Camp Driftwood

Chapter 18 - Sanctify

Chapter 18 – Sanctify

"What does he have to gain?" Evan asked, moving the baked beans loaded onto his plate half-heartedly with his fork.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Kaylee admitted, "But whatever it is, we need to find out fast. We're missing a lot of the bigger picture."

"But we have a few pieces as well." Judie smiled, joining in on their conversation for the first time. "Not bad for a group of kids in the middle of nowhere, right?"

Kaylee couldn't help but smile at her optimism. "Yeah, not bad at all. I'm just not sure where we should start."

"Start with what we know," Evan said evenly, in a conversational tone. To any observer, he might as well be discussing how bland his breakfast was. "We know that Hale has files in his office that he keeps in the cabinet by his desk. He had a file on Kaylee, so we can only assume he has files on all of the attendants here. Still, that can't be all. There has to be more; something we can learn."

"You want to break into Hale's office?" Kaylee dropped her voice to a whisper, "I mean hey, I like your ambition, but let's just settle down for a second."

"We don't have time to play it safe," Evan replied with a shrug. "We can't wait patiently for the perfect moment and plan our every move, we just don't have the time. We have to act."

Kaylee fell silent, taking a mouthful of beans as she thought it over. "What do you think we should do?"

"Lure Hale out of his office for as long as possible. We need a distraction."

"That's not going to be easy."

"Didn't say it would be," shrugged in reply.

"If we start another fight, we'll be thrown back into the hotboxes for at least a day. We can't lose that amount of time."

"Hale is already suspicious of you two," Judie added, "If you're missing, he's going to know something is wrong. You don't have to do this."

"So one of us distracts, while the other raids his office?" Evan suggested, ignoring Judie's protests.

"Sounds like a plan."

"It's not a plan yet," Evan shook his head, "Not by far. We still need to figure out how we're going to bring Hale out of his office. He spends most of the day in there, he's not just going to decide to go on a walk through the camp."

"We've got a little bit of time to work with, so we should use it."

"How?"

"Make Hale want to leave his office. If he's forced, he'll know something is up."

"Again, how?"

Kaylee paused to take a mouthful of her breakfast, chewing slowly as she thought it over.

"No clue," she shrugged after swallowing, "Still working that part out. Don't worry about it, I'll think of something."

"I'm overflowing with confidence," Evan said flatly, taking a mouthful of water to wash down his breakfast. "Confidence in the fact that we're all going to die."

"That's the spirit," Kaylee grinned, raising her own glass in a mock toast.

"Would you mind taking this seriously?" Evan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You sound just like my mom."

"Well she sounds like a wise woman."

Kaylee couldn't help but smile. "She is. I think you'll like her."