Author's Note: Hello! I said I would update today! Did anyone get the reference with the last chapter's title?

A very special thanks to the two readers who offered feedback on the first draft of the last chapter and this one, Ramble Jamble, and one other person. Thank you!

Chapter 14

Gasoline

Aaron resisted the urge to duck, knowing the motion would give him away more obviously.

His heart was pounding as he remembered something.

She could see him anyway. She could see infrared or heat or something.

He was so fucked…

He could have sworn the Indominus smiled as she took one massive step toward him.

Aaron knew that even if he jumped up and bolted, he wasn't going to make it.

Ms Moynihan would. He really wished he told her about Viv. Something else he was planning to do. He really wanted to invite his teacher to his wedding. He would have at least liked to propose to his girlfriend, but maybe it was better this way.

He wanted to say he would go out fighting but it wouldn't be much of a battle. Best he could do is hope it was fast, he supposed.

Ms Moynihan snarled, screeching at the Indominus and startling the man.

The Indominus paused just long enough to glance back at the raptor and return the snarl.

The raptor lunged, scaling up the leg of the Indominius in seconds. She dug razor-sharp claws into the thick skin. She buried a sickle into a fresh, bloody scratch on the Indominus' shoulder and twisted deep.

The Indominius roared in anger and swung the Dakotaraptor off, who crashed into the brush.

Aaron bit his tongue.

Ms Moynihan was up again a moment later and the Indominius properly chased her, Aaron forgotten, supposedly.

Eventually, the pair disappeared into the greenery.

Aaron didn't know what to do. He lay there for what felt like hours but was probably really only twenty minutes. He waited until he heard a single hesitant songbird before he crawled over to his upturned jeep. His radio was thankfully still there. Broken, but hopefully not completely.

The emergency channels were awash with noise.

"-ut of containment! ACU is responding! Stand by and seek shelter immediately! Remain calm. Do not—" Aaron turned the volume as low as possible and listened to what he could. He quickly gathered that things were much worse than he thought.

ACU was deploying right that minute. With non-lethals. And it didn't sound like they knew the Indominous could camouflage. He listened to as much as he could before ACU ordered they switch to a secure line and leave the emergency line clear.

If ACU ran into Ms Moynihan…

"Aaron!"

Aaron squeaked as he spun around.

Ms Moynihan didn't look injured in the slightest. There was a little mud on her purple safari shirt and long khaki slacks but she looked far cleaner than he did.

The back of his shirt was shredded from being dragged by toothy jaws for one thing.

Aaron tried to greet her but gagged as he tried to stand up. "I'm gonna puke…"

"It's the stress, dear," Ms Moynihan assured him while gently patting his back. "And a concussion. You did very well."

Aaron looked at her sharply. "You're hurt! Sit down. Is it your—"

She shook her head, brushing hair out of her face as she extracted her cane from the wreck. "I'm fine," Ms Moynihan insisted, kindly, but her tone was short. "I was luring her away from you, dear. But she was wise to the trick. She wanted to go after you, so I had to make myself…more of a bother." She paused, frowning a little. She looked back at him. "I can handle myself."

Aaron swallowed. "How did you lose her?" He couldn't shake the feeling of dread. "She…I heard she can see heat signatures. And smell?" It was then he noticed how tense Ms Moynihan looked.

She nodded sharply and shifted her weight to the other foot as she eyed the upturned car. "Unfortunately, she lost interest in me when we smelled humans approaching."

Aaron swallowed, his heart catching in his throat. Guests? Children?

Ms Moynihan looked upset. "I...I went the other direction and tried to draw her away again, but she didn't follow." There was guilt in her tone. "She seemed far more interested in those humans than you or I. And I dread to wonder why." She looked at Aaron. "I suspect they were staff, or rangers. There were quite a few of them." She paused. "Tourists smell different," she explained, her voice a note softer.

"ACU," Aaron said a little distantly. "Asset Containment Unit. They'll…they'll catch her."

Ms Moynihan didn't look so sure. But she nodded, making Aaron wonder if that was just for his benefit. "We should not dawdle here. I couldn't cover my scent properly as I came back around. If she decides we're of interest again, it would be best if we are as far from here as possible."

Aaron nodded, some little voice in his head laughing as it said 'Best trust the predator'. "I need to find my phone. A-and I need to call this in…" he fumbled with the radio.

"Deep breaths, my boy," Ms Moynihan said, taking his hands. She made him look her in the eyes (her very human eyes). "We'll look for the phones for two minutes. But then we need to move on. We can't search the woods all the way up to the road." She gestured up the hill where they had fallen. "I have my watch. My satellite communication line is encrypted so I can call my students. You have your radio."

Aaron nodded, despite the headache. He appreciated her calmness. He snickered hysterically.

She had seen so much in life. There was probably nothing that could shake her after witnessing the literal continents shift.

"We need to find someone to check out that head of yours," she sighed, inspecting a gash on his forehead that luckily had stopped bleeding while he was face down in the dirt. It was close to his eye and she worried about infection.

"Yes, Mom," Aaron joked.

Ms Moynihan rolled her eyes and the two of them searched the area for their phones and whatever supplies might be useful. Aaron grabbed his backpack and his blue and gray Jurassic World jacket that was usually too warm to wear unless a cold storm was coming in. But he wasn't keen on mosquitoes turning his exposed and scratched up back and shoulders into a buffet bar.

They found a couple of flashlights, a small first aid kit that wasn't even stocked, and a bottle of water.

Joanne found her glasses, luckily undamaged. They had fallen off when she transformed. She hadn't been paying attention enough to make the molecules melt into her scales like with her clothes.

Aaron could have sworn there were more supplies, taser prods for one. But it unfortunately made sense. His personal truck probably wasn't stocked properly. It wasn't like he checked it weekly, though he should. It was his fault if people borrowed stuff from his truck, didn't put it back, and he didn't notice.

Pretty soon, Ms Moynihan ushered him away, promising they would come back for the phones when everything was safer. She knew he had some family pictures on there he would rather not lose. Even if it rained, she had tools that could pull the data from a damaged phone.

Aaron was about to start hiking up to the road, but Ms Moynihan stopped him. He looked at her in confusion.

"One more thing. Step back, son," she said.

He did so and shielded his eyes at the flashing release of molecular radiation and wrinkled his nose at the faint acrid scent released by DNA as it broke apart and reformed.

His stomach dropped to his toes and he really couldn't stop his heart rate from spiking as he looked eye-to-eye with a giant raptor that could easily kill him. Not that she would. And he knew that. But his poor primate brain was not very happy at the moment.

One didn't really get a sense of how big a predator really was until they were standing right next to it…

She could probably take down a moose—or a grizzly bear—without breaking a sweat.

She purred just a little, the off-putting soft sound dragging him from his panic-riddled thoughts. It was enough to shock him into remembering to breathe again.

She nudged him toward the car, where she then proceeded to use her claws to rip into the fuel line, spilling gasoline all over the ground. She rolled around in the nose-burning dirt for a few seconds while Aaron watched her, perplexed.

The Dakotaraptor got back on her feet. There was another flash of light and Ms Moynihan coughed as she shook her head, dislodging bits of dirt that clung to her skin and hair. "Oh, dear…" she sneezed and handed Aaron the still leaking hose as she hunted around for a clean cloth to wipe her nose, blinking tears away while she did. She didn't look wet from the gasoline in her clothing, except for a faint dampness, but the smell was there. And strong. "Hurry up, lad."

She coughed again and was desperate enough to use a torn piece from Aaron's shirt that had been caught on the door when she dragged him away from the wreck. She blew her nose. It wasn't like Aaron was going to ask for the shirt scrap back.

"What am I supposed to do?" Aaron asked.

"We need to mask our scent," Ms Moynihan coughed. "She–she knows what we smell like. Both of us." She harshly huffed out her nose as if to expel the smell and muttered. "...shouldn't have let it so close to my face…"

"Won't she notice two walking blobs of gasoline?"

Ms Moynihan shook her head. "This entire island stinks of fuel emissions, coolant, and petrol, especially the well-used roads. We will blend in if we stay near the road. She'll go for something she knows smells like another animal rather than investigate something she knows may just be an unattended vehicle. We will just have to wash as soon as possible. We may develop rashes and burns in a few hours."

"Preferable to being eaten," Aaron said with a grimace.

"Quite. Be careful not to inhale it, as best you can. Try not to get it near your wounds. Or your eyes. I was a little careless."

Aaron looked alarmed. "Are you okay?"

"I will live," she insisted, wiping her face with the "clean" rag. "It's more the smell that's bothering me right now." She coughed and tried to cover her mouth and nose with the rag. "I will be okay. What's important is that we get to safety."

"If it's messing up your sense of smell, how can you tell if she's coming back?"

"I can't," Ms Moynihan said sternly, "Not well, at least. Which is exactly why it's best we leave immediately."

Author's Note:

Welp! Aaron survives. For now.

I love writing Ms Moynihan as a raptor. I especially like making her scary but right now she's just totally being a mom.

I need to maintain a better posting schedule so I don't burn out. If anyone wants to be a buddy who keeps me from NOT posting every day, that would be appreciated. I think my urge is to share my work as soon as possible. I have ADHD and OCD so there's pretty much a medical reason why I have no self-control with posting, then I'll get anxious and burnt out when I run out of written chapters.

Basically, you just need to be someone who's willing to get entire chapters spoiled for you long before I post them in a bid to help me manage my compulsion to share my work immediately.

Join my discord at /GqC3S8aVSE

Don't forget to leave a comment! They're very encouraging when I get stuck on a chapter.