Fresh Start

Chapter 3
Youth is Freedom

Chapter Description: Not your average summer camp.

A whole line of identical vans were queued up along the narrow dirt road in front of the camp gates. As the newest batch of campers disembarked from the vans they all marched through the gates bearing the camp name, Fresh Start, and the motto, Youth is Freedom. From there they congregated on a patch of grass facing a small wooden stage with a microphone standing at the centre.

The camp was located well out in the countryside on a section of rolling green hills facing a small pond. A number of sizable cabins were visible from the entry as well as several playgrounds of varying sizes and complexity. Between them was a large sand-pit, a basketball court and areas for hopscotch.

By nine in the morning there were at least a hundred people gathered on the lawn waiting for directions. They were a shell-shocked looking group of teens. A few looked young enough to be only ten but they could have easily been thirteen or fourteen year old boys who were late starting puberty. The rest were clearly teens. Some were in pyjamas and others t-shirts and boxers but most were dressed. Chris alone was in school uniform.

Finally a group of adults appeared out of one of the central cabins. There were several young women and an older man proceeding up. It seemed the thugs who grabbed them from their homes didn’t actually work at the camp. Their job was just getting the newest clients there. The actual counsellors all looked like friendly, happy people. They lined up along the small stage facing their charges and the older man went to the microphone.

“Hello campers!” he enthused.

Nobody greeted him back but he didn’t let that bother him. “Welcome to Camp Fresh Start! I’m Mr Belton and I’m in charge here. Now I’m sure by now you all know you’re here to have the treatment.”

There were many looks of anger and sadness as he actually spoke the truth. Of course they had all been subject to years of propaganda telling them this was a good thing, that it was important for a happy society. They’d heard it in school and on TV, in movies and music. Every year there was a heart-warming blockbuster film about a family reunited or somehow saved by a teen’s regression to childhood or toddlerhood. At the end everyone was happy and smiling, the regressed child most of all. Several hit TV shows had a regressed or age frozen child as a character. And of course any successful child actor was age frozen as well.

But despite all that teenagers were always certain to be the least accepting of the treatment. They were at the age where they questioned everything about society, trusted adults the least and felt a natural determination to assert their adulthood and independence. All the propaganda wasn’t enough to fight nature. They still felt an inner need to grow-up. And just because they accepted the treatment was good for society, that didn’t mean they accepted it was good for them.

Mr Belton had worked long enough in the treatment industry to know that. So he tailored his address appropriately. “I know that makes many of you sad and a few of you angry,” he admitted. “But I’m here to tell you not to be afraid. All that will happen here is you’ll leave happier than you arrived, I guarantee it. Your mums and dads all love you very much if they cared enough to bring you here.”

There were a few sarcastic laughs and someone called out “Yeah right!”

“No, I mean it!” he yelled back. “Do you think orphans or drug addict’s kids get to enjoy a prolonged childhood? Do you think they get a second chance to fix mistakes? Why they’d love to have parents who cared enough to love them and raise them for more than eighteen years.

“We’re giving you back all the freedoms you lost over the years, all the stuff you gave up to be grown-ups. You get to go back to making mud pies, getting dirty cuzit’s fun, playing hide and seek and hopscotch,” he declared.

The assembled crowd seemed slightly less mutinous now, but only just.

“Okay now, what we’re going to do is separate you up into your cabins. They’re gonna be your homes and your families for the next week. The cabins are divided up by target age group. We have Beaver Cabin, age ten to twelve. Kea cabin, age six to nine.Penguin cabin, age four to five. And finally Buzzy Bee Cabin age one to three.

“Now these women here are your counsellors. Each of them is in charge of a cabin and they will have assistants to help them out. You must listen to everything they say and behave yourselves. There will be punishments for those who cannot be trusted to be good boys and girls.”

Mr Belton looked at the assembled campers very seriously for a long moment. Then he smiled again and opened a folder, slipping on reading glasses. “Okay, I’ll now read your names and the cabins you are assigned to. The counsellors are wearing badges with their cabin names. Go stand with the appropriate counsellor when I call you.”

**

Matt stood on the lawn listening to names being called out in alphabetical order, knowing he would be among the last. It was excruciating waiting through all those names, wondering just how young they wanted him to end up. Finally he heard, “Matthew Smithson” and he raised his hand sharply. Mr Belton nodded and said, “Kea Cabin” then continued to the next name.

Kea Cabin, that meant six to nine year olds. That wasn’t so bad, Matt thought. It could be so much worse of course. Matt ambled over to the gaggle of teens surrounding a young woman with a name badge that read “Jessica.”

“Hi there,” she greeted him.

“Hi, I’m Matt,” he told her.

“Hi Matt, nice to meet you. But from now on we’re going to call you Matty okay?”

Matt shook his head. “I never went by that name, even when I was little.”

“Things change sweetheart, and for now you’re Matty.”

Matt nodded, afraid to rock the boat and get demoted to a lower cabin. There weren’t many names left on the list and so the whole thing was soon done. Jessica got the nod from Belton and she headed off out of the group waving them all along. Matt followed the rest of the group down, bumping into another boy on the way. He looked about the same age as Matt and had a real five o’clock shadow.

“Sorry about that,” Matt said.

“No worries mate, we have bigger problems,” he said in a deep voice.

“I’m Matt by the way.”

“James,” he replied, extending a hand.

“So you must have almost made it to eighteen too eh?”

James chuckled. “Almost? Ha, I’m twenty mate. It’s the old story, parents tried to get me at seventeen so I left. Well they always get you in the end y’know. Said I was legally only seven, so here I am.”

“And your parents really want you back after three years?”

“Oh you bet. If they didn’t it would have been allowed to slide. But they really want their little boy again.”

“Wow, that sucks dude. I wish there was something we could do.”

James glanced around furtively. “There might be. I’m planning to break out of here, soon, before they can mess with me too much.”

“Holy shit,” Matt whispered.

“You interested?”

Matt thought about it but he wasn’t sure. If they got caught would they make him even younger? But he liked James so he said, “I’ll think about it.”

The older man nodded and they continued on quietly. The cabin was soon before them, with a big sign denoting it as Kea Cabin, and cartoon images of the alpine parrot it was named for. Jessica led them inside. Matt saw that it was a large place. Two rows of bunk beds lined the sides, each decorated with sports themed covers. Night lights were plugged into the wall sockets at regular intervals. Each bunk bed had a trunk at the end.

Beyond the beds was a large common area. One corner looked like a primary school classroom with a board displaying times tables, a big calendar and a world map. The corner was carpeted and a large chair sat right at the corner, probably for a teacher to read to the assembled kids from. In the other corner there was an arts and crafts table covered in glue-sticks, glitter and construction paper of many colours. Rows of safety scissors were along the wall, which was decorated with macaroni paintings and childish scribbled drawings in crayon.

Matt noticed a large toy box sat at the centre of their common area, overflowing with games and toys. The whole place was set up to give little kids a place to play and forget grown-up worries, teen angst and cares. Jessica stopped them before they reached the common area, making them form two straight lines. Already Matt felt like a little kid. She then went about assigning them beds and told them to stand by their bunk.

Matt was assigned a top bunk in the middle of the row. His bunk-mate was a smaller boy who only looked twelve or thirteen himself. Boys were all on one side and girls on the other. Nearly every bunk was filled with a kid.

“Okay, now I want you to open the trunks at the end of your bunks and dress yourselves in the clothing you find there. Take off your clothes and leave them on the lower bunk. That includes your underwear,” Jessica explained.

One girl looked like her eyes would pop out of her head. “We can’t change here! Everyone will see,” she declared.

Jessica just nodded. “Little children don’t have the same level of modesty as teenagers dear. You need to get used to that. Now change please.”

Matt opened the trunk and looked inside. There were pine green polo shirts marked Fresh Start Primary stacked on the top. Below that was a selection of t-shirts. There was Spiderman, Ben Ten, Batman, The Incredibles and more. Every one of them was cartoon print. Under that were several pairs of shorts, some were jean shorts others board shorts. Two pairs were black cargo shorts with the Fresh Start Primary insignia as well. Finally at the very bottom were several pairs of underwear. They were all briefs, tighty-whities with red or blue piping.

The other boy shucked off his pyjama top and pulled on one of the Spiderman t-shirts. “I actually like that movie,” he said casually.

Matt pulled his t-shirt off too and said, “I’m Matt, what’s your name?”

The kid pulled his pj bottoms off too, kicking his fuzzy slippers off and then shucking his boxers off as well. “I’m Tim. I’m really thirteen, what about you?”

“Almost eighteen,” Matt told him, pulling down his boxers and covering himself with one hand while he pulled out some undies and slipped them on.

“Almost made it,” the boy sighed, pulling on his own undies and then a pair of the blue board shorts with the red flames down the sides.

“Yeah, I know,” Matt agreed, pulling on a pair of the jean shorts and the green Ben Ten t-shirt.

Around the room other kids finished changing too, looking away so as not to stare at anyone else while they were exposed. Finally everyone was in their new outfits. A couple girls wore the school shirts and shorts, preferring them to the skirts on offer. Only one boy wore the school outfit. Matt could see James had chosen a Superman shirt and jean shorts. He didn’t look too young in that.

Jessica nodded with satisfaction. “Good,” she told them, lifting up a bin. “Now I will carry this around and I want you to throw all your old clothes in it as well as any shoes, sandals or socks you are wearing.”

She carried the bucket around and one by one the kids threw their old clothing into it, slipping off sneakers and socks, kicking off jandals and even the occasional pair of bedroom slippers and adding them to the pile.

When they were done Jessica again congratulated them for behaving. “Now, you all look like proper little boys and girls. From now on you wear only what is in the trunks and you never wear shoes. Little Kiwi kids don’t need shoes, they enjoy being barefoot.”

Matt thought back to when he saw Davey in the supermarket. Now he understood that he’d probably been trained to have grimy little feet like that. And if he didn’t escape from here with James, soon he would too.

With their clothing sussed out Jessica had them gather in the common area, sitting on their butts in a group on the floor. She dimmed the lights and a projector on the ceiling began to display a video on the wall. A voice narrated the happy transition they were about to make.

“Today you will begin your exciting journey back to childhood,” it began. “This afternoon you will visit the infirmary where you will receive your first individualised treatment to begin the process. Injections will help correct your physical age and mental adjustments will commence.”

Images showed them the infirmary, a smiling nurse, something that looked like a dentist’s chair. When it mentioned mental adjustments the screen showed a teen girl with big earphones on, eyes half-closed and smile on her face.

“This is but the beginning of your journey. Over the course of the week you will do many fun and stimulating activities.”

Images now showed groups of younger looking teens digging in a sandpit, playing basketball but still dressed in the kind of clothes they wore now. Kids of twelve or thirteen were shown in the middle of a game of hopscotch and then on a hike through the countryside with hats and backpacks on but still in shorts and bare feet.

“By the end of the week you will be physically and mentally ready to return to your families, happy children.”

It became a video showing a large group of kids of about six to nine smiling and waving at the camera as they sat on the porch of the Kea cabin. They giggled and shoved each other like real little kids, then swung their rows of feet up to show the camera their dirty brown and black little kid feet, giggling their silly little heads off.

The video finally ended and Matt and the others felt certain there was no escape now. Jessica stepped around before them as the lights turned back up. “Okay guys. We’re going to head down to the infirmary now to have your first treatment. You’ll be given shots to start the physical change and will have your first talk with Dr Howe, our mental adjustment specialist. He’s been given a special programme for each of you.

“After your session you’ll come back here to have a nice long night’s sleep and to listen to your personal programme. Now some of you will adjust much more quickly than others. Tomorrow when you wake up some of you will already be feeling and thinking like little kids. Don’t be afraid of it, you’ll be the lucky ones. You’ll get to be my special little helpers for the rest of the week and you’ll have the most fun with all our activities. The rest of you will take a bit longer but the result will be the same.”

Matt felt his stomach drop. Some of them would wake up thinking like little kids tomorrow! That meant he could be as dumb as Davey in just a day. That would rule out any chance of escape too. But they were already getting up, following Jessica like lambs to the slaughter. No one wanted to be the one to step out of line.