Camp Woodlake
“Hey! Over here!” called Susan motioning for Chet to come join her and Mary.
They were in the amphitheater at Camp Woodlake. The first campfire of the year was about to commence and for the first time the members of the group were going to be camp counselors instead of campers.
“Have you all been assigned your classes, yet?” asked Chet, sitting down next to Susan.
“Rick was given knots class, but I don’t have mine yet,” replied Susan.
“Shhhh, they’re starting,” hissed Mary.
There was suddenly a flurry of movement on stage as a series of camp counselors danced on to stage dressed as Native Americans. Chet immediately recognized Rick in a red headdress with a pair of pants, shirt, and shoes, all made of leather. The noise of a drum gave the group their rhythm as they circled the newly burning fire while hooting and hollering. Then both the dancers and the drum stopped. It was eerily silent as the Indians waited for the fire to spread.
Then the emergency siren started to wale from the main sign-in office. The Indian camp counselors quickly broke character and quickly started shouting orders to the bewildered campers.
The same message was repeated a hundred times from every camp counselor, “return to camp and wait for further instructions.”
Chet, who had fought his way down to the bottom of the amphitheater, found Rick and asked him what he knew about the emergency.
“Same as you, and I won’t know more till we get to the office. Where’s Mary?”
“She told me she will meet you at the office.”
“Let’s get going then; we have a bit of a hike in the dark in head of us.”
After 15 minutes of navigating through dark trails, occasionally coming across a camp filled with campers, they finally arrived at the main office. Half the counselors were already there, but more were arriving by the minute in small groups of two’s and three’s.
“Attention everyone please!” boomed George Oswald, the director of the camp.
There was instant silence through out the congregation, Oswald’s large size often had that effect on people.
“Thank you, we have just had reports of an accident in the laboratory on the other side of the mountain. We are told that it is nothing serious, however, we have been strongly recommended to evacuate camp.
There was a mass of noise as 60 counselors began to protest at once, Oswald had to yell for a full minute for silence.
“I know this is objectionable but we must put the campers in front of ourselves, however, if any counselors would like to stay then I cannot stop you, but if anyone is planning to stay I highly recommend that you are careful to be safe. You are all dismissed, pass on the word to the leaders of the camps.”
Rick immediately began to grumble as he, Chet, Susan, and Mary made their way from the office. “How am I supposed to get back to Michigan?” he complained, “I have little money, know transportation and no food. Plus we will just be back in a week anyway.”
“So does that means you’re staying?” exclaimed Mary, “but you heard Oswald, the whole camp is shutting down. There is no point in us staying here.”
“No point in going back home, neither.” replied Rick, “Chet, Susan, you in?”
Chet and Susan exchanged looks and seemed to agree that it would be unfair for Rick to go back to Michigan just to return in a little while.
“I’ll stay,” said Chet.
“Me too,” added Susan.
“Oh alright,” conceded Mary.
“Great, let’s get back to camp and start a fire. I’m cold” shivered Rick.
Later, back at camp, the group was sitting by the fire talking about who they thought would stay.
“Johnson has to stay, he lives in Louisiana, no way is he going back for a little scare like this.”
There was a faint rustling in the bushes back by Susan and Mary’s tent.
“Did you hear that?” whispered Mary.
“What? Oh, it’s probably just a squirrel in the bush, stop acting scared, it won’t hurt you.” said Rick.
“Could you look please?” squeaked Mary.
“Fine if you’ll stop complaining about it,” said Rick.
He marched over to the bush and giving it a good kick, scared the thing out of the bushes. It leaped past Rick, who gave a start and fell over, and darted through the clearing and to the other side of trees. As it passed the fire, Chet got a good look at the beast, it had the body of and size of a deer, but it’s teeth were like a canine’s and the head was larger. The group could hear its progress through the trees as it attempted to get as far away as possible.
“What was that?!” screamed Mary.
“Oh, it was just a deer,” replied Rick who also appeared shaken.
“No, I think it was modified or something, are there any genetic engineering labs around here you think?” asked Susan.
“There couldn’t be, the government doesn’t allow that type of thing,” replied Rick who was shaking from head to foot from his shock.
Then they heard a low guttural sound coming from the trees to Chet’s back. It got higher in pitch and then dropped so low that it rumbled in Chet’s chest like a big drum.
“What is that?” squeaked Susan and Mary together, cradling themselves in each other’s arms.
Suddenly there was a loud noise as Rick accidentally kicked a pot in his haste to find his flashlight.
Suddenly the animal made its way into the fire’s light and the group saw its gruesome features. Its body was covered in thick scales, but it was the size of a large bear. It stood on four legs but looked as if it could rear up on two when it wanted to. Its eyes we bloodshot red and there were fearsome claws that grew out from the end of each of its limbs. There could be no doubt that this was a fearsome predator.
“Run!” shouted Rick, quickly bolting for the trees opposite the monster. “Make for the office.”
The group didn’t need telling twice, they all started to follow Rick blindly. There was no light so as they ran, they often tripped or fell due to roots or loose dirt. None of them was sure if there was a pursuit or if the animal was just back at their camp. Either way they were just trying to put as must distance between them and it as possible. When they began to slow for breath they again heard the guttural noise from the animal and they saw a shadow of another of the beasts, 2/3 the size of the first one but still with all the mighty power as the first one.
The group took off again, if there were two then there were more. The whole forest could have been filled to monsters for all they knew. They just ran and ran looking for their way out, the office.
When they broke free of the trees and were in sight of the office, they became aware of high pitched hehe noise. Chet chanced a quick look back to three or four large dogs. They were like hyenas except not even hyenas made a laugh this terrible. It sounded like the chorus of the dead. These animals were also fast. They had made up half the ground to the group when they still had 100 yards to go.
Chet saw Susan cry out as she lost her footing on some gravel Rick kept going but Mary and Chet stopped and formed a barrier between the monsters and Susan. The animals circled around their prey, the whole time laughing their terrible laugh. Chet saw no way out, no hope, he saw the glint of the animal’s teeth as it leaped…a shot rang out and the hyena/canine hybrid collapsed. Another shot rang out and another, whoever the shooter was, he had unerring accuracy hitting mark after mark.
Mary and Chet picked up Susan and carried her the rest of the way to the office. When they arrived they saw none other than George Oswald sitting on the roof booming in his deep voice, “Bet you wish you left now, don’t you?”
hcps-schwiedak :: May.31.2009 ::
Fiction, Project ::
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