xi. the centre
ROBERT AND ELLIE CAREFULLY YET FRANTICALLY HAULED THE INJURED IAN AND ROBYN INTO THE VISITOR CENTRE. John and a few of his tech men were still residing in there. Robert and Ellie tried their best to painless detach Robyn's leg from the crashed car, but it was merely impossible for the blonde not to yelp or whine or scream in anguish. That along with her twisted (most likely broken) ankle, the severe head injury, and the death of her best friend, Robyn was surely the person that had suffered the most during this trip.
She was fed up and only wanted to go home. After all this chaos, she didn't even want to see another dinosaur skeleton again. She figured if she makes it out here alive, she'll quit palaeontology and become a full-time zoologist back in Australia. She didn't want to suffer any longer if something like the horrors of Jurassic Park happened again.
Ellie laid Robyn down on a metal bench in the tech room and ran off to get a medical kit. Robyn didn't like making a fuss in any circumstances - but she knew right there, she was the definition of a fuss. Her head banged on the table below her causing her to curse, forgetting about the wound on the side of her head. If it wasn't for all the people crowding around her and holding her down so she wouldn't thrash around, she would've happily bled out as long as they cared for someone else. Like Ian.
"Ian?!" Robyn called out in distress, unable to turn her head as Robert held it in place above her discarded bloodied flannel. "Where's Ian?"
"He's fine, dear," John tried his hardest to appear calm but the slight of his family friend bleeding out and wounded broke his heart.
Robyn tried to shake her head but couldn't. "He needs help... with-with his leg."
She heard Ian's chuckle from behind her. It was distant but loud enough to be heard, meaning he was still close to her. "I'm ok, sweetheart. Let them, uh, focus on you, Robbie."
The Australian sighed, her body relaxing at the sound of his voice. The next few minutes were painful for everyone, but mostly Robyn. Her screams and sobs were heart-wrenching. The look of terror and discomfort was etched into her face as Ellie snapped her ankle back into place. But Ian couldn't even see her face; her cries were plenty for the imagination and even that broke his heart. All he wanted was to get rid of her pain, just rub his thumb along her knuckles to distract her - but he physically couldn't.
Robyn was no longer screaming, but only hiccuping as a few tears rolled down the sides of her face. Around her leg was a large bandage that spanned from her ankle to her mid-thigh. On her head laid a bandage, wrapped around the entirety of her forehead. The four other adults moved over to the computers, trying to come up with a plan to bypass a virus on the security system.
Robyn grudgingly sat up, her hand gently pressing to her forehead as a headache splintered through her brain. "Hey, Robbie," Ian softly called out to her. She slowly turned her head to the right to see Ian, lying on the floor, his black button-up shirt now open revealing his toned chest. "Don't- don't touch your head, it'll, uh, hurt more. Are you feeling good?"
Robyn couldn't concentrate properly, her brain was still foggy. "Are you trying to seduce me?" She simply asked.
"I'm in a lot of pain, doll," Ian chuckled. "But if you're interested, then yes," he finished with a smirk.
Robyn blushed, her heart beating rapidly against her ribcage. "Ok, Casanova. It's a shame you're all the way over there, isn't it?"
"Why's, uh, that?" He tilted his head, cockily.
Robyn smiled, leaning back on her arms. "Because if you wanted to kiss me, you wouldn't be able to."
Ian was taken back by her bluntness. "You must've hit your head real hard, Robbie," He spoke, his voice low sending chills down Robyn's spine.
"Not hard enough apparently," she tilted her head, coyly. Not having paid attention to the important conversation between the four others in the room, the lights switching off startled her greatly.
"It's worked," Mr Arnold, the last remaining tech man left on the park, spoke, crouching beside one of the computers.
"What do you mean it's worked? Everything's still off?" Ian observed, clearly confused, also having not listened in on their previous conversation.
"The systems are ready. All we need is the security doors, lights and few others back on and we'll be up and running. They're accessed in a shed at the end of the compound. Three minutes and I can get the park's power back on."
"Excellent. In the meantime, I want everyone in the emergency bunker."
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After an agonisingly long 5 minutes, Ellie managed to haul a limping Robyn down the steps to the bunked, Robert with Ian on his side following.
It had been over 20 minutes now and no power had been turned back on yet. "Something's happened. Something's wrong," Ellie muttered, sitting Robyn on the bench next to Ian.
"It's just a delay. That's all it is," John attempted to ease Ellie, whilst he redressed Ian's bandages. "All the major theme parks have delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked."
"If the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists," Ian mocked John's reasoning quickly.
"I need to go put the power back on," Ellie stated, her hands fidgeting with her torch.
"Don't be too hasty. I mean, he's only been gone..." John trailed off, not remembering when Mr Arnold left them.
Robert and Ellie walked over to a metal closet. "I'm going with you," Robert announced, flinging the cabinet doors open to reveal several machine guns.
John retrieved multiple large blueprints and laid them over Ian's legs, causing him to wince. "Sorry. Now, this isn't going to be just like turning on the kitchen light. But I think I can follow this and talk you through it," Ellie nodded, grabbing two walkie talkies and handing one to John. "Look, it should really be me going. Because I'm a... You're a..."
Both Ellie and Robyn scoffed. "C'mon. We can discuss sexism in survival situations when I get back. You just take me through this step by step. I'm on channel 2," Then, Ellie and Robert disappeared out of the centre.
After 5 minutes of the three left in the bunker shuffled around with the papers and got more acquainted with the prints, a static sound emitted from the walkie talkie. "John, I'm in," Ellie's voice sounded faintly through the machine.
"Great. Now, ahead of you is a metal staircase. Go down it," John instructed. "After 20 or 30 feet, you come to a T-junction. Take a left."
Robyn and Ian looked over the maps together, both their brows creased in thought. "Have her follow the main cable," Ian suggested, nudging John.
"I know how to read a schematic," John bickered.
Ellie's voice sounded once more. "Damn it. Dead end."
John looked over the print once more. He began to fumble over the directions until Ian took the walkie talkie off of the older man. "Look above you. There should be a bundle of cable and pipes all heading in the same direction. Follow that."
Once Ellie had informed the group that she had found the power box, John took the reins again. "You can't throw the main switch by hand. You've got to pump the primer handle in order to get the charge. It's large, flat and grey. Under the words 'Contact Position', there's a round green button which says 'push to close'. Push it," Once Ellie did that, John carried on. "The red buttons turn on the individual park systems. Switch them on."
"I think we're back in business!" She happily declared, until she screamed and her radio cut out.
"I'm gonna go help her," Robyn tried to get up from her spot but Ian's hand was clasped around her wrist.
"No. You can, uh, hardly walk, Robbie. Dr Sattler will make it. I - I promise."
The blonde shook her head, suddenly feeling extremely bothered as tears welled in her eyes. "I just feel so useless," she reasoned, her voice quietly cracked. "I couldn't help Jimmy now he's dead. I couldn't save Timmy from the car and I pray to God he's ok. I couldn't save Alan or Lex either. I couldn't save you back at the tourist track. I barely helped myself," she gestured down to her wounded and bloodied body. "And now, I can't save Ellie," Robyn's words rushed out of her mouth as lightning speed. "I just want to help."
Ian sighed, his thumb smoothing the back of her hand gently. "I know you do, Robbie. But... you just can't fight this battle today. If, if something happened to you knowing that I let you, uh, let you go, I'd never forgive myself. You're already pretty bruised up now," Ian admitted.
Robyn didn't want to admit it but she knew he was right. She simply had to sit back and pray that her friends would make it out to the other side, alive.
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