Chapter One
"We have a deal for you three."
The man sitting at the head of the boardroom table sat proper, his hands clasped in front of him as his gaze shifted to the members at the table. The new head of InGen security, a Charles Adair, sat to the man's left. Next to him was Claire. Across from both of them were Barry and Owen, neither of them looking too happy with this meeting.
"Charles and I were thinking of reclaiming the park," he explained. The man straightened some, wiggling his shoulders as if shaking off something negative. Charles glanced over the two across from the table.
"We would like to reclaim it in the name of those lost. Vic Hoskins, the members of the ACU that gave their life trying to defend the park, and ultimately, Simon Masrani as well," he stated.
"Don't you guys learn anything?" Owen asked. He glared at the man at the head of the table before shifting his attention to Charles. "Those animals cannot be tamed, short of rounding them back into their containments and hoping none of them break out again or are smart enough to remove their tracking devices, there would be no reclaiming."
"I understand your viewpoint, Mister Grady," the man at the head of the table responded. He turned in his chair and crossed his legs, using a remote to bring up a screen on the wall behind him. "As we learned from the mistakes of the original park, we have also learned from our mistakes here." He flipped through a few slides, showing instructions for new policies. "We have been working closely with Doctor Wu as well as well as Charles here, and we have more precautions."
"Mister Masrani himself stated that it was an eventuality," Claire stated. "Eventually, one of them is going to break containment again and we'll be right back in the same boat."
"Actually, we've been working on that too," Charles stated. "We've been training harder to make sure that we can control them better this time, have better procedures for evacuation and emergencies." He paused and smiled some. "We're going to do this, one way or another, and we figured as important members of the team and someone who can communicate with some of them, you would be vital to this mission."
"So with or without us," Owen responded. Charles remained silent, simply smiling. Owen let out a sigh and looked to Barry, who promptly shook his head.
"Are you crazy?" he asked. "There is no question here." Owen looked across the table to Claire. He wasn't the only one that could almost communicate with the dinosaurs. There was once someone else.
"I'm going," he answered.
"What? Man… have you lost your mind?" Barry asked. The other man looked to him, ignoring the grins from Charles and the man at the head of the table.
"We left her, Barry. I promised her that we wouldn't," he stated.
"She was dead, Owen," Claire responded. "There's no way she survived that."
"We don't know that," he replied. None of them actually saw the incident. They'd been running for cover themselves, trying to get out of the way of the battling beasts. He only caught a partial sight of it from the corner of his eye; the large dinosaurs slamming into the wall in front of Tara, the wall crumbling down on top of her. They didn't go back to check on her, they didn't stop to see if she was alright. Claire said she got a better glimpse, and maybe she was right, but he wanted to know. "Even if she is dead, I want to bring her body back."
Claire let out a soft sigh. "If he's going, I'm going. But I want to take Lowery. He knows the controls better than anyone else we'll be able to get to come along."
"You two are mad," Barry responded. He shook her head some. "Merde." The man at the head of the table nodded to Claire.
"You can bring anyone you want," he responded. Owen looked to Barry. The man gave him a nod before shaking his head some.
"This is suicide…" he muttered.
"You have twenty four hours to prepare." The man at the head of the table stood up. "We leave first thing tomorrow." He smiled again. "I understand you wish to try and bring back your friend, but we first and foremost need to regain the camp." He nodded to Charles and tugged down his suit, heading out the door with the other man. The three in the room watched them leave before looking to each other again.
"You sure Lowery will come?" he asked. Claire nodded, pulling out her phone and standing up.
"I'll talk him into it," she responded before heading out the room as well. The man looked back to Barry, the other man practically glaring at him.
"If we come back alive, you owe me."
"The Indominus is dead, Lowery, stop cowering," Claire responded. The man looked from the window to the red head.
"There are still plenty of things on that island with sharp teeth," he retorted. He watched the cloud cover part, the island coming into view once more. Down below, the ships carrying the retrained ACU bounced over the waves, headed for the shore of the former park. He glanced forward, looking to the cabin where the pilots were and then back again. "Where are we landing again?"
"The control center," Claire answered. The man at the window looked back to her.
"And you're sure the generators will work?"
"Yes, Lowery. They were made for this, now stop worrying." Claire looked forward as the helicopter turned, taking to a large circle around the control center. Beneath them, the first helicopter with Barry and Owen made its landing, letting the two off with weapons ready before taking off again. The second helicopter landed, allowing Lowery and Claire to get off. Somewhere below their hill, the ACU, led by Charles, was making their way off the ships to head to the resort.
They all agreed that, if they could get the resort running, they could secure it from the monsters. Nothing they'd seen had been destroyed by the dinosaurs when they left, and they hoped it remained intact – and that when the Indominus made her way into the walls, she hadn't destroyed anything.
The four on the helicopter pad made their way into the building, Owen and Barry leading the way. Barry stopped in front of the door, hand on the handle. Owen readied his gun, giving the other man a nod. He threw open the door and they waited. Owen headed into the building, his eyes scanning over the hallway as he made his way to the control room. Empty. He looked to the opened doors that lead to the hallway leading to the lab.
Barry made his way to those doors and pushed them shut. Lowery moved further into the room, pushing a few buttons and waiting. The room seemed to grow a soft hum, the lights in the back of the room and across the tabletops coming to light. He smiled some. "Hey, hey, you were right," he stated, turning to face Claire. Everything on the island was equipped for an outage, or a for a storm to come through and possibly shut things down. The backup generators were suited to last for a month, and the original generators were to store their power for two months. He just didn't trust that things would go their way, especially not with the dinosaurs owning the island now.
"Do the cameras work?" Claire asked. The man went about his work on the computer screens, loading up the cameras that flickered on one-by-one. A few of them remained dark, but most of the ones for the resort loaded up.
"Enough of them do," Owen stated. He scanned over the different screens, noticing none of the ones from the storefronts worked. He couldn't say he was surprised. His attention shifted to Barry. "First thing I want to do," he stated, heading toward the door. The man gave him a small nod.
"You're not leaving me," Claire responded. Owen held up a hand.
"We'll be right back," he stated. Without allowing her another word, he slipped out of the room with his friend at his side and headed down the hallway. The men were ready, with their weapons, as they headed down the hall, scanning over the area. Owen remembered the last day on the island, Hoskins's death. He glanced into the lab, making sure his gun remained at the ready. His attention scanned over the open first aide kit – he couldn't remember if that had been there or not. Maybe he was just trying to cling to hope.
He turned forward again, heading into the visitor's center. Several of the windows were broken, evidence of something having been there, but nothing seemed to jump out at the moment. They continued on, heading to the door and outside. Their path led them down the stairs where they stopped, looking down the destroyed storefront and the Stegosaurus that lumbered down the street.
"Keep your eyes out," Owen stated. He knew he didn't have to remind the man, but saying it made him feel slightly better about the situation. They continued walking, Owen taking a slight lead, before stopping across the way from the Pandora shop.
"This where she went down?" Barry asked. He scanned over the rubble and then at their surroundings, just waiting for something to make its presence known. Owen knelt down near the pieces of the wall.
"Coulda sworn it was right here," he stated. He didn't see any body, or any signs that anything got to a body. He looked up at his friend. "She may be alive."