I'm fine, ok?

Chapter 2: And now it's all your fault

A/N: Just a side note, I'm basing what happens to max on the one time decided to soak my clothes in ice water before I went to bed (don't ask. You can, but don't)basically it seems like a normal head cold at first, then it divebombs. Onto chapter two!

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Max trudged to the mess hall where the others were already gathered. The bags under his eyes more pronounced than usual, he decided to leave his hood up. Neil was already there, as expected, and he was sitting next to Nikki, as expected. The quarter master had made them all breakfast potatoes as usual, the guy was like a one trick pony but nobody (read- David) had the heart to tell him they were sick of it.

"Hey Max!" Nikki greeted. Was it just him, or did Nikki sound louder and more annoying today? "Yeah, shut up." Max shot back almost immediately. He got himself a tray and walked over to his seat next to Neil after he got himself a serving of the potato slop. Max sat himself down heavily, already tired other from the walk there. "What's up with sleeping beauty?" Nurf joked while pouring space kid's mashed potatoes into his helmet. "Shut up nurf" max rolled his eyes, "Come back when you're a main character." Nurf stopped his attack, "What? What does that even mean?"

Nikki put a stop to that pretty quick, "Yeah Max, you didn't show up after the lake thing." She noted. Max gave an exasperated sigh, "I went to continue digging the escape tunnel under my bed, but I hit gold as was busy melting it down into teeth." Nikki's eyes shone, "Really!?" Max stuck his fork in his breakfast, "No".

He figured it was time to tune those idiots out. He turned his attention to his breakfast. His stomach churned, and not in the good way. He never realised it before, but why were the potatoes so, runny? He watched as what he could only hope was oil slide sown the side of the white and yellowish substance. Suddenly, he lost his appetite, not that he had one to begin with. He poked at it, the feeling in his stomach getting worse the more he looked and smelled the food, and he finally resolved to just throwing away the lot of it. Unknown to anyone else in the mess hall, a single tear ran down the quarter master's cheek.

Max had gotten himself a cup of coffee. Though the quiet buzz from the caffeine did his headache no favors, the warm liquid felt good running down his sore throat, and the warmth was especially good on his hands. For just a second, Max thought that he's was actually going to have a reasonably not shitty day.

As if in cue, in comes David, "Goooooooood morning campers!" David chimed marching through the door with a little skip in his step. "Yeah whatever good morning" Gwen followed up, looking reasonably less rested. "Nice to see someone decided to join us again" David remarked, putting a hand on Max's shoulder. Max smacked it away immediately. "Right," David rubbed his hand before continuing, "Have we got a treat for you guys today! Last night some government officials came in and cleared a new trail, something about looking for dead bodies of missing Thailand citizens... but anyways, new trail!" Gwen gave a look that showed she was about 120% done with David's cluelessness. He continued anyways, "So I decided that today is a good time to go on a hike!" Most of the campers let out audible groans, with the exception of Nikki, who seemed genuinely excited. Max took it back. Today really was going to be a shit show.

Max was right, David was on his tail right up until they were ready to start the trek. He had tried everything in his power to get out of it, but David was dead set on Max joining in. Feeling a bit lightheaded on his own two feet, max begrudgingly stood among the others who looked almost as unwilling as him to be there. Almost. "Alright campers!" David addressed, "We're just about ready to go, right Gwen?" Gwen looked up from her teen magazine, "sure yeah" David took that as a reasonable answer, "Great! Everyone remember to stick behind me and stay away from the bees!" And so the hike, and Max's downfall, began.