The Camp

Chapter 6

The salty taste of the fresh air filled my mouth and I took a deep breath, smiling at the quiet of the outside. In the distance I could hear bird song, soft and repetitive. The trees blew gently in the summer breeze and I gave myself a few moments to take in my beautiful surroundings. Once I had acclimatized to being outside alone, I took a step down the wooden stairs at the front of the lodge which I had failed to notice before in my terror. They were polished and smooth, slick with water which I presumed had come from the clean up operation. Heading down to the bottom of the lodge I looked round, taking in my surroundings properly now that I had a chance. Peeking around the corner of my building I realised that there were lodges leading as far back as the eye could see, huge wooden buildings, all with the same red door; they were indistinguishable apart from the small numbered places that had been nailed beside the doors.

Turning back to examine the turning circle area in front of myself I noticed a small clock, a beige plastic thing with two black hands and a much faster red hand. I'd learnt to tell the time from the sun and Ma had shown me how to interpret my digital alarm clock but this new way of telling the time baffled me. I watched the hands move for a few minutes before I figured out how to even read the clock face. Then once I had got the hang of telling the time I deciphered the moving hands and found that it was in fact only two o'clock in the afternoon, I had been so sure that it was later and my initial emergence into the bright sunlight had confused me a little although I was starting to get used to the baking sun.

Something across the other side of the dusty square clicked and shielding my eyes form the sun, I watched as the door of the celebrity's lodge opened. To begin with no one came out and all I could make out from the shadows was someone's arm holding the door wide open. It was definitely one of the celebrities and not one of their infinite staff because the arm was clothed in a suit sleeve. The person finally appeared, their head turned back as though talking to someone, whoever it was had a puffy, mess of curls flowing from their head and I struggled to decide whether it was Finn, Jack or possibly even Wyatt. The suited celebrity turned back to what they were doing, walking forwards and letting the door swing closed. He made it halfway across the yard before finally realising that I was there and for a swift second we stared at each other in confusion. He was probably wondering what I was doing out and I was wondering the same of him. Upon registering my unwillingness to move from my spot he realised that I didn't pose a significant threat to him and raised an unsure hand. 'Hi' I waved back, and I saw his face light up in a smile as he drew a hand to his eyes to shade himself from the sun. I smiled back, finally recognising the curls on top of his head then watched as he completed his journey across the yard and disappeared behind a large metal building. That was one of my first real encounters with Jack Grazer.

Once I was completely sure that he was gone I continued across the yard, I didn't know where I was going or even what I was looking for, perhaps it was the exit or even a way out but I found myself coming to a stop at the beginning of a dark alley between two more of the competitors lodges. I considered the repercussions if I was to slip into the alley and decided that they were much less than fighting another contestant and so with slowed breathing I pushed forward and prayed that a machine gun didn't open fire on me. As it turned out, it didn't but instead a small, orange safety drone appeared about halfway down. It didn't have a machine gun or any threatening attachments, all it had was a cream speaker clutched tightly between its pincer-like legs. "Please return to Camp. You are moving into imminent danger." A standardized safety message. I smiled and nodded at the curious little contraption, stepping a few feet back in the grimy alleyway. That was all it took for the safety conscious bot to disappear back into the sky. It was also all it took for me to decide that I was going to see the other side of the alley whether it killed me or not and so with a strong sense of determination I bolted forwards and broke into the fastest sprint I could muster. I expected to be shot don on the spot but instead a black camera drone appeared at my side and followed me to the end which I hadn't noticed was rapidly approaching. My feet skidded in the dirt as I put on my brakes, sliding to a stop a few inches away from the edge of a slope that resembled a steep cliff.