Chapter 15 - Settling into Camp

First off, I had to say that the first hour in Camp was very tedious and tiresome, and that wasn't because of the fact that there was nothing to do, but it was because me, Gracie and Jack had the grave misfortune of encountering eight other campmates who we had found out that they would do absolutely anything for a laugh. And could you guess what that would be? Yes. You called it. Humiliating others and making fun of them, which I had to admit, I was no stranger to. The reason for this was because I used to get bullied at school during my last few years of Primary School. Why?

Because… When my mum died, I was utterly inconsolable for the first few months without her sweet smile and her little magical ways of making me happy. For those few months, I did nothing except cry my eyes out. Not only did I do that though. I also found myself eating more frequently than usual, but at that moment in time, I was just so sad and depressed that I didn't even care. I completely let myself go and I never seemed to notice it as much, however, what I did notice was that stuffing myself with fast food and confectionery was like having make believe arms wrapped around me, trying to comfort me during this tough time. Thankfully, I had lost most of the weight I'd gained, but enough so that nobody would notice much (I hoped).

Anyway, I was presently sitting around the campfire with all of my campmates and I was so ready to eat after all the organisation we had done pertaining all the jobs and chores we had to do and who was doing them. Also, I had learned a lot of things about these kids as well, whether it was the concept of their actions towards others or their personalities, and I had to say that about eighty percent of the kids we were going to be living with had absolutely zero respect for us. Even after just a few hours, I had noticed that two little groups had merged together, which consisted of four girls: Scarlet, Maggie, Poppy and Cleo, and three boys: Alex, Will, and Keaton.

However, I thought I couldn't really say much about merging groups because I had sort of created a little friend group: me, Gracie, Jack, and Lily, a girl who felt that she didn't fit in with the other girls, so we said, "Come and join us instead."

Regarding all of our chores, from what I knew of, Jack had been nominated for water duty, which consisted of fetching water for us to top up our bottles, Gracie had nominated herself to do the cooking and (this was something that amused me) Scarlet and her group members were nominated to do the washing up after our meals, and what truly gobsmacked me was that Alex was made the Camp leader, which was a huge pain because he was one of those idiot boys I had spoken about before. What was an even bigger pain was that he used his 'position' to control everyone and tell us what to do.

As I was saying, I couldn't wait to eat, even if it meant that it was nothing big, and just as I was thinking that, I suddenly caught sight of a small sack dangling in the air. I recognised it immediately. It was the small sack that campmates received their food in and that was when all of us became increasingly excited. However, when we opened the bag, we were not so excited. It was…rice and beans?! What the hell? Me, Jack and Gracie got all seven stars on our trial, how the…what?! We soon found out why we had received such a small amount of food when we saw Scarlet and the other girls let out nervous giggles, which probably indicated that they hadn't got any stars on their trial. Perhaps the other reason why the people who tried hard had also had rice and beans was because the girls' trial was the most essential.

"Really, Scarlet?" Jack sighed. "Tell us you at least tried with your trial."

"We literally did, oh my god!" Scarlet protested. "Didn't we, girls? We got like, two stars which is not bad, so shut your mouth!"

I noticed that Jack was looking a little uncomfortable so I jumped in. "Look, stop acting like you busted your backsides trying to feed us because this food in front of us is all the evidence we need to prove that you didn't give a flying-"

"Boy, shut up!" Poppy shouted. "Us girls have reasons not to do much of the trials because we need to keep our pretty faces clean!"

I rolled my eyes and decided there and then that I was going to end this argument because there could've been worse foods we had to eat. As I said before, I hated baked beans, so I had no choice but to eat all of the rice instead. It was pretty dry and starchy and I may have resulted in gulping down half a litre of water but at least it filled me up a little bit.

…

I started to stir a little in my sleep and after about ten seconds of lying there considering whether I was in the position of being both asleep and awake at the same time, I opened my eyes slowly and wearily. At first, I had expected to be tucked up in my own bed at home with nobody around me; just me, myself and I, but no. As soon as I smelled the excess smoke fumes from the campfire that had burned out about two hours ago, I knew that I was smothered in sheets belonging to my timber frame bed that I currently lay in. I was in Australia. All the way on the other side of the world.

As I stated before, I had long since given up wishing that my mum was by my side and making me feel better when I was in a tough position. However, now I was in the jungle with people I had only known for half a day and I felt like I couldn't wake one of them up because I was missing home. When I thought about this further, there may have been people I didn't really trust and people who probably wouldn't be up to comforting me, but I had a hunch that my duvet and my pillow would snuggle and cuddle up to me, as if they had both lost loved ones too and their hearts were occasionally brought back to memories of them.

I swallowed a batch of saliva, and as I did, I felt a great aching pain in my throat that, when I swallowed more frequently, became even worse and it throbbed as if there were hundreds of needles pricking the roof of my mouth. I felt way too stiff and fatigued to reach and grab some water, even though my camouflage backpack was hanging off one of the knobs on my bed. Well… I suppose it was either I at least tried or I had to suffer all night. I gently drew back my covers and knelt up on my bed, and as I did, I momentarily realised that it was cold, so cold in fact, that I grabbed my water bottle and twisted the cap off.

Even just after a few seconds, I felt the natural liquid cascading down my gullet. It sort of hurt when I swallowed it down, most likely because it had been a fair few hours since I had drunk anything and my throat had become a little unaccustomed to liquids. Nonetheless, it made me feel a little bit better than I did before. After refreshing myself with the water, I decided that it would be a foolish move if I put my bottle back into its holder because what if the same condition wiped over me within about two minutes and I would have to go through the effort of exposing myself to the cold air? Anyway, I decided to keep my bottle down by my bedside so it was in an adequate reach.

No sooner had I settled back down into bed again when I felt a throbbing in my head and my god did it feel much more intense and robust than headaches I had had before. Yes, this evening, I had been exposed to loudness and yes, I nearly always felt physically affected subsequently, but this headache felt like something different. It didn't feel as if my head was going to burst due to my hearing condition being triggered and it didn't feel like I'd had heat stroke from the sun. Instead, it was like I was coming down with something. Oh dear… I tried not to worry about it too much, but it was difficult to do so when it was currently occurring.

I closed my eyes which felt like lead and listened to the soft, relaxing breathing of my sleeping campmates, hoping that it was contagious on some level. I tried to do the exact same thing as them, but my heartbeat was still a little rapid due to that sudden burst of movement when I grabbed my bottle. At this point, I really didn't know what to do with myself because on the one hand, my body felt lethargic and tired, but on the other hand, I kept on tossing and turning and I didn't seem to quit it. I shifted onto my right side so I was facing the rest of my campmates instead of jungle bushes and it was then when I noticed something.

I saw Gracie's bed. I knew it was hers because one: I remembered which one she chose and two: in the gloom, I could see her red waistcoat draped over her covers, bearing her name in black capital letters. However, that was not all. I noticed that her bed was empty. I began to breathe heavily. What had happened to Gracie? Where was she? Had she already had enough of the jungle? Well, surely not because all of her resources and accessories were all sitting there. Or at the very worst, had she been kidnapped? I really really hoped not. Right. Now I seriously couldn't sleep, so I decided to do something I always did whenever I couldn't sleep. I would take a walk. Even if it was just around the house it would normally help me to wind down.

Sighing heavily, I drew back the covers, put on my jacket and rubbed my eyes. At my feet were my black slippers, so I put them on and stood up slowly, allowing the blood to gradually flow down rather than letting myself drop down in a faint instantly. In my dream that I had about being in the jungle a few days before, the one where at the end, I got absolutely mauled by a troop of venomous snakes, I had been traversing the pathway to a calm lake since I wanted to explore more of Camp in greater detail, so I decided to have a walk around and see if there actually was a lake there.

I carefully tiptoed round and round the beds in which my campmates were sleeping, particularly those of Scarlet's and her friends' because I knew for a fact that she would absolutely kill me and say something like, "You ruined my beauty sleep!" or maybe something else. I couldn't believe I had known those girls for a matter of hours and I already felt as if they were people I used to know. Anyway, luckily, after a few steps away from the beds, I caught sight of the very sign I had seen in my dream that read which way the waterfall was and which way the lake was. Wow. I had never realised that my speculation of reality was that accurate.

As I walked around the trees, everything was gloomy and smothered in darkness, so gloomy in fact, that I found myself tripping over sticks and tree roots jutting up from the ground. The only thing that didn't look dark, though, was the only toilet cubicle in Camp. It was as if the door was shut and light was shining through the timber of the woodwork. I also noticed that it didn't even look like a warm white light that was shining, it was as if an LED from a torch was illuminating the entire space.

I decided to dismiss it and carry on walking in the direction of the lake, but something else stopped me in my tracks. From inside the cubicle, I could hear quiet sobbing and sniffling, and then a female voice whimpering, "Oh… Oh, I miss you so much. I really need you…"

Oh. A girl was crying in there and it seemed like she was wishing that maybe one of her loved ones was here, or perhaps she was homesick. Whatever it was, I knew I just couldn't leave her there to suffer on her own. I slowly walked closer to the cubicle, trying to make my footsteps as quiet as possible, but annoyingly, I stepped on a twig, causing it to snap. Darn it. Surely the girl would've heard me now, so I called out, "Hello?"

The sobbing instantly stopped and for a moment, there was a deadly silence save for the wind blowing in the trees. The torch switched off, plunging me into proper darkness and my heartbeat increased as I could half see the door creak open. Finally, a head popped round one of the sides of the door. At once, my heart started beating even quicker and a deep sense of sadness welled up in me. The girl who had been in there stared back at me in fear, the moonlight allowing me to see the tear stains painted on her face.

It was Gracie.