The Campsite

Blair didn’t go deep into the forest, yet. She swept around the perimeter of the three main buildings. They called the place where they lived simply, The Campsite. It was a campsite that was abandoned long ago. At first glance, it seemed like it could still be abandoned. When Isaac and his wife arrived many years ago, he renovated everything by himself, this facade of abandonment was intentional. Isaac knew that in order to protect his family, combined with his desire for non-violence, his first line of defence was invisibility. He also knew that the majority of people rarely paid attention to their surroundings, so if they had strangers passing through, they’d do just that: pass through. Probably hadn’t realized The Campsite was someone’s home.

There were three main buildings: the Main House, the Lake House, and Pine Manor. Blair walked the perimeter of the Main House where she watched Isaac go inside and return with washcloths, water, and other first aid items. She paused, looked on as Isaac washed the woman’s face.

Blair continued on, cutting a path through the trees that only she saw. A clearing brought her to Pine Manor, a giant building with multiple rooms that used to house most of the campers. Both the Main House and the Manor were decoys, of a sort. Isaac fully renovated the buildings, but with a specific intention. The outsides were all reenforced in order to be safe, but made to seem weathered. The insides, at least with the Main House and Pine Manor, have specific uses, each having grown and evolved over the years. Blair sat and watched Pine Manor for a few minutes. Isaac taught her that when she was doing a sweep, she should never rush into a building or area. Always wait, always watch. Give yourself the time to fully take in the building in order to notice if anything had changed. If you rushed, you could miss the smallest thing.

Blair approached the side of Pine Manor and peeked in a window. She spotted no changes. Inside the Manor on the ground floor, Isaac had turned it into a large garage for his truck, small car, three motorcycles, and two ATVs.

The back wall of the house was actually a fake wall, and opened like an automatic garage opener. Like most things at The Campsite, if you looked quickly at the back of the house, you wouldn’t notice anything unusual. Upon closer inspection, you’d notice the wheel tracks ending at the back wall of the house. Besides the vehicles, Pine Manor was almost a completely private mechanic’s shop filled with tools and machining equipment.

Blair quietly walked through the garage area and headed upstairs to the pantry. This was where they kept all their food, enough to almost supply an entire grocery store. Complete with refrigeration and freezers, canned foods, and all manner of preservatives. Besides the pantry, they had two full gardens, one behind Pine Manor and the other at the Lake House.

Everything seemed in order at Pine Manor. Blair exited the backdoor and disappeared back into the pine trees. The pine trees lined the entire perimeter and again, was intentional. From any building on The Campsite, Blair could slip out and be in the forest within moments.

She went south towards the lake. As she walked through the trees, they swayed and creaked. No matter how many times she stepped among them, she always revelled in how tall they were, reaching towards the sky, fighting with the wind. At times when the wind came off the lake in an oppressive way, the swaying of the trees was so much that it felt like they could topple over. They never did, or rarely did. Only when the tree was sick, old. Ready to fall.

Popping out from the trees on to Moonlight Beach, she stayed close to the trees that lined the sand. The trees protected her. As soon as she stepped on to the beach, the wind hit her full body. The trees also acted as windbreakers since this particular lake was known for its severe and powerful wind. Without the trees, Blair was hit with the full force of the wind blowing off the lake. She made her way to the deck, and up the wooden path that led to the Lake House. This was where they actually lived. Long ago, Isaac decided this was the safest building for them to sleep and let their guard down. It was deep into The Campsite, and for reasons that will become clear, if anyone breached the perimeter, they would be alerted well before anyone got close to them.

Again, Blair paused. Watching, waiting. Nothing seemed out of place, so she walked around the building, peeking inside windows. From the outside, this was an ordinary-looking house. But, this was the place you wanted to be if anything went down. Reinforced walls and doors, sliding covers to pull over windows, locks upon locks, and perhaps the most important element: the Command Station in the basement. In the mud room, there was a false wooden panel that led to the basement. Down there was a bank of monitors covering every area of The Campsite. Equipment, food, and anything else you’d need to keep yourself safe, if it came to that.

Blair wove her way back north through the dense forest. Running parallel to Cabin Alley, she popped in and out of the forest to do a walk-through of each cabin. This was another area where campers stayed, and again, Isaac renovated each one to look a bit rundown. Each one having a hiding space - under floorboards or behind a fake wall - that housed emergency backpacks if for some reason they needed to leave immediately.

Cabin Alley ended at an entrance to a hiking trail, one that went all the way back to the main house. In this area was remnants from different outdoor activities. Again, first impressions looked exactly like what you expected - abandoned camping activities. On closer inspection, things might look a little staged.

Among an old archery range, that was actually still in use by Isaac and Blair, there was the entrance to the tunnels. Blair lifted up a blanket that had leaves and other debris sewn into it. Under the blanket was what looked like a manhole cover. She took hold of a handle, turned it, and lifted up the cover. She took the blanket back on to the cover, making sure it would go back over top. She stepped down into the tunnel, down the ladder, and closing the manhole cover behind her. Blair was now down in the tunnels.