The Camp

Ania knew she needed to escape, at least for a while. And she knew the perfect place: a lonely alpine spot, hidden from the world, that she’d discovered once by accident. Camping was the obvious choice. She had the equipment, the knowledge, and plenty of experience. For Ania, there was a thrill in taking an inhospitable place and turning it into somewhere she could live using only what was in her pack. Out there, Ania felt in control.

Her pack was heavy with everything she’d need for a week. She finally arrived at the clearing, which was exactly what she remembered: lush, sheltered, deserted. She defied her tired legs as she spent the next few hours setting up her camp. Ania had brought two hiking tarps instead of a tent; they pack smaller and could be set up hidden amongst the trees. She hung one low to sleep beneath and the other up high for daytime shelter. Since she would be here for a while, she prepared spaces for each of her daily needs. After it was all done, Ania happily surveyed her little slice of paradise.

And that’s when Lenid had arrived.

Ania wasn’t happy with this development. Lenid also seemed surprised to see her. She helped him pick a campsite in a small clearing on the far side of the trees, mainly to ensure there would be at least some separation.

She hoped he’d leave in the morning, heading further along the trail. But he didn’t, and his presence was impossible to ignore. His camp was brightly coloured and stood out (hers was almost invisible). He was not careful about noise. Worst, frequent smells suggested he wasn’t dealing with his waste correctly.

Ania suspected that, unlike her, Lenid liked that he wasn’t alone out here. Indeed, he sought a lot of help. His butane stove ran out of gas on the first morning. He had managed to bring only the fly and a few posts of his unnecessarily large tent and needed more rope to hold it up. His heavy air mattress leaked. And he only brought a single bottle of drinkable water. Ania kindly shared the output of her gravity water filter. Fortunately, Lenid eventually noticed her desire for solitude and kept to himself.

The fourth day changed things. A drenching rain set in during the night. Lenid’s camp flooded, and he was woken by water soaking into his sleeping bag. It wasn’t plain sailing for Ania, either. A falling branch gouged a hole in her drainage trench, sending a stream of water through her campfire and carried her pot halfway to the creek. At least her bed stayed dry.

But Ania was prepared. She had a stash of dry wood and stormproof matches and used them to make a fire in a new location under her shelter. Then she invited Lenid to come, get warm, and have some soup. He spent the day under her canopy, eating her food and reading his water-logged book. But Lenid’s unorthodox kit had its upside: his “hiking stick” was an umbrella, which proved better than a rain jacket when leaving the shelter when nature called. But Ania was now trapped with Lenid.

“Got any family?” he asked.

Ania sighed. “I’m not interested in talking.”

“Ok, I’ll talk. I realise I’ve been a burden. It was my brother’s idea to go camping. But he got caught up….” Lenid stopped there.

Ania knew she should say something in reply, but she’d told him that she didn’t want to talk.

“Have you heard any news?” He asked.

It was mean, she knew, but Ania turned her chair away.

“Fine.” He sulked.

After that, he didn’t say much at all beyond “Thank you.” That suited Ania fine. He slept under her daytime shelter that night.

The next day the weather was drier. Ania made the half-hour walk up to the waterfall by herself, spending a couple of hours there. Lenid wasn’t around when she returned. His bag was gone, so Ania figured he must have hiked out to resupply. Ania was glad to finally have the privacy to use her camp shower, washing away days of grime.

Lenid hadn’t returned by nightfall. He’d left his camp behind, so he must have intended to come back. She didn’t want him here but still hoped nothing untoward had happened to him.

The following day Ania noticed her own provisions were getting low. She would have to head back to the store for more. She took only the absolute essentials: she planned to return with as much food as she could carry.

After a two hour walk, Ania had almost reached the road. Here she turned off the trail and headed for a higher spot with a good view across the car park and the road beyond it. Ania now moved as quietly as possible through the dense overgrowth. Once she reached her vantage point, she crawled behind some bushes. Then she listened. There was no sound on the breeze, but there was the distinctive and unpleasant dusty smell that told her the monsters had been there recently. That was an awful thought.

She chanced a look down at the car park; it was clear. However, there was only one vehicle in the car park, and it wasn’t hers. The trees obscured it, but something about it didn’t look right.

As there was still no sign of anything near the car park, she ventured closer. As she approached, she made two unwelcome discoveries. First was what had happened to her car: it was upside-down in the little gully beside the road. She would have to address that problem at some point, but Ania was unsure what she could do about it.

The second discovery was what was wrong with the other car. It was missing the top half. She hurried closer, taking less care than the situation demanded. Once there, she could see that it wasn’t torn but squashed. The gouges in the road told Ania story: this car was driving along the road when it was crushed and then cast aside. This gave her hope that it wasn’t Lenid’s car.

She dreaded to think about what had happened to the driver of this car. They may have been killed. Or worse, the monsters may have taken them alive. But then she heard a groan. On the far side of the car, she found Lenid, head on the ground, feet trapped in the wreckage.

“Lenid!”

“Ania?” Lenid asked, startled by her quiet arrival.

“Anything hurt?”

“Covered in bruises. I’m more concerned about my foot; it may be broken. But I’m alive. It must have been an oversight on their part. They had to have thought I was dead.”

“I’ll say! They crushed the car with you inside! What brought them up here?”

“They were outside Siski; the whole village is deserted. I raided the store, then stayed the night waiting for an opportunity to leave unseen. I must have misjudged. They surprised me just down the road. I don’t know what happened next.”

Ania just gestured at the wreck of Lenid’s car. Lenid smiled.

“Let’s get you out of there.”

“No! Ania, you have to go! Those demons could come back!”

“I can’t leave you here.”

“Be practical. You can’t take me with you.”

“Let me at least get you out.”

Lenid acquiesced. Ania went to her upturned car for something to act as a lever. She came back with a shovel and levered open the deformed footwell to free Lenid’s foot.

“If I can flip my car over, we might reach Mirapul.”

“Ha! We wouldn’t get halfway. Besides, none of the bones feels broken. Just swelling and some cuts.”

“Are you sure?”

“Can you get my first aid kit? It’s under the seat.”

Ania managed this with some difficulty.

“This thing is huge.”

“I’m a nurse.”

“Good. You’ll be fine. Get yourself ready. I’m grabbing supplies from my store.”

“There’s food in my car.”

Ania checked; she used her shovel to pry open his boot. A lot of the food was squashed out of its packaging; it wouldn’t last. She put the good stuff together on a detached panel of the car. She pulled that through the bushes to where she had hidden her own food stores. She was relieved to find the hiding place undisturbed. She sorted the two sets of provisions then filled her pack with as much as possible. Finally, she reburied the rest.

She found Lenid sitting near the trail.

“We can go when you are ready,” she said.

“In a minute. Making myself a crutch.” He replied, taping gauze to a forked branch.

The journey back was slow; it was after dark when they arrived. Ania gave Lenid her bed: he needed it more. Instead, she lay under the stars, pondering her future. Ania didn’t know how long they could hide. Her hometown was now deserted: what was left?

Maybe it was good that she now had a friend.