(This chapter continues from Whispers & Wallows Pt. 2)
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Thoom.
...
Drag-
Th-Thoom.
...
Drag-
Th-Thoom.
...
"Hrmm..." the injured indominus rex growled weakly, too hurt to speak. The scent of her spilled blood was overwhelming her nares and every other sense still in her arsenal. She didn't know what happened; her skull ruthlessly throbbed as if rung like a bell, and her body ached so terribly she wished herself unconscious again. All she could do was announce it all through her whimpers. It hurt so bad.
Th-Thoom.
...
Drag-
Th-Thoom.
Something was pulling her. She couldn't see who in the blackness of her closed eyes, but she could feel it. A pair of grizzly fangs had sunken into her tail ridge, a means to keep her steady and subdued. The ground shook in sync with each step the creature took; it was clear to her that it was a theropod. And it sounded hurt, too -- the wheezing, the weary snorts, even the way its feet scrambled for a hold as if losing balance. Indy grimaced at the way the concrete rubbed against her scales, her wounds drawing a thick trail of red behind her from where she once laid. She tried to speak, only to feel that wretched muzzle brace it; it was still on her.
Th-Thoom.
...
...
Thoom... Thoom...
Drag-
Indy gasped in shock. A rush of cold water splashed over her torn body, striking a fraction of her injuries all at once. She tensed up and whined, the pain went from minor to extreme. Another pull drove the rest of her bodily injuries deep into the pool; Indy unleashed a terrible cry, twitching and squirming to the freshwater sinking into her raw flesh.
"Easy..." growled a voice from above, patting her scales by the palm of a claw. "You are bleeding out."
She didn't listen. Indy's whines grew louder and louder; even if this was helping, the sensations kept her from ever taking this as a means to be thankful for. Tears soon burst from the seams of her eyelids, and the very puddle beneath her shook in fear of her resentment.
Until, finally, the pain receded.
Indy panted softly, pale nostrils flaring and jagged tail settling underwater with what little strength she had. The creature above her rounded to her snout via a cough, licking away the fresh blood painted on its pointed snout to make clear of the hybrid before it. For what little time she had to look, Indy raised her eyes; she couldn't make out its shape in the darkness, but something was there. Whatever it was. She noticed a flash of reddened teeth moving for her head and froze; it clipped onto her muzzle and pulled away. Finally, Indy's jaws slackened, freed from the binds of her captors. Though it was hard to voice such a feeling when pain still robbed you of your ability to speak.
That, and surprise.
"Hrrr..." the shadowed creature snorted, dropping the muzzle to the ground before limping toward an artificial waterfall hidden in the darkness. Indy tilted her heavy head toward the pool she laid in. Fresh clouds of blood streamed from her flesh, discoloring the water with a crimson tint and a smell so horrible that reminded her of rotting prey. Every shift of her scales -- whether a breath or a twitch -- split the cuts, forcing a hiss of despair from the indominus. She didn't expect it to be this bad.
Shifting her head back, Indy returned to the blur of the tail-elevated dinosaur that helped her, still struggling to make out its shape. Everything about the monster looked off -- it's tail, it's feet, it's skull, it's calves... even its claws. She stared for a while, even after he turned his shoulder to gawk at her presence. The two made eye contact; red eyes to red eyes, before the creature whirled away a second time, wheezing and coughing erratically. Indy's eyes followed; only now did she recognize that wheeze... those coughs...
The hybrid suddenly pulled two dead humans from a torn hole in the wall, and dropped one of them in front of the indominus. Indy stared blankly at the limp corpse, still unable to process what was happening.
"Eat," the male urged, swallowing his share of the human whole. "You'll need your strength..."
Her stomach writhed. She didn't want to... though her stomach said otherwise. Even if she refused, the haunting stare of the monster above made her second-guess herself, regardless if his intentions were for good measure. Without response, she nosed around the dead corpse, nipped its cold leg, and drew back to encompass the entire human on her tongue. Indy chewed twice, enchanted by the luscious flavors and sweet blood it offered when it cracked like an egg. She swallowed it up with a purr. Much better.
The male turned away a third time, now settling down in the shadows of the strange cave and just out of reach from any source of light. Indy still couldn't look away; she remained on her belly, using just her eyes to learn, and her nostrils to smell. Every so often, the weird creature would cough and choke, letting fresh blood spill from within and spoil the ground. Then he'd growl on as if annoyed by his condition, eying the walls and cornerstones of the place before returning to Indy's frame. Nothing was spoken. Not until Indy willed it.
"Red?"
The hybrid snorted. It was him, without question. Indy blinked, groggily looking upon her soaking injuries for a minute more, then to the pool of blood born beneath her. Her head was swimming, but she fought it to contain herself.
"W-What happened?"
The hybrid hissed nonchalantly, dipping his head in reflex. "Humans," He answered hatefully. "They nearly killed you."
Indy's eyes flashed. "But you stopped them."
"Killed them," Red's silhouetted nostrils flared in correction. Indy squinted at him; he looked away as if ashamed of his appearance.
Indy tilted her head. "Why hide yourself?"
"Hrr..." Red's eyes lowered. "I feel better behind a wall. You could've put my voice to a better picture."
"I'm not going to judge," Indy rumbled to ease the hybrid. "I've seen worse monsters than you."
Red paused, leaving just a soft wheeze to release from his maw. He took a slow step forward, pausing just inches from the first stream of brazen light. His red eyes met Indy's for a second time, growing hesitant by the minute. It took a minute for him to build upon this; only after did Red take one confident breath, and finally stepped into the light.
Indy's dear soul plunged into hiding.
Red immediately noticed the horror flood her visage the instant he came out of the darkness. And, try as she might, Indy couldn't help it; his voice didn't match the massive, petrifying figure that stood before her very eyes. She initially mistaken him for another creature; the arrival of his three-horned skull and the frilled circle rounding his neck baffled her the most. That, along with the burst of red and yellow scales that beamed like the headlights of a blood-soaked car, burned her eyes far more than the water around her. He was massive; thirty feet tall if she had to guess, and proudly boasting his two worn horns sky-high for her to be in awe of. He looked armored, too; his spinal section was plated from head to tail-tip like a club-tail, and his tail, mimicking that of what humans call a stegosaurus, protruded four sharp thorns as a defense mechanism. Red, to Indy, looked as though a male version of Rexy had fallen into a pit of in-heat herbivores. She couldn't make sense of it, and, seeing Red's reaction to this, he couldn't either.
She took a quick second look; scars aplenty marked his hide between his underbelly and skull, as if Red had been in several fights in his life. Not a single space on his body looked untouched from birth, rather healed from a bite, a tear, or a scratch. Indy's heart sank; it seemed the humans were busy tearing him apart, and it proved itself from the smell of death on his hide. Red blinked, looking up to her with his two visible red eyes for the first time.
"Now you see why."
Indy nodded, still too surprised to speak.
A buzzing-like noise from the room behind them suddenly caught the attention of both hybrids; their heads whirled toward the sound in anticipation of something. Though it was Red who growled first, stepping to the right of his prior position and toward the opening.
"We can't stay here," he hissed. "They're going to come back and finish you off." Red paused short of the gaping hole, turning his head to look upon Indy's bulging eyes. "Can you walk?"
Indy shakily pushed to her feet, using her talons and hind legs for balance as she rose from the water. The wounds hadn't quite healed themselves; though its scent had since vanished from her nostrils, something Indy was quite thankful for. She growled softly, clenching her claws together as she finally reached her true height, then nodded to Red. "I... I-I can manage. I think."
Red bobbed his once, stepping through the hole and lumbering toward the left end. Indy started after him, limping every-so often toward the small wounds in her underbelly, only to pause short of the gateway with a gasp.
Rexy's body was still there. Still lifelessly lying on her side, jaws slanted from the pressure upon the ground, tail stilled and silent from the wrath of time. Indy stared at her limp body a second time, muffling her whimper to stay strong before Red. Though, every second spent gazing at her corpse further drowned her soul in a sea of misery. She wished she could've done something to save her. Anything.
"He's playing safe," Red suddenly called, appearing out from the left side to face the saddened hybrid. "He doesn't want us to escape... but he's not willing to risk his kin for this..."
"H-Him?"
"Come-" he growled, turning right toward one of the closed-in metal gateways separating them from the rest of the facility. After whispering a soft goodbye, Indy limped away, heralding Red's request to the right side of the closed off room. He was strangely pressing his snout against the walls perpendicular to them, sniffing loud and heavily until pausing at a certain region. A growl slipped from his beak.
"They love to hide their toys."
Red's horns dipped suddenly, then stabbed at the wall's surface, surprising Indy an inch away. A crack echoed the room, then a low rumble; all of a sudden the lights above the two hybrids snapped off, leaving a red hue to dawn crimson light across everything it touched. Indy watched in amazement as Red unsheathed his horn from the wall, then pressed it between the narrow slit of the gateway. Much to her surprise, the gate started to pry open to his strength, just enough of a gap for Red to stab his claws into the gap and pull the rest of the way.
Grrr... the hybrid growled deeply, squeezing his eyes shut as he put all his strength into the weight of the groaning metal doors. He pushed and jerked, just enough until his whole body fit between the space of the gate. As soon as he slipped through, Indy quickly followed, now finding herself now standing in a massive hallway of similarly-shaped cages as their old ones. Her stomach writhed in terror.
"What is this?"
Red's eyes briefly darted across the cages, a deep, mournful hiss soon breaking even from his throat. Indy glanced over at Red, alerted to the sound; something about this place was personal to the dying hybrid.
"Red-"
"A graveyard," he finally answered, starting forward uncomfortably. "It's a graveyard."
Indy's maw parted. "Of what? It l-looks empty-"
"Looks can be deceiving," he growled sharply, eyes narrowing again. "Let's go."
And, without any more words to say, Indy limped after.
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It was eerie in that tunnel. Despite Red's composure not to look, Indy couldn't help peering into the cages, wondering what he meant by 'graveyard'. For the first few found, she couldn't make sense of it.
That was, until the names started appearing.
Indy paused at one riddled with deep claw marks from ceiling to floor. Year-old blood had marked several different spots across the enclosed space, leaving a bone-chilling trail of black for her eyes to gawk over. She looked over to the still lumbering Red, then bowed her head to read the dusted name at the base, her tail lifting in unison like a fulcrum.
"Alangasaurus."
She turned to another one; deep engraves had also marked this cage. No blood by any means, but the bruises were there, along with a few teeth, and a strange bouncy ball hidden at the corner.
"Spinoraptor."
She came across another. Then another. And each one shook her harder than the last.
"Stegoceratops, Indotaurus, Carnoraptor, Yudon..." She lifted her head, realizing they all had the same stench as her and Red, and whirled to the hybrid in terror. "W-What happened to them?"
Red didn't say a word.
"Were they all..." Indy stumbled back, feeling her heart rate rise too fast for her to control. "H-How many more of us were they m-making, Red?"
Red's Triceratop-like skull dipped in sorrow. Upon approaching the second metal door, the hybrid inhaled once-
"I don't want to talk about it."
-Then stabbed his horn into the second metal gap. Indy hastened after him, watching Red pry the door open a second time with a primal groan, using his tail and shoulder ridges to help his cause. As soon as the gate split open for the two of them to fall through, they struck an empath. To their right was a sealed door, rusted and old. And to their left... was open. A clearly lit hall, nearly Red's height, leading off into another metal door. Small puddles were lying across the opening, and wires aplenty dangled from the ceiling. It seemed to be the obvious route.
"Hrrr..." Red snarled. "I don't like this."
"What's wrong-?" Indy was about to take a step before a sharp burst of pain suddenly caught her shoulder. Red had dragged her back, surprising and startling her all at once. A muffled growl left Indy's throat in annoyance, but the look in Red's eyes forced her to cease. He knew more than she did, and it was obvious from the look in his eyes.
"No." Red turned to her. "I can smell the electricity from here. And the floor-"
"The floor?" Indy tilted her head in confusion; she couldn't see whatever he was looking at. So the female turned her attention elsewhere, looking behind her flaccid tail. "And right?"
"Hrrr... Not everything is built," Red wheezed, turning his body to face what Indy pointed at. "There's an open construction site there. That's where we need to go."
"You can't pry this one open?"
"No," Red exhaled mid-growl. "Which is why I'm going right... and you're staying here."
Indy's eyes widened. "What?"
"I know how he thinks," said Red, scanning the names of the hybrids before falling upon the Spinoraptor cage with the bouncy ball. "I've been tortured by his men my whole life..."
Snarling once, Red charged into the Spinoraptor cage, his horns quickly shattering the glass and spraying its residue all across the floor and his back. Red huffed, leaning his snout forward and gathering the ball hidden in the corner.
"... Playing his games... Forced to think like a human despite how little of their flesh lives inside me..."
Indy watched as Red walked back, feeling the ground tremble through each step taken. She instinctively gave him room to re-enter the gateway, still intimidated by his size and structure. Once back inside, Red snarled, carefully cupping the ball in his fangs and locking down the insidious hallway.
"He's going to have to do better if he wants to kill me."
He reeled his head back then jerked forward, loosening his jaws to let the ball he just held fly into the air, and land upon the first of multiple tiles looming across the region before us. It rolled for a time, splattering across puddles and bumping into walls. All of a sudden (a tail-length down the hall), it started rolling backwards, stopped, then forward again. As if there was a sinkage point-
Indy's eyes widened. Now she understood why. Stepping there as a human would've been fine. But as a six ton predator, they'd fall through the floor as if it was made of glass.
And who knew what was below that.
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(I had to cut it short here, this chapter is massive to write. Redrum Pt. 2 will follow)