As beautiful as it was, it was at the ends of the earth. Nothing but pure wilderness, packaged in beauty. It was bad enough being stuck here for two months with Christian. She’d wanted Warren Renard to host the show, but the network had settled on Christian. What a poser.
He looked good, looked fit, but everyone in Hollywood knew he was a coke whore. She wondered if he’d brought any, or if he had a little common sense, getting caught in China with cocaine could lead to serious prison time. Not to mention, he might try to bang all the females within a mile of himself. She hoped they’d not get slapped with a sexual harassment suit at the end of this.
She got up and poured more coffee, she turned to Christian, who also had his tablet. There was no internet of course, but they’d each downloaded books to read during their time there as well as games.
“You want any coffee Christian? I’m about to make me another cup.”
“No thanks, I’m good. I’d kill for a candy bar, you think they packed us any?” he asked, getting up and going over to the small crates.
“I’m not sure, I think they only packed MREs and water, and also water purifying tablets for when the bottled water runs out. Those porters won’t be back until next week with the supplies, so be careful, we only have enough for the week. You go over that, and we go hungry.” She said, looking at him over her reading glasses.
She sat back down and picked up her tablet and noticed the power had gone out. She sighed heavily and went to the solar charger and plugged it in. It didn’t come on. She unplugged and reconnected it. She moved the solar charger to a sunnier spot, but nothing happened. Great, now the god damn thing breaks, of all times, she thought and huffed.
She left it plugged in and went back to her camp chair with her coffee. It was going to be a long two months. She watched as Christian dug around in the boxes. For some reason, he bugged the hell out of her. Did he not hear her say they had to be careful with supplies? He finally gave up and went to sit back down.
“Hey, my tablet isn’t working.” He said, trying to turn it off and on and then shook it, as if that would help.
“Try to plug it into the solar charger.” Marla suggested. She watched as he fiddled with it and plugged and unplugged it.
“Nothing. Your’s not working either?”
“No, maybe the solar charger isn’t working like it is suppose to. Where was it made, China?” she laughed at her own joke. He shot her a filthy look and went back to his chair and sat down heavily.
“Did you pick this god damn place? Why couldn’t you pick a place where we could go to a fucking hotel for Christ’s sakes, why put us in the friggen middle of nowhere? I feel like I’m a god damn contestant. Do we at least have a deck of cards?” he asked sullenly.
“Probably not and we had to pack light, but you can check, I’m sure Bruce might have slipped some in, he loves his poker. We were lucky to get here, I chose this locale two years ago and it was a struggle to get permission from China, and all the red tape, but it is worth it. This place was so amazing and just perfect for drama. These people are already at each other’s throats. I can’t believe what a lucky draw it was for Carol and Grayson, I think he might just try to kill her.” She laughed.
Christian grinned as well, “Yeah, how about that, what luck. Her and Vana are such drama queens, I think either one will be gone by next week. I do feel bad for Grayson and Leo, that was just shit luck for them to get stuck with those two. Who do you have your money on to win?”
“I’m putting my money on Aiden, Sarah is a good help, I saw her resume, she is good with plants and she’s been doing survival stuff for about a year I believe.” Marla said, taking a sip of her cooling coffee.
“My money is on Gabe Carter, though Henry Zorn is a strong fellow, a lobsterman, right? Yeah, but Gabe, he is a mountain climber, mountain biker, hiker and survivalist. Besides, wasn’t Aiden injured some time ago? He might have that old injury flare up. You want to place a bet on whoever wins?”
“Christian, you know we can’t do that, you want us to get in trouble?” Marla’s dark brows grew down together.
“What? Who would know? It would just be between the two of us.”
And you’ve got the biggest fucking mouth in town asshole, she thought, but said, “No, absolutely not.” She got up and stretched, and went to look at her tablet, still nothing. She fiddled with the cord, and shifted the panel towards the sun. Nothing. Then she heard Tom Bale coming out of the forest, he was talking to Hudson, the other cameraman.
“Why aren’t you two with the teams?” Marla asked, not happy at all.
“Our cameras aren’t working. Mine stopped and I was coming here for another battery and then I ran into Hudson.” Tom explained. Then Bruce walked out from the forest and into the clearing. Marla’s brow shot up in question.
“Let me guess, your camera isn’t working either.” She snapped. Bruce shrugged and grinned.
“Try swapping out the batteries.” Christian suggested.
They all stood around as the cameramen shifted their equipment and dug into the packs for extra batteries. They each swapped them out, and tried their equipment. No one looked happy.
“What the hell? How are
