PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

IX. Eva (Surprisingly) Saves Her Mortal Enemy From Certain Death

"Shhh, It could be anywhere."

Brooklynn looked around, eyebrows knit together. "The observation tower was that way? O-or was it that way? I..."

"Where's...? No, no. My necklace, I left it in my bunk!" Darius cried.

Eva's hand flew to her neck, breathing out a sigh of relief upon realizing her grandmother's necklace was still hanging around her neck. She didn't want another reason for her grandparents to hate her.

The Indominus Rex roared again, and the teenagers quietly huddled together.

"We have to run, now!" Sammy whisper-shouted.

Everyone nodded in agreement and took off running. Everything looked the same to Eva, but somehow they made it back to Camp Cretaceous, or, whatever's left of it. The camp was destroyed: half of the treehouse was sitting in a pile of rubble in front of what used to be the elevator. The skybridges dangled helplessly on either end. Random pieces of wood splattered the ground.

Eva didn't understand how something so high up could get destroyed so easily— wasn't the camp built in the trees for a reason?

"Dave, Roxie, the other workers... They must've all gotten away," Sammy said, hopeful.

Yasmina picked up a walkie-talkie and held the main button, speaking into it. There wasn't even the buzz of radio silence to accompany it, but complete and utter silence. Yasmina sighed as she dropped the radio to the ground. "We're on our own."

Silence filled the camp as the realization dawned on them. There were no workers around, no counselors, no one to come and save them. Assuming evacuation protocols were in effect, the campers were completely by themselves in reaching the southern docks.

"Give me my phone!" Brooklynn yelled, breaking the silence.

Eva rolled her eyes. Of course, the phone would be super useful in this moment, but she didn't understand why Brooklynn was so hell bent on thinking Sammy was the one to be holding on to it.

"I don't care about you sneaking into Dr. Wu's lab, I don't care about whatever you did with the skin samples you took from the sinoceratops—"

Eva furrowed her eyebrows, glancing between both girls. The others voiced their opinions of confusion, too.

"— I don't even care that you stole it now. All I wanna do is call for help! Where is it?!"

"Uh, I... I... I don't know what you're talking about!" Sammy walked towards the others and away from Brooklynn, almost as if to single her out. "Skin samples? Sneaking into labs? You made up some crazy thing in your own dang head!"

"Hey, back off!" Yaz joined in. "Not everything revolves around you and your phone! It isn't Sammy's fault you lost it!"

"Easy," Eva said, stepping between the two girls. "Brooklynn's just trying to get us out of here, Yaz."

"Oh, of course you'd side with her!"

"I'm not siding with anyone," she defended herself. "You're both in the wrong, but it's a stressful situation—"

"Give it back!"

Eva groaned internally. She kicked a small rock on the ground and threw her hands in the air, mumbling to herself, "Why do I even— why do I even bother?"

"Back off!"

"What is your problem with me? I'm trying to get us— all of us, out of this mess!"

"I didn't lie to you about it!"

The three girls continued to bicker, a headache forming in Eva's head. She walked away from them, beelinging for a small barrier that enclosed one of the islands of flora in the large clearing surrounding camp. She took a seat on the small ledge, extending her feet in front of her.