The time had finally come for me to announce the plan to the whole of the camp. Nothing could describe the nerves stirring inside me. Holly had managed to gather everyone by the tree- you could hear the confusion in the crowd.
I carefully climbed the tree so that I could deliver my speech where everyone could see me. Nerves. The nerves were getting to me. Harvey and Jack were already on the tree; they were my backup if anything went wrong.
"Alright, everyone shut up now!" Harvey shouted, then there was silence. "My friend Thomas here has come up with a plan. You better listen because this could be our only chance at surviving out here, okay?" The audience nodded there heads. Good. At least they were going to pay attention. "Go on then Thomas"

I took a deep breath. Just let it flow... I thought to myself "Er... Hi, I'm Thomas and I er... I have a plan."
...Just let it flow...
"As you have probably heard, Sergeant Joe has disappeared. This means we no longer have a leader or sense of direction, we're basically lost in a forest. I think we should do something about this, mostly because if we sit here and do nothing we'll die, but also because we are a team. And this is what we've been trained to do. I suggest we split into groups of about ten and try to find Sergeant Joe. We'll meet back here and see if there is any luck. Does that sound okay?..."
A few nods in the crowd.
"Who's the leader?" Someone asked.
"I don't know... Any volunteers?"
No one nodded their head this time.
"Why not you as the leader? You'd definitely be a good one" another person said.
"Well, if you want me to..." I said quietly.
I was surprised at how many people agreed! Me? A leader?
"Okay then! I'll be your leader but are we okay about the plan?"
"Why don't you go and find Sergeant Joe on your own, you're the leader!" Some grumpy boy shouted.
Oh no... What do I say now!?
"Um..." I was stumbling for words; I used to be in the debate team at my old secondary school so I should be good at comebacks.
"When I was at school" I start, "I used to love reading. Especially dystopian novels! I didn't know that one day this world would actually turn into a dystopia! But I learnt something from reading these books: the protagonist is never really the hero. It's always friends that help, and motivate them. If it weren't for other people, the story would be pretty boring. So I say that we need a group and we need to work together! I'm not going to get very far without all of you! So are you in with the plan!?" I said with a moment of triumph at the end.
I heard lots of cheers which meant I had succeeded!
"I hope that means yes! So, let's get into groups and begin to set off!" I announced just before noise erupted again.