Broken Trust

by Jill Williamson

  Much to my annoyance, Grace avoided me, staying permanently attached to either Arianna or Isabel all day. I guessed that she knew her mom had talked to Mr. S, so maybe she was embarrassed or something. Sometimes that girl drove me crazy.

  All that time that girl drove me crazy.

  Lukas and I got sick of MAO and went down to the lake and trying to skip rocks. It was really peaceful here compared to the noise of Los Angeles. The buzz of mosquitoes… the distant barking of sled dogs… the sound of our rocks bouncing over the still lake water. About the time I expected to be called to the lodge for dinner, the whistle blew.

  It was go time.

  REPORT NUMBER: 19

  REPORT TITLE: I Win Some New Socks

  SUBMITTED BY: Agent-in-Training Spencer Garmond

  LOCATION: Mission League training compound, Bear Paw Lake Lodge, Alaska, USA

  DATE AND TIME: Friday, August 3, 6:25 p.m.

  I ran to the campfire, my heart pounding in my chest. The timing had thrown me for a loop. I hadn’t expected to be sent out so late in the day. I pulled on my gloves and put on my sunglasses as I went. Lukas and I were the first students to arrive. Alcan sat perched on a chunk of firewood, staring into the low flames of the fire, a Vernors can tucked firmly between his bunny boots. Mr. S, Kerri, and Kimbal were standing behind him, talking to Bill.

  Little by little, the rest of the students crowded around the campfire. Kimbal started doing pat downs on the guys while Kerri checked over the girls. After years on the Pilot Point Police Force, Kimbal was far too good at this. He lifted a pocketknife and a pack of gum from Nick. He also collected: the deck of cards and a Leatherman multi-tool from Lukas, a tampon and a handful of hair ties from Isabel, a spool of dental floss from Drew, a pencil and notepad from Gabe, a penlight and watch from El McWilly, and six different cell phones.

  “You’re not going to take Spencer’s sunglasses?” Lukas asked.

  “He’s wearing them,” Kimbal said.

  “Nice try, Rodriguez,” I said.

  Kerri found some lip balm on Samantha and a bandana in her pocket. She held up the square of fabric. “Wear this on your head and you can keep it.”

  Sam, who already looked dressed for a ski trip, snatched the bandana from Kerri, and set about tying it over her winter hat.

  When Kimbal and Kerri had completed their searches, Mr. S whistled to get our attention.

  “It’s time,” he said, and we all circled around him. “Time to disengage from modern life. No vehicles, no electricity, no cell phones, no quick answers on the Internet, no technology, no gear, no knives, no food.” He looked from one of us to the next. “It’s only you, your wits, and your team.

  “This is private land. The training compound is just over 19,000 acres, which is a little over thirty square miles. It’s fenced in. You come to the fence, don’t try and cross it. Stay inside. The owners of this compound raise their own domestic deer, elk, moose, birds, and fish. The animals belong to the ranch and not the Alaska Game Commission. That makes it legal for you to hunt and fish without a license. So eat all you want.” He grinned. “We’ll be dropping you a minimum of five miles apart from each other with the exception of the two northern lake drops. Those will have a member from each team. You must locate your full team before returning to camp. The first team back wins. It’s that simple. Points will also be awarded for speed and what types of homemade tools you bring back.”

  “What about water?” Samantha asked.

  “There are several creeks that run through this compound,” Mr. S said. “Use your knowledge to discern whether the water is safe to drink. You know the drill.” He pointed to his wife, who was holding a bunch of green lanyards. “Kerri has a GPS locator for each of you. If you’re in trouble, activate it and someone will come for you. Keep in mind, you use this, you fail this certification and must take it again before you can continue on in several branches of Mission League service. At the same time, if you need help, I want you to use this. Your life and heath are far more important than this challenge. Is that understood?”

  We all stared. I was so not using that thing.

  “Is it?” Mr. S asked again.

  A chorus of, “Yes, sir,” rang out.

  “Good. I know some of you have more brawn than brains sometimes.” He looked at me and Lukas. “I don’t want you risking your health to win.”

  I raised my hand. “If someone calls for help, does the whole team fail or just that person?”

  “Just the person who called for help. But your team will lose points for each person who doesn’t return. This is a serious training, but we don’t want anyone dying out there. You get a stomachache, tough it out. You start puking and having terrible diarrhea to the point you can’t walk, call for help. You scratch your arm on a branch, tough it out. You break a bone, call for help. Understand?”

  Another chorus of, “Yes.”

  “Ultimately, this isn’t about team points. This is about survival. It’s about finding food and making shelter out of nothing. You have all the training you need, but to make it back as a team, you’re going to have to get creative and work together.”

  “Can we go already?” Nick asked, scowling.

  Mr. S chuckled. “Ah, yes. I can see that some of you are getting nervous. That’s good. It’s what I wanted. Because if you someday become stranded in the wilderness in an emergency situation, you will be nervous.”

  “But it’s past seven,” Nick said. “It’s going to get dark… darkish, soon.”

  “It’s the summer in Alaska,” Mr. S said. “You’ll be surprised how long you have daylight. But I’m stalling for a reason. I want you to be apprehensive. I want this to be hard. It’s supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to test you. The less time you have to build your shelter, the faster you have to work.”

  “Which is what might happen if this were real,” Arianna said.

  “That’s the idea. Haste is necessary in the wild. You guys are fortunate, though. Temperatures lately have been warm.”

  Warm? I snorted. Whatever.

  “Expect high sixties in the day, low forties at night. You’ve got about sixteen hours of daylight right now, so that will work in your favor. Forecast has predicted rain, though, so you’ll want to get that shelter up right away.”

  Ha. I smirked, glad I’d worn my rain jacket.

  “How many days will it take to get back?” Samantha asked.

  “That’s up to you and your team,” Mr. S said. “No team has ever come back in less than three days, so expect at least two nights out there.”

  “What’s the longest a team has been out?” Isabel asked.

  “Six nights,” Mr. S said.

  El McWilly’s eyes widened.

  This was going to be awesome. I wanted Alpha Team to make a record. To get back having spent only one night out there.

  “Any other questions?” Mr. S asked.

  We all glanced at each other. No one spoke. I wondered what everyone was thinking.

  “All right.” Mr. S clapped his hands. “To show that we’re not completely merciless, we’re giving each of you one survival aid. You’ll draw numbers to see who chooses first. This will also determine where you’ll be dropped.”

  Kerri had picked up a laundry basket. I craned my neck to try and see what was inside, but the contents were covered with what looked like a trash bag. I’d take that in a heartbeat.

  Kimbal walked around the campfire and everyone picked a number. I got ten. Somehow I doubted ten was first. I compared numbers with the rest of my team. Grace had one, Drew had three, Gabe seven, El McWilly eight. Great. I was going to get the bottom of the barrel.

  “Who has number one?” Mr. S asked.

  Grace stepped forward. “I do.”

  Kerri took the laundry basket over to Grace and held it between them.

  “ ‘Every day brings new choices,’ ” Mr. S said. “Choose wisely.”

  Grace reached into the basket and dug around.

 
“Go for the bow and arrows, Katniss!” I yelled.

  She grinned at me and held up a knife in a sheath.

  Several of us guys oohed.

  Grace carried it to us, and I gave her a fist bump. Mr. S called up number two, which happened to be Nick.

  I reached for the knife. “Can I see?”

  She handed it over. It was a fixed knife with about a four inch blade. It had a rubber grip and a nylon sheath. Nice.

  “Yes!” Lukas yelled, drawing my gaze to Nick, who was holding a tin of matches.

  Aw man. How come Grace hadn’t grabbed those?

  Next went Drew, who came back with an empty water bottle.

  “What else is in there?” I asked.

  “Some good stuff,” Drew said. “But water is important. Plus we can boil water in this.”

  True. We could. And we’d probably need to. “Good choice,” I said.

  Arianna went next. She looked into the basket, then up to Isabel. “If I get the First Aid kit, will you get the water purification tablets?”

  “There were water purification tablets?” I asked Drew.

  “Only six. They’ll run out, but the water bottle will last.”

  I supposed he had a point.

  Arianna took the first aid kit. Then Isabel grabbed the water purification tablets. Lukas chose a coil of snare wire. Gabe picked a spool of fishing line. El McWilly came back with that jumbo sized trash bag. Samantha claimed a roll of duct tape. Then it was my turn.

  “Number ten?” Mr. S grinned at me as I scuffed forward and peeked into the basket. Inside was a gallon Ziploc bag holding… I picked it up. “Socks?”

  Mr. S passed the empty laundry basket to his wife. “Don’t underestimate the value of a clean pair of socks, Agent Garmond. Now, numbers one through four with Bill. Numbers five and six with Chiklak. Seven and eight with Kimbal. And nine and ten with Alcan.”

  Oh goody. I gave my team a hopeful smile. “See you guys out there.”

  Alcan stood, picked up his Vernors can, and stretched, groaning like it hurt to do so. “Let’s get on out there, eh, Calvin and Hobbes?” he said to Samantha and me. Then he cackled. “Hoo, that’s a fit, that is. I like that.

  I didn’t. “The name’s Spencer,” I said. “And this is Samantha.”

  Alcan walked away. “Whatever you say, stuffed cat.”

  I made a face at Sam and we followed the crazy man. He led us to an old ATV. He climbed onto the foot pegs and, while standing, started it with the pull cord. The engine roared. Alcan revved it until the smell of gasoline about gagged me. The tank must have had a leak somewhere. Or maybe it was just poor ventilation. I smirked when I realized I was starting to think like Lukas.

  Alcan fell down onto the seat and scooted forward. “Well, get on, Calvin,” he said to Samantha.

  She climbed on behind him, reached for his waist, then stopped.

  Couldn’t blame her for that.

  Alcan craned his neck around and the wind blew his wispy beard up into the crook of his throat. “You too, boy.”

  Yeah, okay. I was still holding my Ziploc bag of fresh socks, so I stuffed them into the leg pocket of my BDUs. I needed my hands free. I climbed on behind Samantha and had barely settled onto the seat when Alcan pulled away. I grabbed the rack behind my seat and held tight. I’d never ridden an ATV before. It was bumpy. Would probably be fun if I was driving. I kept hold of the rack behind my seat with one hand and fisted the back of Samantha’s jacket to let her know I’d keep her from falling off. There was nothing to do but watch the spindly spruce and birch trees as we bobbed past.

  We drove on a rutted path and eventually entered the woods. I thought it had been bumpy before, but now we were moving so slowly, jerking into every crevice, that I could have walked faster. Well over a half hour later, Alcan finally stopped and twisted around, leaving the ATV idling.

  “This is the stop for number nine, whichever one of you that is.”

  “Me,” Samantha said.

  I got off so she could.

  “Well, good luck,” she said to me as I climbed back on.

  “Yeah, you too,” I said as the ATV pulled away, leaving Samantha standing alone in the middle of the forest, her roll of duct tape on her wrist like a bracelet. She was wearing a red coat. I remember thinking that was smart. Her team would be able to see her from far off. My sweatshirt was red. Maybe I’d move it to the outside layer.

  Grace had been wearing royal blue. PPH colors. I might be able to spot her from far away.

  I tried to pay attention to where we were going. If Samantha had been on my team, I might have followed the ATV tracks back to her, but she wasn’t, plus Alcan drove on and on for such a long time, turning this way and that, I lost track of the direction. At one point, a plane passed overhead. Who was on it? Grace or Drew? Or maybe Bill had already dropped the lake people and was on his way back.

  My tailbone was sore by the time Alcan finally downshifted and braked the ATV. He spat tobacco juice into the moss. “This is your stop, Hobbes.”

  I got off, surprised how far my boots sank into the moss. We were in a thick section of forest. The trees were closer together here than back where we’d left Samantha.

  “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Alcan said. Then he revved the gas and bobbed away.

  I stood watching him—considered following him—but I needed to find my team. The trees were too tall here to see the sun. I weighed my options. I could walk until I found a clearing where I could see the sun and maybe the distant mountains so I’d know which direction to walk. Or I could climb a tree to get a look. Both would tire me and make me thirsty. I sat down on the moss to think and listen. I didn’t hear any sounds of water. I heard a bird somewhere but didn’t have a clue how to tell where it was.

  I gave our call a try. “Hey, yo! Yo-yo-yo!”

  Nothing.

  I studied the trees around me, looking past the multiple trunks to try and see a clearing in the distance. No such luck. These trees were mostly spruce and, frankly, didn’t look all that easy to climb. There were some willow trees, but most of them were young and when I tried to climb one, my weight made it bow to the ground like a trebuchet.

  That settled it. I got up and started walking down the trail Alcan had brought me in on. I know he’d circled around a few times to confuse me, but it should at least lead me in the right the direction. I kept my eyes peeled for a clearing or a climbable tree. I wasn’t thirsty, but I still wanted to find some water, probably because my subconscious knew I didn’t have any, but I didn’t want to take the time to look right now. I spotted some miner’s lettuce and picked a handful of blossoms. These tasted like hairspray, but it was food and had a little moisture, so I moved my new socks to my pants pocket and started filling the Ziploc with lettuce. I figured it was better than nothing.

  I caught sight of a clearing ahead and relief washed through me. I would have to leave the path to reach it. I was standing there weighing my options when the buzz of a bush plane caught my attention.

  I jogged for the clearing then, hoping I might be able to see the plane. The clearing turned out to look closer than it was, which frustrated me. Just as I shot into the open area, my feet sank into cold liquid. I gasped and backed up until I was out of the water. A swamp stretched out before me, green and gray. Overhead, the sky was dim yet light at the same time. I guessed it was after nine p.m. In the distance, a yellow float plane ascended above the tree line, then banked my way.

  Bill’s Beaver.

  Mr. S had said he was going to pair up the plane drops, one from each team. So, that meant that Grace or Drew had been dropped over there with Nick or Arianna, and now the plane was headed back to the lodge.

  I could go back to the trail and try and get to the bridge on my own, or I could head that-a-way and see if I could find my teammate.

  The possibility of Grace won out, but I somehow needed to cross the swamp.

  I took in my surroundings. Spruce trees, long and naked, leaned low
and almost horizontal over the water. Some were dead. The few branches the trees bore hung off the bottom sides of the trunks as if they were made of metal and gravity was pulling them toward the earth. It reminded me of a pile of Pick-Up Sticks. Every once in a while, one tree would be standing up straight in the pile.

  My feet were wet already—Ooh, I had dry socks! Still, it would be dumb to wade across. Who knew how deep it went.

  I was hot from running so I took off my raincoat and tied it around my waist. I moved forward, keeping to the right of the swamp. I tried to memorize the way the tree line looked above the place I’d seen the plane appear, but soon everything looked the same. Talk about discouraging. All I could do was keep going.

  I wanted water, though I wasn’t thirsty. My brain was playing tricks on me. Or maybe it was the swamp. But even in the pure Alaskan air, swamp water was a bad choice to drink straight without Drew and his water bottle to boil some first. I pushed the irrational fear aside. I could get water later.

  The sound of a voice stopped me in my tracks. I cocked my ear toward the sky and held my breath.

  “Over here!” The soft voice was very far away. I scanned the forest until I saw the color red. It was Samantha. She was standing on the other side of the swamp.

  She yelled something I didn’t hear. I listened carefully.

  “Come over here!” she said. I could barely see what she was doing. Beckoning with her index finger, it looked like.

  Yeah, I don’t think so, girlie. I shook my head from side to side and pointed my thumb down. We’d learned a bunch of hand signals last year that were good for communicating at sea. I don’t know why Sam was even talking to me. We were on different teams. With Nick leading, I wouldn’t put it past him to have told his team to try and lead us into traps. Maybe Sam thought I’d be dumb enough to try and wade across the swamp.

  I ignored Sam and continued on. I quickly lost sight of her. On and on I went, never seeming to get any closer to anything. I eventually grew tired and figured I’d been out for close to two hours now. It never really got dark, so I kept moving, looking for the end of the swamp or Samantha or the lake or any water or food. I saw what I thought might be goosetongue, but wasn’t positive. I remembered it looked a lot like arrowgrass, which was poisonous, so I stuck to eating miner’s lettuce, which I was quickly getting sick of.