The following day, the counselors gathered in hushed tones, their brows furrowed with concern as they strategized on how to secure additional support. With only three of them in such a bustling environment, they felt the weight of their responsibility to keep the children safe pressing down heavily on their shoulders. The situation was becoming increasingly clear:
They needed more hands on deck, as the sheer number of kids far outstripped their limited resources. It was a delicate balance between the welfare of the children and their own capacity to provide adequate oversight and care to the six of them. There was a sign of the helicopter that Masrani was known to fly into the park in. And he was there to see his newest attraction and how development is coming along.
"And despite the park's owner Mr. Masrani just now arriving, we have something that we urgently need to discuss with you, Ms. Dearing. You see-"
"Don't forget about the raptor pen," Dave said sitting in the car.
"Shh! I know, I know." Roxie said.
"Or the kids getting lost in the storm," Dave said.
"The point is-"
"Or the stampede during the storm."
"Shush!" Roxie demanded him. "The point is, Claire, uh, Ms. Dearing, uh, we know that Camp Cretaceous is very important to Mr. Masrani and that you were thinking of having your nephews join us today, but we've had two serious incidents over the last 48 hours. Dave, Richard, and I need more staff immediately or we need to send the kids home ASAP."
"The mailbox you are trying to reach is full. Please try again later."
"Ugh!" Both of them said.
"New plan: we do this in person," Roxie said as she headed for the car.
"Mm... I'm sorry, are you saying we leave the kids here alone? Our kids?" Dave asks. "The kids who seem determined to get themselves trampled and/or eaten? Those are the kids of which you speak?"
Roxie saw he did have a point. "We won't be gone long. Richard will be able to keep an eye on them. If we leave now, we can be back in an hour or two, tops."
Dave scoffs. "I'll leave a note."
Peter began to wake up but groaned when he felt like his body was turning against him. His arms were shaking when he tried to lift them, his head felt like it was being crushed under some invisible weight. He tried to look around but noticed there was no sign of the other guys. They must have already gotten up and left him to sleep. He really wished he had a phone or something that he could try to call for help.
"Peter? You awake?" Richard asked as he knocked, opening the door to see his son still in bed. "Peter? You..." That was when he heard his son breathing heavily and sweating a lot. "Oh, god." He walked over and kneeled down to feel his son's head, feeling the heat emanating from it. "Wow, you are burning up. Uh... great, Rox and Dave had to leave..." He tried to figure out what to do. "Okay, there is a medical station a few minutes away, I should be able to get a doctor over here. I don't think we could get them on the radios." He then stood up. "Okay, stay here, I will be back."
Peter moaned, too exhausted to say that he wasn't planning on going anywhere as his father left.
At the common area, Darius was making his way over missing the whole thing with Peter as he walked into the room with a new light. He was going to do all he could to make this the best experience since he and his dad had been trying to come to this park for years. Since he wasn't able to make it, he was going to do all he could to enjoy it for the both of them.
"What up, Camp Cretaceous?" Darius cried as he pushed open the doors. "Whoo-hoo!"
Ben was slurping on a juice box, Yaz and Sammy were talking on the couch, and Kenji was reclining on a seat at the table. There was no sign of Brooklyn or Peter, which none of them saw an issue with considering it was still early in the morning.
"Not in a "whoo-hoo" mood this morning, Darius," Kenji said with a sigh. "Not after yesterday. Trekking through a rainstorm will do that."
"We only had to walk because you crashed our gyrosphere," Ben reminded him as he slurped on his juice box.
"But today's a new day! Kayak Day!" Darius tells them. "Who doesn't wanna paddle alongside dinosaurs, real dinosaurs? It's gonna be awesome, right?" He then noticed the absence of adults. "Wait, where are Dave, Richard, and Roxie?"
Kenji picked up a stickie note and smacked it onto Darius' chest. "The babysitters took off early and left this."
Darius took the note and read it. "BRB. Gotta go. Boss-talk. BB. Later. Smiley face." Is that a dinosaur emoji with a thumbs up?"
"It's Dave speak," Kenji explained. "Roxie translated on the back."
Darius flipped the note. ""We have to go talk to our boss. Stay inside until we return. Draw, bond, whatever. Listen to whatever Richard says. The radio's set for channel six in case you need us. Stay inside, stay inside. Do not leave, Kenji, looking at you"." That got the group to chuckle. "Uh "Sorry for the kids' menus, it's all Dave had"."
"Do they understand how old we are?" Kenji asked, looking over at the table. "I mean, when was the last time you even saw a crayon?"
That was the moment Ben revealed his drawing, a picture of himself and Bumpy engaged in a game of chess.
"Hmm. I have notes." Yaz commented.
"Yasmina!" Sammy laughed.
There was a thud, and they looked over to see Brooklynn standing in the doorway with a stern look on her face.
"Brooklynn. What's new on the Internet, superstar?" Yaz asked, missing the worried look growing on Sammy.
"I wouldn't know because when I went to get my phone from its charger, it wasn't there!" Brooklynn informed them. "Someone stole my phone."
"Brooklynn, who hasn't had your phone?" Yaz asks.
"I needed to check the weather last night... " Ben admitted.
"Dr. Sattler posted a new column on microfossils yesterday..." Darius admitted.
"Too good to miss the selfie opp, but I haven't used it since then, I swear!" Kenji cried.
"I haven't seen it either." Sammy tried covering her tracks.
Brooklynn didn't seem convinced. "Really?"
"Hey, hey, it's okay!" Darius tried to stop them from fighting.
Brooklynn scoffs just when Richard comes back into the room, grabbing one of the radios, and getting the kids' attention. "Okay, look, I need you guys to do me a favor. Keep out of the dorms for a minute. Something happened with Peter."
"What happened?" Ben asked in worry.
"I don't know," Richard tells them, grabbing his jacket. "I found him in his bed, and he seems ill. I am going to get some medical experts here to take a look over him." He then went to the elevators. "If I call for one, it could take them hours, so I will personally request a team to come out. It could be some sort of allergy, just illness, or even something poisonous from the jungle." He scoffed and mumbled to himself. "Those poisonous plants look pretty, so they put them all over the place." He then stepped into the elevator, looking back at the kids. "Stay here. Please... my son is all that matters to me."
Richard paced anxiously around the sterile confines of the emergency room, his footsteps echoing against the cold, tiled floor. His heart raced as he thought of his wife, Mary, who was busy preparing to bring their daughter into the world. It was too soon—three weeks ahead of schedule—and that knowledge gnawed at him, amplifying his rising panic.
He glanced toward Mary, who seemed remarkably calm, her face illuminated by a soft glow of anticipation. To her, this early arrival felt like a minor hiccup, a sign that their little one was ready to make her entrance. To Richard, however, every passing second felt like a lifetime, and he couldn't shake off the feeling that something could go wrong. He wished he could share her confidence, but instead, he felt like a boat tossed about in a stormy sea of anxiety, desperately trying to grasp onto some semblance of control.
"Richard, honey, relax, your pacing is making me dizzy," Mary tells him.
"Three weeks, Mary, What if something is wrong?" Richard asks her. "What if something goes wrong?"
"Well, they do say the second one is always easier." Mary shrugged.
"When I said that, you nearly broke my arm," Richard reminded her.
"I had just given birth to Peter, I was not planning on doing this again," Mary defended what she did. Then she whinced when she felt the pain of her body preparing to go into labor. "Ow, not that we don't love you, our little surprise."
Richard sighed when he saw her talking to their little one. "You are right. I am just... overreacting..."
Mary let out a pained groan, her head tilting back as a wave of agony coursed through her body like a shockwave. The monitors around her suddenly blared to life, their piercing alarms echoing through the room, signaling an urgent need for help. Richard was quickly ushered aside, his heart racing as he realized he was more of an obstacle than a support in this tense moment.
He watched helplessly as the medical team rushed in, their faces etched with concentration and concern. They moved with practiced efficiency, each doctor and nurse swiftly assessing the situation, their hands deftly navigating the complexities of the unfolding crisis. Richard's pulse quickened as he absorbed the gravity of the scene—something was indeed perilously amiss in the delicate process of bringing new life into the world.
Except... it didn't go as expected.
Richard waited and watched as a doctor approached Richard with a sorrowful look on their face. "I'm sorry, Dr. Parker... there were complications."
"What?" Richard asked, his heart feeling like it just stopped. "What kind of complications?"
"The baby... didn't make it," The doctor informed him.
"Oh my god..." Richard broke down and knew that something like this was possible. He leaned over and fell onto the wall, tears beginning to stream down his face. "Oh, god..."
"And there is something else..."
"What?" Richard asked in worry.
Back with Peter, he groaned as he woke up and found himself on the floor but also feeling a lot better. Wondering how he got there, he got up and squinted his eyes, trying to see, only to realize his vision looked normal. He got up and looked over a book that he had brought along to do with Reed Richards' research. He could read everything without his glasses or contacts? This was... weird. Eyesight can't just fix itself overnight.
But he put that aside as he then stood up and bumped his head on the top bunk. He groaned and rubbed his head, realizing that just yesterday that bunk was higher up last night. Shaking that off, Peter stood up and pulled up a pair of pants, only to see that his pants were a lot smaller on him than usual. Not by much, but enough that they noticed there was indeed a difference.
"That is weird, it's like my pants shrank," Peter thought to himself, only to freeze when he heard his inner voice. "Wait, why is the voice in my head so loud?"
That was when he got a look at himself in the reflection of a mirror at the side of the room and froze when he saw how much he had changed. He not only grew a few inches, but also grew abs? Peter looked over himself in the mirror and was shocked at how much he had grown muscles almost overnight. He wasn't exactly a chubby kid, but he was never this fit. He looked like he was an athlete, almost like Yaz. He flexed his muscles, making sure this wasn't some sort of strange prank Kenji had set up.
But it didn't take long for him to realize that this was real and it had indeed happened.
Back with the others, Darius looked over to the elevator and shrugged when he looked over to Brooklynn. "Since we're not kayaking till later, we'll have plenty of time to look for the phone."
"Oh, I think I know exactly where to look," Brooklynn said, eyeing over to Sammy. "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?"
"Um, what?" Sammy tried to hide her face.
"What is your deal?" Yaz asked her. "Sammy said she didn't touch it!" She then stood up and eyed Brooklynn over. "Ever think you might have just lost the stupid thing?"
"Hmm. Well, then, let's check her bags and test that theory out." Brooklynn said, eyeing Sammy's bags.
Yaz however stood in her way. "You do not get to go through anyone's stuff, I don't care how famous you think you are!"
"Brooklynn, I did not-"
"Brooklynn, guys, come on! We can't be this upset over phones." Darius tried to get their attention. "Let's make the most of this incredible opportunity!"
"What is all the yelling?" They heard someone say, getting them to turn and see Peter. He was standing in the only clothes he could find and saw that they were still small but still fit him. "I could hear you guys down the halls."
"Peter?" Ben was surprised to see him. "You look... different."
"Did you get taller?" Kenji wonders, noticing the strange change.
"Yeah, like you wouldn't believe." Peter scoffed as he looked over himself. "There isn't a thing like a second puberty, right?"
"Uh, no," Yaz commented, disturbed by the question, but considering his condition, it was warranted to ask. "What happened?"
"I am not sure," Peter said.
That was when they heard a dinosaur roar from the jungle outside. The roar caused Peter to flinch and grab his ears.
"What was that?" Brooklynn asks.
"Um, a T. rex?" Kenji guessed.
"Mm-mm. I don't think so." Darius commented.
They all ran off to the balcony to look off. "Then what sort of dinosaur did it sound like?" Ben asks.
"Friend-ish? Or foe-ish?" Ben asks.
"Where's it comin' from?" Peter asks.
"Can't see anything from here." Yaz scoffed. "The trees are blocking everything."
"Maybe they're moving a new dino from the lab to another enclosure," Darius said when he gasped and came up with an idea. "We could probably see it from the observation tower! Could be cool."
Sammy saw Brooklynn coming closer and knew she needed to get the heart off of her. "Wow, that's a great idea, Darius!" She then grabbed him and dragged him towards the elevators. "What are we waiting for?"
Brooklynn quickly ran off to follow. "Hey, we're not done talking about this yet!"
"But, guys, it's Indoor Arts and Crafts Day!" Ben reminded them. "We should stay and wait for Dave and Roxie, right, Kenji?"
"If you wanna stay here and draw you and your dino-crush, go for it," Kenji said as he jumped over the couch. "I'm gonna go see me a T. rex or a girl fight. Either way, I win. Ka-ching!"
Peter shrugged as he leaped over the couch, going higher than he expected. He had so much energy inside of him, that he didn't even know what to do with it. "I am good to go out. I feel like I could run around the whole island right now." he then ran to the elevator. "See ya!"
Ben scoffed and crossed his arms. "Fine, go on! I'll just stay where we're supposed to stay, wait for who we're supposed to wait for, and be right where we're supposed to be."
That was when he got a look around and saw how spooky the area looked when he was alone.
"Wait! Guys, I'm coming too!" Ben cried, running over to the elevator.
"Knew you couldn't resist," Peter stated, the doors closing as they left.
But just as they left, one of the radios started to go off. "...Asset out of containment. Repeat, asset out of containment. Stay indoors. ACU is responding."
Richard found a medical center near the park and drove up where he ran inside. He sighed when he saw there were a few doctors inside. "Hey, I need a medical professional." He informed them. "I am a councilor for that new camp. One of the campers has fallen ill. I do not know how or why."
"Alright, I will get someone who can accompany you," The assistant behind the desk said, walking back to find someone.
"I repeat!" The radio on Richard's waist went off. "Code 19! We have an asset out of containment!"
Richard froze when he heard that, knowing exactly what that meant. "The Indominous..." He then reached down and grabbed his radio to contact the teams. "This is Dr. Richard Parker. I need an ACU Team sent to Camp Cretaceous!" He cried as he ran off, making his way to the vehicle. "I've got seven campers, one ill, they need to be evacuated! They are just a small distance from the Indominous enclosure. They are in danger!"
"Copy, Dr. Parker." Someone on the other line called. "We will send someone to your location as quickly as we can to accompany you and the kids back to the park."
Richard then slammed on the gas and drove as fast as he could to get to the camp. He knew how dangerous the Indominous was. He knew what it could do. If the kids don't know what they are up against, there is no way they are going to survive.
"Dave, Roxie?" Richard tried to get back into contact with them. "Dave? Roxie? Do either of you read me?" He got nothing but static and slammed the radio in anger. "Why don't they answer?!"
Richard approached his wife in sorrow when he saw her heart was slowly beating and she was still recovering from giving birth and wasn't looking too well. He approached her and caressed some of her hair.
"Hey..." Mary said as she slowly woke up.
"Hey, you..." Richard wasn't sure if he could break the news to her.
"How is she?" Mary asks.
Richard wasn't sure how to say it... or even if he could. "She's great." He said, not actually got the strength to see her yet. "Looks like you."
Mary slowly smiled with relief. "Something feels wrong..."
"The doctors said there was... they said that..." Richard couldn't finish that sentence. "I'm so sorry..."
Mary reached up and tried to take his hand. "Richard... look at me." He slowly looked up at her. "Please... no matter what... look after them. Our family."
Richard nodded as he leaned over and kissed her. "You know I will...I love you. I always will..."
Richard remained close to her, his heart racing as he attuned himself to the rhythm of her breath, waiting for her to say she loved him back. But then, an oppressive silence enveloped the room, heavy and suffocating. Suddenly, her breath hitched and fell silent.
Time seemed to freeze for Richard; a jarring alarm pierced the stillness as the monitors blared a haunting flatline. Panic surged through him as he recoiled, his eyes widening in disbelief as he witnessed the last beat of Mary's heart fade away.
"Nurse? NURSE!" Richard cried in terror as several doctors rushed in to try and save her.
But there was nothing they could do... she was gone.
Richard lost both his daughter and his wife on the same day... and a part of him went with them.
Back with the kids, they made it to the observation tower and found that it was locked. That was it. A lock. No electric fence. No keypad. It was a simple observation tower, but you think that a place like this would have a higher protection in place for this. They were trying to push their way in while Peter watched, feeling his strength wasn't going to help.
"It's locked!" Kenji sighed.
"Oh, wow. Guess we can't get in," Ben said, worried about getting into trouble. "We should all go back before someone comes along and we get in trouble."
Kenji then looked around and was a little confused. "Wait, where is everybody?" He said, looking around at the forest. "Uh, there's usually someone around."
"Weird," Peter commented, walking over and looking at the lock with a scoff. "You know, with a place this high-tech, you would think they would have something more advanced than a simple-" He then yanked on the handle, causing it to break instantly, getting him and the others to freeze as the door drifted open. He looked down at the doorknob in his hand and back to the others. "That was weird, right?"
"Uh, yeah," Brooklynn seemed to agree.
"Who cares?" Sammy shrugged, moving past. "Last to the top is a rotten egg!"
Yaz then ran past, leaving Peter behind. "Later, rotten egg."
Peter looked down at the knob still in his hand and shook his hand. But as he was raising his palm, he saw that there was still no give on the handle on his palm. Then as he looked at it, it fell from his hand and slammed onto the ground like nothing. He was still weirded out by it and just shrugged, making his way up to the observation tower.
Making their way to the top, everyone was exhausted as they rushed to the roof. Peter was the only one who wasn't exhausted because he walked his way up and watched as everyone else seemed exhausted by the trek upward. Sammy walked over to the edge and grabbed onto the railing as she caught her breath while panting.
"Is anybody else hot?" Sammy asks. "It is hot."
"No more stairs!" Kenji cried as he panted and leaned on the top of the stairs. "There better be something good."
"I feel fine," Peter shrugged.
"Seriously?" Yaz asks with a scoff. "You were winded walking yesterday."
That was when they felt the ground rumbling and Peter felt something going on with his head. It was like his head was buzzing. He groaned and grabbed his head, feeling like it was a large headache.
"There's something out there," Brooklynn said. "Something big."
Peter felt his head begin to calm down as he walked over to the side of the balcony to join everyone else. They watched as the trees began to be moved around, making them wonder just what is out there. That was then when a brachiosaurus stuck its head out of the trees. It reached its head out and took a bite out of the trees to get some leaves. Everyone let out a sigh of relief as they were getting a little concerned.
"It's just a brachiosaurus," Yaz said with relief.
"Ooh! Mystery solved," Ben said with relief. "Guess we should head back now."
"But that doesn't make any sense," Darius commented. "Brachiosauruses don't roar like that. They're more like..." He then began to imitate the bellowing of the brachiosaurus.
"Didn't quite catch that," Kenji stated with a chuckle.
"Yeah, could you do that one more time?" Peter asked with a chuckle.
Then they heard someone yelling, getting them to look down and see two workers. "Hey! What are you kids doin' outside?"
"There's an asset out of containment!"
"What are they saying?" Darius asks.
"You guys can't hear it?" Peter asked with surprise. "They're saying something about an asset out of containment."
"You could hear that?" Sammy asked in surprise.
"Oh, great! They look mad." Ben commented. "I told you we'd get in trouble."
"Can you hear us?"
"You need to get down now!"
"Hurry!"
"You're gonna have to speak up!" Kenji said, seemingly not believing Peter.
"The park's going on lockdown!"
"I got this." Kenji tells them.
That was when they heard a ferocious roar coming from the jungle. Peter felt his headache return, causing him to wince and turn around to grab it. That was when something attacked the brachiosaurus in the trees, causing it to be pulled down into the jungle below. The kids shrieked when they saw this, causing them to step back in fear.
"Why aren't ya movin'?"
"You dumb kids, get down here right-"
That was when a dinosaur came out of the woods almost like it was invisible, charging towards the two workers. Before they could react, the giant dinosoar bit down, causing the kids to shriek and step back in fear and terror.
It had spiky osteoderms across its body and horns above its eye orbits, traits that originated from the DNA of various abelisaurs used in its creation. Its osteoderms were extremely tough, being able to withstand fire from a GE M134 Minigun and even an indirect hit from an AT4 rocket launcher. It also had well-developed forelimbs from Therizinosaurus complete with opposable thumbs whose origins are unknown. and had sickle-shaped claws on each of its four fingers with the claw of the middle finger being the longest. Its long arms also made it semi-quadrupedal. It displayed immense physical strength, able to easily slaughter a Brachiosaurus and even bend steel girders. It was able to change color from the cuttlefish used in its creation, which was used as camouflage in hunting, but also helped the hybrid grow at a quick rate. It also had what appeared to be protofeathers growing out of several parts of its body, namely its head and forelimbs. Their base skin color was a grayish white, with eyes whose sclera were a fiery dark orange-brown color.
The action caused the kids to stop and could only stare down in terror when they saw the dinosaur.
"What... is... that?" Yaz asks.
"It got him! It got him!" Ben screamed in terror as he grabbed onto everyone he could.
Brooklynn gasped when she recognized the dinosaur. "Dr. Wu's lab. There was a dinosaur. In-"
Sammy whispers. "Indominus Rex."
Brooklynn was shocked when she heard that. "How do you know that name?"
"But there's no dinosaur named-" Darius was saying when Sammy backed away.
"There's no time. We need to leave." Sammy said in terror, heading for the stairs. "Now, now, now! We have to go."
"Up here is safe, down there isn't," Kenji informed her. "Besides, this high up, it's not like Whatever-Rex there can even see us."
"He is right," Peter couldn't believe he was saying this. "This is no time to panic. As long as it-"
The Indominous looked upward towards them and seemed to immediately spot them using its vision and snarled at them.
"It sees us!" Ben cried.
"Forget what I said! Time to panic!" Peter cried.
The Indominous Rex ran towards the gate, crashing through it with ease. Then she began to tear at the boards that were keeping the observation deck in the sky. The kids panicked and tried to find their footing when the beams were beginning to become weaker and the top was beginning to tilt. Sammy began to fall when Peter instinctively reached out and grabbed her with one hand.
"I got you!" Peter cried, thinking that this was going to be harder. But she felt... lighter? This was not something he was expecting. She was light. She actually felt pretty tame considering he could barely lift a box without issues. "I... I actually got you!" He laughed as he saw that he actually did have her. With one arm, no less. "I was not expecting that!"
"How are you doing that?!" Yaz asked.
"I have no idea!" Peter admitted.
Yaz then helped Peter pull her up by grabbing Sammy's other hand and yanking her up. They then looked around and saw the Indominous was still going for the beams holding them up.
Yaz then got an idea when she saw the zip line was reset. "The zip line. Go, go, go!"
Everyone ran towards the zipline where they set Ben up to go first while the beams were becoming weaker. "I can't! I can't! I can't." He was having problems with the seatbelt.
Kenji groans as he takes over. "Here!"
Then they pushed Ben off, sending him down first to the end of the zip-line where they would hopefully be safer than where they currently were. Peter was the one to push Ben, and he actually went faster than Peter was expecting.
"This day is getting weirder and weirder," Peter commented as everyone else set themselves up.
Everyone began to use the zipline to escape the Indominous. The beams were becoming more and more fragile as the Indominous kept going at them. As they were beginning to get away, the shaking caused the emergency brakes to go off and cut them off in the middle of the zipline. Ben was first, followed by Brooklynn, Kenji, Yaz, and Sammy.
"Why aren't we moving?" Brooklynn asked in terror.
"Ben, what did you do?" Kenji asks.
"Nothing! It just stopped!" Ben cried.
"What's going on?" Darius asks.
"It's the emergency break!" Peter took a guess with a groan.
Darius had to think fast as he looked up and saw the line and that he and Peter were the last two. "I have an idea."
Peter didn't seem to like where this was going when Darius unbuckled and backed away. "Darius?"
"You're strong?" Darois wanted to clarify. "Like, really, really strong?"
"I... not until apparently this morning," Peter commented. "I wouldn't put much faith in-"
Darius already began running as the structure began to shake more. "Catch me!"
Peter almost as if acting on instinct, reached over and grabbed Darius as he ran into him, sending the two of them flying down the zipline and knocking into everyone else. It happened just in the nick of time as that was when the structure began to collapse. But that also in turn caused everyone else to fall since the zipline fell with the conservation tower. They fell and slammed into the ground, all of them getting knocked out. Peter got the worst end as he ended up smacking into a tree, his back smacking into a branch, and then his head knocking into a root.
Transitioning over to the jungle back to the camp, where the team of ACU troops dismounted their vehicles and proceeded on foot to the camp. The commander picked up his weapon as he headed out, the team members wary. Richard drove as fast as he could and stopped right out of the camp.
"Did you find them?" Richard asks.
"We just arrived, sir," The ACU commander informed him. "We have a team heading up to find the kids now."
"Sir, there seems to be no sign of anyone here." A trooper reported in.
"What?" Richard was afraid to hear that. "They have to be. This was the last-"
That was when a thump was heard. Richard froze in fear when he heard the thumping and knew that it could only be one creature. The ACU Troops all turned towards the jungle as they watched as the Indominous came out of the jungle in its camouflaged state.
Richard froze in fear when he saw her. "Teresa..."
One of the ACU troops that was too close races for safety and the I-rex picks him up. The team hits it with all their stun weapons and the creature drops the commander. While uneaten, he is crushed as the Rex flattens him. Then the I-Rex moved onto the rest of the troops, but it was as if it was fixated on Richard, chasing him specifically and only attacking the troops if they got in her way.
The ACU troops approached and tried to stun her feet, but that didn't work out as she swung her legs, smacking into the camp, causing the elevator and the entire camp to fall. Richard looked upward and saw the camp coming down on top of him and whimpered as he saw there was nothing he could do.
Back with the other kids, they began to wake up and groan after taking their little crash-and-burn. Most of their clothes were already dirty due to the dirt and mud that they had fallen into.
"Oh, ow." Ben winced.
Brooklynn grunts as she stands up. "Are you okay?" She asked Sammy.
Kenji grunts as he stands up.
That was when they heard the Indominous roaring, causing them all to wince. They all looked around in terror.
"Where the heck is that thing?" Yaz asks.
"It's coming." Ben whimpered.
"Shh! It could be anywhere." Yaz said.
"The observation tower was that way?" Brooklynn asks, looking around. "Or was it that way? I..."
"Wait, where is Peter?" Sammy asks.
"Pete?" Darius called in a whisper.
Peter moaned, getting them to look over and see he was leaning on a tree. "Here..."
"Oh, god!" Yaz ran over and knelt over to see his injuries, but apart from some bruises, and a lot of blood, he seemed fine. It was as if his wounds...healed? "Uh, that is weird. You are... were bleeding... but you have no cuts."
"This day just keeps getting weirder," Peter groaned as he sat up. "Everyone okay?"
"As much as we can be," Brooklynn said with relief to see he was okay.
Sammy sighed and knew that they needed to get some help. "Okay, I'm sorry, but I-" She then pulled out Brooklynn's phone but then saw it was destroyed. She gasped and put it back in her pocket, not telling anyone.
Darius gasps. "Where's- No, no. My necklace, I left it in my bunk!"
That was when the Indominous roaring filled the jungle again. They all gasped and backed off into a circle to look around.
"We've got slightly bigger problems than-" Kenji said when he heard the roar again.
"We have to run. Now!" Sammy cried.
"What about Peter?" Yaz asks. "There is no way he-"
"I actually feel fine," Peter tells Yaz. "Outside of the headache setting in. Let's just get the heck out of here!"
And that is exactly what happened. They all ran as fast as they could. Peter was right behind Yaz, which surprised her, and then she saw how weird he was running.
"What are you doing?!" Yaz asks.
"I don't run often!" Peter admitted.
"Just... do what I am doing!" Yaz tells him.
Peter looked over at her movements and started to copy them, causing him to run faster and even run faster than Yaz. "Like this!?"
Yaz was shocked to see him run as fast as he could, even faster than her. "Whoa..."
"Everything will be fine when we get back to camp." Darius whimpered.
They sprinted with every ounce of energy, hearts pounding, desperate to reach the safety of their camp. As they approached, they were struck by the overwhelming chaos that lay before them. The ACU truck, once a symbol of order and control, now lay upturned, its metal frame twisted and mangled. The ground was littered with debris, remnants of the camp's infrastructure strewn haphazardly, as if a storm had swept through, leaving destruction in its path.
Jagged pieces of wood and shredded canvas mingled with the earth, creating a devastating picture of what had been. And then, their eyes widened as they noticed the massive footprints imprinted in the soft ground—deep, clawed prints that spoke to the sheer size and power of the Indominous Rex, a chilling reminder of the creature's terrifying presence.
"Dave, Roxie, the other workers, they must've all gotten away." Sammy tried to come up with a nice solution.
Ben however walked over to a truck and gasped when he saw a body. "Not all of them."
Yaz then found a radio under some rubble. "Hello? Hello! Can anybody-?" She grunted and threw it, seeing it was broken. "We're on our own."
That got the group to become worried and afraid. They had nobody to help them, and they had no help coming for them.
"Give me my phone!" Brooklynn cried in anger to Sammy.
"What?" Sammy asks.
"I don't care about you sneaking into Dr. Wu's lab, I don't care about whatever you did with the skin samples you took from the sinoceratops-"
"What?" Peter asks.
"What skin samples?" Yaz asks.
"What were you doing in Dr. Wu's lab?" Kenji asks.
"I don't even care that you stole it now. All I wanna do is call for help! Where is it?" Brooklynn asks Sammy.
"Uh, I..." Sammy whimpers. "I...I don't know what you're talkin' about!"
"Skin samples? Sneaking into labs? You made up some crazy thing in your own dang head!" Yaz tells Brooklynn in anger.
"Hey, back off," Brooklynn tells her.
"Not everything revolves around you and your phone! It isn't Sammy's fault you lost it!"
"Would you guys please keep it down?!" Ben asks. "There's a big-"
"A big, scary dinosaur?" Kenji guessed. "Of course, there's a big, scary dinosaur! There's always a big, scary dinosaur!"
Peter began to sense something in the rubble and walked off, leaving them to argue.
"And you're always a big-mouthed jerk!"
"Give it back!"
"Back off!"
"Yeah? Well, at least I don't play with crayons!"
What is your problem with me?"
"I'm trying to get us- all of us out of this mess!"
"I didn't lie to you about it!"
"Just stop!"
"Money's not gonna help any of us!"
"No one is getting out of here! We just saw people get eaten! We're alone, we're defenseless." Ben then got on his knees in cried. "We're dead."
"I can't believe this."
Darius stopped his search for his necklace and sighed. "We're not giving up! I get it. It's scary. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Things aren't always gonna go your way. Life is messy and sometimes things fall apart. But that's okay because when that happens, we pick up the pieces and keep going. And we never give up."
"What about your necklace?" Yaz asks.
"It's not important," Darius said. "I've got the memories right here."
"What are we supposed to do?" Yaz asks.
"Get south to the park. Get help." Darius said. "And the only way we'll make it is if we do it together. We're a team or we're nothing at all."
"Or, you know, we don't go back into the jungle," Ben said.
"You can wait for the negligent babysitters, but I'm with Darius," Kenji said.
"Wait, really?" Darius asks.
"Dude, there's no way I survived a dinosaur attack..." That was when some debris fell in front of them. "...just to be taken out by cheap camp debris," Kenji stated. "Kenji ain't goin' out like that. We're going south. The rest of you coming or what?"
"I'm in."
"We're in, too."
"Um, but guys?" Ben called. "Where is Peter?"
As the eerie silence enveloped the camp, a haunting moan pierced the air, drawing their attention. "Dad?" Peter's voice trembled with fear as he called out, the urgency palpable. "DAD!" Without a second thought, he sprinted towards the flickering shadows of the camp, leaping over twisted metal and scattered debris.
His heart raced as he discovered his father pinned beneath a massive slab of rubble, a scene etched in desperation. Panic surged through Peter, but he knew he had to act. With all his strength, he pressed against the heavy rubble, his muscles straining as the others watched in disbelief, convinced there was no way he could lift such a colossal weight.
Yet, in that heartbeat, something extraordinary happened. Fueled by sheer determination and an unyielding bond, Peter hoisted the rubble with an almost supernatural ease. As the debris shifted and tumbled away, his father looked up, eyes wide with shock and disbelief, visibly shaken by the strength and courage his son had just displayed.
"Peter?" Richard asked in shock. "Oh, no... you were bitten..."
"What?" Peter asks, trying to place the rubble down.
Yaz ran over and saw that his leg was broken. "He can't walk on his own."
"Can we chance to bring him with us in this condition?" Sammy asks.
Richard laid up the best he could when he heard that comment, hearing a roar in the jungle. "Please chance it."