Chapter 4

"WHAT IS GONG ON HERE!" boomed Instructor Chill, bursting into the boy's cabin.

A small boy with buck teeth pointed at Calvin and Hobbes, who, at the moment, were cowering under the covers of their bed.

"What is going on here!" repeated Chill. "Why are you even awake!"

Calvin stuck his head out from under the covers.

"Uh...." he stuttered. "Is that a trick question?"

"You have woken up the whole of Camp Pine!" bellowed Chill. "Explain your actions!"

Calvin rolled his eyes around. "um... well.... you see... there was this bush, and a... a forest, and... um... the bush was shaking, and... well the water balloons were stolen, and uhhh... Susie.... something..."

the entire cabin stared at Calvin.

"What are you talking about?" Chill asked.

"It's a riddle!" Calvin said quickly. "I'm shook up by a mysterious force, and can't barley talk!!! And you have to de-code the code! See ya!"

Calvin leaped back under the covers.

"Calvin get out from under there." Chill sighed. "What happened?"

Calvin didn't answer.

Chill stared at him for a long moment.

"Go back to sleep." he told the rest of the cabin, and he walked out of the cabin.

"Aaawwwww." said Moe's mocking voice. "Is poor little twinky SCARED of the dark?"

"Shut up, Moe." Calvin muttered.

"Oooooooo" said the rest of Moe's gang.

Moe walked over to Calvin. "Answer me, twinky, it wouldn't be polite, if you didn't.

Calvin sat up. "And Mr Inspector Cold wouldn't be to proud on how your acting."

Moe laughed. "Chill's not here." he said, coldly.

"Good point." said Calvin rolling his eyes around.

Calvin noticed an open window next to his bed.

"Hadn't thought of that."

"Now, I'm gonna pound ya, and enjoy every second of it." said Moe.

Calvin grabbed Hobbes and swung him at Moe. "BITE HIM! HOBBES! BITE HIM!"

Calvin had swung Hobbes around so fast, that he knocked Moe in the head, and Moe fell over.

Calvin grinned. "Bye, bye, Moe! I'm not gonna take this any longer! When Chill asks where I am, tell him you forced me to the edge!"

and with that, Calvin grabbed his backpack with everything in it, and scrambled out the window, with Hobbes close behind.

"GET BACK HERE, TWINKY!" Moe yelled after him, but Calvin just kept on running.

"Where are we going?" Hobbes puffed. "The forest! They'll never find us!"

Calvin replied. Hobbes stared at him in disbelief. "Calvin! That's where that THING is!" he yelled.

"We'll avoid it!" Calvin shot back.

"But... but... but we've never explored this forest before! We might get lost!"

"There's a trail, we'll be able to go through it!"

Hobbes knew he wasn't going to win this argument. So he rushed into the forest, with Calvin in the lead.

They ran for a long time.

Trying to avoid the various monsters of the forest. Like tree monsters, or bush monsters, or leaf monsters! Stuff like that.

They ran and they ran till the sun up. And by then, they were exhausted.

Hobbes yawned and lied down. So did Calvin.

"I... have... nev...er....ran...so...far...in...all..my...life!" Hobbes gasped.

Calvin reply was a wheezy gasp.

They lied there for a long time. Sleeping, and regaining their energy.

Meanwhile, back at Camp Pine, Chill was reading everyone's names off a list to see if they were there.

"Susie?"

"Here."

"Moe?"

"Here."

"Candice?"

"Here."

"Calvin?"

no response.

"CALVIN?"

no response.

"Where is Calvin?" Chill said coldly.

"YOU!" he pointed a hairy finger at Moe. "Did you happen to see Calvin last night?" he whispered, menacingly.

Moe gulped, and shook his head.

"WHERE IS CALVIN!" Chill boomed.

The small boy with buck teeth slowly rose his hand.

Chill rolled his head over to the boy. "Yes, Alex?"

"He ran away, instructor." Alex said. "Him and his stuffed tiger."

Chill's eyes bulged. "WHAT!" he screamed. "WHAT!"

Alex winced, and backed away from Chill.

"WHY WOULD CALVIN HAVE ANY REASON TO RUN AWAY!" boomed Chill. "WELL?!"

Susie raised her hand, fearlessly, and said, "Moe, sir, Moe is always bulling Calvin. Calvin might have ran off because of him. After all, Calvin had to sleep with him."

Chill's eyes shot at Moe like bullets. "Is that so?" he hissed. Moe grinned, nervously.

Chill started toward Moe.

When all at once, Candice burst out of the girl's cabin.

Chill hadn't notice her go. Chill's head shot up, as Candice started dialing a number on the telephone.

RING! RING! RING!

"Dear, will you get that?" Calvin's mom said.

"Sure, honey" said Calvin's dad, and he picked up the phone.

"Hello? Yes this he. HE WHAT?!?!"

mom's head shot up. "What?" she asked.

Dad held up his hand to silence her. "Yes. Yes. No. yes. Yes right away, thank you!"

he slammed the phone onto the receiver. "Calvin's run away from the camp, and now he's lost in the woods."

Mom gasped.

Dad grabbed the phone, and dialed 911.

"Hello!" dad said quickly. "My son is lost!"

there was a moment of silence in which the 911 operator told dad to calm down.

Dad explained everything.

"Don't worry," the operator said. "We'll send search and rescue over to camp pine."

dad hung up, and told mom to get ready.

Minutes later, they were in the car, and off the summer camp.

Chill stared at Candice. "what did you just do?" he hissed.

"I called Calvin's parents. They're sending search and rescue over."

Chill stared her. "THAT'S MY JOB!" he yelled.

Candice drew back in fear.

Chill looked around all the terrified kids around him.

He was obviously not having a good day.

Meanwhile, Calvin and Hobbes had woke up, and were continuing on the trail.

The following is the conversation they held.

"So, what do you think that thing was last night?" asked Hobbes "ya know, Hobbes," Calvin said. "I think we might of over reacted. That might of just have been a chipmunk." "But I saw something." said Hobbes. "What?" asked Calvin. Hobbes explained about the grey tentacle that had taken their water balloons. "You mean..." started Calvin but just then Calvin felt something cold, and wet hit him.

He was knocked to the ground. Sopping wet.

"What on Earth?" Calvin stuttered. Just then Hobbes was hit with one of the cold wet things.

Hobbes stumbled. "CALVIN!" Hobbes exclaimed. "THAT WAS A WATER BALLOON!"

a terrible silence moved over them. But it didn't last long, because another water balloon came within inches of hitting him again.

"OUR WATER BALLOONS!" Calvin said.

"Our stolen water balloons." muttered Hobbes.

Then they both said together. "The ones stolen by..."

just then another water balloon hit Hobbes in the back of the head.

"RUN HOBBES!" Calvin screamed. the two started running, and all at once, the air was filled with water balloons.

Every now and then Calvin or Hobbes would look over their shoulders to see where the balloons were coming from, but a balloon would always hit them in the face.

Then the water balloons stopped. but Calvin and Hobbes kept running and screaming. After about three hours of running they stopped.

they looked all around them, but saw no one.

Gasping for breath, they continued on the trail. But they couldn't shake off the feeling that someone was watching them.

Meanwhile, Calvin's parents and Search and Rescue had just arrived.

Chill was talking with Calvin's parents while the men at Search and Rescue ran into the forest.

After a while, Calvin and Hobbes came to a sign that said,

WARNING:

NO ESTABLISHED TRAILS BEYOND THIS POINT

Calvin and Hobbes stared at it. Then Calvin said, "come on, Hobbes, lets go!"

Hobbes looked into wilderness ahead.

"Do you think we ought to?" he said nervously.

Calvin stared at him. "Yeah, I think we ought to." he said matter-of-factly.

Hobbes looked a little nervous, then walked into the uncharted wilderness with his buddy.

For a long time Calvin and Hobbes climbed over rugged rock slides, and through dense forests, each time getting a new cut or bruise.

Finally Calvin whined. "I wanna go home."

Hobbes looked behind him. He saw.... dense forests, fallen trees, and rock slides.

"Well, lets go back then." he said.

They turned around and walked in the other direction.

"Hobbes, do you recognize any of this?" Calvin finally asked.

Hobbes shook his head.

Calvin started to cry. "I WANNA GO HOME! I'VE BEEN BULLIED BY MOE, TORTURED BY INSPECTOR COLD, I'M LOST IN THE FOREST, AND THERE ARE MONSTERS AFTER US! I WANNA GO HOOOOOOMMMME!"

Hobbes stared at Calvin. Never in his entire life had he saw Calvin break down sobbing.

"It's ok, Calvin." Hobbes said gently. "I'll always be here for you."

Calvin sniffed, and gave his friend a big hug.

"Hey!" said Hobbes enthusiastically. "There's a good camp site!"

Calvin looked up. There, ahead of them was a small flat area. A place where'd you'd like to put up a tent and camp fire.

All at once Calvin stopped crying. "COOL!" he yelled. "I DON'T HAVE A TENT! BUT WE CAN MAKE ONE! COME ON, OLD BUDDY!"

Calvin and Hobbes ran over to site.

"Quick, Hobbes," said Calvin. "go get some long sticks."

Hobbes shrugged, and started pulling branches off the trees around them.

Calvin reached into his large hiking backpack, and pulled out a green tarp.

Hobbes stared at it. "Why did you bring a tarp with you?" he asked as he ripped a branch off one of the trees.

"My motto is always be prepared." said Calvin.

Hobbes shrugged, and ripped off another branch.

After he had a lot of branches, he walked over to where Calvin stood. "How do you plan to make a tent with tree bark and large, green, pieces of construction paper?"

Calvin ignored him. "Put this stick up." he said handing Hobbes one of the sticks.

Hobbes plunged the stick into the soft ground a little farther down, Calvin plunged another stick into the ground.

Then Calvin and Hobbes plunged sticks on the other side, then Calvin took the tarp, and put it over the two sticks, making a small tent.

Then Calvin pulled out a sleeping bag.

"I only have one." said Calvin. "We're gonna have to share this one."

Calvin pushed the sleeping bag into the tent.

Hobbes stared at Calvin "since when are you a camping expert?" he asked. "You hate camping."

"Hobbes," Calvin said. "Dad has taken me on so many torture trips and forced me to learn this stuff, remember?"

"Oh." said Hobbes rolling his eyes. "Of corse."

Meanwhile, Susie was sitting in the girl's cabin.

Watching as people raced into the forest after Calvin.

"Do ya think he's ok?" asked Candice.

"I wouldn't exactly mind if he got mauled and eaten alive." said Susie. "The wolves would be doing us a favor."

Candice grinned. "True, but I've almost never seen the kid."

"He's terrible!" Susie exclaimed. "He throws water balloons at me, and does all he can to torture me! He even has a stupid club call G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy GirlS!)"

Candice rolled her eyes.

Meanwhile, Search and rescue came upon footsteps.

"Hey comere!" one of them said, motioning for one of the members to come over.

He came over, and stared at the ground.

There, on the ground. Were the remains of water balloons, runnining footsteps of a small boy and tiger, and....

"do you recognize that kind of foot print?" asked the Search and Rescue member.

"No." said the other.

There in the dirt, next to all the water balloon fragments and foot prints that belonged to world's truly, were long pushes in the ground, it looked like someone or something was crawling across the ground.... ON TENTACLES!