09 - Welcome to Camp Nightmare (6 page)

My heart was pounding so hard, I could feel the blood pulsing at my temples.
“You really don’t know what happened to Mike?” I asked, feeling defeated.

Larry shook his head. “I’m sure he’s fine,” he replied, turning back to his
pals.

“He probably went for a swim,” the scraggly haired guy next to him snickered.

Larry and some of the other counselors laughed, too.

I didn’t think it was funny. I felt pretty sick. And a little frightened.

Don’t the counselors at this camp care what happens to us?
I asked
myself glumly.

I made my way back to the table. They were passing out chocolate pudding for
dessert, but I wasn’t hungry.

I told Colin and Jay and Roger about Mike’s dresser drawer being cleaned out,
and about how Larry pretended he didn’t know anything about it. They didn’t get
as upset about it as I was.

“Uncle Al probably had to send Mike home because of his hand,” Colin said
quietly, spooning up his pudding. “It was pretty swollen.”

“But why wouldn’t Larry tell me the truth?” I asked, my stomach still feeling
as if I had eaten a giant rock for dinner. “Why did he say he didn’t know what
happened to Mike?”

“Counselors don’t like to talk about bad stuff,” Jay said, slapping the top
of his pudding with his spoon. “It might give us poor little kids nightmares.”
He filled his spoon with pudding, tilted it back, and flung a dark gob of
pudding onto Roger’s forehead.

“Jay—you’re dead meat now!” Roger cried, plunging his spoon into the
chocolate goo. He shot a gob of it onto the front of Jay’s sleeveless T-shirt.

That started a pudding war that spread down the long table.

There was no more talk about Mike.

After dinner, Uncle Al talked about Tent Night and what a great time we were
going to have sleeping in tents tonight. “Just be very quiet so the bears can’t
find you!” he joked. Some joke.

Then he and the counselors taught us the camp songs. Uncle Al made us sing
them over and over until we learned them.

I didn’t feel much like singing. But Jay and Roger began making up really
gross words to the songs. And pretty soon, a whole bunch of us joined in,
singing our own versions of the songs as loudly as we could.

Later, we were all making our way down the hill toward our tents. It was a
cool, clear night. A wash of pale stars covered the purple-black sky.

I helped Colin down the hill. He was still seeing double and feeling a little
weak.

Jay and Roger walked a few steps ahead of us, shoving each other with their
shoulders, first to the left, then to the right.

Suddenly, Jay turned back to Colin and me. “Tonight’s the night,” he
whispered, a devilish grin spreading across his face.

“Huh? Tonight’s
what
night?” I demanded.

“Ssshhh.”
He raised a finger to his lips. “When everyone’s asleep,
Roger and I are going to go check out the Forbidden Bunk.” He turned to Colin.
“You with us?”

Colin shook his head sadly. “I don’t think I can, Jay.”

Walking backward in front of us, Jay locked his eyes on mine. “How about you,
Billy? You coming?”

“I—I think I’ll stay with Colin,” I told him.

I heard Roger mutter something about me being a chicken. Jay looked
disappointed. “You’re going to miss out,” he said.

“That’s okay. I’m kind of tired,” I said. It was true. I felt so weary after
this long day, every muscle ached. Even my hair hurt!

Jay and Roger made whispered plans all the way back to the tent.

At the bottom of the hill, I stopped and gazed up at the Forbidden Bunk. It
appeared to lean toward me in the pale starlight. I listened for the familiar
howls that seemed to come from inside it. But tonight there was only a heavy
silence.

The large plastic tents were lined up in the bunk area. I crawled into ours
and lay down on top of my sleeping bag. The ground was really hard. I could see
this was going to be a long night.

Jay and Colin were messing around with their sleeping bags at the back of the
tent. “It seems weird without Mike here,” I said, feeling a sudden chill.

“Now you’ll have more room to put your stuff,” Jay replied casually. He sat
hunched against the tent wall, his expression tense, his eyes on the darkness
outside the tent door, which was left open a few inches.

Larry was nowhere in sight. Colin sat quietly. He still wasn’t feeling right.

I shifted my weight and stretched out, trying to find a comfortable position.
I really wanted to go to sleep. But I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep until
after Jay and Roger returned from their adventure.

Time moved slowly. It was cold outside, and the air was heavy and wet inside
the tent.

I stared up at the dark plastic tent walls. A bug crawled across my forehead.
I squashed it with my hand.

I could hear Jay and Colin whispering behind me, but I couldn’t make out
their words. Jay snickered nervously.

I must have dozed off. An insistent whispering sound woke me up. It took me a
while to realize it was someone whispering outside the tent.

I lifted my head and saw Roger’s face peering in. I sat up, alert.

“Wish us luck,” Jay whispered.

“Good luck,” I whispered back, my voice clogged from sleep.

In the darkness, I saw Jay’s large shadowy form crawl quickly to the tent
door. He pushed it open, revealing a square of purple sky, then vanished into
the darkness.

I shivered. “Let’s sneak back to the bunk,” I whispered to Colin. “It’s too
cold out here. And the ground feels like solid rock.”

Colin agreed. We both scrambled out of the tent and made our way silently to
our nice, warm bunk. Inside, we headed to the window to try to see Jay and
Roger.

“They’re going to get caught,” I whispered. “I just know it.”

“They won’t get caught,” Colin disagreed. “But they won’t see anything,
either. There’s nothing to see up there. It’s just a stupid cabin.”

Poking my head out the window, I could hear Jay and Roger giggling quietly
somewhere out in the dark. The camp was so silent, so eerily silent. I could
hear their whispers, their legs brushing through the tall grass.

“They’d better be quiet,” Colin muttered, leaning against the window frame.
“They’re making too much noise.”

“They must be up to the hill by now,” I whispered. I stuck my head out as far
as I could, but I couldn’t see them.

Colin started to reply, but the first scream made him stop.

It was a scream of horror that cut through the silent air.

“Oh!” I cried out, and pulled my head in.

“Was that Jay or Roger?” Colin asked, his voice trembling.

The second scream was more terrifying than the first.

Before it died down, I heard animal snarls. Loud and angry. Like an eruption
of thunder.

Then I heard Jay’s desperate plea: “Help us! Please—somebody help us!”

My heart thudding in my chest, I lurched to the cabin door and pulled it
open. The hideous screams still ringing in my ears, I plunged out into the
darkness, the dew-covered ground soaking my bare feet.

“Jay—where are you?” I heard myself calling, but I didn’t recognize my
shrill, frightened voice.

And then I saw a dark form running toward me, running bent over, arms
outstretched.

“Jay!” I cried. “What—
is
it? What
happened?”

He ran up to me, still bent forward, his face twisted in horror, his eyes
wide and unblinking. His bushy hair appeared to stand straight up.

“It—it got Roger,” he moaned, his chest heaving as he struggled to straighten
up.

“What did?” I demanded.

“What was it?” Colin asked, right behind me.

“I—I don’t know!” Jay stammered, shutting his eyes tight. “It—it tore Roger
to pieces.”

Jay uttered a loud sob. Then he opened his eyes and spun around in terror.
“Here it comes!” he shrieked. “Now it’s coming after
us!”

In the pale starlight, I saw Jay’s eyes roll up in his head. His
knees collapsed, and he began to slump to the ground.

I grabbed him before he fell and dragged him into the cabin. Colin slammed
the door behind us.

Once inside, Jay recovered slowly. The three of us froze in place and
listened hard. I was still holding on to Jay’s heaving shoulders. He was as pale
as a bedsheet, and his breath came out in short, frightened moans.

We listened.

Silence.

The air hung frozen and still.

Nothing moved.

No footsteps. No animal approaching.

Just Jay’s frightened moans and the pounding of my heart.

And then, somewhere far in the distance, I heard the howl. Soft and low at
first, then rising on the wind. A howl that chilled my blood and made me cry
out.

“It’s Sabre!”

“Don’t let it get me!”
Jay shrieked, covering his face with his hands.
He dropped to his knees on the cabin floor. “Don’t let it get me!”

I raised my eyes to Colin, who was huddled against the wall, away from the
window. “We have to get Larry,” I managed to choke out. “We have to get help.”

“But how?” Colin demanded in a trembling voice.

“Don’t let it get me!”
Jay repeated, crumpled on the floor.

“It isn’t coming here,” I told him, trying to sound certain, trying to sound
soothing. “We’re okay inside the bunk, Jay. It isn’t coming here.”

“But it got Roger and—” Jay started. His entire body convulsed in a shudder
of terror.

Thinking about Roger, I felt a stab of fear in my chest.

Was it really true? Was it true that Roger had been attacked by some kind of
creature? That he’d been slashed to pieces?

I’d heard the screams from the hillside. Two bloodcurdling screams.

They’d been so loud, so horrifying. Hadn’t anyone else in camp heard them,
too? Hadn’t any other kids heard Roger’s cries? Hadn’t any counselors heard?

I froze in place and listened.

Silence. The whisper of the breeze rustling the tree leaves.

No voices. No cries of alarm. No hurried footsteps.

I turned back toward the others. Colin had helped Jay to his bunk. “Where can
Larry be?” Colin asked. His eyes, for once not hidden behind the silver
sunglasses, showed real fear.

“Where can
everyone
be?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and
starting to pace back and forth in the small space between the beds. “There
isn’t a sound out there.”

I saw Jay’s eyes go wide with horror. He was staring at the open window. “The
creature—” he cried. “Here it comes! It’s coming through the window!”

All three of us gaped in horror at the open window.

But no creature jumped in.

As I stared, frozen in the center of the cabin, I could see only darkness and
a fringe of pale stars.

Outside in the trees, crickets started up a shrill clatter. There was no
other sound.

Poor Jay was so frightened and upset, he was seeing things.

Somehow Colin and I got him a little calmed down. We made him take off his
sneakers and lie down on his bed. And we covered him up with three blankets to
help him to stop trembling.

Colin and I wanted to run for help. But we were too frightened to go outside.

The three of us were up all night. Larry never showed up.

Except for the crickets and the brush of the wind through the trees, the camp
was silent.

I think I must have finally dozed off just before dawn. I had strange
nightmares about fires and people trying to run away.

I was awakened by Colin shaking me hard. “Breakfast,” he said hoarsely.
“Hurry. We’re late.”

I sat up groggily. “Where’s Larry?”

“He never showed,” Colin replied, motioning to Larry’s unused bunk.

“We’ve got to find him! We’ve got to tell him what happened!” Jay cried,
hurrying to the cabin door with his sneakers untied.

Colin and I stumbled after him, both of us only half awake. It was a cool,
gray morning. The sun was trying hard to poke through high white clouds.

The three of us stopped halfway up the hill to the mess hall. Reluctantly,
our eyes searched the ground around the Forbidden Bunk.

I don’t know what I expected to see. But there was no sign of Roger.

No sign of any struggle. No dried blood on the ground. The tall grass wasn’t
bent or matted down.

“Weird,” I heard Jay mutter, shaking his head. “That’s weird.”

I tugged his arm to get him moving, and we hurried the rest of the way up to
the lodge.

The mess hall was as noisy as ever. Kids were laughing and shouting to each
other. It all seemed perfectly normal. I guessed that no one had made an
announcement about Roger yet.

Some kids called to Colin and me. But we ignored them and searched for Roger,
moving quickly through the aisles between the tables.

No sign of him.

I had a heavy, queasy feeling in my stomach as we hurried to the counselors’
table in the corner.

Larry glanced up from a big plate of scrambled eggs and bacon as the three of
us advanced on him.

“What happened to Roger?”

“Is he okay?”

“Where were you last night?”

“Roger and I were attacked.”

“We were afraid to go find you.”

All three of us bombarded Larry at once.

His face was filled with confusion, and he raised both hands to silence us.
“Whoa,” he said. “Take a breath, guys. What are you talking about?”

“About Roger!” Jay screamed, his face turning bright red. “The creature—it
jumped on him. And—and—”

Larry glanced at the other counselors at the table, who looked as confused as
he did. “Creature? What creature?” Larry demanded.

“It attacked Roger!” Jay screamed. “It was coming after me and—”

Larry stared up at Jay. “Someone was attacked? I don’t think so, Jay.” He
turned to the counselor next to him, a pudgy boy named Derek. “Did you hear
anything in your area?”