Survivor Tale #2

By saturday afternoon I looked like this:


That was when Team Purple - by winning all but one challenge so far - had practically wiped out Orange. They were some hard-to-beat motherfuckers, let me tell you that. We had everything from close call to photo-finish, and it started the moment we set foot on the island.

The 1st challenge:
A scavenger hunt. Three persons of each team had to make their way from the wharf to the cottage, as fast as possible. That's maybe a 3 or 4 kilometer run. They also had to find a number of certain items like beach glass or pine cones. First team to reach the cottage with all 3 players wins the challenge. Each missing item equals a 3-minute time penalty.
The twist: One item involved a detour. We were supposed to rub off an engraving from a tombstone, like Indiana Jones did with the shield of the second brother. The graveyard we had to go to is about 500 meters into the woods, but we didn't know that then. More than half the players were completely unfamiliar with the islands layout.
The question we didn't ask ourselves was: Is the detour worth 3 minutes, shouldn't we just skip it?

By the way, this was a reward challenge. The winning team would get a proper breakfast next morning, coffee, eggs, bacon, while the other team would have to cook up their rations. Rice. Sardines out of cans. No coffee. Fuck that.

Our team picked two other guys and me to do this. So we decided that they would collect all the beach glass, shells and leafs, while I would run ahead to the cemetary, get that picture off that gravestone and grab a couple of pine cones.
Let me tell you that 3 or 4 kilometers can be a looong distance, especially if you haven't been running for a while and if you don't know where the fuck you're going. I was running in constant fear of missing the turn-off to the cemetary.
After a while I realized I was in the lead, with 2 orange persons about 50 and 100 meters back. So far, so good. I kept scanning the road for the turn-off (the instructions echoing in my head: it can be hard to see, so don't miss it, don't miss it...) I knew the orange ones didn't have that problem, they would just do what I was doing. But then I had a different idea: What if they didn't? What if they just skipped the fucking graveyard completely, betting on the fact that it most likely will take longer than 3 minutes to get that done?
When I looked back one of the orange ones was gone. What the fuck? Did I miss the turn? Two kids on bike were coming my way, I yelled: "Graveyard? Where's the graveyard?"
Down the road, they said, waaaaay down the road. I kept running for what seemed an eternity, still no sign of a cemetary. Still I had orange ones relatively close behind me, but also my fellow purple ones were catching up. A woman sitting in front of a cottage beside the road reassured me that the turn-off was coming up on the left. I had almost reached it when one of my purple comrades caught up with me. Man, that guy was in shape!
"Should we skip the cemetary?" I asked him. "Is it worth three minutes? They will skip it, I'm sure!"
He didn't make the decision for me. I had to make it myself. I had a feeling it was wrong to go there. We were in the lead, considerably so, all we had to do was run to the cottage. Decide, Brato, decide! Run to the cottage!
But it was about rubbing off an image from a gravestone! Like Indiana Jones! That's Indy, you hear me? Plus I still had to get those pine cones...

And so I ran into the woods. The path was straight, I grabbed some pine cones. Nobody was following me. Run back while you can! I kept going. Still no-one behind me. If Orange was to go here, I would've seen them by now. They were skipping it. I couldn't even see the cemetary yet. I was fucked. Fuck you Indiana Jones, hero of my childhood, fucker-upper of the first challenge! No coffee, no bacon, no eggs for Purple Team tomorrow morning because of you!

At last I got to the graveyard. Just a patch of grass with gravestones neatly alligned. I scanned them frantically, found that engraved thistle about halfway in, rubbed it off (it really works!), and ran back as fast as I could. When I got back to the road I was spent, completely out of breath, and completely alone.

I had gone from leader to last one. Nobody behind me, but up ahead in the distance I could see 2 orange specks. Was this a 3-minute-distance? I had to believe it. I could still make it. I ran after them. What else could I do?

After a while my legs felt like rubber. And it didn't exactly add to my good spirits that I seemed to be unable to close the gap. I wasn't faster than Orange. When they disappeared behind a bend in the road, I saw a purple person appear. New hope! It couldn't be far now! He was obviously waiting for me at the cottage! We could still make it!
When I reached him it turned out that the cottage was still way off (I could see orange in the distance), and that he was just as exhausted as I was.
"We have to make it inside 3 minutes!" I panted.
He (not the comrade from earlier, the other one) agreed.
We had to walk, but we kept going.

Far away I saw Orange turning off the road. They were at the cottage now.
We kept going.
A local dude with on an ATV passed us by, we tried to flag him down, make him give us a ride - it didn't happen.
We ran on.

Then we reached the cottage, stumbled up the driveway, collapsed on the lawn.
An erruption of shouting and yelling around us:
"Touch the deck! Touch the deck!"

One last effort: We touched the deck.
Then the voice of the game-master: "2 minutes, 52 seconds! Purple Team wins by 8 seconds!"

One of my favourite challenges was over.
Thank you, game-master.
Thank you, Indiana Jones.