CHAPTER FIFTEEN
INDOMINUS WRECKS
The Indominus Rex, a surface-summoning rumbling around the back of its throat, narrowed its amber flecked eyes inside those horrific red sockets. They glimmer menacingly in the lights of the main street, the protective film over its iris retracting back into its skull. I felt any string of life in me being pulled from the ground up, uprooted and thrown aside. It was the kind of sheer, undiluted panic that could only be felt standing at the foot of this thing, watching its chest rising and falling.
She was even bigger out here in the open. There were no shades of branches and lack of moonlight to diminish her. She was as far as it got from allusive out here. Slick against the concrete, towering over every building, making humans look like insects that need to be squashed forcefully under feet.
I felt myself stepping back for the door I had came through. Stumbling as quietly as I could, hands shivering, eyes darting around for another escape route or some sort of hiding space. Any sort of crevice of safety. I couldn't outrun this thing with the throbbing pain in my right calf. It would be no use regardless.
Claire, Zach, Gray Owen and Alex, huddled together hopelessly, all of their eyes on me.
He had a cut poking out of his shirt, his entire skin glistening with sweat. Even from a distance, his eyes were sparkling to see me alive. I couldn't believe it either. I couldn't believe we both were. Had this thing not been between us, I would be sprinting to him. Hauling my leg behind me and pushing down the pain in my back. Thudding against the concrete with my arms stretching out. To tell him both the joy and horror of what I'd just done. What I'd stood up to. All because he'd given me the courage to allow myself to see it in me. That'd I'd always had it in me. The urge was so strong it drew me out of this situation in a brief flit of euphoria, swept away by The Indominus Rex swiveled to face the group, a bone-splintering roar cracking open from the depths of its mouth.
Gray was clutching Claire's side, bottom lip quivering, watching the dinosaur with the same helplessness I'd seen in the jungle earlier today. Alex and Owen had their hands protectively in front of them and Zach. Owen's eyes dart between Blue and their two siblings behind them. Echo and Delta. Charlie was nowhere to be seen, and I could think of one very awful reason as to why. The sunken realisation was eased with Delta's eyes falling on me. Her tail swung graciously behind her, cocking her head, pricking up as she always did. Even when this horrific concoction of anatomy had tried drawing her away from me, that arena was still buried beneath her. My face.
And I knew then that imprinting of these animals wasn't entirely as concrete as Owen had stressed for years. It was never there from birth. It was built on. That unbreakable bond. Where I had Delta and Delta had me.
We had it in us to beat this thing.
My eyes wander across the rain-slick empty street, noticing Owen's motorcycle parked just beyond the cluster of raptors next to an emergency transport van. I look across at him, who was watching me watch his bike. And he knew. He always knew.
So we nod at each other.
A sharp whistle from Owen's lips sliced through the night. All three raptors raised their claws at the Indominus, hissing and glaring. Frustrated, the giant swung its crooked talons at Blue, sending her flying into a concrete wall with a sickening thud.
She clatters to the ground in such a lifeless manor, it almost didn't feel real to be watching it. Owen could do nothing but watch it helplessly. There was another thud of concrete. Blue didn't flinch. Didn't roll her head back. Deathly still.
'Son of a bitch,' I'm whispering, and Owen can do nothing but the same, eyes widening, the fingers around his rifle going bone white with grip. Echo and Delta wail for their sister, launching themselves onto the back of the Indominus with ear splintering hisses.
There was no time to dwell, my feet picking up before I'd even come to terms with that. I was taking thudding, sprinting strides over the slick concrete, throbbing arms pumping as I raced towards the bike. A part of my heart longed to go to Blue's aid instead, but it was a chance I couldn't take, especially if there was nothing I could do. It only fuelled the anger. How nothing natural glimmered off the skin of this animal. It was the hand-held mirror of those who had made it, and I saw their faces effervescently in the scales. My Uncle. Henry Wu. Simon Masrani. Claire Dearing. I threw myself down onto the leather seat, kicking the safety stand down with force. My shaking fingertips revved up the bike, the engine spluterring to life.
'HEY!' I yell out, my voice straining against my throat, the hybrid's neck clicking into place as it turned to glare at me. It belched an infuriated roar down the road. My insides shrivel at the volume of it, but I sit tall. I let every cut, bruise and slash rumble under my skin, Owen continuing to fire shots from his rifle, not taking his eyes off the animal as bullets revert from its scales with tiny yellow explosions.
'You sure about this?!' he yells out to me, slipping behind a large chunk of amber decoration. Displaying its talons, the creature began to stomp towards me, roaring in rage.
I was unfathomably unsure of it. But it had to be done. It was another punch from within. Another dent in the wall of this place. Gritting my teeth, I slam the accelerator as I embraced this idea in full force. This absolutely ludicrous idea that would most definitely kill me if I didn't execute it carefully, the likelihood impossibly high.
But I'd come this far.
I didn't dare blink as I drove the motorcycle closer and closer to this thing, growing bigger against my tiny stature until I was nothing but a fly in comparison to it. I could feel its body heat clinging to the top of my scalp, its shadow swallowing me whole in a bout of complete darkness. Anyone who'd been this close to this animal had ended up on the other side of its skin. But I wasn't. I was whirling by.
My breath hitched in my throat as I narrowly swerved past it's heavy tail, speeding out of the other side with a gasp. Disorientating the dinosaur had worked. It let out a frustrated roar, losing its balance. The creature toppled to the side, collapsing onto concrete of the main street. The tail flung past Owen's head, shattering the displayed block of amber he was hiding behind into thousands of tiny shards, swinging further into the sky.
'LAURA, LOOK OUT!' I hear Gray's voice cry.
The horrific sound of crunching mental wrung out, sparks of white hot electricity showering over us. The tail had slammed into a street post, the metal poll bending, folding, falling, clattering; metres from my bike accelerating at full speed ahead.
I stood up on the bike and lunged forward, reaching my hands out to grasp the cold, metal pole slick with rain. The bike raced under the pole with ease, but it had been a long time since I'd this sort of movement. Gravity took kinder to lighter, nimble bodies who knew how it worked. Unable to hold my weight with shaking biceps, my body tumbled backward with an unsettling gasp. Miraculously, I managed to stick my legs apart, feeling the leather seat clung back to the sides of them on my way down. I halt the bike to a stop, slamming forward with a punch to the stomach.
The Indominus, who still had a sharp sense of where I was, snarls in frustration, shaking its head, clawing across the ground towards me.
Claire must have ushered the boys to safety in that time, because two familiar heads were poking out from behind the counter of an empty merchandise stall. After everything they'd seen today, Zach and Gray's eyes were as wide and bewildered as they'd ever been.
'That was awesome!' Gray yelps.
Zach nods alongside his brother, impressed. 'Okay, That was badass.'
I nod. Out of breath. Barely fathoming the fact that my blood was still pumping in a body still held together.
'You guys okay?!" I ask. They nod feverishly.
But it wasn't entirely okay, because I couldn't see Alex. The steps trailing up to the Innovation Centre were vacant. 'Where's-?'
The Indominus bellowed another deafening roar, trying to swipe at Owen darting away to the safety of another block of stone. I reach for the handheld still stuffed awkwardly in the band of my pants, flipping it into use with shaking hands. The animal's footsteps rattle the ground with each thud, making it impossible to entertain any other thought other than how afraid I was. How one small success didn't equate safety. I could be dead at any given second.
I climb off the bike. 'Just stay low,' I instruct the boys, heads disappearing under the counter. The animal had lost Owen, and it had pissed her off majorly.
I kept my stance low as I headed over to the right side of the dinosaur. Resting my left hand on my right wrist for steadiness, I begun firing all the ammunition I had in the tiny device, flinching at the sound slapping my eardrums raw. By the time I'd made it to behind a concrete bench with none of it left, it had made no difference at all. Every bullet had ricocheted off of its bulletproof skin, clattering to the ground in little gold trinkets. It continued to stomp, to sniff, to slash out at nothing, powered by its only instinct—to kill.
Our raptors weren't letting up. Our brilliant little creatures. Echo was crawling up the back of it, scurrying down to latch onto its muzzle, attempting to claw out its eyes from its sockets. Delta followed in Echo's steps, climbing up along it's spine, gouging her claws into its back with every movement she made towards its head.
The Indominus strangled a roar. Deeper and louder, this one burning at my skin. It's head began to sway vicariously, chewing at thin air. It craned its neck, nipping at its back, trying to find the source of the jabbing. It's chin brushed over Delta's back, and it tilted its head in an awful way, widening its mouth dripping with saliva and blood and gums that pulsates with silvery-blue veins.
The Indominus Rex sunk its teeth into a body much smaller than its own, lifting it from its back like a wilted bandaid torn free from a wound. With a sharp fling of its head, it tossed the body aside to the Main Street's vacant steakhouse. A orange wall of unfathomably searing heat erupted from the building, fire billowing into the sky, the colour exploding out onto the street, just like it had in the jungle. Only this time, it didn't fill my eyes, it filled every part of my body, wrapping strong hands around my ankles and hauling me on my back with a sharp thud.
The moment passes in the blink of an eye, the flames licking the sky before they evaporated into thin air. I stare at the steakhouse front. Once a restaurant, now a graveyard in a silver of time. My jaw scaling lower to the ground. A deflated gasp silently settling inside my mouth. Dead and heavy and unearthly.
The body that had been tossed aside was Delta's.
I wasn't sure if I had screamed or ran to the building first. The scream floated around my head, detached from me. It couldn't be me doing this. Running for Delta. Each step in my sprint was one I couldn't possibly be taking, clambering over broken bricks and pushing through the overwhelming smell of smoke. The awful stuff. Hot and thick and a token of light; though it resembled anything but. There was a sensation of hot metal piercing into my skin as my hands skimmed over the bumpy surface, grey ash dirtying my fingers instantly. The vision was searing in my mind.
I was holding my world in my hands, watching it float away briskly into the night sky, settling in the grooves of black between the stars.
I clasp a hand over my mouth, trying to restrain my sobs. I squeeze the ash in between my hands harder. It continued to seep between my fingertips, dusting the surface; some of it carried away with the wind.
A strong hand wrapped itself around my stomach, pulling my body towards their own, dragging me away from the metal stove. Owen. The urgency snapped like a rubber band, a sob bubbling underneath my tongue. 'No, no, no,' I beg, my tone weltering with grief. 'Owen, no. Please. Owen. NO!'
The sound of gunshots ringing out centimeters from my head were miles away. Throbbing and spinning. I desperately reached out towards the building, helplessly watching ash continue to float away.
'OWEN I CAN'T LEAVE HER! OWEN!'
I try harder, clawing at his arms with my ash stained fingers, pulling myself away from his body, but he was stronger than me. I gave up. My feet stumble along the ground as he moved, hauling us both to safety a few shopfronts down. He releases me for a moment to achieve a better aim at the Indominus, now battling a solidary Echo, dragging me by the arm through the door of an empty building. He guides me inside until I was safely behind a frame where a glass window once stood. I was lowering to the ground in a hopeless endeavour that it would swallow me whole, gravel and broken glass digging into my thighs.
I caught his eye momentarily. They were glazed over with tears. 'Just sit tight,' he instructs, his voice cracking quietly.
Gray's strangled cry from the other side of the street drummed in the empty building. Owen takes off in a sprint, arms pumping as he raced for the gift shop. He jumps over the counter, disappearing out of sight.
I couldn't see the boys. I couldn't see Alex. I see my Uncle's body, covered in blood, still warm, his last words lifelessly cruel, not an ounce of love in them. Delta, once flesh and bone, now powder that filed into the lungs and wrapped its way around organs, cutting them off.
I could do nothing but sit and watch this horrific creature prowl the main street, continuing to chew its way through everything I'd ever cared about.
And in the darkened street, in this irrevocably unfathomable hour of a night that never seemed to end, a light flickered in the corner of my peripheral.
At first it was white. With a little movement, it bled. Bleeding out into a bright red, sparking and hissing as it bobbed up and down against a short silhouette.
Somebody was running alongside it.
With gritted teeth, cropped flowing wildly beside her face slick with grime and scratches, Claire Dearing was sprinting back through an alleyway and towards the Indominus, a flare grasped tightly in her hand. She threw the sizzling red light onto the Indominus' back. Thundering stomps were following her. The cylinder landed on to Indominus, Claire ducking her head between her hands as she threw her body onto the ground.
the Spinosaurus skeleton on the main street exploded into tens of thousands of fragments of bone with a death defying bang, debris flying in every direction. There was another roar. An unmistakable one. A hopeful one that made sense to me.
The roar of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
I crawled to the doorway, marveling at her. Watching as she stomped into the direct path of the Indominus Rex, the scar on the side of her head glimmering in the little balls of fire breaking away from all the destruction.
Claire, exhausted, lay just below the feet of her, looking up at the magnificent dinosaur. Hauling herself up with shaking arms, she began to look for somewhere to go. A place to survive. Her eyes fell into mine, tears welling in her waterline.
'Claire!' I strain to tell, dragging myself out of the doorway with an outstretched hand, picking myself up to crawl across the ground, chest heaving, a shattered heart beating against it.
We crawl helplessly towards one another. Our Rex lets out another beautiful roar, bearing her jaw lunging forward at the Indominus. Heads began rolling and thrashing as they collide with one another, dipping up into the sky like a wave meeting a cliff face. Claire was at the foot of the animals' brawl, eyes filled with that single thought of death. Knowing it had its hand above you and could pluck you free from the ground at any moment. I begged myself to crawl towards her faster, hauling my weight behind and concrete block.
'You're almost there,' I call to her, pain coating my body like a thick layer of oil. Claire grits her teeth, dragging her legs behind her, muddy water and debris soaking into her clothes. With a strangled cry, I outstretch my hand to her once more, our fingertips brushing. The two creatures stumble back.
I dig deeper. I claw at my insides so hard that nails break the skin of the developing pain. I grasp Claire's hand firmly between my fingers with a strained cry, pulling her towards me, her weight rolling over the concrete slab and slipping out of sight from the Indominus. We collapse behind the safety of it, now hidden amongst the dark, lungs burning and limbs shaking.
And all I could do was cry.
The sobs had taken on a mind of their own, pushing past my throat and tumbling out of my mouth. I let my temples press deeper into my knee caps, tucking my hands under my thighs, letting my burning back rattle with the weight of it. Nails clawed at my skin, as if I could gouge this pain free.
But it is somewhat steadied by Claire Dearing's hand smoothing over it, feeling her wrap an arm around me.
I bury my face into her shoulder, slipping down further until my head was in her lap and I was being cradled like a child. My head rested on her legs, hand over my mouth, hers planted gently over my head, smoothing down my hair. Even with her full attention to the catastrophic battle between the ancient creatures in front of her, she stroked at strands with shaking fingers.
'She's dead,' I sob. 'It threw her into a flame and she just...'
I couldn't finish the sentence. A fresh wave of tears washed over the formation of words to describe what I had just seen.
'This is all my fault, I sob to her. 'I killed her. I put everyone in danger.'
Claire squeezes me tighter. 'No, no, no, no,' she soothes. 'Laura, you are not responsible for this.'
Another sob skips through me. 'I let my Uncle take charge I- I let him use the raptors on the Indominus and I couldn't find Owen and got lost and then-'
I feel her gentle hands rub my upper arm, gently peeling me away so I could look at her. Her cool hands cup the side of my face, bringing my blotched appearance to her gaze. Her face was stained with makeup and tears; green eyes flittering over my face in devastation. 'None of this is your fault, Laura,' she wavers. 'You were not the one who created this situation, you hear me?'
I nod numbly.
'You're safe,' she says. 'You did what you had to do, something any of us would have done.'
You did what you had to do. It hit me that she didn't know about what had come before this. I suddenly realised our commotion in the bunkers would have been drowned out by the stomps of this thing claiming the Main Street. She was right. I didn't create this situation, but neither had she.
And I think I knew who did.
'My Uncle,' I whisper to her.
She searches my face, lost for what I was trying to say. 'What about him, Laura?'
'He knows.'
'Knows what?'
Sudden movement draws my eyes from Claire's, honing in on the piles of rubble now littering the street. The were creatures still clawing and snarling at one another, but every swipe posed more violence. More rage. Owen had made it to the boys still huddled together in the gift shop stand, with one extra head and set of terrified eyes.
Alex.
The Indominus swiped at the T-Rex, it's shadow looming over the tiny stall. Alex watches helplessly as the dinosaurs tower above him.
'Alex!' I scream. His head tunnels towards the sound of my voice. I can see him wanting to run more than anything, but he knows better than to do it, or for me to do the same.
'We need to distract it,' I urge to Claire, shakily picking myself up.
She tugs at my arm. 'Laura, no,' she instructs. 'It's too dangerous with both of them.'
'Where did you get the flare?' I beg.
'Laura.'
'Claire,' I snap, cutting her off. 'Where can I find an emergency box?'
The sound of a dinosaur crashing into concrete boomed through the street. The Indominus had the T-rex pinned against the rubble of the gift shop. Owen had his arms wrapped around Zach and Gray, bracing for the rest of it to come crashing down over them, or for a set of jaws to snap around his chest.
'RUN!' Claire shrieks at the top of her lungs.
I creep away from her side, darting into the darkened store front behind us. The breath in my ears and the thudding heart in my chest out of my body, chasing at my heels. I frantically search through the pitch black for the emergency kit. Glass crunches under my feet and fire crackles away, the roars of the animals shaking the walls. I was fumbling with a bright green metal box before my conscious had it even registered I'd located an emergency kit.
I tear it apart, plastic dropping to the ground, feeling my fingers grasp the roughened red cylinder. I slid over the counter of the gift shop towards the emergency exit sign, kicking down the door to the stairwell. The steps are dark and damp, not doing much to accomodate me half running, half crawling up the flight of them. I shove the door open at the top, tumbling out onto the empty roof.
Even in its darkest hour, the skies of Isla Nublar glimmered with the most beautiful stars, the familiar humid breeze pricking the back of my neck. I could see the silhouettes of palm trees swaying gracefully in the wind. The peaks of mountains a little darker against the sky. I look down onto the destroyed street, the anger of today consuming me once more. The Indominus Rex was now fending off a Tyrannosaurus Rex and -to my delighted dismay- an angry blue velociraptor that seemed to have survived its thrashing against a wall. Blue dipped in and out of the two animals, crawling to land a nip or a scratch on the Indominus wherever she could.
I rip the top of the flare, a red flame illuminating the darkened roof and warming up my trembling hands, willing them still. The sizzling and cracking echoed around me. The Indominus catches the light in the corner of its eye, looking up my way.
I grip the flare tighter, holding it above my head with aching arms. The light infatuated the creature's gaze. Even from here could I see it swimming it glaze that coated it's eye. Dancing over it. Drawing it in. A creature brought into the world just as any other living being, only to be shaped by greed. Seen only to others as a piece in a larger scheme; never to really be seen as something that would one day come to question its existence, and where she fit into everything around her. It would incite violence, and sometimes—as it had been displayed today—it would hinder beyond anyone's control.
I guess, when there was nothing else left to divulge, we both had that in common.
With every ounce of strength I could muster, I hurl the flare across the roof with the last of my strength, watching it soar through the air and tumble towards my desired target. The loud stomps of the Indominus and our Rex thunder through the main street, following it down to the very end, crashing into the fence of the Mosasaur lagoon.
It struggled on its side for a moment, thrashing its head around, only to slowly pick itself back up ever so slowly. I could see it inhale from here, anger and rage billowing in its expression. For a dizzying moment, it seemed my spur of the moment planned was destined to fail, and I felt my chest fall.
I wanted to buckle at the sight of its shaking water droplets free from its head, when a final, mighty display of nature broke through the surface of the lake behind it.
A scaled, hungry mosasaur lept out of the giant lagoon, slivers of crystal water erupting into the sky. The animal sank its teeth into the Indominus with a strained roar, the Indominus shrieking in pain as dozens of teeth sank deep into its flesh.
Thrashing and wailing and clinging to the saturated pavement for dear life, the mosasaur only writhed against it, chomping down deeper, pulling it away faster. It dragged the Indominus Rex from the face of the earth and into the body of water below. Body, head, and finally talons, slipping beneath the surface and rippling amongst the underwater lights.
The mosasaur's growl bellow from the deep blue, the harrowing sound fading through the street. The sloshing water slowing to a ripple. Flames cracking within the small fires slowly dying in the damp humidity. Crickets chirping in a place that should be vibrant, full of people.
All the elements in their own kind of silence.
My eyes wander back to the magnificent T-rex, wistfully watching Blue in front of her. With a soft roar, she turned gracefully on her heels, slowly making her way away from the main street.
It was funny, in the saddest of ways. Twenty-two years our Rex had inhabited Isla Nublar, and yet it was the first time I'd seemed to admire her for what she actually was. Not the park favourite, or the anniversary event; the one children were always dying to see as the ferry docked. She was faded, scarred, wise and triumphant. Sole-standing. Released her from the cage she'd spent her whole life trapped in, having relied on routine that kept her safe and fed.
And now she was free to roam.
I watch her closely, stomps thundering on the ground beneath me, every step a little less forceful and quieter than the last, until all I could hear was the ash-stained breeze waving through my air. My knees give way, body slowly slipping down to the ground to sit. Warm concrete sticks to my clammy palms, insides frantically searching themselves for some sort of energy.
I felt my breath flooding in-between my ears, hands shaking. A fresh batch of tears well in dry eyes as the night expands in my mind again. My lips had just parted to call one of their names until I heard footsteps clambering up the stairwell the way I came.
I swivel around to see Alex.
Out of breath, clothes caked in layer upon layer of the day we'd had, his eyes dart down to the main street then back at me. A gentle breeze blows through the tips of his hair, chest heaving up and down with the breath struggling to reach the bottom of his lungs.
He doesn't say a word. He strides up to me, reaching out to my hands and grasping them between his. I let his strength draw me up to stand, even if both of our arms were shaking. He doesn't let my forearms go, holding me steady.
'Are you okay?' he asks worriedly, eyes searching across my face. 'Are you hurt?'
I shake my head. I want to say no, but nothing comes out. I feel that pain in the back of my throat again, closing over, my chin beginning to wobble.
He envelopes me into an embrace. I hug my arms together, feeling the warmth of his chest radiate through my nimble state. His arms wrap tightly around me, resting a hand on my head.
I start to cry. I sob the grief piercing at my lungs, strong despite the state of me, demanding pain I couldn't provide. I bury my face into his shoulder, fabric sticking to the skin of my cheek.
'I'm so sorry,' he mumbles to me, his voice cracking. I only sob harder. His hand cups the back of my head, stroking it gently.
'It's all gone,' I mumble through my sobs, so quietly I'd barely registered it myself. It was the first time I'd admitted it aloud.
I had lost it all in a single day.
Alex's warm fingertips touch the surface of my jaw, pulling my face away from his shoulder. Soft brown eyes, smooth skin freckled with grazes. He doesn't say anything, but he's pain too.
The state of the mainland I'd never known but could picture well. The people up in those Ingen offices cursing the skies watching this all unfold, not really caring for the damage that had been done, but rather scrambling for new plans. His Father one of them.
He was going to lose things he'd once known, too.
Alex presses his lips against my forehead. Soft and warm, and he stays so until my sobs had subsided into bearable tears, pulling away to wrap his arms around me once more.
We stay intertwined until every last tear had rolled from my cheek, the rubble and ashes of Jurassic World beneath our feet.