Camp Zero (Book 2): State of Shock Read Online Free PDF

that had killed her. That’s what I figured, as when my hair finally grew out he seemed to warm up to me.
    “I think it’s time to leave,” Billy said.

Chapter 7
    W e drove across several fields and exited at a back road that led up into a mountainous region that we had explored a few weeks before with Dan. He’d taken a couple of us up there to take in the view. We were going to miss him. Even though he was a pain in the ass at times he had this humor that kept all of us from losing our minds. With no technology, no power and little to keep us occupied, Dan had become almost like TV to us. He would recount stories of being in the military and act out what he had done. Occasionally Murphy would toss an empty can at him and tell him he was bullshitting.
    The road led up to a large outcropping of rock. Glancing at the trail a person might have thought that a truck couldn’t have made it up the steep incline. They would have been wrong. In many ways it gave us a sense of security to know that we were going to be sleeping in an area that Dan would have approved. When the truck finally made it to the top, Luke reversed it into a section of bushes and we all took a few minutes to cover it with as many leaves, branches and brambles we could find. It didn’t need to be completely hidden, as we would be close by.
    The old Dakota fire pit we had built several months back was still there. Charred rocks were positioned in a circle with dry, black wood in the center. Dan told us they had to build these in Afghanistan. They were designed to avoid detection by the enemy. Flames were hidden below ground level. The entire fire pit was created a foot inside the earth so that the fire burned hotter and less smoke was produced.
    “Seems strange being back here without him,” Billy said.
    “Yeah,” I said looking out across the valley.
    “He was a good man.”
    “The best,” Corey said. Corey and Dan had really got on well. We could tell that Corey looked up to him like a father. Corey’s father had walked out on his mother back when he was only seven years of age. He was a heavy gambler and someone who never really took care of his family. He now lived somewhere in Vegas. Corey told us the story one night about how his father said that he was going out to the bar. He never returned. Police were sent out and they tried to track him down but couldn’t be found. For the longest time he was treated as a missing person by police. Two months later they got a postcard in the mail from Vegas. It was mainly an apology but in no uncertain terms he had said that he wasn’t going to be returning. Even as Corey recounted it, I saw tears well up in his eyes. Dan had taken Corey under his wing. Murphy said it was because Dan’s own father had done something similar to his mother.
    We spent the first hour setting up a perimeter. Old cans and string were used further down the trail in the event that a hiker walked through. The cans would jangle, alerting us to their presence before they got any closer. Behind us we had dug a few holes and used old sheets from the truck to cover them with leaves. If anyone fell through they would have a nasty surprise. Deep inside the hole were sharpened pieces of wood. Dan had shown us how to set it up so that even to the well-trained eye, it couldn’t be spotted. We just had to make double sure that everyone knew where the holes were in the event they wandered off in the night to take a piss.
    As I made a fire that night and we sat around eating, all of us were quiet and lost in thought. Occasionally we heard the sound of forest critters nearby.
    “What’s the plan for tomorrow?”
    No one was quick to answer that question. All of us were still chewing over the day’s events. On two occasions we had come close to death and now the thought of trying to find Murphy and Shaw only added to the anxiety.
    I glanced at Ally. We all knew what had to be done but I don’t think any of us were ready to face that