Still accepting OCs. Requirements are name, appearance and personality. Optional info is preferred gear/weapons and clothing/armor, relationships and whether you want them to die or not. You can tell me how to introduce or kill them or not. I'm just not doing any perfect or overpowered characters. I'm also up for plot suggestions and ideas if you have and advice. I know how to adapt this story to add in many things. Notify me of any grammar errors.

Chapter 8: Lessons And Trust

The main group was anxious. The gunshots and screeches had stopped, but everyone was still nervous. The rain wasn't helping either. They all waited for the slightest sign of the recon team.

Few were as anxious as Callie. She was a Canadian girl with brown hair that went to her waist and forest green eyes. Her left forearm was wrapped tightly with bandages up to her fingers, and her left leg had loose wrapping from the waist down. Mud was splattered across her bod, just like everyone else. Her parents would have given her hell back home for this look.

But she wasn't concerned about that right now. She was hoping, praying that Andon would come back to her. "Come on Andon, please tell me you're okay."

A short girl with dirty blonde hair, blue eyes and a chubby build walked up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Come on Callie. Their coming back, I promise," space said in a soft and sweet voice.

Callie didn't take her eyes off the trees in front of her. "How do you know that Kayla," she replied. Worry was evident in her voice.

Kayla just sighed and lowered her hand. "You don't always have to be so negative, you know," she said.

"I'm just being realistic," Callie replied. Kayla sighed again and shook her head.

Someone grabbed Kayla's shoulder. She spun around to come face-to-face with a small, skinny boy with messy brown hair and brown eyes. "Oh, Michael, it's just you," exclaimed Kayla, surprised. It was hard to see in the dark and rain, but a blush was spreading across her face.

"Hello," Michael replied. "Has anyone sighted the recon team yet?"

Kayla raised an eyebrow. "No. You should know that. Where have you been."

"Oh, I was relieving myself in the bushes."

"Oh."

A scream pierced the night. Heads whipped around to the source of the scream. Aurelia was scrabbling away from a cluster of bushes. "GET IT AWAY FROM ME! GET IT AWAY FROM ME!" She was screaming at the top of her lungs. Dylan was sitting not too far away from her and saw the tarantula on one of the leaves. An evil smile crept across his face. He grabbed the branch the leaf was on and heled it out, pointing it toward Aurelia and chasing her with it. Aurelia screamed and ran. "KEEP THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!"

Dylan chased her until a hand grabbed the back of his shirt. He dropped the branch and grabbed the hand only to be grabbed by the throat, lifted off the ground and come face-to-face with an emotionless Collin. "Don't do that," he slowly said, betraying no emotion in his voice. But if one looked closely enough they'd be able to see a light in his eyes that said, "listen to me or suffer." The choking Dylan nodded and was dropped, falling to his knees and wheezing for breath.

They waited for a few minutes before someone in the front shouted, "They're back!" Callie's spirits immediately lifted. She leaped up and began shoving her way to the front of the crowd, Kayla struggling to keep up with her.

Another person shouted, "They're injured! Someone help them!" Callie's response was to push everyone out of her way, despite the angry responses of those caught in her path.

When she reached the front the sight that greeted her made her breath stop. Bianca and Brittany were working together to support Lancer while Utopia was plodding right behind them. Caleb and Kaira were assisting Charles and trying to use strips of clothing to stop his bleeding. Lancer's chest was already wrapped up.

But Callie noticed something. There was no sign of Andon. "Where's Andon," she wondered. Her heart began racing. Her breathing became ragged. Her head swiveled, searching for the boy that she cared so much for.

Kayla finally caught up to her. "Few, you really must have been excited, eh?" She paused when she noticed the look on Callie's face. She looked at the recon team and noticed Andon's absence as well. She turned to Callie. "I'm sure he's fine," she tried to soothe, but it was to no avail.

"Kaira," Jacob yelled. "Lancer, Charles!" He ran up to Kaira first and skidded to a stop in front her. "Are you alright," he asked quickly.

Kaira seemed surprised at first, but she replied, "Yes, I'm fine. I'm not hurt. But Charles took a beating." She motioned to Charles, who's arm was wrapped around her.

Jacob, noticing the blood, immediately began inspecting him. "Are you okay? Please tell me you're going to live."

Charles raised his head to look at Jacob. "I'll live. It takes more than a raptor to kill me," he said with a smile. Jacob smiled back at his friend's faint humor.

Collin jugged up to Lancer. "Lancer, are you okay," he asked in a calm tone.

"He's alright. He can take care of himself. He's too amazing to be hurt that bad," Bianca cut in with a snarky voice while rubbing up against the auburn-haired boy.

Collin didn't even glance at her. "I didn't ask you," he calmly said. Bianca seemed offended. She was about to make some other comment on how amazing Lancer was when Brittany cut in.

"I don't think that you see Collin, but he's perfectly fine," she boasted with pride. "I mean, come on. He's got me by his side." Bianca seemed more offended by this comment.

"As if you could possibly be that important to him," she snapped. Collin rolled his eyes. He knew where this was headed.

"What do you mean? I saved his life," retorted Bianca.

"What are you talking about?"

"Without me he wouldn't have made it back."

"Hey, I did half the work!"

"Oh, please. I felt so much of his weight on me that it was obvious you weren't eve trying."

"That's not true!"

Collin was starting to get annoyed. The girls were so furious that it seemed like there was an aura of fury surrounding them both. He opened his mouth to say something when Utopia stepped in.

"Guys, you need to calm down," he said, stepping between the two ticked off chicks. "First off, I saved his life during that attack, and he returned the favor, so if anyone matters to him, it's me!

"Second off, the only reason I didn't help with carrying him is because I'm injured right now. You two are fine, so I don't want to hear you say anything.

"Thirdly, Lancer's not invincible. Even he has his limits. I mean look at him now! He's severely wounded. We need to keep him alive right now. If you're so obsessed with him that should be your top priority. Then you can go try to make love to him all you want."

Brittany and Bianca were so stunned that They started blushing in embarrassment and shut up. This was when Collin decided to jump back in. "Hey, speaking of Lancer, is he okay," he asked. The trio was immediately alarmed when they noticed that Lancer hadn't done anything yet. He was limp and his feet had left drag marks. "He must have passed out on the way back," Collin deduced. But a faint smirk drew across his face. "How's your god of love doing now, huh," he thought in the back of his mind. He shook his head. Luckily, no-one noticed it because they were busy worrying about Lancer. "Cut it out. I've already accepted it. Lancer's a chick magnet. But if it weren't for him I'd still have a girlfriend. Ah, fuck it! Not every girl wants him, right?"

But it sure seemed that way. When people heard about Lancer passing out from injury, almost every single girl began to grow nervous and either ask if he's alright or to see him. This made almost every guy grimace at Lancer as he hung between his two admirers. Even Collin suddenly had flashbacks of his past girlfriends as they caught a glimpse Lancer and suddenly became interested in him. It made him slightly scowl, but he took a deep breath and shrugged it off.

Callie stormed up to Caleb. Somehow, she felt a pull towards Lancer when she heard he was hurt, but she stopped herself right before she could rush up to him. "Must be hormones. I can't stop thinking about him whenever I see him or hear his name. He's just so hot and to see his sexy body torn up like that… stop it, stop it! Wow, no wonder Andon wasn't a big fan of him. Andon! Right!" She shook her head and turned to face Caleb. It helped that Lancer yelped in pain as when Collin suggested that he try something to wake Lancer up and twisted his nipples. Some of the girls gasped or shouted at Collin while others and all the boys laughed. Callie herself chuckled and thought, "At least we still have a bit of humor around here. Now to find Caleb."

She found him in the middle of a conversation with a few of his friends. "Caleb, where's Andon," she demanded. Caleb's head snapped in her direction. Something about him was off. As soon as he saw her he changed from calm and collected two a nervous wreck.

He could barely talk. "A-Andon? Oh, right, right, right. W-well you see, I-I-I, ummm, welll," he stuttered. "How am I going to tell Callie that Andon's dead," he wondered. "They had a thing going on between them."

"Well," Callie questioned again. "Where is he?" Caleb lowered his head. That was enough of an answer for Callie. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. She felt her heart practically stop. She could barely breath. Her mind was racing. "NO! No, no, NO! HE CAN'T BE DEAD! No, no, no, NO!" When she could finally breath her breath was quick and ragged. "NO! He can't be dead! I refuse to believe it! He's going to come running through the trees, and it's going to be as if nothing happened, and he's going to hug me and kiss me and. . ." She began swinging her head about, turning around and scanning the trees in search of the love of her life, but to no avail.

Kayla gently placed a hand on Callie's shoulder, but she shook it off. "No," Callie mumbled. "He can't be dead. He's not dead."

Kayla grew worried for her friend. She turned to Caleb. "What happened," she demanded. Callie stopped spinning. Caleb could barely form the words to tell her the events that happened in the jungle. He didn't need to. Charles took over from there.

"We were heading back when were jumped by the pack. Caleb was the first to be pinned down, but Andon and I helped him. We pulled out our flares and fired on the raptors. They kept their distance, but Andon, who was in the back of the group, tripped over a log. He fell and lost his flare. By the time we realized what had happened he was several yards away from us. The raptors noticed and had some of the pack distract us while the rest killed Andon." Kayla flinched at the word "Killed". She knew that Callie was going to have nightmare recovering from this.

Callie felt like her whole world was crumbling around her. The love of her life was dead, and he was never coming back. She couldn't help it: she let out a wail filled with pain and sadness. She was an absolute wreck. Tears poured down her face as she fell to her knees in the mud. Kayla placed a hand on her shoulder. This time Callie shuffled around and buried her face in Kayla's shirt. Kayla rested her head on Callie's and rubbed her back, comforting her friend as much as possible.

Michael. Couldn't help it. He stormed up to Caleb in a rare fury. He didn't normally get mad, but this was the rare case when he couldn't control himself. He grabbed Caleb by the shirt and yanked him forward. "YOU BASTARD," he shouted. Then he socked Caleb across the face. But Caleb kept calm. Barely. Others were about to pull Michael off, but Caleb held up his hand for them to stop. The confused crowd stood back and watched what happened next.

Michael continued his tantrum. "You swore you'd protect us! You swore you'd protect him! You said you'd make sure he got back alive! But what do you do instead? You lead him to his death!" Michael raised his fist for another blow, only to have it caught mid-swing and to have himself thrown into the mud. Michael slowly struggled to his hands and knees, sputtering mud everywhere.

Before he could do anything else a hand grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him to his feet. He looked up to see the face of Caleb staring him dead in the eye. There was a fire in Caleb's eyes that wasn't there before. The look they had demanded respect and seemed to make Michael freeze place. When he spoke, he used a voice that sent chills down the spines of all those that heard it. "I don't know how many bad things about me are going through your head right now, but one thing I do know is that you don't know how hard it is to be leader. I have to make the hardest decisions around here, ones that decide the fate of everyone here. I have been in charge of many things in my life, and even I don't know how I'm still sane.

"There are things I can't control, and many of those things are life changing factors. Andon was one of my best friends and I blame myself for his death just as much as you do. He saved my life and I couldn't return the favor. But we have to learn to accept these deaths. I am willing to put my life on the line to protect everyone here, but I'm not going to be able to save everyone here. Until you learn that lesson I don't want to hear a thing from you."

Michael didn't respond. He was put down and Joined Kayla and Callie. But he took a glance back at Caleb and hissed, "This isn't over," his voice filled with malice. Caleb just glared at him before turning to face the rest of the survivors.

Sasha, a girl with a stocky build, golden-brown hair and dark green eyes asked Caleb, "So, the mission was a failure?"

"No, Sasha," Caleb said. "The mission wasn't a failure."

"But we can't get to the ship," Sasha said, confused.

"I didn't say we had to take back the ship," Caleb replied. "I said that we were only going to get to the ship and observe it. I never said that we were going to fight the raptors for it." Sasha nodded in understanding.

"But what can we do now," Amy said. "We can't get back to the ship. Where are we going to live?"

"We live out in the wild," answered Caleb.

"What? Are you insane," protested Dylan. "You can't expect us to immediately adapt out here! We stand a better chance trying to fight the raptors for the ship!"

Jacob piped up. "You're crazy! If we fight the raptors they'll kill tons of us! We can learn to survive out here. Many people have learned to survive on their own, but we can work together to survive out here." Jacob had shut Dylan up that time.

"Thank you, Jacob," said Caleb. Jacob nodded back. "Now, as I was saying. . ."

"Wait, why should we listen to you?" He was interrupted by Kyle. "You got Andon killed. How many more of us are you going to sacrifice? How many more of our lives are you going to waste?" A chorus of agreement rose from the crowd, though not as many as before and much more uncertain.

"Not again," Caleb thought. "What would you have us do, then," he asked.

Kyle grinned at being in the spotlight. Holding his head high, he announced, "I would have us stick together at all times. No-one would leave this group. And I would keep everyone in line. I have friends that are capable of preventing any mutiny and inner conflict. I have the strength to keep everyone here safe." More people turned against Caleb. "Perfect," Kyle thought. "All I have to do is keep finding reasons to side with me and leadership is mine. This is my chance toto show my rivals just how strong I am."

The survivors began to call out against Caleb. "Kyle's right. We do need a new leader."

"I think we should promote Kyle."

"Yeah! Caleb is just going to get us killed."

"Caleb, just step down and let a real leader take charge."

"This isn't a class or a play Caleb. This is a life and death situation. You can't afford to screw up."

Jason was having none of it. "Have you all not taken some of Kyle's suggestions into consideration? He'd keep us all together. That means we'd have to stay near each other at all times. Otherwise he's no better than Caleb." The crowd began to quiet down. Some of them questioned where Jason was going with this. "While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, in our condition it isn't exactly a good thing, either."

"And how isn't it a good thing," challenged Jessica.

"In our condition, we couldn't possibly all travel that far together. We need scouts to search the surrounding area. Otherwise we won't know if there's food or water nearby, if there's a good place for camp, if there's nearby predators. We'll need to temporarily split up to gather resources and search the surrounding area. And even if we were all perfectly fine, we would still need someone to guard camp so nothing raids our food supplies." Jason let that sink in. He could clearly see the expressions on people's faces change from anger and mistrust to confusion and embarrassment.

Dylan spoke up again. "I know you're practically Caleb's advisor, but we don't need you to kiss his ass. Why don't we let our leader explain himself and talk about Kyle's plans." He received nods of support from the others.

Jason went quiet and looked to Caleb. "I have more reasons why we shouldn't listen to Kyle," he began. "As for 'keeping everybody in line, what do you think that means? It means that he'd probably beat anyone who challenges him into submission." When they heard that they all began to look at Kyle, who opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by Caleb. "I understand preventing mutiny, but I lead through trust, not fear. I'm pretty sure no-one wants a tyrant telling them what to do." More people began to side with Caleb. Kyle seemed a bit panicked, but he kept himself under control.

"Finally," Caleb continued. "about you getting everyone off the island; that's impossible." Suddenly the former students grew worried. Some gasped, a few whispered to one-another in fear and others were either to stunned to say anything or yelling at each-other or Caleb about how they could all make it off the island or if what Caleb said was true. "Now, listen. . ." Caleb couldn't even finish his sentence.

"What do you mean?"

"Of course we can all make it out!"

"It's not impossible! We'll make it, you'll see."

"Do you really think we won't make it?"

"Are all gonna die here."

"We are going to make it! You'll see!"

"I can't die here! I Wanna go home!"

Caleb could barely speak until a voice screamed, "QUIIEEEEET!" Everyone whipped toward Eli's direction in the back of the group. He was fuming and panting heavily. Eli hadn't spoken since his brother's death hours ago. "Let the guy speak! I know it's hard for you to believe the cold, hard truth, but you have to. We don't have a choice. I pity those of you that are so naïve that you truly think we-here all go-ho-hoing to gh-het off this island alive." He laughed at the last part.

"You know what, he's right." Joined in Jacob. Attention turned to him. "We're not all going to survive this island. But you know what? We should still try to get as many people off this island as possible."

"But so many of us died," shouted Callie, still weeping. She had stood up and listened to the whole argument. This actually confused people. Callie never spoke up unless a teacher told her to.

"Callie actually spoke up?"

"I guess Andon's death is getting to her."

"Are you okay, Callie," Jacob asked. He was growing concerned for the girl.

"What's it matter to you," she snapped.

Kayla wrapped her arm around her friend. "She doesn't want to talk to you right now."

Jacob just stood there. He paused for a moment before saying, "If she didn't want to talk to me she wouldn't have responded to what I said. And besides, there's a part of me that just wants to help anyone in my group, whether it be my family, friends, class or team. Now we're a group of survivors and lives are at stake, so naturally I'm concerned." Kayla lowered her head and stepped away from her. Walking up to her, Jacob said "Callie, what's wrong?"

The whites of Callie's eyes were red from crying. "I've lost everything," she shouted. "There's nothing left for me anymore! My parents abuse me, my relatives don't want anything to do with me, now my boyfriend's dead and I'm stuck on a dinosaur infested island! Is that enough of an answer for you?!" Everybody nearby stepped back from her, even Kayla and Michael.

Jacob opened his mouth to say something but stopped. He took a moment before saying, "Then what do you want to do about it?"

Callie looked Jacob in the eye and said, "What do you want me to do? There's no reason for me to live anymore. Why should I even try to make it off the island?" Kayla and Michael were shocked to hear Callie say such a thing. Was she really thinking what it sounded like she was thinking?

"NO," screamed Kayla.

"What? Callie, you can't be serious," shouted Michael.

"What am I going to live for now," Callie snapped at them. "There's nothing left for me."

"But you still have us," said Kayla.

"Yes," added Jacob. "Do you care for your friends?"

"Yes," answered Callie.

"How much?"

"They're like my sister and brother."

"Would you care if they died?"

"Yes, of course."

"Then do it for them."

"Do what for them?"

"Survive."

Callie tried to report but could think of nothing to say. She looked to her friends. "We still care about you," said Kayla. Michael nodded in agreement.

"And what would Andon want," continued Jacob. Callie thought for a moment.

"He'd want me to live a happy life," she answered.

"Exactly," said Jacob.

"But how can I live a happy life now," Callie asked.

"Move on," Jacob replied. Callie lowered her head and a worried look spread across her face. "I'm not telling you to forget about him," Jacob continued. "I'm just telling you to stop grieving so much. There are other people that care about you. If you don't live for you. . . live for them. And when you complete that goal find another one. There's always a reason to live."

When he was finished, Callie sat there speechless. "Could I really find a reason to live in this cruel world," she thought. "Is there really a reason any left for me to exist anymore?" Jacob's words also had an affect on others that had lost close friends and family that day. They all just needed a reason to live, whether it be for themselves or for others.

Caleb decided to change the topic. "Thank you for the morale booster," he said. "But we need to discuss things." He pulled his backpack off and motioned for Jason and Charles to help him take something out. "During our little adventure, we came across the dead guards," he said. "Utopia and Brittany killed the two raptors that were eating the corpses." The aforementioned two received compliments for their deeds. Brittany relished in the attention, but Utopia was nervous, not being used to standing in the spotlight. When the compliments died down Caleb continued. "We looted the guns and ammo off the bodies." When Caleb mentioned that almost everyone in the crowd rushed forward to grab a gun.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down, one at a time," yelled Charles. "You can all get one, but we need all to line up. Any of you that know how to use a gun, pass these around to the others and show them how to use them. Same goes for the tazers we found." Collin, Lancer, Jacob, Kaira and a few others stepped up to do just that.

"We should keep the safety on until we actually run into danger. We don't want anyone dying from an accidental discharge," suggested Lancer. Others agreed to this. They all knew that many people die from accidental gunshots all the time.

"Good. Now that we've got that settled, we should figure out where to go," called out Caleb.

Sasha stepped forward and asked, "Do you have a place in mind?"

Caleb put a hand on his chin. "I'm up for suggestions."

"Is this enough firepower to repel the raptors," Eli asked.

"I think so," answered Caleb. "Where are you going with this."

"Well," began Eli with a sadistic smile. "I was thinking, with all the guns and tazers you grabbed, along with all the weapons we had before, including the flares, maybe we could take back the ship, get some revenge, you know?" At the mention of 'take back the ship' voices immediately raised up against Eli's suggestion, saying "are you crazy" and other stuff like "stupid Eli", but at the mention 'get some revenge' a few voices supported him. Those guys were quickly shut up.

"Any other ideas," asked Caleb.

Aurelia piped up. "I saw a building on the way here.," she said.

"Really, where?" Everybody diverted their attention to Aurelia. She grew nervous under the stares, but mustered up the courage to ignore the stage-fright. "It was off in the distance, on the top of this ridge." Everyone's spirits lifted at this new information.

"Well, are we agreed on where we want to go," asked Caleb. "This is great! Maybe we can solve our resource problem. We can get food, water, maybe even medical supplies! We can probably defend it against the raptors if they attacked, make it our home. Wait, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. I have to see the place first."

Luckily for Caleb there were no objections to the idea of a building. "Well, Aurelia, lead the way."

Aurelia's eyes widened. "M-me?! B-but I couldn't possibly do that! I don't know what to do!"

"Then just show us where it is and I'll take the lead from there," suggested Caleb.

"Okay. What are we waiting for? Let's go find a new home!" Aurelia agreed. That was all it took for the entire group to stand up. Those that could supported the weak and the injured, and they were all off in the jungle in minutes. Their very fist journey had begun.