A Fun Trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA)

The Challenge: Write a slasher-inspired horror story set in an isolated location where a group begins to realize they are not alone.

Isolation changes the rules. Once help is out of reach, every sound, movement, and decision starts to carry a different kind of weight.

I had been to the BWCA probably thirty times over the years, but this trip was different and I haven't been back there since.

We went out on an all female trip. I knew my sister-friend Mary and few others. There were six of us on the trip in three canoes. We were all ready for an adventure. Mary and I were the oldest and had been up there the most.

Mary used to lead trips, and we both had many stories to share. Stories of times past.

Then this time, there was no cell phone service, where we were headed. Most of us left our phones in the car on the landing.

We were stocked with enough food to take us through the two weeks we planned, a first aid kit, bear spray, and fireworks, which we knew we weren't supposed to bring up there, but we did.

There were just a few other cars at the landing, but they had already gone out. Paddling out the first day we stayed in a favorite spot. The next day we would be paddling, portaging and paddling some more.

On the third day we were close to the Canadian border, and it was beautiful. We decided to stay for a few days. We set up a more permanent camp that night.

On the next night we saw someone paddling our way, and then they appeared to turn off, and head in another direction.

We really didn't expect to see anyone up that far, and our thoughts were that they didn't either and that was why they were out of sight in no time at all.

We settled in and made ourselves at home. A few of the woman went to pick blueberries for our breakfast pancakes, while two set up tents, and two made our dinner meal.

The weather was perfect. Then it was time to tell stories and go to bed. In my tent we were reading on our tablets when we heard a noise. At first it sounded like a small critter, then it didn't. At the same time, we grabbed for the bear spray, then the fireworks and a lighter.

Then there was screaming, blood curdling screams came from another tent. It was time to move and move we did. We saw one guy pulling one of the women from the tent by her legs. She was kicking and screaming. Her tent buddy was lying motionless.

The man pulling Candy out of the tent was large. He had no hair, but a beard. It wasn't possible to see exactly what he looked like but enough to know that whatever he was up to was not good.

Candy's tentmate was knocked out, she fainted or she was dead. Those thoughts went through my mind. We headed toward the man pulling on Candy when out of the corner of my eye, I saw another man.

He wasn't as large, but he had an ax over one shoulder ready to swing. I pushed Mary down on the ground and we quickly bounced back up and started to scream also. Mary started spraying the bear spray in the man's direction as he continued to approach us, while swinging the axe.

Luckily, he tripped on a branch that he didn't see and went down. Mary picked up the ax and held it from a bit away, aiming in the direction of his head.

I hollered at the other man to stop what he was doing. I held the bear spray in the direction of that man. And flashed the light at Mary and his friend.

Just then we saw the two other women coming out of their tent with weapons! I had no idea anyone had brought firearms with them.

It turned out that those two women were along for a scene exactly like what we were experiencing. The men were handcuffed, arrested and the detectives were pulling the men bound in their canoe with a rope behind the detectives canoe out of the BWCA that next morning.

They also had a way to communicate with other officers to meet them at the closest landing to unload their criminals.

We later found out that they had raped and murdered four other women in the BWCA.

Luckily Sharyl had only fainted. It turns out she faints easily. As soon as everything had settled down she came to. This incident wasn't over for Mary and I, as we wondered why we weren't told. That question has never been answered to my satisfaction.