Welcome To Jurassic Hell

Ch. 46: Escape Route

"Ben...B-Ben, look!"

We pulled away from each other, the breakdown put aside and forgotten as I watched Brooklyn and Yasmina, both flying on a hanglider, being chased by a pack of pteranodons. They swerve left and right as a few try to go in for the kill, failing just barely.

Ben and I jump to our feet, only to watch helplessly as our friends continue dodging the dinosaurs.

Relief fills my chest when I see that they've lost the pack by flying through a cloud, now beginning to descend.

However, the relief is instantly swiped from me when a pteranodon appears out of nowhere, stabbing it's scaly head through the material of the glider and right above the girls' heads. Ben and I both cry out for them as they start descending steeper, to the point of looking like they were going to crash.

"Ben, come on!"

We start to chase after where they're falling, Bumpy right behind us. My eyes, now dried, stay closed on where Yaz and Brooklyn are screaming. The monster above them is snapping its hungry jaws to harshly, it might as well have brought the whole thing down by now.

We aren't fast enough to catch them before we spot them land across a clearing, in a cluster of jungle trees across the way. The pteranodon narrowly escapes the crash, flying off into the sky.

"Yaz, Brooklyn!" I scream.

I don't pay enough attention as I start running for the girls. I'm too focused to think about the dinosaur, before I suddenly hear my brother scream for me and I slid to a stop.

He points up, and I freeze.

Pteranodons. Pterodactyls. Everywhere...they're everywhere, clinging to my brother, dragging him off the edge of the monorail and to his death-

"Blake!"

My lips barely gasp out air when Ben and I's bodies hit the ground at a roll, the attacking dinosaur soaring back up into the air. We don't get lucky enough for it to leave, and I find us both right in its target as it dives for me again.

"Ben, no!"

I jump onto Ben to cover his body with my own, to keep the beast from taking him away again. I wouldn't let that happen, wouldn't let the bastard lizard bird hurt him. It took him from me once, but it wasn't going to dare to do it again!

My eyes close as it glides closer, and I await the impact.

Instead, however, I hear a sharp cry and a loud slam. I open my eyes again to see the winged creature land ungracefully on the dirt floor, Bumpy standing in front of Ben and I with her tail swinging behind her.

My breath steadies for a moment, but picks back up when the Pteranodon gets back up and screeches toward us. I go to cover Ben again and hope Bumpy fights the beast off, but my brother pushed past my arm and starts swinging a sharp stick around. He shouts and swings, getting it the back off before eventually turning and lifting off back into the air.

As it disappears into the sky, I push myself back to my feet. Just as I do so, I catch the girls sliding down the tree. Uninjured. Okay.

Thank God.

"That was pretty impressive." Brooklyn mused. "Not as impressive as me and Yaz literally flying away from danger, but..."

Yaz high-fives her, and the two giggle.

Inside I feel relieved, but a little hurt. They're impressed at Ben, not me. They don't care about me.

Kenji, Sammy, and Darius suddenly all come running through another part of the jungle. Sammy's crying, a smile stemming from cheek to cheek as she comes crashing into my arms. She moves away quickly, doing the same for everyone else.