Put That Kid Down

Chapter Two

The next few weeks were constant torment as this new kid, Max, took up all the patience he had left.

"You can't stop me forever!" The hellion had exclaimed the first night, when David's heart had stopped after seeing the boy running past him in the woods while he was... patrolling. He'd reached out and snagged the kid with practiced reflexes, hoisting him over a shoulder and heading back to the camp while the kid pummelled his back and said things like, "Vive le révolution!" and "Wouldn't it be easier to just let me go?"

"Now, Max, I'm sure you'll like it here at Camp Campbell if you give it a chance," David patted the boy's back, "Homesickness is not an excuse for running out into the woods at night. Especially off-trail. That's dangerous and against the rules. If you're feeling homesick, you can just come find me or Gwen in the counselors' cabin, or go to Janette, one door down."

"Fat chance," Max relaxed, though, or gave up the idea of slipping David's grip so soon, "So what does Janette do around here if she's not a counselor? Besides sit on her ass."

Ah, David could work with curiosity. He grinned, "She's our manager, sort of. She does whatever needs to be done to keep things running smoothly and to make sure you all have a great time!"

"Well, she's doing a shit job of it, isn't she?" Max snorted.

"She does her best!" David retorted instinctively, stunned at the unprovoked attack. Though, soon enough, his own creeping curiosity prompted him to ask, "What would make you say that, Max?"

"The camp's a wreck," he said bluntly. "The sign on the way in is crooked, the bathrooms are gross, the light in the dining hall flickers, and I've already got a splinter from opening the door to the same damn hall." There was a pause as David digested this, then Max added, "Plus you've got all these fucking ghost town sports areas that creep me the fuck out."

"Language!" David brought Max down, hanging him under his arm so he could see his face. "Where does a ten-year-old learn words like that?"

"T.V., the internet, everywhere," Max listed off on his fingers sarcastically.

With a sigh, David looked down at this potential new victim of the people probably clawing their way closer to the camp with every moment he wasn't out there looking for them. He was surprised to see the boy looking back, narrowing murky green eyes at him.

"You better not be thinking of taking advantage of me just because we're all alone in the woods," Max accused, pointing a finger at him suspiciously, and David sputtered denying nonsense, flustered at the very thought.

"Max!" He exclaimed when his thoughts were back in order, but the scolding reassurance he'd intended was cut off by Max's mocking, "David!"

"Okay, look," David steamrolled on anyway. "I'd never lay a hand on a kid." Max looked disbelievingly up at him and then at the arm looped around his stomach keeping him suspended in the air. "You clearly know what I mean, Max. You're safe with me."

Max shot a sharp look at him for that, grumbling something to himself and wriggling down to the ground, now that David's hold had loosened with shock. David just held back an automatic swipe for the boy when Max held his hands up in surrender, "I'll go back for tonight if I can walk on my own."

Well, they were nearing the trail, and he'd cleared this area earlier... "Alright." Hesitating a moment too long to sound natural, David finally added, "But if I tell you that you need to run back, you have to listen, there's... bears."

"Aren't you not supposed to run from bears?" Max prodded. For a moment, David thought he was suspicious, but the boy's eyes held a malicious glint. Just trying to get a rise, then. "And this is yet another reason why camping sucks. They willingly drop you into bear-infested, nature-encrusted forests with spider-filled bathrooms." A visible shiver of disgust wracked the child; David patted his head, to Max's incoherent protest.