Chapter 16. Camp Fergus Falls
John looked down at his watch in frustration when he saw that it was already 10 am. He had wanted to be at the camp but 9 o'clock, maybe 9.30 latest but Caleb had taken a wrong turn and they had ended up coming to a dead end in the middle of the woods.
To be fair it wasn't really Caleb's fault. The sign to tell them to turn off had been hidden by plant life and both hunters had missed it. Caleb had taken a guess at one of the many turn offs and it had gotten them lost.
Caleb finally pulled the Charger to a stop next to a school bus at the camp site and both men got out of the car and looked around at their surroundings. This place looked a lot more like John had expected a school camp to look like, instead of the description Sam had given him about the camp him and Dean were currently attending.
They were in the woods but not too far from the main road and there was about ten small cabins situated in a circle like the wagon trains you'd see in all those western movies. There was a big space in the middle of the circle of cabins with a few picnic tables in the middle. The building they were currently standing in front of at the moment was bigger than the others and probably served as a kitchen and common area.
"Doesn't look bad here," Caleb observed coming to stand next to John.
"Yeah seems peaceful enough, but I guess we wont know until we check the place out."
Caleb looked at his friend, "What do you want to be this time?"
"We'll stick with the reporter's story."
"Well let's get to it then."
The two hunters walked up the wooden steps of the main building and John knocked on the wooden doors. No-one answered so Caleb took a turn banging harder on the wooden doors. Still no-one came to answer the door.
Caleb raised his eyebrows at John, "So I guess we take a look around and try to find someone."
John followed Caleb down the steps and they both made their way around the building and into the middle of the camp, "There's gotta be someone around."
They continued to walk through the camp and were surprised that it looked empty, "I wonder where everyone is," John wondered allowed.
"Probably off somewhere in the woods getting their asses possessed or something," Caleb quipped.
"Hey! Who are you guys and what are you doing here?" Both hunters turned upon hearing someone address them.
"Uh hi, my name is John Turner, I work for the local Rose Creek paper," John introduced himself, shaking the man's hand; "This is my colleague Caleb Brown."
"Hi," Caleb greeted, taking his turn to shake the man's hand.
"Elijah Godfrey," Elijah introduced himself, "What are you boys doing all the way out here?"
"Well we were actually hoping to catch a …" John took his notepad out of his jacket to find the name he was looking for, "Miss Geyer."
"Oh sorry guys, she's not here at the moment."
John and Caleb glanced at each other before looking back at Elijah, "Where is she?" John asked.
"She's taken a group out for basic survival training out in the woods; they are staying out there over night and won't be back until tomorrow," Elijah explained.
"Do you know what time tomorrow she's due back?"
"Um yeah … about 10 in the morning, is there anything I could help you with?"
Caleb looked at John and shrugged, then looked back at Elijah, "Maybe … you didn't happen to be at the school's camp two years ago?"
"No sorry. I'm a new teacher at Rose Creek. This is my first camp."
"Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary since you have been here?" John asked.
A confused look came across Elijah's face, "How do you mean weird?"
"You know strange," Caleb supplied for him.
"Yeah I know what weird mean's buddy."
"Well then?"
"No not really."
"Have you noticed any changes in the kids?" John asked.
"Nope, what's this all about?"
"Just doing a little research on the place, that's all."
"Do you mind if we talk to some of the kids while we're here?" John asked.
Elijah looked a little uncertain so John tried putting his most non threatening face on.
"Okay I guess that shouldn't be a problem, there's a group of them coming back from a walk right now. Keep it short though."
"Thanks."
They could here a group of people coming from behind them and a few seconds later some kids came around from behind one of the cabins.
"Guys, can you come over here for a minute?" Elijah called out to the kids.
A female teacher was accompanying the students as they made their way over to the three men. She gave Elijah a questioning look.
"Okay kids, this is John Turner he and his friend here work for the local paper in Rose Creek. They wanted to speak to some of you for a minute."
"Are we gonna be in the paper?" a young boy about Sam's age asked.
"We'll see … we just wanted to ask you a few questions. Did any of you know any of these kids?"
John passed a piece of paper out to one of the kids and watched as it got passed around.
"We were good friends with Jamie-lee," a girl a bout 15 spoke up pointing to her and the girl standing next to her.
Neither John nor Caleb missed that she past spoken in past tense.
"Did you go to camp with her two years ago?" Caleb asked.
"Nup."
"Did you notice anything strange about her when she came back?"
"Yeah she got real nasty and told us she wasn't our friend anymore which was kind of strange since I had been best friends with her since the first grade."
"That's a shame," John said.
"Yeah. I heard she was in the hospital."
"Yeah she is," John replied.
"How's the camp been so far?"
"It's been good."
"Haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary?"
The young girl looked to be thinking for a minute before answering, "No not really."
"What about any of you?"
In answer to their question they had gotten a whole bunch of no's and kids shaking their heads in the negative.
"Okay well thanks for your time." John said turning back to Elijah and the other female teacher who were standing waiting for the hunters to finish, "Do you mind if we take a look around?"
"What for?"
"Well when we write our article I'd like to have a clear vision of this place in my head," John explained.
Elijah looked at his female colleague and she shrugged at him. He turned back to face John and Caleb, "I suppose that would be okay."
"We appreciate your help," John told both teachers sincerely.
"Come on guys, come inside and show us what you found on your walk." John and Caleb started walking around the camp as they heard the teachers lead the kids inside.
"You know it's just our luck," Caleb commented once the teachers and kids had gone inside.
"What do you mean?" John asked switching on his EMF meter, but keeping it hidden in his jacket.
"I mean it's just our luck that that damn teacher isn't here when we turn up. Do you think that means anything?"
"I don't know yet. Go take a look in the immediate area and see if you can find anything that may indicate something is going on," John ordered.
"Okay." Caleb started towards the path that the kids had just come back from.
xxx
Half an hour later John and Caleb said their goodbyes and told Elijah that they would be back the next morning to speak to Miss Geyer. John directed Caleb to the Fergus Fall's library. They needed to look up on the history of the campsite and see if anything suspicious turned up. Maybe there was an old burial ground there that no-one knew about or perhaps something had happened at the campsite which was causing these campers to become possessed.
xxx
They had been at the library for three hours before they decided that they had gotten all the information they were going to get and that they needed to get some lunch. So they packed up their research and headed for the closest diner.
Once they were seated and their lunch orders taken John took a page of notes out of his jacket.
"Did you find anything?" he asked Caleb.
Caleb shook his head, "Not much really. The place is very popular as a camping place for schools so they are pretty busy every year during the summer holidays. What about you?"
"Well I found one police report and newspaper article dated back to the 80's. Apparently a kid called Nathan Fowler killed himself there in '81'. Strung him self up in one of the trees. Maybe he's still around."
"And possessing ten people every two years?" Caleb asked skeptically.
John sighed, "Well that's the only thing I could find."
"Ya know I've been thinking," Caleb said looking thoughtful as he proceeded to rip his napkin into fine shreds.
"That's never good," John teased.
"Funny … seriously, I mean most of the latest victims have been teenagers, minus the two teachers. A school camp would be a feeding frenzy for ghosts or demons wanting to possess people."
"Why's that?"
"Well it's easier for someone to become possessed if the person has some sort of vulnerability or you know some sort of emotional distress."
"Yeah I know that."
"Well a camp full of teenagers is a feeding ground. Most teenagers are going through something or other. It's part of being a teenager."
"I didn't think of that."
"It's been a long time since you were a teenager John-boy," Caleb smirked.
"I'm not ancient ya know."
"No that's Jim," Caleb laughed.
"I wouldn't let him hear you call him ancient."
There conversation was stopped short when their waitress came back to their table and placed their food in front of them, "There ya go boys, if ya need anything let me know," she told them winking at Caleb.
John rolled his eyes as the young waitress walked away.
"Anyway …" John spoke up, getting Caleb's attention back on the matter at hand, "I'm thinking that just because we didn't get any readings from the EMF meter while we were there today doesn't mean that there's nothing there."
"Right, sometimes energy's are more pronounced at different times of the day … or night."
"Exactly, so I think we should go back there tonight and check the place out again. See if anything happens."
"Sounds like plan," Caleb agreed as he picked up his burger.
xxx
"Well that was a big waste of time." Caleb complained as he slumped down on his bed in their motel room.
As soon as nightfall had hit the two hunters had gone back to the campsite to check it over once more. Moving silently so as not to disturb the sleeping campers they had not gotten one hit with the EMF meter. Whatever had possessed these people was not around.
They had both agreed to hang around for a while in the woods just outside the camp to see if anything was going to happen. They had both been disappointed, very tired and stiff come the early hours of the morning. Nothing had happened. The only thing they had heard all night, were crickets and frogs and Caleb had found a new hatred for both.
John had finally decided it was time to go back to their motel to catch some sleep before coming back to the camp to talk to Miss Geyer later that morning and Caleb had never been so grateful when they finally got back to the motel and he could lie down on his bed.
"This is strange … maybe it's over," John suggested has he sat down and pulled off his boots.
"Why now? This has happened every two years for the past ten, why stop now?"
"I don't know Caleb."
"Hopefully this teacher can clear this up or at least give us something to go on," Caleb said into his pillow.
"Yeah," John sighed wearily, "We still have a few hours before we have to be back there. Get some sleep huh."
"No problem," Caleb mumbled already half way there.
John couldn't blame his friend. After spending a whole night in the woods, he was beat him self. He got comfortable on the bed and closed his eyes. It wasn't long before he drifted off himself.
TBC...
Well there it is ... we'll be back with Dean and Sammy next chapter ... Hope you liked it :-) see ya soon