They reached the cave a little past noon. Whatever fire had caused the smoke Amelia observed earlier had apparently grown in intensity, for even Daria could see the far-off plume now. Seeing it only deepened the pit she felt growing in her stomach all morning.

Inside the cave, the counselors took the food and set it up at the cave's rear. (It was less of an actual cave and more of a dent in the hill's surface). For a while, the counselors tried to entertain the kids by having them sing songs and play simple games, but after an hour most of them went outside. Quinn's friend Tracy snickered that the counselors had all gone off to 'do it', but most of the other campers didn't know what that meant. ("Do you know what 'do it' means, Daria?" Amelia had asked. Daria just rolled her eyes).

XXXX

"Quinn, you broke my Walkman!"

Daria was distracted from her thoughts by Tracy complaining to Quinn.

"I did not, Tracy! It just started making that funny sound!"

"What funny sound?" Daria asked, hoping she could listen to the news on the radio.

"It's like...a dial tone, or something," Tracy said. "Here, you're a geek, maybe you can fix it." Tracy thrust the Walkman into Daria's hands, then walked away dismissively.

Daria slid the headphones on and her heart nearly stopped. "No..." she uttered. It was the high-pitched warble of the Emergency Broadcast System.

"This is the Emergency Broadcast System," a voice spoke out over the tone, confirming Daria's fear. "Please do not change the channel. Do not leave your homes or places of business. If you are outside, seek shelter immediately. If you are within twenty miles of the following cities, please evacuate as orderly as possible: Boston, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Maryland, Washington, DC, Norfolk, Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina, Jacksonville, Florida..."

Daria slid the headphones off, sickened. It didn't make any sense at all, but something bad, very bad, terrible had happened.

She had to get home.

On impulse, she leaned over to Amelia. "Where are you from, Amelia?"

"Oh, Baltimore, why?"

Daria felt as if she would throw up. She looked at the other campers and wondered how many of them were from Baltimore. She considered the conflagration that was growing intensity some miles away. Baltimore was about that far away.

"Do you still have the can opener?" she asked.

"Yeah. Why, Daria?" Amelia was confused by the sudden change of subject.

"Here, take my backpack, and go put as many cans of food as you can into it, and yours too. We're leaving in five minutes."

"Really?" Amelia was at once filled with fear and joy. Fear at the unknown, at getting caught and punished...and joy, at going on a wild adventure with her best pal Daria.

Daria felt uneasy about asking Amelia to come along -- she barely tolerated the girl -- but she knew that in the coming days she would need as much help as she could to get by.

That wasn't why she was walking towards Quinn, though. She knew Mom would kill her if she let anything happen to Quinn.

"Quinn, we're leaving now. Let's go."

Quinn looked at her increduously, as she drew puzzled looks from Tracy, Cindy, and Tatijiana, Quinn's comrades.

"Gee, Quinn, why is your cousin (or whatever) in such a hurry to leave?" Tracy snarked. "Are you two going to a geek meeting or something?"

"Why of COURSE not, Tracy!" Quinn exclaimed. "Our family's distant...adopted...war orphan was just telling a joke. Now run along, uh, Daria," she said, shooing her sister away.

"I don't have time for games, Quinn," Daria grabbed Quinn's arm and pulled her up.

"Hey! Let me go! Daria, that hurts!" Daria ignored Quinn's protests as she dragged her over to Amelia. "You stuffed the backpacks?" she asked.

"Yeah." Amelia looked at Quinn, a faux-nauseated look on her face. "Do we have to bring her?"

Daria nodded. "I'm afraid so. Grab her other arm." Amelia complied. "Okay, let's go."

They reached the mouth of the cave, but were stopped by Skip. "Hey there, campers, where do you think you're going?" he asked with his damn cheery grin.

"We're leaving," Daria explained.

"She's kidnapping me!" Quinn shouted. Skip ignored her.

"Now now, Daria, you know you're supposed to play along like a good camper. Isn't this hike fun?" He smiled, trying to convince Daria that, yes, this hike was indeed fun.

"No. Get out of my way." She tried to veer past him, but Skip blocked her path further.

"Daria, if you continue, I'll have to write you up, and I don't want to do that." Skip put on his serious face now.

"Fuck off, loser," Daria uttered, drawing gasps from all the campers.

"She said the F word!" they began whispering amongst themselves.

"Daria! I'm writing you up for sure! There is no swearing at Camp Grizzly!"

Daria regarded him for a moment, then sucker-punched him in the groin.

"Oh fuck!" Skip whined, as he clutched himself and fell over.

As Daria and Amelia walked outside with a now-compliant Quinn, Daria cast one look back. "Write this up, Skip," Daria said, extending her middle finger.

When they were out of sight of the cave, Amelia spoke up. "Daria! That was so...so fucking cool!" Amelia giggled and covered her mouth, amused at her own boldness.

Quinn finally found words of her own. "Daria, what the heck was that?" she demanded. "You just totally humiliated me in front of my friends! How could you? Quinn began her dramatic crying, as Daria had dubbed it: the fake crying Quinn did to generate the maximum amount of drama.

Daria decided to drop the bomb. "Quinn, there was a nuclear attack."

"W-what?" Quinn and Amelia asked simultaneously.

"The lightning storm you saw last night, Amelia? Those were the flashing of nuclear weapons being detonated. That smoke-" Daria pointed to the still-growing column in the distance. "-- That's Baltimore. It's burning because a nuclear bomb went off and killed all the firemen and everyone else and set everything on fire."

"No...no, please, Daria, no," Amelia begged. Daria realized her mistake too late.

"Oh God, I'm sorry, Amelia," Daria said, and actually meant it. "But it's not safe here. We have to get home as soon as possible."

"Home?" Quinn asked. "But Texas is, like, a hundred miles away!"

"Daria, if...if what you said is right..." Amelia burst into tears.

Daria sighed. "Amelia...you can come with us," she said, hoping she wouldn't regret the words later. "I'm sorry," she added.

They began to walk down the hill again, Quinn on her own this time. After a few minutes, Amelia stopped them. "Uh...Daria, I think I had a little accident, when you told me earlier..."

"What?" Daria looked at Amelia, then noticed her shorts had been stained a few shades darker.

"EWWWWW!" Quinn shouted, backpedaling away from Amelia.

Daria sighed. This was looking like a worse idea every second. "It's okay, Amelia. Once we get back to camp, you can wash up and change into clean shorts."

They proceeded down the hill without any further interruption.

XXXXXXXXXX

It's funny, I watched Camp Fear again to look a few things up for this chapter, and I noticed Amelia was thin. I always thought she was fat. Why did I think that?