Night fell and myself's, Lara's and Jamie's camp had only a fire pit with two long logs top and left of it.
"So does anyone have any idea how to make a fire?" Rob asked as we all covered around the empty pile of logs and twigs. I remember my dad teaching me a thing or two about them. He was in the army, and wanted me to follow in his footsteps one day, so he taught me a lot about survival, guns and weapons and a bit of bush craft. I took it upon myself to find out more, make him proud, but i never got the opportunity to do some of the stuff. We would go to 'family fun weekends' up in an army base specifically for the war veterans and their families. There I learned how to handle, aim and use a guns and other primal weapons.
"Don't know" i said blankly looking at the fire pit. Spencer leaned forward to swipe some stones together and hope for the best, but still nothing. Jamie slivered into her baggy hoodie and led sideways on the log facing the fire pit, and Lara leant her head on her hands and placed her arms on her legs. Rob enthusiastically stood up and dramatically said,
"I know the perfect solution!" Everyone surprised, looked his way with joy and relief in their faces. "We use the gingers hair!" We all glared at him until he sat down.
It was getting darker to the point we were finding it hard to see the person next to us, although it was a hot country we were on, at night it had the opposite effect.
"I think I know a little about it." I murmured.
"Well go on gingy, tell us your gingery ways!" Rob smoothly said.
I scrunched my lips together as like a awkward motion, and grabbed a sharpish stone and started to sharpen a stick.
"Kat? That isn't doing anything." Spencer sighed.
"No no no no no no..." I replied, "just let me do ma thing." I continued to sharpen until the rock was blunt.
"Okay gingy i like your efforts but carving a small hole in a plank of wood isn't going to help" Rob commented. Gingy was like a group nickname for me, you know because I'm ginger...
"No no no, just wait, i might be able to do it." This is how i learned to make one, the primitive way at least; first you get the kindling, this can be small wood shavings, wool or dried grass, surround it with small rocks or stones, this creates the base and the frame of the fire. Now here comes the tricky bit, you need to calve a small ditch in a log, cut a slit from the ditch to the side, make sure it's dry, and get a long thin stick and start twisting it, remember speed is key! Not force, apply more pressure when you see smoke, then you can put the embers the rubbing made onto your kindling and blow thoroughly to light your kindle. When it is alight place some small twigs on top and gradually build it up with larger sticks and continue to blow until it is all alight.
"You see I sharpened the stick for kindling, and so when the log smokes, i can place the embers on the kindling, blow..."
"Don't spit" a voice that sounded extremely like Spencer's in the background loudly said. I looked behind me and rolled my eyes and continued to work on the fire.
"And... Boom, fire." After i finished blowing on the embers, a small candle like flame struck, it put smiles on all our faces. Me feeling light headed again sat down and looked at the fire whilst Jamie and Rob built the fire up. Moments later the fire was big enough to keep everyone happy and warm. At least now we are on the right track to survival. With all our ideas and special skills we can get through this.
Morning came and we all had aches and pains, most of us found it hard to stand up, it was worse because where were all starving like we've been on a hunger strike for weeks on end. So whether we liked it or not, we had to get up.
We needed some deep motivation (to be honest it's was just the same as getting up to school) but we managed to get 3/5 up, that being myself, Rob and Jamie, but it took time and effort to get Jamie up; i ended up pushing her off the log.
"I'm... So... Hungry..." Lara moaned.
"Gingy you got the fire going you're smart. Do it again." Rob said jokingly while waving his arms around. I swear he's a 12 year old in a 20 year old's body. I looked at everyone sacredly i hate being the important person, i can't work under pressure i freeze, and in situations like these it's even harder.  I mean i could probably do a lot here to help, its just I'm scared of failing.
"Er....." I longly groaned. Already i feel the pressure of trying to please people to a high enough standard, this is going to be painful. "Right..."
Rob went out to try and see if there's any to eat. While Spencer went off without a word trying to gather large logs and sticks, Lara closed her eyes and continued to sleep. Jamie stared into the void of where i was trying my best to make another fire.
"I can't do it, i just can't do it" I screamed as every attempt failed, was there something i was doing wrong? Was the slit not big enough? Or am i just too stupid for this?
"Kat." Jamie said softly, suddenly snapping out of the void and wanted my attention. "Breathe, you can do this, just believe."
"This is not some sort of fairy tail Jamie" i said looking back at the unsuccessful fire. Jamie came to sit down next to me, "you can do this." She said even calmer, i looked at her and said nothing. My hands were aching and large spots where appearing on them, the pain was agonising.
"No that's it i cant, i cant, i cant, i cant, i cant." I was so annoyed that I ended up throwing the stick somewhere in the pile of fire wood. "How, how did i do it, how did i?"
"Guys" Rob said in the background, we turned to face his way by the river. "Just do it..." He made a strange hand action and made his face look stubborn and broad. Lara and Jamie were the only people laughing, meanwhile only me and Spencer the people wanting to get work done, walked off trying to find materials for shelters and other bush craft constructions.
"Kat..." She stretched in a persuasive tone, "if you give up then, you will never be able to believe in yourself." She wanted to give me motivation but my mind is not in the right state, let's get things done then i'll joke around.
"Hey guys... Look at this..." Spencer said whilst waving some large animal skull around on a long, curved stick. Spencer was making strange indian tribal shouts. The skull was yellowy white and had a big crown and a long snout, it was cracked at the top with a small bullet hole cut where the crack is.
"Spencer." I said when i was about to pick up a rock. We all stopped what we were doing to observe this scene Spencer was pulling off. "What are you doing?" I said confusedly
"Oo oo oo oo oo. Found a skull" Spencer quickly said after his chant, he waved it around Lara and Rob until Lara got freaked out.
"Guys..." Jamie said cautiously. "You do realise that this could mean that there is a predator somewhere, right?" Our faces suddenly went from happy to serious.
"Well then, we are going to have to get our heads down and finish camp." Spencer said losing his last little bit of joy, and putting down the skull stick.
"Hey." I said in a calmer tone. "We should assign ourselves to jobs and stuff to ya know, get stuff done." I looked around they all nodded, even tho Lara still sat on the log, she was still willing to help after what Jamie concluded. "Okay, so we need a builder, a farmer, an items gatherer, a hunter and a smart person."
"Ill be the person who can't do anything cause they're mentally and physically in cable of that." Lara said squinting at me due to the bright sunshine light.
"Jamie you're smart." Spencer said whilst leaning on a tree, Jamie hated it but she is now stuck with it since we all agreed.
"Er okay i'll be the hunter! Cause look at these predator eyes." Rob said confidently.
"Hang on..." Spencer spoke up. "I’m the hunter i can actually hunt." Spencer said he had this way with survival and stuff, but just between you and me i don't think he has any experience.
"Hey!" Jamie said whilst picking logs for the unsuccessful fire. "You can both be hunters just don't go savage on us."
"But what about the farmer?" Said Spencer rather harshly.
"We don't need one yet we have nothing to farm, so just share the role." Jamie and her smart ideas suggested.
"Seems like a reasonable compromise." Rob said agreeing to the suggestion.
"So you two go hunting, Lara you can gather materials and stuff, Kat if you can build and myself and Lara will help out when we can, and i'll just chip in somewhere." This is why she is the smart one, because she's smarter than us all put together.
"Yeah... Whatever... I can't promise you lot anything special though." I gathered some materials and headed to the river. At the river, i brought a large round stone with me. I sat on a flat rock above the river bed so i won't get wet and placed the on a convenient placed slanted rock right in front of me, the stone i was carrying was a thick rounded triangle shape, i had a much more denser stone with me and i started to chip away the triangle stone at the base of it. I then grabbed some gravel in the river and scattered it on the rock in front of me. I then after heavily chipping the triangle stone to a thinner end, grazed the stone up and down the rock in front for about 10 minutes.
What i was doing was making the rock sharper so it could be used as a hatchet (axe), all i need to do now is to make a handle.
"And we are done... I think" I grabbed the stone blade and held it up in the air.
"Guys, Gingy's done a thing!" Rob shouted from a distance.
"Not even 10... Seconds of the hunting job and you're already scaring the food away!" I quietly heard in the background.
"Oh yeah, Sorry" Rob still proceeding to shout.
"Oh my... God! Shut up!" A distant shout screamed.
I found myself a thick stick with a curve at the end of it, the stick was about the size of my arm and very durable. Forcefully hammering a pointed stone in the curved stick i wiped the sweat off my forehead and shook my hand to somehow get rid if the pain. There was a trick you can use with the embers you use to create a fire with, however with no luck on my side; I'm just going to have to forget it for now.
I smoothed it out best i could with the gravel and a leaves, and placed the stone blade in. I tore up some plant roots in half and span them together to make a long prickly rope, it was only a couple of centimeters wide and a few meter long but it will do for the hatchet without glue or tape. It took a few tries to get it right, well a lot, but i finally made a decent hatchet!
"Right." I proudly said studding my way to Lara with my very own primitive hatchet. The stone pierced straight through the stick, the rope equally wrapped around both sides and the the handle shaped best to fit my hand.
"Okay let's see if this works..." I hit a slim tree about 6 or 7 feet high with my hatchet. I thought the power of the tree was stronger than the power in my axe but surprisingly, the tree's power failed, and wired away. "You have to hit the tree 360 degrees all the way around, so it's more weak and you can snap it off." I said whilst ploughing my way through the tree. The tree was on its last knees, its bark and wood chips were flying everywhere and no match to my hatchet. Finally, the tree was chopped enough for me to be able to snap it off.
"Woah! You did a thing!" Lara cheered. I passed her the axe and watch her attempt to cut down the tree. Her force on the axe was strong but she needed a bit more power, however she could do it to a good standard and didn't need any further lessons (like i knew what i was doing anyways). I explored our area a little picking up bits and bobs here and there, judging places and thinking about survival techniques and what my dad and the military told me. We were fortunate enough to have found a clear space, all we had to do was clear the large plant or move the large rock. Our spot was not all flat though, i had a couple of high bits of land stacked up in the Northern and Northeast of camp, there were wide like a lorry and as big as my log I've just found here. It would be a great place to build a shelter. The Northern one was just lifted off the ground more like a muddy slope to the Northeast pile.  The space we found was either big or small, it wasn't small enough to be compact, not wasn't small enough for us not to build in. It had a few slopes around the west edge with tree roots on top acting as a fence, that lead back to the crash after roughly a 10 minute walk. Just next door to camp was the clear river, nothing to special there. And just at the bottom is the (or as Lara likes to call it) the sit down and shut up area, where it consists of our wonderful large sanctuary; taller than a median hotel and wider than a plump man in a free buffet. Sanctuary has roots that has risen from the ground and long and wide enough to hold a whole fat camp for hours. The rest is a circular space which in the left of camp we have our fire place and the rest is clear.
"Hello?... Hello?" A sad voice said.