Camp Adventure

• Xuyang Liu, Grade 5, MacGregor State School
• Short Story
• 2016

Excellence Award in the 'Top Secret 2016' competition

"Yes!" I cried out when I heard that we were going on an awesome camping adventure that the teacher had told us around a second ago."Kayaking,body boarding,high ropes and fishing, all my favourites!"
"And no school for 3 days!" The teachers were busy tiding the messy, paint-stained classroom in case the cleaners, who came by at 4pm sharp to clean the rooms, would get angry and complain about the massive tubs of permanent paint, spilt all over the floor.
4 days later...Three enormous buses parked into the 'drop and go' area, which dwarfed the minute cars that were driven by the frustrated drivers. Hundreds of eager students lined the hallways to the front of the busy school. Giant backpacks full of pillows, sleeping bags, fishing gear, swimmers, torches and blankets towered, some as tall as the carriers themselves. Loading the heavy, parcel like packages onto the bus, I gently placed my own baggage on the other bus, which would pull off fifteen minutes early. I really wanted to get there before the actual time as the recreational centre would be able to give us the best quality cabins.
The first activity brought us down immediately. Yabby pumps. We knew that the yabbies would only be in shallow and calm water, but they brought us to a civilised beach with two metre high waves, and on the instructor's first go, "suck!" a yabby popped right out! "Suck!suck!Suck!” But the location must have been a waste, because one kid got zero yabbies in the two hour limit of the activity. Our classmates caught a yabby, but the instructors caught an estimated twenty five.
“The waves are still so big!" I called out to my friend. He replied with a pig push. "Yikes!" I called out once again. Then I fell into the water. As I saw how hard people were laughing, I put on a little giggle. The setting sun made the clouds look majestical as they floated by.
That was the first instance I saw a weird, misty cavern on the right of the bridge, almost deliberately covered in sneaky camouflage and paint. I crept in, and saw a hole that had been collapsing into a three hundred metre sheer cliff. I noticed a staircase leading to the bottom of the hole, or should I say 'cavern'. Then, as suddenly as a rock falling out of the sky, the entrance COLLAPSED...