by Katie Tsang
‘Even with the zombie werewolf on the loose?’
Ralph frowned and looked away. ‘I don’t want to talk about that.’
This really was his greatest fear. It was understandable. I bet even Spaceman Jack would be afraid of a zombie werewolf.
‘Well, do you want a code word or something, just in case?’ I said, trying one last time. Ralph might be my enemy, but you know the phrase ‘I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy?’ I wouldn’t wish facing a zombie werewolf on someone alone in the dark – even Ralph.
‘How about . . . Scaredy-Cat Sam Wu-ser?’ said Ralph with a sneer.
‘That’s way too long.’ And just when I was starting to think Ralph and I were on the same team. It looked as if we were back to being enemies. ‘And by the time you said all that, it would be WAY too late.’
And then I left him on his own. With his dumb phone.
I stopped by Zoe and Regina’s tent too. The castle tent was just as cool as the spaceship tent! They were both already in their sleeping bags and yawning.
‘We’re all good, Captain Sam,’ said Zoe.
‘We’ll see you in the morning,’ added Regina.
‘Mmm, I wonder what we’ll have for breakfast?’ said Zoe with a yawn. ‘I’m already hungry.’
‘Aren’t you . . . worried about everything? Like the alien? And whatever is out in the dark?’ I asked.
Zoe and Regina looked at each other and shrugged. ‘My parents are super close,’ said Regina. ‘I don’t think we have anything to worry about tonight.’
‘And I’m so tired,’ said Zoe. ‘I’m just ready for bed.’
‘Okay,’ I said dubiously. There was still LOTS to worry about if you asked me. But there was nothing we could do right then about whatever was out in the dark, and I didn’t want to freak them out. All part of being a good captain. ‘Well, goodnight then.’
‘Night!’ they said together.
By the time I got back in my tent with Stanley and Bernard, the fire was almost completely out.
It was getting really dark.
Really, really dark.
Darker than no man’s land dark.
‘Should we turn on our flashlights?’ I said to Bernard and Stanley.
‘What for?’ said Stanley with a yawn. ‘We’re going to bed.’
‘Yeah, and there’s nothing to see in here anyway,’ said Bernard. ‘I know what we all look like.’
‘And we don’t want the flashlights to run out of battery,’ added Stanley.
‘It was just an idea,’ I mumbled. Had everyone forgotten about the aliens?
And whatever was hiding in the dark? I wanted to say something, but just like with the girls, I didn’t want to worry everyone if there was nothing we could do.
I lay in the dark, staring up at the roof of the tent.
At least I thought I was staring at the roof of the tent. It was so dark, I had no idea what I was staring at. I couldn’t even see my own hand in front of my face! My eyes might as well have been closed.
I suddenly remembered that Lucy had snuck a night light in my backpack. I slowly sat up and reached over for my bag.
‘Ow!’ said Bernard. ‘What are you doing?’
Whoops. I must have elbowed him.
‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘I just need to get something from my backpack. Where’s the flashlight?’
‘I don’t know – I can’t see where I put it,’ said Bernard.
‘WHAT IS THE POINT OF AN EMERGENCY FLASHLIGHT IF YOU CAN’T FIND IT IN THE DARK?’
I exclaimed.
‘Calm down, Sam,’ said Stanley, turning on his flashlight. ‘What do you need from your backpack?’
I swallowed. What kind of captain would I be if I admitted I wanted a night light?
‘None of your business,’ I said.
‘It’s my business if you are rustling around making all that noise,’ grumbled Stanley.
‘Just give me my bag, please.’
Stanley passed me my backpack. I unzipped it and dug around. There was the night light! Lucy to the rescue. I’d get it out and wait for the others to go to sleep and then plug it in.
But then, as I gripped it in my hands, I realized something.
There wasn’t anywhere to plug the night light in.
Of course there wasn’t. We were camping. In a tent.
I still owe Lucy one. It isn’t her fault there aren’t any plug sockets out in the woods.
‘Lights out, you guys,’ Bernard’s dad called from outside our tent. ‘I can see a flashlight on. It’s time for bed.’
Stanley switched it off. And then it was dark again.
I lay in my sleeping bag and tried to sleep. First, I lay on my back. Then I switched to my side. Then the other side. Then my stomach. Nothing was working. My brain was wide awake as I thought about all the things that could be right outside the tent in the dark.
I made a list in my head. Captain Jane says that when you don’t know what to do in a situation, the best thing to do is make a list to know what you’re dealing with. Outside in the dark there might be:
Aliens
Werewolves
Zombie werewolves
Bears
Bats
Vampire bats
Normal wolves
Monsters
Ghosts
The Ghost King
Snakes (not Fang)
Any combination of the above
other even scarier things I’ve never even heard of
This was the first time that Captain Jane’s advice had NOT helped. Making the list just made me realize how many things could be hiding in the dark, and that there was NO way to prepare for all of them. Even a spaceman can only be so brave!
Finally, after about a million hours, I was almost asleep. Then, just as my eyes were closing (at least I think they were – it was so dark that I couldn’t tell), something poked me in the side.
‘Sam! Sam! Are you awake?’ It was Stanley. ‘Mmmph,’ I said into my sleeping bag.
‘Sam! Wake up!’ He poked me again harder. And then he PINCHED me.
‘Ow, Stanley! I don’t care about your “jet lag”. Go to sleep!’ I said in a loud whisper.
‘No, it’s not that! Sam, do you hear that?’ Stanley whispered back.
‘Hear what?’
‘Listen!’
‘Right now, all I hear is you whispering in my ear.’
‘Okay, well listen now.’
So I did.
Outside the tent, the wind was rustling in the trees, and there were all kinds of eerie creaks and cracks and small squeaks.
I had been so worried about not being able to see in the dark, I’d completely forgotten about listening for danger. I should have known better. After all, I was the one who’d said earlier that we needed to use all of our senses (except taste). When I heard a loud HOOT, I sat bolt upright.
‘Not that – that’s just an owl,’ said Stanley next to me.
‘I know that,’ I whispered back grumpily.
‘Keep listening,’ said Stanley.
There were even more sounds. I listened as hard as I could. I thought I could even hear the gurgling of the stream that I’d fallen into earlier.
There was another crack.
And another.
This one was louder.
And closer.
‘THAT! Something’s out there,’ whispered Stanley urgently. ‘We should wake up Bernard.’
‘I’m already awake,’ whispered Bernard. ‘You guys are so loud.’
‘Do you hear that noise?’ I said.
‘Now I do,’ he whispered back. ‘What should we do?’
‘Nothing,’ Stanley and I said at the same time.
Suddenly there was a flash of light right outside our tent.
‘Wha-wha-what’s that?’ stammered Bernard.
‘BE QUIET,’ I whispered back. ‘We don’t want it to know we are in here!’
The light outside moved. Now we could see shadows shifting out
side.
‘Maybe it’s my dad,’ whispered Bernard.
But then we saw it.
A shape right outside our tent.
And it wasn’t Bernard’s dad.
It was BIG. Even bigger than his dad.
And it was growling.
‘It’s a bear!’ whispered Bernard. ‘It’s going to eat us!’
‘It’s an alien!’ said Stanley in a hushed, panicked voice.
‘It’s an ALIEN BEAR!’ I said, because this was obviously the most logical conclusion.
‘We have to get my dad!’ whispered Bernard, starting to sit up.
I grabbed his arm. ‘No! We can’t go outside! This is the safest place to be. It doesn’t know we’re here yet.’
‘Then why is it so close?’
There were more cracks and footsteps outside the tent. The big shape was sniffing around our tent. We could hear it breathing.
We all stayed silent.
‘PLAY DEAD,’ I whispered as loudly as I dared. ‘That’s the best thing to do, right?’
‘Right,’ said Stanley.
‘How do I do that?’ whispered Bernard, lying back down again.
‘Just close your eyes and lie still,’ I said.
‘I was doing that before you woke me up!’
‘Well, do it again!’
‘If we’re all playing dead, we shouldn’t be talking,’ whispered Stanley.
I heard a twig snap and I was sure it was right next to our tent. Then there was another growl, and this time it was even closer. We all froze.
‘Playing dead, playing dead,’ Bernard mumbled under his breath.
‘Play dead quieter,’ I said.
And then I closed my eyes tight, stayed very still, and hoped that my plan would work.
I SURVIVED!
It had been a long night. It was hard to play dead when I was sure that EVERY noise was something coming to eat me. But I must have fallen asleep at some point because I woke up to the sun shining and birds chirping and Stanley snoring and I’ve never been so happy. I thought for sure that whatever was outside our tent last night was going to get us.
I shook Stanley and Bernard awake.
‘We made it through the night! Playing dead worked!’
We all high-fived our success.
‘We should go check on the others,’ I said. In the daylight, I wasn’t afraid of anything.
I bounded out of our tent to see if the others were okay, like a good captain. I was so focused that I nearly stepped in the firepit.
‘Whoa, careful there, Sam,’ said Bernard’s dad, pulling me back by the arm. ‘Those logs are pretty hot. I’m starting up the fire again to make breakfast.’
‘Mr Wilson! Did you hear the monster last night?’ I wasn’t sure what exactly we’d heard, but ‘monster’ seemed a pretty good general description that covered most bases.
Bernard’s dad yawned. ‘Can’t say that I did. I was out like a log. Ask Bernard – I can sleep through pretty much anything. Now, one time out on an archaeological dig . . .’
‘Sorry, Mr Wilson – I’ve got to go and wake up the others!’ I said, running off before he launched into what was sure to be an incredibly long and boring story about digging up old stuff.
I tried to knock on Zoe and Regina’s castle tent, but because it was fabric, it didn’t work very well. So I used my voice instead.
I yelled.
Zoe stuck her head outside the tent and yawned. ‘What do you want?’
‘You’re alive!’ I said. ‘Did Regina make it?’
Regina’s head popped out too. ‘I did . . . but we heard noises all night!’ Her eyes were wide.
‘I did too,’ I said grimly. ‘Let me go wake up Ralph and then we can compare stories.’
I grabbed a pot and metal spoon from beside the fire and went up to Ralph’s tent. I banged the pot as loudly as I could to wake him up.
‘WHAT?’ he shouted from inside his tent.
‘Just making sure you survived the night!’ I yelled.
‘Of course I did,’ said Ralph, coming out of his tent. But he had big circles under his eyes and didn’t look like he’d slept at all.
‘Are you okay?’ I asked. He looked terrible.
‘I didn’t sleep very much,’ he admitted.
I lowered my voice. ‘Did you hear it too?’
‘The growling?’ he said.
I nodded. ‘Yep. What did you do?’
‘Played dead, of course,’ he said with a scoff.
‘Nicely done,’ I said, offering my hand in a high-five.
Ralph ignored it.
‘I’m going back to bed,’ he said.
‘But we have to stick together today!’ I said. ‘And make the most of the daylight. This is when we can search for clues.’
Ralph rolled his eyes. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘But only if we have breakfast first.’
Over a campfire breakfast of beans and boiled eggs, cooked over an open flame, we compared stories.
‘I heard the growling too!’ said Regina.
‘What about the twigs breaking?’
‘And the whistle?’
‘I didn’t hear a whistle.’
‘It was right next to my tent!’
‘And the footsteps!’
We tried to tell the adults, but they just laughed again.
‘We sleep with earplugs, even at home,’ said Ralph and Regina’s mum. ‘But it sounds as if you heard lots of exciting nature sounds! Owls, perhaps. How very lovely.’
‘It was more than an owl. There was something BIG and GROWLY in our campsite,’ I said. ‘We all heard it.’
‘Well, you survived to tell the tale, so that’s something,’ said Bernard’s dad.
We all sighed. Even Ralph. There was no way the adults were going to believe us.
‘So, what’s the plan, Captain?’ said Bernard after we’d finished eating. We had regrouped next to our tents.
I picked up a stick and drew a circle in the dirt. ‘This is our campsite,’ I said. I put five triangles inside the circle. ‘And these are all our tents. We know that the creature in the dark went here, here and here,’ I drew its suspected path. ‘Today our goal is to scout out the area for clues. Try to figure out where it came from, what it is and how we can defend ourselves against it if it comes back.’
‘Sounds like a big job,’ said Stanley.
I nodded. ‘It is. Which is why we need to work together. I need everyone on this crew to work as a team. Are you with me?’ I put my hand out in the middle. Bernard and Zoe stuck their hand in too. After a second, so did Stanley and Regina.
We all looked at Ralph.
‘What do you say, Commander?’
He rolled his eyes and flung his own hand in. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘But only because I know you losers will bug me if I don’t.’
‘Ralph, if you are going to do this with us, you have to be properly in it,’ said Regina. ‘That’s the rule.’
‘Fine,’ he said, and mumbled something under his breath.
‘What was that?’ I said.
‘I SAID FOR THE STUPID UNIVERSE,’ he said.
‘For the universe!’ we all shouted and shot our hands up in the air.
There we were, a real crew about to start a real adventure.
Before we could go off on our own adventure, the adults made us hike to a nearby waterfall.
It was impressive, for a waterfall, but we didn’t find any clues.
Finally, we were allowed to go exploring on our own.
‘Stay together and don’t go too far,’ Regina’s mum shouted after us.
‘And remember, stay on the path!’ boomed Bernard’s dad. He was so loud, I was surprised there wasn’t a rock slide or an avalanche.
As the captain, I led the way.
Until everyone realized I was leading us in circles.
‘Sam, this isn’t very fun,’ said Zoe.
‘Yeah, you’ve made us look at the same tree like five times,’ said Stanley.
<
br /> ‘I thought we were going on an adventure,’ added Regina.
‘I knew this would be lame,’ said Ralph with a smirk.
I couldn’t even deny it. I didn’t know the first thing about how to track our mysterious night-time visitor.
‘It’s okay, Captain,’ said Bernard. ‘But maybe we should try a different route next.’
‘What’s down that way?’ said Stanley, pointing to a small trail off the main one.
Bernard held up a map. ‘It’s a cave,’ he said.
‘Ohhhh!’ said everyone but me.
A cave sounded EXACTLY like the kind of place a scary night-time creature would hide during the day. And the last thing we wanted to do was to wake it up. I might have felt braver by daylight, but as far as I knew, caves were VERY dark.
I grabbed the map. ‘Great research, Chief Research Officer Bernard,’ I said. ‘Now we know which area to avoid.’
Stanley grabbed the map back. ‘What? No! I want to see the cave.’
‘Yeah, me too,’ said Ralph.
‘What’s wrong, Sam? Are you scared?’
‘Of course not,’ I said. ‘I just don’t want to lead us the wrong way. Or into danger.’
‘You’ve already led us in circles,’ said Ralph with a snort. ‘We’ve been following you all day. I think we should go with your cousin Stanley.’
I looked around at the rest of my crew. ‘Is that what you all think?’
No one would look at me.
‘We have just been going in circles,’ said Regina quietly.
‘But you’ve done an excellent job of keeping us out of danger,’ piped Bernard.
At least I can always count on Bernard to be loyal.
As Stanley led us deeper into the woods, Bernard whispered to me, ‘What do you think happens when we get to the cave?’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
‘Are we going to go in it?’
‘No way!’ I said. ‘Who would want to go INSIDE a dark cave?’
Turned out, everyone but us.
When we got to the cave opening, Stanley immediately wanted to go in it.
