It felt like no matter what, whenever he got too comfortable with the way things were, and had accepted that this was his life, his new normal, that something would always come along to flip Kenji's world onto its head.

He started out as a little, just hanging out at home with his parents, knowing that they loved him as much as he loved them, to never seeing his father, and growing resentful and embarrassed of his mother. Then he knew exactly who he was, what he wanted from life and where he was going, only, suddenly, highschool hit and it turned out he didn't know shit. Adapting, growing to enjoy school, and friends, getting into videogames, living his absolute best life without a care in the world, then mom died, and he was for first time truly and utterly alone.

There was no normal, and not much seemed to matter after that one, not for a long, long time...

Then he'd come here, and it sucked, like really sucked, but he got used to it, and the camp and all it's inhabitants started to grow on him, like some sort of well meaning fungus, only, just when he'd started to really enjoy himself and wish the summer would never end, it did, in bloodshed. Then came the running, so much running, the fear, the constant threat of death, and finally the hotel. Ben had come back to them, somehow, like a miracle, or a wish granted by a genie, and then room 608, the cobbled together meals, the constant ach is his chest, the waiting, and finding reasons to laugh with his friends in spite of everything else, that became his new normal. It wasn't perfect, not by a longshot, but it was alright.

Now though? Now everything was different.

Everything had changed so quickly, and so fundamentally, that Kenji doubted if he could ever get used to the way things were. Sergeant Purdy had his men establish the hotel as their base of operations, while the kids huddled in the bedroom and cried, as all their hope and relief dissolved leaving them with nothing but the all too familiar pang of dread after having the business end of an automatic swept over them.

In that time the soldiers had secured from the sixth floor down, allocating rooms to the others amongst them, and did a fast and much more affective sweep for supplies than the kids had. Lastly, and most irritatingly, they had declared a curfew, and taken over the kitchen. Purdy would later scold them that evening about the waste, and their shortsighted use of available provisions. He then charted out set mealtimes. Whatever they made, whenever they made it, and the ex-military folks weren't much in the way of cooks, was all they got to eat.

It wasn't long after these rules were established that the soldiers had tried checking in on the campers. Only the promise of a medical treatment had earned them the sliver of trust the campers were ready to offer.

"Katie," to everyone's surprise didn't look like she belonged working with an ACU at all. Far from the tall burley warrior woman the children half expected she was petite, and her uniform seemed a poor fit for her frame. The woman's eyes were dark, almond shaped, and full of compassion, but her jet black hair slicked back into a tight braided bun spoke of a level of professionalism and control. When she murmured in low calming tones to the children it was the with slightest of accents, Korean, Kenji felt, but it was so light it could probably slip past most people without notice.

Once she had been granted entry Katie, darted about the room like a hummingbird, taking it all in before starting with Sammy, and working hard to get her fresh bleeding to stop, as an apologetic looking man with a bummed ankle named Howe stood guard. After the steady flow had stopped Katie used some antiseptic spray and a few strips of what looked like tape to seal Sammy's wounds, old and new, before giving her a quick eye exam with a penlight.

The medic spit out something about a concussion as though the taste was bitter on her tongue then instructed Sammy to go lie down.

"Ben, Ben's real bad!" Darius had called out to her, before Katie could evaluate anyone else.

Teeth grit against the discomfort Kenji scooted to one side, and tossed the blankets off the half dressed boy who lay unmoving. It worried Kenji how, more often than not Ben seemed to be sleeping or flat out unconscious. His heart thrumming against his battered ribcage Kenji refused to allow himself to go to the dark places he'd been living in since the monorail, at least, not until Katie gave him a reason to.

Half kneeling on the bed the woman pressed the hair flat on the back of Ben's scalp to examine Brooklynn's crude attempt at stitches. Her brow knit as she probed the area around them.

"What happened?" Katie asked as she continued to scrutinize the boy's body, lifting his shirt, and running a hand along his deeply bruised back.

"He fell." Darius swallowed hard.

"We were on the monorail when it got attacked by those flying things and one of them grabbed him and just-" Yasmina stopped mid-sentence eyes wide, she stared up at the man who had stepped from the door way to stand just inside the room. Her voice gone.

"It-it dropped him. We don't know from how high up. He uh- he talks really weird now." Brooklynn said looking between her friends, a blush rising in her cheeks as if embarrassed by pointing it out, but she pressed forward anyway. "Like a really bad stammer, and he can't move right, looks like a dancing spider, or a defective robot or something... And he sleeps, like all the time."

Watching her work with a grim expression, her jaw clenched it was Kenji who had whispered, "Is he going to be alright?"

Katie's gaze darted up to meet those of the young man, the hardness to her face softened, and he could see a gentle glow in her eyes. He wasn't sure why but, Kenji seemed to understand then, that she was a very, very good doctor, and she would do everything in her power to make sure that even if he wasn't now, Ben would be alright.

"I don't know." she whispered.

"What's wrong with him?" Sammy, who stood pensively at the end of the bed, against the medic's advice asked.

"Skull fracture, brain swelling, probably more. I need to check his pupil reflex, and get a look at that elbow. I don't like the way it's collecting fluid." she explained, fretting over the boy for a minute. "Matt, I need help rolling him. I'll stabilize his head and neck, if you do the heavy lifting."

"Yes ma'am," the man had murmured. "Happy to help."

Then, even though it wasn't his fault, and even though he was very clearly unarmed, the campers all tensed when the man's who name was stitched across his chest as M. Howe entered the room. He seemed to be keenly aware of their feelings and was mindful to take slow measured strides, even with his ankle, and speak in a calm even tone. He was treating them like wounded animals, Kenji had thought, and he wasn't far off.

"Ready when you are." he whispered.

Waiting with baited breath the campers watched as Katie gently took the sides of Ben's head in her hands, and gave a count down. "3, 2, 1, flip."

"Christ the smell!" Matthew Howe gagged immediately, when they'd gotten Ben up and over, working in tandem so that his head reminded in a stable potion.

Katie's eyes shot up to Howe in and instant, hard, and accusatory. Clearly she seemed to think that there was an unspoken agreement not to mention the infection, or the mess the young man had made on the bed, and was accutely disappointed that the soldier didn't seem to have gotten the memo. Kenji who hadn't complained about either felt his heart sink, and looking at his friends through misty eyes, he knew that they all felt similarly. They hadn't been talking about it, and if they just didn't talk about it, it couldn't possibly be real, or as bad as they all knew deep down, it was.

"Yes." Katie went on through tight lips. "He's going to need some very strong antibiotics."

It was after she had moved and manipulated Ben's swollen and discolored elbow, as the medic was palpating along his abdomen that the boys eyes began to flutter. Inching closer Kenji reached out to smooth a hand across Ben's hair as he woke up. His pulse racing, Kenji stomped out the embers of that little voice in the back of his mind that kept telling him, "This is it, he's not going to wake up this time." No, this wasn't it, he was going to be alright, Kenji firmly asserted to himself. Tears welling he battled against the hellish memory of his mom, laying down for a nap, on such a peaceful, innocent afternoon, never to wake again.

Ben's limbs started to jump about then, little moans of wakefulness gurgling up from deep in his chest. Before long Ben started slapping at the hands that accosted him as he came into himself.

"I've got 'im." Howe said helpfully, catching onto and pinning down the boys flailing arms.

A few moments later Ben was awake, and fighting with all his might.

"Ben, it's alright, calm down!" Kenji barked in frustration after taking a wild elbow to the eye. "Seriously, calm your shit down, she's a doctor she's trying to help!"

It didn't feel like what he, or any of the others were saying had any affect on Ben or his actions as he continued to swing and kick and wail.

"It's fine, it's fine, just let him go!" Katie said in a rush, pulling Howe away from the bed. "He's going to hurt himself worse acting like that, and I already know what I need. Just, let him go."

Ben cried in ragged sobs, as he scurried towards the edge of the bed.

"Whoa, Ben, careful!" Darius exclaimed racing to catch him as he flopped out of Kenji's reach and onto the floor.

There his head swiveled around, eyes vacant and glossed over from fever the shaking boy seemed to be looking for a way out, very much the wounded animal Howe seemed to perceive them as. Then, Ben, with limbs that jerked and jittered calmoured up and into the adjacent bed, crawling frantically to get away until he hit a wall, a wall made of the injured, and very alarmed Yasmina.

"It's ok, it's ok!" she whispered pulling him tight into her chest. From where Kenji lay he could see the anger flare in the girls eyes. "Just back the fuck off!" she snapped, fear tight in her throat as she looked at the man standing in shock at the center of the room. She whispered something to Ben who struggled against her for only a minute before falling into a mucus filled mess of tears, accepting her embrace.

"Shows over, move on!" Yaz bit out, still glaring at Howe, then wincing against the sudden impact of Bumpy's weight hitting, and then sliding back off of the bed, as she attempted to reach her human parent.

"Serge really wasn't lying." the man sighed turning away with a tired sort of disappointment, and aggravation. "They really did bring an asset in with them."

"Her names Bumpy!" the campers chorused as those who could maneuvered themselves into defensive positions around their hapless friend who was still awash with tears.

Howe looked at five very young, and very angry faces staring up at him before throwing his hands into the air in defeat, "Whatever, I don't think you'll need me in here Katie, so I'm going to go. Radio if you need backup."

Katie who stood with one arm held tight across her chest, while the hand of the other pressed firm against her chin as she stood deeply entranced in thought, didn't seem to hear him the first time.

"Katie?"

"Sure," she nodded, as if her brain had only now registered what he'd said. "I've got it from here."

Even after Matthew Howe took his leave, tension seemed to hang in the air for a long time, as they waited, staring up at Katie. "Look," she said after taking a deep breath. "It's clear that you kids have been through a hell of a lot. That, what happened just now, that was out of line, and I take full responsibility. I should have told Howe to stand down a lot sooner. It's just-" turning the woman found a chair and sat head in her hands for a long minute, as the quiet tears fell.

"I'm just so tired." she had said through a bitter smile. "I'm just so damn tired. We, I, have lost people already. You're all just so young. You shouldn't be here in this place, in this situation. Being a doctor is hard, being a doctor in a warzone? It's impossible. You care so much when all you want to do is fix someone, but at the same time you can't afford to care, because then if the worst happens? I just, wanted to get in and out. I didn't want to feel anything for you guys, I just-"

She gave a brief start when Darius crossed the room and put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's ok." he smiled, talking in that sad, too mature tone he got when he was thinking of his dad. "I understand. I think we all do, sometimes it's easier to push the hurt away than to get burned by it."

"Or pretend it isn't happening." Brooklynn added, chewing on the nail of her thumb and staring at her camera making Kenji wonder how much longer she could go cold turkey without filming, when the camera was just within reach.

"Yeah." Sammy who slowly sank to the floor holding her head muttered. "Ben's just, really confused and hurt right now, and we're just all on edge from almost getting shot. No big deal." Sarcasm, was not a good color on Sammy, but it was still very warrented, Kenji observed as the atmosphere slowly began to dissipate around them.

Brooklynn got Katie a glass of water from the sink in the bathroom, and after she'd drank it, the woman smiled and resumed her exams. Only, this time without the stiff formalities. She asked their names, their interests, what the first thing they were going to do when they got home was, and of course "Does it hurt when I do this?"

After being patched up, allotted a dose or two of various medications from pain relievers to antiinflammatories, and helping to change Kenji's bedding, Katie assured them that she'd be available at any time, day or night and moved on.

That first night the kids learned quite a bit about their new guardians. Kenji knew right away that they'd lost at least two men already, ACUs always moved in groups of ten, and that they were likely going to lose a third based on the way they talked about a "Lawrence," the guy Sammy had seen on the stretcher. He'd apparently had a run in with a raptor that went about as well as you'd expect.

Aside from him, Katie, gun-crazed Steele, the kind but very authoritarian Purdy, and Howe, there was also "cold" Colton Smith who couldn't be bothered with the campers, and Payton Napier a strong featured black woman who seemed forever at odds with Purdy and used the word "asset," in a way that made the kids angers flair.

Then, standing apart from the rest of his unit was Isaac Reed. He was a warm, affable man who seemed keen to talk to and even endear himself to the campers. First impressions being that he was an all around great guy, and everyone seemed to take an immediate liking to him. That was until the civilian survivors began to make their presence known in room 608, and the campers learned of his gleeful pension for telling "war stories."

"It was the damnedest thing," Isaac said enthusiastically, later that evening as he and a few others made themselves comfortable scattered about the camper's room. "We're wandering through Main Street, right, it's decimated, like rubble everywhere from a big throw down or something. I don't even wanna know what did it. Bodies everywhere, bloated, gray, sun rotted, and covered in maggots. You kids ever smell a dead body before?"

Brooklynn, who Darius was quick to wrap an arm around gave a shudder, "Yes." he bit out between his teeth.

The campers glowered at Reed, but the man either didn't pick up on the hint, or he just didn't want to, and continued his story.

"Anyways, we're all on guard, I keep checkin' my six, because we can hear it, this chirping, and chattering. I know compys when I hear them, and one or two ain't that bad, but this sounded like a whole God danged army of those little green fuckers!" Reed his blue-green eyes alight said, slapping his knees for affect as he leaned forward in the chair. No one seemed amused, but the children, feeling in someway trapped, cornered by him even, not everyone able to get up and leave the room, stayed quiet.

It was their room, they should have been able to tell him to leave, but could they? Certainly none of the plain-clothed adults who ambled in and out felt compelled to, and no one could forget the sidearm that rested with menace on his hip. Was that just how it was? Were they trapped in some sort of miliary dictatorship, where the tourists, the civilians, just had to keep their heads down and follow orders? Where they just had to take whatever the uniforms had in store for them?

Kenji cast a baleful glace to the blonde woman who had brought in the little boy who's dark complexion made him doubt any relation between them. It was spotting the child that had spurred this bout of storytelling from Reed, and Kenji hoped she'd want to protect the boy from whatever was about to come next. Instead she quickly averted her eyes, and said nothing in reproach to the soldier. Choosing to ignore the situation entirely the woman tended to the toddler she cradled in a way that made Kenji the little girl might have actually been hers.

"So we turn this corner and there he is, little man, hauling ass just as fast as his skinny legs can carry him, a whole mess of compys on his tail!" Reed grinned, earning a sad coo from Sammy who moved towards the little boy.

"Only, they weren't after him, no. He'd been wearing one of those, child leashes, you know harness backpack and all? What the compys were really after was the severed arm dragging on the other end of the leash!" the man laughed, dangling his own appendage in the air for added affect.

Cries of shock and disgust tore from the children who gaped in terror at the man.

"That's it!" Sammy snapped, scooping the wide eyed little boy up off the floor and hugging him tight. "Get out, we don't want to hear any more, just leave!"

The others shouted irately, gesturing towards the door, as the man, who's face fell in the same way Kenji recognized as the unpopular kid being rejected from yet another peer group, stood hands up in a placating manner.

"I'm sorry." Reed said lamely. "Really, I am. Just trying to talk is all. Thought we could be friends."

"Well we don't want to hear about that shit!" Kenji shouted, flinging a pillow at the man as he retreated, regretting it immediately, and not just because of the pain, that had been the good pillow.

"Sorry." the man said again, head low on his shoulders, brow furrowed, he seemed utterly perplexed as to how his attempts at bonding with the campers could have so badly missed it's mark.

The room itself felt sick, flooded by a nauseating plume of disgust and fear. Were they all like that? The question rolled around the atmosphere, running a fearful circuit through their already frenzied brains. Surely not Katie, but the grotesque, macabre fascination had twinkled so keenly in Reed's gaze, that it left the kids with the stark impression that if any of them were to die, particularly in a gruesome way, that they would be just one more tale for the man to tell.

Sammy wiped at her tears before taking the boy, who according to the adults, hadn't spoken a word since they'd found him into the bunk room. There she settled with him on the bottom bunk to watch cartoons. The blonde with the toddler joined them shortly after.

"So he's a fucking psycho!" Kenji observed, before motioning to the pillow and pressing his palms together, eyes big and pleading towards the boy he'd taken under his wing.

"Yeah, no doubt." Darius agreed in a sharp tone as he fetched the downy projectile weapon and returned it to it's owner.

Brooklynn sat, pale faced for a long minute before scurrying to the bathroom, and in the silence that had fallen over the room, the others could hear her wretching, and crying. Darius jabbed a thumb towards the bathroom in silent explanation, then got up to see if she needed anything.

"I don't trust any of them." Yasmina commented between her teeth.

"To be fair, trust isn't exactly your thing." Kenji goaded her without meaning to. His heart was still racing in a panic, he just needed something to distract himself with, and his stupid brain chose to poke the bear.

"No, it sure as fuck is not!" Yasmina shouted, hot, angry tears trekking down the sides of her face.

"Do you trust anyone?" Kenji feeling heated, called back, though he knew his anger did not stem from Yaz, but rather his overwhelming sense of helplessness.

"No!" was her knee jerk reaction. Though, eyes fluttering against her pain, jaw clenched tight, she reconsidered her words and muttered a scornful. "Well, I trust you guys, or at least some of you."

Kenji felt hurt at the comment, wounded personally, as he looked at the Texan through the doorway as she tried to comfort a little boy who had absolutely no one else to turn to. Sammy was his friend, Yaz was too, but she was wrong, and needed to be called out on it.

"You've got to get over the stupid phone thing." he said with bitterness. "Seriously, there's a hell of a lot more going on right now than that."

"She lied to me." Yasmina spit back.

"So?" Kenji asked, amazed by how juvenile she could be. At least when he wasn't talking to Darius he'd thought someone had died.

"Brooklynn lied too, about a lot." Kenji said then, rolling his eyes. "Darius is always pretending to be fine, that's a kind of lie. I said I liked your shitty taste in music back at the Tree House. I don't think Ben's physically capable of lying, but I'm pretty sure Bumpy's the evil mastermind behind all this, so what makes Sammy's lie so different?"

"It just is, ok?" was all she'd give him before her arms crossed, the walls went up, and all conversation dwindled down to nothing.

"...That Reed guys pretty fucked up, huh." Kenji whispered in a remorseful tone to the ceiling. He should have apologized for constantly antagonizing her, the boy was aware, but he couldn't seem to find the words.

"Yeah," Yasmina rasped, brushing away her tears. "He really... really is."

Over the course of the next few days things had gotten steadily worse. With the grunts with guns calling all of the shots, a lockdown had been put in place after a man named Pete had gotten into an "altercation," with one of the ACU when he'd tried to leave his room after curfew. It, like the curfew before it, was for their own good, for their protection, the armed men and women assured them, but somehow the fact that the ACU could come and go whenever they pleased but the kids could not didn't leave them feeling any safer, only more vulnerable.

Without warning, room 608 had gone from their oasis in this uninhabitable wasteland to their prison cell. It wasn't long before tensions rose, and though they very seldom left to room before, the simple fact that they couldn't leave it now, even if they wanted to, saw the children at odds with each other. Bickering and fighting broke out over the littlest things, ranging from what to watch, to missing clothes, or spots stolen on a bed or couch when someone had gotten up. All the while the ominous question of "if" they would ever get off this island became more, and more relevant than "when."

Then, there was Ben.

Katie had made multiple pleas and appeals to Sergeant Purdy to allow her and a couple men from their unit to make a supply run. It wasn't just Ben, who needed the help, she had been sure to remind him, but Luis Purdy would always refer back to the fractured face of his damaged tablet, and disregard her fervent requests, sighting the risks as "too great." Commanding her to make do with what she had, Purdy always promised that he would get back to her later.

The truth was, no one felt sure Ben could hold on until later.

He was declining rapidly, to the point where whenever Yasmina did finally allow herself to sleep it was with her hand on his chest, just to feel him breathing. Kenji watched with a longing that was one part wistful daydream, one part anxious desire. He envied Yasmina, that she had been the one Ben had run to when he was frightened, and in pain, and it hurt Kenji even more to watch him deteriorate from afar when all he wanted to do was hold him.

He was his.

No.

No, he wasn't.

If laying in bed for days on end was good for anything other than mending ribs, and driving yourself crazy, it was good for self reflection, and getting to the core of who you really were. And Kenji, was one selfish, entitled prick.

Laying there, watching Ben sleep the young man realized just how hard it was for him to see something he wanted, without thinking of it as already belonging to him. That, apparently, included who he wanted too.

It wasn't entirely his fault either, he supposed.

It was difficult when the memories of a loving father and formative years spent in an actual family began to fade, replaced instead by an influx of shiney new toys and gadgets. It was his mother who had tried to reassure a young Kenji by telling him that, that was just how his father was showing his love. Kenji had believed her. Yes, he'd thought, it made total sense, things, material possessions, being gifted the very thing his heart desired, even before his heart had desired it, that was love.

Stuff.

His whole life, his whole concept of who he was had been built upon a heap of useless stuff.

Who was he, if not measured by what he owned?

Nothing.

That was it, Kenji was nothing...

Yet, he had to have all the junk, not just to keep people from seeing what he wasn't, but because buried deep in the back of his mind he could still hear that voice saying, "this is love."

Stuff was love.

Not time spent with his mother, not learning about his heritage or culture, and certainly not the meals she had made for him by hand.

Just stuff.

Besides, that was how dad said "I love you," and unlike his mother Kenji couldn't remember ever hearing the man speak those words aloud, not either one of them, at least, not until after his mom was dead. Then all his father could talk about was how much he'd loved her before the taboo of silence fell over the topic of Meiko's existence, like a final shroud.

Only, at some point Kenji grew up, and without his mother there was no one to protect him from the truth. The gifts, especially the ones he didn't ask for, weren't a display of affection at all. They were a payoff to give his dad space, and stay out of his way, payoffs meant to keep Kenji docile and compliant.

For fuck's sake, Kenji thought as he turned decidedly away from the grim sight of his dying friend and drifted towards sleep, he was so, very lonely...

Kenji woke lazily in bed, his bed, warm sunlight drifting in past the curtains. Relishing the thick bedding the young man rolled away from the window and towards the door. Was it a weekend, or did he have school? He wondered hazily, eyes raking over his PC and consoles with idle indecision. With so many choices at hand, it was downright overwhelming. In the end, most days he wound up doing nothing productive or entertaining at all, just mindlessly, and endlessly scrolling on his phone to kill the time.

He'd taking up model building lately, planes, and cars, the later being his favorite. Perhaps he should give that another shot, he mused. Taking in all there was to see Kenji couldn't help but feel that something was wrong, though, he couldn't quite name what, or why. Dismissing the nagging feeling that prickled along the back of his neck, he got up, and no sooner had he given thought to dressing, then, he was.

After that Kenji did all the usual weekend shit, played, lounged, ate, and before he knew it, he blinked and it was nighttime again. It was as he was debating on what to do next when he turned to find his dad standing expectantly in the doorway of his room. Kenji allowed his eyes to drink in the expression on the man's face, he was smiling, at him. There was no denying it, his dad was smiling at him, and it wasn't the champagne bubbles grin he wore to parties, it was genuine.

His heart feeling ready to burst, Kenji wasn't sure what he'd done to earn it and rushed over the see what he wanted, "'Sup dad?" he asked excitedly.

"The troupe," his dad grinned flashing twin tickets at him. "I got two tickets to Cirque du Soleil, interested."

Enthusiastically Kenji started to pull his shirt over his head, "I'll be ready in five!"

Dressing, the car ride, finding their seats, everything seemed to happen without happening at all. Before Kenji knew it, he was sitting in the best seats in the house, staring up at the acrobats who danced and spun, suspended high above the crowds on sheets of red silk in an aerial ballet. His breath was stolen right out of his lungs by their immeasurable grace and beauty.

Not long after however, Kenji found himself staring at the way his dad's hand lay across the armrest that divided them. He still wore his wedding band, Kenji observed, but his thoughts were elsewhere. All he'd wanted since he was a little boy, was just once, to hold his father's hand, and not have his attempts swatted away as if he we a gnat or fly. Kenji had always felt so safe, and so loved holding his mother's hand, even when he'd grown old enough to be embarrassed by it. He wished he could feel that way with his dad too. It was silly, he thought shaking his head.

Turning his face back towards the sky, he gave his full attention to the tumbling, and twisting visions who danced as if on angel wings above him. They twirled and spun, their silks intertwining with one another, or entangling a limb only to send them spiraling elegantly away the next moment. Kenji was enraptured by the way such strength and dexterity could be so easily disguised as effortless, fluid movement, marveling and awed as the troupe swug out from the stage over the audience.

Kenji's eyes delighted at the spectacle and he turned to thank his father for bringing him, but he found, alarmingly, that the seat beside him was empty.

Oh, he thought, crestfallen by the revelation, that was right, dad didn't have the time for him. Kenji felt the prickling sensation of alarm creeping over the back of his neck again. Vague memories of the night slowly trickled into his mind. He could, only just remember the acrobatics show. Dad hadn't brought him there, he'd sent him, alone. Despondent Kenji had spent much of the night on his phone.

Kenji resolved not to make the same mistake twice, and not to waste such a display of elegance and poise by allowing his sour mood to spoil things. Instead of digging into his pocket for his cell he turned back to the daring act, and settled back into his chair.

Still, the fact that he'd been sent here, sent away nagged at him. He couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right, then, a coldness began to creep up his spine.

As he watched, the dancers slow, swinging movements, began to become more jarring and erratic. Their ballet began to feel lost in a bout of jagged kicks and flailing. They weren't reaching for each other with loving tender embraces anymore, but great clawing hands as they tried desperately to cling together.

Unnerved by the way they swung and undulating overhead, their backs bending and contorting in unnatural ways Kneji felt a breath of ice wash over him. He knew then, without looking that he was entirely alone in that auditorium. He wanted to turn away, to stop watching the disgusting, twisted display but he couldn't. He was transfixed by their dancing, and hypnotized by their unearthly, unholy movements.

Then as Kenji stared he realized they were reaching for him, desperately, the dancers, they were trying to grab onto him, their fingers caked in blood coming so close. His heart hammering, Kenji wanted to scream, but found he had no voice as the dancers continued to try and ensnare him.

Only, they weren't dancers, they were his friends.

Eyes wide and frightened they were screaming, clawing to get away, and escape. Their limbs caught and entangled they cried to him for help. Kenji sat petrified, unable to move, unable get them down, unable to do anything but sit there and watch. Then he realized that they weren't being kept aloft by long silk sheets. No, they dangling from the gory red of their own unspooling intestines, ropes of sinewy flesh binding their movement, and wrapping about their throats. Warm and wet with their blood as it rained down in him Kenji looked up and saw that they were each suspended from the putrid, ragged, maw of Indominus Rex.

Waking, in reality, Kenji gasped for air, and gulped down the acidic burn of backwash. Covered in a cold sweat and shaking with terror he surveyed his surroundings and found himself, and his friends, exactly where he had left them, room 608, hell.

Allowing his head to fall back onto his pillow Kenji closed his eyes and attempted to slow his breathing.

"You alright?" Yasmina asked from where she stood, trying to somehow stretch usefulness back into her leg.

"Fine!" Kenji snapped, pawing at the perpetration that leaked from his eyes. Guiltily, as he remembered the way her large brown eyes had stared at him so sure of her own death, in his nightmare, he muttered. "Bad dream."

"I'm sorry." she replied hoarsely, hobbling up towards the head of the bed. She stared at a loss for a moment, unsure of what to do, then gave his hand a little squeeze. "Closet thing to a hug your gonna get, ya asshole." she smiled.

"Like I'd wanna hug a shithead like you!" Kenji called back, the friends smiled in bitter understanding of one another before the athlete left to resume her exercises.

Kenji wasn't sure how, or why their love language had devolved into cussing at each other, but he was glad it did. He was grateful for a friend like her. For all of them, actually, he thought turning to look at his family of friends.

Brooklynn sat on the bottom bunk hamming it up for Chase, the little boy who they'd named after the police pup on his shirt, trying to make him laugh as they watched cartoons. She and Sammy had taken a real shine to the little boy, the honorary seventh camper, they all tried to make him feel at home whenever he was allowed to visit them. Ben, was sleeping, someone had heaved Bumpy onto the bed, and the baby ankylosaurus had nestled up to his chest. Kenji stared hard for a long minute, just to be sure he was still breathing.

Kenji wasn't sure what he would do if Ben died. It would have been better if he'd never come back, he thought then, better if the fall from the monorail had killed him. His heart squeezed at the thought. At least then he wouldn't have suffered, and, selfishly, neither would they.

A small thud caught Kenji's attention, and he turned to see Darius who'd been on the top bunk, disembark and walk towards the bathroom. He opened the door and was met with an immediate scream and swearing. He'd found Sammy.

Stammering out apologies Darius quickly closed the door and turned to run, only he didn't have anywhere to run to. Trapped like an animal in a cage he paced in the little area between the bunk room and the bathroom, teeth clenched, hands in fists. With no other options available to him he dove head first under Kenji's bed and there he screamed, and kicked his feet, and punched the carpet. He was reaching his breaking point, they all were. They needed to get out of there.

It was just before lunchtime when Katie appeared. She did her usual check-up, then handed out meds, and the candies she'd squirreled away from other rooms, telling them to hide the wrappers and make it last. She seemed deeply troubled, and hesitant for a while, but finally she told the children what was on her mind.

"The way between the hotel and the hospital is clear now." she said without being able to look any of them in the eye.

"Hospital?" Darius asked, sitting cross legged on the the floor.

"Yeah I don't remember seeing any hospitals on the map." Sammy added, most of the uncomfortable air about the two of them forgotten, though junior still seemed prone to blushing whenever she talked to him.

"It wouldn't have been," Katie admitted. "Bad for PR, but mistakes, accidents, happen at Jurassic World all the time, and not just with tourists, but handlers and staff too. When accidents of a certain caliber take place time is of the essence."

"Huh," Brooklynn intoned. "Now we're getting an actual behind the scenes look, not so pretty after all."

"No, not pretty, but it's the only place on earth you'd find dilophosaurus anti-venom. It's where my unit was headed when we got ambushed. We figured it was the safest, best stocked, and most secured place we could reach." the medic explained.

"What about getting rescued?" Kenji asked with a healthy amount of skepticism. "Shouldn't you have been trying to get a chopper or catch a boat?"

"We did. The hospital was our fallback plan, only now we can't all get there, anymore." Katie murmured.

"So, why are you telling us all of this?" Darius asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"Because Sergeant Purdy decided that there was going to be a supply run, to get medicine, see if we can get out a message, and the like." Katie pressed her lips together, an overwhelming weight coming to her tone as she spoke the following words, "And Purdy says if you're old enough to carry a gun, you should consider yourself drafted..."

The room was still, no one even dared to breathe.

"There a meeting in base of operations, 605, in a few minutes. Darius, Brooklynn, Sammy, he wants to see you all there..." Katie swallowed hard, and turned to leave.

"Drafted?" Darius was the first one to try out the new word.

"What the heck does that mean?" Brooklynn scoffed, though her face was already paled by anxiety.

"So he thinks he can just come in here, take our hotel, tell us what we can and can't do, and then that he can just march us off to war like good little soldiers?" Yasmina bellowed, red faced and angry.

"The very nnn-nnn history o-of coloniza-ation." Ben murmured into his pillow.

In an instant everything else was put on hold for one blessed moment. Ben was awake.

He was disoriented, and not very self aware, but he was happy, and he smiled at his friends. Like all the times before Ben looked around himself with bewilderment, claiming no or only foggy memory of what had happened between this, and the last time he was up. Darius helped him sit, and then when he was ready, to the bathroom. Meanwhile Sammy replaced the dirty towels he'd been laying on, and Brooklynn got him some water.

"C-cute." Ben said appraising the new shirt he'd been changed into the night before, when he'd gotten back into bed.

"I picked it!" Kenji beamed proudly as Ben took in the black tee with a bold red pentagram on the front, and tour listings for metal bands on the back.

"Th-thanks I nnn-nnn hate it!"

"I knew you'd say that!" Kenji laughed.

"Darius said nnn-nnn we're unnn-der mar-mar-martial law or something?" Ben inquired.

"Yep, crazy guys with guns. Locked up in here tight." Brooklynn nodded before turning towards the door to shout, "Steel toed assholes!" in a bright showy manner, earning the faintest of smiles from Ben.

"How do you feel?" Sammy asked.

"Bad." Ben whispered, the color draining back out of him again. "R-really bad."

"Wh-here's Bumpy?"

The little animal belted in response, contenting him.

"You know you snore right?" Yasmina grinned down at the boy who nursed his water, trying to keep him up and talking.

"Do nnn-not." Ben, his gaze distant as though he was only half there replied.

"You so do." Kenji was quick to add.

"Ye-yeah nnn-nnn, and you nnn-nnn nnn drool!" Ben laughed then, eyes closed he listed backwards and everyone thought he would fall, but Darius steadied him, and helped Ben lie back down. "Y-your, your dino-dinosaur name would nnn-nnn be Drooly..." Ben mused, his last thought a happy one as he drifted back into his realm of eversleep.

"Right or wrong of them to force it on us we have to do it." Darius declared, his face hardset with determination.

"Yeah," Brooklynn agreed, "for Ben."

Kenji and Yasmina looked to one another, feeling useless beyond words. They were unable to help themselves, let alone anyone else. Katie assured them that if they just rested and took it easy they'd be up in no time, but no time was none too soon.

Waiting was probably the worst, Kenji thought. Not just waiting for rescue, but waiting to hear if his friends were going to be alright. He wished he could go, thought frantically about lying, saying that he was fine. Seriously, load him up, he'd march to whatever fife you played just so long as he could do something to help. Katie would know, he admitted to himself, besides, if he wound up the reason someone else died? Well there'd be no living with himself afterwards.

"You think they'll be alright?" he asked Yaz after a while.

"I don't know." her voice warbled, lancing Kenji through the heart. He'd wanted her to snap at him, if she yelled at him it meant things would be fine, but this teetering on the verge of tears. He was chilled by how real, and how frightening things had gotten.

"I mean, yeah, sure they'll be fine!" Kenji scoffed putting on a brave face. "Darius knows more about dinosaurs than anyone else I'd wager. Sammy well, is there anything a cowgirl can't do? And Brooklynn... She could probably scare anything away with that voiceover act she does!"

"Yeah." Yasmina nodded, rolling away.

The arrival of their friends back into the hotel room was heralded by a slamming door and heated shouting. Sammy walked into the bedroom as if she were literally stepping on eggshells, before spotting and rushing to Kenji's bed. There she dove beneath the covers.

"Hide me." she whispered when Kenji lifted the blankets to look at her.

"What happened?" Kenji whispered back, while the other two railed on in the room with the sofa.

"Well, I know how to handle a gun, used to go camping with my dad and cousins, remember." she shrugged as if "camping," and "hunting" were two interchangeable words. "Not a lot of the others seemed to confident or familiar when Purdy asked, so I volunteered to be in the away party."

"You volunteered?" Kenji gasped incredulously.

"What?" Yasmina yelled from across the room. "She what?"

"She wants to play hero!" Kenji snarked. "So she volunteered for the suicide mission!"

"Well that's fine, just fine, if she wants to throw her life away, she can't expect any of us to be sad when she's dead!" Yaz screamed, sending the stuff on her nightstand flying.

"It's not like I had much of a choice!" Sammy barked, sitting up, her hair a staticy mess from the blankets.

"Like hell you didn't!" Darius shouted, his head bobbing into view from the other end of the doorway, before bobbing back out again. "You're not going!" he was shouting.

"I have to!" Brooklynn shrieked back.

"You're not going! I'll go!" Darius insisted, following the pink haired girl as she shoved past him.

"You're not listening to me, Darius, I don't want to go, I have to go!" Brooklynn exclaimed making a circular motion over her stomach.

Period crap. Kenji thought.

"Really? Just suck it up and hold it in, none of the other girls are complaining about their periods!" he shouted.

The way everyone turned and looked at Kenji with a blend of disbelief and outrage told the young man that he'd missed some vital information.

Her eyes squinting at Kenji with distaste Brooklynn snatched Darius by the hand and hauled him into the bunk room, closing the door firmly behind them. Tension and tempers flared behind that door as Brooklynn and Darius went at it in as much privacy as they got these days.

Kenji could hear the girl whisper tersely, "If I don't get this thing taken care of soon, I'm going to be no better off than Ben!"

"But I- I could bring the stuff back for you, you could take care of it here!" Darius argued.

"Please, it hurts, so much Darius, I have to go. I have to do what I can to fix this. I don't want to die!" the girl sobbed, and even though he wasn't exactly trying to eavesdrop Kenji felt dirty for being able to hear what was being said anyways.

The door opened, a fuming Darius stormed out and into the living room, where it sounded like he flung himself to the sofa. Brooklynn sat sorrowfully on the bottom bunk, her soft green eyes bloodshot, as she picked loose threads from the blanket. The afternoon passed in uncomfortable silence the looming departure of the supply run then next morning hanging like thunderheads over the campers.

Things had only just come to a tense, but bearable truce that night as they watched TV.

It was only a panicked "Oh God!" from Yasmina that broke the hush.

Hearts racing everyone turned to see Yaz pulling Ben in tight as he started to convulse on the bed.

"Oh God, oh God, what do I do?" she screamed holding him to her chest in an effort to stop him from hurting himself.

Darius was on his feet, running towards the door in an instant, screaming wildly for Katie.

"Ben, no Ben!" Sammy wailed, standing at the end of the bed, for the first time it didn't seem like she had an answer, and instead sunk to the floor in a puddle of tears

"Is that a seizure?" Kenji heard his own voice pinched high from fear. "Guys don't fuck around with me, is Ben having a seizure?"

No one answered him, everything was happening too fast.

Katie was there, Darius and a uniform on her heels.

"Ben?" the medic called her tone worried, but distracted as she started a timer on her watch. "Ben it's alright, we're here. Can you hear me?" she asked then, trying to get to him.

Turning away from the scene Kenji buried his face in the pillows and cried. This was really it. Ben was going to die. He didn't want to see it happen.

He didn't want to watch him die!

It was as he screamed and begged to be anywhere else that he felt someone clamor onto his legs. Lifting his downy armor he saw Brooklynn staring up at him awash with tears, Bumpy, somehow wrapped in her oddly angled arms.

Reaching down Kenji clutched the back of her shirt with a fist that quavered and hugged her tightly into his stomach.

He didn't want to be here.

He didn't want to see it.

Ben was dying.

Kenji cried...