PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

LXXXVIII. It's What We Have To Do

Ben pulled Darius into his side. "A lunatic that wanted to force dinosaurs to fight!"

"And we even got carnivores to play nice with herbivores," Eva bragged.

"Yeah! So, wave to the camera, people. You're kind of a big deal."

"Don't you wanna be in the shot?" Sammy asked.

Brooklynn slowly shook her head. "Nah... that doesn't feel like me anymore."

"I guess we've all changed a lot since we first got to camp," Ben emitted.

Darius slug his arm over Ben's shoulders. "Oh, yeah. If I told the old you that you'd survive in the jungle, and become best friends with an ankylosaurus..."

"I'd probably have a heart attack," he laughed.

"Yeah, and I didn't want to talk to anyone, like, at all," Yasmina said next.

"Except for me!" Sammy exclaimed. "Well, really, I kept talking to you, and eventually, you had to respond."

"Meanwhile, Kenji never stopped talking," Eva joked. "He was so..." She faltered, realizing she was about to start talking about him— about her ex, about the boy she was still hopelessly in love with.

The campers all fell silent, unsure of what to say.

"So, uh, I-I've been thinking..." Darius said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "We've done everything we can to prepare for when they come back, but why are we waiting for them to act first?"

~~~

"We're the ones with the upper hand," Darius explained as they walked through the tunnels. "Even if he knows we got out, Daniel has no idea Brooklynn shut the drones and the BRADs down, except the one Sammy and B ran into. Or, that we moved most of the dinos to the forest biome."

"Yeah," Sammy agreed, "He's totally underestimating us! A big mistake," she slapped a fist against her open palm, making a smacking noise.

"I'm guessing you have a genius plan to take him by surprise?" Brooklynn smiled evily.

"Yeah, we trap them in here as soon as they land," he answered dejectedly. "Take their drone plane, go to the mainland, and get help."

"It's a good plan."

Ben agreed, "We just have to figure out how to get the doors to stay shut. It could work."

"And if it does, we've trapped Kenji."

Silence settled over the group, and Eva caught Sammy staring at her, to which she rolled her eyes and looked away.

"We don't have a choice. Besides, he locked us up first, I guess it's only fair," said Darius.

"You're right, Eva admitted quietly. "It's what we have to do."

~~~

"Well, I can get them to close, but not automatically," Brooklynn said.

Brooklynn stood in front of the keypad next to one of the doors. Ben and Darius watched her work closely, meanwhile Eva was a dozen feet behind them and on the ground, lying out like a starfish with her eyes closed.

"Option A, you show us how. Option B, can't we just short out the console?" Ben asked.

Yasmina wandered away, calling out for Sammy. If Eva had to guess— if Sammy was in trouble, they'd be hearing her screams of panic, so Eva took it as her queue to stay on the ground.

"Guys!" Yaz complained from around the corner. "If you're testing the doors, a little warning would be nice!"

"That wasn't us!" Eva shouted, standing. Just as she got to her feet, the ground began to jolt and shake, throwing the campers off balance. Eva fell into the wall, groaning as her shoulder hit the metal.