-CC Day Twenty-Three-

The sound of an upbeat, fast paced pop song stirred Darius from sleep. Blearily searching in the dark for the source of the noise with irritation the boy let out a groan as he stretched out on the bed. Who the hell was listening to music so loud, and so late at- Oh! Urgency gripped the teen as his mind finally registered his big brother's ringtone. Digging around in his sheets and blankets he finally fished the illusive device out from beneath his pillow.

"Mmm-llo?" he mumbled rubbing an eye with the heel of his hand.

"H-hey, were you asleep bud?" Brand said his voice going from bright to concerned. "Mom said you wanted me to call when I got off."

"Nah, I'm fine, I was just starting to doze anyway." Darius lied sitting up and trying to reorient himself with the layout of the room.

"Shit, I totally forgot about the time difference. What is it there, one, two in the morning? I'm sorry man, you want me to call back lerrr-rrr?" he asked, voice suddenly muddled.

"Uh-uh," Darius shook his head, making his way towards the ladder. "The other guys are still sleeping though, so gimme a minute, I'm gonna go to the living room."

"Cool." Brand replied before falling silent.

Climbing out of bed Darius descended to the floor, cautiously eyeing his roommates. Kenji was all sprawled out, half hanging over the railing in a way that always made Darius think he was about to fall out of bed, but he never did, and Ben was curled tightly, clenched fists pressed firm against his mouth. Counting himself lucky that neither of them had stirred amid the ruckus Darius tiptoed out into the hallway.

Once there he ducked down low to the ground and crawled like a trooper infiltrating the frontlines, and navigating enemy territory. Brooklynn he knew had a bad habit of waking up at all hours of the night to check her status, and grinning to himself as he childishly indulged the fantasy of barbed wire and automatic gunfire the boy who was determined to have this phone call in private, stealthily made his way down the corridor. Besides he thought, Brooklynn tended to, well, make everything about herself and he just wanted a chance to tell the story for once.

Racing full speed into the living room after he'd made it through the hallway undetected Darius flopped backwards into one of the sofas, feet propped lazily on the armrest. "So where are you right now?" he asked pressing the phone back to his ear.

"Oh, you know, living the life, eating in my car." Brand replied, the muddled sound of his voice making it clear that he was still stuffing his face as they spoke.

"Are you home yet?"

"Dude no, I'm starving!" Brand replied. "Made myself a McBandon and peaced out the second Taylor said jump!" he laughed. Darius made a face, a McBandon consisted of all the ingredients of a Big Mac but replaced the beef and third bun all with a hot and spicy chicken patties, Band the inventor of such a monstrosity made them before clocking out whenever he knew he'd be too late for dinner.

"So mom's not around?" Darius asked, excitement bubbling in his chest.

"Nah," Brand mumbled.

"For like, reals?" Darius asked stomach knotting as he struggled to contain himself.

"Fuck." the older boy said in a loud declarative manner.

"Ok good!" Darius practically squealed as he sat up, the knowledge that his brother would never dare drop the F-Bomb infront of their mother confirmation enough. "You're never going to guess what happened today!"

Brand let out a belt of laughter, "Well seeing as you're so afraid of mom finding out I think I can guess. So, what'd you almost get eaten by this time?"

"Oh my God Brand, just oh my God!" Darius said no longer able to sit still, all drowsiness abandoned as his mind raced, fresh adrenaline beginning to circulate at the memory. "Do you know those gyrosphere things?"

"Yeah," Brand said before the whirring of machinery sounded in Darius' ear.

Pulling the phone away he noticed his selfie camera raise as his brother tried to initiate a video call. Clicking the green button to accept the boys smiled at one another. Brand waved a french fry welding hand that blurred and pixelated on the screen. Grinning Darius returned the gesture as his brother found a spot to prop his phone.

"So like, we were all going to ride in these huge gyrosphere things, glass all the way around, perfect veiw, and we were going to be following a herd of dinosaurs as they were led to fresh grazing. Right?" he asked his face glowing with excitement in the gentle illumination of his phone.

"Right."

"Well so then- oh Brand! You should have seen them they were beautiful! Apatosaurus, sinoceratops, stegosaurus, parasaurolophus, it was like a dream come true! Well," he stopped to peer down the hall suspicionsly. "Except I had to ride with Brooklynn."

"What's wrong with Brooklynn?" Brand asked between large gulps of soda.

"I don't know, all she cares about is her phone and all the people who follow her and being popular and stuff... It's like look around you there are dinosaurs right in front of you! Like living, breathing dinosaurs!" Darius sighed hands dropping to his side for a minute before pulling the cellphone back into position in front of his face. "She's nice and all but, I just don't get her."

"She cute?" Brand asked.

"What?" Darius asked smiling broadly for no reason he could think of, irritably he tried to banish the expression. "No." he shook his head.

"Oh my God yes!" Brand laughed pointing an accusatory finger Darius's direction.

"No, she's not, she's just super annoying!" Darius protested angrily.

"Then why are you smiling?" Brand countered.

"I'm not! Well, it's not about Brooklynn, I'm just- I'm in the middle of a story here!" he said clearly getting flustered.

"So that Ben kid is just as much of a bummer right?"

"Right."

"But it doesn't bother you?"

"Not as much... No, not really." Darius confirmed, not quite sure he liked where his brother was going with this.

"Because... You like her?" Brand declared bouncing his eyebrows with with an emphatic grin.

"God Brandon I'm hanging up!" Darius half shouted, voice dropping when he remembered that the others were sleeping.

"Ok, ok I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm done!" Brand yielded hands held up in a placating manner, even though he still had that stupid, infuriating grin. "Tell me what happened, seriously I wanna know."

Darius thought about ending the call, his finger hovering just over the button as he considered the ramifications, but an itch tickled at the back of his consciousness, a voice screaming within to tell his brother about his near death experience. "Fine." he grumbled, but already his aggravation had begun to dissipate.

"So we were following the herd, right?" Darius said, beginning his tale again. "And everything was going great until this storm started rolling in, like, the sky was pitch by the time Roxie and Dave decided that it wasn't safe for us to be out there anymore. So they pulled the Jeep up in front of us and told us that we had to call it quits and go back to the treehouse, but, like, the radios are out so they say to follow behind the herd and they'll go up and let them know we're pulling out, right?"

"I'm still listening." Brand smiled, and Darius realized he was doing it again. The bane of Toast Masters, and an idiot when it came to relaying something that had actually happened to him the natural yarn weaver fumbled time and again to get his point across without fretfully insuring that he was being listened to, subconsciously fearing that people would lose interest in what he had to say.

"Sorry."

"No, it's fine keep going." Brand said leaning towards the screen. "So they said you were leaving, but first they had to tell everyone else and..." rolling his hand the older boy motioned for Darius to continue his story.

"So, we were following the herd and all of a sudden this big clap of thunder just fills the air, I swear the ground shook man!" Darius said eyes wide. "Then this sino, she must have been young, an adolescent maybe, based on her size and the way she reacted, not mention the length of the eppocipital curls on the end of her frill. Got spooked and ran, so I decided to go after her-"

"You didn't!" Brand exploded with astonished laughter.

"Well she was going to get lost, or hurt or something." the little brother replied with a defensive sheepishness.

"Alright, then what happened?"

"So we, all of us, started chasing her down and... Accidentally set off a stampede..." the fifteen year old winced listening to his brother woop and holler, shifting his weight in the confines of the driver's seat and slapping his leg as he looked around, as though searching for someone else to share in his disbelief. "There's more." Darius added.

"Well?" Brand snapped.

"So we all tried losing them in the jungle and that's where we found the- Oh shit!" he gasped pacing quickly about the room. "I forgot she rammed her horn right through the glass! Sorry I'm getting ahead of myself. So we found her and Brooklynn and I were going to try and lead her back to the others."

"By the others you mean the scattered herd of dinosaurs now all separated and lost throughout the jungle?"

"...yeah." Darius muttered, only now realizing how stupid that plan had been, and how little good it would have done them.

"Just checking, I wanted to make sure I was following." Brand commented with a smug expression.

"Are you done?" Darius waited to see if there was any further commentary from the peanut gallery before he went on. "So we were going take her back when she charged us, boom! Her horn stabbed right through the glass, it would have turned us into kebabs for sure! Then she lifted up the freaking gyrosphere and shook us around I shit you not! Just back and forth, she was that strong. Then we ended up in this sink hole and that's when things got crazy!"

"Because, you know almost getting trampled and stabbed to death by dinosaurs isn't crazy enough?"

"Exactly," Darius beamed. "So we started sinking into the mud and we can't get out, we're screwed but then the others get there and make a rope out of vines or something, but we go completely under, mud starts pouring in, Brooklynn's crying, I'm scared, but somehow Sammy with her cowgirl super powers or something gets the sino to pull us out! It was like-" Darius fell back onto the couch opposite his original seat, turning to jelly and sliding down the cushions to the floor with spent excitement. "Like oh my God, did that really just happen?"

"So, first you almost get eaten by velociraptors, then a carno-something, and now the literal earth is trying to swallow you whole?" Brand asked.

"Yeah, pretty much sums it up!" Darius declared. "Don't tell mom."

The two burst out into uncontrollable laughter for several minutes before Brand, eyes narrowed affectionately in the glow of the screen smiling at his baby brother. "Hey man, I'm just glad you're alright."

"Me too," Darius confessed, noticing the way his fingers trembled while he held his phone. "It was really scary."

"How is mom?" Darius asked after a bit, making himself comfortable on the floor when he did.

"She's good," Brand nodded, waving distractedly to a co-worker as they headed to their own vehicle. "Misses you like crazy, is all choked up that her baby is gonna be all grown in a couple of days, and she's not going to be there." Brand added falling into a mocking tone of baby talk. "Poor widdle Darius-warius is gonna be a big boy!" Brand bat his eyes obnoxiously. "So have you told any of your camp friends?"

"Nah," Darius shook his head, feeling awkward to just randomly announce that his birthday was in just a few days. "I'm worried they might, I don't know make it weird or something."

"Bro, you're totally looking at this the wrong way!" Brand said in a way that made it seem like he couldn't comprehend how stupid his brother was being. "Don't worry about how they're going to make it 'weird' just think about all the free Jurassic World swag you're going to get! Come on, you're gonna be sixteen, they're gonna have to get you something, and what does Jurassic World have? Dino-merch, and lots of it. Then all you gotta do is sit back and rake in all that sweet, sweet dino junk!"

Darius giggled, "You're right, I never thought of it that way before. So, how are you doing?"

"Eh, I'm good. Me and Half-Court are gonna catch a movie this weekend, if we have the time." he yawned.

"You look tired man." Darius said.

"I am. Seriously, I don't think I can remember how to sleep anymore." Brand laughed. "It's not a thing I do now, it's just something that happens to me, sorta. Like I lay down and just, I don't know power down like a computer or something."

Darius' smile became nervous as he watched his brother yawn again. "Just don't turn off while you're driving ok?"

"I'll do my best man." Brand agreed, rubbing an eye. Scared Darius couldn't help but stare. "Hey, it's was a joke, I'm fine, I promise." the older boy tried to reassure him.

"I'm hanging up now," Darius said, his brother's vow doing little ease his troubled mind. "Call me back when you get home. Video call! I want to see that lame ass Imagine Dragons poster in your room. I'm not going to bed until you do."

"Yes sir!" Brand saluted the phone with a serious expression before he cracked. "Talk to you in a minute, bye."

"Bye."

Leaning back against the sofa Darius replayed the events of the day in his mind, seeing them with fresh eyes. Today was somehow, scarier than the raptors, and even Toro. He thought to himself, trying to reason out why. It's because suffocating would have been slow, he thought then, a slow ugly way to go... The others would have been faster. When he died he didn't want it to be slowly, he thought, eyes stinging with tears, not fading away one piece of yourself at a time like his dad did. When it was his time Darius, as he was sure everyone else on earth did, prayed that he went quickly.

Blinded with the sudden glare of the lights turning on Darius shielded his eyes, listening as a startled Roxie gasped at finding herself less than alone at this time of night. "And what are you doing out of bed young man?" she asked quickly recovering from her shock.

"I was just talking to my brother." he explained, holding his phone up for her to see. "He just got off work."

"Fine, then back to bed and don't make a habit of skulking about in the wee hours of the morning." she said irate. "You kids are in enough trouble as it is, I plan on speaking to someone about it first thing, now back to bed."

"I was actually going to wait for him to call back." Darius confessed as he got up. "Please, he's really tired and I'm kinda scared he's going to fall asleep behind the wheel. Can I stay up, just long enough to make sure he gets home alright?" the boy begged.

"Fine," the woman conceded after taking stock of the sincerity of his request. "But I'm going to stay up with you."

Walking down the hallway where the kids slept Roxie opened the door to the boys room, muttered to herself as in the dim light filtering in she conducted a bed check. "Do you do this every night?" Darius asked following her.

"Sure do." Roxie said heading for the girls room. Her brow furrowed briefly, then she shot all the way into to room with alarm, making Darius peek around the doorframe with curiosity. "Oh," Roxie intoned when she seemed to spot who she'd been looking for. "Oh dear."

"What?" Darius asked pushing through.

"None of your business, that's what!" the counselor snapped, her hand quickly covering the young man's face like a creature from a sci-fi movie she pushed him out by the head, but not before he caught sight of Sammy and Yasmina curled up in bed together.

Oh, he thought, ears feeling strangely warm.

Roxie brewed some tea and sat cross legged on the couch sipping it while Darius read the latest in his favorite paleontological magazine. A new plant had been discovered, dating back to the cretaceous era and had been named brachyphyllum sattlerae, after the famous Dr. Sattler herself! Continuing to absorb the article Darius was trying to pick out the name of the paleo-botanist that had actually discovered and later named the plant. Dr. Sattler just didn't seem like the kind of person with an ego enough to have named something she discovered sattlerae, especially now that she was married with a new surname, maybe something after her kid or-

His phone started ringing. "Hey." he answered, camera popping up like an alien eyeball.

"Hey," Brand smiled, pointing to the poster on the back of his bedroom door. "I made it."

"Cool," Darius nodded, his turn to yawn. "So I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah," Brand agreed, before rushing out. "Oh hey, you never told me the most important part of what happened today!"

"What?" Darius asked with a look of confusion.

"How that 'holy shit we're going to die!' kiss with Brooklynn was!" Brandon laughed.

Angrily Darius hung up, a scowl on his face as he writhed with both embarrassment and frustration. His brother was so infuriating nothing happ- Glancing up the boy saw Roxie eyeing him with a weary expression over her mug. "Do I need to have a talk with the two of you in the morning too?" she asked with a tiny smirk.

"Oh my God, no! Nothing- ugh I hate him!" Darius bellowed storming off to bed.

That night Darius dreamed of his dad, and when he woke, in spite of the gaping wound in his heart caused by his loss, the boy felt oddly comforted, and whole to have remembered him from before, back when they were making plans. The last few months had been so long, and so excruciatingly unbearable that he sometimes had difficulty picturing his dad when he wasn't lying in bed slowly withering away from the cancer. Looking fondly at the photograph of the two of them together Darius clutched the raptor tooth tenderly.

"I love you dad." he smiled, slipping the necklace on.

Energized and ready to start the next day of the best summer of his life Darius didn't take the hallway to the entertainment room, instead he walked out to the balcony and ran around to the exterior door to catch everyone by surprise. "What up, Camp Cretaceous?" he asked bursting in through the double doors with a big "Woo-hoo!"

"Not in a 'woo-hoo' mood this morning, Darius." Kenji said grumpily as he swiveled around in Roxie's office chair. "Not after yesterday, trekking through a rainstorm will do that."

"We only had to walk because you crashed our gyrosphere." Ben gritted out between audible sips from a juice box, leaning forward to glare at the other boy, ducking away hurriedly when Kenji grumbled, Ben's momentary courage failing him.

That was when Darius' mood began to crumble, the tension between his friends palpable. "But today is a new day!" he enthused trying to snap them out of it. "Kayak day! Who doesn't want to paddle alongside dinosaurs, real dinosaurs! It's gonna be awesome, right?"

"Can you keep it down?" came a voice from the area behind the foosball table. Turning, perplexed, Darius saw Jayson, the intern from before, lounging in a beanbag chair fingers flying rapidly across his phone screen as he texted someone, the same grin Brand got whenever he was texting Courtney written all over his face.

"Wait, where are Dave and Roxie?" Darius asked, looking around.

"The babysitters took off!" Kenji said gliding towards him on the wheeled chair, pressing a note into the boy's chest.

Crestfallen as he skimmed the note, complete with an illustration from Dave Darius looked dismally at the stack of papers, and boxes of crayons the camp counselors had left for them. "We're still going to go kayaking, aren't we?" he asked, clinging onto the hope.

"Who knows!" Kenji replied, pushing off and rolling the other way with equal annoyance. "It's like do they even know how old we are? When was the last time you even saw a crayon?"

Taking in the room, Darius smiled to Ben who proudly turned his crude drawing of Bumpy around for critique. "I have notes." Yaz commented with superiority.

"Yasmina!" Sammy gasped nudging, and elbowing her.

That was when Darius realized how close they were sitting to one another, their knees touching. Feeling awkward for noticing something like that he turned away just as the doors erupted open to reveal an enraged Brooklynn who took stock of the campers in one, steely, aquamarine glance, arms folded tightly across her chest.

"Brooklynn, what's new on the internet superstar?" Yasmina asked, squinting in the fresh sunlight.

"I wouldn't know, because when I went to get my phone from it's charger it wasn't there!" she said stalking towards them. "Someone stole my phone."

"Maybe you just lost it, or forgot to charge it?" Yasmina said with a look of disinterest.

"Yeah," Darius nodded trying to be helpful. "It was a long day yesterday, do you want help looking for it?"

"Oh, I think I know exactly where to look!" the pink haired girl announced. "I also think that whoever took the phone might be trying to hide some of the things that are on it. What do you think, Sammy?" she asked stopping to stare the other girl hard in the face.

"Um, what?" Sammy asked nervously.

"What is your deal?" Yasmina asked, jumping up definitively from the couch. "She didn't take your stupid phone, we've been talking all morning!"

"Well then," Brooklynn smiled like the cat that got the cream. "Let's look through her bags and check that theory out!"

"You do not get to go through anyone's stuff," Yaz argued, blocking her path. "I don't care how famous you think you are!"

Darius looked to the others for help, unsure of how to defuse the situation, only to find Ben turned away from the confrontation as though it weren't happening, while Kenji leaned on the ping-pong table watching with vested interest.

"Hey!" Jayson shouted coming over towards them. "Enough fighting. Everyone to the auditorium."

"What?" Brooklynn asked turning on him. "I need to find my phone."

"Not right now you don't," Jayson said folding his arms. "I don't care if this place is paying my way through college, I didn't sign up to babysit a bunch of whiny kids. To the auditorium, I'm putting on a movie and you're all going to sit down and shut up." Brooklynn opened her mouth to argue when Jayson asked, "Did I stutter?"

Not long after the seven of them were gathered watching as Littlefoot and Cera scrambled up a crumbling rock face, the baby brachiosaurus calling tearily for his mother as they scrambled to escape the killing bite of the "Sharp-Tooth" behind them. Beaten and bruised she did indeed come to the rescue saving not one, but both of them as their world crumbled and shook all around them. He forgot about this part, Darius thought, breath catching.

That was when he noticed Kenji sinking lower and lower into his seat, tears in his eyes as darkness and rain fell across the screen, Littlefoot calling out, "Mother!" with a lost desperation. "Get up mother, please get up." the animated dinosaur begged his mom.

"I'm not sure I can Littlefoot." she confessed, trying and failing.

Shooting up out of his chair Kenji ran out of the auditorium. Heart aching with a shared pain Darius followed after him while Jayson shouted for them to come back. "Kenji, are you alright?" Darius asked watching as the older boy wiped furiously at his eyes.

"Yeah, fine," he said, voice thick with grief and pent tears. "I just didn't want to watch that gay-ass kids movie anymore."

Unsure of how to broach the situation Darius walked up to Kenji with caution and worry. "I lost my dad..." he said softly. "If you ever wanted to talk about your mom or something..."

"Sure, great idea Darius let's exchange dead parent stories sounds like the perfect bonding activity!" Kenji yelled turning on him with rage. "You go first. What's the one thing you said to your dad that you regret most? Huh?"

Darius was taken aback, heart lanced as the comment forced him remember every instance of anger, or time he'd been inconsiderate of his dad's feelings, or ungrateful for a gift. There was so much he'd done, or failed to do, and so much he couldn't make right.

"Well?" Kenji asked throwing his arms out, as the others slowly trickled into the room. "I'm waiting."

"Jesus Kenji you are such an asshole!" Brooklynn shouted.

Just then a roar filled the air, cutting through their arguments.

"What was that?" Sammy asked whirling around.

"A T-Rex..." Jayson said, eyes wide as he too turned towards the sound.

"Uh-uh," Darius shook his head, brows knit together as he and the others rushed out to the balcony to try and get a look. "I don't think so."

"Then what sort of dinosaur did it sound like?" Ben asked nervously trailing behind. "Friendish or foeish?"

"Where's it coming from?" Sammy asked.

"Can't see anything," Yasmina commented with frustration. "The trees are blocking everything!"

"Maybe they're moving a new dinosaur from the lab to an enclosure," Darius reasoned, his hurt still fresh as a red eyed Kenji leaned against the railing next to him. "We could probably see it from the observation tower! Could be cool."

"Wow, that's a great idea Darius what are we waiting for?" Sammy said grabbing him by the arm with excitement.

"Uh, no." Jayson laughed in a condescending way, busy with his phone again.

Deflated Darius was going to go back to his bunk and take a nap when he caught Kenji look at him, before leaning casually on the banister in a way Darius now knew meant he was going to say some epic, or epically stupid, sometimes both.

"How about yes, or we tell Dave and Roxie about how you were so dedicated to watching us last time that we were able to give you the slip, and have our little adventure with Toro?" he grinned.

"Yeah, too late for that to work on me now." Jayson countered.

"Oh, really?" Kenji asked. "And why is that?"

"Because you have no proof, and it's way too late after the fact." Jayson grinned victoriously.

"How about the scar on Toro's nose? Or the mangled food door?" Kenji smirked. "They've never taken us to that part of the park. How would we know about that of we hadn't been there? And, not to mention the timing of when Toro cut up his little nose?"

Jayson seemed ready to argue, when he closed his mouth, eyes wide and searching. "You wouldn't?" he asked nervously.

"Kiss your free ride to education goodbye!" Kenji beamed.

Squeezing his eyes shut the intern seemed to be saying a silent prayer, whether for strength, to keep his job, or to ask the almighty to strike the kids down Darius couldn't decide, but when he opened them again he said, "Fine, there and back, let's go."

"You're welcome." Kenji scoffed following their temporarily appointed leader. Darius knew from experience that, that was as much of an apology as Kenji ever gave anyone and sighed falling in line behind the others.

"But-but guys, Dave and Roxie said to stay here, its indoor arts and crafts day, we were already breaking the rules by watching the movie! We should stay and wait for them to come back." Ben exclaimed quickly claiming a seat on the sectional as though he intended not to budge an inch. "Right Kenji?" he asked as the other boy vaulted over the back of the furniture.

"If you want to stay here and draw your little dino crush go for it!" the older boy said patting him on the shoulder. "I'm gonna see me a T-Rex or a girl fight when I remind everyone that Sammy stole Brooklynn's phone. Either way I win."

"Sammy didn't take Brooklynn's phone!" Yasmina bellowed from elevator, her voice ringing in Darius' ear in such close proximity.

"Yes, she did!" Brooklynn yelled back, everyone shuffling and knocking into one another as warring parties divided within the tight space.

Kenji turned to witness the chaos he had unleashed, Darius assumed as a means to distract everyone from his emotional display, before pumping his fist in the air, "Ka-ching!"

Folding his arms and turning away in a pout Ben made it clear he wasn't following. "Fine, go on. I'll just stay where we're supposed to stay, and wait for who we're supposed to wait for, and be right where we're supposed to be!"

The hypochondriac looked around himself for a moment with anxiety, and Darius could tell he was getting ready to change his mind. Darius was getting ready to hold his hand out and stop the automatic doors of the elevator when they bounced off an expensive looking red shoe, reopening as the oldest camper slid his foot back inside nonchalantly.

"This is a bad idea!" Ben whined his limbs pulled in close as they crowded in.

"This is a great idea," Brooklynn said icily. "In fact, the only thing that would make it better is if I had my phone to record it, for my veiwers!"

"Oh my God, enough!" Jayson snapped as infighting broke out loudly between the teenagers.

Moments later Darius with the help of Kenji and Yasmina struggled against the gate surrounding the observation tower. Ben urgently trying to get them to see reason and leave when Jayson noticed something amiss. "Wait," he said looking around. "Where is everyone, there should be rangers posted here."

"Ugh," Brooklynn rolled her eyes, ignoring their supervisor as she pulled a bobby pin out of her hair. "If we're doing this then we might as well do this." she declared picking at the lock. "Ta-da!" she announced triumphantly swinging the door open with ease.

Giddy Darius rushed to hug her, when his brother's teasing echoed in his mind, and he just kinda stopped... arms spread. The girl smiled at him perplexed returning the gesture. They shifted their hands about for a second, one going high, the other low, switching, then taking the diagonal approach. Time seemed to slow down as they preformed their awkward little dance. God, kill me now! The boy thought settling for a fist bump instead.

"Last one to the top is a rotten egg!" Sammy called cheerily.

"Later rotten egg!" Yasmina laughed sprinting well ahead of everyone else.

Darius hung back cringing at his own stupidity when Kenji punched him in the shoulder. "Brah, that was literally the most painful thing I have ever witnessed."

"I know!" Darius groaned, cupping his face with both hands. Why was it so weird now? He wondered it's not like he actually liked her or anything, it was just stupid Brandon making stupid jokes! ...right?

Soon all of the kids were panting and heaving on the top deck, holding their sides, leaning on the railing, or each other for support. "No, more, stairs!" Kenji complained, coming up second to last, right before Jayson. "It better be something good!"

Suddenly the ground shook with an impact tremor, all the kids turned to look as it was followed by another, and another. "There's something out there." Brooklynn whispered.

"Something big." Darius agreed.

As they watched the trees with mounting trepidation and fear the long sturdy neck of a brachiosaurus immerged from amid the branches. Everyone gave a sigh of relief as they watched the gentle giant make its way to fresh dining, pulling young green stems from a nearby beech tree.

"Mystery solved," Ben said getting up, "Now can all go back?"

"Seconded." Jayson agreed as the two headed for the stairs they had just run up during their race.

"But that doesn't make sense." Darius said still gazing hard at the horizon. "Brachiosaurus don't sound like that, they're more like-" the boy held his hands up in front of his mouth, blowing through the small space left my his curled fingers.

"I didn't quite catch that, one more time." Kenji smirked, then, embarrassed, the dinosaur enthusiast realized that the girls, all of the girls, were laughing at him. Blushing he turned away, and that was when he saw a pair of rangers running towards them arms waving frantically as they shouted up at the campers.

"Oh great I knew we'd get into trouble!" Ben sighed pessimistically.

"Calm down Ben!" Yasmina scoffed.

"Yeah, worry wort!" Sammy added turning to wink at him.

"What's that I can't hear you? You're gonna have to speak up." Kenji called down before elbowing Darius. "Don't worry, I got this." he assured.

"Wait everyone wait, what are they saying?" Jayson asked pushing his way through and staring down at the crewmen below. "Shut the fuck up!" he yelled, the tangible fear in his voice instantaneously silencing the children who had still been talking. "An asset out of containment..." he muttered fearfully. "We gotta go, come on, follow me, we gotta get out of here now!"

An agonized cry from the brachiosaurus caught everyone's attention, they all turned in time to see the animal fall. Huddling together in terror the kids watched as the foliage rippled, a large green mass shifting and moving, pulling away from the background as if the forest itself had come to life and was walking towards them. Slowly the illusion melted away as green paled and faded into white, revealing a massive red eyed beast with a row of menacing sharp teeth. Grimly they realized that it was stalking nearer, and nearer to the workers on the ground.

Frenzied Jayson and the kids all began shouting and waving to try and alert them to the imminent danger. The monsterous dinosaur rushed forward then, sweeping one of the workers into its mouth viscera and saliva dripping from it's ragged maw as in one horrendous bite it ended the man, the crush of bones and pop of cartilage sickeningly wet and loud to the children's ears.

"What is that?" Yasmina asked going weak in the knees while Ben screamed, "He got 'im, he got 'im!"

Darius watched in a state of shock as the predator grabbed the second man who was screaming, and trying desperately to get away. Bringing it's wailing prey to it's mouth the thing bit down around his shoulders, tearing and pulling as it did until the worker came apart at the torso. Entrails unspooling, hung limply from between it's teeth as a river of blood and clumps of organs spilled out onto the ground, and ran down the creature's dexterous hand, before it threw away the man's severed lower half as though in frustration.

"Dr. Wu's lab," Brooklynn gasped. "There was a dinosaur named-"

"Indominus Rex!" Sammy breathed.

"But, there's no dinosaur named Indominus Rex!" Darius arguing wracking his brain for any sort of information that might help them, unable to rip his eyes away from the carnage below.

"It doesn't matter!" Jayson shouted the first one to snap free from the enveloping trance of horror. Grabbing campers by the back of their shirts at random he began shoving them towards the zipline. "We have to go now!"

"Uh-uh," Kenji argued frozen to the spot. "Up here is safe, besides it's not like this high up it can see us."

"It sees us!" Ben wailed, ducking for cover as the Indominus broke through the surrounding gate and began pulling on the base of the tower.

The world shook before lurching to the side. Caught off balance in a moment of dread Sammy and Jayson both struck the guard rail before toppling over it. Desperately grabbing onto the young man who'd been trying to move him to safety Darius felt his nails dig into Jayson's forearm as he struggled to hold on, skin curling beneath the boy's nails like carrot peels. And then he fell.

Jayson hit the ground feet first, legs crumpling like a pair of accordions, the exposed area beneath his khaki shorts a red pulpy mass of ruined flesh and bone. Staring in a daze Darius thought, he's dead, before scrambling to help the others haul Sammy back up so she didn't meet the same grizzly fate. That was when Darius heard it, the first long, low moan. Looking he saw Jayson move, head lulling to one side, before like a marionette on tangled strings Jayson moved his broken body with sharp, disjointed jerks. He was crying, screaming in a dull unintelligible manner that reminded the boy of hunting dogs baying after a fox.

It looks like he's doing the backstroke, Darius thought absurdly as he watched the dying man trying to get up and stand on limbs that no longer existed. It was then, that focused on the teenagers above it the Indominus Rex, unconcerned with Jayson stepped on his floundering form, crushing him beneath it's weight like an insect. Thank God, Darius thought with a morbid rush of relief.

Seconds later and Sammy, pale, and trembling violently was safe on the deck at last. Everything moved in a blur then, Darius hearing his own voice without feeling like he was speaking say, "The zipline!"

Grabbing onto him Brooklynn shoved Ben into a seat where he fretted and fumbled with the safety latch until an irate Kenji fastened him in before with a massive shove sent the shrieking boy hurdling over the murderous dinosaur and down the line. Sammy, Kenji, and Brooklynn following close behind him. Yasmina was buckling herself in, as was Darius when he looked up and saw that the others had stopped without warning hanging precariously in the air, trapped.

They had to build enough momentum to disengage the safety locks, Darius rationalized, trying in vain to block out the sound of the I-Rex roaring. More weight meant more momentum right? He thought blinking back tears, stomach in knots, blood running cold with fear and adrenaline.

"You're strong right?" he asked Yasmina swallowing past the hollowed despair in his throat.

"What are you doing?" Yasmina snapped.

"Catch me!" Darius shouted running towards the girl, leaping arms outstretched he grabbed onto her, and she grabbed onto him.

The wind sharp and cold and it rushed past his face Darius couldn't breathe, eyes fixated on the blurred greenery blow, arms and hands aching from how tightly and how frantically he clung to his friend. There are a jarring thump as they collided with the others and for a split second it seemed as though Yasmina would drop Darius, but with a grunt, teeth gritted she managed to hold on.

Then, the tower fell, and with it the taught cords twisting and writhing like snakes became slack. Without warning the six campers began hurtling towards the ground. Eyes squeezed shut Darius tried not to remember what Jayson had looked like, willing the image of blood and bone to leave him.

I didn't say goodbye to Brand, he realized, I didn't say 'I love you,' I just hung up. I didn't say goodbye... And mom... Darius opened his eyes, hands flying out in front of him instinctually to break his fall.

There was pain, and then, nothing...