The sun starts it's lazy ascent into the sky as Sammy finishes up with her medical duties. There's a lull in their chitchat; everyone was more or less enjoying their company. A new day had started, and everyone was still alive. It was another win for the group.
"We should start building a shelter," Darius says, breaking the silence.
Brooklynn groans. "Do we have to start now?"
"Hey, you, Ben, and Sammy aren't injured," Darius smirks. "I could make you guys do all the work."
The group laughs at his snarkiness. Darius shakes his head with a chuckle. "Eh, you know I'm kidding. What kinda leader would I be if I did that, huh?"
"You shouldn't exert yourself too much, though," Sammy says. "Use as much time as you can to give your neck rest."
"Where do we even start with a shelter?" Yasmina asks. "It's not like we have blueprints for a building or anything."
"I can help with those," Ben says, sitting up. "My Dad's an architect. I've watched him construct safe structures and foundations millions of times. Ever since I was little, he taught me the safest building structures and techniques."
"I didn't know you were that into architecture," Kenji marvels.
"I'm not," Ben shrugs. "I was just paranoid that the whole building would fall down so my Dad had to convince me that I was safe."
The group chuckles. "Okay, then you're in charge of the design," Darius declares. While the others rest, Ben and Darius go over shelter designs and structures in the gravel. It was difficult to write in the ground, but they got a decent structure in mind.
"Okay, Sammy, Brooklynn, and Ben," Darius says. "You'll help build and construct the shelter. I'm going to help you, but I doubt Sammy will let me be much of an assistance. Yaz and Kenji, you two will be guards. If anything comes at us, holler and Sammy'll shoot."
"What? We can't defend you guys?" Kenji shrugs.
"You're injured. Rest up," Darius orders.
The six campers head to their stations. Brooklynn and Sammy gather wood and metal rods, while Ben plans out how to attach them. Darius tries his best to help the girls, but for the most part, he was useless. As they build, Darius explains to Brooklynn that he thinks he has prophetic dreams. The pinkette was not impressed. "Sorry, Darius, but I doubt that's true. More like it's a freaky coincidence."
"I think I do," Darius says, preparing to debate. "I had a dream that we were building this shelter out of the wreckage."
"What else happened?" Brooklynn asks, quirking an eyebrow skeptically.
A quick battle happens within Darius. "I still have no idea what is true and what is nonsense in my dreams. Or when it will happen, because it doesn't always happen all at once…"
"There's gonna be a spider," Darius says decisively.
"A spider?" Brooklynn frowns at him. "What kinda spider?"
"I don't know," Darius shrugs. "We were Minecraft blocks and it was a big black spider that Kenji and Yasmina were fighting off—"
A high-pitched scream startles everyone. They turn around to see Kenji jump about a foot in the air and wildly brushing himself off. "WHAT WAS THAT?!" he screams.
Yasmina stares at him in confusion before looking at the ground and reacting. "Oh my gosh!"
The other four look at the gravel. A large, black and grey spider crawls off. "It's a tarantula," Darius laughs, looking over at Brooklynn.
"Freaky coincidence," Brooklynn rolls her eyes and gets back to work.
The group eats breakfast, then gets back to work. The sun was getting higher and the day was humid. Even Yasmina and Kenji were sweating profusely, and the two were sitting down watching the group. Kenji was finally fed up and took off his shirt. "Don't judge me," he mumbles, wiping his forehead with his shirt.
"I think you got the right idea," Yasmina laughs, unzipping her jacket and taking it off.
"I'm with Kenji on this one," Darius sighs, taking his shirt off. Ben follows suit, pushing his hair out of his face.
"I'm jealous," Sammy whines, pointing to her sweat soaked shirt.
"I don't want to get a sunburn," Brooklynn says, even though she's panting.
"You might feel better if you take off your jacket," Darius suggests.
"I'm fine," Brooklynn brushes him off. Even so, she unzips it all the way and leaves it on.
After a quick lunch break, the crew gets back to work. With Bumpys help—it was exhausting to corral an Ankylosaurus into staying still enough to help—they were able to create a wooden platform stable enough to stand on. "Voila!" Brooklynn exclaims, wiping her hair back.
Darius, ever the vocabulary nerd, exclaims: "We've erected our first shelter!"
Kenji sticks his rifle in the ground and rests his elbows on it. "Aw, Darius's first erection."
"KENJI!" Sammy exclaims furiously.
Brooklynn covers her mouth, trying not to laugh.
"No, Kenji," Ben shakes his head, uncomfortable.
"No! That is not okay!" Yasmina hisses angrily.
Darius looks between them all, confused. "Guys, chill out. He didn't say anything wrong—Yaz! Don't—"
Before Darius can stop her, Yasmina karate kicks Kenji in the groin. The alpha male lets out his high-pitched scream yet, and falls to the ground in agony.
"Okay, that was too far," Sammy says to Yasmina as Kenji groans in pain.
"I get it," he grimaces. "No dirty jokes."
"They make me uncomfortable, they make Ben uncomfortable, and it's inappropriate in general," Sammy chastises. "And Darius is pure and innocent," she whispers so that the other boy couldn't hear.
"I get it, okay," Kenji groans. "I won't do it again. You guys made your point."
"You didn't need to kick him, Yaz," Sammy says.
"Well, those jokes aren't funny anymore, are they?" Yasmina shrugs.
"I get your point!" Kenji grimaces.
"What are you guys so mad at him about?" Darius exclaims, kneeling down next to Kenji. "Why did you kick him?! What did he do wrong?!"
"Don't worry about it," Yasmina says.
"He made a... reproduction joke..." Ben explains awkwardly.
"You don't need to explain further," Darius says quickly. "But don't attack him for it!"
"I've learned my lesson," Kenji groans. "Sammy could'a just told me not to! It would've worked fine!"
"Anyway, nice shelter," Yasmina changes the subject. "Protection from rain and weather."
"Naw, if we're going to sleep on top, we need more shelter," Sammy shakes her head.
"Oh, we're going to sleep on top?" Kenji says from the ground, his eyebrows rising up.
"This is going to be a nice, fivestar shelter," Ben chuckles.
"What's next, Dino nerd?" Brooklynn asks, wiping her forehead with the bottom of her jacket.
"Rest, definitely," Darius nods.
Sammy rewraps Kenji and Yasmina's wounds. She didn't want them to get infected in the moist, humidity. Darius sits in thought as the others chat. His mind was on the lab… Even if he didn't have prophetic dreams, there were still the eggs that Eddie pointed to. He mentioned Doctor Wu making monsters, so whatever was in the eggs wasn't good.
Darius takes off the cold pack Sammy had given him for his neck. "We're going to the lab."
"Oh, and why would we do that?" Brooklynn asks, confused by this decision.
"There's something there," Darius says. "Something that's hatched, or will hatch. Eddie said something about Wu making monsters. I wanna check it out."
"I'll go!" Kenji says, standing up excitedly.
Darius shakes his head. "Nuh uh, you and Yaz are staying here where it's safe."
"What?!" Yasmina protests.
"We need you to stay off your leg so that your wound can heal," Darius says. "It's not necessary for you to be at the lab. You're staying here so you can rest up."
Yasmina smolders, and throws a pebble with a frustrated yell. "I'm the athlete here! I'm the runner. I won the silver at the Junior Olympics. And I'm GROUNDED with a stupid leg injury! For what? Three weeks?! I finally healed one injury and now the other leg is imobile!"
Darius's eyes widen as he watches her rant. The others bend away from her slowly.
"My passion, my biggest STRENGTH, is RUNNING!" Yasmina shouts, her fists shaking in anger. "That's what I'm good at! That's what I do! I'm a RUNNER! And now I can't even WALK without everyone worrying about me and fussing over me! I've ran with a torn ACL for crying out loud! We're in the most dangerous situation of our lives and I can't even do what I've trained my ENTIRE LIFE FOR!"
Darius goes to speak, and Ben places his hand on his shoulder. "Let her rant," he whispers.
"I'm completely USELESS on this island without my legs!" Yasmina continues her rant. "And it's not like you guys will even let me be useful! It's not like I'm allowed to sacrifice myself for you guys to survive! That would be helpful! I would be useful! I would at least be able to save you guys! And you guys won't even let me DO THAT! You won't let me KILL MYSELF TO SAVE YOU! IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?!"
"Uhhh…" Darius whimpers.
"It's TORTURE to not be able to do ANTHING to help everyone survive!" Yasmina shouts, almost spitting. She pants, calming down. "...Sorry about that. Just kinda came out."
"No… go ahead…" Darius says, not sure if it was safe to move.
"Rant if you need to," Ben says, gesturing with his hand for her to go on. "It's better out than in."
"I think I'm done," Yasmina chuckles sheepishly. "I've… I've just been very frustrated with not being able to move on my own."
"I can see that," Kenji says, his eyes widening to the point that there was more white than brown.
"I just want to be a help to my…" Yasmina trails off. "I just want to be a help in surviving. If I can't make it, I'd want to make sure you guys made it."
"You wanna help your friends make it if you can't," Sammy says softly, smiling sympathetically.
Yasmina crosses her arms. "I didn't say friends."
Sammy wants to disagree, but remembers that she wasn't going to push Yasmina too far and bites her lip.
Brooklynn, however, goes for it. "But you meant it."
"Only Darius and Ben," Yasmina huffs.
"So you would be fine with letting the rest of us die?" Brooklynn quirks an eyebrow.
"No…" Yasmina says, drawing her eyebrows together in disgust.
"Why not?" Brooklynn asks, smirking in a knowing way.
"Because I'm a morally good person," Yasmina hisses.
Darius sees her hand move to her side, preparing to stand up. She wanted to flee from this uncomfortable conversation. He sighs internally. "For whatever reason, she does not want to admit to us—or to herself—that she likes the whole group. But if Brooklynn pushes her farther, she'll snap. She already snapped when I said she couldn't come…"
Darius lets out a loud sigh. "Fine," he says through gritted teeth. "You can come."
Yasmina's eyes light up.
"But you're not putting any weight on that leg unless ABSOLUTELY necessary!" Darius butts in. "You'll be riding on Bumpy and staying with someone who will help you walk. Got it?"
Yasmina nods.
The group hops on Bumpy and rides off to the lab. It was easy to get to the lab from the Camp. Ben guided Bumpy down the dirt road the jeep took. They arrive and hop off. Yasmina rolls her eyes before letting Kenji catch her bridal style.
"All right," Darius says. "We'll split into groups of two and comb the lab for danger. Have your guns or weapons ready. Yaz, I'll give you the choice of Sammy or Ben."
"Uhh, why Ben? His weapon is Bumpy and she won't exactly fit," Brooklynn points out.
"Ben," Yasmina chooses quickly.
"Of course," Darius rolls his eyes. "Kenji, you'll be with me. Sammy and Brooklynn, you'll be together."
"Why?" Brooklynn questions. "Specifically Ben and Yaz. Ben doesn't have any weapons and Yaz is injured. Shouldn't the strongest members be with the weakest members?"
"I'm not sure who you're insulting," Yasmina crosses her arms and balances on her left leg.
"I just mean shouldn't the most capable members protect the injured ones?" Brooklynn rephrases her sentence.
"Just to remind you, you're the one with the bat, and I'm the one with the spear, you imbecile," Ben retorts. "I lived on my own for a week and saved your as—butts from Sarah. Maybe you could stop being a twit and actually think of me as a team member instead of a gutless baby."
Brooklynn crosses her arms and watches him out of the corner of her eye. "Sorry," she mumbles.
"Come on, are we going?" Ben shrugs. He steps closer to Yasmina to help support her. The athlete hesitates; looking between Brooklynn, Ben, and Darius. There was a certain reluctance about her as she accepted his help. It did not go unnoticed by Ben, who frowns.
The six teens head into the lab and separate. Kenji and Darius carefully move through the maze of hallways, their rifles poised to shoot. As they go, Darius begins to voice his concerns and thoughts to the older boy. "I think a lot has been revealed in the past two days."
"How so?" Kenji whispers, looking behind him.
"Welp, I made a stupid mistake of spliting up the team," Darius says. "It almost got you guys killed. It injured you and Yaz. Which also kinda brought on an explosion of emotion from her and injured our most athletic member."
"We all make stupid mistakes," Kenji shrugs. "I'm expert at 'em."
"We've got Yaz, who's really hard to read," Darius continues. "I know she cares about all of us, but she just won't admit it. I don't get why she's so stubbornly closed off. It's like she wants to be alone."
"That's kinda her thing," Kenji points out.
"I know, but…" Darius shakes his head. "She's fine, and then she's not fine. And I get it if she doesn't want to forgive Sammy, but it's not just Sammy. It's everyone but Ben and me. Except now it is Ben, but she doesn't want to admit it—I don't know! She's very hard to figure out!"
"From my experience, personally," Kenji sighs, "there's often more going on than you think. Sometimes the reasons for your actions aren't personal to the people you're mistreating. She obviously had trust issues before Sammy, and the Mantah Corp thing made it worse. I don't know what her problem is with me and Brooklynn. I thought she was fine with Ben, but their relationship seems to be more complicated than I thought."
"Yeah," Darius mumbles.
"People are rarely born that distrustful," Kenji continues sadly. "That's a learned thing. Either from your parents, or from having your trust broken. I doubt it's her parents; they seem nice. You never know, though. She probably had someone break her trust and hurt her so badly that she's terrified of it happening again."
"But after almost a month of living with someone 24/7, you'd think she'd be fine with you guys," Darius sighs.
"When you've been hurt, you tend to stereotype others," Kenji says. "You see how one person acts who's… maybe a certain race, gender, social group, personality—whatever category you wanna use—and in anger and hatred, you think everyone in that group will act like that. Maybe her trust was broken by a boyfriend, and she assumes I'd act the same way. Maybe rumors were spread about her by a popular girl, and she assumes Brooklynn would do the same. You never know what happened to someone to make them think the way they think."
"That's probably what's going on," Darius nods.
"It may not be," Kenji shrugs. "Maybe she truly dislikes me. There's… There's nothing wrong with that. We don't have to be friends when we get off the island. I'd like to be, but we don't have to be."
"The thing is, I know she likes you guys," Darius says. "She does care."
"How?" Kenji asks. Darius hesitates. "You saw her paper, didn't you?" Kenji snickers. "The paper she drew of her loved ones."
"Yeah," Darius nods, sheepishly. "She accidentally gave it to me. All five of us are on the paper. She took the time to draw us well, on the paper she dedicated to her loved ones. Don't tell me she doesn't like us."
"I don't know what to tell ya," Kenji shrugs. "She's complicated, and it's worsened by her closed offness."
"Speaking of Ben, he's a whole other can of worms," Darius bemoans. "I don't know what's up with him!"
"He has… changed… quite a bit," Kenji says quietly.
"He's definitely become a lot bolder," Darius says. "That's not a bad thing. But he's… I hate to say this, but he's a jerk. Yaz can be hard to deal with and can pick fights, but it's different with her. She gets irritated. Ben… it almost feels like he wants to be a jerk. Like he's trying to start fights and be mean."
"Yeah," Kenji nods. "He's kinda been picking on Sammy. And he was harsher towards Brooklynn than he should've been back when she said he had no weapons."
"It's like he wants to be a jerk," Darius repeats. "I don't know why. Does he think we like it? Of all of us, Sammy and Brooklynn should have the least quarrels with him. If anything, I would've thought he'd pick on you. You guys were bickering a lot of the time."
"Yeah, he's… confusing," Kenji sighs. "Ever since he came back from falling, he's changed. Are you going to talk to him?"
"I need to," Darius frowns. "I just don't want to. Honestly, talking to him now is like talking to Yaz with a big vocabulary. And I don't like to confront her. I've gotten better at reading minds, but she's still confusing."
The two boys come to a fork in the lab. "Should we split up?" Kenji asks.
"Last time we split up you got—Kenji?" Darius starts to talk, then realizes that the older guy was gone. "You said we never split up in horror movies!" Darius hisses, the Jaws theme song playing in the back of his mind. He sighs and heads down one path, hoping Kenji went that way.
Down the other path, Kenji scouts out the path before heading back to the fork to find Darius. The younger boy was nowhere to be seen. "Darius? I wasn't leaving you, just looking ahead a bit," he calls out. He sputters. "Nice move, idiot." He heads down the other path, trying to find his friend.
"You okay?" Brooklyn asks as her and Sammy stick close together.
"Hm? Oh, yee, I'm fine," Sammy says, shaking her head.
"Upset that Yaz chose Ben?" Brooklynn asks.
"A little," Sammy shrugs. "But… it's not like she's doing it just to be a jerk."
"I beg to differ," Brooklynn chuckles bitterly. "Just a little."
"Come on, it took Kenji talkin' to you for you to finally forgive me," Sammy sputters. "Besides, if she doesn't want to forgive me, I don't blame her. I'm not gonna force her to be friends with me if she doesn't trust me. I can try to earn her trust again, but at some point I gotta back off. I can't keep pestering her forever."
"That's… that's a very depressing way to look at it," Brooklynn says quietly.
"Yaz was right, we were picked at random and thrown together into a life threatenin' situation that requires immense trust," Sammy sighs. "It's a miracle we work together this well. As much as I wish we would all be best friends for life, some of us might just be too different to stay friends. And… And I can't force anyone to stay friends with me if they don't trust me."
"I don't know," Brooklynn says. "Part of me wishes that we would all be friends afterwards, and… part of me wishes that I wouldn't have to see some people again."
"Who?" Sammy asks.
"Well, it changes from time to time," Brooklynn says. "Sometimes I wish that Kenji could disappear, other times he makes me laugh the hardest. Yaz could make a great friend, but she can be such a jerk sometimes to me. And Ben… well… I'd rather be friends with the old Ben. The nice Ben."
"I get that," Sammy nods. "What about me?"
"The only time I really ever wanted you to go away was when I was mad at you for stealing my phone," Brooklynn admits. "You're fine now."
Before Sammy could continue the conversation, Brooklynn walks straight into Darius with a yelp. She almost swings at him, but holds herself back. "Don't scare me like that," she sputters.
Darius sighs. "So I've found you guys, but not Kenji."
"Did y'all split up?" Sammy asks.
"He just left me," Darius waves his hand. "I guess he went down the other path. I hate to leave him alone, though."
"I can head back for 'im," Sammy says. "You and Brooklynn carry on."
"Can you call him on the walkie talkie?" Brooklynn asks.
"I have the walkie talkie," Darius sputters, holding up the device. "I've tried calling him, but we only brought three devices. One for each group."
"Who's bright idea was that?" Sammy laughs bitterly.
"Not sure," Darius shakes his head. "But, at least we remembered to bring them. That's a step in the right direction."
"I'll head down for Kenji," Sammy says. "I'll keep the walkie talkie I got and contact you when I find him."
"I'll talk to Yaz and Ben and see if they've run into him," Darius says. The two other members had yet to see the wild alpha male, though.
Kenji creeps down the hallways, searching for Darius as he brandishes his gun. The dark hallways begin to creep him out, and he feels as though someone is watching him.
From behind him, he hears soft footsteps. A chill runs up Kenji's spine. "Darius?" he whispers.
There's no answer.
"Ben?" Kenji asks. "Yaz? Brooklynn…?"
Still no answer.
"Samantha?" he calls out tentatively.
He jumps as someone starts guffawing. "I dOn't EvEn knOw a SamAnthA!" a very Texan voice wheezes.
Kenji starts laughing, partly from amusement, and partly from relief. "You scared me so bad, Sammy."
The Texan girl comes around the corner, wheezing. "Sorry, Kenji. I had to make the joke when you said my full name."
"Where's Brooklynn?" Kenji asks.
"With Darius," Sammy says. "They're back that a way."
"Welp, let's go rejoin them," Kenji says. "This place gives me mad scientist vibes."
Darius and Brooklynn walk around the corner and run into Yaz and Ben. Again, Brooklynn swings her bat in fright. It sails over their heads without the two even ducking. "Wow, it's a good thing dinos are taller than us," Ben sarcastically remarks.
"Just be glad I didn't hit you," Brooklynn huffs.
"Switched partners?" Yasmina asks.
"Kenji's fault," Darius shakes his head. "This place is a maze. How are we going to get out?"
"We seriously need a GPS for this place," Sammy says as her and Kenji come running up behind the group.
Brooklynn frowns and looks around. "Now that you've mentioned it, I think I recognize this spot. Back there is Doctor Wu's lab. This way is where we found Bumpy."
The group walks into the main lab. On the table, they found Eddie's deserted dessert. Across from that was the eggs that Eddie had pointed to. The generator was keeping the machine going and all five eggs were perfect. In another corner, another generator was trying to keep a couple other machines going. The power source was sputtering, and only one macchine was successfully on.
As the group approaches the monster eggs, Sammy approaches the others. The eggs that hadn't been tended to were unable to hatch. But under the macchine still running, one egg was alive. The others had someone been knocked off and cracked. The girl blinks back tears as she sees the half-formed baby dinos.
A crack catches her attention. The lone egg begins to twitch. Sammy watches in awe as the egg begins to crack. She hadn't been present when Bumpy hatched, so the process was completely new to her.
The top half of the egg pops up, and the little dinosaur shakes it off her head. The little dinosaur coos.
Sammy lets out an aww as her heart swells with love. "Now I know why Ben wouldn't let Bumpy go," she whispers as she picks the little dinosaur up out of the egg. The little dinosaurs squirms and trills.
"What do you think they are?" Brooklynn breathes, looking at the eggs. "More Indominus Rexes?"
"I don't know," Darius shakes his head, remembering the raptors from his dream.
"Guys," Sammy says timidly, holding something in her hand. A little face pops out between her fingers and chirps.
"Aww," the sound escapes Yasmina's mouth before she can stop it. Sammy giggles.
Ben huffs. "Guess Bumpy changed you."
"You were bringing along a helpless baby when we were trying to get off the island," Yasmina argues. "I had a reason to be irritated with you."
"We're still trying to get off the island," Ben crosses his arms. "No, no, I see how it is. Bumpy's a pest and this baby is cute."
The baby chirps.
"Okay, she's so cute," Ben sighs, trying not to get mushy.
"Is that a Sinoceratops?" Kenji asks with a smile, looking over Sammy's shoulder.
"She's so cute," Brooklynn squeals.
Yasmina and Darius pinch the bridge of their nose at the same time. "Not again," Yasmina hisses. "We can't keep getting attached to dinos! We can't bring them with us!"
"I know," Darius sighs. "Sammy, it might not be best to get attached."
"Aww," Sammy whines. "Come on, Darius. Isn't she so cute? It's a baby Sinoceratops."
She comes closer with the baby. Darius sighs, trying not to break. "That's a Triceratops."
"Oh," Sammy says. "I can't tell the difference. But come on! Bumpy was useful. Why can't this one be?"
Darius groans.
Ben was caught between being tough and disagreeing with Sammy—and therefore being a hypocrite—or being soft and siding with her—and therefore being weak in his mind. As Sammy tries to convince Darius, he finally decides on being fair. "I mean, you kinda have to. You let me have Bumpy, so she's not going to let it go."
Darius shakes his head, knowing Ben had a point. "Fine," he flips his hand in the air. "We can take the Triceratops."
Yasmina gives him a look.
"Oh, don't look at me like that, you're even worse than her," Darius sputters. "Plus, with how quickly you awed, I wouldn't be surprised if you came out with a baby by the end of the day."
"Nuh uh," Yasmina shuts it down.
"I'm not a dinosaur person, she said," Kenji snickers. "They'll slow us down, she said."
"Stop it," Yasmina huffs.
"What are you going to name her?" Brooklynn asks.
"I'm terrible with names, my sisters do the namin' at the ranch," Sammy sighs.
"Well, we got Bumpy…" Kenji says.
"Don't name her Horny," Sammy shakes her head.
The older boy laughs.
Sammy thinks for a second. "Let's give her a cool name. Something that strikes fear into even Rexy's heart."
"Tornado," Kenji suggests with an eyebrow wiggle.
"Oooh, I like that," Sammy giggles. "Tornado it is!"
As the group fawns over Tornado, Darius hears the hybrid eggs hatching. He holds his breath as the first egg wiggles and cracks. He can hear his heartbeat in his ears as the baby painstakingly takes it's time to hatch.
A brown eye peaks out at Darius from a larger crack. The baby pushes her way out and turns her head to look at the human. She had brown scales that ranged from light coffee to ruddy brown. Darius hesitantly reaches out and strokes her head. She had small, soft spines sticking out from the back of her head. She coos as he strokes her.
"What is that?" Brooklynn whispers.
"I have no clue," Darius breathes. "This is another hybrid."
The hybrid wobbly takes her first steps towards Darius, tilting her head curiously.
Another egg begins to hatch. Kenji crouches down and watches. A pure, jet black dinosaur twitters at him. She had piercing green eyes. "Can I pick her up?" Kenji asks.
"I'd be careful," Darius says.
Kenji carefully picks up the little dinosaur. She squirms, but doesn't try to bite him yet.
On the other side, another egg hatches. The little hybrid dino sticks her head up, but can't see due to the shell stuck on her head. Ben carefully takes it off to find a yellowish brown baby blinking at him.
"She's got the coloring of Echo, one of the velociraptors," Kenji says.
The egg next to Darius's hybrid starts to crack. Brooklynn watches as a grey hybrid crawls out. This one had dark blue stripes down her back and face, and bears a striking resemblance to Blue. Brooklynn tilts her head to the side, and the hybrid mimics her.
"It's like a raptor," Darius whispers. "She's imprinting on you."
The fifth egg begins to hatch. Yasmina's eyes widen. "Should I back away? Should I not let it imprint on me?"
The fifth baby was a feisty one and roughly pushes herself out of her eggshell. She blinks at Yasmina before the girl can react.
"Seems like she imprinted on you before she came out," Kenji remarks with a small chuckle.
"Guys," Yasmina hisses. "She looks like the Indominus." The fifth hybrid was a dirty white, much like the terror that destroyed the park.
"What dinos do you think are part of this mashup?" Sammy asks, watching Kenji's hybrid squirm.
"I don't know," Darius says again.
Brooklyn searches around and finds a locked compartment underneath the display of amber pieces. She rattles the lock and takes out a bobby pin. "Too easy," she smirks to herself as she picks the lock. She opens the compartment and pulls out files. "Looks like Wu forgot this," she chuckles. "Indoraptor…"
"Indoraptor?" Ben asks. "What's that?"
"Terrifying," Brooklynn shudders. "It's basically bred to be a big guard dog for those rich enough to afford it. Another use would be as an assassination tool."
"So Wu got greedy and created monsters to sell to shady corporations," Yasmina growls.
"He hoped that the Indo's could create a strong, lasting bond with their caretakers," Brooklynn continues. "After seeing how well Blue listens to Owen Grady, he wanted to test the lasting effects of a dinosaur imprinting on humans. If they could create strong, loyal dinosaurs who would listen to their master's every command, these Indoraptors would sell for who knows how much!"
"They'd be used in wars," Ben says.
"They'd be used to take down targets," Yasmina adds. "Good or bad. Just depends on who's paying their master."
"It's one thing to create a scary dinosaur for a park attraction," Sammy whimpers. "That's what the Indominus Rex was for. The park. But the Indoraptor is somethin' else! Breeding dinosaurs to be used for human affairs is… is…"
"Crossing a huge, moral line," Darius hisses.
"You don't think that these are the Indoraptors… do you?" Kenji grimaces.
Darius takes a look at the file. "From all the dinosaurs he's mixed in… seems like it. Five prototypes were created and set to hatch… around now."
"That explains why these have their own power generator," Kenji says. "What do we do with these little monsters?"
"We should probably kill them…" Yasmina gravely, but her voice crack at the end gave away how she felt.
"These things could be a huge threat to the world if Wu gets a hold on them," Darius murmurs, staring at the brown one nuzzling his finger. He feels a pang in his heart at the thought of putting her down. "Shoot, I'm already a bit attached," he facepalms.
"They're innocent little babies," Sammy says softly. "The thought of killing them…"
"If we don't do it now, we're going to be more attached and it will be even more difficult down the road," Yasmina argues. The white Indoraptor slips off the table and she catches the baby. The little monster chirps and rubs her head along Yasmina's thumb. "S***, this thing acts like a cat," Yasmina hisses, her face heating up.
"Language!" Sammy hisses.
Yasmina looks over at Ben, who's smirking. "Look, Yaz fell in love with a dinosaur," he snickers.
"Shut up," Yasmina whispers, her face heating up.
"We can't get attached," Brooklynn says. The mini Blue purrs and Brooklynn covers her eyes. "Errrrr, no! So cute!"
"I already have a name in mind for this one," Kenji murmurs, stroking the belly of the black one. The dinosaur makes almost a laughing noise.
"No! Naming it makes you more attached!" Yasmina exclaims.
"I can't help it," Kenji squeaks. "She looks like a Toothless. From How To Train Your Dragon!"
"Noo! That's even worse!" Yasmina howls. "That's a cute name!"
"You have the Light Fury," Kenji grins.
"This is serious!" Yasmina growls. "What happens if Wu comes back for them? What will we do then, huh? We can't let him have them! They can't leave this island and go into the hands of shady people! What will we do when Wu comes back? They can't live on the island, he'll find them! We'd have to kill them, and how easy will it be when we raise them?!"
"Look at that face and tell me, can you kill her here and now?" Brooklynn protests.
Yasmina looks down at the hybrid and turns her head away with a sigh. "Imagine how much harder it will be the longer we raise them," she says. "Fine! I hate the thought of killing her, but we'd have to do it at some point!"
"Maybe we don't have to," Sammy says. "They've imprinted on us; maybe we could train them like Wu said. Only instead, we train them to be good dinos instead of monsters."
"Yeah, maybe we could train them to be heroes instead," Brooklynn jumps on the idea. "Maybe they could be trained in search and rescue, or something helpful."
"The problem is, the more they make, the bigger the chance of them falling into wrong hands," Yasmina argues, almost pleading with her friends. "We can't keep them!"
"I mean…" Kenji bites his lip. "I feel like both sides are correct. Wu and Mantah Corp and whoever else is evil will want to use them. But if Wu's already created these guys, what's stopping him from creating another batch? Maybe these guys can be trained to take down…"
"Take down their own kind?" Ben finishes. "Like some sick dino war?"
"The world could be heading that way with the genetic power we're wielding," Kenji says gravely. "Dinosaurs were agro to begin with. But now greedy corporations want bigger, scarier, deadlier dinosaurs. These guys are going to be used one way or another, whether we kill them or not. If we can't stop them from getting their hands on deadly dinosaurs, maybe we could train these guys to protect us."
"That just sounds so sick, Kenji," Brooklynn sniffles.
"Sick? This whole thing is sick!" Ben exclaims. "Creating monsters for entertainment? That's sick! Creating scary hybrids after what happened to the first park is sick! This whole idea is sick! We've just been so in awe and in love with dinosaurs that we've ignored the danger! We've ignored the lack of safety! The lack of humanity!"
The group pants, exhausted from arguing. Darius had stayed silent throughout the whole thing, listening to the two sides and their points. Both sides had good points, but he had to choose between them…
"All right," Darius says solemnly. "We've argued and heard each other's thoughts. Now let's vote. Who believes that we should kill the Indoraptors right now?"
Yasmina raises her hand, albeit slower than she was to defend the idea. Ben hesitantly raises his hand, too, even though his face betrayed his feelings.
"All in favor of raising the Indoraptors to protect humanity?" Darius asks.
Sammy raises her hand, refusing to look at Yasmina. Brooklynn timidly raises hers, and Kenji—after a bit of internal debate—raises his hand. After looking around, Darius sighs and joins their side. Yasmina and Ben's eyes widen in shock.
"We'll raise them to be good, loyal dinosaurs," Darius says. "But if Wu or Mantah Corp or whoever comes back to take them away, and we can't stop them, we kill them. However possible. These hatchlings cannot get into evil hands. Does everyone agree with that?"
The five nod, some slower than usual.
"We might as well name them if we're going to train them," Darius sighs.
"Toothless!" Kenji smirks decisively. "Can I name the white one Light Fury?"
Yasmina glares at him. "If we have to keep them, let me name mine."
"Yours looks like coffee," Brooklynn giggles to Darius.
"How about Mocha?" he asks.
The pinkette nods with a smile. "This one's Indigo."
Ben hums. "Princess," he decides.
Yasmina, Kenji, and Brooklynn snort. "Very creative," Yasmina snickers, clapping her hands. "Just like Bumpy."
"Let's see you do better, Missy," Ben huffs.
"Rima," Yasmina crosses her arms.
"What?" Sammy furrows her eyebrows in confusion.
"It's an Arabic name that means 'white antelope,'" Yasmina explains. "Ha!" She sticks her tongue out at Ben.
"Oh, so you're a name geek," Ben chuckles, accepting defeat.
"We'll have to train them not to bite," Brooklynn says. "They're predators, so obviously they'll want to eat meat. But all babies use their mouths to explore. Dogs do it. Cats do it. Humans do it. These guys will start biting us eventually."
"How will we stop them?" Yasmina asks.
"Distract them," Brooklynn says. "Like puppy training… only with sharp teeth. If you pull away quickly, they'll see that as play and snap again. If you sternly tell them no and then give them something else to chew on, it'll train them not to do it."
"Let's put them in this bag," Sammy says, holding up a tan tote bag that she had found. "The Indos can get along for the ride back, right?"
"We can try," Darius says. "Let's not put Tornado in there, though. That's probably not the best idea."
The teens scoop the tiny little hybrids into the bag and listen to them chirp and meet their siblings for the first time. They chuckle and aww. Sammy finds a tinier bag to keep her baby in.
Suddenly, Brooklynn starts shushing them. "Listen!" she hisses. Out in the hallways, they could hear a dinosaur walking through. It was coming closer.
"Hide!" Darius hisses.
The boys head off in one direction while the girls sprint off in another. Sammy and Brooklynn look around the edge of the table they were behind to see a Baryonyx step through the doorway. Yasmina pulls them back and holds her finger to her mouth. The three girls grimace as they can hear the threatening purr of the Baryonyx. It knew they were there.
The Baryonyx sniffs the eggshells of the Indoraptors. From the same doorway, the second Baryonyx prowls through and comes to check out what her sister was sniffing.
Darius looks around the edge at Yasmina. He motions for her to crawl to the doorway the Baryonyxes came from. The girls start to crawl towards the boys.
One of the Indoraptors lets out a shrill cry. The two Baryonyxes lift their heads. Sammy immediately tries to shush the hatchlings. The Baryonyxes begin to stalk towards the girls. Sammy covers her mouth and scoots away from the predators line of sight. Brooklynn grabs a hold of Sammy's arm, trying not to breathe too hard. Yasmina looks down at her leg, knowing she wouldn't make it.
Ben, Darius, and Kenji look at each other frantically. Ben sees a chunk of amber and grabs it. Darius takes it.
The two Baryonyxes come up from both sides of the table, sniffing the ground. The girls had nowhere to go. Darius throws the chunk of amber down the hallway, alerting the predators. They run off with a shriek, and the girls sprint for the exit. All three boys run to help Yasmina at the same time that Sammy does. After a seconds confusion, Kenji pulls her onto his back and carries her down the opposite hall.
The group runs down the hallway leading to the exit. As they go, Kenji remembers something. "Wait, there were three Baryonyxes in the agro list."
Before they can process what he said, the campers run around a corner and come face to face with the third Baryonyx. They scream and head down another path. The newcomer shrieks, alerting her sisters and the hunt begins.
The campers burst through a door leading to the outside. They had come out the back of the lab and found large metal cages meant for dinosaurs. "Climb the cages!" Darius exclaims as the Baryonyxes follow, hot on their trail. Yasmina grabs a hold of the bars and pulls herself up with her impressive upper body strength. Kenji, Ben, and Sammy follow her lead. Darius and Brooklynn are the last to arrive.
The first Baryonyx face slams the metal cage, trying to bite Brooklynn. She slips with a yelp, and Darius grabs her hand. The young boy pulls her up to the top. The predator snarls and jumps up. Brooklynn grabs a piece of wood and smacks the dino across the snout, knocking it backwards.
"We're trapped!" Sammy wails.
"Bumpy!" Ben shouts at the top of his lungs.
Over by the entrance of the lab, Bumpy had laid down and was snoring. She groggily picks up on Ben calling her name and snorts. He calls her name again and she bellows, climbing to her feet and galloping off to find her daddy.
Back on the cage, the campers had gathered in a circle in the middle and were warding off the predators. Ben twirls his spear and whips the second Baryonyx across the face. She shrieks at him. Sammy pulls out her rifle and shoots the third one as it tries to climb up.
With a loud bawl, Bumpy charges into the first Baryonyx. The predators turn their attention from their prey and attack the Ankylosaurus.
The campers don't have time to regroup before another dinosaur decides to join the party. The Majungasaurus comes barreling through with a loud roar, and bites the second Barynoyx's neck. Finding a new threat, the Barynonyxes turn their attention to the Majungasaurus. Bumpy backs off with a snort.
"Man, I have never been so happy to see Marijuana!" Kenji exclaims happily.
The campers snort with laughter. "It's a Majungasaurus," Darius corrects him.
"Eh, her name's Marijuana," Kenji sputters. "Oh! And that first Baryonyx's name? Weed!"
"Kenji," Ben groans.
"The second one's Crack," Kenji laughs.
"Kenji, you can't name the dinos after drugs!" Sammy protests.
"... And the third one's Pot," Kenji continues.
"Kenji, no!" Yasmina snorts.
"Kenji, yes!" the alpha male retorts.
"Well, while the drugasaurus' are distracted, let's skedaddle outta here!" Sammy whispers urgently.
Ben jumps down onto Bumpy's back, followed by Kenji and Sammy. The two help Yasmina and Darius down while Brooklynn almost loses her balance. While the four predators battle it out, Bumpy gallops back to the Camp.
They jump down with laughter. "We've survived yet another dino fight!" Kenji exclaims, high fiving Sammy.
"Let's let the little ones explore their new home!" Sammy giggles, letting Tornado and the Indoraptors out of the bag. They sniff the grass and twigs, exploring this bright, exciting new world.
Bumpy sniffs the hatchlings, examining the new arrivals. Princess nuzzles Ben's shoe, and Bumpy snorts disgustedly. "This is your new sibling," Ben says.
Bumpy bawls at Ben, offended that he replaced her.
"What? I can have other dino children!" Ben argues with her. "I never promised you that you would be an only child."
Bumpy sneezes and irritatedly waddles off. "Oh, come on! It's not like I love her more, you'll still get attention!" Ben calls after her. "You're just not the youngest anymore!"
The group cackles at the scene. Ben walks off after her. "Stop sulking, you spoiled dino brat!"
Due to the excitement, none of the others noticed how withdrawn Darius had become. He absentmindedly strokes Mocha, thinking through his decision. "Please let this be the right decision," he begs to God in his head. "Please don't let me have doomed me and my friends. Please don't let me have doomed the world."
Author's Note:
Bear with me on the Indoraptors, things will be explained as the story progresses. ;)