Way Back into Love ↪ Owen Grady

twenty-eight ↪ one step ahead

    As expected, the whole perimeter of the main lab was under incredibly strict surveillance but, luckily for us, there was no camera in sight. Owen and I scanned every inch of the area, trying to find a way in.

    "That way?" the raptor trainer pointed at some air duct above our heads. It could've actually worked.

    "I don't think you'd fit" I gave a more careful look at it, not noticing at first how Owen's eyes were on me. "What"

    Owen suspiciously smiled with an almost unnoticeable shrug. "I guess not, huh"

    "Yeah, you definitely- wait, no" I dropped my gaze and fixed it on him. The way his green eyes sparkled at the contact with the beam light of the tunnel somehow sent shivers through my skin. — "Okay, I'll do it"

    "What?" he laughed. "Just like that? No teasing needed?"

    "Nope, sorry" I teased.

    Owen snorted. "Ouch. You sure know how to hurt a man's ego"

    "Help me up?"

    I managed to get through the tiny entrance of the air duct thanks to Owen's help and a soft push. I placed my radio in my hand and crawled towards the lab's direction. Our squad had claimed channel eight as our main secret communication channel, yet none of us had used it yet. Until then.

    "Owen, Elle, are you guys good?" Lowery spoke.

    "Positive. We found a potential way in, Ellie girl is working on it" replied Owen.

    I reached the end of the duct not that much later. What I wasn't expecting to find was three men chatting in the middle of the lab. I lowered my radio's volume and focused of what was going on around me. One of the men was without any doubt Mike, sitting next to doctor Henry and another man. Hoskins, I thought I heard. I carefully and silently eavesdropped their suspicious conversation.

    "They're too busy running away from pteranodons, they won't even notice our new additions" Michael informed his alleys.

    "It's three for now, but they need to be upgraded first" said doctor Henry.

    "There's no time for that. We need them functional now" scoffed Hoskins. "Send the pictures to my phone, I will forward all the files to my boss"

    Doctor Henry looked pissed. "As I said, they need-"

    "And as I said, we need those beasts now"

.

    I waited for the three men to leave the room so I could finally hop off the duct. The first thing I did when my feet touched the ground was stretch, the next thing I grabbed my radio and turned the volume back up. "Clear now"

    "Elle, geez! You okay? Wait, what do you mean now?" Owen hurried.

    "Hold on a sec" I logged into the computer and checked the bin, pretty sure Hoskins dude didn't care to delete the files he sent to his phone. Just like I thought, the files were there, and they were worse than I expected. "Claire, do you copy? We happen to have some good containment protocol?"

    "Wait, containment?" Owen asked again.

    "For the pteranodons? I'm afraid we don't" Claire finally answered.

    I sighed heavily and unlocked the lab's door so Owen could finally get in. When he did, way faster than he should've, he hurried by my side confused. I couldn't help but frown when I showed him those files, him out of everyone being very familiar with the new species InGen was working on.

    His eyes flickered between the desktop and me, a flash of horror crossed his face when he read the dinosaur's name. "Oviraptor?!"

.

    "We need to evacuate, it's the only way" Dyson's voice filled the loud uncomfortable silence of the room. Roger, standing on the other part of the room, nervously scratched his beard in panic. There was no rule, protocol, emergency plan, that could've helped us at that point. Mike was in control, InGen was taking over. There was nothing we could do.

    Nick was the next to speak. "Guys, think about it, we're one step ahead. We know what dinosaurs they'll throw at us and, correct me if I'm wrong, aren't Oviraptors just like actual Raptors?"

    "Technically, yes" Lowery sighed. "We can nothing against those"

    "Owen is a velociraptor trainer. He knows everything about their behavior. Can't we predict their moves?" Nick blurted out.

    Dyson dramatically rolled his eyes. "There's no way to predict a dinosaur, they're as tough as they get"

    "It makes sense though" Lowery enthusiastically added. "We can work on this strategy"

    I glanced over at Owen, whose gaze was lost somewhere, a serious expression haunting his face. I slowly placed my hand on his, causing him to snap his eyes on me. He tried to smile but I knew he was not okay. Everyone was impatient, waiting for his response, and the weight was on his shoulders again. — "Dyson is right. There's no pattern in their behavior, they're unpredictable"

    Lowery and Nick sighed simultaneously, the beam spark of hope shuttering through their eyes. Owen hopelessly shoved his hand over his face and squeezed his eyes shut.

    "We can throw the raptors at them. Four against three, there's a fifty-fifty chance of success" Dyson suggested with an unnecessary grin.

    Owen humorlessly laughed. "I'm not risking my raptors for this"

    I thought about it for a minute. It was surely a bad idea, or was it? Blue was highly intelligent, no doubt, but still an animal. We couldn't just tell her about the plan and hoped she would've understood, there was no way. Claire sighed heavily and stood up. — "The only safe area of the island is the bungalows. We better get a good night of sleep and be back at it tomorrow with fresh mindset"

    "Yeah, let's do that" Owen agreed, and for once he looked super tired.

    Lowery unsurely stood up. "Are you guys sure? What if that thing comes at us while we're sound asleep"

    "We'll take turns" Roger finally spoke. "Let's switch two people every two hours. I can start. Dyson, you're up for the first turn?"

    We carefully left the lab facility and reached the bungalows area. After a few arguments, we decided it was better to use just one. Security purposes. Nick and Claire shared a room, Lowery went for the couch, and I went for Owen. Dyson eyed me suspiciously and dramatically rolled his eyes.

    "No pg-13 rated stuff, please!" Roger's laugh echoed from the living room.

    "Ah, why not?" challenged Owen, his gaze stuck on Dyson. I flinched at his words. What?!

    As expected, Dyson was about to come at him but was soon stopped by Roger. "Geez, Asher, let the kids be"

    "Please don't" Lowery snooped his head from the couch, his eyes deceiving him when a smile crept on his face. He kept rambling about how he was team Owen/Elle. Owelle, he made up.

    "Got ya" Owen winked at our friend with a smug. "We don't know what tomorrow brings, we better live today the best way we can"

    Roger laughed. "Shut up, Romeo. Go to bed before it gets too late"

Last night of peace. What was InGen up to anyway?