First and foremost, my deepest thoughts and prayers to all of those out there this terrible pandemic known as Covid-19 has affected. Everyday I check the news, the more upsetting it is. Please stay safe everyone.

Secondly, it's been too long since I've worked on this story. Just as I started to get closer to writing the parts I've been indescribably eager to write I fizzled out. Pardon any typos and boos boos I might've missed proof reading this chapter prior to posting. Fighting a bit of a respiratory infection. Not C-19, thank God.


A NEW HOPE

16 – And Then That Happened

Blue-green eyes stared exhaustedly at a laptop's glowing screen while a clawed finger mindlessly tapped the arrow down key. Head propped in hand, Pet was struggling to fight off sleepiness brought on by boredom. In front of her were two energy drink cans; one empty and the other half full. Beside those was a partially eaten blueberry pop tart laying atop its silver wrapper. Eleven PM was creeping up and Pet had felt every minute of the hours passing since earlier that day.

The job application staring back at Pet was further scrolled down. Aside from the fifteen years' experience as a Kentucky wildlife game warden, there wasn't anything spectacular that stood out as the applicant being a must-have employee. Regardless, it still beat out three-quarters of the other applications she had read. She marked the job resume as a possible consideration and closed out of it. It was just one of the many others that had been reviewed during the day. Roughly half of those she didn't even fully read, as there was absolutely nothing worth of interest.

She tossed a sideways glance at Muldoon much the same as her; bored. "How's it going on your side?" she inquired. A hmph was all she got in reply.

Seated behind Grant's office desk and spinning around in his chair was Derek. In his hands was a post-it notes pad he was thumbing through at the same time. Situated on the desk next to Grant's computer monitor was Derek's laptop. "You two have been at this all day, and all I've gotten are four names to run background checks on."

Pet rubbed her tired eyes with a clawed hand. "How are those checks going, by the way?"

The post-it notes pad was tossed onto the desk. Derek stretched out in the chair and propped his feet up on the desk corner. "I finished the last of those about an hour and a half ago and shot the applications to Mas-Moolah's email."

A wince of dread from the hybrid was enough to distract Muldoon. He observed her curiously as she questioned Derek. "Please tell me you were professional in your email and not your usual dipshit self?"

Derek laughed out loud. "Are you kidding me? I can be professional when I need to be."


Dark brown eyes stared unblinking at his computer screen, displaying his email's inbox. It pleased Simon to see some progress being made with the applications and background checks and within the first day too. How the email was presented, however, was displeasing. It was official; Derek was barred from sending him emails ever again. While he was used to the little snot's antics, nine-thirty in the morning was too damn early to be dealing with it in a text format.


Pet lifted her head off the tabletop. She blinked at her computer's screen just in time to see a new application pop up. Her posture further slouched.

The office trailer's door unlocked, and the door itself opened to allow Grant inside. Seeing Derek in his brand-new three-hundred-dollar chair along with his feet propped up on his desk, infuriated him. His disapproving scowl relayed this.

The younger man at least took his feet down. "Heya, Doc. I'm surprised to see you up this late. Something ya need?"

Grant ignored the question but instead spoke to the two more responsible people in the trailer. "Excuse my interruption. I'm just trying to find some paperwork to fax to the museum first thing tomorrow morning." He began rummaging around in a series of shelves set up behind his desk. "How's the application process going?"

Pet groaned and shook her head. "I swear, the names just keep piling in. Twenty minutes ago, there were fifteen applications left to review. I read through eight of them. Now there's a total of twenty-three! That's not including the ones I just scrapped!"

Muldoon closed out of a veterinarian resume he had been reviewing, marking it as a no go. A seven-year veterinarian with mostly house cats and dogs as her experience was a mistake waiting to happen. "We talked about this, Pet. I get A through M, and you get N through Z. I assure you there will be far, far fewer names from V through Z compared to my thirteen letters to go through."

Derek snorted a laugh. "Maybe, but I'm willing to put money on all the Smiths out there applying will make up the difference."

Uncle turned around in his chair to stare down his nephew, finger aimed at the computer screen. "How about all the Bakers, Coopers, Jones, Millers, Halls, Hills, Kings…"

Derek cut in with, "Or the Turners, Washingtons, Richardsons…"

Pet whined. "You're not helping, Derek."

Derek was silent for a moment. "Walkers, Sanders…" The hybrid buried her hands in her hands and growled to herself. "If you think this is bad on the first day, imagine what it's going to be like right before the cutoff date." Pet whimpered louder.


The number of applications pending review skyrocketed during the first week. One-hundred and sixty-two made up Pet's list, a surprising amount of those having the last name Smith. Derek wasn't lying. It made her want back the paltry twenty-three she complained about on the first day. Muldoon, however, was looking at two-hundred and eight names on his A through M list.

Two weeks after that, Pet had long given up on trying to stay ahead of the never-ending flow of incoming names. Even Derek was in over his head with background checks to run. He was right there with his uncle and the hybrid on staying up into the wee early morning hours trying to remain caught up on their work. In the two and a half weeks since first starting the endeavor, one-hundred and seventy-five names best suited and qualified for their respective positions had been submitted to Simon for review.

Despite the names steadily trickling in, it didn't stop the trio from attending their traditional poker nights. They needed it to clear their heads and give themselves a break. Those two and a half hours saying screw it all only came back to bite them in the butt the next morning. Muldoon and Pet would log into InGen's system to see an unwelcoming long list awaiting them.

By the weekend, their productivity had come to a standstill. Thick, low hanging cloud cover was wreaking havoc on the satellite internet service. There was no connecting to InGen's site to sift through the applications. A stable connection couldn't be had. After nearly an hour, Pet was nearing the point of going stir crazy. There was work that needed done, and sitting around doing nothing wasn't helping! If two and a half hours for poker night set them back nearly four hours, an entire day would be devastating.

Derek was convinced she was overreacting. As for him, he didn't mind the break from digging through perfect strangers' lives. It seemed his uncle wasn't the only person out there with an unfavorable record for alcohol abuse. Many of those cases he discussed thoroughly with Pet and his uncle before sending the names onward to Simon. With those names, he detailed both their work hard attitude and their equal play hard lifestyle. From there, it would be up to the billionaire to decide if they were worth being given a job opportunity or not.

Pet finally finished cleaning the kitchen a second time and dried her hands off on the clean dish rag beside Quarantine's sink. Cleaning the trailer was all she had to keep her busy. Having nothing else to do, she turned her attention outside the kitchen window. Raindrops pelted the ground as dark rain clouds stretched on for miles in all directions. According to the morning news' weather forecast, it was supposed to be like this going into later tomorrow evening, as well.

The dishrag was tossed aside, and Pet leaned against the sink edge. "Hey shit brick, get your shoes on. You're driving me into town."

Derek, who was stretched out comfortably on the couch, looked up from his crossword puzzle. "Um, why?"

"So, I can go to the library to at least try and get some work done. You can drop me off and come pick me up when they close for all I give a damn."

Derek dropped the crossword puzzle and pen down into his lap. "Would it really hurt just to take a day and relax? Spend some time with Alan. I know it's been a while since you two have had some good quality time together. You don't go out and help him with his excavating anymore, and I know he always enjoys you there beside him. There's nothing like sharing that awesome 'hey check this out' moment with that special someone that's right there to share the experience. Do you know how many of those moments the Doc has had that you haven't been there for?"

Pet sighed. "I guess you're going to tell me?"

"Eight…in the past three weeks since you started this application reviewing gig."

The hybrid had been so busy trying to tackle reading the job resumes and making sure applicants had a damn clue that she didn't realize what all she was missing outside the trailer. Her head dropped, and she rubbed her face. "You're right. You know what…yeah…" she raised her head and weakly smiled at Derek. "I'm going to take the rest of today and tomorrow and help him with the dig…be there for him like he's been there for me."

"Good." Derek smiled in triumph and picked his crossword puzzle and pen back up. "Glad we had this talk."

"Do you mind taking me to town anyway?"

Paper and pen dropped again. "Fucking seriously?"

"What?! I'd at least like to get a burger from Po's and maybe restock on my snack stash." Brown eyes didn't blink off deer in the highlight looking blue-green ones. "I drank my last Rip-er energy drink this morning." Lower lip was pouted out as Pet took on her sad puppy face.

"Fuck it, whatever. But you're buying me lunch!"

"Deal." Pet grabbed the Jeep's keys off the hook by the front door and tossed them at Derek. Her bare feet were in her boots, and she clopping her way outside before Derek was even off the couch. The hybrid bounded to the fossil tent to find Grant standing in front of the tent's foldout table.

He was analyzing something Pet couldn't quite see under a magnifying light. Billy was huddled on the ground and working on prying a metatarsal out of the hardened earth. The young paleontologist teased. "I thought you'd gone extinct, Nica. I haven't seen you in a few days."

Pet smirked at him. "Funny." She stood behind Grant on her tiptoes, which wasn't exactly easy or comfortable, to see what he was looking at from over his shoulder. "What is that?"

The scientist didn't look away from the short and skinny fossil in his hands. "It's just one of many broken bones from a raptor's left foot. I can't tell if the foot was bitten into or stepped on. Hopefully, I'll find out for sure once the rest of the foot is fully excavated and reassembled." The small object was rolled over and studied at a different angle. "Whatever happened, I'm almost certain an infection from this particular injury is what killed the animal."

She was experiencing it; that 'hey check this out' moment Derek talked about earlier. "How long do you think it'll take you to get the rest of the foot uncovered?"

Grant shrugged, shaking his head full of dust layered hair. "I can't say for certain. Six, seven hours? It depends on how difficult the ground is to work away from the remaining fossils."

Pet smiled to herself. "Maybe when I get back from going to town for a few things, I can help you with it?"

Grant paused in his work to meet the smiling hybrid gazing at him over his shoulder. He matched her gleeful smile. "I'll make sure to set your favorite tools out."

Pet bounced in joy. "Great! It shouldn't take Derek and me too long. Maybe an hour and a half tops. We're just going to get some burgers from Po's then swing by the store to grab a few snacks. Do you need anything while we're out?"

"No, no, I'm good." Grant returned to carefully analyzing everything he could about the fossil through the magnifying light. "Terrence and George went into town roughly two hours ago to do a big shopping run for food and supplies. They should be back soon."

"Okay." Pet gave him a peck on the cheek and left the tent. She sloshed to where the Jeep was parked behind Quarantine, Derek already behind the wheel and the engine going. The hybrid buckled into her seat and beamed, "I'm ready when you are."


The Jeep bounced and rocked with Derek hitting every mud puddle he saw in the dirt road leading to the highway. At one point, both people were thrown up and out of their seats by an inch.

Pet was holding onto whatever she could, laughing as mud splashed onto the side windows and windshield. "Robert is going to be so pissed when he sees what you've done!"

Another pothole was hit, sending them back out of their seats. "It was your idea to go into town!"

They reached the highway and slowly proceeded onto it when no traffic was seen coming. "Maybe, but it was your idea to wreck every mud hole you saw!" Derek sped up, matching the known posted speed limit. "You might want to slow down there, Speed Racer, before you hit a puddle of water the wrong way and hydroplane!"

Derek waved off the comment. "C'mon, Pet. You've been with me when we've driven in worse rain than this! And going faster, too!" The radio was turned on, and the local rock station turned up to be heard over the pounding rain on the windshield. Derek was lightly headbanging and drumming his hands against the steering wheel to the beat.

Pet toed off her shoes and lounged the seat back at an angle for lounging. She watched the terrain quickly zoom by the passenger side window, smiling in awe when she saw a bolt of lightning strike the ground several miles away.

Derek saw it too and shot his attention in that direction. "Badass!"

Then, something in the road caught Pet's attention from the corner of her eye. It was a large piece of a blown-out tire. "Watch out!"

By the time Derek saw it, it was too late. "Oh shit!" He jerked the wheel to avoid striking the foreign object only to hit it at just the right angle that it spun the Jeep out of control.

Somewhere in the middle of everything spinning dizzily around Pet and the loud sounds of the Jeep's tires squealing, she heard Derek yell for her to hang on. A sudden, body wrenching jolt tore through the occupants as the grey clouds replaced where the ground should have been more than once. The Jeep had gone from spinning out of control to rolling off the highway. Derek's left side collided with the inside of the door being forced into his person. He both felt and heard a bone in his forearm break right before his forehead painfully impacted the steering wheel. Pet's panicked screaming climaxed to excruciating only to be rendered silent a moment later.

Muddy rainwater from the ditch the flipped Jeep now resided in made its way into the cab through the broken side windows. The three-inch-deep water came up to the ends of Derek's dark hair. As for Pet, she was motionless in her upside-down state. A blood-streaked section of her long hair had the brown water turning hues of reds and pinks. She had a gash on the right side of her head where she had struck the window seal while the Jeep was rolling.

Derek struggled to stay conscious but his blurred vision was failing. The last thing he saw before passing out was Pet's hand resting in bloodied water.