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The rain came down in blankets so dense it turned the world into a trembling watercolour. A pitch black sky melting into gray concrete, the sound of downpour only interrupted by the scraping of Ben's boots across the soaked pavement. He wasn't walking so much as being pulled forward by his closest friends.
His body hung heavily between Darius and Kenji, the two men on opposite sides of his shoulders. They were both struggling to tug him along under his weight. Ben's head dropped, wet brown hair plastered against his forehead, water droplets trailing down now pale cheeks like tears or sweat— it was impossible to tell the difference.
The thagomizer spike was deeply embedded in his abdomen, it didn't pierce through his body completely to the opposite side, but deep enough he felt it with every move. The heavy, unnatural object in his body. Every step left a smear of blood diluted with water behind them. Brooklynn said keeping the thagomizer in would slow the bleeding, and she was partially right, but it wouldn't stop it.
Ben could barely breathe. The only noises he made was the low whimper when he jerked too fast, pain shooting through his entire body. Or his attempt at a proper breath, a raspy, sad inhale.
The once steadfast rhythm of his boots, the one that the gang knew, the confident, so sure on any terrain, was now the sound of scraping.
“Ben, stay awake, alright?” Darius said, voice raw and cracking loud enough to be heard over the torrential downpour. “We're almost there, just hang on.”
Ben blinked slowly. He wasn't sure what ‘there’ was. Shelter? Safety?
He didn't know it, and neither did his friends, but it would be the last place that they would see him alive.
They got to a surviving structure of the area that wasn't wrecked by the Therizinosaurus and Giganotosaurus. Darius leaned back against the flimsy wall as Kenji carefully rested Ben on his brother's chest. Darius locked his hands together on the front of Ben's ribs.
Yaz, Sammy and Brooklynn rushed in a few seconds later, drenched. Sammy's expression was hopeful, yet broken. “Tell me it's not as bad as it looks.” She said, looking around their little group.
Nobody answered, nobody could. Because nobody knew.
Kenji's voice ran thin and brittle. “Dude, you're gonna be fine,” He started, in the fake confident tone he used when he was nervous. “You're Benjamin freaking Pincus! Remember when you fought a saber-tooth tiger with just a flaming stick? You don't die. It's, like, your thing.” Kenji, despite all his attempts to lighten the mood, didn't.
Ben tried to smile, he really did but the muscles in his face wouldn't cooperate.
His eyes drifted, unfocused, to the leaking ceiling. “I'm… tired.” He whispered, wasting his breath in unnecessary words. That was when Darius froze — not because of the words, but because of how he said them.
Not ‘Big Ben’.
Not ‘Hardened-by-Nublar Ben.’
But scared-of-whipped-cream Ben, the kid who used to shrink himself into Kenji when Darius told horror stories around the campfire.
Ben felt the cold first. Not just on the skin, but inside of him. Like the rain had seeped past his muscles and bones as if it was dissolving him from the center outwards.
His friends' voices blurred, the shapes around him softened. His vision flickered—
—and suddenly he wasn't 20, cradled against Darius with blood seeping through his shirt at an alarming rate.
He was 14, standing in the jungle of Isla Nublar, the air much different from the city, it was thick with humidity and memory. The trees towered above him, dripping with sunlight that landed against his boyish face.
Somewhere distant, the vocal calls of a dinosaur could be heard.
And he heard laughter, bright and familiar.
He turned and saw Darius behind him, smiling at him the way he did after a rough day—after the blood and running, that had seemed to become their default.
Yaz and Sammy were behind him, talking with big smiles on their faces. But Ben didn't hear what they said, and even though Darius' lips were moving, he heard nothing.
He knew this wasn't real, but it felt real. The warmth, the safety he thought he'd earned but never got to keep. The nostalgia.
Ben's ripped headband fell over his face as his knees buckled under him. And suddenly, he was back with Darius and the others, under the wet, shitty shelter.
“Ben!” Yaz shook him violently, staring at him with wide eyes.
His breathing turned shallow, tiny and panicked gasps. Not the calm, confident, powerful and lethal force they'd watched him become. They saw Ben who was scared of everything, Ben who flinched every time the jungle breathed
Brooklynn’s voice broke as she brushed Ben's cheek with her hand. “No, no—don’t do this, not like this.”
Darius leaned forward, resting his head against the back of Ben's, inhaling his smell. The faint cologne that had been washed away by the stench of rain, grime and blood.
“Stay with us Ben, please.”
Sammy clutched Yaz, wiping tears. Ben's gaze fluttered open for a second, the blurry faces of his friends appeared
He was resting against Darius. He knew him, he saw him. Something fragile had always been between them—something neither said out loud, because survival always took priority, because there was never time.
But now there was nothing but time.
Precious time that was running out.
Ben's vision shifted again. He was young again, there was nothing but black around him, under him was a light layer of water. He looked around, body feeling light as he saw his friends standing near a white shaped rectangle. It wasn't really a door, no handle, no frame. Just a bright rectangle in the dark. A light in the nightmare he was in.
He walked towards it, his friends' young faces coming more into focus as he drew closer. Nobody said anything. Each of his friends walked through the light, disappearing. Yaz looked back at him.
They all went, except one. Expect Darius. He extended a hand towards Ben.
He hesitated, looking at Darius in his warm brown eyes. He had always loved looking at him. Whether he was 14 surviving dinosaurs, or 20 laying on his lap and bleeding out.
Ben's hand slipped into Darius' as he interlocked their fingers. His hand was warm and soft. He had always followed Darius into the light. What was so different about now?
Darius slowly took them through the shape, and Ben felt warm. Memories from Nublar and his life after flashed in his mind. Every single one; When he first held Bumpy to when Smoothie hatched. From when he first set foot in camp to escaping the island with his friends—family. From when he first met Darius to confessing to him during their fight.
He would follow Darius anywhere like a dog, even to death.
Back in reality, his head slumped on Darius' chest and the world narrowed to a pin-point for his friends. The patter of rain faded into nothing, the beat of his own pulse dulled in his ears.
Darius' voice was the last to go.
“Ben… please.”
Ben exhaled, once, slow.
And his suffering was over. He had crossed the line with Darius into the light until they were two beings intertwined. He felt warm and cold at the same time, buzzing with energy and freedom. Running through the jungle of Nublar holding the hand of someone he loved, surrounded by people he loved.
He could hear the birds call, the soft sound of the ocean, Bumpy's heavy footsteps and the sound of his own.
And then everything softly faded, so did his breathing.
No one moved, not for a long time.
Kenji pressed his fist against his mouth, shoulders shaking as he held in a sob.
Yaz stared at the floor, if she looked at her unmoving friend, she'd break. Sammy clung to her arm, crying into her shoulder.
Brooklynn had to turn completely, her sobs adding to the rainfall.
Darius didn't let go, he couldn't. He cried into Ben's hair, clinging to his body tightly as if his touch alone could bring him back.
He stayed that way until Kenji and Brooklynn came back with Gia’s car, until everyone got in.
It was hard, convincing him to let go. But he eventually did. He kissed Ben's forehead one final time, before resting him down gently and getting into the car.
The ride was silent, Darius was sobbing.
Because they had just lost one of their own.
As they sped down the long road to the helicopter, the sun started to rise. It was beautiful, as if someone had painted it by skilled hand. Darius looked up at it, tears streaming down his cheeks.
And somewhere up there, Ben was dancing in the stars. He ran through the jungle with renowned fervour, jumping over roots and fallen logs, running past ferns and foliage. Forever the island would hold a boy with a curious eye and a lion in his heart.