The morning was misty with rain. Fog covered the ground, and overcast clouds covered the sky. Stifling the campers, the gray atmosphere made the day perfect for doing absolutely nothing. Everyone milled around outside, huddling under the cabin porch or the arts-and-crafts tent. Believing that he deserved to indulge in his agoraphobia after an entire afternoon spent at the beach yesterday with Mike and Zoey, Cameron contented himself with staying cooped up in the boys' cabin. He had just started to doze off for a mid-morning nap when a soaked Lightning burst through the door.
"Stupid lake monster," Lightning grumbled. "Sha-bam!" He punched the air. "That's what I wanna do to its slimy suckers."
"What's wrong?" Cameron asked.
"Jo dared me to a swim-race around the island, and you know Lightning never backs down! We were neck-and-neck to the finish line, and of course yours truly was gonna win."
Cameron listened with rapt attention. Stories of Lightning and Jo's physical feats never ceased to amaze him.
"Then a bunch of tentacles wrapped around my chest and tossed me up in the air. It was juggling me like…like the things you juggle with!"
"Juggling balls?"
"Yeah! So then it threw me into the water, then scooped me back up and tossed me onto the beach," Lightning shook sand out of his swimming trunks. "You shoulda seen it, Bubble Boy."
"I'm okay, here," Cameron peeped, terrified of the mutated mollusk lurking under Lake Wawanakwa. But a small part of his brain–the morbidly curious part–was dying to see this aquatic mutant in action. He'd studied most of the mutants on land: Flying rat-seagull hybrids, giant insects, carnivorous man-eating flytraps, he'd journaled them all. But below the lake's depths were where the real gems of knowledge could be found. Cameron knew that over 80% of the Earth's oceans remained unexplored, and if he could whittle down this watery mystery by even 0.001% by studying this lake monster, he'd satisfy his mind and the entire scientific community! Still terrified, but resolute in his academic pursuit, Cameron rose from his bed, put on his oversized yellow raincoat, and started packing a knapsack.
"Where are you going?" Lightning huffed, as he did pull-ups on the top bunk.
"To embark on the pursuit of knowledge!" Cameron puffed his chest out and opened the cabin door, before reeling back and falling on the floor from the weight of his knapsack.
Heaving the geek with one hand, Lightning caught a glimpse of the dangerously heavy contents of Cameron's bag: a notepad, a pencil, and a disposable camera.
Meanwhile, in the girls' cabin, a similar tale of stolen triumph had been told. Jo ranted and raved about how she had almost beat Lightning, and Dawn, eyes closed, meditated from her top bunk.
Dawn's hair drooped over her face. "How awful…"
"I know! When I get my hands on that slimy little sucker, I'll–" Jo began jabbing at her punching bag.
"Not that!" the pacifist gasped. "The lake creature's hostility. The poor thing must be distressed about something! An anxious aura has been emanating from the lake all week."
"Maybe you could make yourself useful, then, and use your freaky witch powers to keep that glorified calamari outta my hair. I've got a score to settle with the meathead."
Feeling obligated to ease the troubled beast, Dawn floated down to the floor.
"I have a duty to calm this misunderstood mutant down. See you later."
"Hold up," Jo took a break from her punching. "You're the size of a starving Victorian orphan. How do you plan to–." She stopped, seeing no one behind her.
Shuddering from the cold chill that passed over her, she shook it off and resumed her workout.
"Weirdo," she muttered.
Under the shelter of the medical tent, Chris and Chef reclined on a gurney and tossed marshmallows into their mouths.
"I totally caught that last one, dude," Chris protested. "So I win this round. One more, and you'll be filling out our community-service paperwork for a whole week!" He chuckled. Seeing Cameron standing in front of the tent flap, he screamed.
"Ah! Knock, dude!"
"...It's a tent, Mr. Chris."
Chris rolled his eyes. "Cam being a smarty-pants, as usual. What do you want? Chef Hatchet and I were in the middle of…" He looked at the marshmallows, soggy from the wet grass, riddled around the tent. "...some very important camp paperwork. That's right."
He looked at Chef and gave a thumbs-up. Nice save, the gesture said. You wish, the facepalm replied.
"Um, I–"
"Don't start a question with 'um', boy! It makes you sound weak," Chef said.
Stunned, Cameron tried again. "Oh, sorry, I, um–"
"Strike two!" Chef glared and popped a marshmallow in his mouth.
Cameron deflated and started to walk out, before bumping into Dawn.
"Oh, sorry!"
"No worries, Cameron. I thought one of my insect friends had tapped me."
"What are you doing here?"
"If your determined aura is any indication, likely for the same reason you are."
"Which is?" Chris groaned, desperate for the annoying kids to get out of his face so he could focus full attention on a more important task than taking care of the campers–winning a bet to get out of doing paperwork.
"Cameron and I were wondering if we could use Chef's steering expertise to lead us to the tentacled being under Lake Wawanakwa."
Chef froze mid-throw, and a marshmallow hit his nose and fell on the floor.
"Yes!" Chris pumped his fist.
"Stay away from the Wawanakraken! That's an order!" Chef yelled.
"But we must end its tirade on the island!" Dawn protested. "Its aggression screams of repressed sorrow. Something is going on."
"Oh, I forgot," Chris caught a marshmallow in his mouth. "Creepy Girl can talk to creepy animals," he said, his voice muffled.
Cameron gingerly raised his hand. "If I could observe this organism in the flesh, I'm sure I'd be able to detail its temperament and avoid angering it."
"You kids don't understand," Chef huffed and stood up in the tent. "In all my years serving in the Royal Navy, the Wawanakraken is a beast our captains told us to steer clear of at all costs! I was unlucky enough to be stuck serving slop to you maggots at this camp, but trust me when I say I'd prefer being here on land than in the waters of this lake, just waiting to be kraken food." Outside, the rain seemed to pick up into a heavy downpour, and the fog surrounding the tent thickened, as if the camp itself was trying to insulate the campers from the watery monster's wrath.
"But what is the Wawanakraken?" Cameron flipped through a book he had brought. "In all my studies on cryptozoology, I've heard of the Bigfoot, the Yeti, and in terms of aquatic cryptids, the Loch Ness Monster and the Kraken. But never the…Wawanakraken?"
Chef sighed deeply. "You lot were gonna find out soon enough. Much like the Kraken, this Wawanakraken is a giant squid-like abomination. As the legend goes, it wraps its giant tentacles around unsuspecting campers and their canoes in Lake Wawanakwa and drags them to a watery grave."
Cameron gulped. "But, that's just urban legend right? Much like cryptozoology, it's all pseudoscience. It's all fake. Right?!"
"Don't fear, Cameron," Dawn shook her hand. "There are countless concepts in our universe beyond human explanation."
"Exhibit A," Jo pointed a finger at Dawn. She entered the medical tent and Lightning followed.
Chris groaned. "Great, more kids."
"Yo, Chef," Lightning snapped at him. "Drive me and this cheater about two miles out into the lake. We're gonna see who the real swimming pro is."
"Snap your finger at me again, boy, and that'll be the last you see of it."
"Listen to him, Jockstrap," Jo snorted. "I'd hate for you to lose a limb; that'd drop your swim speed from about zero to negative ten miles per hour."
Chris rummaged through the medical cupboard for another bag of marshmallows. "As much as I'd love for Chef to bring you two out into the lake so I can watch you become fish food, those tentacles in the water aren't some mutant creature and are actually some spooky water kraken that was there all along." Finding a new bag, he brought out a box of bandages and tossed it to Jo. "But if you're serious, you're welcome to swim out there yourselves. Just make sure to record the whole thing–I need to put myself back on the map."
"By endangering children?" Cameron frowned.
"Endangering children, getting back my network deal. Same thing!"
Dawn retched. "Your aura is exceptionally revolting right now."
"Hmph! I'm not scared of some monster that's not even mutated. Whatever Boogeyman bedtime story Chef told you two," Jo sneered at Dawn and Cameron, "is probably a load of crud."
"Lightning isn't scared either! He's ready to sha-sucker-punch those tentacles for costing him a victory," he pounded his fist into his palm. "Nothing costs Lightning a victory."
"You knuckleheads don't listen," Chef grouched. "But fine. It's your funeral."
Chris chuckled. "Hold on, this is actually perfect! If you all are planning to go into the lake, I could make a field trip out of this…you know, bring all the campers along."
"A field trip?" Cameron raised his eyebrows. "Why?"
"The judge mandated that Chef and I provide an 'enriching, educational summer-camp experience' with at least two field trips this summer. I'm thinking that a 'midday excursion to observe aquatic life in a natural body of water surrounding the camp' sounds like the perfect environmentalist nature crap the court would love!"
"Your mocking of nature aside, including everyone in our animal-whispering efforts sounds fruitful," Dawn clasped her hands together.
Cameron beamed. "This'll be my first field trip!"
Jo looked him up and down. "Shocker, toothpick."
Ignoring her dig, Cameron gulped. "I only hope my thalassophobia won't trigger while out on the water. Something about the vastness of the lake, and knowing there's a giant creature lurking below makes me feel…so…," he took out an asthma pump and inhaled it anxiously.
"Pssh. As long as I can give that Krakadoodle or whatever a piece of my mind, I'm all set," Lightning said, fired up.
"Then it's settled! I'll gather the campers and you gather your captain uniform, Hatchet."
As the kids left, Chris stared into a mirror in the tent, then turned to Chef.
"Do you think the downpour will give my hair a 'soggy sheepdog' or a 'rain-soaked, star-studded celebrity" look?"
"You don't want me to answer that."
A short while later, Cameron, Dawn, Lightning, Jo, and nine other grumbling campers marched down the Dock of Shame and trailed onto the Boat of Losers. Ponchos crinkled, raincoats glistened with the pattering rain (which had calmed back down to a pestering mist), and boots squeaked on the vessel's creaky wooden floor. In the cockpit, Chris and Chef, wearing matching navy-blue ship captain's uniforms, tinkered with the controls, trying to activate the motor.
"I could be sleeping in and getting my beauty rest, but instead I'm looking for some Wawa-whatever," Dakota frowned.
"And I could be collecting power-ups in my sleep," Sam whined.
"And I could be enjoying a dry poof right now," Anne Maria tugged her rain hat over her poof.
"But think about all the scientific intrigue!" Cameron could barely contain his excitement. "Don't you want to see more of the lake creature beyond its tentacles?"
"No!" The two said in unison.
"Aw, guys, Cameron's right! Maybe it won't be so bad," Zoey shrugged. "Even if I could be writing misunderstood poetry while gazing at the rain droplets outside the cabin window right now…"
"Agreed," Mike patted Cameron's shoulder. "I planned to read a book this morning, but judging from our forced field-trip, it just wasn't in the cards," he smiled.
"...You were never going to read that book in the first place, were you?" Cameron asked.
"Sorry, dude," Mike shook his head no. "The Dual Histories of Paint Drying and Grass Growing just doesn't sound like the coolest read– woah!"
With the engine finally working, the motorboat lurched forward and the campers stumbled. The vessel rumbled away from the dock and towards the heart of Lake Wawanakwa. After a few minutes, Chris exited the cockpit and addressed the jolted campers.
"Captain McLean here! Enjoy this guided tour of Lake Wawanakwa. The pouring rain may dampen our clothes, but not our spirits, ay?"
Crickets.
"Tough crowd," Chris rolled his eyes. "Anyways, our first landmark we'll observe is over there!" He pointed to his left, at a spiked metal sphere in the water. It bobbed up and down in the water, and the metal glittered menacingly, even in the sunless, overcast sky.
"Is that a naval mine?" Cameron gasped.
"Precisely, Cameron" Chris nodded casually. "It was part of a scrapped challenge I was going to use in Total Drama Island that the producers deemed 'too unsafe'. But I didn't really feel like getting rid of it, so I just left it here. Cool, right? I call it 'Chef's Face', because much like Chef's face, this mine is explosive, rusty, and unpleasant to look at–"
In the cockpit, Chef scoffed and made two hard turns right and left with the wheel. The campers and Chris lurched from side to side on the boat, nearly tipping overboard.
"Point taken, geez!" Chris called his grumpy co-counselor. "Now," he turned to the campers, "any questions so far?"
While Chris answered Staci's question which morphed from a question into a tangent about the naval-mines scene from Finding Nemo and how much Staci herself related to Dory, Scott slipped to the back of the boat and found a bucket of earthworm-bait and other fishing tackle. Grabbing a fishing rod, he swung it over the edge of the boat. B looked at him, an eyebrow raised.
"Don't look at me like that, Beverly," Scott said. He knew using B's full name dug under his skin. "I'm on my best behavior, honest! Cam and the Fairy Princess think they're the next big animal tamers, and with their noodly arms, they'll need all the help they can get. I'm gonna catch the biggest fish I can find to help lure the kraken in, then rake in some profits when I sell one of its tentacles!" He snickered. Whoever said get-rich-quick schemes never worked was a real sap.
B shook his head vigorously and used his most elaborate gestures to explain that Cameron and Dawn were only trying to cool the Wawanakraken's temper, but Scott either couldn't understand B's gesticulations or he didn't want to. Scott had turned around and was whistling away, his fishing pole bobbing up and down, as he dreamed of the dozens of giant rat-traps, luxury tractors, and designer overalls he could ship back home (and hoard for himself) with the underwater monster's bounty.
By the time Staci's monologue about how Dory wasn't "that much of a chatterbox" had ended, the second lake landmark was in sight. Relieved at this distraction, Chris clapped his hands to awaken the campers who had dozed off.
"Our second landmark: Barrel Island!" Chris grinned. Pointing to his right this time, he gestured to a patch of water where its color changed from dull lake-blue to uncanny neon-green. Atop this toxic-green region of water rested a mound of rusty, open yellow barrels with the biohazard symbol on them. Ooze still dripped out of some of the barrels.
"To call this a landmark would be to insult the natural beauties of Muskoka, sir!" Brick fumed.
An unwitting seagull fluttered in the air before perching atop Barrel Island. Sniffing the oozing toxic waste, the seagull croaked and keeled over, splashing into the green water. A few moments later, it emerged from the water in all its screeching glory. Gills were etched into its chest, and fish scales shined where feathers should be. Disoriented with its new form, the fish-gull flailed around.
"Poor bird," Zoey gasped.
Spotting the Boat of Losers, the fish-gull cawed aggressively and swooped towards them. Yelling, everyone ducked for cover. Everyone except Dawn, who held out her pale palm. The ghostly glow of Dawn's face softly illuminated the fish-gull–also glowing, with radiation–resting in her hand. Now docile, it nuzzled her, then it jerkily flew away, still unaccustomed to its half-fishy, half-feathery body. Slowly, everyone got up with the danger gone.
"Dang, girl," Anne Maria said, impressed. "I woulda just sprayed it away."
"I-is it gone?" Everyone looked down at Chris, who was still on the floor in a fetal position, sucking his thumb. "Man, I knew I should've worn that hazmat suit today. Can someone grab one for your favorite camp counselor in the back of the boat? You know, just in case we encounter any more…genetically-altered wildlife?" Seeing everyone's terrified looks, Chris got up and brushed himself off. "It's all part of the field trip, campers, nothing to worry about!"
"On it!" Brick, dutiful as ever, saluted Chris and walked to the edge of the boat.
"Gentlemen, what an excellent spread!" Brick marveled at the buckets of fish Scott and B had caught. B nodded at the compliment. In fact, he had combined fishing equipment and rope to convert his run-of-the-mill fishing rod into a fast-catching, hydroelectric fishing net.
"Are you planning to roast these over the fire tonight for our dinner?" the cadet asked.
"No way, Private Suckup," Scott said. "It's bait for the Wawanakraken."
"Oh, I understand. We must conquer the beast that's been spoiling our summer fun!"
"We're not conquering anything!" Dawn said, overhearing them. "As we get closer to the Wawanakraken, I can sense motherly distress in her aura. We're getting closer."
"Has it ever dawned on you that life's not all hugs and kisses?" Scott sneered. "Some of us would like to whittle seashells on the beach without nearly being dragged into the water! I've still got imprints of its suckers on my butt!"
"All the more reason we shouldn't provoke it in its native home!"
"Do what you want, forest pixie," Jo said, clutching a handful of rocks and brandishing a slingshot. "But I'm giving this lake monster a piece of my mind when I see it! 'Jo the Conqueror' has a nice ring to it, too."
"Let's see if the Lightning's super aim can launch his lucky football right in this octopus's eye!" The jock practiced his throw.
"Excessive violence isn't the answer, guys. We must use a passive approach and the scientific method to end this creature's harassment." Cameron frowned at Lightning. "And it's a giant squid, not an octopus."
"There's a difference?"
Despite Dawn's protests, Jo, Lightning, Scott, and Brick were resolute in their quest to fight the Wawanakraken. Pacifism, however, had struck a chord in her, Cameron, Mike, and Zoey's hearts, and they were staunchly opposed to using force to get the monster to leave the campers alone. The five neutral campers had no stake in how to deal with the lake monster. They only wished for their miserable, wet field trip out on the lake to end so they could take a rainy-day nap and dream pleasantly about nautical engineering, RPGs, red-carpet premieres, reality TV catfights, and Finding Nemo. And so, the two opposing sides, four-on-four, bickered passionately. It was only until Chef sounded the boat's alarm that they stopped long enough to see the massive whirlpool they were approaching.
Wee-oo, wee-oo, wee-oo. The boat's warning siren cast a red light in the heart of the lake, the only speck of color in the foggy, oppressive air. A vast hole that swirled into the depths of Lake Wawanakwa was approaching.
"OMG, we're gonna die!" Dakota screamed. "We're gonna die and I haven't even been the covergirl of Seventeen yet! Somebody hold me!" The Malibu girl held her arms out and closed her eyes, tears making her mascara run, and Sam willingly obliged.
"Take cover!" Chris yelled. "I knew I forgot to bring more life jackets aboard…oh well!" The caring counselor donned his personal life jacket and whistled innocently after seeing everyone's offended glares.
"With all due respect, sir," Brick started, "how the heck could you forget such vital equipment?!"
"With no due respect," Jo growled, "if we die, forget the lake monster! My ghost isn't passing on until it's done haunting you, McLean!"
"Yo, Chef!" Anne Maria and the others banged on the cockpit door. "Turn this thing around!"
"YOU DON'T THINK I'D DO IT IF I COULD?" he barked back. No matter which way Chef steered, the boat slowly but surely advanced towards the watery sinkhole. Eventually, he quit steering, opened the cockpit door, and squinted at the advancing whirlpool.
Dawn staggered, but Zoey caught her before she fell. "What's wrong, Dawn?!"
"The Wawanakraken's aura…it's overpowering. She's definitely nearby."
Terrified out of his mind, Cameron remained steadfast in his research pursuit and took out his pen and pad. "But where exactly is–" he started, then stopped.
Everyone gawked at the sight unfolding before them. Out of the depths of the whirlpool, one tentacle, then two, then three tentacles shot out and rested on the surface of the surrounding water, as if holding onto the edge to pull itself up. The tentacles were slimy with sticky, aqueous goo and each large sucker contained bones from sea creatures, including sharks, Cameron noticed: the remains of victims caught in the monster's clutches, no doubt. Eventually, eight tentacles had emerged from the lake's swirling depths, and a giant milky-white eye leered at the boat. Another eye popped out of the water, and eventually, the entire bulbous, bumpy, rusty-red head appeared on the lake's surface. Four tentacles wrapped around the bottom of the boat and started shaking. The fifteen sailors shrieked as the boat rocked side to side, as if caught in a terrifying tempest and not a stale, misty wind. It was official: The Wawanakraken had appeared, and it was not in the sunniest of moods.
"Kraken, oh Kraken, hear our plea!" Dawn called. "Our camp wishes for Wawanakwan peace, us thirteen! We've ventured from land, and we wish to know why! Why, oh why, is it our waters that you terrorize?"
Listening to the chant, the Wawanakraken's cloudy eyes glistened knowingly, as if communicating with the animal lover. It slowly let go of the wildly rocking boat.
"Forget this tea party!" Jo yelled. "Time to start knockin' some kraken skull!" She and Scott loaded their slingshots to attack, but the Wawanakraken was quicker. Its eyes returned to their dull, angry luster, and two tentacles shot out, disarming its attackers. The two tentacles grabbed the assaulting campers and hoisted them in the air.
"I take it back! Work your magic, ghost girl!" Jo cried, as she was whipped around in the air.
"Sweatpants is right!" Scott blubbered, the Wawanakraken whacking Scott against the water repeatedly. "Help us!"
"Hold on!" Brick called. "Lightning and I have formed a plan. Ready?"
"Sha-yeah!"
The attempted heroics went as expected. Lightning aimed his football at one of the tentacle's suckers, and it lodged perfectly in the center. Lightning barely had time to do the first step of his victory dance before the Wawanakraken dislodged the ball, which slammed into the celebrating camper's head.
"Oh, yeah! Who's the man? Light– oof!" The footballer was not only knocked unconscious, he was knocked overboard.
"Somebody do something!" Chris cried. "A drowned camper would suck for my sentencing."
"You're the counselor!" Mike yelled. "You do something!"
"Ooh," Chris cringed. "I would, but I just had my captain's uniform pressed, so.."
Zoey grabbed some stray rope and tossed it to Cameron. "Well, we have to do something! I-I'll try to climb over the edge of the boat to see if I can reach him."
"It's too dangerous!" Cameron cried.
"What choice do we have?"
"You've got ze acrobatic choice, of course!" Svetlana announced. She grabbed the rope and ran to the edge of the boat. Swan-diving overboard, Svetlana disappeared under the choppy waters. Everyone waited with bated breath, but a few moments later, she emerged with a dazed Lightning over her shoulders. "Now pull me and zis boy with the giant biceps up!"
Zoey and Cameron tried to heave her up with the rope, to little avail.
"They're too heavy," Zoey lamented.
Despite their moderate to intense aversions to physical exertion, Sam, Dakota, Anne Maria, Staci, and Dawn ran to help the two. Even Chris lifted a finger or two to help. Chef's brawn was the final push they needed to pull the two campers up. Eventually, they hauled a soaking-wet Chester and Lightning onto the floor. Exhausted, they flopped down.
"Stupid lake monsters," Chester grumbled. "Those watery whippersnappers sure know how to spoil a swell boating trip. Wait," the old man felt the soft rain pattering around him. "It's raining! Who in tarnation goes boating on a rainy day?!"
Seeing Scott and Jo still being battered by the Wawanakraken, Brick steeled himself.
"Plan B!" Brick cried. "B?" The silent guy tossed his high-tech fishing net to the cadet. Twirling it in the air like a lasso, Brick heaved as he threw the net as far as he could. It landed on the giant squid's head. In anger, it shook its head vigorously. Still holding onto the net's rope, Brick yelped as he was dragged onto the kraken's head with it. Holding nothing but an evidently useless net atop an angry monster's noggin, Brick screamed and rocked back and forth on the wet head of the livid lake creature.
"Real nice, Soggy Pants!" Jo yelled, upside-down in the kraken's slimy grasp. "Try not to pee your pants out of fear. If it doesn't like human slingshots, it sure won't like human urine."
"Mere observation via notetaking won't help!" Cameron murmured, dropping his pen and pad. "The situation will only rectify itself by active observation. But how can I solve this if I haven't read a book on it?"
Suddenly, a still undoubtedly large, but much smaller squid shot up to the lake's surface. Clinging to the terrifying Wawanakraken, the smaller squid sported a plastic ring that was wrapped uncomfortably around the creature's neck.
"It's the Wawanakraken's offspring!" Cameron shouted.
"Weird," Mike frowned. "One of the plastic rings that hold packs of soda is stuck around its neck."
Beginning to understand, Cameron tapped Dawn's shoulder. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"If your sympathetically sage-green aura is any indication, yes!"
Turning to the angry Wawanakraken, Dawn whistled at it. "Oh, Wawanakraken! We understand that human interference has harmed your baby, and you have no way to fix its pain! Is this correct?"
Still fuming, the red giant squid's complexion slightly dimmed, and she nodded.
"Water pollution is an awful byproduct of some humans' carelessness on bodies of water! But none of us at Camp Wawanakwa would do such a thing!" Cameron explained. Unwrapping a candy bar, Chris prepared to toss the wrapper overboard before he saw everyone staring daggers at him. Coughing awkwardly, he tucked the wrapper in his uniform's breast pocket. Lake Wawanakwa seemed to be a similar victim of this water pollution, albeit an extreme version, if the toxic-waste barrels and stray explosive mine the campers saw earlier were any indication.
"If we can fix your child's suffering condition, will you agree to tone down your attacks on us?" Dawn held her arms out.
Considering the human girl-child's proposition, the Wawanakraken looked at the chaos around her. The campers, soaked with rain and lake water. The boat, scratched at the bottom from her initial onslaught. Even the whirlpool that she formed with her powers to subdue the boat seemed excessive. Huffing, the giant squid relented. Still, she hoped her attack would strike fear into these pesky humans' hearts, and teach them to avoid sullying her sacred waters of Lake Wawanakwa. The Wawanakraken gingerly nodded.
"What's the plan?" Brick asked. He had slightly regained his composure, and was now balancing on the kraken's nodding head.
Snapping his fingers, B gestured at the rope the campers had used to save Lightning. Slowly sitting up, Lightning handed the rope to B as Chef–now Nurse Chef, if his white hat with the red cross was any indication–tended to the hopefully non-concussed camper. B grabbed the long, thick rope and threw it to Jo, who caught it. B pointed at Scott and made an exaggerated throwing motion.
"Here, Carrot Top!" Jo tossed the rope to Scott, who had been finally released from the kraken's assault. B then pointed to Brick, as Scott tossed it to the soldier-in-training. B repeated this cycle of pointing, and eventually, a knot had formed in the rope, which found its way back to B.
Needing a strong person aboard, B handed the rope to Nurse Chef and pointed at the plastic ring. Nodding in understanding, Chef hurled the knotted rope at the baby kraken's neck.
"You," Chef stared at the Wawanakraken, "have been my Moby Dick since the day I joined the Royal Navy. It's time to–!"
"Wait, I thought you were in the RCMP?" Zoey asked.
"If I recall, it was the Army…" Cameron furrowed his brow.
"I thought you said the air force, dude?" Sam scratched his head.
"Does Chef have a Pinocchio hat too, for all his lying?" Jo taunted, still upside-down from the tentacle's grip.
"Chef's embellished war stories aside," Chris coughed. "I believe he was saying some Oscar-worthy line?"
"Oh, right," the nurse-hat-wearing cook coughed his throat. "As I was saying, let's end this!"
Caught between the baby kraken's neck and the plastic-ring, the rope's knot gripped the plasticky trash. Chef heaved it up and over the kraken's head as the baby squid was freed from its plastic-ring purgatory. Cradling up to its mother, the baby squid cooed. Although a faint imprint of the choking piece of trash was left around the baby kraken's neck, it could rest easier now.
Nuzzling its baby, the Wawanakraken finally relented. Tossing Jo, Scott, and Brick back onto the boat with three loud thuds, the monster finished holding up its end of the deal by diving into the heart of the whirlpool, its baby in tow. Like a drain plug, the beast stopped the whirlpool's swirling just before the Boat of Losers fell into it and became the Boat of the Drowned Losers. For a few minutes, nothing but the crashing of the lake's waves and the pitter-patter of the soft rain penetrated the campers' ringing ears. Catching their breath and ringing out their soaked clothes, they enjoyed the fact that they were alive.
Chris, who was soaked to the bone but still nonchalantly munching on a candy bar. The counselor bummed out that the camcorder capturing the Wawanakraken encounter had been knocked into the lake, but he guessed he would settle for the campers still being alive (meaning no lawsuits) as his silver lining.
Exhausted and wet to the bone, it was early evening by the time the teens, Chris, and Chef returned to camp (the motor was considerably slower after being ravaged by a legendary lake monster, it seemed). Trudging to the showers and their cabins, the campers debated on whether or not they should tell people what happened after camp was over. But with no evidence ("Not even a lousy tentacle sucker to sell on eBay," Scott groaned) and no energy to explain the entire ordeal to their parents and friends when the summer was over, they settled the topic there.
On their way to the bathrooms to shower, the campers were blocked by Chef and Chris.
"Kids, I know you all signed NDAs as part of your camp contracts–"
"We did?!" Staci gasped. "But my Great-Great Grandma Ruby proofread it and said that–"
"–that she needs some reading glasses, apparently!" Chris finished. "Anyways, to show how proud I am of your bravery during today's…unorthodox field trip, we're having, drumroll please!"
Crickets.
"Cake for dessert!"
"You're just trying to bribe us with dessert so we won't squeal on you, eh, McLean?" Scott glared at him.
"Uh, yeah?"
The farm boy shrugged. "I'll take it."
"Announcement Number Two," Chef cleared his throat. "Listen up, maggots, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once!"
The campers wondered what they were in trouble for.
"...I'm proud of you lot for not breaking down like a bunch of sissies!" Blushing profusely, Chef turned around and marched quickly to the mess hall.
"Aww," Chris teased, trailing after him. "Is Cheffy Weffy proud of his camper wampers?"
"McLean! Don't worry about the cake. I've got a special gourmet treat just for you!"
"Ooh, what is it?"
"A knuckle sandwich!"
Their loud bickering could be heard even from outside by the bathrooms, but it was drowned out by the campers' startling realization.
Walking into the bathrooms, but with much less conversation than before, the campers reflected on how strange and scary their encounter with the Wawanakraken had been.
Still, there was one thing even the campers themselves couldn't believe despite having just witnessed it. They didn't say it–and they didn't need to–but nothing could come close to how uncanny it was that Chef Hatchet had just complimented them.