"Row!" Shadowdrake27 yelled, padding frantically as if the back of the canoe was on fire."Row! Row... row?"
He turned around to see how much distance they had put between themselves and the competition, only to see the review board motor ahead like a well-oiled machine. Horrified, he looked at the other contestants The Worst had managed to pass: two boats zig-zagged across the river unproductively as the rest floated with the river's current. "Well... this is interesting..." he muttered as something else caught his eye. Benholman was paddling smoothly--with his paddle sideways so the narrow edge caught the water.
"What are you doing?" Shadowdrake27 scoffed.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Benholman snapped.
"Uhh... wait! Where is the new guy?"
"NotSoSpecial?"
"Yeah, that's what I said, right?" Shadowdrake scratched his head and looked around.
That's when he saw it, NotSoSpecial running along the bank of the river with a could of dust hot on his heels. Peering into the distance, Shadowdrake27 tried to make out what was following him. The canoe tipped wildly and he had to drop his paddle and clutch the edge of the canoe to stabilize it before the entire thing flipped over.
"Dinosaurs!" Benholman exclaimed as the oversized reptiles came more clearly into view.
NoSoSpecial looked back--then doubled his efforts as a unintelligible scream escaped his lips. His arms went flailing as his legs continued to churn while he screamed. His form was terrible--Shadowdrake27 noted mentally--but he was surprisingly effective as he gained ground on the herd of Dino's chasing him.
"Help!" NotSoSpecial managed to scream as he reached the bank of the river with no where left to run.
"They must have decided on genocide..." Shadowdrake27 muttered to himself with a shudder running down his spine. He wasted no time knotting a rope around the support in the middle of the canoe and testing it with two good tugs. "Catch!"
Shadowdrake27 tossed the rope casually, causing it to drop directly into the water. Benholman cursed and steered the Canoe towards shore as Shadowdrake27 picked up his paddle and helped. They managed to get to NotSoSpecial as the water got choppy from the vibrations of thousands of dinosaur legs pounding the shore.
"Thanks!" NotSoSpecial sighed in relief, stepping towards the boat.
"Not so fast," Shadowdrake27 said, putting an arm out to block the rescued teammate. "Can't have you tipping the boat, and I don't know if you can even paddle... Ben at least showed up on time!"
NotSoSpecial's eyes shot wide open and his jaw hit the ground. "You are going to leave me?" he whined.
"No! That would be crazy! Here, take this." As he handed over the end of the rope tied to the boat, Shadowdrake27 climbed back in and put a life jacket on his seat before sitting down and shifting back and forth to get comfortable.
"Any day now," Benholman chided while the dinosaurs closed in, kicking up sand that almost reached the canoe.
"Row!" Shadowdrake27 yelled, smacking the water like it owed him money.
Dinosaurs nipped at NotSoSpecial's heels as he was dragged into the water by a wrist. Benholman and Shadowdrake27 continued to struggle forward, dragging their new teammate away from genocide. The entire time he screamed, "Can I just get in the canoe?"
