“So when did they say they were going to pick us up?” Destiny, the only girl in the group asked the rest of us. She had darker skin, I couldn’t tell but I was guessing either black or Spanish or maybe a mix. She had curly black hair, although the ends turned into a more brown then blonde color. She was probably in her thirties, maybe a little earlier. She had jeans and a t- shirt on, she was skinny and was wearing glasses with a purple frame. She was here because she apparently had a substance problem that was rearing its head again. She couldn’t afford rehab so this place was her next best bet.

“I think they said four, but with traffic it could be later than that.” Alex, this guy was older, maybe in his thirties or forties, white and overweight. He seemed like life had just beaten the shit out of him. From what little he said he seemed like a good guy, cheating ex wife who took the kids. Couldn’t get through college and ended in one crap job after the next, he wanted to try something new since the last place he worked fired him because of budget cuts.

“Uhh, I shouldn’t have gotten here so early.” Oliver, the guy complaining was some rich white guy that was here because of some rich guilt or something. Wanted to be in with the environment crowds, he didn’t seem genuine though. More like he wanted to get into the ‘ground floor’ of something before it got big. Wannabe, influencer and even though he tried to help it was all about himself so, I doubted he would be here long.

“I am just here to check on my buddy, Nate.” I was Chaska, or Chase for the kids at school. I had just graduated from the local high school, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my life. Probably just stay with the tribe, life there was calm and peaceful. I had only gone to school to see if there was anything I wanted to do but really, all the kids were assholes and the teachers were mostly racists.

Although, Nate and Cat were cool, Nate hadn’t even graduated when one day he just up and left. There were rumors about Matthew and his whole group trying to kill him, but I kind of figured them leaving at similar times was just coincidence. Nobody had ever found any bodies, so either attacked by a wild animal or they killed themselves somewhere else.

That was until a small post went out about a week ago, talking about a new place in the woods of town. There was all this inclusion and prosperity, loving nature and helping people who needed it. Giving you a life, getting you clean, even giving you purpose, to say I was skeptical about the whole thing would be an understatement. It sounded like some cult that was going to disappear after they started handing out punch.

However, on one of the posts there was a picture of the little camp they had, there were strange looking houses, farms, a nice lake, and a few people working around. They all seemed happy and healthy, but what caught my attention was that one of the people in the photo looked like Nate from behind. He was talking to some girl as they laughed in front of a large looking fire pit that they were cooking on.

I wasn’t sure if it was Nate or not, but they were close in town. And it seemed that only a few people were actually taking them as anything more than a creepy cult. So throwing a little caution to the wind, I headed over to the meeting place where they had us wait. Someone from the camp was going to come pick us up and show us the way to their camp, apparently there was no direct trail.

It turned to four o’clock when finally a pair of people walked out of the woods. A large guy that wasn’t wearing a shirt and a tall woman who was ridiculously attractive. They walked out of the woods like forest creatures seeing civilization for the first time.

Looking at them as they slowly approached, something felt off about them. They seemed almost unreal, their skin was clear and their eyes were both bright teal. The one guy was huge and had muscles that looked like he could rip a truck in half, while the girl was tall and fit and just wow. They both barely seemed to breathe, they both had a lot of exposed skin, and the way they walked was like everything in the world moved out of the way to let them pass. None of the trees brushed their skin, no sticks crunched beneath their bare feet, and not a single leaf rustled as they passed.

“Hello, we are the people that are going to take you to the camp.” The big guy talked with a voice that commanded respect, but did so without needing to force it. The woman looked at him with a gaze of understanding, it seemed that no one else would have a chance of getting her attention.

“So, when are we going?” Oliver asked as we sat there for another minute. He checked his watch a couple of times as the two forest people waited for us to do something. Destiny scratched at some marks on her arm, it seemed like waiting around wasn’t helping her at all. While me and Alex just waited, whoever these people were it seemed like messing with either of them was a bad idea.

“We are waiting for the last member of the group to get here.” The woman talked with a voice nearly as commanding as the guy. However, while he was like a father talking to his children, hers was like that of a Queen, silky and smooth like dripping honey. I was starting to question if this little cult actually had something real going on with it.

Then I questioned what member they were talking about, I looked around the rather empty street. There was no one there that was walking towards us, we hadn’t actually accepted anything to come here. They just said show up at this spot and they would be there at 4 to pick us up. Then a soft sound of shoes thumping the ground started growing louder.

I turned to see a young girl running over to us in sandals, waving her arms trying to get our attention. She was pale as a ghost, with freckles covering her face and shoulders, although they were hard to see with the oversized sun hat she was wearing. She was pretty average looking otherwise, not that short, normal weight, wearing Capri pants and a shirt that had something written on it underneath a jean jacket.

“Wait, wait up. Sorry I’m late, I went to the wrong address.” She was breathing heavily as she slowed her run to a slow walk. She then proceeded to trip on a stick that was on the ground, falling face first into the hard sidewalk.

But before she actually hit the ground, the tall guy grabbed her by the shoulder and hefted her to her feet. “Woah, thanks. Almost broke a tooth.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

She tried to laugh off the embarrassing incident, as the big guy stared at her with the same blank expression he’s had since he arrived.

“Now that everyone is here we can go.” The two forest people turned and walked into the forest, the woman was out front as the guy waited for us to follow her. The new girl proceeded to sit on the ground, and grab some more comfortable looking shoes from her bag. Slipping them on and rushing after the rest of us.

It was a long walk through the woods, as we trekked for nearly three hours before we got to a little river, and took a break to rest. We sat down on a few too conveniently placed logs and caught our breath. Our two tour guides were standing by the river, just basking in the sunlight. It was barely ten minutes before we picked up our hike again.

“Huh, are we getting close. This place seems really isolated.” Destiny asked, as we were encroaching on the fifth hour of our hike. The tour guides had barely talked other than to vaguely answer a couple of questions. I supposed I wasn’t the only one starting to get a little worried about where they were taking us, we barely got any bars out here.

“We are almost there.” The pair answered in startling unison. I took a deep breath to calm my ever increasing nerves, the only reason I hadn’t run by now was that Malina the new girl kept us distracted.

Melina Isla, was the daughter of some old Scottish nobility or something. They had left behind the title way back and focused on the money. So apparently she was loaded, not a bright thing to say when you were walking deep into the woods with strangers. But she was traveling all over the place nowadays. Visiting all the unique places in the world, how Arkansas was unique I wasn’t sure but whatever.

She had found out about the camp online and since she had money but wasn’t going to be taking over her parent’s business she decided to join to ‘find a place in this world’. Ohh the troubles of the wealthy elite, while the rest of us scraped by with barely enough to go on a vacation once in a while. The Scottish princess over here needed to travel and join some weird cult to find a purpose to fill the hours in a day.

After she finished beguiling her tale of strife and hardship, we finally saw the camp in the distance. Between a small gap in the trees, I saw the clearing that seemed to be filled with a simple looking rustic village. “Here we are.”

As we passed through the trees to the huge area that had been terraformed into some crazy rural town of the future. It had to be over eight acres of land that was a massive spot in the forest. In the very center was a tree that had to have been over 100 ft tall, it was so massive around the trunk that a dozen people would need to hold hands to wrap their arms around it. Truthfully I was kind of surprised we didn’t see it from town with the things massive size.

The rest of the clearing was filled with houses, painted any number of colors, some were more plain but vibrant mixes. While others were huge paintings, forests and gardens, some were deserts while others were mountains of ice and snow. It was breathtaking, although hardly the most interesting thing to see. The lake that occupied a rather central place in the camp looked crystal clear, you could see some small fish swimming in it. While the entire bottom was covered in some strange teal moss that spread throughout the lake.

The paths were filled with a strange wood or something, stepping on them revealed they were strong and sturdy with just a little give to them. As we walked through the town to come to a more centralized open style building. We crossed dozens of gardens and park-like areas, they were filled with all sorts of flowers and trees, bushes and vines that seemed to exist in some strange harmonious state. None of them vied for dominance or cover, they all existed at the benefit of each other.

“This is the central area where we convene.” The big guy spoke up from his usual silence. As he stared at the little Palapa, there were no walls, just a few pillars holding up a roof to provide shade and protection from the elements. In the little covering there was a huge map, revealing just how massive the little town was. There were dozens of buildings, paths etched out for each district. Storage facilities, factories, bathrooms, even several large fire hydrant-like areas to pump water. It was a little crazy since there were only supposed to be a half-dozen people here.

“You will all be allowed to stay in the bunkhouses, you will be given chores by the end of the week. Food can be found at the little cafeteria, take what you wish. The water from any of the small pumps or the lake can be drunk; it is all fresh and clean. Bathrooms are obvious, while you are here you can talk to any of the people here. They will know as much as we do about the camp here and what needs to be done.”

“We are happy to have you here, but until you are full members and decide to stay you will not be allowed a cabin. Otherwise you have full access to the rest of the camp. We do not tolerate hateful behavior nor do we accept violence, if you commit any actions we deem undesirable you will be forcefully removed.” The woman talked with a serious voice that threatened something far worse than being dragged from camp.

“I am John, this here is Niki, the rest of the camp will be by once they are done with their chores for the day. Just know that we accept all types of people, do not be afraid to express yourself, your insecurities, sexuality and gender are parts of you. Otherwise you are free to explore the camp, look around, relax, and converse with the people here. After that if you still wish to stay then chores will be assigned, if you wish to become full members we will decide if you are trusting and of like minds.”

We all sat and stared as they talked, I was still a little freaked out by this place. It was hard to put my finger on it, but there was something off here. Like one of those scary stories where everything looks nice and peaceful, but then you find out they are just sacrificing people to some old god.

“Umm, do you mind if I ask something?” I spoke up, I wasn’t sure if I should be acting formally or if that would be as offensive as acting informally.

“Please do, any questions can be asked. All information is free access to all of you.”

“Umm, is a kid named Nate living here?”

“Yes, he is currently in the cafeteria preserving crops from our last harvest and cooking a meal for tonight's dinner. His sister Catherine is working on the new houses at the South end.”

“Cool.” I was going to leave to find him, but since everyone else was still staying I decided to wait.

“Well, I came for the more healing nature of this place.” Destiny asked, she had been seemingly getting more anxious as the hike continued. I wasn’t sure what she normally did to fight urges but it seemed she couldn’t do it in the middle of the woods.

“Yes, if you will come with me. I will take you to my cabin to discuss any medical issues that you have come here seeking.” Niki held Destiny’s shoulder and escorted her to one of the more centralized houses like a mother caring for a sick child.

“Does anyone else have any questions?”

“Yeah so what would the electricity situation be like here?” Oliver asked as he checked his phone for the hundredth time since starting the hike.

“We do not have any generators or power here.”

“What? No chargers or outlets, nothing?” He looked at his phone, I questioned what he thought when he was walking out into the middle of the woods. I mean my phone was important to me, it was a necessity in the modern world. However, the camp was literally described as its own society away from the modern world.

“No.” John kept the same neutral expression, truthfully I would have smacked the guy. He was just annoying and tedious to be around, he didn’t seem like a bad guy but that doesn’t mean he was a joy to be around.

“Dammit, fine. Do you have anywhere I can store this?”

“There will be a small trunk to keep any personal belongings. Otherwise, no. Any other questions?”

The rest of us looked at each other, shaking our heads. John then turned without another word and proceeded to the large open fields. Checking the map revealed they were the farms that the place used for food. Looking over, there was a strange variety for this time of year.

We all stood up, each going our separate ways through the strange new world we found ourselves in.