Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 63068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
This woman was going to be the death of me. I’d tried everything short of losing my shit and telling her we were done, like it or not.
“It’s not about being strong enough.” I got down on my knees next to the entrance of the shelter, where she was sitting with her legs crossed in front of her. “It’s about your body having limits. This fever and exhaustion is a sign that your body is telling you something’s wrong. You need to see a doctor.”
She stood up, bracing herself on one of the posts supporting the shelter. “I’m doing this, okay? I’m not quitting.”
Shit. This was going to get ugly.
“Well, you can’t do it without me,” I said.
She furrowed her brow. “You’re going to quit? Over this?”
I threw my hands in the air. “I don’t know what else to do. You’ve been sick for a couple of days. You can barely walk to the edge of the shoreline. How are you going to make it three miles in the jungle?”
“One step at a time.”
“Don’t be a smartass, Lo. This is serious.”
“I’m not being a smartass. I’m doing this competition, and if we finish last, then we finish last. But I’m not quitting. And if you quit, I’ll be so damn pissed at you, Archer. Half a million dollars doesn’t mean much to you, but that money can change my life.”
“Half a million dollars doesn’t mean much to me? That’s a bunch of bullshit.”
“Well, you make millions every year! I’m a teacher.”
Linda cleared her throat loudly, and when we looked over, she tapped on her wristwatch.
“Time to go,” Lauren said.
“This is a bad idea.”
“We’ll be together the whole time. All we have to do is walk. I can walk. Look.”
She walked ten feet through the sand, turned around, and walked back to me. I shook my head, realizing my gut was going to lose this one. I’d carry her out of the jungle if I had to, but I didn’t want it to come to that. I was worried about her when she was lying in the shelter doing nothing, so I didn’t know how I’d be able to stand by while she did this competition.
“Come on,” she said softly. “We can do this. It’s time to go.”
I didn’t respond, but I picked up our canteens and my machete, which was an answer in itself. We walked to the competition site in silence, Linda following and filming.
When we arrived at our destination about thirty minutes later, Lauren’s face was redder than usual. I knew she was burning up. She tried to reassure me with a forced smile.
“Welcome to our final five teams,” Josh said once filming started. “Are you guys ready to hear about the competition that will narrow it down to four?”
He explained that we’d be collecting markers from boxes, just like we’d done when our friends and family had visited. But this time, we’d exit the jungle on the other side of the island, and the final four teams would celebrate there tonight with a luau.
A luau meant food, which Lauren needed badly. All we had to do was get through three miles. I looked over at Lauren and she met my gaze with a confident smile. I guessed we were really doing this.
A production assistant drove Lauren, Linda, and me on an ATV to the spot where we’d start our route for the competition. We were left at the starting point with only some water and a map. I shook my head, packed the water into my backpack, put it on, and led the way in.
I chopped through the foliage until we found a clear path, matching what was marked on our map. Our first two markers were easy to find, both of them in boxes along the path. The third one, though, was high up in a tree.
“Guess I’m climbing,” I said, shrugging off the pack.
“I hope there aren’t snakes up there,” Lauren said.
“Me too.”
The tree was a bitch to climb, because I had to pull vines off of it to get a good hold. It took me a solid fifteen minutes to get the marker, and I was breathing hard when I jumped down to the ground from a low branch.
“Want some water?” Lauren asked me, offering up a canteen.
I took a swig and then studied her. “You doing okay?”
“Yep, ready to go when you are.”
We continued, collecting thirteen of the twenty-two markers we had to get when we found a note with our names on it inside the thirteenth marker box.
“Are you better together or apart?” I read out loud. “From this point on, you’ll each finish the competition on your own. One of you will take the original map and continue, collecting the remaining markers. The other will wait in this spot for twenty minutes and then follow, using this extra map. When the second team member completes the competition, then that will count as the finishing time for your team. Good luck finishing in the top four.”