Cristian Ardt held up his hand, and the student body following along behind him halted with some amount of grumbling and shoving. Pursing his lips, Cristian studied the terrain around him. As nominal leader of the expedition, it was his duty to ensure that everyone made it back to camp safely and that the training exercise was completed successfully.
The students of Valley Baptist School were a highly trained group of young people who were being prepared to fight in the forefront of the battle against Satan and his minions. These young people would one day be the movers and shakers in Cristianity, and as such, their instructors had devised this training exercise for them.
The entire student body had been taken above Payson, Arizona, to the forested ridges and cliffs on top of the Mogollon Rim. They had been instructed to take a five-mile hike through the forest, the purpose of which still eluded Cristian. But they had done so with their typical ease and self-assurance. After all, these were very confident young people, highly trained, and some of the most skilled children and teenagers in the country. So it was with complete confidence and boldness that Cristian Ardt proclaimed to everyone else, “We’re lost.”
“Lost!” Lily exclaimed from somewhere in the group behind him. Cristian turned, but he couldn’t easily see her in the body of students—unless she was standing by Makenna who, well, made everyone seem tall. But then Lily pushed her way through everyone to confront Cristian, and he had no choice but to see her as she practically thrust her nose at his chin. “I told you we should’ve gone around the ridge back there.” She pointed somewhere vaguely back the way they had come.
Cristian stepped warily back. Lily could scold the hide off a porcupine if she was of a mind to, and a bit of distance seemed safer. “Yeah, well, going your way would’ve made us even loster.”
Lily blinked. “Is that even a word? How can we be more lost then we already are?”
“Dunno,” Cristian muttered. “But if anyone could do it, I’m sure you could.”
Lily’s eyes narrowed dangerously. Not a good sign. Cristian cleared his throat and looked at everyone else. “Anyone know where we are?” he asked.
Amanda raised her hand and Spencer said, “I do.” But everyone ignored them. Spencer was some sort of boy cub or golden eagle or something like that. Whatever he was, everyone had decided to pretend he hadn’t said anything. What could he know anyway? Amanda was so soft spoken and gentle that it was easy to forget about her—particularly when confronted with Lily, the psycho-woman from everyone’s worst nightmare!
No one else seemed unduly worried at the moment—though Gerardo looked hungry. But then he always looked that way. To say he was skinny would be an understatement. In fact, Gerardo would make one ugly skeleton when he died someday. The younger children had taken the stop in their march to play. Jacen, the youngest member of the Baker Boy Clan was amusing himself by chucking rocks at Levi Tittle who dodged them while standing precariously close to the edge of a sandstone cliff. The other children cheered on either Jacen or Levi or both. Owen and Kyle were walking around taking wagers on the outcome—something Cristian felt sure they’d learned from Lily. In the end, Cristian decided to ignore the kids. He’d rather tackle a grizzly bear than try to keep those kids in line—besides, two of them were his sisters, and his success of getting them to mind were nil.
The teenagers, however, decided to press their case as to what should be done to get themselves unlost.
Delilah, of course, took Lily’s side, and standing shoulder to shoulder they made a formidable wall of feminine disapproval. “Let’s go back,” Delilah insisted. “We should’ve never followed you.”
“Brother Tittle put me in charge,” Cristian told her patiently.
Delilah snorted and rolled her eyes. Delilah was the only girl Cristian had ever met who could “snort” femininely. It always made him nervous. “Brother Tittle just wanted to watch some stupid ballgame,” she said. “He just wanted us gone so he could enjoy it—him and Brother Gieseler.”
Gerardo interrupted. “Wish I was with them. I’m hungry.”
Isaiah Diaz laughed. “You’re always hungry, Gerardo.”
“Shut up,” the taller young man snapped. Cristian had noticed that those were Gerardo’s favorite words. He could pack more irrelevant meaning in those two words than anyone Cristian had ever met.
Isaiah ignored the insulting tone and came up to Cristian. “I think we should head east.” He pointed straight up a nearby ridge.
“Um, that’s north,” Cristian corrected absently.
“So? It’s as good a direction as any.” Isaiah grinned at everyone. Isaiah was an interesting fellow. He came from royalty; his father was the king of some tiny nation somewhere unpronounceable. Isaiah even had a fancy royal title: The Wonderful Incredible Manly Prince. But everyone just called him WIMP for short.
“Look, WIMP,” Cristian began, “I don’t think choosing a random direction to walk in will help.”
Isaiah just shrugged. “Okay Mr. Know-It-All, which way do we go?”
Trey shoved his way through the crowd, Dalen Baker and Jordan Fowler following. “We think we’re too high,” Trey insisted. “We need to find a way down the cliff. Camp is down there somewhere.” He pointed down the hundred foot cliff to the tops of the pine trees below.
“Whoa,” Jordan said. “We think? I don’t think anything of the sort.”
Trey rolled his eyes and rubbed his hands together briskly. “Of course you do.”
“No I don’t.” Jordan started to rub his hands together too, caught himself and deliberately folded his arms across his chest instead. “You don’t know what I think.”
Dalen looked from one to the other, shrugged and walked away. Apparently, he didn’t agree with either of them. Cristian sighed. “Look guys, we’re lost. We need to work together to get out of here.”
“Who put you in charge again?” Jordan asked. He too walked away, grumbling to himself.
Isaiah Diaz spoke up, “We go east!” He pointed north.
Cristian opened his mouth to say it was as good a direction as any when Lily hauled Makenna and Daniela up to stand next to her and Delilah, building on their wall of complete and utter disapproval. Though honestly, Cristian didn’t think either of the new girls really contributed physically to their efforts to keep him from running away if he was of a mind to. One was too short and the other too skinny. They both, however, made up for it by casting deep frowns at him that seemed more tangible than an actual wall would. He felt completely boxed in. Lily sniffed in disdain. “You’d listen to the WIMP before us? Before me?” Lily thrust her nose at Cristian again who was forced to back up—closer to the cliff edge. He was starting to feel claustrophobic.
Amanda came to the rescue. She grabbed Lily by the shoulder and hauled her back. Lily squawked in surprise and flailed her arms as she was thrust back towards the rest of the group. The other three girls in her pack backed away while pretending they were doing it because they wanted to. Amanda said, “Cristian, Spencer knows where we are. He can get us out of here.”
“Uh-huh,” Cristian agreed absently as an idea suddenly struck him. “Gerardo, climb a tree and see if you can see anything. That might tell us where we are.”
“Why me?” the lanky youth demanded. He turned, spotted some of the kids, and pointed at them. “Ask one of them. They like climbing trees.”
Instantly several of the boys came running up. “I’ll do it!” Jordan Gieseler shouted. Trevor Long and Lily’s brother, Clint, all jumped about to be chosen. Cristian opened his mouth to protest, but Jordan raced to the nearest tree and began climbing. The other two boys followed close on his heels.
“Do you really think they know what to look for?” Cristian demanded of Gerardo.
Gerardo shrugged. “Who cares?”
The WIMP looked north again. “I say we go east!”
Frustrated, Cristian turned away, and that’s when everything really started to go wrong.
Jacen finally succeeded in hitting Levi with a rock. It wasn’t a hard blow and it hit Levi on the shoulder, but it turned him around and he stumbled into his sister, Cheyenne, and knocked her off the cliff. Horrified, Cristian could only watch as the girl fell out of sight with a long panicked scream. Everyone rushed over to the edge of the cliff. His heart pounding, Cristian poked his head over the edge and looked down, dreading what he would see.
Praise the Lord, Cheyenne hadn’t fallen very far. She had landed on a thin ledge about eight feet down. She was still screaming though, her eyes tightly shut. Cristian didn’t know if she was hurt or not, but one thing he did know. Her father was going to kill him. Dead. End of the line. Finished.
Amanda called down, “Cheyenne, you’re okay. Look at me.”
Amanda’s calm voice penetrated the girl’s panic, and she slowly opened her eyes and looked up. Her scream died off enough for Amanda to ask, “Are you hurt?”
The girl moved her arms and legs and then shook her head.
“Good! Hang on! We’ll get you up and safe.” Amanda turned to Cristian. “How do we get her up?”
Cristian didn’t have a clue. All he could think about was how Cheyenne’s father was going to murder him. Images of being thrown off this very cliff to make a point to the rest of the students kept racing through his mind.
Spencer came up, taking off his backpack. He was the only one who had chosen to wear one. Everyone else hadn’t thought to bring any additional supplies except for water bottles. Spencer rummaged around until he produced a stout rope. “Use this,” he said, “but I think someone’ss going to have to go down and get her. I don’t think she’ll be able to climb the rope or hang on while we pull her up.”
Cristian just stared at it until Isaiah wacked him on the back. “Snap out of it, Oh Great and Mighty Leader of Ours!”
Cristian grunted, his mind clearing. “Thanks, WIMP. I needed that.” Cristian saw Alex Sorrells standing nearby. “Alex, I need you to help keep Cheyenne calm. Can you do that?”
“Sure,” the tall girl replied. She marshalled Ella, Jasmynne Byrd, Jazmin Martinez, Leah and Aidan to help. The girls edged as close to the cliff as they felt comfortable and began chatting with Cheyenne.
Meanwhile, Cristian looked for and found Marquise Byrd. “Marquise, we’re going to lower you down there to get Cheyenne.” He glanced around. “Can we tie the rope to a tree or something?”
“It’s not long enough to reach,” Spencer said. “We’re going to have to hold it.”
“Then form a line!” Cristian hollered. He, Spencer, Gerardo, Jordan, Dalen, and Trey all grabbed the rope while Marquise twined the other end around his body. Marquise made sure the rope would hold him and then slowly edged out over the cliff above where Cheyenne waited on the ledge. Walking slowly forward, the line of teen boys managed to lower Marquise the eight feet to the ledge.
Cristian noticed that Amanda had sent Lily, her sister Hope, and a couple of other teenage girls up the ridge that the WIMP had wanted to climb. He had no idea what for, so he ignored them and turned his attention back to the situation at hand.
Below, Marquise managed to untie the rope and help Cheyenne to her feet. He then looped the rope under her arms and, following Spencer’s instructions, formed a loop for her to put one foot in. “Hang on to the rope,” Marquise instructed.
Cheyenne nodded, grabbed the rope and closed her eyes.
“She’s ready, pull!” Marquise called.
Cristian and the others slowly walked backwards, careful not to pull too fast. When Cheyenne neared the top of the cliff, Alex and Amanda reached down and helped her up. She was safe. Cristian let out his breath. At least Brother Tittle wouldn’t kill him now—maim and cripple, perhaps, but not murder. Thank the Lord for small favors.
“Hey,” Marquise called from below, “What about me?”
About that time, Lily returned with several of the adults in toe. Guess the camp really had been up the ridge after all. WIMP had been accidently right, but then it seemed Spencer had really known all along.
Brother Gieseler looked over the edge of the cliff at Marquise, shook his head, and started to laugh. Cristian frowned. He really didn’t think it was all that funny. He then spotted Brother Tittle. The formidable man, after assuring that his daughter was okay, stormed over to Cristian. Cristian idly wondered if he should just jump off the cliff and save Brother Tittle the trouble.
Cristian’s comrades, his dear friends, his loyal confederates, all backed away, pretending like they didn’t know him. The traitors! Brother Tittle poked a stiff finger in Cristian’s chest, rocking him backwards. “You and I are going to have a long talk later.”
Cristian gulped. Brother Tittle turned away and he and Brother Gieseler took the rope and pulled Marquise up from the ledge. It was all done in short order, and then Brother Gieseler called everyone over to him. “Listen up. There’s an important lesson to learn from what happened here today. When you worked together, you saved Cheyenne.” The principal looked around, making sure everyone was listening. “But when you were all trying to be the leader, everyone deciding to do their own thing, that’s when things fell apart. Unity. Cristians should always work together. Unity is a God given strength that if used, goes a long way for the cause of Christ.”
Leave it to Brother Gieseler to turn everything into a lesson, but Cristian knew it was true. He realized then that the villain in this story had been all of them. At first, no one wanted to work together and even Cristian had ignored those that could’ve actually helped him. But then when they had worked to save Cheyenne, each and every one had been a hero. He realized then that heroes and villains were not always so obvious. Everyone had the potential to be a hero, and everyone had equal potential to be the villain.
The hero is not the leader or the follower. The hero is the one who unifies others in a righteous cause. He doesn’t need recognition or power; he just needs to get along with his fellow laborers and work together. Yes, it was an important lesson.
Brother Tittle pointed up the ridge. “The camp is just up there. Let’s all get back.”
As the students began trudging up the ridge, Brother Gieseler suddenly stopped. “Cristian, where’s my son?”
Cristian returned a blank look. “Your son?”
Then from way up a tall pine tree a voice floated down. “I’m up here, dad!”
Brother Gieseler threw a hard look at Cristian. “Why is my son up a tree?”
Cristian sighed. Some days, it just didn’t pay to be the leader.
The End