The sound of crunching leaves draws my attention back to Simon, whose face is pale and beaded with sweat after the intense heat. I feel bad that he has to stand outside and wait for me.
“Hold on just a moment,” I say before unzipping my backpack and pulling out one of my woven palm fans. “Take Dolly. She’s my favorite.”
Simon raises a brow as I hold the fan out to him.
“She’s named after the great Dolly Parton,” I explain. “Which, come to think of it, she’s covered a Simon & Garfunkel song.” I wiggle the fan in front of him. “I think you two will get along famously.”
Wordlessly, Simon takes the delicate palm fan between his meaty fingers, and with that, he turns and plants himself several yards away from me, fanning his face with little Dolly.
I pivot on my good heel and reexamine the task ahead of me.
“Mmkay, what is this all about?” I tiptoe between several winding roots before reaching the flat ground in front of the cockpit, the drone above me following me like it’s my shadow.
A skewed sign that reads “enter” hangs off one of the jagged metal edges, so I carefully step into the cockpit and duck my head under the wires that hang down. I worm my way onto the seat in the middle of the cockpit—theonlyseat in the cockpit.
The singular chair confirms my suspicion that whatever comes next is a solo mission, one that Colton is likely experiencingsomewhere else in this jungle. I feel a pang of disappointment. I haven’t seen him since midafternoon, and for some reason, that feels too long. Funny that I could go from never wanting to see him again to wanting to see him throughout my day, whether that is in the pages of our coloring book or in person. Just the thought pastes a smile on my lips that’s more permanent than any lip stain I’ve ever worn. Be still, my heart. Is this really happening?
“Contestants, this is your captain speaking.” I nearly jump out of my seat hearing Niall’s disembodied voice. I quickly find that it’s coming from the PA system above me. “As you may have noticed, there are still four teams remaining after yesterday’s Mayday Challenge. However, only three teams are permitted to compete in the final challenge, which means that in just minutes, one team will be eliminated.”
Any happy feeling inside of me flees.
“In order to determine which team has seen their last sunset on Sabotage Island, we’ll be playing a little game of ‘Choose Your Fate.’”
I cover my eyes with my hand and breathe deep, hoping to cool off the nerves that have made instant noodles out of my innards. On rare occasions, I’ve seen this game played onSunsets and Sabotage. It’s a mind game of the worst kind. One with big rewards but equally big risks.
“If you will draw your attention to your windshield,” Niall instructs.
Instantly, my gaze flicks to the windshield that, moments earlier, looked like just a sturdy sheet of glass, but now I watch its transparent surface transform from a clear windowpane to an inky-black LED screen. Soon after, the names of the eight remaining contestants appear in their team colors in four distinct team columns. I see my name in teal right next to Colton’s and start to nervously finger my handmade bracelet,spinning it around my wrist. I feel blind not knowing where Colton is after having him right by my side for weeks.
“The rules of the game are simple. Without communicating with your teammate, each contestant has thirty seconds to choose one of three options. A food reward. A monetary reward. Or a safety reward. If you and your teammate both choose the food reward, you will both get that round’s food reward. If you and your teammate both choose the monetary reward, you will both get that round’s monetary reward. If you and your teammate both choose the safety reward, you and your teammate will not be eliminated and will go on to play in the final challenge ofSunsets and Sabotage. However, if you and your teammate choose the safety reward, your team will no longer be eligible for any other rewards offered throughout this Mayday Challenge.” Niall pauses, likely for dramatic effect. “But, if at any time you and your teammate choose different rewards, you will get nothing from that round.”
Once more, I spin my bracelet around my wrist, my fingertips skimming the dried leaves. I’ve never been a good guesser, and having to guess what is going on in Colton’s mind, well, I’ve been trying to do that for years with little success.
“We will play in rounds until there is only one team that has not chosen the safety reward at the same time. Your round one food reward is a spaghetti dinner. Your round one monetary reward is $500, given to each team member upon your last day on the island. Round one starts now.”
Suddenly, a clock appears in the left-hand corner of the LED screen, the seconds ticking down from thirty. I bite my lip, mulling over the three icons that have just appeared in front of me. A bread icon for food. A coin icon for monetary. And a house icon for safety.
My hand hovers over the safety button. Of course I want to be safe and move on to the next round, but then again, I’ve seen thisgame last thirteen rounds before. If I choose safety now, I could be missing out on heaps of benefits.
While there have definitely been seasons where all of the teams were more risk-averse when playing “Choose Your Fate,” there have also been seasons where teams have taken high risks and come out on top. I think of Team Indigo, the winners of Season Twelve—they’d played this game and ended up winning a full buffet to fuel them before the final Mayday Challenge, as well as extra money in their pockets. And then there was Team Burgundy from Season Five that kept choosing monetary rewards and walked into the final challenge with an extra $8,000 each.
Feeling confident that all teams won’t choose the safe route for round one, I move my hand over to the coin icon. Fourteen more seconds.
I think of my nonprofit and how I could use this extra money to set up Something to Glow About, but then I think of Colton, who goes out early every morning to fish so that I can have something somewhat filling for meals because I’m lousy with a fishing spear. I know we’re all hungry out here, but Colton is likely burning off all the calories he eats every day just by fishing and bringing his finds back to camp. With only three seconds left, I slap my hand on the screen, lighting up the bread icon.
I close my eyes, hoping beyond hope that Colton and I are aligned on this. Next thing I know, a red X flashes on my screen.
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.
