Author's Note
Posting two days in a row. You guys are gonna get spoiled. Or not, cause this is the only time it's happening.
Even though I already finished NaNoWriMo. :3
I just reached the 50,000 work count a few minutes ago and verified myself as a winner. It was so much fun and the first time I've been able to accomplish it. I'm so excited right now, you have no idea. But just because I finished it a few days early, that doesn't mean I'm going to speed up my posting. I'm a day ahead because of yesterday but you're still going to have to wait for the usual posting days for the rest of them. But it's not like there's that's much more to go. We're down to the wire and we'll be finished with this story on December 3rd.
Move Along fans, I'm going to start writing the next chapter now, but you're still going to have to hold your horses. I'm going to try to get it done before December 3rd but you're still going to have to wait to get it until after this story is over either way. Don't worry, you won't have too much longer to wait and then hopefully I'll be able to get back to regular postings again.
Like I said yesterday, this is a pretty intense chapter. I hope you're ready.
Go onward and enjoy.
Run
Liv leans against the side of the jeep, one eye watching Zach work in fascination as pieces of machinery shift back into their proper places and repair themselves seemingly on their own. Her other "eye" watches the Indominus's aura. It's closer than her liking, possibly moving their way though not traveling in a straight line directly towards them. She tries not to think about it, instead focusing on their progress. They'll get out of here before the Indominus catches up to them.
They have to.
By the time Zach is done repairing the engine, Owen and Gray return, the car battery in Gray's skinny arms. Zach takes it from him and has the car roaring to life in a matter of seconds.
Another roar answers it. She jumps, terror spiking, but then she realizes everyone else is still grinning. She was the only one who heard it. Closing her eyes, she concentrates. What she sees scares her even more.
"Get in the car!" she says urgently, pushing Owen towards the driver's door.
"Liv, what's going on?" he asks.
"She's coming!" She grabs Gray and pushes him into the back, getting in after him and then dragging Zach in after her. "The Indominus, she looked at me again and now she's coming this way. We have minutes!"
They scramble a lot faster after that, Owen launching himself behind the wheel and Claire getting in the passenger's seat. They tear out the open door of the garage, bumping along rough terrain and weaving between trees at dangerous speeds.
But it's not enough. She can feel the rhythmic thump, thump, thumping deep in her bones.
There's another roar and she knows she's not the only one to hear it this time. Owen still concentrates on driving but the rest of them look back. They're drawn to, because they know death is so close. And the Indominus definitely looks like a physical representation of death, with her white skin, jagged teeth, and slitted eyes focused solely on them.
On her.
"Owen, go faster!" she screams, the Indominus only a handful of meters behind them and steadily gaining.
"I can't go any faster!" he yells back. "If I do, we could flip!"
They're never going to make it. Not like this. They need to get the Indominus off their tails, but how? How do they stop a huge dinosaur from chasing them?
By making sure she can't follow.
Liv stands up and turns to face the Indominus, holding onto the bar running over top the jeep with one hand to keep balance.
"Are you crazy?" Zach yells, him and Gray grabbing onto her legs to help keep her steady. Or try to pull her down, she can't tell. "What are you doing?"
"Anything I can," she replies, readying her aura around her. She then reaches out with her other hand, her aura shooting out in the same direction, towards the plants they pass. The plants begin to grow at her bidding, growing feet in a split second, bushes, trees, ferns, grass, all of it merging together to where it's practically one large, living thing, like a thick vine. She directs the plants at the Indominus when she gets close enough, urging the plants to wrap around the dinosaur's legs, tripping her like tangled shoelaces. It works for a second, the Indominus starting to go down, but then she breaks through the plants and rights herself, continuing to chase after them. They gained a bit more distance between them but not enough.
Thinking fast, Liv turns around, looking in front of them. Reaching out in that direction, she connects herself to all the trees she can, ones already standing tall and those that are still seeds on the ground, unlikely ever to take root. She forces them to take root now, growing them in the distance they have yet to pass to the right and left until there are a line of thick trees standing side by side, growing on top of each other, forming a wall with a small gap in the middle just big enough for their jeep to pass through. As soon as they clear the gap she spins back around and closes it before the Indominus can reach it.
She roars, loud and angry, and starts throwing herself at the wooden wall. However, if these trees had grown naturally, they would be far older than the Indominus, Liv, Owen, any of them. Their roots go deep into the ground, their trunks are hearty, and their branches weave together to form one massive canopy, supporting each other. It's only a matter of time before the Indominus realizes she can go around, though, so Liv tries the same trick as before, entangling the Indominus's limbs with plants, anything to just slow her down, if only a little.
"It's working," Claire says, relief clear in her voice. "We're losing her."
"It won't last," Liv warns them. "We need to get back to the main park as soon as possible."
A large roaring sound, mechanical, not animal, resonates in the air. It takes a moment for Liv to realize it's the familiar sound of helicopter rotors. Who is out in the helicopter? Surely no one is coming to the island at a time like this? The Indominus hears it as well and stops struggling to get through Liv's barrier, instead breaking free of the plants wrapped around her and darting off to the side to go after the sound that must be so strange and new to her.
Owen and Claire share a look, and then Owen jerks the wheel to the side, fishtailing them to drive after the Indominus. Liv sits back down in her seat, keeping a close eye on the Indominus and making sure she doesn't decide to go after them again.
Claire unclips Owen's radio from his belt, fiddles with the channels, and then says into it. "Lowery, we found her! South of Gyrosphere Valley between the old park and the Aviary."
"Wait, are you following the dinosaur?" Lowery's voice comes through, a bit static-y but clear.
"Yes. Get ACU out here. Real guns this time."
"ACU is airborne. They took the helicopter."
So that's who it is. It's a good thing the Indominus went after the copter then. Hopefully they'll be able to just duke it out, so to speak, and the Indominus will be dead soon.
She's never wanted a dinosaur to actually die before.
"Who's flying it?" Claire asks into the radio, but what comes back is static.
Owen stops the car abruptly at the top of a hill overlooking the Aviary. They can see the flashes of light of a large gun going off in the helicopter and hear the loud banging of the repetitive fire as the ACU shoots at the Indominus below them. Clouds of dirt burst from the ground close on the Indominus's heels but it doesn't look like any of the bullets hit the mark. The Indominus is running just ahead of the fire.
"Who is flying that thing?" Owen asks aloud. "Cause their flying is a little all over the place. There's no way they'll hit her like that."
Liv takes a quick peek at the auras in the copter. "I can see two ACU members I recognize. They hang out with Vic sometimes. And…." Her eyes widen in recognition. "That's Simon Masrani flying the plane."
"Mr. Masrani?" Claire parrots. "But he doesn't even have his pilot's license yet."
It certainly shows. With the jerky maneuvering of the copter, the gunner never gets close to the Indominus. And then it's too late. The dinosaur reaches the Aviary, barging right through the glass wall of the domed structure and allowing dozens of the Pterosaurs to escape through the hole, flying up into the air without restraint and uncaring of the metal machine right in their way. The helicopter changes targets, shooting at the Pterosaurs, but there are too many of them and they're flying way too close to the helicopter. One of the Pterosaurs knocks into the side of the helicopter, causing it to rock, and they see a small form fall.
Liv is the only one who can see the aura quickly plunge to the earth and disappear in a blink.
Another Pterosaur crashes into the front of the copter and seems to get stuck. Based on how another human aura goes out, the dinosaur's beak must have pierced the glass. The helicopter starts spinning out of control after that, smoking and continuing to get hit by Pterosaur after Pterosaur, until the aircraft smashes into the top of the dome and crashes down to the ground in a fiery explosion.
The last aura, belonging to Masrani, goes out.
"They're dead," Liv says, unable to speak above a whisper. "They're all dead."
Claire looks at her with haunted eyes, visibly shaken for the third time that day. But they don't have time to mourn. The Pterosaurs are swarming, escaping from the holes made from both the Indominus and the helicopter, and flying directly towards them. The Indominus has wandered off again, back into the jungle, but thankfully, for now, not focused on them. Owen shifts the car into gear and they're zipping off towards the park, finding a path that's relatively smooth allowing them to stay well ahead of the flying dinosaurs.
The Pterosaurs, though not technically following them, are still headed in the same direction. Towards the park. They're completely free and flying in the open air for the very first time. They want to test their new boundaries, discover what is in this new habitat, and hunt down new morsels to eat.
The thing is, the only things back in the park for them to eat are the tourists.
Claire calls ahead on the radio but it's still not enough time. There are tens of thousands of visitors. There's no way they can all get indoors in time.
By the time they reach the park gate, letting them in somewhere near Main Street, the Pterosaurs are right on top of them.
They get through the gates, and then just minutes later there's screaming.
Owen brings the car to a jerky halt and they all get out. ACU members are rushing all around them, passing out tranquilizer guns. Owen takes one and they join the hustle towards Main Street. Claire looks back at Liv, Zach, and Gray a little uncertainly, but even if they are walking into a bloodbath, sure to be dangerous, there's no way they're splitting up now. They are sticking together until all of this is over, and it's not like they can't just not help. Even if they do just want to seek shelter, the closest shelter is on Main Street.
Main Street is absolute chaos. People are running around everywhere, trying to get indoors, trying to get somewhere, anywhere, safe. Pterosaurs are flying around like a scene from The Birds, swooping down to attack people, the larger ones even picking people up and carrying them into the air.
Auras are blinking out left and right, their fear screaming into Liv's core.
Owen and the ACU form a group in the middle of the chaos, shooting up into the air with their tranquilizer guns, taking down as many of the dinosaurs as they can, but for every Pterosaur they take down five more take its place.
Liv looks around, wanting to do something to help, but not knowing what. She could try using her plants, hiding her mutant abilities the last thing on her mind right now, but there is only concrete here.
At least, on the surface.
She kneels down next to a crack in the concrete, and in that crack are weeds growing. Trying to move as fast as she can without fumbling, she pulls her packet of seeds out of her pocket and tears it open, pouring some of the seeds into the crack. Getting back to her feet she holds her hands down, palm out, and pushes the plants to grow, searching out all the nutrients they can find, and even then, she uses her aura to make them grow. The concrete buckles and cracks, plants growing up all around them, and Liv turns to the sky.
Locking onto the dinosaurs' auras, she launches her plants at them, dragging them back down to earth flapping and squawking, then wrapping them up in vines tight enough to make sure they stay restrained but not enough to hurt. They're nowhere near as strong as the Indominus so this time there is no breaking free and getting away. She finds a rhythm, her movements fluid and never ceasing, taking down as many as she can as Owen and the ACU continue to fire.
Behind her there's a yell of alarm and her rhythm falters.
Spinning she sees Zach, Gray, and Claire looking up in the sky in horror at a large Pterosaur carrying someone upside down by their feet and it only takes her a second to recognize who it is.
Zara.
Flinging out my hand, Liv send several thick vines shooting at the Pterosaur, wrapping it up tightly including its wings but my plants keep it supported in the air so that the dinosaur, plus Zara, don't go plummeting to the ground. Then she lowers them slowly, gently, until they are both lying on the concrete. Claire and the boys go to help Zara out of the Pterosaur's claws, but as soon as Gray kneels down to yank at one of the feet a small Pterosaur lands on his back, it's claws digging into the back of his shirt while its beak pecks and pulls at his hair. Gray yells, trying to swat the Pterosaur away, while Clair and Zach each grab one of the flapping wings, struggling to hold onto the squirming dinosaur. They try to pull it off of Gray but it has a firm grip on his clothes and hair. He cries out in pain.
Moving quickly, Liv sends more plants to wind around the Pterosaur but doesn't pull it off of Gray. She wraps the dinosaur in her plants round and round, like a spider spinning web around its prey. The wings, legs, body, and beak are restrained, keeping it from moving or biting. Claire and Zach are then able to extract the dinosaur from Gray, allowing Liv to pull it away to join all the others.
Gray touches the back of his head, rattled, and looks at his fingers, checking for blood. Thankfully, there isn't any. Zach runs his hand along Gray's back as well. There are tears in the fabric but that's all. "You're okay, you're okay," Zach reassures, gripping his brother's shoulder, and Gray nods stiffly, face a little pale.
"We can't stay here!" Claire yells over the screaming and screeching, pulling her nephews closer to her. "We'll only get eaten if we do!"
Zara must have felt the same thing because she's already gone, managing to pull herself free from the Pterosaur and running to seek shelter along with everyone else while they were busy helping Gray. But they can't just leave them all. Liv can't just leave them all. People, so many people, are still running around, trying to get away but finding nowhere to go, Pterosaurs nipping at their heads. Liv can't just leave them all to fend for themselves, even though she's being pulled in so many directions there's no way she can save them all.
And then there's another cry and she whirls to see Owen go down, his gun sliding across the concrete and a Pterosaur right on top of him. She freezes, terrified, because for one second all she can think is, Don't take him from me. Please, don't take him from me.
Owen pushes against the dinosaur, holding it back, but before it can do any damage Claire appears at his side, hitting the Pterosaur in the head with the butt of Owen's gun. It goes flying off of him and before it can recover Claire puts a few tranquilizer darts in its side. She tosses the gun aside, breathing heavy, as Owen gets to his feet. He looks part shocked and awed as he stares at Claire. Then, without saying a word, he pulls Claire towards him and kisses her.
Liv grins, relieved that Owen is apparently perfectly fine and that Claire isn't trying to hit him. She actually kisses him back.
Go Owen.
Liv moves to go towards them but as soon as she takes a step pain spikes in her head. Inhaling sharply through her teeth, she raises a hand to her forehead. The pain doesn't go away though, it's just insistently beating in her skull behind her eyes. A wave of dizziness washes over her. The edges of her vision go dark.
"Liv?" Zach asks, concerned, but his voice sounds so far away and muffled, like he's speaking into a pillow. She opens her mouth to say something but nothing comes out. Instead, she pitches forward.
The world goes dark before she hits the ground.
Hearing comes back first. There are voices all around her. Familiar voices. But she can't place them.
"What's wrong with her?"
"Yelling isn't going to help her. Just calm down."
"Calm down? How can I calm down? She just collapsed for no reason!"
There's two of them. She should know them; she knows she should. They sound worried, but why? She wants wake up to find out what's going on but waking up is kind of hard right now. She feels so heavy, all over. Her eyelids won't budge, her toes won't budge. It feels like even her hair is weighed down. It starts to scare her. Why is it so hard to wake up? And when did she go to sleep?
"Not for no reason. She used her abilities far more in one day than she ever has before. She probably just exhausted herself."
That…might make a little sense? She definitely feels exhausted. So they're talking about her?
"But when is she going to wake up? Is she going to be okay?"
They're worried about her. Worried that she won't wake up. But who would be worried for her?
Owen.
Owen is here. Barry, too. She struggles against the darkness, wanting to see them, but it's constricting, cloying, unwilling to let her go. But she fights. She fights and she fights until suddenly there's a crack of light and her eyes open. She blinks a few times, trying to get the blurs to coalesce into actual shapes, and she realizes that she's laying down in the back of an SUV, her head pillowed in Owen's lap. It's not the same one they were in before. When did they get a car again?
Owen bends over her, his worried face filling her vision. "Hey, kiddo. How you feeling?"
"I've definitely been better." Some of the pieces start to slip back into place. They were taking down Pterosaurs. She saved Zara. Gray got attacked. Owen got attacked. There was pain. And then nothing. "At least it doesn't feel like my head's going to explode anymore."
"So you don't hurt anywhere? Anywhere at all?"
"No, I'm fine, I think. Kind of tired but that's about it." With Owen's help, she sits up, looking to Barry who's in the passenger seat. "Any ideas why I passed out?"
"It is similar to something my grandfather once told me," Barry says. "He said that in the early years of learning to control his abilities he would sometimes randomly get headaches and then collapse."
"Did he ever find out why?" she asks, worried that something major may have happened to her.
"Yes, he said it would happen when he pushed himself too hard too fast." He gives her a reassuring smile. "You worked your inner self very hard today, Liv. It could not keep up and forced you to rest."
She relaxes a little. "So I'm fine?"
"Look at your aura and see for yourself. You said you can sense injuries."
She nods and turns her eyes inward, looking over her own aura carefully. There isn't a scratch on her, though there rarely ever is for very long, but still, no obvious injuries. As far as she can tell, it's as Barry says. She's just tired. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Owen sighs in relief, wrapping an arm around her to pull her into his side and places a kiss on her forehead. "Good. And don't you ever scare me like that again."
"I'll try not to." Her eyes wander towards the windows, seeing that they're back at the raptor paddock. It's darker than it was the last time she was awake, indicating they have only about an hour of daylight left. "So, what happened while I was out?"
Barry grimaces. "There's a bit of a situation involving Vic."
She groans. "Oh, jeez, what did he do?"
"He wants to use the Velociraptors," Owen says, anger simmering low in his voice, "to go after the Indominus."
"What? What does he want them to do, hunt her?"
"Basically, yeah. He wants them to track the Indominus, lead us to her, and then help us take her out."
"But that's insane! The raptors are so much smaller than the Indominus, and they're not exactly good little soldiers who will easily follow orders."
Owen's eyes go dark in a way that makes Liv shiver. "He wants them to be. He's been planning this all along. Not this scenario, exactly, but finding some way to field test them."
Liv's stomach drops. "Field test them? So this is what he's been planning all this time? He wants to use the raptors…."
"In war," he finishes for her.
"You're going to stop him, right?" she asks desperately. "You can't let him do this. They won't survive in a war, let alone against the Indominus."
"I'm going to keep them from going to war. InGen will have to go through me and I promise you they won't succeed. But right now…I can't keep Vic from sending them after the Indominus. He's doing this, with or without me, and I can't stop him. The only thing I can do is help him. If I'm overseeing the operation, then it's their best chance of getting through this alive."
She swallows thickly, not liking this at all, but looking around she sees all the guys with guns. They're not part of the ACU, they're explicitly InGen security, meaning they're all under Vic's orders. She can see how he really doesn't have a choice in this. The raptors are going to face the Indominus, whether they like it or not.
And they're going to need all the help they can get.
"I'm going with then," she says, voice hard and ready for a fight.
A fight is what she gets. Owen's jaw tightens and he turns in his seat to face her more fully. "No, you're not. You're going to stay here with Claire and her nephews. I don't want you anywhere near the Indominus."
The only possible way she has of winning this is to make him see the logic behind it, so she goes through her points one by one. "I'm the best shot we have. We don't know if the raptors are going to properly go after the Indominus. Hide-and-seek is there most successful training exercise but they've never done it outside their paddock before. I can find the Indominus no problem. Plus, once we find the Indominus, there's no guarantee the raptors are going to attack her. I'm guessing you're going to go after her with lethal weapons this time but I can at least provide you with some cover. But, if we are going to get the raptors to do anything, it would be a good thing for me to go. They listen to you more than anyone, but I can talk to them directly through the pack bond and make sure they actually listen. And lastly…." She hesitates over it, because even though it's her most logical point, it's definitely going to lose some points in convincing Owen to let her go. "If I go, then the Indominus will be more focused on me than the raptors or any of you. It'll help keep all of you safe."
Owen speaks slowly, voice low, "You want us to use you…as bait?"
She cringes. "It's not really bait." He gives her a pointed look and she amends, "Okay, maybe it is like bait, but come on, Owen, it's a good point! The Indominus won't run from us but come to us, because she'll be after me. And if she's after me, she'll be less likely to attack anyone else. It'll keep the raptors safe and it'll keep you safe."
"And what about you, huh?" he snaps. "How will it keep you safe?"
"I'll stay in the back behind the other security guys. The Indominus will have to get through everyone else in order to even get near me." She quirks a smile at him, challenging. "You won't let her get past you, right?"
Owen ignores the jab. "You're asking me to use you as bait against a monster you literally have nightmares about after you just woke up from using your powers so much you passed out."
"I won't be passing out again. I know my limits now. As for the other thing," she takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, "I can't run from the Indominus forever. Ever since she got out, I knew she'd find me eventually. It's better to do it on our own terms than hers. Am I terrified? Yes, absolutely, but I'm not going to let that stop me from doing all that I can to help make sure she doesn't hurt anyone else ever again, including me." She takes his hand and squeezes. "Let me do this, Owen. Please."
He stares at her for a long time, deliberation in his eyes, but since he doesn't outright shoot her down she figures she at least has a chance. He looks to Barry and some sort of conversation happens with only looks, frowns, and eyebrow raising before he sighs tiredly. "Alright. You can come. But we do this my way, understood?"
She grins. "Crystal."
With Owen planning the heck out of this, what could possibly go wrong?
Author's Note
We got some major mutant action in this chapter and Liv made a big decision to use her abilities in public, something that'll come up again in future chapters.
Next chapter will be Sunday. The raptors are coming back, yay! But you know what that means. It's time for the hunt.
Hope you enjoyed, PLEASE REVIEW, and see you all next time!