PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

V. Gollum Makes A Guest Appearance In The Form Of Eva

Dr. Wu didn't respond. Instead, he turned away and focused on something else. Eva turned her attention back to the ankylosaurus. Ben happily guided her around the incubator, eyes never leaving her side. She rolled around on her back, trilling excitedly.

Eventually, Sammy moved to Eva's right, watching Ben and the ankylosaurus, too.

"Well, that's it, Ben," Roxie chuckled. "Looks like you live here now."

"Who knew you had it in you?" Eva laughed as Ben picked up the dinosaur again.

"Time for you all to leave." Dr. Wu appeared behind Eva, shoving Brooklynn into her. Eva caught her arm and kept her from falling. "Clearly, this group has no respect for my lab."

Ben held up the baby dinosaur, "But what about Bumpy?"

Dr. Wu took Bumpy from Ben's hands, "The asset will soon be released into a herd of ankylosauruses. Then she'll be their problem, just like you'll cease to be my problem when you leave."

"All right, bup-bup-bup-bup-bup. Hit the road!" Dave steered Ben towards the doors. "We are not wanted here."

Eva followed the others for the door. Ben stood back, eyes locked on Bumpy. Eva awkwardly put her arm on his shoulder, sighing. Ben nodded and slowly peeled away. They walked in silence back to the jeep.

Eva took a seat beside Ben and across from Yasmina. Ben curled into himself, refusing to speak, but then again, the car was rather quiet as Roxie started the jeep and took them back into the jungle. Brooklynn was back to mindlessly scrolling on her phone.

Eva caught Yasmina's gaze, and she wiggled her eyebrows. Yasmina snorted, looking away from her with a mocking eye roll.

The jeep rolled up on Kenji and Darius, who were gasping for breath. Eva narrowed her eyes, looking at the shovels laying on the ground in front of them. Behind them, the dung pile looked nearly the same size as it was before their trip to the genetics lab.

"Why are you two so out of breath?" Roxie questioned.

"Just doing the job we're told," Darius smiled, walking closer to the jeep. "How was the field trip?"

"Oh, well, um, you know, Ben fell in love with a dinosaur, and Super Star here got us booted from the lab," Yasmina relayed.

Brooklynn looked away from her phone, "That is not what happened—"

Sammy cut her off, "How'd poop patrol go?"

"Awesome," Kenji smirked. "You all should have seen how I owned—"

"This valuable experience!" Darius cut him off, glaring. Eva quirked an eyebrow. "Um, learned a lot about ourselves, and, uh... yep!"

Roxie sniffed, "Oh, well then, hit the showers! And maybe stay in there for a while?"

"Use soap," Ben added as Roxie pulled the jeep around. "Lots of soap!"

They left the boys behind.

~~~

That night, in the middle of a thrilling game of Cards Against Humanity amongst the girls, Kenji burst through the girls dorm room. Eva chucked the closest thing to her, which happened to be her stuffed blue dragon, Luca, straight at his head.

"We could have been naked, dumbass," She hollered. "What do you want?"

Kenji caught the dragon and gave it a look over before tossing it back. "Roxie set up the campfire on the patio. Darius is gonna tell dinosaur stories."

Sammy set down her cards top down, excitedly. "Ooh! I wanna join!"

"Sure, why not?" Eva said as she did the same with her cards, hauling herself to her feet. She set Luca back on her bed, and followed Kenji out the door. Brooklynn was close behind her as they filed into the lounge and out to the patio.

Sammy, Brooklynn and Kenji took a seat on the bench across from Darius. Ben glanced between Kenji and Eva before taking a seat on his other side. Eva shrugged, and took an empty bench all to herself.

The night had cooled the air immensely, but the warmth from the flickering flames put Eva at ease. She pulled her Rutherford hoodie closer around her body.

Darius cleared his throat, then flipped up his hood. "We thought it'd be fun. We thought we'd be safe, but... we didn't realize the... horror waiting for us on the island. Claws, teeth, screaming..."

Eva breathed into her hands to keep warm. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Ben snuggling into Kenji's side.

"So much screaming..."

"How much screaming?" Ben asked.

"Shh," Kenji shushed him. "He's getting to the good part."

"The T. Rex stalked closer," Darius continued. He opened his arms to mimic his story, "Her jaws opened wide—"

A flash went off; everyone turned to Brookylnn. "For the vlog," she said in a duh tone. "Keep telling your little story."

Darius flicked his hood back up. "The T. Rex sta—"

"Dang!"

Eva groaned, her head rolling back.

"Out of space," Brooklynn complained. "Wait, I'm sorry, hold on. I just don't wanna delete my selfie on Everest, you know?"

"This is why you use the Cloud," Eva pointed out.

"Maybe I should start over," Darius suggested.

"No!" Ben shouted. "In fact, you can just stop."

"Dude, chill, he's not even telling the story right now," Kenji said to Ben, the latter of which was clinging to Kenji's side. Eva smiled at the small interaction from the other side of Ben. "And how is your grip this strong?!"

"So the T. Rex stalked closer—"

"Shouldn't we call Yasmina over?" Sammy asked, peering across the patio at Yasmina, who was standing by herself by the railing, holding some type of sketchbook. Eva didn't even realize she hadn't joined the group for the story. "I bet she'd love this story."

Eva sighed and laid down on the bench she had to herself. Darius followed suit on his bench, although he fell rather unceremoniously with a thunk.

"Maybe she wants to be by herself," Brooklynn suggested.

"I don't understand."

"You know how sometimes people just wanna be left alone?" Kenji said, glaring down at Ben, who was still grasping his arm.

Sammy laughed, "Kenji, you're hilarious. I think she's just shy and doesn't know how to make camp friends."

"Right..."

A loud crack of thunder boomed in the sky, bringing a torrential downpour. Eva quickly flicked up her hood, settling back into the bench as she continued to get soaked with rain. She smiled, her face covered by her hoodie as she listened to the other campers fleeing for the door inside.

"Well, that was a waste of time," Brooklynn shouted from further away.

Darius scoffed, "Thanks, Brooklynn."

"Hey," Eva said, not bothering to move. "I liked the story."

She could almost hear his smile, "Thanks! Are you coming inside?"

She shook her head, then realized he probably couldn't see her. "Nah, I love the rain."

"Okay. Want me to get you before curfew?"

"Sure..." she said unsure.

There was no response, but Eva heard him stand and walk away, leaving her alone in the rain.