Darwin's Quest: The Search for the Ultimate Survivor Read online

  “So, I agreed to come on the show, and the show agreed to resurrect me and pay me the prize money.”

  “Yea, you could say that.”

  “And have I completed my part of the contract?”

  “Well, sure. You won.”

  “So I could leave right now, just go home, and you’d have to pay me.”

  “Yes, but I don’t see what you’re getting at.”

  “What if I don’t want to hit the talk show circuit? What if I don’t want to promote the next season?”

  He seemed perplexed. “I guess you wouldn’t have to do that, but why not? No winner has ever wanted out of that. You get fame, appearance fees…you get the star treatment. All the other winners have lapped it up. Isn’t that why you signed on? To become famous?”

  I really wanted the money, but yes, fame had its allure. And yes, I wanted to be seen as a success. “I don’t know. And could I refuse the money?”

  Now he really seemed lost. “The money is yours. It will go into the account you gave us. Heck, it’s probably there already. I guess you could give it all away, but why?”

  “Why? Maybe just to show the Baako Silvers of the world that not everyone can be bought. That you can’t treat everyone like shit.”

  “But you can be bought. You signed the contract on the mere hope you would get paid. And despite what you think, he did succeed in treating you like shit.” He paused and looked at me, a worried expression on his face. “You’re not going to do anything stupid, are you? I never should have said anything.”

  I forced a smile. “Don’t worry Günter, I am not going to make a huge stink. I was just wondering, venting, if you will.”

  He looked only slightly relieved. “Well, we’re getting close now. I’ll leave you here. I’ve got to get in position myself.” He shook my hand and moved off.

  I sat in one of the chairs in the small room. Would I refuse to cooperate? Would I refuse the money? Was principle that strong a factor in life? I was pretty angry, and more than that, I then had a target. Baako Silver. He did this to us. I could focus on him. But was it worth giving up the fruits of the spoils?

  The far door opened and Lindadawn came in. I stood, and she rushed into my arms for a hug.

  “The others told me what’s going on. I still can’t believe it. Those sons-of-bitches. You know, I really thought I was dying out there?”

  “I know. They treated us like shit, and now they want us to play nice and smile. I found out it was our dear Baako Silver who honchoed this thing. Others thought it wasn’t right, but he wanted the ratings, I guess.”

  She let go of me to sit down. “It doesn’t surprise me.”

  The holo came on, and we could see the other cast members sitting in chairs around the array. Baako Silver walked on to his mark and started giving a recap of the show. Each person’s death, including my own, were replayed and commented upon. In the corner of each holo, the killed person’s head was superimposed on the actual death scene. Most looked squeamish as they watched their death.

  “Are you OK now?” I asked her.

  “Upset, but glad to be alive. Glad the others are alive, too.”

  “Yea, I know what you mean.”

  “So you’re going to be able to pay your mother now. Any other plans?” she asked.

  “Yea, and that’s the real reason I signed on. I might start another business, but I might just go back to working at the spaceport. I can buy a house, and live comfortably. Maybe a few endorsements after the initial thrill wears off.”

  Baako Silver’s voiceover on the holo caught our attention. “…and with bravery perhaps never seen before on Darwin’s Quest, Hamlin Cone went to his sure death. Not a temporary death, like all other seasons’ cast members. But in his mind, a terminal death. No more life. No more going home to his kids.” The holo switched for a few moments to what had to be Hamlin’s children, sitting on a couch in what was probably his home.

  “Hamlin Cone was Season 32’s natural leader.”

  The holo showed me sitting on the ground, Hamlin shaking my shoulder and yelling “How dare you say that! Do you think Borlinga would’ve quit?” That didn’t make me look good, and I saw they didn’t broadcast the subsequent somewhat disparaging remarks he had said about GBC. Then they showed a few snipets of him taking charge at the fishing challenge, directing us in the task.

  “And his personal bravery was unquestioned.”

  Two scenes were selected: him driving his spear into the big bird and into the Albertosaurus. Despite having been there in person, the holo angle made it look even more impressive to me than the real thing.

  “But simple ferociousness is one thing. Bravery is another. Despite knowing he would die, Hamlin Cone saved the lives of his two surviving castmates.”

  The holo switched to Hamlin on the bridge. He seemed to look back right into the holo, right into the viewers’ hearts. “I said get back. There’s not enough room on the bridge for more of us, and I want to stop them before they can jump onto this side. So for the last time, back off!” he shouted at the two of us. The holo flashed to him taking down the first dinosaur, then the second one, Horatio at the Bridge. Then, it jumped to “Just get back!” before he turned and tackled the snapping theropod, physically picking it up and throwing it off the bridge. We could see as the jaws closed around his arm at the last second and they both fell down into the river. That holo faded to be replaced by a smiling Baako.

  “For that bravery, for killing a phousrhacidea, or Terror Bird, as you know it, for killing an Albertosaurus, the viewers have voted Hamlin Cone the Viewers’ Choice. Come up here Hamlin!”

  Hamlin bounded up to the array to stand beside him. Baako presented him with an old-fashion over-sized check, although as with me, the money was probably already transferred. Another interposed shot of Hamlin’s kids jumping up and down was projected into the holo’s corner.

  “You should be giving this back to me, though,” he joked. “We paid DreamWorks quite a bit for those constructs, and you ruined them! The beancounters at GBC are pretty upset!”

  Hamlin eventually went back to his seat where the others congratulated him. Baako looked right into the main cam. “And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for. The culmination of this, perhaps the most exciting season we’ve ever had. You saw them. You lived with them. You bled with them. But who is our winner? Is it Lindadawn Foster, our business owner from Merry Old England, or Corter Lawrence, only the second Outerworlder to reach the Final Two?”

  Short montages of both of us flashed on the holo. It looked surreal to see our last few weeks get winnowed down like that.

  “I won’t keep you waiting any longer. The Season 32 Darwin’s Quest winner is…”

  An intern motioned me forward. I took a breath, then walked out.

  “Corter Laurence!” Baako shouted.

  As I walked down to him, a holo flashed how I had won, how Lindadawn had died. I was somewhat dazed. The walkthrough hadn’t prepared me for this. I managed to stop on my mark where Baako Silver shook my hand,

  “I knew you would make it,” he whispered, but loud enough for the cams to pick up.

  He held my hand up in victory. A pretty young lady came out holding the trophy. Baako took it and gave it to me. I stood there, one hand held high by him, the other holding the trophy.

  With his innate sense of timing, he lowered my arm and stepped back.

  “Corter Laurence. You are the first Outerworlder to win Darwin’s Quest. And in a season where, for the first time, the viewers didn’t bring most of the cast members back, didn’t determine the Final Two, you were actually voted back once. You really were the bridge between the viewers and actual survival. What do you have to say, on this historic occasion?”

  I looked at him as he waited for me. GBC did well with the show. Darwin’s Quest was back on top. And I had signed up for whatever. Going on tour after should be fun. But that would play into Baako Silver’s hands, into the producer’s hands. That would justify t
heir treating cast members as simple commodities, as constructs, not made by DreamWorks, but by GBC themselves. We were the new Hell Pigs, the new T-Rexes, the new pterosaurs.

  I looked firmly into his eyes, said “Fuck you , Baako Silver,” and walked off the array.

  Oh, I’d keep the money, though. I wasn’t that stupid.

  .