Code Black [The Experiments Book 1]

Chapter 14: Another Letter

Chapter 14: Another Letter

            It’s been two weeks since the horrible day.  I got out my stitches taken out a week ago, and Dugger got his out today.  I was surprised that all three of our parents let us stay at the camp.  After the attack, I felt no need to go back, but I decided to stay, as a recovery period for my leg before my journey.

            In the middle of this week when Dugger came back to camp, Dugger decided to tell me his side of the story.  He told me that he found Jerome lying on the ground at around midnight.  That was two hours after I found Rosabella.  He also said the cougar stood above him, filled with blood, and bit into his neck.  To him, the sight was one big mesh of flesh, blood and a cat.

            Dugger said he shone the light into the cougar’s eyes, and distracted it, causing it to attack him.  Dugger found a branch from a tree, and whacked the cougar in the head, causing it to run off.  Then he hid in the cave.  He felt so distraught and dizzy with blood, he forgot about Jerome until he heard the ambulance the first time.

            Jodie told me they found Jerome at about four in the morning, so he lay on the ground for six hours.  I found Dugger at eight in the morning, and I was surprised he was still alive; he bled for eight hours.  I guess he applied enough pressure to stop himself from bleeding to death.  He also had the waterfall, and stopped himself from getting blood poisoning.

            All of this week, Dugger and I have been hanging out a lot more.  Hunter got angry of course, but I calmed him down.  For some reason, Dugger lingers around with my group of friends instead of his friends, and he hasn’t talked to them very much either.  I think he is still afraid that something might come after him.  He stared at me every time he saw me, and I couldn’t help but feel awkward.

            Dugger and Jerome were arriving back at camp around lunchtime, and I decided I wanted to hear Jerome’s side of the story.  But before lunch, I had one more activity.  This activity was horseback riding.  I didn’t mind it either; they ran fast on the ground, like I flew in the sky.

            Vanessa and Grace met me at the stable gate, excited that I decided to come with them.  I never rode horseback before, but I always wanted to try it.  I got a deep black horse named Draco.  He was sweet, but he kept tugging at my shirt.  I got dirty saliva all over my purple v-neck.  I put a white sweatshirt over it after I hopped on his back.  I put the hood over my head, knowing it would rain.  Vanessa got a pretty white horse named Angel, and Grace got a bay horse named Merritt.  It was brown with a black mane, and he was the calmest of all three of them.

            We started off on the trail, one that I didn’t recognize, until we got to a giant rock.  This was the rock Rosabella laid against when I found her.  She was frail and injured back then, but now she is very energetic and happy.  Whenever I drop in to see her, she runs up and gives me her best bear hug.  We would fly for an hour, until we couldn’t see very well from the darkness of night.

            We walked down the trail towards the lake, my attention switching from Rosabella and the caves to what Vanessa and Grace were talking about.  They were still shocked from the cougar attack, but they don’t talk about it anymore.  They just talk about going swimming in the lake sometime with their boyfriends, or if they will see each other after camp gets out.  So far, we know she lives in Wyoming too, but she never told us where.  She actually came here from the other bus that parked at the YMCA.

            We trotted to the beachfront and we turned right, toward the caves.  I hoped they wouldn’t find Amber and Rosabella there.  We kept walking for a few minutes, and we inched closer to the caves.  I saw Mira, the white hawk fly out of the big cave, making me worry.  As soon as she came out, she noticed us and flew back in, so I sighed in relief.  Nobody saw her.