Assets Out of Containment |1| Nublar Seven Series

Misguided

Thank you so much for the rank #1 in campcretaceous

"Ben?" My hearth stopped at the boy standing in front of me.

The three of us stood there, mouths hanging open. Was this real? Was he really here, in front of us? Alive?

He looked terrible, but alive. His clothes were torn and muddy, he had his shorts on and a tank top that once upon a time was white. The blue shirt he usually used on top of that was reduced to shreds and now were tied around his forehead as a bandana.

Ben dropped the branch. "Uh... hey." He sheepishly said.

My feet moved automatically and I rushed to hug him. He smiled and hugged me back tightly. After I was satisfied that he wasn't a hallucination, I pulled back still holding onto his shoulders.

"You're alive... H- how?" I stumbled on my words as my mouth couldn't keep up with my brain. "How?" My sight was blurry from the tears, happy tears. 'Ben was really here. He was alive.' I chuckled.

Kenji shoved me aside and gave Ben a bear hug, followed by Brooklynn. Suddenly, something very green knocked me down and licked my face. The Ankylo was as big as a car and had one head bump bigger than the other.

"Bumpy? Is that you, girl?" I asked in disbelief, and she licked me again. "Ah, gross." I laughed, but didn't push her off. "She still likes me."

"Of course. Why wouldn't she?" Ben came over and helped me get up.

I wiped the drool off of my face with the hem of my t-shirt. "I just thought... never mind." I mumbled and hugged Ben again. "I'm sorry I let you go." I whispered into the hug.

"Hey." He pushed me away, looking into my eyes. "That wasn't on you." Ben's voice was unwavering and I could only nod at his resolution. "And I've been meaning to ask, how is the arm?" He said, with concern on his voice.

"It was nothing." I absently rubbed the scabby scar on my arm and Ben just looked at me, skeptical. "Really, I'm all better now." I tried to reassure him.

"It didn't look like nothing." He gave me a stern look and grabbed hold of my arm to inspect it. "You can't overlook this kind of things, if it gets infected-"

"That's what I said!" Kenji jumped in and I just rolled my eyes at him, letting Ben grab ahold of my arm.

"Did you disinfect it properly? Because-" Ben was cut off by Hap groaning on the ground. He was still unconscious, but by the looks of it, was about to wake up. "Oh, right. We should probably deal with that." Ben looked down at Hap.

I don't know how, but Ben quickly found some sturdy vine and started to tie him up while we stood watching, dumbfounded by his new demeanor. Not only that, he was so different than before, besides his appearance, he seemed to not even mind how dirty he was, on the contrary, he seemed comfortable and confident. Which only made me wonder what happened to him.

"So... I fell off the monorail, got savaged by Pteranodons, found Bumpy, survived in the jungle, defeated Toro, and then I overheard that fancy couple conspiring with this guy, Hap." Ben got up, satisfied with his job tying up Hap. "So, I figured you guys need my help." He said as if it was the simpler thing on the world, while the three of us just watched, dumbfounded.

"Oh, hey, I still have your dork pouch." Kenji pointed at his waist, but there was nothing there. "What?"

"Oh, yeah." Ben was the one wearing the pouch now. "I snatched it off of you earlier." He grabbed a hand sanitizer from the pouch and cleaned his hands. He looked down and picked up Hap's stun rod and waved it around with a nig smile on his face. "Could have used this while fighting ol' Toro, eh, Bumps?" I just smiled at seeing Ben so... lively.