John beats a rhythm on his knees, rilling up his excitement. James wraps his arm around my shoulder and pulls my head into his chest.
"Like a first date," he whispers ever so quietly so no one else can hear.
*****
The next morning ...
Emma P.O.V
"Emma? Emma! Wake up!"
I'm shaken awake again, but this time not by James, but by John. He frantically shakes my leg nowhere near as gently as James does it. "Get up! We have to leave for the challenge soon!"
I roll out from inside the hammock and onto the Australian floor. "How long do I have?"
"About 10 minutes. James has packed your bag for you so you just need to freshen up, get ready and eat breakfast."
While Sair is whipping up my rice and beans, I brush my teeth, wash my face and sort out my stinky armpits with water and terrible quality soap. I then sprint back to camp, wolf down my breakfast and throw on my backpack.
"In there is your coat, hat and two water bottles," James tells me. "Oh, and good morning beautiful."
He hugs me into his chest. "We have to smash this today."
As my head is laid on his chest, I hear his stomach roar. "We sure do!" I guffaw. "Your stomach is so loud!"
Once we're all ready, all of us campmates leave camp. We push through bushes and brambles until we reach a fork in the path.
"Challenge <-
Live trial ->"
"This is it then," Fleur hugs me, ready to take the right-hand path. "Come back with 11 stars, yeah?"
"Only if you smash the trial?" I tease, letting her go. Behind her, Malique calls her name so they can walk to the clearing together.
I like those two. They'd make a good couple.
"You ready?" James taps my shoulder. "Come on Em, let's go earn ourselves some food."
John, James and I push through brambles and thorns, down the hardly carved out path all the way to a small field. Sat on top of the field is a colossal chopper.
"The helicopter is back!" I squeal, running up to it like an excited school girl.
When I climb in, it brings back so many memories of when we all first entered the jungle, having no idea to expect. I remember that I was sat with James, John and Sair, frequently deliberating what was going to happen in our first day.
The chopper rises from the ground and soars through the baby-blue sky. The weather is incredible; we got very lucky with it.
"I'm so excited!" John sings, looking out of the window. "I have no idea where we are."
"They're trying to disorientate us," James adds as the helicopter spins, rises and descends.
The helicopter lands on a lime-green plane of grass, nothing different to where we took off from. However, outside of the window is a big wooden crate.
"Open it up," I tell James once we've all jumped out of the chopper. It's chilly out, so as James opens the crate, I throw my coat on.
"John, James and Emma. Here is all of the equipment you will need. Follow the GPS to the starting line. You will start on the sound of the klaxon."
Amongst the crate is a harness, life jacket, helmet and a torch. Looks like we're in for a very active day.
John takes charge of the GPS as I have the directional skills of a slug. He switches the device on, and loads of red and purple lights come up on the screen.
"This way!" He points into the Australian Bush. "Let's go kiddos!"
James and I run behind whilst John wrapped in our equipment. The wind blows my hair across my face; my stomach eats at my skin, as the hunger is getting unbearable. We need this food more than anything.
"This is the starting line?" John huffs once we've reached the side of a cliff.
I look around and can't see any clue where to go, until I spot a laminate taped to a post a few feet away. "Look!" I point, running up to it. "It says, 'In the live trial, your campmates managed to earn you 85 minutes to collect the eleven stars. The number of stars you have at the end of the trial will determine how many people eat at the luxury banquet."
A klaxon noise roars. On John's digital watch, 85 minutes flashes up on the screen, meaning the time has begun.
"I think I've found our first trial," James points. "Look."
James points to a cliff edge, where a ranger is stood ready to hook us up to some wires. We all edge closer, and I dare peak over the edge to see what looks like a 60 foot drop down.
"We're abseiling."
Then I spot them. Along a green cord in the centre of the cliff are 3 starred flags, hooked on it at regular intervals. "Who's going first?"
"I will, and then I'll tell you how to do it." James volunteers, leaping towards the ranger and getting strapped in.
"For god's sake be careful." I plead once he's in position.
He promises me he'll be fine, and then like a cat out of the water, he runs down the cliff edge fearlessly. Once he's descended to the first star, James swings his body across and grabs the cord, unhooking the flag and hooking it to his backpack.
"It's totally fine!" He shouts up whilst being unhooked from the outback floor. "You just have to swing across for the star!"
I'm next to be hooked up. The fear begins to arise when I'm first tied in, but it dissipates when I get over the first edge. The rocks are sharp and break away with the slightest touch; I spot all the debris falling to the floor and pray I don't fall too.
"Keep going Em!" James encourages. I feed the rope through the silver Caribbean and tiptoe ever so slowly down the cliff side.
"Stop! Ok, now swing yourself over to your left and grab the cord."
I push against the cliff edge and swing myself to the right, building enough momentum to grab the green cord. My fingers stretch out to the rope, and on my first swing, the cord is still out of reach.
But I commit, and manage to grab the green cord on the third swing. I feed my hand's clamp to the second flag and unhook the metal clips, attaching them onto the loops on my bag. Once it's safely secured, I gently allow myself down to the floor.
"Well done!" James congratulates me, picking me up and swinging me around. "You did incredibly."
He hugs me into his chest and goes to peck my lips, but I stop him. "Um, James? John is here, remember?"
"Oh yeah." He shakes his head. "I forgot."
"Don't worry. We'll let everyone know soon about-,"
"Let everyone know what?" I voice breathes down my eardrum. "I got the third star."
Wow. He did that pretty fast. "...Uh, it doesn't matter now." He shakes off his own question. "We have 62 minutes and need to get to the next challenge."
I hook all of the stars to my backpack when John plugs in the next GPS coordinates. "It's this way!" He points out to the horizon.
Once again, James and I sprint up behind John, desperate to see what the next challenge is.
The three of us clamber and scale rocks to see the mouth of a cave. Before we even have time to suss the pace out, I immediately - being the smallest - drop my bag and get onto my hands and knees and start to crawl into the narrow rockface. It's dusty and gross, but as I shine my light across the sediment, I spot a key.
"I have a key!" I bellow, wriggling back out again.
"Give it here! We have a padlock!" James motions to me. I wriggle out of the abyss and throw James the key, to which he unlocks the padlock on a long metal chain. "We have to feed the star off of this chain."
"Em, crawl back in and drag the star along the chain," John orders as he seems to have taken the role of team captain.
I crawl back on my hands and knees into the poorly lit rockface. Once I spot the piece of cloth, I clutch my fingers around it and pull. Completely ignoring how the rocks are grazing my knees, I grab the star and pull it along the metal around a large rock.
"You've got this Emma!" The boys encourage.
Once I've grabbed the star and escaped the cavern, both the boys have started on the second star. It isn't locked up but instead tangled up in a knot in the chain.
"Pull!" James untangles the chain almost immediately, making it look like a hidden talent. I hold onto the star, and James and John yank the chain, feeding it through the loop.
"Got it!" John shrieks, high-fiving James and I. "Now that's five stars. We have 40 minutes. Let's go!"
Once again, James, John and I use up all the strength in our legs, belting over rocks and crevices. James takes my hand and helps me up some tricky rock-faces whilst John takes control of the GPS up ahead.
After running for a good ten minutes, we come across water.
"Life jackets on!" I order, throwing my own over my head. In front is a rapidly flowing river, where wakes are crashing like demons on the rock edge. "There is a raft over there. I guess we're supposed to get on it?"
John and I push approach the raft and push it into the water to make it buoyant. Meanwhile, James grabs all the bags and throws them onto the raft. "Ok," James assesses. "Emma, you get on first. John, then you get on. I'll swim and hold onto the side."
The raft is shakey and unbalanced, but I balance my centre of gravity into the middle of the boat. Luckily balance is one of my dancing skills, so I manage to counteract the raft almost sinking when John jumps on.
We manage to row ourselves down the river. Above us hangs two stars suspended on metal chains that I manage to attain.
Up ahead in the river is a small dip, therefore we all decide to grab our bags and ditch the raft as it seems to have seen its life over. The raft sprints down the river once I jump into the river, being surrounded by the bitterly cold water.
"Holy crap it's cold!" I complain, swimming in the same direction as John.
We come across an arrangement of buoys with downwards arrows painted on the side, pointing deep into the waters labyrinth.
"Do you think we have to-," I swim around to ask John, but his body is already submerged underneath. "Oh ... ok then... so..."
His little head pokes above the water with the star in his hand. "Got it!"
We all swim back over to the water's edge, and the 6th, 7th and 8th star are all hooked to my rucksack.
"Let's get going, folks! Only three more to find!" I clap, going to run but not knowing where the heck I'm going.
We follow John instead, all the way to the final challenge.
A zip wire.
James spots it and is the first to shout out. "I'll go first!"
The zip wire is about 20 foot high, and spans across meters and meters of Australia. A certain way down the zip wire hangs the final three stars from the trees, waiting to be grabbed.
James pulls off the first zip perfectly. He flies down the zip line like a handsome batman, grabs one of the stars and yanks it off its chain, earning a 9th campmate a luxury banquet.
"Well done James!" I beam. His face is lit up in delight. "That was incredible!"
"Thank god I grabbed it." He breathes, hugging me tightly. "Now it's your go!"
I drop my bag off of my back and run towards the tree, scaling the wooden ladder up to the tree top. Once I'm all strapped in at the top of the wire, I give a quick wave to James and propel myself down the line.
It's euphoric.
The wind catapults my hair back, spins me around a few times, and as I reach the flag, I stretch my arm out and grasp it, giving it a pull off of its chain.
"Yes!" John screams, watching me wave it around. "Well done Emma!"
By the time I'm all unhooked, John is already at the top of the tree.
"Well done!" James congratulates me, picking me up and spinning me around, something he seems to do a lot. "That's the tenth meal!"
"Awh thanks! Let's just hope John gets the last one."
John shoots down the line like a gracious bird, flailing his arms, waiting for the star to approach him.
He gets closer, foot by foot, and when it's just in touching distance, he reaches out to grab the star.
But he misses it, leaving the final star hanging from the outback canopy.
*****
I'm sorry this one wasn't very romantic, but it was a chapter that I've been excited to write! I promise you the next chapter will be a lot more lovely!
Of course, this chapter's shout out goes to bondi_girl3 for all of the lovely comments!!
Xoxo