Chapter Text
Day 1
Alex Danvers forced herself to breathe as gazed out over the waves of the South Pacific from her spot on the starboard side of the barge. I’m here , she thought to herself, I can’t believe I’m actually here, in Fiji, about to be on Survivor of all things. She’d submitted her application on a dare from her best friend, Vicki, who had tried out annually for the last three years. So she’d filmed a silly video and sent it in and the next thing she knew, she was packing her bags for Fiji. It had happened in the span of a couple of months and she knew absolutely nothing about what to expect. Alex and the other contestants had been separated from one another at Ponderosa, as it was called, and the only hints she had were what everyone was wearing. Alex had been instructed to bring purple, blue and orange clothing with her and, that morning, she’d been told to dress in blue. She’d been thankful it hadn’t been orange. So she was wearing khaki pants, a long-sleeved blue t-shirt and had a blue hoodie sweatshirt tied around her waist.
The interesting part, of course, had been when she’d seen who else had been instructed to wear blue. There were two other women and three men who were all wearing blue, so Alex presumed that they’d all be on the same team. One of the girls was a tiny thing. She couldn’t have been more than five feet tall and she didn’t weigh more than maybe 110 pounds, she surmised. The other woman was taller, of an average build, with blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was smiling hugely as they approached the island that was, no doubt, their final destination.
The men in blue varied. There was the stereotypical nerd, who was likely cast in the mold of John Cochran, though possibly less pale than his predecessor. Another was overweight, though Alex didn’t miss the fact that his eyes were taking in absolutely everything, every detail, about all the others on the boat. The last person in blue, wearing cargo shorts and a t-shirt, had muscles clearly moving beneath his light brown skin. While he didn’t live in the gym, Alex guessed, he probably went regularly.
She looked over at the purple group. Everyone looked huge and buff. Two of the men had bulging muscles and one was just built like brick wall — tall and wide. One of the women was clearly some kind of an athlete, judging by some of her tattoos. The other two were in great shape as well. Alex let her gaze linger a bit on one of the women, who had long, light brown hair, braided halfway down her back. She was cute, Alex acknowledged, but, even if the other woman was also into girls, the easiest way to lose Survivor was to hook up with someone and be perceived as a “power couple”. It had happened too often and Alex wasn’t going to let herself be distracted by a cute girl.
Finally, Alex looked over the orange group. As a whole, they were absolutely gorgeous. The men were tall, fit, strong and well-groomed, the women fitting the stereotypical ideal of beauty by North American standards — slender, yet curvy. It was looking over this third group that solidified what Alex had guessed — this had to be a Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty theme. She found her eyes drawn to one of the women dressed in orange, wearing a t-shirt that said “Hello Sunshine” on it, with a sun rising from the horizon above the words. She had that very t-shirt. She smiled and looked up to see the beautiful dark-haired woman looking at her, with an eyebrow raised. Any form of communication was strictly forbidden between the contestants at this stage, so as much as Alex wanted to say “I like your shirt”, she just shrugged and looked away.
She looked over her tribe again and nodded to herself. Clearly, she was on the Brains tribe. Immunity challenges might be difficult, particularly if they were especially physical to begin with, though it seemed to her, at first glance, that her tribe consisted of people in their 20s and 30s while she did spot a couple of older folks on the other tribes. Maybe that would be an advantage for them, especially as with three teams, typically second-place was sufficient to keep from going to Tribal Council and having to vote out one of their own members. However, if there was one thing she’d learned from past seasons of Survivor , particularly the past ones with this theme, it was not to judge a book by its cover. She knew, for example, that she could easily have been placed on the Brawn tribe, as she was trained to be an FBI field agent and spent four evenings a week kickboxing, even though she spent much of her time at work in her lab. There were likely many others in her position, who could have been on one team or another.
A noise got her attention and she realized that the anchor was being dropped. It was almost go-time. All across the boat were supplies. As someone who’d watched more than her fair share of Survivor , Alex knew three things were about to happen. First, they’d be introduced to the game by the host, Jeff Probst. Second, they’d be given some ridiculously short period of time to harvest as much as they could carry and would either be given a raft or some other kind of crude boat to get to their camp. Lastly, there was almost certainly some kind of secret advantage that was hidden amongst the supplies, likely in a tied-up sack or in a jar somewhere. She made a mental note to herself to offer to do inventory when they were at camp, in the hopes of discovering a secret note, advantage or even an immunity idol.
Jeff Probst — Alex had to withhold a squeal as he walked past her — stepped up on to a large storage container at the front of the barge. He put his hands on his hips and smiled, nodding to the groups. “Welcome to Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty 3,” he declared.
All eighteen of them cheered and clapped loudly. It was almost game time.
“You’ve been separated into three teams of six,” he called out. “On the Viribus Tribe, wearing purple, we have Joe, Brandon, Peter, Aishe, Liz and Roxanne. On the Forma Tribe, wearing orange, we have Nicole, Holly, Margarita, Noah, Lincoln and Gabe. Finally, on the Solert Tribe, wearing blue, we have Francis, Ryan, Matteo, Alex, Emi and Becky. Welcome to you all,” he said, warmly. “Viribus, here’s your map to your camp,” he said, picking up a small tube and tossing it to the purple group, where the cute girl Alex had noticed before caught it. “Forma, for you,” he said, throwing out theirs. “And Solert, this is yours.” He threw it and one of Alex’s tribemates, the pale one who reminded her of Cochran, tried to catch it, but it fell from his hands on to the floor.
“Oops,” he said, blushing red. He picked it up and held on to it tightly.
“Survivors, you’ll have three minutes to grab as many supplies as you can. After three minutes, that’s it, nothing else, you’re on your own.”
He nodded to the barge’s crew and three members undid some fasteners and, with loud splashes, three rafts — one to each side and one at the bow of the ship — fell into the water. “Viribus, you get the one off the bow, Forma, you get the one on port side and Solert, you’re on the starboard side. Everyone clear?”
All eighteen of them nodded.
“Good,” he said, raising his left arm. Alex realized he was about to start the challenge and tensed herself. “Survivors ready!” he bellowed. Then he dropped his left arm and brought his right arm up. “Go!”
It was absolute chaos and pandemonium. Alex didn’t even register what her teammates were grabbing, she was just focused on getting staples like rice and beans, as well as a fishing kit she’d seen earlier on. She’d thrown three bags of food over the starboard side and reached for the fishing kit but another pair of hands grabbed it first.
“Hey!” Alex shouted.
“All’s fair in love, war and Survivor ,” an orange-dressed man said.
She scowled and grabbed a huge bunch of bananas, throwing it off the boat’s side with ease, despite it weighing probably about 70 or so pounds. She was shoved aside by several people as she went for a machete, but was victorious in that challenge. She carefully dropped it on to the raft from above. She looked around, trying to avoid all the frantic people and just find something, anything, of use. There was another burlap sack in the corner, but she didn’t have time to check it, so she just grabbed it and tossed it overboard, too.
“Thirty seconds left!” Jeff called out. Alex whipped around to look at him. He was definitely enjoying this.
She spotted a smallish wooden crate on the port-side of the barge and went for it, wondering if maybe it would include a tarp or maybe some tools. She hip-checked one of the Forma women on her way, who grunted as she got pushed to the side of the boat. Alex grabbed the crate and lifted it to her chest. She glanced at the woman as she came back to the other side, realizing she was being glared at. “Sorry, Sunshine,” she shrugged, and, with that, she tossed the crate overboard and leapt over the edge herself. Her teammates followed her in, some still holding supplies. They all clambered onto the raft and secured their supplies as best they could.
“That’s it, time!” shouted Jeff from the boat. “If you’re still on the boat, drop anything in your hands and jump.”
Alex looked up and heard a clatter and some choice words from one of the orange men, who then, presumably, jumped off the ship on the port side.
“Your camps are approximately equal distances from here. Better get started,” Jeff advised. “See you at your first challenge.”
With that, Alex nodded to herself and looked around the raft. She was at the rear, with Matteo, she thought his name was. The paddles were behind them, attached to the stern with ropes so she and Matteo unknotted them and began handing them out to the others.
“Who’s got the map?” asked the blonde, Becky.
“I do,” said the skinny guy who reminded Alex of Cochran. “I’m Francis, by the way.”
“Becky,” she smiled.
“I’m Matteo,” the guy to Alex’s right confirmed.
“Alex,” she said.
“Emi,” called out the smallest of them all, sitting up front with Francis.
“Ryan,” said the heavyset guy sitting in front of Alex, behind Emi.
“All right, guys,” Matteo said, cheerfully, “let’s figure out where to go, shall we? Francis? Think you can navigate us there?”
“Sure,” he nodded, pulling the map out of its tube. “Looks like…” He looked up at the island ahead of them, then looked up towards the sun. “We want to head north, so we want to go right. We’ll be…” He squinted at the map. “I think our beach is going to be on the third island, on the far north shore.”
Alex nodded. “All right, Francis, thanks,” she said. “Everyone know how to paddle? You put your higher hand, the one on the inside of the raft, on top of the paddle, then your lower hand, the one on the outside, near the base of the paddle.” She demonstrated and pulled her paddle through the water easily. She looked up and found everyone looking at her. “Uh,” she cleared her throat, “it’s, uh, just something that really annoys me about the show. No one knows how to paddle. Drives me crazy,” she chuckled. “Sorry.”
Becky smiled back at her. “Thanks for the tip, Alex.”
Francis nodded and so did Ryan. “Never been on a boat or canoe or anything like this before,” Ryan admitted. “Thanks.”
“Sure,” she said.
“Let’s get going,” suggested Matteo. “Looks like it’s going to be a bit of a slog.”
As they started paddling away from the barge, they were able to see the Brawn team heading south, while the Beauty team was still hidden from their view by the barge.
***
It took at least three hours, by Alex’s best guess, for them to get to their beach. They were welcomed by a flag, proudly displaying the logo for the season and the tribe name, Solert, prominently showing. Of course, there were also a number of camera people. They’d been briefed by the producers that they should completely ignore any and all crew members, but Alex knew it’d take her a little while to adjust.
They pulled the raft ashore, bringing it far up the beach, beyond where the tide line was, lest their raft get carried away in the night. Exhausted, they did what they could to bring all the supplies to a shady spot under some palms.
Matteo dropped the bananas unceremoniously by a tree and sat down, stretching out his legs in front of him, resting his back on the tree trunk. “Welcome home, Solert,” he smiled.
“So, what should we do first?” asked Emi. “Anyone want to come with me to find water?”
“I’ll go,” said Ryan.
“Anyone else?”
Matteo considered. “I’m going to see what we can do in terms of shelter stuff, I think.”
“Okay, we’ll be back soon,” Emi said, pulling half of the provided canteens from their spot on a branch and handing them to Ryan before looping the others around her shoulder.
“Alex, you want to help me figure out what we’re doing here?” asked Matteo.
She smiled. “I was thinking I’d just go through and do a quick inventory first, actually, if you don’t mind.” She immediately second-guessed herself. You’re on Survivor , Danvers, she thought to herself. You’re going to need to be social. And not in terms of just telling people what to do.
“I’ll help you out, Matteo,” Francis said, perhaps just a tad too eagerly.
He nodded. “Cool. C’mon, I think I saw some loose palm fronds down this way.”
Becky looked over at Alex. “Guess we’re inventory buddies?”
She laughed. “Guess so. Do you know what you grabbed?”
Becky shook her head. “Not a clue. I just tossed everything I could grab.”
Alex nodded in agreement. “Yeah, me too. I did get a machete, the bananas, but I’m not sure what else.”
“I hope we got a fishing kit in here somewhere,” she muttered.
“Ugh, I think one of the big dudes on Brawn stole that from me.”
“Blah.”
“Right?”
Becky smiled at her and then looked around. “So, you seem cool.”
“And you do too,” Alex agreed, amiably.
“Alliance?”
Alex laughed. “It’s been like ten minutes!”
“Ten minutes and three hours on the raft,” Becky corrected her, with a grin.
She laughed. “All right, sure, why not?” She stuck out her hand and Becky shook it.
It was starting. Alex couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She was here .
***
Day 2
They hadn’t gotten much more than a basic lean-to built before nightfall, nor had they made fire yet, despite trying to use Emi’s glasses to focus the sun on some coconut husk and kindling, so the night was long and it was cold. Alex was relieved when the sky started to brighten in the pre-dawn hours, so she wouldn’t feel obliged to just lay there, amongst the others, ostensibly trying to sleep. She slipped out from the lean-to and took a long drink from her canteen. What did the day ahead hold for her, she wondered, gazing east towards the horizon.
The day brought with it a challenge. Alex quickly learned that they never knew beforehand whether it would be a reward challenge or an immunity challenge. From what she and the others had gathered from their research as fans, it was rare that immunity challenges took place on a day when Tribal Council wasn’t scheduled.
The hike was a pain. They were instructed to leave their designated beach area and make their way south and west to a smaller island in their cluster. Thankfully, the island was so close to theirs that, at this time of day, the water was low enough for them to wade through. Still, it was tiring, sloshing through the water that came up past their knees. Alex wondered how, without food, without sleep, any of them would be able to perform in the challenge.
The tribe was asked by the crew to wait around the bend for Jeff’s signal, which came a few minutes later.
“Come on in, guys!” he shouted.
Simultaneously, all three tribes made their way toward Jeff and the challenge field. And what a challenge it promised to be. There were three floating platforms out in the water, each colour-coded for the tribes, then there were some buoys in the water. Clearly, they’d have to swim and dive for something. Then, on land, there was a mat for each tribe, so Alex guessed that’s where something would need to be dropped. However, the craziest thing was a large, wooden construction for each of the tribes. It was all built in wooden sticks, and had some platforms and some rope and… Alex wasn’t even really sure what it could be called, but she wagered it was a kind of maze. And, at the far end of the beach, it looked like there were some tables. No doubt a puzzle. She nodded, satisfied with her assessment of the situation. She was glad she’d stripped down to her boyshorts and bra, with her hoodie to keep her covered. She’d suspected most challenges would have some sort of water element to them.
“Welcome to your first reward challenge,” Jeff said. “Today, your tribe will be split up into three teams of two. Two people from each tribe will start on the floating platforms in the water. There are four buoys in the water, marking the locations of four keys. Untie the keys, get to the mat. You’ll go one at a time and each person has to get at least one key.”
Alex’s mind was already racing. Maybe she and Matteo would be good for this. “How’s your swimming?” she murmured.
“It’s good,” he replied.
She nodded as Jeff continued.
“Then, the next portion of the challenge has two people in the jungle gym. One person goes high, one person goes low. Each will have a key to retrieve. Once they have successfully retrieved the keys, the third part begins. Your last two people will be starting at the far table,” Jeff said, pointing, “and on my signal, one of them will need to run all the way back to the mat to collect the four keys from the swimmers, while the other will need to collect the keys from the climbers at their exit mat. When all six members are back at the mat by the table, you can start unlocking the six containers and pull out the eighteen puzzle pieces. The first tribe to correctly assemble their word puzzle wins reward.” He looked back at them with a grin. “Wanna know what you’re playing for?”
The group collectively nodded.
“The first team to assemble the puzzle gets fire, in the form of flint, as well as a tarp,” he said, revealing the bundle that had been covered on a nearby table. Cheers went up from all three tribes.
“Since we have three teams, the second team to assemble the puzzle also gets flint. And the third team gets nothing.” He put his hands on his hips. “I’ll give you a few minutes to strategize and then we’ll get started.”
Emi spoke up. “I can climb the jungle gym.”
Matteo nodded. “I can swim. Alex?”
“I’ll swim.”
“I can do the lower jungle gym,” Becky chimed in.
“Francis, Ryan, how are you guys at puzzles?” asked Matteo.
Ryan smiled. “My specialty.”
Alex laughed. “Perfect. Looks like we’re all set.” She turned to Matteo. “Want to grab two keys each or what?”
He shrugged. “How comfortable are you in the water?”
“I grew up surfing.”
“… damn,” he laughed. “Yeah, two each sounds good. Who goes first?”
She shrugged. “I’ll go, if you want.”
“Okay.”
Finally, they were all spread out amongst their stations, with Alex and Matteo swimming out to the platform together. They were up against two men for the other tribes. Alex felt a tiny bit self-conscious that she was being filmed for something that would air on national television just in her underwear and bra, but it was the gazes from the men on the other tribes that really made her feel ill at ease. She shrugged to herself and decided that, simply put, she’d kick their asses in this challenge.
“Okay, for the Brains tribe, we have Alex and Matteo swimming, Emi and Becky in the jungle gym and Francis and Ryan on the puzzle,” Jeff shouted from his spot on the shore. “For Beauty, we have Noah and Gabe in the water, Holly and Nicole in the jungle gym and Lincoln and Margarita on the puzzle. And for Brawn, it’s Peter and Joe swimming, Brandon and Liz on the jungle gym and Aishe and Roxanne on the puzzle.” Jeff raised his left arm. “Survivors ready!” He brought it down and raised his right. “Go!”
Alex took a deep breath and dove into the water, breaking it cleanly, enjoying the coolness of the water against her skin. It was mid-morning, but it was already hot out. Without even surfacing, she dove down to the first key, noticing the crew members filming around her underwater. She forced her fingers to work quickly and she pulled the key on its loop free. She used her legs to push herself to the surface quickly, taking a large breath before diving back down for the next one, about ten feet further towards the shore. Moments later, that key was freed as well. As she surfaced, Alex looked to her left to see where the others were at. She made a quick decision and dove down to get a third key, despite her prior conversation with the tribe. They were in the lead and if Alex could let Matteo make up a bit of time by collecting a key for him, they should be in great position to start the jungle gym portion. She untied the key and surfaced again, swimming easily towards the shore.
“Alex is up with her third key, leaving just one key for Matteo. The Brains tribe is still just in the lead,” Jeff announced. Alex let his words power her and she got to the shallow water and ran to the mat.
“Brains, you’re good, go!” said Jeff as soon as Alex reached the mat. Alex watched as Matteo dove into the water and knew he’d be able to concentrate on just swimming until the last buoy. She felt she’d made the right decision.
“Brawn, you’re good!” he called as one of the purple-clad men arrived at his mat. Alex noticed he only carried two keys and she smirked to herself.
Beauty seemed to be struggling and Matteo was already at the last buoy by the time either Noah or Gabe, she wasn’t sure which, arrived at his mat.
“Beauty, you’re good, gotta step it up!” challenged Jeff.
Matteo made his way to the mat and Jeff turned. “Brains, go!” he shouted towards Emi and Becky.
“Good call,” Matteo said to her, panting. “You definitely swim better than I do.”
She shrugged. “I grew up in the ocean, what can I say?” she grinned.
They both turned their attention to their teammates in the jungle gym. Emi was expertly navigating the upper path while Becky was crawling around on the lower levels, both searching for the path to the midpoint, which is where the keys were.
“So, uh,” Matteo said, quietly, still gazing at the jungle gym. “Did you want to maybe form an alliance?”
Alex managed to keep from laughing. “Uh, yeah, sure, that’d be cool,” she said.
“Do you have anyone else on your side?”
She shrugged, slightly. “Not sure,” she said. “You?” Alex wanted to hear more about his situation before offering him any information about how she and Becky had already formed an alliance the day before.
“Don’t think so, nothing formal,” he admitted. “I feel a little like I’m the odd-man out.”
She turned to look at him. “Why’s that?”
“Well, being Latino for one. I mean, sure, Emi’s Asian, but the rest of you are all white. I think I’m probably the oldest on our tribe, since I’m pushing 40. I’m also the only guy who seems to be in shape. I feel like the other guys think I’m some kind of jock,” he admitted softly, still gazing at the teammates on the jungle gym.
“And you’re not?” she joked.
“I’m a software engineer,” he grinned, turning to face her. “Just because I know where the gym is doesn’t mean I don’t know how to write code.”
She considered that. “I think Ryan is in tech too, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, he’s into operations and networking and security.”
She nodded.
“How about you?”
Alex had long-since decided she wouldn’t tell anyone she was a federal agent. “Biologist,” she answered, simply. Nothing about her medical degree, nothing about being a field agent, just simply a biologist, which usually resulted in someone tucking away that information and not giving it another thought.
“Cool, cool,” he said, essentially proving her point.
By then, Emi had finished her portion of the jungle gym and they were just waiting on Becky.
“Brains tribe, you’re good!” Jeff shouted a few seconds later, causing Francis to run towards Alex and Matteo, while Ryan ran the short distance to Becky and Emi. They handed off the keys and, together, ran for the mat. Their tribe was still in the lead and now it was up to Francis and Ryan to solve the 18 piece puzzle after managing to open all the locks on all six containers.
Brawn was close behind, arriving at their final mat maybe thirty seconds after the Brains tribe did, while Beauty was struggling on the jungle gym. Their tribe already had all the puzzle pieces out by the time Beauty finally started in on opening their containers.
“Brains has been in the lead since Alex first dove into the water,” Jeff announced, pacing between the different tables. “Brawn’s been right behind them but Beauty needs to step it up or they’re going back to camp with nothing. Can Margarita and Lincoln work together quickly enough to close the gap?”
Alex looked over at the Beauty tribe table. Margarita was the one with the sunshine t-shirt. She looked at her critically, noting the woman’s absolute focus and determination as she methodically laid out the puzzle pieces to examine them.
Francis and Ryan, meanwhile, were not making a ton of progress, with Ryan trying to take charge and not listening to what Francis was saying. Aishe and Roxanne, from the Brawn tribe, weren’t progressing much, either, though. They both made some aborted attempts, but couldn’t seem to get any traction to start.
Alex was staring at the letters on their table, mulling over the combinations, when she caught some movement from the Beauty table out of the corner of her eye. She looked at Margarita, who was smiling. “Oh shit, Beauty’s found something,” she whispered to the three others on her tribe. She craned her neck to see if she could get an idea of what the puzzle was supposed to be, her mind whirring with possibilities. She caught a glimpse of the first word on Margarita’s puzzle. “Guys!” she said, the solution clicking in her head. She cupped her hands around her mouth and mouthed: “FIRE REPRESENTS LIFE” to Francis and Ryan.
Ryan’s eyes widened and he quickly assembled the words.
“Jeff!” he called, pulling his hands from the completed puzzle.
“BRAINS WINS REWARD!” Jeff said after a glance at the table, raising his arms. “Looking for one more winner!”
The Brains tribe fell into a group hug, cheering and jumping. Alex had rarely felt so exhilarated. They had won !
“Jeff!” called Lincoln, just seconds later.
“That’s correct!” Jeff said, his arms going up again. “Fire represents life! Beauty wins fire!”
A few minutes later, they were all properly lined up on their respective tribe mats. “Brains, congratulations, here’s your tarp,” he said, handing a neatly-folded tarp to Becky. “And here’s fire, in the form of flint.” He reached into his pocket and pulled it out, tossing it to Alex.
“Beauty, nice job coming from behind. Here’s your flint.” He pulled another from his pocket and tossed it at Gabe.
“Brawn, sorry, got nothing for ya.” He shrugged. “Have a good afternoon, head back to camp.”
As they started to pack up their stuff and disperse, Alex noted some of the Beauty tribe glaring at her, including Margarita.
“What?” she asked, after putting her sweatshirt back on.
“You cheated,” one of the other girls said.
Alex rolled her eyes. “All’s fair in love, war and Survivor, isn’t that right?” she asked the man in orange who’d stolen the fishing kit from her on the boat.
“You saw my puzzle,” Margarita said, standing with her hands on her hips.
“And?” she challenged.
“And you’re okay with that? With taking that knowledge and using it to win the challenge?”
Alex took a couple of steps forward, mirroring the other woman’s stance. “How many times have people looked at other people’s puzzles to finish things? There are a million examples. If they didn’t want us looking at what the other tribes were doing, there would be dividers or something to prevent us from peeking.”
Margarita took another few steps forward and stared, hard, up into Alex’s eyes.
“W-what, uh, what are you doing?” Alex stammered, caught off-guard by the woman’s movement into her personal space.
“Just wanted to get a good look into the soul of a cheater,” she said. “See you around, nerd ,” she said, her eyes flicking down to Alex’s lips before she turned and stormed away with the rest of her tribe.
“See ya ‘round, Sunshine!” she called back, after taking a moment to breathe.
Margarita turned back and shot her a glare before catching up with the rest of her tribe.
“You okay?” Matteo asked, coming up to her.
She folded her arms across her chest, the fingers of her right arm lightly tapping her bicep, unconsciously. “Yeah,” she said, staring at the departing Beauty tribe. “Just some trash talk about us cheating.”
“I heard,” he said. “You seemed to have that pretty well handled, though.”
Alex nodded and turned to face him. “Yeah, just, you know, petty stuff. I bet they edit this to make it look like we’re each other’s nemesis or something,” she muttered.
He laughed. “Probably.” He looked over at the rest of their tribe. “C’mon, let’s go catch up before they bust us on our alliance.”
Alex grinned and nodded and together, the six of them made their way back to the Brain camp.
***
Day 3
The tarp had helped in the sense that Alex felt she was sort of indoors when she was in the lean-to, but it had done little to help her sleep. Despite being exhausted, she found herself wide awake again in the night and was still awake when the soft, pre-dawn light broke open the darkness of the immense sky above them, chasing all but the brightest of stars away. With a sigh, Alex carefully extricated herself from the group and clambered out of the lean-to. She took a long drink of water from her canteen before poking at the still-hot coals that were the remnants of their fire from the night before. It had been wonderful to have some rice and a few beans with two bananas for what passed as dinner.
Gotta be an immunity challenge today, she thought to herself as she carefully tried to build the fire back up, dropping some coconut husk and small sticks on top of the coals, careful not to suffocate them. She blew softly until they caught fire and added some larger sticks in a pyramid formation until she could add another log.
While she was nervous about the possibility of going to Tribal Council, she was relatively certain she wouldn’t get voted out if they finished third. She had Becky and Matteo as alliance partners, so unless the three others had teamed up against them, which she thought was unlikely, based on how Ryan and Francis had interacted together the day before, she was probably safe. No, what worried her most about the forthcoming challenge was seeing Margarita.
She sat back on the sand, her knees up, elbows resting on them, her hands clasped in front of her. It wasn’t cheating by Survivor standards, obviously. Would she do it in her real life? Probably not. But then, a million dollars wasn’t on the line. She scoffed, quietly. Would Margarita condemn her for lying about her profession? About her orientation, if it came up? About whether or not someone was being voted out? The judgment she felt from the other woman sliced deeply, for some reason.
She quirked a quick smile. For some reason. Alex nearly snorted at herself. She knew why. She couldn’t vocalize it, not even to herself, for fear it would be caught on tape, but it was obviously because she found Margarita attractive. Having Margarita in her personal space, challenging her, the energy moving between them… She sighed. She could have easily leaned down and kissed her. And, Alex suspected, Margarita might have enjoyed it. She’d caught the glance at her lips. She was fairly sure she knew what that meant — that Margarita had at least thought about kissing her. Maybe.
That’s what really had her nervous. Not the challenge.
That is, until she saw the challenge and her throat threatened to close up. Jeff called them all in and, as they all approached their coloured mats, Alex’s quick mind realized precisely which challenge they’d be doing that day. It was an older challenge, one that involved getting incredibly dizzy and then walking over a balance beam. She unconsciously wrapped her arms around her midsection. She hated being dizzy. She didn’t normally get motion-sick, but all bets were off when it came to dizziness.
“Welcome to your first immunity challenge,” Jeff said, hands on his hips, smiling. “Today’s challenge will be done in rounds. One tribe member for each tribe will sit on a spinning platform. Another tribe member will run out to them, pick up the rope and run back to the start, which will spin that first tribe member. While still dizzy, the tribe member needs to cross a balance beam without falling off. The first two tribes to have their dizzy members cross the beam will earn a point for their tribe. Three points gets you the win and the first two tribes to three points will get immunity. Losers get a date with me at Tribal Council where the first person will be voted out of Brains versus Brawn versus Beauty 3. Let’s get started, I’ll give you a few minutes to strategize.”
The tribes huddled together.
“I’m just going to say it, I do not do well with being dizzy,” Alex said. “I’m probably not going to get a point.”
“We’ll have you go first, then, so at least we can see where we’re at after the first round,” Ryan said. “If that’s cool?”
She nodded. “Let’s get it over with.”
Shortly, they were all in their places. Alex was on the spinning platform, against Liz from the Brawn tribe and Margarita, from the Beauty tribe. Margarita was, of course, right next to her.
“How’re you gonna cheat your way to victory this time, nerd?” she jabbed.
Alex’s only response was to roll her eyes. The provocation only increased her desire not to screw this up. She literally only had to come in second. Maybe she could do this.
Their tribemates picked up the ends of the ropes and dug in, ready to run as fast as they could, spinning them all around, letting them off the platform as quickly as possible. Alex frowned and lifted her head suddenly. “Matteo!” she whispered.
He came over to her. “What? Are you okay?”
“Don’t go as fast as you possibly can.”
“Why not?”
“Just… trust me.”
He shrugged. “Okay.” He got back into position and Jeff raised a hand.
“Survivors ready?” he bellowed. “Go!” He dropped the one hand and raised the other.
While the other people on the spinning platforms spun insanely fast as their tribemates ran as quickly as possible back to the starting point, Matteo took his time, jogging lightly to the line. The result was as Alex had hoped. She was dizzy, but not terribly so, and, although her competitors had been released before she had been, she was in much better shape to take on the balance beam.
“See ya, Sunshine,” she quipped, as she strode past a staggering Margarita. She took a breath and focused on the beam, slowly, but steadily putting one foot in front of the other.
“Brains is in the lead for this segment,” Jeff called out, “even though Alex left her platform last. It was a risky move, but Alex is making good time.”
She smiled as she held out her arms for balance. Five steps away. Four. Three. She leapt to the sand on the other side.
“Brains gets a point! Waiting for a second point. Beauty is not looking good, Margarita’s fallen once and has had to go back to the start. Brawn’s looking okay, Liz hasn’t fallen off — looks like I spoke too soon. Beauty is now in the lead as Brawn has to start again.”
They all watched Margarita fall off, right at the end.
“This is a big chance for Brawn!” Jeff called out, somewhat redundantly, as Margarita groaned and made her way back to the start.
“Brawn gets a point! Brains and Brawn win the round, 1-1, Beauty has zip.”
“Thanks, Jeff,” Gabe muttered.
“That was a great idea,” Becky said. “Do you think they’ll copy us?”
Alex shrugged. “Maybe? Matteo, watch what they do before you even start.”
He nodded. “Who’s up next?”
“I’ll go,” said Emi. “I did figure skating. You can run pretty fast, Matteo, I shouldn’t be too dizzy.”
“Secret weapon, all right!” laughed Becky.
For the next round, it was Emi versus Roxanne of Brawn and Holly of Beauty.
“Survivors ready? Go!”
The others had, indeed, picked up on Brain’s prior strategy, so when Matteo ran back quickly, causing Emi to spin insanely fast, no one was expecting it. They further weren’t expecting Emi to win a point with ease. Beauty got a point that round.
“Gotta pick it up, Brawn and Beauty. The score is Brains 2, Brawn and Beauty at one each. Brains could win this next round.”
“Slow or fast, Becky?” asked Matteo.
“Slow, please,” she said.
“Got it.”
She got into her place and was facing Aishe from Brawn and Nicole from Beauty.
“Survivors ready? Go!”
Matteo took his time, staying just a little ahead of the other tribes who had elected to stick with the slow spin method.
Becky staggered badly as she came off the platform, but managed to recover enough to get to the beam. She took her time and Beauty got there first, but she beat Aishe from Brawn, who fell off the beam twice.
As she jumped delicately from the beam, the entire tribe mobbed her, while Jeff announced what they already knew.
“Brains wins immunity! We’ll continue with the other two tribes until one of them hits three points.”
From the sidelines, the Brains tribe watched Beauty beat Brawn, tying the score at two apiece.
For the final round, it was a rematch. Margarita from Beauty would face off against Liz from Brawn again.
Liz looked as though she was going to throw up after she got up from the platform. Margarita was determined, but incredibly dizzy, as she was walking off to her left uncontrollably. Alex found herself almost pulling for Margarita and was actually pretty sad that Liz ended up winning the point.
“Brawn wins immunity!”
Margarita stepped off the end of the beam two seconds later, determined to finish the task.
When the celebrations had died down, they all congregated at their tribal mats.
“Brains, Brawn, congrats,” he said, handing out two carved, wooden idols. They were moderately grotesque, but Alex was so pleased to have won that she didn’t care how ugly they were.
“Beauty, got nothin’ for ya. See you tonight at Tribal.”
Alex looked over at Margarita, whose body language spoke volumes. Shoulders slumped, head bowed, she looked defeated. Alex bit her lip as she lingered for a moment. She wanted to apologize. Or something. Maybe just comment on the shirt, even? She wanted to say something . Anything.
Margarita looked up and saw her staring. “What do you want?”
She shrugged. “Sorry.”
“Cheater,” she muttered and turned away.
“Hey,” Alex called, “hey, hold on a minute.”
“Seriously? What?”
Alex looked over at her tribe, which was slowly shuffling towards their beach, Matteo hanging back and looking over at her. She took a breath and turned towards Margarita. “Fight, Sunshine. Okay? You deserve to be here. Fight for it.”
Margarita blinked, clearly not expecting that.
“Good luck,” Alex said, then turned and jogged down the beach to join her tribe, hoping she’d get to see Margarita at the next challenge.
“What was that?” Matteo asked.
She shrugged. “I just wanted to tell her to fight for it, you know? And good luck.”
He laughed. “The producers are really going to hate you for that — they’re not going to be able to paint you as mortal enemies now.”
She grinned. “Tough luck for them.”
***
Day 5
The last two of nights had been somewhat better than the first couple. The looming threat of Tribal Council lifted, at least temporarily, meant that they could really focus on getting to know one another, strengthen their tribal bonds, work on their shelter and, of course, try to inconspicuously search for a hidden immunity idol. On the fourth day, Becky had indicated to Alex that they should go for a walk together to get water. Knowing better than to question her, Alex acquiesced and, once out of range of the camp, Becky revealed to Alex that she’d found a clue to a hidden immunity idol. Promising each other that they’d both decide on its use, regardless of who found it, the two of them spent time searching for it that day and into the next. It was almost enough of a distraction to keep Alex from thinking about Margarita.
Then, it was challenge time.
“Come on in, guys!” called Jeff. As she walked into the challenge area, she glanced around for the orange team. But of course, they’d hold off on bringing in the Beauty tribe until both Brains and Brawn were there, for maximum effect. She felt butterflies in her stomach.
“Beauty, c’mon in!” he called, once the other two tribes were at their mats. “Getting your first look at the new Beauty tribe,” Jeff commented, as they filed in. “Holly voted out at the last Tribal Council,” he said, just as she caught a glimpse of Margarita. She gave her a quick smile and a nod and, to her surprise, Margarita smiled back. She had dimples, Alex realized, and her stomach flipped over on itself. That was the moment Alex knew this girl could be trouble for her.
“For today’s reward challenge, two people from each tribe will swim from the platforms in the water to the beach. Each person will collect a bucket along the way. You’ll try to make sure the bucket is as full of water as possible, then pour the contents of the bucket into a larger bucket. Ideally, that will take two bucket loads in total. If the second teammate can’t fill it up, you have to send your first teammate back out along this ramp, back to the platforms, to collect more water. Once the water in the larger bucket hits the top of the painted line, your next two teammates can start in on the second phase.”
Matteo and Alex nodded to one another, understanding that they’d be the swimmers.
“Phase two consists of two tribemates from each tribe trying to find two bags of puzzle pieces in a huge mudpit. You’ll need one Bag A and one Bag B. Once you’ve found one of each, you can run them over to the puzzle station, where your final teammate will work to assemble a geometric puzzle consisting of six pieces.”
Alex blew out a breath. It was going to be a long challenge.
“Wanna know what you’re playing for?” Jeff asked.
All seventeen people cheered.
“The first team to finish will get a huge fishing kit,” he said, unveiling the table of equipment. “Fins, mask, snorkel, Hawaiian sling, rods, hooks, line. The works. The second team to finish will get a mask and a Hawaiian sling. Third team, nothing. Sound worth playing for?”
Again, they all cheered, Alex dreaming about going fishing in the reefs already.
“All right, let’s get to it. I’ll give you all a minute to strategize, including deciding who sits out for Brains and Brawn. Remember, you cannot sit out the same person in back to back challenges.”
“We should sit Matteo,” Ryan said, immediately.
“What, why? I can swim well,” he said, defensively.
“Yeah, but you’re our strongest guy. We’ll probably need you for immunity,” he pointed out.
He considered. “Okay. So who sits out for immunity?”
“I will,” said Emi. “I can do the mudpit here.”
“I’ll do the mudpit, too,” said Francis, “if Becky can swim?”
She nodded. “Might not be as good as either Matteo or Alex, but sure.”
“And I’ll do the puzzle, then,” Ryan nodded.
Once they were all ready, Jeff had all the swimmers walk out to the platform together, the bucket lashed to a post about midway between the platform and the beach.
“They’re probably going to rush,” Alex said to Becky, softly, “and they’ll probably spill too much water. If we take our time and manage the walk from the water to the big bucket, we should be able to avoid coming back out.”
Becky nodded. “But, just in case, you’re gonna go first and possibly third, right?” she grinned.
Alex laughed. “Sure.”
Unsurprisingly, both Brawn and Beauty put out their big guys on the platform, the same ones Alex and Matteo had faced during their first challenge, Noah and Gabe for Beauty, Peter and Joe for Brawn.
“Okay,” said Jeff, “we’ve got Brandon from Brawn and Matteo from Brains sitting. On the platforms, we’ve got Alex and Becky from Brains, Noah and Gabe for Beauty, Peter and Joe for Brawn. In the mudpit, we have Emi and Francis for Brains, Lincoln and Nicole for Beauty and Aishe and Roxanne for Brawn. Finally, on the puzzles, we have Ryan for Brains, Liz for Brawn and Margarita for Beauty.” He scanned the game area. “Survivors ready?” he asked, raising his left hand. “Go!” he said, pushing his right arm into the air.
Alex broke the water cleanly and swam the entire way underwater until she got to the post. She surfaced and took a deep breath while she began with the first set of knots, then dove down to finish the second set. She popped up to the surface and dragged the bucket along the way. As she hit the shallows, she was careful to slow down and make sure the bucket was as full as possible. She carefully carried it, aware that the Brawn guy was sprinting ahead, but confident she’d get more water in than he would.
“Brawn, you’re good, go!” Jeff called out, while Alex carefully poured her water into the larger bucket and saw, with satisfaction, that it was more than half full.
“Brains, you’re good, go!” he called.
Becky dove in and did a halfway decent front crawl to the post and untied her bucket. Alex moved down the beach to the ramp to the floating platform, in case Becky didn’t collect enough water. She watched as Joe, she thought his name was, got the second Brawn bucket just as Becky got hers, while Beauty was just behind them. Alex was still certain they’d have to go through it a third time.
Joe beat Becky to the larger bucket. “Jeff!” he called, after pouring his water out.
Jeff jogged over to inspect. “Not enough, go again, Brawn!”
“What are you talking about?! It hit the line!”
“Gotta go OVER the painted line, Joe,” he chided him. “Peter, get back out there.”
In the meantime, Becky had followed Alex’s lead and had taken her time in bringing her bucket in. She carefully tipped all the water in. “Jeff!” she called.
“Brains, you’re good! Start on the mudpit!”
Jeff was then called to check on the Beauty bucket. “Beauty, you’re good! You can start in the mudpit!”
Alex hadn’t been expecting that, so she watched with interest as Emi, Francis, Lincoln and Nicole flailed around in the mud. Lincoln got a Bag B, while Emi found a Bag A a moment later. Emi found the second bag before the Brawn team was even allowed into the mudpit.
“Brains, go!” Jeff said, and Emi and Francis, covered in mud, ran the bags over to Ryan, who started flying through the knots as quickly as he could.
Finally, Brawn was allowed to start in on the second phase, but Beauty had found their second bag. Ryan had one bag open by the time Margarita could start untying her bags.
Ryan was the first to get all six pieces out of the waterproof bags. He immediately started trying to piece them together, the rest of them giving him advice.
Margarita soon had all six of her pieces out, while Liz from Brawn was waiting on her bags from her teammates.
Ryan had created a base and it appeared that all he had to do was fit three pieces together on top of that to make what was likely a pyramid shape, but they just weren’t fitting together properly.
“Brains had a nice lead over Beauty, but neither Ryan or Margarita have quite figured out the puzzle yet. Brawn, step it up!”
“Be methodical!” Francis called, still covered in the thick, brown mud. “Change one angle on one piece at a time.”
“What the hell do you think I’m doing?!” Ryan snapped.
Meanwhile, Alex surreptitiously watched Margarita. She hadn’t built anything like a base so far. She was just examining how the pieces might possibly fit together. And who could blame her? At worst, it looked as though Beauty would come in second place, since Brawn hadn’t even started the puzzle.
Alex turned back to look at Ryan’s puzzle. It just didn’t seem to be working in any of the permutations he was trying.
“Jeff!” called out Margarita, lifting her hands from what ended up being a cube.
“Beauty wins reward!” called Jeff, causing the entire orange tribe to mob Margarita. “Still looking for second place,” he called. “Can Brawn find their bags and beat Brains?”
“It’s a cube?!” Ryan asked, bewildered. “Man, do I have this all wrong?” He dissembled what he had already built and tried another few permutations. By the time Brawn finally got their bags to Liz, Ryan found the magic combination and slid the pieces together.
“Jeff!” he cried.
“Brains wins reward!”
They jumped into each others’ arms, getting muddy and not caring.
As they separated and started to move towards their tribe’s mats, Alex paused by Margarita. “Nice job, Sunshine,” she said, in a low voice, but with a genuine smile on her face.
“Thanks,” she acknowledged, before they moved apart and were awarded their gear by Jeff.
They got back to the beach and Alex couldn’t stop herself from being overly eager about trying out the mask and Hawaiian sling. “Do you guys mind if I try to catch something?”
“Don’t break it,” Ryan said.
She looked at him. “I’m not going to break it.”
“Have you ever used a Hawaiian spear before?”
“No, but—”
“Exactly. Be careful with it. I’ve seen people stab it into the rocks too often on the show, breaking one of the tines,” he said, from his spot against a tree.
She forced a smile. “I promise I’ll be careful,” she said.
“I have full faith in you, Alex!” Becky called out, helpfully.
“Me too,” said Matteo.
Ryan just grunted at that and pulled a banana from the nearby bunch and peeled it. “Just don’t come crying to me when it breaks.”
Alex forced herself to ignore his words and smiled her gratitude to both Matteo and Becky. She left her bag and sweatshirt on the spot in the shelter she’d thought of as her own and then grabbed the mask and the sling, barely able to contain her joy at the prospect of going snorkeling, essentially, in Fiji.
She’d always felt most at home in the water, most relaxed. She rarely got the chance to get to the ocean with work obligations and such, so being on Survivor was a great excuse to let her relax and get restored by the sea, even though she was being followed by a cameraman. As she waded into the water from their beach, she adjusted her mask, then, holding the mask to her face to prevent it from moving, she took a deep breath and dove into the water.
While she wasn’t terribly bothered by sea water in her eyes, everything was pretty blurry underwater, so seeing the sandy ocean floor with remarkable clarity was a thrill. She swam underwater for a good thirty feet out or so before surfacing again. She treaded water for a moment to take an extra large breath before diving down towards the coral reef nearby. Careful not to touch the reef, she swam down, down, popping her ears a bit along the way. She didn’t have much time before she’d have to surface again for air, but it was gorgeous. Hundreds of small, colourful fish swam in and out of the coral structures, with a couple of larger ones swimming along. She definitely spotted an angelfish before she surfaced. Again, Alex treaded water for a bit to catch her breath. As she did so, she noticed all five of her tribemates chatting together, back at the shelter. That made her nervous. Was her absence allowing them to all conspire against her? She decided she’d just make a couple more dives and head back.
It was her last dive when she caught sight of the angelfish again and released the sling, causing the spear portion to shoot forward. When she saw that she’d cleanly impaled it, she couldn’t help herself and hollered “YES!” underwater, much to the cameraman’s amusement. She gave the camera a huge grin and a thumbs-up before kicking up towards the surface, victorious.
She swam back to camp where everyone, except Ryan, congratulated her on her kill. That night, they filleted the fish and cooked it up, adding some much-needed protein to their nightly cup of rice and bananas. For the first time since she’d arrived in Fiji, Alex slept the full night and woke up feeling content and rested.
***
Day 6
They all trudged out to the immunity challenge when instructed to and Alex was pleased to see it was another water-based challenge. Since they’d sat Matteo in the reward challenge, it meant their two best swimmers would be playing.
“I think our odds just went way up,” Matteo murmured to her, as though reading her mind.
She nodded and smiled at him.
The goal of the challenge was for each person to dive off of their platform and retrieve one of five buoys, each one deeper than the previous one. Buoys would be placed at three, six, nine, twelve and fifteen feet underwater. Once retrieved, all five buoys had to be tossed into a container. Once someone had retrieved a buoy from its spot underwater, the person had to leave the water. At that point, any team member, including the person last in the water, could jump back in. Finally, only one buoy could be attempted at a time — if a buoy was in the water, you had to wait for your teammates in the water to get it back to the platform.
The first two teams to get all their buoys into the container would win immunity. Amongst themselves, the Brain tribe decided their order: Ryan would get the first buoy at three feet, followed by Becky at six feet, Francis at nine feet, Matteo at twelve feet and Alex at fifteen feet. Alex was also the go-to backup in case anyone struggled, while Matteo would do the tossing and Francis and Becky would be in the water to fetch errant balls.
“Okay, we have Emi from Brains sitting out as well as Aishe from Brawn,” called Jeff, raising his left arm. “Survivors ready? Go!” he shouted, his left arm dropping and his right going up.
Alex watched as Ryan clumsily swam out to the buoy rope and took a breath and headed down to unlatch the buoy. She sighed. Liz, from Brawn, and Nicole, she thought that was her name, from Beauty had easily beaten Francis to the rope. She looked over to the Beauty platform. Margarita looked as though she was up next. For once, she wasn’t wearing her Hello Sunshine shirt, clad only in a two-piece bathing suit, with a sports bra-type top. She turned and looked away, back towards Ryan and their buoys. She should not let herself be distracted by the vast amounts of Margarita’s tan skin that was visible. She swallowed. Unable to help herself, she took a quick look back at Beauty. There were muscles rippling beneath the other woman’s curves. Alex watched as Margarita’s teammate came back with the buoy and tagged her in. She dove into the water, not cleanly, but Alex had seen worse. She took another breath and returned her attention to her own team. Ryan had finally undone the first buoy and was trying to bring it back to the platform. When he and the buoy made it, the team helped him up out of the water and he dunked the buoy into their basket before tagging Becky and then he lay there, exhausted from the effort. Becky dove in and went directly for the buoy without taking another breath, likely hoping to make up time.
Alex stole another glance towards the Beauty platform and noticed that Margarita had no issues in bringing her buoy back. Soon enough, they were already on their third teammate, while Becky had had to dive down again to unhitch the buoy, costing them some time. Alex looked towards the far platform. At least Brawn was still even with them, it seemed.
Becky got back and Francis dove clumsily into the water, awkwardly doggy-paddling to the buoy and then taking a large breath. He pulled himself down the rope and, surprisingly got the buoy up, but then had too much trouble bringing it back.
“Francis, just come on, let’s go,” Alex said, “I’ll bring it in.”
Gratefully, Francis came back to the platform where Matteo essentially pulled him out of the water. Alex slapped his hand and dove in, reaching the buoy in seconds and throwing it hard at the platform. Becky caught it and Alex propelled herself back to the platform, grabbing the buoy and dunking it before tagging Matteo.
As expected, Matteo did great, diving down quickly. Alex took her spot at the front of the platform, ready to go, keeping an eye on the other tribes. Beauty was doing well, they were on their last person, Gabe. Brawn was on their fourth. With any luck, Alex could make up some time.
Matteo popped back up with the buoy and launched it at the platform where Alex caught it and handed it to Becky. Matteo swam back, hoisted himself out of the water, dunked the buoy and tagged Alex in. She took a large breath and a bit of a running start and dove directly down to the last buoy, unlatching it with ease. She gathered her legs beneath her and pushed, surfacing a moment after the buoy. She grabbed it and tossed it close enough to the platform for Francis to pick up out of the water. She climbed out of the water and dunked the buoy. “Stay here,” she said. “Becky, I’m with you.”
The other woman nodded and both dove back into the water as Matteo took his first shot, sinking it cleanly. Alex took the rear of the platform while Becky took the front and they worked efficiently together. She took a moment to look out at Beauty. They had three buoys in compared to their one. Brawn didn’t have any in, surprisingly. It was a tight race. She looked around and saw Margarita treading water nearby and the distraction nearly got Alex beaned in the head by Matteo’s throw. “Hey!” she called “Watch it!” She tossed it back as hard as she could and Francis scooped it out of the water, handing it to Matteo who called out a “sorry!”.
Beauty got to five easily, thanks to Lincoln’s throwing abilities, winning immunity. Alex glanced towards Brawn. By that point, they were at four, same as her own team. Matteo took careful aim and sunk the final buoy for them.
“Brains wins immunity!” Jeff called, raising both arms. Francis hugged Matteo and high-fived Ryan, who was still sitting on the platform, still exhausted.
Once they were all back on their platforms, the immunity idols were handed out. Margarita tossed Brains theirs, Alex catching it, smiling a thank you to her. She nodded and smiled back.
“Good job, Beauty, Brains! Grab your stuff, head back to camp. Brawn, see you tonight at Tribal Council, where the second player of the game will be voted out.”
All the contestants started swimming back to shore where they’d left most of their stuff. Alex tried not to watch Margarita as she came out of the water, but couldn’t help herself. The woman was gorgeous. The moment was almost as though it was in slow-motion, with water dripping from her skin, her hair… Her hair, which she pulled back with a sturdy elastic to keep it out of her face. Her face… The dimples from her smile made Alex feel swoony as she pulled her hoodie on and grabbed her canteen and bag. She took a deep breath and took off down the path, following her tribe, but she couldn’t help looking back once more. To her surprise, she saw Margarita looking at her and the other woman smiled before she headed off with her own tribe.
Danvers, you are in serious trouble, she said to herself, chidingly. Keep your head in the game!
Once back at camp, Alex decided not to go fishing and, instead, touch base with Becky and Matteo, if at all possible, to shore up her alliances. She was pretty sure they were all still on the same page, but the conversation she’d witnessed from the day before had her a little concerned. What concerned her most was that she was letting herself be distracted by a pretty girl.
“I’m gonna get water,” she announced. “Anyone want to come with?”
Becky nodded. “Sure, I’ll come.”
“Awesome,” she said. They took all the canteens and headed for the well together.
“I’m so glad we have a chance to talk,” Becky said, once they were out of earshot and making their way down the path to the well.
“Me too,” Alex said. “Maybe we can even look for the idol a bit while we’re away.”
“That would be a good idea,” she said, “because Ryan is looking to get rid of you if we lose the next challenge.”
Alex stopped dead in her tracks. “What, really? Is that what you guys were talking about while I was fishing?”
She nodded. “Matteo and I both argued that it would be a dumb move, since you’re basically the reason we’re winning any challenges. I mean, we beat Brawn today because of you and Matteo, no thanks to Ryan or Francis.”
Alex considered as they started walking again. “Yeah, but that must paint a target on my back. I’m smart, I’m athletic, I can catch fish…” She sighed. “He definitely wants me out before the merge so that I’m not around to win individual immunity,” she muttered.
“Well, at the very least, we have three votes not for you,” Becky said. “Matteo, you and me, we can vote for Ryan, while feeling out where Emi and Francis stand. If we even lose an immunity challenge, that is.”
Alex blew out a breath. “We can’t think like that, can’t be overconfident,” she warned.
“Yeah, but we’re strong and we’re smart, so…”
“… so let’s try to find that idol anyway,” Alex grinned. “You have the note with you?”
Becky nodded and stopped walking, then pulled it out of the pocket of her shorts.
“A CLUE YOU HAVE FOUND
A PATH MUST BE WOUND
NEAR THE BIGGEST TREE
FACING THE SEA.”
“Still helpful as ever,” Becky muttered.
Alex nodded and they continued to walk towards the well. “The biggest tree facing the sea that I’ve seen is the one at the well. But what does ‘a path must be wound’ mean?”
“I agree, it’s got to be that tree,” she said, putting the note away. “A winding path isn’t straight. I wonder if there’s another marker somewhere and we have to take a strange route to get there.”
“Oh, now that’s interesting,” Alex said. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe we missed a marker when we looked at that tree the other day.”
The two of them filled up the canteens and spent a good fifteen minutes poking around at the tree and looking around at other potential landmarks but came away empty-handed.
“You don’t suppose someone else has already found it?” Alex asked.
“Without the clue?”
She shrugged. “We’re the Brains tribe, aren’t we supposed to be smart about this stuff?” she grinned.
“Yeah, super smart,” Becky laughed. “We haven’t found it yet and we have the clue.”
Alex chuckled. “Hey, uh, on a serious note, thank you for telling me about the conversation with Ryan yesterday.”
“Of course!” she said. “That’s what you do in an alliance, right?”
Alex smiled. “Right. But I still appreciate it.”
“I know you’d do the same for me,” Becky said.