man destroys god || i. malcolm

10

Ellie and Muldoon were pacing enough to dig a rut into the ground. Aria sat next to Ian's table, her head resting on her hand, propped up by her elbow. Ian was gently playing with her hair.

"Can you please not pace? It's stressing me out even more."

Hammond stood at the other end of the table looking absolutely distraught. "This is just a delay, that's all this is. All major theme parks have delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked, nothing." He was only trying to convince himself at this point.

Ellie stopped her pacing, her face full of pity. "John..."

"But, John, if Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists." Ian said through grit teeth. His pain was getting worse. He'd done a well enough job pretending it wasn't earlier, but he was getting tired now.

"I can't wait anymore. Something went wrong, I'm going to go get the power back on."

"Don't." Aria spoke up, reaching out to the other woman. "Give it time, Ellie."

"You can't just stroll down the road." Muldoon huffed.

"Let's not be too hasty. He's only been gone..." John looked down at his watch and trailed off. Three minutes was long gone.

Muldoon walked over to a steel cabinet, revealing an array of weapons. "I'm going with you." He grabbed a shotgun and something that could only be described as a rocket launcher. John was rustling through blueprints before he came across the ones he was looking for. He spread it out and near-slammed the paper down on Ian's leg. Ian gasped, cursing. John sent him a half-assed apologetic look.

"This isn't like switching on the kitchen light, but I think I can follow this and talk you through it." Hammond explained. Ellie grabbed two walkie-talkies and walked over to the group. John reached out a hand to take one, but Ellie reached past him and handed it to Aria. "You've got this, Dr. Sattler." Aria attempted a reassuring smile.

"You know, I really should be the one to go." Hammond said.

"Why, 'cause it's your fault?" Aria muttered. Ellie asked why in a much more polite tone.

"Well, because you're a— and I'm a—"

"Oh, Christ." Aria rolled her eyes.

"We'll discuss sexism in survival situations when I get back," Ellie dashed up the stairs. "For now, take me through this step-by-step. Channel two."

As soon as the door shut behind Ellie and Muldoon, the air felt stifling.  Aria took a deep breath and pulled herself together. Ellie needed her now, she couldn't start panicking.

She stood on John's left, peeking at the diagram. John was talking to himself, trying to work out the path before Ellie asked.

Ian reached over to Aria, running his hand gently over her shoulder, pushing her hair back. Ellie had shed her button down before leaving so that Aria could wear it and cover herself more than with the bandages for her back. Aria turned to face Ian fully. He'd shaken her from her spiraling thoughts. "You okay?" He asked quietly.

"As much as I can be."

"We're going to make it out. I promise you, Aria."

"When we get off of this hellish island, do you want to go out for a drink? We don't even have to talk about dinosaurs if you don't want to."

Ian grinned, his strength seemingly returning. "Drinks, it is."

The radio crackled in Aria's hand, causing her to jump.

"I'm in." Ellie said through the walkie-talkie.

"Oh, good. Okay, so go down the metal stairway ahead of you." Aria looked down at the blueprint, following where John's finger was.

The old man lost patience in seconds, because he wrestled the walkie-talkie out of Aria's hand. "Right. So in about twenty or thirty feet, you'll come to a T-junction. Take a left."

"John, just have her follow the main cable—" Ian reached for the walkie-talkie to interrupt but John held it up out of his reach.

"I understand how to read a schematic." The old man grumbled.

Ellie's voice came back over the radio. "Going down the stairs, okay. Damn it! Dead end."

"Waiiit a minute, wait a minute." John scrambled, looking frantically over the blueprint. "There a was a right back there somewhere..."

Ian caught John off guard and snatched the radio away. "Ellie! Look above you, there should be a large bundle of cable and pipes all leading in the same direction! Follow that!"

"Piping... okay, following the piping. It goes back up the stairs..."

Aria stepped away for a moment to breathe. They were so close, Ellie would soon turn on the power and they'd call for help and get the hell out.

"I see the box... It says high voltage."

"Ellie, you can't throw the main switch by hand. You have to pump up the primer handle to give you a charge. It's large, flat, grey..."

"I see it!" A few seconds. "It's charged, okay!"

Aria was back at Hammond's side in an instant.

"Good!" Hammond sighed in relief. "Now, under the words 'contact position', there's a round green button that says, 'push to close'. Push it."

"Did I do it?"

"Now, Ellie, the red buttons turn on the individual park systems. Switch them on."

Ian was getting increasingly stressed. Aria patted his shoulder half-heartedly, too focused on the rising anticipation of the power coming back.

Seconds later, the first light blinks on. Then the next. And the rest. All three let out a breath, laughing despite the fact that their situation was far from over.

Ian sat fully up and tugged Aria towards him. She thought for a half a second that he might kiss her. To her mild disappointment, she was wrong. He pulled her into a bone crushing hug, aggravating both of their injuries, but neither cared. "We're almost out." Aria muttered into his chest.

"Nearly there, Mayfield." Aria could feel Ian smiling against her neck.

They parted soon after, both still very much injured and in pain. Hammond cleared his throat and began formulating a plan to get out. Hammond volunteered himself to hurry outside and find a car, which was a shit plan.

Alan and Ellie crashed through the door and ran down the stairs.

All three of the adults already in the bunker let out cries of relief.

Aria was the first to notice. "Where are the kids?"

"Upstairs. They're safe, we'll have them in a minute." Alan said.

"There are two raptors out. One's still in the maintenance shed, so she's not an immediate problem." Ellie said urgently. Hammond immediately began loading a gun.

"You're sure? Just the two? The third is contained?"

"Yeah. Unless they figured out how to open doors."

•

pov ur in a high risk deadly situation and ur still horny