Chapter 5

The Best Class

Chapter 5

Again, the children heard the deep roar that came from the jungle. They started to back towards the raft.

“What was that?” wailed Doug, with terror in his voice.

“Be quiet,” _Tanner ordered. “Let’s keep together and get back to the raft.”

Before they were halfway back down the beach, a flash of color appeared in the jungle. A moment later, a huge tiger leaped from behind the trees. It stood as high as the tallest of the children and was several times longer. It looked at the children and began to move slowly towards them, growling as it came.

The children moved back slowly, trying to keep together. Suddenly, _Kaide turned from the group and raced for the raft. The others continued their slow backwards movement. When he was within twenty feet, the tiger crouched low, getting ready to spring. At the same moment _Braxten and _Alex stepped forward, screaming wildly and waving their arms. For a moment the tiger seemed startled. The other children followed _Braxten and _Alex, and for just a second the tiger backed away. Then once again he went into the low crouch and prepared to spring.

“Everybody, stand back.” It was _Kaide’s voice. Everyone turned to see why he was shouting. There he was, racing up the beach from the raft. In one hand he carried the flare pistol that he had gotten from the raft.

The children quickly moved aside, giving Kaide a clear shot at the tiger. With a growl, the tiger leaped toward Kaide. The flare gun made a loud bang and a glowing ball of fire leapt from the end of the pistol. The burning flare hit the tiger full in the face and bounced off, flying high overhead and disappearing into the jungle. The tiger seemed to twist in mid air and landed on its side. It howled in rage and pain and the children smelled the strange odor of burning fur. The tiger wiped its paws across its burned face trying to brush away the pain. The rubbing paws only made it hurt worse. With a howl, the tiger turned and rushed away into the jungle.

“Good shot!” shouted _Remi. Everyone closed in on _Kaide to congratulate him.

“I was just lucky,” confessed _Kaide. “I’ve never fired one of these in my life.”

“Well, it was still a good shot,” said _Jocelyn. “And it sure scared that tiger away.”

“So what do we do now?” asked _Zoey. “We don’t want to go into the jungle with a wounded tiger in there.”

“We may have to whether we want to or not,” said _Bridger pointing into the jungle. “It looks like we may have a problem.”

The children looked to where he was pointing. Pouring through the leaves of the jungle trees was smoke.

“It must be from the flare,” said _Troy. “It wouldn’t be right to just let it burn. We have to take care of this forest just like we do the woods at home.”

“You’re right,” agreed _Brooke. “Let’s go put it out. But we all need to stay close together in case we run into the tiger again.”

“I’ll bring the flare gun,” said _Kaide. “I’ve got it reloaded.”

Bravely, the children started off into the jungle. The trees were close enough together that they couldn’t see too far ahead, but not so close that they couldn’t walk through the jungle easily. They followed the smoke until they spotted the fire. The flare had fallen into a cluster of dead trees. While there was a lot of smoke, there was little fire. Using their hands, they scooped up dirt which they threw onto the fire.

When it was almost out, _Braxton shouted, “Wait. Before you put it out, let’s make some torches and take the fire back to the beach. If we have a big enough fire, that tiger won’t come around to bother us.”

The others agreed and when they left the site of the fire, each of them carried an armload of dry wood. _Braxton and _Patrick each carried a burning stick to start the wood on fire when they got to the beach. Back at the beach, with a fire going, they felt a little safer from the tiger.

“Well, we were starting off to explore this place,” said _Camron. I suppose we should continue.

“But not in the jungle,” said _Bryan. “We need to explore. Even if there is nobody else on this island, we are going to have to find food and fresh water.”

“_Bryan’s right,” said _Braxton. “The only things we’ve had to eat and drink was that little bit we got from the plane before we came ashore. Maybe half of us can follow the beach one way and the other half in the opposite direction. Who knows, maybe there is a city just around the point.”

“I doubt that” said _Zoey. “No tiger would be living this close to a city. But _Braxton and _Bryan are right. We need to look around. We’re going to get very hungry and thirsty if we don’t find food and water pretty quick.”

“I’ll go this direction,” said _Bridger.

“Okay,” said _Bryan. “I’ll go this direction. Let’s each walk for an hour and then turn back. That should give us an idea if anyone lives around here.”

Soon, two groups of students headed out from the raft in different directions walking along the sandy beach. _Seth and _Asher stayed with the fire to keep it going. The two groups soon disappeared from each other’s view as they rounded the points of land that jutted out into the ocean. As they moved, they kept a careful eye on the jungle.

Once around the point, Bryan’s group found only another stretch of beach that curved away to another point. At first, the group frolicked about, splashing in the waves and racing in the sand. But, as time passed by, they began to move more slowly, trudging slowly along the beach. As they approached the next point, _Rhylla said, “I hope when we get around this point we’ll find a luxury hotel and a McDonald’s.”

_Patrick was the first to agree. “I hope you’re right. I could certainly use a Big Mac or two.”

However, when they scrambled around the rocks that marked the end of the point, there was only another stretch of sandy beach. This one was much longer than the others and stretched out around a small bay.

“Well,” said _Orion. “No luxury hotel here. No McDonald’s either. In fact, it looks like no one lives here. Too bad, I’m getting hungry.”

“Me too” agreed several of the other students.

“At least we won’t starve,” said _Brooke, pointing into the jungle. “There’s dinner.”