captain himself."

.

Once Alan and Owen had caught up with the rest, the former had been relieved to be able to get off the infernal dirt bike. At first it hadn't been so bad, but soon after he had left the zone of mortal danger and the adrenaline had vanished from his system, it had become true torture for his backside.

Upon their arrival, Grady had suggested to continue to station Gamma and so it was that the flock of refugees had proceeded on their journey and were now close to their goal. Most of the men had gotten out of the battle safely, though some had not been so lucky. The news that Raymond was one of those unfortunate souls had quickly spread through the ranks. With the first mate gone, the sailors were left leaderless and therefore they too had turned to the ranger. No-one had said in those exact words, yet everyone knew this was the case.

Owen had been reluctant to accept any more responsibility. He had tried to find the next in charge among the crew of the Nelly, however he hadn't been able to locate such a person. Either there was no-one left that was high in rank or they didn't have enough faith in said man to appoint him. A third possibility could also have been that the man himself hadn't been willing to step forth, because he like Owen himself didn't want to be responsible for all these people.

"So you're saying that you communicated with one of them?"

During the long walk the ranger had informed Alan and the others of his encounter with the raptor and how he had been able to prevent it from attacking. Alan and Arie were very interested in the details. Ian on the other hand scoffed the man, accusing him of a rich imagination. Owen ignored him and continued his story.

"When I showed him that I respected his dominant position, it ceased its attack. It actually seemed to understand about my submissive behaviour."

Malcolm snorted depreciatingly.

"The only thing it understood was that its target had become a whole lot easier to tackle."

"Ian, for goodness sake, let the man talk." Alan remarked, fed up with the mathematician's intrusions.

In response he made an apologetic gesture and subsequently walked a little slower to distance himself from the, in his eyes, ridiculous conversation.

"It sounds to me that you were indeed having interaction with the animal." Arie confirmed.

"Yea, but the question is, was it truly accepting your actions, or was it just confused that you acted like a raptor?" Alan posed.

Owen rubbed his chin. He hadn't thought of that. Acting like a velociraptor was one thing, being a different species could also mean that body language would be interpreted in a different way. They didn't have more time to discuss it any further as they were summoned to the head of the line. They had arrived at station Gamma.

As they moved towards the front end, they encountered many relieved faces. Everyone was glad that they had reached the station now as it was getting dark and who knew what kind of animals would hunt here at night.

Inside, Owen's suspicions were quickly turned to hard facts. The station appeared to be in excellent working condition. Even the food storage had remained untouched all this time. Not that all the food had survived for such a long time of course, but there was more than a fair amount that was still edible. Especially the beer was just what the group needed. Most of them were terrified or in shock from the atrocities they had witnessed. The gruesome carnage the velociraptors had caused was something most people would not see in a lifetime. Therefore, the alcohol was the perfect remedy for the men and women to whom this had been too much to bear.

Arie was new to this kind of violence as well, though he was not as undone by it as some of the others. He had been a German captive during the second world war and was therefore not unaccustomed to cruelty. Owen had fought in a war as well and was therefore also familiar with bloodshed. Alan and Ian were no survivors of war, but they had seen dinosaurs before and these previous encounters had led to similar results as they had today. That didn't mean however that either of these men weren't in need of a drink. Such scenes tend to haunt a man for his entire life, causing restless nights with sweaty nightmares.

"Cheers!"

Ian had secured a bottle of scotch from the storage and a couple of wineglasses. The slender glassware wasn't supposed to be used for this kind of liquor, yet nobody cared. The strong beverage was a necessary reset for their minds. They needed to contact someone in order to get off the island, the sooner the better, and it was better to do such with a cool head.

"I sent someone to check whether the phone's working here." Owen informed.

"You sent someone?" Ian asked teasingly.

"Yea, the only privilege of being the elected leader: nobody questions me, but you."

Alan laughed at Owen's payback. Unfortunately for him, the mathematician wasn't ready to surrender this verbal fight.

"Glad to find that you actually listen to me then. Those people are hard to come by."

Now Arie sniggered as Alan realized that this was a reference to himself.

It wasn't long until Owen's man returned with the good news that he had found a functioning radio. The four of them, equally thrilled, gathered in the communication's room to confirm this report. The ranger pulled a piece of paper from his jacket. Arie peeked over his shoulder and saw this piece of paper had various frequencies written on it. He could not distinguish which one his friend choose, yet he trusted his judgement.

He had called out every minute. At first there was no response, but after ten minutes they got a noisy rustling reply. Ian hissed a victorious 'yes' and the others nodded enthusiastically. The man's voice, which they expected to hear turned out to be a gentle, feminine one.

"… Mister Grady… that you?"

Owen drew a surprised face. Thus far he had only met one person that refused to call him by his first name.

"Claire?" he answered, twisting the knob in the hope of improving the incoming sound.

"We … what happened… contact…"

"Our ship was attacked by hostiles. We're stuck in station Gamma, but we are in danger. Can you extract us?"

As an army man he knew that over the radio it was best to state the essentials loud and clear rather than get lost in details.

"... ship... hostiles … don't …"

"Can't you get the line more clear?" Ian asked frustrated.

"I'm trying, alright!" Owen retorted with the same agitation.

"Here, let me."

Arie leaned forward and gave a smack on top of the machine with the palm of his hand. Almost immediately the sound from the radio was dead sharp. He smiled to Alan who applauded softly. Computers and other electronics usually seemed to hate the doctor.

"… what hostiles, repeat, what hostiles?"

"They are Russians-.."

"Ukrainians." Alan corrected.

"Ukrainians, they want to steal dinosaurs, they are heavily armed and they're the ones that sunk our ride."

"Stay put, there's already a second ship underway. We've sent them your coordinates."

Owen was about to ask for details, but she beat him to it.

"It's a frigate, commissioned to us by the U.S. Navy to help us should a situation like this occur. It left two days ago and could be at your position in approximately twelve hours."

All men in the room looked at each other and nodded impressed. A Navy vessel picking them up and protecting them from the mercenaries was very good news. It had been a long time since they last had some good news.

"Copy that. We'll be looking out for its arrival."

"One last thing, mister Grady. How many of the crew have survived? I hope not a lot have died?"

Owen frowned and he felt the eyes of his companions in his back. Every loss had been one too many, surely she knew that? He thought back of Raymond, the most recent man who'd gave his life to save his own. The way she stated it made it sound like it was only a minor issue. Unintentionally, this question had made him slightly angry.

"Thank you for the good news Claire, we'll talk again once I'm back."

Before she could reply he shut down the radio.

When he stood up from the chair and turned around he looked at the painful faces of the others. He expected them to ask why he wouldn't want to give her any numbers. The truth was that he didn't want to be confronted with all the men he had lost already, whilst there were still so many left to save. The question he got however, was something else entirely.

"Why does she call you Mister Grady?" Malcolm asked.

It took him a few seconds to reply, but then he laughed.

"I have no idea, I think she likes me."

The others joined his laughter.

"Owen."

A man had entered the room. His face was filled with fear.

"Can you please come with me."

"What, why?"

"Because I'm asking you to." a familiar voice answered.

All the smiles vanished as a bald man with a goatee stepped followed the InGen employee through the doorway. He drew an ugly grin as he raised a glock at Owen's face.

"Please."

End of chapter.