The Contestant

Eight pairs of interested eyes, and one spectator with a third eye, watched as the fire caught and surged inside its new home.

“We’ll have to take shifts so that it stays lit at all times,” Gus told the group. “We don’t want to feed it so that it gets too big, and we want to make sure that we can transport some of it if it rains.”

Talia turned her hands over and studied her now dirtied and bloodied appendages. “Yes. I don’t want to have to do that every day.”

Reuben walked over to her and circled her wrists with his hands, holding her palms up for inspection. He grimaced, then tugged her toward the water. “I told you to stop.”

“And I ignored you. You might have to get used to that from me. I’m not Tommy.”

He pulled up short and glared at her. “That much I have figured out.” Forcibly, he dunked her hands in the water.

Since rinsing the wounds had been her plan, she didn’t fight him. She figured part of her strategy for dealing with him would be to conserve as much energy as possible. As long as they were headed in the same direction, she had no problem letting him take the lead. Then when it came time to buck him, she’d have the wherewithal to do it.

Together they bent over the salt water up to their elbows. Talia watched for any signs of smaller predators that might be attracted by the blood, but stopped worrying as soon as she saw her hands were clean.

“I don’t need you getting an infection that would take you out of the game.”

“Worried about me again.” It was more of a statement this time. She shook her head. “First saving me from the shark, then from myself. Who’s the Pollyanna now?”

“I have my reasons” was his only response.

She straightened and looked at her hands. Pieces of skin were missing but, other than that, she was fine. “I know you do.”

He narrowed his eyes to study her. “What do you do? I mean back in the real world.” It was unexpected. He’d been so insistent about keeping his own secrets that she felt taken aback by his sudden curiosity.

“What do you do?” she countered.

He scowled at her nonanswer. “I asked you first.”

“So?”

He huffed then shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t really do anything anymore.”

“Then you’d better hope you do well in this game. It sounds like you could use the money.”

With that she left him and made her way to the group. The fire was gaining strength among the logs. Gus and Iris were creating a makeshift skewer that could hold the bucket for boiling water and would also be useful for when they started catching fish.

Reuben rejoined the camp and found his backpack. He reached into it and pulled out a sealed plastic bag then stepped in front of Talia cutting her off from anyone watching.

“Let me see your hands again.”

“They’re fine.”

“Hey, camera guy,” Reuben called out to the man who was currently filming the fire as if it were another contestant on the show.

“Dino,” the portly man answered, supplying his name without stopping his filming.

“Right. Do we have a first-aid kit?”

“There was one in the boat.”

That was answer enough since the boat was gone. Talia heard Reuben muttering under his breath, but couldn’t make out what he was saying. He opened the bag and extracted two T-shirts. One white and one black. Both dry.

“Nice trick,” she noted. All her stuff was wet from the swim. She planned to lay everything out overnight to dry and realized she should have planned better. A dry shirt to change into would have felt good. She couldn’t help but be somewhat annoyed that Reuben had been one step ahead of her in that regard.

“Lucky for you I thought of it. We’ll use them as bandages.” He started to wrap one of his shirts around her hand, but she pulled it back.

“I don’t need your help,” she countered.

“They need to be covered. You scraped them raw and bugs will have a feast if you don’t wrap them up.”

He was right. She winced at the image of bugs eating the exposed flesh. But still she didn’t understand his motivation.

“Is this another way of flirting with me?” And more importantly, was he flirting with her as part of some strategy to win the game? Or did he simply want to get her into bed?

He looked up from his task and she could see his white teeth. “I don’t flirt, sugar. I don’t need to.”

“Then I don’t get it. Why all the concern? You said yourself this game is about everyone fending for themselves.”

“It is. Or at least it will be after we get a few of the others off.” He took a step closer to her, invading her space. “But for now I need you.”

Uncontrollably, her breath caught in reaction to his nearness. “And when you’re done needing me?”

“I’ll break you like a bad habit.” His smile grew wider, even as he took a step back and reached for her other hand to wrap up.

“Good to know,” she muttered.

“I play to win.”

Talia lifted her chin, instinctively reacting to the challenge in his tone. “So do I.”

“Should be an interesting game.”

He finished and Talia noted the solid job he’d done with the makeshift bandages. The shirts were tied loosely enough so that her wounds would get some air, but securely enough to keep any critters out. The man understood the basics of first aid, it seemed.

They moved closer to the group, who were now circled around the fire. Clothes were being laid out to dry and everyone was picking a spot on the bed they had crafted. The men had done a good job of finding enough big logs and securing them together with leaves and vines to make what was essentially a large raft, then covering it with palms that had been rinsed in the water first. It wasn’t as soft as sand, but it was definitely smarter.

Talia glanced down at the last two spots left to her and Reuben on the end.

“You’ll take the inside spot,” Reuben told her, dropping his sack to claim his place.

“Great,” she murmured. She was going to be sandwiched between Gus and Reuben. On the plus side, she’d have the benefit of their body heat. On the downside, her body was reacting a little too warmly to the idea of sharing space with Reuben.

Eventually the sun finished its descent over the western horizon and Dino called to Evan for his escape. Building the camp had left them little time for gathering food or trying to fish, so the general consensus was that they would go hungry tonight and start early in the morning. At least they had been able to boil the water so that everyone had something to drink.

“Wow, my stomach really hurts,” Marlie whined.

They were circled around the fire, no one yet ready to call it a night. The air was beginning to cool and Talia watched as a scattering of clouds drifted overhead, periodically blocking her view of the fabulously starry sky. She was dry, warm, a bit hungry, but overall quite content.

She’d forgotten how much she loved camping. As a family, she and her parents had taken trips several times a year before her mother had gotten sick. Then after she was gone, Talia and her father had continued the tradition. It had been difficult at first trying to pretend to have fun when they both knew how much they were missing the same person, but eventually she and her dad had been able to take comfort in each other. They’d developed a camaraderie that hadn’t existed before and had become a unit of two.

Unfortunately as she’d grown into her teens, her training and competition schedule had left them little time for vacations. She made a mental note that when she got back to civilization she was going to rekindle this particular tradition. If she didn’t decide to murder her father…then she would ask him to come along, too.

“You’re just hungry,” Gus responded to Marlie’s complaint.

“Are you sure? What if it’s some kind of parasite in the water?”

“No one else is feeling sick, dear.” The soft words came from Iris. Talia could see she was rolling her eyes at the young woman. Iris and Talia shared a conspiratorial smile.

“But it really hurts,” Marlie complained, this time with a high-pitched quality in her voice that had Reuben, who was on Talia’s right, clicking his teeth together as his jaw clenched shut.

“Are you kidding?” he asked. “This is day one.”

“So?” Marlie’s lower lip protruded in a pout worthy of a three-year-old.

“So if you can’t handle a few hunger pains, little girl—”

Talia reached out and patted his hand, stopping what she imagined would have been a blistering tirade. After all, it was day one. There was no point in him making enemies of everyone.

“I have an idea,” Talia suggested. “Why don’t we play a game? It will take our minds off how hungry we are.”

“Good idea,” Sam said, backing her up.

“What kind of game?” Tommy wanted to know.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “How about we go around the circle and say what each of us would do with the million dollars if we won?”

“I’ll start,” Iris began. “I’m going to buy a luxury condo in an over-fifty community. There’s one I’ve got my eye on. It’s got a pool and a community center that holds bridge tournaments every month.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with the money other than I hope it will keep me from having to be one of those greeter guys at the local Wal-Mart. I really hate those guys,” Gus explained. “It’s not about the money for me. I really came to see if I’ve still got it.”

“You did a pretty good job with the fire,” Talia pointed out.

“Yes, I did,” he said, smiling proudly. “I think maybe I’d get a log cabin. In the woods somewhere near a lake where I can fish all day long.”

“Fishing? Boring,” Tommy groaned.

“You think, huh? Well, what’s your big idea?”

Tommy was sitting back, his weight resting on his palms behind him. “That’s easy. I’m never going to work again. No more bullshit ‘do this’ and ‘do that.’ No more waking up at the same time every morning to do the same damn thing every day. I’m just going to be, you know. Just be.”

Talia heard Reuben muttering again, and could only imagine what he was saying under his breath.

“I know what I’m going to do,” Marlie chimed in. “First, I’m going to see what kind of exposure being on this show gets me in the entertainment industry.”

Talia took in the tiny triangles of cloth barely covering Marlie’s chest and decided that the twenty-year-old didn’t have to worry about being underexposed.

“Then I’m going to hire a manager because really the only way to get an agent in Hollywood is to have a quality manager. And I’ll need a publicist. I mean, a publicist can make all the difference in a career. Oh, and, of course, implants.”

“Of course,” Talia concurred tongue-in-cheek and watched every man’s head turn as if pulled by some natural force in the direction of Marlie’s breasts.

“I think you look good now,” Tommy said in what Talia assumed was an attempt to lay the groundwork for a seduction. He was going to have to get behind Dino though, who it seemed had already laid a claim.

“Oh, I know. But in Hollywood bigger is really better. For boobs, anyway.”

Talia had to swallow a chuckle. Then she glanced at Nancy who was currently checking out her own significant chest, probably thinking that being bigger had never gotten her anywhere. And Talia resisted the instinctive urge to check out her own two handfuls to see how they measured up. Not that she had to look. It seemed Reuben already had his eyes on them. She met his blatant stare with a scowl, but he wasn’t intimidated in the least. He did, however, mouth the word perfect.

Ridiculously flustered and needing a distraction, she turned to the housewife. “What about you, Nancy? What would you do with a million dollars?”

“I don’t know. I mean, of course I would pay for my children’s education.” Her voice broke on the word children, but she quickly recovered. “I’m sorry. I guess I’ve been a little emotional.”

A little? Again, Talia had to bite back words and instead listened to what the woman was saying.

“It’s just that my husband leaving me for that…girl…really shook me up. I came here because I wanted to prove to him and to my kids and to myself that I wasn’t some boring old housewife. Maybe if I win, I’ll have a makeover and get myself a younger boyfriend. That would show him.” She laughed at the idea, but there was a definite twinkle in her eyes.

“See, now I’m going to be predictable,” Sam explained. “I came here because my therapist said it would be good for me. I guess I’m having what you call a midlife crisis. So if I win, I want what all fortysomething guys going through a midlife crisis want…a cherry-red Porsche so I can get a hot young girlfriend.”

There was a smattering of chuckles, then the group grew quiet and looked to Reuben who was sitting next to Sam. A moment passed where Talia thought he would stick to his strategy and say nothing about himself. She was about to speak up when he blurted out his intentions for the money.

“I’m going to buy a bar.”

That was it. No other explanation forthcoming, but he’d played along and Talia figured that counted for something. He was at least making a small effort to be a part of the group. She wasn’t sure why, but she thought that was important.

“Your turn, Talia,” Iris instructed.

“My dad…” She hesitated, deciding that it wasn’t really fair to share her father’s screwup with strangers, and modified her story. “He likes to hunt for treasure. You know…sunken ships. It costs money for equipment and information. I would help him do that. Other than that, the money is going to help me bide my time until I get a job.”

“What do you do?” Nancy inquired.

Talia could feel Reuben sit up straighter, knowing he was going to get an answer to the question he’d asked her earlier. Since she’d defied him merely to be difficult, she didn’t see the harm in answering Nancy.

“I’m an accountant.”

“Bullshit,” Reuben erupted.

She turned sharply toward him. “I am. I have my degree in accounting. I still have to take my CPA exams, though.”

“If you’re an accountant, sugar, then I’m a priest. And trust me when I tell you I ain’t no priest.”

“She can be an accountant if she wants to be,” Tommy snapped, more to buck Reuben than to support Talia, she knew.

Reuben’s eyes didn’t leave her face when he said, “Whatever.” He stood and addressed the group. “Game’s over. I suggest we try to get some sleep.”

Talia stood, too, and considered pursuing him for an answer as to why he was so adamant that she couldn’t be an accountant. Just because she was on a reality show didn’t mean she didn’t have a serious life with a very serious career waiting for her back home. Exactly what she’d planned from the moment she’d finished her last dive. Her father’s predicament was only postponing it.

But by the time she made her way to the pseudo-bed, Reuben was already stretched out at the edge of the primitive futon, using his backpack as a headrest. His arms were crossed over his chest, his eyes were closed. He was clearly done talking for the night.

Everyone else made their way onto the mat, also, people shifting and struggling to get comfortable, using their T-shirts and packs as cushions and blankets. Talia stared down at the small space left to her and considered how bad the sand mites really could be.

Then Reuben’s eyes opened, peering through the darkness directly at her. He uncrossed his arms and patted the space next to him in a blatant invitation.

Lying down with bugs or a snake?

It was definitely a tough call. But she rationalized her decision with the knowledge that she had no fear of snakes. At least one she was pretty sure wouldn’t bite her in front of the group.

Stepping over his body, Talia settled down between him and Gus and heard what could only be described as a sigh of deep satisfaction. It hadn’t come from Gus.

Bastard.

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