The Camp (11 page)

Caleb’s expression darkened
, and he took a step forward toward her.

“Don’t even go there, Steph. You can’t even imagine what I just experienced back there.”

“I’m sure whoever is doing this is hoping that we’ll become fractured, and it looks like that’s already happening,” I said, grabbing Liam’s hand. He gently squeezed it.

“Who’s to say it’s not our handyman?” Marty said, ignoring my statement. He
crossed his arms in front of him and glanced at our hands.

“Listen, we don’t need to start doing this right now. Maybe these things aren’t related,” Liam said. I could tell he wasn’t even convinced of the words that left his
lips.

“Let’s keep searching through the tents and go from there,” I said, glancing at Steph who seemed to be
shrinking into herself.

“Yeah. J
ust get on with it,” Marty grumbled.

We searched tent after tent, coming up with absolutely nothing except terrified expressions and many more questions than we had answers for.
When we got to Justin’s tent we all looked around slowly wondering what we might find. It felt wrong to go through someone’s personal effects, but it had to be done.

Justin’s tent was neatly organized. He had his bags on the far side of the tent, and then several piles of clothes folded
tidily at the end of his sleeping bag. Caleb looked through a pile of magazines, and I just stood there scanning along the floor when my eyes fell on a tube of something underneath the sleeping bag.

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to the brightly colored tube peaking out.

Marty walked over and flipped up the sleeping bag, revealing a tube of glue.

“Well
, that doesn’t make sense,” I mumbled. “Is there any reason why he’d need glue?”

“Not really,
” Steph said, grabbing it from Marty and twisting off the lid. “It looks like it’s been used too.”

“You don’t think he set this up, do you?” Caleb asked.

“Which part?” I questioned.

“All
of it,” he offered.

“It doesn’t
add up. Why would he leave a poem for Emma, off himself, and then ask a bear to strategically move his body?” Steph glared at Caleb.

“Maybe…” Caleb stopped himself, glancing at Liam.

“Listen before we start wasting our time with conspiracy theories, let’s just get the group together and let them know what we need to do going forward,” I said.

“And what’s that?” Caleb
arched his brow.

“I have no idea,
” I replied. “But I’m sure you’ll come up with something by the time you start talking to them.”

“I don’t think anyone should ever go anywhere alone. Whether it’s to the bathroom, to their tent. I think everyone should double up in tents as well,” Steph said quietly.

“I agree,” I said, stepping out of Justin’s tent.

“All right. I’ll have everyone meet
us at the campfire,” Marty said, meeting me outside the tent.

Liam came over and stood next to me, his eyes
connecting with mine, and I saw a flicker of fear that I’d never seen before. My stomach tightened, and without hesitation I buried my face into his chest.

“You’re gonna be okay,
” he murmured, his lips close to my ear.

Marty began moving swiftly to all of the tents to f
ill them in on the meeting time.

I exhaled slowly
, breaking free from Liam. I looked around the campground, wondering if we were being watched.

C
hapter
T
welve

“We need to go find them,” Brady said. He was sitting next to Mark, one of the guys I flew in with, and the entire group froze.

I looked at Marty who was a bit speechless.

“Everything we do needs to be mapped out first. We can’t afford any more surprises,” Marty answered, looking over at me.

Steph was sitting next to me and was pretty much out of it, so I stood up quickly and went over to help Marty field any questions. He
grimaced and gave me a quick thank you.

“If it’s
just an accident what’s the big deal?” Mark questioned.

“We’re not so sure it was,” I said, finding my voice.

“What do you mean?”
a guy yelled. I couldn’t remember his name and looked at Steph, hoping for some help.

“Paul, we need everyone to stay calm so we can discuss things in a normal manner,”
she replied monotone and then hunched back over.

“There are a couple of things that have made
consider another possibility. It looks as if the ropes were tampered with. However, the problem that arises with that observation is that not only did the climbing group look at one another’s equipment, each climber checked their own. It’s odd that two damaged ropes would’ve gotten past everyone,” I said.

“What if Justin or Dan did it? That would make sense
if they did it on their way up. Maybe Justin was tired of being here,” Parker said. His brown hair was completely tangled, and he had dark circles under his eyes.

“Do you have any reason to believe Justin would do that?” I questioned.

Parker started coughing into his flannel sleeve, and I wondered why he sounded so bad.

“No. None at all,” Parker said, deflated.

“And where would the bodies be? We would’ve found them at the bottom of the boulder or at least drag marks if a brown bear found them first,” I replied.

Parker nodded, his eyes glassing over.

“The other thing that points to someone else being involved was a poem I received on my pillow, along with carved, wooden ravens. I received one yesterday and two today,” I said, scanning the group for a reaction.

“Why didn’t we find out about the raven yesterday then?” Vince asked.
He was in the same clothes as the day before, but his red hair was wet. He was sitting next to Fulton, who looked a little worse for wear. Fulton was holding his head in his hand and looked really uninterested and exhausted. His brown eyes were constantly fighting to stay awake.

“I actually
thought it was a gift. When I returned to my tent there were two more along with a note.”

“What was in the note?” Vince continued.

“It was kind of like a haunted poem,” I said, not wanting to give too much detail.

“And you guys didn’t find the phone,” Vince stated rather than asked.

“Right,” Marty confirmed. “What needs to be done is to cut the number of tents by half so everyone will be rooming with someone else. There will never be a time when someone is by themselves. Never.”

“How do we know the person’s still even around?” Darryl questioned, crossing his arms in front of him. He
still had the leather gloves on from when he was hauling wood earlier. His brown hair was tucked under a hat and he looked less than pleasant.

“We don’t. But we can’t take a chance on anything until the next plane is scheduled to come back,” Marty answered.

“And when is that?” Darryl asked.

“Two weeks,” Steph said.

“At the rate we’re going, there won’t be anyone left in two weeks,” Fulton muttered, only loud enough for me to hear. He was sitting on the log bench next to where I was standing. He refused to look up at me. Instead, he just threw pieces of bark into the fire that he was ripping off from the bench.

“Okay, guys so let’s get all the tents taken down that we won’t be using and move the ones that we’ll be staying in
closer to one another,” Marty said, pointing next to the yurt.

The group began
tearing down the tents right away, and I walked over to Steph and sat down. Her hands were folded in her lap and I placed mine on top of them.

“Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?” I asked.

“No,” she whispered, looking away from me.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“The plane is only coming in two weeks if I call them for supplies. It wasn’t firm on the schedule because they actually dumped off enough today to last for over a month.”

“Well
, maybe when they don’t hear from you, they’ll get concerned and send a plane anyway,” I said, hopeful.

“Unless the person who has the phone
plans on answering any incoming calls,” she said, turning back to look at me. “I mean look at what the person did to Chelsea. She left alive, but she was broken. As a person she was gone. Her bones might heal, but her mind might never be fixed. And what if there’s more than one? I mean we’ve already gotten one of them lifted off the island. What if there’s an entire group of them.”

“Steph, we can’t start thinking like this. We need to stay focused and strong so we can gain the upper hand over whoever is doing this.”

Liam, David, and Caleb were talking toward us slowly. Liam looked mentally exhausted as he came over to sit next to me. David and Caleb went to talk with Marty.

“You don’t look so hot, cuz,” Liam said
, reaching across me to grab Steph’s hand.

“She’s not
doing so great,” I admitted on her behalf.

“I don’t think this is going to end well,” she said, looking at me and then Liam.

“We need to stay positive,” I said.

“Steph, we can’t afford to have you thinking like that,” he seconded. “We’ll always be in each other’s sight. We’ll make it out.”

Liam brought his hand back from Steph and stood up, watching all of the guys dismantling the extra tents.

“Let’s go
take down your tent, and get you moved into mine,” I said, linking her hands in mine and tugging on her.

Liam led the way
, and we got everything out of Steph’s tent and placed it where we were going to move my tent to. I also emptied my tent so that we could dismantle and then haul it to the next section.

The camp’s energy inte
nsified as the afternoon turned to evening. The sun was still up, but we knew in only a matter of hours we’d be facing our first night knowing someone might be out to cause us harm. It was also decided that it wouldn’t make sense to go on a search and rescue with so little daylight.

No one was reall
y hungry, but we needed to eat and Steph made that her mission. I was just relieved she found something to put her energy in besides thinking the worst. I noticed her up in the tree, standing on the platform scanning the campground and beyond. She had something hanging around her neck, but I didn’t know what until I saw her reach for it and hold it up to her eyes, binoculars.

Steph
turned slowly as she canvassed the entire area, pausing here and there to adjust the focus but then finally putting the binoculars down again, letting them hang around her neck. She was reaching into one of the containers when she slammed the lid shut and let out a scream. My heart started racing as Liam jumped up and began running, along with the other CLs, to the tree. He quickly scaled the steps, reaching Steph and flipping open the lid and then closing it.

Dave
scaled the platform and was speaking with Liam, and then he wrapped his arm around Steph’s shoulders and helped her down the steps. I jogged over to the tree and hugged her. Tears streamed down her face endlessly, and she held onto me, almost crushing me. I wanted to help her and make whatever she saw go away, but I couldn’t. And there was a part of me that wanted to see what it was she saw. I looked at Dave, who was rubbing Steph’s back to calm her down.

“Can you take her to the yurt and stay with her for a few minutes?” I asked. “I want to go talk to Liam.”

“Sure.”

She reluctantly let go of me, but then attached herself onto Dave.

I quickly climbed the nailed in pieces of wood and saw Liam squatting near the container.

“Hey, what did
she find?” I asked softly.

He looked up at me and shook his head. “I think this is bad. Really bad.
Whoever is doing this isn’t just trying to off us. They are trying to torture us on the way out.”

I walked over to the container and opened it. There was a dead raven, with a Polaroid
attached. The picture was of Chelsea, screaming. Her eyes were wide and filled with fear and her mouth was in a large oval. The only thing that gave any sort of clue as to what she encountered was of a black, gloved hand holding a hammer.

“
I’m starting to think it might be someone within the camp,” I muttered.

He nodded. “I know. It would make the most sense.”

Liam reached in the container and pulled out the bird and the picture, along with some of the brown paper lunch sacks and trash bags. He placed the picture in a lunch sack and wrapped the raven in a garbage bag.

“I didn’t even know
these cameras were still around,” I sighed. “The amount of thought this person has put into this is something I can’t even fathom. Should we do another search? If we weren’t looking for an old looking camera the last time, I doubt we’d notice it.”

Liam sat down on the platform and pulled me down into him. I scooted in between his legs and leaned my head against his chest
. I felt him press his lips against my scalp just breathing in and out as he held me.

“It wouldn’t hurt,” he replied at long last. “But I think even if it was someone in the camp, they’re probably smart enough to be hiding these things
out in the woods. I bet you wish you’d taken the plane out of here now.”

I felt him slowly release me
, and I shifted so I could look into his eyes.

“Not if it meant leaving you behind and going back home,” I whispered
. “Every day that I’ve been away from my stepdad, I’ve realized more and more the damage he’s been causing,” I stopped talking. Now wasn’t the time to go down this path.

“It must be bad if you think this is a better option,” he grimaced, rubbing my back.

“Well, it’s at least different,” I said, trying to force a joke.

“I want you to experience life away from your stepdad. I don’t know everything that he’s done
and I can’t even imagine having a mother who didn’t seem to care, but you’re better than all that and an entire life is waiting for you.”

“I appreciate it,” I said, smiling. “I really do.”

“There were a few times I almost lost sight of it myself and once that happens it’s easy to go to some pretty dark places.”

“You know, maybe my father didn’t give my mom and Kroy the money to pay them off to keep me, but to buy me freedom from them?”

“I’m sure that’s exactly what he did, babe,” he whispered. Hearing him call me babe, created a sensation I wasn’t expecting, but I enjoyed the closeness it implied.

“We should probably get dinner down to everyone,” I said, breaking free, remembering I needed to go check on Steph.

I stood up and opened a box of freeze-dried stroganoff packets and grabbed enough for everyone. I stuck them in a trash bag and watched as Liam backed down the steps with the trash bag that contained the raven to dispose of. I followed quickly behind and was thankful once my feet touched the ground.

“This certainly is the hard way of doing everything,” I grumbled, heaving the bag of meal pouches over my
shoulder as I walked to the campfire.

“What did you pick out for us?” Caleb asked, attempting to create a sense of normalcy that seemed impossible to achieve.

“Stroganoff,” I replied.

“Nothing like meat in pouches,” he said.

“No doubt,” I said, leaving the bag next to him “Think you can handle heating the water for everyone? I’m gonna go check on Steph.”

He nodded and waved as he grabbed a couple of kettles that he began filling with water from
one of our water containers.

I opened the door to the yurt to find Steph sleeping, and
Dave reading a magazine next to the door. He got up quickly and met me outside.

“How’s she doing?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Not well at all. I think she was finally starting to get a grasp of things when that happened.”

“Agreed,” I replied.
“Caleb’s starting the dinners for everyone. I’m gonna go grab my sleeping bag and stuff and just plan on sleeping in here with her. Do you mind waiting another minute or so while I go get it?”

“Not at all.”

Dinner went without a hitch. Even though I told Caleb I didn’t want dinner, he still made a pouch of the stroganoff for me and I picked at it more than I thought I would. Steph didn’t touch hers at all. We all sat around the campfire until dark, mostly quiet, but sometimes a burst of talking would erupt only to quiet down again as the weight of the day burdened us all.