•adeline• || o. grady

14~

Owen had agreed to take control of the 'mission', mostly in order to keep Hoskins from doing anything to the raptors. They were planning their route inside, while Adeline, Claire, and the boys were outside, waiting to hear the plan.

They returned from inside, and Owen headed straight for the raptors, trying to keep them calm. He hadn't seen them since the day before, and clearly had missed them.

"Owen." Gray called. Adeline had let the boys go over to the fence, but no further. She came with them as a chaperone. "Are they safe?"

"No. They're not." Owen didn't try to sugarcoat it. Clearly why he didn't work with the kids at the park.

"What are their names?" Zach asked.

"Well, you got Charlie, there's Echo, here is Delta, and this one's called Blue. She's the beta."

"Who's the alpha?" Gray asked. Adeline rolled her eyes, knowing what was coming next.

"You're looking at him, kid." Owen smirked. The boys smiled, and Claire called them over to the safe spot she'd found.

Adeline stepped up to the bars, and Owen grabbed her waist through the fence, gently pulling her closer. "I guess it is a good line, Mr. Alpha. Very sexy." She smiled, kissing him softly.

"You'd know all about that, wouldn't you?" He went to kiss her again, but she put a finger on his lips. "Children present."

"Come on, they're all the way over there."

"I'll kiss you after the mission. Incentive to come back to me."

"I'll be more than kissing you once we're done with this." He kissed her forehead, and she tried to keep herself from letting tears fall as she walked over to the van Claire had set up in.

She got in the passenger's seat, peeking over at the tablet Claire had the camera feeds on. At their first chance to stop and breathe all day, Claire took the opportunity. "So, this morning."

"Owen's idea, I was gonna hide. I'm very sorry about that."

"It's alright. I'm glad you're finally together."

"We haven't talked about it yet."

They released the raptors before they could continue the conversation. Both of them could only focus on the camera and the pure worry running through their veins. The cameras were attached to each dinosaur and each person. The raptors slowed down. They found it.

Adeline watched intently. The raptors and the Indominus Rex were communicating with each other. All of the cameras suddenly trained on Owen. "Oh, my God." Adeline murmured. "No, I can't watch this." But she didn't look away.

All at once, every gun went off. They shot at the Indominus first, knocking it down for about ten seconds before it got up and ran off. There was fire everywhere. The cameras started going out. The raptors were attacking the InGen soldiers. Raptors were shot, men were eaten. Owen and Barry weren't in sight.

Adeline placed a hand over her mouth. She was in too much shock to cry. One of the last few cameras showed Owen, on his motorcycle. The feed was labeled Raptor Blue. "Oh, no, no, no."

"Is everybody dead?" Gray asked quietly.

"No, no, everyone is fine." Claire placed the tablet face down in her lap.

"Don't lie to him!" Zach frowned.

"He's scared! It's okay to lie when people are scared."

"I want to go home." Gray whimpered.

"Oh, sweetheart, you will, okay? I promise. Tomorrow you will be home, and your mother will never let me see you again."

A bloody hand smacked on the window, leaving a print. "Get out of here, go!" The man yelled. Claire screamed, turning the key and flooring the gas pedal.

A raptor crashed through the window onto Adeline's lap. She screamed, pushing at the raptor until it fell back out the window. She tried to catch her breath, wiping her hands that were now covered in who-knows-whose blood onto her shirt. Glancing in the rearview mirror, she saw two raptors still following them. Claire swerved left to squish one against a tree.

She heard the rev of a motorcycle engine and the boys yell "Owen!"

Adeline could've cried out in relief. He pulled up next to Claire's broken window. "We gotta get indoors. Follow me." He drove ahead of them, and Claire called Lowery, asking him to call in a chopper. They drove back to Main Street, jumping out of the car and running towards the control room. They made it upstairs to the lab, but it was empty. They'd evacuated it.

The group wandered further, looking at the plans InGen had open on the computers. Some men came in, locking test tubes into transport cases.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm afraid that's above your pay grade, honey." Hoskins appeared. Adeline squeezed her hands into fists, locking her jaw.

"Where is Henry?" Claire demanded.

"Dr. Wu works for us."

Owen pushed Adeline behind him, who pushed Zach behind her, who pushed Gray behind him. Gray stepped out anyway. "That's
not a real dinosaur." He mumbled, referring to the computer.

"No. It ain't, kid." He looked up at Claire. "But somebody's gotta make sure that this company has a future. Imagine. That one: a fraction of the size, deadly, intelligent, able to hide from the most advance military technology. A living weapon, unlike anything we've ever seen."

"Hoskins, you are another form of sick in the fucking head if you think this will ever work. Have you been paying attention at all today?"

"Millions of years of evolution. What did we learn? Nature is the gift th—"

A raptor came tearing into the lab. Delta.

"Oh, shit!" Hoskins yelled, backing towards the wall, the raptor approaching him. "Easy. Easy, boy. Easy. Hey, we're on the same side, right? Right?" He reached a hand out to Delta. His last mistake. She lunged, tearing into his arm. His screams could be heard even as they ran from the lab. The raptor followed them, but they stopped short once they got outside. Blue was standing right in front of them, blocking their way.

Owen dropped his rifle, reaching out slowly to take Blue's headpiece off.

The Indominus stepped out, but Blue turned around and growled at it. The Indominus Rex easily knocked the raptor to the side.

Adeline hadn't seen it's full size up close in reality until then, so she was stunned. It's deafening roar brought her back to the moment.

Owen whistled, and the raptors jumped onto the Rex. He started shooting, ushering the others to get inside the gift shop. The Indominus was obviously winning, and Gray was whispering. "Twenty-four. Fifteen. We need more."

"More what?" Adeline asked.

"Teeth."

The two women made eye contact. In a silent conversation of gesturing to Claire's shoes, Adeline stood up and opened the first aid kit. She grabbed a flare from it. "Claire, keep them safe. I'll be fine."

She bolted from the gift shop and across the street.

•

i'm feeling better and editing this now realizing the brain fog fully took over and i don't remember writing a lot of this