I held onto Darius's arm for support while we walked. Brooklynn shoved Sammy as she passed her, glaring. I hoped both would make up and get over the 'phone theft' incident. Instead, Yasmina came up to Sammy with a reassuring smile.
"Don't let Brooklynn upset you. She's just being... Brooklynn," she said, resting her hand on Sammy's arm. Sammy then began to smile.
I turned away from them and gasped at what I saw. There was a broken gyrosphere, the glass completely smashed through with claw marks and an ankylosaurus. It was on its side, its head hanging limply.
"The Indominus must have been here," I said, stepping towards the ankylosaur. I rested my hand on its chest, but I felt no pulse. It was dead.
"Predators don't kill prey, then leave without killing. This isn't right," Darius told us, looking bewildered.
"She seems to be killing for the fun of it. Killing for sport," I replied, frowning.
Suddenly, a loud bellow found its way through the tall grass. I yelped, tripping on a rock in surprise. Everyone ran around for a hiding place, crouching behind the gyrosphere or hiding in the grass. I stood up and looked around before stepping back as the growl returned.
Someone grabbed me behind the gyrosphere, slapping their hand over my mouth. I glanced over, and it was Ben. I heard fast-paced footsteps, and my eyes widened. Was it the Indominus?
Out of the tall grass leapt a baby ankylosaur. I squealed, ready to pet the adorable herbivore, when I was shoved into the gyrosphere. It was Ben again. He ran to the ankylosaur and engulfed her in a hug.
"Bumpy!" Ben exclaimed as he crouched down beside the ankylosaur, Bumpy. I walked over to Bumpy and softly patted her head. She mewled, rubbing against my hand with the cutest smile.
"That thing is drooly and smelly. How would you even know if that is the same dinosaur?" Kenji said, crossing his arms.
"Her big head bump. Dr Wu said she's asymmetrical, but he's wrong that it's bad. And so what if she is asymmetrical? There's nothing wrong with being different or bumpy." He frowned. "Or getting tired after reading an overly thrilling book! And maybe, if her parents had listed to her, she wouldn't have come here and gotten attacked!"
I tilted my head to the side, peering at him curiously. "Who are we talking about now?"
"It feels like we are not still talking about the same dinosaur," Yasmina said.
"Look, as fun as this reunion is, shouldn't we keep moving south?" Kenji asked, pointing to where we needed to walk.
"I'm not spending another hour walking through the jungle, hoping we don't run into the Indominus", Brooklynn exclaimed angrily. We all nodded, but Brooklynn turned to me incredulously.
"What are you nodding for? Darius carried your ass all the way here!" she said.
"Well, yeah. Having a killer dino cut your leg doesn't make walking that easy," I replied, raising my eyebrow.
"Ignoring that," Yaz said, rolling her eyes.
"We need a new plan," Sammy said.
Kenji rolled his eyes. "Uh, yeah, we obviously need a new plan. So, I had Darius and Kiara figure out a new one." He smirked and walked over to us, resting his arms on my shoulder.
"Lay it on us, guys!" Kenji exclaimed, softly punching Darius' arm and grinning at us expectantly.
"Ok, so we need to find somewhere safe close by. If camp is that way, and the park is that way... Isn't Dr Wu's field genetics lab near here?" Darius looked around.
I looked towards Ben, Brooklynn, Yasmina, and Sammy. "You guys went on the tour. Do you know where the lab is?" I asked.
"Um... Yeah. Y-Yeah. I think it might be over that way!" Sammy pointed east, and Yasmina nodded.
"Yep, that seems just about right!"
"Great!" Darius exclaimed, smiling. "That's where we should go. There's bound to be an adult who can help or tell us what to do, right?" I gave him a thumbs-up, but I heard a faint roar.
"Fine, whatever! Let's just go to the lab! As long as we are moving away from that!" Brooklynn said as she rolled her eyes. I turned to look at the baby ankylosaur, Bumpy.
"Guys, what about Bumpy?" I asked, giving them a look. Ben smiled at me before looking back at the others.
"She's coming with us too, right?" he asked expectantly. Kenji groaned, and Yasmina frowned.
"She's a dinosaur, bro. She belongs out here in the wild," Kenji replied, shaking his head. Does he expect us to leave this poor baby ankylosaur all alone?
"And she will just slow us down. So we gotta go now," Yasmina added, her expression softening slightly.
"But we can't just leave her here! We found her, so she is our responsibility," Ben exclaimed.
"Ben, we can't go with Bumpy, like Kenji said. Just leave her here. She will be fine," Yasmina told him, sounding more irritated.
"Just leave it there, Ben!" Kenji exclaimed, looking outraged. Ben, with a heartbroken expression, frowned.
"If we leave Bumpy out here, the Indominus might eat her! And what happens if she can't find her herd? Did you think of that?"
"Isn't there any way we can take Bumpy with us?" Ben asked, looking hopeful. Brooklynn looked peeved and ready to leave, while Darius looked towards me sympathetically.
"Look, Ben, Kiara, I'm sorry, but we all need to go! Bumpy will slow us down, and we need to find an adult, and there will most likely be one at the lab, so that's where we need to be!" He said, trying to sound considerate.
I frowned at him, and Ben started to send Darius icy glares, but we both nodded either way. I know Bumpy could slow us down, and I agree, but we shouldn't leave Bumpy. It just doesn't feel right! I walked beside Kenji and Darius, who were having a chaotic conversation.
I looked back and saw Yasmina smiling warmly towards Sammy as she lifted a large leaf for Sammy to walk through, letting it smack into Brooklynn's face as she came near.
"Ugh!" Brooklynn grunted, glaring at Yasmina, who looked amused.
"We're doing the right thing, yeah? Going towards the genetics lab? Or should we have stayed at camp? Would that have been safer?" He looked at Kenji, shocked. "How are you so calm about this!?" He burst out.
Kenji smirked. "I told you, if someone gets eaten, I'm not to blame; you are. Lea-der-ship!"
"If he's leading us the wrong way, the person getting eaten could be you!'' Darius hissed, Kenji's eyes widened, and he started to get anxious, the realisation dawning upon him.
"Are you sure we should be going to the lab?" he exclaimed, "Why are we moving so slowly?" Then, he turned around to everyone else and started making weird hand gestures. "Let's pick up the pace, people!"
Darius stared at me with a look filled with annoyance. "Kiara, how have you been able to deal with him for so long?" He asked while I shrugged in response.
"I'm quite used to it all," I said, glancing at my brother, who was trying to push Yaz and Sammy forward so they would move quicker, Brooklynn giggling as she watched. But where is Ben?...
"Hey, guys?" I stopped walking and turned to the others.
"Yeah?" They all replied, looking confused.
"Where's Ben!" I asked worriedly as they looked around, not seeing Ben. Then, we saw some bushes rustle, shaking violently, and I took a step back fearfully. What was there?
"Urgh."
Ben came out through the bush, pulling Bumpy as she stared at him. But I thought we had to leave her behind? Well, that doesn't matter now! Bumpy can join us! I stepped toward them but somehow met another rock. Falling forward, I face-planted into the ground.
"Ben? What are you doing"? Darius asked, watching Ben in confusion. Sammy helped me stan,d and I dusted myself off.
"Uhh, hey guys, what's up?" BEN said, doing finger guns.
"Ben, are you hiding Bumpy in that bush?" Sammy asked him suspiciously. Bumpy bellowed softly, making her presence more known. Ben glanced at her wide-eyed before turning back to us.
"Nope! That could be anything. The jungle makes all sorts of weird sounds!" He said, smiling anxiously before falling back as Bumpy ran towards me, pushing past his legs. "Uhh, how did she get here?..." He said nervously, trying to look innocent as I rubbed Bumpy's face and cuddled her.
"Seeing as Bumpy is here now, we can take her with us!" I smiled, patting her head as she rubbed her head on me. Ben beamed at me.
"Yes! That's exactly what we should do-"
"We don't have time for this! There are dinosaurs eating people out here, and Bumpy just can't keep up!" Yasmina exclaimed, dramatically throwing her hands out as she glared at Ben. Ben gave her a stern look and then turned to Darius brightly.
"She can move faster. Ankylosauruses run fast, mhm, right Darius?" Darius shook his head and frowned,
"When they are fully grown, maybe, but she's just-" He was interrupted by Bumpy dropping to the ground, snoring lightly as though she was resting rather than sleeping. Brooklynn glared at Ben, her hand on her hip as Kenji rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, total speed demon," He said, sarcasm lacing his voice. "Say goodbye, Ben" Kenji waved his hand and turned, walking away.
Everyone followed him as I watched them before I turned to pat Bumpy's head one more time, realising she had gone to stay beside Ben. Then, I stood up and walked towards the others with a slight frown, glancing back at Ben and Bumpy. Then, Ben got up with a determined expression.
"No! You say hello because she is coming with us! So... there!" he shouted. We turned to face him.
"Ben, you're not thinking this through. Bumpy's too slow," Brooklynn said as she rolled her eyes, still sending him daggers. Ben looked around nervously and then pointed to something behind us.
"Then... we'll put her in the van!" he exclaimed. Sammy gave him a look.
"What van?" she scoffed with a slightly annoyed expression.
"That one!" Ben said as he walked past us, our gazes following him, and pointed at the van again. We all ran over to the truck, and I gasped as I realised what type of van it was.
"It's an ACU transport — asset containment unit!" I exclaimed, smiling. Kenji smirked, not missing a chance to brag.
"We got a tour of the HQ. Super hardcore dino-traping security dudes," He explained, opening the doors to the back of the van.
"Then where are they?" Darius asked, watching Kenji doubtfully. I then noticed a tablet lying on one of the back seats. Brooklynn saw it too.
"Is that a tablet?!" She rushed past us, pushing so roughly that Kenji fell out of the van.
She went to sit down on the furthest seat, immediately switching it on and swiping through the different features as her excited expression turned to one full of annoyance. I went inside, sat beside her, and looked at the tablet screen. Everyone else got in, and Sammy brought out the radio we had found earlier.
"What did they tell us? Oh, right, channel six." She twisted the nob at the top and started speaking to the radio, "Dave, Roxie! Can yall hear us?" Static from the radio was all she got in response. Brooklynn groaned after furiously tapping the tablet, grabbing everyone's attention.
"And, of course, this doesn't enable communication; why would it? If I had my phone..." she hissed, glaring at Sammy, who frowned uncomfortably.
"Enough already; bigger things are going on here than your phone!" Darius exclaimed angrily, crossing his arms. Brooklynn looked at her lap guiltily before she perked up at a loud beeping noise. We all looked at the tablet screen and glanced at each other.
"There's a map program with little moving dots on it," She told us as Yaz and Sammy came over and stared at the screen. Darius sighed.
"They chip all the dinosaurs electronically to track them. So see, there's us, and there's...." He pressed a dot on the screen, and hundreds of more bright red dots appeared with the name tag, 'brachiosaurus.' Kenji stared at the screen, confused and pointed at an area on the map.
"Here's the brachiosaurus grove on the map, so why are they all the way over there?" he asked.
"I think all the fences are down. Or, at least, some of them," Darius replied quietly. Bumpy then began to growl and whine as though she was scared. I came out of the van and walked towards her trying to comfort her.
"What's the matter with her?" I asked as she continued to whimper. Ben ran over to us worriedly.
"Easy, girl," he softly said. The ground then started to shake, rumbling violently. Something was in the forest. Finding its way closer and closer towards us...