Page 17 of Freak Camp
But if Dad noticed, he didn’t comment on it.Jake worked very hard to keep his eyes on Dad so that he wouldn’t suspect.If he didn’t break eye contact, often civilians thought he was telling the truth.
Either it worked, or Dad just wasn’t thinking about it, or what Jake was saying was close enough to the truth that Dad didn’t notice, because he didn’t call him on it.
“We’ll stop at the next exit,” Dad said.“Drive-thru.I want to keep going.McDonald’s good?”
“Yes, sir,” Jake said, leaning back and looking out the window, but all the time thinking about Tobias.Jake was far too proud of the successful start of his career as Jake Hawthorne, waffle smuggler to worry about much of anything else.
***
When the guards calledfor her, Rebecca could usually brace herself for whatever would come by the time she finished standing up.Her only fear was the final call when she would disappear into Special Research.
But when they called for Tobias—using that new nickname, Baby Freak, which put her heart in her throat every time—Becca thought for a moment she would lose it right there, over the bullet-packing table on the second floor of the Workhouse.
Toby, however, had already jumped down from the thin bench and was moving toward the exit behind the guard, no dawdling.He knew better than to trust them, than to expect anything good to happen, but he still had no idea how bad it could be, what could be about to happen to him.What if Toby was going to Special Research now?And Rebecca was shaking, unable to control it, and hating herself because she was just making herself and Toby more vulnerable by it, should either of them live another day.
What could they want with Toby?What could they want with her innocent boy who shouldn’t be here at all, who certainly couldn’t know anything or provide any useful information in an interrogation?She couldn’t keep herself on the bench, filling bullets one-handed, not when the only thing worth living for in her life was walking out with a guard.She moved to the window, pretending that she just had to catch her breath for a second, but really watching the yard through the narrow opening in the bars.She had to see where he went, if he made the turn to Special Research.After a minute or so, she saw Toby leave the building in the guard’s shadow.She watched as they walked up to another boy waiting in the yard.
The real boy.Jake.
Jake Hawthorne.
Maybe it was partly because she hadn’t gotten enough food lately (hard not to give everything to Toby), but Rebecca had to grip tight the edge of the window frame to keep herself up.She couldn’t look away now.
The guard had walked away, and Toby and Jake were just standing there, looking at each other.Dear God, Toby was looking him in theface.Had he forgotten everything she told him?
But nothing else was happening.From the way Jake moved his head, she figured he was talking.And there Toby was, nodding.Then Jake looked over toward Reception, glanced back at Toby, who nodded again, and they both walked that way.
Jake even walked like a hunter, though he probably wasn’t more than ten or eleven.It made her physically ill watching her small boy, both so resilient and delicate, walking next to him.Next to, not even falling a step behind.She could barely believe what she was seeing—Toby was so good about remembering everything.How could meeting another boy—a real child—have made him forget everything that was vital to keeping him alive?
Nothing good could come of this.
They disappeared around the corner.After a moment more, prodded by the speculative eyes of the guard, Rebecca forced herself away, forced her shaking hand back to measuring salt and iron into the bullet casings.She couldn’t do anything for Toby now but hope he came back to her.
He did, slipping early into the barracks before most of the monsters returned for curfew.When he saw her, his face lit up with the biggest smile that had probably ever been seen in Freak Camp.
“Jake gave me a waffle, Becca!”Despite his excitement, he kept his voice in a breathy whisper.“A cherry waffle, from the real world!”
Rebecca’s heart missed a few beats, and the horror that must have shown on her face dimmed Toby’s smile.She swallowed hard, pulling him forward into her lap, grasping at him with her hand and stump, like she could feel his face between her palms.His skin was the same temperature as before, just slightly warm—all the same, she was nearly shaking again, this time with rage.Child or not, she wanted to kill that boy.She could choke him with one hand, given the opportunity.
“What—what kind of food, Toby?What did it look like?”Like he would have any fucking clue what a waffle or cherry was, like he should have ever believed—but there she couldn’t berate him.No matter if Toby had known from looking at it, if a hunter saidEat it, he would have had to.
The smile had entirely vanished, replaced with a puzzled frown.“A waffle.It was good, Becca.Well, Jake said it was half waffle, half cherry pie.It was red and gooey and kinda squished, since he took it out of his pocket.”
“His pocket,” she echoed.
“Yeah.See, Becca, Jake promised me last time he would bring me a waffle, because he said even monsters should know, and then hedid.”Toby bounced on his knees, and she stilled him automatically with a hand on his shoulder.What would have been sweet and cute on the outside was, in Freak Camp, just a clear invitation for the guards to come over and see what was getting the monsters worked up.And maybe shut them up.“He even let me eat most of it!”
That stopped her in her tracks.“He—he ate it too, Toby?The same stuff he gave you out of his pocket?”
“Yeah.”Toby looked a little exasperated.“I told you, Becca.Jake’s not like the other hunters.He’s different.”
He’s a Hawthorne.That was all that mattered.That boy was Leon Hawthorne’s son, and anything that brought them closer to catching that man’s attention ...Still, the constant knot of anxiety in Rebecca’s chest had eased, even if she remained confused and suspicious.Could it just have been a dessert?But why?Why would a hunter’s kid, clearly already raised in that life—why would he do something like that?
Toby had fallen forward now to lean contentedly against her side, and she could feel his steady heartbeat.Looking down, she thought she saw a spot of red at the corner of Toby’s mouth.She wiped it off with her thumb and brought it to her own lips almost without thinking.
Sweet.Real sweetness.
