Disclaimer: DOGS isn't ours. Tragically.
The summer camp was set near a lake, as all good summer camps are located. It was also near the train tracks, which is more unusual. And it was surrounded by electric fencing, which is certainly unexpected. The sign at the entrance read Dangerous Youths: Proceed With Caution. A school bus that had seen better days rattled through the gates. The gates had spikes and shut very quickly behind the rusted yellow vehicle.
The students who filed out were Bad Kids. That much was obvious. Their clothes were all different levels of ragged and their hair colors ranged from unnatural to disturbing. They were pierced and tattoo'd and made up in various stages of whore. The true indication was in the facial expressions that ranged from sullen to hostile. Every teen looked like they were a hundred years old.
The only one who looked any different was a grinning ginger. He had an arm around the shoulders of a bored-looking albino and was blowing cigarette smoke everywhere. "Best summer ever, man," he laughed, readjusting the strap of his eyepatch. "This is gonna rock!"
"Shut up," the albino hissed. "Dear god, just… stop talking."
"Three hours," said a small girl rocking suspenders. "I swear he didn't take a breath the entire time."
"See, you even pissed Mimi off," the albino said, ducking out from under the ginger's arm and straightening his black leather vest, "and she likes you."
"I do not!" the girl in suspenders snapped. "He's too dumb and he smokes all the time!"
"Hello? I'm right here, assholes," the ginger growled.
"Line up!" roared a pack of counselors. The kids mumbled and gathered themselves into a loose group.
"THAT'S NOT A LINE!"
The group grew longer a thinner.
"MAKE A GODDAMN LINE—"
"It's good enough," sighed the largest counselor. His appearance was similar to Thor, had Thor eaten too many pancakes and seen too much of life. He readjusted his glasses. "Uh, all right kids, listen up. It's good to have you here for the summer. I hope we can help you out. We're going to split everyone up into cabins. You'll get to know each other better that way, but I hope you'll also meet people from other cabins. We'll give you the freedom to chat with each other and mingle; just don't abuse that privilege. Hanky panky is not allowed on camp grounds. Um. All right counselors, check your lists and start calling names I guess. Oh, and kids? Let me know if you need anything. My cabin is the smallest, so I have plenty of time to talk to you on a one on one basis. My name's Mihai." He glanced down at a clipboard in his hand. "All right. Um. My group is Badou Nails, Heine Rammsteiner…"
"Look at that!" the ginger yelled, grabbing the albino again. "You and me, man!"
"Shiiiiit," groaned the albino. Neither of them heard the last name Mihai called out. They were busy hauling their backpacks—and in Badou's case an extra duffel full of military surplus clothing—over to their counselor. Mimi darted ahead.
"Heya," she said, smiling up at Mihai. "I'm Mimi. I'm not in the camp itself but I'm here to help out in the kitchens. Can you point me that way?"
Mihai blinked at her, then consulted his clipboard. He flicked through a few pieces of paper. "Oh, yes, um. I can take you there in a minute, it's best not to leave you alone around here. Everyone travels in packs."
"I'll be fine." She smiled winningly.
"Camp rules," Mihai shrugged. "Everyone has to have a buddy."
"Buddy system? Shit," groaned the albino, slumping over to Mihai.
"Get used to it," Mihai said. "Now, what's your name?"
"Heine."
"Oh so that's how you say it."
Heine's face twisted like he'd bitten into a lemon. "Yeah. A lot of people get it wrong."
The ginger hacked out "Heiney" in midst of a coughing fit, flicking his dead cigarette to the ground. Mimi snickered. Heine glared.
"And you are…?" Mihai asked, raising his eyebrows at the ginger.
"Badou!"
"The one and only," Mimi sighed.
"It's unusual to see such enthusiasm," Mihai said, checking Badou's name off. "Welcome to camp."
"Glad to be here!"
Mihai looked at Badou over the rim of his glasses. "What did you do to get sent here?"
Badou stared at him, his one eye wide and innocent. "Why do you ask?"
"I get an arson vibe from you," Mihai said quietly. "A little too excited for your own good."
Badou laughed happily. "Naw, I just use fire for cigarettes. Some people caught me trespassing."
"Trespassing?" Mimi snorted. Badou shot her a look.
Mihai continued to stare. "But seriously, what did you do?"
"Just broke into houses. Took pictures of stuff. Maybe I found some shit I wasn't supposed to." Badou shrugged. Then he glanced at Heine and Mimi. "Well, I kinda hung around the wrong people, too…"
Heine kicked at him and Badou dodged, laughing again. Mimi gave him the finger.
Mihai watched them all, looking slightly puzzled. "And what did you do to get yourself sent here, Heine?"
"Firearms," Heine sighed, staring at the sky. "I had a bunch when I shouldn't have. And they didn't know what else to do with me once they found me."
Mihai blinked. "Oh."
"Hey, isn't all the stuff in our files?" Badou asked, digging in his pockets for more cigarettes.
"Technically, yeah," Mihai said, "but I prefer students to tell me themselves. I don't want to talk to you and have a biased opinion because I know your felonies. Besides, your records are going to be wiped when you're eighteen so long as you haven't done anything horrible, and I want to make sure you do good in the future and don't get stuck on what happened in the past."
"Inspiring," someone said dryly. All three men and Mimi turned to look.
She was dressed like a Goth but wasn't wearing any makeup. She looked like she could break someone's heart and their femurs if she was in a good mood. Heine winced, looking away nervously.
"You need more skirt, girl," Badou said.
"So they say," she said. "Naoto," she added before Mihai could ask.
He found her name and checked her off, then made eye contact with her. "And why are you here?"
"My story was too weird," she said, "and they didn't know where else to put me, either." She nodded at Heine but he didn't notice. He was watching something that was happening to his right.
Mihai frowned. "Interesting. I'd like to hear more about that at some point, if you wouldn't mind telling me."
Naoto's eyes narrowed slightly but she didn't say anything.
Mihai cleared his throat. "Well. Um, if you'll follow me—"
"What's she doing here?" Heine asked suddenly, pointing to a small blond girl who was looking around her with wide, scared eyes. Unlike everyone else here, she didn't have a backpack. She wasn't glaring at the authority figures, but instead seemed to be trying to hide behind her hair as a female counselor demanded her name. On her back, a pair of tiny, pale wings fluttered fearfully.
Mihai squinted. "Is she a genetic creation?"
Heine was already walking over. Badou and Mimi glanced at each other, both looking very confused indeed.
"So, is he cool with chicks now?" Mimi muttered at Badou out of the side of her mouth.
"I didn't think so," he muttered back.
"Hey," Heine said, stepping up next to the girl and looking the counselor dead in the eye. "Stop yelling at her."
"She won't tell me her name," the counselor said, glaring at him.
He looked down at the girl. Her eyes were huge and they darted over his face nervously, seeking something. She focused on his neck. Her eyes widened at the bandages wrapped all the way around his throat. Then she tapped her own throat and opened and closed her mouth a few times, shaking her head.
"She can't talk, dipshit," Heine told the counselor quietly, not taking his eyes off the girl. The girl nodded.
"Oh," the counselor said. She looked at the rest of the girls in her group. There were eight of them. They all looked bored as hell and angry to be here. The counselor turned to Mihai as he loomed over them all. "What should we do with her? I can't have a mute kid in this camp, sir, that's just… unsafe."
"These kids aren't bad, I keep telling you that," Mihai sighed. He peered at the girl. "Can you tell us how old you are? Is there anything we can call you?"
The girl bit her lip. She held up one finger on her right hand and four on her left.
"Fourteen," Heine murmured to himself.
She reached for Heine's hand then and wrote four letters in his palm with her finger. Badou and Mimi gaped.
"Holyshitshe'stouchinghim," Badou hissed.
"IknowIknowIseeit," Mimi hissed back.
"Her name's Nill," Heine said. He jerked his hand back.
"She's down here for prostitution," the counselor piped up, consulting her clipboard.
Nill winced at that. Heine reached out and smacked the clipboard to the ground, jaw tight. "She doesn't belong here," he said to Mihai.
"No," Mihai said, smiling gently at Nill. "I know where we can take her for now, though. You'll be fine there, Nill. It's a little out of our way but we'll walk you there and I'll explain your situation, okay?"
Nill nodded, sticking close to Heine. Her fingers wrapped around the end of his ridiculous black leather vest. Heine didn't say anything about it. Mimi and Badou quietly freaked out the entire way to the mess hall. Naoto stayed near the back and kept her eyes on the trees.
It really was a lovely site. The summer had just begun, so no contraband items had made their way into the foliage. No condoms hung from trees like filthy tinsel. No beer cans littered the paths. No bullet holes marked the tree trunks. Well, no new bullet holes anyway. Birds still sang here, having forgotten why they avoided this place from June until September. The wind rustled the trees and made them speak a soft susurrus.
The group left Mimi in the care of chef Kiri and her backup-dancer kitchen slaves Zach and Baran. Badou started whining about the weight of his duffle. Everyone ignored him.
Their next stop was the camp chapel. Mihai knocked on the door and waited a moment, then walked in. "Bishop?"
"We have a bishop in the camp?" Badou said. "Daaaang."
"No, his name's Bishop," Mihai said.
"That's weird," Badou laughed. "Heine and I know a dude named Bishop. He's a priest too—"
"Hello, Badou," sighed the tall, pale man who popped out of the side door of the church.
"Holy shit, that's Bishop!" Badou yelled, dropping his bags in shock.
"I'll assume Heine is with you," Bishop said, pushing up the small dark spectacles that covered his eyes. "You two are never far apart from each other."
"I resent the implication," Heine muttered.
"We're here about a new resident," Mihai plowed in. "I don't know how you know these boys, Bishop, but they're not the primary concern right now."
"I'm surprised they haven't ended up here sooner, to be honest," Bishop said. He cocked an ear. "Are there two more people here with you, or is my hearing going?"
"You're dead right, as always," Mihai said. "We're here about Nill, actually. She's—"
"She's not fucked up, Bishop," Heine broke in.
"Oh? Girlfriend of yours, Heine? Are you getting over that little problem?" Bishop's eyebrows were almost lost in his hairline.
"Fuck off!" Heine spat.
"Language," Mihai said. "Anyway, we don't want her mingling with the other residents, and she can't speak. She's, ah, she has wings, too."
Bishop's eyebrows climbed a centimeter higher. "A special girl indeed. All right, there's space for her here as long as she didn't bring too much with her."
Heine and Mihai both looked at the girl. She shrugged and shook her head.
"She doesn't have any bags," Heine said.
Bishop's mouth dropped. "What's she wearing right now?" he said in a deadly serious tone.
"Uh, it's like a sack thing?" Heine offered.
"Unacceptable!" Bishop roared. "A girl that beautiful deserves only the best!"
"Aren't you blind?" Naoto asked.
"I don't need eyes to see beauty!" Bishop cried, racing into the living quarters of the church. They all heard him banging around for a moment, then he emerged with a fluffy dress. "Try this on right now!"
"Not right now," Mihai said firmly. "And no molesting campers."
"He won't," Badou said. "He's creepy, but he's harmless."
"I'm not creepy!" Bishop insisted, waving the dress. Its bows bounced cheerfully.
Heine looked down at Nill, who was eyeing Bishop dubiously. "Don't worry about him. I'll check up on you if you want. He's… he's mostly harmless, I swear."
Nill looked up at him. A smile broke out over her face and she nodded, then walked carefully over to Bishop. He smiled down at her. Mihai led the rest of them out as Bishop started talking about sweetheart necklines.
"All right, that's all the errands for now," he told the campers. "I'll take you to your cabin now. Dinner's in…" He glanced at his watch. "Oops. Ten minutes. You'll eat, then you'll unpack. We can talk schedules and chores and such afterwards, don't worry. Come on, let's hurry! Kiri hates it when people are late! Double time, boys and girl!"
The four of them jogged off down the hill. It wouldn't be sunset for a while, but darkness still seemed to follow them.
A/N: Throughout elementary and middle school, Davey read child detective stories. To hell with Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, though; Encyclopedia Brown and Nate the Great were her favorites. Delightfully cheesy, and some kickass girls making their mark on the story as well (talkin' bout you, Sally, and you, Emily with the cats).
Anyway, "DOGS: Campers & Carnage" is, in a way, an homage to these childhood-shaping whodunits, with an extra dose of never-went-to-sleep-away-camp-but-I'll-imagine-wha t-it-was-like. But with more sociopaths.