by Diana Orgain
“Was that animal or human?” Parker whispered.
“I don’t know for sure,” I said. “I think animal.”
“Maybe we should go back and get some of the others,” he said.
He was probably thinking of Cooper, ex-NFL, the guy was bigger than a jeep, with muscles on his muscles.
Another howl skirted across the night. This one definitely human.
We took off running, down the embankment. Suddenly the earth fell away from us and we flew through the air.
Oh, my God!
What the devil was going on?
Parker screamed out. My arms helicoptered through space, my life flashing before me.
Dear God! We’d just run ourselves off a cliff.
Could it really end like this?
The wind buffeted my face as I sped through air. The horror of my impending fall sent my nervous system into overdrive. My fists tightened, my jaw clenched and my heart ached for Scott. I wanted to see his face again.
Did he know how much I loved him?
The ground seemed to rush up to meet me, and abruptly my feet crashed into the earth. I landed with a jolt, dropping my lantern and the log. My boots locked onto the ground, pitching my body forward so that my hands dug into the sandy beach of the riverbank.
Air rushed into my lungs as Parker hurtled down next to me. He landed awkwardly twisted on his side, his lantern and log smashing together near a rock.
“What the . . . Owww!” Parker shrieked
“You okay?” I asked.
“My back. Awww. My ribs, too. What happened?”
We were in a clearing by the river, the light of the waning moon barely enough to make out the cliff we’d taken a tumble off of. It was only about six feet high, but in the pitch dark the fall had felt eternal. I was lucky to have landed on my feet.
There was a rustling sound approaching us. Someone running toward us. I grabbed the lantern and called out. “Scott?”
“Parker?” A woman yelled. “Is that you?”
“Victoria!” Parker said, moving himself into a sitting position.
She rushed forward. “What happened? What are you doing out here?” She gave me a strange look.
“Looking for you,” he said. “What are you doing out here?”
She was bundled up like both of us, holding a small LED flashlight. “It was so cold I couldn’t sleep.”
“Is Scott with you?” I asked.
A blank look crossed her face. “Who’s that?”
“My boyfriend,” I said, impatience building inside me.
“I figured that. I meant, what does he look like? Which one was he?” She pressed a hand to her temple. “We met so many people today.”
“He’s tall. Shaved head.” Sexy as hell and you better keep your hands off him.
She smiled. “Oh, yeah. That guy. He’s hot.” She shined her flashlight on me, giving me a cursory evaluating glance from my head to my toes, then back again.
I’m sure I looked great sausaged in the parka I had on.
“I was hoping maybe he was your cousin or something,” she said.
“Have you seen him? He’s not at camp, either.”
She shrugged. “The only guy I’ve seen is the NFL guy.”
Parker struggled to his feet. “Ah, my ribs. I think I busted something.”
Victoria pushed hard on Parker’s shoulder. “Oh, no you don’t. I know you didn’t want to come here in the first place but you’re not getting out of it!”
Parker grabbed his side. “Stop pushing me!”
I stepped between them. “Victoria. We heard something howling . . .”
“Howling?” Victoria looked alarmed. “I haven’t seen any wildlife. Maybe we should get back to camp.” She pointed upstream. “The path actually bottoms out over there. We don’t have to scale this cliff.”
We walked upstream, my eyes scanning the river.
“The river’s so high,” I noted.
“It’s been a high-water year,” Parker said. “I remember them telling us that on the bus ride.”
They had? I didn’t remember anything about the bus ride except that Scott hadn’t let go of my hand. I’d been content to hold his hand and rest my head on his shoulder feeling happy and full like a cat that’d eaten a canary. Practically bursting with joy.
Now, that feeling seemed like a distant memory.
“The river’s moving fast, too,” Victoria said. “Someone could get swept in it, huh? Scary!”
My throat constricted.
Oh, Scott. Where are you?
Two
Even though I’d wanted to search for Scott, Parker and Victoria convinced me to go back to camp. After all, it was likely Scott could have returned in the time we’d been away. When we arrived at camp, the silence was ominous.
Parker unceremoniously announced, “My ribs are killing me. I’m going to lie down.”
I turned to Victoria, shining the lantern in her face. “You said you saw the NFL guy. Did you mean Cooper or his partner, Todd?”
Victoria snorted. “Todd’s not NFL. He’s more like a sumo wrestler, if you know what I mean.”
It was true that Todd hadn’t played football for the NFL, but he was still associated with it somehow, as Cooper’s manager or something. I realized with a shudder how little I knew about the people I was stuck here with.
Victoria shrugged. “Anyway, I meant Cooper. He was hanging around the campsite when I got up. We chatted for a few minutes, but when I asked him if he wanted to walk to the river with me, he said no and went back to his tent.” She motioned toward one of the two-man tents across the meadow.
My mind was whirling. Should I wake Cooper and ask him if he’d seen Scott? Should I call Becca or the authorities and start a search and rescue? In the States, anyone could call for search and rescue as soon as someone in his or her party was overdue. Was it the same in Spain?
Was Scott overdue, or was he just taking a midnight stroll?
Scott was a writer and I knew he liked to take long walks, but I hadn’t known him to do so in the middle of the night.
Indecision bit at me, but I found myself marching over toward Cooper’s tent all the same.
Victoria called after me, “What are you doing?”
I ignored her and stood outside of Cooper and his partner Todd’s tent. “Cooper,” I called out in a loud whisper.
I was rewarded by some rustling and rummaging sounds coming from inside the tent, then someone murmured, “Who’s there?”
“It’s Georgia.”
A head emerged from the opening of the tent and the man shielded his eyes from my lantern. It was Todd. “What’s going on Georgia?” He half smiled. “Is it reveille?”
“No. It’s the middle of the night. I’m looking for Scott. He’s not at camp.”
Todd frowned up at me and scratched at what little hair remained on his head. “Well, he’s not in here!” He sounded offended.
“I understand. Sorry for waking you, but Victoria said that Cooper was up a while ago. I’m wondering if he knows where Scott is.”
Todd chewed his lip. “Oh. You want to talk to Coop?”
“Please.”
Todd ducked back into the tent, mumbling. “It’s always about Cooper.”
I heard a thump as if Todd had socked Cooper’s arm. Then some hushed exchange between the two of them. “Darling, I don’t know where your beau has gone off to,” a deep groggy voice called out.
A light flashed from inside a neighboring tent. I couldn’t recall whose tent it was, either the girls from Nashville or the two crew members assigned to babysit us.
“Cooper, did you see Scott leave camp? Do you know which way he went?”
“Nah. I didn’t see nothing, baby,” Cooper said. “Go back to sleep. He’s probably just off on a nature
call.”
“Or on a booty call,” Todd snickered.
Anger surged through my body, heating my veins. I clenched my teeth and stalked back toward the picnic table. Victoria, I noticed, had retired back to her tent.
I added some logs to the smoldering embers that remained of the campfire and paced. I desperately wanted to search for Scott myself, but that wouldn’t be prudent in the dark. I could easily fall and injure myself worse than Parker had and not be able to make it back to camp and then the team would have to find two missing persons.
No, better to wait until daylight.
I fingered our lantern and then the thought occurred to me that Scott likely had his phone with him. While we were prohibited from using devices during the competitions, we were allowed to have personal items with us. Not like on the previous show, Love or Money. And since the lantern was here with me, he’d probably used the flashlight app on his phone.
I dashed to our tent and picked up my cell phone. Unfortunately, the cell phone coverage in the mountains was nonexistent, and I realized with a sinking heart that I wouldn’t be able to call Scott, much less Becca to organize a search-and-rescue team.
I glanced at the dim digital display on the phone.
Four a.m.
The deadliest time of night.
• • •
The emerging sunlight woke me, the empty sleeping bag next to me jolting me back to reality. Alarm and dread mingled in my stomach as I realized Scott had not returned in the middle of the night.
Where could he be? It was still cold out, but not freezing. I zipped up my down jacket anyway and exited the tent. I tossed some firewood onto the smoldering embers of the fire I’d made the night before.
My shoulders were tight and my neck sore, and what little sleep I’d gotten had been spent tossing and turning. There was some rustling behind me and I turned to find Juan Jose, one of the crew members, walking toward me.
“Good morning,” he said, striking me as overly cheerful. Perhaps it was my sour mood. Juan Jose was a local, hired to help with the show. He was in charge of logistics. He was supposed to know the terrain like the back of his hand.
“Juan Jose, I need your help. My boyfriend, Scott, isn’t at camp.”
A look of surprise crossed Juan Jose’s face. “What do you mean? Not at camp? Where is he?”
“I don’t know. He’s missing,” I said, anxiety fluttering in my chest. “I woke up in the middle of the night and he wasn’t in our tent. I went looking for him with Parker.”
“Parker?”
“Yeah, the tall guy. The one here with his sister. He was looking for her, too, but she was down by the river—”
The look of surprise on his face changed to alarm and he whispered almost to himself, “The river?”
“Yeah. She said she was alone and hadn’t seen anybody. Well, except for Cooper, but I already talked to him. He doesn’t know where Scott is.”
Juan Jose stroked his dark stubble, a concerned expression clouding his features. “Mmm.” After a moment, he said, “The river is very high this year. Very dangerous.”
“Right.” Unease strangled the breath out of me as a vision of Scott’s dead body floating down the river crossed my mind. “We need to organize a search party! Can you help me with that?”
Juan Jose nodded, looking slightly dumbfounded. “He cannot have gone far. The terrain is very steep.” He shrugged and stifled a yawn. “Maybe he is hurt.”
“What’s the situation with wildlife around here?” I asked. “We heard howling. Are there bobcats? Bears?”
Juan Jose shook his head. “Not many bears. We tried to reintroduce the brown bear to the mountains, but the program hasn’t been very successful. There are a lot of wild boars, though.”
The mother-and-son team emerged from their tents. The son, whose name I’d already forgotten, approached me. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“My partner’s missing. Scott. Do you remember him? Tall—”
“We remember him, Georgia.” His mother stepped forward. She was in her late fifties, the skin on her face still smooth. “He’s a doll. Where did he go off to?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I don’t know.”
The two glanced at each other and then back at me and Juan Jose.
The son said, “Maybe he went looking for firewood or something.”
“It is really cold, isn’t it?” the mother asked. She crossed her arms and stepped closer to the fire. “Practically freezing!”
I glanced at the firewood piled neatly by one of the pine trees that lined the perimeter of our camp. “Well, being that we’re not short on firewood, I doubt it.”
“Is anyone else missing?” the mother asked.
There was a sound of boots crunching on gravel from behind us and a deep voice called out, “Todd and I are here,” Cooper said.
“Maybe he got scared of the competition.” Todd said, as they joined us by the fire.
Cooper laughed and flexed his massive bicep while chuckling, “He should be!”
The action seemed so stupid and superficial it immediately irritated me.
What was wrong with these people? Couldn’t they see the difference between a real emergency and some stupid TV stunt?
Todd frowned at me and suddenly became serious. “Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll pop up any moment.”
Juan Jose glanced at his watch. “The rest of the crew will be here in an hour.”
“I’m not going to wait for another hour to pass! I’m going to look for him now.”
Cooper reached out a large hand and rested it on my shoulder. “Calm down, darling. We’ll go with you. We can all look for him.”
“I’ll wake the others,” Todd said, transitioning into action mode. He strode across the meadow toward the tents.
Soon the girls from Nashville emerged; both had taken the time to do their makeup. Really? It was thirty degrees in the Pyrenees mountains, we were without showers, and the camera crew still hadn’t arrived. I didn’t get it.
Parker and Victoria joined us at the picnic table along with the other crew member who had overnight duty with us, Miguel. Juan Jose explained the situation to Miguel in Spanish while Cooper brought the others up to speed. Miguel fetched a trail map from his tent and laid it on the table.
We divided up the nearby trails, agreeing to work in three teams. I was to go with the local crew members, hoping they had the expert knowledge of the trails that would help us find Scott first. Cooper and Todd were to set off with the gorgeous girls from Nashville, DeeCee and Daisy, who called themselves Double D, making me question exactly how much terrain that search party would cover. Then the mother-and-son team agreed to search with Victoria. While Parker, with his ribs still sore from last night’s fall, was to stay at camp in case Scott returned.
As Miguel, Juan Jose, and I headed down the main trail, I saw a familiar figure approach. I sprinted down the path nearly trampling my best friend.
Becca hugged me, her auburn curls brushing against my check. I sobbed into her shoulder.
“Georgia! What’s wrong?” Becca demanded, pulling away from me so she could see my face. “What’s going on?”
“Scott’s missing,” I cried.
A small group of people led by Kyle, one of the makeup artists I knew from the previous show, turned the corner of the trail and approached.
“What do you mean missing?” Becca asked, her delicate features crinkling.
“He’s gone. I woke up in the middle of the night and he wasn’t in our tent. I went looking for him with Parker.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose, a look of distress on her face as she glanced at Juan Jose and Miguel, who both looked stoic. “This is going to get complicated, isn’t it?”
I choked back my tears as the other crew members approached u
s. “I don’t know. I just know I need to go and look for him.”
“We organized a small search party,” Juan Jose said. “Some have gone to look for him down by the river and others took the trail north.”
“What’s going on?” Kyle demanded.
Becca ignored him and pulled out the walkie-talkie that was permanently affixed to her hip. “The rest of the crew is behind me. I’m going to radio down and see if anyone still has some cell reception. We’ve got to call the authorities.”
“Authorities? Oh! Sounds exciting,” Kyle said.
“Shut up,” Becca admonished him, as she wrapped her arms around me. “Don’t worry, G, we’ll find him. I’m sure he’s fine. Maybe he got lost or disoriented or something, but we’ll find him.”
I felt myself nod in agreement, but the thought that penetrated my consciousness was, I just hope we’re not too late.
Three
After searching the woods into the afternoon and coming up empty-handed, Juan Jose, Miguel, and I headed back to base camp to check in with Becca and the others. I prayed that Scott had made it back to camp during our absence. After all, if he’d gotten lost last night, the sensible thing to do would have been to wait for daylight to find his way.
Becca was pacing by the picnic table, the other cast and crew members gathered nearby; everyone looked downtrodden. I immediately knew by the look on Becca’s face that Scott hadn’t returned.
When Becca saw me she looked at me hopefully, but surmised quickly that we hadn’t had any luck, either. Becca’s walkie-talkie chirped and she said into it, “What?” She held it away from her ear, glanced at it, then said, “Reception up here is choppy.”
I sagged onto the picnic table bench. Victoria and Parker, who were standing close by, distanced themselves. Suddenly the others, who’d been roaming by the campfire, disappeared into their tents, as if my bad luck was catching.
Becca patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry honey, we’ll find him. I know we’ll find him.” Then into the walkie-talkie she said, “Our GPS coordinates are forty-two north, uh . . . Oh . . . Yeah . . . The camp that’s over . . . okay, okay sure,” she said, hanging up. “They’re here.”