What Do You Fear? | Chapter 5 | 2025 Horror Story

Garth and Scout reached the camp, nestled among the forested area of one of the larger city parks. Dozens of tents had been erected by the inhabitants, many of them young adults who looked like they spent forty hours a week at a climbing gym. Scout brought Garth to a man of tall stature. He had a muscular build and a very overgrown beard, much like the overgrowth of brush at the park’s edge.

“Arthur, good evening,” Scout said, setting her bags at the man’s feet. Arthur bent down to open one and examined its contents. Satisfied, he returned Scout’s greeting.

“Scout, good evening,” Arthur said with a hearty laugh. Scout joined in with the laughing, as did a couple of other people nearby. “Don’t mind us, man, we’re just fooling with you. Welcome to the camp, my name is Arthur, I run our supplies depot.”

He gestured to the tent behind him; it was very large compared to most of the surrounding tents. Garth realized that near the supply tent were several other large tents set up in a ring around a large fire pit. Tendrils of smoke curled up from the charred remains of a fire that had been extinguished recently. Beyond the large tents were smaller tents, and Garth observed several people running around the tents looking busy.

“I’m Garth, I met Scout in the city earlier,” Garth said, offering the supplies manager a handshake. Arthur grabbed Garth’s hand with a firm, solid grasp and shook his hand exactly three times before letting go.

“It was truly lucky I met him, Arthur,” Scout said. “We managed to bring back more supplies than anticipated.”

“That’s wonderful, Scout,” Arthur said, holding out his arms towards Garth. Garth gave him one of the bags he had been carrying and took off the other one. He unloaded the few supplies he had stuffed into the bag for Scout before donning it again.

“Feel free to pick a tent from the depot, we’ve got plenty,” Arthur told Garth. “Most of the prime real estate is already staked, but there are still pretty sights everywhere you look.”

Scout laughed while Garth simply nodded. They head into the supplies depot and select a fine orange tent for Garth. It fit one person and was best for sleeping in rather than lounging, but Garth didn’t mind. After the tent is staked next to Scout’s own beige four-person tent, Scout takes Garth to the mess tent for dinner.

“Garth, I recommend that you go straight to bed after you finish eating,” Scout said over a rehydrated spaghetti MRE. Garth slurped one of his longer noodles down quickly, shivering at the taste of the overall disgusting- but warm- meal.

“Why? Early rise for another looting mission?” he asked. Scout shook her head.

“You have Dawn Duty. As one of the newest members of the camp, you’re expected to take the least-favored watch shift, which is about three hours before dawn to three hours after dawn.”

“That sounds horrible,” Garth said, eating another forkful of spaghetti.

“Don’t worry, we get new people all the time, so you’ll eventually move to a more favorable shift,” Scout said.

“But what about the looting? I liked that- we kicked serious zombie ass earlier,” Garth said through a devious smile.

“You’ll have to spend some time on watch first; that’s just the rules. Now come on, you have about six hours until you’re woken for your watch, so I’d get some shut eye now.”

Garth returned to his tent; it stuck out like fruit on a tree with green and brown leaves. Once settled into his sleeping bag, Garth pulled out his newly liberated gaming console. He powered it on and put it on mute before selecting one of the several games pre-loaded onto it. He had resolved to play just a couple of rounds before going to bed, like the good old days. Then he heard a knock on his tent flap.

“Time for your watch, New Guy,” said a gruff voice. Garth swore to himself and threw his console into the sleeping bag. Once Garth was out of the tent, the guard on duty led him to his post.

“Stand watch here, take this crowbar and whack anything that gets too close for comfort,” the guard said. “Shout if any make it past your defenses or if you need backup. Your relief is that brown tent over there, it has a small yellow flag with a snake staked in front, you won’t miss it.”

The guard left Garth alone in the dark. Initially Garth scoured the landscape for any stray zombies or hordes, but after several minutes of fruitless searching he gave up for the time being. He practiced a few moves with the crowbar, testing out his skills on an undeserving sapling that hardly reached Garth’s neck. Once he grew bored, however, Garth started to doze off.

Garth awoke at the first scream. He became fully alert at the next one. A handful of zombies had encroached on the camp, and some were already tearing through tent fabric like children unwrapping chocolate bars. Frightened, Garth ran back to his tent- without a living human inside it the zombies hadn’t paid it any attention. He quickly grabbed his backpack and bolted from the camp. In a few minutes he made it to the cracked pavement, but he could still hear the screams of agony as zombies shredded everything and everyone back at the camp.

Garth was useless, he knew that. He could hardly hold his own in a fight and when the fight had gotten too tough, he ran. Garth kept running though, his feet carrying him anywhere as long as it was away from that camp. Garth didn’t stop running until daylight broke the horizon and illuminated the buildings around him. As Garth came to a stop, he looked up at the stone stairs and marble columns of the city’s library.

AN: Sorry for the delay, this past weekend I was very busy with volunteering at a convention as well as helping my husband operate his vendor booth. It was very tiring but so rewarding. See you all on... maybe not Thursday this week, but by Saturday for sure!