09 - Welcome to Camp Nightmare Read Online Free Page A

keep our bodies as far away from
it as possible.
    I pushed open the door with my shoulder, and we ran out onto the grass.
    “Now what?” Jay asked.
    “Keep going,” I replied. I could see one of the snakes poking its head out.
“Hurry!”
    We ran past the cabins toward a small clump of shrubs. Beyond the shrubs
stood a patch of low trees. When we reached the trees, we swung the bundle back,
then heaved the whole sheet into the trees.
    It opened as it fell to the ground. The two snakes slithered out instantly
and pulled themselves to shelter under the trees.
    Jay and I let out loud sighs of relief. We stood there for a moment, hunched
over, hands on our knees, trying to catch our breath.
    Crouching down, I looked for the snakes. But they had slithered deep into the
safety of the evergreens.
    I stood up. “I guess we should take back Mike’s sheet,” I said.
    “He probably won’t want to sleep on it,” Jay said. But he reached down and
pulled it up from the grass. He balled it up and tossed it to me. “It’s probably
dripping with snake venom,” he said, making a disgusted face.
    When we got back to the cabin, Colin had made his bed and was busily
unpacking the contents of his trunk, shoving everything into the top dresser
drawer. He turned as we entered. “How’d it go?” he asked casually.
    “Horrible,” Jay replied quickly, his expression grim. “We both got bit.
Twice.”
    “You’re a terrible liar!” Colin told him, laughing. “You shouldn’t even try.”
    Jay laughed, too.
    Colin turned to me. “You’re a hero,” he said.
    “Thanks for all your help,” Jay told him sarcastically.
    Colin started to reply. But the cabin door opened, and Larry poked his
freckled face in. “How’s it going?” he asked. “You’re not finished yet?”
    “We had a little problem,” Jay told him.
    “Where’s the fourth guy? The chubby one?” Larry asked, lowering his head so
he wouldn’t bump it on the door frame as he stepped inside.
    “Mike got bit. By a snake,” I told him.
    “There were two snakes in his bed,” Jay added.
    Larry’s expression didn’t change. He didn’t seem at all surprised. “So where
did Mike go?” he asked casually, swatting a mosquito on his arm.
    “His hand was bleeding. He went to the nurse to get it taken care of,” I told
him.
    “Huh?” Larry’s mouth dropped open.
    “He went to find the nurse,” I repeated.
    Larry tossed back his head and started to laugh. “Nurse?” he cried, laughing
hard. “ What nurse?!”

 
 
6
     
     
    The door opened and Mike returned, still holding his wounded hand.
His face was pale, his expression frightened. “They said there was no nurse,” he
told me.
    Then he saw Larry sitting on his bunk. “Larry—my hand,” Mike said. He held
the hand out so the counselor could see it. It was stained with bright red
blood.
    Larry stood up. “I think I have some bandages,” he told Mike. He pulled out a
slender black case from beneath his bunk and began to search through it.
    Mike stood beside him, holding up his hand. Drops of blood splashed on the
cabin floor. “They said the camp doesn’t have a nurse,” Mike repeated.
    Larry shook his head. “If you get hurt in this camp,” he told Mike
seriously, “you’re on your own.”
    “I think my hand is swelling a little,” Mike said.
    Larry handed him a roll of bandages. “The washroom is at the end of this row
of cabins,” he told Mike, closing the case and shoving it back under the bed.
“Go wash the hand and bandage it. Hurry. It’s almost dinnertime.”
    Holding the bandages tightly in his good hand, Mike hurried off to follow
Larry’s instructions.
    “By the way, how’d you guys get the snakes out of here?” Larry asked,
glancing around the cabin.
    “We carried them out in Mike’s sheet,” Jay told him. He pointed at me. “It
was Billy’s idea.”
    Larry stared hard at me. “Hey, I’m impressed, Billy,” he said. “That was
pretty brave, man.”
    “Maybe I inherited something from my parents,” I told him. “They’re