Delirium (Captive Love: Forced Proximity Standalones #4)

Chapter 2

Chapter

Two

CAMP

H ave you ever heard of the quantum immortality theory? It’ll fuck you up. It fucked me up for a long time, but I was only sixteen when I found out about it.

I guess that’s what I got for surfing those blogs my mom constantly told me to stay away from.

Anyway. Back to my original point. Quantum immortality.

It’s basically the theory that every time we have a near-death experience, our lives split off into two alternative universes. One is the path we’re currently on, obviously still alive, as I’m here, telling you about quantum immortality in the first place. The other is the universe where you die. Very sad.

Not that you care. You don’t know, because you’re, you know, dead.

But if we extrapolate this idea, it turns into immortality. If there’s always a universe where you survive, and a universe where you die, realistically that means somewhere along the line, we’ll discover the cure for aging. And then one day, when the earth implodes, because we’ve treated our only home like complete shit, there will still be a universe where you can’t die, and you’re just floating around in space like a conscious blob of immortal jelly.

Yeah, the theory fucks a lot of people up. They can’t handle the idea they might one day be that conscious blob of jelly floating closer and closer to the sun.

I, on the other hand, liked to apply it to every aspect of my life.

It motivates me. I’d say this was the moment I realized how strange I was, but that would be a lie. I’ve been strange my entire life.

All along there have been two paths, and I could see the choices as I made them. Go to school for astrophysics, and be a part of the solution to finding a new world for us after Earth. Or go to school for nuclear chemistry, and be a part of the solution to fix the energy problem right now.

Go on a tour of the energy plant that would change my life forever, or stay home and learn nothing.

Drop out of school, or feed into the money-hungry corporate machine.

Join the eco-warriors, or wait at home for some other opportunity.

Mess up the pig launcher, or tell my boss to go fuck himself.

Run for the boat, or let myself be arrested.

Sometimes I liked to think about what the other Mes were doing in my other timelines. If they were happy. If they were alive.

Unfortunately for me, I’d just be here.

Right now, though, here wasn’t so bad.

One of the prettiest women I’d ever seen—scratch that, the prettiest woman I’d ever seen—was looking at me, after just saving my ass. She had shiny dark hair tied into a braid, and eyes bluer than the sky. Granted, her expression was a little scared, but only because she didn’t yet realize I wasn’t a threat to her.

The big guy standing next to her looked less scared, but more confused, though. To be fair, he probably didn’t get further than the eighth grade, and I just appeared on the boat he most likely grew up on. Too much for his tiny brain to comprehend.

“Okay,” he finally spoke again, his voice gruff. “Okay. This is what we’re going to do here.”

“Glad you finally seem to have a plan,” the blond guy next to them muttered. He hadn’t said a word since I jumped on board, but his disdain was evident.

The boat pushed against a steep bank, causing all of us to try and steady ourselves.

“I’m going to get us to the next fork in the river. It’s a couple hours downstream. I can’t turn us around in this current, but at the very least, there’s a small village where we can deposit our new friend for them to take back to the appropriate authorities.”

We hit another bank, harder this time, and the boat groaned.

“Shit. Okay, you two keep an eye on him. I have to get us through this next bit. Carpe Diem can’t do it on her own.” The big guy ran off to the helm, flipping a switch so the engine roared back to life once more.

My two keepers watched me silently.

“Fuck’s sake,” I muttered. “I promise, I’m not a serial killer or anything. My name really is Camp. I didn’t murder Camp and steal his backpack.”

I rubbed my elbow, aching from when I’d smacked it on the edge of the boat jumping to safety. The bugs were brutal on the boat, too, but I didn’t want to show even more weakness by flailing around as the annoying fuckers bit the shit out of me.

The pretty girl crossed her arms in front of her chest, only succeeding in pushing up another inch of delicious skin above her thin long sleeve. Her tanned complexion held a smattering of freckles, like a constellation spelled across her flesh. “And you expect us just to trust you at your word? You just jumped on a boat to escape the police.”

“If we’re being specific, you told me to jump,” I pointed out. “I’m only here because you invited me.”

“Are you a vampire or something? Just because you’re invited doesn’t mean you should . Nash said we were missing another guest, and I wrongly assumed it was you.”

Nash. That had to be the big beefcake’s name. Now I just needed to figure out the name of this exquisite creature in front of me.

“ Not me. But I did need a ride. Doesn’t that count for something?”

Those perfect blue eyes widened. “Not when you’re a literal criminal!”

“Please.” I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t do anything that shouldn’t have been done.”

“So what did you do then?” The blond guy spoke up for the second time, a touch of an accent in his quiet voice. He sounded expensive, if money had a sound. “If it’s something you’re obviously proud of, you shouldn’t mind sharing with us.”

I rolled my eyes again. “If you must know, they’re trying to build a new pipeline right in the middle of this rainforest. Everyone is excited for the prospect of new sources of oil, and no one is paying attention to what that pipeline is really doing.”

The woman raised a brow, giving me a curious look. “What exactly is it doing?”

“Destroying the eco-system from the ground up!” I slammed my hand down on the wooden floor, eliciting a glare from Nash at the helm. “We act like we can do whatever we want to this world with no consequences, but that’s not how it works. Everything we do has an effect, and it only takes the smallest disruption to kill off an entire chain of species. What do you think we’ll do for houses once we destroy all the trees? How will we grow crops once the last of the bees fade away? No one thinks about this stuff. They only think about themselves. So I did what had to be done. What no one else would do.”

Or at least that’s what I told myself, when the doubts crept in while I slept.

I met her bright blue eyes, not caring about Mr. Moneybags next to her. She was the one whose opinion I cared about. He could go fuck himself, or I guess, pay for someone to fuck him. Whichever he preferred, really. “I monkey-wrenched the pipeline they were almost done building. Blew it up, if we’re going to be more specific. Unfortunately for me, it just happened to be when security was doing their walkthrough, and they saw me before I could sneak away.”

I shook my head, still annoyed at the series of events that landed me on this boat. It was supposed to be a foolproof operation. Or so my boss, Chad, had told me. Security didn’t do their walkthrough for another hour after I finished. And yet, there they were. Fuck. I just hoped I had cleaned up my mess enough so there wouldn’t be any identifiable trace of me left behind.

“Question.” Pretty girl didn’t look horrified by my confession. If anything, she looked more curious. “Doesn’t blowing up the supposedly delicate eco-system cause just as much of a problem as the pipeline would have?”

“My bomb was more of an implosion. The empty pipe collapsed in on itself.” I whistled, demonstrating with my hands what would happen to the pipeline. “It means it’s more of a mess for them to fix, but less impact on the environment. Regardless, a small explosion is still better than decades of rainforest ecosystem being abused until there’s nothing left to sell.”

She looked me over, processing every inch of me with a sharp gaze. I could almost see her brain working, analyzing the parts she could see, mixing it with what I had told her. She had a scientist’s mind, that was for sure. I wanted to see what else would make her tick, what buttons I could push to elicit a reaction, what parts of her would combine to make her combust.

I wondered if she was thinking the same things about me.

“I’m Camp, by the way. Camp Hart.” I gave her a small wave, immediately regretting my life decisions. A wave. A fucking wave, from a mere two feet away? I was a tool and a half. Besides, she already knew my name—it was on my backpack.

“I know,” she said. She glanced over her shoulder toward Nash, before turning back to me. “I’m Scarlett. That’s Nash at the helm, and this is James next to me.”

“Pleasure, I’m sure,” James offered, in a tone that made it clear how little he was pleased . He yelled toward the helm. “How far is it to the fork?”

“It’s going to be a while yet, unfortunately. Is our stowaway being unruly?” Nash called back.

“Depends on what you mean by unruly,” James muttered, and I glared at him from my spot on the floor.

“Listen, I appreciate y’all thinking you’re doing the right thing turning me in, but I really didn’t do anything anyone in my position wouldn’t have done.” I pushed off the deck, attempting to get to my feet, half expecting James to shove me back down. “So if you want me off the boat, I understand completely. But maybe, you could just drop me off on the shore somewhere and leave me to my own devices instead of turning me into the authorities.”

Scarlett’s gaze softened, and I immediately knew she was on my side. One out of three wasn’t bad, and I had a feeling she had more pull than she realized with the other two.

In contrast, James’ face hardened, looking like he’d sucked on a lemon for far too long. “I think returning you to those you’ve hurt is the only course of action here.”

“Of course you would.” Now that I was on my feet, I couldn’t believe how much I towered over Scarlett. When I was running to the boat, and looking up at her, she seemed larger than life. But now, I realized she was petite, small enough to tuck under my arm. “But I promise I’m no threat to you, or your excursion here, or anything else in your life. So maybe, just this once, you could look the other way.”

Scarlett and James both opened their mouths to talk, but before either of them could, Nash spoke over them.

“Seeing as this is my boat, I’m sure everyone wouldn’t mind if I have the final say. I do understand this affects everyone. So when we get to the fork, and I’m able to safely anchor this thing, we’ll put your fate to a vote, Camp. Majority wins.”

Butterfly effect was a strange thing.

Maybe if my parents had never bought me that children’s chemistry kit, I never would have been interested in finding out how things worked.

Maybe if I had been better at soccer, I would have scored a scholarship and earned my master’s degree, settling down with a nice girl I’d met at a party.

Instead, my life decisions had accumulated into this—my fate being decided by three strangers, on a boat in the middle of the rainforest. What kind of fucking butterfly had flapped its wings and put me on this path?

When I looked at Scarlett, watching the soft smile spread across her full lips, and the quick wink she gave me, I realized maybe I shouldn’t be cursing that butterfly after all.

Maybe I should be thanking it.