PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

XIX. Eva Worries For Her Mortal Enemy's Safety

Chapter Nineteen: Eva Worries For Her Mortal Enemy's Safety

~~~

"Look, we already looked here," Kenji stated the obvious.

After breakfast, the teenagers had roamed around, filling their bags with supplies and reveling in the breakfast Eva had made before Darius called them over, determined to find the emergency distress beacon again.

"We looked, but we didn't look," Darius said.

"Super clear, Darius," Eva deadpanned.

He continued, "It's like Sammy was saying, things are disguised as other things. We never saw the beacon because it was camouflage."

The campers got to work looking at fake rocks, in trash cans, bushes, and behind the buildings.

Yasmina tripped, falling into a tree with a clang. "Ever hear a tree do that?" She grinned.

Sammy gasped as she pulled on the handle, revealing some weird yellow contraption— Eva didn't know what it was. "There's stuff inside!"

Brooklynn walked over, camera raised. "Find it again for the camera?"

"Ooh, there's stuff inside!" Sammy repeated, her faux excitement and acting skills questionable.

Everyone dispersed to open up the fake trees, however, all the trees turned out to be empty.

"All aboard the fail boat. The rest of these are all empty, broseph."

Next to Eva, a fake tree was seemingly missing. All that was left was six inches of metal sticking out of a cement block. "This one's missing..." When she backed up, she noticed scratch marks leading down a long open hallway, towards who knows where.

~~~

The campers made their way to the rooftops directly across from what appeared to be a T-Rex lair. The T-Rex pulled their missing fake tree down the corridor and into its nest.

Eva picked at her lips, staring dejectedly at Rexy. Of course, they would have to deal with a freaking T-Rex. Of course! Did they really have the worst luck imaginable? Pissing off harmless herbivores to the point they're being chased is one thing, but having to step into a T-Rex's home just so they could get home themselves? Did the universe hate them, or what?

"A T-Rex lair," Darius whispered, "They found fossilized nests, but the T-Rex never did this when the park was open. We're witnessing new behavior! This is great!" Darius caught the other's facial expressions. "This is terrible. She built her lair right on top of Main Street."

"And it's about to get worse. Look." Brooklynn zoomed her camera in on the fake tree, revealing the distress beacon they needed.

"Well, we found the beacon."

Everyone groaned.

"How are you supposed to get to the beacon now?" Kenji snapped.

"Um, don't you mean we?" Darius said with the same aggression the elder boy was using.

Kenji shook his head. "No, because I want to live, and living does not involve me walking into a T-Rex lair."

Sammy pulled her knees to her chest. "Wait, so does this mean we can't signal folks and tell them we're still here?"