Barney looked at her more sympathetically than she deserved and said, “This is the jungle. We’re in the middle of it. And it’s true, we’ll be exposed to all those same things after we leave, absolutely, and it’s likely to be really difficult terrain, but at least we’ll be heading somewhere.”

“That’s true,” said Joel. He glanced up at the bonfire, the smoke still snaking upward but already looking less pronounced against the vast blue of the sky. “But I’m going to keep us together, so if we haven’t seen a plane by the end of this afternoon, we’ll all head out. Everyone should empty their backpacks of everything but the most essential things. And Barney, you and Shen should be in charge of the supplies, making sure we have everything that’s useful.”

They both looked at Tom, but he only smiled. They got up then and headed back to the plane, but none of the others seemed in any hurry to empty their backpacks, or to move at all.

CHAPTER 21

Tom followed Shen and Barney into the plane, but noticed they fell silent as he climbed the steps.

Barney said, “It’s okay, it’s Tom.”

“Good.” As Tom reached the top, Shen said, “Tom, once you’ve emptied the things you don’t need from your backpack, leave it here and we’ll load it up. I think it’s better if you have the flare guns and things like that.”

“Sure, I’ll do it now.”

Barney said, “I’m glad they’re all coming. The chances of staying alive out here aren’t good, and worse with Joel running the show.”

Tom nodded, but in truth, he had mixed feelings. Their party, as big as it had already become, had been a fairly cohesive unit and he figured they’d have a pretty good chance of making it out of the jungle in one piece. Now, with nearly double the number and Joel back in the mix, he was less confident.

“Joel’s still running the show.” He could see both of them ready to object. “It’s just not an argument worth having, and as long as we’re moving, what does it matter? Let him be the leader, but we follow our own plan.”

That seemed to please them, and Tom went off to empty some of the clothes out of his backpack. Alice came in and started doing the same with hers, in silence at first.

Then, without looking up at him, she said, “Do you think I went too far, with Chloe?”

“Not at all.” She looked up now and he added, “You were sticking up for someone.”

“Actually, I think some of that was guilt. I hardly noticed Barney before this—he was just some geeky little kid.”

“I think geeks are pretty cool nowadays.”