Chapter 7

The Best Class

Chapter 7

The children started to wake up just as the sun appeared over the horizon. They found _Seth staring into the jungle, with the flare pistol still in one hand and the club in the other.

“Were you up all night?” asked __Patrick.

“I’m afraid I was,” said _Seth. “You all looked so tired that I couldn’t bring myself to wake anyone.”

“Well, you must be exhausted,” _Patrick continued.

“I am, but I figured I could get a good nap today. Did any of you hear the screams last night?”

Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads.

“What screams?” asked _Braxten. “Was one of us having a nightmare?”

“No, the screams came from the jungle,” said _Seth. I heard a crashing noise, like something was racing through the jungle. Then the screams. It was pretty scary.”

“Did they sound human?” asked _Doug, who looked like he wanted to cry.

“Not exactly,” said _Seth. “I’ve never heard anything like it before.”

“I’m sure glad we had the fire,” exclaimed _Orion.

“Speaking of the fire,” noted _Zuri. “We’d better get some more wood. _Seth kept it going all night and we’re just about out.”

“That means we have to go back into the jungle,” said _Doug, with a quiver in his voice.

“Not everyone,” _Alex stated. “Seth you’d better get some sleep. Doug, why don’t you stay here too and keep the fire going. The rest of us will get the wood.”

Doug smiled gratefully. Seth handed the flare pistol to _Talan and lay down in the raft. Almost immediately, he was asleep.

“We’d better get going,” said _Brooke. “After we get the wood, we’ve got to get some more coconuts for breakfast. Also, all we’ve had to drink since we came ashore is coconut milk. We’d better find some water.”

Still thinking about the screams that _Seth had told them about, the group began to move slowly into the jungle. _Talan led carrying the flare pistol and the children became very quiet. When they were about halfway to the stand of dead trees where they had gotten

wood before, _Talan suddenly stopped.

He pointed to the ground and whispered, “I think that’s blood.”

The children gathered around to look at the dark red stain that lay on the carpet of leaves at _Talan’s feet. Nobody spoke as they looked at the blood and then at each other. Finally, _Cheryl broke the silence. “Here’s some more.” _Cheryl was a little further into the jungle staring at another spot. “And look here,” she said. “Here’s more.”She started to follow the drops of blood.

“Wait,” whispered _Bryan. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to follow this trail. We don’t know who or what left that trail. We don’t want to follow it and catch up with a wounded tiger.”

The children fell into a discussion about following the trail. For several moments they talked. Finally, _Bridger said, “We have to follow it. If we don’t, we’ll never know what it came from. Besides, it might be a person. If it is, we have to try and help them.”

That settled the question. The children knew that they could not leave anyone that could be hurt. They began to follow the trail of blood. When they came to a muddy spot in the trail, they learned what they were following.

“It’s a pig,” said _Bridger. “I’ve seen tracks like that when I visited a farm. But what would a pig be doing in the jungle?”

“It’s possible. I’ve read about wild pigs that live in forests and jungles,” said _Tanner.

“But how did it get hurt?” wondered _Caitlun.

The children started following the trail again. As they went, the trail of blood got heavier. Only a hundred yards later, the trail sloped down. “This isn’t the pig,” said _Talan. “But here’s something we need even worse.”

There, wandering slowly through the jungle, was a small stream of water. It was only about a yard wide, and not very deep.

“Do you think it’s safe to drink?” asked _Orion.

“I don’t know,” answered _Alex. “But I do know that I’m pretty thirsty. It looks clean. I guess I’ll try it.”

_Alex kneeled down beside the water and scooped some up in his cupped hands. He drank it and then scooped up some more. “It tastes okay,” he said. Everyone joined him and drank their fill.

“Boy, I sure needed that,” said _Braxten.

“Me too,” agreed _Bryan. “Now at least we know that we won’t die of thirst.

“Should we keep following the trail?” aked _Zuri.

“We probably should,” said _Braxton. “Let’s just stick close together and _Talan, keep that flare gun ready.”

They splashed through the creek and again found the trail of blood. Just ten yards further, the trees thinned out into a small clearing. “Here it is,” said _Talan, who had again taken the lead. “Or at least what’s left of it.”

The torn pieces of pig were scattered about the clearing. A pool of blood lay next to the biggest part of the pig. It still had not completely dried. It was obvious that something had been eating on the carcass.

“Look here,” said _Troy nervously. “Here in the dirt. That’s either a tiger print or the biggest house cat in the world.”

“I think we’d better get out of here,” said _Jessica. “I don’t want that tiger coming back and finding us hanging around his dinner. It’s not like we were invited.”

“Yeah,” added _Cheryl. He might think we would make a good dessert.”

“Maybe we should take some of the meat,” suggested _Braxten.

“Yuck!” said _Zuri. “Not after that tiger had been chewing on it. It might be loaded with germs.”

“I’m not sure if it would still be good,” said _Tanner. “It hasn’t exactly been in a refrigerator or anything. If it was fresh, we could probably eat it.”

“That one’s fresh,” said _Cheryl pointing at something in the woods. The other children crowded around her. There standing by a tree was another pig. It didn’t seem as large as the dead pig must have been, and it was bleeding from several long slashes in its side. Under it was a widening pool of blood.

“What happened to it,” wondered _Caitlun.

“The tiger must have chased two pigs,” said _Tanner. “It wounded one but killed the other. He stopped to eat and the wounded one got away.”

“It didn’t get far,” said _Brooke. “The poor thing can barely stand.”

“You know what that is?” asked _Tanner. “That’s our breakfast.”

“You mean, you want to kill it? That’s horrible.”

“No, it’s not,” said _Jessica. “The poor thing is in pain and will die soon anyway. We need to put it out of its misery.”

“Besides,” added _Camron. “We are going to have to have something to eat besides coconuts.”

“What would we kill it with?” asked _Talan. “I think the flare gun is good for scaring things, but I don’t think it would kill it. Besides, we have to save the flares for signalling the rescue plane.”

“I guess we’ll just have to use a club,” said _Camron picking up a stick.

Several of the children found heavy sticks and began to walk slowly towards the pig. The pig didn’t seem to notice them. It just stood, now leaning against the tree, breathing noisily. Just when the children were about to rush at it, the pig seemed to give a shudder

and fell on its side.

“I think it’s dead,” said _Camron.

He was right. The animal had died from the savage tears on its body. It took the children almost an hour to figure out a way to carry the pig. They guessed that it weighed close to two hundred pounds. Finally, they found two large poles. Again, they used their

shoelaces. They tied the pig to the poles and drug it through the jungle back to the beach. They had to take turns, but the class was used to helping each other.

“Now what?” wondered _Patrick. “Does anyone know how to cut up a pig?”

“I saw my dad gut a deer once when he went hunting,” said _Bryan. “I guess I could do something like that. Hand me that knife from the raft.”

“Wait a minute, said _Zoey. “I don’t want to watch this.”

“Me either,” agreed _Tanner. “Killing it is one thing. Cutting it up is something else. We still need more firewood. You cut it up and we’ll go get the wood.”

When they got back with large armloads of wood the children found _Bryan and _Jessica, who had stayed behind to help, with blood all over their arms and splattered on their clothes. On the sand around them lay a messy pile of guts.

“Yuck,” cried Zoey. “What a mess.”

“Don’t worry,” said _Bryan. “It will wash off. We’ve got a good start on this, but we just realized we have another problem. How are we going to cook this? We don’t have any pans.”

Everyone stared at each other. No one had thought about that problem.

“Well, I’m not eating it raw,” said _Zoey. “It looks so gross. If I wasn’t so hungry, I wouldn’t eat it at all.”

“Pretend this pig is a pile of hot dogs, said _Patrick. “We’ll just cut the meat up, put it on sticks and hold it over the fire.”

The children agreed that would be the best way so they started on another trip back into the jungle for roasting sticks. When they got back, they found _Jessica and _Bryan had cut the meat into short strips. They started another fire and passed out the sharpened

sticks. Soon everyone was roasting pieces of pork over the fire.

They found that the meat tasted pretty good. It was greasy but filling. _Seth woke up from his nap and joined them. After eating, and washing their hands and faces in the ocean, everyone felt pretty good. They all hiked back into the jungle for another drink,

and carried some water back in the few bottles that they had taken from the plane.

The children then played in the ocean for a while. They splashed about, diving into the waves and racing them back to the shore. The beach was covered with pretty shells which the children collected and examined. The day was bright, they had had plenty to eat,

and the sun felt warm on their skin. Everyone was quite happy, until they noticed _Troy walking towards them. In his hands, was the beacon.

“We’ve got a problem,” _he said. “The red light is out on the beacon. It’s not transmitting anymore.”

“Then…then we’re stuck here?” whined Doug. He began to cry with long gasping sobs.