CHAPTER 11 – EXODUS

Everything always seems so simple and obvious in hindsight. It troubles you how you couldn't have sensed the events that were about to unfold, but of course, corruption of memories is something to happens to everybody. How was I to know that it would be my last time on the island when I left for the weekend?

In the present tense, you're always oblivious to everything going on around you.

Kyle Sanders, 1993

Kyle Sanders

June 13th, 1993

Control Room, Visitor Centre, Isla Nublar

"GAP reports need to be signed by you as Chief Geneticist," said Sanders idly as he dropped the stack of papers onto the desk in front of Wu.

Wu looked at them with distain, sat in the middle of an area which looked to Sanders like a city, made entirely out of stacks of documents. Wu grabbed them quickly, opened them up, scribbled his signature wherever he saw a line – Sanders made to stop him as Wu scribbled over a dividing line on the back page, but thought better of it – and handed it back.

"Did you see them in the lab?" Wu said quietly, rubbing his forehand with one hand.

Sanders shook his head, putting the stack of papers under his arm, frowning. "No, who?"

"The inspection team from the mainland," Wu said. "They're all scientists and lawyers, because of that kid who fell into the Raptor cage."

"Oh," Sanders said, looking around the control room. "Is that why you're in here?"

"Hammond says he doesn't want all the paperwork cluttering up the lab. To be honest I need to get back to Sorna; we've got some kind of outbreak of virus there, killing all the newborns."

"Is it DX again?" Sanders said, lowering his voice.

Wu made a slight gesture with his hand, a downwards wave; be quiet. "We're not sure yet, but maybe," he murmured.

Sanders shook his head.

"Don't worry about it," Wu said, "we'll take care of it on Monday."

Wu stood up, and looked over at the rest of the control room. "Bye, John," he said, waving to Arnold, who sat in the corner, smoking of course. Arnold turned in his chair, and gave a brief wave. "Safe journey you two; if we lose you we're screwed."

"What do you mean?" Wu said.

Arnold pointed to his monitor, which showed a satellite image of Isla Nublar and the surrounding area of one hundred miles. Sixty miles to the south was a large, swirling white blob. "We're tracking a storm, which on its current heading will be over our heads in a few hours."

"Will it cause a problem for the boat?"

Arnold shrugged, taking a drag of smoke. "Not if you hurry." He turned away, laughing to himself.

Sanders shrugged. "Hey, Anderson," he called to Joel, who was scribbling on a piece of paper in the recesses of the room, "are you coming or not?"

Joel made an erratic movement with his free hand, and then stood up with a start, and strode over to Nedry, who had been called in to debug the systems over the weekend, again.

"This is a list of everything we've found in the last two months," he said, waving it in front of Nedry's face.

"Oh, sure, thanks," said Nedry, who didn't glance at the note. He was busy typing.

Sanders watched as Anderson glared at Nedry, and stuck the note to the top corner of Nedry's monitor, and turned away. "See you, John," he called as the three of them turned and left the control room.

Wu, Anderson and Sanders strolled down the corridor together; they were leaving for the weekend, as the island ran on a skeleton crew. Sanders was going to see his wife and daughter for the first time in over two weeks; he had been busy with Wu getting the lab ready and the right eggs over form Sorna so that the inspection team might be able to watch one of the animals hatch.

Wu told him that they had been in luck; a Raptor had hatched just as the team had entered the hatchery.

Perfect, thought Sanders, that's was just what they needed in the park; more man-eaters.

As they passed from the bright lights into the cinematically decorated rotunda, they passed Muldoon, who ran up the stairs towards the control room.

"Where have you been?" Wu said, pausing at the stop of the spiral staircase.

"Harding needed Bourika tranquilised before he left."

He was referring to one of the Triceratops, who was well known by all of the staff for causing a lot of headaches.

"What's your hurry then?" Sanders said, grinning as he pattered down the stairs down towards the first floor.

"That storm," Muldoon growled, "perfect timing; right in the middle of an inspection."

"Ah, we've gone through loads of storms," Anderson said, "Nedry's systems a mess, but it can take a lot."

"Doesn't comfort me much," Muldoon muttered, and hurried up past them towards the control room. "See you," he called over his shoulder.

They reached the ground floor a few moments later, the two behemoth skeletons looming over them, suspending from their thick cabling. Workmen were appearing from all over the place, through every door in the facility, moving towards the two large wooden doors of the visitor centre. Most of them were dressed in blue overall uniforms or lab coats; in fact the three of them were the only ones dressed casually.

They passed out of the centre and into the sunlight, passing from air conditioned comfort into the thick, humid heat. The water feature flowed peacefully downwards in the silence on either side of them and Sanders watched Dragonflies zoom over the surface of the pond which lay just behind the road which ran in front of the block of steps.

Parked up down the road was a long collection of white shuttle-like vehicles. They looked like elongated golf carts, which were connected to each other like cars on a train. It was slowly filling up with staff members. With a rumble its engine sputtered to life, and the driver looked at them through his windshield, waiting.

They hurried forwards, Sander's pack bouncing on his back as they reached the first car and piled in. Sanders saw Noah Cox sitting in the seat in front of him, and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and smiled.

"Hey man," he said. "You almost missed us."

"Yeah, well, the inspection team was holding us up," called Wu from behind through a mouthful of apple.

"Ah, them," said Cox, nodding, "I saw them earlier up by Fort Knox. They looked pretty disgusted at feeding time."

"Well at least they're competent," said Sanders, as a Jeep Wrangler came careening around the corner further up the road. It roared up to them, and through the windshield Sanders could see Harding, waving to them, with a blond woman sitting in the passenger seat next to him. The Wrangler swerved to the side, and soared into the open garage which lay underneath the visitor centre. There was the sound of a dying engine in the sudden silence as everybody stared. A moment later Jerry emerged again with the woman, and he led her to the bottom of the steps of the visitor centre.

There was a crackle as the loudspeakers lining the roof above the doors activated, and Arnold's voice boomed out, crackly and muffled by the cigarette in his mouth. "Ladies and gentlemen, last shuttle to the dock leaves in approximately five minutes. Drop what you are doing and leave now."

"Dr. Sattler, it's been a pleasure," they heard Harding said as the last few staff members came trotting down the steps of the building, heading for the shuttle.

"If you follow the staircase up to the first floor and walk straight ahead, you'll find the control room," he said over his shoulder as he hurried towards the shuttle.

"Thanks," the blonde woman said brightly, heading up the stairs into the visitor centre. "Bye now," she called, waving to the shuttle. Sandler gave a brief wave, as did Harding as she disappeared inside.

The driver called to them from up front. "That everybody?" he shouted through a steel-gray moustache.

There was a brief pause, murmuring, and then a few mumbles of confirmation. "If we've forgotten anybody, better say it now," the driver said as he started the engine, and they began rattling over the tarmac of the road, heading towards the jungle, "because I'd hate to get caught in this storm."

The sound of the engine grew, and they picked up speed, leaving the visitor centre behind as they rounded a corner in the road. Sandler sat back in his seat, and looked towards the storm clouds building to the south-west, foreboding in the sky.