Chapter 16-23 Flight 29 Down (END)

Chapter 16 starts out with Lex and Jackson searching around for dry fire wood and suddenly they realize that Nathan has been gone for a long time searching for food, so they decide to go search for him. They follow his tracks to find out that he got knocked out when he fell out of a coconut tree. So they go back to the beach and Melissa finds the camera with a dead battery. Taylor left the camera on but won't admit to anything. Finally all the campers meat and decide to pick a leader. Daley and Nathan make compelling arguments as to who should become leader, and Daley doesn't tell anyone about the water she lent to Taylor and Eric to bribe them to vote for them. Jackson end's up unanimously being voted leader. So Daley freaks out and everyone gets mad and storms into the jungle. The next day Lex finds a solar charger in the plane and there able to recharge the battery. Nathan tries making a solar still to catch water from the humidity and it works and they get a small amount of water.

The next day all the information comes to surface over how much food the group really has. Daley tells everyone that six bottles of water was "stolen", and they only have enough food for three days. So everyone freaks out and Jackson ends up calming everyone down and taking control of the group as leader. Daley finds Taylor in the jungle washing her hair later, and she tells her she can't waist water and she has to return it immediately. She then finds out that Eric stole the other five and then she helps him sneak them back so she doesn't get blamed for the mishap.

Daley and Eric then head into the forest in search of water. The find moist water but no spring, so Daley decides to start digging and they end up stumbling upon an underground spring. They fill up all the bottles and return to camp and the whole group is ecstatic. There jumping around and partying and all the sudden Captain Russell comes out of the bushes. He stumbles into camp really thirsty and the group start raiding the food bin and looking for shoes for Captain Russell since he only has flip flops. Jackson takes command and tells Russell he must return half the food since he didn't need it all. Russell is already planning another expedition into the jungle to get a better perspective of the island. On their first expedition they almost died and ran out of water. So they give some food back and tell the group what their plan is for the next expedition. Jackson gives Russell his shoes and they return into the jungle before nightfall. The main seven travellers realize that they are in for a lot more then they bargoned for and this is the first book in a series of six or seven.