Phil and the Ghost of Camp Ch-Yo-Ca Read Online Free PDF Page B

grinding down your door with a chainsaw.
    “Is your Jeep open?” you ask.
    “Yeah.”
    “You still have your rifle in the back?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Okay. Let’s circle around through the trees to make sure we’re far away from the cabin. Then I’ll make a break for the car.”
    “Who is this person?”
    “I don’t know, but whoever it is, is gonna pay. I don’t like being woken up.”
    You and John Luke scramble through the woods and sneak in the direction of the Jeep. The chainsaw sound has stopped for the moment. But that could be worse, because now you imagine someone creeping around with a massive weapon in his hands.
    Maybe it’s just a local guy from the forest preserve doing some testing.
    Yes, and maybe it’s Elvis visiting the camp and carrying a chainsaw instead of a guitar.
    “Love me tender, love me   —weeeeerrrrrrrweeeerrrrrr.”
    You both manage to make it over to the part of the woods closest to John Luke’s Jeep. The vehicle’s silhouette can be seen from your spot behind the trees.
    But it’s still way too quiet for your liking.

    Do you make your way to the Jeep to get the rifle? Go here .
    Do you stay behind the trees with John Luke until you know the stranger is gone? Go here .

A TALE TOO TERRIFYING FOR THE KIDS

    “YEAH, LET’S SLEEP OUTSIDE,” John Luke says. “If anything sketchy is going on, we’ll hear it from out here.”
    “Right. Let’s make a big fire and put lots of bug spray on and tell some spooky stories. See who   —or what   —comes to visit us.” You raise your eyebrows, and John Luke rolls his eyes.
    He knows the perfect spot for your sleeping bags. You guys don’t have a tent, but that’s okay. You’ll be able to spot the monsters or aliens or bogeymen better this way.
    After a few minutes, you have a good fire going and suddenly wish you’d brought some stuff to make s’mores with. It’s not that you’re hungry, but you’ve got to have a little something to eat when you’re around a fire, right? Especially at camp.
    You lean forward on the log that serves as a bench. “So let’s hear one of those ghost stories you kids tell.”
    “Which one?”
    “Any of them. The scarier the better.” You toss a piece of wood onto the fire while John Luke thinks.
    “Well, the one I always tell is about the allibeaver.”
    You nod like you know what that is. “An allibeaver. Oh, this is gonna be good.”
    “Years ago, one of the directors here had a pet beaver. All the kids loved him. He was a friendly little guy who made everybody laugh. But one night he escaped from his cage.”
    “Uh-oh.”
    “He wandered down to the lake, and this big alligator bit him. But it wasn’t no ordinary gator. This one was infected with some awful disease. Once he bit the beaver, it turned into an allibeaver.”

    “What’s that supposed to look like?”
    John Luke laughs. “It’s got the face of an alligator and the body of a beaver. So it can climb things but also tear off someone’s head with its long gator mouth.”
    “I’d love to see one of those.”
    John Luke is about to keep talking when you both hear something fall in the woods with a loud, heavy thud.
    “What was that?” you ask.
    “I don’t know.”
    Maybe it’s an allibeaver responding to the sound of its name.
    You probably won’t share that thought with John Luke.
    “Keep talking,” you tell him.
    “Now the allibeaver sneaks into the cabins and starts infecting the kids. When they’re bitten, though, they don’t die. They become allibeavers too. And they can walk around and infect other people.”
    “Do they have tails?”
    “Uh, yeah. And sharp teeth like gators.”
    “This is the most terrifyin’ thing I’ve ever heard.” You smirk.
    “There’s only one way to stop an allibeaver.”
    “What’s that?”
    “You have to kill it, and then everyone it’s bitten turns back into themselves. But you can’t just shoot the allibeaver. You have to cut off its tail.”
    “Wow, that’s