The Commune: An Orange Mist Age Regression Virus Story (Chapter 08 - 09 August)

[LostBBoyBear]

Warning

As with my previous stories, this one contains several elements inherent to break with social normities, though catered to often on this site. These include, but are not limited to:

• Diapers and their usage for their intended purpose
• Non-consensual mental regression through various means (Including possible drugs, hypnosis, and/or surgery)
• References to surgery to achieve various nefarious goals
• Humiliation
• Punishments (often unfair, degrading, and/or humiliating)
• Coerced or manipulated actions through possible means of white lies, gas lighting, or incentives
• Mild language or use of expletives
• Depictions of death, illness, or handicaps
• Political themes associated with revolutions or desires of change or freedoms
• Literal age regression
• Depictions of younger children and babies (formerly adults)
• Graphic imagery associated with any of these warnings

This story has not been labeled as mature, due to a lack of specific acts to anything overtly sexual; however, some fetishes maybe touched on in this story more than my previous ones. Still, as usual, this warning serves as a 'turn back' point for any readers who do not wish to read about the previous warnings.

Lastly, this list here is subject to change during the course of writing this story. While most of the plot is ironed out, more warnings may be warranted later if needed (though may not be added). If I deem any chapters to be too ‘triggering,’ I will issue another separate warning beforehand.

Hey everyone!

Unfortunately I'm not back quite yet. A few items popped up this week and let me tell you... greenery can be a big pain in the butt and time waster in a day. Oh well, but suffice to say, the full story will not be posted today. With that in mind though, the true chapter 1 of this story should pop up sometime next week (if not Monday, soon after), barring an emergency. 

Thank you for your patience!

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the initial delay there. Summertime activities and some stress at work don’t always lend themselves very well to a stable and open schedule. Regardless, though, this is my next story and right now, it’s about 16 chapters total in length. That is still a pretty basic plot though, so this total could very much change over the course of the story. If it does, though, I will let you all know about it.

Also, I’m going to try and hit three chapters a week like I’ve done in the past, but I can already see there might be a few weeks up ahead where that’s just not possible. For example… this week. A lack of sleep and shortened deadlines elsewhere are hard to contend with sometimes. As such, I am posting today and I should be able to post chapter 2 on Friday or Saturday at the latest before getting back to a more normalized schedule… hopefully.

And just to confirm, this is set in the same universe as Consequences of the Orange Mist, which you can find next.

https://www.dailydiapers.com/board/index.php?/topic/93582-consequences-of-the-orange-mist-an-age-regression-virus-story-chapter-26-complete/

Now… last but not least and as usual, I hope everyone enjoys this first chapter of my story!

Chapter 1: The Whirls of Fate

I sat and stared at the trees and the birds and clouds surrounding me above my head. I had loved nature for as long as I could remember, and every time I was in it, I felt happy and free. There was just a feeling of contentment in nature that I felt I would never lose. And today, with the Robins chirping and the sun shining on my face with the gentle breeze rustling the branches of the sycamore trees overhead, I could only smile.

“Earth to Miles? Earth to Miles?” an insistent voice cut through my peaceful afternoon.

I opened my briefly closed eyes, when I had been gently sunning myself, and looked back to see my coworker, Dwayne, staring right at me. “Huh?” From the stares and the tiny faint background noise I had heard, I then realized they had just asked me a question. But the trees were so peaceful and the birds so happy… so I hadn’t fully heard it. “Sorry about that… just so nice out today. What was the question again?”

My friends and coworkers groaned and rolled their eyes… except Brian. He was my best friend in and out of work, and he appreciated the fact that I liked nature more than business interests sometimes.

In contrast, Dwayne sighed heavily and shook his head though. “Why do we even have meetings out here anymore?” he asked annoyedly to the other two, clearly an attempt to knock me down a peg or two with his peers.

“We do it because we like the freedom, Dwayne,” Brian defended me without blinking.

“We do it because we all had this discussion five years ago when we initially broke off from the larger corporation we all hated to found our own company,” Leo countered, offering the most complete explanation without fancy or lofty ideals. “Out here, we can get a breath of fresh air and discuss things more openly than if we were cooped up inside.”

Dwayne grunted. “Then can we at least try and stay focused during these things?”

I glared at him. A fellow engineer, we often butt heads over how things were to go in the group. He focused more on the practical side of things while I was more focused on the dreaming and conceptualizing of new products. We worked with two sides of the same coin… but we were constantly at war with each other as a result.

“As long as we can get the work done…” Leo quickly noted, trying to calm us down from his position as CEO of our business venture. “Then I don’t care if we wander occasionally. Just…” He looked at me directly now. “Try not to get distracted by all… this?” He gestured to the beauty of nature all around us.

“Excellent suggestion, Leo,” Dwayne said with glee, his face nearly beaming with his butt kissing and gloating over the notion that I had been put down.

Leo, however, being the leader and ‘moderator’ of the group, glared at him.

Dwayne annoyed me to my very core most days, but seeing Leo as more of a neutral party in arguments at least, I nodded.

Soon, trying to put my best foot forward and even show up Dwayne a little, I simply shuffled the tiny reprimand off and went fully into a new possibility for increased fuel efficiency within the generators we produced. Of course, Dwayne hated it and thought it would be wildly expensive and impractical for at least a year and therefore not worth our time.  

“Okay… a one-year moratorium on prioritization of the new ion engine,” Leo decided after twenty minutes of heated debate, taking the final say away from us. Admittedly, he did that a lot, but we were okay with something like that. He was quick-witted and sharp and had a knack for predicting the outcomes long before they happened. For example, we all felt we owed him a great deal after he pulled us from our old company months before they went under and most lost their pensions or at least had to be laid off. “And now I think…”

“And what about me?” Brian asked before Leo jumped into the next conduct of business for the day. Being the designer, he tended to focus on the marketability and aesthetics of a product. He was brilliant at it, but competing with a manager and two engineers, his parts were sometimes left off the table until he piped up… if at all.

“Oh, right…” It was clear he had been neglected once again today by Leo. “Um… just hold back. Maybe start collaborating with Miles in… say seven… maybe eight months?”

I could tell right away that Brian had picked up on the notion of being forgotten once more. Once more, he simply brushed it off and nodded before nearly retreating back physically in Leo’s presence.

Of our group, I was closest to Brian and Leo was closest to Dwayne, and both vice versa. And while, for example, I could congregate with both Dwayne and Leo or them back to me… the relationship wasn’t as close and served more in a professional capacity than anything else.

“I… I think that’s fine,” Brian stammered out. “I think Miles and I could get together at that point and talk about it. Right, Miles?”

No response.

“Miles?” he questioned to me again.

But I didn’t hear him… not really.

“Ugh!” Dwayne exclaimed. “See, Leo? He’s not even paying attention now!”

This time, Leo sighed. “Miles… come in, Miles… come back to us and…”

“Shhh!” I shot back. “Look!” I pointed to the distance just beyond the hydrangea bushes. While nature had been showing its lovely face to us today, I wasn’t distracted by it this time. Instead, I was much more distracted by the unfolding scene in the plaza just about a block away from where we were sitting. “Don’t you all see?”

“What? What stupid thing are you looking at now?” Dwayne questioned with a sneer. “I don’t see… oh…” His ‘oh’ was enough to put a little joy into my heart, and also told me that now, each of us could clearly see what was happening.

Just beyond the trees in front of us, stood agents, soldiers, and several vehicles now streaming into the city.

“What the heck is going on?” Brian asked. “Are we being invaded?”

“I don’t know,” Leo noted. “Not invade, but… I think… yeah… looks like FBI, National Guard… maybe even the local police and… what the?” We all looked at him and he squinted harder. “Yeah… I saw that right. Even ATF are all down there now…”

“That’s a lot of people for nothing,” I postured. “What do you all think? Some parade we don’t know about? Is the president coming or… maybe a music celebrity with a bomb threat on them?”

Dwayne shrugged his shoulders while Brian trembled and Leo just stood silently with a questioning look on his face.

“Strange…” Leo finally mused before reaching into his pocket. “Let me call up one of my old contacts at the DoD and then the state or justice department. With this number of people, they might know something…”

We all nodded and waited for him to make a phone call.

After a minute of silence though, not all of us could sit so still. “Hey! I’ve got an idea. Sorry Leo… but this is taking too long. Let’s go check it out,” Dwayne pushed, almost edging toward the mass of people we could see like a piece of metal following the current of a strong magnet beyond. “I want to get a closer look…”

Curious ourselves, and despite our tension with him, Leo and I nodded and followed as Dwayne quickly pushed off first towards the mass now congregating to our south.

“Wait!” Brian cried out before we even got out of the courtyard where we normally had lunch together. “I… what if it’s not safe? What if it’s something they’re trying to protect us from?” His questions were each punctuated by another frightened tremor. He was my friend, but bravery had never been one of his strengths.

“Oh, quit being such a scaredy cat!” Dwayne chided him.

Leo flashed at him a dirty look before temporarily holding down his phone and showing the swiped away screen of notifications to Brian. “Look… no notifications. I’m sure if something happened, we’d know right away. But with nothing? I think we should still check it out… just to see. Who knows? Could be a contract waiting for us down there.”

Leo smiled calmly and brilliantly like had become his trademark sense of ease in most situations. Most of the time, it did the trick, but looking back, Brian still trembled and didn’t budge an inch.

Knowing what I had to do for my friend, I sighed and went back to push him on and get him past his own fears. “Come on, man. We’ll go together. And if it’s bad, they’ll tell us and we’ll haul it right back here and find safety, okay? No need to worry…”

Brian smiled and nodded. “Okay…” He finally took a step forward. “Thanks, Miles…”

I smiled back and kept pushing him on. “No worries. Just looking out for you…” It had almost become a job of mine in recent years, but Brian’s fears came from his mind thinking of all the possibilities out there. It made him a great creative force on the team… but occasionally, his imagination got the better of him.  

Not five minutes later, we were encircled in the mass of agents and soldiers buzzing about the courtyard just outside the steps of the statehouse. Oddly, the place was mostly abandoned with only a few other civilians and homeless meandering about.

“Hey!” I called out to one of the National Guard. “Is everything okay? We saw all you gathering down here and…”

“What the…?” The National Guardsman looked completely perplexed. “Where the hell are you all coming from? Didn’t you all see the news?” the soldier questioned to me before I even had the chance to finish.

“Uh… no?” My hand quickly went for my phone.

Before I could turn it on though, after touching his ear piece, he pushed back at me. “I need you all to leave the area immediately!” His finger then pointed back in the direction we had just come from… the opposite way of where everyone around us now seemed to be heading.

“But…” My phone then buzzed and I looked down before I objected.

And there, the headline was as clear as could be. “Terrorist Cell Threatens City Centers: Seek Shelter Immediately.”

I was nearly frozen in shock before I held it up to my friends. “Hey… guys? Check this out…” I held the front screen first declaring the headline and then swiped down to show the rest of the article, especially the part about to ‘stay indoors as much as possible for the next few hours.”

“Shit!” Leo cursed. “Damn busy signal. Can’t get in touch with any of my contacts!”

“Maybe we should go inside like it said to…” Brian posited, pointing to the literal line in the breaking news article I had pulled up. “I might be safer or…”

“Oh, will you just grow a pair!” Dwayne cursed him. “Every damn time something exciting comes along, unless it’s your little art programs, pen, or brush… you’re hopeless! If I couldn’t see you with my own eyes, I would swear I you were acting like nothing but a little k…”

“Sir,” the National Guardsman interjected, “your friend is right and I highly advise you to seek shelter immediately for you own safet…”

“Oh, screw that!” Without another word, Dwayne scoffed and turned away. “I’ll find out what’s happening and get the news story of the year for this city on my own!”

“Sir!” The National Guardsman called out again. “I…”

Suddenly, a hiss echoed around the open-air but surrounded courthouse plaza.

We all stopped as quickly as we could in place. It was eerie seeing so many agents and soldiers looking just as panicked and frantic as my friends and I looked like in that moment. It was fear and with even them knowing a little more than we did, everyone now seemed to be on the same plane of unknown of what had just happened.  

“Find it! Find it!” one of the lead soldiers barked out.

Looking up and around with them, I stopped. Jjust beyond the large oak planted near the easternmost of the plaza and right towards the tips of the leaves on top… I saw it. I pointed in horror and slowly, everyone turned to see where I was looking now.

There, a tiny puff of smoke had begun to emerge from one of the taller high-rise office buildings.

White at first but then slowly turning a strange form of orange. The vapor itself seemed light and fluffy, like a cloud had descended from on high, akin to something one might have seen in thousands of paintings across the world. But the mist itself was in contrast a dense orange, as brilliant as any sunset I had seen. And all that puffed out of the window like a fog machine on Halloween. It was all so peaceful… for about three seconds.

In another window on the same floor closer to us, an agent stuck his head out the window and screamed as seemingly as loud as he could. “Gas! Gas! Gas! Masks on! Masks on!” His voice echoed just long enough in the area for everyone to hear his command that he looked satisfied and immediately put on his own gas mask before ducking back in the window.

The scene before us then took on an almost unearthly and spine-chilling unfolding of pure terror and as if all time had stopped or slowed down around us. Military troops and agents alike quickly dropped whatever was in their hands. For the troops, their rifles hung around them like dreaded pendulums already attached to their bodies. For the agents, flashlights and clipboards and sidearms were placed nearby, or in some cases, went flying as every member quickly tried to fit on a gas mask.

“What the…?” was about all Dwayne could muster out before the first of the gas began to coil around him. Slow and creeping, the wisps seemed to cling to his body.

At least before Leo yanked him away. “Come on! We gotta move!” he shouted but not before a little of the mist swirling around him and his thick blonde and partially gray beard.

Seeing all the agents and National Guardsman donning their masks, I was reminded of the history books I had once read about with World War One and the trench warfare and whenever the troops then had to quickly don their own masks. They suffered terribly afterward, and with those images sealed in my mind, I didn’t want to wait to find out what this was. ‘Not me… not me…’

Seeing Leo pulling Dwayne away, I looked to Brian… now seemingly frozen in fear. “Come on!” I quickly grabbed his wrist and pulled him away.

He followed, but it seemed like it was too late.

Soon, the orange mist began to settle over us like a thick fog. It was as dense as pea soup and gave off a strange smell while making my skin feel both electrified and prickly. ‘Don’t breathe in… don’t breathe in…’ I just tried to push forward, barely able to see more than six inches in front of me anymore.

I was half-blind from the fumes and the mist now. I could feel the mist slowly twisting around my body as I made each step forward. The hot electric sensation it emitted as it touched me began to grow. I felt as if it inched its way across my body and then up it, finally settling around my nose. I tried to hold one hand in front of my mouth and nose to block it off… but I could still feel the faintest of wisps enter my nostrils where my fingers weren’t adequate enough.

Nearly blind with tears rolling down my face, and my breath running out, I then felt a sudden tug from behind. Looking back, I saw when Brian collapsed. His face wrenched in pain and he stumbled forward, his knees crunching on the white pavers and his body moving enough mist for me to see him fall to ground… and then get swallowed up once more.

I wanted to yell or scream at my friend, but already feeling the uncomfortable sensation of even the little smoke that had filtered through my nostrils, I knew that was a terrible idea. I tried to pull for a moment, but his body felt like he was completely dead weight. ‘Shit. My friend… or my life?’

I had never felt more conflicted in my life. Years of friendship were now coming down to one moment. I couldn’t even see him anymore. I couldn’t see if he was simply passed out or was in pain or was… dead. I didn’t want to think about those things… but his limp wrist clutched in mine was motionless. If there was life in it, it felt faint and evermore distant.

I pulled once… and a second time… and even a third.

Just when I was about to pull a fourth though… just to be sure, a figure burst through the mist. Even through the mask, I could tell it was the National Guardsman who had warned us off before. To my relief, just as I fell to my knees they came over with two gas masks.

“Here.” They shoved the mask towards me. “Take it.”

I simply nodded and reached out. Unfortunately, this also meant that both my mouth and nose were completely unguarded, and I could feel more of the mist worm its way in.

I struggled for a moment. The mask felt so heavy and seemed so complicated in my panic-stricken and bumbling fingers. I wanted everything to be okay but as another guardsman began to use what almost looked like a leaf blower to clear the mist slowly, I saw Brian passed out

Nearby, it seemed that Dwayne had suffered the same fate… and Leo wasn’t too far behind.

Handing them two more masks, the guardsman quickly helped me and Brian place on our masks.

I breathed in deeply… but once more, I could feel more of the mist enter my body. It burned yet felt like pure energy flowing into me, as if I had just had a at least five energy drinks. I didn’t feel wire… just more spent like that amount of energy had just forced it was way into me.

It was exhausting, and with my mask on, I collapsed to the ground as well.

The Guardsman approached me and prevented me from landing face first into a nearby curb of the street. “Hey. I got you. It’ll be okay. Just breathe…” He smiled through his mask and I complied.

The fresh oxygen was wonderful against my strained lungs… but my eyes began to flutter closed, my energy spent or the mist taking it from me. I wasn’t sure, but I began to fade.

“It’s okay,” he repeated. “Just breathe… just breathe…”

Then, darkness.

*              *              *

“I’m placing my assets in a trust and likely will be resigning from the company,” Leo declared back at our usual spot at the courtyard for our daily lunch meetings. “In fact, I would highly recommend we either liquidate the company or sell our stock in the company and transfer leadership to others.”

“You can’t be serious.” Dwayne had voiced it first, but from Brian’s looks and my own thoughts, he wasn’t alone in his shock.

That being said, it should haven’t been so surprising.

Since that day back on 16 April, now commonly referred to in polite society at least as ‘Orange Day,’ the courtyard was about the only thing that hadn’t changed. Looking around at recent billboards and even some of the other lunchtime visitors, the changes were obvious… and in some case, downright painful or even terrifying.

“I am serious. I mean…” he shifted uncomfortably on the bench, “…have you even seen yourself lately, Dwayne?”

Dwayne scowled back and Leo didn’t push it… but one would have to be blind, ignorant, or an idiot to not see the changes in all of us now.

In less polite society, ‘Orange Day’ went by another name… ‘Baby Day.’ Cruel and disparaging, it was sadly accurate for many of the infected. A stole military compound released by a terrorist group, ’87, the strain had mutated once released in multiple cities in a coordinated attack and had already affected millions. Only three and a half weeks later, it was hard to judge the complete facts… but estimates put that least 60 million in the US had been dose with the orange mist. Overnight, age regression had gripped the country.

“It’s not that bad!” Dwayne quickly defended.

Even Brian had to roll his eyes at that denial.

True, we had been spared the worst of the mutated virus from the mist. Some were reported to have regressed so quickly that it amounted to about one year every hour. Those reports were staggered but devastating. Some went to work in their 40s and would come back home after a long day and look like they were in their 20s.

Most were lucky to stay in elementary school by the time the virus was done ravaging them…

Leo sighed. “Look… I get it. All this is scary and unknown… but we have to face the facts. We are getting younger by the day. Just look at me!” He patted his already loose clothing for emphasis.

We did and we could see it as plain as day.

At first, we almost just chalked it up to a trick of the light or maybe a new shampoo or moisturizer. Caring about his appearance, Leo was the type… but a few days later, his grays were gone and the golden sheen to hair were back to looking like they did when we first started working under him.

And looking in the mirror myself, my downward trajectory wasn’t as bad… but I had been working on some solidly engrained crow’s feet around my eyes and a frown crease right between my eyebrows for years now. As of this morning… totally gone. And while those things could be considered miraculous… a nearby disruption foretold why they were so problematic.

“I don’t wanna!” an apparent kid, maybe five years old shouted. “I wan’ ice cream!” He even stomped on the ground and shoved the green wrap a kindly woman was offering him with an exasperated stare.

“Please, Olly… for me…” She looked just about at her wits end.

“I said no!” he shouted back, shoving the offending green wrap away. “I’m 32! If I wan’ ice cream now… I’m gonna get it!”

Several people were looking on, and while a few weeks ago that scene would have been met with judgement and maybe even scorn by a few, today, no one batted an eye. With millions affected across the country, those who had only regressed into their teens were unusual to see in the workplace… but they were still functional. Those who had dipped below puberty… a question hung in the air now. Unspoken but ever-present.

Are ARs, or age regressors, still adults under certain ages?

The question had plagued most of society and government institutions since Orange Day and while some initiatives were popping up to cope with the strain… the question remained.

“I’m getting younger and they still don’t have a test to see where the…” Leo winced, “…bottom is yet. With the company’s future at stake and with all those rumors of ARs getting nabbed right off the street… why take the risk of my financial future being left to chance?” He then placed his hand in the middle of the four of us. “So, I’m in… how about you all?”

To my surprise, Dwayne and Brian actually seemed to be on the same page today and nodded in agreement.

“Well, I don’t like it, but when you put it like that… very smart.” Dwayne always followed Leo’s direction. Despite losing about ten years at this point, he still kissed Leo’s proverbial ring whenever he got the chance. “I’m in…” He quickly joined his hand over Leo’s.

“And those rumors…” Brian shuddered a little at the notion. “I don’t know what I would do if they ever pulled me over…” For everything that had changed, Brian’s imagination still got the better of him. Now, it was being taken off the streets just because of being an AR.

And frankly… I couldn’t blame him.

For almost a month, the government had been cracking down on ARs. Between crime and new preteens not used to their new body chemistry imbibing alcohol… chaos reigned supreme in parts of the country now. The government, trying to maintain control, instituted Age Regressor Safety Enforcement Department, or ARSED. Swift, decisive, and always watching, they had ‘arrested’ ARs they felt were a danger to society or to themselves. Despite that notion of ‘protection’ most ARs were terrified of them.

With a sigh, he nodded. “I’m in.” And he placed his hand in the middle with both Leo’s and Dwayne’s hands.

I groaned at how quickly things were changing. “That only happens if you’re hurting yourself or someone else,” I countered, looking back at my friend and trying to hope I wouldn’t be the only dissenter. “You’re not going to suddenly start running with a knife, are you?” I tried to keep it light, but I could where things were headed. If everyone followed Leo, our company would be shuttered… maybe never open again.

“No, but…” Brian winced. “I’m not sure if that matters anymore. Everywhere I go, I keep seeing others taking control of ARs. And… that’s us, Miles. Like it or not, we’ve regressed… and we keep going.”

I sighed, feeling my coworkers and friends weren’t going to budge from their new positions. “Well, fine. Be that way…” I crossed my arms. “I’m not going to sign all my assets and the company away!”

And without another word, I stormed off.

Hoping to prove my point, even with their growing distant voices urged me to stay and talk and be reasonable… I wanted to be right. So, worried about three business partners backing out, I went to the bank right away.

“I’m sorry Mr. Bau… Fau…” I could tell the aged bank manager was having problem with my name. On opposite sides of the desk, we were starting to look like opposites than the peers we used to be like. Now, my skin was smooth and youthful while his was wrinkled and even spouted several gray and white hairs between all the sunspots across the span that was exposed today.

“Bosch,” I corrected. “Old Dutch if I remember. But…” I tried to press him for why I was here in the first place. “About my question?”

“Ah… yes.” The bank manager then folded his hands and leaned over his desk, his rotund gut bumping a drawer briefly. “While we heavily value your business and we would love to give you a loan or to finance your… erm, business proposition… I’m afraid we can’t at this time…”

I frowned. “And why not?”

“Well…” the manager sighed. “I’m just going to be blunt with you, Mr. Bosch. You are an AR with the ARV. The virus is as of yet unpredictable and ours and several other branches have instituted a rigorous review process for all such requests.”

My eye trembled with rage that being an AR, something I couldn’t help, was now being held against me. “And… may I ask why?” I hated it all… but I needed answers.

“Simply put?” He scratched his balding head and then adjusted his glasses higher up his nose. “We have reports of some ARs using their money… unwisely. For example…” He then reached behind his desk and pulled out a newspaper. “Look at this… local mans buys a bazooka just to see what it would do to a junkyard car.”

“And?” With a close eye for details, I spotted it was an old junker in the middle of nowhere. “No one got hurt…”

“But they could have, Mr. Bosch,” he explained. “And I’m afraid that is the point I am trying to make. And yes, while we have no problem lending large sums of money to our clients… even if it is to buy a whole line of plush stuffed animals… we must instill a universal policy because…” His pale bony finger jabbed into the story on the front page. “ARs can do things like this. It’s a matter of safety and we could be held liable for providing funds that endanger the lives of others.” He paused and grimaced. “No exceptions.”

He then leaned back in his chair, his old vest likely a relic from at least two decades ago now. “Now, that being said, what I can do for you is that come back when you… what’s the term again when you bottom out and aren’t regressing anymore? I think I heard it on one of the sports channels last week?”

“Bounce,” I clarified, still trying to keep my emotions in check. “It’s called bouncing.”

“That’s it,” he said with a snap of his fingers. “Yes, bounce. Fun word… but until you bounce, I must deny you what you are looking for today…” Without missing a beat, he then set a brochure in front of me. “When you bounce, we can reevaluate then, but until then… maybe consider a few other options?”

I took the brochure, but I still stormed out after seeing the title, ‘Placing Your Assets in a Trust.’

Trying to clear my head, I headed for the local park. On my way, I saw the refuge of the poor like before, but now it was apparent that most were getting younger. In response, like others, the mayor was enacting a help policy for all the homeless who were affected. It was terrible seeing the mass of most of them wandering around before, but now… teens and elementary school kids lived under bridges and in tents.

As such, since Orange Day, the park and other public areas had been flooded with admittedly do-gooders to help just those sorts of people and the millions affected otherwise, but still… despite their good intentions, they were people who I’d rather not see right now. They preached and hollered and tried to hand out brochures at the entrance of the park. They wanted to save me and all the other ARs. Even though I didn’t look regressed to the average person walking by, they knew I probably knew at least one person who had been affected.

These days, it just seemed to be a numbers game.

“Sir! Sir!” one of the speakers calls out to me, hurrying over with a bag full of pamphlets from a spot he had nestled into next to a group of others holding up signs and handing out similar pamphlets. “I can help you or a loved one! Just take this! It’s all I ask… please!”

I looked at him and sighed before taking the pamphlet. I only saw a face inscribed with the intentions of a saint or at least a person trying to do a good deed. And it was just a pamphlet… not a commitment to anything. “Okay… I’ll take a look,” I lied.

“Oh, thank you, sir! Thank you!” He almost looked like he wanted to hug me for a moment, before he popped away, running after another passerby on the outskirts of the park.

I sighed and pocketed the pamphlet, knowing I could always throw it away later.

And so, I made my way into the park on the west side of the city. It was a large place, with parts near the river on one side and other parts surrounding two ponds that housed boats every Spring, Summer, and Fall. Now, at night, only a faint trickle from the river brushing against the rocks on dryer ground could be heard.

I often came here when I needed to clear my head after a long day. There was another park closer to where I lived that was cleaner… but this place was magnificent in its own way. The designers had ensured that everyone felt like they were 500 miles away at one of the nearest forests and campgrounds… and not in the middle of the city.

It didn’t work as well in the winter when the trees were mostly bare and the spires of the city poked through the wintry and ice-coated branches, but I appreciated it, nonetheless. And now, still in Spring, I found myself wandering around and trying to plan my next steps.

The daffodils were in bloom and despite it being night, many of the other flowers similarly were shedding their winter dormancy. I knew in a month, bees and birds would all be fluttering around getting ready for the summer alike. And while I loved coming here during the day, at night, I was afforded a rare peace in the city. So, coming here so late, most of the time, I was alone with my thoughts and maybe the occasional jogger.

But not today.

“I… I… I don’t know where I am…” a near four-year-old said to himself, trying to rub their shoulders for comfort, warmth… or both as they sat on a nearby border between the grass and the sidewalk. “Where am I? And why… why am I so small? Why did this happen to me?”

I winced in my distant view of them.

When some ARs regressed under puberty, memory was discovered to be a delicate matter for most. Some could keep everything intact inside the old noodle. Others, however, proved to have a sort of forgetfulness… almost like early onset Alzheimer’s some said. Whatever the case though, this poor AR was definitely struggling today.

“Hey…” I always tried to be nice to everyone affected. Leo and Dwayne thought the notion to be pointless and even dangerous. I disagreed and stepped closer. “You okay there?”

“Stay away!” they practically screeched back at me, even holding a broken beer bottle in front of themselves as a defense.

I jumped back and held my hands out. “Woah! Easy there! I just… do you need help there?” Based on the smell and the broken glass to their right, I could only assume the broken beer bottle had happened recently. Worse, as an AR four-year-old, they were probably drowning their sorrows. Substance abuse and rates of self-harm were extraordinarily high.

Most simply refused to believe their new lives… even when they needed help now reaching the top shelf anywhere.

The AR then got a horrified look on their face and looked at the broken beer bottle in their hand and dropped it in the grass bed behind them. In a second, they were in a pool of their own tears. “Sorry! Sorry! I’m so sorry! I… I didn’t mean to and I… I…”

Most people would have run away. I noticed a couple approaching nearby and they did, likewise, seemingly terrified of what was happening in the park now. Problem was, ARs practiced self-harm… but horrifyingly, the virus had hit the innocent and guilty alike. These days, it was hard to discern between the formerly angelic members of society and the sadistic dredge… especially when they looked more suited for daycare than a learner’s permit.

At least until it was too late.

But I was an AR myself. I was still above 20 and that meant I had a privilege over most others. Dipping into the teens was a frightening prospect of suspicion and even violence for some ARs. The virus was still new and while scientists understood more aspects of it, many in society were shunned. Already, the person who cut my hair stared at me last week with unease when they noticed my slight receding hairline at my temples had grown back. It was small… but it marked me as an AR.

“It’s okay,” I tried to soothe, taking one tentative step closer to them. “Just breathe and try not to panic. I’m sure everything will be okay…”

“But how?” they mourned. “How can things be okay? My wife left me! She took the kids! And now… now I lost my job and my apartment and… all I had left was this stupid beer tonight…” His face was drooped in sorrow as they turned down and viewed the mess on the sidewalk. “But I… I…”

I saw their fingers shaking and I knew what must have happened. “But your coordination is slipping and you knocked over your last beer of the night…” I could have just said plain ‘beer,’ but something told me that the broken one hadn’t been their only one.

The four-year-old AR only could nod back in tears.

I sighed. “It’s okay. It’s just beer. It can be replaced.” I wanted to tell them to stop drinking… but when an AR is this lost, telling them ‘no’ is a dangerous prospect. “But I’m an AR too. And maybe you just need to talk? Vent even?” I was always told I had an open ear and mind. Sometimes, even if it wasn’t much, talking about a thing could help, and I wanted to help this AR out. Maybe I saw something of myself in them… maybe it was just out of the goodness of my heart… but I felt I had to do something.

At first, they seemed horrified and almost offended. But as with most ARs who dipped that young, their emotions were more or less unstable and they quickly swung to looking more relieved than anything. “I… I’d like that…” they said softly, wiping their snotty nose on their sleeve.

I tried not to comment on the notion or the whole image that now sat before me. Rumpled up and ruined clothes, stained with beer and what looked like a sticky substance and now snot. Looking ever so much as a four-year-old, it hurt a part of my heart. I knew they were once an adult… but it was hard to see them and not believe they were anything but that now.

They tried speaking clearly and I was able to discern their name was Simon and they had been 45 years old. They were mostly successful and had a family… but with a quicker regression, within two weeks they had seemingly ‘bounced.’ Unable to cope, Simon’s family soon left him and everything else seemed to collapse that had once been a part of his life.

I wish I could say it was the first story I had heard like that from an AR…

“Have you tried getting help?” I finally questioned when they seemingly had given up trying anymore. “I mean… the government is doing a lot for us ARs. Maybe one of them could help you out?”

His eyes widened and he almost recoiled in fear. “No… no, no… no! I can’t!”

“Easy, easy…” I saw others looking at us suspiciously and I knew we had to be careful. Simon had placed the broken beer bottle down but with someone obviously as an AR, his position was more than a little precarious. “It was just a suggestion…”

“Yeah… sorry…” I swore he blushed. “Stupid emotions and all, but… do you know what happens to us there? I heard the caregivers always deal with ARs with a heavy hand. If they figure when you’ll bounce, they don’t care if you’re seven or seventeen, they’ll diaper you!”

“What?” I hadn’t heard the best rumors myself about some places, but that felt like something others would tell you to try and scare you. “That can’t be. I think that’s just a silly rumor meant to…”

“No! I swear!” he insisted, now clinging onto my shirt like the tide would soon sweep him away. “My friend got taken and I saw them later when I was with my wife and they were just… gone!” He shuddered and I could feel his tiny bones vibrate into my body with where he was still gripping me. “Please… please… I… I’m afraid…”

In that moment, right or wrong, I didn’t see an AR… but I didn’t see the 45-year-old man either. I just saw a small and frightened four-year-old kid afraid of something that almost sounded more like the boogeyman than a real threat.

But still, I wanted to ease him up and call it karma or paying it forward, but if I ever got like him, I hoped someone would do the same for me. “Just wait and see. I’m sure that one place around here will be fine and take you in and help you out and…”

A pair of sirens whirred nearby and soon, the patch of grass and trees near to us were bathed in red and blue.

“You two! On the ground now!” a mysterious and commanding voice shouted out while Simon and I were blinded by the lights from the two vehicles.

“What?” I could feel Simon’s hand rip away from mine after shaking even more. “But…”

I quickly pulled him down and pressed my finger to my lips. “Shhh. Just do as they say. It’s probably just a routine check. Don’t fight them.”

Trembling, Simon nodded and laid down on the grass.

“Hold right there!” the apparent officer shouted. “Go… get ‘em ready…” I then heard a lower but same volume of voice from them.

Apparently, Simon had heard it too.

He didn’t waste any time and was soon back on his feet and clearly freaking out. “I’m not going away! St… stay back! I… I’m warning you!” Frantic and panicking as badly as ever, to my chagrin, he then reached for the broken beer bottle and shoved it in front of him. “I said back! Stay back!”

“Easy kid,” the officer noted above me. “We just want…”

“I’m not a kid!” Simon said, nearly foaming at the mouth and still waving the beer bottle all around. “I’m a man and I just got sick! That’s all!”

“Yes, yes…” the officer almost said dismissively. “Just… oh…” I heard a groan and a sigh. “Fuck this. Take ‘em.”

The order was so short… and yet the consequences so damning.

In a second, I heard the command to ‘fire’ and right after, a flurry of small metal barbs hurdled through the air and struck Simon hard in the chest and even one on his forehead. Taser rounds… but enough to drop him quick to the grass in a spasm of pain and terror.

“Damn it! Stop!” I cried out, reaching to pluck some of the wires away to stop the voltage arcing into my new friend. “He can’t take this!”

The lights then dimmed and before I knew it, several officers were holding me up and back and even more hauling Simon away. Just as my eyes readjusted to the darkening of the park, I heard a tiny voice cry out in front of me.

“Miles! Miles! Help me, Miles!” Simon pleaded from behind of the two cars that I now recognized as a prisoner carrier, now freshly labeled with ‘ARSED’ on the side.

Quickly, I broke away and ran toward the car, now near where a crowd of people had gathered. Most were whispering. Some seemed terrified… others satisfied.

Only an arm’s length away, I was tackled to the ground and held firm.

“You can’t do that! He did nothing wrong!” I shouted to my own captors. “He was just scared! Don’t do this! We’re citizens and…”

“He was threatening us and the park goers with a beer bottle!” one of my holders spat at me.

“That’s fear when you’re under four feet tall!” I wasn’t that way, but considering my thicker hair and my morning back pain had disappeared already, it wasn’t exactly a leap to picture myself in Simon’s shoes someday… maybe even soon. “Don’t you idiots get that?”

“He’s a danger to himself and others!” the commander barked at me before annoyedly getting in the truck and gesturing for the driver to drive off.

In a second the van was screeching away, leaving me held by two officers.

“Simon!” I yelled. There I was in a place that brought me peace, and now was the unfolding scene of violence against someone who just needed to talk and be counseled. Now, I didn’t know where he was going… only that the people handling him were rough, dismissive, and apparently ignorant of all other factors not pertaining to the ‘public’s safety.’ It was a sound argument for most… but it was too broad and too harsh.

Inside, I burned with hatred and deeper down… fear.

Finally, when the van was firmly out of sight, the officers quickly let me go in one big release, stepping back and toward their car. And while the first just scoffed and ignored me completely, the second looked at me differently.

“Look… I’m sorry about your friend…” the second officer apologized, much to my shock. “But he needs where he’s going. He’s unstable and getting young. Can you really tell me he had a bed tonight or a meal in the morning already lined up?”

Unfortunately, after talking to Simon, I knew he didn’t. I was going to offer… but with my own problems with the bank and my company… the longevity of that seemed slim.

The second officer sighed. “I’m sorry. Just…”

“Come on, rookie!” the first officer, already in their squad car, growled.

The second officer sighed and looked back at me. “I’ve got to go, but… please… just let us help and don’t interfere next time and just step away from people like him. They need help…” He then lowered his voice before stepping back into his squad car. “And ARSED just cares about the wider public… not ARs in these cases. So… just stay away and stay safe.”

Their car then peeled away… leaving me all alone with a slowly dispersing crowd around me now.

In that mass, I was horrified… but my mind was even more saddened and admittedly partially terrified when I saw the couple from earlier. ‘They called him in… they did this… they didn’t even give him a chance…’ I saw them as monsters right away, but I also knew they probably didn’t know about all this. They just cared about the 5 percent of truly violent ARs… not the remaining 95 percent.

I couldn’t blame them… but I stared at them with absolute hate. I had just met Simon, yes, but Simon could have been me. I was in his shoes. Maybe different and I hoped I would never fend people off out of fear with a broken anything… but I could place myself in his shoes and I saw he needed a second chance. They hadn’t and it burned me that other people would rather sometimes judge than ask a simple question if someone is okay. And from their looks on their faces when they met my angry glaze, I saw they knew what they had done was just plain wrong.

Guilty… they walked off.

Terribly, however, even with that minor victory, Simon was still gone and I was still on the ground. And down there so low, suddenly, I felt a new perspective within me. If the bank had shown me the realities of living with ARV, and Simon had shown me the dark side of it… sitting on the ground at my new height, eerily similar to Simon’s… I was now shown the bitterness of the perspective and the vulnerability that would come with a bad case scenario. It didn’t include the thousands of other things that went with youth and I was still an adult.

But I felt so small.

The concrete jungle, once my home, felt like tall monsters and glass and metal gravestones to mark the death of my old life. And as if to accentuate that even more, I saw a nearby billboard advertising for a new school to open up exclusively for ARs to better ‘Relearn and Regrow.’ I only saw the plastered smiling faces of defeated victims and not a way out of this mess anymore.

Surrounded by nature, however, I sought some sense of normalcy and dug my fingers into the nearby freshly cut grass, feeling their cool and slick green fibers. Looking around, the trees were taller… but they always were and I felt no different with them now. The birds in the distance still flew and the flowers still bloomed or were closed and soon open with the predicted warm weather approaching next week. It was all the same, and even at this height, I was the same.

And I wanted that peace… but something was sticking into my ribs.

“What the…?” I spun around and saw the pamphlet I had shoved in my pocket, was now poking through my shirt and hitting my skinny ribs. Frustrated, I pulled it out, ready to chuck it in the nearest trashcan.

But under the dim overhead lighting parsed throughout the park, I saw the glint of the golden letters of the title and the tagline. A smile then appeared over my face. “This could work…”

*              *              *

The next morning, I strode into work. The weight of Simon and the bank’s decisions were still weighing heavily on my mind, but the pamphlet offered a solution. And as I went to Leo’s office, I saw the others waiting for me patiently as they always did, sipping their coffee and trying to desperately ignore the stares from the rest of the office.

Arriving as I did and being the last in the room, I made sure to close the curtains.

“Okay, Miles,” Leo pressed. “Have you made a decision yet?” He then pushed a paper in front of me. Thick and detailed, it was clearly a contract… now signed by Leo, Dwayne, and Brian. There were two boxes on the front. One called for a trust… the other rejected the idea.

I sighed and nodded my head. “I will sign, but… I think I’ve found a way to avoid all those new schools popping up. I don’t know about you all, but I don’t want to spend my remaining time until I bounce trying to do long division again…” I saw Leo wince at that, and I felt I already had my foot in the proverbial door.

“Make a long story short…” I then pulled out the pamphlet I had received last night. It nearly felt like divine intervention, and I knew there would be questions, but the now heavily used amount of paper had to be shown to be believed. “I found a place I think we can go to… someplace away from all… this.”

Leo and Dwayne frowned, but Brian seemed interested in at least the idea of it. “Okay… but Miles… what is this place? Can we see it?”

I nodded and placed the pamphlet on the desk in front of them, for me, the pictures almost speaking louder than words. “Guys… I give you… Camp Commune.”

I held my breath and waited for what they would say.

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

Sorry about the delay everyone. I don’t want this to become a habit but yesterday was rough. Multiple pieces of bad news arrived, and writing felt way too much of a life to finish this chapter out in any way ever close to what I wanted it to be. Plus, I guess I missed the day in school where they warn you not to run when the air quality is bad. Oops.

One hacking session later, I’m much better and I was able to finish this chapter out. Not as long as I was thinking or as long as the first chapter, but I also wanted to dive into the camp for a moment, and I knew exactly where I wanted to end here. And moving forward, some of the chapters might vary greater in their various lengths because I want to end on points that drive the plot forward. Reading some of my past stories, each felt more like a conclusion. Which is fine, but doesn’t always draw you readers in.

Now… last but not least and as usual, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter of my story!

Chapter 2: Trust But What Is This Feeling?

“A commune?” Dwayne questioned me. “Are you serious? What the shit is this, Miles? You trying to get us to join some cult or something?”

I looked at my friends and coworkers, and to my chagrin, I saw each look at me with doubt and skepticism over my proposed option. “Look… I know it may be unconventional, but I don’t think we can last out here. I mean… look at us now…”

Each of us then casually looked in the nearby glass of the office at our own reflections… each showing that we had already dropped a number of years since being hit with the so-called Orange Mist. Wrinkles had almost disappeared. Gray hairs now reverted to dark or blonde patches of hair.

The change was undeniable.

“And so, what of it?” Leo asked, his fingers briefly curling in his now thicker and most solidly blonde hair. Gone was the aging manager and to stay was a youthening man of forceful ego and renewed strength. “This thing is still unknown. For all you know, we could have gotten the slow and ranging type. We could end up as teenagers and have decades more now to make even more money.”

“I agree with Leo,” Dwayne added, his brown-nosing still unceasing even these days.

Brian remained quiet beyond the few shuffles he made when looking at the pamphlet.

I glared at the two obstinate members of the group. “Okay… then why put your money and this whole company in this trust? If you really think you’re going to be teenagers… why do it at all?”

They were silent for a moment.

“It’s just good business sense…” Leo noted, though now lacking his usual conviction. “It doesn’t hurt to be prepared… just in case.”

I didn’t like that answer one bit.

“Fine…” I pushed the now solitary pamphlet toward Leo and Dwayne. “So is this. Think of it as a vacation. We go until we bounce. If that’s in our teenage years, we can shoot at the archery range all the time. If that’s lower… they cater towards that as well.” I didn’t want to elaborate more on that particular note, but I knew from my own research last night that those types of services were offered if needed.

Leo and Brian seemed more than willing… but Dwayne shoved the pamphlet back at me. “Screw this, Miles. I’ll be damned if I’m going to some camp in the middle of nowhere. This isn’t a plan… this is giving in.”

Leo’s interested look faded and he turned glum. “I’m afraid he’s right, man. It’s an interesting idea, but… I just don’t see it working for us.”

I turned to Brian… hoping I would have at least one friend on my wide.

But he sighed as well. “I… I just don’t know, buddy. I… I like where your head’s at but… I just don’t think I can do this either…”

It wasn’t the news I had been hoping for. I wasn’t expecting a celebration or anything, but I was hoping for a little more cooperation. Especially with what I had seen the night before, I thought that anything would be better than being snatched away. Sure, one could elect to go to one of the schools cropping up, but each of us was without a family. In a worst-case scenario, and we dipped below puberty… the law seemed to be pushing that we would be required to be placed with a legal guardian. Camp Commune at least gave options for that if it ever came to that scenario.

“Fine…” I snatched the pamphlet back. “If you all won’t choose this today… then I’m not signing those forms. Maybe… just maybe tomorrow you’ll all change your minds…”

Just as I stormed out, I heard Dwayne mumble out one last time. “Doubt it…”

I wasn’t fuming by the time I got back to my own office, but I wasn’t in the best mood either. ‘Stupid people… they stay out here and they’ll be nabbed. And that ass… Dwayne would probably hit worse of all of them. Probably smack someone in the head when they called him cute… idiots!’

“I take it your meeting didn’t go well?” Martha, my secretary, asked as I strolled back and opened my office door.

I sighed and shook my head. “Not one of them took a bite, Martha. I just… they seemed interested, but Dwayne shot them down both times with his own little quips. Typical…”

Martha smiled and piled a stack of papers on my desk. “I’m sorry to hear that, Miles.” We were very informal by now and while Dwayne and Leo found that strange, I liked how open she became after that. More than once, I felt the company was saved by that dynamic. “Maybe they just need to think on it.” She smirked. “You never know what might pop up in the next day or so…”

“Maybe…” I sighed and looked over the forms in front of me. “Now… what are these?”

For the next few hours, I alternated between signing forms of new acquisitions and other various papers pertaining to the ARV. With more than a little in my bank accounts and tied to several assets, I wanted to act this morning before ARSED hit me out in the streets randomly. If they wished, I could have been taken last night almost as easily as Simon was.

The trust my friends and coworkers wanted me to sign was more for the company. These forms were more for my life… and what came after.     

But soon enough, it seemed that Martha’s prediction proved to be accurate.

It started with a little distant yelling from down the hall. I peaked out and looked and saw an arm wave in front of the closed glass door. “Hmmm… wonder what that could be.”

“I think it’s Cynthia and Mr. Stios,” Martha speculated. “Those two have gotten… close.”

I narrowed my gaze. “And what is that supposed to mean?” I knew Martha and that she knew practically everyone in the building by now… and more importantly, their secrets.

“Oh… I don’t like rumors,” she toyed. “But…”

“And I don’t care!” Cynthia huffed after throwing her hands up and storming out Dwayne’s door. In seconds she was storming past.

“Evening, Cynthia!” Martha greeted her cutely.

Cynthia only grumbled and kept marching away until she was out of view.

“Okay… yeah, something’s happening there…” Even I could tell that now. I had seen enough angry woman storm away from me before. She was either furious because of something that Dwayne said or did. And knowing him though, it was probably a little of both.

But… I also saw something more on her face. It was only for a split second, but I swore I saw something almost like… disgust… maybe even satisfaction. ‘Hmmm… what happened between those two?’ I then saw Dwayne standing at the door, both mortified and disheartened. “Everything okay, Dwayne?”

His broken face turned into an angry glare. “Mind your own damn business, Miles!” He then stomped back into his office and slammed his door.

“Yeah… that nearly confirms it,” Martha mused, stroking her chin.

“What? What confirms it?” I asked her. “The two are close… maybe it was just a fight between boss and secretary? With everything going on… stress is running amuck around here…”

Martha shook her head. “No. What we saw… that’s a breakup fight. Cynthia’s pissed and he’s ashamed. Something more to it, but I would bet my holiday pay on it.” She paused and wrote something down at her desk. “Besides… I heard that’s happening with a lot of ARs these days.”

For the first time in years, I was silently happy I was currently single. It’s not that I wanted that life, but I really just never made time for it, always feeling there was more of it to come. And then, before I knew it, I was in my mid-40s.

Thing is, now… I think I have that extra time back in my life.

I sighed and looked at Martha. The whole incident with Cynthia reminded me of something I should have done the day after I came back to the office once Martial Law had been dropped. “You know… I wanted to thank you for all your help in these past three weeks since… well, that day. I’ve been distracted and you’ve helped me every step of the way. So… I just wanted to let you know, especially with… whatever happens next.”

Mattha smiled back at me. “You’re welcome, but…” Her smile faded and she winced. “What happens next? I thought… I thought you all hadn’t made a decision about that.”

I shook my head. “We haven’t. Likely, the company will still continue with an appointed intern manager in each of our positions. If things go bad, they will then become permanent to ensure the future of this company and all your roles here. This hit us… the last thing we want is for you all to be hit as well.”

I paused and saw her drawn and hopeful face looking back at me. “But with so many unknowns and with me maybe leaving here soon… forever, I just wanted to tell you how much of a help you’ve been these past weeks… and even more before then. Even if nothing happens in the long-term… I still felt you deserved to hear it from me personally.”

She trembled a little and I saw a faint mist begin building up in her eyes. “You’re welcome, Miles. I…” She paused and placed her hand on her chest. “Thank you for being the good boss that you were… are.”

That ‘were’ wasn’t a slip of the tongue. With so much still up in the air, my position could potentially be waiting for me even if I decided to go on my own to Camp Commune. And that was the hopeful dreamer residing within me. That side of me looked to the future and imagined a whole new lease on life I could have. Some got hit with ARV and regressed into their 20s and then stopped. Now, they were going to parties and running marathons. People with diseases had been cured as they regressed.

But the other part of me, the realist, knew those odds were long.

Most cases meandered along, and now, many who had a slightly faster regression than my friends and coworkers were dipping below preschool. Already, advertisements lined the streets for modified daycares and training programs for those that needed extra assistance into adapting to their new lives. But more and more, those dipping below preschool needed help like their age made them appear to need. Some even began to forget their old lives.

I shook my head, trying not to go to those potential dark places. As a manager here, I was bound to think of all scenarios and prepare for them the best I could.

I saw Martha with a tear rolling down her cheek. I reached out and patted her hand. “It’ll be okay, Martha. I promise. It will just be a little… different around here lately. I’m sure my intern manager will be just as good as I was here.”

She nodded and smiled as she wiped away the cascading tear. “Yes. If you hire them, I know they will. I just… I don’t like change…”

I sighed. “Neither do I. But maybe… everything will turn out fine and be okay, right?”

She smiled back at me and after a little more cajoling, she eventually got back to work, filing a series of memos and more paperwork for me to sign after my next meeting.

As I sat down at my desk, I saw my diploma on the wall and the awards I had received while working here. Pictures showed happy times and successes, and I didn’t want to give any of the life I had created here up. But once more, the realist in me reared its ugly head in my life.

Looking down, I noticed a single scar I had received when I was 31 had completely vanished.

*              *              *

I strolled into work the next day, taking the beautiful and scenic route I sometimes took when the weather was calm, and the temperature wasn’t too hot or cold. The bird chirped and a gentle breeze ruffled through my clothing. I smelled an oak fire burning from a nearby breakfast eatery that made their own bread each morning. It all reminded me of camping and of Camp Commune once more.

The night before, I had come home and after having seen the scar on my hand disappear, I made sure to email or call all my surviving relatives. My parents had both passed now. Such was life with older parents and just naturally getting older yourself. Time, at least before ARV, caught up with everyone.

Seeing a billboard for an ARV daycare downtown though… that notion wasn’t as universal.

And after most of them understood, either from the news, or even personally in their own lives, I felt resolved to look to my future once more. Camp Commune, even after more research, seemed the ticket to me.

Funded by the government, it covered acres of forested land to the west of the city. Daily activities were broken into various sections, like aquatics or the shooting range, and each age bracket was given certain privileges. They even emphasized they pushed the limits where possible and so easily, eight-year-olds might actually wield a bow and arrow.

That was nice and seemed a fair deal, but by far the biggest bonus, beyond the nature and freedom of it all away from the city, was that ARs would be monitored and never turned into ARSED. Needs would be met as they arrived and placement would occur afterward and only with reviewed and qualified caregivers if that need arises too. People like Dwayne might just want to stick their head in the sand about needing something like that… but not me.

So, with a sigh, I entered my office building… fully ready to sign the trust for the company and leave within the week.

“Miles…” Leo greeted me as I walked once more into our morning meeting together. Next to him were an apprehensive Brian and a brooding Dwayne.

A second later, Leo pushed the thick document for the trust to me. “I think we need to talk and…”

I held my hand up. “I will sign it. But last night, I came to the decision… I’m going to the camp with or without you all. After seeing ARSED… I think I want that type of security in my life. I just… I hope you all can understand and if I need to go alone I will. But I just hoped that you all would and frankly, I think you all are…”

“Miles!” Brian shot out before looking at me intently after leaning over the table. “Hold it! Leo has something to say…”

I looked at Leo.

He calmly nodded and gestured to the stack of documents he had previously pushed to me. “We’re going with you. We signed the trust and we wanted to tell you that this morning. We’re all going. I… well, I won’t speak for Brian or Dwayne… but we all have our reasons to go.”

I looked at Dwayne who remained as curiously and suspiciously silent as ever.

“Oh… I, uh, I guess we’ll go together then…” I chuckled. “I guess I got a little carried away there, huh?”

Leo and Brian smiled. “Maybe a little…” Leo smirked. “But maybe rightly so. See… when I went home last night, I remembered all the time I went fishing as a kid with my dad. Always liked it and I saw they have morning classes for all groups until the last one apparently. Hard to pass that kind of thing up.”

No one dared comment on the ‘last’ group… the youngest of the five.

“And I always loved the campfires and the songs when I was a Boy Scout,” Brian noted wistfully. “Think they’ll be there?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I saw campfires online, but… why not a few songs to go along as well?”

I wanted to know why Dwayne was going as well… but he remained pensive and rigidly silent, only occasionally shifting his glance towards the rest of us. I saw his name was affixed to the document of the trust in front of me, but I secretly suspected he was going because Leo was going.

For someone who hated every bug on the planet, I could only sigh as I signed the trust myself in nervous anticipation for him tagging along with us. Whatever happened next, I felt would surely be an adventure to remember.

*              *              *

It turns out, folding up your life after 40 or 50 years building it up is a lot harder than anyone was willing to admit to when all this started. Stocks, leases, insurance, wills, trusts, money accounts, and subscriptions… and the storage of all those acquired nicknacks from over the years. Yes, if we were teenagers, our grandmother’s serving dish could come in handy eventually. But if we dipped below preschool? My boxed childhood memorabilia seemed more appropriate…

“One month…” Leo noted worriedly as he stood in front of us and waited for the bus like the rest of the group that had gathered at the local bus depot out of town. “We’re not back in one month and our interns become permanent.”

“We’re not back in one month… then it won’t matter to us…” Dwayne pointed out bitterly.

I had to use my fingers but consider that most of us had dropped roughly 20 to 30 years in three weeks, a month more and most of us would be below 10 years old. ARV affected people differently and sometimes the virus would speed up once dipping below 30 and then slow drastically once an AR hit 8 years old or younger. A lot of that was speculation still… but looking around at the various ages accompanying us, I still felt like an old man.

Seeing one with a fish stuffed in his backpack, I silently viewed him with anxiety as a look into our potential future.

“I just can’t believe we need to be on a bus with people like… that.” He gestured with a huff to a nearby fellow bus rider, currently sporting a Pokémon T-shirt and almost knee-high socks. His brushed hair and his general put-together appearance made him stand out in the crowd… almost like someone had picked out his outfit and helped him dress already.

For me though, I was more worried about Dwayne’s attitude. His bitterness toward this whole thing over the past four days of prep work was already becoming annoying. The added stress of regression just felt like an extra burden of a ticking time bomb until one of us lashed out at him.

“Oh, relax,” Leo noted, trying to once again be our leader and calm Dwayne down. “Virus affects us all. Besides… kids got someone here who cared for him. Can’t fault a guy for having that in their life, right?”

Dwayne grumbled and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I guess not…”

A moment passed and just as the bus pulled into the parking lot up ahead, Brian got a puzzled look over his face. “Hey… where are all the girls at? This isn’t just a boy’s camp, is it?”

I shook my head. “No. There are women… they just go to a different location. Apparently, we might see them occasionally at some dinners and the evening campfires.”

“Oh…” I could immediately sense his disappointment.

I could have commented more on it, but I just shuffled it off as the bus finally pulled up to a creaking stop and a hiss from the tires.

Soon, an overweight driver got us and greeted everyone quickly. “Morning, everyone!” she welcomed eagerly, a slight cloying tone behind her words. “I’m so excited to meet you all. My name is Miss Davis. I’m your bus driver. Might not see me too much after today… but you never know! I also drop off supplies on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

She then went to the side of the bus and popped open the underside storage compartment. “Now, line-up, and if you have any luggage you want to stow under here, hand it to me, but no matter what… come to me before you get on the bus!”

One by one, like some elementary kiddy line to be served lunch, we all lined up. Looking ahead of me, I did find it a little unnerving at the huge disparity in ages. A few were like my friends and coworkers and I… mid-30s at worst. Others looked like they would be more at home using this bus to head onto elementary school.

For them and their childish voices and antics, I felt that had already begun to slip…

“Name?” Miss Davis questioned me.

“Miles Bosch…” I answered. “B… O…”

“Yes,” she confirmed quickly. “I see you right here. Only so many of you this trip… and there’s only one Miles on here. But thank you, honey!” She flashed a smile as she checked my name off.

In that moment, I felt like I was ten years old again and someone was praising me for the local spelling bee and getting a word correct. It put a weird feeling in my stomach, but I quickly moved on without complaint. The last thing I wanted was to draw any attention to myself.

Getting on the bus last of the group though, I saw that my seat choice had already been made for me with Dwanye and Leo predictably sitting about ten rows back and Brian sitting eagerly right behind them.

When I got closer, he scooted over and smiled back at me. “You can sit here, Miles.”

I grinned, trying to push past another peculiar feeling of going to school as a kid. The bus was even yellow and rounded like the old buses they used to use back then to ferry us to school. I didn’t regret my decision to come to Camp Commune, but that blasted feeling in the pit of my stomach wasn’t going away. It was almost like it knew the inevitability of what was happening to us and preparing us for it.

The bus then hummed to life. “And off we go!” Miss Davis shouted gleefully as if we were on a field trip and we were about to see a museum or go to the zoo. The fact that we were on this bus and regressing didn’t help the matter much.

And being the type of city that it was, taking a highway west out, the tall skyscrapers that had become my home over the past few decades began to slip by. Monuments of steel and concrete… known for their rigidity, I then realized had almost felt like castle walls protecting me from the harsh reality of the outside world. There, I always felt small and no matter how tall I was, that would always be the case.

Our bus then bumped further along the short road out of the city and into the countryside. With each truck, or outdated piece of equipment from 50 years ago, and then every sign and advertisement for fresh grown peaches, or corn, I sensed that we were on a trip to yesteryear. It was the break from the modern world and the problems associated with it that I wanted.

In the cities, they are still cleaning up the wreckage of downed choppers and tanks, and the accidents that piled up when so many suddenly regressed so quickly. Moving away from all that, I quickly felt my mind coming to a rest at last. There is no business email pressing down on my shoulders… no corporate dealings or meetings or documents that need to be signed in triplicate.

Despite all those posters everywhere or what those protestors at the capital are trying to imply about us ARs, I can do my job, and I can be a productive member of society. I am an adult and I am strong and independent. The thinning outline of my hair at my temples may have disappeared, my future may be unknown, but I am still an adult. I will say that until the last of my breath leaves me. I remember who I am and I remember all my life. My 30s and 40s were not some distant dreams to me. I went through those hardships and through those life experiences whereas what I currently look like was more interested in chasing girls and popping open a cold beer at the end of the day.

All that is true, but here… I feel I can let all that go.

“Funny scarecrow, huh?” a younger AR then asked me from my right side.

“Huh?” I questioned before he then pointed to a series being sold at some old country store on the side of the road. Their faces are contorted into various smiles and frozen expressions of neutrality, ready to fend off the crows from picking around the fresh crops. “Oh… yeah. Funny.”

“Remind me of those Saturday morning cartoons back in the 70s… remember those?” he questioned.

“Uh… little before my time. Only 46… before, uh…” I paused as I saw a brief blush over his face. “Oh, you know…” Being an AR could mean all sorts of ages. At minimum, if he remembers the 70s, he’s at least 50… probably older.

“Oh… sorry…” he apologized. “You just never know. Sometimes, we’re all so mature looking and then other times… oh!”

In a second, he hid his face away.

I looked out the window where he was clearly looking when he suddenly panicked just then.

I had noticed the change in scenery before. Passing out of towns and suburbs, right as Brian dozed off and Dwayne and Leo seemed to be whispering like two schoolgirls in front of us, I had looked out my window at the changing world around me. Instead of tall and populous buildings, I was confronted with the coming summer crops and blossoming of buds on numerous trees on the increasingly rustic and narrow road. Now, an hour later though, we deeper into the countryside and we were starting to hit bumps, while the highway had devolved into a single lane coming and going from where we were headed.

So, looking out now, unsettlingly, I felt dread as well as some of the trees began to twist around us and some even appeared dead or deformed. The pamphlet promised beauty and this… this was not that. This looked like something more from a Grimm fairy tale… and not the kinds with smiles and kisses but cut-off toes and death.

A creeping sensation began to crawl up my spine I couldn’t quite explain.

And more, around us, rows of half-formed corn and potatoes and other such crops to be fed to local communities and beyond. It was a scene from so much of the countryside elsewhere, but ahead and intermingled with more gnarled trees, we faced a thicket of brambles and branches and darkness. The woods beyond seemed to dangle down with claws and arms ready to snatch us up if we entered.

Younger me would have been afraid to go in there… like the AR on my right. The woods were a place of scary things and unknown to those with a younger mindset. They were places where you needed a flashlight or fire or a prayer to save yourself. The characters I read in my books back then feared the woods. Witches and monsters and goblins lived there. Children didn’t come back out unless they were smart or lucky. I felt like a scared child before quickly reminding myself that they were all just stories.

“Hey…” I tried to reach the AR on my right. “No worries. Just some odd trees are all. Nothing to worry about out there except maybe a bear or something…”

But the AR only hid further as some low dipping trees began to scrape the sides and top of the bus.

“Huh?” Brian stirred awake to the loud noises above and below him. “W… we there yet?”

I shook my head. “No… just some creepy trees…”

“Creepy…” Brian’s eyes opened wide and I saw his knuckles grow white as both his hands gripped the seat backing in front of him. “Oh!”

“Almost there everyone!” Miss Davis called out from the front. “Hitting Claw Forest now.”

“Claw Forest?” Dwayne questioned skeptically. “Really? What? Is it next to bloody lake?”

Miss Davis gave him a forced laugh. “Oh, nonsense. The forest is just named after the Claw family. Owns a lot of this area. Lot of descendants from the original settlers. Camp Commune is on their property.”

I felt if it was a normal bus full of normal people, more might have been interested in those types of things… but this wasn’t a normal bus. Instead, it was full of ARs, who were clearly more interested as the bus approached the darkness of the opening into the woods ahead of us.

I saw Brian and the AR to my right look pensive, but I also wondered if others were feeling the same, but as I looked around, I saw the faces of not emboldened youths but those of seemingly scared youngsters that were afraid of their own shadow. Granted, my regression wasn’t the slowest, but it wasn’t the fastest either. Based on what I could see, beyond my friends and I, it seemed to be a unique advantage because we were still us. We were still adults and had the normal responses to some creepy woods. Apprehension… but not fear.

Still, despite our emboldened and older sensibilities, call it an instinct from the time man still painted on cavern walls or whatever, but as the bus was soon swallowed by the thicket and the vines, a little thought of dread began to creep in my mind. I could almost feel it whisper on the back of my neck. ‘I would return back now if I were you…’

I merely swatted it away and thought of peaceful lakes and crackling fires.

But inside was dark and foreboding. Light seemed forbidden to enter here. The woods rustled with a peculiar shuffling of twigs and broken branches. One moment, I even swore I saw something yellow sticking out and following our movement. ‘Nah… totally my imagination. Just… trick of the light is all…’

I winced and just focused on the road ahead… twisting through the bramble and thicket of the woods. Surrounding us completely, they felt more like a wall of night and danger keeping us in. For a moment, I began to once more regret coming here.

But not ten minutes later, we were on the other side… and what a difference.

The woods parted gracefully, and though the gnarled branches and twisted husks still remained at our backs, in front of us was a peaceful valley and meadow opening onto a beautiful lake. Dots of cabins and long zig-zagged pathways interconnected each. Birds flew overhead and flowers, wild and planted, were strewn about and seemed to breathe life and beauty into every corner of the site.

“Wow…” Brian breathed at last. “Guess that pamphlet wasn’t lying, huh, Dwayne?” He nudged our coworker who had been continually doubting this place since he had heard about it.

Dwayne only could grumble and press out himself to view the outside world.

Coming to the camp and stopping with yet another screech, the quaint buildings that greeted us looked sturdy and yet rustic. They reminded me fully of my summers spent long ago on various overnight camping trips, each filled with me gazing up at the stars after a warm and filling meal in the mess hall. I could practically smell the campfires that awaited us nearly every night here.

As the dust settled from the singular gravel lot in front of one of the larger buildings though, I began to see a version of camp life I did not expect to connect with. Throughout my life, with few exceptions, I always attended camp with those of my age or at most, within a decade. As I pressed my face to the glass of the window over Brian’s shoulder and similarly pressed face to better take in our surroundings, I saw a community not of adults, but of ages ranging all over the place. Not unlike the bus, I see some that are younger than our group and some that are older… but only by only a few years.

Seeing those ARs which would be charitably called elementary aged, my pride and maybe even fear kicked in. I refused to believe that those young minds and bodies could ever be me again… especially as one picked his nose and another seemed to waddle suspiciously around the cabin labeled ‘crafts.’ Seeing it all so clearly, despite knowing what I was getting into, it was the stuff of myth and nightmare, but also now very much a reality of our world.

“Alright!” Miss Davis announced at the front, standing up to face us. “Everyone off the bus. Welcome starts in about five minutes and I’ll be leaving here in four.” She mumbled the next part… but I still heard it. “Don’t want to be goin’ through those woods at night…”

Before I could ask, she was out the door and quickly unloaded any items that anyone had brought with them. For me, I had a simple backpack. Like most others, it was filled with pictures of family, friends, two books, and a simple blanket… one that I had brought with me camping numerous times.

And like she had stated, even less than four minutes later, Miss Davis was screeching away.

When the dust settled again, a tiny tot dressed in khakis with yellow trim, probably no older than three, came hurdling out of the dust and straight for us… bumping into my legs in a full panic.

“Woah!” Having grown up with more than a few nieces and nephews, I didn’t grimace like Dwayne did, but I was still a little surprised. “Hey there, little buddy…” I patted his back awkwardly. “You lost or…?”

“Monsters!” he shouted up at me, tears running down his face. “Monsters in the woods! No trust! No trust! Monsters! Monsters!”

“Mon…” A light bulb then went off in my head. “Oh… monsters. Yeah… very scary those things.” The mental regression of younger ARs had been well established by the time of our arrival at camp. It was a tragedy and something that had influenced nearly half of the legislation passed by Congress lately, but it was undeniable to even the most ignorant of observers.

“Bently?” a voice called out from a crowd of camp goers that had gathered nearby. “Bently… where are you?”

Maybe instinctively, the AR at my legs crept behind them.

I had to stop myself from smiling at his antics. I wasn’t exactly a bean pole… but my legs were also nowhere near close to cover up where he was currently hiding. If anything, I guess I was a shield to him… and maybe I did something wrong, but seeing his reaction, I knew this AR had to be Bently.

I waved over to the lady looking for him.

Looking relieved, she trotted over. “Thank you. Thank you so much. You know how these little ones get. The whole world becomes one scary place and big monsters are everywhere.”

The AR still hid behind my legs, and looking down at him, with sheer abject terror in his eyes, he only said two things. “Monster… believe…”

I saw such conviction… but monsters weren’t real and I could only sigh and give him a reassuring smile with a small little twist of my bud followed by a gentle encouragement back to his caregiver.  

The whole way, he shook his head and began to cry. “No, no, no…”

“Hey there…” the woman cooed. “Shhh… shh… it’ll be okay little one.”

It didn’t help and even when the woman picked up the AR, he continued to cry and bitterly repeat without end just the one single word. “Monster… monster… monster…”

The woman sighed and looked back at our group. “Sorry about him. Probably will bounce soon. You just never know what they see sometimes in their new bodies. I swear… if the woods looked like an alien, they would swear we were being invaded and were already surrounded. Just big imaginations leading to even bigger stories…”

Dwayne chuckled at that… only causing the AR to bury their head in the woman’s shoulder, still visibly upset and now apparently ashamed.

“Well, thank you for catching him,” she noted as she patted him on the back. “Enjoy your stay with us…” And with a warm and gentle smile, she turned away and walked back to one of the far cabins.

“What do you think that was about?” Brian asked, looking slightly perplexed and nervous as he glanced back at the creepy woods that we had emerged from.

“Maybe the woods are haunted!” Dwayne said, playing with the tone of his voice to sound spookier. “Monsters! Ooh!”

Leo cracked a smile. “Good one, but… probably just his imagination, Brian. Monsters aren’t real, you know? Gotta remember that one here. Don’t want to be mistaken for someone younger because you believe in that sort of thing, right?” he questioned before pivoting around to look at the rest of the camp without a response.

As Leo turned, still standing there yet now out of sight, Brian sneered back at him.

I saw his frustration over the insult of being thought of as younger and patted my friend on his back. “No worries. Good question, but remember… lower the age, lower the mental awareness. Probably just read a storybook, right? Like that lady said… just stories.”

Brian nodded at the reminder, looking a little relieved. “Right… gotta get used to that around here, I guess. I mean, it’s not like there are any real monsters lurking around beyond those disturbing woods, righ…?”

“Hello everyone!” a new voice called out.

Halting our conversation, Brian and I looked back to the larger cabin where the words had come from, and sure enough, a tall redhead stood on the balcony, a clear foot above everyone else, smiling down in a playful yet unhinged way. I might have been creeped out… but I had seen the same look from Miss Davis. ‘Must be just a thing around here…’

The new woman smiled and nodded before gesturing all around here. “I just want to say… Welcome! Welcome to Camp Commune!”

Several of the group clapped. I kept my eye on this new woman. Maybe it was just coming from the woods or my paranoia with everything related to ARV… but she seemed suspicious and untrustworthy. I don’t even know why… I just didn’t trust her.

And it was only the first six minutes of arriving here.

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

Sorry about another delay. I probably could have popped this one out yesterday as planned, but I still had to edit the chapter, and if any of you have read my previous works in real-time, you know I’m not always the best at that late at night. So, apologies, but fortunately, I should have another chapter up by tomorrow.

I fleshed a few things out and this will make the next couple go faster… at least to write. This also means another chapter was added to give more character depth and I think urgency here. I also wasn’t thinking of the timeline, so this added chapter should help with that as well… which now brings the total to 17. I’m going to try and not do that too much, but I would rather do something longer and more compelling and fleshed out than a faster story that misses several character beats.

Now… last but not least and as usual, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter of my story!

Chapter 3: Welcome to Camp

Several new campers around me cheered at this woman’s message though, and above us, she looked entirely pleased by such a reaction.

The woman, draped in her curly blonde hair, had a regal yet reserved quality about her. Like many of the other camp leaders that hurried about the camp around us, she wore a khaki-green button-down shirt and rolled-up edge’s shorts combo. A patch of the camp, highlighting a large figure on the right holding the hand of a smaller figure on the left and marked by a forest and a sunset in the background, was stitched over her upper left chest pocket. On the right, a black bar was scrawled with something, and seeing the other leaders, I knew it was a nametag.

She placed a hand on her chest. “I’m Mrs. Regina Claw. I am the head leader of this place.”

Right away, hearing her last name, I knew she was connected to the woods we had just come from, her family name marking them well from what the bus driver had told us. And for a moment, I swore I saw a flicker of her eyes dart to them.

“You all come from different backgrounds… had different lives… but here at Camp Commune,” she continued before gesturing out to us, “we consider you all family with us while you are here… and even after.”

She then leaned forward and smiled down at us. “Here, you will pass the time until you so-called ‘bounce.’ Scientists have been hard at work figuring out at what age this will be beforehand, but we can at least know when it stops. As such, to chart your progress and determine when this bounce occurs, you will all have regular medical check-ups with our head nurse here, Mrs. Galen.”

A tall redhead then stepped up and gave us a wave. Unlike Mrs. Claw, Mrs. Galen sported an off-white version of the same uniform, and underneath her nametag, she wore a simple metal caduceus as well.

“After a few bits of housekeeping, you all will go to her for your first exam. This is not only to ensure your safety and ours from your varied pasts, but to obtain a baseline for our records of where you are at in your progress as well,” Mrs. Claw explained next. “After all, some of you may regress rather quickly…”

I could only shudder a little at the notion of that occurring to any of us.

“But before all that… I’m sure you all are aware of what we do here. Each cabin is based on your age, and with some exceptions, your abilities as well,” she noted. “For example, those who might lose the ability or concentration to read won’t necessarily be assigned to the sunshine, or yellow, cabin… but you will never find an AR appearing to be five years old in the black, or night, cabin. Mrs. Galen and your current cabin counselor will determine placement as they see fit…”

There was an uncomfortable stir around me. Having read the pamphlet, I knew that ARs were divided amongst five cabins. The night, or black, cabin was the oldest. Sunshine, or yellow, was the youngest. From what I could tell from my research beforehand, ARs in that terrible last cabin essentially forfeited any semblance of the life they used to know once they entered.

“As far as our rules are concerned, you will learn most of them as you progress here, but they should be the ones you all have been accustomed to most of your life, such as no lying, hitting, biting, spitting, or general misbehavior.” She paused and looked troubled for a moment. “We do have two rules that you may be unaccustomed to though…”

I almost felt all the newbies around me lean in, seemingly determined to be the best little campers possible.

“First… as you all are going through a process as ARs, we recognize that regression is just a natural process of your symptoms. While our counselors and leaders will try and prevent any embarrassment, we cannot guarantee this,” she noted dryly. “And while some instances of change we will let go or may not notice ourselves, we ask that you report any changes to us immediately. This will save yourself potential embarrassment, and in most cases, our staff from having to deal with… mistakes.”

Uncomfortable and maybe even embarrassing, especially considering the blush I saw with some already… but it made sense. Regression was like that. Even something as simple as eating breakfast… if an AR couldn’t hold their orange juice… mistakes were inevitable.

“Second, and more important though, with few exceptions such as the bonfire tonight, curfew is set at 9 PM, with certain cabins having an even earlier time.” Her face remained both stoic and grave. “This is for your safety and ours. These woods can become… dangerous at night…”

Looking around, I could tell everyone was either confused, horrified, or questioning their very decision to come here. Yes, life outside in the wilderness, even with cabins and modern amenities, carried danger. Grizzlies out west and water moccasins in the south. It was a simple fact of life… but seeing Mrs. Claw explain all this away with such callousness and yet something hidden behind her smile, I swore there was something else at play here…

“But back to today!” she practically chirped, any evidence of her more somber face now totally erased. “A medical assessment first, a tour, your cabin, and then join back for dinner and a bonfire right after!” She paused and grinned widely. “And… again, Welcome to Camp Commune!”

Instead of before where the applause was surrounding me, it sounded more like a steady drip of water onto a pan. The claps probably could have been counted on one hand. And while Mrs. Claw didn’t say anything, I swore I saw a flash of an angry expression come over her face before she waved and turned around.

“What the heck was that?” I questioned Brian as we waited in line to be examined about ten minutes later.

“Beats me…” He shuddered. “I’ll say this though… definitely not going out at night now. I mean, you saw those woods, right? The same ones I did and… yikes.”

I loved nature and trees and animals… but he was right. There was something peculiar about those woods. Even standing outside the medical cabin like we were, going in one-by-one, the woods seemed to ooze with mystery and danger. Seeing them there, I wanted to get inside as soon as possible.

Fortunately, I was next.

“Okay…” Mrs. Galen looked at her clipboard. She had taken a third of us, while her two under nurses took the others. “Miles… Bosch?” Her gaze shifted up towards me.

“That’s right,” I noted as I pushed through the curtain, greeting her in-person now.

“Perfect.” She then set her tablet down and patted the freshly-line exam table in front of me. “Have a seat, Miles. Just need to check a few things.”

I complied but I was still slightly confused. “Didn’t we have to get vaccinated and have a medical check-up before we came here?” I asked. “It wasn’t easy and…”

Mrs. Galen stopped me cold as she slid a raised tray over to me, slightly squeaking onto the floor. “Oh… sorry about that. Just need to get this closer to me. No sense in having to reach over each time.” She then plucked her stethoscope from the tray first. “But to answer your question, this is just to check and make sure everything is okay. Trust but verify right?”

I had heard that phrase before and I never liked it. With ARV and with a bumblebee sticking out of her pocket, clearly a distraction for younger ARs under her care, I didn’t like the implication. It was like I was a child who couldn’t be trusted when they were asked if they had brushed their teeth or not. “I guess…”

She smiled. “Just lift your shirt for me, Miles. A few checks today. Make sure you’re healthy, and then I’m going to draw a bit of blood. Not much and I promise, it’ll be over quickly.”

“B… blood?” I looked over to the exam tray and saw the large silvery needle glinting under the exam lights overhead. “Is… is that really necessary?”

She smirked and nodded. “Yes. But as I said, it’ll be over quick and you shouldn’t need another draw for a while if everything goes right.”

If nothing else, I would say that she was quick and efficient in her practice. She checked my lungs, heart, she tapped various parts of my body, and even tested my reflexes, my vision, and verified a few medical practices I had before… like my wisdom teeth being removed or if I had my appendix out.

Apparently, some ARs would regrow those parts as they regressed past the age where they had been removed.

Even with that on my mind, I still winced at the drawing of blood, but once again, she was quick and proceeded to calmly place a cartoon character-filled Bad-Aid over where the needle had gone in. I was then too distracted by the childishness of such a simple little but telling thing on my arm now that I was out the door and greeted by my friends and coworkers who had gone before me before I even knew it.

In a second, though, I noticed they sported similar Band-Aids.  

“Hey everyone!” a tall man greeted us, his khaki green uniform like the others, except for stripes of black around the cuffs of the shirt and shorts, chest pockets, and the collar. “I’m Steven and I’ll be your counselor for however long you’re with us.

“Us?” Dwayne questioned, his crossed arms almost seemingly permanently attached to his chest for the past hour now.

“Jason, Perry, Eustace, and Uriah,” Steven explained. “They’ve been here for varying bits more than a week now in black cabin. I’ll let them introduce themselves once we circle back to our cabin, but for now, let me give you all the grand tour of this place.”

No one cheered… just sort of nodded plainly or even outright grumbled.

If he minded, Steven never said a word as we then began to worm our way through the camp that was to be our home for the next however long we were here. Most structures we passed looked like regular camping cabins, complete with lanterns, screen doors, a tin roof, and a small foot-high of local stones forming the base of each along with the seemingly locally sourced wood above. Some of the buildings were small, explained to be the counselors’ cabins on the far side of the property, while others were enormous, such as the longer dining hall and attached kitchen.

Some venues were fully indoors, such as the computer lab, arts and crafts, and science, but several others were outdoors, like the shooting range, nature, and aquatics. Those were simple timber frame structures supporting similar tin roofs and full of various picnic tables and reinforced lockers. By each, a sign showed if they were open or closed in plain red and black letters.

Just as we were coming back from the aquatics area on the edge of the lake, Leo spotted something new in the distance first.

“Are those… buildings over there?” he questioned, pointing to a distant patch of meadow through the thick patch of trees around us where several buildings were clustered near each other. “Is it another camp? The girls camp maybe?”

Steven stopped and shook his head. “No… that’s a local commune. One of the foundations for why we call ourselves ‘Camp Commune,’ actually.”

“Oh…” Dwayne paused and looked hesitant. “Are they… crazy people?”

Steven chuckled and shook his head. “Oh, no, no. They just like to live in a smaller community away from the crowded city. And I’m sure once you get to know them, you’ll find out just how lovely they are.”

He took a few steps before turning back to us. “In fact, and I’m not supposed to tell you this… but you all will be regularly interacting with several members who live there. A little every day, and then three times a week, we all gather for a large meal in the dining hall before heading over to a bonfire between our two spaces. With both, we share our food and our stories for the night. A sort of welcoming ceremony to this place, if you will.”

“That wasn’t in the pamphlet…” Brian said a second later, echoing the seeming unease all our group now seemed to feel based on our pensive facial expressions alone.

“No… but consider it as more of a perk than anything else,” Steven suggested. “They’re friendly in a way that most aren’t accustomed to who aren’t from around here, but they share their food, music, and their knowledge with us… not to mention their land as well. When you have those strawberries tonight or hear their guitars or harmonics or know how to find water on top of the mountains nearby… you can thank them for all those provided things then.”

Pushing up the grounds of the camp, the group moved along mulched or simply dusty and dirt-laden pathways. Long ditches on their sides marked where rain had fallen and pulled sections away, but the various patches between the grass and trees and flowers were easy enough to follow.

And soon, the group came to five cabins, each with a border near the roof, doorway, and windows corresponding to the level of each. Curiously, while all shared the same space, there was a significant amount of distance between them.

“And last, but certainly not least, of our tour today,” Steven explained, “are the main cabins where you all will be staying. There are others for camp staff and visitors that I showed you earlier, but these will be the main ones you all will stay at here for the duration of your stay.”

He then turned and pointed at the first. “Right now, this is our cabin. Black, or night, cabin houses those over the age of 18. It’s likely the smallest of the cabins here as most who come to our camp have either regressed beyond its category or regress too quickly once here. Right now, of the potential sixteen that can stay here, only four are here. You all make eight…”

“And the others?” Leo questioned, looking to his right at the ring of the semi-circle that spaced out the remaining cabins.

“Yes. Well, we don’t need to go into them too much today, but once you regress below to their need, you will get a new counselor as well.” He pointed to the first and went down the line. “Next is purple, or amethyst, for those under 18. Then blue, or lake, for about preteen to child. Next, is red, or wagon, for younger children. And yellow, as you heard is for the youngest group… or sunshine.”

I notice he didn’t note the qualifications required to start staying there other than ‘youngest.’

“And the ages for each?” Dwayne questioned.

Just as Steven opened the door to our cabin, he stopped and sighed before turning back toward us. “You’ll find that beyond the 18 cutoffs between black and purple, we focus less on specific ages. Here, it’s more based on broad categories and skillsets.” He turned back to the door to open it.

“No need to place teens with those can’t even hold a fork,” he mumbled under his breath before pushing on in.

The comment was soft and barely audible, but each of had clearly heard it and now hesitated to enter with him inside.

After a moment though, Leo sighed and joined right along. And because he went in, Dwayne had to follow. And because half our group had entered, I felt I needed to follow. And because he didn’t want to be alone in a new place either, despite his obvious apprehension about going in, Dwayne followed right behind me.

I swore I even heard a yelp… but I didn’t press him on if he did or not.

Inside, I could see right away that there were four bunks, two of which were already occupied with blankets and a few personal items with labeled cabinets behind each. In the rear, near a small cast iron stove, were the folded and stacked remains of what appeared to be four more bunks… like still empty due to only half the cabin being occupied.

“Gentleman,” Steven introduced. “I give you the black, or night, cabin.” He then cleared his voice, and the four figures huddled around a table in the rear stood up and filed over with a little reluctance.

I noticed right away that they were wearing the pure khaki uniform I had seen before… only with black stripes instead like Steven sported.  

“Meet your new cabin mates. Jason, Perry, Eustace, and Uriah.” As he noted their names, each nodded back to the new group in their cabin. “I’m sure you all will be fast friends. But for now…” He gestured to the empty bunks. “From your exam today, we have left the properly sized camp uniforms. I’m going to make sure everything is going on schedule elsewhere and I’ll be back soon to take you all to dinner. Please be dressed and ready by then…”

Just as he was leaving though, he peeped back in. “Oh, and one last thing… given the nature of ARV… if you’re uniform ever gets too small… please let me know right away. Thanks!” And with that and a wide grin, he was gone.

Jason sighed. “He always does that. Says things and just leaves like it’s no big deal.” He shook his head and turned back toward us. “Let’s start again, huh? Name’s Jason.”

Taking the initiative as always, Leo shook his hand first. “Good to meet you, Jason.” He then paused. “So, is this place always so…?”

“Yes,” Eustace noted quickly. “Eustace here, but yes. Peppy and overly enthusiastic.”

“Even if you’re bottoming out and just messed your pants…” Perry said with a shudder from his whole body soon after as if it was something he had witnessed firsthand around here. “Perry…” He gave a nod to each of us.

“Is it really that bad?” Brian finally asked after a moment.

“I take it you all don’t have much experience with ARV then?” Jason questioned.

Each of us shook our heads.

Jason sighed and gestured toward Eustace. “Will you show… you know… the thing?”

Eustace nodded and pulled out a manual of sorts from a nearby wooden cabinet I now noticed was labeled with his name. “Yep. Here we are…” He flipped through a dozen or so pages before landing on one in particular. “Three categorizations, but the one no one wants… sudden regression.”

“Sudden regression?” Brian questioned, always seeming to be full of them nowadays.

“Yeah,” I finally pipped up. “Hey. Miles here. But yeah… all those news stories and viral videos from when all this started. You get infected and maybe shrink a few years, but then you stop. Some think you’re fine… then boom.” I plummeted my hand downward for emphasis. “Drop down to being a kindergarten within a day.”

“Yes…” Uriah spoke up quietly before quickly huddling back behind a book of his own.

Jason briefly looked back at the quiet one of the existing group in here before turning back towards us. “Don’t mind him, but yes. Made the news a bunch… a few around here have been like this. Last week, this cabin was full. Now, red and yellow cabins are almost over capacity. Some of them only lasted a day…”

“Yeah… never seem to last long afterward for that group when it happens…” Perry breathed with some contempt.

“Meaning?” Dwayne asked with an arched eyebrow and almost a hint of worry.

“Positives of that category is you bounce fast once it happens,” Eustace explained. “Once you bounce, this place starts looking for your next steps.”

Brian stepped forward. “As in…?”

“As in… whatever that means,” Eustace explained. “For some… that’s back home. But for others…” he winced and turned to Jason. “You explain…”

Jason nodded. “Some stay in the commune and other get… adopted out. It varies on what’s determined to be needed.” He then paused before looking at a clock on the wall. “But enough of that. You all should get dressed for dinner. You don’t want Steven to come back and to see that you’re not ready.” Immediately, he began to walk away and organize his own labeled cabinet on the wall behind one of the bunks.

“Uh… hold it. Why is that?” Brian asked with a tiny amount of apprehension.

“Yeah…” Dwayne scoffed and folded his arms once more. “What’s he going to do? Spank us?”

“No,” Uriah noted with wide and fearful eyes as if he had witnessed that firsthand as well while he neatened up his own bed on top of one of the open bunks.

“But you won’t like it either…” Perry spoke with a serious expression before tidying up his own bed and pulling off a set of shorts that had been lying over top from before.

It was clear that all of us newbies wanted to ask more questions, but with the speed all the existing group was now working at, it was obvious those would have to wait. Being our first day, no one seemed interested in testing out the boundaries of the rules and consequences of breaking them around here… yet.

“Okay! Looks like we’re all going to be friends here after all,” Steven said excitedly after returning. “And let’s see…” His eyes scanned over the whole black cabin group but lingered on us four newbies longer than the others. “Not bad… not bad. Maybe just…” He gestured to Brian’s belt. “Fix that one loop that didn’t get threaded through and we should be good.”

Brian quickly adjusted his belt without complaint.

As we walked away and to the dining hall though, I could tell that Dwayne was a little miffed about the whole procedure. He didn’t say anything, but above the noise of crunched gravel and shifting twigs and mulch underneath our new boots, I heard his knuckles crack. The last time I heard that, he was getting ready to pummel our competition after they called our firm ‘new and weak’ in the press when they found out we were bidding on the same project.

Entering the dining hall, it stretched lengthways and tablecloths adorned each table in the color of the cabin supposed to be sitting there. Due to our relatively small size, despite having about 16 seats available, our row was cut in half in the front by a few campers from the red cabin. Seeing a few kids busily and noisily talking like nothing was wrong in front of us while most could barely touch the floor with their toes was a surreal experience.

Fortunately, I was also distracted by the other groups just enough that before I could see anything worse, a large group of people soon entered, none of them wearing any semblance of a uniform.

I counted about twenty or thirty of them, instead, all dressed nicely and in loose fitting almost homemade outfits reminiscent of items from the hippy festivals I had read about from the 60s or 70s. Most seemed happy as they fully entered and then sat down around the middle table while about five in their party brought up the rear with armfuls of baskets.

“We offer these items to your kitchen,” they informed Mrs. Claw, who sat at the head table in front of the whole room along with Mrs. Galen and about seven or eight others I presumed were staff.

“Thank you, Mildred,” Mrs. Claw noted with a smile. “We take your gifts in friendship.” She then gestured back to the middle table. “Please… take your seats and we can get started right away.”

Mildred nodded. “Of course…” She then backed away just as Mrs. Claw stood up.

“Good evening, everyone!” she greeted us cheerfully exactly like she had done before.

“Good evening, Mrs. Claw!” everyone, aside from my friends and I, responded back, nearly sounding like the spine-chilling chant of a kindergarten class.

“Tonight, we give thanks and praise to the commune, whom we share a special connection and bond with.” Her words were practiced, as if she had said them a thousand times before. Curiously, some even bowed their heads as if she was praying… especially the commune members. “We thank them for their hospitality and their gifts of the meal we are about to receive…” She then looked up and smiled before tossing her hands in the air. “Now… let’s eat!”

Several cheers were let out… especially when a staff then popped out and dropped a serving dish in front of each of us.

Looking at the food, I wondered if there was an alternative here, but to me at least, it looked wonderful. Especially having eaten only before the bus ride, I was starved. The turkey with gravy and the blueberries and fresh bright corn looked fantastic. I was less enthusiastic about the lima beans, but the mashed potatoes certainly made up for them.

But as soon as it began, it was over.

Mrs. Claw, after dabbing the corners of her mouth, stood up once more. “Now then… counselors, retire for the evening with your charges. Prepare as needed and gather by or usual spot in 30 minutes.” She paused and looked at each of the staff members. “Please… take the time and inform your campers of the expectations before we go to the bonfire tonight…”

I saw Steven nod, and sure enough, five minutes later, he had gathered us near the main building by the flagpole and gathered us in. For the four already in the cabin, I swear I saw an eye roll or two, telling me this was just business as usual around here.

“Okay, as you’ve heard before, tonight is the bonfire. Along with new arrivals, the addition of some commune members, and the larger dinner, we also hold a bonfire at the end of these three days during the week,” he explained. “During this, unless prompted to sing or call out, please remain quiet throughout the performance.”

He winced for a moment, and I swore I saw a shudder in Uriah. “And please… don’t test tonight what will happen if you yell or speak out when the others are talking or singing…”

Despite the serious nature of what he was saying, I saw Brian light up a bit when Steven noted that there would be singing.

“The one exception is if you get scared,” Steven noted. “If that happens, please don’t be ashamed and just let me know… whatever the case, we can take care of it together.”

In a near 180, at the sound of that, Brian looked most nervous out of all of us, but no one said another word.

And so, our silent group only moved in contemplated reflection over what we were walking into. Frankly, the other cabins meandered down a long path close to the lake shore, and some seemed excited. Some seemed bored… but some seemed outright terrified… especially of the woods all around them, the branches still twisting and gnarled amongst the dead or malformed foliage.

To make matters worse, having waited a little and considering the time of year, the sun was already starting to set.

By the time we sat down, I could see a few in the blue and red cabins begin to shake and squirm once they sat down near the front. “Hmmm… this isn’t that bad, is it? Just some camp stories and songs, right?”

“Hard to say…” Jason noted cryptically. “Not every bonfire is the same.”

“Some have run out crying before though…” Perry sneered.

“But that’s just because of the story at the end,” Eustace explained. “Pure ghost stories and nothing more. The rest of it is just typical summer camp stuff. Singing and skits… nothing more.” He sighed and rubbed his head like he knew a headache was about to form. “For the older crowds, it’s boredom because they’re focusing on the first part.” He gestured over to some of the clearly more frightened members, now clutching each other or a plushy stuffed animal. “For the younger, they’re scared because of the second part.”

“The second part?” I questioned. “You mean the ghost stories. What would make them so scar…?”

At this point, Jason jumped back in, cutting me off. “I wouldn’t think too much about either the boring bit or the more frightening bit.” He patted me on the back. “Just sit back and relax and try to enjoy it as best you can.”

I wanted to press more, but Mrs. Claw soon took to the area in front of everyone and spoke up. The bonfires behind her on her left and right were then lit in all their glory. And, as predicted, while the corny camp songs and cheesy skits were near yawn-inducing for most of us, with Brian being one of the few exceptions, it wasn’t too bad.

“Hey…” I whispered to Eustace, who always seemed to have all the answers. “This isn’t so bad…”

“Told you…” he noted with a grin. “Just gotta push through this. Enjoy the pretty lights of the bonfires or whatever. We do this three times a week. Get’s pretty old pretty quick.” He took a breath. “Except the ghost stories or whatever you want to call them. I’ve been here for two weeks now… not one has been similar since.”

“Really?” I questioned. “How many ghost stories does this place even ha…?”

“Shhh!” Steven hushed us, shooting us an angry glare of indignance or our parts and a forceful finger pointed to us to convey his near-silent threat. Needless to say, it quickly silenced both Eustace and I.

For now, my questions would have to remain unanswered.

About an hour later, just as my right butt cheek began to fall asleep on the worn wooden benches we were all perched on, some better than others, things shifted. The actors and singers on the makeshift stage in front of the bonfires dispersed and a small skit was performed while the fires were stoked further, and larger previous props were removed.

Then, shortly after the last skit ended, I saw the yellow group take their leave out the rear.

As if he could read my thoughts, Jason leaned over. “Story time next. The yellows get their own… far more simplistic and less scary from what I’ve been told before. Less guts or stabbings too apparently…” He grinned. “Plus… everyone knows they have bedtimes even earlier than red cabin.”

Looking over, I already saw a few red cabin campers yawning. Those who weren’t… already looked terrified though.

“Now, for our final part of the night,” Mr. Pinter announced next, having previously introduced himself as one of the arts and crafts staff members. “We want to thank you for attending tonight’s bonfire, and for the commune members who have joined us tonight.”

Mildred, discernable in the firelight’s warm glow, nodded her head without noise.

“But now… we take you back on a journey…” he said, almost dropping his voice a full octave and adding a lot of breath to his words, giving them an otherworldly and ethereal feeling I didn’t quite enjoy. “These woods are filled with many tales… some creepy… some scary… some to haunt your dreams. Be wary of each…”

“Each bonfire, they tell a different story about this area,” Eustace reminded the rest of our group as Mr. Pinter prattled on as he set the scene, leaning over to explain it all to us, me doubly so. “Frankly… there’s just way too many of them in one area.” He paused and for a moment almost seemed excited. “Actually… did you know there’s apparently a wendigo out in the woods somewhe…?”

“Ahem.” Steven coughed and stared back at his camper, a second warning seeming just as bad as the first he had received earlier with me. “Eyes front, Eustace… don’t make me tell you again…”

Eustace grimaced and shot back to his seat, ensuring to look forward only and pay attention to what was happening in front now. I swear that if a bird landed on his head, from his rigidity, he wouldn’t flex an inch.

“When the cool winds blow and the moon is high, beware the Ghoulmoth… the prowler of the woods,” Mr. Pinter warned. “My daddy told me this one back in the day… gripping… ripping… it stalked the wild paths of the backwoods…”

Some in the red cabin buried their faces into their stuffed animals.

“One year, long before most of you were born,” he recalled, “my grandfather went up into the woods with his friends. ‘What’s that?’ one of them cried later after their hike… but looking around, no one saw a thing. So, disregarding all the warnings they had heard in town, they set up camp… Just as the sun fell, they heard the breeze rattle through the trees unnaturally.”

Just like then, a breeze rattled through the trees to our back. I felt a chill go up my spin… uncontrollable… illogical.

“The moon was high and their fire so low and dim.” As if on cue, the fires behind him began to dim… the chirps and paddles of the lapping lake beyond seemed to drift over us. “My grandfather went to collect wood… and when he looked up, he swore he saw a pair of ugly red eyes looking back at him.”

“He yelled for his friends. ‘Help me! Help me! I saw a monster!’ But they didn’t believe him.” He paused and took a breath. “No one did anything, but my grandfather heard the creaking and the gnawing and the aching from the trees outside as he tried to fall asleep that night.” His eyes narrowed on the red cabin. “Then… he saw a shadow creep up, it’s long limbs seemingly dripping and floating in the dim moonlight outside.”

He raised his voice. “My grandfather turned to his tentmate. ‘Tom! Tom! I see something!’ But Tom only shook his head and told him to go back to sleep.” He stopped and stepped closer to the red cabin, now seemingly pouring all his energy into scaring them. “Whispers and groans in the night. Nothing but the moans of an old wood… they grew…”

He stopped. “And then a scream!” he shouted, causing several of the younger ARs to recoil and scream themselves in sheer terror.

“Tom and my grandfather went to check on their friends… but they were gone. Only bloody rags and bootlaces remained.” He sighed. “They told the police, but no one believed them. Only an old man in town did. And he warned…” He paused and looked around his audience. “When the cool winds blow and the moon is high, beware the red eye controller the late, late hours. He stalks the land like a mighty beast, the green Ghoulmoth… the campers he devours…”

He said no more… the bonfires fading away. A soft cry echoed from the campers near the bottom. For Brian, Leo, Dwayne, and I, confusion set in. ‘Why tell a story like that to end the night? Are they trying to induce nightmares or something?’

We only moved when Steven stood up and finally directed us back out of there.

“Oh, that’s a bunch of BS!” Eustace noted after Brian once again questioned the story that had been told to us once we were all settled for the night after Steven bid us goodnight. “They’re just trying to scare you. Classic campfire ghost stories… no evidence to suggest anything else.”

“But the woods…” Brian couldn’t get his mind off the woods, and frankly, when we were coming back, there was more than one instance of feeling creeped out. It didn’t help that Steven was the only one with any light source as he guided us back, but still… even to me, those woods felt unnatural.

“Hogwash!” Perry scoffed. “Those woods are old… and you’re frightened of your own shadow.”

“Perry…” The admonishment from Jason was clear. “It’s their first story here. You should know better… your remember how you were, right?”

Perry sighed… “Yeah, yeah…” He turned toward Brian. “Sorry. Just… will you quit talking about them then? Doesn’t do anyone any good anyways…”

Brian nodded silently, his gaze occasionally sneaking back toward the window and the trees and Claw forest beyond.

“So… is it really every campfire they tell a story… like that?” I asked after a moment when most of the cabin went back to reading, getting ready for bed, or playing a game of cards at one of the tables in the cabin.

“Pretty much,” Jason confirmed, spreading out his sheets on the lower bunk. “Creepy… but harmless if you don’t let it get to you…” He sighed. “Admittedly though, that’s easier said than done…”

I nodded but a faint tapping on the window drew my attention that way.

I went over to check and make sure no one was trying to play a prank on us. Getting there, I didn’t see anything… just a deadened limb swaying in the breeze and scratching the side of the cabin. And looking further out into the woods I saw nothing. All was good…

Until I saw a pair of red orbs jutting out in the pitch black.

I closed my eyes. My palms felt sweaty. ‘It’s not real… it’s not real…’ I could feel my heart pounding as I stood there and tried to will away what I had seen. ‘It was only a story… the Ghoulmoth isn’t real… it’s not real…’ I tried telling myself that over and over, but I knew standing by the window for longer would only arouse suspicions… so I opened my eyes.

Nothing was staring back at me… only the dim of the moonlight glinting off some of the leaves shaking in the breeze.

I sighed with relief, shook my head, and closed the blinds for the night. The trees still scraped against the cabin and I didn’t like that… but I played it off as purely my imagination. ‘It wasn’t real… it wasn’t real…’

Settling into my bed on the top bunk, I tried to put what I had seen out of my mind. The branches scraping on the roof and the side of our cabin didn’t help any. I felt an hour pass… maybe more. I was restless.

Turning over to try for a different position, I saw Uriah… their eyes open just as wide as mine.

“If you don’t see it, it doesn’t see you…” he said, before his eyes shot briefly over to the window.

My eyes grew even wider.

Just as I was about to speak to question him, Uriah held their finger up to their lips. “Shh… no one will believe you and you’ll be the butt of jokes around here. Trust me, you don’t want that. Just close your eyes and trust in the locks on the doors…” And without another word or hint of an explanation, he turned back around in bed.

And so, I was left there with my thoughts.

Nothing seemed to help except the pure exhaustion from the day. The camp was turning out to be radically different than I thought. I was hoping for the joys of my youth and instead I was placed in the middle of some backwoods horror show. It was only the first day and I silently hoped that tomorrow would be better.

But as the branches scraped further on the roof above me, part of me seriously doubted that.

[Lierrin]

It's really great that you managed to write another story about the Orange Mist, but one that's quite different from the first. I love this strange atmosphere, which is very different from your other stories. I can't wait to see what's wrong at this camp and how our group will get out of it!

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

Another chapter up. A little late in the day and I’m definitely going to check tomorrow when I can to ensure there aren’t any grammatical or plot mistakes here, but I wanted to get this one up. I really don’t like falling behind schedule as I makes me feel unreliable here and it puts more pressure on me to pump out the following chapters. Plus, you get a story like my last one, and despite its length… it took me over six months to finish out. In theory, it should have only taken me less than four.

Regardless… I’m not sure when my next chapter will be up. I will push to write most of it tomorrow, but that’s never a guarantee and both Friday and Saturday have now become… complicated. Nothing bad, for me at least, but definitely both time suckers in my day. And while I theoretically could write some in a waiting room… I don’t want to go through the whole routine of explaining this stuff away to a family member or a doctor if they ask. So, apologies, but there might be another delay. Again, I will try my best… but no guarantees right now.

Now… last but not least and as usual, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter of my story!

Chapter 4: Two Differences… Forever Changed

The days passed with an irregular monotony that almost felt comforting in the face of change everywhere else.

Having been dosed directly under the blast of the mist containing the soon-to-be mutated strain of ARV, my coworkers and I were more affected than most. Certainly not the peak categories of losing a year an hour… but as our features began to smooth out, I knew without even the confirmation of Mrs. Galen every few days, that were losing years each week. The ARV tended to slow down in the younger years, but I felt I blinked and I was already in my 20s.

Curiously, despite being a decade older than us originally, Leo looked about the same.

Regardless, the days of the camp soon became familiar to us. Mornings were spent getting ready for the day, followed by breakfast, one of two rotating camp schedules of A or B, lunch, and then community service with the commune. After, would be followed by some minor free time and dinner. Following, if it was a special day, it would be a bonfire and some quiet time in our cabin. If not, we could use the time to call our families or more free time… but it was always followed by curfew at 9 and sleep.

And then all that would repeat itself over and over…

But then it came to a Tuesday. I remember that clearly enough, but it was a day like any other before… except for two events that changed everything before the day was out.

I yawned wearily as I got up. Last night had been a storm and the branches had scraped along the tin roof along with the pattering of heavy rain drops as well. I made sure to pull the blinds up to let in a little light. Above me, Uriah noticed… but said nothing.

After that first night, I made sure to close those blinds before we went to dinner… when it was still light out.

“Alright! Chop, chop!” Steven announced loudly as we all descended from our bunks shortly after, clapping his hands and fully waking any of the stragglers in the cabin.

Blear-eyed and never a morning person, Dwayne glared back at him. “Really? And before coffee, man?”

Steven smirked but passed beyond the comment without any other inflection. “Rise and shine, black cabin! The sun is out and the day’s a wasting! Let’s go! Let’s go!”

Dwayne grumbled as he stumbled into the rear attached bathroom… but said nothing more about it.

Frankly, from day one, the threat of punishment for rule breaking by Steven himself was only a vague notion beneath the veiled angry looks and threatening finger pointed back at us whenever we did something that very nearly broke one of the camp’s rules or his. And just so there was no confusion about what those were, a long and neat list of all the ones were posted right by the front entrance… and the back wall.

Filing in shortly after, we each hauled our laundry sacks over to the laundry room. We did it three times a week. Twice for clothing and once for sheets and towels. Dropping them off, it was always a nice treat that breakfast was next up to satiate our growling stomachs.

This morning was sausage, eggs, toast, and fruit. Jason smacked the fruit noisily between his teeth and Dwayne complained about the poor tasting coffee, but I was just enthralled with a decent meal that I didn’t have to prepare myself. It was literally just placed on the table in front of us buffet style and we dug in. For our table and the purple one, we got to serve ourselves. For red and blue, though, their counselors and leaders did.

I made sure not to see the situation with yellow. I felt the less that was known about them, the better.

“Whatcha reading, huh?” I asked Uriah, seeing him as one of the few with an open book here after wolfing down another serving of scrambled eggs.

“Lord of the Flies,” he said softly. “Not really supposed to be reading this in front of others… but no one’s caught me yet.”

“Oh?” I tried to search my mind for the reason why… but I couldn’t come up with anything. “Why’s that?”

Uriah looked at me surprised for a moment. “Come on… think about it. A bunch of kids? Total anarchy without adults? It’s a recipe for disaster in a place like this.”

I frowned. “But Uriah… we’re not kids. You know that, right?”

He looked personally insulted. “Of course I know that, but…” He winced and gestured over to the red table. “Look at them.”

I did and saw a bunch mindlessly chowing down on the same breakfast we had. “Yeah… and?”

He sighed. “When you get a chance… watch them closely. Don’t even need to mess with yellow and blue is hit or miss… but by the time you get to red around here, you start to slip.”

“Slip?” I had heard that term used before, but not here and not from Uriah before.

“Yes, slip,” Eustace jumped in unexpectedly, Uriah being too reserved to push back and explain it himself. “Basically, the mind when you’re that young just can’t hold all your past information. It begins to leak out or whatever. Some say its stored… but it’s too early still.”

I looked back over at the red table and heard the chortled laughter mixed with bad jokes and childish antics. “So, they’re…?”

“Yes,” Jason nodded, butting in as well. “They’re starting to believe they’re that age. Doesn’t happen all at once… but it’s almost inevitable… at least around here…”

“You make it seem like it doesn’t happen elsewhere,” I pointed out, Brian and Leo nodding along as well with curiosity.

Everyone in the old crowd at the black table shifted uncomfortably while the rest of us ‘newbies’ watched on for any sign that could tell us what they meant.

No answer ever came at breakfast.

Steven instead whisked us away to our first class of the day: science.

Indoors, the air conditioning felt wonderful, and we began to study chemical bonds. From what I could tell, these types of lesson were mostly to keep our minds sharp. As we regressed to certain levels, however, some classes would be removed and replaced with others. For example, red cabin used science to also include basic addition as well or apparently whatever the instructor, Mr. Yoder, decided needed to be refreshed.

And from his chalk-laden outfit from several erasures and rewrites, I felt he did that often.

But being the most knowledgeable of our group, it wasn’t at all surprising when Dwayne and Eustace’s chemical experiment worked leagues beyond everyone else’s… only their partnership. Secretly, though, I was just glad I hadn’t blown off my eyebrows in my own experiment with Brian.

For some reason, some of my old chemistry classes seemed a little fuzzy. Yes, it was over 20 years ago… but still.

Next was the nature class.

Positioned outdoors, Ms. Peachey, was probably one of my favorites so far. Mr. Pinder on our designated ‘B Days’ was nice and pouring my frustrations into my creativity was a good stress release, and getting on a mini sailboat at the aquatics dock was lovely on some of the breezier days, but here, I truly excelled almost without thought. For me, it was almost like a vacation.  

To my surprise, so did Uriah.

Quiet but knowledgeable, when we went on a scavenger hunt for today’s main activity, I immediately knew who I wanted as my partner. Brian seemed a little hurt with me not picking him as usual, but a smiling Eustace didn’t let him go by himself for very long.

“So… you seem to know these woods pretty well, huh?” I questioned Uriah just after we found a seed pod from one of the trees.

Without taking his eyes off a bird perched on a far branch, Uriah nodded and whispered. “Yeah… didn’t grow up too far from here. Know a lot of things about nature around here… and this place.”

I remembered the first night with the Ghoulmoth and how he seemed to know I had seen the red eyes staring back at me. “Like that monster?” I asked before clarifying what I meant considering we had now heard stories also about the yellow eyes in the mountains, Mothman, wendigos, and even a version of bigfoot that devoured human flesh. “The Ghoulmoth, I mean.”

Uriah jotted down on our paper that he had seen one of the birds… but stopped halfway through and stared at me coldly. “Remember what I said… don’t mention what you saw… never.”

“Yes, but… I figured if we had both seen it and there’s no one else around…” I tried to rationalize. “Then maybe…”

“No,” he quickly cut me off. “Never talk about it. Trust me. Once you do… everyone will think you’re a nut or that you’re losing your mind to ARV. Both are just as bad around here…”

After finding a pinecone, I finally broke the silence. “Is that what happened to you?”

His foot cracked a stick as he walked away from me and then paused midstride. “No.” He never looked back at me… he just kept walking for the rest of the time. No anger… just no further acknowledgment to my presence.

“Oh! What a wonderful collection,” Ms. Peachey praised us both, her braided red hair flapping about as she jumped up and down in pure excitement. “Come class. Gather round and see all the wonders of the nature surrounding you all!”

It was a nice moment to get some praise like that… but I still felt a chill coming back from Uriah after our little chat.

Next was Dwayne’s favorite activity apparently. “I call dibs on the 12 gauge!” he shouted, hurrying to the range on the far side of the camp and about as far away from the commune as seemed possible.

Steven, trying to instill the rules in us, sighed once again today. “Dwayne! No running on the trails out here! You could trip and fall,” he reminded vigilantly before smirking. “And if that happens, then you wouldn’t be getting that 12 gauge… just going to see Mrs. Galen.”

Dwanye slowed down immediately and grumbled. “Understood… sir.”

There had been growing resentment for a while with Dwayne and each day it threatened to get him that long rumored punishment from Steven that no one ever seemed to want to talk about. He was pushing his luck and we all knew it… especially Steven.

Despite his enthusiasm though, Perry was the best at skeet shooting. “Pull!” he shouted.

Mr. King, our instructor, yanked back on the handle of the machine, and the clay pigeon went flying out to the large hill already strewn with several broken versions of the black and orange discs.

Perry, using his patience, followed the clay pigeon and fired. The blast was deafening and several birds flew away, but a split second later, the clay pigeon split into two.

“Another one!” Mr. King called out, marking it on his chart where he had been keeping track of our records. “Well done, Mr. Tilling. Another mark made.” He smiled, his old jowls sagging and briefly lifting up. “Stay in my class for another few days and I might just have to sign you up for our talent show next week!”

Being the skeptic and critic and overall sarcastic member, I had rarely seen him with a smile… until right then. “You think so?” There was so much hope in his voice, it made me wonder about his past and how many times someone had actually complimented him.

Sadly, from his looks, I doubted it was many, if at all.

Stepping aside, Mr. King flipped over his page. “Next up, Mr. Paperton! Step on up, son.”

Eustace nodded and took to the staging platform with his borrowed shotgun before adjusting his safety goggles and earbuds. ‘Safety first’ was our entire first day out here on the range. Then, like always, he extended his hand like the rest of us did to finally receive a shell from Mr. King, who guarded them as closely as he could without wearing them on his person. Dwayne questioned it the first day and all we got as an answer was ‘safety concern.’

Just as Mr. King handed Eustace a cartridge to load up… he wavered for a moment. His fingers twitched spastically and he withdrew his hand before setting his shotgun down on the ground. “I… I…”

“Son?” Mr. King questioned. “You okay there?”

“I… I…” He wavered… and then he collapsed.

“Steven!” Mr. King called out. We surged forward and Mr. King yelled at us. “Stay back! Give him some room.” And as soon as Steven arrived, Mr. King stood up and went to the gun locker. “Guns… now. One at a time.”

Dwayne sighed but the rest of us complied without a single word back. It was purely protocol and we knew that. With a crisis on the line, all shooting stopped. A paranoid person might have complained or demanded to continue after someone had ‘just fainted,’ but Mr. King was a stickler for the rules.

And considering the nature of guns here and bows and arrows in the next range over for some of the younger crowds… it made total sense as to why. Plus, his standards were also high. In amethyst group, he noted that he held a strength test at the beginning of every class. If they passed, it was more skeet or target shooting. If they failed… they were permanently dropped to the bow and arrow. Still a steel-tipped point, but no explosives in uncoordinated or weakened hands and arms.

“I… uh… what happened?” Eustace then asked as Steven was checking his heartbeat and breathing with the stethoscope he had pulled out of the local med kit.

Steven sighed in clear relief. “You fainted, Eustace. Not a big deal… could’ve just been the heat, but… let me take you to Mrs. Galen’s. She’s going to want to check a few things out.”

Eustace immediately hesitated.

Steven smirked. “And don’t worry. Nothing bad. Just being cautious, and you should be able to join your cabinmates at the end of lunch… or even at the commune at worst. And then, I can pack you a lunch and you can take time off today. Sound like a plan?”

He still winced, but after a tiny push from both Dwayne and Jason, Eustace nodded back. “Okay. Just… no needles, okay?”

Steven frowned for maybe half a second at the seemingly random request from one of his ARs but then nodded as if it was no big deal. “Sure. Whatever you want…”

The two then walked in front of the rest of the group and left Mr. King. The range class was over for today.

Dwayne and Perry both complained… but no one made too much of a fuss… especially as we passed in front of Mrs. Claw’s office in the main building as Steven dropped Eustace off.

“Damn. Can’t believe we missed out on skeet shooting today,” Dwayne complained.

“Just five minutes,” Leo pointed out. “Not too bad.”

I looked back towards the nurse’s office when neither Dwayne nor Perry complained more. “So… what do you think’s wrong with him?”

“Heat,” Jason said quickly. “Like Steven said. Just the heat…”

I noticed Uriah was about to speak up… but immediately kept quiet and shrank from view. He seemed to know something… or at least be curious. But if he was going to say anything before, he didn’t seem like he was going to now.

And Dwanye and Perry might have complained more to Steve once he came back out… but lunch was next. And food was always a priority… even over complaining.  

Lunch today was more simplistic than most of our other meals… yet almost seemed luxurious at the same time. It was odd, but it was something called ‘Walking Tacos.’ Questioning Steven, he informed us that it was pre-cooked taco meat, portioned out with Fritos or Doritos, and topped with shredded cheese, lettuce, and salsa, with potential guacamole, olives, and sour cream on the side.

Perry raised an eyebrow at the mixture laid before us, but once the rest of us caught wind of the heavenly smell emanating from under the tin foil once it was set down, we seemed practically helpless to resist.

To say the least, afterward, I was stuffed.

And there, sitting on the long bench with my cabinmates, I heard a loud “No!” echo off the rafters overhead followed by a long clattering of something on the floor… and then a whole series of ‘oohs.’

Straightening up, I looked where everyone else was looking now… and in a second, I saw what it was.

Regressing like we were, it was almost a mercy to eventually slip. Until then, one would have to imagine almost every sacred thing in their lives suddenly being ripped away from them either due to the government, lack of skill, or maybe you even forget a tiny little bit of it and therefore can’t enjoy it any longer. That was our lives now and while Camp Commune did their best, there was only so much they could do against that tide of emotions welling behind each of us.

For a poor member of the blue cabin, one more thing forced seemed to be too much.

“Joshua! You will not throw your plate like that!” a woman, now much taller than him, scolded him in front of the whole dining hall. If the place could have grown even more silent, it would have. “I just want you to eat your greens! How hard is that? Are green beans really so bad?”

‘Ah… that explains it.’ Slipping slowly meant some younger characteristics would begin to slip back into a persons life. Hatred of all things green was just one of many for many ARs.

“Shove it…” the AR sneered at her.

“What did you say?” the woman asked, flames now seeming to lick and dance around behind her eyes.

The AR briefly recoiled. If they were slipping, a possibility in blue cabin apparently, they might have had a younger mindset one minute and their old mind the next. For him, I wasn’t sure which was which… but I definitely saw what came next.

“I… I said no,” he stammered out, now trembling a little under her potent gaze.

She waved her finger in his face as if to scold him. “No, no… that’s not what you said,” she nearly growled as she towered over him.

‘Crud. It was a test.’ I had seen it before with other ARs since I first arrived here. Counselors would try and evaluate the ARs under them. Telling the truth, no matter how bad, was one metric they used.

And this AR had not only just failed, but they had failed after cursing at their counselor. ‘Not good…’

Sure enough, before the AR could even muster an apology, the counselor grabbed the AR by the scruff of their collar and practically hoisted them out of their seat. Next, they began the long trudge down the row in front of everyone else and right out the front door.

Many ARs winced.

“Poor guy…” Uriah sighed.

“Yeah… just some stupid green beans…” Perry noted, sensing the futility of the fight in that way. He always promised that if he was ever going to get in trouble again… it would be for something big and not something small… like green beans.  

“Yeah…” I agreed as well. For me though, it was solely an agreement over the fate of him being punished. Having never been punished here before, I didn’t know what it entailed. But from what Perry could only imply… it wasn’t pleasant.

But all that still wasn’t the one of two big changes that happened.

Per a camp regulation and from the agreement they had struck with the Claws who owned the forest the camp was built on and the commune that had agreed to the sale in the first place. Ever since, part of the agreement was for the commune to provide food, entertainment, and knowledge of the area back to camp. In return

It still puzzled most of us with the agreement seeming far too one-sided.

“It was a mutual agreement,” Steven clarified again to us as we exited the dining hall and made our way to the commune. “That and a huge check out to them…”

We always sighed over that answer. It seemed real enough… but there was always a note at the end of his various explanations that made me question if it was the whole truth.  

“Welcome back to Havenswood!” Mildred greeted the crowd in front of her once more. She appeared to be the spokeswoman and the mediator between the commune, or Havenswood as they called it, and the camp… and not the leader I thought she was before when she first entered the dining hall.

“I believe you all know the drill?” she partially questioned before getting a nod from Steven and a few of the other cabin counselors.  “Oh, good. Always forget when you all get your new newbies and all. So… I don’t need to explain the rules in depth. But just remember… no cursing, running with tools, or hurting any of us… which includes insulting us.”

Many of us nodded.

I saw that Dwayne didn’t.

“Okay… splitting you all up today…” Mildred mused as she looked at her paper chart that I knew contained all the various tasks she had planned for us. While black, purple, and blue cabins would share in the work to keep this place going, red and yellow only got to play.

Some darkly joked at the end of the work; they would give almost anything to become red or yellow just to get out of work for one day. A lot of people laughed over that… including Brian.

I never did.

“First half… with Mr. Lehman,” she noted, gesturing over to one of the locals. “He’s got some household items he needs help with. Maybe even some painting…”

They walked off, smiling as they did so. While labor intensive… it was almost always indoors or at least shaded. And with that work gone to us… Brian, Uriah, Eustace, me, and a few others from different cabins knew we would be outside. That could mean forest work… that could mean the fields. So far, we only had been assigned to small gardens and the forests.

“Oh! Am I late? Did I miss them?” a tall and blonde woman asked as she ran over, clutching her straw hat closely to keep it from flying off. “I’m so sorry, Miss Mildred! I had trouble with the chickens and then my dress got all wrinkled and then I couldn’t find my hat and…” She paused and backed up with a wince. “Oh no… I’ve seen that look before. I’ve missed them, haven’t I?”

“No, Emma,” Mildred said, almost with a tone that made it seem like this wasn’t the first time she was late. “Just divided them up. You were almost late today… but no. Just…” She sighed deeply before gesturing to us. “These are your new volunteers from the camp…”

“Oh!” She turned to us and smiled, and as cliché as it might sound, it was like her smile radiated out the sun toward us. “It’s so nice to meet you all. I can’t wait to get to know each and every one of you lot! And also, I’ve got some great work for us to do together today!” For a moment, in between her near beaming smile and personality, I swear it looked like she wanted to hug us.

And so, meeting Emma and being assigned to the fields was the first big change of the day.

“Okay… first task of the day is to weed this whole field,” she told us after guiding us to a large field that had been freshly tilled. “Probably won’t finish today, but after two hours, even if it isn’t done, go ahead and treat yourselves to some wild berries over there by the trees.”

I looked over and saw a few bushes… but said nothing.

She made a few more notes to the younger campers but then moved on and back into a nearby house.

“She seems… perky,” I offered once she was out of earshot.

“Eh… she’s not too bad,” Eustace noted. “A little much… especially with her hugs.”

“You don’t like her hugs?” one of the nearby blue campers questioned, looking ready to become offended or cry over even the mere mention of that notion.

Another blue scoffed. “Just ignore him.” He leaned over and whispered, but more for effect than achievement as anyone within ten feet could probably still hear him. “I think he’s got a crush!”

“Ugh! Sammy! I told you…” He stomped his foot and quickly stormed off. “Ahh!”

A few of us chuckled… including Sammy.

“Hey,” I offered my hand first in friendship. “Miles.”

Sammy shook my hand back before greeting the others from our cabin. “Sammy. Been here a few weeks now. Blue cabin… hoping to bounce before too much longer. You all?”

I nodded. “Same.”

“Same…” Brian noted distantly before Uriah only nodded.

“I just hope for happiness at this point,” Eustace pointed out. “Been here too long to hope for anything else…”

Sammy nodded. “Yeah… totally understand that. Got here with purple. Now I’m blue… and I’ve seen a whole lot of campers go by. Most adopted out now.”

“So, slow regression?” Brian questioned.

Sammy winced. “Yeah… but don’t ask that to another AR, okay? Almost considered rude around here for anyone in blue or below. I don’t mind but…” He looked around and right then we noticed how the other blue campers had moved away from us. “Just taboo I guess.”

“Sorry…” I said sheepishly.

Sammy blew it off. “Eh… no worries. Just now you know. Not much eight-year-olds can do against you… but they have the numbers. And trust me… you don’t want to see what a bunch of scrawny but determined second graders can do.”

Remembering my nephew at that age, I quickly shook my head.

Two hours later, right on cue, we all retreated towards the woods and to the berries stationed there. While the others greedily ate the ripest, I held back for a moment. ‘Strange these are still here. Look more natural and wilder than being planted on purpose. Would have thought an animal would have gotten to them by now…’

I shrugged and dug in, my eyes focused on the woods the whole time.

“You know… you look like you’ve seen a ghost when you’re looking at the trees in the forest,” Sammy pointed out after noticing my stare back at them. “That… or something else.”

I felt the heat rush to my face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I did… but I saw Uriah give me a glare that quickly changed my mind in telling our new friend that.

Instead of being insulted or pressuring me to reveal what I knew though, Sammy patted me on the back. “Hey… no worries. You’ll talk about it eventually. Scary stuff… and it doesn’t go away. In fact, the younger you get… the worse it gets.”

I could feel my hand grip the very bush tightly as my nerves played up.

“What are you all talking about?” Brian asked us, one of the few in our little circle now who apparently wasn’t in on the notion of the red eyes of the Ghoulmoth or the yellow ones of at least two of the others in the bonfire ghost stories.

“Nothing,” Uriah almost hissed back. “Nothing at all…” He gave me a quick and forceful glare… one that I think the others noticed as well.

No one talked for at least a minute.

Until Sammy smirked and threw one of the still pink berries right at Brian.

“Hey!” he called out. “Quit that!”

“Why?” Sammy questioned him playfully rather than as an annoying nuisance.

“It’s fun,” he offered. “Try it yourself.” He then threw another berry… this one at Eustace.

Instead of groaning and frowning like Brian had, Eustace seemed to embrace it with a playful smile. And my suspicions were even further confirmed when he grabbed a few… and threw them right back at Sammy… and then me.

Vowing revenge in the lightest of ways, I picked up a few myself and threw them back.

“It’s war!” Eustace shouted.

“Fire back! Fire back!” I called out, ducking behind the bush next to Sammy. I then threw one at Brian with a grin. “Come on… hit me!” I would normally never tell someone to do that… but this was stress relief, and ever since the ghost story, Brian had been on the edge a little.

He practically growled at me… before launching three of them right for my face.

When one splattered, he looked horrified… but I only smiled back at my friend and returned the fire. Soon, several of the bad berries littered the floor.

Which is right when Leo, Dwayne, Perry, and the rest showed up.

“What the…?” Perry questioned with a deep state of confusion.

Brian stopped with a blush but Eustace, Sammy, and I continued. “Oh… come on you all!” I encouraged when I saw the rest of our cabinmates.

Dwayne then stepped forward. “Can’t believe you all! I thought you were supposed to be working… not lunging around in the middle of a… good fight?”

“Nah!” Eustace chuckled as if he was possessed by a demon before reaching down and plucking something off the spot beneath his foot. He then smirked and changed his whole demeanor. “Take that, you stupid head!” he called out suddenly, before pelting him with another berry from the ground now… right between his eyes.

“Dude!” he called out. “What the hell?”

Eustace was laughing and so was Sammy… but I wasn’t anymore. Concerned, I stopped Sammy with a simple gesture and shook Eustace… seeing my new friend as something almost looking drunk. Others might have dismissed it, but I just saw a person in need of a wakeup call apparently. “Hey… it’s over.”

“It’s…” Eustace stopped and looked at his hands, now partially stained from the berry juice of the ones he handled too roughly. “Oh… sorry…” He got a strange look over his face.

But before I could question what that was, Dwayne scoffed towards Leo about Eustace. “Geesh! So stupid… so childish, right?”

Leo didn’t make a comment but gave one damning nod of his head. To me and Brian, it seemed to cut us in two like a knife… the ultimate insult. For Eustace, he just seemed lost in his world in confusion over what had just happened… like he had lost control. And Sammy seemed to take in stride, waving goodbye to us and hoping we could catch up again.

For him, it seemed this was just a discovered perk of being young… the ability to walk away and not care.

And despite the continued teasing by Dwayne and Perry to us, even being briefly admonished by Emma, I didn’t care. For the first time, despite the childish nature of it, I had genuinely smiled without a single hesitation. No drop in self-respect after or another rule added or some freak nighttime story. It was just fun.

But Eustace… he seemed to be taking it harder than Brian or I. Ever since his collapse at the range and subsequent visit to Mrs. Galens to get checked out, he had either been totally reserved or completely carefree… like he was with the berries earlier.

All through dinner, he just moved his peas around with his fork. I wanted to bug him about it… fearing something was wrong I couldn’t see yet or that he had been told something. Or, as it happened for some ARs, I thought that he could have just been depressed.

At night, with Steven saying his final ‘goodnights’ to us, I stopped what I was doing and went over to see Eustace directly. “So… long day, huh?”

He nodded, trying to figure out his next move in our game of chess. Being one of the few entertainment options in here that we hadn’t brought or begged for ourselves, tournaments had become frequent at nights… especially on those not occupied by a bonfire or another ghost story.

Seeing the blinds closed already, I was grateful of that fact.

I hopped one of my pieces over two of his… something I felt he would have caught only just last week. “You feeling okay, Eustace? You seem a little… green?”

His hand hovered over a piece, and he then looked up at me with a little fear. “I do?”

I nodded… and then I noticed something that I hadn’t before. “Yeah, but Eustace? Uh… did you shave before dinner or something?”

He frowned and shook his head. “No… why?”

I grimaced and part of this mystery was starting to be unveiled before my eyes. I didn’t want to believe it, but I knew if I was right, I would see very soon. “I just… your skin is a lot smoother than I would have thought it would have been otherwise…”

“My…?” His hand deftly rubbed his cheek where he normally sported a five o’clock shadow by now. “I guess I lost that, huh? Swore I shaved it this morning…”

My heart sank further and I looked at the clock. I estimated he was in his mid-20s or around there when we first met him. Yesterday, he might have been a year younger… at most. Now though… I tried doing the calculations in my head. ‘Mid 20s around 12 o’clock today and it’s 9 o’clock now… estimate facial hair for someone like him… maybe early teens?’

My head clicked with the easy but terrible math.

But I also needed to be sure. Unfortunately, Eustace was our expert on ARV around here. I could go nosing through his book… but he would want to know why. I could play it off and blame it on my overactive imagination… but that felt too time consuming.

And looking at my new friend with his wide eyes and youthful glow… I wasn’t sure if time was on our side.

“Say Eustace… mind if I ask you a question?” I pondered, trying to ease in this as best I could.

He was nearly sweating with the strain it took to move a piece now. He could still lift the plastic red token he now hovered over… but his mind didn’t seem as sharp or quick anymore. It seemed clouded and distracted. Maybe it was just a long day… but I knew I needed to check for our sakes… and his.

“Yeah… just…” He grimaced. “Just make it snappy…”

I nodded. “Well, I had this friend back home… denied they had ARV,” I explained with my made-up lie. “Got it diagnosed… but not sure of which strain. Then, he collapsed in the middle of the day, apparently on the day we left. Seemed to be shrinking about one year every hour… but he didn’t realize it. Got a letter all about it… but it just ended without telling me the end.”

“That sucks…” he noted solemnly as he still tried to figure out where to go next. If he knew it was about him, he didn’t let on.

“Yeah… totally sucks,” I agreed, looking at my new friend with sadness in my heart. “But I wanted your opinion of what happens next. If someone sees that… how bad will it be? And… what would you tell them if you somehow knew?”

Eustace stopped and looked back at me. “Well, reality is reality. Whether he sees it or not become irrelevant when things become obvious.”

“Like when shaving isn’t needed anymore all of a sudden?” I questioned, probing to see if he would catch on by himself.

“Right!” He seemed happy over the notion of us being on the same page now. “But I would show them something obvious they could see was different. Give them evidence of a change, and doing that, I would then tell them that it was all going to be okay.”

I smiled. “Sounds like good advice.” But I sighed and spotted a lack of scar on his arm. He had gotten it after fishing off the coast of New England one summer with his dad when he was 18. It was a powerful memory, and while I hoped it would last… the scar hadn’t.

“Eustace… you know we’re all your friends, right?”

“Uh, yeah?” I could tell he was getting suspicious.

So, I knew I needed to dive in. “Well, everything is going to be okay, but… do me a favor… look at your arm… your right arm.”

He frowned before looking at his arm. “Okay… I’m looking and what am I supposed to see here? It’s all the same. The light hair and the freckles and my sca…” He stopped and looked up at me and I knew he knew. “No…” he shook his head. “That can’t be…”

I nodded. “It is. You know it is…”

I wanted to comfort him more, hoping this place would live up to its word and help him through everything that was about to happen… but he bolted upright, knocking his chair over and alerting everyone to his presence. By the time they started asking questions, rather than just assuming he had lost the game, Eustace was having a panic attack.

“Breathe, man! Breathe!” Leo implored.

“Come on, Eustace,” Brian tried to encourage. “Just deep breaths. In and out… in and out.”

When that didn’t work, everyone panicked even more than they had been. “Shit! What the hell happened, Miles?” Dwayne asked me. “What did you do?”

Leo frowned after trying and failing to console one of his older friends here. The two were close… at least closer than he was with Uriah, and that seemed to mean something to him as he rubbed his face with his hands before looking directly at me. “Miles… please. Tell us what happened…”

“I, uh…” I wasn’t prepared for this. I thought it would be obvious to them as well, but then I also remembered our group had been split up and that most of them were so focused on themselves that they hadn’t noticed Eustace and his odd displays today. “He’s going through something and… he needs our support an…”

“Just out with it!” Perry barked, trying to rub Eustace’s back now.

I wanted to tell them… I really did. It felt impossible and so simple over what was happening and what was next… and a thousand other answers to their questions.

But I never managed to get there.

“Oh… for crying out loud you lot!” Uriah shouted in frustration to everyone’s shock. “He’s going to bounce by tomorrow…” He sighed deeply as he longed for that special someone now. “He’s got the fast and dangerous strain now…”

This was the second biggest strain today… and one that would echo in our minds in the days to come.

A deathly silence overtook the room. We all wanted Uriah to be wrong… but our eyes were sharper as we youthened. No strain… no lies. We saw the truth in our friend, and we saw the edges of him coming undone. It would be fascinating if it wasn’t so horrifying.

And we all knew right then… Eustace was losing about a year per hour. By morning, he wouldn’t belong in black cabin anymore…

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

So, the event I had on Friday took much longer than I had originally anticipated. Basically, my whole day was blacked out as far as writing went. Then, the next day would have seen this chapter released… except I hated about 60% of what I had written. It worked, but it wasn’t what I was trying to convey with this chapter and even this story. Therefore, I had to go back to the drawing board and while I finished about 90% of it yesterday and could have posted then, I figured I might as well wait until today and get on my schedule of posting three times a week.

Basically, I want to enjoy this story and sometimes that means taking longer for certain chapters. Probably won’t happen too often, but when it does, just know that something better will be coming when I do eventually release the next chapter. Plus, the extra time gives some of you all out there a chance to catch up. I know for some stories that post quickly, I’ve end up severely behind and it takes forever to get caught back up.

For now, though… last but not least and as usual, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter of my story!

Chapter 5: A View Most Unexpected

We all knew what we were seeing… but denial was a tricky thing.

“No, no, no!” Eustace shouted out, backing away from us as if we had knives or guns pointed at him and this was about to be some purge or something. “Get back!” He grabbed one of the chairs and held it out in front of him as makeshift shield, and if need be, a weapon. “I’m warning you! Stay back!”

“Easy, Eustace,” Leo tried to calm him. “We just want to help you…”

“No! You’re lying! You’re going to turn me in,” he accused us all, probably fearing what would happen if we told Steven and that he would then be taken away to one the younger cabins right away. “I’ve seen it before! Someone turns me in and the next day… bam! I’m gone and stuck with preschoolers!”

“We just want to help,” Brian tried to double down.

But Eustace wasn’t having it.

So, with our help being rejected from the start, we looked to the typically quiet and reserved Uriah… now our immediate fountain of knowledge it would seem, considering our previous primary was now the subject himself and having a mental breakdown in the corner, muttering and shaking at the moment for us to stay back and of self-denial and curses that he wouldn’t go quietly.

“So, Uriah… you’ve been here the longest and you seemed to know what was happening before. Uh… what can you tell us about what’s happening with…” Perry looked over to Eustace, “…him?”

Uriah sighed. “Well, I don’t have the exact numbers or clinical definitions… those will be in his binder, but I can tell you from what I’ve seen before when this happened here.”

“Personal experience?” Jason asked skeptically, complete with an arched eyebrow. “Does that mean you…?” He glanced up and down at the 20-something year old for signs that he had been a fast and dangerous regression sometime in the past.

Uriah shook his head. “No, no. Not me… the nearly original members of this cabin.”

“I thought that was us?” Perry had prided himself on his longevity here and considering that only a little over a month had passed since Orange Day, his multi-week tenure here seemed assured.

But Uriah shook his head again. “No… a week before you all got here. It was just a week after Orange Day. My coworkers and I were coming here for a corporate retreat anyways. We all thought it would be cancelled, but the staff here then relabeled this as a sanctuary from all the chaos of the cities. Seeing that was where the bombs had gone off to disperse the mist, it seemed reasonable that the woods and countryside would be a reprieve from all that.”

“And was it?” I only knew what had happened in the cities from the multiple sources of news coverage. Each was more harrowing than the next and every onlooker in the days that followed Orange Day was horrified to see what was unfolding on their TV screens. Personally, the big shot CEOs regressed to preschoolers was practically delicious… but the mothers now spiraling before puberty or the grandfathers who seemed more interested in choo-choo trains hurt me deep.

“It was,” Uriah confirmed. “When I got here, I was about 65. I was only 72 the week before. One of my interns was already a teenager. So, coming out here to stargaze and canoe and tell stories around a campfire… I felt youthful again, only in the best of ways. My teeth grew back… a persistent wrinkle between my eyebrows started to fade… my hair grew thicker. It felt like a miracle…”

“But that didn’t last…” Dwayne had been quiet for most of the conversation, but he now looked back to Uriah with an unflinching and hardened gaze. “…did it?”

“No… it didn’t…” I could hear the sorrow in Uriah’s words while Dwayne got up from his spot.

I might not have pushed Uriah otherwise, giving him the space to process his own grief over something that clearly had left a mark on our now mostly reserved cabinmate, but the incessant moans and rocking back and forth from Eustace in the corner of the cabin pushed me otherwise. “What happened next?”

Uriah grimaced. “Yancy was first. We weren’t even sure what was happening until one of the leaders at Havenswood asked him to come inside out of the heat. They were an old grandmother, and in retrospect, I think they had started to see him as her grandchild. She didn’t want him working out in the fields… especially not a then 12-year-old. We didn’t notice because that morning, he was 30 and our eyes were half blind from sweat and the sun by then…”

He audibly sighed. “Two days later, six more from the group got hit. This cabin was full when we came. Two days before you all arrived, it was just me and Julio.” He blinked back tears. “I held him all through the night. By morning… he didn’t recognize me anymore. Steven transferred him to the yellow cabin by breakfast…”

“Jesus…” The silence of the room was deafening otherwise but the sentiment from Perry was clearly equally felt by the rest of us. 16 bunks here and in less than 2 weeks, even 60-year-olds had been reduced to little more than children.

“Yes… that strain would have been seen as a miracle before all this. Relive your youth so carefreely, but I know the truth now,” he leaned over to look at Eustace, “and by morning from the looks of it… so will all of you.”

“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Brian asked as if Uriah had all the secrets in the world and for some strange reason that he had just decided not to use them on himself or anyone else in the weeks since all that had happened. Brian had hope… even if it was false.

To everyone’s momentary surprise, Uriah nodded his head. “There is. Not about the virus though…”

Everyone’s looks faded into sorrow and even slight confusion.

“But just because we can’t stop the virus, doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it…” He gestured to a far cabin wall, one where dozens of pictures had been posted of both past and current black cabin members. Eerily, some people had been included in multiple shots… each one where they looked more youthful for a while… before disappearing in subsequent shots of their group. Spying one of Eustace, his regression now seemed so obvious.

“For me, it’s just a warning…” Uriah continued with a deep and weary expression nearly embedded in face. “Be thankful for the years, however young they may be, when you experience them. And in the end, wish that your years fade slowly. It can be painful, but you get to experience each and enjoy the positives that come with them fully. Now,” he looked back over at Brian, “he will only experience each year in mental anguish instead of playing ball out on the field or roasting hotdogs and s’mores.”

Apart from Eustace’s panicked muttering, there was silence in the cabin.

“So, then nothing can be done?” Leo finally asked, previously quietly sequestering himself off to one side and leaning up against one of the posts of a nearby bunk.

“Oh… I wouldn’t say that…” Steven noted, the door only momentarily creaking beforehand as he stepped inside.

“Steven?” Jason questioned. “What are you doing here?”

Before Steven responded, we all spotted Dwayne right behind him. “I was informed we my have a new strain in the cabin. Being head of black cabin, I needed to see for myself.” He then proceeded to barrel right through us and to Eustace in the corner and check out and quietly whisper to him.

Dwayne stepped behind him and everyone else in the cabin stared with vile daggers in his direction.

Steven then patted Eustace’s shoulder and stood back up to face the rest of us. “Yes… he has the fast and dangerous strain. But at this juncture, we really can only wait it out. So, I ask that one of you stay up and watch him. He could be a danger to himself, and we cannot let that happen.” He paused and stepped forward. “So… which of you will take this task?”

No one responded… until Jason stepped forward. “We’ll take shifts. One hour each and…”

“I’m not doing that!” Dwayne protested. “He’s a goner and a loser for all I’m concerned. I need my sleep! Better he mourns in silence and away from us.”

About half of the cabin practically hissed at him, while the other half seemed more contemplative of their own fates.

“I see…” There was a smidge of disappointment laced within Steven’s words. “Anyone else not wish to participate in this?”

Perry and Brian both raised their hands.

“I’m not catching whatever he’s got!” Perry said with disgust. “And dealing with a sticky preschooler by morning? No thank you!”

Brian didn’t say anything, but instead of revulsion toward Eustace’s condition, I only saw fear.

“I will take the first shift,” Leo volunteered. “Who will be next?”

Ten minutes later, satisfied with the plan, Steven was gone. I volunteered for the next shift and decided to stay up with Leo until it was my turn. Everyone else drifted onto sleep.

I draped a blanket over Eustace’s shoulders and he momentarily seemed pleased… before delving straight back into self-pity and wallowing in his current fate.

“I wish there was something more we could do…” I lamented a little later, sitting next to Leo and drinking a cup of tea.

“Yes,” Leo agreed. “But I was reading his book…” He pressed down one of the pages in the book that Eustace was always reading regarding the ARV. “Says here that in most cases, the fast and dangerous strain often overwhelms the patient’s mind. It creates an almost schizophrenic state due to the misfiring synapses in their brain.”

“And that’s it?” I was hoping the book would be more useful than that.

“Well… not exactly…” he winced.

I sensed Leo’s hesitation right away, something I never really saw in my former boss before all this had started. Mostly though, I just added it to the category of viewing him like all the rest of the changes… like his darkened blonde hair, or his unwrinkled skin, or his extra energy during the day. “Tell me…”

“It’s a footnote attached to the word ‘most.’” Leo’s eyes dropped down the page. “It says, ‘Patients who are cuddled by loved ones or can find something to ground them can potentially break through this clouded state as they regress. This has only been observed and not quantified but seems a potential source of future study…’”

We said little after that.

In the end, even when it was solely my turn, I could only comfort my friend, trying other ways to ground him and keep him from expressing so much sorrow. Curiously, I found that only staying by his side and rubbing his back seemed to dull his cries. His arm hair fading, I felt its slight brush of a tickle fade toward the end of my shift as he soon clung to my scrunched-up knee on the floor. For a moment, he stopped mourning and opened his eyes, his exhaustion apparently not being a factor despite our long day at camp. I might have asked what he was doing, but when I caught him checking his reflection in the mirror, I realized what was happening myself.

If he went to bed now, he would wake up beyond the age he was seeing as he examined himself. Each age he reflected back in the mirror was the last time he would see himself this way… at least for many years when natural aging caught up with him.

If it did… and that was probably one of the scariest notions for most ARs.

Sure, people like Dwayne, and even to some extent Leo and Jason, were depressed by their loss of status and power in life. Big shot CEOs or bank managers were reduced to school-age children or tots. It was a torturous existence to be brought so low and most like that tended to act out violently whenever reminded.

I didn’t envy the counselors in the other cabins if it came to that for them.

But for the rest of us, we still weren’t sure if there was such a thing as aging back once we finally bounced. So far, most that had bounced had been sequestered away from the public’s eye, and if young enough to truly show a difference, most passed them off in public as the children or babies they had become. Add in a touch of a desire of privacy and findings on re-aging were sparse. So, as we regressed, it was hard to know if we would ever see ourselves as these ages again…

And it seemed doubly the case for Eustance now.

As such, I wanted to help him so badly, but a tiny clock beeped in the corner, and I rustled Jason awake for his shift next. I explained a few things, but he automatically went to the floor and held Eustace tight.

Drifting off into bed, the blinds still closed for my own sake near my bed, I could only shut my eyes and hope that the morning would be better.

*              *              *

Needless to say, even beyond my shift and then later with my second, it was a rough night. Like a platoon on patrol, each of us took turns staying up with Eustace after that to some degree of success or not. Despite him regressing at the same rate, he seemed more distressed with some in the cabin than others and my sleep was interrupted several times. I wanted to be upset, but I just plugged my ears and hoped the next shift would be better.

So, by the time morning cracked beyond our windows, I opened my eyes and immediately looked for my friend. The bookworm and the fact checker and knower of pretty much everything to do with ARV was regressing, and I wanted to see how bad the damage was now. Even from my shift, I saw him shoot straight through puberty and later, maybe eight or nine. It was disturbing to see all that in-person and even the pencil-thin mustache that had once graced his upper lip at the start of my shift… was no longer there by the end. Or see baby fat begin to return in globs around his cheeks.

So, as I turned to find him in the morning… I saw Uriah over by our little black stove near the back wall. In front of him, barely older than four years old and sitting on his lap, was a very still Eustace.

Sighing and bracing for the worst, I got out of bed and made my way over. “Heya… how’s…?”

“Shh!” Uriah quieted me before gesturing down to the sleeping form that had fallen asleep in the crook of his shoulder. “He freaked out about forty-five minutes ago… tired him out completely. I think all this just finally hit him when he dropped below elementary school age. Plus, the process takes a lot out on them. I was reading his book on this since he passed out… and if the same metabolic and internal processes occurred with a 60-year-old, they probably would die of a heart attack.”

“Small miracle it regressed him then…” I admitted much to my chagrin. “But is he… you know?” I gestured to my head. “Still there?”

Uriah sighed. “I think so… Brian got up early and eventually took a shift with him it turns out. Before he left to go on a walk, he mentioned that Eustace had been asking for his dad at one point. But… I know both his parents died about a decade ago now.” He grimaced. “Sucks when you used to be a senior citizen…”

I didn’t know that feeling completely. Yes, I had already lost my parents, but before Orange Day, I was only in my mid-40s. It was still surreal to see the same face looking back at me in the mirror that I once saw when I was in college, but for me, I was just pleased my hair had grown thicker and filled in the sand traps around my temples, my subtle gray was almost totally gone, and both my muscles and smooth and near-blemish-free skin had returned with a fury in the past week.

For those older, I could scarcely believe what they thought about seeing the face again of someone they hadn’t seen even in the same century.

“I wonder if he still remembers us…” I mused. Despite being in his life for over a week now and forming a strong bond due to our mutual regressions, if he was asking about a parental of all people who had died more than ten years ago… all bets were off.

Uriah shrugged lightly, taking extra care not to wake Eustace. “I don’t know… we could be a recent memory though… short-term stuff could be better off than long-term.” He paused and gestured to the book again. “Says that we could be recontextualized. Like a wife in a case study became a mommy to their husband AR once they hit four years old. I think he’s about the same… so we’ll see.”

“Damn…” I couldn’t imagine the terror and the agony both had to feel. One so lost and the other so hurt over the change in their relationship. ‘Would it be better to be witness to everything and keep your mind, or be ignorant of it all because you are losing your mind?’

But either way, I guessed I would know soon as Eustace began to stir.

“Hey there, buddy… you okay?” I asked tentatively.

Eustace’s eyes fluttered open slowly and strained against the light streaming in from the nearby windows. Despite the forest surrounding the camp and its inherent thick canopy obscuring most light within, the camp itself was pleasantly open and sunny most days.

Once he gained focus though, his look quickly became terrified. “Wh… who are you?” Almost as if on instinct, he curled into Uriah and gazed up at him. “Wh… who’s that?”

Uriah sighed, likely understanding that Eustace’s mind had slipped. It was clear from Uriah’s glance toward Eustace’s ARV book nearby that he was curious just how much. “He’s a friend, but… do you know who I am?”

Eustace strained while sitting on Uriah’s lap and squinted hard back up at him. “Uh… my older brother, right?”

Now awake and observing us keenly, the whole cabin went silent.

But after a moment, Eustace shook his head. “No, no, no…” He then examined his hands and flexed them a few times. “I… I’m Eustace and I’m… oh! Why can’t I remember how old I am?”

“It’s okay, but… do you maybe have a guess?” Leo asked, stepping up from his bunk. “Even it’s just on your fingers?”

Eustace grimaced but shook his head. “No… I just… I know I’m not supposed to be this young and you all are…” He paused and waved his hands around before hopping off Uriah’s lap. From his wobbly nature, his new body required some adjustment with. “It’s like it’s on the tip of my tongue. And… Uriah’s not my brother. I don’t know why I said that…”

“You’re slipping, I think,” Perry noted directly, standing up and taking the ARV book with him. “Says here that slipping can bounce back and forth… especially with fast regressions.”

A light seemingly went off in his head. “That’s right. I… I don’t know why I didn’t remember that only a second ago. My head just feels so… fuzzy. But…” His expression faltered when he looked around the room and then down at his feet before looking back at us. “I’m not even sure I want to know, but… how tall am I? How old do I look?”

It was clear that no one wanted to answer that question.

Already, it was bizarre hearing such a high-pitched squeaky voice come from the body of a person who was once our peer only 24 hours ago. Eustace was also one of the, if not the smartest in our group. To see him struggle with such basic concepts and for that to be considered an improvement was disheartening to say the least.

In a second, Eustace had become the stabbing fear in each of our hearts… the warning of why we were here. Not for campfires or canoes or observing birds… but because we were all regressing.

Just as Jason stepped forward though, the front cabin door burst open. “Morning campers! Did we all make it through the night?” Steven questioned in a clear attempt to add a small amount of levity to our time here. If it worked, no one around me showed it.

Not receiving any response more than some tepid nods or groans, Steven briefly rolled his eyes and pushed through us to the end of the cabin, his eyes scanning each of us as if he were looking for a single object.

When he stopped in front of Eustace, or what remained of who we once thought of as Eustace, it was perfectly clear. “Oh, wow. Guess we were all right when we reclassified your strain as the fast variety, huh?” He put on a smile for his cabin member with sudden ARV.

It was not returned.

“Well, in any event…” He pulled out a tablet and began to check off various boxes. “Yes… I think… yes.” He put the tablet away and went straight over to Eustace before holding his hand out. “Come with me, Eustace. It’s okay, you can trust me. We just need to… we need to check with Mrs. Galen about your… condition.”

Eustace reached out his hand without hesitation, like it was more of an automatic response pushing through the motions. It was almost a strange sight. He looked every ounce willing to fight Steven off and tell him ‘no’ or something much more adult, but every time the opportunity came between a few questions that Steven would ask him… Eustace complied every time.

After a minute or two, Steven calmly led Eustace out the front door, again, no signs of distrust or rejection in either of them as if this was something perfectly normal and happened every day. He then paused right as the screen door to the front was about to close. “I’ll only be a few minutes. When I return… I expect all of you to be ready to go for breakfast… understand?”

“Understood…” Our tone this morning was somber, and based on my emotions right then, probably confused, horrified, and contemplative of our own positions here. For Uriah, Jason, and Perry, it was still a burden, but it looked more like something they had learned to cope with before. A hardship but part of life here. For my coworkers and I… shock or revulsion seemed to hold the most sway.

Looking back as the others started to unfold and get ready for breakfast as commanded, I saw Eustace being guided away by Steven. The last thing I heard was simple and telling of his new position within the camp. “We’re going to see Mrs. Galen… the nurse… so, will I need a shot?” It was a question more based on fear than curiosity… like a little kid that was now afraid of needles.

Despite Steven being perhaps too loyal to Camp Commune, naïve about certain aspects regarding his role here and our futures, and his strict general adherence to the rules, he and the camp weren’t stupid. It turned out that camp policy dictated that whenever a black or purple cabin experienced a sudden regression, those who wished would receive a spontaneous trip away.

Despite being worried about Eustace, most of our group eagerly signed up.

“You know… I was thinking this would mean we’d be going back to the city…” Dwayne complained a a couple of hours into the hike, sweat beading off his forehead.

“Yeah right,” Perry scoffed. “You really think they would let us get on a bus that comes only a few times a week to go into the dangerous city? These people?”

“And besides… have you looked in the mirror lately, Dwayne?” Leo questioned his friend and former coworker. “I know you just want a pint of whatever’s on tap at the… what was the name of the place again you liked so much? The Blue Lighthouse?”

Dwayne was fuming at the implication already. “The Red Lantern…” he corrected, “off South Street…”

Leo snapped his fingers. “That’s the one! Pretty great beers on tap…” His face became flushed with the fond memories of the past and he sighed. “But seriously… you look barely old enough to drink anymore.”

“I heard most places are allowing confirmed ARs to drink… even teenagers…” I commented, trying to inject a little hope into the group, even if we couldn’t currently do anything about it.

“Hardly. My friend wrote me last week… most locals around here are denying us outright,” Jason informed the group. “Maybe some up north… but not around here…”

“Well… shit on all this!” Dwayne cursed, kicking a rock down the mountainside.

“Hey you all! Language…” Steven reminded us from in front of the group.

Dwayne only fumed back and grumbled under his breath. For weeks now, his previously bitter attitude had only grown increasingly sour. With his pleasantries in life being robbed, hating camping and the outdoors in general… it was only bound to happen soon or later. Considering that all of us appeared to be in our early 20s now… I worried deeply about our future together.

But I instead focused on what was ahead of us while trying to keep my boots cemented on the rocky trail meandering around the mountain to its peak.

Likely betting or knowing what a ‘trip’ would entail for us, both Brian and Uriah had opted to stay back. It was B Day… which meant crafting, computer studies, and aquatics. Uriah liked swimming and Brian had found a computer game from about 20 years ago that he enjoyed… plus the free AC inside.

I wanted to join them, liking B Days as well, but I also knew that in two days, we would be right back to the same schedule. Out here beyond camp felt like something that rarely occurred in camp.

As the trees thinned out and more rocks and a smattering of mud made the path in front of me, I was silently relieved I had chosen what I did. While the others groaned or grimaced under the hot sun and the aches in their joints, as opposed to the AC or water that Uriah and Brian were now enjoying, I was taking in the splendor and the beauty all around me.

With the camp and commune tucked away between two mountain ranges, Steven had elected for us to go up Mount Whitecap. Apparently having been named during the winter months when settlers first arrived here, not a patch of snow or ice lay in front of us. Instead, it was miles of untrimmed backcountry forests pocked with sporadic green patches of meadows. As we passed into another one of those said areas, I glided my fingers out to some high grass and watched as two small white butterflies flittered away.

“Are we almost there?” Dwayne asked from the rear, panting and sweating like a hog in heat from our three-mile trek up the mountainside.

“Almost there!” Steven called out from the front.

From the grumbles and muttered curses, I knew that his answer wasn’t good enough. Having looked at the map beforehand and just about twenty minutes ago, I pointed to the crest of the hill we were currently climbing. “That nob there… that’s it,” I clarified.

“That?” Leo questioned. “That’s where we’re going?”

I nodded. “Doesn’t look like much… but apparently, you can see for miles around. Maybe even our city to the east of here…”

Form his cursed mutterings, I sensed even my answer wasn’t good enough for the likes of Dwayne, but from the contented sighs, the rest seemed at least relieved that we were almost there.

And sure enough, within five minutes, Steven shed his backpack to the ground near a single metal sign marking the top-most point. “Made it!”

Like an echo, several happy and pained sighs erupted from the group behind me as their day packs also dropped to the dusty floor at our boots. Not fully made for strenuous hiking, I could already feel a blister or two forming on one of my toes. ‘At least ARV pretty much heals most things like that within a day or two…’

It was one of the few bonuses of regressing as fast as we were.

“There’s at least two rocks in my right shoe!” Dwayne complained. “And my sides are killing me, and I need water and it’s too damned hot! What about this makes it a good time away from all that nonsense back at camp?”

Steven glared back at him and pulled him away to give him a good talking-down to. He had yet to truly punish any of us, but I also knew that Dwayne was getting close to hitting his limit recently. Steven was calm to a fault and to lenient with him… but I could see the tension building.

Sighing, I stood and stretched before pointing down to a singular spot that Ms. Peachey had recommended I look out for this morning before we left. “Look! There’s the camp all the way down there!”

While Perry massaged his feet still and Dwayne was still being scolded, Leo and Jason got up and looked where I was pointing with gob smacked faces.

There, miles of trail back, was our little camp.

Not being little at all, it was impressive to see the expansive camp and the Havenswood plots so tiny from up here, the fields we had worked being the largest landmark anyone could see without squinting. The meadows and the open grounds lay stretched out finely in the valley between the two ranges almost encircling it. To the west lay a river that led into the lake where we swam and rowed our boats while to the east, I could easily spot the immense Claw Forest we had passed through.

Thick and seemingly impenetrable, it was obvious just how much the trees had spread over the many years they had existed for. To pass beyond it, especially with them spilling out on their eastern-most edge beyond the foot of the mountains there, I quickly spotted that one would need to climb up at least halfway with what we just did and then essentially hug the side of the mountains over there until the end to go around… or push on through the dense forest. If a camper ever did decide to escape, it wouldn’t be easy.

“And that’s the road we came in on, right?” Leo questioned.

I nodded after pulling the map that Steven had brought with him from his pack nearby. “Yep. And look…” I pointed just beyond Claw Forest. “You can see where that small toothpick-sized road turns in 72 west… and then…” I stopped and just barely made out in the distance; I saw it. “Home…”

“That’s it?” Jason queried next, seeing the cluster of distant buildings near the horizon. “It’s… it’s so far. I thought… I thought we were closer…”

I shook my head. “No. We’re at about 4000 feet above sea level. Usually means you can see about 70 miles away, and I think the city is about 60… maybe 65 miles from here.”

“That’s a long way to go…” Leo murmured.

“Go?” I frowned. “Leo… what do you mean by tha…?”

“Enjoying the view?” Steven jumped in, his conversation with Dwayne now apparently over. “Never gets old, huh? I remember the first time I saw it. I was…”

Steven rambled for a little bit after that.

I was a huge fan of nature, but that man… he could ruin anything at the wrong time…

So, instead, I looked at the pouting Dwayne or down at the camp. Even the main building and dining hall were mere specks from up here. But Havenswood… I got a good look at its enormity for the first time.

Originally, I thought it was a backwoods community. Now, seeing it from here in comparison to just about anything else, I then realized that there must have been a part of the populace that didn’t come to camp on dining and bonfire days. I even saw that there was a part that functioned like any other town… even dwarfing the decently sized ones we had passed coming to camp.

Moments later, breaking my concentration on the view, Steven checked his watch. “Okay… five more minutes and then we need to head back…” There was an odd catch in his voice I immediately caught.

While the others stretched or threw rocks trying to hit random targets, I wandered over to Steven. “Uh… is there a rush or something?”

Steven’s glance shot back at me like he was some kid that had just been caught with his proverbial hand in the cookie jar. “No, no!” His voice cracked slightly. “I just… never good to be coming off a mountain at night is all… don’t want to slip on a rock or something because you can’t see it!”

I knew he was right… but it felt like there was more to this as well. “Yeah, but… is there something more?” I decided to make a joke about it. “You’re not afraid of those monsters in those stories, right?”

Steven nearly fumbled the compass he had brought along with us and looked at me with wide and terrified eyes. “What? Why would you say something like that? I just… I…” He shook his head. “I just want to get off the mountain and get a decent meal in all of us before the bonfire tonight while keeping you all safe.”

I honestly had completely forgotten about the bonfire tonight, but my mind was still on the sudden urgency Steven exhibited. I was even about to ask him another question… but apparently five minutes to him up here meant more like three.

“Okay!” he said suddenly. “Time to go!”

Several of my cabinmates looked at him in confusion and then down to their wrists… and their non-existent watches there. Apparently, the camp believed in the only time that needed to be told was when to move from one activity to the next. In our whole group, only Steven held a watch.

I had never really noticed it before then…

The next parts of the trek repeated the same as we had traversed coming up the mountains. This way and that, we used the blazes and sidewinders and tried to keep our feet from slipping down some of the steeper slopes. The rocks and dust soon gave way back toward the forest… which is where I then noticed Steven more acutely.

Acting as his number two of sorts of the group with my glowing recommendation from Ms. Peachey and my love of nature and prior camping experience, I helped with the map and navigation more than a few times coming up. But coming down, Steven looked more like a man on a mission… a panicked one at that.

Each snap of a twig or rustle from the bushes beyond seemed to nip at his heart. He would jerk left and right, and on more than one occasion, I swore he lifted off the ground when something as small as a squirrel would dart in front of his path. It was entirely strange, but each of his frightened responses just reminded me back to his dodged questions at the peak of the mountain. I trusted him to give me a straight answer about a monster… and he had only given me a half-truth it seemed.

Now, as we ventured into the woods, I almost felt as if he was worried that we were being followed as his head kept turning around. Not to look at us, but to see what was behind us.

I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but each time I drew a deep breath in to expel a question, he would race ahead further. By the time we hit the first sign point to ‘Camp Commune,’ Dwayne almost couldn’t be seen through the thicket any longer and I had to plead with Steven to slow down.

“Can’t slow… can’t slow…” he breathed like a giant mouse in a cage actively avoiding a hungry cat.

“Maybe we should light up one of the flashlights,” Jason offered, “or…?”

“No, no!” Steven was panicking fully now and yet trying to hide it… and doing poorly. “No lights. Just gotta keep moving. It’s getting dark and we… we just need to keep moving…”

“Steven…” I began to question, “is there something out here we should know abou…?”

“Come on!” He gestured over to his shoulder just as Dwayne popped back into view, panting heavily from a clear lack of further energy… but Steven just pushed onward.

“What a loon…” Dwayne cursed, trying to breathe deeply but utterly failing.

“He’s worried about something,” Leo mused. “That’s for sure… but what?”

“Maybe it’s the Ghoulmoth?” Perry offered.

“What?” I wondered why he would bring something like that up at a time like this. ‘Does he know about what I saw and why I’ve been closing the blinds?’

“Oh… from the stories we’ve heard now,” he continued. “You know… the thing is attracted to lights from campers in the dark. Maybe if we light one… it will come and get us!” In a second, I knew he was just joking and being his usual sarcastic self. It didn’t help in these matters, but he raised a possible good point… if not a fictitious one.

‘Just a stupid story…’ I rolled my eyes and was about to strike back with my own cutting words.

“Come on!” Steven beckoned again, effectively silencing us as we conserved our air to dart faster down the mountain.

After, we didn’t stop until we were firmly back in our cabin.

All through dinner and even into the bonfire, Steven seemed to have a hard time relaxing. I noticed a judgmental and almost reprimanding look from Mrs. Claw at both events. Each time she flashed a glance, Steven would shirk lower into his bench, like he had done something wrong.

I wasn’t sure what, but it was something that continued to tickle the back of my mind… even when they were talking about the wendigo tonight ripping apart one of the original settlers in this are one hot summer night, leaving behind only a blood trail and the gnawed end of a femur bone at the mouth of a cave.

Heading back toward the cabin, most of us were purely guided by Steven holding his own lantern in front of him and just focusing on the single lantern that hung above the doorway. The others from the cabins shone just as bright and everything was just as usual… but Steven practically ran away as soon as we opened the door. “Night!”

A few of us blinked back at him.

“So weird…” Brian noted, having joined us at dinner.

“He’s been like that all day,” I confirmed, entering the cabin after a few of the others once we watched Steven disappear into the night. “I swear that guy thinks the Ghoulmoth and the wendigo and all the others are real out there.”

Brian shifted nervously behind me as I looked back to ensure he would take the screen door from me and not get hit by it.

Despite whatever I had seen with the two red dots, I still was shocked by his reaction. “Wait… you don’t believe in it… right?”

Brian shook his head. “No… I just… this place is weird.”

I felt it wouldn’t harm me if I agreed with him. Perry or Dwayne, yes… but not Brian. He was the biggest scaredy cat of us all… so admitting something small was a tiny price to pay for his continued friendship. “Yeah… I’ll give you that one. At least this cabin never chang…”

I stopped mid-sentence as I looked back inside.

Looking around, the cabin seemed normal except one glaring difference. With the room modified to fit the eight of us, each bed was taken, and half the cubbies were taken. Our names were boldly printed on both spots there to mark our spot in the cabin. It was a sign that we were still here… that our virus hadn’t consumed our adulthood yet.

But one was now missing.

‘Leo, Dwayne, Brian, Miles, Uriah, Jason, Perry…’ Seven names… one missing: Eustace. His bed was empty and his nicknacks that he had acquired here… all gone. Nothing was left in his bed or his cabinet. Aside from the wall housing all the pictures of us, it was as if he was never here.

“He’s… he’s gone…” I finally said, walking slowly into the cabin and trying to wrap my head around someone being here one minute and purely gone the next. Even before dinner, his stuff was still here.

“What did you expect?” Dwayne asked coldly. “A huge announcement he was leaving us?”

“Maybe a baby shower…” Perry joked.

Jason shot him a hated look before turning back to me with a softer one. “These things happen, Miles.” He then walked over and patted me on the shoulder. “It doesn’t feel great, but this is the way of the camp. One day, all of us might leave here the same way. Maybe less abrupt, but our things will be out just as fast…” He gave me a knowing smirk and retreated back to his bunk.

He was right of course, but I was still struggling with the concept. “Yeah. Just… is that all there is?”

Several of my cabinmates sighed and nodded, but Uriah spoke directly to me. “Sometimes, yes. But sometimes… there’s even less to remember them by…” His hand hovered over a single photo on our board of pictures. Showing off everyone who had been here before, being the most recent, ours were the most prominent. But each other member I didn’t recognize was another strike for me slowly starting to see this camp as anything other than the paradise I thought it was originally.

Uriah’s hand though, lingered over a single image of a toothy redhead kid… the only one I could find of him. Even more damning, an older Uriah seemed close to the kid as he had his arm wrapped over his shoulder like it was his best friend.

Before I could ask more about who it was, Perry came up behind me. “And who knows, Miles… maybe you’re next?”

I could have slugged him right there if he hadn’t dodged out of my reach quickly. Instead, I just frowned, but then I saw a few looks back at me… like it was more than just another of his stupid offhand comments… something more than sarcasm. A truth no one wanted to say out loud.

Searching for answers, I found one with the person I guessed wouldn’t sugarcoat things.

Dwayne was cruel and uncompromising and a real jerk lately. His grumpiness was evolving into bullying and divvying out cutting remarks to anyone younger than him. More than once, a counselor had called him out on it. Now, however… he only smirked at me and rubbed his cheek knowingly.

Taking the hint, I ran towards the back and the single bathroom there and looked right in the mirror.

Sure enough, I saw it as plain as day. And for most people, it wouldn’t be the worst thing ever. I had started shaving around sixth or seventh grade, but it took until college before I could grow any amount of facial hair over my cheeks. Now, staring back in the mirror was a plain-faced and smooth cheek.

And I hadn’t shaved today… or yesterday.

Around my upper lip and chin, I still spotted stubble… but not around my cheeks. For me, seeing that so plainly, was a marker of my continued tumble back down through my years. Owing that I my hair had come in college, I could only estimate my age… and it was nearing 18 years old… the cut-off for this cabin.

Seeing me come out of the bathroom, Uriah looked at me, his expression plainly obvious.

And I had known before that each of us would regress out of this place. It was common for most ARs to slip below 18, but I was hoping I would have more time here… be on top of the pyramid for maybe another week. Now though, with my lack of hair on my cheeks, the next phase seemed to be coming to play in my life much more quickly than I cared to admit.

The look I had seen from everyone else and now from Uriah confirmed my fears. Soon, we would all be just as absent from this cabin as Eustace now was.

But maybe… I would be next.

[LostBBoyBear]

Greetings everyone,

While I was hoping to post another chapter today, I'm afraid I need to announce that this story is going to be paused until next Monday. 

I just got some pretty bad news today and while this next chapter is progressing nicely and there are some other elements that I think everyone will like coming up soon, I don't think I can give it my full attention anymore after trying and failing to push any further today. I need to sort out a few things, and by next Monday, hopefully things will be better adjusted by then. I'm also hoping this will give others a chance to catch up with this story and read what I have posted so far. This will push the timeline, and I hate to do that, but I think it will be for the best at this point.

Hope to catch back up with you all next Monday. Sorry for the delay...

[Pierry Louys]

 Hope you feeling better ! Take your time 

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the delay and thank you for your patience and kindness in this. I’m still not out of the woods yet and that’s not great, but I managed to pump this chapter out after reflecting a little bit more on it. Another chapter, probably two though, will be put out this week. There might be a delay in later chapter this week, but it will be out.

If, however, more news comes on Thursday… things could be very different going forward. If it’s a worst-case scenario, then I will write when I can, but consistency will probably be the least of my concerns. It sucks but sometimes priorities dictate these things and the last thing I want is to slog this story out when I’m not in the right headspace. If it’s good news though, I might have a few bumps and delays here and there, but this story should continue pretty much as before. Whatever the case, I’ll be sure to let you all know when I post that later chapter sometime on Friday/Saturday.

Now… last but not least and as usual, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter of my story!

Chapter 6: A Change in Venue

It finally happened.

The thing we had all feared when discovering that cabins were split up by age, we knew our time in black cabin wouldn’t last forever… I just hoped that we would have had longer. But time was against us, and sure enough, Brian went first out of the cabin… followed the day after by Leo once they were believed to have both dropped below 18. The past three days, it was just Dwayne and I remaining in black cabin along with Perry, Jason, and Uriah.  

Despite there being few bodily differences between a 17- and 18-year-old, legal terms were still being drafted across the nation. It was causing a headache to most judges and attorneys, but until they could come up with a new legal definition of adulthood when it came to ARs at least, most places played it safe and drew a line in the sand… no matter if ARs were once in their 60s or not.

So, here at Camp Commune, that line was the divider between the black and purple cabins.

It was the first bump in our trajectory downward. With relaxed laws, it was just announced that 15-year-olds could still drink in most cities and about half still allowed those in their teens. I briefly saw Dwayne seethe with anger when he heard that the other day.

But here at camp, that law might as well have been a thousand miles away. Here, the first change any of us would experience would be slipping under 18. According to Steven, the dividing line was there because it would mean different protections for the AR and for the society around them. To them, it meant forced schooling and potentially losing the right to vote… at least until the government could determine a new law for that one.

All that was weighing on me each time I checked the mirror or pretty much did anything around camp the past few days. I missed seeing Brian and Leo, but I wasn’t in any rush to see them too soon. But as I looked in the mirror and felt my limbs grow stronger and more flexible than they had in years, I knew my time was up soon.

So, as I made my way to Mrs. Galen… again, I began to dread what her results would show today. Last week, I was 18. Today… I could only wince as I entered her office.

“Just tell me already…” I pleaded later as she viewed the results from my latest blood test and my fresh round of measurements. “Don’t sugarcoat it…”

She sighed and looked back up at me with sympathy, and I just knew in my heart what the news was already. “I’m sorry, Miles. From everything I can tell here… photos and records from your previous medical check-ups, I can’t justifiably corroborate that you’re still above 18.” She paused and stepped closer to me. “You understand what that means, right?”

I nodded grimly. “I’ve seen it happen twice before with the guys I came in with… I know what happens next.” Despite all it meant and the loss that was sure to come, ever since Perry and Dwayne poked fun at me the other day about my thinning facial hair, I had been mentally preparing myself for this moment. It sucked… but I knew there wasn’t a thing I could do about it once Mrs. Galen made her recommendation to Mrs. Claw and Steven.

But I hated waiting for the other shoe to drop as she scanned her records again and inputted the results into the camp computer file system. “So… do I leave now or…?”

She looked at me and shook her head. “No. We’re dealing with a bunch of new arrivals today and half the day is already gone. You just sit tight in black cabin for now. Tomorrow morning though… I’ll alert the purple cabin’s counselor, Mr. Nancy, to bring you over. Sound good?”

It did not.

I knew those words were coming as I had seen them before directly with both Leo and Brian, but now they were for me. I was dropping down a cabin level, and if to seal the difference already, my new counselor wasn’t Ichabod… he was Mr. Nancy. He wasn’t a peer… he was to be viewed as an older mentor to me now. Steven was in his mid-30s… possibly even younger than some of the new arrivals. But Mr. Nancy was definitely older than 18… not a peer by any standard.

After a curt nod from me and a few other questions from Mrs. Galen, I exited the nurse’s station and stopped in front of the main building. There, already, I could see the two bus loads of new campers exit calmly, each looking confident or like Dwayne had been when he got off when he first arrived, disgusted with their new surroundings.

But more importantly, beyond all that, they looked old.

I looked in the mirror each morning and saw my youthening face. Scars and wrinkles and gray hairs were all a thing of the past. I felt more alive than I had in years and could touch my toes without groaning now. My youth was being handed back to me on a silver platter, but seeing even 30-year-olds as older than me… I likely knew what everyone else thought of me now.

My mind might have been intact… but I no longer belonged in black cabin by any definition.

Not wishing to linger any longer with the new arrivals and our contrasts now, I made my back to my waiting cabinmates. On medical check-up days, held twice a week on one A Day and one B Day, work at Havenswood would be temporarily delayed. If any of the commune members there minded, they never showed it. In fact, most seemed more than accommodating. Normally, their cheery attitudes grinded on me, but today, it was as good as a distraction as I felt I would ever get.

Mostly because it meant that no one had a chance to ask me how my check-up went.

Not when Mr. Lehman tasked our group to mend a fence. Not when Emma brought us all some cool and refreshing lemonade. It didn’t even occur when we got back to our cabin and met the new arrivals or throughout dinner with the commune members.

It was only during the bonfire when I didn’t sing one of the songs that Uriah turned to me. “Okay, man… spill it,” he whispered to me with a knowing and intense look. “What did they tell you? I heard they’re figuring out how to know when you’ll bounce. Did you hear about that? Is that what’s eating you?”

I stared at the better friend I had made in the cabin. I almost wanted to lie… to go on pretending that everything was fine when it really wasn’t. In the hours since Mrs. Galen, I was just another black cabinmate. I was dealt in a hand of poker and not a single person poked at me for dropping down in my age. Despite my youthful appearance, and despite the contrast to the new arrivals who quickly filled the cabin to the brim, all beds currently taken now… I could have lied and kept that notion going.

But I couldn’t… not to Uriah.

So, I shook my head. “No… I…” I took a deep breath and decided to go for the plunge. “I’m moving out tomorrow. Mrs. Galen confirmed… purple cabin.”

His left cheek flinched for a moment as if his brain didn’t want to process yet another lost friend. Uriah endured and that meant he kept his maturity and his adult status… but it also meant he had to see everyone else shrink before his very eyes. By now, at least from the pictures I saw him occasionally looking at in the cabin, I knew there were at least five he thought about regularly.

“I’m so sorry, Miles…” he finally told me, his hand briefly patting me on the shoulder. “Do… do the others know yet?”

I shook my head. “No. I didn’t want to tell them. You saw what happened when Brian left. Dwayne couldn’t stop teasing him all the way to the door.”

“Yeah…” Uriah flinched a little at the memory. It was the final straw, and Steven had finally taken him away for his punishment. When they returned, neither said a word… just a meek apology from Dwayne to Brian before he left for good a minute later. “I remember that. Best idea to wait then…” He sighed. “Besides… maybe you’ll see one or two of us in the next few weeks. Besides the new arrivals, most of us are in our 20s. No one leaves here from black cabin…”

It was the grim reality of dividing up by ages. From news reports, we knew the new schools were divided more broadly. Adult, child, preschool, and baby, and even then… most of those categories were pretty loose and most who attended had to show signs of problems to be moved to the next category down. Between black and purple… it was purely age and nothing more.

And as I fell asleep that night, I could only swallow that bitter pill and await my fate come morning.

*              *              *

I loathed mornings, even before all this craziness entered my life and I came to camp, I was a perpetual night owl, and mornings always brought the dreaded sense of whatever was coming that day. Sure, there was the occasional respite that fueled my passions, but most mornings were far too bright and too early for my tastes.

But when I woke up the next morning, I was filled with a new dread I hadn’t felt before.

Life is typically all about moving forward. When you’re young, it’s one grade to the next. It’s pass or fail and you push forward through age categories and scouting ranks, and your knowledge grows and you get taller. Going backwards is always thought of as failure. And even when you become an adult, going backwards can happen… but again, it’s deemed as failure like divorce or a demotion at work. So, waking up and knowing that this morning I was going to be moving into purple cabin before breakfast, despite being riddled with ARV, I felt like I was the failure.

And having been informed last night when everyone got back to our cabin, the snide looks I got from people like Dwayne and Perry only added to that notion.

“Don’t look so glum, Miles,” Jason tried to comfort me, now being the defacto and essentially undisputed leader of black cabin once Leo had left a few days ago. “Maybe even have a little hope.”

I sighed. “I admire your enthusiasm… but I don’t think I can see it that way.”

“Understandable but try to look at it another way maybe… some people bounce in purple cabin,” he noted proudly. “I don’t think anyone with ARV stops at black. But purple? I’ve seen a few bounce there. Pretty common actually…”

I looked at Uriah, the other person whose knowledge and words I would actually trust, as opposed to Perry or Dwayne who would likely just tease or play a prank on me.

Fortunately, Uriah nodded. “He’s right. I think… Otto, was it?” He scratched his head. “Yeah, I think so. Few weeks ago, he was here and then dropped to purple. A week later, he was out and looking for an apartment back in the city… 16 I think?”

It was a momentary bloom of relief… at least until Steven came in.

His eyes scanned the room and landed on me before making his way over to my bunk. “Okay now… you ready to go?” He had asked the same of Leo and Brian before me. Eustace was too far regressed by the time Steven came around to transfer him.

I took my already packed pack of some of my added keepsakes since I had come here and nodded. “I… yeah… I am.”

He smiled and turned to the rest of the cabin. “Okay. I’ll be back in a jiffy… then it’s laundry. No dawdling for the rest of you, okay?”

“We got it, Steven,” Jason spoke for the group. “We’ll be ready…” He then turned to me. “Good luck, Miles. And again, don’t worry so much about what’s next, okay?”

I smiled. “Thanks… I’ll try.”

Perry waved from a distance on top of his bunk. “Just try not to wet the bed, okay?”

I could feel the heat blooming beneath my cheeks, but I said nothing. If I expected anything else from him, I was a fool.

In contrast, Uriah hopped down from his bunk and held out his hand for me to shake, which I promptly took. “Just keep your head up and take it one day at a time…” he said before pulling me in close.

I thought he was going for a hug.

Instead, he whispered in my ear. “What you saw your first night… don’t talk about it first. Let others talk about it. We aren’t the only ones who have seen things, but don’t paint a target on your back with the younger crowds…” he warned before patting me on the back as a cover and backing away from our embrace.

“Aww!” Dwayne mocked us before I could make another move. “The two are saying their final goodbyes. Maybe you two will end up in a playpen together!” he chuckled at his own unamusing joke.

Even the newbies that had freshly arrived yesterday didn’t so much as crack a smile

“Dwayne! Do you need another… lesson?” Steven shouted to him, his brow furrowing quickly… silencing the bully completely. He then sighed and turned to me. “Sorry about that, but… you ready now?”

I shouldered my pack, nodded to Uriah in acknowledgment of our friendship and his advice, and turned back to Steven. “Yes… let’s go.”

Purple cabin was just next door but for me, it might as well have been twelve miles away. Each step I took towards the door felt like a step towards my doom. Before purple, one could pass through decades at black cabin. ‘Over 18’ was the official designation for it, but for purple and all the rest, measurements were made in years instead of decades. Admittedly, purple cabin could be for someone 17 and three quarters, but the place could also house some scrawny and pimple-faced 13-year-old.

But I had no choice in the matter, so as Steven knocked on the door, I braced myself for what was to come.

The door opened with a creak, and immediately, I was assaulted by loud music. “Yeah?” a greasy-haired teen with a pencil thin mustache asked as they stuck their head out the door. “What do you want?”

I saw Steven grimace at his disheveled appearance. “Uh… is Ichabod here?” he asked, trying to look around the door and into the cabin.

“Oh… you mean Mr. Nancy?” the teen asked with a smirk before shaking his tousled dark hair. “Nah. He doesn’t come until right before breakfast.” The teen’s eyes then wandered over directly to me and his smirk grew back. “Oh, I see… newbie huh?”

Steven nodded before I could answer for myself. “That’s right and if I could just speak to…”

But the teen opened the door and barreled right for me and passed Steven without a word. “Hey… name’s Griff. And you?”

Already, the interactions between black cabin and purple cabin were seemingly obvious to me as I reached out my own hand. “Miles. And I guess I’m the newbie…”

“Oh… Miles! The one from black!” He smacked his forehead before pushing back his dark hair. “Leo and Brian’s friend… yeah. Come on in!” he beckoned quickly, his hand lazily waving me forward.

I immediately started to follow him.

Right as I entered the door though, Steven stopped me with a hand over my left arm. “Hold it right there! Now, I’m not leaving until I can speak to Mr. Nancy directly.”

Griff scowled back at him. “Let go… Steven. You want to do something about this… you take it up with Mr. Nancy later. You don’t have any rule over us here.” And a second later, Griff yanked my other arm inside. “Come on, Miles. Time to show you around…”

Seemingly shocked into a stupor, when I wrenched my arm away from Steven, he didn’t do anything about it. He just stood there, his mouth open… even as the front door slammed close on him.

But entering the cabin and moving on completely, I immediately spotted the differences between here and black.

While the bunks, the small stove at the far end, the rear tables and chairs and the stone and woodwork were the same, that’s where the differences ended. As I walked in, smells of sweat and Cheetos and something sugary assaulted my nose. Hand-colored pictures lined the walls, each showcasing a different band. It was clear one person had done them all but had crafted them in a way to reflect the occupant of the bunk closest to them. And unlike black cabin where the bunks were all to one side, here, the now 32 beds faced each other… eight bunks one side and eight on the other.

“Oh! Leo look!” I heard a familiar voice call out to me… only to be hugged seconds later by a shorter but still evident Brian. “He made it!”

Leo smirked as he strolled over. “Hey, Griff. Thanks for taking him in, but we can take him from here, and besides… Pearson left our group yesterday, remember? We have an opening?”

Griff stroked his chin where a few stray hairs poked out from. “Hmm… we’ll have to see what Mr. Ichabod wants… but I don’t have a problem with that.” He turned to me. “But do you have a problem with that? I know sometimes, old friends can be…”

I shook my head. “No, no. All good. Good to see familiar faces and all…”

Griff smiled. “Very well. I’ll leave you all to it but remember you all… breakfast in five. Don’t want to make Mr. Nancy angry already in the day. You know how he is…”

“Got it,” Leo acknowledged before Griff casually saluted us with two fingers and walked away.

“So!” Brian eagerly turned back towards me and then yanked me through the cabin before showing me an open top bunk. “Here! This one is open!”

I quickly tossed my stuff on top before looking at my uniform compared to Leo’s and Brian’s. “I guess I need a new uniform,” I noted, pointing to their now purple striping and pockets as opposed to my currently black ones.

“Oh… yeah… forgot about that…” Brian said glumly.

“Just check the cabinet,” Leo pointed out to the familiar space for my stuff like I had in black cabin. Compared to the rest though, mine was blank.

Opening it up, I quickly saw my new uniform, and checking the tag… I saw it would be a perfect fit. So, knowing breakfast was soon and not wanting to be late, I quickly stripped to change into it. “So… how is this place? Is it… different?”

Brian shook his head. “No, not really… just…”

“More rules,” a new face jumped in before thrusting his hand out to me. “Name’s Eric. You must be the new guy from black. Miles, was it?”

I nodded as I shook his hand once I had buckled up my pants. “Yeah… did you all get an announcement or…?” I was wondering why everyone seemed to know my name at this point.

Eric smirked but shook his head. “Nah. Overheard a conversation Mr. Nancy had last night. Plus… these two kept talking about their old friends in black when they first came.” His eyes shifted around the room for a brief moment almost in dread. “Dwayne’s not here, is he?”

I shook my head. “No. I think he’s going slower.”

Eric almost looked relieved. “Okay. Good.”

“Hey…” Leo looked insulted at that jab at his old friend. “Watch it, Eric…”

“Sorry, Leo, but…” He grimaced. “From the way you two describe him… even his positive traits seem to have negatives. And… we don’t need that kind of energy in here.”

I chuckled at the notion. Considering how he and Perry had left me at black cabin, I couldn’t help but agree. “Yeah. Very true, but… what about these rules I heard about?” I finished tucking in my shirt.

“Yeah… just gotta follow Mr. Nancy a little more here,” Brian pointed out.

“It’s nothing too big,” Leo seemingly corrected. “You just need to pay attention a little more outside of here is all. Answer questions quick, don’t backtalk, no running, no…”

“No having fun,” Eric interjected. “It’s a bit too strict for my tastes, but in here?” He then gestured around the cabin with a wide smile. “This is our territory. As long as we don’t burn this place down, Mr. Nancy let’s us have free reign in here.”

I could already feel a new presence in my life… authority.

While I had answered to bosses and people in positions of power for all my adult life, Mr. Nancy seemed to be the sort that exerted the type of power a professor would exert over his students. Don’t yell in class maybe, but wearing your fuzzy slippers to an exam wouldn’t mean failure either.  

When he walked in the cabin soon after though, I felt just the same.

“Okay, everyone! Breakfast!” He looked over the cabin and frowned. “Griff! Why is there underwear hanging over the stove? We talked about this!”

Griff winced. “Winston! Take ‘em off!” He then turned back to Mr. Nancy. “Sorry, Mr. Nancy. Won’t happen again. I’ll talk to them later.”

He sighed, his reddish-brown beard twitching slightly. “Very well, Griff. But… consider that a warning. You know my rules on fire safety…”

“Yes, sir…” Griff shoved his hands in his pockets dejectedly.

Mr. Nancy seemed to notice though and came over before patting him on the shoulder. “It’s okay. Just want you safe, Griff.” His eyes turned to the rest of us. “And that goes for all of you!” He paused and smiled. “And besides… tonight is our camping trip! No need to spoil that, right?”

Several cheers erupted through the crowd.

I wasn’t sure what it meant and just from all the bumbling out of the cabin and the haphazard way we all sat down to breakfast and the scrambling we did to our classes… I didn’t have a chance to ask fully until we were over at Havenswood and chopping wood for Emma. “Damn, man. This cabin is chaos incarnate!”

Brian smirked. “Oh… just wait until laundry day.”

I noticed Leo shudder in revulsion at the notion.

“Worse than all that?” I questioned, remembering that each class and activity we did today had seemingly been marked by controlled panic and equal amounts of rushing. Mr. Nancy was a firm hand with us, ensuring we always followed the rules… but that still left a lot of leeway it turned out.

“Tons worse,” Eric echoed the sentiments of the others after splitting another log. “Amethyst cabin can be a drag somedays, but we’re right in the middle of two vastly different styles.”

I hauled another stump over for him to split. “Meaning?”

“Meaning that Steven is great with black, but everyone there is shackled to their old ideals. Everyone is still former CEOs and doctors and lawyers and bricklayers and politicians… all ego and uptight rigidity. No fun except what we scratch from our old lives,” Eric explained. “But below us… Leo? You wanna take this?”

Leo nodded, mostly just leaning against one of the nearby unfallen trees now with us taking turns. “Yeah… all rules between little spots of freedom. And we’ve seen why… even seen it up close and in-person. Sammy seems to be the exception with them… level-headed and all…”

I looked over and saw Sammy still working in the fields in the distance along with at least Jason and some of the other newbies that had come yesterday. He still looked about half their size. “Really?”

Brian nodded. “He might be short and on the younger end, but if chaos reigns supreme in purple… it’s lord and master over at blue. But… that just means more rules from their heads of cabin.”

“I heard they even have a bedtime…” Eric bemoaned.

I winced at the notion. “I guess I’ll keep that in mind…” I moved another stump into place. “But about this camping trip…”

“Oh yeah!” Brian seemed more than enthusiastic now, almost dropping one of the small logs he had just cut in two. “It’s the best!”

“Yeah,” Eric agreed. “We take tents and go out into the middle of the woods and camp for a night. S’mores and stories… and almost freedom from when we pitch our tents to when the sun goes down. And then after…?” His excitement had reached a peak and then faded as he eyed me suspiciously. “Well… we’ll just see…”

I could see Brian and Leo give him a dirty look but nothing more was said about it.

Instead, we finished our work and reported back to Mildred before being sent back to camp. But instead of getting ready for dinner, I found everyone stuffing their packs with the three bundles that had been placed on each of our bunks. “What’s this?”

“This,” Brian explained pointing one at a time to each new item, “is your sleeping bag, your pad for the night, and one fourth of the tent.”

“Camping…” I mused, proceeding to stuff just as quickly as the others.

“Camping,” Eric echoed, though seemingly packing even more into his own bag.

I could have said something about it, but there was a tiny little voice in my mind telling me not to. Despite the requirement of being in this cabin to be under 18, I practically felt like I was once again living in a college dorm. The stories, the art… it all coalesced into a strange mix of my days from my undergrad work. And then, I knew that if you saw something you thought was against the rules, you kept your mouth shut.

Being a rat in the cabin was the last thing I wanted.

Venturing outside, Mr. Nancy was already there alongside, Mr. King, both sporting long green bags slung over their shoulders. But wasting no time, each of us were assigned to bring, in addition to our stuffed packs, various pieces of equipment. Some carried water jugs or supplies for dinner, while others carried tarps of the first aid kid or the lanterns.

We then began to hike to our camping spot for the night, apparently a designated area they went to twice a week.

On the way, we had to stop to let another group go. Looking closely, after seeing a few suck their thumbs and others carrying tightly an array of stuffed animals, I was mortified when I saw who it was.

“That’s yellow cabin?” I asked, Eric, seemingly the most knowledgeable of our little group.

He nodded, shifting the lantern he carried to his right arm. “Yeah… they come out here as well. We’ll be joined by blue later tonight but yellow goes and joins together with the red cabin following up from behind.”

“It’s another way to differentiate the cabins,” Leo explained, also adjusting the pot he carried to his right side. “We go first and set up the camp and the fire and the water and all. Then blue comes and we cook dinner together.”

“But red and yellow only go out before coming back to sleep in their cabins,” Eric hopped back in. “Ms. Fairchild joked and explained it all to us on our first camping trip when she wandered over to us asking for some spare matches. Apparently, cribs and changing tables don’t travel well for her kids…”

“She also said that it’s not safe at night for them,” Brian noted, almost with a sense of fear percolating in the back of his voice. “And most of them are afraid of the dark…”

I was curious about that in my friend, but I had another more pressing question on my mind. “Ms. Fairchild?” I didn’t want to linger, but I was missing something now. I had learned most of the staff names by now… but not that one.  

“Yeah… head of the yellow cabin. Caring and sweet… but never cross her or the kids in her cabin…” Leo winced a little. “Trust me…”

“Yeah… the Ghoulmoth and the others might be the monsters in this camp’s tales, but… she has no mercy for those she deems ‘naughty.’” A shiver then ran through Eric like a cold wind had passed over his skin. He looked terrified… and over something as simple as what was essentially a babysitter.

To keep from embarrassing him, like most of us were learning to do when a seemingly childish moment overtook someone, I looked to my left at the yellow group. Most seemed below four years old and while all sported the same khaki outfit I did, it was hard not to notice the elastic waistband or the snaps between legs as a few plopped down and idly played with their toys. A few horrifically even squatted. Yes, for a toddler it might have just been a daily occurrence, but seeing each, I knew deep down I could have been looking at a former banker or a doctor now using their padded undergarments to the fullest.

“Don’t dwell on them, Miles…” Brian told me, nudging me from the side after he caught me staring in bewilderment at them. “They’ll pass soon, and besides, they don’t care… not anymore. “He sighed deeply before looking back at me with hope. “And after all, for all you know, you could end at purple or blue… nowhere near yellow.”

I nodded and sure enough, within minutes the yellows moved away, soon followed by the reds. For them at least, they were young and had to be kept in line constantly by their subcounselors, but there was more awareness with them. A fascination with the world.

Then I thought I saw someone, wide-eyed and curly haired… a younger portrait of someone I had known.

“Wait… hey Eustace! Eustace!” I called out. “It’s Miles! Eustace!”

But no one turned around from the campers… just a few of my fellow purples and the subcounselors.

“What was that about, Miles?” Leo asked me once they had completely passed and I stopped shouting and waving.

I shrugged after not seeing anyone turn back to look at me. “I thought I saw Eustace is all. I thought…”

“He’s gone,” Brian noted gravely and abruptly. “If you did see him, he probably doesn’t remember you. The fast and dangerous strain usually wipes most memories away pretty quickly. Sometimes, some of them even struggle with their name… or they’re too distracted by a toy or whatever to hear you calling out to them…”

“Oh…” I was silent for the rest of our journey to the campsite.

Once there, it was plainly obvious it had seen heavy use over the years. Multiple firepits adorned a handful of campsites and large platforms lay empty withing spitting distance of each with a handful of picnic tables in the center of the three or four clusters I could see.

“Okay… choose your spots and set up your tents,” Mr. Nancy called out. “Mr. King and I will be setting up for dinner and the various campfires. I will take watch of the north campfire. Mr. King will take watch of the east, and Mr. and Mrs. Brooks will take the south and west ones. If you can, stay away from those sites and stick only to the platforms. Outside of them… it’s not safe.”

Frowning at that last part, the camp quickly dispersed and Eric beckoned us over. “Come on. I know where to pitch. Best spot in the whole site!”

We all nodded and quickly followed him to a singular platform at the east campsite, curiously seemingly the furthest from where any of the head counselors would set up their tents. “Perfect!” Eric called out before unshouldering his pack and pulling out one of his bags. “You all get yours out and I’ll pop the other equipment back. Miles… you help me.”

I could only nod back before dropping my own tent bag and heading off with Eric with the rest of the communal gear we had brought.

Dropping it off, without even thinking, I ran back to help pitch the tent.

“Miles Bosch!” Mr. Nancy thundered out, seemingly like a crack in the middle of the trees powerful enough to split a branch in two.

Several of the nearby campers froze and all stared back at me.

I winced, knowing I had just violated one of the biggest rules here, before I turned slowly back to Mr. Nancy. “I’m sorry. I…”

“I believe you,” he cut me off, holding up a single finger, “but you need to learn the rules. I don’t mean for them to hurt you all… just the opposite in fact. And because this is your first offense…” He stroked his short beard for a moment. “Yes… clean-up duty tonight.”

I knew there was nothing I could say in my defense and from what I could tell, I knew my punishment was very much on the light side of things. “Yes sir…” I confirmed glumly.

“Good. Report back here after dinner.” He then nodded his head over to Eric. “Now run along until dinner time. Make sure your tent is up properly before it gets dark.”

Needing no other prompting, I left with Eric to get back. “Damn… I can’t believe I’m getting hit for running a few paces…”

“Welcome to purple cabin…” Eric remarked with a sigh. “Freedom in so many ways… but definitely rules a plenty as well when you’re in sight of Mr. Nancy.” He then leaned in and lowered his voice. “The trick is to do your fun when he’s not looking…”

“There’s a trick?” I questioned, almost stopping before Eric pulled me back along to our tent platform.

“Shhh… but yes,” he nodded. “In fact, when the counselors start telling their stories tonight, don’t linger. Just come back to the tent. They won’t care. But also… don’t tell anyone else.”

I nodded and soon enough, we were back to help set up the tent.

Fortunately, Eric was a pro at all this. His regression seemed to be slowing down, and he would likely be one of the few fortunate enough to bounce while at purple cabin. He estimated he still had another two weeks or so to complete bounce, but he didn’t seem to mind.

So far, between the rules and being treated like a teen without any of the privileges 90% of the day in a chaotic cabin, I couldn’t figure out why.

But, with the large tent complete, four of us could comfortably lay down and sleep in it. Each of us had brought a portion of the structure and it now seemed sturdy enough for a good night’s sleep. Curiously, while we did lay out our sleeping pads, Eric stopped us from unfurling out sleeping bags.

Regardless, within the hour, each of the four campfires had been stoked and blue cabin had joined at their south and west campsites. I didn’t even need to get close to their campsites to notice the differences between purple and blue.

While we had been left on our own, Mr. and Mrs. Brooks were busy laying out ground rules and then instructing the various tasks that needed to be done around camp. Barking orders, not a single minute of the camper’s lives seemed unstructured.

But sadly, whenever orders weren’t given, only about five seconds passed before all hell seemed to break loose.

Later, when things were starting to quiet down and the sun was just dropping behind the mountains, dinner was announced. To my delight, dinner was comprised of foil packets… little meals wrapped in tin foil that were placed on the campfire to cook. Most consisted of beef, chicken, vegetables, potatoes, and a variety of spices. By the time mine came out, I was famished and greedily at it all down. To my relief, that simplistic set-up meant less dishes and even more, I wasn’t alone.

“Running, huh?” my washer mate questioned as I scrubbed a knife before handing it to him to rinse off.

“Yeah… uh, Kyle, was it? You were the one who threw things earlier today in class?” I asked back, trying to remember his name from when he had been scolded earlier today by Mr. Nancy for throwing things in the computer lab.

“That’s right. Too damned bored in that place,” he complained, rolling his eyes. “Used to do that stuff for a living. Computer code and all… and now, they’ve got us learning how to screw with Word again. Can you believe it?”

I nodded, feeling his pain from Mr. Yoder’s class that was reviewing things I had learned twenty years ago in college. “Can’t blame you there. Wish they would evaluate us and then go from there… like only teach us if we slip or whatever…”

He chuckled. “Yeah… they would never do that, but it’s a nice idea…”

“You don’t think they’re trying to help, do you?” I had heard the notion before rumbling around camp, but most felt that Camp Commune was better than nothing… or at least that’s what I had thought. Staring at Kyle, I didn’t see any of that communicated on his face.

He scoffed. “Not a chance. There’s something weird going on and…” He stopped and quickly went back to rinsing as if he had never been talking in the first place.

I almost asked what just happened when a familiar face came into the light of a nearby lantern. “Everything going okay here with you two?” Mr. Nancy questioned.

“Yes, sir!” Kyle popped back without a shred of hesitation.

“Yes,” I answered more softly.

“Perfect… keep up the good work,” he remarked. Right as he turned away though, he turned back to us briefly. “I just hope you two have learned your lessons…”

“Yes, sir,” Kyle nodded. “Both of us have…” He grabbed me by the shoulder in a friendly embrace… which seemed just enough for Mr. Nancy to nod and walk away.

Once he was gone, Kyle let me go. “Ugh. Sorry about that. Guy wants to be everyone’s friend, but he doesn’t leave until he sees something like that.”

“Always?” I asked, knowing from a brief conversation at lunch with Brian that Kyle was a frequent delinquent of the cabin.

“Always,” he said with pained emphasis. He then stopped and lowered his voice. “You’re with Brian and Eric and Leo, right?”

I nodded.

“Good…” He smirked, his cheeks glowing by the dim lantern on the picnic table in front of us. “See you tonight then…”

Before I could ask what he had meant by that, after a burst of laughter from one of the blue cabin’s campfires made me turn away, once I turned back… he was gone.

Regardless, the dishes were done and all that remained were the s’mores… something I noticed my whole group devoured and then soon disappeared afterward. Intrigued, I made my way over to the other side of the fire by our tent.

“Long ago in these woods, there lived something called the Wruethroat,” Mr. Nancy started with his campfire story, several other campers leaning in on the edge of their camp seats, stumps, or rolled over stones. “It would stalk the woods, blending into the trees and…”

It was my cue that Eric had told me about earlier. So, I didn’t listen to the rest, instead diving into my tent. Plus, I didn’t want another reason to fear these woods at night. Already, I was tense enough that the Ghoulmoth was out there somewhere.

As soon as I entered though, everyone in the tent tensed up.

“Oh, damn, Miles!” Leo exclaimed, his hand dropping from his chest where he had seemingly been trying to clutch his heart. “Nearly gave us a heart attack. Thought you were Mr. Nancy or Mr. King!”

“No?” I had seen this reaction before. It usually only meant breaking the rules.

“Then close the flap!” Kyle called out, prompting me to dart inside and do so.

“Shh!” Sammy, whom I just noticed chastised him. “You want the Brooks’ or Nancy or King to hear us? Can you even imagine what they’d do to us for this?” He then held up a large bottle… with something amber sloshing around inside.

“Wait…” I had seen that color before. It had been weeks really, but considering the teetering and slurring of worse I was seeing and hearing now, I felt I already knew what it was. “Is that…?”

“Yep!” Brian confirmed before hiccupping. “Eric’s brew!”

Eric snatched the bottle of purple liquid from his hands before handing it to me. “Made it myself. Prison wine… pruno… hooch… raisin jack… whatever you want to call it.”

I took the bottle and eyed it suspiciously. In the back of mind somewhere, I was almost surprised a big cloud didn’t suddenly waft from the open lid and formed a skull in crossbones in front of my eyes. But when I heard a huge laugh from Mr. King outside, I had one thought on my mind. “And Mr. Nancy lets you get away with this?”

Eric scoffed sloppily. “What Nancy doesn’t know… Nancy can’t punish!”

Kyle nodded and cheered with the bottle he had in his hand, the red liquid sloshing around inside. “Mr. Nancy doesn’t care what happens inside the cabin unless its some fire hazard or whatever. I swear it’s his phobia.” He took a long swig. “And besides… Herbert used to grow pot behind his bed.”

“What?” I knew a guy in college who did the same when our resident director was more focused on passing his senior midterm exam in physics than policing us… but still. “How is that possible here?”

“Oh, Herbert,” Sammy said, almost revering his name. “Miss him… too bad he’s in red now…”

“Too many gone…” Kyle noted, taking another swig of the bottle he was practically cradling. “But seriously… we keep quiet and don’t raise a fuss. For instance…” He quickly swiped a bottle from Brian who was already swaying.

“Hey!” He tried to reach for the bottle, only to miss entirely and almost fall into the central electric light we had.

“Shh!” everyone scolded him, including myself.

At this point, especially when I was handed one of the bottles and took a swig of the foul-tasting concoction, I was feeling every part of the group. It was my first day, but I was amazed with the ease of slipping into this group. Yes, Sammy was from blue, and Kyle was from another group… but we all felt like old friends already.

Even more so as the hours began to tick by and stories of past shenanigans soon gave way to others… more devious.

“You all ever think about the old days?” Leo mused, his back arcing against one of our sleeping roles.

I slapped an Ace down on the table, causing Eric and Kyle to groan heavily. “No. No point.” It wasn’t the full truth, but by now, I suspected I knew where his mind was at.

“I do…” Sammy noted, draining the last drop of some of his hooch. “Think about the park and my old boat. Real beauty… fixing her up and all. That’s how I got whacked on Orange Day… rotten luck…”

“Damn shame…” Kyle mourned, toasting with the last of his bottle.

“But what if…?” He tossed his hands around the air erratically as if he was trying to catch pieces of the sky and bring them down to the ground. “What if we could go there again?”

Brian shifted from the corner and frowned at Leo. “Leo? What are you saying there?”

Leo shifted in his seat and stared back at him.

In turn, we all looked back at him with a sense of dread that something was coming. The Leo of old was a proud and sometimes even vain figure in the company. He was a friend, but there was always some sort of standoffish quality about him… but he was also a leader. He was the person you could get behind and charge into the depths of any bad business meeting and feel that you would come out okay on the other side. He still had the sense of strength about him… but there was a frailty fringing around his edges now.

Leo sighed and slammed his fist down on the ground. “I want out of here… who’s with me?”

My stomach nearly fell to the floor. With Mr. Nancy and his rules and the constant reminders of what lay ahead for us, time felt precious and staying here could have felt like a waste to some. The inevitable conversation of escape had to come at some point… I just didn’t realize it would be so soon.

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

Another chapter here. I might go back later and change some of the language with this chapter, but I think it came out decently with what I wanted to convey here. With this story, I wanted to showcase a few different elements and one of them I’ve been only hinting at for a while now. Nothing too direct, but that’s going to start to change. I have a reason for why to parallel with other things… which I can go into more detail later if anyone wants, but for now, just sit back and enjoy the chapter.

Speaking of enjoyment… I’ve been a little nervous lately with how my stories have been received by you all. I know times are changing and the audience here might be different than even a year or two ago, but I’ve noticed less engagement with my last couple of stories. I know part of that has been the lack of consistency with them and another part of the subject matter, but I start to get a little nervous that maybe it’s my skill that’s not up to the task anymore. That feels funny to me, as some of my early ones that seemed more popular, I’ve been editing lately and they’re riddled with problems… but the numbers don’t lie. I’m not sure what it is and if anyone knows what it is, I would appreciate it in finding out. And don’t worry, I will always write, but I do question my longevity here somedays…  

Now… last but not least and as usual, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter of my story!

Chapter 7: Bumps In the Night

Everyone in the tent remained motionless, just staring back at Leo in shock.

Kyle shifted forward first and glared back at Leo. “Now, don’t you go doing anything stupid. Escaping Camp Commune isn’t an option.”

“But Kyle,” Sammy protested. “We’ve gotta try. I mean… look at me!” Everyone did as he gestured to himself and amongst the rest of us purple, Sammy as a blue cabin member was readily apparent by his height difference alone. If he was any other blue, plenty of other differences would have been even more readily apparent.  

Kyle sighed. “I know buddy. I know, but…” He looked at him directly. “Do you remember what happened last time?”

All the fire in Sammy’s eyes vanished like a puff of smoke on a windy day.

“What happened last time?” Brian finally asked… the first in the group to break the silence. “You tried to escape before? Did something bad happen to you all?”

Kyle shook his head. “No. No mauling’s or injuries… we were just caught.”

“Wait… mauling’s?” I asked, a little nervousness bubbling up inside of me. I tried to suppress it, remembering back to what Uriah had told me in not bringing it up first. That was about impossible out here in the middle of nowhere now… so I covered. “Like a bear or something…?”

Sammy looked at me dreadfully. “Or something…”

“Oh! Will you quit it!” Kyle nearly shouted before catching himself and quickly lowering his voice.

Nearest to the entrance of the tent still, I could hear Mr. King still telling ghost stories and other local legends around the campfire to the other cabin members. So, I quickly gave the thumbs up to continue without worrying about being caught, the six of us pretty drunk or tipsy by now.

Kyle continued to glare back at Sammy. “You didn’t see squat! You hear?” There was a curl of disgust around his words… but also a lack of complete belief in them as well. “But that doesn’t matter.” He shook his head and his annoyance and frustration seemed to slowly dissipate. “What matters is that we tried going to the south and around the forest. And we were caught within an hour…”

“Oh…” Leo seemed more disheartened by that notion than most of the rest of us.

“Yeah,” Eric piped up, having remained quiet for most of the time so far. “We didn’t have a chance in…” He hiccupped and it evident that he wasn’t used to his smaller frame and metabolism to process the bootleg alcohol he had chugged tonight. “Whatever… doesn’ matter anyways…” He stood and swaggered to the front flap of the tent, slapping the material as he tried to look for the zipper.

“Eric?” Kyle inquired. “Where are you going?”

Eric spun around… too far to the point where I had to brace him to keep from falling over. “To take a pee!” He thrust his finger out to emphasize his point, almost falling forward. “You gotta problem with that? You tryin’ to be my dad out here, huh?”

“No! I…” Kyle blushed and seemingly retreated back into the group and seeing that Eric left without another word.

“Shit,” Sammy muttered under his breath. “He might get us caught if he stumbles into the fire or falls into the lake. Damn guy never knew how to hold his liquor…”

Brian stood up. “I’ll go check on him…” In a moment, he disappeared as well.

Seemingly undeterred still, even with the notion of some of the members of the group being caught previously, Leo pressed closer to Sammy. “Sammy… do you think it’s possible to leave this place?”

His inhibitions clearly lowered, Sammy shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know… but I’m willing to try again. Can’t go alone though…”

To no surprise, Leo nodded without the slightest hesitation. “I’m in.” He turned to me. “Miles?”

I sighed. It was my idea to come here in the first place… but I was already having massive second thoughts about this place. It was outdoors and fun in that summer camp type of way and people like Ms. Peachy and Sammy were great… but the new rules and the foreboding sense of the other cabins I seemed to be beelining for in my own regression all left me with a sense of dread about my future here. Yes, I could stay and laugh my way through it all and eat s’mores and study butterflies and camp out under the stars… but it would all be to the point of my own possible eventual oblivion here.

Eustace seemed a perfect example of that type of fall… and that wasn’t even counting whatever the heck was happening in the woods out here.

“I’m in,” I nodded. For better or worse, I wanted to know if escape was even possible at this point.

Leo smiled and nodded before turning over to the still resigned Kyle. “And you? I know you had your doubts, but maybe if we go…?”

“No,” Kyle repeated with a finality that practically screamed ‘end of conversation.’ “I did this before and when we were caught, we were dragged back and Mr. Nancy put us on washing duty in the kitchen. My hands were pruny for a whole day!” He stood up as best he could in the tent and shook his head. “My answer is no…” He wavered for a moment. “So, if you’ll excuse me… I need to go lie down.”

He just started unzipping the tent when Sammy reached out and stopped him. “I respect your choice, Kyle, but… please respect ours and don’t tell Mr. Na…”

“Oh my god!” Kyle groaned. “Damn it, Sammy. Just because I’m not going doesn’t mean I’m some stupid rat. Is that what you really think of me?”

Sammy winced, realizing his mistake with his good friend. “Well, no, but…”

“But nothing!” Kyle scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Sometimes man… I just don’t know with you. I’m only not going because Mr. Nancy sees everything… and I mean everything.” He paused and sighed. “But just because I’m afraid of him catching us… doesn’t mean I’ll tell him. Got it?”

Got it,” Sammy repeated resolutely like he was worried that any hesitation on his part would mean his words would mean the opposite or somehow insult his friend.

“Good.” Kyle then saluted. “So… if you will, good night, gentlemen.” He then exited the tent without another word.

“Eh, good riddance with him,” Leo practically spat after he left.

“Careful now, Leo…” Sammy warned, suddenly becoming defensive of his old friend. “If I wasn’t so desperate to leave before I’m nothing, I’d be exiting right alongside him. After all… this isn’t just a walk in the park.”

“No, but I’ve been thinking about that.” Leo then hobbled together some spare matches, sticks, and a few scraps of paper nearby to approximate the camp. “You all went south here…” His finger pointed to the area best representing the mountainside we had trekked up before and the adjoining southern part of the woods.

“Yes,” Sammy confirmed. “Swarming with sensors and barbed wire all over. “It’s possible to do, but you’d need security clearances to shut down their defenses or wire cutters or…”

Leo waved his hand. “No need to harp on it. We all know it won’t work. But that leaves two possibilities.” He paused. “To the north…” His hand then gestured to practically the mirrored set-up closer to him and by the sign listed as ‘Havenswood.’ “We know this area is swarming with the commune members and probably security forces of their own.”

“Correct,” Sammy acknowledged again. “Plus, there’s talk of more wild things up there. Just stories but…” He winced and shrugged his arms. “Why take the risk?”

“Sure…” It was clear that Leo didn’t believe in all that, but the presence of Havenswood seemed enough to deter him fully. “But that leaves the middle.”

“The middle?” I questioned, trying to keep my tone steady and above the nerves I was already feeling about going through that part out of here. “Do we really have to go… there?”

Sammy and Leo both looked at me in bewilderment.

I shrank back a little realizing that I had just shown my fear to them out in the open so blatantly. Fortunately, if either wanted to crack a joke at my expense, they didn’t.

“Yes, Miles,” Sammy nodded. “I don’t like it either, but these are the only ways. Going west through the water means stealing a boat and I’ve been told it leads to larger bodies of water, rushing rivers, or even more folds of mountains. Not a city that would help us out for at least two days…”

“Exactly.” Leo leaned forward. “Now, we know that security is practically non-existent around here at night. I heard Mr. King talking the other day… mentioned only a few patrols and considering the grounds around here, I think we can slip past them easily enough.”

“But you’ll need a map,” Sammy noted before turning to me. “You and Brian should go talk to Ron tomorrow. He did all the art in purple cabin. Should be a good way to slip in there to request a piece for your cabinet… but then also ask him for the map he did two weeks ago.”

“Something special about it?” I was hesitant about including another person, because in my experience, including other people in breaking the rules always was a flaw in every plot or scheme I had ever been a part of. Someone couldn’t keep their mouth shut when it wasn’t in their own vested interest and foiled whatever plan it was.

“Yes,” Leo said nodding. “I saw it the other day. Detailed portions and he always listens to rumors around camp and then goes exploring in his free time. I heard he even talked with Mr. Lehman about details in the woods. Chalked it up to some class project or whatever…”

“Smart…” I sighed. “Okay. I’ll do it. I know Brian will want to come as well though. Consider him a part of this.” We were actual friends before all this and leaving him behind just felt wrong. The only reason he wasn’t here was because he was genuinely a good guy and making sure that Eric didn’t stumble and fall down in the dark. “I’m not leaving here without him.”

“Very well…” Sammy leaned forward and started to gesture to the camp itself… when Leo spoke up.

“Same goes for Dwayne…” His name was like nails on a chalkboard.

“Really?” I could hear the shock in Sammy’s voice just as much as if I had said it myself. Of all people to bring along, he was the last I wanted.

“Yes,” Leo emphasized. “I’m not going without him either. We made that pact before all this and I’m holding up my end.”

I could see the strain on Sammy’s face. Dwayne was loud, mocking, and still not even in purple cabin yet. His reliability, apart from his loyalty to Leo, was questionable at best and his discretion always seemed to be lacking when it came to crunch time apart from his old job. With so many variables, I wasn’t surprised when Sammy nodded back with hesitation. “Okay. Just make sure to include him early tomorrow at lun…”

“Back to your tents!” someone yelled from outside the tent. “Back inside and stay there!” Several panicked yells mixed in with shouts of barked orders followed after.

The three of us still inside were frozen in panic and confusion.

Sammy spoke first, his hands going for the front entrance of the tent to clearly open it up and look around. “What the hel…?”

“Open up! Open up!” someone screamed, their voice getting closer to the tent’s front entrance.

With Sammy’s help, we tore open then front, the zipper flying along its path to the top, only to reveal a clearly panicked and running Brian and Eric. Eric stumbled for a moment, but with a helping hand, both practically dove headfirst into the tent.

“Close it up! Close it up!” Brian shouted, panicking fully now, his chest heaving in and out.

Just as Sammy started to close the front as ordered, he turned back. “What happened? What’s going on?”

More screams and shouts and cracked branches and twigs outside our tent echoed around us. A groan and what almost sounded like a growl stopped us cold… it was inhuman. Gnawing and deep, it visibly rattled each of us as it came back and forth, ebbing and flowing like a surging tide.

“What the heck is that all about?” Leo asked. “Is it a bear?”

“Something was moving in the woods…” Brian said, his eyes fixated and full of fear.

“Mr. King and Mr. Nancy got their guns,” Eric explained, his fingers twitching and twirling with his sleeping bag, “while the Brooks’ are guarding the camp.”

“What?” Sammy questioned in shock. “Shit! I gotta get outta here!” Sammy got up and fled the tent. “If the Brook’s catch me out here when we’re supposed to be in our tents, I’m a goner!”

“Sammy!” I called. “Wait!” But he had already disappeared into the inky greenish black and blues of the nighttime in the forest. Creepily, the fire and nearly ever lantern was out. Not wanting to linger, I shoved myself back inside the confines of the tent.

“You were saying they were defending the camp?” Leo questioned back to Eric as soon as I was back in and both he and Brian had calmed down considerably.

“Yeah!” Brian exclaimed. “Must be a bear or…” Another growl and sticks breaking from outside cut him short.

Blinking and undeterred, Leo looked back at him with curiosity. “Or what?”

Brian shook his head. “Forget about it! Just… let’s get some sleep.” Not wasting a moment, he tossed out his sleeping bag and quickly buried himself in it.

Leo frowned and turned to Eric. “And you?”

To my surprise, Eric shook his head. “Forget it man. Just… get some sleep or whatever. Pretend it’s the wind.” He shifted out his sleeping bag as well. “And Miles? Close the flap, will you?”

I looked toward Leo. Both of us were confused but I could tell his confusion was more from being pissed from a lack of answers, and I knew mine was from being more worried about what was lingering outside the tent. Still, despite that worry, I felt a gurgling pit in my stomach… one of morbid curiosity. The growling and the sticks breaking… ‘Could it be my monster?’

I almost didn’t want to know, but the greater part of me had to. So, I slowly stuck my head outside the tent and looked around. The slim moon was mostly obscured by the clouds, but the whole area was still dimly lit and yet blackened all the same. I could feel my heart pounding inside my chest. One beat at a time, I felt a lump grow in my throat. And then the growling and even something breathing. Heaving breaths and panted pain and terror, a slithering passing through the dead leaves and twigs.

And I turned to my right… and saw two bright yellow orbs staring right back at me… less than ten feet away.

I slammed the tent entrance closed and zipped it up as tight as I could. My hands clutched the entrance closed and I could hear the rustle and scraping of nearby trees.

I shut my eyes. ‘Don’t be real. Don’t be real.’

Once again, I wasn’t fully sure of what I saw out there. It was just two yellow orbs staring right back at me from the darkness of the woods… but that image haunted me as I willed the beast to go away. It wasn’t real… it couldn’t be, but my eyes kept telling me to the contrary.

Eventually, I heard the snapping of twigs and the deep breathing begin to slink off. Still terrified, I opened my eyes and laid down. With my companions having already passed out… I tried to join them and fall asleep as well.

*              *              *

The next morning, the cabin heads all gathered us around. Nearby, broken branches and claw marks littered the grounds around our tent lines. Closest to the perimeter of the densest part of the trees, three scratches marked a tree within spitting distance of our tent… but nothing closer.

Mutters abounded with what it was, and even through the fear in their eyes and their white knuckles still gripping the bags that held their guns, they told us they were just bears at one point and coyotes at another point. “There’s no way coyotes made marks that big” was a common sentiment on the way back to camp.

But the rest of the day went without incident.

At arts and crafts, I spotted Ron creating an intricate web of weaving around popsicle sticks, his craftiness and creativity clearly not being confined to just to drawing. At computer class, Mr. Klassen droned on about search engines and the rise of AI. Considering that most of us had come from the tech industry or had viewed a computer that had been designed in the past five years… most of us nearly passed out from sheer boredom.

Fortunately, at aquatics, while Mr. Mast kept a close eye on us, Brian and I elected to take a rowboat lesson from Ms. Fisher. For a week now, we were preparing to venture out on our own as part of the class, but for now, even being out on the open water with her and the fresh breeze felt exhilarating. Secretly though, I was also curious about using the boat as a means of escape… if it ever came to that.

But no one knew about that motive.

Before lunch, having looped in Brian at breakfast about the escape plan for tonight, we both made sure to stay a little after at the cabin and corner Ron.

“Heya, Ron,” Brian started first, having already talked to him before. The colorful single sheet of The Beatles and their most iconic moments and album covers were all perfectly displayed on his cabinet already and testament to their prior interaction. “This is Miles. Think you could make a sheet for him like you did for me?”

Ron stopped and smiled at me. “Absolutely. I was wondering when you were going to wander over here. See any artwork you like of mine?”

“All of it,” I answered honestly… though admittedly trying to butter him up a little bit. “Hard to pinpoint a style, but it really adds to this room. Black cabin was so…”

“Plain? Boring?” I nodded back to his question and he grinned.  “Yeah. It can be like that. ARV sucks in so many ways but letting go of some of those old boundaries that comes with regression works wonders for our cabin.” He then yanked a large notebook out and flipped to a page about halfway through. The left side and the top half of the right were already completely covered. “So… any ideas of what you want?”

I wasn’t entirely sure, but considering I wanted his help today and that I had a love for art as well, I decided to challenge him. “I was thinking maybe a handful of artists… and maybe done in the style they’re famous for? Like an impressionistic Monet?”

“Oh!” I could already see his gears turning as his face practically lit up with excitement. “A challenge! I…” He didn’t even finish his sentence and began rapidly scribbling out on the page in front of him.

“Ron…” Brian started, edging into what I knew would be the request for the map. “About that map I saw you fiddling with… mind if I have a look? I kind of wanted to check out paths up the mountains. I think Mr. Nancy might love to take us up there and go birdwatching or…”

Ron abruptly stopped and stared annoyedly back at Brian. “Brian… if you want my map… for whatever reason, you just have to ask me normally. Don’t lie to my face.”

Brian blushed hard. “Sorry, Ron. I just…”

“It’s okay.” Ron was already reaching into his bag before taking out a green plastic folder. “But let me guess… escape from this place?”

With Brian mastering this line of questioning himself, I left him on his own… even when he was so flustered he only manage to make out a few sputtered single syllables before nodding dejectedly.

Ron gave a tiny scoff and pulled out a single sheet which he handed directly to me. “I think I’m going to trust you with this more than ‘sputter and spaz’ over there…”

As if to prove his point, Brian only could stumble through what was clearly supposed to be a retort… before giving up once again.

“Yeah…” Ron then put his binder and the folder back in his backpack. “But study the map before you go and keep it safe. I keep it updated regularly and I have a copy, but that’s your best bet. And also… pay attention to the shift changes. If you don’t, you’ll be caught just as you leave the cabin tonight or whenever.”

With a nod from both of us, without a scrap of judgement, Ron left.

With the cabin now empty beside Brian and I, we poured over each and every detail Ron had managed to scratch into the sheet. Shift changes and cameras… point of views from windows and patches where shadows were most prominent at night. It was a perfect guide to the place, and on the back was something even better.

A perfectly planned way out of camp via a singular trail right through the middle of the woods.

“This is it!” Brian finally managed to burst out after looking at the map and tracing the route out of Claw Woods to the other side. “This is what we need to…”

“To escape this wretched place, huh?” a chilling and deeper voice sounded out from behind us.

Both of us turned and our mouths nearly fell open in shock.

“What? So surprised to see me here?” Dwayne asked, now already sporting a new uniform with purple stripes on it… a question we could only nod to. “Well, don’t be. That stupid Mrs. Galen rechecked her results from yesterday, and boom… now I’m here.”

“W… welcome…” I managed to spill out. I knew with Leo’s request last night, Dwayne would be with us, but if this failed, I at least had the good hope that we could come back to a place without Dwayne in it. Now, those hopes seemed dashed before they could even begin.

Meanwhile, Brian stood motionless and as silent as the grave. While Dwayne had said something evil-hearted and nasty things to me, due to Brian’s slip under 18 before him and his mild nature, plus not being Leo, Dwayne had practically become a bully to him when he left. Now, it was clear that the hatchet hadn’t been buried yet between the two.

True to his nature, Dwayne scoffed. “Save it. I know we weren’t best of pals, but now… that doesn’t matter. Tonight, we’re getting out. So, come on. Lunch is already started and I’m not going to miss it because of you two.”

We both nodded and I carefully slid the map into my own backpack before scurrying out with both Brian and now Dwayne. And much to my dismay, as soon as Dwayne met back up with Leo, it was all smiles and open-armed hugs. Within minutes, Dwayne had ingratiated himself amongst the new populace.

Only Brian and I didn’t seem amused at his return.

*              *              *

That night, just as we had planned during lunch, the four of us soon crept out of purple cabin. Looking outside the window, from the map that Ron had given us, the one staff member patrolling the perimeter of the cabins took at least a few minutes to pause on the far side of them. Add in a few minutes from him pacing the sides of the long structures and we had our window.

Sammy joined us as well. Blue cabin was just right next door and unlike red and yellow, monitoring of the cabin was kept to a minimum. Apparently, the biggest worry he had was if one of his fellow campers had a nightmare… apparently a commonality with some as they regressed. And as if to emphasize the wide differences between purple and blue, we were all nearly stunned into motionless silence as Sammy approached.

“What. Is. That?” Dwayne finally spat out in questioning, his tan and bony finger pointing to the object that Sammy was now carrying with him.

“Oh. This?” Sammy looked down and held up the object like it was practically a trophy.

Leo didn’t take it as such. “Yes. That.”

Sammy smirked. “It’s Hubert… he’s a backpack.” As if to prove the giant teddy bear was more than just the stuffed animal we all saw him as, Sammy tipped him over and showed both the straps on one side and the zipper on his front. “Needed a way to transport things, and besides… if we’re caught, I can play dumb with this thing.”

“Play dumb?” Dwayne asked, clearly trying to belittle our friend.

“Hey,” I interjected, trying to defend Sammy. Yes, a teddy bear was strange, but at this point I truly didn’t care. All I cared about was the map and the fact that it noted that in less than a minute, a staff member would be back here. “Save it for later. We need to get out of here.”

Everyone nodded and we all trotted off. Just in case, we had all agreed to memorize the map while we were at Havenswood… or at least the major directions we needed to take to get out of here. Most important was the entrance. Once that was clear, the only other major sections were either detours or apparently well-marked with a signpost.

“Here we are,” I noted, scrambling quick to the entrance of the trail. Getting here, we had to cross the large open field in front of the main building, dining hall, and the computer lab. “Are we really doing this?” I hated to ask, but looking ahead, it was hard not to remember the yellowish orbs I had seen twice now… or the larges scratch marks on the trees we had almost all seen earlier this morning.

Plus, Mr. King and Mr. Nancy didn’t just bring guns for show last night… something was out there.

But no one objected, and nodding, we all entered the woods with a jolt to our steps and a hope in our hearts for the possibility of freedom. With the world opening up more and more every day for ARs, it felt like we were missing out here. It seemed everyone had their own reason… but leaving this place was now our one and only goal.

Gratefully, each of us had done our parts according to the plans we had laid out last night and again at breakfast this morning. Brian and I had snagged the map. Leo had bagged some food, and even Dwayne, despite our hatred of him, actually did his part and managed to bring a flashlight. And to tie it all together, Sammy had the various connections to ensure that each of us did our parts and got the items from the right people. Motivated and still mature but discreet as well.

Now, navigating the trails, I stuck close by to the rest of the group. Every twig break and crunch of leaves caused my heart to race within my chest. I swore that every shadow that moved in the distance beyond the yellow beam of the flashlight was something ready to kill us.

“Miles…” Brian called to me, his voice shaking and unhinged.

I could already tell that he was going to have a problem. “Just another step in front of the other,” I reminded him. “Don’t focus on the woods. Focus on me.”

Brian whimpered and raced up to me, almost bumping into my back. “But I thought I saw a pair of red ey…”

“No.” I cut him off outright. I didn’t need another monster filling my head out in these woods. “Whatever you saw… it was just a trick. Nothing more.”

“Will you two shut up back there?” Dwayne hissed at us from the front by Leo.

“Quiet! All of you!” Sammy snapped, his fingers practically burying themselves now into Hubert. If I hadn’t known that he was a backpack… I would have sworn that Sammy was holding him more for comfort than anything else. “We need to keep moving. It’s at least six miles to the other side…”

I didn’t need to hear that.

I knew it was long, but over six miles of hiking in the pitch black with only a single flashlight to light our way in a forest called ‘Claw Woods’ was anything but fun. Additionally, signs listing ‘Warning! Exposure to Mist Still Possible Beyond This Point’ and ‘Beware the Trees!’ had me equally spooked.

“Damn trees,” Leo cursed, batting another branch away from his head. “Should’ve brought a machete or an axe or a…”

“They’re locked up,” Sammy noted. “The old group tried that. I was in charge of investigating. Had a week back then to plan… but everything was locked or held back by an alarm. It would just be time we don’t have that would only end in failure or one of us getting caught earlier.”

“Still…” Leo whacked another pine branch from his face. “Dang it!” Despite Dwayne just arriving in purple cabin today, Leo was still the tallest. Skinnier and a pimple on his left cheek that popped up after last night… but still a force and a leader of our group.

Step by step and tree by tree, we passed through the twisted path. Overhead, branches encircled the pathway like long claws reaching down to snatch us up. Shrieks and the groans of old growth beyond our sight echoed throughout and fluttering and what almost sounded like whispers drifted toward us.

“Just the wind… just the wind…” Brian kept trying to tell himself. He was the consummate ‘scaredy cat’ of the group… even before the mist. Back before Orange Day, it just meant he was cautious and that led to few poor decisions. Problem is… he often made no decisions.

“Keep it together,” I tried to encourage him, despite my own breathing slowly increasing with each minute that passed by as were surrounded in all sides apart from the narrow pathway we were currently on.

“How much longer?” Dwayne asked a few minutes later, complaint clearly evident in his voice. “My feet are killing me!”

I glanced down at the map in my hands. Despite being all hand drawn, Ron had a real knack for these things. Already, I had to flip the sheet over to look at the overall stretch of the camp and the mountains, lake, and forests beyond. Almost looking like an hourglass, the forest caved in on the west side to accommodate for the camp and Havenswood, and fortunately for us, it also caved in on the west side leading to the main road and route 72 West.

But looking at the map with notations for distance, I saw the truth.

“Shit… not even halfway.” I double-checked our position, and while it was hard to fully estimate considering the lack of alternative paths out of here, we still hadn’t come to the first major intersection. “We’re looking for a branch in the road. Should be soon… Once that happens, we should be a minute or so from the halfway point.”

Everyone groaned, but sure enough, about ten minutes later, we all stopped at the fork in the road.

“Okay… which way?” Leo asked after looking and failing to see a sign. “And why’s there no sign or blaze or anything like that?”

“Fuck… did you get us lost, Miles?” Dwayne asked accusatorily.

“No. I didn’t.” I knew I had to stand my ground but also show them my evidence. It was the same back at work, and it was a pain in my butt, but I understood it… at least back then. Today, I just didn’t have the energy to fight back. Curiously, despite my extra energy during the day, I felt doubly tired at night lately.

Turning the map around, I pointed to where we were. “See here? Small little bypass… but this is where we have a choice to make.”

“How so?” Sammy questioned. “I don’t remember having a choice to make when I looked at the map before. Something I didn’t see?”

I nodded. “Probably just saw the two paths, but we have two directions here… but they end up in the same place.” I handed the map to Brian temporarily and bent my hands so that only the base of my palms and the tips of my fingers were touching each other. “It’s like this. We’re at the bottom by my palms, but… we can go left or right to end up back on the exact same path… like where my fingers meet back up.”

“No differences?” Leo asked.

I shook my head. “No… unfortunately not. That’s where the choice comes into play.” I took the map back and pointed to the notation on the side of the bypass that Ron had scribbled in. “We go left and the path is shorter but there’s a potential blockage… doesn’t say what exactly. It does note you might be able to go around… but it says all this is based off an overheard conversation and the date is marked… 30 April.” Considering it was already the end of May, that timestamp might have been already out of date.  

“And the other?” Brian queried next.

I nodded and pointed to the other path. “A little longer but no obstacles. It’s the bypass and there’s no notes. Just a straight shot.”

“Oh, screw that!” Dwayne shook his head in disgust. “Shorter way all the way. I’m not going to be out here all night, and besides, we need to get through these woods as fast as possible and put as much distance as we can between us and the camp come morning. They catch us before we can speak to our lawyers and we’ll wind up right back at camp. We argue with the authorities before then and we can just be marked as losing our minds or whatever!”

It was a compelling argument, and I could already see Brian and Sammy both hesitating.

Leo sighed. “He’s right, Miles. I say we go left.”

I looked out into the woods and saw their pure black state and was once again reminded of last night and the two yellow orbs I saw. Despite the advantage of the left, I shook my head. “No. Longer path. The left could be blocked and there’s no way I’m stepping into the woods to go around if they are.”

“Agreed…” Brian said shakily. “I… I don’t want to be out here longer, but the woods…” He trailed off and I saw only fear in his eyes as he glanced behind him and the pitch-black hole that we had just come from. If one didn’t linger, the path looked almost like it had been swallowed up by the nothingness that remained.

“Then we split up,” Sammy suggested. “Map shows it’s only a hundred yards or so at most.” He reached into his bag and pulled out another flashlight. Older and smaller, but he clicked it on to confirm it still worked. “You all go right… we go left. Whoever gets to the end first… they stop for five minutes.”

Dwayne snarled. “We stop and…?”

“Yes,” Sammy emphasized, staring at him as if he was about to punch or smack him in the face. “We do this together. After five minutes, we call out. Should be able to hear each other at that point.”

I nodded. “Agreed.” I then sighed and took the flashlight before heading off to the right. “Good luck…”

Leo and Dwayne were already disappearing behind the trees on the path. Sammy sighed and looked back at us one last time. “Same to you all…” In a moment, he disappeared as well.

Sighing and hating that the party split up, I continually encouraged Brian to follow along. I was at least grateful for the flashlight, though I did curse myself that only two were brought. Personally, out here especially, more than one felt like a necessity. ‘Maybe next time… if this doesn’t work…’

I knew I shouldn’t have been so negative on myself, but with each step forward, I began to feel an unearthly presence shift in the woods. I wanted to play it off as purely my imagination. Split-up. Only the two of us. Multiple ghost and monster stories around a campfire several times a week. And the two orbs.

It was a lot.

And all those things haunted my dreams and my waking hours. I had half a mind to question Ms. Peachy about them or if anything else could produce something so vibrant and bone-chilling out here at night… but my nerves always got to me before I could. But now… I desperately wished I had.

It would have at least been one thing I didn’t have to worry about anymore.

But I didn’t. So, each cracked branch… each scratch along the bark… each gnarled and nobbled tree that bent over like it was twisted by Satan himself, made my stomach lurched. A creak here and a groan there, Brian shot to my arm and clung for dear life.

“What was that?” he asked me, his breathing just as labored as it had been the night before when he ran into the tent from whatever was out there then.

“I don’t know… just keep moving.” One of us had to be strong. One of us had to keep a clear mind and keep pressing forward. And, with any luck, within a few minutes would be reunited with our friends and be over halfway through the woods tonight. It had seemed so far-fetched… more like a dream really, but we were doing it.

But the noises persisted in the dark.

Snapped twigs turned into broken branches and the thuds of splitting logs falling away after being broken in two. The thumps of something out there… looming and steady and heavy pushing through the vines and the dense thicket of the forest. Something breathing… soft but deep. Distant still but there by us all the time now.

I looked up and the path seemed to stretch forever before us. “Dang it,” I cursed, stopping and looking back down at the map. “It shouldn’t be taking us this long.” I sighed and found where we were where the path twisted back to the left to eventually meet back up with the left path within twenty or thirty yards now… or at least that’s what I guessed. To be sure though, I kept my eyes down on the map.  

“Miles…” Brian pestered me, shaking my shoulder, something fearful biting at his voice now.

“Hold on,” I said, still trying to remain calm and get us out of here without getting turned around. The sooner we were back with the others, the better. Besides, Brian had been panicked almost from the start… so I blew him off for a moment. Whatever he wanted could last another minute.

“But Miles…” Brian called to me again, shaking me more abruptly like he had to pee or vomit or something.

“What?” I practically spat at my friend, my fear, my tiredness, and my impatience with these woods starting to catch up with me.

His hand slowly raised as his other hand clung to me in sheer terror, his whole body “Look…”

So, I did.

Two big yellow orbs… and a single blink was looking right back at us… the form of something large behind both.

My stomach twisted. I could feel my soul leave my body and my heart plummet to the floor in horror. It was real. The monster of legend… the Ghoulmoth was really real and now it was staring right back at me… breathing and blinking and growling. It seemed upset… angry… hungry.

I only had one thought on my mind and my lips. “Run!”

Brian didn’t need a second to process my command, and we both high-tailed it out of there.

Behind us, the growling turned into roars that shook the very forest floor. The branches around us moved like talons descending in on us or like the crushing prison bars of a cage set on capturing us for a monster’s dinner. More branches cracked… snapped in two by the monster’s weight. More breathing… roaring.

Ten seconds later, I saw the moving flashlight from the other branch of the pathway… followed by three mortified and confused faces.

“Miles?” Sammy questioned, Hubert now clinging to him like it was his only safety net in a pitched sea in the middle of a violent storm. “What’s…?”

A deathly, mountainous roar echoed from behind us… seemingly closer and gaining.

“Run!” I yelled. I didn’t even stop that time to see if they understood or even if they were running. I just ran and ran and ran. My heart pulsed rapidly and I felt faint, but my limbs propelled me forward. Fear and adrenaline pumped through me and I didn’t look back.

Fearing what I might see, I couldn’t.   

[SkippyYote]

Yeesh!!! I was getting goosebumps, reading the last section, where they split up. Great writing; I could visualize the whole scene.

[LostBBoyBear]

Hey everyone!

Well, the news I got this week wasn’t great. Definitely not the worst and I’m holding onto that as much as I can, but the rest of this year might even prove to be suckier than the first part of it… something I didn’t even think was possible at this point.

But regardless, what that means for this story is nothing so far. With the news not being as bad as I imagined it would be, it tells me there’s hope that I might not be pulled away like I once thought I might be. I’m still concerned about that and the interaction here or if people even like this story… but I can save those concerns for another day.

Now… last but not least and as usual, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter of my story!

Chapter 8: Seeing Something Is No Longer Proof

I ran and ran. I ran until my lungs wanted to burst. I ran until my heart wanted to explode. I kept running… always forward… always fast… never looking back once. I just heard the screams and shouts of my friends and the gnawing and the growling behind them. Snapped branches and dragging and all terror and pain and stalking and running.

I didn’t stop until I saw one of the far-off lanterns of our camp.

I stopped and tried to bend down to keep from puking and then stretched myself up to allow myself to breathe and not pass out. A moment later, the rest of my friends caught up with me… all equally pained and panicked and out of breath.

“What the hell was that?” Leo asked, panting heavily, his hands bracing against the tops of his knees.

“Some stupid moose or mountain lion,” Dwayne tried to counter as he caught up, less out of breath and more annoyed looking than anything.

“Oh, that’s bull and you know it!” Sammy shouted, spitting on the ground and wincing for a moment as he sucked in a huge deluge of air.

“Shh!” The last thing I wanted was to get caught on top of everything that had just happened. “Do you want them to catch us? We already wasted one night… you don’t want to get in trouble now, do you?”

“Wasted?” Dwanye questioned, a sneer curling up his lips. “What do you mean… wasted? We’re going back, right? We just need some tools or maybe a knife or…? I’m not sure, but we can leave in an hour and…”

“Are you crazy?” Brian had practically been shuddering in fear the whole time. I almost thought he was going catatonic after seeing exactly what I did. “Whatever it was… it’s still out there! You’re an idiot if you think you can take it on and stay in one piece?”

Dwayne glared back at Brian and then got up from his crouch and charged over to him, his fists clenched tightly. “What did you call me? Say it again! Say it again!”

Leo got up from his seated position next to a rock and put himself between Dwayne and Brian. “No! We are not doing this tonight. Damn it, Dwayne. I don’t know what was out there, but we could have been hurt! We were in serious trouble… don’t you realize that?”

“Oh… I think you are all in trouble tonight,” a familiar voice rattled through the trees, causing each of us to turn around and see the one and only, Mr. Nancy, standing right there. On his left, Mrs. Claw. On his right, Mr. King… primed with a shotgun already. “Isn’t that right, Mrs. Claw?”

She nodded and stepped up. “You all are in big trouble. But… for now, follow me.” She turned around, cold and calculating and just naturally expected us to follow her.

I was first. I could only swallow dryly as I realized the scope of what happened. On the way though, I at least had the good sense to hide Ron’s map.

The whole way back to the administration building, none of us spoke a word. Still a little winded from earlier, I dropped back. When I looked around at my fellow campers, only Brian seemed to be upset and nervous. Everyone else just looked pissed.

“I can’t believe you all would be so foolish to go out into the woods alone!” Mrs. Claw scolded us as the five of us sat in her office, the dark outside still covering everything in a sheet of black. “We have our rules for a reason. There’s a reason we don’t allow red or yellow cabins to wander around at night. It isn’t safe!”

“Yes, ma’am,” Leo said sullenly. “We understand…”

“Then why?” she pressed. “Why go out at all? Don’t you care about your safety?”

There was a long pause.

Sammy glared back at her and finally popped. “It’s because of how we look!” he shot back, drawing matching confused looks from both Mr. Nancy and Mrs. Claw. “I’m the youngest, sure, but these guys were in their 30s or 40 when they came here. Now look at them!”

I saw both ‘adults’ look at us and I knew what they were seeing. Once proud men of business with our own company and stock options with an eye always toward the future, we looked more like we belonged at the senior or even junior prom in high school. Brian seemed to take that description of a notion okay… clearly, stewing to the side, Dwayne did not.

“So, this is vanity? Why you tried to leave here so recklessly in the middle of the night?” Mr. Nancy asked, his expression reading like he wished for just about anything else to be our reasoning.

Sammy shook his head. “No… but what would you have us do? Every day, we hear more reports back home of parties and drinking and everyone having a grand old time as they regress downwards. Why can’t that be our lives? Why are we stuck here?”

“You signed a contract,” Mrs. Claw tried to explain. “It gave us legal permission to keep you here until you bounced for safety reasons. If you were to leave now, we would be liable for you. We could be in trouble if you were so much as hit by an apple coming off the back of a truck as you made you way back to the city.”

“We feel like prisoners,” Dwayne stated curtly. “Don’t you get that?” It was clear his patience was running thin… especially after our failed escape attempt from this place.

I saw how Mr. Nancy and Mrs. Claw looked. They either wanted to throttle him or at least punish him again. He had backtalked to them in a way that was not acceptable around here. Frustration was to be expected. Rudeness was not.

Worried that he might doom us all, I acted quickly. “It’s just we wanted to live our lives before they were totally gone.” Mellow dramatic perhaps, but to the point.

Sammy smiled, nodded, and pointed at me. “Yes. That.” It was almost like he couldn’t quite find the exact words he wanted to say and instead had maneuvered as best he could around them.

Mrs. Claw sighed. “Understandable then, but I don’t think we can make an exception here. I might suggest some more… exciting activities in the next few days for purple cabin though.”

Mr. Nancy nodded. “I’ll brainstorm a few ideas.

“Excellent.” Both seemed happy about that while the five of us looked a little more hesitant about what that could mean. “But… you all did break the rules, and we can’t just let that go…” Both Mrs. Claw and Mr. Nancy scratched their heads and stroked their chins in contemplation.

“But that’s not fair!” Leo protested.

“Yeah!” Dwayne agreed, though adopting a sicklier and more whining tone. “What kind of screw up people are you all? Stupid people on top always trying to bring us down… fuckin’ unbelievable.”

I saw a flicker of rage in Mrs. Claw’s eyes. She was clearly not used to having her authority tested so publicly like this. Sure, Dwayne’s aggression might have been accurate by not wanting to be dismissed so easily based on something as basic and simple as just wanting to enjoy what little time we had. But there were feelings… and then there was how much you moaned and were a real prick about it. And so frankly, when I saw them start whispering and heard ‘lower cabin,’ I panicked.

Two administrators being tested like that didn’t seem to bode well for us.

“But it was the monster!” I yelled, desperate not to be sent back down to yet another cabin already. Once under 18 and in the purple cabin, while general ages were adhered to with each of the remaining four cabins, it was more based on abilities and mental abilities. Apparently, once under 18, some exhibited mental or physical traits not associated with the age they normally would be at.

For example, there were some eight-year-olds in the yellow cabin because they couldn’t find the potty to save their lives.

“Monster?” Mrs. Claw asked me, raising one of her eyebrows in extreme suspicion. “Like from the ghost stories we tell you all at the bonfires?”

I saw her look of skepticism, and I saw the daggers from Sammy, Leo, and above all, Dwayne. It was right then that I knew I had messed up. Uriah had warned me to never bring it up first, and in my panic… I had done just that. ‘Shit…’

“I… I…” My scrambled to try and come up with an excuse of what I meant.

“We saw the yellow eyes,” Brian joined in. It was the truth and Brian was supporting me, but when I saw him smile at me, I saw he didn’t get it. He was a good person, but in situations like these, he just wasn’t aware of what it could mean for us. For him, it was black and white with what happened. He saw a monster and that was the truth. All other considerations were secondary… even if that meant alienating everyone else.

For me, in these situations I just spoke without really thinking.

Mrs. Claw leaned over to Mr. King. She whispered, but I could still hear her. “I was just debating if they should be moved to blue for safety reasons, but now… if they think it’s a monster…”

“Yeah…” Mr. Nancy agreed horrifically. “If they believe in monsters to the point of screaming and running away, maybe they don’t belong with the rest of the cabin…”

“That’s bull!” Dwayne shot out. “Don’t be idiots!”

The whole room froze.

“I think they might have only thought they saw something,” Leo noted after giving Dwayne a dirty look. Leo wasn’t always on Brian and I’s side, but he was logical and he knew that Dwayne could be too abrasive for his own good.

“And we didn’t see it,” Sammy pointed out. Others might have interpreted that as a betrayal, but for me, I knew it was the truth. Only Brian and I had seen the monster. Everyone else had only heard it. “Something was out there… but maybe a bear or a mongoose. I don’t know… but something. Just… not a monster.”

There was a moment of silence before Mr. Nancy and Mrs. Claw whispered some more.

“They’re just a bunch of pants-wetting, scaredy-cat babies! Send them down!” Dwayne called out from a place of fear and vileness. Anything to save himself… it was just his way.

But unlike Sammy who was simply telling the truth, Dwayne’s words hit me like a knife in my back. Though not true, watching the yellow cabin campers and even some red walk around with some prominent padded protection… it might have been a forecast of our futures.

And with everything that happened tonight, I didn’t need to be reminded of that fact.

“Dwayne… you are new to purple cabin, but we do not name-call our cabinmates,” Mr. Nancy shot at him with a stern look. “Do we understand each other?”

Dwayne looked about six seconds away from slugging someone but a head shake from Leo and his eyes bulging out once for emphasis, stopped his friend cold. “Yes… Mr. Nancy.”

Leo cleared his throat.

Dwayne winced and his cheek twitched. “I understand…”

Mr. Nancy nodded with a subtle smile. “Thank you, Dwayne.” He turned to the rest of us. “I think I can speak freely for Mrs. Claw as well that we will consider your punishment for trying to escape tonight. Maybe some trail renovation… or helping Mr. King out with some tasks… we’ll talk more tomorrow. But for now…” He turned briefly back to Mrs. Claw who gave him an approving nod. “You all can stay in purple cabin.”

I was relieved and my heart began to slow down. We were dismissed and guided back to our cabin by a wear Mr. Nancy… Mr. King following close behind. It thought because my mention of the monster didn’t cause us to be demoted down a cabin, I was in the clear.

I was not.

“Damn it, Miles!” Leo questioned me abruptly as soon as Mr. Nancy left us to ensure Sammy got to his cabin next door as well. “Do you realize what you’ve done?”

I saw everyone was already woken up in the cabin. From a side mutter, when we entered, Mr. Nancy had apparently done a bed check when someone saw us running into the forest. But now, Leo’s comment perked them all up.

I groaned and turned to him as I slung my pack over my bed to empty it. “You mean besides say the truth? Is that what you mean, Leo?”

“We all saw it,” Brian noted meekly before getting shot down by a stern glance from Leo.

“No, we didn’t,” Dwayne hissed. “It was just a big coyote… maybe a bear, but we only heard something out there. It’s law of the land or whatever… nothing more. You two saw it…” He scoffed. “If we even believe that. You two are just a bunch of sniveling cowards in the woods. Could have been a moth for all we know!”

“Hey… easy there…” Eric tried to calm down the situation, hopping out of his bunk. “No need for any name calling around here.” Several others seemed to nod to that idea as well.

Dwayne’s whole face contorted like he had smelled something rotten. Turning to me, he pointed right at my chest accusatorily. “But that weasel sold us out and spread lies that were going to get us all locked up here as a menace to ourselves and society! Did you know they can do that to us here?”

“What?” Leo asked in shock.

“It’s part of the rules…” Eric noted somberly. “Demoted cabin, right?” We all nodded and he sighed. “Yeah… if it actually happens, you all get put on a true hold and can’t be released from camp until a doctor then signs off on it. Right now, we all signed a contract to keep us here… but it can be broken or modified a ton of ways… none of which require a doctor.”

“So, I was right!” Dwayne exclaimed before pointing at me again, spit nearly flying out of his curled mouth. “If Leo and Sammy hadn’t intervened, we would have been toast!”

Dwayne raised a good point admittedly… one that I had already been worried about myself. I hoped because nothing had happened, I would be fine, but looking around, it was easy to see that the rest of the cabin seemed to agree with him. It wasn’t good.

But I saw what I saw. Ego or logic aside, my eyes didn’t lie. I wasn’t regressed to the point I couldn’t recognize a beast when I saw one. ‘I just don’t know if I could prove it to anyone at this point, and with no proof, I’m apparently a traitor or a scaredy-cat here…’

Eric winced and looked back at me, a dash of hope filling his eyes but mix of revulsion and sadness as well. “Miles… is all that true?”

I knew that all I had was the truth now. It was powerful stuff, but my words were hollow in this cabin and so they likely didn’t mean much. And by now, even if I lied and said that I only overreacted from lack of sleep or whatever, by now, I was confident that Dwayne would no doubt make it his personal mission to discredit me wherever, and however, he could.

So, with two equally bad paths ahead of me, I knew I just had to stick to the truth… even if that meant I would become the pariah and outcast of purple cabin not even into my third day here. “Yes…”

Most of the cabin gasped.

I flinched and knew this would be my one chance to defend myself. I was dubious of the results by now… but I felt I had to try. “But I didn’t mean it to be that way!” I protested. “I just meant to set the record straight. I heard her… she was already on the fence, and I thought that saying what I saw… monster or whatever, would be enough to push her off. I didn’t think it would make her think we should be in a lower cabin. Honest!”

“Bull!” Dwayne shouted, his fists cracking in their clenched rage. “You couldn’t cut it out in the real world and now here you actually mean something to these people. Admit it! I’ve seen you have fun here. You want to stay trapped here! Don’t you?” He was almost screaming at me now. If there weren’t so many witnesses, I could have sworn he would be throttling me by now. “But you’re just a low and stupid bast…”

“What is the meaning of this?” Mr. Nancy stormed in and questioned us. “Who is shouting? At this hour? Are you kidding me?” He turned to the person who was more or less in charge of the cabin. “Griff? What happened?” Griff started to speak but Mr. Nancy glared down at him in a way that made the usually confident teen shrink back for a second. “And the truth please…”

He looked at me and at Dwayne. “Sorry guys…” He then turned back to Mr. Nancy. “Those two, sir. Nothing much. Just some harmless name calling around here because of what they apparently did tonight. We were about to resolve it when you came in…”

Mr. Nancy looked at us both and sighed before pinching the bridge of his nose. “You two… and I just got finished arguing on your behalf that you belonged here. Was I wrong?”

Dwayne almost scoffed before being kicked by Leo.

For me, I shook my head. “No, sir. I just…” I shook my head again, but this time to clear my thoughts. “We were just loudly debating tonight. Not bad… just late and loud.” I paused and hung my head low. “I… I’m sorry…”

“That better be all it is.” He stepped closer into the cabin… to a point I had never seen him step before. He looked disapproving of the art but only turned back to us when he stopped. “In light of your coming punishment already for tonight and escaping, I’m going to let you both off with a warning… this time.”

Everyone was all smiles… for about five seconds. “But for all of you… if I see more of these late-night excursions and arguments and breaking of the rules though… I will start doing cabin inspections.” He stepped again, most in the cabin looking shocked. “And I will reinforce the rules in a way none of you thought possible or have seemed to take for granted.” He then stepped back closer to us before looking down to meet our frightened and guilty gazes. I was just trying to defend myself tonight… but he didn’t know that. “Understood?”

“Yes, sir!” we both snapped to readily answer his query without delay and not wanting to cause any more problems for the cabin than we already had.

Seemingly satisfied, he nodded to everyone else. “Now tuck in! It’s a few more hours until wake up and breakfast. And remember… laundry day tomorrow. Don’t forget!” With that, he stormed out the door.

No one wanted to push their luck. And with all the grumbling and mumbling around, I saw several dirty looks cast my way. Being responsible for the demotion to a younger cabin was apparently a serious offense around here. And as I got into bed, with an ache in my heart and an uneasy feeling in my gut, I felt convinced that of the whole cabin now, only Brian didn’t abhor me.

I turned over in bed and shut my eyes. ‘Stupid monster…’

*              *              *

In the morning, laundry came and went and we all soon found ourselves back in the dining hall for some breakfast. The mood around the table was anything but cheery. Dwayne and Leo still whispered and muttered to the others, and from their looks after, I could only guess that it was about what Brian and I had said last night. It was unfair and cruel of them, but Brian and I didn’t want to cause more waves, so we sat in silence.

But there was one difference beyond that.

“Attention! Attention!” Mrs. Claw squawked from the front, tapping her plastic mug against the table she ate at. “Quiet now! Quiet!” She smiled when everyone stopped and looked up at her. Something told me she liked to be in charge more than usual.

“Thank you…” She took a breath. “Now, as you may or may not have been told, last night and the night before, we had an incident in the woods. I just want to remind you all that solo exploration of the surrounding woods and breaking curfew is strictly forbidden.”

I swear those words were directed right at us.

“But, to ensure you all have a firm understanding of these woods and how to protect yourself in them, myself and the other cabin leaders and counselors here have decided instead of your previous activities today, you all will be focusing on this instead,” she announced, much to the loud chagrin of everyone in front of her.

She only smiled and let us resume our eating after.

As we exited the dining hall, I noticed more dark faces turned toward Brian and I other than our own cabin. Purple, blue, black… and even red. All of them seemed disgusted with us. Betrayal or being afraid of a story. Whispers of ‘their minds are already going if they believe that’ abounded everywhere.

Of course, a few didn’t seem to judge us too harshly.

“You really think that Ms. Peachy?” Eric asked as we gathered around to listen to her in her nature class. “There can’t really be monsters… can there?”

Ms. Peachy shot a quick smile to both Brian and I. “Well… I’m not sure. But let’s do a little exercise here. I describe something and you tell me what it is…” We all nodded and she smiled. “I have a bill for a mouth, a flat tail, and webbed feet. I also have thick brown fur and no teeth, but the males in my species have venomous ankle spurs while the females lie our eggs.” She eyed us with her unnatural peculiarity that suited her job well. “What am I?”

“Gross!” someone shouted from the back.

She smirked playfully and shook her head. “Maybe, but no good! Any other guesses?”

No one answered.

She strutted over and picked up a book before opening it. Finding the page she wanted, she walked back over and showed us the image of the creature. “I’m a platypus!”

Several of our cabinmates laughed.

She did too but setting the book down, she turned back toward us. “Now, I don’t know what’s out in those woods. With so many stories, something has to be out there. Remind me to bring int eh casting we made of some tracks we found… or the photographs of the scratch marks we’ve found on trees…”

Several of my fellow cabinmates squirmed at that, probably remembering our campsite yesterday where the trees were littered with them.

And while Ms. Peachy seemed to be a believer in something, other counselors seemed less so. Mr. Yoder had us calculate the bite force, strength, or other varying statistics of the more aggressive species of the area. His experiment was to show the biting or grip power of various animal he had encountered himself… including just what an alligator could do to a piece of chicken. And Mr. King, who announced our punishment would be helping him restock his kits and clean his guns three times a week, had set up various animal targets out on the range. Instead of shot guns, we used rifles and were taught various ways to evade or escape the large local predators.

Of course, Dwayne and the others took those lessons to heart and declared them as the answer to what we all heard last night and that Brian had seen. They even cited a book from Mr. Yoder’s collection about large-eyed creatures that could have reflected our light off its eyes and seemed more yellow than usual. But for Brian and I, we remained resolved in what we had seen.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Emma asked, holding out a glass of cool and refreshing lemonade while a few of us took a break from pulling weeds in the south fields.

Brian was filling our water bottles and most everyone else had been avoiding the two of us for the better part of the day if we could. So, I sighed. “Probably heard we tried to leave last night… and we saw something.”

“Oh…” It wasn’t sarcasm… just an oddly understanding tone when I told her that. “Let me guess… you told the truth of what you saw, and the staff freaked out and now your cabinmates didn’t appreciate that and are shunning you and… Brian, right?”

I look back at her, perplexed with how she knew so much. ‘Does she have an in at camp?’

She chuckled. “Relax, Miles. I’ve just seen this happen before. Before all this, the camp was for business get-togethers in the Fall and Spring and youth summer camps in the summer. Lots of lectures… some sightings and the fall-out after.”

“What happened?” Maybe there was hope and that those things stopped.

“The campers left and what they saw left as well,” she revealed, much to my dismay.

“Oh…” I liked Emma and she could be too bubbly some days, but she was a spark of life with an otherwise boring afternoon some days. Hearing her say that though, something that wasn’t probably coming soon for most of us wasn’t the best news I could have heard right then.

Buit Emma reached out and patted my shoulder. “But you want to know a bit of a secret?”

I looked back at her with curiosity and nodded my head.

She smiled and turned around before pointing at a series of towers closest to the tree line to the east and west of us. “See those? Those are for our night watchmen.”

“To protect the food stores?” I asked, though a part of me already feeling my guess was wrong.

“No, Miles. They protect us from the wildlife. And there are towers for just about every animal type out there. I’ve seen ‘em work!” But she then stopped and leaned in after looking around us… almost like she had a secret to tell. “Those towers… weren’t made for bear or mongoose or coyote or whatever else in mind…”

I wanted to ask her more. She seemed to know something more.

But she pressed her fingers to her lips. “Shh… it’s a secret, Miles. Don’t tell the others and this is all I can tell you… but isn’t it interesting?”

It was and despite my promise to her right after, I told Brian about the towers. It was technically a breaking of the trust and while I felt bad about that, because of the truth I had told, I had spent the whole day alone. Knowing that I was still regressing, I needed at least one person in my corner.

“So… what do you think?” I asked, passing around the campgrounds once we got back, having a little time to kill today between now and dinner.

“I don’t know about the towers, Miles,” Brian admitted. “But… I know what we saw last night. I can’t imagine this place wouldn’t do something about it. The guns Mr. King and Mr. Nancy brought on the camping trip would normally be enough to convince people that there’s something going on.”

“True.” I sighed. “Just wish they would be more understanding…”

Brian smirked and wrapped his arm around the back of my neck. Yeah… but they’re them and we’re us. And I don’t know about you, but this morning at breakfast, there was more than one person that looked genuinely terrified about what was happening. Who knows? Maybe there’s mor…”

In a flash, bags went over our heads. Stuffy and almost completely concealing saggy things that threatened to slouch haphazardly into my mouth or show just enough light from the outside world to know it existed and now far away from you. Not wanting to go with them, I struggled before being manhandled away without much effort on their part.

“Shh! No talking. No struggling,” a voice grumbled from behind me as others pushed me forward. “And rules other than that. Only one… you follow what we say when we say it. If someone says go… you go. They say right and you…?”

“I go right,” I responded, my stomach gurgling from my nerves and my mind telling me to cooperate with these people as much as possible.

“Good…” I could almost hear the pleasure they got from being right. “You just keep going and we won’t have a problem.”

Pushing and shoving and stumbling over rocks and tree roots. Brian and I never fell… but we were close multiple times.

“Miles… I’m scared,” Brian said meekly to me.

I sighed. “Me too, buddy… me too…”

“Keep going,” a voice growled at me before I could say more.

‘Damn… one night of failure and all this…’ I couldn’t believe my luck in the past 24 hours. A failed rescue, almost demoted to blue cabin, shunned by almost everyone despite only telling the truth, and now taken away with Brian with bags over our faces.

I just hoped things would get better… and fast.