[2-8] The Campground

[Hiro Protagonist]

For some reason, Barry's comparison gave Hiro a sense of unease. The only time he'd seen a place like this was in old horror movies. Nothing good ever came of a bunch of hormonal teenagers sleeping in the middle of the woods, be it murder, or even worse, pregnancy scares. He tilted his head up at the sky, then at the lengthening shadows creeping across the ground. It hadn't taken them that long to come this far north, had it? It was already getting dark, the mist becoming thicker and cloying, almost light purple in it's light obscuring qualities.

He motioned for Barry to come with him and started exploring the abandoned cabins. They swept each wooden building like a two man swat team; that is, quickly, scared, and rather overwhelmed. Their searches returned nothing in the cabins besides mattress-less bunk beds, empty nightables, moth eaten curtains, and in one anomalous cabin, empty condom packets, crushed beer cans, and a half full bottle of liquor. "Must have been the counselor's cabin." Barry mumbled, retreating out the door in front of Hiro. "Hey, this next building looks a little different than the others. Maybe it's the main building?"

The out of place samurai looked at the building, confirming its different structure. It was at least twice as big and wide, with etched, faded letters that read "CAMP CR------ L---". Huh. Hiro looked back at the misty horizon and debated their options. Night was starting to fall, and even though they had only woken up a few hours ago, he was feeling fatigued, worn out. Numb, even. His hangover was long gone, but had been replaced with frayed nerves and a jumpy paranoia. "It...it does look like it. But we should probably make camp here before moving on. I don't know where the day went. And I bet we can get some fish from the lake, or something. We should build a fire, too. That's the first thing we should do."

The two companions started gathering sticks, brush and branches to use as fuel for their fire. It wasn't hard, Barry gathering a large amount of kindling in the span of a few minutes and arranging them in a stacked pile in front of the main building. Hiro had the good fortune to discover a log rack behind one of the cabins, and they both took turns bringing the seasoned firewood back to their rudimentary firepit. Eventually, they'd piled enough around the kindling to build a respectable bonfire. The hacker pulled out the last bottle of alcohol he'd rescued from the plane and emptied it on the logs and kindling.

Pulling out his lack of cigarettes, Hiro lit one and offered another to Barry, who graciously accepted the cylinder and a light, before Hiro put the flame to the bonfire. It caught rapidly, bluish flames licking the dry bark of the logs before the entire pile lit up rapidly. The light level in the immediate area increased significantly, illuminating the "lawn" in front of the cabins and main building, extending to the beginning of the pier into the lake. The psychological boost from making such an impressive blaze soothed both Barry and Hiro's nerves a bit, enough to make the Prime take off his jacket and gloves for the first time since they'd crashed on the island. Sitting cross legged in front of the blaze, Hiro stared into the flickering flames, then past it at the silvery, mist covered lake and pier. That could wait for a bit while they recovered.