Girl on Fire

Chapter 18

We spent about half an hour looking for the others, and by that time we had been bitten on the face more times than we could count. I had a tear in the sleeve of my suit and Ivy's hood had pretty much ripped off after getting caught on a branch.

"Hey, you guys!" Ryker called. "Wasn't that totally awesome?"

"No, now get over here." I shouted, and he was next to us I'm a couple of seconds.

"Any idea where Tefia and Paul are?" I said.

"Yeah, they're back there. Hang on." he whizzed back out and was back five seconds later with a bedraggled looking Paul and Tefia.

"How did your fall go?" Paul said, adjusting his glasses that had smashed in one corner.

"Good, though our parachutes got caught on the canopy."

"Ha, I landed in a clearing, suckers!" Tefia said, looking triumphant.

"So... any idea what we need to do?" I said.

"In your pack, there should be instructions." Paul said. "At least, that's what Kasim said to me before I jumped."

I shrugged off the pack, which I had thankfully kept on my shoulders after cutting the parachute, and checked for anything else inside. I found a slip if paper, and I read what it said on there.

*****

INSTRUCTIONS FOR CANDIDATE

Candidates must get through the amazon rainforest with their group to the pick-up point that has been set. Each candidate will have in their pack the things needed for their survival, and by working together, they should be able to complete the mission.

*****

I put the slip down and fumbled further into the pack. I found a small book of what plants to eat in the Amazon.

"What did you guys get?" I said, looking at them in their packs.

"A compass." Ryker said.

"A star reading chart." Tefia said, lookin.g up at the thick canopy. "Not like that's going to be much use in here."

"A small pot." Paul said.

"A map and a book about the Amazon river." Ivy said.

I sighed, "Let's see the map."

Ivy started to pass it to me but Ryker snatched it away before I could get it.

"Let me look first." he said arrogantly. He stared at it for a couple of seconds and then passed it to me.

"We have to go north-west up to the river, and I reckon we can fish from there. The meeting site is further up the river."

"How did you get all of that so fast?" I said, studying the map slowly.

"Everything goes faster." he said with a grin, tapping his head, "it is part of the reason that I talk so fast. Sorry about that in advance, by the way."

I laughed, "It's fine, there's no reason to apologise! So... are we going to get started?"

"Let's go!" Ryker said, whizzing off at an impossible speed. When he realised we weren't following, he came back and frowned at us.

"Come ON!" he said impatiently, long off again. This time, though, Paul had grabbed his arm and he didn't go very far.

"OW!" he yelled. "What did I do? We just said that we were going to start!"

"Um, you're going to have to slow down if we are going to actually keep up with you." I explained patiently.

His shoulders dropped. "Do I really have to?" he said dejectedly. "Can't I just pull you all?"