Brave

Bumpy Rides and Small Touches

"Do your seat belts up.." Claire 'motherly' said in a haste of a certain panic brewing. Glancing at the metal box beneath our buts, no seat belts. Go figure.

She notices the problem. "Well.... Um hold hands then." She says closing the door shut.

Grey reached his hand out for his brother, ushering the biggest puppy dog eyes the world will ever know. And now not to my surprise, Zach took it.

A weak smile pushed its way onto my mouth when Zach's attention passed his bother landing on me. A crippling ache clenched my heart, my eyes averted from them. I craved love; I just want my parents. I just want to be held the way that love will mend all my broken pieces together. And right beside me is one of the strongest love there is.

Opening the window separating us from Claire carefully we peered down at the small screen connecting us with the chaos on the outside of this metal box on wheels. Owen soared along with his raptors by his side. He's pretty cool I must admit.

"Your boyfriend is a bad ass." Zach said making her jump a little.

Pressed tightly together, our limbs seemed to mangle in the struggle to see through the small space. We watched as the raptors finally found their target; the Indominus Rex.

"Alright that's enough..." Claire shut us from the action. Despite our cries of protest, she didn't open back up. Great. Plonking down, the metal was cool against my bare feverish skin of my legs was it only then I felt how short my shorts were.

Pushing the thought from my mind the boys were talking quietly, sounding like Zach reassuring Grey. Although I think he's reassuring himself. Slowly I attempted to pry open the window, which worked.

On the screen the raptors looked like they were communicating with the beast. That shouldn't be possible. "That doesn't look good.." I thought yet turning out I said aloud. Claire didn't seem to mind me.

She just shook her head.

A bloody hand slapped across the window making the both of us shriek, and me almost losing my footing on the box. "Drive" He screamed. "DRIVE!"

This time I did loose my footing. Claire slammed on the gas and I fell ass over. Stumbling off my back we were jolted all over the place. "What the hell is going on?" Zach fumbled to help me.

"I don't know!" I shot back. 

Hurdling along the back doors flew open, flapping and banging in the fierce wind. And that's when I saw it. The black figure in the night, it's shape undeniable. "Za....." I couldn't even finish. In the split second it took for the door to swing once more the thud of raptors body attempting jump in shook the van.

"Crap!"

Stumbling I crashed into the wall as Claire swerved to deter the speed demon behind us. "It's coming for us again......" Grey quivered shooting a petrified look between us. Fumbling behind me, my fingers grasped the cool metal instantly registering what lays within my hold.

"Zach!" I chucked the zapper through the air. The brothers in a mess of arms and fingers struggled to work the dam thing out. Closing in towards the door, the wind wiped across my face blinding me for a moment. Regaining my sight the next 3 actions happened so quickly.

1: the raptor launched itself at us in my two seconds of blindness, its razor claws ripping gashes on my lower arm.

2: the boys zapped the thing, launching it behind us

3: the doors now locked shut, a hand pressed against it, sweat trickled from my pores as we stared wide eyed at each other panting.

"Is everything alright back there?" Claire's voice squeaked.

Hot blood gushed from my wounds, a fiery burn aching at the pulse of my racing heart. "Guys?!" Claire shrieked again.

"We're fine!" I shouted back. "Just fine..." Looking down at my arm, blood ran rivers to my fingertips, pooling in small puddles of velvet. My stomach tightening at the sight, a weak smile directed at the boys. "That was close." They both arched a 'really?' eyebrow, staring at the blood pooling at my feet.

*****

Biting my tongue to keep a string of bad words from escaping, Zach as carefully as he could with the consistent bump of the road bound my wounds. Taping the last of my bandage down, he admired his handy work. "There, all finished."

Clutching my wounded side, the pain had soon become a dull consistent throb. "Thanks." So I sat there, Grey watching through the little peep hole connecting himself to his Aunty next to me and on the other the brown headed boy packing up the first aid kit.

To think at the start of this day I caught connecting flight from home in Australia to America, only to travel to an island of the impossible. That at the beginning of this day, the worst thing I was worried about was not getting to the park fast enough. That I'd never meet the shaggy blonde headed boy and his brother, that they wouldn't have become attached to my life in a short period of time.

And I defiantly didn't think that I'd be fearing for my life, with a killer mutant dinosaur on the lose that thinks kill-everything-thing-in-sight game is fun.

And as the day gets so much better on the roller coaster of emotions, I'm most of all afraid for my parents. They haven't picked up their phones or tried to call back. Nothing. The worst felling is knowing that if hadn't inherited my super ego for adventure, we would never have been here. Never in the situation of danger.

A shaky breathe escaped my lips, my head rolling back with my eyes tightly shut. Tears threatened to spill, yet never escaped. A huge lump in the back of my throat begun to swell as I fought back against my sobs, not allowing the stupid crying to start now.

A shoulder rubbed against mine, dragging me from my mental fight of control. Zach against to chaos of it all, his warm chocolate eyes calm and steady. He focused on mine, "Its okay. You can cry if you want."

"I don't cry. Especially not in front of other people." He studied me, I could feel it even when I looked away.

At first it was a slight touch, that then lead to a small brush of fingers. One at a time, he curled his fingers slowly over mine. With a slight tremble, he looped our dirty clammy hands together shakily.

I'd never held a hand so tightly.