Link Six (completed)

Chapter 20 - Camping

"Eddie! Eddie!" Colton called as he approached the campsite.

"Colton?" Eddie asked, coming out of a tent. "What is it? Where's your bag? Where are the others?"

Colton doubles over to catch his breath. It wasn't such a huge emergency now, he was positive that Gerald had already healed Emma, but he knew how Emma's projecting can leave someone. There was no way any of the girls would be able to walk the rest of the way to their camp site. Colton found out about Gerald's ability while he was holding onto his arm. Colton had gotten one of his memories about him healing his mom after she fell down the stairs. And, as for the state Emma's empathic attack can put someone in, that was part estimation on Colton's part, and the other part was a memory he'd received from Leeanna about a particularly bad doctor's visit. Both of which, he'll have to ask them about later.

Having caught his breath, Colton stands up.

"There was an accident Emma..." Colton couldn't say that she fell and hurt herself, because that wouldn't explain the state Leeanna and Rhea were in, and when Eddie got there, Emma wouldn't be injured. "...saw a bear."

"A bear? Is everyone okay?" Eddie prepared to run down the trail.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, everyone's fine, physically," Colton says quickly.

"What do you mean?" Eddie wanted to know as he eased up a bit.

"Rhea, Leeanna and Emma have a severe phobia of bears," Colton says. "They all had a panic attack, at the same time, and Gerald and Howie are trying to calm them down. And, I came to run and get you, because I'm taller."

"Oh," Eddie says.

"Yeah, I don't think they'll be able to walk all the way here on their own," Colton says, "And we also have to worry about their bags."

"Okay, come on then," Eddie said. "There'll be a much greater chance of seeing another bear if we don't make it to camp before sunset."

They jog down the path until they meet up with the others. As Colton predicted, all three girls were still on the ground, but they were no longer hyperventilating or crying. Emma and Rhea were even sitting up.

"Guys, don't worry, it's okay," Eddie assures them, kneeling down next to Leeanna and rubbing her arm. Gerald was crouched down next to Rhea, and Howie was sitting next to Emma. "It was just a bear, he didn't attack you, you guys are going to be fine."

Gerald, Howie and Emma give Colton a weird look.

"Bear?" Rhea mouths to him.

"You know, Emma saw a bear, and pointed it out to everyone and the three of you had panic attacks?" Colton prods.

"Oh, right," Gerald says. "You guys were so terrified just seeing it, imagine what would've happened if the bear had actually attacked us?"

"Here, I'll give a hand with the bags," Eddie picks up the three bags that were on the ground (Leeanna, Colton and Rhea's), slinging one over his shoulder. He walks a little ways ahead then stops and looks back at them. "Come on."

Colton kneels down next to Leeanna.

"You gonna be okay?" He wants to know. Leeanna rolls onto her stomach and pushes herself into a crouch.

"Yeah, just a headache," Leeanna answers.

Colton knew that wasn't the case, but he didn't argue. Colton holds out his hand and helps Leeanna up. They walk the rest of the way to the camp with Leeanna leaning on him. Once they get to the camp, the girls insisted that they were fine, so all six kids assist Eddie with setting up the camp. The only thing Eddie had done was pitch his own tent, which led Colton to wondering what he was doing the rest of the time. But, it wasn't a big deal, they made a camp fire, pitched the boys' tent and the girls' tent, and arranged their sleeping bags and whatnots inside of the tents.