Cameron

CAMERON

Tucked behind a shelf in The Other Backpack's kitchen area, a small stairwell descended into a dark basement. While Ruby expertly navigated the narrow and steep passage, Cam struggled, tempted to take the stairs on her butt. Here she was, a mountaineer, thwarted by a staircase.

When she reached the basement, the sulfur stench smacked her in the face. Ruby pulled the chain on the ceiling's one barren lightbulb, and Cam finally witnessed the source.

Paper.

To the left, sheets of drying handmade paper lined floorboards. In front of the paper, various pots, containers—even a cauldron—were filled to the brim with marinating paper slurry. Nothing smelled this bad unless it was ripe with bacteria. An interesting hobby for someone so attuned to staying free of germs. Maybe Ruby somehow knew these bacteria were safe.

To the right, hundreds of handmade books covered wall-length shelves. Cam couldn't help herself, approaching the shelf without thinking and tugging one free.

"Careful," Ruby warned.

Small ornaments decorated the book's cover: a hair ribbon, bracelet charms, a pressed leaf. A large Yosemite National Park sticker covered the back.

"You make all these?" Cam asked.

"Gotta find some way to pass the time. Other than hunting or cleaning, of course."

Cam gently flipped open the front cover, Day 35 written on the top of the page.

"If you wanna know if it's me filling all those pages, definitely not. Though I have a few to my name."

Cam started reading.

Ruby gave me this journal. Says I need it if I want to stay true to who I once was. I would tell you the story of how I met her, but I don't want to waste this paper on that. I am supposed to be writing memories of home.

The page divulged a moment from childhood. Cam checked the book's spine which read Jeremy , something she'd missed the first time. She looked up expectantly at Ruby.

"Wanderers, travelers, transients," she said. "All those who wind up lost in these woods. I give ‘em a meal and a bed for only a night at a time, and they pay me with trinkets or things to read from back home. The ones who return pay me with their stories."

Cam stepped back, admiring the handmade journals. "These are from different people?"

"Most of ‘em. Some live long enough to fill a few."

" Live? "

Ruby actually smiled at her. "I know it's hard for you to believe. Still don't see the truth about Lee up there. No one gets how fast folks die in these woods at first, not until they experience it for themselves. And I'm sorry that's the truth. I really am."

"But you haven't died yet," Cam countered.

Ruby raised the eyebrow above her marble. Cam wondered how she did that without it falling out.

"I'm a lot smarter than most of these folks passing through." Ruby shrugged. "I also don't leave this place much. I'm lucky with the game around the building." She pointed at Cam. "Don't you dare poach anything around these parts. You won't be the first with one of my bullets through your head."

Cam didn't know where even to begin with that statement, so she didn't address it at all.

Ruby continued as if she'd said nothing offensive. "The people who end up injured to the point of dying, they are the ones always trying to find a way out. You take good ol' Lee up there."

Disgust bubbled in Cam's gut. "You talk about him like he's a corpse."

"Because he is . And the quicker you learn that, the quicker you can protect yourself, too."

Cam couldn't swallow it. Not right now. Maybe Ruby was right—she needed to experience more. But she'd spent months in the wilderness before by herself, even twice when she ran out of supplies and first aid. How the hell could this forest be so different from the others?

"So, why are you showing me this?" Cam waved a hand at the wall. "You hinting at how I can get a room and a meal for tonight?"

"I suppose." Ruby strode toward Cam and plucked a journal from the shelves. "And to give you this. I think you'll be needing it, if you ever decide to come back. It's fresh."

Cam took the new notebook from Ruby, appreciating the lack of hair ribbons in the cover design. Instead, beer and soda labels were shellacked to the front and back. She ran a finger over an old A they'd done everything to clean it, and it didn't matter at all.

Ruby turned to Cam. "Remember what I told you."

Cam nodded, their conversation from last night returning.

Whatever you do, don't eat their food.

Ruby made The Tooth sound like a miserable place, but that was where Lee wanted to go. Asking Cam would likely be the last thing he asked anyone. She couldn't say no. Plus, a part of her was curious to interact with the people in this Tooth place. Maybe one of them had seen Avery recently.

"Thanks for everything," Cam said. "Maybe I'll see you soon."

Ruby grinned. "Don't forget to fill that journal. Gotta pay up when you return."

The flat and muddy road to The Tooth stretched right through the center of a valley. Still, their journey was gruesomely slow.

Lee's festering wound bled through his makeshift wrap in no time. The discharge stank worse by the second. A few hours in and he couldn't walk without help, though he refused to take breaks.

"I just wanna get there," he kept saying. "I just wanna make it."

Fortunately for her, Lee remained upright and breathing, even as the clouds rolled in and the rain picked up. Small divots that had once been footprints became more frequent, though there was no real way to tell how many people had traveled through here. Too many to have all come from Deadswitch, yet they had to have come from somewhere.

Up ahead, a sharp crag jutted behind the treetops. The Tooth .

"That's a little on the nose," grunted Cam as Lee put more of his weight on her.

"There's a lot of this place... that's on the nose," he gasped.

Lashed logs formed a perimeter, the fence roughly three times her height. While she couldn't see anything beyond the wall, its curvature gave away the commune's size. It may not be very large—perhaps an acre—but for a place like this, it was a fucking metropolis.

The wide fence gate was a concoction of chain link, parts of a rusty car body, and a few brown road signs from national forest areas. Hooded watchers wearing a mix of ratty hiking clothes stared down at them from the fence's catwalk. Cam hesitated in her approach, expecting to explain herself in order to pass. They carried no obvious weapons, though that didn't mean they weren't there.

Hey, dumbass, her brain politely chirped. This looks like a bad idea .

Upon her meeting Lee, he'd said she could find other travelers here so she didn't have to be alone. But being alone didn't bother her. Desperate people, on the other hand... She couldn't imagine that a commune in such a malicious forest was filled with calm, levelheaded individuals.

Maybe she was wrong. She hoped she was wrong. Regardless, she had to stay focused. Cam had fulfilled her promise of getting Lee to The Tooth. Now, she just needed to see if she could glean any answers about what had happened to Avery.

The gate to The Tooth squealed, the doors yawning open.

Cam shifted her shoulder to better bear Lee's weight. "That was easy."

"They like people," Lee said.

That didn't make Cam feel any better, though she was soon distracted as she soaked in the village.

The fang-shaped crag stood tall and proud at the commune's center, before it a smoking bonfire and a few idlers dressed similarly, clothes worn and repatched beyond belief. Grimy, but not filthy.

A ring of small cabins lined the perimeter, reminding her of buildings in national park history centers—architecture left over from early pioneer days, though these cabins weren't as well preserved. This was the fault of the rain more than anything, moss and lichen crawling over soggy beams. Someone on a ladder worked on one cabin. She couldn't get a good look at anyone's face with their hoods up and, on instinct, tugged at hers with her free hand.

The air stank of shit, the culprit possibly a lack of hygiene and plumbing.

Or wounds.

Cam glanced down at Lee's leg, his bandage so soaked with discharge that it glistened.

Lee pointed left. "That way."

Cam dragged Lee toward the cabins. "There a medic or something? "

"They can't help me."

He was so sure. Ruby had been, too. How many people—villagers—had Lee seen rot away and die from a cut? The village wasn't bustling, but more people were here than Cam had ever seen this deep into a wilderness area—even normal wilderness areas. Everyone they passed busied themselves with chores, from fencing repairs to filling in potholes with handmade wooden shovels. One of the pothole fillers looked up as they passed, his eyes hesitating on Lee's leg. His mouth hung limp, as though that was the resting state of his face. Maybe he was just focusing all his energy on staying in control of his motor functions. The way he jerked while shoveling dirt hinted at a neurological disorder.

"Here," Lee said.

Cam blinked and refocused on the cabin to her left. Few of the door's planks were recently replaced, giving an impression of a smile with only a few teeth left. Cam propped the door open and helped Lee inside, the stuffiness of the dark room engulfing her as she shut the door behind her.

"C-Cam?"

She froze and then turned from the door to a man seated on the far bed. On the stump near his feet, a wick burned atop a melted lump of wax. The light was just enough to illuminate the familiar contours of his face.

"No fucking way," she breathed. Her mind raced to jam together the pieces, but hell, why should she even try if a curveball was around every goddamn corner?

Scruffy, filthy, and tired, a young Isaac grinned at her. "You're alive."