Chapter Five

Lowery stood on the rampart atop Gate 5, staring off into the tree line. The ground shook, but only with the distant sound of giant footsteps. Claire joined him, keeping her distance on the other side of the gate. They listened to the sound of the ATVs growing closer. Sporadic radio talk broke the tension of waiting, a plan formulating between Charles and Owen. It almost startled Claire to hear the man working so well with someone that dragged them into the asinine plan.

The sight of the ATVs broke the tree line, heading up the dirt road. Just behind them, the T-Rex followed. Lowery never saw the beast in person outside of containment, and the awe he once felt viewing her behind the glass left him worried and questioning his own sanity in this situation. He heard Claire yell at the men on the other side of the gate, down below, to open it.

"That thing isn't going to fit through it," he stated. His mind flashed a self-directed movie of the T-Rex continuing full speed toward them, crashing through the gate. He saw the figures of himself and Claire flying through the air and crashing down hard against the resort pavement below.

Claire looked to him before moving along the rampart, heading in the direction opposite of Lowery. The man watched her, muttering a small, "what?" before heading off in the opposite direction. He tried to move far enough that he could see the scene unfolding while also remaining safe. The two ATVs whizzed through the gate, the T-Rex not far behind. As Lowery predicted, the dinosaur crashed into the wall. It didn't fling debris quite like he pictured, but it did crumble and create a mess.

The cry of one of the inside men could be heard as the debris came crashing down on him. Lowery cringed, glancing out at the tree line. From what he caught on the radio, Owen wanted to catch the attention of the T-Rex to get her into the resort, where they would subdue her and put her back into her Paddock – which, after a brief inspection, had been cleared for stable – and then wait for Tara to come looking for the dinosaur.

Charles sounded unenthusiastic about the last part over the radio, having no real concerns for the woman. As he put it, the park was more important, the part that brought the money. Anything with genetics could be recreated later. Typical corporate America, as far as he was concerned, worrying more about the money and product than the actual people behind it or involved in it.

Lowery looked behind him, the roar of the T-Rex shattering his thoughts. He lost sight of Claire, who made her way down and toward the skirmish between man and beast. Many of the members of the ACU forgot about the dinosaurs tail, getting slammed into the walls. The T-Rex stumbled, the tranquilizers beginning to swim through her blood, before she grabbed one of the men. From his spot on the rampart, he could only see the T-Rex over the tops of the broken buildings. To get down to a better spot, he would have to make his way over to the next gate and down. By then, he predicted things to be over.

The T-Rex fell only moments later with a weak roar. A man got trapped under her body, one of his legs crushed by the sheer weight. In the distance, somewhere in the tree line, another Rex-like roar could be heard. It went unnoticed by most, as the men tried to figure out how to move the T-Rex to her paddock.

Owen noticed the sound outside the gates. His attention moved to the road they just came down before looking to Claire. The woman gave him a small nod, signaling that she heard it as well. "How do you think she's going to react?" Barry asked. The other man glanced to his friend and then to the gate. He remembered the woman before her transformation, as well as after. She struggled to keep her humanity intact, and he was certain she would never lose it, but he wondered how buried it would be.

They'd been gone from the island for months, nearly a year, and she had been forced to survive, without human interaction. "Not sure," he answered. "She won't give in easily though." He remembered the look she gave him, and the way she so easily chose not to come with him. Then again, he had promised her that she wouldn't get left behind, and that promise was broken. They left her.

Claire sighed next to him and shook her head. "She's too stubborn to just come along," she stated. She crossed her arms over her chest and studied the dinosaur in the middle of the resort. Tara was always the tough one. She never saw the woman hesitate to walk into a carnivore area when they were sedated. Even in the times she cut it close to them waking up, she never gave in to fear. "Did Lowery mention something about a movie with her though?" Owen nodded, chewing his lower lip some, before he looked to the woman. "Maybe he can talk her into something."

Barry laughed a little and shook his head. "That man?"

"He did offer to stay behind the last time to make sure everything was taken care of."

"He also walked out of the control room to keep watch from the gate," Claire pointed out.

"We just need him to be in the same place Tara is," Owen stated. Barry shook his head, almost laughing again. Sometimes, he wondered how he managed to keep up with the two. They were both crazy in his book.

"I'll leave you two to that plan."

((Author's note: So, I don't normally do these, as you probably know by now, but to the people who follow my works, I wanted to apologize for the long space between posts. It's been a rough month. Things are finally calming down though so hopefully I can get back to my usual pace. Thanks for your patience.))