Chapter 6 - Orienteering

Pavel snuck up the ladder and peeked over the edge of the top bunk, grinning evilly at Hikaru's sleeping face. He crawled over the edge and leant over his sleeping friend, moving down so their faces were inches apart. He took a deep breath.

"Good morning Hikaru! How did you sleep?!" he screamed.

"AAARGH!" the Japanese-American boy shrieked and sat up with such force that Pavel almost fell off the bunk. He looked around wildly and his eyes found Pavel. "Pasha, why would you do that? That's so mean?"

The Russian giggled and clambered down the ladder. It was worth it just to see Hikaru with his bedhead: hair sticking up in every direction. Pavel was quite an evil little child. He snickered as Hikaru dragged himself out of bed and fell down the ladder, landing heavily with a muffled curse.

"Breakfast is in fifteen minutes," Pavel said helpfully.

Hikaru stared. "I hate you so much."

"Lowe you too Hikaru," Pavel pouted. He sat on the edge of his bed and tied the laces to his joggers while Hikaru stumbled around as he tried to get dressed. Ayel was already down at the dining hall as his twin had collected him ten minutes ago.

When Hikaru was dressed (although not very well; his hair was a mess and his shirt collar stuck up) they went to the dining hall, arriving just as the doors opened. Tired-looking students milled around outside, shuffling into something that resembled a line.

Breakfast was sausages, hash browns and fried eggs. Pavel almost squealed in delight when he saw hash browns; he loved them with a passion. They got their food and sat with Scotty and Keenser again and Spock joined them a minute later, his plate mysteriously missing its sausage.

Hikaru was telling Scotty of his wake-up call. "So Pasha is screaming in my face asking me if I'm awake and I almost knock him off the top bunk. The idiot could have fallen and hurt himself."

"It's vorth it," Pavel sniggered. "I got to vatch him try and crawl from his bed and he fell to ze floor! You should hawe seen him!"

"Ach, tha' woulda bin a good show, aye?" Scotty chuckled, sipping his juice. "It woulda bin grand."

"He looked like a teeny little vorm." Pavel stabbed his sausage on the end of his fork and waggled it in the air to emphasise his point. Hikaru snorted into his food.

"I was not!" he said indignantly.

Jim and Bones sat on Scotty's other side, both looking a little tired. Scotty glared at them. "Oh, so ye finally turn up? Where the hell were ye?"

Bones spoke up, his gaze on Jim filled with venom as he stabbed his food. "This smart-ass decided to sneak out of the room at five in the morning and see if he could get to the girls' cabins. I knew that if he was caught our whole group would suffer because he's probably be sent home, so I followed him and did my best to keep him out of trouble. Naturally, he led me on a jolly good chase all around the Camp so we didn't know breakfast was out until we came this way."

Jim sighed. "It so wasn't worth getting outta bed at five. I get up at seven, so five is a stretch for me."

The banter went back and forth but Pavel ignored it and ate his food instead. He finished and wiped his face with his sleeve before putting his cutlery neatly on his plate. Normally he would be up for seconds, but the hash browns had run out so there really was no point.

"Here."

Pavel glanced to his left as Hikaru pushed over his plate. The Russian's eyes widened. "But Hikaru… you should eat your hash brown! It's yours!"

Hikaru grinned cheekily. "You'll need all the food you can get to be taller than me one day." They giggled and Pavel tucked into the not-so-warm hash brown, savouring the flavour and feeling so touched that Hikaru had given up the best part of his breakfast for him.

After breakfast they were given ten minutes to clean up and get their gear together for activities. For some groups this meant changing into old clothes for raft-building or canoeing. For Group 1 and 2 this meant putting on hats, sunglasses and joggers, filling up their water bottles and making sure they had snacks for morning tea. They had orienteering and that would take the whole morning until lunch, so they would be having morning tea on the go.

Pavel and Hikaru walked with Jim and Spock to the grassy expanse where they were to meet up with their group and be given an explanation of the task. The Russian was a little nervous at this. He remembered how bad their teamwork had been with the raft-building and hoped that there wouldn't be a scramble for dominance with this task. The past three had been a breeze compared to the first one and Pavel worried that Jim would go into dominance-mode. It was something the blonde boy would do, no doubt about it.

The four boys joined the others and waited for the girls, as they would be the last to arrive. When they deigned to show up, Pike cleared his throat and handed Jim and Khan a map each, a compass and a folded piece of paper.

"This one is a race," he told the fourteen children. "Both teams have a different route to follow and there are written clues that lead you on your way. The paper you boys have is the first clue and will lead you to the next." He clapped his hands together. "There's a prize at the end and the first team to bring it back here wins. Good luck!"

Group 2 immediately peeled away, heading wherever Khan told them to go. Group 1 huddled around the note as Jim read it out.

"Begin at the water hose and walk one-hundred paces south." He frowned and peered around. "Well, there's the hose." They crossed to the hose and Jim stared blankly at the compass. "How, um, how exactly do you…?"

"Keptain, let me," Pavel said without thinking. Jim looked at him in surprise and blushed.

"Uh, yeah, sure," he muttered awkwardly, handing the compass over. Pavel nestled it in his hand and turned it so the red hand was resting over the 'N'. He pointed east and moved off slowly, counting his steps under his breath. Jim stayed by his side and their counting moulded into one voice.

The group finished their one-hundred steps and had completely crossed the grassy field. Pavel stared at the metal box stuck on a round tree.

"Let's look for the second clue," Nyota exclaimed, strutting up to the tree. She poked around the box, peering underneath and letting out a triumphant yell. "There's laminated paper tucked behind here! I can't quite…" She pulled her hand away and groaned. "It's stuck there pretty well."

Pavel stepped forward and slid his small hands behind the box, retrieving the paper easily. He handed it to Jim.

"Seventy steps east."

Again, Pavel examined the compass and determined the correct path to go. Jim counted the steps and they arrived at a normal-looking stump. As Jim and Bones poked around for the clue, Pavel quickly showed Hikaru, Spock, Scotty and Nyota how to use a compass. It was fairly easy to learn and they understood what to do by the time Bones returned with the clue.

This time it was a drawing. It wasn't very good, as Pavel could detect with his superb artistry skills, but it depicted a green box with 60S written on the top. They stared dumbfounded at the picture. Jim looked at Pike, who had been shadowing them with a map folded between his hands.

"Any help?" he asked.

"Nope," Pike shook his head, "I'm just here for the ride."

Bones rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I get the feeling that the key is '60S', though I don't get what." To their surprise, Spock spoke up.

"They are directions," he said quietly. "Sixty paces south; the 'S' stands for 'south'."

"Da, zat makes sense!" Pavel grinned. "Ve should find a box sixty paces south!" Feeling cheerful, he marched on in that direction, lifting up his hat as it slipped down to cover his eyes for a second.

Sure enough, there was a box waiting for them. Jim opened it excitedly and pulled out their next clue. "Ten steps north, twenty-five east, find my clue within a wooden beast." He grinned. "What a creative poem! Pavel, which way is west?"

Pavel turned to Nyota and held the compass out. "Vhich vay?" he asked.

She frowned at the compass and gently rotated it in his palm. "I think it's… that way." She pointed and Pavel looked at the compass.

"Zat is correct," he told her, grinning. Now it wasn't just up to him to provide directions. If Nyota could do it then Hikaru, Spock and Scotty should be able to.

Jim shifted a little uncomfortably at that. "Can they read a compass too?" he asked uneasily.

"Da, I shoved zem."

"You shoved them?" Jim's eyes were wide with disbelief and that confused Pavel. What was he shocked about?"

Hikaru let out a strange noise, like a squeak. "He meant that he showed us. It's just his accent."

Pavel blushed. "Da, zat is vhat I meant."

Spock raised a small hand. "We should get going. We cannot afford to waste time."

Jim opened his mouth and closed it again, his ears going pink. Pavel wondered what was going through his head, but dismissed the notion. They probably weren't going to be the best of friends after this, so they should just cooperate while they could.

The group and Pike followed the directions, moving in single-file as the scrub got thicker. They weren't travelling along any path, but marching through knee-high messes and tangles of bushes and fallen branches. Jim, walking behind him, lost his footing once and almost knocked the young Russian over, but Bones, who was third in line, managed to grab the back of his shirt in time and pull him back.

When they reached their destination there was nothing remarkable about it to suggest a clue, so they split up and searched the immediate area. Scotty found something engraved in a tree, saying 'S+W', but they dismissed it. Then Bones found another carving on the opposite side of the tree that said '40+15'.

Spock was the one who figured it out. "S stands for south and W stands for west. The 40 means forty steps south, and the 15 means fifteen steps west."

Once he said it, it seemed so obvious. Pavel slapped himself in the face and immediately began to figure out which way they had to go. As they walked, Pike seemed to be impressed at how quickly they were progressing, but he remained silent and gradually relied on his map less to determine their location. Pavel began to feel uneasy at that. Surely a teacher would be always on their guard, because they were children after all and children were prone to making mistakes.

Things started going wrong when they misread a clue. Instead of going ten steps north they went east. That puzzled them, as they couldn't find the clue, and by the time they realised something was wrong they had all forgotten which direction they'd come from.

"I zink ve are lost," Pavel said in a small voice.

"Ya think?" Jim snapped angrily. He ran a hand through his hair. "Are we sure that no one remembers which way we came?"

In unison, the other six shook their heads. Pike checked his map worriedly. "I've got all the locations marked," the man said, "but I can't tell where we are." He mouthed a curse. "A fat lot of good this map is."

"Have ye go' a phone?" Scotty asked.

"Even if I did I couldn't use it. I'm with Optus and I don't get reception out here."

Pavel had seen this coming. When Pike had stopped checking the map he should have said something, maybe ask that the teacher not fall into a sense of false security. Well it was too late now and they had to figure a way back.

Jim scratched his head and smiled. "How about we shout? Someone's bound to hear us." He cupped his hands around his mouth and screamed, "ECHO!"

His voice echoed alright but there was no answering cry. Nyota sat down and sulked. "Well we might as well eat," she said sullenly, "and figure something out." The others were quick to agree and sat cross-legged around her. Pike had moved away from them, his footsteps crunching in the leaves, but now he turned back at their expectant faces.

"Oh, alright," he sighed, making his way over to them. Two thick tree branches were in the way, bent over the ground at thigh-height, and he awkwardly began to step over them, unslinging his backpack and leaning forward as he did so. This shifted his balance ever so slightly and, from his position with one foot lifted off the ground and the other balancing on its toes, the backpack pulled him forward unexpectedly. Scotty cried out a warning as Pike stumbled forward, his torso bending over the branches, the backpack pulling him over painfully. Just before he hit the ground his progress was stopped and he gasped in pain. A very audible SNAP rang out.

"Get him!" Bones snapped, scrambling forward. He grabbed Pike's shoulders and yanked the man, earning a cry of agony.

"My foot," Pike moaned.

Jim catapulted over the branches and pulled Pike's ankle from where it was lodged between the two branches. With his foot free Pike fell forward once more, but Bones was there to stop him. Scotty helped the other boy lower the injured man to the ground gently and Pike leant against the branches, breathing heavily. Pavel felt his blood go cold as he saw Pike's boot pointing off at a strange angle. He squeaked and grabbed Hikaru's hand, squeezing it in fright. Hikaru squeezed back.

Bones seemed to take charge. "Have you got a kit of some kind?" he demanded.

"In the bag…"

Grabbing the forgotten backpack, Bones rifled through it and pulled out a basic medical kit. He opened it and ordered Scotty to take off Pike's boot, which the Scotsman did quickly. It was difficult to ignore the lines of pain etched into Pike's face, though the man didn't utter a sound.

"Hey," Nyota said quietly, "Pavel, look this way." He turned to her and stared into soft brown eyes. "We've got to find a way back. Looking at the injury, I'll bet he's got a broken ankle and it'll get bad if we don't get back to the Camp." She hesitated. "Now, we don't know exactly where we are, but if we looked at the map we could figure out a pattern."

"You are right," Spock said suddenly. He stood and inched towards Pike's seated form, bending down and swiping the map from next to the backpack. He re-joined them and spread it over his knee. "An initial inspection indicates that we mainly go south and east. Furthermore," his face lightened, "the lake is west. From there it goes north. The Camp should be north."

"That's providing we haven't gone above the Camp," Jim interrupted, flopping next to Spock. He glanced at the other three. "Bones splinted his ankle and made him take some pills. He should be right for now, but we have to get back fast."

"There are no markers above the Camp; they are all south," Spock said.

"We should try and backtrack," Jim cut in, acting as if the black-haired boy hadn't spoken.

Nyota flared immediately. "That'll take too much time! If we go west to the lake and then north we can find the other groups!"

"Waiting here could do the trick," Jim argued. "They'll figure out something went wrong and come and find us."

"That might take ages and besides, we're not on the designated path." Nyota jabbed the map to emphasise her point.

It was too much for Pavel, but someone got there before him. "That's enough!" Spock shouted (though it came out more like a squeak). "We're not getting anywhere with you two arguing!" He pushed his glasses up his nose. "Pavel is the one with the compass, so he says what we do. We can't afford to wait. Sir needs immediate attention."

Bones joined them, lugging the backpack behind him. "You're right, he does. We need the quickest option." He dumped it in front of them. "Eat quickly and we'll be on our way." He then joined Scotty and Pike, sitting next to the grimacing man. Pavel noted that they had some fruit and biscuits in front of them that they were wolfing down.

"So Pavel, what do you say?" Jim asked.

Pavel sat his mouth in a grim line. "Ve must vork as a team," he said. "I say ve trawel vest and zen north."

Jim nodded. "Scotty and Bones can help Pike until they get tired, then Hikaru and I can take over."

"I'll carry the backpack," Nyota offered, biting into a mandarin slice.

"I will carry it when you need a rest," Spock added.

"And I vill nawigate," Pavel concluded. Jim glanced at Pike again and looked back at Pavel. The Russian smiled bravely and stood, brandishing the compass. "Let's go! Ve must get back to Camp and sawe ze day!"

It was going to be difficult, the young boy thought. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong had gone wrong and they were acting like adults rather than children. He hoped that they were more adult-like right now, because children made mistakes.