Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. This is gonna be hard to write, god damn it. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I'll see you at the bottom.
"Hello.": Normal talking.
"HELLO.": Yelling.
"Hello" Speaking through the radio.
'Hello': Thinking.
What: Emphasizing a word.
"HELLO": Signs and Warnings.
* bang * Sound effects.
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Darius led Tiff through the jungle, wading through bushes and any foliage blocking their path. And after his whole plan to get both Sammy and Yasmina away, he could tell that Tiff was annoyed, pissed even, especially since Mitch hasn't returned yet. But Darius wasn't going to press his luck too much, lest he ends up shocked or shot.
The lone camper turned his head to look at the woman following him, but after a few seconds, she met his eye and glared at him, causing the boy to face forward again.
"God damn it, Mitch! Where are you?" Tiff said to herself. "How hard is it to bring back a kid? You don't even have to bring both of them back.." She growled to herself as she put her rifle back into its case and readjusted her grip on her stun prod, all the while she continued to grumble to herself and have an imaginary argument with Mitch.
'Okay, step one is to take her gun away. What do I do after that?' Darius thought to himself. 'I guess run… And if the T. rex shows up, I'll just run faster.' D let out a sigh. "I hope the others managed to get away safely…" He whispered to himself.
"How much farther until the watering hole? And what were you whispering about?" Tiff called out, making the boy stop in his tracks.
"I was just saying it's right through here." Darius hesitantly told her as he turned around.
Tiff let out a small gasp. "We're here. And Mitch isn't with us, oh well, I'll just get him a little souvenir." Tiff said to herself before motioning for Darius to lead her forward.
With a reluctant nod, Darius led Tiff the extra 20 yards, and after a few moments, they stepped out of the jungle and into a clearing. And before them was Main Street, good ol' chaotically messed up Main Street.
"This doesn't look like the watering hole to me." Tiff said through grit teeth as she glared down at Darius.
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WITH THE OTHER CAMPERS
Brooklynn, Kenji, Sammy, Yasmina, and Cass were all gathered around each other while they tried to figure out what they should do next.
"Wait, guys, you need to know-" Kenji started saying.
"There's no time." Yaz cut him off. "We have to figure out what Darius' plan is." She told him as Sammy gave an affirmative nod.
"What?" Brooklynn called out. "He's taking Tiff to Main Street?" The youngest girl asked.
* approaching footsteps *
"Huh?" Yasmina let out as she and the others heard something coming their way.
* growling *
Yasmina and Sammy let out gasps of shock before hiding behind Cass as a dinosaur stomped its way through some bushes and toward them. But the dinosaur got a few feet away from the young adult who merely stood in place and watched the dino approach, and let out a bellow at them.
"Is that…?" Sammy dragged out.
"…Bumpy?" Yaz finished the sentence.
"Hello, girl." Cass gave a small smile toward the much larger Ankylosaur. "If you're here, then that means…" He let that statement hang in the air as the trio looked onto Bumpy's back and saw someone they thought was long dead.
Ben hopped off of Bumpy's back, onto the ground, and turned to face his friends. "Hey." He casually said as Sammy and Yaz just stared at him with wide eyes and mouths open in shock. Ben cleared his throat and offered his hand. "Guys." But he was immediately hugged by both Sammy and Yaz at the same time while Cass just smiled at them as he let the teens have their moment.
"You're a hugger now, Fadoula?" Ben asked as he was more or less being squeezed by the two girls, but he was surprised by Yaz.
"Still have mixed feelings about it, but I… you're…" Yasmina spoke but just increased her strength as she hugged Ben.
Cass's chuckling caught their attention. "All right you two let the poor guy breathe. He won't be here for long if you squeeze the life out of him." He joked as he approached the trio. Both Yaz and Sammy let go of him out of embarrassment.
"Sorry." Yasmina awkwardly said with a chuckle.
"Yeah, kinda just got excited." Sammy said as she too let out a laugh.
"It's all good, guys." Ben said as he turned to face the much larger teen that was standing before him. A moment of silence passed between the two of them.
"So you survived." Cass said plainly as he looked at the new Ben that stood before him.
"Yeah, I did. I had to toughen up to survive, and I changed for the better. No longer am I a scared kid anymore, I can and will do whatever I can to help." Ben confidently said in a way that was similar to how'd you speak if you were trying to impress an older sibling.
Cass merely let out a chuckle as he ruffled Ben's hair. "I can see that." The older camper took his hand off his head and put it on his shoulder, allowing Ben to look up and see the smile that was on Cass's face. "I'm proud of you, Ben. It's good to have you back."
Ben returned his smile. "It's good to be back."
"Yeah, yeah, we have been trying to tell you about it." Brooklynn cut through the reunion. "But in more pressing news, Darius isn't taking Tiff to the watering hole." She said as she handed Ben the map.
"What? Why would he take her straight to the T. rex?" Ben asked as he saw where the red X was located and handed the map back to the pink-haired girl.
"Home court advantage." Kenji said as he walked over to the others. "Darius knows the terrain, Tiff doesn't. It'll be easier to lose her on Main Street than in the jungle." Kenji explained to them.
"That is probably the smartest thing you've said." Cass jokingly told him.
"Come on, man…" Kenji whined but knew it was all fun and games.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go help him!" Yasmina said.
"Yes! Bumpy and I are ready to roll." Ben said as he leaned against his dinosaur.
"Uh-uh. Big problemo." Kenji said with a wag of his finger. "There's no way we'll make it to Main Street before they do."
"And that's the second smartest thing." Cass mumbled to himself but loud enough for Sammy and Yasmina to hear, causing their lips to twitch slightly as they tried not to openly laugh at Kenji's expense. And the only reason Cass was being this sarcastic and joking, was because he was trying to put the girls' minds at ease, they saw something that no one their age should have seen, and he's responsible for that to some degree, so it's up to him to be there and comfort them.
"Well, there is one obvious shortcut." Brooklynn hinted.
"Down there? You must be joking. Don't you remember last time?" Kenji asked. "Not only is it super fucking creepy and dark, but we nearly died!" He exclaimed. "Nope. No go for Kenji." The teen said as he crossed his arms.
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"We're doing this!" Brooklynn exclaimed as she drove the motorcycle down one of the many tunnels that made up the labyrinth underneath the park. Kenji could only groan as he was seated in front of the girl so he could act as the navigator.
Bumpy was right behind the bike as she carried Ben, Cass, Sammy, and Yasmina. The two girls preferred to stick as close as they could to their savior, at least until this was all over, and the oldest of the campers was just gonna be too heavy to join the others on the vehicle.
But the group sped down the corridors with the headlight from the motorcycle lighting their way and giving Bumpy the location of the others.
"Left!" Kenji exclaimed as they came to a crossing.
Brooklynn listened and turned the bike left while momentarily hitting the brakes to get a sharper turn, but after that corner, they continued down the corridor for a minute or two.
"Now right! Right!" The island VIP yelled.
Once again, Brooklynn did as he said, taking a sharp turn and going down the right tunnel.
"Could you maybe take some of those turns a little less murdery?" Kenji turned around and complained as he didn't like the feeling of being suddenly jerked to the left or right, especially in such an odd seat on the motorcycle.
Brooklynn suddenly let out a gasp that caught Kenji's attention as she quickly clutched the brakes and slid the bike to a stop, coming to a complete halt at their biggest obstacle in these tunnels… the security gates.
Kenji was breathing heavily as they came to a stop before letting out a whine as he fell to the ground. But the two soon heard Bumpy's footsteps approaching as the rest of their group caught up to them. Ben, Cass, Sammy, and Yasmina all got off the Ankylosaurus and joined up with Kenji and Brooklynn off to the side of the tunnel.
"Well shit." Yaz said as she looked at the gate.
"Well shit, indeed." Cass agreed as he had started to absolutely fucking hated these gates. Even just thinking about them pissed him off, only because the damn thing was so effective. Which would be great given any other circumstance, but seeing as how they needed to get passed the damn thing, yeah, he wasn't really liking them anymore.
Ben walked over to the gate and knocked on it with his spear. "Let's take this down, Bumps." He confidently said.
Bumpy rushed forward before turning and slamming her clubbed tail into the gate, which made a loud and echoing bang but did absolutely nothing to the massive construction of dense metal. Ben saw this and signaled Bumpy to try again, only to receive the same effect as the first. Ben got fed up and started punching and kicking the gate.
"Yeah, I don't think Wild Child and his Amazing Dino are gonna be able to punch through that gate." Yaz said out loud.
"You'd be absolutely correct because as much as I hate to say it, this is quite literally the most effective piece of security this island has. We're not getting through these things unless the power comes back on and takes the island out of lockdown." Cass told her as he leaned against the wall while setting his rifle to his side.
"And you know this how?" Sammy asked him.
"How do you think I got accepted to be in Camp Cretaceous? It wasn't my looks or charisma, I'll tell you that." Cass joked with her. "I got accepted because I was poking through their security measures and running simulations on what could and couldn't get through things. And after pointing out some major design flaws in certain aspects of their security, they offered me a place in Camp Cretaceous as a "Thank you" of sorts." He told her and anyone else that was listening.
"Okay, maybe Bumpy just needs a little pep talk to bring it down though, or at least dent it or something." Kenji said out loud as he walked over to the Ankylosaur and cupped her face like a pet. "You're not gonna let some door stand in your way, are you, Bumpy?" He said gently as he got a growl from the big girl. "You break barriers, barriers don't break you!"
Bumpy let out a grunt as she gently knocked the teen onto his ass by bumping her head into him, all while Ben kept trying to kick and punch the massive gate open.
"What do we do now?" Kenji asked Brooklynn as she stepped forward.
The pink-haired girl could only sigh sharply as she didn't really know at this moment.
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BACK ON MAIN STREET
"Do you think this is some kind of joke?" Tiff asked angrily as she stalked toward Darius with the stun rod pointed at him. Darius backed up toward the gift shop where he and the other campers had previously stayed at.
"It's just through this…" Darius tried to tell the woman as he gestured to his right.
"Don't lie to me, Brat!" Tiff yelled before turning on the stun prod, making the young teen let out a gasp. He kept backing up as Tiff stepped forward until his back made contact with a shelf of toys.
"After everything that has happened, you think lying to me is going to help you any?" Tiff asked as she took a couple more steps forward.
Darius took a deep breath as he steeled his nerves for what he was about to do. He wordlessly rushed behind the shelf and attempted to push it onto the older woman, and although it didn't crush her, it did make her dive out of the way to dodge it. But once she dove to the ground, the strap from her rifle case slipped and the case fell away from her. And with Darius not wanting to give her a chance, he rushed toward the weapon case and grabbed it before running off deeper into Main Street.
Tiff finally got off the ground and watched as the young camper ran away. "He took my fucking gun." She growled out. "This would be the point where Mitch would be all "Babe, it'll be easier for us if he's alive.", well guess what? That may be so, but then again…"
* electricity crackles *
"…maybe not."
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BACK INTO THE LABYRINTH
* bang *
* bang *
* bang *
Ben and Bumpy were still beating on the gate for the past few minutes with the results being the same as when they first tried to bust through it, absolutely nothing. They haven't even so much as put a dent into it. But they had finally decided to stop as Bumpy let out a defeated bellow.
"It's not budging." Ben turned toward the others and told them.
"You don't say." Cass said sarcastically from his position on the ground as the oldest member of the group decided earlier on that he was just going to rest, with Sammy and Yasmina doing the same on either side of him. "Any other ideas, Bubblegum? Because as you can see, we can't keep doing this." He asked as he looked at the pink-haired girl.
Brooklynn quickly side-eyed Cass for the use of his nickname for her, although she won't let anyone other than him call her that, whether she likes it or not, she'll never tell, but walked over to the metal gate and grabbed the bars before letting out a sigh of defeat.
"I'll take that as a no…" Cass quietly said as he closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall.
* clanging *
The younger teens let out gasps of shock at the sudden noise that reverberated through the usually quiet tunnels.
"What- What is that?" Ben stuttered as he turned to face where they originally came from.
"There it is again." Brooklynn lowly said.
* low whirring *
"The hum." Sammy whispered with Yasmina humming in agreement.
Brooklynn wordlessly turned around and began walking away in her attempt at following where the noise was coming from, and with the others not exactly having a better plan as well as both Sammy and Yaz wanting to see where this led, they all began following after the pink-haired girl.
Soon Brooklynn had led them far enough down the corridor where the paths split off, but the whirring had only gotten louder with every step they took, so when she looked to her left she let out a gasp, catching everyone else's attention. So they all looked down the tunnel and saw exactly what caught her eye…
…a lone red light was shining through the darkness.
Brooklynn walked down the hall toward the light with the others following her lead. She placed her ear to the door that they had found and listened through it the best she could, and sure enough, the hum was definitely coming from behind it.
"If there's electricity down here, we could find a way to raise that gate. We gotta follow that hum." Brooklynn said as she turned toward the group that was following her, before pulling out her key card and putting it into the electrical lock.
* beep *
* lock clicks *
And with that, the light turns green and the campers have access to what lies beyond this door. Brooklynn turned to face them with a smile on her face seeing how this actually worked. Kenji let out a sigh of relief, Ben and Sammy let out a little cheer, and Cass and Yaz gave little chuckles at their team's success.
Brooklynn turned the handle and pushed the door open…
* air hisses *
And all the younger teens let out a gasp as the pressurized and cooled air hit them, with everything behind that door being significantly colder than the things on their side, there was even a frosty mist that lingered in the air, creating a cold fog that slightly obscured their sight. The same matte gray walls as before, but now everything was covered in a thin layer of frost and ice as red lights were the only thing illuminating this place.
"Whoa. It's cold enough in here to-" Ben started saying.
"To freeze flowers." Brooklynn finished his sentence as she and the others walked into the frozen addition to the labyrinth.
"Is that a thing people say now?" Ben questioned as he and all the other campers held themselves in an attempt to warm up (except for Cass). Bumpy groaned at him. "We did miss a lot." He responded.
But for now, the team of seven made their way down the halls of this newly discovered mystery.
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BACK ON MAIN STREET
'Holy shit, that actually worked.' Darius thought to himself as he slung the case strap over his shoulder. 'Now I just have to lose her.' He thought as he ran toward the giant maze of furniture that he and the others had previously set up.
"Kid! Darius! Come back!" Tiff yelled as she followed after the boy at a walker's pace. "I just wanna talk!"
But Darius knew she was lying about that part, so he took a sharp left before skulking between the many rows of tables, chairs, boxes, and giant umbrellas, that they had conveniently set up just encase they were chased.
Tiff stalked forward with her stun prod held at the ready. "Where'd he go?" She quietly asked herself as she scanned the giant jumbled mess of a maze in front of her but saw Darius's white shirt dark across some of the boxes, giving away his position. And wordlessly, she took a right in the hopes of getting the drop on him.
Darius crawled underneath a table as he slowly carried the weapon case with him, doing his best to remain as quiet as possible, while simultaneously getting the fuck out of there as quickly as he can.
"Just give me my gun back, and we can forget this ever happened." Tiff called out, trying to give the teen some false hope. She came up to the box before suddenly pointing her stun prod behind it, hoping that Darius would be there, but he wasn't, causing her to let out a groan of irritation.
Darius noticed that she was getting closer to him than he would've liked, so without making any noise, D tried his best to keep moving forward so he could escape.
"Darius!" Tiff called out in the hopes that she'd get his attention, but nothing happened. "Kid!"
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BACK IN THE FROZEN TUNNELS
The campers continued to walk down the halls as they followed the mysterious hum. Ben, Brooklynn, Kenji, Sammy, and Yasmina all held themselves as they tried to protect themselves from the chilling temperatures. Cass on the other hand… he just had a small smile on his face as he casually walked alongside the others.
"How?" Was all Sammy said as she stared at the giant teen.
"Hmm?" Cass turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow.
"She means "How are you not cold?", it's fucking freezing in here." Yasmina told him. Cass just let out a chuckle as everyone else also wanted to know why he wasn't freezing his ass off with them.
"Well, I'll give two answers to your question." He told them as he adjusted his hold on the rifle so it was down by his waist. "The first answer being: I'm 6'6 and roughly 250 lbs, my body is naturally gonna run a bit hotter than most as to keep me alive. See?" Cass placed his left hand against Sammy's face before moving it over to Yaz's.
"So warm…" Sammy basically melted as the taller boy was essentially a walking furnace at the moment, before slowly walking just a bit closer toward him.
"And the other one?" Yasmina asked as she was having a mental crisis. 'I can't grab onto him, but he's so damn hot… I mean warm, he's warm… It's fucking freezing in here and there's a perfectly good man-shaped heater right next to me, but no, there are people around. Fuck you, social anxiety.' She thought to herself, and if you told her she was blushing, she'd deny it to the grave.
"As for the second one: I just really like the cold." He plainly stated with a smile on his face and a small laugh escaped his lips.
"That's just… whatever, I'm too cold to argue." Kenji said as he held himself.
"How is that fair?" Ben complained.
"What do you mean?" Cass questioned.
"First off, you're 6'6 and 250 lbs, you're extremely smart, strong, durable, and fast, you have amazing looks and a great personality that's complimented by an outstanding voice, and now you can just brush off extreme heat, AND cold?" Ben listed off as everyone turned to look at both him and their oldest member.
"Uh… yeah, I guess so?" The resident savior of Camp Cretaceous said.
"Dude… you're not human." Ben said with a shake of his head, causing everyone to let out a laugh (given the circumstances), including himself.
Brooklynn hasn't said anything as she was listening for the hum, but don't get her wrong, she was enjoying the conversation and liked learning new stuff about their resident mystery camper that kinda just… takes the worst of things on himself instead of it affecting them, but most of them hardly knew anything about the oldest member of their group.
But with a shake of her head, she cleared her thoughts as she once again tried to focus on finding the hum, promising herself that she'd figure out the mystery that was Cass. She wouldn't have to wait too long though as the whirring and humming grew louder and louder until they came across a door.
"It's coming from here!" Brooklynn exclaimed as she put her ear to the door before pulling back and taking out the key card, and unlocking the door.
* beep *
* lock clicks *
Brooklynn pulled the door open and the group was greeted with an almost pitch-black room, whose only light source was the hallway that they were currently standing in. Brooklynn and Cass were the first to enter the room, with Sammy and Yaz being second, and then Kenji and Ben were the last ones in, with Bumpy being too big to fit through the door.
Inside the room was a huge terminal/console that spanned from one wall to another, with screens, nobs, buttons, small levers, and what appeared to be a speaker. There was also a lone swivel chair that was stationed at the desk-like console. Brooklynn and Cass stepped forward to check out the console.
"Wow. What is all this?" Yasmina asked as she and Sammy looked up and saw some more speakers that were mounted higher up on the wall.
"Oh, shit! This must be, like, some kind of secret backup power center!" Kenji exclaimed as he looked over and saw fuse boxes that were more than likely connected to the main generators on the island. "My dad might not even know about this place."
"Did you know about this, Cass?" Sammy asked.
"No, I didn't. This wasn't even mentioned in any file that I got my hands on, the knowledge of this place was probably only known by a few and they more than likely wanted to keep it hidden from the public. Like the tunnels in general, if their existence were known by the public, all kinds of dumb fucks would be doing stupid shit down here." Cass told her as he set his rifle off to the side and began scanning the console.
"Yeah, that's fair." Sammy told him.
"We gotta find a way to raise that gate and get to Darius." Brooklynn said as she sat in the swivel chair and started looking through the controls on the panel before her. "Start looking."
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BACK ON MAIN STREET
Darius continued to crawl on his hands and knees as he tried his best to quietly escape Tiff, but the older woman wasn't giving up on getting her gun back, so he had no choice but to keep moving forward. But Darius made the mistake of looking back to see how much distance was between them, and when he wasn't looking, he slammed into a box, causing him to let out a small grunt and have the case slip from his shoulder.
Tiff heard the noise he had let out and snapped her head in the general direction that it had come from before walking over to where she assumed Darius to be.
Darius tried to reach for the case that he had dropped, but the sound of approaching footsteps made him too anxious and afraid to do so. Tiff stalked her way closer and closer to where she figured Darius might be…
* screeching in the distance *
"Huh?" Tiff whipped around as the screeching had caught her off guard and put her on edge of any possible approaching dinosaur. She took a few steps back as she scanned the boxes for anything that could've snuck up on her, but as she wasn't paying attention, she backed up and almost tripped over a scooter that was on the ground.
This gave Darius the opportunity to grab the case and move forward once more as Tiff wasn't focused on him at the moment. Though Tiff did let out a growl and kicked the scooter away before returning her focus to finding Darius.
The lone camper paused as he tried to decide whether he should take a left or a right, but while he was caught up in that, he wasn't paying attention to what was right in front of him until it made itself known.
* screeching *
Darius let out a gasp as a single Compy was right in front of him, screeching and growling at him, with the young teen trying to wave it off and shoo it away. But the rat of the dinosaur world wouldn't stop making noise until it finally got what it wanted, which the Compy dove for and made some clattering noises before finally getting what it wanted… pizza.
Sadly, Tiff heard the clattering and screeching, so that's where she assumed Darius to be, knocking over some wooden planks and other things that were on top of boxes to throw the teen off and build anxiety for him.
But Darius knew he just had to keep on moving forward no matter how stressful this situation got. He eventually stopped before seeing something that caught his eye and gave him an idea that he set in motion almost immediately.
Tiff continued to scan the cluster fuck of a maze that Darius was hiding in at the moment until she saw something moving, it was one of the giant umbrellas swaying back and forth, knocking into another umbrella before suddenly stopping. And she figured that'd be a good spot to start looking. So as Tiff stalked forward, she saw a pair of legs from behind the debris.
"Gotcha." She confidently said as she turned on the stun prod and jabbed it into the leg. Some of the furniture fell out of the way and showed her that she merely shocked a cardboard cutout of Brooklynn, which too fell out of the way. Tiff could only look at it questioningly before narrowing her eyes in irritation.
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BACK WITH THE OTHERS
"We gotta get the power on!" Yaz exclaimed.
"Yeah, well, I'm trying, sweetheart." Cass sarcastically said making Yasmina quiet at the particular nickname. "But as far as I can tell, none of these buttons turn the power back on." He said as Ben nodded in agreement as he too was helping them look.
"Oh! One of them has to be. I once helped a Dutch seamstress find an actual needle in an actual haystack." Brooklynn said openly. "I can find this."
"Kenji, rip that lid off and see if it's a fuse box or a breaker panel." Cass said as he turned around and pointed toward the metallic box on the wall that Kenji was near.
Kenji not having to be told twice in this situation, or in general with Cass because he scares the shit out of him, pulled open the door on the box and it was in fact a breaker panel, thankfully that had instructions labeled inside the box, so the teen shoved the lever up, pushed the wheel down to build charge, and then shoved the lever back down.
* generator hums *
And like that, the power was back on with lights immediately illuminating the room and the console and monitors following soon after. The young campers let out gasps at the sudden brightness and sighs of relief at actually having power.
"Kenji, you did it!" Brooklynn exclaimed.
"Natch!" Was the teen's cocky response.
"See? You're not useless after all." Cass said jokingly before turning back to the console and began giving instructions to Brooklynn, Yasmina, and Sammy on what buttons to press and switches to flick in order to get the power back on the island… hopefully, he's fucked with control panels before, how different could this one be?
Sure enough, the power was sent out and the lights were coming back on. Enclosures, the stands at the Lagoon, the genetics lab, the raptor paddock, and last but not least, Main Street finally had its power back, illuminating the entire hub. And the campers got to see all of this through the cameras that were brought back online and showed their feed on the monitors on the wall.
But while all the others were gathered around the console and monitors, Kenji was still over by the breaker box when he noticed a flashing green button. And with Kenji being… Kenji, clicked it once. But nothing happened. So decided that the best course of action was to repeatedly click it as many times as he wanted.
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? ? ? ? / ? ?
Lights began flickering from the constant power surges of being turned off and on, with the machine's fans and engine whirring as it could no longer keep up, it finally short-circuited, cutting off power to the room…
…and cutting off the power from the cryogenic chamber that stood in the corner of the room.
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BACK IN THE CONTROL ROOM
Kenji let out a satisfying sigh as a smile graced his features as he got that out of his system, before stepping back and closing the door on the breaker and then joining the others at the console.
"Now where is he?" Brooklynn asked as she flipped through the different camera feeds.
Yasmina let out a gasp. "You guys, look! Look, he's right there!" She exclaimed while pointing at a specific monitor, catching the other camper's attention as they looked at the screen and saw Darius run up to a glass door before running toward a different building.
"Hey!" Yaz yelled. "We can see you!"
"You're there!" Kenji said.
"Yeah!" Ben exclaimed with a follow-up of "Yes!" from Brooklynn and Sammy.
"Darius!" Ben yelled.
"Finally!" Brooklynn shouted as she and the other campers all cheered… except for Cass.
"Look." Cass grimly said as he pointed at a different monitor that showed Tiff sneaking up on Darius, causing the younger campers to let out gasps of shock.
"Shit! Shit, no!" Brooklynn exclaimed in panic before attempting to use the microphone on the console. "Darius, behind you!"
"Darius, dude!" Kenji said in a panic.
"He can't hear us." Ben solemnly said as Sammy looked up at the screen in worry. Because if she hadn't run with Yasmina, she would've been there with him, but now he's alone… and in danger.
Cass started scanning every button on the console as he tried to figure out which one was for the mics and speakers.
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WITH DARIUS
"It's over." Tiff loudly said as she stood about 10-15 feet away from Darius. "Don't even think about running, and where did you think you were going anyway? You think I wouldn't be able to find you in the jungle?" Darius took a few steps back with Tiff taking a few steps forward.
"This isn't a game, kid. Give me the gun." Tiff threatened.
"I can't let you shoot dinosaurs." Darius calmly told her as he moved the case away from her.
"That's not really your call, is it? Give me the weapon, Darius." Tiff told him as she reached out her hand.
Darius nodded his head no as he backed up. "Mm-mm."
"I'm not ask-" Tiff was cut off.
* tablet beeps *
She pulled out the ACU tablet that Mitch had handed to her earlier and after a few seconds, the dinosaur trackers showed up on the map, giving away the location of the watering hole. Tiff let out a gasp. "Whoever turned on the power, thank you!" She said openly with a laugh.
"Sorry, Darius, but I don't need you to show me where the watering hole is after all." Tiff told him as she turned around to focus on the ACU tablet.
* loud thump *
Darius lets out a gasp as he knows exactly what made that noise before turning to his right and looking down a very familiar walkway.
* loud thump *
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IN THE CONTROL ROOM
"Where is the stupid speaker button?" Brooklynn panickingly asked as she too was now looking for a way to communicate with Darius, along with the others.
"Hey, wave if you can hear us!" Yaz said while holding down a button that did nothing.
Brooklynn started switching through the cameras before seeing a long tail move across the screen, causing her to let out a small scream of panic.
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MAIN STREET
* loud thump *
'I have to get out of here.' Darius thought to himself as he turned away from the tunnel and quietly made his way away from the area.
"What's that one?" Tiff asked herself as she looked at the tablet and saw a red flashing light in the park. "Hmm."
* loud thump *
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CONTROL CENTER
Brooklynn flicked through the channels as everyone gathered around her to look at the monitor that she was controlling. With each click of the button, she changed to a different camera, until she got to the T. rex lair, only to find it empty. That is… until she flipped to the next camera and saw the tail swing out of view as the Tyrant left her lair.
"Oh, no." Was all Brooklynn could say as she and the others in the room all felt anxiety, worry, and fear build up in their bodies.
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MAIN STREET
A loud thump was heard as the T. rex's foot crashed down onto the concrete path, and another, and another as she stomped her way from her lair toward Main Street, letting out a low growl as she goes to investigate the newfound lighting and noise in her domain.
The Tyrant Queen stepped out from the long hall that led to her den and stepped into Main Street she saw Darius dark to her left before she focused on the prey that was closest to her, a woman she didn't recognize: Tiff. And the T. rex let out a roar toward her.
"Babe! Babe! Babe, shoot it!" Tiff instinctually called out as she backed away from the colossal dinosaur before her before turning to her left and remembering that she was here alone, and Mitch hasn't returned. (Nor will he.)
The T. rex let out another roar, causing Tiff to turn and try and run away but ended up slamming into a table, but with the dinosaur approaching, she shoved the table out of the way and was chased by the T. rex, with dino occasionally trying to take bites out of her.
But in a last-ditch effort, Tiff turned around and struck the T. rex in the nose with the stun prod, causing the large carnivore to whip around in pain and smack into the table with her tail, sending it flying in Darius's direction and catching the strap of the weapons case, pinning the boy down momentarily.
Tiff noticed this and rushed over toward him while the T. rex was still shaking off the pain of being shocked in the nose. Darius had finally gotten up and tried to make a run for it with the gun case, but Tiff had caught up to him and tried to take it back.
"Let go!" Darius yelled out but their struggle was soon interrupted as the Tyrant Queen let out another roar as she charged toward the two of them, causing them to scream. The T. rex went down to take a bite but instead of snatching one of the two people, she caught the weapons case in her mouth with the strap being stuck in her teeth. Darius took this opportunity to hide behind some of the furniture that was knocked around.
The dinosaur didn't like something being caught in her teeth, so she started whipping her head all over the place as she tried to dislodge it. Tiff, not wanting to let the gun escape her grasp one more, jumped up and clung to the case that the T. rex was swinging around, with her going with it.
But finally, the carnivore whipped her head up, causing both Tiff and the case to fly from her mouth toward a building, with the woman landing on her back and the case landing on top of her. Tiff quickly got up as she had to dodge a biting attack from the beast and ran underneath a part of a building that was supported by pillars. (You know what building I'm talking about.)
The Tyrant Queen tried to chase after her but she ended up slamming her head between the pillars, getting her head stuck and letting out a roar of frustration.
Tiff, who had finally had enough of the T. rex, stood up, turned on her stun prod, and began to repeatedly shock the dinosaur in her nose as the dino cried out in pain each time.
Darius couldn't stand the sight and merely closed his eyes as he tried to block out the sound.
But the Queen had had enough pain and slammed her head into the roof, causing it to crack, but that was enough for Tiff to snap out of her moment of torment and run away into the jungle.
The T. rex mustered up the strength in her legs and turned her entire body to the left, before forcing herself through a pillar and taking a few steps back to shake off the lingering pain in her nose.
Darius moved from behind his box to underneath and behind a set of tables just as the Tyrant Queen let out a roar of irritation. 'She's blocking the way out…' He thought to himself as she stood in the middle of the street before she turned and began stomping her way back toward her lair, causing Darius to let out a sigh of relief.
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IN THE CONTROL CENTER
"Oh, that's it." Cass said lowly as he watched the T. rex walk away on the monitor as he went through the controls on the console. "Come on, be a good girl and go back home." He said as the others watched with him while Brooklynn helped him with the controls.
But luck wasn't on their side at the moment, because the Queen suddenly stopped right before the pathway to her lair and whipped her head around as she sniffed the air, catching the scent of something… or someone.
So she turned around and began stomping toward where Darius was hiding, before making it to the table and began to sniff out where he could be.
The campers watched the monitors with bated breath as they hoped the carnivore wouldn't find anything and would leave him alone. The T. rex scooted the table over to her right, with Darius moving himself along with it so he remains hidden, but the dinosaur knocked away the table that was laying on its side, leaving only the table that he was hiding under to shield him from its view.
And those of the group that were in the control room all held their breath as they prepared themselves for the worst that could happen.
But the Tyrant Queen knew she had smelt something. So she quickly ducked her head down toward the ground and looked under the table, where she saw her prey, causing Darius to let out a scream of fright before he ran toward a building and hid inside its narrow entry hall.
The large carnivore let out a roar before chasing after the teen, slamming her head into the building as she tried to bite him, but thankfully the building was stopping her from doing so.
"Oh, come on. Get up." Yasmina whispered to herself as she began clicking buttons on her portion of the console as she tried to find a way to help Darius.
"There's gotta be another way to help." Brooklynn said as she too was frantically trying to find a way to help their young leader.
"Fence control, power to retail shops, automatic advertising loop… hologram?" Sammy read off some of the buttons that she saw.
Cass whipped his head toward the buttons that she was reading off. "Sammy, I could fucking kiss you." He said out loud, causing the girl to lightly blush and sputter as she stepped out of his way as he went over the buttons and started instructing the others on what he needed them to do.
Darius tried to back himself up against the door as much as possible since the T. rex was still trying her hardest to eat him, but after a few seconds, something cut through the moment of horror.
"Wednesdays are "Kids Eat Free" days here at Jurassic World!" The feminine automated voice that once played throughout the park said through some nearby speakers, catching the attention of both Darius and the T. rex, causing the large carnivore to pull her head back and start looking around.
"All pastries are half off after 4:00 at Cafe Tricera-muffin-top. Located next to the lagoon." Said another feminine automated voice, causing the dinosaur to let out a roar in frustration at the noise.
The younger teens in the control room let out laughs and cheers as everything that Cass had them do was working.
"Yes! Yes!" Brooklynn exclaimed as all the lights on Main Street began strobing in irregular patterns to cause as much of a distraction as possible. The T. rex had backed away from the hole Darius was hiding in and began to let out more roars as she became overwhelmed by the lights and sounds that were happening.
Before suddenly the beacon at the top of the Innovation Center turned on, blasting a bright light into the sky, and a hologram of a T. rex was projected onto the platform before the Innovation Center, letting out a roar of its own, catching the attention of the Tyrant Queen, causing them to roar at each other.
Once again, the teens cheered as everything they had done, had worked out for them and for Darius. Speaking of Darius, he was now running out of Main Street like his life depended on it as he no longer wanted to be anywhere near the T. rex at the moment… or ever.
All the teens were celebrating and laughing in the control room, with Brooklynn flopping back into her swivel chair and spinning around, Cass had picked both Sammy and Yasmina up in his arms as the three of them hugged each other, and Ben and Kenji cheered before giving each other a high-five, with Kenji putting his hand down on the console afterward.
* mic feedback rings *
* static hisses *
Apparently, through all of their random and planned button pressing, they had turned the microphone and speakers back on, causing everyone to look at it, then each other as they finally had a way to speak to Darius.
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IN THE JUNGLE
Darius ran through the jungle as fast as he could. 'Holy shit, I actually made it out alive.' He thought to himself in disbelief. 'I wonder who turned the lights on though…'
* mic feedback rings *
Kenji cleared his throat before speaking into the microphone. "Testing. Testing."
"Kenji?" Darius called out as he heard his voice.
"Party people! What, what?" Kenji exclaimed into the mic.
"You guys, where are you?" Darius asked.
"Hello, human. It is I, your leader." He said in a robotic voice.
Cass had enough of the teen's stupidity, so he roughly shoved him out of the way, allowing Brooklynn to take over on the mic.
"We found a backup generator and turned the power on!" Brooklynn said to him. "We can't hear you. What are you trying to say? What happened to Tiff?"
"The watering hole!" Darius exclaimed as he pointed and waved in the general direction of the watering hole. "We have to stop her!"
"I still can't hear you. Act it out!" Brooklynn told him while Cass decided to look for a way to let Darius be able to speak to them.
Darius began to make a cupping gesture with his hands and brought it to his mouth.
"Ooh, I love this game. Okay, uh… TV shows? Books. A song!" Was Kenji's absolutely atrocious guesses.
Darius then made a circle with his arms and paired it up with his cupping gesture as he swapped between the two.
"A circle! Dirt!" Yasmina started guessing. "She's drinking… She's drinking, uh… water!"
Brooklynn let out a gasp. "The watering hole! She's going to the watering hole?" She asked.
Darius gave her a thumbs up as they had gotten it correct, before moving on to the next gesture which was that of a rifle being shot.
Brooklynn let out a sigh as she immediately knew what he meant and quietly spoke. "Tiff knows where it is. And she's going to kill the dinosaurs." She said without talking over the intercom.
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OUT NEAR THE WATERING HOLE
Dozens upon dozens of dinosaurs rested near the watering hole, whether to get a drink, graze in the grass, or just lay down and take a break.
* beeping *
But that wasn't going to last for long, as Tiff looked down at the ACU tablet and saw that she was approaching that very same location. And with a chuckle, she readied her rifle for what she had planned.
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Alright, the next chapter will be the end of season two, and I'll try to get it out before Christmas/Christmas Eve as a gift to all of you.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter just as you all enjoyed the rest, and I will begin writing soon.