Summer had been a hot one so far. With seven weeks still left in the season, the guys found themselves packed in an old station wagon, heading down south for the weekend. Only five of the eleven had committed to going down with a group of others to assist with the construction of a new dorm room for a bunch of orphans because, apparently, the orphans couldn’t do it themselves. The other six guys either had no interest or were playing summer sports for their school because school was so important to them. The station wagon could only accommodate seven people including Gary, the plump driver whose stomach always seemed to be wriggling beneath its surface. The scenario was perfect for the guys – the five of them could fill the back of the car while an unknown sat in the front, forcing them to carry the sole responsibility of making conversation with Gary for the entire two hour journey.

Gary hopped into the car and situated himself in the driver seat, causing his shirt to slide up and reveal part of his moving stomach. “I think we’re set to go,” Greg began while cautiously eyeing it. He continued, “Everyone have their stuff packed? Snacks on hand? Sunglasses in place?” The carful of guys replied with a variety of affirmatives, including yee, yes’m, and yerp. Greg began to slide the back door shut.

“Aht, aht, aht,” Josh shouted as he jogged over to the van in his skin-tight white shirt and straw cowboy hat. He caught the door with his hand just before it closed.

“What is it now, Josh?” Mike stated, more than asked, as the rest of the car sighed in annoyance. The guys hated Josh, as did everyone else.

Josh peeked into the van through his reflective aviator glasses. “Looks like you fellas have some more room. I think you can take one more i—”

“Absolutely not,” Mike snapped as he cut Josh off. “Every seat belt is taken, which means that no one else can sit back here, as you know full well.”

“Nah, we’re short on seating out here, so someone else needs to go with you.” Josh stated without considering Gary’s opinion or the safety risks. His face held so much smug it was dripping off of him.

Instead of standing his ground, Gary caved immediately. “Hurry up, Josh. Just grab someone small so we can get on the road.”

Josh grinned as he strutted away to find a small boy. The hatred the boys felt for Josh in that moment was monumental. Though they were a few years younger than Josh, they had all grown up with him, and he had always been annoying, but this was Josh’s first year of being considered one of the overseers of the group. The guys didn’t recognize a single ounce of authority in Josh’s demeanor, personality, or physical appearance. Neither did anyone else over the age of fifteen, but somehow he managed to convince a middle-aged dad to break the law and double-buckle a small boy into a foreign country.

So the guys decided that they’d make him pay.

Apart from a few of Josh’s failed yet annoying attempts to flex his leadership muscles, the guys were enjoying the trip. As evening drew close, they made their way up a hill to watch the sun set and relax a little before getting roped into a mandatory group gathering around a fire pit where everyone was expected to share how rewarding the trip had been for them.

There was just enough evening light out for the guys to secure their seats on a smooth patch of dirt. However, the moment that they settled in, Josh appeared and nodded his stupid cowboy hat in the direction of the fire pit. Immediately, all five of them recalled how Gary had rolled over for Josh before the trip had even started. They knew that Josh was sitting on his self-constructed high horse and soaking up the obedience that the rest of the group was feeding him, which is why the guys didn’t budge. They had earned some relaxation and weren’t about to let a low-life like Josh take that away from them. They sensed that this was their opportunity to make a fool out of Josh unlike anything the world had ever seen.

“C’mon, time to head down to the pit,” Josh stated matter-of-factly, suggesting that they didn’t have a choice.

“Nah, we’ll come down when we actually need to, thanks though,” Simon replied sarcastically without even taking his eyes off the sunset. The rest of the guys looked at Josh sinisterly.

Josh forced his best tough guy smile, though it was incredibly weak and unnatural. He did his best to hide the fact that his ego had just been bruised. He tried to get tougher, “If I tell you to do something, you do it. Now let’s go.”

The guys began laughing in his face.

Just then, plump and squirmy Gary appeared literally out of nowhere. His stomach was bigger than ever and resembled a warty gourde, except the warts were moving back and forth across his entire front side. He began his best attempt to validate Josh’s authority as a leader, “Boys, let me introduce you to my friend, Josh. Now, he’s a leader here, which means that you need to – aaaagghhhh!!”

Gary’s touching speech was cut short by his loss of balance. Unbeknownst to him, each step that brought him closer to the guys also brought him closer to the downward slope of the hill, which was completely covered in briar patches containing sharp thorns that were nearing five inches long. Gary began falling.

With a gaping mouth, Josh reacted by extending his hand for Josh to grab hold of, but he was unsuccessful. Gary hit the ground hard and a sound came from him involuntarily, indicating that he’d just lost all of the air from his lungs. He was immediately pierced with a three-inch thorn right in the stomach. His scream echoed off the hillside.

The site was gruesome. That small pierce instantaneously turned into a full-blown tear from side to side, as if a teddy bear had just been ripped apart at the seams. Hundreds of thousands of maggots and grubs of varying colors and sizes blew out of his body like a firehose left to run wild. Gary continued screaming. Josh’s mouth was still gaping at the site, and maggots flooded his insides. Maggots began hitting Josh’s face with such force that, if they didn’t land in his mouth or get forced down his throat, exploded on impact instead.

The guys took cover to ensure their safety from the mags, but made sure that they still had the perfect view of what was unfolding. Gary began to shrivel as his body spewed the last of what was inside of him. The boys noticed that Gary didn’t have any internal organs, it was only worms. They looked over at Josh who was unconscious in the dirt and was covered with a mix of exploded maggots and his own blood. He’d been stuffed so full that the sides of his mouth were torn halfway up his cheeks and his jaw had been dislocated.

Once Gary’s body had finished hemorrhaging worms, the chaos stopped and all was peaceful. The guys stood from their bunker and took in the mess before them. They looked at one another, then at the mess, then back at one another. Finally, one of them shrugged and began walking down the hill. Disregarding the bodies, the rest of the guys followed suit and made their way to the fire pit where the gathering was just beginning. For the very first time, they were ecstatic to actually share with the group what had just become the most rewarding part of the trip for them.