By Your Side {Owen Grady/Jurassic World}

Chapter Four

Hadley
*Edited*

When Owen and I arrived at the new dinosaur's enclosure, Claire met us outside. The paddock was huge, but a construction crew was building it higher.

"What the hell did they make?" I muttered to myself, craning my neck to look up at the top of the walls.

"We have been pre-booking tickets for months," Claire said as she led us towards the paddock. "The park needs a new attraction every few years in order to reinvigorate the public's interest; kind of like the space program."

We began to walk up a set of stairs as Claire continued, "Corporate felt genetic modification would up the wow factor,"

"They're dinosaurs," Owen said, rolling his eyes when Claire wasn't looking. "Wow enough."

"Not according to our focus groups," Claire said, reaching the top of the stairs. "The Indominus Rex makes us relevant again."

"The Indominous Rex," Owen laughed, making me smile. Claire frowned and turned towards us.

"We needed something scary and easy to pronounce," she said, turning forward again before opening the door. "You should hear a four-year-old try to say Archaeornithomimus."

Claire walked through the door and Owen paused for a second, causing me to run into his back and almost fall backwards down the stairs.

"You should hear you try to say it," he muttered. I smiled and pushed him forward gently to get him moving again.

When we got inside the viewing area of the enclosure, I took a look around. The long hallway stretching around the thick walls were mostly made of the same concrete and steel buildup, but the wall facing the inside of the pen was made of glass panels, one with a large fracture in the glass.

"What is that?" I asked, pointing at the glass. Claire and Owen looked over to where I was pointing, Owen cocking an eyebrow.

"She, uh, she tried to break through the glass," Claire answered, quickly dismissing the subject. I muttered a quiet 'oh' before turning back to Claire.

"So, what's exactly in this thing?" I asked, gesturing towards the wide opening in the middle of the paddock.

"That is classified information," Claire said, tapping on a touchpad in front of her. "Even I don't know all of it."

"You made a new dinosaur but you don't even know what it is?" Owen asked, walking over to tap on the glass. Claire sighed.

"The lab delivers is finished assets and we show them to the public," Claire said, turning towards the worker sitting to the side. "Can we drop a steer please?"

"How long has the animal been in here?" Owen asked, crossing his arms

"All its life," Claire said simply.

"So she's never seen anything outside these walls?" I asked. Claire shot me a glare for about the thirtieth time today.

"We can't exactly walk it," she shot sarcastically. I rolled my eyes and watched as a crane lowered half of a cow's rib cage into the paddock.

"And you feed it with that?" Owen questioned, gesturing toward the meat.

"Is there a problem?"

"Animals in isolation aren't always the most functional," Owen said, eyes trained on the cow.

"Your raptors were born in captivity," Claire said, turning away from the paddock windows.

"With siblings," I said, resting my hands on my hips and popping my hip to the side. "They learned social skills. And we imprinted on them when they were born. There's trust."