The Recruit

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child abuse and animal cruelty.

For the final training exercise, the kids have 72 hours to get to four checkpoints in the jungle. Each team is given a backpack full of supplies and a map. James and Kerry journey through the trees, careful to slather on insect repellant and sunscreen. When they reach the first checkpoint, they find a boat full of snacks, pots and pans, and a giant snake the kids surmise they are supposed to kill for dinner. After eating, they build a shelter and settle down to the sound of bird calls that “served as an eerie reminder that civilization was a long way off” (186).

The next day, James and Kerry navigate twisting rivers and tributaries toward the second checkpoint. When they get there, one of the other teams is there, and they learn the third team has been there and moved on already. To get to the third checkpoint, the kids have to travel about 15 kilometers in several hours. James thinks this will be easy until he realizes, “There’s going to be some kind of catch, isn’t there?” (193).