Chapter Text
Combeferre had been bothering him to go with him to Jurassic World for what felt like years. In hindsight, Courfeyrac should’ve just said yes. Being somewhat in love with his best friend meant he’d go with him anywhere, and, yes, that did include a resort island filled with dinosaurs.
Honestly, it was a wonder they’d never been before.
Five years out of college, five years after Enjolras was offered to be a technician at the park, five years after Combeferre and Courfeyrac continued to share the apartment Enjolras left them in. Because, really, who wanted to go through the hassle of moving when you’d end up at the other’s house more often than not anyway?
Enjolras sent them pictures of himself in the control room of the park, but the pictures became less and less frequent as time went by. There was probably a gap of at least a year in which they didn’t speak to him. They understood, of course, they saw the news that he’d been promoted to Park Operations Manager after about a year and a half of working there. Enjolras was on the television sometimes when they unveiled a new dinosaur. Always looking prim and proper, the very definition of elegance and the air of ‘I know what I’m doing, get out of my way’. Very put together. Sorta scary, to be honest. Courfeyrac barely believed he was the same guy he and Combeferre pulled all-nighters with during college.
But Combeferre, somehow, had gotten ahold of Enjolras, and he was expecting them to arrive at the park in slightly less than three hours.
The first thing Courfeyrac noticed when they got out of the airport and started heading towards the boat to Isla Nublar was how fucking hot Central America was. Beside him Combeferre was smiling widely, and, fuck, he should not have found that to be as endearing as it was.
A few girls were smiling at Courfeyrac, and he felt himself smiling and waving at them before he could think of anything else to do. Something to get his mind off of Combeferre, at least.
——
The elevator was taking forever, especially with a schedule like Enjolras’. He was three minutes late to a meeting with several visiting investors, all of whom had only one thing on their mind: what was next. Tholomyes, Listolier, Fameuil, and Blachevelle.
Enjolras repeated their names, along with running through their faces, for the duration of the elevator ride.
When there was a ding, he took one last steadying breath before stepping off of the elevator with a pleasant expression.
“Welcome to Jurassic World.” He said, looking each of the four investors in the eye.
He gave his speech, throwing out the statistics he always made himself memorize, and the men seemed pleased. He led them to the lab, away from the constant flow of park guests and visitors, stopping to stand in front of a screen that showed a strand of DNA labeled Indominus Rex.
“As you all surely know by now, the park has to have new, exciting attractions to keep people interested. Recent developments in gene splicing have given us the opportunity to create genetically modified dinosaurs.” Enjolras explained, pausing for dramatic effect and to take a breath.
“You can make a hybrid?” Fameuil asked, and Enjolras smiled.
“We can, so we did. The Indominus Rex was based off of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, with a few different traits added to it from various other species.”
“When will it be ready?” Tholomyes said, crossing his arms over his chest and looking skeptic about the whole situation. Enjolras was about to answer, but Cosette, their head geneticist, walked towards them, looking at everyone with that soft smile of hers. Incredibly smart and talented, she created the Indominus Rex.
“She already is. The Indominus will be larger than anything we’ve ever seen, growing to be at least fifty feet long.” Cosette answered, telling the investors what they wanted to hear. Enjolras stepped back and let her speak with them, let them ask her all the questions she could answer, only stepping in when his knowledge was necessary.
Because people wanted something bigger, scarier, terrible, and awesome, the true meaning of the word. So that was what they made.
——
The second they got off of the boat, Combeferre hadn’t stopped pulling Courfeyrac along by his arm, all the while grinning like an idiot and rambling about the dinosaurs and the park.
“Courf, this island is incredible. I read they went through fifty tons of food each week. Where should we go-“ Combeferre started, but he cut himself off, stopping in the middle of the pier and looking straight ahead, seeming vaguely annoyed. Courfeyrac looked up, and he saw someone who was ginger and short, maybe the same height as Courfeyrac, holding a tablet that had their names on it. “When do you think we’ll actually see Enjolras?”
“Maybe he’ll show up to send us away. I don’t think anything short of a T-Rex rampage could get him away from his job.” Courfeyrac said, laughing.
They approached the person, who seemed to smile upon recognizing them.
“Hi, my name’s Jehan. I’m Enjolras’ assistant, and I’m here to escort you to your rooms.” They, Jehan, said, extending his hand and shaking theirs.
“Thank you, but where’s Enjolras?” Combeferre asked as the three of them began walking towards the gates of the park.
“He’s in a meeting at the moment, but he’ll be joining you two as soon as he can.” Jehan answered cheerfully, skillfully leading them through the mass of people.
Alright, so Enjolras was more of a dick than previously thought. Whatever. Courfeyrac was fine with spending more time with Combeferre, especially if he was smiling and wide-eyed the whole time. Would’ve been nice to see their best friend after all that time, but, again, it’s whatever.
Jehan led them to their hotel room, which had two queen sized beds, and the room looked out over the rest of the resort. He thought Combeferre was going to faint when he saw the view, and he thought he saw him get a little teary eyed.
“You both have VIP wristbands, so you won’t need to wait in lines for anything. Enjolras has asked me to keep an eye on you, because, and I quote, ‘Ferre is going to spaz, and Courf will probably do something illegal’.” Jehan recited, and that, at least, made Combeferre laugh. Courfeyrac smiled at that rather than the joke.
“We’ll be fine, but thanks.” Courfeyrac insisted.
“He asked me to do this, so I’m going to do it. You both know him, you must know how terrifying he is when he’s angry.” He said, and, yeah, Courfeyrac had to cut him some slack for that one.
Eventually they both relented, letting Jehan tag along and point out all of the best exhibits. Courfeyrac almost had to drag Combeferre away from the mini-dinosaur petting zoo, even when the attendant told him he was too tall.
They went to the Mosasaurus feeding show, they both got absolutely drenched, and Combeferre was practically vibrating in his seat from excitement. And if they lost Jehan while they were exiting, then that wasn’t really anyone’s fault.
After they were sure they were alone, at least as alone you could be while surrounded by twenty thousand strangers, Combeferre made a beeline for the Tyrannosaurus rex exhibit.
——
Enjolras thought the meeting with the investors went well. He decided to check in on the control room, since that was technically where his desk was. The control room was busy as ever, people going in and out every few minutes or so. Bossuet and Musichetta, his assistants along with Jehan, were sitting at their desks. Enjolras took up his usual spot of standing between their desks, which happened to be the center of the room.
“How’s the park? Any incidents?” Enjolras asked before he took a sip of his coffee.
“There are currently nine kids in the lost and found, but that’s low considering there are twenty-two thousand six hundred eighteen guests at the moment.” Bossuet said, and he nodded. Enjolras studied the wide screen at the front of the room, it was hard to miss, covering the entire wall. A concerning red outline was around one of their sectors, though.
“Why is sector four closed?” He asked, and Musichetta sighed before pulling up a camera feed from the sector.
“A Pachycephalosaurus got out of the arena. When they butt heads they short out their trackers, and Dr. Fauchelevent is working on fixing that bug.” She said, and the camera did indeed show the Pachycephalosaurus on its side with three park officers around it.
“How long until they can get it out of there?” Enjolras asked.
“Enj, that animal just got sedated out of its mind.” Bossuet reminded him.
“The sector will be live again in less than an hour, assuming they can get her onto the truck as safely as possible.” Musichetta said, and Enjolras nodded.
“Good. Notify me when it’s open again.” He said, and then he turned around to leave, because he had another meeting.
There was barely enough time to finish his coffee before he had to go meet with the owner of the park, Jean Valjean. Who was apparently getting his helicopter’s license and flying them to the asset he wanted to see.
That was fine, it wasn’t like the clumsy flying made Enjolras nauseous or anything.
“How are the dinosaurs, though?” Mr. Valjean asked as they were, thankfully, getting out of the helicopter. Enjolras had been explaining various things about his park, telling him of how the renovations were going, how many people came on average, all the way to the Indominus rex paddock.
“Guest satisfaction is at an all time high, and-“
“No, no, the dinosaurs. How are they, are they happy?” He asked, turning to look at Enjolras.
“We don’t have any way to measure their emotions, Mr. Valjean.” He said, and Mr. Valjean sighed dramatically. The dinosaurs were healthy, and they all seemed to be mentally stable.
“We’ve talked about this, Enjolras, you can call me Jean.”
“Jean, then, there isn’t a way to know if the dinosaurs are happy.” Enjolras said with a nod.
“Of course, what was I thinking, there’s no way for them to fill out a short survey at the end of their stay or anything.” Jean said as he started walking towards the Indominus rex’s containment center. “Why is it still under construction?”
“She’s larger than we expected.” Enjolras explained, leading him up the stairs to the viewing area of the paddock.
Six floor to ceiling windows, overlooking the contained area.
Enjolras could see the the scaly, pale skin of the animal through the brush and the trees. Judging by the size of the breath Jean took, he did, too.
“Where’s the other one?” Jean asked after a second.
“She ate it after a week of being moved here from the lab.” Enjolras said flatly.
“Are you sure it can’t escape this enclosure?” He asked, still staring at the dinosaur.
“At the moment, yes, but that’s why we’re building the walls higher and thicker.”
Valjean continued to regard the Indominus in silence for another minute or so, and Enjolras stood by patiently.
“Does it know we’re here?” Jean asked, stepping closer to the glass.
“She has thermal heat sensing capabilities.” He said, so, yes. The giant dinosaur did, probably, know they were there.
If the way she was still standing in the same spot as she had been when they walked in was anything to go off of, then she definitely knew they were there.
“Do you think it will scare the kids?” Enjolras asked, because that was Valjean and the investors’ main goal.
“The kids? This’ll terrify the parents.” Jean said quietly. That stunned Enjolras, because he didn’t know how to respond to that.
“Is that a good thing?” He asked.
“It’s an excellent thing.” Valjean nodded, and Enjolras relaxed. “I’d like to get an expert to look at this, though. Have you met our behavioral researcher on the Velociraptors? Ex-navy, his name’s Grantaire.” He went on, and Enjolras wanted to groan. Groaning wouldn’t be professional, though, so he settled for closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath.
“Yes, I’ve met him.” He said curtly.
“Good, because I want his opinion on all of this before I leave the island.” Of course he did.
“I’ll tell him as soon as I can.”
Sadly, ‘as soon as he could’ came around pretty quickly after Jean Valjean dropped Enjolras off at the visitor’s center.
He was walking out of the lab, because he had to say hello to Cosette whenever he could, when a hand grabbed his arm and jerked him back.
“Enjolras!” A voice that could only belong to Courfeyrac said before there was a pair of arms around his neck, and he had a face full of brown hair. Enjolras saw Combeferre standing next to him, smiling widely and looking taller than he remembered him. Courfeyrac, of course, was still a few inches shorter than Enjolras, which Enjolras thought was nice.
“Hi, it’s so nice to see you guys again.” He said, eagerly hugging him back. Courfeyrac pulled back after a moment, and Enjolras was able to hug Combeferre. It was nice, seeing his best friends after so long. Combeferre had different glasses, though, which was odd.
“I’ve missed you, Enj.” Combeferre said when he stepped back.
“How are you two do-“ Enjolras started, but his cell phone ringer cut him off. He quickly turned his phone off, because he could stand to be away from his job for a minute. “Sorry. Busy day.” He apologized, but Courfeyrac waved him off.
“We’re good. When are you gonna be done with work?” He asked, and Enjolras sighed.
“Soon, I hope. Wait, where’s Jehan?”
“Bathroom.” Combeferre answered quickly, and Enjolras nodded as his phone started ringing again.
“Okay, I’ll find you both when I’m finished up here. Is that okay? It may be around nine, what time do you guys go to bed?” He asked.
“Just call when you’re done, we’re usually up for anything no matter what.” Courfeyrac said with a sigh, and Enjolras had the feeling he was messing something up.
“I will, and I promise that tomorrow will be much better, I’ve cleared my whole schedule.” He said, trying to nod reassuringly.
“Good, we’ll hold you to that.” Combeferre said, and Enjolras took that as an opportunity to answer the phone and start walking out to his car.
Because, as much as he wished he could stay with Courfeyrac and Combeferre, he had to speak with Grantaire.
——
“Hey! Delta! Keep your shit together.” Grantaire shouted down to the four velociraptors, because he was trying to keep their attention fixed on him. He pressed the clicker down, making a loud click that the raptor responded to.
“What the fuck, Charlie, we’ve talked about this. Eyes on me.” He said, and he made more clicks. Charlie, eventually, looked at him. Blue and Echo, the other two velociraptors, were doing well and listening to him, because they knew their shit. Not that he didn’t love the other two raptors, they all held an equal share of his heart. They were amazing listeners. It was very calming to vent while feeding them.
After he tossed each of them a mouse as a treat, he snapped his wrist to one side, and they were running off again.
“That was good, R.” Eponine said, coming to stand beside him and pat his shoulder once.
“Definitely better than most days.” Bahorel said with a hearty laugh, and they both walked beside him around the top of the paddock.
“Try every day.” Grantaire muttered. Bahorel groaned and slung an arm around his shoulder.
“You’re just being hard on yourself. Think about it, no one’s ever made that much progress with a raptor, and, hey, look at that, you did.” He said.
“Oh, Javert’s been waiting for you since your date with the raptors started.” Eponine said at about the same time as he saw Javert standing, leaning on the railing and looking at the velociraptors. Javert was in charge of InGen’s security division on the island.
Grantaire didn’t appreciate the way he was looking at them, and he had a bad feeling about the man in general. He meant well, but Grantaire still didn’t like him hanging around the raptors.
He was protective of them. So what. Sue him.
“You’ve done well with them.” Javert said, and Eponine and Bahorel took that as their cue to leave. Yeah, those assholes left Grantaire to fend for himself.
“Thanks.” He said simply as he continued down the stairs on the outside of the containment, because it was time for them to actually be fed soon.
“Have you thought about a field test since I was last here?” He asked.
“No, because it’s a terrible idea.”
“How? They can search areas drones can’t, they’re vicious hunters, and you’ve shown everyone that they can take commands.”
“Hey, what do your drones do if you forget to feed them? Because a raptor would put that ‘vicious hunter’ trait to work and turn their back on you real fucking quick.” He snapped. Javert just shook his head and continued following him.
“You can control them, though, they aren’t gonna turn on you.” Javert said insistently.
“What you just saw is the product of months and months of failure. You’re not going to effectively weaponize them.” Grantaire said, opening the door to the smaller cage that led to the main enclosure, separated by, of course, yet another reinforced fence. Bahorel and Eponine were already in there, and they shut the door behind him.
“What I just saw proves otherwise.” Javert said.
“Why am I even trying, he’s only gonna learn what’ll help him.” He mumbled to himself, dropping his head back and looking up at the sky for some sort of strength to not kick Javert in the balls.
“Chill, you’ll have alone time with your girlfriends in a-“ Eponine said, teasing him about how much he loved the raptors, but a panicked shouting cut her off. Much more of a big brother and little sister relationship if you asked him, but whatever.
“Loose pig in the cage!” Someone shouted, and Bahorel immediately went up the fence to look, and, yeah, there was a small pig running around the larger pen. Followed by four velociraptors.
Poor pig.
Grantaire continued to get their food ready, right up until Eponine hit his shoulder and there was a loud thump from the paddock.
“Fuck, Feuilly fell into the cage.” Bahorel let out with a sigh, and his face was slack as he watched Feuilly, one of the other behavioral researchers beside Grantaire, crawl off his back and slowly scoot back in terror from the approaching raptors.
It didn’t exactly register to him what he was doing as he was doing it, but Grantaire found himself pressing the red button that opened the gate to the large pen with the raptors in it, while Eponine asked him whether or not he had a fucking death wish.
“Hey, hey, no, Blue, look at me.” Grantaire said as he put himself between the raptors and Feuilly, who quickly scrambled back behind the gate, which was still open. Blue moved again, though, eyeing Feuilly. “What did I just say? Eyes on me, Blue.” He shouted, and he definitely got her attention that time. Bahorel swore at him.
It was weird that Grantaire was noticing that and not the fact that, oh, four velociraptors were staring him in the eye from five feet in front of him. He saw movement out of his left eye, though, and slowly turned his head to see one of the raptors steadily getting closer to him.
“Echo, no. Stay. Hey, no. No, don’t give me that shit, Charlie.” He said forcefully as he continued to back up towards the gate. “Close the gate.” He said quietly.
“Oh my god, you actually want to die.” Eponine said.
“With you on the other side? Fuck, no.” Bahorel said.
“Just do it.” He said.
“R, no.” Feuilly said.
“Trust me and close the gate.” Grantaire said calmly, and he heard an annoyed sigh from Eponine before the gate started to close. “Okay, easy. Watch yourself, Delta. Hey, no, stay.” He said when Delta took a larger step forward.
He dove underneath the gate when he had them all at least sort of listening to him, because at least that way it didn’t feel as much like running from a dog. The gate closed, and he heard the raptors hitting the gate behind him to get at them.
“Thank you.” Feuilly said, nodding at him once in gratitude.
“Yeah, welcome. Don’t do it again.” Grantaire said, and Feuilly chuckled. Bahorel helped him up, because the ginger was still fairly stunned after the whole ‘falling flat on his back and staring death-personified-as-raptors in the face’ experience. Grantaire didn’t blame him on taking a minute to recuperate.
Javert, on the other hand, had probably watched the whole thing at a comfortable distance away, and then he was smirking at Grantaire.
“No.” Grantaire said, because the word worked on velociraptors. Javert just turned around and walked away, and Grantaire groaned.
He was going to go home, take a shower, take a fucking nap, because dealing with shithead military freaks was not in his job description.
“Come on, control wants you on the phone.” Eponine said, jerking her head over her shoulder.
“Nope, not today, I’m clocking out.” He said, standing up and shaking his head the whole time. Eponine laughed at him.
“Yeah, fine, I’ll tell them you’re on the toilet.” She said, and Grantaire didn’t have it in him to care at that point.
——
Musichetta had tried to get a hold of Grantaire, and even Bossuet called his cell phone once. He didn’t answer any of their calls, and Enjolras was getting frustrated. After three other missed calls, he gave up and got in his car to drive down to Grantaire’s trailer.
Because Enjolras knew where that was. Because they might have gone on a date that didn’t end well. Because he might have had feelings for Grantaire.
But that was all irrelevant.
He parked the car and got out, sighing and reminding himself to stay professional. That was hard to do when Grantaire was sitting on a crate next to his motorcycle in a threadbare shirt that did wonderful things for his chest.
“Enjolras? Oh, god, am I being fired?” Grantaire asked with mock panic as Enjolras walked over to stand next to him, which was hard to do in his shoes on the uneven dirt. Dress shoes were not meant for that terrain.
“No, I actually need you to look at an asset for me.”
“You know I’m always happy to look at your asset.” He said with a shit-eating grin, looking up at Enjolras.
“Mr. Grantaire, will you please accompany me to the attraction?” Enjolras said, and Grantaire frowned almost immediately.
“What’s with the formalities?” He said as he stood up, that time looking down at Enjolras. Enjolras wasn’t exactly short, more like barely above average size, but Grantaire was taller and lankier than he was.
“Jean Valjean, the owner of this park, would like for you to inspect the asset and her paddock.”
“Why me?” Grantaire asked, tilting his head slightly the side. It made Enjolras want to roll his eyes.
“You control the raptors, and-“ He started, but Grantaire barked out a laugh.
“I don’t control anything. We respect each other. Unlike some people.” He said, quirking an eyebrow at him before he walked up the steps to his patio. Enjolras couldn’t help but gape.
“Excuse me?” He asked, following him up the patio.
“You kept our date on a schedule. I mean, there was an itinerary, like, what the fuck, man.” Grantaire said as he started putting up the tools he was using on his motorcycle.
“You wore dirty shorts and a t-shirt.” Enjolras said, because that was annoying when he showed up wearing a nicer version of his usual dress pants, a button down shirt, and a tie. It was downright embarrassing when he tried very hard to look nice, and Grantaire didn’t seem to care at all.
“Paint splatters on clothes don’t make them dirty, for fuck’s sake, Enjolras.”
“It doesn’t matter. Look, just.” He started, but he had to sigh, gathering his thoughts for a moment. “I’d appreciate it if you would come with me.” And he was truly trying to keep his calm. Grantaire sighed and seemed to take pity on him.
“Give me a minute to change.” Grantaire said before disappearing into his bungalow. Enjolras nodded to himself and slowly walked back to his car.
And if they rode back to the Indominus’ paddock in silence, then that wasn’t Enjolras’ fault.
“I did not know this was up here.” Grantaire said when he finally parked the car in front of the containment, safely away from the construction vehicles.
“Surely you’ve heard of the newest asset.” Enjolras said, getting out of the car.
“Yeah, who hasn’t, but I had no idea it was this… isolated.”
“Safety is our number one concern, and we had to move her when she continued to grow.” He said, walking towards the viewing room, and Grantaire followed him.
“She?”
“She’s the first hybrid dinosaur. Dr. Fauchelevent is a genius when it comes to gene splicing.” Enjolras explained.
“You just went and made a new dinosaur?” Grantaire asked, and Enjolras glanced back at him to see his equivalent of a processing screen face, which did nothing but worry him.
“Every few years the park needs a new attraction to keep the guests interested.”
“They’re dinosaurs, how the fuck do you need something more interesting than that.”
“Tell that to our attendance records. The Indominus will be ready for visitors in three weeks, which is already the longest the park has gone without a new exhibit.” Enjolras said, climbing the stairs to the viewing room door.
“The Indominus?” Grantaire asked with raised eyebrows.
“The Indominus rex. Easy for four year olds to pronounce, and they wouldn’t let me name her Maximilien.” He said, and Grantaire chuckled at that.
“Still obsessed with France, I see.” He commented as Enjolras typed in the key code for the door. He only smirked at him in response to his remark.
When he opened the door that time, he didn’t immediately see the dinosaur. That wasn’t unusual, she seemed to do as she pleased. Grantaire’s face went right back to being concerned with that narrowed, calculating gaze of his. What was unusual, though, was the dinosaur not making an appearance within a few seconds of someone entering the room. Thermal sensing capabilities and everything.
“Give her a steer.” Enjolras ordered the technician, who quickly set about typing a command into the computer.
“You feed her with that?” Grantaire asked when he saw the wire lowering the large piece of meat into the habitat.
“We tried hand-feeding her, but after one woman almost lost an arm, we decided this would be safer.” He said.
“She’s the only one in there?” He asked warily.
“Of course. She ate her sister the moment she was slightly bigger than her.” Enjolras said, because that was obvious.
“And she’s never been out of this cell?”
“What would we do? Play dates with the T-rex and your velociraptors?” He said with a scoff. Grantaire sighed, but his eyes were wide.
“Ideally, yeah, something along those lines. Animals raised in isolation aren’t the most stable.”
“The raptors don’t leave their cage.”
“No, but they have other raptors and myself. They develop social skills, interact and learn with each other. Right now, the only thing that dinosaur is interacting with is that crane.” Grantaire said, pointing at the crane that was slowly rising up, sans piece of meat. The Indominus still hadn’t emerged, though.
“Where is she,” He said under his breath as he grabbed a table to check for her heat signature.
“I know I’m new around here, but have those always been there?” Grantaire asked at the same time as Enjolras’ stomach seemed to drop to the floor. The heat signature came up negative, nothing found in any of the six sections of the paddock. He looked to where Grantaire was pointing, seeing large claw marks going all the way up the cell.
“Fuck, how could she get out,” Enjolras said, again, mostly to himself.
“These doors haven’t been opened in months.” The guy at the computer said.
“Okay, okay, right, she has a tracker implant that can be located from control. I’ll go down there.” Enjolras said, trying not to panic. He looked to Grantaire as he opened the door, but he just shook his head.
“I’ll stay here.” He said, and Enjolras nodded frantically as he walked out and all but ran to his car.
Musichetta answered the phone on the second ring, and it took an alarming amount of self control to not scream at her.
“I need you to locate the Indominus rex.” Enjolras said as he drove at what was likely very much past the speed limit.
“What?” She asked, understandably confused.
“Just do it.” He said, maybe shouting a bit that time.
“Okay, putting you on speaker phone.” Musichetta said, and then Enjolras could hear the various hums and beeps from the control room. He wished he was already there, wished he knew what the hell was going on.
“The Indominus rex is in her paddock, Enjolras.” Bossuet’s voice said, sounding awfully confused.
“That isn’t possible, I was just there.” He said, and it probably wasn’t safe to be driving at that speed while on the phone.
Probably wasn’t safe to be the sole manager of a dinosaur park, either.
“She’s in the— There are people inside the paddock.” Musichetta said, sucking in a breath of air. Fuck, Grantaire.
“Get them out of there.” And if he shouted, then that was perfectly reasonable reaction to people being inside of a cage with a carnivorous dinosaur that, apparently, would have a lack of social skills.
He heard Bossuet call someone, heard him say, ‘Paddock eighteen, evacuate the premises, the Indominus is in the paddock. Do you copy?’
Enjolras’ throat felt tight, and, furthermore, he didn’t know his car could go that fast.
“Tell me what the hell is going on!” Enjolras yelled, because he could not lose Grantaire to a fucking dinosaur.
“They aren’t-“ Musichetta started, but there was more talking on the other end that she cut herself off to hear. Enjolras could barely hear anything, because his chest felt heavy, and his lungs seemed incapable of holding air, and he couldn’t very well walk into that control room sobbing.
——
The walls of the paddock were forty feet high, and the claw marks spanned one whole section from the top to the bottom. Grantaire was standing behind one of the maintenance guys who was trying to figure out how she got the door open without alerting anything, and Grantaire had his hands on his hips in that Superman pose, because it made him feel powerful. He was tall, he could pull it off. The guy who’d been working the computer from the viewing room was standing beside him, shifting his stance uneasily every second or so.
The computer guy’s walkie talkie started going off, though, but it was a lot of static. He heard them say paddock eighteen, premises, and copy. So that was helpful. The guy asked them to repeat it, and the next communication was clear as a bell.
“The Indominus is still in the cage, evacuate now.” The voice said again.
Grantaire immediately grabbed at both the technician and the computer guy to start running for the exit, which was conveniently located on the other side of the cage. The technician stayed there and started keying in the code to open that gate, but Grantaire burst into a sprint. There was a large rustling from the trees, though, and, okay, then there was a white dinosaur standing about thirty feet in front of him. He’d seen the Tyrannosaurus rex, and that thing was enormous. The Indominus almost made him shit his pants, though.
So many teeth. So many teeth that were too close to Grantaire’s head for comfort. He quickly turned to run back towards the gate which was now open, and the computer guy did that but slower.
Grantaire heard an interesting and nauseating sound behind him, but he’d be fucked if he looked back, so he kept running towards the gate which, for some fucking reason, was closing. Enjolras was at control, though, he wouldn’t let it close with him on the inside. Maybe. Their date was pretty bad. (“Who the hell doesn’t like tequila?”, “Someone who has to run a theme park and take care of twenty thousand people daily.”)
He was running, flat out sprinting for the opening, and he felt the dinosaur’s breath on his backside. The opening continued to get smaller and smaller, and he had to turn sideways to get through it, but he was out of the cage, and he really deserved a day off.
The problem with there being any opening in the paddock, though, was that if Grantaire could fit through it, then the Indominus could probably get a claw or two in there. She did just that, according to the sound of bending metal and various crashes.
Grantaire slid underneath one of the construction vehicles, trying to think of someway to not get eaten. His eyes landed on the fuel tank, though, and then he was quickly digging his pocketknife out of his pocket. He managed to get most of the gas on himself, and, unfortunately, some ended up in his mouth. Whatever, he’d deal with that later. Assuming the gas worked. Dinosaurs have an unparalleled sense of smell, mask your smell, no one liked eating gasoline.
At least he had somewhat of a plan, the technician was hiding on the other side of a staff pickup truck. He didn’t think there was anything he could think of that would have prepared him for what happened next.
The dinosaur stalked away from the cage slowly, at least slower than she had been moving. She moved around the truck that the technician was behind, pausing for a moment to smell the air or something. The technician peered around the side of the truck, and Grantaire was glad he at least didn’t see the dinosaur’s head. Just the tail. A very large, intimidating tail, but the technician went back to crouching in front of the truck where he had been.
The Indominus wasn’t having any of that, though, and she used her head to knock the truck over, causing it to roll and bump into the piece of construction equipment Grantaire was laying underneath.
A second passed, and the technician was face to face with the Indominus rex. Grantaire watched with a twisted gut as the dinosaur’s mouth dropped down and ate him, leaving nothing but large pool of blood where he had been.
She was smart, though, the dinosaur knew there were once three people in that cage. The claw marks, tricking the thermal scanners somehow, she tricked them into thinking she’d escaped. The Indominus rex was smart, and she knew she’d only found two of the three people she’d seen. It was all just like hide and seek for her, and Grantaire tried to take a deep breath as inconspicuously as possible. No movement, smelled like gasoline, she shouldn’t want to eat him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the giant mouth of the dinosaur, right next to the bottom of the construction vehicle he was using to hide from her. The few seconds felt like hours, and Grantaire was passively thinking that none of that would have happened if he didn’t have such a stupid crush on Enjolras. Like he’d said, he had twenty thousand people to keep up with, he didn’t need a boyfriend he’d just have to make time for. Grantaire was a mess, though, and he’d follow Enjolras anywhere. Even to look at the asset people were rightly unsure about using as an attraction around actual, living people.
He had an odd habit of thinking about shit that didn’t really matter when his life was quite possibly about to end. It’d happened twice while he was in the navy, twice in his five years in the navy. Then it’d happened twice in one day, and, fuck, he needed a vacation.
The Indominus eventually left him, though, deciding he wasn’t worth the taste of gasoline to kill. After he heard her giant footsteps fade away, he let out the breath he’d been holding. Somehow, he didn’t start panicking. He rolled out from underneath the vehicle, and he found another truck that’d been abandoned by sane people leaving when the giant fucking dinosaur got out of it’s paddock.
——
VIP passes were a gift from the amusement park line Gods, Courfeyrac decided. Their wait time was minimal, five minutes at most for the Mosasaurus show, and he and Combeferre instantly got a gyrosphere, as opposed to the advertised three and a half hour wait. Combeferre felt a little bad about that, but eventually the fact that he was surrounded by dinosaurs took over, and he was back to being whole-heartedly excited.
Courfeyrac thought his stupid smile was beautiful, and he dropped his head back against the seat of the giant hamster ball in anguish. Combeferre, of course, didn’t notice.
“You’re having fun, right?” Combeferre asked as Courfeyrac grabbed the joystick that controlled the sphere and made it go forward. He was sort of taken aback by that question, though. A week’s stay at a theme park with his best friend, why wouldn’t he be having fun?
“Yeah, duh. The seven dollar sodas are a bit much, but I’ll live.” He said with a chuckle.
“I know you’re not a fan of dinosaurs, though, and this trip pulled you away from your firm.”
“I’m not a fan in the sense that you’re a fan, no. I mean, this must be like heroin for you. Dinosaurs are cool, though, like, there’s something awesome about things that were extinct but now aren’t.” Courfeyrac said, because everyone liked dinosaurs. Well, most people, and he was one of those people.
“Yes, but you’re firm. You’ve had that case you’ve been working on, and-“
“And the case will still be there when I get back. Trust me, I’d much rather be here than there. I’m not Enjolras, I do enjoy vacations.” He said, and Combeferre laughed, turning his head to look at him. Courfeyrac glanced over, and Ferre was smiling again. At him.
Courfeyrac felt like he was about to do something stupid, so he looked back outside at the valley they were in, and, wow, that was a tall dinosaur.
“What’s that?” He asked, tilting his head towards Combeferre for him to answer and probably start rambling about the species.
“The Apatosaurus, and the other one is a Triceratops.” He said slowly, pointing at each of them. Courfeyrac rolled his eyes and jerked the sphere backwards to get back at him.
“Yeah, thanks.” He said, and Combeferre laughed. Courfeyrac’s phone started ringing before he could say anything else, though. He saw that it was Enjolras and started hoping he’d say he could hang out.
“Hey—where—back—resort.” Was all Courfeyrac heard Enjolras say, though.
“Enj, hey, we’re breaking up, shitty reception.” He said.
“Go—the resort—when you—call—dinosaur—broke.” Enjolras said, continuing to speak, and none of it was very helpful.
“Look, I’m not hearing anything sensible. I’ll call you when we’re done, okay?” He said, and he hung up after he heard a few more seconds of static.
Eventually, though, Combeferre started talking about the dinosaurs and how stunning it all was, how scientists have come further in the past two decades than they did with a century of archaeology alone.
About fifteen minutes into the ride, the informational screen alerted them that the attraction was closed and to return immediately to their hotel. Combeferre’s face fell, and, dammit, Courfeyrac couldn’t exactly let that be.
“Hey, what’s another five minutes?” He prompted, and Combeferre looked at him skeptically.
“They said it’s closed, though.” He said, unsure of the offer.
“Come on, it’ll be fun. We have VIP passes, I doubt we can get into that much trouble. Worse case scenario, Enjolras is bailing us out of theme park jail.” Courfeyrac shrugged, and Combeferre seemed to be weighing the options.
“Alright, but I want to drive.” He said, and there was something about seeing his nerdiest friend get all rebellious and drive the sphere as fast as it would go.
Courfeyrac happily sat back and let him do what he wanted, because that look on his face was priceless. He drove them around for several more minutes, and they approached a fence while Courfeyrac was watching one of the Apatosauruses. That probably wasn’t the correct pluralization of it, but he’d bother Combeferre about that later.
“Woah.” He heard Combeferre breath out, and that made Courfeyrac turn his head to follow his line of sigh. The fence in front of them was broken, a small section of it ripped off with wires sparking every few seconds or so. Courfeyrac was intrigued, and he felt himself leaning forward, a slow smile spreading on his face.
“Give me the joystick.” He said, moving his hand towards it before remembering Combeferre’s hand was still on it, and he was most definitely not about to turn into that Hollywood cliche.
“No, I’m driving. Just making sure you’re aware.” Combeferre said, and, yes, that was much more like the tunnel visioned dork he’d grown up with. They broke into a museum once. The broken fence adventure was slightly reminiscent of that.
Courfeyrac grinned as the gyrosphere rolled forward, and Combeferre was giggling next to him. Literally giggling, that twenty-eight year old dork of a tree was giggling, because they were going off roads at a dinosaur theme park, and Courfeyrac’s chest felt tight, but in a good way.
“ ‘Ferre, can I-“ He started, about to do something stupid, but Combeferre made a gasping sound.
“Look! Oh, gosh, oh my gosh, there’s a baby Ankylosaurus.” Combeferre said excitedly, hitting his arm with his free hand. Four large tank-like creatures with what looked like a club as a tail were in a clearing in front of them, and there was a smaller one standing close to one of the adult-sized ones. “It’s so cute, holy crap. Hold on, I need to get a picture of this before—“ He said, rambling again before he stopped talking. Courfeyrac was puzzled for a moment, until he saw a large arrangement of teeth being reflected in the glass. “Please tell me you see the teeth.” He said, much more quietly that time.
“Yeah.” Courfeyrac said, willing himself not to turn around to see the thing that was connected to those teeth. “Drive forward, please.”
“This sphere only goes five miles an hour, and I’m assuming that dinosaur is much faster than that.”
“The ankle-sauruses will slow it down, please just drive.” And Combeferre, thankfully, pressed the joystick forward quickly.
The dinosaur let out a horrifying roar, and it startled all of the ankle-tanks. They moved, the dinosaur caught up to them and tried to grab them, and the gyrosphere ended up pin-balling around between the dinosaurs. The gyrosphere became just a sphere, because he and Combeferre were spinning, going upside down more than enough times, and he was glad he hadn’t eaten anything before that ride.
That didn’t stop him from screaming, because that’s what you did when something that was obviously larger than the T-rex was trying to eat you. One of the ankle-o-dinosaurs’ tails hit the sphere, sending them flying back, and Courfeyrac was pretty sure they bounced off the dinosaur with the teeth at one point. It was horrifying.
They stopped spinning, eventually, but they were upside down and had a lovely view of the large dinosaur tearing in to the ankle-tanks. Combeferre let out a small whimper at that, but a loud buzzing sound grabbed Courfeyrac’s attention. He looked up, technically down to the ground, to see his phone had fallen out and was ringing. Enjolras was calling him, and the vibrate setting was making the glass make that godawful sound, and Combeferre was hitting his arm again, except much more urgently than before.
Courfeyrac tried to reach for it, because he was closest to it, but his fingers barely grazed it.
“Courf,” Combeferre said, and he’d stopped hitting his arm.
“I’ve almost got it, just—“ He said, stopping when Combeferre made another sound that made him look up, and, oh, a little pee might’ve come out then.
The dinosaur with the teeth had it’s eye pressed up to the gyrosphere, actively watching them. The phone was still ringing relentlessly on the ceiling, vibrating the entire inner glass part of the sphere.
“The glass’ll hold.” Courfeyrac said, trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about. The dinosaur stood up to its full height, which was terrifying, and then it circled the sphere once before it tried to bite them, and it barely managed to scratch the glass. “See? We’re fine.” Courfeyrac said, and that was for him as much as it was to reassure Combeferre.
The dinosaur left them for a moment, but then it slashed a claw at the glass, and the glass broke, there was a dinosaur claw a foot away from Courfeyrac’s head. It got its other claws through the glass, and then it was picking up the hamster ball before slamming it back down on the ground, trying to break it open.
“Seatbelt, open the buckle,” Combeferre was saying over the sound of breaking glass, metal under pressure, the alarming sounds from the dinosaur, and Courfeyrac’s screaming. He clumsily got his seatbelt unbuckled, and then Combeferre was grabbing his arm as they fell out of the Gyrosphere. A second passed before Combeferre was pulling him along behind him, and, okay, they were running from the toothy dinosaur that was still preoccupied by the ball.
Combeferre was shouting things, probably telling him to run, but Courfeyrac was sort of freaking out. He heard loud stomping behind them and guessed the dinosaur figured out they weren’t inside of the ball anymore. Their running brought them directly to a cliff, right next to a waterfall that dumped into a small lake about forty feet below.
“Fuck, we have to jump,” Courfeyrac said as they stopped at the edge of the cliff. Combeferre nodded frantically.
“Okay, on three?” Combeferre said, and of course he nodded at that. “One,” Courfeyrac began to reevaluate his life choices, and he saw Combeferre take off his glasses and hold them in his right hand, “Two,” Combeferre grabbed his arm again, and the dinosaur was getting closer. Courfeyrac turned his head to look at it, and, nope, he shouldn’t have done that, but then Combeferre was saying three, and he’d never wanted to have been stuck in a long line more than at that moment.
The water was cool, surprisingly so, and Courfeyrac didn’t didn’t a big enough breath before going underwater, so he tried to go up. Because he might have been stuck in a park full of carnivorous dinosaurs, but he still had basic self-preservation. Combeferre grabbed ahold of his hand, though, pulling him back down for several more moments.
When they finally resurfaced, the dinosaur was gone, and Courfeyrac was gasping for air as he and Combeferre made their way to the muddy shore. The second Courf crawled himself onto mostly dry land, he stopped and looked back at ‘Ferre.
He was on the ground next to him, on his stomach and propping himself up on his elbows, equally gasping for air with a look on his face that basically said, ‘I can’t believe we just did that’. It was a stupid look and sort of (really) made Courfeyrac want to kiss him. Combeferre looked at him, and then they both started laughing.
“We almost just died.” Courfeyrac pointed out, still laughing. Combeferre threw an arm around his shoulder, and it was a weird sort of a hug. A good hug after almost dying alongside your best friend.
——
The control room had never been that quiet, at least as far as Enjolras knew. He walked off of the elevator and into the large room, and all eyes were on him. Bossuet had told him Grantaire was alive, said he’d called to say he was on his way there. That, at least, gave Enjolras some of his control back. Jean Valjean was in the room, looking sorrowful and concerned.
He’d called Courfeyrac in the car ride over, but the reception was bad, and he’d only heard about every third word he was saying. Enjolras heard ‘hamster ball’, though, so he knew the gyrospheres would notify them to go back to the resort. They were safe.
The disgusted and teary-eyed faces looking at him told him not everyone made it, though. Enjolras took a steadying breath and walked to stand between Bossuet and Musichetta’s desks, where he usually stood.
“Are we still tracking the Indominus?” Enjolras asked, because it was taking him a moment to focus on the screen and what the numbers read.
“Yes, she’s four miles from the nearest beacon.” Musichetta answered. Enjolras nodded. Four miles away from the nearest fence, four miles until they ran into another dinosaur or civilian. Enjolras could work with four miles.
“Put out a park wide alert-“ He started.
“Do we really need to worry the guests with this? Can’t you close the rides, say it’s due to a technical difficulty?” Valjean interrupted. Enjolras wanted to argue with him, but he owned the park and paid Enjolras a fine amount to basically keep him, his park, and his dinosaurs happy.
“Close the attractions, then. Everything north of the resort, for now.” He said. That would double their buffer zone. That would work. Valjean didn’t go against him on that, which Enjolras was thankful for.
Bossuet and Musichetta started calling different ride managers, and the map began to show red crosses over the various rides which were closed.
“Sir, you can’t go in there.” One of the security officers was saying as someone got off of the elevator. Enjolras turned around to see Grantaire standing there, looking furious but alive. He wanted to run to him and hug him, never let go, because the incident with the Indominus was much too close for comfort.
People were relying on him, though, on his ability to keep it together. He could fall apart later, once the Indominus was safely in a paddock.
“What the fuck kind of monster did Cosette cook up in that lab?” Grantaire said as he forced his way past the security guard to walk closer to Enjolras.
“Grantaire-“
“No, don’t ‘Grantaire’ me, I watched two people get eaten by that dinosaur, and oh my god, why have you not sent out ACU to kill it?!” He said when he saw the large screen in the front of the room and did not see any Asset Containment Units on there.
“ACU is getting ready as we speak.” Enjolras said. Grantaire nodded once.
“There’s an M134 on this island, send that with them.” He said forcefully. Of course the ex-navy knew about their heaviest piece of artillery.
“We’ve invested twenty six million dollars into that dinosaur, we are not killing her.” Valjean said quickly. Grantaire looked aghast, completely horrified at the statement.
“So you-you what? Sent them out there with non-lethal weapons?” He asked incredulously.
“They will subdue the Indominus rex, and-“ Enjolras started.
“She’ll slaughter them!” Grantaire shouted.
“You are not in control here, Grantaire. Leave or be quiet, but shouting will not change anyone’s decision.” Enjolras said, snapping slightly. Grantaire was quiet after that, but his presence was deafening.
Two ACUs drove to the Indominus, and it only took about fifteen minutes before Musichetta said the dinosaur had stopped moving, and by that time the ACUs were barely a quarter of a mile away.
The captain of the two teams, Westin, got out of his car first. Enjolras almost wished he was there, if only to know what was going on better. All they had in the control room was a live feed from the cameras on their helmets, which, although helpful, they only saw so much. Westin approached the dinosaur, and the entire control room seemed to be watching as his red dot got closer and closer to the Indominus’ much larger red dot on the big screen.
Westin’s camera showed a creek, but there wasn’t a dinosaur anywhere. Even when his dot was directly on top of the Indominus’. He bent down, and then he was holding a piece of meat with skin on it that was undoubtedly from the Indominus, and there was a flashing and beeping tracker stuck in the middle of it.
“It removed the tracker, but the blood hasn’t clotted yet, so it must be close.” Westin’s voice said over the feet.
“She removed her tracker, how would she know to do that?” Enjolras said, mostly thinking out loud.
“Must’ve remembered where they put it in.” Grantaire said quietly, right as there was rustling on the other end of ACU’s line.
“It can camouflage!” Westin shouted as the Indominus appeared on screen, her skin changing from green and brown to blend in with the trees to her original white. The Indominus charged towards the ACU, and most of the men were shooting their tranquilizers at her. The others were tasering her, and one woman was aiming an electrified net at her muzzle.
Within seconds, though, three of the soldiers were dead, and one man’s heartbeat was much too erratic to be healthy. All eyes were on their vitals which were displayed for the room to see on the screen, right next to all of their camera feeds.
Three of them managed to get back in the car and get away, but seventeen people were dead by the end of it.
The control room was silent again, as silent as it could be, anyway.
“Code nineteen, send every ACU to the beacon she was last headed for. They’re to take the M134 and only lethal weapons. Make sure everyone is south of the resort.” Enjolras ordered, and Valjean opened his mouth to say something in protest, judging by the annoyed look on his face. “Valjean, let me do my job.” He said, sending him a glare than made him back off.
After a moment he dug his phone out of his pocket and dialed Courfeyrac’s number, because he was much more likely to have his phone on him than Combeferre. He didn’t answer, though, so he tried ‘Ferre. When he didn’t answer, either, he started to get worried and called Jehan.
Jehan, blessedly, answered. His end of the line was loud, so he guessed he must’ve been on Main Street with all of the other twenty thousand guests.
“Thank God, Jehan, can I talk to ‘Ferre or Courf?” He asked.
“Enjolras, I’m sorry, but I lost them.” Jehan said, and he did sound apologetic, at least. Jehan was always sincere, but still, Enjolras wanted to scream.
“Okay, that’s fine, do you know where they last were?” He asked.
“The Mosasaurus feeding, but that was an hour ago.” Jehan said. Enjolras forced out a thank you and hung up.
“Check the gyrospheres. Have they all been returned?” Enjolras ordered, pointing at Bossuet. He sighed and started pressing the controls on his tablet to show him the valley.
“Yes, it’s my job to check them- Right, so gyrosphere seven is still out. The signal is going in and out, though, and it isn’t in the valley.” Bossuet said, showing him he location of the gyrosphere, and, no, it was in the buffer zone between attractions. It was north, though, very north of the resort. Too close to where the Indominus had been heading for Enjolras’ comfort.
“I need an ACU search and rescue sent to their location, there are two guests missing.” Enjolras said into his headset, speaking directly with the new ACU captain.
“We’re a little busy with your dinosaur. There aren’t any units left.” She said, and Enjolras felt himself start to panic.
“I can go down there.” Grantaire offered.
“Okay, I’ll come with you.” Enjolras said decidedly, nodding to himself, because he needed to know they were okay. Grantaire opened his mouth to tell him off, but Enjolras simply raised his eyebrows at him expectantly. He relented and started walking out of the control room. “Keep me updated.” He said, looking mostly at Musichetta. She nodded, and Enjolras accepted that and got onto the elevator to stand next to Grantaire.