As Rusty &  Kevin make their way through the hellscape that has become our daily encounter with the Trailverse, they happen upon the Asshole in  Training (Eric) and his reluctant mom…

… who of course have to be menaced by a falling, flaming tree…

But even as Eric and the Missus dive in a full layout to avoid being crushed, we have to wonder what has become of Mister and Mark…

Thank goodness for Rusty… there’s time for reconciling later, people, we’ve got to get a move on!!

Look!  A Campfire!  A Pretty Campfire!!   Ha!  That’s funny!

By these strips it’s not clear whether Mark and the Crowleys are together or not…  I guess they are?

But which way are you running Rusty?  Toward the fire or away?  Looks like you are surrounded.  Meanwhile, Papa Crowley makes a choice… and Mama Crowley doesn’t seem to like it…

Oh the suspense.  Oh the drama.  I can hardly stand it.

Oh the suspense!  I can hardly stand it…

At least Rusty has returned to his old self- no longer looking like a hipster.

But is the fire actually between them and camp?  I mean, how much ground could they have possibly covered?  Didn’t Rusty pull the old “We’ll walk in a big circle while pretending to be running away?”  OK, that’s giving him way too much credit…

Looks like they are just walking, albeit with a greater stride…  might want to pick up the pace, lads!

In a vision stolen from Walt Disney’s Bambi, the Woodland Creatures all scamper from a fire, started not by a careless camper, but rather by Mother herself…  She can be a heartless and cruel Bee-yotch…

But whither goest the young wards?  Have they met their end?  Has the entire camping trip been spoiled?  Stay tuned!

As we pick up the story, we see Eric’s parents assuming the best in their son…  and blaming themselves… while Mark is on the case!

Oh, guilt is a powerful motivator.  It can eat at you until you just have to spill it!

Am I getting used to this artwork?  Sure, I guess… It  has been suggested that we had to endure a whole host of would-be replacement artists… but it would seem that we landed on one.  No clip art, it all seems to be drawn from one hand in this recent trio of strips…

Ah, yes… the Ol’ Walkie-Talkie… those were the best… especially growing up in the 60’s and 70’s.  The technology was available to almost anyone with a few bucks and a couple of 9-volt batteries… Remember these?

The picture is starting to come into focus a bit more… as Eric continues to whine and wonder why all the attention isn’t on him… he’s here, after all, and hasn’t run away…

The look on Ellie’s face though…  She not happy…  Almost as if to say, why did I marry into this cause??

… bring on the special effects…

I’m sorry, but wasn’t that the tree that Rusty and Kevin were sitting under?  Are they now both a pile of cinders?  That would be an ignominious and untimely end…

Captain Obvious makes a prediction…

… meaning that there will be a deluge and a washout and everyone gets swept way…  We can only hope.  Glad that they had that roaring campfire going earlier in these “drought” conditions…

Even the guy who is supposedly Mark Trail in panel 3…

…he’s all wrong.  I get the rolled up shirt sleeves, but the cut-offs?  He was wearing long pants- jeans- when he climbed out of his tent…  Love the fact that Rusty had time to draw some stick figures… even label them ‘R’ and ‘k’ for big Rusty and little Kevin…

A classic “What the…?!” starts us off on this three-parter, although throughout the years, the final ‘e’ was typically left off, as in “What Th-…?!”

As Mark and Geoff emerge from their correctly proportioned (for once) tents…

It “sounded” like an alarm clock?  Don’t you know?  Didn’t you have to turn it off?  And who is the dude in the center panel?

…said the dick…  How does Eric know that Kevin “ran off?”  And not merely missing?  His words are incriminating if anyone is bothering to listen…  And the more we get a good look at Kevin’s father, the more it appears that the ugly stick was taken to him repeatedly!

Yea, when I went all diva and decided to stomp off into the woods alone, you showed an ounce of compassion and joined me…

I am still wondering why Rusty set his alarm to go off in an hour…

Oh, this is weird…  Not only are we going to be treated to the Rusty backstory (for the first time?  I think so…)  but we are continuing to be plagued by questionable renderings leaving characters practically unrecognizable.   Rusty looks like The Fonz, amiright?  Ehhhhhhh….  one can almost hear…

And what’s in panel three?  Mark and Cherry combing through the dog book, looking for a likely waif?

It’s not easy being Kevin…

…or Rusty for that matter. Rusty!  I have seen this before… you are a child of the night!  Just check out those incisors in panel 3 below!

With Kevin calmed and assured, Rusty goes back to the tent he’s sharing with Mark, and…

…because everyone brings an old-timey alarm clock on a camping trip…  and Mark must be a terribly sound sleeper.  All the zipper noise and talking didn’t wake him up??