Camp Cretaceous, Volume Two

by Steve Behling

  “Just hear me out,” Darius said. “There’s a stream for fresh water, we’ve got trees and mountains to protect us from the worst of weather and dinosaur attacks…”

  Brooklynn stared at Darius, clearing her throat loudly.

  “Okay, not all dinosaur attacks. But if you were coming to rescue a bunch of campers, wouldn’t camp be the first place you looked?”

  Darius could practically feel all eyes on him, and as he looked around, that was exactly what he saw. The kids were grinning now.

  “And we’ve even got supplies to build a shelter right here! They’re, uh, broken supplies, but we could do it!”

  Yasmina leaped up and stumbled slightly. She was still favoring the leg she hadn’t injured at the Mosasaurus pool when they had raced to catch the last boat off the island. Shaking off the twinge in her leg and the memory, the young athlete clapped her hands. “What are we waiting for? Let’s clear that stuff!”

  She took a step forward, but her leg gave out, and the young athlete nearly fell. Then another step, and she stumbled, falling to the ground.

  “It’s nothing,” Yasmina said as the other kids ran to her side. “I wanted to be on the ground now.”

  “This isn’t nothing,” Sammy said. “Your ankle is still hurt.”

  Darius took out the map and looked at it for a moment. “Based on this symbol, there might be some sort of clinic nearby. We’ll go see if we can find anything for your ankle. Just rest here.”

  Yasmina protested, but Sammy made the compelling argument that she was going to need to treat the ankle with some TLC or she wouldn’t be winning any gold medals in track meets. Kenji offered to stay behind with Yasmina to make sure that she actually rested.

  “Great plan,” Darius said, and then he asked Kenji to start sorting through the rubble for stuff they could use to make a new shelter.

  Then Darius, Brooklynn, and Sammy left Camp Cretaceous in search of the medical supply station.

  Brooklynn was walking ahead of Darius and Sammy as fast as she could. Not because she wanted to be the first one to find the medical supply station—but mostly because she didn’t want to listen to her two friends talk at length about dinosaur poop.

  The conversation had been going like that for a while when Brooklynn heard Sammy call out her name. “Brooklynn! Brooklynn, wait, we’re gonna see if there’s dung!”

  “Just keep walking,” Brooklynn muttered. “They can’t make you look at dung if you just keep walking.”

  As she plodded ahead, Brooklynn heard something that wasn’t Sammy or Darius talking endlessly about poop—dinosaur and otherwise. It sounded like an electrical hum of some kind. Brooklynn wondered how that could be, considering there was no power on the island.

  “Guys, do you hear that?” Brooklynn asked. But no sooner had she said it than the humming stopped.

  “You say something?” Sammy asked.

  “I thought…It’s nothing,” Brooklynn said, waving it away. “Must have been a weird bird.”

  Then Brooklynn took another step and saw something through the trees.

  It was the medical supply station!

  There was a high chain-link fence surrounding the small concrete structure, and some trees as well. Brooklynn couldn’t see what was beyond them.

  But it hardly mattered right now, because Brooklynn had found what they were looking for.

  Inside the medical supply station, they pried open the doors of the supply closet. The first thing they noticed was that the shelves were stocked with canned food! Brooklynn reached out and grabbed a can.

  “Never thought I’d be excited to see canned fruit, but check out all this canned fruit!” Sammy said.

  Darius poked his head around the closet and found a crate of medical supplies. With help from Sammy and Brooklynn, he pulled the crate out of the closet—luckily, it wasn’t too heavy—and opened it.

  “A compression bandage!” Sammy said. “This is exactly what Yaz needs!”

  She picked up the compression bandage, only to see that the bandage was really, really long.

  “All twenty feet of it?” Sammy said.

  There were other medical supplies inside the crate, like more bandages, antibiotic ointment, fever reducers, and cold packs. Darius took what he could, stuffing it all inside a Jurassic World tote bag.

  When the kids had finished gathering what food and supplies they could, they secured the door and left the medical supply station. On their way out, they looked around the corner of the chain-link fence. The kids were surprised to find rows and rows of large cages. It was kind of a like an outdoor dog kennel, except there were no dogs…only hungry dinosaurs!

  “What is this place?” Brooklynn asked.

  “It must be a veterinary station,” Darius said. “These dinos must have been left behind when everyone was evacuated.”

  “Like us,” Sammy offered.

  Kneeling down, Sammy reached a hand through the bars. A Sinoceratops nudged her hand, licking it. Looking around, Sammy made eye contact with two sad-eyed Stegosauruses.

  “We have to do something!” Sammy said to her friends.

  Darius thought for a moment. They had passed a Sinoceratops herd on the way over to the medical supply station. “If we let her out—” he started.

  “She could go be with them!” Sammy said, finishing his sentence. “And eat all the grass she’ll ever want!”

  Brooklynn wasn’t sure this was such a great idea, but Sammy was so enthusiastic. She and Darius opened the Sinoceratops crate, and the dinosaur slowly walked out. It made it about a foot from the crate before it started to munch on some grass.

  Darius and Sammy high-fived as Brooklynn said, “Totally what we came here to do. Haven’t lost track of our goals at all.”

  Next, Darius and Sammy freed the Stegosauruses.

  They also walked out of their crates and started to graze next to the Sinoceratops.

  Whatever joy Darius and Sammy were experiencing from setting the dinosaurs free stopped when they heard the low, hungry snarls coming from the end of the row. They looked inside the crates and saw not herbivores, but carnivores: a scarred Ceratosaurus and a green-skinned Baryonyx with deep-red eyes.

  “Predators,” Darius said.

  “Predators,” Brooklynn repeated. “What exactly are we planning to do with them?”

  “Well, it’s kind of a no-brainer,” Sammy said.

  “Totally,” Darius agreed.

  The two smiled at each other, and at the same time, they said:

  “Obviously we should leave them.”

  “Obviously we should free them.”

  “Wait, what?” they both said.

  “Darius said to sort through the debris,” Yasmina directed. She was standing on one foot, trying to pull a broken wooden beam out of a pile of junk. But she wasn’t having much luck, and she could have used help. “If you don’t do it, and I can’t do it, who will do it?”

  “Everyone else!” Kenji answered as he leaned against a tree. “Yaz, the best things in life are things you make other people do for you.”

  Yasmina couldn’t believe what she was hearing as Kenji smiled and closed his eyes.

  Unable to just stand around doing nothing, Yasmina started to limp away.

  “All I have to do now is watch over you, which will be totally…”

  Something told Kenji to open his eyes, and when he did, he saw that Yasmina was nowhere to be found.

  “Yaz? Yaz!” he shouted. “Fine, hop away! I’ll stay here! Under the tree!”

  That lasted for all of a few seconds before Kenji pushed himself away from the tree.

  “I can’t believe I’m being noble and going after you when no one’s around to recognize how boss that is,” Kenji said. He sorted through a pile of debris, looking for some kind of weapon that he
could use to defend himself. All he could find was a butter knife, but it was better than nothing.

  With a deep sigh, Kenji stalked off into the jungle.

  * * *

  “There you are!” Kenji called out.

  Ahead of him was Yasmina, hopping through the jungle using a large stick as a crutch. She had gathered a bunch of vines under her other arm.

  Kenji dropped the knife as Yasmina pointed with her crutch at a pile of sticks that she’d gathered, as well as some more vines.

  “To move the camp debris, we use the sticks as levers, toss the vines over a branch, and use them to haul the rest of the broken planks and stuff away,” she said.

  “This looks like the exact opposite of what you’re supposed to be doing, which is nothing,” Kenji said, frustrated. “Can you please just give the tough-girl act a rest already?”

  Yasmina glared at Kenji. “Three-time state track champ. Four times placing at nationals, twice in the International World Track Competition. I’ve competed in rain, sleet, and snow, and each time, I’ve medaled. What does that say to you?”

  “That you’re crazy, because running is hard, and why would you do that?”

  “I don’t give up,” Yasmina said. “Unlike some people. But hey, I’m glad you’re here.”

  Then she dropped the pile of vines into Kenji’s arms. “Because I need you to haul this stuff through the dangerous jungle. Enjoy.”

  Kenji immediately dropped the vines and grabbed the stick in Yasmina’s hand, trying to pull her back toward the camp.

  “We’re going back and you are resting, whether you like it or not!” he said.

  But Yasmina resisted. She growled and let go of the stick. “You are the laziest person…I’ve ever met!”

  “And you’re insane!” Kenji replied. “Your ankle is getting worse…but you refuse…to sit…down!”

  Yasmina tried to walk away to prove she was fine, but the momentum of her first step carried her into a bush.

  When Kenji turned to look at Yasmina, he saw that she was holding her ankle.

  “I can’t stand,” Yasmina said, gritting her teeth. “It’s worse. I think…I hurt it worse. What do we do now?”

  “We can’t free the predators!” Darius argued.

  “I thought you cared about these animals,” Sammy said.

  “I do!” Darius replied. “But I also care about going home, ya know, uneaten!”

  Both kids turned to Brooklynn, asking her what she thought. What Brooklynn really thought was I don’t want to be here for this conversation.

  But what came out was “Do you hear that? Over there? I think I should investigate. Over there!”

  “If we free the herbivores, we should free the predators,” Sammy said. “It’s only fair.”

  While the two kids argued, Brooklynn heard the mysterious humming start up again. Leaving Darius and Sammy locked in heated debate behind her, Brooklynn walked away from the enclosures and around to the back of the the fence. Soon she disappeared from view.

  “If we can’t let them go, then we’ll have to come back every day to feed them!” Sammy said, then pulled a can of fruit from the tote bag.

  “They’re carnivores, not omnivores,” Darius said.

  “Does that mean…yes?” Sammy asked.

  “No!” Darius shouted. “That means no! We cannot feed them. The Ceratosaurus alone eats two hundred and fifty pounds of meat a day. Where would you even get that much meat?”

  Suddenly, it dawned on Sammy exactly what Darius was trying to say. She put herself between him and the Sinoceratops as it happily munched on some grass. “No!”

  “Don’t look at me like that!” Darius said. “She’s what they eat!” Despite the fact that predators eating prey was the way things worked in nature and nothing was going to change that, Sammy wasn’t having it. “If I can’t feed ’em, then we go back to Plan A: release them into the wild.”

  “We’re not releasing them!” Darius said. “Why do you even want to?”

  “Because they should get to go home,” Sammy said. “These guys didn’t ask to be here. But they are, and now they’re trapped, away from their families. And maybe some of them feel bad about how they ran off without telling anyone, and all they want to do now is go home and say I’m sorry.”

  Darius didn’t know what to say. Before he could think of anything, Brooklynn came running from around the corner of the fence, screaming, “Run! Run! Run!”

  Brooklynn’s screams were drowned out by the sound of a roaring dinosaur.

  * * *

  Kenji was carrying Yasmina on his back through the underbrush. Panting, he came to a full stop.

  “Are you kidding?” Yasmina said. “We’re nowhere near camp.”

  “Maybe someone should have thought of that before she hopped off into the jungle!” Kenji said.

  “Well, if someone had pulled his weight, she wouldn’t have had to!”

  “And now I’m pulling your weight! When are you gonna get it? You can’t do anything here, Yaz!”

  There was silence for a moment, then Kenji asked, “Yaz? What’s up?”

  “I’m the ‘track star,’ ” she said softly. “The person my coaches, my team, everybody relies on. But now…now I’m not. And if I’m not strong anymore…what good am I?”

  Kenji took a deep breath, adjusted his shoulders, and kept on walking. “What good are any of us on our own? I mean, I don’t know one scary dinosaur from the next. But I’m also someone who knows when the best thing to do isn’t to push yourself so hard you collapse. Let someone else do the work for a change, Yaz.”

  Darius’s eyes went wide as a red Baryonyx darted out of the jungle, right behind Brooklynn. She sprinted over to Darius and Sammy as they managed to hide behind a tree near the dinosaur crates.

  The Baryonyx didn’t pursue Brooklynn, however. Instead, it ran over to the crates containing the other Baryonyx and slammed against the locked doors.

  The Sinoceratops that had been grazing raised its head, bellowing at the Baryonyx. The predator looked up briefly, but turned its attention back to the cage containing its siblings. The Baryonyx slammed into the crate again, but the lock wouldn’t budge.

  As the Baryonyx prepared to make another run at the crate, the kids decided to make a break for it themselves. They sprinted toward the Sinoceratops stall, only to come face to face with another angry Baryonyx!

  Now there were two predators on the outside, with one locked in the crate. Sammy dove behind a large log to take cover, while Darius and Brooklynn kept on running.

  Brooklynn hopped onto some crates stacked next to the empty stall, and Darius followed. They got on top of the cage and kicked over the crates before the Baryonyx could use them to climb up.

  “Now what?” Darius asked.

  “That’s as far as I thought!” Brooklynn replied.

  With her friends trapped atop the cage, Sammy could only watch. Suddenly, the roar of the Ceratosaurus cut through the tension.

  “The Ceratosaurus!” Sammy said, looking at Darius. They locked eyes, knowing what needed to happen.

  Darius cupped his hands around his mouth and screamed, “Hey! Over here!”

  “What are you doing?!” Brooklynn shouted.

  “Distracting them so Sammy can do her thing! Hey!”

  Brooklynn thought this was a horrible idea but started to wave her hands and scream, too.

  The two Baryonyxes were now snarling at Darius and Brooklynn, their attention focused on the kids.

  That gave Sammy an opening to run toward the caged Stegosauruses. She lifted the latch, then raced over to the Ceratosaurus cage, raising the bar on that door as well.

  The dinosaurs were now free!

  The two Baryonyxes turned around as the Stegosauruses and Ceratosaurus approached.

  Sammy
waved to Darius and Brooklynn as they lowered themselves from the top of the Sinoceratops enclosure and ran toward the front entrance, toward the jungle.

  Darius was almost there when he heard a desperate howl coming from a crate.

  It was the lone Baryonyx.

  “We can’t leave her,” Darius said. “They’re family.”

  Brooklynn couldn’t believe her eyes as Darius turned around and headed back to the crate. He lifted the latch, and the Baryonyx ran out and joined its siblings.

  “Aw, that’s kinda cute, actually,” Sammy started to say as the Ceratosaurus suddenly charged at the Baryonyxes and the herbivores. It was a full-on dinosaur stampede, and it was heading right for the kids!

  “Not cute, not cute at all!” Sammy yelled.

  The kids turned around and ran into the jungle as fast as they could.

  Yasmina could scarcely believe it. While she rested, Kenji actually—GASP!—did some work! He asked her about her idea of using the sticks as levers and the vines to haul debris away and actually made some progress. He managed to haul a good chunk of debris to the side and make a big firepit. There were even places for each of the kids to sit!

  “Welcome to Camp Kenji!”

  Yasmina smiled as she watched Kenji proudly admire his work. Then she turned her head. “Wait. Do you hear that?” she said.

  Loud footsteps filled the jungle air as Sammy, Brooklynn, and Darius ran into camp, waving their arms wildly.

  “The trees—quick!” Brooklynn screamed.

  At once, the kids jumped into the branches of a large tree as the stampeding herd of dinosaurs thundered into camp.

  They plowed right through Kenji’s carefully constructed fire pit and kept on going.

  “This is exactly why you should never work on anything ever!” Kenji proclaimed.

  “I guess this is why they built the camp up in the trees,” Sammy said.

  A light bulb went off in Darius’s head. “Maybe our new shelter should be a tree house?”