ᴡʜᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛᴀʀs ᴀʟɪɢɴ | ʙᴇɴ ᴘɪɴᴄᴜs x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

37. ᴛᴀᴋɪɴɢ ᴄᴏɴᴛʀᴏʟ

Reunions

[Caleb POV]

Angel and the baby brachiosaurus play with each other joyfully, and I smile at their happiness.

"Oh you like it out here!" Sammy exclaims and hugs Angel. "Yes, you do!"

"We'll never let you coop them up again." I say.

"Yep." Yaz agrees. "You're free to do what you want now. Which is apparently, eat every berry in sight."

Suddenly the baby brachiosaurus tackles Yasmina, and she falls to the ground with a groan. But then she still chuckles because of the cuteness.

Ben comes walking to us with sticks of berries in his arms. "Come on. We better get them to the cave."

The brachio tries to chomp up the berries, but Ben holds her away grudgingly. "It's probably the only safe place for them."

The baby brachio tackles Ben to the ground next, and he falls down with an irritated grunt, scattering the sticks

Angel and the brachio play with them, using the stick as tug-of-war. Yaz chuckles and Sammy hugs Angel.

"Guys, I better restock before we go." Ben says, pushing the baby brachiosaurus away as it tries to nudge him several times.

"Did you see that?" Sammy gushes. "It's so cute when Angel and the other one..."

"Ben, you gotta give her a name." I say

"Nuh-uh. If I don't name her, I won't get attached. Then it won't hurt so much when I have to leave her behind. Been there. Done that." he says sadly blinking away his tears.

I wish Y/N were here. She could always get through Ben when he was sad or mad or panicked.

"Oh, Ben." Sammy says sympathetically.

"If you ever want to talk about Bumpy, you know you just have to-" Yaz tries.

"There's nothing to talk about! She's there and I'm here. Just saying, you've been warned." He mutters forlornly. "I'm gonna go find more berries."

[Darius POV]

"What are the odds that every single fuse blows, opening all dinosaur pens the night before I need them?" Kash says angrily.

He glares at me meaningfully.

"Well, um, maybe they-"

Kash loses his temper. "I had a whole plan! The boss shows up, and is met by baby dinosaurs who do whatever he tells them to. And then, boom. He makes me his partner. Before he knows it, I..."

I raise my eyebrows. Backstab him, perhaps?

"Where the heck did those things go?!" Kash snarls.

"Maybe the Carnotaurus ate them?" I say.

"Yeah? And did he mop the floors after too? There was no trace of anything. We need to sweep the biomes."

"Wait!" I cut in. "Shouldn't we check down here first? I mean, it's not like baby dinosaurs can work an elevator."

Kash grunts and turns to a BRAD-X. "Check the entire underground facility."

They follow and clank away

"Where are the other new BRAD-Xs?" He asks another.

"The BRAD-X units are acclimatizing the new assets."

"We don't have time for that!" Kash yells. "Just put the new assets somewhere, and find the missing assets. Now!"

"Affirmative."