Empire

Chapter four

Finally a forest. I breathe in the fresh air and I start to relax.
I'm at a training centre where we'll be getting ready for the real competition.
Since last night I feel like I have a purpose here. And sharing with Flair has made us closer. I have a friend here other than Tretan now.
I'm standing in a clearing in a forest, Flair and I are the first ones here and I'm basking in the silence.
Then everyone else arrives and the silence is broken.
I find Tretan and hand him the list of codes. I memorized it yesterday and I made sure to bring it this morning.
"Thank you," he says "I think that my roommate might be one of us. Now I can find out."
"Who's your roommate?" I ask him.
"Tayo, from Nigeria."
I tell him about Flair and he says he'll pray for me and for her.
Then a boy or young man walks toward us.
"Hi Tayo, this is my friend Susan." says Tretan.
"Hello Susan, I've heard a lot about you." says Tayo in an accent I've never heard before.
"Hello." I say.
He has black skin, brown eyes, and a smile that makes you want to smile back. I think I will like him.
A man in yellow walks to the centre of the clearing and starts speaking "Today you will be training for your first competition. We will not tell you what that is yet but it will involve wilderness survival and hunting for food."
At first I'm excited then realize hunting is still illegal. I will have to pretend I can't hunt, otherwise my family could in trouble.
Pretending I can't hunt will be harder than actually hunting.

The next week is spent "learning" things I knew when I was six. Some of the other people need it though. Especially Flair and Grey. The southern countries are having a hard time of it. I'm finally feeling warm and they're shivering in their snowsuits.
It's not all bad, Tretan and I are in the same boat, and he's good at making our situation seem funny.
After a week the training ends and we go back to Toronto. Camera crews were filming us through out training and sometimes they gave us lines to say.
We spend a night in Toronto, tomorrow the competition begins.

Flair asks me to read to her again that evening. I did a little bit over the week and I can see that she is starting to love Jesus.
But she doesn't know the rest of the story yet.
At chapter nineteen she starts tearing up and by twenty she is crying. I finish the book then stop.
"Why would they kill him?" She asks me.
"Because they where jealous."
"But why would he let them?"
"So that he could redeem us and bring us to heaven with him." I tell her.
She doesn't say anything after that and goes to sleep.
I'll have to give her time.
I miss home, but I'm glad I met Flair.
I don't think I'll sleep.
I wake up the next morning and gather my things together.
My sister Della is a very good artist and the picture she gave me is quite close to the real thing.
I wonder if my family thinks about me a lot. They are probably praying for me. That thought gives me hope.
Flair wakes up and we go through the usual ordeal of getting ready. Magenta insists on makeup today and I give in.
I wonder what the contest will be.
We get a carriage ride to the town hall. Inside are cameramen and the rest of the contestants. There's a table in the centre of the room. We are placed in a line with our country mates.
A man walks to the middle of the room "Today we are deciding your teams for the first challenge." I didn't know there would be teams. Emor goes first as usual. On the table is a large closed box. Flair reaches in and removes a small wooden red disc. Then they go stand in one of the corners of the room. They already know what to do.
Next is Australia, their disc is blue. Then is Canada who get red and stand by Emor.
All the teams draw a disc and are with the people with the same colour.
Tretan draws red, so we are with Emor and Canada. Nigeria draws red as well.
Australia is with Denmark, Jamaica, Spain, and Great Britain. The countries with yellow discs are Russia, Peru, India, Japan, and Saudi Arabia.
Then we all go to another building where we get changed. Magenta takes off my makeup and I change my outfit but my hair stays the same.
I ask Indigo "Do you know what the challenge is?"
"Yes, you will have to survive in the wilderness for a week" she says matter of factly.
Okay so I get spend a week with people I barely know in terrain I'm not familiar with.
Wonderful.
The people split into their teams and each team boards a different helicopter. On the way to where ever we're going, a man explains the rules of this challenge.
"You must remain and survive where you are placed for a week. If you can't eat for a day you will be removed. The only way you won't have to stay a week is if you can cross the lake to our base. You will be filmed the whole time. Anything you say on camera will be scripted. Any questions?"
I think he explained everything. Everyone else is silent as well.
After about twenty minutes the helicopter lands and we get off.
We're on a medium sized island in the middle of a lake. The island is covered in trees but the ground is rocky. Two cameramen get off the helicopter as well.
It would be okay if we weren't filmed but I don't love the idea of people watching me from miles away.
It is a bit after lunch, we'll need to make a shelter. It's funny now that I'm here I feel more relaxed and at home.
Nigeria and Emor look unnerved but Tretan and Canada start looking around for things to do. We start building a lean to and eventually Tayo starts helping.
We all end up differing to Canada because this is their country. Flair and Grey start gathering firewood.
I notice a box that was taken off the helicopter and look inside. It is full of weapons, when I see that I immediately look for a spear. I find one and take it out.
Now I feel like myself again.
"Would you like to come with me to find food." Someone says. I turn around and the girl from Canada is speaking to me.
"Sure," I answer "What's your name again?"
"I'm Kimi," she says.
"I'm Susan."
Once we're out of earshot of the camp she says "You look like you know how to use that," gesturing to my spear.
I nod and notice she is carrying a bow and arrows.
I take another look at her, she moves like a deer. Her long black hair is in two braids and I can tell that she is sure of herself.
We find some berries and I spear a few fish in a river that flows through the island.
We make our way back to the camp after awhile. We don't say much but it doesn't matter and it's not awkward.
At the camp Tretan, Tayo, and Quin, the boy from Canada, have set up a fire and two shelters. One for the boys and one for the girls.
I clean my fish, and Kimi mixes the berries with some greens. Flair has actually helped a lot making the spot we chose look homey. I don't know what Grey did.
We're about to start eating when the other boy from Nigeria, Amandi, comes out of the forest carrying two rabbits. So he's more at home here than I thought.
The cameramen mostly stay out of our way, but sometimes they'll tell us to say something or make us do something again. They don't eat with us, they have their own supplies but we're not allowed to touch them.
Around the fire we all start feeling more comfortable and we learn more about each other. I look around at all of them, Flair hasn't said much all evening. I notice Grey's hair is actually a silvery grey. Last time I saw him it was dark brown. He must have dyed it.
Tayo and Amandi are from the same country but they couldn't be more different. Tayo is happy and we all like him after the first few minutes of knowing him. But Amandi is sullen and quiet.
Quin and Kimi seem to not like each other.
The firelight is playing with everyone's faces making them look ghostly. Grey's hair reflects almost metallically from the fire and Tretan's hair, which is normally sandy blond looks reddish.
"So are we going to stay here or try to get back?" I ask everyone.
Nobody says anything for awhile then Kimi says "I think I could swim there but the rest of you might not make it."
I might but Emor definitely wouldn't.
"Could we build a boat?" Grey asks.
"I know how to build canoes but that could take awhile, maybe longer than a week." Quinn says.
"What about a raft?" Tayo asks.
"Maybe, we'll need to see what's on the island first." Kimi answers.
We talk a bit longer and then all go to sleep.
Something wakes me early. I crawl out of the shelter and peek outside.
The two cameramen have an expensive tent and they keep their food outside in a box. I could easily take some of the food if I wanted.
Someone or rather something is taking advantage of how easy it is. A black bear is rummaging through the box and taking what it wants.
I suppress a laugh, their food was supposed to last all week. Now most of it is either eaten or strewn on the ground around their tent.
I creep out of the shelter and pick up my spear. Then stomp around a bit so the bear will know I'm there and awake.
The bear looks at me and blinks. I'm guessing it's never seen a human before. I try to make myself look bigger and yell at the bear. It just stares and then turns and walks away.
Everyone is awake now, and not too happy about it.
"What's wrong, why are you yelling?" Grey yawns then sees the scattered food and starts.
"There was a black bear snooping in our camp," I answer trying to sound casual.
When the cameramen come out of their tent they don't seem to mind about the food but they question me about every detail. And even get me to reenact what happened. I'm not good at it but apparently they can make it look different when they play it, and they'll add a bear into the video.
By the time they let me go it's late in the morning and I'm very hungry.
I walk down to the lake and look over the water. There is a large river close to my village but no lakes.
There are a lot of pine trees on this island and across the lake. I guess we could use the sap for our boat if we make one. I wonder if it's worth it to try to get back to the base and if it will make a difference.
"Are you hungry?" That's Kimi offering me leftovers from yesterday.
"Yes, thank you." I answer taking the food.
We will need to hunt again today.
"Did you learn more about the island while I was "preoccupied"?" I ask her.
"A little, Quin and Tretan are looking for the bear you saw this morning and probably hunting as well. Tayo and Amandi said they where going to walk around the island. I figured you and I could teach Flair and Grey some things about survival." she tells me.
"Good idea," I smile.
We find Grey and Flair in the camp talking.
"So what do you know about living outside of the city?" Kimi asks them.
"Um I can swim, kind of." says Flair.
"Well then let's start there." I say.
I decide to just swim in my clothes it will be a bit uncomfortable later but they'll dry. And it's better than swimming without my clothes.
I find a rock about ten feet higher than the water and jump into the lake. It feels wonderful. Kimi is right behind me and let's out a yell as she hits the water. Flair just walks in but Grey jumps.
"I thought you said Canada was going to be cold." I say looking at Flair.
She looks back sheepishly "Well it's always cold in movies..."
We all laugh, although it's kind of sad that most of what she knows is from watching a screen.
Flair can stay afloat but she's not amazing. Surprisingly Grey looks completely natural in the water.
"Where did you learn to swim?" I ask him.
"A pearl harvester taught me." he says.
We paddle around a little and swim close to the river that flows into the lake.
Grey dives down and swims towards the river. When he comes up he's holding a small crab-like animal.
"Good job, you caught a crayfish!" says Kimi.
She goes down too and comes up with another crayfish.
"They like living in the shallow river," she tells me "We can have some for lunch."
Okay, I'm not sure how thrilled I am about that but I guess food is food.
We go back to the beach by our camp and drop off the crayfish then sit on the beach to dry off.
I notice that the cameramen have more food, I wonder where that came from.
Tayo and Amandi come back and so do Tretan and Quin. They all have something that we can eat later.
When they see us all wet Tretan and Tayo jump into the lake too.
They swim for awhile then come sit with us. So far my time away from home has been easy sometimes even fun. But I have a feeling that it will get harder soon.
When we're all dried off we go back to the camp.
"Good job guys that was pretty good footage!" says one of the cameramen. Oh yah we're still being filmed.
"And bye the way you might want to get started trying to cross the lake, the first one over gets a reward." he says.
"What kind of reward?" Grey asks.
"You'll get an advantage in the next round." he answers.
I don't really care about an advantage but I am part of a team and they might care.
We gather around the remains of last nights fire to talk about it. Tretan, Tayo, and I vote to stay here everyone else wants to try and cross the lake. Well it doesn't really matter to me anyway. I don't even know the point of this competition.