AFTER SIX DAYS OF HIKING, a million bug bites, and too many blisters to mention, Dawn and the rest of the Out of the Wild Bear Pack follow Christian and Amber out of the rain forest and into a clearing. At the far end of the clearing are a couple of buildings and, beyond, a long gravel road.

Dawn recognizes these buildings. This is where Steve brought Dawn after she got off the plane, where Tanya strip-searched her and stole her phone and gave her the tarp. This is Out of the Wild HQ.

“Don’t get any ideas,” Christian says, watching the glint of recognition take hold on Dawn’s face. “We’re just here to resupply, nothing else.”

He’s lying, a little bit. As the Pack comes out of the woods, Steve emerges from one of the buildings and waves to Christian and Amber and unlocks a big sliding door, and inside Dawn can see piles of food and supplies stacked up like in a warehouse.

And shirts. Lots of colored Bear Pack shirts.

“Kind of a slacker week for this pack,” Christian says, picking up a red T-shirt from a pile and handing it to Evan. “Evan’s the only promotion, guys. Better luck next week.”

Evan snatches the red shirt from Christian’s hands. He peels off his orange shirt and mimes wiping his ass with it, standing there shirtless and skeleton skinny, whooping at Brandon like he’s just won the lottery.

“Suck it, Brando,” he crows. “Black Bear, what?”

Brandon shoots Evan the finger. “Get dressed, faggot,” he says. “Nobody wants to see that.”

As Christian says, there are no other promotions. Dawn remains a Bear Cub. Brandon’s still a Brown Bear, and he doesn’t look thrilled about it. Lucas and Brielle are still Black Bears, but they don’t seem to care.

The Polar Bears, though, are pissed.

Warden and Kyla stand in the back, whispering to each other and glaring at Christian and Amber. Dawn figures they probably have a good reason to be mad; she’s not sure about Warden, but Kyla’s been here for more than three months.

Christian only keeps me around because he likes looking at my ass, Kyla said. Dawn’s starting to think that might be true.

After the promotions (or lack thereof), the group resupplies. Christian and Amber hand out food and clean clothes to everyone, and then each member of the Pack gets fifteen minutes in the little bathroom inside headquarters to wash and brush his/her teeth and otherwise freshen up.

This is so nobody looks completely ratchet in the ensuing photographs, which Out of the Wild sends to every group member’s family and/or parole officer to prove that their precious baby/repeat offender is still alive and didn’t fall off a cliff yet.