Chapter Twenty One: Kenji Is A Pretty Little Princess
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A second baryonyx began closing in on them, snapping its jaws at every sharp turn Brooklynn and Eva took. Eva kept Brooklynn in front of her, her bag of water weighing her down the more she pushed herself to keep going.
They finally turned, heading in the direction of Sammy and Darius.
"Run, run, run!" B shouted at the others. They turned, eyes wide, and obeyed.
The baryonyx that was after them split from Brooklynn and Eva, and turned to Sammy and Darius.
Brooklynn and Eva huddled behind a trunk, watching as the baryonyx took a bite of open air, missing Sammy by inches.
It froze, eyes stuck on the baryonyx that was trapped in the cage. They both screeched at each other, communicating in a language the campers didn't understand.
"Guys, over here," Brooklynn whispered to them.
All four of them crouched behind the trunk, watching as the two baryonyxes continued to communicate with one another. The free baryonyx butted its head against the cage, to no avail.
"It's trying to free the other baryonyx."
While the dinosaur was distracted, Eva, Darius, Brooklynn, and Sammy snuck away, only to be met with another baryonyx. "Go, go, go, go!" Eva screamed as she took off, weaving between cages to escape the dinosaur.
She pulled ahead, feet sliding on gravel as she slipped behind a chest with rifled supplies inside. She peered over the top, watching as Sammy fell behind another a few dozen feet from her. Brooklynn and Darius ran past. They climbed onto one of the cages that still held a stegosaurus inside.
The carnivore was jumping the side of the cage, snapping its jaws at Brooklynn. Eva couldn't watch. She slid down, her back to the campers, wondering what would be the easiest way to get out of there. She could run forward into the jungle, but who would be her guide back to Camp Cretaceous? She could dip away, any direction away from the angry baryonyx. She could run, save herself. But what would happen to the others? What would happen to her if they survived?
Darius shouted, "Eva! Sammy! The stegosauruses! Open the gate!"
Eva looked between the baryonyx hell bent on Darius and Brooklynn, and the stegosauruses behind them. She was closer than Sammy, but her tongue slid between her teeth, and she made the impromptu decision to pretend like she didn't hear Darius' pleas of help. She ducked further behind the chest, legs down flat.
"It's working! It's working!"
Eva peeked over the top to see Sammy on the other side of the station, helping B and Darius to the ground. They started to sneak away, so Eva stood rather abruptly to join them.
She snuck around the baryonyxes, who had their backs to her, cornered by the stegosauruses, before taking off in a sprint after the others.
"Awe," Sammy cooed when Eva finally rejoined them.
The third baryonyx, which was previously trapped, rejoined the other two as Darius ran up to the campers. They snarled and screeched, and sent the stegosauruses running in the campers' direction.
Eva's eyes widened and she immediately took off in a sprint, running in what she hoped was the direction back to Camp Cretaceous. As she ran, Darius shouted directions back to camp. When she began to recognize the land, she pulled ahead to warn Kenji and Yasmina.
Stepping through some tall grass, she saw them sitting next to a tree, while Kenji was building something out of sticks and Yaz was watching with mock interest.
"Welcome, to—"
"Get up, now!" Eva barked.
"Whaaat?"
"Kenji, tree!" Eva went to Yaz's side, and quickly helped her stand. "Help me!" She called to Kenji, who easily came to her aid.
"What's—"
The ground started to rumble, and Eva snapped her head back to see Brooklynn, Darius and Sammy approaching, and the herbivores running behind them.
"Go, go!"
"Up the tree, quick!"
"Oh, shi—"
Yaz pulled Kenji up, then outreached a hand to Eva. She put everything into that pull up, hands grasping the vines for a grip. Darius helped Sammy up, then glanced back a brief moment.
"Darius!"
He reached his hand, and the three of them— Kenji, Yasmina and Eva, they all grasped his arms, bringing him up into the tree. Darius panted as he clung to the trunk. Eva laid back in one of the branches, face in her hands.
"No, no, no!"
She leaned back up to see Kenji staring pitifully down at the ground, where whatever he was making with sticks as she ran up was broken and collapsed. "This is exactly why you should never work on anything, ever."
Yasmina rested a hand on his shoulder, smiling warmly.
What happened between them? ... And why did she care?
"I guess this is why they built Camp C up in the trees," Sammy commented.
Darius had a look on his face, like he just had the best idea. "Hey, maybe our new shelter should be kinda like a tree house?"
"Hm." Yasmina pulled her sketchbook from her back waistline and a pen from her pocket. She flipped to a blank page and began sketching. "Maybe something like... This?"
"It's great! Oh, but, we definitely need a lookout tower."
"And an awesome girls' bunk!" Brooklynn added. "The boys can have whatever."
"A place for storing food, so the dinos don't get it."
"A shower," Eva suggested, melting at the thought.
"Oh, please, a shower!" Sammy agreed. "Some of y'all are getting a little ripe."
"So are you, sweetheart," she replied.
~~~
The campers spent days sorting through usable supplies and building the schematics of their future tree house. Brooklynn— surprising to everyone— worked closely with Yaz to sketch their future camp. Eva began rationing their food findings, much to everyone's displeasure— except Darius, who agreed their food had to be rationed until they could find more.
In the first day of sorting usable supplies, Sammy found Darius's necklace, which gave him a newfound sense of confidence in himself and the campers.
Around day six, a storm rolled by and the campers quickly realized they had nothing to protect themselves against the onslaught of rain.
At thirteen, their camp was mostly built, save for their beds and the canopy covers they were working on stringing up together.
By the time day fifteen rolled around, Eva had been pondering ways to get their missing bags, and she finally had an idea. "Being up there would be so beneficial," she had told Darius and Sammy, gesturing to the top of Camp Cretaceous.
"And how do you plan on getting up there?" Sammy asked, swallowing loudly.
She studied the wreckage, nodding. "I'm gonna climb the vines."
"Eva—"
"Hey, if Dylan O'Brien can do it, so can I."
Darius shook his head. "That sounds really dangerous, Eva. I'm sorry, but I can't condone you to do that."
"But our bunks!" she protested. "Okay, okay, what if I climb the elevator shaft? Takes the fun out of it, but it's safer."
"Okay..." He hesitantly agreed. "But you're taking Kenji with you."
"Ew! Why?"
"Because he's strong, and unlike Yaz, he's not injured."
Brooklynn supplied them with vines, and they took to climbing the elevator shaft. At the top, they carefully walked around the sky bridges, headed for the bunks— or whatever was left of them.
The girls dorm room had caved in from the top, showing off wet floorboards and small puddles of rainwater. Eva gasped as she spotted a familiar red suitcase across the room.
She took careful steps across the room, freezing when a step would creak, or became too noisy to bear. She finally reached the outer edge, hands wrapping around her suitcase, which she tugged free with minimal effort. She also grabbed a broken picture frame on the ground that held a pretty brown cow inside.
Meeting back up with Kenji, the two scoured the other dorms, searching for personal luggage and supplies, and anything else they could possibly need.
Once they collected everything useful they possibly could, they headed to the edge of one of the sky bridges to create their pulley system. Eva tossed the vines around a slightly thick branch above them, then grabbed the edge of the vine, tying it off around her suitcase.
"Okay, attempt numéro un," Eva said, handing the back half of the vine to Kenji.
Eva kicked her suitcase off the platform, and the two slowly lowered it down to the others. At the bottom of the tree, Brooklynn and Darius untied the suitcase, giving a small yank as a sign to bring the vine back up. Eva sighed in relief, happy her plan worked.
They began lowering down the other bags they had found. When they got to Kenji's, Eva yelled down to the others to empty the bag so they could refill it up top with more supplies.
As they were pulling the bag back to the top, Eva yelled out, "Castaways, we are castaways!" much to Kenji's annoyance.
"If you say 'castaways' one more time, I'm pushing you off the ledge," Kenji threatened.
"Oh, like you pushed me off the monorail?"
Kenji scoffed, "I saved you!"
"All good that did, we're still stuck here all alone," she muttered bitterly. Then added, "Castaways!"
Kenji groaned as he reached out, taking his duffle back. He squatted on the passageway and began to fill it with more supplies, including Sammy's framed photo of her cow, Bessie.
"We are castaways! Ahoy there, ahoy, we are castaways! We're stuck where we are, with no house, no car. Castaways, ahoy, we are castaways!"
Kenji rolled his eyes and flipped off Eva, who cackled in laughter. Eva re-tied his bag, and the two got to work, lowering it back down.
"You know, it could be worse," Eva said without looking back at her mortal enemy.
"Really?" He scoffed. "How could it be worse? We're stuck on an island with a bunch of animals that want to eat us, and we're stuck with each other, but it can be worse? Yeah, right."
"Yeah, it could be worse," she repeated herself. "What if you were stuck here without someone as amazing as me?" She looked over her shoulder, smirking.
Kenji's cheeks tinged pink and he looked anywhere but at her.
"Mhm, mhm, what a sha—"
Eva's foot slipped and instinctively she screamed, her body falling several feet as the wood beneath her gave way. Kenji was quick to rush forward, his hands grasping around Eva's wrists, stopping her from falling to her death.
"I got you, I got you," he panted, biting his tongue as he slowly lifted her up and back onto the skywalk.
Once she was safe, save for her rapidly beating heart, she jerked her hands from his, whilst trying to regain her breathing.
Kenji furrowed his eyebrows and snapped, "You know, you being here isn't exactly a walk in the park, either. I was basically put on babysitting duty for you." He rolled his eyes, then, added as an afterthought, "If I could, I wouldn't have carried you when we were trying to make the ferry."
His eyes widened as Eva's narrowed, and she scoffed, pushing past him.
He was going to leave me for dead.
Eva's cheeks flushed in anger, and she quickly turned back to face him. "Yeah? Then why did you? You wanted to leave me for dead, you fucking should have done nothing— cause that's your thing, right? Sit around on your ass waiting for everyone else to do all the hard work? Sit around like a pretty little princess expecting everyone else to do what you refuse to?"
"I don't just sit around doing nothing—"
"Oh, really? Because last I checked, you were goofing around doing the absolute bare minimum while we've all been working our butts off to build camp. But you? You just like to sit around and take the L. You wouldn't know hard work if it slapped you across the face."
"Oh, and, like, you do?" He snapped, pushing forward towards her.
"Guys! Eva! Kenji!" Darius yelled from below.
Kenji continued, "You think you're all that just because you have a penchant for survival. Well, guess what, you're just as much a princess as I am. All self-absorbed and egocentric.The only person you care about is yourself."
"Guys!"
"Then why catch me just now?" She asked in a rather sharp tone. She stepped forward, inches away from Kenji. "Why push me off the monorail in the first place?" She rolled her eyes and stepped away, muttering a snarky comment under her breath.
Kenji scoffed, "I can't believe you sometimes."
Eva raised her hands, flipping him the bird twice. She headed for the only intact sky bridge that led to another portion of the tree house.
"And where are you going?!" Kenji shouted after her.
"Away from you!" she snapped, stomping away.
The audacity of Kenji to call her self-absorbed. As if he didn't care more about himself than her.
He was going to leave me for dead.
Eva scoffed, taking off her glasses and rubbing her eyes with the corner of her hoodie sleeve.
Her? Egocentric? Yeah, right. She'd show him... She would show them all.
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ahhhh I loved this chapter!! Did you?
- Atha