Scavenger Hunt

by John R. Little

  27. Carlos talks about Selena.

  28. Carlos and Fernando reach the top of the cliff.

  29. They talk about Selena.

  Act 7

  30. Hidden camera follows Carl.

  31. Pietre buys cocaine.

  32. Maria is kidnapped.

  33. Scenes of her being held by the kidnappers.

  Act 8

  34. Team Harvard leaves the show.

  35. Carlos commits suicide in memory of Selena.

  36. Confrontation about Pietre’s theft, and they hear the panic button.

  37. Pietre rescues Maria.

  Tag

  38. Stock photo of volcano in New Zealand, voice-over by Karen.

  39. Karen talks about the dangers and mysteries to come. Adds regret from the producers for Carlos’s death.

  Word of Mouth

  Peter was late to work at Toys R Us. He hated being late, but this was only the second or third time in ten years so he didn’t feel that guilty about it. Besides, it was only twenty minutes. He’d slept in because after he finally gave up googling Scavenger Hunt, his mind was still buzzing about the show. He wanted more.

  Too bad it didn’t air more than once a week. While driving to work, he’d heard that the overnight ratings were the highest ever for a reality show. They were in Super Bowl territory.

  Only six more weeks of the show to go. He hated that thought. Hated too that Cynthia Wright never repeated her shows, so this was it. There’d never be another Scavenger Hunt.

  The radio was full of talk about how the FCC or the FBI or some other alphabet agency was thinking of shutting down production of the show. As if. The government had no balls when it came to entertainment. Actors had more pull than any politician.

  Jimmy Shotten met Peter as he clocked in.

  “Fucking A show.”

  “You got that right.”

  “You think that guy really did that high dive like that?”

  “Yeah,” said Peter. “It’s all over the net.”

  “Jeez, that was something.”

  “And those fuckin’ natives that grabbed Maria? They were gonna eat her, like head-hunters, you know.”

  “Bet they’d fuck her first.”

  “Yeah. I would.”

  “Got that right.”

  Alistair Luciano walked over and pounded Peter’s shoulder, joining into the conversation.

  “I got hard watching that Tanya chick making out with Maria. That was hot! As soon as the show was over, I boned Lissa.”

  Peter pretended to smile, but he didn’t really need to hear that. The girl was butt ugly. It ruined his image of Tanya and Maria to think of her.

  Six more days till the next episode…

  Chapter 22: Team Hollywood

  Fernando - New Zealand

  Carlos. Dead. Fernando still couldn’t believe it, even though it’d been two days. He remembered his brother’s swan dive off the top of the cliff in the Faroe Islands. The image was burned into his mind and all he wanted was to be able to go back in time and somehow talk Carlos out of it.

  The awful thing is that Fernando knew Carlos was right. His death would be the number one segment on the show that week and the scummy producers must be rubbing their hands with glee at the thought. He could imagine the commercials running, showing Carlos standing on the edge of the cliff and just starting to lean forward.

  Steve fucking Howard had run over to the cliff and lay down on his belly, crawling to the edge so his forecam could catch the crushed remains of his brother on the rocks below. They would use computer trickery to zoom in to the dead body. Ratings would rocket. Maybe they’d spread enough rumors to be sure that everyone knew about the tragedy ahead of time.

  “I miss you, bro…”

  Now he was stuck with Brittany and Steve. The two people he most despised in the world right now.

  He’d wanted to drop out of the show, to go back to Los Angeles and cast Brit off, let her find her own way in life. He’d wasted way too much of his own life on her as it was.

  When he thought that way, though, he knew he’d be handed papers from a divorce lawyer almost immediately. In dense small print and babble talk, she’d try to take everything he had worked for his whole life.

  I’m fifty-six, he thought. I can’t start over now.

  Leaving the show now would mean he was conceding everything to her. He couldn’t do that.

  They stood on the island and he marveled at the sight.

  Mount Tuspehu was one of the most world’s most active volcanoes. It was a single spot of land off the North Island of New Zealand. As Fernando stood at the water’s edge and looked up, he could see the sky filled with a gray hazy plume of smoke that dissipated as he watched. He thought he could hear the whole island rumbling, but that must have been his imagination.

  He leaned down and felt the ground, trying to see if there was really any motion, but he couldn’t tell.

  Steve stared at him, but he didn’t care. He just felt weak and the idea of traveling to the far side of the caldera made him wonder how they could possibly pull off this task.

  The portion of the island that was above the water was shaped something like a jagged doughnut. The hole in the middle was full of boiling mud. There was a small section of the doughnut that dropped down to meet the water and that’s where they stood.

  “It’s awesome,” said Steve.

  Fernando didn’t reply. He just watched as Steve panned his head around the sight and eventually stopped when he focused on Brit.

  “What do you think, Brittany,” asked Steve in his deep interviewer’s voice. “Can you do it?”

  She looked like she had no idea what they had to do. Maybe she didn’t. She was so stupid.

  “We’ll do what we have to. We’ve done everything else.”

  “Hah!” Fernando couldn’t help himself. “We? Where were you when Carlos and I were climbing the mountain in Norway? How much fucking help were you when we caged the rattlesnake in Copper Canyon?”

  Brittany just shook her head, showing her disgust. Fernando didn’t bother saying anything else. She wasn’t worth the effort.

  Brittany - Four Years Earlier

  Brittany had been working for Fernando a couple of months as his receptionist / admin assistant / gopher. Whatever he needed, she’d smile and do it.

  She hated her job.

  It was boring and didn’t pay very well, especially when she was used to the salary and tips she earned as a stripper. Not to mention the real bonuses she’d earned in the back room.

  She needed another plan because this just wasn’t working out at all. At all. She was back to living paycheck to paycheck, just like when she’d left home all those years ago. She’d worked to get out of that rut, but now it had found her again.

  She couldn’t go shopping for all the clothes she wanted anymore. What was the point of living if you can’t even have a bit of fun shopping?

  At times, Brittany would realize that life wasn’t that bad. Fernando was older than her, but he was reasonably attractive, and she knew he’d always take care of her. He always asked her opinion on things and seemed to genuinely care. Mind you, he could also only be interested in getting into her pants, but she didn’t think so. He just was a true gentleman.

  She told him about being a stripper and he never judged her for that. He just hoped her future life would be better for her.

  Brittany also never talked about her family. She was too embarrassed and didn’t feel comfortable talking about them. He said he understood and would never pressure her to talk about her past.

  She could sense the pity he felt for her and how he just wanted to take care of her to make up for her childhood.

  That’s when the lights went on.

  She started flirting with him. She wanted to get things going as quickly as possible, so she turned on the charm like she never had before. Within days, she had him wrapped around her finger, and then she showed him what a professional sex worker was capa
ble of. She knew that the way she treated him in bed would make sure he didn’t even consider any other options.

  It was just a job to her. She kept telling herself she had to fuck him to seal the deal. After he proposed and married her, well, eventually she’d cut back slowly, and it wouldn’t be that long before she only had to put out every six months or so. Can’t cut the bastard off too quickly.

  After dating for four months, Fernando was down on one knee proposing to her. “I need you,” he whispered. “I’ve never had these kinds of feelings before.”

  There was a rush in his voice, as if he only now realized he was well past 50 and single. Time wasn’t on his side.

  She squealed with fake delight and promised him exactly what he wanted: babies.

  He gave her that stupid lovesick grin of his and gave her a big hug. Idiot. Could he really not see that she was just playing him? There was no way in hell she’d be popping out any bratty kids.

  “I love you,” she said, thinking of his money, not him. She just hoped he never thought of getting a pre-nup. That would mess up everything.

  That fucking brother of his kept trying to screw things up. She was standing right there when Carlos said, “I don’t believe her feelings are real. She’s too sweet. It’s fake.” He stared at Fernando, who looked disgusted with his brother. He just wouldn’t hear it, and Brittany smiled inside.

  The wedding was two months after they became engaged. She said she didn’t want a big wedding, that all she wanted was to be Mrs. Manning-Santiago and to be with the man she loved.

  Brittany wanted to quit her job right away but she had to wait a bit. It would seem too cold to just abandon him at work. Then it hit her; he wanted children so bad…

  After the wedding, she put on her sweetest smile and told him she was ready. She pretended to be excited and anxious, and she rambled on about all her plans for the nursery and how she wanted to be a stay at home mom and bake cookies with her kids and take them to soccer practice and all that other crap that stay at home moms do.

  Then she put on a worried face and asked if he would be okay with her not working at the dental office while she was pregnant because she was worried about the baby’s safety. She told him her mother had a hard time with pregnancy and had four miscarriages and had to be on bed rest through her pregnancies for them to make it to term. Brittany was worried she’d have problems too. She said her mom didn’t even realize she was pregnant two of the times until after it was too late because of her irregular periods (just like Brittany) and missing a month was normal.

  Fernando reacted exactly how she wanted him to. He wanted kids so damned badly he totally agreed and even suggested she quit working while they tried. Just in case.

  Now she could enjoy the good life. He had a beautiful home. No, she caught herself. They had a beautiful home.

  Fernando doted on her day and night. They started “trying” immediately, with him wanting sex practically every day. Not good. She told him she looked up some information on the Internet and it actually lowers their chances of getting pregnant if they have sex too often because his sperm wouldn’t be as potent. It was better to try just once a week or so. She had no clue if any of that was true or not, but it sounded good. She wanted kids as much as he did, so why would she lie?

  Of course, she kept taking the pill, but he didn’t know that.

  Fernando - New Zealand

  Fernando ate alone. They’d picked up some vacuum packed bags of tuna salad and other items easy to carry on the trip. It was doubtful they’d find anything to eat along the hike on the mountain and since he was guessing they’d be away from civilization for at least two days, they had to take along whatever they wanted, food and water being the top priorities.

  “Holy Father, please bless this food,” he prayed. “Please receive Carlos’s soul and give him the peace he has earned.”

  He crossed himself and opened lunch. Brittany and Steve sat about fifty feet away from him, which suited him just fine. They didn’t even pretend to care whether he saw them together or not.

  They still weren’t far from the ocean, just a couple of hours’ hike.

  The temperature on the island was 68, so it was pleasant to walk. He heard occasional rumbles through the forest ahead of them. They hadn’t seen any actual lava or boiling mud or whatever might lay ahead yet. It was like walking through any other forest.

  Brittany and Steve stood and walked through some trees so he couldn’t see them anymore.

  Maybe her adultery on national television would mean she couldn’t take half his assets?

  He didn’t know and couldn’t risk it. He cringed every time he thought of her taking everything he’d worked his whole life for.

  There.

  He was sure the ground shook that time.

  It occurred to him that there was almost no noise. They’d heard monkeys and birds on the trek from the boat, but now there was nothing.

  He stood and looked around but couldn’t see anything unusual. The trees swayed a bit, but that was just wind. It just seemed so freakish that there were no animal sounds.

  “Hey!” He called toward where he’d seen Brittany and Steve disappear. “We’d better get moving!”

  Ten minutes later they emerged, holding hands. Fernando couldn’t help feeling like his heart had been stabbed with a steak knife. He ignored them and started walking, assuming they’d follow behind.

  They had to start the ascent now, up to the top of the volcano rim. Their task was to walk to the other side of the island mountain, collect two buckets of mud and bring it back by continuing around the mountain. Their GPS devices would confirm they’d made the whole trip.

  “Wait up,” called Steve.

  Fernando reluctantly stopped so that the pair could catch up to him.

  “You want to lead?” he asked. “Seems like you’re more a part of our team now than an unbiased cameraman.”

  Steve glared at him. “I’ll do what the fuck I want to.”

  Brittany laughed.

  Fernando felt a deep sense of shame and he lowered his head. He knew he was the one being wronged but it didn’t feel that way. It felt like he was the intruder into their relationship.

  They’d only gone 100 feet more when Steve said, “Brit, you stay here. You,” he said to Fernando. “Come with me.”

  Fernando had no clue what was going on but he had no choice. His body followed Steve’s commands and followed him a bit farther away from Brittany.

  “The producers have something they want you to see,” said Steve.

  He took out the tablet from his knapsack and handed it to Fernando. “Just tap it. It’s all set up.

  “What is it?”

  “Just do it.”

  Fernando tapped the computer and a video started to play. It was one of the interviews with Brittany from when they’d applied to the show. They’d had lots of interviews, some together and some separately.

  She was alone in this one, smiling that fake smile to the camera as Cynthia’s voice said to her, “We know the truth.”

  “What truth?”

  “You never went off the birth control pills. You lied to Fernando all that time about trying to get pregnant. We know you never wanted kids, never wanted to marry him, certainly never wanted to have sex with him. You just wanted the lifestyle.”

  Brittany stared straight ahead, not saying anything. Her eyes opened wide and she seemed shocked.

  “We know because your bracelet is really a lie detector. We know the real you, Brittany. We know you much better than your own husband does.”

  “Are you going to tell him?”

  Now it was Cynthia’s turn to pause. “We haven’t decided what we’ll do yet. We’re just gathering background material here. We think you’d be good for the show.”

  Steve grabbed the tablet from Fernando.

  “You’re worthless to her,” he said. “Just a means to an end. She thinks you’re a terrible lover and it made her skin crawl to have to fuck
you.”

  Fernando glanced back to see the woman who used to be his dream girl, his soul mate, and all he could see now was an evil bitch who’d taken his life away.

  Chapter 23: Team Genius

  Jonathan - Somewhere Over the Pacific Ocean

  The flight seemed to take forever, but for the first time on their whole adventure, Jonathan didn’t mind; Emma was sitting beside him on the plane. They’d stopped pretending not to know each other and both teams arranged to pick tasks from the same cell in the game grid. Both were on their way to Pitcairn Island.

  Different tasks, but he didn’t care about that. He just really wanted to spend time with Emma.

  They were flying on an aging Airbus 321, a narrow body plane with three seats on each side of a single aisle. There weren’t many passengers, though, and they were flying to Mangareva in French Polynesia. From there, they’d take a chartered supply ship to Pitcairn Island.

  The flight would be eight hours, and they were about halfway now. He sat with Emma, her with the window seat and he in the middle. The aisle seat was vacant.

  Pietre and Maria sat together a couple of rows behind them in the same fashion. Samantha and Tanya sat across the aisle from Jonathan, but they left the empty seat between them so they could spread out a bit more.

  “What’s your favorite color?” Emma asked.

  Jonathan hated questions like that. Colors were colors. What’s to like about one over another? Somehow, with Emma, though, nothing bothered him. “Brown,” he said. “How about you?”

  “I love the violet color of some flowers when the morning sun bounces off them. And the deep red of a fabulous sunset over the ocean. I used to love to travel to this little place on Long Island that had a view back over the water to the west, and the sunsets in the middle of summer were amazing.”

  He stared at her, wondering how she could have that much to say about a color. He realized he loved hearing every word.

  They talked nonstop the entire plane trip. They talked about their childhoods, their families, their careers, their desires for the future. Jonathan had never much cared about these kinds of conversations before. He just mostly talked enough to girls to bed them, and that was it. He wanted more with Emma, though, and every time she told him a bit of her past, he wanted to reach out and touch her.