Trial by Fire by Jeff Probst Page A

direction of Lookout Point. As long as they could still hear the plane, there was still some hope.
    He staggered forward on wobbly legs, struggling to make a fast, straight line toward the open ground of the point. When he got there, the plane was still in sight, but no longer overhead. It had already started heading away from the island.
    â€œHEY! HEY! DOWN HERE!”
    Jane and Buzz were right behind now, screaming as well.
    â€œHELP US!”
    â€œSTOP! COME BACK!”
    Carter fell to his knees at the base of their six-foot-tall pile of twigs, branches, and palm fronds. He reached inside, pulled out the flare, and yanked off the cap. It began to spark and flame right away, igniting the smallest pieces of kindling.
    He dropped the flare in the middle of the pyre and let the flames take over. The fire grew quickly, and started to grow taller. Hotter. Brighter.
    â€œDOWN HERE! DOWN HERE!” Buzz and Jane continued to yell, jumping and waving. The plane was right there—still close enough for them to see its gray body and the dark blue markings on its wings and tail.
    There were people inside that plane. People who could help them. Water. Food. Rescue.
Turn around,
Carter thought.
Just turn around and look.
    But it was banking west now, heading back out over the ocean. For good.
    â€œNO!”
    â€œCOME BACK!”
    â€œSTOP! PLEASE!”
    It seemed impossible, but there was no denying it.
The plane was leaving.
It didn’t matter how much shouting or waving they did anymore. A minute later, it was gone, almost as if it had never been there to begin with.
    For a long time, nobody said anything or even moved. There were no words for the feelings Carter had. He knew he was going to cry. Eventually. But not right now. All he could really feel was the heat of the signal fire behind him. The whole thing had blazed up as quickly and intensely as they’d imagined it might.
    Just not in time to save them.

    Buzz felt numb. He stared at the empty sky where the plane had been just a minute ago, willing it to reappear. But of course, it didn’t. Their one chance of rescue had just evaporated, like some kind of dream. Or a nightmare, really.
    Finally, Jane stood up. Buzz stayed where he was. He followed her with his eyes as she walked to the edge of the point. She looked down for several seconds, then turned and walked slowly in the other direction, to gaze back through the trees toward the ravine.
    â€œJane?” Buzz asked. “What is it?”
    She seemed to be thinking about something besides the plane. When she turned around again, there was a strange expression on her face.
    â€œThe tree bridge,” she said.
    â€œWhat about it?” Carter asked.
    But Buzz realized right away what she meant. It came over him with a fresh wave of dread. The fact was, they already had a whole new problem to deal with. A big one.
    There was a reason they’d built their signal fire up here. Lookout Point was an isolated tower of rock, with views in every direction. There were no trails or paths leading up here—just steep cliffs and drop-offs on every side. Up to now, the only way to reach the point had been by crossing the tree bridge—the one that no longer existed.
    And
that
meant they’d lost their only way down from this place.

CHAPTER 15
    V anessa stood on the rocks of an unfamiliar stretch of shore, staring at the last thing she’d expected to find here on Nowhere Island.
    It was an old boat. It sat in a rocky clearing of the shore, at the foot of several tall lava cliffs. The boat must have crashed here, just like the
Lucky Star
—except this one had never left its resting spot.
    It was hard to believe her eyes. She watched it from a distance for several minutes, just taking it all in.
    She hadn’t intended to be gone this long. Somewhere around sunrise, the unexplored shore-line had called to her. She’d climbed up onto Dead Man’s Shelf, started picking her way