Chris nodded, even though he’d seen the scale of the jungle they were lost in. Tom noticed Chloe’s friend, Mila, taking in Joel’s words as if they were nothing but the gospel truth. Nick and Oscar, both friends of Joel’s anyway, looked equally convinced by his assurances, as did Sandeep.

There were others, though. George was on the football team, so Tom wasn’t sure why he’d been sitting at the back of the plane rather than with the rest of his teammates, and he actually smiled to himself at Joel’s comment about the fire. He had the face of someone who wasn’t buying Joel’s air of confidence. Kate and Emma from Tom’s English class glanced at each other in that telepathic way of theirs, looking equally skeptical.

Tom wasn’t sure why it mattered to him that they weren’t all lining up behind Joel, except that he sensed Joel wouldn’t get them out of this. And Tom still wasn’t convinced they needed a leader at all, but Alice or Shen would have gotten his vote.

“What about a flare? There must be a flare gun.” Tom tuned back in to the conversation. He wasn’t even sure who’d said it, though it might have been Nick.

But with impressive certainty, Barney said, “They’re generally kept in the forward galley, for obvious reasons. But even if we found a flare gun, we couldn’t afford to waste it out here.”

Nick shook his head, perplexed, and sounded impatient with Barney as he said, “How would it be a waste?”

Barney held his ground. “Chris has been up the hill, he’ll tell you—there’s absolutely nothing but jungle for as far as you can see in every direction. And we’ve been here all morning, but there hasn’t been any sign of another plane.”

Joel said, “He’s right. If we find the flare gun, we’ll save it until we know they’re close.” And there it was—Joel still believed if they waited long enough, a rescue party would come and find them.

Chris looked into his empty plastic dish and then at the fire, a sudden idea almost visible on his face.

“Was there any alcohol in the galley?”

Nick leaned forward and pointed at him with a smile. “Good call!”