JURASSIC PARK

13 - In Search For the Others

Closer and closer Muldoon crept to the spying raptor until roughly twenty feet away. By now, he knew it had realized it was spotted as it disappeared out of sight. If it weren't for the swaying of plant life in its wake, he'd have lost it.

"Like hell you do." Muldoon scoffed to himself and continued after it. "I've spent too much time around you little shits..." He slowly exhaled and just as slowly, inhaled. He could feel the palms of his hands start to sweat and hear his pulse in his ears. No matter how hard he tried to deny it, he was afraid. "Even if it means a bullet to your eye, I'll see each of you die before letting you get away." He crouched down, waiting for the foliage to stop moving before proceeding any further. "Damn it, Pet. Where are you when I need you?"

Pet had never been so relieved to be at the visitor's center as she was now. Grant called out, "Hello?" He hoped someone was still around and that by chance they hadn't left or worse, become prey to a hungry dinosaur. Everything was quiet. A little too quiet. "Where would everyone be, right now?"

Pet glanced around the lobby and to the stairs. "Control room, perhaps? It'd make sense..." She was about to go up the stairs but stopped when Grant took the kids to the dining hall.

He trudged over a table and gently sat Tim down on top of it. "Okay. I'm gonna have to find the others. Get you to a doctor." He visually examined the roughed up and bloodied boy, frowning. "Lex, you look after Tim?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

Grant took one last look at the little boy and felt heartbroken. Not wanting to show it, he forced a smile and patted Tim on the head. "Your hair is all sticking up. Big Tim, the human piece of toast." Tim could see the man's mouth moving, but couldn't hear any words. All he could hear was a violent ringing in his ears. A ringing that echoed his entire body in tingles and the occasional twitch. "I'll be back soon."

He and Pet turned and left the way they had come, back out into the lobby. "We should split up and search the compound grounds...I'll go check outside."

The scientist didn't like the thought of roaming around an unsecured island with dinosaurs on it without the hybrid nearby, given her ability to effectively fight them, but knew it was probably best. At least if they split up, more ground could be covered. He nodded. "Alright."

The man turned to leave but was stopped by the hybrid. "Alan..." She bit at her lips, nervous about addressing the man by his first name.

He heard this and paused to face the young woman, curious yet thrown off. "Yeah, what?"

Knowing she would probably never get another chance like this, she continued. "I may never see you again after this, and in light of everything, I want to say thank you." She cupped his cheek with her clawed hand and drew him in for a kiss.

Grant was surprised by this and wasn't sure how to react. After several moments of forcing himself to endure the rather awkward contact, Grant felt the hybrid back away. He stared her in bewilderment. Did that just happen?

Pet could feel her face heat up with fluster and timidly looked away. "Yeah, so... okay..."

Grant tried to push the event from his mind but found it difficult. "Split up..." The hybrid nodded and jotted down the hallway, the man calling out, "Be careful, Nica."

She stopped in her tracks, appalled and met his warm gaze, smiling. "You, too, Alan." With a final smile to the other, they parted and went their different directions.

He went out the front door as she went out the back, via the employee's only backdoor. She glanced around and sniffed the air, hoping to at least pick up a scent that would lead her to the others. She frowned, finding nothing and sprinted off in the direction of the emergency shelter, hoping she would find someone there. The hybrid could see it through the trees and undergrowth, but paused when she heard it; gunfire and it was extremely close. She wasn't the only one who heard it for Ellie, collapsed and crying on the ground, jumped to her feet in being startled.

Pet's eyes widened in horror, fearing the worst for whoever it was behind the gun and tore off into a run in the direction she heard the shot fired. The shrills of a raptor and the painful screams from who she could identify as Muldoon filled her ears, causing the hybrid to become enraged. Not far off the dirt path were the two, the man pinned beneath the raptor clawing at him. Pet leaped onto a nearby fallen tree limb and lunged off it, onto the attacking raptor. Both tumbled to the ground and rolled over the other in a tangle of claws. The creature screeched out in pain as Pet dug her sickle claws into its tough flesh and bit at its neck. Frantically, the raptor scrambled to its feet and ran back into the undergrowth.

Nearby, Pet saw the gun and picked it up, aiming it at the raptor she could see in the bushes and fired. She wasn't sure if she hit it or not but heard a sharp screeching bark as it disappeared within the overgrowth. The hybrid waited a few seconds to see if they would come back and after seeing they weren't, tossed the gun aside to focus on the injured man solely. She could see his left shoulder and right hip bloodied as well as scratches running down his face, Pet further angered. Her mind went blank with panic, momentarily forgetting her emergency first aid training, and whimpered.

"It's okay, Robert, I'm right here..." Pet tried to calm herself down and recollect her thoughts, knowing she needed to do something to help the man. She muttered to herself, "C'mon, Pet, keep it together." She needed to get first aid supplies but knew leaving him unattended wasn't a good idea. Trying to steady her hands, Pet covered the bite with her hands the best she could in hopes of stopping the bleeding. Tears ran from her eyes, the hybrid extremely fearful of losing her friend.

Trotting down the trail was Ellie, her hearing the painful moans and crying and decided to investigate. She gasped when she saw the two and rushed to join them, willing to provide whatever aide she could. "What happened?"

Pet choked out, "Raptors," and readjusted her hands to apply pressure to the man's mauled shoulder better. "I need you to go to the Jeep parked behind the visitor's center and get the first aid kit and jug of water out of the left metal, supply can." Ellie nodded and scampered away, momentarily forgetting about the raptors or getting back to the emergency bunker. Pet wiped her face on her arm and continued to the barely conscious man. "C'mon Robert. Stay with me, stay with me!"

Time seemed to slow to an almost creep in the meantime until Ellie returned with the requested items. "Is he going to be alright?"

Pet sniffed back her sobs and nodded frantically. "I think so. I just need to stop this bleeding, first. Open the water and everything in the kit...bandages, gauze, tape, I don't care." The hybrid ripped open the man's shirt to better access the injury and reached for the gallon jug of water.

Muldoon groaned, "Don't fucking touch me."

"Oh, shut up and quit your bitching." The hybrid kept her attention on her task while telling Ellie, "Get some morphine ready. There's a small bottle of it and a syringe in the grey snap case in the kit." Pet peeled off the jug's cap and poured water onto a bundle of gauze in her hand, gently pressing it onto the wound.

Muldoon cried behind clenched as he grabbed at her arm to pull it away from him. "Son of a bitch!"

The hybrid jerked her arm out of the man's much weaker grasp and in annoyance, pinned his arm down with a clawed foot. "Don't fight me, Robert, I'm trying to help you."

She continued to wash off the wound, Ellie asking, "Please tell me you've seen Alan and the kids."

Pet nodded her head. "Yeah, the kids are inside the visitor center, resting. Grant was inside as well, looking for everyone else."

Ellie got to her feet, worry etched on her face. "I'm going to go find him." She ran back down the trail and to the visitor's center, calling out, "Alan?" The woman ran around the outside of the building and froze when she heard the faint voice of someone calling out as well. Crawling up and topping a slight incline, Ellie saw her closest friend. "Run," she muttered to herself and not hesitating any further, ran to the man and collided with him in an embrace of relief.

Grant tightly held the woman against him, afraid he'd lose her should he let her go. "Thank God, you're alive." He met her gaze and caressed her tear streaked face. "Where are the others?"

"John and Ian are in the emergency bunker." She panted and wrapped her arms around his neck. "The kids?"

"Safe inside the main building."

Satisfied the bite wound wasn't going to get any cleaner, Pet took a clean padded bandage and placed it over a portion of the bite. The morphine seemed to have set in, for the most part, as the man was now more relaxed and not too hard to handle. She still took caution in how she treated him so as not to cause further discomfort and finished covering the bite.

Pet then took a roll of surgical tape and secured the bandages in place, followed by tying gauze wrapping over the entire packing. She looked to his face and frowned as she started to wash off the slashes. Once cleaned off, she was slightly relieved to see they weren't as bad as she previously thought.

His lazy gaze watched her, and he reached up, caressing her cheek and hoarsely whispering, "You should have let her finish me off."

Pet took his hand in hers, and she shook her head. "Only I get that privilege."

"Brat," he choked out.

The hybrid huffed a laugh in relief. "Now the hard part. I need to get you back to the visitor center." Muldoon grimaced and cried out, again, when allowing the girl to help him to his feet.