SURVIVORS ↠ ZACH MITCHELL ✔️ [EDITING]

Chapter 10

     The construction crews were on break as Claire and Owen got out of the car. Owen stared up at the towering walls, still being built higher in the boring grey colours, looking unconvinced and more than a little uneasy.

     "We've been pre-booking tickets for months. The park needs a new attraction every few years in order to reinvigorate the public's interest. Kind of like the space program." Claire walked over to the flight of steps leading up to the observation tower. Owen followed behind her. "Corporate felt genetic modification would up the 'wow' factor." Owen looked at her.

     "They're dinosaurs. 'Wow' enough," he responded unamused.

     "Not according to our focus groups. The Indominous Rex makes us relevant again." She smirked. Owen can't believe his ears.

     "'The Indominus Rex?'" Owen grinned.

     "We needed something scary and easy to pronounce. You should hear a four-year-old try to say 'Archaeornithomimus.'"

     "You should hear you try to say it..." Owen frowned.

     As Claire and Owen entered the observation room. The supervisor, Nick, was sitting at his desk on his lunch break, munching on a sandwich. Besides them, he was the only one present. They walked over to one of the windows. As before, no one could see the Indominous Rex, just the dense jungle of the paddock interior beyond the glass.

     "What's this thing made of?" Owen questioned.

     "The base genome is a T. Rex, the rest is...Classified," Claire answered.

     "You made a new dinosaur but you don't even know what it is?" Claire got a dubious tone from Owen. She was clearly already annoyed by his line of questioning.

     "The lab delivers us finished assets and we show them to public." Claire looked to Nick. "Can we drop a steer, please?" An annoyed Nick pressed a button.

     "How long has the animal been in here?" Owen didn't relent.

     "All its life."

     "Never seen anything outside of these walls?" Owen didn't seem rather impressed with the way the dinosaur has been brought up so far.

     "We can't exactly walk it." There was a rumbling noise outside and a huge crane lowered a hunk of beef down from above.

     "And you feed it with that?" Owen raised an eyebrow. Claire wasn't getting it, seeming unamused and still mildly annoyed.

     "Is there a problem?"

     "Animals raised in isolation aren't always the most functional."

     "Your raptors are born in captivity..."

     "With siblings. They learn social skills. And I imprint on them when they're born. They've known Marlo all of their lives as well, it's not like they've gone without contact or interaction their entire life. There's trust. The only positive relationship this animal has is with that crane. At least she knows that means food." He seemed increasingly concerned, but Claire wasn't  sharing his opinion. She adopted a very patronizing, sarcastic tone.

     "So she needs a friend? We should schedule play dates? That sort of thing?"

     "Probably not a good idea," Owen's tone was rather dark. Noticing the dinosaur hasn't emerged from the jungle to eat the meat, Claire leaned over and tapped on the glass.

     "Where is it?"

     Now it was Owen's turn to be sarcastic, "What, is it in the basement? Is there a downstairs? Maybe it's in the rec room."

     Ignoring him, Claire shook her head. "It was just here. We were just here."

     She went over to one of the thermal imaging consoles and activated it. It performed a scan of the jungle. After a moment it emitted an annoying buzzing sound and flashed the readout 'NO THERMAL SIGNATURES DETECTED.' The other computer screens arranged around the room begin beeping in alarm and they all showed the same words. They were not detecting any body heat inside the paddock. The Indominous Rex was not showing up.

     "Oh, shit!" Nick exclaimed while Owen walked over to a window at the far end of the room.

     "That doesn't make any sense. These doors haven't been opened in weeks." Across the room, Owen pointed out the window.

     "Were those claw marks always there?" Claire turned and came to look at what he was pointing at.

     "You think it...?" Realization hits her and she began trembling. "Oh, God!" With that, she turned and she ran out. "She has an implant in her back! I can track it from the control room!" Owen watched her go, then turned and looked back out the window. By the rear door of the paddock, there were numerous deep scratch marks in the concrete going up very high.

-

     Claire was in her Mercedes racing back to the main area of the park, talking on her cell phone.

     "We have an asset out of containment! Put ACU on alert! This is not a drill!"

     In the control room, Lowery and Vivian were chatting.

     "Even though I didn't meet him until I was thirteen, I definitely considered Carl to be, like, more of a dad than my real dad," Lowery told Vivian. They heard a beep. On the park map, a blinking red dot indicated trouble in the Restricted Area. The phone rang. Lowery answered it, "Yeah, hello?"

     Claire responded over the phone, "Lowery...Get me coordinates on the Indominous." While in the control room Lowery and Vivian exchanged confused glances.

     "Okay, yeah, uh..." Just as Lowery responded, Masrani enters and looked up at the map. "...Let me do...Uh, I'm doin' it right now."

-

     Owen and Nick entered the main area of the enclosure through a side door. Warily, they walked through the jungle to the back wall, where a worker, Ellis, was inspecting the claw marks. Owen was alert and Nick looked nervous, but they made it over to where Ellis was without incident. Owen felt the deep grooves with his bare hand and the three men stare up at the massive wall looming over them.

     "That wall's forty feet high. You really think she could've climbed out?" Nick sounded skeptical.

     "Depends."

     "On what?"

     "What kinda dinosaur they cooked up in that lab..."

-

     The tracking device indicated on the map that the dinosaur is still in Paddock 11.

     "Wait, what the hell? It's in the cage..." Lowery remarked rather confused.

     "Well, that's impossible. I was just there," Claire responded dubiously.

     "Claire, I'm telling you, she's in the cage..." Lowery stated. Masrani looked up and saw a video feed of the Paddock 11 interior showing Owen, Nick, and Ellis still inspecting the claw marks. After a moment the others do too. Lowery, dawning on fear, continued, "What? Wait, a second, there are people in there...?" Claire gasped to herself.

     "Get them out of there now! Now!"