Hybrids: An Indoraptor Story ✓

Timeskip

||𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟗𝐭𝐡 - 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟖𝐭𝐡, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎||

Blink disappeared long before Indy found out the following morning.

It was all thanks to my sense of urgency of course -- we both knew an overnight stay would end in his demise. Despite his stubbornness, annoyance (and injuries), the Scorpios Rex seemed willing to accept my pleas, trekking back over to his original location to remain until Wu returns. And once that long night of hiding, crawling, and walking ended, I fell into a deep slumber outside the vents of INGEN.

It was Indy's surprised voice that woke me up the following morning.

"He's gone," she cooed, rousing me to the starlight with a soft nuzzle. "Good. You did the right thing, Seven."

My heart writhed. If only she knew. A lie hurt me more than any ordinary injury -- even the smile curling across her jaws had now turned into an ingrained memory because of it.

The night she sealed the door, I found a new way to meet Blink: a broken fan near the far end of the cage offered me access through the vents to the outside. It did pass under a few rooms (one being Wu's)  but it served to be the safest, secluded route for an indoraptor to travel.

So every morning I'd sleep soundly, watching Indy wander to and fro, eating her daily meals and marveling at her reflection in her little pool. We'd talk here and there if the moment felt right, learning about each other for better and for worse. She didn't bother me, and I didn't bother her.

Once she fell asleep I'd slither my way through the new exit, dragging against the metal until I reached the rusted black gate underneath Wu's office. Here I'd check for any change of scent, just one irregularity to pinpoint Wu's presence.

Nothing really changed.

And then I'd find Blink. The stubby-nosed black hybrid would be sitting beneath a lone pine tree, eagerly awaiting my arrival with a wag of his tail. Sometimes his scent would be stale, telling me he went out hunting for a little while. I didn't seem to mind, so I waited for him at the tree until he returned.

Through the span of two-and-a-half weeks we seemed to build a silent, but honest truce. Like Indy, we, too, talked, but it felt more defined and personal each and every visit. He began to interest me, far more than ever before. I wasn't paying attention to what he looked like or his bloodthirsty intentions -- Blink was like a broken shell who just wanted to be listened to. To be understood... and cared for. Sure, I'd tell him about how Click found me, and the terrible nights that INGEN would hurt me. But Blink would speak about his time on the doomed island, and the strange creatures he hunted and was hunted by.

Truth be told, I didn't know he had a sister, either.

"She died to the gray raptor," he said the day I asked, eying the INGEN building ahead, "in a building collapse. I got lucky when it happened."

He'd paused, then inhaled sharply against the folds of his lost memory.

"I think she would've loved it out here. She... always wanted to see what was out here... beyond the island."

"What was her name?"

Blink bowed his head and sealed his eyes shut. "I wish I knew. We... never got to name ourselves before it happened."

For some reason, hearing his stories and his life punched a hole in my heart. So much pain, and torture ravished his past. Now I saw why he wanted Wu dead: all he ever did was turn Blink into his test subject for other creatures. Looking upon his scales, I could see proof of it -- the inflamed flesh around his poisoned needles, the weariness in his reddened eyes, and those massive scars drawn all across his underbelly. I looked at myself, suddenly seeing how lucky I was to be spared that horrible fate.