Survival Island (reality show)

6. The river

Threading sand is getting on his nerves and he can't wait to be rid of it, but the bend in their path has come and gone and there is no sight of the river they were hoping to see. His initial estimate was six clicks, now he is sure they are close to nine and he thinks there is a disturbance in the sea water about another click or so down the beach. That would mean the ratio on the map should be off by five or maybe even 10.

“We’re closing on ten clicks. You said six when we started this trek.”  Magnus says and glazes into the distance. “The map is not a 1:20 ratio, it’s more like 1:30.”

“I was thinking the same thing.” Sebastian nods. “I think I see a disturbance of colour in the sea.”

“Where?” The guy looks down the beach and shrugs. “Are you a sniper? Or is just your eyesight so damn good?”

“Sometimes I am.” Sebastian chuckles. “Or was. I’m retired, but you never really let go of the training.”

“No, you don’t.” Magnus smirks. “Let’s see if you are right this time. I’m starting to hate the sand.”

Continuing in silence, he smiles to himself. Magnus is turning out to be a great choice for a companion. He’s not loud and obnoxious, he only speaks when he has something valuable to say and he’s not questioning everything. He is observant and that is more than he can say for the others. Yelling in the jungle, they are a joke. What do they think this is? A field trip in sixth grade?

“I see the river.” Magnus interrupts his thoughts.

“Me too.” He laughs. Finally! “What do we do first? Find shelter or make dinner?”

“By the sun’s position, I’d say shelter first. This sand ordeal took more time than we thought it would.” Magnus nods and sighs. “My legs hurt from the moving sand.”

“You can never get used to that. I’m happy to see the end of it.” Sebastian smiles. “But there is something else I was thinking about. How far into the stream we have a mix of sea and fresh water? I’m down to my last drops.”

“Depends on the river. Is it a fast one? Does it slope? How wide is the river mouth?” Magnus counts off the things that come to mind first.

“Yeah. So, I guess, fresh water will be a priority tomorrow morning.” Sebastian thinks out loud and keeps walking. He is at the point where he’ll drop if he stops. The sand is more tiring than he thought. The point he focuses on is just ahead. The dark blue of the water that is definitely not the sea.

“Agreed. Right now I just need some food and a place to sit. Preferably no sand in sight.” Magnus chuckles and turns to the trees. They go right to the river bank and Sebastian is sure to find a sand free spot just a few steps into the jungle. He can smell the sea water, so there goes his hope of a fast river that would be drinkable.

They walk a few hundred meters inland, following the river to a small clearing on the bank. There is just enough space to make a fire and lean on a tree to rest for a few hours. Sebastian takes his knife to clear away the leaves and create a small fire pit. Staying conscious about the environment is a must. Starting a bush fire would be bad. There are no fast escape routes, unless they jump into the river.

“I don’t like the murky water. We are a few hundred meters from the coast and the river water is still salty and so mixed up I can’t see anything in there. We can’t drink that and I sure as hell wouldn’t want to swim over.” Magnus tells him and leans on the tree nearby.

“I know. It’s not too wide to swim, but I wouldn’t want to go in there, either.” Sebastian answers. He pulls the small wood pieces out of his bag and sets the fire. They will cook the rest of the stingray and have a nice dinner. They can’t save it for long, it will go bad in the jungle heat. They can worry about food tomorrow when they search for drinkable water.

“We have to find water, food and a passage to the other side of the river tomorrow. Preferably in that order.” Magnus says when they finish the fish off.

“I agree. Water is a must. You can sleep first, I’ll guard the fire. It will keep the vermin away.” He tells his companion. He’s not sleepy, just tired. 

‘If the fire won’t keep the wildlife away, the man’s smelly feet will. Can we not sit downwind?’ His wolf complains and Sebastian smiles inwardly. The wolf’s sense of smell is much better than the average human’s. They will suffer in silence and sit somewhere else.

‘What do you think about climbing a tree? I can’t get our bearings in this dense foliage.’ Sebastian asks the wolf.

‘If you do all the climbing, I don’t mind. It would be nice to know where we are.’ The wolf answers.

‘Up we go. The fire is safe where it sits.’ He tells the wolf and leans heavily on the tree behind him.

It is a sturdy and thick tree with vines all the way up. Or for as high as he can see in the dark. His eyesight would be better without the fire, but they need it. He gets a grip and climbs fast and silently into the canopy of the tree above. He chose well, because the landscape opens up for him about 30 meters up. He can see over the surrounding trees. The rocks they decided not to climb are visible from here. It would have been a steep way down. At least he thinks those are the rocks they avoided. The river below is wide and glistens in the moonlight, he can see the rapids in the distance, so maybe they can cross to the other side somewhere there. The terrain slopes and he estimates that they could get some drinkable water halfway to the rapids. 

He climbs back down to find Magnus awake and looking around somewhat confused. “So, that’s where you went?”

“You didn’t think I left you behind?” Sebastian chuckles quietly.

“No. Your bag is still here. I just wasn’t sure where you could have been.” Magnus answers and yawns. “Your turn to get some sleep.

“Thanks. We have a rough day ahead of us. I think it’s about 10 clicks to the rapids and it slopes up.” He smiles and sits down, he leans on the tree and closes his eyes. “I might be wrong, though. Distances seem different at night.”

He wakes up with a start and the noise he hears is a splash. Magnus is not by his side, but the guys bag is. The fire is out and the ground is covered with soil. He gets up and walks carefully to the riverbank. He laughs hard as he sees Magnus hanging on a vine wielding a long stick, trying to get a few bananas to fall onto the ground, but they all land in the river instead. How did he not notice the bananas last night?

“Why didn’t you just climb the banana tree?” He asks.

“It wouldn’t hold my weight. I nearly fell in the river.” Magnus grunts and tries again to knock some of the bananas down.

“Come back down and give me a boost.” He tells the guy. “You look like a monkey up there.”

Magnus lands on his feet a few meters away from Sebastian. He looks up at the tall banana tree and frowns: “Even if I lift you up, you can’t reach them. I never knew bananas could grow this tall.”

“I didn’t say lift me up. I can’t jump high enough from the ground, but if you give me a boost, I can.” Sebastian smirks.

“How?” Magnus wonders and looks up at the tree.

“Squat down. I run at you, jump up like I would want to jump over you and you have to give me a push up at the right time. You tumble on your back and I fly up.” He explains. “It used to work with my brother.”

“So, I would have to push you up when your feet are aligned with my nose?” Magnus asks. “I don’t know if I trust you enough. This sounds like a circus act.”

“It basically is.” Sebastian shrugs. “But we get breakfast out of it.”

“Fine. I’ll do it.” Magnus shakes his head. They both need food and bananas are a fine source of nutrition and vitamins.

Magnus is good. He gets it right on the first try and Sebastian flies high enough to grab a large cluster of banana fruits and he tears them off when he does a backflip with his legs pushing him off from the tree trunk to land on the right side of the tree and not in the river. A large smile on his face and breakfast in hand, he glances at Magnus who is shaking his head in wonder.

“That looks like something out of a ninja movie. But thank you for the breakfast.” The guy says at last.

“You’re welcome. Pick out the ripe ones to eat first, the rest we can take with us for later.” Sebastian smiles. “My brother and I? We wanted to be ninjas when we were children. I ended up in the army and he’s a dentist.”

“Wow!” Magnus exclaims. “You actually told me something personal?”

“Yeah. It looks that way.” Sebastian smirks. The smug look is probably off putting, but he doesn't care. Magnus is turning out to be a friend. He might even trust him with the wolf. Emphasis on might, he is not decided yet, but he will do it if he has to.

Stuffing themselves full with bananas will help against the muscle cramps from all the walking and they are a good source of moisture, too. He hopes they will get some drinkable water soon, because they will need it when the tropical heat turns up. It’s early morning and he can feel the heat already. Combined with the high humidity of the rain forest, they are in danger of dehydration. And it doesn’t look like it will rain any time soon. Whoever organized this Game, made sure it takes place in the dry time of the year.

“The riverbank looks sturdy, so we can walk close to the river. If this doesn’t get too rough, we should be by the rapids in three hours.” Sebastian tells Magnus.

“Hope your estimate is right.” Magnus nods. “Do you think the others have reached the river yet?”

“Don’t know. We will probably see tracks they left if we cross their path.” He shrugs.

They are nibbling on the bananas to keep the thirst away and slowly making their way upstream. Then he suddenly stops and makes Magnus run into him from behind.

“Sorry. Why did you stop?” Magnus whispers.

“There is no one around, you can speak normally.” Sebastian says. “The water is clear. I can see rocks on the bottom. Maybe it’s drinkable as well?”

“Let’s check. We need it by now.” Magnus smiles and leans down over the river. He goes on his knees to scoop up some water with the top part of his water bottle that is supposed to serve as a cup. He sniffs the water carefully and passes the cup over to Sebastian. “I don’t smell anything. No salt, no algae, no nothing.”

Sebastian takes the cup and sniffs it. There is no smell to the water, which is weird. Not even soil or rocks.

‘It’s clear and cold. I wonder why the water is cold? The trees are not covering it up, the sun can reach it just fine.’ The wolf tells him.

‘I don’t care why it’s cold. Is it drinkable?’ Sebastian asks the wolf. He trusts his nose better than his own.

‘Yeah.’ The wolf nods.

“We can drink it. I can't smell anything wrong with it.” He passes the cup back and gets down to fill his own water bottle and drink some right away. His tranquility is disturbed by the sounds he can hear upstream. He closes his eyes to focus on the sound and shakes his head. At least five different voices are carried by the water. The others are close by. “Let’s find the first tree we can safely climb. I don’t want to get spotted by the others.”

They get up and cap their water bottles carefully. About fifty meters upstream they can see a large tree with a huge canopy. Sebastian hopes they can make it there without being noticed. 

“Up! Climb!” He whisper-shouts to Magnus. “They are close and so are the rapids.”