Whispers Of A Nameless Fear 🪼🐇

Camp Time - Night 3

When morning came, the loss of Allegra and Bethany was made pretty apparent by the screams that woke everyone the next morning. The teachers didn't really know what to do about the situation. It wasn't something covered in the handbook. They decided to have a meeting a little ways from the kids to figure out a better plan.

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"We need a stable plan of action for this forest. Apparently it's not a normal forest." Carson growled at Ramiro.

"When I came here and checked it out I found no sign of this activity anywhere in the forest. The deer were fine and everything I looked at was just like a regular forest except unexplored."

"Are you sure you led us in the right direction, Bugs Bunny? Sure you didn't take a wrong turn at Albuquerque?"

"Boys! Enough..." Oksana said, coming between the two teachers as they were about to go to blows. "This is no place for a fight."

"No, it's the perfect place." Carson said. "If I kill him we can blame the wildlife."

"My wife is right, enough of this." Yuri said, pushing the two away from each other. "Ramiro would never do anything to put these kids in danger and you know that. But Carson is right: are you sure this is the right forest?"

"Positive."

"Well we can't sit here in fear." Ila said, making everyone turn to the usually meek woman.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if this forest has such hostile creatures in it then having everyone sit like scared ducks is just going to cause more problems than anything. Animals smell fear and some animals practically feed off of it... uh... no pun intended."

"What do you suggest we do then?"

"Start what we came here for. Get the kids' minds off of what's happening and focused on something. I know it sounds harsh, given the circumstances, but the less afraid they are for the moment, the better they will survive."

"Ila is right. We'll do a service for the girls and then explain what we're doing to the children."

The teachers all nodded in agreement and went to tell their students the decisions made.

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Hannah sat with her knees to her chest and just stared at Bethany's body, what was left of it. Those crazy deer just tore chucks of flesh from her friend while she was all snuggled up with Ferris and Guthrie also there to protect her. I should have had Guthrie sleep next to her to keep her safe... She felt a hand on her back and saw that it was Guthrie. He sat down next to her and she put her head on his shoulder.

"I'm really sorry about Bethany. I know you two were friends."

"More like close acquaintances but thanks all the same."

"I feel more sorry for Allegra."

"Why?"

"Because she didn't really have friends and I don't see anyone really grieving for her."

"Yeah... What do you think is going to happen now? I mean, it seems like it really doesn't matter what we do. If we move, we attract the deer; if we stay, they pick us off in pairs in the night. I don't want my face chewed off by a fucking deer."

"You and me both... Hopefully the teachers have a plan."

The sound of crunching leaves made everyone look up and then practically collectively sigh a sigh of relief to see it was the teachers returning from the meeting they had had a little ways off.