The Fort In The Woods

(Full Audio Version of this Story is Located at the Bottom)

“By Mom!” We’re going for a hike in the woods.”, shouted Kevin. Little did they know that this was going to be on heck of a story to tell when they got older.

Kevin and his friends Chuck and Sid all went camping with their families for a week, at the same time of the year each summer. Every summer Kevin, Chuck and Sid had a blast. They would ride their bikes, go canoeing up the river to the lake, go swimming and just play all day. There was never a day they weren’t seen together playing around the campgrounds. There was even a day we they were seen outside during a hail storm with their baseball helmets on with wood bats, trying to hit chunks of hail at each other.

Today they decided to take a hike through the woods up to a secret spot they heard about from some other older boys staying at the campground. The secret spot was apparently a long way out in the woods, far from the campgrounds. Out in the woods there was a clearing next to a pond where some other boys have built a fort. This was not just any fort though. It was a double story fort, about ten feet off the ground in a huge maple tree. The tree fort was supposibly full of old furniture, camping lanterns, all kinds of toys, including BB Guns and Sling Shots, and there were also supposed to be stacks and stacks of comic books. Of course, what is a tree fort next to a pond without a rope swing. Where you could swing from the top story of the fort over the pond and do flips into the water.

To Kevin, Chuck and Sid, this sounded like heaven on earth. The older boys had given them them directions to get there. They were supposed to take the path just left of the community bathrooms on the south side of the campgrounds. Take that until they came to a point where the path splits. From there, they were to stay on the path going to the right. Then take that path until they got to a super steep hill. Then they had to climb the hill using the rope that was hanging there. Once they got to the top, they should be able to see the pond where the fort was. Then keep following the path at the top of the hill down to where the path split again. From there, they were supposed to stay to the left. Then it would take them straight there.

Easy enough the boys thought. To maximize their time at the fort. The boys planned to leave early in the morning after they had breakfast. They didn’t want to go on an empty stomach. Each of the boys packed up a backpack with water, snacks, bug spray, and their bathing suits.

The next morning, off they went, to the south side of the campground. While walking, an older man with a campground maintenance logo on his shirt stopped them.
“You boys going to the fort?” asked the old man.
“Maybe, what’s it to you?”, snarkily replied Chuck.
“Did some older boys tell you to take the path to the left or to the right? The reason I’m asking is that some of the older boys like to play jokes on the younger ones telling them to go to the left. That will just lead you around the campgrounds, and have you end up back to where you started. If you take the path to the right, it will lead you straight to the fort.” instructed the old man.
“Dangit! I knew those jerks were up to no good.” Yelled Sid.
The old man just laughed and said, “Well, now you know. Good Luck Boys!” and off he went.

Kevin, Chuck and Sid soon made it to the community bathrooms and stopped.
“Did you guys catch the name on that old mans shirt?” asked Sid.
“Yeah, it was something weird, all I could read was it was that it was something like MOLO-something.” said Kevin.
Chuck chimed in, “Did the boys say left and the old man say right, or was it the old man say left and the boys say right?”
“The boys said left and the old man said right.” Kevin said.
“Who do we believe?” asked Sid.
“I say we go left like the boys said, if we do circle back around to the campgrounds then we’ll just come back and take the path to the right,” Kevin replied.
“Sounds Good” the other boys replied.
So, off they went, down the path to the left. They walked for a little while and came to where the path split.

“Oh man, that old man confused me. Are we supposed to go to the left or right at the split?” asked Chuck.
“To the right!” exclaimed Kevin, “You have to work on your memory!”
The boys took off down the path to the right, and came to the steep hill. Sure enough, there was a rope hanging there.
The boys climbed up the hill and got to the top. From there they could see the pond, and faintly make out where the tree fort was.
“That old man was full of it!” exclaimed Sid.
The boys started their way down the path. Talking about what they wanted to do first. Go on the rope swing, check out the comic books, have something to eat, shoot the BB guns.
“I say we check out the comics while we have a snack, then go on the rope swing.” Chuck said.
“Sounds Good!”, the other boys replied.
The boys then came to the last split in the path. Without hesitation all of them just stayed to the left. Thinking the old man was either confused or just messing with them. Plus, the directions the boys gave them have been right so far.

After walking through the woods for what seemed to be much longer than it should have taken. The boys could see a clearing up ahead in the path. Their pace quickened with excitement.
“This is going to be Awesome!”, said Chuck.
As they got to the edge of the woods, there it was. All the boys stopped in their tracks and just looked with jaws wide open.
“It’s the Friggen campground!” Yelled Kevin.
“What the Heck happened?”, said Sid.
“Son of a Monkey!”, exclaimed Chuck.
The other boys looked at Chuck and questioned, “Son of a Monkey?”
Kevin looked down at his watch to see what time it was. It was already time for dinner.
“Well, that was the longest hike to nowhere. Let’s just go back to our site and plan to try it again tomorrow. This time we’ll start earlier, and know to go to the right at the last split in the path.” said Kevin.
“Alright. I’m tired and hungry anyway.”, replied Chuck.
“Me too. Sounds good.”, agreed Sid.
The boys went back to their campsite and saw that everyone else had finished eating and were gathering around the campfire for some games, stories and s’mores.

Kevin’s parents told the boys to grab some food and come sit around the campfire and eat.
“You boys can have dinner and a show.”, Kevin’s dad jokingly said.

As soon as the boys sat down, Sid’s dad stood up and started telling a story.

“Many years ago, when I was a boy, I would camp here with my friends, just like the three of you. One day, we heard of a fort off in the woods from a group of older boys. So, like most kids, we were on a mission to get there. Just before we got to where the path began on the south side of camp by the bathrooms, an old man stopped us and told us to go “Right” where the older boys had told us to go left. The old man said if we go left, we would just circle back around to camp. If we went right, we would go straight to the fort. We decided to follow the directions the boys gave us. Thinking if they were wrong, we would just get back to camp and try again the next day. Sure enough, we made it all the way to the top of the hill where we could see the fort. We all thought the old man was full of it, and must have just been messing with us. So, we kept following the boys directions. Wouldn’t you know it, we ended right back to the campgrounds.”

At this point Kevin, Chuck and Sid were mesmerized at what Sid’s dad was saying. They’re eyes were as wide as saucers and mouths open, showing their half eaten hamburgers.
Sid’s dad kept telling his story. “So, we thought, heck, we’ll just follow the path again tomorrow. This time we’ll take the path to the right instead of going left at the last split. Turns out though, the next day we started our way to the path by the bathrooms, and after about 100 feet or so into the woods, we came out onto a party store parking lot. It was like the path we took the day before never existed.”
Sid, Chuck and Kevin were all looking at each other. They were seriously freaked out by this point. They couldn’t believe it. Did the same thing just happen to them?

Sid’s dad didn’t stop his story there. He continued. “My friends and I were super confused and freaking out. We couldn’t let go of what just happened. So when we got home, we all started to try and find out what was going on. We were wondering if we went into another multi-dimensional universe or something. After weeks and weeks of research we never could get a real answer. The closest we got, was from an old news article we found. It turns out, long ago, a group of boys had a similar experience. They said they didn’t remember much. The only thing the boys did remember, was trying to get to the fort and started to take the path off to the right, then nothing. It turns out the boys had gone missing for two days. The boys were later found by a member of the search party. Apparently, they were all pale, sweaty and shaking, and the only thing they could say was…Go Left, Go Left, Go Left!”

Sid’s dad paused for a moment. Looking like he had to collect himself. He continued, “We later found out that one of the boys died shortly there after, and the other two took their own lives. No one really knows what happened when they took the path off to the right. To this day I’m not sure if that fort ever existed. What will always burn in my mind though is this. I do remember getting a good look of the nametag on that old mans shirt. It read “Moloch”. So I looked up that name to try and find out more. The only thing I could find out was that “Moloch” was supposedly a deity associated in biblical sources with the practice of child sacrifice. Or as most people know him as…THE DEVIL.”
Sid’s dad ended his story there. He then looked over at Kevin, Chuck and Sid and asked, “Are you boys alright?”
All three of the boys were sitting there pale white and frozen in fear.

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Thank You For Reading...

        The Fort In The Woods

Written and Read By: Dwayne R. Nawrocki (Campfirestoriesandsmore.com)

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Camp Happy And With A Purpose!!