'This isn't right,' the words replayed in Amethyst Young's mind like a broken record player.

'This isn't right.' The young woman's caramel-colored eyes were alight with a slow burning fire as she watched the terrible scene play out before her, her emotions warring on as she struggled to act.

Items of all shapes, sizes, and uses littered the campground like exposed landmines, ready to endanger any innocent passerby who was too busy with the boxes in their hands to take notice of the fallen debris. The cool, crisp wind clawed its way through what open space it could get through, causing tents and tarps alike to wave wildly and slap and grab at people as they scurried by. A few unfortunate souls attempted to subdue the slashing fabrics, however, it was to little avail as the tarps struggled and coiled like frightened snakes within their grasp. Amethyst felt as though a snake had slithered up her own leg and entangled itself around her chest, enabling her to move to help her friends, only allowing her to watch as their lives crumbled to ruin.

'This isn't right,' she thought again, her eyes snatching onto the sight of one of her oldest friends. The man was a great bear of a man, and although he held a very human heart beneath his monstrous graying beard, Amethyst knew his heart was open to everyone. He'd split open his very chest if it meant he could shed even a bit of kindness upon the world, she would often think. She thought this now, again, however unhumorous it turned out to be in this situation. 'This isn't right.'

The old man shuffled along while the people around him bustled and scrambled, all caught in their own heads as they focused on nothing but themselves and their dull futures, paying no mind to the kind smile peeking out from behind wiry whiskers. Then his shuffling feet caught on a discarded pair of boots and the old man tripped, the cardboard box toppling from his wrinkled hands and splaying out his once neatly packed clothes for the ground to display.

It was then that Amethyst found herself moving, and within a second's notice, she was on her knees stuffing in button-up shirts and baggy jeans back into the box. "Thank you, Steggy," the old man said slowly as he, too, went to work returning his clothes to the box.

"No problem, Terry," Amethyst replied instantly. The old man's name was Dominick - or Dom for his friends - but to his family, he was known as Terry. Amethyst was only known as Steggy by the family she shared with Terry, who were all currently bustled around the campsite as they prepared to set back for their homes with sullen hearts.

The people of this campsite may have been the closest thing she would ever consider her family and Terry was no different. Terry was something more than a simple friend to her - he meant so much, yet she could never manage to express her feelings as well as she would have liked, even to herself. Her lack of understanding emotions very well was blame she set upon her strict German parents. She was not sure if it was appropriate to label them as her parents anymore, considering she had chosen to look for fossils in the ground rather than laboring over a surgery table.

When Amethyst had first graduated from college, Paleontology was not exactly a "booming" industry, as her parents had constantly and insistently reminded her. No one wanted to hire a young scientist-wannabe fresh from college with no outside experience, especially when even the most spectacular paleontologist were living off pocket money. After months of failed job applications and her parents finally cutting her off, Amethyst and a woman named Haley made the decision to move to America in one last struggle for a well-needed opportunity.

Haley was the closest thing to a sister Amethyst had, and the girls loved each other very dearly. After becoming roommates in college, nothing thick nor thin could separate the two. Even if that meant going broke in a foreign country together. It was Terry who had found the two at their wit's end that offered the two a chance; the opportunity they had been waiting for. Now Amethyst wondered if it would have been better if he hadn't even bothered with them.

Terry was a great Paleontologist. No - he was a brilliant one. At the prime of his life he was excavating three different sites at once with three different groups, and in his old age, he still was making more discoveries than most. Once he had taken in Amethyst and Haley, he had decided to attempt an entirely new project, and now his hard work had come to nothing. He had set out to make his replacements for retirement, and Amethyst had obliterated his chance of keeping his name from being forgotten in one good go.

'This isn't right. This is chaos.'

Terry's old, lumbering bones would have made picking up his clothes quite the long task if not for Amethyst's young and quick movements. By the time he had re-folded two shirts and started on a pair of pants, Amethyst had tossed in the rest of the pile and was gently taking the rest of the fabric from his trembling fingers. Once she had them settled into the less than neat box and made sure Terry had a good hold on the cardboard, Amethyst stood and began to bolt. However, she was quickly caught by a calloused palm on her shoulder and a cheerful chuckle.

"What's the rush, Steg?" Terry asked, his round belly and narrow chest pumping with the rumbles of his laughter. Amethyst's ashamed eyes fell heavily to anything that did not hold the image of Terry, which was a hard feat to master considering that the entire excavation group and everything in it had previously been owned by him less than a year ago.

"I need to help them pack," was Amy's only reply, and she pulled her shoulder away from the old man's grip.

"Steg," she heard him call sternly, and it took everything in her not to run and hide like a kicked mutt. Terry grabbed her shoulder again and, with surprising strength even to her, turned her single-handily around to face him. Amy had no moment to try and free herself before both heavy hands settled upon her shoulders and she found that she could do nothing but look at the dusty ground like a guilty child. "Steg, look at me," Terry spoke in a steady voice. She didn't budge. "Amethyst!"

The brunette flinched at the sound of her name as if someone had jabbed her with a burning iron rod. She blinked hard, trying with all her might not to let her emotions get the better of her. After all, it was her famous German emotions that had gotten them all into this situation in the first place. Although it took a few aggravating heartbeats, Amethyst could not keep her eyes from finally meeting the baby blue ones of Terry.

Amy starred in Terry's hooded eyes as he stared right back through his round-rimmed glasses, a very heavy and stern look boring in her head as she felt her cheeks flair with heat. "This isn't your fault-" Terry started, but Amy had already heard enough. She pushed his hands off of her and took a step back in retreat, not wanting to have this conversation. "Amy-" he tried to grab her again, but she had already moved out of range for his reaching fingers.

"No, Terry!" Amy choked as the corners of her eyes began to sting. "I don't want to hear it." Terry once again reached out to her and started to speak, but she cut him off with another harsh, "no! I don't want to talk about this."

Terry did not try to reach for her again, but her harsh tone did little to keep him from talking back. "You know Biosyn has been trying to get rid of us-"

She didn't wait for him to finish. She scoffed rather loudly and gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes, once more stopping the man's words in his throat. "Yeah, I also know that if we don't get off this campsite within the next twenty-three hours we're going to get fined an extra hundred dollars for every hour we spend here."

"We can't just go home, Steggy. Not like this." The words he spoke hit a nerve within Amethyst. She didn't like it when Terry talked with that tone. It was the voice of a man she did not know; the voice of a desperate man. Amy's eyes began to blur, but she quickly blinked away whatever droplets may have tried to escape.

"We can't just piss away what we don't have," was her snappy response, and she hoped he had not heard the slight crack hitch in her throat. She suddenly felt a thick layer of air hovering over her, and when she looked up she realized that a few people from the group had stopped their actions and were looking directly at her. She swallowed thickly, trying desperately to feel anything that was not the expanding desert inside her mouth and neck. "It's okay guys," she spoke, trying to sound as confident and controlled as she wanted to be. She knew, however, that her poor attempt at a facade was as clear as glass to them and cut sharper to her. "Just get back to work. I'll figure something out, I promise. Just-" she paused. She had made the mistake of looking one of the group member's directly in the eye.

The pure hopelessness and broken security in the young man's eyes are what had caught her completely off guard. It was the look she never wanted to see; never for herself. The look meant she messed up. "-Just get back to work. We're out of here in thirty."

The group passed each other sorrowful glances, then returned to their previous jobs. The continuously astounded, worry-filled eyes did not go unnoticed by Amy as her group continued to pack up the camp.

Terry watched them go, then he let out a long, defeated sigh. "Amy, can we just-"

"I have some tents to fold," she rushed, not allowing her eyes to scan back over to the closest thing she had to a father for even a moment, for she knew that at that moment, she would lose the grip she was holding on herself. She could not break down in front of these people; she would not allow herself to. Even if there was a tiny shred of hope left for the future of the camp, she would not further ruin it by allowing her emotions to run her over again.

Without another word, Amethyst spun tightly on her heels and sped away from the downcasted Terry.

With a newfound hot wire burning inside of her core, Amethyst found that she could not turn herself off and return to her frozen state. She did everything she could to keep her body moving; she wrestled down the fighting tarps and tents, she lugged the overly heavy cardboard boxes and suitcases around camp and stacked belongings tightly and high inside of the only two, pitifully small trailers they owned, and she kept thinking. Despite all of the running around she found herself doing, she could not help but realize just how much thought she was also doing, even though she would have rather not think at all.

Although she tried, she could not keep her thoughts from racing back to the events that had lead up to this horrible, awful situation, and the smug face of the man behind everything would not stop flashing behind her thick eyelashes.

That man. That terrible, weasel of a man was the cause of everything. One single, selfish snake was the cause of thirty-two good people losing their jobs, and that man's name was currently racing over and over through Amethyst's mind, echoing as though it were shouted in a never-ending tunnel.

'Lewis Dodgson.'

The very thought of that man caused goosebumps to erupt over Amethyst's arms and the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end as her chest tightened with a violent rage.

It had only been a little over a year ago since Amethyst gained leadership over Terry's excavation group, Fossiles Holz - more commonly known in English as Fossil Wood. With his supervision and the aid of Haley, the new ownership of Fossil Wood seemed almost perfect. Amethyst seemed brilliant for the position, even with the large shoes of the fantastic Paleontologist Dominick Flanagan to fill, and things were booming. Never before had Fossil Wood extracted so many fossils in such a short amount of time, and they were getting publicity for it. Unwanted publicity, they soon realized.

Competition between groups soon became quite evident to Amethyst. It was always a race to get to a dig site; always a race to get the better find. Things didn't seem too hard to handle until Fossil Wood got to the big leagues. Never before had Amethyst seen such pure hatred between two companies before. Biosyn and InGen were the top leading genetic companies in the world with many different branches of working scientists, but no branches fought against each other like their excavation groups. Once Fossil Wood had been thrown into the mix, it was evident who the top dogs of Paleontology truly were.

For months Amethyst could not find a place for an excavation. Every place she went to was either picked clean already or was snatched out beneath her feet. She especially hated when her scheduled site was suddenly bought out by either Biosyn or InGen.

Amy knew her group was struggling. With no recent findings and nothing to profit from, her group was suffering. So, as the new owner of Fossil Wood, she had decided to make her first major decision; no matter how much Terry despised the idea and wished her to re-think. Fossil Wood was dying, and no amount of her hating the truth would help her people. She made the choice to merge with Biosyn.

It was painfully clear just how much the workers at Biosyn did not wish to do business with them. At the meetings, she was met with much hostility. When going to dig sites, the other group would do anything they could not to mingle with either her or her group. They were a new and unwanted extension that Biosyn had no use of. Why Biosyn even invested in Fossil Wood to begin with, she would never know.

It wasn't until four months into working with them that the real problems began to arise. The contract between Fossil Wood and Biosyn had first been clear, yet it soon began to muddy before her very eyes. What started out as "If you keep digging, we'll keep funding," soon morphed very rapidly to "If you meet the standards for a very specific monthly quota, we'll keep funding."

Amy knew the truth about their sudden change of heart for Fossil Wood. She knew this day would come. Hell, all of the scientific world knew it, and it was hitting them now like a sudden sack of brick to the chest. People were being replaced by machines, and that was that. Very soon, the new world would have hardly any need for paleontologist. Everyone knew the day they would be replaced by a computer would come, but not so soon. That's simply how things go now-a-days.

They know it's happening, just not so soon.

It was Lewis Dodgson who had set a flickering flame of hope within Amy during her time of need. It was him, and him alone, who had reassured her that she had a secure position at Biosyn. 'Trust me', he had said many times what seemed like so long ago. Trust him, she did. At that moment, Amethyst had not seen a reason not to trust the man. After all, he is the head of the Department of Research within Biosyn. What a fool he played her as, and what a fool she turned to be.

After many failed attempts at scrambling to find a dig site for many weeks, it became quite apparent that Fossil Wood would not be meeting its quota. When she needed Lewis to back her up and help get them more time, he was nowhere to be found. Typical.

Suddenly, there was a hand on Amy's shoulder and she jumped. She whirled around, only to come face-to-face with the bright-eyed face of Haley. Her unbrushed blonde hair fell past her shoulders and her bangs looked in desperate need of a trim as the ends of her hair scraped against the rims and the tops of her glasses. Her bright blue eyes were wide with a mix of confusion and worry as she stared up at the much taller woman, and when she spoke Amy wanted nothing more than to run and hide. "Are you alright, Steg?"

It was only then that Amy realized that her breathing was heavy and labored, and she couldn't seem to get enough air into her lungs quick enough. Everything she had been holding up - everything she had worked so hard to protect - seemed to suddenly come crashing down directly on top of her. She had ruined the lives of everyone here. If she had just manned up and hadn't of seeked the aid of another company, they would not have been kicked to the dust with nothing. If it was not for her, all of these people would not have to fly all the way back to their homeland Germany with nothing to offer their long-awaiting families.

If she had been stronger, Terry's reputation would not be in ruin.

"Ja, I'm fine," Amy said, and she nearly winced at the harshness of her own words. She always sounded harsher than she meant when she had any peek of emotion, and she wasn't sure if it was for the thick German accent that followed or if she were really as harsh as she sounded. "I just need to-" she trailed off. What did she need to do? Her caramel eyes gazed around the clearing once more in that moment as she searched for words that would not come to her lips.

The camp was in complete disarray. Utter chaos. Seeing her family rush around the camp and desperately gathering up their belongings for a too-soon flight home was bad enough. Having their hurt and sunken eyes fall on her every breathing moment was worse. She knew they didn't mean it, and she knew they couldn't help it. The looks were of contempt disappointment; of underlying disdain. Of scornful failure.

It was too much for her to handle.

"I need a minute." Without another uttered word, Amethyst was off. She could feel those eyes - the eyes filled with so much emotion, yet this time coming from her dearest sister - follow her as she ran. Amy ran away from her problems, and once she had reached her RV, she shut them out with a harsh slam. Once the door to the vehicle was firmly shut behind her, Amy fell against it in a great heap of a mess. The tears she did not know she was holding back now dribbled down her sun-kissed cheeks. Her lips parted as an involuntary squeak of remorse and pain whimpered from her throat.

She couldn't believe the situation she had gotten themselves into. She couldn't believe she had destroyed the careers of the closest thing she would ever have to a loving family. She couldn't believe how such a horrible person could allow something like this to happen.

Amethyst let out another soft sob and her arms weakly wrapped around herself, her knees slowly beginning to give out as she sunk slowly down the door frame. How could she have let this happen? How could she damn her friends like this? How could she?

Her head hung low as she sniffed and attempted to swallow back her quiet sobs, but it was to little avail. She hated crying; crying was something she was taught not to do. It was a sign of weakness that the daughter of a surgeon and military officer could not afford to show. And yet, here she was; on the floor of her RV sobbing like some unruly child.

Her tears did not last long, and once they were gone, so was her moping. She stood up, brushed off dust and tears alike from her body, and went to work packing for her flight-of-shame in the morning. Luckily, Biosyn was paying for their plane ride home. If they hadn't done that much courtesy for them, they may not have had enough money to live once finally out of America; the country with so much promise yet held the unyielding power to ruin those who opened the wrong door or stepped on the wrong mat.

Amy was no farther than fifteen minutes into packing her suitcase when she heard a knock on the door. She did not want to answer it; the thought of staying silent and pretending she was not there crossed her mind in an instance. Once the second knock came, she knew she could not withhold herself from the person at the door.

When she opened the door, to say she was shocked was an understatement to say the least. She had expected Terry to come and aid in her packing, or Haley to start a carefree conversation to take their minds of things. She had expected anyone else in the camp other than the man who now stood before her. Maybe she hadn't expected him because he wasn't apart of her group.

He was an older man who had to be somewhere between his late fifties and early sixties, although whatever his age was, he still looked in fairly good health. Snowy-white hair peaked out from underneath a tanned fedora and, from what Amethyst could see, it was only just beginning to thin. The matching white beard that framed his round and pink face looked nowhere thin, in fair contrast to his head. Peeking around black-rimmed glasses were a set of deep blue eyes that twinkled brilliantly as his thin lips broke out into a genuine smile that looked too large for the old man's face to hold.

"Ah!" was the first sound to gush from the old man's mouth; a simple sound she soon learned would be the more appeasing thing to come from him. In the very next instant, Amy's hands were trapped within his warm and wrinkled ones as he shook them vigorously. "Hello, my dear, hello, hello!" he crowed, quickly followed by an outburst of jolly, Christmas-like laughter. "I have waited so very long to see you, Amethyst Young!" the man exclaimed and shoved a pointing finger in her face. She jerked her head away from the appendage so as to not get poked, and the elderly man laughed like there was some joke only he was in on.

Now that he was fully inside her RV - and she was able to slip her hands from his surprisingly strong grip and take a step back - Amy was able to take in his attire. It was a little strange to wear in the wilderness of Montana, to say the least. The man was dressed in a very fine - very expensive-looking - suit of pure white. The only thing on him that didn't seem to be white were the black shiny buttons on his suit, the straight tie around his neck, the finely polished shoes on his feet, and the wooden cane he held but didn't seem to really need.

Amy wasn't sure what to think of him. Sure, she had spoken with many strangers before - especially in the line of work she was currently in. However, it wasn't very often that she got visitors while on an excavation, let alone such high-class and finely dressed ones. She did not feel threatened by his presence, though. It was hard to be threatened by an elderly man half your size.

Amy was by no means a very tall woman. In fact, she wasn't quite as tall as many German women were; courtesy of her American mother, she assumed. Amethyst was not short by any means, either. She was taller than an average American and very lean. Her stomach was toned and her arms and legs strong, both from the work she did during her job and at home. She was clearly in better shape than the old man before her, and if he tried anything, she could take it. By the looks of him, she didn't think he would be much trouble at all.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir," Amy said to the old man, her natural hospitality showing as she tried to make the smile on her face not seem so stressed as she welcomed him into her RV.

The man waved his hands dismissively as he made himself at home, plopping down at her dinette table as he said, "the pleasure is all mine, I assure you! Let's skip the formalities though, dear Amy. I am John Hammond, but please, do call me John!"

Amy nodded her head while failing to keep a laugh down at the man's forwardness. "Alright. It's a pleasure to meet you, John," she said through a smile, but it faltered as soon as the name slipped past her lips. "Wait, did you say John Hammond? As in, John Alfred Hammond?"

"Yes, yes, the very same!" he waived his hand dismissively once more, however this time it came off more annoyed than before.

John Alfred Hammond; the CEO of InGen. One of the world's leading genetic study companies. Long-time rivals of Biosyn.

"To what do I owe the honor of having the CEO of InGen in my humble abode?" Amethyst exaggerated the word "humble" dully as her home was currently in extreme disarray. She was unable to hide her sarcasm as she had grown quite tired of dealing with major corporations, and she sure wanted nothing more to do with either Biosyn or InGen. "You know I work with Biosyn, yes?" she asked, hoping this would scare the old man off.

Stepping over half-folded clothing, Amy made her way to the fridge and pushed the door open with the tips of her fingers and a flick of her wrist. Ducking under the freezer, Amy fished out a cold can of beer and tossed over her shoulder, "want one?" Hammond obliged and she grabbed a second can before shoving the door shut with her behind. She snapped the tabs on the cans, handed Hammond his, then plopped down in the seat across from him as he uttered one too many happy "thank you"s.

After taking a gingerly sip of his drink, he began speaking once more. "I am well aware of your merge with Biosyn, Amy. I am also quite aware of your contract's very recent cancellation." Amy blinked in shock. How could InGen already know of Fossil Wood's termination? It had only been confirmed a mere twelve hours previous. "Word travels very quickly for a career dealing with dead things," he said suddenly with a wink.

Amethyst's dark brow rose in question, but she decided not to indulge too much on that topic. She had a feeling she wouldn't get a straight forward answer anyway. "Alright," she nodded slowly. "So what - you've come to give us your condolences then?"

Hammond shook his head good-naturedly. "It would be well received, I'm sure, but that is not the reason for my visit."

"Then why have you come?"

Her question was answered almost instantly, like he already had this scene planned out and scripted in his head. "I happened to be in the neighborhood when I heard of your unfortunate situation. With jobs in our field thinning greatly now-a-days and with Biosyn making the grave mistake of firing the great German company Fossiles Holz in such a time of need, I just knew I had to head straight over here and salvage what I could from this horrid situation!"

Amy blinked for a moment, her mind working at deciphering what the elderly man had meant to say. When it was finally processed in her mind, her caramel eyes scrunched in confusion. "So, you've come to offer us a job?"

"Precisely!"

"Why?" The word had left her lips before she could stop it, and as soon as it did Hammond barked out a bright spill of laughter.

"It is no secret that Fossil Wood has been one of the leading excavation companies for years now! Wouldn't want that talent to go to waste now, would we?"

'It was one of the greatest,' she thought bitterly as she took a larger-than-needed swig of her cheap beer. 'It was, before I came.' Her eyes drifted from the window to her right as her head slumped in the palm of her hand. She couldn't see much of the campsite from the tiny window, but she could see enough. Enough to last a lifetime for her. The objects that littered the ground were now few between and only one tarp remained up in the seeable area. There were hardly any boxes left now, and many of the ones left were sullenly packed and stacked by the hollow shells of the people she once knew.

Amethyst sighed, her finger and thumb coming up to rub the bridge of her nose as she tried to fight back a headache. She honestly didn't want the job with InGen. She hadn't really wanted the job with Biosyn and look at what happened to them! Would joining John Hammond's company really be any better?

Amy sighed exasperatedly into the palm of her hand and she bit her lower lip hard.

"What are your offers, John?" It couldn't lead to a worse situation than what they already were in, right?