"Oh my God."
Three words were all but good enough to describe what we both witnessed. We were frozen, Click and I, our hearts drumming ruthlessly beneath our chest and its blood roaring in our ears. And why? Sure, nothing much had changed here, excluding the BIOSYN employees that abandoned their posts and a spillage of toppled leather chairs. But that wasn't what we were after; our eyes were drawn to a television screen tuned to the nearest news channel. Beyond the speckled words typed at its base, the image projected a massive black-horned creature lumbering through downtown Clearlake, fresh blood seemingly drooling out of its jaws. And beneath its shadow laid something else. Something white. Something saurian, something that looked just like me. I didn't think at first; usually scents were a telltale reference to who or what something was. So I tied this spitting image to the reflection of myself -- simple enough. Until I turned to Click, realizing his lips were beginning to part themselves.
My tail began to lower. "What is it?"
Click slowly turned to me, both eyes swollen with fresh, molten terror. I've never seen that emotion find his eyes... and that scared me even more. I took a wobbly step backward, feeling a thousand thoughts race across my brain. And then I referred back to the image of the white reflection at the corner of the screen. I studied it long and hard, trying as much as I could to make out its shape. It's physique. It's red eyes-
My heart stopped. Indy.
I stumbled backward, suddenly feeling a sickening sensation rush up my throat. I gagged suddenly, shedding pained whimpers aloud for Click to her. My human whirled to me, noticing I was backing away, eyes still glued to the screen.
Why is she not moving?!
"Seven-" Click pushed himself before the television, grasping my trembling jaws into his claws. "Hey, look at me-"
No, no...
"Seven-"
Not Indy!
"Hey, shhh..." He wrestled my head back to face me, softening his eyes just for me to look upon. "I know... I know..."
I left her...
"It's okay..."
I didn't get to s-save her-
"Tommy!"
Both of us whirled around quickly; Lewis Dodgson was stumbling to his feet, his chest still smoking from the earlier electrical shock Click gave him. His glasses had broken at this point, but he still seemed aggravated to recognize the two of us in his presence. As all scientists and billionaires would.
"Put her back!"
Click's jaws tightened. I noticed his fists starting to clench, the knuckles turning white with hate. But it was my eyes that started to fill of it, too, followed by a threatening growl that shook the ground with my anguish.
"She's not yours," he continued. "We... made her real, and special. We are her birthright -- you would be six feet deep under the military's boot if it wasn't for us!"
Click clicked his tongue once, igniting a memorable order in my head. Stalk. I growled in agreement, slithering slyly around Click's legs toward my new prey. Lewis looked at me and froze.
"W-What did he just tell you?"
I snarled beneath my breath. Would you like to find out?
"See, here's your problem, Lewis," started Click, giving me more room to work. "You made her. You made all of them. But you never loved her like I do... and that's why she's mine."
Click announced another two clicks. Attack. Without a second to waste, I bolted at Dodgson, slamming him right off his feet and to the ground. The elderly man struck the earth with a violent thud, before being tail-whipped into the wall behind him, cracking it by brute force. Lewis cried out, his glasses finally shattering by his side. His cries cut short once I lunged on top of him, a claw latched into his belly with the middle pointed directly at his throat. With no strength left to give, the male began a plea to his false God. I snorted in annoyance. As if he could-
*Tch-Tch!*
I heard the sound of sucking teeth. No Kill. And, miserably agreeing, I remained atop the trapped man, inhaling his putrid terror while watching the fear light up across his face like Christmas lights.
Click slowly waddled to his side, pointing a finger toward the television screen. "What is that thing?"
Dodgson's eyes briefly followed Click's finger, entrapped on the moving picture of the monstrous animal. For a while he stared, then drew away with a shaky sigh.
"I already told you what it is."
"Bull crap, no you didn't," Click snarled drawing closer. "Tell me what it is."
"It's a cure-"
I started pressing my claws into Lewis's chest. A pained groan echoed from his lungs as applied pressure, something that barely angered Click to any extent. I guess he wanted me to do that... his impatience was rising faster than a volcanic eruption.
"Mmph!" Lewis gasped. "Order her... to s-stop-!"
"Then tell me what I need to know. You made it, didn't you?"
"Screw you..."
Click's eyes flashed in annoyance. "I'm going to ask you one more time," he began, shifting his tongue to the order position, "or she's going to rip your face off just like she did to Jameson. What is that thing?!"
Lewis fell quiet. His eyes... they weren't locked to Click and I anymore... they were looking beyond our legs toward a figure starting to rise. He didn't want to answer... not for whatever he just saw. But Click wouldn't allow it. And with one whistle-
Mock Kill.
I darted my jaws down in a false bite, just fast enough to render a scream from the poor male. Dodgson shook like an earthquake once I paused, both hands up to surrender and his eyes staring down my throat.
"WHAT IS IT?!"
"Ultimasaurus!" He shrieked aloud. "It's an Ultimasaurus!"
"What?" Henry Wu, the figure Lewis was staring at, had arisen to listen in. For some strange reason, hearing those words triggered a reflex in the INGEN scientist. It made his heart lurch and, before long, his face turned ghostly white. But not for Click, who still wrinkled his snout in distaste for his answer. "That's a stupid name," he said.
"I told you what it was made for..." Lewis wheezed, staring into my burning blue eyes while my jaws closed up. "W-We only needed its blood."
"Because it's a fix to a virus you think will kill everyone."
"If CDC doesn't get what I assured them of, it very much will." He rasped. "Plasma... is the inner hospital of our blood system. Y-You can heal several injuries with its properties. But... if you amplify it by enough of a margin-"
"I don't give a damn what Plasma does," spoke Click, "or how it's going to fix any of this. It's still an animal... and you continued to treat it like a product."
"Because it isn't meant to be anything more than that, or else it'll see its potential to rid us all."
"Which it already had." Click pointed back to the screen. "That's your fault."
He looked behind him at Henry Wu and that broken, bloodied nose of his, and sneered. "That's both of your faults..." Click suddenly trailed off, confused at the terrified look in Wu's eyes. "Why are you shocked?"
Wu turned to Lewis in disbelief. "Because Ultimasaurus was the labeling name on the case that Autumn was carrying."
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"Yes, I'm-" Autumn pursed her lips before a curse could leave her. "I'm on my way with your... whatever it is. Can't believe you forgot it at the house."
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Lewis lowered his head and groaned. "Don't think what I think you're thinking. This is not the same thing, Henry-"
"You said it was gone," Henry growled, pushing quickly up the stairs. " You called me the night Lockwood fell, you told me..."
"I told you exactly what you needed to hear."
"So you could cover up that name behind my back and butcher my Indominus!"
"I made it better," hissed Dodgson. "I made it faster, stronger, superior..."
"It was unstable-"
"I turned a dying runt you covered up at Nublar into something you could only dream of. I made your vision a reality, Henry, and you loved it, enough to hunt your own indoraptor to support its life. You should thank me for that!"
"You left her out there to die!"
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"P-Please, urk-"
The man casually gathered the metal briefcase of DNA from the spoiled ground, examining its exterior for signs of damage, before sealing it away. And, just as before, stepped right over the girl's body, and walked back to the car. His phone drew up before he arrived, calling an anonymous source.
"Lockwood is compromised," Dodgson muttered on the phone. "Send all surviving samples to the safe haven at INGEN. We'll start from there."
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"You left her!"
"And who made her drive out there?" questioned Lewis, turning to look upon me. "You put your work first, Henry -- if anyone killed Autumn that day, it's you. I picked up your mess from INGEN, I saved you from mistake after bloodstained mistake -- you would've joined Masarani and Mills in the grave had I not been there!"
"Enough!" Click snapped, as I growled, pushing my claws deeper into Lewis's chest to silence him. The male gasped in pain, staring into my burning eyes as if I was the last he'd ever see. And, truth be told, I wanted it to be just that.
Click growled, looking between the two men and hissed. "No more backstories and sob stories -- How do you kill it?"
Dodgson scoffed quietly. "Kill it? Are you serious?"
Click started to position his tongue, something that made Lewis's stomach writhe. He shakily raised his hands again. "Easy Tom... you don't want to-"
"Answer me."
"Even if I knew I-!"
"It was designed to protect itself," Henry suddenly blurted out, catching the eyes of all three of us. "The worth in its veins... had to be secured by some natural manner, so no other adversary can gather our intel. The agility of an indoraptor merged into the gate-guards of a herbivore's spine and tail -- it is a living tank with an appetite for human flesh. Never to be stopped... never to be captured."
"That alone just sounds wrong," Click grunted, turning to him. "You didn't safeguard it?"
"We did, but it..." Wu gritted his teeth, noticing Lewis shaking his head, pleading him to not answer. Henry exhaled quietly, blinking back to Click. "There's a device attached to its spine."
Click's eyes lit up. "So you do have one!"
"It doesn't work..." Wu sighed. "It's hidden beneath the armor, meant to paralyze it from the waist down. But it hasn't been charged."
"You can't electrocute it?"
Wu fell quiet. Click snapped his fingers.
"You can electrocute it."
Lewis chuckled aloud. "It won't work-"
"Shut it!" Click barked, then whirled back to Henry, eyes softening in hope. "Can it work?"
Henry swallowed. "I don't know. Like I said, it's big... and it's armored. Unless you can find a way to drop a low amp battery onto its body-"
"Clearlake has a power grid somewhere," Click nodded, starting to backtrack toward a computer in the comms room. "It's off the map in the woods... if I could draw it away from the city..."
Henry's gaze drew away from Click and turned to me, restudying my body from up close. Even though my fangs were bared toward the down BIOSYN director, I couldn't help but glance upward, too, meeting Wu's solemn eyes that sought the sapphire glow within my own. Call it strange if you will, but the longer I stared, the more heartbroken I became. The more helpless I grew. I saw that same look of dread flourish in his eyes once before... and seeing it again...
I blinked away before a flutter of guilt swarmed inside my soul. Even still, Autumn's familiar words started to trickle down my mind.
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"I don't want to die... without saying goodbye to dad."
My eyes narrowed at her. "If we even see Wu-"
"We will," Autumn nodded. "I will. But don't hurt him... he's the one who's going to fix this... because he started this. So, please..."
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"Seven."
Blinking out of thought, I turned to Click, noticing him now clear from the computer screen. "Let's go," he said, beginning to trek away. I started to follow after, finally relieving Lewis from Death and hurrying after. But just as we got to the door-
"Wait-" Wu grabbed his arm quickly -- I snarled in defense but Click didn't mind. He looked to Wu's worried eyes and snorted.
"I'm going to figure this out," Click grunted. "I've put threats down before. It's what I'm good at."
"That's not what I'm worried about-"
"Oh, you're worried now?"
"This isn't a night out in the desert. It's smarter than us, it already killed one-"
"I said we can-"
"Tom..." Wu's grip tightened, his eye briefly flickering over to me. I continued to growl and hiss in resentment, unaware that Click was looking at me, too. And upon reading Wu's eyes, he started to understand.
"Please..." He inhaled shakily. "Hate me if you want, but please-"
Click ripped his arm from Wu's hold, and took a step back. For a second time he looked down to face me, immersed within my confused, blue eyes, then looked back to Henry. A shaky exhale and a 'let's go' click later, Click replied.
"Watch him."
Henry closed his eyes in defeat. And, together, we pushed out the exit doors into the unknown.
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But that wasn't the confusing part of the night.
Despite us escaping this wretched pit of BIOSYN, breaking back into Click's red truck, and driving over the bridge, something felt off about Click's energy. For a while it was revenge-filled -- he wanted nothing more than to get rid of the horrors consuming Clearlake, as well as the men who caused it. As did I. Still, there was something that happened between then and now, something that Wu cursed upon him that made him whimper. Something that made him tremble.
Something that made him turn the car away from Clearlake's burning light, and drive straight into the mountains.
"What the-" I grunted in surprise from the trunk. Was this the way to the electrical grid he was referring to? It didn't seem right; Click pushed the car further and further away from the town, until all that remained was a soft glow of red.
Until all of a sudden, he stopped. He took a moment to reverse the vehicle off the road and into a small pathway beneath the tallest pine trees nature had to offer. Everything went quiet from then on; just a soft rattle of crickets and cicadas was all the world gave. I looked above me at the whispering trees and empty space surrounding us, then peered through the window to my human friend. He didn't move for the longest time; Click stared out the front window of the truck in utter silence, as if contemplating something. As if... scared of something. Not a minute passed before the male bowed his head and pushed the door open, then watched me hobble out the trunk to greet him. But there was no smile on his face. Just sadness... deep and utter sadness. And that alone took me aback.
What happened?
I looked to his left hand; there was a slab of meat there. Which was odd... I didn't remember him grabbing that from earlier. Nevertheless, I treated it as it would any other time he brought food out; my tail would stiffen, and drool instantly slumped down my pointed jaws to disfigure the earth. Like a mindless animal, I eyed the swaying red delicacy between his fingers, and waited. Click smiled, throwing me a share of the meat, and in three sharp, crunchy bites, I guzzled it down and swallowed with a satisfied rumble.
Thank you. Now, what's the catch?
But he didn't say anything. He just stared, and sighed. So I stepped toward him as he slumped to his knees, nuzzling and licking his cheek and under chin while he warbled in thanks. It didn't take long for a small smile to start and show, proving that my actions were enough to bring the Click I knew back.
"T-Thanks..." He smiled quickly. And then it faded, just like that. I went to try again, but Click shook his head, shifting away. "I'm sorry..." he whispered shakily, bowing his head. "I-I'm... so sorry..."
My head tilted. Sorry? For what?
"I don't know... if you can understand me very well," Click began, flaring his nostrils to take in my scent. "Despite how long we've been together. Which I figured is a little... but that's okay."
Briefly did he look behind him, awestruck at the putrid smoke taking hold of the summer night sky, before turning back to me. He lifted a hand and pressed it against my cheek bone, then drew upward to feel the pointed frills loosen to his touch. The way his warm skin trickled across my scales was more than heavenly, as it reached every nick and itch that my older self had since forgotten. I couldn't help myself, closing my eyes and embracing his petting motion with chirps and soothing purrs. But when I opened them again, Click eyes were watering. And that look of fear had returned once more... the one all predators make before they do something terrible.
Click? I drew away from his hands, struggling to understand what happened. Did I hurt him? Did I scare him? I couldn't figure it out for the longest time, even after his smile slightly returned, only to sink back into sadness.
"Y-You..." He motioned both hands to the base of my chin, like a parent would for their child, "are the best thing... that has ever happened to me. You know that, Seven?"
I blinked once, flaring my nostrils in interest.
"Janet would've l-loved you..." Click whimpered, a tear rolling down his trembling face. "And the girls. You... are the most perfect blessing... that has ever walked this earth. And that's... the truth."
"And I don't want to see you go..." the male brushed his nostrils with the back of his hand, and nodded. "I don't want you to lose the one chance you have to live. And I... I don't want my actions to be the thing... that takes it from you."
My eyes started to water. What?
He pulled my head toward him and pressed his skull against the space between my eyes. I closed my eyes once more, nuzzling against him as he whimpered softly.
"No matter what happens... no matter where you go, I want you to think of me. Always. And I'll be right there to help you. I promise..."
I opened my eyes fast, quickly putting the pieces together. The television. The Monster. Henry... Oh no. After one last head bump, Click started to move toward the car; I lunged in front of him, growling in defiance.
No! You're not leaving me again!
"It's okay, girl-"
You're not leaving me! I roared aloud, slamming my tail on the ground. I'm with you until the end! Monster or no monster!
He rubbed my cheek again, already beginning to weep. "I couldn't save Janet... I can save you, though-"
Click...
"You deserve happiness..." He smiled. "Autumn deserves it, too."
I'm only happy with you... I wept, sinking into his chest.
Click broke into a sob, cradling me in his arms. "I know..."
The world was starting to blur up for some reason. I didn't realize it until it was too late, when my body started to grow more and more relaxed. I grunted in confusion, pushing into Click's body without control, then stumbling to the ground. Still, there were no other worries in his eyes... no fear or concern. He lowered me easily, and tended to my scales as I started to succumb to this strange sensation-
My heart suddenly sank. He put something in the meat. A sleeping drug.
Click rubbed my flank one last time. "I love you," he croaked. "Go live the life that I couldn't. I know you'll make us proud."
Click...
He smiled weakly before drawing away and entering his car. I heard the ground echo with the rumble of a truck, and heard the tires squeal as he drove back onto the road. Before my vision faded, I watched Click tear up as he took one final look at me. And as the blackness took hold, the truck zoomed off back toward the red light of Clearlake.
The world sank into nothing.
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