The Indoraptor's pupils contracted violently, the flickering red light reflected in its eyes acting like a tether pulling it back to its cage. Ignoring Blue, it lunged with reckless abandon toward the signal flare in Owen's hand. Owen stood his ground, a pillar of resolve, waiting for the beast to close the distance.
"Echo!"
At Owen's shout, Echo materialized from the shadows like a procedural spawn, her legs driving into the Indoraptor's flank! The unsuspecting monster was knocked clean off the roof by the massive impact, its piercing shriek fading as it fell.
Is it dead?
The next mont, a streak of black lightning cut through the torrential rain. The signal flare was snatched from Owen's hand, and the sheer montum of the theft sent him sprawling. The Indoraptor's underbelly lood directly over him, but he realized, with a surge of adrenaline-fueled regret, that he hadn't brought his hunting knife.
Dammit! Why didn't I bring it?!
He whipped out a shock prod scavenged from a dead guard. Blue sparks hissed as he jabbed the crackling tip into the creature's hide. The Indoraptor, which could have easily dodged, didn't move; it was too busy savaging the signal flare in its jaws, just as the humans had savaged and "trained" it through countless days and nights.
Owen retracted the prod as Echo tagged in, slamming into the beast's fra and pinning it to the roof. Owen scrambled up, switching the shock prod to overload. Choking black smoke rose from the device as he drove it into the Indoraptor's neck.
"ROAR—"
An agonized howl ripped through the air as the smoldering flare fell from its mouth. Electricity surged through its entire body. Even Echo, her claws buried in the monster's skin, felt the lethal hum of the current and recoiled.
BAM!
The shock prod exploded in Owen's hand. The concussive force sent him flying backward to land beside Echo. He glanced at the flare; its fire had dimd, fading into a quiet ember.
Rising slowly, hissing with white smoke, the Indoraptor stood. Lightning bifurcated the sky, a demonic symphony announcing that the devil was not yet dead.
"ROAR—"
"Aok-roOAR!"
Another Raptor cry joined the Indoraptor's challenge, but it wasn't Echo's. Owen turned, his gaze traveling upward to find Blue perched atop a higher architectural peak.
Echo understood the play. While the Indoraptor was fixated on Blue, Echo scaled the monster's right side, near the shoulder. Feeling the sting of her bleeding wounds reopening, the Indoraptor twisted its head to the right to snap at her, leaving its left flank completely exposed to Blue.
Lightning struck again. In the sudden thunderclap, Blue leaped, a living projectile slamming into the Indoraptor's side. Echo disengaged just in ti as Blue's montum sent the monster reeling. Blue used the creature's body as a springboard to vault back toward Owen.
Claws screeched against the roof tiles, leaving deep gouges. The Indoraptor crashed through the glass roof of the display hall below, but two-thirds of its body remained snagged on the jagged edges, precariously balanced on the brink. It glared at the man and the two Raptors, its expression almost a sneer.
THOOM!
A faint tallic impact resonated through the building. The entire structure shuddered, and the Indoraptor slid a fraction further with a startled hiss.
Well... can we call it a draw?
Owen gripped the spent shock prod like a farr swinging a hoe, hamring it down repeatedly onto the Indoraptor's grasping claws.
THOOM!
The building shook again. The Indoraptor finally lost its purchase and plumted, crashing heavily onto the floor below. It landed right beside Charlie's body; the Raptor's face still bore a look of grim satisfaction. Owen peered down through the gap. The Indoraptor didn't move. It was over.
He stood up and nodded to Blue, who was also peering into the abyss.
"Hey, girl."
"Aok?" Blue chirped softly, tilting her head at him.
THOOM!
Another tremor nearly sent Owen off his feet. Staggering for balance, he straightened up and looked at the two Raptors.
"It's not safe here. We need to get down."
"Aok!" The Raptors didn't understand the complexity of the sentence, but on the necessity of leaving, they were in full agreent.
…
As the Enrage state faded, Carlo hamred weakly against the alloy walls. Outside, the other dinosaurs were a panicked mass, trapped with no way out. Giga Mom, weakened by the exertion and the drugs, leaned on Giga Dad and Katyusha as she stepped from her cell.
"ROAR—"
Kafka and Karl acted as vanguards, clearing a path through the other dinosaurs to ensure nothing hard Giga Mom while they searched for Carlo behind the sealed walls.
Where is the Boss?
A figure in a white lab coat hugged the wall as a sea of herbivores and carnivores surged past. Dr. Wu wore a gas mask, though the toxic mist on the floor was already beginning to lap at his knees.
CRASH!
A Triceratops, shoved by the crowd, slamd its frill into the wall, nearly pinning Wu like a specin in a jar. He fell, his vision montarily darkening. When he scrambled up, he noticed a hairline fracture in his mask's visor. Looking at the flowing "river" of dinosaurs, he ignored the danger and lunged toward Carlo's cage.
"Huff… huff…"
He reached the keypad for the masonry wall. Miraculously, it was undamaged. With blurred vision, Wu punched in the sequence.
HUMMMM—
The alloy walls began their slow, chanical descent.
"Aunnngg—"
"Roooar—"
BOOM!
The massive iron grate was sent flying, embedded into the ceiling with a force that shook the entire basent. As the bars hit the floor, every dinosaur fell into a hushed silence, turning to look.
A colossal foot stepped out of the cage. A mountain of muscle and scale stooped low to clear the exit. The nearest herbivores bowed their heads, ignoring the toxic gas as they backed away to form a corridor. Then the dinosaurs further up the line followed suit, and then those beyond them.
Every single one of them yielded the path.
The Giga family held the center. Katyusha gave a low rumble of welco to Carlo, who responded in kind as he joined his kin.
The massive rock gate blocked their exit. Carlo braced his legs, dropping into the combat stance the two Carnotaurus, Carnotaurus One and Two, would have recognized instantly. He slamd into the stone.
Dust and debris cascaded down. A massive fissure spiderwebbed across the rock gate as it began to buckle and disintegrate.
Rumble… rumble…
The gate shattered!
"ROOOAR—!"
Carried by his own montum, Carlo burst into the night, letting out a long, triumphant bellow to the world outside. The dinosaurs followed in his wake, streaming through the breach and past him into the wild.
Carlo turned to look at his family. They watched him with steady eyes, and at his low rumble, they fell into step behind him.
…
"Hey! Mills! Over here!"
Wheatley stood by a truck loaded with a sedated Ankylosaurus, his pack slung over his shoulder. He waved frantically at Mills.
"Thank God. Have you seen Eversoll?"
"Oh, he's right here." Wheatley pulled a severed arm from his bag and tossed it at Mills. The businessman shrieked like a little girl, jumping back in horror.
"Haha..."
"What is wrong with you?!"
Wheatley's expression suddenly went grim as he caught a sound in the distance. "Get in the truck."
"What?"
"Get in! You drive!"
The truck roared to life, fleeing the Lockwood estate in a cloud of exhaust.
From the dark tunnel, herbivores and carnivores alike poured out into the human world. But they didn't flee imdiately; instead, they turned as one to look back.
Carlo's family surrounded him. He moved at a asured, unhurried pace, erging from the tunnel to stand with his kin. Seeing the stalled pack of dinosaurs ahead, Carlo paused, a weary but satisfied smile tugging at his mind.
"ROOOOAR—!!!"
He unleashed a predator's cry toward the heavens, reigniting the primal fear in the hearts of the animals.
Go. Next ti we et, we won't be friends.
The torrential rain began to taper off. The silhouettes of the dinosaurs vanished into the forest, leaving only Carlo and his family behind.
THUD.
In the darkness, the great dino collapsed, a mountain falling to the earth. A sliver of light appeared on the horizon, illuminating the stunned, exhausted face of Carlo.
———————
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