Chapter 1
“I’m not going.” The boy solidly stated as he pushed the piece of paper back towards the guidance counsellor with total disregard of how far it travelled. It could have flown off the desk for all he cared. Instead, it only slid to the other side of the desk in an almost perfect fashion. Almost as if it were mocking him in a way.
He had come to her office because he needed help with something important. Something that he really couldn’t do on his own and needed someone to tell him how to accomplish it. He could have tried to fix it on his own, but he didn’t know how and didn’t even know where to begin. It frustrated him all to hell. So at the advice of his homeroom teacher, who had seen him struggling and offered the advice without needing to be asked, he had walked into the guidance counsellor’s office in search for advice.
When he had first walked into the office, it gave off a pleasant and mellow aura that had calmed his nerves somewhat. It probably had something to do with the posters of kittens and that it somehow felt less scholarly than the rest of the building.
But since the guidance counsellor, a small woman in her mid-forties with greying hair and a motherly aura to her name, had showed him what needed to be done, it felt more like he had been caught in a rat trap more than anything else. A rat trap that he was frantically trying to escape and failing miserably as it crushed him and his weak means of resistance.
The guidance counsellor looked at the boy with sympathy as she explained the situation to him from behind her cheap, metal office desk.
“I’m afraid that you don’t have a choice. Not unless you don’t want to graduate next year.”
“There’s got to be something else,” the boy said to her, slouching forward in his chair as he desperately tried to find a way to avoid the suggested tasking. “Getting a summer job, volunteering for some other place... Something other than that.” He lamely listed as he jabbed a finger towards the paper like it was his worst enemy. And in a way, it was.
What happened there he had never forgotten, and he didn’t think he ever would forget as it had haunted him for years. It had done things to him. It had made him do things that he regretted ever taking a part in.
“I’m afraid that this is the only thing we’ve got for you.” The aged woman told him as she gently tapped her finger on the paper the student was refusing to sign. “Summer jobs don’t give you any credits towards graduation, and you’ve already gained some credits for volunteering for that re-store, so extra volunteering around the city won’t get you anything.” She calmly explained with ease since she had to explain more or less the same thing to other students before him. “The only thing we can offer you for extra credits as of this moment is this summer field trip, something that the school is offering. And because you’ve failed both your science and math classes, you need something to make up for that. Believe me, I don’t think you don’t want to be attending two additional classes next year.”
The boy opened his mouth, but the guidance counsellor continued on, through either obliviousness or just not caring. “You refused to do summer school, and it’s too late to retract that option anyway.”
The student in front of the desk could only grunt in frustration as he could see no way out of the horrible situation that had been put in front of him. If he hadn’t failed those stupid classes he’d be living it up with his girlfriend for the summer, but the finals just had to be so damn hard. It was like they purposely, sadistically, choose the toughest, most complicated questions in the books, and placed them on nearly three quarters of the final exam just to see students like him sweat, panic, and squirm.
He felt trapped and helpless against his current options. He either had to go on the stupid trip and be a volunteer camp counsellor at a place he’d rather not be at, or risk not getting enough credits to graduate from high school next year. School had been hard enough, but add two additional classes to the mix, and he felt as if the world wanted him to fail school.
He racked his brain for other solutions, but him and the guidance counsellor had been over other possible solutions for a while now and there really seemed to be no other options. He really felt the metaphorical rat trap squeezing out his will to fight back.
Not wanting to be left behind and repeat a year as the rest of his class looked forward to their final year and graduation, the student reluctantly picked up a pen from a ceramic cup with one hand, roughly grabbed the sign up sheet with the other, and signed his name on the dreaded paper, sealing his fate. Like signing a deal with the fucking devil. He thought bitterly.
The counsellor gave him a warm smile before the student placed the pen down a little more roughly than necessary. A disgruntled sigh quickly followed.
“Don’t worry, Thatcher, everything will go smoothly at the camp and there’ll be nothing to worry about.”
“You sure about that?” Thatcher asked drearily, feeling dead inside as memories came flashing back at him. “Because that’s what it was supposed to be like last time.”
“What happened that time is an extremely rare occurrence,” she explained to him, but he had already heard it many times before and just tuned out what she said, just like he did with every other adult that wanted to tell him the same old story. He knew how it went. It was an extremely rare occurrence that shouldn’t have happened. Nobody could have predicted it and that it wasn’t his fault. They talked about the incident like they were reading the same god damn script, every one of them. After all, the vast majority of them weren’t there when it happened, so how would they know?
He supposed that that was supposed to make him feel better, but it didn’t. He had always regretted his decision, never feeling that he made the right decision, and felt as if it was his fault, no matter what anyone told him.
Four years earlier
Thatcher Zoldak, better known as Thatcher the Snatcher to his friends, sat on the hard and uncomfortable school bus seat as the vehicle drove over numerous potholes, causing him and his classmates to bounce in their seats.
At first it was kind of fun and some of them even pretended that they were on some sort of trampoline. Some of them even yelled out in exaggerated glee as they tried to slap the roof. But the fun passed by very quickly as their butts started to ache from hitting what felt like concrete and it became more of a nuisance than anything else. Open sodas and juices were spilling onto the floor and more than a few pieces of food had escaped their containers and were rolling on said floor. Those that lost their food items could be heard saying various things such as ‘oh come on’, ‘aww’, and big ’noooo’s. Some others had more colourful phrases though.
Every time someone spilled even so much as a crumb of food or a drop of juice, he swore he could feel the bus driver’s eyes glaring at them through the rearview mirror. The driver’s glare was soon forgotten about each time there was a new distraction about though. Which, in a bus full of restless seventh, soon to be eight, graders, seemed to be every five seconds.
Thatcher himself had not enjoyed the bumps from the very beginning as it caused him to lose concentration at key points on his handheld gaming device or made him press a button he didn’t want to. Every time the bus drove over one of those road holes, his body would jerk about and mess him up, so he eventually turned the device off in frustration and tried to stop his butt from crashing onto the hard seats so harshly. He really wished he had brought a pillow or something, because even though they weren’t needed at the camp, they were sure needed on the bus.
He also wished that the bus had a better air conditioning unit as the bus had a heavy air that caused him to sweat and shake the collar of his shirt. It was a dry heat that was mixed with foul body odour, permeating the bus with an unwelcome stench that you could choke on, even with many of the windows open. They only pulled down halfway, much to the dismay of many. Why they did that was a mystery to many and they were currently cursing those who came up with the design.
After what seemed like an hour of hitting road holes and bouncing in his seat, Thatcher turned his head to look out the bus window to see if they were close yet, and instead of seeing trees, he saw fireworks flash in his vision as pain radiated through his forehead.
“Owww!” Thatcher and the girl to left yelled out near simultaneously as they closed their eyes and fell away from each other.
“God damn it!” Thatcher added as he rubbed his forehead. “Sorry about that, Marley.”
“It’s okay.” The girl said to him with a slight smile, telling him that she wasn’t mad at him for connecting skulls.
Opening his eyes, but still rubbing his head, Thatcher looked past his best friend, Marley Cladwell, and noticed the seemingly never ending rows of trees and foliage that had littered his sights for only God knows how long.
The boy gave out a frustrated sigh.
“How much longer do you think it’s going to be?” Thatcher mildly whined, wondering when he was going to get off the stupid bus. It was hot, stuffy, and getting increasingly uncomfortable. Perspiration had long since formed on his chest and under his arms. Clear liquid beads were travelling down his face as well. Not to mention he was worried about his snacks getting crushed and his sodas spontaneously exploding within his backpack because of all the bouncing going on.
“Hopefully not much longer,” Marley assured him with a smile. Droplets of water were trailing down her forehead and neck as well. “We’ve been going down this road for, like, what? An hour?”
“Feels like we’ve been travelling for longer,” Thatcher replied. “I swear, we’re heading to, like, Canada or something.” He briefly threw his hands up to show his frustration.
“I don’t think the school could afford to send us all there for the summer.” Marley told him as she pressed a hand to the window to avoid hitting her head on the glass as the bus hit another pothole. “But it would be fun to visit another country.”
“Not if the roads are like this.” Thatcher complained as the bus rocked once more. “I swear to God, I think the teachers picked this road on purpose. They want us to suffer before we have any fun.”
Marley took a stand and looked over the tops of the seats and people’s heads.
“I don’t think they’re enjoying this as much as you think they are.” Marley told her friend before Thatcher himself stood up and looked at the teachers in the front rows shaking back and forth like bowling pins that refused to fall.
“They’re probably smiling.” Thatcher said as he glared at the adults, thinking of how the teachers were enjoying their misery, as the two friends sat back down.
After just over half a minute of no road bumps, Thatcher was about to try his luck at gaming again when the biggest bump yet came, sending Thatcher forward and into the seat ahead of him. He cursed at his luck just before he heard Marley scream. Thatcher looked to his friend and saw that there were gravy covered french fries falling from her head and staining her fiery red hair and the neck of her milky white skin. A cardboard container hit the seat for a fraction of a second before it landed on the floor. Pairs of eyes had turned to see what the shriek had been about.
“Oops,” a girl behind them said, loud enough that both Thatcher and Marley could hear her, with incredible sarcasm. “Sorry about that.” Thatcher didn’t need to turn around to know who’s voice that was, but he turned back and gave a death glare to the posse of girls that were now laughing at Marley’s unfortunate fate.
A few rows back sat a trio of girls that often caused trouble around the school for the two of them. On the left of the seat sat the slightly chubby, curly blonde haired Amanda Ross, while on the right, leaning casually on the window with an amused grin on her wide mouth, was the pale skinned, black haired, and skinny Holly Burns. Though the one that got the majority of the glare, and the one that no doubt threw the french fries was the one sitting in the middle of the seat, Megan Peters, who was tall, tanned, and slim with light brown hair, bright green eyes, and a face free of pimples and blemishes.
Her body had developed early, and because of that, many of the guys in their middle school had developed feelings for her. It also helped that many of them considered her the hottest girl in their school. That flattery was, in Thatcher’s opinion, probably what made her so smug about herself.
The feud between Marley and Megan had been going on since the beginning of the school year. Neither Thatcher nor Marley could really remember what started the hatred between the two, but Megan always seemed to be planning something against Marley and was downright vicious to her when his friend was alone.
He still remembered the time when Megan had soaked Marley’s regular clothes, which should have been safe in the gym locker room, with piss when everyone else was playing volleyball. The stench had been so fucking rank that it never went away and Marley was forced to throw them away. But not before she was humiliated in front of the entire school and was sent home due to the stench that wafted and lingered wherever she walked.
Thatcher didn’t know how she managed to get fries and gravy onto the bus, and kept them uneaten for the duration of the ride, and frankly didn’t care. All he knew was that they had been used as a weapon.
“You’re going to pay for that, Megan!” Thatcher shouted to the girl who was currently sporting an arrogant smirk.
“It was an accident,” Megan replied with faux innocence as she held her hands up. Her smirk never leaving her face. “Not my fault the bus made my food fly from my hands.”
“Sure it was.” Thatcher drawled sarcastically as he took his seat back and helped Marley get gravy coated potato slices off herself, not caring in the slightest about getting glared at by the driver for throwing the food onto the floor. Because honestly, who cared what he thought? He wasn’t going to be with them for the next month.
After that was completed, the two of them tried to wipe the sauce off her shirt, but no matter how much they tried they couldn’t get it all off. Marley’s pink plaid shirt was now dotted with brown stains while clumps of her hair stuck together with thick brown liquid.
Wiping his dirty fingers on the back of the seat ahead of him, creating several brown streaks, and feeling angry about what those girls had done, Thatcher thought of something that he could pull off for quick revenge. “I’ll show them.” He muttered as he reached into his backpack and withdrew a can of root beer, shaking it vigorously.
“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it,” Marley quietly warned, doing a quick glance towards the front of the bus. “You’ll get in trouble.” To which Thatcher looked to Marley and smiled devilishly.
“No, I won’t.” He replied calmly, just waiting for an opportunity. He didn’t have to wait long when the bus hit another pothole. It wasn’t a big one, but to Thatcher, it was good enough as he couldn’t wait to see the reaction and his patience was thin.
The boy popped the soda can’s seal ever so slightly. A harsh hissing noise occurred before a blast of mist started to spray out like an out of control water fountain. The contents of the can hit Thatcher in the face slightly, but he did his best to direct the liquid away from Marley. Thatcher then whipped the can backwards like it was a grenade as he shouted. “Oh no!”
Before he knew it, he heard the hysterical screams of a trio of girls as they scrambled out of their seats. And it was beautiful. Thatcher looked at the end result, and saw the three pretty girls with their fashionable clothes drenched in a brown, carbonated liquid that was dripping off their bodies. Their faces of mortified horror only made things better. He wished he had thrown a bottle instead. “Sorry about that!” Thatcher sarcastically called out to them with a laugh. That laugh was cut short by a brown and pointed oval like object hitting him square in the face, causing him to yelp as he grabbed where he had been hit. He then immediately jumped from his seat and turned to look who had thrown the thing at him.
“You think you’re so tough, picking on girls like that?” A tall, athletic boy with a buzzed head, who looked like he should be in high school, standing in the row across from the drenched girls, yelled to Thatcher. Thatcher wasn’t surprised to see who had thrown the football at him. It managed to twist his smile into a snarl. Because if there was a second reason for Megan’s smugness, it was because of him. After all, it was no secret that Tommy Jones had a major crush on Megan and he saw this as an opportunity to score some points with her, though he did come to her defence every time something happened to her. Even though she didn’t seem that interested in him no matter how much he tried.
“They deserved it and you know it!” Thatcher shot back to the other boy, pointing to the three girls who were frantically trying to get the sugary stains off their clothes.
“No, they didn’t!”
“Yes, they did you blind retard!”
“What did you just call me?” Tommy challenged viciously as he grabbed the top of the seat in front of him in a menacing manner. Like Thatcher, he had a fire in their eyes and barred teeth as they glared at each other. Leaning forwards over their seats with unyielding stares towards each other.
A couple of Tommy’s friends looked like they were going to hold him back if he tried anything dramatic. Marley was doing the same with Thatcher.
Even though Marley was four inches taller than her friend, there was no doubt that she couldn’t have held him back for very long if he decided to charge at Tommy. Her light blue eyes were pleading for him not to do something stupid, but Thatcher’s dark brown eyes were glaring intensely into Tommy’s dark brown eyes, who also shot back an identical look.
The bus full of kids had originally turned their heads to see what the trio of girls had been screaming about, but now they were anticipating a fight and couldn’t keep their eyes off the scene as they urged their friends to turn and watch as well.
“You heard me.” Thatcher fearlessly replied as he grabbed the fallen football and threw it back at Tommy with all his might. And missed spectacularly. Somehow, the projectile ricocheted off the walls and seats several times, miraculously not hitting anyone, before it hit Thatcher in the face, causing nearly every single kid to start laughing.
“Who’s the retard now?” Tommy challenged with an amused grin. It caused Thatcher to get red faced and ready to run down the aisle when a booming voice overtook every other voice on the bus.
“SETTLE DOWN, NOW!” And just like that, the noise of excited young teenagers halted nigh instantly. They all scrambled back into their seats and faced the one that had been screaming at them.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, the one that was shouting at them was Mr. Rhodes, a man that was modestly built despite being in his sixties with grey hair and on the verge of retirement. More often than not an easy going teacher, but when he demanded attention, you gave it to him as his yells were loud and authoritative with an edge to them. It was fun to watch someone on the receiving side of them, but one that many feared of getting themselves. But if anything, he was Thatcher’s, and many other students, favourite teacher as he allowed students to get away with things such as eating in class and slack off if they were ahead. It also helped that he tried to make his classes fun. Thatcher doubted he’d find another like him when he reached high school.
Mr. Rhodes let the silence speak for itself for a couple seconds before he started to speak in a more relaxed tone. “Welcome to Camp Daybreak, you all know me and the teachers on board with us. There’s Mr. Walker and Mrs. Brady. But out in the camp grounds, there will be other camp counsellors as well, of which they will introduce themselves when we exit the bus. I expect all of you to treat them with respect and to not act like a bunch of wild animals during our stay.” Thatcher swore Mr. Rhodes looked at him and Tommy for a moment longer than everyone else. It was of no surprise, as the two of them had hated each other for just as long as Thatcher hated Megan and had gotten into lots of fights with each other. “Alright. Now with all that said and done, grab your gear and get your rears out of the bus.”
Because of the confrontation between Thatcher, Tommy, and the girls, all the kids had failed to notice that they had rolled into the camp grounds. It took them a few seconds to process what Mr. Rhodes was saying before they started to do as he instructed.
As quickly as they could, they grabbed their packs and strolled from the yellow school bus and entered a world of mostly green, brown, and blue. The colours of nature. They were also welcomely greeted with the strong smell of fresh air and pine needles. The air was much cooler outside the bus than it had been inside of it. “All right now, single rank on the side of the bus.” Mr. Rhodes instructed once all the students were out.
All the students did just that. Thatcher and Marley made sure to be next to each other and away from Megan and her friends as well as Tommy and his friends.
Thatcher took a look around, immediately noticing the group of older kids in front of them standing in a single line as well. They looked to be high schoolers, of which Thatcher guessed to be maybe seventeen or eighteen years old. There were a few adults mixed in the group as well, but they stood out less than the teens did.
Behind the group of older strangers was a fire pit with spaced out logs surrounding it. Beyond that were four rectangular log cabins evenly spaced out on either side of the open dirt path. And even further was a larger building that looked like a well kept wooden house. Between all cabins and house, other paths snaked out both ways. The right leading into the forest in the distance and the left leading to a gazebo. Between the cabins was cubic, cinder block buildings.
And of course, they were surrounded by trees. Lots and lots of trees. For miles.
So this is where I’m going to be staying for summer vacation. Thatcher thought, thinking that the place couldn’t possibly be that bad, even if there were people he could do without. He just wished that his friend, Rodney Wills, hadn’t gotten sick and had to bail at the last moment. It would have made dealing with Tommy on the bus so much easier. Maybe. But at the very least, it would have made the bus ride more bearable.
Mr. Rhodes did a quick count of his students before he permitted the group of strangers to introduce themselves.
The first ones to introduce themselves were the adults with the important jobs. It was easy to remember since there were only two of them. A man called Peter was the one in charge of cooking the food, while a woman named Kristie was the one that did first aid.
The rest of the camp counsellors were high school volunteers, of which Thatcher could only remember two of them. Max was a tall and lean guy with short dark hair and was in charge of the volunteers, while Felix, another tall, but lanky, guy with blonde hair, was in charge of the games.
After the introductions, Max briefly explained the rules, basically saying no fighting, no needless shouting, don’t wander off by yourself, have fun, and if they had any questions or concerns to talk to one of the teachers or counsellors. Thatcher liked that Max had kept it short and simple as he was used to adults telling them, like, fifty rules at a time and expected them to remember them all instantly.
After they said everything that needed to be said, they were led on a small tour of the camp. They were introduced to the fire pit where they’d try and make a fire every night and do nightly camp activities. Then they were introduced to the cabins, which were divided into boys, girls, high school volunteers, and adults. Thatcher was disappointed that he wouldn’t be sharing a cabin with Marley, but hoped that she’d be alright with the rest of the girls in the class. Megan came to his mind. He also hoped that he’d be alright since he was staying in the same cabin as the rest of the boys. Tommy came to his mind.
The cinder block buildings turned out to be the shower rooms, which would be used after the day was finished.
Up the dirt path a short ways was the cook house where they’d be eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. To the left of that was a gazebo with several benches where you could hang out, but was mainly used for arts and crafts. To the right was another dirt path that broke off into a series of hiking trails, one of which, if the wooden sign was to be believed, lead to a small lake.
The wooded area that flanked the left side of the cabins were to only be used when playing supervised games as wandering too far into the forest could get you lost. Especially if you went off the nature made trails.
“All right, now that that’s out of the way, you kids will travel to your designated cabins. The boys will follow Tanner while the girls will follow Kelly. Get comfortable and we’ll see you all in the AM.” Was what Max said before the kids started to follow their designated leader.
Walking down the path to the cabins as one large group, they quickly split into smaller ones when the older teenagers and the adults went to their assigned cabins.
Thatcher swiftly went over to Marley and said to her.
“Take care of yourself in there, and don’t take any shit from Megan.”
“I won’t.” She told him before they were split from each other.
“You got any advice for us?” One random guy asked Tanner as they walked into the boys’ cabin.
“Got any junk food. Like, pop, chips, stuff like that?” Tanner, a thin and tanned older teenager with half a face of acne, greasy hair, and smelt of cigarettes, asked.
“Yeah.” The boy answered.
“We all do.” Another piped up. Everyone seemed to at least slow down and quiet down as they listened to what the older boy was going to say. Almost like it was essential to their survival at Camp Daybreak.
“Save it, make it last. Because as I’m sure you’ve noticed, there isn’t a store for miles and we don’t supply those things here.”
Thatcher was then glad that he had packed some junk food with him, but he frowned as he had wasted a perfectly good soda on Megan and her friends. But then he remembered what they had done to Marley and the looks on their faces when they had been drenched. Worth it. He thought with a smile as he picked a bunk near the back.
