Jump | Zach Mitchell

thirty-five

WE make it back to the Innovation Center in one piece. 

...somehow.

Claire parks and hurries around the side of the ambulance to help me down while the boys climb out of the back and Owen stands on guard with his gun raised.

"Oh, careful, sweetheart," she chides when I slide slightly.

"Yeah, um, can you-"

"I've got her." Zach nudges his way between Claire and the ambulance. "Come here, Jonelle." His hands grip mine as I slowly stick a leg out. "You've got it. You're doing good." My feet touch the ground but my skirt slides up. He quickly bats it back into place for me.

"Thanks." I dust myself off, the icepack hanging heavy at my side. All the wiggling around I've done has caused it to come loose.

He isn't able to say anything else; Claire is ushering everyone into the Innovation Center, Gray taking the lead and Owen covering our backs. I keep one hand pressed against my side, holding the bandage in place.

"Control Room, that way!" Claire shouts, and we change course.

Despite how hard I try, my body literally will not let me run anymore. I slow to a jog, gasping while I clutch my injured side.

Owen's by my side in a second, assessing the situation.

"I'm sorry," I choke out. "Just... give me a minute..."

"Zach!" Owen calls sharply. "You ever shot before?"

Zach comes to a halt, staring at Owen incredulously. "Yeah... like, I've played paintball."

"Good enough." Owen passes him the gun. "Hold that. Make sure to keep it pointed down; the safety's off. If I tell you to shoot, you shoot." Then he throws me over his shoulder. I gasp slightly when the side of his head presses against the bruises. He takes a deep breath, adjusting to my weight. "Let's go."

---

THE Control Room has the same strange blue lighting that the Aid Room at the Raptor Paddock had, bathing everything in a strange cool glow. Owen finally stops running, and I take several ragged breaths.

"Hang in there, Jonelle," he commands.

Claire is slightly up ahead, looking through the glass doors to see into the empty stations. "They evacuated the lab," she whispers. She looks at Owen before proceeding to enter the Control Room.

From my position upside down on Owen's back, I can see a lot of cool stuff: computer screens with the current updates on different dinosaurs in the park, terrariums with lizards and snakes and frogs, cylindrical tubes containing what looks like spinal cords that stretch from ceiling to floor.

Of course, it would all be a lot cooler if I hadn't almost died here.

A door suddenly opens, causing everyone to whip around. My head bangs against one of the tanks and I whimper, removing one hand from its fisted position at the back of Owen's shirt to clutch at the now tender area.

"Sorry," Owen murmurs.

"It's okay," I snivel back.

I can't see what the new guys are doing, but it must be bad. I hear Claire's heels cross the tile floors. "What are you doing?" She demands.

"I'm afraid that's above your pay grade, honey."

Everyone turns now to face yet another new person that I can't see.

Claire takes a deep breath. "Where is Henry, Hoskins?"

Oh, great. This guy again.

"Dr. Wu? Oh, he works for us." Footsteps coming closer to the group of people that have protected me and cared for me. "See, somebody has got to make sure that this company has a future." A harsh laugh. "I mean, imagine the Indominous. It's been so successful. If we can get it to be a fraction of the size? Just as deadly? Just as intelligent? Still able to hide from the most advanced military technology?"

Owen shifts his weight and I sway slightly.

Hoskins continues his rant. "It would be a living weapon unlike anything that's ever been seen-"

He's cut off by a nasally roar. My stomach churns as Owen leaps back. I turn my head to the side to see Claire clutching Gray, and Zach standing still, gun raised with his gaze down the scope.

I can hear the guttural chirping of the Raptor. It's here. It's found us.

I let my head drop back down, pressing my face against Owen's back.

Hoskins tries to reason with the heaving Raptor, stammering through ridiculous sentences that the animal obviously can't understand. "Take it easy!" He scolds. "We're cool, all right? We're on the same side, right?"

There's a squishing sound and then Hoskins is screaming. It's a terrible noise, one filled with utter agony, and I'm suddenly glad that I can't see anything.

---

SURPRISE – we're running again: away from the Control Room, away from the Velociraptor, away from Hoskins' terrified screams as he's devoured alive.

I thump against Owen's back, each slam of his shoulder-blade into my injured side knocking the breath out of my lungs – not that I could get much air anyway.

The Raptor finishes with Hoskins too quickly, busting through the glass at the end of the hall. Claire shrieks and everyone turns around, sprinting in the opposite direction.

We make it outside of the Innovation Center, taking the steps two at a time, jostling me so hard that I almost pass out.

"Jonelle, how you doin'?" Owen shouts as he jumps over the last five steps. My whole torso lifts off him, then comes crashing back down on his shoulder.

"Uhhh..."

"Yeah, just hang in there."

There's another fucking roar. Owen skids to a stop, along with Claire and Zach and Gray. The second Velociraptor has decided to show up, based on the noise.

The doors drift open behind us – the stupid automated things – and the other Raptor comes. A third emerges from the shadows.

They've got us cornered. They know it.

Owen grabs my hips, suddenly lowering me to the ground.

My eyes go wide and I grab at him. "Owen, what are you-"

"Trust me."

I let him set me down.

He sighs. "Zach?" He holds out his hand. "Gun. Now."

Slowly, Zach maneuvers closer to Owen. His dark eyes dart back and forth, searching for any sudden movements from the Raptors. They just wait, tails flicking back and forth.

Owen's hands grip the gun tightly when it's back in his possession. He looks down at it, then looks at the Raptors.

He's going to have to shoot them. I know it, Zach knows it, Gray knows it. Even Claire. The Raptors won't stop until they're forced.

I can't imagine how hard this is for Owen. He was their Alpha. He loved these animals.

"So that's how it's going to be, huh?" He asks rhetorically, staring accusingly at the Velociraptors. "Fine."

He sets the gun down.