Lounge room, Facility 2F, Ibis island

10:47pm

There was a roar.

It was terrifying, making every single drop of her body’s blood freeze altogether.

And worst of all, it felt like it was coming from right outside the door.

Sungyeon got up as fast as she could, startled by the deafening noise, and searched the room for Julia. She wasn’t there. Quickly, pushing the drowsiness aside, Sungyeon exited the small room, pushing the bookshelf that acted that acted as a secret door to reveal the lounge room.

She stumbled out of the room, almost falling a couple of times, all while searching desperately for Julia with her eyes. Now in the lounge, it didn’t take much time for Sungyeon to find her protector, listening intently with one ear almost pressed against the wooden door.

“Julia what- “- She started speaking only to be silenced by her.

“Shhhh….”

Now, taking time to listen as well, Sungyeon recognized what appeared to be gunshots which seemed to be coming from the same floor. It didn’t stop there, an alarm stated blaring, one that meant the building had sustained damaged, as the windows of the room started to be covered by metal barriers.

She just hoped that the damage wasn’t enough to activate the automatic facility lockdown. The noise died down eventually, leaving space for an eerie silence that filled the room. Sungyeon didn’t speak even then, fearful she might disturb Julia, who still hadn’t moved from her spot.

“I’ve locked the door, whoever or whatever was out there cannot come in, don’t worry…”- Julia finally spoke, turning around to smile reassuringly at Sungyeon. Though, with a roar that loud, Sungyeon seriously doubted a door made out of wood could stop whatever it was.

“Should we go outside to check?”- People could be out there, people that need their help - “There were gunshots so…”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea”-Julia didn’t look too convinced - “We ought to have a plan first, what if they are really bad people that want to hurt you?”

“I… right.”- She had a point, they couldn’t just run outside, especially when there were carnivorous creatures around every corner. - “How much did I sleep back there?”

“A couple of hours at most, I didn’t keep track”- Julia moved towards behind the bar counter, fetching an old fashioned glass and a bottle of liquor, pouring herself some as she spoke - “Though you did miss hearing the third chopper that came to the island”

The lounge was a big room, Sungyeon didn’t use to visit it often, save for a couple of time she had accompanied a colleague with a drink or two. She’d much rather stay down in her room or in the stabilizer chamber finishing equations and modifying equipment with Yewon. The place was practically a large bar, having a resting area full of couches and a complete stand, filled with tons and tons of liquor, beer, whiskey and more alcoholic beverages. People used to come here to relieve some stress after work.

She doesn’t know how, she doesn’t know why, but behind the bookshelf she had come out of there was a small room with a few necessary commodities for survival.

“Someday, if something bad happens, I want you two to go there and hide”- Yebin, the doctor for whom she and Yewon worked for, had been very clear about that, though she doubted at first what “something bad” meant.

Now she was just alleviated she knew of that place since it had been somewhere safe to hide for her and Julia. Of course, it wasn’t going to be useful for that long, but at least they had time to rest and gather their thoughts.

“Another one…?”- It genuinely surprised Sungyeon, just how many helicopters had overflown the island already? Yet no rescue operation seemed to be successful.

She had witnessed firsthand the death and destruction when Julia took her from the lower levels into the higher levels. They had used the giant elevator to ascend, only to find multiple bodies when they arrived at the surface.

There were at least ten people, all dressed in some kind of military leather garment that had either a flag of the USA or South Korea sewn to their shoulders. Julia told her that the team from the states was the first one to arrive, followed shortly after by the team that came from her country. It was a massacre, some bodies were missing parts while other were completely shredded, yet that wasn’t the worst part.

Some of them had bullet wounds, and Sungyeon wasn’t innocent enough to not know what that meant.

Somebody had shot them, most likely before the dinosaurs had feasted from the corpses.

“I told you it was an ugly sight”- Julia had cackled when she said that to a distressed Sungyeon. She envied how the girl could stay so calm when faced with so much blood. She herself was a woman of weak spirit, easily impressionable even by the smallest of paper cuts.

She didn’t look any more than it was necessary, as the sight itself was disturbing beyond belief. She remained completely pale until Julia finally opened the doors that led to a passageway to the main building and helped her move through.

“Exactly, they probably don’t know about the fate of the other two so they keep sending people…”- Julia looked concerned for a moment before gulping down the contents of her glass - “I pity whoever got sent here”

“But isn’t it a good thing? The people responsible for those gunshots could be them!”

“I know sweetheart, I just said we need a backup plan in case they aren’t what they seemed to be, you know?”-Julia chuckled a bit, filling her glass again - “Listen, have you heard of the north Korean agents that infiltrated the facility?”

“Oh, I’ve heard rumors…”- The image of the wounds that belonged to the rescue team came back to Sungyeon mind, she doubted those could be considered rumors any longer.

“Well, what if those rumors are true? What if the ones that came with that helicopter are their allies? We should plan carefully”-downing the liquor once more, Julia finally put the glass aside, already satisfied - “They could be after the doctor, and we don’t want her to be harmed, right?”

“So what do you say we should do?”- Sungyeon asked. Julia was the one who knew about survival and guns so logically she was the one in charge of the decision-making.

“Easy, we stalk them, we wait until one of them is alone and then we get the answers we need.”- A creepy smile formed in Julia’s lips and Sungyeon couldn’t help but gulp nervously.- “Maybe they know where the doc is, am I right?”

*********************************

Control room, Facility 1F, Ibis island

11:00pm

“Chief! I opened the safe, there is a small key in here with the tag ‘front door’, I think we’ve hit jackpot!”- Kyungwon’s robotic voice could be heard from Siyeon’s wrist radio, even with the mild interference it was obvious she was ecstatic. - “And there are a couple of guns and bullets here too!”

“10-4, bring the key to me, I’m waiting near the entrance”- Nayoung didn’t take long to answer, giving a new set of instructions to Kyungwon - “Grab a weapon for yourself, we don’t know what’s out there, over and out.”

“Great, they have the key”- Siyeon couldn’t help but smirk as she relived the plan in her head. She was now one step closer. – “Now if only I just had a monster drink by my side…

“Then what? They get the disc and?”- Kyla, who was still sitting immediately to her right and gazing boringly at the monitors, asked.

“I’ll give them the second one, simple”- Siyeon replied, watching Kyungwon move across the rooms from the different cameras - “Once they get inside the room I’ll lock them in for ten minutes, enough time to go to the third floor and activate the antenna”

“I don’t think I’m following you”- Kyla still sounded confused, mostly thanks to Siyeon’s vague answers. - “You said you would LOCK them in the room?”

“Yes silly, remember how the windows of the second floor al shut down after the Rex almost teared down the room’s walls?”- Kyla grimaced and Siyeon kind of regretted making her recall that moment - “Well, that was an automatic lockdown, every single room inside this facility can be sealed, I’m just going to seal the elevator room for ten to fifteen minutes once they enter it”

“So then we’ll go upstairs and call for an evacuation?”

“Exactly”- Now that Kyla had understood, Siyeon turned back to the monitor, keeping watch on Kyungwon, who by now had reunited with Nayoung and was trying to unlock the front door.

“I’m not sure I want to go out there anymore…”- Kyla spoke again, making Siyeon turn her head away from the computer once more, this time with a look of surprise in her face - “Can’t we just wait for the woman to come back and ask her to help us?”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, didn’t Kyla say she didn’t like Nayoung about less than ten minutes ago?

“Did you see how she punched me?”- Siyeon, now with her eyebrows furrowed in annoyance, pointed directly at her cheek, which was visibly marked by Nayoung’s knuckles - “I’m not spending a single second with that if I can avoid it, besides, the second floor is clear of dinosaurs so it’s safe”

“What about the third floor?”- But Kyla pressed on.

Siyeon had to bite back an insult. She wasn’t used to being pressured that much seeing that people usually accepted her explanations without daring to talk back most of the time, but Kyla did not know better, which was bothering Siyeon to some extent.

First Kyungwon, now Kyla. Siyeon was sure the universe had something against her.

“…”- She didn’t answer for a few good seconds, hoping Kyla would drop the topic.

But Kyla’s intense stare didn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon, the girl was patient, Siyeon would give her that much.

“We can clear it ourselves”- She didn’t really have a good excuse to give, so she decided she’d go for the simplest answer. – “Besides, waiting for Nayoung to come save us is way too cheesy, we can do the work ourselves girl, come on!”

“I still think waiting for someone qualified for this kind of things is a better idea… Even if I don’t like her that much either, she probably knows what’s best.”- Kyla continued, seemingly ignoring Siyeon’s last answer and subsequently making her groan.

The hacker had to clench her teeth.

“Come on, I have a gun too and I know how to use it!”- Siyeon tried to convince Kyla once more - “We just need to be careful, that’s all… it’s easy!”

It may appear to be out of selfishness, but Siyeon didn’t just want to get out of the island to save herself, she meant it when she said she’d get Kyla out yet there was nothing much she could do if she only resorted to “wait for somebody more qualified to pop out of nowhere”

She didn’t trust Nayoung to get them out of there safely either. Maybe it was her being too cocky, but she trusted herself to make it to the top floor.

“I… I don’t know… I’m still scared… I don’t really want to go out…”- Kyla’s voice brought her back to earth. - “Please?”

Kyla’s plea was sincerely heartbreaking. She had suffered so much in the last twenty minutes it was a miracle she was still capable of talking so normally. Siyeon knew that, if she were to be in the same position, she’d probably still be catatonic.

However, she was Park Siyeon –self-proclaimed best hacker of south Korea- and she wasn’t going to go down the easy route, no way. She was adamant about calling for help, she wanted nothing else but to get out of that giant rock they call island. Siyeon smirked, now it was time to make use of her natural charisma.

“Don’t worry”- Siyeon adopted THE face. Half-lidded eyes, faint smirk and a raised right eyebrow. It had always worked, no matter who the target was. - “I’ll protect you, even if my life is at risk”

Though Kyla didn’t seem to be too swayed by it.

“Didn’t work that well last time, did it?”- Her monotone response, lacking any particular emotion, almost made Siyeon choke. She never expected her secret technique to fail like that - “If it hadn’t been for that lady we’d both be dead…”

“You don’t really have to put it that way…”- Uncharacteristically, Siyeon started to sulk, disappointed Kyla had reacted the way she did- “Okay… you can stay here, I’ll have to go alone.”

“Wait, are you serious?”

“I promised I’d get both of us out of here in one piece… And that’s what I’m going to do.”- Siyeon replied, this time leaving n