Alright everyone, time to see who lives, and who dies! HAHAHAHAHA! Hope you are enjoying. I'm back from winter break. It was crazy.
monsterjamvadim: Okay? Did I hint at it in any way? Cause that is not the direction I'm gonna go with the story. Sorry to disappoint anyone.
Lightningcar: Fair points. I think for the rest of season 1, I'm gonna stay with what I've been doing, but once we get to season 2 and beyond, I'll take all this into consideration. I'll write more filler chapters to kind of balance it out. I agree with what you said about how some of the character's new traits don't fit the overall plot. It's basically just to get from one point of the story to the next. Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for even READING.
If anyone else has a thought that you think might help the story be better, please let me know.
Everyone stay home, stay safe.
The car had crashed. It was a swift motion. The shock that Sammy had lied to them all had caused them all to lose focus on the road.
Yazmina woke up with ringing in her ears. The pain in her body paled in comparison to the anger she felt. She looks and sees that the airbag had stopped Kenji and her from hitting the dashboard. She wasn't sure if something was broken in her, or someone else, all she knew was she needed to get everyone out. She wasn't sure how long they had been knocked out, or if anyone else was alive.
She grabs Kenji, and pulls him out through her door. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to try to wake the Asian teen up, or let his body come out of it, but she didn't have to wait for long.
Kenji woke up with a groan. First it was low, then it grew to almost full on screaming. "Hey. Kenji, hey!" He heard someone's voice. He opens his eyes to see Yaz in front of him. "Where does it hurt? Talk to me Kenji." Her voice was muffled, but his hearing was getting better with each second.
Finally, the pain goes away enough for him to say, "We got to get the others!" Yaz and Kenji rush to open the van doors for the other teens to get out. They help Ben get Bumpy out and Sammy. Both teens were trying to work through the pain. With closer look, they see that Brooklynn was trying to pull Darius out. Yaz and Kenji help, and they see his forehead and sees a little bit of blood. They get him out and on the ground.
"He wasn't seated!" Brooklynn says, and starts feeling his wrist for a pulse. "He hit his forehead hard. There is not a lot of blood, but that's what worries me." Not finding a pulse on his wrists, she tries his neck. "Come on, Darius. Come on." After a moment, she feels something. "I need water. If he hit his head, he may have a concussion. I need some sort of fluid to make him drink!" Ben looks in the van, and quickly finds a bottle of water. Everyone was shocked to see a new side of her. Brooklynn puts a little water in Darius's mouth. Not a lot, but just enough for his tongue to absorb it. Using the rest of the water she had, Brooklynn tries to get his head to cool off.
After a few minutes, Darius starts to stir. With a gasp and a bit of a scream, he finally comes to. "Oww!" He puts his hand up to touch his head. Darius finally opens his eyes, and sees everyone staring at him. "Is everyone okay?"
"Is everyone-" Yazmina turns away and starts walking furiously.
Sammy follows after her. Darius tries to get up, but Brooklynn says, "Take it easy."
Everyone now looks at Sammy and Yaz.
"We are NOT okay!" Yazmina shouts. "We are lost in this Goddamned jungle with a psychotic dinosaur on the loose, and you!" Yaz doesn't even try to hide the mix of pain and anger on her face as she looks at her former friend. "You..."
"Destroyed our only way to get help and LIED about it!" Everyone hears Brooklynn say. "I told you guys!"
"Sammy, you DID steal Brooklynn's phone?" Darius had finally gotten up, despite Brooklynn's warnings, and looked at the girl in question. "Why? What were you doing?"
Brooklynn decides to keep it up. And after everyone had told her to stop complaining about the phone, they couldn't blame her. "Probably trying to erase the video of her taking skin samples from the Sinoceratops." Looking back at Sammy, she goes farther. "And you KNEW about the Indominus, because you WERE snooping around Dr. Wu's lab when I ran into you! I KNEW it!"
"I didn't MEAN to destroy the phone!" Sammy starts to defend herself. "I fell on it when the zipline came down!"
"But you DID steal it?" Ben speaks up. "You had it this whole time, and didn't tell us?"
Darius then asks the question that nobody else thought to ask. "Wait a second. What were YOU doing in Dr. Wu's lab Brooklynn?"
This causes everyone to turn their attention away from Sammy for a moment, until Brooklynn says, "It... It doesn't matter!" Brooklynn regains the confidence she lost a second ago. "I didn't break our only way to call for help and LIE about it!" This turns the attention back on Sammy. "It's HER fault we are in this situation!"
"I'm here to spy!" Sammy shouts suddenly. The other campers look at her with confusion at what she just said. "For a company called Manta Corp."
"Manta Corp? Masrani's bio engineering rivals?" Darius asks, trying to piece the puzzle together.
"You doomed us all for some lousy company?" Ben was acting like Sammy was the one to blame for setting the Indominus loose.
"Our ranch was in trouble." Sammy begins explaining. "My folks were borrowing money from... Shady people. They didn't know they were fronting for Manta Corp. They showed up at our house one day, and said that we would lose everything if I didn't spy for them. They told me to use the behind the scenes access at Camp Cretaceous, the DNA from the Dinos and anything else I could get my hands on." Sammy's breathing becomes more rapid and shallow. "But then Brooklynn caught on, then I got scared, and everything was just falling apart too fast for me to think!" Sammy was on the verge of tears. She turns to Yazmina. "This was the LAST thing I wanted to happen."
"Wanting to be stuck with an injured camper next to a totaled van on killer dinosaur Island?" Yazmina says, her voice dripping with venom. "Hey, me too! What are the odds?" Sammy starts shaking. "Was it all a lie? Wanting to be friends?" Yazmina has to stop and catch her breath, as she too was on the verge of tears. To keep the toughness, she starts accusing Sammy again. "You just needed someone to hide what you were doing. Tell me I'm wrong."
Sammy doesn't answer right away, as she starts to shake again. Yazmina shakes her head and walks away. "You ARE wrong!" Sammy says finally. "I just didn't know how to tell you! Just because I lied, that doesn't change who I am." Sammy grabs onto Yazmina's wrist, but the athlete pulls away.
"Don't touch me." Yazmina says in a threatening tone. "Go away Sammy." With that, Sammy breaks down, and cries. Everyone else regroups at the trashed van. Bumpy tries to comfort Yaz, but fails. "Not now Bumpy." she says when Bumpy tries to rub up against her leg. She looks over at Darius. "How's your head?"
Darius just shakes it off. "I've had mild concussions before. This is nothing." Darius, Yaz, Brooklynn, Kenji and Ben continue to stand in the circle.
Ben tries to keep everyone's spirits up. "Look guys, I know the situation we are in is suboptimal, but-"
"It's trash." Brooklynn interrupts. "Just call it trash Ben."
"Well, yes." Ben tries to continue. "But despite the obvious trashitude, we still need to head to the main park. Does anyone know where we-" The teens then hear the trees behind and loud footsteps. Out comes the Indominus in a full on sprint! "THIS IS TRASH! THIS IS TRASH" Ben yells!
Everyone ducks for cover, and sees that there is no way out. With no other options, they close their eyes, waiting for it to be over! But the biting and death never comes! The Indominus ran right past them! A second later, a helicopter comes flying over head!
"Masrani's helicopter!" Kenji yells! "That's his call sign on the tail!"
"They are shooting at the Indominus!" Brooklynn shouts as they all run to watch the scene unfold! They could hear the shots being fired.
"YEAH!" Kenji yells. "Shoot that bitch Masrani! Shoot that bitch!" Darius and Yaz joined in the chanting as they heard what sounded like glass breaking!
"What was that?" Sammy asks.
"Who cares!" Kenji yells again! "We're saved! We're-" Kenji stops cheering as they see a cloud of flying dinosaurs headed towards the helicopter. The sound of the helicopter's engine failing fills the air! The teens watch as the helicopter loses control, and falls into the bird cage and crash with a fiery boom!
The teens gasp in shock. "Masrani? No." Darius says out of shock. He is pulled out of his thoughts when they see the Pteranodons fly their way! "We can't stay out in the open. Any ideas on where to go?" Darius asks anyone.
Kenji takes the tablet, and after a second gives them something. "The Kayak river is not too far from here! The river leads straight to the main park!"
"Kayak river it is!" Darius shouts as they all take cover in the trees. Darius and Ben were carrying Bumpy because she was too slow per their point earlier. Kenji leads them to the entrance of a cave which he says leads to the Kayaks. Darius and Ben drop Bumpy just outside the entrance of the cave. Darius pushes Ben and Bumpy so they can run. A stray Pteranodon landed right in front of Darius as the teen turned away from the cave entrance. The overgrown vulture gives a snarl, and Darius responds by kicking the Pteranodon in the face with a swift punting motion. With the animal stunned for only a minute, Darius runs towards the river.
The teen sees everyone waiting for him to get to them so they can close the metal door. "Close the door!" The push the button that closes the door, and Darius picks up the pace. He can hear and feel the Pteranodon gaining on him, and once he gets close enough, he leaps through the barely big enough gap like he was jumping into the end zone! The door closes with no time to spare!
Everyone takes a second to catch their breath before helping Darius off the ground. The 6 teens hear the sound of water flowing and an automated woman's voice, explaining how to put on a life vest, and how to help others once you are secured. This gave them a bit of hope, and they do fill their group activity for the day. That's a plus if there wasn't one already today.
"Brooklynn and I call the CKK!" Kenji announces. Brooklynn looks at him with confusion. "Cool Kids Kayak."
Darius rolls his eyes, and says, "I'll ride with Ben and Bumpy-"
"I'll ride with them." Yaz cuts him off. Darius can understand why she doesn't want to ride with Sammy.
Darius turns to look at the Texas girl, and puts an arm on her should. "Come on." he says. "We're almost there."
The kids all get in their Kayaks with the life vests, and head off into the narrow cavern. Once everyone had gotten the hang of paddling, they started moving faster. A few minutes later, Brooklynn alerts them. "Guys, there is something up ahead!"
The dark narrow tunnel suddenly turned into a wide cave, with a bunch of glowing algae, moss, and beautiful colors to light up their way. Everyone gasped in awe at how peaceful it suddenly became. Suddenly the thought of a killer dino on a rampage was put out of there minds, not for very long, but for just a moment.
Everyone had put a little distance between the other kayaks, so the only one for Sammy to talk to was Darius. And she could feel that there was something on his mind, and had a good feeling about what it was. "Okay, just ask." she said, giving him permission.
Darius hesitates for a moment, but says, "You talk so highly of your family and how much they love you. Why would they send you to break the law?"
"Don't go there Darius." Sammy snapped. She was starting to regret having this conversation. "You don't know ANYTHING about my family."
"I know that they put you in danger when they sent you to break the law." Darius says. "How can you still defend them?"
Sammy sighs before continuing. "Because they DIDN'T send me. They said 'no' to the men in black. They said they would rather lose everything than use one of their kids like that. I made the decision on my own. I was the one who contacted the Manta Corp agent. My family didn't even know what I was planning until I called them from the ferry." Sammy looks ahead at Yaz. "I lied to my parents just like I lied to everyone else here. And now it's my fault we are in this mess. Smashing the phone was an accident, but Brooklynn's right. If I had just given her the phone when she asked for it, none of this would have happened. It's my fault."
Darius puts his hand on her shoulder again. "Not all of it." After a brief pause, he says, "I still don't understand why you would put yourself-"
"If your family was in trouble, wouldn't you do anything to help them?" Sammy looks him dead in the eyes.
God, do I feel like a hypocrite. "I did." This stuns Sammy. "I'm in no position to judge when I did something similar."
Sammy looks back at him. "What happened?"
"I lost someone." Darius says as he looks down. "I'm sorry. It's still too painful to talk about."
Sammy nods her head in understanding. She can't say she wasn't irritated, she talks about how she lied to her family, yet he won't even go into a little detail about him, but she wasn't going to push him if he didn't want to. After a little bit more rowing, Sammy started noticing something. "Hey guys! Should the algae be moving?"
Everyone turns their heads in the direction she was pointing. A second later, a head comes out of the water. A beautiful, pink, head. Everyone gasps at how pretty it looks. But they were still on edge, and who could blame them? There have been too many dinosaurs trying to eat them, and not enough friendlies.
"It's okay guys." Darius says, noting how Sammy looked tense. "These ones are friendlies." Another one comes out of the water next to him and Sammy's Kayak, and more come out next to all the Kayaks. Everyone had to admit that this was pretty cool. Kenji was still on edge.
"Great. Yeah. Can we get them to move away from the boats?" Kenji tries using his paddle to move a head that was next to him.
That's when things took a turn for the worse. The Elvis dinosaurs start rocking the boats, testing the strength of the kayaks. But everyone knows that they were doomed. The rocking and aggressiveness becomes more intense and the boats were on the verge of breaking until-!
It just suddenly stopped. The dinos were looking deeper down the cave, and had suddenly decided to retreat. "What the hell? Why did they stop?" Yazmina asked.
Darius was looking back at where they just were. "Something must have spooked them."
"Uh guys? If we stopped paddling, why are we still moving?" Sammy takes note. Everyone realizes that she was right. They were moving. They could also hear the water moving faster and they appeared to be moving in a different direction. They were drifting off course.
That's when Darius saw it. "The current is pulling us in a different tunnel! Paddle!"
Everyone started paddling in the opposite direction, but the current was too strong. The3 kayaks were suddenly in a rapid, getting thrown about, and choking on water. The screaming suddenly stopped as they were met with a calm open body of water. The wet, cold campers felt slight relief. Then the question had to be asked.
"Where are we?" Brooklynn asks.
Kenji let out a small gasp that put Ben back into fear mode. "That didn't sound like a good gasp. Why did you gasp?"
"Because I know right where we are." Kenji whispers fearfully. "We are right in the Jurassic World Lagoon." No one fully understands why this would get a fearful reaction until he clarifies one step further. "And so is the Mosasaurs."
This makes everyone tense as they realize they are in the home of the biggest animal in Jurassic World. They look around trying to find the animal, but a second later, they hear the sound of water moving around them. "So much for nothing going wrong in the water." Darius mutters.
The Mosasaurs wasn't attacking them. Not yet. "It's circling us. Testing us. Like a shark." Brooklynn says to no one in particular. "We are intruders in it's domain. It's trying to get a reaction out of us before it becomes confident enough, and decides to..."
"Dunnnnnn dun." Darius says to everyone's confusion. "Dunnnnnnn dun. Dun dun. Dun dun." Everyone looks at him and shoots him a look to stop singing the Jaws theme song! "Right. Sorry."
"Paddle!" Kenji screams. "We can make it to the spectator stand!"
From that point on, it was an all out sprint to get from one end of the pool to the other. Kenji and Brooklynn were the most in sync, so they had an easier time. Yaz and Ben were both very different in arm strength size, but the fear of being eaten seemed to give Ben the strength of a Yaz. Darius and Sammy were not too far behind the others. The only problem was that he was a lot stronger than Sammy, so they both were a little out of sync, and it was starting to affect their speed.
"This is NOT how Kenji wanted to go out!" The rich teen says. The Mosasaurs was on the chase. Since the animal never had anything else in the water with her before, she was a little hesitant to attack. That was good for them, but it also meant that she was PLAYING with her potential food.
"This wasn't on my to do list either!" Yaz shoots back.
"Why can't we ever catch a break?!" Darius yells.
Kenji and Brooklynn get to the stand first and climb up the ladder. They see that Yaz and Ben and Sammy and Darius were starting to become separated. Yaz notices this too. "Keep paddling!" She looks behind to see Sammy and Darius having a hard time. The athlete looks ahead, and sees that she and Ben were almost there. Yaz decides to make a drastic decision. Yaz causes their kayak to shift slightly towards the big metal poll with the crane. Ben lets out a confused yelp. "Don't stop Ben! Keep going!" Yaz jumps out of the kayak, and gives Ben an extra push.
Darius and Sammy sees what Yaz was doing. "Yaz! What are you doing?!" Sammy yells.
"Keep going!" She yells at them. Darius and Sammy do just that. Once the Mosasaurs had swam past her, Yaz starts banging her paddle on the poll, and yells at the Mosasaurs. After a few seconds, Darius looks back and sees what she was doing. Finally the Mosasaurs turns her attention away from the other kayak.
"She's buying us time!" He realizes. Finally, they get to the stand, and see that the Mosasaurs was circling the small piece of metal platform she was on. "Kenji! We gotta get her out!"
Kenji looks at the control panel in front of him, and pushes a button. This causes the chain in front of Yaz to go up. Yaz looks at them, and Kenji yells at her, "GRAB THE CHAIN!"
She does, and goes up. The chain goes up as high as it can, and Kenji makes the crane come towards them. But it doesn't move as fast as they would like. And Yaz could probably hang on for a while but the chain was wet, and so was her entire body after that ride into the lagoon. Yaz does a good job of hanging on though. The Mosasaurs starts to circle the crane though. It wasn't done yet.
"Make it go faster!" Darius tells him as they all watch on the platform.
"It's going as fast as it can!" Kenji yells back.
Yaz notices that the Mosasaurs was getting ready to jump and take a bite. She starts to swing the chain back and forth to try to get it to go faster. It doesn't do much. But she keeps it up. Finally, the Mosasaurs works up the courage to take a bite! The mouth misses and lands on the cable instead! The steel snaps apart, causing Yazmina to swing with the chain! She didn't want to get back into the water, so she lets go when she is as close as she can get to the platform! Everyone holds their breath and watch her land on the concrete with a thud!
Yazmina screams in pain as she collapses, clutching her ankle. Darius has had injuries like that before. They are NOT fun to recover from. Yaz touches the ankle very softly, and groans at the pain that comes with it. Everyone just looks at the situation they were in. With no energy left, and with no idea what to do now, they just rest for a few hours.
Darius was looking out at the pool, trying to come up with a plan. They had gotten to the park, but nobody else was there. And they didn't have any idea of where to go. They had found a map in the stands, but there was nothing helpful. They thought about heading to one of the docks, but the problem was that there was just too many to attempt to run to and not enough time. Looking at the others, he sees Ben sleeping next to Bumpy. Who could blame him? It's been a long day for everyone. The teen notices Sammy trying to make up with Yaz, but the injured athlete just gives her the cold shoulder.
After a few more minutes of thinking, he sighs in defeat and looks at the sunset in front of them. Darius hears footsteps followed by Kenji's voice. "Not to be a total downer, but Operation Find People To Help is a bust." Kenji looks at Darius and offers him some popcorn he had found. Not really caring too much about anything anymore, Darius puts his hand into the bowl.
"Mom always talked about coming here for years. I don't think that this is what she had in mind." Darius says.
Kenji just nods his head. "Yup. Welcome to Jurassic World."
Suddenly, a loud alarm comes through the speakers. Ben wakes up, and looks around in fear. Everyone just waits for the alarm to stop blaring so that they can know what to do.
"What's going on?" Ben asks.
Darius just shakes his head. Finally, a new voice comes out from the speakers. "Attention. All park goers must report to the South Ferry Dock for immediate evacuation. Last Ferry Departs in 4 hours."
With that, the speaker cuts out. "That's it?" Brooklynn groans. "No explanation whatsoever?"
"Light a fire under your asses. The only way we make it is if we leave now and run." Darius says.
Sammy looks back at Yaz, and then him. "Are we sure that's the best way to go?"
Everyone looks at Yazmina who was limping. "I'm fine!" She insists. "I've competed with a torn ACL. It's Ben and Bumpy you guys should be worried about." Yaz points to the 2 behind her.
"What we need to worry about is catching a boat out of here." Ben says. "And naturally, we have a problem." The teen snatches the map out of Darius's hand and lays it out for them to look at. "We are here. The docks are on the Southern tip of the Island. Even if we were to run at peak Yaz speed, there is no way we can make it."
"You don't know that." Sammy says.
Ben gives her a look that says he DOES know. "Yes I DO. I memorized the evacuation plans on the ferry ride over."
Everyone groans. "Well, aren't YOU just a ray of sunshine." Kenji says looking at Ben.
Darius isn't ready to give up just yet. "Is there any way for us to use what we have? Anybody find a walkie talkie to radio ahead?"
Brooklynn speaks up with sarcasm plainly on her tongue. "Or make a couple of jetpacks real quick? Oh, I know! We should befriend a unicorn!" She shakes her head. "Face it. It's hopeless."
Suddenly, an animatronic woman's voice suddenly was heard. "We will now be ariving at Main Street, your destination for fine dining and shopping at Jurassic World, followed by the Jurassic World Lagoon and the Southern Docks."
Kenji lets out a shout of victory! "Monorail! Wahoo!"
Brooklynn gives a nod. "Well played Universe."
Everyone starts to run towards the monorail stop. They saw the stairs that lead up to it. Darius had pulled ahead of everyone else, but when he got into the open, he saw the figure of Toro eating on something. Darius quickly darts back for cover, and motions for everyone to stop. The teen then notices the dead, half eaten bodies that littered the open area. They all had to fight back the urge to gag and barf all over and give themselves away. Darius takes a short breath and peeks to see if Toro was gone, and sees the dinosaur trying to eat on a garbage can. Toro had turned her back to them, so he motions for them to follow. He makes a break to the stair case base, and hides. He looks behind him, expecting everyone else to be with him, or almost there, but he sees they were right where he had left them.
"What the -?" Darius mouths at them, and waves them forward. He sees them wait for a second, and then he sees Brooklynn, followed by Kenji and Sammy try to get to Darius. But Toro turns around, and this scares the 3 teens into running back. Toro must have noticed movement in their direction, because she drops the can and starts moving slowly in there direction. Darius notices this, and just before Toro can turn her head and face the 3 campers, Darius throws a piece of concrete further away from them to give them a chance to escape. Toro hears the clatter, because she stops walking and moves towards the sound.
The other 5 campers don't want to waste another second. They race to the stairs, and start climbing up. Toro lets out a roar, alerting them that she was done with searching. Everyone freezes, and were worried that she would check the stairs, but she doesn't. She just keeps on moving. Kenji and Brooklynn make it up top first. Kenji was about to let out a shout, but as soon as he put his hands up, Brooklynn puts her hand over his mouth and gives him a look that says, 'We haven't made it out yet.'
Sammy makes it to the top, and the monorail comes around the track and stops. But they wish that it had come just a minute later. "Welcome to the Jurassic World Lagoon. Next stop, Ferry Landing!" Darius made it up the stairs, but Ben and Yaz were still trailing behind. Toro had heard the noise, and was at the base of the stairs. The Dino starts to walk up the stairs. Ben and Yaz were almost there, with 15 steps to go! Toro was trying to climb the stairs, but her feet are too big! She keeps thudding, but the shock waves are enough to cause Ben and Yaz to fall down a couple of steps!
Darius starts rushing towards the 2 campers as Kenji uses his body to block the doors from shutting. Sammy and Brooklynn try to pull the doors as well. Darius rushes past Ben, telling him to keep going. He makes it to Yaz, and pulls her by the arms just before Toro can grab her! Darius shoves her up the stairs as Toro roars in annoyance! Darius looks at the dino trying to grab him now, and as Toro lets out another groan, the teen punches her square in the nose.
Finally, he is able to pull himself up the stairs and onto the monorail. A second later, and the stairs would have collapsed with him and Toro together. They heard the voice over head saying that they were headed to the docks. Everyone lets out a yell of victory! Kenji on the other hand was not having it yet.
"No. No, no, NO." Everyone looks at him. "We aren't safe. Watch the doors are gonna open." Nothing happenes. Sammy just scoffs at him. "Alright, fine. Then, the train is gonna stop working. Because that's how it works!"
Everyone shakes their heads at him. "Dude, just chill. We're okay now." The nightmare was almost over. They just had to make it to the docks, and they would be fine.
"Well, we WERE until you said THAT." Kenji give him a look.
After a few minutes, Darius sighs and looks over at the group. "We did, we're gonna go home!"
Everyone cheers with victory. Brooklynn wants to celebrate. Ben gives themselves some of the carob bars and juice boxes he has been living off of. They all groan at the taste, and Ben explains that its nature's chocolate and dismisses sugar and caffeine.
Brooklynn looks at him in disbelief. "What's wrong with sugar and caffeine? When we get home, I'm gonna hug my coffee maker. I may never let go."
Kenji looks at her and in all seriousness says, "I have often described myself as a tall, hot drink."
Everyone groans as Brooklynn rejects the idea. "You could NEVER be coffee."
Kenji scoffs and sits back down. "I could be coffee," he mutters.
Yasmina mentions that it will be back to training for her once her leg is healed up, and she needs to fine a new corporate sponsor since her former one was Jurassic World. Kenji tries to gloat about which wing of his mansion he would be spending his time, but his tune turns sadder when he mentions his father is always away, and the staff lets him win at everything.
"So, what have YOU missed Ben?" Sammy asks the youngest among them.
Kenji was quick to make fun of the kid. "Oh, let me guess! He can't wait to get back to his closet full of dork pouches!"
Everyone gets a little chuckle out of this. "Ha ha." Ben laughs unenthusiastically, but with a small smile.
"That thing is like a miniature suit case." Darius says then asks, "You've been living out of that thing. How much stuff can you fit in it?"
"One, a lot." Ben answers. "And two, OBVIOUSLY, I'm gonna restock it." Another fit of laughter fills the monorail car.
"I still can't believe how much went wrong." Brooklynn says, still barely able to wrap her head around the thought that she was going to make it off the Island. "Do you remember the time we were almost eaten?!"
Yas looks at her and shares her enthusiasm. "Which time? How was there more than ONE time?"
The kids spend a few minutes talking about all the times death had come knocking at the door, and how each time, they evaded it. Sammy finally speaks up and says, "I got a toast for us all!"
BOOM!
The car shakes a bit from whatever just exploded. Everyone looks out the window trying to see if they could see anything. Nothing. Darius reasons if it was close enough to them, they would have seen it. "It's alright guys. We are still okay." the teen looks at the other campers.
They all look back again at Sammy, and the Texan continues on with her toast. "I know that this hasn't gone the way we thought it would, but at least we are all leaving this place with 5 new friends! To being friends for life! Clink." Sammy had raised her carton of carob juice, and was waiting for everyone to join her, but nobody did. "Guys? Hello? Do you NOT see us as friends?"
Brooklynn sighs, and stutters with her words a bit. "Just- Doesn't it take more than a few days and running for our lives to become friends with someone?"
Yasmina continues the point. "We were thrown together at random. We have nothing in common. You would have to be kidding yourself if you thought that we would be friends like that."
"That's not true." Sammy tries again. "We've been through more than some friends have been through in a life time."
"And now that it's over," Ben says, "what are the chances that we will see each other again?"
Darius takes a moment to reflect on this. His brother had told him to try and make one new friend. Brandon had seen Darius growing distant from the friends he did have. Darius was ashamed that he didn't do as his brother said, but like Brooklynn says. It takes more than a few days. They were supposed to be there for a few weeks, but look how well that turned out.
The campers fall silent as the monorail takes them to the boat. Darius was getting lost in thought. He was trying to decide if he should ask Brooklynn for her number. They did kiss on the gyro, and Darius was wondering if he was kidding himself. This girl knew almost nothing about him, so it's not like she would go out on a sympathy date. He just wasn't sure. And he didn't even get to experiance the Park for his mom. That was probably the biggest bummer for him. The sound of the automatic voice on the monorail pulled him from his thoughts for a second.
"It's one of the many things that make this park very Jurassic."
"What does that even mean?" Brooklynn asks out loud.
Darius answers. "Who knows at this point. Mom used to talk about this place all the time, saying that it was Allosaurus and a bag of chips." The teen had to stop for a minute to let in a small breath to not let out a tear that was threatening to fall. "She was corny, but the best."
Ben gulps before asking, "'Was?'" They all put the pieces together pretty quickly. "So, your mom is..." No one could bring themselves to say it. Darius knew that they were all looking at him in pity. That was something he had a lot of at home. So much for the no sympathy date.
Darius and the others turn their heads to look at Ben and Bumpy, who was making some weird noise. Ben says out loud to no one, "Bumpy stepped in something icky, and I'm low on sanitizer."
Kenji just blurts out what everyone was wondering. "Ben, why are you here?"
Yas shoves him back down in his seat and Darius says, What he means is that you are afraid of dinosaurs, the outdoors, sometimes the indoors-"
"Whipped cream for some reason?" Sammy asks.
"The way it moves." Ben shudders.
Kenji feels like his point has been made. "Yeah, SEE? This is what I'm talking about. Why are YOU HERE of all places?"
Ben gives him an answer. "My mom worked for Mr. Masrani." Darius was about to ask why he said worked, but they all remember the helicopter crash, which was flown by Masrani. "She got me into camp, telling me it would be a good way to 'face my fears.' But, it's been a NIGHTMARE. I'm just sick of being scared all the time, and of running, and of almost getting eaten!" Ben looked down at Bumpy who was sort of acting like a dog. She had put her head onto Ben's lap, and that seems to bring him back. "But, it hasn't been all bad. If I never came here, I would never have met-"
BANG!
That didn't sound like an explosion. That sounded like something was crashing into them.
BANG!
The car shakes from the force of the impact. Everyone watched as Darius went into the back of the car, and looked out the window. With all the lights on, he had to cup his hands over his eyes to be able to see. "Oh shit." Everyone watches as he runs for one of the flashlights near the exit door. "Grab a flashlight! Turn off the lights in the car!" Darius was banging on the overhead lights, and everyone watched him with confusion. Kenji turned to face the glass Darius had just looked out of. Finally, after banging for what felt like forever, the light goes out, and everyone else is able to see what Darius saw. A flock of flying dinosaurs. The 5 campers exclaim in fear.
Kenji is the first to follow Darius, and grab a flashlight. "All the dinos are part bird! Birds are attracted to bright, shiny moving objects. What do you think WE currently are?" Darius explains, as the rest of the campers try to grab a light.
"A shiny moving object!" Sammy answers in fear.
Ben was the last one to reach for a flashlight, but they were all out. And with all the banging, he couldn't think straight. "What should I do?"
"Just stay out of the way!" Brooklynn snaps, with fear sinking into her.
Kenji starts, "I told you-"
"Don't finish that sentence!" Brooklynn shoots back at him.
The teens had gotten all the lights off in the first car, but they still had 2 more to go. And the flying dinos were getting closer. Darius had assigned them into pairs. He, Kenji, Yas and Brooklynn were to turn off the lights and Sammy was to help Ben and Bumpy across. After a minute or 2, the second car had lost the lights. Everyone was able to now see that the tracks was heading right towards another broken car.
"At least we know what the boom was." Sammy says, always the optimist.
Darius thinks out loud. "If we don't switch tracks, or slow down, we're gonna hit that thing full speed. How do we stop this thing?!"
Kenji points to the last car they needed to take care of. "Front car, there's a control panel! VIP tour, I was 8, and they let me drive!"
Darius tries to open the door to the front car, but it's jammed. Everyone except Ben, who was sitting in the corrner trying to calm down Bumpy, started banging on the door, pulling it, even trying to break the glass. The only thing that happened was the monorail kept going towards the broken car, and they were gonna crash in a ball of fire if they didn't do something soon.
"Now what?" Yas asks.
Darius looks around, and sees Ben, and then gets an idea. "The emergency hatch."
"Our fat butts won't fit!" Kenji says.
"Maybe not ours." Darius heads towards Ben. "Ben, listen to me. You need to crawl through the hatch onto the roof and switch tracks for us."
"You want him to do WHAT?!" Yasmina shouts.
Darius ignores her, and continues telling Ben the plan. "We'll distract the dinos and lead them away from you with the flashlights. This should give you enough time to do what you need to."
"Darius, I CAN'T!" Ben shouts, his breathing becoming more rapid.
"Yes you CAN." Darius looks him right in the eyes. "Look at me. You are the ONLY one who can. You've got this." Ben hesitates for a moment until the birds start attacking the monorail again. Darius stands up straight again, and helps Ben up to the hatch. Everyone thought that this was a crazy idea, but there wasn't a lot of time to debate. Once Ben was out and crawling, Darius turns on his light. "We got to get these guys away from Ben!" Everyone else turns on their flashlights and waves them outside, hoping that enough of the birds would notice them, and they all would follow.
It does the trick. They are able to get their attention, but now they just have to keep it. They prayed that Ben had gotten into the car safely, and that he was figuring something out. Sammy tried looking to see how close they were to crashing, but she couldn't see anything, which most likely meant that if Ben didn't do something, or he didn't make it, they were headed right to the burning car, and were dead. The 5 campers held their breath, and braced for the worst.
The monorail suddenly made a violent jolt, causing them to grunt at the sudden change in direction. The kids then hear and see the car scrape across the busted obstacle, meaning that in the nick of time, Ben had saved the day. The 5 campers race to the front car, and out comes Ben with a big smile.
Everyone starts to congratulate and thank him, which quickly turns into a chant for Ben. The 6 kids were feeling invincible again, until the glass breaks, and a flying dino grabs onto Ben, and pulls him out of the car!
"Ben!" Darius reaches out, and grabs onto Ben's hand, and uses his free hand to hold onto one of the poles to keep the Pteranodon from flying away with their friend! After a struggle, the Pteranodon lets go, fighting with one of the others in the flock. Gravity takes its course, and Ben pulls Darius down with him. The older teen is able to stop the fall so they don't both go over, but Ben was OUTSIDE the monorail! The only thing keeping Ben from freefalling 100 feet below was Darius's strong grip.
"Darius, Darius, please, DON'T let go!" Ben shouted as the 2 boys felt their hands slipping. Darius struggled to hang on as the grip slipped even more...
ANNNNNNNNNNNNND scene! HAHA. Whooooo. That was the longest chapter I have written EVER. Another cliffhanger. Anyways, sorry it took so long to update. I wanted to enjoy my winter break. Anyways, stay home, stay safe. Bye guys