The trees where the Brachiosaurus had disappeared began to sway.
Something huge and unseen was thundering through the jungle, coming their way. The kids ran to the edge of the tower to get a better look.
At that moment, an enormous dinosaur appeared as if out of thin air.
A moment ago the dinosaur was camouflaged, and once she'd lunged forward, racing through the trees and man-made structures with terrfiying speed, the camouflage had dropped, revealing her scarily white skin.
The workers who had tried to warn Darius and the kids started to run, but by then, it was already far too late. The carnivorous dinosaur crushed one worker beneath an enormous foot. Then she made a grab for another park employee with her claws.
The kids screamed as the white dinosaur roared and thrashed its tail.
"What. Is. That?" Yasmina gasped.
"Dr. Black--Dr. Wu's lab," Brooklynn said, mind flashing back to the document. "There was a dinosaur. Indom—"
"Indominus rex," Sammy said in a frightened whisper.
"How do you know that name?" Brooklynn asked suspiciously.
"We need to leave," Sammy frantically said. "Now, now, now!"
Looking down at the Indominus rex, the kids were horrified to see the great dinosaur staring up at them.
"It sees us!" Jackie shrieked.
The Indominus rex ran toward the Tower at a full sprint.
The fear that was installed in the children's hearts was almost overwhelming. The fact that if they don't get away, they will be eaten and not see the sun rise again spiked fear and adrenaline into their bodies.
Ben was not the only one finding it hard to breathe.
With her awful claws, The I-rex scratched at the sides of the Tower as if she was going to climb it. The claws were tearing away chunks of the Tower's foundation, weakening it, and the building began to sway.
Ben nearly went over the side as the Indominus slammed into the Tower again.
Sammy did go over. With incredible speed, Yasmina thrust her hand over the side of the Tower, catching her.
"Hold on!" Darius shouted. He and Tom helped Yasmina pull Sammy back.
The Tower leaned, and the kids tumbled. Thinking as one, the group headed for the zip line.
Kenji snapped a harness on Ben, tight as it would go on the slender boy.
Below, the Indominus continued to attack the Tower, and the structure leaned even more.
Ben tried to stay on the Tower, but Kenji pushed him off the edge. Ben screamed the entire way down the zip line.
Right behind him were Tom, Sammy, Brooklynn, Jackie and Kenji.
However, before Yasmina could go down, Ben's harness caught and stopped. Everyone plowed into Ben, stuck.
Everyone started freaking out, swinging back and forth, trying to get moving again.
"Darius!" Yasmina yelled. She had yet to go, but he hadn't pushed her yet.
"Wait! I have an idea!" Darius ran to the opposite side, glancing over the edge for just a second, and the I-rex roared at him. Darius jerked back, almost choking on fear, turned, and ran back to Yasmina as she yelled his name again. He leaped off the plateform, into Yasmina's arms, and with his added weight and momentum, the duo raced faster down the zipline.
When they hit the others, it was enough to lodge them and get them moving.
As they slid down the zip line, Darius saw the Indominus rex finally topple the Tower. No one had yet reached the end of the zip line, however. As the supports crumbled, the zip line went slack.
Darius and his friends fell into the jungle below.
🦕🦖🦕
The tree branches must have slowed our fall, Tom thought, rubbing his head. He'd landed on the ground only moments ago. Looking around, he saw that everyone was accounted for, laying in various positions, some shakingly getting to their feet.
Then the ground beneath their feet rumbled.
"It's coming," Ben fearfully whispered.
"It could be anywhere," Jackie gasped.
"The Observation Tower was that way?" Brooklynn wondered in a daze, spinning around. "Or was it that way?"
Sammy looked at Brooklynn, but the girl hadn't noticed, no one noticed Sammy at that moment. "Okay, I'm sorry, but I..."
Giving up trying to explain, she reached into her pocket and pulled out Brooklynn's phone. Or rather, what remained of it. The phone had been smashed in the fall. Sammy quickly slid the broken phone pieces back into her pocket.
"Where is..." Darius spoke up. Tom watched as the boy frantically checked his pockets. "No, no, my necklace!"
"Seriously? We're stuck in the jungle with a dinosaur that will end up picking his teeth with your bones after devouring the rest of us!"
"You don't understand--" Relief washed over Darius when he remembered. "I left it in my bunk!"
"We've got slightly bigger problems," Kenji said as the Indominus roared and the ground shook.
As one, the kids were off and running, ducking under tree branches as they raced through the jungle—away from the Indominus rex.
"Everything will be fine when we get back to camp," Tom whispered to himself. He hoped.
They kept on running, and no one looked back, not even for a second.
🦖🦕🦖
They arrived at the Camp Cretaceous base, only to find that the compound had already been ravaged by the Indominus rex.
Deep, clawed footprints could be seen all over the campgrounds. The common room had crashed to the ground, and several of the rope bridges that connected the various tree houses together had been ripped down. The elevator had been smashed, too.
There would be no way to get up to the bunks.
Or my necklace, Darius thought.
The Indominus rex roared again, but Darius could tell that the roar was receding—the dinosaur was moving in the opposite direction from camp.
"Dave, Roxie...they must have all gotten away," Sammy said hopefully.
"Orr they got--" Jackie started, but stopped once she saw Ben's fearful face, and Darius staring up at the destroyed place. Thankfully neither boy had heard her.
"We're on our own," Yasmina said matter-of-factly.
In that moment, a furious Brooklynn spun to face Sammy. "Give. Me. My. Phone!" she ordered.
"Wha—" Sammy said.
"I don't care about you sneaking into the private lab, I don't care about whatever you did with the skin samples you took from the Sinoceratops," Brooklynn spoke rapidly out of anger, stress and frustration.
"What skin samples?" Yasmina asked.
"What do you mean, private lab? The two Doctors?" Kenji said.
"I don't even care that you stole it now. All I want to do is call for help. Where is it?" Brooklynn demanded, ignoring the other two.
Sammy touched her pocket—the one that she knew contained what was left of Brooklynn's phone. But instead of telling the truth, she said, "I...I don't know what you're talking about! Ssskin samples? Sneaking into labs? Y--you made up some crazy thing in your own dang head!"
Yasmina got between them. "Hey, back off," she said. "Not everything revolves around you and your phone! It isn't Sammy's fault you lost it!"
"I told you I didn't loose it!" Brooklynn snapped
"There's no good arguing about it! The phone's gone and there's nothing we can do about it!" Jackie shoved in, annoyed that the three girls were still going on about the phone..
"It's, not, gone!"
"Would you guys please keep it down?" Ben said. "There's a big—"
"A big scary dinosaur?" Kenji said, shutting him down. "Of course there's a big scary dinosaur! There's always a big scary dinosaur!"
"Hey! No need to be a jerk about it!" Tom fired back.
"Who said I was talking to you?" Kenji snarked
"Why do you always have to be a big-mouthed jerk!" Ben's voice cracked a little.
Everyone was now arguing. Darius watched them and backed away slowly. He was focused on the bunks in the tree above. The arguing was growing louder now and becoming particularly vicious. Everyone was saying mean things about everyone else.
Until finally Ben shouted, "NO ONE IS GETTING OUT OF HERE!"
Suddenly, everyone stopped fighting.
"We just saw people get eaten!" Ben continued. "We're alone, we're defenseless...we're dead."
Darius looked at his friends, who were visibly internally giving up. He thought about his necklace. The one his dad had given him. Suddenly, he missed his dad more than ever. But his friends were here. Right now. And they needed his help. While they still could breathe air into their lungs, they were not going to give up.
"We're not giving up!" Darius said loudly. "I get it. It's scary. This isn't how this was supposed to be. But things don't always go our way. Life is messy, and sometimes things fall apart. But that's okay. Because when that happens, we pick up the pieces and keep going. And we never give up."
After a moment of silence, Yasmina spoke up. "What are we supposed to do?"
"Get south to the Park. Get help. And the only way we'll make it is if we do it together. We're a team or we're nothing at all."
🦕🦖🦕
The enclosure fence had held this long at least. That was, until the Carnotaurus came along. He took a look and growled.
Something else was there, too.
On the other side of the fence, the Indominus rex thundered into view.
The two carnivores looked at each other, unsure what to do next.
Then the Indominus roared and brought its claws down on the fence.
🦖🦕🦖
"Hey! I know where we are!" Darius called out "The Carnotaurus. We're by Toro's paddock!"
The group had started heading South, but quickly got lost in the jungle. The roads were of little help when half the signs were crushed, broken or missing.
Darius pushed aside some ferns. Behind the foliage, there was a large cable fence. Except... it wasn't exactly a whole fence. The cables had been ripped down, leaving a huge opening.
"I remember this fence!" Darius said, finally seeing the hole. "The broken...ripped-down...fence."
Darius shot Kenji a worried glance.
"That means Toro is out here," Ben said, breathing heavily. "With us!"
"Now we have to deal with Indominus and Toro," Darius said. Then he swiveled to look at Ben. "Hold up. How do you know about Toro?"
"We all know," Yasmina said. "Kenji told us, like, the day after it happened."
"In my defense, me saving you was super cool," Kenji said. Darius glared at him.
"We know this enclosure is due north of the Main Park," Darius said, thinking out loud. Then he pointed in the opposite direction. "So if we keep going that way, we'll hit the Visitor Center. We're sure to find Dave and Roxie or someone else there in charge."
"Yes, exactly what I was thinking," Kenji said. "As a leader, which I am. Follow me!"
🦕🦖🦕
The kids had only been gone for about a half a minute when the trees rustled and an enormous foot stepped out. The Indominus rex had been watching.
Now she was following them, too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finished really early with this one because here in China it's the Moon Festival, and we've got the whole of next week off, but have to go to school on Saturday and Sunday. SO we have a 7 day long week of school.
Soooo looking forward to that.
I'm already working on the next couple chapters, so that I can publish one at the end of the holiday/beginning of the 7 day long school week, and the next chapter about two to three days after the long school week.