Alice said, “Don’t you mean me?” Nick looked confused. “You mean he’ll prove me wrong. It was me who objected, but what, you think because I’m a girl, my point of view doesn’t matter? It has to be about who’s the most important boy in the group, is that what you’re saying?”

“No, I… That’s not what I meant. I—”

“Good. Because I don’t know Tom that well, but I know he couldn’t care less about any of that. All he’s doing is trying to get us all out of here alive.”

“So is Joel.”

“Well he’s not doing a very good job, is he?”

Nick looked ready to respond, but Tom heard movement and said, “They’re coming back.”

Chris almost fell at their feet in his eagerness to get back and report what they’d seen, but once there, he seemed uncertain what to say or maybe felt it was Joel’s privilege to do the talking.

Joel crouched down again and said, “It’s a go.” Tom grimaced at the way Joel was talking, like he was part of some elite military unit. “There are only six or seven guys left, just the guys who look after it, probably, you know, like the farmers. So me and Chris, we’ll put our backpacks on, walk into the camp from the other side, like we’ve come from the river.”

Chris added, “We’re gonna tell them our boat was damaged.”

“If they seem helpful, we’ll tell them there are more of us.”

Alice said, “And if they don’t?”

“We’ll make a run for it, head for the river.” Joel delivered the words with the relaxed air of someone who didn’t believe for one second that this might go wrong. To support what sounded like a ludicrous backup plan, he said, “These guys are farmers, laborers, not rebels or anything.”

He started to pull on his backpack and Chris followed suit as Alice said, “What, you’re going now?”

“Fortune favors the brave,” said Chris again, his eyes a little glazed with the prospect of what he clearly thought was going to be a triumph.

Joel nodded and handed the spear to Tom, saying, “Better leave this with you—don’t want them getting the wrong idea.”

Tom took it, even as he said, “I know we don’t agree on much, but I’m asking you not to do this. You’re putting yourself in danger, and the rest of us too. You saw the river. We can take the boats downstream.”

“Sometimes, Tom, you have to take a risk, and this is a risk worth taking.” He stood now. “Okay, Chris, let’s roll.”

And before anything else could be said, they strode off into the jungle.

CHAPTER 37