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But Nicola never heard the rest because suddenly she was falling much too fast toward the planet below.
Cough!
Splutter!
Eeeeuww-cough!
Nicola spat and spat again, trying desperately to clear her throat of the most horrible taste. She seemed to have swallowed an entire bucket of . . . something disgusting. It had a burned, ashy taste.
She opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was a huge, furry, gray creature with white teeth looming over her.
Nicola screamed and backed away.
"Calm down," said the furry creature. "It's me."
Nicola blinked.
It was Shimlara. She was completely covered in some sort of gray, ashy material, so only her eyes and teeth were visible.
Nicola looked down at herself and realized she was covered in the same stuff. Her dress was ruined. She tugged at the charred remains of her parachute dangling uselessly behind her back.
"I think we've landed face-first on a mountain of volcanic ash," said Shimlara huskily. "I've got some lodged right at the back of my throat."
"What about the others?" said Nicola.
She stood up and her feet sank into the ash as if she were standing on a sandy beach. Another ash-covered figure appeared in the distance, choking and coughing. It was her brother. She could tell by the careless way he was swatting at the ash on his clothes.
"Over here, Sean!" she called.
Sean jumped, yelled, and held up his arms in a defensive karate position.
Nicola giggled. "It's us! Nicola and Shimlara!"
Sean dropped his arms and called out, "Yeah, yeah, I knew that!"
He stomped through the ash toward them, and there was a shout of terror as he nearly stepped on Tyler.
At the same moment, Greta and Katie emerged from the ash, screaming when they saw each other, and then screaming more in response to the other's screams.
Finally, everybody calmed down and stood in a circle, brushing ash off their clothes and hair, and tearing off the burned remains of their parachutes.
"How could you have forgotten lava screen for the parachutes?" said Greta to Nicola. "We really need checklists. That's what I'd do if I were the leader. I would have checklists for everything."
Nicola managed not to say, "Well, why didn't you remember lava screen?" She'd learned that the best way to respond to Greta's criticism was to ignore her. Instead she said, "Oh, look at those giant fans! I was wondering what happens to the ash from the volcanos!"
She pointed to a row of fans as big as windmills on the side of the volcano. They were efficiently blowing the ash and cinders from the volcanos into the mountain of ash that they'd landed upon.
"XYZ40 told us about the fans," said Tyler.
"Did she?" said Nicola. "I don't remember that part."
"You were thinking about the lava screen and remembering a time you forgot to put sunscreen on at the beach and everybody at school called you tomato face," said Shimlara.
"Shimlara!" said Nicola, embarrassed. "Why were you reading my mind? That's private! That's so rude!"
"Sorry." Shimlara looked down and kicked at the ash. "I was just wondering what you were thinking about."
"You should have been concentrating on XYZ40's briefing, Nicola," said Greta. "I mean if you're thinking about sunburn at such an important time, you really have to ask yourself, are you the right person for the job?"
