Main hallway 1B, Facility 1B, Ibis Island.

12:25pm

The door to the laboratories opened slowly, making a cranking noise that Jieqiong knew full well and which made her cringe to no end. The interiors of the hall looked grim, the normal atmosphere dampened, the usual bright white walls that gave airs of significance now characterless, their color flashing between bright and grey in her eyes as the hall’s lighting seemed to switch on and off, probably damaged in the first moments of chaos when the dinosaur menace entered this world.

Jieqiong took a step inside, followed shortly after by Kyla, whose hands were gripping the of the gun Siyeon had given them tightly. Though reluctant at first, Jieqiong agreed to let Kyla have the gun after a little bit of insistence and the promise that Kyla had practiced a little bit of shooting with her dad back in the states.

The scientist didn’t even know how to use them anyways, so it’d have done little good in her hands.

They continued advancing carefully, both tense and paranoid despite the hall being just one linear path. The doors had started closing themselves behind them, leaving them at the mercy of the flickering light.

“I just hope it won’t fail now of all times…”- Jieqiong heard Kyla mutter behind her.

But she wasn’t interested in the lights at all, in fact, her mind was occupied with darker thoughts. She had never stopped to properly ponder about the invasion, with how sudden and life-threatening it had been, she never really sat down to put things together.

How did it come to be? She had been working with Yebin for years now, they knew the third energy like the back of their hands, and nothing such as the opening of a portal had remotely happened.

Was it a miscalculation from their part? Was it the excess of energy?

The further she delved into that train of thought, the scariest the prospect became. Sure, she was greedy about it at first, like everyone in the team was, just imagining the possibility of making energy out of thin air was exciting enough, with the added benefit that their names would be remembered forever as the people that solved a great deal of the world’s problems.

Now? Now it didn’t sound that appealing anymore, they definitely didn’t know what they were messing with when they decided to test the generator at full power.

Yebin’s image flashed through her mind and Jieqiong couldn’t help but to sigh, where could her friend be inside the labs? There was one particular answer that came to mind.

“Doctor Zhou?”- When Kyla spoke up, Jieqiong realized she had stopped walking and was standing now, pensive, in the middle of the hall.

She quickly readjusted her position, marching up to Kyla’s side with a dismissive shake of her head.

“Just Jieqiong, please Kyla.”- She took the lead once more, walking towards the end of the door-less hall, a corner that went to the right. - “What is it?”

“I’ve never been to this part of the facility before so… I’m sort of expecting you to guide me through it.”- Kyla voiced her concerns slowly, dragging the words out, maybe even in the wake of doomsday the girl still felt like she owed her senior a great deal of respect. Jieqiong almost chuckled at the thought, in her mind there was no place for that kind of formality now.

“Yes sure, I was… Just thinking about the ways we could investigate the place.”- She began, pointing towards the end of the library without stopping her march - “This hall we are in now leads to the library and the computer’s room… then past the library we have the research area hall that leads to the meeting room… and to the computer’s room again.”

“So it goes full circle then?”- Kyla corroborated.

“Exactly, the best way we have to find Nayoung is to search it from start to finish.”- Having reached the end of the hallway, Jieqiong took the right turn.

“What about your… Wait, what is that?”- Just as Kyla was about to continue, both saw something that stopped them in their tracks.

The hallway was still as lackluster as before, the same white walls and gray carpeted floor, yet there was something else mixing in with that grey. Abandoned right near the door that led to the library was a small object the size of Jieqiong’s hand.

Both of them quickly moved to inspect it, with Jieqiong taking the lead and Kyla making sure the rest place was safe, scanning the area with her pistol before promptly returning to Jieqiong’s side.

There wasn’t that much hallway left from that point onwards, just a few meters away was a second door, the one that led to the computer’s room.

Jieqiong recognized the device soon after she picked it up from the floor. She tried to interact with it, mimicking what she had seen Nayoung do whenever she communicated with the rest of the team, to no avail. The radio seemed to be defective but there was no visible damage on it bar a slight crack on the small LED screen

“It’s… Nayoung’s radio perhaps? It’s broken… and…”- She noticed the small stains in the floor, a crimson melded with gray into an indistinctive shade of brown. It was blood, Nayoung’s? A dinosaur’s? There was no way for her to know - “What could have happened…?”

“There are no dead dinosaurs around here…”- Kyla remarked, an observation that chilled Jieqiong’s bones. – “But neither is she here… maybe she found doctor Kang and they had a fight?”

“The trail goes into the library…”- The small stains of blood indeed led into the library, the lower sill of the door was tainted red too, and from it Jieqiong could tell that the blood was still kind of fresh. - “We should start through here and finish with the computer room to see if we can get to Nayoung sooner, she could need our help.”

“What about your friend, doctor Z- I mean, Jieqiong?”

“You mean Yebin?”- Her friend’s face flashed once more through her mind - “Well, if we find Nayoung then there is the chance we find her too… though I must be frank when I say I doubt that…”

“Why?”

“Yebin has always been an elusive soul… so don’t let it surprise you when I tell you that she has a secret lab inside this place…”- Normally that’d have been top secret information, however, right now there was no option but to disclose it, they had to find both Nayoung and Yebin - “I don’t exactly know where… but I know we need either her master ID or two particular keycards to open it… we have one of them…”

“The keycard… that’s the one my brother had right?”- Kyla hesitantly asked and Jieqiong noted the pain written all over the little girl’s face, which resulted in something kicking in, some kind of maternal instinct, and she repressed the need to hug her partner.

“…”- Jieqiong struggled to find words to answer Kyla’s question - “Yes… so… is he really…?”

“I’d rather not talk about it, please…”- Kyla demeanor took a 180 when the girl visibly steeled herself, dismissing Jieqiong’s question rather politely, it lasted for a few seconds before the façade crumbled and the girl added - “It is… painful to remember…”

“It’s fine, let’s just continue…”- Jieqiong, not wanting to make the girl delve into such memories again, turned towards the library door.

They had wasted too much time already, now was the moment to take things seriously.

Jieqiong was adamant, she wouldn’t let Yebin get harmed, she had to find her.

Pushing the pad to the right of the door, Jieqiong opened it while motioning for Kyla to go inside.

And so they did, beginning their journey through the facility’s lab, unaware that someone was watching their every step.

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Research meeting room, Facility 1B, Ibis Island.

12:34pm

Nothing, nothing and even more nothing.

Jieqiong was starting to get annoyed, despite the circumstances she was in, she didn’t exactly have the patience required to deal with the mere notion of wasting time, and that’s exactly what they had done the past five minutes in the library.

Sure, it was an extensive place, but the first twenty rows they searched should have been a clear indicator that there was nothing useful there at all. They had kept going after that, exiting the library through the door that led them to the research area hall and then into the research meeting room itself.

This room was much, much smaller than the library of course, but it seemed they wouldn’t find anything there either. It was plain room with a table used by researchers, which included her and Yebin, to plan out the future researches. There was a big screen for a projector at the end of the room, right near the entrance door, and there was also a computer terminal on the main table but that was about it when it came to technology.

They were basically in a poor man’s version of the strategy room, and that’s something that always frustrated Jieqiong to no end.

Why did the military have to get all the cool toys to play with and all the researchers got was a rundown table, a Pentium 4 and a projector? Un-freaking-believable.

“Where does this door lead to?”- Kyla’s question brought Jieqiong back to earth and erased the scowl from her face. She was currently standing near a door that was right on the opposite end of where the projector screen was.

“Oh, that one? That’s the gas experiment room”- Jieqiong answered straightforwardly

“Why would you need something like this?”- The astonishment was palpable in Kyla’s voice and, frankly, Jieqiong had the same reaction back when she started working there.

“Beats me, came with the facility”- Jieqiong replied while looking through a few file cabinets to the side of the room, looking for what? Not even she knew - “We usually use it to test how gases react to one another, which… Is kinda an obvious answer.”

“Should we check inside?”

“I don’t think it’d be worth our time…”- Jieqiong stated, making Kyla turn her head to look at her properly, curiosity shining in her eyes – “Well… I did say we had to search the whole place, didn’t I?”

“But there is no keyhole or ID reader…”- Kyla observed, her eyebrows burrowed as she searched the door for a clue to what may open it.

“Here, let me open it for you but try not to touch anything.”- Jieqiong struggled to contain a small giggle as she walked up to computer, which was miraculously and working properly, before she simply inputted the password that lifted the lock on the door. She felt like she was giving sweets to a child as Kyla skipped inside the room, marveling at the huge glass pane that divided the room were gasses were injected and them, she went straight for the computer panel.

Jieqiong was about to follow her when she noticed some crumpled papers to the side of the computer, the writing (or what was readable at least) seemed rushed. Probably part of the journal of some scientist that escaped without taking it when madness began.

Brewing some curiosity of her own, Jieqiong reached for the paper and unrumpled it.

Doctor Lance Gerstein

April

...I haven't found any clues in the past month. She is indeed a genius. She seems to have noticed our secret investigation activities. I heard that he established a secret lab on this floor somewhere.

The only way to learn of her true intentions, will be to find that lab. Luke and Mike offered their help at one point, we should be able to locate it soon.

I just hope we aren’t being misled…

July

At long last, Mike has found a clue pertaining to the location of the secret laboratory but Luke hasn’t been responsive to our attempts to secretly contact him.

Dr. Kang has been meeting frequently with Colonel Clay, the leader of the project, in the Computer Room lately. What are they up to...?

August

The experiment was set for tonight but something went wrong, I heard the explosion in the lower levels, the guards aren’t letting us out of the laboratories and scientists are getting restless, some of them have even begun to plot an escape…

There’s more, before Mike managed to slip past security to go find Luke, he said he heard guards talking about dinosaurs…

Just what the is going on…?

There was more written under it, but it was illegible to Jieqiong. She knew the guy that had written it, in fact, he had been one of the first friends she made when she came to the island.

Still, there was something completely off about the information in the journal. Yebin? Meeting up with the colonel in secret? That was new to Jieqiong, it was shocking, just as much as when Yebin had tried to convince her of defecting and weaponizing the third energy…

She didn’t’ have much time to keep thinking about it either way before a shrill, high-pitched scream sent every single one of her senses into maximum alert. It was coming from inside the experiment room!

“Kyla!”- Jieqiong shouted instinctively, rushing inside the place.

“Jieqiong! Jieqiong!”- She was met with a frantic Kyla that tugged at her arm, bringing her near the glass pane.

Jieqiong then saw the inside of the room where the gases interacted, the entire atmosphere was colored a bright-less and thick red gas.

And, in the middle