Chapter 27 Charlie
CHARLIE
Bennett Forrester picked me up from UA’s campus today.
It was just the two of us in his truck. It smells like him…
clean and salty at the same time. I can’t describe it, but I could literally live in it.
Rosie wasn’t feeling well, so she went home early, and didn’t want to leave me stranded.
We talked the entire time about the softball team, and he convinced me to join.
It was really easy to talk to Bennett. I even called him “Ben” when I said goodbye, like we’re real friends.
And he called me “Chuck,” which is better than kiddo AND Nachonator.
Istoked the fire and put a pan of water on to boil. It had been another long blend of days of fishing without success, but we still had dried rabbit we were eating this evening, along with berries. I’d dried some into fruit leather, but those would disappear once the weather turned.
I inhaled the scent of the crackling pine smoke and rested on my heels as I watched the flames lick the sides of the pan.
This was what peace felt like. Take away the cameras and the stress about if we were doing enough to get screen time and win and the never-ending growling of my stomach, and I was left with feeling like my very essence was as calm as a perfectly still lake.
I was so lost in my thoughts I didn’t hear Bennett’s footsteps behind me, until I felt his cool lips brush my hot cheek. “Hey, baby.”
My stomach flipped, even though I’d always hated the pet name baby. Turned out, I didn’t hate almost anything when Bennett was saying it.
I tilted my head up so from this camera angle it looked like his lips brushed mine, when they were actually a few tantalizing centimeters apart. “How’d hunting go?”
“I reset a few of the traps. There’s definitely something out there stealing our catches. A bear, I think.”
I shivered, not wanting to think about the wildlife. At night, we sometimes heard snuffing and shuffling near our shelter. “Dinner’s done.” A crack of thunder, followed quickly by lightning, sounded above us. “And just in the nick of time.”
This area had gotten a few volatile storms, and this one was shaping up to be big.
We washed our hands and faces and then hurriedly ate our food before the first drops fell.
We escaped into the shelter and sat across from each other, working on our own projects.
I loved the easy companionship I had with Bennett.
I tried not to think about Greg anymore—tricky with so much time to think—but I couldn’t imagine us quietly sitting, working on whittling and sewing.
I was creating a pair of moccasins out of the dried rabbit fur, and he was whittling cutlery for us.
“I didn’t hear what the doctor said to you this morning,” Bennett said. We’d had med checks, where the crew came out to make sure we were healthy enough to stay out.
“Oh. Nothing much. My vitals look good.”
“Yeah, same. My blood pressure is a little low, but not enough for them to worry.”
They’d had us weigh ourselves, and we’d each lost nearly ten percent of our weight since coming out here. Which reminded me …
I went to grab the fruit leather from my bag when my hand brushed against something unfamiliar. “Look at this.” It was a scroll of paper, tied with a shiny ribbon. I undid it and read the note.
Dear Team Forrester,
Congrats on making it two weeks in the Wild! And welcome to your first challenge.
Life in the Wild can be brutal, but you two are the salt of the earth.
For this challenge, you’re going on a scavenger hunt. You will need to find:
Dandelion, chickweed, fireweed, fiddleheads, burdock, and willow shoots. You will need to correctly label your finds with the enclosed tabs.
You have until midnight to complete the challenge and present your findings to the cameras.
If you succeed, you will receive a delicious block of sea salt.
If you fail, you will be punished.
In the Wild, the stakes are high, and we play for keeps.
Your time starts… now.
“Midnight tonight?” I squeaked. We both paused and listened to the rain coming down in a deluge against our slatted-wood-and-tarp roof. “What time do you think it is?”
Bennett checked the camera display. “It’s already 8 pm.”
We were only minutes away from getting ready for bed after an exhausting day. Dismay shot through me.
“We don’t have to do it,” he said.
“We can’t afford whatever the punishment is!
” In the past, the Wild producers had done everything from sending people straight home to making them relocate without warning.
“They must have left this here this morning. I can’t believe I didn’t find it until now!
They always hide the challenges on med check day. ”
“I didn’t think to look for it either.” Bennett was tugging on his waterproof coat. “They didn’t leave us any challenges last week, so I forgot.”
“This is going to be miserable,” I groaned.
“If I was smarter, I could do it alone,” Bennett said, his words sounding almost like a curse. “Then you could stay in here and be comfortable.”
This wasn’t the first time I’d heard him reference himself as not being smart enough, but I’d always thought he was joking. The frustrated expression on his face was anything but light and funny. “You’re really smart, Ben.”
He didn’t respond, just continued to jam his foot into the shoe.
“Hey, I’m serious,” I said, grabbing his arm before he left the shelter. “You know that, right?”
His responding nod wasn’t believable in the slightest.
“Why would you think you’re not smart?” This probably wasn’t the time for this conversation, but I couldn’t let him go out there, thinking this. “No one would expect you to know what a burdock looks like. Identifying plants is my expertise, which is probably why we got this challenge.”
“I know. And you’re brilliant,” he said sincerely. He held out my coat for me, and I turned to slip my arms into it. “I’m sorry you got saddled with me.”
“Stop. I’m not saddled with you. You’re a great partner. And we’re doing this together,” I said firmly.
He paused, his lips pressed together, and for a split second, my heart sank.
What was I doing? I needed to listen to his judgment, soothe his ego and make sure he didn’t think I was smarter than him—No.
Bennett wasn’t Greg. It was hard to undo years of conditioning that nothing I said was important enough to listen to, and that everything I said needed to fit into someone else’s worldview, where they were the center.
I softened my tone. “There are thousands of plant species out here. And I can’t describe them to you, because some can only be differentiated by smell, especially since it’s so dark.
” I spoke quickly, but I didn’t need to, because in that moment, it hit me.
Bennett would sit here all evening and listen to me talk if that’s what it took for me to say what I needed to say.
The thought was freeing, like taking off an overly heavy coat and letting the sun touch my skin.
He didn’t act like he was the center of the world. And he was okay with me calling him out. In fact, judging by his sheepish smile, I think he kind of liked it. “This weather is dangerous.”
“Where’s your sense of adventure, Forrester? It’s our first challenge!” These were so much fun to watch as a viewer, and I was often left feeling like I could have done a better job than the contestant. Now it was time to prove it.
“We’re going to get wet,” he warned.
“Then we’ll warm up when we get back.”
We both looked at the sleeping bag, which always loomed in the middle of the room like another planet to our two-body gravitational mix. It was a recipe for chaos. Science to the rescue, explaining things again.
“Let’s go,” I said quickly, and we left our shelter with a camera each, our list, a flashlight, and a pail, and entered the dark and stormy night.
Iwas soaked clear through my clothes within minutes, and we’d been out here for at least an hour. All my initial adrenaline had worn off, and I trembled with every step I took. I couldn’t afford to burn through too many calories, but we had to win this challenge.
The only upside to the terrible weather was that any wild animals usually wandering at night were holed up inside some sort of shelter. One less worry.
“What do the last two look like?” Bennett shouted to be heard over the lashing rain. The frequent lightning lit up the sky enough for us to see clearly through the trees, but we kept our flashlights close.
Through chattering teeth, I described what they looked like. “They’re both-th-th probably under a l-l-log or inside a hole of s-s-some sort. They like wet, dark pla-a-aces.”
“So everywhere out here.”
We kept searching, but my bones hurt from all the rattling.
Even my skin was feeling achy from the constant barrage of sticks, leaves, and rain.
We’d stopped narrating our every move for the camera once my teeth began chattering too hard to clearly talk anymore.
We officially had until midnight, but I doubted I could last another hour, much less three.
“I’ll search over here,” Bennett said.
I huddled next to a thick Douglas fir where the tree could protect me from getting pelted as fiercely. Bennett’s concerned glance told me he was one too-loud shiver away from insisting we go back.
I dropped to my knees to search around the ancient trunk, squinting to see a cluster of tiny shoots near the base. I pulled them up to my nose and breathed in their pungent scent. Yes, I was pretty sure I had the right ones.
“I f-f-found one!” I yelled.
I shoved the find in my pocket and walked in his direction when he didn’t turn around. He wasn’t moving, but bent over, either looking at something or injured.
I picked up my pace, panic lancing through me. “Bennett!”
This time his head lifted, right as my leg slammed into a root. I rocketed to the ground, where a sharp, protruding branch shredded into my side, stealing every last thought from my mind.