Chapter 7, The Strange Healing of Big Old Montgomery

Montgomery was running. He had a huge goofy smile on his face, normal shoes on his feet, and he looked strong, energetic, and undoubtedly unhurt.

Joe pinched himself, hard.

Cause surely, he had to be dreaming. When he blinked, he still saw Montgomery on the ground, crying from pain. He still heard his terrible screams. Deep, scarred, bellowing. Like a banshees.

He pinched himself again.

"Hey Dooley! Parker, Hall!" Montgomery cried, then looked Joe right in the eyes. "Oh and hey Carter!"

His eyes! Joe gasped. His eyes held the last signs of reality. Deeply red and swollen from emotion, bloodshot from how hard he'd screamed.

But that was it. Every other part of him was unscathed. As if their nightmare from that morning was only that… a nightmare. Just a bad dream, something that hadn't actually occurred.

Frantically, Joe looked around him to make sure others were reacting in the same way he felt, and thankfully felt his shocked heart calm a little at the sign of shock and disbelief from everyone else in line. So Joe wasn't going crazy then.

But, when he met Frank's bewildered eyes, and Frank's head discreetly nodded towards the counselors and sergeants, Joe was surprised to see they didn't look surprised at all. In fact, the sergeants and counselors instead decided it best to ignore the strangled gasps of the boys, or even the one kid who's face turned white from shock, looking like he'd be sick, in favor of acting like nothing was amiss whatsoever.

"Finally. Everyone is here." Boone shouted. One boy swayed on his feet like he was about to pass out. "It's time then, to start our next drill of the day!"

"W-w-w-w-what the h-he-hell?" Hall whispered harshly in Joe's ear, even As Montogmery joined them in line with a wide smile.

Even Parker looked spooked. He didn't show it anywhere other than in his eyes though, which were blown wide with enlarged pupils at the sight of Montgomery.

Boone was beginning to bark orders about what they were going to do, but Joe didn't pay any attention. Since Montgomery was close to him in line, he turned to face him.

A strange smell came out of nowhere when Joe got face to face with Montgomery. It was a smell of roses, mixed with lemon. The kind of lemon that was overwhelmingly similar to a bathroom cleaner lemon scent.

It was so strong, it almost made Joe gag again. But he swallowed it down. No way was he going to throw up again, and lose the meager amount of energy he'd gained since that morning.

Seems my iron stomach is suddenly a wet noodle. He thought. What with how susceptible it's been to anything bad today. What is wrong with me?

"Montgomery! It's so good to see you're ok, but how?" Joe asked, cutting to the chase. He asked the question quietly, but loud enough for their small group of friends to hear as well. They turned, of course wanting to know the answer to that question as well.

Montgomery, suddenly looking like he was fighting the urge to cry, clapped Joe on the back and patted Frank on the shoulder. "Thank you four, for helping me." He said with such strong care for Hall, Parker, Frank and Joe in his voice. "I'm not used to people caring so much."

Parker just huffed in annoyance, but didn't turn away. The rest of them smiled kindly at Montgomery, Frank even grasping his shoulder in response. Even through their shock and confusion, of course it was a relief to see Montgomery ok, and to see he still had his personality intact, all big hearted and goofy and so unlike how he looked.

But… as soon as his mushy emotions had started, they seemed to stop, and a faker smile took over thin lips.

"But as you can see, I'm fine. No major injuries whatsoever." He wouldn't meet any of their eyes.

Joe's eyebrows furrowed, once again in shock and confusion.

He blinked. And there was Montgomery again, ankle twisted in an unnatural position, undoubtedly broken, badly.

"That's a fucking lie." Parker hissed. "We all saw you! Your ankle was-"

Parker was interrupted by a heavy hand to his cheek, startling the others out of their stupor.

Sergeant Boone had backhanded Parker with the palm of his hand, hard!

And now the rest of the boys were once again looking at them with a mixture of curiosity and disgust. Ever the enigmas…

"Parker!" Frank cried, grabbing onto the brit before he could fall over from how hard the sergeant hit him.

For a second he leant against Frank, shocked, but then quickly came back to himself and pushed Frank away from him.

"You five!" Sergeant Boone screamed at them, "Have been nothing but trouble since I laid my eyes on you. I bet you weren't even listening to my instructions!"

Their rag-tag group of five managed to look slightly sheepish. Angry, and sheepish. And of course, a little bit scared.

Boone grabbed Frank by the collar of his shirt and Joe growled in anger, surprised with himself when he managed not to instantly jump to Frank's defense and make things worse for themselves. But boy, did he want to.

Frank doesn't really need me though, does he? Came the nasty thoughts in Joe's brain again, He didn't need me to get up the cliff, he didn't need me when I was deadweight and sick, and he doesn't need me now. He'll be perfectly fine without me when it's time for him to go to coll– NO. Not now. Not the time.

He shoved his worries back into their box. Trying not to feel useless to Frank.

"Dooley!" Boone practically spat on Frank's face, "Can you tell the group what I was explaining we'll do for this drill?"

Joe clinched his fist into his side. Come on Frank…

This is my fault too. I distracted us from paying attention. And Parker and Frank are both going to pay for it.

Frank looked Boone in the eye. "We have to do 100 pushups, then 6 laps around the court c. Ending with 50 burpees and 80 situps."

That's my big bro. Joe thought, a smile of relief on his face, Didn't even miss a beat!

Boone, disappointed that Frank actually knew the answer, roared and threw Frank to the ground.

"Lucky for you, one of you assholes was listening." He eyed their group dangerously. "But for having a girly little chat while the rest of the soldiers paid attention… DOUBLE EVERYTHING! 200 pushups! 12 laps! 100 burpees and 160 situps!"

Boys gasped, growled, and snarled in their direction.

Just… great.

"NOW!" Boone cried, and boys started to drop to their knees, beginning the pushups.

Joe went over to Frank and helped him up onto his knees, deeply concerned.

"Frank! Are you ok?" He whispered, brushing some grass off of Frank's probably skinned knees. Even the army shorts he wore now probably didn't save his knees from being busted up by that fall.

Frank smiled at him, reassuringly. "Yeah I'm fine. But you'd better get started before we get in trouble again. We'll talk later."

And boy did they have a lot to talk about.

But Joe just nodded, squeezed Frank's shoulder, and went to do his own pushups.

A few hours later, their bodies screaming in protest, every muscle, every limb on fire, the boys finished the drill, collapsed heavily on the ground.

Throughout the drill, some boys had gotten sick, some had even fainted and needed to be taken to the nurse's office when eventually they got in the way.

Somehow though, their group had made it through, relatively unscathed.

Parker heaved onto the ground next to him, Hall looked about as dazed as Joe had felt earlier, Frank and Joe breathed heavily, bent over and gasping their breaths… but Montgomery…

"Phew. That was fun!" He laughed, brushing a singular bead of sweat off of his forehead, as he looked on at the others struggling.

Joe felt slightly annoyed at how perfectly fine their buff friend was after that grueling drill, but his detective instincts won over his other emotions.

In just a matter of a few hours, Montgomery had become the biggest mystery of Camp Doom.

"How…?" Hall panted, staring at Montgomery like he had two heads. And maybe that's what he actually saw… his eyes were glazed over pretty intensely. "H-h-h-ow?" He repeated.

Montgomery just shrugged. A flash of something anxious went through his eyes, but it was so quick, and covered up even quicker, that Joe wondered if he'd just imagined it.

"Must be the food here, bro." He smiled, then stood up. "And speaking of food, I'm starving! I'll meet you boys in the cafeteria for lunch!"

And he bounded off, not even waiting for the sergeants, who called for a lunch break just a second after he left.

Surprisingly though, he didn't get in any trouble for leaving early. Strange.

The boys started to make their way to lunch. Hall looked pretty bad. A lot like how Joe had looked earlier, swaying a bit on his feet.

Parker of all people, stepped up next to him and threw his arm over his shoulder, not making a single comment as he helped the thin boy hobble towards the cafeteria.

It seemed he decided to help at random times, and ignore them, otherwise. Joe'd never met such an unpredictable person.

He started to walk a bit slower, and wasn't surprised when Frank fell into step with him. This might be their only chance to talk for a while, just the two of them, what with them naturally falling into their group of new friends.

Thankfully, Hall was too out of it to notice them fall behind, and Parker didn't care.

"Ok this place just gets crazier and crazier." Frank said, once the last of the boys training on c court passed them by. "I can't wait to talk to Dad and Chief C later tonight."

Joe nodded, feeling incredulous. "This is too much Frank. Since when do people heal from major injuries overnight?"

Frank looked equally as freaked out as Joe. "They don't. I don't know what's going on here Joey, but I think it's even worse than we could've imagined." He clapped Joe on the back.

Joe worried his lower lip with his top teeth, "And Montgomery is acting incredibly strange."

"Hah! Of course he is! He somehow had his bone healed in a matter of hours and doesn't seem to want… or be able to talk about it. We need to get more sleuthing in. Right now our schedule is so tight, we barely have anytime to be detectives."

Joe nodded again. "Yeah, now I'm starting to understand how this mystery hasn't been solved yet. The military schedule is so tight. I bet even the two useless knobs are stuck on counselor duty most of the time."

"Probably." Frank concurred. "But either way, we need to do more sleuthing. Let's talk to them tonight about their schedules. Maybe they will work on some of our drills with us, and can help with distractions so one or both of us can sneak off to look for clues sometimes."

"Yeah, maybe. Though I'm starting to think we can't rely on them at all."

A somber feeling was mutual between the two of them as they reluctantly made their way to the cafeteria.

And not for the first time since they'd come here, Joe found himself wondering why he'd ever made them do this…

It was supposed to be good. Their first undercover mission together before everything changed…

But instead it was proving to be exhausting, emotionally damaging, and out of left field when it came to the things happening around camp.

And Joe knew it was his fault they'd come. If he hadn't pushed for it so hard, his big bro would never have caved and agreed to it. Frank was reluctant from the get-go.

Now thanks to Joe, they were both sporting minor injuries, confused out of their minds, and just stumbling through a mess when they could be at home with their friends and girlfriends…

"I miss Iola." Joe said out loud, hoping for a lighter change of subject. "I wonder what she's up to now. I bet you're missing Callie right now too."

Frank stopped in his track, a weird look on his face. Sort of a mix of a grimace and guilt. "You know, honestly, I haven't even thought about her once since a few days ago." He admitted.

Joe was surprised. Sure, Frank and Callie hadn't been spending as much time together for a few months now, but they were still the happy, perfect couple. Always smiling and laughing together, and voted cutest couple for the third year in a row. Joe had been jealous of their love for each other until he'd finally started dating Iola about half a year ago now.

"Really?"

Frank sighed. "Yeah, not really. Honestly Joe, I think her and I may be drifting apart. Especially with college coming up in August."

Joe's heart fell to his stomach as he continued to listen to what Frank was saying.

"Our lives are about to be completely separate. I already know I don't want to go to Christopher Newport University since they don't have as strong of a criminal justice program there. And she's basically already been told she was accepted there, and is just waiting on the official letter to be able to share the news." He rubbed at the back of his neck. "College is going to be so busy too, I won't have time for much more than classes, and trying to do college things outside of that as well. And besides, our similarities have been getting smaller and smaller as the years go by too. I'm not so sure anymore about the future of our relationship…. Joe? Are you ok?"

Joe had completely stopped walking.

He's going to be so busy with college. Classes, and new friends… maybe even parties and clubs. If he doesn't have the time for his girlfriend that he used to gush about every day how he was in love, how will he ever have time for me? His dumb little brother?

He couldn't even muster the energy to chastise himself for worrying about this again. He felt too crushed.

When he leaves for college, nothing will ever be the same again. We'll never be living under the same roof, solving mysteries and goofing off. He'll either marry Callie and move off with her, or find another girl to love and marry. They'll have kids, move to wherever they want to, and start new jobs on their own. It will NEVER be the same, ever again.

Joe choked on the air.

"Joe!" Frank was really concerned now, he had one hand on Joe's shoulder, and the other underneath his chin, trying to get the blond to look at him. "Joey, what's wrong?"

Joe came back to himself. Thankfully, before he made a total fool of himself and started crying like a little kid for Frank's comfort.

"Sorry Frank. Haha… it's nothing." He tried shrugging it off.

"I wasn't born yesterday, Joe. Obviously something is wrong. You know you can talk to me, right?" Frank asked, looking a bit hurt at Joe's obvious lies.

"Of course!" Joe cried, eager to wipe that look of hurt off of Frank's face, "Of course I do Frank. It's just…"

Before Joe could continue, a soft noise, and the sound of someone cursing caught the Hardy's attention.

They were walking by the nurse's office building, and at the side of the building, where trash cans lined the walls presumably for medical trash, a boy with hollow looking, lifeless eyes, stumbled over something.

"I know that guy!" Frank whispered. "He was the lifeless looking kid on the bus with me coming into camp the other day. He rooms with the two other boys I don't room with, who were on the bus. He looks a lot like the seniors, in the way that his eyes are cold and lifeless… his face just isn't as gaunt as the senior's faces are."

Joe perked up. All thoughts of a minute ago, gone. Both brothers took on their detective identities at the drop of the hat, as they'd gotten so good at doing whenever the need arose.

"But isn't he one of the snowflakes?"

Frank nodded. "Must be, or he wouldn't have come from the airport with us."

The boy stumbled again, then looked up, and Frank and Joe dashed behind the corner of the building, watching from a safer distance. Thankfully, they weren't spotted.

"Well whatever he is, he's up to something." Joe whispered again.

The boy, startled, looked around a bit, determined he was safe, then went over to the side window and peered in.

"Perfect. The nurse is at lunch." He whispered to himself, then made his way over to the side door, pulled out a hair pin, and unlocked the door!

Joe and Frank watched with wide eyes, as he slipped right inside.

"We're following him, right?" Joe asked Frank.

"Oh yeah, we're following him."

And the two of them slunk over, as quiet as mice. Peeking through the door slowly first to make sure the boy didn't see them, then entering the nurse's office as well.

As they snuck closer to the boy, and Joe's stomach growled quietly, he thought…

So much for lunch.

To be continued…