Fear Itself

Chapter 9

Once morning came, all the campers woke up and started to hear pounding on the mess hall door. Susan said, "Who is it?" Carter said, "It's Carter, the counselor who wants his breakfast." Gwen unlocked and opened the door. Then, all the counselors walked in and got breakfast started. Then, all the campers sat down for breakfast, and Emma announced something once they did. Emma said, "Attention, campers, today is a special day. Because today, you will pair up with a counselor and do activities together all day. There won't even be a lunch break, but there will be a dinner break. Now, you'll all pick names from this hat to decide who goes with whom." Emma showed the campers the hat filled with slips of paper with names on the papers and held it up to each camper. Ben chose first and said, "Alex." Cody picked next and said, "Carter." Gwen chose next and said, "Cleo." Lindsay chose next and said, "Emma." Sally picked next and said, "Justin." Susan picked next and said, "Lina." Timmy picked next and said, "Marcia." Tina chose last and said, "Chef Scott." Before the campers went with their counselors, they all finished their breakfast, and Gwen told them to call another kid on their cell phone if anything scary happened.

The campers then went with their counselors and started to do fun stuff with them. Alex and Ben played board games like checkers, chess, and Monopoly in the mess hall; Carter took Cody ziplining; Cleo played Gwen in badminton; Emma took Lindsay swimming in the lake. At the same time, Justin and Sally went canoeing in it, Lina took Susan on a hike in the woods, Marcia took Timmy to the barn, and they rode the horses around camp while Chef Scott prepared dinner while Tina played with her yo-yo. Tina said, "This is supposed to be fun?" Chef Scott said, "Yes, I do the work while you play with your toy." Tina said sarcastically, "Yeah, fun." Tina brought out her cell phone, opened it, and saw she didn't have any messages or calls. Tina looked at her phone and said, "Come on, ring, get me out of here."

Meanwhile, Ben and Alex started their chess game, with Alex moving his knight over his pawns to F1. Once he did, Alex's knight made the same move and kept hoping all over the board. When it stopped, the table they were playing on started levitating, and it floated away with the chess board. Alex said, "Weird, a chess game with a table that levitates and quits at the beginning of the game."

Meanwhile, the others were having fun without any hauntings. Carter went down the line first, and once he got to the bottom, he told Cody to slide down, and he did. Then Cody landed in the same tree Carter was in, and Carter went down another zipline to the bottom, and Cody followed. Cleo got tied with Gwen 19 to 19, and it was Cleo's serve. Cleo served the birdie, and once she did, Gwen hit it back to Cleo, and Cleo hit it back to Gwen. Emma and Lindsay swam by Justin and Sally, who went canoeing in the water. Emma said, "Good, Lindsay. Now, let's try to swim underwater." Emma and Lindsay swam under Justin and Sally's canoe and kept swimming underwater for as long as they could hold their breath. Lina and Susan were hiking through the woods and made it to the mountains. Then Lina set her backpack down, brought out the mountain climbing gear, and hooked Susan in while she held her up in case she fell. Lina said, "I'll hold you up; start climbing." Susan started to climb the mountain while Lina held her up. Then Lina strapped herself in and followed Susan up the hill. Lina said, "Don't worry, I'll catch you if you fall." Marcia was racing Timmy around camp on horses, and they both tried to make it around the campground and back to the barn before the other one did. While Chef Scott made dinner, Tina put her yo-yo away and started to read a book.

Once it was time for dinner, Chef Scott and Tina served everyone hamburgers and hotdogs. While eating, Sally's napkin started to sneak away and then fell off the table. Sally reached down to get her napkin, and her hotdog got thrown at Carter. Carter wiped the ketchup and mustard off his face with his napkin. Carter said, "Hey Sally, what'd you do that for?" Sally stood back up and saw Carter still had a little ketchup and mustard on his face. Sally said, "What? Hey Carter, why do you have?" Then, the ketchup bottle on Ben's table tilted down and sprayed its ketchup in Sally's face. Ben saw what had happened and laughed. Then, a napkin jumped up at Ben and shoved itself in Ben's mouth. Then everything in the mess hall started to get thrown all over the mess hall, and all the campers and counselors took shelter under the tables. Cody said, "What's going on?" Emma said, "Isn't it obvious? The ghosts finally decided to come out now that the sun is setting." Then, the campers and counselors crawled to the door, opened it, and ran out of the mess hall.

Once they left the mess hall, they saw a pair of clothes dancing in front of them. Gwen tackled them and then picked them up when she saw nobody was wearing them. Gwen said, "Impossible." Susan said, "Unless it was one of the ghosts." Gwen said, "I don't believe there are any ghosts here, Susan." Gwen looked behind her and saw Lindsay's pigtails floating above her head. Gwen pointed at Lindsay, and Lindsay wondered why. Once all the other campers and counselors saw Lindsay's pigtails floating, they got scared and slowly backed away from her. Lindsay said, "What? What is it?" Gwen kept pointing at Lindsay and then lifted her arms over her head and tried to tell Lindsay what they were seeing, but she was so scared she could barely say a word. Gwen said, "G-G-Ghost." Lindsay said, "Ghost? Where?" Then her pigtails got pulled up higher, and it hurt Lindsay. Lindsay said, "Ouch, hey, cut it out." Lindsay's pigtails then dropped down, and she petted her hair to make it feel better. Then Ben, Carter, Lindsay, Carter, Cleo, Lina, and Chef Scott all got lifted off the ground and started to levitate. Ben then kicked Carter on his butt and said, "Oops, sorry." Carter then smacked Lindsay in her face. Lindsay said, "Ouch." Carter said, "Sorry, I can't help it; something's controlling me. Guys, get us down." Tina grabbed Ben, Cody grabbed Carter, Gwen grabbed Lindsay, Sally grabbed Carter, Susan grabbed Cleo, Timmy grabbed Lina, and Marcia grabbed Chef Scott. They all tried pulling them down, but it was no use. Marcia said, "We can't." Then, all seven of them dropped to the ground, and all their falls got broken by all the people holding them and trying to get them down.

After they fell, a strong wind blew by them, and the green clouds with purple lightning came back. Then, the purple lightning hit two trees and showed them another gateway to the graveyard they saw. Then the gates started to shake, and once they opened, a zombie walked out. Once they saw the zombie, they made a run for it. While running, they ran into the three zombies they already saw and screamed at them. The campers and counselors ran into the woods, and while they were running, the zombies followed them, and more zombies of people who died there started to come out of the ground, water, and cemetery. While zombies chased them, the campers and counselors ran into the graveyard and hid in a crypt. The twins then shut and locked the door so the zombies couldn't get in. Carter said, "Thank god, we're safe." Timmy gave Marcia a boost, and she looked out a window in the crypt. Once she did, Marcia saw the zombies looking for them. Marcia whispered, "They're looking for us. Keep quiet."