Camp Wacko: The Drones of Summer (15 page)

“You are very good.” Joe A-1 was panting as he started to stand back up. Panting!

“Thank you,” I breathed. “You’re quite the lean, mean fighting machine yourself.”

A hint of a smile crossed his lips before he went into drone mode again, coming toward me like the Terminator himself. In an instant, something was very different. His eyes had glazed over, a determined look on his face.

I wasn’t sure what brought on this change, but I really didn’t have the time to find out. He had taken out a small dagger from one of the many pockets on his thick black pants. I wondered if there was a different weapon for each pocket. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were.

Without warning, his right leg came spinning out in a sweeping kick, tripping me. I fell flat on my back, the mixture of rope and wire cutting into my skin. I tried to get up, but Joe A-1 was too fast. He had me pinned down, knife at my throat. His full body weight felt as if I had a car on top of me. There wasn’t time to think of the best possible move to use to get myself out of this situation, so my instincts kicked in. I kneed him where it counted.

Pain contorted his features and he loosened his grip, just a little. At least now I knew he was somewhat human. I used all of my strength to push him off. This training session was getting to be a little too intense for me. The second I felt his weight shift, I was gone, running across the net for for the trees.

Unfortunately, he was right behind me. I pushed through other kids’ training sessions, dodging the swipes of other weird robot kid hybrids meant for their sparring partners. I didn’t realize how far away we had moved to the center of the web. I could see the figure still perched in the branches now.

“Help!” I yelled.

They merely shook their heads, motioning for me to stop. That was an order I couldn’t obey. I was getting off this thing whether they liked it or not.

Then Joe A-1 tackled me from behind, forcing me to fall. The momentum created from the fall caused both of us to roll away from safety and right toward the edge. Joe A-1 kept a painfully strong grip on me with one hand, and grabbed hold of the web with the other, stopping us with a violent jerk.

Once he was sure we had stopped, he wrapped a firm hand around my neck, forcing me to stand. Taking the dagger from between his teeth, he held it to my face.

“OK, you win. Now let go,” I choked out, working to keep my voice calm.

His grip around my neck tightened and I felt my feet leave the ground. “You are not supposed to run.” His words were clipped, mechanical.

I could barely breathe now. The air was being cut off from my brain, and spots were appearing in front of my eyes.

“You…aren’t…supposed…to k-kill me. Stand down,” I managed through short puffs of the little bit of air I had left.

One of those words had to be some kind of trigger, because he dropped me. Just like that, I was free. Never had I been so grateful for precious oxygen in my entire life. I took giant gulps of it, gorging myself with the air I so desperately needed. Tears began to spill over as I wheezed, my heart refusing to slow.

Meanwhile, Joe A-1 had remained frozen in place, staring vacantly ahead of him. His lips were moving, but nothing appeared to be coming out. As I gathered the strength to take a step toward him, I realized he was muttering something.

Crazy things I couldn’t even understand. “Joe?” I reached out with a wary hand.

His head snapped in my direction. “Benjamin. My name is Benjamin.”

Before I could react, he was no longer standing. Eyes rolling back in their sockets, his body began to convulse uncontrollably. His head twitched from side to side.

Finally the tree ninjas had realized something was wrong. A few of them ran out to help, proceeding to carry the boy away. Where had they been when I needed them? The others had stopped their training to see what was going on.

We were all ordered to climb down and head straight for the dorms. Training was officially over for the day.

Truth Hurts

THE NEXT DAY, we were informed that advanced combat training would be postponed indefinitely for the time being. Instead, we were told to join the others in the neuroscience course. Such an abrupt change was not explained by anyone. The counselors refused to say a word. As usual, Dustin had disappeared. No one needed to tell me the reason. I knew why they had stopped the training. Something had gone wrong with one of their precious experiments, and they were trying to fix the problem. They were probably checking the whole army now, making sure whatever happened to Benjamin couldn’t happen to the others.

I couldn’t really dwell on that situation for too long, because a few days later Candy approached me and True and told us that the crew had come up with a date for our escape, which happened to be that very night. We all agreed that things were starting to escalate. More people were missing and the other campers had started to notice. While the headmaster was rarely seen, he had previously made brief appearances here and there to ensure his power over all of us. These days he remained absolutely hidden. Nobody had seen or heard from him at all. The mansion stood mysteriously silent as always, keeping its many secrets under strict security. There was no way I would be getting back in there any time soon. The number of guards and patrol vehicles had nearly doubled.

It was clear they were tightening their hold on us, and if someone didn’t act soon, we would be forced to stay and endure whatever plan they had next.

Ten minutes after the curfew, True and I were ready for action. We had decided to pack light, bringing only a few pieces of clothing, a flashlight, and some food and water we had taken from the lounge’s snack bar. Anything weapon related had been hard to come by, so we had to be a little creative. Thanks to a combination of Advanced Chemistry and Poison 101, we were able to transform regular cleaning fluids found in a few of the bathrooms into something a little less family friendly. Forks and knives had been lifted from the kitchens. Even plastic spoons were sharpened into mini-weapons.

While True was occupied with making sure she had everything, I remembered to take the recording device from under my bed. I never did get to tell her about my involvement with the FBI. That didn’t seem to matter now. For all I knew, they had just left me here to fend for myself.

I hadn’t been in contact with them for weeks. Anyway, I planned to hand over the device—along with a few choice words—once I got out of this place.

At the designated time of 11:00 p.m., we were on our way. We didn’t have any problem leaving the dorm building. Getting across school grounds undetected was a whole other issue. I suspected that was why they didn’t really have any security in the dorm buildings.

There were three buildings between the girls’ dorm rooms and the woods. Unfortunately, they were spread apart, leaving too much open ground to cover. This is why Jack had come up with the idea of using a decoy. A few brave members of the group had agreed to step in.

Before True and I could approach the first building, the boys’ dorm, we had to make sure the path had been cleared. Right on time, we heard the whirring sound of patrol car wheels rolling along the grass at high speed. From our hiding place, we could see someone running away from the building as about two or three security guards went after him. Once they had passed, my friend and I hurried into the boys’ dormitory.

Thankfully, no one seemed to have been awakened by the commotion outside. The lounge area was completely silent, the lights shut off. True and I slipped through, heading for the back door. Through the glass of the double doors, we found that the next decoys had already begun the chase, streaking past us with three patrol cars right behind them. With incredulous smiles, we made our way to the next building with ease.

By the time we had reached the woods, every security guard was preoccupied with the chaos going on by the dorms. Here, with the sounds of shouting and sirens behind us, everything was strangely quiet.

Jack, Candy, and two other people were already waiting for us by the thick ropes blocking the way. They nodded their hellos as we approached, informing us that the cameras had already been disabled. Jack cut the ropes with a nasty-looking piece of sharpened metal. We all passed through without a backward glance, anxious to get out before anyone noticed the ropes had been cut.

The minute we stepped into the woods, it nearly swallowed us alive, enveloping us in a black hole. The flashlights came out one by one, our only source of light through the murky darkness. Jack and Candy led the way, shoulders bumping against each other as they walked. Tense and alert, we moved cautiously. There had to be a reason these woods were blocked off at night.

“May I ask where we’re—” My question was cut off by a terrible bloodcurdling scream. Startled, we glanced around to see if it had been any of us. Nope. Within seconds of that first scream, we heard another. Whoever it was sounded like they were being tortured. I pressed my hands to my ears, unable to bear the horrible screeching.

The terrifying sound went on for what seemed like hours as we were forced to continue to walk. No one could pinpoint the source. The noise came from every possible direction, ripping through my brain like a battle-ax. Our pace quickened to a nervous trot.

Candy pressed her palm to one of the trees, shining her light on the bark to show that it had been marked with the carving of an S.

“We’re almost there,” she yelled.

“Almost wh—”

Again I was cut off. This time it was by the sudden silence following the screams. They had been abruptly cut short.

We all paused for a minute, straining to hear. The end of the screeching left a deafening quiet in its wake, which bothered me almost as much as the noise.

It wasn’t quiet for long. There was a sharp whistling sound as something shot through the air at top speed in our direction. We all dove to the ground, blindly covering our heads in an attempt to protect ourselves from the unknown object.

As I hit the dirt, I could feel it whiz past me, missing my head by an inch or two. I waited a few minutes before sitting up and grabbing my flashlight and backpack. The others had the same idea, checking themselves to make sure everything was still intact before reaching for their own cargo and standing up. Everyone seemed to be fine. No one had been injured.

Jack ran his light along the ground, searching for the mystery projectile. Something silver caught my eye.

“Wait, I think it’s over here.” I crawled over to get a closer look.

Lying on the ground about twenty paces from where we stood was a small dagger. I picked it up gingerly, noticing a piece of paper had been attached to the handle. True peeked over my shoulder as I read the tiny writing:

WE SEE YOU

These three simple words caused my very scalp to tingle. My feet were moving before I could yell, “Run!”

It didn’t take long for everyone else to follow my lead.

Something zoomed past my ear, smashing through one of the trees ahead of me. I had only seconds to realize that it had been a bullet. They sprayed the air, only narrowly missing us as we weaved through the trees, feet pounding the ground.

Lights from some unknown source ignited the forest, assaulting my eyes. I came within seconds of slamming right into a tree before swerving to the left. Somebody screamed. This time it was one of us. I couldn’t turn to see who it was, listening as their body hit the ground with a groan.

I could just make out the outline of a building up ahead. Short and squat, it had to be a shed. Any form of shelter would work at this point. Shouts and another round of bullets filled the air. Glancing around, I noticed there was no one else beside me. I let everything else fade to the background as I focused on the shed.

It was almost impossible to stop running by the time I had reached the building. Willing my legs to stop, I skidded to a jerky halt in front of the metal double doors. In an instant, everything came back into focus. The yelling; the gunshots; the lights. There really was no other choice but to go inside.

I grabbed hold of one of the rusty door handles and tugged, using my whole body weight to get it open. The door moaned, swinging open to another chasm of pure darkness. Great. I had dropped my flashlight a while back, leaving me with nothing but my own pair of eyes enhanced by my glasses. I was about to do what all the stupid characters in those cheap horror films do. You know, the ones who get killed off first. I was going to enter the creepy abandoned building by myself without a flashlight.

At least I had managed to keep my bag with me. I unzipped one of the compartments and took out one of the knives we had been able to take from the kitchen. For once, I was grateful for kitchen duty. Now we hadn’t been able to get our hands on the good stuff, like the meat cleavers, but I did obtain a few of the sharpest slicing knives I could find.

With a strong grip on my weapon of choice, I slowly entered the dark room. Even with my eyes adjusted to the lighting, I could still only see the outlines of whatever machinery was being stored in there. The place was cluttered with the stuff. I was bumping into things left and right.