camp || hemmings au

sixteen

"Jesus, Caroline. Get up." Elizabeth shook me violently, causing me to groan. I was never a morning person and her being so pushy certainly wasn't helping. We had gotten along better the past few days, but she was already getting on my bad side.

"What, Elizabeth?" I snapped groggily, turning over to face her. She looked as if she had just woken up herself.

"Everyone is outside. I don't know what's going on but it looks like some kind of meeting."

I sighed and slowly rolled out of bed. I was still upset that Elizabeth had woken me up but I did want to see what she was talking about.

We made it outside and just as Elizabeth had said, what seemed to be everyone in our part of the camp were gathered outside. They were all huddled together and there were alots of whispering and confused faces. Jess and the rest of the counselors were standing at the front of the crowd. Sonething that confused me even more was that among the counselors, I saw Michael. I didn't understand why he would be here considering that he worked in the kids' camp. Elizabeth and I saw Calum and Ashton standing off to the side, both of their arms crossed over their chests.

"What's going on?" I asked as Elizabeth and I approached Ashton and Calum.

"Some kid in Michael's group went missing. There at the lake and now they can't find him." Calum informed us, his gaze shifting between us and the counselors.

"What are they gonna do?" Elizabeth gasped.

"I think they want us to help, or something." Ashton shrugged his shoulders. I was shocked by this new information. I didn't understand how the kid could even disappear. There was nowhere for it to go but in the woods, and I didn't see why a kid would want to go in the woods alone.

"Dude, you guys just left us!" A voice shouted from behind the four of us. We all turned to see Jude and Luke walking over to us, both of them looking kind of pissed.

"We wanted a better view." Ashton shrugged once again. Jude rolled his eyes.

"You look horrible." Luke commented, his eyes trailing down my body.

"I just woke up." I defended myself, earning a small laugh from him.

Just then, Jess's voice rang throughout the small lot that we were standing in, causing us all to fall silent.

"Okay, we want everyone to spread out with their groups. Some of you take the buildings and the rest of you can search the woods. The boy's name is Bradley. If you find anything, come back here. Okay, let's move."

The crowd separated quickly and Laurie came walking up to us with Michael behind her. His face was pale and his hair was a mess, I could tell he was devastated.

"Michael is coming with us." Laurie stated, pushing her blonde curls out of her face. "We're gonna take the woods."

-•-

"It's alright, man." Ashton tried to soothed Michael as we walked through the woods, slonging his arms around his shoulders, "We'll find him, okay?"

We had been walking for about half an hour now and there was still no sign of the missing kid. We already knew that his name was Bradley and Michael said that he was twelve. Michael also said he had brown hair and was short for his age. Though, we really didn't need a description, we would know once we saw a random kid alone. Bradley couldn't have went too far. I mean, what kid would want to be alone in the woods?

But I was starting to feel bad for Michael. He kept mumbling things to himself and no matter how much we tried to reassure him, he blamed himself.

"Poor, Mike." Luke said to me, not having to worry about Michael hearing as we were behind him.

"Yeah, I feel bad for him. It's really not his fault." I watched him from behind, Calum patting his shoulder as they walked.

"Bradley!" Elizabeth and Laurie called simultaneously, each sighing after no response.

"Guys, I think we should split up. We'll never find him like this." Laurie shook her head as she stopped and turned to face us. We all came to a halt and nodded our heads in agreement.

"Luke, Caroline, Ashton, and Elizabeth. You guys can be in a group. Calum, Michael and I will go together. " She pointed at each of us, "We'll go this way," she threw her thumb over her shoulder, "And you guys go that way."She pointed to her right, "We'll all meet back here in forty minutes."

We departed ways and began to search yet again for Bradley. I was hesitant at first about being in a group with Elizabeth and Luke, but when I realized there was zero tension, I relaxed. They seemed fine around each other now, and surprisingly I was comfortable around them.

"Do you guys think he's even out here?" Elizabeth questioned as we all stepped over a log.

"I don't know," Luke answered, "But I sure as hell hope so because Michael is really torn up."

We all stayed silent after that, calling out the boy's name and getting no response. I was starting to get worried, and also a little hungry. The only sound that was heard were our constant yells and the ground crunching as we stepped.

"We should head back soon." Ashton announced, looking at the watch on his wrist.

"It hasn't even been fifteen minutes, Ashton." Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but we have to be back in forty minutes." He reminded, ruffling his waves on his head.

"We would still be ten minutes early." Elizabeth scoffed, flipping her hair over her shoulder in a mocking way.

I could tell this was going to turn into an argument and the point of why we were out here was going to fade away. Elizabeth and Ashton stopped walking and started shooting insults at each other, causing me to sigh. There was really no hope with these two. They had already forgotten our mission.

"Luke, what are we gonna do with them?" I laughed softly, crossing my arms over my chest. I turned my head to look at Luke and found that he wasn't there. I furrowed my eyebrows and searched around us but I didn't see him. I was so caught up in Elizabeth and Ashton, that I hadn't seen him walk away.

"Guys." I addressed Ashton and Elizabeth. They didn't hear me and continued fighting. "Guys." I said more loudly this time. They both snapped their heads in my direction, each if them giving me confused looks.

"What?" Elizabeth wondered.

"Luke's gone." I stated, still searching the woods that surrounded us.

"Great," Ashton mumbled, looking around also, "Now we have two missing people."

Our eyes roamed over the woods, trying to find the blonde haired boy. I really didn't know how he had wondered off so fast. He was there one minute and gone the next. We called his name a few times, and then we heard Luke's voice in the distance, the three words he spoke making all of our hearts drop.

"Oh, my God."

---

I feel like this chapter sucks but oh well...

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