Distant roars echoed cutting through the silent air, and an air of ominous aura settled in as a mechanical sound arose. Claire stood in front of the gate of the paddock 9 all by herself, the bleak moonlight being the only source of light, as the flare in her grip had minimal effect. As the lifting gate revealed nothing but the lingering darkness inside, a shiver ran down her spine, which might or not have anything to do with the cold draft brushing against her skin and hair.
There was a brief second before the ground gave a mild shake, then another. And another. By the raised gates of the paddock, her eyes fell upon the towering silhouette tearing out of the blackness making her knees wobbly. Slowly, very slowly she took a few steps back as it stepped out of the paddock to the open ground. The moonlight struck upon to outline its figure— quite as huge as the Indominus itself, but very unlike the white hybrid they had designed in the lab; it was darker in shade, and without the pointy spikes on its back, and its smaller eyes on top of the big head were solely fixed upon the burning flare still held in her hand.
The veteran dinosaur of the park, the one and only Tyrannical Rex, or T-rex, as they called it in short.
* * * * *
Inside of the shop where Owen had taken refuge, he found Zach and Gray huddled in a corner in the dark, both of whom looked alarmed, but no sign of Claire.
None of them talked at first. The brothers seemed restless, stealing looks at him and at the opening through which he entered, as if expecting someone, or something, before exchanging glances between themselves.
"W-Wait, where's.... Kate?" hesitantly asked Gray, his eyes wide in fear.
Kate came to under the star-less night sky. But unlike the quietude of the stars and windless night, triumphant roars of the Indominus Rex was still raging on. It could not have been long she was out. Her whole body was giving a numb ache, supposedly from the impact, and her limbs felt frail. Then there was this. A warm and wet sensation on her temple. Subconsciously she touched it and found her fingertips tinged with red. Blood.
When the splinters and shards with sharp edges all over the ground came to her notice, and one too close to stab her side, she jerked back. But as soon as she did, an agonising pang shot up her torso and a cry escaped her. With her hand she tried to contain the pain on her wound as a tear now slipped, and she let out a groan. The pain was searing and tearing up inside her, crippling her mind with agony and fear.
She told herself she would not look, yet she pulled her shaky hand to her eyes, her body now shivering with the pain. And a sight of that hand made her insides curl, now that whole of her palm was soaked in blood. She was not good with sightings of blood to begin with, and recalling one of their earlier paddock staff to have died from profuse bleeding did not make it easier.
She was drawing slow, short breaths in an attempt to steady her breathing, hoping it would make her pain a little more bearable, when without a warning something crashed in the vicinity with a horribly sickening thud. Kate flinched hard, half expecting to see the same tail that knocked her out earlier, or perhaps, a pterosaur itself lounging towards her, causing a shooting pain to writhe her sides, and she bit back a scream.
Something writhed next to her, and when she looked, it took her a moment to identify it to be a velociraptor. "V-Violet?!" Kate gasped; she remembered catching a glimpse of Violet right before passing out, as the raptor before her now squirmed and screeched with blood oozing out of a big gash on its side and staining the ground. A fierce pain gripped her, yet through it all, she noticed the absence of violet stripes on her side and rather the different eye colour of the raptor; no doubt it was Delta. With every second she seemed to be growing weaker and lifeless as a puddle of blood now surrounded her scathed body.
"N-No... no no no no..." the whispers escaped her lips as the tears started welling up in her eyes. Delta's gaze travelled to meet hers, and the painful look, or was it fear in her eyes, clenched at her heart. Oh, how she wished to give some comfort to Delta in her last minutes, to try and ease her pain, but the mere thought of moving heavily dreaded her; the wound on her torso already hurt so bad that even breathing felt so hard, making her wish she did not have to draw breaths anymore.
"Shhh. It's... it's gonna be okay... You're gonna be okay," whispered Kate looking into Delta's eyes with as much as love she could hold in hers. "You're gonna be fine."
If there was no way to mend her wound or save her, and if she could do nothing to stop her pain, she could at least try to let her dying minutes not be so fearful. Even if it meant lying. It could not be so wrong to lie to someone so scared, not when that someone was so close to death and there was no other way to comfort them.
"There's no need to be scared... I- I'm right here," Kate was now struggling to keep her voice steady, but there were squeezing lumps in her throat, and her voice broke. She tried to stifle a sob, deciding to be brave even of just once, for her sake. Blood was still trickling down her fingers with which she was trying to put pressure on the wound, and the pain was rising from her sobs, but she was going to forget it now.
Her words seemed to have put a lulling effect on Delta. Kate tried to smile despite the tears running down her cheek and stretched a hand forward, in hope of touching her, giving her one last stroke, ignoring the pain swelling inside her as she did, so she might not be so scared or lonely in her last few minutes. But the tip of her fingers barely met her skin; there was a little gap between her fingers and Delta's head which was closest in her reach. She wavered and flickered her fingers, trying to close the gap in between them, when a small croak caught her notice and before her eyes, she saw the light of her eyes fade. Now, the yellow eyes looked hazy and unfocused and devoid of life, they were still staring at her but not seeing her anymore.
Owen pulled a finger over his lips as soon as the ground gave a soft quake, locking his gaze with the Mitchells indicating the urgency of silence. The chimes on the front door tinkled louder through the silence with every quakes as it drew nearer. Until they all stopped: the soft quakes, the tinkle of the chimes, and a strangling silence seemed to stretch on.
A huge shadow was casted over them, darkness of which swallowed them in whole and there followed a long, rattling breath....
At first, only the big, long jaws of I-rex appeared by the opening of the little shop and next, came those sickening bloodthirsty yellow eyes that bored right into theirs. None of them dared to breathe as if the slightest of movement would get them killed, although Owen knew very well how far advanced its senses were, with perfect vision and improved auditory and smelling senses and all. It was only when the eyes disappeared and so did the shadow, that they exhaled the breath they had been holding in.
The silence that followed was equally unnerving. Their senses were screaming in full awareness that something was going to happen, they knew there were not exempted, and verily they were not— the walls, all of a sudden, started crumpling down upon them with a deafening crash. Zach and Gray screamed as the I-rex smashed down the forefront of the store, sending a haze of dust everywhere. Still screaming, they scrambled to huddle with Owen as more blows came against the structure of the shop and it swayed and trembled. The attacks kept coming until a gaping hole was created, through which the sharp claws came swooping for them— in a rush, Owen, Zach and Gray scurried to the back through the wreckage, until their backs were pressed against the wall and they had no means of escape left.
The claws blindly moved about to grab a prey since the I-rex could not peek and stick its claws through the wreckage at the same time due to its enormous size. The claws swooped and slashed in the air, sometimes dangerously close, and once it picked at a protruding structure only for it to be crushed afterwards. When again the claws swooped, one of the claws suddenly stuck to the straps of the fanny bag on Gray's waist— Owen and Zach instantly seized a hold of Gray, whose hands also clutched at them, his nails and fingertips digging into their skin, and they all struggled against the relentless pull of the claws. Gray had turned so pallid, he did not even scream unlike the other times; only tears were streaming down his cheeks.
Certainly, they were no match against a humongous dinosaur. Gray was gradually slipping out of their grasp, when the strap of the fanny pack bound to his waist came to Zach's notice and immediately he reached for it. Just as he had unstrapped it, the claw slipped, still tugging at the loosened strap and yanked the fanny pack along with itself.
* * * * *
They said, the park's T-rex could not see except the signature of heat and motions, but here was Claire, drawing it hot on her trail with nothing but a blazing flare in hand. If she wanted to survive and also get done what was necessary, she would have to do the almost impossible: outrun it. She gasped and panted for breath, but no matter what she kept running and running.
The more she ran, the more her legs wanted to buckle and give out, and her lungs felt like collapsing, but the deafening roar from behind kept her pushing through when at last the monumental sculpture of a dinosaur at the Main Street square came into view. She quickly tried to spot the Indominus, and when she did, Claire hurled the flare at the monstrous hybrid with all the remnants of her strength before she scampered to a side. She had to get away from the path of T-rex; hopefully it would be enough to seize the attention away from her.
Up in the black sky, a flash of red cut through the darkness, soaring high before soon descending, and diminished hitting on the ground, just a few feet away from the deadly I-rex. It seemed to have done the trick; the T-rex chased the red flare, smashed through the monumental sculpture on the Main Street Square on its way and finally slowed down taking notice of a possible threat ahead. A humongous creature just like her, who could overthrow her throne. The flare apparently had drawn the attention of I-rex as well, who whirled back to meet its competitor, its tail nearly hitting the shop as it did so.
With a menacing roar, I-rex challenged the T-rex, but the T-rex was no coward; with a bellow she charged, and so a terrible battle begun.
Their tremendous jaws clattered against one another, both trying to come at the other's neck, and Claire quickly fell back. Behind her they lashed out at each other aggressively, their powerful tails swiping in the air or hitting the roadside structures, and the ground trembled underneath her feet as she looked for any possible hideout nearby. But soon she found her path ahead blocked by debris. She changed her course and ran again, while also trying to look for the shop where she had left her nephew. But then something else caught her eyes: by a heap of shards and splinters and broken appliances from roadside shops, someone was lying in a limp. And she had the same blue shirt on, like Kate did.
"Oh no, no... Kate?" gasped Claire. With an explosion of horror in her heart, she bolted for her. "Kate!"
Kneeling next to her, she looked for vital signs at first. When she was sure she was breathing, she looked over her shoulders and almost jumped when she noticed the stiff lifeless body of a raptor very close by, but quickly caught on to the fact that it was no more.
"Ka-Kate?" fearfully Claire called, as she inspected her for bruises and injuries, and her heart almost skipped a beat seeing her condition. "Oh my, Kate! What happened to you?!"
On the side, the colour of the shirt Kate was wearing was blacker than blue, no doubt soaked in blood. But barely had Claire's hand got closer to her wounded torso when Kate had slapped her hand away with a warning glare, making Claire more concerned.
"H-How bad is it? Is it still bleeding??" She asked shakily, now having to raise her voice over the hollers of the raging dinosaurs.
"Delta's dead, not me," scoffed Kate.
Claire winced; Kate's voice sounded so feeble when she spoke, but what really struck her was how hollow her eyes looked.
"It's killing everybody, Claire... even all of our raptors are gone."
First, Charlie, then Blue, and then one by one all of them were gone, falling victims to the hybrid right before her eyes, well, except Violet, but she never saw a sign of her after she came to her senses and could only assume her to have met the same end.
"But you'll live, Kate!" Claire cut her off. Whether the amount of blood Kate had lost by now was detrimental she did not know, and it had her worried sick. Kate might require immediate help, for all she knew. But her erratic behaviours were now scaring her; she had never seen her like this. "You'll be okay!"
"I know," retorted Kate, still sounding stoic and hollow. But beyond these, Claire could clearly see how all the deaths were tormenting her; the mere prospect of outliving the raptors seemed to be eating away at her.
"Where's your brother?" mumbled Claire looking around for him urgently, when she remembered that she had no clue of the whereabouts of her nephews, either. Instinctively she peeked over the pile of rubbles but the sight only horrified her.
Owen slowly crept to the opening of the shop to take a look outside, with Zach and Gray on his heels. Hearing two different roars and the crazy quakes of the earth had made him think they might have a chance of getting out of here while the dinosaurs wrestled, but now as he observed, it seemed impossible at this point. The moment they step out they could get caught up in their battle and risk losing their lives.
The T-rex and I-rex were thrashing all over the place, long heavy tails came swishing left and right, jaws closing on the necks of the other and pushing each other to the ground, sending chunks of debris flying in every direction. It was hard to tell which one was thriving and which one was losing. That was when a pair of hands moving frantically in the mid air seized their attention.
"Run!" screamed Claire at the top of her lungs.
The eyes of the trio traveled upwards and they knew at once why: I-rex had closed its jaws on the side of the T-rex's neck and was shoving her down right on the shop. If they did not make for a run now, they might never get to again.
Owen acted almost instantly; pushing the Zach and Gray through a gap between the debris, he dashed to climb out just as the ceiling came tumbling down with a booming crash, and the trio bolted without even looking back again. An agonising roar filled the air and the earth was quaking, it was like the world was coming to an end, and Owen pushed through everything blindly to reach Claire, while also making sure her nephews were not separated from him.
Claire's voice guided them to where she was hiding: behind some debris. A weight dropped to his stomach as soon as Owen saw Kate slumped wearily next to Claire, her hands clutching to her side, and his limbs grew frigid with fear.
"Kate!" Zach gasped, and so did Gray.
Owen had already rushed to her side, trying to assess her wounds without touching or troubling her, anxiety strikingly evident all over his face. "How— I-I'm sorry, Kate.... I should have watched out for you-u," His voice broke off in remorse as Kate's hand closed on his.
"She's gonna be okay, right? Is she gonna be okay??" Gray was no doubt freaking out, but Zach smacked his arm, shushing him.
"Don't talk like that!" hissed Zach, stealing a glance at Kate to make sure she did not hear them, "Of course, she's gonna be!"
Owen winced at how cold her hand felt, and that was when he took a moment to look at her. Although she might not act like it, he could tell she herself was frightened more or less. "Hey, you're gonna be okay," He tried to assure her, "We're gonna get out of here, and get you help. Alright?"
"But h-how? How..? I won't be able to move fast enough, and— I-I'm only gonna be a drag—" her voice broke off as a tear rolled down her cheek, when Owen cut in.
"Hey! I'll carry you if I need to, okay?"
Kate nodded slowly, biting onto her lips as more tears threatened to escape, and he carefully rubbed the tears off. His lips moved again as he stared her in the eye, but they failed to form any words.
"—Guys? We need to get out of here right now!!" cried Claire, when suddenly, with a booming crash, the ground quacked horribly.
Owen whipped his head to the direction of the commotion and found the T-rex had collapsed. He swallowed hard. "Kate? This is gonna hurt."
On the count of three, he picked her up in his arms, and Kate gasped in pain. The pain was so horrible that it blinded all of her senses for a few seconds, that she could not even hear her brother's voice asking if she was alright. Even so, as her vision started stabilising, she found herself looking over Owen's shoulder, only to be witnessing what was supposedly a grim end. With the turn of events, I-rex had pinned down the T-rex on the ground. With claw bearing long arms and a bigger range of teeth of the hybrid, it had seized the upper hand in no time against the veteran animal who had only its set of teeth to fight, given that her arms were puny and futile for a battle.
But then, cutting through all the commotion rose a sharp, piercing call... A call so familiar... Kate could not believe her ears, a raptor's call? If her eyes did not trick her, she could even make out a distinct figure sprinting through the hazy darkness and when the moonlight bathed upon it, there were no more doubts that it was indeed a raptor.
"Ow-en?" She gripped onto his shirt, eyes wide in surprise as she tried her best to not lose the raptor from her sight, but Owen did not seem to notice when he looked back for a moment, still running with her in his arms. The quadruple were busy running to safety, if there were any in.
The I-rex was ready to finish off the T-rex who now lied so feeble, until it seemed to have heard it as well and therefore stopped to look back.
The raptor had come at full pelt, climbed up its tail and on to the beast's back, and with her claws and teeth she dug at it's neck. Right away I-rex tried to get back at her, only that it's jaws would not reach her, and so it flailed to throw her off. The raptor managed to hold on and kept on attacking, giving it a hard time; she alone might not be much against the monster itself, but it sure bought the wounded T-rex some time as the duo engaged in clashes.
The pentad was scurrying to the Innovation Center as it seemed to be the only establishment standing and a little far away from all the commotion, hoping to take shelter here, when Claire cried pulling on Owen's shirt. "Watch out!"
Owen, with Kate in his arms, as well as Zach and Gray came to a halt just as the raptor crashed right next to them, but she sprang to her feet and streaked off down the street as if nothing had happened. Again the five of them dashed cutting through the debris and obstacles, and by the time they got to take cover behind the pillars of Innovation Center, the T-rex seemed to have regained her strength and now was back on her feet. Owen laid down Kate against a pillar to rest his fatigued arms and peeked from behind the pillar, like the rest of them, to see what was going on.
I-rex was busy peeling the raptor off its back and taking the advantage, T-rex struck its competitor, pushing it down on a barely standing establishment, which smashed down under the weight of the beast.
The I-rex was still quick to get back up on its feet, but the raptor was faster to charge. It clawed and yanked and jerked to shake off the raptor as she climbed up to the top its head and tried to maul at its eyes. Although the attempt went unsuccessful, it provided enough distraction for the T-rex to prepare a fatal blow, giving it a deep wound to its neck. And without sparing a moment, she shoved the wailing monster down the street towards the park's Lagoon, crushing down the remnants of debris on the way.
Their combined attacks were finally putting it in check, the hybrid was now struggling to keep up. As it grew weaker, the raptor in joint forces with the T-rex cornered it further towards the edge of the Lagoon. Even so it did not seem to know defeat, and made a menacing roar, challenging its competitors once more. Both the T-rex and the raptors bellowed and screeched in counter, ready to charge all the same, until suddenly, there was a huge splash on the back.
A creature so majestic broke out of the water surface and dived straight for the I-rex, sinking its teeth deeper into the neck right away.
The Indominus Rex shrieked loud like a thunder for the last time, as the Mosasaurus pulled its prey with itself sending another massive splash of water and disappeared into the depths of the pool, drenching everything in close range.
With the blink of an eye, it was gone. Once and for all. Indominus Rex, the cunning and bloodthirsty monster which had been slaughtering men and dinosaurs left and right ever since it broke out of containment, was finally taken down.
In triumph roared the T-rex, reinstating who was the king of the dinosaurs in the park. Then she turned to the raptor who saved her life and fought alongside her, and for a moment Owen feared something might start again. But to his surprise he witnessed as the lone raptor lowered her head in subjugation, something he had never expected from a velociraptor, which were rather known to be arrogant. However, the T-rex seemed at peace with it, and with a mild rumble it started to leave in lazy steps, oblivious of the five spectators.
But the velociraptor had yet to leave. She stood on spot, her gaze now focused on the figures in the dark, hiding behind the pillars. Her mere presence were enough for Claire and her nephews to be nervous. But Owen gestured them with a hand to stay put, and exchanging glances with his sister, he came out of hiding. He took a step towards the raptor and that was when he recognised her. Even in the bleak moonlight, from up close the blue stripes on her sides were prominent.
Taken by relief and surprise at once, his lips moved only but failed to produce any sound.
"Blue...?" He stuttered after a couple seconds, which sent a surge of shock all over Kate's body.
Blue tilted her head, her fierce eyes hovering from him to Kate and the rest, scanning, judging, and Owen could tell she was restive. So, when again he was met with the pair of yellow eyes, he shook his head, and whatever that had been bothering Blue seemed to have allayed. All that remained was the placidity visible in her eyes, and he knew it was time to say goodbye. Blue squealed stepping back and casted one last glance at Kate before falling back. And with a surprising speed she vanished into the darkness.
"Live long, dear Blue..." whispered Kate staring after her, her own voice quavering with emotions as she did so.
Even after all the mess they did, she was beyond heartbroken having to think all of them had died at first, and so she was greatly relieved knowing at least one of her beloved raptors had survived. But now that it was time to let her go, her heart wrenched once more.
And in moments like this, she could not but miss Violet even more. She had not even seen her for the last time, she did not know what happened or how she met her end, or if there had been a way to help her. She missed her, and all the other raptors who had died, died trying to take out the evil. "May you rest in peace, Violet," she breathed closing her eyes as they started to sting too much. "A-And Charlie. And Delta... And Echo." Painful knots were rising up her throat and she could only let out a shaky gasp in hope of easing it up.
Just at the start of the day, had she been told how drastically everything was going to change, would she have believed it?
Had she been further careful, or done things differently, would the outcomes have been any different than it was now?
authors' note : 𝘛𝘸𝘰 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦! 𝘈𝘭𝘴𝘰,𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦. 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺. 𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘶 𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘬𝘶𝘮 ♥
[ The story will continue~! ]