Dark Before Dawn, Act I Special: Camp Flagg
2028
If there was any place in time that Paula Ward could have ended up, it was in a very lonely place in the world, and additionally, it just so happened to be two years in the past from where she had been plucked from. The greatest of luck eluded her side when the blue portal had dropped her in a calm woodland settung somewhere in the world, daylight at play, and with Lulu the Vine Monster keeping her company. Paula hit the ground hard on her back, which hurt like fuck, and not to mention that she had been bleeding out from her neck courtesy of the parasitic baby-looking alien.
The young FBI agent of Lynn Loud's all-female unit would ultimately spend her final moments just half a mile away from Camp Flagg, a summer camp heavily in the state of being shutdown. And after today, it would forever come to be closed forever.
Lulu, in her human toddler form, crawled her way to the dying Paula, cooing innocently until her tentacles formed and wiggled around Paula's body when reaching her. It was the large gaping hole on poor Paula's neck that drew the hungry alien in. "No- No, stop-" Paula rotated her body, hopelessly aiming to shake the carnivorous extraterrestrial away. "M-Margo... Polly-"
Lulu opened her mouth, revealing her sharp teeth laced around in a circular shape. The nasty, flipping tongue tangled around the dying agent's neck, taking another gargantuan bite away, this one being deeper than her first bite which most of Paula's throat now being missing.
Paula choked and gagged, grasping nothing but blood like there was no tomorrow. Her inevitable corpse of a body withdrew into a frantic spasm. Her eyes blinked lifelessly away, zigzagging all around until a source of glowing light. Her body movements grinded to a halt after a minute or so of struggling to fight pain and death.
Why like this? Why am I... G-going out like this? Paula shed a tear last minute, disappointed that she had not been survived by anyone. No husband, no kids. And worst of all, no friends had gathered on her behalf, and it was really happening. Paula was dying alone, just like she had been living alone. Alone.
Lulu had much disregard for human customs, only having a primitive set of objectives. Eat, sleep, defecate, and if possible, find a mate to reproduce. Lulu was an infantile alien of the Klemorienite race, just one of a great many races living past beyond the galaxy known to mankind. Lulu's natural form was a pale-green squirmy alien with a physique identical to that of a squid. Despite it being a youngling, Lulu came out with all the survival instincts, acting on them. Her tentacles, the slimy arms on her body, came with jagged blades that she could sink into any living organism and inflict serious damage. This was just as effective when she wanted to consume flesh again of all sorts. Humans around here, running around all over the place- it was like an endless buffet to fill her appetite whenever she grew hungry.
The alien devoured much of Paula's body, starting at her face, taking huge fleshy chunks and eating away. The skull of the dead woman was where she tried to avoid, as Klemorienites were unable to digest bone and anything just as strong. Much of Paula's face was gone, marking the face unable to be identified... If it mattered. Lulu retched out with a monstrous shriek, signifying her having gotten full, slithering away from the body, vanishing into the woods.
Not far away, a total of twelve people at Camp Flagg had heard the faint screech of the alien. This bunch were split into two outdoor tables, some looking over to where they believed the direction of it was, and the rest continued to eat their lunch, ranging from PB and J sandwiches to baby carrots. The only two counselors the camp had, Rochelle Mendez and Gavin Henderson, heavily implored the kids to be as active as they could, and to eat healthy foods, such as vegetables, fruit and certain liquids.
Rochelle Mendez of eighteen years old, had been manning the camp this summer, filling in as the replacement counselor for Stephen Flagg, an old friend of her folks and the head honcho of this camp, which belonged in the Flagg family tree for three generstions and still counting. She was a Mexican brunette with a darker tone of brown, ranging at 5'8 with an average build and some flab she wasn't exactly fond of having. The uniform required for the spot was just a shirt with the logo of the camp, only coming in a generic white with no real pizzazz attached with the shirt. That and some cargo shorts of any color, as long as it wasn't short to reveal skin above the knees, was passable.
Gavin Henderson was ahead of three years by age, having only one previous summer experience under his belt. The man was a full six feet of lean mass and muscular physique, which made him the object to drool over by the girls the camp currently had. His face was nice and handsome, one where his light brown hair was combed to perfection every morning, with his eyes, a pretty set of hazel-green color-fused pair of eyes that was almost a rarity charity he lucked out on in playing the genetic game. Truthfully, Rochelle believed that Gavin was here to meet or hook up with hot girls, which fairly disgusted her, but that was because she made no personal effort to know about him, establishing only a professional relationship with him.
This year, the camp welcomed a small number of kids this time, the smallest number they've reached since '91, where only thirteen kids had shown up that year. A new record was realized this year, and it didn't do wonders for Camp Flagg in any way at all.
There was Rachel Augustus, a perky curly-haired blonde shorter than Rochelle, face of a true pinkish-pale tone that screamed true American blood, but the only deal was that she was a quarter German that derived from her mother's side. The seventeen-year-old was plump in all the right places to be considered a thick gucci mama by the other boys who drooled over her with grand thirst. Furthermore, her style of clothes was also pretty hot; low-cut shirts that revealed her stomach, tight yoga pants that showed off her lower body's gold mine, if not, a bare bra she showed off due to the heat of these days. It was unfit for regulation at most, but Gavin, whom Flagg had placed as the main counselor, making Rochelle the secondary, had not sought out to enforce this clear violation, so Rachel was whoring herself without warnings.
Truly disgusting that Gavin was possibly drooling over Rachel in Rochelle's eyes. The man had to have been a pedophile, undoubtedly.
Gabrielle McCullen, a redhead of 5'5, was the obvious Irish-American girl with a hinted accent. Usually going by simply Gabby, the ginger had an openly vulgar personality where she never kept to herself. Her mouth simply had no plug, but at the very least, one could agree she was an honesy bitch. So far, Gabby had insulted and mocked about half of the campers, and a few times to the counselors. She was a skinny brat at thirteen years old, but had a secret fire that powered her will to fight when she needed to, or when someone had touched a nerve or poked the dormant bear. She was the way she was due to an abusive drunkard of a father who laid his heartless hands on her mother, two siblings and herself. The day had indeed come when the alcohol killed him, but by then, the damage was done, and broken Gabby roamed without supervision.
Manuel Clarke was the nerd, big on brains but low on muscle. In other words, Manuel was the one kid you could pick up and throw into a pool or down on the field with minimal effort. Whether he would cry or not depended on how much force was put into the shove. He was the shortest kid there, 5'4 and almost thirteen years of age. Manuel had a black set of hair shaped in a bowl cut, which made him look somewhat goofy. He was full of himself, hanging on a superior complex that made him unbearable in school, and sometimes ignored by mother. It was his father who decided to put him here so that little Manuel could learn something, but also getting him to fuck off at the same time. The shirt he currently wore was a Star Wars brand, mixed with green cargo shorts.
This year, the camp had welcomed a British boy into the fray. This boy, fourteen, was Hugh Walton Jr from a middle class family settled at the eastern end of the nation. His wavy brown hair looked almost like a mess, a bad hair day at work, but Hugh Jr insisted that was how his hair was. He came dressed like he was at a beach, sporting a pink shirt and generically tan shorts, with his round pair of glasses suggesting to some of the others he had some intelligence added to his character. How he had wandered here was unknown to the other campers.
Rosemary Johnson, another redhead of the group, was kind-hearted and calm in nature. She was fifteen, but looked young enough to be at least thirteen. With her, there was the case of being a late bloomer that embarrassed her. Her tits were almost flat, just as her body was short and skinny, and she hated it. Maybe her body did not have enough milk, or maybe a growth spurt hadn't happened with her yet. Her voice was still a squeaky, high one but she disregarded it for being a girl, in which they had high-pitched voices. Four comments from Gabby and counting. Nice. She kept her hair in front of her face at most times, and even now as she ate a ham sandwich, embarrassed of herself that her confidence and self-esteem was dangerously low. She was out for the day in a blue shirt with a brown stripe that circled around it, and was the only girl who walked about with skirts of various colors, today's being of the gray color.
Alice and Robbie Ackerman were step-sisters with a butting-heads type of rivalry, throwing insults, shoves, and anything that was a transparent "Fuck you!" to each other. They gave no care if there'd been anyone to take notice of it, but the reason why they were constantly at each other's throats is because Robbie and her mother Sandra Lopez of Mexican-American descent, had married into the Ackerman clan. The backstory was that Sandra had divorced her cheating pig of a husband, Robert Peterson and took their mixed daughter with her. Robbie had some problems adjusting to the new changes in her life, and so had Alice. Robbie was pale-skinned for someone with Mexican blood running through her veins, able to throw some people off that way. Her mother's genes had been mostly packed into her, which was for the better. Even still, it made her quite the inferior person beneath Alice, as that girl had come to believe.
Alice was far prettier than Robbie, being a blonde with perfect hair as bright as the sun's powerful shine. She was shorter than Robbie, but that was the advantage where she believed she could take on the lanky black-haired bitch with a bad daddy. Speaking of daddy, Alice was the object of automatic favoritism by her spoiling father Andrew. That was the clear problem with little thot Alice; she was given everything to her like plates of food at a table, not really knowing the concept of working to earn these things. But it wasn't too late for her to have a change-up, seeing as how she was fourteen, while Robbie was still thirteen, behind the blonde by six months.
They simply hated each other because they, to each other, were reminders that reality was reality and not a dream they could ever have. Specifically, Alice had more hatred towards Sandra, Sandra who she believed was the physical manifestation of the idea that true love is not real, otherwise Andrew would never have married her to begin with. And for Robbie, Alice was a stuck-up daddy's girl, and additionally, Sandra being married to Andrew broke her hope of having her parents reconciling and able to patch things up. Nevermore. Robbie held no grudge for Andrew himself, but his idea of fathering the blonde bitch needed work.
Robbie, having her hair in a ponytail, sat on the table that Alice wasn't at, minding her business with no fight to stir the masses. She started her day with a brown sweater and jeans, her usually moody attire, changeable by color usually. Alice was a girl with the preference for either pigtails or a ponytail, but she had free and about in contrast from Robbie. Her gorgeously blue eyes fixated on Hugh Jr, whom she was finding to be cute under the radar.
Gabby, sitting at their table, looked up while eating baby carrots, snorting like a pig. "Hey, you pussy, ask him out!"
Alice blushed uncontrollably, hiding her face as Hugh Jr, Rachel and Manuel looked up from their lunches at Gabby, then at Alice.
"Ask who out?" Rachel asked in her ditzy state.
"My, that is some very adult language on you, Gabby," Hugh Jr scolded, scratching his forehead.
Alice coughed, feigning an illness. "I feel s-sick," she lied, getting up and leaving to the bathroom stalls just outside the mess hall that had closed down. She entered one and shut it behind her, planning to stay in there as long as need be.
Meanwhile, Gabby reached over and took Alice's food, feeling quite pleased with herself. "Oh well, free lunch!"
"E-excuse me-" Hugh Jr came with the nice-guy Samaritan thing attached to him, a nuisance to Gabby.
"No, excuse yew, tea-sipping faggot!" Gabby helped herself, plucking down the grapes inside a container down her throat. "Mind ya bizznizz!"
"My word!" Hugh Jr was disgusted by Gabby's attitude. He looked around for the two counselors. "Where is the supervision?!"
"Supervise this!" Gabby shot up a middle finger at him, waving it with a smile.
Rachel crossed her arms, jumping in. "It's not cool stealing people's food, Grabbrielle."
"You- Oh!" Gabby laughed and pointed at Rachel. "You are funny, you are truly funny!"
"Why are you even here anyway?" Rachel pondered, looking at the devil straight in the eyes. "I can't assume it's cause mommy and daddy love you, right?"
Gabby's smile went away, face forming into something more fiercer, but possibly for show. "Shut up."
Rachel struck a nerve. "Oh, that's it, isn't it?" She laughed, which further upset Gabby enough to stand up.
At the other table, Rosemary, Robbie, and the last three unnamed campers looked over to see the unfolding drama. The two boys of the table, Matthew and Chip, who addressed each other as Farrett and Crog, presumably their last names, gave each other firm, serious looks. These two were the mysteriously quiet ones, which put some of the campers uneasy. Gabby believed them to be sociopaths she'd pummel if they tried to torture her. Matthew Farrett was a little chubby, being a long-haired creepy-looking person of five and a half feet, dressed in a buttoned-up blue shirt, camo shorts, and some sophisticated reading glasses. Chip Crog, a blond, was in a green hoodie and blue skinny jeans, eating some Pringles. A closer look at his sweater had some words written in black; The Raccoon Is Not So Deviant! followed by the face of a sad raccoon shedding a tear underneath the text.
Gabby raised her arms, tapping into the power of the soulless ginger gods from above. "I said shut up!"
But Rachel, having some experience with girls such as Gabby, was not backing down. She challenged the redhead further by smiling and laughing amusingly. "No, I don't think I will... You little pestilence."
Gabby stepped forward, edging Manuel to get up. "Hey, no need to fight-"
"SUCK MY PUSSY!" Gabby hollered to Manuel.
Rochelle and Gavin finally entered the scene, coming back from the woods. "What seems to be the problem today? Gabby!" Gavin loomed over her, arms set on his waist. "Are you going to do this again?"
Gabby's heart was pumping fast, triggered away when Rachel had found a vulnerability and exploited it. While it wasn't exactly on point, Gabby hated the idea of being left here alone forcibly by her mother. Her other two siblings she hoped would join her had stayed with mom, putting her all alive with no friends. The short circuit of her system crashed emotionally, driving her to run away from the group, especially from the smiling Rachel who seemed nothing more but delighted to have broken down the redhead in one way. "FUCK ALL OF YOU!"
"Gabby!" Gavin made a lazy attempt to grab her, but the short redhead scampered off into the woods, feelings bleeding away. "Aw, darn it, kids!"
Rachel hid her smile and turned her face back to her food, trying to play it innocent.
Gavin shook his head, approaching her. "And after you're done, you're going to bring her back."
"Ugh, she started it-" Rachel justified.
"We are not about arguing with one another," Gavin preached to the table. "As it stands, I've noticed how on edge you can get, so-" He slammed his hands on the table between Rachel and Manuel. "-All of you sitting here are going on a search party."
Hugh Jr coughed, raising a finger. "Bed pardon, but wasn't it stated that there are dangerous animals around the area?"
"Not specifically around this area, no," Gavin stated, looking to the direction Gabby had sprinted off to. "But Gabby might run into one if you guys don't get her back in time."
"The man's right," Manuel agreed. "I'm just about done here anyway." He got up and left the remains of his lunch, following Gabby's trail.
Hugh Jr followed, showing concern for his camp mate. "A matter this serious..."
Rochelle looked over the campers as Manuel and Hugh Jr pursued after Gabby, noticing Alice was missing as well. "What happened to Alice?"
"Bathroom," Robbie pointed, still laughing on the inside after Gabby had greatly embarrassed her. Miraculously for Alice, Hugh Jr didn't know what the commotion was about, quickly disregarding it. "You missed the whole thing."
"Huh..." Rochelle nodded. "Anyways, if any of you could help the boys, that'd be great."
Robbie had a form of respect to pay for the amusement, and so it was that she went and followed the boys. Matthew and Chip, giving each other a second unreadable look, took off this time, walking after Robbie. This left Rosemary and Maddie McKinley all alone.
Maddie McKinley, an African-American who felt out of place, sat and ate quietly. Nothing could be said for her as she wasn't open enough for them to get a read on her. It was gathered that she was smart, but maybe she was just shy and needed warming up to with group effort. Rochelle was still trying, unlike Gavin. Rochelle took Robbie's place, sitting next to Maddie. "So, how are you liking it?"
"It's... Okay, I guess," Maddie replied with a whisper. "It's not the best camp..."
Rochelle sighed with grief. "Yeah, I'd prefer a peaceful one..."
Maddie nodded in agreement. "Would be nice if there was a surprise."
"Who knows? Maybe today holds something we won't see coming."
"Maybe..." Maddie responded.
"I'd hope so," Rosemary added in. "The place is lacking in fun."
"That's cause it's lacking in funds," Rochelle whispered.
"Oh? I don't know how it works, so..." Rosemary laughed it off.
Rochelle noticed her choice of clothes. "Hey, those look familiar," she pointed out. "Where have I seen that exact-?" With a snap of her fingers, Rochelle remembered it. "Estrangement!"
Rosemary smiled like a dork. "Hey! You're awesome, Rochelle! Yeah, Loanne Wardell is my favorite actress, honestly. Such a shame her character died, I totally cried in the theaters."
"Ugh, same! For me, I say it's my favorite Loanne Wardell movie, with Sinful Days being a close second."
"I don't suppose you've seen that one film. Uhh, it's What She'd Been Missing, I think was called?"
Rochelle shook her head. "I know that one, but I've never seen it. Ugh, my friends say it's good but every time we pull her into convo, it's always that movie they bring up. Like, I get it but that movie is like-"
"Overrated?" Rosemary filled for her. "Wardell's got a lot of films under her belt, but WSBM seems to be all the rage. I'd like the next project of hers to knock it down, but no disrespect to her."
"Maybe it will, haha."
Hugh Jr and Manuel wandered aimlessly through the woods, keeping their eyes sharp for the sight of a familiar red color in plain view. "You think we should split up?" Manuel suggested.
"Oh, I'd say that is a very bad idea. I mean, didn't you hear that scream earlier?" Hugh Jr referred to the one Lulu had emitted before. "What animal makes that sound, you reckon?"
"Gee, I don't know, a bird?" Manuel assumed. "I know so little about animals, man."
"Just comes to show how distant we are with nature," Hugh Jr noted.
"Whaddya mean, dude?"
Hugh Jr blocked the sun's rays with his arm, covering his face in shade. "Well, I mean we're advancing so much in terms of technology, and we're all deeply fascinated by it. Constantly looking at screens, or playing the new consoles, or even playing around with virtual reality tech. You've got companies like Kapacity Korp, Mandel Industries, and now this new one, uh, Vial Corporation, like, the world is more interested in advancing, and that's well and all but-"
"Oh, you're worried the planet is gonna destroy all of nature's environments and habitats?"
"Yes, exactly!"
"Well, from what I know, and the obvious, it's only endangering for places that flourish with technology. You've still got the places stricken with poverty. I know that it's not possible to force an environment change to the animals for their survival, but at the same time, I wholeheartedly agree that there must be something done to keep it balanced."
Hugh Jr was pleased the man was singing his song. "Yes, dude! And zoos aren't the best solution. Sure, they will be able to sustain the animals for awhile but..."
"I didn't know you felt passionate about this, man," Manuel indirectly complimented. "You should be an activist. Honestly, you've got a good trait on you."
"Uh, thank you kindly..." Hugh Jr readjusted his glasses when they heard footsteps behind them, trundling through the dirt.
Robbie pounced like a cat, jumping in between them, grabbing them both with her arms. "Hey, boys! Any luck finding Gabbypuss?"
Manuel snorted hysterically. "No, she must have run far ahead. Maybe if we pick up the pace-"
Robbie let go of them and ran past them, laughing away teasingly. "Don't let a girl beat you to the punch!"
"Hey!" Manuel picked up the pace. "Hugo, let's go!"
"It's...-" Hugh Jr sought to correct it, but said fuck it, having no intention to stay behind. "Wait for me!" He wasn't as fast as them, but he did his best to catch up, and while he did so, he wondered why he accepted being part of the search party to begin with. Coming up a hill, he grew tired, but it was only when he came at the high point that he spotted Manuel and Robbie standing side by side, looking down at something. "Hey, I'm here-"
Manuel backed away from whatever it was the two had lain witness to, and Robbie brought her hands to her mouth. "Holy shit... Holy shit... What-?" Manuel staggered over, falling on his ass, allowing Hugh Jr to be let in on the object of their fear; the shredded corpse of Gabby was left in quite a mess.
"OH, GOOD LORD!" Hugh Jr looked away from the horror of it, throwing up right onto his shoes.
Gabby's entire chest had been nearly hollowed out, leaving a red gaping hole that flies had begun scavenging from. The throat had also been ripped out, leaving a terrified, lifeless expression on Gabby's whitened face. Robbie immediately turned around, crying with absolute dread from this. Manuel, barely holding it together, pointed back to Camp Flagg, gagging with a hardened chest. "G-go back-! We have to-"
Hugh Jr was racing back for his life. "THERE'S A FUCKING BEAR OUT HERE, MATES!"
Manuel picked up Robbie, carrying her with both hands when it was clear she was too distraught to even move. "Hold on tightly!"
Lulu watched them flee from the human body she had just laid waste to, and with a curious interest, she followed them, swinging on the branches with her tentacles.
Hugh Jr gained more speed, outrunning Manuel with his load of girl. He zoomed past some trees, up until one thick one that had concealed Farrett. The latter male stuck his leg out, tripping Hugh Jr, who came into contact with Crog's legs. "Hello, Brit. Wanna play a game?"
Manuel and Robbie had reached the camp after a few minutes, with Manuel being truly scared of being chased by the bear of whatever animal had done that to Gabby.
"Hey, Manny, that's not Gabby," Gavin joked from the table, with a reluctant Rachel still sitting in place, not accepting responsibility for Gabby's running away. "Where is Hugh Jr?"
The boy set Robbie down, finding it unbelievable that he was able to carry her back. "What-? He beat us here! We saw it!"
"Haven't seen anyone arrive before you two," Rochelle commented. "What's happening?"
Robbie lost control and vomited onto the dirt.
"Oh, that's so gross!" Rachel squealed.
"Whoa!" Rosemary yelped.
"Robbie, are you okay?" Gavin moved from the table, coming at the two. "What's wrong?"
"We-we found G-Gabby," Manuel stuttered. "But she-she-she's-"
"Out with it, Manny!" Gavin exploded. "What about her?"
"She's- She's freaking dead, man!" Manuel pumped out. "Her stomach is gone, it's just all gone-"
The four remaining girls on the tables all sat up with great alarm, stunned to be hearing this.
"What...?" Gavin processed it, studying Manuel's and then Robbie's face. "Oh, man-"
Manuel put his hands on the counselor's shirt and gripped. "There's a wild fucking animal out there, man! Don't you have a damn gun?!"
Gavin shook his head. "We don't have the paperwork to-" He was let go and pushed by the boy out of shaken fear.
"We need the cops or something-" Manuel remembered Gavin's words. "Hugo hasn't come back yet?" He looked back at the woods.
"Not to scare you, b-but Matthew and Chip also went into the woods," Rochelle dropped.
Hugh Jr was being thrown into trees by the two psychopaths who wanted to have fun with the nerd. It hit him somewhere among the strikes against the trees that it was them who killed Gabby, but he couldn't be so sure. His glasses broke, sending shards of glass impaling into his cheeks, but the merciless torture did not end there while he bled away. "P-please, why are you doing this?"
Crog punched him square in the stomach and pushed him down. "Because we want to."
Farrett revealed a buck knife tucked away under his leg. "We're going to hurt you, and hurt you good, kid. And then.."
"You'll be begging us to stop," Crog finished, laughing fiendishly. "Go for the legs, Farrett."
"W-Wait, gentlemen, please-" It was no use, Hugh Jr took a stab right above his left knee as Crog held him down. "YEARGH!"
Crog stood back, taking out his phone. "One for the memories-"
Farrett pulled the knife back out. "Let me know when to start again. Pose me as I'm gonna-"
Hugh Jr knew fear when looking past Farrett, witnessing an ever greater monstrosity acting while his torture went on. Lulu had jumped right onto Crog's back, opening her big mouth, shoving Crog's head into it. "FARRETT, HELP ME!" Lulu closed it, decapitating Crog at the top half of his skull. Lulu held onto the portion of Crog's head, prancing away as the corpse fell before Hugh Jr and Farrett.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Farrett redirected his weapon at the infant alien, stepping away from Hugh Jr.
Lulu centered her eyes at Farrett, raising her tentacle hands, wiggling them before she shot them straight into his face, digging into his eyes. Hugh Jr looked away, closing his eyes. "No, no, no, it's not real- It's not real-"
Farrett let out a bloodcurdling scream, tugging Lulu's tentacles away from his face as he felt her penetrate into his eyes and yank on them. His brain swelled up like never before, making him desperate to slide up his occupied hand upwards, cutting at her tentacles just enough to wound the alien. She bled her extraterrestrial blood all over the two boys and let go of Farrett, only after taking out his eyes, which killed him instantly. Her blood had entered though the wounds Hugh Jr had received, but he didn't know it, nor did care.
"Blimey!" He flipped onto his stomach, crawling away until he kicked up and ran back to the camp with the fresh stab wound keeping him from running at max speed.
"What do you mean we have no service?!" Rosemary was picking at her phone, raising it as high as she could to get a reception. "How did I not know about this sooner?!"
"Nobody panic!" Gavin instructed. "Everyone, get to the mess hall!"
"But it's closed-" Rochelle noted. "How-?"
Gavin went to the building, kicking at the locked door hard that it opened just like that. "Inside, now!"
The remaining campers scattered in, frightened for their young lives. Robbie stopped and forgot Alice was still hiding in shame at the bathroom stalls. "Wait, damn it!"
"What's wrong?" Gavin had lost track of Alice through the commotion.
"My idiot step-sister! I'll get her-"
"Wait-!" Gavin halted to no avail.
Manuel joined after her. "I'm coming with!"
"KIDS!' Gavin was pulled back by Rochelle. "What?!"
"Are there any tools here?! Maybe kitchenware?!"
Gavin let out the groan made from a thought ultimatum. "Fuck! Okay, come on! I hope they'll be safe..."
Alice peeked her head out after a brief moment of silence had her grow curious. The campers had disappeared up until Robbie and Manuel came running from the far left. "Oh, great."
"Hey, get out of there!" Robbie wailed. "We've got an emergency!"
"I'll say!" Alice murmured. "That idiot Gabby just humiliated me in front of that cutie pie! Urghhhh, I hope she dies!"
Why, you fucking shit... Robbie swung the door open and pulled Alice right the fuck out of the cubicle. "Wish granted! Her body's been found all- All fucked up, man!" Robbie struggled to keep an open stomach with the scene of the eaten corpse of the girl.
"What-? Stop pulling my arm off! And what are you talking about?!"
Manuel helped Robbie pull the resisting girl to the mess hall. "We f-found Gabby dead. A bear ate her, and it's around the woods!"
Alice gasped, making herself lighter for them to escort back. "You're bullshitting!"
"No!" They both yelled back in unison.
"Oh, my God..."
"And Hugo is still in the woods!" Manuel went on. "Him and the other two dudes."
"HEY!" Hugh Jr was barely coming out of the woods, limping and waving at them. "HELP ME!"
Minutes Later
"Here, this will clean your wound," Rochelle comforted the British boy, rubbing a tissue laced with alcohol on his stab wound and forehead, wiping the blood away.
"Tsch!" Hugh Jr winced, sitting on one of the many rows of tables. "Thank you kindly."
The others were circled around him to hear what he had witnessed.
"Those two guys wanted to hurt me, and they made it clear. I thought for a second that they killed Gabby-"
"No, they were with us the whole time," Maddie whispered.
"My glasses broke during their violence, but- But this thing- I was barely able to see this- This baby-sized creature. It looked like a baby, too, even!" Hugh Jr wiped his face. "I've never seen anything like it, but the thing came from the trees. It just dropped down and killed Chip, and then Matthew."
The girls flinched visibly in response to this.
"I don't know what that thing was, but it was no bear, and- I- I think that's the thing that killed Gabby."
Gavin shook his head. "I don't buy that, Hugh."
"What? N-no, no I saw it! On me mum's life, I am telling you the truth!" And suddenly, Hugh Jr began feeling lightheaded, body acting in a wobbly state. "Ugh..."
"Hugo?" Manuel waved a hand in front of his face. "Hey, man-"
Hugh Jr fell back going unconscious, submitting to the infection that swelled up inside, courtesy of the blood.
"Hugh Jr!" Alice bumped her fingers on his forehead. "Is- Is he?"
"Not dead, no, but maybe he passed out from the shock?" Rochelle moved his sleeping body up at the table. "Nobody move him."
"His story about a monster baby is make believe nonsense," Gavin insisted, moving to the arsenal of kitchen knives he collected and placed at the table behind behind him. "Bears are real, so I say it's a near. Kids, grab a knife, we're all evacuating camp."
"B-but like this?!" Robbie panicked. "We wouldn't be able to fight a bear or whatever it is that's out there like this! And the road back to town is long aways from here! We can't make it!"
Gavin slapped Robbie hard, making a tougher point. "If we do not try, we will be as good as dead by being sitting ducks here!"
"Sir-" Rochelle tried to counter.
"As the main counselor, I vote we move out!" Gavin pointed to the knives. "And today!"
"Oh, my God..." Robbie freaked. "I- I don't wanna die..."
Alice exhaled, noticing Robbie's clear emotion of everlasting fear.
"Manny, you're carrying Hugh Jr here," Gavin ordered.
"Y-yes, sir..." Manuel dragged the boy into his arms, groaning with a struggle to hold him.
"Move out!"
Later
They ventured through the woods, this time going south to the direction of the road. They moved carefully, making soft steps while keeping their eyes all over the woods. Their hearts raced wildly, sweat pouring down their skin in a great state of of paranoia that today was to be their last day. Three bodies as of yet, and it could change at any given moment if the bear, or the baby creature Hugh Jr claimed to have seen reappeared for more carnage. The knives at the hands of all the girls were never still for one damn second, shaking and rattling away in a broken song of death and despair.
Above them, the trees were blown away by the strong winds, bringing the attention of Rochelle and Rosemary who looked up as a further precaution. Nothing out of the ordinary but birds and squirrels somewhere around, for sure.
"H-hey," Manuel was getting gradually tired of carrying Hugh Jr. "Can someone-?" And he lost his grip without a warning, dropping the boy right on the ground floor.
Rachel stopped, switching roles with Manuel before she noticed something about Hugh Jr. "Hey, um... Is it just me or is his skin going pale green?"
Manuel hadn't noticed it husmelf, but the girl was right. Hugh Jr's skin tone had shifted to an odd layer of green, which made both of them nervous. "What is this? He can't be sick... Can he?"
None of them expected Hugh Jr to suddenly wake up, nor for him to tilt his head down and throw up a black gooey liquid out of his mouth. The queue of campers stopped at this point, circling around the infected Hugh Jr. His body twitched, arms acting erratically, as if he had no self-control of his own body.
Gavin, appalled, loomed over him and raised his hands high, feeling Hugh Jr had become sick to the point he couldn't be saved. "Sorry, kid."
"HOLY SHIT, NO!" Rochelle gasped and pushed him off balance, acting out of her impulse. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"Hey, we need to drop a body to get the bear away from us! We can drag the body until it comes across us."
Rochelle and the other campers were truly disgusted such a human lived on the face of the earth. Such a person who would kill another just to ensure his own ass from dying.
And then Rochelle figured it out. "These are why the knives are really for, aren't they? Not to fight off the bear but to chip in on killing Hugh Jr, isn't it?"
Gavin grinned maliciously. "I knew you understood me."
She dropped the knife, as did the others. Manuel helped Hugh Jr back up, and the girls blocked Gavin from making his own move. "You're gonna have to kill us all," Manuel croaked out. "And then you'll be left fighting the bear."
"If I drop all of you, I'm home free..." Gavin figured something. "Actually, if I do kill you... Your bodies c-could be devoured and there would be no-" He paused again, smiling widely and holding the knife with a more sinister intent. "Oh, I see! Rochelle... You're fired." He threw his knife and hit Rochelle right on her chest, making her fall flat on her stomach.
Manuel took off in the other direction with Hugh Jr, wandering in a random pattern. The other girls quickly saw their error and swiped up their knives, charging and swinging away at Gavin. Not much of a fair fight it was, ending with Gavin pushing some of them down. Robbie landed a slash on his leg, making him cry out, only for him to return it back with a punch. Rachel was fast to grab and throw a rock at his head, disorienting him long enough for Alice to push him flat on his back, but the knife he grabbed off Robbie had faced her at the last second, digging right into her abdomen.
Rochelle and Alice were dead before they knew it, but so was Gavin. Robbie screamed when her step-sister lay dying next to him, and with great berserk, Robbie kicked his face in, not stopping until she caved in his skull, leaving a truly bloody mess far worse than what had been left with Gabby.
"Hey, hey- Alice!" Robbie took to her blonde step-sister's side, pulling out the knife. "Shit!"
Alice wheezed slowly, bleeding away from her mouth and wound. "Sh-shit... I didn't mean to d-do the dying for you-"
"Hey, hey, it's gonna be alright! We'll- we'll get you out of here-"
Alice grabbed hold of one of Robbie's arms and squeezed. "It takes for me to be dying to be nice to me, huh?" She chuckled once last time before passing away too soon.
"Alice! Al-" Robbie knew loss again, directing her fingers to close Alice's eyes.
"Rochelle's dead, too," Rachel confirmed. "Son of a bitch, that Gavin."
"What do we do now?" Maddie asked.
"Keep moving," Rosemary decided. "We've made it this far, keep going."
"D-damn it..." Robbie grunted. "How am I going to explain to my mother Alice-?"
Rachel pressed a hand on her back. "If you need me to help you..."
"Thanks, Rachel."
"Hey, Hugo," Manuel shook. "How are you holding up?"
Hugh Jr developed respiratory problems by then. He wheezed with every breath he took while he succumbed to a great intensity of heat. "Take- Take them off-"
"Take what off? Dude?"
Hugh Jr pushed himself off of Manuel, stripping away at his clothes while his body flared up to uncomfortable levels. With some secret strength pulled out of the ass of gods, Hugh Jr tore them away with ease, being naked save for his boxers. "AAAAAAGHHHH!"
"What's wrong with him?!" Rosemary shouted. "Hey, Hugh-"
The fingers of the British boy began to wiggle grotesquely, becoming more green by the second.
"Oh, what the fuck-? What the fuck?!" Manuel stepped back from Hugh Jr, highly concerned at the sudden shifting of his fingers. "What's happening to him?!"
"That's no fucking flu!" Robbie joked with seriousness.
Hugh Jr gazed his near-lifeless eyes upon the other five, sniffing the air and licking his lips. "He-ha-ha-hungry..." He centered his eyes at Rosemary, making a wide leap at her, sinking his teeth into her throat and yanked out a good chunk, sending her into a frantic panic.
"RUN!" Robbie fled from Hugh Jr for dear life, not caring how or why he had just turned into some cannibal. Maddie, Rachel and Manuel followed her, the four of them being cut away from Hugh Jr and Rosemary now. As they ran, Robbie saw the body of Paula Ward and was drawn by it. "Oh, my God..."
"OH, EW-!" Rachel turned away from the sight of the body being picked apart by the buzzards. "JESUS!"
Maddie went queasy, holding onto her stomach. "D-don't stop!"
Robbie and Manuel closed in on the body, observing it. "It doesn't look like a camper!" Manuel established, finding a holster that held a gun. "OH, SHIT!"
"What is it?" Robbie glanced as Manuel bent down to Paula's body. "What did you-?"
He pulled it out, showing it to everyone. "Where is Hugo?"
Hugh Jr, skin shifting into a nasty green, hair falling out and movements slowed down noticeably, found Rachel standing in an opening. She waved at him, scared shitless when she saw his mouth was covered in blood, no doubt being that of Rosemary's, meaning it was too late to save her. Shit, first the terror of the first animal, and now this other one forming from Hugh Jr. "Hey, Hugh Jr... H-how goes it?"
She was the bait of this trap, and when Hugh Jr closed in at the right angle, Manuel would fire the rounds. He aimed carefully, sights set on the British boy's head. There was that one second where he didn't want to, but something had happened to him that made him turn into this mutating monster. Whatever it was, Manuel was not eager to know.
Ten feet away. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Rachel shrieked, breaking character. And Manuel fired three shots, hitting Hugh Jr effectively. He fell, and the final four weren't sure they were out of the woods just yet. So to speak. Manuel moved in first, rolling the body with his legs. Hugh Jr wasn't moving, but blood trickled away from his head, forming a river. "D-dude..." Manuel was not proud of it in any way. "I'm sorry, man..."
"Okay but what? What the fuck happened to him?!" Robbie pondered.
"I don't know, but we're close to the road now! I know it, come on!" The four of them jogged it back, still in fear for their own little lives. Meanwhile, Lulu crawled down a tree, still pursuing the playthings...
"How are we going to explain this?" Maddie exhaled.
"Forget that!" Manuel spat. "Our worry is to survive! And maybe we-"
Lulu came running this time, galloping on all fours like a horse, charging at them before they could detect her. She stuck out her tentacle tongue, aiming it at Maddie's leg, making her fall to pull her away from the remaining survivors. "GUYS, GUYS, HELP ME! HELP ME!"
Manuel aimed and almost fired, but Rachel blocked the sight with her body. "No, you'll hit Maddie!"
He lowered the gun. "And just what the shit was that?! Did- Did you see that?! Was that what Hugo saw?!"
"MADDIE!" Robbie called out. "MADDIE?!"
"Oh no..." Manuel assumed she was as good as dead. "Keep going! Keep going down!"
Lulu came back, stampeding her way with one of Maddie's arms in her mouth. She startled the three but had just stopped right before them. She dropped the limb from her mouth and studied them. "Hu... Hueeeee... Meiiiiiin."
"Did... A baby who-?" Manuel kept raising and lowering the gun. "Holy shit."
"Shoot it!" Robbie insisted.
"I can't, it's a baby!" Manuel insisted.
"THAT BABY JUST KILLED MADDIE! IT'LL BE US NEXT!"
Lulu cooed and came crawling at them, giggling innocently. "Tehe!"
"Aww... She looks cute for a little killer..." Rachel thought.
"You fucking idiot-" Robbie took the gun. "Stay!"
Lulu stopped moving, sitting with a smile, hands positioned in front of her. "Goo goo!"
"Wha-? Just like that?" Robbie still had the pistol held high.
Lulu raised her hands, waving them at the three campers. Manuel and Rachel waved back like the idiots they were, but Robbie wasn't fazed by the alien's bullshit. "Sorry, but-" Robbie fired all the rounds left on the gun. She hit Lulu with no problem, except the problem where Lulu formed her hands into tentacles again and stretched them flat, swinging to kill the three. Robbie ducked, but Manuel and Rachel weren't so lucky. Rachel was sliced in half, and Manuel was decapitated.
"NO, NO, NO!" Robbie was distraught and angered. "MONSTER!"
Later
The camp went under lockdown, courtesy of Vial Corp and their units. White armored trucks settled were spread around, and the clean-up crew removed the carnage Lulu had laid to waste. Every single one, apart from Robbie, had died in fucked up ways today, and it wasn't even night. They did that statements, taking Robbie's.
She didn't know what was going to happen, but she hoped that it wouldn't be her to tell her mother of Alice's death. Who knows how they'd take that shit. "Am I done here? I wanna go home."
"And you will!" The labcoat tending to her confirmed. "You will be! May we escort you back home?"
"Please!" Robbie fell for it, wandering into the back of one of the trucks, joined by some armed guards. If only she knew what she was really signing up for. "Hey, dudes. Nice guns..."
After that day, Robbie Ackerman was never seen again... Especially since she began to feel hot when it was a cool temperature.
Meanwhile, the dead Lulu creature had actually only been wounded heavily, and, being an interesting specimen, Lisa's personal wish was to capture and contain her. The staff around the scene froze her with special type of cryogenic guns to make it easier to move her. And when that happened, Lulu was moved to a special underground facility, where she would be placed in cryogenic stasis, forever being branded Lulu by Lisa.
AN: At the end of each act will be these Dark Before Dawn chapters that take place before that corresponding act it belongs to, like this one, if it makes sense. Think of this as a one-shot set just outside the main layer of Dawn, exploring another world but reminding you it's in the same world as well. These characters here are reiterations of OCs made by others, some familiar, some strange. Kudos to you if you know them all. Also, Flagg1991 references for the win.
The Lulu Paradox: When Lulu, a Klemorienite alien, crash-lands in Prime Federation-occupied New York in the future, she is captured and placed into her proper Prime Federation Museum cryogenic csse. However, this Lulu is believed to be the one that was released accidentally by time-displaced Lynn Loud and company, whereas the Lulu broken free winds up in 2028, leading Lulu to be frozen in suspension until she relives time-displaced Lynn breaking her out, each time getting a little older while theoretically able to live for tens of hundreds of years.
But who is able to break the paradox?