The Duck
Farm
Chapter
4: Locating the Wilderness
(Un) Important babbling-notes from Cimmy: Well, I’ve never been to an actual camp myself before (but I’ve heard of several people that has). I’m not an outdoor person, which you might be able to assume, since I spend all of my spare-time writing fan fictions about Ducks. Anyway... There are a lot of chapters from Guy’s point of view; I realize that. I’ll try and improve.
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Notes: From Guy’s point of view.
Oh, goody. They were lost. Well, he was lost, Cecilia was panicking and Adam was... Well, he wasn’t around anyway. They’d gotten separated somewhere along the way. This was just perfect. Just peachy.
Cecilia was clinging to his arm, jumping at every sound. If he would compare her to a puppy now, it wasn’t an annoying one. It would be a scared, whining little puppy.
“You think they’ve noticed we’re gone yet?” she asked worriedly.
“Yeah, don’t worry about it.” Truth to be told, he wasn’t sure of that at all. It was nine o’ clock, they’d been away for two hours. They had been lost for an hour and a half. Hopefully Adam had gotten back to tell the others to go look for them.
“This sucks,” Cecilia whined. “Why did you trick me into this?”
Guy knew two things about being lost in a forest. You shouldn’t move around, because that would make it harder to find them for the people who were looking for them. Number two was; don’t get lost with a physically instable person. Well, he had managed to break both of those rules.
“Let’s just sit down for a while,” he suggested. He was fairly calm; since this wasn’t one of the worst things he’d gotten himself into.
Getting lost in Idaho with Connie must’ve been the most difficult mess he’d ever gotten himself into. That had been when they were eight, and they’d decided to run away, but gotten on the wrong bus from Minnesota. They’d been lost for over a day, but finally they’d managed to get back home again. That must’ve been the first and only time the police had brought him home. Not counting all those times when he’d been escorted home because he’d been drinking too much, of course.
This was nothing compared to Idaho. This was just a small forest.
Cecilia sighed and climbed onto a big rock. Guy didn’t know why she always had to climb onto things. It was just something she did.
“Move over,” he told her. Cecilia did as she was told, and Guy sat down next to her.
“Have you ever been lost in the forest before?” she asked. “How did it end?”
“Well, I’ve never been lost, like lost, lost, but once Charlie and I got stuck inside a barn,” he smiled at her.
“That’s not the same thing at all,” Cecilia exclaimed. “I’ve been lost too. But our dog tracked me down. He was the bravest dog of all time. And the smartest. Did you have a dog when you were younger?”
“No, but a cat. And a turtle.”
“Were they smart?”
“No, not really,” Guy laughed. “The cat had to be put to sleep when Ally was born.”
“No! Why?”
“She was allergic, and the doctors told us that animals with fur wasn’t good for infants. Well, the cat was quite old too, about sixteen years old, but still...”
“That’s so sad,” Cecilia mumbled. “You know, our dog had to be put to sleep too. He was also old. But I wish that he could’ve been alive anyway.”
Guy sighed. “Sometimes life throws you the wrong way. Into the forest, out on the street, or whatever.”
“When I was young, our dog saved our house from burning down,” Cecilia continued. “My Mom had forgotten about a saucepan she’d left on the stove, and I was asleep. If my dog hadn’t waked me up, it probably would’ve been a fire. The house were filled with smoke when I finally got up.”
“Wow, so he really was smart then?”
“Yeah, the smartest.”
Long silence.
“At least the lake changed color,” Cecilia said happily. “I thought you were lying.”
“I thought Travis was exaggerating,” Guy answered.
He put an arm around her and pulled her closer. “It’s not that bad to be lost,” he told her. “Just imagine how happy everybody’ll be when they finally find us.”
“Pissed, you mean,” Cecilia corrected him. Guy shook the flashlight. It was beginning to fade, so the batteries were probably used up.
“I hope it’ll shine until they find us,” Cecilia winced. “I hate the thought of being trapped and lost out here without any light.”
“You know that movie,” Guy said, trying to cheer her up.
“’Blair Witch Project’?” she answered sarcastically.
“Be positive, Cee.” Easier said then done, when you were lost out in the wilderness with a true pessimist.
“What movie, then?”
“That movie when they go hiking and they all get back safely.”
“You mean that movie with Glenn Close and Kevin Bacon?”
“No! You know what I mean. That movie, you know. That... movie.”
“You have to be a little more specific than that. I’ve seen a lot of movies. I can’t remember everyone. Was Nicholas Cage in it?”
“No!”
“Well, then I can’t help you. I love movies with him. Have you seen ‘Bringing out the dead’? I loved that movie!”
“It wasn’t as good as ‘Taxi Driver’,” Guy objected. This was good; they were having a conversation. Maybe they wouldn’t be so depressed if they thought of something other then being lost.
“Well, Robert DeNiro might be good, but he’s not as good as Nicholas Cage.”
“Hello! Of course he is. Have you seen ‘Ronin’? ‘Cape Fear’?”
“No, but I did see ‘Analyze This’,” Cecilia grinned. “Have you seen ‘Face/Off’, ‘Con Air’, ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’ or ‘Wild at Heart’?”
“No, but I did see ‘Peggy Sue got married’. Of course I’ve seen the other ones!”
“Well, which movie is best? ‘Face/Off’ or ‘Ronin’? Huh?”
Guy rolled his eyes. “You have the worst taste in movies, Cecilia. Not as bad as Connie, but still...”
“What does Connie wanna watch?”
“Chick-flicks, what else?”
“Connie? I didn’t think she was into those movies,” Cecilia teased.
“She might be a tomboy, but she’s not un-girly, like you are. You’re so anti-girly; you’re almost like a guy. Except from when you have your butterfly-attacks, of course. Nish told me about you trying to catch them yesterday.”
“Well, Nish is a lunatic. Back to the other subject. What’s Connie’s favorite movie?” she taunted.
“Like you don’t know already,” he said pointedly. “I’m just glad it’s not ‘Steel Magnolias’.”
Cecilia chuckled. “That’s my Mom’s favorite movie. She’s such a girl.”
“Well, it’s not a genetic thing, obviously,” Guy joked.
“Well, we’re not genetically combined either,” Cecilia reminded him. “She’s just my real Mom, she’s not my birth Mom.” Guy yawned a little. Lost or not, he was tired. Cecilia’s voice was extremely soothing right about now. He could just as well fall asleep on the rock. He wouldn’t mind.
“Hey, don’t fall asleep,” shouted Cecilia. “I don’t wanna face bears and wolves by myself. You’re supposed to be guarding me, you’re the guy.”
“Well, try to talk them away, that’ll work,” he said tiredly. He was too dozy to think of a better comeback.
Cecilia jumped down from the rock and tiptoed around him. “What are you doing now?” he asked suspiciously. If she got a crazy idea he’d better put a stop to it before she decided to try it out.
“I thought I heard something. Are squirrels dangerous?”
“Just the green ones,” Guy yawned. “Look, they’re more afraid of you then you’re of them.”
“There are green squirrels?”
Guy shook his head. “Nope. Now, if you’re trying to get lost even more, I strongly recommend that you walk that way. The wolves and the bears are all napping at the other direction.”
Cecilia leaped onto the rock again and looked around. “Which direction?”
“I’m screwing with you, of course there’s no wild animals here. You scared them away with your shouting an hour ago.”
“I was trying to locate Adam. I hope he’s okay. I told you I was a city-girl. I’m not cut out to be out in the wilderness, sleeping on rocks and eating cones.”
“This is a great survivor-story if you ever manage to get back to L.A. Just think how they’ll look up to you after an experience like this. A close to death-experience is considered as a highly popular thing. Made you’ll get elected head-cheerleader when we get back.”
“I rather track a bear up and let it eat me.”
“That’s the true camp-spirit. Eaten by bears isn’t something you get to experience everyday.”
“Stop saying ‘experience’ in every other word.”
Guy gave her another smile, and she made a face at him. “I hate this. I hope a bear does eat me. I hope you get eaten first,” she muttered.
Guy was just about to answer when the last light from the flashlight disappeared.
“Oh, man.”
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Notes: From Charlie’s point of view.
Travis went up to Charlie. “I know that team.”
“What team?” Charlie asked. He’d been busy looking for Cecilia. She had been told to do the dishes today, but she was hiding somewhere. It was very bad, since Coach Bombay now wanted him to do the dishes instead.
She hadn’t been with Fred, his first guess. Nish hadn’t seen her all day. Travis was busy spying on the opposite teams. Connie was hanging out with Derek somewhere.
Charlie was now certain that she was with Guy or Adam, since they were nowhere to be found either. Maybe they’d all disappeared somewhere, trying to get out of their choirs.
“That team, over by the trees.”
Jeez, Travis, there was a whole bunch of trees everywhere. He’d have to be a little more specific if anyone was supposed to know that location.
“What damn trees?”
Travis rolled his eyes. “Over there,” he pointed out. “I asked Muck about it, and I think it’s the White Wings.”
“I’ve heard of the Red Wings, but the White Wings? That’s something new.”
“If it’s them, it’s a team from Tamarack. It’s the girls team.”
“Oh. So, go find out then, Lindsay.”
Charlie had to admit that there was a huge chance that they would meet some familiar teams during this tournament, Coach Bombay had already told them that it was a well-known tournament with lots of teams from all over the country.
He was just about to follow Travis over to the campsite when he noticed someone among the bushes. It was Adam.
“Hey, Banks! Where the hell have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you! You better have Cecilia with you, or else I’m forced to kill her when she shows up.”
Adam stumbled up to him. “Actually, I lost her. Is there a Search and Rescue some place close?”
Charlie sighed. Why did he have to be the captain of the most brain-dead team in the world?
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