Barnaby's Buccaneers

Madeleine and Emma woke the next morning feeling tired. Neither had slept very well and they sat on the edges of their beds, heads lolling for a while before they managed to get moving. They went through their morning ritual and headed out for the day. The ground was damp; it had obviously rained during the night. “I had strange dreams last night – scratching and crashes and stuff,” Emma said with a yawn. “Weird,” replied Madeleine, “I had dreams like that as well.” As usual, they first went to check on their trash bins before breakfast. This morning however there was a surprise waiting for them. The bins were lying all over the grass in various states of destruction, their contents strewn far and wide around the area. The organics bin having taken the worst damage. It had large gouges down the side and the lid, ripped off at the hinge, was nowhere to be seen. Madeleine and Emma were speechless and just stood staring at the maelstrom laid before them. Emma was the first to recover and started looking around. There were bags that had obviously been chewed on, empty water bottles with large, round punctures in their sides and only a few remnants of actual food waste. She came across a sheet of cardboard near the fence that she picked up and, looking at it, her jaw dropped. “Madeleine, look at this!” Madeleine came over, looking around at the mess as she went. Emma turned the cardboard around and showed Madeleine what she was looking at. There was a huge paw print in the centre of it, twice as big as a full-grown human’s hand. Then Madeleine noticed the fence. There were scratches from the ground to the top on one section and a few loose boards. “What do you think it was?” asked Madeleine. “Sasquatch, definitely,” replied Emma with her brow furrowed. “Any other possibilities?” “Well, I guess it could be a bear...” Emma said, obviously convinced her first conclusion was more likely. “We need to get a counsellor.” “Yeah, let’s go.” They caught Jake, the Oaks’ counsellor on his way to the mess hall with several of his purple-shirted campers, Sam and Oliver included. They waited until the rest of the campers had wandered a few paces away then had Jake follow them, Sam and Oliver giving Madeleine and Emma quizzical looks as they followed. Jake was just as speechless as Madeleine and Emma had been when he saw the mess. Once he was able to speak again, he sent Oliver to go get The Head. “That’s a bear alright,” Bill said when he arrived. “Are you sure it’s not a Sasquatch?” asked Emma, looking disappointed. Bill looked at her for a moment before answering, “This time of year all the sasquatches are out west.” This seemed to placate Emma and she nodded in agreement, “Makes sense.” “I’m going to have to call animal control; we can’t have a bear running loose on the island. Jake, let the other counsellors know and tell them not to let any campers outside the fence.” Emma looked up to Bill suddenly, a look of triumph on her face, “It may have been left behind!” “Huh?” said The Head, taken aback. “The Sasquatch... when the others migrated west!” “Oh—umm, maybe. Anyway...” The Head looked at Jake and bade him to hurry and spread the word. Jake ran off to find the other counsellors and The Head turned to Madeleine. “We’re going to need to clean this up and move all the bins away from the cabins. Probably down to the beach would be best.” Madeleine looked at The Head, concern all over her face. Bill immediately knew what she was thinking. “Don’t worry; we’ll make sure someone keeps an eye on it to stop any funny business. Besides, they’ll be more visible this way.” “Ok, thanks,” said Madeleine. “I’ll go and get some campers from the mess hall to help with this.” Bill walked off leaving Madeleine and Emma to get some bags and start picking up the torrent of trash. Soon there were campers everywhere, picking up garbage and moving the bins down to the beach. Madeleine and Emma had spent the cleanup answering questions and recounting what they had found. In no time, the entire camp was aware of what had happened, Emma desperately trying to muster support for her Sasquatch theory. At one point, Madeleine noticed Markus standing between two of the cabins, a smirk on his face as he surveyed the scene. He then walked off and she didn’t see him for the rest of the clean up. The work was finished in no time and the campers floated away in groups, talking excitedly about what bears would mean for the camp. “Oh man, this isn’t going to go over well with the parents,” said Emma. “I’m just glad the newspaper reporter wasn’t here today instead of yesterday,” said Sam. “Yeah, really. That would have been horrible,” said Madeleine. Madeleine walked over to the hole in the fence and looked through. She could see large tracks in the damp soil, heading off into the woods towards the east. She looked around to make sure the coast was clear and slipped through the hole. Emma stuck her head through the fence, “What are you doing?” “Looking to see where the tracks go.” Emma’s head disappeared and Sam came through the hole. Oliver and Emma looked at each other, shrugged, then followed. They followed the tracks quickly; Oliver bringing up the rear looking around nervously like his head was on a swivel. “You do realise what we’re doing here right? We’re following a bear,” said Oliver nervously. “Alleged bear,” said Emma. “Ok, alleged bear, but something with huge claws and teeth.” “I think they’re nocturnal,” said Madeleine, watching the trail. “Th–think?” stammered Oliver. “Pretty sure.” “Great,” said Oliver, starting to walk backwards. They followed the tracks for several minutes before Madeleine stopped. “Look, the tracks separate here. One set heading towards camp and one away.” “Which should we follow?” asked Sam. “Let’s find out where it came from.” They all agreed and turned off to the right to follow the tracks heading to camp. Shortly Madeleine stopped again, “Hey, we’re near the McGlargle hut.” “Yeah, I can actually see it,” Sam said, pointing through the trees. They kept going and the trail went right past the hut and to the beach where they went to watch the McGlargle building site. The tracks stopped at the beach alongside a large, flattened area. They searched around the area looking for tracks leading away from the beach. “Hey, over here. There’re footprints in the sand,” said Oliver. “Well, yeah... what do you think we’ve been following?” asked Emma. “No, I mean human footprints.” “Or a werebear!” said Emma excitedly. “Werebear?” asked Madeleine. “You know... a human that turns into a bear during the full moon!” “Emma...” Emma looked at Madeleine, the smile falling off her face. “Ok, ok... human tracks.” Sure enough, there were dozens of large footprints with deep tracks all around the flattened area. “How come they didn’t get washed away?” asked Sam. “They must have been made after the rain,” replied Madeleine. “This makes no sense,” said Oliver. Madeleine thought for a moment then suddenly the light bulb went on. “Oh my,” said Madeleine, looking at each Buccaneer in turn. “Could this possibly mean someone brought the bear here?”