THE LOST WORLD
5 - High Hide
As if things couldn't get any worse, it was raining, now. Pet mumbled from where she sat in the back seat of the Mercedes SUV. "Why does it always rain when the shit hits the fan?"
Nick threw the SUV into park as Sarah got out of the front seat. Both people were going for the back seat before the front doors had even completely closed. The man carefully took the baby Rex from the hybrid and scampered to the trailer. Sarah opened the door, and the three people rushed inside, startling Ian and Kelly inside. Ian's eyes became as wide as dinner plates when watching the baby Rex be brought inside.
Where they out of their minds?! "No, no, honey, no!" Ian looked to the hybrid dripping with rain and glowered. "You put her up to this, didn't you? You should know better!" He momentarily ignored the other two people and got up to point a finger at the hybrid. "Do you take pleasure in watching people die?" He then pointed a finger in the direction of the people laying the dinosaur on a table. "Do you have any idea what that thing doing here could mean for us?" The wailing of the baby Rex was more than what he could take. He turned to watch the two people. "What must I do, hit her with a stick?"
Kelly was genuinely curious and eager to see the dinosaur and pushed past Ian to get a look. "I wanna see!"
The man grabbed her. "Watch out!"
Sarah held a bloody hand up to the girl to keep her at a distance. "Don't stand too close!"
The little girl couldn't take her eyes away from the sight as the dinosaur squirmed about and bellowed in agony. "Other animals are going to hear this."
Pet snorted and took the girl by the arm to guide her away from the Rex. "If they haven't already. Tyrannosaurs have excellent hearing, and I'm sure, by now, that little one's parents are already aware their baby is missing."
Kelly broke loose from the hybrid's grasp to wrap her arms around her father. "Dad, I've got to get out of here. I want to leave!" She tugged at the sleeve of his shirt and pleaded. "I don't want to be here. I want to be somewhere safe!"
Every time Ian tried to get a word in, the little girl would interrupt him. Having no choice, he put a hand over her mouth to briefly silence her. "Alright, alright, alright! Okay..." Ian took in a deep breath to calm his nerves. "Someplace high..." His dark eyes settled on Pet looking to him just as he looked to her. "You, come with me."
"What the-" Pet's words were cut off by the man when he dragged her outside.
Ian demanded, "Get in the car," and opened the back door. He shoved the hybrid into the backseat and slammed the door behind her. Just hours ago, he was terrified of her and now he was rough handling her without a second thought. Kelly was standing in the trailer's door, tears of panic streaming from her eyes. "You too, get in the car." The little girl did as told and quickly made a beeline for the front seat. Ian poked his head into the trailer. "Honey, I'm taking Kelly to the High Hide!" The woman gave him no acknowledgment as she and Nick continued to work. He waved the two people off and left the clearing.
Within minutes, the three pulled up to the other camouflage painted Mercedes parked in front of a large, net covered cage. Inside it was a confused Eddie. "What is it? What's going on? Information, please!"
Ian rushed Kelly to the gate of the cage, whereas Pet jumped over the railing to climb into it. "You're much happier not knowing," Ian answered. "Get us up."
Eddie did and wondered if this had anything to do with that unusual noise he heard from the other vehicle when it passed by. Their ascending to the treetops was slow and grueling. Finally, it came to a stop and rattled, swaying in its suspension.
Pet studied the contraption. "Cute. Whose idea was it to make this?"
Ian ignored the hybrid as his primary concern was to console Kelly. "Okay, we're high. This is the safest place you can be."
What? The hybrid studied the family beneath an arched brow and brought her attention to Eddie next to her. The man shook his head and shrugged. Kelly scoffed. "You're just trying to make me feel better. I remember all those stories you told."
"Oh, no, no, no this is nothing like that."
Pet huffed a laugh. "It's exactly like that! We're on an island with unrestrained dinosaurs and look!" She motioned around her. "It's even raining, too! Just like-"
"I will personally throw you out of this tree cage if you don't shut up..." There was an edge to Ian's stare Pet was tempted to test further. She smirked and cocked a brow. Ian felt Kelly tremble against him and refocused his attention on her. "Don't listen to her. We're in a completely different situation now."
Familiar roaring from a Tyrannosaur in the distance shook the nerves of those present. Pet started chuckling. "Oh yeah, Dr. Malcolm...this is a completely different situation, now isn't it?"
"Eddie," Ian turned down the light in the kerosene lamp, "is there any way we can communicate with the trailer?"
The hybrid took a stance before him. "Screw that. Let me go back to the trailer. I know the way and will be there in a jiffy."
Eddie dared not look away from the bleak darkness he had heard the roar stem from and handed the other man the phone. Ring after ring, there was no answer. "Damn it, Sarah, answer the phone..." he grumbled under his breath. "No answer. What a surprise." He slammed down the phone. "How do I get down?"
Pet grabbed at his arm. "You're not seriously thinking of going back, are you? Let me go, instead! I can get there faster than you!"
"No," he barked back and spun around to face her. "I need you here." Ian peeled her clawed hand from around his bicep. "For Kelly. Please. I trust her with you." The words seized the woman's breath in her chest. "You kept Hammond's grandkids safe on the first island." He cupped her face in his rain-drenched hands and stared deeply into her eyes. "I beg you, Veronica. If not for me, then for Kelly."
Pet's head began to swim in a mix of emotions, and she nodded. "Okay."
Eddie handed Ian a thick belt used for climbing, stating, "Tie this belt around you."
Kelly panicked. "Where are you going?!" The man fervently strapped the belt around him and tried his damnedest to ignore the little girl's begging. "Stay here, come on, please!" A rope was shoved into his hand as he barely heard Eddie explain to him to squeeze it in between Kelly's pleas. "Stay here, please!"
Pet watched as the man took a knee to be eye level with the girl. "Honey, the queen? The goddess?"
"Your inspiration," she huffed out.
"Now you're talking. All right." Ian climbed over the railing and paused before descending to look to Kelly. "I'm coming right back. I give you my word."
The little girl yelled back, "But you never keep your word!"
"You just have to trust me this time," Ian soothed. "Just stay close to Veronica and nothing will happen to you." He nodded to the hybrid who gave a subtle nod in understanding. In the blink of an eye, the man had let go of the cage's railing and vanished within the forest canopy beneath.
Everyone rushed to the edge to peer over it and listened to branches breaking under his weight. A distinct sound of Ian crashing to the forest floor let everyone know he had landed. The hybrid called down, "Watch that first step. It's a doozie!"
Eddie glared at the hybrid and shook his head.
Roland stared down at a patch of smeared mud where the infant Rex had been. The post it had been secured to was pulled up and the rope that had been tied around its neck cut. All around the site were footprints belonging to two different sets of feet. One was with shoes and another, animalistic like. He took a knee and squared his analytical gawk on the second set of footprints. He'd seen footprints very similar if not exactly like once before. But surely these weren't from the same source. There was no way. These had to be from one of the escaped animals. He traced the second set back to the ruined camp and the other into the forest in the direction of a flooded over creek.
Roland stood up and looked to Ajay next to him. "Find Dr. Burke." As much as he wanted to believe and have a hope of the tracks' true source, he wanted to make sure they were from an animal.
Moments later, Burke was brought to the requesting man. "You wanted to see me," he questioned. He appeared a bit frazzled following the rampage through the camp.
Roland pointed at the animal like tracks with the muzzle of his Nitro Express. "Can you tell me what it is that made these particular tracks?"
A light flashed in the man's eyes from jumpy to professional. He knelt down to study the waterlogged tracks in the mud. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say these were made by a Velociraptor."
Just as Roland thought. "But a Velociraptor wasn't a part of our little menagerie, was it?" Burke looked up, confused, and shook his head.
Ludlow stood nearby and inquired. "What are you getting at, Roland? That these Velociraptors or whatever are somewhere nearby?"
"What I'm meaning is..." Roland looked to Ludlow, "something has survived."
The CEO was momentarily thrown off by the comment. "What do you mean?"
"A girl, a hybrid. InGen created her some twenty-two maybe twenty-three years ago?" The hunter neared the executive as though a piece of prey to feast upon.
"How do you know that?" Ludlow studied the approaching man and began to feel hot under the collar.
"Sources, Mr. Ludlow, sources. I knew a man who took a caring to such a girl, once. Robert Muldoon was his name. He raised her and treated her as though his own." Realization grew in Ludlow's widening eyes. "Then you bastards came along and tried to kill her when her only fault was trying to be human."
Enraged, Ludlow spoke up to defend not only himself but the company as well. "That bitch was an abomination John Hammond sought to protect. Unstable, she was. A monster."
"That abomination is my goddaughter," the game hunter growled
Ludlow scoffed. "Just for your information, she was already dead when my hunting party went to search for her four years ago. I have no regrets in her fate," he spat.
Roland balled up a fist and reared it back, about to hit the man until Ajay stopped him. "No," he stated to his good friend. "What's done is done."
Dieter stumbled up to the group, the smell of alcohol overwhelming on his breath. "We need to find the others, whoever they are, that did this!" He motioned to the camp with a hand clutched around a flask.
Ludlow gladly accepted the change of topic and nodded in agreement. "Yes, we should. They couldn't have gotten far." He and Roland exchanged another hateful glare before the hunter broke away to follow the tracks leading into the forest.
Roland soon came across a series of tire tracks and sneered. Wherever the tracks lead, he knew the camp saboteurs were located. "I've got you now you sons of bitches. Pet, I can only hope if you are alive that you had nothing to do with this."
In the high hide, Pet laid out on her back on the cage floor, bored. For Eddie and Kelly, their hearts were racing in anticipation. Not far from where the high hide was, treetops swayed against the might of something neither two people cared to see personally. Anything able to make trees bend like that had to be something either massive in size or strong. Or both.
Eddie flexed his grip around the tranquilizer gun. "Uh, Veronica?"
Pet sighed. "Yeah, what?"
"You, uh, need to come look at this."
The hybrid rolled her eyes and stood up to see what the two people had noticed. She arched her brow. "Somehow I knew this was coming..."
A flock of birds burst from the trees they had been resting in and fearfully squawked in their flying away. Eddie nervously swallowed. Heavy footsteps became louder as they passed beneath the high hide. "What do you suppose that is?"
Pet looked to the man. "Do you really want to know?" The three people watched the unseen force pass beneath them and in the direction of the trailer. "I knew I should've been the one to go instead."
The swaying of treetops became distant, but it didn't ease the worries of the people. Eddie grabbed the phone and immediately tried to call the trailer. The unsuspecting people had to know what was coming their way.
No answer. Of course, they wouldn't answer. Eddie slammed the phone down. Pet snorted. "What? No! Keep trying them!"
Grumbling, the man did just that and was happy he did when hearing Ian's voice on the other side. "They're going back to the jungle."
"I know," Ian replied. "How's Kelly?"
"She's fine. She's right here." He handed the phone to the little girl.
The girl tried to regain composure over her swelling nerves and answered. "Hello?" When she heard her father's voice, she became overwhelmed with relief. She could feel her knees start to give beneath her and tears swell in her eyes.
"Kelly, are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm good," she huffed out. She intently listened to what her father had to say and nodded. "Yeah, I understand."
The girl handed the phone to Eddie who hung it up and looked to Pet. There was something in her eyes Eddie didn't like; uncertainty, a foretelling that animals seemed to have right before things were about to go wrong.
She wasn't the only who felt it.
Ian went rigid where he sat, radio mic in hand and breathlessly stated, "Hang on. This is going to be bad."
