Jurassic World- Camp Cretaceous: Retold

Suspicion of Salvation

They dashed. Faster than they'd run from any dinosaur, the 5 kids were in glee. They were going home. Finally, they'd be going home! Every now and then, one of them would climb a tree just to make sure they were going in the right direction. They didn't care if they woke any predators. They were going home, and that was all that mattered.

Darius scampered up a tree. His turn to look out. But, his smile dropped. He searched desperately. No, no, no, no. The smoke, the orange light... gone. They were too slow. He hopped down from the tree. Everyone was exhausted now, but ready to keep going. This was gonna sting...

"The bonfire. It's gone," he said. His voice was full of despair and panic. Everybody's face dropped.

"What if they left? What if the people who came to save us gave up, and we missed our chance?" Sammy expressed her worry. It definitely rubbed off on the others. Their hope quickly vanished. Their joy, their excitement... gone. Darius struggled to find the words to keep them going, to keep them strong. Because he himself was worrying about that possibility. And, being the youngest, the stress of having to keep a group of teenagers, all older than himself, was a major struggle.

The roar of a dinosaur caused the group to gather around and huddle defensively. It was definitely a carnivore. In the dark of the night, and with foliage covering their view and the moonlight, the campers couldn't see much. A deadly silence fell the forest for a moment.

"Could be a really big Compy, right... Darius? Didn't you say they were creepo skylarks?" Kenji whispered, hoping the dino nerd could say something reassuring to ease his nerves.

"I said they were crepuscular," he corrected. And then it happened. He just about managed to avoid the jaws of a mid-sized theropod as it charged the group. So now, the campers had gone back to running in fear away from danger. They thought there would be no more of this. That the last time they ran through this jungle was towards safety. It was pretty clear, the notable horn confirming that their pursuer was a Ceratosaurus. Maybe the same one from the watering hole.

Kenji sprinted, looking back. That proved to be a near fatal mistake. He hit his head on a branch and fell back, dropping what was his weapon, the small butter knife. Sammy tripped over him, with the others all ahead. The Ceratosaurus closed in. As the three standing campers tried to help their friends up, it became evident that they wouldn't outrun the thing. So, Brooklynn and Darius stood in front of the others, weapons in hand. The weapons were not anything that would instill confidence. A wooden bat and wooden plank. But just as their deaths seemed imminent, it happened.

The area lit up, and they saw flares fly above their would-be killer. It was near blinding, and then Brooklynn heard a man shout something, and then she was on the ground. So were the others. Through the smoke of the flares, they could see three people. One of them shot bullets into the air to scare the predator off.

"Oh, thank goodness..." one of the three said. A woman with a safari hat on turned to them with a concerned look. So did a guy, blue shirt, also sporting a safari hat. "You're ok," she smiled.

Darius stared in disbelief for a moment. All of them did. It had been weeks now since they'd last seen an adult. Or anyone else for that matter. Their lack of words seemed to worry the guy again.

"You are ok, aren't you?" he asked. Behind him came the man who had scared the Ceratosaurus away. He had grey hair, and a stern look. He had that very typical hardcore survivalist vibe.

"Who... who are you?" asked Darius. It hit him that there was only 3 of them, which was odd. A rescue operation would surely send more. And, also, two of them were dressed like tourists. One even had a camera. It didn't make much sense.