Nathanael Smith—Gen Psych—TR 9:30
Author's Warning:
I had an unusual childhood: my education was mostly straight from either books or nature. And it was mixed all year long, no confusing nine-months-of-books, three-months-of-nature, or anything like that. Incidentally, I never went to summer camp but once, a "leadership camp." The only thing I took home was a book or two. I counted the camp a success.
Since I have no idea what a camp should be like, so I am going to describe the fantastic wonder of:
Camp Sauros
Using Yesterday's World
to Shape Today's Youth
into Tomorrow's Hope
Camp Sauros is certified by the WGE Survival Camp Certification Program
(from the brochure for Camp Sauros)
The world of Oligopolis is drastically changed from the world in which our grandparents—or even our parents—lived. Mankind has never demonstrated the power of intelligence, or the danger of that power, more perfectly than in this latest generation, which could be our last if we do not prepare our children for the horrors of this anachronistic world that we've created.
And how can we prepare our children for a world which we've never been exposed to? As we watch Oligopolis disintegrate from the inside out, we have created the curriculum which can give our children this most precious asset: preparing our children for their uncertain world is the reason Camp Sauros exists.
The camp is 150,000 acres of beautiful and rugged New New Mexico, on the Eastern edge of Australia's Western Plateau, filled with a wide array of classic and mechanical flora and fauna, designed to prepare the campers for a real world full of the neo-dinosaurs and other large carnivores which our parents have created and which we have lost control of.
The camp has been structured into four distinct areas, each lasting six days, and each running concurrently and consecutively. Your child can be sent to one or more of these, though we do require certification and written permission before the third or fourth area are permitted.
Camp Sandstone
Goal: Creation of a safe homespace
Psychological Tools: Complex behavior, classical conditioning
Camp Sandstone is the first area, an area in which your children are given training in proper techniques for the building of successful homespaces, as well as the recognition of and response to some of the various threats which they will face in tomorrow's world. In Camp Sandstone, we have a better camper-to-staff ratio than any other Survival Camp in the southern hemisphere.
Camp Behemoth
Goal: Preparation of wilderness edibles
Psychological Tools: Observational learning, negative reinforcement
Camp Behemoth is designed to either be used as a continuation of Camp Sandstone, or may be a first-step in the preparation. The training at Behemoth is intended to provide a basic level of vegetable and carcass appropriation and preparation, with master hunters and gatherers working with the campers, demonstrating the correct ways to procure edibles.
Camp Tyrant
Goal: Disguise of passage and presence
Psychological Tool: Punishment
Camp Tyrant is for those who have graduated from a level-2 Survival Camp, and conditions for the reality that for survival the new generation will be forced to keep a low profile; with beasts as large as the buildings we can build, and much more solid, our hope is to stay out of the way. Graduates from Tyrant are able to cope with that.
Camp Completion
Goal: Finishing touches on a survivor
Psychological Tool: Positive reinforcement
Camp Completion marks an end to the camp arc. It requires excellence in homespace selection, hunting, gathering, and hiding. Using a complex algorithm, we determine the excellence of each camper when compared with the norm, and reward using points which the campers may keep track of. At the end of the week, the total points will be permanently affixed to the graduate's certificate, thus demonstrating his excellence for life.
A graduate from Camp Completion is certified to be capable of living in the world, even after Oligopolis finally ceases functioning altogether. There need be no fear of Tomorrow: Our hope is growing here.
(end of brochure)
Notes from the Director of Camp Sandstone:
Camper group SS-2094-g
On the first day of Sandstone, after a brief introduction to homespace selection, the campers were permitted to begin a search for a homesite. As each camper selected a site, our simulator examined the terrain, cover, and prevailing environment, and provided a corresponding response: anywhere from a realistic neo-allosaur's call to a lion's roar, immediately followed by an instantaneous electrical discharge in the vicinity of poor sites, to a much fainter call at passable sites, to silence and a reward at excellent sites. Campers were permitted to select sites as often as every half hour, though remaining at a good site will only receive silence, while remaining at a bad site increased the discomfort factor with each passing half-hour. Campers, thus, were encouraged to learn the factors which make a good homesite.
The second day was more of the same, though response was limited to hour-long intervals. In the hour, each camper not only selected a homesite, but also found materials which were appropriate for building a secure homespace at the selected site. Again, poor choices were conditioned against with a roar and an electrical discharge, while good choices were conditioned for with silence and reward.
Each day was thus built on the previous day, with the resultant step closer to secure homespace creation and the time limit becoming larger and larger, until by the final day the homesites were selected and the homespace built in entirety with no strong feedback until nightfall.
At the graduation from Camp Sandstone, each camper had received the basic knowledge and experience to find and create an adequate homespace in the course of a single day, and had learned strong negative associations with staying too long in one place and the various calls of the larger carnivores which roam our post-intelligence landscape.
An optional seventh day was provided in which the campers who are going on to Behemoth were left, and which the same standards for homespace creation are held to, thus providing each camper with a consistent environment, unbroken by disintegrating civilization.
Notes from the Director of Camp Behemoth:
Camper group: BM-2094-h
As what was originally designed to be a second week out of four, I count it a joy when my campers come directly from Camp Sandstone. This camper group was, for lack of a better description, perfect. Every single camper had been to Sandstone as group 2094-g, and only one had contact with civilization over the preceding weekend. Beginning from such a level means that reactions have not been conditioned against, and allows so much less re-conditioning.
The most definitive aspect of Behemoth is the fact that the campers provide for all of their own food—this is suggested at the beginning, but it often takes days for the fact to sink in. With group H, we had every single camper eating something by the end of the second day, and by the fourth day we had no need for the staff hunter-gatherers to go at all, except to provide a level of protection from some of the less-predictable beasts.
On the sixth day, most of the campers had a surplus of food, which gave us an opportunity that I don't believe this camp has ever had before, the opportunity to model food storage for later retrieval, a most exciting chance for our staff.
Just as I count it a joy to get campers from Sandstone, so I count it a joy when my campers go on to Tyrant. Every single camper received their certification and expressed interest in Tyrant, and the larger portion are staying for TY-2094-i.
Notes from the Director of Camp Tyrant
Camper group: TY-2094-i
Camper group was exceedingly well prepared, I respect Sandstone and Behemoth more than ever. after attaching vital-signs monitors to each camper and presenting some basic instructions, we set them down as is normal at the bottom of Red Gully, and half an hour later we set out the beastbots. All vitals were normal for 25 minutes, at which point we began to see increased heart rates as the beastbots closed in on the camper's position.
Each beastbot is designed to closely approximate a dangerous beast, and to provide a high level of physical discomfort for any camper which they can find, using a complex neural net with sensors built into the particular bots. In general, we see nearly half of the campers' vitals go into shock and we have to disable the beastbots and acquire the campers, to set them through a bout of detraumatization.
I proudly report that there was not one shock incident in the entire camp group.
At the end of day one, staff on the ground reported that the campers had succeeded in not only creating homespaces, but in gathering edibles to an extent which we've not seen in some time.
Day two was also a (pardon me) roaring success. By noon on day two, even the best hiders had been caught at least once, and the punishment for being caught had registered on every single monitor, but we didn't have a single case of detrauma.
Incidents in which a camper was caught became fewer and fewer each succeeding day, and by the fourth day even the ground staff—seasoned hunter-gatherers and wilderness experts—were unable to locate the campers without using the vitals monitors' built-in positioning systems. There were no sub-standard nutrient intakes across the entire camper group, and each night the vitals monitors showed that the campers were getting sufficient rest—a luxury very few campers can get at Tyrant.
When the sixth day was through, it took every single member of ground staff to find and pull in the campers, which was accomplished on the seventh day at sundown—a fact which left us scrambling for the next group.
As I am instructed to recognize unusual cases, I shall admit that this is the first time that so many were so well prepared, and that this is the first time in the history of the camp that the campers did not strongly indicate their desire to leave at the end of the week. And finally, while most groups find that scattering as widely as possible reduces the chance of discovery, 2094-i worked quite differently, staying close together and even creating group homespaces. Also during their stay at Tyrant, an unusual number of beast-bots didn't return for routine maintenance. I shall keep you posted as I find more.
Even as I give this camper group their diplomas, I am (and the entire ground staff is also) reluctant to suggest that this severely deviant group be permitted to move on to Completion without a solid psychological review.
Camp Sauros Official Memo
From the Desk of: The Director of Camp Tyrant
To: The Director of Camp Completion
CC: Camp Sauros Home Office
Re: Camper group TY-2094-i/CP-2094-j
Completion; I don't want you to be unaware of the camper group that you're starting to work with. It's only been one day since they're gone, and I've found fully half of my beastbots have been physically disabled, some very neatly and efficiently, but others in truly hellish fashion.
I know you read the reports that I turn in to understand some of what to expect, so you already saw that the campers were creating group homespaces; that much is strange, remarkable. Strange and remarkable, however, are rather mild compared to the fact that we found disfigured pieces of the beastbots spread throughout the homespaces, strange patterns scraped with pebbles on the stones surrounding each homespace, and the representational "heads" of the beastbots industriously wedged onto sticks in the ground, as if in some aboriginal nightmare. Since Home Office saw fit to put the campers directly into Completion, I hope they know what they're doing, and I hope that you're prepared.
Camp Sauros Official Memo
From the Desk of: Camp Sauros Home Office
To: The Director of Camp Completion
Re: Camper group CP-2094-j
Completion; Please give daily reports on the behavior and response of CP-2094-j. Tyrant was severely disturbed by their behavior at that camp, and we feel that this requires especial oversight.
Daily Notes from the Director of Camp Completion
To: Camp Sauros Home Office
Re: Camper group: CP-2094-j, day 1
Home: I received your memo at 1400 this afternoon, and will comply as best I am able. As a member of the ground-staff myself, I will be somewhat limited until night has fallen. Please understand.
Read the notes from TY, am seeing it. Camp j promises to be more memorable than any other this year, perhaps ever. Within half an hour of disbark all campers had disappeared completely. Vitals systems positioning proved that all were within a quarter mile circle nearly a mile distant. Took staff, made our way to the homespace. Definitely communal. Difficult for us to get close, was deep in a canyon. Would be almost impossible for beastbots to enter.
Daily Notes from the Director of Camp Completion
To: Camp Sauros Home Office
Re: Camper group: CP-2094-j, day 2
Home: At sunup went to check campers, vital signs were all good. Got close to the homespace by noon, had to make my way back out to prepare my own homespace. Vital signs all still ok, nutrient levels significantly above-par. Found an easier way in. Will attempt again tomorrow.
After TY's notes about beastbots—I find that there are two missing from the scans. You know the probabilities better than I—Two at once is unusual to say the least.
Daily Notes from the Director of Camp Completion
To: Camp Sauros Home Office
Re: Camper group: CP-2094-j, day 3
Home: Made it to homespace, found three beastbot heads (a lionbot, neo-allosaur, and one that might be a neo-sabretooth, but is bashed beyond recognition) on posts at the base of the canyon. (later check shows a total of six beastbots off the grid) All campers have significantly higher-than-average scores. Was not able to make sight contact with any campers (which is just another boost to their scores.)
Daily Notes from the Director of Camp Completion
To: Camp Sauros Home Office
Re: Camper group: CP-2094-j, day 4 (1500 local time)
Home: Am becoming extremely concerned by state of campers. Cannot make contact. Vitals monitors showed mass movement toward the western edge of the grounds this morning, apparently new homesite has been selected. Am on my way to check it now. Advise shutdown of all beastbots and immediate evacuation and psychological evaluation of all campers.
Daily Notes from the Director of Camp Completion
To: Camp Sauros Home Office
Re: Camper group: CP-2094-j, day 4 (1800 local time)
Home: It is beyond urgent. Shutdown Camp Completion now. Shutdown Camp Completion now! Campers are out of hand!
Daily Notes from the Director of Camp Completion
To: Camp Sauros Home Office
Re: Camper group: CP-2094-j, day 4 (2200 local time)
Home: All vitals monitors went off within minutes of 2100 this evening. Check the readouts: Zero heartbeat, breathing, nutrients, brain activity. Was able to approach position using the craft you sent. All monitors were found in what appears to be a ceremonial circle. Campers have disappeared—will have all hunters and trackers we can find begin to pursue them at first light.
Daily Notes from the Director of Camp Completion
To: Camp Sauros Home Office
Re: Camper group: CP-2094-j, day 5 (1000 local time)
Home: Had hunters and trackers begin at first light. Trail of missing campers goes to edge of Camp Completion, breaks through perimeter wall into southern corner of Camp Behemoth.
Advise to end Camp Behemoth's current run a day early, get those campers out.
Daily Notes from the Director of Camp Completion
To: Camp Sauros Home Office
Re: Camper group: CP-2094-j, day 5 (1400 local time)
Home: Trail was lost for several hours, picked up where the exterior perimeter wall was broken. Campers appear to be heading in a south-south-easterly direction. Tried to get overhead tracking drones, but all are currently in use at Oligopolis. Hunters and trackers refuse to cross Outback (after seeing allosaur peering into Behemoth) without significant weaponry, will take days to get party together.
Daily Notes from the Director of Camp Completion
To: Camp Sauros Home Office
Re: Camper group: CP-2094-j, day 5 (2200 local time)
Home: Thank you for the reprieve—am letting GWE law enforcement take over for now. Am on my way in. God save the campers, we've made them into something frightful. How could a person ever really step away from Oligopolis' civilization for the Outback's savage-ness? Truly frightful.
Here the reports to Camp Sauros Home Office end.
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