Jurassic Girl

Chapter Five

We'd been walking for almost an hour now. I walked next to Zach, Gray a few steps ahead of us.
"You know," I suddenly say, "I'm glad you've dropped the bad boy act."
He looks at me with one eyebrow raised, "bad boy act?"
"You know what I mean" I laugh imitating his voice, "I don't care about anything and my little brother annoys me, act."
"He does annoy me," Zach laughs, "and I don't sound like that."
"Yes you do and he may annoy you, trust me, I know how siblings can be, but you love him," I say, "you tried to hide it, you probably thought it'd make you less cool."
He nods, "maybe. Just a little bit. Can you blame me though."
"No, not really," I say, "you think that the girls you like won't like you if they see you with him, don't even try to tell me I'm wrong, because I know I'm right."
He sighs, "you're right."
We both stop and I turn towards him, "well I'll tell you this, treating your brother like crap gives off the total opposite effect."
"Really," he asks.
I laugh, "yeah, there's probably nothing more attractive than a guy that's good with kids."
He raises a questioning eyebrow, "is that your opinion?"
"Well yes," I say, turning to walk again, "but there are plenty of girls who think so too. The girls that don't are the ones that you don't want to waste your time on."
I hear him start to walk again but he doesn't speak, so I continue on, "by what I've seen today, those are the types you go for."
"Are you jealous," he asks smugly.
I laugh shortly, "you wish Mitchell."
"Guys," Gray shouts from ahead of us, running forward.
Zach and I pick up our pace, following after him. Gray leans down and picks something up from the ground. As we get closer to him, I can hear him heavily breathing.
Zach grabs the object from his hands and I instantly see the blood. It's a Jurassic World workers hat, with a large hole in the top.
I look over to an area Gray was staring at and see a crashed Jurassic World cart. Zach sees it too and he looks at me nervously.
He places his hand on Gray, "stay here. Both of you."
"Like hell, I'm staying here," I snap at him.
Gray grabs onto Zach's arm as we all move towards the cart, together. I observe the cart, and then my eyes find the gray structure behind it. It's covered in vines, the doors are the only thing visible.
"Guys," I say, taking a few tentative steps towards the structure, "look."
Zach comes to stand next to me, looking at the building. I check to make sure Gray is with us and start towards the doors. We carefully climb the steps. The doors look like they've been shut for decades.
"Zach, help me with the doors," I tell him, pushing on one of them.
He goes up to the other and starts to push it open. I have to put my entire body weight into it before it creaks open along with Zach's.
"Wow," Zach breathes.
We walk into the structure, which has been taken over by the elements. There are bones everywhere, dinosaur bones. Zach picks one up, a large one, and dusts it off. He looks down at a banner on the ground and wipes some dirt off of it, leaning down to pick it up. It looks like part of the word, Jurassic.
He looks over at Gray, "you still have those matches?"
Gray reaches into his fanny pack and pulls out the small box, "here you go."
Zach wraps the banner around the bone and lights it, letting us see better in the dark building. I look around again, and realization strikes me.
"This is the original park," I whisper, "the original visitor center."
I look around in absolute wonder, "I can't believe it's still standing, after everything that happened."
I walk over to the walls, where countless murals were at. Zach and Gray follow me, the torch lighting our way. I drag my fingers across the wall, admiring them.
I stop at a raptor painting, one that looked remarkably similar to Delta. My heart aches suddenly reminded of Owen. He was out there, could this monster have gotten to him. There is no doubt in my mind that Owen can protect himself, but I know him, he will put himself in harm's way to help somebody.
"Mor!"
I jump, turning towards Zach, who was twenty feet ahead of me. I run to catch up with them, trying to push the thought of Owen away. We explore even more and end up in a garage.
Like everywhere else, everything is covered in plants. There are two jeeps parked by each other. Zach and I walk around to the front of the jeeps.
"1992. Jeep Wrangler Sahara. Sand beige," Gray says, coming to stand with us.
Zach looks over at Gray, and his eyes light up with an idea, "you remember when we fixed up grandpa's old Malibu, right?"
"Yeah," Gray answers.
"You want to help me fix one of these up," Zach asks.
Gray nods excitedly and I smile.
Zach opens up the hood of the least covered Jeep. I look over his shoulder at it, my eyes examining everything in sight.
"It's in good shape," I say, "for a car that's been sitting here for 22 years. The battery is probably long dead though, and the gas that's in it will probably only get us a few miles."
Zach looks over at me, his face only a few inches from mine, "how do you know so much about cars?"
"My dad taught my brother and me everything he knew from the moment we could walk," I answer, "my brother and I have fully taken apart my truck and rebuilt it at least ten times."
I take a step away from Zach, suddenly all to aware of our close proximity, "we need a charged battery."
"The cart," Gray says, "the front of it looked ok, maybe we can use the battery from that."
I nod, smiling, "good idea, why don't you and Zach go get it, I'll get this one out of here."
Zach shakes his head, "no, you're not staying here by yourself."
I give him a look, "I'll be fine Zach. Go."
"But-"
"I'm not helpless Zach," I scold him.
He reluctantly agrees, leading Gray back outside, leaving me alone.