The Beast From the East by R. L. Stine Page B

Nat and me.
    “Sure I’m sure,” I told him.
    I led the way. They followed close behind. They had both picked up walking
sticks. After we had walked a few minutes, they started fighting a duel with
them.
    I ignored them. I had my own worries. I wasn’t sure we were walking in the
right direction. In fact, I felt totally turned around.
    “Hey—there’s the stream!” I cried happily.
    I immediately felt better. We weren’t lost. I had picked the right direction.
    Now all we had to do was follow the stream back to the clearing where we had
set up camp.
    I began to hum again. The boys tossed their sticks into the stream. We began
to jog along the grassy shore.
    “Whoa!” I cried out when my left boot started to sink. I nearly fell into a
deep mud patch. I pulled my hiking boot up. Soaked in wet, brown mud up over the
ankle.
    Pat and Nat thought that was a riot. They laughed and slapped each other high
fives.
    I growled at them, but I didn’t waste any words. They’re both hopeless. So
totally immature.
    Now I couldn’t wait to get back to camp and clean the thick mud off my boot.
We jogged along the shore, then cut through the skinny, white-trunked trees and
into the clearing.
    “Mom! Dad!” I called, hurrying over the grass. “We’re back!”
    I stopped so short, both boys tumbled into me.
    My eyes searched the clearing.
    “Mom? Dad?”
    They were gone.

 
 
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    “They left us!” Pat exclaimed. He ran frantically around the clearing. “Mom!
Dad!”
    “Earth to Pat,” Nat called. He waved his hand in front of Pat’s face. “We’re
in the wrong place, you wimp.”
    “Nat is right,” I replied, glancing around. There were no footprints, no tent
markers. We were in a different clearing.
    “I thought you knew the way, Ginger,” Pat complained. “Didn’t they teach you
anything at that nature camp?”
    Nature camp! Last summer my parents forced me to spend two weeks at an
“Explore the Great Outdoors” camp. I got poison ivy the first day. After that, I
didn’t listen to anything the counselors said.
    Now I wished I had.
    “We should have left markers on the trees,” I said, “to find our way back.”
    “ Now you think of it?” Nat groaned, rolling his eyes. He picked up a long, crooked stick and waved it in my face.
    “Give me that,” I ordered.
    Nat handed me the stick. Yellow sap oozed onto my palm. It smelled sour.
    “Gross!” I shouted. I tossed the stick away. I rubbed my hands on my jeans.
But the yellow stain wouldn’t come off my palm.
    That’s weird, I thought. I wondered what the stuff was. I definitely didn’t
like it on my skin.
    “Let’s follow the stream,” I suggested. “Mom and Dad can’t be too far.”
    I tried to sound calm. But I was totally twisted around. In fact, I had no
idea where we were.
    We headed out of the clearing and back to the shore. The sun fell lower in
the sky. It prickled the back of my neck.
    Pat and Nat tossed pebbles into the water. After a few minutes, they tossed
them at each other.
    I ignored them. At least they weren’t throwing anything at me.
    As we walked along, the air became cooler. The path grew narrower.
    The water turned dark and murky. Silvery-blue fish snapped at the air. The
skinny branches of the tall trees reached down toward us.
    A feeling of dread swept over me. Nat and Pat grew quiet. They actually
stopped picking on each other.
    “I don’t remember any of these bushes near our campsite,” Pat said nervously.
He pointed to a short, squat plant. Its strange blue leaves looked like open
umbrellas stacked one on top of the other. “Are you sure we’re going the right
way?”
    By now I was sure we weren’t headed in the right direction. I didn’t
remember those strange bushes, either.
    Then we heard a noise on the other side of the shrubs.
    “Maybe that’s Mom and Dad!” Pat exclaimed.
    We pushed our way through the plants. And ran into another deserted clearing.
    I glanced around. This grassy