Welcome To Jurassic Hell

Ch. 44: Lookout Point

"So...what happened? How am I not, uh-" I stuttered awkwardly, turning around at Yaz's beckoning so she could finish taping the fresh round of bandaids around my chest. "Dead." I finish quietly.

Yasmina finishes sealing the tape to my back, smoothing it down with her hand.

"When we all got to the surface and saw that you weren't there, Darius and Ben both ducked down to get you. Darius came back up saying he couldn't see anything, and lost Ben. A minute later Ben came back up with you, unconscious. When we dragged you back to the beach, Brooklyn claimed she knew how to do CPR.

"You didn't wake up for almost ten minutes. You almost- just, we're just glad you're okay. I'm glad you're okay."

"Me too..." I nod, though it wasn't necessarily true.

I wasn't okay. I didn't agree that I was, or that I ever would be with everything going on. Today was just worse, because...because I was kind of useless, wasn't I? What happened earlier proved that.

I needed my brother to save me because I couldn't save myself — so, fucking, pathetic!

All I'm ever going to be to this group is a burden. I bring nothing anymore, to them or Ben.

But I couldn't exactly tell Yaz that, could I?

No. So I keep quiet as I get redressed and exit the shower-room. Everyone was sat around the table, Darius in front of the chalk board studying the drawings carefully. When he noticed me coming, he quickly abandoned his spot and walked over, grabbing me gently by the shoulders.

"Are you doing okay?" He asked, and I was surprised by the look of fear in his face. He couldn't possibly be that concerned for me, could he?

"Yeah, I-I'm fine. My voice will just be a bit scratchy for a while."

"And your chest?" Ben adds, coming up to us as well. I smile, for the first time that day, genuinely and full of heart. Before I can reply, Yaz does it for me.

"Her back is pretty bruised, but she'll probably be okay. So long as she doesn't irritate it for awhile."

So I'm physically useless, too. How convenient.

I take a seat besides Brooklyn on the green couch, while Ben goes and leans against one of the support beams and Darius returns to the board.

"So...well, on the plus side, there's still no sign of compies around camp. So that's, uh...good." Darius massages the back of his neck, trying to come up with what to say next. "On the minus side, raft escape number one was..."

Kenji scoffed. "One? That had to be at least number five! Maybe even seven."

"And I think the words you're looking for to explain it are wet and bad." I add.

"It didn't work." Yaz mutters.

"Erm...well, it wasn't a total disaster, was it?" He quickly regrets his answer when he looks at me, both of us making the same wincing expression.

"We lost our raft, and Blake almost drowned." Sammy says. "How is that not a disaster?"

Darius looks completely lost, so I try to lift up spirits by arguing that we didn't get eaten by any dinosaurs. Darius smiles a quiet 'thanks' my way, and I feel my cheeks start to burn.

"Yeah, Blake's right! At least we didn't get eaten."

Brooklyn gets up and scoots passed me, saying, "Darius, we're out of options."

She goes up to the board and picks up a piece of chalk, starting to mark off all of the drawings of our past plans lined across the green material.

"We tried kayaks, gyrospheres, more gyrospheres, Yaz's bad 'find a helicopter' and learn to fly it ourselves' plan..."