"Happy Birthday!" Kyle, Sam and Tom yelled.
Tom dumped a bucket of water unceremoniously right on Jerry. With a yelp, he jumped out of his sleeping bag.
"What's wrong with you?" He shook his head like a wet dog.
"Just wanted to surprise you," Kyle said, handing Jerry a small rapper.
Jerry stared from the parcel to Kyle as though expecting it to be a bomb, then took it carefully and opened it. "A chocolate bar?"
"It's not just a chocolate bar. It's a chocolate bar and all our love," Sam said. He had to admit that this was the most fun he'd ever had on Jerry's birthday.
A fond smile spread on Jerry's face. "Thanks."
"I can't believe Jimmy is such a log!" Tom said refilling the bucket and heading for Jimmy's sleeping bag.
Sam stepped back in case Jimmy would jump up and start throwing punches left and right. Tom dumped the water and Billy came screaming from under the covers.
"Are you mad?" he yelled brushing his clothes as if that would dry them.
Kyle and Tom started laughing, but Sam looked around for Jimmy and finally spotted him striding over as if he didn't have a care in the world. He took in Jerry's wet hair and Billy who was still mumbling under his breath and smirked.
"Do you think that you can fool me twice with the same trick? Tom did this to me last year. I guessed he liked the idea enough to try it again."
"Guilty as charged," Tom said, dropping the bucket on the ground. "Happy birthday," he added giving him a rapper too.
"Wow, a cookie, thanks." Jimmy gobbled it up and started gathering up his wet sleeping bag.
Sam looked at him. His brother seemed a little off, but he couldn't tell exactly what was wrong.
"Wait, you knew about this and kept quiet?" Jerry asked outraged. "I'm declaring you guilty of giving me pneumonia!"
"Relax, Jerry, you're not going to get pneumonia from a little water," Jimmy laughed, extracting two packed rafts from another few bags. "Let's get to it." He took out the pump, pulled a screw driver out of his cargo pocket and started messing with it.
"Jimmy, we should inflate the rafts, not destroy the pump," Sam said alarmed.
"I know, but it would be much faster to inflate them both at the same time. All this thing needs is a little more power..." He took out some batteries and wires.
"Trust Jimmy on this one. Let's pack everything up," Kyle said.
Sam watched as everyone gathered their things. Jimmy managed to inflate both rafts in record time while Jerry took care of the luggage, Kyle of the safety equipment and Billy kept an eye on William and Jim Rogers who was still watching them as though trying to determine if they were human or not.
And Sam couldn't help but swell with pride. His team was like a perfectly oiled clockwork machine. He didn't even have to say anything, they already knew what they had to do.
"I think we're done," Jerry said, throwing the last of the luggage in one of the boats.
"Great." Sam turned to the other boat, but froze seeing it full of luggage too. "Where did these things come from?" He asked Jerry menacingly, his arms folded across his chest.
"I packed some survival kits for each of us. In case the luggage boat sinks or something," Jerry said, strapping on his life vest.
"Wow, that's really smart, Jerry," Tom said tightening his lifejacket. "But we're not going to let anything happen to the luggage boat. We need everything in it. Some of us are going to be in it anyway."
"Ok, then," Jerry said seeming satisfied and gracefully received a helmet from Kyle.
"I don't remember including any of us in the luggage boat," Sam said, turning to Tom, frowning.
"Someone has to steer that boat, too, I hope you're aware of that," Tom replied looking at Kyle who was wrestling safety equipment on William.
"Ok, I admit it never crossed my mind, but don't tell anyone, okay?" Sam smirked, looking away from Tom. "Ready to go?"
"Yup," Jimmy said, coming towards them all equipped. "I sent Billy and Jim in the luggage boat. Billy can steer and Jim can look after William."
"Yeah, I guess that's okay..." Sam said halfheartedly, having no idea how to steer a rubber boat on a raging river. He only hoped that someone in their boat could do it, too.
"Jimmy and I can steer fine, don't worry," Tom answered patting Sam on the back with what very much resembled pity.
"Will you stop it with the mind-reading already?" Sam asked laughing and getting in the boat followed by the rest of the group except for Kyle who started pushing the boats towards the river.
For a second, the boats floating peacefully, then, as if someone had flipped a switch, they jerked downstream with incredible speed. Kyle barely managed to jump in the boat and tumbled over Tom. He fell over and dropped the oar. The boat rammed into a boulder and tilted dangerously. Jimmy used the other oar to steer it back on track. The other boat easily avoided the rock.
"I have a feeling I'm not going to enjoy this," Jerry mumbled, his fingers clutched tightly around the safety rope.
Sam had to agree he wasn't a big fan of rafting either, but after Tom got back in position, the two boats raced on without bumping into anything else.
After a few minutes of peaceful sailing, Sam relaxed. Tom and Jimmy were doing a very good job at avoiding big rocks and Billy was also handling himself well. Jim had no idea how to steer a boat, but Billy was giving him easy to follow instructions. Everything was going well.
"Where did you learn how to steer a boat?" he called out to Tom and Jimmy over the sound of the raging river.
"We actually went rafting once as part of a project initiated by our sponsor," Jimmy called back. "But it's really an instinctive thing."
Jimmy sunk the oar into the river as he said this and the boat moved to the right to avoid another jutting rock. Sam looked at the bubbling water, wondering if he would be able to instinct his way around rocks. His guess was no.
A scream rose over the sound of the raging river. Sam scrambled to turn in his seat, his heart in his throat. Billy's legs were the only visible part of him as William, who had somehow managed to untie himself, thrashed on top of him. Jim sunk his oar into the water, barely managing to avoid a boulder. The boat tilted dangerously with William's erratic movement. The luggage tumbled to one side of the boat.
Sam opened his mouth to say something, but his brain seemed frozen. They couldn't just pull over, and he had no idea what to do. Tom ran past him, jumped, flipped in midair and landed on the corner of the luggage boat. He tackled William and immobilized him.
"One of you, grab the other oar!" Jimmy yelled over to them and Jerry immediately got up and complied.
"How'd you decide what to do so fast?" Sam yelled over to Tom who was still wrestling with William.
"I didn't decide, just followed my gut. Though, I admit I planned the flip carefully." Tom laughed, grabbing the rope that had once kept William in place and attempted to use it on him again.
"You show-off!" Sam laughed, but was jerked into silence.
Their boat hit something huge and almost flipped over, pulling the other one after it. With Billy still on the floor and William squirming, Jim didn't manage to avoid the rock either. Their boat rammed full-force into it. Tom was tossed off William by the force of the impact and tumbled overboard.
Sam stared with wide eyes as Tom disappeared under the water. Kyle pushed past him and jumped on the other boat. His foot barely caught the edge of the boat and for an agonizing second, Sam thought he'd fall over too. Kyle regained his balance and dropped to his knees, sinking his hand in the water, searching for Tom's safety rope.
"Get him out, he can't swim," Jimmy said, appearing out of nowhere by Sam's side.
Even in a moment of total panic like this, Sam couldn't help but think straight. "Jimmy, don't tell me you let Jerry steer the boat!"
The boat jerked again as they hit another huge boulder.
"Damn, you're right." Jimmy scrambled back with the oar.
Sam turned his attention back to Kyle who had found the rope and was pulling it, but no Tom appeared.
"He's under the boat," Billy said, terrified. He yanked the rope away from Kyle and pushing him towards the edge of the raft. "Get him out!"
Kyle threw Billy a surprised look, but reached out under the boat. Sam held his breath, waiting and breathed relieved when Kyle pulled Tom out. His twin wasn't moving, but Kyle pumped on his chest a couple of time and tilted him over. Tom started coughing almost instantly and spit out a mouthful of water.
"I think I bumped my head to a rock or something," Sam heard him say as he rubbed his head. He didn't catch Kyle's answer, but he didn't care anymore. Tom was safe and that was all that mattered.
"My sunglasses!" Tom suddenly yelled. "I've lost my sunglasses."
Sam almost choked with hysteric laughter. That was his biggest problem? Tom finally came to the edge of the luggage boat and jumped back into theirs, flipping in midair again.
"You jerk, you only do that to make me jealous." Sam laughed, hugging Tom the moment he landed.
"True, true!" Tom grinned and reached for his survival kit. He rummaged inside for a second and extracted another pair of sunglasses. "There, I'm whole again," he said, putting them on.
Sam wondered how many pairs of sunglasses his twin actually had. He understood Tom's obsession, but still found it weird. He'd never had something he'd always carried with him.
"You should take a break from those sunglasses sometime," Jimmy said, his voice filled with relief. He sunk the oar in the water and steered next to the canyon wall to avoid a boulder.
Jerry let out a cry of pain. Sam jumped and turned to him. He was lying on the floor, apparently unconscious. Sam and Tom rushed to his side followed by Kyle who, after tying William up properly, had returned to his own boat. Jerry had a big bruise on the side of his head with a cut across it, but wasn't unconscious. He sat up, holding on to his temple, looking both annoyed and embarrassed. Sam and Kyle looked at him questioningly while Tom smirked and picked up the oar to go help Jimmy.
"What happened?" Sam asked.
"I... Jimmy steered next to the canyon and I wasn't paying attention and... I sort of scraped my head to it," he answered looking away from them.
"O-kay..." Sam said, turning away to hide his smirk and caught Jimmy and Tom exchanging grins.
Fortunately, the date between Jerry's head and the cliff wall was the last dramatic thing to happen on their journey. They peacefully sailed for hours after that. What had seemed to be a medium distance from the top of the cliff turned out to be much longer than Sam had anticipated. He fleetingly wondered how far the labs actually were.
The monotony of the journey and the noise that made it hard to talk had turned rafting into a rather boring experience. The sun had already turned red and was sinking towards the horizon and Sam was so thirsty, the surrounding desert seemed to have moved to his mouth. And it was even more frustrating since there was water around him but he couldn't drink it.
He looked into the setting sun, but his eyes went astray. He was tired and he could tell by the look on his brothers' faces, that so were they. Kyle leaned over the edge of the boat, one hand in the water and seemed to be in one of those strange, meditative moods he used to have before meeting up with Kay again. Sam was sure he was thinking about Kay, probably counting the hours since she left.
Jerry stared into the sun, too, his head now bandaged up properly. In the other boat, all was silent. Sam turned to Jimmy and Tom, but at that precise moment, the sun disappeared behind the canyon wall, lunging them into unexpected darkness.
Sam couldn't even see the bank properly anymore and wondered how Jimmy and Tom could still see the rocks they were avoiding. They were probably more tired than he was, but they had to reach the other side of the canyon today. There was nowhere to pull over.
"This is getting frustrating," Jimmy mumbled, turning to them.
"Sorry, I had no idea it would take this long. The distance seemed much smaller from above," Sam said apologetically.
"I'm not blaming anyone, it's just that..." Jimmy went on, but was interrupted by Tom who pulled his arm and pointed in front of the boat.
"The bank!"
"And it's damn close," Kyle added, sitting up. "Billy, watch out, we're going to bump into the bank," he yelled over to Billy.
"No, we're not," Jimmy said through gritted teeth.
He stuck the oar in the water on the side of the boat and heaved. The boat turned ninety degrees and tilted over as it hit the bank, burring them in luggage. Billy had done the same maneuver so now both boats stood upside-down on the bank.
"That was fun," Tom said joyfully, crawling out from under the boat.
"This is your idea of fun?" Jerry moaned, following him out. "My head is in so much pain, I would shoot it off if it didn't mean my death. I desperately need an aspirin."
"Don't worry, Jerry. We'll set up camp and rest. Then, tomorrow morning, you can rearrange the luggage," Sam said soothingly, looking at Kyle who grinned back at him.
Jim Rogers walked to Sam and Tom and stopped in front of them. Sam looked at him curiously, wondering if he was finally going to talk to them. By his pursed lips, he guessed not.
"Thank you," Jim said instead, looking at Tom. "To all of you actually. There was a moment back there when I thought we were goners." He reached out his hand and Tom shook it.
"No problem. We do that all the time."
Jim nodded, graced them with a weak smile and walked away. Sam followed his progress wondering what that man was thinking. His face was so straight, it seemed like the answer was nothing at all.
"We have cute camping tents this time," Tom said thrilled, taking his out and starting to put it up.
"Good. If we had those huge tents we had in the jungle, we wouldn't move this luggage without a tractor." Sam started searching for his own tent, putting Jim out of his mind.
He found a bottle instead. Extremely grateful, he walked to the river, filled it, and drained it almost instantly. The water was cold and crisp, soothing his insides. He filled another bottle for the night and walked back to the campsite.
"I sent Billy and Jim after firewood. Of fire shrubs or whatever," Jerry said, pulling out his sleeping bag. "I hope that's okay,"
"Yeah, sure," Sam said, looking at Jerry curiously and turned back to his own rucksack.
"There's something else that fascinates me," Kyle said, untying William and releasing him into the wild. "How come none of you can swim? I know for a fact that Sam and Jerry could drown in the tub if they didn't pay attention, but why don't either of you know either?"
Jimmy shrugged. "We just never had the chance to learn."
"Well, I think it's about time you did," Kyle said thoughtfully, going to retrieve William and take him for an evening walk.
Sam watched them leaving, feeling a bit worried. Something seemed wrong, and Sam had the feeling William was starting to get to Kyle.
He tried to imagine how it would feel if William was actually Christine's brother. He felt torn between the need to protect him and the need to kick him. The need to kick him happened to be stronger.
It would've been much easier if William were normal. He and Kyle could've discussed Kay and Kyle might've even found an ally in William. Knowing Kay would come back in a short time would've raised Kyle's spirits considerably. But, instead, he had to cope with William and also wonder if Kay would ever be back.
"Kyle, maybe you should let Jim take care of William," he said half-heartedly.
Kyle stopped and turned to him, but only shrugged and walked on.
Sam turned away from the restof the group, feeling that he needed rest now more than ever.