Jack was standing on the other side of the stampede.
“I don’t need your help!” I yelled at him.
“Yes, you do! Just climb slowly from the other side of the Jeep and you will be fine!” Jack yelled back.
I crawled to the side of the Jeep and was able to climb out.
“I don’t have time for this!” Jack yelled. He turned his sword into the hoverboard and flew over the stampede and landed next to me.
“Get on!” Jack yelled at me.
“You steal my glory and my girl?” I asked him.
“Sure did,” Jack replied. I jumped on the hoverboard with him, and we flew over the stampede and made it back over to the other side, where Lindsay and Anna were waiting for us. Lindsay kissed Jack in greeting. Nope, never gonna get used to that.
We all turned to see the Jeep get crushed by a sauropod.
“Jeez. That was crazy,” Jack said. The four of us walked back to the visitor center where we stayed for a while. I felt weird every time I walked near or by Jack or Lindsay since they were together.
We made it a few days without any sort of injury. We decided to walk back in groups to and from the garden. I was partnered with Jack. We were assigned the task of retrieving okra and carrots for whatever Lindsay was cooking.
We walked for a while until we reached the garden.
“Jack. Get the okra. I’ll get some carrots,” I commanded.
“Okay. Got it,” he replied. It felt like it had been forever since we talked to each other. I grabbed a handful of carrots and Jack had a bunch of okra. We put it in a plastic Walmart bag and we started to walk back to the visitor center.
I still didn’t quite feel completely comfortable with Jack. We stood as far away from each other as the path allowed. He finally decided to speak up.
“Look, I’m sorry about the situation with Lindsay. I should have told you that I had feelings for her too, but we can’t let that stop us from being friends."
“Nice speech,” I snapped, on edge. “Did she help you write it?”
I guess that was Jack’s last straw. Rage washed over his features.
“If you’re going to keep acting like a three-year-old, maybe you should leave. Stay gone this time, why don’t you!”
I suppose my shock and pain registered on my face because regret twisted Jack’s expression.
“I didn’t mean that! I’m so sorry!” He stumbled over the words.
I just increased my pace, trying to look indifferent. “We should hurry. We need to get back before dinner."
“I didn’t mean to say that!” Jack yelled up to me. I was walking faster with every second. I left Jack in the dust and speed-walked with the food in the plastic bag hanging at my side, hitting my leg with every step I took. I ignored it. I had other, more important things to think about. I just wanted to be away from Jack for a while. Jack sprinted to catch up with me. We walked side by side, in silence, until we could see Lindsay waiting impatiently through the window of the visitor center.
“What took you so long?” She demanded, snatching the bag from my grasp. I glared at Jack, a silent warning not to say anything.
“Nothing,” he muttered quickly.
Lindsay glared suspiciously, but she started cooking.
“Did you know the stove in here works?” She rambled on about the cooking appliances as she concocted a meal. It was nice to have a distraction, so I listened intently as she went on about how the fridge even had food in it. Most of it, however, was past its expiration date. Only canned food wasn’t rotten.
“I guess this is the best we have," Lindsay said disappointedly.
“It’s fine. We'll find some good food later," I told her.
“I guess so,” Lindsay muttered. “The first thing I’m doing when I get home is baking cookies. It has been way too long since I’ve had something sweet,”
She was right. None of us had had any sugary food since we’d been here. Other than pizza, I guess. Does that count? Anyway, the lack of junk food showed. We were all in very good shape. I suppose running from dinosaurs and Alex contributed to that, too.
“Guys. Does anyone else see that?” Jack asked, interrupting my train of thought. We looked out the window and saw Scar standing right in front of the visitor center.
“Don’t move. I don’t think it can see you if you don’t move,” I whispered.
It reached its head into the broken front window of the visitor center. It pushed its head right into Jack. Jack tried not to move. He had the disk with the gem in his pocket. We watched as it slipped out, coming closer and closer to falling. Jack tried to shift his weight to keep it stable, but he couldn’t move much or Scar would see him. The four of us saw it fall out and gently slide across the floor. Scar turned his head to see what made the noise. Jack motioned for us to slowly back away. Scar turned back to us and started trying to crawl into the visitor center.
“Hey! Over here!” Jack yelled. I still don’t know why Jack did that. He was such an idiot.
“Jack! What the heck are you doing?!” I shouted at him. Bad move. Scar turned his head towards me and roared. The entire visitor center shook with the force of it. Lindsay and Anna ran outside.
“Kyle! Shoot it in the eye!” Jack yelled at me.
“What? Why?!” I yelled back.
“Just do it!”
I grabbed my bow and an arrow, one of four left in my quiver, and pulled back the string. Bullseye! The point of the arrow was driven straight into Scar’s eye. He squealed in pain and came crashing down, bringing the wall with him.
“Let’s go!” I shouted.
“Wait!” Jack was inching closer to Scar’s unconscious form.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
“It’s still alive!” Jack yelled.
“What?” As soon as I said that, Scar’s eye opened up. He snapped at Jack and barely missed Jack’s good leg.
“Told you he was still alive,” Jack said. “Fire again!” I shot Scar in the face again. Nothing.
Again. Nothing.
I only had one arrow left to kill Scar. I had never been tenser in my life. I shot my final arrow. It felt like time went into slow-motion. The arrow hit Scar’s other eye. Scar was blind.
“Kyle! I’m going in for the final blow!” Jack yelled.
“No! That’s stupid! You’re going to get yourself killed!” I yelled back. He didn’t respond.
Jack limped towards Scar and jumped. I don’t know how he was able to jump, but he did. He landed on Scar’s head and drove his sword into Scar’s skull. Scar roared for the last time. I got Lindsay and Anna, and they came inside. We all watched as Jack stood up and pulled his sword out of Scar’s head.
“Yeah!” Jack yelled.
“Scar’s dead. I can’t believe it," Anna said. We tried to push Scar’s dead body out of the visitor center, but we couldn’t. The body was too heavy. We slept next to a dead body all night and in the morning, it stunk really badly. We decided to leave because no one could take the smell anymore.
We made it back to where the old bunker was and rebuilt it underground so nothing could see it. We made a roof of a certain type of glass so we could see outside, but nothing could see inside.
“Finally we have a couch and beds again," Jack said. I was happy that we had beds and a couch again as well. On starry nights, we look up at the stars through the ceiling window. We were still being hunted by Alex, but he had nowhere to look.
There is a hand scanner on a tree that is connected to the bunker door. Only Jack, Lindsay, Anna, and I can get into the bunker. Alex found the scanner one day, but his hand didn’t work on the scanner. We all watched him get super mad and punch the scanner. He probably broke his hand doing that. It was hilarious.
After that, nothing really bad happened for a good while. It had been over a year and six months since we got onto the island. It was almost Christmas of 2022. Our second Christmas on the island. It snowed for a little bit, which was surprising because it was 60 degrees the other day. The snow was so thick that we had to push it off of the window. No matter how hard we tried, it came back onto the window. Eventually, we just gave up.
Jack and I had become kinda friends. We still weren’t great friends. I didn’t think we’d ever be great friends again, but we were making progress. We started talking to each other again. Lindsay was still weird around me. I guess she didn’t trust me as much since she knew how I felt. I still liked Lindsay though. I just had to get it through my head that she was with Jack, not me.
Around Christmas was always fun, even if you have been on an island for the past year and a half. We had a Christmas pine tree, decorations, basically anything Christmas. I remember waking up on the day before Christmas and realizing that we were still on the island.
It was really hard to find gifts on an island in the middle of nowhere for Jack, Lindsay, and Anna. I looked around at the old gift shop, seeing if anything there was worth lugging back to camp. Everything was either destroyed or dirty. Plus, it was super cold. It felt like the North Pole had moved to Isla Qanta. I’m talking about the 20s or 30s. It was cold as heck.
I kept looking around to see if there was anything good. Pretty much everything was trash.
Suddenly, Alex came walking up to me.
I felt as a glint of sunlight reflecting off of something fractured my sight. It was a sword. I was out of arrows, so I couldn’t fight back.
“What do you want?” I demanded, inching away from him.
“Just a little present for my cute little dinosaurs," Alex replied.
“What might that be?” I asked him.
“Fresh meat. Human meat. Maybe some Kyle meat,” he said, pretending to deliberate.
“No. Please don’t do this,” I told him.
“Too late for that!” Alex charged at me, but before he could slice my head open, Jack came out of nowhere and blocked the blow.
“Merry Christmas, Alex!” Jack yelled as he pushed him away from me.
“Jack. Some more Christmas presents for my pets,” Alex smiled maniacally. Jack and Alex squared off.
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