Camp Horror

• Dylan Borchers, Grade 5, Roxburgh Park Primary School -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

Woohoo!! We had finally arrived at camp after what felt like a whole day of driving and driving… but what really mattered was that we were here! We had arrived at the huge and wonderful Camp Riverside! Excitedly I hopped off the way too overcrowded bus then I picked up my bag and hurried over to our tiny cabins. I was gladly sharing with a chubby kid named Jerry Jr and also my best friend Christian.
Our Instructor told us the very precise rules of the camp, we went to put our bags in our cabins only to find that.... OUR WHOLE ROOM WAS INFESTED WITH VILE COCKROACHES! The little brown buggers crawled all over the small joint. We ran out with our bags and heard lots of people screaming. The other cabins were infested too…… AGH!
SCREECH, went the instructors whistle. “Outside now, the whole lot of you!” he ordered.
I saw a campsite being set up (We weren’t really going to sleep in tents, were we?). The instructor said we must calmly walk outside to the campsite and sit down around the crispy, burnt out fire. There were several tents present at the campsite which was just enough for all of us.
“We will be sleeping in these lime fella’s tonight,’’ said the instructor, I was hoping he wouldn’t say that.
At night the cafeteria lunch lady told us a very detailed horror story about a deadly alligator which lurked in the river and ate little children. This story amused some kids however frightened some too. We toasted marshmallows (Yumm).
The fire was raging, it went on for the rest of the night. We headed off to bed which was in a cramped space. (I honestly didn’t like sleeping in tents.) I fell asleep only to wake up again later to hear branches and sticks cracking. I got out of bed and heard from another camper, that Olivia and Thomas were going to visit the river but had gone missing. I went looking for them with a lighter in my bare grasp to light the way. Sticks cracked as I crushed them underfoot but… suddenly I fell from a giant rock.
AGHHH! I got up to find my feet were touching the water. In the distance I saw two figures getting pulled away by something in the lake… it was Olivia and Thomas! But they weren’t being pushed by just anything… they were being pushed by an alligator! It looked dangerous. When they came close to shore, I lit a branch and threw the flaming torch at it! The river reptilian burnt into ash. We hurried back to camp unnoticed by anybody, would anyone believe our tale?