Too Young (The Jewel Project #1)

Chapter 11.1 - Training

Chapter Eleven

Training

Sam paced around the campfire trying to make the buzzing inside his head stop. He didn't want to do this now, all he wanted was to sleep and forget all about that horrible day, but he couldn't. Not when he felt afraid that Snitch Gravel's men might burst into their camp and kill them in their sleep.

"I was sent here to be the leader," JT insisted for what seemed to be the thousandth time.

"Get over yourself, you're not," Kyle said annoyed, not raising his eyes of the two rifles he was loading.

Sam wouldn't have minded to hand the reins to JT, but he was new there, had no idea what was going on. Plus, he'd have to prove himself before Sam let him call the shots. I haven't proven myself either. At least the others had given him a vote of trust.

Steve on the other hand seemed glad JT wasn't in charge. He threw his companion a satisfied glance and returned to the sketch he and Jimmy were making.

Kay sat between Kyle and Jimmy, a map on the ground in front of her and was trying to retrace their way from the cliff and figure out where they were. It didn't seem to be going very well. She started scribbling on the map furiously, crossing out and almost ripping the paper altogether.

Kyle dropped his guns and grabbed her hand to stop her from destroying the map. He took the pencil, poked her in the nose with it and started drawing a few lines on the map. Kay watched him, frowning, and took the pencil back, continuing the work he had started, mumbling something that sounded to Sam like 'insufferable know-it-all'. It made Kyle smile and he returned to the rifles.

Sam started pacing again, his attention on Jerry. He was once again engrossed in a book, but this one had no plants in it. Jerry had started reading up on wounds and treatments hours ago and hadn't come out of his book since.

"Sam?" JT said and Sam wheeled around to face him.

"Enough!"

"Come on, Johnny, this is not the time to be your usual stubborn self," Steve said.

Sam frowned. "Johnny?"

"Yeah, you didn't think JT was his real name. It stands for Johnny Turner."

"He's your brother?" Sam asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," Johnny mumbled as though having Steve as a brother was the worst thing that had ever happened to him.

"Don't you find it a bit weird that this agency recruits entire families?" Tom asked. "Us, these two, Tina and Christine..."

"I find everything weird. We'll try to figure it out once we get back home. Now we need to make some sort of action plan."

"I'm not going to let you order me around­--" JT started, swelling with indignation, but Sam waved him away and he fell silent.

"You three." He looked at JT, Steve and Billy. "Do you know anything about other backup?"

Billy swallowed the chunk of sandwich he was chewing. "As far as I know, there are two missing members."

"Do you have any idea when they're coming or what they look like? Or if they're actual adults?"

Even if Steve and JT who were twenty-five and thirty raised the group's age average considerably, Sam still felt as if they were mostly children. Herrison was lucky he wasn't still with them. Though, if he were completely honest, Sam was more likely mad at himself. He'd been such a child, so naïve and inexperienced, treating everything like schoolwork.