xp_logs | This Savage Land - Part Two: Stampede

In the wee hours of the morning, our prehistoric explorers find themselves suddenly alone in the middle of the jungle - and then suddenly less alone than they would like.

Forge tossed another small twig into the campfire. While his previous experience with camping had been the small excursion in the mansion's backyard and a parentally-mandated four weeks at summer camp when he was eleven, this wasn't too difficult. The plant life in the Conservatory was quite amazing, although he was internally twitching at the feeling of being so completely isolated from any sort of modern technology. After a few hours, he'd practically been hugging his iPod like a security blanket. But now, as the loud music blasted through his headphones, he figured this whole back-to-nature bit wasn't so bad.

Across the fire, Angel was sprawled out on her stomach, feet towards the wilderness and head towards the flames. She'd managed to hold some of the campfire in her hands and was tossing it back and forth like a tiny, flaming baseball. Earlier, she'd tried to sleep but hadn't really managed it. Far too much was going on and considering she dragged her sleeping bag out with her, if she fell asleep where she was, it wasn't going to matter. Not like the weather could bother her--unless it got wet. Wet was just gross.

Next to her, Yvette blinked sleepily at the fireball as it passed from one of Angel's hands to the other. She hadn't felt much like going to bed either, not wanting to miss anything, but as it got later, she was starting to doze. A combination of watching the fire, the exercise of the day and the rather enormous meal they'd had. But it was a nice kind of drowsy. Movement caught her eye, and she glanced over to where Marie was standing, a little away from the fire itself. "Is Miss Marie wanting to be sitting with us?" she asked.

"Sure hon," Marie said and took the few steps over to where the girls were sitting, folding up to sit cross-legged in front of the fire, though she floated a few inches off the ground. Her eyes were drawn to the fireball in Angel's hands and she watched the glowing ball bounce back and forth for a bit before glancing around the rest of the camp. "It's beautiful out here," she said as she looked up at the stars shining in the sky, some of the nearby foliage surrounding it like some unusual frame. "You girls should probably get some sleep though. We're gonna have a long day and you won't want to miss it."

Mondo had worn himself out with the fever pitch of the excitement he'd been experiencing all day. As soon as they'd made camp he had dragged himself into his tent, snuggled into his sleeping bag, and promptly passed out. Even from the campfire the low rumble of his snores was faintly audible.

Crystal sat on her air mattress, right outside of her tent, her gaze traveling around the campsite. Medusa liked staying indoors on trips; Crystal didn't have any problems with staying outside. In fact, she liked being outside in the open air, and planned on using her tent only for storing the clothes, toiletries, and food she had brought.

"We're sure that Angel isn't going to turn that into a giant inferno, eh?" Garrison said quietly, poking Marie by the shoulder as he did so. He wasn't involved in the powers training, and didn't really know how much control each of the kids had. Besides, he'd seen her enough wired to the eyeballs on sugar or caffeine to not trust her ability to remain calm or still. "Because I'm really sure that form we signed on the way in did not negate our liability if we happen to set the park on fire."

Barely awake at this point, Sooraya still smiled at Mr. Kane's quip. She didn't think her roommate was about to burn down the beautiful plants they had seen that day, though she understood the teacher's concern. This place was like something from another place and time - sleepily she wondered if it was really what the world looked like millions of years ago. It was a hard concept for the yawning Afghan girl to grasp, and she vowed to ask the guides her questions the next day. Maybe. She'd at least ask one. Perhaps.

Speaking of which, where were their guides?

"Hey guys..." came a soft voice from the darkness as Tommy returned from the appointed spot for the bathroom. He'd been trying to sleep, but with his tent next to Mondo's it had become difficult so he'd taken the opportunity to go and relieve himself. It was while he was out of sight of the group around the fire that he'd noticed something wrong. "Did anyone hear someone take the jeep? It's gone."

Marie glanced away from Garrison to make eye contact with the other chaperone before slowly rising to her feet. "Maybe one of the guides forgot something back at the base," she said, heading over to check the tents she'd assumed Phil and Eddie had been sleeping in. Unfortunately, they were both empty with no sign of a note or explanation as to the absence of their guides. Walking over to Forge, she gestured for Garrison to come over so the three could decide what to do. She could always fly back to find out what was going on.

Forge stood up and walked a few steps away from the campfire, away from the students' hearing. "I thought I heard the Jeep a while ago. They didn't let you know where they were going?" At the negative response, he pondered again. "Did they give either of you a radio or anything? I mean, they probably went to get some food or something for breakfast. Both of them took the Jeep? Well, that doesn't make any sense. They'd have to be idiots to not realize we're totally out on our own here--"

"I heard it drive out... uh..." Kyle looked up from the book he was reading, and glanced around. "I dunno how long ago it was.." He gestured with his book and unfolded his legs out from underneath him, standing and stretching. "Sounds like they're coming back though." He said, cocking his head. "I heard something moving around out there, and ..." He looked up sharply, eyes wide. "That is not people. That does so not sound like people."

The bushes rustled slightly, and the first small figure that emerged blinked at the assembled staff and students in what looked like confusion. Balancing on two slender birdlike legs, its scaled skin reflected patterns of green and iridescent purple in the firelight. Cocking its reptilian head to one side, it let out a small birdlike 'caw?' as its tail stretched back and forth. More rustles, and about a dozen other small creatures joined the first, each about a meter long from head to tail.

Speechless, everyone watched as the dinosaurs slowly shuffled away from the fire. Before anyone could react, however, a louder crashing noise came from the underbrush, and the small reptiles scattered as a larger sauropod tromped directly into the center of the campsite. Easily standing as tall as Garrison, the red-scaled predator sported two huge claws on each powerful leg, and a mouthful of serrated teeth. What was more frightening, however, was the look of rudimentary intelligence in its eyes as it recognized one thing - more prey.

Marie's slack jawed expression lasted less than a few seconds before she'd pushed off the ground and landed in front of the dino. There was no time for the thoughts of 'But dinosaurs are extinct' and she immediately shifted into 'That thing is not eating my students. Screw the fieldtrip curse.'

With a small squeak, Yvette scuttled as far away from the creatures as she could, curling into a small ball, the increasingly dark shade of her red skin making her blend with the shadows. Only her glowing eyes, wide and frightened, gave away her hiding place in the bushes.

Hearing Yvette's squeak brought Tommy out of his slack jawed stare at the emerging dinosaurs. He immediately turned looked for the younger girl, see her eyes gazing out of the shadows. He made his way over to her and carefully tugged her out of her ball. "Come on. Don't clam up. We're gonna have to move." And like hell was he going to let anything happen to Yvette. He began looking around for other options and hoped someone came up with something because he was fresh out of ideas on how to deal with dinosaurs.

There was more crashes and rustling as six other of the larger dinosaurs emerged after the smaller ones, hunched over predatorily and stalking slowly. "Goddammit Kyle, you jinxed it," Jennie hissed under her breath as she backed up towards Sooraya and Angel. "Um, there's a big tree branch up there," Jennie gestured with her chin. "I'm gonna see if I can't knock it onto the big guys, unless someone else has an idea?"

Marie knew she couldn't take on seven dinos before they got to the kids unless she timed it just right. Knocking them out with a tree branch could be helpful - or it could just make them all get really cranky. "Someone needs to gather up the little kids," she said thinking of the kidbits sleeping blissfully and defenselessly in their tents. "An' if this doesn't work, get the hell out of here while Ah work on keeping their attention on me. Remember, they can't hurt me, so no matter what the rest of y'all just keep moving." Of course, if they ripped her clothes she had absolutely no desire to find out what would happen if she touched such a large lizard - but hopefully Jennie's idea would work and the group would get a chance to figure out just what the hell was going on since there weren't supposed to be any animals except for bugs, birds and the odd small rodent, let alone extinct animals.

"Listen to the invulnerable lady, guys." Kane edged a couple of feet to the right, watching the damn thing eyeball them. Already the reflex chip was picking up body language. Too bad he didn't have a couple of hours to soak it all in. Out of the corner of his eye, he took stock. "Marie, you want to--"

Mondo poked his head out of his tent, blinking sleep out of his eyes. "Guys? What's going on?" he asked, clearly not yet firing on all mental cylinders quite yet. "Are those ... lizards?" he asked, sleep-crusty eyes going wide with sheer shock.

"Dinosaurs!" Kyle shouted, in mid-scramble. "They're dinosaurs!" A bounding step later and he had pulled Leyu out of her tent, ignoring her noises of distress, and tucking her under his arm like a football. Another leaping stride had him at Artie's, and the younger boy was obviously far more used to the idea of getting to safety than Leyu was. He was wide-eyed and staring, but let Kyle swing him up and around onto his back.

He'd taken his shoes off when they broke camp, and now he was grateful. Climbing one of the trees one-handed would've been doubly hard if he hadn't had the claws on his feet to rely on to keep his grip. And even so, the burden of holding onto Leyu was only mitigated by the fact that after the first five feet, Artie pulled himself off Kyle's back and onto the next branch up. The smaller boy didn't have Kyle's natural agility, but he followed as best as he could.

Leaving the area and soon seemed like the best idea to Sooraya, who had absolutely no idea what the creatures that had just entered clearing were. She could tell they were predators easily enough, though, and didn't like the way they seemed to be sizing up her friends and teachers with their dark, gleaming eyes. Her hand shot out and grabbed Angel's sleeve, tugging the girl back with her as fast as she could go.

Tugged out of her shocked state, Angel felt along for a second before grabbing Sooraya's hand tightly in hers. This hadn't been in the guidebook! There was rustling in the leaves above them and slightly ahead but she'd seen Kyle go that way and trusted that it was still him. She fought down the response to kick up and fly, unwilling to leave either the safety of the group or any of her friends behind. But if they could stay in sight--or hearing--of Kyle, or anyone else in their group, then it was far better than staying were they where.

The smaller dinosaurs scattered, running through tents and knocking over supplies as they attempted to escape from the larger predators. The raptors, however, spread out to surround their prey, ignoring the mutants heading for high ground. Darting forward, one of the vicious dinosaurs snatched its prey in between powerful jaws, bearing it to the ground. Like sharks smelling blood, the others swarmed towards the downed creature, knocking over anything in their path.

"Anything" happened to include a propane cooking stove. As the raptors wrestled for position around the downed dinosaur, the metal tank containing the fuel for the stove rolled across the clearing, and right into the campfire.

A few pings and pops were all that was heard before the propane tank exploded in an enormous fireball, startling dinosaurs and students alike. Flame fell from the sky, landing on tents and setting them alight as well. In the span of mere seconds, the once-quiet campsite had erupted into chaos.

The camp's makeshift sanitary provisions had taken him far away; Marius hadn't seen any reason why not to go on farther and do a little exploring on his own. This, perhaps, had not been the most intelligent of ideas, as he'd soon found himself what his father would have politely termed "mislaid." He wasn't terribly concerned. Even if Kyle couldn't track him he reasoned that sooner or later one of the Conservatory's walls would give him a point of orientation.

The giant explosion, however, turned out to work just as well.

Marius looked back the way he'd come and saw the sky behind him glowing orange. The boy stared, jaw slack.

"Sodding hell, not twenty minutes . . ."

Yes, the idea of dinosaurs running around their campsite was a strange one. In Crystal's mind, it was also an interesting and quite fascinating one, or it would have been if the dinosaurs didn't look so hungry. However, tents on fire, especially while bipedal lizards ran amok, were not interesting at all.

Crystal eyed the raging fires in her view, her eyes moving from one fiery tent to the next. The desired result wasn't instantaneous, but as the air changed according to her wishes, the raging flames began to lessen.

Laurie had been lightly dozing when she'd heard the scream of 'Dinosaurs!' from outside her tent. Thinking that she must have heard that wrong, or that possibly one of the older kids was telling a war story, like the ones she'd heard about Asgard, she popped her head out of the tent. It was at this point that she saw the fire, and the various dinosaurs running about.

Dinosaurs...with big, sharp, pointy teeth. Also little ones, but it was the big sharp, pointy teeth ones that seemed the more dangerous at that moment. Well, unless you happened to have a large one looking right at you from about four inches away. It blinked at her, and made a small hissing sound.

Laurie gasped in surprise and reached out to smack the thing away, her thoughts centered on 'bad dinosaur, no eating of teenage girls named Laurie'.

It was unfortunate for Laurie that not only did little dinosaurs seem well able to resist ineffectual panicked slapping from said teenage girl but also, rather then being repulsed by her mutant power as she'd intended, got rather angry instead.

Fortunately for Laurie, it was around the same time that a Canadian moving like a bullet slammed down on the back of its neck. Kane rolled twice with the creature and kicked it away, putting as much distance between himself and the scythe-like toe claw as possible. Even with his enhanced strength and speed, the thing still moved too fast for comfort. He scrambled to his feet and grabbed Laurie by the upper arm, hauling her along with him.

"Everyone! Under Kyle's tree! Now!" Kane pushed the students towards the trunk, where at least they could defend themselves. He pushed a couple more towards the mass, when he heard the screams from one of the tents. A dinosaur had buried himself head-deep into the front, and out the back came running the librarian's twin siblings. "Marie!" Kane yelled, trying to get her attention and pointing to the two children.

"Go," Marie barked out as she knocked the dinosaur in front of her onto it's side, blowing past it to grab a Manh under each arm while lashing out with her foot to drive deep into the skull of the dinosaur trying to grab a snack. She felt the skull crack beneath her foot and the dino collapsed to the ground, taking the rest of the tent down with it. "Ah want everyone getting up. If you can, help someone else," she called out as she deposited the twins on a sturdy tree branch before she landed in the clearing beside Jennie. "If any of these are near snapping, warn people to stay off of them." Without waiting for Jennie's response, Marie grabbed Yvette and Tommy, depositing them on a tree branch before landing amongst the dinosaurs again.

"I can do one better," Jennie said, and began helping others into the tree. Her hands were white, and she made sure everyone got at least a light touch on the back or arm. Even if the branches were creaky, they'd get lucky. With Marius, she simply slapped him on the back and told him to "Use it how he wanted." Then she turned back to where Marie was fighting the dinosaurs. The others in the tree were yelling at her to climb already, but she squinted, and threw out two red disks. There was a loud crack and a large tree branch came crashing down near Marie, pinning two of her attackers. Jennie turned back and scrambled up the tree trunk, holding out her arms and letting the others pull her into the tree.

Climbing the tree and keeping at least a light touch on Sooraya to reassure herself that her roommate was there would have been harder if not for the touch of luck. Angel found herself on a solid branch, way above the dinosaurs reach and she watched the chaos on the ground as she tried to reign in her gasping. Some of the smaller creatures attempted to rush their safe spot and she leaned over, hand extended. The blue flames shot out just above their heads, eating the oxygen and roaring to life. It didn't hit them because they weren't that far from the ground and Crystal had just gotten the other fire under control--no need to make more. But the heat and flames right above them made the group shriek and scatter backwards, away from the tree.

Shuddering a bit, Angel sat up and leaned back, huddling closer to Sooraya.

Crystal had neither the need nor the desire to climb up a tree full of frightened students. There were too many people in the tree and even if the branches didn't break, someone could be pushed off accidentally or fall. No, she'd be close enough to everyone else, but she'd hover up in the air, prepared to catch anyone who might fall. As long as the dinosaurs stayed on the ground, they weren't in immediate danger from them, and Crystal had no desire to harm the unusual and fascinating yet interested in eating mutants for dinner creatures.

Mondo looked at the tree dubiously. It was already creaky and overloaded, and he was far from svelte. So instead he took up a position at the base of the tree and synched up to his steel necklace. One of the large predator-types apparently thought that the Samoan would make a full-sized meal and snapped its jaws at the boy, missing only by a hair as Jennie's imparted luck saved him from decapitation. "NICE DINO!" Mondo scolded the lizard, trying to find a way to make it go away without getting bitten or devoured or something equally as unpleasant.

Clinging to the tree with both hand and foot claws - an impressive feat, given she was still wearing gloves and socks - Yvette watched in horror as Mondo batted at the dinosaur. Small gasps of fear were escaping her despite her best efforts to be brave, and only Tommy's presence close by was keeping her from panicking completely. How had everything gone so wrong?

"Alright, that's it," Marie muttered. Picking up the branch Jennie had caused to fall, she began herding the dinosaurs still standing away from the tree holding the students. "Go on, shoo now," she said, thwacking one of the dinos on the side. It hissed at her before running off. Most of the small dinosaurs had already run off, using the distraction of the group of mutants to save their own lives and Marie worked on quickly encouraging the rest of the dinosaurs to leave. Now that the group had proven themselves to be a rather difficult snack, the remaining dinosaurs seemed a lot less motivated to stay. A few well placed smacks later and the clearing was soon devoid of any dinosaurs except the ones that weren't going to be moving anytime soon.

Marius shoved out through the underbrush just as something small and scaled fled past him on two legs. He paused, eyes taking in the ruined camp and a sizable portion of the student body clinging to a tree, then slowly turned to Marie, standing a few yards away and still holding a branch.

". . . I can't help but feel I've missed somethin'."

"Nah Marius. Just a few roving hungry dinosaurs out for a stroll." She gestured for the Aussie to make his way over to the tree where the rest of the students were gathered, wanting to keep all the kids where she could see the,. And count them.

"Status check?" the Southerner said, glancing up at the students in their various spots of safety near the tree before turning to Garrison. She frowned as she began to wonder where the other chaperone was. They all needed to figure out what the hell was going on and get the kids out of danger.

"Tree full of frightened teens, check. Utter lack of clue what's going on, check." Garrison muttered, taking a head count as he did so. The camp was in shambles, and most of the kids were in one state of half shock or another. "Alright, everyone out of the tree, one by one. Until you get called, don't move. The last thing we need is someone getting dropped on their head."

Kane and Marie, with Crystal and Mondo's help started extracting people from the branches one by one. "I know everyone is freaked, but there isn't a lot we can do right now, eh? Marie and I will be on dead dino duty, getting them out of the clearing. I need three volunteers to scavenge for firewood near the camp. Everyone else, get your things and the tents packed up. We're going to build the fire up high, and sleep around it with people keeping watch. Even bears that make these things look like midgets don't go near a big fire. In the morning, we're going to hike back to the nearest park station and call for a ride home."

He turned to Marie, the two adults spoke in low tones. "Something stinks here, Marie. The guides took off like they knew this was about to happen, and we seem to have misplaced Forge in the process. You and I need to have a private chat once we've got people calmed down."

"Garrison, Marie?" Angel came up behind them, subdued and wiping her hands against her jeans. "I can help with the firewood. But do you want some help making that fire really big when we've got everything?" It would help to keep her distracted at the least. Focusing on something meant she wouldn't be able to give in to the freaking out.

Marie smiled down at the redhead, wanting to reassure the teen. "That'd be great Angel, as long as you make sure you get some rest too and don't wear yourself out." Turning back to Garrison, she nodded at him and gestured over to the body of nearest dinosaur. "Meet you over there in just a sec, 'kay?" Walking over to Yvette, Marie crouched down to look the spiky girl in the eyes. "Hey, Ah know that was kinda scary, but this is all gonna be ok." She reached out to carefully pat the girl's shoulder before going to meet Garrison.

Yvette was curled in a small huddle, her hair standing out stiffly behind her as her powers reacted to her emotional state. "I am not liking the field trip so very much now," she murmured miserably, as Laurie came to sit with her. Her eyes, flickering from face to face, took in the absence of one, but she held her tongue. Time to let the grownups handle things.

"I don't think I like it much right now either." Laurie replied, placing her hand carefully around Yvette's shoulder. "But Garrison and Marie are X-Men, right? So they'll know what to do."

Kyle had been too distracted helping people down from the tree to notice that they were short one person for several minutes. It wasn't until he was pulling splinters out of his palms that he caught the scent of copper and iron in the air and -then- did a head count to himself. He double checked twice, glancing up at the trees to make sure he hadn't missed something and then silently crept over to the adults. "Uh. Problem. Forge is missing... " He said, very quietly, and he knew they already knew. They both looked and smelled too worried not to know. "and I smell blood."

"Beulah sprayed dinosaur all over the camp. It could be that." Kane held up his hand before Gibney could reply. "Or it could be a lot of things. What we don't have are drag lines, long smears of blood or a corpse. That means that Forge left under his own power, and even if the blood is his, there's not enough of it to think he crawled off mortally wounded or something. Hopefully ten minutes from now, he's going to come back with a cut on his leg and a sheepish look from falling down a hill while running away in the dark. If not, we're still not going to jump to any conclusions, eh?"

"I know what Forge smells like." Kyle protested. "And I know what human blood smells like. I got a big noseful of my own two months ago." He was still speaking quietly, as there was no way on earth or any other planet that he was going to have this argument loudly enough that his classmates could hear. "He shows up, you can say that you told me so, but I don't think he ran off. He doesn't... he doesn't do that shit."

"All right Kyle," Marie said, keeping her voice soft. "Give Garrison and Ah a minute to check around, ok? And just keep this new bit of information to yourself right now. We need to keep everyone calm." Looking around at what students were nearby, she raised her voice. "Ok, Kyle, Jennie and Crystal, Ah want y'all to help organize while Gar and Ah clean up the bodies. One of you make sure that someone older stays with the littles. And no one, and Ah mean no one, is to go anywhere by themselves."

"Okay," Jennie said. "Right, Mondo, can you hang with the little guys? You guys stay by the tree, first sign of trouble everyone back up, okay? It should hold." Nga tugged at her sleeve and whispered a question. "No sweetie, I'm sure Forge is okay. We'll find him." She raised her eyebrows questioningly at Kyle. "As for the rest of us, start seeing if we can salvage anything. We might have to walk a bit tomorrow. Find water, find stuff to carry water in, things like that."

Crystal nodded, but she hated the order forbidding her to go off on her own. It seemed that this particular "request" was made far too often. Although a lot of the supplies seemed to have been destroyed by the dinosaurs' rampage, not everything was gone. Possibly, there was enough water to last for the night, although most people seemed to be too worried or concerned to think about matters like hunger and thirst. She'd offer to make it rain when the time came.

When in doubt, go to work. Sooraya's hands were still shaking as she partnered up with the nearest student to begin sifting through the shredded remains of the tents around the campfire, but she and the others dutifully began to follow Jennie's directions. What they had just experienced had been frightening in so many different ways, but they couldn't let that overwhelm them. They would get away from the frightening creatures and out of the park, she knew it. The only questions were how, and when. And for that, they would just have to wait and see.

After the chaos, the chaperones try and figure out a plan of action.

Garrison lifted the dead dinosaur with a grunt. The things where heavier than he expected. Around him, the students were either picking up the scattered supplies that had been strewn around the camp during the stampede, trying to put away shattered tents, or hunting for more firewood in closely huddled groups. Activity was the best way to keep them from dwelling on their situation.

"You seen any sign of Forge?" Garrison asked, as Marie lit down lightly on the grass from her quick recon flight.

"None," she said, her brow creasing with worry. "An' it's not like he coulda got far, y'know?" Picking up a dinosaur, Marie wrinkled her nose at the smell of the beast. "'course, it's so dark out there, he could've been right below me in a couple places and Ah never would've noticed."

"I lied to Kyle." Kane heaved the beast off a respectable distance into the foliage, hearing the crashing sounds as it tumbled to the ground. He waved Marie over to the far section of the clearing, in which the unmistakable sign of a metal foot getting dragged along the ground was clear. "Forge got hurt, limped to here, and then... gone. Both the tracks and the blood stop. He's hurt and we don't have a way to track him. Which doesn't leave us with a whole lot of options."

Tossing hers in the same direction, Marie wrapped her arms around herself, taking a deep breath. "We keep the kids safe. Get them back to the school." Looking around the camp, she shook her head. "We don't have a helluva lot to work with here. If we had Forge, he could build us a radio out of a coconut, but he would have to be the one hurt and missing."

"Hey," Garrison wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and tugged her in close to him. "whatever's happened to Forge, we're figure it out in the morning. It's too dark to try and track him right now, even using Gibney's nose, and I am not letting the kids fend for themselves. For all we know, there's a herd of T-Rex's or something waiting out there. We get the kids around the fire and set a watch. Any giant iguana comes looking for a snack tonight, and he's going to get himself bitchslapped, eh."

Marie leaned into him, shifting her arms to wrap around Garrison as she laid her cheek on his shoulder. "Yeah," she said with a sigh. "Biggest thing is gonna be keeping the kids calm." Not to mention herself. "If Ah hadn't seen this myself, Ah'd never believe it. Ah mean, Ah readily accept elder gods, alternate dimension and magic - why is it so strange to see giant lizards that might be dinosaurs?"

"Because both of us avoided the really good drugs as teenagers. Looking back, that might have been a mistake." He caressed her back through the fabric of her shirt, soothing her slightly. He knew first hand just how seriously she took her responsibilities with the students. "Once we get the kids out, I say we start poking around this place. The guides just taking off makes me highly suspicious, on top of wanting to tear off their arms."

"The fact that they disappeared right before this happened isn't a good sign," Marie agreed. "But we've got a good group here, so we'll be ok," she said, Garrison's reassurances going a long way to help her regain her calm. "Once it's light out, we can find a way to get in touch with the X-Men to get the kids picked up and then we can turn this place upside down finding the guides and Forge." She shuddered slightly. "All that blood though..."

"If they got him bad, we'd be finding metal bits too. I think he just took off, and got himself lost. Before we break camp in the morning, we'll scout out a bit and see if we can't pick up his trail." Kane didn't bother to add his own doubts into the conversation. It was the last thing that Marie needed. "Alright, any longer and the kids are going to think we're trying to sneak off for a quickie or something."

She smiled weakly, pulling back slightly so she could look up at him. "Cute. Don't pretend that wasn't your plan when you said we should talk privately." Floating up slightly, she brushed her lips against his cheek, barely for a moment. "But yeah, we should make sure things are going alright and work on setting up shifts so that they can get some rest."

"Does that mean the quickie is still on for afterwards?" Kane said as he followed her back to the others.

Marie rolled her eyes, pausing as they drew closer to the kids. "What do we tell them?" They needed to keep the kids calm and telling them that one of the chaperones was missing and seemed to have vanished into midair was not going to help with that. "Ah don't wanna lie," she said. "But Ah don't know that we've got a choice here."

"I'm totally comfortable with lying. All the truth is going to do is get them worked up. If we're lucky, Kyle doesn't try to sneak off tonight to try and find him." Kane shook his head. "We have no idea what is actually out there, Marie, and it looks like we got set up for this in the first place. I don't want to take any chances with their lives."

Marie let out a sigh. One guide and the jeep missing would be suspicious. Both guides, the jeep and the maps? In the dead of night? That wasn't suspicious, that was a neon sign of a setup of some sort. And the last thing they needed was anyone else being separated from the group. "Alright, we tell them there's no clear sign of Forge but it looks like he just ran off. We remind them that he's resourceful fella and that we'll look for him more closely in the morning when there's less of a chance we'll hurt ourselves trying to find him."

"And considering the lot by the fire, they'll believe it for about nine seconds." Kane sighed and started walking back. "But there's really no other choice right now."