WHO: Dr. Ellie Sattler and Stiles WHAT: an arrival WHEN: I'm going with today WHERE: a park STATUS: COMPLETE
It was an odd sensation to at one moment be sitting in her living room and typing up the next page of her novel to suddenly sitting on a park bench. Not only had the weather changed--she’d been enjoying a Montana summer and it was definitely now fall/winter--but she was somewhere else. Not in her own apartment and from the looks of the park she was currently sitting in, probably not even in her own town. The trees in the distance didn’t grow that far up north, something she could tell simply by looking at them
Was this a hallucination? Ellie had wondered if that would ever start to happen after what she had endured at John Hammond’s park. But that had been nearly a year ago and surely she would have started experiencing any trauma from that experience earlier.
She noted that there were Eastern Cottonwoods nearby, giving her a rough estimate of where she might have somehow arrived. Maybe she had blacked out leaving her apartment and heading to this city? Anything was possible. Except checking her phone didn’t help since it kept saying she didn’t have any service. Ellie pushed herself off the bench and started walking through the park, looking for anyone who might be able to shed some light on what exactly had happened to her.
Stiles Stilinski wasn’t having a great couple of days. He’d adjusted as well as he could to life in Lawrence since there was no telling if or when he’d be sent home, but he missed his dad immensely. He knew from his own experience that his dad had no idea he was missing and he was glad about that much at least. On top of that, he’d started having nightmares. He’d woken up the last two nights in a cold sweat, his chest tight with anxiety. He’d thought for sure he was going to have to end up calling for an ambulance or at least wake Lydia up.
Tonight though, he decided maybe a long walk would help clear his head before he tried sleeping. He hadn’t been out for very long when he noticed a familiar woman walking through the park. For a moment he thought he was actually losing his mind. He had, after all, seen Jurassic Park more times than he could actually count. He briefly considered that it might not be Ellie Sattler and rather the actress who played her, but he discarded that idea as he watched her and saw her expression changing to utter confusion.
He glanced around but saw no one else, so he guessed it was up to him to help her out. He made his way across the park to her. “Hey. Let me guess, you just showed up here from wherever you were a minute ago?”
It was such an odd thing to hear someone say, and if she had been back home in the comfort of her own apartment, or even in her own city, Ellie might have looked at him like he had two heads. Not that sudden transportation to a new city was that large a leap for her to make. Not after having dealt with living and breathing dinosaurs and somehow making it out of that park alive.
“I’m guessing this is either a common abnormality or you’ve experienced it yourself?” Though really it could have gone either way. Or maybe it was both. Whichever answer, she hoped the teenage boy in front of her would be able to fill her in on what had happened and direct her to where she could rent a car to head on home.
“Both actually,” Stiles admitted. Holy crap he was talking to Ellie Sattler. He had to hand it to this place -- it brought in some damn awesome people. “It’s a long story and kind of out there, but I’m guessing since you just found yourself in a new place in the blink of an eye you’re probably expecting a weird, out there kind of story.” He arched his eyebrows.
She nodded, because really what else was there to do when someone answered like that. “Possible an odd question, but it doesn’t involve dinosaurs, does it?” Because she really didn’t need another adventure involving those for awhile. if ever again.
“No. No dinosaurs.” Well except that one of Connor Temple’s. But she probably didn’t need to hear about that right now. Probably didn’t need to hear about an apocalypse either, but there wasn’t much choice there. “But uh -- this is gonna sound really weird. We’re in the middle of a biblical apocalypse.”
Okay, maybe the boy had lost his mind. Biblical apocalypses were not actually a thing. They came about by meteors or volcanoes erupting or a number of other scientifically proven ways that humans had simply turned into various signs of an apocalypse because they didn’t understand what was really happening. Except….she had also somehow ended up in Kansas and had no recollection of how she had arrived there, so Ellie figured at trying to have an open mind was a good idea.
“What makes you say that?”
“That’s what everyone tells me. Apparently there’s this whole thing with Lucifer wanting to possess this guy from here named Sam, and people can be possessed by demons unless you get a tattoo or wear this fugly necklace.” He pulled the pendant out from beneath his shirt collar to show her. “I don’t know, it apparently repels them. Also I’m learning Latin in case I need to do some kind of exorcism. Oh, and we get pulled here from different universes by a Biblical Seal, and no I don’t mean the animal kind.” He realized that she was looking at him like he was crazy and he grimaced. “Okay I did tell you it was going to sound out there. But to be fair, you’re from a world where dinosaurs are real again.”
It was a lot to take in and she had been vaguely listening to it all, each bit convincing her more and more that he was justifiably insane...but how did he know about the dinosaurs? The company had done a pretty good job of keeping what had happened pretty hushed. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that last part?”
Oh, right. She had no idea she was fictional in this world. Awkward. He reached up, rubbing the back of his neck. “The whole island with dinosaurs cloned from mosquito blood. John Hammond and uh, big scary t-rex, even more scary velociraptors.” Nope, this was a totally normal conversation to be having.
Ellie blinked. Once, twice, and then leaned forward, almost conspiratorily toward him. “Is this some sort of test by InGen? Because I’m not falling for it and I’d much rather be at home, working on my new book.”
Stiles shrugged. “It’s not a test. I had a hard time believing all the apocalypse stuff at first, too, but then I remembered I’m from a world where werewolves and kanimas are real.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “There used to be an apartment complex here for those of us who showed up but apparently a demon blew it up. There are a lot of people who have places you can stay though.”
“So there are others who’ve been through this same predicament as you and I?” Well, supposedly her and him. She still couldn’t quite believe it, even if scientifically speaking, there did seem to be evidence to back up everything aside from the apocalypse and werewolf parts. “Think you could end up taking me to one of those places?”
“Yeah, there are a lot of us,” he assured her. “I’ve actually lost track, but a lot. And yeah I can take you to the apartment complex where my buddy Scott and his girlfriend live. There may be extra space there.” He wasn’t sure, really because he hadn’t been keeping track. He hadn’t been keeping track of much of anything except Lydia. Which really wasn’t as stalkery as it sounded. “Come on.” He started walking.
There really wasn’t much else for her to do but follow Stiles and hope to get some more information that would either back up his claims that she was in an Apocalypse or her own that he was insane. Only time would tell.