Welcome To Jurassic Hell

Ch. 29: The Boy Hunt

It isn't until we reach the familiar velociraptor paddock, now old and decaying and taken over by jungle, that I finally let us take a break.

We find a log on the outskirts of the paddock clearing and sit ourselves down. I need it more out of everyone, with how much my chest and throat are bugging me, but I don't want it.

I don't want to waste time sitting around when I could be looking for Ben. I don't want to wait until my chest and throat feel better to keep searching.

I want to find him now.

Because the more time that's wasted, the more danger I put him in.

"Alright, let's go." I say, standing up. Brooklyn and Darius gape at me.

"What? But we've barely been here for a few minutes! We need a break."

"And I need my brother." I scowl. "Come on."

I start to walk away before Darius shouts for me to wait. He runs over and puts a hand on my shoulder, turning me around to face him.

"Blake, are you...are you sure that Ben's..." he trails off.

"Yes, Darius. Don't underestimate the connection between twins."

"I'm not! I just...I just don't want you to freak out if we find...if-"

He looks away and I hear his shaky sigh. I'm more concerned than mad, wondering why he seemed so upset.

"Darius, are you okay?"

He keeps his eyes away from me but replies.

"I just...we watched him fall from a fifty or so foot monorail track. We saw him followed by pterodactyls and disappear. What if he's gone? What if...this might not be worth the search?"

"Darius..." I whisper softly. "Do you still blame yourself for Ben's death?"

He nods slowly.

"Darius, it wasn't-"

"I was supposed to keep everyone safe!" Darius cries, now turning back to me, revealing built up tears running down his face. "I-I promised to protect everyone, but then Ben fell and...and it should've been me, and I should've grabbed him earlier, but-"

"Oh my God, Darius, he chose to climb up there! You couldn't stop him from doing that, but I could have. I'm his sister, I'm the one who should've tried harder. He saved our lives but for what? To have himself...to have himself killed? I..."

This time it's me who turns away. I hold my arms close and let the water release from my eyes and crawl down my face.

"I refuse to believe it. He can't have faced his fears for nothing. He's alive, I know it."

"Blake..." Brooklyn cuts in, and I almost forgot she was there. I don't look back at her, but I feel her hand delicately touch my shoulder. "Blake, I understand. You're in the denial stage of grief, I learned about it in one of the videos I-"

Her hand is off my shoulder in seconds, and I'm whipped around to shove her backwards before she can so much as say her own name. She gasps as she trips on a tree root sticking up from the ground, and Darius jumps back in surprise.

I start to scream.

"You don't get to tell me how I feel! This isn't about your stupid channel. Don't you dare say that I'm in denial when I know goddamn well that he is alive!"

Brooklyn recovers from her moment of shock and stares me down.

"You don't! You have no idea if he's still alive."

"He's my twin! We're connected in a way you could never understand, and I can feel it deep inside me that he is alive, breathing and terrified, thinking that we abandoned him and left him alone!"

"You weren't thinking that a few weeks ago! Actually, you were throwing the blame around at us saying that we got him killed!"

Me and Brooklyn were now chest to chest, glare to glare, and Darius' efforts to break us apart grew useless. He backed away and watched helplessly as my worst enemy and I had yet another fight.

"Because you did! Darius and I were the only ones who fucking tried to do shit, while you just stood there and watched my brother hang on for his life. We tried to save him! You-Y-You did nothing!"

She stood there, up to my face, eyes filled with tears. I was unfazed by this with my own emotions boiling over.

When she didn't fight back, I kept ranting.

"Back at the...the canoes, I thought we'd...I thought we'd formed something. I thought we bonded and grew past our childish little rivalry."

"We did-" she starts, but I cut her off.

"We did, Brooklyn. We did. I though we were friends, that...that we were becoming close. We were until you got him killed. You did nothing to try and pull my brother back up into the train. We were friends. We were!"

We're both crying at this point, silent sobs aching my chest and broken ones shaking her. A mix of emotions pass through her face, and at first I thought she was going to say sorry. I thought she'd apologize and I'd have to tell her — no, I'll never forgive you — or forgive her in some cliche-ass teen flick emotional way.

But she didn't. Instead, her face bloomed red and she started yelling back again. She wanted the fight to keep going, the little bitch...

"I don't know why I ever wanted to! God, you're...ugh, you don't understand at all what I have to go through every day just to keep from ruining my reputation."

"Oh, I bet that's really hard." I scoff.

"It is! And you don't respect that, you've never respected me! Since we first got here you've hated me for no good reason. You've been bitchy and dramatic and quiet and acting like you're the victim when you're really just vilifying me!

"You act like you know what you're doing now, when really, you're more fucked than the rest of us! Out of all of us, you're going to be the one to die next because god only knows that if you can't keep your brother alive, you can't keep yourself alive!"

"Brooklyn!"

Darius' shout of horror is when she stops. She's about to rant more when she processes her words, and her eyes practically bulge from their sockets when she does. I just stand there, frozen in place.

"Oh...Oh my God, Blake, I didn't mean-"

I pull back and shake my head.

"No." I whisper. "Fuck you."

Then I run.