I should have gone after them, too, but I couldn’t help wondering what else I could learn listening in on conversations when no one was looking for me. Jackie and David were discussing their favorite TV shows—Jackie’s, of course, was that werewolves in space show that was full of good-looking twentysomethings who were supposed to be teenagers—and David’s was some online show I’d never heard of. I was thinking Jackie was going to give David a black eye for suggesting her favorite was garbage, but she kept her fists holstered. Jaila and Jenna were discussing how much farther we could walk before nightfall and whether we’d actually make it to camp by the end of the third day. Jenna could do all the calculations in her head, like she was some kind of human calculator. It was amazing. And despite what Tino thought, I had faith that Jaila could get us back to camp on time, even if she was faking the faith she had in herself.
Truthfully, I didn’t give a shit when we returned to camp. I didn’t have anything there worth going back to, and nothing waiting for me at home when we finally left the Bend. I might have been hungry and filthy and exhausted, but this was the most fun I’d had since my uncle had dropped me off, and I wasn’t ready for it to be over.
I didn’t hear the yelling at first, but I saw Jaila’s head jerk up, and then I heard what sounded like Cody screaming in a panic. I followed Jenna and Jaila to where the others had all gathered around Georgia. She was bleeding from her head, and her right ankle was bent in a way ankles weren’t meant to bend.
“She was trying to climb down those rocks and she slipped and I think her foot’s broken and—”
Georgia was awake and crying about how she couldn’t play soccer with a broken ankle and what was she going to do now, and I couldn’t figure how she was worried about soccer when she was hurt and we were in the middle of nowhere.
David knelt beside her, stripped off his shirt, and pressed it to the cut on her head. He pulled the makeshift bandage back and poured a little water on it. “It’s not deep,” he said. “Just bleeding a lot.”
Everyone looked to Jaila for what to do, but she’d gone pale and backed away. Tino growled at how useless we all were and got down on his knees to examine Georgia’s ankle. He untied her boot and peeled off her sock. Her foot was already turning purple and swelling up.”
“Shouldn’t you leave the boot on?” Jackie asked. “So it acts like a splint or something?”
“Won’t do any good if her foot swells up inside and cuts off circulation,” Tino said.
“Here.” Jenna handed Tino a first-aid kit that I hadn’t known she had.
“Is it broken?” Cody’s face had gone paler than Georgia’s.
“How the hell should I know?” Tino said. “I’m a delinquent, not a doctor.” But he wrapped her ankle with a roll of gauze to immobilize it the best he could. “She’s not walking anywhere.”
“I could use the flare,” Jaila said.
We all turned to look at her. “What flare?” David asked. “You have a flare?”
Jaila nodded. “Doug gave it to me for emergencies. Told me to use it if anyone got hurt, and they’d come get us.”
“This is a big fucking emergency,” Cody said. Even with all of us crowding around Georgia, he’d stayed by her side, holding her hand.
“Shit,” David said. “I would have broken my leg yesterday if I knew we had a way out of this.”
Everyone was talking over each other, most telling Jaila to use the flare, and I doubted it was because they cared about Georgia.
“I don’t want to quit,” Georgia said.
Lucinda, who hadn’t given her opinion yet, said, “I don’t think we have a choice. If you can’t walk, we’ll have to carry you, and I don’t think we’d make it back on time if that were the case.”
Jaila was already digging around in her backpack. “That settles it, then.” She pulled out the clunky flare gun. “Sorry, Georgia.”
I knew why I liked being out in the woods, but I didn’t understand why Georgia was crying about going back to the Bend early. Hell, being hurt likely meant Doug would call her parents to come get her. We were all supposed to leave two days after we returned from our survival trip, but she’d get to leave even earlier. Her parents would probably charter a private plane or some rich-person shit to rescue their little girl if that’s what it took.
Jaila popped the cartridge into the gun, clicked it into place, raised it over her head, and pulled the trigger.
Nothing.
She pulled the trigger again.
Nothing.
“Shit.” Jaila pulled out the cartridge, replaced it with another, and tried again.
Tino swiped it from her and opened the compartment where the flare went in, trying to fix it, but it was no use.
“Figures Dipshit Doug would give us duds,” Jackie said.
“What’re we going to do?” Cody asked, his voice rising high with panic.
“We’ll have to make a stretcher,” Jenna said at the same time as Lucinda said, “We’ll carry her.”
We spent an hour pulling the frames of our packs apart and using the rope we had to strap them together to form a litter to carry Georgia. It wouldn’t have won any awards, but it was sturdy enough to hold her weight. Tino and Jackie got into an argument about who was going to have to carry her, but Lucinda and Cody volunteered almost immediately.
The mood of our clusterfuck had taken a nosedive. Jaila couldn’t be entirely certain we were walking in the right direction, Georgia was hurt, we were all hungry and thirsty and itching from not having a real shower, our emergency flare gun was useless, and we only had a day and a half to find the Bend. And then it started to rain.
“I bet Doug gave us bum flares on purpose,” Tino was saying. “Probably thought it’d teach us a lesson about relying on ourselves.”
“Twenty bucks says he still lives at home with his parents,” David said.
“I don’t know,” Sunday said. “He’s not so bad.” Even Jackie glared at her for saying that, so she added, “You know, for a middle-aged momma’s boy.”
Cody started struggling with his end of the litter after only an hour, so Sunday switched out with him. David offered to take Lucinda’s place, but she said she could keep going all day, and I believed her.
The rain made it even more difficult to find our footing, and it seemed like we were going nowhere fast.
“Someone please tell another story,” Georgia said.
David’s face brightened. “I can finish mine.”
“Hell no,” Jackie said. “I’m depressed enough as it is. But I got one.”
“JACKIE’S STORY”
by Justina Ireland
EVERYONE KNEW THAT there was nothing beyond the Alderus asteroid belt. It was the kind of thing kids learned in their first year at school: how to avoid space sickness and that beyond the Alderus asteroid belt was nothing but Void, an edge of space so dark that nothing could exist beyond that edge.
It was the perfect place for the Williamson brothers to hide out.
Sean Williamson piloted his beloved spacecraft through the rocks, swearing anytime one came too close. They’d nearly run out of fuel by the time the ship had reached the rock field, and even though he had a back-up tank of Ore to power the craft, there was no use for it. The goal was to drift through the rock field long enough to confuse the Leviathan ships chasing them. Using all his fuel now would only put the second half of the plan in danger.
Daniel Williamson, Sean’s younger brother, cleared his throat. “Maybe you should swing her around a little to the left—” A hollow boom echoed through the ship as another boulder bumped off the hull.