Put That Kid Down

Chapter Twenty Four

"I don't know specifically how to make people throw up," Harrison started hesitantly, but at the tight smile on David's face, backtracked. "Yep, yes, I can do it. He will also possibly manifest at least three doves somewhere in the vicinity of his mouth but nothing maiming."

"Hear that, Space Kid?" Gwen asked, catching on to David's ploy. Or what she thought was David's ploy. Honestly, she wasn't sure if he was just at the end of his rope or actually being slightly manipulative. "You're giving it up either way. Why not without doves in your mouth?"

Space Kid narrowed his eyes at Harrison, hissing, "You're a traitor to your country."

This was met with a shrug, "I am not technically a citizen."

At this unarguable fact, he scrunched his nose behind the plastic of his helmet and sighed, "I'll eat the ipecac."

"Good kid!" David cheered as Gwen reeled the kid down for easy access.

Once the pendant was safely removed from Space Kid's body and crushed to dust in the bare hands of a certain smiling camp counselor, they moved on to the night's surprise.

"Since this is our last night together -"

"Apparently," Gwen muttered under her breath, still not fully adjusted to time re-establishing itself.

" - Gwen and I thought we should bring out the ice cream and make a real night of it!" David concluded with a cheeriness that Max, for one, found suspicious.

Now that he was paying attention again.

David should be, at the very least, jittery like the last time he thought the threat to the camp had ended. Or crying because the kids were going home tomorrow.

Tomorrow.
Right, Max was on a time limit.

He kept a weather eye on David, looking for chinks in the facade as the counselors distributed ice cream. Refusing his own with only a little reluctance, he finally found a moment to pounce as the other campers were distracted by dessert.

"David," he tugged the man's sleeve where he was leaning against the wall. When David sent him a querying look, Max continued, "I have to tell you something." At the counselor's attempt to say something ridiculous about going ahead right here or whatever, Max interjected, "Outside."

As Max led him out of the dining hall, David's brow creased and his smile dropped.

"Max," he began carefully, "is everything okay?"

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Max wobbled his head from side to side, "So-so. But I can fix it. I have a plan."

A wince, and David crouched to Max's level, "I didn't really like your last few plans."

"They did work," Max pointed out, but the counselor's ongoing grimace prompted him to move on. "Anyway, I don't throw myself into a volcano in this one and the only fucked up killer I talk to is you."

"Looking up already," David conceded, the killer comment evidently bouncing off his newly reformed sense of self or whatever. There wasn't time to dissect what was going through David's head at the moment. Max had other things to tell him.

A deep breath preceded Max's dive directly into, "So, I've been gathering information from your stories and from Gwen, and I could basically steal your entire identity at this point." Ignoring other people's alarm came easily to Max and he put it into practice as David's eyes went wide. "Your passwords are kindergarten easy, too, by the way. Stop losing your phone. Physically holding onto it is literally your only defense."

Not taking his shocked gaze from Max, David patted the pocket his phone was- had been in.

"Yeah," Max said, handing it over.