RUN ➳ ZACH MITCHELL

twelve

Rory's eyes snapped open as the large metal truck jolted jerkingly to a complete stop, and Claire touched her shoulder gently. The Jurassic World's theme park voice overs played quietly in the background of the loud animalistic roars coming from the trees. The girl shoved her car door open roughly, falling into the arms of none other than Zach Mitchell.

Rory's back leaned heavily against the older teen's chest, and she smiled thinly up at him. His eyes scanned her throughly checking for any superficial injuries. Zach's mahogany irises flashed with disquiet as they scanned her gash.

Claire sprinted around the vehicle, her arms gesturing frantically in a herding manner. "Come on, come on! Go inside," she called out as Owen stood guard, his rifle facing the outskirts of the green forest. Zach's hand stayed glued to Rory's.

The group ran with wide strides up the buildings steps and through the thick tall doors. Rory ignored the fuzzy feeling in her arm as she hurtled through the apparently vacant halls.

"Control room. That way!" Claire said, pointing in the vague direction of the area she'd just named. The quartet followed her directions without question, steering their tiring legs. Their steps echoed against the hard floors. Rory slowed as they reached the desired location. Zach glanced at her in confusion seeing no one around. "They evacuated the lab," they heard Claire breathe in front of them. Rory swallowed nervously knowing this was most likely not a good sign.

Rory casually followed the adults over to the opened door of the lab, her arm forgotten in the newly added chaos. Odd creatures she had never seen before floated in blue, water-filled tanks. Little critters scurried around in glass cases, and Rory crouched down to eye level with an orange lizard-like one. She hummed in bewilderment turning away from the experiments.

A loud clang, and the sounds of cold smoke hissing reached the blondes ears, causing her to turn hastily towards the noise. The men who'd caught her attention packed tiny science bottles into an air tight trunk. "What are they doing?" Rory murmured, looking up towards Owen expectedly, because when a child doesn't know the answer to something they automatically think an older person will. He shook his head since he had the same amount of knowledge as her--i.e. nothing.

"What are you doing?" Claire repeated the fair haired child's question.

"Afraid that's above you two's pay grade," Hoskins said, casually strolling into the room. He gave Rory a pointed glance. "Especially yours, sweet cheeks."

Aurora let out an exaggerated sigh. If she wasn't having an off night she'd have spit back something along the lines off "go suck a fuck".

"Where's Henry?" Claire inquired.

"Dr. Wu works for us," Vic replied slyly. Rory felt the sudden urge to rip his eyes out, and turned her face to Zach's chest to keep from taking up that action.

"That's not a real dinosaur," Gray stated pointing at a rotating graphic on a computer screen beside him.

"No, it ain't kid," said Hoskins.
Zach clenched his teeth, and wrapped an arm around Rory. The presence of this overweight man obviously set the teens on edge. "But somebody's got to make sure that this company has a future."

Rory set her jaw about to protest about this totally barbaric situation, but Vic Hoskins wasn't even close to being done talking about his dream plans.

"Imagine . . . that one, a fraction of the size . . . deadly . . . intelligent . . . able to hide from the most advanced military technology. A living weapon unlike anything we've ever seen," Hoskins explained in a sickly tone. "You see? Millions of years of evolution . . . what did we learn? Nature is the gift that just-- oh shit!"

Owen flung his arms back, as Delta bares her teeth at Vic. Rory stumbled farther into Zach's broad torso. Desperately, Hoskins tries to calm the Velociraptor. "Easy. Easy, boy." Rory inwardly rolls her eyes. Every single animal in this park was a girl. How did he not know that, seeing he's been working here for over 10 years. "Easy. Hey, hey. We're on the same side, right? Right? Easy. Easy." With each word, Hoskins continued to reach the palm of his hand towards Delta's snout. This caused Rory to roll her eyes for real this time. That gesture was just begging for the Raptor to lash out.

In one fluent motion Delta snaps her sharp teeth onto Vic's outstretched limb. He lets out a loud scream of agony, but Rory and her companies were already gone. He was beyond anyone's help.

Rory stumbled through a pair of glass doors and glanced back at Claire, quietly wondering which way to go. She swallowed dryly, pushing the mere thoughts and remembrance of the last moments of Vic Hoskins' life from her mind. "This way." Claire directed, but the way she'd pointed exploded with bits of glass as Delta stumbled through it.

Rory scrambled the other way which led up a flight of stairs and to another door that led back out onto Main Street. Zach and Owen pushed the dense door open, only to come face to face with another Velociraptor, Blue. Delta emerged from behind them, and Echo squawked next to Rory's ears.

Tears pooled at the rims of her eyes.

Charlie wasn't there.

Rory glanced over at Owen who stood facing his favorite beta. "Where's Charlie?" Her voice cracked, as her brain had already clicked one and one together.

Owen's gaze never left the immediate threat in front of him, but he sadly shook his head at his goddaughter. A tear slipped from her eyes as she realized her beloved Velociraptor had departed. No more playing hide-and-seek with the scaled animal. No more training exercises, or getting up in the early morning to see her prehistoric fauna. Charlie was gone.

Rory wiped her teardrops away with her fingertips. It was hard to describe the feeling of loosing Charlie. She wasn't exactly the closest thing Rory had--that was Owen-- but she was the one of the only constants she had growing up on the island. But now she was dead, and a void filled hole was left in her chest.

// so sorry about this. it's pretty much a filler and ick it's bad.