Bible Camp by Ty Johnston Read Free Book Online

she could follow the shore until she found
another house. Perhaps she could even swim across if she had to.
She was a strong swimmer, and her only real concern was her sliced
arms. Would her wounds keep her from swimming?
    She would never know unless she
tried.
    Pushing off the tree, she bound down
an incline through the woods, heading for the lake.
    After a few minutes she popped out of
the trees into a clearing. With the stars and the moon above, she
recognized she had stumbled upon the picnic area again with the
dock sticking into the water.
    Glancing around, she found no sign of
Russ’s body, and while thoughts of what the killer did to poor Russ
made her shiver, she was at least glad not to see her dead friend
again.
    Catching her breath for a moment, she
rushed towards the dock. Maybe once she was out away from the land
she would be able to see a light from somewhere else around the
shore, maybe another house or camp site or even a boat.
    Pausing one last time to listen, to
make sure she was not being followed through the woods, she then
rushed toward the dock, sprinting from the grass onto the wood, the
planks bouncing beneath her feet. At the end of the dock she came
up short.
    Something floated in the water in
front of her. Being night, it was nearly impossible to make out
what was there, but it was not small, about the size of a
...
    Body. A headless body. A body dressed
all in black. It was Abby. There was no longer any doubt all her
friends were dead.
    Instead of screaming once more or
becoming frantic, Mary merely backed away slowly.
    There was no escape. Of this she was
now convinced. It made no sense for her to cry and wail, for it
would do no good. She would be dead before the sun rose again. She
could feel it in her soul.
    A sound from behind further convinced
her. It was but a scuffing sound, a shoe scraping against wood, but
it was enough. He was coming, this killer, this figure from the
dark who had destroyed all her friends in one night.
    With a last look out across the lake,
and not spying any lights or any other signs of hope, Mary bowed
her head and turned slowly.
    With her eyes downcast, she could make
out nothing of the killer other than the heavy work boots he
wore.
    She expected to be struck down at any
moment, but when it did not come, she realized there was only one
thing left to do.
    Mary dropped to her knees, closed her
eyes and folded her hands in front of her face. “Our Father,” she
began, “hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on Earth as it is in Heaven. Please --”
    A crunching noise cut her off. She
opened her eyes into slits.
    The boots were now closer, directly in
front of her. The killer must be looking down right on top of her.
Yet he had not harmed her.
    Suddenly wanting to see the face of
the person who would slay her, Mary opened her eyes wide and thrust
back her head, staring up.
    He was gigantic, close to seven feet
in height. His shoulders stretched nearly as broad as he was tall,
and his chest and stomach were solid like massive tree trunks. His
arms and legs showed strength through the sewed-together army
jacket he wore and the jeans encompassing his legs. Most strange of
all was his lack of a face. Bandages covered his features, dirty
bandages stretched this way and that as if put on by someone who
was not sure what they were doing. These were not bandages meant
for healing, but for hiding.
    “ It’s you, isn’t it?” Mary asked, her
voice low. “You’re Tommy, the one they hurt in that fire, the one
they called Tank. You didn’t die, did you? And Mr. Tucker, he was
your dad, wasn’t he?”
    The only answer was a pair of black
eyes like marbles staring out from the mess of bandages, long hair
sticking out in all directions from behind.
    The giant figure glared into Mary for
long moments, then it raised an arm, hefting a long-handled,
blood-stained axe up to a shoulder.
    Mary could only lower her head and
continue her prayer, her words to the