Camp Driftwood

Chapter 22 - Bloodhound

Chapter 22 - Bloodhound

Kaylee dropped onto her bunk, feeling only a little refreshed after the lukewarm shower. Her muscles didn't hurt as much as she expected, so she was beginning to adjust to the physical demands of the camp. Not that it'd matter much, she'd be gone before too long and everything would go back to normal.

The other attendants walked in the cabin around her, some filtering through their belongings in the trunks under their beds while others just dropped onto their mattresses to rest. Judie was sitting on her bed, with her back turned to Kaylee as she sorted through the shirts laid out in front of her. Most looked very worn, presumably passed down to her from other attendants as they outgrew them.

Kaylee looked at her momentarily, only noticing a small amount of movement out of the corner of her eye as Evan dropped off his bunk. He wordlessly dropped the bottle of disinfectant they'd been keeping onto Kaylee's bed. She looked up at him as he walked by, but he didn't say a word. Evan gestured for Ryan to follow him to the edge of the cabin, where the two began to quietly talk.

Kaylee silently dabbed the liquid onto her finger, wincing as she applied it to the opened cut on her brow. Her teeth clenched as she shouldered the pain, before redoing the cap of the bottle and stashing it inside of her pillowcase. As she tucked it away, the girl that slept on the bunk above Judie dropped down and walked over to her. Try as she might, Kaylee couldn't remember her name.

"What's the plan?" the girl asked quietly, taking a seat on the bed beside Kaylee. As much as she didn't appreciate the intrusion onto her space, Kaylee bit her tongue.

"The supply truck will be here soon," she replied, "we're taking it and driving out of here."

The girl nodded. "Okay, sounds good. How are we getting it?"

"We're still working that part out," Kaylee admitted. "Once we have more details worked out we'll tell everyone how we're going to pull it off. In the meantime, we just lay low and try not to attract attention to ourselves."

"Thanks for the update," she said with a nervous smile. "Want me to spread the word? It'd put people in a better mood to hear that we've got a plan."

"Good idea, but do it quietly. The last thing we need is one of the managers overhearing. Be sure to tell everyone that until we know what to do next, don't try anything. I'm sure they all understand what happens if we get caught."

The girl gave one last nod, before making her way over to a small gathering on the other side of the cabin to a group of five or so attendants who were all anxiously waiting for another update. She heard hushed muttering as she relayed what she had been told to them, and briefly scanned their rapt expressions as they listened in silence, before she turned away. She dropped off the bed, pulling her trunk out from underneath and popping the lid.

Her clothes were all tossed inside, dumped in directly from her bag without much thought. As she rummaged through, the smell of lavender filled her nostrils. Even though Kaylee didn't care much for it, her mother always used a lavender scented laundry liquid to wash her clothes. The faint smell still clung to the fabric, like a shroud that wasn't quite ready to leave just yet. Her thoughts turned to home as she picked out one of the loose-fitting hoodies that had been tucked away, putting it onto the bed.

As she did, a small sliver of torn and yellowed paper slipped free of the folds, and floated down to the floor. She reached down and picked it up, recognising it as she read the scrawled and faded writing. It was John's note from back when she had just arrived, or at least half of it. Being tossed inside of her footlocker mean that the already fragile paper had been torn in half, with the other still presumably being somewhere among her things. She considered screwing it up and tossing it away, but sentimentality made her pause, before placing it gently back into the footlocker, before closing it once again and pushing it under the bed.