Me? Updating???? As if
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Walking through an island wasn't ideal. Tripping over sticks, high grass scratching your arms, bugs in your face, and not to mention the overwhelming fear of being chewed up by a dinosaur for lunch. Aren't we lucky, huh?
Darius leads us through the maze of trees, pushing past any leaves.
I sigh heavily, looking past the weeds and low branches of the island in search for any other human life.
Nothing.
It was quiet, the only sound heard was our panting from our consistent walking.
I change my mind, we should've stayed at the camp.
I would rather wait in a place that we're familiar with than wander about. Maybe someone could've come back for us?
I notice Ben lacking behind us, shuddering at all of the dirt and grime that has gathered on his clothes. He quickly takes out one of his last sanitizers and rubs it on his arms, hoping to feel an ounce of cleanliness.
I turn back around while shaking my head at him. Who knows what Ben would do without his hand sanitizer...
he would probably go insane.
My eyes trail to Sammy as I watch her fiddle with her pocket.
Before I can even question, there was a loud snap and a screech coming from behind me.
Almost instantly, everyone jumps back and screams from the sudden noise. I feel a grip on my arm and look over to see Pinky holding onto me tightly, fear coding her whole face.
All of our eyes trail to Ben, who's foot laid on a branch.
"Sorry," he starts to explain, "I stepped on a twig."
"Jesus, Ben." I mutter to myself.
"Ugh, come on man." Yasmina had groaned, helping Sammy up from the floor. "You done gave me a heart attack!" Sammy's texan accent shines, dusting off her pants.
I look over to Brooklynn once again. We make eye contact for a moment and she looks away, her hand dropping from my arm and back to her side. I quickly miss the contact but as soon as I notice, the douche bag runs his mouth.
"I should step on you." I heard Kenji threaten. I simply glare at him, too tired from all our walking to properly scold him.
"It's okay, Ben. We're all on edge." Darius said cooly.
Yaz quickly shoots back, making a sassy remark, "And lost."
Sammy decides to speak up,
"Yeah, we've been out here for a while now." She pauses and glances at me for a second, as if I could fact-check that information for her. I simply nod my head with my closed eyes, agreeing. It felt as if I could keep my eyes closed forever in that moment, that when I open them again I would be at home in a warm bed, that everyone would be safe with their families.
But of course, when my pupils met Sammy's once again, we were still stuck in these goddamn woods on a very dangerous island. She had turned around to look at Darius,
"Darius, we sure we're still headed towards the park?"
Brooklynn scoffs, "Well, we'd be sure if I still had my phone, because it has a GPS, a compass app, and is also a phone!" She had walked up close to her, flailing her arms around mildly.
"Sammy didn't steal your phone!" Yasmina butts in.
"Fuck.." I curse under my breath, trailing off as I know where this was directed, for almost the 100th time today.
I'm tired, way too tired to be dealing with this again. My eyelids felt droopy, my legs are wobbly, and my voice is cracked from dehydration. I'd kill for a glass of water right about now. I'm sure we all would.
Yasmina places a strong hand on Pinky's shoulder, forcing her to take a couple steps back, "No one stole your phone!" Pinky had shoved her off instantly. "Can we please stop talking about the phone?"
I don't bother to step in, learning that these two can sort themselves out for the time being.
"You guys! You guys, you guys, you guys." Ben is whispering, standing between the two riled up girls.
"Could you all yell at each other quieter, please?"
"Please?" I add onto his plea, my voice too meek for my own comfort. Yet at this point, my headache was growing and fighting wasn't helping anything.
I slowly reach my hand up to rub my temples, trying to ease the pain.
Pinky glances at me, her face softening from the hardened glare that she had aimed at Yasmina seconds before.
"My fellow campers, chill!" Bluebird's voice boomed, disturbing Ben and I's quiet demeanor.
I sigh, knowing that almost no one here knows how to be quiet.
I meant it's not like we're trapped on a deadly dinosaur-filled island, am I right?
"What we need here is someone who can make the hard call on what to do next." Kenji points his finger into the air, like a moron.
He walks next to Darius, "Since I'm obviously leadership material... I'll do this!"
We all look at each other unimpressed.
Who in the world decided for Kenji, especially Kenji, to be, quote-on-quote, "leadership material"? Certainly not me.
My mind races in many thoughts on how our lives would depend on Kenji being our leader....
none of them turn out good.
"And my first decree as a leader is... for everyone to stop talking and just listen to Darius." He slung an arm around the younger boy, pointing to him while raising his eyebrows at the rest of us.
Darius? The youngest of us?
I think to myself, trying to wrap my head around the news.
"Huh?" D-man seems as confused as me on why he's being put up to plate here.
Kenji leans over Darius, whispering to him,
"You got us out of camp alive. Plus, I can blame you if anybody gets eaten. Leadership." I listen into his not-so-well whisper and furrow my eyebrows.
Well that seems like a shitty thing to do. That's definitely Kenji, unfortunately.
"So, which way, Darius?" The Elvis-Look-Alike asked him expectantly, hands on his hips. Everyone else doing almost the same exact thing.
"No, wait, hold on a minute." I push forward, sending a quick glare to Kenji and standing in front Darius. I slightly turn him away, to have a real hushed conversation.
"Darius," I start, "you don't need to listen to what that dumbo has to say, you don't need to do anything." I look him in his eyes and he nods before turning his head looking at the rest of the group.
Once he turns back to look at me, he flashes a quick smile, "It's fine," he says, "I'm just leading the way."
I give him a firm nod before finishing my point, "just know you have a choice."
I finally step back towards the rest of the group as Darius seems to turn around, studying our surroundings more in depth.
"Please," Pinky starts speaking, arms crossed, unimpressed, "you're just trying to cover up the fact that you're lost, too, Mr. VIP."
Glad I'm not the only one with stupid nicknames for him.
I smile towards Pinky, almost feeling relieved someone else is talking back to Kenji.
She starts to finish her sentence, "None of us know where we are-"
Darius cuts her off, "I know where we are!"
It was almost perfect timing, really.
Darius starts to jog forwards and I'm quick to be right behind him.
"We're by the Carnosaurus paddock!" D exclaims in excitement, making a motion for us to follow after him.
"I thought this place looked familiar." Kenji recites. "Am I an excellent leader or what?" I give him a weird look before I take Ben by the arm and practically force him to stay by my side as we run after Darius.
"I remember the fence," We slow down as Darius starts pushing past the bushes. But we soon come to a half with the view in front of us. The fence was practically torn apart.
"The broken, ripped-down fence." D-man finishes off his last sentience.
Ben starts to loose his breath, "That means... that means Toro is out here... with us."
Even though I was confused on who this 'Toro' was, I still subtly moved closer to Ben and placed my hand over his back, rubbing slow circles, "Breath, Benny." I whisper to him, before he passes out from hyperventilating.
It's happened before.
"Now we have to deal with the Indominus and Toro." Darius says gloomily.
Ben takes a few deep breaths, but you can tell he's still freaked out. To be honest, we all are.
"Hold up." Darius pauses and looks over at Ben, an eyebrow raised,
"How do you know about Toro?" I shrug my shoulders, not knowing either. It wasn't like Ben to go out and see this 'Toro' for himself, not on purpose at least.
Yasmina starts to walk in front of Ben, Darius, Kenji and I, "We all know."
I deadpanned at the information. We?
Clearly, I wasn't included to this 'we' group.
"Kenji told us, like, the day after it happened." Yaz states and I scoffed, now staring towards Kenji.
"In my defense, me saving you was pretty cool." Kenji tells Darius who looked at him with the same expression I have.
"Woah, hey, you didn't tell me!" I say to him, aggravated I was left out.
"I couldn't," he starts to fight back, raising his hands, "if I told you, then you would've snitched on us!"
I only scoffed harder, stepping towards Kenji, "Snitched on you?" I practically gasped.
"I am not a snitch, you lousy piece of-"
I'm cut off by a small hand grabbing my shoulder and pulling me away from him, softly.
I felt most of my anger brush away instantly.
I turn around and find Brooklynn, oddly amused at the occurrence, shaking her head at me, "Calm down," she says, "it doesn't matter right now. You can fight him later."
I let out a quiet chuckle before patting her hand that still laid on my shoulder as a 'thank you'. I walk back next to Ben, trying to ignore Blues Clues's presence at the moment.
"Anyway," Darius leads off, glancing between all of us, "we know this enclosure is due north of the main park. So, if we keep going that way, we'll hit the visitor's center."
I nod at his statement knowing the general idea where the visitors center was.
On the Ferry ride to the island, Ben had tried getting me to memorize almost any map he could find. If only I had actually payed attention I would be more helpful in these type of situations.
Darius continues with his point, "We're sure to find Dave and Roxie, or someone else there that's in charge."
"Yes!" Kenji had gripped Darius by the shoulders. I could already feel another headache forming just from being in his proximity.
"Exactly what I was thinking, as leader, which I am."
"Jesus." I groan at Kenji. He's getting on my nerves more than the dinosaurs themselves.
"Follow me!" He said in a rather chirpy tone.
The rest of the girls start walking away with him, including me for a moment, but I notice as Ben and Darius lagged behind. They had seemed to be talking.
Ben was throwing his arms around as he spoke, likely from his nervousness. And in response, Darius laid a gentle hand on his shoulder, surely to calm him down. I smile gently at the two boys.
The thought of Ben having a friend to rely on, other than his sister, was heartwarming.
He deserves it.
I smile to myself as I wait for Ben to walk in front of me, not wanting him to be in the very back.
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Everyone was still on edge as we walked. Bumping into each other had been common with this group of people, usually on purpose, sometimes it was completely an accident.
After a very, non-accidental, shove from Brooklynn directed at Sammy, I decided to step in again.
I left Ben close to Darius and walked along Sammy for a moment before speaking up about the issue, "I'm sorry she's being so rough on you, Sammy. You shouldn't take it to heart." I mutter and she gives me small smile, saying under her breath that it was fine.
Yaz must've heard our conversation as she joined in walking past us rather quickly,
"Yeah, don't let her upset you. She's just being... Brooklynn." Sammy had seemed to meet a much bigger smile after Yasmina's words, but I only frowned.
"Yasmina," I start, pausing to allow her to slow down so I could catch up with her speed.
"Look, I know you necessarily don't like Brooklynn right now," I trail for a moment but she cuts me off,
"Yeah, that's an understatement." She scowls and my frown deepens.
"It's just, we're all... on edge right now but we need to trust each other."
Yaz simply nods, not exactly responding back other than a light 'huff' leaving her lips.
"You can't blame her for being upset, or even a little snappy. She believes that Sammy had stolen-"
"But she didn't!" Yasmina cuts me off again.
"I know, I didn't say that. But it's what Brooklynn thinks and she's scared. I can tell." I pause, letting my last few words sink in.
Yasmina looks me in the eyes, as if I was joking.
"We all are."
Before she could get a response in, we walk upon a clearing. There laid an Ankylosaurus on its side, and an upside down Gyrosphere. It was a three-seater, just like the one Darius, Pinky and myself sat in together.
Sammy finally started to catch up with the group, "Yaz, there's something I..." she trailed off, gasping as she came upon the clearing as well, loosing her train of thought. "The Indominus Rex was here." She muttered.
Darius pipes in, "Predators don't kill prey and then just leave without feeding." We all step towards the dinosaur, inspecting the area.
Suddenly, a low growling was heard between the shrubs to our left. I had the urge to instantly leap to get in front of Ben, or anyone, really.
But instead, we start to run back where we came from. Darius and Ben secured themselves inside the gyrosphere, Sammy and Yasmina move around the vehicle, crouching behind it, Brooklynn, Kenji and I run to the tall grass, laying down on our stomachs. I watch as Ben places his hands above his ears as he tries to block out the noise of low growling.
I can feel my heart thumping through my chest as it gets louder, the tall grass across from us shaking as the beast stepped closer. I felt a soft hand wrap tightly around mine and hold it with a secure grip, noticeably shaking. I don't think twice to squeeze it back because, hell,
I needed something to ground me.
Eventually, the beast had bursted out of the weeds and let out a loud snarl. I felt a face cower into my shoulder blade as we all flinched and screeched, covering ourselves with our arms.
But as a soft, innocent growl erupted I looked up, noticing a small animal. It was oddly adorable as a it squealed.
It must be a baby.
I feel the pressure of the face digging into my left shoulder and looked to see who it was. I was met with jet black hair and a blue shirt and I instantly groaned, shrugging and pushing Kenji off of me. He noticed what had happened and moved away from me completely, avoiding eye contact.
I still felt a hand secure in mine and look to my right to see the fear-coated Pinky. Yet, as she looked up at the creature her grip had loosened significantly. I smiled and looked at her, giving her hand one more squeeze before letting go of it completely. She glanced at me for a moment, seeming embarrassed.
But to be honest, I didn't mind it at all. It almost felt nice.
I heard a familiar voice scream, "Bumpy!" followed by a string of laughs. I quickly glanced up, starting to pull myself from the ground to stare at my brother cooing over a dinosaur.
"What is that?" I ask, walking over towards the scene. I've never seen Ben hug a wild animal before, or any animal. He's afraid of what type of bacteria they can spread.
"Oh, Y/N!" Ben looks up at me before moving himself to the side.
"This is Bumpy." he directs his attention to the tiny Ankylosaurus, "Bumpy, say 'Hi' to your auntie!"
I squealed in surprise, "Auntie?" I yelled, "when did this happen?" I heard giggling from behind me, but I knew who it was by the annoying snark in the tone. "Come pet her." Ben led me by the hand to this dinosaur. I was back again kneeling on the ground, but this time it was before a small, yet large, dinosaur.
It cooed as my hand met it's uneven bumps. I smiled as I looked over to Ben, who was smiling even brighter.
I'm not so sure how Ben ended up befriending a small, icky, dirty dinosaur, but it has happened.
"...and drooly, and smelly." Blue Jay seemed to be listing different 'characteristics' of Bumpy.
"This is sweet and all," he continued, "but how do you even know that's the same dinosaur?"
"Well, for one, she isn't trying to chew our faces off. So..." I say, glancing up at Kenji to give him a 'sweet' smile, which I'm sure he appreciated.
"Because of her big head bump!" Ben has actually answered the question. "Dr. Wu said she's asymmetrical, but he's wrong that it's bad." He said sweetly, staring lovingly down at the baby he held and pet. "That's adorable, Benny." I say to him and he smiled.
I looked up towards Pinky briefly, she shared the same look as me as it clicked when Ben had met this creature. Of course it was when I was away.
Ben continued to speak, "And so what if she is asymmetrical? There's nothing wrong with being different, or bumpy," he said kindly, before staring out behind where Bumpy was.
"or getting tired after reading an overly thrilling book! And maybe, if she wasn't forced to do things she didn't want to do by her family," Ben had paused and glanced at me fairly quickly. There's no way he's talking about Bumpy anymore. "she would be safe at home! And maybe if her family had listened to her, she wouldn't have come here and gotten attacked!"
Immediate guilt flooded my chest as Ben laid one last glare at me before cuddling Bumpy.
"Are we still talking about the dinosaur?" I heard a whisper behind me, but I didn't dare to turn around.
"Feels like we're not still talking about the dinosaur."
I kept my eyes trained to the ground as I slowly stood up. The dread kept running through my brain,
I made him come here. I'm the reason he has to go through this. It's my fault he's in danger. God, what did I do? I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.
As I was about to speak my thoughts, another dreading voice spoke,
"As fun as this reunion is, shouldn't we keep moving south?"
"I'm not spending another hour walking through the jungle, hoping that we don't run into that Indominus." Pinky bursted out, sharing her own thoughts.
I nod along to what she had said, though I doubt it was noticeable as I still feel the shock of information move through my body.
"We need a new plan." I heart Brooklynn explain. I nod again, hoping it was much more noticeable.
I'm afraid to speak. I feel as if I try to utter a single word my voice will break. I cant do that to them now, I need to stay strong. At least until we're safe.
Just push it down, you can't freak out. Not now.
I clench and unclench my hands, trying to calm the guilt that ate it's way to my brain, hoping to fight it off.
"Uh, yeah, obviously we need a new plan." Oh there he goes again, "So, I had Darius figure out a new one. Lay it on us, bro." Kenji punches his shoulder.
I feel bad for the kid, he's the youngest but somehow the most intelligent in our group. That kind of pressure can get to you quickly.
Darius smiles as Kenji asks him what to do again. "Okay."
"So, uh.... we need to find somewhere safe close by. If the camp is that way," he looked to his right, "and the park is that way..." he looked to his left, but he seemed stuck.
I cleared my throat silently before finally noticing where we are. There was a little dirt trail leading behind a field of bushes.
"The lab." I say quietly, but they hear me. They look surprised for a moment before Sammy and Yasmina start agreeing that the area looks familiar.
"It's just along this path," I push past the bushes in front of us and show them a small dirt path. Darius smiles his goofy grin again.
"Workers must've made it walking to and from the lab." I shrug.
"Yes, Y/N!" He cheers for me. I smile as he does so.
"Dr. Wu's field genetics lab! Great! That's where we should go. There's bound to be an adult there who can help or tell us what to do."
He pauses,
"Right?"
"Right, there has to be." I reply to him, gently.
There was a faint roar in the distance, springing all of our attention to high alert.
"Fine, whatever! Let's just go to the lab. As long as we are moving away from that." Pinky stuttered, everyone nodding and agreeing, beginning to follow the path I had shown them.
"Wait, what about Bumpy?" Ben asks with a sad frown.
"She's a dinosaur, bro. She belongs here in the wild." Kenji states, rather bluntly.
"And she'll just slow us down. We gotta go now." Yasmina adds.
I watch with empathy for Ben and Bumpy as he obviously wanted to take her. But Yasmina and Kenji, for once, was right.
"I'm sorry Ben, but they're right."
I sigh gently and pet Bumpy on the head for a moment before ruffling Ben's hair, telling him to move it.
He stands up slowly and begins to meekly follow after me.
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What's funny is how I only made it into 8 minutes of this episode and still wrote more than my other chapters.
LETS GET TO THE GOOD PARTS PLEASE
3806 words