I follow Aaron out of the tiny room with my backpack secured over my shoulders with my supplies and anorak tucked safely inside. He leads me from the room and I enter the hall. The other teenagers that will be fighting alongside us as members of the blue team have poked their heads outside their rooms, the noise of Aaron’s chuckling obviously making them feel safer, more positive.
I quickly glance around at the others, two boys and two girls. The gender division is equal. The group of teenagers around me share the same expression as I do; a mixture of fear, uncertainty, excitement and anxiousness. None of us know what to expect. None of us know what the day will bring. The others seem just as speechless as myself.
‘’I’m Aaron,’’ he introduces.
‘’Alice,’’ I add.
The first person to speak up is a tall and slender, olive-skinned girl. She has brown hair that is quite long and frizzy. It is curly but it is completely natural. She has hazelnut brown eyes that seem to reflect intelligence far beyond her age may initially indicate. She is beautiful, although her face is completely free from makeup. She is of an effortless beauty, completely natural.
‘’Kate,’’ she answers, nodding her head slightly as a sign of respect perhaps.
‘’What’s going on here?’’ questions one of the boys, the taller of the two – although not quite as lofty as Aaron.
He has short brown hair and his skin is a similar colour to Kate’s. He is muscular and looks quite fit, although something about his face makes me think he is quite dull or dopey – after six years in secondary school I’m used to his kind. He looks like the typical guy that would go out partying every chance he gets and drink until he’s sickly.
‘’Didn’t you read the letter?’’ asks the final girl among us obnoxiously, as soon as I hear her voice I can identify the type of person she is.
Her tone is aristocratic, she is of high-born and due to her social status she thinks she’s superior to everyone. As she questions the boy, her noise wrinkles as though he disgusts her. She seems to me to be the type of girl that has been fed with a silver spoon her entire life; her hair – which is looking more than perfect – hangs in neat tufts as far as her shoulder blades. Her face has a delicate layer of makeup across it that makes her cheeks seem thinner and her eyes seem brighter. She manages to look fashionable though in the clothes she has been provided with – she wears the bandana around her neck like Aaron does.
‘’Can you even read?’’ she questions again, before he can get another word in – she rolls her eyes as she speaks.
I glance at Aaron and her smiles slightly at me, revealing his perfectly white teeth. He winks and turns back to the two bickering teens that we’re going to have to put up with for the next while if we want the prize money.
‘’Enough!’’ Aaron finally utters and the two quieten. Although it is unofficial, it is clear Aaron has stepped forward as our leader. We have all just met and already he is able to silence the group. ‘’ What are your names?’’
‘’Eve,’’ introduces the callous, posh girl, smiling at Aaron and curling a tuft of her blonde hair between her fingers – painted a luscious shade of red.
‘’Robbie,’’ replies the apparently dim-witted boy that Eve already clearly can’t stand.
‘’How common,’’ mutters Eve and rolls her eyes once more.
‘’What about you?’’ I question, glancing at the final boy among us.
He avoids making eye contact; instead he stares at the floor. In a quick glance I take him in; he has quite pale skin – especially standing next to Kate – and he has curly auburn hair. He is quite slender, with a defined face and prominent jawbones. He is quite small and looks as though he would be the type of kid that would get pushed around in the playground.
‘’She asked you a question,’’ says Robbie, approaching the boy as though looking for trouble.
‘’Leave him alone!’’ Kate orders angrily as Robbie squares up to the boy.
‘’We’re supposed to be a team,’’ I say, reminding him of this fact.
‘’I was just trying to help you,’’ explains Robbie.
Wrong. He was trying to impress me. I’m used to idiots like him that think girls love when guys are dicks to their clear inferiors. The boy is clearly not speaking because he too recognises the kind of person Robbie is, and is obviously used to being thwarted by them. He didn’t speak because he wanted to avoid something like this.
‘’I think I can handle it,’’ I say, ‘’I’m a girl, not an infant.’’
‘’Whatever,’’ he shrugs, trying to play it cool.
‘’So are any of you familiar with the game? Or is it new to all of you as well?’’ questions Kate after a few moments of awkward silence.
‘’I played it,’’ I announce.
‘’Same,’’ says Aaron, ‘’it was basically hide and seek but both teams were hiding and seeking at the same time.’’
‘’And you got the shit kicked out of you if you were caught, until you gave up your letter,’’ adds Robbie.
Kate looks horrified.
‘’Don’t worry,’’ I assure, ‘’it wasn’t as bad as he makes it sound. I played it and the guys are usually gentle with the girls.’’
‘’They’re puffs. If you play, you gotta play properly,’’ says Robbie, Eve gives him a dirty look from across the hall.
‘’They’re gentlemen,’’ corrects Kate.
‘’There are various versions of the game, in the game we played there was tickling and kissing involved,’’ explains Eve, ‘’all the guys went for me especially.’’
As she says this she giggles fakely, trying to boast. I find myself rolling my eyes now, this girl is going to get on my nerves.
‘’I bet they were,’’ answers Aaron and I try hard not to smile.
‘’The letter said the game will be slightly modified, what do you think that means?’’ Kate asks before Eve can respond to Aaron.
Aaron shrugs his shoulders.
‘’Probably the length we’re playing for, and the scale of the boundaries. We have a whole island, and we were provided with sleeping gear. This could take a while,’’ I suggest.
‘’Plus it is a TV show, they’ll want drama, romance and lots of action, anything to make it more exciting for the people watching at home-’’ adds Aaron, but before he can finish, he is interrupted.
‘’Do you think it’s live?’’ interjects Eve, ‘’does my hair look OK?’’
I can tell everyone is thinking of a snarky remark, something to put this materialistic and egotistical brat in her place.
‘’Yeah,’’ begins Robbie and Eve smiles however her expression quickly changes with the rest of his sentence, ‘’you really rock the dragged through a bush look.’’
My jaw drops with shock and I laugh aloud slightly, as do the others. Even the quiet boy stifles a chuckle.
‘’Excuse me?’’ she gasps in both horror and shock.
‘’Did you fart?’’ asks Kate with a serious look on her face, although I can tell she is fighting hard to keep the facade up.
Eve’s face contorts into a look of absolute disgust. She turns and storms from the hallway and heads straight outside with her pack slung over one shoulder. We wait a second in silence, and when she is out of earshot we burst into laughter. This is going to be fun.
‘’Can any of you remember how you got here?’’ I question and immediately they turn to me.
‘’Neither can I!’’ gasps Kate.
‘’Why would they drug us?’’ Robbie questions.
‘’Nobody said they drugged us,’’ begins Aaron, ‘’but I do agree, it’s weird that none of us remember how we got here.’’
‘’Time will tell,’’ I say.
‘’We should head outside, wait for the further instructions,’’ suggests Aaron and we follow Eve outside.
There is a gentle breeze; it is quite refreshing on the skin. The sun is beating down on us from high in the flawless blue sky and there is sounds of waves gently moving back and forth on a stony beach someone off in the distance. The exact location of the waves is almost untraceable, but at the same time it seems to be coming from all directions. We are on an island; that much is obvious.
I spin slowly in a full circle, taking in my surroundings. We are in a clearing surrounded by trees about ten meters from each side of the building. The trees are huge, and tower twenty feet above us. There are birds chirping in the trees, everything seems so peaceful. The grass underfoot is long and leafy, a sign that this place is natural, we’ll find no others here – apart from our opposing team of course!
Eve sits a few meters away from us with her legs crossed. She has her lunchbox out and she is gobbling down the sandwiches that she has been provided with. She glances at us for a moment, mutters something under her breath and then continues eating.
‘’You should probably save them for later, we don’t know how long we’ll be here for,’’ suggests Aaron.
‘’I’m hungry now. I’ve been asleep for God knows how long and I need to eat,’’ she retorts immediately.
‘’Well you won’t be getting any of mine when you’re hungry later!’’ Robbie calls but she barely bats an eye at him.
I sneak a glance at Aaron; he is watching the girl and slowly shaking his head. Her idiocy is clearly getting to him.
‘’Don’t mind her,’’ I say and he turns to me.
‘’I’m not,’’ he exclaims defensively.
‘’Alright then,’’ I smile, knowing he’s too proud to admit it.
‘’I’m gonna have a look around, keep an eye on her,’’ he explains, glancing over at Eve. He then begins scouting the area around us.
I sit on the grassy floor with Kate, she invites the quiet boy to sit but he politely shakes his head. Robbie gazes at us, obviously expecting an invite himself but when it doesn’t come he mutters something under his breath and heads back towards the building we woke up inside.
‘’Boys,’’ exclaims Kate with a smile and rolls eyes jokingly.
‘’You gotta love ‘em,’’ I add.
‘’Especially Aaron,’’ she says and winks, ‘’he’s gorgeous!’’
I smirk back at her, ‘’he is a nice bit of eye-candy if I do say so myself.’’
I already love this girl; she would definitely be among my group of friends if she went to my school. There’s nothing fake about her, she’s actually genuine.
‘’The mute is cute too,’’ she adds, ‘’I probably have a better shot with him. Aaron is way out of my league.’’
‘’You’re stunning!’’ I gasp, shocked at this girl’s lack of self-confidence.
‘’I wish,’’ she replies.
‘’You are!’’ I insist.
‘’Then why is it that all the guys go for girls like her?’’ she questions, nodding towards Eve a few meters away, still scoffing down the sandwiches.
‘’Because most guys are idiots,’’ I explain.
‘’Fair point.’’
I glance over at the quiet boy; he is walking back and forth slowly, kicking at a stick sitting in the grass – trying to appear occupied.
‘’Hey!’’ I say and he glances over at us, ‘’come sit down.’’
Before the boy can respond – with most likely a shake of his head – Aaron calls out to us.
‘’Guys! I found something.’’
I get to my feet and pull Kate to hers, Eve packs away the last triangular ham sandwich she has left and gets to her feet. Robbie appears from the side of the building and makes his way towards Aaron. The quiet boy waits for us to pass and then he follows behind the group.
‘’I found this,’’ explains Aaron, showing us a pile of laminated pages as he sits on the stump of a tree long since chopped down.
‘’What is it?’’ I question.
‘’More instructions,’’ he replies.
‘’Read it out,’’ asks Kate.
‘’ Dear candidates,
With these instructions, you will find six maps of the island you are currently on which will give you an aerial view on the area. The other team have also been supplied with them. We encourage you all to take full advantage of the maps, as they indicate to you exactly where on the island the other team’s starting position is as well as the location of the letter input station.
The letter input station – or LIS – is located in the centre of the island, both for the red and blue team. The purpose of the LIS is to help you keep track of what letters you have obtained from the opposing team. Once you get a letter off the other team, we encourage you to go to the LIS and punch in the letter in case you forget it.
Once you have gained all six letters from the other team and you have input all the letters, you will then have to unscramble the anagram to guess the word. We want to stress now that the LIS has been programmed to penalise guessing, so only input letters you are completely positive about. We also suggest you spend time unscrambling the word, because you will not have many shots at guessing it, again incorrect answers will be penalised.
Once you have guessed correctly, the doors of the building you started in will open – as you may have noticed that they are closed now. When you get inside, you will find a special exit that will take you down through a tunnel in the earth and down to a beach where a yacht awaits you and your team. It will take you back to the mainland where your prize money will be waiting!
We also encourage you to elect a leader of your team, as important decisions will have to be made during the game and a leader will be necessary to maintain order in your democratic group. Finally, we suggest you search for the other team first as it is always better to be the hunter and not the hunted. Making the decision to go search for them gives an advantage, you have the element of surprise on them.
Sincerely, MH.’’
I take the letter from Aaron and read it again myself, taking in anything I may have missed as he read it.
‘’So who wants to be leader?’’ asks Kate after a few moments.
‘’I’d like to put myself forward,’’ says Eve, ‘’I think I have great social skills and I understand people well. I think I’d be a good, stern and decisive director that is not afraid to give orders.’’
I can tell as soon as she opens her mouth that this is all for the cameras. I glance to Kate, catching her eye and she rolls her eyes once again.
‘’I think Aaron would be good,’’ I suggest.
‘’I second that,’’ adds Kate.
‘’Do you mind being leader?’’ I question.
‘’Don’t mind to be honest,’’ he admits, ‘’I just think a leader is someone who paves the way, not someone who orders people about.’’
Eve scoffs at this, clearly disgusted by the truth.
‘’Then it’s settled,’’ I smile.
I return the letter to Aaron and he passes out the maps of the island. The maps are printed in colour; the island is a green surrounded by blue. There are two boxes – one blue and one red – at either end of the island representing our starting points and a grey circle in the centre representing the letter input station. There are trees scattered around the island, and there are two brown patches on the map, although I am not sure what they could be.
‘’So what’s the plan boss?’’ questions Kate and Aaron looks up at us after studying his map.
‘’I’d say we head to the brown patch first. It’s pretty close and it’s worth a look,’’ he suggests, nobody objects.
‘’Let’s go then,’’ I smile.
I wonder what my family and friends at home are doing. If this is live, then are they watching me right now? What do they think of my group? Kate...Eve...Aaron! Because they are watching from the outside, they have seen are opponents. They know who we are up against. I wonder what they are like.
I fall into step with Aaron at the front of the group. Robbie is a few paces behind us, and a few paces behind him again are Kate and the quiet kid. She is chatting away with him, he responds with a nod or shake of his head. Eve brings up the rear, complaining about how her feet hurt.
‘’I swear I am going to strangle that girl before the day is out,’’ I mutter and Aaron laughs.
‘’You and me both,’’ he replies.