Survival Island (reality show)

10. The swamp

Breakfast was not such a gourmet affair as last night's roasted parrots. Sebastian doesn’t relish the taste of roasted bugs, but they are protein. And taste better than raw ones. He is starting to miss the fish they had the first day, but there are none around here and they don’t have time to catch more birds and roast them. The race to the extraction point is turning into a real Survival game. Not just from finding your food and getting across the island point of view, but actually surviving it.

One death could be prevented. Mr. Black’s demise on the rapids was unfortunate, but they could all handle that better. Not crossing right at the rapids is one way and putting the chubby Mr. Black in the middle is another. But it’s all too late now, he’s gone. Whether the second death could be prevented will stay a mystery. He might stop the guy from triggering the trap, or maybe not. Was the guy eating mushrooms? Nothing much could stop him, if he did.

‘Why are you thinking about it? It’s a competition.’ The wolf inquires.

‘Don’t know. It got stuck on my mind.’ He answers.

‘Focus on the swamp. I can smell it.’ The wolf sniffs.

‘I don’t like the smell. How far north do we have to go to reach the narrow part?’ Sebastian asks the wolf.

‘From here? I think about two clicks, but I might be wrong.’ The wolf estimates.

“I think two clicks to go and we should reach the narrow part of the swamp. It’s a detour, but I’m willing to make it. It doesn’t smell inviting at all.” Sebastian says. The silence he gets in return is not what he was expecting. He turns around to search for Magnus, because the guy is nowhere to be seen. How and when did I lose him, he thinks silently and listens to his surroundings. 

A crack of a twig, rustling of leaves and breathing. Eleven o’clock and coming closer. He keeps his eyes closed and waits patiently for his prey to catch himself. He can smell the distinct scent of sweat that he knows belongs to Magnus. Don’t they all wish for a bath right now? No luck today and maybe not even tomorrow. There is the swamp to be mastered and some more jungle before they reach the next river. He thinks that the second river is the one to create this swamp. That one was forked out more. The first one didn’t seem to have any side flows or more origin points. At least not on the map.

Magnus is close to him now. Just a few more steps and he will be caught. This is the best way of hunting. You stand still and wait for the prey to come to you. Two more steps. He thinks he’s so smart, but nobody sneaks up on Sebastian. He can hear the guy breathing even if he doesn’t hear him walk. One more step. He shoots out his arm and turns on the guy with a grin.

“Got ya!” He chuckles and lets Magnus’ neck go. He wasn’t holding him too tight any way. He wanted to see the guy’s reaction, not choke him to death.

“Damn!” Magnus swears and starts to laugh. “Maybe next time.”

“You really thought you could sneak up on me?” Sebastian asks in wonder.

“Maybe.” Magnus shrugs. “What did I do wrong? I was careful not to make a sound, not to step on anything. What gave me away?”

“One: we didn’t have a bath in a few days and you were going down wind. Two: you were breathing. I could hear you.” He chuckles and winks at Magnus.

“You can distinguish my sweat from all the swamp smells? And what wind are you talking about? There is nothing.” Magnus gestures at the edge of the swamp.

“There is just a light breeze, but it’s coming from the swamp.” Sebastian answers. “By the way, we have  to walk about two clicks North to the narrow part of this smelly pit. I think.”

“Let’s see. If you happen to see a croc on our way, we need dinner. I hate bugs.” Magnus shrugs and starts walking.

The guy has a sense of humor, Sebastian thinks and shakes his head. He tried to sneak up on him. He will probably try again. This will be so much fun. It’s really hard to sneak up on a wolf, but Magnus doesn’t know that yet. Maybe that is the only reason he won’t tell him. It will be fun to see him try again and again. He wonders what kind of ideas the guy will come up with.

“Sebastian?” Magnus sounds weird and he looks over to him with worry.

“What’s wrong?” He asks, glancing around them, but his senses can’t detect anything off.

“We’re walking in a slight curve. I think the swamp is narrowing.” The answer surprises him. Was he thinking too hard and missed it?

“Maybe I should start paying attention to where we’re going?” Sebastian chuckles.

“What are you thinking about?” Magnus inquires.

“Your attempt at sneaking up on me.” He answers. “You’ll have to wait for the next one, the swamp is not a good place for games.”

“I know. This here looks like a path. It goes straight for as long as I can see.” Magnus nods. He is pointing at a narrow strip of packed dirt that leads directly into the swamp.

“Do we risk it? It’s so conveniently going in the right direction.” Sebastian asks, but he is weary of it. It’s just that feeling he’s got, that this is staged.

“Someone walked it already. I can see tracks.” Magnus shrugs. “We can check it out for a few hundred meters and then get off of the path. Find an alternative, climb trees, anything that wouldn’t be an obvious choice.”

“Good thinking. I wanted to suggest trees just to keep our clothes dry and avoid the mud. It might take longer, but I prefer it over that smelly water.” He answers. The trees in the swamp look sturdy enough to climb over. It might get a bit awkward if the distances get too big to climb over to the next one, but they can worry if it comes to that.

“Let’s do this. It’s just as good as any other spot to cross it.” He steps on the path first. His turn to risk his hide in the unknown. He knows Magnus is following him, he can hear the guy breathing.

“I don’t like the silence.” Magnus whispers. “Where are all the birds today? Not a single chirp from them.”

“My guess? Something happened and they are hiding again.” Sebastian answers.

“I hope it’s not a dead body again.” Magnus grunts.

“Oh! Don’t jinx it.” He grunts and stops a few hundred meters in. There is a hole in the path. “It looks like someone was careless and this whole part slid into the mud. I can see the tracks on the other side where he climbed out.”

Magnus pears around him and frowns. The hole is not wide, maybe a meter or a bit more. The condition of the bank is what worries them both. He doesn’t have to say it, it’s where they are both looking at. The question is, do they climb the trees from now on or do they try to jump the distance? He knows he can make the jump a good distance over, even from the spot. A running start might be a problem. The path doesn’t look sturdy enough to run on it. Walking was a risk they were willing to take.

“Jump or climb? The vines are absent here. Looks like someone cleaned them away to make it harder.” He asks Magnus. It will be up to him to decide how they continue.

“I don’t know. It shouldn’t be a problem to jump over. The landing part is worrying me, though.” Magnus answers.

“I can go first.” Sebastian offers. He is confident to catch himself even if the path crumbles further.

“OK. I’ve got a few trees marked if I need to climb.” Magnus chuckles.

Sebastian chuckles and zeroes in on a strip of the path about two steps from the crumbling edge. Crouching low, he springs to the other side and lands on both feet. The mark was right, but he can feel the ground slipping out from beneath his boots. He makes a few fast steps forward and jumps to a tree that seems sturdy enough to hold his weight. Clinging on a branch, he watches a few more meters of the path crumble together and end up in the smelly swamp water.

“Looks like we’re climbing from here. This thing is not safe at all.” He shouts to Magnus and the guy nods back. He watches his friend grab a branch and pull himself up. Lucky for them the swamp trees are low and have strong branches going in all directions. Sometimes it looks like a hanging bridge they could walk over. The trees are turning out to be convenient. 

He waits for Magnus to catch his breath as he reaches him. They need to be wise about this climbing expedition. Take it slow and secure. The water and mud below is repulsive and he can’t see what is hiding in the water. It could be anything from crocodiles to snakes or old broken branches. Could be more spikes to get skewered on. He, for one, would like to avoid getting hurt. He’s not a sissy, but any injury out here could lead to serious infection that would slow him down too much.

“We can still follow the path. It leads in the right direction.” Magnus points to their left and the suspicious path in the swamp.

“Yeah. But I don’t want to walk it, unless we run out of trees.” He nods and climbs over to the next tree. Slow and secure in the safe distance from the water.

‘How can you even think that? It reeks like a year old fish remains.’ His wolf makes gagging sounds.

‘Would you walk in there?’ He smirks and keeps climbing over the branches.

‘No.’ The wolf gags again. ‘Just get out of here fast.’

“Do you hear something splashing?” Magnus asks him.

“Yeah. Sounds like something or someone is trying to jump out of the water and falling back.” Sebastian murmurs. “If that’s not a crocodile, it will surely draw them.”

“No falling off of the branches, then.” Magnus says and they advance even slower.

Half an hour of slow climbing later, they come to a sight they didn’t wish to see. The splashing sound is caused by four crocodiles trying to jump and get their snack. A muddy body is hanging on vines just out of the croc's reach. The path is gone and there is mud all over, like it never even existed. Did the guy try to crawl out and get tangled in the vines? The way he hangs there is very unlikely for that scenario.  Sebastian shakes his head, he knows it’s too late for the guy. The questions in his mind are popping up one by one. Was it a trap? Was it by accident? Is someone killing the competition?

“That looks just sad.” Magnus comments.

“The hungry crocodiles?” Sebastian ask. 

“The dead guy hanging there.” The sideways look Magnus gives him makes him laugh. He is shaking from keeping it down. It wouldn’t be good to draw the crocs their way.

“Yeah. That too. He’s too covered in mud, I can’t make out who it is.” He nods and sobers up. It’s bad manners to laugh with a dead person around.

“We can’t get over there. The crocs would jump all over us.” Magnus says and gazes at the crocodiles in the water.

“It’s too risky with four crocs. Two, we could handle. Four is just not safe.” Sebastian agrees. Maybe with a gun, then he would take on four crocodiles. He would just shoot them and be done. Dinner inclusive.

“I lost my appetite for meat today.” Magnus whispers and shakes his head.

“Hmp. I’ll ask you in a few hours.” Sebastian chuckles. “Let’s get out of here.”