Camp Cretaceous, Volume Two

by Steve Behling

  “Stone-cold mystery!” the girls said in unison.

  Brooklynn looked at the papers and saw a series of numbers. Beneath each number, there were the same four letters repeating in different patterns.

  “A bunch of numbers and letters,” Brooklynn said. Then she looked at the key card. “And this thing. No answers. Just more questions. Maybe we should check if—”

  But Brooklynn was cut off by the roar of a Baryonyx.

  They were getting close.

  “Or we should go,” Brooklynn said, and the girls headed back to camp.

  * * *

  By the time Brooklynn, Yasmina, and Sammy got back to camp, Darius and Kenji were already there. Darius was busy writing in his field guide, while Kenji had just finished taking a shower.

  Adjusting the towel on his head, Kenji saw the girls and smiled. “I fixed the water!” he said.

  “Yeah…with a little help,” Darius corrected him.

  “And we found this!” Brooklynn said, holding up the key card she had found in the genetics lab.

  “Was that something you were looking for?” Darius asked.

  “Kinda!” Brooklynn said.

  * * *

  The tree house had really come together, and with the water back up and running, the camp was starting to feel like some kind of home. As the sun began to set, the kids kicked back and relaxed for the first time in ages.

  Kenji had found a music player in the rubble that still worked. He played some music, and Sammy and Brooklynn started dancing. Darius was sitting with Yasmina, who was drawing in his field guide.

  “That’s great,” Darius said, looking at Yasmina’s illustration. “Can you make the Parasaurolophus crest a little bigger?”

  “How’s…this?” Yasmina asked, sketching away.

  “Perfect!” Darius said. He looked at the completed illustration of the watering hole. It looked just like the real thing!

  “Whoa!” Sammy suddenly shouted. “Look at that!”

  She jumped up, pointing at the sunset through the trees. An array of colors, purples, pinks, and oranges, lit up the sky. They stood in silence, watching the sun dip lower and lower, until…another light flickered.

  “Is that…,” Yasmina said.

  “It looks like—” Brooklynn added.

  “A campfire,” Sammy finished.

  “Guys,” Darius said with a grin. “We’re not alone.”

  “Someone got our SOS signal!” Kenji said.

  Darius turned to face his friend. “Let’s go find them. It’s time to go home!”

  The Camp Cretaceous campers raced through the jungle for hours, climbing the occasional tree to keep track of the campfire in the distance. As they got closer and closer to the campfire, their excitement grew. They wondered who had come to save them. Darius wondered if maybe someone like Dr. Alan Grant himself would come!

  But when Darius scampered up a tree to check the distance to the campfire, he couldn’t see a thing. “The bonfire!” he called out. “It’s gone!”

  He slid back down the tree, and the other kids saw the look on Darius’s face.

  “What if…they left?” Sammy said. “What if the people who came to save us gave up, and we missed our chance?”

  Sammy’s words sat with everyone, and a heaviness weighed on the group. There was a rustling sound in the foliage, and then there came a loud THUMP.

  Darius screamed.

  The kids drew into a circle, holding their makeshift weapons.

  “C-could be a really big Compy, right?” Kenji stuttered.

  But no one believed that. A dark shadow fell over the group, and the kids slowly turned to see the silhouette of a prowling Ceratosaurus stalking toward them. The creature roared, and the kids ran.

  They tried zigzagging through trees to throw the dinosaur off, but the Ceratosaurus was able to maneuver just fine, making hairpin turns between the trees.

  Darius led the kids into a thick section of trees as the group swatted at branches, trying to push their way through. The Ceratosaurus was right behind them, gaining ground with every step. Kenji tripped, and his butter knife flew out of his hand. He collided into Sammy, and the two went down.

  Brooklynn turned back and pulled both Sammy and Kenji to their feet just as the Ceratosaurus stopped, a few yards away from them. It opened its fanged mouth, grunting.

  The kids backed off, waiting for the worst. Then Brooklynn stepped up, clutching a baseball bat in her hands, screaming, “Okay, come on!” She positioned herself between the kids and the Ceratosaurus and was ready to swing.

  Suddenly, an arm shoved Brooklynn behind a log, and two pairs of hands pulled the other kids right next to her!

  They watched as a flare was lit, the light momentarily blinding them. Then the flare shot across the sky, and the sound of gunfire filled their ears. A burly, stern-looking man with a scar on his cheek came into view, holding a rifle, firing it up into the air. The noise scared off the Ceratosaurus, who turned tail and ran.

  Then a man and a woman wearing safari gear and carrying cameras around their necks walked toward the kids. They looked concerned as they approached.

  “Oh, thank goodness you’re okay!” the woman said.

  “You are okay, aren’t you?” the man asked.

  “Who are you?” Darius said.

  “Well, after all that, maybe you should call us your salvation,” the woman said as the man reached out a hand to Darius.

  Darius took the hand, relieved.

  * * *

  “We don’t even know your names,” Darius said as he trekked through the jungle with the three newcomers.

  “I’m Mitch,” the man said. “And my better half here is Tiff. We’re ecotourists.”

  “That’s a fancy way of saying we travel to exotic places and photograph rare animals,” Tiff explained.

  “When we heard what happened here, we were like—”

  “Gotta get down here!” Tiff said, finishing Mitch’s sentence. “I was fine taking snaps of lions and tigers, but—”

  “Pics of dinosaurs in the wild?” Mitch said. “You don’t pass that up! Do you, babe?”

  “I guess ya don’t, babe!” Tiff replied, and Sammy laughed.

  “When we activated the emergency distress beacon, we hoped someone would get our signal,” Darius said. “I kinda can’t believe it worked.”

  “Oh yes, the signal!” Tiff said, a little too enthusiastically. “Honey, remember when we got that? It was right after the boat dropped us off!”

  Darius heard the word “boat,” and his heart soared. Maybe the boat could get them off the island!

  A loud THWACK came from ahead, like a blade slicing through plants. Which is exactly what it was. Darius saw the burly guy with the scar on his cheek hacking away with a machete.

  “That’s our tour guide, Hap,” Mitch said. “Came highly recommended. Knows cameras and the outdoors like the back of his hand, but not much of a talker, though.”

  Hap looked at Mitch, grunted, and went back to clearing the brush.

  “Our camp’s not much,” Mitch continued, “but hopefully you’ll be okay roughing it with us.”

  As they approached the campsite, Darius’s jaw nearly hit the ground.

  * * *

  “Is this a dream?” Brooklynn said, her eyes nearly popping out of her skull.

  Darius gazed at Mitch and Tiff’s campsite in wonder. If this was their idea of “roughing it,” he wondered what they were used to! The campsite was more of a glampsite—there was a row of yurts with a generous amount of space between each. The door to one yurt was open, and Darius looked inside to see a large bed with blankets—real blankets! There was even a recliner and a bookshelf inside.

  Darius turned to see an outdoor dining area, featuring a large table with all kinds of cook
ware and place settings. Little lights had been strung up around the site, twinkling in the air around them.

  “My goodness,” Tiff said with a smile. “I can’t imagine how hungry you all must be. Would you like some breakfast?”

  Tiff didn’t need to ask. The kids were starving, and they all-too-happily sat down at the large table, feasting on the food that Tiff and Mitch offered. They had eggs and biscuits, and there was fresh fruit, and real butter, and juice, and coffee (which Darius’s mother said he shouldn’t drink because it might stunt his growth, but he had some anyway).

  “You’re with us now, and you’re safe,” Mitch said as he watched the kids scarf down their meal. “And when our boat comes back in a couple o’ days—”

  “After it refuels in Papagayo,” Tiff said.

  “After it refuels in Papagayo, we’ll get you back to the mainland!”

  “We’re leaving in two days?” Darius said in disbelief.

  “Is this really happening?” Sammy said.

  “It is, sweetie,” Tiff replied. “You’re going home.”

  The kids let out a collective cheer and then kept on eating.

  Mitch sat down next to Darius and removed the camera from his neck. Showing it to Darius, he said, “You wanna see some pics we took of Big Five animals in Botswana?”

  Turning on the camera, Mitch held the camera out for Darius to see. There were amazing, crystal clear, close-up pictures of an elephant. Then a roaring lion.

  “Whoa! These are so cool!” Darius exclaimed. “Got any dinosaur shots?”

  “Unfortunately, not yet,” Mitch said with a sigh. “Personally, I had my sights on the T. rex. I can’t wait to see its craniofacial biting behavior in action. Uh, sorry. I can be a bit of a nerd about dinosaurs.”

  “Craniofacial talk? I’ll bite!” Darius said, cringing as the eyes of his friends rolled. “Sorry, that was terrible.”

  “Looks like we both need muzzles,” Mitch said, playing with Darius, and the two burst into laughter.

  “You, uh, do this for a living, yeah?” Brooklynn asked. She was sitting across from Hap, who hadn’t said a word since they sat down to eat. “Not sure if you heard, but I travel the world, too. Yep. Vlogger. Kind of a big deal.”

  Hap sniffed.

  “Okay, so, uh, where have you been, nature guide?”

  “Nature places,” Hap said, speaking at last.

  “Do you take people on photography eco-tours a lot? Mitch said you came highly recommended. Is this your first time working with M—”

  Before she could finish, Hap slammed his fork down on the table and glowered at Brooklynn. “No more questions.” Then he broke into a smile that chilled Brooklynn. “Your food will get cold.”

  Tiff stood, clapping her hands. “All right,” she said loudly, with enough joyful enthusiasm to gloss over the incident. “Why don’t you kids freshen up while we clear the table? It’s a little primitive—sorry—but in the bathroom yurt you’ll find a solar-powered shower and a heated toilet.”

  The kids got up from the table and headed toward the bathroom yurt. But as Brooklynn stood up, something fell from her pocket.

  The key card.

  She reached for it, only to find Hap snatching it off the ground first.

  “Hey!” Brooklynn said. “That’s mine! Give it back!”

  Hap looked at the card, completely ignoring Brooklynn. He turned it over, and at last, Brooklynn snatched it back.

  She walked away, joining the others at the bathroom yurt, but glanced over her shoulder.

  Hap was staring at her.

  * * *

  The butter knife sat in the dirt, and a silent figure glanced at it as he walked past. He took a few more steps and pushed aside a stand of bushes. He lightly ran his hand along the head of the small but sturdy dinosaur next to him. Not too far off, there were harsh voices.

  “Where are the kids?” a man in expensive safari clothes asked.

  A woman, also in safari clothes, turned and stared sternly at him. She wasn’t angry, but she didn’t seem completely happy with him either.

  Another man, much gruffer, answered, “Still in the bathroom yurt. The chatty internet one is getting suspicious.”

  The woman and her tough-looking companion traded a guarded look.

  “Hap, buddy, relax, the man said, easily blowing off the other man’s concern. “We have a plan, and we’ll fill ya in later. Let’s just go back before they realize we’re gone.”

  As the three adults walked out of view, the figure hiding in the jungle turned to look at his dinosaur companion.

  “New plan,” he said with a look of calm determination. “Save our friends.”

  The kids crowded into the bathroom yurt, not sure whether they should brush their teeth with the pre-pasted toothbrushes, wash their hands, use one of four different kinds of hand cream, or take a hot shower.

  They talked excitedly, but Brooklynn shushed them. “I can’t prove it yet,” she said. “But I think there’s something going on with Hap. He dodged all my questions and was really weird about the key card I found in Wu’s lab.”

  Everyone looked at Brooklynn like they just didn’t get it.

  “Mitch and Tiff are clueless,” Brooklynn said dismissively. “She’s too ‘Golly, goodness’ to notice anything, and all he thinks about is dinosaurs.”

  “What’s wrong with that?” Darius asked.

  “I’m just saying Hap’s suspicious.” Brooklynn grumbled. “He’s gruff and unsmiling and—”

  Yasmina raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with that?”

  “Look,” Brooklynn said, exasperated. “Could Hap be involved with Mantah Corp?”

  Sammy looked at Brooklynn. “I mean, the Mantah Corp folks who sent me were like corporatespies, not…action-man, secret-identity, pew-pew spies.”

  “I know you’ve got conspiracy stuff on the brain, Brooklynn,” Darius said. “But forget Hap. In two days, we’re going home. Let’s focus on that.”

  Sammy nodded. “Don’t worry, Brooklynn. Just in case, we’ll keep our eyes open.”

  * * *

  After they emerged from the bathroom yurt, Brooklynn caught a glimpse of Hap hauling two large duffel bags. As quietly as she could, she followed Hap as he approached the row of yurts. Brooklynn stopped at the last one and slowly peered around the corner.

  Somehow, Hap was gone!

  Then she felt a hand on her shoulder….

  “What are you doing?”

  Brooklynn jumped, only to see Kenji standing there. He had a mischievous grin on his face.

  “Is it spying?” Kenji asked.

  “No! It is not spying!” Brooklynn said. “Okay, it is spying. What are you doing?”

  “Dude, I just had to get away from Tiff and Mitch. I don’t get how anyone can stand them! It’s like, we get it. You’re rich. You don’t have to throw it in our faces.”

  Brooklynn stared at Kenji as if to say, “Dude, that’s you!”

  Suddenly, they heard Hap muttering. Kenji and Brooklynn leaned around the edge of the yurt and saw Hap walking toward a yurt, holding some cameras. He fumbled with one, trying to take it apart, but it was clear he had no idea what he was doing.

  “Nope, not at all weird that a guide for photographers isn’t good with cameras,” Brooklynn whispered.

  Hap shook one of the cameras in frustration, nearly dropping it. He raised his lip into a sneer and left the cameras on the ground, picking up the duffel bags instead and heading inside the yurt. The kids could see a faint flicker of blue light coming from inside.

  “We gotta get into that yurt,” Brooklynn said.

  * * *

  “Look!” Mitch said.

  Darius walked over to the ecotourist standing alone at the edge of the camp, behind a tree. Mitch had a finger to his lips as he motioned
to Darius. A familiar chittering sound could be heard, and Darius knew immediately that it was a group of Compsognathuses.

  “Awww, so cute!” Tiff said loudly, barging in. “Come here, little guy!”

  “No, stop!” Darius said.

  Tiff ran over to a Compy, trying to pet it. Darius, Mitch, and the other kids who had joined Tiff were horrified!

  The Compy turned toward Tiff, hissing. The other Compys started to hiss, too, and they looked like they were ready to pounce on the ecotourist.

  Tiff screamed.

  “Hey!” Darius shouted toward the Compys. “Over here!”

  The Compys swiveled their heads to look in Darius’s direction. He was holding a granola bar that he had swiped from the breakfast table. Waving it in front of the dinosaurs, Darius then tossed it into some nearby bushes.

  The Compys took the bait and chased after the granola bar, Tiff forgotten.

  “That was close,” Darius said. “They look cute, but they actually have trace amounts—”

  “Of venom in their bites,” Mitch said, admiringly. “Quick thinking, D! How did you know that would work?”

  Darius smiled and pulled out his field guide. “I’ve been keeping a log of their scavenging. And other dinosaur behaviors,” he said. “I mean, it’s not much….”

  Mitch took the guide in his hands and flipped through, Tiff looking over his shoulder. “This is incredible, Darius!”

  “And Yaz drew all the pictures,” Darius added. “Pretty great, right?”

  Mitch and Tiff kept flipping through the field guide, and Darius watched as their expressions changed and their faces seemed to fall.

  “We haven’t seen a tenth of the dinosaurs you have,” Tiff said. “Maybe we’ve been looking in the wrong places?”

  “We’ve only got two days to see these magnificent animals,” Mitch said. “When the legal battles end and this park closes for good, what will all this have been for? Will it still mean anything to anyone?”