The Group, the Idiot, and the Murderer -Mavin short story-

Chapter 1 - The Group

        In the middle of the dark field I stood in, I could make out a flickering orange light illuminating on the surrounding trees. That, and the light from the moon and stars, were the only things making the field visible. Instinct made me turn around to see a camp fire maybe about 50 feet away under a few over-hanging trees.

With my hands gripping onto the straps of my backpack, I walked towards the flame like a moth. I heard the sounds of music as I got closer, and was then disappointed to hear it was a crappy pop song. A few people noticed me when I noticed them, so they stopped their conversation and waved at me. I put my hand in the air and waved back, a little nervous about meeting new people. 

"Howdy!" one of the dark-haired men said in a stereotypical Texas accent. That's when I figured that maybe this whole acted out horror camp thing was for tourists.

"Hello," I replied as the four others there looked up and studied my face. 

They were all men, one about my age and two that looked middle aged with facial hair. By the way they sat far apart from each other, I could tell this was their first time meeting. The friendly guide who had greeted me was the only one trying to get closer to the others. He sat with his elbows on his knees, leaned in close to the others like he was trying to make conversation but failing.

I sat on the opposite side of him on a deck chair, perfectly far from the others. 

"My name is Glen," he said as he reached over his hand. I leaned over the campfire and shook it, feeling the warm smoke rise to the bottom of my palm from the fire. 

"My name is Michael," I greeted with a forced smile. I eyed the small portable radio that the music was coming from. 

"Nice meetin ya' Michael."

One middle-aged man with a hipster mustache cleared his throat and introduced himself next. "I'm Geoff." Instead of shaking my hand he gave a small wave. 

"Jack," introduced the next man. 

"Ryan." 

"Oh, I'm Ray," said the younger one as he looked up from his 3DS and pushed his glasses closer to his eyes. I couldn't help but wonder what game he was playing.

"Great!' Glen said. "This looks like a good amount of people, so what do ya'll say we get started?" 

An echo of nods and "okay," came from the crowd. Ray put away his game. 

"What we're gonna need to do is come up with plans. Personally, when this starts I recommend sticking together and not staying in one place too long.  You'll know when the killer gets you.  To win you need to last longer than the masked murderer, and believe me it's gonna be scary."

I noticed all the other people smile when he said that, probably out of nervousness. They all had that nervous look in their eye, except for the one named Ryan. He looked genuinely excited. Maybe he had done this before. 

"There are, however, a few rules we have to go through. One of the newest features of our night out is the murderer can be attacked, however we don't want ya'll to attack him on his arms, head, or legs. You can use-"

Glen stopped when he heard a screaming in the distance. Everyone else noticed when he did, and I looked around through the almost pitch black air. When my eyes were focused enough and adjusted to the darkness, I saw a figure coming towards us. The music repeated in a chorus over and over again for a while, singing something about love and pretty girls.

"Hey over there!" yelled an out of breath British man. As he ran towards us, I thought about how weird it was to get people from the U.K. in Austin.