Authors: R. L. Stine

Camp Nowhere (10 page)

Silence.

Then another
choppp
.

The sound of a blade cutting into a tree trunk. This one up ahead.

“Hey—!” Anthony cried. “Is someone there? Who is it?”

Another
choppp
rang out through the trees. This one to their left, closer.

Marlin started running toward the sound. But he stopped at another sound of a blade slicing into a tree.

“Who is doing that?” he shouted.

“Who’s there?” Kristen cried.

April swept her flashlight beam around in a fast circle. She saw only trees and ferns and low shrubs.

No one there. No one.

Chop chop…choppp
.

All around them now. Close and far. Behind them. Up ahead. And to both sides. The swipe of a blade through the air. And the chopping…chopping…

Faster. Slice-slice-slice…

“I don’t understand this!” Kristen said in a trembling voice. She pressed her hands to her ears, as if
trying to shut out the chopping. The steady, horrible chopping…“Make it stop! Make it stop!” she wailed.

“We’ve got to get out of here!” Marlin cried.

Chop…chop…

“Let’s follow the path we made,” Anthony said, his eyes wide with fear. “Here’s the last chop mark.”

Choppp…choppp…
The cutting continued, all around them.

“No. Here’s the last one,” Kristen said, grabbing a palm tree trunk.

“This one has a slice,” April said. “And this one. And look—” Her words caught in her throat.

All of them.

Every tree!

Every tree trunk in the forest had a slice mark.

Who was doing it? There was no one there. No one in view.

But the horrifying sound continued to pound in their ears.

Chop…chop…choppp…

The machete trembled in Marlin’s hand. He raised it in front of him like a sword.

The steady chopping sounds echoed through the forest. Far into the distance.

“Who’s there?” Marlin called, waving the big knife. “Who is doing that?”

About the Author

R.L. STINE says he has a great job. “My job is to give kids the CREEPS!” With his scary books, R.L. has terrified kids all over the world. He has sold over 300 million books, making him the best-selling children’s author in history.

These days, R.L. is dishing out new frights in his series THE NIGHTMARE ROOM. When he isn’t working, he likes to read old mysteries, watch
SpongeBob Squarepants
on TV, and take his dog, Nadine, for long walks around New York City, where he lives with his wife, Jane, and son, Matthew.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

Read all the books in the NIGHT MARE room

series by R.L. Stine

#1 Don’t Forget Me!

#2 Locker 13

#3 My Name Is Evil

#4 Liar Liar

#5 Dear Diary, I’m Dead

#6 They Call Me Creature

#7 The Howler

#8 Shadow Girl

#9 Camp Nowhere

Credits

Cover design by John Fontana

Cover illustration by Vince Natale

Copyright

THE NIGHTMARE ROOM #9: CAMP NOWHERE
. Copyright © 2001 by Parachute Publishing, L.L.C. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Adobe Digital Edition June 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-190468-4

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