Chapter 21 #2
I look up at the columns that start filling in, showing which contestants chose which reward. Legend and Silver both chose monetary reward while Bill and Maria both chose food reward. Whereas Joseph chose safety while Tyrone chose food, making it so that Team Lime gets no reward.
I find my team column. Colton chose monetary reward. Colton has all the money in the world, so why would he have chosen that?
“Oh.” I exhale, my cheeks heating. The only reason Colton would have chosen money is that he knows I need it. Despite losing this round, my heart goes warm and gooey like a pecan pie.
Once more, Niall’s voice streams through the speaker, catching me off guard. “Your round two food reward is a steak dinner. Your round two monetary reward is $750, given to each team member upon your last day on the island. Round two starts now.”
The clock counts down from thirty again, and this time, I try to envision myself in Colton’s head.
It still feels too early to choose the safety reward, so I think he’ll likely choose the food or monetary reward.
If he was trying to do what he thought I wanted most, as was evident by his last choice, then maybe he’d choose the monetary reward again.
Or maybe not. Maybe he’d consider how I chose the food reward last round and think that I was so hungry that I’d rather take the food over the money, which wasn’t a half-bad idea since the final challenge is a two-day event.
We’re going to need to fuel our bodies if we want to keep up our strength for the final days.
For the next several seconds, I feel like I’m crocheting an ugly little sweater out of the fibers of my brain.
There is so much back and forth in there, I can hardly think straight.
But when the clock gets down to the last two seconds, I press the coin icon like it’s a hot potato ready to burn me if I linger on it too long.
A moment later, the results pop onto the screen.
“No.” My hands scrub through my frizzy hair when I see yet another X. This time, Colton and I have switched. While I chose a monetary reward, he chose the food reward.
But when I look at the other team’s results, I’m slightly relieved that two additional teams have struck out in this round.
Both Legend and Silver and Joseph and Tyrone’s choices weren’t matching either.
However, Bill and Maria both chose the safety reward, making them the first team to tap out of this challenge and solidify themselves as competitors in the final Mayday Challenge of Sunsets and Sabotage.
Seeing Bill and Maria choose the safety reward so soon makes me second-guess my game plan.
Maybe I should choose the safety reward in the upcoming round.
But there are still so many rewards to get and three teams left in the challenge.
It still feels relatively low risk to keep seeking food and monetary rewards. But what if it’s not?
I feel debilitated by indecision when Niall starts to introduce the rewards for round three, but as soon as the food reward comes out of the PA system, I know exactly what I’m choosing. Tossing my overthinking tactic out the window, I slap my hand over the food icon.
For round three, the food reward is any food item of your choosing.
I don’t know if I’m delusional or if I’ve just been in the sun for too long lately, but an image of dancing steak fries flits into my mind.
Each fry is wearing adorable little tap shoes and matching bow ties, holding black canes that they flick about while doing a song and dance next to a vat of creamy ranch.
Please, Colton, please.
My dancing French fries get twenty-four seconds of mental airtime before the timer runs out and I hear the happiest ding followed by a bright green check mark.
“Yes.” I pump both fists into the air, slamming them right into the roof of the cockpit.
“Ow. Yes. We did it.” I cheer once more, shaking out the pain in my fingers.
That’s when I notice that Silver and Legend have both chosen the safety reward.
My stomach bottoms out. Already? They’ve tapped out already?
With them and Bill and Maria safe, that means there’s only one spot in the finals left.
My eyes zip across the columns, finding Joseph and Tyrone’s results, and to my great relief, I see they’re still in this challenge. While Joseph chose safety, Tyrone chose food.
The PA system starts up again, and I don’t even listen to the rewards.
All I can think about is one thing: safety.
So when the options pop up, I press the house icon.
The seconds tick down in slow motion; all the while, I can’t stop repeating the words choose safety, choose safety as if somehow Colton will hear it despite the distance that separates us.
Because if Joseph and Tyrone both choose safety this round and Colton and I don’t—then we’re eliminated. Done for good.
A crunch sounds throughout the cockpit, breaking my concentration from the slowly turning seconds. I look down, realizing I’ve split open my bracelet in my nervousness. Without thought, I tear the bracelet into tiny pieces as I count down the last few seconds. 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 …
And then the screen goes blank.