⍟ Broken Strings {A Chaos Theory x Male Reader Story - Ben}

𝟸. 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚘𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚍

"I'll move the Stegosauruses while you guys warn whoever's in that house." Darius offers.

"Maybe they can tell us where these dinosaurs came from too." Yasmina nods.

"I'll try and get a signal, see if the DLN has any information." Ben taps at the phone.

"The-- The DLN?" Darius quirks a brow, "That 'Free the Dinosaurs' group? Why would they have info?"

"I-- I think they have some... underground dino-tracking app or something." Ben explains sheepishly.

"Figured it couldn't hurt to check."

"Good idea." Darius nods, "Y/N should go with Ben."

"NO!" Ben shouts, "Uh... Stegosaurus-moving is a two-person job. I'll be fine solo. Promise." He smiles, slipping his hand from Y/N's and taking a step back.

Y/N moves back as well, shifting uncomfortably at his boyfriend's sudden disinterest.

"Okay, fine," Darius waves off the boy's weird behavior, "But be careful. This is brand new territory, and we don't know what could be out there."

"If you're not back by sunset, we're coming after you." Sammy warns Ben, her hands on her hips.

Ben nods and rushes off, prompting Yaz, Sammy and Y/N to head for the house. The three of them creep past the Stegos and towards the farm area in front.

"Oh, look!" Sammy points out a woman crouched down in the crops, seemingly picking them, "Hi there!" She calls out to the stranger.

She and the two others carefully maneuver around the crops beneath their feet, careful not to step on anything growing.

"Thank you for not trampling my rice." The woman glances at them as she rises to her feet.

"I'm Sammy, and this is Yasmina and Y/N!" Sammy introduces politely.

"Aminata." The woman replies curtly, looking the trio up and down before going back to her crops.

"You're American?"

"Sure are!" Sammy smiles, "And you're from..."

"Here." Aminata fills in.

"Right, right, and here is...." Sammy goes on, "Where... exactly?"

"You don't know where you are?" Aminata shoots them a suspicious glance.

"It's..." Y/N glances at his friends, "Complicated."

"Un-complicate it for me." Aminata rises to her feet once again and folds her arms over her chest.

"We're... trying to uh, solve a mystery," Yaz begins to explain, "And we've been following lots of leads... that somehow brought us here."

"Wherever here is." Sammy adds.

"You're in Senegal." Aminata smiles.

"Ah, Senegal." Yaz grins, "West Africa makes sense for how long we were headed east."

"But there're dinosaurs here." Y/N thinks out loud.

"You saw them, then?" Aminata looks at him curiously.

"You know about the dinos? We came to tell you about them!" Sammy laughs.

"We didn't want them destroying your farm or hurting themselves."

"Are you..." Aminata pauses, "Trying to figure out what's happening upriver, too?"

"Yes!" Sammy's face lights up, "We know of a ship that was headed that way!"