Spectator

Chapter Nine: Now

"How are we supposed to get that?" Jae asked incredulously. The ejection had worked: there was their large box of supplies wrapped in a protective net. Except at some point the emergency parachute had gotten tangled up in the massive mess of trees, and there hadn't been enough power to bring the cache all the way to the forest floor. So now it was more than a hundred feet above their heads.

"How do we avoid Zakariah?" Kali muttered uncharitably to herself. "I don't know, but I already climbed one tree today, and my leg has been mutilated, if you haven't noticed."

"Oh please," Jae teased her with a far too contagious grin. "Mild sunburn at best."

"It's practically hanging off."

"Maybe a bandaid would suffice. An ice cube?"

"Enough flirting," Nari hissed at them. "Come on."

Zakariah had soot smeared across his cheeks, and his curly hair was rumpled past the point of unruly. It was almost satisfying to see him so unkempt, if Kali ignored the whole part about the shuttle crash and loss of lives. He had fashioned a stick into some sort of tapered spear, though Kali didn't think it as sturdy as he wanted it to be. The Tribes might be primitive, but their armaments were much better crafted. Zakariah's hand tightened on his makeshift weapon until he recognized the three stepping out of the undergrowth.

"There you are," he said. "It's about time. Did you forget about the cache?"

Trust Zakariah to be obnoxious even in the middle of a plight.

"We thought if we waited long enough, you would have retrieved it," Jae said airily. "Should we come back later? Or did you need encouragement? Go, you can do it."

"It's not as simple as climbing. Hello Kali. I see you're being carried by others. As usual."

"It's what I'm best at," Kali agreed. "What's not simple about climbing?"

"I see it," Nari said, already having completed a rotation around the base of the tree. "Are those spiders nesting up on that branch?"

"Yes. And a few have already dropped down, so be careful where you stand. The venomous type."

Kali squeezed Jae tighter, suddenly glad she wasn't standing. Jae grimaced, his eyes darting around as if the creepy crawlies were everywhere. "Well, this is great. I think it's your turn to carry me, Kali."

"Not a chance." One crawled along the bark. Brown, hairy. Poisonous? She couldn't remember, but Nari and Zakariah had studied far more than she did. She'd take their word for it.

"The survival cache we need just happens to fall into a tree marked with venomous spiders," Nari said drily, with a look at Kali and Jae.

"Still not a test," Jae argued.

"Test? What are you talking about?" Zakariah demanded.

"Nari. Convinced this is a final exam," Jae replied.

Zakariah frowned. "Knowing them - it probably is."

"It's not a test," Kali said. "Sella was not a test. Her death was not a big fake out."

"Sella's dead? Damn. She was a good lay, when she wasn't stressing about tests."

"Shut up, Zakariah." Kali snapped. "What are you doing out here alone anyway?"

"It's how I woke up. Alone. Jungle. Went looking for the cache. All I've seen so far are the barbarians."

"Hope you didn't strike up a conversation with them," Nari said.

"Of course not. I'm not an idiot."

Nari looked at Kali.

"What did you want me to do? They found me." Kali said.