Page 52 of Freak Camp
Winter was a bad time for fresh meat to learn the rules of Freak Camp.The excruciating summer heat dropped even the hardier monsters when forced to stand outside for hours in the middle of the day.But the winters, in Tobias’s view, were far worse.
In November, most monsters got an extra pair of clothes—heavy canvas pants and ragged jackets—to wear over their usual grays.They were supposed to get a second blanket when temperatures dropped below freezing, and a third when it went below zero, but that didn’t always happen, especially if a monster wasn’t as cooperative as the guards liked.Some of them knew how to pay for one in the alley between the barracks if a guard was interested.
Until last winter, Tobias had always gotten his extra blankets without any issues.He was quiet, he made no trouble, never snarled or tried to get away when the guards grabbed him.Plus, with the Hawthornes visiting the camp as regularly as they did and Jake always making a point of seeking him out, Tobias understood he had a thin shield about him, an invisible Keep Off sign.
A year ago, something had changed.That was when he’d been taken in for his first interrogation.He couldn’t figure out why, despite all the sleepless nights, but the Keep Off sign had vanished.The guards had decided it was open season on Tobias, and not just for interrogations.
There were downsides to new monster arrivals.It got tiresome watching them make the same mistakes, learn the same painful lessons, that every new batch of monsters suffered.Tobias thought he could give an instructive half-hour—no, even ten-minute—orientation that would have saved them a significant amount of blood and skin.But the guards would never have allowed it, because they enjoyed the breaking-in process.New monsters screamed in ways no one else did because they still carried those notes of outrage and shock.
After Becca and then Marco disappeared, Tobias had learned not to get close to any other monster, not when they would be heading to Special Research tomorrow or the next day, and in the meantime they would likely slit his throat to get the last bite of his bread.Tobias didn’t trust any of them, no matter how nice they tried to play.If he ignored them long enough, one day he’d look around and they wouldn’t be anywhere.Sometimes they lasted a few years, but no one was there who had been around the same time as Becca.Most of the guards came and went the same way, with just a handful sticking around year after year.Those veterans and Tobias were the constants of Freak Camp.All the other monsters flashed through like the desert rains that faded into the air above the parched earth, the grimy concrete, and bloodstained dirt of Freak Camp: fleeting, faceless, and forgotten.
Tobias had had years of practice detaching himself from the new monsters’ screams and sobs.He only felt irritation because they didn’t even know how bad it was going to get.They were just sostupidand weak, and he often wished the guards would hit them harder to get the point across, or that they’d just hurry up and die already.
But he hadn’t had much experience getting used to the sounds of a small girl sobbing.
She had been one of the last to appear in the yard, tiny wrists bound with thick rope threaded with silver.Her brown eyes had been enormous in her pale face, streaked with tear tracks and dirt, and her brown hair still looked shiny and soft, like it had been well-cared for.She was smaller and younger than Tobias could remember any other monster here, and he heard someone nearby—he didn’t know or care who—swear softly.
“What is she, seven?”
Tobias didn’t know.He didn’t have much experience guessing ages—there wasn’t any point to it.Jake had told him when his birthday was, occasionally reminded him how old he was now, and Tobias listened and remembered because it was important to Jake.So he knew that he was thirteen now (and Jake would turn eighteen in just a couple of months).According to his entry date in his ID number, he’d been in Freak Camp since he was five.If the other monster was right and this new monster girl was seven, that wasn’t so bad.If he’d made it, she had a chance ...for what?To last longer for Crusher to have his fun?Tobias’s mouth twisted, and he turned away, tried to forget he had ever seen her.
It was just his luck, of course, that she ended up in the barracks near him, just a few bunk beds away, in one that had been vacated a week or so ago.Since she was a shapeshifter, she had the shiny new green bracelet shot between the bones of her forearm.
Maybe she was still crying from the shock of that pain, but Tobias thought the cold was more likely.Karl had announced there was a blanket shortage and decided that since the new monster girl (the guards hadn’t decided on a nickname yet) was so small, she could double hers up as two.Like two helped when the water in the pipes had frozen.
Tobias’s blanket was coarse but thick.He couldn’t remember when he’d learned how to wrap whatever fabric he was given around himself as tight as possible with no holes, with his nose and mouth inside to keep the warm breath trapped, and to rub his hands, arms, and legs together as long as he could to generate warmth.This would be one of the lessons of his orientation, if they’d let him have one.He didn’t think the girl would be able to listen and understand, though.Not tonight.
So he burrowed deeper, tried to wipe out everything he was hearing—but it wasn’t just the girl’s steady, predictable tears.Other monsters were muttering and hissing, angry, like they had a right to peace and quiet and a good night’s sleep.Ha.
Then there was a wet shredding sound, followed by the smack of something hitting the concrete floor.Louder groans filled the barracks, and it didn’t take long before Tobias could smell the discarded skin, tissue, and fluids coming from the girl’s bunk.She was shifting her skin, using her one power as though it could take away the pain or get her out.
Tobias closed his eyes and breathed out.If everyone would just shut up, he’d be able to block everything out and get to sleep.
But clearly that wasn’t going to happen, especially as a second wetplopsounded and the pitch of the girl’s sobs changed again.The older inmates’ snarls grew more threatening, with mutters likeI’ll get up and take care of this myself, and the newer ones complained in loud, querulous protests that illustrated how little they understood:Fucking ridiculous, why doesn’t someone stop her or do something?
Tobias gritted his teeth, rolling over.He knew exactly how this would go: someone would get up to “take care” of this, someone else would rise to argue about what form of violence to take, and within seconds, the lights would be glaring and the guards would be filling the room with their clubs to smack around all the monsters, both standing and prone, and no one would get any sleep that night.Maybe the guards would come in anyway to see who was crying, what shifter was violating the rules about keeping a single form, and give her something to really cry about.
There were only a few ways to avoid that outcome, and fewer still were in his power.Trying to talk or yell at other monsters only made himself a target—why would they trusthim, even when he had the earliest ID number of anyone in the camp—and he’d probably end up attracting the guards’ attention first when they showed up.The monster girl was not likely to stop crying soon, even with all the threats coming her way—unless she was given a reason.
Tobias swore again silently, then rolled off his bunk, jumping to the floor and clutching his blanket around him.He walked down the row of bunk beds, ignoring the taunts thrown his way.He stopped before the girl’s cot, ignoring the piles of stinking shifter skin at his feet.A slightly bigger frame now huddled beneath the thin blanket, and he could barely make out the glint of watery blue eyes peeking out at him.
Pulling the blanket from his shoulders, he dropped it on top of her and said, “Stop crying.”
The barracks fell silent.
She had stopped midbreath, staring at him in astonishment.Tobias waited to see if she would start bawling again.He wasn’t sure what he’d do if she did, but he didn’t think hitting her would make her stop.But she didn’t make another sound, and neither did any of the other monsters who had been snarling and grumbling seconds before.
Now the only problem left was the cold numbing his fingers and toes.
Tobias turned away from the girl, his own bunk, and all the monsters’ eyes on him, to walk to the door.
He knew someone was watching the camera set in the upper corner of the barracks.If a guard wasn’t already on his way because of the girl, they’d be there fast enough since he’d tripped the motion sensor that activated at curfew.No one cared, though, as long as the monsters stayed in Head Alley.
A moment later, the door buzzed under his hand, and he pushed it open.Victor stood outside, bundled in his padded jacket and gloves.“Well, well.What does Pretty Freak want?”
Tobias said, “I need more blankets.”He tried to hold still, not to shiver too visibly.At least the wind wasn’t cutting between the barracks.
Victor sighed loudly.“But we gave you yours.What happened?Didn’t you take care of it?”
