Author's Note

Okay, so I'm an idiot. I had trouble getting down exactly who was who, and I thank those who commented to tell me to get my head out of my butt. Hopefully I've fixed all the species confusion in the first chapter, if anyone wants to double check, it'd be appreciated. But now for a another chapter of…

Happy Tree Camp!
"No Rushin'"
Starring
?

And the Redwood Cabin!

….

The Cabins of Happy Tree Camp were a very simple deal. Held a few feet off the ground by a few beams, wide enough to fit around three beds on either side of it, and two more bunks on the side opposite of its entrance. Screens around the perimeter of it allow your neighbors to easily see inside, if you didn't close the shades, and it allowed for a little room in the center of it to move about. That's where our day begins. Or more rather, our night. The campers of Redwood Cabin just couldn't fall asleep, after all, why would you want to go to bed if you were to wake up to a war scarred bear ready to put you through a hell of a boot camp in the morning.

Desmond Jazed, DJ, sat in his bunk, tossing cards across the room into Shifty's overturned fedora while the two raccoon brothers watched, sitting in a corner. Niki was rolling around in her bunk, more than a little worried, and Ruffy was suckling the meat off a few crawfish shells. Apparently Niki had no taste for fish, and ate around them in the gumbo, so Ruffy was happy to take the remainder of her bowl back to the cabin.

Finally, Niki fell right out of her bunk with a loud thump, and shouted, though not out of pain, "What are we gonna do?"

Ruffy spat a shell he was chewing on into the bowl and wiped his mouth with his sleeve, before responding, "What do you mean, about what?"

"About tomorrow, of course," She bounced onto Ruffy's bunk and grabbed his shoulders, "I am not getting put through Flippy's Marine Core!"

Zehuva, who had been dreaming blissfully about tomorrow, stirred from underneath her covers, "Oh cheer up! At least we're gonna spend tomorrow with Flippy!" She swooned, her voice quavering when she said his name, and she even fluttered her eyelashes. Shifty rolled his eyes, and placed his fedora back over his ears, while his brother snickered.

"Well, any bright ideas about tomorrow?" Shifty asked to no one in particular, but nevertheless a hand shot up. Of course, Shifty didn't even turn in Zehuva's direction, "That doesn't involve hanging out with Flippy?" A sad moan and she lowered her hand. DJ, who was rolling a screw he had found on the ground between his fingers, spoke up,

"Why don't we go find someone to take Lumpy's place? I mean, this is a big forest, lots of people come and camp here. We could find someone tonight and bring them here to apply for a job!"

The campers muttered amongst themselves. It was a crazy idea, but then again most of them were crazy. But Lifty spoke up, "Oh come on, are you high? What's the odds of finding someone who will just happily sign up to watch us? Not including whatever pedophile we meet in the woods."

Lifty ducked just in time to avoid the crawfish that was thrown at him, and hit the cabin screen with a wet thud. He glared over at Ruffy, who nervously pointed his gaze towards Niki, who was fuming.

"It doesn't matter! I'm stressed out, I don't wanna go to boot camp, you're ugly and this cabin stinks like fish!" She was yelling much louder than she realized, panting and clutching her fists. Ruffy calmly patted her on the back.

"S'all right cowgirl, we'll go for a walk," He said, trying to comfort her. He looked around the rest of the cabin, and the others seemed to be in agreement. After all, a little fresh air couldn't hurt, could it? The campers piled quietly out of the cabin, taking care not to wake up the other campers in the closely knit circle that everyone was bedded in. They bumped and tripped and cursed each other for every sound they made. If they woke anyone up, it'd be all over.

So, with DJ leading the pack with Niki close behind, the group headed out, towards the construction site. As far as they knew, they had slipped out without being noticed. Of course, what they didn't know was someone had been watching them. Standing across the way from the cabins, a certain hairless gorilla was pushing his mop and bucket back to the small shack in which he slept, and had noticed them slipping out. He smiled dully, and took a small notepad, jotting down something quick, before returning to his late night work.

…

"Okay, now up and at 'em!" Ruffy and DJ popped Zehuva over the chain link fence, leaving only them on the other side. Lifty and Shifty tossed over their sheets from the other side, they had quickly tied them up into an impromptu rope, which Ruffy and DJ climbed over. They initially wondered why a camp needed a fence, but after going beyond it for a few minutes, they starting to wish they hadn't asked. It looked normal from afar, sure, but what the heavy machinery was digging up was much more interesting.

"Guys, I'm really starting to regret coming here," Zehuva shuddered a little, passing by some of the digs. The rocks that had been pulled out of the earth looked odd, and seemed like they had something carved in it.

"Quiet fangirl, we'll make it out fine." DJ called back to her, though he was starting to become nervous. The bottoms of the holes seemed to be glowing in the moonlight. He prayed it was just his imagination. Every time he passed a hole, despite his best efforts he looked down it, and whatever was at the bottom was starting to look like drawings. Drawings of people. He looked back to Zehuva, and with almost an apology in his voice said,

"So, what do you think they're doing here anyway?"

A bit of silence washed over the group, none of them really knew what they were doing. And none of them certainly didn't want to talk about it. Someone shouted and broke the silence, much DJ's relief.

"Hey you guys!" Ruffy, who had moved ahead, was standing on top of a mound of dirt, "There's something out there, further out in the woods, someone's got a campfire going!"

"Great, let's go you guys, quit lagging behind!" DJ seemed aggravated, but he really just wanted to get out of the site. The brave little group moved onward, with Lifty finding himself in the lead now. The trees started getting thicker as they went along, and the raccoon brothers were starting to miss the dig site. Shifty began to say something as they went along, but he wasn't able to finish.

Something snapped around his foot and hoisted him into the air. His brother jumped back in shock and shrieked, which calmed everyone else down, to say the least. They practically forgot they were trying to be quiet, with all their laughing.

Lifty blushed, and started helping his brother down. That was the least of their troubles, though, within a few more feet they walked into another trap, a few arrows, neatly placed in a makeshift tripwire bow, lashed out and just barely punctured Zehuva's favorite beret. And before they could catch their breath, Niki nearly fell into a Burmese tiger trap. They were clearly walking into serious danger, but they silently agreed that trying to turn their back on whatever was setting these traps was a bad idea, and marched onward.

It wasn't long before they could smell the ashes in the air, and feel the heat of the fire. Ruffy saw it first, and ran forward further, to what he thought was a tent. The others weren't quite as quick, and he nearly left them behind, before Niki sprinted after him,

"Wait up Ruffles, where are you going?"

He stopped in his tracks, and turned towards them,"Don't call me that! And I found the camp site,"

Ruffy turned to feel a cold kiss from a Tokarev TT-30 pistol. His entire body was thrown into a cold sweat, and he started to tremble. The man on the other end of the gun was a Hyena, and a grizzled one at that. His fur was messed, and cuts crisscrossed his face. Ruffy looked behind him, the Hyena's "campsite" was a fire, some empty bottles, and what looked like a downed helicopter. His eyes were steely, looking down at him with cold conviction, and he spoke calmly, and softly.

"Who, the hell, are you?" His accent was heavily Russian. Ruffy shook, and stammered,

"I, I'm R-ruffy. Me and my f-friends are," The Hyena's hand shot up, towards the woods.

"Who else is out there?" He shouted, the others stepped out, their hands in the air. He constantly switched who he pointed the pistol at, almost deciding who to shoot, before he aimed back down at Ruffy, "Go on, tell me what you're doing here."

"We're just campers, from the camp a little ways off, and we were looking for a counselor for our cabin."

He scowled, "Do I look like a babysitter? Go, before fertilize the trees with your brains." DJ called out from a few feet away,

"Hey, c'mon, can't you use the money? I mean look at you!" The others were horrified, but DJ was grinning ear to ear, despite an angry Russian who was now pointing a fire arm at him.

"What about me?"

"You're living in the woods surrounded by empty vodka bottles, couldn't you use a little cash? I mean, ow!" Niki elbowed him in the ribs,

"Are you retarded, that's the last kinda guy we need at camp!" She whispered, he leaned in close and whispered back,

"Hey, he's better than Flippy." DJ turned back, "C'mon, it won't be that hard, if a degenerate like Meth could get a job there, you could!"

The Hyena's hand tensed up, and he walked past Ruffy, the gun held high. He pressed the gun against his temple, and spoke close to his face.

"Did you just say, Meth?"

"Yeah, bear, black hair, dull listless eyes, know him?" The Hyena looked about to click the trigger, before smiling, tossing the gun in his holster. A mockery of a smile spread across his face, as if he'd forgotten how a smile was supposed to look like and tried faking it. Then, he exploded with laughter, making everyone else a little more nervous.

"I like you, little boy. Okay, deal, I will go to camp with you. My name is Ryder," He raised his hands and called the others, "C'mere children, we're a family now." The campers hesitated, and the Ryder yelled,

"I SAID NOW!" They quickly huddled together, and he wrapped his arms around them. They struggled a bit, especially Zehuva.

"You…smell like Vodka and beef." She muttered, holding her breath. Ryder glanced around,

"So now we go back to camp."

"Kinda, we're not even supposed to be out." Shifty laughed, nervously.

Ryder drew back, and rubbed his chin, contemplating, "Then, you go ahead, I'll catch up with you. I don't think there are many traps left, but just to be safe, I'd go around the construction site for now."

Even though most of them doubted DJ's choice, it would be ridiculous to try and argue with this man, and just plain stupid to make him angry. So they turned the other way, and started walking around the perimeter of the site, no one was eager to step back inside there anyway. Though, something was still eating at Shifty, something strange.

"Hey, how did that guy know the camp was behind this construction site?"

….

Now that the children were gone Ryder could analyze his newfound opportunities. Four years living in these woods trying to trap it were finally paying off. Now he knew were both of the experiments were, both of them were somewhere in these woods. He took a bag from the busted frame of the helicopter he had traveled to these woods, the same that served as his temporary home. He'd use the children to get close to Meth, and convince him that his old friend was somewhere in the woods.

Then he'd finish off whoever was left.

"Two birds, one stone." He chuckled, packing another clip of ammunition, nestling it between the hand grenade and vodka.

Well, what do we have here?

Next time, we'll take a look at Weeping Willow Cabin!