"Yuri...Yuri wake up!" I woke up to the sound of Reina whispering in my ears telling me to wake up. I slowly opened my eyes and brought my head back up. One of my earbuds was hanging down my neck from my head falling forward. I removed my earbuds and noticed my phone was dead. But it wasn't a surprise. It was the cheapest phone my mother could afford but I heard we would be provided with some electricity at the campsite, so I wasn't too worried.
"Yuri. We're here!" Reina shook my arms to help wake me up. "Come on the day is just about to begin!" She grabbed all her small belongings and then grabbed my hands as we waited for everyone closer to the front of the bus to move out.
The campsite was next to a lake and Reina and I stared at it until the field guide came along. When everyone had gathered all their stuff, we were taken to a small campsite stage surrounded by rows of wooden benches. As everyone was seated the field guide made a few announcements and then went over some rules and pointed in directions of where necessities were located on the campgrounds so that we could be familiar.
"Alright, everyone. Listen up." Mr. Flounder went on stage. "We have 10 chaperones, including me, in this campsite and that means each student will be divided into a group of 4. Please come along forward and you will find your group number and your designated tent location on these papers."
When the announcements were over, Reina and I headed in the direction of the stage like everyone else and we both saw our names on the same group. She wasn't kidding. We were in the same group. Reina and I looked at our group's pamphlet and saw that Cain's and Dylan's names were on there.
Dylan was the typical extrovert in our class. He made friends easily and rumor had it that he dated multiple girls at once. How disgusting that would be. I typically like to steer away from rumors, but it might be true for this guy.
"Hey hey, Yuri. Reina. What's up." Dylan came by but I ignored him.
"So, how's Peter doing?" He looked at me and I could almost punch his face but I stayed calm.
A few weeks ago, I caught Dylan fighting with Peter on the basketball court. He almost threw Peter's glasses across the yard, but I stopped him and called the teachers on him. Peter looked so beaten up that we had to rush him to the nurse's office to get treated. He ended up with a black eye and some bruises. I told him that we should take him to the hospital, but he insisted that we keep this on the low. He didn't want his parents to know that he got into a fight at school or else they would scold him. I ended up going along but I wished I had come sooner and beat up Dylan myself.
"We're on campgrounds, Dylan. Please show a bit of respect or else you'll regret it," I glared at him rolling my palms into a fist.
"Hey, chill. I'm not trying to make a fuss here. Just wanted to say hi to the group," he smiled then turned in the direction of Cain who was heading this way.
Cain looked rather bothered when he looked in my direction. Did he feel uncomfortable that I was in his group? But what did I do? I mean I only bumped into him by accident that time.
We looked at the map together to figure out where our group tents were going to be situated on the campsite. We were group #1, and our chaperone was Mr. Flounders. The map showed that our tents were going to be located on the northwest side of the campsite, so we waited for Mr. Flounders to guide us through.
We walked through the trails in the woods until we finally found the spot. It was near a river so that was advantageous for us as Mr. Flounders had mentioned. We began to unravel our tents and followed Mr. Flounders's step-by-step tutorial on how to set them up. I looked over at Reina and could see that she was struggling to keep up, so I helped her slightly while I tried my best to keep up with Mr. Flounders. Dylan was also struggling to keep up. Mr. Flounders noticed that we were lagging so he paused and slowed down for us.
Cain, on the other hand, seemed as if he was already ahead of Mr. Flounders. If I recall correctly, he did not look in the direction of Mr. Flounders one bit. Do rich people learn how to set up tents as well? I thought they just lived inside their comfy mansion all day and waited for their servants to get them whatever they wanted.
Cain was known as a genius after all. It shouldn't be surprising that he's good at everything.
"Yuri. Hey, Yuri." Reina had been calling my name.
"S-sorry Reina," her touch caught me by surprise.
"Are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost or something," she chuckled.
"Alright, everyone. It looks like we're all set here. I'm proud of all your efforts in putting together your tents. They look amazing. You guys are even faster than the previous group of students I had last year," Mr. Flounders laughed.
We all looked at each other's tent, including Mr. Flounders, and proceeded to high-five. We unpacked the rest of our belongings inside our tents and then looked at the activity schedule laid out on the pamphlet for the first day.
I asked Reina if she could tell me the time since my phone died early on. She responded that it was 11:35 am. According to the pamphlet, it was lunchtime. I should've bought myself a watch instead. It made me uneasy not being able to know what time it was.
We followed Mr. Flounders back to the main campgrounds and met up with the rest of the juniors on the trip. Lunch was provided for everyone so we each grabbed a paper lunch bag from the basket that was held by one of the field guides. Everyone was heading towards the benches surrounding the stage and decided to eat there so Reina and I did the same. I looked for Peter and saw that he was already sitting down with his friends. Reina and I headed down the steps and sat with him and his crew.
"Peter, how are you feeling?" I asked concerned about what happened early on.
"I'm feeling a bit better now, actually. Mrs. Carriwood said I had a slight fever but after she made me drink some liquids I felt better afterwards." Peter looked at me and smiled. I could see his glasses beginning to fall off, so I pushed it back up for him.
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Peter reminds me of my baby brother, Jason. He's clumsy and stubborn. Sometimes he's unaware of his actions. It's like he needed to be watched over and taken care of like a child. Like he needed to be protected. Of course, I didn't mind that. He was kind to me and caring and that's all I cared about.
My attention shot in the direction of the lake when I noticed one of the field guide chaperones running in the direction of the main cabin holding their radio. They appeared to be in a panic state which made me feel a bit uneasy. I started to notice that a few more of the field guide chaperones were beginning to head towards the main cabin with their radios on. I couldn't make of the sound that was coming out of them but looking at them that way, something wasn't right.
I looked at the other students and their attention steered towards the main cabin. We all fell silent wondering what was going on. I could hear some students whispering that one of the chaperons fell ill and began to act peculiar and that they had to bring them into the campsite's infirmary immediately to get treated.
"Alright, everyone. Please pay no attention to the field guides. They are currently working hard to make this a memorable trip so please let them handle this professionally," Mrs. Gordon stood on the stage and made a response to all the commotion that was happening in front of the main cabin.
It still made me uneasy, and I could tell it was the same for everyone else. I looked at Reina and Peter and they both looked anxious. Tony, Bob, and Liam, Peter's friends, all looked at each other with confusion. When some students were done eating, the field guides ordered them to stay with the rest of us in the camp stadium until this issue was resolved.
It was suspicious. Something was definitely going on that we weren't allowed to know about. After about half an hour, one of the field guides made an announcement on the wooden stage that they were just having a bit of an issue with their radio connections, so they needed to meet up together and have them fixed. They reminded us about our safety on this campsite and that in case communication was blocked it was important to stay together in case anything happened.
The students were relieved after the announcement, so we all headed out of the camp stadium to meet up with our chaperons for the next activity. Before every group was allowed to start their first activity, all electronics needed to be confiscated. So, we handed our phones and anything that was considered electronic.
Mr. Flounders was super excited to take us on a hike near the top of Mt. Boulder. This was next in Group #1's activity for day 1. We headed back to our tent site and changed into appropriate hiking gear then set off into the wild.
Mr. Flounders explained about a lot of different plants that grew on Mt. Boulder in the fall season. He went ahead and pointed at some birds you would also see traveling around at this time of the year. It was all really interesting but when was I ever going to use this information? I looked at Reina and she looked like she wanted to fall asleep from all the details being shot at her. Dylan looked as if he was paying attention but easily lost it from time to time. Cain didn't even pay attention as he had been focused on some other parts of nature.
"Alright, kids. Here we are," Mr. Flounder stood on top of a rock and pointed at the cliff a few feet from us. "Welcome to the top of Mt. Boulder," he grabbed his radio and made a quick status update informing the rest of the team below us that we made it for our first activity. We could also hear the other chaperones from other teams have made it to their first activity of the day.
We proceeded past a few more trees until we were now near the edge of the cliff. It was breathtaking. You can see everything from here. Mr. Flounders pointed at a tiny location just east of the cliff and told us that that point right there was Waterfront. We could also see the tiny roads hiding under the sea of trees that led us to Mt. Boulder.
I wished I had my phone so that I could take some photos of the landscape below us. Looking at the mountains and trees below gave me a sense of tranquility inside, so I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of the wind blowing through us.
"Hey, isn't that Waterfront?" Cain's voice startled me. He sounded concerned and when I opened my eyes he had pointed in the direction of Waterfront. From this far distance, we could see smoke trailing upwards from the town and into the sky.
Mr. Flounders reached for his binoculars and looked in the same direction. He stayed silent for a second then his radio went off and we could hear static sounds and some voices coming from the speaker, but the interference overcame any clear communication.
"Alright, everyone. Follow me," Mr. Flounders had gestured for us to follow him back down the trail that guided us up to the top of Mt. Boulder. "We need to move back down a bit so we can get a better sig—."
Before Mr. Flounders could finish his words, we heard a faint explosion coming from the direction of Waterfront. Our eyes began to widen at the sight of the town as some more smoke trailed up into the clouds, turning them gray.
Not even a second later, the warning sounds had gone off at the campsite. It was loud enough that it was beginning to hurt my ears, so I covered them while we continued to follow Mr. Flounders down the path back to the campgrounds.
We rushed down with Mr. Flounders following from behind so that he could keep track of everyone. I could see the anxiety coming from Reina's and Dylan's faces. What happened back there? Did something happen in Waterfront?
Reina tried to get close to me but ended up tripping. We all quickly stopped to help her up and she began to cry.
"Yuri. My ankle. I think I sprained it," she panicked as I pulled her up with her arms. I could see her ankles had scraped through some branches and her skin began to bleed. Dylan and Cain looked disturbed at what just happened. Mr. Flounders rushed to get to Reina and ended up carrying her on his back.
"Mr. Flounders. That was...that was Waterfront, right? W-was that an explosion from afar?" I asked him almost out of breath from running down the trail.
"It sure looked to be like one. But we can't be too sure what's actually going on, Yuri," he responded while trying to catch his breath as he held on to Reina.
We were almost at the campgrounds when we heard a scream coming from the direction of the small infirmary just adjacent to the main cabin. We stopped our trail when we witnessed a field guide forcefully open the door and rush out of the infirmary followed by another field guide that looked as if they had been attacked by something.
We could see them covered in blood as they were crawling on the floor attempting to leave the infirmary. We stared in horror when suddenly their body disappeared from sight. Something had grabbed them back inside the cabin. The only thing we could see was their blood trail on the wooden porch from being pulled back in. We stood there and listened to their tormented scream.
"Everyone stay quiet and don't make a sound," Mr. Flounders had ordered us. I can hear the fear coming from his tone. After a quiet moment, we could see a couple more field guides running in the direction of the main cabin attempting to fix the communication from their radios.
"Hey, maybe they can help us! We should go over now!" Dylan had stepped forward but was instantly pulled back by Mr. Flounders.
Not a moment later, we could see what looked like two students running up to the field guides and aggressively attacking them, biting them, and eating parts of their flesh. Blood had splattered everywhere on the dirt and the two field guides looked as if they had woken up again but acted the same way the two students did. All four ran in separate directions then suddenly the warning sounds went off.
Everyone was in shock. Even Mr. Flounders looked as if he didn't know what to do. I walked over to where he had set Reina down and asked if she was doing okay. She had kept her eyes and ears closed this whole time to prevent herself from throwing up. It was difficult for her to handle seeing a lot of blood and the agonizing screams didn't make it any better. I patted her shoulders, and she looked up at me with tears in her eyes. As I looked into her, I was reminded about Peter.
"Peter! Reina, I need to find Peter!" I began to panic at the thought that Peter was still out there somewhere. What if he was running away or hiding from one of those things out there? I needed to find him and make sure that he was safe.
"Yuri no—!" I ran away before Mr. Flounders could reach me.
Peter, please be safe somewhere. Wait for me, okay? I'm coming! Just stay put. I had hoped that Peter and his team were still located where they were having their first activity for the day. If I recall from seeing his pamphlet, it looked like they were going to fish southeast of Lake Muir which connected to the campgrounds near the main cabin.
I pulled out the pamphlet which had a map of Camp Navier and a portion of Mt. Boulder. It was a bit difficult without a compass, but I needed to try. I followed a trial ahead of me and it eventually led me southeast of Lake Muir. I didn't see anyone around, and I was beginning to get worried. Maybe their chaperone had already taken them to safety. I looked at the ground and could see that there were multiple shoe prints on the dirt that led in the direction of one of the bathroom cabins.
I followed the shoe prints as quietly and as attentively as I could. When I got closer to the bathroom, I could see that in front of me was one of the field guides but only they seemed to act differently. They had their back turned to me and it looked like they were sniffing the walls of the tiny cabin. They were also making screeching sounds from their mouth.
I took one single step forward and the sound of the puddle from the muddy ground made them instantly run in my direction. My eyes widened in fear and my body froze. Their face was covered in blood all over and I noticed that their mouth had been missing. I didn't know what to do and my body didn't want to move, so I instantly closed my eyes and accepted my fate. Then suddenly a rock was thrown in a different direction, bringing its attention somewhere else.
I looked in the direction where the rock had come from, and my mind was relieved to see Peter and his team had been sitting on the roof of the bathroom cabin in fear of that thing. They looked at me with their index fingers covering their lips as a signal to remain silent.
