Survival of the Fittest, Part 6

Morning came too soon for Jack, and the rain came with it. Being the first to wake again, he climbed out of his tent, and took a look around. Interestingly, there was a car parked behind the truck. Sitting in the passenger seat was a man that looked mildly familiar. The man climbed out when he saw Jack getting out of his tent.

"Well, this isn't too much of a surprise Jack. I guess you picked up a lot from my class." Once the man started talking, Jack immediately knew who he was. This was clearly the TA from the wilderness survival class.

While the man might not have been terribly surprised by Jack's presence, Jack was certainly surprised by his. "What are you doing here?" Jack began. "There is almost no reason that I can think of for you to be here randomly. Why aren't you at camp? Where's the professor? And what is the deal with that plane crash?"

"Well..." the man paused, and walked over to the truck, leaning against the side. "You may have guessed by now, this was actually your final. You all jumped out of the plane, with gear to last a couple days, and your tents had tracking devices in them. Interestingly enough, in four years of administering this test, you are the only ones to successfully find your way back to civilization, though to be fair, we didn't really count on anybody finding a truck that worked. Also, I am the professor. The guy who stood up every week was my TA."

Jack walked over to a tree stump, and sat down. "Don't you think this is a little cruel? For an exam, this is a little over-the-top. What if somebody died?"

The professor paused for a moment as if in thought, then smiled. "That hasn't happened yet, and I feel fairly safe about that. After all, you people just went through a wilderness survival training class. If you guys had trouble lasting the woods for a week or two, then you really shouldn't be passing a class on wilderness survival, now should you?"

As Jack contemplated his next question, he noticed that Alli had woken up. She was still a little silent, so it was entirely possible that their visitor he had yet to notice that she was up. "Still, there is no way that the administration actually endorses this test. In fact, they probably don't even know about it, do they?"

"Do you honestly think that I would do something like this without some kind of higher up knowing about it? Do you really think I'm that dumb?"

Without warning, Alli's tent opened, and Alli came charging out, carrying her gun. She quickly swung it around, pointing it straight at the professor, who promptly dropped to the ground.

"Are you mad woman? Don't point that gun at me! If you're not careful, you'll kill someone!"

Alli looked at the man as he cowered on the ground, anger clearly visible in her eyes. She had every right to be angry; she had been dumped in the middle of nowhere, without warning, as part of a test for a class. "I don't think there's a jury on earth that would convict me after this fiasco of yours. You threw us in the middle of the jungle, and asked us to fend for ourselves for a week without warning. I'd be surprised if no one took a shot at you in the past some time."

"Look, look, just calm down, there's no need for violence here. Just get in the car, we'll go to the airport, and you can get home, get a shower, get some sleep, you'll feel better in the morning. I promise."

Jack got up from where he was sitting, and walked over to Alli. "Look, he's right, you know. We can't exactly get out of this country easily without him. So don't go blowing his brains out until we get back home."

Alli smiled and then started laughing. "I wasn't going to shoot him. I just wanted to scare him a little. I wanted him to feel a little bit of how we feel we right now."

The professor got back up, and started making his way back towards his car. "Wake up your last guy, and let's get out of here. I want you three to be on your way back home, by noon."

Jack went over and gave Jon's tent a shake. Jon came climbing out a few seconds later, and the three of them packed up their gear, throwing it in the trunk of the car.

The trip to the airport was uneventful, as was the flight home. When they got back, they all headed to their respective houses, to get cleaned up. After quick showers and changing clothes, they all met up in front of the administration building for their college. They were determined to make a change to the wilderness survival course. They were sure that they could get something to happen. But hours of conversation with administrator after administrator was futile. No one knew what was going on in that class, and no one believed them when they said that they had been thrown out of the plane with almost no equipment, and no way to get home. Finally, after all the administrators had gone home, they gave up hope. After a while, they resorted to simply telling the story to anyone who would listen. No matter how often they told the story, no one believed them. It seemed like a runaway ghost story you'd tell at a campfire, not anything that could possibly have happened in real life.

Survival of the Fittest, Part 5

Morning came again, and the rain with it, making that familiar sound on the tent wall. As Jack got out and looked around, he noticed the others were still asleep. Taking the opportunity, he grabbed the rifle and started to look for some prey. After an hour of fruitless searching, he headed back to camp. As he got there, the familiar sight of a pistol coming from the open door of Alli's tent greeted him.

"And good morning to you too, Alli."

She smiled as she climbed out of the tent. "Since we don't know how far it is to the next town, I think we should skip breakfast today, so we can stretch our supplies a bit longer."

"Yeah, that's not a bad plan. We'll do that today."

Jon started to climb out of his tent, and they all grabbed the gear and packed up. As they were loading it into the truck, Jack started to think. the distance and speed they were going at should put them back in the city they flew out of within another day of traveling, if this road led there. Assuming his sense of direction hadn't been too messed up from the jump and the days in the woods, he was sure it would be close, at least.

As they got back into the truck, they took the same places as last time. He started them moving and tried to maintain a good speed. Finally, the trees backed up and the road opened up, and he shifted up to fifth gear. Now they were making good time. He saw the light starting to fade, but he also saw the lights of the city ahead of him. He didn't want to slow down, didn't want to let up. He wanted to get there, now. They started to enter town, and the small houses at the outskirts were clearly much nicer then the village. These houses looked more like the houses back home, at least in this area. They started to look for an open area, an empty lot, someplace they could stay. Finally, they found a park. It was empty, so they pulled into the parking lot, put the cover on the truck, and pitched the tents.

Survival of the Fittest, Part 4

Rain came with the morning. The tone of the drops changed on the roof, as the tin roof made the sound more solid, more defined. Jack woke to the sound and looked around. Alli had already gotten up, but Jon still lay there. Jack decided to let him sleep in for a bit, and stepped out of the cabin. Alli was across the way, trying to get into one of the houses. As Jack walked across the open area, he looked around at the rest of the village. There were about twelve buildings in total, in two rows separated by a wide dirt road. In the gaps between the buildings, various undergrowth had taken root, making the village feel that much smaller, with the jungle encroaching on the village. All of the buildings looked mostly the same, with one exception at the end of the row. Each was roughly fifteen feet by 25 feet, built of jungle wood with corrugated tin roofs. The odd building out was taller then the rest, deeper, and wider. It looked to be a barn of some type, with a large double door occupying the bulk of the front wall.

As he reached the door Alli was struggling with, she turned and looked at him. "Good of you to wake up this morning. Can you help me with this door?"

"I'll see what I can do." Jack wandered around the building, finally finding a window he could see the door from. He could make out the braces on it, and it looked like the door was barred. But, the window was too small for him to get through. "Hey, Alli, come here. I can get you in the house so you can open the door."

She came around the corner, looking at him. "I already tried that. I can't reach the window. I'm not that tall."

He smiled. "You don't have to. I can, and I can get you up there. Assuming you don't have a problem with that."

She shrugged and walked up to where he was standing. He grabbed her, lifting her up to the window easily. She pulled herself in, while he helped keep her steady. Once she slipped the rest of the way in, he walked around to the front door. As he walked up to it, she pulled it open. "Welcome to my home, handsome stranger" she said in a fake southern accent. "Won't you come in and enjoy a nice glass of fresh squeezed lemonade?"

He laughed at her joke, and stepped through the now open door, looking around. This house was already empty, and had nothing of use in it. Even the beds were gone, leaving the house completely useless.

They checked the rest of the houses, searching each one for anything ever remotely useful. They didn't find much else, just a few more cans of food and a few more rounds of ammunition. But it was something. Finally, they got to the barn. It wasn't locked, and they fully expected it to be empty. But they got lucky. There was a truck in it. It was an old toyota pickup, probably from the 80s. It had what looked like a 50 gallon drum of fuel in the back, and a couple extra drums in the barn. There was also a toolbox in the back of the truck, which had some sockets, wrenches, screwdrivers, and a hammer, just the basics. Jack hopped into the truck, finding the keys in the ignition, and tried to start it up. No luck. Expecting the battery to be dead from age, he decided to try plan B.

"It won't start, but I think we can push start it. Let's go drag Jon out of bed."

Alli smiled and nodded. "Yeah, he shouldn't be sleeping right now anyway. See, the rain has almost cleared up."

They walked over to the cabin, and found Jon sitting up in bed. "I was just about to get up and find you guys. Find anything useful?"

"A bit more ammo and food. Also, a truck," said Alli.

"A truck, huh? Did you try and start it?"

"Yeah, but lets walk and talk," said Jack. Jon hopped out of bed, and followed them out the door. Jack continued "I tried to start it, but it didn't start. I'm not sure why, but my guess was the battery. It has to have been sitting here for a couple of years. I think we should try push starting it, and if that doesn't work, we'll try some other things."

"Sounds like a plan. If that doesn't work, I'll take a look at it and see what I can make out."

They pushed the truck out of the barn, and got it pointed down the road in the middle of the village.

"Alright, so who rides, who pushes?" asked Alli.

Jack looked at her. "Can you drive stick? Have you done a push start before?"

"Yes and no" she answered. "I hadn't even heard of push starting before today. How does it work?"

"Well, basically, you have a couple people push the car to get it rolling. Once it gets moving a bit, you let out the clutch and gas it, just like if you were starting at a light. If you do it right, the engine will catch and start, and you can recharge the battery. Do it wrong and the car jumps hard against the people pushing."

"Hmm" she answers. "I don't have the experience, and it has been a while since I've driven stick. Why don't you start, we'll push. I think that'll work."

Alli and Jon take up positions behind the truck, and Jack climbs in. "Ready?" he calls.

"Ready!" they answer, and start pushing. They get a bit of speed as the truck reaches the edge of the village, and Jack starts to let the clutch out. He feels the catch point, feels the engine resist, and punches the gas. The truck roars to life, dumping a little smoke and throwing up dirt as the wheels spin. Jack eases off and makes a turnaround in the field, then comes back to the barn. Leaving the truck idling, he puts on the parking brake and hops out.

"Let's grab the gear, and the two extra barrels of fuel, and try and get out of here. There is a tarp car cover in the barn, lets take that too. It'll give us a way to keep the gas drums in the back safe." They all scramble to grab the gear, weapons, and gas drums, loading up the truck, tying things in place, and preparing for the trip. Once it was all tied down, Jack hopped back in the drivers seat. Jon grabbed a spot in the back with the gear, and picked up the shotgun, while Alli hopped in the passenger seat. They started off along what was left of the road, making good time now, with minimal obstalces. They climbed over the couple of downed trees with the truck, only once stopping to clear an obstacle, which was a very large tree. As night approached, they debated trading spots and pushing on through the night. Jack tried the lights. When they didn't come on, the debate was settled, and they looked for a clearing to stay the night in. They found one right by the road, and set up camp for the night.

After making camp, they grabbed some food from the supplies, and put the cover on the truck. They talked for a while, and finally lay down for the night. As Jack lay down, he thought how things were looking up. They had fast transport, and hopefully this road led somewhere civilized, where they could contact home. The night sounds caught up to him, and he fell off to a deep, restful sleep.