PAIGE PLUCKED THE PEN FROM HER bottle and tossed it to Wade.
“And we have a winner!” Wade caught the pen and walked over, grabbing her wrist and holding her hand in the air like a triumphant prizefighter. “Paige Blackwell is the Team Leader.”
Alex and Aleisha clapped and jumped up to congratulate her. Ty glared. Nick’s camera whirred as he pointed it at Wade, then at the rest of the group.
“So, what now?” Paige asked Wade when he handed her the plastic bag that contained the map. The map was a rolled up sheet of old looking parchment, artistically ragged and browned around the edges, sealed with a glob of dark red wax with an ornate X stamped into it.
“Tomorrow, you start to compete as a team.” Wade turned and pointed to the northeast where a cluster of rocks jutted out of the jungle. “You need to be at the far end of the island tomorrow morning. It’s about twelve miles, so you shouldn’t have any trouble getting there before dark. Make camp at the base of those rocks.” He grinned at them. “Don’t forget to look for food along the way.” He wagged a finger at Paige. “And no looking at that map until I say so.”
The contestants had learned their lesson about food yesterday. No one had thought about gathering anything for dinner except Paige, and all they’d had to eat were the fruit and vegetables she and Aleisha had gathered along with a lizard Paige had snared. Ty, Kevin, and Paige had been the only ones to eat the lizard.
“What about me?” Nick asked.
“You go along for the hike. That’s why we gave you that small, incredibly expensive camera, Nick. But I’ll show up tomorrow with another cooler of food for you.”
Everyone moved to take down their tents and pack up their backpacks. Paige followed Wade a few yards down the trail toward his jeep.
“What about the bear I saw the other day?”
“No need to worry about that. I got him with a tranquilizer gun yesterday. We’ve got him penned up and I contacted a bear rescue organization. He’ll be going to a zoo soon.”
“You guys came prepared for everything.” Paige grinned.
Wade shrugged and ran a hand through his long hair. “I certainly didn’t expect to find a bear here, but we weren’t sure what might be on the island.”
“I’m glad he’ll be okay.”
“So, how do you feel about making Team Leader?” Wade flashed her a smile and touched her hand lightly. “I knew you’d make it. You’re the best one in this group.”
“Thanks. I guess we’ll see how I do now. Ty looks like he might have a problem with it.”
“He’ll come around soon. He’s just one of those guys who can’t stand a woman getting the best of him.” Wade flashed her a grin, his green eyes sparkling against his tanned face.
“And you’re not?” she asked.
“Darlin’, I insist on a woman getting the best of me. Don’t forget we have a date when this is over.”
Yeah, she only thought of that a hundred times a day.
“Hey, this isn’t the way to the other side of the island.” Ty had jogged up to walk beside Paige. “We need to go northeast and we’re headed west.”
“We’re going to the coast. It’ll be easier that way,” she replied.
“That doesn’t make any sense.” He grabbed her arm and jerked her to a stop. “We’re going out of our way.”
“If we go to the coast—which isn’t that much out of our way—the hike will be a lot easier than going through the jungle. We’ll get there in plenty of time to set up camp and get some food for tonight.” Paige pulled her arm from his grip and kept walking.
“So, you think you’re in charge of everyone?”
“According to Wade, I’m the Team Leader.”
“Oh, yeah, how could I forget?” Ty shook his head. “Wade probably told you how to get the damn pen out of the bottle. I’ve seen how chummy you two are. What’d you do, give him a little horizontal tango?”
Paige grabbed the front of Ty’s shirt and hauled him closer. “Who I sleep with is none of your business, Ty. But let me assure you that I don’t screw anybody to get anything. I don’t need to.”
“Hey, Ty, lighten up. Paige won fair and square,” Alex called from behind them. “Besides, I’d rather hike along the beach with nice, flat, hard sand than through the jungle.”
“I hear that,” Aleisha chimed in.
Outnumbered, Ty dropped back a few paces, still grumbling under his breath. His attitude was going to get old real fast, and Paige knew she needed to come up with some way to bring him around. Kevin snickered and continued walking past them. Paige squinted at his back. Kevin had to be the strangest one of their group. He kept to himself, rarely even talked to the others. Not much of a team player, Paige thought. But at least he wasn’t confronting her all the time.
“This is kind of cool, actually,” Nick said as he moved up to take Ty’s place next to Paige.
“How’s that?”
“Well, I thought I was only here to do the video thing, you know? I’m real happy that I get to participate a little. Hiking with you guys and all.”
“You ever do any wilderness camping?” she asked.
“Oh, sure. Well, a few times anyway. I did a wilderness camp vacation once.” Nick shook his head. “Thought I’d breeze through it, but it was really hard. I learned a lot.”
“I know what you mean. I was still a little kid the first time my mom took me wilderness camping. They cut me a little slack, but I still had to pull my own weight. I’ve been in love with it since my first trip.”
“Maybe that’s what’s so great about it,” Nick said. “You have to depend on yourself and the other campers.”
“Good to have you along.” She meant that. As the cameraman, Nick wasn’t competing, but he could certainly slow the team down if he couldn’t keep up. Paige had asked Wade if the team’s score would be impacted by the cameraman’s abilities, but she hadn’t gotten a real answer. Whenever she’d asked Wade to clarify anything, he’d just told her that there were no rules to clarify. Paige pushed aside her uneasiness. It didn’t really matter. She was on an adventure.
They made the coast in less than an hour. Hiking on the wet sand was much easier than the jungle, and they were making good time. Everyone seemed to lighten up a bit as they trekked across the hard-packed, wet sand. The turquoise sea swelled into waves that crashed onto the shore. The bright sun glistened off the waves and sand, and everyone seemed to be happy to get out of the suffocating gloom of the jungle for a while.
Nick pulled his camera out and filmed Alex and Aleisha joking and chasing each other, and Ty struggling with his over-sized backpack.
“Hey, Ty. You know you probably won’t need most of that stuff. Why don’t we stop and you can unload some of it here,” Paige suggested.
“I don’t need any advice from a girl, but thanks anyway.”
Paige bit back a retort. When he took off the backpack and dove into the ocean a few times, she decided not to tell him that he’d regret it. But she took a little perverse pleasure when he started to scratch his dry skin and pull at the damp clothes.
His scratching was making her all too aware of her own itchy scalp. She had been on the island for four days, and as soon as she found fresh water, she was going to use a portion of her shampoo.
After a few hours, Paige saw what looked to be a good trail to get to the rocks they were headed for and led the group back into the jungle. It took another two hours to reach the base of the rocks.
Backpacks fell to the ground with relieved sighs from everyone. Aleisha and Alex both leaned against a tree. Alex was breathing hard, and Aleisha looked like she was about to fall asleep.
“Now what?” Ty asked in a tone that could only be described as surly and antagonistic.
“Now we hunt for dinner.” Paige looked up at the sun. “Looks like we still have a few hours until dark.” Paige raised her voice in case Aleisha had actually passed out. “Aleisha, you gather some firewood and get some fresh water at that stream we passed.”
“Seems like we’re filling those things all the time,” Aleisha complained, but picked up the empty bladders.
“Well, it’s supposed to be real survival,” Paige reminded her. There were only two bladders, each holding about a gallon of water. That meant they’d need to be filled at least twice a day. The producers certainly weren’t making this easy, but then they’d said it wouldn’t be like the other reality television shows.
“Everyone else, fan out and get whatever food you can find in the next two hours, then come back.”
“I still have a couple of sandwiches from last night,” Nick offered, holding up a bag. “And some bottled water.”
“What kind of sandwiches?” Ty asked.
“Turkey and cheese and tuna,” Nick answered.
Paige shook her head. “I wouldn’t be eating those after all this heat.”
“They look okay to me.” Nick peered into the bag.
“Your choice. Personally, I try to avoid food that’s been left in the heat for any length of time. I’d suggest that you toss them and eat what we find tonight.”
“Yeah, probably a good idea.” Nick grinned at her. “Which means I need to pull my own weight.”
“Good attitude. Wish you were really on the team,” Paige said.
Ty snorted, called to Alex to come with him, and headed off to the east. Nick followed Paige to the south while Aleisha carried the water bladders back to the stream. Kevin walked off by himself.
The stream they had passed didn’t look big enough to have any sizeable fish and Paige was hoping she would find a bigger stream close to camp. After an hour of searching, she had to admit that they were going to be dining on plants tonight unless Ty and Alex had found something better. She and Nick concentrated on picking up coconuts and looking for edible plants while they made their way back to camp.
Aleisha had gathered the water and firewood. Kevin was leaning against a tree with a couple of large lizards at his feet. Paige wondered why he didn’t just have the word macho tattooed on his forehead. Ty and Alex were the last ones to arrive back at camp and brought a string of fish.
“Hey, good haul. Where’d you find them?” Paige asked Ty.
“That’s my secret.”
“Ty, we’re supposed to be working as a team now.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll see about that.” Ty dropped the fish at her feet. “Why don’t you get these cleaned and cooked?”
Paige stared as he walked away. Was he a Neanderthal or what?
A few hours before dawn a noise woke Paige. She was accustomed to the variety of sounds in the rainforest, but this was different. It was the sound of something large approaching. Her first thought was the bear she had encountered the first day; then she remembered that Wade said he’d captured the bear. That didn’t mean there couldn’t be another one, or some other unlikely animal. She rolled out of her hammock and grabbed her knife. Not that a knife was going to be a lot of protection against a large animal, but it was something. The noise got louder, and then a man crashed through the brush.
The pilot who’d flown the contestants to the island stood at the edge of the small clearing where they had made camp. By the moonlight Paige could see that his shirt and pants were torn and dirty, his left arm had a rag tied around it, stained with dried blood. He was sweating and breathing hard as though he’d been running.
She ran over and put her shoulder under his arm just as his knees buckled. Paige helped him to the camp, let him down to the ground and sat in front of him. Up close she could see that his lip was cut and swollen. Blood had trickled down his stubbled chin and dried.
“Got to get out of here,” he gasped between ragged breaths.
“Why?’
“They’re hunting you.”
“Me?” Paige wondered if he was delirious from something.
He shook his head and waved his hand to indicate the camp. “All of you.”
His breathing was still labored, so Paige got up and poured him a cup of water. By the time he’d finished it and asked for another, his breathing had returned to normal.
“Hey, what’s up?” Nick poked his head out of his tent.
“The pilot just showed up. I don’t know what’s going on, but he’s injured.”
Nick crawled out of the tent, unembarrassed at wearing nothing but cotton boxers featuring cartoon characters. “Sounds weird.” He followed Paige back to the pilot. She remembered that he’d introduced himself as Connor when they had boarded the small floater plane.
She gave him another cup of water, and he gulped it down. Paige handed the cup to Nick and motioned him to bring more water. When Nick returned with the water, Paige woke everyone up. Whatever was going on, it sounded like something they all needed to hear.
The grumbling at being awakened was replaced by surprised questions when they saw Connor. Paige motioned everyone to be quiet. Nick ran back to his tent and pulled out his camera.
“You want to tell us what’s going on?” she asked.
Connor nodded and took a deep breath. “I was unloading the provisions when I overheard the producers or whatever they are talking in another room. They were talking about how they hadn’t left a trail for anyone to find. That all of you had been told to not tell anyone where you were going or why.”
Everyone nodded.
“Then one of them said that you all had to go and this was the best way. They said that the camera man was just collateral damage.”
Nick frowned and turned off his camera, laying it aside and giving all his attention to Connor. Paige tried to ignore the sick feeling in her stomach and told Connor to go on.
“Then they said that if the pilots found out, they’d just take us out. More collateral damage.” Connor took another sip of water. “I guess it surprised me, and I dropped a bottle of wine. They heard the noise and came in. I tried to convince them that I hadn’t heard anything, but they weren’t buying it.”
“What happened to your arm?” Paige asked.
“One of them came after me with a knife. He slashed my arm, then knocked me out.”
“What happened then?”
“When I woke up, I was in the pantry. They were still talking. One of the men told the others to nail a board over the pantry door so I couldn’t get out and that he’d kill me after Wade sent all of you up here so you wouldn’t hear the gunshot.”
Aleisha gasped and crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself. Ty was shaking his head, chuckling under his breath. Kevin looked bored. Alex and Nick stared at Connor, mesmerized by his story.
“Then one of them asked the others why they had to go through with the charade of it being a show, and another one said because it would make the hunt better.”
“Oh, come on,” Ty said. “This is total bullshit!”
“Why do you say that?” Paige asked him.
“You don’t really believe this?” Ty laughed. “It’s just part of the game. They want to see what we’ll do, and if we don’t make the right choice, then we’ll lose points or something.”
“I don’t think so.” Aleisha shook her head. “I think he’s telling the truth.”
“Where was Wade when all this happened?” Paige asked Connor.
“When we got to the house, he said he was going to look for the producers, see if they wanted anything special next time we brought provisions. I didn’t see him after that.”
“Whoa, Paige,” Ty sneered. “You think your boyfriend is in on this? Think he’s one of the bad guys?”
Paige ignored Ty and looked at Nick and Alex. “What do you two think?”
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Alex said. “Either way doesn’t make any sense. Why would they drag us out here with a story about a television show just to kill us?”
“Kevin?” Paige asked.
“Who knows?” Kevin shrugged.
“Look, they already paid us fifty thousand dollars each,” Ty protested. “I still say this is just part of the show.” He pointed a finger at Paige. “And you’re stupid enough to believe it.”
“That doesn’t prove anything,” Paige said, annoyed at his attitude.
“So how did he get out of the pantry? How did he find us?” Ty asked. “He got out of a barred door, stumbled over twelve miles through the jungle and just happened to find us?”
“What’s your point, Ty?”
“My point is that it’s total bullshit. He found us because Wade told him exactly where we’d be.”
Connor looked at Ty. “I found you because I overheard that Wade was going to send you to the northern end of the island. I figured if you had any sense you’d travel along the beach, then go back into the jungle. You left a pretty clear trail.”
“Man, I don’t know. I just signed on to be the cameraman, you know. Sounded like a fun job.” Nick shrugged. “I’m not even part of the team.”
“Yeah.” Connor grimaced. “You’re collateral damage according to them. Just like Josh.”
“Who’s Josh?” Paige asked.
“My co-pilot. The killed him and shoved his body into the pantry with me.”
“Oh, come on, you’re scaring them.” Ty laughed. “I can’t believe all you guys are buying into this. I bet that’s not even real blood on his bandage.” Ty reached over and ripped the bandage off Connor’s arm. Connor jerked in pain as the cut opened again and started to bleed.
“That’s enough, Ty!” Paige stomped over to her pack and pulled out the small first aid kit. Connor stood up and glowered at Ty.
“It’s probably just a scratch, put there to fool all of us.” “Everyone go back to sleep. I’ll stand watch, then we leave at first light.” Paige opened the first aid kit and pulled out a bottle of antiseptic.
“Says who?” Ty sneered.
“You’re welcome to stay here and see what happens tomorrow.” She dabbed at Connor’s arm with some antiseptic, ignoring his scowls and grunts.
“As far as I’m concerned, I can do anything I want. Team Leader, my ass.” Ty stomped off to his tent and crawled inside.
“This is more than a scratch,” Paige said to Connor as the others want back to their tents.
“So you believe me?”
“You haven’t given me any reason not to.” She applied a gauze pad and placed waterproof tape over it. “Strange story, though. And I’m worried about Wade.”
“Worried about him?”
“He could be as much a victim as the rest of us.”
“Is he really your boyfriend?”
“No. We became friends when he recruited me for the show, that’s all. There’s nothing between us.” Yet, Paige added to herself.
“Good, because I’d bet he’s in on this with them. They didn’t say that, but a lot of the conversation sounded like he knew what was going on, like he helped set the whole thing up.”
“You’d be wrong.” Who the hell was he to start passing judgment on Wade? “Wade wouldn’t have any part in something like that.”
“I guess we’ll see eventually,” Connor said. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to sleep a bit. Been up all night.”
“Take my hammock. I won’t be sleeping any more tonight.” It wasn’t a gracious offer, but then Connor didn’t accept it graciously either.
He stomped over to the hammock while Paige sat in the dark and went over everything Connor had told them. She couldn’t find a hole in it. The producers had no reason to set this up. The contestants would only react in one of two ways. Wait for Wade to show up tomorrow and confront him about Connor’s story, or try to hide in the jungle. If they waited for Wade and he discounted Connor’s story, it was over. If they ran, the producers had no way to control the show, so what would be the point?
From what Connor said, the point was to hunt the contestants down like animals. She resisted Connor’s idea that Wade was involved in this. She considered herself a good judge of character, but she had to admit that she didn’t really know him.