"Would you believe me if I said no?" I ask the man, partially joking, partially serious.
"No…I don't care how, frankly if it weren't for you I'd have died in that ambush…now we better go help that girl you came with…get the power back on, so we can call for a ride off of this bloody island."
~~ — — — — — — — — — — ~~
I nod to Muldoon's statement as I am worried about Ellie's safety even though all the adult raptors should be dead now, "You said there were only three raptors, correct?"
"Aye, why?"
"We found a hatched clutch of eggs, in an abandoned nest in one of the herbivore paddocks…I'm wondering if there aren't more raptors that were kept hidden by this girl…" I say and lean down running my right hand along Clever Girl's spine, before sliding it down and gripping Clever Girl's ankle and lifting her leg.
"That…wouldn't surprise me, I've never truly been on board with what Hammond and his Doctor Frankenstein are doing here with these creatures."
"Ahh, fuck…Muldoon, we have a problem…" I curse, because like avian and crocodilian species a raptor's reproductive organs but the sex is obvious, Clever Girl is actually Clever Boy, which is odd because typically females are bigger than males.
"Well don't keep me in suspense!" Muldoon says tensely.
"There are more raptors, Clever Girl here is actually Clever Boy." I grunt and rip the long claw like the one Dad dropped last night and the one I forgot to look for this morning and stuff it in my shoulder bag.
"I wondered why they didn't eat the steers entirely…even if there are more raptors loose they shouldn't be lethal yet."
"I wouldn't bet on it, not with Henry Wu and his filling in the gaps with other animal DNA, there's a good chance we're dealing with fully grown Velociraptors." I grunt as and pull the same talon-like claw from Clever Boy's other foot and stash it in my bag before removing my knife.
"More Velociraptors, I told Hammond to kill them all off and not make anymore, Bloody, Greedy, Arrogant imbecile." Muldoon curses and and I shrug the man and I make out way to the entrance of the power station.
"You going first or am I?"
"I have, the gun." Muldoon answers back and I open the door for him, we make our way down the metal stairs, "Looks like we found what is left of Mr.Arnold he was a good man, what little I knew of him." Muldoon mutters as we pass by the bloody shreds of a white lab coat with an I.D badge somehow in perfect condition clipped to a piece of blood soaked cloth, the badge has a picture of Samuel L Jackson's face on it.
'Ahh, shit…Ellie…I hope you're still alive and whole…' I think as we descend further down into darkness, well darkness for Muldoon for me I can still see, though I don't much care for the fact that I'm not seeing what ate Arnold yet, which means it or they are after Ellie, hopefully not eating her.
I let out a breath of relief at hearing Ellie screaming, they aren't screams of pain, but fear, "STAY BACK, STAY BACK!!!" Ellie screams Muldoon and slow down our footsteps becoming much more cautious in an attempt to lessen the nose we make as we walk, the sight that greets us…is as terrifying as it is beautiful, a dozen raptors in various shades of colors with a kinda tiger print look to them, they all stand at about abdomen level on Ellie, they are attacking a safety cage that Ellie has locked herself in she holds the served arm of Mr.Arnold out like a club mangles bloody end out.
"You were right, these Raptors are already juveniles…" Muldoon mutters, "There's nothing we can do for her, I only have three rounds in my shotgun and fighting them by hand is madness, they are lethal."
"I won't abandon Ellie, leave me your gun and go set up bait by the door to draw them out…if we don't make it." Muldoon turns and looks at me, his face fully illuminated slightly by the dim red emergency lighting on this floor.
There's a sense of something passing between us, Muldoon hands me his shotgun and starts to leave, "Goodluck, if you don't make it there will be stories about a man who rode on the back of a Tyrannosaur." With those words Muldoon leaves.
'and now would be the time for my godly umbrella…' I think and I can feel it ready to come to me, but I change my mind, take aim with Muldoon's shotgun, and squeeze the trigger making one of the Raptors head explode into a shower of brain matter and viscera.
A couple of the raptors fall on their fallen sibling and begin eating it, ravenously, 'An effect of the accelerated growth maybe?' I wonder at their hungry state and seemingly less intelligent route to problem solving.
Ejecting the spent round casing, and loading a fresh round in the chamber by pumping the charge handle, I take aim again and drop another raptor, 'Boy am I glad Muldoon packed slugs and not shot.' I think as I repeat my action of ejecting and and loading another round taking aim and dropping another, my third shot the main mass of raptors no longer ignore me.
I take aim one last time and blast a Raptor in it's chest as it lunges at me, but it's wait hit me knocking me backwards, the back of my legs hitting the step behind the one I'm standing on makes me fall backwards onto my ass, more raptors descend on me, their sharp teeth dig into my flesh and rip chunks away as sharp talons pierce my belly.
The pain is immense furthered by my healing, I fight back flinging a raptor off of me only for another to take its place, I hear Ellie screaming my name, in terror for me.
'Getting your thrills from life now, bet you're glad your subconscious picked all those healing powers, aren't you dumbass…'
I zone out and at some point manage to get my knife out, I make it to the cage where Ellie is, it's almost torn down now Ellie is sitting on the floor with her back pressed against exposed electrical cables, Mr.Arnold arm still extended out in front of her, as my entrails…get sucked back up into my abdominal area and my stomach seals itself back together.
"Al-Alec, is that…is that really you?" Ellie asks me as I sit back on my haunches in front of her and gently remove her hands from Mr.Arnold's limb.
"Yeah, it's me Ellie." I say in a gentle murmur and Ellie tackles me in a hug and starts sobbing and blabbering about how she was so worried about me.
I give her a few minutes to let her cry, "Ellie, we need to get the power back on so we can go find Lex, Dad and Tim." I say to Ellie in a gentle but firm manner and she nods her head against my chest.
~~ — — — — — — — — — — ~~
At the visitor's center Alan, Tim, and Lex come to find that the visitor's center has been deserted.
"Well, let's go get some food and then we can figure out where all the people went." Alan says as they walk in the direction of the restaurant each yelling, "Hello?!" Hoping that somebody would answer them but nobody answers.
The three beat up exhausted and hungry survivors enter the restaurant, Alan carefully sets Tim down in a chair at one of the tables, and Lex sits down across from Tim.
"I am gonna have to find the others and get you to a doctor…that ankle looks bad, Lex will you look after Tim, Lex?" Grant says to Tim with a gentle expression on his face Tim reminds him so much of a young Alec right now, it's hard not to tear up at the deep feelings of loss he feels at this moment, he turns to Lex and asks her to watch after Tim, but she doesn't seem to hear him so he calls out to her again.
"Huh, yeah I can look after the Dweeb." Lex says in such a way that you can tell she is covering her fear.
Alan nods to the girl as he sees just how much of an effect Alec had on her, 'I wouldn't have minded her becoming my daughter in law, or being a grandpa.' Alan thinks as he looks back at Tim for a second, and for a second it's like he's looking at a young Alec again before his hair turned to a sandy blonde.
"Your hair's a mess." Alan chuckles despite himself and starts to gently rearrange Tim's wild hair, Tim looks up at him weakly and manages a smile.
"Alec, said you didn't like kids, but once you warmed up to us you'd be nice." Tim says and his bottom lip trembles as his eyes become watery, Alan finds himself in a tight hug.
Alan smiles and takes on a considered face as if debating something, "It's not that I hate kids…I'm just uncomfortable around other people's, Alec was always smart, never whiny, oh sure he'd fight me all the time in almost everything but there was an intelligence to it, most kids are just annoying to be annoying." Alan says and feels a little uncomfortable at the odd looks the kids give him.
"You don't really have much experience with kids outside of Alec, or in environments where they would rather not be…do you?" Lex asks and Alan knowing that look on a woman's face decides to change the subject.
"I'll be back soon, guys…I promise." Alan says as he beats a hasty retreat from the kids and the restaurant, a small part wondering if he ruined his son's childhood, Alec never complained except for when it came to leaving behind that damned tiger cub, and for a few months after that he was an absolute terror to be around made worse when one of his friend's daughter called and told him a poacher killed the cub.
As Alan leaves the lights suddenly come on and thanks to this Tim and Lex can see his silhouette, moving through a translucent mural that depicts dinosaurs in various natural settings.
It's quiet…too quiet that is until
Lex and Tim just look at each other, and then to an all-you-can-eat table on the other side of the dining room, piles of food piled high on trays.
"Food…" Tim mutters, and Lex nods, "Food." Tim goes to stand, "Sit, I'll bring some over for you." Lex tells Tim, "Thanks Dweeb." Tim thanks his big sister with a smile, and Lex flips him the bird with her own smile.
Tim gasps in mock shock, "Lex how could you?!" He jokes as Lex giggles, "Just like this, Geekasaurous Rex." She says back to him but freezes in place as the word Rex pops into her head she sees a scenario of Alec being eaten like the goat and then the Gallimimus in her head thanks to a powerful imagination, and she drops on her hands and knees and hurls.
"Lex!" Tim shouts in fear and worry for his sister, and jumps out of his seat, hobbles over to her and hugs her.
"I'm sure he's fine Lex, he'll probably be here any minute, I bet he even helped turn the power back on, he's awesome like that." Tim tries to comfort but he doesn't have faith in his own words.
"It's just…he made me feel so safe…and…and I liked him…now, now he's just gone. It hurts more than Dad divorcing mom for his assistant."
Tim doesn't say anything but limps over to the buffet table and piles up a couple of plates with food, setting the plates down on the table they sat at.
Seeing the effort her little brother went through to actually get them food walking on his ankle the way it is Lex picks herself up off of the floor, and returns to the table.
"Grabbed your favorites." Tim says to Lex with a timid smile, Lex offers a shaky smile back as she begins to dig in, munching on veggies, grabbing food with two hands.
Tim enjoys his food, too, but isn't eating as voraciously as his sister, Lex grabs the plastic egg that Tim had grabbed her finding that it is filled with lime Jell-O, she grabs a spoon from the table and spoons out a spoonful of lime Jell-O from the plastic dinosaur egg cup, but her hand freezes halfway to her mouth.
Tim looks up, and sees the expression on Lex's face as she stares over his shoulder, eyes wide, hands trembling so much, so that the Jell-O quivers on the spoon.
(So I'm trying to decide between dilophosaurus attack in the restaurant, or mc walking in like a boss covered in blood beside Ellie, Alan and Muldoon, or maybe a bit of both.)