Illusion ➵ Zach Mitchell

11 ➵ velociraptor

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ILLUSION

[chapter eleven]

BRIGHT light fills my vision, making me squint. My hands feel that I am lying on something soft, but I can't see here I am. I remember passing out, but barely anything before that.

"Hey," I hear Zach say, "you're up."

I smile at the familiarity of his voice. I glance in his direction, but my eyes won't focus on him.

"Oh, sorry. Let me get that." He reached towards something, blocking the light for a brief second before turning it off. I realize that I am laying in the back seat of the truck we arrived in and the bright light was the spotlight located on the interior roof.

I can feel Zach's almost dry gray sweatshirt draped across me as I squint into the darkness. I faintly see Zach's face because of little bit of light given off by the moon. Zach's face looks hard as his eyes scans my face. He looks worried.

"Hey, have you been crying?" he asks. He unconsciously raised his hand towards my face before dropping it. He nervously scratches the back of his neck.

I gaze up at him, confused, and slide the back of my hand along my cheek. It was wet with tears; I must have been crying in my sleep. I shake my head and push the forthcoming sob to the back of my throat. I have other things to think of.

I look outside the windows. Although they were tented darkly, I could tell that it was already night time.

"How long have I've been out," I ask sleepily.

"Only an hour or so..."

I stare at him, then search around the truck. Zach and I were the only ones here. "Where's Gray," I asked, sitting up and resting my weight on my arms. "And Claire and Owen?"

He smiled sadly at me as if he knew I'd be worried about them. "They're outside," he sighed, "setting up everything."

"Setting up for what?"

"Mari," Zach dragged out. Whatever it was they were doing he did not want to tell me. "They're planning one still releasing the velocirapters."

My eyes widened.

"But please don't do anything," he rushed, "You need to rest."

I looked him directly in the eyes. "I'm done resting... I need answers."

I flung Zach's sweatshirt off of me and move my legs to sit up. I slid past him and opened the door of the truck. He slipped out of the truck behind me, slamming the door.

Military vehicles speed around me. Lights adorn the sides of the dirt road and illuminate the scurrying people carrying guns and other equipment. I turned my head to the brighter area closer to the compound. They must be discussing battle strategies; drawing war plans.

That's what this was. A war. Dinosaurs vs. Dinosaurs. Or was it Man vs. Man and dinosaurs were just the pons.

I see Owen with his usual serious expression, pointing at a large map. I see Claire, too, but she's sitting off from the rest of them. She's surprisingly not talking.

Tall men in army combat uniforms block my way. Security detail.

I roll my eyes. I didn't have time to listen to two brain-dead brutes tell me I had no right to be here. "Let me in."

"We can't do that Miss....," one says, pausing, trying to put a name to my face.

"Masrani," I answer swiftly, "Marella Masrani."

The men's eyes widen. Whether it's in shock of who I am or in fear of what I am able to do to them, the men quickly let me pass.

I walk over to where Owen is. He was explaining something to a few of the InGen soldiers.

"You're actually going to do it? Release them?"

Everyone at the table looks up at me.

Owen subtly apologizes for the interruption and pulls me aside. "Hoskins is in charge of InGen. What he says goes," he sighed. I could tell this was hard for him: just giving in.

"That's it? 'What he says goes?'" I yell, pulling away from him. I'm seriously annoyed. I thought that Owen was the tough type who stood up for what he believed in, and didn't just give up. "What about what's best for the people that are still on the island?"

"What's best for them is that we find the Indominus and kill it." He was right about that. But what about the people who created it in the first place? What punishment would be rewarded to them. Their more of the danger. I mean, who's to say they won't just do it again.

"Listen I know your worried about the 'raptors hurting someone, but that won't happen. I won't let that happen," he promised.

I clenched my jaw. There was nothing I could do. I shook him off. Although I was a little disappointed, I secretly somewhat agreed with Owen. If anybody could do this, he could. I head over to where Gray and Zach are standing, watching men hook up the 'raptors.

"Hey," Gray greeted me. "Isn't this so cool? Being this close to a velociraptor!"

"What exactly are they doing," I ask. The velociraptors were locked up and only their heads showed. The men were wrapping something around the velociraptors' heads. We snickered quietly as they growl at some of the soldiers.

"They're cameras," Owen answered coming up form behind us and opening the door to let us get a closer look. "They let us see what they see." He placed a hand on one of the 'raptors.

"What are their names?" Gray wondered.

"Delta, Echo, Charlie," he said pointing, "and this one here is Blue." He pointed lastly to Blue who had a blue pinstripe running down her head. I assumed it continued all of the way down her spine. As soon as Owen spoke her name, her eyes zeroed in on us. At first it crept me out; it was as if her amber eyes were glaring at me. I frowned. Maybe she didn't like me...

"Out, kids. It's almost time to set 'em loose," I heard Hoskins grouch.

Rolling my eyes, I turn to face him. Oh, now I get it. Blue must have been glaring at him. I smirked. It was obvious no one liked him. I scowled at him and left the caging area.

"C'mon," Claire waved us over to the truck. "We are going to sit in here. Where it's safe," she said hopefully, like she didn't believe the words coming out of her own mouth.

Zach, Gray and I climbed in the back. It was filled with Taser Guns and lassos to wrangle up any lose animals, but I noticed that there weren't any real weapons. We sat on a long metal chest that was at the front of the truck. I was in the middle. Behind us was a window we could use to talk to Claire.

"Ok." She inhaled and I could tell she was nervous."Put your seat belts on."

I raised my eyebrow, confused, as both Gray and Zach searched for them. We weren't even sitting on seats, why would they have belts?

"Fine, just hold hands or something," she huffed and closed the door, shutting out most of the light.

Gray smirked a raised his hand. I shake my head, smiling.

"So, what do we do now?" I ask. I feel Gray rest his head on me and I hook my arm around his shoulders. Zach scooted closer, his arm finding its way around my waist.

"Now," Zach breathed, "we wait."