Page 76 of Delirium

I didn’t like the silence.

“You know,” I started, and James groaned from ahead of me. “I always wanted to donate my body to science when I died. I just assumed it meant actual scientists would be examining me and making advances in the world with their discoveries. Not turning into compost in the middle of a remote rainforest.”

“Shut up, Camp,” James muttered.

“You’d be bored as fuck without me, James.”

We walked for an indeterminate amount of time. We swatted away mosquitoes that swarmed our heads. Flying bugs with iridescent wings flew by, nearly glowing in the rain, ethereal and out of this world. Not a single part about this place seemed real.

One particular leaf was too sharp, too bright.

Nothing could bethatgreen.

A bug crawling on the limb of a tree had too many legs, stopping to stare at me as if it knew I was judging it.

At some point, I realized something wasn’t right.

The fever was creeping back.

Which meant the hallucinations would only be so far behind. I needed to center myself before I lost it completely. Last time I’d seen a murder that never actually happened. Fuck knew what I’d see this time. Already the crisp green leaves of the trees grew hazy, blurred around the edges. A bird called out for another, a mournful sound that echoed in the back of my head like a gong.

“You know…” I started, needing to hear my voice out loud, to know I was still here.

“Shutup, Camp!” James snapped.

“Listen, man, this fact might save your life! Did you know there’s a difference between a jungle and a rainforest?”

“He doesn’t,” Scarlett called from up ahead. “I already called him out on it so it’s a touchy subject.”

“Would you both fuck off?” James grumbled. “There’s not exactly a lot of expeditions in my line of work. Excuse me for not nerding out like the two of you.”

Behind me, Nash laughed, and the sound echoed, over and over and over. It sounded a little crazy at the end, slightly maniacal. Maybe Nash wasn’t okay either. Or maybe I was hearing things.

“Anyway,” I explained, “for those who care—James—a jungle is apartof a rainforest. It’s thicker on the bottom than it is on the top. Rainforests are the opposite. Thicker on the top, not a whole lot on the bottom because not a lot of light is reaching the bottom. Wild, right?”

I smiled, but looked warily up to the sky, only to see it covered entirely by the trees. Trees I could’ve sworn were growing in shades of pink and purple.

No. Shake it off, Camp.

Trees were green, not fucking purple. I was sick, but I was in control, dammit. Eyes still to the sky, I slammed right into the back of James, who had come to a sudden halt.

James rebuffed, “So you’re telling me a jungle would be what we were sailing down the middle of, and what we’re walking in now is a rainforest?” he asked.

Rubbing my chest where I’d run into his shoulder that was apparently made out of marble, I frowned. “No, because we were sailing down a river. But technically, yeah, I guess, because the river ranthrougha jungle. There’s a lot of variables. You can’t walk in a jungle for one, really. It’s too thick.”

“But Nash’s boat, the river, that would be jungle?” James was quite insistent, and I was very confused.

“Yeah, sure.” I shook my head. “Can we keep walking though?” I really didn’t like the way the vine at my eye level was twisting, turning into itself, its eyes boring into me.

It was just a vine. Just a vine. Just a vine.

“Scarlett Ward, you better hope you can run fast,” James yelled. “You made it quite clear I was an idiot using the wrong terminology but Camp just told me otherwise!”

Scarlett’s laugh made me smile, but I held my hands up in defense, wanting to make a joke when the violet-colored snake lunged out at me, hissing wildly.

I stumbled back, falling onto my ass into the mud, chest heaving. “Get the fuck away from me! No!” I had never seen a snake that color before, but I could only imagine it was venomous with such a deep hue. It lunged farther, mere inches from my bare arm. I shuffled backward on my hands as quickly as I could. “Fuck!”

It loomed closer, my vision tunneling until it was only me and the snake, the snake and I. We could’ve been one for all I knew.

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