Notes
Soundtrack suggestions:
At the barn:
- Operation Blue Blood — Michael Giacchino, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
- The giant claws — Benjamin Bartlett, Chased by Dinosaurs.
-o-
"Where are we?" Franklin asked, looking at the woods on either side of the narrow road on which they were driving. "That's not the Farm's road."
"Not an official one at least," Claire replied.
After following mountain roads for an hour, they had returned to Burgo Nuevo from the west, driven through part of town, and steered due south, with Claire following directions Owen gave her about an abandoned house of which Franklin had heard only through Benito. When a large wooden gate appeared in the headlights, Claire stopped the vehicle and turned off the engine.
"Don't leave anything of value. We're not sure if we'll return here," Owen advised the young man. "And your disguise is no longer useful."
Franklin left his hard hat and hi-vis vest in the truck, and whereas the couple took the truck's keys and stuffed their balaclavas into their pockets, they ditched their soldier helmets and took the time to rip off the tags where the names of Emily Weir and Josh Cross were written.
Using the light of their rifle's lamps, they scaled the fence near the gate, walked around the large abandoned house, crossed its uncultivated garden, and headed into the heart of Site D, following more or less the same path Claire and Owen had taken a few days earlier, emerging from the jungle between the dilophosaurs paddock and that of the titanosaurs. They stopped just at the edge and the couple put their balaclavas back on before scanning the site. From their vantage point, they could see the perimeter fence of the Predators' Camp and two of its watchtowers; the Marsh's service building; the Triceratops' barn and paddock, now empty. Near the fence of the Predators' Camp, they saw two flashlight beams moving back and forth: Guards on patrol.
Knowing that Blue had to be still in the Ark's veterinarian premises, the trio pondered the path to take for the Ark and after making sure the guards were far enough, Owen led his two companions out of the vegetation's cover, trotting towards the alley which skirted the Triceratops' paddock and passed between the Marsh and the Asian Plain.
About ten minutes later, after hiding on the way from one or two patrols and crossing the aviaries' sector, they reached a service door which opened to the Ark's Level 1, the same one by which Asterion and Ariadne had entered the building. They then walked along the lower level of the kennel, bypassed the vivarium hall, went up one level and stealthily entered the veterinary wing, whose lights were on. They ended up in a room which acted as an antechamber and an office. At its back, a large bay window overlooking the large animals' operating room, as large as a hangar. No one was there, and the couple figured that Blue's veterinarian(s) might be downstairs near the operating rooms.
"Franklin?!" A voice called out in surprise, coming from a small hallway to their right, the one that led to a staff room.
Instinctively, the couple turned to the person, ready to draw their guns, but they moved their hands away from their belts when they saw it was Zia.
"You brought him back here?" She asked those she assumed were two InGen soldiers. "I thought that…"
"It's us," Owen interrupted, lowering his balaclava to reveal his face.
The DPG veterinarian's eyes widened.
"You're alive?"
"Last I heard, yes," Claire replied, lowering her balaclava in her turn.
"Maribel is with Blue?" Owen inquired.
"No, she went with the ACU to track down Toro, leaving me handling things alone. I was lucky Juan was there. He's with Blue," Zia told him. "He insisted that I had to rest a little."
"Owen, I have a lot of sympathy for Juan, but we don't know who we can trust here," Claire pointed out to her boyfriend. "We should be careful."
"I've had my break for more than two hours. I'm going to propose him to take another watch," the DPG veterinarian announced. "I'll come back later to tell you if it's clear. In the meantime, hide."
She went down to the operating rooms and soon after, the trio heard her and Juan return. The head keeper left the vet wing and seconds later, Zia whistled.
"Okay guys, you can come," she said softly.
They joined her and followed her as she led them to the wing's lower level. Franklin then realized that there was a surveillance camera in the office and probably others elsewhere in the wing.
"But aren't we going to be seen on the cameras?"
"Nobody is in the security offices," Zia told them. "They're all either patrolling the estate or helping Austin closing off the jungle a few miles from here."
Shortly after, she opened the door to one of the operating rooms for medium-sized animals. With its size, appearance, and equipment, it reminded Claire very much of the operating room at the equine hospital where one of her aunts worked. Except that there, it was not a horse on the operating table but a six meters long Achillobator, sedated, muzzled and firmly strapped to the table. As they got closer, the couple saw the wound inflicted by the farmer's bullet. But while Owen gently stroked the predator's snout, a fifth person entered the room and they turned abruptly. It was Vinny, whom Juan had sent to help Zia, and his face adopted a shocked expression as he realized the couple were standing just feet away from him.
"Owen? Claire? I've been told you were as dead as dodos."
Claire then walked briskly to the door, intending to close it, but Vinny did it before her and put his hands up.
"Easy guys, I'm on your side," he reassured them as they stared at him. "I'm not going to report you, I swear on my mother's life. Some say you stopped the train from taking the wrong track. Without you, Horatio, Brice, Allison, Nala and so many others would be dead by now."
He then approached Blue.
"Juan told me she lost a lot of blood. If she doesn't receive some in the next few hours, she'll die before the next evening. However, there is no Achillobator blood bag here."
"Maybe we can try with blood from another animal," Franklin suggested hesitantly. "I mean, you're out of solutions..."
A glimmer appeared in Zia's eyes.
"What an idiot, why didn't I consider this sooner?! I could have sent the temps to collect it!" she exclaimed. "Franklin, you are a genius! A xenotransfusion," she added while her friend until then believed that her answer was ironic. "I need the blood of another animal. But which species would be the best candidate?"
"From another animal? Uh, I'm not sure if I understood correctly, Zia," Claire said sceptically. "Sounds risky. Since complications occurs when you are given the blood of a person with a different blood type than yours, a transfusion between different species seems even more hazardous..."
"Dog's blood has been transferred to cats, bovine's to goats, and I remember reading that Dr. Gerry Harding performed dinosaur-to-dinosaur xenotransfusions at Site B and Jurassic Park during emergency situations," Zia explained.
"And Brice did some too," Vinny added.
"Ah, okay," the fallen park director said.
"I was just wondering aloud. I didn't know that people already tried this," the IT technician said.
"However, for this to have the best chance of working, you need to draw blood from an animal that is as closely related to Achillobator as possible," the veterinarian explained.
"And one big enough for the blood draw to not harm it," Owen guessed.
"It has to be a member of the Coelurosauria clade," Zia added.
"English please," Claire asked them.
"The dinosaurs from which birds descend," her boyfriend clarified.
"Let me remember my taxonomy lessons," the vet told them. "We have tyrannosaurs, ornithomimids..."
"Ornithomimids? We could collect it from Saturnin," Owen suggested. "Last I heard, he's still here and he's quite docile."
"Yes, but there is an animal even more closely-related to raptors. An animal which is also part of the Maniraptoriformes."
"Which one?" Claire asked.
Owen looked at Vinny. They knew the answer.
"I assume you know how to find a vein on a dinosaur?" Zia asked them.
"Yeah," Owen and Vinny replied.
The DPG vet nodded.
"I'm going," Owen said. "Someone sturdy is necessary for this task."
"I'll come with you," the other keeper said. "I have the keys and you need someone to reassure eventual guards. A third accomplice would be welcomed. Claire?"
The fallen park director turned to the operating table and the vet.
"You're good, Zia? You don't need help here?" She asked her.
"You will be more useful there than here. Franklin can assist me if I need help. Besides, it would be a good idea for you and Owen to stay together."
Claire nodded and followed the two keepers. Vinny motioned for the couple to put their balaclavas back on, so they would look like two soldiers escorting him for some task.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"At the Asian Plain's barn," her boyfriend replied.
"The Asian Plain?" She repeated in an uncertain tone while listing in her head all its residents which hadn't left Site D yet.
When they entered said barn and came in sight of the stall where the donor was curled up and sleeping, Claire broke into a cold sweat and let out a sigh.
"What, Yuriko? You have to be joking, right?! Wouldn't you rather go to Saturnin the Deinocheirus? I really like that big soft duck!"
"You heard Zia," Owen told her. "For the transfusion to have the best chance of working, the donor must be as closely related to Blue as possible. And therizinosaurs are closer to raptors than Deinocheirus is."
"How convenient! Meanwhile, that Twitter tolerance model killed Benito and almost turned me into a shish kebab!"
"Said the one who freed a tyrannosaur and faced the Indominus with nothing but her cunt and a broken sword..." Owen replied, growing impatient at his girlfriend's reluctance.
But remembering the next moment that Claire did not like to remember that part of the Fall, he apologized:
"Sorry."
"Alright," she grunted before stepping forward, following the two keepers and carrying the blood bag they had taken when they left the veterinarian wing.
Apart from the therizinosaur, the other animals present in the barn were the four shantungosaurs. In a large stall were the two adult females and the juvenile while Bucephalus, like the male Apatosaurus at the Jurassic Plain, had his own stall. The giant hadrosaurs were sleeping, snoring loudly. Later that week, they and Yuriko were to be flown to California.
None of the building's lights were on, and the trio relied on the darkness to do their task inconspicuously, using only Vinny's flashlight and the couple's rifles for light.
"What's the plan?" Claire asked in a whisper when they arrived at the door of the therizinosaur's stall.
"We're going in, we try to find the medial metatarsal vein...," Vinny answered.
Seeing that the fallen park director was looking at him strangely, unaware of what the middle metatarsus was, he clarified:
"It's on the leg. You'll see… We take the blood and then we leave. All while avoiding waking her up."
The British keeper then slowly put his backpack to the ground. Before leaving the Ark, they had taken a detour through the kitchens, where Vinny had gone to get the "Plan B", which the bag contained. Claire put her rifle down next to it. Vinny unlocked the door, half-opened it, then looked at his former boss.
"Ladies First…"
Claire rolled her eyes and slipped through the opening, followed by Vinny and then Owen. But no sooner had they started to tread the hay than Yuriko's neck moved and perked up. The therizinosaur's head then turned to the stall door and the trio in front of it. As she stared at them, they heard some kind of a muffled noise, produced by the animal.
"Uh… Change of plan," Vinny declared.
"She can see in the dark?" Claire inquired.
"Better than us," the keeper told her.
Slowly and backwards, they exited the stall and closed the door. Intrigued, the therizinosaur got up and walked towards them.
"Is one of you suicidal enough to approach her and take the blood?" Claire asked the keepers.
"No," Vinny answered. "But luckily, a wonderful little thing called Medical Training exists. Plan B it is. We need to reach the jugular vein."
His gaze pointed a smaller adjoining stall used for medical training. They walked up to there, Vinny turned on a few dim lamps along the aisle and as Owen opened a shutter in the middle part of the this training stall's barrier, large enough for a therizinosaur to pass its neck through and reach people standing near the barrier, Claire and Vinny opened the gate between the two stalls. Intrigued, the therizinosaur watched the gate slide but did not move. Vinny then pulled the Plan B out of the bag, consisting of a clicker and a plastic box containing berries.
"It's her guilty pleasure," he told the couple.
Vinny took a small handful and then called the animal.
"Yuriko, look. I've got your berries… Come here."
She looked at him but still wouldn't go to the practice stall. He turned back to the couple and saw that they were still wearing their balaclavas.
"Take off your balaclavas. She'll be less stressed if your faces are uncovered."
They took off their balaclavas, the therizinosaur continued to observe them but to their disappointment, she turned back, presumably to resume her sleep. Seeing that they would still be there at dawn if they waited for the therizinosaur's goodwill, Claire grew impatient and looked at Owen. They knew Blue had to get that transfusion as soon as possible. If they wanted to save her, they had to act now.
"Vinny, hand me the keys," she asked. "I'm going in."
"You're sure?"
"She and I have unfinished business."
The British keeper handed the keys to the fallen park director, showed her that of the practice stall. She picked them up, grabbed a handful of berries in her other hand, opened the door, and stepped into the practice stall. She came to stand at the gate with Yuriko's stall and hailed the therizinosaur.
"Hey, you big fat turkey!"
Yuriko turned around, looked at her, and stretched her neck forward, as if to better observe her and sniff her.
"You recognize me? You almost skewered me earlier."
The therizinosaur made the same muffled noise as earlier and moved forward.
"Yes, come. We need you to do us a little favor."
When Yuriko let out a hiss and waved her arms, Claire looked at her claws and froze as dark memories began to fill her mind.
No... not again!
She felt her breathing and heart rate quicken. The therizinosaur noticed this and began to crane its neck forward.
No!
"Claire!" Owen hissed, worried.
She exhaled softly, concentrating on channelling her fear.
No, I won't give in to fear. It kills the mind.
Claire stopped looking at the claws, raising her gaze to the head. Sensing the fallen park director's fear, Yuriko had slowed down and pulled her head back.
I must show her that I'm not afraid. That I'm not a threat. That she can trust me.
Slowly, she then stretched out her arm and showed her the berries in the palm of her hand. Yuriko paused for a moment, looked at the hand of the fallen park direcotr, then resumed her advance, craning her neck forward, orienting it towards Claire's hand and not her head.
"She's more interested in the berries…" Vinny observed. "Good."
Slowly, Claire started backing into the training stall, toward the door she'd come through. Following her, the therizinosaur finally passed through the gate between the two stalls and as soon as she was far enough, Owen and Vinny closed it. Turning her head when she heard the noise, Yuriko noticed that they had locked her in the training stall. But Claire, who had passed through the door, called her from the other side of the barrier.
"You want the berries, Yuriko? Come then."
The therizinosaur snorted loudly and slowly walked towards the barrier.
"Take it," Vinny said to Claire, handing her the clicker. "You remember how we use it?"
"I click before giving her berries?" she replied.
"That's it."
"You can do it," Owen added, putting a hand on her shoulder.
He and Vinny stayed at Claire's side for a moment, letting the therizinosaur see them while the fallen park director held her palm up, showing her the berries. Yuriko stuck her head and neck through the open shutter, and after lowering it towards Claire, the latter clicked and then raised her hand a little more, indicating to the therizinosaur that she could eat that first handful of berries. Yuriko looked at the face of the fallen park director for a moment and then opened her beak. A long purplish tongue, very similar to those of giraffes and okapis, came out. It grazed the berries, using its sensors to taste them in a way, and having made sure that they looked good, the therizinosaur brought her tongue back into her mouth and lowered the latter a little, in order to eat the berries in Claire's palm. Meanwhile, Owen moved to the side, so that he was just on the periphery of the dinosaur's field of vision, and Vinny discreetly pulled the blood bag out of his backpack. Once she had eaten all the berries in Claire's hand, Yuriko saw what her keepers had in his hands but did not react. It wasn't the first time she had been stung with a needle. That was the whole point of medical training.
Before the therizinosaur walked away, Claire bent down to take another handful of berries from the box, which she showed to the animal. She clicked and Yuriko started eating that new handful.
It's like feeding a horse, Claire thought. Heck, her head even looks a bit like that of a horse... a beaked horse.
The dinosaur put one of her hands against the barrier, managing to pass its gigantic claws between the bars, which made Vinny, who was standing still by the right side of her neck, jump slightly. He looked at Claire's palm and then at the therizinosaur's neck. The keeper knew where the jugular vein was under the down of protofeathers but as soon as he touched the neck, he would have to act quickly. He and Owen, each one side of the neck, exchanged a look and then looked at the animal's head and Claire. Yuriko finished her second handful of berries and when Claire clicked and showed her a third, Vinny approached the neck with the blood bag's needle and Owen moved a little, ready to intervene should the therizinosaur stop being cooperative. The two keepers looked at each other again and as the animal had just started eating the third handful, Vinny palpated her neck and as soon as he found the jugular vein, he plunged the needle into it. The tube behind the needle filled with blood and it began to flow into the pocket, gradually filling it.
At first, Yuriko continued to eat the berries which Claire gave her and the fallen park director clicked to encourage her to continue to behave like this but realizing that they were taking a lot more blood from her than during her punctual blood tests, Yuriko got worried and wanted to raise her head but Owen put his arms around her neck, trying to hold her down with his strength while Vinny continued to draw blood.
"Sorry love, it's for a good cause," he told her.
The therizinosaur growled then stirred and her keeper had to double in dexterity in order to carry on with the draw without letting the bag or its needle slip out of his hands. The dinosaur looked at Claire, who had backed away, and snapped her beak at her before letting out a hiss. Aware that she would not be able to coax the animal after tricking her, Claire stayed in her field of vision and spoke to keep her attention while the draw continued. Yuriko honked in irritation.
As soon as the bag was filled, Vinny removed the needle and quickly took a few steps back. Owen let go of the therizinosaur's neck and jumped back to avoid a violent peck.
"It's over," the British keeper said to Yuriko, who brought her neck and head back inside the stall.
He looked at Claire and she pressed the clicker one last time but the dinosaur didn't come back for berries. They closed the shutter and went to reopen the gate between the two stalls, letting the therizinosaur regain her bed of hay.
"The bag is intact?" Owen asked.
"Yep," Vinny assured him.
Carefully transporting the blood bag, they left the barn and returned to the operating room, where they helped Zia with the transfusion.