Free 09 - Welcome to Camp Nightmare by R.L. Stine - (ebook by Undead) Page B

headed quickly down the dark hill. The dew had already fallen, and the tall
grass was slippery and wet. Halfway down, I could see the dark outline of the
Forbidden Bunk, hunched forward as if preparing to strike.
    Forcing myself to look away, I jogged the rest of the way to Bunk 4.
    To my surprise, I could see through the window that someone was moving around
inside.
    Colin and Jay are back! I thought.
    Eagerly, I pushed open the door and burst inside. “Hey—where’ve you guys
been?” I cried.
    I stopped short. And gasped.
    Two strangers stared back at me.
    One was sitting on the edge of Colin’s bunk, pulling off his sneakers. The
other was leaning over the dresser, pulling a T-shirt from one of the drawers.
    “Hi. You in here?” the boy at the dresser stood up straight, his eyes
studying me. He had very short black hair and a gold stud in one ear.
    I swallowed hard. “Am I in the wrong bunk? Is this Bunk Four?”
    They both stared at me, confused.
    I saw that the other boy, the one in Colin’s bunk, also had black hair, but
his was long and scraggly and fell over his forehead. “Yeah. This is Bunk Four,”
he said.
    “We’re new,” the short-haired boy added. “I’m Tommy, and he’s Chris. We just
started today.”
    “Hi,” I said uncertainly. “My name’s Billy.” My heart was pounding like a
tom-tom in my chest. “Where’re Colin and Jay?”
    “Who?” Chris asked. “They told us this bunk was mostly empty.”
    “Well, Colin and Jay—” I started.
    “We just arrived. We don’t know anyone,” Tommy interrupted. He pushed the
drawer shut.
    “But that’s Jay’s drawer,” I said, bewildered, pointing. “What did you do
with Jay’s stuff?”
    Tommy gazed back at me in surprise. “The drawer was empty,” he replied.
    “Almost all the drawers were empty,” Chris added, tossing his sneakers to the
floor. “Except for the bottom two drawers.”
    “That’s my stuff,” I said, my head spinning. “But Colin and Jay—their stuff
was here,” I insisted.
    “The whole cabin was empty,” Tommy said. “Maybe your friends got moved.”
    “Maybe,” I said weakly. I sat down on the lower bunk beneath my bed. My legs
felt shaky. A million thoughts were whirring through my mind, all of them
frightening.
    “This is weird,” I said aloud.
    “It’s not a bad bunk,” Chris said, pulling down his blanket and settling in.
“Kind of cozy.”
    “How long you staying at camp?” Tommy asked, pulling on an oversized white
T-shirt. “All summer?”
    “No!” I exclaimed with a shudder. “I’m not staying!” I sputtered. “I mean… I
mean… I’m leaving. On… uh… I’m leaving on Visitors Day next week.”
    Chris flashed Tommy a surprised glance. “Huh? When are you leaving?” he asked
again.
    “On Visitors Day,” I repeated. “When my parents come up for Visitors Day.”
    “But didn’t you hear Uncle Al’s announcement before dinner?” Tommy asked,
staring hard at me. “Visitors Day has been canceled!”

 
 
17
     
     
    I drifted in and out of a troubled sleep that night. Even with the
blanket pulled up to my chin, I felt chilled and afraid.
    It felt so weird to have two strange guys in the bunk, sleeping where Jay and
Colin had slept. I was worried about my missing friends.
    What had happened to them? Why hadn’t they come back?
    As I tossed restlessly in my top bunk, I heard howls off in the distance.
Animal cries, probably coming from the Forbidden Bunk. Long, frightening howls
carried by the wind into our open bunk windows.
    At one point, I thought I heard kids screaming. I sat up straight, suddenly
alert, and listened.
    Had I dreamed the frightful shrieks? I was so scared and confused, it was
impossible to tell what was real and what was a nightmare.
    It took hours to fall back to sleep.
    I awoke to a gray, overcast morning, the air heavy and cold. Pulling on swim
trunks and a T-shirt, I raced to the lodge to find Larry. I had to find out what
had happened to Jay and Colin.
    I searched everywhere for him without success. Larry wasn’t