THE CURSE OF CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE

Chapter Eight

They searched all the buildings but saw no sign of Ian, Candy or Derek. They called for their friends but no one answered. The Doctor's face was grim when they finally stopped calling to them and met by the fire.

"We've searched the area and there's no sign of them. We have to assume they're lost or missing," the Doctor said to everyone. "And we have to hope that they're still alive."

"But why would Ian and Candy run off?" Tim said. "Derek was furious over Rose but Ian and Candy, why did they leave?"

"Ian was upset over Jenny's behavior earlier," Rose said, glancing at Jenny. "She didn't like you taking off your clothes and letting others having a go at ya. Maybe he decided to get his revenge with Candy."

"But he knew we might do something like fondling one another," Jenny said. "It's not like we came here to just sit around on our thumbs."

"I'm just tellin' ya what he said earlier," Rose said with a shrug.

"That's not like Ian though. He wouldn't do that to me, even to get revenge," Jenny said.

"I agree. It's not Ian's style," Tim said.

"Ian was helping us investigate. Maybe he recruited Candy when you lot went into the cabins and he found something."

"Or something found him," Denisha said grimly.

"I thought you didn't believe in Jason," the Doctor said to her.

"I don't know what to believe at this point but I know that Ian and Candy wouldn't go off without telling anybody. And they would have made their presence known when we were calling for them. Something's wrong."

"What do we do?" Tim said.

"Split up?" Jenny said.

The Doctor considered that.

"We shouldn't go too far from each other, just in case," the Doctor said. "We need to report back here every few hours and compare notes. And each group should be mixed, men and women."

"I'm going with ya," Rose said to the Doctor.

"Jenny and Denisha can come with me then," Tim said.

"Okay, be careful out there. Call to us if there's anything the slightest bit wrong and we'll do the same."

"We have a small hatchet in my backpack, we can use that for protection," Tim said. "What about you?"

"We have protection," the Doctor said.

They waited while Tim rummaged through his backpack and got a small hatchet out. When they were ready, the Doctor and Rose walked down to the lake and kept to the perimeter while Tim and the girls explored the woods beside it. While the Doctor and Rose walked by the lake, Rose tried her mobile.

"No signal," she said after trying to call information four times.

"This is a remote area and after all that's happened here, I'm sure the phone company is in no hurry to set up a mobile tower," the Doctor said.

"So if we go get the police, we'll have to do it on foot," Rose said.

"Or go back to the road. We could always ring Luke and ask him to come here but we need to find Derek, Candy and Ian before that happens. If we leave them here to go get help, they might end up dead by the time we get back."

"What if we run into Jason?" Rose said. "What sort of protection do we have?"

"Me," the Doctor said. "And if we find him, he better be the one who starts running because I'll put an end to him and his legend once and for all."

They walked along the side of the lake for several minutes, looking around for any signs of life. Then suddenly the Doctor caught sight of something on the other side of the lake and stopped.

"Look," he said to Rose as he pointed across the lake.

Rose looked where he was pointing. At first she couldn't see anything but then she noticed that there was a wall of brown in between a thick grove of trees. She looked harder and realized it was part of a cabin. Her eyes widened and the Doctor nodded when he saw her expression.

"The shrine cabin?" Rose said to him.

"Dunno but it seems odd that one cabin is across the lake and away from all the others. And I doubt after all the hullabaloo here that anyone would be daft enough to make a home in the middle of serial killer central."

"Should we go and investigate then?" Rose said.

The Doctor considered that. He glanced at the forest and thought about Tim and the girls. He considered the options and came on an idea.

"I have a plan, at least to get the drunken nonprofessionals out of harm's way," the Doctor said.

"Yeah?" Rose said.

"We'll send them back to the road. Give them Luke's number and they can phone him and have him ring the police. That way we can investigate the cabin and not have to worry about them getting lost in the woods."

"They won't like the idea of getting the police."

"I don't care what they like. Because of their foolishness, some of their friends may be dead. They need to own up to what they did and get the police to come in here and help find their friends while we try to stop Jason or whoever is terrorizing this area."

Rose nodded. The Doctor called to Tim, Jenny and Denisha and when they came out of the woods and met them by the water's edge, the Doctor explained the plan to them. As Rose predicted, they were less than enthusiastic about alerting the authorities but the Doctor was firm with them and they knew they wouldn't win the argument. Rose gave Tim Luke's phone number and hurriedly wrote down her own phone number so they could contact her and the Doctor if they needed to. Once Tim had the phone numbers, he turned with the girls and went back to the fire for their backpacks. The Doctor and Rose watched them and when they had their backpacks and were on their way, they turned and started walking along the perimeter of the lake, making their way towards the cabin.

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