𝘼𝙐𝘿𝘼𝘾𝙄𝙊𝙐𝙎 » 𝙟𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙘 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 ✓ [1]

VIII

Regardless, I fumble for the badge in my back pocket, tossing it to him. 'I work here,' I say. 'People have been looking for you all morning apparently. My name's Laura Hoskins, and this is Alex.'

Alex doesn't say anything. He beams awkwardly with an unsure wave, a leave still wedged underneath his watch, letting the stick fall from his hand.

'Claire has been out looking for you two all morning,' I say, ignoring him.

The little boy's eyes widen in surprise. 'Really?' he asks.

The maroon shirt boy handed me back my badge. He seemed assured, though he didn't really look it.

'I'm Zach,' he says. 'And this is Gray.' The blonde boy gave us a small, shy smile.

It was still impossible for me to ignore their saturated clothes and shoes caked with mud. The flushed cheeks and heaving chests, adrenaline still swimming around in their eyes. They'd clearly been running. And not in search of their Aunt.

'What happened to you boys?' I ask gently, wishing I could sit them down. Accidents and close encounters were traumatic enough as an experienced handler working in the park. God knows how it was affecting two scrawny, adolescent resort guests. Their day must have been tremendous so far. Gray looked down at his loose laced sneakers, his older brother's expression tensing.

Zach spoke up for the two of them. 'Claire hasn't spent any time with us since we got here. Our mom said she was going to show us around but when we got here she stuck us with her ruddy assistant...'

'Zara,' I say, even if "ruddy" probably wasn't the best word for a woman who had been in hysterics over losing these boys this morning. It wasn't her fault, after all. They were Claire's responsibility.

'...Yeah,' he trails. 'We decided to go off on our own for a little while because she was constantly on the phone to someone. We went to that giant hamster ball valley and there was some emergency call for us to come in. We, uh, decided to go off again,' he admits.

'Were you attacked?' I ask, though I already knew the answer. You could see it in their glazed over eyes and paled faces, and how the senses microscopically plucked in alarm at the word "attack". The reminiscence of something so vicious that you witnessed still so fresh. You could always see it. I feel my chest pull a little. He nods.

He flickers an angry glance over at his younger brother. 'We had to jump into some kind of lake to outrun it. We would've never gone inside the jungle if we knew there was that... that thing in there,' he says. He drew himself back to the memory of baring witness to it, confusion and disgust contortioned all over his face.

'There was nothing you could've done about it,' I told him. 'That animal wasn't supposed to be in there.'

Zach looked confused. 'It wasn't a dinosaur cage?'

I shake my head. 'That dinosaur broke out of its paddock this morning and started attacking men from our security division. Everyone in the park was alerted for a code 19. That's probably why Zara was on the phone so much.'

Zach's face sunk with guilt. 'At least you boys weren't hurt,' I assure.

'What dinosaur was it?' Gray asks me. 'I've never seen it before.'

'It's called the Indominus Rex,' I tell him, unsettled that this tiny boy had seen this thing up close and personal before I had.

The jungle around us continued to buzz away, elusive and unpromising at the thought of how dangerous it was with everything unfolding. The trees weren't harmonious. They wavered in wariness. 'It still hasn't been caught,' I tell Claire's nephews. 'So we oughta keep moving.' I roll up the cuffs of my pants tightly around my boots, making sure my laces were tight. 'I don't know a whole lot about it and how it behaves, so it's important to find somewhere quick.'