Outback Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 1) (6 page)

Sam was finally able to take her turn in the shower. It seemed like she’d been wet more in the last few days than she’d been in her “real” life back in Albuquerque. She didn’t mind. She’d always been a good swimmer. She’d been on the water polo team in high school, so she felt comfortable in and around water, even if it was cold. When Sam walked out of the little bathroom building, she didn’t see much movement around the camp. The women were mostly in the tents just hanging out, waiting for Robert or someone to come and get them.

I can’t believe them.
Sam thought to herself.
They’re in Australia and they’re sitting around in tents, waiting to hang out with some guy, whatever.
And with that Sam decided she’d take a walk back up the rise. It wasn’t a long walk, and she could still see the camp from where she was. It was simply beautiful. How she’d love to explore a bit, Sam felt like she was “tied” to the camp. It wasn’t fair, here she was in one of the most beautiful parts of the world and she was waiting with thirteen other women to meet the guy they were supposed to be “dating.” She couldn’t deny that she was attracted to him and that he was hot, but it was depressing that she was in competition for him.

Sam sighed and tried to put the whole show out of her mind, then looked behind her and saw the ever-present Kina with the camera and smirked. She’d make Kina earn her keep today. There certainly wasn’t much to film back at camp. That had to be why Kina was following her. Sam noticed she wasn’t filmed nearly as much as the other women were, but it didn’t bother her in the least.
Let them have all the camera time.
Sam started off down the hill. She didn’t know how long it would be before they were supposed to go and visit with Al, but she needed this. She needed to get away from the other women for a while. Most of them weren’t bad, but they did grate on her nerves. They were just so different. For about the hundredth time Sam wondered how
she
had gotten on the show. She convinced herself that it was either a mistake or they needed some comic relief.

The sun was hot, but it really was pretty. Sam walked on, almost oblivious to Kina trudging along behind her. Every once in a while she heard Kina mumble to herself, but Kina didn’t stop her or talk to her. After all, that was against the rules. Eventually, after about twenty minutes of walking, Sam stopped under a large tree, sat down, leaned against the trunk and shut her eyes, just breathing in the clean air and enjoying the fact that she was in Australia. After a few minutes Sam heard Kina sit down next to her. Sam peeked out of one eye and saw Kina had put down the camera and was looking at her.

“What?” Sam asked.

“I don’t get you,” Kina responded. Sam couldn’t help it, she laughed.

“I know. I’m a loner, what can I say? Look around, look at how beautiful all this is. I’d choose this over sitting around talking about how much I miss the mall any day.”

With that, Sam put her head back against the tree trunk and shut her eyes again, not waiting to see how Kina reacted to her bluntness.             

Finally, she heard Kina say, “I like you, Sammi.”

Sam smiled, but didn’t say anything.
At least one person seems to like me.

Sam and Kina sat under the tree for about thirty minutes. Sam was half asleep when she heard Kina’s voice.

“You’re missing it, you know,” Kina finally spoke up again.

“Huh? What am I missing?” Sam asked absently.

“The meet-and-greet,” Kina responded. “They left ten minutes ago.”

With that Sam leaped up.

“Oh, shit, I can’t believe they left without me!”

She looked at Kina again and saw she was back to her camerawoman mode. The camera was up and pointed at her again. Sam figured it wouldn’t make any sense to go running back to camp, especially if the women had truly already left. They obviously knew where she was, Kina had some sort of communication with them since she knew they’d already left.
Screw it.
Sam thought.
If I’ve already missed the bus I might as well explore some more.
And she set off walking again.
I won’t go far, just a bit more.

The bus pulled up to the clearing where the producers had set up a sort of “living room.” There were tree stumps around for seating and a few tables set up around the clearing. Alex watched as the women climbed off the bus. He was immediately surrounded by all of the women who seemed to all be talking at once again.

I can’t wait until more of them are gone,
Alex thought and immediately felt guilty.
It’ll be much easier to talk to them and get to know everyone when there are fewer of them!
Soon enough they were sitting around and having a pretty good conversation. He was, of course, the center of attention and he allowed the talk to flow around him. The women were definitely on their best behavior today and they all looked gorgeous. He wasn’t sure how they accomplished it out here in the wilds of the backcountry, but somehow they all looked like they were sitting down at a party in New York or something.

After about forty minutes of talking, Alex could identify most of the women, he could even tell most of them apart. He knew who Courtnee was, of course, and Missy was also pretty forward, so he knew her. He actually was beginning to like Amy and Jennie. They seemed a little less harsh and spoiled than the others. They weren’t quite as “citified” as Katie or Kiki. Of course, he knew Sammi as well…as soon as the thought crossed his mind he realized he hadn’t seen her. Before he could stop himself he found himself asking the group, “Where’s Sammi?” The other women looked around and shrugged, then continued their conversations. They didn’t seem to care. All they cared about was that they were here with him and trying to get his attention.

Alex started to worry. Why wasn’t Sammi there? Had they kicked her off and hadn’t told him? He couldn’t believe it had taken him so long to realize she wasn’t there. She really did stick out, not in a bad way, but she stuck out nonetheless. The next hour was the longest hour he’d spent in the Outback. He couldn’t stop worrying about why Sammi wasn’t at the meet and greet. Finally, the visiting time was over and the women got back on the bus to return to their camp. Upon arriving at the production site, Alex found Eddie.

“Where’s Sammi?” he asked impatiently. He’d spent the last hour and a half worrying about where she might be. Was she hurt? Was she gone? If she was gone how would he be able to find her again?

Eddie looked at him and said, “She missed the bus at camp, so we left. Thought it’d be a good lesson for the other women and for her. She just can’t wander off. She’s here for the show, and besides, someone could get hurt.” Alex couldn’t believe it. Eddie was trying to teach her a lesson?

“What do you mean, wander off?” Alex asked in a low voice.

“Just what I said,” Eddie said in an annoyed tone. “Look, she decided she wanted to go for a little walk. Kina is following her. Nothing is happening.”

“What did she do when she realized she’d been left behind?” Alex asked.

“Don’t know. They’re still out there. I’m in touch with Kina. I let her know that the bus had left. I don’t know if Sammi knows she missed the bus or not, but it doesn’t matter. She’ll come back in her own time. She can’t get lost, Kina is filming her and we can watch the tapes. Calm down, Al, there are fourteen women left. You’ve lots of time to make your choice.” And with that, Eddie was called away.

Alex wondered where the hell Sammi was and what the hell she was thinking wandering around by herself. If he was honest with himself, he was upset that he’d missed a chance to see her and get to know her.

* * *

In actuality, Sam wasn’t doing much wandering. She was content to stroll around and take long breaks under the enormous trees. She was enjoying watching the different species of birds and small animals running around. The only thing she was upset about was that she didn’t have a camera with her. She would’ve loved to be able to take pictures of what she was experiencing so she could share them with her family and friends. After a while she decided she’d better go back to the camp. She didn’t know if she’d be in trouble for missing the bus and the meet-and-greet, but she figured she’d better be back at camp by the time the others got off the bus or she might really be in trouble.

After one of her breaks under a beautiful shade tree, Sam stood up and waited for Kina to get in position before she started back toward the camp. She’d learned that the best thing to do with the cameras was to let them film the way they wanted to so they’d leave her alone. Sam waited until Kina got in front of her and started walking backward so she could get a good frontal view of Sammi walking. Sam looked down at Kina’s feet, impressed she could walk backwards and not trip over anything, and froze. Kina was stepping over some rocks and Sam saw a glossy black head of a snake sticking out of a crack in the rocks where it had probably been resting to get away from the sun.

Sam didn’t remember all of the names of snakes found in Australia, and had no idea if this one was poisonous or not, but with the way her luck was going, it probably was.

“Kina, stop. Now.” Sam’s words were low and urgent.

Kina stopped in her tracks, camera still on her shoulder, pointed toward Sam. She obviously heard the panic in Sam’s voice. “What?”

“A snake. Don’t move, Kina,” Sam said. “It’s right by your foot.” As Sam watched, the snake emerged from the crack in the rocks and wound itself around Kina’s feet.

Kina froze even more if that was possible. A sad little whimper escaped from her throat. “Oh God,” she moaned, “I hate snakes.”

“I’m going to try to get it away from you…don’t move whatever you do. Maybe it’ll think you’re a tree or something. I’ve heard they’re usually more afraid of us than we are of them.” Sam had no idea what she was talking about, some scientist would probably scoff at what she’d said, but she hoped Kina would believe her and feel calmer about the entire situation. Sam found a large stick. She’d watched reruns of that famous Australian guy on TV more times than she could count. She knew there was a way to pin the head to the ground and pick it up, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to try that. Sam only knew she had to get that snake away from Kina’s legs. She didn’t know what she’d do if her actions pissed the snake off more than it already was.

The snake was huge, but to be honest,
any
snake looked huge to her. Sam estimated it to be around five feet long. It was light brown and the sun glistening off its body made it look almost pretty. Sam started to sweat.
This is all my fault.
She thought.
If I hadn’t walked away from camp, Kina wouldn’t be in this situation.

Sam walked around Kina and the snake turned to follow her movements.
Good.
Sam thought. ‘
It’s watching me and not paying attention to Kina, whose legs it’s almost wrapped around.

“Kina, it’s almost wrapped around your legs, but its attention is on me. Don’t put the camera down, don’t move. I’m going to start backing up and hopefully it’ll follow me. I have no idea if this will work or not, but I hope like hell it will. When you feel it slide away take
slow
steps in the direction you’re facing. That’ll put distance between you and it.”

“What are you going to do?” Kina whispered. “If it follows you, how are you going to get away from it?”

“I don’t know, but at least it won’t be near you,” Sam responded, still feeling guilty for putting Kina in this position in the first place. Then Sam said flippantly, “And besides, it’ll make for great television so be sure you’re filming…contestant wanders out of camp by herself and gets bitten by a killer snake…think of the ratings!” She chuckled uneasily.

While Sam had been talking to Kina she’d been slowly backing up. It seemed to be working. The snake was following her. Inch by inch it unfurled itself from around Kina. It definitely didn’t look happy, and it hadn’t stopped opening and closing its mouth the entire time. The thing looked like it was ready to strike. Like it
wanted
to strike. Kina took one step forward, then another…finally, she was able to turn around and face Sam and the snake. She took aim with her camera.

Sam and the snake were facing each other. Sam was armed with only a stick and the snake looked agitated. Sam started talking to the snake, not really knowing what she was saying.  “Okay, Mr. Snake, we’re sorry that we disturbed you. We’ll be on our way, okay? You don’t need to bite me. I probably don’t taste very good. Now, some of the women at camp are more your style, you’d love them. How about just turning around and going home…just like I want to do. I’ll just be on my way, no harm no foul. I promise not to come down this way and bother you again if you just let me go now…okay? Niiiiice snake…” Sam was backing up slowly, never taking her eyes off of the snake. Thankfully, it decided that escape was probably the better option and it slithered away into the underbrush nearby.

Sam looked up at Kina, and thus into the camera.

“Holy crap…that was a close one…are you okay, Kina?” Kina didn’t respond.

“Oh, okay, we are back to the rules,” Sam said with disappointment.

With that Sam turned her back on the camera and started the way they’d come.
It would’ve been nice for her to at least say thank you.
Suddenly, she didn’t feel very good. She knew it was a reaction to the stress and fear and probably the heat as well. She started shaking and felt the sweat pop out on her forehead. She darted toward a bush and threw up what little she’d eaten that day.

“Ugh, gross,” she said out loud. “That is the worst.” Sam wiped a shaky hand across her mouth and trudged on toward the camp, not daring to look at Kina or the camera. She was sure there was now an up-close-and-personal shot of her losing her stomach contents that would surely be shown on TV in the not-so-distant future. Lovely.

Sam continued to shake as she walked. She thought about what had happened and what had almost happened to Kina. It was times like this that she really missed being a part of a couple. While she felt she was an independent modern woman, there was something to be said about being held safe and comfortable in a man’s arms. She took a deep breath and continued on toward the camp to find out how much trouble she was in.

What had started out as a beautiful day and a peaceful walk had turned sour. She’d missed the bus and was probably in trouble for that. She’d talked to one of the camera operators, which was against the rules, so she was probably in trouble for that. Then the snake incident, which was scarier in person than she imagined it could be,
and
she humiliated herself in front of the camera and probably in front of millions of people. She
knew
the incident would show up on screen and she’d never live it down with her friends or her coworkers back in Albuquerque. She trudged on, lost in her thoughts while Kina followed behind.

Sam and Kina finally made it back to camp. She hadn’t been able to arrive before the women had gotten back after all. She’d obviously been wandering around in the Outback for longer than she thought. The women were hanging around, talking about Al and his reactions to each of them and their conversations.

Missy turned to Sam and said snidely, “Where were you, Miss Tarzan? You’re in big trouble, you know? You missed it. But don’t worry, Al didn’t miss you and neither did we. He didn’t even ask about you. Right, ladies?” And with that, most of the other women laughed and giggled.

Sam was too tired to care, and was still dealing with the after effects of adrenaline that her body was producing as a result of the fear of the snake and what might have happened to Kina. She looked around and saw Kina getting into a golf cart, probably to go back to the production camp to talk about how she’d broken the rules. Sam ignored Missy and the other women, went back to the tent and lay down on her cot. What would happen now? She was worried, and was glad that she could finally lie down. She replayed the incident in her head. It’d been a close call. Kina had almost stepped directly on the snake. If she’d done that she would’ve been bitten for sure, and then what would Sam have done? There was no way she could’ve carried her all the way back to the camp. She’d put someone’s life on the line for her own selfish desires. It wouldn’t happen again.