Body Games (Games #5)(23)
Author: Jessica Clare

We nodded.

“As I said before, you cannot use your hands. You’re allowed to use your face, your shoulders, your arms, your mouth, whatever you like…except your hands and feet. You can divide up stations or tackle them together. It’s up to you guys. Someone’s going to come by and tie your hands to prep you for the challenge. Does anyone have any questions before we start?”

I glanced down the line at the others. Summer had a grim expression on her face. I didn’t blame her. This was a lot to handle by yourself. Alys looked ready to cry. Saul just rubbed his hands, excited. Maybe Saul wasn’t too bright.

None of them knew I was planning on throwing the challenge so I could try to ditch Kip.

“No questions?” Chip asked. “All right. While we tie hands, you can strategize with your partner.”

I already had my strategy in place: lose. But I’d let Kip steer our sinking ship. I turned to look at my partner. “How do you want to handle this?”

“Well, you’re a girl, so we should give you the easy stuff.”

My temper flared, but I swallowed the anger bubbling inside me. “You don’t say.”

“Yeah. I’ll take the rocks and the dirt. There’s buckets for those.”

I glanced down at the stations as someone came by and gestured for me to put my hands behind my back. At this point, we were so used to ignoring the production and camera crews that I barely even noticed. “There’s only buckets for the dirt, Kip.”

The production assistant finished binding my hands and moved on to Kip’s. Kip studied the course and then looked over at me. “He didn’t say we had to go in any particular order, right? I’ll just do the dirt first and then take the bucket over and fill it with the rocks. You do the banana leaves and the food. I’d do the food but my stomach’s been shit for the last few days.”

I bit my lip, trying to keep a straight face. “That’s too bad about your stomach.”

“Island bug,” he said. “It’ll pass eventually.”

It’d probably pass if he got off his ass and boiled his water, but I didn’t tell him that.

“We can do this,” he said confidently. “Just don’t f**k up like you did the last challenge.”

“Screw you,” I said, determined to do just that. I resolved then and there to take one banana leaf at a time. Ten pounds would be a ridiculous amount. It’d take forever.

“Is everyone ready?” Chip raised his hand into the air.

We leaned forward, as if we were about to race from the starting line. Maybe some people were. I had no intention of trying to push my way ahead, though. Let some other idiot do that – I had a partner to vote out.

“Go!” Chip yelled.

We dashed forward. Further down the line, Rusty immediately face-planted, his balance off. Spitting sand, he hauled himself back up as the rest of us trotted past, a little more wary after seeing his spill. I immediately headed for the banana leaves. The groups were splitting up, heading into different areas, and I noticed Jendan was heading the same way I was. I gave him a wink as I moved to the leaf station and leaned over to grab a mouthful. To my surprise, my lips found…string. They’d tied the leaves into bundles? That didn’t work well for my plans.

Using my lips, I daintily picked up a bundle by the end of the string, feeling the knot loosen as I did. I began to run to the pit designated for Team 8, and the entire bundle fell apart as I did, leaves fluttering to the sand.

Whoopsie.

With fake exasperation, I turned around and headed back to the station, starting over again. When this bundle held together (stupid bundle!) I plopped it on the scale next to the pit with my name on it. One pound. Well, at least I’d need ten of those. Heading back out, I went for the leaves again as Jendan raced forward, another bundle in his mouth. He looked like he was making serious tracks in this challenge. Good for him.

I managed to utterly destroy two more bundles by ‘accidentally’ untying the string twice more. Kip passed me once, growling with anger through the bucket handle clenched between his teeth. I blithely ignored him and dropped my final bundle of leaves on the scale. Ten pounds. Using my nose, I nudged the stack off the scale and into the pit. On to the meat.

I headed to the station at a fast trot, wondering why it was deserted. Everyone was busy with the other stations and seemingly avoiding this one. As I neared, though, I could see why. The smell of cooked, overly-sweet meat touched my nostrils before I saw the problem.

Our pig was covered in barbecue sauce…and flies.

“You’re kidding me, right?” I said aloud as I approached it. Thick reddish sauce clung to the cracked, greasy skin of the thing. There was a gash in one side, where I supposed we could ‘chow down’ and grab chunks with our teeth. It reeked of hot grease and barbecue, and as I watched, a fly buzzed forward and landed in the sauce.

As I stared, Jendan raced to my side, took one look at the pig and bent double. I could hear him dry heaving. Oh Jesus, this just got worse and worse.

Fighting back my own bile, I stepped toward it. If ever there was a time to throw a challenge, it was now. I glanced around the challenge area frantically. Sunnie was at the rocks station, delicately rolling one along with her nose. Summer elbowed past me, heading to the banana leaf station. Wow, she was going slow. Alys and Saul were still at the first station, and Kip was hauling buckets of dirt at the far end of the course, ahead of everyone else.

Dammit, why did my partner have to be so quick at everything? We were never going to get voted off at this rate.

I looked over at Jendan again. His hands were on his knees, and his face was extremely pale. I sidled closer to him, pretending to inspect the disgusting pig. “You ok?”

“I’m…kinda a health nut. Not so good with gross food.”

Well that was obvious. “Make Sunnie do this station, then. You guys can’t come in last again.”

He shook his head. “She won’t do it. She’s a vegetarian.”

“Jesus.” I stepped forward, eying the hunk of grotesque meat in front of us. “Look, Jendan, if you’re in last again, you might go home.”

“I know. Just…give me a minute.” He breathed deep, clearly trying to calm his stomach.

Lovely. Now I had to somehow throw the challenge to get rid of my partner and manage to help Jendan at the same time. I moved closer to the pig and the gigantic gash cut into its side. At least it was cooked all the way through. I blew at a fly zooming in too close and leaned in. I could always pull a piece of meat from the pig’s side and pretend to drop it, and have Jendan grab it…but the beach was super sandy and the pig was coated with barbecue sauce. I doubted Jendan’s weak stomach would be able to handle that. Maybe…maybe I could pull a big chunk loose but leave it hanging by the skin (ugh) and Jendan could swipe forward and pull it off.