Of Raptor and Man Chapter 4
Story by JasonVUK on SoFurry
Imported from SF2 with no description.
“Hey, hey now! We can’t be having that!” A deep voice spoke up loudly.
Owen felt something cool repeatedly tap his left cheek slowly bringing him back to consciousness.
“Come on, rise and shine, can’t be having you pass out, we need to get you out of here!” Owen’s eyes slowly opened looking upon a bald man with a strong jaw line. “Didn’t think there was anyone left.” The man smiled.
“I what?” Owen groaned and rubbed his head.
“Nearly got yourself eaten bud.” The man replied and stepped back, watching as Owen started to get to his feet. “We’re better off getting away from the door, it only pisses Martha here off.” The man added with a slight dry chuckle at the end.
“Martha?” Owen asked as got to his feet his eyes focussing on the man.
The bald guy thumbed over his shoulder to which Owen adjusted his gaze, his instincts kicked him out of his delirium as he saw a head sideways to the closed doors, a single eye with three long scar running down it, staring at the pair of them.
“Allosaurus, we called her Martha after my colleagues’ ex-wife, apparently she had a hell of a temper.” The man replied as he put his hand on his hips.
There was only one part of the sentence Owen focussed on. “We?”
The man nodded, glancing back to “Martha” then nodded straight on. “Come on, I’ll lead you to the rest of us.” The man walked passed Owen and down the corridor, Owen looked to the Allosaurus then followed the man quickly. “The name’s Craig by the way.”
“Owen.” Owen replied. They heard Martha roar loudly behind them then heavy footfalls as the beast walked stomped away in search of prey.
Craig led Owen deeper into the ACU building and into the main briefing room which doubled as the armoury. There Owen saw the other human beings, the first human beings he’d seen face to face in over a week. His heart leapt with joy not realising how much he’d missed being amongst his own, he loved his girls there was no questioning it, but they weren’t much for conversation, at least not an in-depth one.
Standing by the computer looking between the digital map and a physical one by her side was a dark-skinned woman dressed in ACU gear she was tall for a woman, taller than Claire but not quite as tall as himself. Sat next to her was man with short hair and lighter shade of dark skin than her, he seemed to be checking over the cameras of which Owen immediately noticed some were just showing static, finally in the armoury checking over the weapons and munitions was another man, Caucasian like Craig and Owen though shorter than both with a short brown beard.
All three paused in what they were doing and looked up towards the arriving pair.
“Look what Martha scared up.” Craig said with a smirk as he patted Owen on the shoulder.
“Another survivor?” the bearded man wondered out loud, placing down the weapon in his hand and stepped closer, just from the two words Owen could tell the guy was either English or Australian.
“Welcome to the shit show bud.” The woman spoke up in a sympathetic tone.
“Let me introduce you,” Craig started and stepped forward, “this beautiful specimen of a woman is Alice, next to her is Dennis, and this bloke with the lovely beard is Tom.”
“How you doin’ mate?” Tom asked. Definitely Australian.
“I’ve had worse days.” Owen replied with a bit of humour and a slight smile.
“This is Owen guys.” Craig introduced Owen to the others.
“Owen?” Alice asked as she wondered where she knew that name, knew that face, “Owen Grady?”
“One and the same.” Owen raised his arms to the side and gave a slight shrug of his shoulder.
Tom pointed at Owen and grinned, “Oh yeah! The raptor guy!”
“Yeah that’s right, I’m the raptor guy.” Owen chuckled dryly then looked between the four of them. “I didn’t know there was anyone else on the island.”
“Neither did we.” Dennis, the dark man beside Alice spoke up a stern look on his face which quickly was replaced with relief. “Glad to be wrong though, we’ve been kinda stuck in here for a few days.”
“Stuck?”
“Yeah, we’re cut off and surrounded.” Alice spoke up and ushered Owen over to her. Owen walked up beside her as she pointed to the digital map on the computer screen. “We’re here right,” she pointed to their location on the map then looked to Owen who nodded as he focussed, “we’re cut off from operations and everything else, something’s wrong with the comms most likely, but whatever the problem is we just can’t get a signal.”
“And walking there would be suicide.” Owen added as he thought aloud.
“There were more of us a few days ago.” Craig spoke up gaining Owen’s attention. “Yeah, we knew the same problem back then, we sent a few of our guys in the last jeep to see if they could find or fix the problem.”
Owen didn’t like the sound of where this was going.
“We lost contact with them.” Dennis quickly added solemnly. “We don’t know what happened or where or when, but they never radioed back.”
Owen sighed.
“Which brings us to our other problem, we’re surrounded.” Alice pulled Owen’s attention back to the map. “You’ve met “Martha” she’s an Allosaurus; big, mean, top tier predator like the T-Rex; just a little shorter with longer arms.”
Owen nodded along. “On my way here I encountered a Baryonyx.”
Alice groaned, “Wonderful!” she exclaimed sarcastically, “Baryonyx are trouble too, from what we’ve seen there are two Baryonyx, and they’ve been fighting the Allosaurus for territory.”
“Martha’s just too big and mean for ‘em though.” Tom added, “Just like my ex-wife.”
Owen made an amused sound then looked to the map. “And you can’t get too close to Main Street,”
“Because the T-Rex is there.” Craig added quietly.
“Shit, so what’re you guys going to do?”
“Well we’re out of options,” Alice started, “we’re out of food here, we’ve no vehicles, weapons and ammunition are the only thing that we aren’t low on, for now anyway.”
“How’d you get here by the way?” Dennis asked.
“My bike, but the Baryonyx made me crash, lucky I was able to get away.” Owen replied.
“So you encountered a Baryonyx, but you ended up with the Allosaurus, what happened between?” Alice asked while looking Owen dead in the eye.
Owen didn’t feel like bringing his raptors into this, his instincts were telling him to keep shut about them. “I ran from the Baryonyx and ended up with Martha, she scared it off then came after me.”
That seemed to placate her. “Yeah, makes sense.”
Owen focussed on the computer behind Alice and Dennis. “You guys have feed from the cameras?”
Dennis spun around and brought up what camera feed he could. “Some, sadly a few cameras have been knocked out by dinosaur activity,” he brought up the display of cameras, “as you can see, we’re partially blind, we can’t even see all the way around this building.”
“Don’t even have feed by the front entrance, it’s just by luck that I was close by on patrol when I saw you.” Craig added from behind Owen.
“Well shit.” Owen groaned, their situation getting dire.
“And that’s not the worst of it.” Alice added with sarcasm laced joy. “We do have a weather report, we got a storm coming in in like, seven or so hours.”
“So, enough about us Mr Grady, tell us about you, what brings you here? Why’re you still on the island?” Dennis asked.
“Like yourselves I got stuck here after everything went to shit, been surviving by myself, looking for food and supplies, but my rifle here,” he paused and motioned to his weapon slung over his back, “is running low on ammo, this was the first place I thought of to come look to rearm.” Owen explained.
The four ACU members looked to one another, silent messages seemed to be going between them whatever is was it was answered, they looked to Owen once more before Alice spoke up.
“You want off the island?” she offered.
Owen knew he wouldn’t leave his girls but if he could get these people out of here all the supplies in this building would be his for the taking. He’d help them escape then ditch them as they left.
“Sure, I think I’ve been here long enough.” Owen tiredly replied, nodding his head in the affirmative.
“We need a way to get to the central hub, from there we’ve got some breathing room we can hopefully get in touch with the mainland and get them to send a chopper, just have to figure out how.” Alice sat down in her seat exhausted.
Owen thought for a moment, “You said there’s a storm coming in right?” Alice nodded. “It’s risky, but we arm ourselves and have a general idea of where we’re going, we could make it there using the storm as cover, too much rain, thunder and wind would throw most dinosaurs off our scent, if we stick close together and move fast we could give them the slip.”
“That sounds like suicide.” Tom quickly replied incredulously.
“You got a better idea?” Owen replied while staring Tom down. “We’ve got few other options.”
“You’re out of your bloody mind!” Tom shook his head in disbelief.
“No, he’s got a fair point. This could be our last chance, we’re nearly out of rations Tom, we can’t stay here much longer.” Craig replied, defending Owen, “this may be it, make or break.”
“Alice! Dennis! You can’t be listening to this shit?” Tom looked to his other compatriots pleadingly.
Alice was quiet as she mulled it over.
“What about flashlights?” Dennis asked.
“We use if them if we really need to, but light could draw attention to us, we want to be as inconspicuous as possible.” Owen replied and waited.
“Alright, it’s settled.” Alice announced and stood up.
“Like hell it’s settled! This is crazy!” Tom snapped.
Alice glared at him. “You want to stay here? Then stay here! But I’d like to get the fuck off this island!”
Tom seemed ready to argue but closed his mouth and let forth a weary sigh, he collapsed back into his seat and nodded reluctantly.
“Now it’s settled.” Dennis said with a brief chuckle.
“Alright,” Craig spoke up as he stepped forward, “what’s the plan?”
The plan was simple. Wait till the storm was on top of them then exit the building keeping to a formation that allowed them to cover a lot of ground and protect one another while at the same time being tight enough to not be an easy pickings target for any predators. As Owen had explained the storm would make for a form of cover, making it harder for predators to see and track them. The use of higher calibre rifles would be the preferred weapon with short to mid-range optics, these weren’t going to be used as marksman’s rifles for longer distances, possibly one or two of them carrying a shotgun for close range just in case would be beneficial.
They would move together at a steady pace, not slowing down to ensure they make good time and distance and not sprinting ahead in case of ambush. The terrain would be their first enemy as a predator could be hiding behind any bush or tree. If all went well they’d all make it safely to the Park Operations, they’d be able to contact the mainland for extraction.
It was at that point Dennis asked a question he hoped none of them would.
“Say Owen, where are the raptors?”
‘FUCK!’ Owen mentally exclaimed in a panic while on the outside he was cool and collected, he sighed and shook his head, simply to buy himself some time as he thought.
“You uh, guys knew Victor Hoskins right?” Owen asked looking between them.
“We know of him, never met him personally.” Alice replied curiously.
Owen got similar responses from the others.
“You know of the Indominus?” He asked.
“Officially no, not a thing. Unofficially yeah we know.” Dennis replied.
“Alright cool. So Vic wanted to use my raptors to hunt it down and that worked,” Owen started while rubbed his hands together, “we located her but for there things went bad, we shot at it and it ran off, my raptors disappeared,” he paused for a moment, mainly for dramatic effect, “I went back to their pen but they weren’t there, I’ve not seen them since.”
“Shit, now we got to worry about velociraptors.” Tom groaned and rubbed his tired eyes.
“Can you control them Owen?” Craig asked.
“Not exactly, they might … MIGHT… listen to me, but I can’t guarantee it. They’re still wild animals, intelligent, co-ordinated, but still wild animals. Again why I was coming here for new weapons and ammo, to give myself more of a chance at survival.” The raptor trainer explained.
Internally Owen was worried about his girls, but he was sure they’d be able to escape from the two larger predators, but they’d be able to track him down to here, Blue likely could find him just about anywhere now, after what they did, his thoughts conjured up night situations where the raptor enter the building coming into contact with Alice and the others, one side killing the other and leaving him with nothing left, he had to make sure the raptors stayed away.
“Until the storm hits we’d best try and rest, you got any spare com bracelets?” Owen asked.
“None sorry, no radios either.” Tom replied.
“You can borrow mine Owen.” Craig replied as he removed the advanced device from his wrist and passed it over.
“What do you need it for?” Alice asked.
“Check the perimeter, I’d prefer we have no sudden surprises.” He replied then made his way to the armoury.
“Whoa now hang on.” Tom raised his hand to stop Owen.
“We need to trust each other if this is going to work, here it’s us versus them.” Owen and Tom stared one another down.
“Let him through Tom, he’s right.” Alice ordered.
Tom didn’t like it but stepped aside allowing Owen to enter. Inside the armoury Owen found rifles, sidearms and shotguns, varying calibres and configurations. He was familiar with them all having used similar during his time in the Navy. Owen grabbed a Heckler and Koch HK417, a rifle based on the AR-10/15 platform chambered in 7.62 NATO. The rifle wasn’t too heavy, it was robust and had an adequate red dot sight on weapon’s top rail.
“You know how to use that thing?” Tom asked snidely as he crossed his arms.
“I’ve used similar when I was in the Navy, a lot of the old skills translate well enough.” Owen replied without taking his eyes from the weapon, there were a couple of loaded magazine near the stack, loaded the weapons and cocked it before aiming down the sight.
‘Excellent.’ Owen thought to himself, he retrieved a simple Glock 17 pistol with holster and spare magazines.
“All loaded up cowboy?” Craig asked as Owen stepped out of the armoury with his new weapons.
“I’m feeling a little more confidant in my safety, but only a little.” Owen replied with a shrug, “I’ll keep in touch is if I see anything.”
“Don’t go running on us now.” Alice said in a joking manner, but Owen felt she was being deadly serious.
“Nowhere to go, way too much ground to cover between here and my old safehouse and too many dinosaurs in between, sorry to say you’re stuck with me.” Owen replied with his best charming smile before making his way to the entrance.
Once out of sight he looked down to his wrist communicator, he recalled the instruction of the device’s operation years back when he’d first started and spoke with the ACU Commander Hamada, the man had asked Owen to potentially be a reserve ACU operative just in case of emergency, Owen had accepted and was thankful for it. Owen focussed as he came upon the door, he gazed through the door’s small window and looked around cautiously, the rifle’s butt pressed against his shoulder, trying to see any sign of Martha. Nothing, good. Owen carefully unlocked the door and pulled the door open, he glanced around further ensuring the coast was truly clear.
“Okay, the coast is clear, I’m heading out.” Owen spoke into his wrist device.
“Careful Grady, we just met you, rather not have you get eaten.” Dennis replied. “I’ll keep my eyes on the camera.”
“Roger that.” Owen replied then deactivated the device’s microphone. He knew he could switch it on quickly if something came up. Owen closed the door behind him then slowly made his way around perimeter, his eyes primarily focussed on where he’d ran from and the foliage around it. “Are you there Martha?” Owen whispered while keeping his rifle at the ready.
Owen was barely out for a minute when he heard a familiar barking. Pausing he looked up along the wall of the building, there he saw a damaged camera, safe from prying eyes Owen then looked around trying to pinpoint the bark’s location. Before he had a chance something stepped through the foliage, a raptor … Delta!
The plump raptor moved her head as if she were following her nose before her eyes focussed on Owen which opened wider in recognition, she turned and barked back into the trees. Just a few seconds later Blue came bursting out of the treeline as if the devil himself were chasing her and rushed towards Owen. Owen barely had a chance to brace himself before Blue barged into him, knocking him into the wall and rubbed herself over him affectionately, she chirped and barked softly happy to see her Alpha, her tongue lolled from her mouth and dragged across his face and neck.
“Ah! Blue!” Owen couldn’t help but laugh, noticing the other raptors trot up to them. He was so happy to see they were okay, but they needed to get out of there in case one of the ACU members saw them but how?
Blue stepped back and started in inhale his scent, followed by her sniffing him inquisitively likely detecting the others scent on him. Blue barked then looked off to the side.
“Blue, Blue! Listen,” oh god Owen knew this wouldn’t work but he had to try, “you and the girls need to go, go, you need to go, go back under cover! You can’t get seen, there’s other people here, you have to at least hide.” All this was far too specific, and he knew it, but damn it he needed to get the girls out of there lest the ACU guys see them. “Blue please you and your sisters have to go. Go! Go home please!” He pleaded as he stroked her neck and jaw hoping and praying she’d understand
Blue chittered softly as she enjoyed Alpha’s touch. But something was amiss about his scent, she smelt others on him. Other Alpha-kind. Why were they here? Where were they? She looked to the structure behind Alpha, were they in there? She growled then chittered inquisitively, she could detect different scents on him other than that of hers and her sisters, one was definitely female!
Blue snarled, her lips peeling back revealing her large teeth, she knew the scent of female Alpha-kind from the female in white. Alpha had once tried for her favour, she knew this and hated it, she could smell the arousal on him, but then the arousal went, something had happened. She didn’t know what nor did she care all she knew was Alpha no longer saw female-in-white as a potential mate. But now! There was another female! Was she trying to steal Alpha from her? From them!? No! She sniffed Alpha once more, she could not smell arousal on him, this was good!
Alpha then speaks one word in his tongue she understands: storm! She knew that word. She hated that word. Her thoughts are cast back to when she and her sisters was small, still only infants and living in Alpha’s den. The light-time quickly turned to dark and it roared like a great predator. She and her siblings were terrified! They’d cried for alpha and run for his embrace. Alpha wasn’t scared. He welcomed them into his big strong arms, soft tone of voice cooing them, his nimble clawless hands caressing and stroking them making them secure and safe, many flashes of light and rain had followed. Even when they had grown she did not like storms, she was no longer afraid of them, she was too big to be afraid but it didn’t mean she wouldn’t keep herself covered and out of the storm.
Blue barked and looked up to the sky, she sniffed at the air. She could smell nothing. No coming rain or storm. How did Alpha know? She chittered softly in thought, Alpha’s kind had ways of knowing things, she knew this, she didn’t know how they knew but she knew that they knew.
Sister Alpha-Beta? Alpha speaks of storm? Charlie barked in questioning beside her.
Storm! Need to return to nest. Blue chittered in reply.
Hate! Need to cover. Echo hissed and shuddered at the thought.
How will Alpha return? His strange beast is dead. Delta then pointed out.
Blue hissed in thought. Alpha’s strange beast was dead, she and her sisters had come upon it bits of its hide broken away across the floor.
We will escort him! Blue barked then looked to Alpha, the stepped around him suddenly and pushed against his back with head, shoving him away from the building. Only to have Alpha bark at her to stop.
A part of Owen genuinely found it endearing when Blue had tried, and successfully, pushed him away from the building before he called to her to stop. The raptor did indeed stop her shoving and stepped around him inquisitively chirping softly with a tilt of her head.
“I stay. I stay. You go! You go!” Owen said using as basic commands as he could.
Blue blinked rapidly then looked to her sisters who were looking between the Alpha and Beta. A quiet warble came from the blue striped raptor but she barked at her sisters, the four of them took off where they came.
Owen released a slow shuddering breath and rubbed his eyes, he couldn’t believe that worked but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Owen waited a few seconds, gazing out to the foliage to see if there was any sign of the raptors. Nothing. He thought it best to check in with the others, unmuting his communication device he raised it to his face.
“Dennis you reading me buddy?”
The was a momentary delay before he got his reply. “Loud and clear what’s up?”
Owen glanced around again. “Thought I saw movement in the treeline by the main exit where Craig got me, can you check?” He asked while keeping his voice level.
“Sorry man camera there is busted, if you think you saw something either head back or move forward, your choice but get out of there.” Dennis replied worried yet professionally tone.
“Will do, Owen out.” Owen replied and muted the device once more before walking on, rifle ready in his grip.
Thankfully the rest of Owen’s perimeter search while nerve wracking was eventless, he found the other entrance was closed and locked, he decided he’d check to see if the other side was barricaded once he was done with his sweep. Owen quickly cast another look to the treeline; nothing.
‘Keep it together Owen.’ He chastised himself. Though admitted to himself, a little paranoia never hurt anyone in Jurassic World.
The remainder of the sweep was rather uneventful, eventually coming back round to the door he’d come out from. He raised his communication device to his mouth. “Alright I’m back. Everything looks clear.” He announced before opening the door and stepped through, locking the door once he closed it.
Back in the main room he found Dennis still sat at the computer looking through cameras and Alice sat beside him, with her eyes closed, though she still seemed to be awake as she seemed to be talking to Dennis. Craig was snoozing against the wall with his eyes closed, and rifle snuggled in his arms like a teddy bear. Tom, the miserable trigger twitchy fuck, was still in the armoury, checking over the weapons once more. Admittedly Owen didn’t trust the guy, didn’t like him, if anything could go wrong with the plan he imagined it would because by Tom.
“Welcome back.” Dennis called to Owen as he spun around in his chair to face the man. “Alice here was getting worried about you.” He said with a smug grin.
“Fuck off.” Alice muttered tiredly and rubbed her eyes with a finger and thumb.
“So what do we do now?” Owen asked.
“Well if we’re still going with the plan, I say all we can do now is wait, maybe send someone to do a perimeter sweep every so often.” Alice replied, awakening slightly. One eye opened and focussed on Owen. “The storm is definitely heading in our direction, not slowing down.”
Owen nodded. He hated waiting, but it seemed that was all he could do now. “I’m going to go check the other entrance if that’s alright?”
Alice nodded in agreement, “Thanks, we had to barricade the door since the lock was broken.”
That didn’t sound good. “Why was the lock broken?” Owen asked as he looked between Alice and Dennis.
“We weren’t sure. We did a full sweep of the area but we didn’t find anything, this was back when there was more of us.” Dennis replied with a sullen shake of the head.
Owen was quiet in thought before turning towards the other corridor. “I’ll go take a look.” He muttered just loud enough for them to hear before marching off, leaving the others to their rest.
Owen was cautious as he stalked the quiet halls of the ACU building, the only thing that broke the eerie silence was the clunk of his boots against the floor. Owen kept himself aware, his eyes scanning short corridors, meeting and presentation rooms and the ceiling, the Alien movies briefly flashing through his head as if some unseen predator stalked him in the rafters. Regardless Owen tried his best to ensure he wouldn’t be taken off guard, lately that’d happened more often than Owen liked, his old C.O. in the Navy would’ve had his head for it.
After a tense though short period of time Owen came upon the other door, as they’d said the door was barricaded; desks, chairs and anything else not nailed down had been piled up in front of the door and for the most part looked undisturbed. Still though it was a potential security breach that Owen wasn’t comfortable with, the quicker the storm came the quicker they could leave.
With his mind more at ease Owen returned to the command area, where the others were napping, apart from Dennis.
“How you holdin’ up bud?” Owen asked quietly as he made his way to the man.
Dennis glanced to the snoozing Alice beside him then focussed on Owen. “Not bad,” he whispered, “just glad we’re doing something now you know? We’ve been here a while and this place is getting awfully claustrophobic.” Dennis looked around the room as he spoke.
“How long you worked here?” Owen asked as he sat on the nearest chair.
Dennis paused a moment before answering. “Few months, maybe a year now. Don’t quite recall, time flies by you know?”
Owen nodded. Time did fly at Jurassic World. He just wished it’d fly by now.
“How long were you in the Navy?” Dennis asked suddenly, likely wanting to kill time than any form of curiosity.
“I joined when I was around twenty,” Owen shook his head a little from side to side as he thought, “eehh, nineteen – twenty-ish, I was there for a long few years before getting this job, been here around three years no give or take the month.”
Owen could scarcely believe how time had flown by, it almost felt like yesterday when he’d first met Blue, then a few weeks later with the rest of the girls. But then his mind did go back to yesterday, that night when Blue and he … Owen paused his thoughts. Now wasn’t the time to get wrapped up in an emotional, moralistic, or existential crisis.
“You want me to keep guard?” Owen asked. “You look like you could do with a nap,” Dennis seemed to think it over, “I’ll keep my eye on the cameras, see if anything happens.”
Dennis relented and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I could do with some shut eye, eyes are beginning to strain looking at that damn screen for so long.”
“No problem my man.” Was all Owen replied with as Dennis sat back in his seat and closed his eyes.
“Wake us if anything happens.” Dennis said tiredly as sleep already started to claim him.
“You got it.” Owen replied as he looked to the screen, soon enough Dennis was asleep leaving Owen to his thoughts. He looked around to the others. Tom was sleeping in the armoury; guy really had a problem. Alice and Dennis were beside Owen as they slumbered. And big bald Craig was asleep by the wall.
Impulsively Owen checked his rifle, magazine properly locked in place, safety on, round chambered, buttstock extended comfortably. Owen shook his head, boredom already settling in as he looked to the screens.
Hours passed by slowly, Owen switching through camera screen to camera screen, the only thing to gained his attention was the brief appearance of a Baryonyx stepping briefly through the tree line, the large dinosaur sniffed the air then stomped of to elsewhere. Other than that there wasn’t even a peep of activity, not till he heard Craig awaken behind him.
“Hey Owen,” the larger man greeted, Owen heard his boots against the flooring as the man stepped closer, “how’s the storm looking?”
“From what your info says, still a few hours away but it’s still heading this way.” Owen replied tiredly.
“Hey get some sleep yourself, I can take over from here.” Craig offered patting the raptor handler on the shoulder.
“Thanks bud.” Owen got up out of the chair, stretching with a yawn before making his way to where Craig had been sat, with the taller man taking Owen’s chair, then sat down. Owen’s eyes were heavy from boredom and all but slammed shut when given the chance, Owen fell to sleep shortly after.
“You know you’re kind of a romantic.” Came the strange yet familiar voice.
Owen snapped awake, or so he thought. He was back at his home, sat at a small round table outside in the fresh air, a bottle of beer in his hand.
“Uh, how do you mean?” he asked automatically.
The woman, this “Dream Blue” stepped into his field of view and sat down opposite him her own beer in her hand. “Blue” set her wild eyes on his and grinned largely with inhuman teeth and leaned closer to him.
“You wanting these guys off the island, wanting to be here all alone with your special girl.” She pulled back then patted her chest with both hands. “Me of course.” Her tone sly, her look predatory as she kept her focus on him. “All those lovely toys to protect your woman, face it Owen we’re a perfect match.”
Owen took a sip of his dream beer, it didn’t taste of anything really, perhaps at best a memory of a beer. “You think so?” he found himself asking.
Blue leaned closer, her hands laying flat against the table, her clawed fingers scratching its surface, an excited look on her face. “Absolutely, two dangerous predators, all that Naval training made you into a fine specimen and me well, I’m perfect in every way.” She leaned back and placed one hand on her hip and one on her head, striking a feminine pose. “Charming, beautiful, lethal. Long powerful legs, two thick thighs, my child-bearing hips. Long slender snout and razor-sharp teeth. Oh, I could go on all day, you know you could!” She chuckled darkly and relaxed back against her chair, picking up her beer once more.
“I, I don’t. I guess?” Owen stammered and looked away from her.
“So you don’t deny your feelings anymore? You don’t deny mine?” She asked softly.
“I don’t know okay!” He snapped. “This,” he said indicating them both with one hand, “shouldn’t be happening. But it is,” he added before she could. “I know it is. I. I know Blue loves me, she’s been acting so strange since last night, no, even before then. Since that day night weeks ago when I was thrown into the raptor pen, she was acting so different.”
Blue was quiet, leaning on the table on an elbow her head cradled in her palm.
Owen looked at her. “I care for her too. It’s not,” he paused to get his own muddled chaotic words right, “It’s not the same as I’d feel for other women, like Claire or …”
“Don’t say their names,” Blue suddenly spoke up softly, a saddened look in her eyes, “I know how much it hurts.”
“Yeah I guess you would.” Owen looked down to the table, sipping his imaginary beer once more.
“I’d never hurt you Owen, Blue would never hurt you, not on purpose! You know how much I love you, I’ve proven it to you, my love transcends species! You were hurt, weak and yet I held you close. You were prey and yet I made you my king! I gave you my body and my heart. My love isn’t human Owen, but it isn’t any less my love.” She argued back passionately, her voice almost pleading at times.
Owen looked to her to see the woman gone and the raptor sat beside him. “I love you.” She said through a mouth that could never speak such words. “And I know you love me. I always have, and I always will, I’ll never leave your side.” The raptor huffed humorously. “Face it Grady, you’re stuck with me.”
Despite the change Owen smiled, he leaned closer towards the dream raptor as she too leaned closer, two pairs of dream eyes closing as mouths met.
Blue awoke from her slumber. Light-time having turned to dark, she heard the sky roar loudly and flashes of light from above, the howling wind rustling the bushes and shaking the trees, the sound and smell of the rain as it splattered against the leaves and bushes that hid her and her sisters, she focussed ahead and looked at the strange structure Alpha was in. She didn’t know what it was, or what it was for but Alpha was in there and didn’t want them in; she had figured out that much likely to do with the other Alpha-kind she smelt on him. Others were dangerous, not pack. But she wouldn’t stray far from Alpha, she had gone against his wishes but in her mind it was for his own sake. Pack stayed together. Safer together.
Storm here. Echo chittered softly beside her rousing her further from her slumber.
I know. She replied quietly.
Eldest sister what do we do? Charlie chirped
Alpha is smart. Strange smart. Likely be doing Alpha-smart thinking. Blue replied without taking her eyes from the structure. She understood enough that Alpha and his kind thought differently from them, thought much more than them in ways she’d never understand, yet she could understand that their den had been made by Alpha-kind, how else could they know how it worked? She and her sisters would never know how to make one like so.
Delta stepped forward, subtly poking her head through the foliage. What if Alpha is taken from us by Alpha-kind? She chittered.
Then they are prey. Blue hissed.
Suddenly something caught the raptors’ attention. The structure opened like the entryway of their den. Alpha-kind came stepping out of it wielding loud noise makers.
There, Alpha! Charlie barked quietly.
His scent hit them, the smell of familiarity, home and pack, for a moment the rain, the wind the brief light in the sky no longer mattered and all was well with the pack once more. Blue felt herself sigh with relief as she tracked her mate.
Alpha didn’t seem to be under attack, they seemed to be moving together. But why? Where were they going?
Is Alpha going with them? Echo chittered aloud in thought.
No. Blue replied quietly, her gaze zeroed on her mate. Alpha is smart. Doing Alpha-smart thing. Follow quietly. Stalk. Hunt. No biting. Blue ordered as the raptors followed them while keeping to the bushes and trees.
Ten minutes ago.
Owen was shaken from his slumber, literally. Immediately Owen was aware, his rifle at the ready.
“What, what’s up?”
“It’s time Owen.” Craig replied and looked to Alice.
“You ready Grady?” She asked as she slung her own rifle, the same model as their own, around her chest.
“Yeah, I’m ready.” Owen stood up from his chair and stepped towards the screen. From the cameras he could see the storm on top of them already, he flashes of lightning, the rumbling roar of the thunder, the rain was pouring down upon them.
“Started up not too long ago, figured we’d let it really get going before we go out.” Alice stated.
“Good idea.” Owen responded then whistled with amusement. “God damn! It’s really letting us have it.”
“All the better for us though right?” Craig added from the back.
“Damn right.” Owen could hear the smirk in Alice’s voice.
“I still think you’re all insane and we’re going to get fuckin’ eaten.” Tom complained once more but seemed as ready as the rest of them.
“Eaten or starved Tom, how’d you want to go?” Owen asked as he turned to the man.
“Old surrounded by whores I just bought while in the playboy mansion.” The Aussie replied in a snarky tone.
“Not a bad way to go.” Owen relented with a nod of his head, the other guys nodding quietly in agreement.
Alice shook her head with disgust. “Your all pigs and I hate you.”
The others laughed quietly; the tension alleviated some.
“Alright fuck it,” Tom pulled a short-barrelled shotgun from his back and cocked the weapon, “got no other ideas.”
“Alright listen,” Alice spoke up, waiting only a second as everyone’s attention turned to her. “We move in a two by one by two formation. Tom I want you to be the one, Craig and I will be upfront, Dennis and Owen at the back, we don’t stray too far from one another, we keep our eyes and ears open to anything, you get me gentlemen? Anything.” She stressed. “Keep to formation, move quickly, weapons at the ready at all times, stocks do not leave shoulders am I understood?”
“Yes ma’am.” “Got it.” “You got it Alice” “Sure.” Came the replies.
“Hopefully we’ll all make it to shelter and when we’re back on the mainland Tom’s buying drinks. Thanks Tom.” Alice concluded smirking at Tom getting a chuckle from the others while the Australian gave her the finger despite his own smirk.
“Alright, grab any shit we may need later because we are leaving a.s.a.p.” Alice ordered.
Owen checked himself once more. H&K 417 cocked and locked, single shot at the ready, three spare magazines, twenty rounds apiece, eighty round in total of 7.62 NATO. Glock 17 in a thigh holster, magazines fully loaded, a few spare mags loaded up in mag holders and if it came to it, he still had his lever-action Marlin on his back with a few spare rounds.
“I’m ready, don’t know about you.” He said to the others.
They all nodded having done their own checks.
“Alright, say goodbye to this place boys because we’re out of here.” Alice said then moved first pulling Craig with her, the big man already combat ready with his rifle pressing against his shoulder. Alice unlocked the door and pulled it open, Craig stepped out scanning the immediate area, visibility wasn’t great but that just meant it was worse for any predators. Or so they thought.
“Clear!” Craig shouted to the others over the howling wind then stepped out into the storm instantly getting soaked to the bone. Alice stepped out after lining herself up a few metres to his right, Tom followed behind and between them, forming a triangle, then Owen and Dennis followed, with Owen staying on the left side and Dennis on the right.
The group moved fast, fighting against the wind as it pushed against them, their eyes scrunching together, near closed, to keep the rain from blinding them.
Admittedly, Owen knew in the back of his mind that the plan was insane, the ACU building was a good distance away from the Command Centre. But damn it they had to try, fortunately it seemed as if Owen’s idea was working, despite their own difficulties in the storm, they seemed to be camouflaged from danger.
Quickly the group had to move into the trees, their field of view sliced in half but they kept to their formation, they kept their eyes opened to their surroundings, despite the odds, Owen felt as if they could actually pull this off.
Ten or so minutes in they found themselves breathing heavier, their limbs starting to ache, but still they pushed on, a few close scares had kept the groups wits about them. A close encounter with a herd of Stegosaurus, some getting defensive as the group ran past the babies, as well as a run in with a few stray Gallimimus but no large predators.
Suddenly the earth beneath them began to shake, they all felt it, there was no way they couldn’t. The earth shook once more. The wind, the rain, and thunder and lightning blocked out the sound of its approach, all they knew was that it, something, was there somewhere.
Owen thought he heard Alice yelled to them, but the wind blowing to their left all but pulled Alice’s voice away from their ears.
The earth shook once more, then again, then again, then again. More and more growing more frequent, growing faster.
Owen glanced over his shoulder and his eyes shot open.
“CONTACT!” He yelled as loud as his lungs would let him, he turned and fired at the approaching beast.
Dennis caught notice of the gunfire, turning back he saw the monster, aiding Owen he turned and fired.
The Allosaurus roared as 7.62 calibre bullets pounded into her hide, the great dinosaur ducked quickly between the trees. Dennis and Owen took the opportunity to turn and run, the others had already taken notice of the gunfire, glancing occasionally behind their shoulders, as the rearward pair continue to run Tom turned about and fired above and behind them, Dennis and Owen hazard a look back, seeing the Allosaurus growing close and aided Tom in firing at the beast. With a flash of lightning Owen caught sight of the beast’s features, a scarred face and three long scars running down its right eye. Martha.
Tom seemed to take notice too. He must’ve switched his weapon to automatic and fired rapidly at the beast.
“FUCK YOUR ALIMONY MARTHA!” Owen heard Tom yell. Then again with how loud the Aussie could be, they likely heard him in Costa Rica.
Owen and Dennis turned once the beast took cover once more, Tom was still ahead of them, running as well, dropping his empty magazine and loaded in a fresh one. They’d come too far now to be eaten by the apparent dinosaur equivalent of Tom’s ex-wife!
Martha roared just to the side of Owen and Dennis, the former grabbing the latter and dived out of the way, Martha’s jaws snapped close a little too close to where they’d been.
“Oh SHIT!” Dennis cried out realising he’d been within death’s reach.
Owen was back on his feet, rifle up and firing at the large beast. The Allosaurus spun around, blocking the pair off from the others and roared at the pair of them in rage. Owen grabbed Dennis and pulled the man to his feet the pair quickly dashing out of the way as Martha’s jaws came down towards them. The pair ran off to the side using the trees to try and get around the Allosaurus but with no luck, the large beast’s jaws snapped down feet away from them forcing the pair to run further in the wrong direction.
Owen turned firing his gun only once before the weapon ran empty. Cursing under his breath Owen turned back and ran while reloading his weapon. Dennis turned and fired blindly behind them hoping to hit the beast as it chased after them.
“OWEN! WHAT DO WE DO!?” Dennis cried out in terror as the Allosaurus drew near. Owen turned and fired rapidly at Martha, who for whatever reason hadn’t caught up to them instead was roaring at something else before focussing on the pair and continued her chase. Owen turned back and there in his peripheral vision was their hope; a small building composed of concrete and steel parts of the structure overrun with vines.
“EMERGENCY SHELTER!” Owen yelled, grabbing Dennis and pulled the man towards it.
Owen glanced back, not seeing the Allosaurus, worry and sweat poured down his face alongside the rain. “DENNIS!” He shouted getting the man’s attention over the storm. “HEAD TO THE SHELTER. GET THE DOOR OPEN!”
Dennis nodded in panic and sprinted towards the structure; Owen turned around yet still making sure to kept moving closer to the shelter. His eyes scanned the trees for any subtle movement, flashes of lightning illuminating the area for only a second.
“OWEN! IT’S RUSTED!” Dennis called out in panic as he tried to open the door.
Owen searched the trees once more before dashing towards Dennis.
“The damn thing’s stuck!” Dennis cried out.
“Watch our backs!” Owen pulled his knife from its sheath then started to jam it between any gap he could find in the door.
Then the ground shook once more. Martha could be heard roaring somewhere amongst the trees.
Owen’s blade found a spot and sunk a little deeper. Owen grimaced then jolted his blade to the side trying to force the door open. The rusted screeching of the door’s steel hinges could only minutely be heard over the roaring winds and thunder.
“DENNIS GRAB THE HANDLE! PULL!” Owen yelled as the door started to move.
Dennis did so in an instant, he grabbed the large steel handle and pulled, the rusty metal bar digging into his palms painfully. Owen re-sheathes his knife and starts pushing against the door. From behind them the Allosaurus roars. The ground starts to shake as the beasts storms towards them.
‘Come on! Come on!’ Owen mentally cries then slams his shoulder into the door and pushes with all his weight. The hinges groans, the door continues to move bit by bit. Martha roars.
Without a word, Owen grabs Dennis as he squeezes through the gap. Dennis’ eyes land on the Allosaurs her mouth wide open as she rushes towards them. Martha roars as he mouth descends upon Dennis, the man screams in terror as the mouth closes. Owen wraps his hands around the man’s gear and pulls with all his might, the duo fall back into the shelter hitting the floor just as Martha’s jaws snapped closed.
“CLOSE THE DOOR!” Owen yells. “We need to close the door!”
Dennis doesn’t think, only reacts. Both are back up, grabbing the door’s steel handles and pull it towards them, slamming the door shut with a rusted screech. Owen takes the large steel bar and slams it into the structures frame, locking the door. Martha roars with anger on the other side.
“Oh god!” Dennis collapses to the floor as his nerves finally give out. “Oh god that was far too close. Way, way too close.”
Owen nodded slowly, his own nerves shattered, but not so much as he thought they’d be. Being under constant attack by large predators seemed to have dulled the experience for him. Owen almost laughed at the thought.
Owen looked around the room, noting the out-dated computer equipment on the far side of the room, as well now taking note of the rusted door hinges, his eyes focus on something just above the computers, a familiar symbol but with faded red, white and black paint, he laughed briefly despite their situation.
“Hey Dennis?” he says getting the shaking man’s attention, Owen turns to look at him, “Welcome to Jurassic Park.”