It had taken the network two years to get permission to come and film their show. It was Enduring Primeval, which pitted eighteen people, nine teams, against each other to win the grand prize of five million dollars to be split. No one knew about splitting the prize until Beijing, naturally. The waiting list was long and the contestant applications longer.
Thousands applied, but only a small select few were chosen. Sarah suspected that some were chosen because they were arrogant assholes. She thought that made for great TV drama. There certainly were a few drama queens present, complaining and bitching the whole way here. She could hear them even now, Carol and Vana who were the two youngest women, models by the look of them, and complaining the whole time. They fed off each other, and their whining was becoming tedious. She really did want to smack the hell out of them both and looking around her, the rest of the group did as well.
¤¤
Aiden Sanchez observed the two young women bitch to each other. He sighed heavily. When he’d first met the two, he’d wondered what the producers of the show were thinking. Now he knew. People you love to hate. Drama. Christ, their incessant complaining was grinding on his nerves. The group was tired and they still had a two-hour trek ahead of them. He looked around at the other competitors. He’d sized them up at the bar. Many drank like fish. He’d stuck to water, knowing that they had a long trip ahead of them.
Aiden wasn’t a drinker, never had been. A grim smile curved on his lips. Many of the contestants had been car sick on the long shaking ride on the uneven roads in China. The bus had noxious fumes spewing from it and it had entered the bus at stops. He’d been thankful that he’d not consumed alcohol. The walking had been long and many had been dehydrated from the vomiting. They were now at a disadvantage. That suited him well.
He looked down at the bright head of Sarah. He knew she was nervous. She’d not partaken of the festivities in the bar, sticking to a soft drink. His eyes moved over to Connor, the man looked fit enough, but there was something that he’d not liked about the man. A shiftiness. He mentally shrugged. Then his eyes moved to Grayson, the man was dower. No blame on his part, he’d been saddle with a useless partner. The contestants were antsy to get across the gorge and to the main camp site.
The producer, Marla Eastan, had gone ahead to the site, where supplies had been sent, along with food stores for the cameramen and the host, Christian. Their tents and belongings as well. He sighed once more, trying to tamp down his restlessness. At least he’d been given a good teammate.
¤¤
Sarah could see Christian up near the edge of the ravine, waiting for the cable to bring the cage back. The cameramen, Bruce Black, Hudson Stevenson and Tom Bale, were clustered around Christian to talk about shots, she supposed. Behind her was Aiden Sanchez, her partner, she took note that most of the teams stood together talking while they waited. Connor and Matt Johnston were laughing and pointing at the two young women.
Aiden was quiet, he seemed to be watching everyone like she was. She was glad he was her teammate, they had talked and they had a lot in common. She’d told him about her foray into survival and self-sustaining living. He’d talked about his time in the Seals and the training he’d gone through.
The long bus ride had ended in eastern Tibet, where they caught an even older bus to the village of Pai and from there a long four-day trek, hence the reason for Carol and Vana’s bitching. Everyone had started out happy and excited and when everyone was paired off, then the bitching started. Some cried foul, as Carol was paired with Grayson Jiang, she found out he was a fifty-one-year-old marathon runner.
Carol had cried that he was too old and would slow her down, which of course, pissed Grayson off. Sarah thought that Grayson was getting the shitty end of that stick. There wasn’t much to Carol, she was twenty-two, a personal trainer and she should know better, because Grayson would have stamina and Sarah thought in this instance, stamina was the key.
Vana, who was a twenty-three-year-old law student on sabbatical for the game, had been paired with Leo McCabe, who was thirty-nine, and she bitched he was too old. Sarah shook her head, Leo was a survivalist, and she thought Vana was lucky to have him as a partner. And so, the two had cried and complained and Sarah smiled secretly, those two wouldn’t last long.
“What are you smiling at?” Aiden asked, smiling at her. She looked up into his face, he really was a nice-looking guy, he’d told her he had been out of the navy for two years. He’d had some kind of injury, though fully healed he assured her, and had gotten out.
“I’m just listening to the Bobbsey twins, crying and complaining. I suspect that their partners are wanting to kill them about now. And they will be out of this competition before it even gets started.” She sniggered softly. She needn’t have worried about being overheard, below them was the roar of the Yarlung Tsangpo river, and mist and clouds surrounded them. She was glad she had a water repellant windbreaker, the air was quite wet, causing her brown hair to begin to curl around her face.
Aiden grinned widely, his teeth brilliant with his dark tan, “Yeah, I’d be seriously thinking about kicking them off this ridge. I
