The argument was full blown between Sampson and Henry. Sam wanted to follow Crutch and his gang after lunch, and ambush them as they laid their trap. Henry wanted to undo the trap, move the geo-cache to a safe location and just tell Clancy on Crutch. Daniel was trying to mediate, but it wasn’t going well. Sam was standing more and more upright, and his raspy voice getting louder and louder. Henry too, it seemed, had dug in his heels against Sam’s idea.
"What does Shy want to do?" Ralph asked quietly.
They all turned to Shy. Sam and Henry looked at Ralph, stopped arguing, and turned to Shy.
"I don’t know. I guess it would be safer if we just moved the geo cache. I am more wondering what they are going to use as a trap. Maybe we won’t be able to move it…."
"That settles it," Daniel quickly said as Sampson’s forehead began to crinkle up again. Not giving Sam a chance to say anything, Daniel continued, "I vote two of us follow Crutch, watch what they do, and then decide what to do from there. The rest of us can wait close-by, but not close enough to make the Cave dwellers suspicious."
They all nodded their agreement and most began to volunteer for duty. Daniel again quickly took control and hushed them all with his hands. He said, "I think it should be Sawyer and Finn who go to do the spying. They are the best tree climbers, and everyone has seen them do it all over the camp. So, they’ve got, like, a good excuse, right? If anyone spots you guys, just pretend like you found some great trees to climb, and were just messing around."
Sawyer and Finn high fived each other initially, but were now listening intently to everything Daniel had to say. Shy watched as Daniel continued to lay out the plan and give instructions. He marveled at the way Daniel had taken control of the group, and jealously wished he could do that.
Most of the group was to wait in the Lodge after supper, while Finn and Sawyer were to sneak off to spy on the geo-cache location, and try to catch the Cave Cabin Boys in the act of setting the trap for Shy. When Finn and Sawyer reported back, then they would decide how to spring the trap. In the meantime, they all hiked back to the Hive, for a break and for some, a nap!
Chapter Seven:
"Sure you know what I am. I see. I know."
Tad woke most of the boys up from where they were crashed on bean bags and hammocks with an old bugle that he pretended to play. Henry said it sounded like a dying cow, and they all agreed. They got up stretched and while most hopped onto the zip line for a quick flight to the Lodge, Sawyer and Finn started a bean bag war with each other. The battle soon got out of hand and everyone was throwing pillows. By the time they tired of the battle, the Hive was a disaster. Shy felt bad for Tom T. He would need to bring another dessert!
Shy was one of the first ones on the zip line, and reveled in the speed as he zipped through the air. When he got to the bottom, he watched as the sylphon, the Tinker Bell type creatures, carried the bars away through the trees, back up to the Hive. He wished that he could see these fairy creatures, and began to imagine what he thought they would look like. Slender white faces, probably blond hair, and cute little green pixie outfits that glittered in the light was what he came up with. That was probably not right, Shy thought…. He really wished he could see them. As he stared, the bar began to blur. Shy attempted to refocus, but before he could, Finn came screaming down the line.
When all the boys and Tad had arrived at the landing site, they tramped off toward the Lodge. Shy could feel an edge, a sense that something exciting was going to happen was definitely in the air. As Shy looked from face to face, he saw a secret glance here, a small smile there, a fist clenched as they walked. It made him feel warm inside that his new friends were all together as one in his defense. Shy had noticed, though, that over the past few weeks the bullying of Crutch and his cronies had spread to anyone in the Forest cabin group. It wasn’t just for Shy’s defense that they were doing this, but it still made Shy feel like a part of something special. He realized at that time how confident in himself and his friends he had become. They were going to turn the tables on the Cave bullies, and each and every one of them were excited about it.
Supper was consumed quickly, and their impatience must have been obvious because Tad had wandered over and was attempting to draw them into conversation. Shy felt like Tad suspected something was up.
Turning away from Henry’s account of how he had supposedly skipped a rock with sixteen jumps earlier in the day, Tad focused on Shy and asked, "So, are you two ready to go for tonight?"
"Yep," Shy answered as confidently as he could. Daniel looked over from his perch on the end of the table. Shy began to sweat on his forehead. He looked up at Tad’s eyes burrowing into him. He was now sure that Tad suspected something.
"How did you prepare?"
"We practiced all morning," Shy answered as he looked away from Tad.
"Hmmmm…. Be safe. Expect the unexpected," Tad continued in a whisper that only Shy could hear, "Especially you…. Gust told me about his little meeting with you this morning. You have abilities here in this camp, evidently. Those abilities may make you a target. Stay close to Daniel. Gust and I will be out and about, too." He ended with a serious, firm nod to Shy, as the other boys began to take notice of the whispered conversation, and looked their way.
Shy was embarrassed by the attention and relieved when Daniel stood up and said, "Guys, let’s go find something to do! Tad, is that OK? Do we have free time now?"
Tad nodded his assent, and the boys piled out of the front of the Lodge, following Daniel. They climbed onto a stand of huge boulders in front of the Lodge, scrambling over them like little spiders.
"OK, you guys ready?" Daniel asked while nodding at Sawyer and Finn.
"Locked and loaded!" Sawyer responded with enthusiasm, while the two again high fived.
"OK, go…. But make it look like you are chasing one another or something…. Not like you are sneaking off. Don’t look suspicious."
They nodded, then Finn turned and looked at Sawyer, Sawyer screamed and took off at a run with Finn close on his heels. The rest of the boys laughed at the antics of the two as they screamed like little girls all the way across the open space. Even Shy had to smile.
"They won’t be back for a while, let’s go down by the rope bridge," Henry suggested. "I haven’t been on it since we got here."
The other five boys agreed and headed toward the gravelly path that led to the rope bridge. The temp got cooler the closer they got to the bridge. By the time they stepped out onto the plank pathway held together by wrist thick rope, they were engulfed in cool mist. It was a fog that dimmed the sun and hid the river gorge floor below them. They could hear the rush of the river below as they moved out onto the bridge. A feeling of mystery settled on Shy. Something about that wide gorge and its unseen bottom drew his thoughts downward. He began to imagine all types of creatures, not only going about their business down there, but aware of him, and occasionally looking up at the boys. He shivered.
The five were all hanging on the ropes and looking into the misty fog. Suddenly, they heard the bloodcurdling cry that they first heard weeks earlier with Tad on the path leading to the waterfall overlook. Shy recognized that it was the same wailing laughter that he had heard on the very first day, when they entered the camp.
As the boys had done when they were on the path with Tad, they tried to imitate the cry from below. After several attempts by Daniel, Henry, and Sam, they abruptly heard an answering call. As happened previously, the call seemed closer and louder. This time, however, there was no Tad to stop them from continuing. Shy realized this and turning to Ralph, saw his nervousness echoed in the eyes of his friend.
As Ralph started edging back toward the Lodge, the three loon callers repeated their calls. Again the horrible laughter or crying came closer from below. This time even Sam, Daniel, and Henry were alarmed by the loudness and ferociousness of the return call. They edged away from the ropes and looked at Ralph heading back up toward the Lodge, now at a run. Shy was backing up i
n that direction too. Just as Ralph reached land, a horrible impact hit the bottom of the bridge and the four remaining boys fell to the planks. The bridge swung precariously!
They scrambled quickly to their feet and as one ran for safety, holding the rope railing as they ran. The mist swirled to their left and although they could not see anything, they could hear huge wings beating the air to their left. Shy was just reaching the edge when the horrible cry pierced the air to the left. Shy dropped to his knees on the river gorge Cliffside, and covered his ears. The three remaining friends on the bridge had also fallen to their knees, holding their ears. It was a good thing they were down, because as Shy turned and watched, the bridge was again impacted so roughly by the invisible creature, had the three been standing, they surely would have been knocked over the edge.
"Shy uncovered his ears and cupping his hands around his mouth, he screamed, "RUN!"
The three could not hear Shy’s cry, but at that point pure survival instinct took over and they ran… fast and hard. Daniel and Sam, being bigger and stronger, reached land, but Henry was lagging behind. The invisible winged creature screamed and struck again at the bridge, and Henry was knocked down, and slid off the planks!
Shy saw it all happen, and in what he would later describe as slow motion, he ran out onto the swinging bridge toward the one hand he saw gripping the rope railing. Reaching Henry, he grabbed his arm and pulled him from the invisible abyss. Together they scrambled the remaining feet to safety.
The other three boys were laying up on the path, panting and shaking.
***
They were resting by the ping pong table in the Lodge, when Sawyer and Finn finally showed up. The two knew something was going on immediately, because the rest of the group was so quiet.
"What’s going on?" Sawyer asked immediately.
Daniel immediately related the story of what had happened. Sawyer and Finn listened incredulously. He stressed Shy’s heroics, at which point Henry nodded vigorously. When Daniel had finished, a silence resumed. No one knew what to say, Shy thought.
"So what happened with Crutch and the geo cache?" Shy tried to deflect them from the topic, and move on.
They all turned to look at him. The plan with Crutch had been pretty much forgotten. The scare on the bridge had made them realize that what Tad had said was true. There was real danger here.
"Well, we found the spot and parked ourselves up in some nearby trees," Sawyer began. "We had to wait for a while, but eventually Clancy and Gust showed up and hid the geo cache container right in that hollowed stump. Crutch must have been following Clancy, or watching nearby because he showed up just after the geo cache had been hidden, with about four other Cave cabin jerks, and they were carrying a big plastic bag. They took the geo cache container and put the bag in its spot."
"Then they left with the container. So, I signaled Sawyer, climbed down, and followed them," Finn took up the story. "They went down the river gorge path a ways and threw the container in the woods." Finn smiled a toothy smile as he pulled the container from under the back of his shirt.
"Put that thing away!" Sawyer scolded as he stepped forward to attempt to hide it. "Clancy and Gust could be in the next room… or anywhere nearby!"
Abashed, Finn hid it again by slipping the tube-like container into the back of his pants, and covering it with his shirt.
"It just has some papers in it," Sawyer explained, "but we figured Shy can just take it with him and act like he found it!
"What was in the plastic bag they placed in the stump?" Henry asked.
"You're gonna love this!" Sawyer smiled. "While Finn went off chasing the geo cache container, I went to check out the trap. I didn’t notice anything weird, at first. Then very faintly, I could hear buzzing. I picked it up and held it to my ear, and it hit me what it was. They must have found a hornets’ nest or beehive and bagged it up. They figured that Shy and Daniel would just open it up and get stung like a million times by these very angry bees."
"What did you do with it?" Daniel asked.
Finn smiled, and again took up the story. "When I got back, Sawyer and I went toward their Cave cabins, until we could hear them hooting, hollering, and bragging about their plan. We waited and watched, and eventually they all snuck into a hidden entrance to the caves. We waited some more, then when it was quiet, we snuck up, opened the bag, and flung it into the hidden entrance, and ran!"
"I am not sure, but a couple minutes later, I thought I could hear some hollering from the direction of the caves!"
After absorbing the whole story, the boys congratulated themselves on a job well done, and headed back to the Hive to prepare for Shy and Daniel’s night geo-caching adventure.
***
Several hours later, Shy smiled as they all gathered at the landing ground for the zip line. The boys all fist bumped, or high fived him and Daniel. Tad approached and shook their hands. Looking very directly into Shy’s eyes and holding the handshake a second longer than normal was all the warning he gave Shy, but that look had plenty of ‘be careful’ in it. Shy was nervous, both to head off into this spooky dark forest, but also because he was worried Tad knew about the geo-cache that he had shoved into the back of his shorts.
Shy had the tube tucked in the back of his pants, covered with his shirt, just like Finn had earlier. He had felt guilty about cheating, so he had not opened the geo cache container yet. He figured that if he limited their cheating, that maybe it wasn’t quite as bad. He had also been worried that since Crutch and his gang now knew their trap had been sprung, that they might try another. He had mentioned it to Daniel, but Daniel’s confidence had overridden the worry.
Grinning to hide their nervousness, they set off to the picnic area at the back of the lodge. There, waiting, was a team from each of the other three cabins and Clancy. Gust too was waiting with his feet up on the adjacent picnic table.
"Well, well, look who decided to show up," Gust drawled out as he rose to his feet and gave them a wink. "OK, kids, listen up to Mrs. Clancy for the rules."
"You will be given a sealed envelope with coordinates of your targeted geo cache, and back up directions to use with the compass if your GPS fails." Clancy began in a nasally voice. "There are sometimes strange electromagnetic currents in this forest that disrupt electronics, like the GPS. That is why your counselors have instructed you all to train first with the compass, then with the GPS. Along with the directions, you are each obviously allowed one GPS unit, a compass, one of these topographic maps of the campground and surrounding forest, your flashlights, a water bottle, and one of these snack bars. You are to retrieve the geo cache with these tools, open it, and follow the directions inside. If you fail to find it within one hour, you are to return here, to the lodge. Understood?"
They all nodded their assent.
"Does everyone have a watch besides their GPS clock?" Clancy asked.
Shy and Daniel looked at each other, and then signaled to Clancy that they did not. They were the only team that didn’t. Gust took off his watch and put it on Shy’s arm. Then they were all ready to go.
"OK, remember, one hour, or return here. Got it?" Without waiting for an answer she continued, "Good, be careful out there, and remember the rules that your counselors have mentioned to you." Clancy offered as parting instructions.
Gust approached and made sure each team had a map, compass, and a GPS. He also gave each one a snack bar, and bottled water, and their envelope with coordinates and directions. They had their own flashlights in hand already, so the groups split up to open their envelopes.
Shy and Daniel entered their coordinates into their GPS. They did not study it for too long, but rather set out on the path from the lodge that travelled due west, toward the setting sun and the river gorge path. The other groups moved off in a similar fashion, but in different directions. When they reached the river gorge path, they turned south toward the spot where they would head off the path. They checked the GPS receiving device occasionally, just t
o verify. In fact, when they got to the spot where they were supposed to turn off the path, they held a whispered conversation, and decided to continue on the path, to see how the GPS would react, and to make it look like they did not already know where they were going…. Just in case Gust was watching. Sure enough, the GPS showed that they had gone too far, and their target was now slightly behind them. They made their way back and turned off the path toward their target.
Then sun had now almost completely set, and darkness was rapidly drawing down upon the two. They had edged quite a ways into the underbrush, and Shy was watching the path illuminated by his flashlight, so he wouldn’t trip, when Daniel grabbed his shoulder.
"Did you hear that?" Daniel whispered with some urgency.
"No… what?"
"I swear I heard whispers."
They stopped and waited silent as the mosquitoes buzzed their heads.
Suddenly, they heard the snap of a twig break the silence. Then, nothing. They looked at each other and Daniel silently motioned Shy to turn off his flashlight. Shy did so, and their eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. Soon the silhouettes of trees formed as their vision adjusted. They heard nothing further, so began to edge forward with their lights off.
The Fossegrimen Folly Page 10
