Chapter 7

*~!~Rattler's Dream~!~*

Camp Juvenile (the camp they were now at) was nothing like Camp Green Lake. All day long they went to classes to "learn" what they did was wrong.

After supper that night, Mr. Sir came into Tent CGL.

"The Warden is just fine," he told them. "You will be returning to camp in 2 days."

"How did she live?" Zig-Zag asked, eyes bulging and looking shifty.

"She got bitten by a rattler, not a lizard."

"Oh," everyone replied, disappointed. Mr. Sir turned to leave, but Rattler stopped him.

"Mr. Sir? One more question?" she asked hopefully.

"Hurry up and ask it. I ain't got all day," he growled.

"About Squid." She hesitated for a moment. "Have you heard about his condition?"

"Last I heard about him was yesterday morning. Inches away from death, then."

"Oh," was she could force herself to say. Her eyes quickly filled with tears threatening to spill over. She slowly walked to her cot and laid face down on it, hearing Mr. Sir walk out.

She felt someone sit down beside her. "You okay?" It was X-ray.

"There's nothing I have to live for. It's pain like I've never felt before," she replied in a muffled voice.

He gently rubbed her back, and she heard him heavily heave, as if something were bothering him immensely. "It's aight. He'll be okay," he replied, but it sounded like he was reassuring himself more than her.

She slowly sat up, looked around, and gasped with surprise. She wasn't the only one crying. Even X-ray had tears rolling down his cheeks.

She hugged X-ray as tight as she could. "God, X-ray! Why did it have to be Squid? WHY?!" She started sobbing even harder (if it was possible), pulled away from X-ray, and looked at her tent mates. She knew she wasn't alone in Squid's passing.

"I don't know, Rattler. I just don't know," X-ray replied. He got up, walked back to his cot, and Natasha and Magnet walked to Rattler's cot and sat down. Magnet slipped his arm around her waist and Natasha gave her a big hug. Rattler put her arm around Magnet, put her head down ad sobbed. He slipped his other arm around her and pulled her into a tight embrace. He kissed the top of her head and got up, letting Tank sit in his spot. Tank Natasha, and Rattler talked for an hour and half, until time for lights to be out. They all said their goodnights, everyone went back to their own cot, and went to sleep. Or they tried to. Four people were left awake.

Rattler waited quietly in her cot for about 20 minutes before crying out loud again.

"Rattler?" a voice in the darkness called.

"Huh? Who's that?"

"It's X-ray."

She quickly sat up. "Hey, come over here." She heard him scramble out of his cot and stumble over to her's. She swung her feet onto one side of the cot so he could sit down beside her.

He grabbed her hand, squeezed it, and she heard his breath turn a little shaky. "Rattler, together we can make it through this. But we can't deal with this alone.:

She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "X-ray! Why couldn't it have been me?"

He shook his head. "I wish it was me, if anyone. I just know that I let him down."

She pulled away from him and roughly shook her head. "You've done anything but let him down. You should be proud of everything you've done for him. And for ALL of D-tent for that matter!"

He sighed. She held his hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "I don't feel like I've been the best leader I can be."

She shook her head. "X, you've been MORE than you can be." Then they heard someone scramble around from their cot, walk over to Rattler's, and sat down.

Rattler strained her eyes to see who it was, but all she could tell that there was 2 figures at the end of her bed.

"Who's that?" she whispered into the dark.

"Regan," someone replied.

"Zero," another person said.

Rattler and X-ray moved to the end of her bed with Regan and Zero. The four talked for about an hour before going back to bed. Rattler gave each Regan and Zero a hug, and thanked them for the talk.

When she got to X-ray, they gave each other a long, tight hug.

"Thanks so much, X-ray. This is going to be so much easier with your help," Rattler exclaimed, crying.

"Hey, D-tent ALWAYS sticks together, baby," he said, messing her hair up. She gave him a half-hearted smile and laid back down on her bed, smothering her face into the pillow. She heard X-ray go back to his bed and lay down.

Rattler found it exceptionally difficult to sleep, but when she finally drifted off, she had a disturbing dream about Squid.

^-^ Rattler's Dream^-^

She was walking down a long, very dark hallway. There were hundreds of doors on either side of her. She tried to open every one she passed, but all were locked. As she got further and further down the hallway, she saw a light on the right side of it. She quickened her pace to a stride, then to a jog, the finally broke out into a run.

It seemed to take forever to get to the door the light was coming from. She walked cautiously into the room, and what she saw made her fell as if her heard and just been ripped from her chest.

Squid was lying on a hospital bed, hooked up to all kinds of machines and bags filled with fluids. A doctor, 2 nurses, and an older teenage boy were talking over him.

"Matt, we've never seen anything like it," the Doctor said, speaking quietly, almost in a whisper. "The bullet..... it skimmed a slight piece of his heart, but it's beating regular, just like nothing ever happened to it. I mean, there's no internal bleeding. None. At all! It just baffles us that it's acting this way. We're going to run some tests on him, just to check for other injuries, though I seriously doubt it. I'm still afraid to release him."

"Doctor, Matt gave me some very interesting information earlier today," one of the nurses interrupted, nodding towards the boy. "He told me that Alan will wake up every now and then and just yell out 'rattler'. Could this mean something? Anything at all?"

The doctor frowned and rubbed his chin, thinking. "I don't know, but I will look into it."

Rattler was very emotional, but held her tears in. The doctor looked in her direction, but it was as if he was looking THROUGH her instead of at her.

"Melony," the doctor gently said, "would you like to come closer?"

"M-me?" Rattler asked, startled.

"We'll give you some privacy," he replied, gesturing to the nurses to follow hom to the door.

When they left the room, Rattler slowly walked to the bed. All of the sudden she felt a cold chill pass through her, felt like something was tugging at her naval, then saw a girl walking in front of her.

She gasped and thought, in shock, 'That girl walked through me!' Instinctively, she looked down at her hand. It was transparent. She ran over to the mirror on the opposite wall and tried to screamed at what she saw. 'AM I A GHOST?!' her head screamed.

She turned around, panting, wondering, 'What the hell is wrong with me?'

She looked at the bed, and what she heard made her feel both like her world just fell apart and like she wanted to kill someone.

Melony's chin-length black hair wonderfully accented her teary baby blue eyes. She squeezed Squid's hand and softly said, "Alan, don't you dare break your promise! Stay alive! Fight for life, baby! If not for me, or even yourself, then do it for Chasity! She needs her daddy as much as I do!

"Alan, I swear by the life of me, if you die, I will, too! And this isn't like one of those weak ass suicidal threats you used to make! If you die, I swear, I'LL KILL MYSELF!" The tears that were threatening to spill over finally poured down her face as Matt pulled her into a hug.

"Be strong," he said, soothingly. "Please, act like my big sister! Act like the tough, mean bitch I used to know," he said, half pleading, half joking.

She shook her head vigorously . In between sobs, she said, "The last thing he sa.... said to me was that his only...... w-wish..... was that I would die a.... and burn in hell! Do you know wh.... why he said that?!" When Matt shook his head, she screamed, "HE SAID I SCREWED SOMEONE ELSE! HE SAID HE HATED ME! HE STORMED OUT AFTER BREAKING UP WITH ME AND THE ONLY REASON HE EVEN TALKS TO ME ANYMORE IS BECAUSE OF CHASITY!"

Matt sat her down in a chair and gently rubbed her back. "Shhh...."

"And I know who Rattler is!" she blurted. Rattler listened even more attentively to this part.

"Who?"

"You see, he had been writing Chasity from that camp he was at, and never wrote anything to me or about me," she explained through tears. "A couple of weeks ago, I got the courage up to write him and ask how he's been. You wanna hear his reply?" When Matt just stared at her, she took it as a 'yes' and she took a folded piece of paper out of her pocket. "It has to do with this 'Rattler' person."

She unfolded the paper, held it in front of her, and cleared her throat. "Melony, not that it's any of your GODDAMN business, but there's a girl, Rattler, up here that I'm really into. I know she's into me, because I've seen her staring a few times, and also hear her at night talking about me." By this point, Rattler's throat felt tight and closed. She didn't know Squid had seen her staring at him, or even heard her late into the night, talking to herself about him. She only prayed no one heard.

"The only reason I keep contact with you is for Chasity's sake," Melony continued. "There's nothing left between us, and the only reason I'm even bothering to write you is to tell you this: Don't bother writing back (even though I know you most likely won't have time, you know, being a whore and screwing every guy in town and all), cuz I won't write back.

"And that's what he wrote," she said, folding the letter back. "I cheated once and he acted like I made a living by screwing guys for cash." She sighed, still crying, and looked at his bed. "Not a day goes by that I don't regret it."

"I know how bad you feel," Matt said, in a soothing voice.

Rattler walked to Squid's side. Crying, she tried to put her hand on his, but failed. As soon as her hand went through his, though, he quickly sat up in his bed, awake and alert.

He looked at her and his eyes went as wide as saucers. "Rattler?! Is that you?" he excitedly asked.

Matt and Melony rushed quickly over to him. Melony grabbed his hand and softly said, "Hey, Alan." He roughly jerked his hand away, still staring at Rattler.

Matt asked, "You alright, man?" glancing at the spot Rattler was, but couldn't see her.

"Rattler, is that you?" Squid repeated, his face falling.

She couldn't speak, but when she found her voice, she could only nod her head and say, "Yeah."

A single tear rolled down Squid's cheek, but he quickly wiped it away. "How can you see me?" Rattler finally managed to ask.

"I-I...... I don't know." Matt and Melony glanced uneasily at one another.

"Alan, are you alright?" Matt asked, uncertainly.

"I'm fine," Squid replied, still looking at Rattler as if he ever looked away, he would never see her again.

For some reason, she glanced down at her watch. 10:27. Suddenly, she heard a loud, buzzing noise. It got louder and louder until she could no longer stand it.

She was cowered on the floor, clutching her ears, when everything went black.

^-^ End of Rattler's Dream^-^

When she woke up, the tent was empty. She felt something wet on her back, and when she looked, she realized she was drenched in sweat.

She looked at her watch and gasped. 10:27. She quickly jumped out of bed, but shortly stopped and desperately tried to grasp the wall for support. Her head was pounding, her vision was blurry, her legs felt like jell-O, and worst of all, she felt a cold wave of nausea sweep over her. She tried hard not to puke, but when some sweat slid onto her dry, parched lips, she, by instinct, lapped it up.

She doubled over and started to vomit. 'Damn, this hurts!' she silently cursed. She wasn't only talking about the physical pain, but the emotional, too. 'What if it wasn't a dream? What if it was real? What if he really DOES have a little girl named Chasity?' That dream was an emotional blow harder than she could bare.

"Rattler!" a heavy Hispanic accent interrupted her thoughts. She looked up and saw Magnet running at her. 'Oh no,' she thought as she felt nausea take over her body again.

She threw up. Her legs, becoming weaker and weaker every second, collapsed underneath her weight, but strong arms caught her before she hit the ground.

She tried to ask Magnet what was happening to her, but her lips didn't want to move. She started crying, frustrated at how weak and helpless she was, and how much pain she was in right now.

She looked up at Magnet, her vision now normal. His lips were moving, but she couldn't make out anything he was saying. She glanced at the door and saw D-tent running in, one by one, each having separate jobs to do.

Rattler's vision all of the sudden went so unfocused, she tightly shut her eyes, afraid of getting dizzy and vomiting again.

She reopened her eyes after a while and saw a cluster of people she didn't know surrounding her. She could hear again, but she couldn't understand anything that was being said.

Her vision had cleared up a little, but was still blurry. She could tell Armpit's blurry figure was beside her. She could smell him, too.

She tried holding her breath to keep from vomiting, but it was too late. She winced and moaned at the excruciating pain.

Her body started involuntarily jerking. Suddenly, she felt herself hit something hard, head-first, hearing a loud crack, a girl scream, and then all was black and quiet.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When Rattler regained consciousness, she was in her bed in the tent. Her head was pounding worse than ever, and she groaned at the pain.

"Feeling bad?" Startled, she cautiously looked beside her. She sighed with relief and nodded. It was Magnet.

"I feel better, though, my head is hurtin like crazy. But, hey, I ain't complainin."

"You gave us a scare," he admitted. He looked at his watch. "Hungry? It's almost noon."

She nodded. "I don't really want to eat, though," she added. "I'm afraid to."

"The doctor said you could eat, but you have to take it slow."

"In other words, eat the total opposite of how I normally do?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Okay, fine. I'll take some food."

"Okay. I'll be back," he said getting up.

"Thank you," she called after him, but he didn't hear her. She sighed. 'If only I could talk to Squid,' she thought.

She stood up, stretched, and images of her dream flooded her head. She gasped and wondered if Magnet would know anything about Squid's life before Camp Green Lake.

She heard someone coming and quickly jumped back into bed.

"Here you go," Magnet said, walking into the tent with two trays. He handed one to Rattler and she took it gratefully. The food they had for lunch was a grilled cheese, a bag of pretzels, a banana, and a raisin cookie.

"I hate raisins. Want my cookie?" she asked, nodding towards it. Magnet took it.

"Thanks," he said through a mouth full of food.

"No, thank YOU. For the food, I mean."

"Anytime."

After Rattler finished eating, Magnet took their trays back to the cafeteria. When he returned, she asked him if the name 'Melony' meant anything to him.

He eyed her suspiciously. "No, why?"

She glared at him, unconvinced. "What about Chasity?"

He flinched and stared at her in disbelief. "How'd you find out?"

She jumped out of her bed. "Tell me everything you know, Magnet!"

"But-"

"Just do it!"

"Okay, okay, fine. All I now is Melony is his ex, but before they broke up, they messed around a couple of times. She had a baby girl named Chasity, but they broke up when she was about 5 months old. She just turned 2 a couple of weeks ago. On the day you girls came, I think."

"Is that all you know?" she asked, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt.

"Yes!"

She shook him. "Do you swear?!"

"I promise!"

"I hafta get to a phone!" she yelled, running out of the tent in her pajamas.

"Wait!" she heard Magnet yell, close behind her. Then a hand grabbed her arm and jerked her back so roughly, she fell hard to the ground.

"DAMNIT, MAGNET! LEMME GO!" she growled, struggling to get out of his grasp.

"No! Get back here!" he hissed, using all of his strength to pull her back into the tent and forcefully pushed her onto the bed.

He straddled her waist and pinned her wrists down. "You can't get out of bed! Doctor's orders!"

"Well, you bein on top of me in my bed is SOO much better!" she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

Right as he was about to get up, they heard someone gasp and say, "How could yall do that to Squid?!"

Kiwi: Suspense! *dun-dun dun-dun* Lol! So please r/r! Thnx!!

Rattler: God, you're retarded.

Kiwi: Don't make fun of the mentally challenged......

Rattler: I make fun of whoever I damn well please, thank you.

Kiwi: It's whomever.

Rattler: Yer in tha south. No one sayz stuff like that.

Kiwi: Whatever. Oh, and, happy late birthday to Heather! *music plays and Kiwi starts singing off tune*

Rattler: *covers her ears* Who tha hell is Heather.

Kiwi: *still singing*

Rattler: HELLO?! *thumps Kiwi hard in the head*

Kiwi: *finishes song and rubs her head* The girl we muse. AND THAT HURT!

Rattler: You'll live, yeh big baby.

Kiwi: *waves bye* Goodbye everyone! Til we meet again! Our next chapter will, hopefully, be soon!