Pack of Wolves

Chapter 1

September 12, 2020 4:07 AM.

OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPTION OF POLICE INTERVIEW

INVESTIGATOR: The date is Saturday, September 12, 2020, and the time is 4:07 AM. FBI Special Agent Martha Carter currently speaking. Thank you for waiting, young lady. If you wouldn't mind, could you state your name, age, and occupation for the record?

REITHAUBE: My name is Scarlet Reithaube, I'm sixteen years old, and... I'm not sure where occupation would apply, so I guess... unemployed?

INVESTIGATOR: We'll put that for now. In the meantime, is everything okay? Are you feeling well? Can I get you anything? Food? Water? A phone call home?

REITHAUBE: No, thank you. I'm okay for now. Maybe a bottle of water, for later? That would be nice.

INVESTIGATOR: Okay, just give me a minute... alright, one of the officers will get you a bottle. Speaking of a phone call home, is there anyone we can call for you? Your parents or guardians?

REITHAUBE: That... that's not possible, I'm sorry. I'm...

INVESTIGATOR: Please take some deep breaths, Ms. Reithaube. There you go. Now, are you telling me that your parents are not currently available to talk?

REITHAUBE: Yes. Just Scarlet is fine, Ma'am.

INVESTIGATOR: Very well, Scarlet, please take a couple of breaths if you need to. If you need a minute, we can hold off and wait until you feel up to it.

REITHAUBE: I'm fine.

INVESTIGATOR: Are you sure?

REITHAUBE: Agent Carter, the longer this takes, the worse I'll feel. Please, just let me tell you how I ended up here, and then we can go from there.

INVESTIGATOR: Okay, Scarlet, if you insist. Now then, why don't we go back to the beginning? The initial reports you and the others gave us are rather interesting, to say the least.

REITHAUBE: Definitely. So, I imagine you looked me up in your records? So, you know why I was arrested, right?

INVESTIGATOR: Yes, we are aware Scarlet, but that's not relevant to the current -

REITHAUBE: Trust me, it is, Agent Carter. You see, that's the reason I ended up at that damned Camp Packington to begin with. When I had to plead guilty to the charges that were put on me, they told me this goddamn camp was the best place to go if I wanted to get paroled before I turned thirty. So that was how I ended up in that awful place...

#

I hadn't even realized I fell asleep until the guard who was on the bus with us shook me rather hard and yelled, "WAKE UP, WE'RE HERE!" which caused me to jolt so bad I choked on my own spit and nearly fell out of my seat, coughing up a lung as I straightened up.

Some of the other people that were getting off the bus were already walking past me. The girls laughed at me while most of the guys didn't give me a second glance, and the ones that did just stared as they walked by. The guard looked like he wanted to strangle me or shoot me with the shotgun strapped to his back, and while I didn't blame him in the slightest, I started moving a little faster so I wouldn't give him an excuse to do it.

"What the fuck, you think I'm joking around?!" the guard said as he grabbed my upper arm and dragged me to my feet, just before I could get to my feet.

"No, I..." I tried to say, but the guard cut me off.

"Forget it, just get fuckin' going." the guard said, and I did so, following him off the bus and into the parking lot of the juvie camp. Some big black SUV's were in the lot, but it was otherwise empty except for the people. The gates that would lead into the camp were big and iron, topped with spikes and barbed wire, and surrounded by big silver stone-looking walls that also had barbed wire on top of them. The whole place looked more like a prison than a camp, though I presumed that was the point, since this was a prison for teen convicts.