Survival Island (reality show)

21. Traps

The walking is getting tiring and they haven’t had any good food in a while. The bugs and maggots diet is crap, it’s hardly enough to keep you alive. The gorge got narrow but it’s still here and the other side doesn’t look inviting at all. It’s just more of the same jungle without the fruit trees. So it doesn’t really matter what side of the gorge they’re on as long as they’re walking in the right direction. This path is taking them Southwest and hopefully towards some food. Anything edible would be great by now.

“Stop!” Sebastian shouts to Magnus. The guy walked ahead while he was thinking.

“What? Why?” Magnus asks and turns to him with wonder.

“Leaves on the ground.” He tells the guy. “Look.”

“So what? It just tells me we came back to the part of the island that we should be on in the first place.” Magnus shrugs. He doesn’t see the obvious. Yet!

“Not that. Traps.” Sebastian chuckles and nudges Magnus away from the leaves.

“Where? I forgot to look out for those.” Magnus swallows hard and looks ahead.

Sebastian cuts a long branch with his Bowie and sweeps the leaves away on their direct path. A shudder runs down his spine at what his action just uncovered. There are short spikes on the ground and the area is large for a simple trap. It would be too far to jump across. He wonders what this one does? It’s probably activated by stepping on it, but he can’t see any ropes anywhere. Springs, maybe? Is the whole thing buried under the leaves and dirt?

“That looks dangerous. What does it do?” Sebastian thinks out loud.

“I never saw a trap like that. How do we set it off?” Magnus wonders and taps a spike nearest to him. 

“Hm? Was that too light? Does it need more weight? Or maybe somewhere in between?” He asks. This is interesting. He needs to figure out how it works. 

“I don’t know? Shall we leave it and go around?” Magnus inquires.

“I’m curious.” Sebastian scoffs and taps a few places with his branch. Nothing happens, so he’s thinking it needs more weight than the thin branch. He’s not stepping on it, that's for sure.

“Well, you set one trap off before with a log. Maybe this one is on the same principle? Throw something heavy on it.” Magnus suggests.

“I can try that.” He answers and scans the surroundings for a heavy branch. “How about half a tree?”

“That log? Are you sure?” Magnus looks at him like he lost it completely.

“Have you ever seen the Highland games? Where they throw whole logs around for fun?” Sebastian laughs. “That small log is nothing in comparison. Let’s see if it does the trick.”

He lifts the barely two meters long log and throws it on the trap. The whole area disappears into the ground, but the spikes are right there. The log only took out a few of them. They watch the trap in front of them and Sebastian chuckles at the thing. So that’s how it works? You step on it and the ground disappears for you to be impaled on the spikes.

“It looks like the one the chubby guy fell in on the first day. Only this one has more spikes.” He comments.

“I see. But a human body is much softer than that log. The chance of surviving this one is about ten percent.” Magnus tells him. “Thank you for not letting me walk on the leaves.”

“You’re welcome.” Sebastian smiles, but he thinks ahead already.”How many do you think there are?”

“Oh, damn it! It’s never just one, is it?” Magnus exclaims.

“Probably not.” He shakes his head. “I can’t smell them. I just had a hunch about this one.”

“We can sweep the leaves away to see what’s underneath, or we walk on roots. From one tree to another. Might get difficult if there’s a lot of underbrush.” Magnus suggests.

“I like the plan.” Sebastian nods to his friend. He is glad that they are working together and he is not the only one to come up with ideas. “Sweeping leaves in a jungle. Still not the weirdest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Oh, hoo. Now you have to tell me more!” Magnus grins. “It’s not confidential, is it?”

“No. That part is not. I just can’t tell you where it happened.” Sebastian laughs.

“This better be juicy.” Magnus winks at him and sweeps the leaves away from the edge of the trap.

“Juicy is the right word. Dancing on a stripper pole to get the attention of a certain ambassador.” Sebastian tells him and chuckles at the memory of one of his more fun missions.

“That was you?” Magnus laughs. “Oh, man. My team was on clean up duty in Mogadishu. I heard about that legendary performance, but not one surveillance tape survived.”

“You were there?” Sebastian gapes. Lucky for him, he is used to all kinds of embarrassing things and he doesn’t blush often.

“About two hours after your team left.” Magnus shrugs. “Now I know where to put  you. Your team has quite the reputation.”

“Ex team. Not much of it is left.” Sebastian says sadly. “Two are retired, the CO is still rattling around the OPS and four are dead.”

“I see. I won’t bring it up again.” Magnus tells him.

“Thanks.” Sebastian tells the guy. He is not in the right state of mind to be thinking about his ex team. And he is not going to discuss the clusterfuck situation that got him to retire early. “Let’s get out of here. If we’re lucky, we might even find a fruit tree.”

“Lead the way.” Magnus nods. This is his time to take point and sweep the ground for traps, Magnus is just not fast enough if he accidentally sets one off. Sebastian might just get away with it, thanks to his wolf.

Sweeping the jungle floor. Damn island and the surprises it brings along, Sebastian thinks. He doesn’t like this stretch of the path any more than the last one. And then he stops. There it is, the sign that somebody tampered with the ground. They were busy. Setting two traps in less than a hundred meters? That’s a novelty. He shows Magnus the spikes and they walk carefully to the other side of the trap.

“Should we set it off?” He asks the Major.

“Nah. We passed it, you can leave it. The spikes can be easily seen.” Magnus answers. “You are not everyone’s babysitter.”

“Just yours?” Sebastian winks and chuckles.

“That was a low blow. I thought we were friends?” Magnus looks at him and bursts out laughing.

“Glad to be amusing, Major.” Sebastian snickers. He shakes his head and moves on from the trap. He is certain that there are more of those.

“Do you have to be right all the time?” Magnus asks him a while later.

“About?” Sebastian wonders what he did now. He didn’t say anything for a few minutes. He’s just sweeping his leaves.

“Another trap. If we keep finding these every hundred meters or so, we’re never getting out of here.” Magnus grunts.

“Oh, that. I hate to be right about that. But they just got predictable. I don’t have the pattern yet, but it’s there.” He nods to him. He was calculating something in his head. It’s right there, but he can’t figure it out.

“Tell me when you got it.” Magnus chuffs.

“Let’s see if I’m right. Eight steps to the next one.” Sebastian predicts and counts the steps out loud.

On seven he taps the ground in front of him and the whole section of the path disappears away from him: “Ups. Missed by one.”

“That’s not funny. What if you walked right into it? Could you survive being staked?” Magnus pulls him back by his arm.

“Maybe. It would hurt like hell.” Sebastian smirks. “Is staked even the right term? Impaled sounds more right.”

“Oh, now you’re just making fun of it.” Magnus scoffs at him.

“Sorry. I think this island is getting to me. I tend to escape bad situations with humor.” Sebastian apologizes to his friend. “I just want this part to be over already.”

“I understand that, but please don’t joke about impalement.” Magnus sighs. “I don't find it funny and I don’t want to see it.”

They continue the slow sweep of the jungle floor for a while and there are no more traps to be found, but careful is the name of the game here. Until he smells a delicious scent of fruit. He knows the scent, it’s amazing to find it in nature, because he just loves the papaya fruit. Now he needs to find it. Where is it? Follow the nose and don’t fall in any traps while doing it, he thinks and smiles.

“Sebastian! Where are you going? That’s the wrong way!” Magnus shouts to him.

“I’m sorry.” He shouts back. “But you’re gonna thank me later.”

“I have to keep up to you first.” Magnus scoffs.

“Just wait for me here!” He shouts and runs into the jungle at top speed. He will be back before Magnus knows that he even left him behind.

The papaya is right there for him. He selects a few of the ripe fruits and stuffs them in his bag. Then he takes a few that are dark green, because they can eat those later. He gazes around in hopes to see a different fruit tree and smiles at the bananas. He jumps in the air and rips a whole bunch from the tree. This was easy, now that he doesn’t need to hide his abilities anymore. 

Sebastian jogs lightly back to Magnus, with a huge grin on his face. The dinner will be gourmet tonight. And by the expression on his friend's face, he knows he is forgiven for disappearing so fast.

“Help me carry something.” He trusts the bananas to Magnus. “We have bananas and papaya. Now we just need a nice spot to make camp.”

“I can smell the ripe papaya fruit. Is that what got you running?” Magnus inquires.

“Yes. I just love the papaya. It’s one of my favourites. I can catch the alluring scent from miles away.” He chuckles.

They set camp by a large tree that has enough clear ground underneath to make a small fire pit. Roasting bananas over a live fire is a sweet treat. They caramelize just right inside the peel. And the papaya is ripe to the sweetest point. Just the way he likes it best. He cuts it in half and cleans out the seeds. He slices the meat inside the peel to just pick out the cubes. Looking over at Magnus, he offers the guy the slices.

“Take this one. I have experience with it.” Sebastian winks. This easy togetherness is great. The Major is not weird at all and he is easy to talk to.

“Thank you. I’m not usually much for fruit, I only eat bananas.” The guy tells him.

“Any kind of fruit?” Sebastian wonders. That is just a bit weird, but he is not a fan of vegetables, so he can relate somewhat.

“An odd apple here and there. But in general? No.” Magnus shrugs. “This looks sweet. And I’m hungry enough to eat anything right now.”

“It’s sweet. Maybe that’s why I like it. What do you say? Can you tolerate it?” He inquires and waits for a reaction from the Major.

“I like it. Can it be roasted?” Magnus asks. He brings a genuine smile out of Sebastian. Now he’s talking!

“Yes. Lightly. It will only get sweeter if you do it. We would need a few that are not so ripe, those would be better to roast.” Sebastian tells him. “Papaya is used in many traditional Caribbean recipes.”