Pizza and Camping

Since I'm in the middle of a review and don't have time for a blog, I figured I'd share a quick short story I wrote. This one was done for writing class with “story dice”. Three dice have various objects on them and you have to write a story about whatever comes up for you. Two of mine were pizza and camping. The third sealed the rest of the story...

Nobody was quite sure why Sullivan had brought pizzas on a camping trip. Actually, nobody was quite sure who had invited him along in the first place. He was considered to be a bit of an odd sort by most of his classmates. Which is putting it politely.

Either way, everyone figured they'd at least get a decent laugh when he insisted on cooking them on the campfire. A small crowd appeared to watch the spectacle, and join in the subsequent laughing.

So it came as quite a surprise when he brought a huge bag and pulled out a grilling grate, propped it up on its struts, then carefully laid out several cartoons of toppings by the fire, before throwing the first pizza base onto the grill.

After a few minutes, with the smell of the cooking dough already starting to draw an even bigger crowd, Sullivan flipped the pizza base with a special spatula thing that none of them could ever recall seeing outside of an actual pizza place, covered it in tomato sauce and cheese then asked the assembled crowd who wanted what on their pizzas. Everyone stood shocked. Sullivan was offering them some of his pizza? Maybe he wasn't such an oddball after all. Three of them got through their confusion and answered him. He sprinkled their choices onto sections, perfectly dividing it into thirds, and less than a minute later he declared it done and presented them with the fire grilled pizza.

They tried it hesitantly. After all, the process hadn't even taken five minutes. To their astonishment the pizza was fantastic. One of the best they'd ever tried, if a little spicy. Sullivan assured them it was just because he mixed Tabasco in with his tomato sauce. He threw another base on and asked who else wanted some. A queue formed immediately.

Sullivan struggled to keep up with demand, and seven pizzas later everyone was enjoying one of his campfire grilled creations.

No one noticed that Sullivan himself hadn't eaten a slice, and after finishing cooking took himself off to his tent, leaving his classmates to party the night away.

He awoke the next morning to find everyone else lying scattered around on the open ground. He carefully checked each one individually, then smiled to himself. All dead. Tabasco? Really? Idiots. That'll teach them for not inviting him on their camping trip.


(yes, the third one was poison. Bit of a give away if I told you that at the start though)