"More than well-equipped, he says," muttered Arnold from somewhere off to Robert's right.

Tobias was the first to bring out his pocket flashlight, shining it around the room to check on everyone. Seconds later, Robert heard the doors to the hallway open and Elliot's voice asked in a would-be calm fashion, "I think people are starting to panic."

"In the event of a park-wide blackout, protocol is to gather in the gymnasiums," said Hammond, taking charge now that his friends and his employees as well as his guests could very well be in danger. "All employees know this and they'll be helping to escort the guests to the designated location. Everyone file out into the kitchens to gather up flashlights…"

"I have to go," said Simon anxiously. "I have to find my children."

"They're probably helping guests; it's their job," said Austin.

"I have to find them," Simon insisted.

"Elliot, start rallying people towards the gym with one of those bullhorns—"

"Get security at every exit and entrance to the building—"

"Ray, find out the live count from the last check-in and start doing a head count once everyone's in the gyms—"

"Are the backup generators on-?"

In the confusion of people asking questions left and right, Robert lost Simon who had most likely gone to look for Eva and Trenton. On the pretense of organizing the heads of departments into groups so that everyone wasn't bumping into each other in the dark, Robert heard the t-rex handler over his radio and pressed a hand over his exposed ear to hear Miguel Vasquez better.

"Say again Miguel, I couldn't hear you."

"Titus is trying to break through the paddock," said the panicked voice of Miguel. "Even with the backup generators on, they aren't powerful enough to shock him. He's coming through, Robert—"

"Keep calm, man, and tranq him," said Robert levelly. "Five darts should do it. Get your other handlers and shoot him."

"Shoot who?" asked Keenan suddenly.

"Disparale!" shouted Miguel, then his line cut out and went full static.

Robert paused for the briefest of moments, taking into consideration the fact that it was highly likely that all of Titus the t-rex's handlers had just been eaten or killed in some other gruesome manner, leaving the t-rex paddock vulnerable and unguarded.

"Grant, I'm going to need some help," said Robert levelly. He found Hammond in the dark and in an undertone added, "Keep me on the radio and let me know if anything happens here. I need to go out to the t-rex paddock. No one goes outside once they come in."

"Robert, what's wrong?" asked Hammond, catching Robert by the arm.

"Everything's fine, but no one goes outside," Robert repeated. "And keep everyone as quiet as you can. Emergency lights to a minimum." As Grant fell into line behind Robert who was already rushing down the hall with the aid of a flashlight to a weapon closet, he had the same question to ask as Hammond, but Robert ignored him as he switched his radio to the universal security frequency. "All units go heavily armed. I repeat: all units go heavily armed, possible asset out of containment."

"Is Titus loose?" asked Grant.

"He might be; that's what we're going to find out," said Robert, choosing a rifle from the closet and handing off a similar one to Grant who was holding the flashlight for him. Robert gave Grant the rundown of how to operate the weapon and then hurried on his way to the garage where he had his selection of vehicles to choose from. He chose a jeep since it would work best for the slippery roads and was capable of going faster than Titus's top speed in case they were pursued. Grant found a pair of yellow rain jackets in the back and they both slipped one on as Robert backed the car out of the garage and headed towards the t-rex paddock.

"If Titus is out, Tobias would have been more use to you," said Grant as they hit a hole in the road and the car made an ungainly dip.

"I want Tobias with Keenan so that the little prick doesn't stir up more trouble," said Robert.

Even with Robert testing the boundaries of the jeep's wheels in the downpour, it took some time getting onto the main employee road, but before he continued on to Titus's paddock, he honked as he came up to the raptor enclosure where a handful of handlers were standing around the perimeter catwalk instead of the middle.

"One of you get down here now, I need help!" called Robert and seconds later Jay was sliding through the mud towards him, his shoulder-length hair plastered to his face and his glasses completely fogged up.

"Dude, this rain's like nothing I've ever seen. It didn't rain this much in Seattle all year—"

"Does Marx have the raptors under control?" asked Robert before taking off.

"Yeah, all's quiet and contained. Backup generators online and Jett's in seclusion. The hell's going on out in the rest of the park?"

"Titus may be loose," said Robert. "Miguel's line was cut mid-sentence and if that's the case, we'll have to tranq Titus ourselves at least until we can get him moved back into the paddock."

"God, don't say that. It'd take a hundred cars to move him an inch if he decides to nap in the middle of the road."

"Better to spend hours getting him back into his paddock than to let him wander around and potentially eat someone else or break into another carnivore's paddock," reasoned Grant.

Robert was nearly laying on the steering wheel to see clearly and even with his brights, it was almost impossible to see the road. When they reached the mile marker to Titus's pen, a call came over the radio from the Visitor's Center. Robert heard Tobias's voice say something about panicking guests when-

"Watch out!" cried Jay, pointing ahead at the massive creature in the middle of the road with its maw opened wide.

"My God," said Grant in horrified awe just before Robert veered the jeep sideways to avoid smashing into Titus and as the wheels skidded in the mud, the momentum of the sudden brakes coupling with the speeding car and causing the entire thing to topple sideways. Robert was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown out into the drowning grass. He heard the jeep rolling down the hill, but even louder than the deafening crash were the thundering footsteps of Titus as the animal stomped after the vehicle's turning lights.

Praying that if either Jay or Grant were still in the car and conscious or even alive, they would turn off the headlights, Robert kept still to watch Titus walk right past him laying in the mud. Then, miraculously, the lights of the jeep went out and Titus stopped halfway down the hill as if contemplating where his target had gone. After a few tense moments in which Robert waited for the t-rex to move off, Titus left in pursuit of visible prey and Robert stood up gingerly, testing to see if anything was broken or sprained. His tailbone was slightly sore from where he had landed on it, but he seemed otherwise unscathed and so he set his heels to the hill, placed his hands on the ground on either side of him and slid down the rest of the way.

With the instincts of someone who had spent over half of his life anticipating being attacked, Robert dropped to the ground as he heard the sound of a gun being cocked. The bullet went over his head, but the report of the rifle was like sending up a flare to all nearby predators.

"Damn it, hold your fire!" Robert cursed as he stood up.

"Robert?" said Jay, appearing from the other side of the jeep wielding Robert's weapon. "Dude, I nearly fucking shot you, why didn't you speak up?"

"Where's Grant?"

"I don't know, I haven't started looking yet. I just had time to turn off the lights once the damn jeep stopped rolling and then I went for a weapon."

"I'm here," said a voice weakly from under the capsized vehicle.

Robert knelt down and shone his pocket flashlight to illuminate Grant whose left leg was trapped beneath one of the car doors. Grant's face was screwed up in pain and he was bleeding from a cut over his eye.

"Do you think it's broken?" asked Robert, trying to pull some clumps of mud aside with his fingers to make it easier to pull Grant out from the car wreckage.

"No, I think it's worse," said Grant. "And I think I'm in shock, because I can't feel it. I might have damaged the nerves."

"Easy, easy," said Robert as Jay helped to pry Grant's leg from under the door. When the limb finally came free, Robert gave an inward groan at the sight of bone marrow visible for at least a quarter of an inch down the leg. Jay made a look of disgust, but removed his raincoat, sliced off a sleeve, and secured it around Grant's leg.

"That's all I feel safe doing until we can get him back to the compound."

"That's at least two miles from the point where we went off the road and we have to get him back up the hill first," Robert pointed out. "And in this weather, with the ground being so slick, there's no chance of that happening."

"Then leave me," said Grant. "Get back to the compound and come back for me once you have help."

Robert crawled under the car and began to rummage around for the walkie-talkie. After much swearing as he hit his head on the low ceiling, he found the radio—sopping wet like everything else. Clearing the mud from the buttons, he pressed "talk" to see if he would get any reception on the other end. There was some static, which gave him hope.

"Control, this is Muldoon. Requesting assistance on West Dock turnoff, two miles inland between t-rex and raptor paddocks. One in critical condition. If anyone is receiving me, respond. Asset out of containment and one in critical condition. Tobias, Ray, someone respond."

More static met his request, but he kept repeating the message in the hopes that someone would hear the gist of the message and send help. Finally, after about ten minutes of this, Robert heard a very choppy message in response.

"Reques…knowledge…ET…loc…Fif…utes."

"They're coming for us," Robert assured Grant who was starting to nod off either from pain or another stage of shock. Jay tapped the side of Grant's face to make him stay awake and then pulled Grant's hood up over his head to shield it from the rain.

"He's gonna be pissed that he lost his hat," said Jay. "How'd you manage to keep yours?"

"That's irrelevant," said Robert. "Just sit tight and shut up."

From the estimated fifteen minutes that Robert had managed to understand from the choppy radio, it was actually more along the lines of seventeen or eighteen minutes until he heard a car coming up the road and he shined his flashlight to hail the vehicle. It was manned by Christoph who had a gun sitting in his lap and company hanging out of the seat beside him.

"Alan!" cried Bianca, leaping out of the car and throwing herself down the hill to reach Grant who awoke with a small and delayed start at the sound of her voice, much to Robert's concern. Bianca grabbed Grant's face and tried to peer into his eyes. "He's in shock for sure, and if he doesn't get medical attention immediately, he's going to lose that leg. Christoph, get that sled down here!"

From the road, Christoph lowered the med evac sled used for transporting victims out of difficult spots and together, Robert, Jay, and Bianca moved Grant onto it, securing him in place so that Christoph could operate the winch to get the sled moving upward. Once he had disconnected Grant, Christoph sent the line back down for the rest of them who simply had to hold on as the winch reeled them in. They all set Grant in the back seat, clambered into after him, and Christoph put the pedal to the floor, spraying mud in all directions as he took off for the Visitor's Center.

Robert stole the radio from the front seat and ordered Marx to keep all raptor handlers vigilant until a replacement team could be sent out to relieve them. The rest of the carnivore handlers reported no disturbances. Robert then alerted Simon to set up a medical station to have ready for operation on Grant as soon as they arrived.

Grant beamed at Jay who was closest to him in the seat.

"Why're you smiling, dude?"

"This'll make Keenan think twice about gladiators," said Grant.

"Quit looking at me like that; it's freaking me out."

"What does he mean, gladiators?" asked Bianca.

"It's nothing," said Robert. And after Titus's escape, it was definitely looking like Keenan's big plans for dinosaurs dueling to the death were turning out to be nothing.