Chapter 12: Sneezes
"Why does it have to be so hot?" Zack groaned as he sat down under a large tree. Cody and Alan soon followed suit, each taking a second to catch their breath and wipe a seemingly endless river of sweat off their foreheads. Cody set his backpack down and took out a bottle of water. Both he and Zack groaned again when they saw it was only about a quarter of the way full. "That all that's left?" Zack asked. Cody nodded.
"Hopefully it shouldn't be too much longer till we reach the Visitor's Center," Alan said.
After another look at the seemingly unpromising water bottle, Cody took a small sip before passing it to Alan, who also took a drink. Zack got the bottle next and finished off its remaining contents within the next few seconds.
"Well that's that," Cody said.
"Yea, well we got bigger problems to worry about right now," Zack replied.
"Like what?"
"Look," Zack said, pointing in the direction they were heading. After a few more trees, the vegetation gave way to an open field that seemed to stretch for miles.
Alan nodded also. "We gotta keep going," he said, squinting into the distance. "Only problems are, out there we won't have any shade or protection from preditors."
"You don't think the T-Rex is gonna come back, do you?" Zack asked, swallowing. Alan shrugged his shoulders.
"Can't say for sure," Alan said. "Most predators don't hunt during the day because it's too hot to try to run their prey down. However, we don't have a lot of knowledge on T-Rex's hunting patterns."
Zack groaned again.
"Guess we'll just haveta be extra careful," Cody said, fear causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up.
"Guess so," his twin agreed.
Maddie continued to pace around, the stress driving her crazy. What if the system didn't come back on? What if the raptors got out of their pen? What about Zack and Cody? Did they know what was going on? Were they hurt? She groaned as she continued to pull on her hair in disgust.
"How about you sit down?" Ian said. "You're gonna give yourself a heart attack." He added with a chuckle.
"I don't know," Maddie mumbled as she forced herself into a chair near him. She then looked at him curiously. "How'd you know all this was going to happen?" She asked.
"Chaos," Ian replied. "The more man tries to prefect the system, the sooner its destined to fail."
"Right…" Maddie said, pulling on her hair again.
"So how about we help the time pass a little?" Ian said. "Tell me a little about yourself. How does one as intelligent and uh…pretty good looking such as yourself end up in a crowd like this?"
Maddie smiled. "London stays at the hotel I work at. Her father owns it," she said as Ian continued to scan her eyes. "She can be a good person, but don't be fooled, almost everything she does turns out to benefit her somehow."
"I see," Ian said. "But you two are friends? I think we discussed this a little bit before. I'm still boggled by it."
"Chaos," Maddie said with a smile. "How about you? You have kids?"
"Oh, yea three of them," Ian replied. "My oldest, Kelly is quite the handful. But yea, anything that can and does happen. Same with wives. "
Maddie scrunched her eyes. "You married?"
"Occasionally," Ian replied casually. Maddie eyed him. He smiled. "Don't worry you're a little on the young side for me, but hey, call me in ten years."
Maddie chuckled at the same line she told Zack over and over.
Ian smiled again. "My girlfriend would kill me if she heard that. You think this place is dangerous, try making her mad." He laughed as he made the appropriate hand motions.
Maddie laughed. "Couldn't blame her for that, especially since she's dating a rock star."
"So you got a boy friend back home?"
"Occasionally," Maddie replied in a tone similar to his. She turned to head back over to computer station to get an update from Ray.
"Heh," Ian chuckled as Maddie left.
Zack, Cody, and Alan continued to make their way across the field. Cody looked ahead and slightly over to his left as they crossed over a ridge. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks.
"Cody?" Zack asked. Alan also looked over. Each then followed Cody's eyes to what he saw. Sleeping peacefully about ten feet away was the Tyrant-Lizard King. Each of their eyes widened as they began to slowly move towards the right of the field.
"Stay low and quiet," Alan whispered to the twins who nodded. The group continued to stealthily move around and away from the sleeping giant.
Suddenly, Cody felt his nose tickle. No! Please!! Not here! Not now! He took a deep breath and held his nose, trying his best not to sneeze from the grass pollen they had kicked up. That along with the smell from the Rex didn't help. Cody took another couple of short breaths.
"Ah! Ah! Ah!" The sounds came from Cody, despite his best effort to stifle them. Alan and Zack looked back each with a nervous look on their face. They held their breath as Cody continued to try to force the sneeze down. In the seconds that followed, it seemed like he was successful, all three breathed a sigh of relief. For Cody however, this was a mistake. "AHCHOO!" He sneezed, waking the sleeping Tyrant-Lizard King.
"Heh, heh," Cody said nervously. "Oh no…"
Zack looked at him and back over at the Rex. "Run…" he muttered.
"You took the words right out of my mouth…" Alan said. With that, the group took off.
(A/N) Sorry for those of you who wanted to see MaddiexIan, the age difference is a little too big, (Ian also has a g/f) so it'll stay as an "adolescent crush" which also is basically what happens in this chapter. (Thanks to Kay44 for the idea) Please Read and Review
