man destroys god || i. malcolm

17

Aria felt bad about leaving Kelly, she really did. But others needed her, too. She knew the damage a Tyrannosaurus Rex could do, and Nick and Sarah didn't.

She hadn't ever planned on seeing one again, but Nick had gotten them into this mess and she was going to make sure that they got out of it and lived to tell the tale. And no more NDAs.

She heard the crashing of T-Rex steps and the breaking of trees and could only hope they were far enough away to let Aria make it to the trailer in time.

She bolted and made it to the trailer in record time, slamming the door behind her.

"Are you kidding me, Aria, really?" Ian groaned. "Help me get this thing out of here."

Ian and Aria both moved to get the T-Rex, but they were too late. Outside the window, one of the cars went flying.

"Mommy's very angry." Ian whispered.

"So it begins." Aria mumbled.

They all froze, looking out the window for the dinosaur. A growl came from behind. It was on the other side of the trailer. Aria pressed herself against the back wall. She glanced back to the first window. Another Rex. Of course there were two.

One let out a deafening roar, one she'd heard too many times. Sarah screamed, but Aria managed to bite her lip and keep it down. She squeezed her eyes shut when the dinosaur nudged the trailer with its head.

Nick grabbed her arm, fear evident through his eyes. Everyone was panting, too afraid to speak.

The baby dinosaur groaned to its parents, communicating with them. The meaning was lost to the humans, but identified quickly as non-malicious. They were just there for their child.

Sarah and Ian lifted the dinosaur and carried it to the trailer door. Ian opened it and Sarah quickly pushed the infant out before pulling the door shut.

Eddie called at that moment. Aria picked it up. "They're, uh, headed back to the jungle." She sighed in relief, then handed the phone to Ian.

"It's Kelly."

He quickly took it and promised that he'd be back right away. After hanging up, everyone just sat in silent shock.

Something still wasn't right. "Hang on!" Aria yelled, just in time for the trailer to flip upside down and go flying. She clutched at the wall, but there wasn't anything connected well enough to keep her from falling and hitting her head.

"They're pushing us off the cliff." Ian said, and Aria's blood turned to ice. The last cliff she'd almost been pushed off had cushioning mud at the bottom. The only thing here was cold, icy, unforgiving water. Nick pushed at the door, but that was where they'd been initially hit.

"As soon as we're out, run for the woods." Aria called out, throwing her body against the stuck door. She continued until it was clear that they weren't getting out. She let out a string of curse words as the trailer slid through the mud.

They were almost off the cliff by then. The trailer bent at the middle and they all fell to the side that was hanging vertically off the cliff. The only thing between them and certain death was a thin pane of glass.

Aria grabbed onto a cabinet, her feet dangling next to Nick's head. Sarah fell, hit her head on the glass, and passed out. They called her name, desperately trying to wake her. The glass beneath her was slowly breaking, cracks loudly spreading beneath her. Objects were falling from counters and cabinets, all landing on the glass and adding more weight and force to it.

Sarah finally woke, and began quietly panicking.

"Don't move!" Nick screamed, desperation in his voice.

Ian started climbing down to get Sarah and pull her back up, but the last amount of weight hit the glass and it shattered. Aria let out a strained gasp as everything fell. Ian had Sarah by the hand, and she was kicking around in the air, making it more difficult for her to stay held up. Ian pulled her back into the trailer.

The four of them were panting, still in disbelief that they were even alive.

Aria reached down to Nick and pulled him into the best hug she could.

A car horn started honking. "Eddie," Aria breathed out. The engineer began calling out their names as he ran towards the edge of the cliff.

He climbed into the first half of the trailer, looking down at them. "Who's hurt? What do you need?"

"Rope!" Aria called up to him, her voice still hoarse from yelling.

"Rope. Anything else?"

"Yeah," Ian let out a small chuckle. "Four double cheeseburgers with everything."

"Two without onions!" Nick added.

"And an apple turnover!"

Eddie ran off, presumably back to his car.

The four of the didn't dare to even speak, not wanting to do anything that might move the trailer even more. Moments later, a thin rope fell down to them.

"Did you tie this to anything?" Ian called up, and Eddie assured him that he did. He sounded skeptical.

The four of them started climbing, Aria first. The rope was wet and hard to keep her grip on. Regardless, she kept going.

The trailer began to slip, moving even more towards the cliff. The rope moved, dropping down quickly. Everyone screamed, but caught themselves. Nothing was going their way today.

Aria's grip was slipping. She tried to wrap the rope more around her hand, but it was pulled too tight. The trailer slipped down towards them, then back, then towards them again.

Aria began climbing again, faster than ever.

"Increase your rate of climb!" Ian called up. Aria looked down. Sarah was struggling.

"Sarah, come on, you got this. Hold on!" Aria called down to the other woman, but she couldn't. Sarah slipped, knocking Nick and Ian down the very end of the rope.

Aria wrapped a leg around the rope, hanging on as tight as possible. She kept climbing, desperately trying to make it up to the ground again.

Footsteps. Earth-shaking footsteps. Aria cursed in her mind. They always seemed to show up at the worst of times.

She heard roaring and screaming coming from above.

The entire trailer fell down over them, barely missing the group. Eddie's car followed. Both exploded at the bottom of the cliff. She couldn't bear to look down. Her only thoughts were on making it up to the top of the cliff.

Finally, she made it. No dinosaurs in sight. She grabbed Sarah's hand to help pull her up. Both were kneeling in the mud as they tried to help the others up. They were all but pushed aside by a group of others. The large crowd almost gave Aria a heart attack. The InGen investors' group.

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oh no