Surviving the Swamp (Survivalist Reality Show Book 1)

by Grace Hamilton

  She definitely understood the reason why they had to keep trudging on slowly, but it was irritating all the same. Their practical crawl was making everything about the situation so much worse.

  “I can hear you sighing,” Wolf said from in front of her, extending his arm out and poking his stick at the shallow water they were about to walk into.

  “I’m not doing it on purpose,” Regan answered. “I’m not saying a word about our speed, or lack thereof. I get it.”

  He chuckled as he waded forward. “I can tell.”

  “Sorry,” she mumbled, truly not trying to be difficult.

  “It’s okay. I don’t really like the slow crawl either, but I know it’s for the best. I’m not letting you or anyone else walk into danger.”

  “Thank you,” she acknowledged, cringing at the boggy feel of the ground beneath the water. “I know this wasn’t what you had in mind when all this started.”

  He chuckled. “No, it wasn’t. It was supposed to be different than seasons past, but this is definitely not what I had in mind.”

  Regan was quiet for a moment. “Who do you think would have won?”

  “What? You can’t ask me that,” he said, glancing backward and flashing a grin at her.

  “That would be playing favorites,” Fred joked from behind her.

  Regan shook her head and rolled her eyes. Fred always had an opinion.

  “It’s not favorites,” she insisted. “It’s his honest opinion. He has to have one.”

  “I still can’t answer. I didn’t have time to observe how you’d each handle the isolation that would have come toward the end of the competition,” Wolf explained, knocking down a spider web stretched between two trees.

  “But you have to know who had better odds of making it to the end,” Geno called out from the back of the line.

  Wolf laughed. “I had my guesses.”

  “Who?” Geno demanded.

  “I’d rather not say. It doesn’t matter now. We’re working together, and I can honestly say the four of you were some of the strongest contenders.”

  That quieted Geno down. Regan could practically feel his ego inflating, sucking up the oxygen in the area. Everyone fell silent once again as they followed Wolf through the swamp that seemed to be drying out a bit more. Either that, or she was used to the mud and muck and the nasty smell that went along with everything constantly being wet.

  “How long do you think it will take us to get out of here?” she asked, knowing the question had been asked and answered, but hoping for better news.

  He shrugged ahead of her, not bothering to turn around as he answered. “I don’t know. It’s hard to judge distance. It isn’t like we have mile markers to go by. At the pace we’re moving, I would say we’re averaging a mile, maybe a mile and a half per hour. When we scouted locations for this season, I think we were about thirty miles in, but I’m not sure—it’s not like we ever planned on walking out.”

  Regan groaned. “Really? So, it will take us probably two full days of walking to get out of here?”

  “Maybe,” he replied. “But that’s assuming we don’t really stop at all but to sleep, which isn’t likely. We’ve already taken two necessary breaks today. It’ll likely take longer.”

  They’d already been in the swamp for weeks. She couldn’t believe she’d thought she could last much longer. She was itching for the feel of pavement under her feet and lots of city lights… and no snakes.

  Her feet felt like sponges. She could only imagine what the skin looked like. Waterproof boots only worked for so long. They weren’t meant to be submerged for long periods of time. It was one marshy bog after another. This was why it was going to take forever to get out of the swamp.

  “I think we should settle in here for the night,” Wolf said, halting their little procession.

  “What?” Regan looked around at the less than ideal location. “Why? It’s still daylight. Shouldn’t we try to move a little more?”

  “This is a fairly dry area, slightly elevated. We all need to dry out after walking through the water and mud most of the day,” he reasoned.

  “Surely we can find another dry area,” she argued.

  “And if we can’t?” he shot back. “Do we keep walking or turn around and come back?”

  She shook her head, frowning. “We still have at least an hour before the sun sets.”

  Wolf gave her that familiar look. She was immune to it after seeing it so often, but knew well enough what it meant. He was irritated by the fact that she was questioning his judgment.

  “It will be dark soon. We need to set up camp. I don’t want to be moving at night. It isn’t safe for more than one reason.”

  She took a deep breath and opened her mouth to argue, but snapped it closed when he shook his head. He didn’t want to hear it, and the look on his face was a little scary. He wasn’t in the mood.

  “Fine,” she grumbled.

  He nodded and looked past her to the others. “We can each drink some of our water. Then we’ll need to collect more and purify it for our travel tomorrow. We can do some foraging for a meal. We need to eat as many calories as we can, especially after our walk today. Look for any small animal for food.”

  “Why?” Geno asked. “We each have another energy bar. I thought you said we shouldn’t waste energy on hunting unless we absolutely we had to.”

  “I did say that. I’m not talking about walking around a lot. Look for obvious, easy prey. We’re not going to waste time trying to set traps,” he explained.

  “What about fish?” Regan asked.

  Wolf shrugged. “Fishing with your bare hands isn’t so easy.”

  “We have the hammock. I brought it because it could be used as a net,” she replied.

  Geno seemed excited by the prospect of eating fish for dinner, but Wolf held up his hand to stop them even before they could plan further.

  “It’s not a good idea,” he said gently. “You’ll be by the water when all the other animals are coming out to feed. I know you’re hungry and I know fish sounds more palatable than squirrel or bugs, but it’s not easy to fish with a net, either. You could unpack everything and spend hours and catch nothing. We want sure things,” he explained, and she could see he was doing his best not to get frustrated with them. Fair enough, she thought, but she was trying hard not to get frustrated with him too.

  Geno dropped his pack to the ground with a thump, drawing everyone’s attention. “Then I say we eat the energy bars and save worrying about what we’re going to eat tomorrow for tomorrow,” Geno said with irritation.

  Wolf sighed, and Regan secretly felt pleased she wasn’t the only one Geno drove a little crazy.

  “We need to save our provisions in case we get to an area where there isn’t any food,” Wolf reminded them. “Remember, we still have to get out of here and then through the city. We’re not going to be able to hunt in the city. We have food all around us here.”

  “I’ll find us food in the city,” Regan said, full of confidence. “We don’t have to hunt.”

  “We don’t know how long this has been going on. Everything is going to be picked clean. It isn’t like you can walk into a convenience store and pick up what you need,” Wolf replied. “You can’t take food if there isn’t any to take.”

  “You can’t, but I know how to get food,” she insisted. Remember when you said I had to trust you in here? Well, you have to trust me out there. I can find us food.”.

  She didn’t bother trying to hide the smugness she felt when Wolf shrugged. He might be the expert in the swamp, but she knew he couldn’t compare to her skills on the city streets. None of the people standing with her could. None of them ever had to survive on the streets with no food or without a safe place to sleep. The fact that she was alive and playing this little survival game at all was a testament to her skills. She’d managed to stay alive long enough to get to this point in her life.

  “Fine,” Wolf acknowledged, “but for now, I want to conserve
. There’s plenty of food to forage. We can try and catch some frogs, lizards, or a snake for dinner. If we don’t, it’ll be okay. We won’t starve. You all ate today,” he reminded them.

  “Barely!” Geno shrieked. “I can’t live without real food another day!”

  “Then eat your energy bar,” Wolf said simply. “But when you’re starving a few days from now and we’re eating, don’t complain. You can live a couple weeks without food. It won’t be pleasant and you’re going to suffer, but you will survive.”

  “Fine, frogs and snakes it is,” Geno said, pouting like a child.

  Regan curled her lip in disgust. “Gross. I don’t want to eat a frog.”

  Fred had to add his two cents in as usual. “Frogs are actually quite delicious. Like most meat found in the wild, it tastes a lot like chicken.”

  Everyone but Wolf froze and stared at the man with varying looks of disgust and bewilderment.

  He looked confused. “What? It’s true. I have tried many, many exotic foods and I agree with what others have said. There is a strong chicken texture and flavor in most of the white meats. You only think it’s going to taste bad because you’re not accustomed to eating such foods.”

  Regan shook her head. “I’m going to take your word for it.”

  “We’re not going to be here long, but if we were, we could set traps for squirrels. There are plenty of those around and they are pretty easy to get,” Wolf stated. “We’ll think about it for tomorrow or the next day if we need more nourishment than what we can find easily tonight.”

  Regan felt secretly glad they weren’t going to be dining on squirrel that evening. She much preferred frogs over little rabies-carrying rodents.

  “I’ll look for bugs,” Fred announced.

  “I’ll see if I can find any wild edibles,” Tabitha chimed in. “I think I saw some duck potato. There were also some cattails back there. I’ll grab some and we can roast them over the fire.”

  Wolf nodded his head, clearly happy with the division of chores. “Geno, can you hang that hammock Regan has with the majority of our supplies bundled in it? We need to keep our supplies off the ground. Make sure you get a few bottles of water out of there, too, and that large metal cup.”

  “I’ll help,” Regan quickly volunteered, not wanting Geno’s clumsy hands to damage the hammock any further. He tended to use brute force rather than finesse, and he’d probably completely destroy her one prized possession.

  It didn’t take long for the complaining to start. Regan could hear Tabitha ordering Fred to move out of her way, as Fred had apparently decided that the best place to look for his protein-filled bugs was in the same place Tabitha was trying to dig up the duck potato tubers.

  “My bet is on Tabitha,” Geno mumbled under his breath.

  Regan smirked at that, silently agreeing with him and also glad she wasn’t the one dealing with Fred.

  “Not like that!” Regan cried out when Geno yanked one end of the hammock.

  “I need to lift it. I pull this end and it will slide over the branch.”

  “No, it’s going to tear,” she spat out. “You hold the bulk and I’ll climb up and gently pull it over the branch.”

  Geno dropped the end he’d held, putting the full weight of the hammock holding the bulk of their combined supplies on Regan.

  “Geno!” she protested before dropping the bundle of goods on the ground.

  “You said I was doing it wrong. Obviously, we have to do this your way, so go right ahead, miss-know-it-all.”

  Regan looked to Wolf for help, and nearly threw a rock at him when she saw him studying the map instead of doing anything. He had been looking at the thing since they’d stopped moving. Everyone else was trying to get food and their camp set up while he stared at that damn map. It wasn’t like it was going to change.

  “Go over there!” Tabitha shouted at Fred. “Your big feet are stomping on all the food I pulled!”

  All the bitching and moaning was driving Regan crazy. How did people ever manage to live in such close quarters together? It had only been a day of traveling with this group, and she was ready to leave them all behind. They talked too much and complained even more.

  Regan put her hands on her hips and looked at Geno. “I’m going to climb up a few branches. When I say I’m ready, throw the end of the hammock up to me. I’ll wrap it around the branch. Got it?”

  He shrugged. “Whatever.”

  She stomped to the base of the tree and managed to get up about five feet before carefully balancing herself between two other branches, standing at a branch in the trunk and reaching outward. She didn’t want the weight of the hammock and her own weight to snap the branch and drop the hammock to the ground. Geno clearly had no idea how important the hammock was, judging by the way he was yanking and pulling at it without a care in the world.

  “Now,” she grunted.

  Geno raised the heavy bundle chest-high before tossing the free end up to her. She grabbed it and looped it over the branch, ready to carefully wrap it a few more times for maximum support when Geno let go of the bundle below. The hammock tore as the weight pulled the end over the rough branch, snagging it as it went and dropping all of their supplies to the ground.

  “What the hell?” she shouted. “I told you to wait! Now, look! You managed to tear it again!”

  “Relax, Regan,” Wolf said, finally looking up from his map.

  She jumped out of the tree and dropped to the ground to inspect the hammock. “I think you’re doing plenty of that for all of us,” she spit out in response.

  “Excuse me?” he asked, his precious map forgotten.

  She whirled on him, her fists clenched. “We’re here, trying to get this stupid, heavy hammock into a tree while you’re staring at a map for ten minutes. Those two are over there ready to kill each other, and you stand there!”

  Wolf raised an eyebrow.

  “If you weren’t so bossy, we could have already had this done!” Geno shouted at her. “You think you know everything and you had to do it your way.”

  Regan spun around to face him next. “You weren’t getting anywhere! You yank and pull and think your muscles are the answer to everything!”

  “Fred, I swear to God I am going to push you into the water if you get in my way one more time!” Tabitha’s voice rang out, interrupting Regan and Geno’s squabble.

  “I am trying to get our dinner,” Fred reasoned.

  Tabitha dropped the tubers she had been holding and stomped away from the edge of the small pond. “I need a break,” she mumbled, grabbing Regan’s hand. “Let’s take a walk.”

  “Don’t go too far,” Wolf warned them.

  Regan and Tabitha both shot him glares before stalking into the swamp.

  Tabitha threw her hands up in the air and all but growled. Regan wasn’t sure if Tabitha was mad at her for losing her cool with Geno or mad in general. Things had been tense back there. They all seemed ready to kill one another. It was part of the group dynamic she loathed. Meanwhile, Tabitha was kicking at various weeds and foliage sprawling over the ground.

  “I’m sorry,” Regan blurted out. “I didn’t mean to yell at your husband.”

  Tabitha guffawed. “It’s okay. I probably would have yelled at him, too. Sometimes, I do. He needs it from time to time,” she said with a sudden grin. “Are you okay?”

  Regan ran her hands through her hair, fighting the urge to yank her bangs out of her head rather than brush them away like a sane person. “I’m fine. It was a moment of frustration. I should have kept my mouth shut. I warned you guys I’m not good working with other people. I have no filter.”

  Tabitha only shrugged. “Don’t apologize to me. If you feel guilty, then you need to say it to him.”

  “I don’t know if I feel guilty, but I’m not used to having to explain myself to others. I’ve always been a loner, and spending twenty-four-seven with a bunch of people is taxing. It’s frustrating, Tabitha, seriously. I know I have to consider their fee
lings and all that crap, but it doesn’t come easy to me. Especially when I’m trying to balance a hundred pounds on a tree branch,” she explained, settling down to sit against a tree and groaning with the relief of being off her feet.

  “Well, I can tell you I wasn’t keeping my cool so well, either,” Tabitha admitted, sinking to the ground beside her. “Fred’s giant feet and those long arms and legs were everywhere! Every time I reached or took a step, it was like he was purposefully getting in the way. I know he was trying to help, but we had two different plans. I don’t know why he needed to be in my space.”

  Regan smiled. “I don’t mean to be a bitch to any of you. Not even Geno.”

  Tabitha giggled. “I completely understand. We all need to take a minute and try to relax. It’s hard with our lives on the line. I don’t think any of us were ready for this. I know I wasn’t. This was supposed to be a fun way for me and Geno to hang out and spend time together while learning something and hopefully making some money,” she said quietly. Another moment passed before she added, “Regan, seriously, what about you? Why are you here?”

  Regan sighed uncomfortably, leaning back against the tree behind them. “I wanted to get away from a guy.”

  Tabitha’s eyes grew big. “You came on a reality show, a survival show, to get away from a guy? Is he a stalker? Dangerous?”

  “Huh? No! I got tired of him, and couldn’t seem to get him to take the hint we were over. It’s like, he thought if he kept coming around or insisting we were still together, I’d give in and accept it. I’m not built like that,” she explained. “So, I signed up for this and left. He has no idea where I went.”

  Tabitha laughed. “You know this show is on television, right? He’s probably going to figure it out.”