Chapter 90: Camping (6)

The gas station was located between the village and Red Oak Camp, about 35 kilometers from the camp.

Although the distance wasn’t far, the road was full of winding mountain paths. For safety reasons, they couldn’t drive too fast. As a result, the jeep took over half an hour along the road before the three of them finally arrived at the remote gas station.

The gas station was run-down, far more dilapidated than Old John’s small station. The exposed gas pumps were already rusted. To fill up, they first had to catch the fuel in a bucket and then pour it into the car with a funnel.

The previous long drives and chainsaw work had already consumed quite a bit of fuel. Everly drove the car next to the pump, grabbed a metal bucket to catch the fuel, and also mixed some blended fuel to fill the chainsaw. Meanwhile, Old John used this time to go into the small convenience store next to the station, pick fuses off the shelves, and attempt to strike up a conversation with the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper, just as Misha had described, was a very fierce-looking old man. His skin was wrinkled like a dried walnut shell, with a large, grotesque burn covering the right side of his face. His teeth were crooked, he was constantly chewing tobacco, and he wore a filthy leather apron. With that appearance, he could easily pass as a villain boss in a horror movie set.

Yet, despite this appearance, when the teenagers drove toward Red Oak Camp, he kindly warned them to watch out for the “monster that lives in Emerald Lake.” Clearly, he was a member of the good-aligned faction responsible for giving useful tips.

Both Everly and Old John felt that this man must know some valuable information.

“You’re saying the monster from Emerald Lake has escaped? That’s not good… because it’s a being that can be trapped but cannot be killed…” Although the old man had initially acted like a riddle-keeper when he appeared, he wasn’t really tight-lipped. After Old John handed him a pack of expensive cigarettes, the shopkeeper quickly, just like a game NPC, spilled the information the three wanted.

“Judy—well, I mean the mother of that monster—she was an extremely unfortunate woman. Her parents were obsessed with a heretical cult and dedicated her to their evil god. When she became pregnant, Judy was forced to give birth to Gary, who was revered by the cult members as the ‘child of God.’ Later, the cult was disbanded, and Judy finally freed herself from her parents’ endless control. But she still couldn’t escape the shadow of her past, because that child, Gary, was a complete monster—he controlled her entire life!”

“From the moment he was born, Gary never shed a single tear. He was born with a full set of baby teeth, and when he first latched onto his mother’s breast, he bit her so hard that it drew blood. He had no emotional fluctuations and could not feel the normal joys and sorrows of human life. Only blood, slaughter, pain, and fear could excite him and bring him pleasure… As the only living person around him, Judy unfortunately became Gary’s toy.”

The old man paused, lit a cigarette, inhaled deeply through his nose, and continued slowly: “Perhaps being a ‘mother’ is ultimately a different kind of identity. Gary did not ab

se Judy with the cruelty one might show a family pet. Instead, he treated her in a more subtle, yet far more terrifying way. He exploited Judy’s deep resentment, her tragic past, and her gentle, weak nature. Like a devil from hell, he used seductive words to repeatedly lure his mother into inflicting suffering upon him, letting her release her negative emotions through cruel acts of ab

se.”

“And afterward, Gary would disguise himself as a pure white lamb, exposing his battered body to his mother, seeking her guilt and sympathy. Each time, Judy felt a suffocating pain, unable to sleep, tormented almost beyond endurance. In this way, he continuously manipulated and toyed with his mother, drawing pleasure from her misfortune and remorse… Until that year, when Judy, lost in the depths of despair, met a man and decided to abandon her past and start a new life.”

“And then?”

The old man took a long, hard drag from his cigarette. “Then Gary fell into a rage unlike anything before. He tore off his mask, revealing his cruel, cold-blooded true nature, and attacked that man. Because he was still very young, his assassination attempt failed—but it was enough for Judy to see his true nature. She cried as she grabbed Gary by the throat, like this—”

The gas station owner held the cigarette in his mouth, clasped his hands in front of him, teeth clenched, and made a motion as if squeezing with all his strength. “Like this—squeezing his neck hard. But Judy couldn’t succeed. Shortly after losing his breath, Gary regained it, opened his eyes, and looked at his mother with innocence, cruelly asking her, like an angelic child, why she would do this to him.”

“When Gary put on his disguise, he really did look like an angel… Judy couldn’t bear it any longer. She tried every method she could, but she could never kill that monster. In the end, she locked him in the basement with chains.”

“But a monster in a cage cannot stay confined forever. Sooner or later, Gary will break free and escape. When that happens, the emerald-green lake will inevitably be shrouded in a blood-red shadow…”

The story was long, and much of it was unknown to Everly. Some parts even conflicted with the plot summary she had heard in her previous life.

However, one—Everly hadn’t watched all the films in the series—and two—the series itself sometimes had continuity errors during filming, so she was fairly accepting of these differences.

Still, for an outsider, the gas station owner seemed to know… far too much.

Her gaze lingered on the fused, scarred right side of his face, and Everly couldn’t help but ask, “The man Judy met back then… that was you?”

Although the ages didn’t exactly line up, some people who had experienced trauma did tend to seek out older partners.

The gas station owner froze for a moment.

Then he stiffly tugged at the corner of his mouth and took a long drag from his cigarette.

“Who knows… Anyway, good luck to you.”

With that, he waved to them and vanished like a statue into the thick smoke, saying no more.

After saying goodbye to the gas station owner, the three of them packed up and drove back to Red Oak Camp.

If everything went smoothly, they would be back in half an hour and could get the car fixed.

However, this time, when they were less than two kilometers from the camp, the road ahead was blocked again by red oaks. And this time, it wasn’t just one tree—there were three of them!

Although this tactic was cliché, it was gross enough—and effective enough—to slow them down.

Worried that the people at camp had been waiting too long, Misha deliberately pulled out the satellite phone to warn them that giant trees were blocking the road and that it might take some time. But when she called, no one answered.

All three felt an ominous premonition.

Still, the car had already made it this far, and they couldn’t just turn back. If there were any survivors left at the camp, not just Misha, but Everly would also feel guilty if they abandoned them.

After some discussion, they decided to get out of the car. As before, Old John handled guns and kept watch, Everly sawed through the trees, and Misha carried the cut pieces.

After more than half an hour of hard work, the giant trees blocking the road were finally cleared. The three got back in the car and resumed their journey.

The rest of the trip went without incident. After driving along the road for a while, Red Oak Camp finally came back into view.

Old John drove past open doors and the ransacked administrator’s office, heading straight to the parking lot at the far end of the crescent-shaped field.

Upon arrival, it was immediately clear: the eight people who had been tightly packed together when they left were now reduced to only three miserable survivors—the two camp managers and the red-haired boy’s group were all gone.

“Waaah… Everly, Misha, you finally came!”

The three remaining people in the parking lot were huddled in the open space between two cars, clutching whatever shields they had found, trying to fend off imaginary threats. When they saw Old John’s jeep return, they acted like fledglings spotting their parent bird returning home—completely ignoring all sense of composure, they ran straight toward the three of them, chattering nonstop.

Everly took a careful look. The remaining three—two girls and a boy—were all her classmates. The boy, Dane, was one of the owners of the two cars at the camp, and he still had the car keys on him.

“What happened? Why are only the three of you left? Where’s everyone else? And what about the gun and the satellite phone I left behind?”

Everly hesitated, wondering whether it was even necessary to fix the car now—if only these three survived out of the original eight, Old John could probably squeeze everyone into one vehicle, saving them the trouble of repairing the other one.

“It’s like this…”

Lily pushed her way to the front of the group and began explaining to Everly what had happened after the three of them had left.

In short, infighting had broken out among the group.

The first to suggest leaving was Manager Benjamin. When he heard from his companion Andy that a nearby household had a car of the same model as theirs, he immediately decided to go there to borrow some fuses. In the U.S., homes in remote areas often keep spare materials for car repairs.

“He took the satellite phone and the gun you left behind. He said he was the camp manager and the person who knew the area best, so everyone had to follow him. We tried to reason with him, but he was holding the gun, and we didn’t dare stop him…”

Fortunately, Manager Benjamin wasn’t completely foolish. He didn’t act alone; he brought along the newly arrived manager, Andy. Although the two had only known each other for a few days, as fellow managers they naturally stood on the same side—far more reliable than high school students who might suddenly drop the ball at any moment.

As for the other six people, Benjamin didn’t let them follow. He needed someone to keep an eye on their cars so that once the fuses were borrowed, he could fix the vehicle and leave.

But once the two managers set off, there was no further word from them.

“They said it only took about ten minutes to walk from the parking lot to that household, so a round trip should’ve taken at most half an hour. But we waited for almost an hour, and they still didn’t come back. That’s when we realized the killer must have acted. Dane and Hans just couldn’t sit still anymore…”

Dan, Hans, and Christina came from other schools and were the organizers of this camping trip. They didn’t know Everly, so unlike the other three classmates, they couldn’t automatically trust her. They figured that with Everly and Misha gone, there was no guarantee they would return. To survive the killer, they had no choice but to save themselves.

The red-haired boy, Dan, was the leader of the trio. He told his companions that there was an old hunting rifle hanging on the wall in the manager’s office, and an axe by the office door. They could use the axe to break open the door, take the rifle, and then grab bows and arrows from the storage room.

Dan’s car was also parked in the lot and needed to be watched. Before everything was settled, they hadn’t given up on the idea of fixing it and leaving. So Dan and Hans, along with the accompanying girl Christina, set off to find weapons, leaving Dane, Lily, and Molly behind to continue guarding the cars.