Control room, Facility 1F, Ibis Island.

12:20pm

“Alright, I’ve done everything I could now”- Siyeon pulled back, separating herself from Minkyung’s makeshift “bed” to give her some space, all while taking her time putting back the various materials she had used to patch her up inside the medkit. – “How are you feeling?”

“Like …”- Minkyung groaned, the displeasure clear in her voice. It seemed that, despite Siyeon’s best efforts, she was still experiencing a minor amount of pain. - “Thanks…”

Minkyung was still wounded but at least her breathing was steady now, which certainly was a comforting prospect for the group. Siyeon wasn’t capable of imagining the situation they’d be left in if they didn’t have Nayoung and Minkyung with them, or rather, she restrained herself from imagining such circumstances to prevent furthering her own hopelessness, she had had enough trying to come up with an escape plan and failing in the process.

Minkyung would live, there was no doubt of that, but she wouldn’t be much more use to them in her current state. She could barely move her right arm and had trouble even standing up, so it was in her best interest to lay back and relax, at least for now.

Still, that left the group in a vulnerable situation. Counting Siyeon, they were only five people capable of moving around and only Kyungwon and her had any experiences using guns.

Jieqiong had told them that they left Nayoung in the infirmary and that the soldier would come back any minute now. They really needed their leader now more than ever, she was the only one capable of using the more efficient weapons against the dinosaurs and the one with all the tactical battleground knowledge. Of course, Minkyung could aid them with knowledge of her own, but theory often differed from practice and Siyeon was sure they wouldn’t be able to properly make use of it given their lack of formal training.

“So, what’s the plan?”- Siyeon broke the heavy silence that impregnated the room.

“What plan?”- Jieqiong was the first, and only person who answered. The rest of the group remained silent, especially Kyungwon, who hadn’t said a word ever since coming back.

“You know, how are we getting out of here?”- Siyeon mentioned, taking a seat in her preferred monitor before starting to type away in the keyboard, most likely trying to get further and further into the different security mechanisms. She had already managed to disable the automatic lock for every single place in the first three floors except those that needed a keycard to be opened.

Sadly, those were the important ones, the rooms that could allow them to progress with her escape plan. Namely, the strategy room.

“We can’t… get out, we need… the scientist… first.”- Minkyung’s voice came from the back of the room, apparently aware of the conversation they were having. She sounded tired, which was to be expected given how much blood she had lost.

“Boss, with all due respect, I don’t think we can afford to go after her anymore, you are wounded and Nayoung is the only protection we have, there is no way we…”- Siyeon opposed, trying to reason with Minkyung.

“We had.”- Kyla suddenly corrected her.

“Something wrong Kyla?”- Sungyeon chimed in the conversation.

“I corrected Siyeon, Nayoung is the only protection we had, look”- Kyla pointed towards the monitor that displayed the underground cameras. There was Nayoung, inside the B1 hall, standing in front of the doors that headed into the lab.

“What THE ?!”- Siyeon barked, her voice turning hoarse as she lost control of her emotions momentarily. - “Where?! Where is she going?! Is she leaving us?!”

Everyone had their eyes glued to the monitor, awaiting Nayoung’s next move.

“That’s the entrance to the labs…”- Jieqiong commented before looking back towards Kyungwon. - “Maybe we shouldn’t have left her alone after witnessing… whatever that was back there.”

Siyeon quickly switched monitors, sitting in front of the one that belonged to the underground section to take a closer look as Nayoung started to advance inside the laboratory, a place where the hall’s camera had no vision. She quickly tried to switch from camera to camera but the application resetted, going back to the first underground camera, the one that pointed to the stairs outside the control room.

“What is this? Are there no cameras inside the lab?”- Siyeon turned around, looking at Jieqiong for explanations.

“No, there aren’t”- Jieqiong answered frankly. - “The experimentation that goes inside there is absolutely classified, no one is allowed to know what takes place inside the laboratory.”

“Then how are we going to know where Nayoung is then?”- Siyeon didn’t wait for an answer before using her radio to send a message. - “Boss, boss, can you hear me? This is Siyeon, over.”

No response.

“The lab has no exit bar the one that goes to the B1 hall, so in a sense Nayoung is trapped there… along with Yebin”- Jieqiong pointed out in a completely ominous way.

“More like the other way around…”- Minkyung, who had gotten up and limped towards the group, said. - “The doctor is trapped with her, and the moment she gets to her… We have to go looking for her then, to prevent her from doing something stupid”

“You can barely walk, how do you plan on going there?”- Siyeon, getting up with the intent of guiding Minkyung back to the chairs, scolded her. - “Besides, shouldn’t we just be searching for a way to get out of here? We can keep an eye on the B1 hall to see if Nayoung, or anyone, comes out, it’s like we really need to go inside there to look for her”

“But we do…”- Minkyung was adamant about going after her partner - “Nayoung could endanger the whole mission…”

“ the mission sis, look around, we don’t have ANY means of getting out of here!”- Siyeon, whose irritation was now visible all across her face, raised her voice.

“Hey, easy, no need to get riled up”- Kyla intervened quickly, acting as a mediator before the situation escalated, especially when she saw Minkyung tightening her sane fist.

“You don’t understand, do you?”- Minkyung’s voice, though soft, made Siyeon shrink back in fear, regretting her previous outburst. - “The lead researcher is inside the laboratories, the person that knows the facility like the back of her hand, if there is any way to get out of here that we don’t know… she does.”

It made sense, in a way, the doctor could potentially know of an alternate means of escape, but that would require to, first, find the doctor and, second, get the doctor to tell them about it, which was unlikely seeing how she apparently attacked Minkyung and was absolutely defiant.

“What about this, we look for a keycard that can open the antenna room instead of going on a wild goose chase, am I right?”- Siyeon, turning to face the group, asked, inciting them to pick a side in the passive-aggressive power struggle between her and Minkyung.

“I…”- Kyungwon, who had been awfully silent ever since she arrived at the control room with Jieqiong, spoke up, gathering the attention of everyone inside the room. - “I have this… Julia gave it to me before I took the elevator down… maybe it works?”

She quickly walked towards Siyeon, taking her hand and depositing something small and shiny on it.

“This…”- Siyeon scanned the small, silvery keycard in her hand. The picture of an old, grizzly man with a grey moustache was printed in it, the tag “Colonel Clay” positioned right under the photo.

“Eureka! This keycard… it belongs to a soldier!”- Sungyeon chirped, undoubtedly ecstatic as she jumped from her chair to take a look at the ID card.

“I don’t… Oh! The strategy room!”- Kyla, who looked uninterested at first, had a sudden change of expression as she too joined the two girls.

“And the fingerprint scanner!”- Siyeon cooed.

“Yes! High-five sisters!”- The trio promptly began jumping around, chanting enthusiastically while holding hands with overflowing glee. Minkyung giggle was heard in the background, followed shortly by a groan as she was assaulted by a wave of pain.

“You know what I’m not even going to ask…”- Jieqiong, witnessing the display of rowdiness in front of her, commented to Kyungwon

“Yeah…”- Kyungwon agreed, equally surprised.

“Okay! Change of plans!”- Siyeon, looking like she had received the best news in her life, snapped her fingers twice, demanding their attention - “We have means to open the strategy room and get the fingerprint scanner, the faster we get going the faster we’ll get out of this island.”

“What about Nayoung? We can’t just leave her alone inside the laboratory with Yebin”- Jieqiong stated.

“If you want to go then you are free to do so, however don’t expect us to come looking for you once the chopper gets here”- Siyeon shrugged - “Kyungwon, you are coming with me to the strategy room, I need somebody that can cover my back and you are… decent enough with a gun.”

“Hey! I’ve killed more dinosaurs than you have”- the blonde notified her fellow hacker, mildly offended.

“Oh so you want to turn this into a competition?!”

“What about me? You can’t expect me to go alone and unarmed!”- Jieqiong stopped the banter from progressing.

“I can go with you.”- Kyla raised her hand, offering her assistance. The look on her face was virtually indecipherable.

“No, sorry, that ain’t happening”- Siyeon did not like that suggestion at all - “You are staying here in the control room”

“I know how to handle small weapons, I’ve gone to shooting ranges with Luke in the past and…”- The youngest member of the group explained, but Siyeon didn’t seem to accept the explanation at all.

“I said; not happening.”- Siyeon stated, shaking her head in disagreement. - “Sungyeon can go with Jieqiong if she wants a partner”

Sungyeon, who had been hearing the whole argument without much input of her own, suddenly paled at the mention of her name, dread visible all across her factions.

“Me? Oh… my stomach hurts, so sudden…”- putting up a rather unimpressive act, she feigned a stomachache which, based on their reactions, didn’t manage to fool the rest of the members. - “I don’t think I can go; it hurts too much”

“I’m serious Siyeon, I can go while Sungyeon keeps an eye on Minkyung for us.”- Kyla, ignoring Sungyeon performance, talked to Siyeon once more, trying her best to reassure her.

“But we won’t have a way to contact each other, we only have ONE radio since the doc stole Minkyung’s and Julia has Kyungwon’s…”- Siyeon remarked - “And you are unarmed, how are you going to defend her OR yourself from what’s out there?”

“Here… have this”- Minkyung had gotten up again while the rest were busy. Walking closer, she handed Kyla her own sidearm, complete with holster and everything, to Siyeon’s annoyance.

“Thank you.”- Kyla received and, without much thought, clipped the holster to her own trousers.

“Damnit boss… Fine… but I want us all to rendezvous here in an hour at most”- Siyeon stopped, muttered a few profanities, and continued. - “And if there are too many, you run back here, alright?”

“Sure.”- Kyla nodded, a small smile painting itself on her face. - “Shall we get going?”

“Not so fast, doc, would you mind…?”- Siyeon stopped Kyla before she could go out of the room, motioning for Jieqiong to come out with her first.

With a nod, Jieqiong followed suit, both of them leaving the control room behind.

Jieqiong and Siyeon: Enter Control room Hall, Facility 1F, Ibis Island.

“Here…”- As soon as they were outside, Siyeon looked through her bag and quickly pulled something out of it, passing Jieqiong a small sort of chip.

“What’s this?”- Jieqiong asked, feigning surprise. She recognized the object perfectly, although she wished she didn’t.

“Don’t play dumb, I’m sure you know what it is”- Siyeon swiftly blew her cover and Jieqiong couldn’t help but smile at the younger’s girl cheekiness.

“Where did you get it…?”- She asked after a few seconds spent contemplating the chip.

“Kyla’s brother, he had it in his office.”- Siyeon answered.

That chip was something she had had on her possession ever since she rescued Kyla from the second floor. It was among documents and other keycards inside Luke’s office, and Luke himself had explained that it was one of the two necessary objects to open the lead researcher’s secret laboratory.

“So if you have it, he is…”- Jieqiong’s voice faltered and she didn’t finish the sentence.

“Yeah”- But Siyeon answered regardless before taking out her own gun, something that surprised Jieqiong for a moment, making her back up. - “And take this too, I don’t know if you can use it, but you’ll need it”

“Won’t you need it more than I do?”- Jieqiong, taking the small pistol in her hands, asked, unsure if she really needed to take the girl’s only means of defense.

“I don’t think so; I trust Kyungwon to have my back. And besides, you have Kyla going with you, take care of her for me, please? I promised her we’d get out of here together.”- Siyeon smiled at Jieqiong, it was obvious she cared for the younger girl, although, as far as Jieqiong knew, they had only met no more than a couple of hours ago.

Jieqiong saw it, the seriousness in Siyeon’s eyes, it spoke volumes of her and her relationship with Kyla and Kyungwon, more so than every single word she had uttered to them while Jieqiong was watching. If what she said is true and Luke was indeed dead, then the girl probably felt responsible for it.

That girl, she really cared for her team.

“I will, don’t worry about that, she’ll be back in the control room safe and sound”- Jieqiong promised, her grip on the gun tightening by the sheer determination that had suddenly filled her.

“That’s what I wanted to hear doc, I appreciate it.”- Siyeon prepared to enter the control room again so that they could depart – “Oh, and good luck getting back our leader, doc!”

-------------------------------------------------------

Strategy room, Facility 1F, Ibis Island.

12:33pm

Siyeon swiped the colonel’s card on the reader without waiting for Kyungwon to catch up with her.

“I’m the one with the gun! Stop running around by yourself!”- The blonde protested, mostly scared of being left alone than preoccupied with Siyeon walking off somewhere.

“Shut up crybaby, boss has cleaned this floor already.”- Siyeon pushed the door open, revealing a room full of edge cutting tech. - “Now what do we have here?”

“It doesn’t mean the dinosaurs can’t come back…”- Kyungwon countered, but Siyeon was too mesmerized with all the technology inside the strategy room.

The whole room was bathed in cyan light that came from two giant TVs at both ends of the room and a rectangular table that had some sort of holographic properties. One TV displayed the conjoined flag of both the US and South Korea, the image being an exact replica of the one that was in the main floor entrance, the other displayed the same exact image as the holographic table. There was also a desk along with a computer in one of the corners of the room.

The table in the middle of the room was surrounded by at least six chairs, which gave the room the vibe of being used mostly for meetings, which was something to be expected given its name.

“Woah…”- Kyungwon murmured as she took a few steps towards the holographic screen – “Look at this, there are many points blinking and moving around…”

“It’s a map of the facility and its surroundings…”- Siyeon noted - “Could this be the guards…? Check that computer for me, will you?”

Siye