“Jendan’s out,” Chip cried, raising his hands up again in dramatic fashion. “Annabelle needs to move on if Blue Team has a hope of surviving!”
Shit! I didn’t blame Jendan - hell, I wanted to throw up just looking at the damn thing myself. But I had to do this if we didn’t want to go to Judgment. As I hesitated, Alys and Kip both tore into their bats, wings flying. I had to do this. Had to. I swallowed hard and broke off a wing, wincing when the meat stretched and pulled. Tough. Ew.
“Sorry, Annabelle,” Jendan murmured as he moved past me to the loser’s bench.
“S’okay,” I said, and shoved one wing into my mouth before I could think better of it. The taste wasn’t nearly as bad as the smell. Kind of like chicken, if chicken was…really gross. I closed my eyes and pulled the claw out of my mouth, dropping it back in the bowl.
“Kissy’s finished with hers! She moves on to the next round.”
I opened my eyes and stared down at the older woman, who was picking at her teeth with a dirty thumbnail. How the hell had she finished so very fast? Next to her, Kip was wolfing his down, and even Alys’s cheeks were pouched out like a squirrel’s as she desperately chewed.
Frantic, I grabbed the body of the thing and crunched down like I’d seen Kissy do. I couldn’t be last. I couldn’t. But…that was a mistake. I felt tiny bones shatter in my mouth and that overwhelming smell filled my nostrils. My gag reflex kicked in and I choked. The next thing I knew, I was hunched over and vomiting onto the ground.
“Annabelle is out! The blue team will be going to Judgment with the green team.”
I heard a few half-hearted cheers from the people at the table as I wiped my mouth. “Can we stop eating?” Alys asked in a wobbly voice. “Please?”
“Yes. We have our two losing teams,” Chip said proudly. “Let’s all get ready for Judgment.”
I finally righted myself and gave Jendan an ashamed look. I messed it up for both of us. Now, as I watched the looks flicking back and forth between the other contestants, I suspected we were doomed.
When I moved to Jendan’s side, he put an arm around my shoulders and hugged me to him again. “I’m sorry,” he said. “If I hadn’t lost it, we’d still be in that challenge.”
“It’s not your fault,” I told him. “We all have weaknesses. Ours is just…food.”
I didn’t blame him, either. He had a weak stomach and had still made it to the second round. I prided myself on how hard I was playing, and I still puked like a fool. No one to be blamed but myself, all because I’d rushed.
We waited in the hot sunlight while the production crews set up the Judgment area. Out came Chip’s podium, the benches, and the bushy greenery that was set up to make it look like an honest-to-goodness jungle set. Off to one side, the voting booth was set up, and camera-men took their places as we sipped water and waited. That was the thing about filming reality TV. On the actual show, it looked instantaneous. Out here, it took them a good hour to set up, and that was an hour that we had to stew on what we’d done wrong.
It was also an hour in which everyone else got to plot with their partners. I glanced over at Kip and Kissy, and their heads were together, talking low. Ditto Saul and Alys.
Only two teams could vote this time, so a split vote would mean a tie. If it went to a challenge, I was confident we could beat Leslie and Emilio…as long as we didn’t have to eat anything else. But I had a sinking feeling in my gut. Leslie and Emilio weren’t the strongest team. Emilio was in shape, but Leslie was older, cranky, and tended to be one of the slowest ones on an obstacle course. Meanwhile, Jendan and I were both fast and strong. Other than this challenge, we’d done well in almost all of them.
If it was me voting, I’d vote for us because we were more of a threat. Which didn’t fill me with confidence.
“You look worried,” Jendan said to me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and hugging me from behind. Even though we were nude, it didn’t feel weird to me. “It’s going to be okay, whatever happens.”
“I am worried,” I admitted. “There’s no reason for them to keep us strong.”
“What about Kip? Will he vote to save you?”
I looked over at my old partner. Good ol’ Kip. He had a shit-eating grin on his face and kept looking over at me, leering. “Something tells me that’s not going to happen.”
“Then we’ll go to a challenge,” he said softly. “And may the best man or woman win. I won’t hold it against you if you win. We all have to go at some point, and it’ll be fair and square.”
Except I had my secret word from Pandora’s Box - kere kere - and I wouldn’t make it fair. I could automatically oust him.
Or I could just not use it and go head to head with my stronger, more athletic partner. And then I’d go down as the dumbest player on Endurance Island twice in a row.
I was screwed no matter which way you looked at it.
“All right,” Chip said, and pointed at the benches next to him for the Judgment nominees. “Everyone take your seats.”
Jendan and I moved to the bench and I felt awkward sitting in the front instead of in the back. I didn’t like being up for Judgment. Not one bit. It felt intensely vulnerable, and I wondered if this was how Alys had felt with her neck on the chopping block so many times.
“It’s time for Judgment,” Chip said, clutching the edges of the podium and leaning forward ominously. “Up for nomination are the Blue team and the Green team. We’ll start with the Blue team. Why do you think you struggled so much with this challenge after dominating all the others? Jendan?”
My partner looked over at me, and then at Chip. He shrugged. “I think our stomachs are used to coconut, taro and water and little else at this point,” he said. “A food challenge should have been awesome, and instead, we just couldn’t keep it down. I know I’m disappointed.”
“Annabelle,” Chip said, turning to me. “This is your first time up for Judgment. Does that make you one of the strongest players left in the game?”
Internally, I winced. Way to point a bulls-eye on me there, Chip. “I don’t know about that. Strongest, no. Maybe one of the luckiest. And I can’t be that strong if I’m up here now.” I gave him my sunniest smile. “Right?”
“Yes, but you’ve made it this far. We’re past the halfway point.”