Chapter 20
The sun rises on the morning of day twenty-eight, a beautiful dawn that finds me sitting on the beach while the others sleep.
I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep after getting back into the shelter last night, considering how my brain was going a mile a minute with thoughts of Cole.
But to my surprise, I fell asleep almost immediately, and woke up just before sunrise feeling as refreshed as I’ve ever been.
Even now, I can’t quite stop myself from grinning as I think about last night.
I’m sure the rest of the game will be stressful, but it feels so much better knowing what’s waiting for me when it’s all over.
Besides, I only have to make it through five more days, and then I’ll be done.
If I can go home with the million dollars and Cole, then I really will have won the lottery.
Of course, I still need to make it through the next few days if I want to win.
The five of us go about our chores like it’s any other day, which I suppose it is for the three women.
Meanwhile, Cole and I try our best to pretend like everything is normal, as we agreed.
Occasionally, when no one is looking, one of us will give the other a wink or a knowing smile, but for the most part, we work and eat and talk with our tribemates as we have for the last four weeks.
I wish I could rush over to him and kiss him without caring who’s watching, but I ignore that urge with relative ease.
After all, wanting him is not exactly a new sensation.
Plus, it’s easier to ignore it now that I know he feels the same way.
All I have to do is wait a few days, and then I can kiss him all I want.
And we both know it really is best for us to stay apart until the game ends.
With only five people left, there’s nowhere to hide, and if the other three found out about us, they’d almost certainly vote me or him out tonight—it’s far too risky to have two people working as a unit when you’re on your own.
Fortunately, it seems that none of them has noticed that anything’s changed, and I breathe an internal sigh of relief.
Still, just because they haven’t figured it out yet doesn’t mean Cole and I are guaranteed to get to the end.
But I think we can pull it off with a little finesse.
If Tamika doesn’t win the next challenge, she’s probably going home.
If she does win, I think I can convince Rhonda to target Katie.
Plus, there’s a good chance Cole will win the challenge, in which case I’ll play my idol for myself, ensuring we’re both safe.
Then, at four, Cole and I can get rid of either Katie or Tamika, depending on who goes at the next tribal council.
It’s far from foolproof—we still need Rhonda to vote with us tomorrow night, and there’s a chance of a tie when we get down to four—but it’s not a bad plan at all.
No, if I’m being honest with myself, the real problem is what happens when we get to the final three.
Usually, whoever wins that immunity challenge gets to vote one of the other two out.
That means if Cole and I both lose, one of us will go home no matter what.
But it’s not like there’s much we can do, other than try to win that challenge.
Hopefully, Rhonda will be in the final three with us.
I love her to death, but she’s not great at challenges.
Even that wouldn’t be the end of it. I still want to win, for Arielle if not for myself.
Despite recent events, I still think Cole will be a formidable opponent at the final tribal council.
He’s already won two challenges, and he probably doesn’t have any enemies on the jury.
Meanwhile, I’d probably lose Rhonda’s vote by reneging on my deal with her, and who knows whether the rest of the jury will respect my gameplay.
On the other hand, I was the one who came up with the idea to split the votes when we got Juan out, and I convinced Tamika to flip at the merge.
I may not have built the best connections with the three Sikas on the jury, but I don’t think I’ve made any enemies, and I’ve got pretty good relationships with the others.
So while I might not win if I’m sitting next to Cole, I at least have a good chance at beating him, and I doubt my odds would be much better against any of the other three.
That’s assuming I can get to the end in the first place. There’s still a lot of game to play between now and then, and in the meantime, I should focus on getting Cole and me to the end. I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
But if I sometimes let my thoughts drift, and picture myself being announced as the winner of season nineteen of Marooned, with Cole by my side … well, lightning has already struck once. Who says it can’t strike again?
Day 29
Our next immunity challenge occurs on day twenty-nine.
Just like yesterday, the weather is perfect, perhaps seventy-five degrees and without a cloud in the sky.
I can’t help but feel like it’s a good omen, reflecting the warm feeling that’s been sitting deep in my chest for the last day and a half.
I glance at Cole as we get off the motorboat on our way to the challenge area, and for a moment, all I can think about is how happy I am to have found him.
He sees me looking and gives me a sunny smile, and my heart soars.
But the others might be watching, so I quickly turn away and look at today’s setup for the challenge area.
Four small flags mark a rectangular swath of sand, perhaps ten feet by twenty feet, that looks like it’s recently been dug up.
Next to each flag is a simple wooden box about a foot square.
Beyond that are five large slingshots spaced about ten feet apart, each about three feet tall and pointed at a group of targets.
There are five targets per slingshot, so twenty-five total, and each group of five is painted a different color.
Alex waits for us to take our places on the mat, then begins his usual speech. “Welcome to your next immunity challenge,” he says. “Tamika, I’ll take back immunity.”
Tamika walks over to Alex, who unlatches the necklace and places it on the usual podium.
“You are once again playing for immunity at tonight’s tribal council,” he continues.
“You are also playing for reward. The winner of today’s challenge will have lunch delivered to them at camp: pizza, hot and fresh from the oven, with all the toppings you can think of—pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, you name it—and to drink, ice-cold soda and beer.
Sound like something worth playing for?” As usual, he pauses so we can cheer and clap.
“In that case, let’s get to today’s challenge.
“First, you’ll run out to the rectangle you see marked by flags”—he gestures behind him, to the churned-up area of sand—“where you’ll dig up buried sandbags.
There are a hundred of them out there, and once you find a sandbag, you can claim it for yourself by putting it in your box.
At any point, you can decide to stop digging and move on to the next phase of the challenge.
However, once you do, you cannot return and dig up more bags.
“In the second phase, you’ll use a slingshot to launch your sandbags at five targets.
The first person to successfully hit all their targets wins immunity and a reward.
The more sandbags you have, the better, because if you still have targets left when you run out of sandbags, you’ll have to go out and collect the ones you launched before you can shoot again, which will cost you valuable time.
However, if you take too long digging, you run the risk of falling behind your fellow competitors.
” He pauses again, this time to let it sink in.
“I know it’s complicated, so I’ll give you a minute to prepare. Once you’re all ready, we’ll begin.”
As promised, the cameras turn off, and Neema and Steve give us the customary walkthrough, answering all our questions. It doesn’t take too long, and shortly thereafter, we’re all on our mats, ready for the challenge to start.
As soon as the cameras are back on and Neema signals him, Alex raises his hand in the air. “Castaways: ready … set … GO!” he shouts.
As soon as the last word is out of his mouth, I sprint out to the sand and begin digging, trying to pick an area where there’s less competition.
I find one sandbag, then a second, then a third, placing them each in my box as I find them, slowly working my way towards my tribemates.
At first, they’re relatively easy to find, but by the time I’ve found ten, it becomes noticeably harder, and I start to wonder whether I should take what I have and move on.
For the moment, I keep digging, hoping to find at least a few more before I go to the next phase of the challenge.
Katie is the first one to break, picking up her box and sprinting over to the slingshots just after I’ve found my eighteenth bag.
She’s quickly followed by Tamika, who carries her own box.
I speed up my search, throwing sand around like I’m a dog digging for a bone.
All the while, the pressure to move on to the next phase builds, so Tamika doesn’t build up too big a lead on me.
Once I’ve found twenty-five sandbags, I call quits, leaving Cole and Rhonda as the only ones still digging.
As I run to my slingshot, I see that two of Tamika’s targets have a small flag on top, which I assume means they’ve been hit.
I pick up the pace, ignoring the spike of anxiety that pulses somewhere in the pit of my stomach.
Right now, I need to forget about the others and just focus on doing my best.