A/N: This chapter is a lot longer than the others, and took FOREVER to write! Anyways, I hope you enjoy❤️
The last ferry evacuates in ninety minutes.
"It's over...it's finally over."
Darius turns to face us, smile wide on his exhausted looking face.
"Guys, we did it! We're going home!"
I smile, thinking of mom and the comfort of my room and bed. Although I'm still pretty upset about my guitar and songs — I was nearly finished filling out the whole of my second song book, of which I started two years ago after finishing my first — it wasn't the worst thing I could've lost this trip. I could've lost my life, Ben's life, anyone else's life...or even my home! We could've gotten trapped here, but here we are, heading towards the ferry that'll take us back to safety!
And the best part isn't even that! It's that now I'm not as quiet or scared to speak my mind.
Now, I'm not as a nervous to be social or talk to others about myself and my feelings.
Sure, it may take some time to completely recover from the trauma my dad left me with, but at least I've started.
And I owe that to the people in this car.
"Woo-hoo!" Sammy suddenly jumps up, shaking me from my inner reflection. Ben flinches, Bumpy squeals, and everyone else laughs.
Then, after a short silence, Darius jumps up onto a chair and cheers along.
"Yeah! Woo!"
Everyone follows suit, laughing and cheering. It doesn't matter how loud we're being now, since we aren't stuck in the dinosaur-infested-jungle anymore. We're safe, which means we're free to be ourselves and let our emotions finally take control for our worn out adrenaline.
"This calls for a celebration!" Brooklyn says, sitting behind me and Ben.
"I think I can help with that."
Ben reached into his fanny pack — wait, he still has that? — and takes out several carob bars. Mmm! I love those things! How did I go so long without them?
"Stashed a few treats for the road."
I snatch one out of his hands quickly as he passes them out to everyone. I shove the heavenly piece of deliciousness down my throat in a single swallow, loving the bitter aftertaste it leaves on my tongue. But it doesn't seem everyone else shares the same likening for them as me and Ben do, because they all start gagging as soon as they take a bite out of them.
"This is nasty!"
"Get it off! Get it off!"
Ben breaks off a piece of his bar and feeds it to Bumpy, who chews it greedily. He doesn't seem to really notice the others' distasteful words and spitting as he takes a bite of his own. He smiles and hums in contentment.
"Ben, someone stole your candy bars and put dirt in 'em." Sammy says.
I eye everyone in surprise. Why don't they like these? They're literally the best treats ever!
The only other person I ever knew to have a disliking for them is mom, though, I suppose, she does have a pretty picky menu when it comes to food and her tastebuds.
"They're called carob bars." I explain. Ben nods. "They're paired perfectly with-"
"Carob juice." Darius finishes for him, looking at his bar in disgust. "A-Awesome..."
"Carob is nature's chocolate. Just as delicious, with none of the sugar or caffeine."
I look over at Kon, who's about to toss the nibbled bar aside when I quickly snatch it from his hand.
"If you aren't gonna eat this, then I'll just..."
I swallow it down and hum happily as the bittersweet flavors explode in my throat. It also does well to distract me from the throbbing in my back and chest, which is a plus for me!
"How do you like these?" Kon gapes. "They're bitter as hell!"
"Exactly. That's what makes them so good." I smirk.
"Oh, you're one of those people."
I send a glare Brooklyn's way, but it goes unseen when she asks Ben what was wrong with caffeine and sugar. She talks about how the first thing she'll do getting home is to hug her expression machine, which is...actually, really sad. Mom doesn't even allow me and Ben to taste coffee, let alone have our own maker!
"You know, I've often described myself as a tall, hot drink." Kon comments.
We all scoff and grimace in disgust.
"Come on, man."
"Gross."
"You could never be coffee."
"I could be coffee..."
Yaz decides to jump in, something I'm exceedingly grateful for since I don't think so could hear Kon refer to himself as a beverage one more time.
"I cannot wait to be home. Once my ankle's better, it's back to training. And I guess finding a new corporate sponsor, since mine was Jurassic World. But you know..."
"It's gonna be weird for things to be normal again." Darius adds. "Like, are video games gonna seem boring now?"
He then asks Kon what the first thing he'll do when he gets home, to which he responds, "Depends on which wing of our mansion you're talking about. East wing is usually off limits, but Dad and Candy are away on business, so I guess I'll go downstairs to our bowling alley. The staff always lets me win. Life of a VIP."
The sad look on his face makes me frown in worry. Sure, he may have just bragged about him being rich enough to have a bowling alley in his house, but it concerns me that he seems so..."whatever" about it in the end. Something's off, but I don't ask as Sammy asks me and Ben what we've missed.
"Oh, let me guess..." Kon scoffs, making the worry in me evaporate instantly. "You can't wait to get home to your closet of dork pouches, and you can't wait to lock yourself up in your room away from the world."
Resist the urge to punch him, Blake. Resist!
"Haha, very funny." Ben grumbles.
"Seriously, Ben, you've had juice boxes for days! How much stuff can you fit in that thing?"
"One; lots. And two; obviously the first thing I'm gonna do when I get back is restock it."
This makes everyone snort and laugh, including me, despite the insulted feeling from Kon's comment.
"What about you, Blake?"
I force down the urge to glare at Kon, since he wasn't the one to turn the question to me, and shrug.
"I guess I'll have to use the money I've been saving for recording equipment to buy a new guitar. Though sleep will be the first thing I do, of course."
Everyone nods in agreement. It was clear we were all tired and needed rest after the traumatic week we just experienced, so sleep would definitely be everyone's number one priority.
Kon distracts everyone from the conversation by imitating a lightsaber with a flashlight, which we all laughed at when he dropped and hurt his foot. Me, especially, though I will definitely deny until my dying day that I snorted like a pig when I did.
Brooklyn, after the ridiculous moment, reverted the group back to talking.
"I still can't believe how much went wrong. Like that time we almost got eaten?"
"Which time? How was there more than one time!"
It was supposed to make us laugh, and while it did for everyone else, my stomach whirled at the memory of the worker's limbs being crushed and separated, and the blood being spilt from his tearing flesh.
The memory was so sickening, I had to take a dozen deep breaths and picture — don't judge me — a bunch of rainbow puppies in order to not hurl right then and there!
"Let's all raise our carob juice." Darius declared, raising his own box in the air. "A toast!"
We all followed, clinking them together like wine glasses.
"To not getting eaten!"
"To not getting eaten!" We echoed.
I slurped mine down quickly, while everyone groaned and spat theirs out as if it was poisoned. Ben sighed in satisfaction after slurping his down, making me chuckle.
"To no more running away!" Brooklyn adds. We once again mimick the words, and while me and Ben drink more of our juice down, everyone fakes it. Sammy spills her on the floor for Bumpy, who, like me and my brother, has taken a keen liking to the carob flavor.
Ben shouts his own toast, to which we all clink our boxes again to. Then, right as Sammy was about to suggest her own, a loud thundering crash that shook the monorail stopped us all in our tracks (no pun intended).
"What was that?" I ask, looking out the window. But all I see is darkness and the outlines of forestry.
"It sounded like an explosion."
"Ugh, not again!"
"I don't see anything."
"I don't think it was near us. We're okay. We're still okay!" Darius tries to assure.
But an uneasy tension passes through all of us, unsure and just a bit fearing. Sammy notices this, and decides to distract everyone.
"I know camp wasn't what we thought it was going to be...but after everything we went through, at least we're leaving this place with six new friends!"
She raises her cup in the air for another toast, and I'm about to raise mine until I notice nobody else follows. They all either look away, or try to seem distracted in some way. It kind of...hurts, if I'm being honest.
Did everyone not consider each other friends? Were we...were we all not friends? Did I just imagine things?
I wasn't the only one, it looks.
"Guys?" Sammy says. She's just as confused as me. "Hello?"
"Wait..." I interrupt before she can say something else. "Do you guys not see us as friends?"
"I mean...doesn't it usually take more than a few days to become friends with someone?" Brooklyn says.
My heart shatters.
My eyes water.
But she...she said we were...she said...
"We were thrown together at random. We have nothing in common." Yaz shrugs.
"That's not true! We've been through more together than most friends have in a lifetime." I argue. Sammy smiles at me, to which I smile sadly I'm return.
"And now that it's over, what are the odds that we'll ever see each other again?"
My eyes are wide as I look at Ben, who looks away sadly. Everyone looks away sadly, and/or uncomfortably. It makes my chest hurt worse than it already does.
We won't...we won't ever see each other again, will we? Why did I ever think otherwise?
"Coming up on the right, you'll see our world-renowned, 18-hole, dinosaur-themed golf course. It's one of the many wonders that makes this park so very Jurassic!"
"What does that even mean?" I mutter.
"I though I knew." Darius mutters back, to which we all look at him. "My whole life, I had this idea of Jurassic World. My dad used to say this place was, "All-osaurus and a bag of chips.""
Darius chuckles weakly.
"He was so corny."
I gape.
"Um...was?" I whisper in horror. "So your dad is..."
I trail off. I don't know what else to say; of course he's dead! What else could "was" mean? And I had to go and just...make it awkward and depressing, despite the atmosphere already having that tone!
But even if I hadn't said it, I still would feel this deep, dark feeling in my stomach that was like a black hole. A pitch black one that felt as if it was eating my insides.
His father was dead, gone, away from the world, while Ben and I's was still alive and on the earth.
But it wasn't that simple, was it?
No.
Darius sounded like he'd had a good, caring father that he got along with and had a relationship with. Not to mention, one that was in his life and loved it!
Ours was different. Ben and I had no relationship with him, nor did we actually know who he was! He wasn't in our lives, and didn't sound like he gave a damn about even being in them. He hated us, like we hate him for leaving mom.
And for some reason, the thought of having my own father dead felt much better than Darius's.
"I'm so sorry, Darius." Sammy broke the silence, before bashing herself with harsh words.
"It's okay." Darius muttered.
"Hey, at least your dad never saw what a dumpster fire this place turned out to be, huh?" Kon joked, before yelping when Yaz slapped his shoulder angrily.
"Ow! What? I meant it's cool that Darius and his dad were so close. I could count on one hand the number of times me and my dad have done...anything!"
My chest stings. So that's why Kon sounded so sad earlier, huh? Wow, this group really had daddy issues, didn't it?
"Kenji, that's just real sad."
"Yeah. Did I mention I have a bowling alley?"
"Oh!"
I look over at Ben, who's shaking his Fanny pack irritably over his lap.
"Come on, it's gotta be here somewhere! Oh!"
He gasps when the contents of his bag fall out, containing another carob bar (I resist the incredible urge to snatch it up), a pencil, a crayon, and two hand sanitizer bottles. He snatched the sanitizer and pooled it into his hand, muttering about how Bumpy caused him to run out of the majority of his soap.
"Ben, Blake, why are you two here?"
I look up at Kon with confusion. What did he mean by that?
"What he means is..." Darius steps in, momentarily glaring at Kon. "Eh, well...Ben, you're scared of dinosaurs, the outdoors, and sometimes the indoors, and germs."
"Whipped cream for some reason?" Sammy adds.
"The way it moves..." Ben shudders.
"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. What's the deal? Oh, and Blake, you're so quiet that half the time I forget that you even exist! Why's that?"
Bumpy squeals as Ben covers her in sanitizer, and I shift awkwardly in my seat under the car passengers' gazes.
"Our mom works for Mr. Masarani. She got us into camp." Ben explains. "She said it would be a great way for me to "face my fears." And get over the fact that-"
He stops and fixes his sentence, but I'm pretty sure I know what he was about to say.
"And for Blake to make some friends and be more social. But so far, it's just...it's just been a complete nightmare! I'm sick of being scared all the time. And of running, and of almost getting eaten, and...and of holding everybody back."
Wait, what?
"I just can't do...this!"
Bumpy groans and pokes his head between Ben's legs. Ben smiles and runs a hand over her asymmetrical head, while I stare at him with teary eyes.
"Ben." I whisper. "You're not-"
Crash!
We all cry out as the monorail groans and shakes, making us all lose out balance. Since most of us are sitting, we're okay, though Darius looked like he nearly broke his nose on the monorail floor. He jumps up when the car shakes again and we all groan.
He runs to the back of the train, all of us following after him.
"Guys, we gotta turn off the lights!" He shouts.
He snatches Kon's flashlight from his hands and starts banging on the lights of the train. They fade and flicker, but are slow to turn dark.
But when a few of them do, the back window grows clearer and my eyes widen at the sight of at least a dozen pterodactyls flocking behind us. We can never escape...
"Flying reptiles are basically seabirds; they're attracted to shiny, moving objects. And with all these lights on-"
"We're a shiny, moving object!" I scream.
A pterodactyl crashes into the back window, making everyone scream as the glass cracks.
Everyone runs over to where all the flashlights are, but there's only enough for everyone except me and Ben. We both panic.
"What should we do?"
"Just keep out of the way!" Brooklyn orders as she hands a light to Yasmina. I feel a pinge in my chest as they start banging on the lights, then scream when a pterodactyl slams into the glass next to me.
The electricity buzzes and spasms, and me and Ben huddle against a wall together with Bumpy while the rest of the crew puts the lights out.
After putting the first car's light out, Darius opens the next car's door and orders everyone to do certain things. Me and Ben push Bumpy through the cars while the others knock the lights out, the pterodactyls outside still threatening to break through the glass walls. But I keep my focus engaged ahead instead of on them, trying to hide my fears of never making it out inside.
I've been through too much to die now. So much! We can't die when we're so close to freedom, to home!
On our way to another car, Kon breaks the keypad that plays the automated voice for the park. The voice on it glitches and stammers, but I have no time to laugh due to our current situation.
When we reached the next room, Sammy gasped and pointed outside, where we saw a crashed monorail car being flocked around by a group of beast-birds.
"At least now we know what that explosion was earlier." I said, though it was anything but reassuring.
"I told you!"
"Brooklyn-"
"If we don't switch tracks or stop this car right now, we're gonna hit that thing full speed!"
The monorail rattled once again, causing us all to scream and grab on to something. Once we were once again balanced, Kon pointed towards the last car ahead of us.
"The front car, there's control panels there!"
As he explained why he knew that, Darius grunted in an attempt to pull the door open.
"No, no, no, no!"
Everyone went to help, while I stayed behind with Ben and Bumpy to comfort him. He whimpered and clutched to my sleeve, hyperventilating. I rubbed his back soothingly, even though I myself wasn't doing too well.
After all, we thought we were finally safe, but now...now we're being attacked again!
What if we don't get so lucky this time? What if we don't make it?
What will happen to mom?
"I'm gonna get to the control room through there!"
I flinch when Darius runs up next to us and opens the emergency escape hatch, despite everyone's protesting. Ben and I stare wide eyed.
"We don't have a choice!" Darius shouts. "Me, Blake, and..." he trails off, looking at me and Ben's frightened forms for a brief moment before rephrasing his words. "I'm the only one who can fit."
The sound of screeching and the car shaking again causes everyone to tumble, including Darius. I wince when it rattles my chest.
"You're gonna be okay..." I hear Ben mutter, and look over to see him standing up. He goes over to the seats and jumps on, and I suddenly realize what he's doing.
"Ben! What are you-"
Ben stops what he's doing and smiles down at me, sadly but assuringly. No, no...what the hell is he doing! I promised to keep him safe! He can't do this!
"It'll be okay, I promise."
"Ben..." my eyes are watering for the hundredth time that day, and I'm now not sure how many more tears I can shed. So much has happened and is happening, and my emotions are getting harder to control every time a frightening event comes up. "You can't."
"I have to face my fears eventually, Blake. For...for mom."
He breaths out something else, though I can't hear it. It's too hard to process, and I'm too frozen up to even take action when Ben climbs up the hatch and Darius tries to stop him.
"Ben, what are you doing?"
Ben shouts something inaudible back at him, which isn't helped by Bumpy squealing and head-bumping my legs. I pat her on the head shakily.
Darius hops back inside, turning on his flashlight.
"Come on! We have to keep them away from Ben!"
Everyone else flips their lights on and starts running around, shining them out the glass windows. It does the trick, because soon they're all flying around the flashing lights.
As they do this, I run over to the door and peak through the window, with Bumpy at my feet.
I see my brother struggling with the control panel, and the crash just up ahead. We're getting close, Ben better figure this out before we all-
He suddenly pulls back a red lever, causing the train to switch tracks last minute and skid past the crashed train. We all have to grab onto something as the monorail turns violently, with Bumpy wrapping herself around my legs and me holding onto one of the metal poles.
We drop to the floor quickly, just in time to watch the crashed car fall into the jungle with a fiery explosion lighting up the trees.
Because of the fire, all of the pterodactyls start flying towards the brighter source of light, leaving us all cheering in relief as we travel away. Safe. Back towards home.
Maybe it'll all be okay, after all!
As soon as the doors open to reveal an exhausted, but smiling Ben, I feel my chest flood with warmth that was unlike the painful kind from my injuries.
"Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben!" We all chant, with Bumpy bellowing out happy roars and squeals.
"You saved us, Ben." Darius smiles. "I didn't know you had it in you."
I'm about to go hug him, to pull him into one of the tightest embraces I could manage.
But as soon as my foot went to take the first step, to move forward, everything went from relieving to horrific in a single second.
It was like it all passed in slow motion; glass shattered right next to where my brother was standing, relieved smile and sluggish shoulders morphing into a look of shock as a pterodactyl suddenly flew in and grabbed him by the waist, trying to take him with it as it crashed through the other half of the window.
My reaction was instant, protectiveness taking over all other senses even as my speed and body movement constricted the wrap around my torso. I lunge forward and take hold of his hand, grabbing onto the train for grounding, and that's when the momentary slowness turned back into a fast pace, horror scene. A scene worse than any scary movie I'd ever seen!
"Ben, hold on!" I scream, wincing as my fingers scratched along the metal of the train. Everyone stayed back, too in shock to react as I was, but I didn't have time to get them out of their trances since I was otherwise engaged trying to save my brother's life.
The pterodactyl was pulling, screeching, but I kept a tight hold on Ben's wrist while both of his hands gripped my arm fearfully. The torturous tug-of-war ended with the bird releasing him and flying off, sending us both down to my lying stomach on the floor, with him dangling by one arm off the side of the monorail. He gasped and cried and whimpered, fingers gripping onto my wrist like a lifeline — because that's what I was right now, wasn't I? The only lifeline he had left to hold onto, to keep him alive and safe.
Like I promised. I can't break it! Not now, when we're already so close to safety!
I grunt as he slowly begins to slip from my grip, and tears start pouring from his eyes. The sanitizer he's put on earlier obviously wasn't helping the situation in the slightest, but I wouldn't allow it to be the downfall of either of us. We still had long lives to live, and fear and challenges to overcome together! Together.
"Oh, no!"
I look ahead to see a turn in the tracks, which I knew would worsen his grip and possibly make me lose my own.
"Help! Blake, please!" He cried up to me, I felt my own tears starting to drip down my face by now.
"Hang on, it'll be okay!"
I keep as firm a grip as I can on Ben while I look back at the stunned group, and a small bubble of anger managed to flow past my protective fear.
"Darius, Brooklyn...guys, help!" I beg. But they don't move.
I turn back to Ben with aching breaths and a wet face. His hand slips down from my wrist to my hand, and down further.
And just as his fingers skimmed through mine, I think that this is it; my brother is about to die, and it's all my fault. I promised to protect him, to keep him safe! But now...now...
As his fingers slip away, and our lives flash before my eyes as fast as lightning, a hand suddenly scrambles past mine and fastens into Ben's wrist just before he could fall out of reach.
I gasp, and look over to see a determined look etched on Darius' face as he grabs onto my brother with both hands. I reach back down and grab him, a laugh of relief flying through my lips as we start to painstakingly pull him up.
But just before we could even grab his elbows or underarms, the same pterodactyl — or was it a different one this time? They all looked alike so I can't really tell — from earlier swooped in with a screech, knocking Ben out of our hands. We both managed to keep a grip on his hand and wrist, but they were shaky and weak.
My adrenaline was beginning to wear off, and my chest always starting the ache at this point.
But I couldn't...I just couldn't let him fall! I couldn't! Not because of some stupid injury or some stupid dino-bird-thingy!
So I forced myself through the wavering adrenaline and pain, even as Darius lost one of the grips he had in Ben, now only using one hand. I look back at the rest of the group once more, who were all still staring with wide eyes like they were just completely frozen. Like they were dead! Why weren't any of them trying to help?
"Guys, c'mon! Someone, please-"
One moment, my hand on his wrist is there.
One moment, Darius is still holding him tight underneath my own grip.
And the next...
He's gone.