Chapter Thirty Eight: Crates of Food
~~~
"It fucken wimdy."
Yasmina sighed loudly, then turned to send a glare at Eva.
"Did I fucking stutter?"
"Let's just find Darius, yeah? You go that way—" she pointed to the left, "While Sammy and I head over here."
"I thought splitting up only worked in Scooby Doo..."
And, the two best friends had walked away. Eva turned to Brooklynn and the two boys, and slowly followed them as they wandered the jungle.
The entirety of last night, one of the worst storms that had hit Isla Nublar raged on. Eva ended up not sleeping a wink, but shrouded herself under the cover of their treehouse, poking at a small fire to keep warm, and wrapped up in her green comforter to keep dry. The others sat with her, but were lucky enough to fall asleep on one another as the night grew.
After the sun had risen, they left the grounds to search for viable food. Most of their common berry bushes hadn't survived the storm, so they went further out. And then they lost Darius.
"Aaahhh!"
The sound of a body thumping against the ground echoed through the jungle, somewhere from their left.
Kenji, Brooklynn, Eva and Ben stepped around a tree to see Darius laying on the ground next to a snapped vine.
"Dude, that did not sound good. Are you okay?" Kenji asked him as he offered him a hand.
Darius graciously took it.
"Guys!" Ben shouted. "We found Darius! He's over—"
"Ben, don't. Shhh! Something's up there." He peered curiously up the side of the cliff, where long vines dangled down at them. But no dinosaur looked back at them. They were met with silence— not even the birds or other animals were making such noise.
"Oh thank god, you're alive!" Sammy shouted as she ran up.
Eva face palmed.
Darius whispered back, "Not for long if we don't get outta here."
"Why—" a dinosaur roar cut Yaz off, followed by a weird clicking sound. "... Do I even ask?"
The campers began walking back to camp, and Eva couldn't help but notice something absolute reeked around them. The smell was so bad, it was burning her nose hairs. Even when she breathed through her mouth, it was like she was tasting it instead.
She covered her nose and mouth with her hoodie-covered hand as she walked.
"Ugh, I think I cracked a rib," Darius groaned as he moved his arms around.
Eva glanced over her shoulder at him.
"For real?" Brooklynn asked. Darius shrugged. "Let me know if the pain gets any worse. Let's hope you just bruised it, for now."
"Shit, look at how busted this place is," Kenji commented from the front of the group. "That was one of the worst storms I've ever seen."
"We were so worried about you," Brooklynn told Darius. "You said you'd be right back, and then you just disappeared."
"But you picked up a souvenir." Yaz motioned to his right hand, which Eva realized was holding a video camera. "Nice."
"I found it in the nest," Darius said.
Eva chuckled nervously. "Uh, nest?"
"What the hell happened?" Sammy asked.
The campers stopped to stare at Darius. "Well, since we're out of food and we already picked all the fruit near camp, I went farther out. I found some up a pretty high tree, but then this huge gust of wind knocked me off. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in the middle of a nest, surrounded by eggs. And I hear this strange clicking noise from whatever brought me here."
"I think you're drinking too much dumb bitch juice," Eva said.
Kenji softly elbowed her shoulder. "Who's his dealer? You?"
"Real funny, har har. Don't you know dealers don't touch their own supplies? You, on the other hand..."
Kenji nudged her with his elbow, the both of them sporting grins. Kenji had this look on his face that made Eva wonder what he was really thinking about. Eva nudged him back, and his eyes fell to the ground.
"—So, this clicky dino dragged you all the way to its nest, but didn't eat you?" Sammy asked.
"Yeah. Me and a Monolophosaurus. It wasn't as lucky as I was."
Darius started walking again, and Brooklynn quickly matched his pace. She hugged her hands to her chest and whispered, "Do you think it kept you alive to feed you to its babies?"
"That would explain why I'm alive," he guessed.
"Dark, Dino Nerd," Kenji said. "But how do you explain... the smell?"
"Wait, what?" Eva chuckled as Darius sniffed at the air. "Do I smell?"
Oh, so it was him. She probably should have made that connection sooner, but the smell was clogging her brain cells.
Brooklynn blew a raspberry. "No."
"Define smell," Ben smiled through the pain.
"Not at all!" Sammy said, cheerful as ever.
Darius offered what could only be described as a threatening look coming straight from a bearded collie.
"Really, really bad," Yasmina caved.
Kenji covered his nose, and spoke in a weird voice. "Like a dirty lizard cage that's been left under a heat lamp."
"Yeah, you reek, man."
Darius scrunched his face, until he burst out laughing. "That bad, huh? Don't worry, I'm sure it'll fade away soon."
"Dinosaurs," Yaz muttered. "Just, why?"
"You know, if dinosaurs didn't exist, I never would have met Kenji," Eva commented out of the blue.
"Wait, what?" He laid a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.
Yaz quirked an eyebrow at the two.
"Yeah, so my parents completely settled into the suburbs of San Diego. I mean, like, they completely paid off their house, they had the baby room already designed for me, and then like, three years before I was born, boom! A T-Rex appeared in their backyard. They were like—" Eva raised her hands in mock surrender, "—'fuck this shit I'm out', and moved to New York. So you can thank dinosaurs for having to put up with me for so long," she laughed, patting his shoulder.
"You're for real?"
She nodded, "Sad I missed out on being a SoCal baby, but I most likely wouldn't have met any of you losers, either."
"Awe, I'm so glad a T-Rex appeared in your parents backyard!" Sammy grinned.
Eva pulled her into a side hug. "Me too, girly."
"They're not all bad," Ben said as he deviated from their path.
Eva furrowed her eyebrows, but slowly followed after him. The other joined, too. Ben crept up to a large fallen tree, gasping as he peered over the top. The campers followed suit, their faces lighting up in amazement.
A herd of about nine gallimimus grazed on insects and grubs and small berries from an untouched berry bush.
Eva awe'd as she watched the dinosaurs simply existing, minding their own business.
"See? They know how to survive," Ben grinned, referring to the grubs they were eating.
Apparently on Ben's time alone in the wilderness, he turned to eating grubs to survive. When he brought the idea to the campers attention earlier that morning, everyone groaned in disgust and called him gross.
"Not a chance, Ben," Kenji told him. "I'm hungry, but not, willing to eat bugs, hungry."
"We'll go look for food..." Brooklynn glared at Darius, "Together."
Darius grimaced in response.
"We can't wait too long," Ben said. "The storm wiped out everything."
Yasmina groaned. "I can't believe we survived big game hunters only to be starved to death by a storm."
Eva cleared her throat. "Technically they'd be poachers, since I'm guessing all their 'prizes' were hunted illegally."
Yasmina glared at her. Eva raised her hands in surrender. "I'll shut up now."
"Don't worry," Darius reassured. "We'll find more food."
Above, a pteronadon screeched. Eva instinctively ducked down. A group of five flying dinosaurs flew into the clearing. The gallimimus bellowed in panic and began to scatter in all directions.
Oh look, they know what scatter means, too.
The campers ducked below the tree trunk as a pteronadon flew into the top of it, rocking the trunk. On the other side of the tree, chaos ensued. Both pteranodons and gallimimus shrieked and squawked. A few times, something hit up against the tree they were using as their hiding spot.
Eva's hand flew over her mouth, and she pressed herself against both the tree, and Kenji. His hand snaked around her shoulders, and the pair jumped at every noise.
Finally, the clearing quieted— so calm and serene, it was like there were no dinosaurs there to begin with.
"I don't know if it's safe to go," Darius whispered.
Eva opened her eyes, blinking away the sunlight. On her right, Sammy was sitting on her legs with her head propped into her hands. She sat up swiftly, quietly, and shot a careful look at Eva.
"We don't want to get caught in the middle of a food fight."
"You wanna wait until it gets worse?" Kenji asked, his arm dropping from around Eva. "No thanks, we need to run."
Why did she mentally frown? Why did she suddenly miss his warmth?
"Did you hear how quiet it got?" Sammy whispered. "We could be ambushed. We should stay hidden until we know what's out there."
"I'll tell you what's out there, nothing good," Kenji whispered back. "We have to run, now."
"No, Kenji. We need to wait here and figure out what's what."
Kenji sighed. "What's it gonna be, Darius?"
Darius glanced behind him at Ben, Yasmina and Brooklynn, then back to the trio. "Let's wait it out. Something's not right."
Kenji sighed, looking around. His knee began to bounce and he sucked on his bottom lip.
Eva calmly laid a hand on his knee, and he immediately froze up. "Chill, Kenj."
He sent her smile, but it looked more like a grimace.
A dinosaur growl filled the air, and the remaining pteronadons flew over their tree. Chaos and Limbo, the two baryonyxes, chased after them, snapping their jaws, and completely ignoring the campers.
"Guys, now!"
~~~
"My granddaddy had one of these!" Sammy said, holding the video camera in her hands. She looked it over, her eyes lighting up and a smile tugging at her lips. "I thought they stopped making 'em."
"Can anybody find the 'on' button?"
Brooklynn reached out her hand for the camera. "Let me do it. I love retro tech." She popped open the side, which had a screen, and turned it on within seconds.
On the screen, three raptors were fighting over a piece of meat.
"Remember them, Brooklynn?" Kenji asked.
She chuckled awkwardly. "I said I was sorry!"
"Oh, check it out. She's gonna do it again," a man's voice from the video said.
The video panned to a blue velociraptor.
"Huh? What's the blue one doing?"
"Nothing good."
"Just watch," another voice responded. "She's a smart one. Too smart."
The blue velociraptor knocked a rock between the three other raptors and past them. They quickly turned their attention to it. Another rock flew past, and the raptors dropped the slab of meat, running after the rocks. The blue raptor entered the picture and looked around, before stealing the slab of meat for herself.
"Oh, and the other's don't catch on?" The first man asked.
"They'll never outsmart Blue," the second man replied. "No wonder she's Grady's favorite."
"Hey, hey!" A third voice shouted.
The camera panned up to show an older man with long, white hair and a scruffy beard running towards the two men on the catwalk. The third man was wearing a blue shirt, a jean jacket, and black jeans with a fancy golden belt buckle. Thin rectangular sunglasses covered his eyes, and black beads hung around his neck. He stopped a few feet short of the two men, panting.
"Where's Owen? I need Owen Grady!"
"Yeah, he's not here, Brimford," the second man said.
"I don't have much time." Brimford looked around. "They're coming for me." He pulled a rolled piece of parchment— it looked tea stained and everything— out of his pocket and held it up. "Give him this, would you? He'll know what to do with it. Please, it's important. Can I trust you to pass it on?"
"Sure thing," the second man said.
"Thanks." The third man, Brimford, turned and ran back the way he came.
"You didn't mean—" the camera cut out, then cut back in to show the chest and mouth of the first man.
"Of course not," he scoffed in response. "I doubt Grady even knows Brimford. The guy's a total wild card. Did you hear he's been stealing crates of food? Stockpiling 'em up somewhere."
"Yeah, I bet the park found out and now he's toast."
The camera shook, and a second later, the second man had balled the parchment up and tossed it into the velociraptor pen. "There. We'll let the ladies pass on the message."
The screen cut out, then went dark.
Brooklynn lowered the camera. "Did you hear that? They said something about stockpiling crates of food. What if they're still out there?"
Sammy gasped, "That would be amazin'!"
"If that note is still in the raptor paddock, it could say where he hid the food."
"Or it could say, 'shoe, Tuesday, wing-ding.' That Brimford guy was acting really weird," Kenji said.
Eva slapped his shoulder. "Stop being a pessimist."
"I don't know," Ben shrugged. "I kinda dug his energy."
"And, he knows Owen Grady!"
The campers all gave Darius looks of confusion, excluding Eva. It was so silent, Eva could hear insects chirping somewhere nearby.
"Are you guys kidding?"
"He's a raptor trainer," Eva informed.
"Wrong—"
Eva scrunched her face, "Bitch, where?"
"— He's only, like, the most respected raptor trainer in the world."
"Same diff."
"Even so, do we really wanna risk a raptor pen encounter for some note that's probably not even there anymore?"
"Crates of food, Yaz," Brooklynn argued. "And who knows what else? I'm getting tired of busting my butt for scraps!"
"Raptor paddock it is!" Ben grinned. "I'll wake Bumpy."
Brooklynn walked over to the excited Ben, stopping him. "Hold up, Ben. Just let her sleep. We'll be able to move faster and quieter without Bumpy."
Ben crossed his arms. "Maybe so, but we might need her help to haul back crates of food. What do you think, Darius?"
"Mm, that mystery dino is still out there. She'll warn us if it gets close."
Ben nodded triumphantly, and went to wake his ankylosaurus.
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the start of Hidden Adventure!! I'm actually genuinely so excited for y'all
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- Atha