09 - Welcome to Camp Nightmare (7 page)

Derek shook his head.

“Isn’t Roger in your group?” Larry asked Derek.

Derek shook his head. “Not in
my
group.”

“But Roger—” Jay insisted.

“We didn’t get any report about any attack,” Larry said, interrupting. “If a
camper was attacked by a bear or something, we’d hear about it.”

“And we’d hear the noise,” Derek offered. “You know. Screams or something.”

“I heard screams,” I told them.

“We both heard screams,” Colin added quickly. “And Jay came running back,
crying for help.”

“Well, why didn’t anyone else hear it?” Larry demanded, turning his gaze on
Jay. His expression changed. “Where did this happen? When?” he asked
suspiciously.

Jay’s face darkened to a deeper red. “After lights-out,” he admitted. “Roger
and I went up to the Forbidden Bunk, and—”

“Are you sure it wasn’t a bear?” Derek interrupted. “Some bears were spotted
downriver yesterday afternoon.”

“It was a
creature!”
Jay screamed angrily.

“You shouldn’t have been out,” Larry said, shaking his head.

“Why won’t you listen to me?” Jay screamed. “Roger was attacked. This big
thing jumped on him and—”

“We would have heard something,” Derek said calmly, glancing at Larry.

“Yeah,” Larry agreed. “The counselors were all up here at the lodge. We
would’ve heard any screams.”

“But, Larry—you’ve got to check it out!” I cried. “Jay isn’t making it up. It
really happened!”

“Okay, okay,” Larry replied, raising his hands as if surrendering. “I’ll go
ask Uncle Al about it, okay?”

“Hurry,” Jay insisted. “Please!”

“I’ll ask Uncle Al after breakfast,” Larry said, turning back to his eggs and
bacon. “I’ll see you guys at morning swim later. I’ll report what Uncle Al
says.”

“But, Larry—” Jay pleaded.

“I’ll ask Uncle Al,” Larry said firmly. “If anything happened last night,
he’ll know about it.” He raised a strip of bacon to his mouth and chewed on it.
“I think you just had a bad nightmare or something,” he continued, eyeing Jay
suspiciously. “But I’ll let you know what Uncle Al says.”

“It wasn’t a nightmare!” Jay cried shrilly. Larry turned his back on us and
continued eating his breakfast. “Don’t you
care?”
Jay screamed at him. “Don’t you
care
what happens to us?”

I saw that a lot of kids had stopped eating their breakfast to gawk at us. I
pulled Jay away and tried to get him to go to our table. But he insisted on
searching the entire mess hall again. “I know Roger
isn’t
here,” he
insisted. “He—he
can’t
be!”

For the second time, the three of us made our way up and down the aisles
between the tables, studying every face.

One thing was for sure: Roger was nowhere to be seen.

The sun burned through the high clouds just as we reached the
waterfront for morning swim. The air was still cool. The thick, leafy shrubs
along the riverbank glistened wetly in the white glare of sunlight.

I dropped my towel under a bush and turned to the gently flowing green water.
“I’ll bet it’s cold this morning,” I said to Colin, who was retying the string
on his swim trunks.

“I just want to go back to the bunk and go to sleep,” Colin said, plucking at
a knot. He wasn’t seeing double any longer, but he was tired from being up all
night.

Several guys were already wading into the river. They were complaining about
the cold water, splashing each other, shoving each other forward.

“Where’s Larry?” Jay demanded breathlessly, pushing his way through the clump
of shrubs to get to us. His red hair was a mess, half of it standing straight up
on the side of his head. His eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot.

“Where’s Larry? He promised he’d be here,” Jay said, frantically searching
the waterfront.

“Here I am.” The three of us spun around as Larry appeared from the bushes
behind us. He was wearing baggy green Camp Nightmoon swim trunks.

“Well?” Jay demanded. “What did Uncle Al say? About Roger?”

Larry’s expression was serious. His eyes locked on Jay’s. “Uncle Al and I
went all around the Forbidden Bunk,” he told Jay. “There wasn’t any attack
there. There couldn’t have been.”

“But it—it got Roger,” Jay cried shrilly. “It slashed him. I saw it!”

Larry shook his head, his eyes still burning into Jay’s. “That’s the other
thing,” he said softly. “Uncle Al and I went up to the office and checked the
records, Jay. And there
is
no camper here this year named Roger. Not a
first name or a middle name. No Roger. No Roger at all.”

Jay’s mouth dropped open, and he uttered a low gasp.

The three of us stared in disbelief at Larry, letting this startling news
sink in.

“Someone’s made a mistake,” Jay said finally, his voice trembling with
emotion. “We searched the mess hall for him, Larry. And he’s gone. Roger isn’t
here.”

“He never
was
here,” Larry said without any emotion at all.

“I—I just don’t believe this!” Jay cried.

“How about a swim, guys?” Larry said, motioning to the water.

“Well, what do
you
think?” I demanded of Larry. I couldn’t believe he
was being so calm about this. “What do
you
think happened last night?”

Larry shrugged. “I don’t know what to think,” he replied, his eyes on the
cluster of swimmers farthest from the shore. “Maybe you guys are trying to pull
a weird joke on me.”

“Huh? Is
that
what you think?” Jay cried. “That it’s a
joke
?!”

Larry shrugged again. “Swim time, guys. Get some exercise, okay?”

Jay started to say more, but Larry quickly turned and went running into the
green water. He took four or five running steps off the shore, then dived,
pulling himself quickly through the water, taking long, steady strokes.

“I’m not going in,” Jay insisted angrily. “I’m going back to the bunk.” His
face was bright red. His chin was trembling. I could see that he was about to
cry. He turned and began running through the bushes, dragging his towel along
the ground.

“Hey, wait up!” Colin went running after him.

I stood there trying to decide what to do. I didn’t want to follow Jay to the
bunk. There wasn’t anything I could do to help him.

Maybe a cold swim will make me feel better,
I thought.

Maybe
nothing
will make me feel better,
I told myself glumly.

I stared out at the other guys in the water. Larry and another counselor were
setting up a race. I could hear them discussing what kind of stroke should be
used.

They all seem to be having a great time,
I thought, watching them line
up.

So why aren’t I?

Why have I been so frightened and unhappy since I arrived here? Why don’t
the other campers see how weird and frightening this place is?

I shook my head, unable to answer my questions.

I need a swim,
I decided.

I took a step toward the water.

But someone reached out from the bushes and grabbed me roughly from behind.

I started to scream out in protest.

But my attacker quickly clamped a hand over my mouth to silence me.

I tried to pull away, but I’d been caught off guard.

As the hands tugged me, I lost my balance and I was pulled back into the
bushes.

Is this a joke? What’s going on?
I wondered.

Suddenly, as I tried to tug myself free, the hands let go.

I went sailing headfirst into a clump of fat green leaves.

It took me a long moment to pull myself up. Then I spun around to face my
attacker.

“Dawn!” I cried.

“Ssshhhh!”
She leaped forward and clamped a hand over my mouth again.
“Duck down,” she whispered urgently. “They’ll see you.”

I obediently ducked behind the low bush. She let go of me again and moved
back. She was wearing a blue one-piece bathing suit. It was wet. Her blond hair
was also wet, dripping down onto her bare shoulders.

“Dawn—what are you
doing
here?” I whispered, settling onto my knees.

Before Dawn could reply, another figure in a bathing suit moved quickly from
the bushes, crouching low. It was Dawn’s friend Dori.

“We swam over. Early this morning,” Dori whispered, nervously pushing at her
curly red hair. “We waited here. In the bushes.”

“But it’s not allowed,” I said, unable to hide my confusion. “If you’re
caught—”

“We had to talk to you,” Dawn interrupted, raising her head to peek over the
top of the bushes, then quickly ducking back down.

“We decided to risk it,” Dori added.

“What—what’s wrong?” I stammered. A red-and-black bug crawled up my shoulder.
I brushed it away.

“The girls’ camp. It’s a nightmare,” Dori whispered.

“Everyone calls it
Camp Nightmare
instead of Camp Nightmoon,” Dawn
added. “Strange things have been happening.”

“Huh?” I gaped at her. Not far from us in the water, I could hear the shouts
and splashes of the swim race beginning. “What kinds of strange things?”

“Scary things,” Dori replied, her expression solemn.

“Girls have disappeared,” Dawn told me. “Just vanished from sight.”

“And no one seems to care,” Dori added in a trembling whisper.

“I don’t believe it!” I uttered. “The same thing has happened here. At the
boys’ camp.” I swallowed hard. “Remember Mike?”

Both girls nodded.

“Mike disappeared,” I told them. “They removed his stuff, and he just
disappeared.”

“It’s unbelievable,” Dori said. “Three girls are gone from our camp.”

“They announced that one was attacked by a bear,” Dawn whispered.

“What about the other two?” I asked.

“Just gone,” Dawn replied, the words catching in her throat.

I could hear whistles blowing in the water. The race had ended. Another one
was being organized.

The sun disappeared once again behind high white clouds. Shadows lengthened
and grew darker.

I told them quickly about Roger and Jay and the attack at the Forbidden Bunk.
They listened in openmouthed silence. “Just like at our camp,” Dawn said.

“We have to do something,” Dori said heatedly.

“We have to get together. The boys and the girls,” Dawn whispered, peering
once again over the tops of the leaves. “We have to make a plan.”

“You mean to escape?” I asked, not really understanding.

The two girls nodded. “We can’t stay here,” Dawn said grimly. “Every day
another girl disappears. And the counselors act as if nothing is happening.”

“I think they
want
us to get killed or something,” Dori added with
emotion.

“Have you written to your parents?” I asked.

“We write every day,” Dori replied. “But we haven’t heard from them.”

I suddenly realized that I hadn’t received any mail from my parents, either.
They had both promised to write every day. But I had been at camp for nearly a
week, and I hadn’t received a single piece of mail.

“Visitors Day is next week,” I said. “Our parents will be here. We can tell
them everything.”

“It may be too late,” Dawn said grimly.

“Everyone is so scared!” Dori declared. “I haven’t slept in two nights. I
hear these horrible screams outside every night.”

Another whistle blew, closer to shore. I could hear the swimmers returning.
Morning swim was ending.

“I—I don’t know what to say,” I told them. “You’ve got to be careful. Don’t
get caught.”

“We’ll swim back to the girls’ camp when everyone has left,” Dawn said. “But
we have to meet again, Billy. We have to get more guys together. You know. Maybe
if we all get organized…” Her voice trailed off.

“There’s something bad going on at this camp,” Dori said with a shiver,
narrowing her eyes. “Something evil.”

“I—I know,” I agreed. I could hear boys’ voices now. Close by. Just on the
other side of the leafy bushes. “I’ve got to go.”

“We’ll try to meet here again the day after tomorrow,” Dawn whispered. “Be
careful, Billy.”

“You
be careful,” I whispered. “Don’t get caught.”

They slipped back, deeper in the bushes.

Crouching low, I made my way away from the shore. When I was past the clump
of bushes, I stood up and began to run. I couldn’t wait to tell Colin and Jay
about what the girls had said.

I felt frightened and excited at the same time. I thought maybe it would make
Jay feel a little better to know that the same kinds of horrible things were
happening across the river at the girls’ camp.

Halfway to the bunks, I had an idea. I stopped and turned toward the lodge.

I suddenly remembered seeing a pay phone on the wall on the side of the
building. Someone had told me that phone was the only one campers were allowed
to use.

I’ll call Mom and Dad,
I decided.

Why hadn’t I thought of it before?

I can call my parents,
I realized,
and tell them everything. I can
ask them to come and get me. And they could get Jay, Colin, Dawn, and Dori, too.

Behind me, I saw my group heading toward the scratchball field, their
swimming towels slung over their shoulders. I wondered if anyone had noticed
that I was missing.

Jay and Colin were missing, too, I told myself. Larry and the others probably
think I’m with them.

I watched them trooping across the tall grass in twos and threes. Then I
turned and started jogging up the hill toward the lodge.

The idea of calling home had cheered me up already.

I was so eager to hear my parents’ voices, so eager to tell them the strange
things that were happening here.

Would they believe me?

Of
course
they would. My parents always believed me. Because they
trusted me.