•adeline• || o. grady

13~

"I appreciate you coming down," Owen put a hand on Adeline's shoulder. "But I really want you somewhere safer. Claire?" The redhead woman appeared from behind Adeline.

"I need you."

"Okay."

"I need your help. My nephews, they're out in the Valley. Please, if anything happens to them..."

"How old?" Owen asked, stepping away from the flow of people.

"Uh, the older one, he's high school age. The younger one, um, he's a few years—" She held her hand up to demonstrate their heights.

"You don't know how old your nephews are?" Owen interrupted. Claire seemed embarrassed, as she clearly wasn't proud of her lack of involvement in their life.

"Whatever, let's go. We'll take the Jeep." Adeline interrupted, grabbing Owen's arm and leading Claire forward, towards the parking lot. Owen got in the driver's seat, to which Adeline had no objection. She got in the back, letting Claire have the passenger's side. They drove towards the Valley, a road Adeline could walk in her sleep. Owen pulled over, but Adeline couldn't see why from the back. "Stay in the car."

He grabbed the gun and walked slowly forward. That's when she saw the dinosaur. "Oh, my God." She whispered. She jumped out of the car, running over to the animal. "It's okay, sweet girl. I know." The dinosaur had claw marks all over her body, and was groaning and struggling to breathe.

Adeline stroked the dinosaur's head, trying to calm her. She tried to get up once, but Owen helped keep her on the ground to ease her passing. Adeline stayed for a moment, rubbing the animal's head, trying to stay calm. She walked to stand with Owen, but once he noticed her approach, he turned around to face her. She craned her neck to see what he was trying to block her from seeing, but she wished she hadn't.

Six brontosauruses, looking just the same as the first. Torn apart, bloody, and dying. "It's killing them for sport." She whispered. After somewhat recovering from the sight, the three got back into the Jeep and continued to the coordinates they had of the Gyrosphere. When they reached it, it was torn to pieces, glass shattered everywhere, with Jimmy Fallon's crackling voice playing.

Claire found her nephew's phone laying shattered on the ground, but the footprints of the boys led off somewhere. "They made it out." They left the car (her precious car!) and continued on foot, following the tracks, which led to the waterfall. The Gyrospheres couldn't make it all the way out to the waterfall, so Adeline's knowledge of the terrain went from 100 to 10 in seconds.

"Oh, my God. They jumped."

"Brave kids."

Claire started to call out her nephews' names at the top of her lungs. Owen ran over to her, shushing her. "I am not one of your damn animals."

"Listen," Owen said. "Those kids are still alive. But we will not be if you continue to scream like that."

"Okay, so... You can pick up their scent, right? Like, track their footprints?" Claire started whispering, taking his previous words to heart.

Owen deadpanned. "I was with the Navy, not the Navajo."

"So what should we do?"

"You two go back, I'll find them."

"We will find them." Claire and Adeline said in unison.

"Claire, you'll last two minutes in there, less in those shoes."

Claire sighed, then unbuttoned her shirt and tied it at the bottom, cuffing the sleeves. Adeline respected the hustle. Owen clearly did not.

"What's that supposed to mean?"