Chain 092: We Know The Devil

Chain 092: We Know The Devil
Location: J̶e̶s̶u̶s̶ Summer Camp?
Age: 16
Identity: Drop-In
Drawbacks: [+600] Allegorical

[50/1600]   Jumper Brings The Power
[Free]      Ingratiation
[250/1600]  King James Programming
[550/1600]  The Meaning of This Parable
[650/1600]  Exegesis
[1050/1600] In The Name of God, I Will Punish You!
[1450/1600] I Miss You
[1550/1600] Radio

Well, this place brings back a lot of memories. Least of which because before I started jumping, I visited such a camp a couple of times, my father TRIED to send me to one before my mother mercifully intervened, and I have a handful of friends who were at a couple of different Jesus Camps of varying degrees of absolute fucking horror. You want some nightmares? Consider how amazing the cruelties that people are willing to visit on others to bring them into line, and anything and everything is permissible, because it's to save their soul. Forced labor, marching all day without water, borderline brainwashing. And who'd think the kids weren't just exaggerating? Certainly not the faithful parent(s).

Now, making friends with some of the people here was not as easy as it might seem. Sure, I ended up in camp without much of a background, but my excuse for the camp counselors was something along the lines of, "My parents are doing a mission in Africa over the summer but needed a place for me to be, my aunt and uncle were on vacation, and isn't camp just WONDERFUL?" Not that this didn't mean I was looked at as completely innocent, but as long as you are able to pay lip service when you need to, camp's pretty survivable for the most part. And I do emphasize that "for the most part". On the plus side, playing the token "good kid" of the group was sufficient to be considered a good influence on the others.

Ah, if only they knew about the discussions after-hours.

"Dude, I've been studying the Bible for the last ten years. If it was to be taken literally from cover to cover, we're ALL going to hell."
>"Why do you say that?"
"Two words. Polyester blend. Never mind that hot dogs are awesome and contain pork, slavery's all over the place in there, eating any fat from a steak is against the rules, and gardens are guaranteed to send anyone who makes one to a lake of fire."
>"What."
"Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed. I mean, seriously, if you study Greek myths and say the names of other gods, or even just astronomy, you're in trouble. Personally though? My favorite is thou shalt not lie with a man as you would a woman. Does it say that a woman can't lie with a woman? No. So lesbians are perfectly okay, but I'm going to hell 'cause I technically swing both ways. Though that's kinda complex."
>"You... are a strange, strange kid."
"Right back atcha."

So I got to know a few of the fellow camp kids. Taught them how to pay lip service and make it look like we were making an improvement, while I got to know them better. Pointed out how the real world didn't work the way that everyone in Jesus Camp said it did and in two or three years it wouldn't matter, but... well, the family situations of the others is far from ideal in several circumstances. And it didn't help anything that Group South was a pain in the ass too.

The radio in question? That literally tuned in to the local radio stations. God? Gospel and saccharine Christian rock songs. The devil? Quite literally anything else. (Trust me, if you ever had a parent who was a lunatic right-wing "Christian", you'd understand.) The three of them ending up with their golden ending? They're just accepting who they are, not going into all-out apotheosis. And frankly, it wasn't all that difficult, but that might be because there were four of us instead of three, so no one was ever left out... though I'm sort of the third wheel here.

The problem with that, of course, is that we were still in the camp. Three months of Hell. Sure, they were all more relaxed and able to pay lip service a little more effectively, but getting split up after camp ended was not something they were looking forward to.

Assuming camp ended and it didn't end up being one of those deals where we stayed more than just the summer, until they considered us "cured" of whatever idiocy they decided affected us.

Then again, the highway was literally a mile away. And so, a plan was hatched: get the fuck out of the camp, get to the nearest town, and disappear. The three of the girls (as it turns out, Venus is trans? that's a thing, but okay) were a little concerned about the plan, but ultimately agreed to it. After all, if all else failed they could always call home, but I told them the truth: I had no parents here at all. As far as I knew, it was just me, but this place was way too creepy. Still, there's always part-time work, and once you learn how to make money stretch, you never quite forget.

Getting everything to line up was tricky and we left later than I might have liked, but we did eventually get out of there. A very quiet, slow march away from camp until we'd gotten a good amount of distance between it and us, and then we picked up and started marching. A half hour later? The highway. Of course, it was half past four in the morning by this point, but spirits were pretty high. Even if town was a good distance away. Then we got lucky and a trucker let the four of us hitch a ride.

The three of them crashed in the sleeper for a bit while I chatted with him and explained the whole 'Jesus Camp' thing and how ridiculous it was (and this from a kid who goes to church every Sunday! those guys are just nuts!), and that the solution was pretty imperfect, but we were heading east so that I could call my aunt and have her pick us up, because Aunt Zoe takes no shit and will tear a strip from all the girls' parents, but since all four of us were already acquainted outside of camp and were from the same neighborhood, it honestly wouldn't end up being a big deal other than us leaving because one of the counselors at the camp were skeevy and I'm pretty sure he was trying to do something with Jupiter because he kept trying to get her alone and that was basically the last straw and why we left.

The driver was bemused, but I told him that I had to have her do the same last summer when my parents tried to pull this, too, and my grandma threatened to have me live with her; I told him I was looking forward to hearing THAT conversation when they got home, since last time she picked me up from the camp, but THIS time we actually had to sneak out. Though I was going to have Aunt Zoe look up their number and call them so that when they find the cabin empty they won't freak out. Pretty much the next three hours was spent with me making idle chatter, talking about Uncle Mack a bit (and how Uncle Mackell drives a Peterbilt, not a Mack truck, thank you very much), and otherwise just weaving a very long and consistent lie and making sure he wouldn't be aiming to have anyone intercept us when he dropped us off.

Eventually, though, we got to the truck stop. I woke the girls up, we thanked the trucker for everything (turns out Dave was a pretty decent guy), then we headed into the attached restaurant and got ourselves some breakfast while we discussed our next move.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot. You remember how I ruined Truth Or Dare when I told you guys I believed in God but I was actually one myself so I didn't technically worship him so much?"
>"You're still weird, you know."
"Yeah, yeah. Well, I wasn't lying, one of my worshippers just pulled up in that red Ford Excursion on the other side of the window."
>"Oh, bullshit. Come on, be serious."
"I am. Look, he's gonna honk twice." And the vehicle did. "That's Maxwell. He's gone by many names, but then he's been around for like, six thousand years. He and a friend of mine are here to pick us up. Dee's got red hair, trust me, you can't miss her."
>"What? There's no freaking way, stop messing with us."
"Eh, whichever. We can figure out the next step once we're out of here and putting more miles between us and Camp Crazypants. Let me leave our nice waitress a tip before we get going-"
>"Wait, wait. Did you steal Dave's wallet?"
"No, it's mine. See? My license. I'm out"
>"...Huh."
"What, you thought I'd dine-and-dash? Don't be silly, Agnes there is a sweetheart, she's been doing this for ages. I just figured, since we're not in camp, I'd take off the kid gloves and help you guys settle wherever you want to be."
>"Okay, that's freaky."
"No, that's- oh, damn it. Demona! You forgot to put on your face!"

(And that's why I had to Obliviate the entire restaurant. I really need to find a more effective solution for the mass removal of memories.)