Survivor Tale #8

First thing sunday morning: Get coffee. So I grabbed my mug and got some hot black coffee from the kitchen, and I drank it, and I went and got more, because as far as I knew I had a bottomless cup deal; so I also gave coffee to the others. James had gathered some wild raspberries again (like the day before), very delicious.
After the real breakfast (rice with canned beans - let's not talk about it) we were off to the eastern beach, to see the first challenge of the day.

The day promised to be eventful, judging from all the stuff and equipment the game-master and her helpers were loading onto the 4-wheeler. All kinds of posts and buoys and stuff. Also a gun.

At the beach the helpers set up 5 stations, numbered 1 to 5. Each station was a big plastic plate filled with a certain amount of pieces of beachglass, rocks, and shells. The challenge worked like this: Each of the ten remaining players received a piece of paper, but no pencil. On the go signal we were to run to a station of our choice, count everything on the plate, run back to the game-master's helper, grab a pencil, write the numbers on the paper, give the pencil back, run to next station, repeat. With five sets of numbers on the paper we'd run to the game-master, she'd check if we had counted correctly. The first player with the correct set of numbers wins the challenge.

Boah, what a shit challenge! Again you had to focus like a motherfucker, and above all: stay calm. No use in running back and re-count stations, is there? On the go signal a wild bunch of crazy chickens playing a game of Survivor spread out in all directions and started counting like accountants. Soon there were line-ups at the pencil-guy. Wheee!
When I came to my second station I discovered they were not in the correct order. What I thought of as station 3 was actually station 1. Great. Nothing better than to add a bunch of crazy arrows to the scribbled numbers.
I tried to stay calm and focused, finished my counting as quick as I could (dodging other players), and handed my paper (which now had 15 numbers on it) to the game-master. She looked at it - I stood there - she kept looking at it - I stood there (my mind strangely empty, except for the constant: Let it be right! Let it be right!) - she said: No!
And off I went again. Problem was, I had no idea which number wasn't correct. I decided to systematically recount all stations, starting at the left-most one (no other player there at that moment). I recounted, and of course: my new count didn't match my old count.
Back to the game-master.
Let it be right, let it be right!
No!

Next station. Recount. Numbers seemed correct. Next station. Recount. Rewrite numbers.
Game-master.
Let it be right!
No!

Off again. I recounted the remaining stations. Other players were sitting in the light, moving shit around on the plates for their counting. Don't get confused, man!

Game-master's verdict: No!
Arrgh!

I counted again. By now I had counted everything twice. It had to be right!
Game-master said: No!
Fuck you!

Off again. Re-count. Numbers I had corrected before, I re-corrected back now.
Line-up at pencil-guy. Line-up at game-master.
Game-master: No! Helper: A very interesting "no".
What's that supposed to mean?

Another count! Fucking beachglass sometimes looked like rocks. Fucking shells sometimes were hiding under shells! So did fucking rocks!
Run back - grab pencil, scribble numbers.
Game-master: No!
Helper: Like before!
What?

Just stay focused, man. I counted again. By now I was sure my count was correct. This time it had to be right. It had to be.
Line-up at the game-master again. I had to wait.

Actually, I didn't know about the right count anymore. After all this re-counting and re-checking and re-writing everything seemed to be possible. By now, I thought, it was just a question of getting lucky.
My turn. She checked. And checked.

"Uhm, I didn't mean the fuck you earlier."

Game-master: I know.

"Ethan wins the challenge!"

Phew. I won the challenge. I didn't even wanna know if I had counted right. I hoped they wouldn't re-check.