The Camp

by Karice Bolton

  “Do you have any reason to believe Justin would do that?” I questioned.

  Parker started coughing into his flannel sleeve, and I wondered why he sounded so bad.

  “No. None at all,” Parker said, deflated.

  “And where would the bodies be? We would’ve found them at the bottom of the boulder or at least drag marks if a brown bear found them first,” I replied.

  Parker nodded, his eyes glassing over.

  “The other thing that points to someone else being involved was a poem I received on my pillow, along with carved, wooden ravens. I received one yesterday and two today,” I said, scanning the group for a reaction.

  “Why didn’t we find out about the raven yesterday then?” Vince asked. He was in the same clothes as the day before, but his red hair was wet. He was sitting next to Fulton, who looked a little worse for wear. Fulton was holding his head in his hand and looked really uninterested and exhausted. His brown eyes were constantly fighting to stay awake.

  “I actually thought it was a gift. When I returned to my tent there were two more along with a note.”

  “What was in the note?” Vince continued.

  “It was kind of like a haunted poem,” I said, not wanting to give too much detail.

  “And you guys didn’t find the phone,” Vince stated rather than asked.

  “Right,” Marty confirmed. “What needs to be done is to cut the number of tents by half so everyone will be rooming with someone else. There will never be a time when someone is by themselves. Never.”

  “How do we know the person’s still even around?” Darryl questioned, crossing his arms in front of him. He still had the leather gloves on from when he was hauling wood earlier. His brown hair was tucked under a hat and he looked less than pleasant.

  “We don’t. But we can’t take a chance on anything until the next plane is scheduled to come back,” Marty answered.

  “And when is that?” Darryl asked.

  “Two weeks,” Steph said.

  “At the rate we’re going, there won’t be anyone left in two weeks,” Fulton muttered, only loud enough for me to hear. He was sitting on the log bench next to where I was standing. He refused to look up at me. Instead, he just threw pieces of bark into the fire that he was ripping off from the bench.

  “Okay, guys so let’s get all the tents taken down that we won’t be using and move the ones that we’ll be staying in closer to one another,” Marty said, pointing next to the yurt.

  The group began tearing down the tents right away, and I walked over to Steph and sat down. Her hands were folded in her lap and I placed mine on top of them.

  “Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?” I asked.

  “No,” she whispered, looking away from me.

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “The plane is only coming in two weeks if I call them for supplies. It wasn’t firm on the schedule because they actually dumped off enough today to last for over a month.”

  “Well, maybe when they don’t hear from you, they’ll get concerned and send a plane anyway,” I said, hopeful.

  “Unless the person who has the phone plans on answering any incoming calls,” she said, turning back to look at me. “I mean look at what the person did to Chelsea. She left alive, but she was broken. As a person she was gone. Her bones might heal, but her mind might never be fixed. And what if there’s more than one? I mean we’ve already gotten one of them lifted off the island. What if there’s an entire group of them.”

  “Steph, we can’t start thinking like this. We need to stay focused and strong so we can gain the upper hand over whoever is doing this.”

  Liam, David, and Caleb were talking toward us slowly. Liam looked mentally exhausted as he came over to sit next to me. David and Caleb went to talk with Marty.

  “You don’t look so hot, cuz,” Liam said, reaching across me to grab Steph’s hand.

  “She’s not doing so great,” I admitted on her behalf.

  “I don’t think this is going to end well,” she said, looking at me and then Liam.

  “We need to stay positive,” I said.

  “Steph, we can’t afford to have you thinking like that,” he seconded. “We’ll always be in each other’s sight. We’ll make it out.”

  Liam brought his hand back from Steph and stood up, watching all of the guys dismantling the extra tents.

  “Let’s go take down your tent, and get you moved into mine,” I said, linking her hands in mine and tugging on her.

  Liam led the way, and we got everything out of Steph’s tent and placed it where we were going to move my tent to. I also emptied my tent so that we could dismantle and then haul it to the next section.

  The camp’s energy intensified as the afternoon turned to evening. The sun was still up, but we knew in only a matter of hours we’d be facing our first night knowing someone might be out to cause us harm. It was also decided that it wouldn’t make sense to go on a search and rescue with so little daylight.

  No one was really hungry, but we needed to eat and Steph made that her mission. I was just relieved she found something to put her energy in besides thinking the worst. I noticed her up in the tree, standing on the platform scanning the campground and beyond. She had something hanging around her neck, but I didn’t know what until I saw her reach for it and hold it up to her eyes, binoculars.

  Steph turned slowly as she canvassed the entire area, pausing here and there to adjust the focus but then finally putting the binoculars down again, letting them hang around her neck. She was reaching into one of the containers when she slammed the lid shut and let out a scream. My heart started racing as Liam jumped up and began running, along with the other CLs, to the tree. He quickly scaled the steps, reaching Steph and flipping open the lid and then closing it.

  Dave scaled the platform and was speaking with Liam, and then he wrapped his arm around Steph’s shoulders and helped her down the steps. I jogged over to the tree and hugged her. Tears streamed down her face endlessly, and she held onto me, almost crushing me. I wanted to help her and make whatever she saw go away, but I couldn’t. And there was a part of me that wanted to see what it was she saw. I looked at Dave, who was rubbing Steph’s back to calm her down.

  “Can you take her to the yurt and stay with her for a few minutes?” I asked. “I want to go talk to Liam.”

  “Sure.”

  She reluctantly let go of me, but then attached herself onto Dave.

  I quickly climbed the nailed in pieces of wood and saw Liam squatting near the container.

  “Hey, what did she find?” I asked softly.

  He looked up at me and shook his head. “I think this is bad. Really bad. Whoever is doing this isn’t just trying to off us. They are trying to torture us on the way out.”

  I walked over to the container and opened it. There was a dead raven, with a Polaroid attached. The picture was of Chelsea, screaming. Her eyes were wide and filled with fear and her mouth was in a large oval. The only thing that gave any sort of clue as to what she encountered was of a black, gloved hand holding a hammer.

  “I’m starting to think it might be someone within the camp,” I muttered.

  He nodded. “I know. It would make the most sense.”

  Liam reached in the container and pulled out the bird and the picture, along with some of the brown paper lunch sacks and trash bags. He placed the picture in a lunch sack and wrapped the raven in a garbage bag.

  “I didn’t even know these cameras were still around,” I sighed. “The amount of thought this person has put into this is something I can’t even fathom. Should we do another search? If we weren’t looking for an old looking camera the last time, I doubt we’d notice it.”

  Liam sat down on the platform and pulled me down into him. I scooted in between his legs and leaned my head against his chest. I felt him press his lips against my scalp just breathing in and out as he held me.

  “It wouldn’t hurt,” he replied at lon
g last. “But I think even if it was someone in the camp, they’re probably smart enough to be hiding these things out in the woods. I bet you wish you’d taken the plane out of here now.”

  I felt him slowly release me, and I shifted so I could look into his eyes.

  “Not if it meant leaving you behind and going back home,” I whispered. “Every day that I’ve been away from my stepdad, I’ve realized more and more the damage he’s been causing,” I stopped talking. Now wasn’t the time to go down this path.

  “It must be bad if you think this is a better option,” he grimaced, rubbing my back.

  “Well, it’s at least different,” I said, trying to force a joke.

  “I want you to experience life away from your stepdad. I don’t know everything that he’s done and I can’t even imagine having a mother who didn’t seem to care, but you’re better than all that and an entire life is waiting for you.”

  “I appreciate it,” I said, smiling. “I really do.”

  “There were a few times I almost lost sight of it myself and once that happens it’s easy to go to some pretty dark places.”

  “You know, maybe my father didn’t give my mom and Kroy the money to pay them off to keep me, but to buy me freedom from them?”

  “I’m sure that’s exactly what he did, babe,” he whispered. Hearing him call me babe, created a sensation I wasn’t expecting, but I enjoyed the closeness it implied.

  “We should probably get dinner down to everyone,” I said, breaking free, remembering I needed to go check on Steph.

  I stood up and opened a box of freeze-dried stroganoff packets and grabbed enough for everyone. I stuck them in a trash bag and watched as Liam backed down the steps with the trash bag that contained the raven to dispose of. I followed quickly behind and was thankful once my feet touched the ground.

  “This certainly is the hard way of doing everything,” I grumbled, heaving the bag of meal pouches over my shoulder as I walked to the campfire.

  “What did you pick out for us?” Caleb asked, attempting to create a sense of normalcy that seemed impossible to achieve.

  “Stroganoff,” I replied.

  “Nothing like meat in pouches,” he said.

  “No doubt,” I said, leaving the bag next to him “Think you can handle heating the water for everyone? I’m gonna go check on Steph.”

  He nodded and waved as he grabbed a couple of kettles that he began filling with water from one of our water containers.

  I opened the door to the yurt to find Steph sleeping, and Dave reading a magazine next to the door. He got up quickly and met me outside.

  “How’s she doing?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

  “Not well at all. I think she was finally starting to get a grasp of things when that happened.”

  “Agreed,” I replied. “Caleb’s starting the dinners for everyone. I’m gonna go grab my sleeping bag and stuff and just plan on sleeping in here with her. Do you mind waiting another minute or so while I go get it?”

  “Not at all.”

  Dinner went without a hitch. Even though I told Caleb I didn’t want dinner, he still made a pouch of the stroganoff for me and I picked at it more than I thought I would. Steph didn’t touch hers at all. We all sat around the campfire until dark, mostly quiet, but sometimes a burst of talking would erupt only to quiet down again as the weight of the day burdened us all.

  When we all couldn’t take the exhaustion any more, we trundled back to our respective tents, except I planned on sleeping in the yurt with Steph since that’s where our sleeping bags were, and it felt marginally more secure than our tent. Liam grabbed his sleeping bag and pillow and met us inside the yurt.

  Instead of a night filled with talking and laughter, it was filled with silence and dread until we all could escape into our dreams before the next nightmare began.

  I woke up to heavy pounding on the yurt’s door, and Dave yelling on the other side of it. I quickly reached for the flashlight that I’d tucked under my pillow and turned it on, but Liam had already beat me up. He was at the door with a lantern blazing. I glanced behind me at Steph who was sitting upright, holding the edge of her sleeping bag tightly.

  “What’s up?” Liam asked. His pajama bottoms were hanging on him and he was leaning against the doorframe.

  “There’s been another incident,” Caleb answered. Dave was standing next to him, holding a flashlight. Both were armed.

  “How could that be?” I questioned, grabbing a sweatshirt to slip over my head as I slid on my shoes.

  Steph was instantly by my side, and I wasn’t really sure if that was a good thing or not.

  Liam slipped on his boots and turned to look at me. I could tell he wanted to tell me to stay, but he recognized that I wouldn’t. He grabbed his rifle, and motioned for us to come.

  Steph wrapped her fingers around my hand, and we followed Liam out the door, none of us saying a word.

  Dave and Caleb walked cautiously through the tents, and we trailed behind them, winding our way to the lineup of washroom and shower tents. They stopped in front of the washroom tent that was unzipped, and shined their flashlights through to the back. I craned my neck to see what the light was exposing, scared at what I might find when all that was in front of me was a huge gash in the back of the tent fabric and a single leather boot, tipped on its side. My heart was thumping with fear as I realized the hole was large enough to pull a body through the back of the tent, without ever leaving a trail.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Who was it, and why didn’t they have a partner with them?” Liam demanded, his eyes blazing even in the darkness.

  “It was Darryl, and he did,” Dave said. “Sam’s missing too.”

  Caleb shined his light along the tents. “It looks like someone dragged whoever was standing outside the bathroom that way in front of the showers. I’m not sure, which one he took first. Possibly whoever was using the restroom?”

  “Damn it.” Liam glanced at Steph and me before stepping in the tent.

  “Maybe, whoever was out here heard the commotion and unzipped the tent and the assailant came back around and grabbed him too,” Steph offered. I was stunned at her sudden amount of control and calmness.

  “Could be. The options are endless. If there are two somebodies doing this that could also explain it,” Caleb said grimly.

  “What’s going on?” Cory asked, walking up behind us with Brady.

  “Darryl and Sam went missing,” Steph said.

  “You’ve gotta be joking,” Brady said, his eyes wide. “We need to go find them.”

  “Absolutely no way is that happening. Not in the dark. We’re at a complete disadvantage, and that’s probably what the guy wants us to do,” Liam said, stepping out of the tent.

  “We can’t just leave them out there somewhere to die,” Brady protested.

  Liam, Caleb and Dave all shot glances at one another. I knew what they were thinking. We probably wouldn’t be able to find Sam or Darryl.

  “As soon as the sun’s up we’ll search for them, but not a second before,” Liam said. “Let’s wake everyone up and meet in the yurt. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

  “Let’s go take a look at our tent,” I whispered to Liam, and he nodded as we all walked back toward the yurt.

  On our walk back, we tapped on the tents softly and asked everyone to meet us in the yurt. It was apparent the victims were being picked off the island one by one. When we got to our tent, I didn’t even need to open the door to see what was waiting for us, or maybe just me. I felt my soul chill with the eerie gift that had been left for me again.

  Two more carved ravens were propped against the exterior of the door, not on my pillow. Whoever left them thought we were sleeping in the tent so at least they didn’t know we were in the yurt. That possibly excluded most of the campers from being the person or people behind this, unless someone from the camp was just trying to trick us. I heard Liam’s presence behind me as he exhaled loudly. He place
d his hand around my hip and guided me forward. We didn’t even bother to pick them up.

  “What’s going on?” Paul asked as he rubbed his eyes groggily, walking up the steps to the yurt.

  “Sam’s missing,” Cory said quietly. “And Darryl.”

  “What?” Paul stopped moving and Steph crashed into him.

  “They’re missing. Now keep moving,” Steph replied.

  Once everyone was settled, Liam closed the door and sat next to it. I scanned the crowd, and it looked like the news had already made its way completely around to everyone. I walked to one of the cots and sat down.

  “What are we gonna do? We can’t just do nothing and wait to be picked off one at a time,” Mark yelled.

  “We won’t be picked off one at a time,” Caleb replied calmly. “Tomorrow morning we’ll begin the search. Chores and learning sessions will be called off indefinitely until we solve what’s going on here.”

  Liam began speaking from the back of the tent, his eyes canvassing every person inside of it as if one might be a possible suspect. “We’re dividing into two groups of seven. We’ll begin searching on the trails that we began clearing last week and will regroup back at the camp by three in the afternoon.”

  “What if we don’t want to go? It sounds like a deathtrap,” Paul muttered, not looking up at anyone.

  “You wanna stay here and wait for someone to come grab you? Have at it!” Mark said, shaking his head.

  “Whoever it is probably expects us to go searching for everyone.” Paul threw his hands in the air and glared at Mark. “We’re probably just falling right into his hands.”

  “We’re screwed either way we cut it. Two people went missing on a hike, and two people went missing in the camp. Whoever it is will get us no matter what,” Vince said.

  “You really think that?” Mark asked, raising his brow. “Maybe you’re so certain because it’s you. You’re the only one fully clothed. The rest of us are in pajamas. It wouldn’t have been hard for you to do what you had to do.”