Authors: Bethany Ramos
Chapter 14
It was just getting dark as the group came upon Harper’s earring next to the broken tree. Brinkley’s blood went cold. It was a sign. A sign that Harper had tried to get back to camp on her own and hadn’t been able to make it.
Morgan held up the earring to Ky and Brinkley. “Isn’t this Harper’s?”
She nodded.
Morgan frowned. “I don’t want to say this, but if she’s not here, I think that’s bad news.”
In a voice she hardly recognized, Brinkley replied, “What should we do? Should we spread out and search the area?”
Ky stepped between them. “I don’t think we should get too far off the trail. I’m really worried about Harper, just as worried as you are, but we can’t lose the trail. It’s getting dark.”
Brinkley agreed, although she felt grossly disloyal. A pit began to form in her stomach. The odds were that something terrible had happened to Harper, like being eaten by a wild animal terrible.
Or maybe she’d hurt herself, fallen down and twisted her ankle and then crawled a few feet away from the path. Maybe she’d passed out from the pain. Maybe she was hurt and lonely and cold and waiting for them to find her.
She called out Harper’s name until her throat was hoarse. She felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Ky.
“Brinkley,” Ky said. “We need to keep going. The more time that we waste here, the less likely it will be that we’ll find camp in time.”
His voice was gentle. He put his arm around her shoulders and steered her back onto the trail. She felt disgusting inside and out. She’d never thought that she’d have to leave someone for dead in the jungle. Sure, Harper was one of her least favorite people on the show. But she would never leave anyone behind, not if she had any say in it.
Morgan must have sensed something was wrong. Brinkley had been silent for the past few miles on the trail.
Morgan said, “Hey, there was really nothing we could have done. I feel just as terrible as you do, but we don’t even know if she was out there. She’s probably back at camp sleeping, and we would have wasted hours looking for her for no reason.”
Up ahead, Ky shouted back to them. “Ladies! I see camp through the clearing!”
Though she felt like glue was running through her veins, Brinkley forced herself to lift up her legs and jog in the direction of Ky’s voice. Morgan was right behind her. As they rounded the turn in the trail, she saw the familiar red roof of the barn at the south end of camp. She’d never been happier to see an old, rotted building in her life.
She couldn’t help herself. She stopped dead in her tracks and started sobbing with relief. Morgan put her arm around her shoulders, and the two women followed Ky back to the center of camp where a fire was waiting for them. It was as if the camp employees had kept everything running like nothing had gone wrong. Like the group hadn’t been stranded in the wilderness overnight.
On top of the fire sat a fresh pot of steamed rice. Morgan plopped down next to the fire and helped herself to a huge plate of rice. She sat down next to her and began guzzling tepid water from a pot next to the fire. For once, Brinkley didn’t give a second thought to how many gnats were floating in it.
Ky took a seat opposite the two women. He politely waited until she finished drinking the stagnant water and passed the pot to him. He put the pot up to his lips and gulped for what seemed like five minutes.
After Ky finished drinking, he let out a howl. “Whoo! I have never wanted something so much in my entire life! Wow. I feel like a new man.”
Morgan looked up at him between bites of rice, “Oh my God, I know. I never thought I’d be craving white rice, but this is literally the best thing I’ve ever tasted.”
They ate and drank in silence until Brinkley felt sick. But she couldn’t seem to get enough water or enough rice to satisfy her. She felt like she’d been stuck in the jungle for weeks, months, not just an overnight date gone wrong.
When she couldn’t stuff another bite of rice into her mouth, she put her plate down and sat back on the log. “So, what are we going to do about Harper? Should we go check in her cabin?”
Morgan volunteered to go check the cabin, leaving her and Ky alone at the campfire. She had no idea what to say to strike up a conversation. The cameramen were still there, circling and capturing their every move.
She was actually impressed that the cameramen had been able to keep up with them so well through their twenty-four hour trek through the jungle. The crew switched off at regular intervals to go back to their van for food and rest. But they’d stayed with them every waking hour, apart from the Sarah M. search-and-rescue debacle. The cameramen had filmed the entire ordeal and still hadn’t spoken a word.
Ky, ever the gentleman, insisted on clearing the debris off a log so she could sit down. Brinkley sat back and admired his impeccable manners. The more that she got to know Ky, the more she knew that he would fit perfectly into her life at home, if only she won the competition.
And then a thought struck her.
What if Ky expected the winner of the competition to move with him to LA?
That was something they had never discussed. But she didn’t think she could ever leave all the people she’d grown up within her community, let alone her job as a volunteer Sunday school teacher that she’d held for the past ten years.
It seemed unfathomable to pick up everything and move to a place like LA. She so desperately wanted to ask Ky about his plans for the future, but it hardly seemed like the time or the place. For one thing, they still hadn’t figured out what had happened to Harper. And until they did, nothing was more important.
Ky interrupted her daydreaming. “Hey, Brinkley, I don’t want to freak you out, but . . .”
He held up the bucket of water and turned it upside down as if to prove the point that it was truly empty. “The pump is totally dry. I tried to find the camp workers, but they aren’t in the office. I’m not sure what’s going on, but it looks like the water’s gone out.”
Morgan came up behind her and said, “Are you kidding? This is the last thing we need. Where are we supposed to get water now that we’re back at camp?”
No one answered her. Instead, Brinkley asked, “Did you find Harper?” even though Morgan obviously hadn’t. If she’d found Harper, then Harper would have been with her.
“No, it doesn’t look like anyone’s been into the cabins since yesterday. I don’t think she’s been back to camp.”
Morgan’s words reverberated through the silence of the jungle around them. Or rather, the deafening screams of monkeys, wails of birds, and croaking of frogs that constantly droned on around them and had become almost easy to overlook.
Probably kind of like living in a big city,
she mused to herself,
where you get used to the constant sounds of car horns and traffic.
Ky set the bucket down on the ground then scratched his stubble. “Okay, we need to think of a plan. First things first. We need to figure out a way to get more water before we do anything else. That’s the most urgent thing. Does anyone have any ideas?”
“Well,” Brinkley ventured. Ky looked back at her expectantly. “I learned something in Girl Scouts like fifteen years ago. I don’t know if it’ll help or not, but since it’s getting dark, we could set up a tarp on the ground to catch the dew from the ground overnight. That’s something we did when we were camping and had to find a way to get water in the wilderness for a badge.”
Morgan looked impressed. “I think it could work. We could just use some of the tarp that’s patching up the roof of the porch on our cabin and set it up overnight. That means that we still have to wait to get more water until tomorrow, but I think we’ll be okay. Great idea, Brinkley.”
She felt heat creep up her face. She’d been scared to speak up, but she figured it was worth a shot. Thank goodness she remembered
something
from all of her years in Girl Scouts, besides how to make lanyards.
Ky rubbed his hands together. “Yes, Brinkley, great idea. That’s really fantastic. And after we get that taken care of, we still need to figure out what to do about Harper. Most nights, we go on a group date, but obviously, that’s not going to happen tonight because we’re missing one important group member.”
Ky turned and smiled in the direction of the cameras behind him.
She was baffled. She couldn’t have imagined going on a group date anyway.
What was Ky even talking about?
They were exhausted, covered in sweat and dirt, and hadn’t eaten a decent meal in days.
And the last group date they’d gone on hadn’t turned out too well. They’d ended up losing one of the women in the wilderness and had been stranded in the jungle overnight. If that was what group dates were all about, she didn’t want any part of it.
“So what are you saying, Ky?” Leave it to Morgan to always cut to the chase.
Ky laughed and smiled his million-dollar smile. “I say we set up the tarp to catch the water, eat a little more rice if we can, and then head back out into the jungle to find Harper.”
“That’s what we’re going to do instead of our group date?” Morgan asked, frowning.
“What really matters is that we’re all together and are able to still get to know each other in spite of what’s going on.” Ky beamed for the camera.
It took her a good hour to set up the tarp. She didn’t think she had it in her to hike another five or ten miles back into the jungle. But she didn’t want to be the one to complain.
After eating another heaping plate full of steamed rice, Morgan declared that she was game to head back into the jungle. And Ky seemed to be more chipper than ever.
He put his arms around them and said, “You ladies really impress me. I know these past few days haven’t turned out how we thought that they would, but I can’t tell you how happy I am to have you here with me. Now I know more than ever that I made the right choice in keeping you here and sending the other women home.”
Brinkley’s heart soared. She was tired, exhausted, groggy, and starving, but everything Ky had just said confirmed to her that God had brought her here for a reason. She couldn’t help thinking that it would be a great story to tell their children when the whole competition was said and done.
She didn’t want to get ahead of herself, but she and Ky had a real connection. And he’d just said it himself. He knew he made the right choice by keeping them there. He’d kept her for a reason.
That thought alone was enough to give her the energy to head back into the jungle, even though it was the last thing she wanted to do. But she thought of Harper and how scared and alone she have felt if she really were trapped in the jungle by herself. She also thought of Ky and how he was clearly sending her a message about how important she was to him in the competition.
Even though she had never been in such a challenging or frightening situation, she knew she was in the right place.
As they were preparing to head out, she said, “Do you guys really think this is a good idea? Maybe the producers already found Harper. What if we go back out there and can’t get back in time? I don’t want to be stranded without any food or water again.”
Ky replied, “No, this is something we need to do. We don’t know if the producers found Harper or not. If they did, then all the better. But if they didn’t, we can’t knowingly leave her out there stranded for another night. We have to at least try to find her. But don’t worry. We’ll be back in just a few hours. We just need to hike to the fork in the trail, check out the area, and come right back. We can do this.” Ky grunted and pulled the camping pack that he’d found in the main office onto his back. The camp workers were still nowhere to be found, but Ky had found a few supplies in an old knapsack under the desk in the office.
The camping pack looked like it was from the 1970s, but at least it had a few essentials, like a rusty old compass, a tarp for shelter, matches, a tiny flashlight lit by a very weak battery, and some gauze for first aid.
It was pathetic, but it was better than nothing. The fact that they had a few camping supplies with them made her feel a little better about venturing back into the jungle. If they got stranded again, God forbid, then at least they’d have a real tarp they could use for shelter.
Instead of sleeping on the hard ground in the pouring rain again, something that she wouldn’t have wished on her worst enemy.
The first leg of the hike back into the jungle wasn’t as bad as Brinkley had remembered. It made it a lot easier to hike back in when they knew exactly where they were going and how to get back to camp. She just hoped that they had enough time to get to Harper before it was too late.
Maybe Harper had gotten turned around in the jungle and had decided to wait for help. If that were the case, then they’d hopefully find her back at the fork in the road where she’d left her earring. Then they could all head back down to camp together to get some rest.
One big happy family.
She didn’t even want to think about the possibility that anything worse could’ve happened to Harper. They had to find her. There was no other option.
Ky called back to her and Morgan. “Ladies, I think I see the fork in the trail and the broken tree.”
Thank you, Jesus.
Her legs were trembling so much Brinkley didn’t think she could make it another mile into the jungle. She needed a break, and she needed some water. But since fresh water wasn’t on the menu, a break would have to do.
Morgan sprinted ahead to the broken tree. She picked something up. “Hey! Harper’s earring’s still in the same spot. Do you think that’s a good sign or a bad sign?”
Ky shrugged.
Brinkley didn’t have the energy to respond. It was clearly a bad sign that Harper’s earring was in the same place. If Harper were fine, she’d have picked up her earring and headed back to camp. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
But this was the only clue they had to go on. She spoke up. “Why don’t we split up and search the area? We just need to stay within sight of the path so that we don’t get lost.”
Ky insisted that Morgan and Brinkley search together with the weak flashlight running on its last battery. The women took the right side of the trail next to the broken tree. Ky headed off in the opposite direction, still toting the pack of camping supplies on his back.