CHAPTER 37

'Daphne!'

She jumped about a foot in the air. 'You scared the living daylights out of me!'

Velma rolled her eyes. 'Have they come out yet?'

'No. I said I'd wake you when they do.'

Velma peered through the bushes to see if there was any sign of movement at the camp. It was light enough now to have almost perfect vision, and it was easy to tell that no one was up yet. But she knew it wouldn't be long. Satisfied, she leant back on her haunches and readjusted her glasses.

'I'm just going to the toilet,' she told Daphne. 'Call me if the prisoners are coming out!'

'Sure, I'll be waiting with my rainbow flags to congratulate them all.'

'Huh? Oh…' Velma got the joke and suddenly became very awkward. 'Oh yep. Okay. I'll be back.'

Daphne shot a confused smile in her direction. Interesting. Perhaps that explained Velma's indecision with Shaggy. She didn't have time to consider that thought any further as a foghorn blasted over the camp, followed by the words '6 AM 6 AM 6 AM' repeated over and over again.

Daphne didn't bother to wake the others up; the foghorn was incredibly loud, even from their possie in the mountains. Velma dashed out of the bushes, fumbling to get her fly done back up. As Fred and Shaggy popped up on either side of her, Daphne leant in and parted the bushes for them to get a better view. Years and years in the mystery solving business had made them all extremely good at spying on people through bushes.

They watched as weary prisoners stumbled out of the shearers' quarters and immediately fell into a neat line outside the huts. Daphne gasped – there were only six huts and she had fully expected three or four people to come out of each one. Instead she stared in horror as about one hundred people accumulated before her very eyes.

She nudged Fred and Velma. 'Imagine what it's like inside those huts!'

She could picture it so vividly: bunk beds squashed up against each other, tattered moth-eaten mattresses, leaky rooves…

Why can I picture it so clearly, she found herself wondering. It was like she'd seen it all before…

And then Daphne realised she had in fact seen it before. It was exactly like the history textbooks described Hitler's concentration camps and the Japanese POW camps during World War II.

'It's a bloody concentration camp,' Daphne voiced aloud.

'God yeah,' Velma agreed. 'Even their movements right now are mimicking those of Japanese Prisoner of War camps.'

Daphne raised her eyebrows at her.

'I've read about it,' Velma explained.

The prisoners still stood in a line. Most were standing up dead straight, not daring to turn their head in the slightest, but others were casting anxious glances in the direction of the old Drinkwater homestead. Above all, none of them were talking to each other.

'See?' Fred whispered, loud enough for only Daphne to hear. 'Major Dad.'

'Where Freddie?' she asked, taking his hand.

'In front of the door of the second hut.'

Daphne squinted, but the man by the second hut barely looked like Fred's father at all.

'Are you sure – '

The man in front of the second hut quickly flicked a lock of hair out of his face in such a Mayor Jones-esque gesture that Daphne almost broke down in tears. She knew in that instant that it was undeniably him. He was stooped and gaunt, and his hair was almost completely grey. But he also had a deflated look about his face that Daphne had never seen in him before – even when he was at his lowest. It really looked like all the fight had gone out of him, which was a stark contrast to when they'd last seen him vehemently resisting the soldiers back at the Coval.

'Well, he seems… okay,' Daphne ventured.

'No he doesn't,' Fred said flatly.

'Like, what are they waiting for?' Shaggy asked the group.

'Soldiers are coming out of the house!' Velma pointed.

Six heavily armed soldiers emerged from the house and stomped towards the prisoners. Four of them wore standard uniforms, but the other two were dressed more elaborately, suggesting a higher status. One of them carried a bamboo stick. Even from their spot in the mountains, they could sense the tension in the air and collective breath held by the prisoners. When they approached the prisoners, one of the higher ranked soldiers stepped forward and withdrew a piece of paper. The gang were too far away to make out any words, but the action was so burningly familiar for them all: it was rollcall.

Except it wasn't the easy-going high school way where the teacher called out your name and you responded with 'here!'. Each prisoner stepped forward as their name was called and all six of the guards looked pointedly at the prisoner before calling the next person's name. It was bizarrely intense. Throughout the process, two prisoners were hit with the stick – seemingly without good reason.

Scooby whimpered and quickly looked away. 'Rhis is why re are fighting,' he said quietly to the others. 'To stop rhis from rappening.'

Shaggy too had looked away and had his face in his palms. 'Yes. Like yeah. That can't keep happening, man.'

'Look!' Velma said.

The prisoners were marched off to the garden shed that lay outside the homestead.

'Like, what could they possibly be doing in there?' Shaggy wondered.

'At a guess, I'd say that's the food hall.'

'Oh boy!'

'Based on the looks of those prisoners, I don't think the food's very good.'

'Wow,' Fred said. 'This really is like the labour camps we learnt about in history. It's one thing learning about it in class because it never seemed real in a way, but this… this is just terrible. Look over there – they have an open dunny!'

'That's less than a dunny,' Velma said.

'A latrine!'

'Ew,' Daphne screwed up her face.

'I hardly recognise anyone here,' Velma said to Fred. 'You did say they were mostly out of towners.'

'Mm.'

Fred had indeed said that, and at the time, he had thought it was true. Now he realised he hadn't recognised anyone because they had all changed so much. But these people were all undeniably Crystal Covers. They were all people he had grown up with and even people he had gone to school with. He was surprised none of the others had noticed, but perhaps that was for the best. He decided to keep quiet about that.

Less than ten minutes later, the prisoners filed out of the shed and met the guards in the centre of the camp. Some of the prisoners (particularly the men) were given gardening tools, and were clearly expected to tend to the acres of crops by hand. Others were shoved in the direction of the few cattle and sheep. To Daphne and Velma's disgust, many of the women went to the homestead where they would be expected to do "womanly" jobs like cleaning and dusting. But still there were a handful of prisoners left standing in the middle of the field. Then a guard clapped his hands and led them away as if they were animals.

'Like, Freddie, is that your dad?' Shaggy pointed to the last group.

'It is Major Dad.'

'Fred, they must be going to the quarry you saw before!' Velma realised.

'Hard labour.'

'Like, gulp.'

'What are we going to do?' Daphne asked.

'There's nothing we can do here,' Velma said. 'The best thing to do is get away to reduce our chances of being seen.'

'I want to make contact with my dad,' Fred said.

'Oh my.'

'Okay, Freddie,' Daphne said supportively. 'And how exactly are we going to do that?'

'Follow the prisoners to the quarry. I know a bush way to the quarry. That's the way Scooby and I went before. Come on!'

'Fred, I don't know if this is such a good idea,' Velma said.

'If your mum was in this camp, would you want to talk to her?' Daphne asked. She knew she was attacking Velma's close bond with her mum, and she felt slightly guilty for it. But she also knew that Velma sometimes had trouble understanding other people's feelings.

The tactic was clever. 'Alright. But I don't think all of us need to go.'

'Like great! Scoob and I will, like stay here and guard the food,' Shaggy said. 'And maybe we'll like, have a party for Scooby!'

'A party,' Velma stated.

'Like, yeah! It's Scooby's birthday today! We saw a calendar in the house before!'

'Reah! Rit's the twenty-first of Rarch!'

'No it's not. Or maybe by some random phenomena it is. But you can't tell what date it is by looking at a calendar!'

'It rasn't a paper ralendar…' Scooby began quietly, but stopped after realising how useless it would be to try and explain it to Velma.

He actually felt his spirits sink at Velma's plain denial.

'Well, if it is your birthday, happy birthday Scoob,' Daphne said.

'Rhank you Raphne.'

'Okay, we're going now,' Velma said. 'Keep an eye out…'

'Rand we'll ratch the other risoners in the camp,' Scooby added.

'Okay…'

'Rand the food.'

'Yes, we get it,' Velma said, rolling her eyes. 'But be on guard for yourselves too. Remember to actually keep watch!' She turned back to Daphne. 'Where's Fred gone?'

'He's… Fred? Freddie?'

She walked in the direction Fred went, keeping her ears peeled for his response. Then there was a sharp rustle from deeper in the bush, as if someone had crushed a thick layer of leaf litter. Birds in the trees above scattered as Fred burst from the bushes with tattered clothes and a bloodied nose.

'What the – '

'Run Daphne. Run!'

He sprinted towards her and grabbed her hand, nearly pulling her arm out of her socket as he yanked her forward at an incredible speed.

'Fred – ow! What happened?'

Daphne's shoulders tensed as she became aware of a trampling of feet behind them. Unable to control herself, she glanced behind her and screamed.

Daphne's scream had alerted Velma, Shaggy and Scooby to the danger they were in. They had ducked out of sight as Fred and Daphne thundered past with a soldier right on their heels. They didn't even slow down or look back when the footsteps behind them ceased.

Only when Velma weakly cried out 'Fred!' did they stop, turning to look at each other in horror before sprinting back towards Velma and the others even faster than when they were running from the soldier.

They found themselves in the cluster of bushes where they had slept the night before and spent the morning thinking they were safely watching the scene from afar. Fred and Daphne stood on the path, gasping for breath and frantically looking out for Velma, Shaggy and Scooby.

A slight rustle of the bushes gave them away. Fred and Daphne darted towards the sound like moths attracted to the light. The first thing they saw was Scooby holding the soldier's limbs down with all four of his paws. Velma was sprawled out on the floor beside him with a trail of bright red blood dribbling from her lip. The soldier's gun was lying easily within his reach, but while he seemed alive, he hadn't made a move to retrieve it. Fred briefly wondered why the soldier hadn't tried to make a grab for the gun and overthrow Scooby, but then he saw how the dog's face was less than three inches from the man's face, bearing a slobbery array of sharp teeth. The fur on his back bristled and his claws were slowly sinking into the man's skin.

Fred shuddered at the sight of a menacing Scooby Doo. It was so unnatural to see the usually placid dog acting like this, but the soldier didn't need to know what. Without a second thought, he darted over to help Scooby and pushed the gun out of the soldier's reach.

'Velma? Velma?' he said.

'I'm okay, I really am,' she replied.

She shuffled up into a sitting position. 'We need to – ' she nodded at the soldier, making the gesture of a knife to her throat.

Fred tensed, but he nodded firmly. He reached for the soldier's gun and turned it over in his hands tentatively.

'No.' Velma said. 'We can't shoot him. They'll hear the gunshot at the camp. Then not only are we toast, but the prisoners could get punished for it. What if they think the prisoners organised it?'

Fred sighed. 'You're right. But we're still going to have to… oh god.'

'He's seen us and we've attacked him. He cannot live,' Velma said.

Suddenly from behind them, Daphne let out a shriek. Fred, Velma and Scooby whipped around to see someone holding Daphne from the back. Upon instinct, Fred trained the gun on the figure behind her before it clicked in his brain that it was only Shaggy.

'Bloody hell, Shaggy! That was a scare and a half!' Daphne exclaimed.

'Like sorry. I'm just so glad you and Fredster are like, okay.'

'Shaggy, don't do that!' Fred whispered furiously. 'I almost killed you.'

'Like, good to know.'

'Rock,' Velma was saying to Fred. 'Do you want me to do it?'

'No. I can.'

Daphne looked perplexedly at Shaggy. 'Fred, what are you – '

Crunch. The rock smashed into the whimpering soldier's skull.

Daphne screamed for the third time and buried her head in Shaggy's hands. Shaggy was equally aghast; he was trembling and holding Daphne like his life depended on it.

'My goodness! Between your screaming and Shaggy's blubbering, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a circle of soldiers around right now, waiting to ambush us,' Velma said angrily.

'Stop, stop,' Daphne cried.

'Listen,' Fred said quietly. 'If you're not going to help – and you're clearly not in any position to help – then it's probably best if you go away for now.'

Shaggy and Daphne stumbled away from the scene while Fred and Velma discussed the situation. Scooby moved off the soldier and lay on the ground beside him with his paws over his eyes.

'Just leave him here so we can get out of here straight away,' Fred said.

'No, we can't. The best thing to do is make it look like an accident.'

Velma was ashamed to admit that she'd had too much experience trying to make her killings look accidental. In Bunnings, she had pushed lawnmowers down on already dead soldiers and the thought of it still made her sick to the guts. She didn't know if she could do something like that again.

'I don't know,' she sighed. 'What do you want to do, Scooby?'

'A runeral,' he mumbled.

'A funeral? Scooby, get real. That's not what I meant!'

'Velma, give him a break. He saved your life,' Fred said tiredly.

'Yeah, unlike his best friend who's nothing but a blubbering coward. If he didn't chicken out, I never would've got punched in the face in the first place.'

'Velma…'

'My nose is broken!'

'You'd be in a lot more pain if your nose was actually broken and you of all people would know that. You've just got a cut lip. Anyway, thanks for saving us back there,' Fred said.

'What are friends for. You guys would've done the same for us. Or at least, you would've while she…'

'Stop tearing my girlfriend apart and focus!' Fred snapped suddenly.

Velma recoiled. Out of their group, Fred was definitely the one she had always respected the most. She'd always admired his capacity for leadership and his fierce determination. Though she didn't admit it, she was a bit disheartened about receiving that cutting remark from Fred – even though she knew it was well deserved.

'Look, I think I have an idea anyway,' he added quietly.

~oO*Oo~

One hour and one soldier thrown off the cliff later, they were on the move again; headed for no particular location, but simply far away from the camp. All plans of making contact with Fred's father had long been abandoned.

'We need to head for Headquarters,' Velma said to Fred.

Fred snorted and tried to cover it with a coughing fit.

'Head for Headquarters? Is that really funny? Who am I talking to – Fred or Shaggy?'

Fred shook his head in disbelief at Velma's foul attitude. 'Just tell me your plan.'

They had arrived back at the farmhouse, and if Fred was being honest with himself, he wanted nothing more than to get someone else to take sentry while he crawled into one of the big warm beds and fell asleep. Preferably with Daphne in his arms.

Ever since he killed those soldiers – he killed the soldiers and saw Daphne's reaction, he wanted to take her in his arms and comfort her. But he had to leave that to Shaggy for one simple reason: Velma. If she saw him taking Daphne's side again, she'd go off like a firecracker. Fred had one priority right now and that was to maintain the unity in this already fragmented team. If he was the only one that listened to Velma's plan… well, that was better than no one else. And Shaggy and Daphne needed each other at the moment; they comforted each other.

He let Velma run on ahead to scout out the farmhouse. Velma was so adamant on getting back to Headquarters that he thought they'd probably make it back in less than a week at this rate. Or perhaps not…

Velma was running back to them, frantically waving her arms all over the place.

'There are soldiers everywhere!' she whispered breathlessly.

'At the farmhouse?'

'It looks like they're setting up another work party there!'

Fred was silent before saying, 'I see why. That place was a sawmill that can be turned into a darn good food-processing centre. We were lucky to get out of there.'

'Well, now we can't go west anymore. We can't go east or we'll run back into the camp.'

'South is the industrial centre. I refuse to go back there, Velma,' Fred said. 'We won't get out of a Bunnings repeat.'

'North it is. Towards the mountains,' Velma said resignedly.

'Look, maybe we can head north for a bit and then turn west towards Headquarters,' Fred said optimistically.

'I don't think we'll be able to. Remember the Janna River? It becomes a waterfall that creates a massive valley between the two sets of mountains. Over the second set of mountains – the west-most mountains, is Headquarters. We'll have to go around both sets of mountains.'

'Why can't we go through the valley?'

'We'll be going like this,' Velma made a wave with her arms. 'Up and down, up and down. I'm willing to bet most of that will be impossible for humans.'

'How do you know? Are you just guessing?'

'Mind you, my guesses are pretty accurate.'

'I'm not denying that. But look, let's head north and see how it goes. We'll assess the situation in another say – couple of hours?'

'Alright,' Velma sighed. 'Let's head back to the others and head to the mountains.'

~oO*Oo~

'Where are we going?' Daphne whined.

'I don't know,' Velma replied.

'Then why are you leading?'

'I don't see you stepping up to that challenge!'

'If you bothered telling me your plan, I might've been able to help!'

'Help? Pah! If we run into a soldier, you'll scream and crumple up into a ball on the floor. Either that or you'll run back into Fred or Shaggy's arms because you can't do anything for yourself.'

Velma braced herself for another bite from Daphne: she was fired up and ready for an argument. She needed to vent off some steam.

But to her surprise, guilt, dismay, horror – or a combination of all of those emotions, Daphne didn't launch into a physical attack or a verbal spray. After what she'd said to her, she fully expected Daphne to tackle her to the ground. It was embarrassingly anti-climatic, so she had another go.

'You're always been a damsel in distress and you always will be,' Velma spat, but her remark didn't have the same bite as before. Instead her words sizzled into the awkward tension that hung around the group like a bad smell.

She didn't even know why she was saying these hurtful things to Daphne.

Daphne simply cast her gaze downwards and kept walking, not a step out of line. Fred and Shaggy stared at Velma, but it wasn't with anger or disappointment; it was something far worse. Fear. They were looking at her as if she was a monster.

Perhaps after years of fighting against monsters, she had become one herself.