Chapter 11 #2
Marina looks at Rhonda as though she’s seeing her for the first time. “Are you chiflado? We can’t do that!” She pauses for a moment. “Wait. Can we do that?”
“I don’t see why we couldn’t,” Katie says, her brow furrowed in thought. “Honestly, it’s not a terrible idea. Rhonda’s right—it’s not like we’d be stealing anything.”
Marina shakes her head vigorously. “Nope, count me out. If you three want to do this, I won’t stop you, but I am not going through her personal stuff.”
Rhonda accepts this with a nod, then turns to me. “What about you, Ryan? You must have some thoughts in that head o’ yours.”
She’s not wrong, if I’m being honest with myself.
On the one hand, the idea of going through Alina’s personal items doesn’t really appeal to me.
I can’t imagine I’d be happy if someone went through my stuff, even if the only things I really have out here are a few pieces of clothing and a canteen.
At the same time, this isn’t a normal situation, and I don’t want to lose the game because I wasn’t willing to put up with a little invasion of privacy.
Could I really look Arielle in the eye and tell her I was sent home because I refused to look in someone else’s bag?
Plus, it’s not like I owe Alina anything—I barely know her, and she has no reason to trust me, or any of us besides Juan.
But all of that is immaterial, because there’s one glaring problem that none of us seems to be acknowledging.
“It won’t work,” I say with a sigh. “Even if she did find it, there’s no guarantee she put it in her bag.
For all we know, she’s got it in her pocket, or she hid it out in the woods somewhere only she can find it.
Besides, she seems pretty chatty, but if she finds us going through her stuff, she’ll clam up immediately. ”
Rhonda’s shoulders slump down, and she leans back.
“That’s a good point,” she says. “An’ now that I think about it, it might be too late anyway.
For all we know, they found it before we caught up to them.
Or maybe they picked it up while we were giving them the tour of our camp.
Oh sure, we probably woulda noticed, but ‘probably’ and ‘maybe’ ain’t gonna cut it here.
No, I think we just gotta assume that one of them has it. ”
“Well, if we think it’s more likely that Alina has it,” Marina says, “why don’t we just vote for Juan? That way, if she plays it tonight, he’ll go home anyway.”
Katie shakes her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. What if she gives it to Juan before tribal? It’s not safe to pile our votes on either of them. We need to figure out a way to make sure that one of them goes home no matter what.”
Once again, we’re silent, pondering the problem before us.
The fact that the idol has to be played after the votes are cast, but before they’re read, really throws a wrench into things.
If it were before the votes were cast, this would be easy—should one of them play it, we’d just all vote for the other.
Now we can’t do that, because if we choose wrongly, none of our votes would count.
Then whoever the two of them vote for would go home.
But that thought gives me an idea, and my heart begins to beat faster as I think through all the permutations. “I might have a solution,” I say. I look up, fixing Katie with a steady gaze. “What happens if there’s a tie between two people at tribal?”
She frowns, presumably trying to figure out how the idol fits in with a possible tie. “There’s a re-vote, but the people who are tied can’t vote, and everyone else can only vote for one of them. Then, whichever of them gets the most votes the second time around goes home.”
Perfect. I was pretty sure that was true, but it’s good to have confirmation. “In that case,” I say, “I have a plan that will ensure one of them goes home, whether or not they have the idol.”
Three sets of eyes stare back at me beneath identically raised eyebrows. “Well, by all means, do share this magical plan with us,” Rhonda says.
“Okay. Okay. I think this should work. No, it will work.” I lean forward, suddenly feeling way more energized than I should, considering that I’m currently both food- and sleep-deprived. “All right. Here’s what we’re going to do …”
My stomach flutters as we walk into tribal council later that night. I haven’t been this nervous since the very first tribal I went to, nearly two weeks ago. This plan is going to work, I tell myself. If only my body would listen.
In an attempt to distract myself, I think back on the last few hours.
My alliance tried their best to poke holes in my plan, but it held up despite their concerted assault, and it didn’t take long to convince the three of them to go along.
It’s not foolproof—there could always be another unforeseen twist—but it’s pretty damn close.
I had thought that Alina and Juan might use the hours before we left to try to convince one or two of us to vote with them, but apparently, they figured finding the idol was the better strategy, because they spent most of the time searching.
Once again, the four of us followed them, although with much less urgency than before.
We didn’t see anything, but they could have managed to find it right under our noses when we weren’t looking.
Or maybe Rhonda was right, and they found it very early on, before we started following them the first time.
Either way, there wasn’t as much schmoozing as I thought there would be.
Juan did sidle up to me about fifteen minutes before tribal and ask me how I felt about the rest of my tribe, but I stuck with my usual strategy of being polite but non-committal, like I did with Beck and Jing in days past, and he took the hint.
I didn’t want to blow him off completely—there was always the chance he’d reveal something he shouldn’t—but I also didn’t want to seem too eager.
I’m sure he and Alina did the same with the others, but I’m not worried about them flipping.
At this point, I trust them about as much as you can trust anyone in this game.
Now, as we take our seats on the tribal council set, I’m ready to just get it over with so I can stop worrying. As long as I go back to camp at the end of this, I’ll be happy.
Fortunately, once we’re all set and the cameras are on, Alex wastes no time getting down to business, pointing to Alina. “What was the feeling like joining a new tribe?” he asks. “Did you feel welcomed?”
“Um, on a personal level, I definitely felt welcomed, I guess,” Alina responds.
Her voice is steady, but when she reaches up to adjust her glasses, her hand trembles a bit.
“I mean, these four”—she gestures to my alliance—“are very nice, so don’t get me wrong about that.
But at the same time, it definitely felt like Juan and I were newcomers.
Like we were intruding on their camp, in a way.
It almost reminded me of being in high school and trying to sit at the cool kids’ table, you know?
” There’s some scattered chuckling at her analogy.
“Like, sure, they were polite and everything, but it was clear that they wanted you gone as soon as possible.”
Alex nods. “Rhonda, as one of the ‘cool kids,’ do you agree with Alina’s assessment?”
“Well, first of all, ain’t nobody called me cool in at least twenty years, so thank you for that,” she says, eliciting even more laughs.
“And to your question, if I were back home in Georgia, I’d be appalled if someone came to my house and didn’t feel completely welcome.
But out here it’s different, ‘cause at the end of the day, only one of us can win, and everyone else is just in the way. So, I apologize to these two if they felt left out, but I certainly don’t blame them for feelin’ that. ”
Alex has some more back and forth with Rhonda on the subject of the new tribe members, bringing in Juan and Katie to get their opinions too, before turning to me.
“Ryan, obviously the tribe swap was a big twist,” he says.
“But it was only one of the twists that you all faced today. Was there any talk of the hidden immunity idol at camp?”
“You could certainly say that,” I reply, grinning despite myself. “Like you said, it’s a big twist, and it has the potential to turn this game on its head, so of course we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk it over. Where it might be, who might have it, that sort of thing.”
Alex nods again. “So, Marina, what do you do to make sure that it’s not your game that gets turned on its head?”
“Well, that’s the question, isn’t it, Alex?” she replies, laughing. “I mean, you can talk and plan until your teeth fall out, but at a certain point, it’s out of your hands, and you just have to vote and cross your fingers that it all goes well.”
Alex smiles. “Couldn’t have summed it up better myself,” he says. “Speaking of which, it is now time to vote. Ryan, you’re up.”
I get up and walk over to the voting booth, feeling strangely calm.
Maybe it’s like Marina said—it’s out of my hands at this point.
When I reach my destination, I walk over to the table, pausing only to uncap the marker before writing down “ALINA” in big letters on the parchment.
It’s up to the other three to make sure everything goes according to plan.
Once we’ve all voted, there’s the usual delay while the producers and Alex decide what order to show the votes in to maximize tension.
Even though there are only six votes in the urn, it takes a little while longer than usual; hopefully, that means we were successful.
If we did it right, there will be quite a bit of drama for the producers to pick over.
Eventually, Alex comes back with the urn and places it on the podium. “If anyone has a hidden immunity idol and you want to play it, now would be the time to do so,” he says.