Jungle Girl

Kindness Is Weakness

When the sun rose again, being a very quiet morning. No birds chirped like they did on Nublar, and you could barely hear the noises of the Mantah Corp Pteranodon's, Big nor Little Eatie roared as much as they used to and only the roars of the Indoraptor could be heard from the warehouse.

Ben slowly opened his eyes to feel his long brown swooped over bangs resting against his eyelids, with no bandana to keep his hair back, it was a lost cause. Ben felt something heavy on top of him and it wasn't his hair, rather Darius' head, who had stayed there all night, not moving any positions or off of Ben.

Ben smiled softly, thinking about how his boyfriend stayed with him all night and didn't leave him for a second. Ben reached his left hand up to feel the side of Darius' cheek, and Darius' nose twitched as he let out a small groan, "..Ben..." Darius said with a groggy voice, "..Just making sure you're alive." Ben replied, Ben using his other hand to rub his eyes.

"You have smooth skin too..." Ben chuckled softly. "Thanks..." Darius moved his head so it would be up against Ben's shoulder, directly resting in the notch of his neck. "...Did you sleep well?" Darius asked, yawning in the middle of his sentence, opening his eyes but still rubbing his head against Ben's neck.

Ben preferred not to comment on that question. "Is everyone else awake?" Darius asked instead, "I am." Brooklynn squeaked before clearing her throat. "Couldn't sleep." She said. "Darius, this probably isn't what you want to hear first thing in the morning, but..." Brooklynn began and Darius quickly removed his head from Ben's neck, their relaxation was officially over for the day. "Tell me." He said.

"Well, Mr. Kon took the dinosaurs to the swamp biome...and into the warehouse." Brooklynn told him. "But, then he...he left, coming to look for Kenji or us, or both." Brooklynn said, feeling the same knot from last night grow in her stomach. "Wu was there....he brought the dinosaurs to the stadium."

"Kenji wasn't with him?" Darius asked, interrupting Brooklynn, "No, he wasn't..." Brooklynn replied.

"And what do you mean 'stadium'?" Darius interrupted. "Battle arena, for the dinosaur fights." Brooklynn explained, "And Darius...." Brooklynn's hands dug into her thighs, Brooklynn took a deep breath in from her nose and breathed out of her mouth. "That hybrid...." Brooklynn's voice shook.

"It's real..." She said, "I never doubted that it wasn't." Darius replied, "I don't understand how he got those Indominus samples, though...." Darius said. "Neither do I...." Brooklynn said, "Oh, and, Darius...." Brooklynn continued, "We didn't stay and watch the fights, nor did we try to stop them...."

"It didn't feel right for me to put the three of us in danger like that, because knowing Kon and Wu..."

"They would've wanted us to be there." Brooklynn and Darius said at the same time, "Brooklynn, I would've done the same thing...maybe." Darius told her, "No, you would've gone off all alone..." Brooklynn replied, "Cause you're a doofus." She said, laughing quietly. "Uh, Darius..." Brooklynn perked her head up and looked around, "Where's Ben?" She asked, "What?" Darius asked, looking around too.

"Oh, no! No, no!" Darius began to panic, "How does he move so fast? Why didn't he say anything?! Where did he go? We have to find him!" Darius' voice progressively got clearer and louder sounding. "Woah, woah, it's okay, Darius..." Brooklynn took both of his hands, "He couldn't have gotten far."

That was a famous line from the campers, even Darius had said it himself when Scar went missing. Ben sniffed the air, wandering through the forest, though, he wasn't really wandering, he was simply looking for berries using his sense of smell, that seemed stronger then before, if Scar could find berries, Ben could too.

But as he sniffed for berries, something rather...familiar came into the air, a familiarity he never realized until now. It smelt of moss, of the river, lots of dirt that had turned into mud, and an overwhelming smell of blood, sweat and tears. He decided to follow this sound, because, well, he had nothing better to do.