Work Text:
The six of them had been on Isla Nublar for, as best as they could tell, around a couple of weeks.
And every single day of those weeks sucked.
They’d had to devise an alternative form of communication for when they were on separate missions or creeping through the forest.
They had hand signals for when they needed to be silent: a finger over their lips to be quiet, a jab of the hand to move, a jerk of the head or hand to get down.
But hand signals only worked when they could see each other, and it wasn’t as if they could holler across the forest when they were headed back to the treehouse, or when they were separated; it would bring a carnivore right to them.
It was Darius’s idea, from the raptors.
A series of whistles.
High, low — Safe.
Low, high — Help.
Piercing high — Run.
High, high — Coming.
Three trilling notes — Mission accomplished.
Sharp low whistle — Where are you?
Two trills — Here.
Middle, middle — Treehouse.
Low, middle — Checking in.
Piercing low — Hide.
Piercing high, piercing low — Warning.
Low, low — Mealtime.
Single low trill — Bumpy
Low, middle, high — Ben
High sliding low — Yaz
Low sliding high — Sammy
High, low, high — Brooklynn
High, middle, low — Kenji
Low, high, low — Darius
Yaz, Kenji, and Brooklynn had to teach everyone how to whistle, and whistle loud, but by the time two more suns had set, everyone had it down solid.
Yaz figured it out from her running coach, Brooklynn had learned it as it was a recommended skill on more than a few of the vlogger’s trips, and Kenji had shrugged, saying, “How am I supposed to carefree whistle if I can’t whistle?”
The whistles blended in with the cacophony of the wilds of the island, and quite quickly, their new ‘language’ became everyday.
When Brooklynn and Kenji found Ben, the two shrieked low, high, and two low high trills for the others, and they had come running at the frantic cry.
Help.
Here.
Ben got it down pat within the day; apparently, the formerly frightened germaphobe had learned it before being forced to attend Jurassic World’s ever-so-successful Camp Cretaceous.
During the stampede from the watering hole, courtesy of their group, Darius pierced the air with the high note.
Run.
When the Monolophosauruses broke into the penthouse, a warning was whistled, piercing high, followed by a piercing low.
Whenever Ben went to feed or visit Bumpy without telling anyone, they would whistle his name, and he would respond with high, low and low, middle, high, preceded by a single low trill.
Bumpy.
Safe.
Ben.
When Yaz needed to stay at the treehouse to rest her ankle, they would check in with her, low, middle, answered by middle, middle, then a high, low, finished with a high sliding low.
Checking in.
Treehouse.
Safe.
Yaz.
When Darius wandered off to categorise dinosaurs in his notebook, one of them would whistle for him, and get a sheepish high, low of Safe, coupled with the low, high, low of Darius, eventually followed by a high, high for Coming.
Kenji, Brooklynn, and Sammy didn’t go off on their own often, but if there was a mystery Brooklynn wanted to investigate, or Kenji wanted to visit a certain place from the former park that he knew so well, or Sammy found a baby dinosaur to coo over, or any of the six got separated, all their friends had to do was whistle for them.
As the six slowly paired off, Sammy with Yaz, Kenji with Ben, and Brooklynn with Darius, three more whistles emerged, one for each pair.
The two beginning notes of Brooklynn’s vlog intro sandwiched Darius’s note of a Gallimimus call, and made the Darilynn whistle.
Yaz and Sammy’s was the shrill call of a running whistle, answered by the low note of a cow.
Ben and Kenji’s whistle was a whistle mimic of Bumpy’s call from Ben, preceded by Kenji’s two notes of the credits music of Esther Stone, High School PI.
None of the dinosaurs, unless they were particularly close to them, cared much, if at all.
To them, it was just another noise of communication.
Toro and Rexy roared, the Ankylosauruses and Bumpy brayed, the Compys screeched, and the campers whistled.
And when, after a long six months, they finally made it to Costa Rica, to their families, Darius whistled: Low, middle. High, low. Low, high, low.
Checking in.
Safe.
Darius.
Brooklynn was the first to answer, then Ben, then Kenji, then Yaz, then Sammy.
High, low. High, low, high.
Safe.
Brooklynn.
High, low. Low, middle, high.
Safe.
Ben.
High, low. High, middle, low.
Safe.
Kenji.
High, low. High sliding low.
Safe.
Yaz.
High, low. Low sliding high.
Safe.
Sammy.
They were safe.
They were home.
Finally, finally home.