Assets Out of Containment |1| Nublar Seven Series

Goodbye Blue

Blood spattered across my face as the jaws closed around the person in front of me, who had pushed me out of the way. Pink hair flailed in the air and then was gone. Dragged into the darkness of the jungle as the sounds of breaking bones silenced the screams.

Someone grabbed my shoulders, shaking me and calling my name. But my legs didn't work, they were as heavy as lead, impossible to move.

'Move dammit. You gotta get up.'

A gnarly growl drew my attention and I got a glimpse of those teeth again, and behind them, those glowing orange eyes. My body remained frozen facing the dinosaur, who was charging at me, bloody teeth ready.

Its jaws sunk into flesh and blood squirted in the grass. But not my flesh. Not my blood. No. It was never me.

Kenji had his body shielding me. His arms outstretched in the air went limp as the jaws closed around his head. It was ripped from his neck and a snarl, almost like laughter, filled the air as the rest of his body fell on top of me. Warm blood, everywhere.

I woke up with my pillow smooshed under my grip. My skin was covered with a thin layer of sweat, but enough for my clothes to stick uncomfortably on my skin. My eyes panned out to the bunkers around me. It was still dark, but the mounds under the sheets were there, chest going up and down on a steady rhythm. This was enough for my breathing to calm down.

First, I thought this would stop when Ben came back, and it did, but sometimes I caught myself waking up to teeth and claws. More rarely, the campers would make an appearance in my nightmares, and it was always accompanied with a lot of blood. This was one of those nights.

'My fault.' The thought echoed in my brain. 'It was always my fault.'

I took a minute to gather my thoughts, laying in my bed. 'Just a nightmare, no need to get worked up about it.' I tucked my chin over the Ankylo plushy and my thoughts traveled to Kenji for an instant, remembering how he went back for it. It made me smile into it, forgetting the nightmare for a while.

But then, the smile vanished. He had been avoiding me since the kayak test. It's been a week and all that I got were averting gazes and silence. He wouldn't talk to me unless there was someone else present and the topic was never the one I wanted to discuss. I get that he wanted space... but couldn't he do that without shutting me out completely? 'I missed my workout buddy, dammit.' It wasn't the same training alone.

I couldn't help but wonder if I had misread the situation at the time. No... that wasn't it. I remember how his eyes were locked on mine... how he leaned in too...

'Had he regretted it?' That thought made my heart sink. The only thing I had regretted was the shark appearing out of nowhere.

'This wasn't going to get me anywhere.' I took a deep breath. It wasn't worth it to think about this right now.

I shut my eyes and tried to make myself go back to sleep, but to no avail. I tossed and turned for some time before giving up. I listened for the steady breathing and light snoring around me for a second and then went over my morning routine as quietly as possible. It wasn't really a routine; I just brushed my teeth and splashed some water on my face.

Down on the grass, I found Bumpy right outside of the fence, curled up in a ball. I settled to use her as a backrest and petted her head, but she didn't even move. So, my eyes darted towards the dark jungle that stood before me. If there were to be any threat, Bumpy would notice it, right? Even if she was asleep...

I wonder what would happen if we were attacked. The fence would probably keep the smaller dinosaurs away. Compies would never get in, same would go for those black goo spitting dinosaurs and the Raptor, at least I don't think they could jump over the fence. The Baryonyxes would be a problem since they had the numbers and well, very sharp claws. Could it cut through metal? It dawned over me how I had zero notion of how strong a dinosaur really was. The fact that a Stegosaurus killed a Ceratosaurus without even trying was testament enough.