Danger Ahead

by R. A. Spratt

  ‘Do you want me to take these fingerprints or not?’ asked Friday.

  ‘Fine,’ sulked Jessica.

  Friday shook the loose powder off the jar, then peered closely at the surface. ‘There’s something here, hand me the brush,’ she said.

  Jessica held onto the brush petulantly. ‘Why, what are you going to do with it?’

  ‘I’m going to brush the powder,’ said Friday. ‘Isn’t that what it’s for?’

  Jessica reluctantly handed over the soft make-up brush, and Friday carefully wiped the excess powder away.

  ‘Aha!’ said Friday. ‘I’ve got one.’

  Friday opened her bag and took out her sticky tape. She gently laid the sticky tape across the fingerprint, then lifted it up.

  ‘Now I just need something black or at least dark to stick it to,’ said Friday. ‘Do you have a book with a dark cover?’

  ‘Yeah, right,’ said Jessica. ‘Like any of us brought books. We’re not nerds.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Friday, looking about the room for inspiration. ‘Did any of you sneak in a smartphone?’

  ‘Of course not,’ said Jessica. ‘That’s against the rules.’

  ‘Please,’ said Friday, rolling her eyes, ‘you can’t expect me to believe that.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Jessica, going over to her bed and lifting up the mattress.

  The latest, fanciest smartphone was lying underneath. It had a hot-pink diamanté case, but when Friday took the case off, the phone itself was black.

  ‘Perfect,’ said Friday. She lay the sticky tape across the black case and suddenly the fingerprint was visible. It wasn’t a fingerprint. It was a whole handprint.

  ‘Eww!’ said Jessica. ‘What’s wrong with them? Their fingerprints are tiny. Are you saying a midget stole my breakfast cereal?’

  ‘No, I would never say that, because it would be rude and insensitive to small people,’ said Friday. ‘These aren’t human fingerprints. They are the fingerprints of a possum.’

  ‘Huh?’ said Jessica.

  ‘You know, “huh” is never an adequate word to express yourself,’ said Friday. ‘Certainly not in the wide number of contexts in which you insist on using it.’

  ‘How can a possum come in here and open a jar?’ asked Jessica.

  ‘Well, if I were the possum,’ said Friday, ‘I would be wondering why ten humans were living in my tree. This is his natural habitat.’

  ‘But surely he can’t open a jar?’ said Jessica.

  ‘Why not?’ said Friday. ‘Possums don’t have opposable thumbs, but they have very manipulative digits. They can perform extraordinary acts of dexterity when climbing from tree to tree, so why not open a jar as well? If you want further proof, ask Gretchen about the droppings.’

  ‘What droppings?’ asked Jessica.

  ‘After eating such a healthy, paleo, gluten-free, probiotic, high-protein meal every night,’ said Friday, ‘I’m 100 per cent certain that the possum would have pooed here somewhere. Gretchen will know. There’s no doubt about it. The criminal mastermind behind this theft is a common possum.’

  Just then, the door swung open.

  ‘What’s she doing here?’ demanded Trea. She and the other Treehouse girls had returned from breakfast.

  ‘She broke in!’ lied Jessica. ‘She’s been stealing my breakfast cereal.’ She leapt back and pointed at Friday, literally putting as much distance between herself and the most reviled girl in year 7.

  ‘Pathetic,’ said Mirabella. ‘Did you want to see how the other half live?’

  ‘Quarter,’ corrected Friday. ‘A quarter of the year lives in this Treehouse. So if I were intrigued by your lifestyle, it would be because I wanted to see how the other quarter lives.’

  ‘Whatever,’ said Trea. ‘Just get out.’

  ‘Fine,’ said Friday, heading for the door. ‘But, Jessica, unless you want a raging case of possum flu, I wouldn’t eat the rest of that breakfast cereal you’ve been hiding from your roommates.’

  As Friday walked away, she could practically feel the glares of hatred boring into her back.

  Chapter 14

  Colour War

  ‘Good morning, maggots,’ yelled Geraldine. She was standing at the front of the dining room making a breakfast-time announcement.

  ‘What is her obsession with larval-stage houseflies?’ asked Friday.

  ‘I think she just enjoys the way the word rolls off the tongue,’ said Melanie.

  ‘You’ve been here at camp for three weeks, so now it’s time to test how much you’ve learned,’ announced Geraldine.

  ‘Please let it be a multiple-choice exam paper, please let it be a multiple-choice exam paper …’ muttered Patel under his breath as he crossed all his fingers and toes.

  ‘We are going to have a Colour War!’ declared Geraldine.

  The Treehouse and Tent teams cheered. The Hole team glowered and the Houseboaters openly groaned.

  ‘Survival is all about survival of the fittest …’ continued Geraldine.

  ‘That’s just not true,’ muttered Friday.

  ‘Did you have something to say, Barnes?’ yelled Geraldine.

  Friday tried to disappear into the floor using nothing but the power of her mind, but her attempts at telekinesis were in vain.

  ‘On your feet when I’m talking to you!’ bellowed Geraldine.

  Friday stood up, bracing herself for whatever verbal or even physical assault was coming.

  ‘Did you have something to say?’ demanded Geraldine.

  ‘Just that survival isn’t always about survival of the fittest,’ said Friday.

  ‘I thought you were a smartypants,’ said Geraldine. ‘Haven’t you ever heard of a scientist called Charles Darwin?’ The whole dining hall full of kids sniggered. Even the dopier Highcrest Academy students had heard of Darwin and his theory of evolution.

  ‘Yes, but sometimes group work and self-sacrifice is more important for survival,’ said Friday. ‘Ants, bees, baboons and elephants all work as communities to ensure their survival.’

  ‘Well, I’m sure if your team of losers are confronted by a herd of elephants during the Colour War, they will find that fact very comforting,’ said Geraldine.

  Again everyone chuckled. People instinctively enjoyed watching someone else being bullied. Largely because it’s not them.

  Friday sat down. ‘The benchmark for humour is so much lower for bullies,’ she mumbled.

  ‘What was that?’ snapped Geraldine.

  ‘I’m glad I packed my woollies,’ said Friday.

  ‘Woolly what?’ asked Geraldine.

  ‘Cardigans,’ said Friday. ‘To survive. It’s so important to stay warm.’

  Geraldine evidently decided she wasn’t winning this conversation so she turned back to the rest of the group, ignoring Friday.

  ‘Today you will all face several tests,’ said Geraldine. ‘At the end of the competition, the team with the highest score wins.’

  ‘What do we win?’ called out Ian.

  Geraldine smiled at him. He was her favourite. She liked handsome boys. Especially handsome athletic boys who cheated in games. They reminded Geraldine of her young self.

  ‘You win first choice of destination on the survival challenge,’ said Geraldine.

  ‘The what?’ muttered Mirabella.

  ‘We have a surprise for you,’ announced Geraldine. ‘The last three days of camp will be a survival challenge. You will hike out into the bush for three days with only minimal provisions so you can put into practice all the survival skills you’ve learned.’

  ‘But all we’ve learned is how to dig a latrine,’ said Patel.

  ‘That’s not true,’ said Melanie. ‘Friday can peel a potato.’

  ‘If we dig up any potatoes while we’re digging a latrine, that will be helpful,’ said Harvey.

  ‘Trust me, you want to pick where you’re going for the wilderness challenge,’ said Geraldine. ‘Some of the options are deeply unpleasant.’ She smirked at the Houseboa
t table as she said this.

  Chapter 15

  First Round

  Ten minutes later, all the students were gathered down by the riverbank.

  ‘The first challenge is lighting a fire,’ announced Geraldine. ‘Do any of you have matches or a lighter on you?’

  The students shook their heads.

  Friday held her hand up. ‘I’ve got both.’

  ‘Hand them over,’ said Geraldine.

  Sebastian stepped forward and took the lighter and matches from her. Friday noticed he had dark bags under his eyes. He looked like he hadn’t had any sleep. Perhaps being a camp counsellor was way more stressful than it seemed.

  ‘You must light a fire using only things you find in nature or what you have on you right now,’ continued Geraldine. ‘The team that finishes first will get three points, the team that comes second will get two points, the third one point, and the team that comes last –’ Geraldine grinned at the Houseboaters ‘– will get zero. Does everybody understand?’

  ‘Actually, could you explain the bit about …’ began Patel.

  ‘Good, then on your marks, get set, GO!’

  Students started running off in the bush in every direction.

  The Houseboaters instinctively turned to Friday.

  ‘What should we do?’ asked Wai-Yi.

  ‘Does anybody have a battery?’ asked Friday.

  The whole group shook their heads.

  Friday glanced about. ‘This area does not have the right geology for finding a sedimentary crypto-crystalline form of mineral quartz, so we’ve got no chance of finding naturally occurring flint. And it’s been drizzling for the last few days, but there haven’t been any lightning strikes so there is no hope of finding a smouldering log.’ Friday looked up at the sky, just as the sun came out from behind a bank of clouds. She turned to her team of nerds and misfits, and smiled. ‘We can do this.’

  ‘We can?’ asked Melanie. ‘Because you know we could always give up now and conserve our energy for the next challenge.’

  ‘No, we’ve got this,’ said Friday. ‘Patel, take your shirt off!’

  ‘What?’ cried Patel, clutching his chest protectively.

  ‘We need tinder,’ said Friday. ‘Tiny strands of highly flammable material. Normally in the wild you’d use bark or tree moss.’

  ‘That’s what the other teams are using,’ said Wai-Yi as she looked about.

  ‘But it’s been drizzling for days,’ said Friday. ‘That will all be damp. Whereas Patel’s shirt is entirely dry and is made of cotton, so it is highly flammable. We just need to tear it to shreds.’

  Wai-Yi and Susan grabbed Patel and started yanking off his shirt.

  ‘But that’s my favourite shirt!’ protested Patel.

  ‘It’s a plain grey t-shirt,’ said Susan. ‘We’ll buy you a new one when this is all over.’

  ‘I’ll get cold,’ argued Patel.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Friday. ‘Soon you’ll be able to warm yourself by our fire.’

  Friday handed Wai-Yi her penknife and the shirt was soon transformed into tiny strips of rags.

  ‘Now, who here has the thickest lens in their glasses?’ asked Friday.

  Susan, Wai-Yi, Harvey and Patel were all wearing glasses.

  ‘My right eye is a 3 and my left eye a 2.25,’ volunteered Wai-Yi.

  ‘I’m just a 2 in each eye,’ said Susan.

  ‘I’m a 3 in my left eye and an 8 in my right,’ confessed Harvey.

  ‘Wow!’ said Patel.

  ‘Doesn’t that make you legally blind?’ asked Melanie.

  ‘No, technically I would have to be 6/60 vision or be worse in my right eye as well,’ said Harvey.

  ‘We’re going to use the lens from your glasses to magnify the sun,’ said Friday.

  ‘We’ve got a spark!’ cried Ian.

  The Houseboaters looked over to see the Treehouse team standing around as Ian athletically worked a hand drill made from sticks.

  ‘Snap out of it, Friday!’ said Melanie. ‘You haven’t got time to ogle Ian now.’

  ‘I wasn’t ogling,’ said Friday.

  ‘Of course not,’ said Melanie. ‘I’m sure you were forensically observing his rippling muscles purely for scientific reasons.’

  Friday took Harvey’s glasses and held them between the sun and the tinder. Immediately a concentrated patch of light was focused in on the cloth.

  ‘You’d better go and find some twigs,’ said Friday. ‘Once we get a flame, we’ll need to make it into a fire.’

  ‘But everything is wet,’ said Melanie.

  ‘Look underneath fallen logs and search for mushrooms,’ said Friday.

  ‘We don’t have time to cook,’ argued Melanie.

  ‘Mushrooms can be flammable,’ explained Friday.

  ‘We’ve done it!’

  Friday looked up to see that the Hole team had got their fire going now. Only the Tent team was still working and they seemed to be making good progress.

  ‘Can I smell smoke?’ asked Harvey. He hadn’t gone off into the forest to search for twigs because without his glasses he was as blind as a bat.

  Friday looked down at her tinder. ‘It’s starting to smoke!’ she exclaimed.

  ‘Aren’t you meant to blow on it?’ asked Harvey.

  ‘Of course, increase oxygen supply,’ said Friday. ‘Good thinking.’ She bent over and gently blew on the smouldering cloth.

  Soon she had a flame. ‘I’ve got it!’ exclaimed Friday.

  ‘I can’t believe it worked,’ said Harvey.

  ‘Now we just need kindling,’ said Friday.

  ‘Here you go,’ said Susan.

  Friday looked up just as Susan dumped her kindling onto the newly lit flame. The fire was immediately quashed.

  ‘That’s not fungus,’ said Friday. ‘That’s moss.’

  ‘What’s the difference?’ asked Susan.

  ‘They are an entirely different genus for a start,’ said Friday. ‘But the principal practical difference in this situation is one is wet and one is dry. You picked the wet one.’

  ‘Whoops,’ said Susan.

  ‘We’ve got fire!’ yelled Tabitha from the Tent team.

  The Houseboaters groaned.

  ‘That’s zero points to your team, Barnes,’ said Geraldine gleefully.

  ‘Was that my fault?’ asked Susan.

  ‘Only completely,’ said Melanie, giving Susan’s shoulder a comforting pat.

  ‘Never mind,’ said Patel. ‘Maybe we’ll do better in the next challenge.’

  Friday smiled at him. The boy was clearly delusional but she had to admire his optimism.

  Chapter 16

  Melanie’s Secret

  The next challenge was to take place on the field, although it wasn’t really much of a field. Clearly no one had ever watered it. It was more of a dirt patch held together by grass tufts, but it was about the same size as a football field so energetic students who didn’t mind getting filthy were able to play ball sports there.

  As the students milled at the far end of the field waiting for Geraldine and the other counsellors, they muttered nervously amongst themselves.

  ‘What do you think she’ll have us doing now?’ asked Patel.

  ‘If she was sensible, she’d have us reseeding the grass and aerating the soil,’ said Friday. ‘It would be a physical challenge and it would improve the lawn no end.’

  ‘Well, she’s not going to do that, then,’ said Melanie.

  ‘Right, maggots,’ said Geraldine. ‘This should be fun.’ She was riding in the back of an old red ute, which pulled up alongside the group of students. Geraldine awkwardly hopped out. It’s hard enough for anybody to jump athletically out of the back of a ute, let alone an overweight middle-aged woman with a prosthetic leg. So she stumbled a bit. Luckily Ian was nearby to step forward and steady her.

  ‘Are you all right?’ asked Ian.

  ‘Yes, yes,’ said Geraldine. ‘Stupid leg. Doesn’t have enough give in it.
Can’t even use it for firewood, because they don’t make the things out of wood anymore.’

  The ute drove away towards the other end of the field.

  ‘So what’s the next challenge?’ asked Friday, eyeing the ute with suspicion.

  ‘It’s a good one,’ said Geraldine. ‘In the wild you need to be able to hunt.’

  Patel groaned. ‘She’s going to make us hunt wild pigs with our bare hands, I just know it!’

  ‘We’re not allowed to make you do real hunting anymore,’ said Geraldine, ‘because of those animal rights softies, but we can make you shoot arrows at timber cut-outs.’

  Geraldine pointed to the far end of the field where the counsellors were unloading four coloured cut-outs. ‘The first team to hit their target five times wins.’

  ‘But they’re three hundred metres away,’ protested Ian.

  ‘An accomplished marksman can hit a target twice that distance,’ said Geraldine.

  ‘But we’re not accomplished marksmen,’ said Ian.

  ‘Not yet,’ said Geraldine. ‘But you will be, if you’re here all day trying.’

  ‘Which team gets which target?’ asked Friday. The cut-outs were being set up now and she’d noticed that the four shapes were not the same.

  ‘The Treehouse gets the blue bear,’ began Geraldine, ‘the Tent gets the red deer, the Hole gets the yellow buffalo and the Houseboat gets the brown frog.’

  The other teams laughed as they saw this final shape being put up.

  ‘But it’s much smaller than the other three!’ protested Friday. ‘It must be a third of the surface area of the buffalo or the bear.’

  ‘Tough,’ said Geraldine.

  ‘And it’s a lot harder to see a brown frog on a dirt field than it is to see the other colours,’ said Friday.

  ‘Boohoo,’ continued Geraldine sarcastically.

  ‘Friday,’ whispered Melanie, tugging on her friend’s arm.

  ‘Not now,’ said Friday. ‘This isn’t fair …’

  ‘Friday, listen to me. Let it go!’ said Melanie. She was quite insistent now.

  This caught Friday’s attention. Her best friend rarely became animated about anything. ‘What is it?’ she asked.