Welcome To Jurassic Hell

Ch. 30: Don't You Worry Child

I can't breath...I can't breath...I can't breath...

I don't know how long I've been running, or where I've been running period, but I end up falling to my knees eventually due to the pressure running had out on my chest.

After a painful coughing fit and moment of numb quiet, I start to sob.

Brooklyn was right, wasn't she?

If I couldn't protect Ben, what the hell was keeping me from not dying? I'd end up getting killed eventually, I was never going to live long enough for the emergency signal to get through and people to come save us.

I was gonna die.

Ben was proof enough.

I sob into the back of my knees for God knows how long, keeping perched on the dirt earth floor and ignoring the painful throbs thundering from my chest and throat. My neck was burning from the quickening of my breathing, which in turn made my lungs sore, but I didn't care.

I was going to die. There was no point in wasting my time looking for someone who was already gone, or for trying to fix wounds that would never get the time to heal!

Brooklyn, as much as I hated her, was right.

I was doomed to die since I arrived on the dock.

After some time, I finally got to my feet and wiped the dirt off my clothes. I no doubt looked like a mess, though I guess everyone back at camp did too.

After wiping away the last of the tears, I deciding that rather than heading back to camp, where Brooklyn and Darius would probably be waiting, I wanted to go head out to the main park. Maybe I'd find some things that we'd somehow missed, or just stalk up on some equipment.

Either way, I wanted to avoid confrontation with the campers for the time being.

Who knows, maybe I'd even die tonight...

At this point, doing that was better than anything else. I'm already in so much pain and stress that I practically longed for a pair of Dino teeth to tear me apart!

It took me almost two hours — at least, that's what it felt like — to find the park. Going without a map was probably a stupid idea, but I could just find one somewhere while I'm there to get back to camp.

The sun, by now, had passed the middle of the sky. This meant I only had a few hours before sunset, which would put me at risk of getting lost or...worse.

After making sure Rexy was away from her nest, which I soon learned was now planted in the middle of the park, I walked around.

Nothing I found, aside from the only enclosed plastic bottle of water in a small convenient store, turned out to be useful. The bottle of water had somehow been contaminated with dirt, while the pizzas that we'd left abandoned weeks ago were now gone, their boxes left in their place.

It took me until nearly sunset to find a paper map that hadn't been torn to shreds, and even so, I realized I had never really learned how to read a map. Ben had always been the kind of person to ask with those things...but, obviously he's not here, and I'm the only one who can use it.

I'd have to do the best of my ability.

As much as I hated having to confront the others, I felt the strong need for fresh spring water that was wanted sooner rather than later. The only spring I knew of was the one by camp, which, if I read the map right, wasn't too far off from where I currently stood. Maybe I don't need Ben to help me read a map...

"Okay, map, don't let me down."

————

The map had let me down. Strongly.