Outback Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 1)

by Stoker, Susan

  * * *

  In actuality, Sam wasn’t doing much wandering. She was content to stroll around and take long breaks under the enormous trees. She was enjoying watching the different species of birds and small animals running around. The only thing she was upset about was that she didn’t have a camera with her. She would’ve loved to be able to take pictures of what she was experiencing so she could share them with her family and friends. After a while she decided she’d better go back to the camp. She didn’t know if she’d be in trouble for missing the bus and the meet-and-greet, but she figured she’d better be back at camp by the time the others got off the bus or she might really be in trouble.

  After one of her breaks under a beautiful shade tree, Sam stood up and waited for Kina to get in position before she started back toward the camp. She’d learned that the best thing to do with the cameras was to let them film the way they wanted to so they’d leave her alone. Sam waited until Kina got in front of her and started walking backward so she could get a good frontal view of Sammi walking. Sam looked down at Kina’s feet, impressed she could walk backwards and not trip over anything, and froze. Kina was stepping over some rocks and Sam saw a glossy black head of a snake sticking out of a crack in the rocks where it had probably been resting to get away from the sun.

  Sam didn’t remember all of the names of snakes found in Australia, and had no idea if this one was poisonous or not, but with the way her luck was going, it probably was.

  “Kina, stop. Now.” Sam’s words were low and urgent.

  Kina stopped in her tracks, camera still on her shoulder, pointed toward Sam. She obviously heard the panic in Sam’s voice. “What?”

  “A snake. Don’t move, Kina,” Sam said. “It’s right by your foot.” As Sam watched, the snake emerged from the crack in the rocks and wound itself around Kina’s feet.

  Kina froze even more if that was possible. A sad little whimper escaped from her throat. “Oh God,” she moaned, “I hate snakes.”

  “I’m going to try to get it away from you…don’t move whatever you do. Maybe it’ll think you’re a tree or something. I’ve heard they’re usually more afraid of us than we are of them.” Sam had no idea what she was talking about, some scientist would probably scoff at what she’d said, but she hoped Kina would believe her and feel calmer about the entire situation. Sam found a large stick. She’d watched reruns of that famous Australian guy on TV more times than she could count. She knew there was a way to pin the head to the ground and pick it up, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to try that. Sam only knew she had to get that snake away from Kina’s legs. She didn’t know what she’d do if her actions pissed the snake off more than it already was.

  The snake was huge, but to be honest, any snake looked huge to her. Sam estimated it to be around five feet long. It was light brown and the sun glistening off its body made it look almost pretty. Sam started to sweat. This is all my fault. She thought. If I hadn’t walked away from camp, Kina wouldn’t be in this situation.

  Sam walked around Kina and the snake turned to follow her movements. Good. Sam thought. ‘It’s watching me and not paying attention to Kina, whose legs it’s almost wrapped around.

  “Kina, it’s almost wrapped around your legs, but its attention is on me. Don’t put the camera down, don’t move. I’m going to start backing up and hopefully it’ll follow me. I have no idea if this will work or not, but I hope like hell it will. When you feel it slide away take slow steps in the direction you’re facing. That’ll put distance between you and it.”

  “What are you going to do?” Kina whispered. “If it follows you, how are you going to get away from it?”

  “I don’t know, but at least it won’t be near you,” Sam responded, still feeling guilty for putting Kina in this position in the first place. Then Sam said flippantly, “And besides, it’ll make for great television so be sure you’re filming…contestant wanders out of camp by herself and gets bitten by a killer snake…think of the ratings!” She chuckled uneasily.

  While Sam had been talking to Kina she’d been slowly backing up. It seemed to be working. The snake was following her. Inch by inch it unfurled itself from around Kina. It definitely didn’t look happy, and it hadn’t stopped opening and closing its mouth the entire time. The thing looked like it was ready to strike. Like it wanted to strike. Kina took one step forward, then another…finally, she was able to turn around and face Sam and the snake. She took aim with her camera.

  Sam and the snake were facing each other. Sam was armed with only a stick and the snake looked agitated. Sam started talking to the snake, not really knowing what she was saying. “Okay, Mr. Snake, we’re sorry that we disturbed you. We’ll be on our way, okay? You don’t need to bite me. I probably don’t taste very good. Now, some of the women at camp are more your style, you’d love them. How about just turning around and going home…just like I want to do. I’ll just be on my way, no harm no foul. I promise not to come down this way and bother you again if you just let me go now…okay? Niiiiice snake…” Sam was backing up slowly, never taking her eyes off of the snake. Thankfully, it decided that escape was probably the better option and it slithered away into the underbrush nearby.

  Sam looked up at Kina, and thus into the camera.

  “Holy crap…that was a close one…are you okay, Kina?” Kina didn’t respond.

  “Oh, okay, we are back to the rules,” Sam said with disappointment.

  With that Sam turned her back on the camera and started the way they’d come. It would’ve been nice for her to at least say thank you. Suddenly, she didn’t feel very good. She knew it was a reaction to the stress and fear and probably the heat as well. She started shaking and felt the sweat pop out on her forehead. She darted toward a bush and threw up what little she’d eaten that day.

  “Ugh, gross,” she said out loud. “That is the worst.” Sam wiped a shaky hand across her mouth and trudged on toward the camp, not daring to look at Kina or the camera. She was sure there was now an up-close-and-personal shot of her losing her stomach contents that would surely be shown on TV in the not-so-distant future. Lovely.

  Sam continued to shake as she walked. She thought about what had happened and what had almost happened to Kina. It was times like this that she really missed being a part of a couple. While she felt she was an independent modern woman, there was something to be said about being held safe and comfortable in a man’s arms. She took a deep breath and continued on toward the camp to find out how much trouble she was in.

  What had started out as a beautiful day and a peaceful walk had turned sour. She’d missed the bus and was probably in trouble for that. She’d talked to one of the camera operators, which was against the rules, so she was probably in trouble for that. Then the snake incident, which was scarier in person than she imagined it could be, and she humiliated herself in front of the camera and probably in front of millions of people. She knew the incident would show up on screen and she’d never live it down with her friends or her coworkers back in Albuquerque. She trudged on, lost in her thoughts while Kina followed behind.

  Sam and Kina finally made it back to camp. She hadn’t been able to arrive before the women had gotten back after all. She’d obviously been wandering around in the Outback for longer than she thought. The women were hanging around, talking about Al and his reactions to each of them and their conversations.

  Missy turned to Sam and said snidely, “Where were you, Miss Tarzan? You’re in big trouble, you know? You missed it. But don’t worry, Al didn’t miss you and neither did we. He didn’t even ask about you. Right, ladies?” And with that, most of the other women laughed and giggled.

  Sam was too tired to care, and was still dealing with the after effects of adrenaline that her body was producing as a result of the fear of the snake and what might have happened to Kina. She looked around and saw Kina getting into a golf cart, probably to go back to the production camp to talk about how she’d broken the rules. Sam ignored Missy and the other w
omen, went back to the tent and lay down on her cot. What would happen now? She was worried, and was glad that she could finally lie down. She replayed the incident in her head. It’d been a close call. Kina had almost stepped directly on the snake. If she’d done that she would’ve been bitten for sure, and then what would Sam have done? There was no way she could’ve carried her all the way back to the camp. She’d put someone’s life on the line for her own selfish desires. It wouldn’t happen again.

  Chapter Ten

  Alex watched Kina get out of the golf cart and go straight to Eddie’s office. He remembered the producer said that Kina was with Sammi. He followed Kina into the tent in time to hear Eddie bellow, “Where the hell were you guys?!? She missed the bus! How come you didn’t tell us where you were when we asked?!?” He sounded more upset now about the situation than when Alex talked to him earlier. Then he didn’t seem like it mattered or that he cared about Sammi missing the bus.

  All the camera operators wore little two way microphones, that way they could communicate with production at all times.

  Kina responded, “I couldn’t, we were out in the middle of nowhere. If I’d started talking to you the camera would’ve picked it up and the footage would’ve been ruined.”

  Eddie sighed. He knew Kina was right, and there was nothing more he hated than great footage ruined by the chit chat of a camera operator.

  Kina continued, “She went for a walk, I followed her. She took a nap by a tree, then we started back toward camp. On our way back, I think she might have saved my life.” Eddie snapped to attention.

  “What?” he yelled. “Did you get it on tape?”

  “Sort of,” Kina told him honestly.

  Kina didn’t say anything else, but held out the tape that had been in her camera that day. Eddie snatched it out of her hand faster than the snake could have bitten her today and put it into the player.

  With Alex, Eddie, and Kina watching, the tape was played. They watched Sammi’s face as she realized what the problem was. They heard her talking to Kina. The camera was glued to Sammi as Kina stood still above the snake. Then they saw Sammi walk out of the line of vision and continue to tell Kina what she was going to do and what Kina should do. The camera microphone had picked up Kina’s frantic breathing. Finally, the camera moved and swung back around to Sammi and the snake. Alex about had a heart attack. Sammi was leaning over, waving a stick, trying to get the snake to follow her. Eventually, the snake slithered off.

  “Damn, that’s good footage,” Eddie said, “but since the cameras aren’t supposed to exist, we can’t use it.” Alex just looked at him incredulously.

  “Sammi was talking to the camera operator, and Kina was talking back, that’s not a part of the ‘reality’ of this show. We can’t use it,” Eddie defended himself as Alex glared at him.

  Eddie continued, “Good job today, Kina, get some rest and you’ll be back on Sammi tomorrow. Maybe she’ll feel more comfortable around you and tell you juicy secrets on tape that we can use. Just don’t talk to her.” He grabbed the tape out of the machine and held it out to Kina. “Take this back to the production tent.” And with that, he shooed Alex and Kina out of the tent.

  “Kina,” Alex said once they’d left, “I think that was what’s known as a Fierce snake. I’m not completely sure, but I’ve heard my aunt talk about them enough and I’ve heard stories about them and how deadly their bite can be.”

  Kina paled. “She really did save my life then. Al, I was about to bolt or do something stupid and she calmed me down and led that snake away. I could feel it slithering around my legs and knew it was going to bite me any second.” She shuddered, then continued, “That wasn’t all that happened out there, you should watch the entire tape.” She handed the tape they’d just watched to Alex.

  “Is she really all right?” Alex asked urgently.

  “She’s okay, she was really quiet afterward and had a bad moment or two, but she’s okay.” Kina reassured him.

  Alex took the tape back to his tent and watched Sammi’s entire afternoon. She looked really peaceful resting against trees and he could see that she really loved being out in nature. She seemed really relaxed until Kina almost stepped on the snake. He observed again her facial expressions and watched as she tried to lead the snake away from Kina. It was just as scary the second time he saw it as it was the first time. While he was scared to death for her, he was also proud. She’d handled the situation with a sense of calm. She didn’t panic, she did what she needed to do. There was nothing he wanted more than to hold her and comfort her, and that freaked him out a little bit. He wasn’t like this. He never felt like this about a woman this quickly before. Hell, he really didn’t know her that well, but there was something about her.

  Alex watched as Sammi continued walking back toward the camp. She wasn’t looking around her at the scenery like she did on the way out. He thought he could even see her shaking. Then he saw her dart to a bush and throw up. She then wiped her mouth and continued on her way without even looking at the camera.

  Alex was stunned. He couldn’t believe what he’d just seen. He didn’t know many people that would be able to handle that kind of stress and not collapse. He was surprised it’d taken her so long to lose it. He wished he could talk to Sammi about what happened, but again, he knew no one was to know that he had access to the show’s tapes. He sighed and again felt the urge to wrap Sammi up in his arms and not let go. What a predicament. He honestly admired her. Yes, she’d wandered off on her own, which wasn’t that smart of a thing to do, but in a crisis she’d held herself together and not fallen apart. He couldn’t image any of the other women on the show doing the same. And after she’d thrown up, she didn’t throw a hissy fit, she just continued on her way. Sammi certainly was an interesting woman. One that Alex knew he’d like to get to know a lot better.

  Chapter Eleven

  The next day started out like any of the others at the camp. There was a mad dash for the bathroom and for the shower followed by a flurry of hairspray, makeup, and bickering. The women apparently decided that cold showers weren’t that bad when the alternative was no shower. Fourteen women all intent on getting the same man was wearing thin, however. Like usual, Sam waited until most everyone was done with the bathroom before taking her turn. She’d slept in later than usual this morning, but she was so exhausted from the stress from the day before that she couldn’t make herself get up. I wonder what fun and games the producers have in store for us today. She put her hair up in a clip and left the bathroom.

  Soon the bus pulled up to the camp. Eddie and Robert got out of a golf cart following behind the bus and assembled all the women in their customary lines.

  “I have good news and bad news,” Robert intoned. “The good news is that no one is going home today.” He paused to allow the cameras time to pan over the women who were cheering and smiling. “The bad news is that today and tomorrow you’ll work harder than most of you have before in your lives.” The cheering stopped as if a TV was unplugged suddenly.

  “What do you mean?” Candi asked. “What kind of job could there be out here in the middle of nowhere?”

  “Well,” Robert continued with a smirk, as if he knew what he was about to say would ruin the women’s day. “Part of Al’s life is to work on his ranch back in Texas, so today and tomorrow you’ll be working on a cattle ranch. Here in Australia a ranch is typically called a ‘cattle station.’ Your jobs will involve all the daily activities that are usually undertaken on the station. You need to pack an overnight bag with outdoor clothes and sneakers, or comfortable shoes if you brought them, and we’ll leave in about half an hour.”

  As soon as Robert stepped off the podium and was back in his golf cart heading out, the girls started complaining.

  “I can’t believe this,” Missy snapped. “I’ve never been around a cow in all my life, how can I work on a ranch when I don’t know what I’m doing?”

  “It doesn’t make sense,” Brandi chimed in. “What
are we, slave labor? This was supposed to be fun!”

  Kathi exclaimed, “I better not break a nail!”

  As the women continued on with their complaining, Sam wandered back to her tent to pack her belongings. Since she shared it with some of the other contestants she couldn’t get away from their mumblings, but she did her best to block them out. Courtnee nudged her in the side as she was packing.

  “Are you going to run away again, Miss Bitch?” she asked nastily. “It doesn’t matter to me one way or another since there’s no way in hell you’re going to last much longer. Why don’t you just quit now?”

  “Why do you say that?” Sam asked, knowing full well she wouldn’t like the answer, but trying to stand up for herself nonetheless.

  “Look at you,” Courtnee continued, “You’re short and dumpy. You have no fashion sense and you don’t wear makeup.” Looking around, she noticed the other women watching and it fueled the venom spewing out of her mouth. “You don’t belong here. You aren’t in Al’s league. He needs someone who will look good by his side. Someone with his wealth needs a beautiful woman on his arm, and you certainly aren’t it. I mean really, why are you even on this show? You don’t fit in.”

  Sam stood there, looking at Courtnee and the other women who were watching from a small distance away.

  “How would you know what he needs?” Sam fired back. “None of us know Al, we’ve met him what, twice? For that matter you don’t know me. So what I don’t look like you? I know I’m not beautiful, but that doesn’t diminish my value as a person. Maybe I’m just here for the free trip to Australia.” Then she glared at Courtnee. “We don’t like each other, that’s not big news, but Courtnee, I’ll stand up for myself, so let’s agree to stay away from each other and let the game unfold. I’ll stay out of your way and you stay out of mine.”

  With that Sam turned her back on Courtnee and continued to pack. She knew she’d made an enemy, but she simply wasn’t up to taking the other woman’s crap like she usually would in a similar situation back home. Just because she wasn’t five feet eleven inches tall and she weighed more than a seven-year-old child would, didn’t mean she wasn’t a good person.