Chapter 1, Camp Crossroads Military Base
It was a cold, snowy morning in early December and the first day of winter break. This year, Bayport high students had almost a whole month off for break. They'd finish the school year off in late June, sure, but 3 and a half weeks off to sit cozy by the fireplace with loved ones and enjoy the holidays made it well worth it to the high school students of Bayport.
Most of them were now at home, excited for Christmas later in the month, and welcoming family members who had traveled to visit. Chet and Iola Morton were having an epic snowball fight in their yard with their friends Tony, Phil, Biff and Callie as they celebrated the first day away from stupid school.
All was merry and bright, and all the kids in Bayport were ready to relax.
Well, everyone but the Hardy boys, of course.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Aunt Gertrude asked for the fifteenth time in the last few minutes. "You don't have to do this. You can let someone else solve this mystery, and stay home for Christmas!"
Seventeen year-old Joe Hardy and his older brother Frank who is 18, were now at Bayport's airport with their father and aunt, preparing to go undercover at a military camp for troubled teenage boys. They'd be spending their whole break there, trying to solve an important mystery.
"Aunt Truddyyyy." Joe groaned, "For the millionth time, yes we're going through with this."
His older brother looked at him with a smirk, and laid a hand on his left shoulder.
"Of course we want to be home for Christmas," Frank said in a softer tone to their eccentric aunt, "But this is really important. Kids have been going missing from Camp Crossroads Military Base for over a month now, and Dad said we need to find out why, also, if we can expose the rumors of the camp's cruelty to be true too, that'd finally force the camp to shut down once and for all."
The week before, Frank and Joe's dad had very reluctantly come to them with this mystery. Frank and Joe were famous around Bayport for the hundreds of crimes they'd solved since Joe was a freshman and Frank was a sophomore in high school, and they'd stumbled onto one of their dad's cases and solved it! Their dad had always been really protective and tried to keep them out of mysteries before then, but after they'd foiled a large robbery a few years ago, their dad was always bringing them into cases.
However, this was the first time he'd ever asked them to go undercover, or to deal with something as serious as a military reform camp. Especially when said camp was infamous for being cruel to the kids that got stuck there. Everyone knew about Camp Crossroads Military Base. The camp had gone viral on the internet after rumors of kids getting beaten and mistreated had shown up online.
Sadly though, the rumors had never been proved, so the camp continued to run. Kids with behavioral issues, juvenile records, and expulsions from school would find themselves stuck at the camp for months on end, but lately, kids had been going missing.
If it was a regular camp, it would've shut down by now. But, CCMB had wealthy donors who sent their bratty kids there, and they refused to shut the camp down. Instead, police had been paid loads to try and figure out why kids were going missing. But when that didn't work, some genius came up with the idea of sending undercover detectives in. They'd sent a few adults in to go undercover as camp counselors, but the mystery was still unsolved, and with more kids going missing, the wealthy donors were getting desperate for a solution. If the mystery wasn't solved soon, then the police really would have to step in and shut the camp down.
And that's where Frank and Joe came in. Their father despised the idea of sending his two boys into danger, but they'd all agreed it had to be done. The useless police force refused to shut the camp down, and if the Hardy Boys didn't help, more and more kids would go missing. Besides, Joe had been obsessed with the reddit page of conspiracy theories on CCMB ever since it went viral a year back. He wanted more than anything to get the kids out of danger. Even if the kids there weren't the best kids ever, Joe hated to see anyone be mistreated.
So they were headed down to CCMB under the aliases of Joe Carter and Frank Dooley. They would be entering the camp a few hours apart to assure that they seemed like strangers, and they'd be under the disguise of being two delinquent kids themselves. The only people who are to know they are actually detectives, are the undercover adults that were also there to solve the mystery. They couldn't risk telling anyone else without the whole thing blowing up in their faces, especially when the people they were trying to expose were the real counselors and people running the camp. But they'd have the police and their father's private detective agency on the outside, who promised to be there if things went sour.
"Oh I just hate this." Aunt Gertrude mumbled, sending each of them a sour, but concerned look. Their Aunt Trudy had been really protective of all three Hardy men, ever since their mother died all those years ago now. Their mom had died in a car crash when their dad had still been on the police force, and afterwards, their dad had been obsessed with finding the person who hit her, and ran. When he solved that case, he'd opened his own detective agency afterwards, and the rest was history. Aunt Trudy had been living with them ever since.
"It'll be ok Gertrude." Their father patted his older sister on the back, "We've put in all the precautions. The boys will be as safe as they possibly can be in this situation."
Gertrude mumbled, "But certainly not as safe as they would be if they were home safe, or having a snowball fight with their friends and girlfriends right now."
This time Frank patted Joe's back when he saw the disheartened look on his little brother's face at the mention of the annual snowball fight they were missing right now. This was the first year Joe and Iola were dating too, and they'd both been looking forward to going to the winter break party together as a couple for the first time.
"There's always next year." Frank shrugged. But Joe wouldn't look him in the eyes. They both knew that wasn't necessarily true. Frank was a senior in high school now, as were their friends Tony and Chet, and Frank's girlfriend Callie. Next year, who knows where they'd all be. It'd just be Joe, Phil, Biff and Iola. And they couldn't exactly have a party with just four people.
The whole subject of college and what was next after Frank graduated, was still a subject the brothers avoided. Well, more like a subject Joe avoided. When Frank tried to bring it up, Joe would always change the subject. It was annoying. But he had a good reason. He didn't want to imagine what a whole year without his brother by his side would mean for them.
The Hardy Boys had always been closer than most brothers. They'd always been close, but when their mom had died 10 years ago, they'd grown even closer. They were overprotective of one another, and some people even said they were too codependent. And that had only become more true when they started solving mysteries as a team together a few years back.
To Frank, no one was more important than Joe, and for Joe, no one was more important than Frank.
So the idea of his big bro going off to college and leaving him to fend for himself for a year, was terrifying. Almost as terrifying as the idea that Frank didn't need him as much as Joe needed Frank.
Overall, Joe just tried not to think about it. It was only December, and they still had until late June until everything changed, after all.
As the final boarding call for their flight came over the speakers, Joe let himself be pulled away from Frank's worried gaze, into the soft arms of his strict aunt.
"It'll be ok Auntie Gertrude." He whispered to her, reverting back to an old nickname he'd called the woman when he was much younger, both for her sake as well as his own.
Frank was hugging their father, and then they switched, Aunt Gertrude hugged Frank while Joe hugged his dad, who squeezed him tight. It was then that Joe realized how scared his dad was. He was putting on a brave face for his sister, but it was obvious in how hard he squeezed the youngest Hardy, that he wasn't too thrilled about all this either.
"Remember Joe," His dad said as they pulled apart, "A bus will be coming to pick Frank up at the airport first since he is arriving at camp a few hours earlier than you. I need you to not be in sight when the bus pulls up. Frank will be with a few other new campers, and so will you. So when you arrive at the airport, you and Frank need to go your separate ways. You'll reunite after the second bus comes to get you and bring you to the camp."
Joe rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I know Dad. I promise."
From next to him, Frank smiled softly again. "Don't worry Dad." He said, "I'll watch out for Joe like always."
Joe rolled his eyes, but inside he felt the familiar warmth that always came when his big bro acted silly like this. He'd never admit it out loud, but having a big brother was the best.
"And I'll watch out for geek too, Dad." Joe teased, and Frank crossed his arms over his chest like a five year old, eyes betraying how he really felt, warm and thankful. Just like Joe.
Their dad laughed, and even Aunt Gertrude's eyes crinkled warmly at their exchange. "See, Gertrude." Their dad laughed, " This is why I am letting them do this."
They all shared fond looks, and Joe, while happy that they had a chance to solve this mystery, was feeling not for the first time in the past week, that he'd really rather just stay home for the holidays. He tried to shove down the fear that this might be the last normal holiday with Frank too, that they were now giving up. Ugh.
"You boys better get going." Their dad said, after they'd been standing around being a goopy, sappy family for a few minutes just staring at each other, "And don't worry about appearances on the flight. I already looked it up, and no one from the camp is coming from Bayport."
Yeah, who would? Bayport was a random small city. Most people coming out to this camp in Texas are from Texas, or at least from somewhere closer to it. Frank and Joe's flight was almost 4 hours long!
With a final hug and kiss to Aunt Gertrude and their father, the boys boarded their plane. Frank taking the seat closest to the aisle, and Joe the window seat as always when they flew. And they flew a lot, since a lot of the mysteries they solved had them going all over the place.
It wasn't even five minutes into the flight now and Frank was giving Joe that familiar "worried older brother look", and Joe rolled his eyes, just waiting for Frank to speak up about what was on his mind.
"Penny for your thoughts Joe?" The older Hardy asked instead, and Joe groaned.
"Geez Frank, no one says that anymore." He teased.
But the older Hardy wasn't to be deterred.
"C'mon Joe, I know something's up. Spill already."
He looked so serious Joe just had to keep teasing him. "Now you sound like a teenage girl." He laughed.
But Frank wasn't laughing. In fact he didn't look amused in the slightest.
Joe sighed, "Fine. I'm just nervous is all."
A half truth. Better than a lie, right? He couldn't exactly tell Frank the truth while still masterfully avoiding the subject of the future, now could he?
"I'm nervous too." His big bro said, and Joe wasn't surprised. Frank was always candid when it came to sharing his emotions with Joe. It's one thing Joe really appreciated, that his brother didn't feel the need to always appear strong around him. "But I am sure we'll be fine. It's pretty cool to finally be doing our first undercover mission, at least."
Joe nodded his assent, thankful for Frank buying his half truth. He could never lie to Frank, his brother would easily be able to tell, so sharing that he was nervous worked out.
"Yeah you're right. I'm sure it'll be fine." Joe responded. As talkative as the youngest Hardy usually was, he didn't really feel like keeping on a conversation right now.
All he could think about was the stupid future, the dumb snowball party they were missing, and the look of sadness in Iola's eyes when he'd told her they'd be missing it, and he'd be missing their first Christmas together as a couple too.
A kind flight attendant handed them each a soda and those weird airplane cookies but Joe was too anxious to eat, so he just handed his to Frank, and easily ignored his brother's continued concern by leaning his head back on the seat and closing his eyes.
His plan was to feign sleep so his brother would quit being a mother hen, but what felt like only a minute later, Frank was gently pushing his head away from his shoulder, where Joe must've fallen when he'd actually fallen asleep. Oops.
Joe rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly with embarrassment, seeing he'd left a wet spot from drool on his big brother's shoulder.
"Wake up sleeping drooly ," Frank teased, "We've landed."
Joe scowled at his brother, "You could've just moved me Frankkkk." He moaned, cheeks ablaze in red.
But Frank just fondly rolled his eyes and nudged Joe's side. "Nah, you were sleeping so peacefully. Figured I should just let you be."
In front of them, people were very slowly meandering off the plane.
"This is it then." Joe said, "I'll let you go off first, and I'll just wait till everyone behind me gets off to leave myself just in case. And we'll 'meet' back again in a few hours as strangers."
Frank clapped him on the shoulders. "Ok, sounds good to me." He said, and just like that he was gone.
Something weird went cold inside Joe as he watched Frank ever-so-casually leave the plane. He didn't even look back once.
You're being crazy again Joe. The younger brother thought, What did you expect? An emotional goodbye?! You'll see him again in a few hours. Lord, am I pathetic…
But then the real reason why he was thinking this floated through Joe's mind.
Is this how it's going to be when Frank leaves for college? Just a quick goodbye and off he goes…?
Joe had, of course, been away from his brother for many hours at a time, many times before, so when the second thought flitted through his brain, he realized what he was truly worried about. It wasn't being away from his brother in the airport, or even how Frank had so casually left. It was just the fear that it would be that easy for Frank to leave him when the time came… for real.
Shaking himself off, Joe exited after the last couple who were seated at the very back of the plane. They were two old men laughing and joking with one another, not at all concerned over the fact that they were walking at a snail's pace.
Joe sighed and followed them. Whatever, he wasn't in a rush anyways. His bus for camp didn't arrive for another 2 hours. He had time to kill.
Just as he was walking over to baggage claim, Joe saw Frank out of the corner of his eyes, chatting and laughing with some random boy as a large, ugly and black bus pulled up to get them. The bus was clearly old, with rusty doors and cracking paint. In faded white writing on the side of the bus were the letters CCMB, and the bus only had tiny little windows. Windows so small that it looked like you couldn't even fit your hand through them. When the bus doors opened, they squeaked and groaned painfully.
Joe watched his brother get on the bus with the heavily tattooed teenager next to him, laughing, and then Joe sighed. Rubbing his forehead with his knuckles, he set off to find some food.
By the time he had waited in the airport's insanely long line for Chik Fil A, ate his food, and used the bathroom after standing in another ridiculous line there, Joe only had thirty minutes left till the bus was supposed to arrive, so he walked over to CCMB's designated bus stop area, just outside the airport's clear doors and sat down on a bench next to a nervous looking boy around his age. They were the only two there since most likely, others wouldn't want to arrive thirty minutes before if they didn't have to.
"Hi." Joe said to the boy as he sat down. The kid was a little taller than Joe, probably around Frank's height at 6 feet, and he was as thin as a rail. He had nervous eyes that flitted back and forth anxiously, and he was missing a few teeth. His hands shook as he wrung them together in his lap, clenching and unclenching them.
When Joe spoke to him he squeaked. Actually squeaked and jumped away a bit.
Joe raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything, even though his instincts told him to laugh, to diffuse the awkward situation a bit.
"Uhhhh h-h-h-i." The boy said, then blushed.
"I'm Joe." Joe said, holding his hand out to shake the boy's hand very awkwardly, "Joe Carter."
The boy looked very uncomfortable to be dragged into a conversation, and Joe felt it too, but it was too late now to just ignore one another.
"N-n-n-ice to m-meet you Carter." He said, "I'm Tyler Hall."
Again, Joe raised his eyebrow at being addressed by his fake last name, and this time Tyler noticed.
"A-a-at CCMB, everyone g-g-oes by last n-n-names." He said, clearly struggling over saying CCMB.
Great. Joe thought, I am going to need to remember that. In case someone calls me and I don't respond.
"Why's that?" Joe asked. He didn't know if Hall was stuttering from nerves, or if he was just really nervous, but Joe knew better than to ask or make a big deal out of it.
Hall smiled at him then, and again, must've noticed how Joe was not making him feel bad about his stutter, cause he answered more easily this time, "The d-drill sergeants m-m-make us." He shrugged, "So w-we might as well s-s-start now."
Joe nodded, laughing.
"Ok then, Hall." He subconsciously started to take notes, looking forward to when he could write some things down in his dorky detective notebook Frank had gotten him for his birthday this year, later. As dorky as the thing was, he used it a lot on their cases. "So I take it you've been to Camp Crossroads already before?"
Hall sighed, looking downtrodden. "Y-y-yeah." He rubbed at the nape of his neck, much like Joe had earlier, "This will be my s-s-second time. My older br-brother went too. A-after my bro went to juvie and then to Camp D-d-doom, he became a lot more… subdued. So my p-p-parents send me even though I-I don't need it, j-j-just to make me more behaved or something. B-but if you a-a-ask me, it's j-just so they can have t-time alone during the h-h-olidays."
Joe winced. Immediately deciding he felt bad for this guy, and he also liked him. He seemed nice and normal, and Joe felt really lucky to have two adults in his life that love him so much. It is times like these that he's reminded not every family is as close as theirs.
"Man Hall, I'm sorry that's the worst." Hall looked at him with surprise, as if he wasn't used to people being so understanding, and maybe he wasn't . "Where's your brother?"
Hall shrugged, "He's 19 n-now and graduated from h-h-high school. This camp is only for h-high schoolers. I am l-lucky I'm 17 now and a s-senior, so I only have o-one more year at C-camp Doom."
Joe startled for a second. Wait, Camp what now? This was the second time Hall had referred to the CCMB as something so… cryptic.
"Camp Doom?!" He asked, really wishing it wouldn't be weird to be writing stuff down right now.
"Y-yeah. That's w-what everyone c-calls it. No one c-calls it the C-C… ugh, the CCMB very often." He met Joe's eyes, and whatever he saw there made him keep going, "I-it's not a g-great place Car-rter." He said.
A chill went down Joe's spine. Sure, he'd known already of the allegations, but hearing someone who'd been to the camp already talk like this about it, made it all the more real.
Other boys were starting to join them now. Most stayed to their own devices, but when a rude, beefy redheaded boy saw Hall, he smiled a weird sneer-like smile and started over to them.
"O-oh, g-g-g-great." Hall muttered, just as the boy came right up in their faces.
"Oh look who's back this year!" He jabed, "S-s-stuttering Hall."
Joe snarled at the boy, who looked his way.
"And what's this? You made a new friend? Pathetic. Is he as weak as you? Will he cry every night for his mooommmmyyy too?"
Joe, never one to be patient like his big bro, got into the bully's face.
"Back off." He growled.
The redhead laughed a squealy laugh. "Ohhhh, so he's one of those boys who thinks he's tough then, huh?" He said, and a few of the boys around them snickered along. "Just wait till you get to Doom, and we'll see how long this tough guy act lasts."
"I said, back off asshole." Joe continued.
Around them, childishly, some boys went "Oooohhh."
The redhead stopped smiling instantly.
"What's your name, asshat?" He asked.
"Oh, very clever" Joe said sarcastically, "Just use basically the same insult against me, why don't you? Clearly you're not very smart."
Next to him, Hall groaned and facepalmed, just as the bully pulled his hand back in a fist, and slammed Joe's eye in a punch.
Joe gasped and reeled backwards, failing to hide the little noise of pain he made, and listened to the bully cackling.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" The boys around them, save Hall of course, started to cheer.
"Go Madson, go!" Another screamed, probably the last name of the redheaded bully.
Correcting himself, Joe got up, and had just raised his hands into a fighting stance when the bus pulled up and two large men in military outfits came running out, screaming at everyone to put their hands in the air.
To Joe's surprise, everyone did, even Madson.
"Just what in the Sam Hell is going on here?!" One of the military men yelled, and everyone but Joe cowered.
"Nothing sir!" Madson squeaked, suddenly looking as frail as a mouse. "Just this new kid here, he's trying to cause trouble, sir!"
Joe's eyes widened to the size of saucers.
WHAT?!
The two military men swerved to face him, fury obvious in their eyes.
"Not a good start you're making here, noobie." The one with the name tag "Sergeant Boon" said to Joe. "We'll have to see what we need to do as punishment for this when we get to camp."
Everyone suddenly looked fearful for him, everyone but Madson, who looked at him with a smirk.
"W-w-wait! Sir! I-i-t wasn't Carter!" Hall spoke up for him suddenly. "H-h-he was just d-d-defending me!"
The sergeants paused, looking between Joe, Hall and Madson, thinking.
"Well… I wouldn't be surprised if that was true, shrimp." Sergeant Keeling said to Boon. And they laughed.
Joe felt a weird protectiveness form inside his stomach. A protectiveness for the kid who'd stood up for him when no one else seemed to dare.
"Fine." Boon said, "We'll let it go this time, but we'll be keeping an eye on you… what was it? Carter?"
Joe nodded. "Joe Carter." He said.
The two sergeants snarled.
"That's Joe Carter, sir." Keeling said.
Joe just nodded, but when the two sergeants kept looking at him, and Hall nudged him in the side, he said, "Yes. Sorry. Sir."
Behind them, people in the airport were starting to stare and gape, and even though Joe liked attention more than his big brother did, he hated this kind, and just wanted to be on the bus already.
"Ok." Boon said, then gestured to the kids, "Get on the bus then." And when no one moved for a second out of fear, "NOW!"
Everyone scrambled into the bus.
As Joe sat down next to Hall and tried to catch his breath from what just happened, he sighed and leaned his head back, looking out the tiny bus window.
Oh what a great start. A forming black eye, a new enemy, and already he was on the sergeants' bad list.
Hall patted his shoulder in sympathy.
"Welcome to Camp Doom, Carter."
…. It was going to be a long three and a half weeks.
