Kitten Among Dinos

Chapter 3: Onward to Camp

We'd been driving for around 10 minutes.  Brooklynn was fiddling with her phone while mumbling to herself quietly.  I tuned it out opting to look at the jungle as we sped by.  The road was beginning to become more windy when Ben spoke up, “I hope you got my mom's note.”  I felt my ears furrow closer to my head in sympathy at the scared tone in his voice. “I don't do well on windy roads!”  He called towards Roxie and Dave.  The drive continued in silence for a bit longer before I noticed Brooklynn moving out of the corner of my eye.  I turned towards her seeing her angling her phone towards her with the camera app open.

“What's good, Brooklanders?” She asked the camera.  She then motioned to herself, “It's your girl Brooklynn, coming at you from the best place ever, camp cretaceous!”  She finished motioning to the jungle behind her.  “Like and subscribe to join me as I, unbox Jurassic World!”  With her strange introduction out of the way Brooklynn paused her recording to give us instructions.  “OK I'm going to need you guys to say who you are, a bit about yourselves, and how you got here.”  She then angled the phone towards me, “and, action!”

Deciding to play along I answered her prompts.  “I'm Katelyn and I got invited here due to where my dad works.”  I replied, restating what Cooper said to tell people if they asked.  Brooklynn nodded before moving on to Darius.  After the camera was off me I sighed quietly in relief.  Being on camera isn't my thing, it's why I always try to leave before the news stations come and try to get an interview.  I began fiddling with my ring, twisting it absent-mindedly while Darius began to Introduce himself.

"Um, I beat this cool dinosaur VR game… I'm Darius by-”  Darius was suddenly cut off causing me to look up.  That's not cool.

“I'm sorry… I just can't believe you're Brooklynn!”  The girl in the Black leather jacket similar to mine was speaking excitedly.  Her hair was short and had a pink headband in it.  This recognition however caused Brooklynn to give her a small smile before the girl quickly took her hand and shook it excitedly.  “I'm Sammy Gutierrez,” she quickly introduced herself, “total Brooklander.  Kapow!”  She finished letting Brooklynn's hand go before imitating gunfire while giving finger guns.  She let out a small giggle, “oh, also my family supplies all the beef for the park, so that's how I got here.”  She said quickly.

“Nice to meet you Sammy”  Brooklynn responded excitedly.  What's a Brooklander?  I thought to myself.  Darius looked as confused as me. 

“If you don't mind me asking, what's a Brooklander?”  I asked, looking to Brooklynn for an explanation.  Darius looked at me grateful for asking the question and that he wasn't the only one confused.  He nodded along to my question to indicate he wanted to know as well.

“Oh, that's just what my online followers call themselves.”  She quickly explained glancing up at the both of us before returning her gaze to her phone.  She seemed to be editing the footage that she'd already recorded.  Some of it from on the boat all the way to now.  I glanced up at Sammy from my now hunched position.  She seemed excited again.  Does she have a lot of followers?

“Uh… All 27 Million of us!” Sammy exclaimed before imitating gunfire again.  That probably explains why she has her phone.  Something for publicity most likely.   I glanced over at Kenji whose hand was on Darius' shoulder looking shocked.  He glanced over at Brooklynn with a look in his eye that I didn't recognize, I didn't like it though.  I sat up again leaning my back against the side of the truck bed.

“Yep, that's why she's the only one who gets to keep her cell phone.  She's famous.”  A new voice joined in on the conversation.  So the Lone wolf speaks.  I laughed inwardly at my small observation.  I feel guilty about my communicator now.  Was that a hint of bitterness in her voice?  Doesn't matter with luck they won't need to communicate with me, I resolved.  She wore a gray athletic suit with her hair pulled back in a medium height ponytail.  It was similar to mine except mine was pulled back in a low ponytail due to my hat.  Kenji shifted next to me leaning forward at the new information.