Chapter 2 – Chap 2

Where were we? I had been told by James that I had signed up for a summer camp for kids with horns, but that could not have been further from the truth. I woke up after having fallen asleep inside the bus that was suposed to take me to the camp, and suddenly I found myself somwhere else, in the dead of night, my belongings were gone and most importantly, I met two kids: Jack and Christine. Each one of us had ridden that bus expecting completely different destinations.

“That’s…strange.” Jack said.

“Suspicious is the adjective I’d rather use. It’s clear this isn’t a summer camp, a TV studio or a hospital, this is something else. The fact we’re all reunited here, I don’t think it’s an error or misunderstanding, i think this was staged. I mean, look at us! Look at the horns we all have, this just CAN’T be a coincidence!”

“I think you’ve got a point. Do you think we’ve been kidnapped? If so, by who? Why?” Chris added.

“Not sure yet, but…”

“Guys…do you hear that?” Jack interrupted.

I stopped talking and we all paid attention to the sounds. I heard it too…footseps and what sounded like people talking. Other kids? It wasn’t long before we could see silhouettes of people that seemed to be patrolling the area with flashlights, and they also seemed to have horns, but these people were adults.

“Do you think they know we’re outside?” I asked.

My question was answered when the flashlights’ beacons pointed straight at us, the mysterious men started talking louder than before while they walked towards us.

“What do we do? Should we hide or…” Chris suggested

“I think it’s our best option.”

“Yeah,I agree.”

The men’s speed increased, they were running now.

“RUN LIKE HELL!”

Jack didn’t have to say that twice, we all began sprinting north, leaving the bungalow area behind and going down a hill until we reached a barbed fence. That would’ve most like stopped us if it weren’t for the hole someone had carved on it. Had other kids been in our situation before us? We crossed the fence by going through the hole and found ourselves in what looked to be a forest full of tall trees and bushes. We heard the men crossing the fence, they had entered the forest too. Jack,Chris and I were hidden behind a bush, not moving a muscle, in complete silence. Chris then put one of her hands on my shoulder, and I felt something…peculiar. It felt like a wave of nausea, as if I had a sudden urge to puke, kinda like when someone’s sick, but I wasn’t. And then, less than a second later, it ceased completely, as if nothing had ever happened.

“Listen,mates! These people are getting closer, we can’t stay in this position foverer!” She whispered.

“Where do we go,then?”

“I have a plan, we run straight to the left staying low to the ground and close to the trees, the point is to get as far away from them as possible. Then we run back to the hill and the bungalow area while they’re still wandering this forest.”

So we tried Christine’s plan and,thankfully, the darkness and the foliage were by our side, they camouflaged us as we ran towards the hill and returned to the bungalows,leaving our pursuers down in the forest.

“I think it’s best for us to return to our rooms. ” I said

“Yep, it’s been a pleasure,mates! We could meet again tomorrow!” Chris replied.

“Sure!”

“By the way,Chris…where are you from?” I asked.

“Australia, you’re from the US, right?”

“Yeah, where did you hop on the bus?”

“In Perth, it’s where I live.”

“That’s where I wanted to get to. Our buses can’t be the same then.”

“So that must mean these guys are taking children from all over the world,right? It’s a global conspiracy!” Jack added

“Probably, I say we start investigating this whole thing tomorrow.”

So Chris went back to her room and Jack and I went back to ours.

“I don’t know you, but I ain’t sleeping.” he said.

“Me either. But this room is the safest place for us right now. Oh,Jack. I wanted to tell you something…”

“What is it?”

“It’s about Christine, I felt…something strange when I made contact with her earlier. It was a repulsive feeling,like I was about to puke.”

“Is it because she’s Australian? I think that’s called xenophobia.”

“What? NO! It has nothing to do with that! It was…like an energy I can’t explain.”

“Oh…I think you’re in love,pal!” he said with a playful smirk.

“Wrong again! I mean, she’s nice, but…that’s not the point! It was like, like a dark presence or something…I don’t know, maybe It’s just my imagination.”

“Whatever you say,Peter.”

We then heard those people that were chasing us earlier. They had returned from the forest. For a second, I thought they were coming to our bungalow, but they just continued to walk past us.

“What the hell is this place,man?”

“I ‘m not sure I wanna know…”

Even though we had said we wouldn’t sleep, we ended up surrendering to our exhaustion.

The next day we were greeted by two loafs of bread and two fishbars, one loaf and one fishbar for each. We’d come to learn those were the only things we’d eat in all our time spent there. A ration for breakfast and another one arround 1PM for lunch, and that was it. It wasn’t uncommon for kids to fight over food, there were also others that formed teams and helped the weak, such as the toddlers who couldn’t defend themselves. And then there were also the ones who stayed solo and just minded their own buisness. We were required to be in our bungalows by 12AM or else…well, those who didn’t obey that rule would experience what Jack,Chris and I had experienced when we first arrived there. We were allowed to go to the main area of the bungalows and also to a small cove that was on the opposite side of the forest. There was also a mountain with what looked like a temple on the top, we weren’t allowed to go there. And speaking of kids, our theory was correct, this place contained children from all over the globe, you could hear many different languages: English,Spanish,French,Italian,Japanese,Arabic,German…and those were only the ones I could identify! Despite our different nationalities, age and even skin tones, our horns were something we all had in common.

It was our second day there, Jack,Chris and I were exploring the complex in order to gain information, when I saw him. Standing on the base of the mountain , watching over us, wearing a shirt with the symbol I had seen on the bus…

James.