Jurassic Park: The Broken Lives Saga by Dinohunter55
Chapter 6: Creature in the Mist
The low hum of a machine whispered from the dark beyond the open door. Amanda turned on the flashlight and stepped inside.
"Told you I heard something," Ellie said.
"Alright," Amanda admitted. "You were right."
The garage was large and mostly empty. A lone tractor was the sole occupant of the three bays. It was beat up. Something had attacked it from the look of deep gouge marks in the metal sides. The tires were flat and oil had leaked from the engine onto the floor a long time ago. An office sat overlooking the area from atop a flight of stairs. The room below it was filled with lockers and tables with bench seating. They were not the source of the sound.
"It's coming from down there," Ellie said and pointed at a stair leading down beside the rooms.
The flashlight barely illuminated the depths bellow but Amanda slowly walked down the stairs until she was in a large basement. Pipes and bundles of cabling filled the space. Steam hissed somewhere in the dark. The air was noticeably hotter than above.
A faint red glow drew them to it.
"What do you think it is?" Ellie asked.
"I don't know." Amanda said, "But it has power."
They came up to a large flat panel behind a chain-link fence. Amanda looked it up and down. She opened the panel door. It looked like the most complex breaker box she had ever seen. High Voltage signs in several languages plastered the flat metal clearly for all to see. She found a row of buttons down one side, each covered by clear plastic. She flipped open the one that said GARAGE and pressed it. Nothing happened.
A selection of different buttons sat beside the list. She looked it over and read the instructions.
"Ellie," Amanda said, "Hold this." She passed off the flashlight.
Amanda grabbed the primer handle. It was large, flat, and grey. She pumped it. It resisted her but she managed to move it using both hands. Once, twice, thrice, and on the forth the mechanism clicked, charged. Amanda looked over the instructions again. She pressed the green button labeled Push to Close. The green Open bar above the button turned red and said Closed. The machines hummed louder. The lights for each button on the list beside the panel turned a dull green.
The harsh but faint sound of an alarm sounded from above. Amanda panicked and looked over the instructions again. She pressed the garage button. It turned from green to red and the box around the name lit up. Light flickered on in garage above and poured down the stairs.
The next button she pressed was marked tunnel. It flickered red and then turned back to green, refusing to stay lit. She tried the next one, fence. It flickered but stayed red. The alarm stopped. Amanda flicked open each button and pressed. Only a handful remained lit. The Observation Administration was one of them she found to her great relief. The radio towers did not.
"I think we have power in this area at least," Amanda said and took back the flashlight. She looked back to the stair where a long shadow reached down. Something was waiting for them at the top. "We should probably tell our friend not to touch the fence."
Ellie looked like she was about to make a comment but held her tongue.
Silver Claw watched the bouncing light until Amanda appeared at the base of the stairs. She smiled up at him. His heart raced. He had been under one of the buzzers when they went off. The harsh alarm from the fence was gone but he wanted answers to questions she would not understand. He did not want them enough to venture into the dark basement however.
Amanda seemed to sense his discomfort. "Sorry about the alarm. I didn't know it about it. We found the power box and turned on the fence so don't touch it or you'll get shocked."
Silver Claw eyed Amanda suspiciously as she walked by and patted his neck. Ellie eyed him back just as suspiciously as she passed. They had a mutual distrust of each other it seemed.
A low hiss whispered from the basement and Silver Claw quickly turned to catch up to Amanda and Ellie. It was morning on Isla Sorna and though the sun approached midday, a dense fog still blanketed the island. He could barely see the gate from the garage. The fence hummed quietly in the background, barely audible against the nearby birds singing.
"You know," Amanda said as she stashed her flashlight in a pocket. "I still don't know what to call you."
"Can it really understand you?" Ellie said.
Silver Claw hissed at Ellie and then nodded.
Ellie's eyes went wide and she quickened her pace a little.
Amanda laughed. "Be nice to each other."
Silver Claw looked away. He moved to the fence and looked beyond at the jungle. It was hard to see the trees let alone anything beyond. He wondered just how bad a shock from the fence was but decided he was better off not knowing. His pack did not speak highly of it.
"What does a velociraptor name sound like?" Amanda asked. She was walking towards the main entrance.
Silver Claw turned and caught up. "Silver Claw," he said.
Amanda crossed her arms as she mouthed something silently. "That was your name?"
He nodded.
"Can you say it again?"
He did.
Amanda tried her best impression of the sound but everything was off. "Was that close?"
Silver Claw shook his head.
"Humph," Amanda considered. "Are you named after a person?"
Silver Claw thought on that but did not know any persons besides Amanda and Ellie so shook his head.
"A color?"
Silver Claw nodded. It was part of his name though it was also a metal.
"Can you point out this color?" Amanda asked.
"Is it Red?" Ellie guessed.
Silver Claw nodded to Amanda and shook his head at Ellie. He looked around. There was a vehicle parked near the entrance. The bumpers were dirty but a faint gleam still caught. He walked up to it and tapped the shiny metal.
"Grey?" Amanda asked.
He shook his head.
Amanda rattled off a variety of different names of greys, browns, and dirty mixes. He shook his head to all of them. Finally, she guessed correct. "Is it Silver?"
Silver Claw nodded.
"So your name is Silver?" Amanda smiled but then frowned when he both nodded and shook his head. "There's more?"
Ellie groaned and walked to the entrance where she sat down on the top step. She started looking over her broken nails.
Silver Claw nodded and then lifted his foot, flexing his sickle claw.
"Is it Silver Foot? Like Little Foot from The Land Before Time cartoon," Amanda said.
Silver Claw did not know what that was and shook his head.
"Is it Talon?"
He shook his head again. It was deeply frustrating to communicate like this but he kept at it.
"Claw," the word was drawn out slowly after a long pause.
Silver Claw nodded.
"Your name is Silver Claw?" Amanda said. When he nodded, she squealed and leapt forward. Her arms hugged his neck tight. They both nearly fell to the ground.
Silver Claw hissed a distressed protest.
Amanda relaxed her grip. "Nice to meet you Silver Claw," her smile was infectious and Silver Claw could not remember a time he had felt that same level of joy towards anything, certainly not in recent memory. "Ellie! His name is Silver Claw"
"I heard," Ellie said, not bothering to look up from her nails.
Silver Claw snorted at Ellie but neither of the humans noticed.
"There must be a way we can talk to each other." Amanda tried to vocalize his name again. She actually managed words but they were the wrong words, very wrong words.
Silver Claw looked at her wide eyed and shook his head. If she did learn his language, he would likely never tell her what she actually said to him today.
She saw the surprise in his eyes. "Did I say something you understood?"
Silver Claw nodded.
Amanda smiled.
He walked away from her. He did not feel like teaching her or listening to her fumble through his language any more for the time being. Or worse, her attempts to guess at what she just said. He heard her continuing to try his name as she joined Ellie. They soon turned to conversations about their homes.
Silver Claw caught a whiff of a scent near the fence. He approached the gates and considered going outside. The smell was familiar but he could not place it.
A blur of green leapt from the jungle at him. It struck the fence. A flurry of sparks rained down as the creature hissed in pain. The shape dropped to the ground and staggered. It was a velociraptor, one of the second breed. Icy blue eyes stared hatred at Silver Claw. It snarled.
Silver Claw stepped back. His heart thundered. The velociraptor was much larger than him with a telltale scare over its left eye. He recognized it immediately. It was the velociraptor that killed his mother and siblings. She gave him that scar before she died. "Tyrannous," Silver Claw hissed.
"What's going on?" Amanda ran up beside Silver Claw. Ellie had ducked back into the building and was staring from behind the glass. Amanda spotted the other velociraptor and gasped. "Is this one of yours?"
Silver Claw showed his teeth. Quills stood on end.
Amanda caught the meaning.
"Pathetic," Tyrannous hissed and approached the fence, staring down at Silver Claw. He stood over a head taller than Silver Claw and quite a bit longer. "I did not know your kind gallivanted with humans now."
Silver Claw said nothing, only hissed.
"Go away," Amanda yelled. She hissed her best impression of Silver Claw's own.
Tyrannous turned an eye towards Amanda and she backed off a little. "It's overly brave behind its fence. I doubt it would be without it. Come, let us find out."
Silver Claw relaxed a little. "The human told you to go away. You should listen."
That caught the velociraptor's attention. "Oh, can you understand it too?"
Silver Claw hesitated. "Can you understand human language?"
Tyrannous showed his teeth. "I know their screams well enough. I see you inherited you father's aptitude for understanding humans. Where is he now?"
Silver Claw remained silent.
"Where is Seth?" Tyrannous raised his tone.
"Dead," Silver Claw barked. He had been for a long time now.
For a split second, Tyrannous looked broken but only for a second. "That's unfortunate. How did he die?"
"Why would I tell you?" Silver Claw hissed.
"He can't touch us in here," Amanda said and gently placed a hand on Silver Claw back.
Silver Claw flinched and turned to bite her but caught himself in time, barely. He relaxed a little but now Amanda was nervous. She was right. Silver Claw turned and walked away from Tyrannous.
"Go. Listen to your human master. Walk away." Tyrannous hissed after him.
Silver Claw turned his head to respond but Tyrannous was gone. Only the curling mists remained.