Day 4 - 16:00

Children of all ages happily chatted with each other while the counselors explained the rules of the camp wide scavenger hunt. Nadie shifted her eyes over the crowd and sighed while turning to Nootau. "This is going to be really hard with just ten of us. Didn't Mr. Wallace say that the security team was going to help us?"

Giving a quick glance over his shoulder towards the lodge. "I'll check on them."

Pushing the large emerald door open, Nootau felt his fingers run over the carvings. Glancing his chocolate eyes over to the pictures, he narrowed them as he leaned in to evaluate them further. It seemed to be a picture of tribespeople dancing around a fire, joined by hunters holding rifles. Following the images along the door, his eyes met a figure that was seemingly skeletal in nature with the antlers and skull of a deer. As he leaned in to take the image in more detail, the door was pulled further open. Flashing his surprised eyes up to be met with an equally startled crimson stare. "Sorry. Some of us didn't want to get out of bed."

Beyond's gaze followed Nootau's before they were both abruptly shoved out of the doorway. "We're late enough." Scolded Light pushing them both through the threshold. The security team lined up behind the counselors while Light played with some configurations for the drones on his cellphone.

The kids all darted off at the sound of an air horn, startling any who weren't quite awake enough for the loud sound. Nadie turned to the group with a map. "Okay, so, there are only seventeen of us."

"Thirty-two." Light corrected before continuing. "Ten counselors, seven security details, ten beta and four alpha drones patrolling."

Mello counted on his fingers before furrowing his eyebrows. "Either I can't count, or that's only thirty-one."

Chuckling slightly the brunette pushed a couple of times on the screen to his watch as a loud buzzing began to approach them. "No, you are correct. Everyone. Meet Anax." A larger drone sped overhead before darting around seemingly erratically. "Anax is installed with a fully functional A.I. it can access surveillance feeds and even have a conversation with you… well, as much as an artificial intelligence can. It's similar to Alexa in conversation. I've been working on him for a while now. This is his maiden test." A heavily modified drone floated next to Light. The propeller blades buzzed somewhat loudly while pushing a great deal of air pressure from the bottom of it. "He's loud, but he's equipped with a live taser and highly responsive to all stimuli. But, for a big guy, he's fast. Unburdened, he can go about eighty kilometers per hour… uh, for the standard system users he can go about fifty miles per hour. Significantly faster than the prior models." The drone chirped and beeped. Light chuckled while tapping on his phone. "He's excited. Anax, go ahead, they won't yell at you. Oh, keep that in mind, he's programmed to respond to emotions. He's sensitive, don't yell at him."

The drone beeped loudly before a smooth British accent came out of the small drone's speaker. "Greetings, I am Anax 1.8, I have calculated the size of the campgrounds as well as taken the liberty of spreading each adult evenly with drone assistance to keep a steadfast eye on the children. I have sent an email with an attachment of a survey of grounds. Each person is color coded with a region of area to be covered and each drone has been assigned. Please take the time to look over your areas and expressed duties. The drones are already deployed and patrolling."

Light nodded proudly at the drone and opened his attachment and wandering to his assigned area. The counselors and remaining security all shifted a glance to each other as they opened up a secured email from Anax.

Section 1 - Wendigo Lake Shoreline

A couple of small girls squealed while chasing each other around with a dirty earthworms. A small boy with dark brown hair sighed at the girl's antics as he dug through the sand on the beach looking for the shell on his list. Caspian shifted uncomfortably as children ran around him happily giggling as his eyes fell on the young boy hunched over a hole in the sand while sighing sadly. Slowly approaching him Caspian squatted next to him. "What is the item?"

The young boy jumped silently and looked up to the blonde guard. "A shell. I can't seem to find one."

Caspian nodded and approached the water's edge. "Shells are difficult to find this time of year. Much easier in the later months of summer." The blonde stirred the sand up with his fingers and pulled a larger shell out of the water while handing it to the small boy. "Though, often in colder waters like this, in the summer, critters will come up to the shoreline for warmer waters." He held the shell out for the small boy to take.

Removing the shell from the former diver's hand the boy carefully inspected the shiny and wet shell. "Thank you. My name is Aaron, what's yours?"

Standing while shaking the cold water from his hand, the blonde gave a small smile. "Caspian."

Aaron nodded with a smile. "Thank you Mr. Caspian!" The young boy waved as he happily ran to the next section.

-x-

Section 3 - Wendigo Lake South Trail

Nadie smiled as all of the kids gathered their rocks from around the trail and gasped slightly at a blonde girl jabbing her gently in the back. "Stick 'em up! I found an arrowhead!"

Laughing wholeheartedly, Nadie raised her hands into the air with faux submission. "Oh, please! I don't have anything of value!"

The young girl hopped around the counselor with a wide grin, her green eyes shining in the afternoon sun. "Don't worry Miss Nadie! I could never hurt anyone!"

The child giggled light heartedly as she skipped to the next site, leaving Nadie to chuckle as she lowered her hands onto her hips. "Oh, Jessy."

-x-

Section 5 - Meridian Mountain North Trail

Children chanted and circled around a young counselor named Johnathan. The young brunette hugged his knees and playfully wailed, "You win! I submit to the glory of the kid!"

The children all cackled and ran off in separate directions collecting their feathers before running to the next site. A teenage girl approached Johnathan. "You really shouldn't let little kids bully you like that."

Looking up to the ebony haired girl, Johnathan smiled. "Bully me? I wouldn't say that. This is a place for them to be kids, a good place for them to be free and wild. Not all of them have good homes waiting for them when they leave, let them have that spirit here." He stood up and dusted himself off while laughing at another kid using his feather as a mustache. "I couldn't wait to get out here when I was younger. I was homeschooled, so this was my only chance to make friends and be a kid. My name is Johnathan, I take care of the ten to twelve year olds, what's your name, young lady?" He held his hand out for a friendly handshake.

Awkwardly, the young girl took his hand, shaking it gently. "Sophia." She recoiled her hand after a awkward shake and clutched her elbows. "Well, I guess I'm glad then. I'm glad this place is here for them… this is my first year, my parents just moved to Ontario from Spain. I miss Barcelona, but I can definitely see the beauty here."

Johnathan sighed happily watching large fluffy clouds lazily float overhead. "Yeah, I was devastated when it shut down for as long as it did. But, man, am I happy it's open again." Sophia watched the clouds with Johnathan and smiled.

-x-

Section 7 - Deep Wooded Trail

Mello lifted a small boy up onto his shoulders to reach the acorn hanging from a young tree, a small arm reached out for the low hanging branch as far as he could possibly go. "Got it, little man?"

The boy shrieked in joy while shaking his hands back and forth. "Yeah, yeah! Thanks Mister Mello!"

The blonde chuckled as he set the boy down and darted as soon as he hit the ground. Another little boy ran up to Mello and shouted, "Me next, please!" Mello sighed and gave a defeated smile.

-x-

Section 9 - Wendigo Lake North Trail

Sarah groaned as she lifted her phone to the sky in an attempt to gain some sort of reception. "Ugh, the reception in the northern portion of the camp sucks."

A young teen with auburn hair timidly approached Sarah. He cleared his throat so as not to startle her. He looked down to his clipboard to his list and sighed dejectedly when she didn't pay him any attention. "Aiden!" The young boy startled slightly and smiled while waving at the group that was walking to the next area.

"Where are you guys going?"

Another teen scoffed at Sarah who was still attempting to get cellular reception on her phone by waving it around in the sky. "Anywhere else. Hey, let's go check out the security guys, we almost never see them."

Aiden laughed and jogged after the group. "Yeah. Some of the counselors here kind of suck. I'm kind of jealous of the younger kids, they seem like they got the better of the counselors."

A brunette shrugged her shoulders as they walked. "Kind of how this place works usually. I'm more interested in the eye candy they hired this year. The last security guards they had here were old and kind of gross."

Another boy laughed as they continued down the forested path. "Too bad they didn't hire some hot chicks for security."

Aiden glanced over his shoulder as a drone hovered near them. "Yeah. I don't remember the security being this tight. I mean, I know I haven't been here in four years, but damn."

The group came across a young platinum blonde teen writing in her notebook rather than partake in the scavenger hunt. "Looks like we aren't the only ones blowing this off."

She flicked her eyes up from her notebook before rolling her hazel eyes and continuing her writing. One of the older teens snatched her book from her. "What are you writing so fervently?"

A girl with curly blonde hair snickered, "She's probably one of those weird kids that write fiction about people around her. Oh! I bet she has a romance between her Mary Sue and one of the new security guards!"

Another boy chimed in on the torment. "Oh! She could be a crazy conspiracy person!" The group all chuckled with the exception of Aiden who tried to tuck himself behind the crowd and make himself smaller.

The silver haired girl stood and swiped her book back and scowled. "First of all, ew. One of those guards is my brother. Second of all, most of them are either too dangerous or uninterested in romance. If you knew half of what I know about them you wouldn't be fantasizing about fucking them."

Aiden craned his neck to look around the crowd at the girl. Her cheeks were bright red and her nostrils flared slightly in frustration. "Guys, leave her alone. Who cares what she's writing, she isn't hurting anyone." The group all turned to look at Aiden and most of them rolled their eyes, leaving without a word, leaving Aiden and the girl behind. Sighing at the backs of the others, Aiden plopped down next to her. "I'm Aiden, what's your name?"

"Gemma. Thanks. I didn't need help."

He shrugged, "It isn't cool to give others problems just because you're bored, you know?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I get that. My brother decided this place interested him once he learned I was coming here on opening year. Did you know this place has been around for 120 years as of this year?" She fidgeted with her pen as she watched one of the many drones speed over them while leaning back on a tall pine tree.

"Your brother?" Aiden pondered that information for a bit. "I see. So, what's so special about those guys?"

Gemma plopped onto the ground next to Aiden, "Well, I have notes on them. Pretty much, we're dealing with some pretty heavy hitters, mostly special forces of some types, judging by their accents and features, likely from different places. Like, we know the big one is Australian, not hard to puzzle that out just by his accent. I've met L and Beyond in the past. L is from England and Beyond is American. I've heard one of them cursing in German one night, so we can assume at least one of them is from a Germanic speaking country. And the brunette is definitely of Asian descent, which one, I couldn't tell you. But, he's clearly a genius of some sort."

"How do you figure?"

Gemma smiled half heartedly and pointed to the drone that was flying towards them. "Who makes drones in their free time?"

Aiden chuckled as they watched the drone approach a little girl with a pine cone in its pincer like arms. "I have retrieved the item Miss Emily, do you require further assistance?"

"Yeah! Now it says something yellow!" The drone beeped and chimed a few times before flying off again. The young girl called to the drone as it flew off, "Thank you, Anax!"

Aiden and Gemma shared a knowing smile before he chuckled. "I'd say that's using your resources to your advantage."

She laughed quietly. "Yeah. Also, who programs a drone with AI intelligence? Who has those types of resources?" She stared pointedly at Aiden and they said in unison. "Special forces." They both let out a healthy laugh.

"So, what were you writing?"

She smiled and opened her book. "I like to take notes of the things I see, most weather patterns, but since the drones took flight, I like to see which directions they head in the most, they all seem pretty fascinated with the mountains. Could be a seismic activity of some sort, or settling from the collapse of the cave system. Oh man, how cool would it be to be able to get in there and map that out… you know… if it wasn't collapsed." She flipped the pages through her notebook. "But it's mostly been map drawing, notes on the personnel of the lodge, weather patterns. I want to be a detective when I graduate, so I figure it's best to keep my deductive reasoning and perception sharp."

Aiden nodded and stared at Gemma with a sidelong gaze, blushing slightly when he realized she was cute and smart.

46 Days Remaining

10 Counselors Surviving

100 Campers On Site