By Your Side (JWCC Darius x Oc)

Salvation

We all stared in shock at the smoke coming through the trees in the distance.

"It can't be. Is it?" Yaz asked in shock.

"I'm seeing it, too." Brooklyn said.

"That is most def a bonfire." Kenji said.

"People. People!" Sammy cheered.

"Someone got our SOS signal." Kenji said in disbelief.

"Let's go find them. It's time to go home." Darius said. I quickly grabbed my backpack and strapped it onto my back before I followed the others down the slide and racing through the forest. We all started laughing and cheering while running towards where we seen the smoke.

"Oh, we're almost there. I can feel it." Sammy cheered. We stopped and Brooklyn climbed up a tree to see how close we were to the smoke.

"Yes! We're getting closer." Brooklyn called down to us before she jumped down and we continued running. We stopped again at another tree and Kenji said we were getting closer before we started rubbing again.

"Come on! We're so close!" Darius yelled. "Oh, it's real."

"Guys, we're going home!" Yaz cheered. We stopped again and this time Darius climbed the tree while we panted on the ground.

"The bonfire, it's gone." Darius said when he jumped down.

"What if they left?" Sammy asked. "What if the people who came to save us gave up and we missed our chance?"

"No. A search party would stay longer than a few hours. They're still here. I'm sure of it. Maybe they just put out the fire to go to bed?" I suggested to keep our hopes up. We all gasped when a dinosaur roared close by. We all got into a circle with our backs against each other's while looking in different directions. We had different weapons held in our hands, ready to defend ourselves.

"C-Could be a really big Compy, right?" Kenji stammered.

"You really want the answer to that?" I asked.

"Darius, didn't you say there were creepo skylarks?" Kenji asked, ignoring my comment.

"I said they were crepuscular." Darius corrected quietly. Suddenly the leaves rustled and a Ceratosaurus burst through and roared at us. We all yelled and jumped out of the way as it chased us. Kenji wasn't looking where he was running and fell to the ground when he hit a tree. Sammy tripped over him and fell to the ground too. The rest of us stopped and ran back to get our friends. Me, Brooklyn, and Darius took a defense stance in front of Sammy and Kenji as Yaz stood behind us since she was still hurt and we didn't want her getting more hurt.

"Okay, come on!" Brooklyn yelled. We all held determined looks as the Ceratosaurus roared at us. It was about to charge when a flare flew through the air and exploded right above the Ceratosaurus.

"Get down!" A man yelled as he shoved Brooklyn to the ground. We were all shoved and dragged behind a fallen tree as these new people kept shooting flares at the Ceratosaurus. We all coughed as we waved away the smoke from the flared. When the Ceratosaurus ran away we gasped as our saviors turned towards us. There was two men and one woman. One of the men was bald and wore a tan jacket over a blue elbow length shirt while the other man had on tan pants, blue button up long sleeve, and a hat. The woman wore tan shorts, a white button up long sleeve with a pink bandana around her neck, and a hat. She also had a camera hanging around her neck.

"Oh, thank goodness. You're okay." The woman said.

"You are okay, aren't you?" The man with the hat asked.

"Who....who are you?" Darius asked.

"Well, after all that, maybe you should call us your salvation." The woman smiled. We then got up and started following the new people to their camp.