Survivors

42

Ben, Darius, and I walked to stand behind Brooklynn as she stood in front of the door to the tree room, where Kenji was. Sunny had her tail curled around my leg.

"You ready?" Darius asked Brooklynn.

She took a deep breath before pushing open the doors and walking in. The rest of us followed her.

Kenji stopped from where he was picking up plates from the table. Yaz came over and led Ben, Darius, and I to the side where Sammy was. I grabbed some bacon for Sunny. She happily munched on it.

"Kenji, I am so, so sorry, I..." Brooklynn trailed off.

"Stood me up?" Kenji finished.

"I know it looks bad, is bad, but I had a good reason. Darius, Ben, Chris, and I found out that... that your dad freed Kash. And has Mae working with to perfect dino control. And they've done it," Brooklynn explained.

Kenji then slammed the plates harshly on the table.

"Damn, this ain't going well," I whispered to Yaz. She put her hand on my face and shushed me, wanting to hear what was happening next.

"Are you serious!?" Kenji yelled.

"Yes. Which is probably what your dad's big presentation today is all about," Brooklynn explained.

"I'm not talking about my dad, I'm talking about you!" Kenji yelled, glaring harshly at Brooklynn. "Instead of showing up to our first date, you decided to sneak around behind my back to prove that my dad is, what, some sort of supervillain?"

I hissed, taking a step forward. Darius quickly grabbed my arm to keep me from pouncing on Kenji.

"It wasn't like that," Ben said. "Brooklynn tried to get back for the date, but there were obstacles."

"I don't care. I'm not even mad about that. Why didn't you guys talk to me about any of this?" Kenji asked.

"You were getting so close to your dad, we didn't want to bring it up unless we were sure he was really up to something," Darius explained.

"Fine, I'll talk to him," Kenji said and walked over to the door. Before leaving, he turned to face us. "But for the record, you guys are the ones who are obviously up to something." With that, he left.

I hissed in anger and pulled out my pocket knife. I began twirling it in my hands.

"Nothing's changed. We still need to help Mae and stop Mr. Kon," Ben said before heading out the door with Yaz and Sammy following.

I began pacing, still twirling my knife in my hands.

"We got this," Darius said to Brooklynn. "You don't need to mess things up any worse with Kenji."

I threw my knife at the door, causing it to get lodged in. Darius and Brooklynn looked at me in shock and fear. "Fuck Kenji," I said. "He chose his side."

I then walked over to the door and pulled my knife out. It left a pretty deep mark. I then turned to the others. "Listen, I suggest we don't tell Kenji about anything we find out today. We could risk him 'tattling' to his dad on us, which could be bad for us."

Darius and Brooklynn both nodded and followed me out the door and into the forest. We caught up to the others.

We snuck around trees and bushes to see a clanker-X push a cart towards a building with Kash and Mae following.

"Few more tweaks, and it's showtime," Kash said before he turned to Mae. "I told you we'd make a great team."

"Right before you tried to have me killed?" Mae questioned with a glare.