Chapter 7
BUCKY AND TONY
The Indominus Rex Paddock
The car pulled up the road and up to the paddock before stopping and the engine was turned off. As Bucky and Tony got out, they could see construction workers milling about, going to and fro from their work stations, their boots crunching the gravel beneath them.
"We've been pre-booking tickets for months." Tony stated as he headed towards the stairs to the observation room, Bucky following behind him. "The park needs a new attraction every few years in order to reinvigorate the public's interest. Kind of like the space program. Corporate felt genetic modification would up the wow factor."
"They're dinosaurs. Wow enough." grunted Bucky as they began to go up the stairs.
"Not according to our focus groups sadly. The Indominus Rex makes us relevant again."
Bucky couldn't help but chuckle. "The Indominus Rex?"
"We apparently needed something scary and easy to pronounce. You should hear a four-year-old try to say Archaeornithomimus."
"You should hear you try to say it." Bucky mumble, causing Tony to give him a look before opening the door and walking into the room, Bucky following behind him. The door closed behind them as Tony walked up to the glass, fingers tapping away at the panel in front of him.
"So, what's this thing made of?" questioned Bucky.
"The base genome is a T-Rex. The rest is classified."
"You made a new dinosaur, but you don't even know what it is?"
"The lab delivers us finished assets, and we show them to the public. Even if I would have asked, they wouldn't have told me." Tony glanced at the man at the monitors and gestures into the paddock. "Drop a steer, please."
"How long have the animal been in here?"
"All it's life."
"Never seen anything outside of these walls?"
"She's a secret, we can't exactly take her out on walks and let her get to know everyone around the park."
"And you feed it with that?" Bucky gestured to the crane that held the steer was being lowered. "Animals raised in isolation aren't always the most functional. Take my raptors for example, they were born with siblings. They learn social skills and I imprint on them when they're born. There's trust. The only positive this animal has is with that crane. At least she knows that means food."
Neither talked for a long moment, just gazing out, waiting for the Indominus to make her move to feed, but there was no move it at all. Just stillness.
"Is it in the basement? is there a downstairs? Maybe it's in the rec room."
"It was just here." Tony frowned as he walked over to another panel and tapped some things. A buzzing noise echoed through the room and on the monitors, it came back as 'NO THERMAL SIGNATURES DETECTED'.
"Oh shit..." Tony heard the guard mumble. "That doesn't make any sense. These doors haven't been open in weeks."
"Were those claw marks always there?" asked Bucky from the other side of the room, making Tony look over at him. Tony made his way over to Bucky and he could see the stark white claw marks against the wall now.
"Do you think it..." Tony began but trailed off. Bucky said nothing and Tony knew the answer. "She has an implant in her back. I can track it from the control room."
Tony walked out of the room, followed by the two man and down the stairs before making a B-Line to his car and slipped inside before closing the door behind him.
Bucky and the man watched as Tony turned the car over, turned around and sped off hurriedly. The two glanced at each other before heading into the paddock, where another guy was already there, looking at the claw marks closely. Bucky reached out and let his fingers trail over one claw mark before letting his hand fall to the side.
"That wall is forty feet high." Stated the man that was already there. "Do you really think she could have climbed out?"
"It depends." Bucky responded.
"On what?"
"What kind of Dinosaur they cooked up in that lab."
One of the men's radios started to go off but it was all jumbled and they could barely get any words out of it until seconds later. "Paddock eleven, do you copy!"
"Go for Paddock eleven." the man stated.
"It's in the cage!" The woman's voice came through, crystal clear. "It's in there with you!"
"Go!" Bucky bark and the three man began to run towards the human sized maintenance door only to skid to a stop as a large, clawed foot slammed down in front of them, followed by clawed fingers. The hybrid let out a growl and Bucky and the one man turned to run back the way they came, the third was already trying getting the large bay door sliding open.
They guy behind Bucky wasn't too lucky as he was scooped up by the clawed hand. Bucky could hear the man screaming and then, there was a crunch and the man fell silent. Bucky didn't turn around to see the fate of the man. He could only stare as the door slid open a few feet, allowing the other man to slip through. Bucky was halfway there one he noticed that the door was closing. "Shit!"
He put as much strength to his legs as he could, willing himself to go faster and he made it through. Unfortunately, by the sounds behind him, the Indominus got part of her body through and she was able to use her strength to push the door open and he could hear the whining of the door mechanisms.
He quickly slid under a truck and turned on his stomach to watch as the large dinosaur walked out of its paddock with a grumbling growl. He followed her with his eyes as she went on a side of a truck. He could see the man surviving man that he went into the paddock with, leaning back against the front of the truck. The man was whimpering, scared absolutely shitless and the poor guy wasn't able to find a suitable hiding spot.
Then, she flung the truck up into the air, making it crash upside down closer to where Bucky was hiding. He quickly hid his face so no dust could get into his eyes and once the dust settled, he looked again. He could see the man through the gap of the windows. His eyes locked with the mans before he disappeared from sight, jaws clamping down over his entire torso and yanking him from view.
Bucky quickly rolled on his back, remember what Tony had said about the smell and quickly pulled his knife out before cutting the line above him, making gasoline spray him. He made sure to rub it all over his clothes before he saw the Indominus coming his way. He stayed prone, even when he saw jaws sliding into view in the corner of his eye, crooked teeth stained with blood.
She swung her massive head closer, nostrils flaring as she tried to scent him out. She let out a loud growl that seemed to shake his entire body until she finally moved on, the ground below him shaking at each step she took. He listened as she walked away before she went into the forest.
Then, she was gone and Bucky let out a breath he was holding and let his head drop back on the gravel.