Free Getting Air by Dan Gutman Page A

along, putting her arm around my shoulder and using me like a crutch. It was slow going.
    “Listen for a fast-moving stream,” she advised us. “There might even be a river around here.”
    As we marched through the woods, I was looking all around me. There could be animals out there, I knew. But I was more worried about getting lost. What if we couldn’t find our way back to the plane? What if a search and rescue team found the plane while we were gone? Well, at least they’d find our fire. They would know there were survivors somewhere.
    I hadn’t really been out in a forest since I was a little kid, when we used to go on family hikes. There were some woods near my house, but they cut them down and put up condos on that spot. Ever since then, my only experience with nature consisted of mowing the lawn.
    Julia seemed to know where she was going, hobbling through the woods as if she’d been there a hundred times. The splint kept her bad leg straight, and she had picked up a long stick to use as a cane. Julia told us to keep an eye out for large rocks, which might have a big dent on top where water could collect.
    We hiked around for a long time. I didn’t tell the others, but I was starting to feel weak. It must have been even worse for Julia. Walking around looking for water uses up a lot of energy. And the more energy we used, the more water we’d need. I wondered if it might have made more sense to stay back at our campsite and wait for some rain or a rescue. Maybe we should have been conserving our energy. I stopped to wipe the sweat off my forehead when I turned my head and saw something through the trees.
    A pond!
    It was a sort of bowl in the ground where water collected. Not very big, maybe the size of a small house. But there was water in it. There was plenty for all of us.
    “Water!” I shouted, pointing.
    We went running over there like we were in the Olympics. Henry was the fastest, so he got to the edge of the pond first. He got down on his hands and knees and dipped his face into the water.
    “Wait!” Julia yelled from behind us. “Don’t drink it!”
    Henry lifted his head out of the pond.
    “Why not?” he asked, water dripping down his face.
    “It’s poisonous,” Julia said as she limped over near the water.
    “How do you know?” Arcadia asked.
    “There’s no vegetation around the pond,” she replied. “The plants died.”
    “I’ve seen plenty of ponds that didn’t have vegetation around them,” Henry insisted. “This water looks fine to me.”
    But he didn’t drink from it. We all watched as Julia walked around the pond for a minute. Then she kneeled down and picked something up.
    “What’s that?” Arcadia asked.
    “A bone,” Julia said. “It may be from a rabbit or a squirrel. Some small animal. I’m guessing it took its last drink here.”
    “But how could a pond out in the middle of nowhere get poisoned?” Mrs. Herschel asked. “It’s not like there’s a bloody toxic-waste dump around here.”
    Julia shrugged. “Who knows?” she said. “Maybe some big animal happened to die around here and was lying in the water. I don’t think it’s safe to drink.”
    Oh, man! What a letdown. I could almost taste the water going down my throat. I could have gulped a gallon of it. A wave of depression swept over me. I think we all felt it. I know we all felt it, because Henry started crying. Mrs. Herschel and Arcadia went to comfort him, but he was beyond that.
    “I just want a drink,” he sobbed, “and something to eat.”
    “We’ll dig a well if we have to,” Julia told him. “We’ll dig until we reach the water table.”
    “We’ll find something to drink soon,” I assured Henry. “I bet there’s a water fountain right out here in the woods. Or maybe a soda machine. Did you bring any change with you?”
    “It’s not funny!” Henry shouted. “There’s no water out here. We’re gonna die in a few days! We’re finished! Nobody’s gonna find us out here,