Surviving the Night - The Quarry

Chapter 16: Herd of Bears

Kaci's POV

"Something's really wrong with that chick," Jacob says once we're inside the radio station.

"For real. Girls lost her pebbles," Dylan says, making the three of us stare at him.

"Pebbles?" Jacob repeats.

"Yeah?" Dylan looks at him questioningly, "It's a common phrase. You know, when someone is going insane. They lost their pebbles."

Jacob crosses his arms, "I think you mean marbles."

"What? How would that even make sense? Who carries around marbles?" 

"Who carries around pebbles?" Jacob counters.

"I don't know. I didn't create the phrase," Dylan argues.

"Actually, you did. Because it's not a phrase," Jacob replies.

"Okay, we do not have the time to argue about Dylan and his questionable phrases right now," Ryan interrupts the two.

"Hey," Dylan frowns.

Ryan adjusts the gun in his hand before saying, "Dylan, do whatever you need to do to get the call out. The three of us will keep watch."

Dylan gives in and immediately gets to work, moving things around to connect to an open channel. Then he says, "Alright, I got it. What should I say?"

"You should probably make it sound urgent. Say our friend got hurt and we need help," I offer.

Dylan nods, "Okay, I got this."

He leans forward and presses a button, "Hello! How's it going out there? This is- Uhh- Uh, we need help. This is- Uhh- We are counselors at Hackett's Quarry summer camp, and there's been a horrible accident- attack. Some stuff's bad here. We need your help! Uh, there is a swarm of bears, and they are everywhere! And there's these hunters too, and they seem to be shooting at the bears, but also at us... Um... Which is not good... and a few of our friends are hurt. And, um, we are in desperate need of help. So please- There's vicious bears and, uh, we don't know what to do, so please... come help us. S.O.S... this is an emergency. S-Save our ship. Come on down, please help us."

Dylan lets go of the button and turns toward us, "Did I do good? Was that?"

"Swarm of bears?" Ryan says.

Dylan scrunches his eyebrows together, "Yeah?"

"Herd of bears," Ryan corrects him.

"Yeah, I've heard of bears, but..." Dylan starts saying before Ryan cuts him off, "Oh my God."

"I cannot believe that is what you picked up from that whole monologue," I can't help but laugh, "I mean 'save our ship? Come on down?' I can't tell if we're lost at sea or if we won a chance to go on the Price is Right."

"My personal favorite was 'vicious bears.' The emphasis was truly Oscar-worthy," Jacob grins as Dylan flips us off.

"I'd like to see any of you do much better," Dylan says before turning back to the table, "I guess I should switch this over to the receiver and see if we get any responses."

We wait for a few minutes, and as I look out the window, I notice the rain has already stopped. My mind wanders over to everyone over at the pool house when suddenly static comes over the radio.

"Guys, check it out," Dylan states as he fixes the audio.

A man's voice comes through the radio, "I got a ping on the radio, but no response. I'm gonna head to the station and check it out."

Another man's voice responds, "Where are the other counselors?"

"Three males and a female are in the radio shack near the cabins. The others are currently unaccounted for."

"Copy that. Out."

"Out."

The radio cuts out, and Ryan takes a step forward, "Holy shit, they're talking about us."

"Oh, fuck," Dylan voices.

"How do they know that?" Jacob asks.

"Because we just told them on the fucking radio. Fuck," Dylan repeats, running a hand through his hair, "They know where we are."

"Do you think that was one of the guys that Stella ran into in the woods?" I ask, "The one that poured blood on her face?"

"Probably," Ryan says, "But I wouldn't like to stay here to find out."

"You're right. We can't stay here," I say, "We should meet up with the others."

"Yeah. Let's go to the pool house."

Dylan nods before standing up and walking over to the door. He opens the door just as one of the monsters goes running past the cabins. Dylan lets out a small yelp as he slams the door shut, "What the fuck was that?"

"Fucking hell. That's what chased after me and Kaci," Jacob immediately says, seeming instantly overwhelmed.

"It's also what attacked Abi," I remind everyone.

"You guys could have warned me it was out there," Dylan says accusingly.

"Fuck you, dude. We didn't know it was out there," Jacob defends the three of us.

"You were supposed to be on watch," Dylan explains.

"And we were. But we got distracted by the fucking hunters on the radio," Jacob snaps back.

"Everyone needs to calm down," I say, trying to stay level-headed, "The main goal right now is to get far away from the radio station and meet up with everyone at the pool house. We can't start turning on each other, especially if the hunters are on their way."

"Shit," Dylan says, "I'm sorry. I'm just freaked out right now."

"It's okay, dude. We all are. No one knows what the fuck is going on," Ryan says.

Dylan nods as he takes a deep breath before reaching for the door again. Once he checks the coast is clear, the four of us leave the radio station and make our way to the pool house.