Darwin's Quest: The Search for the Ultimate Survivor (8 page)

Chapter 9

“I think something’s up. It’s morning already, and still nothing.”

I opened my eyes to see Lindadawn talking quietly to Borlinga and Mike in the faint dawn light. The rest of the cast were still sleeping scattered around the camp. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. My bladder was complaining, so I go up and went to the toilet. Coming back, I contemplated trying to fall back to sleep, but it didn’t seem worth it. I splashed some water from the spigot onto my face, wet my hands to try to get my armpits a little cleaner, then joined the other three at the firepit.

Tearing off a piece of smoked deer, I started chewing on it. It tasted pretty good. I tore my piece in half, then half again, giving the other three a small piece of their own.

“Does anyone remember if it ever took until the next day for someone to rejoin the game?” asked Lindadawn.

“Never. I’m sure of it, “stated Mike. Borlinga agreed.

“Every season has something, has a kicker. I just wonder what this one will be.” Mike seemed upset that he didn’t know what was going on.

As the dawn brightened up the sky, and the camp became lighter, I listened with one ear as I looked about at the others. Hamlin and Joda were asleep against the rock wall, Hamlin spooning her with his arm over and around her front. Joda was married back on Earth, and Hamlin, while divorced, had four kids. While sleeping closely was no big deal, I wondered if their families would see that and if that would have any ramifications. Not my business, though.

Something looked odd above them, and it took me a moment to figure it out in the dim light. Then I realized what it was. The challenge drawer was open. We hadn’t heard any theme music, and the light was not on, but the drawer was definitely open. I left the firepit and walked over. I had to step between Joda and Hamlin’s legs, eliciting a sleepy snarl from him, but I ignored him and reached inside the drawer. Sure enough, there was a message there. I pulled it out and read it.

Paranthropus boisei and Homo hablis started making tools over 2.5 million years ago. Can you do less? Follow the marked trail to the flint beds, and if you have the same skills as our early ancestors, life will be much easier for you.

“What is it?” Lindadawn called out.

I walked back over to them. “I think you need to read this.” I handed over the message.

She read it, her face furrowing in confusion. “But we haven’t had our returnee yet. And why no revelation music?” She handed the message to Mike, Borlinga crowding to look over her shoulder.

“I think we need to wake everyone up,” she said. “Everyone, get up! Time to get up!” she shouted out. Alfhid and Ratt were sleeping by the edge of the firepit, and she nudged them with her foot. “Come one, get up,” she told them in an only slightly lowered voice. “Corter, Mike, help me get everyone up.”

We went around waking everyone, ignoring the grumbling and requests for “just five more minutes.” Eventually, everyone realized that something was going on, so they gathered round.

“Do I have time to pee?” asked Joda.

Lindadawn didn’t bother to respond. Instead, she held out the message. “We don’t have our returnee yet, and now we have a new challenge.”

“That’s impossible,” Josh said. “We would’ve heard the cues.” He looked around and back at the message wall, where the drawer was still open.

“Nevertheless, here it is. I don’t think any cast has gone on the next challenge until the last returnee rejoined them.” She handed the message to Yash before continuing. “We all know there’s a twist in every season. This has to be ours.”

“But why no music? How come we didn’t know the challenge was ready?” asked Julie.

“I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.”

“Do we, you now, wait for Tobie to get back, or do we do the challenge now?” asked Joda.

“Well, despite the fact that we don’t know if it will be October or Bernie, I think we need to do as we’re instructed.” She pointedly looked at Hamlin and Josh in turn.

Hamlin had just finished reading the challenge and handed the message to Josh. “It looks like we’re supposed to take a little trek here. Lindadawn’s right, I think. We’ve got our challenge, and we’ve got to do it. Bernie or October will have to join us later. You agree?” He looked at Josh.

“Yea, I guess it’s pretty clear to me.”

Hamlin looked about, back in charge. “It’s getting pretty light, so we can leave soon. Everyone, take a piss, get some food and a drink, and let’s be ready to go in, let’s say, twenty or thirty minutes, OK?”

I looked back at Lindadawn. For a moment, I thought I was going to see the expected explosion, the real Lindadawn coming out. I could see her start to say something, but then I could almost literally see her bite her tongue and back down.

Joda rushed off to be the first in line for the toilet as the rest of us moved at a little slower pace. Josh and Mike moved to the side and were in quiet conversation, but the rest of us grabbed either venison or fish (or both) and ate. I went to get another drink. The water pressure on the spigot seemed less than when I’d used it earlier, but it didn’t really affect anything, I guessed.

“The twist, you think is what?” Borlinga asked in her unique syntax. She stood by me, chewing on a piece of smoked fish.

“I’m not sure. But as much as the fanzines revel in the twists and turns, it all really seems to be the same for the cast. Just try to stay alive. I’m not too concerned.”

“Maybe right you are. I just can’t the direction see for this one, though.”

Joda came out of the toilet. “Phew! It really stinks in there.” She moved her finger back and forth towards her open mouth in a gagging motion. “Somebody here must have died in there, but I don’t see any St. Bernards!”

Yash and Ratt laughed, but I frowned. I had been the last person to use the toilet, but that had to have been thirty minutes ago by then. The exhaust vents were supposed to take care of any odors.

It was probably more than Hamlin’s requested twenty or thirty minutes, but eventually, we were ready. Spears in hand, we crossed the bridge into Indian Country. This time, the start arrow pointed off to the left of the clearing. We got in a file and moved out. I was second in line this time, behind Paul. As point man, Paul was slow and meticulous. He was driving me a little crazy. I wanted to move on. He stopped and looked to his left, off the trail.

Not again
, I thought.
What’s he up to now?

I moved up a little closer as he used his spear to part the bushes and bent slightly over for a better look at whatever had caught his attention. I was about to tell him to move on when there was a sudden flash of something long and thin coming out of the bushes while Paul jumped back, swinging his spear down. He connected, and on the path, I could see a writhing, mortally wounded snake. I hadn’t realized that Paul’s reflexes were that quick.

I poked at the snake, which was quickly stilling. It looked pretty nasty. Ratt crowded up behind me to get a look. I patted Paul on the shoulder. “Good job there, killer.”

Paul looked pale. I could see the fear in his eyes.

“Hey, it’s over. You killed it.”

“Corter…” He suddenly sat down.

I squatted beside him. “It’s just nerves. You’ll be fine.”

“You don’t understand. It got me.” He pointed to his ankle. Just above his shoe were two small punctures. The skin was already turning red. My heart dropped.

I needed Paul around. He might be the only player remaining who I could beat in a vote. But I’d like to think that what I tried was done for altruistic reasons. I bent down and put my mouth over the punctures and started sucking and spitting out like I had seen on countless holos. I could taste Paul’s coppery blood, but there was also something else, something biting.

By now, the rest of the cast had crowded around. As I sucked, I could see in the corner of my eye someone hooking the now dead snake with a spear and fling it away into the bushes. I felt a tap on my shoulder, and Lindadawn took over for me. I was glad, because I was feeling lightheaded. Could I have ingested some of the poison?

When Paul started going into convulsions, I think we all knew it was too late. Lindadawn kept trying until Paul’s convulsions literally threw her off him. He was screaming incoherently. At least when I died, it was fairly quick and painless. Paul was going through torture.

Mercifully, Paul passed out. I felt for his pulse, which was reedy and weak. It wouldn’t be long now. His breathing became shallower and shallower.

We knew how it was going to end, and we knew we had to get going. But no one wanted to be the one to say so, to look uncompassionate to the viewers. Finally, without saying a word, we got up and started off again. I led the file, anxiously looking at each bush, jumping at each rustle of leaves. We had walked another 200 meters or so when our telltales buzzed. Paul was dead.

Nothing else jumped out at us while we made our way down the trail. Something big crashed through the trees, but that was at some distance off. After about a kilometer or so, the trail opened up to a rock field coming off the hill and to a cliff face going down to what was probably the River Beagle. A green stop sign told us that this was our destination.

I had taken a crash course in flint-knapping, but I wasn’t an expert by any means. (There wasn’t enough time from when I knew I had been selected to when I had to report in for all the useful survival courses I wanted to take.) I hoped someone else was an expert, as I wasn’t sure which rocks to select. And of course, it was Mike who seemed to know what to look for, surprise, surprise. I liked Mike, but I wondered if he was becoming a dark horse threat. He picked up a rock at the edge of the slide and showed it to us.

“Try and get ones which look like this. This’ll be much easier to knap and give us better tools.”

I nodded and stepped out onto the slide—and promptly fell on my butt as my feet slid out from under me. I landed painfully on a chunk of rock, but got up ruefully.

“And as Corter has shown us, be careful. This area has to be pretty unstable.”

All of us started carefully walking on the loose rock, mindful of the slope. I still wasn’t sure what constituted a good piece from a bad piece, but I picked up a few to bring back.

“Look up there! Think that’s what got the first girl, Arial or whatever her name was?” Josh was pointing over at the reservation’s central peak, or Fuji-yama, as the Season One cast named it.

I wasn’t sure what he was pointing at first, but then I saw it. A dark winged thing, like a pterosaur, was gliding up near the top of the mountain. If we could see it from here, it had to be pretty big. I felt exposed standing here in the open like this. If we could see it, could it see us? And if it was what had gotten Adrienne, then would it come after us?

“That’s one big fella,” put in Alfhid.

“Do you think it sees us?” Joda obviously had the same concerns as I had.

We looked at Mike. He seemed to think about it for a moment before answering. “Yea, it probably does. But I have to imagine that it’s a golem, not a biobeast.”

Mike really got into the fan nicknames for all things
Darwin’s Quest
. While the Tehran Zoo had the contract to provide the natural animals for the show, DreamWorks had the contract for the constructs. Some, like the Hell Pig, probably, were flesh and blood animals which had been re-made into new forms. These were the “biobeasts.” Others were completely artificial robots with computer chips for brains. These were the “golems.” I normally just used the show’s official terminology of “constructs” for all of DreamWorks’ creations, but I could see I would need to use the nicknames here if I wanted the others to understand me.