PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

XXXI. Holographic T. Rex

Chapter Thirty One:  Holographic T. Rex

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"It's coming from here!" Brooklynn opened the door to reveal a control room bathing in the red glow from the hallway.

The room had six television screens on the front wall, with a large control panel of buttons, switches, and levers in front of it. There were three spinny chairs at the control panel, each coated in their own layer of dust.

"Oh shit! This must be, like, some kind of secret backup power center! My dad might not even know about this place," Kenji said, checking out the room.

Brooklynn took a seat in one of the chairs. "We gotta find a way to raise that gate and get to Sammy and Darius. Start looking!" she added when the campers just stood there.

"We gotta get the power on!" Yaz stated the obvious as she took a seat and began pressing random buttons.

"None of these are the right buttons!" Ben snapped.

"Oh! One of them has to be! I once helped a Dutch seamstress find an actual needle in an actual haystack. I can find this," Brooklynn declared.

Kenji pulled open an electrical box on the side wall. He flicked a lever up, pulled another down, then pulled the first one down again. The electricity flickered on, the screens showing off the Jurassic World logo as everything slowly booted to life.

"Kenji, you did it!"

"Hell yeah I did!"

Eva wandered over to Kenji's side as the others got the cameras rolling and the electricity on in Main Street. Kenji was repeatedly pressing a green button.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Look at this button— why isn't it doing anything?" He pushed the button a few more times.

"You're gonna break something," Eva snickered. Reaching out her hand, she pressed the green button once. "Huh. Guess I don't have that magic touch."

Kenji pushed the button three more times.

"Eh, just leave it. It's probably not that important."

Kenji pushed it again, and the green light dimmed.

"Good job, doofus. You broke it."

Kenji slowly closed the panel. "Shhh." He glanced around the room, looking at each one of the campers. "Whatever happens, it wasn't me."

Eva snickered, covering her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Now, where are they?"

Kenji and Eva approached the desk.

"You guys, look! Look! They're right there!" Yasmina pointed to one of the monitors, showing Sammy and Darius with Mitch's gun bag outside the Ben and Jerry's store front.

"We can see you!"

"Yeah!"

"Yes!"

Sammy pounded against the doors. Darius held the gun bag closer to his body. And then, on the other monitor, Mitch and Tiff held their cattle prodders, closing in.

"Shit, shit! No!" Brooklynn panicked as she clicked on a multitude of buttons. "Darius! Sammy! Behind you!"

"Darius! Sammy! Guys!"