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More information regarding yesterday's deadly plane crash in Los Angeles has come out. The aircraft was a Mcdonnell Douglas MD-87 operated by a private charter airline, SmartJet. 23 people were onboard when the plane crash-landed on a road for unknown reasons. So far, there have been 16 fatalities reported, including the Vice President of Summit Biotechnics, who was recently under investigation for OSHA violations...
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I punched in Elias' number and called him. He picked up on the second ring.
"Did you see the news?", I asked.
"Yup. Crazy coincidence isn't it."
"Elias, you're a mechanic for SmartJet."
"That I am."
"Oh..."
It took me a bit to process. Elias had sabatoged the VP's plane.
"You killed a lot of other people", I said.
"It was unavoidable. This was the only way."
"You could have taken him and only him out."
"True, but it wouldn't have looked like an accident."
"You're fucking insane."
"I did what I did because I had no choice."
"Stop lying to yourself."
"I'm many things, but I'm not a liar."
"Fuck you," I said, and hung up.
16 people at least had been essentially murdered by Elias. He was no better then Summit themselves. I found myself wondering if it would be wise to turn him in to the law. Maybe give them the Summit files too... ah yes, the files.
There were 6 of them, a mix of audio and text. Each one was recorded or written by a biologist at Eastern Seaboard named Nikolai.
He had been there when the raptors first escaped. He had watched his friends die horribly in front of him. He was backstabbed by the program he devoted so much to, and left to die by Summit with the few other survivors of the incident.
We knew they were sending mercs up there, but we didn't know there will still employees trapped in the facility.
Nikolai's logs stopped many weeks ago. I assumed he had been killed. But, in the last two logs, there had been some edits made after they were uploaded. At first, it looked like he was trying to use morse code. I don't know why. Maybe the mercs were a concern. Then, eventually, he started typing normally. I couldn't find out when the edits were made, but Nikolai had repeated many times that he had basically given up. Why he made cryptic edits to his logs instead of just uploading new ones? I had no clue. And I probably would never know.
I was brought back to attention by a local police report on the TV.
All residents in the area are now under 24 hour patrol and curfew. Please keep your doors locked and keep an eye out for any strange people or creatures outside. All sightings must be immediately reported for community safety.
A single image was displayed at the bottom of the message.
Jesus.
The raptors had spread all the way down the mountains and into the city.
I wondered if anyone had made the connection between Summit and the raptors yet. Probably not.
My phone rang.
I picked up. It was Elias.
"The raptors have made it into the city and the cops know. It's now or never, John."
I took a couple seconds to think through it. Over the past year, Summit had indirectly killed over a hundred of their own employees and mercenaries, pushed a colleague to suicide, and released an incredible and deadly force of nature into civilization.
Maybe collateral damage wasn't such a big issue after all.
"I'll meet you at the office. Most of the higher ups are probably trapped in there by the police mandate," I said.
"I'll be there," replied Elias.
I hung up again and walked over to the keybowl. I found the locker key and went into the bedroom closet, looking for my safe.
It was tucked into the corner and shrouded with laundry and other random household items. I hadn't opened or even touched the thing in years.
I unlocked the safe. Sure enough, it was still inside. A .500 S&W magnum, still in perfect condition. More then enough bullets too. I slid the gun into my belt and silently left the house through the back door. It was going to take a while to get to the office on foot in these conditions, but taking the car was too risky. The cops would find me easily and it would all be over.
With the handgun at my side, I trudged through the snow towards downtown, ready to give Summit what they fucking deserved.
---
Gonzalez sat in his squad car as snow piled up around it. The past few days had been the weirdest in his entire life. And somehow, he felt all these strange events were connected.
Summit goes under investigation for poor working conditions. A spree of grisly murders, and then coincidentally, the plane carrying the VP of Summit crashes and kills him. And now there were literal dinosaurs roaming around.
He thought through a variety of different scenarios. Summit was commiting OSHA violations, so maybe they had those people killed mysteriously to shut them up? And then maybe the plane crash was the workforce striking back somehow? That still didn't explain the raptors, though. This was ridiculous.
Gonzalez reclined his seat back a little bit and stared up at the car's ceiling.
They're all connected somehow...
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The render of the raptor in the garage was made by @Scotalt in SFM, big thanks to him
