We agreed that Arthur would pick me up at 5am on Saturday and I hated myself for that decision around 4:30am when my alarm ripped me out of my dreams. It was still dark outside and while I stumbled irritated through my apartment I wondered when I had last gotten up at this ungodly hour? Had I ever? Probably not and I was set on making this a habit, because… well, nothing good ever came out of this.
Armed with my overnight bag, a travel mug filled with hot, steaming and delicious coffee and everything else I had purchased in preparation to this adventure, I left my place and bid farewell to the comfortable amenities I would probably not get to use for the foreseeable future.
I spotted Arthur's slightly rundown Sedan at the very end of the parking lot of my apartment despite the fact that the parking lot was pretty much empty with the exception of a few scattered cars here and there.
I heaved my belongings into his car and got comfortable in the passenger seat, having almost emptied my mug before we even really started. Maybe he needed to stop somewhere for refueling and I could get myself a refill?
"Are you excited?" he asked and I nodded sleepily. It was hard feeling anything at this time of day if I was honest.
"I don't really know," I admitted truthfully. "I would probably be if I knew what to expect. I did a bit of a Google Search and the things these weekends offer seems to cover a lot of topics depending on your focus."
There were a few things that seemed kind of interesting and others…not so much. Like hunting and skinning an animal, which I hoped was not part of this weekend, because I might actually black out. Or hike back to civilization. Even I had my limits.
We drove about half an hour until we made our first stop at a gas station and I could get my refill while Arthur filled the car with gas. After that we drove about 90 minutes straight until we made it to our destination. At first glance it looked like a regular camping ground and nothing more to it. But for one it was rather early still and I also didn't really know what I had expected. Apparently I had been so fixed on finding out what I might need that I didn't spent an lot of that time wondering what a Survival camp actually might look like. Something along the lines of a camp ground made sense though.
"I get us registered," Arthur exclaimed, leaving the car a moment later and leaving me to my own devices. I took my still somewhat filled travel mug and got out of the car as well, looking around and finding out where exactly I was for the next few days. Others might have started freaking out by now, seeing as I was a good two hours away from Trenton and technically depending on Arthur in a way, a guy I knew so little about that this all might seem extra-super crazy for most people.
I was unsurprisingly surrounded by miles and miles of trees and the only sounds that could be heard was the chirping of birds and the leaves rustling when the wind blew. It was a somewhat serene atmosphere and I would probably have enjoyed it somewhat more if it wouldn't be so cold. And mind you, I was already dressed quite appropriate with my new boots, three layers of shirt, hoodie and my brand-new fleece jacket as well as thick socks, leggings and some sweatpants. Usually that would make me sweat with all the layers, but I was still cold. I knew my duffle bag had a few more shirts and maybe even some more socks, but I wondered whether I'd be able to actually wear more. Maybe I just needed to move around and warm up that way.
Since I didn't know how long registration would take, it was hard assuming I could just start a walk through my close surroundings and instead opted for walking up and down and around the car for a while until Arthur came back about fifteen minutes after he had left, waving papers my way.
"We are all checked in and haven't even been the first ones here," he said, sounding way too excited for something so unimportant. Maybe that was my first clue that we were slightly off for each other, but than again different levels of what excited us was not the worst as such, was it?
"So what's next?" I asked, getting back into the car and hopefully warming up a moment later.
"I got a map with instructions where to go next. They said it is about another 30 minutes into the park until we are there. So, I guess we'll start right away to not be too late since it is already getting close to 7:30 and they said to be there no later than 8."
"We should make it perfectly on time," I remarked and wondered where the rush was. If it was taking us half an hour to our final destination than we were still well within the time frame.
We drove past a hundred trees that all looked alike and about five minutes into the drive I was lost. Honestly, if we were going around in circles and would get lost, I would be no help at all. I just hoped Arthur knew where he was going and when we reached a secluded spot after a good minutes and I saw a few cars, I knew we had arrived. Between all the Pickups, Arthur's sedan seemed a little odd and maybe that should have told us how unprepared we – or at least I – was for this trip.
Killing the car after he found a spot for parking – which wasn't that hard in all fairness – Arthur went ahead to find someone who was in charge. He uttered a word I didn't quite get so I figured at least that's what he was doing and I was once more left to my own devices. Still cold by the way. The drive had done very little to change that, apparently, despite the fact that I turned the heat up to full blast. My coffee had long been gone by now and somehow I expected to not get any new one until I was back in the city. Not that I was a caffeine junkie, but at least it usually did a fairly good job at keeping me warm. But some might argue the same could be said about cocoa or tea. I figured I wasn't going to get any coffee, tea or cocoa, so it didn't really matter anyway. Which brought me to the question what I was supposed to drink – or eat for that matter – these next few days. God, hopefully no animal that I needed to prepare.
I know the whole purpose of survival weekends were to teach you how to survive and that probably included using nature's creatures, but somehow that really did not rank high on my list of things to do. Really not. I was okay with technically consuming these things, but killing and preparing them for cooking? Not so much.
"Are you here for the weekend?" I heard a deep male voice behind me all of a sudden and probably jumped about six feet high.
"Jesus, warn a girl, will you?" I advised, holding my hands over my chest for no apparent reason and turning around to whoever had approached out of nowhere.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he smiled at me genuinely and talk about a smile that could light up a room. Well, not just the smile as it turns out. The guy was at least a good head taller than me, if not even more. Dark blonde hair that had a neat cut and was falling into a gorgeous face whose main feature were deep green eyes that reminded me off the forest I was currently standing in.
His eyes were just one of many features, but they stood out the quickest. I don't believe I had ever seen a face as symmetrical as his and found it oddly fascinating. Also, that these seemed to be the things I was most focused on wasn't odd at all. Why should it be?
"It's fine," I said. "I guess I should have expected someone to be around. But to answer your question, yes, I'm here for the weekend."
The mysterious guy who was dressed from head to toe in black that also seemed very form-fitting and did nothing to hide his rather well formed upper body looked at me for a long moment, an odd expression on his face. "I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you don't look like the usual …crowd."
"No offence taken, but now you have me curious in regards to how does the usual crowd look like?" I asked interested. "And I assume you are more of a regular if you know that kind of thing?"
For a while it looked like he was weighting his options for an answer and I wondered what I was about to hear. Personally it hadn't been a question that had crossed my mind when it came to this weekend, but maybe it should have? Was I going to stand out drastically?
"There's usually a lot more combat gear and camouflage involved and less …athleisure. Also, it usually is very heavy in male participation and very few women. Not that I mind looking at woman as pretty as you all day."
"Is that good or bad? Either aspect, I mean." I choose to ignore the flirting. Seeing as I was here with a date, it would seem a little inappropriate if I actually reciprocated the flirting. No matter how attractive the guy was.
"I don't think there's a good or bad really. It is just refreshing for a change," he admitted, throwing me another blinding smile. "I'm Lester by the way. And you could somewhat call me a regular, seeing as I am one of the instructors."
"Oh," I exclaimed surprised, seeing as I had not expected that. "My…um…My friend just went looking for someone to check us in or… announce our arrival or something along these lines," I said, pointing behind me in the general direction Arthur had left off. "I'm Stephanie by the way."
We shook hands and for a moment I wanted to beg him to keep shaking my hand, since his was warm, so warm and wonderful.
"Wow, your hands feel like blocks of ice," Lester just remarked and I still wanted his hands to never let go. Or at least until I could maybe feel my fingers again.
"I somehow hadn't expected it to be this cold," I replied, dumbly. It was the middle of February, what exactly had I expected the weather to be like? "I just get another shirt from my bag and should be all good."
"I hope you packed some gloves as well, because I feel like you might need them, judging by your hands."
"Just tell me there will be a fire at one point or another and I'll be good," I said, sounding maybe a little like I was begging. Fire did count as survival, right? After all you needed a source of heat as well as something to be able to cook whatever you managed to find.
"I have good news for you then," he just laughed and I might have let out a sigh of relief. "Depending on the group you are in, that can be the first thing that is on the list."
"Oh thank god, I was really…. Wait, what? Groups? What groups?" I asked after my relief had settled and I processed what Lester had said.
"There is technically the process of putting people in two groups, though that hasn't happened the past few times since everyone had the same goal or need."
"I think you lost me," I admitted and before Lester could answer any of my million questions, I heard Arthur behind me.
"We are all set, Baby," he more or less yelled, weirdly enough disrupting the quietness around is. It wasn't as if it had been tranquil and peaceful before, yet he seemed a little like an intruder. And had he just called me Baby? That was a first, especially seeing as this was our second date. Judging by Lester's arched eyebrow he seemed as confused as me, especially since I had labeled Arthur as 'friend'. But than again, this was our second date and I didn't feel like explaining that as a first fact to a complete stranger.
"Great," I said, trying to sound somewhat cheerful. "Meet Lester," I went on, turning partly to him and seeing Arthur approach us.
"I'm Arthur, Steph's guy," was what I heard from Arthur's introduction and figured it could have been worse. He could have introduced himself a whole lot different and in lot of very awkward explanations.
"Good to meet you," Lester said, shacking Arthur's hand, before he suggested we get going. "They are about to start."
"Is this where I'll learn about what you meant with groups?" I asked curiously, when Arthur pulled me more or less after him and I only heard Lester laugh at my question. What was I getting myself into?