Camp Gorgon

Chapter 7 Preparations Mike

Chapter 7 Mike

Preparations

Morning came early. At 6:15 my mental alarm clock was screaming at me to wake up. It had been a very long night, and there was nothing I wanted more than closing my eyes, and sleeping for another hour. But for every hour I slept, Adam would be an hour farther away. I slowly sat up and looked around. Troy was sitting on the edge of his bed, looking at his sword. He seemed to be deep in thought. Does this kid ever sleep? I continued watching him, trying to figure out what he was so focused on.

Suddenly he looked up, and said, "Mornin' bro."

"Hey. How long have you been up?" I asked.

"About an hour. I couldn't sleep." He looked back down at the sword.

"What's so interesting about your sword?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing really. I was just thinking, and sometimes having an object to hold on to will help me think."

"Oh, ok." I replied, knowing that he had been pondering the same thing that I have been mulling over most of the night. "It's going to be ok, Troy. I think I might have a plan."

Rebecca walked in the door in full battle armor, with a sheath of arrows strapped to her back, and bow in hand. God she looks hot in armor. I thought.

"Hey guys," she said casually, as if we weren't about to do the hardest, most dangerous thing of our entire lives.

"Where did you get the armor?" I inquired.

"From the armory, duh. You guys are due there in 5 minutes."

"Great." Troy got up and walked toward the door, with his sword sheathed at his left side. He walked past Rebecca and out the door without saying a word.

"What got into him?" Rebecca asked.

"He's nervous about today." I replied.

"Oh," she said, as if remembering something bad. She stared off into space for a few seconds.

"Earth to Rebecca." I said, playfully waving my hand in front of her face.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I guess I'm nervous about today too."

"It will be ok. We're all nervous."

"Thanks Mike, but I'm really not sure it will be."

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"Um... I don't know. Let's go get you some armor." She rushed every word as if hiding something.

"Ok." I said, and we walked out the door.

The armory was filled with swords, and axes, and shields, and helmets, and, well, armor. Sherry greeted us at the door. "Hey guys. Today you will be fitted for armor before your quest."

I spotted Troy over by the shields. He had the same blank stare that he had when he was playing with his sword this morning.

Sherry saw me looking over there, "Mike, you won't need a shield, because you have two swords. You will, however, need a helmet." She walked over to the helmets, and picked a gold one with an eagle on the front, and the eagle's wings were on the sides. "You are the leader of this quest. Your team will expect you to be brave. In our culture, the eagle means bravery, and the golden eagle is the greatest honor anyone could ever receive. I expect you to do great things, and this eagle will help you."

She placed the helmet on my head. As soon as it was there I felt a great sense of power.

I now understand the term dumbfounded. I must have looked like a complete idiot standing there frozen in place. "Mike! Focus!" Rebecca whispered into my ear.

I snapped out of it. "Wow, thanks." I said. Once I had the rest of my armor, I walked over to Troy, who was fully suited up, and looked ready for battle. "Hey, are you going to be alright?" I asked.

"Sure man, I just need to get past those skeletons," he replied.

"What skeletons?" Rebecca asked.

Before I could answer, Sherry came over to us. "It's almost time to go. Meet me at the back gate in 10 minutes."

"Front gate," I corrected.

"Mike, we discussed this. If we take a back road it will be easier."

"We are taking the main road out the front gate!" I regretted raising my voice as soon as the words escaped my mouth, but I had to get my point across.

"Very well... 10 minutes." With that Sherry stormed out the door.

"Let's go! We need to get back to the cabin before leaving." I ran out the door.

"Mike! What are you thinking? You're going to get us killed!" Rebecca called after me.

I stopped and turned around, "I'll tell you when we get to the cabin. Come on! We are running out of time!"

We got to cabin 21, with 7 minutes left. Rebecca was sitting next to me on my bed, and Troy was across from us on his bed.

"You have some serious explaining to do!" Rebecca yelled.

"Yes I do, and I suspect you do too. First of all, when you got up this morning, where was Autumn?" I asked.

"What does that have to do with...She wasn't in our room. I assumed she went to eat breakfast or something, but..."

I cut her off. "Just as I suspected."

"What?" Troy and Rebecca said at the same time.

"Troy had a dream last night. Autumn was in the dream. She seems to know things we don't, and it is clear that she left without us. In 6 minutes we will be ambushed by skeletons on the main road."

"So why aren't we taking a back road?" Rebecca asked.

"Because it's inevitable. It will happen no matter what road we take." I answered.

"There's more isn't there," Rebecca pressed.

I nodded, and swallowed hard. I had not yet accepted that part of it.

"Mike?" Rebecca asked.

I looked at Troy. "He left out the part about all of us getting killed." The room was silent. There was a reason I left that out.

Rebecca broke the silence, "I had a dream as well. In my dream I got separated from you two, and we all get captured. The Dark Lord put me in a power draining device, and threatened to kill all of us." Again there was silence.

This time I broke the silence. "I'm not going to let any of that happen. We have 3 minutes to get to Sherry. Let's go!" We got up and ran down the path to the front gate.