The Contestant

Instantly, Talia turned around only to see Nancy freeze with sudden horror as a straight dorsal fin rose out of the water and swam directly in front of her, cutting between them.

“Don’t move,” Talia shouted. Judging by the shape and color of the fin, it was a gray reef shark, and not too big considering how long they could get. Maybe four feet. Maybe five. Its movements were still easy and unthreatening. At this point, he looked as though he was simply checking out the new breed of fish in town. If Talia remembered correctly from her mother, the gray reef would hunch its back before it attacked. As long as they avoided any unnecessary splashing or signs of distress that might incite the animal to think they were prey, it should just leave them alone.

“Shhh…shhhhaaar…”

“Keep it together. And no splashing.”

Coming up along Nancy’s right side, Talia wrapped an arm around the other woman’s waist and tried to propel her forward, but when she tugged, she felt resistance. Immediately, Talia sank and discovered that Nancy had gotten her shorts caught on a piece of the reef that projected from the ocean floor.

Popping up for a quick breath, she couldn’t miss Nancy’s frightened gaze. The woman was on the verge of wigging out and once that happened there would be no reasoning with her.

“Nancy, I need you to listen to me. I need you to stay calm. No splashing. Just relax.”

“But…I can’t…it’s— Did you see it?”

“It’s just a fish, and you’re bigger. Trust me when I tell you it doesn’t want anything to do with you. But you’re caught on part of the reef and if you move and get cut you’re going to bleed.”

Bleed had been the wrong word to use. If it was possible, Nancy’s eyes grew rounder. But at least now she was so frightened that she wasn’t capable of movement. Diving again, Talia went to work on the cotton material. It had been hooked over a piece of shell formation, much like a fish caught on a line. She hated to do it, but the easiest way out was simply to break off the coral. Considering it was a crime to tamper with the reef in Australia, she really hoped the camera didn’t catch this on tape.

And that’s when she felt him. Barely a brush of something large against her leg. Sleek, scaly and smooth. She stilled and slowly turned her head back and saw the pug face of the gray coming directly at her. But its jaw was shut and its position in the water was still unthreatening. It slid past her head, but she watched it as it turned around, coming back for another pass.

Like any skilled predator, it seemed to be waiting for her to make the wrong move before it pounced. She was doing everything she could to remain still, but her heart was pumping with adrenaline and the need for oxygen was becoming urgent.

Come on, you bastard. There has to be something tastier in the water than me. How about a turtle?

Suddenly, she saw a disturbance in the water to the far right. The motion caught the shark’s attention and it went to investigate. Moving quickly, Talia snapped off the coral, then kicked hard to the surface.

Nancy, clearly having felt her release, was swimming with a purpose now, and Talia was right behind her. They were only a few yards away from the point where the water would be shallow enough for them to stand. With her fastest stroke, the freestyle, Talia gave it everything she had.

Finally, her hand touched the sand on the down-stroke and she pulled herself to her feet and onto the shore, the backpacks dropping from her shoulders to the sand. Just to her left, the group was pulling Nancy out of the water. Not surprisingly, she had broken into tears as soon as she realized she was safe. Both boats pulled up to the beach to make sure everyone was okay. Or to watch a hysterical Nancy do a bad interpretation from a Jaws movie. It was hard to tell.

Talia had other concerns. She scanned the water looking for Reuben and saw him a few yards down the beach crawling on hands and knees, his chest visibly heaving with effort as he sucked in lungfuls of air. She ran to him.

“You okay?” she asked as soon as she reached him.

“I was moving fast,” he puffed, but after a few breaths he seemed to recover.

“You splashed deliberately? With a shark in the water? Not the brightest idea.” Even though it had given her the time she needed to get Nancy loose and moving, it had still been a crazy move.

He smirked. “Yeah, well, I’m a city boy and it was the best I could come up with. So much for our protection.” He pointed down the beach where Joe and Dino were both hovering while Evan knelt beside Nancy, patting her hand. Either the host was really rattled by what could have happened or he was a pretty good actor because he seemed truly shaken.

As well he should be, Talia thought. “These waters are dangerous. These people think it’s a game, but—”

“But there be sharks in the water,” he quoted in a bad imitation of a pirate. “Hell, I wouldn’t be shocked if the damn thing was some toothless trained animal sent to drum up a reaction.”

She gave him a doubtful look, but she could tell by his expression that even he didn’t buy it.

“Guess it turns out you’re a hero, after all.”

“Don’t get any ideas,” he warned her. “I just figured if something was going to take a bite out of your ass it was going to be me.”

He wiggled his eyebrows and she was forced to smile at his outrageousness.

Just like a predator. “There are tastier fish in the sea,” she murmured, echoing her earlier thoughts.

“Somehow, I doubt that.”

Talia ignored that and the fact that, for the first time, he was making his intentions known. Instead she concentrated on the personality revelation.

“You’re not fooling me. I don’t know why, given your surly attitude, but I had a hunch you weren’t one of the bad guys.”

A weak hunch, but a hunch nonetheless. And in a weird way, the role fit him better. He was still a hard-ass, but now she knew he was something else, too.

“Don’t give me that much credit,” he growled even as he got to his feet. “Once I saw Tommy and Marlie finish first I figured I would wait it out and take my chances with team two, even if it meant tangling with a big fish. Those two talk too damn much.”

Chapter 2

“You okay?”

Reuben asked the question of Nancy as he and Talia approached the group. Almost in unison the rest of the pack turned their heads as if just realizing that there had been other people in the water with the shark. There were looks of guilt from some, but not from all.

Nancy bobbed her head in answer to his question and Talia crouched down so she could check the pupils of her eyes. A blanket from one of the boats had been wrapped around her in an attempt to prevent shock. Given that her eyes weren’t dilated and she was no longer shaking, Talia reasoned that the woman was in pretty good condition, all things considered.

“It was really a shark, wasn’t it?”

This time it was Talia’s turn to nod her head in reply. There was no point hiding the truth from her now that it was over.

“I was in the water with it. I was swimming with…wow,” Nancy sighed. Then something akin to excitement lit her eyes. “Well, that was certainly dangerous and adventurous, wasn’t it? And I got out of the water on my own. Wait until my husband and kids see that!”

Talia glanced over her shoulder at Reuben at the comment that Nancy had gotten out of the water alone. He merely shrugged and then fell into the sand butt first, his arms resting casually on his knees. He was in a T-shirt and bathing trunks, and the T-shirt was clinging to his skin showing off firm pecks and hardened little nipples.

She recalled his remark about biting her ass, and her body shivered a little. Not because of him, she told herself, just…because.

“Okay, if we are all recovered from our first adventure—” Evan began to say.

“Our adventure? I don’t remember seeing you in the water, Evan,” Reuben stated.

“Yes, well, I would have jumped in to rescue you all of course…had that been necessary. Thankfully, it wasn’t. So let me explain the next phase of the game,” he said quickly.

“As I mentioned, for some of the early contests, we will be pitting team against team. Team one—Tommy, Marlie, Gus and Sam—against team two—Iris, Nancy, Talia and Reuben. You all will be sharing one camp, but for the team that wins a game, each member of that team will receive one of the items you chose and ranked in order of necessity before the show began. The losing team will receive nothing.

“Remember, this isn’t about politics. It’s about Darwinism. Anyone on the losing team will have the opportunity to pull themselves out of the game citing that they are a weak link. If no one chooses to leave, then as a group you will vote to decide who the strongest member of the team is. Then that person, and that person alone, can choose to eject who he or she considers the weakest link. Or not. It’s that person’s call. It’s a game of attrition, folks. Eventually, most of you will be broken to the point where leaving will be your only choice until there is only—”

“Hold it,” Joe called out. “I’m low on juice.” He lowered the camera off his shoulder and took a look at the battery gauge on the pack that was hooked around his waist. “Dino, focus in on Evan so we can get this last shot, will you?”

Dino, who had been circling the group trying to catch the riveted faces of the contestants, Talia assumed, steered his camera in the direction of Evan.

“We need that last line again,” Joe told the host.

“Eventually, most of you will be broken to the point where leaving will be your only choice…until there is only one person left.”

“Got it,” Dino called. Then he also lowered the bulky camera from his shoulder.

Seeing both cameras turned off, Talia breathed a sigh of relief, then chastised herself. She was going to have to get used to this if she planned on sticking it out for the next few weeks. Or months.

Could it go that long?

She turned and saw Reuben leaning back on his elbows, his face toward the sun, almost ridiculously relaxed considering what they just had been through. He certainly looked comfortable in this element despite being a city boy. If he was telling the truth about that. In a game like this it was hard to know.

“Okay, let’s head out,” Evan suggested.

“To where?” Reuben wanted to know.

“There is an inlet at the other end of the island. We’ve put up some shark netting across the gap so it will be safe to fish. You’ll camp on that beach,” Evan explained as he directed everyone back to the boats.

“Then why in the hell did you drop us off here?” Gus questioned, clearly irritated with the host.

“The inlet is too enclosed,” Joe explained. “There wasn’t enough good light for filming and out here the water is clearer so we could get shots of some of the fish.”

“TV reality as opposed to real reality,” Talia muttered. She wasn’t going to let it bother her. This was a game for entertainment that she was playing for money. Like Wheel of Fortune. If they wanted to film in good light, that was fine by her. “Are we going to have to swim again from the inlet to the beach?”

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly,” Nancy objected as she got to her feet. “Not after what happened.”

“No,” Evan told her. “We’ll take you by boat. Then one boat will go back to the yacht, and the other that has our equipment, the radio and some emergency kits will stay on the island in another part. But it will be hidden and only I will know the location of the boat so don’t think of trying to look for it or trying to get any information from Joe or Dino.”

Talia rolled her eyes at Evan’s attempt to sound menacing. The man was about as threatening as a schoolgirl.

They all loaded back into the boats, each team sticking together, and cruised around the island to where the beach jutted out and then into the inlet that Evan had described. The vessel slid over the netting and Talia could see everyone watching it, wondering if it would be enough to hold back a shark intent on getting inside. It was impossible to know. All they could do was have faith. A lot of it.

The gap between the two stretches of land was only about thirty feet wide. The shape reminded Talia of a horseshoe that was pinched at the top. And she now understood what they meant about the light. The foliage on either side served to shade the inlet, darkening it to the point that only beams of sunlight broke through. The water seemed a darker, deeper blue. More menacing than the previous site in many ways because you couldn’t see beneath the surface.

At the base of the inlet was a stretch of white beach bordering the water. To the left it looked as if the water moved even farther inland creating what Talia imagined would be a lagoon, although she couldn’t see it from her position. The pure white sand was guarded by the trees, bushes and brush. She noted the palm trees, banyan trees, bamboo shoots and massive ferns, all indigenous to the South Pacific. No need for any fake scenery here. It looked just the way it was supposed to look—a remote tropical island.

For the first time she considered that this place, this island would be her home for a while. She wasn’t displeased. It was spectacularly beautiful. Turning away from the view, she studied the people in the boat, trying to assess their reactions, wondering if they saw what she did—a secluded beach protected from the harsh sun by shade and a lagoon that would make for easy fishing.

For her, it was a place where she could live for as long as she needed.

Iris was smiling softly. Nancy still looked a little out of it, no doubt envisioning how she would relay the story of her close encounter with the shark to her ex-husband. Reuben, predictably, was giving nothing away. But when he realized she was watching him, his mouth turned up in what she was coming to know was a half smirk, half smile.

“Looks a little bit like paradise, doesn’t it?”

“It does,” she replied casually.

“Then I guess that would make you Eve.”

“And I guess that would make you the snake,” she returned, refusing to fall for his crude charm.

Undeterred by her sharp tongue, he tilted his head back and laughed full out. Quickly, she looked to the view so he wouldn’t see her own smile. If this was going to be home, then these people were going to be family. Learning to live with them would be as much of a challenge as surviving the elements. But dealing with Reuben, Talia sensed, was going to make those other two obstacles seem easy in comparison.

What in the heck was she going to do if it ended up just the two of them in the end?

Deciding that she was borrowing trouble she didn’t need, Talia instead focused on the immediate situation. The boats landed and everyone unloaded themselves and their belongings to the beach. Backpacks were tossed on the sand in a rough circle as a marker for the most likely camp. All except Tommy’s, that is, which was firmly on his shoulders.

One of the boats took off for the yacht. “How far away are we from the yacht?” Sam asked Evan. “I mean, in case there is a real emergency.”

“It’s anchored about two miles off shore,” Evan explained. “And I contact them daily by radio. Also if something serious were to happen, we’re not that far from the coast of Australia.”

“And what about you guys?” Tommy asked, pointing to the two cameramen. “Where do you guys stay?”

“That we can’t tell you,” Evan said. “It will be easier for you this way, so you’re not tempted to find our camp. Joe and Dino will take shifts filming throughout the day. At night, for the most part, you’ll be on your own. We’ll leave you with a walkie-talkie that should be used only in an emergency. That’s it. Any other questions?”

“Yes, where do I go to get my nails done?” Marlie laughed at her own joke, and so did Tommy. They were the only two.

“Okay, Joe and I will head back. Dino, you can film until your pack runs low and let us know when to pick you up.” Evan turned over the walkie-talkie to the cameraman. “For the rest of the day I suggest you guys concentrate on building a camp. I don’t have to tell you that fire is your first priority. And I’m allowed to tell you that not too far inland is a freshwater stream. The water should be boiled before drinking it, but there is more than enough for everyone. We’ve left a metal bucket at the stream for you to use. Tomorrow will be your first ‘necessity event.’ Oh, and you will all need these.”

Evan reached into the boat and pulled out a waterproof sack. He unzipped it and Talia could see what was inside. Eight portable microphones. Reluctantly she took one. It had a clip that she could hook onto her shorts. She’d insisted on the jeans as strongly as her father had insisted on the bikini.

“After all, girlie, showing a little skin might get you some new endorsement deals.”

Her last commercial after the Olympic games had been for Ace bandages. She’d taken half the money and paid a semester of college. She’d given the other half to her father, who turned around and used it to finance a search for a legendary pirate’s sunken treasure in the Caribbean. He didn’t find it. But he’d had fun.

“And isn’t that what life is about, girlie?”

Maybe it wasn’t too late, she thought sinisterly. Maybe she could still turn him over to Rocco and ask the loan shark not to be too rough. It was a definite possibility.

The rest of the group imitated her action with the microphone, then stood back as Evan and Joe got back into the boat and headed out of the inlet. Dino hefted the camera on his bulky shoulder and got to work.

“Okay,” Gus began. “This is the part where we start telling each other what to do because we each think we know best. So before that happens and we all get pissed off, does anyone have any serious camping experience?”

Talia raised her hand. So did Gus. “Then how about we try getting a fire started,” Talia suggested. “Someone else should go for water. And we’ll need something to sleep on.”

“Why?” Tommy wanted to know. “We can sleep on the sand. It will be soft.”

“And filled with sand mites that will eat you alive. Trust me.”

“I can get the water,” Iris volunteered. “I’ll take Marlie and Nancy.”

“What?” Tommy said sneering. “You think girls can find water better than men?”

“No, she thinks you, me and Sam are the best candidates to get wood for the fire, and logs and ferns for us to sleep on,” Reuben told the younger man. “You got a problem with that?”

And there it was, Talia thought. The first gauntlet being thrown. Reuben was immediately stepping into the role of alpha male and was all but daring Tommy to try and take it from him.

“Whatever,” Tommy muttered. “Let the girls go find the water.”

Round one: Reuben.

She wasn’t surprised.

“How do you want to do this, Gus?” Talia asked him, indicating the method they would use to start the fire.

“I’m pretty good with two sticks.”

Talia understood that meant scraping one stick that served as a spear against the other that served as a shell to create enough friction to cause a spark.

“Then let’s start looking for something that will work, as well as some dry brush,” she concluded.

All at once people were moving. Deciding to follow the men or deciding to follow Marlie, it was quite obvious who Dino was going to film. Talia for one was glad to see him go. Meanwhile, Reuben pushed into the brush surrounding the beach, instructing Sam and Tommy on what they were looking for.

Gus found the first piece of the puzzle—a thick, dry piece of bark that was curved. Talia paired it with a stick that had a sharp point. Then they found some stringy remains of a palm leaf that would serve as kindling and got to work.

Talia held the bark in place and watched as Gus made quick back-and-forth motions with the stick. The tip snapped off but he continued to work it in staccato thrusts. In the meantime, Reuben gathered some significantly sized pieces of wood that he dropped near Talia for use when the fire finally caught.

She glanced at the pile quickly. “We want the driest pieces you can find.”

“Oh. The dry wood. Sure, no problem. I’ll just go to the dry side of the island.”

She ignored his sarcasm and instead concentrated on the small pile of brush they’d placed where the bark and stick connected. She could feel the bark growing warmer, but that was a long way away from hot.

“I’m done,” Gus panted. “I need a break.”

They switched tasks and Talia worked the sharp branch against the bark. The key was consistency. Hard, fast strokes delivered unceasingly would not only create the friction they needed, but also exacerbate it.

“That’s it. Keep it going.”

“I’m getting tired,” she warned him, preparing him for the next switch. “Now.”

Moving fast so as not to lose the momentum or the heat, they switched and Gus went back to work. After a time, they switched again and Talia was working the stick. Around them the men already had brought back enough materials to set up a mat to sleep on for the night and Iris had returned triumphantly with a pail of water.

Their tasks complete, the group focused on Talia and Gus. The tension was tangible considering the stakes. If this worked, they could boil water and have some warmth tonight. If they failed, everyone would suffer. As the sun started to set, and all of their clothes still damp from the earlier swim, it was clear that the group was starting to get a little cold and very thirsty.

Talia worked the stick in her hands, feeling it scrape against her palms. Blisters had already formed and burst making her hands slick with blood and ooze. Still, she worked, beyond the pain in her shoulders, beyond the stinging and beyond the fatigue.

Moving past pain was nothing new to her. She’d done exactly that each day of her training. It was expected, by her coach and by her. It might have been years since she’d pushed herself quite this hard, but the old routine came back like riding a bicycle.

“You’re bleeding. Stop and let me finish.” Reuben was standing over her shoulder and evidently could see the blood coating the stick in her hands.

“I’m almost there. I can feel it. Gus?”

“There have been a few embers,” he reported. “But nothing’s caught yet.”

“I said stop. You’re hurting yourself.”

She shot a glance at Reuben, which she hoped sent the message to back off. He was doing it again, laying down the gauntlet and expecting her to bend to his will.

Fat chance.

“If you don’t stop, I’m pulling you off.”

“What’s your problem, man? Let her finish.” This came from Tommy who was apparently already annoyed with his older, stronger counterpart.

“Yeah.” Marlie backed up Tommy, her loyalties formed.

“Honey, your hands are bleeding,” Iris commented.

“Oh my goodness, blood.” Nancy, it seemed, was squeamish around the stuff.

Talia could sense that her time was running out. Despite the protests from the group, she understood, probably better than anyone, that Reuben wasn’t going to be swayed once he set his mind to something. She knew because she recognized the trait in herself, which was why she couldn’t stop when she was so close. With even faster strokes, she pushed the stick harder and…

There it was. Red embers catching against the dry strands. Then a small single blue flame dancing among the brush.

“You got it,” Gus proclaimed.

She didn’t need to be told. Gently she backed off the stick. “Add a little more brush to the bark, not too much. You don’t want to suffocate it. Fire needs to breathe.”

But Talia could see that Gus knew his way around the process. Slowly they added bits of debris, blowing gently on the small fire to give it the oxygen it craved until there was a significant flame.

“Over here,” Sam directed them. While Tommy and Reuben had seen to the bedding, Sam had stacked a tripod of wood and packed it with more driftwood and sun-singed palms that would serve as kindling.