Looking back, all of this was avoidable.
Life is like a video game, where you're faced with multiple choices, with each one of them leading to different paths that lead to different results.
For instance, Darius could've just been patient and stayed in bed. Or maybe getting caught by Kenji should've been the sign for him to just ad lib his way out of there by accepting a snack or a drink, maybe even a trip to the restroom, before returning to bed, humiliated, but still safe.
Or maybe, Darius should've paid more attention to the paddock. Darius could've and should've looked for a map or a sign telling him which dinosaur the paddock housed.
Heck, he should've just used common sense and thought about why the paddock was so large. Sure, the Compsognathus were infamous for constantly escaping their pens, but a successful theme park would definitely make sure to not keep them in a large area where not only would it be hard to see the tiny dinosaurs, but it would be even harder to keep them contained due to their small size.
Sadly, though, life was not like a video game. You can't always mess up and start over. You can't make a save point, experiment with a decision, and simply go back to start again. And sometimes, your mistakes can and will lead you to your swift and messy end. And unlike video games, especially unlike the video game that Darius played that got him in this situation, he couldn't start again if the raptors got him.
And yet, despite this, Darius couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment. In the end, he did get to meet a dinosaur up close, and it was one of his most favorite ones as well. And some childish, naive, hopeful part of him was still looking for a way out, which, according to the video game, would be the head of a raptor skull that he could blow into to trick them into not attacking them, therefore buying them some time.
Of course, if not for the four dangerous beasts in front of him and if not for the adrenaline that was running through his veins, he would've stopped to realize that none of the bones beneath his feet would ever belong to them, considering how they're not really known for cannibalization, especially when they're fed 24/7.
Even as Darius explained his plan to Kenji, a part of him knew that they wouldn't find the raptor skull. He could admit that he was stupid enough to get them into this situation, but he wasn't stupid enough to completely believe that a raptor skull would be left in a raptor pen.
"Gah!" Darius slipped on a bone, falling onto his hands and rear. Fear now gripping every nerve in his body, all he could do was scramble backwards as he heard Kenji pounding on the large, metal doors, screaming for help for a person that would never hear them.
Meanwhile, the raptors only inched closer, hissing and shrieking at them as they cautiously approached the intruders. Darius knew this was it. He got what he wanted, and all it cost him was his life and the life of another boy his age that didn't deserve this fate.
He closed his eyes, hoping that they would be merciful enough to kill them swiftly.
Then Darius saw light. At first, he thought that they had died and that for some reason he made it to Heaven despite what he did. But once he blinked the spots out of his eyes, he quickly realized that someone had just turned on the stadium lights, illuminating the paddock with its bright, LED lights.
The velociraptors hissed and shrieked as the sudden flash of light overloaded their sensitive eyes, blinding them for a good few seconds or so.
"Hey!" a familiar voice called out from above. "Come and get it!"
Darius saw something fall out of the sky, and whatever it was, it was enticing enough for the raptors to forget about them and go for the easier meal.
Save for one, of course. One of the raptors stayed behind and charged at them, her jaws lined with razor sharp teeth and her claws stretched out.
Darius heard the same voice shout something to them, but it was lost in the moment, especially when someone else grabbed them from behind, pulling them back just as the iron bars in front of them shut down just in time, making the raptor bang its head painfully against it.
It took a minute for Darius to put the pieces together, but when he did, all he could feel was relief. They were okay! They were saved!
Naruto woke up with a hiss as the lights flared on, the emergency siren piercing his ears. The other campers woke up, startled and scared from the frightful awakening. Ben even fell off of his bed, screaming something about the end of the world.
The blond's eyes darted about, quickly analyzing the room. He first checked his immediate surroundings, finding nothing irregular. He then checked every point of entry and exit, and found nothing out of the ordinary as well.
"Woah, Naruto! What's with the knife?"
He blinked, and he realized that he was crouching, bowing his head low with his Karambit knife out. The curved blade gleamed wickedly in the light, making the others gulp.
"Sorry, just...got a little jumpy," Naruto hastily apologized as he put the knife back into his shoe. Naruto then noticed a note on the door, and quickly went to read it. As soon as he did, he let out a groan as he crumpled it up.
"What is it?" Yasmina asked nervously.
"Notice anyone missing here?"
The campers blinked as they just realized that they were short of three teens in the room.
"Yep. Apparently, they decided to have a midnight adventure, so they're out looking for them right now. Fortunately, they have a good idea where they might be so hopefully they'll be back here soon. Meanwhile, I'm in charge so that they don't have to look for a fourth missing kid."
Although surprised at their fellow campers' foolishness, they didn't question or argue this revelation. Since they were up and couldn't shut the lights off, they decided to just talk to each other for a while.
Naruto tried to join them, but he smelled their fear and anxiousness of him, especially due to how he reacted negatively to the surprise, so he took the silent hint and stayed in his bed.
His eyes darting back and forth from the door to the other campers, he took out some beef jerky to gnaw on to settle his nerves. He wound up going through half of his stash when the announcement speakers turned on.
["The missing campers have been found and returned. Please shut off the lights and go back to bed."]
Ben was already on his way to the light switches, and after a leisurely minute, the room's lighting died down to near-total darkness.
Naruto remained lying on his bed, but he didn't need his eyes to see that they were still a bit tense, courtesy of himself. He groaned internally, scratching his head with a finger.
Well, that was not a good way to end Day 1.
(The Next Morning)
Naruto hummed a song he randomly heard from one of the Starbucks as he turned off the water.
Normally, Naruto would be rather finicky about showering, especially since he was more used to "natural smells", but Masrani and the other counselors insisted on teaching him to shower, especially since it was basically unacceptable to look and smell dirty in human society.
Plus, while he did get used to the strange fragrances the soap gave him, Rexy didn't, and would often cuddle and slobber him to replace the washed out scent.
Ah geez, he promised himself he wasn't going to think about her too much for now. Shaking his head, he cleared out about 50% of the moisture off his body as he wrapped a towel around his legs. The towels were unfortunately small sized, so it ended up being a little tight around his crotch.
Naruto walked over to the sink for his clothes when he remembered that the counselors took it to be washed.
Right, he sighed. Hygiene.
…
The boys were wrapping up their shower sessions, and the girls were waiting for their turn. While they did have separate restrooms and bathrooms (thank lord, else the lawsuits), the two sexes had to take turns anyways due to how close the said bathrooms were.
While the girls waited for their turn, they sat down and ate breakfast. Naturally, they asked Brooklynn a few questions about the events of last night. Brooklynn held nothing back, with the girls even gasping at the part when the boys ended up in the raptor pen.
"Man, you think a Dino Nerd like Darius would know better," Jessica sighed, facepalming at his stupidity. "I mean, I guess Kenji wasn't helping, but still."
"Well, I guess boys will be boys," Sammy just shrugged, receiving a few chuckles from this.
Just then, they heard someone walk by.
"Finally, took you guys long enou-OH MY GOSH!"
The girls squealed as they covered their eyes from the newcomer in the room. A wet and nearly naked Naruto Uzumaki walked into the room, who frowned as he looked to be searching for something.
"Hm? Oh, good morning you guys," he cheerfully waved at them. "Hm, actually, would I say 'good morning girls?' Eh, doesn't sound right for some reason."
"I-I-I-" Brooklynn's face color was quickly turning pink like her hair as her eyes darted away and back onto Naruto's well sculpted body. Poor Yasmina wasn't faring much better, since, as an aspiring athlete, she couldn't help but drink in the sight of his toned muscles and abs.
What didn't help was the fact that Naruto's towel-skirt was tight, and thus, was showing off his extra package-
"Hey Naruto, are you out yet? I got your clean clothes for yo- OH JEEZUS!"
Roxie had just walked into the dining hall after unsuccessfully finding Naruto in both the cabin room and the bathroom when she gazed upon his figure. Dropping the clothes, she covered her face with her hands, blushing a little.
"Is something wrong, Roxie?" Naruto asked, tilting his head in curiosity.
"Y-Y-You're naked!" Roxie managed to stammer, trying hard not to look back at Naruto.
"No I'm not. I'm wearing a towel," Naruto pointed out. "Ah, you got my clothes. Thanks! ...And, sorry!" It seemed as if he just realized that he had to feel bashful about his actions, since he quickly walked up to Roxie to get the clothes she dropped, before heading back to the bathroom in a slight hurry.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...Well, that was awkward," Sammy finally said. Every woman in the area nodded as they scratched their neck or found something random to be magically interesting.
"Yeah...but goddamn, those abs~" Jessica grinned as she held back a small nervous chuckle.
"He does have a well-built body," Yasmina admitted, picking at her ponytail. "I do want to ask him about his training regime."
"Hmm...hey Brooklynn, I have an idea!" Sammy piped up. Brooklynn, who looked like she was still stuck thinking about Naruto's shoulders, blinked as she was finally brought back to reality. "What if you show the Brooklanders his hot bod? Maybe that'll help you bring some viewers back, hm?"
The pink-haired social media star actually seemed to think about this for a minute, before she shook her head.
"N-No! I-I can't do that!" she spluttered, waving her hands in the air as the others chuckled.
Roxie, meanwhile, was in a world of her own as well.
Jesus Christ, how can a teen like him have a bigger slab of meat down there than most adults have? The older woman blushed. Even my ex wasn't that big-
Roxie shook her head as she headed for the restroom.. She needed some water to cool her face down.
"Man, sucks to be you two," Naruto patted Darius and Kenji on the shoulders.
After some late-night discussions about their behavior and whose fault was whose, the two of them earned themselves a rather unpleasant chore of scooping some dino poop. For those that didn't know any better, the job didn't sound too bad (ignoring the smell)...unless you actually looked at the size of some of the droppings.
Darius and Kenji flinched at the size and smell of the dropping, which looked more like a large, wet, stinky termite hill.
"Enjoy cleaning this up, boys," Roxie smiled as she tossed them their shovels. "We're going to the genetics lab."
Darius's shoulders visibly sagged on realizing that he would miss out on this educational trip. Not many got to see what went on behind-the-scenes on what made Jurassic World possible, with even only a handful of employees being privileged enough to get a peek behind the curtains, and Darius blew it all over a stupid Compy.
The rest of the group left, with some of them giving them looks of sympathy. Brooklynn, unsurprisingly, took a photo of their misfortune, before quickly taking off as well. Dave at least had the courtesy to throw them some cologne for the smell afterwards, although Darius doubted that it would beat a nice shower and some laundry.
Darius could only watch helplessly as the group took off without them, leaving him and Kenji alone next to a large poop pile that they had to clean up.
"Ugh, gross!" Kenji groaned as he scraped off some dinosaur dung from his shoe with his shovel.
"Ugh, I'm still dropping numbers?" Brooklynn whined, biting her lip in worry.
Despite the beautiful, natural greenery around them, Brooklynn was more focused on her pink smartphone, frowning at her dropping numbers.
"'When are we going to see cool stuff?' Chill dude, we just got here!"
"Cheer up, Brooklynn," Jessica smiled at the pinkette. "I'm sure that once you get to unbox the lab, you'll get those views back."
"Yeah! I mean, there's probably gonna be some dino eggs in the lab, right? I mean, who doesn't like baby animals?" Sammy added.
"...Are you alright, Naruto?" Yasmina suddenly asked. Everyone's eyes turned towards the blond, who was groaning a little as he was rubbing his head.
"Ugh, Ben, can you please cut back on that stuff?" he complained, motioning to Ben coating himself with his large bottle of hand sanitizer. "It's giving me a headache."
"Sorry, friend, but you don't know what kind of creepy dino goo is at that lab," Ben justified, before pouring some more onto his legs. "You've got to be ready for anything."
"Actually, I do know what's in the lab, and germs and goo are the last thing you'll have to worry about if you don't cut it out," Naruto groaned as he punched his head. "For crying out loud, Ben, you're going to make yourself a walking fire hazard!"
Ben flinched as he reluctantly put away his bottle.
"Wait, did you say you know what's in the lab?" Brooklynn and Jessica asked in unison. Brooklynn then looked at Jessica strangely. "Wait, I thought you would also know."
"In a few more years, maybe," Jessica said sheepishly. "The lab's still going through some changes, so I'm not allowed to train in there yet."
"Well, I guess today's your lucky day," Naruto grunted, before shooting Ben a death glare, who gulped as he put back his bottle of hand sanitizer.
…
They finally made it to the lab, and thankfully Ben was wise enough to stop using the germ killing fluids. Brooklynn was already up and livestreaming her experience as she walked into the lab, explaining everything in loud detail. Some of the staff gave her strange or annoyed looks, but said and did nothing, since they knew why she was here in the first place.
"Uncle Wu!" Naruto shouted as he ran up to the scientist. The said scientist had just enough time to put down his things before he embraced his grand nephew.
"Uncle?" the campers all said/gasped in unison.
"Hello, my little Maelstrom," Dr. Henry Wu's normally serious composure turned into a warm grin as he hugged his blond grand nephew. "How's the camp going for you?"
"It's going great so far!" Naruto replied cheerfully. "The other guys are pretty nice. Well, except for maybe Ben, who needs to stop using so much hand sanitizer!"
The blond said the last bit louder as he shot a glare at him. The scrawny boy let out a gulp as he hastily put away his bottle.
"Hey, be nice," Dr. Wu chided as he lightly smacked Naruto's head. "I do apologize about that, but as you've probably heard, my great nephew has an extra sensitive nose, so it would be appreciated if you can use your sanitizer as minimally as possible."
"G-Got it," Ben nodded nervously under the elder man's blank look.
"Well, I guess no introductions are needed for this man," Roxie said amusedly. "This here is Dr. Wu, the man who helped make Jurassic World possible. Please be respectful and careful in this lab, and please keep your distance from the staff, although don't be afraid to say 'hi' to them."
"Pleasure to meet you all," Dr. Wu briefly waved at the others. "Unfortunately, Mr. Masrani has accelerated the time table for our newest exhibit, so I won't be the one to personally give you the tour guide."
He walked over to Sammy, who was admiring a large chunk of amber in her hands. He simply took it out of her hands to put it back amongst the other ambers in their little spaces in the wall.
"Give her some space, Pinky."
Dr. Wu turned around to see Naruto, who was acting as the security guard for the lab. Apparently, the social media star had been recording one of his staff members doing her work, and Naruto, being the protective boy he always was, took it upon himself to try to protect their secrets. He let out a sigh, but a small hint of a smile couldn't help but make its way onto the corner of his lips.
"He is right...Brooklynn, was it?" The pink-haired girl visibly winced at not being recognized. "Also, I must ask you to not record anything in my lab. After all, all of this information is highly confidential."
"B-But that's kind of my whole deal," Brooklynn protested. She wasn't exaggerating either; that literally was the reason why she was invited in the first place. She was essentially nothing without her social media life, her phone, nor her followers. "See, I have my own webchannel, and-"
"I must get going now," Dr. Wu interrupted her. "We're still behind schedule for our latest project."
Brooklynn looked down in defeat and sighed.
"I'm sorry, doctor. It's just that I wanted my followers to meet the genius who brought dinosaurs back to life. I mean, without you, there is no Jurassic World."
That last bit gathered his attention as he slowly looked back at her. Meanwhile, his great nephew just looked at the two of them with minor disbelief.
"But hey, if you want to toil in the shadows while Masrani and John Hammond get all the credit...I respect that. It's all about the work."
"...How many people watch this webchannel of yours?" Dr. Wu finally asked. Naruto looked at him with a sweatdrop.
Okay, so perhaps Kenji wasn't all bad.
This was what Darius was thinking to himself as he walked down the cool and surprisingly well lit underground tunnels of Jurassic World. The two have been shoveling dinosaur poop for a while, and when Kenji had enough of Darius's griping, he offered to show him some V.I.P. level secrets that he got the privilege of knowing about. He even offered to show him another dinosaur as compensation for taking the blame, since the younger teen did cover for him to avoid his father from scolding him once again.
Granted, the tunnel itself was pretty nice, and Darius did feel quite privileged to be walking through it, but the main excitement was at the end of the tunnel. Kenji promised to not just show him another dinosaur, but a dinosaur that even the audience couldn't see anymore, due to how aggressive and uncontrollable they were.
"The last one I've seen was some kind of Carna...Carno...Carno-something."
This certainly got Darius's attention.
"Hold up. A Carnotaurus?" This made the African-American teenager put his hands onto his mouth in excitement. "That's, like, one of my top five favorite dinos ever!"
"Sweet, right? Actually, the park offered to name it after me, but I was like, nah, let's just name it something cooler. But yeah, anyways, I wanted to show you this guy as thanks for, you know, not being a narc."
"So there's, like, a Carnotarus right up there?" Darius's voice grew more nasal as he barely managed to contain his excitement. If he hadn't gone before they left, he would probably be on the verge of wetting himself from sheer joy.
"Uh, yeah, obviously," Kenji smirked, feeling rewarded at how excited his fellow camper was growing. "Like my boy Masrani always says, when Kenji promises, Kenji delivers-"
Kenji pushed the top button on a control panel in front of him. He frowned when nothing happened. He began pushing the other buttons until he reached the red one at the bottom, which was when the control panel flickered to life.
"Whew. Like I said, Kenji delivers. Now, let's go melt your nerd-brain, junior."
The two crawled up to the top, with Kenji going first. Opening the large wheel handle, he opened the manhole cover, which was disguised as a large boulder. The two stepped outside, and they began observing the jungle around them.
"Um, you do know where you're going, right?" Darius asked. This made Kenji let out a scoff.
"Psh, trust me, I know where we are. Now...the pen...is...that way!"
"Hm," Darius frowned as he followed the taller boy. He heard the manhole-boulder hum as it closed by itself behind him.
Naruto's deadpan face stared at Dr. Wu, who just gave him a sheepish smile as he readied himself for the live stream.
"Okay Dr. Wu...you're on!" Brooklynn announced as the elder man cleared his throat.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Henry Wu. P.H.D. Welcome to one of our satellite Jurassic World genetics labs. I like to say that creating a dinosaur takes TIME: T for team, I for ingenuity, and ME- for me."
Heh, still pretty heavy on the ego, aren't you, Uncle? Naruto said. Despite this, he couldn't help but smile at how his uncle was finally opening up to the public, even if it was out of pride. Aside from Mr. Masrani and himself, he never really was open to a lot of people, not even to his colleagues. Maybe this camp would be good for him too.
"Ooh, an eyeball!" Sammy squealed, drawing everyone's attention away from the genius scientist. Naruto and Dr. Wu's eyebrow twitched a little at this as Sammy quickly lost interest in that, running up to a wall screen with DNA data. "What's that?"
"Treefrog DNA," Dr. Wu answered swiftly. "Unfortunately, I-"
"Ooh, what's that?" Okay, at this point, Naruto was convinced that she might have slight ADHD or something. Sammy seemed to have an attention span that was even worse than his, and Naruto could feel Dr. Wu's irritation growing quickly.
"...Siberian Mammoth remains," Dr. Wu answered. "Extracted for-"
As predicted, Sammy's mind was immediately latched onto something else.
"Oooh, what's down that hall?" Sammy asked, pressing her face against the cool window.
Alright, enough was enough. Sammy blinked as she felt herself being pulled back.
"C'mon, Sammy, you're being rude to my uncle," Naruto said in a deadpan tone. "Now please allow him to answer at least one of your questions."
Sammy squirmed and tried to free himself from his iron grip, but was stunned at how she was unable to break his grip. She finally gave up at some point, allowing herself to calm down as Dr. Wu was finally able to continue his tour guide in peace.
"Private office," Dr. Wu answered coldly. "Highly restricted."
Unbeknownst to everyone else, this caught the pink-haired girl's attention.
"You guys, look!"
Dave was standing next to an incubation machine, where nine large eggs were sitting underneath a lamp heater. One of them appeared to be moving, which explained the camp counselor's excitement.
"I think this one's about to hatch~" This prompted everyone to rush over to the eggs, even Dr. Wu himself.
"But that's not possible," Dr. Wu frowned. He gently pushed aside an assistant as he began reading the charts on one of the incubator's computers . "That Ankylosaurus has only been incubating for ten weeks."
Nonetheless, this dinosaur apparently didn't get the news, since a tail had already burst through the shell. The egg then popped open, sending goo and eggshells flying in the air, much to Ben's disgust. The infant, whose head was covered by the top part of its egg, looked around confusedly as it stumbled backwards, falling off of the incubator.
"Woah!" Despite Ben's squeamish nature, he reacted quickly to catch the dinosaur before harm could be done to it. Quickly placing it back onto the incubator, he gently took the eggshell hat off of the infant, and its eyes opened, meeting Ben's.
The infant squealed, prompting the others to "aw" from how cute it was.
"Sweet! One of its head bump's bigger than the other," Brooklynn noted as she made sure to not miss any shot of this newborn dinosaur.
This, however, made Dr. Wu frown.
"Asymmetry? In my lab?"
Oh no, Naruto sighed to himself. Here he goes again.
Dr. Wu was a perfectionist at heart, and always wanted to be in control of his world. He even made it a point where even his creations turned out "perfect", and since this one was born early and with a slight defect…
"Aw...she's so tiny…" Ben cooed as he stared at the infant dinosaur in his hand, momentarily forgetting about the egg goo that it was covered in.
"But she won't stay tiny for long, right?" Roxie brought up.
"That's the idea," Dr. Wu nodded. "All the dinosaurs go through an accelerated growth cycle. They're supposed to incubate for thirteen weeks with no defects, but apparently this one slipped through."
"Life finds a way," Naruto shrugged, causing the scientist to chuckle.
Brooklynn, meanwhile, was beginning to eye Dr. Wu's office as the group was distracted with the baby dinosaur.
It took a while, but the pink-haired girl finally managed to sneak away from the group. Stepping into the dark hallway, Brooklynn quietly stepped into the cold darkness, checking her surroundings for people.
Suddenly, her rear touched something, and she leapt forward in surprise.
"Ah!" "Gah!"
The two girls blinked, before their eyes finally recognized each other in the dimly lit hallway.
"Hey…" the other girl chuckled nervously.
"Sammy," Brooklynn sighed in relief, before she realized something. "What are you doing out here?"
"I was just...this place outta come with a GPS," Sammy finally said. "I really gotta go."
"...I think there's a bathroom on the other end of the hall, actually, so..." Brooklynn said, jabbing her thumb into the direction she just came in from.
"...Thanks! See ya back there!" Sammy smiled as she quickly scampered away.
With the other girl now gone, Brooklynn continued her quest for more views. Finally making it to the two sliding doors marked "Restricted", she immediately looked around to figure out how to get it open. Sadly, since it was electronic, it had no knobs, and therefore, it had no locks for her to pick (something she found to be very useful at times.)
Just then, she heard footsteps approaching her, and she swiftly moved to hide in the darkness.
"Doctor!" someone called for Dr. Wu as he opened his office. "We have those results you were looking for, sir."
Whatever they were talking about, it was enough for Dr. Wu to change his mind. He stepped away from his office to move back in the direction he came from. Brooklynn didn't hesitate for a moment, slipping in before the doors could close themselves in front of her.
Letting out a sigh of relief, she took a moment to clap her own shoulder for her bravery, before pulling out her phone.
"Alright, Brooklanders, let's see if top secret Jurassic World intel is cool enough for you."
Taking out her phone, she quickly began to record her findings, using the built-in flashlight to illuminate her way. Walking silently in the eerie darkness, she quickly searched for interesting things to record.
She managed to spot a portable whiteboard full of equations and writings, and she quickly snapping a photo of that.
*HISSSS!*
Brooklynn gasped as something hissed behind her. She whipped her head around, then sighed in relief as she saw that it was just the mechanical arm moving an egg around. Turns out that Dr. Wu has a personal incubator in his office. Was that special, or did they all have one? Now that was something she'll have to dig into later.
Shaking her head, her eyes were quickly drawn into the other only source of light in the room. Like a moth to a lamp, she quickly gravitated towards Dr. Wu's computer, which was still on and open.
Looking at the contents, she frowned in curiosity as she read what little she could understand.
"E-750...clinical trial results?" She couldn't make heads or tails of this, but whatever this…E-750-thing was sounded exciting.
Then her eyes moved towards a very specific file on the desktop…
"Classified?!" Brooklynn's neon-green eyes widened with excitement as she moved the mouse to open the folder. "Jackpot…"
Raising her phone to prepare to record whatever treasures might be awaiting her, she double clicked the folder icon.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Brooklynn gasped, nearly falling off of Dr. Wu's chair as the screen suddenly flashed red, with the keylock icon in a red background blocking her view from whatever was inside of the folder. Brooklynn looked around in horror, wondering if she just triggered a trap, before the monitor suddenly went black, leaving her again in silence and darkness.
She tried to turn the computer back on, but it stubbornly refused to reawaken, no matter how many times she moved, clicked, or punched the mouse and keys.
"Dang it!" Brooklynn hissed, quietly pounding her fist onto the desk. Ugh, once again her desperate act hadn't paid off, with life screwing her over instead of rewarding her.
Giving up on the computer, she eventually looked to her left, where she found a stack of papers with equations and other scientific mumbo jumbo she couldn't make out, alongside two flash drives. Picking up one of them, she examined it like a video game character, looking all around it as if it would give her a hint of what was inside it. Quickly losing interest in it, she looked back at the papers, realizing that it was hiding something.
Slowly pushing away a document, she realized that it was hiding a large, blue document. She couldn't see the rest of the dinosaur, due to the paper and darkness concealing most of the details, but she managed to read the large letters that said:
"Indominus Rex?" she whispered to herself.
*HISSS!*
Light flooded the room, and Brooklynn whirled around, staring at Dr. Wu's frowning face in horror.
"..."
"...I thought the door said restroom?"
Naruto stepped out from behind Dr. Wu, a look of disappointment evident in his eyes.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
Looking back, this event could've been avoided as well. Sadly, the one thing Darius and Kenji seemed to both have was their stubborn pride that they're evidently willing to die over.
Darius and Kenji had been hiking for what seemed like hours, and he was convinced that Kenji was a lying sack of crap at this point. He expected to see a dinosaur by now, not get ambushed by flies and mosquitoes. He was pretty sure he was getting close to getting a sunburn as well, and the humidity really wasn't helping matters.
They wound up getting an argument after Kenji told Darius that he lied about him being afraid of disappointing his father, before trying to turn it around and tell Darius that it was all his fault for being gullible.
This, naturally, upset the young man, but the problem was that Kenji wasn't wrong...exactly.
It's funny how these moments of insight and wisdom can arise when danger stares at you right in the face. Much like last night, Darius broke the rules to try to have things his way, and as a result, there was a large, carnivorous dinosaur staring at them in the face, with no bars in between them. Much like last night, he let Kenji get into his head, and now they could literally get killed over it.
The Carnotaurus seemed to grin as he finally noticed the unexpected lunch standing near his feet.
The group's moment of wonder and learning ended when Dr. Wu stomped up to them. Trailing next to him was his great nephew Naruto, who was dragging along a certain pink-haired social media star.
"Time for you all to leave," he said sternly, destroying the magical moment between them and the infant dinosaur. "It's evident that this group has no respect for this lab."
"W-What about Bumpy?" Ben suddenly asked, holding the dinosaur near his heart.
"The...asset will soon be released to a herd of Ankylosauruses. Then she'll be their problem, just like how you all will cease to be my problem when you leave."
The counselors swiftly escorted the group out of the lab, with Naruto following last. He gave a quick bow of apology to his uncle, before leaving swiftly.
Dr. Wu just kept staring at the infant in his hand, before placing it back onto the incubator.
Life was like a video game, where sometimes you do get chased by a giant, hungry dinosaur. In Darius's current scenario, it wasn't a T Rex, nor a Velociraptor, but it was by the Carnotaurus he was so desperate to see.
Darius managed to slide under a tree gracefully, something he learned from video games. Kenji's route around the fallen tree wasn't so graceful, with him landing on his face after slipping on the dirt.
"Don't leave me man!" Kenji pleaded, with the giant man-eating dinosaur roaring as it grew closer to him.
For a split second, Darius seriously considered leaving him there, but he shook that bad thought out of his head as he quickly moved to help Kenji up. They managed to get out of there in time as the Carno smashed through the dead tree with a mighty bellow.
What little time the tree would've bought him was wasted from him helping Kenji, if his screams as he looked back at their pursuer was of any indication of how close they were to death.
"He's gaining on us!" Kenji yelped. Darius's mind raced a million miles per hour when suddenly he had an idea.
"He's fast, but not on turns!" Darius yelled. "On my count! One...two...three!"
At the last second, they turned to the left, and just in time too. The carnivore's jaws snapped an inch too close to Kenji's body as the surprised beast fell face first into the dirt.
"Up ahead!" Darius yelled as they dodged the dinosaur again. Kenji looked forward, and they saw a small feeding two way mechanism that looked like the only way out for them. Kenji, being the older and stronger one, managed to find that adrenaline needed to get there first. He quickly crawled through the narrow, metal space, making it to the other side.
Unfortunately, his success came at a cost. The minute he fell out of the two way feeding cage, the lid on his end suddenly fell shut, and wouldn't open.
"Kenji!" Darius looked back forward, and saw that no one was there. "Are you kidding me, Kenji?!"
Great, just great. This was going to be the second time that he was going to get killed because of Kenji, only this time, no one knew that they were there. Darius was about to just lay there and weep when a loud clang snapped him out of his thoughts.
It was Kenji! He hadn't abandoned him after all. In the few seconds that he was gone, he was searching for something to help pry the feeding cage's door open. Jamming a long, thick branch through the gate's holes, they pulled/pushed with all their might as the Carnotaurus roared, its teeth close to Darius's foot-
And then Darius tasted dirt. He blinked, and he realized that he made it! Looking back, he realized that Kenji had managed to help him open the sliding door in time, and the Carnotaurus banging his head against the feeding system shoved Darius back into safety.
"...HA HA HA HA!" Kenji let out a laugh as he saw that the dinosaur's nose was bleeding. "Aw, what's wrong, is your little nose bleeding? You think you're slick, huh, Toro? You got nothing!"
They watched the dinosaur stomp away, defeated and humiliated. Darius looked at Kenji in a mixture of curiosity and awe.
"...Toro, yeah." Kenji panted as he continued glaring at the retreating carnivore in victory. "'Cause of the horns...yeah."
"Oh, right," Darius nodded, before he finally allowed himself to smile again. "Hey, Toro, guess what? You...Your arms are pretty much vestigial at this point. Ha ha!"
It was the mother of all the lamest taunts, but Kenji went along with it, continuing to tease the dinosaur as it walked away.
CLANG!
The two yelped as Toro suddenly charged at the fence again. Of course it did nothing, but it did startle them back into humility.
"...Uh, what time are they supposed to get back from the lab?" Darius suddenly asked.
To say that it was an awkward ride back would've been an understatement of the year.
Roxie and Dave were feeling a mix of emotions at their group for the recent troubles they've caused. They were also feeling a tad bit nervous and also ashamed at how Naruto's mood had visibly been dampened, something which the rest of the group did not fail to notice.
Ben appeared to be sulking about the fact that he probably wasn't going to see Bumpy again. Sammy, Yasmina, and Jessica just sat there awkwardly as if they just got out of a stranger's funeral.
And Brooklynn? Well, she was a nervous wreck right now. Sure, she did get caught trespassing into a private lab, which, worst case scenario, she could get arrested for. But honestly? She was feeling more ashamed at how she had inadvertently embarrassed her blond friend in front of his uncle.
The said blond did nothing but look down at the floor, occasionally giving Brooklynn a cold look whenever she tried to speak with him. She wanted to apologize for what she did- really, she wanted to- but she couldn't find the right time or figure out how to do so in a way that might make it up to him.
So in the end, she could only do what she did best: focus on her phone as she tried to keep her channel on the top.
The awkward silence was swiftly broken when they suddenly stopped. The campers looked up, and it was then that they finally remembered that they were short of two people.
"Hey!" Both Kenji and Darius waved. Both looked strangely worn out in Yasmina's opinion, although she just shrugged it off to them being unathletic. .
"Why are you two so out of breath?" Roxie asked, her eyebrow raised.
"Oh, you know! Just...doing our job!" Darius said quickly. "So...how was the field trip?"
"Oh. Well, you know...Ben fell in love with a dinosaur, and Super-Star here got us booted from the lab."
"Hey, that is not what hap-"
SLAM!
Everyone jumped as something hit the jeep. They looked, and they realized that Naruto had just slammed his left fist into the metal part of the jeep. He said nothing as he looked down, his hair creating a shadow over his eyes. His fist trembled, but his arm stayed locked in place.
"...Is he okay?" Darius finally asked.
"It's...best to not talk about it for now," Yasmina said, and they all agreed to leave it at that. As Darius sat next to her, she quickly whispered in his ear about what happened. About how Brooklynn evidently tried sneaking into Dr. Wu's lab, at how she got caught by the scientist himself, and at how this humiliated Naruto in front of his Grand-Uncle.
They weren't really sure why he was taking it a bit more personally than he should, but they didn't dare ask him or poke fun at him.
The ride on the way back was just as awkward and tense as before, if not even more. To lighten things up, Sammy opened her mouth.
"So, how did poop patrol go?"
"It was-" Kenji started, but Darius cut in.
"-a valuable learning experience! Um, learned a lot about ourselves, and...yup! That's all!"
The group didn't buy it, but they didn't ask any further, opting to instead try to move as far away as they could from the duo from what little space they had left in the back of the jeep.
"Man, I can't believe that no one would know how I saved your life," Kenji sighed quietly.
"I'll know," Darius smiled. "I'll know."
Kenji looked stunned for a moment, before he let out a smile.
"So we even, Darius?"
"...Yeah. We're even."
…
Naruto was the last one to exit the jeep. He reluctantly stood up from his spot, heading for the showers as he rubbed his fist. Brooklynn looked at him guiltily, before flicking herself on the forehead.
It's official, none of that whole mess was worth it.
She turned to follow the other girls, then paused. She slowly turned back to the jeep, and her eyes widened a little.
"...Damn," she muttered, staring at the dent on the jeep. "I really need to stay out of his bad side."
And with that, she pocketed her phone, before running after the others. She needed some time to think.
(Midnight)
It was a dark and humid night. An owl hooted somewhere. Some crickets were chirping. And a flying drone was buzzing in the air.
The silent, unmanned robot hummed as it flew in the air, before it suddenly stopped, beginning to descend onto the grassy floor below.
Footsteps grew nearer to the drone as a mysterious figure walked up to it. Picking it up, it examined the piece of machinery for a moment, before it inserted a flash drive into it.
Satisfied, the intruder tossed the drone up in the air to let it fly away.
Mission accomplished.