Chapter Text
Everyone was chanting Ben’s name as he saved the campers, this is the first time he’s felt useful for many people. Nothing could ruin this feeling until the glass shattered next to him, followed by the Pterodactyl’s huge claws. The pieces of sharp glass scratched Ben’s face before he was snatched by the big claws dragging him to the air until he was stopped by Darius’ hand. Screaming in fear while he saw Darius struggling to hold on, which is pretty obvious considering it’s a kid against a flying dinosaur, but still he was able to grab Ben as the creature dropped him, hurting his ribs as he hit the monorail and scrapping his knees.
“Darius!” he cried “Darius! Darius no!”
“hold on!” Darius yelled back.
He could see the tears clearly on Ben’s face, making him panic as he grabbed his hand tightly, but it wasn’t enough. Ben’s hand was slipping just as Darius’ body. The speed of the monorail made him unbalance, as the Pterodactyl tried to get Ben back, scratching his back. Ben let a cry of pain and started to let go of Darius, but Darius just hold onto his hand tighter. Suddenly the Dinosaur tried to get Darius too, the smart thing to do was to let go off Ben and take cover while he was still on the monorail, but he knew he wasn’t capable of doing that.
“Ben! You gotta help me here!” Darius yells as he sees Ben’s eyes starts to fade.
The creature hit Darius’ head making him fall forward while another one snatches Ben away from his hands. Next thing he sees are the trees as the other pterodactyls miss his fall. He screams as he falls into the branches, scrapping all of his body until he hits a big branch knocking the air out of his lungs seconds before he hits the ground and looses consciousness.
Ben on the other side, was dragged by the dinosaurs, claws on his arms and legs as they fight for him. Using his only energy left he kicked one of them in the face and the other one let go off him, next thing he knew his body was about to hit the ground pretty hard.
He was awaken by something wet on his face, making him open his blurry vision. He slowly opened his eyes to a smaller dinosaur and a very bright light. He immediately feels the pain build up from his body, everything hurts. He pushes the dinosaur back and painfully pushes himself up, failing at first but being successful in the next try. With trembling shoulders he was able to sit up and realize that the tongue who had awakened him was his dino friend.
“Bumpy!” He cheered “Oh Bumpy! you’re okay!”
Bumpy shrieked as she gets closer to Ben, who painfully hugged her. Ben grunts as Bumpy touches him a little too hard in his ribs. He proceeds to check himself out.
“It can’t be that bad” He whispers.
His head hurts, he figured it was a concussion for the fall, only that could explain his nausea. Then he checked his arms, full of bruises and cuts. His knees were scrapped surrounded by dry blood. Then he felt his face, he had scrapes and cuts, but there was one big cut in his forehead, he could feel through his hair. He took a breath and that seemed to even cause dizziness.
“it’s okay… it’s gonna be okay.. I just have to find- Darius!” He gasped.
He stood up slowly with Bumpy’s help. His whole body felt like a building falling apart, but he started walking around. Looking, gazing hard through the long grass and tall trees to find some sign of Darius. He knows he fell too, he couldn’t be too far from him.
“Darius! Darius where are you?!” he carefully hissed.
No sign of Darius, or anyone else really. Everyone was probably out of the island except for him and Darius, they must think they’re dead. After a while, Ben’s nausea made a violent appearance making him sit down for a while as he rested his head on a trunk. Hugging himself, full of fear he closed his eyes for a bit, trying to not lose his mind. His thoughts were interrupted by a scream, and he recognized that voice as soon as he heard it.
“Darius!” he yelled.
He gets up and tries to run which is painful but possible. Bumpy follows him shrieking along. They both follow another scream, he is near.
“Darius! talk to me!” Ben cries “Where are you?”
Ben keeps running, Darius’ voice is closer every step. Finally he finds the boy, sitting while he hugs his knee, tears on his face next to his scratches. Darius’ eyes light up when they see Ben, but Ben just freezes. He has never seen Darius like this, he looked so scared, in pain, so defenseless. Bumpy goes to Darius waking Ben from his state and kneels next to the boy.
“Ben!” Darius cries.
“What happened?” Ben asks worried.
“M-my knee” Darius whimpers.
“Let me see…”
Darius uncovers his knee to reveal a clear dislocation, which makes Ben’s nausea wants to come back, but this time bring the fainting too.
He took a deep breath and controlled himself, this isn’t about him, Darius needs him right now.
“Oh…” he whispers unsteadily. “Darius we… we have to relocate it”
“I know!” Darius says in a panicked voice “but I can’t!”
“I’ll do it.” Ben determined said.
“what?!” Darius snaps.
“Trust me, I’ve memorized first aid treatment in case someone did my treatment wrong in a hospital if I ever went” Ben says.
“But you’ve never relocate a BONE right?” Darius asks concerned.
“How hard can it be? this is clearly a kneecap dislocation” Ben says. “Now take a breath”
Ben carefully grabs Darius’ leg and tries to extend it, he jumps when Darius screams out of pain, but rapidly covers it with his hand.
“Darius!” he hisses “Please cover your mouth.. we don’t know what kind of things are out here”
Bumpy is also stressed about the situation, she goes to Darius and cuddles next to him while he tries to hold her with his free hand. Ben puts his hand on Darius’ knee with pressure, and the next thing he sees is the kneecap bone go back into place. They both take a shaky breath and chuckle until Ben passes out.
“Ben?…” Darius asks “I guess it was coming..”
Darius drags himself to have Ben next to him. Having him close in case something happens, he doesn’t know what he would do but it was better this way. Having him this close helped him see Ben’s own injuries, besides being dirty his skin was covered in bruises and scratches. He could see dry blood on the back of his shirt, and his legs. He carefully move Ben’s face towards him to see him clearly, and his porcelain skin had been covered by small and big glass cuts, he could even see some pieces still there. They needed to clean up the wounds. Darius tries to wake Ben up as the sun goes down.
“Ben!” he whispers “Ben wake up!”
He shakes Ben carefully until the boy starts to grunt.
“What..?” he whispers.
Until he finally awakens and snaps his eyes open as he quickly sits up and starts hyperventilating.
“hey hey! it’s okay! just me” Darius reassures.
“ah.. Darius..” Ben sighs.
“It’s getting dark..” Darius says with a shaky voice.
“Oh no… we have to leave! find shelter! find something! We-we have to-“ Ben stops his rambling when he sees a defeated Darius looking down at his knee “Oh.. yeah..”
“You can go Ben…” Darius says.
“What? no.” Ben replies with a hand on his shoulder “We’ll do this together.”
Darius smiles shyly. He couldn’t imagine being alone in this jungle, especially injured, he feels so defenseless, so useless. Ben gets closer to Darius and they both touch each other’s shoulders while Bumpy makes herself comfortable on Ben’s lap. They both chuckle.
“You can sleep, I’ll be.. watching?” Ben suggests.
Darius knows there’s no point of watching, they’ll get eaten, they can’t run… well, he can’t run… he’ll get eaten. Better sleep one last time. He nods his head and rests his eyes. The sounds of the exterior were making him crazy, penetrating any kind of disturbing thoughts that he would shake off. He doesn’t know how, or maybe because of his pain, he was able to sleep. He woke up to a bright sun and a trembling Ben, he hadn’t stopped “watching” the jungle.
“Ben?” Darius voice startles the boy.
“Oh! hey..” Ben softly responds.
“did anything happen?”
Ben shake his head. Darius notices Ben is hugging his stomach, like it hurts.
“Oh uhm.. I think we have to check your wounds,” Darius says “I saw some yesterday that need to be cleaned out”
“I’m hungry” Ben whispers looking down.
He has never seen more like a “boy” than right now. Even Darius, being younger, saw it.
“How about your pouch?” Darius asks but Ben only covers his eyes.
“No pouch… No map… no…” he sighs “hand sanitizer.”
Oh boy. This was definitely a new challenge for Darius.
“I’m sure we’ll find something, but we can’t go looking for food if you have open wounds, they could get infected” Darius explains.
“and how are we gonna clean them?” Ben asks.
“I heard a river flow all night, it must be near us”
“you’re forgetting that rivers have a massive amount of bacteria, and what about the things that are down there!”
“do you want to clean them with mud?” Darius asks and Ben only looks down “that’s what I thought. Help me get up”
With a grunt of pain, he gets up, holding onto Ben’s body, who hisses when Darius touches his back, that’s where he saw the dry blood yesterday. Carefully they were looking for the river when Bumpy went running down the little hill to find the water.
“Good girl Bumpy!” Ben cheers.
They slowly walked down the hill, Ben almost fell but Darius held him back with his good leg, even injured he always looked out for Ben. They sat down next to the river and drank some water.
“okay, your face first” Darius says.