Camp Cretaceous, Volume One

by Steve Behling

  “That Ankylosaurus has only been incubating for ten weeks,” Dr. Wu said, stunned.

  As he looked at the egg, the shell cracked.

  “Is that a foot?” Yasmina said, gasping.

  It was a foot—coated in dinosaur goo. And when the leg kicked out of the shell, the goo splattered on Ben.

  “Ew! Ew! Ew!” Ben said, freaking out. “Get it off me! Get it—”

  Suddenly, the baby Ankylosaurus had broken free of its shell and tumbled out of the incubator. Instinctively, Ben reached out, catching the baby.

  The Ankylosaurus tried to shake off a piece of shell that had stuck to her hide. But it wouldn’t budge. To his surprise, and everyone else’s, Ben removed the shell. The baby opened her eyes and cooed when she saw Ben.

  Ben found himself relaxing at the sound.

  “Sweet!” Brooklynn said, filming. “One of its head bumps is bigger than the other!”

  “Asymmetry?” Dr. Wu said, horrified. “In my lab?”

  However, nobody was listening to Dr. Wu. They were all too busy watching Ben make silly faces at the baby dinosaur.

  In fact, everyone was so into it that they didn’t even notice as Brooklynn stopped filming and slipped away from the group.

  * * *

  “Where are you taking me?” Darius asked.

  As Darius looked around, he saw that the tunnel walls were lined with keypad controls. There were ladders on either side of the tunnel leading up to numbered paddocks.

  “We’re headed to where they quarantine the dinos that are too aggressive. The last one I saw here was some kind of carna…uh…Carna-something.”

  Darius clasped his hand over his mouth. “We’re going to see a Carnotaurus?” he asked.

  “Uh, obviously,” Kenji said. “Like my boy Masrani always says, ‘When Kenji promises, Kenji delivers!’ ”

  Then he pressed a couple of buttons on a keypad and waited for the hatch above them to open.

  It didn’t.

  Then Kenji pressed a few more buttons, and on the fourth or fifth try, the hatch opened. Darius couldn’t help but smirk.

  * * *

  Brooklynn was sure no one had noticed that she had left the incubator room. She had walked down the hallway toward the door clearly marked RESTRICTED. Looking around to make sure no one saw her, she was just about to open the door when she turned around and—BUMP—ran into Sammy!

  “Oh, hey!” Sammy said brightly.

  “Sammy, what are you doing out here?” Brooklynn asked.

  “I was just…This place oughta come with a GPS,” Sammy said. Then she leaned in close to Brooklynn and said, “I really gotta go.”

  “I think there’s a bathroom on the other end of the hall, actually,” Brooklynn said, trying to get rid of Sammy. “So…”

  “Thanks,” Sammy said. “See ya back there!”

  Brooklynn watched as Sammy trotted off toward the bathroom, making sure that she was out of sight. Then Brooklynn tried to open the RESTRICTED door. But it was locked.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Brooklynn saw Dr. Wu rounding the corner. She ducked behind a pillar and watched as he opened the door to his office.

  Then a lab guy popped his head out. He looked excited and said, “Doctor! We have those results you were looking for, sir.”

  Wu turned around and walked back to the main lab with the other man.

  Brooklynn watched the door slowly closing. Wu and the man disappeared, and just as the door was about to slam shut, Brooklynn caught it.

  * * *

  “Okay, Brooklanders,” Brooklynn said. “Let’s see if top-secret Jurassic World intel is cool enough for you.”

  Dr. Wu’s lab was really dark, and she wondered how he could get any work done in a place like this. The only light seemed to come from a series of glowing test tubes. She could just make out a chalkboard across the room, filled with equations that Brooklynn couldn’t make any sense of.

  She walked over to a computer and jiggled the mouse. The home screen appeared, and she immediately noticed there were several folders on the desktop. Brooklynn clicked on the folders, reading the names out loud.

  “E seven fifty. Clinical trial results,” Brooklynn said. But her face brightened considerably when she read the name of the next folder. “Classified. Jackpot!”

  She clicked on that folder, and that’s when the screen flashed red, an ACCESS DENIED warning appeared, and a piercing alarm filled the room.

  Then the computer screen went dark.

  “Dang it,” Brooklynn said. She knew she had to leave right away, but she saw something beneath a flash drive on the desk—an actual file folder that said INDOMINUS REX.

  She was just about to open the folder when Dr. Wu slammed his hand down, keeping it closed.

  Brooklynn managed a smile and said, “I thought the door said ‘restroom.’ ”

  * * *

  “Where is that stupid fence?!?” Kenji complained. They had been wandering around in the dense jungle since exiting the tunnels.

  “Kenji, maybe we should head back,” Darius said. “We don’t wanna get caught and cause you trouble with your dad.”

  “What does my dad have to do with anything? Dude’s barely around. He’s not worrying about me.”

  Darius stopped in his tracks and glared at Kenji. “What? Then what was all the ‘My whole life, I’ve been trying to make my dad proud’?”

  It took a second for it to click, and then Kenji said, “Oh, right. I was lying. ’Cause of the whole ‘not wanting to get in trouble and sent home’ thing.”

  Darius tried to think of something to say, but he was so angry, all he could do was stare at Kenji.

  Shaking his head, Darius thought he was going to explode. “I can’t believe this!” he shouted. “There is no Carnotaurus, is there?”

  “Hey, I keep it honest!” Kenji said. “Except this morning. And, like, a bunch of other times today. But I’m telling the truth about this!”

  Darius was about to say something, but then came the roar.

  THE ROAR.

  Kenji pushed against a thick plant, revealing a huge metal fence that seemed to go on forever.

  “Kenji delivers.” The boy smiled and looked to see Darius’s expression.

  Darius didn’t look excited.

  He looked worried.

  There was a loud THUMP of something coming closer.

  “You know this park like the back of your hand, right?” Darius said.

  “Uh, duh,” Kenji replied.

  “So you definitely know which side of the fence the Carnotaurus is on?”

  That was actually something Kenji did not know. So it was something of a surprise when they turned around and saw the Carnotaurus right behind them!

  “Time for you all to leave,” Dr. Wu said curtly.

  Ben was trying to pry the baby dinosaur from him as he said, “But what about Bumpy?”

  Dr. Wu grabbed hold of Bumpy and took him off Ben. “The asset will soon be released into a herd of Ankylosauruses. Then she’ll be their problem, just like you all will cease to be my problem.”

  Roxie and Dave took the cue and hurried the kids out of the lab without saying a word.

  On his way out, Ben turned to look at Bumpy. The little dinosaur pawed toward his new friend.

  Then Dr. Wu slammed the door.

  * * *

  The Carnotaurus was right on their heels. It was similar to a T. rex, though not nearly as large—but totally capable of eating any campers that came its way. The dinosaur also had two distinct horns on its head that gave it a bullish look.

  “Dude! It’s gaining!” Kenji shouted.

  Darius stared ahead, focused on one tree. “It’s fast,” he said, “but not on turns! Zigzag! On my count! One…two…”

  Darius sprinted
for the tree in the distance as the Carnotaurus followed. Just as he and Kenji were about to reach the tree—

  “THREE!”

  The boys went hard to the left. Unable to slow down in time, the Carnotaurus crashed right into the tree.

  The boys ran, zigzagging all the way. The now dizzy Carnotaurus resumed the chase but was unsteady on its feet as it tried to keep up with all the sharp, sudden turns.

  “Up ahead!” Darius called out, pointing to a metal gate. Kenji saw it and was the first one there. He jumped into the half-open gate, which was only about the size of a dog door. Somehow, he managed to wriggle and squirm his way through it, and Kenji emerged on the other side.

  Behind him, Darius saw the Carnotaurus running for him.

  Just as Darius squirmed into the gate, he bumped the side of the crawl space, causing the half-open gate to slam down on his back.

  He was stuck, half in the crawl space, half out!

  Darius tried to push the gate off of him, but it was just too heavy.

  He was a sitting duck.

  “Kenji!” Darius shouted.

  But there was no reply.

  “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? KENJI!!!”

  As the Carnotaurus neared, Darius squeezed his eyes closed.

  SCREECH!

  Darius opened his eyes with a start. The sound wasn’t the Carnotaurus chomping down on his legs. It was Kenji, standing there with a large tree branch, trying to pry the gate open!

  The Carnotaurus charged, but Darius was still trapped. Just as the beast was about to close its mighty jaws on Darius’s lower half, Kenji managed to lift the gate enough for Darius to wiggle through.

  The branch snapped.

  The gate slammed shut the moment the Carnotaurus reached it. The angry dinosaur rammed against the fence, snapping its jaws in pain and coming away with a large red gash on its face instead of a meal.

  Realizing that they were, in fact, still alive, both boys grinned at each other and laughed.

  “You got nothing, Toro!” Kenji taunted. Then he looked at Darius and added, “Toro. Because of the horns.”

  Darius nodded. He got it. And then he asked, “Uh…what time are they supposed to get back from the lab?”

  * * *

  “Hey, guys!” Darius called out to the 6x4 as it pulled into camp.

  He and Kenji emerged from behind the tank, grasping their shovels. Both boys were out of breath from sprinting back to camp.

  As the kids and counselors stepped out of the car, they looked at Darius and Kenji and made absolutely terrible faces.

  Guess we must not smell too good, Darius thought.

  “Why are you two so out of breath?” Roxie asked.

  “Just doing the job we were told,” Darius said. Then, changing the subject, “How was the field trip?”

  “Well, you know, Ben fell in love with a dinosaur,” Yasmina said wryly. “And Superstar here got us booted from the lab.”

  “How’d poop patrol go?” Sammy asked.

  “Awesome!” Kenji said. “You all should have seen how I owned—”

  Thinking fast, Darius pretended to lose control of the shovel in his hands and swung the handle right into Kenji’s belly.

  “This valuable experience!” Darius interjected, completing Kenji’s sentence. “Learned a lot about ourselves, and, uh, yep!”

  Kenji grabbed his stomach in pain.

  “Well, then,” Roxie said, not quite knowing what to say. “Hit the showers. And…maybe stay in there for a while.”

  The kids and counselors left. Kenji, still holding his stomach, glared at Darius, but Darius spoke first. “We can’t tell anyone about Toro or we’re definitely getting sent home.”

  Kenji moaned, rubbing his stomach. “I can’t believe no one will know I saved your life.”

  “I’ll know, Kenji,” Darius said.

  To Darius’s surprise, Kenji’s smile was genuine. “Thanks,” Kenji replied. “So, we even now…Darius?”

  Darius smiled at the sound of his name. “Yeah, we’re even.”

  * * *

  Night had fallen. Curfew had come and all the campers should have been inside.

  But someone was walking through the jungle just outside camp. The loud SNAP of a twig threatened to draw the attention of a hungry dinosaur or a counselor. The mysterious figure waited for a moment, not moving, not even breathing. Then they proceeded into a clearing.

  The late-night sounds of the jungle were soon interrupted by a mechanical whirring. A drone flew overhead and landed in the clearing.

  The figure took a flash drive labeled JURASSIC WORLD—CLASSIFIED and placed it into a slot on the drone. They backed away just as the drone took off into the night sky.

  * * *

  “We thought it’d be fun,” Darius said, his voice low and ominous. “We thought we’d be safe. But we didn’t realize the horror waiting for us on the island…claws…teeth…screaming. So much screaming!”

  A crack of thunder punctuated Darius’s sentence, and Ben jumped up.

  The kids had gathered around the firepit in the common room, as the night sky, full of clouds and storms, swirled above.

  “The T. rex stalked closer, her jaws opened wide…”

  FLASH!

  Darius was blinded by Brooklynn’s camera.

  “For the vlog,” Brooklynn said cheerfully. “Keep telling your little story!”

  Annoyed, Darius continued. “The T. rex sta—”

  “Dang!” Brooklynn said loudly, staring at her phone. “Out of space. Hold on.” She started to delete some photos and videos. “I just don’t wanna erase my selfie on Everest, ya know?”

  Sammy looked very impressed.

  “Maybe I should start over,” Darius said, even more annoyed.

  “NO!” Ben shouted. “In fact, you can just stop!”

  Ben was behind Kenji, clutching onto his arms tightly.

  “Dude, chill!” Kenji said. “He’s not even telling the story right now, and how is your grip this strong?”

  Darius took a deep breath and started again. “So the T. rex stalked—”

  But he was distracted by Sammy, who was staring off into the distance.

  “Shouldn’t we call Yasmina over? I bet she’d love this story,” Sammy said.

  “Maybe she wants to be by herself,” Brooklynn suggested.

  “I think she’s just shy and doesn’t know how to make camp friends,” Sammy said. She understood the demands that family—and unexpected circumstances—could put on a person. She could sense that Yasmina was a lot like her, and she was determined to get past the athlete’s tough demeanor.

  It started to rain, and the kids decided to call it a night. As they left, Brooklynn walked past Darius muttering, “Well, that was a waste of time.”

  * * *

  “Park personnel are moving a group of dinosaurs to fresh grazing lands across the island,” Roxie said, “and we get to ride along behind the herd.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Darius said, delighted. He looked at the gyrospheres like they were his birthday presents. “Dinosaur migration patterns are my jam!”

  “You may wanna consider a new jam, bro,” Kenji whispered. He walked over to a gyrosphere—a large ball-shaped see-through vehicle. Kenji knocked on it. “So, uh, you sure these things are waterproof? Looking pretty grim out here, and hair this awesome does not come easy.”

  “Your hair is gonna be fine, Kenji,” Dave said. “The storm’s already moved up the coast away from us.”

  “Cool,” Kenji said. “Time to show these fools what a gyrosphere can do!”

  Before Kenji could enter the gyrosphere, Roxie put a hand on his shoulder. “No way. Knowing you, you’ll crash the thing, probably into a pack of Velociraptors. You’re riding with Ben. As a passenger.”

&
nbsp; “Seriously?” Kenji protested.

  * * *

  “This is gonna be so sick,” Yasmina said as she climbed into a gyrosphere. She sat in the driver’s seat and took hold of the joystick controls.

  “Right?” Sammy said, climbing in next to her.

  “Yay,” Yasmina said, clearly wanting to be by herself.

  “Everyone! Seat belts at all times!” Dave called out.

  Darius watched as the others got into their gyrospheres. Ben and Kenji were together, and Sammy and Yasmina were in another. There was only one gyrosphere left, and Brooklynn was sitting in it, on her phone. Darius frowned. He wished he could have his own gyrosphere.

  “Darius, you need to ride with your fellow campers,” Dave said. “Bond. Live the camp life!”

  “Yeah, I tried last night, but not everyone was on board,” Darius replied, looking at Brooklynn.

  Dave leaned over and put his hand on Darius’s shoulder. His smile was kind, but serious. “Buddy, you can’t give up. You just need to get out there and show the other kids what you’ve got.”

  * * *

  “All righty, campers!”

  Darius could hear Dave’s voice through the headset he was wearing. Brooklynn was next to him in the gyrosphere, and her eyes were glued to her phone.

  “The headsets are for emergencies,” Roxie said over the radio.

  “Let the herding begin!” Dave cried.

  He barely got the words out before the kids took off in their gyrospheres, leaving the counselors sitting in their 6x4.

  Well, most of the kids took off. Ben was still sitting in the gyrosphere with Kenji, lurching forward, then hitting the brakes, then lurching forward, then brakes, and so on.