Spy School: The Rise of Gama

Chapter 22: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

"Can we stop for a minute?" Nico calls up to the front of the group. The students have been making their way slowly through rain forest with Matias in the lead.

"We need to push a little farther ahead before stopping." Matias calls back over his shoulder, pushing some plants to the side to create a path for everyone else to follow.

"Let me rephrase that, we need to stop now." Nico shoots back, irritation clear in his voice.

The group comes to a stop and Nico helps Lyndley sit down. Adela and Razor both set down the packs they are carrying. The hum and chirp of the insects is seemingly louder now than it was in the previous area. The squawking of the birds, groaning of the trees, and the rustle of the leaves and foliage keep all the students on edge.

"You can take a five minute break. We need to cover another mile or so before dark if we want to reach civilization by tomorrow night." Matias says as he looks around. "Does anyone have any new injuries? Scratches, bug bites, anything of the kind?"

Everyone looks down at themselves to examine for any new marks. Luckily no one finds anything worth reporting.

Once Matias is sure that all the students have given the sign that they're okay, he continues. "We'll set up camp for the night the next time we break."

The group sits in silence, letting the sounds of the rainforest continue on around them. If it wasn't for the fact that they were stuck here after a plane crash with all their hope of survival placed on Matias, the scenery would have been considered pretty. The forest around the school is nothing compared to this one with it's bright plants and vibrant flowers.

Adela is the first to break the silence. "Hey Matias, are you sure you know where you're leading us? Everything around here looks the same."

"Shouldn't we be coming across the remainder of the plane soon, seeing as we're heading in the same direction it was traveling when it went down?" Liz asks curiously.

"That's only assuming it didn't veer too far off course when it was hit." Ahara answers.

Matias stands up, "That's enough chatter, break time is over. Let's get moving again."

Lyndley stands up and grimaces in pain, shifting all of her weight to her good leg while keeping her broken leg as still as possible. "I can't keep going at this pace."

"We don't really have a choice." Nico says grimly as he helps Lyndley onto his back. "Lead the way, Matias."

An hour of hacking through the forest later, Matias allows everyone to break for the night. The sky is beginning to darken, leaving little daylight left to make shelter by. A few of the students do their best to gather dry wood for a fire, a challenge in the rain forest, while others use the two rolled up parachutes brought from earlier to create a shelter.

Matias looks over the shelter and fire pit with a raised eyebrow. "You haven't had much wilderness training, have you."

"We went through basics but it was more for the deciduous forests of the United States, not this tropical, humid mess." Adela mutters.

"Some of that should be applicable to this. A fire pit is a fire pit no matter where you are. What is this thing?" Matias kneels down next to the pit and begins to rearrange the rocks. He then works on rearranging the sticks into neat rows with multiple layers stacked on top of each other.

Adela crosses her arms. "You've been looking down on all of us since we hit the ground. Back off, we're all doing the best with what we've got."

"The moment you all left the school grounds you became my responsibility. It is up to me to get you all back home alive. Being stuck in the Amazon forest with people who can't even make a decent fire pit makes that rather challenging." He shoots back at her.