“Wait, what?” Darius asked. He ran over to Kenji and looked into the crate filled with oxygen tanks.
“Check it. Oxygen tanks for days,” Kenji said.
“Supercompressed air, sensitive to pressure and heat,” Darius said.
“Might be able to scare Toro off,” Brooklynn said.
“Or distract him long enough for us to find another exit,” Darius added.
“Cool, cool,” Yasmina said. “So we makin’ the boom-boom or what?”
Darius turned and saw the wheeled cart he had noticed earlier.
“Kenji and Brooklynn, let’s get this crate loaded on the cart. Sammy, use those bandages and tape to make a fuse. We’re gonna need something to light it with.”
Yasmina smiled at Darius as she raised the stun spear. Sparks shot from the tip, and Darius grinned.
* * *
Toro entered the huge room, angry, roaring. There was no sign of his prey anywhere.
That’s because they were behind the cart filled with oxygen tanks, finishing their science project.
“Light it up,” Darius whispered.
Yasmina touched the tip of the stun spear to the makeshift fuse that Sammy had cobbled together.
It wouldn’t light.
Darius peered over the cart and saw the Carnotaurus turn in their direction.
He must have heard me whispering! Darius thought.
Ducking down, his eyes grew wide. “This really needs to happen right now!”
“Wait!” Kenji interjected. Then he unzipped Ben’s fanny pack and started riffling through it.
The Carnotaurus took a huge step closer.
Then Kenji pulled out “Hand sanitizer! This stuff will burn!”
Kenji poured the sanitizer on the fuse, and Yasmina touched the tip of the stun spear to it again. This time, it ignited.
“Thanks, Ben,” Brooklynn said.
“NOW!” Darius shouted.
The kids jumped out from behind the cart as the Carnotaurus took another step forward. The fuse was burning, and the kids pushed the cart right for the furious Toro!
Flames licked the sides of the crate, rapidly engulfing it.
“Come on, come on,” Darius said impatiently.
As the cart reached the Carnotaurus, the dinosaur simply kicked it aside. The crate shattered and the oxygen tanks scattered across the room, along with flaming crate debris.
So far, in terms of things not going to plan, the plan was working perfectly. The flaming debris had set the other crates on fire, and now the kids faced double jeopardy—the Carnotaurus on one horrible hand and fiery doom on the other.
The Carnotaurus charged right at the kids, but they managed to dive out of the way in time. Darius grabbed Yasmina by the arm, pulling her along. Yasmina winced in pain.
It was impossible to find a hiding spot. No sooner would someone duck behind a flaming crate than the angry Carnotaurus would charge forward, swipe his tail, and shatter the box.
Not knowing what else to do, the kids tried to scramble over the depression in the center of the room, the one that held the monorail track. The Carnotaurus’s jaws were snapping open and closed, open and closed as the kids managed their way onto the depression.
First Kenji made it, then Brooklynn.
Sammy was next.
Yasmina screamed in pain from her ankle. The stun spear was in her hands. She looked the Carnotaurus right in the eye.
Just as the dinosaur was about to attack her, Darius hurled a flaming board at the Carnotaurus, hitting the creature right in its festering scar. The burning board caused the dinosaur to rear back in pain.
This was Yasmina’s chance!
She made the leap for the depression and would have missed—if it wasn’t for Sammy. The other girl caught her arms and pulled her up.
“Thanks,” Yasmina said to Sammy.
But it wasn’t over yet. Darius was still down there with a really, really angry Carnotaurus.
“Jump!” Kenji screamed.
As Toro approached, Darius ran, getting ready to make his leap.
Except the Carnotaurus lunged at the same moment! The dinosaur caught the back of his foot, and Darius tumbled down below.
Darius was in a daze and could hardly see straight. He was on his back, and he saw Toro looking at him, leaning, getting closer. The furious creature was coming in for the kill—but stepped on some stray oxygen tanks. The Carnotaurus stumbled, losing his footing. Trying to right himself, he stepped on the edge of the depression, which caused him to tumble right toward Darius!
Coming to his senses, Darius rolled, and the dinosaur fell down right next to him. Toro thrashed.
Darius could feel the creatures’s awful breath on him as Kenji reached down. Darius grabbed his hand, and Kenji hauled him up.
Below, Toro was getting back on his feet.
It wasn’t over yet.
Darius and Yasmina looked at each other as they noticed the oxygen tanks rolling around on the ground by the Carnotaurus. Then they looked at the stun spear in Yasmina’s hands. She handed it to Darius with a nod to say “good luck.” He activated the weapon and locked the switch. The stun spear sparked madly.
“See you on the other side, VIP,” Darius said, giving Kenji a devilish look.
“Meet ya there, Dino Nerd,” Kenji replied.
The Carnotaurus roared as Darius hurled the spear right at an oxygen tank.
The explosion knocked the kids off their feet, and the heat from below almost scorched them.
* * *
It was quiet following the explosion. The kids stared below, watching the smoke rise.
“We did it! We beat—” Kenji said.
“No—look!” Sammy said, pointing below.
They heard shifting rubble as a shadowy shape began to rise from the smoke.
It was Toro. Burned. Bruised. Battered.
But the kids weren’t afraid. If this was the end, so be it. They would go down fighting.
Maybe the Carnotaurus could sense this? Because instead of attacking, the wounded creature looked up at the kids, then turned away. Toro limped back down the tunnel from which he had come.
“It doesn’t get better than that,” Darius said, smiling.
“Wanna bet?” Yasmina said with an enormous grin plastered across her face. She pointed at the wall—the explosion had blasted a hole through it!
They scrambled into the sunlight and raced toward the docks. They still had a ways to go, but hope kept them going. Soon, the docks came into view, and…they were empty.
They had missed the last ferry.
“They’ll be back for us, won’t they?” Sammy asked as they stared out over the water.
“Of course they will,” Darius said reassuringly. “And until then…we’ve got each other.”
The kids stood together on the dock, watching as the sun came up over the horizon. Brooklynn hugged Sammy and Yasmina as Kenji punched Darius playfully on the arm. Darius smiled.
Darius thought back to the story he was trying to tell the other kids, back at the camp, back before everything fell apart.
“We thought it’d be fun,” Darius said, sitting down. It seemed like ages since he had been off his feet. “We thought we’d be safe. But we didn’t realize the horror waiting for us on the island. Claws…teeth…screaming. So much screaming. But we’ll keep fighting. That’s the promise we make every day we get. That despite all the hardships, you never give up. We will survive. We will get home. Because no matter what happens…no matter what this place throws at us next…none of us are in this alone.”
Jurassic World is a lush island resort where people can visit real live dinosaurs. Six lucky kids have been picked to try out the park’s new camp—CAMP CRETACEOUS!
DARIUS is a dino-nerd ex
traordinaire. He was the first to beat the Jurassic World video game, so he gets to go to Camp Cretaceous. He can’t wait to meet his campmates…and the dinosaurs!
An adorable Ankylosaurus hatches from an egg. She hatched early, so the bumps on her head are uneven. Dr. Wu doesn’t think she is good enough for the park…
…but the kids love her. One of the campers, Ben, names the little dinosaur BUMPY.
Unfortunately, not all the dinosaurs are as cute as Bumpy. Darius and the other campers get into a lot of trouble with a Carnotaurus they name TORO.
Smart pack hunters that are armed with a sharp slashing claw on each foot, Velociraptors are both cunning and dangerous!
The fiercest Velociraptor is BLUE, but she is also the smartest and most used to humans. But how will she react to the campers when they enter her territory?
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Camp Cretaceous, Volume One Page 9
