Maybe the creature had gotten his parents too.
A giant black fly landed on his arm and he brushed it away hurriedly. The big fat ones bit. It swarmed around his head angrily before landing on the back of his neck. He swung his arms wildly and jumped up and down until it finally left him alone. There were mosquitoes too, but for the most part they didn’t bother him. They, at least, didn’t like his taste.
A giant shadow passed over him. He looked up to see large billowy clouds rolling in over the mountains, blocking the harsh sun. Finally, he thought, a break!
The clouds brought some relief, but they grew steadily darker as they spread across the sky, and brought with them a rumbling of thunder. He picked up the pace, as the first cold drops of rain began to fall. Within minutes it fell thick and heavy. The dry dirt road seemed to resist it at first, but soon lost the battle, becoming a thick, sticky mud. He darted over to a thick copse of trees to escape, but it only diminished the downpour, it couldn’t stop it completely, and before long he was soaked.
It didn’t let up, continuing to hammer him as though it had a personal vendetta. As the wind increased it brought the rain in sideways under the limbs of his shelter, even when he tried to hide on the other side of the trees. The thunder shook the very air, louder than anything he had ever heard at home, and the lightning lit the cloud-created darkness in brilliant but short flashes.
His eyes began to gray out, and his head began to pound, and with it the noise in his head increased. No, he thought, not again.
7
Josh woke to a loud rumble of thunder. His back rested against a tree and his clothes were soaked completely through. It had grown darker, if that were possible. Had he blacked out through the entire day? The whining of his head started up again and increased in volume rapidly and he pressed his palms to his forehead. “Please stop,” he said out loud, “No more.”
He had to get moving again, but the pain increased with the sound, threatening to split his head open. If it were night, the creature would be back. He had no doubt it waited for him at the edge of the shadows, waiting to taste his fear with its long dry tongue, and this time it would eat him, piece by piece. He stumbled to his feet, but they slipped in the mud and he fell to his hands and knees. He let out a single sob as his mind slipped away again.
8
He lived! Josh looked up at the dissipating clouds in relief. Was it even the same day? He didn’t know for how long he’d been unconscious, but he shivered from his cold wet clothing. He lay on his stomach, cheek pressed into the wet earth. He hadn’t bothered to grab spare clothes, but he didn’t know how he would’ve kept them dry anyhow. The dirt road had transformed to mud, and every dip held a puddle, but the clouds had thinned and the sun finally broke through. With the sun returned some of the heat. The sun had risen higher into the sky.
The noise of his head came back, but softly. I can’t get scared again, he thought, I keep rebooting.
The sun felt good, but a cool breeze offset it, giving him goose bumps. He started walking again. The only other option would be to head back to his camp, but that felt like crawling back to die. As long as he walked, as long as he got home, he’d be okay. His parents would know what to do. They could be close, maybe they were at the lake with the other people.
The passing of the rain brought back the insects in full force. More flies followed him, biting at his arms and face. He walked faster, as fast as he thought he could get away with without taxing himself to the point of blacking out again, trying to leave the flies behind. Whatever had gone wrong in his head seemed to be getting worse. He felt miserable in his wet clothing. He tried to ignore the cold, ignore the constant growling of his stomach, to stop thinking about monsters, and ignore his malfunctioning head. He had to focus on each step. Keep each foot moving. One foot in front of another.
The sun shone down from almost straight above. The storm had seemed to last forever, but with blacking out, he really didn’t know. How long can people survive in the woods? What would get him first? Hunger? The monster? Freezing to death in the night? Maybe his head would explode and solve all the other problems. The crows he heard every morning were probably waiting for him to die, and they would have to compete to eat him with the monsters and bears.
I’m dying, he thought, if I don’t get back soon, I’m going to die alone in the mountains. His parents probably thought that he wouldn’t make it back from this trip. Maybe they’d brought him here to die. Wasn’t that what Will had suggested? Some kids never returned. He’d been asking to go camping every summer for years and years and they’d never taken him. Now suddenly, they’d jumped at the chance when he had asked. Who’d have thought that the trip would suck so badly?
I don’t want to die.
He wouldn’t. He’d get better. They’d fix him when he got back, and he’d show them that he was worth it. His parents would make everything better. That’s what parents did.
Josh stopped. He heard something over the whining from his head. A strange steady growl disturbed the wilderness, and was growing steadily louder. It took a second for him to recognize it; he hadn’t heard a vehicle engine for days. It was them, it had to be. They’d returned! The first thing he planned to do was ask them what the heck they’d been thinking, trusting a kid to camp all alone. He’d tell them about the monster too, but he knew they didn’t believe in things like that.
But the lime green truck that came around the corner didn’t belong to his parents. The driver saw him and pulled over and a man in uniform peered out the window. He had a short brown beard, and wore a ball cap with the forest service logo on it, which matched the logo on the side of the truck’s door.
“Well you look a sight,” the man said, “Need a lift back to camp?”
9
“So where’s your parents?” the ranger asked, “You look a little young to be up here by yourself.”
Josh pulled the worn brown blanket tightly about himself. It smelled like stale dust, like the attic when his parents would grab the Christmas decorations. “I don’t know where they are. They disappeared. I’ve been waiting for them for days now.”
“What’s your name?”
“Josh. Josh Norton.”
“Well, Josh Norton, let’s get you back to your family. Where are you camping?”
“We were up this mountain, but we can’t go back there.”
The ranger flashed him a patronizing smile and said, “Sure we can. There’s a campsite just down the road. We’ll be there in a minute.”
“They’re not there,” Josh replied futilely.
“Is everything all right? What’s that noise you’re making?”
“It’s nothing,” he said, “I just need to get home.”
The ranger shrugged and turned back to the road. It did only take a few minutes to reach the camp, making Josh’s stomach sink. He’d hardly walked far at all, it seemed as though he’d been walking for hours. From the truck the place looked in horrible disarray. He’d left the tent collapsed and the storm had filled it with water. He hadn’t bothered to remove his sleeping bag either.