PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

XXXIX. Lemon Squeezy

Chapter Thirty Nine:  Lemon Squeezy

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At the raptor pen, Darius left the group to climb the stairs to the catwalk, video camera in hand. Everyone else quietly crept through the opening of the pen. Except Eva, who strutted into the space, shouting up to Darius to see if she was close.

"Shh!"

"Shush!"

"What?" She asked.

"What if the raptors are still here?"

"Guys, if Blue or the others were still here, they would have heard us coming a long time ago. We're fine."

Yasmina stopped creeping and stood up straight. "That's a bit bold of you."

"I'm sorry, have you met Evangeline?" Kenji laughed.

Eva shot him a look, to which he immediately shut up.

"I think it's a little to the left!" Darius shouted down. The group fanned out into the bushes. "A little more! Keep going! Kenji, I think that's—"

Bumpy turned around, knocking Kenji down with her tail. Eva snickered at his demise.

"Ah, my ankles! Hey.. I found it!"

Darius came down the catwalk, and the campers eagerly surrounded Kenji. He uncrumbled the paper and held it out in front of him.

Sammy read the note. "Owen, they're after me. I got too close. I hope you stay safe. But if you ever feel like you aren't, go to the Hidden Adventure. You'll find everything you need. Remember, only when we touch the sky can we truly see, and the way in, is the beginning of the end. Your friend, HB."

Yasmina pointed to the letters at the bottom corner of the page, HB, with two brachiosauruses on either side. "Is that his signature?"

"I don't know, it's kinda cute."

"'Touching the sky', 'the beginning of the end'? It's a bunch of nothing!"

"Pessimist," Eva sang as she stood.

"It's not pessimistic," Kenji said with an eye roll. "I'm being real. We should be looking for something real, something we can trust."

The others got to their feet.

Brooklynn took the paper from Kenji. "Or it's a clue?"

Darius wrung his hands together. "I don't know about Brimford, but the Hidden Adventure, is that like an attraction or something?"

Sammy's face lit up. "Oh!, I know where we can find out! Remember the book I had with all the secret park facts? Maybe we can find another copy on Main Street."

"Or we could check a security office down in the tunnels," Brooklynn offered. "See if we can find it on the cameras?"

"Sorry, Sam. I vote security office," Yaz said. "Tunnels are farther, but Main Street is T-Rex territory."

"But we've done our fair trips to Main Street and made it out alive," Eva said.

Sammy smiled in thanks. "She can't be there all the time. I still think Main Street is the way to go."

Eva looked to Darius, and found the other girls doing the same. He was their closest thing to a leader, after all.

"Let's take our chances on Main Street. It's close," he agreed with Sammy and Eva.