The police car rolled down the dusty causeway, now deprived of it's blaring
siren and ever alert police officers who had been forced to keep up their
duties. Apparently, it had all gone like this:
After nine weeks of not hearing a single word of response from her son and LOADS of meek excuses from Camp Green Lake's current warden, Mrs. Wood, Twitch's mother, paid the juvenile delinquent facility a surprise visit. Upon finding the place to be a complete torture zone and no Twitch in sight, she'd hired the police to come check it out.
"But Officer, I swear I never did a single damn thing to hurt any of these children!" the Warden had snapped. "They're criminals, they deserve this punishment! Besides, it's not like I'm really physically hurting them or anything."
Potpourri, along with her fellow A tent friends, all looked down at their blood encrusted hands, popped blisters and antagonizing sunburns.
"Well then tell me what happened to my son!" Mrs. Wood demanded, looking as if she were about to explode into hysterics.
"Your son?" the Warden said in a soft tone that could scare the hell out any sane soul. She narrowed her piercing gaze and took a step towards Mrs. Wood, her hands pressed to her hips so tightly that her knuckles were white in her cruel furry. "Your son Brian ran away Mrs. Wood," the Warden continued in her menacing hiss of a tone. "There was nothing I could do about it."
Mrs. Wood, her eyes wide with anger as she'd been approached, now collapsed with a sob onto an old, rickety bench just outside the Warden's cabin.
"And you have no more information?" one of the two surely police officers asked. "He just ran away one day?"
"That's what I said," the Warden snapped, turning on him. "One morning he was here, the next he wasn't."
There was a silence as everyone paused to take this in.
"ITS YOUR FAULT HE'S GONE!!!" Mrs. Wood shrieked, suddenly jumping to her feet and thrashing out at the Warden who stumbled over her boots. "IF YOU DIDN'T RUN SUCH A TERRIBLE, DISGRACEFUL CAMP HE WOULDN'T HAVE EVER RUN AWAY! And now he could be...He could be..." Mrs. Wood couldn't bring herself to say it.
"Calm down ma'am, I'm sure your son is fine," one of the police officers cried, grabbing her by the wrist and easing her back onto the bench. "Now, Ms. Walker," he said, addressing the Warden. "This Brian, was he the only one to ever run away from this camp?"
"Yes," the Warden said gravely. "Yes, of coarse."
The police officer nodded his head in consent before turning back to reassure Mrs. Wood that all hope was not lost (even though his eyes were sorrowful with each word).
"That's a lie."
Everyone, all the occupants of Camp Green Lake who had gathered around the Warden's cabin, Mr. Sir and the other counselors, the two police officers, the Warden and Mrs. Wood, turned if confusion, all eagerly searching for this new courageous orator.
"And Ms. Walker knows it was."
Olivia Danker stepped out from between the columns of onlookers and stared crossly at the Warden.
"Oh really?" the police officer asked, raising his eyebrow at both Olivia and the Warden.
"Yes," Olivia said bravely. "There have been many. But most recent of all were fourteen of them. All from D tent."
Both police officers and Mrs. Wood stared in complete shock, Mrs. Wood looking as if she would fall off the bench.
"Yep," Target agreed, stepping forth as well. "There was Lei, Fidget, Chase, Static, Zippy, Rogue, Magnetic, Armpit, Twitch, Squid, Zigzag, Zero, X-Ray, and Magnet."
The shocked expressions were slow to cease.
"In English please?" one of the officers asked, looking bewildered beyond reason. "And this time, a little slower."
Everyone fumbled for words all at once.
"Uhh... Well there was Emily and Allie..."
"Ricky and...and..."
"Theodore, Willow and Nyssa..."
"Wasn't one of them named Paul?"
"Brian..."
"John, Cory and Alexandria!"
"Hey I'm Cory!"
"Wait...what are we talking about?"
"OOH! OOH! Lei's name was Mahina and Magnetic's name was Willow! I remember!"
"Blah, blah, blah, blah! Blah, blah, blah, blah, BLOO!"
"SHUT UP!"
Everyone stopped and turned to look at Gum who had seemed to break some of her ribs just trying to get their attention.
"Alright Officer," she said, chewing noisily away at the rubbery candy that never seemed to leave her mouth. "They were Nyssa, Brian, Alicia, Willow, Alan, Emily, Theodore, Rex, Ricky, Allie, Mahina, Margie, José and I have no clue what Zero's name was. Now, if you want I can repeat that again for ya' and give ya' a little time ta' write all their names down, OR if you really wanted me to I could recite them all backwards or in Pig Latin. It's too bad I don't know ALL their last names but if ya'd like I could tie a few of their last names into the Pig Latin-"
"NO!" one of the police officers cried. "Really Miss, that's all right."
Gum blew an enormous pink bubble and popped it in her face, looking much less than startled.
That's when the officer turned on the Warden. "Did you know about these absences ma'am?"
The Warden looked about her for support. "Of coarse not!" she cried, almost going ballistic. "It's HIS job to keep these things in track!" she threw an accusing finger in Mr. Sir's direction who suddenly looked as if he'd shit his pants.
"Me?" he asked in bewilderment. "You knew about it all the time! Don't try to blame me?"
"We're gonna call the sergeant and have him come and check things out," the officer said before demanding, "For now, this establishment is in our custody!"
A few hours later, both officers found themselves on a search that was of no use: it seemed apparent to them that no matter what, they were never going to find all fourteen kids—or their bodies.
* * *
"Hey X-ray, you think we're ever gonna get home?"
X-ray looked up suddenly, surprised at hearing his name for the first time in hours and confused about who'd spoken; for weeks now all fourteen kids had pretty much sounded the same: thirsty. X-ray was so bewildered and tired that he failed to notice Rogue, sitting right in front of him in the back of the little red truck, her hand shielding her eyes from the sun and against the blast motivated of wind.
"Yo X-ray, I asked you a simple question dumb ass!" Rogue growled; but she didn't stay upset for long as she was too hot and tired to muster the strength to yell at anyone.
"Huh?" X-ray said, wiping off his dirt-crusted lenses to make sure that he wasn't seeing things. Rogue was talking to him! For the first time! This was all too good to be true! Rogue was talking to him! "I dunno," X-ray replied shortly before going back to watching the simple scenery fly past.
"Soon I hope," Static croaked. Her lips were dry and cracked and her already frizzy hair stuck out about her head like a nimbus of lightning bolts. "Otherwise we're all gonna die in a truck."
"Fun," Rogue said half-heartedly.
Ever since the meek provisions they'd found in Friction's car had run out, the D-tent members had begun to look less like kids by the minute and more like zombies. Around their eyes were rings of exhaust and all of them were in such dire need of showers that it was almost unbearable. Their lips were chewed and scabby and their faces were splattered with dirt and all of them had some pretty bad sunburns. The loss of food and hygiene weren't the only issues D-Tent had to face, yet their biggest of all was no water. Armpit seemed to have lost about a pound or so and Fidget was now so skinny that her ribs were much more apparent then they had been.
"I can't wait to get home and eat a bowl full of cookies and cream ice cream," Zippy would say every now and then, completely unaware of herself.
"Yeah," Zero would sometimes reply, twining her dry fingers into his. "Neither can I."
The first week in the truck had been okay; everyone had been so relieved to finally have a decent means of transportation that spirits had been high and well. They had all taken turns, sitting in the front seats of the truck and then sitting in the cargo area at the back of the truck, but only a few of them were able to take turns driving as not all of them knew how or were tall enough to reach the brakes. They had immediately found a bag of beef jerky in the glove compartment and two bottles of warm water in the cup holders. They'd tried to save all these rations as long as they could, and it had worked—for about two and a half weeks. But it wasn't just food and water they'd lacked after those first two weeks, but also the will to live. None of them could ever really find any sleep with the sun beating down on them all day and this factor had become very dangerous. One day as it had been Zigzag's turn to drive he'd fallen asleep at the wheel and no one had really noticed this until the truck served off the road and skidded dangerously over a mound of sand. Luckily, Lei had grabbed the wheel from Zigzag and had yanked them back onto the road, an extremely fast act that had almost sent Twitch flying from the back of the truck.
But for the past week, D-Tent hadn't noticed much; not the sun at their backs or the longing of their stomachs. Nothing seemed to matter anymore.
"I have to go to the bathroom," Magnetic said hoarsely. She was sitting in the front seats of the truck beside Squid, who was currently at the wheel, Twitch, and Zigzag.
Not saying a word or even showing any sign of comprehension, Squid stopped the car and got out of the front seat to let Magnetic pass. Then, too weak to even feel like stretching his legs, he leaned up against the sun- scorched wall of the truck, not even bothering to yelp at the burning against his skin.
"Why'd we stop now?" Armpit asked him.
Squid cocked his head towards Magnetic who was limping sorely across the desert terrain.
"Oh," Armpit mouthed, sitting back against the tailgate again.
Magnet didn't even make a move to spy on her as he lay back across the exposed fender.
"Does anyone know where we are?" Static asked Squid, referring to the people who were sharing the front.
Squid shook his head solemnly.
"I can just taste that bowl of frozen, cookies and cream ice cream," Zippy said, here eyes hazy and distant as she stared off into the sky.
Squid ruffled her hair in a humorous manor of affection, but his face was still expressionless. Then, noticing Magnetic trudging back in their direction, he moved back towards the driver's seat at the front of the truck. Soon, they were on their way again.
* * *
"They stole my truck! There was nothing I could do," Friction said into the phone.
She and Mr. Pendanski were standing beside a payphone at a little gas station in Cleo, a little town just north of Iris. Ever since Friction's truck had been stolen she and Mr. Pendanski had had to hitch-hike their way everywhere and now they too shared the same griminess that the members of D- Tent suffered.
"Who stole your truck?" the Warden snapped on the other side of the phone. "Who the hell could have stolen your truck out in the middle of nowhere?"
"The kids!" Friction stammered. "Squid! He's still alive! We interrogated him at the hotel in Iris but he just slipped away from us and next thing I knew my truck was gone!"
"Excuse me?" the Warden said coldly. "You're telling me that you had the little bastard in your grasp and you let him get away. The camp is in the police's custody and you two morons are just slacking off at some god damned gas station!"
Friction held the phone away from her ear, unwilling to listen to the Warden's incessant complaints.
"Let me talk to her for a second," Mr. Pendanski offered, taking the phone from Friction.
"Hello? Lou? Yes, it's me," he said into the receiver. "We were just calling to see if you could send someone to come pick us up down here in Cleo."
"You want me to send someone out their to pick you up?" the Warden asked, her voice like ice. "If anything I should be sending someone out there to shoot the both of you! You completely failed on bringing those damn kids back and now I'm the one who has to pay for it! You might as well just die out there in Cleo cause if you don't there you certainly will here!"
"Well she sounds peachy as can be!" Mr. Pendanski said in a sing-song voice before placing the phone back on the hook. "We could try Mr. Sir if you'd like?"
"Whatever," Friction grumbled as she slumped against the phone box. "You heard her: no matter what, we're all gonna die."
"Ain't it the truth," Mr. Pendanski said as he fished through his pockets for some change to try calling again.
After nine weeks of not hearing a single word of response from her son and LOADS of meek excuses from Camp Green Lake's current warden, Mrs. Wood, Twitch's mother, paid the juvenile delinquent facility a surprise visit. Upon finding the place to be a complete torture zone and no Twitch in sight, she'd hired the police to come check it out.
"But Officer, I swear I never did a single damn thing to hurt any of these children!" the Warden had snapped. "They're criminals, they deserve this punishment! Besides, it's not like I'm really physically hurting them or anything."
Potpourri, along with her fellow A tent friends, all looked down at their blood encrusted hands, popped blisters and antagonizing sunburns.
"Well then tell me what happened to my son!" Mrs. Wood demanded, looking as if she were about to explode into hysterics.
"Your son?" the Warden said in a soft tone that could scare the hell out any sane soul. She narrowed her piercing gaze and took a step towards Mrs. Wood, her hands pressed to her hips so tightly that her knuckles were white in her cruel furry. "Your son Brian ran away Mrs. Wood," the Warden continued in her menacing hiss of a tone. "There was nothing I could do about it."
Mrs. Wood, her eyes wide with anger as she'd been approached, now collapsed with a sob onto an old, rickety bench just outside the Warden's cabin.
"And you have no more information?" one of the two surely police officers asked. "He just ran away one day?"
"That's what I said," the Warden snapped, turning on him. "One morning he was here, the next he wasn't."
There was a silence as everyone paused to take this in.
"ITS YOUR FAULT HE'S GONE!!!" Mrs. Wood shrieked, suddenly jumping to her feet and thrashing out at the Warden who stumbled over her boots. "IF YOU DIDN'T RUN SUCH A TERRIBLE, DISGRACEFUL CAMP HE WOULDN'T HAVE EVER RUN AWAY! And now he could be...He could be..." Mrs. Wood couldn't bring herself to say it.
"Calm down ma'am, I'm sure your son is fine," one of the police officers cried, grabbing her by the wrist and easing her back onto the bench. "Now, Ms. Walker," he said, addressing the Warden. "This Brian, was he the only one to ever run away from this camp?"
"Yes," the Warden said gravely. "Yes, of coarse."
The police officer nodded his head in consent before turning back to reassure Mrs. Wood that all hope was not lost (even though his eyes were sorrowful with each word).
"That's a lie."
Everyone, all the occupants of Camp Green Lake who had gathered around the Warden's cabin, Mr. Sir and the other counselors, the two police officers, the Warden and Mrs. Wood, turned if confusion, all eagerly searching for this new courageous orator.
"And Ms. Walker knows it was."
Olivia Danker stepped out from between the columns of onlookers and stared crossly at the Warden.
"Oh really?" the police officer asked, raising his eyebrow at both Olivia and the Warden.
"Yes," Olivia said bravely. "There have been many. But most recent of all were fourteen of them. All from D tent."
Both police officers and Mrs. Wood stared in complete shock, Mrs. Wood looking as if she would fall off the bench.
"Yep," Target agreed, stepping forth as well. "There was Lei, Fidget, Chase, Static, Zippy, Rogue, Magnetic, Armpit, Twitch, Squid, Zigzag, Zero, X-Ray, and Magnet."
The shocked expressions were slow to cease.
"In English please?" one of the officers asked, looking bewildered beyond reason. "And this time, a little slower."
Everyone fumbled for words all at once.
"Uhh... Well there was Emily and Allie..."
"Ricky and...and..."
"Theodore, Willow and Nyssa..."
"Wasn't one of them named Paul?"
"Brian..."
"John, Cory and Alexandria!"
"Hey I'm Cory!"
"Wait...what are we talking about?"
"OOH! OOH! Lei's name was Mahina and Magnetic's name was Willow! I remember!"
"Blah, blah, blah, blah! Blah, blah, blah, blah, BLOO!"
"SHUT UP!"
Everyone stopped and turned to look at Gum who had seemed to break some of her ribs just trying to get their attention.
"Alright Officer," she said, chewing noisily away at the rubbery candy that never seemed to leave her mouth. "They were Nyssa, Brian, Alicia, Willow, Alan, Emily, Theodore, Rex, Ricky, Allie, Mahina, Margie, José and I have no clue what Zero's name was. Now, if you want I can repeat that again for ya' and give ya' a little time ta' write all their names down, OR if you really wanted me to I could recite them all backwards or in Pig Latin. It's too bad I don't know ALL their last names but if ya'd like I could tie a few of their last names into the Pig Latin-"
"NO!" one of the police officers cried. "Really Miss, that's all right."
Gum blew an enormous pink bubble and popped it in her face, looking much less than startled.
That's when the officer turned on the Warden. "Did you know about these absences ma'am?"
The Warden looked about her for support. "Of coarse not!" she cried, almost going ballistic. "It's HIS job to keep these things in track!" she threw an accusing finger in Mr. Sir's direction who suddenly looked as if he'd shit his pants.
"Me?" he asked in bewilderment. "You knew about it all the time! Don't try to blame me?"
"We're gonna call the sergeant and have him come and check things out," the officer said before demanding, "For now, this establishment is in our custody!"
A few hours later, both officers found themselves on a search that was of no use: it seemed apparent to them that no matter what, they were never going to find all fourteen kids—or their bodies.
* * *
"Hey X-ray, you think we're ever gonna get home?"
X-ray looked up suddenly, surprised at hearing his name for the first time in hours and confused about who'd spoken; for weeks now all fourteen kids had pretty much sounded the same: thirsty. X-ray was so bewildered and tired that he failed to notice Rogue, sitting right in front of him in the back of the little red truck, her hand shielding her eyes from the sun and against the blast motivated of wind.
"Yo X-ray, I asked you a simple question dumb ass!" Rogue growled; but she didn't stay upset for long as she was too hot and tired to muster the strength to yell at anyone.
"Huh?" X-ray said, wiping off his dirt-crusted lenses to make sure that he wasn't seeing things. Rogue was talking to him! For the first time! This was all too good to be true! Rogue was talking to him! "I dunno," X-ray replied shortly before going back to watching the simple scenery fly past.
"Soon I hope," Static croaked. Her lips were dry and cracked and her already frizzy hair stuck out about her head like a nimbus of lightning bolts. "Otherwise we're all gonna die in a truck."
"Fun," Rogue said half-heartedly.
Ever since the meek provisions they'd found in Friction's car had run out, the D-tent members had begun to look less like kids by the minute and more like zombies. Around their eyes were rings of exhaust and all of them were in such dire need of showers that it was almost unbearable. Their lips were chewed and scabby and their faces were splattered with dirt and all of them had some pretty bad sunburns. The loss of food and hygiene weren't the only issues D-Tent had to face, yet their biggest of all was no water. Armpit seemed to have lost about a pound or so and Fidget was now so skinny that her ribs were much more apparent then they had been.
"I can't wait to get home and eat a bowl full of cookies and cream ice cream," Zippy would say every now and then, completely unaware of herself.
"Yeah," Zero would sometimes reply, twining her dry fingers into his. "Neither can I."
The first week in the truck had been okay; everyone had been so relieved to finally have a decent means of transportation that spirits had been high and well. They had all taken turns, sitting in the front seats of the truck and then sitting in the cargo area at the back of the truck, but only a few of them were able to take turns driving as not all of them knew how or were tall enough to reach the brakes. They had immediately found a bag of beef jerky in the glove compartment and two bottles of warm water in the cup holders. They'd tried to save all these rations as long as they could, and it had worked—for about two and a half weeks. But it wasn't just food and water they'd lacked after those first two weeks, but also the will to live. None of them could ever really find any sleep with the sun beating down on them all day and this factor had become very dangerous. One day as it had been Zigzag's turn to drive he'd fallen asleep at the wheel and no one had really noticed this until the truck served off the road and skidded dangerously over a mound of sand. Luckily, Lei had grabbed the wheel from Zigzag and had yanked them back onto the road, an extremely fast act that had almost sent Twitch flying from the back of the truck.
But for the past week, D-Tent hadn't noticed much; not the sun at their backs or the longing of their stomachs. Nothing seemed to matter anymore.
"I have to go to the bathroom," Magnetic said hoarsely. She was sitting in the front seats of the truck beside Squid, who was currently at the wheel, Twitch, and Zigzag.
Not saying a word or even showing any sign of comprehension, Squid stopped the car and got out of the front seat to let Magnetic pass. Then, too weak to even feel like stretching his legs, he leaned up against the sun- scorched wall of the truck, not even bothering to yelp at the burning against his skin.
"Why'd we stop now?" Armpit asked him.
Squid cocked his head towards Magnetic who was limping sorely across the desert terrain.
"Oh," Armpit mouthed, sitting back against the tailgate again.
Magnet didn't even make a move to spy on her as he lay back across the exposed fender.
"Does anyone know where we are?" Static asked Squid, referring to the people who were sharing the front.
Squid shook his head solemnly.
"I can just taste that bowl of frozen, cookies and cream ice cream," Zippy said, here eyes hazy and distant as she stared off into the sky.
Squid ruffled her hair in a humorous manor of affection, but his face was still expressionless. Then, noticing Magnetic trudging back in their direction, he moved back towards the driver's seat at the front of the truck. Soon, they were on their way again.
* * *
"They stole my truck! There was nothing I could do," Friction said into the phone.
She and Mr. Pendanski were standing beside a payphone at a little gas station in Cleo, a little town just north of Iris. Ever since Friction's truck had been stolen she and Mr. Pendanski had had to hitch-hike their way everywhere and now they too shared the same griminess that the members of D- Tent suffered.
"Who stole your truck?" the Warden snapped on the other side of the phone. "Who the hell could have stolen your truck out in the middle of nowhere?"
"The kids!" Friction stammered. "Squid! He's still alive! We interrogated him at the hotel in Iris but he just slipped away from us and next thing I knew my truck was gone!"
"Excuse me?" the Warden said coldly. "You're telling me that you had the little bastard in your grasp and you let him get away. The camp is in the police's custody and you two morons are just slacking off at some god damned gas station!"
Friction held the phone away from her ear, unwilling to listen to the Warden's incessant complaints.
"Let me talk to her for a second," Mr. Pendanski offered, taking the phone from Friction.
"Hello? Lou? Yes, it's me," he said into the receiver. "We were just calling to see if you could send someone to come pick us up down here in Cleo."
"You want me to send someone out their to pick you up?" the Warden asked, her voice like ice. "If anything I should be sending someone out there to shoot the both of you! You completely failed on bringing those damn kids back and now I'm the one who has to pay for it! You might as well just die out there in Cleo cause if you don't there you certainly will here!"
"Well she sounds peachy as can be!" Mr. Pendanski said in a sing-song voice before placing the phone back on the hook. "We could try Mr. Sir if you'd like?"
"Whatever," Friction grumbled as she slumped against the phone box. "You heard her: no matter what, we're all gonna die."
"Ain't it the truth," Mr. Pendanski said as he fished through his pockets for some change to try calling again.