Chapter 16
"We should probably get going," Marlo choked out painfully as she felt the sting from both her back and lungs as she gulped for air. "We don't know what that thing is, where it is, or what it can do." She pushed herself up to her knees and glanced to the side at Gray. "Oh, and uh...Good job, kid." She nodded to him and a smile broke out on his face again and he blushed as he looked up to Marlo.
She stood up fully and glanced back at the cliff once more, Zach had stood up as well and walked passed Marlo, she felt something warm in her hand and looked down to see Gray holding it smiling weakly up at her.
Marlo and Gray walked a little behind Zach, Marlo kept glancing around them nervously. Gray had let go of her hand and ran ahead of her, he stopped running and bent down to pick something off of the ground. Zach fell in line with Marlo. Both of them cautiously glancing around every once in a while.
"You know, I bet I'm not getting paid extra for this." Marlo huffed, shoving her hands in her pockets.
Zach snorted a laugh. "You're a dork." He shook his head with a smile.
"That sounded like it was an insult, but if it was you're going to have to try harder. It was pretty weak."
Zach shook his head with a smile again. "Wasn't an insult."
"Why are you suddenly being nice to me?"
"I'm always nice to you!"
"Okay, sure." Marlo rolled her eyes.
"I am!"
"We've known each other for like, what? A couple of hours, give or take-"
"Your point?"
"Literally twenty minutes ago you were trying to give me the silent treatment because I fist bumped your little brother."
"I have no response to that."
"Of course you don't."
"But other than that, I've been nice."
"Barely."
"Okay, now what does that mean?"
"Nothing, nothing." Marlo held her hands out in surrender.
"I'm nice to you."
"Kinda clingy too."
"Excuse me-"
"You're excused."
"You were the one to hold my arm for like ten minutes straight."
"Out of fear of being some weird hybrids next meal while being thrown around in a human-sized hamster ball." Zach huffed, not having a response to that. "Besides, you grabbed my leg."
"Zach!" Gray spoke up and Zach glanced back at Marlo with a light glare before jogging to catch up with his little brother.
When Marlo caught up she saw what Gray had picked up, she bent down to the ground where he dropped it, it was a helmet with a hole in the top with blood and cracks surrounding it.
"Shit," she muttered to herself and threw it on the floor, she looked up and managed to catch up with the two as they stopped by a vehicle. The jeep was empty, it has sparks flying off of it.
"Stay here." Zach held his hand out in front of Gray, he held onto Zach's arm as they all walked closer to it. Zach looked around, breathing heavily as he rested his arms on the jeep. She felt someone hit her side and saw it was Zach, she looked at him confused but followed his glaze. It was a couple of steps leading up to a door surrounded by leaves and vines. It was completely hidden.
Zach walked closer to it and tried shrugging Gray off his arm as he walked on ahead. Gray looked back at Marlo who was watching Zach carefully, he followed his brother up the stairs while Marlo stayed behind a while. "Wow," Marlo heard Zach as Gray and himself both walked inside leaving her outside.
The boys walked into the middle of the room, vines and over grown plants hung down from the ceiling. Marlo was still outside, in slight awe of the building that had managed to stand for so long.
Zach picked up a replica bone, he breathed out a small laugh as he looked around. He brushed the dirt off from the bone, glancing down he saw a banner, he kicked the dirt off of it. He picked it up and looked to Gray. "You still have those matches?" Gray looked into the pouch and took a small box out.
"Here you go." He hands them over.
"It can't be..." Marlo whispered to no one and walked cautiously towards the doors.
"Come on Mars!" She heard Zach speak up. She stood up from the entrance and ran her hand down the door, she was about to walk in when Zach came to the doorway making her bump into him. "Didn't you hear me? I said we found something." She looked up at him confused, he had the skeletal tooth of a dinosaur with a banner wrapped around it on fire. Zach grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her inside.
Inside was covered with dust, vines, darkness and drawings on the wall. Marlo had a feeling that something was horribly wrong with the park, she had no idea what Claire was doing behind her back but she knew it wasn't good.
"Zach, listen to me, that thing out there, that wasn't a dinosaur. That was a monster," Marlo told him as they stepped over a few scattered bones. She grabbed onto his arm with her other hand to make sure she didn't slip over them.
He shook his head at her and replied, "They're all monsters, Mars." She didn't know if he meant the dinosaurs themselves or the creators, but she had a feeling it was both somehow. It was pretty obvious that something was wrong. Why would anyone create a dinosaur like that and think something wouldn't go wrong? Dinosaurs should be extinct but here they were, being cooked up in a lab for the sake of money.
Marlo was quick to reply, Zach had tightened his grip on her wrist slightly as he kept walking, "None like that. That was an abomination. That's what...That's what Claire was keeping from me. She knew about this, she helped create this, she allowed the authorisation of that beast to be made, and she kept it from me!" Marlo was furious, she thought Claire had trusted her, she never created any major trouble for Claire, she even managed to look after her two nephews, unlike Zara who let them out of her sight.
Zach turned his head her and saw the pain on her face, he slowed down and removed his hand from her wrist making her let go of him and he placed it on her shoulder. "Mars, calm down! We need to keep going, we might have outrun it this time, but next time we might not be as lucky. Be glad no one was hurt."
That feeling was back, the one of regret and pain. She didn't have the heart to tell him that she was hurt, it would waste time and she didn't need him to fuss over her.
She choked on her own breath but nodded anyway clearing her throat. "No, yeah you're right. Okay, sorry. Let's just do what we can to survive this. I don't want to die without saying goodbye." She nodded her head to him and he seemed to understand what she meant by that.
Owen.
She didn't want to die without telling Owen goodbye. Zach didn't want to die without talking to his girlfriend first. Although, he was having second thoughts about her ever since he left, possibly even before then. He felt as if it was a one-sided relationship seeing as he never really felt anything for her. But began feeling something for someone else.
Marlo had no choice but to follow Zach, as he grabbed hold of her hand this time and dragged her with him. Marlo looked to the side to see a drawing of a Raptor, she smiled to herself. Her legs felt a bit funny but brushed it off as they rounded a corner to meet Gray. Inside a room were two cars, both hidden by the plants that grew around them.
"Gray!" Zach whispered out to him. Gray glanced back.
On the walls, the shelves had been filled with either pointless equipment or random car parts. Marlo watched as Gray picked up a helmet, she watched as it turned on and the lenses on top of the helmet began to focus on Gray which freaked him out. Zach let go of Marlo's hand and walked further into the room. Gray placed it back down and quickly followed Zach who was standing in front of one of the cars.
"1992 Jeep Wrangler Sahara, Sand Beige," Marlo heard Gray comment.
"You remember when we fixed up Grandpa's old Malibu, right?" Zach asked.
"Yeah." Gray nodded. "But what is this place?" Gray asked and looked to the older two. "Because this isn't a gift shop, at least not one I've seen before." Marlo had no idea what he was talking about but assumed that it was something to do with Zach and early on when she was outside. She picked up the helmet and jumped slightly when the sound of focusing lenses filled the room, but smiled at it.
"Welcome to Jurassic Park." Marlo glanced back at the boys who stood there staring at her. "Oh, right. You don't know." They shook their heads. "Yeah, we had the new park built around the old park. It just seemed like the right idea, this park would have been too far from the docks if a break out happened. Which it did..." Marlo trailed off at the end. She looked up to see Zach staring at her, looking her up and down before their eyes met, he quickly looked away, she did the same.
"Have you ever been here before?" Gray asked.
"No." She shook her head. "I assumed that this place crumbled like the rest of Jurassic Park. But I guess I was wrong." She turned back to the shelves in front of her leaving the boys to do whatever it was that they were doing.
Marlo picked up a small box with yellow film rolls inside. She lifted one up but saw that the images had been burnt out. She threw it back on the shelves before picking up a tangle of jumper cables. They looked intact. Another use for them, aside for starting up cars, would be to shock someone to get information out of them.
Marlo paused mid-thought and shook her head. Maybe that was the best use for them. She turned around, leaning over one of the old jeeps holding the cables out. "Yo." Zach looked up at her, he leaned over the rest of the way and took them from her with a small smile. She nodded her head before returning to the shelves. "So, how's the car from the seventeen-hundreds coming along boys?" She heard Gray laugh.
"It was only built in 1992, Marlo." He shook his head.
"Still old." She shrugged.
"I'm sure we can get it running, right Zach?" Gray didn't get a response. "Zach!"
"What?" Marlo turned her head to see him look from her back to Gray.
"What do you thinks gonna happen if you just stare at her?" Gray whispered, trying not to let Marlo hear. But she still heard it. She pretended not to hear him for everyone's sake and looked back to the shelves.
"How long do you think it'll take?" Marlo moved away from the shelves and hoped in the back of the jeep.
"Not sure, we'll see," Zach murmured back. Marlo felt weird when she caught Zach staring at her earlier. She brushed if off thinking it was just because of her back. But she knew it might have been because of something else. Something she doubted she could ignore for very long.
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