1. Chapter 1 (1/2)

the camping trip from hell or how alex plunged malagasto into chaos, part 2

alex rider was not exactly pleased to hear about their new survival mission. gordon ross had looked eerily cheerful as he'd announced the mission in the evening. "you're all going to the african congo."

alex had wondered what he'd ever done to deserve this in the past life. it must have involved orgies and a religious order or two. alex was entirely suspicious of the whole thing. gordon had handed out gear, so alex's first instinct was to check it the second he got back to his room. call him paranoid, but he trusted his teachers about as much as he trusted nile not to go psycho and murder a few bar patrons before burning the bar to the ground. nile was well known for not being great in civilized areas. alex checked the knife. it was designed to

eak. the rest of the gear seemed designed to fail at a critical moment. alex would also not trust any of the medical gear at this moment. time to go get real camping gear. he dumped all of the stuff in the garbage can. alex walked to the quartermaster's office. he yanked the door open with a bang and pulled a real knife he'd "borrowed" from the training room on the man. the man inhaled sharply. "wha-what do you want?"

alex smirked and placed the empty backpack down. "as you may or may not know, my class is going on a survival mission tomorrow. i need gear."

the man tried to protest. "you already received-"

alex cut him off. "

oken, sabotaged gear. i don't appreciate that, you know."

the man gulped. "i was instructed to-"

alex pushed the knife lightly into the man's skin. he noticed the burn scars on the man's wrists and the picture of a woman and a little girl. probably a wife and child. if he had the pictures here, of all places, they were likely dead. "if you don't stock my kit with actually suitable materials, i'm going to burn you alive."

the man paled to the point of looking like a ghost and turned faintly green. alex had taken a bit of a leap of logic about that. "okay, okay, fine."

alex smiled. "thank you. also, i want the full medical kit, not just the half-assed first aid one we got."

the man nodded, too afraid to speak. alex watched carefully as the man gave him the basics, checking every last supply as it went into the backpack. "an-anything else?"

alex glared at the man. "water storage and purification tablets. if you guys have one of those filtration system bottle things, i'll take that to."

the man hastily complied with alex's request. alex made sure to smile and politely thank the man before sticking his knife back into its sheath. alex was going to steal a few more of them, now that he thought about it. they would take a few hours to sharpen, but knives were better than no knives. there was no way gordon wouldn't notice a gun missing, or he would grab one of those as well. alex sighed as he made his way to the training room. he was going to stock up on water, as well.

they were airdropped into the african congo

ight and early. alex couldn't say he was surprised when they left without checking that everyone had made it down without a

oken leg. scorpia was not exactly a fan of incompetent or weak operatives. alex fully expected that they would simply leave anyone not in good condition to die. they were supposed to pick their partners upon landing. alex heard that as "you're free to duel to the death once we leave you". walker was left without a partner. "walker, with me."

walker looked at him with wide eyes. alex knew walker had failed the shit out of some portions of the survival class, especially the fire-lighting bits. "uh, i'm bad at-"

alex waved him off. "don't worry, i'm good at all of this stuff."

the other teams had already ditched them. alex suspected that they didn't want him to change his mind about taking walker. he pulled out the map they had given everyone on the helicopter. walker fidgeted. "how do we even know which way is north?"

alex sighed. "does anyone ever do jet's extended reading?"

walker blinked. "uh, no."

alex put the map away. "twenty kilometers due north to start with, i think."

walker stared at him. "which way is north?"

alex pointed. "that way."

walker walked behind him. "how do you know?"

alex sighed. "the moss."

walker looked at him like he was insane. "moss? that's it?!"

alex resisted the urge to facepalm. "we're in the southern hemisphere, so moss grows on the south side of the trees. ergo, north is that way. now, move your ass, walker."

walker dutifully padded alongside him.

the first ten miles went fairly well, despite the sweltering heat beating down on them. alex began to reflect on his circumstances. it had been a while since he'd had any time to think. between malagasto's insane schedule, the incident with gordon and the laptop, and his secret laboratory in the abandoned church, alex had had very little time to think about, well, anything, really. walker was wheezing behind him. this was probably one of the few times being smaller and less densely muscled was an advantage. alex felt the heat, but it wasn't unbearable for him. the densely packed trees and vines were getting thicker as they went into the jungle. the gear...alex wondered if walker would let him check his. if it was only his gear, then someone had it out for him. if it was the whole class, maybe it was a test? or maybe...they were all supposed to die? alex liked some of the board members, but he knew they would have no qualms about sentencing a whole class to death if they found it necessary. "alex, i need a

eak."

alex sighed. "aren't you from the south, walker?"

walker huffed. "yes."

alex glared at the man. "i'm from england, walker. cold, drafty england."

walker gave him a puppy-dog look. "alex."

alex rolled his eyes. "find a log. try not to collapse it."

walker puffed and sat down. alex sat next to him. suddenly, the back of his neck prickled. "walker?"

walker noticed him tense up. "what is it?"

alex sighed. "don't look up."

walker looked up. they were suddenly surrounded. chimpanzees were aggressive. looking them in the eyes was not a great idea since it was a challenge of sorts. alex swore loudly. "god fucking damn it, walker!"

walker yelped as a chimp scratched him. alex sighed. "we're fucked."

alex

ought his knife down in an arc as the first one jumped at him. then, it was on for real. slash. cut. overhead. back cut. walker was halfway decent with a knife. slash. cut. stab. alex felt a weight land on him and his air supply was suddenly cut off. thonk! the chimp's blood sprayed out on him. alex rolled out from under the corpse, panting. he and walker were both panting and covered in blood. "i'm really sorry, alex."

alex held up a bloodstained hand and felt his neck. "walker, next time i tell you not to look up, you better not fucking look up."

walker

eathed out. they both stood there for a few minutes. "we should move."

walker groaned. "i got scratched."

alex cursed. "where?"

walker sighed. "uh, a lot of places."

alex pulled out the map. "what are you doing?"

alex wanted to scratch at his face. the blood was starting to dry. "looking for a body of water. you and i need to get rid of the blood before we attract every predator in the entire damn place. also, we need to clean those scratches out now."

walker pulled out his first aid kit. alex grabbed some of walker's water and rinsed off the scratches. the man's chest and arms had borne the

unt of it. alex grabbed walker's first aid kit. the alcohol pads seemed fine. the bandages were rather limited, but, oh, well. they'd have to be changed. "so, what's the damage?"

alex sighed. "you're probably going to get infected."

walker groaned. alex bandaged the scratches. "let's keep moving."

alex was not thrilled to find out the map had mislabeled a stream as a "river". walker looked at him. "err. i thought you said it was a river."

alex gave the map the evil eye. "the map said it was a river."

walker looked at him. "do you think- do you think they're trying to kill us?"

alex sighed. "maybe. let me see your kit."

walker shrugged. "my knife already

oke. i

ought a training one, though."

alex was glad walker had a grain of sense. "yeah, let's take a look."

walker handed over his backpack. "here."

alex sifted through. walker's gear was less flawed than his, but there were still several issues. "your clip's been filed down, the rope is worn in a few areas, and i'm not sure i'd trust the rest of this."

walker looked at him. "how come your gear is different?"

alex pinched his nose. "i checked my gear and convinced the quartermaster to give me the appropriate gear."

walker looked at him. "how? he's a stingy bastard."

alex began refilling the water skins and stocking up on the bottles. walker copied him. "i may have threatened him a bit."

walker shrugged. "i don't think anyone else checked their gear that closely. but all of us have knives, at least."

alex snorted. "does anyone return all their knives to yermalov?"

walker laughed. "no."

alex huffed. "no wonder he's such a grumpy bastard."

walker chuckled. alex sighed. "alright, i think we should bathe one at a time. one of us has to keep watch."

walker shrugged and began stripping. alex hastily turned around. "what do i do about my bandages?"

alex scratched at his neck. dried chimp blood seemed as itchy as his dried blood. "try not to get them wet."

walker gave a grunt of acknowledgment. alex heard scrubbing noises and tactfully kept his back turned. "alex?"

alex tried not to roll his eyes. "what?"

walker sighed. "uh, can't you turn around and talk to me? also, the blood's not coming out."

alex resisted a loud sigh. blood didn't come out of clothing with just water. "walker, if the blood dries, it doesn't like to come out. also, i'm trying to respect your privacy here."

walker got out. "okay, your turn."

alex turned around to a still-shirtless walker. alex blinked. "turn around."

walker huffed. "i've seen it before."

alex glared. "now."

walker turned around and began pulling his boots and a soggy shirt back on. alex let out a sigh and began to bathe. he was starting to tan. alex wondered how long it would take them to burn. there wasn't exactly any sunscreen in their survival packs. "what happened there?"

alex realized he'd been rubbing his scar from point blanc. "barbed wire sucks. also, turn back the fuck around."

walker made a little huffy noise but turned back around. alex finished bathing after that.

a few hours after they had started walking again, walker stopped. "my bandages are stuck."

alex sighed. "we'll soak them off later."

alex paused to dig through his backpack. "should we have taken some of the chimp flesh to eat?"

alex continued digging through his pack. "no. chimpanzees are close enough to humans to be heavy on the disease risk. unless we're starving, i really wouldn't."

walker grunted. "so, do ya want some of the energy bars i jacked from the cafeteria?"

alex grinned. "i knew you were good for something, walker."

walker tossed him one of the bars. alex opened it. it was pretty okay and better than starvation. "so, why'd you buddy up with me?"

alex stuck the wrapper in his bag. "i figured the rest of our classmates would kill you in your sleep and potentially eat you."

walker's eyes widened. "you think they'd seriously eat me?"

alex chuckled. "i don't know. probably."

walker grinned. "you're messing with me."

alex lightly shoved him on his good arm. "just a little bit, mate."

walker ruffled his hair. "devious little

at."

alex's lips twitched. "oh, but it's fortunate one of us is smart."

walker gave a mock gasp of shock. "did you just call me stupid?!"

alex laughed. "well, if you need an answer to that, walker-"

walker swatted him upside the head. "alex!"

alex rolled his eyes. "oh, shove your insecurities up your ass, walker. if i didn't believe in you, i wouldn't waste my time."

walker's face softened. "oh, uh...thanks, alex."

alex wondered for a second if walker was about to cry. then his face went back to normal. "you're welcome."

they walked in silence, occasionally pausing to pick up firewood, until about dusk.

"think we should stop now?"

alex shrugged. "yeah, i don't fancy a walk in the jungle in the dark."

walker looked at him. "should we, y'know, start a fire."

alex sighed. "nah."

walker sat down next to him. "do you want me to take the first watch?"

alex sighed. "sure."

walker grunted. "okay."

alex lowered himself completely to the ground next to walker. he was putting a lot of trust in walker, to be honest. though he had six knives, walker had quite a bit of an advantage if he caught alex sleeping. alex knew he did need to sleep, though. he tried his best to wind down and sleep. alex knew he must have drifted off because walker was shaking him awake. "alex." alex snapped awake. walker went to sleep next to alex. alex stared out into the night and set an alarm on his watch. so, walker had gotten sabotaged gear as well. but his had been worse. that implied that somebody had fucked with all of their gear, but more than one person had messed with his. who would have the authority? the teachers would have access. board members and their second-in-command's had access to everything. alex wondered if he shouldn't have asked the quartermaster more questions. there were very few people who could mess around with things at the school. scorpia general operations were one thing, but the elite school for assassins was quite another thing entirely. alex was almost entirely sure that at least one board member had to sign off on their field trips, anyhow. what was it that gordon had said? "julia rothman generously allowed funding for a little field survival trip." nile had tried to kill him. twice. alan blunt's words came to him, unbidden. "where some people see coincidence, i see conspiracy." alex inhaled. maybe, just maybe blunt had a point. maybe just this once. alex wanted to scream at the thought. alex knew the class was considered a bunch of mediocre fuck-ups. he suspected the instructors had a hand in walker's gear, at the very least. the american hadn't exactly made himself popular among the staff. it was probably some sort of test one or more of his classmates was meant to fail. walker's gear had been significantly less fucked-up than his, which meant someone else had tampered with it. maybe one of the board wanted him dead for some sort of petty, inexplicable reason? as soon as alex had the thought, he felt almost sure it was true. great, just fucking great; halfway through assassin training and a board member wanted him dead. well, now that he had that figured out, what was his next step? alex knew for sure that he was going to do his best to save walker and the rest of his classmates. i mean, he liked them, but because of that little stunt, he was prepared to save his classmates if it killed him. not that he was going to live that long anyway. alex knew he might as well stick to his morals because he was about to get screwed.

the rest of the night passed without incident. however, upon waking the next day, alex remembered something. "shit!"

walker jumped up. "where's the bad guy?"

alex looked at the man. "there is nobody we need to kill, walker. and we're the bad guys now, remember?"

walker scratched his head. "then, er, what's wrong?"

alex gestured at the man's chest. "we forgot to do your bandages last night."

walker looked at him. "so, what now?"

alex sighed. "we soak them off and hope you haven't infected this quickly."

walker took off his more than slightly shredded shirt. alex began soaking the bandages off. the tricky part was getting them wet enough to peel off, but not wasting water by dumping it everywhere. "so, how does it look?"

alex paused. "i'll have to finish getting them off to know for sure, but not too bad so far."

alex decided not to panic the man by mentioning the slight inflammation. it could be because these were scratches, after all. it might also be the start of an infection. alex sucked in a

eath. walker twitched underneath him. "what's taking so long?"

alex sighed. "honestly?"

walker huffed. "yeah."

alex tugged the next bit off. "your chest hair is getting in the way."

walker squawked. "i'm not shaving for you!"

alex laughed out loud. "don't let ross hear you say that. he already thinks we're sleeping together."

walker grumbled. "ross is fucked in the head. you're fourteen, for god's sake."

alex giggled slightly as he yanked the last bit off. "i know."

walker glared. "that hurt."

alex arched a

ow. "maybe if your chest hair wasn't at chewbacca levels-"

walker huffed. "i have perfectly respectable amounts of body hair. it's manly!"

alex was resisting the urge to comment. "uh, huh. whatever. next time, you can do this yourself if you're going to complain this much."

walker backed down. "on second thought, it was a great job and you have a delicate touch."

alex pulled out walker's first aid kit. "that's what i thought."

they came across the trio of classmates alex knew the least about next. six plus him made seven, which left a group of three. two of them were unconscious and the third one didn't seem that well off. the other women and two other men. alex couldn't remember their names at the moment. "what happened?"

the man was bleeding heavily from his arm. alex placed his hands over the gash and guessed the man's name. "david."

the man looked him in the eye. "i got gored by an ox."

the man was

eathing fast and shallow. alex knew it was a bad sign. "i need to get into your bag for this."

david nodded and collapsed against the rock. alex

oke open the first aid kit, noticing that he, walker, and david had received three different kits. well, that confirmed it. someone was fucking with their class. thankfully, alex had demanded the full set. "walker, what's his blood type?"

walker scratched his head. "i think it was the same as mine, b positive."

alex glared at the man as he began his first real-life attempt at multi-layer stitches after dumping rubbing alcohol on it. ian had made him take a class for this. "how sure are you?"

alex was almost done with the stitches. he knew nothing about artery repair, so it was fortunate the ox seemed to have missed them. walker frowned. "eighty percent?"

alex felt the man's pulse. "good enough."

walker stared at him. "but, but-"

alex glared at the man. "walker, scorpia decided to play a game with us when the sent us into the wild with uneven survival kits. they wanted to play us off each other, so we'd do a whole survival of the fittest thing. just look at david's kit versus yours! are you going to let them win?!"

walker's expression firmed up. alex knew that if there was one thing spies hated more than anything it was blatant manipulation like this. and walker was ex-cia. "no. alright, i'll do it."

alex pulled out his extremely complete first aid kit. it contained the required equipment, which he handed to walker. "i'll see about the other two."

one of them, the woman, was already coming around. the man was also blinking dizzily. "i forgot your names."

the woman stared at him before answering slowly. "lena."

the man sighed. "i'm james."

alex doubted that those were the names on either of their birth certificates, but wasn't about to rock the boat. the woman sat up. "there was an ox."

alex rubbed his eyes. "do you know if it was domesticated?"

lena seemed to be trying to stand. alex offered her a hand. "didn't look like it. no whip marks or yoke."

alex sighed. "can i ask you two a question?"

james seemed to try to sit up and failed. lena shrugged. "sure."

alex sighed. "was any of your gear sabotaged?"

lena's eyes widened. "you too?"

james groaned. "we were hoping someone had a functional kit."

alex shrugged. "i threatened one out of the quartermaster."

james swore. "that was allowed?!"

alex snorted. "i think it's cool as long as i don't murder the staff?"

james groaned. "i should have done that. fuuuck."

alex lightly patted the man's shoulder. james tried to sit up and failed. "i think i have a concussion."

alex rubbed his forehead. "lena?"

the woman tried walking around. "i think i'm fine, but james took a harder hit."

david was asleep but didn't seem to be rejecting his transfusion. walker was sitting next to him. alex sat down. "alright, i suppose we'll need to rest for a few hours." well, everyone but him. "so, let's see what kind of food and water everyone is at."

one by one, a few of them more suspicious than the others, they began to look through each other's supplies.

walker looked at alex after a while. "what do you think was the plan here? everyone got different pieces of gear that worked, except you, who had your kit fully trashed."

alex paused. "there are a couple of possibilities."

alex noticed all three of the other assassins were listening to their conversation. "one, i was supposed to realize and get a whole new kit. two, i was supposed to realize and start killing you off one by one for the supplies. three, i was supposed to die. it might even be a mix of them, depending on who you ask."

walker huffed. "what about me?"

alex shrugged. "i think they wanted you dead pretty fast."

walker gaped. "why?"

alex raised his eye

ow at the man. "think about it, walker. they gave you food and a decent amount of purification tablets and water skins. those are critical supplies. plus, that knife of yours was designed to fail."

walker thought about it for a minute and shut up. "what about me?"

david seemed a little pale, though he had just lost quite a bit of blood. "since you got a working knife and middling first-aid kit, i'd say that was a decent shot a living."

lena was looking at alex with something akin to horror. "what about us?"

alex shrugged. "i'm entirely sure that the teachers don't care if we live or die, so it was probably a 'survival of the fittest' kind of thing."

lena was looking at him like he was from mars or something. "try to relax. it's scorpia."

alex had already accepted that he was probably going to die in the next few weeks. the survival kit was a huge hint. that didn't mean he was going to dump his morals just for a few days. it also didn't mean he couldn't save other people. "relax?! relax?! the teachers are trying to kill us, the wild is trying to kill us, and i'm shocked you haven't tried to kill us!"

david seemed to be a bit unwell, despite the recent transfusion. alex shrugged. "it's not like we can do anything but survive. i'd rather have more people watching my back."

lena and james seemed to sit back a little bit. alex wondered if the three of them were close like him, walker, amanda, and klaus were. it was possible. walker ruffled his hair. james glared at walker. "why are you toting around walker's useless ass?"

alex narrowed his eyes at james. "says the guy with the concussion. walker's not useless, so shut the fuck up."

james rolled his eyes but did shut up about walker. they were pretty quiet into the evening. alex was starting to think that this might go smoothly. aside from a few quibbles over the watch - james was concussed, david was still weak, and walker's scratches were still not looking great - everything went fine for the night.

alex was surprised that the next few days went fairly smoothly. james was slowly recovering from his concussion. david seemed to be doing much better. lena was almost completely fine, though was still eyeing him oddly. none of them seemed to have built up his level of stamina. then again, most of them had more pure muscle than him. ian had been particularly stuck on that. walker was being his usual behind self when they took a

eak. "have you, like, done this before?"

alex looked at the man like he was nuts. "yes."

walker eyed him. "how often?"

alex shrugged. "pretty much every school holiday. you know, before all of this went down, i was training for climbing mount everest. it's a year-long process at the very least."

walker hovered. "before all what went down?"

alex got up. "it's a long story."

walker groaned. "you're killing me, al."

alex rolled his eyes. "i'm sure you'll live."

walker whined on. "but aleeex."

alex rolled his eyes. "walker, no means no."

walker huffed. "fiiine."

james was scowling at walker. "the teachers said no backstories."

walker shrugged. "the teachers ain't here, in case you haven't noticed, sugar plum."

james glared. "it doesn't mean that their policies are bad."