Archive of Our Own

“So…what’s this thing made of?”

Hearing his voice broke through Anya’s focus as she tapped away at her tablet as she pushed open the door to paddock 11’s observation room. She couldn’t help but beam as she looked up at Owen, who was looking over at her with that soft smile of his. Seeing how she had his attention, Anya flushed and ran a hand over her skirt as if it could get rid of the invisible wrinkles. Her smile shy as she gave a little wave with the hand holding her tablet. While Masrani had warned her that Owen was going to be coming to the paddock holding her project, she hadn’t thought it would be this soon. She had just finished talking with the man while heading back from her lunch break to explain how the project was going, since he hadn’t been impressed with what Claire told him.

Though he seemed even less impressed with her reports, but that was mostly because there were more issues than he thought.

Turns out mixing a bunch of predator DNA together with multiple failures was going to always fail.

Who knew?

Oh wait…

She did.

She had kept telling Masrani it was a bad idea, which was proven after every failed, mishapened experiment. But she was ignored because Dr. Wu claimed he almost had it. His last one was a grotesque, deadly monster that almost did them in, but it lasted a year longer because Wu lied and hid details. It was only after Wu had almost been killed that it was actually destroyed.

She couldn’t believe Masrani let it live for so long.

The only silver lining of that time was Owen visiting her while Wu tried getting that monster. He was honestly the only reason she hadn’t gone insane.

“The base genome is a T. Rex…the rest is classified,” Claire said slowly, as if she could keep from telling what the dinosaur was made of, as if Masrani hadn’t made it known that Owen was to be told everything. Her answer shocked Anya to the point she almost dropped her tablet. Anya couldn’t help but look at Claire in disbelief, wondering what was going through the woman’s head.

Besides, how to be a fucking idiot, that is.

How else do you explain that answer, of how much of a bitch she is to everyone? But especially to Owen. It’s like she can’t handle someone being better than her. Anya could honestly say she couldn’t stand Claire, nor could she understand what the woman did. Though it seemed like Owen was in the same boat as her, as he looked at her in disbelief and shock.

“You made a new dinosaur, but you don't even know what ‘it’ is?” he demanded, and before Anya could even think of interjecting, since it was her project, not Claire’s, Claire was once more talking.

“The lab delivers us new assets and we show them to the public,” Claire defended, turning to Nick and ignoring them. “Can we drop a steer, please?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Anya said rapidly, shaking her head as she moved toward them, a look of disgust growing as she looked at Claire’s own patronizing smirk. “What are you doing, Claire? Are you trying to set us all up for failure?” Anya demanded, watching as that smug look finally fell as she looked at her in shock.

“What? No,” Claire denied, and Anya just scoffed.

“Yeah, right. Then why else would you not tell him what that beast is?” she sneered out, pointing toward the eerily empty paddock. “Is this payback for your shitty date? Newsflash, Claire, you can’t treat people like this just because your date didn’t go well. This is just so inappropriate and disgusting!” She stalked toward Claire, shoving her pointer finger into Claire’s shoulder.

Claire gasped as she stepped back, slapping Anya’s hand away while she straightened her shirt. “We don’t need him! He’s not as smart as Mr. Masrani thinks,” Claire scoffed, glaring toward Owen, whose head was swiveling like he was at a tennis match.

“Not as smart—!?” Anya began to hiss out when Owen placed a hand on her shoulder. Glancing at him, Owen just shook his head, squeezing Anya’s shoulder in assurance while glaring at Claire.

“I’m not going to lower myself for you, Claire. I don’t appreciate how you’ve been talking down to me since our failed date, but enough is enough. I’ve been letting it slide out of some misplaced crush, but no more,” Owen said with a shake of his head.

“Mr. Masrani will be hearing about this,” Anya hissed, poking at Claire’s chest one last time before sneering as she turned to Owen and the paddock once more. As Owen watched, he saw how Anya’s face softened into a smile directed at him before sliding into business mode when she turned to the paddock fully. “I know a decent amount of the beast’s composition. Unfortunately, a significant amount has been hidden from us, despite my numerous attempts to obtain the complete list. The base genome is T. Rex with additional theropod DNA used to change or add aspects alongside the DNA from animals found in modern times to fill in gaps, stabilize, and adapt it to new climates. The ones I know were used were Velociraptor, Giganotosaurus, Deinosuchus, and Majungasaurus. I wish I could tell you the others. The three animals’ DNA, I know, are cuttlefish, tree frog, and pit viper,” she explained, turning to look at him while Owen’s face fell. He had no doubt he probably looked pale as dread filled him.

“Velociraptor DNA was used?” he asked, turning to look at Anya with a harsh, unreadable expression.

Anya froze as she saw that look directed at her. While she couldn’t blame him for his feelings about the use of Raptor DNA, she hated how it was directed toward her and not Wu or Claire, even. “Unfortunately. I don’t like it either. This creature doesn’t deserve to have any of the DNA it’s been given. But my protests went ignored,” she replied with another shake of her head.

“Has she been alone this whole time?”

“No!” Anya exclaimed quickly, looking hurt at the thought that he felt the need to ask. “There was a sibling. Two made in case one didn’t make it…she ate her sibling, Owen. When they were no taller than our hips, their vicious attacks on one another finally turned deadly, and she killed the other. Since then, only the handlers were allowed in…but then she anticipated and almost maimed one. Since then, no one has been allowed in on pain of death. She’s alone because she cannot be trusted,” she explained, turning away from Owen, unsure if she could handle any instinctual faces he might make in response or perhaps any accusation he might throw next. She was just doing the best she could with what she was given.

Which just happened to be a murderous hybrid monstrosity.

Why couldn’t she have been assigned project manager for literally any other project?

She’s dealt with too many failures with horrifying results to be able to do this. She hates how Masrani picked her, but she couldn’t blame him either. It was either her or Claire. And after the shit Claire just tried pulling, Anya could see where Masrani was coming from by picking her instead. While tempting, she would never actively sabotage the project like Claire was doing out of some petty jealousy.

“So what…we need to take it for a walk? Get it a friend?” Claire asked patronizingly, interrupting them while Owen took a moment to no doubt think of another question.

“Based on what I’ve heard…probably not a good idea,” Owen replied with a shake of his head. Claire just rolled her eyes as she made her way over to the glass and tapped rapidly.

“Where is it?” Claire hissed, twisting to look at Nick with a familiar gleam in her eyes that promised trouble.

“What is it in the basement? Is there a downstairs? Maybe it’s in the rec room,” Owen retorted sarcastically, though Anya could tell there was worry. He may have responded quickly, but she knew him well. Saw how his eyes flicked between the cracked window and them, how his shoulders were tense, and how his voice dropped off at the end.

“Shoot,” was all Nick said as he typed rapidly at his computer, as the thermal scanning was activated, and all that popped up was a red banner declaring no thermal signatures found. “That doesn’t make any sense. These doors haven’t been opened in weeks.”

“Were those claw marks always there?” Owen asked, gaze stuck on a wall that had Anya looking over. Her eyes widened in shock, but she didn’t react, she studied the marks intently. This beast may terrify her, but she trusted her knowledge of it and the structure to protect them. It was the only way she felt safe enough to continue coming to the paddock.

“You think it...?” Claire began, dread and fear growing at the thought of what Owen was implying. “Oh, God! She has an implant in her back! I can track it from the control room!” Claire shouted as she rushed from the room.

“Claire!” Anya shouted at the woman’s back. But she didn’t rush after Claire, all she did was thrust her hand out and prevent Owen from moving.

“Anya? What—I need to get into the paddock,” Owen asked confusedly, watching as Anya turned disbelieving eyes onto him while shaking her head.

“Do you have a death wish?” she asked, watching as both he and Nick shook their heads. “If you don’t, then don’t go into that fucking paddock. It’s still there. She may have marked up that wall, but she didn’t climb over it. She’s deadly, she wouldn’t hide away after escaping. She would have attacked and started killing everyone. Not to mention, not once, as she grew up, has she shown the ability to climb up shit. I highly doubt a hybrid who could barely climb onto a box can suddenly claw her way up a vertical concrete wall with no aids,” she scoffed, a fire-filled glare moving from the clawed up wall to the paddock at large.

“You’re 100% sure?" Owen asked, needing to hear her confidence in that deduction.

“Yes. I’ve studied this thing since it hatched, Owen. I’m pretty sure I know it better than Miss ‘I-only-need-to-check-a-few-times-a-year.’ She barely checked in. Not to mention, if it had escaped, she’s at risk of being killed by it by rushing off so foolishly into the jungle. Idiot,” she muttered the insult under her breath. But based on the choked-off snort coming from Owen, he apparently heard it.

“So are we going to try contacting Dearing?” Owen asked, and this time Anya snorted.

“No. Like she’d listen to me. Plus, I’d rather let her dig her own grave,” Anya retorted as she made her way over to the phone before tapping a button.

“Sounds like a story,” Owen commented as ringing filled the air.

“Yeah. I’ll tell you after this,” she promised, and all Owen could do was nod before the ringing cut off.

“Control Room,” a man answered.

“Lowery? Can you please pull up the tracking data for the Indominus Rex? Our sensors aren’t working,” Anya requested.

“Uh, sure. Do you know what happened to the sensors?” Lowery asked as tapping filled their ears.

“No. They were working when I left this morning, but now they aren’t,” Anya replied, turning to look at Nick, who shook his head at her silent question. Seems like no one knew when or how the sensors were broken.

“Ok, I got the data, it looks like it’s still—” Lowery began, only to be cut off by Claire’s voice on another person’s phone.

“We have an asset out of containment! Put ACU on alert! This is not a drill!” came Claire’s shout, and Anya just rolled her eyes in response.

“Continue, please, Lowery,” Anya requested with a sigh.

“It’s still in the paddock,” he reported.

“That’s impossible! I was just there, and it wasn’t showing up! The walls were clawed up!” Claire shouted hysterically.

“Anya, what’s going on?” Masrani’s voice asked.

“Our sensors appear to be down, sir. The Indominus isn’t appearing visually or on the sensors. She clawed up a wall while no one was inside the observation room, and Claire jumped to conclusions. There is no physical way for that beast to get out of the paddock, sir. She would have known that had she waited for me to explain. Now we just need to figure out how the sensors broke, or if that beast can regulate her temperature to be rendered hidden from us,” she explained.

“Impossible!” Claire shouted.

“Enough! You are on thin ice right now, Miss Dearing. Anya, is there a way to test the sensors safely?” Masrani asked, and Anya hummed in thought.

“Well…if we could get an item heated up and attached to the crane, we should be able to test it that way. But I’m not sure how to get something heated up out here,” she admitted, turning to look at Owen.

“There’s welding gear down there, right?” Owen asked, and Anya stared at him, confused, brows furrowed even as she nodded.

“Yesss,” she answered, drawing the word out.

“Well, get that steer off the crane and let’s find something we can hook onto it. Then we take the welding gear and weld something together. If we’re fast enough by the time we get it into the paddock and get the sensors going, it should still be hot enough to be found by the sensors,” he explained, watching as a grin grew on Anya’s face as she nodded along.

“Of course! Let’s go!” Anya shouted, rushing down toward the door with Owen a step behind her while Nick dealt with Masrani and the others in the control room. Finding the man in charge of welding was easy enough. Convincing him of their task took a bit of work, but they eventually got him on board. Then, with the rest of the crew, they looked for something to hang off the crane and what could be welded on. Once they found items that could work, Anya and Owen made their way back to the observation room with Nick while they worked. At the sound of the crane going, Nick got ready to start the scan. They watched with bated breath as the scan ran before a ding filled the air, the heated metal pieces showed up as a dot on the screens, and Anya couldn’t help but sigh in relief.

“So what’s the verdict on the sensors?” Masrani asked.

“The sensors work, sir. This means the beast has the ability to hide its temperature from us. And possibly hide visually as well,” Anya answered, earning groans from the other side at the realization the hybrid could do that.

“Understood. Call me with any updates,” Masrani ordered, earning an instinctual nod from Anya even though he couldn’t see it.

“Understood, sir,” Anya agreed, and soon the call ended with them barely making out Claire’s shouts.

“So obviously it can do more than we thought. Do you have any files…reports…anything on this hybrid?” Owen asked.

“Yes. I had daily reports made by any staff member working directly with the beast. Myself included. They’re all in the genetics lab. Dr. Wu’s orders,” Anya explained with a scoff.

“Ah, I see the disdain includes him as well,” Owen teased as they made their way out once more, this time toward a Jeep painted burgundy with gray-beige colored accents. He couldn’t help but look over at her with one brow raised while his lips twisted into a smile.

“Couldn’t resist,” was all Anya said with her own smirk as she slid into the driver’s seat while Owen got into the passenger seat. “As for your question….yes. I’ve got some bad blood with Wu. If it were up to me, the man would be stripped of his degrees and licenses, but sadly, he’s still employed,” she said with a sigh, the leather creaking under her fingers as she gripped the steering wheel tight.

“Want to talk about it?” he asked, watching as she simply shook her head. “Too soon? No…to close?” he asked then, getting a nod. “Fair enough. When you’re ready, I’m happy to listen. But for now, you promised a story about your disdain of Claire,” he prompted, earning a weak smile from Anya.

“That I did. Well, even if I didn’t, her treatment of you after that failure of a date would be reason enough. Totally unprofessional. Petty. Stupid, even,” she said with a one-shoulder shrug, eyes turned toward the road but glancing over at him quickly. “But…it was, uh, two years ago…right after my sister died. I took bereavement leave and used my vacation days to stay longer with my brother-in-law and nieces. But Dearing,” she sneered out the name, her face twisting up in old anger, “forced me to come back against Masrani’s orders. He knew how hard it had been and how much I couldn’t be there for her. He specifically told me to take all the time I needed because she didn’t even let me be there when Selena died. Jayce had to tell me through a phone call that my sister died while I was packing up my stuff, finally. I promised I would be there, but Claire kept me away for ‘important’ business. It wasn’t. It could have waited. But so, I only got two days to be with them before Claire called, demanding I come back because of some asinine reason and threatening my job. I didn’t even get to see my sister buried, Owen. I had to miss her funeral because of that woman. I missed my sister’s funeral, and I couldn’t even be there for my family. They almost fell apart while I was stuck on this island because of her. Do you know how devastating it is having to explain to extended family and friends why you weren’t at your own sister’s funeral? It is horrible having to tell people my boss threatened my job and to sue me,” she admitted, voice cracking as tears welled up in her eyes.

Owen could only stare in heartbreak as her lips began trembling, fingers white from how hard she gripped the steering wheel in what appeared to be an attempt to keep from crying. He didn’t say anything at first, unsure of what he could say in response, but he could offer comfort. So he reached out and took one of her hands and squeezed it, earning a grateful smile even as a tear fell down her cheek. “What about Masrani?” he asked softly, listening to the heavy sigh that left Anya’s lips.

“He was pissed. When he saw me, he asked why I was there. I told him what Claire did, and he was angry, it looked like steam would leave his ears. He told me that he’d deal with her and for me to go home to my family. By the time I finished packing again, I got an email with flight details from Masrani Global to compensate for what Claire did, and when I got back, I heard how she had gotten suspended and her pay docked for a month. From that moment on, I did my best to avoid Claire. I wasn’t sure if I wouldn’t punch her with how angry I was,” she admitted softly.

“I doubt anyone would have blamed you, Anya. What Cl-Dearing did was horrible. In my opinion, she got off easy,” Owen said, squeezing her hand again. That got a watery chuckle out of her, and he regretfully let go of her hand when she pulled to wipe at her face.

“Jayce said the same thing when I called him. Though he was already spiraling. If I had been there for them more, I could have helped. But once my vacation and new bereavement were over, I couldn’t visit much. I had so much stuff I needed to do, and I could only watch—well, hear—as they fell apart. I felt…helpless. But then Ellie—one of my nieces—managed to pull them all back together, and I promised myself I would do better. Even if it was just calling them an obnoxious amount of times to make up for my inability to visit physically,” she said with a waning smile.

“Sounds like you did the best you could do with a horrible boss,” Owen replied, watching as she tilted her head at him, a soft hum leaving her lips.

“Yeah…I guess that’s one way to view it,” she whispered.

“I can’t blame you at all for hating Dearing. What she did is horrible. You got a shit hand, but did your best, and that’s admirable,” he continued, and Anya just nodded in response. “You don’t seem to like the Indominus, huh?” he guessed, leaving the question hanging for whether she wanted to respond or not.

“No. After all I’ve seen of this beast, I will never like her. She…she’s a monster, Owen. She and her sibling. We had to watch as they fought each other viciously until she killed her sibling, and fought anyone who entered. They aren’t like your girls, Owen. They don’t even have an ounce of empathy or loyalty in them. They attacked each other until they were strong enough to kill. I…I froze when they finally got to that point. They barely reached our hips, and I couldn’t even get the ACU out there in time to stop it. She killed and ate her sibling just because she could. She tried to hurt and kill the people working under me, and I had to protect them in any way I could. Every experiment Wu made has been deadly, if not to itself, to others. I don’t know why Masrani deemed this one good or why he let it continue after everything. But here we are,” she said, her fingers aching as she gripped the steering wheel tightly once more.

Anya couldn’t help but flinch when Owen gently pried one hand off the steering wheel. He made a soft—hurt—noise in response and just began massaging her fingers one at a time and watched as the tension left her shoulders. She had been terrified about how he would respond. Still was, if she was being honest. But this left her hopeful.

“Do you think there’s even a way this could be deemed safe?” she murmured, breaking the silence that surrounded them.

“After what I’ve heard, I don’t know. We’ve just witnessed new behaviors, and she already has troubling behaviors that are bound to cause issues in trying to contain them. I…find it hard to believe anything can be done to make it safe for the public to be near her,” Owen admitted softly, watching as Anya gave a short nod.

He was certain she already knew that answer. He’d figure it wouldn’t make her feel better or worse; maybe it would be a relief to know someone agreed with her. Instead, it seemed to wrap around her like a cloak, dragging her shoulders down in resigned sorrow.

Yet somehow when her phone began ringing over the Jeep’s speakers and she saw the name—Eliza, who’s that?—on the console, she shook it all off with a blinding smile. As if the last few minutes hadn’t happened at all. “Ellie!” she greeted excitedly.

“Hi, Aunt Anya! I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Eliza asked. Owen couldn’t help but glance at Anya, shocked, but his brows were furrowing as he tried to place that familiar voice.

“Of course not, sweetie! You could never interrupt. I told you to call whenever, and I meant it. I will always answer you and your sisters’ calls,” she promised easily.

“Yes, Aunt Anya,” Eliza replied, the tone of her voice being one of having had this exact conversation before.

“Now, I assume there was something you wanted to talk to me about?” Anya asked, an indulgent smile on her lips as she glanced over at Owen.

“Oh! Yeah! I remembered you venting a lot about Miss Dearing and wanted to ask you a question about her. As you are….aware, we have apparently been a bit of a problem for the councilors,” Eliza said, earning a snort from Anya.

“More than a bit, sweetie. Though what happened to cause them more issues that involved having Dearing mentioned?” Anya asked, wondering what could have been worse than going to the Velociraptor pen. Though she did know that Kenji had apparently convinced Darius to go check out the Carnatorus that was isolated after its latest attack on the handlers.

“Wellll,” Eliza drew the word out, earning an eye roll from Anya that caused Owen to choke down a laugh.

“Eliza.”

“Alright! Yesterday we did that gyrosphere ride with the herbivores like I told ya. But, it went…astray,” she began, and Anya couldn’t help but look down at the screen showing Eliza’s contact with a squint.

“Astray, how?”

“A storm came in, and one of the dinos—a Sinoceratops, I believe Darius called it—got scared and ran off. Well, Darius wanted to go bring it back, and well…” Eliza trailed off, voice getting high in response.

“You didn’t…did you?” Anya asked, immediately guessing what Eliza and her fellow campers did.

“Yesss. I tried getting them to listen to reason, of, if nothing else, use both Sammy and Darius’ knowledge to get her back to the herd. It didn’t go well. A stampede happened, we got separated, and Darius and Brook almost died by drowning in mud,” she explained, and Anya could only stare ahead, mouth agape in shock.

“I’m sorry….what? How…how did they almost drown in mud?” Anya asked after a bit, sharing a look of disbelief with Owen.

“About that…they went after the dino. The dino didn’t like that and thrusted her nose horn into the gyrosphere and tossed it into a mud pit. But Sammy managed to call her down, and we got them out!” she said happily.

“I take it one of your councilors is going to talk with Dearing?” Anya asked, listening as Eliza hummed agreement. “Who’s with you now?”

“Dave is! We pushed back kayaking while Roxie went to talk with Miss Dearing. She said it’d be a couple of hours. Think that’s accurate?” Eliza answered.

“I can’t blame Roxie for wanting to talk with Dearing. You and your friends have certainly caused issues. I will be speaking to you all about it later,” she said, earning a whine from Eliza.

“But Aunt Anya! I’ve done my best! Not my fault, Kenji’s an idiot who somehow infected the others to be just as idiotic! Besides, Darius means well, he just wants to help!” Eliza protested.

“Not getting out of it. Back to Roxie’s timeline…doubtful. Claire’s…Claire won’t make it easy. She believes the camp isn’t that important, so Roxie’s bound to be waiting for hours,” Anya answered finally.

“Understatement,” Owen whispered, earning a snort from Anya.

“Whose that?” Eliza asked.

“You know him, it’s Owen Grady,” she said, a gasp filled the air.

“Mr. Grady!? What are you doing with my Aunt?” Eliza asked, and Anya just snorted.

“Oh, hi, Eliza. Your Aunt asked for my help on her project,” Owen greeted, finally realizing he had met the girl a few days ago when she and Roxie had gone to the Raptor Paddock. Eliza had been sweet and well-behaved, asking questions while staying out of the way of everyone. It was nice if he was being honest.

“Oh! That’s so cool! How are you helping her?” she asked. Instead of replying, Owen simply glanced over at Anya, brow raised in question.

“Well, I’m an animal behaviorist, Eliza. While I was hired to focus on my project with the Raptors, I can be called in for any of the dinosaurs. Your Aunt is overseeing a new one and needs my help ensuring everything is going well,” he replied after getting a nod from Anya.

“Wow. I can’t wait to hear all about it when it’s revealed, Aunt Anya!”

“Sure. Now, be sure to tell Dave what I told you about Miss Dearing. Since kayaking was pushed back, what are you guys doing instead?” Anya asked, curious.

“Crafts. Somehow in this whole camp, they only had kids’ menus and crayons,” Eliza replied, tone somehow both bored and disbelieving.

“Hey!” a man shouted in response.

“What? I’m just telling it as it is, Dave!” Eliza shouted back, startling laughs from Anya and Owen.

“I take it Dave doesn’t appreciate your criticism?” Anya asked

“Nope!” Eliza answered, the ‘p’ being popped loudly. “But I did offer up my supplies as well. If nothing else, they need better paper than kids’ menus.”

“That would help,” Anya agreed, a painfully fond smile on her lips.

“Well, since you said it could be hours, maybe we could go to the observation tower while we wait! Or perhaps just go ahead with the kayaking,” Eliza thought.

“Sounds like a good plan. But…do keep out of trouble. Preferably don’t run towards trouble or dinos,” Anya said, earning an indignant squawk from Eliza.

“Hey! I’ve done my best to keep them out of trouble!” Eliza argued, and Anya just hummed in thought, enjoying hearing her niece sound so offended.

“True. But…do try harder. Your last couple of tales gave me gray hair. I don’t need more,” Anya countered, a snort leaving Eliza at that.

“Okay, I’ll try harder. But it better be kept on record that I have done my best to rein them in,” Eliza argued.

“Duly noted,” Anya said with a nod.

“If you want, Eliza. You could try using my name to keep them from going into dangerous situations,” Owen offered, and the only response they got was a loud hum.

“Maybe. I don’t know how much sway your name’s going to have outside of Darius, Mr. Grady,” Eliza replied thoughtfully, and Anya couldn’t help but snort at Owen’s expression.

“That may be, though I’m sure the thought of disappointing two people, one of whom is your family, should be enough to stop them. Especially if it meant they didn’t get to do something cool with us,” she offered, jerking a bit at the squeal Eliza let out.

“You mean that?” Eliza asked.

“Yes. But it’ll only be for the end of camp, and I have not heard a single troubling thing. I trust you to tell the truth, Eliza,” Anya promised.

“Scouts honor! That surely will keep them from getting in trouble! Bye, Aunt Anya, bye, Mr. Grady! Good luck on your project,” Eliza promised.

“Good. Have fun, Ellie, bye,” Anya said before the call ended. She huffed in response, knowing her niece was just excited, but it was a tad exasperating.

“So…your niece is here?” Owen asked, a small smile on his lips from hearing how close the two were.

“Yeah. I was really happy when Mr. Masrani offered the staff’s kids a spot at the new camp. I was going to offer it to Eliza, but he beat me to the punch and offered her a spot in return for her creating posters to hype it up. An initiative I pushed forward, promoting creativity and science in kids, I, uh, I let him take all the credit since I hadn’t been a project manager at the time. I had thought about asking if my other nieces wanted to join, but well. One doesn’t really care for this stuff and has training to do. The other, well, I can’t say really. She might have or she might not, I think the part that would excite her the most is the plant life,” she explained, getting a nod from Owen.

“It’s really sweet how close you are with them,” Owen commented after a moment.

“Yeah…it…it was tough at first. When I came here, I had trouble making time. Then my sister got diagnosed, and Dearing seemed to have made it her mission to keep me from visiting as much as I wanted. Especially during those last few months. After everything came to a head, with Dearing and their family falling apart, I made a promise. I told myself I would be there for them more when I saw how my Ellie had to step up and bring her family back together. That never should have fallen to her shoulders,” Anya explained softly.

“It shouldn’t have. But it seems like both of you have done a pretty incredible job, all things considered. I’m sure they’re grateful for what you’ve done,” Owen said after a moment of thought. He wanted to make sure he didn’t make a mistake that could hurt Anya. She’s already been through a lot, it seemed, since she started working at Jurassic World. He didn’t want to add to that. Not if he could help it.

“Yeah?” she asked, and he couldn’t help but nod. “Thank you. I, uh, I think I needed to hear that.”

“That’s understandable. Grief is hard in the best of circumstances, your family has not had the best of circumstances at all. But even so, it can still well up years later and feel just as raw as when it first happened,” he observed, getting a snort from Anya.

“Too true. We have not had an easy time…though it sounds like you speak from experience,” Anya guessed, earning a wane smile from Owen.

“Well observed…I lost my team, they were my family. It was our final mission before our tour was over. It was sudden, unexpected…devastating. It’s been years, but there are days were grief tries to pull me under. Even scars can ache,” he admitted.

“I can’t even imagine what that must be like, but thank you for telling me. Maybe…maybe when we’re finished here, we could go to one of the bars and exchange stories. Keep their memories alive,” Anya offered, with a shy smile.

“I’d like that,” Owen said with a smile.

“It’s a date then! Er-not a date! That is it could be, but it’s not! It’s a plan. Between friends. Yeah,” Anya rambled, face flushed while focusing entirely on the road and not even risking a glance toward Owen. Looking at her, Owen couldn’t help the smile that grew on his lips or the chuckle that left him.

“A date?” he asked teasingly, smile growing fonder at how her cheeks darkened further.

“N-not necessarily. I didn’t mean it like-! Not that I wouldn’t go on a date with you! I-it’s just-just a phrase—” she began, teeth clanging together when Owen squeezed her hand that she didn’t realize he still held.

Glancing over, she saw the growing smirk on Owen’s face and promptly turned face forward once more, face red. But she couldn’t say for certain if it was from embarrassment or not.

“Let’s see how it goes before trying to label it, yeah?” Owen said, smirk still on his face, yet it was unbelievably fond as he watched the flush deepen on her cheeks as she nodded agreement.

“Y-yeah!” she agreed, voice cracking

“So will these files have everything we need?” Owen asked.

“Almost,” Anya replied, gratefully grabbing onto the subject change with both hands. “Wu, unfortunately, kept the exact genetic makeup of the Indominus secret, but we do know most of it, and every behavior has been reported and logged by either myself or the staff working directly with the beast. I made sure of it. You’re welcome to try, but not even Masrani has gotten him to spill,” she explained, fingers tightening on the wheel briefly before releasing.

“Well, that’s not shady at all,” Owen remarked sarcastically.

“Indeed.”

“With how Hoskins likes to act, he would probably get along with Wu…maybe even get all the info to be able to figure out the ‘stats,’” Owen said with a groan.

“Oh God, he just might. I don’t know which would be worse. Wu and Hoskins being friendly with each other. Or them being enemies,” she agreed with a sigh. “Considering how small he wants the official enclosure to be, it could go either way.”

“How much bigger is it going to be than the current paddock? Though I do have questions about that paddock,” Owen asked, and Anya just shrugged at first.

“While we knew what size it could possibly grow to, it grew faster than we thought. Her growth rate is half of all the other dinosaurs, yet shot up like them,” she explained.

“Ah, so that was never built for her current size. You were expecting her to be half that size?” Owen deducted.

“Yes. Though even then, while I never thought highly of this endeavor, I always thought it was on the small side for the predicted measurements made. But Hoskins pushed the plans, and Claire gave it the green light despite my arguments that it was too small. I have no doubts that you will find similar results in the enclosure being made for the beast. From my understanding, it’s not that big…but it would be par for the course…considering the size of the enclosure for Rexie. I can’t help but wonder why they thought that was a good size for her. It’s so small, there’s no stimulation and no room to explore or find things she could possibly want to create a nest like the fossilized ones. Though just like the beast, my pleas fall onto deaf ears,” she sighed, shaking her head.

“Of course, it’s Hoskins’ that made that paddock,” Owen said with a shake of his head.

“Yeah. He, somehow, has convinced Claire that he knows best about creating paddocks for the dinosaurs. There have been several complaints, but they get waved away with Hoskins claiming he made them safe and appropriate for the dinosaurs. I don’t understand it, but somehow everyone trusts him…no matter what I say,” she said, sighing deeply as she stared at the road in front of her, squeezing his hand.

“Ah, that explains so much,” Owen replied, startling a snort out of Anya.

“Yeah, it does,” she agreed.

Before anything more could be said, Nick’s name was flashing on the screen as a theme song from some show Owen barely remembered played. But they both knew what it meant.

There was only one reason Nick would be calling Anya.

“Dearing,” Owen hissed, watching as Anya nodded warily.

“What’s going on, Nick?” she asked, face serious as she slipped back into her role of manager.

“It-it’s Claire! She’s sending people in! She said the-the tracking chip blipped—that it proved, proved you were wrong! She got the okay to send people in because of a blip and the carcass still hanging in the air. She won’t listen!” Nick shouted, but everything turned to static for Anya. She could barely hear his shouts as he tried to stop people from walking to their deaths.

“W-what?” she breathed out, voice catching on the single word, fear-filled eyes turned to Owen as she stopped the Jeep harshly.

Owen couldn’t imagine what was going through Anya’s head at that moment, but he knew nothing good could happen. That was a face of pure fear and terror. This beast terrified Anya to her core, but he had no doubt others helped that fear along. It was a long-standing fear…one that maybe started when she had been hospitalized for months. When he had visited, Anya had been weak, sick, and terrified. Hallucinating terrifying things that seemed to only disappear when he talked with her, until she was given something that finally helped her.

“Is Claire there?” Owen asked firmly, glancing over at Anya, who honestly looked like she was debating if it was worth it to turn around.

“Uh, no. She’s-she’s on the phone,” Nick replied.

“Put me on speaker for everyone to hear,” Anya ordered.

“Okay, you’re on speaker,” Nick announced.

“Don’t you dare go into that fucking paddock! Ignore Dearing’s orders at once! That beast is still inside, and you will be killed. As the project manager overseeing this thing, you will not go in, no one is allowed in unless under my directions,” she shouted, twisting the wheel while slamming on the gas. The Jeep twisted dangerously, and Owen simply held on until it stopped turning and driving back the way they came. Only at the intersection, they turned down the path leading to the control room instead of the paddock.

“You do not give the orders here, Sobeck! That thing has already escaped! The tracking implant blipped, so despite thinking of yourself as its expert, you were wrong. She’s already out there! And if I tell someone to go into that goddamn paddock, they will go into that goddamn paddock. You do not have the power to override my commands!” Claire shouted back, and Anya could just imagine the redhead’s expression, how it would be twisted up, her brows scrunching together with fury blazing in her eyes.

“Oh, I don’t?” Anya asked, a cold, disbelieving laugh left her lips. “I’m that beast’s project manager. I’ve watched its every fucking move and attack since it hatched. I know it, unlike you! You are sending people to their fucking deaths. Their blood will be on your hands, Dearing. All because you thought you knew better! But you don’t. Those tracking chips blip at anything. Like the pack of Pachy’s. When they headbutt, they short them out. No doubt this blip was the beast ripping it out in the hopes of convincing a certain idiot into letting her out since you’re so eager to believe it can get out!” Anya spat out, knuckles white from how hard she gripped the wheel. “Get them out of there goddamnit or so help—”

“It can camouflage! Run!” Hamada’s voice shouted suddenly over the radio, and Anya felt ice run through her veins. Dread was the only thing going through her as shouts, gunfire, and chomping could be heard. But then there was a cracking sound before the sound of items getting crushed and more screams.

“Nick, sitrep!” Owen shouted, taking charge since Anya was in no state to do so at the moment. It looked like it was taking everything in here to just focus on driving. Not that he could blame her. It was a truly gruesome-sounding mess happening at this very moment.

“Th-their exit was-was blocked! A worker opened up the main doors, and it broke through. Oh God. Run! Get out—!” Nick shouted, sounding breathless as he ran toward the door, if they had to guess. All they could hear then was whispered prayers from Nick.

“Do you hear that, Dearing?! Do you see that? Look at what you did! You let this monster out, and now people are dead! Good people! And their blood is on your God-fucking-damnit hands!” Anya shouted, speeding like the monster was chasing after them personally, and taking turns so fast Owen thought they were going to roll.

Over the radio, sitting in the center console, they could hear the chaos and orders being barked out. But none of that mattered when the monster was out doing who knows what.

“Anya, what’s going on?” Masrani asked suddenly, and Anya wondered how much the man saw and heard.

“What’s happened is Miss Dearing decided to send men into that monster’s paddock, and now she’s outside for the very first time, Mr. Masrani. There is going to be more death unless we stop her,” Anya said, drifting to a stop outside the control room compound. Picking up the tablet, phone, and radio, Anya stalked into the building with Owen a second behind. “I’m heading into the control room now, sir. We can continue this conversation there,” she said, hanging up before he even had the chance to reply.

Turning the Jeep off, Anya reached over to grab her radio—that still screamed voices in terror—and tablet, before sliding out and stalking toward the building, expression hard that sent people scurrying out of the way. Owen followed close behind, barely managing to grab her elbow.

When she turned to face him, her eyes were blazing with fury that Owen hadn’t seen before. But he didn’t let that stop him. “Hey, take a moment, Anya. Don’t bite off anyone’s heads that don’t deserve it,” he said, watching as Anya huffed, lips twisted down into a scowl.

“We don’t have a moment, Owen! Claire fucked up, and now we have this,” she threw out a hand to gesture around them, “to deal with! There is no ‘take a moment.’ Taking a moment means death!” she hissed out.

“So does rushing in, Anastasia,” Owen said, shocking Anya at the use of her full name. She hadn’t heard it since Selena had first told her about her diagnosis. “I know you want to stop this before disaster, Anya. But you need to take a moment. If you rush in, chances are you’ll make just as bad of mistakes as Claire. Do you want that?” he asked, watching Anya intently as she mulled over his words before taking a deep breath and holding it for a moment before letting it out.

“Okay, okay…okay,” she sighed, forcing herself to take a few more breaths while her head fell forward onto his shoulder. “She just gets me sooo!” Anya began, shoulders trembling as she raised her clenched fists in the hopes of explaining, but soon gave up as the words escaped her. She just groaned in response, shoulders slumping while her hands fell to her sides once more. Owen grunted as he plucked the tablet from loose fingers before it clattered to the floor.

“Yeah. She seems to have that effect on people…like Hoskins,” he muttered, startling a laugh from Anya as she nodded agreement before pulling herself upright once more.

“She really does, huh? C’mon. We need to get going, otherwise Claire might try something,” Anya said, taking another breath before fixing her clothes and taking the tablet from Owen’s outstretched hand with a grateful smile.

“She does like doing that, huh?” Owen agreed as they began walking once more.

“She truly does,” Anya answered with a nod. Walking past security with a nod when they glanced back toward Owen. Getting into the elevator, she pressed the level they needed and leaned against the rail, foot tapping impatiently at how slow everything seemed to move in times of crisis, even though it wasn’t actually slower. Yet it always seemed to move like molasses when things were going wrong. It was fascinating yet annoying how the passage of time seemed to drag on when you felt a certain way.

All too soon, however, the doors were opening to the control room that was buzzing with frantic energy. Everyone turned toward them, a couple flinching at the furious expression that appeared when Anya spotted Claire. “Anya, Claire isn’t explaining why she sent people into the occupied cage…what happened?” Masrani demanded, and Anya barely glanced at him before her gaze settled on Claire once more.

“She undermined me, sir. And right now, after being told how dangerous that monster is, did this. So I would suggest you have her under lock and guard until we get this sorted out, since she needs to be put on trial,” Anya hissed, a satisfied smirk growing at how pale and terrified Claire looked.

“So it seems,” Masrani muttered when Owen and several others nodded agreement. Snapping his fingers toward the security guard in the room, he pointed toward Claire. The man moved quickly and grabbed her arm before she could try making a run for it, or more like at Masrani, based on how she was struggling to get to them.

“Mr. Masrani, you can’t do this! I’ve done nothing wrong!” Claire shouted. “This is her fault! It’s her monster!”

“My monster!?” Anya scoffed out, a sneer growing on her lips as she glared at Claire. “More like your monster, Claire. When she killed her sibling, I said we needed to terminate the project and her. But you vetoed me! I never agreed to this hybrid program, and I certainly never wanted to be the project manager after everything that’s happened. But I am! I am here, and you ignored my experience and sent people to their deaths. You have done so much wrong that it’s not even funny, Claire. Your arrogance and pride is astounding,” she hissed out. At her words, Masrani turned to Claire with a glare.

“You sent men into the cage of this beast after being told how dangerous it is. In fact, you told me it tried killing a handler. This is, in fact, the least we should do until we get this under control,” Masrani said, turning to Anya once more. “Tell me everything.”

The only thing that could be heard was the various radios squawking around them with panicked employees and the drawn-out tone of flat heart rates from the monitors on the ACU. Anya’s heart ached for their loved ones and everyone who witnessed it. “It starts with Ms Dearing trying to avoid telling Owen what that beast was made of. I came in on her saying it was a T. Rex and classified. She tried keeping me from explaining, but I told Owen. Owen pointed out some new claw marks, and Claire jumped to the worst-case scenario instead of taking a moment to think logically. I got the tracking data and proved her wrong before taking Owen to get the reports. But on the way, Nick called and told me that because the tracker blipped in the beast, Claire sent men in to investigate. She didn’t listen when I told her to stop them, and when the beast started attacking, a worker tried escaping through the gates, but it burst through before they closed fully. It’s now on a killing rampage, all because of your second’s incompetency,” she explained, barely hearing Claire’s outraged screeches at her words.

“I am not incompetent! You little—!” Claire shouted, but before she could continue, she was dragged out of the room, and Anya couldn’t help but sigh in relief.

“Sir, I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but we need to evacuate the island. We are seeing firsthand how unprepared we are to deal with this threat,” she said.

“What about the park? If we evacuate, chances are we won’t reopen,” Masrani argued.

“We have to risk it, sir. Do you want to be known as the man who put pride before safety? ‘Cause right now, that’s where Claire is going. Do you want to join her?”

“No,” he said with a sharp shake of his head.

“Good. Then we evacuate. Evacuating gives us the best chance of protecting all those innocents and proves to the world that we take threats seriously while striving to get the best security. Now, for the time being, we bring everyone down to Main Street and begin taking them to the ferries in groups. Now, obviously, the groups planned out won’t be intact as they are spread all over the island, but we follow those guidelines. While that is happening, we track the Indominus through sightings with employees keeping an eye out. But to be sure, we are evacuating as fast as possible, and we get in contact with either the Coast Guard or the Costa Rican government for assistance, seeing as our ferries can only go so fast and carry only so many people safely,” Anya replied, expression hard as she stared at Masrani.

“Of course. Vivian, bring them in,” Masrani ordered, watching as Vivian nodded, a look of determination growing as she turned to her station, fingers tapping away before tapping her headset.

“This is a Phase One, Gallimimus Gallop. I repeat, this is a Phase One, Gallimimus Gallop. Bring everyone in,” Vivian called out as she began the announcement sequence for a Gallimimus Gallop.

“Now, if that is all, sir, I have somewhere I need to be,” Anya said, pulling out her phone as she turned away.

“Where are you going, Anya?” Masrani asked, causing her to look back at him.

“From what I’ve gathered through the screams on that radio, that beast is making her way toward the camp. A camp that currently houses my niece. I promised her father that I would keep her safe, and I intend to do so. I don’t care what you’re going to say, sir, I am going after my niece and the other campers,” she said, expression hard as she looked at the man, who simply nodded after a moment.

“Of course,” he replied. Anya’s lips were twisted, but she gave a short nod before leaving the room.

“Mr. Masrani…you need to have ACU prepared to go after that beast with lethals. There is nothing redeemable in that beast,” Owen said, stepping closer to Masrani, barely keeping his face from twisting into a scowl.

“We’ve invested too much into it,” Masrani protested softly.

“She’s already killed several people. And based on how that radio is screeching, she’s killing more. She cannot continue living. If you really care about this place, about the people, the dinosaurs, you will kill her. Otherwise, you can kiss this place goodbye,” Owen retorted, sending one last look Masrani’s way before rushing after Anya. “Wait up!” he called out, watching as Anya twisted toward him, disbelief clear on her face.

“You’re…coming with?” she asked softly.

“Yes. I’m not letting you go out there alone. We’re going to track them down. But are you prepared for that?” he asked, glancing down at her berry-colored skirt and then toward her teal and gold heels.

“Yes…after I change,” she said, turning toward her Jeep and going into the backseat.

“Change?” he asked, dumbfounded.

“Yes, change. I am aware we work on an island, Owen. I dress like this when I don’t have to trek through the forests. When I know my day involves that, I have a spare set of clothes in my Jeep to change into. Though right now I only have a pair of boots and shorts,” she explained with a grimace, and Owen couldn’t help but wonder what that face was for at the mention of the shorts. But before he could ask, she got into the Jeep and closed the door. The back windows were fully tinted, but he could just make out her moving something right behind the front seats. Within a couple of minutes, Anya was slipping out of her Jeep in a pair of pale brown shorts that stopped mid-thigh and deep brown combat boots. “I’m not going to risk my shoes or attire if I know I’m going to be trekking through the jungle. My mom taught me to keep spare shoes in the car. While she kept her work shoes inside so that she could wear comfortable shoes while driving, I keep these boots so that I’m prepared to trek through mud. I’m pretty sure most of the women working in the control room do the same,” she explained as she closed the door.

“I…I don’t think I’ve seen someone do that before,” Owen admitted.

“The only woman you’ve been around from the control room besides me was Claire. She doesn’t care about impracticality. Every time we’ve met, I’ve either switched into this more jungle-appropriate clothing or been in the hospital wearing a gown covered in tiny dinosaurs,” she retorted, earning a nod from Owen.

“True enough. So your mom did this?” he asked, and Anya snorted.

“Yeah. She had a bit of a drive and then a trek to her office, so she wore comfortable shoes until she was close and switched out to nicer shoes. It just made sense, especially when I got a job here,” she reasoned, and Owen couldn’t help but snort.

“Fair enough. Do you think they’re still at the camp?” Owen asked as they got into the Jeep.

“I don’t know…Darius…a boy Eliza told me about who’s obsessed with dinosaurs, might beg to go to the observation deck…Especially if they hear this monster’s roar,” she replied softly, the leather creaking under her hands before she threw it into gear.

“Let’s find out,” Owen said, reaching over to grip her shoulder.

“Let’s.”

🦖🦖🦖🦖

Owen could only stare wide-eyed at Anya as they drifted onto the path toward the camp. But that was nothing compared to the screeching of brakes as the Jeep came to a stop in front of the remains of the camp. He couldn’t blame her for the harsh stop, he was in shock as well at the sight of the camp in front of him. The main entrance was destroyed, with a couple of bridges hanging down to the ground, while the front half of the camp entrance littered the ground in front of the elevator. Shattered glass covered the ground, with screws and jagged metal sticking out from the dirt.

At first, Anya didn’t move, she just stared at it, face paling rapidly as her mind raced with the possibilities of what could have happened to her niece and the other campers. But then, as a piece of debris came crashing down, Anya was jerked out of her trance, and she slipped out of the Jeep and rushed toward the wreckage. “Ellie! Dave! Brook! Can you hear me!?” she called out, but then, she cried out as she fell into a ditch.

“Anya!” Owen yelled out as he rushed over, hand falling to the knife at his back as he looked around the wreckage before his gaze fell onto the ditch Anya was in. A ditch that was shaped like a foot.

“I-I, uh, I’m alright,” she said shakily, pushing herself upright before stepping out of the ditch. When she saw what it looked like, she sucked in a harsh breath, gaze following it toward others leading away. As she followed it to the jungle, an overturned SUV grabbed their attention. “Oh no,” she whispered. She didn’t even fight it as Owen waved her to stay back and made his way over to the SUV and looked inside. Based on the grimace, Anya knew it wasn’t good and choked on a sob, falling to her knees as she wrapped her arms around herself.

“Hey, hey! It’s okay, Anya. They’re alive. They’re alive,” he said, rushing over to grab her shoulders.

“They’re alive?” she breathed out, watching him nod before a sob of relief left her.

“Yeah, they’re alive. There’s only an employee’s body in there. From the looks of it, only employees were killed here. We can still find them. Do you have any way of tracking Eliza?” Owen asked, and Anya shook her head.

“No. I told Jayce that we should have everyone on Find My, but he said it would be fine. I could try calling her, but cell service is so fucking bad here it’s doubtful the call would go through, but also, we don’t know if her phone’s been damaged or if we would want to risk them being found by that monster. I-I don’t know how we could find them,” she whispered.

“What about the observation deck?” Owen asked, getting a shaky nod from Anya.

“But what if they aren’t there?” she asked softly.

“If they aren’t there…Well, I know of some great trackers,” he offered, and hope and confusion rose in Anya.

“What do you mean?” she asked softly.

“It’s not ideal, but if need be, we could use the Raptors to track the kids down. Not to mention, it would prevent Hoskins from trying to use them to fight this thing since we now know it’s part Raptor,” he explained, watching as a smile grew on her lips.

“Of course. I trust you, Owen. You’ve trained those girls from birth, if there’s anyone who can lead them in a search, it’s you,” she said, watching as a smile grew on Owen’s lips.

“Thanks, Anya. But we would need something of theirs to use,” he pointed out, reluctantly letting go when Anya pushed herself back to her feet.

“Okay, okay. We can do this. Something of theirs must have fallen in the debris. Let’s get searching,” she said, rummaging through the debris with Owen a second behind her.

Finding only generic pieces from the camp, Anya couldn’t help but scream mentally. She was getting frustrated every time she felt hope building, it came crashing down when, instead of an item that could possibly be one of the kids, it turned out to be some decoration she recalled Masrani picking out. Picking up another such piece, Anya chucked it aside with a growl, fingers tugging at her hair as she struggled to calm down once more.

“I think I found something!” Owen called out, and Anya made her way over to him.

“What is it?” she asked softly when she got closer, looking down at his hands cradling something.

“A…tooth necklace. It, uh, looks to be a raptor tooth,” Owen said, glancing up at Anya and watching as her face lit up.

“That’s Darius’s. Eliza told me about how he always wore that necklace since it was from his father. He took it off since they were to go kayaking and didn’t want to risk losing it,” she said, and Owen couldn’t help but smile as well.

“Well, now that we have an item that we can use as a scent guide, let’s go see if we can find them at the observation deck,” Owen said, swinging the necklace up into his hand before sliding it into one of the pockets on his vest that closed with a button.

“Let’s go,” she agreed, rushing back toward the Jeep.

As they drove, Anya’s fingers tapped unconsciously against the steering wheel. Her nerves needed an outlet since there was nothing guaranteed for them. Owen’s phone ringing out, however, startled Anya, causing her to grip the steering wheel tight with a hiss.

“This is Grady,” he greeted warily when he put the phone on speaker.

“Owen, I need your help, please. My nephews, they’re in danger. They were in the gyrosphere valley, but left it! From what we can gather, that’s where the Indominus went. Please, I need you to help me find them!” Claire begged.

“You have nephews?” Anya asked, shocked, listening as Claire made a noise of outrage.

“Am I on speaker phone!?” she demanded.

“Yes, because I wasn’t aware this was supposed to be private. Though anyone could and would have told you that I’m a bit busy right now, Claire. I’m with Anya, looking for her own niece and the other campers,” he said with a sigh.

“I don’t care. I need help finding them! If I don’t, I’ll never see them again!” she begged, and Anya scowled at that.

“I’m sorry, Claire, but I am not abandoning Anya. We’re chasing a lead right now, but we will keep an eye out for your nephews as well. What can you tell us?” he asked

“No, I need—” Claire began again.

“Will you fucking listen, Claire? He said we’ll look for them as well! But we are not just going to abandon my niece or the campers that are currently in the jungle with your goddamn monster on the loose. So give us a fucking description and we’ll make sure they’re safe as well,” Anya shouted.

“Fine,” Claire bit out, and Anya could perfectly imagine the scowl on the woman’s lips. “Ones, uh, yay high, high school age. The other…isn’t,” Claire began, and Anya couldn’t help the scoff that burst out.

“I’m sorry, but did you just go ‘yay high’ at us when we literally cannot see you, Claire? Also, is that the best you can give? Jesus Christ, how can you not give us a better description?” Anya demanded, listening as Claire scoffed back.

“You try to describe your niece! I’m under a lot of stress, okay? I’ve been busy and—” Claire tried defending herself.

“Okay. My niece is 15 years old, around 5 foot 9. Her hair is colored purple to a magenta-pink, and her eyes are a deep blue. I last saw her wearing this blue-to-teal skirt that had a wide waistband with an orange tie corset on the front, with a pale teal to cream top with orange accents and off-the-shoulder layered sleeves that go from teal to pale teal to cream like her outfit. Then, finally, she wears cream leggings, a purple messenger bag that she always carries, and her signature knee-high boots that she painted herself with a waterfall and flower landscape. Do you think I’m not busy as well with work and projects, Claire? Because I’m just as busy, but I actually take the time to visit and talk with my family. Unlike you. You couldn’t even tell us their hair color or a shirt color. I don’t know why your family sent their kids to you when you clearly have chosen that work is more important. Now, tell us who actually last saw your nephews, and then we can get what we need from them,” Anya ordered, listening to the shocked silence over the phone.

“She’s mumbled the name Zara, Anya,” Jake, one of the security guards Anya met, replied.

“Thank you, Jake. I have her number, so I’ll call her. Bye, Jake. Good luck dealing with her,” Anya called out before Owen hung up. “Here,” she said, one hand shoved into her pocket and pulled out her phone, unlocking it quickly before tossing it over to Owen.

Owen grunted as he caught the phone before it could fall onto the floor. Pulling up the contacts, he scrolled down to Zara’s name and pressed the call button. “Why do you have her phone number?” Owen asked as they waited for Zara to answer.

“Because Zara keeps track of Claire’s schedule and is helpful, unlike Claire. The few times she actually came were because I had talked with Zara, and the woman had bugged Claire into going. That woman is a saint having to deal with Claire,” Anya explained with a shake of her head while Owen nodded agreement.

“Yeah, she is,” he agreed.

“Anya, no offense, but this better be good. I’m in a bit of a situation,” Zara said, voice struggling to be heard over the crowd around her as an announcement ran behind them.

“You’re looking for Dearing’s nephews, correct?” Anya asked.

“What-how did you know?” Zara asked.

“Claire called, demanding my help even though I’m helping Anya find her niece and the campers that are currently missing. We said we’d keep an eye out for them, but Claire couldn’t give us a description,” Owen explained with a roll of his eyes.

Zara couldn’t help but snort in response. “Of course, she couldn’t. When she met up with them briefly, she acted like Zach, the teen, just went through a huge growth spurt instead of it being years since she last saw him,” Zara revealed, and Anya scoffed.

“That is…ridiculous. She acts like they’re estranged instead of being close. I can’t imagine being so out of touch with my family. Work will never be more important than family,” Anya hissed out, glancing down at Owen’s hand that landed on her knee before looking at Owen’s face that remained facing forward.

“I don’t understand it either. Zach, probably around 16 or so, had on a red tee, gray jacket, and black pants. Pale and brunet with his hair styled to lie on his forehead. Gray, I believe almost a preteen, pale with dirty blond hair that’s curly and covers his ears. He was wearing a red and blue plaid shirt, dark shorts, and a fanny pack,” Zara rattled off easily. “But…they argued and bickered quite a bit while I was with them. I don’t know if they’re still together or if they got separated.”

“Thank you, Zara. You keep an eye out around Main Street, while we’re tracking down Eliza and the campers, we’ll keep an eye out for the boys. If you hear anything, call. We’ll keep you updated as well,” Anya said with a short nod at her plan, but there was also worry at the knowledge that the two boys were separated.

“Of course. Good luck, Anya. Hopefully, you can find your niece soon,” Zara offered softly.

“I do too, Zara. Hopefully, in the meantime, those boys are safe and found soon,” Anya replied.

“We’ll find them,” Owen promised, squeezing her knee once more before letting go.

“Yeah…we will,” Anya agreed, taking a deep breath before holding it. They had to find them. If they didn’t, Anya wasn’t sure if she could ever look Jayce in the eyes again. She had made a promise to keep Eliza safe, that nothing bad would happen to her while she was at Jurassic World. And yet, she’s now in the middle of the biggest—deadliest even—problem ever. If Anya knew what was going to happen back when the Indominus first hatched, she would have gotten rid of them.

Who cares if it left her in prison for destruction of company property or illegally killing an animal?

She’d rather have her reputation destroyed and be in prison if it meant saving innocent lives. But she couldn’t. Time travel wasn’t possible, and she couldn’t see the future. There was absolutely no way for her to change what had happened. No matter how much she wished for it. Or more correctly, wished that Claire wasn’t a moron who happily sent people to their deaths because thinking logically for a moment was too difficult for her. It was hard to swallow that all the deaths were because of Claire.

That Claire decided she knew better than anyone, even the people who worked for months with the beast, while she had just seen it so little she couldn’t possibly know the details of her. That arrogance killed so many people, and if Anya was being honest, she wanted to kill Claire personally. She wanted to go up to Claire and force her to acknowledge all the death and sorrow she caused before ending her life.

But she resisted.

Because while it would feel good in the moment, it wouldn’t do any good. All it would do was ruin more lives and alienate her from her family. Her family was already in danger, she wasn’t about to let Claire win by fully taking them away from her. No matter how much the woman deserved death, she didn’t get to win by destroying another family.

She also just couldn’t stand the thought of what Owen would think if she did that. Anya didn’t know what would be worse.

His condemnation of her actions, or his validation.

She didn’t want to risk either or have him questioning himself. So instead, she endured. Pushed through every fear, worry, and murderous thought that filled her mind. Her focus had to be on Eliza and the other campers. Nothing and no one else mattered.

Coming to a stop in front of the wrecked observation deck, Anya couldn’t breathe. Somehow, this was so much worse than the camp. The tower was completely destroyed, lying across the ground like a fallen soldier, metal beams sticking out of the ground like swords sticking out of corpses. Trees lay fallen, crushed beneath the tower, splintered all over with portions sticking out with jagged edges, grasping for the sky.

The ground that once housed the tower’s foundation was ripped up with rebar, beams, and concrete exposed and broken. A layer of dirt covered everything near the base of the tower, while splinters covered the top of the tower. The zipline wire, laid coiled on the ground and in the trees, snapped from the other half.

Anya wondered if the second tower was in similar condition, but was too afraid to go check. Her only thoughts were directed to wondering if Eliza and the others had been eaten by the monster. “H-how do we know if they were here?” she croaked out, voice cracking in her throat. Her mind raced with the thousands of ways that they could have been killed. Or injured. What have they seen? Or had they somehow managed to avoid the danger altogether, but were trapped somewhere because of the beast?

Anya felt like she was in a daze, slipping out of the Jeep and making her way over to the wreckage. Her chest felt tight, like ropes were bound across her lungs and stole her breath away. She barely even realized when her knees hit the ground, the rocks and dirt barely cutting through the whirlwind in her mind.

She couldn’t breathe.

Why couldn’t she breathe?

Her vision swam while her arms trembled, struggling to keep her up as her fingers curled into the dirt.

Her ears were filled with ringing static, and her tongue felt stuck as she struggled to take in a breath. Why did her chest hurt? It felt like the very air was pressing down on her. She frantically grasped at her chest, willing her lungs to take in air.

Hands.

There were hands on her face.

Why were there hands on her face?

Owen.

Owen was in front of her. Right, he was with her. His lips were moving. But she couldn’t hear anything solid. It felt like she was trying to hear him underwater. All his words were distorted and difficult to understand. He pulled her hand from her chest and placed it on his chest. Why was he doing that?

Wait.

His chest was moving with deep, slow breaths.

Maybe he wanted her to follow his lead. It was a struggle, though. She tried taking a breath, but then her gaze would slip past him toward the tower, and her thoughts went spiraling as dread encompassed her.

But then he was forcibly turning her. Forcing her back to the wreckage while she tried breathing. “—at’s it. Hold for 7 seconds, now exhale for 8 seconds through your mouth. You’re doing so good, Anya.” Her lungs felt like they were screaming as she held her breath before exhaling. “Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds. Hold for 7 seconds. Exhale for 8 seconds through your mouth,” Owen instructed, his words cutting through the static, her breaths shaky but not restricted. She finally felt like she could breathe again, albeit not strongly.

But it was better than before, when she felt like she couldn’t breathe at all. But her chest hurt. It felt like a horse kicked her in her chest. Her hand grasped Owen’s vest while the other grasped her own, following his unsaid instructions even as she rubbed at her chest. As if that could make the pain go away. “W-what happened?” she croaked out.

“You had a panic attack, Anya,” Owen said softly, his hand drifting to the crook of her neck, thumb rubbing soothingly at the dip of her chest.

“I-it feels like I got kicked in the chest…is that normal?” she asked just as softly, leaning into his hand like a cat. His hand was scorching, cutting through what little fog remained as she continued to take shaky, deep breaths.

“Yeah. A lot of people feel the same way after having a panic attack. It’ll hurt for a while, but it’ll go away after your body has some time to relax,” Owen explained, getting a slow nod in response from Anya.

“Wh-what caused it?” Anya’s brows furrowed. She didn’t know of anything that could have caused it, but she had never had a panic attack before. She’s only seen it once when she was in college, and her friend, who suffered from anxiety, had one. She had been overwhelmed at the time, not feeling like she had any time to study while an ex-friend bitched about them missing out on another hangout. Anya remembered holding her close while she hyperventilated until she got her to take deep breaths.

She didn’t panic.

Not once has she panicked before.

So how could she have a panic attack? It didn’t make sense.

“Anything can cause a panic attack. I think this was caused by the thought of your niece dying. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, though, for having a panic attack, it can happen to anyone at any time,” he reassured, squeezing her shoulder gently once more while his other covered her hand still clutching his vest with trembling fingers.

“Y-yeah…of course,” Anya agreed. She felt frozen, terrified to turn around to the wreckage lest she have another panic attack, but needing to look at it, to try figuring out what happened.

“Hey, you don’t need to look over there. Let me, Anya,” Owen said, his hands moving to grasp her head, keeping her from looking behind her.

Her first instinct was to argue. To deny and say she had to, if not for her family, for herself. To prove she could look and not fall into the same spiraling panic. She opened her mouth to argue, but then she snapped it shut. Focusing on Owen’s words and nodding slowly. Grateful to have him at her side. No matter how much she wanted to try proving to herself she could push through the panic, somewhere inside her knew she couldn’t.

Couldn’t stand to look at the sight unless she had confirmation that Eliza was alive.

If she wasn’t….Anya wasn’t sure how she would go on. The guilt would crush her under its weight and drown her.

So instead of arguing, Anya nodded in agreement, taking in a shaky breath as she finally let Owen’s vest go. “Okay,” she whispered, focusing instead on the trees behind her Jeep.

Owen gave her one last reassuring smile and a squeeze to her shoulder before pushing himself to his feet and heading to the wreckage. She could hear him moving around, the clanging of metal and dull thuds as wood fell to the ground. The heat of the island felt both comforting and stifling to Anya, and she didn’t know what to do.

But instead, she focused on the chirping birds around them, using their birdsong to time her breathing.

“Hey,” Owen called out, kneeling in front of Anya, hand landing on the crook of her neck once more.

“W-what’s the verdict?” Anya asked, voice cracking partway through the question.

“They’re alive. There’s no evidence of their deaths,” Owen revealed, getting a relieved sob in response from Anya.

“Thank God. Thank God,” Anya whispered, gripping Owen’s arm with one hand while the other rubbed at her face roughly.

“C’mon. We need to get moving. That monster could show up at any moment, and we have kids to find,” Owen said, and Anya nodded slowly. With Owen’s assistance, Anya pushed herself up to her feet. Once she was upright, she wiped off the dirt from her knees and hands as best she could.

“Yes. Let’s get going,” she agreed, one hand coming up to rub at her chest before going to her Jeep. She barely let him get buckled in before she was throwing the Jeep into gear and peeling away from the wreckage.

“You sure you’re up to doing this?” Owen asked, concern clear in his voice. But Anya couldn’t really blame him. Not after he got to witness her having a panic attack. Though she should get some leeway since this is so wildly out of left field that no one could have imagined it happening. Like seriously.

What person is going to believe a hybrid dinosaur made of only carnivore DNA was going to be created and manage to trick the park manager into letting it escape to attack and kill everyone in sight before rampaging over the island?

She, for one, can confidently say she never thought of that. And she works there. While she knew bad things could happen, they were a hazard of the job. Every handler was warned about the dangers when they were interviewed to work with the carnivores. They knew the risks and knew how to bond with the animals to give them the best chances of not getting injured. But things happen because these are clones of ancient, magnificent beasts. More often than not, they are slaves to their instincts and do what they believe is right.

Which more often than not meant attacking anyone perceived as a threat to their territory and pack, or just themselves in the case of the T. Rex. But in the case of the Indominus, nothing is known.

Abso-fucking-lutely nothing.

She didn’t even know the damn monster could camouflage or regulate its temperature until then, when it killed a squad of ACU.

That monster was currently out on a rampage that they couldn’t even begin to think of how to stop with dozens already dead. The only thing they had going for them right then was that the island was being evacuated while Claire was under lock and key. A vindictive little part of her hopes that they lock Dr. Wu up as well, since he was the one to create this monster, along with several other creations.

Deadly creations.

She couldn’t help but tense up at the thought of the previous creations that Wu had made. But she shook it off. She couldn’t think about Wu and how much she’d love to have the man’s license and degrees revoked while having him blacklisted by every single company out there. Anya had to focus.

Her niece was out there right now, probably scared out of her mind with worry about what was happening with the other campers and one single camp counselor who no doubt had no clue what was going on either.

She hopes Roxie was also trying to find the campers as well.

“I am. If I don’t do this, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look them in the eyes again…I need to do this. For them…for me,” she admitted, glancing out of the corner of her eye to see Owen nodding along like he knew what that felt like.

And he probably did.

She had no doubt he felt the same during every mission he did with his former team and even now. To prove that he could, that his trauma didn’t define and stop him.

“Of course,” he agreed, and that was that.

They didn’t talk as they drove across the island. Instead, they simply focused on the road and the land around them while keeping an ear out to the radio that continuously squawked at them with updates and horrifying revelations. The last they heard, the Indominus was following the fence line around Gyrosphere Valley.

Which was unfortunately near where they were going.

She really hated Wu and Claire right then.

They just had to make a deadly monster hybrid to ‘appeal’ to the masses that love horror. It made her scoff. She was now in a horror film because of them, which she never wanted to be a part of. If she wanted to be in a horror film, she would have gone into acting…Though acting did have an appeal, she would never willingly choose horror.

She can’t stand horror.

How wonderful that her most hated boss forced her into another thing she never wanted. Woo.

The only silver lining she could think of at this moment was that this might be what forces Masrani’s hand into firing Dearing. She really hoped he would.

Seeing two kids darting in front of them, Anya could only yelp as she twisted the wheel while slamming on the brakes. The Jeep twisted dangerously on one side as they spun before coming to a stop. Anya could only stare in shock at the two while Owen blinked before opening the door with a furrowed brow. As he did that, she finally took in their clothing. “Oh my God,” she whispered.

“Zach? Gray?” Owen asked, watching as the older one, Zach, glanced warily between them and Gray.

“What’s it to you?” Zach demanded.

“Your…aunt…said you guys got lost,” Anya said, hesitating to call Dearing an aunt after everything.

“She did?” Zach asked.

“Yes. Though she didn’t care that we were also looking for other kids that are lost, nor could she tell us what you looked like,” Anya said, wincing when she said that, but it got a snort from Zach.

“Sounds like her,” he replied with a shake of his head.

“Does she talk to you guys often at all?” Owen couldn’t help asking as he directed the two boys to the backseat.

“No. This was supposed to be a family weekend where we got to see her again after so long. But you can see how that turned out. Our parents had to stay home to deal with lawyers, and our aunt couldn’t be bothered to be with us,” Zach said snidely.

“No one even knew she had family. I’m sorry you’re stuck with her…and for everything that’s happened to you two. I…I can only imagine what it’s like for you two,” Anya said, reaching out to grasp Gray’s shoulder. That seemed to be all that the boy needed as he launched himself into her and hugged her tight. “It’s okay. We got ya, we got ya,” she whispered soothingly, running a hand up and down his back.

“You said you were looking for others?” Zach asked hesitantly as he watched the scene in front of them.

“Yes. My own niece, actually. She and six other kids are a part of the soft opening of Camp Cretaceous and are currently missing. There’s…there’s a hybrid on the loose, and it’s already attacked a couple of places they would have been. Right now, we’re heading over to the Raptor Pen to have the Raptors track them down. Now, you don’t need to join us in the search. I can have Zara meet us there and take you back to Main Street for evacuation if you want,” she offered, watching as Gray shook his head immediately while Zach looked at her with a suspicious look.

“Why not Aunt Claire?” he asked, though his voice didn’t give much confidence in having Dearing pick them up.

“Ah…well…” Anya stuttered out, lips pressed thinly together while she helped Gray up into her Jeep, finally.

“Your aunt’s been unofficially arrested,” Owen said, deciding to rip the band-aid off.

“What?” Gray exclaimed.

“How?”

“Your aunt…she’s the reason it got out and is…causing all this trouble,” Anya said softly.

“What?” Gray whispered, his expression heartbroken at the thought of everything he’s seen so far. When she glanced across the seat to Zach, his expression was dark, a scowl decorating his lips at whatever he was thinking about.

“Of course she is,” Zach muttered angrily, and Anya could only stare helplessly, squeezing Gray’s shoulder before handing him the seatbelt and closing the door when she was sure nothing would get caught. “Would be just like her,” he muttered darkly as Anya slid into the driver’s seat, and Anya couldn’t help but wonder what he meant.

“What do you mean, Zach?” Owen asked when Anya started the Jeep again.

“She always puts other people first. Why would this be any different? I don’t know anything about this, but I know Aunt Claire is always about the numbers. It’s not that big of a jump to guess she’s at the heart of this,” he explained, getting reluctant nods from the two.

“C-could we stay with you guys?” Gray asked hesitantly.

“I…are you sure? This won’t be safe. We’re going to be looking for people who are no doubt going to be in the path of this thing. It’s not going to be safe,” Anya said, not wanting to hurt Gray’s feelings by telling the boy no. At that moment, it looked like Gray didn’t need to be told no, especially when he wanted to feel safe. She wanted to make sure the two felt safe, especially Gray, since he looked to be so traumatized by what happened.

“I feel safe with you,” Gray said, and Anya couldn’t keep the smile off her face if she wanted to. Not that she wanted to, it was rare that a kid would say that to her. The only ones she knew who said that were her nieces. But they were family, they had learned to trust and feel safe with each other. But it was entirely different when it came from a stranger.

“Oh, okay, but only if Zach agrees to that,” she said, glancing over at the teen in question. Zach stared at them before glancing at Gray. A myriad of emotions flashed across his face as he no doubt thought it out. Weighing the pros and cons of both options.

But then his face softened in apparent defeat as he stared at Gray’s pleading face. Anya couldn’t help but wonder what their relationship was like since Zara had told them about how the two didn’t seem to get along. Why didn’t they get along? And was the trauma from this enough to fix their relationship?

“Y-yeah. I’d feel better staying with you guys, too,” Zach said with a nod. Anya glanced over at Owen at that, and he just nodded in agreement. This was surely going to get interesting.

“Alright then. You guys will come with us, but you have to do everything we say, okay?” Anya said, looking at the two of them with a serious expression

“Yeah, yeah. Of course,” Zach agreed while Gray simply nodded agreement.

“We’re going to need a bigger vehicle,” Anya commented as she turned forward once more.

“There should be something at the pen we can use for all the kids,” Owen offered, getting a nod from Anya.

“Here’s to hoping,” she said.

Though that was all she was doing now. Hoping. Was hoping actually going to help her and protect her niece? Or was it going to let her down once more? If Anya was honest with herself…she doesn’t think she’d be able to live with herself if she were late again. It’d kill her if she were late and couldn’t save Eliza and the others.

Please keep Eliza and the others safe until I get to them, she prayed to a God she didn’t believe in.

🦖🦖🦖🦖

The Raptor pen was both busier and emptier than they would have thought. Workers were rushing around, shouting into radios while others got supplies ready. Barry was in that holding cage with the girls all lining the edges, waiting for their turn to get checked over and get a treat for behaving. Parking her Jeep to the side, they all got out, and Anya couldn’t help the sigh of relief that left her when she saw that Hoskins wasn’t around. Owen had a smirk on his lips when he heard her relief, but she knew he was just as relieved.

Hoskins was an absolute menace for them, and if he had been there, he definitely would have been pushing for them to use the girls to go after the Indominus. Which had the potential to make their already shitty situation even shittier, considering that monster was part Raptor as well. Anya didn’t want to learn any more surprises from that monster. If Hoskins had his way, they were just asking for more deadly surprises to happen.

The boys stuck to Anya’s side as she looked around the pen while Owen went into the cage to talk with Barry. “So, uh, what exactly is the plan here?” Zach asked, watching Owen and Barry intently as Owen walked to the inner cage and stuck a hand out, sucking in a breath harshly when a Raptor with a blue stripe on their sides went close, thinking the man was about to lose his hand, only to have the Raptor press into the hand with a chirp. His shoulders slumped down as he watched Owen pet the blue-stripped Raptor first before petting the rest.

“Them,” Anya replied, jerking her chin over to the Raptors while heading to one of the big SUVs lining the area. It looked to be like one of the ACU transports, however, there wasn’t a partition between the front and back, which Anya honestly preferred right then. When she finally got her niece back, she didn’t want to let the girl out of her sight until she was back in her dad’s arms, safe and sound. And beg to remain in their lives after unwittingly putting Eliza through a literal nightmare.

She really doesn’t want to be kicked out of their lives.

“W-what?” Zach gasped out.

“Really?” Gray leaned in close, practically bouncing in excitement at the thought.

“Yup. Owen trained them well. They’re great trackers, and I trust him and his girls to find my niece and those campers. They have a bond. There’s no beating that,” she said, watching as Zach looked warily between them and the Raptors that were still chirping and pushing themselves into Owen’s hands.

“I, uh, guess,” Zach agreed, seemingly finally seeing something that showed why Anya trusted Owen completely about the girls.

“Now, why don’t you guys get in, and I’ll see if they’re ready. Don’t worry, you guys will be inside the vehicle the whole time,” she promised. But Zach knew she was lying just a bit. There was no way to guarantee they would stay inside the whole time. Anything could happen that would force them outside with the Raptors and that monster. But Zach was willing to let it slide, he wanted to believe that they wouldn’t need to leave the safety of the vehicle at all until they were safely at the docks once more.

“Sounds good,” Zach agreed, but instead of heading into the SUV, they followed her to the cage and watched, shocked, as she entered it confidently. It was like it never even entered her mind to be wary of the Raptors around her.

And it didn’t.

As she strode over to the cage, it never crossed her mind to be wary of the girls. To her, she had nothing to worry about. Owen trained them from birth, and she trusted him and the bond he made with them. There was no doubt in her mind that she was safe.

Maybe that was irresponsible or idiotic.

But she didn’t care.

If there was one thing to take away from this whole fucked up mess, it was that she felt completely safe when Owen was around. Even in the middle of a panic attack, he still protected her, and that just cemented it. “Are we ready to go?” she asked, coming to a stop at his side next to the inner gate. Barry stared at her, shocked, but then glanced at Owen and gave himself a nod as if he had just figured something out. But she didn’t really think about what he was thinking as long as he didn’t push back against the Raptors helping them find Eliza and the others.

“Almost. Do we have a way to track them in case they split up?” Owen asked, turning his head to look at her even as he pulled the Raptor tooth necklace out.

“Yup. Their tracking chip. I can pull up the map on my tablet and we’ll be able to track them if they split up for whatever reason,” she assured, watching as Owen nodded.

“Sounds good. Go get it and wait in the car. I’ll be taking my motorcycle to be closer to them,” Owen explained, and Anya nodded.

“Makes sense. They’re probably used to you being close when they did those tracking games,” Anya agreed, earning a smile from Owen. Before Anya could turn, though, Owen grabbed her hand, squeezing it tight, somehow able to read that quiet anxiety still clinging to her shoulders about finding Eliza.

“We’ll find her. I won’t stop looking until we do, Anastasia. I promise.” Anya couldn’t say anything at first, just nodded her head while her tongue felt glued down. Her cheeks felt flushed while her throat felt tight with an emotion she didn’t know or want to name. For the second time that day, Owen had used her full name, something she hadn’t heard in years. But it felt right that he used it. Like these moments, required her full name to be used, as if her nickname would diminish the value of the moment. So instead, she squeezed his hand back, hoping he could feel all her gratitude for everything he’s done for her. Done that day, and since they had met.

He’s done so much that she was sure he didn’t even know. It was just who he is.

“I know,” she whispered, because that was all that needed to be said then. She knew he wouldn’t stop helping her look for her niece or the other campers. It just wasn’t in him to abandon someone like that. She knew, and she didn’t think she’d ever have the words to express it. “Thank you,” she murmured, glancing at the pen where Blue was pressed close, one eye gazing at her intently, like she could read her very soul if she stared at Anya long enough. When Blue saw that she had Anya’s gaze, she gave this soft, questioning chirrup. “Oh?” It surprised Anya, she had never heard Blue make that noise when she was around. Or more correctly, not since they were newly hatched and discovering everything. “May I?” Anya asked, glancing over at Owen, who nodded, curious as well, since he hadn’t seen Blue act this way in a long time.

They stepped closer to the gate together, their hands falling apart, but Owen placed a hand on Anya’s back, ready to pull her back if his girls, for some reason, saw her as a threat. At Owen’s nod when they came to a stop in front of Blue, Anya raised her hand and brought it close, letting Blue sniff and do whatever it was she wanted. They simply watched in silence as Blue sniffed Anya’s hand before pressing forward, nudging her hand like she had Owen’s, earning a soft, delight-filled gasp from Anya as she pet Blue’s snout. “Good girl,” Owen whispered, reaching out to pat Blue’s head.

“Such a lovely girl, aren’t you? You make Owen so proud. I just know we’ll find them,” Anya gushed softly, giving Blue one last scratch and getting a little chirp in response. “See you out there?” she asked.

“See you out there,” Owen agreed, watching Anya leave while feeling Blue nudge his hand. “What?” he asked, glancing down at Blue, who gazed at him. It was times like this that he wished he could understand his girls. All he got was another one of those warbling coos while she nudged her head to where Anya had gone. He just raised his brow at his beta, who then made a snort-like sound before trotting over to the others, chattering away. Hearing a throat clearing, Owen turned to see Barry standing next to him once more, a knowing smirk on his lips as his head tilted the way Anya had gone. “What?” he demanded, though his eyes were on Anya as she grabbed her tablet from her Jeep before heading toward the SUV with the kids. When he saw them heading that way, he gave his full attention to Barry, who didn’t look impressed whatsoever.

“Nothing,” but Barry sounded amused as he said that, so Owen had no doubt he wanted to say something about something.

“I highly doubt that,” Owen muttered, turning away from the man as he laughed while giving the whistle that had the girls trotting to their stalls. “Okay, girls, today we’re going out there and looking for a group of kids,” he began, moving towards Blue to let her sniff at the necklace. “This is the only thing we have to find them. I know it isn’t much, but I know you can do this, okay? We need to find them before that monster does,” he continued, moving to stand in front of Delta, then Echo, and finally Charlie. Letting each of them smell the necklace before stepping back and gazing at them, while he slipped the necklace back into his pocket. “Make me proud.”

With that, Owen made his way over to his motorcycle and revved the engine once. At his nod, Barry opened up the gates, and Owen took off after his girls. Without looking back, he knew Anya was right behind them while he settled with his girls surrounding him. Owen could admit he never liked putting anything into feelings, into the supposed ‘vibes’—he still isn’t sure what that is, despite Eliza explaining it when she came to the Raptor Pen—since it felt too unrealistic. Like a lie that was meant to give false hope that would come crashing down just seconds later. But in this moment, he believed in it. He had a good feeling.

They were going to find Eliza and the others.

He just knew it.

🦖🦖🦖🦖

“Anya…what was this car used for?” Zach asked, prompting Anya to glance at the mirror to see Zach before focusing once more on making sure they followed Owen through the jungle.

“Uh, I think it was another way to transport workers, most likely security and ACU. Why?” she asked, but then her eyes widened when he lifted one of the stun prods and a gun. Unfortunately, since she could only look quickly, she couldn’t make out if it was a tranq gun or live ammo. For some reason, the park had two versions of the tranq guns were one was obvious while the other was less noticeable. She really wanted to smack the person responsible for that. “Ah…I see,” she muttered, getting one of those smug grins that teens like wearing when they successfully caught someone off guard, from Zach. “I was a bit preoccupied to check if there were weapons lying around. But also, I would have thought they’d take everything,” she defended, getting a snort in response.

“Yeah,” was all Zach said, which resulted in pursed lips from Anya.

“Gimme those,” she said, reaching one hand back, managing to swipe the gun and pull it into the passenger seat before reaching back again. Though this time, Zach leaned back and kept the prod close to his body.

“Nuh huh. I’d feel better having some kind of deterrent with me should something happen,” Zach protested, getting a groan from Anya.

“Fine, but only because I don’t want to try fighting you while driving,” she conceded with a huff. When she glanced in the mirror, however, a small smile grew at seeing how pleased Zach was with himself, while Gray giggled. It felt nice to see the two laughing after everything. She just hoped that Eliza and the others could do the same. As they drove though, the area became familiar to her. She reached over and picked up her radio, grateful that they had changed channels so that their conversation wouldn’t be lost in the chaos. “Owen, are we heading toward the Field Genetics Lab?” she asked, watching Owen’s form as he appeared to look around before one hand rose to his own radio.

“Looks that way,” Owen agreed.

Going to the Field Genetics Lab.

Woo!

The birthplace of the monster. A place of pain and suffering with Wu as the mastermind—

“What’s that?” Zach asked, cutting into her rapidly spiraling thoughts.

“Oh. Uh, there are several Genetics Labs on the island, like the one in the John Hammond Innovations Center, where guests can look and see how everything is done. But then there are the ones out in the field, like this one. They do the same things, but each one caters to specific species. Such as creating, incubating, and adjusting the genetic codes if something goes wrong. This one in particular is for herbivores, such as, uh, ankylosauruses, I believe,” she explained, glancing at the mirror and watching Zach nod in understanding.

“Is there any reason why they would head there?” he asked, and even Gray looked curious about the answer.

“Well, my niece did tell me that the campers visited, but she didn’t get to see it with a couple others. Part of the behind-the-scenes access that the soft opening was providing. It could be they recognized the area while trying to get to safety and decided to head there in the hopes that someone would be there. It makes sense if they haven’t heard the evacuation plans, or have access to a car,” she reasoned with a nod, watching as Zach nodded along with the answer.

“I guess that makes sense,” he agreed.

But before anything else could be said, roaring filled the air, and Anya could only gasp as she recognized it. In the back, Zach and Gray flinched together, but then Zach was pulling his brother to him and holding him tight. Knowing that they couldn’t do anything, Anya drove the car into the forest, managing to squeeze between trees into a little grove that the Indominus wouldn’t notice right away, while Owen drove straight toward the roaring monster after it snapped down onto some scientist rushing out of an ACU van. Slipping out of the van, Anya picked up the gun—a stun gun she finally realized—and crept toward the trees carefully while Owen had the monster’s attention.

It chittered toward the Raptors, and Anya couldn’t help the horrified thought crossing her mind. Was there enough Raptor DNA to allow communication?

The Raptors seemed to reply, but none of them could tell what they were saying. But then Owen whistled, interrupting whatever was happening. “Eyes on me, girls. Eyes. On. Me,” he called out sternly, like a drill sergeant training unruly recruits. But it seemed to have done the job as his girls all looked at him before looking back at the monster, growling while closing ranks around Owen, while he aimed the gun he grabbed from the pen toward the monster.

Seeing the success had Anya gasping for a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. Her shoulders fell just minutely before she, too, was raising up her tranq gun toward the monster as it roared defiantly.

With a single, stucco-patterned whistle, the girls rushed toward the monster, jaws wide open as they attacked. Blue herself jumped onto the monster’s back, snapping and clawing while it tried clawing back at her. All the while, Owen shot whenever he had an opening, sidestepping out of reach when it tried grabbing for him. But somehow, it wasn’t going down. Every new bullet and scratch did nothing to slow her down, and Anya wondered if there was truly anything on the island that could.

The beast seemed invincible as it let out a viscous roar that seemed to shake the trees around them. Then, with astonishing speed, it snapped its jaws and picked Owen up by his leg when he tried rolling out of the way. “Owen!” she cried out, rushing forward, while Owen yelled out, eyes squeezed shut, while his girls all roared in response.

As they renewed their attacks on the monster, Anya began shooting away as well. Only a couple of darts actually managed to prick into the skin, while the others seemingly bounced off. But before any significant amount of the serum could enter the monster, she was knocking them loose. All the while, Owen swung from the monster’s bloody maw, his face twisted in pain even as he readjusted his grip on his gun.

Three bangs filled the air, and the monster roared in pain, tossing Owen to the ground before turning around and rushing off, the girls letting out roars and a few more scratches before surrounding Owen protectively while he groaned in pain. “Owen!” Anya yelled out, shouldering her tranq gun while rushing toward them. “Owen, no. No, no, nononono,” she whispered, horrified, hands hovering over the mess of his lower leg. It was bleeding steadily, and at this moment, she wasn’t sure how to help. She knew basic first aid, how to keep someone alive until they could get to a doctor. But she was never taught how to deal with wounds as serious as this. She hesitantly touched his knee while her other hand reached up to push his hair back.

“Aunt Anya!” Eliza’s voice shouted, and Anya couldn’t help the relieved sob that left her. Her niece, scratched up and dirty, alive. Her skirt had tears, while her hair was tangled and covered in leaves, and dirt streaked her body. A trickle of blood came from her hairline, but other than that, it seemed to be mostly scraps that were dotted with dried blood. When Eliza crashed into her, Anya held tight, cooing softly as her niece sobbed in relief, but instead of relief, she just felt crippling guilt.

How could she be relieved about her niece when Owen was barely conscious next to them with a mangled leg? How could she focus on Owen when Eliza needed comfort?

How could she give either of them the attention they needed without neglecting the other?

She couldn’t.

And she felt horrible.

But hopefully, Eliza would understand.

“Eliza, step back. Owen needs me right now,” Anya said regretfully, gently pushing her niece back. Eliza resisted for a moment, but then she seemed to see Owen and pulled back with a gasp, eyes wide and paling rapidly. “Dave, how much first aid do you know?” she asked, barely watching as the kids gathered together, hugging each other while Blue and the other Raptors chirped to each other before nudging the kids. Blue in particular was nudging who she assumed was Darius, earning wide-eyed awe as he gently patted her head.

At least they seemed to be taking the Raptors well.

“A little? Not, uh, not anything about this,” Dave said, kneeling down on Owen’s other side.

“Okay, yeah. F-fair enough,” Anya replied with a nod. “Water. We-we need to wash it out,” she started, glancing up at Eliza, who nodded rapidly, pulling out her water bottle for Anya. While Eliza uncapped the bottle, Anya reached down to tear the shredded pant leg so they had better access, but as she did so, it jostled Owen, getting a gasped-out groan in response. “Sorry,” she murmured, pressing her hand against his arm briefly. “This will hurt,” she warned, grabbing the bottle from Eliza and pouring it over his leg.

From how Owen was tensing while Dave held him down, she knew it was causing a lot of pain. But it was necessary. What limited knowledge she had had talked about flushing out the wound to get rid of anything that could cause infection. She was sure it also mentioned stopping the bleeding, but she wasn’t sure if that was possible in this case.

“I can help.”

Anya couldn’t help but flinch at the unexpected voice. She was just lucky that she had finished cleaning the wound. “What?” she asked, looking up to see which camper would have spoken up.

“I can help. I’ve taken several first aid courses,” Brooklynn said, stepping forward, looking equally tousled up as Eliza.

“They covered something like this?” Anya asked in disbelief, a look shared by Dave.

“Well, not this exact thing. But similar. My sponsors had special First Aid classes for when I went to South Africa for their national park that involved maiming from animals, and then a different one for farm to factory, everything that could go wrong,” Brooklynn explained.

“I hate asking, but yes. Can you?” Anya asked, watching as Brooklynn nodded before kneeling beside Anya.

“We are a bit limited, but we need to pack the wounds and then, depending on how much blood he loses, we may need to apply a tourniquet,” she explained, getting a nod from Anya.

“Dave, take whoever with you and search for a first aid kit and grab as much gauze as you can carry,” Anya instructed, watching as Zach made his way over hesitantly with Gray staying behind his back.

Dave noticed them for the first time and nodded, immediately pulling Gray with him while Zach stayed staring in shock. Several others followed while Eliza and Darius stayed next to Blue, who continuously pressed her snout into their hands. But even as Eliza drew comfort from the Raptors, she pulled out a roll of compression bandages from her bag, which Anya remembered her mentioning once, and handed them over.

“Thank you, Ellie,” she whispered, setting it down next to her while Brooklynn pressed a jacket down onto Owen’s leg. Anya couldn’t help but do a double-take since she didn’t even know where she found it, but decided not to question it for the time being. They had more important things to do than question where supplies came from. Every time Anya looked up at Owen’s face while they worked, he was staring at her with pained-filled eyes, jaw clenched so tight that Anya was sure if he had bitten his lip, he would have drawn blood by then.

Instead, all that came out were hisses and grunts while his hands curled into fists at his side. When the others returned with gauze, Brooklynn and Anya worked together to pack the wounds as best they could. But blood just kept coming through, and they soon ran out of gauze. With a grim look, Anya glanced between Brooklynn and Owen as she wrapped the compression bandage as tightly as she could, watching in morbid fascination as blood immediately began dotting through.

“He’s bleeding too much. We-” Brooklynn said, gagging slightly at how strong the smell of iron was. “I think we need to put a tourniquet on his leg,” she finished finally, and Anya went pale at the thought.

“No, no, surely we don’t need to take that drastic measure,” Anya pleaded, looking down at Owen, tears sliding down her cheeks. “We-we just need to find more gauze-!” she continued, moving to stand up, but Owen grabbed her hand, tugging gently to keep her from moving. “Owen.”

“Anya,” Owen croaked out, mouth dry at the realization. “Anya, you have to put it on,” Owen agreed, nodding even while Anya shook her head.

“No, it’s dangerous. Wh-what if we put it on wrong? Or what if it takes too long to get you to someone who can help?” she begged, trying to get him to change his mind, even as he shook his head once more.

“I trust you. This is a risk we need to take, Anastasia. Even if things go wrong, I know you. You will do everything you can. C’mon, take a deep breath,” he said, squeezing her hand when she took a deep breath. “That’s it. I know this is terrifying, but we need to do it. Okay?”

“Okay,” she croaked out with a nod, squeezing his hand while he brought it to his lips, pressing a brief kiss to her knuckles. She took another deep breath, her eyes slipping shut while she squared her shoulders before letting it out. “Okay,” she repeated steadier. “Get something he can bite down on. Owen….your belt is leather, yeah?” she asked, watching as understanding grew on his face as he nodded.

“Yeah,” he answered, watching as a grim expression grew on Anya’s face as she nodded and began undoing it. When she lightly tapped his thigh, he got the message and keened while lifting his hips so that she could pull his belt off. Once it was free, Owen slumped down, panting harshly while watching her fold one end of the belt before pushing it through the buckle and making it flush with the outer part. “You can do this,” he said before taking the offered notepad into his mouth and biting down on it.

“This is going to hurt…a lot,” Anya warned as she had Dave lift Owen’s leg so she could slide on their make-shift tourniquet. Owen couldn’t help but shout, his teeth digging into the covers of the notepad. Hearing his pain, Anya couldn’t help but flinch even as she continued sliding it up his leg before pausing, unsure where it would be placed.

“It needs to be a few inches above the highest wound. But since his leg is pretty mangled, put it a couple of inches above his knee,” Brooklynn instructed, getting a nod from Anya as she moved to do so. Once it was in place, she took a deep breath and glanced at Owen, who nodded reassuringly. A tight, worried smile grew on her lips, but she focused on the belt in front of her and began cranking it tight.

As it got tighter, Owen tensed up, groaning into the notepad before letting out a muffled scream. Blue’s head swiveled to stare at them with her sisters, rumbling screeches leaving them, but then Eliza and Darius were whispering to them to keep them back as though the Raptors would be able to understand what Anya was doing. Anya had to bite her lip to keep from apologizing while her hands shook. But she stopped eventually and glanced at Dave. “Check if the wounds are still bleeding,” she said, voice shaking as she stared at Owen.

Sweet, brave Owen, who was pale and sweating profusely. His eyes were shut as he panted against the notepad, which was no doubt molded to his teeth. When Dave carefully pried the edge of the bandage up, Owen’s jaw tensed, his teeth gnashing together once more as a deep groan rumbled out of him.

“No, it looks like you got it tight enough,” he replied, and Anya nodded before picking up Owen’s hand, squeezing it reassuringly while looking at the time on his watch.

“Eliza, note down the time. 1:48 pm,” Anya called out, watching as Eliza pulled out her phone and made sure they knew the time.

“Uh, why do we need to note the time?” a tall, Asian boy wearing a blue shirt asked, one brow raised in what appeared to be judgment.

“Because the doctors need to know how long the person has been wearing it,” Brooklynn answered while Anya focused on Owen.

“We’re going to get you to a hospital, and they’re going to take great care of you. Okay, Owen?” Anya murmured, watching with a small smile as Owen spat the notebook out to nod. A tired smile was painted on his lips as he weakly returned the squeeze. “I won’t let anything else happen to you,” she promised, pressing a kiss to the back of his knuckles in return. Blue chirped inquisitively as she crept over, nudging Owen with her snout and earning a groan while his free hand raised to pat her snout.

“It’s okay, girl. They’re taking care of me,” he promised, letting her nuzzle into his hand a bit more before it fell down.

“We need to get you in the van,” Anya said, shifting her grip on his arm while Dave got his other.

“This will be fun,” he grumbled, hissing as they pulled him up before taking most of his weight while they hobbled toward the car with the kids close to them, while the Raptors took the lead at Owen’s broken whistle.

By the time they reached the car, Owen was paler, sweating profusely, and panting, his weight being put on them more and more. But thankfully, they were soon at the car with the trunk opening up. Sitting Owen down on the edge of the trunk, Dave and Eliza climbed in before Anya could say anything. Before they could move to help Owen, however, she cupped his jaw, running her thumbs along his cheeks before leaning forward and pressing their foreheads together. Owen raised a hand to cup the back of her head and tipped her head forward enough to press their lips together.

The kiss was gentle, but everything to Anya. She couldn’t help but sigh as they pulled apart, a fond smile on her lips while he looked proud of himself. But she could tell how much pain he was in. She pressed another chaste kiss to Owen’s lips before nodding to the two. Together, Dave and Eliza helped Owen backward before elevating his leg with Eliza’s bag and a couple of jackets on top.

When Anya glanced back toward where she could see Owen’s motorcycle, Eliza was already nodding with a grin. After securing Owen, Eliza climbed into the driver’s seat with Zach claiming the passenger seat while the rest climbed in back with Brooklynn sitting beside Dave to watch over Owen.

“Go on, Aunt Anya,” Eliza said, nodding toward the motorcycle.

Anya chuckled, but nodded in agreement. Before heading to the motorcycle, though, she reached through the door to grab her radio, making sure someone had Owen’s before making her way over. “Control, I’ve found all the kids. Alert Dearing and Zara, I’ve found the boys. Now, get a medivac ready, Owen has sustained life-threatening injuries after an encounter with the Incominus,” she reported, picking up Owen’s gun and slinging it across her back before picking up the motorcycle and swinging her leg over the top.

“Copy, Anya. Letting Dearing and Zara know,” Lowery called out.

“Thank you, Lowery.”

“Anya, with your added report, we’re confident that the Indominus is heading toward Main Street,” Vivian called out.

“Has everyone been evacuated?” she asked.

“We’re working on it. Only a few more groups are waiting to head toward the docks, but we’re moving them now,” Lowery said.

“What about this…Indominus? Are we going to be heading straight for it?” Dave asked, and Anya was terrified of the answer.

She was sure she knew what the answer was, and that scared her. It scared her that, yes, they were heading toward that monster. The monster that already proved itself dangerous by mauling Owen and killing so many others. The only silver lining they had was that all the guests were soon going to be out of danger. At least they were safe from this thing.

And if Anya had anything to say about it, soon Owen, Eliza, and the others would be out of danger, too.

As soon as they somehow managed to get past the Indominus, that is. But the control compound would make the most sense for where the medivac could land safely.

“Potentially. We don’t know the exact route it’s going,” Vivian replied.

“Do you know where that medivac will be going?” Anya asked instead, focusing on where they had to go to get Owen to a doctor.

“They’re going to land near the South Dock,” Lowery said, getting an instinctual nod from Anya.

“Got it. Update us with news about the Indominus. I’ll keep you updated on our progress, and hopefully together we can avoid it,” Anya said, rolling her neck before kicking the motorcycle into gear.

“On it!” Lowery called out over the roar of the motorcycle.

“Good, departing from the Ankylosaurs’ Field Genetics Lab!” Anya reported before letting out a whistle that Owen had let out before. Immediately, the Raptors let out chirps as they got into position around the motorcycle. Once she saw the car pulling out of the forest, she took off.

“She knows how to ride motorcycles?” Zach asked, watching as Anya confidently and comfortably rode the motorcycle surrounded by Raptors.

“She can?” Owen mumbled, tilting his head to look toward the front seat, however, by this time, Owen’s eyes were foggy from pain and blood loss.

“Yeah! She showed us one time when we were at Bass Lake. Something about an old boyfriend teaching her? Though it’s been so long, I wasn’t sure if she would remember how,” Eliza revealed with a laugh. “I didn’t know you were seeing my Aunt. That’s so cool!” she crowed.

“That’s my girl. Just…just got together,” Owen murmured, earning a snort from Dave.

“What a time to get together,” Dave replied, moving with Brooklynn to make sure his leg was looking all right.

“Yeah…caught my eye ages ‘go,” Owen muttered, struggling to keep his eyes open then.

“Ah, my aunt said you two had a thing,” Zach said monotone, though disappointment colored his words. “Another thing she lied about.”

“Maybe, or maybe they had gone out once or twice, and Owen cut it off,” Eliza offered reassuringly, glancing over at Zach before focusing on her aunt once more.

“Maybe, but who cares. We aren’t close anyway. Your aunt is so cool. I wish our aunt was like that,” Zach said with a shrug, but he focused on Anya speeding ahead, weaving between the Raptors as they peeked around the area as they went.

“Yeah…I got pretty lucky in the aunt department. It sucks that Dearing is your aunt. I’ve heard Aunt Anya and my dad bitching—"

“Hey! Language!” Dave shouted, earning a soft snort from Owen while the teens giggled.

“—about her a lot through the years,” Eliza finished, seemingly ignoring Dave’s interruption, but the smile on her lips showed she heard it.

“Not surprising. My own parents complained sometimes as well when Claire ignored their calls and messages. I honestly don’t see why they bothered to send us here. It’s obvious what my aunt chose, and it wasn’t family,” Zach said bitterly, arms crossed as he glared out at the surrounding forest.

“I get that. Maybe they had hoped that with everything that had happened, your aunt would change her tune. But it seems not. Sometimes, people foolishly hope for someone to change, only to have their hearts broken by the truth. Some people…they just don’t want to change. And that’s the unfortunate truth,” Eliza said with a shrug.

“Talking from experience?” Zach asked.

“Thankfully, no,” Eliza replied with a shake of her head. “But my friend…she had. Her mom left young for better things since her dad was just a lowly line cook. But then he became a chef and got a job at this well-known restaurant. She flaunted back into his life, and he tried to get her to be with their daughter, and…and she said, ‘What daughter?’ to his face. What’s worse, my friend was there. She was going to surprise her mom after her dad had told her she had come back. Resulted in an epic meltdown in the middle of the restaurant, where it came out that she thought he’d have gotten rid of her, and how she only wanted him now that he had money. Devastated both of them. They thought she had changed her mind about them, but nope. She stayed that same greedy woman looking for her next cash out,” she explained slowly, losing herself in the memory.

“That sucks…can’t believe our aunt is acting similarly. It’s going to devastate mom,” Zach said, earning a nod from Eliza.

“It probably will. But now you guys will know, and hopefully you guys will be able to work through it and move forward. Probably while also cutting her out of your guys’ lives fully,” she offered, getting nods from the rest of the group.

“Passing Camp Cretaceous now,” Anya reported over the radio.

“Copy! Indominus was reported to be passing the veterinary clinic,” Lowery called out, earning sighs from everyone.

“Medivac has launched. ETA 2 hours,” Vivian added before clicking off to another channel.

“Copy, Control,” Anya said, visibly nodding while revving the motorcycle, getting a rumble in response from Blue.

Eliza could admit she had been wary of the Raptors, after everything they’ve been through, she didn’t think anyone would blame her. The day had been a shit show since Brooklynn stormed into the main area of camp, telling them her phone was missing. From there, it was a rapid descent into madness as they ran from danger around every corner. When she had first run to her aunt, she hadn’t even noticed them.

But then her aunt had pushed her back because Owen was hurt, and she finally noticed them. And even with Darius at her side, she was wary. But then Blue was nuzzling into Darius’s hands, and when she held out her own, the other Raptors followed suit, and something eased in her. The knot that had been growing in her chest had loosened, watching them be gentle with Darius and the apparent worry when Blue pressed close to Owen while her aunt kneeled next to him.

A part of her had worried that they were going to watch a blood bath. But then, as usual, it seemed, the Raptors proved them wrong. She was grateful, though it seemed maybe to be exclusive to them.

The Raptors seemed to know what her aunt smelled like, and she must smell similar, probably since she had once hugged her aunt soon after she had put on perfume, and the scent rubbed onto her shirt. Darius, obviously, smelled like the necklace they found. But they hadn’t truly let the others near them, instead, they gave looks, as a soft, rumbling chirrup left them when someone tried doing something they didn’t approve of.

It was an amazing yet terrifying experience.

And her aunt was in the middle of it with a determined expression. The way Anya put her trust in Owen and his training of the Raptors was inspiring.

Yet a small part of Eliza wondered if it was foolishly placed there despite the evidence showing it was well placed. Clearly, Anya had seen and learned something they didn’t which let her put her utmost trust and confidence into Owen and the Raptors. To be able to ride between them without worrying about them snapping at her.

Or perhaps she learned that to do so, you needed to show the raptors trust and confidence in them to be able to do what she’s doing.

“Your aunt’s awesome,” Zach said, earning another smile from Eliza.

"She is…isn’t she?” Eliza asked. “But hey, I’m willing to share my aunt, and I think she’s willing as well. Family isn’t just blood. It’s the people you choose to surround yourself with. And well, seems like you need more people there,” Eliza offered, earning a snort from Zach.

"Mom would probably appreciate it. Family that actually gives a crap, unlike Claire,” Zach scoffed out.

"Does Aunt Claire really not give a crap about us?” Gray asked suddenly, cutting through any soft conversations happening. It had them freezing, uncertain of how they were supposed to respond to such a question. It was a little kid who had just gone through something terrifying, already hearing people badmouth his family, including his own brother.

There was this instinct to lie.

To say ‘no, she loves you!’

But they would all know it was a lie. Nothing but words in the air with no proof backing them up. It would get lost in the breeze flying past them. But also…it would only hurt in the long run.
It may help in the immediate moment, but when the truth comes out, it will be devastating. But there was no hiding the open disdain his brother held for Claire in that moment.

"I-Gray—" Zach began, stuttering, unsure how to answer.

"Gray is it?” Dave interrupted, thankfully, earning a cautious look from Zach while Gray nodded slowly. “I don’t know your aunt personally, but I don’t think anyone here has the answer you’re looking for, kiddo. These are…insane circumstances that push people to their limits. We can’t ever know what or how your aunt thinks and feels. Instead, you should try asking your aunt personally the next time you see her or even your mom. They’re the only ones who can answer that,” Dave said, giving him a reassuring smile while reaching out to pat his shoulder.

“Okay,” Gray whispered, giving a small nod. “When are we going to see Aunt Claire?”

“Uh, Anya might know that. Owen’s a bit out of it,” Dave replied, glancing down at Owen, who just groaned, some mumbling of words lost in the sound. He looked pale, and when they glanced at the bandage, the dots of blood had grown. It worried him, but he and Brooklynn were doing what they could to help.

Assessing by the camp remains, Anya couldn’t help but look. Look at the destruction left behind by a monster that seemed to just want to kill everything in its path. She was just grateful her niece and the others were all alive and safe. But her face hardened as she listened to another squawk of the radio about where the Indominus was.

Seems like she was getting close to Main Street. And therefore, closer to the Dock were the last remaining evacuations were happening.

That didn’t bode well for them at all.

Unless Anya took charge to distract the monster while they passed. Perhaps she could get help from whatever ACU members were nearby.

🦖🦖🦖🦖

Reaching the fork in the road—one road led to Main Street, while the other led to the South Gate and beyond, to South Dock—Anya pulled to a stop. The girls stalked around, their inquisitive chirps leaving Blue as she seemed to try to figure out why they had stopped, while the others investigated the area. Eliza carefully pulled up next to her and stared, confusion clear on her face. “Aunt Anya. Why did we stop?” Eliza asked, and Anya watched as Zach leaned forward to stare intently as well. If Anya leaned just so, she could just make out another camper or two sharing confused looks.
“We’re going to split up,” Anya said, barely making out a gasp and shouting from the car.

“What? Why?!” Eliza demanded, turning in her seat to face Anya.

“Because. That monster is not just going to stop at Main Street, Eliza. When it realizes there is no one there, it’s going to go out once more and find something to fight or kill. I cannot risk you or Owen, or the other kids in that car being attacked. I don’t like this any more than you, but I have to do this. I know a couple of commands that Owen taught the girls, but I also know Main Street. I’ll have the ACU with me, and we can plan the best way to hopefully take down this monster without anyone else getting killed. We—I need to buy time for the medivac to get here and for the last boats to get everyone. If I have the chance to keep anyone else from getting killed, I have to do it,” Anya explained, reaching out to take Eliza’s hand and squeeze it reassuringly.

“But…do you have to go alone?” she asked softly, fear clear in her eyes.

“I’ll have the people in the control room helping along with ACU. I won’t be alone for long, promise. Besides, who else can I trust to take care of Owen until he gets to the medical personnel on that medivac?” Anya replied easily, earning a watery laugh from Eliza.

“Okay. Just…just promise me you’ll be safe,” Eliza begged, and Anya thought that her heart was going to break at how terrified Eliza looked in that moment. As if the thought alone of her getting hurt or killed would destroy her.

“I…promise to do my best,” Anya said, knowing she couldn’t promise she’d be safe. It was an impossible task.

“No, that’s not good enough, Aunt Anya,” Eliza retorted, shaking her head even though she knew it was all Anya could give.

“Ellie,” Anya whispered.

“No.”

“Eliza, you know Anya can’t promise that,” Zach said finally, reaching out to grasp her wrist. Eliza’s lips pressed together at that, her head moving from the force of her swallowing while her lips trembled. She didn’t say anything, just shook her head while Zach continued staring at her, while Anya waited patiently.

“Ellie,” Anya whispered, watching as Eliza’s face fell at that, knowing what she wasn’t saying. Tears gathered in Eliza’s eyes, and Anya felt the familiar pressure of tears as well. She wished she could promise that she would be safe. That they’d get out of it alive.

But she couldn’t.

She has to put herself in danger to protect them and give the evacuation the time it needs to be completed. Because if she didn’t, too many people would be maimed and killed by this beast. That was something Anya couldn’t let happen. Not on her watch. Not in her hands.

She wouldn’t have the blood of innocents on her hands.

Since that monster appeared, she had done everything she could to protect the staff from her. Anya liked to think she had done a great job, all things considered. But because of one arrogant, prideful woman, so many had died. The park had blood on its hands. Dearing had blood on her hands because of one, idiotic, response. It shouldn’t be on her to fix it, but it was. She knew she had to right what went wrong.

To protect and save everyone.

If she was lucky, they’d take out the Indominus along the way.

“I don’t want you to go,” Eliza admitted softly, and Anya could only sigh softly at that.

“I know. But I have to. And I need you guys to take care of each other and protect Owen until you get to the Dock. That medivac will get here in an hour. Can you do that for me, Ellie?” Anya asked, gaze flickering down to Eliza’s hands that wiped away her tears as she began nodding.

“Yes, Aunt Anya. I promise, we’ll take care of each other and get Owen to that medivac,” Eliza promised.

“Thank you, Ellie. I promise to do my best to stay safe and come back to you, okay?” Anya replied with a smile, getting a weak one from Eliza.

“Okay,” was her watery response. Sending one last smile at Eliza, Anya turned toward the road leading to Main Street before revving the machine and taking off. Barely able to make out the car engine going as it turned down the other road.

“Control, call for ACU volunteers to meet me at Main Street with live ammunition. I need help distracting and hopefully taking down the Indominus so that the kids can get to the South Dock,” Anya called out when she grabbed her radio as she rode down the road. Blue let out one of her rumbling growls, no doubt responding to the monster’s name. Her sisters responded in kind, and that filled Anya with hope.

“Copy. Sending the volunteers your way. Where should they meet you?” Lowery asked.

“Send them to the Ocean’s Edge Hotel on the Lagoon’s south side,” she ordered, dropping the radio as confirmations were squawked.

“Sending them the location now!” Lowery confirmed, and the radio was silent save for random updates from staff about evacuations, movements, and the Indominus.

From what she heard, it sounded like they were correct.

The Indominus was heading toward Main Street.

And if it didn’t find what it was hoping for, Anya had no doubt it would continue toward the South Dock. But they weren’t going to let it get there.

Not if they had any say in it.

No matter what, it was going to end on Main Street.

One way or another.

Anya knew it would break Eliza’s heart, but if it meant ending the Indominus, Anya would gladly hand over her life to stop it from claiming another life.

Once she got to Main Street, Anya slowed down, careful not to stop even as she looked around for any sign of the monster. The sun was hovering at the tree tops, just beginning to slip under them and toward the building roofs. So far, the only signs of life were from the people as they left things around. Chairs pushed back and toppled half-hazardously across the ground in their haste to leave. Toys and personal effects were left just as they were placed or on the ground, several covered in footprints. It was a grim sight to see food and items left abandoned where they had been placed.

Their owners eager to leave quickly rather than make sure they had everything.

Anya hoped whoever’s kids were missing their stuffed animals weren’t too devastated by their loss. As she drove around the lagoon, a brachiosaurus balloon flew across the road, paper feet dragging behind it at the mercy of the breeze. Seeing it go by filled her with dread, a shiver going down her spine that had her grip tightening on the bike’s handles. Anya shook it off, though, and continued forward toward the hotel in question.

There wasn’t any time to worry and dread what was about to go down. No, she needed to focus on what was happening right then. Worry and dread did nothing but cause problems. Once the monster was gone and they were safe, then, and only then, would Anya allow herself the space to break down over everything that had happened. To address her panic attack and why it happened, and about her feelings throughout the whole ordeal. To figure out how to move forward.

The only thing she knew for certain was that she wasn’t ever going to trust Dearing again, and she was certain no one in the company would either. This whole mess was a death knell for Dearing and her career. That was probably the only good thing to come from it, but even then, it wasn’t that silver.

No, it was drenched in blood.

Like so many other things.

God, she was a fool. How could she have trusted them? She should have realized after what happened with that other hybrid that she couldn’t trust them. But she had foolishly thought it was a one-time event. Thought that surely after that, everyone would be smarter, that ACU would be better. But they weren’t.

Masrani let Wu do what he wanted.

They didn’t stop the hybrid program even after she reported so many problems.

Now this.

A hybrid so dangerous that they had to evacuate the island to protect everyone before anything else got out.

She hopes they’re able to take it down.

Arriving outside the Ocean’s Edge Hotel, Anya killed the engine and whistled. The Raptors stilled, staring at her for a long moment before chirping. Hearing those chirps eased some growing tension in her shoulders. While they had been listening to her thus far, she had worried. She wasn’t Owen, the man who raised them from hatching. She was just a woman who had been around occasionally, getting acquainted with them when they had time. Hell, they’ve never trained together.

That first whistle next to the Field Genetics Lab was a hope and a prayer. And they did listen. Holy shit, they listened. They followed the command whistle Owen taught them beautifully for her. The few times that Barry had tried using the same commands, they had only responded half the time. She didn’t understand why they were listening to her at the moment, but she wondered if perhaps it had to do with them watching her take care of Owen. She shook the thought away. There was no telling why they were listening to her, and honestly, it seemed doubtful she would learn why they were. Wondering about it took her focus away from the more important stuff.

Namely…

Meeting up with the volunteer ACU members and figuring out how to take down the Indominus.

Blue butted her head against Anya, and she began scratching Blue’s snout before she thought about it. There was something comforting about scratching the cool scaly skin. Though perhaps that could be said about scratching any animal.

When the first volunteers arrived, many were startled at the sight of the Raptors, but others looked at them—and her to a lesser extent—with awe. She simply nodded to them, not wanting to get too far into planning before all the volunteers arrived. She knew that sometimes, ideas could come from unexpected places, but more importantly, it was better to have everyone in from the beginning in planning. Bad things happen when someone goes against the plan because they felt they could do better, but had missed the planning.

That wasn’t something they could risk.

She wouldn’t have blood on her hands like Claire.

While they were all at risk of dying trying to distract the Indominus, it was going to work because they were clearheaded and following a plan. Not because they felt slighted and that their plan was better. Or because they didn’t know what was going on. She was going to make sure everyone knew what was happening.

“Miss Sobeck, are you sure you want to be here?” one volunteer—she’s pretty sure he introduced himself as Jake—asked as the last volunteers staggered in. Blue rumbled threateningly, and Anya ran a hand down her snout. Anya understood where the man was coming from. This was going to be dangerous. Something that they themselves were going to struggle with. So why would she want to be there?

“Yes. At this moment, I’m the only one the Raptors listen to…I also just refuse to let you guys do this on your own. I won’t be able to look at myself if I didn’t try to help,” Anya said, looking between every ACU member and seeing them nod back, respect and pride visible.

“What’s the plan?” Sergeant Filip asked, head tilted as he observed Anya and the Raptors after glancing over the assembled group.

“Do you have any snipers?” Anya asked, watching as his brows shot up to his hairline in surprise before nodding.

“Yeah. Several here can shoot a sniper rifle,” he answered, and Anya nodded as she began pacing, one arm folded while her other rested on it with her hand loosely curled up, while a finger tapped against her chin in thought.

“What if we have them lined up on the roof of this hotel, shooting at the monster? I can set up on a roof on Main Street so I can give out commands to the Raptors while using Owen’s gun. What would you suggest for the rest of the men? I don’t want you in any unnecessary danger. This won’t be easy, the possibility of death is…high, but I want to try getting you home,” she said, staring intently at Filip, who began nodding.

“Well, Gabriel and Rodolf are good with ropes. They can set out ropes to be pulled to knock down the Indominus that the Raptors can lead it to. Eddie and Rumi are the fastest and can run the ropes as directed. Diego and Brianna are the strongest, they can pull the ropes tighter than anyone. They can choose who will support them. The rest, well, if we have the time, they can gather everything to lead the Indominus toward the Lagoon while making sure none of the offshoot alleys are enticing. Then, once we begin attacking the Indominus, they can get to safe positions and assist where needed. How does that sound?” he asked, and Anya didn’t respond at first.

Instead, she thought about it for a bit before nodding in agreement. “Sounds like a plan,” she said with a smile.

“Snipers, head up to the hotel’s roof,” he ordered, getting nods from the snipers who rushed into the hotel after grabbing their gear. Pulling up a map, Jake zoomed in on Main Street, looking intently at the map of buildings. “Do we know where that monster is coming from?”

“We can find out,” Anya said, picking up her radio. “Lowery, do you copy?”

“Copy. What’s up?” Lowery asked.
“Where is the Indominus at this moment?” Anya asked, looking over at Jake.

“Looks to be coming toward the Northern Gate,” Lowery replied, and Jake nodded understanding.

“Thank you, Lowery,” Anya replied before sliding the radio back where it rested.

“Okay, if it’s coming from here, then we have all of Main Street to use,” Jake said, making a mark on the map for where the Indominus was supposedly coming toward. “I think we should try using the Mosasaurus viewing to our advantage. Gabriel, Rodolf, set up ropes to trip it towards the Lagoon. Take Diego and Brianna to help get them tied. Eddie and Rumi, get a squad and make sure that monster goes where we want it to be. Now, those of you who are good shots and willing, you’ll be coming with Anya and I to Main Street to set up on key buildings to shoot at this thing. Got it?” he called out, watching as the group nodded, with the people named stepping forward to chat with each other.

Soon enough, the group split up, with several stepping toward Jake and Anya while the rest split up among the others. Heading to Main Street, Anya watched as the groups veered off toward their destinations. She could admit she was curious how they were going to do their parts, but she could learn after what they did.

After.

Yeah.

Maybe.

Maybe if everything went according to plan. He hoped everything went according to plan. She didn’t want to worry about this monster being out and causing terror any longer. But also, she didn’t want anyone else to die. Even though it was more than likely, she hoped none of the men and women with her would die at the Indominus’s hand.

Or…well…

Maw.

Blue chirping drew Anya’s attention. As she looked to see where the Raptor was, she noticed the other Raptors had gone about exploring the area, sniffing and shoving things around while also snatching up any meat they found. Gobbling it up with a single snap of their teeth. Giving a short whistle had the three raptors trotting her way to stand in formation with Blue.

She grabbed Owen’s gun from where it hung on her back to check the ammo. “What do you think our chances are?” she asked softly, easily accepting the offered ammo from Jake when he noticed what she was doing.

“Honestly?” he asked, watching her nod as she restocked before sliding the ammo into her pocket. “Less than 50 percent chance of success,” he admitted, and Anya just sighed, the click of the gun sliding back together echoed around them.

“Good day to go down swinging,” she said grimly, getting nods and sounds of agreement from the group around her.

“Well, boys, you heard her. Time to go out swinging!” he shouted, and soon the whole group was shouting before going where he directed them. Of course, since she was the only one who could even direct the Raptors with any amount of success, she was put toward the end of Main Street. Nodding to the group, she gave each Raptor one last scratch before pointing them to hide while she made her way up to the roof.  Looking over the roof, she was grateful that, should she need it, she could actually rush across the buildings.

Now, would that help her?

Uncertain.

It could either help or not. In the end, Anya would find out. One way or another, she would find out. She hoped Eliza would forgive her if things went badly.

But….well…it wasn’t like it would be her problem if things went south for her.

Making her way to the ledge, she kneeled down onto the graveled roof and settled the rifle onto the cement ledge. Looking down the barrel, she saw Blue and the others sniffing around the building, overturning several tables as they went, while the rest of the men got into position. Turning down Main Street, she saw Eddie and Rumi running with several others. Eddie and Rumi were running some cables, it looked like across the few alleyways, while the rest were bringing raw meat over to the Lagoon railing. Across the way, she could just barely make out who she thought was Brianna holding a rope, looking ready to rush back and pull as hard as she could.

“It’s almost there!” Lowery called out suddenly over the radio.

“Copy, Lowery. Jake, are you guys ready down there?” Anya asked, looking over the groups that scrambled to finish what they were doing.

“Almost. Just a couple last things being finished,” he reported. And as if it was waiting, right as the last people got into their hidden spots, the lumbering thumps of the Indominus reached their ears. Anya turned toward the Northern entrance and watched as the Indominus broke through with a roar.

Seeing it look around, Anya let out the stuttered whistle she heard Owen give once, and could barely hear the chittering from the Raptors before they fell silent and stalked their prey.

Hunt.

The Indominus, meanwhile, looked around sharply, trying to find the source of the sound before stalking toward Main Street proper.

As soon as it stepped foot into the open, the Raptors struck, biting and clawing at the monster before jumping back as it swiped at them. Once they got close, Anya leveled the barrel toward the monster, aiming carefully before taking the shot. She wasn’t going to risk hitting the girls if she could help it. But also, she wanted to try weakening it as well. Not that they could do much, seeing as ACU had tried once with minimal success at causing damage.

But it angered the beast.

With every shot Anya and the others took, it got angrier. Roaring out and swiping before trying to evade them. But when it tried snapping up Blue and missing, it let out a devastating roar into the sky and paused. One big, red eye focused on her.

“Fuck,” she whispered.

It let out another roar, facing her this time, and rushed at the building. 

“Shit!” she yelled, rushing from her position to the next building, barely hearing the curses calling out over the radio and the shouts from the street. Right as the Indominus rammed its head into the building, she jumped over the small gap onto the next building, stumbling and barely getting her feet under her as she heard the Raptors roar in defiance. Turning back toward the monster, she shot off a few more bullets before it could right itself. Then she booked it once more.

The building ahead of her was shorter, unfortunately, along with having a bigger gap. For probably the hundredth time that day alone, Anya silently cursed Dr. Wu’s name. If it wasn’t for him, they wouldn’t have this monster on their hands. If she ever saw him again, Anya swore she was going to punch him.

And Dearing.

Both were going to get socked in the face if she saw either of them outside of the courtroom. However, instead of ramming the building she was on, the Indominus learned and instead rammed into the one she was jumping onto. The roof began cracking and crumbling, and Anya hit it rolling. As it started to fall down, she couldn’t help but scream as the Indominus’s jaw appeared at her feet.

Suddenly, four roars filled the air, and soon the Indominus was rearing back with a pain-filled roar as the Raptors attacked. Blue landed on its back, digging her claws into the muscles while biting at its neck. Charlie and Echo were attacking its feet while Delta seemed to try drawing its attention.

As its attention was drawn from the building, it let Anya fall onto the ground, tumbling over broken walls and furniture onto the ground with a groan and a bit-off cry as her wrist slammed into the ground before being hit by debris. Lying on the ground, Anya could only pant as her body screamed at her from that fall. She had no doubt she was covered in scraps and bruises while her left wrist throbbed in time with her heart.

But then another rattling roar left the Indominus, and Anya knew she couldn’t stay there. Sooner or later, it was going to look for her.

Using her one good hand, she pushed herself onto her feet before grabbing Owen’s gun and making her way toward one of the nearby alleys. Hoping beyond anything that it would keep her safe. But based on the roar behind her, the Indominus was quick to roar at her, she knew that it was focusing on her once more.

With its attention on her, she couldn’t risk running toward anyone. She wasn’t going to let anyone else become targets for this thing. So instead, she ran down Main Street toward their trap. Blue rushed toward her while the others kept up their attacks to slow the monster down. Hearing a chirp, she glanced over to see Blue at her side. Anya didn’t know what she did to deserve Blue’s trust, but she was grateful.

Though while she was grateful to have Blue by her side, she did wish Owen were there as well. He would have been more prepared for this, known what to do, really, than Anya. She was wholly unprepared for this. Not at a single point in her life has she had to work with someone—or devise a plan—for taking something down. The closest she got was working with a group to create an immersive attraction. But that was nothing close to this. Owen’s military background at least prepared him in some ways for this. At the least, it gave him a background in coming up with plans to take people down.

But her?

She had nothing.

And at this moment, she wasn’t even sure she could outrun the monster, even with the raptors doing what they could to slow it down. Even though everything in her wanted to look back, Anya resisted, knowing it would just end badly for her. She just ran forward, jumping over debris and the dangly rope just waiting to be pulled tight. When the Indominus roared, Anya flinched as she covered her ears. It was a loud, shaking roar that felt as though it pierced into her very soul.

It felt like her very veins were turned to ice at how close that roar sounded. But then there were shouts and a thwap of rope being pulled tight. Another roar pierced the air before there was an earth-shaking thump as the Indominus was tripped up by their rope trap.

Anya herself fell to the ground with a shout, pain racing up from her wrist as she landed on it, while her knees throbbed from hitting the ground. Already, blood was beading up in places while weeping in others. If she didn’t already have the monster’s attention, she was sure she’d have it now. She panted harshly as she scrambled forward, her feet slipping on napkins and loose rocks. She stumbled once, catching herself with her right hand while her left hand flailed to grab onto something. Her breath caught as it felt like lightning raced up her arm.

She couldn’t stop the keen from leaving her, even if she wanted to. All she could do was cut it off by biting her lip. Every step jolted, leaving her limping. But as she heard—and felt—the thumps of it getting up, running up her legs, she knew she needed to push through. So even as every step ached, Anya pushed herself forward. Ignored every flare of pain that stumbled her. She couldn’t hear anything besides the roar of her blood rushing through her veins.

There was no doubt that people were talking—shouting really—over the radio and just in general. Even Blue’s chirps seemed to evade her. Nothing was legible to her, all sound muffled as if coming to her through a wall instead of in her face. The only thing she could hear was her breath, heavy pants for air as she ran.

Grimly, she wondered if she would even get to go on that date with Owen.

After everything they’ve gone through, and not even getting that one thing felt cruel. But that was life. A cruel mistress that could snatch someone away in any way because they felt like it. And in this case, it was going to be through a monstrous hybrid that should have never existed. There had to be some irony that the monster she said should be terminated was potentially going to be the end of her.

She didn’t feel like figuring that out, though.

Either there was or wasn’t. But it didn’t matter because who was going to be thinking about that?

Well…

Besides her, that is.

Apparently.

She never thought about what she might think during her last moments. Or really during a near-death experience. But she would have thought it would be about family, loved ones, important things.

Not whether or not her death was ironic.

While Anya didn’t want to die by the Indominus’s hand, she hoped her last thoughts would be more meaningful. Or at least of some importance to her. Unlike whether something is ironic or not. She just couldn’t believe that was what she thought in this race between her and the Indominus. It felt ridiculous in the face of everything.

For fuck’s sake, Owen was mauled and might either lose his leg or his life, and her niece was currently responsible for getting him to help before it was too late after suffering horrible trauma herself.

And this was where her mind went?

Totally unbelievable.

Anya cried out when her foot caught on some debris that had been left, and she tumbled to the ground. As she rolled over the pavement, she just barely glanced at the Indominus roaring triumphantly towards her. But she definitely heard it as she came to a stop on her stomach. Looking toward the monster, she was terrified.

Her ankle was now screaming at her from getting caught on that debris, while her whole body just sort of ached as well. Glancing back, she realized she was next to the lagoon with nowhere to go, really. Any place of safety was out of reach, with only open space near her. At this point, she knew she wasn’t making any mad dashes to safety. Not with the pain her leg was in, just based on how it throbbed from rolling onto her back.

Pushing herself up was a struggle, but then she started scrambling back, only able to use her good foot until her back hit the rail with a clang. Anya couldn’t help the grunt that left her and remembered the tranq gun that had impossibly stayed on her.

She had only one chance to get in a good shot. Might as well try giving them the opening they needed before she was swallowed up.

Raising the barrel of the tranq gun, Anya leveled it at the Indominus. Her hands shook, the barrel trembling ever so slightly as she looked death in the eye.

I’m sorry, she thought as the monster roared triumphantly before rushing toward her. The raptors screeched at it, though one was lying on the ground, leg obviously broken from how jarringly wrong it was bent, with what appeared to be burn marks in the darkening sky. She could just barely hear Jake barking out orders somewhere. She hoped they would be able to take it down without her.

Then, within a blink, several things happened. As she got ready to fire, the Indominus roared once more and began running. The thundering steps shook her to the core. The shouting increased, and suddenly another twang filled the air.  There was a snap, and suddenly the Indominus was roaring as it was sent sliding, all the while trying to snap at Blue and the others, who continuously snapped at it. The Indominus’s giant, bloody, maw turned toward her as it slid closer, and Anya shot until it clicked. Hands suddenly grabbed under her arms, and she was being pulled away from the rapidly closing in Indominus.

While she wasn’t sure who had come to her rescue, she did what she could to push away. Which was admittedly little, seeing as she now only had a single leg to use without risk of hurting herself more. After tossing the gun away, the man—Jake, she realized—pulled her upright with her arm around his shoulders as support. Just as he did that, another member appeared on her other side, pulling that arm around their shoulders as well, and they were running.

The sound of something crashing through metal and the subsequent sounds of debris falling had Anya flinching. Glancing back, she watched as the Indominus stopped itself from sliding into the Lagoon and stumbled back onto its feet with a roar. It turned toward them, but then the Raptors were standing between them and the Indominus, letting out defiant screeches, snapping at any move it made. 

Somehow, the Raptors managed to push the Indominus back toward the destroyed railing. Surely the Indominus was going to push back.

Fight.

From everything they saw, Anya was hard-pressed to believe it was going to give up so easily in the face of four raptors. Sure, it might be hurt now, moving a bit stiffly, but it was a killer first and foremost. It had willingly clawed out its own tracking implant, taking with it a chunk of flesh. There was no way it was going to go out lying down.

No, it was going to fight until its last breath, and even then, it might live to just spite them.

But how were they going to stop it?

It’s not like their weapons were doing much against it. Even the Raptors were barely causing damage. They had nothing, but surely there was something that would work against this monster.

Right?

The water rippling suddenly caught Anya’s attention. Her head snapped to look at the lagoon properly, causing Jake and the other person helping her to pause to look as well. “What are you thinking?” the person, a woman—Rumi she realized—asked.

“The Indominus is right next to the lagoon…what if we got the mosasaurs involved?” she asked, glancing between the two. Jake had a pained expression on his face, but he looked like he was actually thinking about it.

“That would be highly risky. How would we do that?” Jake asked hesitantly.

“Everything is risky here, Jake,” Anya countered, jerking her head toward the destruction that had already happened around them. “We would have to somehow draw the mosasaurs’ attention to where the Indominus is. It’s already active from the noise. We just…have to entice it over there with the Indominus,” she said, getting nods from the two.

“Well, might as well make some noise and try throwing debris into the water. Surely that would make it curious,” Jake said with a shake of his head. Once they were in an alleyway, the two—with an additional volunteer—helped Anya settle down onto the ground before grabbing his radio. “Alright, team. We need to draw the mosasaurs’ attention. Try getting that monster to make noise and knock stuff into the water!”

“Copy!” several voices called out staggeredly. And then the shooting resumed, only this time, half of them were shooting at the railing and debris to make as much noise as possible. Seeing the renewed attack, the girls screeched once more, going in close to snap and claw at the Indominus themselves.

Seeing the rippling water making its way toward the Indominus and the destroyed railing, Anya let out a sharp whistle, getting the Raptors to back off. Everyone seemed to hold their breath as the Indominus roared, taking one lumbering step forward as it did so. The air was silent, neither the birds were singing nor the wind was blowing through. It was as if an eerie silence fell over all of Main Street, with nothing daring to make a noise.

The sound of water lapping at the rocks was the only thing that they could hear in that moment as everything came to a stop. Everything came to a stop at her whistle, and she wondered why the men stopped shooting as well.

And then a roar split the air, sinking into their bones from how deep it was. A looming dark shadow emerged and hit the ground with a boom, jaws snapped tight around the Indominus’s neck. The Indominus tried pulling away, giving a pitiful roar as the sound of crunching filled the air, as the Mosasaursus’ jaw tightened around its neck. Thumps filled the air as the Mosasaurus pushed itself back toward the ocean with a resounding boom as it hit the water like a stone lid dropping closed on a tomb. A rumbling slowly built until it hit its crescendo, becoming a roar as dark, lumbering crests rose above the railing and hit the concrete with a splash. All that was left was a low gurgle as the water was sucked back in.

Anya could only stare at where the Indominus had once stood. All that was left was crooked railing and puddles of water. Any loose pieces of railing that fell into the water were covered by the sound of the Mosasaurus’s descent. No one said anything, simply staring at the empty space in shock.

But then relief was crashing into Anya, and she couldn’t help but laugh hysterically in relief. Her laughter broke the moment, and everyone began cheering, joined in by the raptors’ crowing calls.

But as her head fell back against the wall, the tears began pooling in her eyes, and her laughter turned into sobs. All the terror and fear that she had pushed to the back burner was bursting forth like an inferno, not ready to be put out. Even though her body screamed at her, she pulled her knees to her chest and grabbed her knees, pushing her face between them as her shoulders shook with the force of her cries.

Lightning shot up her arm and leg with every jostle, but it didn’t matter.

Not really.

What was a little more pain? It hadn’t even been 24 hours, and so much had happened. The monster she protested from the start had escaped and killed so many because of the arrogance of one woman thinking she was right. Now, so many people were traumatized and hurt. She lost friends to this killer hybrid. She could have lost her niece or Owen to it. If they had, she wouldn’t have even known for sure. All that would have remained was the destruction, and they wouldn’t ever truly know.

Jayce wouldn’t even get to see his daughter again. Even for a goodbye.

God.

What if she had been killed?

 Would she have been eaten whole by that thing, or would there be some remains? She had gone to face that thing with no protection besides two guns that barely did anything against it. Anya couldn’t believe she had done that. Rushed blindly into a fight she had no right to be in. After seeing everything it could do, she had just rushed in. But now that it was all over, it finally hit her what she had done.

For fuck’s sake, she had no training. But she acted like nothing mattered. Everything mattered. She had a niece who needed her, promised she would come back to her, and she threw herself right into danger, uncaring of what could happen.

She didn’t think.

She didn’t.

Why else would she throw herself into such a dangerous situation? How could she have done that? Running in acting like she knew what to do.

Something cold touched her arm, and the next sob waiting to burst out caught in her throat. Another push at her arm had her head snapping up to see that it was Blue, nudging her snout against Anya’s arm. “Hey, Blue,” she whispered, voice cracking as she raised her right hand to scratch Blue’s snout. “You were such a good girl with your sisters,” she continued, but then hissed out when Blue nudged her other hand. At the noise, Blue jerked back, making that inquisitive noise of hers again, and stared at the limb. “Sorry, girl. I got hurt in the fight.”

That had Blue making a sad croon in response, nose gently pressing against her arm. “Anya,” Jake called out softly, watching warily as Blue turned to look at him, lips pulled back to reveal her teeth.

“It’s okay, Blue,” Anya assured, and Blue simply let out this soft rumbling growl in warning before stepping aside.

“We should get you to one of the medics waiting at the South Dock,” he said, getting a nod from Anya.

“Yeah,” she mumbled, pressing her right hand on the ground to push herself up. But the moment any weight hit her leg, she couldn’t keep in the groan and collapsed. “I, uh, I’m going to need help getting up,” she admitted softly.

“I figured,” he replied, moving to her side and grabbing her arm. Pulling her up, Jake easily took most of her weight, letting her use him as a crutch to avoid putting weight on her bad leg. Blue hovered on Anya’s other side, acting like a guard dog to keep others away as Jake helped her toward the car that the snipers had driven over when they saw the Indominus dragged down into the water by a shadowy figure.

“We, ngh, we should get Barry down here to get the girls back into their pen. Or at least off Main Street,” she groaned, sitting down in the passenger seat of the car. She slumped into the seat when she got herself situated, the tension that had built in her shoulders sliding off.

“We’ll get him over here,” Jake promised as he stepped back, eyes staying on her as Blue stepped forward to nudge her shoulder.

“I’ll be okay, girl. But you have to stay here with your sisters until Barry arrives,” she whispered, scratching along her muzzle before letting out a long whistle followed by a couple of short bursts. Blue and her sisters straightened and moved to stand beside each other then. Seemingly knowing not to move until commanded. But they all hoped Barry would arrive sooner rather than later as Jake pulled out his phone to make that call.

“Anya…do you copy?” Lowery called out over the radio. Anya simply groaned, moving to grab her radio while the driver chuckled softly.

“Copy,” she muttered, exhaustion filling her limbs suddenly. If she were being honest, she really just wanted to take a nap. She’s been running on adrenaline since noon, and it was dark out. Now that the danger was gone, the adrenaline that was fueling her was filtering out of her system. She didn’t need it anymore.

Hopefully, she makes it to the Dock without falling asleep.

“What’s happened?” Lowery asked.

“It’s over. The Mosasaurus pulled the Indominus into the Lagoon. It won’t be causing any more problems,” she reported.

“Thank God. Mr. Masrani says he wants a full report once he gets there,” Lowery said. Anya just groaned once more in response. She understood where Mr. Masrani was coming from, but by God, she did not want to deal with that. All she wanted to do was get to the South Dock, get checked out, and check in on Eliza and maybe Owen. But it looks like that wasn’t going to be happening anytime soon. Even though he couldn’t see it, she began nodding.

“Cop-hey!” she started, but yelped when the radio was snatched from her. She wasn’t going to admit how loosely she held that radio. Nope. Nu uh. She was holding it tight despite being exhausted.

“Miss Sobeck is being taken to South Dock to be checked over by the medics there. She will give her report afterwards,” the driver reported.

“Who is this?” Masrani demanded over the phone.

“This is Sergeant Buck from ACU. My second in command, Jake, just brought her to the car to be transported since she was injured in the battle against the Indominus. I concur with his assessment. Anya will answer any questions and fill out the report only after the medics have checked her out,” Buck said firmly before turning the radio off.

“I could’a made the report,” Anya mumbled, unknowingly sinking into the warm seats. Buck just hummed, and when she looked over at him, he just looked pleased with himself.

“Maybe. But there’s no reason for him to keep you from being checked out. Reports can wait, especially since there are a dozen others who can give their reports to him in the meantime,” he said in response, and she just nodded. When she shifted slightly, she choked on a gasp as it felt like needles were being shoved into her ankle. “Do you want some pain medicine?”

“No, I’m good,” she grunted, barely able to shift to get the pain to stop. The doors opened and closed, and when she glanced back, there were a couple of other ACU members in the back looking like they were sporting some injury as well.

“Okay, if that changes, just let us know,” he replied, watching her nod before pulling off from Main Street when he got the okay from Jake.

As they drove, Anya sank further and further into the seats, her head lolling back while she kept a lazy eye on the road ahead. But each blink took longer and longer as the warmth of the seat and vehicle soaked into her bones. Before she knew it, she was dozing off with soft snores, earning another pleased grin from Buck.

Owen had begged him to do what he could for Anya in that brief, lucid moment when they transferred him to a gurney for the medivac. While he couldn’t do much during the actual fight since he was stuck on the roof after coming in toward the end, he could do this. He was honestly impressed she had stayed awake as long as she had from the snippets he gathered from others.

She has had quite the day.

But he knew better than anyone the comforting draw to sleep when enveloped by warmth. It may be playing dirty to turn on the seat warmers, but what she didn’t know wouldn’t kill her.

🦖🦖🦖🦖

The first month after everything was an exhausting mess. There were doctor appointments, meetings, lawyers, and sporadic visits by various friends from the park who would visit. Even though she couldn’t help much at first, she was grateful that Owen had agreed to stay with her family. It meant that she could easily check in on him in the guest bedroom whenever she had a nightmare about that day.

Which…unfortunately…happened often those first couple of weeks.

She felt guilty just standing in the doorway, just staring at Owen and sometimes Eliza. But then Jayce would appear and assure her it was normal. After all, he was doing the same. Waking up in the middle of the night in a panic to check that Eliza was indeed in her room sleeping. But then there were times that Owen was awake when she went to check, and he would let out a sigh and relax in the bed.

Anya just knew that they both needed the reminder that they were alive after everything.

But now she could help more, and Owen was starting to be encouraged to take a few steps each day to help his leg, along with some easy stretches that Jayce would sometimes need to help him with.

But now…now she had to deal with a meeting with the Masrani Global board, along with the group dedicated to overseeing Jurassic World. Last she had heard, Dearing was fired and currently facing several lawsuits from both the company and various families. And from what Eliza’s heard from Zach and Gray, their family had cut all contact with Dearing.

It served the woman right, honestly. After everything she had done, she deserved to be cut off from the family she had ignored and then put in danger through her idiotic stunt.

Though she felt like a nervous wreck, she’s only ever met the board overseeing Jurassic World a few times, including when she was interviewed for the job and orientation. So she tried on several outfits in the hopes of finding the perfect one to step in front of them all, but none of them felt right. Based on the looks that Eliza and Owen were sharing, Anya had a feeling they thought she was being ridiculous.

Which…rude.

She had every right to be nervous about this meeting. It could literally go any way with how the media and news seem to be split on how they reacted. Especially since the park had to close down because repairs needed to be done, while only hotel staff were allowed back to pack up every room and ship it back to the person listed on the reservation. Either she was going to keep her job, be demoted, lose her job, or the park is closing, so everyone is losing their jobs. Except maybe just a few to restock the livestock that the dinosaurs hunted for food? She wasn’t sure what would happen if the park were to shut down. The Costa Rican government had said they napalm bombed the island after one of the incidents, but there wasn’t any evidence of said napalm bombing.

At least the two they used.

Maybe they bombed a different island, unaware it was the wrong one? Or could it have been a ploy to make everyone feel safer, believing that the dinosaurs were dead when in reality they did nothing?

She didn’t think she was ever going to get the answer to that.

“Aunt Anya, you’re thinking too much about this. All your outfits look great!” Eliza said, getting a chuckle from Anya.

“Thank you, Ellie. I…I just want to make sure that I look nice for this meeting since I don’t know what’s going to be happening at it,” she admitted, looking herself over in the mirror once more when she heard movement. Turning around, she watched as Owen rolled over in his wheelchair with an indulgent smile on his lips.

“It’s going to be fine. You know why?” he asked, and Anya shook her head, unsure where he was going. “Because you’re, you, Anya. You are smart and talented. I have no doubt you’ll turn the meeting around and come up on top. Because that’s what you do. You turn a bad situation good and make sound plans that help so many people. Like when the Indominus got out. You prevented so much death, and they would be stupid to let you go,” he explained, watching as a watery smile grew on Anya’s lips before she pitched forward to hug Owen tight, pressing a kiss to his cheek as she went.

“Thank you, Owen,” she whispered for his ears only.

“You’re welcome,” he murmured back just as softly. “Now you need to go knock their socks off. I think the best look was that berry-colored knee-length dress, with the black blazer on top,” Owen said, getting a delighted gasp from Eliza.

“Yes! Add in a layered necklace, thin belt, and then those matching heels, and the look is perfect!” Eliza said, rushing forward to grab the items in question while Anya laughed happily at her eagerness. But when Owen gave her a light shove, she grabbed the dress in question and went into the bathroom in the hall to change.

She was still pulling at the dress a bit as she entered her bedroom to fix how the boat neck collar had slid up a bit. “Perfect,” Owen muttered, and Anya couldn’t help but blush as she grabbed the blazer in question and slipped it on. It was a three-quarter sleeve one, and she adjusted the sleeves a bit, pushing up so that it rested more comfortably on her arm before grabbing the accessories Eliza offered up. She started with the belt, then went to the jewelry. She liked the necklace Eliza picked and searched for some bracelets or rings that would go well, slipping them on before digging out the heels. Once she finished, she gave them a spin and had to bite her lip when Owen whistled while Eliza clapped happily.

“It’s perfect, Aunt Anya! You look amazing!” Eliza praised happily, and Anya couldn’t help the fond smile growing on her lips.

“Thank you, Eliza. Why don’t you tell Jayce I’ll be heading out soon?” Anya said, watching as she nodded quickly before dashing out of the room, bare feet thudding against the floor.

“Daaad!” Eliza called out, voice going faint as the word was drawn out, as she ran.

Owen just snorted as he pushed himself closer to her. “She’s not wrong. You look amazing, baby,” he said, watching as her cheeks flushed while she looked away. “Go knock ‘em dead and come out standing on top. You know this park just as well as Dearing did, maybe better, and clearly you care about it. There’s nothing to worry about,” he said, reaching out to squeeze her hand in reassurance.

“I needed to hear that. Thanks, Owen,” Anya said, returning the squeeze before leaning down to hug Owen once more, feeling him brush a kiss against her cheek as they pulled back.

“You’re welcome. I’m always happy to tell you if you need to hear it,” Owen promised with a smile. Just receiving a relieved one from Anya in response.

“And I’ll happily do the same,” she promised before glancing at her clock. “Shit! Okay, I do need to go now if I wanna be there on time. I’ll see you later!” she called out, brushing one last kiss to his cheek before rushing out the door and down the stairs, barely yelling a goodbye to her family. She was grateful that they were able to get her Jeep off the island. Lowery was a literal Godsend, making sure that happened since they only had Jayce’s car until it arrived.

Throughout the drive to Masrani Global's office in Downtown LA, Anya barely paid attention to the music playing. It was her favorite playlist, yet none of them registered as her mind whirled with the possibilities of how this meeting could go. The familiar sounds of traffic did little to help ease her nerves, instead, it just had her tapping her fingers against the steering wheel as she listened to the various honking and revved engines.

Several people had their windows down, music blaring, while there were a couple whose windows were up, yet she could still hear the music playing with some clarity. She couldn’t help but wonder how those drivers weren’t deaf. But soon enough—not really that hour drive felt like forever—she was finally pulling into the parking structure for the Masrani Global building that was also used by a tech firm that was across the street.

Looking up at the imposing building, Anya couldn’t help how her mind started spiraling to worst-case scenarios. It was easy when the building just seemed to loom over you, the seemingly entirely glass walls glaring down at you with the sun’s rays. But she forced herself to take a deep breath and remember Owen’s words. She can do this.

Squaring her shoulders, she made her way inside, purse slung over her shoulder and a portfolio folder with a notebook in hand. The receptionist smiled at her before gesturing toward the elevator. Anya smiled in greeting before slipping onto the elevator and pressing the right floor. Her fingers began tapping on the portfolio folder as she went up.

Several times, the elevator opened up to let others on or off as they went until she finally reached her floor with a couple of others. Stepping off the elevator, she looked at the floor plan to see where she had to go before heading off into the confusing halls.

As she finally reached the conference room, Anya hesitated at the door. Her heart felt like it was trying to beat out of her chest, panic clawed at her throat. Her hand hovered over the door handle, fingers trembling as her mind whirled with every worst-case scenario it could imagine about this meeting. It was killing her that she didn’t know how this would go. The only positive she could think of was that they weren’t going after her for the monster escaping and killing people. The only deaths on her hands were those of the people who volunteered to fight it on Main Street. And while it wasn’t good, everyone had gone in knowing it could happen, but they still went. Because they had to.

If they hadn’t, who would have?

Chances were, if they hadn’t, the island would have been napalm bombed to get rid of the monster. And she wasn’t about to let that happen. Too many innocent creatures would have been killed in their quest to kill the monster.

She couldn’t let that happen.

She did what she had to after Dearing caused a disaster. That was what she focused on, forcing herself to take a deep breath, Owen’s words of comfort all that time ago whispering in her ear. All she had to do was breathe and focus on doing what she could. She was a problem solver after all. What was this meeting if not a problem to be solved?

She just had to enter the room.

Anya forced herself to take another breath before grabbing the handle and turning. As she entered the conference room, she noted every person in the room. Simon Masrani sat at the head of the table, with members of both boards on either side of him, while the other end of the table was empty.

“Miss Sobeck, thank you for coming,” Mr. Masrani said with a smile that Anya tried to return, but it was a pale one as nerves grew in her.

“Of course, Mr. Masrani,” she said after a bit, watching as he waved toward the only chair remaining. Walking over to the other end of the table, she put her stuff down and sat down. “I’m curious what this meeting is about, however,” she continued, staring at Mr. Masrani since she knew if she looked elsewhere, her focus would be on all the eyes staring at her. Instead, she leaned forward to clasp her hands together on the table, focusing on her breathing only.

“This is about the incident at Jurassic World and your part in it,” Mr. Masrani began, and Anya’s face twitched at his words. She could barely keep her face from twisting up at how his words seemed to imply she was at fault instead of Dearing. But, somehow, she managed to keep most of her reaction internal, simply pursing her lips in response.

“And by ‘my part in it’ what do you mean?” she asked instead of jumping into defending herself. Anya wasn’t going to hurt herself by jumping to conclusions because that was all that would happen from his words. Nothing concrete was given. Just a vague explanation that forced a person into jumping to a conclusion, which often showed guilt. But there was nothing she was guilty of except for rushing into danger and starting the final battle with the Indominus. Besides doing something she had no experience in or training for, she hadn’t broken any rules.

Even the Raptors hadn’t been against the rules.

The program the Raptors are a part of needs the Raptors to do various things. One of which is searching. From what she’s heard from Owen, Hoskins has been trying to push for doing field tests for ages. They finally did one, but it was on Owen’s orders, not Hoskins. Owen decided what they were going to do, since they both knew the man would have tried using the Raptors against the Indominus, which, as they saw, could have ended badly.

They were all lucky that Owen managed to keep the Indominus from taking the raptors.

“What Mr. Masrani means is, we want to know what happened from your perspective. How everything happened,” a member to Mr. Masrani’s right said, and he looked familiar to Anya—Richard something.

“I see. Well…on the day in question, Mr. Masrani said he wanted to see the asset, the Indominus Rex. I went to meet with him, however, he only met with Ms Dearing at first, as when he called, I was on my meal break. I called him when I finished and talked about his wishes since he wasn’t impressed with what Ms Dearing had told him. I wasn’t surprised for two reasons. One, Ms Dearing likes to keep things close to her chest, so she doesn’t give much information. Not that she knows much, seeing as she’s been to that enclosure maybe 3 times that I know of prior to meeting with Mr. Masrani. And two, I have been keeping extensive records about the Indominus and its behaviorisms…none suggested it was suitable for guest exposure. But he pushed forward and said that Mr. Grady was to view the paddock and give his suggestions,” she explained, getting nods from the members.

“Just to clarify, this is the same Mr. Grady you are in a relationship with?” A different member asked.

“At the time, we were not dating, sir. It is true that I had a crush on him that several coworkers were aware of. It was over the course of this incident that Mr. Grady and I agreed to go on a date. Which only happened while we were both on medical leave to heal. But even so, our feelings for each other never influenced our professionalism. We dealt only with facts and observations from the behaviors presented by the Indominus. In fact, there are cameras that record what happens in the Observation Room. You should be able to have—” she answered easily, but then cut herself off before she could mention her friend’s name. A friend who had been revealed to have been killed trying to get others to safety. “Uh, security should be able to pull the footage,” she finished, voice cracking before taking the offered class someone offered and sipping it.

“Of course. We are very sorry about the death of Nick. Thank you for explaining,” Richard said, getting a nod from Anya.

“Of course,” she said, swallowing the lump in her throat. “Now, when I finally got back to the paddock, Ms Dearing was already inside with Mr. Grady explaining what they wanted him to do. However, she was trying to keep things classified that would impede Mr. Grady’s ability to assess. Such as hiding the fact that the Indominus was part Raptor. Throughout the whole thing, Ms. Dearing treated Mr. Grady badly, belittling his abilities because she appears to hate him, because they had one date that ended badly. Of course, that is just my opinion, but seeing as Mr. Grady never had any blemishes on his record for his work as an animal behaviorist, it seemed that was the likely cause,” she explained, getting nods from the group. “When she tried to keep that hidden, I stepped in and told him everything I could and answered his questions to the best of my abilities. Now, at this time, the Indominus had not revealed itself, and Ms. Dearing was retorting with sarcastic comments to what Mr. Grady was saying. When she realized, Nick ran a scan, and that is when we discovered two new abilities it had.”

“Abilities that have never been noted before?” Richard asked when she took another sip of water.

“Correct. Before then, we have never seen these abilities before. It was hidden from us visually and thermally. Mr. Grady pointed out some marks on the wall which Ms. Dearing took to mean the Indominus had escaped but I knew she was wrong. While she rushed out, I explained to Mr. Grady why that wasn’t possible, which you can see in the reports I’ve made. It was then that we called the Control Room to use the tracking chip which showed that the Indominus was indeed still in the paddock. After confirming it, we checked the sensors and learned it had the ability to hide from us. After testing the sensors and seeing that they were indeed still working, the call ended. I don’t know what happened in the Control Room between Mr. Masrani and Ms. Dearing. You would need to ask them that,” she agreed.

“Yes, we’ll be talking to him after,” the board member from earlier said.

“After that, I took Mr. Grady to the Genetics Lab to get the reports and logs made about the Indominus for Mr. Grady to review. While we were heading there…N-Nick Odell called to let us know that Ms. Dearing was sending people into the paddock because the tracking chip blipped. I tried to get them to stop but she forced it. In the end, the whole team sent in was killed along with several workers, including Mr. Odell, when it broke out when one tried escaping through the entrance meant for the Indominus. When we heard what happened, we made our way to the Control Room to figure out a plan,” she explained, staring intently at the table, finger running over a knot in the wood, Nick’s voice echoing in her ear when she asked about his hobbies.

‘Knots are tricky. They can be beautiful but cause problems when your creating something. Only the truly skilled wood workers can use a knot and make it beautiful,’ he had said, showing off a picture he took of a chair he had made that featured a knot predominately on the chair’s head with carvings around it to emphasize it.

She breathed through the grief that washed over her.

Some days it felt like it was only yesterday that her friend was killed.

“The plan to evacuate the guests?” Richard asked once more.

“That is correct. We told Mr. Masrani what happened and I suggested we evacuate the guests to protect them while showing our proactiveness. I personally believed it was the right choice and explained my reasoning that Mr. Masrani eventually agreed and we began the evacuation. There we then called for help to evacuate. While I wanted to help more, my niece was out there in the forest of Camp Cretaceous where we theorized the Indominus was heading. I asked Mr. Grady for help and we left to track her and the other campers down. While driving there, we were told that Ms. Dearing had nephews who had gotten lost and went to find them as well. We came across two wrecks and then found Ms. Dearing’s nephews.”

“Where were you heading?” some board member asked.

“After we went to both the Camp and Observation Deck and saw it was destroyed by the Indominus, Mr. Grady offered a solution to find my niece and the other campers. He suggested we use the Raptor’s to find them. I trusted his judgement and agreed to the plan. We were heading to the Raptor pen when we found Ms. Dearing’s nephews. We asked if they wished to be taken to Main Street, and they declined. Mr. Grady got everything prepared and then we were off. They took us to the Field Genetics Lab where we encountered the Indominus. There was a small fight that resulted in Mr. Grady being hurt. It was after the Indominus had left that my niece and the campers came out. We got Mr. Grady stable and while the campers and Ms. Dearing’s nephews took the SUV, I took the motorcycle to keep the Raptors in line since they were worried about Mr. Grady. After that, it…admittedly gets a bit fuzzy. The last clear thing was hitting the road juncture leading to Main Street and the South Dock. Lowery said it was heading to Main Street and with the Indominus’s trajectory, I was worried it would arrive at the Dock before the last guests could evacuate or before Mr. Grady’s medivac could take off safely. So I went to Main Street with volunteers from ACU to distract the Indominus,” she explained.

“What do you mean by fuzzy? Were you not there helping take down the Indominus?” another board member demanded, leaning forward.

“Yes, but from other reports you should know that the Indominus destroyed the building I was on. I fell and rolled onto the street, hurting my wrist and hitting my head. But I, nor anyone else realized. A medic apparently noticed when pulling me out of the car. The driver….Buck…he said there was a lot of shouting when they realized that I actually hit my head. I had a concussion and the Doctor explained that it was normal for memories leading up to and after the event to be fuzzy, out of order, or missing entirely. It was in the file they sent over when I was put on medical leave,” Anya answered easily.

“Yes. I read the report. I don’t think we need to try getting her version seeing as it would be difficult for her to piece together what happened after getting injured. We have a dozen reports from the others that all line up,” Mr. Masrani said, interrupting the board members muttering to each other.

“Of course, we will move on from that in respect to the fact that Ms. Sobeck’s memory of that part of the day has been compromised. Now, from what we saw, you were always against the Indominus…is that correct?” Richard asked, and Anya nodded.

“That is correct, sir. I was always wary of using hybrids as it felt like a slippery slope. But then, with every experimental hybrid born, they got…worse. I made my reservations clear but they were ignored. The latest one was after the Scorpios Rex incident,” she trailed off, her mind flashing to that moment. She couldn’t help how her breath caught in her throat. She remembered the doctor’s worried faces. Their mumbled words broke through her hallucinations.

They thought she was going to die.

Two weeks of uncertainty.

Two weeks of pain.

Then Dr. Wu created the anti-venom and she was suddenly told how lucky she was. That she was ‘lucky it was just a baby’ or ‘lucky that Dr. Wu and the others saved her life.’ As if he wasn’t the reason she almost died.

She almost died at his creation’s hand yet he was hailed a hero while it stayed living for another year until it had to be put down because he was attacked by it.

‘I think I understand now. You witnessed every step and suffered the consequences. What happened was horrible and you never deserved what happened. They should have been wary after that and you were right to be wary. Any sane person would have,’ Owen had said when she finally told him why she hated Dr. Wu. It had been after a particularly grueling physical therapy session for Owen while she had done a session with her therapist. Anya had wanted to tell him, let him understand why she felt the way she did. And he understood.

She felt grateful that he knew and sympathized. That he finally knew why she had been in the hospital and despised hybrids.

Did every hybrid deserve her disdain?

No.

But unfortunately the only ones she met recently were deadly beings trying to kill anything that moved. She didn’t know if she could ever change her tune for hybrids. There was too much blood at this point for her to reconsider.

But she focused on Owen’s words. Their soft discussions and words of comfort.

“What about the Scorpios Rex?” Mr. Masrani asked, leaning forward.

“There was more to that incident than Dr. Wu led you to believe. It wasn’t an accident or getting too close. I was standing back with several staff members watching it and it attacked me. And while they focused on getting me to a hospital, Dr. Wu destroyed the recording of that time to protect his creature. Its attack on him a year later was not a ‘surprise.’ It was a known risk as it continuously attacked staff members. I was out of work for 3 months and what do I see when I get back? The very creature that hospitalized me. And to add insult to injury? Ms. Dearing forcing me to work near it while no new safety precautions were taken. I understand that this may seem like a ‘he said, she said’ situation, but there were some scientists there that would vouch for what happened to me not being an accident,” she explained, watching as a look of horror grew on Mr. Masrani’s face.

“Of course. We will be looking into that immediately,” Mr. Masrani promised, several board members nodding agreement around him.

“Now, as for the Indominus itself, my reports make it more than clear why I have never been a supporter of the Indominus Rex. From hatching, she and her sibling have shown aggression towards each other and the staff. There’s been several instances when they’ve attacked each other and the staff. When the Indominus finally managed to kill her sibling, I sent in that report with the note, ‘Dangerous. Suggestion: Terminate.’ Every time since that the Indominus showed aggression or almost killed someone, I reported it along with my doubts of it being safe. There were too many risks just as we watched it grow. However, every report and warning was ignored by Ms. Dearing and Dr. Wu. I hope that they just kept them from you, Mr. Masrani and not that you ignored the signs,” Anya continued after nodding at his promise.

“What?” Mr. Masrani whispered, looking pale. “I-I never got anything like that, Ms. Sobeck. Ms. Dearing and Dr. Wu only told me about her growth rate and the bare minimum. I had asked but they said they would tell me if anything happened. That day was the first time I had learned that the sibling had been killed and eaten by the Indominus, but they had made it seem like they could keep it from happening again,” Mr. Masrani said.

“They have a habit of doing that,” she scoffed with a shake of her head. “But you should be able to find all the reports I and my staff have made of the Indominus from hatching to death, at the Genetics Lab Dr. Wu asked for them to be put. To be quite frank, Ms. Dearing and Dr. Wu have pulled a lot of shit here that has caused deadly results. After everything that happened, they should never be allowed near Jurassic World again, not even to grab their stuff since I know Dr. Wu would try snatching what he believes is his. Not only that, but they had help from Mr. Hoskins as well. He helped push idiotic ideas that were just as deadly,” she admitted, looking at each board member around her as they looked shocked at her words.

“So you never approved of anything they suggested?” Mr. West—she remembered him, the head of the Jurassic World board asked.

“There were few times that I agreed with their ideas or suggestions. Such as the paddocks made for the T. Rex and Indominus. They’re way too small for these big of creatures. The size would be bordering on too small for a lion, sir. Even though Paddock 11 was meant to be a transitional paddock meant for while the beast was in its juvenile years, it wasn’t made with the size it could grow to in mind. But then there’s also the fact that the official enclosure the people would see was just as small. The only dinosaur here that actually has a good size paddock is the herbivores in Gyrosphere Valley. So far every other creature is bordering on either just big enough for them or too small,” she explained, watching as several members hummed thoughtfully at that.

“You have a plan,” Richard stated, somehow knowing what Anya was thinking.

“Yes. While I may not be an expert on these animals, I know enough. So I could make a basic plan which we would then ask the people in charge of each species, along with the veterinary doctors to make sure we meet each dinosaur’s needs. Mr. Masrani, you have stated yourself that you want these dinosaurs to be happy. Do you really think they’re happy with the conditions they’re in right now?” she asked, watching as Masrani nodded to her words.

“Let’s hear it. What would you do differently than us? Then Ms. Dearing?” Richard asked.

“Well, to start, Masrani Global bought these islands, the Muertes Archipelago or as the locals called it, Las Cinco Muertes, along with Isla Nublar,” she said while pulling her phone out and starting a screenshare with photos pulled up. “Now, there is around 50 miles between the Las Cinco Muertes and Isla Nublar, but I don’t think that will truly be a problem. I suggest we actually use all the islands so that way every species actually has the room they need to be happy. And use the knowledge that the handlers and veterinarians have. Now, I asked my niece to draw mockups for what each island could potentially be,” she continued, switching photos to the ones of the drawings when appropriate. “One would be the Main Street, the introduction with the juvenile dinosaurs, innovation building and information along with attractions, such as touring the original park. Then one could be focused solely on the herbivore dinosaurs and have the Gyrosphere attraction or safari drive where they can explore and learn in their natural habitats.”

“So use more money to fix this mistake?” one asked skeptically.

“No, we do what Mr. Masrani set out to do when Mr. Hammond gave it over to him. We are giving our all to keep guests engaged and entertained while making sure the dinosaurs are happy and getting the enrichment they need to thrive,” Anya retorted with a shake of her head, the current drawing showing an island set up for herbivores.

“Money does not matter, especially since we aren’t having to worry about lawsuits and settlements. Besides, I’m sure the investors would be happy to help. Continue,” Mr. Masrani said with a nod, watching

“Thank you, then one dedicated to our carnivorous dinosaurs so that they have the space they need and can actually hunt and get enrichment that way along with whatever is suggested by the handlers. Then one can be dedicated to the aerial dinosaurs such as the pteranodons. They could each have their own cages or we could invest in creating a device that would keep them from leaving the island all together so that way we don’t even need to worry about creating large enough cages. Then we can have an island dedicated to our aquatic dinosaurs. For that one, I would suggest creating an atoll using the islands themselves as the blueprint for the mosasaurs while still having a lagoon that we could either entice it to visit or hold the younger ones before letting them out. We could in theory be able to house a few types in this atoll since they would each claim an area. Then the last one could be used as research and hatching or a spare that we expand into using,” she finished with a nod, ending on a slide of the Jurassic World logo on top of stylized islands decorated in the way she suggested.

“You really think this could work? What about the timeline?” Richard asked and Anya nodded.

“I truly do. Timeline wise, well, it’s going to be a few months before everything is fixed anyways so we can start building. Isla Nublar should be ready to open around late May. Assuming we start building soon, we could get the island dedicated to the herbivores done by December, though we could start soft openings sooner, such as around August or September. By the time it’s ready for its grand opening, we could in theory be ready to soft open another island and go like that. It’s not going to be quick, that’s for sure. But in the long run, this will be better. The exact timeline I’ll leave to the builders,” she explained, getting nods from the board.

“Indeed. It would even increase guest capacity. What about hotels?” Richard leaned forward, hands folded on the table but he looked interested.

“We keep the hotels currently on Isla Nublar and only add them to the island we dedicate to the herbivores. We could in theory also add hotels to the island dedicated to aquatic but I would avoid putting any on the islands for carnivorous and aerial dinosaurs,” she recommended, getting a slow nod from Richard.

“Just what I was thinking, Ms. Sobeck. You do seem to have an eye for this kind of work,” Richard praised, and Anya couldn’t help but smile as she turned off the screen.

“Thank you, sir,” Anya replied, leaning forward to place her clasped hands on the table.

“Ms. Sobeck, you have been patient, resourceful, and clearly prepared through everything. While Ms. Dearing acted irrationally, you thought things through. You paid attention while she ignored sound advice,” Mr. Masrani said thoughtfully, nodding to himself while the rest of the board nodded.

“Indeed, and the rest of the staff only had glowing reviews of your work. There were only a few who said anything negative, but clearly, they were just throwing sand trying to save their own skin. How would you like to be the new Park Operations Manager, Ms. Sobeck?” Mr. West asked, and Anya just stared, shocked. Her mouth opened and closed a couple times as she looked around the group of board members, some seemed excited, a few intrigued, with only one or two looking skeptical about her being able to do the job. But three in particular, Mr. West included, looked at her like they knew she would accept, would succeed at what she attempted.

Going into this meeting, she had hoped that she would inspire them to be smarter when they reopened. Maybe convince them to let her work directly with Owen when he went back to work with his girls. Though according to Barry, they were restless, barely tolerating the audio recordings of his voice. She never thought she’d get a promotion.

“I…really? A-are you sure you…you don’t want someone more experienced?” she asked hesitantly. While she may have created and run several things, those were vastly different from running a park. Nothing in her resume even came close to preparing her for that level of job. She was a project manager, maybe in the future it would make sense, climb up to that position through gaining experience. But jumping straight to POM? That sounded like a severe risk for the board to take.

Especially after everything.

“We’re sure. You’ve demonstrated great skill and instincts when it comes to Jurassic World. We need someone like you to help keep this park going and being as great as it can. And it seems like your the person who can do it,” Mr. West said with a smile.

“So, what do you say, Ms. Sobeck?” Mr. Masrani asked, a smile growing on his lips. He looked pleased with this turn of events. Perhaps he was honestly pleased.

When she first started working at Jurassic World, she knew she wanted to make people happy. To create a place of wonder for generations to enjoy and a place where the dinosaurs were happy. She never really thought she’d be offered the POM position. But what better place to make that happen?

“I accept,” Anya said with a smile, just knowing how pleased Owen and her family would be. It was time to get back to work. And hopefully by the time Owen is healed up and her own family feels ready, Jurassic World’s first island will be how she imagined it with the rest of the islands on their way.

She had a good feeling about it.

Anya on the Left and Eliza on the right.