The Unusual Camping Trip
Day one was a rather slow day. Not much has happened other than a long two-hour drive. About 140 miles south-southeast of the Ing family's home is where their ideal camping trip was located. It was surrounded by beautiful clear, blue lakes and high, snow-capped mountains with a huge forest due west. The terrain, where the Ing family set up camp, was a rocky place. There wasn't much vegetation, except for a few randomly scattered patches of grass.
The Ing family, was a rather young family. The father, Senna, was the oldest at thirty-six. The mother, Cindy, was just two and a half years younger. Their daughter, Diana, was ten years old, just shy of eleven. They always had the love of travel. They were all brave, except for Diana, who was rather shy.
Upon arrival, the family unpacked and set up the tent. It was a medium-sized pyramid-shaped tent of blue and green colors alternating in a fascinating pattern. At the top was a small opening that would allow air to circulate through the tent. The tent carried a rather unexpected event: there was a stake missing. They checked the packages, but never found it. Suddenly, Diana found it lying on the ground just below the trunk of their van.
After the tent was set up, the family didn't know what to do next. They were right next to a mountain that towered 4650 feet above the surroundings to the southwest and a lake to the east in which they could go swimming or boating. There was open plain about a half a mile to the north, but there wasn't much of anything worthwhile there. To the south-southeast was a small forest, but not where anyone would like to go. There are some very mean animals living in that forest with quicksand pools found randomly.
"What should we do?", said Diana. "We could go boating over in that lake. We could also climb that big mountain. Any ideas?"
"I don't know," replied Senna, "however, according to information on my map, they have boats for rent".
"I brought my camera," said Cindy in an excited manner, "and I would love to take pictures from on top of that mountain".
It was a tough choice, not everyone wanted to do the same thing. Eventually, the idea of chance came to Diana's mind.
"How about we roll a dice and let probability decide for us?", asked Diana. "I have a way to split the chances fairly. First, let's agree on which numbers do what. I say a one and four goes for boating, two and five for climbing the mountain, and six and three for exploring. Agree?" The family thought about it and agreed. Diana tossed the die up into the air about ten feet and let it drop. To their surprise, the die landed on a slant with the four and the five facing up. They shook it again and it landed on a five. They agreed to it and started to prepare. Suddenly, the radio was making the sound of a weather alert. They said that severe weather was heading toward the area and would expect to arrive in fifteen minutes.
The radio made an announcement about the weather. It said, "The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Menda county. Winds are expected to reach about 45 miles an hour and has a history of three-quarter inch hail. According to Doppler Radar, the storm is expected to arrive in Menda City fifteen minutes from now and Twentoo in forty minutes." This didn't look too good. Senna looked to northwest where Menda City was located and saw a huge, dark cloud. The storm was to arrive in the camping area in twenty-five minutes.
About twenty-minutes later, the storm arrived, but it was no where near as strong as it was announced on the radio. This made the family confused. Once the storm left, it kicked up strength again and fast. Diana and Cindy were the most confused.
There were no other storms heading their way so the family started to prepare for the climb. They gathered their supplies and loaded their backpacks. The mountain was mostly gradual slopes on the side they were climbing; however, on the other side, it got steep and was too dangerous.
They started their long climb up, however, Cindy found a suspicious-looking rock. She picked it up and put the five-pound rock in her backpack. On the top, you could see for miles. Cindy took ten pictures in all. The first was of the suspicious-looking rock and the second was of their camp site from the top. The other eight were taken in each of the eight directions making a circle. She took them so accurately that she thinks that the scenery could be processed into a 3D image on their computer so they can explore it on their computer game they created.
After day one came to a close, there was another storm warning, except it was traveling twenty miles away from them at the closest. They realized the same effect from the previous storm. When it arrived at the camp, it weakened quickly, but when it left, it strengthened. They soon fell asleep in their tent.
On day two, it was really hot. Temperatures were in the forecast to reach the high nineties. At ten in the morning, they walked to the lake and looked at boats. They had jet skies. Senna and Cindy were capable of using them, but Diana was scared of them as she has never been on one. She was too young. They had slower versions of jet skies for children ten years and older. The beach had some odd rules for jet skiers. The most unusual was that the kids could go out on even numbered hours and adults could go out on the odd numbered hours. There was a special area blocked off by buoys that was for swimming. They all wanted to try jet skiing.
They each rented a jet ski. It was eighty dollars an hour to rent, which was very expensive. However, the family had a coupon for ten dollars off. The kids jet skis were sixty dollars an hour, but the family had no coupons for them. The family were millionaires from developing their game, so they had a lot of money they could spend. They only went for six hours.
Four and a half hours into the beach time, the family encountered a problem. Their jet ski suddenly stopped and it wouldn't start. They realized it was out of gas. Senna was stuck out in the middle of the lake. Cindy noticed Senna wasn't doing anything, so she went over to him. Senna noticed that the tank was suddenly full after being stuck for three minutes. He couldn't think about what caused that. He thought he was seeing things. He started it and it went on without problems. Cindy left and Senna continued playing around. Suddenly, Cindy ran out of gas. She checked the gas tank and realized it was definitely empty. The bell rang on the shore. This indicated that the ones out at sea should return to switch. Cindy couldn't do anything, but when she glanced at the gas gauge, it said that it was full. Cindy was confused. She started the engine again just like Senna did, and it went. Cindy checked the fuel tank and it was full. She was very confused on how the tank suddenly got full.
After returning, the two had a conversation about that incident.
"You know what, I ran out of gas out there!" Said Senna.
"I did too. I checked the tank and it was empty. After taking my eyes off the gas gauge for about three minutes and looked at it again, it was on the F." said Cindy. It couldn't be explained. There was just too much confusion between this and how it happened. Diana decided to try jet skiing. Her jet ski couldn't get to ten miles an hour. It was a safety precaution taken for children. Children long ago decided to play a little game with the ones that went fifteen, but there were too many injuries. This way, the speed is cut in half. Diana's topped out at seven miles an hour. Cindy's, the fast one, reached thirty. It was an intelligent safety precaution which also explains the weird hourly rule the camping site managers have. Adults could still go out, but they could only use the ones that were slow. This was a requirement if they had children under ten.
After having a fun time, they returned to the camp site, but something was unusual. Somehow, there were three extra stakes that match the exact shape as the Ing family's tent. The other tents in the entire camping site had totally different shapes. They thought that this was some kind of interesting joke, but indeed, they were surprised. They also found a letter in their tent. The family tied their tent up so no one can get in, but there was a letter inside that wasn't there before. There were no rips in the tent to signify that someone got in. How could it have gotten there? The note was rather unusual too. The note showed weird symbols. They couldn't explain them, but they realized that it was a map of the forest that was dangerous. There was a large red "X" over the very center of the forest. They remembered pirate movies where "X" marks the spot. They didn't want to go into that forest, but eventually, another note was found inside their van. The van was locked so no one could get in. This made it extremely confusing. The family had one day left. That day was exploring.
After a good night's sleep, the family decided to enter that forest. There weren't any dangerous creatures to be found anywhere. They soon reached the center, but it was open. There was an area that was two hundred feet in diameter of open space where no vegetation grew. The family thought it was quicksand. Diana threw a big, heavy rock out, but it never sank. Diana walked out slowly moving the rock toward the
center. Neither the rock nor Diana sank one bit. They found a red "x" in the dirt. There was another unusual rock just like the one Cindy found on the mountain. Diana took it and ran back. The family exited the forest safely without the worry of any danger. They were finished with their camping trip, but the empty tank event happened once more. When the family arrived, the tank was two-thirds full. Now it was pure empty. Senna, shocked, went under the van and saw that the fuel tank was completely empty. They believed that they had an unexpected visitor with them all this time and didn't know it, but the visitor remained invisible. They believed that a friendly ghost was playing with them. After realizing it, Senna realized that the tank was completely full. He thought it was the ghost that did that. Senna was amazed. They got up and drove back home. They had another incident. This time there was a flat tire. Getting the spare tire out, the original tire was back to normal. The ghost never did anything to the Ing family after this last event.
Cindy went to a rock specialist in Menda City, but the rock specialist couldn't identify the rock. He paid the family twenty grand for each rock for his museum. However, weird events started to happen in the museum just like the events the family has encountered. The manager was suspicious about those two rocks and thought that they were holy.
One night, the largest of the two rocks as bright as a forty watt light bulb. This occurred at two in the morning. The manager set up cameras all over the entire museum for security, but the lights were turning on without anyone getting in. The cameras covered every square inch of the entire museum, but not one showed up. The lights went off after about fifteen minutes. The manager called the Ing family about
seven in the morning on day eight and asked about the rocks. The family remembered the note about the symbols. They drove to Menda City again and showed them everything. The rock specialist was shocked from the symbols. There were some tiny symbols etched in the rocks that matched the exact same shape as the ones on the letter. The rock specialist decided to chip a piece off the rock to see if it had something. At 1750 times the normal size, the rock specialist found something suspicious. Removing the strange material, nothing happened. Suddenly, the lights went off. They thought that the same incidents were happening totally unexpectedly. No one could explain the two rocks.
Geologists explored the area where the Ing family were and one mile in all directions for similar rocks. There were none found. Over the night, the manager accidentally left the two rocks right next to each other. By two in the morning on day ten, there was a light coming from the museum that was so bright that it could light up a store covering one square mile. It even woke residents up nearby to turn the light off. When the manager returned to view the cameras, they were showing white light for two hours and it suddenly went away.
Diana thought that if the rocks were close together, they'd produce their own light and the closer, the brighter. They tested it in the middle of the desert. They made it so that the two rocks were touching each other. Nothing happened. The next day it made a light so bright that on a clear day, it can be seen from fifty miles away. Suddenly, the rocks broke into thousands of pieces. The light never shown again. The weird events that happened never occurred again. However, another family in central Africa found a similar set of rocks with the same exact properties.
Notes on story: This was a story I typed up from a school assignment and I thought it may interest anyone. It's not of the true format I do, but, however, it gives you a general idea on how well it can get. Since the mass-upgrade of Rise of Atlantis, my quality is likely much greater than this.
Footnotes:
There are no footnotes for this page.
