There's Something In The Woods

Chapter 11

"G-guys, there's blood on Lee's shirt!" I cried. I doubted that Lee had cut himself or something. Now I knew something must've happened to him.

"Becky, you don't know for sure what happened. We just need to focus on getting back to camp. OK?" Nick said soothingly, even though I knew he was shaken up as well.

"Let's just keep walking." Sam said solemnly as he picked up the shirt. I grabbed onto Nick's hand and we all continued in the direction where we hoped the camp was located.

I just didn't understand. The amount of blood on that shirt was pretty drastic. It must have come from a serious injury that would've likely been painful, but it's not like we heard a scream or anything.

We kept walking in the darkness, cold and scared. No one broke the silence. No one had anything to say.

I almost fainted with relief when the smell hit my nostrils. "Do you smell that?" I said to no one in particular.

"Yeah!" Nick replied excitedly. "It's smoke. Where there's smoke, there's fire." Maybe the camp had found some wood and had lit the campfire.

We relied on our noses from that point on. The smell was getting stronger and I could hear muffled voices in the distance.

"We're nearly there!" Sam shouted as we spotted a light through the trees.

Sam, Nick and I crashed through the tree line and into the view of a few worried camp mates.

"Where have you guys been?" Ashley shouted as she pulled me into a tight hug. "We were worried sick!"

"Gosh, you sound like mum." Nick chuckled as he pulled his sister in for a hug. "Sorry for worrying you."

"The important thing is that your back. Where are the others?" Ashley asked hopefully. Sam stepped forward to break the news. Someone had to.

"We tried searching for them, but we had no luck. All we found was this." Sam said as he held up Lee's shirt. "We found it in the woods. It has blood on it."

Everyone gasped as their eyes took in the shirt. Basically, the whole camp was listening to the conversation, eager to know what was happening.

"I take it Mr Emerson isn't back." Nick said. He was right. Mr Emerson was the first person to go missing. Now I believed that something bad had happened to him as well.

My gaze focused on the blazing campfire and a question rose in my head. "Um, how'd you guys get the firewood? Please don't tell me more people are missing." I asked.

"Well, it was Zack's idea." Ashley replied. "We sent him into the woods with some rope tied around his waist, so he wouldn't get lost. We found the rope in Mr Emerson's tent."

"Wish we'd thought of that...." I said sadly. If we'd used our heads, Lee, Michael and Lucy wouldn't be lost.

"Alright, everyone!" Nick shouted over the murmurs of campers. "Let's all sit down. We need to think of a plan."

"A plan for what?" I asked curiously. Did he mean a plan to find everyone that was missing?

Nick let out a sigh before answering.

"A plan to find the others and get us all out of here."