A NEW HOPE
2 – Memory Lane
After two days of close observation post the viraling out procedure, Pet was cleared for release. Walking was a bit of challenge and her body still weak. A nurse insisted she take a wheel chair down to the front lobby, but the hybrid was determined to make it on her own. Well, the best she could anyway. Grant and Muldoon were both at her side, providing support to the somewhat unstable woman. The walk felt torturously long and Pet was beginning to wonder if she should've taken a wheel chair just to speed things up.
Billy was smart and opted for the wheelchair, as the pain killers he was on impaired him. Derek was pushing him and following alongside his uncle and friends. He kept a cautious watch on the expensive suited billionaire striding next to Grant. Down the elevator and out, the group of six people went.
Double sliding glass doors leading outside the hospital hissed and rattled on their tracks, allowing Pet and those accompanying her to leave. The fresh air of Costa Rica was so much more inviting to deeply inhale versus the hospital's. Parked beneath the covered walkway was a black limo. Standing next to it was its chauffeur opening the back passenger door. Pet was naturally a bit hesitant to approach the vehicle.
Simon stepped past her and motioned for her and the others to join him. "Come. I have a private plane waiting at the airport that will take us back to the states." He could see the other five people unmoving from where they were.
Pet studied the man and gradually removed her grip from around Grant's arm. She approached Simon, one cautious booted step at a time. After a couple steps did Grant follow, joined by Derek, Billy and Muldoon. They all loaded into the limo vehicle, no one saying a thing.
Seated at the more frontwards, rear facing back seat was Simon. He knew those around him were still uncertain of him and was a bit bothered by this. It's not like he could really blame them after everything they had been through. His dark eyes found blue-green ones set firmly on him. Even though he had seen those same eyes before in the past, they now seemed so much different. Beneath her debating watch was a certain level of unspoken gratitude towards the wealthy man. It was enough to make Simon smile. Muldoon and Derek saw the same look on Pet's countenance, too.
Once arrived at the small airport, the people offloaded and proceeded to the awaiting Gulfstream G450. Once again, Simon motioned for the group to follow. "Please, please come and make yourselves comfortable. It's going to be a long flight. I promise I will make sure your trip is less stressful than your previous one." Towards the ending of his last statement, his attention bounced between Grant, Billy and finally to Pet. "Ladies first." He offered her a hand in assisting her up the first step.
She accepted and carefully ascended the lowered, front hatch's stairwell. A stewardess stood just inside the aircraft and at the top of the stairs to greet the newcomers. The interior of the aircraft looked very comfortable and inviting to lounge in. Already seated and waiting for the others was Jacobs, him in a forward-facing seat on the left side of the plane. Seated on the table in front of him was his laptop, his busy fingers pausing in their typing to give the hybrid a relieved smile.
Pet chose a set of seats over the plane's left wing and felt herself sink into the light tan leather upholstered cushion of the chair next to the window. Grant sat next to her and just as he anticipated, she snuggled up against him the best she could with her head on his shoulder. He didn't mind it so much and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. For a brief moment there on the island, he actually thought he might've lost her. To feel her safe against him was a tremendous relief. The last time he felt this was when on Isla Nublar and desperately searching for Ellie.
Billy limped to a light tan couch towards the back and right side of the aircraft and stretched out. Maybe now he could finally relax and sleep off the residual drowsiness brought on by the pain killers.
Derek sat down in a rear facing seat at a table behind Pet and lounged back. He reached behind him for his pistol tucked into the back of his pants and placed it on top of the table. Muldoon gave Jacobs a spiteful stare down and sat down across from Pet and Grant.
Simon was the last to board the plane and chose a seat in the forward most, rear facing seat on the right of the plane. He gave a nod of his head and smiled to Grant and Pet, his attention resting on the hybrid when speaking. "Veronica..." The woman's head perked up when she heard her name called. "Tell me a little bit about yourself."
Pet was surprised by the request and awkwardly smiled. Derek leaned over the back of his seat to whisper into his friend's ear, "Watch what you say to this guy. I'm still not so sure about him." The two men intently watched the other. "No one does everything he's claimed to do out of the kindness of their heart. There's more to what's going on than what's being said."
Grant had to agree on what the younger man said. Simon heard what Derek said and lowered his gaze. "I'm not like the criminals and of the sorts you chase down. I assure you my intentions towards the lady and companions are well willed, as I stated before."
Derek turned around in his seat to lean over into the aisle to better face the aircraft's host. "I'm not convinced. See, you may not be just like the shit bags I chase down for a nice little pay day, but you're no different than anyone else. You might walk on water to some, but to me...you're just another man. Except with a lot more money."
Muldoon interrupted. "How about you shut your bloody mouth and turn around."
Simon huffed a laugh. "No, no. Please, let him speak. I like someone who voices what's on their mind."
A lovely Indian stewardess stepped into the central cabin of the aircraft and began explaining the takeoff procedures to the passengers. While doing so, Derek got up and went to the unoccupied, forward facing seat in front of Simon to resume his confrontational conversing. Pet sighed. This was going to be a long flight.
An hour into the flight, the second stewardess was handing out drinks of choice to the requesting passengers. Pet was picking at a small bag of trail mix she had been given, trying to ignore Billy lightly snoring in his sleeping on the couch.
Meanwhile, Derek hadn't moved from where had moved to, his pistol laying in front of him on the table. Jacobs was nodding off where he was sitting, his lap top still powered on and displaying several reports of a sort. Grant couldn't see exactly what they were about.
Simon spoke. "Ms. Hammond..." Pet was about to pop a raisin into her mouth only to stop upon hearing her last name. She looked up to the addressing man. "I asked earlier to hear more about you. That was, before getting interrupted." He and Derek looked to the other. "I would like to continue that conversation, if that is alright."
The hybrid timidly nodded and sat her snack aside. "What was it you were wanting to know?"
"Whatever it is you would like to share. Your childhood, past experiences while working at the park, what it's been like living in Montana...anything."
She slowly nodded. "Well, for starters my childhood was spent living at a zoo. It wasn't the best of experiences, but," Pet shrugged and smiled. "I miss those days, honestly."
"Did you have any exotic pets?"
"No. I had a dog, once, when I was seven. An Australian Sheep dog. Her name was Pebbles." Pet grimaced at the most prominent memory she had of the pet. "She lived to be two years old."
Simon was curious. "What happened to her?"
With a furrowed brow and heavy-eyed expression, Pet answered. "I killed her." Grant, who was taking a drink of his water started coughing.
Even Derek had to turn around to look at the woman bizarrely. "What?"
Muldoon shook his head. "Bloody mess, it was. Thankfully it was outside and not inside the trailer."
Pet continued. "I don't know what came over me, honestly. One minute I'm playing tug of war with her outside and then I blacked out. Next thing I know, Robert is pulling me away from the dog. Apparently, I disemboweled the poor thing."
Muldoon heaved a sigh. "Disemboweling is not what I would call that."
"That was when I realized what I was capable of and the unpredictability of it." Pet tried to force out a smile for the man's sake. No use. He was slightly mortified, if not disgusted.
Simon blinked. It took him a moment to recompose himself. "What about your growing up on a zoo? How was that?"
Pet shrugged. "Busy. If an animal got out of its enclosure during the night, Robert and I would be woken up to go hunt it down."
The hybrid continued to tell of tales of her growing up in Kenya and what it was like living on an island amongst dinosaurs. Many times, she would forget who it was she was talking to and would return to keeping her stories limited to fewer details. Grant intently listened on. He had already heard some stories of her from various sources living with her at the dig site, but never heard many of them for himself.
After another hour passed by, the cabin of the aircraft was dimmed and several of the window shades pulled down. Grant had moved to one of the seats in the back to stretch out, leaving Pet to use the seat next to her to stretch out.
Simon looked around at the many passengers, asleep. Jacobs was awake and back working, him zoned out in whatever it was he was doing. The wealthy man reached under his seat's table for his lap top and set it up. The bright light of the computer's screen lit up his corner of the aircraft and after signing in, decided to look back over a few of the video files on Hammond's disk. He inserted it into one of the disk drive and accessed the folder. Just as it had always done, the password encryption code was needed.
Pet watched the man, sitting back in his seat, and wearing a saddened type of scowl on his face. Something wasn't right about him. His eyes were glazing over. Should she bother asking? A deep sigh came from the man, the hybrid more curious than ever. She slowly got to her bare feet and went to the unoccupied seat located across the table from the wealthy man. Their eyes met from over the lap top's screen.
She timidly smiled and whispered, "Everything alright?"
The billionaire smiled back. She had every right to know. After all, everything on the disk pertained to her. Simon answered. "Before your father's passing, he gave me a disk. On it were unredacted copies of files as well as audio and video memoirs. Some of them dated back to before you were even successfully created." He turned the lap top around for the hybrid to see and sat back, watching her eyes dart across the screen's many listed files. "Help yourself to whatever you want. I have nothing to hide from you."
Sounds of a child laughing woke Muldoon from a much needed snooze. He cracked a grey eye open to see a lap top screen's glow illuminate the otherwise dim aircraft cabin. He knew that sound and all too well, for that matter. Though the occurrence of it seemed distant in the past, the memory was still so fresh in his mind. A glance over his shoulder directed him to see the source of the laughter.
Sure enough, a lap top was displaying what appeared to be surveillance footage. Closer look revealed to be of Hammond's zoo and of the back loading dock where larger animals were brought to the veterinary clinic. There, playing on the loading dock was a four year old Pet, waving a bubble wand around. Standing nearby was himself, though much younger, and looking impatient. He remembered that day and he was impatient. One of the game warden teams was late bringing in a sick hippopotamus for medical evaluation. While waiting, he was letting Pet play with her bubbles. Not even two minutes later, the trailer carrying the sedated hippo pulled up and Pet was told to go sit in the Jeep and wait. The footage was stopped.
From where she sat, watching the video files, Pet laughed to herself. She spoke to the man seated across from her. "I remember that. After I got back in the car, I spilt my bubbles all over the back floor board. I tried my best to clean up the mess so Robert wouldn't know. I didn't want to get in trouble."
Simon quietly laughed, Muldoon speaking up. "I later found out." He sat upright in his seat angled how he was sitting to watch the hybrid. "Jophrey left the ragtop off the Jeep, one day. Go figure, it ended up raining. Briefly, though, but it was still enough. The whole back seat floorboard was nothing but bubbles."
Pet giggled. "You never said anything. I didn't think you knew." She closed out of the video's window to continue browsing through the other files. "ABC. What's this about?" She clicked on it to play it.
Because of the camera's angle in comparison to where she and Muldoon were in the veterinarian labs, she could barely see anything. But she could still hear plenty. She watched the video intently, bringing a hand to her mouth when recalling the memory.
Derek was now starting to wake up and rubbed his eyes. He looked over at Billy, still asleep on the couch and snoring. Damn, he must've been on some good pain killers! Had he even gotten up at all? Woken up if even in the very least? He could hear the childlike chiming of the ABCs and got up to investigate.
Derek leaned over Pet's shoulder and watched the video footage through squinting eyes. He laughed to himself. "Hey, it's Pet! And back when she was still cute, too!" Pet tossed him a playful hit on the arm and continued to watch the video. "How did you get this? Isn't this from Hammond's zoo?"
The woman nodded. "Yeah. Hammond must've gotten copies of some of the surveillance files and saved them. It's a part of some stuff on a disk. There's a lot of files, too. Journal entries, medical files...video files...There's all sorts of vids on this from the zoo."
"How did you get this?"
Pet gave a nod of her head to the billionaire. "Mr. Masrani had it. Apparently, Hammond gave it to him before he passed away."
The addressed man spoke up. "Simon, please."
Derek nestled down in the seat beside Pet. "Any more vids of you on here? Maybe something of you embarrassing yourself or acting like an idiot?"
Pet's girlish voice broke their moment of aggression. "Awww, look!" She pointed at a spot on the footage where Hammond could be seen, standing and listening.
Her eyes started to water up and she brought another hand to her mouth. Sadness flooded the woman and spilled out through the levees of her eye lids. What followed next completely tore her down as both he and Muldoon could be heard discussing his desire to know about her next appointments and how he wanted to stay informed on everything. She couldn't stand to watch anymore, but couldn't look away.
She looked to Muldoon joining his nephew to watch the footage. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Muldoon shrugged. "I guess it's just best some things not be known in their present time."
Pet sniffed back another wave of sadness and closed out of the window when the video was over. She debated on opening the next one. "What's going on," came Grant's voice from behind the forming group of people.
Derek answered. "Memory lane."
Grant joined the group and leaned over a seat behind the hybrid's to watch the next video. After four videos, the woman skipped ahead to a further saved date. She opened it. She was back in the examination labs and staring off where she suspected the TV was. Again, because of the camera's angle in conjunction to where she was sitting, not much could be seen of it.
Pet turned up the audio on the lap top and leaned it to listen to it. She started giggling again. "I remember this!" She looked to Muldoon. "I was watching that Paleo Science show."
Grant opened his mouth to say something, then closed it to hang his head and burry his face in his hand. "I had forgotten all about that."
Derek nudged the woman in the side. "If only you knew then what you know now, huh?" He nudged her again. "Huh, huh?"
The woman slapped his hand away, her blushing cheeks shining in the computer's light. "Go away," she giggled.
Jacobs could be seen striding into the lab, his white coat flowing behind him. Derek snickered. "Hey, who's that dweeb?" He gave a side shoulder smirk to the man stopped working on his own laptop to scowl at the mouthy little shit.
A few more videos later, tears were shed and laughs had. Retelling of stories from the memories of the videos were both said by Pet and Muldoon, a sting of sadness hitting them when remembering their good friend Jophrey.
Pet was allowed to borrow Simon's lap top as she took it back to where she was sitting to watch more videos. Everyone was awake, now, and huddled around the hybrid to learn of the disk's contents.
I really need to work on these revisions before midnight... too many times am I crawling out of bed the next day at seven AM barely alive and functioning...
