Enjoy. Stay home, stay safe.
Darius sat outside in his Uncle's back porch. He was still in his black suit from the funeral. He heard the door open behind him. "Hey, Darius." The 15 year-old teen heard his brother. "Come on inside. Please. Uncle Josh doesn't want you to get sick out in the rain." Darius doesn't move a muscle. Brand just sits down next to him. "Come on man, don't do me like this. Come inside now."
Darius shakes his head. "I didn't do enough."
Brandon knows what he means. When their mom got sick, they both ended up getting jobs to help with the bills and treatment. Uncle Josh and his wife was a big help, but it still wasn't enough. The jobs didn't pay nearly enough for the treatment. Darius started getting involved with street racing. He won a lot. And that helped, but she still got worse. Despite all the thousands of dollars he won, despite all the treatment their mom went through, it ended up being no good.
Brandon didn't want Darius to get inside his own head. "Listen, you did more than any of us. You did things that I wouldn't have been strong enough to do. You did MORE than your fair share. Don't blame yourself." Brandon reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a black box. "Hey." This time, Darius turns to look at his brother. "Mom told me to give this to you."
Darius opens up the box and sees... "A raptor tooth?"
Brandon explains, "Mom found it at the dig site just before she got sick. She had someone make it into a neckless." Darius puts it on, and it fits him perfectly. "Mom wanted me to tell you something else." Darius looks at his brother again. "She said it applies to us both, but she wanted me to tell you, 'Life is a bitch sometimes. It can be great, and horrible. But, don't dwell on what you don't have, or lost. Find a way to keep going and make due with what you get. As long as you don't give up, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.'" Brandon tells his brother very seriously. "Don't give up, okay?"
Darius nods. "Okay."
The brothers hug each other tightly. "I'm gonna miss her too little bro."
Darius wakes up from the memory. Tears were in his eyes as he realizes he's back at camp. It's okay. It's okay. The teen takes deep breathes to calm himself down. As he does, he hears a helicopter fly above them. Darius lays down again for a few moments, but then decides to get dressed and join the others. Today was kayak day, so it should be fun.
He finishes getting dressed, and heads to the main room. He opens the doors, and sees everyone sitting in various corners of the room either on the couch or on rolling chairs. "What's with the gloomy looks?"
Kanji says, "Trekking through a rainstorm will do that to us."
"We only had to walk because YOU crashed our gyrosphere." Ben says with a glare. When Kenji meets his glare, Ben backs down.
"Yeah, but today's Kayak day." Darius says, trying to look on the bright side. "That's gonna be fun right? What could go wrong on the water?"
Yaz looks at him. "You really want me to answer that?"
"Good point." Darius nods. He realizes quickly though that he didn't see the adults in charge. "Hey, where's Dave and Roxie?"
Kenji rolls over to Darius. "The babysitters left a note."
Darius looks at the card that was handed to him. "'BRB. Gotta go, boss talk. BB later. Smiley face.'" Looking closer, he asks no one really, "Is that a dino emoji with a thumbs up?"
"It's Dave speak." Kenji explains. "Roxie translated on the back."
Darius sees the other side. "'We have to go talk to our boss. We will be back soon. Stay inside. Draw, bond, whatever. Stay inside. Stay inside. Do NOT leave, Darius and Kenji, looking at you two.'" Darius shakes his head at that part. "'Sorry for the kids menus, it's all Dave had.'" Darius looks at the ping pong table, and sees what she was talking about.
"Do they even know how old we are?" Kenji vents. "I mean, when was the last time anyone of you even SAW a crayon?"
Ben looks up and shows Yaz his drawing. Darius had to admit that the dino he drew with himself was kind of cute. "I have notes." Yazmina says. Sammy just hits her new friend on the shoulder.
The doors then swing open in a very Ratatouille style. Everyone looks to see Brooklynn with her arms crossed. Darius knew that look. It was the same look his mom used to give he and his brothers when she figured out they did something wrong and tried to hide it. Do ALL women know the look?
"Brooklynn." Yaz greets dryly. "What's new on the internet, Superstar?"
"I wouldn't know." Brooklynn states. "Because when I went to grab my phone from it's charger, it wasn't there. Someone STOLE my phone."
Yaz saw that the 14 year old was coming in awfully hot. "Brooklynn, who HASN'T used your phone?"
The others prove Yaz's point by stating the reasons they used her phone last. "I had to check the weather last night." Ben starts.
"I missed a Football game yesterday, I was checking the score." Darius says.
Kenji was saying something about a celebrity photo-op. But everyone agrees that they all gave it right back to her. Sammy says, "I haven't seen it either."
Brooklynn stares at Sammy. Darius tries to reason with everyone. "Hey, since we're not Kayaking till later, we have PLENTY of time to look for the phone."
"Oh, I think I know EXACTLY where to look." Brooklynn starts walking towards the group. "I ALSO think that whoever took the phone is trying to hide whatever is on it. What do you think... Sammy?" Brooklynn finally points her finger at someone.
Yaz stands up for her friend. "What is your deal? Sammy said she didn't touch it. Ever think you might have just LOST the stupid thing?"
Brooklynn just stares at her. "Well then, let's check her bags and test that theory out."
As Brooklynn moves towards Sammy's luggage, Yaz gets more in Brooklynn's face. "Hey, I don't care HOW famous you think you are. You do NOT get to just go through people's stuff."
"Alright!" Everyone looks at Darius. "Let's all just calm down." The teen looks at Brooklynn. "Your frustration is understandable. We ALL would be frustrated if we thought someone took our stuff. But we can't get this upset over a phone. I mean, this is Jurassic WORLD." As if the park was proving his point, the 6 campers hear a LOUD dino roar.
"What was that?!" Ben asks.
"A ?" Kenji guesses.
Darius says, "Maybe. But, I wouldn't bet on it."
Everyone goes to the balcony to see if they can get a look at anything. "Ugh. The trees are blocking everything." Yaz says.
"We might be able to see from the Observation Tower. Maybe they are moving a dino from the lab." Darius says. "If we leave now, we might be able to get a quick look and be back in time to greet Dave and Roxie."
Sammy is quick to agree with Darius. "Good idea! Let's go!" Everyone runs to the elevators.
"Wait! We are NOT done talking about this!" Brooklynn says.
Ben, who stayed on the couch says, "But guys, it's indoors arts and crafts day. We should just wait for Dave and Roxie, right Kenji?"
The older teen says, "You can stay here and draw you and your dino crush, but I'm gonna see a Dino, or a chick fight. Either way, I win!"
Ben just looks at them. "Fine. You guys go ahead. I'm gonna do what we are supposed to do, wait for who we are supposed to wait for, and be RIGHT were we are supposed to BE." After Ben looks around the room, and gets nervous, he says, "Wait! Guys, I'm coming too!"
"We figured." Kenji says as Ben gets in the elevator. Everyone was unaware of what was about to happen.
It was a little bit of a walk, but they finally get to the Tower. Kenji moves to open the door for everyone, but it doesn't budge. Darius moves up to help him. The 2 teens try their hardest to open up the door.
"Are you even pulling?" Kenji asks.
"Dude, just focus on YOU." Darius shoots back.
After another minute, Yaz finally says, "Hey geniuses!" The 2 boys look in her direction. "The door is locked." They look down at the door handle, and realize that she is right.
"Oh, well that's too bad." Ben says and starts walking away. "Guess we should head back now, huh?"
Kenji says, "Wait. Where is everyone? There is usually someone around." Everyone looks and sees what Kenji means. And he is right. When they first ziplined here on day one, there was at least ONE guy.
"If we're doing this," Brooklynn says, "then we might as well do this." The teen takes out a Bobby Pin in her hair, and starts to pick the lock. Kenji was about to scoff at this, but 2 seconds later, Brooklynn says, "Ta-da!" She had managed to pick the lock. The door was open wide! Everyone looks at her very stunned. "What? You guys didn't see my 'Hacks for when you lock yourself out of your hotel room' video?"
"Nice move." Darius says.
"Last one up top is a rotten egg!" Sammy yells as she runs ahead of the others.
"Later rotten egg!" Yaz yells as she runs to catch up to Sammy.
Everyone else follows. Everyone was making good pace for a while, but pretty quickly, everyone started slowing down. By the time they made it up top, everyone was sweating, panting, and VERY tired and hot. "Anyone else hot?" Sammy asks. "It is HOT."
Kenji, who ended up being the rotten egg, groans. "No... More... Stairs!" He finally joins everyone else at the rails. "This had better be worth it." Everyone notices the rustling in the trees and the loud footsteps. Everyone gets excited for what may come out! Finally, the figure clears the trees, and everyone sees a Brachiosaurus.
"Oh, wow. So it was just a Brachiosaurus. Mystery solved. We should head down." Ben says.
Darius however is confused. He tries to remember what his mom taught him when he was younger. "But, that doesn't make sense. They don't make that loud of a roar. It's very moan like. Sort of what you would hear from a cow."
"A cow, you say?" Kenji says. Darius knows that there is gonna be a smart mouth comment in a minute. "Wanna ask if it has any beef to spare?" Everyone rolls their eyes.
They all hear the sound of feint voices. Looking down they see 2 people yelling to get their attention. Only, they can't hear them. "Oh man, they look mad." Ben says.
After a few more seconds, Kenji decides to do some trolling. "You are gonna have to speak up!" Looking at Darius, he says, "Hey, watch this." Before he can do anything else, the campers see the Brachiosaurus moan and fall down. The teens all exclaim in fear. They didn't see anything attack it.
After the 2 workers try again, Darius notices some rustling in the trees. "Guys?" They all look up to see a snow white dinosaur emerge. With it being white, they all thought that they would have been able to see it in the forest! The white dino gets the attention of the 2 workers. They panic and start to run. But the white dino picks him up and in 2 swift bites, kills him and swallows him. She does the same for the other one.
NOW the teens start to panic. "What the hell is that?!" Darius exclaims.
Ben is full on panicking. "It got him!"
Brooklynn gasps. "Doctor Wu's lab! There was a dinosaur! In-"
"Indominus Rex." Sammy whispers.
"How do YOU know that name?" Brooklynn asks.
"There is no time." Sammy says. "We need to leave. Now, now! We HAVE to go!"
She starts to head for the stairs, until Kenji says, "Up here is safe. Down there ISN'T! Besides, this high up, it's not like Whatever-Rex can see us!"
Suddenly, the Indominus looks up, as if she had heard what Kenji said and looks them dead in the eyes. She then starts to roar and attack the support beams that keep them up high. "Anything ELSE you would like to jinx for us?!" Darius yells.
Everyone was trying to grab on to something to help keep their balance. Sammy stumbled back to the railing, and starts to go over! Yaz and Darius grab her before she goes all the way! "Sammy!" Yaz says as her friend dangles high up above the Indominus's mouth! Finally, they pull her back over the rail.
Darius starts to focus. He points and says, "Get to the ziplines!" They put Ben in the first seat. The poor kid was so scared though that he couldn't put on his buckle. Finally, Kenji gets it on for him. The older teen then pushes Ben as hard as he can towards the other tower. Sammy, Kenji, and Brooklynn follow while Yaz and Darius finish getting themselves buckled.
The zipline was moving up and down so much that Ben's emergency brake activates. After a few seconds, it comes to a sharp stop. The others have the same thing happen to them as well! Yaz and Darius look at what happened. "They stopped halfway. What happened?!"
"It's the emergency break!" Darius explains. He quickly gets unbuckled and steps all the way back.
"Darius?" Yaz is so confused as to what he's gonna do.
"You are strong, yeah? Like, She-Hulk strong?" Darius asks her.
"What are you doing?" She asks him.
He doesn't even think, he just runs and yells, "Catch me!" The force is enough to make her move at a SUPER fast speed. With 2 people on, gravity is working overtime! Yaz catches Darius, and they both struggle to hang on. They hit the other ziplines, and everyone starts moving again. They were about to make it, until-
CLANK!
The campers free fall as the ziplines break. Their falls were cushioned because they fell into the trees. Darius however, hits a part of a tree, and his body changes directions until he hits the ground! THUMP!
Darius opens the door to his Mom's hospital room. It has been 6 months since she started her treatment. She wasn't getting better. Darius and his brother had moved in with their Uncle Josh so they could have more money to pay. After the first treatment, they saw that there was no change, meaning they needed to try something more aggressive. But that meant more money. And they BARELY were able to pay.
Darius, who was almost 15 at this point, had to put on hold joining the Football team for his sophomore year. He didn't mind though. There was always next year to make the comeback. Right now he wanted his mom to get better so she could see him play.
"Hey Mom." Darius says as he pulls up a chair to her bed.
"Hi baby." She answers. "How are you doing?"
"I'm doing fine. It's YOU I'm worried about." He smiles.
She laughs. "You staying out of trouble?"
"As best I can." Darius assures her. He changes the subject when she gives him a look of disbelief. "You wanted to talk to me about something?"
She nods. "Why have you been street racing?"
This slightly takes him by surprise. "What do you mean?"
"Your brother told me he heard you sneaking out one night." She explains. "He followed you. He was going to confront you until he saw you put the money towards the bills. You lied to Uncle Josh about it being money from lawn mowing." Darius hangs his head in shame. "Why Darius?"
"I saw that we were barely able to have enough for the first treatment. I started doing lawn jobs and other jobs for the neighbors, but it was just too little. Uncle Josh was teaching me how to drive, and I picked it up pretty easily." Darius looks at his mom in the eyes. "The races just... happened. When I had won my first race, it became 2, then 4, and then I was sucked in." Darius sighs. "I'm just trying to step up."
His mom puts her hand on his shoulder. "You shouldn't be doing illegal things to help Darius. What's gonna happen if you get caught?" He really didn't have an answer for it. "I know you are doing what you think is right. Just promise me that you will stop."
"You know I can't do that." Darius whispers.
"Promise me." She says firmly, but gently.
Darius looks in his moms eyes. Mentally, he knew she was right. He needed to stop. But at the same time, his heart knew that if she was to get better, he was going to have to lie. And he didn't like the idea of lying to his mom. "I promise." He gets closer to lean in for a hug. He feels his mom wrap her arms around him. I promise to do whatever I can to help you get better.
Darius allowed himself to get frozen in time. The only noise that came was the sound of the heart monitor beeping.
The heart monitor beeps faded from Darius's mind as he came to. He wasn't sure how long he had been out. All he knew was that his head HURT! He opened his eyes, and saw everyone else getting out of the trees. "Is everyone okay?" Brooklynn asks. Darius has a little bit of trouble getting up, but he finally stands. "Where is that thing?" He asks.
"We have to get back to camp. I think it was that way?" Brooklynn tries.
Sammy opened her mouth as if she was about to say something, but shut it. Everyone figures she thought she knew where camp was. "Where is my neckless?" Darius asks. "Damn it, I left at camp."
"We have slightly bigger problems." Kenji says. They all hear the Indominus roar as if letting them know she was still there. "We have to run!" the rich teen says. They all agree.
The kids then go in the direction Brooklynn had first thought. It didn't matter if they were lost, they just had to find someone, or someTHING that could help them. They finally break the tree line, and see... The camp. Completely DESTROYED! Everyone realizes that the only thing that could do this was the Indominus. It made sense if it was the only thing out of it's paddock. Darius steps right into a big footprint. Yup. That thing was DEFINITLY here.
Sammy looks around at the destruction. "Dave, Roxie, and the other workers. They must have gotten away."
Ben, who was checking out a jeep that was flipped over stumbles back. "Not everyone." They all see no driver, but a few remains and some blood.
Darius says, "Someone help Ben." The poor kid was on the verge of puking. And puking meant smell. And smell probably would lead the Indominus right to them. Yaz, Brooklynn, Kenji, and Darius try looking through the camp debris to see if they can find anything that they can use. Yaz finds a walkie-talkie.
"Hello? Hello?! Can anybody hear me?!" When she doesn't even hear static, she throws it on the ground. "We're on out own."
After a few seconds of silence to get their heads together, Brooklynn comes at Sammy again. "Give. Me. My. Phone!"
"What?" Sammy asks.
"I don't care that you snuck into Wu's lab! I don't care about what you did with the skin samples you took from the Sinoceratops!" Everybody is confused about that part. "I don't even care that you stole it now! I just want to call for help! WHERE IS IT?!" Brooklynn yells desperatly.
Sammy struggles to talk, but she finally says. "I don't know what you're talking about. Skin samples? You made something up in your own dang head."
Yaz once agains comes in to defend her friend. "Back OFF! It isn't Sammy's fault YOU lost it!"
"You guys!" Ben says. "Be quiet! There is a big-"
"A big scary dinosaur?" Kenji interrupts. He was reaching his limit as well. "There is always a big scary dinosaur!"
"And you're always a big mouthed jerk!" Ben finally shoots.
After that, everyone was yelling at everyone. Darius blocked out the sounds as he realized he lost the last thing his mom had given him. The one thing she had left in his care. Ben finally brings the 16-year-old out of his trance. "No one is getting out of here!" Darius looks at him. "We just saw people get eaten. We're alone. Defenseless." Ben slouches down. "We're dead."
Everyone groans. Finally, everyone went quiet. Alright. Time to step up. Darius gets everyone to look at him. "Alright, let's just take a deep breath." Darius looks at them. "Yeah. This sucks. But, there is no use thinking about what we don't have or what we lost. It will just distract us. We need to be as focused as possible." Darius explains.
"What about your neckless?" Brooklynn asks.
Darius sighs. "It doesn't matter. The memories behind it are in my head. I'll always be taking them with me." Darius starts walking. "We need to head south. Get to the main park. There HAS to be someone who knows how to handle this situation."
"I'm with Darius." Kenji announces.
"Say what now?" Darius asks.
"Dude, there is no way I survived a dino attack-" Kenji dodges a piece of wood that fell towards them. "*Groans* JUST to be taken out by cheap camp debris. Kenji ain't going out like that!"
Ben speaks up to objects. "Or, we don't go back into the jungle."
"You can wait for the negligent babysitters if you would like." Kenji just tells him. "We're going south. The rest of you coming or what?"
Brooklynn sighs and starts walking towards them. "I'm in."
Yaz puts a hand on Sammy's shoulder. "We're coming too."
The others start to walk. Ben was about to try to object, but he just sighs. It hasn't done him any good to argue. Everyone hears him hyping himself up by saying that it's just one dinosaur.
And it's true. Because at the moment... It was...
And there is the next chapter. I'm trying to update everything else. Hope you guys are enjoying. I was REALLY happy with how season 4 ended. Hope everyone else did. Have a good day, and stay home, stay safe.