Finding Our Way Back

Part 1

"Adios, James!" She said before running over to her group of roommates.

James got up from the table and strolled over to the others in the same cabin.

As the group walked back to their cabin James couldn't stop thinking about Courtney. There was just something about her that he liked.

~

James woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. He'd had a nightmare that there was a cougar chasing after him and eventually catching him. James had been having occasional recurring night terrors, ever since that one night many years ago when he had been attacked.

When he was eleven, he had been on a walking trail nearby his house.

As he was walking through the forest, he heard rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned and saw two adorable cougar cubs. James knew that if there were kittens that the mom would be somewhere close by. As he turned around to run, he spotted the cougar. She pounced at him like a cat catching a mouse. James screams pierced the air as the cougar tackled him. He tried to get away, but his limbs gave out from underneath him. James screamed for help, but none came. He felt himself become lightheaded. He thought he was going to die, but then suddenly the cougar slowed down and eventually went limp. A man on the trail had shot the cougar with a tranquilizing dart! The man ran over to James. He immediately called 9-1-1.

Next thing he knew he was in a hospital bed. After he had recovered from his injuries all he had left was a few scars and possibly a bit of PTSD.

James checked the time on his phone. It was 2:24 am. The rules of the camp had said that they weren't allowed to bring any electronics but James' mom had forced him to bring it so they could communicate. He ended up playing Subway Surfers until he eventually fell asleep again.

~

The next morning James was woken up to the beautiful sound of teenage boys yelling at each other. He climbed out of bed and grabbed a change of clothes. He went to the restroom and changed into a pair of black skinny jeans, a band t-shirt and a cozy flannel that used to be his fathers. He walked out of the cabin and slowly walked to the cafeteria for breakfast. James got 2 pancakes and some bacon. He noticed Courtney sitting alone at a table and shuffled over to join her.

"Hey," James said.

"Why hello there, James." She responded.

"How's your morning been?" James asked, tiredly.

"Boring as hell, and you?"

"Exact same."

The two carried on talking until Tovah started speaking

"Hey kids! Today we're splitting you guys into groups! You're either going to be fishing, weaving, gathering berries, or archery!" She explained.

"I hope I'm in archery," Courtney said, "Gathering berries and stuff sounds boring as hell."

They were all handed pieces of paper which assigned you to your group. Unfortunately, James and Courtney were both in gathering berries.

"You've gotta be kidding, man." Courtney complained.

"Eh, I mean, it can't be that bad, right?" James said.

"Oh, it's bad. It's going to be so boring!"

"Oh, well,"

They walked over to a man with long dark hair.

"Hey guys, I'm Charlie and I'm going to be showing you what's safe to eat and what's not," the man said.

James kinda zoned out during his lectures about poisonous plants and what herbs can heal wounds etc., etc.

Once they were finally free to go look for plants, James had no clue what was happening. He found Courtney and they walked and chatted together for a while.

"What do you do in your free time?" Courtney asked.

"Well, um, I draw, play bass guitar, and hangout at libraries by myself." James said

"Oh nice. Uh, what kind of music do you like to play?"

"I do a lot of grunge music, but I also like playing some metal."

"Cool. I play drums."

"Really? Oh damn, we should start a band or something."

"Hah, yeah,"

James thought he heard someone yell, but he didn't think it was anything.

"Oh, hey! I think I found one of the plants that we were supposed to get!" James exclaimed as he knelt over a small plant.

"No! That's incredibly poisonous! He told us specifically not to pick those!" Courtney yelled.

"Oh, oops, sorry." James said.

He got up and looked around.

"Hey James, is it just me or is there literally nobody around?" Courtney asked, anxiously.

James hadn't noticed it before, but the woods were quiet, especially with a bunch of 10th graders roaming around in it.

"Huh, I guess that's kinda weird." He responded.

"I think we should try and find our way back to camp. We've probably wandered too far." Courtney said.

James nodded and followed as she tried to figure out which way they had come from.