Ch 12:
It didn't take long for the jungle to get dark. Granted, Sierra didn't know how late it was. Even if she had all her equipment she'd brought, she no longer had her burner phone, and didn't wear a watch like her brother. And honestly, it felt like forever ago that she'd woken up for the day, planning on saving her niece.
If the rough terrain wasn't already difficult to travel, the darkness made it worse. Sierra lost count how many times she stumbled over a tree root or rock. Her jaw hurt from how much she had to keep clenching it to keep in pained yelps. Her wounds in her arm and shoulder ached, and with every stumble or jostling, jolts of pain would shoot through both. Her shoulder wound especially, as the dried blood caused her wound to stick to her clothes and tug with movement. But she didn't have the time or materials to properly tend to the injuries. She'd looked at both long enough to determine they were relatively minor. She would fix them up when she made it to the observation tower.
Sierra stumbled for probably the hundredth time, barely catching herself on a nearby tree trunk. Echo paused next to her like she'd done several times as they traveled. It was like having a guard dog and guide dog all in one, the raptor staying next to Sierra while keeping an intent focus on their surroundings.
Pausing next to the trunk for a moment, Sierra briefly wondered if she should try to get some higher ground to make sure she was still going in the right direction. Before that thought could go much farther, however, lights popped up through the trees. She couldn't make out what it was through the trees, but since it was straight ahead and seemed to just come on, Sierra assumed it was the observation tower.
Echo also noticed the sudden lights, as she stood at attention at Sierra's side. Sierra reached out to gently pat the raptor on the shoulder before taking a step forward. Like she had been since they started the trek, Echo stayed at Sierra's side.
Until she didn't.
One moment, Echo was walking next to Sierra. Then, they heard an eerie chirping in the undergrowth, and suddenly Echo disappeared.
"Echo!" Sierra hissed, on edge at suddenly being alone. She pulled her knife from her boot and continued forward. She felt like her every step was obnoxiously loud in the twigs and bushes. The only other sounds she could hear was the continued chirping coming from every direction, as well as some motorized creaking sound from up ahead.
Finally, Sierra neared the edge of a clearing, getting a clear view of the observation tower from between some shrubs. And she finally got a look at what was making the chirping sounds.
Claire was backed up against the base of the tower, sliding down to sit on the ground with nowhere to go. Because of the Dilophosaurus currently in her face.
A stone dropped in Sierra's stomach at the sight. She opened her mouth to yell, something to get the creature's attention, but a dark blur acted before she could.
Just as the Dilophosaurus's frill started to expand, Echo shot out of the bushes with a screech. She crashed into the other dinosaur, clamping her jaws down on it's neck just in front of the frills. Sierra hurried forward, knife clenched in her hand on the slight chance Echo decided to go after Claire next.
Both women watched, frozen, as Echo's powerful jaws clamped down on the Dilophosaurus's neck. With a sickening crunch, there was silence. Echo lifted her head, bloody lips parted in a vicious snarl aimed at the bushes and shrubs around them. Several panicked chirps sounded from every direction before the rest of the pack made their escape.
Sierra sighed in relief, her shoulders dropping. "Good job, Echo." she breathed, causing the raptor to look at her, lips falling back over her bloody teeth. "Good girl." she repeated, patting the raptor on the shoulder with the hand not holding her knife.
Finally, Sierra turned to Claire just as the redhead seemed to come out of her shock. She lurched to her feet while Sierra took a huge step forward, both woman latching on in a tight hug.
"Oh my god." Claire whispered shakily. "I thought-you-I-"
"Yeah, I know." Sierra repeated, briefly tightening her grip before muttering, "Ow."
Claire pulled away and looked her over worriedly. In the minimal light of the tower, she could likely see the blood stains on Sierra's shoulder and sleeve. "What-"
Before Claire could ask the question, they were interrupted by a familiar bark-like call. Both women turned to look at Echo, who was standing a few feet away, head raised and stare fixed intently into the bushes. Sierra took a step toward the raptor, following Echo's stare into the bushes.
"That call." Claire whispered, stepping up next to Sierra. "Isn't that-"
"Yeah. Echo's calling someone." Sierra whispered.
A moment later, the bushes shook before someone stepped into the clearing, followed by two more someones.
Sierra released a breath in relief, her shoulders falling while Claire ran past her.
"Owen!" she cried, being met halfway while Owen ran to meet her. Sierra took a hurried step, before hesitating at the way her brother and Claire were holding each other. They were being all romantic and couple-y, and she didn't want to get in the middle of that.
Then, her eyes moved past the couple and found Zach. Without thought, only feeling the immense relief at seeing him alive, Sierra raced past her brother and toward Zach. He seemed to do the same before they stopped and hesitated a couple feet away from each other.
"Um,-I-" Zach stuttered, before his eyes looked her over in search of injuries. When he of course found the blood stains, he quickly closed the distance with one step, his hands coming up to gently touch her arm and opposite shoulder.
"I'm fine." Sierra assured him before he could ask anything. "I mean, I will be when we get into the tower and I can treat it." She then let her eyes scan his body for signs of injuries on him. "What about you? I saw-the smoke-" she stuttered.
Zach pulled her into a hug, holding her tightly but seeming to be careful of her injuries. "I'm fine. The plane crashed into a frozen lake, but we got out. The rest is a long story."
"Same here." Sierra huffed a slight laugh, her arms wrapping around him to return the hug. "I think we all have long stories to share when we have time to breathe."
"When this is all over, and we get Maisie back, maybe we'll have to have a bonfire and swap stories." Zach suggested.
"Sounds perfect." Sierra whispered, thinking about sharing s'mores with Maisie.
"Sierra." Owen's voice pulled Sierra's attention away from the brief moment of calm. Sierra and her brother basically swapped, Claire frantically latching onto Zach to check him over while Owen pulled Sierra into his chest. Sierra closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let most of the remaining tension leave her shoulders.
"I'm okay." she muttered for what felt like the hundredth time in the last five minutes, answering before her brother could even ask.
"You're bleeding." Owen countered, pulling away and focusing on her shoulder.
"It's mostly stopped." she told him, looking him over and really only finding the injury on his hand from when Blue got him.
"I thought I recognized that call." Owen commented, looking over Sierra's shoulder. Looking back, Sierra realized the raptor was watching them, her head tilted slightly. Sierra smiled.
"She saved my life earlier. And she stuck by me while we made our way here. And then she saved Claire from a Dilophosaurus."
Owen held out his hand to the raptor, using the uninjured one this time. Echo stepped forward and sniffed his hand before pushing her nose into his palm, letting him pet her snout.
"Friend of yours?" Kayla guessed, warily watching them with her taser in her hand.
"Long story, but I raised four raptors from eggs. This is Echo." Owen explained with a slight grin.
"Echo." Kayla repeated dubiously. "So, is there a Bravo, Charlie, Delta out there, too?"
Sierra laughed slightly. "Well, Blue, Charlie, and Delta, but yeah."
Kayla nodded slightly with a small grin. "Well, I'm going to head up there and try to get in." she decided, heading for the ladder that lead up to the observation tower.
"So, what happened to you?" Owen asked, pulling away from Echo and looking his sister over.
"Eh, long story. Basically, Echo saved me from a Deinonychus. But it got in a few good shots before she showed up."
Owen nodded, not looking thrilled, but not making a big deal out of it, either. Turning to Echo, he gave a familiar hand signal, and the raptor raced off, likely to do a lap to keep an eye on the surrounding area.
Sierra looked up in time to see Kayla already walking away from the still-closed door of the tower.
"It's locked." she called down to them. "We're gonna need something heavy, something sharp, or both."
Most of Kayla's statement went in one ear and out the other. Sierra and everyone on the ground were turned and staring up at the sky in confusion and growing worry.
It looked like a flaming swarm of something. It moved too quickly and fluidly to be a cloud, moving almost like one unit. And parts of it were glowing, as if it were burning or on fire as it flew over the treetops.
"What the…" Sierra muttered just as some of the things started dropping from the swarm. One dropped not too far from them near the edge of the clearing. Curiosity getting the better of her, Sierra cautiously approached the small burning object, ignoring the voices warning her against it.
Picking up a stick off the ground, Sierra crouched down next to the burning, writhing creature. She poked it with the stick, turning it over on the ground slightly. It looked like some kind of giant insect, about the size of a Chihuahua. It looked like a grasshopper or locust.
"It's a huge insect!" she called over her shoulder, slowly standing up as she realized more of them were dropping from the sky. "Like a locust or something."
"Sierra, get back!" Zach called just as Sierra heard loud crashing sounds. Looking up, she saw a jeep rolling down the hill toward her. A hand latched onto her arm and pulled just as she forced her legs to scrabbled backwards. They stopped several feet back just as the jeep rolled to a stop in the clearing on it's back.
"Should we-"
"We don't know who's in there." Kayla pointed out warily, having rejoined them on the ground. "Could be the same people who ordered the plane be taken down."
"If nothing else, we might outnumber them." Owen pointed out as they all cautiously approached the vehicle. "I can make out four, maybe five people. It'd be evenly matched."
The quiet, pained mumbling from inside the jeep suddenly changed to a single, young voice yelling for help. Sierra's heart clenched. She knew that voice.
Claire took a step forward, whispering to herself, "Is that…"
Then they were all running for the jeep. Being farther ahead than the others, Sierra rounded the jeep long before the others, seeing Maisie trying to climb out of the back window of the jeep. Crouching down, Sierra grabbed Maisie's arms and helped her the rest of the way out and pulling her to her feet. She instantly yanked the young girl into a hug, holding her niece close while the young girl sobbed into her shoulder.
Within seconds, both girls were surrounded by two more bodies as Claire latched onto Maisie's back and Owen wrapped his arms around all three from behind Sierra.
Claire was repeating, "You're okay." over and over.
"I can't believe you came for me." Maisie cried as they separated. Claire turned her around, and Sierra stepped away to let them have a moment. Also partially because she realized Zach had helped someone else out of the back of the jeep.
"Gray!" she cried, hurrying around her family to where the two brothers were hugging. Gray grinned at her as she threw her arms around him. It felt weird since he'd grown practically a foot since she last saw him in person. "Are you okay? What happened?" she demanded, looking him over and spotting some scrapes and bumps, but nothing too bad.
"Aside from our jeep rolling down the hill?" Gray asked rhetorically, grinning between her and his brother. "That's a long story."
"There seem to be a lot of those today." Zach joked with a pointed look at Sierra.
"Gray?" Claire cried. Gray hurried over to his aunt, letting her hug him and look him over while Claire also wouldn't let Maisie leave her side. That was when Sierra noticed three other people stumbling around the side of the jeep. Two gray-haired men, both in button-down shirts, though one had the top buttons undone. And a blonde woman with her sleeves rolled up. Sierra was mildly wary, as she didn't know them and they were all in the jeep with Gray and Maisie. On one hand, they may have had them captive, on the other hand, they may have been helping the two. Squinting at the group, however, Sierra realized she recognized them. Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm.
But Maisie put that worry out of Sierra's head with one announcement. "They helped me escape."
"Are you okay?" Owen asked the three, as they all looked rather battered, though there were no obvious signs of injuries.
"I mean, their car just rolled down a hill." Sierra muttered, partially to herself. Owen jabbed his elbow back into her ribs. "Ow."
Claire stepped forward, going straight to Ellie and giving her a heartfelt thank you.
"We gotta go." Kayla pointed out, surveying the edge of the clearing. "We're gonna have to break a window to get inside that thing. Hope nobody's afraid of heights."
A thump interrupted their planning, causing everyone to tense and turn in the same direction. Another thump followed it. By the third one, Owen and Zach stepped to the front of the group with Alan, putting everyone else in the back.
"Don't move." Alan and Owen whispered at the same time just as a huge shape stepped into the clearing. At first Sierra couldn't tell what it was. Her first thought was T-Rex, but it was too spiky. Her second thought was the Spinosaurus because of the spine-looking shape on it's back.
The creature crunched down on a flaming locust that flew too close to it's mouth.
"What is that?" Ellie asked from the back of the group.
"Giganotosaurus." Alan answered, "Biggest carnivore the world has ever seen."
The dinosaur roared, causing the group to scramble back and around behind the jeep. They all crouched behind the car while the Giganotosaurus lowered it's head, it's eye narrowed as it looked for them, but it seemed like it's vision was like the T-Rex, based on movement.
The group moved in single-file, with Claire, Maisie, and Ellie at the front as they crept around the jeep. Sierra crouched down from where she was between Ellie and Kayla, watching the dinosaur's movements through the jeep windows. Next to her, Kayla reached into the vehicle to grab a crowbar.
As the Giganotosaurus made it's way around the jeep, everyone hurried around to the other side. There was a clear path to the observation tower, so the group made a run for it.
Kayla pulled into the lead and was up the ladder before anyone else even reached it, crowbar still in hand. Then Owen and Claire sent Maisie up second, with Kayla urging her on from the top.
Unfortunately, their movement drew the Giganotosaurus' attention, and it stomped toward them at the tower. It focused on the movement on the ladder right as Maisie reached the middle of the ladder, where a round cage protected the ladder.
The Giganotosaurus clamped it's jaws down on the cage right where Maisie had frozen, screaming.
Claire was panicking, while Sierra and Owen were yelling at Maisie to climb.
The cage bars were bending in under the pressure of those jaws, but Maisie was frozen.
Without anymore thought, Sierra bolted forward and scaled the ladder despite Owen and Zach yelling at her to stop. She could feel the hot breath surrounding her as she entered the bending cage.
"Maisie, I'm right behind you. Just climb!" she yelled as she climbed up to where Maisie was. She put herself right at Maisie's back, her arms on either side of her niece's arms. "Go!" she ordered, shoving up at Maisie's back until her niece unfroze. She climbed quickly up the ladder just as the groaning metal was finally ripped away. A jagged bar sliced into Sierra's arm, nearly knocking her off the ladder, but with gritted teeth, she held on and hurried up the ladder.
Kayla and Maisie helped her when she reached the top, and Sierra urged them to move and get to the door while she helped the others. Claire came up behind her followed by Gray. When Alan came up next, he told Sierra to go ahead of him, and she didn't bother arguing.
They hurried around the tower, once again in single file considering the narrow walkway. Unfortunately, they didn't get far before they froze in place. The Giganotosaurus lifted it's head up to their level, it's parted jaws mere feet from Claire and Maisie's faces.
A familiar screech made Sierra's head snap to the side just in time to see a comparatively small shape fly up onto the Giganotosaurus' shoulder. Echo didn't stay there long. She climbed up onto the bigger dinosaur's back and jumped off the other side. By the time the annoyed Giganotosaurus could turn, Echo disappeared into the bushes again.
But it also drew it's attention to Ian, who was still on the ground with a flaming locust on the end of a stick. He twirled it around back and forth, drawing the Giganotosaurus' attention.
Like a car wreck, no one could look away. Everyone stepped closer to the handrail, watching as Ian faced off against the Giganotosaurus. Sierra leaned to one side to see the man around the dinosaur. She noticed he changed his hold on the stick, holding it like one would a spear. She guessed what he was planning right as the Giganotosaurus roared and Ian threw the stick into it's throat.
Ian made a run for the ladder, while the dinosaur roared and tried to cough the stick from it's throat, temporarily looking like a dragon when flames shot from it's mouth.
Everyone took the chance to run for the door. Kayla wedged the crowbar into the doorway, and her, Maisie, and Claire all pulled or pushed at the bar until the door was pried open. They instantly bolted inside. Claire stayed just inside the door, waving everyone in. Sierra followed Gray inside before turning and waiting for the others.
"Run!" Claire exclaimed just before Ian ran past her followed by Alan. Zach reached the door just as there was a loud sound of crunching metal followed by a scream. Zach turned back to see that Owen was barely hanging on with Ellie while the Giganotosaurus latched onto the metal walkway.
Zach ran back and grabbed Owen's arm, helping pull both of them to safety. Then, all three turned and leapt across the growing chasm and into the building. Ellie ran straight into Alan's arms, Zach slid to a stop by crashing into a desk, and Owen practically fell to his knees just inside.
There was a couple seconds of everyone just breathing. Then they all saw the Giganotosaurus' head slowly come into view behind Owen right as he looked at Maisie.
"See? Not so bad."
"Owen!" Sierra screamed right as glass exploded everywhere, a giant, spiky head suddenly inside the building with them as Owen scooted just out of the way. Everyone scrambled to their feet and tried to run further into the building, only for Claire to go down hard.
Sierra spun around to see that ropes had tangled around Claire's ankles, and she was being dragged back by the Giganotosaurus. There was nothing for her to grab onto on the smooth floor.
Owen and Zach raced forward, both instinctively grabbing onto the redhead. Zach held Claire in place while Owen tried to get the ropes off her ankles.
Another screech came from outside as Echo once more flew out of the shadows and onto the Giganotosaurus' back. She bit and sliced into the touch skin, just enough to once more distract the bigger carnivore before disappearing again. But that brief distraction gave them the moment they needed.
Three things happened at once, as if they planned it. Owen pulled out his knife and sliced the rope holding Claire, Maisie grabbed the taser from Kayla's pocket and slid it across the floor right into Claire's hand, and Sierra pulled out her baton.
Owen proceeded to repeatedly stab the dinosaur in the face, while Sierra swung her baton into it's right eye, and it's face, and even it's teeth, while Claire zapped it in the left eye.
The dinosaur roared in pain while everyone frantically scooted backwards. Zach yanked Sierra back while Alan came forward and helped pull Claire back. The Giganotosaurus roared once more in pain before shaking it's head and wandering away.
They sat there for a long moment, huddled together and catching their breath and reveling in the fact that they were all alive.
For now.
AN: Whew! Hope everyone liked how this chapter went. Sorry it's a little late, I had something last Saturday and completely forgot to post a chapter.
Please review and let me know what you think and what you might like to see.