Chapter Sixty Six: Holland Roden is a Total Babe
~~~
Ben's figure became a blip in the night, a little ball of fire bouncing between the shrubs.
The campers took off after him and the tiger, though Eva had no idea what their plan was.
Ben slipped, falling down another ravine, and the saber toothed tiger fell after him.
The campers continued to follow the fire, though they were running over the surface, while Ben and the tiger were still down in the ravine. Eva banked on the fact that Ben hadn't screamed yet, which meant he was still alive.
Kenji pushed past Eva, running ahead. He kicked some rocks over the edge as he located Ben, then before Eva could protest, he jumped over the edge.
Eva soaked in a choking breath, feeling as though she was drowning all over again, for the millionth time.
"Wait!" Darius shouted, looking around before his gaze fell on a large rock. "Guys, we can leverage that—" he pointed to the rock.
"Like, get it to fall into the ravine?" Sammy asked.
"We just need a stick, o-o-o-o-o-or—"
"Got it!" Yaz shouted, running over with a large branch. She stuffed the bottom underneath the rock, and they all got ready to push the boulder in as Brooklynn went a few dozen feet away, working as their eyes.
Eva picked up a bunch of small baseball sized rocks, running them over to the others.
"Almost... Now!" Brooklynn shouted.
The boulder slid off the top of the cliff, landing in the ravine below. Eva picked up a couple of her baseball rocks, and began chucking them at the tiger.
Sammy, Yasmina and Darius followed suit.
"Hey!"
"Get away!"
"Don't make me come down there and beat yo ass!" Eva yelled, continuing to throw rocks at the saber toothed tiger.
Eva led the way to the front of the ravine, where a steep hill met the bottom. Kenji and Ben ran through, meeting the campers at the bottom.
"Oh, you dumbasses! What were you thinking?" Brooklynn asked, pulling Ben into a hug.
"Thinking? That didn't play a huge part in it," Kenji snickered.
"With you, it never does," Eva rebutted.
The campers all laughed, until Ben turned away from them, a crestfallen look on his features.
"Ben? What's wrong?"
"It's just that... I worked so hard to not be Scared Ben anymore. But the minute we leave Nublar, I'm right back to square one. Freaking out with the berries. Freaking out about the tiger."
Sammy stepped forward. "Which is the reason we're all alive right now. If you didn't warn us..."
"Yeah, well, at least Scared Ben is good for something."
"Hey, Pity Party of One, you also jumped into a cave with a tiger to get it to stop chasing your friends," Yaz said.
"A saber toothed tiger! Pretty sick, dude."
"Definitely more badass than kicking a dinosaur in the face," Eva chimed in.
"You may not be Fearless Island Ben, but you're not Scared Camp Ben, either. Maybe now, you're finally just... Ben."
"That does have a nice ring to it."
Kenji grinned, heading over to pull Ben into a side hug.
"Now that you're officially Ben, can we go now?" Eva asked.
"Go where?" Yaz questioned.
"Literally anywhere but here. Preferably as far from the tiger as we can get. I'm so tired of this Night At The Museum bullshit. Let's go back to making heart valves with pig and cow parts and talking about why space exploration with the laws of physics is literally impossible unless there's unwritten rules aliens will never tell us because they think we're just dinosaurs."
Darius narrowed his eyes. "I don't know why I understood all of that perfectly, but I did..."
"So, wait, I'm confused. What are we doing?" Sammy asked.
"We're doing the one thing we can do," Ben responded, confidently. "Keep going."
"And look out for saber toothed tigers, freak sand storms, and whatever the hell else this place has in store for us," Darius listed.
"At least, we have each other."
"That's the best at least yet."
~~~
"It's too quiet."
"We're hot, thirsty, in the middle of nowhere, and maybe surrounded by who knows what, but that's your complaint?"
"Yeah, because at least we can do something about it. Eva, do 'Toxic.'"
Eva yawned, and stretched her arms up over her head. She was exhausted, and she sure as hell did not have the energy to do "Toxic". Instead she thought back to the pep rally she participated in sophomore year, and through messy limbs and half assed dance moves, started "Fergalicious" instead.
She crossed her wrists over her head and swayed her hips, then flicked out her wrist and bopped her head to the side.
Kenji began laughing, hard enough to the point he began coughing through his smile, choking on air. He cried out, "I remember that from the pep rally! Oh my god, that was so long ago!"
He wiped fake tears from his eyes as Eva continued barely remembering random dance moves, belting "Fergalicious" at the top of her lungs. As she moved, she fought the urge to wince, her chest injuries coming back in full force.
"Yes!" Kenji snickered. "Get— ow!" Something clanged, and when Eva turned around, Kenji was on the ground, rubbing his foot. "What the...?"
"What is that?" Yaz asked no one in particular.
Kenji wiped a layer of dust off the top, revealing metal. A flicker of hope rose in Eva's chest. "Something man made."
Behind the metal contraption, rectangular footprints led away into the desert. No one hesitated: everyone ran forward, tracing the mysterious footprints. Kenji led the way before running into something else.
"Kenji, you okay?" Ben asked, offering Kenji a hand up.
He raised his hand in front of him, and the space in front of the campers lit up in bright white hexagons. "What the fuck?" he muttered, hand against some type of invisible screen.
Brooklynn touched around the invisible screen, pressing her palm against the flat surface. A door hissed open, revealing a long hallway. Lights flickered on, two, four, eight, twelve, twenty.
"Do we go in?" Sammy questioned, biting her lip nervously.
"Beats the desert," Eva said.
A man made tunnel. A futuristic looking hallway. That's what the campers had in store for them. Who built it, god only knows. And god only knows if they're still here or not. Still, the unknown, it seemed a lot better than staying in a desert growing dehydrated. For once, the unknown actually sounded good to Eva.
She took the first step into the hallway, listening intently for her friends' footsteps after her.
Darius walked faster to match Eva's pace, and Kenji came up on her right, reaching for her hand. Eva happily laced her fingers through her boyfriend's smiling in content.
As she turned down a random corner, a door far ahead in sight, Eva winced, her chest flaring up in pain. Kenji stopped, tugging Eva back. "You winced," he stated very matter of factly.
Eva scoffed, "No I didn't."
The others quickly stopped, watching the couple.
"Everything all good?" Darius asked.
"She winced."
"I didn't wince."
The campers looked at her curiously.
Eva sighed, lifting her shirt for the first time. "I don't know, I think I—"
"Oh my god!"
"Holy shit!"
"Oh god, Eva!"
Kenji gasped dramatically, his hand falling from her own.
Eva looked down over her boob, noticing for the first time, a mass of red, blue, and purple blotches. "Huh, well, alrighty then."
"Eva, what the fuck happened to you?" Kenji's eyes darkened. "If it was those mercs—"
Eva shook her head. "Y'all remember when the Scorpios back handed me in the Jurassic Park Visitor's Center?"
"That's what you think this is from?" Brooklynn asked.
"What else? I heard something pop when I landed—"
"Oh my god, Eva! You probably broke a rib!" Brooklynn hesitantly reached out, her fingers brushing against Eva's wound. She flinched on impact. "Maybe two."
"Or four," Yaz remarked, an edge of sarcasm lacing her voice.
"What else have you noticed?"
"Umm... It hurts when I breathe too hard when I run, and like, shortness of breath, I guess."
"If you really did break a rib, there's a chance a piece could have punctured your lung..."
"I'm sorry, WHAT?!" Kenji shouted.
"Great. So we get off a new island, and get me to a doctor. Can we keep going, now?" Eva dropped her shirt, and relaced her fingers with Kenji's. She urged him forward, towards the next door.
"Just, try to take it easy, please?" Brooklynn begged, hands clasped together and offering up puppy dog eyes.
"It's not my intent to run myself off a cliff, so I'll do my best, B. No promises. If someone brought back the saber tooth, what's to stop them from bringing back crocodiles?"
Darius furrowed his eyebrows. "You do know crocodiles exist, right? Like, they never went extinct."
"Oh my god, don't look at me like that," Eva threw out her hands to make her point, then winced again. "I know crocodiles exist, Darius. I don't mean modern crocodiles. I mean the crocodiles that had long legs and could gallop after their prey. That's what we should be concerning ourselves with."
"Gallop after their prey?" Sammy gulped.
"Crocodiles can run, like, twenty miles per hour, though," Yaz pointed out. "You're telling me prehistoric crocodiles were worse?"
"I will cry if we run into any," Sammy said.
"Don't cry. If you cry, I'll cry," Eva said, chuckling slightly.
"Gallop after their prey?" Sammy repeated, nervously following Eva down the hallway.
They finally reached the next door, and Brooklynn was quick to slide her finger across the lock pad, searching for the unlock button. With a satisfied hmph, the door hissed open, revealing tall redwoods and a forest of green and brown.
Everyone slowly filed out of the hallway and into the forest. Eva approached the nearest tree and touched it, surprised at the rough bark under her fingertips.
"Guys, do you remember how, like, five seconds ago we were in the desert?"
"What the heck is this place?" Sammy asked.
The ground rumbled, slow, like heavy footsteps. Eva backed into Kenji's chest, already picturing a T. Rex tearing her limb from limb, then going after her friends. She could already picture herself bleeding out on the ground as a prehistoric animal attacked her friends, and left no one alive.
Her heart thumped in her chest; her chest ached; chills ran up her spine and down her limbs. Her vision grew hazy, staring down a random little bush.
There weren't supposed to be dinosaurs here. They weren't on Isla Nublar anymore. They were supposed to be free. So, why did the rumbling sound like T. Rex footsteps? Why did it chill her to the core? Why was no one else freaking out the way she was?
Where would they run? Where could they hide? It was all trees, trees, and trees. There was nowhere to hide from the dinosaurs. They were out in the open, and nothing could hide that.
"T. Rex!" Sammy screamed.
Kenji's hand wrapped around Eva's, and if it weren't for the boy she had fallen in love with, she would still be standing in the T. Rex's path. She didn't even register herself running, just that she was close to Kenji, moving through the forest at impeccable speed.
The last thing she registered was being pulled behind a rock, and then she was back underwater, drowning all over again. She clawed at her throat, eyes springing with tears. The world around her spun, and she failed to adhere to it.
And then there were lips against her own, and she froze, eyes falling shut.
Five long seconds passed, and then Kenji pulled back. Eva opened her eyes, blinking away her tears, staring into the eyes of her boyfriend.
"Yeah, that's right," Kenji whispered. "I've seen Teen Wolf. Holland Roden is a total babe, if you ask me."
Eva flung her arms around Kenji, pulling him into a tight hug. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.
"No, hey," Kenji pulled back, holding her hands in his, "You don't have to apologize. I get it. If anyone gets it, it's me. I'm just glad you're okay now."
"Yeah..."
"Come on," he whispered, tugging her to her feet.
They slowly joined the others, who were crouching behind a tree and staring at a dark skinned woman who was sitting a few dozen feet away with a sandwich in her mouth and a tablet in her hands.
Eva furrowed her eyebrows— who was this woman?