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Escapee

"Nigel, the Indominus Rex is out!" Bob calls over the radio, clearly stressed. "I can see her footprints leading out the door but the mud ends after a wee bit."

"Don't chase her, Bob, just run!" Nigel says. On the monitor, Bob shakes his head.

"Com'on. Back to the break rooms." Nigel has moved to the control screens, hitting the radio button.

"Find a safe shelter, everyone! The Indominus Rex is out." Nigel orders, and shuts it off, turning to a tech. "Can you see her on the heat vision?"

"She's invulnerable to that," Claire Deering reminds him.

"Ok. Can you give it a quick blast of the fire sprinklers?" Without looking round, he adds, "The powder won't be nice for her, but in small amounts it won't harm a creature her size." There's a sudden burst of white across all the screens, and then a pause.

"Do you see anything?" Nigel asks, and the camera dances wildly and pans across as a tech at the end of the row yelps and raises his hand. "She's heading down towards the loading bay."

"Okay, the carnivore's food stores are down there. Open those doors." He grabs the intercom. "Guys, she's heading down to the docks, evacuate the main HQ, through the other entrances, and don't open a door large enough for her to get through. We're going to try and lure her into the meat stocks. Susannah, the Indominus Rex is loose." On screen a group of warehouse workers drop the cow-halves they were loading and make their way in an orderly fashion out through the staff door at the back.

"We don't have a tranquiliser that works on her, Nigel," the vet says, back over the intercom. "If she eats enough she'll try and sleep it off, like all large carnivores."

"Then we'll shut her in, and work out how to get her back to her enclosure." The camera zooms in. Onscreen a group of white powder splats outline parts of what looks like an invisible Tyrannosaur, the right side of the head, the left haunch and right ankle, and about half of the thick tail waving behind it. There is a hum as the large door to the meat stocks open. The large half-head swings round and the creature surveys what is within. It lunges, grabs a large shark in its jaws and backs out into the corridor again, dragging it by the tail. Putting a foot on it to hold it still, the Rex ducks its head, tearing into it.

"Looks like our girl's found something new to eat," Nigel says.

"Aye, and that's going to be a cleanup and a half," Bob mutters, walking in.

"She's not going back into her enclosure, she's got too much to explore."

"She'll hunt the tourists!" the red-head says, and Nigel shakes his head.

"No, she's got a whole new world to explore, and that shark will keep her full for the next week. She'll eat people because they are fun to chase and catch." He looks at the monitor, and looks at Bob. "Do you remember when Matilda got out?"

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"Nigel-" Bob says, warning, but Nigel is already hurrying out, beckoning to Owen Grady.

"Owen, how good are you on that bike?" The camera pans back to Bob, who is looking at his feet with a sigh. He looks up to the camera.

"Nigel, Nigel, Nigel. He doesna have a deinosuchus to save him here."

"Maybe he can feed the Indominus Rex to the Mosasaur instead," Claire says, hopefully, and Bob's head snaps up.

"He'd better bloody not!"

The camera cuts from the argument to the Indominus Rex, now visible, still marked with the white-patches of fire-retardant foam. Most of the shark is gone, the dinosaur's jaws carving through flesh and cartiledge easily. Offscreen, the roar of an approaching engine can be heard. The Indominus Rex raises its head, looking curiously in the direction of the sound. From a long shot down the corridor, below the Indominus Rex's chin at the far end of the loading corridor, a motorbike has come into view and turns a sharp 180 as the dinosaur focuses on it. From the back, Nigel throws a haunch of meat over the back, roped to the bike. The dinosaur doesn't move, tilting its head from side to side. He waves his arms encouragingly, and shouts:

"Hey, hey - Owen drive!" The dinosaur pads a few paces towards them, claws clicking on the hard floor, and the motorcycle roars to life.

"How fast does she go?" Owen yells.

"Faster than us! Speed up." Owen floors it, and the motorcycle leaps forward. So does the Rex, shattering several chairs along the side and leaving a dent in the wall as it corners.

"Theropods can run at over forty miles an hour," Nigel yells, as they swing round a corner again. The huge head just misses them, decidedly not going for the meat. "Faster!"

"If I hit a wall, we're [bleeped]!"

"Not far now!" At sixty miles an hour, the bike roars into the Indominus Rex's enclosure. Nigel drops the rope, but the dinosaur isn't interested in the meat, fixated on the small roaring thing. "Loop wide and head for the door. She thinks we're fun."

"Fun? She thinks we're food!" Owen swings the bike round in a wide arc, aiming for low undergrowth and maintenance paths. Behind him the Indominus Rex snaps, missing, deliberately. Getting a clear run to the door, he leaps the bike off the path, landing with a bounce and screeching out.

"Close the doors," Bob orders from the control room, and the Indominus Rex hits the closing doors, just wide enough for the tip of her snout, but not for her to force open. The motorbike skids to a stop, and the riders slowly take off their helmet.

"This how you always do business?" Owen asks. The doors are still not closed, the Indominus Rex trying to force its way out unsuccessfully.

"Ask me about the time, I lured a T-rex with a sandwich."

"Aye, there were two, and they didna want the sandwich." Bob's voice comes over the intercom. "I'm heading down. Poor girl."

"Her new enclosure's not ready yet," Nigel says, staying well back from the six foot long snapping jaws. "We'll have to let her tire herself out, and hope she doesn't hurt herself."

"Aye, but Nigel, she canna stay like this."

"I'll ask Susannah how her environmental enrichment program is coming along. The cork treat balls worked with the velociraptors, but we'll need something more robust for this little lady." The Indominus Rex has finally given up, slumping to the floor. Its jaws are still between the doors, but now they are shut and the creature looks if anything, depressed. Nigel stays carefully clear. "They didn't even give you a name, did they?"

"Indy?" Owen suggests, watching Nigel who is still far closer to the Indominus Rex than Owen wants to get.

"That's not a name." Bob says, scornfully. The Indominus moves its head to fix one beady eye on him.

"Better ideas?"

"Ivy." Bob says, and Nigel nods. "Ivy the Indominus Rex."

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