Camp Bell

Chapter 1

The woods were dark around them as David lead Max, Neil and Nikki deeper into the woods. The hike that David had suggested for their punishment after they tried locked Preston up with a recording of someone saying Macbeth over and over before his big debut, leaving the young, unsuccessful playwright and actor in tears and shaking; had been going on for hours and Max and the rest of them had a suspicion that they were lost.

"Do you even know where we are?" Asked Max, "Or are we lost?" He had been sulking along the hike so far where Nikki had been excitedly bounding around and Neil had become out of breath after a few minutes.

"Of course not Max," David exclaimed turning around and stopping before bending down to Max's height and resting a hand on his shoulder. "This is just one of the many fantastic hiking trails that Camp Campbell has to offer. I have walked this trail many times and every time I find something even more beautiful than the last time." His eyes started shining.

"Here we go," Max rolled his eyes and let his mouth drop into an even deeper frown.

"In fact when I was a young Camp Campbell camper like yourself I went on many hikes along this very trail with Mr Campbell himself," David said wistfully. "We would hike for hours and every time we went we found animals and trees and..."

"And she's gone," Max said nodding in Nikki's direction as she charged off the edge of a cliff with the battle cry of, 'I'M A BIRD TOO,'.

"NIKKI!" David yelled as he ran toward the cliff. Max wandered over slowly to where Neil was looking frightened and out of breath down to where Nikki had jumped.

"Think that killed her?" Max asked as if one of his best friends didn't just jump off a cliff. He peered uninterested over the edge where the rock face turned into trees and bushes.

"Nah, she'll probably be rescued by bears or some shit," Neil replied if he had seen this happen any summer before he would be panicking but the insanity of Camp Campbell had worn down his reaction to danger to the point where he barely thought about it. If Nikki fell off a cliff she fell off a cliff and would be back by breakfast tomorrow covered in dirt and with a bear or two. That was just the kind of thing that happened at Camp Campbell. Just last week Max had gotten lost and a troupe of squirrels adopted him and now were hailing him as the prince, and the week before Preston had somehow trained a raven to help him with his performances and protect him from Nurf. At Camp Campbell, things happened and you went with it, that was just how it was and all the campers seemed to realize. Even Gwen and the Quartermaster released, only David seemed to be in the dark.

"Ten bucks says she comes back as the alpha of a wolf pack," Max suggested, his eyes alternating between following David's panicked dance and looking over the edge.

"Nah, it'll be bears this time. But I'll take that bet." Neil said, finally breaking the trance that had him searching for his friend and looked over to David who seemed to be between coming to a discussion and bursting into tears.

"You're on. Want to convince David to head back to camp and see if we have any more takers for how Nikki will come back? Last time Space Kid made a mint for betting that it would be squirrels that brought me back." Max questioned, it was going to be a long walk back and when things like this happened it was better not worry about it.

"Fine by me, just convince 'fantastic trails' over there to get moving. He's the only one who worries when shit like this happens and if he decided to rescue her were in for a fuck load of necessary work." Neil said as he glanced back to David who looked as if he had made his mind up.

"Holy shit you're right." Max exclaimed and he walked over to David, "So David..."

"Max, Neil we're going to save Nikki!" David said, cutting over Max's plea to go back.

"Fuck!" Max yelled as he slapped his hand across his face, "Why do we have to go on another fucking adventure?"

"Come on Max, it'll be fun and if we succeed I won't have to fill out the deceased camper forms," David replied with a forced smile. He gritted his teeth and gave an extremely forced grin to Max and Neil. "Now who wants to help me find our way down this cliff?"

"What if we go the same way as Nikki?" Max suggested, "Then if we live you'll stop moaning about finding her and if we don't then I don't have to deal with you anymore."

"Max, that's not the right attitude. We just need a positive outlook on the situation." David reprimanded, looking down at the young camper.

"Or a shove," Max muttered under his breath as they started making their way down the cliff in a way that would not end in broken bones or possible death.

When they reached the bottom, they saw Nikki lying on an equally unconscious bear. David rushed over to her. And then immediately ran back as Nikki sprang up and growled.

"See, she's fine." Max said as he handed Neil 10 bucks, "And with a bear too, I was sure it was going to be wolves this time. Ah well." He shrugged, "It's gotta be wolves next time."

"That was fun, AGAIN," Nikki yelled as she jumped up and down. "AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN,!"

"Maybe not right now Nikki, we should get back to camp, Gwen must be worried and I'm sure the Quartermaster has cooked up a delicious dinner for us hungry hikers," David said as he crouched down and gave a forced grin.

"Yeah delicious, mystery slop," Max muttered under his breath.

"I'm pretty sure mine moved yesterday," Neil whispered to his friend, hearing his sarcastic comment.

"Now then guys we should head back, just follow me..." David trailed off as he turned around and looked into the unfamiliar forest. "Ummm, this way." He said selecting a way at random and walking off.

The trio hung back, looking at a bush that was concealed in the darkness. It was shaking and shuddering.

"Umm...David?" Neil asked, not taking his eyes off the bush.

"Yes, Neil?" David turned around to look at the young camper.

"The....The...The bush is moving." His voice trailed off as it reached a pitch that human ears can't hear.

A shape darted out of the bush and landed on Nikki. Without looking at what or who it was, Nikki turned her head and sunk her teeth in the hand of what landed on her. The thing screamed and as the David and the trio's eyes adjusted to the dim light they saw that what had landed on Nikki was a person.

He looked like Neil. He had the same curly mess of brown hair but it looked even more mussed and as if a bird had been living it. He had the same mustard yellow shirt but it was covered in mud and ripped. He had the red trousers but they were shorts and showed his scabbed knees.

"Ok, who the fuck are you?" Max asked, his eyebrow raised.

"I'm Neil!" The newcomer said indignantly, "Who are you fuckers?"

"Language young man. My name's David and this is Max, Nikki and Neil." David introduced them as he pulled Nikki up.

"Huh, that's kinda weird, there are people at my camp called Nikki and Max, and we have a counselor called David." New Neil eyed them up. "Are you lost?"

"Not really but we did just come down from that cliff and if you have a camp near by I would appreciate it if we could go back to your camp and call my co-counselor to pick us up from...." He trailed off and looked at New Neil expectantly.

"Camp Bell." New Neil supplied.

Originally posted on AO3 - Fairylights_and_Stormynights