by A. Anders
After a shower, a nap, and dinner, I was feeling completely refreshed. It was amazing. I was even seeing things differently. I was coming around to the idea that this crazy situation really was just a game show and that nothing I had seen had been real. In fact, I wanted to believe that.
Whether or not she invited me to stay, I wanted to believe that everything that had happened between us had been real. I wanted to believe that someone could still look at me the way she did. To have that, I was ready to accept that Rose had been right about everything.
Not stopping there, I was also ready to accept that Brad had been right. I was the paranoid one. And since in the movies, the paranoid character never gets the girl, I was done with that. I was ready to be the show’s strong, silent hero.
Pete put me next to Freddy for the rose ceremony. Not surprisingly, his arm had been reattached. Experience told me that he would regain the full use of it. For now, his arm was in a sling, and he looked massively high. I wondered if it was from the magic dust or one of Brad’s special blends.
When Rose made eye contact with me at the start of the ceremony, it was the first time she had looked at me since the beach. She even smiled. I wasn’t sure what had changed between then and now, but I was happy for it. It even made me believe that I would be the first one to get a rose.
I wasn’t, though. Again, that honor went to Brad. However, for the first time, I wasn’t the last person to get a rose. I was the second to the last person. This time, the person eliminated was young Freddy.
It seemed brutal to lose your arm fighting for a woman and then have her eliminate you. But then again, who would Freddy be sadder to leave? If I listened to Brad, it wasn’t Rose.
I wasn’t sure why I escaped Pete and shadowed Freddy to the dock later that night. Hiding behind a bush, I didn’t know what I expected to see, but when Freddy’s pawn left and Brad arrived, I knew something unusual was happening.
I watched closely as Brad approached Freddy at the end of the dock. I remembered how he had described himself as the villain. Was he about to prove it now? As soon as Brad was within arm’s length of Freddy, I got the answer to one of my questions. It was not the question I was expecting.
Apparently, Brad hadn’t been exaggerating. He had been dipping his quill in Freddy’s ink pot. Now that they thought that they were alone, Freddy didn’t hide how much he would miss it.
I was sure someone might have enjoyed watching what those two did to each other on the dock. After all, they were objectively attractive men. But, me? Not so much.
I felt like a creeper in the bushes. I turned away. They deserved their privacy, and I gave it to them. That was when I heard Freddy cough.
Hearing the sound, my attention whipped back. He was choking. I recognized everything about the situation. Freddy slipped from Brad’s arms and landed on his knees as he fought for breath.
“You alright?” Brad implored.
Freddy wasn’t alright. He would be dead in seconds. I could either watch him die, or I could try to help, running the risk that Brad would blame me for his death. Who was I kidding? I never really had a choice.
I leaped out of the bushes, startling Brad.
“He’s choking!” Brad yelled confused.
“No, he’s dying. Do you have anything you can give him? A stimulant? A depressant? Anything?”
Brad shook his head, no. Why would he? He had just come to see his friend off.
Like I had with Kurt, I tried everything. I checked his windpipe for blockage. I compressed his chest. I even tried squeezing the blood in his limbs towards his core. None of it stopped him from dying.
“I want you to look at him and tell me that he’s dead,” I said, darkly pleased that I was no longer alone.
“He’s dead,” Brad confirmed. “You were right. When you get eliminated, you die. But, why?”
“This isn’t a game show. This is something else.”
“What?” Brad pleaded.
“I don’t know. But now you’ve seen it too. And together we can convince everyone else. We might be able to stop this.”
Brad paused staring down at his fallen friend. “Or maybe we shouldn’t,” he began. “Maybe we should do something else.”
“What’s that?”
Brad gave me an icy stare. He had a plan.
Chapter 6
Brad didn’t say another word after that. Whatever he was thinking, he was going to keep it to himself. Leaving Freddy’s body where it was, we returned to Brad’s cabin, where we found Victor.
“Freddy’s dead,” Brad told him.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean he’s dead. It was just like Ford told us. I met him at the dock to say goodbye and then watched him die.”
“It’s true. I was there,” I confirmed.
“How?”
Brad shook his head looking at me for an answer.
“Choking? Maybe poisoning. I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Seen many people die as a corporate recruiter?” Victor asked me with an accusing stare.
“Victor,” Brad interrupted, “Freddy’s dead. We don’t know how. His body is at the dock. We can show it to you if you want.”
I looked at Brad. Brad didn’t yet know that the bodies disappeared.
“Do you want us to show you?” Brad prodded.
Victor looked at me suspiciously. Why was he doing that? Did he think that I had something to do with it?
I was the one who jumped in the bear cage and saved his life. I was the one who warned everyone from the beginning that people were dying. Why didn’t he see that?
“No, I believe you,” Victor relented, never taking his eyes off of me.
“Then what do we do?” I asked the both of them. “Should we tell everyone?”
“Let’s wait,” Brad suggested.
“I agree,” Victor added.
“Wait? Why?”
Brad replied. “It’s night. We’re vulnerable at night. We should head to the woods and get a good night’s sleep. In the morning, we’ll tell ‘em. That’s if we haven’t killed each other by then.”
“But if we tell them tonight, maybe no one will try to kill anyone,” I countered.
“They’ll think it’s a trick,” Brad explained. “No. Let’s do it when we’re all on even ground in the morning.”
Feeling the loss of his friend for the first time, Brad lowered his head. “Maybe we should go back to the dock and do something with the body,” he said softly.
I wasn’t sure how to respond. I didn’t know if I should tell him that it would be gone, or go with them as they discovered it for themselves.
“If you do, I’m staying here,” Victor announced giving me a glance.
What did Victor think, that I was going to kill him if he went with me to the dock? It suddenly dawned on me that he did. What had he called me? Wasn’t it a limelight seeker or something?
So, having to choose between Brad and me, Victor thought that I was the one who was most likely behind the deaths. Incredible! I considered telling Victor that Brad had proclaimed himself the villain, but I didn’t. Now was the time for us to stick together.
Keeping that in mind, I told the two men what had happened with Kurt and Ian’s body. Brad quickly agreed that the same would happen to Freddy’s. I probably shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t help but wonder why he was convinced so easily. I wondered if it was because he had already arranged for the body to be removed. He was the villain, after all.
Pushing the thought aside, I joined the men as they headed into the woods. We found a spot further from camp than the last one and got comfortable. We made sure to cover our tracks this time so that Gray couldn’t find us if he came looking.
Exhausted, I curled up onto the soft mulch under the tree. Through the canopy, I could see the metal tower in the distance. Its light was again white. I didn’t give it much thought. I decided that the pink hue from earlier had been an illusion, like the colors at s
unset.
As I gave a last glance at Brad and Victor, I found Victor was sitting up straight, staring at me. I considered sitting up and staring back, but screw that. I finally had an opportunity to get a full night’s sleep. When was the last time I had that?
When I woke up, I was a little sore from sleeping on the ground, but I was rested. I was also thinking clearer, and I decided Brad had been right about waiting until morning to tell the others. When I rolled over to tell him, I discovered that both he and Victor were gone.
Had they gotten up before me? I looked around in the dirt for recent footprints. I couldn’t find any. The only footprints I found were hours old. They had left while I slept. But, why?
Deciding not to follow the footprints, I returned to camp. The cool morning mist coated my skin. It was still early. I headed to the dining area first, and the only thing I found was a group of pawns busily setting up the buffet.
I next headed to Brad and Victor’s cabin. They weren’t there, and the beds didn’t look like they had been slept in. I considered checking Gray’s cabin to see where he and the others had slept, but I decided that being caught watching them as the slept wouldn’t engender trust. Considering what we were about to tell them, trust was at a premium.
I headed back to my room, trying to put Brad and Victor’s disappearance out of my mind. Their footprints hadn’t indicated any sort of struggle. That, plus the fact that they didn’t kill me in my sleep, made me feel confident that I would see them at breakfast.
I found Pete waiting for me in my room.
“Missed me?” I asked him. He didn’t reply.
I grabbed a change of clothes, and Pete followed me to the bathroom.
“Privacy, Pete,” I said, getting him to wait outside next to another pawn.
I found Billy in the shower when I got there. I wondered how he would react when we told him about Freddy. Buck-Naked Billy was one of Gray’s guys. I hadn’t spoken much to him, but I had never questioned his motives.
What you saw was what you got with him. He was a guy who just put everything out there… like his testicles and his penis.
“Hey,” I said over the echo of the shower.
“Hey,” he replied as if the Viking funeral was a distant memory.
“This show’s a weird experience, huh?”
“I don’t know. It feels like a lot of the others,” he replied.
Was he a game show veteran like Brad? Were there a group of them who made their living going from show to show?
Billy turned off his shower and then turned to me. “By the way, I wouldn’t trust Brad if I were you.”
I froze. He offered the advice so casually that I didn’t know how to respond. All I could do was watch him as he walked away.
I thought about it for a second. Was he talking about trusting Brad while playing the game or about trusting him in general? I ran out of the shower, looking for clarification, but by the time I did, Billy was gone.
Maybe I could talk to him at breakfast, I thought.
I had been trusting Brad with a lot of things, including my life. I had no other choice. But I also needed to know who I was dealing with. Unfortunately, Brad and Victor joined me at breakfast before I got a chance to talk to Billy.
“What happened to you two last night?” I asked them.
“What do you mean?” Brad replied dismissively.
“You left me there.”
“You were safe.”
“And so were we,” Victor added.
They had left me in fear of their lives. Now that I was rested and my mind was clearer, I could understand their thinking. It wasn’t unreasonable.
I had been the only one to see the first two people die. As far as they were concerned, I was the only thing connecting the two deaths. But who was being paranoid now?
“Are we still gonna tell everyone?” I asked.
“I’ll do it,” Brad announced.
I couldn’t help but think about Billy’s warning. Still, it would be better if it came from Brad than from me. I had already cried wolf.
We kept an eye on Gray’s table waiting for the right moment. When everyone was done eating, Brad ushered us over. As they watched us warily, the three of us pulled up a chair and joined them.
They were all there, Gray, Bob, Billy, Construction Carl, and Spiritual Sam. Looking at the group again, I realized that none of Gray’s allies had been eliminated. Was that somehow related to Billy’s warning? Had it been Brad’s plan from the beginning to get his “allies” eliminated?
Of course, a more likely possibility was that Brad was just a sucky leader with really bad ideas. Yeah, that sounded more like Brad.
“Freddy’s dead,” Brad announced abruptly.
Gray looked at Brad, obviously upset. “What are you talking about? The bots reattached his arm. He was fine.”
“Not from that. It was at the dock when he was leaving. He dropped down dead.”
“From what?” Bob asked.
“We don’t know,” I replied.
Gray looked at me suspiciously. “Let me guess, Ford was the one who told you about it? You know he tried to pull this before? I’m surprised you fell for it.”
“No. I was there. I saw it,” Brad confirmed. “Freddy began choking and…” Brad paused for a second. “…and Ford did everything he could to rescue him. In fact, he did things I’ve never even seen. When Freddy died, it was with Ford’s hands on him trying to rescue him.”
I looked at Brad. Yeah, he had defended me, kinda. But he also kinda exaggerated my rescue effort, while kinda emphasizing that I was the only one touching him when he died. It was almost like Brad was implying that Freddy died because of something that I did.
“I see,” Gray responded doubtfully. “And now I guess you’re gonna tell me about how you were the only other one to meet that Kurt guy. And that you saw him die, too.”
Brad stared at Gray silenced.
“And Ian,” I added. “Ian’s dead, too.”
“Now there’s an Ian?” Gray asked, exasperated. “Is this another person you made up?”
Construction Carl shifted, drawing our attention. “No. I met Ian. He was eliminated in the second round.”
I couldn’t have been happier watching Gray’s own man shut him up.
“Ian’s dead?” Carl asked me somberly.
When I looked at Carl again, my joy was gone. He was clearly shaken by the news. “Yeah. I’m sorry, but I watched him die. That makes Kurt, Ian, and now Freddy.”
Brad jumped in. “It’s everyone who’s eliminated. If we’re voted off, we die. That’s the premise of this game show. That’s what we signed up for.”
There was a collective inhale. He struck a nerve.
“That’s bullshit,” Gray protested. “This is TV. They can’t kill us on TV.”
“Maybe, it’s not,” I volunteered. “Maybe it’s something else.”
“Like what?” Gray spit.
I shook my head not knowing.
“Look,” Brad said grabbing everyone’s attention. “We’ve all done this before. But this game’s a little more vicious than we’re used to, right? I mean, bears? Chainsaws? This is crazy, right? And now we know that if we get eliminated, we die.”
“So everyone who’s been eliminated is dead?” Gray asked me bluntly.
Brad jumped in before I could speak. “Everyone’s dead. If you’re eliminated, you die. That’s it.”
“Bernard, Thorin, Adam, all dead?” Gray asked.
“Every one of them,” Brad affirmed confidently.
Gray quieted as Bob spoke up. “So, what do we do?”
“I say we fight,” Brad growled. “They’re gonna have to catch us if they’re gonna kill us. What do you say about that?”
I looked around and everyone was either confused or scared. Gray was the only exception. He was stone-faced, but his eyes were glazed in thought.
Brad and I stared at the guys in silence until Carl gasped. His eyes were locked on something
behind me. When I turned, I saw a pawn headed towards us. Its timing sent a chill down my spine.
“Whose is it?” Gray asked.
Although everyone’s pawn was the same model, we could identify them through the numbers on the digital displays.
“It’s mine,” Spiritual Sam said.
As it stopped in front of us, the bot’s side compartment opened, revealing a blue card. Sam looked around apprehensively, and Gray gestured for him to take it.
Sam stepped forward, slowly pulled the card out, and then read it. “It just says, ‘Eight plus one.’”
“What does that mean?” Victor scoffed.
It didn’t take long for us to find out. I was the first to see him. He had exited the resort’s lobby and was walking towards us. I couldn’t believe it. It was Thorin the Pale. He had been eliminated, and now he was back.
“Look,” Bob said directing everyone’s attention.
I stood up unable to take my eyes off of him. What the hell was going on? I had watched Kurt, Ian, and Freddy die. I had seen it with my own eyes. So, how was Thorin alive?
“When we’re eliminated, we die, huh?” Gray mocked.
Another chill flashed through me as Thorin approached us. It felt unreal. When he stopped in front of me, it was like looking into the eyes of a ghost. My heart pounded so hard that it hurt.
“Hey, guys,” Thorin offered cheerfully, as his fair skin slowly turned a bright red.
“What are you doing back?” Spiritual Sam asked.
“Popular demand, I guess,” he said lifting his shoulders.
“That’s funny. Because Brad was just telling us how you died,” Gray said smugly.
“Died?”
“Yeah. He was saying how everyone who got eliminated died. On the dock, wasn’t it?” Gray asked Brad to no reply.
“No! Why would you think that?” Thorin asked Brad, distressed.
I jumped in. “Because Brad and I watched Freddy die. And before that, I saw Ian and Kurt die.”
Thorin looked at me and then flashed me his awkward smile. “You were the one that made us follow you to the dock on the first night, right? Yeah, I was thinking about that when I was waiting for the boat. But no, everything was fine. The boat came and took me back to my hotel. And when I got there, they took me to a room and asked me to stay close.”