As we're about to step into the ink-black cave, I slip my goggles on and grab James' arm.
"I'm so nervous." I shake.
He spins on his feet and hugs me into his chest immediately.
"It's ok Em. I'll look after you."
*****
Emma P.O.V
Fleur, James and I walk hand in hand into the inexplicable cavern. The light mists into darkness, and we have to feel around the walls to find our way.
"Oh no," Fleur dreads, finding the trial.
We emerge into an open space. There's a little dugout rectangle on the floor where I'm guessing we have to lay down - it looks like a three-person coffin. In the four corners of the pit are four gems locked in four different translucent boxes.
We all step down into the pit. I decide to lay in the middle, with my head at one end. James lies on my left, and Fleur on my right, with their feet beside my head.
I spot tiny holes in the sides of the pit - we aren't going to be alone. A large clang of metal echoes off the walls when a massive metal mesh starts to cover us up, trapping us in the pit like we're in a prison cell.
"It's ok guys. We've got this." I try to convince myself whilst my legs shake in nervousness.
The clackson sounds. "Anne! What do you have?"
Her voice is muffled from outside, but her words can still be decoded. "The briefcase is full of keys tied up on a string." She bellows. "What colour do you need?"
"Yellow!" Fleur belts back. The yellow box is the closest to her head, and most likely the easiest one to unlock.
As Anne begins to do whatever she has to do outside the cave, my back starts to become sodden. The box begins to fill with water, but it isn't regular water. It stinks.
"Oh my god, it smells of poop!" I scream. "For fudge sake!"
The cave falls quiet for a few seconds, as we're all studying the ropes that are wrapped around the metal mesh above us.
"Oh crap!" James jumps and his feet almost kick me in the head. "It's frogs."
A croaking noise echoes down my ear drum as three or four congregate around my head. "They smell so bad!"
When Anne finally manages to post the first key down the rope, Fleur grabs it, twists it around and uses it to unlock the padlock on the yellow translucent box.
"Got it!" She smiles, grabbing the glowing green gem and shoving it in her pouch. "Emma, what coloured boxes are by your head?"
To my left, "a red box," and to my right, "and a blue one."
It only takes ten seconds for the next key to be fed down the rope. Fleur grabs it in her hand and weaves it around the mesh. As soon as it's in touching distance, I grab the red key and jiggle it up and down, through the loops in the rope.
"There's a frog on top of the box!" I shriek as I'm just about to grab the gem. "What do I do!"
"Move it!" Fleur cries as one of the toads jump onto her neck.
I use the back of my hand and swat it away, and it jumps down onto Fleur's leg. I then pull at the key and slot it into the keyhole.
I swing the box door open and yank out the second gem. "Anne! I need a blue key!"
Anne feeds the blue key down the rope, and Fleur and I follow the same plan. I grab the key and swerve it around the knots that are tangled in the mesh.
When I grab the blue key, I unlock the blue box and grab the third gem. "Well done!" James cheers when it goes into my pouch. "Ok, Anne? I need a red key!"
"Sending it down!" Her muffled voice shouts.
Finally, the red key makes its way into the cave, and Fleur and James work together to unlock the final box.
"It's stuck!"
As James is just about to untangle the mess and unlock the final box, the clackson rings, signalling the end of the challenge.
The metal mesh folds back to let us free, and I immediately jump up and shake off all of the frogs that were habituating on my clothes.
Fleur and I belt it out of the cave. Once we're back out into the night, I embrace her in a huge hug. "We got three!"
"Well done guys, you did amazing." Anne approves, looking down at our disgusting smelly clothes.
I look down to see that I'm completely soaked in whatever that watery liquid was, and my hair is capturing its smell. James emerges from the cave and captures Fleur and me in a three-way hug.
"You girls did amazing!" He shakes us. "Now come on. Let's get dried off and go back to camp."
The next morning ...
After finishing off the rice and beans, Anne emerges from the Bush Telegraph with a laminated piece of card and three wrapped up packages. "Celebrities!" She reads. "In last nights challenge, each of the coloured boxes represented one of the campmates in Snake Rock. As you managed to free the gems from the yellow, blue and green boxes, the three care packages have been allocated to ... Fleur, James, and Anne."
My heart sinks a little. I would have loved to have claimed my luxury item, but maybe it just wasn't meant to be.
"Are you ok, Emma?"
"I'm fine." I shrug.
James stands up from the floor and lays his breakfast tray on a tree stump. He comes and joins me, sat on one of the logs, and wraps his arm around my shoulder. "I'm sorry you didn't win your luxury item."
Anne dishes out the packages that are wrapped cutely in brown tissue paper: Fleur gets some hair moose, Anne gets a picture of her mum and dad, and James unwraps half a Cadbury's Oreo chocolate bar.
"Here," he breaks off a chunk and hands it to me. "Have some."
"Really?" I ask, and he nods, hugging me tighter. "Thank you, James."
I take a bite of the chocolate; it's like heaven in my mouth. I bury my head in the naple between his neck and shoulder. I could fall asleep in his arms.
Half an hour later ...
After explaining the challenge to all the viewers via the Bush Telegraph, I'm given a laminate by a camera-man and ushered back to camp.
"I come with news!" I belt, skipping over the little bridge that flows over the stream. "And it's good news!"
Fleur and Anne's heads perk up like dogs who've just been told they're going on a walk.
"Celebrities!" I read. "Your time in Snake Rock is now up! Please get ready to leave camp!"
"Finally!" Fleur shouts at the top of her lungs. "I'm so excited!"
James wonders back from the dunny, broad-shouldered with the sun beating down on his chest. He looks puzzled as we're all jumping up and down in joy. "Um ... did I miss something?"
"We're leaving camp!" I bellow, running at him and hugging him tightly. "We're going to Crock Creek!"
His face illuminates in happiness. His positivity is contagious, his cheeky smile and gorgeous dimples are a sight that cheers everyone up. "Oh my gosh! That's amazing!"
He picks me up and spins me around. When he puts me down, one of his hands stays wrapped around my waist, while his other hand moves the hair from my face around to the back of my ear. His tousled blonde hair is messy from where he hasn't had time to style it - it's thick and lustrous. His eyes are a mesmerising deep ocean blue, flecks of silvery light perform ballets throughout. He releases a short breath and produces a small smile.
"Um, guys?" Anne taps my shoulder. "I hate to interrupt whatever this is, but we have to get packing."
At mid-afternoon...
Walking out of Snake Rock is what I imagine walking out of prison to be like. It's so rejuvenating, knowing that where we're going is such an upgrade to where we've been staying for the past few days.
We walk down a set of stairs, through a maze of brambles and bushes until discovering a whole new part of the jungle. The four of us trek past a creek - much larger than the one in Snake Rock, past a shower and a dunny and a waterfall and a stream, - much nicer than the ones in the one in Snake Rock. Finally, we reach the main camp.
It's luxurious.
"Oh my gosh!" A man with an American accent bellows over the camp. "No way!"
He launches himself at us, hugging all of us one by one. It's John Barrowman, the first man I met when on the yacht when our jungle experience started. "We've missed you guys so much!"
All of the campmates in Snake Rock look incredible, full of energy and life. It's much different to Anne, Fleur, James and I. Our skin has started to be consumed by our body we're so hungry for food.
I'm welcomed into camp by the gorgeous Sair, followed by Nick, Malique and Harry.
"You guys!"
I turn around to look back up the path.
"Emily!" Fleur and I shriek in unison, running up the path and wrapping her in the tightest hug. She looks so much different to when we saw her last, with her hair washed and freshly laundered clothes on. "We missed you so much."
"I missed you both too!" She laughs. "Oh my god. It's so much nicer here than in Snake Rock, and everyone is so lovely!"
She's right. The main camp is incredible.
There's a massive floor space, where around it are hammocks tied up on trees, and beds that aren't just mats on the floor. The cleanliness is a million times greater than in Snake Rock - I bet these guys don't have to wash their clothes and dirty plates in the same water.
Above the camp is the iconic red telephone box. "This is absolutely amazing!" I say to Nick and John. "How's the food here?"
"Scrummy," John laughs. "But hey, we have 10 meals tonight!"
"WHAT!" I shriek. "Omg, no way?"
"John won ten stars in the trial earlier today." Nick commends him. "And Sair and I have all the cooking sorted, so you guys can kick back and relax for a while."
I already love Crock Creek.
That night ...
I've been chatting to Malique, Sair and James most of the evening, having fun doing impressions of one another, and playing a game where we have to throw rings of tied up vines around a tree stump.
"Snake Rock was pretty awful then?" Sair winces as I share some of the memories. "We're all so glad you're here though."
Malique nods. "Emily really missed you guys."
I look at Emily who's led fast asleep in her hammock. She really is a kind soul and what sounds like a massive character in here.
Suddenly, a massive bohemian bag is lowered into camp on a cord. Harry jogs - I've never seen a 72-year-old move so fast -, unhooks the bag and opens it up.
"Celebrities," he reads in a croaky cockney accent."As a result of John winning 10 stars in today's trial, 'Scary Rose', you have Alpaca Neck with mixed veg".
Nick jumps up and begins to prep the meat. Even though it's miles off an a la carte dinner, it looks way more appetising than small bags of rice and beans.
"Are you sure you don't want any help?" I offer, itching to dig in.
"No, honestly Em!" Malique shakes his head. "You guys have had to face the worst over the past few days. Sit back and relax."
As dinner is being prepared, I sit beside the fire, and Harry tells me all sorts of different stories: how he reversed over his wife Sandra, how he had dinner with Princess Beatrice, and how much he loves his wife. He then begins to tell me the stories from Crock Creek, how Malique almost broke his leg doing a backflip, and the challenge they had to do to win their own luxury items.
During his storytelling, James comes and listens in. His arm drapes around my neck and pulls me into his body, comforting me as it's starting to get chilly out.
When dinner is served, Fleur and I eat our entire meals before everyone has even been given their food. Malique, Fleur and I then take our plates down to the creek and begin to wash them with actual soap.
"So, I saw you getting cuddly with James earlier." Malique hits my arm playfully. "What's that all about?"
"They've been flirting non-stop in Snake Rock." Fleur laughs. "I mean it's really cute, but they need to get a room!"
"So, are you two together?" Malique asks.
"No!" I defend myself. "We're just really good friends at the moment."
"Ok ..." he flashes his eyebrows at me. "But anyway, Fleur, tonight you are always welcome to take my hammock? Emma, I know that Nick was going to give up his hammock for you to sleep in."
"Awhh, thank you so much." I smile, drying up my tray. "You're all so lovely."
When we head back to camp, Malique grabs all of his things and moves them over to a barren bed beside the fire. Fleur then jumps into Malique's old hammock, claiming it her own.
"Here, take this one Emma," Nick offers, picking up his things. "I'm sure you're sick of sleeping on the floor."
"Thank you, Nick," I blow him a kiss, grabbing my red rucksack and hooking it over a nearby post.
Nick moves to the bed beside Malique's, and I jump my hammock which is conveniently next to Fleur's. As I jump in, I use so much force that I fall out the other side of the hammock, face planting the floor.
Malique and Harry erupt into hysterical laughter, whilst James jumps out of his hammock - which is up beside the phone box - and helps me up from the floor. "Are you ok?" He dusts the dirt off my arm.
When I assure him I'm ok, he helps me back into the hammock and helps me get comfy. "Trust me," Malique adds, "the hammocks take a bit of getting used to."
Once everyone has retired to bed and exchanged their goodnight's, I shut my eyes and fall asleep in seconds.
*****
Thank you to the lovely ForWhomSheWrites for all the lovely comments and votes!
Comment who your favourite campmate is, and if you want to see Malique get with Fleur or Emily??
If you have any suggestions for the plot, please DM me as I'd love to hear them!
Xoxo