Chapter 11, A migraine, and the mystery of Leo Adams
Joe awoke from unconsciousness with a throbbing, aching headache, and deep worry for his big brother.
The last thing he remembered was hearing a thunk, a pained scream that couldn't have belonged to anyone other than Frank, and then a terrifying moment of hearing his body fall to the floor.
Next thing he knew, he was out himself.
Coming back to the world of the living after being knocked out was never fun. Though he and Frank had only gone through it a few times on a few different cases, it always resulted in the same three things when awakening.
Fear, disorientation, and pain. Oh man, the pain. That part always sucked the most.
When Joe opened his bleary eyes, wincing and grasping at the back of his head where there was a small bump now to add to the other minor injuries his body was accumulating these last several days, he was surprised first, to see the lights were back on, and second, that two of them were missing.
Brandon Montgomery and Tyler Hall.
But before he could even focus on that, he HAD to make sure his brother was ok.
"Fr-frank." Joe slurred a bit, hopefully just from the disorientation, and not from an accumulated concussion. "Frank!" He cried out, in a clearer tone, rushing over to his brother's side, all while sending worried glances John Parker's way as well.
Thankfully though, Frank was already groaning into awareness himself, and starting to sit up.
"Frank!" Joe helped his brother, who was still kind of out of it, to sit up all the way.
"Joe…?" Frank blinked a few times, trying to come back into himself, "What happen… oh God!" Frank gasped, seemingly coming back to their situation quickly.
Good, so he probably doesn't have a concussion, Joe thought, who was also feeling more awake with every passing second.
"The lights! Someone hit me…. Did someone hit you?" Frank was back to himself enough to be a mother hen, then. Good, another good sign.
He reached over to touch at Joe's head, and Joe winced.
"Yeah, someone hit me alright. Where are-"
John Parker groaning and waking up snagged their attention quickly, and they moved over to help the other boy as well.
"Whatttt the fuckkkk?" John moaned, "What the fuck just happened?" He blinked and looked around, "And where are Brandon and Tyler?"
The three boys shared startled looks as the reality of what Joe had noticed upon waking, sunk in.
Someone had attacked them, and now both Brandon and Tyler were missing.
"Shit." Joe cursed, "This isn't good."
Without needing to say anymore, Frank and Joe, and even John, started to look around the room to try and figure out what had happened.
Clearly, whatever it was had not caused enough damage to make any of the adult counselors or sergeants come bursting in… in fact, if it wasn't for the two boys now missing, and the three lumps formed on three attacked boys' heads, it would look like nothing transpired at all.
The beds were in perfect order, with sheets nicely made as they were required to be each morning, and there was not even a scratch on the ground, a pillow out of place, or any other signs that a struggle had taken place.
Brandon's stuff even remained, perfectly pushed underneath one of the bunk beds.
Not a thing out of place.
"Ok that's it." Frank sounded very serious, "We need to figure this mystery out, soon. This just keeps getting worse, and worse."
He looked at both Joe and John with deep concern in his eyes, one that Joe mirrored, to a tenfold.
"What now?" Joe asked, and he hated, really hated, how desperate he sounded. How scared. It sounded as if he was just a little boy again, looking to his big brother to solve all his problems.
Frank was right, everyday it got worse. And now, were their friends gone…? For good…?
In their own worries, neither Joe or Frank saw John Parker's, of all people, eyes start to well up with frustrated, panicked tears.
"No. NO way." He mumbled to himself. "This cannot be happening. Not again."
But they did notice his verbiage, and met eyes with shock.
"John, what do you mean, this can't happen again?" Joe spoke softly, the softest he'd ever needed to with Parker, treading slowly, because he could see the wild look in their British friend's eyes.
John looked right up at him, swiping furiously at his eyes like they were attacking him, or his pride more likely, "It's what I was trying to tell you, before we were attacked… before Tyler and Brandon…"
He took several deep, quick breaths, seemingly attempting to calm himself down.
Unexpectedly, or really, not that unexpectedly when it came to Frank and his calm endearing patience and kindness, Frank wrapped an arm around their friend's shoulders, and the brutish brit actually let him, leaning slightly into the hold for a second.
Just a second, but enough to make Joe wonder, how had they ended up here?
John straightened up, and shrugged out of the hold. "I'm here because of my brother."
Joe's eyes widened. "You're brother?"
John nodded, "Yeah, my idiot twin brother, who is always getting himself into so much fucking trouble. He landed himself here over the summer session, for beating up a guy who knocked his girlfriend up…"
Joe felt sick, seeing where this was going, right away.
"He was supposed to only be here for the snowflakes summer session… but he went missing."
Frank, who was still sitting close to John, asked softly, "Your brother, what is his name?"
"Henry. Henry Todd."
Now Joe was confused, but before he could open his mouth to ask his question, John continued.
"I came in here, with a fake last name." John sighed, "My real name is John Todd. Hate my fucking last name anyways, so it was easy enough to change it. Then all I had to do was hack into the camp's application system and enter myself in as a fake person, with a fake history too. Wanted to come in undercover, kind of like how you guys did, so no one would be suspicious as to why the kid of one of the missing boys was suddenly there also."
Frank and Joe gasped.
"Hold up!" Joe gasped, feeling incredibly impressed, "You did all that, by yourself? We had the police backing us up, how did you even manage to hack into one of the camp's systems?"
John grinned, just a little, "I know I don't fucking look it, but I have an IQ of 165. Grew up in a bad family, and had to learn how to get by. I chose to use my intellect to get ahead."
Joe knew Frank was feeling as awestruck as he was, right now.
They had really, underestimated John Parker… er John Todd, apparently.
But then John looked angry again, sad, suddenly hopeless even. "But I couldn't manage to hack into anything other than their stupid application system. I couldn't hack into any of their records, or security or anything. Originally I was hoping to just do that, but when it became obvious I would have to fucking come to this shitty ass camp to find my brother, I decided to do just that. I was hoping hacking into their systems would be easier from the inside, but so far, without the use of my phone… or any other pc or computer, I have no way of even trying."
And that explained it. It explained everything about John. Why he was so angry all the time, why he was so closed off to them at first, and why he did his best to keep from getting close to anyone, at least for a little while.
It sounded like he had an extremely hard life, a bad family, and now his brother was missing too.
Joe shuddered, he couldn't imagine what it'd feel like if Frank was missing. And it made him feel even more pathetic for being so upset over Frank going to college soon. That hardship was nothing, nothing, compared to John's.
"I'm really sorry." Joe squeaked, sounding stupid and overly emotional… again. "I'm really sorry, about your brother."
And just like that, John's hard mask was back, a look of simple indifference with just a hint of anger sliding back over his features like they were always meant to be there.
"Shut up, ok?" He growled, and Frank looked taken aback at the sudden change, and ready to come to Joe's defense as always.
"Hey, there's no reason to-"
"You shut up too!" John turned his glare on Frank. "I don't need your pity, and I don't need your sympathies either, my brother isn't dead, he's not gone, so don't speak about him as if he is."
Joe backpedaled, "I wasn't trying to say that, John…"
"Whatever. I am going to bed. And you two assholes should too. And hope and pray the other two idiots are back by the morning, cause if they're not… we're probably next"
He climbed onto his single bed and turned his back to them, before they could even get another word in, very effectively telling them he was done with the conversation.
But what he said left chills down both brother's spines.
He was right. With them being attacked in their own space, the only place that felt relatively safe until now, it wa snow 100% clear.
They were in danger, everywhere. And them, in particular.
Joe didn't want to go back to his room. He wanted to stay there with them, with Frank, where they could watch each other's backs.
He wanted to be close to his brother… just in case…
"No, Joe." Frank was suddenly by his side, and they were hugging again. It was then that Joe felt the slight wetness around his eyes.
Pathetic.
"We're ok." Frank whispered to him, even as Joe clung back. "We'll be fine. If they wanted to take us, they would've."
Joe just nodded.
He didn't know what to say, not this time. Because everything he could think of in response to that, wouldn't be good, or nearly as reassuring as the soft spoken words his big brother shared.
Because honestly, Joe wasn't sure he even believed that. He wasn't sure he even believed they would be safe through the night.
But there was no choice, eventually he did have to pull back, waiting until he'd swallowed his tears and put on a more stoic expression, to try and be brave for the brother who was always brave for him.
Frank, who even now, was clearly trying to swallow his own fears for the sake of Joe.
So once again, Joe decided not to be very truthful with his brother, but this time he didn't even feel bad for it. "We'll be ok. I'll see you in the morning, Frank."
Frank, obviously wanted to ask him to stay, he could see it in his brother's eyes.
But they both knew about the morning roll call, the morning room checks, and the fact that things would be so much worse if he did stay.
Even if it was a sergeant or counselor who attacked them tonight, and they already knew Joe and Tyler had been in here, they'd only be making things worse if they started to very obviously, deliberately break the rules for all to see.
So, with one more quick squeeze of Frank's shoulder, Joe left to go back to his room.
It felt strange, sneaking back over to their room without Tyler, and knowing their friend wasn't waiting for him inside it.
Joe felt an emptiness in the space he'd made in his heart for their new friends at this camp, one he hoped would not stay that way for too long.
The mission had changed just a bit that night. Solve the mystery, and find their missing friends.
When Joe entered his room, he saw, to his very unfortunate surprise, that Madson was still awake and gleefully looking ready to pry into Joe about his absence.
"Heyyyy sweetiieeee." He taunted, "Off playing house with your g-g-g-g-rilfriends?" He laughed, hard.
A sudden pulsating anger took over Joe then, one that didn't happen as often for him, even with his higher likelihood of anger than his brother.
How dare he make fun of Tyler, when he was off who knows where, with who knows what happening to him.
"Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Madson." Joe seethed, and Madson quirked an eyebrow.
He wasn't used to seeing this fuzzball so angry. Sure, he'd seen the blonde and his boyyyffrrriiieennddd come to Hall's defense, but never with so much fury in his eyes.
"Oh yeah? What're you gonna do about it?" He snided.
Joe fumed, and before he could stop himself, he was tackling Madson, sending a punch to his stomach, and then sending the big bully crashing into the wall his bunk bed rested against.
The bully, taken by surprise, whimpered at the sudden loss of air to his windpipes.
"I'll only say this one more time." Joe growled, "Leave me and my friends alone. Don't dig into our business, and for the love of God! STOP calling me and my friends boyfriends."
But the bully, despite having the wind knocked out of him, wasn't quite done yet, he stood up and grabbed Joe's neck in his overly large hands, in a sudden chokehold.
Joe gasped, and for a second he flailed in blind fear before his instincts took over.
Just a second, that he thought maybe Madson would be the end of him, of all things in this wretched place.
But then his knee rammed up, straight between Madson's legs and the bully let out a cry of pain, falling to the ground.
Just for good measure, and just because Joe was so angry, he sent another punch to Madson's stomach, as well.
Needless to say, he didn't sleep well that night. Feeling like shit for giving into his anger that rarely consumed him, feeling pathetic for woes over his college bound brother, but most of all, a deep rooted terror for himself and his friends and brother, especially the two who were most likely now kidnapped, a terror that made his mind assume they weren't going to get out of this alive. Or that someone else was going to be kidnapped in the night.
But, when he woke up the next morning, probably having managed no more than 2 hours of fitful sleep, the sun shone like normal, and the morning drills and room checks proceeded, as if nothing had gone wrong at all.
Finally though, at least Madson wasn't giving him a hard time. He kept his mouth shut and his eyes down, away from Joe, as the sergeant assigned to do their room check completely skipped over calling for Tyler's name on the attendance roll, confirming right away to Joe that this disappearance of their stuttering friend, didn't come as a surprise to the leadership of the camp.
Joe's heart dropped to his stomach and stayed there, as the sergeant addressed that everything looked good in their room, nothing seemed amiss.
And it stayed there as they were all lined up in the hallway, and Frank and John had the same shocked, disheartened look on their faces.
No Tyler, and no Brandon.
And no one but them cared at all.
But also, meeting eyes with Frank, there was a frantic kind of relief for the brothers, seeing everything was ok that morning, at least in the way that they both seemed no more harmed than they had the night before.
But by the time they got to breakfast that morning, Joe knew that wasn't quite true.
Frank squinted, kneaded at his head with his fingers, and could barely walk straight.
The migraine he'd been holding off for so long, was there now, in full force.
Joe winced in sympathy for his brother, when this happened at home it was awful but at least Frank could sleep it off, with the curtains drawn and everything made to be as quiet and as dark as possible.
Here he didn't have that choice. And the whack to the head the night before probably made it that much worse.
"Frank, here." Joe pulled Frank's arm over his shoulder, helping to support his weight, and was surprised, but also not surprised at all, when John moved to Frank's other side to support him there as well.
Like that, they waddled over to their table and deposited Frank there gently before going to get their food. Joe would pick some things up for Frank too, though with Frank's migraine, and the way he already had his head laying in the relative darkness of his arms on the table, he wouldn't be eating much.
All eyes were on them, the snowflakes who pointed and whispered probably about the lack of two of them there, the seniors with their cold, dead eyes, and even the counselors and cooks now too.
They were an anomaly that just kept getting weirder, their small… and now even smaller, group.
They were about to bring their measly breakfast back to their table… when they spotted him.
"What the fuck!" John cursed under his breath to Joe, who almost cursed himself.
Sitting with the seniors, not looking completely dead in the eyes, but exhausted with black rings around his eyes…
Was none other than Leo Adams. The kid from the nurse's office… and the same kid they'd seen injected with drugs right outside a nearby building the day before.
"He's alive!" Joe whispered back.
They shared a bewildered, shocked look, before realizing they were just standing there and garnering more attention, and they quickly turned and went back to the table to join Frank, who was looking far from ok.
"Frank, are you with us?" Joe whispered to his brother, rubbing his back and wishing more than anything that his brother wasn't feeling so terrible.
Even if he wasn't though, by now they realized nowhere was really safe to talk, especially not a place so full of other people.
Frank grunted, and gave a weak thumbs up.
"What's wrong with him, anyways?" John asked, not callously but curiously.
"It's a migraine." Joe answered, still rubbing Frank's back. "He gets them sometimes."
John groaned. "Man that sucks. And this is a really bad time for that."
No kidding.
"I got you some breakfast, Frankie." Joe whispered so only his brother could hear, pulling out the big guns by referring to Frank with such an old, childhood nickname.
At this point he was desperate to get through to his big brother, already missing his steady calmness and patient words of encouragement.
Seeing his brother in pain was one of the most painful things for Joe, as well.
Frank lifted his head just slightly for a second, flashing Joe a fond smile. But then he winced and went back to hiding his head in his hands.
Poor Frank.
The two boys ate in silence, Joe making himself take care of himself, despite Frank not being able to.
"Frank, please, try and eat a bit." Joe pleaded with his brother, as breakfast quickly was coming to an end. "We have the beast challenge in a few minutes."
The dreaded beast challenge against the seniors who now hated them. The same challenge they'd always imagined before this, that they'd at least have Tyler to walk them through, or Brandon to cheer them through.
Now they were alone, with their very unlikely friendship with John Todd, and with Frank barely functioning.
Honestly, in that moment, next to John who he'd only just barely begun to trust, and his big brother, so lost in his own painful migraine, Joe felt more alone than he'd ever felt at Camp Doom so far.
Frank didn't respond to his pleas.
"Frankie, please." Joe almost choked. Several days with barely any food, the terror they'd gone through, and little sleep, meant if Frank didn't have something soon, his body would never be able to recover.
Ever the big brother, even in his pain, Frank did respond to that choked sound of emotion from Joe, and looked up at him through squinted eyes.
"Alright Joey, alright." He mumbled, and managed to actually eat most of his breakfast in the last few minutes.
Too lost in his own sorrow, and slight hope from seeing Frank being able to swallow down some food, Joe didn't notice the look on John's face. Something akin to jealousy, and sorrow. Another boy losing himself to all of it despite trying so hard not to.
When it was time to go out to one of the fields for the beast challenge, the other snowflakes kept as much distance from the dwindled friend group as possible, leaving a strange gap in their line as they marched there way to an unfamiliar part of the camp.
A field so large that a crude military obstacle course could be built onto it.
The sky was overcast and gray as they took a starting position right next to a large group of seniors.
In front of them were several sergeants including Sergeant Boone, standing in front of the beginning of the course.
The course looked as follows: a straight line of wooden and metal obstacles with a starting line and a finishing line. At the start was a wall the campers had to make their way over with no equipment, next was a set of metal monkey bars and then a crawl mud pit where they had to go on their hands and knees doing an army crawl to get through, next was a rope climbing structure they had to climb up, a set of bars they had to do pullups on before sliding on a pole back down to the ground, and ending in a set of tires they had to step-run through finished with an all out sprint to the finish line's ribbon.
So in other words…
"Shit. This is going to suck." John said.
Joe tensed in agreement.
"Seniors! Snowflakes!" Sergeant Boone screamed, getting the nervous chattering to stop instantly amongst the kids, and everyone's undivided attention on him.
"WELCOME to the first of 3 beast challenges!"
Next to them, the seniors who weren't completely dead eyed, including the green military dressed kid, beamed maliciously. And once again Joe noticed Leo Adams amongst them, but he looked like he was about to faint, or be sick. One of the above.
Joe still couldn't believe his eyes seeing him, especially with the seniors, when Frank had specifically shared he was on the bus coming in with the other snowflakes.
"The rules are simple!" Boone continued screaming, his neck muscles bulging with the effort of being so loud and commanding so much attention. "The first team of either snowflakes or seniors to make it across the finish line, win!"
Joe rolled his eyes, not caring in the slightest, next to him, Frank tried to stand up a bit straighter. Thankfully, the little food he'd managed was helping enough that he didn't need to lean on Joe or John anymore for support.
He still looked awful, but not as bad as he had that morning.
"Winner gets phone privileges, until we decide we no longer feel like giving them to you anymore." Boone finished, shrugging and smiling wickedly.
NOW Joe was paying attention.
Tyler had mentioned a prize for the winners of the beast challenge, and more than anything, they really really needed to win this one.
Phone privileges would mean nightly communication with their father, the ability to send pictures or videos of any evidence they might find, and could be the real bridge between solving this mystery, or never getting out of here alive.
They had to win this.
Even Frank who looked like a walking zombie, suddenly arched his head up, eyes blown wide with the realization. All three boys, John, Joe and Frank looked amongst themselves.
This was it. This was their chance.
As everyone started to get ready, and the sergeants began moving out of the way of the course, the sky above them let loose little flakes of freezing white snow, finally making their surroundings feel like winter, a cold frozen wind causing the boys to shiver down to their bones.
They took position, ready to launch themselves forward as Boone placed a whistle between his lips.
But right as he was about to blow, another wicked smile came over his lips and he removed the whistle to speak.
"Oh, and I almost forgot to mention. There is no rule against any kind of physical altercation on this course. You need to restrain someone so you can get ahead? No problem. You want to throw someone off the side of the rope climbing obstacle, I will not stop you."
Joe's body stopped mid shiver in shock.
"Have fun!"
Then Sergeant Boone, blew his whistle.
And all hell broke loose.