'Eh Captain, where is Solo? Why can't I see him?"
The captain looks at her, but he doesn't answer. He looks down, avoiding eye contact.
From the look the captain gave her, Aisha knows the answer.
She lets out a huge sigh.
That look is all the answer she needs. Seems like they lost him.
"What happened?"
Bry answers in Jonah's place, "we were ambushed by one of these guys." He says, pointedly looking at the two dead men on the ground.
" By the time we sensed his presence, Solo had already been killed. Lucky enough, the man used a blade so we quickly dispersed to stall his movements a bit, and with the small window given, we all trained our guns on him and fired."
Aisha looks to the other girls, releases another sigh as she says, "we were also ambushed and as you can see, this is the result."
Feeling exhausted and a little lost, she loudly exclaims, "so this is our life now huh, it's exhausting!"
Seeing her like this, her team members don't say anything because they all have the same thoughts.
"We lost two members today. Let's be vigilant from now on. Having been through life and death with you all, I don't want to lose anyone again." Aisha says this while looking at everyone.
Jonah immediately agrees, adding, " Aisha is right. We can't afford to lose anyone else, so let us all be careful and keep an eye out. Though these prisoners are professionals with years of experience compared to us which is frightening in itself -
Saying this, he pauses to let his words sink in, meanwhile, the others are wondering where their captain is going with his speech because no one encourages people like that, nonetheless, they still listen as he continues..,
"But I believe that if we work together and keep vigilance, we have what it takes to make it. Don't forget that we have been taught about survival in the jungle. So, let's keep our cool under this humongous pressure we are facing and apply everything we've been taught to this test. Believe in yourselves guys, believe in yourselves, yes?"
Silence, silence is all there is after Jonah speaks out. Everyone is basically thinking the same thing, " cap is right. Being terrified is normal under these circumstances, but we shouldn't panic. We can't die here. Although we are young and inferior to them, we have been taught a lot about survival. Yes, we can and we will survive. That is the only option."
Thinking until here, their eyes start to brim with determination. Survival is all there is.
Jonah looks on, waiting for a response. He finally gets it after a while. They start to exude confidence and he knows that he got through to them.
With eyes brimming with determination, Selana is the first to open her mouth, saying,
"You are right Captain. We shouldn't lose our minds. This is what's become of our lives right now."
The others agree with her. They all agree that it's lucky that Jonah is their captain. A captain who is able to calm them under stressful situations is the best leader they could hope for.
Once they've all calmed down, they suggest burying the bodies of their fallen comrades, together with the three dead men's bodies and then head to the appointed location. They cannot bring themselves to leave the bodies out to be eaten by wild animals.
----------
With only a day remaining until the end of the test, Aisha's group leaves for the rendezvous point. Luck was with them because they did not encounter any more surprises, thus, they reached the appointed place on the fifth day. On arrival, they found that of the twenty groups that set out, fifteen had arrived, because they could see the appointed leaders of those groups gathered together with gloomy faces. There's also another group of eight people that they assumed to be the prisoners.
They were the sixteenth group to arrive at the appointed clearing, but the other four groups were not far off from the rendezvous point as they also arrived five minutes later from different directions.
Once everyone gathered together, they could see that they lost fifty members. When they discussed the situation they'd been through, they found out that, of the twenty groups, two groups were lucky enough to not have encountered any of the bad guys, so they did not lose any members, while the rest of the groups, including Aisha's, lost two to four members each and there was even a group that lost five members.
In the situation they found themselves, they couldn't even mourn their friends' deaths, so, with anxious faces, they stayed separate from the eight-person group of prisoners and did not exchange words while waiting for the people in charge.
Ten minutes in, they could make out the sounds of helicopters. When the copter got near them, they heard a voice
"CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THOSE WHO MADE IT. YOU'VE PASSED THE TEST."