by S A Ison
“You know they ain’t gonna do that man. Remember, we’re on our own.” Connor said.
“This fucking sucks man.”
Everyone was gathering around the main fire, Christian and Marla were sitting in their camp chairs. Christian was smoking a cigarette and Connor would have killed for one of those cigarettes. He saw that the cameramen were sitting around as well, and wondered at it, shouldn’t they be filming this shit? He sat down and looked around at everyone gathered there. He noticed that Carol wasn’t there.
He shrugged, maybe Grayson tossed her ass off a waterfall, and chuckled to himself. He’d have done the same thing. That boy was going home first along with that idiot. She was totally useless, only worth fucking and that was about it. He looked over and saw Sam and Hunter talking, he was wondering about those two, maybe a love connection and sniggered to himself. If one of them won, he’d more than likely share it with the other. Not a bad idea.
He wouldn’t mind hooking up with Sarah, she was cute. She had that long red hair, and he’d seen the way it had curled up in the spray from the gorge. At first, he’d thought her kind of prissy, but he’d seen her over the last few days and she held her own. Too bad she was with Aiden, if they hooked up, they might share their money. He wondered if they would hook up, if only for the time being. He wished he wasn’t married, he’d give it a go, but he knew it would air and if Molly saw it, she’d cut his balls off.
He’d seen other shows on TV and knew there was some hanky-panky behind the scenes. He guessed it was just as well he and Joey were hooked up as a team, he didn’t need to split the two and a half million with his wife if she divorced him.
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Marla stood, she was pissed, but there was nothing for it. She could see this project heading to the shitter. She’d have to tell them to keep on and they’d catch up the competition when they got new equipment. She’d have to make the trip back and get to a phone, in the meantime, everyone would just have to keep doing what they would be doing anyway. They’d just splice and edit all the film and make it work.
“Okay everyone, can I have your attention? Look, I’ve got good news and bad news. First, our equipment is malfunctioning. That means we can’t tape you. It will be a week before the cage comes back over and I’ll go back into the village, which is another four days and another four back. So, it will take a couple weeks to get back on track.” She raised her voice as everyone was talking at once and some yelling.
“Hold on hold on, nothing has changed, you will continue to hunt and survive just as we planned. We will hold off on the competitions for luxuries, until we can film it. Sorry. But once we get the cameras back and are good to go, we’ll do a bunch of takes, pretend it is different days and so on. It will all be edited. The only thing is, the elimination will still have to proceed. We will simply film that in our studios for the first couple of eliminations. Again, you are not allowed to reveal anything about this project to anyone. These things happen, but for the most part nothing has changed. Before I leave next week, we will hold one elimination and the losers will accompany me to the village and from there, head home.”
She stood and listened as everyone talked among themselves. She looked at them all and then noticed that the annoying woman, Carol was not there. “Grayson, where is Carol?”
“I have no idea. I sent her out for food, but she didn’t come back.” He said indifferently and shrugged.
“Dude, you were fucking taking a nap. It didn’t occur to you to go find her?” Connor said.
“Hey asshole, she isn’t my responsibility. She knew where our camp was, if she’s too stupid not to find it, that is her problem.”
Everyone erupted and everyone was talking over each other, yelling at Grayson and also yelling at Connor. Great, that stupid little idiot got herself lost, Marla thought.
“Okay, listen up folks, it is getting dark and I don’t think it would be smart to look for her now. I don’t want anyone else getting lost out there, or getting hurt looking for her. Everyone head back to your camps and tomorrow morning come back here and we will start looking for her. The temperatures are mild and I’m sure she will be fine, uncomfortable, but fine. For Christ’s sake, stay together people. Remember, you are a team, so take care of each other.” She said and shook her head and looked at Christian, who was watching everyone leave, they were all grumbling.
“That went well.” Christian quipped sarcastically.
“Shut the fuck up Christian, I know they all signed waivers, but this isn’t good. We have no communications and we can’t get anywhere fast. The porters won’t be back until six days from now and it is another four days to the village. That is a long god damn time, and I’m supposed to report daily. I’m hoping when they don’t hear from us, they will send someone from the village in a few days to check on us. This is turning out to be a clusterfuck.” Marla said angrily.
She got up and went to the crate and pulled an MRE out. She hated these things, and she knew it would drive her blood pressure up. Not to mention they tasted like shit. She came back to the fire and sat down.
“Are we really not going to look for Carol?” Hudson asked, sitting down beside her, he had his own MRE and was preparing to eat.
“We can’t, it is almost dark, and if anyone gets hurt looking for that idiot, then it is on me. We’d have to wait a week, now that the phone is out, and I can’t afford for anyone to get hurt. There is no way to get them out of here. So yes, we stay put, and we don’t look. She is under some bush somewhere crying, I’m sure, but I think she will be okay until morning. Unless you want to roam around out there looking for her. No, I didn’t think so.” She said smugly and began to eat her meal, when she saw him blush and begin to dig into his own meal.
Everyone had agreed to eat while the contestants weren’t around. It wouldn’t do to eat in front of a starving competitor. It was going to be tricky anyway, but she didn’t need for them to add to their misery.
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Carol was squatting, she had diarrhea and it was bad. She’d been so thirsty, she’d found a small pond and drank from it. Now she was shitting herself to death. Her stomach hurt so badly, and it was getting dark. She heard weird noises out in the forest and her head jerked here and there. She took several leaves and cleaned her butt, it felt raw. She’d been shitting for over an hour now and it didn’t seem like it was going to stop. She went back over to the small pool of water and washed herself.
She sat down gingerly on the ground. She shivered, it wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t warm like it was earlier today. And where the hell is Grayson? She wondered, for the tenth time in an hour. She’d not found any food, only the water. She’d tried to catch a fish, but they were just too fast.
She saw a few frogs, but she wasn’t hungry enough to eat frogs. Ewwwww, she thought. Her stomach made a growling noise and her lower gut protested as well, and she groaned as she pulled down her pants once more and let her body expel what ever it was that was hurting her. She thought perhaps it was those stupid orange berries. Why didn’t Grayson get the food? She’d found the water. She cleaned herself up once more. She was so thirsty and knew she shouldn’t drink the water, but she had to.
She heard a scream, and jerked, looking around. It sounded like a woman or a child. She didn’t know what it was and started crying. She was getting really afraid out here. She didn’t know what kind of animals lived in these woods, especially ones that made that noise. She crawled over to a heavy bush by the pond and laid down. She held her hand over her stomach. This was all Grayson’s fault, that old bastard.
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Sarah and Aiden arrived back at their camp. They were both quiet, they’d called out Carol’s name as they went, and heard other’s calling into the coming twilight. It was now pitch black out, and she was glad they had their torch. They’d shared it with Connor, Matt, and Diana, they didn’t have fire yet and so gave them a feed off of their torch. Sarah wasn’t sure if it was against the rules, but she felt lucky they ha
d fire. Aiden had gone into the cave to retrieve the snake.
He used the tip of his machete to slit the belly of the snake, he then pulled the skin off of it. They had left a small fire burning when they left, which were now coals. It was inside the cave which was a little rocky and sandy. Sarah added bits of wood they’d collected to the coals and then bigger pieces as it grew. Aiden skewered the snake on a long thin branch and held it over the fire. They had spent time gathering firewood and putting it into the cave. Sarah had used several vines to tie the branches together. This helped with carrying more each trip she made to their cave.
“You never know when it is going to rain, but when you want a fire most, that’s usually when it does rain.” He’d laughed, his head rocking side to side.
So, they’d spent the time as they looked for more food, picking up firewood as they went and also starting material, like dried leaves and pine needles. They had quite a stash in the back of the cave. It was a nice cave, as caves went, it was about fifteen feet deep, and about twelve feet wide, but only about four and a half feet tall. They could sit and sleep easily, but they had to duck walk to get into the back of it. “I think we should bury our bottles of water, if anyone comes by, snooping around, they could take the bottles.” Sarah said.
“I like that you’re paranoid, it is a very attractive quality about you.” Aiden laughed.
“Kiss my ass.” She giggled.
Both sat silently looking into the fire as the snake sizzled, it smelled good.
“I don’t like Carol, but I hope she is okay. I can’t believe Grayson didn’t keep an eye on her. She is his teammate after all.” She said as she pulled a piece of meat off the long body and popped it into her mouth.
“I agree, you don’t leave your teammate behind, especially if you know your teammate is weak. I think Grayson is really mad about having her, but still, you don’t screw someone over like that, it isn’t cool.”
“Yeah, I thought he was a nice guy, guess you never know about people. Kinda scary you know? He seemed like a really nice person, but what kind of person just ignores someone, just because he is angry? I mean, that is crazy. And really sad for Carol.” She said, and shook her head. She got up and went to the back of the cave to get two bottles of water. She brought them out and handed one to Aiden.
“So, what happened to you Aiden, how did you get hurt?”
Aiden looked at her, his dark eyes sliding over to her. His mouth smiled crookedly, “my wife Becka tried to kill me.”
“What? Oh Aiden, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t trying to be nosy, I’m so sorry.” Sarah expostulated, upset with herself.
Aiden laughed and lifted up a hand, “Don’t worry, this is just between the two of us though. As you know, I was a navy SEAL. I was out and gone on deployments a lot. I guess I didn’t realize how much she hated me going. She was always accusing me of seeing other women and all that. I never cheated on her. Though SEALs have a reputation of screwing around. A lot of guys do, but then, a lot of guys don’t. But I think really, that she was mentally ill. I’d just come back from a mission, I’d been gone for three weeks. She seemed normal and happy to see me. Then about three am, I wake up and she is stabbing the hell out of me with a kitchen knife.” He said, his face sad and his eyes staring into the fire.
Sarah didn’t know what to say, it broke her heart on so many levels. “So, what happened?”
“I managed to fight her off, but Becka had already stabbed me thirteen times. I called 911, before I was able to get the knife from her. I broke her wrist, but then she ran to get another knife. By the time the police got there, she was stabbing me again, and they shot her.” He said quietly.
“Oh Aiden, I’m so sorry, oh my God, I’m so sorry.” Sarah said and laid a hand on his shoulder, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing and to have made him relive it, she felt horrible for bringing up the subject.
“It’s okay, she had turned and was going at the cop, he had to. I think she wanted to die, and I think she wanted me dead too. I did almost die. I was in the hospital for two months. I had to go to rehab and after, I wasn’t fit to be in the SEALs anymore, so I got out. I got a partial retirement because of the injuries. I applied for this to see if I could still do it, you know, survive.” He said softly.
“Well, you didn’t have to come all the way to China to figure that out Aiden, you did survive. I’m truly sorry, I can’t imagine how much the hurt, mentally, I mean.”
“Yeah, it took a couple years of therapy for me to figure out it wasn’t me or my fault, just that Becka was mentally unstable. Neither of us really realized it, I think, because I was gone a lot, and it seemed we fought a lot, but we loved a lot too. It was kinda messed up. I’m not mad at her, I do feel sorry for her. Maybe she was doing that suicide by cop?” He said, shrugging and bringing the snake between them.
“I’m sorry to bring up the hurt, I’d no idea.”
“Don’t worry about it, it was kinda nice to talk to you about it. I haven’t really talked to anyone else about it, you know a shameful secret.” He said, and took a bite of snake and smiled.
“It isn’t a shameful secret, it is a sad thing, but not shameful Aiden. And the snake is good, hold on a second, and let me get my pot.” She got up and went back into the cave and came out with her pot. She tore off pieces of the snake and threw them in the small pot, then took his machete and cut up ginger root and some of the small green onion stems.
She poured a little water in and put it over some of the coals. They sat in silence until the meat began to boil up, and the aroma of onion and ginger filled the air. She inhaled the steam and her stomach growled.
“Now that smells good. Let me make some forks while it cooks.” Aiden said and reached over for a stick. He used the machete and cut away and made two crude two tine forks. He handed one to her and she poked at the meat and took a bite.
“Holy shit, this is good!” she laughed.
“You’re right, I bet the soup is good too, when it cools, we can share it. Maybe this survival thing won’t be as bad as we thought. I think we can hang for two months. I’m glad you’re my partner and I promise, I won’t let you get hurt and I’ll watch your back.”
“I promise too, no matter what, I’ll watch your back, and when we win, I’ll even take you out to dinner.” She laughed at the look on his face, and then he laughed at her.
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Sarah was easy to talk to. He’d felt better for speaking of Becka. Sarah was right, it wasn’t a dirty little secret. He’d no reason to feel ashamed. She’d understood and had been compassionate about it all. It had been odd, speaking of Becka after so long a time. It didn’t hurt as bad, when he told Sarah. Smiling softly, he looked over at her. It was dark, but he could just make out her form from the dying fire. She was asleep and snoring softly. She’d slept at his back the night before. She’d put off a lot of heat.
He scooted closer to her. It was nice having her form next to him. He sighed and tried to get his head comfortable. He was tired. It had been a good day, a productive day. This hidden place had potential. No wonder the Chinese didn’t want foreigners coming here. It was like Eden. No people, but a few. No pollution. No mechanical noises. Just the wind and animals and insects.
His mind drifted and he scooted a little closer to Sarah. He could now feel her body heat. It felt good against his back. He smiled when she shifted closer to him. He closed his eyes and gave into slumber; it would be a long day tomorrow. They had to find Carol. He hoped the woman was okay. He didn’t like her, but he’d not want to see her hurt.
CHAPTER FOUR
Everyone huddled around the main camp fire, and Marla held her coffee in her hands. It was chilly and damp out and she wondered how Carol had fared during the night. She looked at all the faces, some more haggard than others. She could tell by many faces that they’d not eaten. So, the game began, they’d have to buckle down and look for food or catch it.
They only had several extra meals for the losers, an
d for the four-day trek back. The porters would bring the food in five days, and bring the extra meals for the following week’s losers. There was just too much to carry for the four-day trek, it had been decided to break up the supplies to a weekly delivery. Thus, also ensuring the porters were paid a good sum to bring it and to guide them back and forth. There had been a lot of palm greasing and a lot of Chinese politicians to pay off in order to get this. It was such an elaborate set up, Marla wondered if perhaps she had dared to reach too far.
All would have been fine if her satellite phone hadn’t crapped out and now this stupid girl had gone missing. There wasn’t much help for it, they had five days until they could get back across the gorge. If it became too much of a problem, she’d scrap the whole thing and they’d all head back in five days. It was her call, but she hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
“Okay folks, listen up, I know you’re hungry and tired, but we need to look for Carol. While you’re looking of course, look for food and what else you feel your team will need to survive the next two months. We’ll be with you looking as well. If you find her, bring her to the main camp. Also, shout out if you do find her, and that way, we can all get back to our survival hunting and so on.” She said and watched as everyone got up, she watched Grayson, who seemed ambivalent about it all. Nice guy, she thought and snorted.
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Carol lay by the pool, her pants down at her ankles. She had cramped and crapped all night, with no let up. She was so weak, she could barely lift her head up. She kept drinking the water, she was so dehydrated and had also started vomiting. Her butt was raw and every time she evacuated, she cried, it felt like she was on fire down there. She didn’t even try to wipe herself, because it felt like sandpaper.
Her long blonde hair was covered in bile, because she’d had nothing to vomit up. Breakfast yesterday had been a very long time ago. She could make out shapes now, it was getting lighter out. She’d stopped crying, she didn’t have any more tears left. She retched up once more and then crawled a bit and sipped out of the small pond. Her throat was so raw from the bile.