By Your Side (JWCC Darius x Oc)

Rude Awakening

I was sitting at the side of Mae's desk, watching Mae work as she tried to figure out what was up with the cube before snapping my head over to Yaz as she gasped and sat up quickly.

"You okay, love?" Mae questioned.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm good." Yaz answered.

"I only ask because you gasped loudly, dropped my tablet to the floor, then startled awake." Mae grinned.

"Sorry." Yaz chuckled as she picked up Mae's tablet from the floor.

"No, look. I appreciate you keeping an eye out for BRADs, but you should rest, like your friends over there." Mae said and we turned to look at our friends scatted around the living room. Brooklyn was asleep in the chair, Ben on the floor in front of her, Sammy on the floor to the right of Brooklyn, Kenji leant back on the couch, and Darius sprawled across the couch on his stomach with his feet in Kenji's lap. "Except for this one." Mae said as she turned to me with narrowed eyes. I grinned at her as I leant back in my seat and crossed my arms.

"I told you, I'm not tired." I said.

"I can see you fighting to keep your eyes open. It's obvious your exhausted." Mae pointed out.

"Yeah. We've been through a lot." Yaz agreed. "But I'd rather stay up, if that's okay." Yaz said to Mae.

"You're the boss." Mae shrugged before turning back to her desk. "Except when you're assisting me, then, obviously, I'm the boss. Now, hand me that petri dish." Mae said. Yaz handed Mae the dish with the cube in it before Mae took a piece of the cube and put it into a vial with a blue liquid. Mae swished the vial around a little before the liquid changed from blue to green. "Oh, my.....oh, no, no, no. This is bad. Very, very bad." Mae said.

"I'll wake the others." I said as I got up and headed to where the others were. I shook each of them awake before leading them over to Mae.

"Okay, after careful analysis of the nutrient samples, I've discovered alarmingly high levels of receptor antagonists, as well as adrenal additives. These must be the cause of the elevated combative state of the animals who've ingested them." Mae explained as we passed around the vial of green liquid for everyone to see.

"Dude, what the heck is she talking about?" Kenji asked Darius but we all heard him.

"Ugh! The T.Rex food's been tampered with. They're adding things that make the dinos more aggressive, and inhibits their ability to feel pain." Mae reexplained on a way we could understand what she was talking about.

"Mantah Corp is the worst." Sammy said.

"Why would they do that?" Darius asked as he handed Mae back the vial of green liquid.

"I have no idea. But it seems more important than ever to get you kids off the island." Mae said.

"No argument here." Kenji said before he coughed.

"Are you feeling okay?" Brooklyn questioned.

"Always. Something just caught in my throat." Kenji explained.

"Great. Trying to get off yet another island." Brooklyn groaned.

"At least this time we have the help of an adult and equipment." I shrugged.

"True." Sammy nodded.

"Any ideas?" Brooklyn asked.

"The supply plane!" Mae gasped. "It comes every two weeks. Only, the next one's not due for another ten days." Mae explained.

"We can't wait that long." Yaz argued.

"Maybe we don't have to. Any way to make the plane come sooner?" Brooklyn questioned.