Fear Itself

Chapter 8

The following day, the campers sat down for breakfast while the counselors set up the volleyball net. Cody said, "Hey, Chef Scott, a little service. How about some bacon and eggs for me and the boys and some pancakes for the girls?" Then, five plates of bacon and eggs and five plates of pancakes and syrup slid towards the campers. Gwen said, "Who did that?" Susan said, "Well, Chef Scott is in the kitchen. Who else could have done it." Sally said, "I'll give you a hint. His name starts with a G and ends with 'Host.'" Gwen said, "For the last time, there is no such thing as a ghost." Duncan took a bite of the food the ghost gave them and said, 'Hmm. He sure makes good bacon and eggs for someone who doesn't exist. If only we had some orange juice." Then, a carton of orange juice and a few cups slid towards them. Duncan said, "This has got to be our imaginations. Otherwise, we'd be scared to death." Duncan poured each of them a glass of orange juice, and they all ate and finished their breakfast.

Once they finished breakfast, Cleo told the campers to go to the volleyball field. Boys on one side, girls on the other. Cleo said, "Girls serve first." Sally served the ball and hit it over the net. Then Chris hit it back at the girls, Sally hit it back at the boys, Cody hit back at the girls, Susan hit back at the boys, Ben hit back at the girls, and Susan hit back at the boys. Ben tried to hit it, but he missed, and the girls scored. Cleo scored one on the girls' score while the boys still had a 0 on theirs. Cleo said, "Girls' serve." Sally hit the ball and hit it out of bounce, so Cleo put a one on the boys' score. Cleo said, "We're all tied up. Boys' serve." While they were playing, Duncan served the ball, but it turned around and nailed him in the face. Cleo said, "Out of bounce. And the boys are one point and a player short. The girls win." Cleo put a two next to the girls' score, and then Cleo and Justin took Duncan to the infirmary.

The campers went to visit Duncan in the infirmary and saw he was out cold, had a black eye, and his head was bleeding. The nurse checked Duncan's test results and told the campers how bad it was. The nurse wrapped Duncan's head up in bandages and put an eyepatch on his black eye. The nurse said, "He'll be out for a while, maybe a few days. But once he comes to, he'll have no memory of what happened and be back to his normal self. But the bandages and eyepatch can't come off until both his head and eye heels."

While Duncan was in the infirmary, the other campers went swimming in the lake. While they were swimming, the water in the lake started to turn green, and a seaweed monster came out of the water and made the kids run out of the lake screaming. Once they left the lake, a living bone structure appeared. The skeleton said, "You got warned to leave. Now, you must pay the consequences." Ben used an oar to knock the skeleton's head off, then kicked its body into the lake. Then the clouds started turning green, and a strong wind blew. Once it did, a flash of purple lightning hit the lake, and a zombie of a lifeguard came out of it. The zombie said, "All campers come in the lake now." The campers all screamed in terror when they saw the zombie and ran back to their cabins while the zombie chased after them. Once they returned to their cottages, they got out of their bathing suits and back into their regular clothes.

After they got dressed, the girls left their cabin and checked to see if the coast was clear. Tina said, "The zombie is gone, and I don't see any other monsters. Come on, let's get the boys and have some lunch." The girls then went to the boys' cabin and knocked on the door. Timmy slowly opened the door, peered out it, and saw it was the girls. Timmy said, "Guys, it's okay; it's just the girls." The boys came out from hiding and opened their cabin door. Sally said, "You boys can come out and have lunch with us; it's safe." The boys exited their cabin, joined the girls, and went to the mess hall for lunch.

Once they got to the mess hall, they all sat down, and Chef Scott served them leftover tacos for lunch. While they were eating, they heard Chef Scott scream. Once they did, Ben, the twins, and Tina ran into the kitchen and saw Chef Scott was scared to death. Tina said, "Chef Scott, what's wrong?" Chef Scott said, "Today's dinner. It's not what I made." Chef Scott pointed at the platter he put the dinner under, and Tina took the top off.

Once she did, they all saw a disembodied head with dead white skin and a bleeding forehead under it. Then they all screamed, ran out of the kitchen, and hid under their tables. Chris checked on Ben and Tina under 1 table and asked them what scared them. Ben said, "We saw a camper's head." Chris said, "A camper's head?" Tina said, "Yes, under a platter in the kitchen. Its face was deadly white, and the head was bleeding." Chris said, "Ok, that's scary. Let's not go in the kitchen." Chef Scott said, "That won't be necessary. I threw the platter with the head under it in the garbage, so we should take it to the dumpster soon." All the kids took a deep breath and calmed down.

Once calm, they spent the rest of the day in the mess hall playing pool, cards, and board games to settle their nerves. Sally said, "No hauntings yet. I think we're safe in here." Gwen looked out the window and saw the sun going down. Gwen said, "I think we should stay in here. The sun's going down, and the ghosts get restless when it's dark out." Then the campers heard Lina scream because the psycho killer chased her and Alex. Timmy said, "It's Lina. We got to save her." Gwen grabbed Timmy and said, "Are you crazy? There's a dead guy out there." Tina said, "May I make a suggestion?" Gwen said, "What?" Tina grabbed two walkie-talkies off the shelf, gave one to Ben, and kept one herself. Tina said, "The boys will go with Ben and call us on their walkie-talkie if they run into trouble. The girls will stay with me, and we'll call the boys on our walkie-talkie if we're in trouble." Ben said, "OK, guys, let's go."

The boys left the mess hall and went to look for Lina. Once they found Alex and Lina, they saw them run into Lina's cabin, and the psycho killer was about to cut down the door with his chainsaw. While the boys were saving Alex and Lina, the girls went into the kitchen to find something for them to have for dinner. Once they opened the refrigerator, a bunch of snakes scared the girls. Then, they shut the snakes back in by slamming the refrigerator door shut. Then, the whole refrigerator fell and almost killed the girls, but the girls screamed and ran out of the way. Since snakes were in the fridge, they opened the pantry door, and a bunch of bats flew out. Then the girls screamed and ran away from the bats while the bats chased after them. Sally said, "Let's get out of here." The girls ran out of the mess hall and into the woods to escape the bats, but the bats flew away once they got out.

Once they got away from the bats, they stopped to calm down. While they were calming down, the fog started to roll in, and Lindsay called the boys on the walkie-talkie they had. Once she did, Ben answered it. Ben said, "Hello." Lindsay said, "We have a problem; fog's rolling in fast." Once the fog rolled in, many toy robots marched toward the girls. Tina then took the walkie-talkie from Lindsay's hand and called the boys on it. Tina said, "Boys, we have another problem. We're under attack by toy robots." Timmy took the walkie-talkie from Ben and spoke into it.

Timmy said, "Run for it. We'll be there when we get the psycho killer away from Alex and Lina." The boys ran to the psycho killer, and Chris threw a rock at him. Chris said, "Hey, psychopath. You guys, go. I'll hold him off." Cody said, "He'll kill you with one slice of his chainsaw." Chris said, "I'll risk it. Just go, save the girls." The boys ran off to save the girls and left Chris behind so the psycho killer wouldn't follow them. After they left Chris behind, the boys ran off to find the girls while Chris held the psycho killer off. Chris got ready to fight, and so did the psycho killer. Chris said, "Taste the pain, Mr. Psychopath." Chris jumped and tried to kick the psycho killer, but the psycho killer caught his leg and held him upside down. Then the psycho killer carried Chris away and took him to where he took Hannah.

Meanwhile, the girls ran for their lives while the toy robots attacked them with their laser eyes. The robots chased them back into the mess hall, and once they got there, they slammed the doors shut and locked them. Susan said, "Thank god, we're safe." Ben knocked on the mess hall doors, and the girls screamed and covered each other. Lindsay said, "Who's there?" Ben said, "It's us, the boys." Tina unlocked and opened the door for the boys. Once she did, the boys walked in, shut the door, and locked it. Sally said, "We're all safe. But wait, where's Chris?" Timmy said, "He's gone. He told us to leave him behind to save you, Alex, and Lina." Lindsay said, "Great, another camper, gone." Timmy said, "If we lose one more, we'll have lost half of us. Six are gone, and only eight remain." Ben said, "Technically, Duncan isn't gone; he's just out cold." Timmy said, "Maybe we should check on him." Cody looked out the window and saw the fog was getting thicker. Cody said, "Maybe we should wait until morning. The fog is getting thicker. Maybe we should spend the night here." Tina said, "What about our pillows and blankets?" Cody said, "We could improvise. Like, we could use the towels in the kitchen as blankets, and we could lay on the tables as beds." Timmy said, "Sounds good to me." Ben said, "Me too." All the campers grabbed different colored towels from the kitchen, wrapped themselves in them, and slept on the tables in the mess hall for the night. Lindsay turned off the lights so everyone could sleep and said, "Goodnight, everyone." Then everyone else said goodnight and went to sleep.