"Jurassic World River Adventurers!"
Ben nearly jumped out of his skin at the voice that came over the loudspeakers.
"Prepare yourselves for the wonder of the underground river!" It was just the pre-recorded voice of a park announcer
"Guys, we can still make it to the Park. Everyone, grab a kayak!" Darius said, relieved.
The park announcer went over the various safety procedures as Darius and his friends grabbed life jackets and paddles.
"I'm with Jackie!" Yasmina spoke quickly, grabbing said girl's arm and pulling her along into a kayak.
Sammy, glanced dishearted after the two girls. "Come on, Sammy, let's get out of here," he said. She went with him and jumped into his kayak.
"Brooklynn and I call the CKK!" Kenji called out, flicking a pair of sunglasses on.
"CKK?"
"The Cool Kids Kayak," Kenji handed Brooklynn a life jacket and climbed in front of the kayak. "Captain at the helm~," He took the seat in front.
Being the last two kids, Tom helped Ben and Bumpy into the Kayak. The ankylosaur was about the size of a domestic cat, and very much afraid of water. They were the last to get on a kayak and paddle after the other three boats.
As they paddled into the dark cavern, Ben was about to call out that they should have brought brought lights with, and was thinking of suggesting they turn back, when a soft glow slowly spread through the underwater river cave.
"WHoaaa" A chorus of wows filled the cavernous area, echoing it softly back at the kids.
It was looking into another world. The stone walls and roof was bathed in colourful lights that drifted along the rocky formations, playing off the water. Gentle parasaurolophuses glowed lifted their heads out of the water, seeming to just spawn right there, glowing in vivid greens and blues. Jackie remarked how their colours were a result of the dinosaurs grazing on the abundant bioluminescent plants growing throught the cave.
The sight was so breath taking the kids were barely paddling, drifting ever so slowly down the river. A moment of calm and a short break from the constant stress, fear and running. Four kayak boats were spread far enough from each other that they could have a conversation without another boat overhearing.
Brooklynn couldn't hold back anymore. "We're here because of her!" She whisper yelled. She was still stewing about her phone and Sammy.
"Orrr maybe something else would have happened and we would still be stuck here," Kenji offered. Brooklynn blinked and stared at Kenji. She hadn't thought of that. "Or something else would have happened and we would be stuck in a different situation,"
Brooklynn was silent as she thought of this. This kind of stuff she expected from Darius, or anyone else but Kenji.
"Look, I...I know you're mad at Sammy," Kenji said. "But getting mad doesn't get us out of here. It just...makes more people mad, you know? Put yourself in her shoes. At this point, is there anything you could say that would make Sammy feel worse than she already does?"
Brooklynn was quiet. She leaned a little to the side to see around Kenji at the kayak furtherest ahead; Jackie and Yasmina.
"You okay?" Jackie quietly spoke up. She could feel the tension pouring out of the athlete in front of her.
"I'm fine!" Yasmina snapped back immediately. Visibly taken back, Jackie sunk down a bit in her seat, fingers dipping into the cool water. Yasmina's shoulders lowered a little bit, and she paused in her paddling. "I'm... sorry, I didn't mean to say it like that,"
"It's okay," Jackie leaped at the opportunity to try and break down Yasmina's defences. "I understand, I'm hurt too--"
"I'm not up for talking," Yasmina said quickly, a small tint of annoyance in her words. "Let's just paddle,"
Jackie glanced back at Sammy sitting in Darius's kayak, paddling silently.
"Just ask," Sammy said lifelessly.
"It's just that... you talk so much about your ranch and your family," Darius began. "But your family sent you here. To break the law."
"They didn't send me. They said no to Mantah Corp. They said they'd rather lose everything than use me like that."
Darius looked at Sammy, surprised.
"I was the one who contacted the Mantah Corp agent. I agreed to come here. My family...they didn't even know what I was planning until I was already on the ferry. Smashing the phone was an accident, but... Brooklynn's right. This is all my fault."
"I still don't see why..."
Sammy turned to face Darius and stared him straight in the eye. "If your family was in trouble, wouldn't you do anything in your power to save them?"
"Sooo," Tom sat in front, glancing over his shoulder at the tiny ankylosaur cowering in Ben's lap behind him. "She grew fast,"
"Yeah," Ben affectionally rubbed the dinosaur's head, trying to calm Bumpy.
The kayak floated on in silence, both boys preffering silence to talking.
🦕🦖🦕
The group took a momentary break and stopped paddling. But something was wrong.
Darius flinched as Sammy grabbed his arm, nails digging into his skin. "Ow--"
"If we stopped paddling," she said, "why are we still movin' forward?"
Looking down into the river, Darius could just see that the kayak was being pulled ahead. The sound of rushing water could be heard in the distance. Glancing up, Darius thought he could make out some kind of opening ahead. It looked like there had once been a grate that covered the opening.
Something had ripped it apart.
"Paddle!" Darius cried out. "There's a current pulling us into a different tunn—"
But it was already too late. The current was far too strong. Yasmina and Jackie were the first to be drawn in, and the rest of the kayaks followed down into the dark tunnel.
Everyone screamed as darkness stole their sight, and the slight incline increased the speed of the kayaks, installing momentary fear into the kids.
When the kayaks emerged, it took everyone a moment for their eyes to adjust to the brightness of dusk. The water was calm and clear as the four kayaks drifted away from each other.
"We're okay!" Ben shouted.
Sammy laughed. They all felt a rush of relief that no one had fallen over or a kayak had tipped.
The relief was short-lived when Kenji gasped loudly. "Guys—we're in the Jurassic World Lagoon,"
"And so is the Mosasaurus!"
Jackie swallowed hard as just beneath the surface of the water, a massive shadow of the largest creature at Jurassic World swam below them.
"It's circling," Brooklynn said, scared. "Testing us. It's acting like a shark. We're intruders in its domain, so it's investigating us...before it gets confident and it decides to..."
"Well this is bad," Tom concluded.
"We have to get out...now!" Kenji concurred.
Kenji looked around to see what their escape options might be. The walls that surrounded the lagoon were way too high to climb. Turning his head, he saw the empty spectator stands on the other side of the wall. There was a ladder on the rail in front of the stands.
The walls may be out, Kenji thought. But the ladder...
Suddenly, the kayaks began to bob up and down in the water, as the Mosasaurus's tail fin breeched the water's surface not too far away. The water was roiling and the kayaks along with it.
"Paddle!" Kenji shouted. "Go, go! Towards the stands!" He pointed toward the ladder, and the kids paddled with all the strength they could muster.
"Paddle!!"
Being the furtherest and fittest, both Jackie and Yaz pulled ahead of the others, paddles pumping furiously. Jackie cast a look over her shoulder and spotted Ben and Tom with Bumpy lagging behind the others.
She immediately stuck her paddle in one side, aiming to turn the boat around.
"What are you doing?" Yaz shouted, though she didn't fight the turn, instead going with it,
"Ben's boat won't make it!" Jackie thought fast, even if Yasmina jumped on with them and helped paddle, the added weight would still slow them down.
"So?! What can we do?" Yaz yelled back,
Jackie's eyes landed on a small metal platform a meer few meters away from them, a large column of metal extending out of the water and attached to the feeding lines.
"There!"
A huge dark shadow cut through the water towards the group of four, the Mosasaurus was almost upon them. All it had to do was swim up with it's mouth open, and the others would be history.
"Whatever happens, don't stop paddling!"
Yasmina had to brace herself when—without hesitation—Jackie leaped into the water, deliberately splashing to draw the water dinosaur's attention away.
Brooklynn and Kenji had made it to the stands and were helping each other up the ladder and into the safety of the spectator stands. They missed the dive.
Those who had seen Jackie dive into the water screamed, but didn't stop paddling
Jackie reached the crane platform and pulled herself up onto it, reaching it just in time. The Mosasaurus had to turn sharply to the left to avoid swimming directly into the metal column.
The others
The sound echoed throughout the lagoon.
Yasmina had made it to the stand with Brook and Kenji, and they were now yelling on the others.
Don't look back, Sammy!" Darius said frantically. "Just keep paddling!"
"I'm tryin', but—what's Jackie doin'?"
The Mosasaurus was getting nearer and nearer as Darius raised his head. He saw Jackie on the platform, sticking her legs in and splashing the water.
"Hey! Hey!" Jackie shouted. "Over here! Hey!"
"She's distracting it, buying us time!" Darius said. "Keep going!"
We gotta do something!" Sammy yelled as they reached the stands, grabbing Tom's offered hand. Thinking fast, Kenji ran off and started up the feeding crane.
Jackie looked up and saw the chain coming her way. She quickly scaled the metal tower frame, and as soon as it was within reach, she jumped onto it, holding the chain tightly as it swung her back toward the others.
The Mosasaurus was now in pursuit as the crane moved back to the spectator stands. The dinosaur was picking up speed.
It was familiar with the chain. The chain brought its food every day.
And there was something on the chain.
"She's not gonna make it!" Ben screamed.
"Make it go faster!" Brooklynn's hands gripped the railing, kunckles white.
"We're trying!" Darius was besides Kenji, smashing random buttons, trying to get the crane to go faster, all the while avoiding the red button that would stop the crane.
Jackie could see the shadow beneath her, and she thought she would faint from terror. She started swinging back and forth in an attempt to make the crane go faster.
Back and forth, back and forth.
One moment her red and blue flannel hugged her body, then next floating behind her, obscuring her view of the dinosaur, then hugging her body again.
The Mosasaurus breeched the water's surface just as Jackie was beginning her swing forward.
Jaws open wide--
Chomping down, its massive jaws seeminly snapped on nothing but air, and for just a split second, Jackie felt a snippet of extreme relief.
Before she was yanked violently down towards the waters, leaving behind her lungs, stomach and intestines.
The Mosasaurus had clamped down on the tip of the girl's flannel. A sharp pain laced her calf to ankle when her leg momentarily caught on the hook at the end of the feeding chain.
The Mosasaurus sunk back into the water below, unaware of what it had done.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as everyone watched Jackie fall.
Just as she hit the water, the sound snapped Tom out of his trance and he tore his hoodie off and leapt into the water. He kicked off the concrete wall and took broad strokes to the slowly sinking girl.
He heard a splash behind him, and there was a second where he thought it was the water dinosaur, but the Mosasaurus was far ahead, making a slow U-turn. Any minute now it would notice them and come racing back.
Tom took a deep breath and ducked under water, managing to nap Jackie's bare shoulder and pulling her up. The boy wasn't that strong of a swimmer, and he'd certainly hadn't tried to swim lugging another person, but Yasmina was suddenly there.
She hooked her arm under Jackie's right, and Tom did the same with her left, and with their combined efforts, were at the ladder in moments, both swimmers lifting an unconcious Jackie up by her biceps to Kenji.
Yasmina and Tom had just climbed the ladder when they turned and saw the underwater shadow of the Mosasaurus turn away from them, just a few seconds too late to catching a small snack.
Dripping, he turned to face the chaos that was everyone else.
Kenji had his ear over Jackie's chest. Darius was trying to get a pulse from her wrist, Brooklynn had her hands over her mouth, frozen.
"Does anyone know CPR?!" Sammy gasped.
"I think I do!" Brooklynn placed her hands on Jackie's rib cage. "I've seen someone do it before, like this," The pink girl started pressing down and up.
"That looks nasty." Yaz crouched at Jackie's legs and pointed at the cut. "We need to wrap it up, else she'll bleed out."
Everyone was momentarily distracted by the blood slowly pooling.
"She needs to be alive for her to bleed out!" Kenji frantically said.
Brooklynn continued pushing up and down on Jackie's ribs.
"You're too low, her lungs are higher up." Ben timidly spoke up. "Right now you're just squashing her organs."
"Would you like to do it?" Brooklynn snapped
Ben's face turned red. "Y-you're doing great!" He stammered.
But the girl shifted her hands higher and continued her rhythmic pumping. It took a short moment, but Jackie awoke and coughed up a mouthful of water.
"Oh my gosh it worked!" Brooklynn pulled Jackie into a hug. "I'm so happy you're ok."
"Thank goodness!" Sammy knelt down and hugged the two. Kenji joined in, and so did Darius. Bumpy ran circles around Ben's legs as the boy tried to calm himself down.
"Give her air to breathe," Tom said.
"Glad you're ok," The pink haired girl said as she stood up with the others and backed away.
Jackie was shuddering, sucking in as much air as she could.
Darius knelt in front of her, snapping his fingers, "Hey," He frowned when she didn't respond. He thought she must be in shock. Her gaze was locked on something on the ground.
"Darius," Yaz hadn't moved from her position by Jackie's leg. "Her leg is still a problem."
Sammy placed her hands on Jackie's back and shoulder. "I think you need to lay down, darling."
"We need a cloth or something to wrap that up," Darius said.
Tom handed Yasmina his wet socks. "You can use these for now, keep some pressure on the leg."
With a disgusted face, she took them and pressed them to the cut. Jackie flinched but continued to stare up at the sky.
"What are we going to do for her leg?" Sammy asked. "None of us have any bandages."
"I'll look around the stadium for a first aid kit." Kenji volunteered. "Wanna come with, Sammy?"
"Shure, two eyes are better than one."
"I'll look around for a discarded shirt or something." Tom left his shoes by the remaining three as he walked off, wringing out his shirt.
"I'll go help Tom look," Ben offered. He looked a little green staring at the blood.
Brooklynn left without a word after Kenji and Sammy.
"I doubt they'll find anything." Yaz shifted from squatting to kneeling, still applying pressure.
"If they don't, I can use my shirt. Rip and wrap it up." Darius fingered his white shirt.
"That will be a sight to see, then what will you wear?" Yaz asked.
"I don't need a shirt to get home."
"Right."
Sammy frowned as she walked, casting a few glances at Yasmina every now and then, and Kenji looked around. She wrapped her arms around herself when she received a glare from Yaz.
"You okay?"
Sammy looked surprised as Brooklynn walked up besides her.
"Naw. Not really."
"Yeah, dumb question," Brooklynn said. "I don't know her that well, but I think if you give Yaz some space, she'll come around."
"Why are you being nice to me?" Sammy asked.
"Because I've done my share of selfish things," Brooklynn said. "I only knew what you were up to because I was also sneaking in places I shouldn't have been. You were at least doing it for family. I was doing it to impress a bunch of angry internet randos."
A look of determination came over Brooklynn's face. "Plus, when we get out of here, you're gonna give me the exclusive on all the juicy details of you spying for Mantah Corp. 'Brooklynn Unboxes a Conspiracy.' Try to tell me my videos are lame after that, angry internet randos!!"
Sammy looked into Brooklynn's eyes.
"So...deal?" Brooklynn said, putting out her hand. Sammy grinned.
She took the other girl's hand. They shook.
Then came the sirens.
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Author: This chapter was almost 3,000 wordsssss--one of the longest chapterssss
and hope you enjoyed the change, there's more to comeeee