HOLLIS MCCALISTER SUMMER CAMP

by Keith McCloud

  “Listen, I am not like Cody, I will be able to concentrate and keep my mind focused on what we need to do. I will not let my guard down. You guys will have to teach me the physical part of the training because I am weak at that, but mentally I will not be weak. By the way, how many cousins do you have?” I say.

  “You will find out that I have a lot of siblings here. Remember, we never leave the village, so we never want to leave town. No matter how bored we get, or how tired we are of the vampires, we all stay, live and grow up in this village. We actually love it here, that’s why we cannot let the vampires win,” Stella says.

  “I totally understand and will do everything to make sure we do win. Even take a bath in pig shit,” I say.

  “Hey, Trevor, this is Hollis whom I already told you about,” Stella says.

  Trevor is a pretty, built-muscle type of guy. About my height and about my age. As a matter of fact there are a few people in the village who are around my age. He looks like he can kick some butt, though. Of course I am not going to mess with him.

  “Hey, Hollis, it is nice to meet you. So you are going to be our savior? Hopefully not our demise,” Trevor says.

  “It’s nice to meet you also. I am not sure about savior, but I will try my best to make sure everything goes according to plan,” I reply.

  We then shake hands and he about breaks my fingers. Dang, the dude is strong. I don’t think he knows how strong he actually is. Hope he doesn’t see me make that face when he about broke all my fingers. I guess you have to be tough and strong to live here. Sometimes you are fighting for your life. I have to remember what these guys go through and what they have been through. I have to keep reminding myself that over and over while I am training and I want to give up. I am doing this for them and saving Cody and saving myself. I heard what Stella said about they will kill Cody and me and then be immortal and eventually take out this whole village.

  “So, Hollis, what do you know about working out?” Trevor asks.

  “Nothing, I am great at sitting on the couch,” I reply.

  Both Stella and Trevor laugh at that. “Well, by the time we are done with you, you will be a whole different person physically and mentally. People will not recognize you, because you will have a more confident personality. You will even walk around and just look more confident. But we still need you to be scared because that will help you not let your guard down. That was the issue with Cody: he got too relaxed and too confident and he let his guard down and got caught. He kind of got cocky, meaning he thought he could kick everyone’s butt and he wasn’t worried about the vampires anymore. He was going over there so much he started to act like the vampires. He was even trying to talk like them and then started saying that he was an Indian also. We kept telling him that he was getting too close to the vampires and that he was wanting to be too much like them that it was clouding his judgment and we were worried about him. We needed him to keep focused, but we could feel that we were losing him. That’s exactly what they want. They want you to become weak to them; they want you to feel like you are one of them. They give you everything you want and they become your friend. They find your weakness and then they have got you right where they want you. We just cannot have that happen to you. We also need to get Cody back before the double red moon. We have a lot of work and not much time to get it all done,” Trevor says.

  “I have already told him most of that,” Stella says.

  “I just want him to understand what we are up against, or I should say what he is up against. He needs to be well prepared before his first day of meeting them. They will smell his weakness and we cannot let that happen this time. If you recall we told all this to Cody, but he still got caught by them,” Trevor says.

  “The difference this time is that Hollis is not trying to court any of the vampires. That means Hollis will not be over there all the time. Hollis will not be letting his guard down trying to impress anyone, especially any family members. He will be more cautious. You can already tell that he is not a rebel like Cody is. You can see that Hollis is more level-headed and will think first before he reacts,” Stella says.

  “I see all that, but you know as well as I do that they will look for a weakness and go for it. They could see that Cody was falling for Sandy, once they saw that they knew what his weakness was and what they needed to do. They helped him and Sandy’s relationship grow. They accepted him and they really like him. Now they really like him because they see him as their savior. His blood will allow them to be stronger and live forever. Again, Hollis has to be prepared in every aspect. I hope I am not scaring you too much, Hollis, but in the same breath I hope I am making you scared so that you will not let your guard down,” says Trevor.

  “I understand everything you are saying. Don’t worry, I will listen to everything you guys say and I will learn everything you want me to learn. I promise I will not let my guard down. I will train every day and give it my all.”

  “Perfect, that’s what we want you to do. You will be fine. Okay, it’s time now to start doing some basic exercises. We will start easy today. We will do an hour of exercises, and then we will let Anita Kay mess with your head for an hour and then we will have Stella show you how to use some of the weapons. What is your weapon of choice? You look like a crossbow kind of person. After your first round with us, we will start over for an hour with each of us and then that’s it for the first day. Are you a crossbow kind of guy?” Trevor asks.

  “Yes, a crossbow is what I would like to use. I have only used it once during camp, but I took first place with it, so I am familiar with it now and can only improve from what I know about it with the help from Stella,” I say.

  “Okay, let’s get started. We will start with a few stretches. Then after we do some stretches we will start doing some fighting - well, training, not really fighting, that is. You have to learn to fight, though. Then Stella will train you on the weapons. I know you said the crossbow is your choice of weapon, but we need to teach you how to handle knives. You will have to know how to kill someone with a knife. You never know when you don’t have a crossbow with you and you need a weapon. The knife or knives you can carry in your pockets, and they will not know you have them. You need to learn to be quick about getting it out of your pocket and be able to get it open along with how to slice someone’s throat with it. You also need to learn how to throw it across a room. You might have to hit someone from a distance. Be able to aim and hit them in certain parts of their body. Learn how to cripple them from a distance. You might be fighting a couple of people and this will help you hit one of them that is moving,” Trevor says.

  “Wow, never thought I would be training to cut people’s throats in my lifetime. I also never thought I would be going to shoot someone with a crossbow. Oh, and don’t let me forget wereboons and vampires. You know I think I have landed in the twilight zone. It’s just all strange right now. The more I think about it, the more I am thinking what the heck have I gotten myself into? Or I should say what the heck has Cody gotten me into now. I mean Cody has gotten us into some crazy stuff, but never like this. Never in a situation where we can be killed by vampires or eaten by wereboons. Never has someone wanted to drink our blood. This is a lot to digest. Before it wasn’t as real as it is now. Seeing this training room and you guys talking about it is making it so real now. It is a very scary situation,” I reply.

  “That’s why we are here, Hollis, to help you. I realize it is a lot and I realize it is not something you are used to. I also realize you have not had to deal with death, or seen someone die, and we know you have never had to fight for your life or, even bigger, had to try and help save your friend from death along with save a whole village from being killed. Again we are here to help you learn everything you need to learn,” Trevor says.

  “I agree with everything Trevor just said. We are your team: me, Trevor and Anita Kay. This is what we did not do with Cody. He kept telling me he knew how to handle himself and not to worry about him. We ne
ver took into account he would fall in love with Sandy and become weak. We never got to put this team together for him like we have for you. We did not have time. He did not give us time. Once he met Sandy he was head over heels for her. He wanted so much to get close to her family and he did it fast. We warned him over and over what he was up against and he was blinded by love. We are not letting that happen to you,” Stella says.

  “I know you will not let that happen to me. I know you will do whatever to help me. I thank you for that. It is still scary, though,” I say.

  “Listen, it’s always going to be scary and that, like we said earlier, is a good thing. Now let’s get those stretches going,” Trevor says.

  “Anita Kay should be coming soon to also work with us. When she comes she again will be preparing you to deal with whatever they throw at you mentally and to also help you with any mental issues you may be having. She is very good: she is a little crazy sometimes, but knows what she is doing,” Stella says.

  “I am ready to get this started. The more help we get, the better, and yes, I will need someone to keep me in check with my mental state. I need someone to help me not let my guard down at all,” I reply.

  * * *

  CHAPTER 14: LET’S GET STARTED

  * * *

  “O kay, let’s do this. The first stretch we will do is to try and touch our toes. We need to work on your flexibility. First we need to determine if you are flexible at all, or if you are already flexible and then we can skip that part,” Trevor says.

  I laugh out loud. “Ha, you are funny! Me, flexible? Now that is laughable. I will be lucky to touch past my knees,” I reply.

  “Okay, let’s see what you’ve got. Bend over and try and touch your toes, and then repeat that 10 times. After that we are going to do jumping jacks, and then we will finish for now with jump rope,” Trevor says.

  I try the first bend-over procedure and am only able to touch my shins and then I do it a few more times and still have the same results. I laugh a couple of times, and every time I laugh Trevor and Stella keep giving me bad looks.

  “Alright, you’re not as bad as I thought, we can work with this. We will continue these every day as part of our training. You will eventually get better and better at it. Now let’s start doing jumping jacks. You will do twenty-five jumping jacks during each set and you will do a set of ten of them,” Trevor says.

  “What, you do want me standing, don’t you, after I am done?” I say.

  “Yes you will be fine. You’re doing them at your own pace, so take your time. Just don’t take all day to do them,” Trevor says. So I start with my first set and again I laugh uncontrollably. When I get into a situation sometimes I laugh. So me doing jumping jacks is something to laugh at. After laughing then it turns into me having a hard time to breathe, and then it turns into me feeling like I am going to pass out. I don’t do exercise: that’s just something I don’t do. I have got to get through this.

  “Hollis, are you okay? You look kind of pale. Why don’t you stop and I will get you some water? We can’t have you passing out on us. Then you won’t be worth anything,” Stella says.

  “Okay, let me sit down for a minute and drink some water. I should probably check on Max also. I haven’t seen her all day,” I say.

  “Take it easy for a moment, you will be fine. I can see that you haven’t exercised in a while, or actually at all. Just think once you are done with the jumping jacks you get to do jump rope. By the time we are done with you - you will be wanting to exercise every day,” Trevor says.

  “I will get Max for you: she is probably in your room sleeping in your bed, or in the kitchen hanging out with Mom waiting for food. She likes to eat. I know she is your protector, but she also knows you are in good hands with us and that we will not hurt you,” Stella says.

  She walks out of the room and then comes back a few minutes later with water and Max. Max runs up to me and starts licking me. She then sits down by me. “She was in the kitchen hanging out with Mom. They were talking, or I should say Mom was talking to her and she was barking back at her: I think my mom talks ‘dog’. They seemed to be hitting it off like they were girlfriends. I am not sure what the conversation was even about,” Stella says.

  I start laughing. “Max, what were you guys talking about? Were you talking about how much food you expected to get each day?” I ask.

  She just looks at me and moves her head back and forth and then she licks me again.

  “Okay, I am ready to get started again and finish my sets of jumping jacks,” I say.

  I get up and start the jumping jacks again and get them finished. Then I pick up the jump rope and start to jump.

  “Do the same sets that you did doing the jumping jacks,” Trevor says. I do all sets of jump rope that I needed to. My calves are killing me. I am out of breath and ready to pass out, but I should be okay.

  “Okay, now you get to take a rest for a few minutes. You did well for your first time and you didn’t die, so that is a plus. Just think: you get to do that this afternoon also. Well, we might add different exercises to the mix. We either need to wait for Anita Kay to get here, or we can start you with weapons training. Please, though, take a few minutes to rest and then we will get started again,” Trevor says.

  I go over and sit down for a moment and drink more water. Max is still sitting in the same spot and of course she has to start licking me again. Not sure why this dog has gotten so attached to me, but I like it. It feels good to have something that likes you and it doesn’t matter that it is an animal. She continues to watch over me and that is also a good feeling. I have not really had any animals before, but if I did, a Boxer would be the dog that I would want to have. That’s why it’s funny that this Boxer showed up out of nowhere. She is perfect. She would be exactly the color and everything I would want in my boxer. Her color is fawn with a white mask. Just a beautiful dog. The only thing

  I can see right now that she likes better than me is food. I can also she that she has warmed up to Stella and her mom. Not sure if she likes Trevor yet. She keeps staring at him, watching everything he does.

  “Okay, I guess I am ready to start the weapons training. Let’s hope I don’t stab myself or one of you when I am throwing knives around, or I would hate to hit one of you with an arrow. We need to make sure the target is up against the wall. I also hope Anita Kay doesn’t walk in when the knives are flying. Max, you might want to sit way over to the side,” I say.

  “Don’t worry about us, Hollis, we know how to get out of the way. Yes, I will start you off throwing knives, or anything else, facing towards the walls. They will be our buffers for now. Eventually you will have to hit moving targets. Now for the weapons training we need to go through this door to our weapons training room and then step into the room adjacent to it to get our weapons out,” Stella replies.

  The room we are in now is just a big room with some weights and a punching bag hanging to do some boxing. It’s like a scaled-down gym, not that I have ever been in many gyms, but we do have one at school I have walked into before by mistake. So we get up and walk into the area that Stella calls the weapons training room. Wow, it has targets all over the place. It has cardboard cut-outs that look like people and even some that look like wereboons. They somehow made some of them and put them on like a conveyor belt of some sort. That’s how they move around. After we walk through the weapons training room, we walk into another room, and oh my gosh, it is filled with all kinds of weapons. Anything you want except for guns. I do not see any guns in here. I can’t get over all the different types of knives and crossbows. Along with those they have like ninja stars that you would see on those old karate shows.

  “I don’t see that you guys have any guns. Do you not ever use guns?” I ask.

  Stella replies, “No, our village does not believe in using guns. That’s why we are all very good at using crossbows. Behind that other door we do have a few guns locked up very tight. We hunt and do everything with crossbows. So
what weapon would you like to start with?”

  I reply, “Let’s start with the knives and some of those ninja stars, they look awesome. I have only seen them on TV and I have always wanted to try and throw one of them.”

  “Well, they are very sharp and you could easily cut one of your fingers. Last thing we want is your blood anywhere: once they smell your blood we will be in trouble. Especially your blood, they will smell that all the way back at their part of the village. Your blood is strong. If they smell it, they will be here in seconds. Even though they are not vampires right now, they can still smell it. So you will be training with gloves on for now. It will be a little strange for you at first, but you will get used to wearing them and training in them. It will only be for a couple days or until you get used to the weapons and how to properly handle them. They are not toys, they are very dangerous, especially the ninja stars,” Stella says.

  “I understand and will just have to get used to the gloves and get used to the weapons. I am not going to lie to you, I am very excited about throwing those ninja stars.”

  “Okay, so let’s get a couple of those ninja stars along with a couple of knives and a couple of the crossbows. Grab a few of them and help me carry them into the big room,” Stella says.

  I put the gloves on and then pick up some of the weapons. I make sure I pick up several of the ninja stars along with a very nice crossbow. I also need to find some knives that fit in my pocket and get used to them, since I will not be able to just walk around with knives hanging on my belt, or being visible to the naked eye. Of course I think the day we finally bust Cody out it won’t matter, because I will need to be carrying a crossbow with me.

  “Take as much as you want out of here for now: you will not be able to carry everything when we go over and get Cody out, but at least for now you can try pretty much everything you would like. This will show us which one you can use the best and then we can help you master the weapon that you are the strongest with. It will take some practice and patience on each one you try. We want you to take your time with the weapons. We only get one shot and it’s a matter of life and death for all of us. I know we keep saying this but we have to eat, sleep, and drink this daily. We can’t forget what our mission is and we cannot forget at all how dangerous this is and that we could die. Thinking this and saying this at all times will keep us safe. We will not let our guard down. We will be fully prepared and we will have everything planned out all the way down to the last second of that day. We will not, I repeat, we will not miss anything. We will not fail, because failure in this situation is not an option that we have,” Stella says.