- Overall -

Chapter 14 - 'He wasn't dead, bummer.'

I'm back, fuckers.
—

"My eyes..." Max whined as his hands made its way to his forehead, massaging it warily.

He squinted. It was bright, very bright, blinding too. He pried his eyes open, only to realize that he was in a completely different setting. Lush green grass tickling his legs as the warm summer sun shone through the tree's leaves.

On the bright side, it looked beautiful, tall green trees looming over him as they covered the sunlight from reaching below, the sound of birds chirping and the faint noises of children... wait... children? The camp is fun, but not enough to humor kids other than max alone.

He sat up and looked around, dumbfounded. The last thing he remembered before blacking out was touching a warm, smooth crystal surface.

Max stood up, spotting both David and Nikki on the ground, unconscious. He bent down to wake up Nikki.

"Nikki...?" No answer

He shook her again, "Nikki?" No answer

"Nikki!" This time he yelled, drawing out the last 'i'.

Finally, he got a response.

"M-max?" She mumbled, rubbing her eyes, "Where are we?"

Max stayed silent for a moment to gather his words, "Well... For all I know, we've been moved or something... We're not in the same place we passed out in." He answered, chuckling nervously afterwards.

Nikki sat upwards and observed the setting around them, "Like that wasn't obvious, the fucking crystal the size of a boulder is missing." she mumbled, rubbing her head and standing up. For once, Max was right, there was no way they were in the same place they ended up last night. It was too unharmed, too perfect after a potential meteor fall... They couldn't have been randomly teleported somewhere though, right?

Nikki shook her head, she was being ridiculous.

She walked over to David and nudged him with her shoe, "Are you... dead?" Nikki questioned half jokingly. A groan could be heard below her from the no-longer unconscious man.

He wasn't dead, bummer.

"Nikki...? Wha- where are we?" He mumbled, rubbing his head as he sat up. He squinted at the morning sunlight, "God, if I knew I was going to get knocked out in the forest until daylight, I would've just left you both for dead." He huffed, sitting upwards, blinking his eyes to adjust to the light.

Nikki rolled her eyes, "gee, thanks old man. Glad to know my camp counselor will always have my back." She spat, leaving the man to stand up himself, "Anyways, disregarding the fact that you'd rather throw us under the bus than lose sleep, we're currently lost in the middle of nowhere, with a headache and whiny man-baby with us."

Max frowned, "Nikki, don't say that! I'm sure David didn't mean anything he said" Max exclaimed defensively, "Besides, while we're all a bit cranky from... passing out— I'm sure David has a clear explanation for this absolutely unexplainable experience! Right David?" He beamed, looking over to the silent red-head.

The said red-head sighed, "No, Max, no I do not." David rubbed at his eyes to adjust to the new environment, observing the area around to check if he recognized it in the least. Sadly, he hadn't the slightest clue about the unknown place they were in.

"Welp, looks like we're lost... Oh well, 'better move on from the past and focus on the future' as I like to say, right?" David smiled, his tone bright and optimistic while his tired eyes said otherwise. He dusts off his pants before turning towards the two confused campers.

"You have never said that. Ever—" Nikki huffed at his poor attempt at optimism before being interrupted as she was swept off her feet, Max following suit.

"All righty then! Let's get moving!"

He stated, leaving no room for retaliation as he gripped the two kids tightly under his arm, one struggling so much that David was an inner debate wether he should drop them, and the other staying put, accepting defeat.

Max jerked, hitting the side of his fist against his palm, "I just remembered! I heard some screaming a while ago!" He was met with fearful expressions, "No! Not that type of screaming, I meant the good type of screaming— laughing! Kind of?" He concluded lamely

Nikki scoffed, "Laughing? Please, you'll make me laugh. There's no way camp can make someone laugh that loud..."

As she turned towards max, she was met with the most hurt expression she had ever seen, "...other than you Max, you know very well how differently the other campers feel about the camp compared to you, including me" she huffed.

She glanced back towards max, "But I guess it wouldn't hurt to check—"

"Yay! Then it's settled, we are going back to camp! We wouldn't want to end up on 'missing' papers, don't we?" Max beamed

"I do."

"Let's get moving now! Haha!"

And without further discussion, David set off to— what they hoped was —camp, with the help of Max's directions and Nikki's various attempts to irritate David.

——

A/N: Aaaand that concludes chapter 14! Anyways, how've you all been? I genuinely got writers burnout for 3-2 years, who knew that pumping up so much fanfiction chapters would affect me longterm?

Anyways, I have an Ao3 now because I hate wattpad lol, I posted there for a while before getting writers block again. If you're curious, you can find me on Ao3 as 'Beige_Red'.

And a quick warning for all of you, anyone who plans to pressure or speed me to make a new chapter will contribute to later uploads! <3 I have just regained a hand on writing after years, so please be patient!

Anyways, see you all in the next chapter, and until then, Campe diem. -🃏