Scavenger Hunt Read online

  “I still say we open with Rob,” she said. “We need to be respectful. Let’s get it over with early.”

  “Nobody will know who he is at the beginning.”

  “I want to do a pre-empt. Even before the actual show starts. I’ll go on screen and talk about who he was, how much he meant to the show and our past work. Just be up front about it. Two minutes. Then we do the show opening and get everyone on their way. We save the footage of the shipwreck till the proper chronological time.”

  “Good. I like it being in order.”

  “We have to spend a bunch of time on Michael. He’s off the show now, though. Kind of a waste to give him much air time.”

  Rick nodded agreement. “We concentrate on Susan and Joe instead. We’ve got that interview with Joe where it’s clear he actually loves Susan. Now that Michael is out of the way, we should exploit that.”

  Cynthia nodded. “And Brittany. We’ve got good stuff on her.”

  “She’s a freak.”

  “Yeah, but she’s our freak.” She stared as the introduction to the show continued to roll on her monitor. “We’ve got it pretty much all together. Just a couple minor changes we need to make. I’ll update the scene list and send it over.”

  “Do you think Team Superior has wasted enough time? They’ve been trying to sell that emerald for almost 24 hours now.”

  Cynthia checked the logs to confirm the times. They’d been intercepting any offers the team had received for the gem and blocking them.

  “Yah, let somebody buy it now.”

  Rick clicked an email on his BlackBerry and then glanced back at Cynthia.

  “You okay?”

  She looked back to him, and tried not to bite her lip from the pain in her leg. “Sure! Couldn’t be better. I can’t wait till tomorrow night.”

  Cynthia - Sixteen Months Earlier

  Leukemia.

  Just the sound of the word scared her. When Cynthia was only twelve years old, the horrid disease killed her mother.

  Now, at 55, she’d thought the disease had long-since bypassed her. No such luck. The pain in her calf had kept up until the chemotherapy started. It was an awful cocktail of drugs that targeted the cancer cells, but there was no way to stop them from attacking healthy cells, too, causing Cynthia to feel weak and nauseous. She threw up a lot and her head felt like it was going to explode. All her muscles fought her, as if they were trying to tell her to just lie down and die already.

  Lots of times, that’s exactly what she wanted to do. The ghosts of her mother’s pain floated around her mind, telling her that she had no chance to survive this. It was only going to get more painful, she was going to be more uncomfortable, and the longer she held on, the more she would suffer.

  One call to Rick Sanderson would solve everything. He’d do what she wanted. Famous, rich Hollywood executives didn’t have to suffer a long, painful death. One visit to the “Doctor to the Stars” would get them the drugs she needed to end it all. Rick would do that for her if she asked him to.

  The hospital room was large, about twenty feet by twenty feet, and instead of a normal cot, Cynthia was in a double bed. It was one time she didn’t mind being treated like a celebrity.

  If it hadn’t been for the visit earlier in the day, she might have considered giving up. She felt a wave of pain wash over her and winced, pushing the button to deliver more morphine to her IV. She pressed it over and over again, wishing the pain away, knowing it was useless to press it more than once but pressing it anyway.

  The afternoon session today had drained her so much… it was the third day of chemo and hopefully the last, but that would depend on what showed up in the bone marrow test that they would be doing tonight. Her back still hurt from the last time they’d taken a sample of her bone marrow, but she knew it had to be done, and in the scheme of things, the bone marrow test felt like a mosquito bite. The big pain was from everything else.

  She pushed the button again and felt her eyes want to shut. Finally, after almost two days of wakefulness, Cynthia drifted off to an uneasy sleep.

  Mary had arrived earlier that day. She came with Rick. Even though Cynthia had asked Rick to call her, she still wasn’t sure it was a good idea. Mary had left home when she turned eighteen, almost a decade ago, and they hadn’t spoken since.

  She was lost in thought when she blinked her eyes and realized she wasn’t alone. It hurt to turn her head but when she did, she saw Rick smiling. Beside him was her beautiful daughter.

  “Mary…”

  “I’m here, Mom.”

  She was still the most beautiful girl that Cynthia had ever seen, but now she was more mature, ready to really enjoy her life.

  Cynthia held her hand out. Her throat was swollen, making it hard to talk, but she smiled. She looked at Mary’s smile, a wonderful, full smile, probably fake right now, but so pretty. She had beautiful brown eyes, thanks to her father, and she wore trendy brown glasses. That was new. Her hair was cut shorter and was layered, making her look more grown-up than the shoulder-length hair Cynthia was used to.

  She was still thin, short, and just one look at her made Cynthia feel safe.

  “I missed you, Mom.”

  “Me too, baby.”

  “We’ll get you on your feet in no time. Rick and I talked to your doctor and he’s very optimistic we can beat this.”

  We.

  That felt so good to hear. We can beat this.

  She woke and saw Dr. Conklin standing beside her.

  “We can do the bone marrow test here, Cynthia.”

  “Where’s…”

  Cynthia tried to clear her head, but she couldn’t think straight. It was like she was still asleep, dreaming her reality. She wanted somebody, but she couldn’t remember who.

  Rick?

  “I’m giving you a local anesthetic now.”

  She felt a pinch in her hip, but it barely registered. It felt like she was going to throw up again. Some part of her didn’t want to do that in front of the doctor, some shred of dignity wanting to stay intact.

  The pinch stopped.

  “You remember how this works, right?”

  “It hurts.” She looked at Dr. Conklin, pleading with her eyes.

  “Maybe not so much. You still have some morphine in your system.”

  She forced her head to move a bit to the right, so she could see down to her right hip. Tubes and wires were connected up to her and two nurses stood nearby. One watched some figures on an electronic readout and the other looked ready to grab Cynthia if she needed to be held down.

  “We start with the aspiration. Stay calm and relaxed. Try not to move.”

  She watched him put another needle into her hip, a bigger one this time. The needle was attached to a syringe.

  A sudden sharp pain shot into her. “Oh, God!”

  “It won’t last long. I’m sucking out a cubic millimeter of your marrow. That’s not very much. Try to visualize a cubic millimeter. Keep your mind busy.”

  Fuck! All she could think of was the pain.

  “Almost done.”

  Then the pain was over. She took a deep breath and tried to relax.

  “Now the hard part. I’m sorry, but try to not think of this. I have to take a tube of about one or two cubic centimeters.”

  The needle was wider, and he pushed it in, wiggling it back and forth. The pain was all-encompassing as the needle pushed through her bone and into the marrow, scraping around inside, trying to chisel off a piece of marrow the size of a sugar cube.

  Tears of pain fell from her eyes and she felt totally helpless and despondent. At that point, all she wanted was to die.

  The pain lasted a million years as Dr. Conklin continued wriggling the needle around inside her bone. She found herself floating in and out of consciousness.

  “Done. You did good, Cynthia.”

  “Now what?”

  “We’ll get the results in two days. Until then, we hope.”

  “We hope?”

 
Dr. Conklin smiled. “You know you’re under the best care possible here. Just trust us.”

  Scavenger Hunt Week One Airs

  Peter Crawley hated reality TV shows. Fuckin’ hated them. There was no “reality” in them. They were all orchestrated, all planned ahead of time. Shit, who would believe those guys stuck on a desert island were really alone? They probably had twenty film crew members wandering around all the time. It’d be more crowded then the Toys R Us he worked at on Christmas Eve.

  What about the freaking dance shows? Surely they’re fake. And the stupid dating shows. Who the fuck wants to watch them? Pathetic.

  He drank from his beer and stared at the TV. So, now he’s stuck watching this new piece of shit. The wife pouted when he complained and he needed her to put out tonight. He was horny and needed a piece. She just smiled and made it clear what the price was.

  Jesus.

  Fucking phonies.

  “It’s ready to start,” said Carla. She couldn’t keep the excitement out of her voice.

  Peter smiled and thought of fucking her. Two hours of bullshit for five minutes of pussy.

  He had three unopened cans of beer on the table beside him; he grabbed one and popped it. Probably need more before the two hours were up, though.

  The show started with a glitzy montage of scenes from different places around the world. “It’s a travel show?” he asked.

  Shit. That’s the worst kind.

  Carla giggled, ready to burst with excitement. “I read about it on Yahoo!. Part of it is set in… oh, I can’t remember where, but it sounded so neat! And somebody died. A producer or something, or maybe a writer. I don’t know, but somebody.”

  “Ahh.”

  A woman was on screen. There was a sub-title that said “Cynthia Wright, Executive Producer.” She had red hair and looked like she’d been around the block a few times, but something about her grabbed Peter’s attention. Something about her eyes. They commanded attention.

  “Welcome to Scavenger Hunt,” she said. “This is a different type of reality show. One that will capture you and lock you to your seat for two hours every week, while our contestants compete for ten million dollars.

  “Each of our players are aware that there are dangers associated with this show. You’ll see some of those dangers in our special two-hour debut tonight. These threats are real, and four days ago, one of our cameramen lost his life while filming the show…”

  Peter stared at the woman. Somebody really did die? He temporarily forgot about his beer.

  Two hours later, Peter stared at the screen and was angry that Scavenger Hunt was finished. He wanted to know what would happen to Susan being left with only Joe on her team, what stupid thing Brittany was going to do next, and whether Jonathan and Emma would find a way for their secret alliance to take them to the finale.

  His beer was still sitting on the table beside him. He went to bed and said, “I hope that bitch Brittany doesn’t win.” She was in his mind as he fell asleep, not thoughts about fucking his wife.

  Cynthia’s Scene List:

  Teaser

  1. Cynthia says good-bye to Rob Bors.

  2. Karen introduces the rules of the show.

  Act 1

  3. More of Karen on stage introducing the four teams.

  4. Interviews with Team Harvard — Focus on Michael.

  5. Interviews with Team Hollywood — Focus on Brittany.

  6. Interviews with Team Genius — Focus on Jonathan.

  7. Interviews with Team Superior — Focus on Emma.

  Act 2

  8. Teams select their destination (Alliance forms).

  9. Team Harvard — Plane over South America. Interview with Joe.

  10. At Ushuaia.

  11. Michael asking Susan about dumping Joe. Joe’s reaction.

  12. Susan worried about money.

  Act 3

  13. Team Hollywood — Overview of Copper Canyon.

  14. Tension between Fernando, Carlos, and Brittany.

  15. Climbing the steep hills.

  16. Interview with Brittany prior to show taping.

  17. Brittany slips. Don’t show rescue.

  Act 4

  18. Team Genius — Interview with Jonathan prior to show taping.

  19. Reaction when Jonathan sees Emma on show.

  20. Aboard ship on way to Galapagos Islands.

  21. Interview with Pietre.

  Act 5

  22. Team Superior putting on diving suits for lessons.

  23. Underwater at the shipwreck when they first swim down.

  24. Searching around the ship.

  25. Interview with Tanya prior to show taping. Show lie detector results.

  26. Tanya’s emergency button is pressed. Rob swims in and saves her. He can’t get out.

  Act 6

  27. Susan, Joe, and Michael looking for meteorites.

  28. Storm comes up, Michael lost. After, find his body below the cliff. Don’t show rescue.

  29. Fernando rescues Brittany.

  30. Fernando and Carlos catch the rattlesnake.

  31. Brittany loses her shoes.

  Act 7

  32. Jonathan, Samantha, and Pietre collect photographs.

  33. Interview with Pietre. Lie detector shows he’s a drug addict.

  34. Reaction when Rob doesn’t surface. Police investigate.

  35. Interview with Emma.

  Act 8

  36. Michael is rescued and Joe gives the meteorite to Susan. Michael tells her to keep going on the race.

  37. Interview with Fernando about Brittany. He’s lying.

  38. Team Genius gets their last photograph.

  39. Tanya masturbates, thinking of Maria.

  Tag

  40. Stock photo of Tibet, voice-over by Karen.

  41. Karen talks about the dangers and mysteries to come.

  Word of Mouth

  Peter Crawley still hated reality TV. But Scavenger Hunt wasn’t a reality show. In his mind he called it a Thriller Show or a Danger Show. He refused to believe he had nightmares about a reality show.

  As soon as he walked into the loading dock at Toys R Us, he saw the foreman, Jimmy Shotten, standing near the door. He nodded to the time clock and Peter walked over to check in.

  “You see that show last night?” asked Jimmy.

  “God, yes. It was… amazing.”

  “So glad Jennie talked me into watching it. I don’t normally watch those bullshit things, but this one… it had soul.”

  “Yeah,” said Peter. “I couldn’t stop watching it.”

  “Watching what?” Alistair Luciano punched in.

  “That new TV thing. Scavenger Hunt,” said Jimmy. “You didn’t watch it?”

  “Got it on TiVo. That’s the thing they’ve been talking about on the radio all morning. Hour drive from my place in the boonies and they’re talking about it the whole time. Good, huh?”

  At lunch, Alistair called his girlfriend, Melissa. He didn’t really much care for her. She had a bunch of tattoos and a pierced nose and eyebrow, but she put up with him, and he knew he wasn’t exactly the find of the century himself.

  “Come on over tonight, Lissa. We’ll watch that new show.”

  “Holy crap. You mean you didn’t watch it last night? Well I’ll watch it again with you tonight. I can’t believe how badly they portrayed that poor woman, Brittany. I bet she’s a really nice girl, but they made her out to be this awful bitch. It got me so mad!”

  After getting off the phone, Melissa looked up at a customer who was waiting for her. She was receptionist at an optometrist’s office, and she knew she was in danger of being fired, but she didn’t much care. She could crash at Alistair’s place.

  The woman was in her fifties. Missus Lesley Milder. Never just Lesley. Missus was important to this stuck-up bitch.

  “Oh, I couldn’t help but overhear you, dear. Were you talking about that new show? Wasn’t it amazing?”

  Melissa couldn’t believe the old toad
watched the show, too. “God, yes. It was freaking awesome!”

  “My heart goes out to the family of that poor man who died. What an awful thing. I don’t think they should have shown that on television.

  “And,” she leaned in to Melissa and whispered, “That ending. How could they show that girl… you know.”

  “Well, it’s…”

  “It’s indecent is what it is!”

  “Oh. You won’t be watching it again?”

  “What? Oh, of course I’ll watch it. I’m as hooked as everyone else in the city now.”

  Melissa laughed.

  Chapter 12: Team Harvard

  Susan - Hong Kong

  Susan’s head was spinning as she updated the spreadsheet on her laptop. It had been such a long day. In fact, “long” didn’t seem to even begin to describe it. They’d been in Antarctica yesterday. When she thought back to that, all she could imagine was Michael’s frozen body lying at the base of the crevasse.

  She still wanted to give up, to go back to Ushuaia, where Michael rested in a hospital, waiting to be transported back to Boston. She wanted to be with him, to hold his hand all the way, to tell him she loved him more than anything…

  “You got to finish the race, doll.”

  His voice echoed in her head and she fought with herself, wanting to go to Michael but needing to finish the race like he wanted her to.

  If she and Joe won, they’d split the ten million dollars, so she’d end up with five million to start her life with Michael.

  The spreadsheet she kept listed each leg of their journey and the costs. She wanted to know exactly where their money was going, to be sure they’d have enough to finish the race. Today she added their flights from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas to Puerto Montt to Santiago to Auckland to Sydney to Hong Kong. The entire series of flights took 58 hours, but the calendar had only moved ahead by one day as they crossed the International Date Line.

  She was surprised to see that it was January 3. They’d overlooked New Year’s Day somehow. Not that it mattered, but she was surprised. She tried to decide if the date was for Hong Kong or for New York, but her brain was too foggy to figure it out. She needed to sleep.