Jurassic Girl

Chapter Two

"Hey Barry," I shout towards my friend as I jump out of my truck.
"Mor," he shouts, "where've you been, we expected you sooner?"
"Put on a little show with Grey," I smirk, "don't tell Owen, but Liz let me ride Grey."
Barry's eyes widen in shock, "what! Ride her!"
"Shh-"
"You did what?"
I turn towards Owen, who has his arms crossed, "could you not do that, you look like Dad."
"Mor," he repreminds me, "you got in the cage with Grey?"
"Yes, but it's ok, we've been practicing this for months now," I explain, "she trusts me. I trust her."
Owen sighs, "you could've gotten hurt Mor."
"But I didn't," I say, "Grey would never hurt me. You know that Owen."
He relaxes, "fine, but not a word of this is spoken to mom and dad, they would kill both of us."
I laugh, "is it time to train?"
He shakes his head at my attempt to change the subject, "yeah, we were about to start without you."
I gasp, "how could you!"
"Shut up and grab the bucket," Owen laughs.
I turn towards Barry who already has the bucket in his hand, "I got it."
"You sure Barry," I ask him.
He just nods for me to go up the stairs before him, "after you malady."
I mock curtsy to him, "why thank you."
We share a laugh as we follow Owen up the steps to the top of the cage. The girls are all in the trees, nowhere to be seen.
"Release a pig," Owen yells.
A worker obliges and the small pink pig squeals as it runs out in the open. This was something we did every day, to get the girls amped up. I hear them chase after it in the trees, and soon enough, the girls are out in the open area chasing the pig. The pig runs into a small opening in the wall, the safe zone as I liked to call it, and the door closed behind it.
"Hold," Owen yells.
The four raptors fall into a diamond shape and stop.
"Hey," Owen says, using his clicker with one hand, the other held in the air.
All of them look up at him, "eyes on me."
Blue makes a little defiant noise and I smile. She's beta of the group and had the most problems following orders.
"Blue," Owen calls out, clicking, "Blue! Watch it."
Charlie starts to snap and growl to, "Charlie! Don't give me that shit!"
Delta starts to act up, "Delta! Lock it up."
She snaps at him and he gives me a pleading look, she listened to me a bit more than him. I walk over next to him.
"Delta!" I yelled as Owen used the clicker. "Listen up!"
She goes silent and Owen nods to me thankfully and then he looks back at the girls, "good!"
"And... we're moving," he clicks and starts to walk towards where Barry hanged the bucket.
The girls follow him, Blue snapping at Charlie. Delta looked at me once more and I nodded towards Owen and she follows the rest of the group.
"Hold!" The group stops, now in a square formation. "That's good. That is damn good. Very good."
"See, Charlie, that's what you get," he says, throwing her a piece of meat.
"Echo, there you go! Delta!" He throws each raptor a piece, reaching into the bucket for another one, pulling out a dead rat. "Blue! This ones for you."
Blue eats it in two bites.
"Hold," he yells, "eyes up!"
They comply, keeping completely still. They watch Owen carefully as he holds his hand up a little higher.
"Go," he finally lets them run, dropping his hand.
The girls run, making happy noises as they are free to run. I smile downat them as they almost play with each other. Delta comes up underneath me and caws up at me, I smile at her.
"Owen!"
I look up from Delta and to the source of a voice. My smile instantly fades as I see the man, Hoskins.
I quickly made my way over to my brother and Barry, my arms crossed. Hoskins was laughing as he made his way towards us, clapping unwilling workers on their shoulders as he passed.
"I was starting to think I hired the wrong guys," he starts, climbing onto the walkway, "but damn, you got 'em eating out of your palm."
Barry and I give each other matching looks of exasperation as Owen steps towards him, his hand outstretched, "you came on a good day, it's not usually a happy ending."
Hoskins takes his hand and shakes it roughly, "is that why you're not sending in your reports?"
"We've been busy," Barry answers, clear disdain for the man in his voice.
"Not to busy to." Hoskins does a weird little fight move. "To cash your paychecks."
"What do you need buddy," Owen asks.
"A field test," Hoskins answers.
I groan instantly, "I knew it."
Owen rolls his eyes and turns away from Hoskins. He was as done with him and his stupid little war fantasies as I was.
"Hey," Hoskins follows after him, "I've just seen that they can respond to commands. We need to take the research and get it on its feet."
"They're wild animals, Hoskins," Owen argues, "trust me, you don't want them in the field."
"I just saw a bond," Hoskins fires back, "a real bond. Between man and beast."
"You're in my way," Owen answers.
"Come on, we're the same," Hoskins pleads, "we're dogs of war. We know that the military needs to reduce casualties. Some people think that robots are the future. Look, nature gave us the most effective killing machines, 75 million years ago. And now we know they can take orders."
Barry and I approach them and I scoff, "they can take his orders, in a cage, with the promise of food for doing whatever he says. You're right, you and Owen are war dogs, and you know just how short supplies can get sometimes."
Hoskins turns to me, "what about you little miss T-Rex rider. Yeah, I saw that today, you were in the cage, giving orders, and the only promise of food was if it decided to eat you."
"Grey is different," I say, "unlike these raptors, she's by herself, I'm the closest thing she has to a sibling. These raptors have each other, Blue is their beta, the moment Owen gets in that cage and they realize he's food, she's in charge. They can decide if they want to stop listening."
Hoskins starts to protest but I stop him with a single hand, "have you ever actually listened to a word we've said, or are you too dense to see past your war?"
"Ok," Barry says, grabbing my arm and pulling me away from Hoskins, "let's get you away before you get your brother and I fired."
Owen is chuckling at Hoskins angered face as Barry pulls me away. I turn forward and walk with Barry.
"Nice speech Mor," Barry laughs.
I chuckle, "the asshole needs more than just a speech to make him listen, maybe a good kick to that dense head of his."
"A couple kicks," Barry agrees.
Suddenly, I hear a pig squealing and a man yelling, "pig loose! Pig loose!"
I turn towards him and see him try to catch it. The loop goes around the pig just as Echo snatches it. The man falls over the rail and into the cage.
"Shit," I yell, running down the steps with Barry.
We get to the entrance area just in time to see Owen open the gate.
"Owen no," Barry yells at him, but he doesn't listen.
I open the outside gate and Barry and I rush in. I see two ACU guys point their stun guns down at the raptors.
"No, hold your fire," Owen yells, he runs out in front of the man who fell in with his arms extended out in front of him, "hold your fire. Do not fire!"
"Owen, get out of there," I scream at him as Barry stops the gate from opening any more.
"Put twelve amps in these animals and they'll never trust me again," he says.
I rush forward and pull the man who fell in out of the cage. I let Barry take him as I watch my brother worriedly.
"Blue, stand down," Owen tells her, "stand down."
She snaps at him, "hey, hey! What did I just say?"
"Delta! I see you." She snaps this time. "Back up!"
"Okay," Owen says, all of the hissing at him now, "good. Good. Charlie! Stay right there."
Charlie hisses, but complies, "good. Close the gate!"
"Are you crazy?"
"Owen," I yell, "what are you-"
"Just trust me," Owen tells us.
"I don't trust you," I snap, "that's the problem here!"
"Close the gate," the terrified man yells at Barry.
Barry looks at me terrified and then back at Owen, whispering in French, "god."
He hits the button and Owen waits a moment, before bolting to the gate, rolling under it just as it closes, the raptors slamming into it.
Barry helps Owen from the ground, "I'm ok."
I hit his arm, hard, "what were you thinking!"
He laughs, a little hysterical, "I don't know. Don't tell mom and dad and I won't say anything about Grey."
I glare at him but nod, "deal."
Owen turns towards the man that fell in, "you're the new guy right."
He nods, "yeah?"
"You ever wonder why there was a job opening," he asks, sounding serious even though he was as joking.
The man breathes deeply, not finding his joke funny at all.
"Hey," Owen says, looking at the cage, "don't ever turn your back to the cage."
He looks behind him to find Delta crouched, growling lowly at him. He scrambles away from her and I laugh. She turns her eyes to me and backs away from the bars.
"Play nice Delta," I say and she chirps at me in answer, "good girl."
She puts her snout to the bars again but this time so that I can pet her. I scratch her nose affectionately.
"Come on Mor," Owen says, "we're done till four for training."
Just then, my phone starts ringing and I take it out of my back pocket, Claire.
"Or not," Owen laughs, nodding towards the phone, "her majesty awaits."
I roll my eyes and answer the phone, "hey Claire."
"Mor! Good, you picked up," she shouts through the phone.
"Ow, my ear Claire," I say laughing.
"Sorry," she says, quieter, "sorry. I have a favor I need to ask you."
I groan and she quickly adds, "I know I know, but please, for me?"
"What is it," I ask.
"My nephews are here to visit me during there holiday break, but I have to much work for today," she explains, "I left them with Zara but you know how she is. She's been so busy with wedding plans I don't think she'll actually pay attention to them. Can you, go help her, just show them around, I gave Zara an extra VIP wristband for you."
I sigh through my nose and she hears me, "I'll give you a hundred dollars."
"And you've got yourself a babysitter," I laugh, "where do I meet them?"
"They'll be waiting at the visitors center," she laughs as well.
"Ok then," I say, "I'll head there now."
We hang up with a short goodbye and I turn to Owen who has a large smirk on his face, "T-Rex rider and babysitter huh?"
"Shut up."