The Wild Ones, page 5
“Told you, the guy lives and breathes this stuff,” Jamal said nudging me in the ribs.
“So why hasn’t his father made him an instructor?”
“Tobias will tell you it’s because it means focusing on one area of expertise and his father wants him to be well versed in all areas but that’s bullshit. His old man has always come down hard on him, held him to a higher standard than anyone else. My guess is that he thinks if his kid does anything wrong while teaching, it will reflect badly on him as a father. I know… strange logic but the colonel isn’t exactly the brightest spark.”
“I dunno, he managed to create a business out of teaching people how to survive.”
“He’s a product of his own father,” Jamal said. “Rumor has it that his own father did the same thing to him. Made him go through this course year after year and never made him an instructor until he was ready to pass over the reins. Something about that’s the only way he would appreciate and value it. Maybe there’s something to it.” He shrugged. “I dunno.”
By late afternoon we had learned a lot from Adam, in fact he was the first instructor who didn’t act like a dick or lord it over us that he knew more. I could never understand folks who felt the need to do that. It was like they had something to prove.
On our way back to camp, my mind was overflowing, and this was only day one. I could see why others returned year after year as it was a great way to brush up on survival skills and no one could remember everything. That’s why Adam said the key to survival was repetition and working with others. What one person forgot, another would remember.
As we emerged from the forest into the clearing, Sean had gathered together the rest of the instructors and was pacing back and forth. Joe saw us and headed over before we got close.
“Probably best you guys head into your cabins,” he said.
“But we still have another activity,” Alexa replied.
He cast a nervous look over his shoulder towards Sean.
“Everything okay, Joe?” I asked. “Did Ivy and that kid make it to the hospital?”
He nodded. “Yeah, look, I can’t get into right now. Just… uh. Head back to your cabins.”
I scanned the area and noticed the Blazer wasn’t parked in front of the main building.
“You seen my brother?” I asked.
“He’s not back yet.”
I furrowed my brow. “But Long Lake is only half an hour away. He left after lunch.” I glanced at my watch, it was nearly six, and he’d been gone all afternoon. “He should have been back by now.”
“Sean has been trying to get hold of Tom but we haven’t heard anything.”
As we started making our way to the cabins, Sean caught sight of us and started bellowing at Joe to go train us. He protested but Sean wasn’t having any of it. Joe turned back towards us and looked really pissed off, he made a huffing sound and got this nasty look on his face. Great, and he was about to teach us about weapons.
“We’re not going to get into firearms today.”
He broke into a jog and told us to hurry up and follow him. We were led towards a building where all the weapons were stored. It was a storehouse full of bows, knives, large sticks with red rubber balls on the end and firearms with dummy rounds.
Joe opened the storehouse and began rooting inside while we fanned out. He brought out a tarp and laid it on the ground and then started to assemble what he referred to as the standard “kit” that anyone looking to survive should have. It consisted of the following: a rifle, sixty rounds of ammunition, cleaning kit, a handgun, a knife, a flashlight, emergency flares, a signaling mirror, two-way radio, lighter and matches, a full canteen, daily rations kit, combat boots, two pairs of socks, bedroll and the list continued.
“I thought you dealt with weapons only?” Alexa asked.
Crouched down, organizing them, he lifted his head. “Don’t you get it? These are your weapons. Remember, you are not just fighting people or Zs, you are fighting the elements, hunger, thirst, germs and disease.”
“Right, but how are we supposed to remember all of this?”
“It takes time but eventually it will become second nature. Until then a checklist of items will be provided for each of the different activities, you will do.” He got up and walked back into the storage shed and pulled out a folder, then began handing out sheets of paper that had been laminated in plastic. “Pin this on your wall in your cabin. Go over it at night, there will be a test on it at the end of the two weeks.”
“A test?” Eli asked. “I thought this was meant to be about having fun?”
He walked over to Eli and put his nose close to his. “Oh it’s going to be real fun when the shit hits the fan and you don’t know your ass from your head. You think this is about fun?” he said, eyeing us all. “This is about survival not fun. If you wanted fun, you should have picked one of the other camps in the area. There are plenty of camps that offer swimming and kayaking, and kumbaya songs around the campfire. This is about being prepared today so you can survive tomorrow.” His steely gaze bore into us until he returned to the shed and produced a bag with a bunch of hunting knives inside. “Jamal, Eli, grab those battering sticks and follow me.”
He led us over to a clearing, which had already been set up with posts that had rubber skulls attached to them.
“Okay, I know what you’re thinking. The chance of a zombie apocalypse is pretty slim, but it doesn’t matter. What I’m going to teach you today can be applied to any scenario. Remember, things can go south real quick when the power goes out. Looters will go wild when society breaks down so you have to be prepared for the unexpected and that means knowing how to use weapons correctly. So let’s begin.”
We’d only managed to get forty minutes into it when Sean called out to Joe to call it a day. He looked panicked.
“Ryland, Alexa and Scott, take everything back to the storage shed and then head in for dinner.”
The sun had begun to set, darkness wrapped itself around the camp and I had this uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Nick still hadn’t returned and from the back and forth between Sean and the other instructors I was beginning to think they’d got into an accident. As we rolled in for dinner, murmurs spread among the other teens about what had happened to Ivy.
All of us were seated around the table scooping up beans and chewing on bread when Ryland came over, looking all chipper. I figured he must have taken some happy pills as it was a stark contrast to the way he was earlier. He slid onto the seat next to me and leaned over his tray.
“You’re not going to believe this, check it out. So you know that whole thing with Ivy and that kid getting sick, well, Keith Dunmore said that she’d been bitten.”
“Bitten?” I asked, pausing with a spoonful of beans near my lips.
“Yeah, apparently he was the first one to come across her when she returned to the camp before she went into that comatose state.”
“And the kid?”
“Not sure. There was mention of Angela coughing up blood or something.” He got this wide smile on his face. “Can you believe that?”
“No, but I can believe this stuff tastes like shit,” Jamal said pushing his food away. “Seriously, they really have been cutting corners. It wasn’t like this two years ago.” He craned his neck to see who the chef was.
Alexa looked at me. “What did Sean say about your brother?” She’d been itching to ask me since I’d gone and spoken with him. I wasn’t satisfied with the answers I’d been getting from Joe so I went to the horse’s mouth. It was a bad mistake. He was in a foul mood and certainly had no interest in talking with me.
I shrugged. “He wouldn’t tell me.”
“Hasn’t your brother got a cell phone?”
“Yeah but I don’t.”
Jamal reached into his pocket and pulled his out and handed it to me. “Use this.”
“You getting any signal out here?”
“It’s spotty, you might have to walk around the camp but you’ll eventually get a bar.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
We spent the rest of dinner listening to Ryland recount what Keith Dunmore had told him, and his asinine theories. Most of it fell on deaf ears. My mind was too preoccupied with Nick. I excused myself and exited the compound. I breathed in the summer air and turned on Jamal’s phone. There were no bars. I wandered farther away from the building moving down towards the lake. To get to the water’s edge, you had to take one of the muddy trails that fissured off into the woods. I turned on the flashlight portion of the phone and used it to light the way. All around me I could see fireflies flicking on and off, an incredible display that made the place feel a little magical. I followed the narrow path through leafy trees and shrubs to a small grove. I was holding up the phone and ambling along cursing under my breath. “Damn connection! Another reason why I hate camping. No connection. No comfort. No anything.”
As I got closer to the water I could make out across the lake several fires flickering in between the trees. It was coming from a girls campground on the west side — Raquette Lake Girls Camp. I envisioned them sitting around roasting wieners and s’mores, and swapping scary stories. I heard a fair amount of noise coming from across the lake but it sounded like a bunch of excited girls, no doubt playing hide-and-seek.
Finally I got a bar.
“Yes!” Of course it required me having to stand on top of a picnic table, balancing precariously and not moving, otherwise the bar would vanish but it was something. I dialed in Nick’s number, turned on speakerphone and waited as it rang. While I was waiting, the noise from the girls camp grew louder. I knew girls could scream, but that was a little extreme.
The voicemail kicked in.
“This is Nick, I’m not here right now, if you would leave your name and number I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”
I sighed. “Nick, it’s me, Scott. Are you there? Pick up.”
A few times I’d phoned him in the past he’d answered while I was in the middle of leaving a message but not this time. I sank down, swinging my legs off the edge of the table, and gazed out across the water. The silvery moon shimmered across the lake’s ripples. Its clear waters lapped against the shore. I would try his number again in a minute, hoping he’d just stepped away or… oh what was I saying? Nick was glued to that damn phone. I rarely, if ever, saw him not staring at it expecting to get a call from one of his female friends. That was Nick, a real ladies’ man. I smiled thinking of all the women he’d brought home. He really wasn’t the kind of guy to stick with one for long, it was all about sex with him. Involuntarily, my mind jumped to the last time he’d spoken about his relationships.
“Scott, you’ll soon figure it out. The world out there is an ice cream store. You can’t expect me to enjoy only one flavor. There are too many vying for my attention.”
“C’mon, man… these women have feelings.”
He roared with laughter. “Dude, you’ve been watching too many Nicholas Sparks movies.” He ran his hand over my head and ruffled up my hair like he always had since I was a young kid.
I looked back to the camp across the water. Something wasn’t right. The screams hadn’t stopped; neither had they got any quieter. I squinted trying to see what was going on but it was too dark. All I could make out was the silhouette of figures running.
I slowly got down off the bench, mesmerized by what was going on. It was hard to see, but it looked like they were chasing each other. Stupid girls. I shook my head and went back to trying the phone. Again nothing, just the voicemail.
I didn’t take my eyes off the shore. What type of games were they playing? I remembered hide-and-seek from when I was younger but that never involved clambering on top of people. I squinted into the blackness of night, an uneasy feeling washed over me. Turning back towards the camp, I jogged to the cabin to retrieve the FLIR Scout night vision camera Tobias had among his belongings. Back at camp, it was quiet, I could make out people still eating dinner, and others washing up dishes in the kitchen. I grabbed it up and double-timed it back to the lake. By the time I returned it had gone quiet. There was no movement and I couldn’t see anyone by the lake. I brought the FLIR up to my eye and zoomed in, scanning the banks from side to side. At first there was nothing, just trees blowing in the wind, then I saw movement. I zoomed in closer and my jaw dropped.
Trapped
“They’re killing each other!” I exclaimed breathlessly. I placed both hands on my knees trying to slow my heart. It felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. I’d sprinted all the way back to the camp, questioning my own eyes.
When the doors swung open, I collapsed to my knees, sweat trickling off my brow. Several teens laughed, others frowned, and the rest pointed. Sean came running over and grabbed me by the arm. “What the hell is up with you, Evans?” he asked in a hard tone. I tried to explain but my stomach was in knots. The sight of a young girl’s throat being torn apart just seemed unreal but then again survival camps had become all the rage nowadays. Perhaps it was just a realistic simulation, like what they had planned for us at the end of the fourteen days.
Sean peppered me with questions and the world spun as I recalled the conversation with Nick prior to leaving for camp. “Ah it’s not so bad, Scotty. They teach you a bunch of survival skills and then on the last day they bring in a bunch of volunteers and have them dress up like zombies and chase after you.”
“Scott, can you hear me?” Sean bellowed even louder in my ear, the suddenness of it snapped me out of the shock. I nodded.
“Now tell me from the start. What’s happened?”
I brought them up to speed and Sean stepped back and a smile slowly formed.
“Oh you are really getting into this. Strange. Usually most people don’t start acting like they’re in the zombie apocalypse until a few days from the end of camp.”
“I’m not lying. I know what I saw.”
He touched my forehead, and I slapped his hand away.
“Are you sure you’re not coming down with a fever?”
Ryland edged his way through the crowd surrounding me. “What if he’s not lying? You heard what Keith said about Ivy.”
“Keith is full of shit,” Sean muttered.
“I reject that,” Keith muttered somewhere in the crowd.
Still trying to catch my breath I pointed towards the exit. “Go see for yourself.”
“I’m not going anywhere. We are waiting to hear back from Tom.”
“I’m telling you. I know what I saw.”
Sean wandered off and spoke with Joe, they stood off to one side while I got up and took a seat. Tobias had this smirk on his face as if the whole damn thing was a joke. I wished it was, it would have been easier to stomach. He then spotted the FLIR camera in my hand and charged over.
“Where did you get that?”
“I borrowed it.”
He snatched it out of my hands, jabbed his finger in my face and looked as if he was about to say something when Jamal got between us.
I handed back his phone. “Thanks. Wasn’t much use though.”
“You didn’t get a signal?”
“I got one but couldn’t get through. Just goes to voicemail.”
Jamal shifted his weight from one foot to the next. He stared intently then squinted. “Did you really see something?”
“You think I would make this shit up?”
Eli and Ryland took off to see for themselves.
“Hey, where are you going?” Sean asked.
“To check it out.”
I got up and followed them. About fifteen of us campers streamed out into the night making our way down to the water. The smell of pine carried on the breeze. Everyone thought it was some big game, so laughter and jokes ensued along the way. I caught a couple of them accusing me of taking drugs. When we made it down to the water, it was quiet, except for the gentle lapping of waves against the rocks. Tobias brought up the FLIR camera and several people asked what he could see. He remained quiet for a few minutes, then yelled, “Holy shit, what the hell is that?”
“I told you. I told you,” I said. Finally someone else would validate my story.
Then he burst out laughing. “Oh shit, Evans, you are too much. There’s nothing over there. You really must have been hitting that bong hard tonight.”
I screwed up my face and looked across the water. I snatched the camera out of his hand. “Give me that.” I peered through while Tobias protested and attempted to take it away from me. Impossible. The shore was empty. There were no bodies, no movements, just the glow of fire among the trees. One second the FLIR was against my eye, the next torn away.
“You are out of your mind, Evans. Just like your brother.”
The group of teens started laughing, shaking their heads and making their way back to camp. I just stood there staring in disbelief beginning to wonder if what I’d seen had been the effects of one of the plants I’d eaten earlier that day. Adam had warned us that some plants were psychedelic and could induce visions. Was that it? Had this been some weird distorted vision? I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked to find Alexa beside me.
“Come on, let’s go back. Don’t worry about what they said.”
“I saw it, Alexa. I swear, I’m not making it up.”
“I believe you.”
I snorted. “Yeah, right.”
She shrugged. “Weird shit happens all the time around here. Did I tell you about how many people go missing in National Parks every year in this country? I’m not just talking about the ones that get lost, or attacked by an animal. I’m speaking about real strange stuff. People who vanish.”
Ryland also remained as did Eli.
“These wankers think they know everything,” he said in his thick British accent. As we turned to head back to camp, Joe Wheeler emerged from the dense forest. He didn’t say anything but looked out across the water.
“I’m not lying, Joe,” I said. “I know what I saw.”
“I know you did.”
“So you believe me?”
“I didn’t say that,” he said turning back towards me. “I believe you saw something. And after what happened today, Sean must too, as he wants me to head over there to check it out.”
