#indianaxalpha

Irvin Kole placed his hand on the identification scanner and sucked in a deep, nervous breath. In his rather short first year of employment at the park, he’d never ran into Owen Grady personally, but he’d heard a barrage of stories from the younger employees idolizing the raptor trainer. The last thing he wanted was to embarrass himself in front of him, especially if Mr. Grady wound up working with his department for any amount of time. He led the way into an elevator, pressed the button for the basement level, and proceeded to head toward the lab without making small talk; he’d always sucked at small talk.

“The underground facilities are the best way to ensure that experimental assets are kept contained in the event of an accident.” He explained as he absentmindedly swiped a security card through the reader. The red light blinked green and the heavy steel doors opened with a loud hiss. The lab wasn’t an overly cheery place, and for the most part the lights in the halls that led to animal pens were kept low to try and reduce stimulation and irritation to the temperamental beasts. Research and observation rooms were usually well lit, but not where they were going. Irvin was convinced that she saw them even in the dimness of the observation chamber above the large cage, but it was worse when the lights were on; she was too easily agitated.

“Blood tests haven’t offered us any confirmation as to species origin. But she didn’t come from our labs. Nothing from the records of the original park on her either. All we know is a group of fishermen found her on a beach, reported her to the local authorities, and the Brazilian government shipped her here about two weeks ago. She came banged up too; the veterinary staff was amazed that she’s pulled through with how little they could do for her.” The nerves and excitement were finally getting to him as he opened the final door. He ushered Grady into a dark room with four viewing chairs and a computer with a few dimmed monitors on the walls that connected by a thick plane of glass to a large, circular, concrete pen. It was mostly barren, aside from a water source, a feeding area, a large heat lamp that shone a sinister red light, and of course, the enormous creature below them. She was spread out to the best of her ability beneath the lamp. Her left wing, however, was wrapped, cast, and then chained (as it was just too large and too heavy for rope or tape) to the creature’s side.

“She’s not easy to sedate, even harder to get samples from, so we’re focusing on studying her behavior and if she can be desensitized to people enough to make a paddock safe for visitors to view her, as well as trained to tolerate noninvasive medical testing and treatment. That’s where I was told you come in, Mr. Grady.” 

Verena did not know where she was. She couldn’t remember a lot of things, actually, including how to talk to the humans that she’d woken up to. Every time she approached them, they turned off all of the lights and fled their small hole in her wall. The thought of escape hadn’t actually crossed her mind. She reverted to a state of being she’d once knew years ago, one that told her that there was no escape, one that said attempting to escape led to suffering. In her jumbled up mind, it was easy to dismiss her few sweet years of freedom in favor of the things she’d learned to keep her alive for so long in the fighting ring.

Aiden groaned, moving slightly away from Owen. She had been blissfully sleeping after they spent some time blowing off steam. She kept a cover wrapped around her when she noticed a cell phone screen light up. As much as she wanted to ignore it, she knew that working with dinosaurs could lead to emergencies. Though she quickly realized it wasn’t her phone going off. 

Delta's small green body was shaking violently and her breath escaped her lungs in hard labored breaths. Small eyelids were squeezed shut as she coiled into herself, desperately trying to keep any form of body heat that she could. Her long tail was held against her limbs and her small front claws gripped onto it loosely.

The raptor had suddenly fallen ill after an incident in the labs. All three of her sisters and her had been receiving their regular vaccines and blood tests but something had gone wrong for Delta. A careless scientist had made a foolish mistake and had managed to accidentally administer a dosage with a much larger concentration than Delta should have ever received, especially at her current age and size. The mistake had not been noticed until much later after the young dinosaur had collapsed in exhaustion and body had been over taken by muscle convulsion and fever like symptoms that left her slipping in and out of consciousness.

The raptor had quickly been forcefully removed from her sisters and was rushed onto an operating table; a feat that was even more difficult than what it sounded like, especially without Owen there. However it had been decided to not directly inform Owen at the time considering the violent reaction he would no doubt have, the scientists carried all events out under the presumption that Owen had no control over the raptor's medical needs. After a few hours of careful work under the scientist's hands, they were able to stabilize Delta's health. She was still experiencing extreme symptoms of fatigue, a high fever, body shivers, and presumably dehydration.

The raptor was still kept quarantined away from her pack for fear of possibly infectious symptoms. She cried out weakly, almost barely able to open her mouth completely. Delta was lonely and afraid, all day she had been grabbed, prodded, and pricked with the hands of the scientists and their instruments. She longed desperately for her mother, or even just her sisters at the very least. The raptor had never spent so long away from them and in such a defenseless state, she was petrified.

A long string of whimpers and weak chirps left her lips and echoed out into the empty room she was shoved into. The room was mostly bare with cold metal walls and harsh bright lights. The only things that had been placed within it was a small bed adorned with a single blanket and bowls of food and water. However, upon being placed into the room Delta had stumbled away into the furthest corner she could reach. Her spine pressed hard against the cold metal walls and her body trying to desperately back up further. Delta had never been in this room before and she hated it, everything was wrong and it was nothing like what she was use to.

“I studied the Indominus Rex for months. Was there through every stage of its development and I’m telling you, if that...thing...is even half as intelligent as it was. We’re in a lot of trouble.” And not just them, personally. But anyone in a good 50 mile radius. They could not let the indoraptor leave the property. Whatever it took.