[X] Call for Zelkova - he can't do this alone, in these conditions
There seems to be a misunderstanding when it comes to Zelkova, at least in my opinion. Zel is more than just useful for Shinji in a combat sense. No he is far more useful outside of combat as Zel opens Shinji's eyes to the supernatural if far more important if Shinji is going to go out into a storm. Without Zel, Shinji will be blind, but with Zel, the two can become more than their sum. Heck Harry lost against Shinji last year because he lacked the ability to see in the rain. I find it someone stupid of us if have Shinji leave the base without taking Zelkova with him, no matter how much the little guy needs to recover.
Either take Zel or tell Shinji to wait until Ku is ready. Those are the only option here that makes bloody sense. Shinji can not go into a storm and find anything of value if he is hindered by his lack of vision.
Since I picked Zelkova, I guess I forfit the other choice set, but I do want to comment on that bunch. Ask Budge is usually a good idea but I think it would be better to not use him during this trial run as its not the main event. We have already showcased almost everyone of Shinji cards, but the book is still being kept a secret (other than Ayaka of course). I do not care if Shinji thinks no one is around him, we still should not use the book at this time. You never know who might be watching outside of your ability to detect.
And as a second minor point against using Budge, is that its currently a storm with lots of rain. Budge is grumpy as hell on a good day, I doubt that the rain will improve his mood, especially if his book is getting soaked.
Since the Zelkova choice does not really answer the where Shinji should go, I would like to also put in (if that is ok)[X]Walk in an ever expanding spiral from his position after first walking away from the base.
The purpose of my amendment to the spiral choice is that Sprialing around the base seems like a bad idea if someone is watching Shinji from the air or stumbles on Shinji and/or his tracks. If someone where to notice the spiral pattern and Shinji was spiraling outwards, then logically they could deduce the point of origin. We do not want to signal where our base is so we should have Shinji walk away for a km or two. A small bonus of this change is that Shinji can make four circles each in cardinal directions away from the base and never overlap his sprial. Heck at some point the spiral would run right back into the base. Or he could just flow back at some point if he is really paranoid so that someone could not track him back to the base.