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Aiden couldn’t keep the grin off his face. Sarah was a sneaky wench. He was impressed. Without saying a word, he knew what she’d meant. Those bottles could turn the tide when it came to time management. They could focus their time on tracking down edible plants and hunting. That meant a lot. Survival wasn’t a game, it was a thoughtful process, calculating and strategizing. With the bottles, they’d have a leg up. He shook his head. The men had underestimated Sarah. He didn’t.
The more he learned about Sarah, the more he liked her. She was well versed and down to earth. He thought it was her life in the wilds of Maine. She seemed very grounded. He liked that. Unlike Carol and Vana and he shivered at the thought of having one of them as a partner. Christ. No, he was well pleased with his partner and felt confident that they had a better than even chance to win.
CHAPTER TWO
Early the next morning, Sarah woke up, it was still dark out and she had to pee. It was quiet but for the snores of other members of the group, a few farts exploded softly and moans here and there. She had slept next to Aiden, and had put her back to his back for warmth during the night. She was so glad she’d worn jeans.
It wasn’t cold, but it was cool, and she’d kept fairly comfortable during the night. She could hear one of the girl’s teeth chattering and looked around the nearly dark camp. She could hear but not see her. She stepped over a few bodies and made her way into the forest. She went about thirty yards away and found a couple of soft leaves. Once she relieved herself, she went back to camp.
She walked by the black trash bag, and quietly opened it and pulled out four more plastic bottles. When she got back to her spot, she quietly unzipped her backpack and placed the extra bottles in. They could save water this way and not have to worry about it all the time.
She laid back down beside Aiden and scooched over to feel his back. She heard Aiden’s soft laughter, “You get more bottles?” he whispered softly.
“Yeah, we have six now. If you get a chance, get more.” She whispered back and with the heat coming off his body, she began to drift and then fell back to sleep. It was sometime later, the light began penetrating the dense canopy above, and everyone began to stir. The cameramen were up and beginning to film, short segments and then turned their cameras back off.
After about a half hour, the cameras went back on and Christian once more started his monologue about the rules and their task and challenge for the day, they had the stated six hours to find and secure a mini-campsite for their team, each team had already been given their own flags to plant and claim their location. Then Christian waved a big flag and everyone scattered. Sarah and Aiden grabbed their backpacks and ran like hell for the forest.
“Come this way, I hear a waterfall and that is running water, and we don’t have to boil water.” Aiden said, looking over his shoulder at Sarah, who grinned widely. They jumped over rotting logs and low bushes. Sarah tripped over a rock and nearly fell, Aiden caught her. They saw Henry and Gabe about fifty feet behind and off in the trees.
She hissed at Aiden and he looked behind, and picked up his pace. They had to grab onto trees, pulling themselves up and past each tree, the terrain rose sharply and the sound of the waterfall was becoming so loud they couldn’t hear anything, not even their harsh breathing. They came to the falls, and planted their flag.
They stood looking like grinning idiots when Henry and Gabe came into view panting heavily, and then they both realized that they’d been beaten. Her heart was beating happily, they had done it. Found their place.
Sarah couldn’t help but laugh at them and wave. She watched as they swerved and headed deeper into the forest and disappeared. And Sarah turned and laughed, “We got it, now let’s find a place to make a camp. We have fresh water, and I will start looking around for edible plants as we look for a place to live.”
“Awesome, and if I see anything to eat as far as animals, I’ll kill it.” Aiden laughed raising his machete, and they climbed the steep hillside.
“How many bottles were you able to get this morning.” She asked as they walked, their eyes scanning rock formations, heavily forested areas.
I picked out three more, I couldn’t get anymore, Christian was coming out of his tent. Nine bottles, that is good. I’ll try for more later.”
“Me too, the more we can get, the less work.” She panted.
After about an hour of looking around, doubling back, and circling around, they found a small cave about a hundred yards from the waterfalls. They threw their backpacks into the cave, planted more flags around the cave opening and started out to look for food.
They separated, and Sarah began to look at the plants and bushes. She got down on the ground and dug around, she found a couple roots, she nibbled a bit, and spit them out and nibbled a bit more.
They tasted almost like potatoes, very starchy. She dug up a few more and looked around to make sure there were more, so she could come
