Chapter 3: Ghosts
A/N: Sorry for the delay, some life happened. Hope you enjoy the chapter. Thank you for the positive comments.
The temperature, and worse yet the humidity, in the explorer continued to rise, making it impossible for Ben to sleep any longer. He stretched, and caught movement out of the windshield. Squinting through the mud stained glass, he could see something coming up the road at him…..fast. Ben ducked low in the seat as a gallimimus sprinted past the explorer, three medium sized predators in pursuit.
"Darius would know what those are" Ben whispered to Bumpy as he watched the four dinos run out of sight. "Come on Bumpy, we better get moving, they went that way, so we best head back the way they came." Ben quietly opened the door and slipped out. When Bumpy tried to follow, she got stuck between the door and door frame. Panicking, the young ankylosaur thrashed wildly, clubbed tail thoroughly destroying the interior. With one last panicked push, Bumpy bent the door forward on it's hinges, flopping out onto the ground next to Ben. Scrambling to her feet Bumpy slammed her tail into the side of the explorer several times, caving in metal, shattering glass, and ripping the already damaged door from the vehicle.
"Was that really necessary?" Ben asked shaking his head. Bumpy gave him a Satisfied snort.
"Ok, now that you've alerted every dinosaur on this island to our location…we should probably get moving." Ben sighed, starting down the road. As they walked he stared at Bumpy. It was hard to believe just how fast she was growing. Just the night before she had had no trouble fitting into the explorer, by morning she almost couldn't get out. At this rate she would be fully grown in a week or two. Ben chuckled at the thought of having a fully grown ankylosaurs as a guard dog. That would definitely give him an edge in survival. He wandered if he could teach Bumpy to let him ride on her when she got a bit bigger.
"Bet Yaz wouldn't have a problem with you as my ankylosaur war horse, would she girl?" he asked laughing.
"Heck she would probably be pretty impressed with me actually" he added. The thought of impressing Yasmina took root for probably a few moments longer than it should have. Against his will, his mind settled on Yaz. He wandered where she was now, probably already home with her family, he decided. He was happy for her, pleased that his sacrifice had played a roll in her survival. She was the embodiment of everything that he wished he could be, strong, courageous, confident, cool under pressure, invulnerable, everything he decided he would be from now on. Part of him selfishly wished that she was stuck there with him, just so he could get to know her better. He knew there was another side to her, one she kept locked away, one that he had zero chance of seeing, but maybe, just maybe, if things had been different, if he and her were alone on this island, maybe If he could earn her respect, she would let him in, let him see her for all that she truly was.
"Ok that's enough, quit that" Ben said out loud to himself, "If you keep focusing on her, your gonna get yourself killed." The temperature felt like it was in the high eighties, he hadn't drank since the monorail.
"Guess we should of chanced a drink out of the pipe in the wall" he said as they trudged through the heat. Mercifully the road dipped out of the direct sun and into the jungle, it must have been at least fifteen degrees cooler in the shade. The scenery really was beautiful, the distant moans of brachiosaurs only added to the beauty. Suddenly the breeze shifted direction and carried with it the stench of decay. The smell became stronger as they walked, soon the sounds of the jungle were replaced with the buzzing of flies. A few yards off the road was a partially eaten carcass, an adult ankylosaur, flipped upside down. Judging by the tracks, it was likely the work of the three dinos he saw on the road earlier. Bumpy moaned softly, nudging the fallen adult. Ben gently guided the little dinosaur away and back onto the road.
"Come on Bumpy" he said softly, "You don't need to look at that. As they continued walking Ben thought about the carcass. Those three dinos had killed and eaten what was essentially a living battle tank. They wouldn't stand a chance against them if they were to pop up, and he knew it. Ben quickened his pace. The more he thought about it the more he realized his mistake. The chase on the road, the kill a few hundred yards behind them, they were definitely in those dinos territory. Based on the evidence, Ben suspected that they hunted this road frequently. Yes, it was all making sense now, there was a reason they hadn't seen a single living animal, not even a compy, since they had started walking. Everything already knew the road was a death trap, everything but them. Ben again stepped up his pace, eager to put more distance between them and dinos. Bumpy groaned in protest as he broke into a trot. The pair kept up the pace as long as they could, but due to the heat, they were back to walking in less than an hour. Ben let out a groan as the road started up a fairly steep hill. A half hour later Ben and Bumpy crested the hill. In the distance he could see the abandoned Jurassic Park visitors center, he recognized it from documentaries he had watched about the first park disaster.
"There it is Bumpy" Ben panted, "only another three quarters of a mile to go." Bumpy happily stomped his feet and bellowed. Just then a roar in the distance ruined the moment of celebration. Ben spun around, the roar was still a long ways off but he knew exactly what it meant.
"They've got our scent girl." Ben whispered. "Run!"
"How does this keep happening?" cried a confused Kenji, attempting to untangle himself from an uncontrollably giggling Sammy. The entire group erupted in laugher.
"I watched the whole thing bruh" Darius snickered, "the second you started snoring, you cuddled into her like a teddy bear."
"I need my own shed." Kenji growled.
"You could always go back to your water bed." Brooklynn laughed. Kenji glared at the pink haired girl sticking his tongue out at her, causing another round of laughter from the group.
"Is it really so terrible?" Sammy asked, sounding hurt.
"What…no...I just..wait..its not that..I just…have to go to the bathroom." Kenji blurted out, diving for the door. As soon as the door shut the campers burst out laughing again.
"Oh, I'm totally using this against him." Yaz chuckled.
"I think we kinda have to." Brooklynn agreed.
"Wow" Darius thought to himself, "Girls are like jackals, show the slightest weakness and they attack."
"Oh come on guys, Don't be too mean to him." Sammy pleaded.
"Don't worry, we won't be." Brooklynn snickered
"Yeah, we'll be just the right amount of mean." Yaz finished, sending the two girls into another fit of laughter.
"Oh lord you guys." Sammy sighed, shaking her head. "Anyway, I need to redress your wrist Yaz, come outside in the light where I can see it."
"Ugggh, it's fine." Yaz complained.
"I'm sure it is, but if you want it to STAY fine, then we need to keep cleaning it and changing the gauze." Sammy said sternly. Yaz rolled her eyes and sighed, following Sammy outside. Brooklynn found herself alone with Darius, still cuddled against him from the night before.
"You ready for this Brook?" He asked giving her a squeeze.
"Ready for what?" she questioned.
"For the hike to the park." Darius elaborated. "It's going to be long and dangerous, I have no idea what we're going to face, and…..I…I can't guarantee that we're all going to make it." He said, worry edging in his voice. Brooklynn looked up, studying his face. She could see the weight of their lives crushing him once again.
"Darius" she said softly, "following your lead IS our best chance at survival. Your right, we may not make it, but if we don't, it's not your fault. None of us know what we're doing here, but following you has kept us alive so far. We all trust your decisions, I just wish you could trust yourself as much as we trust you."
"I don't want to lose anyone else" he said quietly.
"I know." She replied, doing her best to hug him reassuringly. Darius stood, reaching to help Brooklynn to her feet.
"Thanks Brook" he said. "allow me to take you out for a banana breakfast." Brooklynn laughed, following him outside. On the dock, Sammy was Just finishing with Yasmina's wound.
"Look, I know you hate this but we can't let it get infected." Sammy was saying.
"I know, I know, infection equals death, I heard you the first three hundred times" Yaz complained.
"Well I guess there might be another option." Sammy thought out loud. "If it gets infected I could always amputate the arm, right here." she said, drawing a line with her finger just above Yaz's elbow. The athlete's expression went blank.
"You stay away from my arm Sammy." Yaz warned shaking her head and backing away slowly. "you stay away."
"Breakfast is served my peeps." Kenji announced, stepping out from behind the shed with an arm load of bananas.
"Thanks Kenji" Darius said. "OK everyone, eat as much as you need, we're not likely to find food again till we get to the park. It's going to be a long walk, and a dangerous one at that. We all need to be running as close to peak performance as possible." Everyone nodded.
"Yaz, how are you, are you sure your ready?" he asked.
"I'm good" she affirmed. "Thanks to this crutch, I won't slow you down."
"You sure you don't need another day or two?" Darius pressed, not one hundred percent sure he was ready himself.
"Darius" Yaz started, "after this all banana diet, I think we need to find someplace with bathrooms." A murmur of agreement could be heard from the campers.
"OK, ok, enough said" Darius surrendered. "Alright, if everybody is ready to move, let's get packed up and go." Sammy grabbed the first aid kit.
"Ready" she announced. The rest of the campers glanced around at each other, there was nothing to pack.
"Guess we're all ready" Kenji said. With that, the team started down the abandoned road leading away from the dock. Darius wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of following the road. The road was basically a man made game trail and predators hunted on game trails. He watched Yaz moving along with her crutch. No matter how determined she was, there was simply no way she would be able to keep up unless they stuck to the road. Though he could practically taste the danger, he decided to stay on the road for her sake as long as it was going in the right direction. From the dock he knew the park would be north east. The moment the road changed directions, they would hit the jungle. As they walked, Kenji drifted back next to Sammy.
"You think she's actually ready for this?" Kenji asked, nodding toward Yaz.
"Nope" she admitted, "But honestly, we're probably lucky we got her to stay down this long."
"True that" he agreed. "She must really have to go."
"Um, I think there's probably a bit more to it than that, but yeah I'm sure. We all need to go." Sammy laughed.
"Well if you have to go that bad, why didn't you just use the banana leaves, they work great?" he asked.
"Ok first off, I didn't need to know that, second, it's not quite that easy for a girl especially if there's guys around." She tried to explain.
"But why?" Kenji persisted, "it's nature, we wouldn't judge you."
"Can you imagine Brooklynn stepping around that tree to go number 2?" she asked, eyebrow raised.
"Ew, that's gross." he snapped, scowling.
"But why?, it's nature" Sammy shot back. Kenji just stared at her.
"Ok ok, you've got a point, a really really gross point, but a point none the less. Kenji conceded.
"Which is why if we did have to step behind a tree, you would NEVER know about it." That's one of the differences that society creates for men and women. It's fine to talk about a guys bodily functions, but a girls are taboo." Sammy finished.
"I never thought of it like that." Kenji admitted.
"What are you guys talking about?" Brooklynn asked, catching up to join their stride.
"NOTHING!" Kenji and Sammy nearly shouted in unison, grinning at each other.
"Oookay" Brooklynn said, narrowing her eyes at the pair. "Anyway, I'm worried about Darius, he's really putting a lot on himself."
"Yeah, I've noticed." Sammy agreed, "it's like he thinks every single decision is life or death for us."
"Well, it kinda is, isn't it?" Kenji asked.
"Yeah, but I mean like if the there's a fork in the road and Darius chooses left and someone gets hurt he blames himself for not going right, even though he has no idea what could have happened if we went right. He's being way to hard on himself." Sammy explained.
"That kind of pressure can take it out of a guy pretty quick." Kenji agreed.
"That's what I'm worried about, I don't want him to burn himself out." Brooklynn said. "He just tries so hard for us and it's all at his own expense. I just wish we could find a way to give back, ya know?"
"What if we all made a point of telling him exactly how much we appreciate him, like tonight." Sammy suggested.
"I'm sure he'd appreciate that." Kenji said. "That would make a nice Christmas present for him." Brooklynn and Sammy stared at him.
"Ugggh, that's right, it's Christmas." Brooklynn cried. "I don't have anything I can give you guys."
"Um hello, none of us have anything." Kenji reminded her. "Just being alive is present enough."
"Yeah, honestly I'm just glad to be with the people I care about and ahhh…." Sammy cried out falling hard. Everyone rushed to her aide.
"You all right?" Darius asked, helping her up.
"Yeah I'm ok, what the heck did I trip on?" she asked.
"It's a cable." Yaz said pointing. The small steel cable ran across the road at about ankle height and wrapped around a tree on the right hand side of the road. The cable continued up a steep embankment on the left. Darius immediately started climbing the embankment, following the cable.
"It's a jeep!" he shouted back as he reached the top, the rest of the group only moments behind him.
"All right!" Kenji shouted. "No more walking for…oh….its an old, abandoned jeep. Not a running, drive us to safety kind of jeep…great find" he finished sarcastically. The jeep was an early 90s wrangler, gray and red with a tan soft top, the Jurassic park logo on the door.
"This is from the original park!" Darius exclaimed excitedly. "They must have gotten stuck and tried to winch it out the night the park failed. Let's see if there's anything we can use." Darius tried the drivers door.
"Locked." he said, moving around to the passenger side. The passenger side of the jeep was a mess. The soft top had been ripped to shreds, the interior as well. Darius looked through the shredded top, leaves and jungle debris had begun to fill the interior. Yaz opened the door.
"Um, Darius?" Yaz asked nervously, nodding toward the driver floor. The empty eye sockets of a human skull stared back at her. The campers went silent.
"Guess he didn't make it to the boat either." Kenji said solemnly. Brooklynn slowly picked something up from the debris.
"Guys, his name was Dennis Nedry." She said softly, holding up a laminated identification badge.
"Dennis Nedry," Darius repeated, "that was the name of the guy who sabotaged the first park."
"Well, he had it coming then." Yaz said dryly.
"We should burry him." Sammy blurted out. "I mean, I know he was a bad guy and all, but doesn't he at least deserve a burial?" The group was quiet.
"We…don't really have the time right now Sammy." Darius said sadly.
"I know," she sighed, her eyes falling.
"When we get home, we'll tell the authorities what we found, they can make sure his body gets back to his family." He said softly.
"Okay" Sammy agreed, smiling weakly.
"Hey, he had a map!" Kenji exclaimed, pulling a damp folded piece of paper from the back of the jeep.
"It doesn't have the monorail lines though." he said looking over it.
"Yeah, it wouldn't, there was no monorail back then, that's a map of the original park, not Jurassic World." Darius remarked.
"Oh, yeah makes sense, guess this doesn't really help us then does it." Kenji said, tossing the map back into the jeep.
"Well, doesn't look like there's anything here we can use, we need to get moving again, if we hurry we can still make it before nightfall." Darius said, turning from the jeep. The group carefully made their way back down the embankment and onto the road. They had already been walking for what seemed like miles. Darius was fairly certain they were making decent time. He guessed they were maybe another five miles from the park. Up ahead he could see the road made a sharp turn east.
"That's the end of the road for us if we want to keep heading the right direction." He said.
"Wait" Yaz snapped, stopping in the middle of the road. "Do you hear that?"
"I…don't hear anything Yaz." Darius said in a confused voice.
"Exactly!" she said. "no birds, no bugs, no anything." Yaz was right, the jungle was perfectly silent. A wave of fear washed over Darius, he knew what the silence meant. The group instinctively tightened up, five sets of widened eyes darting back and forth, scanning everything around them. The campers strained to hear, but the pounding of their own hearts and the sounds of their own quickened breaths drowned everything else out. An ear splitting roar hit the group like a semi truck as the predator stepped around the corner.
"It's a ceratosaurus." Darius whispered in fear.
"What do we do?" squeaked Sammy. The ceratosaur looked down at them and roared.
"RUN!" Darius shouted as the dinosaur charged. The group bolted forward for the relative safety of the jungle narrowly missing the ceratosaur's jaws. Crashing through the the leaves and vines, Darius could hear that they were putting some distance between their attacker and themselves. Scanning for any safe place to hide, his eyes landed on a large tree not too far away. It was tall enough to get them out of reach and looked readily climbable.
"There!" he yelled, pointing to the tree. He could hear the others crashing though the jungle behind him but he didn't dare look back. Kenji and Darius arrived at the base of the tree first, spinning around they both grabbed ahold of Yasmina and nearly threw her into the tree. Sammy was next as they gave her a boost up to Yaz.
"Where is it?" Kenji panted, "Where'd it go?" Darius' heart did a summersault into his stomach.
"Where's Brooklynn?" he shrieked, scanning the jungle. He searched the faces of his friends, but the same shocked and confused look that he wore was all he found.
"Sh..she was right behind me….I thought." Sammy stammered, starting to sob. Without a word Darius sprinted for the road. He could hear Yaz yelling for him to stop but he gave her no response. He couldn't lose another, not again, not….Brooklynn?. Even in his panic, he couldn't help but wonder why the stakes seemed higher when it was Brooklynn in danger. He pushed the thought away, there was no time to analyze it now. Darius burst through the jungle onto the road. There was nothing, no ceratosaurus, no Brooklynn, and thankfully no blood. At that moment Kenji burst through the foliage behind him.
"Where is she?" he panted.
"I don't know" Darius admitted, desperation in his voice. The ceratosaur roared in the distance. Keni and Darius looked at each other in unspoken agreement, and ran toward the sound.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid." Brooklynn chastised herself as she ran for her life. When the ceratosaur had charged, she panicked. While the others had ran ahead into the jungle, she had bolted back the way they came. Only too late had she realized her mistake. She had made herself the straggler, the target, and now the dinosaur was closing in for the kill. Her lungs burned, her legs felt like jello, the futility of her situation growing more and more prominent in her mind. She was spent, there was nearly nothing left, she was only delaying the inevitable. In a last ditch attempt to stay alive, she vered off the road into the jungle, hoping the vegetation would slow the beast down, it didn't. Not even a hundred yards into the jungle a vine grabbed her foot, sending the pink haired girl crashing into a large rock, face first. Brooklynn slumped, her vision went black accented by tiny dots of light.. Within seconds she came back to reality. Vision still blurry, she rolled over and sat up. The ceratosaurus stood a few yards away, staring down at her. It was over, she had no cards left to play. She was dimly aware of the swelling around her right eye, she could feel blood running down that side of her face. None of that mattered, she felt a pang of guilt in her stomach, guilt of how her death would affect the others, guilt of knowing Darius would blame it all on himself, guilt of never having told them all how much she appreciated them. The guilt gave way to acceptance, Brooklynn stared at the huge jaws, waiting for them to close around her.
"At least it will be quick" she thought grimly. Suddenly a large rock bounced off the back of the dinosaur's head, it spun around to face its attacker and roared. Sensing her chance, Brooklynn swung her head frantically, looking for a place to hide. There, a few feet away, a hollow log. She dove for the log, belly crawling in, it was tight, but she was able to wedge herself just far enough in to pull her feet in with her. She could hear voices now, Kenji and Darius, they were shouting at the ceratosaur, attempting to lead it away from her. Anger flashed in her mind.
"Those idiots!" She thought. "They were safe, why did they have to come back, if they get killed their blood will be on my hands." Brooklynn tried to move, she needed to get out and help them but it was no use, she was stuck, arms wedged under her chest. A menacing hiss broke her from her thoughts.
"Dear God" she thought. "I'm not alone in here."
"HEY!" Kenji shouted, hurling another rock.
"OVER HERE!" Darius chimed in.
"COME ON UGLY, COME GET US" Kenji yelled, jumping up and down.
"THAT HORN MAKES YOUR NOSE LOOK BIG" Darius added. Kenji's shoulders slumped, he turned to his friend, shaking his head.
"Bruh, we really need to work on your insults, that was terrible." Darius looked confused.
"What? I thought that was a pretty…RUN!!" Darius shouted, sprinting away.
"A pretty run?" Kenji questioned. "Oh..RUN!" he said, mentally slapping himself.
"Ok, now what" Kenji yelled, catching up to Darius.
"Not really sure, I didn't think this far ahead." He called back
"Oh that's just terrific" Kenji snapped.
"I think there's a stream around this bend" Darius said. "as soon as we're out of sight hit the stream, you go left, I'll go right. Hopefully it will get confused and keep following the road."
"Ok" Kenji replied, happy to have somewhat of a plan. As they reached the stream, they split off their separate directions. Covered by the sound of the water and the dense vegetation, they each got about fifty yards off of the road and hid. The ceratosaurus, having lost sight of its prey, slowed to a cautious walk. Peeking out from his hiding spot, Darius watched the predator slowly approach the stream, looking left then right. She slowly sniffed the air, again looking each direction.
"She knows" he thought. The dinosaur came to a full stop, silently looking back and forth.
"My God, she's waiting for us." Darius thought, this was completely undocumented for a ceratosaurus, nobody had even theorized that they were this intelligent. Darius began to panic, he didn't have time for a waiting game. If he and Kenji didn't return soon, the others would come looking, and the ceratosaurus would be waiting.
"Please Lord, keep them safe, keep them away from here, don't let them be killed." Darius prayed. A few moments later a dinosaur bellowed from somewhere down the road, he wasn't sure what it was, stegosaurus, triceratops maybe. The predator perked up homed in on the sound.
"She thinks we spooked something." he thought. The ceratosaurus growled quietly and headed off towards the sound. Darius breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank you Lord" he prayed silently. Kenji must have been watching too because as soon as the dinosaur left, he popped out of his hiding spot and headed back to the road.
"Man, that was intense." Kenji stated.
"Tell me about it." Darius agreed. "Come on, we better get Brooklynn and get back to the others before our friend there figures out she's been duped."
"Or before anything else shows up." Kenji added. Quickly and quietly the pair started back down the road. They had only gone a few hundred yards when Sammy and Yaz popped out of the foliage in front of them.
"Why aren't you in the tree?" Darius snapped. "You should have stayed there where you were safe." Yasmina tilted her head and crossed her arms.
"If it had been you and Kenji in the tree and the three of us out here with that thing, would you have stayed?" she shot back.
"Fair enough." Darius relented, not wanting to argue.
"Where's Brooklynn" Kenji asked.
"Wait, we thought she was with you." Sammy responded, concern edging her voice.
"She must still be hiding back where the ceratosaur cornered her." Darius reasoned. The group made their way back to where they had last seen Brooklynn. Kenji and Darius had seen her on the ground sitting up, but they hadn't seen her hide. Slowly the group moved into the area, calling to their friend with hushed voices. Sammy noticed a small pool of blood, her heart skipped a beat as she followed the small blood trail with her eyes to a fallen log.
"Guys, here!" she announced, bending down and seeing the girls shoes just inside the log.
"Brooklynn it's us, are you ok?" she asked. There was no response.
"Brooklynn!" she said a little louder, reaching out and touching the girls foot. Still nothing.
"Somethings wrong" she blurted out, fear washing over her, as she moved around to the other end of the log. It took a few seconds for Sammy's eyes to adjust to the dark, her friends face finally taking shape out of the shadows. She was swollen and bloodied but conscious, a look of terror frozen on her face. Suddenly Sammy saw why. About a foot in front of Brooklynn's face, coiled and ready to strike, was a snake. Sammy's eyes went wide, backing away slowly.
"There's a snake in there with her, it's about to bite her." She cried.
"Ok, nobody move" Darius said, slowly moving to the opening to look inside. The snake sensed his presence and whipped it head to face the new threat.
"Brook, are you ok, did it bite you?" he asked quietly and calmly, trying not to stress the snake. Brooklynn locked eyes with him, slowly, almost undetectably shaking her head no.
"It's a fer-de-lance, highly venomous. If it tags you"….. He didn't need to finish.
"Ok Brook, here's what we're going to do. Kenji, Yaz and I are going to grab ahold of your feet, Sammy is going to come up here and draw its attention off of you. When it's focused on her, she will give the signal and we'll pull you out of there in one movement, ok?" Darius explained. Another nearly undetectable nod was his response. Sammy moved in to take his spot at the opening while he moved back to join Yaz and Kenji.
"Here snake." Sammy called, "look at me, watch me." The fer-de-lance trained it's reptilian eyes on Sammy, tasting her scent with its forked tongue. Sammy raised her hand, giving the signal to her friends.
"Ok guys, this is it." Darius said quietly, one…..two….THREE!" Brooklynn felt herself start sliding backwards.
"Too slow, too slow." she cried out in her mind. She could feel her shirt being pushed up, rough rotten wood scraping the bare skin on her stomach and back.
"Pull faster." she wanted to scream, ignoring the pain. To her horror, the snake turned back to her in the blink of an eye, and struck.
Ben's heartbeat slammed in his ears, his feet pounding the ground. Bumpy ran along side him, barely able to keep up.
"Come on Bumpy, we don't have much time." Ben pleaded. Another roar, closer this time proved his point. Ben was certain they wouldn't make it, no, he had seen how fast they could run. There was no way they could match that kind of speed. When his feet touched the cement steps of the visitors center he gasped in disbelief. The three predators must be right on top of them, surly they would kill them just before they got to the door. And then, Ben's had wrapped around the door handle. He jerked it open and turned around, Bumpy was only a few steps behind, and behind Bumpy was…nothing. Ben pulled Bumpy through the the door and slammed it, collapsing against it. He sat there for a long while, breathing heavy, exhausted, in sheer disbelief that they had made it.
"We made it Bumpy" Ben panted, "we made it." After catching his breath, Ben scanned his surroundings. He was in a large room with a high ceiling, bones littered the floor. The entire room was beginning to be reclaimed by jungle.
"Well this doesn't look the most secure does it Bumpy?" he asked. Moving quietly through the left hand side of the building he came across a medium sized room with several old computers and a large computer screen on the wall.
"This looks like the old command center girl." Ben whispered, slowly exploring the room. Against the far wall was a weapons locker with several SPAS 12 shotguns and HK91A2 rifles.
"Bingo!" Ben smiled, pulling a shotgun from the rack. He inspected the firearm, operating the slide, unfolding and folding the stock, checking the operation of the safety. Satisfied, he grabbed a box of 1oz rifled slugs from the shelf in the locker and loaded his weapon. His confidence was beginning to grow. He had survived certain death falling from the monorail, survived a hike through a dinosaur infested jungle, beaten a pack of hungry predators to the building, found a place of relative security in the control room and now, had a way to defend himself. Ben contemplated his surroundings, he liked this corner by the weapons locker, it was offset from the main room, large enough for him and Bumpy, for now anyway, the corner wasn't visible from any of the large round windows that looked in on the control room from the rest of the building, and as an added bonus, the control room doors featured regular manual locks as well as the electronic locks he'd seen on most of the doors he'd passed through.
"Well Bumpy, I think this is home, at least for now anyway." Ben said, giving Bumpy a good scratching. "Come on girl, let's see what we can scavenge before we run out of daylight." The pair carefully explored the building. One their first finds was the old gift shop, it turned out to be a gold mine. Ben spent a good deal of time ferrying blankets, pillows, candles, lighters, flashlights, and all sorts of other useful items back to his control room camp, all the while Bumpy munched happily on the vines and vegetation that was taking over the main rotunda. Moving on from the gift shop, Ben crept through what was once the dinning room, pocketing a fork and spoon from a table.
"These will be handy later." he told himself. At the end of the dining room, he found the kitchen. With a hopeful stomach, he stepped through the door. Inside was a series of stainless steel tables and cabinets, at the far right of the room was a stainless steel walk in freezer. Ben started searching the cabinets for anything edible, unfortunately most only contained pots, pans, utensils, and other cooking supplies. What food he did find had long since gone bad. Ben looked over at the freezer. Surely nothing in there was good anymore, but what harm was there in taking a look. Ben pulled the lock pin from the freezer door handle and opened the door. The rancid smell of decomposition hit him like a ton of bricks, if he had had anything in his stomach, he may well have thrown it up right there. Fighting past his gag reflex, Ben took a closer look. The inside of the freezer door was scared with deep claw marks and heavy dents. In the back of the freezer was the perfectly articulated skeletal remains of a dinosaur. Ben guessed it was a velociraptor based on its claws and size. It had died curled up, as if sleeping, likely by freezing or of thirst. Ben closed the door. He felt a sadness for the dinosaur.
"Nothing deserves to die like that." He thought. As he left the kitchen, a door to his right caught his eye. Ben stared at the door, the words on the door read "dry goods storage" he reached for the handle and slowly opened the door. Ben's jaw dropped, eyes wide with shock. The room was full of dried beans, and rice, salt, sugar, pastas, macaroni and cheese, flats of bottled water, and other shelf stable foods. Ben's stomach did a leap for joy as he grabbed a flat of water bottles, a couple boxes of macaroni and cheese, and retrieved a small pot from the kitchen.
"Come on Bumpy, time to go." He called as he crossed the rotunda on his way to the control room. Bumpy trotted after her human as they entered the control room. Ben wasted no time pouring water in the pot and setting it up over a few candles. The water took over an hour to boil, but soon after, he was stirring in his cheese packet, he had no butter or milk but he didn't care. Ben looked around, thankful for all that he'd been blessed with. First and foremost, he was alive, second, he was safe in the control room, warm in his blankets, comfortable on his pillow, he had Bumpy on one side of him and his SPAS 12 on the other, and to top it all off he was about to enjoy a fresh cooked meal. Ben was humbled by his thankfulness.
"The Lord provides" he thought with a chuckle.
"Thank you" Ben said looking up, "thank you for this meal I'm about to receive, thank you for keeping me alive, thank you for everything" he prayed, "oh and please watch over Darius, Kenji, Brooklynn, Sammy, and Yasmina, wherever they may be. Amen". With that, Ben ate his fill.
The snakes fangs missed the tip of Brooklynn's nose by millimeters. Daylight blinded her as she popped out of the log, Kenji, Darius, and Yaz collapsing in a heap at her feet. Brooklynn sat up in a panic.
"Did it get me?" she shrieked, feeling all over her face with her hands, searching for a bite. Darius and Kenji refused to look at her, driving Brooklynn's panic to new heights.
"What? " she squealed, "what is it, what do you see?" she demanded, nearly crying.
"Boobs" Yaz responded dryly.
"What?" Brooklynn sniffed, confused. Yaz pointed to the pink haired girls chest. Looking down Brooklynn's eyes went wide. Her shirt had been pushed up to her armpits, exposing her stomach and bra, thankfully though, her bra hadn't moved.
"Sorry….I….the log…I….sorry" she stuttered, jerking her shirt back down and turning a color only slightly off from her hair. Sammy, from seemingly out of nowhere, tackled her into a bear hug.
"You had us so worried!" Sammy squealed. "Let me check." She demanded, grabbing Brooklynn's face and searching it for puncture wounds.
"No bites, snake didn't get her." Sammy announced, allowing everyone to breath a sigh of relief. "We gotta clean up this cut though." She said, opening her first aid kit. Brooklynn winced as she watched Sammy pull out the iodine. Sammy opened a antiseptic towelette and did her best to clean Brooklynn's face around the cut.
"Gonna have a heck of a shiner here Brook, it's already turning purple." She commented. Sammy poured iodine onto a cotton ball.
"Do you wanna do it, or do you want me to?" she asked softly.
"I'll do it." she replied, taking the cotton ball. Brooklynn took a deep breath and pushed the cotton into he cut. It felt like she was holding a hot coal from the fire to her forehead causing her to furrow her brow and grit her teeth, however, she remained silent.
"Hmm" Yaz grunted nodding in approval.
"Ok, it should be sterile now." Sammy said, cleaning the excess iodine from Brooklynn's face with the towelette. The Texan opened a butterfly bandage and squeezed triple antibiotic ointment onto the pad. After placing the bandage on her head, she activated a instant cold compress.
"Here, for your eye, it'll help keep the swelling down." She said, handing Brooklynn the compress. Darius moved in to look at the superstar. Her face was bloody, beneath her eye was purple and it looked like it may swell shut, a trail of dried blood ran down from her nostril.
"Are you…ok?" he asked weakly. Seeing her like this was giving him feelings he couldn't quite define, nor explain.
"I'm ok, she sighed, "thanks to you guys." Darius hugged her, thankful she was alive. Kenji joined the hug, followed by Sammy, and eventually Yaz.
"Uh guys, I hate to break up the love fest and all but that saratorwhatsit…"
"Ceratosaurus" Darius interrupted.
"Whatever" Kenji snapped, the point is when it realizes were aren't ahead of it, it's coming back."
"That's a good point." Yaz agreed. Moving quickly, the reunited group headed back to the road, only to leave it again at the corner. Soon they passed by the tree Yaz and Sammy had hidden in. They did their best to keep a quick pace while on the lookout for predators, and now, snakes. Kenji spun around, looking behind them, slowly turning back to catch up with the group. He just couldn't shake the feeling they were being followed, but every time he turned, there was only vegetation. Yaz was holding her own pretty well with her crutch, though her ankle was beginning to ache. There was no way she was going to admit that though. Brooklynn looked and felt like she'd been through a car accident, she was exhausted from the adrenaline come down from facing death not once but twice. Sammy's mother hen instinct was going absolutely crazy, all she wanted to do was get Yasmina's and Brooklynn's wounds healed, if they got infected…she refused to finish the thought. Darius was lost in thought as he led the team up a hill. Every time he turned and saw Brooklynn with her icepack, swollen eye, her bloodied nose, it triggered something inside him. He knew she was going to be fine, but it was something about those specific injuries that clawed at him. She looked like she'd been punched. The thought of some guy punching her lights out made him boil. He struggled to keep in mind that she had fallen. The whole thing unnerved him, he had always hated abusive guys, but he'd never had a reaction like this, especially when nobody had even been hit. The group stepped into a clearing at the top of the hill and froze. There below them sprawled Jurassic World, only about a mile of jungle separated the campers from main street, and even that was all down hill. Darius turned to look at his team, grinning ear to ear. He'd made it, led them to safety without losing anyone. Sure they were a little beat up, but they were all alive. As he looked over the smiling campers, something behind them caught his eye. Movement, a flash of blue, more leaves moving, Darius' smile faded. Kenji caught his stare and spun, breathing heavy, they were so close, it wasn't fair. Kenji scanned the vegetation. Obviously Darius had seen something, but where was it, what was it, again, he saw nothing.
"What was it Darius, what did you see?" he called without taking his eyes off the jungle. Everyone was staring now, the smiles were gone, replaced by a pit of dread.
"Nothing" Darius answered, "It was nothing, just a bird probably." Shoulders relaxed as the campers turned back to Darius. Kenji didn't buy it, but he too slowly turned to face their leader.
"All right everyone" he said staring at the hotel, "let's go get checked in."