Danger Ahead

by R. A. Spratt

  ‘The ghost of Ghost Mountain!’ said Susan before dissolving into sobs and weeping on Drake’s chest. He seemed to be quite enjoying the situation.

  ‘Was it an eerie glowing green human shape?’ asked Friday.

  ‘Yes!’ said Drake. ‘How did you know?’

  ‘I’ve seen it too,’ said Friday.

  ‘And you didn’t think to mention it before now?’ asked Melanie.

  ‘Ghosts don’t exist,’ said Friday. ‘It was far more likely to be an optical hallucination caused by one of the many blows to the head I keep suffering.’

  ‘There’s something out there,’ said Melanie. ‘And it’s watching us.’

  ‘It’s true,’ said Drake. ‘Here …’ He held out a small torn rag. It glowed a strange green colour in the darkness. ‘I think this came from the ghost’s clothes.’

  ‘Ghosts don’t wear clothes,’ said Friday.

  ‘Of course they do,’ said Melanie. ‘Who ever heard of a naked ghost?’

  Friday sniffed the rag. ‘And this smells funny. This is a very strange ghost.’

  Chapter 19

  The Final Frontier

  ‘To graduate from Camp Courage, you must pass the final challenge,’ said Geraldine.

  ‘Please don’t let it be latrine digging, please don’t let it be latrine digging,’ muttered Patel under his breath.

  ‘And that challenge is …’ Geraldine paused dramatically so that she could relish the moment of dread. ‘A three-day wilderness hike to Ghost Mountain and back.’

  ‘How far away is Ghost Mountain?’ Melanie whispered to Friday.

  ‘About twenty kilometres,’ said Friday.

  ‘That’s not too bad,’ said Melanie. ‘Twenty kilometres in three days.’

  ‘No, twenty kilometres there, plus twenty kilometres back – and a lot of that is uphill, over rocks and crossing rivers and cliffs,’ said Friday.

  Melanie put her hand up.

  ‘What are you doing?’ whispered Friday.

  ‘I’m going to ask a question,’ said Melanie.

  ‘Why?’ asked Friday. ‘It won’t go well.’

  ‘What?’ Geraldine barked at Melanie.

  ‘What happens if we don’t pass the final challenge?’ asked Melanie.

  Geraldine grinned. ‘You have to spend another week at camp.’

  ‘What? Revising survival skills?’ asked Melanie.

  ‘Oh, no,’ said Geraldine. ‘Cleaning up after everyone else has gone. Someone has to fill in the latrines you’ve dug. Otherwise, how will I punish the next group to come here?’

  The students all started muttering amongst themselves.

  ‘You will all head off at dawn tomorrow,’ said Geraldine. ‘I have mapped out four different routes so that you can’t help one another’s group while you’re out there. The Houseboat team gets first pick of the routes as reward for winning the Colour War.’

  ‘Where will we sleep?’ asked Mirabella.

  ‘Under the stars,’ said Geraldine.

  Mirabella looked confused. ‘Is that the name of the hotel where we’ll be staying?’

  ‘Duh, we’ll be camping,’ said Trea Babcock.

  ‘Oh no, you won’t,’ said Geraldine. ‘When you camp, you have a tent. But you won’t have tents. You will have a blanket each, and three days’ worth of survival rations. If you want shelter, you will have to build it yourself. If you want a proper meal, you will have to find the food yourself.’

  ‘Are we allowed to call tradesmen to come and help?’ asked Daisy Jump.

  ‘No,’ said Geraldine. ‘You can’t call a tradesman to come and make a survival shelter for you.’

  ‘That’s not fair,’ said Daisy. ‘That’s what I’d do if I was really lost in the wilderness.’

  ‘I’m never going to be lost in the wilderness,’ said Trea Babcock. ‘I don’t plan on ever leaving the urban area again.’

  ‘What if you’re in a plane crash over the Amazon jungle?’ asked Melanie.

  ‘Daddy’s pilot has never had a crash,’ said Trea.

  ‘Enough!’ snapped Geraldine. ‘Go and get ready. You are leaving at 7 am tomorrow.’

  ‘Nooooooo!’ cried Melanie, leaping to her feet and lunging for Geraldine. Friday grabbed her by the waist before she could attack her. ‘Anything but an early morning. Please, please, I’ll do anything!’

  ‘You lot need to get tough,’ said Geraldine. ‘In three days’ time, you will be.’

  Chapter 20

  Surviving

  ‘Wake up, wake up, girls!’ yelled Sebastian. ‘It’s time to go.’

  Friday opened her eyes and looked at her alarm clock. ‘But it’s only 5 o’clock.’ She rolled over and glanced at the window. ‘And it’s dark outside.’

  ‘It’s Geraldine’s idea,’ explained Sebastian, calling through the door. ‘She says you need to learn night navigation, so you might as well start off with that.’

  Several minutes later, the bleary-eyed students gathered on the riverbank next to the jetty.

  ‘Okay, we’re all here,’ said Sebastian. ‘I’ve packed seven backpacks for you. Each contains three days’ worth of survival rations and blankets. You’re not allowed to take anything else.’

  Susan put up her hand. ‘What about clean underwear?’

  ‘You’re meant to wear the same underwear for three days,’ said Sebastian.

  Susan and Wai-Yi gasped.

  ‘That does not sound hygienic,’ said Patel.

  ‘This is meant to be a wilderness survival challenge,’ said Sebastian. ‘Nothing we are about to do in the next three days will be hygienic. Although, if you can figure out how to fashion a clean pair of underpants out of leaves and twigs, I suppose I can allow that. Come on, let’s go before Geraldine realises we’re still here and comes down to yell at us.’

  ‘I’ve got something to say!’ declared Melanie.

  Everyone turned to look at her. They hadn’t thought she was properly awake yet, because she had been standing very still with her eyes closed.

  ‘It’s not too late,’ said Melanie. ‘Normally I don’t approve of running, but if we start now we could make a run for it and try to escape.’

  ‘It’ll be fine,’ said Friday. ‘We’re just going to go walking for three days. It’s not a big deal. We were able to pick the easiest route. We’ve got food. It’ll be quite nice. There will be wildflowers, birds to listen to and no electric lighting, so as soon as it gets dark we can go to sleep.’

  ‘I guess,’ said Melanie begrudgingly.

  ‘Come on,’ said Ian. ‘If we start now, we can get the first few kilometres in before we wake up properly.’

  The group set out. They were all supposed to be learning how to navigate, so Patel was in charge of the map for the first stage, under Sebastian’s supervision.

  ‘It looks pretty simple,’ said Patel, staring closely at the map in the pale moonlight. ‘I think we just need to walk up the river for about five centimetres until we come to a bridge.’

  ‘Five kilometres,’ said Friday. ‘The map is a one to one thousand scale. Each centimetre represents a kilometre.’

  ‘Yes, well, you knew what I meant,’ said Patel. ‘This way.’ He turned and began walking.

  ‘I thought you said we had to walk north along the river?’ said Friday.

  ‘Yes,’ said Patel.

  ‘That way is south,’ said Friday.

  ‘Are you sure?’ asked Patel.

  ‘The sun has risen on the far side of the bank and has set on this side of the bank every day that we’ve been here, so yes,’ said Friday.

  ‘Okay,’ said Patel. ‘Then let’s go this way.’

  The group turned and started trudging upstream.

  ‘I’m going back to sleep,’ muttered Melanie.

  ‘You can’t, we have to start hiking,’ said Friday.

  ‘Hmmph, I can do both at the same time,’ said Melanie grumpily.

  It took two hours to reach the bridge. They would have arrived sooner,
but Patel had gotten lost while taking a toilet break and it took twenty minutes for the group to find him again. Fortunately, Friday had researched how to track an animal through the undergrowth, and it was particularly easy when that animal was crashing about in circles, knocking down branches and stumbling over rocks.

  ‘Are you sure this bridge is safe?’ asked Susan.

  It did look very rickety. It was just a footbridge. The supports were all rope, and the treads were timber slats. The slats looked like they had been there for a hundred years. And a hundred years in damp conditions with insects and microbes eating away at it had clearly had an effect.

  ‘There’s one way to find out,’ said Friday.

  ‘Send Patel across first and see if he falls through into the river?’ asked Ian.

  ‘Okay, there are two ways to find out,’ said Friday as she picked up a large stone, went over to the foot of the bridge and tossed the stone as far as she could onto the walkway.

  The rock landed with a thud onto a slat. The whole bridge wobbled but held firm.

  ‘There, you see,’ said Sebastian. ‘Perfectly fine.’

  Sebastian stepped onto the bridge and immediately his leg crashed through the first timber slat, his foot dangling down in the water. Ian and Harvey rushed forward to help him out.

  ‘Okay, some of the timbers may be a little weak,’ conceded Sebastian, ‘but if you hold onto the handrails with both hands, I’m sure you’ll be fine.’

  ‘Come on,’ said Ian, striding onto the bridge, ‘what’s the big deal? If we do fall in, we can all swim, can’t we?’ He walked confidently across, not even bothering to touch the handrails.

  ‘I can swim in a swimming pool when it’s heated, with lane markers and no rocks, currents or undertow,’ said Harvey. ‘I don’t fancy taking a dip in this river.’

  ‘Then you better hang on tight,’ said Friday. She followed after Ian. Although she did hold onto the handrails, just in case.

  Eventually the whole group got across with only minimal weeping from Patel, when he got a blister on his hand from clutching the handrail a little too enthusiastically.

  ‘Who’s going to take the map next?’ asked Sebastian.

  No one volunteered.

  ‘Okay, Harvey, it’s your turn,’ decided Sebastian.

  ‘But I’m as blind as a bat,’ said Harvey.

  ‘Actually, most bats have good vision,’ said Friday. ‘It would be better to say something like “My eyes are as blind as the eyes of a potato”.’

  ‘You’ve got potatoes on the brain from too much time peeling,’ said Melanie.

  ‘Harvey, just have your turn now, before we get too far from base camp,’ said Sebastian. ‘In case you get us lost.’

  Harvey took the map and held it so close to his face that it looked as if he was sniffing it, not reading it.

  Sebastian handed him the compass. ‘This will help.’

  Harvey glanced between the map and the compass several times before making a decision. ‘This way.’ He pointed out a path that led up to the mountain and the group started off again.

  They hadn’t been walking for long when it started to rain.

  ‘Shouldn’t we stop and build a shelter?’ asked Ian.

  ‘It’s just drizzle,’ said Sebastian. ‘We need to cover as much distance as we can while we have daylight.’

  ‘But isn’t staying dry one of the first principles of wilderness survival?’ asked Friday.

  ‘Oh yes, of course,’ said Sebastian, ‘but this is just a passing shower. We’ll dry off as we walk.’

  As it turned out, Sebastian was entirely wrong. They walked for three hours, and the rain just got heavier and heavier. Soon it was raining so hard they could barely see twenty metres in front of them. They couldn’t hear each other without yelling because the rain was beating down on the forest foliage so loudly. But worst of all, it got very slippery. The path they were following was a combination of dirt and rock. As the rain grew ever heavier, the dirt turned to mud and the rocks became slick. Melanie was the first to lose her footing. Luckily she fell backwards into Harvey and he caught her, otherwise she would have tumbled down the path.

  ‘We need to find shelter!’ Friday yelled at Sebastian.

  ‘What?’ asked Sebastian, cupping his hand to his ear.

  ‘We need to get out of the rain,’ said Friday. ‘Before someone gets hurt.’

  ‘I know,’ said Sebastian. ‘Up ahead there’s a place called Whale Rock Cave. If we make it there, we won’t have to build a shelter. Then we can start a fire and dry our clothes out.’

  ‘How much further is this cave?’ asked Ian. ‘It’s starting to get dangerous out here. This path is turning into a waterslide.’

  ‘It should take us about half an hour to get there, if we push hard,’ said Sebastian, checking the map.

  ‘Okay, let’s get going,’ said Ian. ‘Melanie, give me your bag. I’ll carry it for you.’

  ‘I’ll be okay,’ said Melanie.

  ‘I’m not offering to be kind,’ said Ian. ‘I’m offering to carry your bag so that I don’t have to carry you if the extra weight of your bag makes you slip and topple over.’

  Melanie handed over her bag and they all continued walking.

  Under unpleasant conditions, the smallest amount of time can seem to drag forever. But this is especially so when it actually does drag forever. They were still trudging uphill through torrential rain and mud sixty minutes later.

  ‘Where is this cave?’ called Friday.

  ‘We must be nearly there,’ said Sebastian.

  They kept walking for another twenty minutes. Sebastian was striding ahead at the front of the group, so it was hard to talk to him. Friday tried catching up with him, but her much-shorter legs couldn’t do it. In the end, she picked up a small rock and threw it at his backpack. Luckily she hit it first time.

  ‘Hey!’ cried Sebastian, spinning around. ‘Who did that?’

  ‘I did!’ Friday yelled over the sound of the rain. ‘Are we lost?’

  ‘Of course not,’ said Sebastian. ‘We just have to go up here a bit further.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ asked Friday.

  ‘In the wilderness, a group has to trust their leader,’ said Sebastian. ‘Chain of command is important for morale. We have to keep walking because I say so, now come on.’

  Friday sat down on a rock. The others started trudging after Sebastian. As Harvey passed her, she grabbed his sleeve.

  ‘Harvey, can you show me the map, please,’ said Friday.

  Harvey didn’t argue. He just handed it over. Friday studied it as the rest of the group kept walking.

  ‘Stop!’ cried Friday.

  They all halted. Several of them sat down where they were in the pouring rain.

  ‘We can’t stop moving!’ yelled Sebastian as he stomped back down the track towards Friday. ‘They’ll all get hypothermia if they don’t keep exercising until we get out of the rain.’

  ‘I understand the body’s response to extreme cold and exhaustion,’ said Friday. ‘I’m telling you to stop, because you’re going the wrong way.’

  ‘Friday, Sebastian is a professional wilderness survival instructor,’ said Ian. ‘I’m sure he knows the way to the cave. We don’t have time for your theatrics. We have to keep moving.’

  ‘But it’s right here on the map,’ said Friday. ‘We’ve been walking south-west at a gradient of thirty degrees for the last two hours. We’re going very slowly, so we’d be covering about four kilometres an hour. That puts us here.’

  Friday pointed to a spot on the map.

  ‘But the Whale Rock Cave is over here,’ continued Friday, pointing to another spot on the map. ‘We should have been heading south-east. The cave is four kilometres away, in that direction. We’ve been travelling on the wrong tangent.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ asked Ian.

  ‘Sebastian has been guiding us south-west,’ said Friday. ‘He’s been taking us in entirely the wrong direction.’

/>   Sebastian took the map from Friday and studied it. It was pouring with rain and there wasn’t much light under the forest canopy, but he appeared to turn pale. He looked up, glancing all around.

  ‘You’re looking for landmarks, aren’t you?’ said Friday.

  Sebastian ignored her.

  ‘There aren’t any,’ said Friday. ‘At least none we can see.’

  ‘Are you sure about this?’ asked Ian.

  ‘Yes,’ said Friday.

  ‘We’ve got no way of checking,’ said Ian. ‘We can’t even see the sun to use that as a guide.’

  Friday took the compass from Harvey. ‘Look, that way is due north. We’ve been walking from that direction, north-east.’ She pointed at the long path that stretched behind them. ‘So we’ve been walking south-west. It’s simple.’

  Ian turned to Sebastian. ‘How could you make a stuff-up like that? You’ve put our lives in danger.’

  ‘If we keep walking this way, I’m sure we’ll come to shelter,’ said Sebastian, looking back up the path.

  ‘Can you get us to that cave?’ Ian asked Friday.

  Friday looked at the map. ‘Yes, but it will take us at least an hour and a half to get there. Longer, if the weather doesn’t improve.’

  ‘Come on, then, we’d better get moving,’ said Ian. ‘Friday, you keep the map. You’re in charge of navigating now. No offence, Harvey.’

  ‘None taken,’ said Harvey. ‘I’m glad not to have the responsibility.’

  ‘Susan, Wai-Yi, I’ll carry your bags for you,’ said Harvey, ‘if you hold onto my hands and make sure I don’t get lost. I’m finding it harder and harder to see.’

  ‘Good idea,’ said Ian. ‘Come on, let’s go.’

  The group headed out, following Friday. Sebastian didn’t argue. He wanted to get out of the rain too.

  It was a horrible hour and a half. The weather did not let up. And they were all exhausted. Plus, their wet clothes had started to chafe, so they were uncomfortable in every possible way, and in every possible place.

  But they must have gained some fitness over the past four weeks of woodchopping and latrine digging, because somehow they were all able to keep trudging forward.