shiver -- a camp camp fanfiction

chapter 1// discharged

 The same song started to get old. During his...stay, in the hospital, he was practically glued to the television. The same advertisement would play over and over again, and eventually the jingle got burned into his skull. It consumed his every waking hour, a constant, inescapable tune that ricocheted off the insides of his mind with no signs of slowing down. A pounding rhythm with empty words. It didn't matter what the words said, or what they were persuading you to buy. He was grateful to have some sort of entertainment on his journey, no matter how tormenting it was. No matter how much he hated it.

Daniel wasn't sure how many days he had been walking through the forest. His provisions that he had stolen from the hospital and the convenience store in town were running low, and he was sure that he had some sort of infection from one plant or another. His crisp white shirt that he was able to salvage from the backroom in the hospital had been torn and stained. He almost wished he had kept that awful nightgown that they had given him. At least it was clean.

Passing a rock that looked identical to the one that he had passed 15 minutes ago, he dreamed about what it would be like to finally reach his destination. In his mind, he pictured green grass. A crystal blue lake. Warm red flames under a bright night sky. The crackling of the fire. The cracking of... something else. And the snapping of their necks as they turn around and their eyes widen for one last rush of adrenaline. Daniel smiled to himself as he kicked up some dust. What would the poor counselors do? He imagined the girl counselor would probably try and save a couple of campers. Or maybe she would just take off, like she did when he had first arrived. She seemed like the smartest in that God-forsaken camp. It was a shame, really. She could have been useful. It would have been nice to purify her.

However, Daniel had learned from his mistakes. He had been to ambitious with his previous attempt to purify the campers. Building a sauna? He cringed whenever he looked back on that. What was he thinking? It was too complicated, too many steps were involved. This time, he would go with the easier approach. He hated to ditch it, but the Kool-Aid would have to go too. Plus, it's not like they sell large amounts of it at the convenience store (he was a bit disappointed to find that out). Taking his knife out of his back pocket, he studied it with a keen, and slightly nostalgic, eye. Curved and ragged edges, paired with a silver hilt wrapped in leather. The blade was a bit dull, and not to mention dirty. But in the reflection he could still see his own pale eyes staring back at him. He would have thought his haggard appearance would have startled him, but the cultist was not new to being physically careless. His hair was greasy and sticking up in random directions, with dust and dirt setting into his scalp. Cuts underlined his eyes and the bandage around his hand was stiff with dried blood. To reiterate, he looked like someone who had sworn off bathing and then proceeded to run a marathon through a jungle. He made a face at himself in the knife, and then returned it to his back pocket. Ignoring the painful squeezing feeling in his stomach, he continued to walk through the forest. Things were starting to look new; the grass wasn't as dark, and the canopy was letting more and more light down to the forest floor. The birds were louder, and there seemed to be some resemblance of a path in the distance. Daniel managed somewhat of a smile. There was one thing that he was excited to do once he reached Camp Cambell.

God, he was excited to murder David.