‘I sincerely hope there will never be a next time. I have no desire to encounter a tiger, or any other wild animal, ever again,’ Dylan said.
An unexpected laugh escaped Billy, and soon the others were laughing too. Big belly laughs tinged with relief.
They were still laughing when the ground began to shake.
At first, Billy thought it was their laughter making them shake. Then he heard the crack behind them.
‘You guys…’ he said, stepping away from the mountain. Billy knew from growing up in California that, when an earthquake struck, you didn’t want to be anywhere near something that could fall on you.
Rocks started tumbling down the mountain, and one landed directly where the tiger had been.
‘It’s an earthquake!’ shouted Billy, pulling the others away. ‘Let’s get out of here!’ He knew they had to find somewhere to wait out the tremors.
There was another loud crack and, to Billy’s horror, he saw a cleft open in the mountain face. ‘We have to get away!’ he cried. ‘Back to the clearing!’
They tried to run through the forest, but the ground was rolling beneath them. It threw them with every step they took.
‘Slow down!’ cried Ling-Fei.
‘I’m worried about the trees!’ Billy gestured above them. ‘I don’t want one to fall on us.’
‘THERE!’ yelled Charlotte, pointing ahead of them. ‘There’s the clearing.’
In between tremors they made it to the clearing and collapsed as the ground continued to rumble beneath them.
Billy lost all sense of time.
Finally, the shaking subsided. Billy wasn’t sure if the earthquake had lasted minutes or hours.
The four lay still for a few minutes, not speaking, just breathing heavily.
The ground had stopped shaking, but Billy’s hands still trembled. He’d been in earthquakes before, but never anything like this. It had felt like the ground was going to open up and swallow them. He thought maybe it still might. Or that the mountain behind them would crash down on them at any moment. He felt far from home, far from anything familiar or safe.
He glanced over at Charlotte, Dylan and Ling-Fei, all still staring up at the sky in a dazed way. At least they were together.
‘Well,’ said Charlotte, sitting up and dusting some dirt off her dress. ‘We’re having quite a day, aren’t we?’
Billy snorted. ‘That’s one way of putting it.’ He felt surprisingly reassured by how unbothered Charlotte seemed to be. Maybe she hadn’t realized how much danger they had really been in. Maybe she was far more fearless than Billy. Or maybe she was putting on a brave face. Whatever it was, he was glad she was there.
Dylan rolled over. ‘I’m alive! We’re all alive!’
‘I’ve been in earthquakes in California, but I’ve never felt one like that before,’ said Billy. His hands had stopped trembling, but he still felt shaken. ‘I’ve never seen the ground jump like that.’
‘We should get back to camp,’ said Ling-Fei. ‘I want to make sure Old Gold is okay!’
‘But do you think it’s safe for us to head back?’ asked Dylan. He turned to Billy. ‘You are our resident earthquake expert. What do you think?’
‘I’m definitely not an expert, but I do know there are usually aftershocks.’
‘We don’t know for sure it was an earthquake,’ said Ling-Fei. ‘It might have been a landslide.’
‘What do you mean, we aren’t sure?’ sputtered Dylan. ‘Didn’t you see the actual ground moving?’
Ling-Fei rubbed her eyes. ‘Yes, but I also saw a tiger disappear.’
‘Either way, I agree with Ling-Fei,’ said Billy. ‘We should get back to camp.’
‘But we don’t have the dragon fruit!’ said Charlotte. ‘We can’t go back empty-handed!’
Billy raised his eyebrows in disbelief. ‘Forget the dragon fruit – we’re lucky we’re all going back in one piece.’ It had been a strange and terrifying morning, but they’d survived. Together.
Charlotte sighed. ‘Fine. Hopefully we won’t be the only ones the earthquake knocked off course.’ She paused and looked at them expectantly. ‘Get it? Knocked off course? Because it almost knocked us over?’
‘Too soon, Charlotte, too soon,’ said Dylan.
A Rational Explanation
Billy was expecting pandemonium when they got back to camp. But everything seemed… normal.
Not only were all the cabins still standing, but all the other groups were back, waiting expectantly around the tree stump. Expectantly. Not worriedly. Relaxed, and not at all like they might just have narrowly escaped being crushed by a falling boulder or tree.
No, all the others had returned, completely unharmed, and each group had their respective item.
Charlotte pulled up short when she saw that they were the only group to have failed the challenge.
‘This is my worst nightmare,’ she said, the blood draining from her face. ‘I can’t go out there. I never lose.’
‘We were just chased by a tiger and survived an earthquake, and this is your worst nightmare?’ asked Dylan.
‘We’re alive. And, if I’m not dead, I’m coming in first,’ said Charlotte. ‘The earthquake apparently didn’t slow down the others at all. We’re the only ones who let it impact us. I’ve never been so embarrassed.’ She covered her face with her hands.
‘I can think of at least twenty-three times that I’ve been more embarrassed,’ said Dylan. ‘This doesn’t even come close.’
‘You must do very embarrassing things all the time then,’ Charlotte retorted.
‘I think we should just be glad that everyone else looks like they’re okay,’ said Billy, feeling slightly wary. Something was off. How come everyone else seemed completely fine? If he hadn’t been with his friends, he might have thought he’d imagined everything that had happened in the forest.
‘Is Jeremy holding a bit of bamboo? Bamboo? That isn’t hard to find at all!’ Charlotte huffed.
‘I want to let them know we’re okay,’ said Ling-Fei. ‘They must be worried!’
‘They don’t… look very worried,’ said Dylan.
The four emerged from the forest, covered in dirt and with torn clothes, and empty-handed.
‘Aha! Our final group has returned,’ said Old Gold with a wide grin. Then his forehead creased in concern. ‘Why are you
