PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

XX. Left Behind

Kenji's face lit up. "I remember that! And if I remember correctly, my twenty three correct answer streak outwinned your wimpy little nineteen answer streak! Ha!"

"Yeah, well guess who's laughing now! Me! Ha- ha- ha. Unlike you, I retained enough information from freshman to junior year to outsmart you in math."

"Yeah, well, look at us now! We're both still stuck on Isla Nublar with nowhere safe to be..."

Eva bit her tongue, eyes falling on the ground. Her smile fell into a frown. She shook her head, "It doesn't matter now. You're right, the whole island is full of dinosaurs."

"We're screwed," He sighed.

"We can't give up yet," Sammy said, determined. "We set off the emergency beacon. We just need to find somewhere safe to hole up until rescue arrives."

"Where? It's been days. We're out of options."

"Actually, there's one place we haven't tried, but I'm not sure you're gonna like it."

~~~

Darius led the campers through the jungle, and the further they strayed from the east coastline, the more of the jungle Eva began to recognize. It didn't take a genius to figure out Darius was taking them back to Camp Cretaceous, but the place was trashed the last time they were there. What good would a trashed camp be for them?

"Are you serious?" Kenji deadpanned. "Didn't we specifically run away from here?"

"Just hear me out," Darius said. "There's a stream for fresh water, we've got trees and mountains to protect us from the worst of weather and dinosaur attacks." Brooklynn cleared her throat. "Okay, not all dinosaur attacks. But if you were coming to rescue a bunch of campers, wouldn't camp be the first place you looked? And, we've even got supplies to build a shelter right here. They're, uh, broken supplies, but we could do it. Right, Brooklynn?"

Brooklynn looked around, like Darius was talking to a different Brooklynn that wasn't her. "What?"

"I mean, you must've made one video about building a shelter, right?"

"Right," Kenji agreed, "All you do is videos."

Brooklynn scoffed. "Excuse me, I do lots of things other than videos! I have a whole life of other things! But yes, okay, I did help raise that barn for Unboxing Amish Country. Just saying."

"I knew it."

"Oh, I love that one!"

"There you go."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's clear that stuff!" Yaz limped forward, heading for the pile of debris.

Eva bit her tongue, watching the girl try to rifle through the supplies. Perseverance would be the death of her.

"Hey, Yaz, maybe it's best if you sat this one out?" Darius suggested.

"What? No, I'm totally— woah!" She slipped, her fall almost comical as her feet flew into the air and she landed on her back. "It's nothing, I'm fine. I wanted to be on the ground now."

Yaz tried to stand, but Sammy pushed her back into the ground. "This isn't nothing. Your ankle is still hurt. All that running over the past few days didn't help it any."

Darius unfolded Sammy's map. "Based on this symbol, there might be some sort of clinic nearby. We'll see if we can find anything for your ankle. Just rest here."

"No way! I'm not sitting around while you go back out there. I can pull my own weight."

"Rest," Sammy told her, hand on her shoulder, pushing her back into the gravel again. "You're gonna need that ankle to win gold medals when we get off this island, okay?"