by Mo O'Hara
Grizzly walked up. “All right, mates, time to turn in for the night.” He looked down at me and then back at Mark, who was now smiling in the creepy way that he can smile when he wants to look innocent.
“Everything OK?” Grizzly asked me. I nodded.
“You can tell me, mate.” He paused. “Just spit it out.”
I looked at Mark, then at Grizzly. Frankie threw himself at the back of my mouth and made me retch just as Pradeep ran up with one of his sick bags half-filled with water.
I turned and spat Frankie into the sick bag and quickly rolled up the top so no one could see what was inside.
“I think my hot dog went down the wrong way,” I said to Grizzly.
Pradeep grabbed the bag off me and headed for our tent. “I’ll throw that away for you,” he said. I could see the bag shaking with what must have been a really angry Frankie inside as Pradeep walked away.
“Hope that’s all it was,” Grizzly said, looking from me to Mark. “Now get some sleep. Early start, and as I always say, rule seventy-eight of survival in the wild is: ‘Rise with the sun and you’ll be ready for fun.’”
* * *
I brushed my teeth about twenty times when we got back to the tent. Then Pradeep and I crawled into our sleeping bags and I found Frankie some green gummy bears to chew on as a treat. I ran my tongue across the inside of my mouth. “Bleugh, still gross!” The taste of slightly minty-flavored zombie goldfish wasn’t much better than the non-minty kind.
“No offense, Frankie, I know you live in water and all, but you’ve got to shower more,” I muttered.
Frankie actually gave me the fin-sign-language equivalent of “Talk to the fin, cos the face ain’t listening.”
Quickly I changed the subject. “Don’t you think it’s weird that Mark wanted to come on this camping weekend?” I said to Pradeep. “A few weeks ago he was calling it ‘Moron Camp for Losers,’ but now he wants to be here too.”
“It’s very weird,” said Pradeep. “Do you think it could be part of some kind of evil plan?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, “but there’s only one way to find out.”
We pretended to be asleep when the leaders came around and checked the tents for lights out. Then we waited about another hour to make sure people would be snoozing before we headed out to see if Mark was up to anything evil.
We crawled on all fours between the tents. Pradeep had one of those cool head flashlights so he could crawl and see at the same time.
We’d put Frankie and some water in the clear plastic wallet that Pradeep’s mom had put all his medical papers in. They’re meant so that you can carry a map without it getting wet in the rain, but it turns out that they’re also perfect for carrying a zombie goldfish around your neck when you need your hands and feet to crawl.
When we got to Mark’s tent, Pradeep turned off his head flashlight and we peered inside. The tent was empty! This was not a good sign.
We crawled in and Frankie’s eyes started to glow bright green as we approached Mark’s backpack, which was half spilt on the floor of the tent. His eyes lit up the stuff all over the floor. Most of it was typical camping stuff: T-shirts, socks and spare sneakers. But then the green glow lit up something white. I reached over and picked it up.
It was Mark’s neatly folded Evil Scientist coat.
CHAPTER 6
A WHOLE TENT OF TROUBLE
“I knew it!” I whispered. “He’s planning something.”
Pradeep turned on his head flashlight again and found a copy of Evil Scientist magazine. He picked it up and thumbed through it. “Look, part of this page has been ripped out,” he said.
I looked at the magazine. At the top of the ripped page was an ad: “Do you think Mark’s been job hunting in Evil Scientist magazine?” I asked.
“Maybe he’s planning to do something this weekend to show his evil attitude and aptitude,” Pradeep said. “Whatever he’s plotting, it’s not going to be good.”
We heard a rustling outside. Pradeep switched off his head flashlight and I hid the plastic wallet inside my jacket to block the green light from Frankie’s eyes. We dropped everything and crept away, just in case it was Mark coming back. I didn’t feel like being pounded into the ground right now, and neither did Pradeep.
As soon as we were out of sight of Mark’s tent I unzipped my jacket to let Frankie out. “Turn down the glow, Frankie,” I whispered, as his eyes were still glowing brightly. “Someone might see you.”
But if anything the glow got brighter. I didn’t like it. Frankie’s zombie sense was telling him something was wrong.
Then we saw the bushes just beyond our tent shake. Pradeep quickly pointed his head flashlight in that direction, expecting to catch Mark running away. But what we saw made us crawl faster than we had ever crawled in our lives. It was a pair of yellow eyes!
We scrambled into our tent and zipped up the flaps. By the light of Frankie’s eyes and Pradeep’s flashlight, we looked at the wreck that was our tent. The sleeping bags had been thrown around, the roll mats looked scratched, our clothes were all over the place and my secret stash of camping snacks was a pile of plastic bags and crumbs.
“Someone’s been in here!” Pradeep said.
“Or something?” I added with a gulp.
Pradeep looked over at the wrappers and crumbs of Choco Crispy bars, chips and bread rolls. The only thing left was an unopened jar of peanut butter I had brought to make more sandwiches in case the campfire food was yuck. “How much food did you have in here?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I get hungry. I was gonna share,” I added.
“It’s not that.” Pradeep sighed, as if he was talking to his three-year-old sister, Sami. “You don’t stash food in your tent, ever! It’s rule number four of survival in the wild: ‘In critters will creep, if you store food where you sleep.’”
I gave him a blank look. He continued, “If you keep food in your tent, animals will smell it and come looking for it.”
“So you think that’s what it was? An animal looking for food?” I said. “What if it was Mark looking for Frankie and he took the snacks as a kind of evil bonus?”
“He wasn’t in his tent, true…” said Pradeep.
“But the eyes!” we both said at exactly the same time. We really need to stop doing that.
* * *
Pradeep and I spent the night sitting up in our tent, back to back, watching each set of tent flaps. Frankie acted as both nightlight and fishy bodyguard—ready to zombify anything that tried breaking in.
We didn’t get much sleep.
When we heard the helicopter the next morning I think we both half dreamed that we were playing Army Chopper Air Race on the computer.
Frankie splashed me with a flick of his tail. “Huh? Wha…?” I said, and scrambled out of the tent to see what was happening. Lots of people were up already and standing outside their tents. The chopper circled over the clearing. This was a different helicopter to yesterday though. It was bright yellow with black stripes and bold writing on the side that said: Savage Safari.
“Sam Savage!” I yelled at the same time as Pradeep crawled out of our tent. I zipped up my jacket again around the plastic wallet containing Frankie, suddenly realizing that my zombie goldfish necklace might not be great for anyone else to see.
The helicopter circled until most of the campers were out of their tents and looking up. As we were waiting for it to land I could hear lots of people talking about strange noises they had heard last night. Someone mentioned seeing animal tracks, and a couple of kids said they had heard movement outside their tents, as if something was crawling around the campsite.
Then a girl stood up and said that she saw some yellow eyes in the bushes outside her tent when she had looked out to see what the noise was.
Mark stepped forward. “I saw it too,” he said, “whatever it was. I went outside my tent last night to—” he paused—“answer a call of nature…”
; Pradeep leaned toward me and whispered, “He means, ‘Go for a pee.’”
Mark continued. “And there was definitely something in the bushes. When I went back inside my tent my stuff was all messed up. Something had been in there!”
Then we all heard a boy scream. He was standing right behind Pradeep and me, looking at the flaps to our tent. I hadn’t noticed it last night, but there, right on the front, was what looked like a claw mark on the outer fabric of the flap. “It’s the Beast of Burdock Woods!” he yelled. “It was here!”
CHAPTER 7
BREAKFAST AND THE BEAST
Grizzly came up and examined our tent flap.
“Don’t worry, guppies!” he yelled over the noise of the chopper. “That doesn’t mean there was a beast about! That could have caught on a branch blown in the wind. It was pretty gusty last night, and you’ve set up camp right next to some thorny bushes.
“Now let’s give Sam Savage a Grizzly Woodland Camp welcome!” he said loudly to the whole camp as the helicopter finally landed. Soon the blades slowed to a standstill above the tiger-painted chopper.
Everyone clapped as Sam Savage stepped out. He ducked below the blades and sauntered toward the crowd. He walked as if he could talk a tiger into lying down and being caught.
He looked exactly like he did on TV too. Safari hat, explorer clothes and his trademark monocle. There aren’t many people who can rock a monocle. In fact, I think it’s pretty much just him, but somehow, on Sam Savage, it works.
At first he just waved and smiled, but then his eyes caught a glimpse of something on the ground and he went into tracker mode, just like he does on TV when he gets a whiff of an animal’s scent. He walked over to a muddy patch on the ground and stared through his monocle at some animal tracks imprinted there.
“Interesting…” he said.
He followed the tracks while we all followed him around the camp. He picked up a tiny strand of black hair near another tent, bent down and sniffed the ground and then the air. The scent seemed to lead him to our tent. He looked at the scratch on the front flap.
“Good to see you, Sam,” interrupted Grizzly, grabbing Sam’s hand and pumping it up and down. “Listen, our campers are getting themselves all spooked about the so-called Beast of Burdock Woods,” he went on. “You can tell them that it’s all a bunch of hokum, right?”
“On the contrary,” Sam Savage said, readjusting his monocle. “These signs lead me to believe that there is a ‘beast,’ or rather, a big cat, very near indeed.” He looked at our shocked and scared faces.
Grizzly laughed and clapped Sam on the shoulder. “Good one, mate, you almost had me going there!” Then he turned to the assembled campers. “OK, mates, let’s get some breakfast down before we start our ‘Big Explore’ with Sam Savage. Remember survival in the wild rule ninety-three: ‘Morning food is your fuel and your survival tool.’”
Pradeep mouthed the words along with Grizzly.
“Head over to the chow line where the group leaders will serve you up some grub. And I promise there won’t be any real grubs in it this time!” Grizzly got a laugh from the kids as they all started heading for the food tent.
But Pradeep, Frankie and I ducked down behind our tent so we could eavesdrop on Sam and Grizzly.
Grizzly turned to Sam. “Now, I know you want to put on a good show for the kids and all, Sam, but I think all that talk of a big cat is just gonna spook ’em. Ease up on the melodrama a bit—this is meant to be fun for the guppies!”
Sam looked at Grizzly with serious eyes. Well, one serious eye and one serious monocle.
“I don’t do melodrama.” He leaned in to Grizzly. “By the end of today, I’m going to track and capture the so-called beast which is quite clearly loose in these woods—” he paused “—with or without your help. I suggest you keep the campers safe and out of my way.”
Frankie thrashed hard in the bag that was still around my neck. I got the feeling he didn’t like Sam Savage very much.
“You’re going to be wasting your time tracking a fairy tale, mate.” Grizzly shook his head and walked toward the food tent to join the rest of the campers. I thought about jumping up and telling Sam Savage what we had seen last night: the yellow eyes and the wrecked tent and how Pradeep and I both totally believed in the whole Beast of Burdock Woods thing, but then I saw Mark walking over toward him.
Sam looked right at Mark as if he recognized him. “You’ve done well so far,” he said.
“Cool,” Mark replied.
Sam sniffed as if he’d smelled something bad and shook his head.
“I mean, um … I’m glad you’re pleased, sir,” Mark corrected himself.
“But you still have much more work to do if my contrivance is to reach fruition,” Sam went on, rubbing his hands together in a totally evil way.
Mark gave him a blank stare.
“If the plan is going to work!” Sam snapped, cleaning his monocle with an embroidered silk hanky. “You’re lucky the standard of applicants was so low, young man. Now get back to work!”
They shook hands and did a very quiet and formal “Mwhaa haaa haa haa” Evil Scientist laugh. Then Mark trudged off toward the food tent.
I shot Pradeep a look that said, “Sam Savage is an Evil Scientist too? Whatever Mark and Sam are up to, we have to stop them!”
“Are you quite done with your eavesdropping?” a sharp voice said. We both raised our heads to see Sam Savage staring down at us through his monocle.
CHAPTER 8
SAVAGE BY NAME, SAVAGE BY NATURE
“Um, hello, Mr. Savage, sir,” Pradeep said. He had turned on his best “talking to a teacher and showing lots of respect” voice. “I’m Pradeep and this is Tom,” he added.
Sam Savage looked us up and down.
“Nice to meet you, but we should go and get in line for breakfast.” I inched up the zipper on my jacket as I spoke so that he couldn’t see any sign of Frankie underneath.
“And why were you both skulking behind this tent?” Sam said as he blocked our way.
“It’s our tent,” Pradeep chimed in right away. “We were just checking for any more claw marks.”
“We think we saw the beast last night,” I said. “Do you think it’ll come back tonight?”
Sam Savage seemed to relax as soon as we mentioned the beast, as if he was back on camera again. “Tonight?” he said. “By tonight there won’t be a beast to worry about.” A little evil laugh escaped from his throat before he caught it and swallowed it down again. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and answer a call of nature.”
I shot Pradeep a look that said, “That’s exactly what Mark said earlier!”
“Um, nice meeting you, Mr. Savage,” we both quickly mumbled, and hurried away.
“That was close,” Pradeep said when we were a few feet away.
* * *
As we lined up for chow, I noticed that the guy serving up eggs had suddenly started staring at my fork and up my left nostril. Then he walked over to the bins and started picking out bits of moldy hot dog from the night before.
Frankie must have hypnotized him! I’d unzipped my jacket a bit when I came into the tent and Frankie must have wriggled the plastic wallet up just enough to peek out of the top.
“You just couldn’t wait for me to ask, could you, Frankie?” I shook my head.
Frankie winked as the kitchen guy handed me a plate of moldy hot-dog bits and snapped out of his trance. He stared at his grubby hands.
“Um … line closed. I’ll be back in a minute when I’ve washed up. Yuck!” he added.
“Great, so you get your breakfast but we have to wait,” Pradeep whispered to Frankie.
“Lucky I still have some peanut butter left,” I said, shoving Frankie back down into my jacket. “We can make sandwiches later.” I grabbed some non-moldy toast from the bread baskets on the tables and we sat down.
But before we could swallow our first mouthful, we heard a scream outside.
Griz
zly raced over, quickly followed by me and Pradeep and loads of other campers.
I could see someone’s hiking boots sticking out from the tall grass. Grizzly called for a first-aid kit and pushed the grass aside to reveal Mark lying on the ground. His shirt was torn with what looked like the same claw mark as on our tent flap. He looked as if he was just waking up.
“Mark?” I shouted.
He opened his eyes and glared at me for a second, then went back to looking hurt.
Grizzly helped him to sit up. “What happened, mate? Did you fall?”
“The beast. It attacked me,” Mark whimpered.
Grizzly looked stunned. “Did any of you see anything?” he asked the other campers crowded around.
“No, we just heard a growl,” a boy said.
“And then a scream. And then we came back and found him lying here,” a girl added.
“Well, whatever happened, you seem to have come out of it without a scratch, it’s just your shirt that’s torn,” Grizzly said to Mark. “We’d best get you checked out though, just in case.”
Sam Savage walked over and stood at the center of the group of assembled kids. “You can’t deny any longer that the so-called beast is out there,” he called to Grizzly. “For the safety of the campers, we have to track and catch the beast!”
CHAPTER 9
THE EVIL CLAW
Grizzly looked down at Mark, then looked out at the rest of the campers. “OK guppies, back to the food tent for a regroup. The group leaders will teach you some indoor games and activities this morning.” He looked over at Sam Savage. “Sam and I are going to track whatever did this.”
I caught Mark shoot Sam Savage a look that said, “Was that good enough? Did it work?”
Mark’s looks were so easy to read he might as well have been speaking out loud. In fact I think he actually mouthed the “Did it work?” bit.