by A. Anders
I didn’t stare long before Brad stepped into view.
“Hey, can I sit?” Brad asked.
“Sure,” I replied, wondering what awkward situation he was going to put me in next.
“Sorry about kissing you last night,” he said with a sincerity that I had never seen from him.
“Yeah, no problem,” I said, trying to be cool without being encouraging, but immediately regretting my nonchalance.
“Are you freaked out about it?”
“No, why would I be?”
“Exactly. You put 15 hot guys together and deprive them of sex for days and things happen, right?”
Brad turned, looking around. His eyes rested on Fitness Freddy who sat at a nearby table, staring at us. Brad gave him a knowing smile and a nod. Freddy’s jaw dropped. Panicked, he lowered his eyes and shoveled pancakes into his mouth.
“He knows what I mean,” Brad added coyly.
I thought for a second. He was implying that he and young Freddy had “been together.” Was this what people did on these shows? Was everyone doing it? Hadn’t Freddy professed his love for Rose after our first group date? What… the… hell?
“But it was fun last night, right?” Brad continued.
“Listen, you’re cool and all. I’m just not into that,” I said as casually as I could.
“Not that! The Viking funeral.”
How could I tell him that I wasn’t that type of guy either?
“Aren’t they gonna be pissed about what we did to them?”
“Royally. But it’s us against them. And we’re smarter, right?”
“Brad, people really are dying here. I watched Kurt and Ian both die.”
“Ian, too, now?” he asked dismissively.
“I told you that I saw him die,” I insisted.
“And, you know what? I saw a guy get attacked by sharks. He’s over there,” Brad said pointing at Sam. “And, two others get mauled by a bear. They’re over there. Ford, what do you think would have happened if you didn’t heroically jump into that cage? Do you really think that they would have let the bear eat Victor or Freddy?”
“I’ve seen the show kill people.”
“So now you think that the show is killing these people?”
“I’ve watched two people get eliminated and then die.”
Brad looked at me, unpersuaded. He took a deep breath and calmed himself before continuing. “Then maybe you should get to know your allies so you’re not the next one gone.”
Brad didn’t believe me. That was his mistake, but he was right about one thing. To stay in the game, I needed to know my allies.
Brad walked me over to Freddy’s table. Victor and Bernard were with him. Freddy was having a problem looking me in the eyes, but the others were friendly.
As much as I wanted to explore the tower and the island’s highland, I spent the day with my new allies. It wasn’t bad once everyone warmed up to me. It reminded me of a platoon.
When Gray, Bob, Carl, and Sam returned from their group date, it was without Buck-Naked Billy. The four of them looked as beaten up as we had been. Brad was the one to ask them for details.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Gray responded gruffly.
The group dynamic was getting weirder. Brad had expected Gray to tell him in spite of what had gone on the night before and was surprised when Gray didn’t.
I didn’t know the etiquette surrounding setting someone on fire. However, my guess was that afterward, you didn’t ask them for a favor. Of course, what did I know? I was on my first game show.
Brad’s unwavering confidence seemed to dip a bit after that. He didn’t smile quite as much as the cocktail party began that night. However, as he was the first to get alone time with Rose, he returned to the group with his confidence fully intact.
It was amazing to watch him interact with everyone after that. It was like the night before had never happened. As he had during the previous cocktail parties, Brad took on the mantle of Rose’s social secretary. Everyone wanted to schedule their time with her, so they flocked to him agreeably.
Watching Brad do his thing, I considered my place in this drama. I hadn’t been alone with Rose since meeting her at the dock. After that, I was one of only three men to not ask for alone time with her during the first cocktail party. I was now the only one of those three still alive.
Deciding that I needed to get time with Rose, I considered talking to Brad. He would have to let me jump his line. I was one of his allies. He said it was us against them.
I was taking a step toward him when I noticed something: the casual way Brad interacted with Gray. I stopped when it dawned on me that he liked playing this nonpartisan roll. Wouldn’t bumping someone to give me a spot ruin that for him? Would he be willing to give up this position of power for me?
I couldn’t risk it. If he put me at the end of his line, the party could end before I got my time. I wasn’t about to be the one dying on the dock because Brad was looking out for himself. Besides, I had never been one to ask permission. Why would I start now?
Waiting a few minutes after Victor had left and Bernard had returned, I intervened. Finding the two at the far end of the pool, I looked only at her.
“Rose, do you think I can steal you away for a few minutes?”
“Sure,” she said with a beaming smile. “Where did you wanna go?”
She turned her back on her unhappy waiter, not giving him a chance to object. I had to admit, I loved her assertiveness. Some things about her definitely turned me on.
Taking her hand and leading her away, I knew that I would pay for the interruption later. I couldn’t think about that now, though. Rose had to get my full attention.
So, walking her to a nearby waterfall, I took both of her hands and looked into her eyes. I thought the spot would be romantic. Also, if cameras were around, the crashing water was our best chance for privacy.
“We haven’t spoken since that first night,” I began, feeling my heart race as I looked at her.
“I know. But I thought it was brave how you jumped into the ring like that. I think you saved their lives. That was… heroic.”
I was stunned silent. After everyone else had ignored or criticized me for it, that was the last thing that I had expected her to say. It took my breath away.
I fought to gather myself. I was sure there was something that I was supposed to say in reply, but for the life of me, I couldn’t think of what it was.
I did know what I wanted to say. I wanted to ask her how she could think of me as heroic and then choose Brad for the one-on-one date, but now wasn’t the time. So instead, I brought up something worse.
“Have you ever been on one of these shows before?” I asked.
“You mean a dating show?” she clarified. “No.”
“But you’ve been on others?”
Rose tilted her head with a smile as if waiting for me to make the obvious connection. I didn’t.
“Does anything about this show seem strange to you?” I asked.
Rose’s smile quickly faded. Was that a sign that she knew something? It had to be.
My focus immediately shifted. I needed to know what she knew, and I didn’t have much time to find out. Victor was going to tell the others that I had taken her, and someone would pull her away at any moment.
I considered the situation. Knowing I was running out of time, something came to me. I had one thing that I could tell her that would either protect me from elimination or guarantee it. I could tell her about Kurt and Ian’s deaths. But should I do it? I didn’t know.
“I think…” I began. “…I think the people being eliminated are dying.”
The second I said it, I realized that I had made a mistake. I had basically told her that she was killing people when she eliminated them. Now, the woman whose eyes had shined seconds before looked at me deflated and confused.
Brad was right. I was the paranoid one. I had to figure out a way to fix this situation, or I was going to be the next one gone. I
could see it in her eyes.
“Rose, can I steal you away?” Gray asked with a forced smile.
“Yes,” she agreed quickly.
Like that, my chances went from fair to none. I had screwed up with Rose like I had with many other women before her.
My only chance now was to figure out what mistake Kurt and Ian had made after the rose ceremony and not repeat it. Maybe their pawns had given them a pill or an injection. It could have been anything. Unlike them, I would be ready for it.
Shortly after I had rejoined the others, our pawns found us and arranged us into two rows. Gray had gotten less time with her than I had. Thorin hadn’t gotten any at all.
Neither of them had to worry, though. I had already eliminated myself with my poor game strategy. How many times did I have to learn that when it came to women, the worst thing I could do was talk?
I watched from the second row as Rose took her position in front of us. Once she was settled, her pawn followed, carrying the rose tray. It was beginning.
I would like to say that I awaited my fate with a steady hand and a strong jaw. Picture a roguish outlaw or maybe even a roguish wizard. Yes, I would like to say that’s what happened, but it wasn’t.
With just a rose, that 110-pound woman had rattled me to my core. I felt like a pig who went looking for its mom and found a pork sandwich. I did not feel good.
I didn’t understand why I was having that reaction. I had seen a lot of death in my life. How could this simple ceremony affect me so much?
I put that out of my mind, knowing that it wasn’t important now. The only thing that mattered was surviving the night. Counting the roses, two people were going to be eliminated tonight. My heart sank.
Brad was the first one safe. Gray and Bob were next. Even Buck-Naked Billy got a rose. In the end, the three people left were Thorin the Pale, Bernard the Banker, and me.
My heart raced as I stared into Rose’s steely eyes. I was having a hard time breathing. My hands shook. Thorin was still the only person she had invited on a solo date. I had no reason to think that he wouldn’t get the last rose.
“Ford, would you consider spending the rest of your life with me?”
I wasn’t sure what I had heard. Had she asked me to leave? No, she had invited me to stay.
I pushed past the guys, not giving her a chance to change her mind. Standing in front of me, she smiled. Then she did something that she had never done before.
Instead of just handing me the rose, she lifted it between us. As I reached for it, I felt the heat of her small hand as it cupped my neck. She was lowering my cheek to kiss it. But at the moment when I thought I would feel her warm lips, I felt only the puff of her breath.
“Find me,” she whispered.
Released, I slowly pulled away. I couldn’t mask my surprise.
Needing confirmation of what I had heard, I looked into her eyes. I found it. Though she was smiling, she was begging me to keep her words a secret.
I had been right to tell her about Kurt and Ian. Now she wanted to tell me something. But what was it?
Chapter 4
Everyone quickly dispersed once the elimination was complete. I watched, but Rose never looked back at me. Beginning a new regimen tonight, the pawns led us back to our rooms for interviews.
I told Pete just enough to stop the blinking red lights. Following Ian’s instructions, I started by pretending that the elimination hadn’t happened yet. I said that I was nervous because I hadn’t spoken to Rose in days. When prompted, I spoke about the elation I felt about getting another chance at love.
I would have said anything to escape Pete’s watchful sensors. I wasn’t planning on escaping to the dock tonight. I didn’t need to. I was pretty sure that I knew what was going to happen there. No, tonight I had to find Brad.
Bernard the Banker had been the one to tell me which cabin was Brad’s. What he hadn’t told me was that he, Victor, and Brad shared a room. By the time I knocked on their door, Bernard was already gone.
“Brad, can I speak to you?” I asked, inviting him outside.
He joined me, and I led him away from the cabins. He spoke soberly.
“I have to admit, the only thing I could think of as I watched Bernard pack his stuff was what you said about us dying after elimination. You’re in my head,” he admitted with an uncomfortable smile.
“I need to get to Rose. Do you know where she is?”
“You mean her cabin?”
“Yeah.”
“Now, why would you want to know that?” Brad asked, settling into his normally playful self.
“I think she knows something about what’s going on. I told her my theory, and she told me to come find her.”
“Is that really why you’re looking for her?”
“Yeah.”
“You sure you’re not trying to get a leg up in the game?”
I hadn’t considered this obstacle. Did Brad think that I was trying to outmaneuver him?
“I’m just kidding,” he teased. “I’m proud of you. You’re getting your head in the game.”
“So do you know where she is?”
“Of course. I’ve been up there a few times. It’s good to have a marketable trade.”
Brad was more resilient than I had given him credit for. He was going to win this game.
“I’ll tell you where she is and how to get in undetected, on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“Whatever you learn from her, you tell me.”
“It’s a deal.”
We shook on it. I was now in league with the show’s professed villain. Was there any way that this deal was going to end well for me? As far as I knew, sending me to Rose was how he was going to get me eliminated.
I couldn’t worry about that now, though. I had to trust somebody. I still didn’t know how game shows like this worked. So if I didn’t trust him, I was probably dead anyway.
“Rose lives in a cabin ten minutes from here,” he had said. “They’re really serious about keeping guys out. Three scout bots continuously circle her cabin. If this show is like any other one, breaking the rules means elimination. And if you’re right, death.”
Brad told me about his path up the hill and past the scout bots. I followed his directions exactly. Each step along the way, I looked for signs of deception, but everything was as he had described it.
The scout bots were of the CB128 series. I was familiar with these bots. They were the civilian equivalents of the CD230s. The CBs had one motion scanner while the CDs had at least two. That meant that it was possible to sneak in behind these scout bots, which is what I did.
Crouched in the foliage that lined the woods, I waited silently. They scanned the perimeter just as Brad had described them. Waiting for two sweeps, I stayed low and then scurried in.
All of this stealth movement was second nature for me. The training was hard to forget. So when the second scout bot passed, I crossed, avoiding the sweep of a faint red beam that came from the roof.
Brad hadn’t told me about the beam on the roof. I’m not sure that I would even have noticed it if I wasn’t familiar with the scouting techniques programmed into bots. Had Brad unknowingly been caught by the rotating roof beam? Or had he lucked out each time he had visited?
With my back pressed against the wall of the cabin, I had thirty seconds to get in. Brad had given me a pattern to tap on the window, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted Rose thinking about Brad tonight. I would honor our agreement and tell him anything she told me about the game. I drew the line there.
I triple tapped on the window to no response. The drapes were closed, and the lights were on. I was sure that she was in there. I knocked again. Still nothing. Should I have used Brad’s knock pattern? Had I doomed my mission by not using it?
Fifteen seconds. That’s how much time I had before I would be spotted by a circling scout. I was feeling calm. If this was going to be my last stand, I liked my chances. I had the woods in front of m
e and the only thing behind me would be mono-laser bots. I’d gotten away from far worse than that.
“Ford?”
I turned to my left to find Rose’s contorted face peering through the glass.
“Quick, over there,” she said ushering me toward the door.
Four, three, two. My internal clock ticked off the seconds. I slipped into Rose’s cabin and closed the door behind me. Staring at the space under the door, I watched for a blue light. It didn’t come.
I was sure that I had entered a second too late, but when thirty seconds passed without a response, I turned, immediately locking eyes with Rose. She stood tall behind me. She looked happy to see me.
Relaxing, I shifted my eyes past Rose.
Aaack! I yelped in my head. I threw my back against the door, stunned by what I saw.
On the floor surrounding Rose was every piece of clothing and cosmetics bottle she owned. Along with that was every dish she had eaten from and every object she possessed. It looked like the aftermath of a hurricane.
Do you know that feeling when your sexual organs spontaneously suck back up into your body? Well, mine were so deep inside of me that I would have to unbutton my collar to pee. Rose was more than just a slob. She was psychotic. I could only think one thing: What the hell?!?
“Did they spot you?” Rose asked from Summer Fashion Mountain.
“I don’t think so. They’re programmed to investigate anything out of the ordinary. If they saw me, they would have knocked by now.”
“How do you know that?” she questioned, crossing the Isle of Dirty Dishware.
“I’ve had some experience with them in the past.”
“A secret bad boy?”
“I wouldn’t say that.” I crossed the room toward her. “So this is your place?” I asked, hoping and praying that it wasn’t.
“Yes. Excuse the mess,” she replied with a smile that I would have found charming if we weren’t standing in the Bermuda Triangle’s sphincter.
I didn’t smile back.
“Is something wrong?”
She was genuinely confused. Couldn’t she see that she was one discarded panini press away from living in a landfill? No, wait, my mistake. She had one on her bed.