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Book: Darwin's Quest: The Search for the Ultimate Survivor by Jonathan P. Brazee
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Authors: Jonathan P. Brazee
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come out of a hidden compartment near the cliff face and make its way down the cliff, articulated legs having no problem with the descent. We moved aside. According to our pre-show brief, we were supposed to ignore the St. Bernards. I couldn’t help but stare, though, as the white, box-like machine with the red cross painted on it approached Josh. The others had presumably seen the one which came for me, but being dead, I’d sort of missed it. And they never showed the St. Bernards on the holo. Oh, you could find a few surreptitious stills of them on various fan sites, but it was both sickening and fascinating at the same time to finally get a close-up view of one. A tube came out of the side of the machine and inserted itself into his throat, probably in his carotid. We couldn’t actually see the stabilizing fluid pump into him, but we knew that was what was happening. I shuddered, knowing that this had happened to me just a short time ago, probably from the same St. Bernard.
I heard a shout from above, then looked up to see Yash on the bridge, just now realizing what had happened. He was yelling down at us, but with the roar of the water, we couldn’t quite make out his words.
Technically, we should be moving on, but we just stood there. Yash started shouting again, looking toward Indian Territory and pointing down to us. I guessed the cavalry had arrived. Two modern ropes came over the side, just the right length to reach us on the bottom. Four people, completely covered from head to foot in green, came whipping down the ropes. As with the St. Bernards, we weren’t supposed to look at them, but in the constrained space, it was hard not to. The editors were going to have to do a lot of cutting and framing with their feeds.
Without a word, the four field team members reached down and rolled Josh onto a fabric hammock. The St. Bernard moved over to settle on top of him, then the team hooked the hammock onto the ropes. After they fastened their belts onto the hammock as well, one of them pushed a button on a small box, and the whole lot of them silently lifted up, using their legs to keep the hammock from bouncing off the rocks. The stopped right at the edge as two of them climbed over Josh and the hammock to reach the top, then guide Josh over. The whole evolution took probably less than two minutes.
“Well, now we move on.” Hamlin reached over to our rope, still hanging there. He climbed up, having only a little problem at the top where Yash helped him over the edge. I was next, tying the vine rope around my chest before going up. The rest followed without incident, even Julie. We made our way back over the bridge to Haven to await the results of the viewer voting.
Chapter 5
The trout steaks were comfortably in our bellies, and now Ratt, Lindadawn, and I were minding the smoking of the rest. Losing the one trout when Josh fell hurt, but we’d still brought back two fairly good sized fish.
During the premier episode of Darwin’s Quest , the contestants pretty much knew nothing about survival. But with so much money and fame at stake here, most follow-on contestants went through private crash-courses in survival training before arriving on the set. Building a fire from scratch was child’s play for most of us, and without refrigeration, smoking meat was another pretty valuable survival skill. We were the second shift, following Joda, Bernie, and Paul, and our job was to monitor the temperature and smoke production. Smoking fish was pretty easy, but a lapse in attention could ruin the catch.
Ratt and I were laughing and comparing battle scars. We had mirror image bruises on our faces, but overall, she won our little competition. Her small body was covered in bruises and scrapes. These would fade quickly as our nanos repaired the abused flesh, but they were then still badges of honor.
“Pretty good for a youngster,” I told her, taking her chin in one hand and turning her face so I could better see
I heard a shout from above, then looked up to see Yash on the bridge, just now realizing what had happened. He was yelling down at us, but with the roar of the water, we couldn’t quite make out his words.
Technically, we should be moving on, but we just stood there. Yash started shouting again, looking toward Indian Territory and pointing down to us. I guessed the cavalry had arrived. Two modern ropes came over the side, just the right length to reach us on the bottom. Four people, completely covered from head to foot in green, came whipping down the ropes. As with the St. Bernards, we weren’t supposed to look at them, but in the constrained space, it was hard not to. The editors were going to have to do a lot of cutting and framing with their feeds.
Without a word, the four field team members reached down and rolled Josh onto a fabric hammock. The St. Bernard moved over to settle on top of him, then the team hooked the hammock onto the ropes. After they fastened their belts onto the hammock as well, one of them pushed a button on a small box, and the whole lot of them silently lifted up, using their legs to keep the hammock from bouncing off the rocks. The stopped right at the edge as two of them climbed over Josh and the hammock to reach the top, then guide Josh over. The whole evolution took probably less than two minutes.
“Well, now we move on.” Hamlin reached over to our rope, still hanging there. He climbed up, having only a little problem at the top where Yash helped him over the edge. I was next, tying the vine rope around my chest before going up. The rest followed without incident, even Julie. We made our way back over the bridge to Haven to await the results of the viewer voting.
Chapter 5
The trout steaks were comfortably in our bellies, and now Ratt, Lindadawn, and I were minding the smoking of the rest. Losing the one trout when Josh fell hurt, but we’d still brought back two fairly good sized fish.
During the premier episode of Darwin’s Quest , the contestants pretty much knew nothing about survival. But with so much money and fame at stake here, most follow-on contestants went through private crash-courses in survival training before arriving on the set. Building a fire from scratch was child’s play for most of us, and without refrigeration, smoking meat was another pretty valuable survival skill. We were the second shift, following Joda, Bernie, and Paul, and our job was to monitor the temperature and smoke production. Smoking fish was pretty easy, but a lapse in attention could ruin the catch.
Ratt and I were laughing and comparing battle scars. We had mirror image bruises on our faces, but overall, she won our little competition. Her small body was covered in bruises and scrapes. These would fade quickly as our nanos repaired the abused flesh, but they were then still badges of honor.
“Pretty good for a youngster,” I told her, taking her chin in one hand and turning her face so I could better see
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