Survivors

33

I helped Darius back up to his feet. "Are you going to be okay?" I asked. I wasn't just going to forget about what he said earlier.

"Yeah, I'll be okay," Darius replied.

"You know you can come to me if anything is bothering you," I said.

"I know," Darius said.

My hands were still in his as I looked at him. I leaned forward and planted a kiss on his lips.

I then backed away. "Remember, I'm here for you," I reminded.

"I remember," Darius replied. He had a smile on his face that made me fall head over heels for him.

"Alright, let's head back. We need to figure out how we are going to get out of here," I said.

Darius nodded and ran back to the others. The others were getting there around the same time as the others. Mae ran through the tunnel with Ben.

"The plane left without you?" She asked. "I'm so sorry. I don't understand what's going on here, but you have my word I'll get you off this island somehow."

I shook my head. "Not now. Soon, but not now. We saw what Mantah Corp did to the T-rexes and Pierce. Mae," I turned to the doctor. "You can't protect them yourself. You'll need our help."

"Sure, whatever you say," Yaz sighed. I looked at her in concern. She seemed down.

"Then let's get to work, then. We've got to get Pierce back to the desert biome. And if the planes gone, that means new dinosaur food has already been unloaded," Mae explained as she opened the airlock door.

"We'll check the T-rexes to make sure their food isn't contaminated again," Brooklynn informed.

"Y'all, Yaz and I are both wrecked, so we're gonna go get some rest, if that's cool," Sammy said.

"Of course," Brooklynn said.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," Ben said.

"After you're all done, we'll meet at Mae's and figure out a game plan to protect these dinos," Yaz said.

We all went out separate ways after we entered the airlock. Darius, Ben, and I stayed with Mae and Pierce.

"You guys stay back," Mae said as Pierce groaned and swung his tail back and forth. "He's clearly agitated and I don't want him to-" Pierce groaned and charged at us.

We all dove out of the way and Pierce turned around a groaned at us.

"Pierce! Pierce, stop! Stop, Pierce, stop. Calm." Mae hit a button on her tablet, which made a groaning sound. "Calm," Mae said as she hit the button again. Pierce groaned. "Scared," Mae translated. Just... how?

"Yes, but... you don't have to be scared. 'Cause we're going to take you home," Mae continued as she hit another button on her tablet. Pierce grunted and Mae smiled. "That's right, darling. Home."

"She... she just talked to a dinosaur," Darius said in awe.

"Pfft. She did it with fancy science buttons. Bumby and I found a way to talk through here." Ben put a hand on his chest. "The biggest button of all."

"Wow," I said. "That was incredibly cheesy."

Ben looked at Darius who gave him an unimpressed look. "But, yeah, that was super cool," Ben said.

"Come on. Let's get Pierce back to where he belongs," Mae said to us. We nodded and followed her out an airlock to the desert biome.

"So, now, you decided to just drop, 'oh, yeah, I can speak to dinosaurs, but, whatevs'," Darius asked.