Dangerous Trek | Benrius | JWCC Short Story

IX

The wind blew and stray drops of water fell. It woke up the sleeping camper. Darius opened his eyes with a hurt groan. His vision was blurry for a few seconds as he looked up into the bright, blue sky. He push himself up with an efforted grunt. Darius stayed dazed, his vision finally subsided. It didn't help his forming headache, though. Now that he could see, he look around him. The place was littered with junk and trash. He hastily picked up a pair of sunglasses, it looked similar to the ones Kenji used to wear. 

"This is new."

Darius now just noticed the smell. Whatever sat around him definitely stunk. Darius let out a choked cough and plugged his nose. His eyes wondered towards a camera. The boy effortlessly picked up the branch laying on it and grabbed what laid underneath. 

Low growling was heard. Darius' spine gained chills as he looked behind himself. A dinosaur stood uncomfortably close to him. Darius let out a shocked scream and quickly pushed himself towards the other side of the hole he found himself in. Quickened breaths left the boy as he stared at the creature in front of him. 

As the creature leaned in towards the hole as it inspected Darius, a loud rumble, not unlike an earthquake, was heard. It threw the dinosaur that was in front of him off his balance and out of Darius' sight. Using this to the boys advantage. He quickly climbed out of the hole and panted as he ran the opposite direction. Darius weaves through the jungle as he turned back to face his front he quickly slid to a stop. Below him was a cliff, Darius mentally cursed at himself. 

He looked around. He shot a glance back as a loud roar was heard this time followed by clicking. Darius let out breathes he didn't even think he was taking in. His heart was beating in his ears and he let out a scared whimper. More stomping was heard, this only told Darius he had to think fast. As whatever was after him, was only getting closer.

Darius continued looking around. Two choices seemed to remain. He could jump into the nearby tree or climb down a vine. He quickly diminished the thought of using a vine. It could easily break under him. He took a few steps towards the edge of the cliff. He slid down a small part of the cliff and jumped towards the tree. He easily caught of the large branches and continued to climb down. Unfortunately, with one misstep, Darius slipped and fell the rest of the way. 

He landed flat on his stomach. A pained groan came out of the young boy. Before he could even think of getting up, he was dragged to his feet and taken into a strong embrace. Darius sighed in relief. 

"Darius! Thank god you're okay." As quick as the hug came, it ended. 

Darius quickly gathered his thoughts and finally looked up towards the other boy. Ben gave the other a disappointed frown.

"You cant just-" Darius quickly placed his hand over the boys mouth as to quiet him. Thankfully, ben did. 

"Shh, somethings up there." Darius' gaze went towards where he had just fallen from. 

More clicking was heard. Darius pointed towards the way Ben had most likely come from. Ben only nodded and Darius went to pick up the camera that he had momentarily let go of earlier. He turned around to Ben waiting for him. 

The two quickly ran the opposite direction of the mysterious clicking sounds.

The two steadied to a walk. The way they were going, trees were uprooted and fallen. They were broken. Splinters of wood was scattered as well as branches that had fallen off. 

"That was one of the worst storms I've ever seen," Ben mumbled, just loud enough for Darius to hear. 

Ben stopped in front of Darius. Worry still plastered on his face. 

"I'm so glad you're okay. You said you'd be back within two hours, Darius. I've been looking for you nearly all day," Ben complained.

He laid a hand on the youngers shoulder. "If anything had ever happened to you, I don't know what I would do with myself." 

Darius let out a steady breath and sat his own hand on top of Bens. A small reassurance that he was indeed, in front of Ben.

 "Hey, I'm okay. Nothings going to happen to me." 

Ben nodded with a small smile and retracted his hand. Ben looked down and notice something in his hand.

"You found something?"

Darius nodded as he looked at it. "I found it in the nest." 

Darius swore he could hear a hitched breath from Ben.

"I'm sorry, nest? Darius, what happened."

"Well, since were out of food I thought I'd go further into the jungle and search around there; we already got all the fruit near camp. I eventually found some up in a high tree, a huge gust of wind knocked me off."

Darius hesitated, "Next thing I know, I'm waking up in a nest surrounded by eggs. Whatever took  me there was making a weird clicking noise." 

Ben hummed in confusion. "So a click dinosaur dragged you to its nest, but didn't eat you?" 

Darius nodded confirming Bens question. "Yeah it was me and a monolophosaurus. It wasn't as luck as I was, though."  

"You think it kept you alive to feed you to its babies?"

"The only thing that'll explain why I'm alive." 

Ben nodded as he took a deep breath in. Not even a few seconds later he started coughing and taking a few steps away. Darius questioned the act.

"Jeez you smell terrible," Ben complained. 

"Do I smell?" 

Ben grinned sheepishly. 

Darius rolled his eyes, "I bet it'll go away soon so don't worry about that." 

Darius started walking his way past the debris. He quickly turned his way back towards the other boy. Just as they had reunited, Ben was walking off. Darius rolled his eyes with a smile as followed where the boy was crouching behind a fallen tree. 

Darius peeked over the tree copying his friend. They watched as dinosaurs ate the bugs that resided there. 

Ben smiled, "They know how to survive." 

Ben was about to get up before Darius out a hand on his shoulder. "Ben, I'm hungry but I'm not "eating bugs" hungry."

"We will go look for food, together this time." 

Darius smiled nervously.

"Let's head back to camp. We can that's all about and go look for more food." Ben says pointing towards the handheld device. 

Darius nodded he was about to stand up until he heard a screech. He saw Ben freeze. Darius grabbed Ben by the shoulders and pulled him down behind the fallen tree. Pterodactyl's, not either of their favorites. It went quiet. Darius took a glance towards Ben.

"You think we should run? It's quiet now," Ben whispered.

Darius shook his head, "No we need to see what's happening and if it's safe to go." 

Darius crawled his way towards he end of the tree. He took a peek from behind it and saw the sight of two pterodactyl's chowing down on one of the herbivores they were just looking at. Not even a mere second later two familiar Baryonyx's came rushing in. Darius quickly dived behind the tree once again. He and Ben pushed their selves against the tree to avoid being seen. 

The watched as the pterodactyl's flew away quickly while being chased by the Baryonyx's. Soon they were out of sight. 

He could hear Ben sigh in relief. 

"That's our queue to get back." 

The story will now start following the "Interactive" storyline. Although obviously slightly changed since it is only the two of them. I also don't want it to be repetitive if you have already played it. So I will change it as frequent as possible. I hope you enjoyed!

- OfficiallyDarius