We Survived | Camp Cretaceous

A Beacon of Hope

Amelia

We walked quietly through the jungle for a little while, maybe an hour, in complete silence. Nothing except our breathing, our footsteps and the sound of insects buzzing filled the air around us. About halfway through our walk the adrenaline started to wear off and the pain of my injuries came through full force and it's becoming increasingly more difficult to move. I've been keeping my arm close to my side so I don't hit it on anything by accident and my back has been aching continuously, and a sharp pain shoots through it every once and a while. I've been walking very stiffly as well because of the glass in my stomach and chest, I don't want to push it any further in. I mentally curse myself for not bringing the first aid kit from camp with, there were tweezers in there and more bandages that I could use to stop the bleeding after I take the glass out. Looking around, I realize the area around us is oddly familiar so I stop to study, and everyone seems to notice I had stopped because they did too and Darius walks up to me after a few seconds.

"What's wrong? Why'd you stop?" He asks me and I look around once more before answering.

"Is it just me, or is this place kind of familiar?" They all start to look around too, except for Kenji who decided to make a comment.

"Of course it does, we're surrounded by jungle. Everything looks the same, so everything will look familiar." I know he's tired, we all are, but I am not in the mood for his attitude.

"You know damn well that's not what I meant. Remember how Darius and I recognized when we were near Toro's pen? You didn't question us then, so why are you making comments now?" I cross my arms and glare at him, making him roll his eyes as he moves closer to me.

"Exactly. You and Darius recognized it, this time it's just you saying it's familiar. How do we know you're not just imagining that it looks familiar?" He's now standing right in front of me and I turn so my left shoulder is closest to him. I can't be bothered to look him right in the face, he's being ridiculous.

"That's why I stopped and asked, because I wasn't sure. Unlike you in the tunnels, where you got us lost and we ended up stuck here!" I must've pissed him off, because he pushed my shoulder, making me stumble when I took a step back and into a dip that was in the ground. I lost my balance and ended up falling onto my butt in the hole, and I instinctively tried to catch myself, unfortunately with my right arm and I yelped as it hit the ground behind me. The sharp pain that shot through my arm made me hold it against my chest and I'm now sitting with my legs out in front of me, holding my right arm against me and my left arm holding it there. Brooklynn steps down into the shallow hole and offers me a hand up as Darius stands between Kenji and the hole, giving the taller boy an angry look as I accepted help up.

"Hey! Both of you need to cut it out. Amelia, that comment was out of line. Kenji, pushing her was not necessary. We're all tired, but you guys need to chill." Darius turned to look between us both as he talked and I dusted myself off as he did. Brooklynn and I stepped out of the hole and I stayed silent as he continued, "Anyway, I think you're right. I do recognize this place but I'm not sure exactly..." He trailed off as he looked behind me, staring at the hole I had just fallen in with a curious expression so I looked too. Immediately I saw what caught his attention about the hole, because it wasn't a normal hole. It was a footprint, a giant footprint. Specifically, the Indominus' footprint. It looks just like the one that was at camp, and I quickly put two and two together.

"Oh! I know where we are!" They all turned to look at me, "We're near camp. If we go that way" I point in the direction the footprint would've come from, "we'll hit camp. It might be the safest place for us right now. Plus, if anything, we know that if we go that way we'll be heading away from the Indominus." I start to walk in the direction I think camp is, speaking over my shoulder as I do, "I'm going. You guys can just stand there or you can follow me." After a few seconds I heard footsteps behind me and I smiled to myself as they decided to follow, I really did not want to go on my own. We walked for maybe 10 more minutes, me still in the lead but everyone close behind, before we came across our camp. Or rather, what was left of it. It seems something else, or maybe the Indominus again, had come through and destroyed whatever was left. There was almost nothing in the trees and there was debris surrounding the bottom, a large pile of broken supplies sitting right where my brother did when I patched his head. I walked over to the pile and started picking through it as everyone else sat down to rest for a bit. Eventually I got to the bottom of the pile and smiled when I saw the first aid kit laying right where I had left it. I picked it up and turned to face my fellow campers, seeing most of them had picked their own trees to lay against. Darius was walking around, probably keeping a lookout for danger and I slowly walked over to him, not wanting to bother him but I needed help.