The first man was young, maybe in his thirties at most. His shirt was tucked into a pair of long khaki pants, three buttons untucked to reveal part of his chest and a small necklace that hung there, and he wore a tan jungle hat to match. He gave me Dr. Alan Grant vibes, almost, and I would've been convinced he was his son if I didn't know that Grant had never married.
The second man was older, and definitely terrifying. He gave me marine vibes, a large gun (rifle? What are those called?) held threateningly in his hands, the very gun that had just killed the dinosaur.
Not only that, but he wore a thick vest with pockets that were no doubt filled with amo for his weapon.
Yep, definitely didn't want to get on his bad side...
Finally, there was a woman. She appeared a bit older, though I was sure she was around the same age as the first man. She wore similar clothing to him, with vague differences such as a pink bandana wrapped around her neck, and a large camera hanging over her neck and resting on her chest.
I stared in disbelief.
For the first time in over a month, I was seeing adults, actual grown ups!
I couldn't believe it...our signal had actually gone through!
"Who are you?" Darius was the first of us to speak.
The woman who'd been the first to say a word that wasn't "look out" smiled amiably and said, "Well, after that, maybe you should call us your salvation."
We all gape at the trio.
The young man smiles before offering us all a hand.
"Come on, now. You kids don't look very comfortable sitting there in the mud."
————
"I can't believe you guys are actually here!"
Since being helped up, the couple started leading us back to their camp. They had a camp!
Without needing permission, Darius ecstatically agreed, and since then, as we followed the creepy mercenary-looking-man through the jungle, Darius has been talking faster than I thought possible, even for Sammy.
"Did you get left behind too?"
Kon snorted from behind me.
"Not looking like that, they didn't."
"Are you, like, some super stylish rescue squad?"
For the first time in almost a week, I feel a genuine smile cross my face. Everyone's so happy, so excited to finally be getting off the island. I would be too myself if...if there weren't things to worry about...
"Guys, take a breath." I finally say to quiet everyone. "We don't even know their names, yet!"
"I'm Mitch." The young man introduces. "And my better half here is Tiff. We're eco-tourists."
The woman, Tiff, laughs.
"That's a fancy way of saying we travel to exotic places and photograph rare animals." She explained.
"I know Simon Masrani." Kon piped up, then stopped. "Or...knew."
The couple didn't seem at all phased by this, and I was starting to wonder if they weren't actually the people who'd gotten our distress transmition. They seemed rather enthusiastic...too enthusiastic.
It was weird.
"When we heard what happened here, we were like, zoop! Gotta get down there!"
"I was fine with taking snaps of tigers and bears, but pics of dinosaurs? You don't pass that up, do you, Babe?"
"I guess you don't."
I remembered, suddenly, why I was even here in the first place when Brooklyn piped up. Our fight from earlier came to my mind, and I immediately felt a dark hole fill my stomach.
"I travel too!" She said. "Before we got stuck here, obvi. You've seen my videos? Brooklyn Unboxes The World?"
The couple stayed quiet.
"The web channel?"
They shook their heads, and Brooklyn scoffed. I smirked.
Darius jumped ahead and threw his arms out, starting to once again ramble.
"When we activated the emergency beacon, we hoped someone would get our signal. I kind of can't believe it worked!"
There was something that flashed in both Mitch and Tiff's faces, something akin to nervousness. I wanted to chop it off to them being on a dinosaur island, but I wasn't so sure that was the case. They were getting more suspicious every second. Maybe it was just my newfound stubbornness, but...
"Oh yes, the signal!" Tiff laughed. "Remember when we got that, Mitch? It was right after the boat dropped us off."
Up ahead, the man they'd brought along grunted and growled as he chopped away branches and bushes that came in his way with a machete. I felt a bit terrified by this even though the blade wasn't at all close to my face.
"That's our tour guide, Hap. Came highly recommended. Knows cameras and the outdoors like the back of his hand. But...not much of a talker."
Tour guide? What kind of tour guide didn't talk?
"We're almost there, right, Hap?"
The man didn't say anything, only continued murdering the plantation and undergrowth. I watched uncomfortably, and I could feel the same radiating off of Darius. This whole situation felt weirdly unsettling, though I guess it'd been a long time since I've been around anyone other than the campers. Yeah, maybe that was just it — I'd gotten so used to talking around them, I'd forgotten how shy and uncomfortable I was around others.
Yeah, that was it.
Mitch laughed and we continued on our way, me managing to convince myself that my suspicious and wary thoughts had just been a moment of introversion.
————
"Our camp's not much, but hopefully you'll be okay roughing it with us."
Oh. My. God.
I've never been to a hotel as extravagant as their camp!
The tents, partially open, surround a whole site full of fancy camping supplies — a fire pit with state-of-the-art wooden fold up chairs surrounding it was perched next to a long breakfast table with benches attached to the sides. From where I stood, I could see actual beds ranging from twin to queen size!
And I definitely wasn't the only one amazed by this.
"Out of my way!" Yasmina cries, limping past everyone to get to the camp. Everyone follows and takes a look at the glorious site. The site of things un-tainted by the Jurassic world, human things, was something I never felt so excited to see.
"Is this real?"
"Wow!"
"Woah!"
Everyone gasped and oohs at the luxurious area, and I feel like crying. We were saved...we were going home!
Without Ben... a part of me said, but I didn't register it under the blaring relief.
We all spend a bit looking around, crying over the simplest things we saw — brands names that weren't JW, beds, silverware and clean plates — and everything in between. After doing this for a few minutes, I leave one of the tents (forcefully because I've never laid in a bed so comfortable in my entire life) and find Sammy sobbing over a can-opener. She cries that she's practically been killed over and over getting the peach cans open.
"My goodness, I can't imagine how hungry you all must be!" Tiff exclaims. "Would you like some breakfast?"
It is then that I realize the new day has come. The sun is rising and the sky's gone from dark to brilliant blue. How much time had past, I didn't know, but what mattered to me in the moment were the words of which Tiff had used.
Breakfast.
Food that wasn't canned peaches.
Real food!
Could this day get any better?
————
It could, apparently, because in a matter of minutes the entire group was seated at the table with plates — China plates! — full of eggs, toast, and fresh bacon, and cups of ice water.
My mouth is slobbery as soon as the first bit of food lands on my plate, and I immediately begin to shove it all down my starved, swollen throat, ignoring the scratching pain it gives me and enjoying the delightful saltiness of the crunchy pig meat.
The ice cold water is just as heavenly!
Unsurprisingly, everyone else follows the same course of action and fills their stomachs with more than stale fruit.
I've never felt so happy in my life, aside from when Ben and I-
Oh, well...there goes my appetite.
I swallow a stone and finally begin to feel the pain in my throat that suddenly ruins the taste of the food.
It only gets worse when Darius starts talking about our situation, telling the story of how we got here.
"And-And then we all escaped the giant mosasaurus and got onto the monorail! We thought we'd finally made it but then the pterodactyls attacked and-"
Darius suddenly stopped and looked over at me, eyes wide. I look down at my lap, away from everyone's eye, of which I could feel burning into my soul. My eyes slam shut to try and keep the tears away, barely working.
There's a deadly silence in the air.
"And..." Mitch persists quietly, sounding worried. I huff out a quiet breath.
"And then my brother sacrificed himself." I whisper, just loud enough for everyone at the table to hear. "He...He switched the monorail track before it could crash and fell from the tracks."
I want to add, "but I know he's still alive, he has to be. I can feel it in my chest," but I keep quiet after that. I don't feel like speaking any longer.
"Oh, honey..." Tiff gasps. "I'm so sorry!"
It takes everything in me to push the tears away and keep my cool. I manage to look up, look at everyone staring at me. My eyes land of the sorrow-expressioned woman at the end of the table, before I look away again.
"That must be really hard." Mitch says. "I can't imagine what that must feel like..."
I nod and wipe away a drip of water that had somehow managed to slip past my eyelid.
"Y-Yeah...I don't know if I can ever get over it. He...He was my twin, my...my best friend."
And awkward silence takes over the atmosphere.
I can only take so much before I eventually step out of my seat and take one last sip of my water.
"Uh, thank you for the breakfast...I'm, uh, gonna go take a nap. Need some sleep."
Nobody says anything as I walk to one of the tents and seal it closed. When I'm finally alone, I drag myself over to the queen bed in the center of the room.
I don't cry.
I don't sleep.
I lay there, numb.
After a moment I reach into my pocket and pull out the watch, running my thumb over it and looking sadly down at its cracked face.
"Where are you, Ben?" I whisper hoarsely.