Island Bonding

"I have some exciting news, guys." Mr Schuester clapped his hands together with a grin.

His class rolled their eyes. Their teacher's 'good' ideas, which were normally brought to the light of the glee club as 'exciting news', tended to end terribly. They were sure that this would be no different.

"You're all going on a bonding month!" The teacher paused, to see the reaction of his pupils.

Silence.

For the most part. There was a quiet "wanky" murmured by Santana that caused a ripple of giggles around the room. But that was it.

As glee club captain, Rachel took it upon herself to speak up for the group. They needed to know a bit more than that they were going on a 'bonding month'. "Bonding activities would be incredibly beneficial to the team. But what is it that could last a month? Surely we could just go on a weekend to a camp. We can't afford to miss that much learning time."

Mr Schuester nodded in understanding. "It's not quite a month. Just three weeks. But even then, we wouldn't want to affect your education like that. It'll be during summer. And before any of you try to opt out, it has already been discussed, planned and paid for by your parents. So all of you will be going. Except Artie, that is." He shot an apologetic look towards Artie, as though he felt guilty for his student not being able to go. "No offense, Artie, but that did open up the options of what we could do."

Artie threw his hands up. "None taken." He was annoyed that he couldn't go with his friends. But he understood that his chair meant some limitations and he wouldn't want them to affect his friends as well as him. Now he was just curious as to what Mr Schuester had planned. Maybe he'd be glad that he couldn't go, anyway.

"So, as I was explaining," Started Mr Schuester. His tone had switched to one that was more excited again. "That allowed me to switch the trip from a camp-based activity week to something that'll really force you to work together."

"This is all well and good, Mr Schue." Mercedes spoke up. "But what are we doing?"

"You're going to a desert island!" He grinned. His students almost expected him to whip out some jazz hands.

Artie was definitely pleased he couldn't go.

"Oh hell no." Mercedes objected, kickstarting outbursts from several other students.

"You have got to be kidding me." Santana groaned.

"I'm not doing this." Kurt stated, ready to bolt out of the room.

"This is a joke, right?" Puck asked, a little fear creeping into his voice.

Everyone else's jaws just dropped.

"It's okay, guys!" The teacher tried to reassure his students. "An expert has made sure that the island has enough water and plants and animals to let you survive for several months. So you'll be fine for the three weeks that you're there."

Rachel opposed the plan immediately. "Some of us in the group have religious and moral restrictions which prevent us from eating some or all of the animals that may be living there."

Mr Schuester faltered for a moment. He hadn't really thought about that. "I'll have to check with the expert but I'm sure there will be plenty of coconuts and fruit and vegetables to keep you going."

"And how do you suppose a group of clueless teenagers will manage to survive in the wild?" Quinn criticised, surprising a few members of the group. She rarely spoke. However it was a negative comment so perhaps it wasn't all that surprising.

"You'll have a weekend of survival training a week before you go." Mr Schue had this planned way more intricately than the group had initially thought. There was still the odd blip in his planning but they hadn't expected any better. Unfortunately, it looked like there was no way to get out of this mess. "Any plans?" The teacher asked.

He was met with a sea of shaking hands.

"On with the lesson, then."

Two weeks later and the glee club (minus Artie) were ready, but not quite raring, to go.

They'd had the survival training the weekend before. It began with a burly stern man giving them a huge reality check. None of their trip was going to be easy. There would be extreme highs and lows. However, the most important thing was that everything could go dangerously wrong in a matter of seconds. Everyone needed to have their A-Game on at all times. If things did get too bad, they had a radio to contact a medical team. But that was only to be used for emergencies.

Following that came a time to learn to identify the plants and animals that they could and couldn't eat. That took up the majority of the Saturday. It was looked over again on the Sunday. Their evening was spent learning how to start a fire from a bow and kindling. It was a vital part of their survival and no-one was allowed to leave for dinner until everyone had managed to do it. Oddly, it was Puck who took the longest to get the hang of it.

On the Sunday, they recapped the important triple of survival. Three minutes without air. Three days without water. Three weeks without food. Then they set to work learning three different knots each. That way they would have sufficient to do whatever they wanted on the island. The next was a long session in first aid. Just before they left, they were each given a test on the weekend's activities. All of them passed with flying colours, making it certain that they would be alright and (theoretically) safe on the island. Everyone went home with a folder full of everything they had learnt, with the instruction to revise the material several times a day. And most of them did just that. Those with sense did so, not wanting to be the weakest link of the group, but most of all not wanting to die.

Now, everyone was on the boat. They were sat on benches opposite one another on the sides. Several hours ago they had bid a short farewell to to their parents and siblings. The same stern man who taught them the weekend prior, was stood at the bow of the boat to give them the once over. "We have given you the essentials. Your two radios to contacts us in emergencies, a whistle each, two tarpaulin sheets, sufficient sunblock, a metre of string, five fishing hooks, three machetes and two jerry cans. You have the clothes you're wearing as well as a few spare sets of underwear and waterproofs in your rucksacks. Ladies, you also have sanitary products. The most important thing is to stay as hydrated as possible. Are we clear?!" He barked the question at the kids in the boat.

They all nodded fervently back in answer. No-one made eye-contact with each other. If they did, this would all somehow feel more real. Each person seemed to be coping in their own way. Rachel was distracting herself by quietly humming a made up tune. Finn was next to her, putting his nervous energy into tapping a silent beat with his heels. Puck was next to him and just stared into the distance, his jaw clenched shut and arms crossed. Santana and Brittany busied themselves by playing with each other's hands. Quinn was at the end and had taken her glasses off to fiddle with. Contacts were easier for her at home but not on a trip like this. Here, glasses were far more practical. Up at the top of the boat opposite Rachel, Kurt was sat, mindlessly picking the hem of his shorts. Mercedes had closed her eyes and was trying to ignore the movements of the boat over the waves, attempting to ward away her sea sickness. The last thing she needed was to throw up. She needed to keep in all the food she could. Who knew when her next meal would be. Next to her, Tina was playing a small game with Mike where she put her fingertips on his thigh and she had to move her hand away before he caught it with his own. Then there was Sam. He ran his hand through his newly cut hair several times a minute.

The engine cut out.

Heads jerked up. Were they there? No. The closest island was about two hundred metres away. Had they run out of fuel? Unlikely. The stern man looked unconcerned so the probability of the engine failing was pretty close to zero.

"We're here." He bellowed. "This is as close to the island as we can get without the boat getting cut up by rocks. Good luck." And with that, he threw off their bags and jerry cans and gestured for them to follow. It appeared that they could only get there by swimming.

Puck was the first to jump off. He was then followed by Sam. After him, everyone else took the leap from the side closest to the island. Rachel called from where she was treading water. "Everyone get your bags. Sam, Noah?" She waited until they'd called that they were paying attention before continuing. "As the strongest swimmers, could you also take the jerry cans?" They agreed. "Let's swim to land, then."

Surprisingly, everyone kept to the pace of the slowest person. Finn seemed to be putting in twice as much effort as everyone else but was only getting half as far.

"Everyone go on ahead!" Quinn shouted. "I'll help Finn. Don't waste your energy this early on by going slowly. We'll catch you up!" Then she turned to Finn, the two of them treading water. "Hand me your bag."

"But I can manage on my own." He protested.

"Clearly. That's why you're so far behind everyone else. Give it to me now." She demanded.

Finn looked hopelessly over to Rachel. She had broken up with him as summer break had begun. His plan was to impress her while they were on the island so that he could win her back. "But-"

"Finn. Give me. The bag." Quinn forced out with gritted teeth. "You won't get the dwarf back if you can't get to the island to start with."

He begrudgingly passed it over and they made it to shore just a few short moments after their friends.

When the pair reached them, plans were being made. Mainly by Rachel. Everyone else just nodded along. "If we don't come across a sandy beach to stay at within two hours, we will make a temporary camp in a clearing."

Quinn took the moment to look at where they'd landed. It was a rocky shore with a six foot muddy cliff to get up. She had no doubt that the sea would reach the top at high tide. They needed to get into the wooded land as soon as possible. They could talk as they walked. This was wasting vital time before sunset. At her feet, she'd found some washed up string. That would be useful later. But that was all their landing point would be good for. They really couldn't stay much longer. Just as she was getting really ansty, they finally set off.

Their first steps (after lifting each other over the small cliff) were taken gingerly. Rachel led the way and took the easiest route. Mercedes and Kurt brought up the rear. They all walked in twos or even threes where they could, but they thinned down to single file as the forest got more dense.

"What do you think we should do today, Rach?" Finn asked, short of breath. He'd just made it to the front after ten minutes of trying to get there. Sweat was dripping down the sides of his face.

Rachel rolled her eyes. Had he not listened to anything she'd said before they set off? Rachel, though frustrated with Finn not listening, kept her tone friendly. She knew that he was planning to get back with her. It wasn't hard to tell. Finn was hardly subtle. He had sent her some flowers before they left. That wasn't something that he'd do in a platonic relationship. Of course, he'd tried to cover his tracks by sending them anonymously. But the almost illegible note that came with them was undoubtedly his writing. Rachel had also heard Quinn talking about it with Santana and Brittany. Then Santana with Puck. And then Puck with Finn. So this definitely wasn't something she'd made up in her head. But she had broken up with him and she definitely didn't want to get back with him. So she planned to try to put him off as much as she could. However, it was difficult on the island. Everyone needed to stick together and have as little drama and as few fall outs as possible. So she had to be cordial throughout conversation. "I can't see or hear the sea. And the trees are only getting thicker. I say we stop at the next open-ish space and see if everyone is agreeable to staying there for the night."

"That sounds like a great plan!" Finn replied with forced enthusiasm that made Rachel cringe. "You're super smart with all this survival stuff."

Rachel was about to brush it off by telling him that they'd all learnt it the week before and that Finn really needed to have reread what they'd been given as it was key to their survival. Instead, she was cut off by a piercing scream from the back of the group.

It was Mercedes.

Everyone's heads whipped around at the sound. She was stood, frozen, horror etched across her face, pointing at the branch in front of her. "S-s-snake!"

Puck nonchalantly walked towards her, drawing one of the group's machetes from his belt. "Don't worry, I got you, babe." He cut it's head off in one quick swipe and threw the still writhing body to the side. He gave Mercedes a cheeky wink before swaggering back to Santana and Brittany as they walked on.

After half an hour, Rachel stopped abruptly, observing the area. It was flat enough and there was enough room for all of them. This would be ideal. She turned to the group. "It'll get dark soon and we really need to settle and light a fire before then. "We have two options." She held up her index finger. "One. We camp here for the night. Two," She lifted her middle finger, forming a V. "We just power through to the other side of the island and hope there's a suitable beach there." She gave her friends a few moments to think over the options. "All in favour of option one say aye."

All but one voice answered with a certain aye. The single person that answered with a loud 'NO!' was Mercedes. When questioned as to why she didn't want to stay there, she mumbled something about snakes.

That triggered Santana's reaction of "Grow up, wheezy. There will be snakes and worse everywhere we go on this island. I don't want to hear baby whining whenever you see or hear something move. Capiche?"

"Capiche."

"So then that's sorted." Santana made the decision. We're camping here tonight."

They set to work immediately. First, they did their best to sweep away all the dead leaves and the creepy crawlies that came with them. Then they split into teams. Mercedes, Tina and Mike worked on the fire. Puck, Finn, Sam and Quinn took it on themselves to make some shelter with the fallen branches nearby. The rest of them split off to find some food. Kurt and Rachel walked off together in one direction and Santana and Brittany left to go opposite.

"What are we even looking for?" Kurt asked Rachel, as they walked in a straight line out from their camp.

"Yucca. Or coconuts. We're probably more likely to find yucca here." Rachel answered.

Kurt sighed, scanning the ground for any sight of the plant. "I'm hungry already, I don't know how we'll manage these next few weeks."

Typically, Rachel took the optimistic side. "We've been prepped enough for this trip. You can eat a lot more than me. I think we'll be okay."

Kurt just looked at her disbelievingly. "I can't see how you're seeing this in such a positive light. All it takes is one mistake or misstep and one of us could die. This is the worst idea Mr Schue's ever had. Including not letting us do Britney for so long. And you know how I felt about that."

"Yes but-"

"No, Rachel." Kurt cut in. "You need to realise that not everything is sunshine and rainbows. Before someone gets hurt."

"Okay." Rachel replied quietly.

Her friend looked at her, taken aback. Had Rachel really given in that easily? "Okay?"

"Okay." Rachel nodded. "I agree with you. And I don't want to start any arguments. Especially not this early on. I can see how serious this all is. I do know. Seeing it in a positive light, as you put it, helps me to cope with the reality of it all."

Kurt decided to let it go. Rachel had a good point. They spent the rest of their search in a comfortable silence. After half an hour or so, they returned to camp when it started getting dark.

Back at camp, it was a relief to see that Mercedes, Tina and Mike had got the fire started. Santana and Brittany had returned five minutes before Kurt and Rachel, also empty handed, and were now helping to put the finishing touches to their cover for the night. To the right of the hung up tarpaulin sheets was an abandoned pile of branches. It appeared that the rest of the boys and Quinn hadn't managed to make a sturdy enough structure with those. Not to matter though. They had cover and that was all that was important for now.

At dark, everyone agreed to take an early night. They were exhausted after the day. All their initial adrenaline from their excitement had long gone. There was no food to give them extra energy either. Now they needed to sleep while they could. Every one of them went out like a light as soon as they laid on the floor.

On the first night the glee club had made a rookie mistake. The way they had laid down to sleep left their feet just out of the cover of the tarpaulin. It had tipped it down overnight. Everyone's shoes and feet were sodden wet. Not only that but they failed to cover the fire. They had cold feet and couldn't warm themselves with the fire. It was a hard lesson to learn.

Finn took it upon himself to take charge when they were planning the day ahead. "Why don't the guys set out to find an ideal beach? The girls can stay here and set up the fire again and look for more food."

Quinn rolled her eyes. Of course the girls would have to stay. Finn was probably trying to be chivalrous and offer up the boys to take up the hard work. He wouldn't realise that it made him sound like he didn't think the girls were capable of whatever he could do. However, while splitting up wasn't the best of ideas; it would be so easy to lose each other completely, it also meant that half of the team didn't have to waste too much energy. Instead they could stock up on food and improve camp. So she nodded in agreement with the plan, along with everyone else.

The boys set off straight away.

In times of uncertainty, a leader is needed. You have people who try to lead. They bark orders, hope that people will follow and pray they're right. You have two kinds of proper leaders. One of which takes confidence in their leadership and is the first to clearly emerge. They hold their head high, have authority, and people willingly follow. The second is quieter. They work with their team, giving encouragement and positively motivate the team. A problem arises when you have a person who believes they're the leader as well as the confident leader. It causes more problems than solutions and, often, it is the quieter leader who solves the problems caused.

"We need to go this way." Finn called, pointing to his left.

They'd been walking for an hour and they couldn't even hear any water. They were on an island. Surely they could never be that far away from the sea. So why couldn't they hear the waves yet?

"If we go that way, we'll end up where we've just been." Puck pointed angrily in front of them. "We need to keep going this way."

"But we're not getting anywhere this way." Finn whined.

"Because you keep changing our direction!" Puck clenched his fists at the sides of his head in exasperation. "If we keep changing direction, which you're making us do, we'll end up going in a circle and get nowhere. If we keep going straight forward, we'll eventually end up at a coastal area."

Finn looked around at his friends for some support. But they only seemed to be nodding in agreement with Puck. "Fine." He huffed. They wouldn't be able to blame him when everything went wrong. So, to prove that he disagreed with the choices made, he trailed behind everyone huffing, puffing and stomping.

As it happened, they managed to find a beach soon after. Okay, it wasn't great. It was tiny and had a load of seaweed and grungy slimy looking stuff washed up on the tideline. However, it was still better than their clearing and so it was decided they'd bring the girls back to the beach. After they'd celebrated and rested after their find, though.

The celebration involved them all stripping down to their trunks and running into the sea, cheering. They swam, splashed around and messed about in the ocean for a good half an hour. Once they'd finished, they were tired out and so settled down for a quick afternoon nap before returning to camp.

Back at camp, the girls were getting a bit fidgety. They'd done everything they needed to do. Tina, Mercedes and Rachel cleaned up the camp, kept the fire going and went out in search for water. They failed. Thankfully, they had a fresh supply of water from where the rain had collected on the tarpaulin sheets. That wouldn't last them long, though. Quinn, Santana and Brittany were slightly more successful. They'd gone out to find some food. While they hadn't managed to find much for an entire day's work, they'd found enough yucca to stop their stomachs growling for a few hours.

Dusk had drawn in, it was pitch black, and the girls were getting worried. The boys weren't back yet. They were sure that they would be fine. But it's impossible to stop the niggling in the back or your mind that tells you that they're not.

Rachel called a meeting at the same time as they ate their yucca for supper. "We need to talk about the boys." All the girls gathered around her.

"I'm sure they're fine." Santana offered, weakly. She too was worried. Puck had promised her they'd be back before sundown. Sundown was three hours ago.

"They could be hurt, Santana." Rachel barked back.

"Chill, hobbit. They can handle themselves."

"I have no doubt that they're perfectly capable of looking after themselves in a normal situation. But this is hardly normal. We're a group of seventeen year olds on an island on our own. Anything could go wrong."

"San's just as worried as you, Rachie." Brittany said quietly. "But she just handles it with denial. Don't let her work you up."

"We have to trust in them." Quinn turned to Rachel and spoke softly and earnestly. "If we think negatively then we'll get too bogged down. You need to be mentally strong to survive here. They'll be okay. But if we go out looking for them in this light, everyone'll be lost and we'll do more damage. We can stay here and wait. They know where we are so it'll be easier for them to find us."

Rachel nodded slightly. "Let's just sleep. The sooner we sleep, the sooner it'll feel morning has come, and the sooner we'll see the guys again."

Everyone nodded in agreement. They were all incredibly worried but, like Quinn said, there was nothing they could do and they needed to stay strong. The best thing they could do would be to sleep. Or at least try to.