The Lost Dinosaur |2| Nublar Seven Series

Dinosaur Protection Group

Hayden

Zia had dragged me all across town to introduce me to Claire Dearing. Along with Wu and Masrani, she was responsible for Jurassic World. The one responsible for the Indominus escape and me and my friends being left behind. I didn't look forward to meeting her. But if she was trying to atone, why not start by saving Bumpy?

Zia talked non stop in the way over the Dinosaur Protection Group headquarters. The place was a dump and I meant that in the nicest way possible, but I wasn't the one who would tell her that. The building seemed to be falling to pieces in the industrial part of San Francisco. The elevator opened to a loft, or at least tried to. The doors got stuck and we had to squeeze through.

The room was chaotic. There was loud chatter all across the room, a dozen people, looking fresh out of college, were on the phone, discussing the recent news, trying to find donations and organizing protests. The brick walls were covered in pamphlets, banners and maps of Nublar. There were desks with computers and a lot of clutter, papers, old food wrappings and coffee cups, and for some reason there were several cacti in vases around the room.

As soon as I stepped in the loft, I saw a few curious glances my way and the chatter diminished. I sighed internally, it had been 3 years and I still got the looks. 'Oh my God, it was awful what you've been through.' 'I'm so sorry for you.' 'What's your favorite dinosaur?' But I bet any seven of us entering a DPG HQ would get a few looks.

"Back to work, you coffee freaks." Zia said and everybody looked away.

She walked straight into a young man's desk. He was tanned and smiled a bit nervously. He had very curly hair and prescription glasses. He was probably in his early 20s, but looked younger, however, he was dressed very neatly with a dark blue tweed jacket and pants.

"You actually convinced her? Your people skills are getting better." The guy said to Zia.

"Seriously, stop letting your mom shop for you." Zia shot back.

"You don't need to insult me every time I state a fact."

"Want to talk about facts? The last time your clothes were in fashion, men were inventing the plane."

"It's vintage."

"Old and pretty means vintage. Old and well... this..." She motioned to his clothes. "That's a whole other thing."

"Agree to disagree." The man crossed his arms.

"Is Claire back? She explained everything on the phone, but I hoped she'd be back by now." Zia said.

"Not yet." Vintage guy was looking at me, almost analyzing me.

"Oh, right. Franklin this is Hays. Hays, Franklin." I cleared my throat at that. "Right, Hayden. She has a thing with nicknames."

"Nice to meet another suicidal fellow." Franklin shook my hand.

"Speak for yourself. I'm coming back very much alive." I huffed. "So, you've been there before?"

"I worked on IT. Didn't get to see much, thank God." He laughed nervously. "And when the incident happened, I-"

"You got out." I stated. It was weird meeting another person that was there when it happened.

He nodded. "Yeah. Now, I'm here."

"Most of the people here were ex-Jurassic World." Zia said. "Do you know how hard it is to have them on your resume? They aren't exactly giving out recommendations."

I looked around, most of the people here seemed to be in their mid-20s, some were older.

"I still can't believe we're going back to Nublar." Franklin whispered, glancing around warily.