The Camp

Chapter 14

My eyes shot open with panic and I ducked underneath the bed to see nothing but the floor and the odd pile of dust. The dress was gone. Tears brimmed my eyes as I rolled back over and stared up at the underside of Emily's bed. Someone had taken it, or it had been found by one of the drones and took away. The only thing that I could think was that I would never see that precious dress every again. Holding in my tears I blinked away my distress and rolled once more so that I was facing the wall. Things were starting to look up and the dress was the least of my worries. My eyes began to close softly, and I felt my consciousness slip away into an empty darkness.

I wasn't woken by the siren or the breakfast drone the next morning but rather a gentle hand on my shoulder that startled me into being wide awake. Opening my eyes, I saw a shadow of a face in the darkness, but I could just see the slim finger pressed against their lips. I nodded, realising that there were other people with them. Emily moved above me and the whole bed frame creaked. Wincing I stood up myself so that I could get a better look at who was waking us. Illuminated by a stray strand of moonlight I saw a very familiar eye and smiled to myself as I realised that it was Jack. Emily appeared beside me and was helped down from the ladder by someone dressed in grey, he wasn't a person that I recognised but I was sure that Jack trusted him enough to help. Then the other two people stepped forward, a woman with long grey hair and another man this time with a beard and a bun. They escorted Emily towards the door and my hand found its way to Jack's arm as he began to move, pulling me along with him.

Outside it was still dark but only just and the sun was starting to peek over the horizon. That meant that there wasn't much time before we were all seen, and I wanted to know what was going on. "Jack?" I whispered, tugging at his hoodie sleeve, "What's going on?" A truck pulled up in the silence of the night and a final person emerged from the front driver's door. "I found a way to get your friend out. She'll be back home with her mom by tomorrow night." I nodded, watching as the people escorting Emily undid the back of the truck and started to prepare an undercover seat. Registering the concern in my face Jack added a piece to the end of his sentence. "Its ok. You can trust them. I know them well." With that I released his arm and he was flagged down by the man in the grey who then summoned me over. "You should probably say goodbye to your friend. You won't see her for a while." I nodded, rounding the back of the truck to get to where Emily was sat under a tarpaulin. "Hey. Listen. Your going home. These people are Jack's friends and they're going to get you back to your mom. I don't know when I'm going o see you again or even if I'm going to see you again so if I don't make it back will you tell my Ma took take care of herself. Oh, and I want you to have my cat, you know if I die." She smiled at me, but she still seemed worried. "You aren't going to die because Jack will take care of you." She mumbled, clutching at the edges of her sleeves. We both looked over to him, now speaking with the driver then nodding and patting the side of the truck before moving away. The man in grey reappeared and climbed into the back beside Emily. "Its time to go. I'm sorry." He explained as he pulled to trunk shut. I could just see Emily under her tarp and as the truck pulled off, I waved and saw her tiny hand wave back. I felt like crying. Jack had really managed to get Emily to a safe place, and I had kept my promise.

Appearing beside me Jack allowed me to watch until the truck had disappeared until speaking. "It's going to be light soon. You should get back to your lodge." I nodded, still a little shook up by Emily's sudden departure. "For safety reasons I suggest that you act like you don't know where she's gone until I can figure out how to get her name cleared from the system." I was wobbling back towards the lodge now; Jack was beside me talking about something that I didn't quite understand, and the sun was growing on the horizon. "Thank you." I mumbled and his sentence was cut off. "Thank you for everything that you've done for me. I can' tell you how much I appreciate it." I explained, twisting my fingers between my palm. Smiling and not quite able to make eye contact he opened his mouth and began to speak, "You would do the same if it was the other way around. Besides we're friends and friends look after each other." Only able to manage a smile in response I climbed the stairs to my lodge and entered through the bright post box red from door, knowing that he wouldn't follow me inside.

I didn't sleep for much longer than I previously had that night, the room felt to empty without Emily sleeping above me and even the rustles of people turning in their beds sounded distant.

The tiny speaker drone drifted in at about six because I remember watching it hover across to the centre of the room then begin to play its message in a buzzy static. "All remaining campers are to attend breakfast in five minutes." It turned on its rotors, circling back and exited the lodge, leaving the door open to the stuffy morning air. I hauled myself to my feet and slipped into my boots which were getting a little worn after using them consecutively for the last few days, I checked the buttons on my suit and to my surprise the top button pulled right off so I had to fold back the corners and create a collar that was merely rolled up fabric. I passed Emily's unmade bed with a few strange looks from the other girls and headed out of the door to join the already mile long queue for food. Now that there was only around a hundred of us, the queue went down much faster and so my food was warmer than usual when I placed my hand around the half full bowl. Instead of the bland porridge that they had been feeding us we had a collection of nuts and oats doused in what appeared to be watered down milk. On top of the concoction rested a thin stirp of toast which I munched on, on my way to a spare seat.

I ended up crammed between a girl from Kentucky and a twig of a girl from Alaska. Keeping myself to myself I took huge mouthfuls of the granola until there was nothing left in my bowl. It didn't taste bad to say that it wasn't the usual slop, but it didn't taste any better either, it was practically watery oats with a few nuts mixed in.

A muscly girl behind me had an allergic reaction to the nuts and her entire face swelled into a bulbous, red ball, resulting in about six paramedics entering the room and finally pronouncing her dead after various efforts to save her. The whole time I refrained from looking, instead staring down into the bottom of my bowl until I was sure that the paramedics were gone and finally, I found myself getting up miserably to take my bowl over to the washing up station. I separated spoon from bowl and stacked them on their identical piles before returning to my seat and sitting with my hands clasped until Rachel arrived and made a 'tut' sound at the front of the room.

"Morning girls." She crowed, her cherry coloured lips turning to wriggling snakes as she smiled. "Today there will be not only one but two trails, designed to rid us of twenty-five of you each time." I sighed. These trials were getting old and I didn't have as much energy as I'd though I would have today, which was probably down to my lack of sleep and unbearable hunger. Teetering over to stand beside Finn, Rachel held her microphone to her mouth, "Those of you who do not make it through our first trial will not take part in the second trial and will as a result remain in the lodges until instructed otherwise." She smiled. Today she was wearing a peach dress that appeared to be knitted from fine wool. Her hair was pinned back in an extravagant ponytail and flowers had been slotted into various gaps in her hair to make her seem lighter and less cynical. "Your trials will begin in half an hour so eat up good because you're going to need your energy." That was he end of her big announcement and I watched expectantly as she bent over to speak to Finn and the other celebrities. My eyes settled on Jack, he had huge purple crescents beneath his eyes as though he hadn't slept all night and his hair was windswept and messy. Nonetheless he was still trying to manage on our meagre rations, and I could tell because his bowl was sitting untouched in front of him except the toast was gone and he had crumbs littered down the front of his suit.

A few of the girls had started to leave and I stood up to follow them out, heading straight back to the lodge to prepare myself mentally for the day ahead. One trial was hard enough but two back to back was enough to drain every ounce of energy and kill me off for good.