Chapter 33

© Copyright 2013 by Elizabeth Delayne



Jamie looked up at the door. She’d already pushed at it, only to find that it didn’t budge. She wasn’t sure if this was just part of the game. Were they supposed to hide her to be found by her team? That’s how it had been explained. She was only allowed to leave the dog house once it was unbolted, but she was risking elimination for another round if she drew attention to herself. No one was supposed to know what was in the dog house.

She looked down at the t-shirt she’d been given to wear. It was red with a simple cartoon of a dog with a bone on the front. She was very, very lucky. The producers had bounced around an idea of having them inside dog bone costumes. Thankfully, that idea had been rulled unsafe.

It was hot enough inside the doghouse without a costume.

Suddenly the door swung open and her favorite camera guy looked down at her.

“Carl!”

“Hey princess. How you doin’?”

“Fine. You wouldn’t have anything to read would you?”

He laughed. “Sorry. Just FYI, the other team took you out into the woods a good piece. There’s no rule against it, but it will be time before your team can find you.”

She sighed. “Thanks for letting me know.”

He simply grinned. “But, while there’s no rule against it, it did come up in our planning meeting that if the door came unpinned on its own... and the bone were to escape on it’s own... sound familiar.”

Jamie nodded. “We were told that we could get out on our own once it was unboted.”

“Good. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to leave this door unpinned and you’re going to escape and head down that narrow trail. It’s up to you to stay hidden and to find your own group.”

“Thanks, Carl. You sure it’s okay.”

“Both the producers and I figured I owed you a couple, so way back they told me that if I ever had a chance to help you out ... then to take that one chance. That fall is going to be great drama, but ... it was my fault you were hurt. Just give me a few minutes to film around you and make sure I can get you on film busting out her here.”

“Try to make me appear a little more graceful then I feel this time.”

The door closed, leaving her back in the eerie darkness as she heard Carl laughing.



The race was on. Thessa went to the left and Tyler took the right. As he moved he listened. Prepared.

The other team was coming.

It was impossible to move quietly. Maybe he could have done it alone, but not with a cameraman following him.

He heard the foot steps before he saw the figure emerge.

Zeke stopped and grinned.

“Looks like it’s just you and me,” Zeke said, as he stopped on the trail about ten feet infront of Tyler.

Tyler glanced at the cameraman who had emerged with Zeke. He shouldn’t have, but there was some hilarity to the situation. Zeke would want to appear omnimous, and he was sure the camera would play it that way.

“Looks like.”

“You’re not going to win.”

“It’s not all about winning,” Tyler eyed the handkerchiefs sticking from Zeke’s waist, two of them, and another on his shoe. Somewhat duplicate of his own placement.

He was somewhat sure he’d played this game with Zeke when they were on the same team, but Zeke had never been playing with the team. He’d played to ... look like he’d played the hardest and been the fastest, to come out as the winner on screen as well as being on the winning team. No matter the cost.

He’d been rough with his own teammates, always the center of drama.

Tyler wasn’t up to those rules, not anymore.

But he would like the time wasted to keep Zeke away from his own goal.

They circled each other around the trail.

Eyed each other like lone wolves.

The tension built between the two of them, waves of in rolling over, so dense, he was almost sure it would be captured on film.

And then, before he could pounce, he spotted Cameron emerging from the woods behind Zeke.

Just another minute, Tyler promised himself, and kept his eyes on Zeke.



Felicity and George waited by their own dog house listening to the other team giving out commands on the radio. They’d left it there, having nothing else to share, getting intel from the other team.

Otherwise, it was silent as they used shovels and the water to do as Tyler bid them. They were both muddy, but there was a good start to a mud bath that would only get better when they turned the hoses on again.

“This is weird,” Felicity looked out across the tree line as she spoke. “I feel so cut off from everyone.”

“Any second, they can come through, into view,” George held the hose in a lose grip. Every once in awhile, he turned, looking around at the woods that surrounded them. “They can come in from any direction.”

“You have your game face on.”

“I can still hold my own.”

“I don’t doubt it, George-“ she frowned toward the woods. “Did you hear that?”

“Yeah.”

George aimed the hose, and they watched as a figure emerged.

“Don’t shoot!”

“Jaime?” Felicity called out, but was stopped from running toward her when George shot out a arm to stop her. He held the hose on her. “You haven’t been switched to the other team, have you?”

“No, but I did escape from where they hid me in the woods.”

“You were the prize?” Felicity asked.

“I’m your bone. Don’t sound so disappointed,” Jamie said dryly and looked down at the radio as the other team squawked orders to get to the goal.

Felicity laughed, and threw her arms around Jaime. “Does this mean we’ve won?”

“I don’t know,” Jamie said. “You still have your bone?”

At that, the person in the blue doghouse on their home terf rattled the door.

“It’s bolted,” Felicity noted, pointed at the hinge.

“I just happened to get out. Must have gotten undone when they dropped me.”

“They dropped you?” George asked.

“I don’t think they realized there was someone in there.”

“We have so much to tell you. We-“

”First,” George said, “we need to find a way to get everyone back to home turf. Seems everyone’s heading this way.

“Then it’s time to switch over. Thessa,” Felicity called into the radio. “Keep the faith. You know Jamie would want you to.”

“I guess I would,” Jamie murmured.

“It’s our code,” George explained. “Mention you, we switch to another station. Hopefully they won’t follow us.”

“Thessa. You hear me?”

“I’m here.”

“Get everyone back to home turf. ASAP.”

George grinned at her. “You’re a natural.”



“So while Zeke had his eye on me, Cameron was sneaking up behind him.”

“And the whole time he was talking trash, baiting Tyler. And Tyler was just--Dude, really? He was wasting Zeke’s time and the guy didn’t even notice.”

“You stayed back,” Felicity beamed.

“It helped to know Cameron was right there.”

“You should have seen Zeke’s face,” Cameron crowed. “Zeke was so surprised when he turned around to see me with two of his flags, he forgot about Tyler behind him.”

“And you got the third,” Jamie supplied.

They were on the RV, heading to the hotel, wired from their second victory. She wasn’t really the prize. She held tickets to a Broadway show in New York City in her pocket. That meant their next stop was New York.

More than the excitement of going to New York, seeing a musical on Broadway ... was the look in Tyler’s eyes.

She could still hear her mother’s voice.

What if it is?

What if it was right and good? What if it worked?

She couldn’t stop herself from looking over at him. He caught her eye and grinned.

“And Zeke was out of the game,” this came from Felicity, bringing Jamie back into the discussion.

“He went at Tyler though-“ said Cameron. “Took him down.”

”Got one of my flags.”

“But the production staff showed up, reminded Zeke he was out, and handed Ty back his flag. By the time we got to their home turf, you had apparently made it back on your own.”

“They moved the dog house as soon as the game started,” Jamie reminded them. “It seems the number one play in their book. It might have worked if they had of left someone there to watch the dog house.”

“We figured, but they stopped us from getting across,” Thessa said. “It was really a bad move on their part. The only reason they didn’t get to their home base was because they were so focused on us.”

“They probably planned to get all of our flags,” Tyler said, “then they would have the entire run for themselves.”

As the bus slowed, they looked out the window at their hotel. It seemed one of the bennifits of being a winner of the team competitions was that they got to stay in a five star hotel. While they finished off the celebatory filming, their luggage was delivered to their rooms. As they got off the bus, they were handed key cards and a piece of paper with room assignments and itineraries for the following day.

Jamie took hers, then smiled when Tyler fell into step beside her.

“Have I told you how much I’ve missed you?” he asked.

She smiled up at him. “I think so.”

“Really.”

She looked down at his hand and reached to take it. His fingers curled around hers.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

Jamie stopped walking and looked up at him, her fingers still within his. “Yes.”

“Good.”

“I’ll see you in the morning for coffee?”

“Bright and early.”



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