by C. G. Cooper
Roy took up the lead and ran us down the tunnel to the training area. Kennedy floated along behind us, although I bet he could have run with us if he wanted to.
When we got to the other end, Kennedy opened the steel door and led us to our usual training room. Someone had rearranged everything and stacked all the materials in organized groups along the walls. Gone were the debris and garbage we’d made. Now the entire room was clean and clutter free. I tried to guess what kind of training that would be good for, but I didn’t ask. Kennedy probably wouldn’t have answered anyway. He was funny like that.
I think the others were as unimpressed as me. While we were getting dressed that morning, we’d all taken turns guessing what they’d have for us.
“I bet there’s gonna be a maze,” Lily had said.
“Not a maze, a puzzle,” said Jasmine.
“No way. I bet they’re gonna have cool suits with some kind of gifted logos or something,” said Xander, totally serious. That made us all laugh, to think that the adults would dress us up like X-Men or something.
But none of those things appeared as we followed Kennedy further into the room.
“There will be five teams leaving in the morning for different points around the globe. You are one of two younger groups tasked with going out with our scouts. As I said earlier, you will not be alone. You will have an adult Destructor, Healer and Grower with you. They will keep you safe and you are to do exactly what they say. Is that understood?”
We all nodded as he kept walking toward the far end of the circular cavern.
“Good. Now, I’d like to introduce you to the scouts who will be leading your team’s expedition.”
It was then that I noticed three forms floating down from a ledge near the top of the cavern. I couldn’t make them out, but they were getting closer. Kennedy pointed to them.
“Rolf is a Destructor who specializes in defense. Consider him your captain. Agatha is a Grower who has a keen eye for edible plants and has a real knack for building tree houses. And finally, the Healer who will be accompanying you is…”
The larger form came into view and I shouted, “Wally!”
I’d met Wally Goodfriend earlier that summer while I was at camp. He was a mountain of a man AND a mountain man. He was huge, had the build of a lumberjack, and wore his hair and dark beard shaggy and long. But now I could see that he’d cleaned up a bit, even trimmed his beard. He waved to me as he settled to the ground.
“That is correct, Benjamin,” Kennedy said, luckily not sounding annoyed at my interruption. “Wally will be your Healer.”
We shook hands with the adults. Rolf had a kind of distinguished look, like he was better suited hanging out in ballroom parlors. His skinny frame made me think of the old Pink Panther cartoon. He nodded to us formally when we introduced ourselves.
Agatha had a friendly smile and smelled like cinnamon and cloves. Her graying light brown hair was frizzy and a little wild, but she greeted us with a warmth that reminded me of a nice aunt. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”
Wally shook everyone’s hand but gave me a giant bear hug when it was my turn.
“It’s good to see you, Benjamin.”
“Hi, Wally.”
“Yes, yes,” said Kennedy, clapping his hands to get our attention. Xander was gawking at Wally. “Now that we all know each other, I suppose you’d like to tell the youngsters where you’re going, Rolf?”
Rolf nodded. “I hope you’ve taken every advantage of your training, ladies and gentlemen, because tomorrow at sunrise we begin our journey to South America, and the jungles of the Amazon.”
Chapter 16
The Jungle Hunt
The trip out was almost identical to the one from America, except in reverse. Two helicopters to Rome and then a shiny private plane headed to South America. For the first couple hours us kids played on the Xbox that was connected to a big screen TV in front of the plane, right behind the cockpit. Even the twins took turns playing as we raced, battled and bowled through half the stack of games on the shelf.
During bathroom breaks we stocked up on soda and snacks. I wasn’t going to let my chance slip by again, so I decided to live it up while I could. Who knew what we would find when we finally landed in Brazil. We’d been given clothes that would be better for the jungles we were headed to, but not much gear other than that. The part of me that always needed to be prepared thought about whether there would be stuff waiting for us in Brazil. Probably. It would be crazy to walk into the Amazon rainforest without food, water and shelter.
“I wonder if we’ll see any jaguars,” said Xander as he smashed into my car on the television screen.
“Yeah, I hope we do,” said Roy, still trying to get the hang of every button on the controller. He’d lost every race, game and battle, but he never complained or quit.
“You think we’ll do anything cool or is this just a way to keep us out of everyone else’s hair?” Lily asked, taking 1st place in the race with a triumphant pump of her fist.
Before leaving, we’d talked about whether this was a real mission or not. It was just like adults to keep us busy, and safe, while they did the hard work. None of us wanted to be left out, and even Xander felt the burning need to help in whatever way we could. As we gathered our belongings and took one last look at our room, we made a pact that none of us would complain or act like normal ten-year-olds. To us this was a very real mission, and we meant to act the part.
“Wanna run it again?” Xander asked.
Roy shook his head. “I think we should get some rest. You heard what Rolf said, this might be the last comfortable place we sleep for a few days.”
As was becoming the norm, none of the rest of us said a word against Roy’s suggestion. I was glad that the others respected Roy’s role as leader. He was good at it, and I think it made the sting of being away from home easier for him.
I went back to my seat and put on the noise-canceling headphones and black eye mask the stewardess had left. This time I was going to at least try to get some sleep. I learned my lesson the last time: sleep when you can because you never know when your next chance is gonna be.
+++
The twelve-hour flight ended sooner than I’d expected. As we flew into Manaus, Brazil, all I could think about was how hot it must be outside. Before we landed, I’d spent some time looking at Rolf’s map. It wasn’t hard to see that Manaus was just south of the equator. When I asked, Rolf said it would be hot, but not too bad. “Just keep drinking water.”
He was right. After the customs officials checked our passports and said we could get off the plane, the heat didn’t seem too bad. My shirt was sticking to my back by the time we got to the terminal, but I could handle a little sweat.
To keep up appearances (we were supposed to be on a private school field trip to the Amazon rainforest), we checked into a small hotel not far from the airport. Backpacks filled with food, water, shelters and sleeping bags were waiting in our rooms. I only had a couple minutes to use the bathroom and take a quick look at my new pack before Rolf ushered us back out the door.
We took one of those small bus taxis out of the city. It didn’t take long before I could see the Amazon River. It was a blue sky day and there were groups of tanned people splashing in the water as we got closer to the beachy-looking area where we were headed. There was a public park right next to the water.
“You bring bathing suits, señor?” the driver asked Rolf.
“We did.”
I hadn’t brought a bathing suit, so either Rolf was lying or there was one I didn’t see in my back pack.
The driver let us out by an amphitheater with a stage in the middle. Rolf paid the man and the taxi sped off in search of another fare.
“If you’d like to get your feet wet, go ahead,” said Rolf, adjusting the straps on his back pack. The adults and Roy had large packs like ones you might mountaineer with. The smaller kids like me had day packs, which probably weighed no more than ten pounds.
“We’ll wait until it gets dark to fly to our next destination.”
I knew he didn’t mean flying in an airplane or helicopter. We needed the cover of darkness so we could use our gifts and follow Rolf’s GPS to wherever we needed to go.
I didn’t really want to go swimming, but my four friends did, and it didn’t take long before they convinced me to jump in with them. We splashed and laughed, acting like the ten-year-olds we were. At one point Roy started launching us off of his shoulders into deeper water. You should’ve seen the line of local kids who wanted to join in on the fun.
By the time darkness fell, we were mostly dry again and antsy to leave. The short break had been fun, but I wanted to get moving. Even though I was surrounded by Destructors and a Healer and Grower, it spooked me out thinking of going into the steamy jungle at night. Jasmine said that was when the animals came out.
“Okay then, anyone need me to help them?” Rolf asked as Agatha the Grower and huge Wally took up places next to him so he could carry them with his gift. The locals were gone and we were in a spot that people passing by couldn’t see in the moonless night.
“Benjamin taught us how to do it, Mr. Rolf,” said Roy. “I think we can manage.”
Rolf looked at Roy and then me to see if we were serious. “Very well, stay close. You don’t want to get lost in the jungle at night. There are all sorts of animals who would love to get their paws on you.” He didn’t say it like a joke. He said it like it was the truth and I believed him.
Rolf and the two others rose into the air and the five of us kids followed. It felt good to be weightless again. I got the sudden urge to bolt into the night, but I didn’t. Instead, we took up a loose formation as we flew into the air, the possibility of finding the mystic somewhere up ahead.
Chapter 17
Mutiny
For three days we walked under the canopy of the huge rainforest trees. The air was mostly muggy, leaving us with sweat-soaked clothes. The rainforest smelled like a greenhouse I’d visited on a school field trip a couple years before. I remembered my classmates making faces when the smell of warm soil, thick humid air and decaying plants hit their noses. To me it smelled like life, like where everything begins. Picking our way along the forest floor brought the same thoughts back in a whirlwind, but times ten. Literally it felt like the Earth was more alive there, humming with some kind of life force that I’d never experienced. Pretty cool but creepy at the same time.
Unlike normal people, when we got really tired, we flew. We never went up and over the trees because we never would have been able to see down through the lush green leaves that hid the forest floor for hundreds of miles in all directions. The other reason was that Rolf didn’t want us being seen.
At night, instead of pulling out tents and spending the time putting them together, Agatha used her Grower gift to make us these amazing shelters. She’d bend down and find a small plant or sometimes the root of a tree and tell it to shape itself in a new way, forming it into a large dome as her gift gave it the ability to grow unnaturally fast. The coolest was the night she built a treehouse high up in the air. She coated the ceiling with this blue glowing moss stuff. It would dim or get brighter whenever she silently asked it to. I told myself to remember that one for later.
Agatha seemed to know every plant we passed, and took the time to tell us which ones we should touch, which ones we could eat and even which ones could give us water if we needed it. I don’t think I saw her eat any of the food we brought. Instead she picked a leaf and chewed it as she walked or yanked out a root and sucked on it for an hour. I liked how she always thanked the plant when she disturbed them, kind of like an Indian hunter who prays over a deer he just killed.
Wally took care of our blistering feet and the occasional cut. Thanks to Agatha and her natural bug repellent, Wally didn’t have to heal too many bug bites. I was glad for that. My mom and dad call me the mosquito magnet.
By the second day everything looked the same. By the third I was ready to go back to Italy. Of the five kids, Roy was the only one who just kept trudging along. The rest of us kept our word and didn’t complain, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t roll our eyes at each other or flop down with exhaustion whenever we were allowed to take a break.
Halfway through the third day, Rolf stopped. I watched him as I gulped down the last of the water in my canteen. He wasn’t looking at his faithful GPS. He was reading something on his cell phone. One minute passed, and then two. Still Rolf was reading.
“Is everything all right?” Agatha asked, leaning on the walking stick she’d made early that morning from the roots of a walking palm that looked more like the stick holding up a teepee than a real plant.
Rolf held up a finger, his sign for silence. We waited. Finally he looked up at Agatha and said, “We need to go.”
“Back?”
Rolf nodded.
“But why?”
“There’s been an incident. We have to get back as soon as we can.”
“But the mystic,” said Lily. “What about her?”
“We can always come back later,” Rolf answered, sticking the phone back in his pocket.
“But we’ve already—” Jasmine started.
“We leave in five minutes,” Rolf said, his curt tone cutting off any debate. “Strap everything down because we’ll be flying out.”
Agatha looked at Wally, who shrugged, and then over at us kids. “Do what Rolf says. Let us have a minute to talk.”
The adults moved far enough away that we couldn’t hear them, but we could see Rolf motioning with his arms.
“What do you think happened?” Roy asked, stuffing a whole granola bar in his mouth.
“Who knows,” said Xander. “They never tell us anything.”
I agreed, but I didn’t speak. Better to see what everyone else thought first.
“Yeah, I’m tired of being treated like a kid,” Jasmine said.
“But we are kids,” Lily replied.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t help. Now they’ll probably just drag us back around the world and put us somewhere safe. I’m so sick of being safe!” Jasmine hissed.
Xander nodded. “You’re right. Why do we have to go? If this is so important, I think we should stay.”
My chest tightened at the thought of asking the adults for that. There was no way they’d let us. As far as we knew, the trip to Brazil really could’ve been their way of keeping us safe. What if there wasn’t even a chance of finding the mystic there?
“I’ll go talk to them,” Roy said.
My head whipped around. “But they won’t—”
“Xander’s right. We didn’t come all is way just to leave. We can take care of ourselves, right guys?”
Xander, Lily and Jasmine all nodded. I was the odd man out. It wasn’t time to be the chicken, so with more than a few nervous tingles, I nodded with them.
Roy patted me on the back and left to join the adults.
When he interrupted their conversation, it didn’t look good. Rolf’s arms waved more and his face turned red. That went on for a good couple minutes. Roy just stood there and took it, every once in a while opening his mouth to say something. I wished I could hear what they were saying.
After what seemed like ages, Rolf pointed at Roy, and then back at us. I took that as the sign that Roy had lost, that we were going home.
But when Roy turned, there was an ear-to-ear grin on his face. My stomach thunked.
“He did it,” whispered Lily.
Chapter 18
The Mystic
Rolf gave us stern instructions before the adults left. He handed us the map and said Roy was in charge. “Stick to the ground and don’t fly over the canopy. If you encounter anyone other than the mystic, lose them as quickly as you can.”
We all nodded and watched the adults go. To me it felt like the trees were hanging lower after they’d gone. It was like the forest knew we were just kids and now felt the need to lurch in closer.
I
shook the thought and joined Roy, who was looking at the crinkled plastic covered map. There were black X’s where Rolf had marked off where we’d been.
“Rolf said we should stick to this line,” Roy said, tracing his finger east along the stream we’d been following. “What do you think?”
I looked around and realized he was talking to me. “Uh, sure. Sounds good,” I said, trying to sound confident but feeling the exact opposite. I loved maps. To me they were like the story of Mother Earth, like a person’s DNA or fingerprint. Dad had taught me about ridge lines, fingers and draws (land navigation talk) on the rare chances we got to go camping. But now all those lessons floated away with the adults, leaving a scared kid who was supposed to be helping his friends.
“Okay. We’ll step off in five minutes,” announced Roy, folding up the map and stuffing it into his pocket.
I took the next five minutes to calm my nerves. It was stupid. All that power I had, plus what my companions had, and I was still scared. At the time, it didn’t make sense, like something was itching the back of my brain. It sent my nerves sizzling, making me have to concentrate just so I wouldn’t shake in front of the others.
Roy stood up five minutes later. I was glad to be walking again. Concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, avoiding a rotting log or a skittering bug was where my world began and ended. By the time I looked up again I didn’t know what time it was. I had no idea how long we’d been walking.
I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Anybody home?”
I turned in surprise. It was Lily.
“What?” I asked, almost tripping over my own feet.
“You’ve been zoned out since the adults left. Are you okay?”
What could I say? I didn’t want to sound like a wimp. “Yeah, just a little tired.”
I could feel her gaze as I kept walking, trying to act like everything was fine. But it wasn’t. Unfortunately, as soon as Lily had come to check on me, my nerves whipped back into a frenzy. And now I couldn’t re-distract myself. It got so bad that I did start shaking and my legs felt wobbly. I caught myself on a branch before I fell.