Chương 24: Indominus Rex (24)

The towering trees swayed, their leaves hissing through the forest. Asset let her mottled camouflage fall away, revealing herself as the true ruler of this territory. She took one step forward, and the earth trembled beneath her weight. Ripples spread across the puddles. Smaller animals scattered in every direction. Through a gap in the electric fence, her slit pupils met a pair of bloodred eyes. Neither looked away. Between them lay memories carved into the bone and hatred that time could never erase. Good.

It still remembered her, just as she remembered it. Since they already knew each other, there was no reason to waste time on formalities. They could go straight to the fight. Perhaps their shared genetic foundation gave them a certain instinctive understanding. Both giants simultaneously dismissed the unnecessary details—the two humans who would barely amount to a mouthful—and fixed their attention on the much larger meal standing before them. They squared off and roared into each other's faces.

Every muscle in their bodies tightened, ready to launch them into a fight to the death. When titans clashed, everyone nearby suffered the consequences. Zach clearly understood that. While the two monsters remained locked in their standoff, he grabbed his stunned brother and half dragged, half hauled him toward the ruins of the old Jurassic Park. He had no idea how long the dinosaurs would fight, and he did not expect rescue to arrive anytime soon.

He could only hope the vine-covered building contained something useful—a gun, a vehicle, a stun baton. At this point, even a can of gasoline might help conceal their scent.

"Run, Gray! Don't look back!" Gray looked back anyway, unable to stop himself. He wanted one more glimpse of the giant inside the enclosure. He could not explain why, but despite how badly it had frightened him, he did not believe it wanted to eat them. In fact, its appearance had felt almost perfectly timed, as though it had deliberately intervened to save them. Now he could see it clearly. Silver-gray hide. Amber-brown eyes.

It looked almost identical to the "white demon," but the spines along its back were thicker and more densely packed. They rose like rows of daggers, reflecting a cold glint beneath the sunlight. The next instant, it appeared to charge. In reality, it took one enormous step backward. The white demon fell for the feint. Eager to seize the initiative, it charged without hesitation and slammed headfirst into the electric fence. Sparks exploded across its body.

"Zach, look!"

"Stop looking and run!" The brothers disappeared into the forest. Indominus No. 1, meanwhile, relied on its formidable constitution to wrench itself free from the electrified fence. It roared and staggered backward. Clearly, it possessed some resistance to electricity, just as Asset did. But its tolerance was nowhere near hers. They were both enormous subadults, yet contact with the fence tempered Asset's flesh and bones. For the other Indominus, it caused genuine injury.

Asset smelled scorched flesh in the air and studied the bleeding wounds across her opponent's body. What a pity. Why couldn't it have escaped a few years earlier and run into the fence then? If it had not yet reached the subadult stage—or if it had been even slightly weaker—it would never have broken free after touching those wires. Asset could not help feeling disappointed. So close. She had come so close to defeating it without suffering a single injury. But perfect outcomes rarely existed in reality.

Avoiding danger and seeking advantage were among the most fundamental instincts of any living creature. Having learned its lesson, Indominus No. 1 refused to touch the fence again. Instead, it began examining the enclosure that held Asset. The first Indominus had never been stupid. Once it realized that Asset was trapped behind the electric fence and could not possibly emerge, it roared at her with undisguised malice. Then it paced smugly back and forth in front of her, flaunting the freedom it had gained.

Once it had finished gloating, it moved around the fence and strode after its prey. The humans monitoring the old sector through the surveillance system panicked when they saw it leaving. At this rate, Director Claire's two nephews were going to die in the jaws of a dinosaur.

"No. 2 failed to keep No. 1 occupied. Unless we open the enclosure and let them fight, those children won't have enough time to escape."

"The fence can only be dismantled. It doesn't have a gate! When we redesigned it, we never imagined there would come a day when we needed to open it!"

"What if we let it out and the two Indominus start working together? Are we going to turn the whole island into a battlefield? Do you have any idea how many guests came here with their entire families?" Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Listen to me. Detonate the micro-explosive inside the first one, then put the second one on display tomorrow. Hurry, or it'll be too late! What's wrong? Why are you all looking at me like that?" One of the people who knew the truth let out a long sigh before reluctantly explaining.

"The first asset dug out its tracker and micro-explosive, along with a chunk of its own flesh. It seems to have developed resistance to the tranquilizer. It remained conscious enough during the operation to memorize where they were implanted. As for the second one…"

"Because it was raised outdoors and exposed to so many unpredictable risks, we… decided against implanting a tracker or explosive in it, in case something went wrong." They had not implanted one? Neither dinosaur had an explosive? They were finished. Isla Nublar was doomed. Their vision darkened, and their heads began to ring. Then something completely unexpected happened. Indominus No. 1 had barely begun to leave when the second asset placed its claws against the electric fence.

The surveillance feed showed its claws sliding through the openings in the fence. As everyone stared with widening eyes, it closed its palm firmly around one of the electrified bars. Current met flesh. Smoke rose. White light flashed. Yet the second asset appeared completely indifferent to the pain. With sheer physical force, it tore open the reinforced electric fence and roared amid a storm of sparks.

"ROAR!" The sound made the first asset turn around. The section of electrified fencing still clutched in Asset's palm was the greatest insult and challenge a stronger creature could offer a weaker one. Do you see? It isn't that I couldn't get out. I simply chose not to. Unlike you, I didn't need eleven years to escape. The taunt was so obvious that even the humans understood it.

But the question of why the second asset had remained inside the enclosure was even more baffling than its apparent immunity to electricity.

"…Aren't animals supposed to crave freedom? If our electric fence couldn't contain it, why didn't it leave sooner?"

"I don't remember adding DNA from any burrowing species. All we can say is that remaining inside was its choice."

"What is wrong with all of you? You raised them for eleven years, but you're acting as though you've only just met them." Weren't they? Before today, who could have imagined that Indominus No. 1 could camouflage itself, change color, and conceal its thermal signature? Who could have predicted that it would set a trap to trick the humans into opening its paddock? Who would have guessed that it could remove its own tracking device, lure the mercenaries toward the discarded signal, and kill them one by one?

They had been equally incapable of predicting that Indominus No. 2 could withstand the electric fence and tear its way out whenever it pleased.

"So we were the stupid ones all along. Two dinosaurs have been playing us for fools." Meanwhile, Asset—smoking but completely unharmed—dropped the section of fencing and charged her opponent without hesitation. Years of hunting had given her extraordinary explosive power. Even in a direct collision with an opponent several tons heavier, she did not lose ground. Instead, she knocked it sideways and sent it stumbling off balance. An opening!

Asset opened her jaws along the angle of its fall and closed them around its throat for the first time in ten years. She was no longer the powerless juvenile she had once been. Nearly forty thousand newtons of bite force now crushed down upon a vital point, and she intended to end the fight with a single bite. But her opponent remembered the agony of that old throat hold. In desperation, it flared the spines around its neck, driving them into the inside of Asset's mouth. Blood poured freely.

It raised one claw and thrust toward her eye. Asset had no choice but to release its throat and evade the strike. The instant its neck came free, it twisted around and snapped at her. Asset reacted immediately. She raised one hind leg and drove it into the creature's body with tremendous force. The kick knocked the breath from its lungs, but instinct guided its jaws. It bit down on Asset's hind leg, leaving a horrifying set of tooth marks. Asset endured the pain and slashed one claw across its neck.

Its long tail immediately whipped toward her face. She twisted her head aside, avoiding the blow, then snapped around and caught its tail between her jaws. With one savage pull and twist, she tore off the tip—hide, flesh, and bone together. It cried out in agony, but its mind remained quick. It whipped its severed tail, spraying blood through the air. Asset failed to evade it in time, and the blood struck her eyes, blurring her vision. Fortunately, years of hunting experience took over.

She instinctively avoided the worst of its attack and escaped with only several long gashes across her back. When it saw that she had lost none of her fighting ability, it considered retreat for the first time. It actually turned and ran. Worse, it sprinted toward the part of the island carrying the strongest scent of humans. Asset froze for a moment, then roared in fury and raced after it. She had never expected the creature to be this shameless. When Asset had been young, it had tried its best to kill her.

Now that she held the advantage, it fled for its life. Admittedly, retreating from a stronger opponent was perfectly natural behavior for any animal. So why did it make her so angry?

"ROAR!" The two giants tore through the forest one after the other. The force of their footfalls reshaped the terrain and carved a path through the wilderness. Trees toppled on either side. Solid rocks shattered. Muddy ground collapsed into pools, and those pools were trampled into small lakes. Asset snapped furiously at the dinosaur ahead of her, but every bite closed on empty air.

She had to admit that when a dinosaur capable of running sixty kilometers per hour fled at full speed, catching it was no simple matter. But she refused to believe she could not kill it. If this had become a contest of endurance, so be it. She could chase it for three days and three nights. They ran farther and farther, soon bursting out of the dense forest and turning onto a road that bore obvious signs of human construction. Through the trees ahead, Asset glimpsed an enormous glass fortress.

She did not know what was kept inside, but countless shadows moved up and down within it like birds.

"No! The aviary is ahead! They're approaching the pterosaur sector!" A helicopter pursued them from above, its weapons trained on Indominus No. 1.

"Kill it! Don't let it hit the aviary! At its current speed, it can break straight through the doors!"

"Open fire!" The helicopter's gun opened up with a deafening rattle. The rounds did little more than trace the outline of Indominus No. 1. The problem was not the gunner's aim. The Indominus was simply too heavily built and thick-skinned. Both Asset and her counterpart could withstand sustained minigun fire and even survive explosive shells. They were living tanks. Worse still, the humans were making everything more difficult despite being unable to help.

The two dinosaurs were moving at tremendous speed, meaning every burst of gunfire lagged slightly behind its intended target. Combined with the rounds that ricocheted from Indominus No. 1's hide, the result was disastrous. Asset took a storm of bullets meant for her opponent. One round even struck her eyelid, forcing her to slow abruptly. Wonderful. Now she could no longer catch it.

The humans had forced their way into a battle they did not understand, and then, with predictably poor timing, fired an explosive projectile.

"BOOM!" Indominus No. 1 smashed through the aviary's glass wall. The projectile arrived a moment later and exploded against the breach, widening the hole and sending cracks racing across the surrounding glass. Thunder and fire filled the air. The captive pterosaurs poured through the opening and surged into the sky. They immediately fixed upon the visitor center, where the greatest concentration of living humans could be found, and flew toward it in search of food.

Pteranodons and Dimorphodons gathered into a vast black cloud and swept southeast, shrieking excitedly in overlapping waves. Asset stood among the trees and looked up. Her heart sank. For a moment, her mind went blank. She could hear Indominus No. 1 roaring inside the aviary. There was still time to pursue it. She could see the damaged helicopter falling into the forest. There might still be time to tear away its shell and use it to block the opening— Like hell there was. Most of the pterosaurs had already escaped.

The situation was beyond recovery. Everything on Isla Nublar was about to change. At that moment, Asset abandoned her pursuit of her counterpart. She abandoned any thought of killing the pterosaurs. She even abandoned concern for her own safety. Ignoring the risk of being shot, she followed the pterosaurs' flight path and charged toward the most densely populated part of the island. Only one name echoed through her mind. Susan. Susan was still there. She could not run. She needed Asset's help.

Asset roared and accelerated, every muscle in her body releasing more power than ever before. Faster. Faster. Faster! She became a living projectile and plunged straight into the pterosaurs' feeding ground.