A Year In the Life of Grey Baker The Saguaro University Chronicles by Julien Gregg
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I'm looking for my original editor, Mike. If you are out there and you read this contact me at greggjulien6@gmail.com I'd like to talk with you. For all others the email address above will get to me just put the name of the story in your subject so I don't delete it as spam. I love to hear from readers so drop me a line to let me know what you think of the story.
It has been brought to my attention that this story is not realistic. Well that's because it is a story. This section of the story is more about the characters than the actual work they did. I know it isn't possible to erect a shelter as fast as they did in the story but it's a story. It shouuld be read in fun.
Chapter 5
Kevin, the newest survivor in the camp was a bit different than the others. He was quiet and withdrawn. Of course he had buried his sister. Grey knew from watching the show that they would come and retrieve the bodies and send them back to their families for burial, so he knew that Kevin's sister and Lacy's brother weren't buried at their camps like they seemed to think.
He didn't talk to them much. He just checked snares and traps, fishing lines, and speared fish. He picked fruit and added it to the collection and did all of the things he was supposed to do, but he didn't talk much to any of them.
He'd told them that he'd recognized Grey from the magazine article, so he'd known when he'd seen him that he'd be all right, but that was the most that he'd said since he'd arrived in camp. Grey didn't know quite what to think of the guy to be honest.
Tommy all but ignored Kevin. It was as if he thought that if the boy didn't speak to him he didn't need to speak to him either. Kevin didn't seem to mind. Grey wondered if he was this quiet at home. He couldn't imagine him not getting along with anyone. He did nothing to anger anyone, he just didn't talk much.
On what Grey believed was the last day of May he found that he needed to go further into the woods to find fruit trees that they hadn't picked clean. He was also going further into the woods to set snares and traps. With all of them setting snares and traps it was getting a bit congested, and the last two times they'd checked the snares and traps there was noting in any of them.
His fishing lines were still good. All eight had fish on them, and they were good sized fish, too. He descaled and cleaned them, burying the spoils in the dirt. Then he headed back to camp. He put them on the spit right away because there was little fruit to have for breakfast. Tommy talked with him about how long he'd been gone and why. Tommy agreed that they'd have to walk a trek to get what they needed. Grey pointed out that there were fruit trees near the lake so it wasn't so bad yet, but he told him about setting snares and traps further into the woods and away from the congestion of all of the others. Tommy agreed with that as well.
His relationship with Tommy had come a long way. Tommy now consulted Grey before he took on any big task. Grey had taught him to spear fish and to hunt with the bow and arrow. Tommy wasn't as good with his aim as Grey was, but he was getting there. Grey was amazed that he and Tommy got along so well here on the island. He hoped that it continued when they were back in Harris, Arizona.
Lacy was shimmying up a palm tree to get coconuts when he got back to the actual camp. This was new. They hadn't gone for coconuts yet. Grey didn't know why they just hadn't done it. He supposed that they'd have more fruit than he'd thought as Lacy tossed coconuts to Mike.
He checked on the fish and began to cut up the fruit that he had. Mike used a rock to break open the coconuts, it wasn't easy. Then he brought them to Grey who was putting together fruit cabobs for breakfast and the added coconut would offset the sweetness of the fruit rather nicely.
He had everything ready in short order. They sat around in the sandy dirt to eat their breakfast in silence. When they were done they threw their sticks from the cabobs into the fire. Grey sat back and watched them all for a moment. He was tired. He'd been carrying these people on his back in a way almost all summer. It technically wasn't summer yet. Not until the following month. They'd be here on the island for some of the hottest weather and July second looked pretty good to him. He couldn't wait. He could go on like this for quite a while. He just didn't want to.
In Harris, Mary was taking care of Sierra, Nico, and Pete. The others all stayed in the hotel and brought food when they came, but that was only one meal. Mary was responsible for the others. She didn't care. Taking care of people was what she did. She constantly worried about her two sons, but there was another group of kids to keep fed and she was up for it.
They held watch parties with the guys from the fraternity. They tuned in on Wednesday to see what made the actual show. It turned out that a lot of things made the show. Of course they never showed Lacy burying her brother or Kevin burying his sister. They didn't show the actual deaths of either of them. No, the show itself only focused on Grey and Tommy. Now the others were on camera a lot because they were with Grey and Tommy. The commentator talked about Grey almost exclusively.
They did a special show on Grey's abilities to survive in that setting. They talked about his magazine cover and article about shelter building. It had also mentioned that he was good at finding fresh water and making fire as well. It talked about his hunting and fishing abilities, and the commentator talked about how Grey was made for Project Survivor. She wanted to choke the life right out of him.
They talked about the pending lawsuits brought on by Mr. Long and Mrs. Killmore and announced that both the Long and Killmores had divorced. It was clear that Mrs. Long and Mr. Killmore had been the ones to sign their children up for the show. Mary couldn't fathom it. She'd have never singed her sons up for this. Hell she'd all but written Tommy off for a life of prison sentences before the show, but she would never have signed them up for this damned show.
They also talked about the fact that no one ever won a lawsuit against the show for any deaths or problems that contestants faced after the show was over. The contracts were very specific. The lawsuits against husband and wife had more of a chance of working out than any lawsuit against the show. After all, someone had signed them up for this willingly and the contestants were thriving for the most part. She found it hard to believe that they couldn't be held liable for the deaths of the Killmore and Long siblings but she didn't know law. She was only a school teacher. That wasn't to say that teachers didn't know the law. She supposed she could become abreast of the law if she so chose to, but she didn't have any desire to pour through law books and get in the know as they say.
No, she had to watch the laptop screen so she could see her sons every day and hope and pray that they made it back from that cursed island in one piece. She sat and watched in fear as they faced their first dangerous snake. Of course Grey killed it, and then roasted it so they could eat it. Grey astounded her with his courage and abilities. She'd known about the survival weekends with Chris, but there'd always been a safety net under her son on those weekends. On the island there was no safety net. If he got hurt that was on him. She knew that he was carrying the others on his back in this competition and they would thrive because of him. That didn't set to well with her either.
They ate rabbits, squirrels, fish, snakes, and a lot of fruit. The commentator for the show talked about how the contestants were healthier this season than any season before it. He wondered if Grey would return for the All Stars season, but she was sure that Grey would say no to that. He had college to get through and then grad school if he chose to go that route. He had a business to run when he got out of school. He didn't have time for All Stars or anything else they wanted to throw at him.
Adam and Cam came in with burgers and fries for everyone as she sat down in front of her laptop to watch Grey and Tommy go to the lake to check Grey's fishing lines. They ate and talked about what the boys had done all day. Of course they'd all been watching at the hotel. She'd shared the link with them and all of them had their laptops up and running. None of them were using battery power anymore. They were all plugged into wall sockets to keep the power going constantly.
"How are they doing?" Adam asked as he sat down at his own laptop.
"Pretty good," Pete said. "They're checking fishing lines right now. Grey had to walk a lot further to set snares and traps and get fruit, though. He's tired."
"He's carrying those kids on his back," Cam said. "He's quite a guy."
"That he is," agreed Pete.
Mary listened to them and smiled. They loved Grey. That was obvious. Paul had left not two days ago and broken up with Pete over his affection for Grey Baker. Mary wasn't stupid. She could see that Pete had a thing for her son, but Grey was in love with Nico. She knew that from the messages that he'd left in the sand for Nico on the island. Nico had cried when he'd read those messages. To her they were simple and non committal, but to Nico they were everything.
She and Sierra had cried when both Tommy and Grey had written messages to them in the sand. Oh how she longed for her sons to come home. She'd stare at the calendar and will the days to pass faster so Tommy and Grey could both be home with her. Of course Grey would be in this house and she was going home when they got off the island. She knew that, but she wanted them in Harris where they were safe.
"We're back with a fresh look at Grey Baker," said Harvey Walls, the commentator for Project Survivor. He was a fifty-seven-year-old man with salt and pepper hair and watery brown eyes. He'd been the commentator since season one. "He's been the knight in shining armor for those kids on the island. Folks, Grey really shines on that island. He was born to be on that island.
There's been talk about All Stars," he continued. "The producers plan to offer a spot to Grey for All Stars, but will he accept? Here with us to discuss all things Grey Baker is the man who signed the Baker boys up for a stint on the island, Mr. Thomas Baker. Thomas tell us about Grey and Tommy."
"Tommy has been a bully all his life where Grey is concerned," Thomas said, making Mary want to cut his throat. How dare he air their dirty laundry to the world? "He broke his bones and pushed him around all their lives. I signed them up because I was afraid that Tommy would eventually kill Grey if no one stepped in."
"It was that bad?" Harvey asked, looking shocked.
"Tommy got one of his friends to cut Grey's brake line," Thomas revealed. "Grey was hard pressed to make it back to the house that night. He could have been killed."
"Now it was a major accident that killed your brother, Grey's father, is that correct?" Harvey prompted.
"Yes," Thomas said. "An oil truck struck a pick up truck and started a chain reaction. Ten cars were involved in that accident, and Grey was the only survivor."
"Had to be hard for him," Harvey said.
"It was," said Thomas. "Tommy started to act out toward Grey right after that."
"And how old was Grey?"
"He was six and Tommy was seven," Thomas revealed.
"So this rivalry between them has gone on for over ten years?" Harvey asked.
"Twelve years," Thomas said. "They ignited a war between two fraternities at their college last year. It was getting out of hand, so I signed them up for the island."
"Was that the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak?"
"No, it was the day that Grey beat the stuffing out of Tommy for cutting his brake line," Thomas said with a smile. "Grey landed Tommy on his butt for that one. Tommy broke the windows in the front of Grey's house, and that was when I decided to sign them up. My sister in law was hard pressed to deal with Tommy and Grey."
"Well they seem to be getting along on the island," Harvey said.
"Oh they might be ready to sing kumbaya on the island, Harvey, but they hate each other," Thomas said.
"Turn that off," Mary said to Pete who was watching it with Nico and Cam. "That man makes my blood boil."
The commentary came after the Wednesday night show. It happened every week, and every week they talked about Grey and or Tommy. This Wednesday, the third of June had pissed Mary off. Thomas Baker didn't know the first thing about Tommy or Grey. Sure he was closer with Tommy than Grey but he didn't know the full story. No one really did. Was it jealousy like Tommy had told Grey on the island? She didn't know, but she knew that Tommy had seriously hurt Grey over and over. The island may have fixed their relationship but where the hell did Thomas Baker get off saying that he was the reason?
"I can't believe he said all of that on the internet," Sierra said.
"I can," Mary said. "He's had a bur up his ass about Tommy and Grey since David died. To think he could do this was the furthest from my mind, but he's done it. I hope he doesn't have the gall to show up here, or I'll kill the rat bastard."
"Does he know not to come here?" Pete asked.
"I haven't spoken a word to him since the boys were kidnapped for the show," Mary revealed. "He's not called or come by. Of course he may have gone by the house to see if I was there, but I haven't been there so I don't know about that."
"Doesn't he know you can sue the shit out of him?" Nico asked.
"I can't," she said. "It was in the paperwork they made me sign before they'd give me the unfettered access to Grey and Tommy's cameras. I had to agree that I wouldn't sue anyone involved. I think that includes Thomas."
"That really sucks," said Cam. "I can't believe they made you sign something like that."
"Its standard," she said. "Each group of parents signs it to get unfettered access. Now if the Longs or Killmores signed this contract, I don't know. I mean they had to if they wanted to be sure that their children were safe. The lawsuits didn't come along until that boy and girl died on the island and their remains were shipped back to their parents for burial."
"What day is it now, Grey?" Tommy asked as they climbed out of their hammocks.
"June fourth I think," Grey said as he took a stick out of the fire, blew our the flame and made a four on the wall in the soot. "We're two days shy of a month left in this place."
"I can't wait for July second," Tommy said.
"I can't either," Grey said.
"You know it looks to me like you like it here," Tommy said. "You seem to be in your element."
"I am to an extent," Grey admitted. "But you have to remember that when I went on those survival weekends with Chris I had a safety net under me to catch me if I fell. Here I have nothing like that. If I get bitten or stung and die no one will step in, and I'm not always sure about snakes and bugs, Tommy. I know plants because there were no poisonous snakes and bugs where we went."
"You said the snake the other day was poisonous," Tommy pointed out.
"Well that one was obvious," Grey said. "It was a viper. I knew the look of the skin, the diamonds all over it meant it was venomous. It was better that we ate it than if it had bitten one of us."
"You know a viper when you see one?" Tommy asked.
"Only from pictures from school," Grey replied. "I always thought they looked cool. At least until I was presented with one in real life."
"You cut its head off like it was the most natural thing in the world," Tommy reminded. "It didn't seem like you were scared."
"Tommy, I'm terrified of this island," Grey admitted. "I have five people to look out for and keep alive and fed. There are things on this island that I've never seen before. Plants I don't recognize and bugs I've never seen. There are pitfalls and dangers on this island that I can't even see."
"Glad to know it wasn't just me," Tommy said softly.
"We're both scared," Grey said. "But its a healthy scared. It makes sure that we keep our eyes open and only eat what I know is safe."
They got to work after that. More coconuts, papaya, mangos, and bananas to pick or drop. They had breakfast and then Grey saw Kevin looking off into the woods with a blank expression on his face. He went and sat next to him.
"What's up, Kevin?" he asked.
"I'm scared of what can come out of the woods," Kevin said. "What's going to bite me or sting me, or am I going to eat poisonous fruit. I mean I buried my sister! She wasn't a bad person or anything. We didn't always get along, but it was nothing like they say gets you put on this island. I just miss my sister."
"I hear you," Grey said. It was the most that Kevin had ever said to him before. He didn't know what to do with it at first, but he knew he had to address Kevin's concerns before they ate him alive.
"First," he began, "You aren't going to eat anything poisonous if you just trust me. Second, I can't save you from stings or bite, but if you keep your eyes open and assume every insect or snake can kill you, you'll be a bit safer. The nets on our shelters protect us a bit from the insects and nothing has come out of the woods to eat us so far. I'm thinking we're pretty safe."
"I'm not good at snaring and trapping either," Kevin said. "I'd starve to death if not for you and the others."
"Well for one thing, there are too many snares and traps for them to work effectively where they are," Grey said. "Did you notice that I moved mine further into the woods?"
"Yes, but I'm not going further into the woods," Kevin said. "I don't want to."
"Well how about we look for a place to put your snares and traps that could catch more?"
"You'd do that for me?" Kevin asked. "Why are you helping all of us. Don't you want to win?"
"I'm not as concerned with winning as I am in making sure that no one else dies on this island," Grey said seriously.
"Thanks, Grey," he said. "I know who you are. I read that magazine article. When I saw you I knew I had found someone who knew what to do. I just didn't know you'd be so nice."
"Come on," Grey said, standing up. "Let's go check your snares and traps and move them."
"Okay," he said and got up to follow Grey into the woods.
Kevin's snares had rabbits in them. He seemed pretty happy about that. His traps were empty, but the snares were full. He followed Grey into the woods to check his own traps and snares and he had squirrels in the traps and rabbits in the snares. They collected those and moved Kevin's snares and traps to the other side of the lake. Then they took their spoils back to camp and everyone was happy with the food they had brought in. Grey hadn't even checked the lines. He would do that when supper time came around.
Kevin helped him gut and skin each animal and Grey was shocked when Kevin cleaned the skin and put the rabbit hides out in the sun on a rock. The boy had been paying attention. There were six rabbits and two squirrels for them to work on. By the time they had them all on spits over fires, Grey was tired. He sat down and had some water with Kevin. The others came to sit around the fire, bringing fruits with them.
For lunch they picked those rabbits and squirrels clean and buried the bones. They had fruit, but this time Lacy had squeezed papaya and mangos to make a juice for everyone to drink. It was warm, but it went down so smoothly. Grey smiled at her when she handed him a cup of the juice.
It began to rain that day and the fires that weren't in a shelter went out. Grey didn't care. There were fires in all three shelters. He went to check his lines and found fish on all of them. He picked fruit from the trees around the lake and came back drenched with fish and fruit for supper. He cleaned and gutted his fish, burying the spoils in a latrine hole and put them on a spit. He had to go next door to put some on a spit on Mike and Mark's fire but they didn't mind. When it was all done they sat in their shelters to eat and watch the rain fall.
It rained for three days, and each of them got soaked as they checked snares, traps, and lines. They got fruit and coconuts in the rain and they all sat around their fires to dry off and eat. The days dragged on, but Grey thought it was May seventh when the rain finally stopped. They used firewood from their ever growing piles inside the shelter to bring the three fires outside the shelters back to life. Then Grey and Tommy went to hunt and brought back two big birds for lunch. They plucked and plucked until the feathers were all gone and then turned them on a spit over the fire. More fruit was picked and coconuts were downed. It was monotonous and tedious to Grey, but they were inching ever closer to the second of July.
Then on the tenth there was a new development. Grey suddenly remembered that this was all about sibling rivalry when Mark and Mike began to argue over who had done what and who could have survived on his own. It was a petty argument. Everyone in camp knew that Mark was the weaker of the two when it came to skills, yet he was bitching that he'd have had a blanket made if Mike would remember to put his rabbit furs in the sun to dry out. In reality it was Mark who had thrown his furs away in the latrine hole and not Mike.
"You're just as big of a bitch here on the island as you were back home," Mark spat hatefully at his brother.
"You're just butt hurt because everything you do fails," Mike responded. "You never have any kills in your snares or traps because they don't work. You don't pick fruit, and you don't do any of the work. I built this shelter with Tommy's help. You sat and bitched about how hot you were. Don't sit there and tell me that you're the better survivor, because I remember when we were both under a pair of sticks with a tarp over our starving bodies."
Grey and everyone else was watching this little argument. Mike was right about one thing, Mark did not pull his weight. Grey had been planning to have a private word with him about this, but Mike had loudly beat him to the punch.
"Don't you stand there and tell me that you're a better survivor than me," Mark hissed. "You were the one who was all `Thank my lucky stars! Its Grey Baker!' I remember what you said."
"I remember what I said, too," Mike countered. "Yes I thanked my lucky stars at the sight of him. I read that damned article about his survival tactics and how well he did everything. I thought I'd have a better shot of living through this sixty days with him than you, and I was right."
"That's it!" cried Mark. "I want my own shelter. I'm not living with you another day."
"Well then build your own shelter if you think you can," Mike said. "You sure watched as the other two were built. Maybe you retained something in that tiny brain of yours. I'm done with you. When we get out of this, and I will get out of this, I'm switching schools and leaving you behind."
Mark stalked off into the woods and Mike sat down and started to gut and skin his rabbits. Grey just went back to work on his own kills. Mark came back about the time that dinner was ready, carrying a load of green bamboo. Grey had specifically told the others not to get green bamboo because it made the work harder. He said nothing to Mark as he watched the boy try to hack the green bamboo into smaller pieces for the base of his shelter. At least he knew what to do first.
He worked through dinner and they didn't save him anything but fruit that he could have gotten himself. He finally got the two foot sections of green bamboo pounded into the ground and was now working on the floor of his shelter, but Grey was watching the sky. Those three days of rain had showed him something. The weather was unpredictable, and there were dark clouds forming in the sky. He ate his rabbit and thought about just how wet Mark's ass would be pretty soon if the sky opened up and drenched everything again.
Then there was the fact that he'd waited until supper time to build his shelter. He didn't have enough daylight hours to build the damned thing. Grey was about to tell him this when the sky suddenly opened and rain began to slam down on them. They got inside their shelters, but Mark foolishly worked on. Grey was about to tell him to stop for the day when he finally crawled into Mike's shelter and all was quiet for a while.
"Mike is pissed off," said Tommy as the rain pounded the camp.
"Mike has every reason to be pissed off," Grey pointed out. "I was gonna have a quiet word with Mark about pulling his own weight, but Mike beat me to it. All be it he was louder than I intended to be, but oh well."
"You were gonna talk to him?" Tommy asked. "We've all talked to him about it, Grey. He's just dismissive to each of us when we bring it up. He said more to Mike than he's said to any of us about what he is and is not doing."
"He's going to be a problem soon enough," Grey said. "I can't let him starve, but I won't go out of my way to feed him either. He needs to learn to do these things for himself. It isn't like I didn't show him. Mike got it, but Mark seemed to have other things to do."
"Sounds familiar," Tommy said with a grin. "Sounds like me when Chris was showing you how to do all of this stuff."
"Yes, but you listened to me and learned," Grey countered. "Mark had the opportunity to learn new skills, but he wasn't interested even when those skills could save his life. You know he brought back poison berries the other day and I had to burn them."
"Great," Tommy said. "Just what I was afraid of. I won't eat anything that he makes."
"You don't have anything to worry about," Grey said. "He never makes anything."
They laughed about that for a minute, but it was getting cold quickly. They got in their hammocks and pulled the rabbit fur over them. No one had said anything but Grey and Tommy had rabbit fur to lie on in their hammocks as well as rabbit fur blankets to cover up with. The last tarp they had together was folded and placed under Grey's hammock.
It rained all night long this time but the sun was shining in the morning when Grey went to get fruit and coconuts for breakfast. Mark didn't eat breakfast. He went back to work on the drying bamboo to work on his shelter as the others ate breakfast and watched. Grey thought the boy would fall over from exhaustion pretty soon, but he got the floor made. Of course it took him to lunch time to do it. He did check his snares and traps, but there was nothing in them. Grey had two rabbits and three squirrels. Lacy had two squirrels, and Tommy had four rabbits. The others didn't catch anything that day but there was enough to go around. Grey even insisted that Mark eat lunch. Mark did, but he glared at everyone the whole time. Grey sighed at this. The boy couldn't even be pleasant when someone was feeding him.
He went back to his work after lunch. Of course he did none of the clean up. Everyone else pitched in but not Mark. Grey sighed again. If they had been on the right show, he'd have voted Mark off the island. As it was, if Grey's instincts were right, they had three weeks and a day left on the island, and he couldn't wait to be rid of Mark Fitz.
Apparently the boy had learned something because his walls matched when he was done. He used far too much paracord to tie them to the floor, but whatever. His roof was a little crooked, but it worked for what he wanted. He used the last of their netting to cover the opening of the shelter. Then he collected palm fronds and rocks to put over the top and topped it off with the tarp, but that had taken him a long time. The sun was going down by the time he got the tarp tied down. He slept on the bare floor of his shelter with a tarp over him that night.
He complained the next day about a sore back, but none of them said anything to him. Grey went and picked fruit with the rest of them. This time Mark followed and picked fruit himself. Each of them ate the fruit that they had collected themselves, and then the day went on. Mark spent a good deal of time finding dry palm fronds to put on the floor of his cabin. None of them offered to use any of the remaining netting to build him a hammock. He didn't ask anyone either.
His silence lasted through a lunch of fish and fruit, but he was loud about not catching anything in his snares or traps. He thought he wouldn't get to eat because his were the only snares and traps that were empty but he sighed in relief when Grey handed him a plate of rabbit and squirrel meat with bananas.
Grey sat down between Mike and Tommy and ate his dinner. Mike said a quiet thank you to Grey for feeding his brother. Grey just nodded and went on eating. It was going to be a tense three weeks with Mark around, but Grey decided it didn't have to be for him. He wasn't his brother after all.
They went to a system of only eating what they caught or picked themselves. Grey divided the fishing lines between them and that was the only time that Mark got to eat anything that he had caught. That was because Grey had remembered to bait his hooks with more snails. He wouldn't do that tomorrow.
"And there you have it," said the commentator on the thirteenth. "Mark Fitz only ate fruit all day long today because Grey didn't bait his hooks. It took a little longer than I expected before they cut Mark off. Of course they know he won't starve as long as there's fruit to be had."
"Yes, he is finally picking fruit," said Jason Sumni, the winner of the previous season of Project Survivor.
"The fight between Mike and Mark was unexpected but not surprising," said Harvey. "Jason, you and your sister started to get along about half way through the season, isn't that right?"
"Yeah, Harvey," Jason said with a smile. His blonde hair shined in the lights of the studio and his blue eyes sparkled. "Jennifer and I had problems at the beginning of the season. Neither of us had any survival experience, but we knew we were being signed up for the show, so we sought out an instructor. If we hadn't we'd have likely died."
"Grey and Tommy are the first pair of survivors to not know that they were being signed up," Harvey said. "It was a departure from previous seasons. Their uncle said not a word to anyone."
"That's wrong on so many levels," Jason replied. "If Grey didn't have the background he has those two would have been in serious trouble. Look at Mark. He can't snare or catch anything in those traps because he can't make them work. He could have learned when Grey was teaching them all to do these things, but he didn't. He had no background in survival at all."
"I had Thomas Baker on the show a couple of weeks ago, and he was unapologetic for the way he'd signed them up and left us to do the work on them," Harvey said. "Their mother wasn't told and found out the hard way that her sons were on the island."
"The reunion show is what is going to be interesting," Jason said. "You've got four survivors on that island that are angry with the ones to sign them up. Usually kids know they're going to the island and have accepted it on some level even if they don't know what they're doing."
"Yes, but Kevin Killmore and Lacy Long fought the extractions," Harvey said. "Kevin nearly broke the arm of one of the extractors."
"Its sad when parents or loved ones sign up the pairs without preparing them for what's coming in their lives," said Jason. "Jennifer and I took a class but were totally unprepared for life on the island. We survived by the skin of our teeth."
"And how is Jennifer?" Harvey asked. "She declined our offer to be on this show."
"She's about to be married to a wonderful guy," Jason said. "She's busy planning her wedding."
"And what about All Stars?" Harvey asked. "Are either of you going to put your hats in the ring?"
"I'm down for it," Jason laughed. "But I've had a lot of training in survival since the show. I didn't want to be in that situation again."
"What about Jennifer?" Harvey asked.
"Not in a million years," laughed Jason. "She was so happy to leave the island that she will never go back."
"You know we need eight survivors," Harvey said. "We're planning to ask Grey Baker to return, but we have no idea what he'll say."
"How many are returning so far?" Jason asked.
"You make six," Harvey said. "We have to get Grey and Tommy or maybe Grey and Mike."
"I don't think you'll get Mike," Jason said. "Tommy maybe, but not Mike."
"That makes me sick to listen to," Mary said as she and Sierra sat in the dining room at Grey's house to watch the show. "The thought that Tommy or Grey would consent to doing another season of this show is unthinkable."
"Grey won't do another season," Nico said as he came in with plates for both of them. They were having BLT sandwiches with chips today. "He hates the show and wants it off the net."
"Did you hear him say that Grey and Tommy were the first to not be told they were going to the island?" Sierra asked.
"Yeah," Nico said. "I think that's criminal, but then I don't know."
"What do you think about the way they're treating Mark?" Mary asked.
"I think it was high time that they made that boy do something for himself," Nico said heatedly, surprising Mary. "He's been riding Grey's coattails the whole time. It was time that he worked for his survival."
"Well they're nineteen days out from coming back to us," Mary said. "Let's hope they're the same boys when they come back. I've read that kids are different when they come off that island. Some have pattern nightmares and very bad post traumatic stress disorder."
"Grey will be fine," Sierra said. "He's strong, Mom. Tommy will be, too. Nothing can take those two down."
"Let's hope," Mary said. "The last thing we need is both of them in therapy for what Thomas has done to them. God, I hate that man."
"I do, too," said Sierra. "I'm sure Grey and Tommy will have some choice words for him when they get back, and don't worry about this All Stars thing. They wouldn't go back for all the money in the world."
"They announced that the prize money is twenty million paid to the all star who shines on the island," Nico said.
"Well its a good thing that Grey doesn't need twenty million dollars," Sierra said. "He inherited a lot more than that from Chris."
"Yeah," said Mary, looking around the room. "Including this house and the car you drive, Sierra."
"Yes," Sierra agreed.
Mike sewed himself a rabbit fur blanket with Grey's help. Mark scowled at this, but neither boy said anything to him. Grey helped Lacy and Kevin with their blankets, too when they had enough furs. By the fourteenth all of them had rabbit fur blankets but Mark who was still sleeping on a pile of palm fronds.
He was getting quite vocal about his fruit only diet. He didn't think it was fair that everyone had meat and fish but him. Grey pointed out that he didn't bait his hooks, and his snares and traps yielded nothing. Mark said he thought that they should share, but Grey said that everyone was eating what they caught, snared, or picked. No one was sharing with anyone. It wasn't their fault that he was catching and snaring nothing.
So far Grey and Kevin were the only ones with snares and traps by the lake, but that changed when Lacy and Mike moved their snares and traps closer but not all the way to the lake. Mark attempted to move his as well, but they fell apart when he tried to move them. So he sat even further from the lake and tried to rebuild them. He finally came to Grey and asked for another lesson. Grey complied and Mark got his first rabbit in his snares the next day. He skinned it and cleaned the skin to put on the rock in the sun, and he gutted it and buried the spoils. Grey nodded at this and was happy that the boy had finally learned something.
"He caught a rabbit in his snare," Tommy said that night when they were in their hammocks.
"He sure did," Grey said. "He can feed himself."
"Well he always had fruit," said Tommy.
"A man can't live on fruit alone," Grey said. "He needs protein. You get that from meat."
"Well he got some protein," laughed Tommy. "Think he'll catch a fish?"
"If he baited his hook correctly then yes," Grey said.
And the next day he had another rabbit and a squirrel for lunch and he had fish for dinner. Grey was satisfied that Mark was no longer a burden on him or anyone else. But then a fight broke out again between Mark and Mike over the hammock that Mike was now sleeping in. Mark wanted one of those in his shelter. He could have asked Grey for help in this area, but he expected his brother to do it for him. Mike had calmly told him no.
Grey wasn't going to go to Mark to help him. If Mark wanted his help he'd have to come to him and ask politely. There was no other way. Mark didn't do anything politely, though. He demanded, whined, and cajoled. Grey wouldn't help him if he didn't learn some humility.
Every season the survivors on the island got care packages. Since they were all in the same camp, the producers had decided to make a bigger care package for all of them. The family of each of them could pay to have something placed in the care package for their loved one. Usually it was a letter, and for Mary Baker it was no different. She wrote a letter and everyone signed it. They added that to the care package along with letters to everyone else.
Inside the care package was more paracord, more fishing lines with hooks, more netting, and two more pots. There was also six freeze dried precooked steaks. All they had to do was heat and serve. There were blankets made of cotton and a change of clothes for each of them as theirs were in tatters by now. The care package was bundled in a metal box and flown over the island in a helicopter and was dropped on the beach.
When it was dropped, Grey and Tommy went to retrieve it. They dragged it back to camp and opened it, passing out bundles for each of them. When Grey found the package of freeze dried steaks he nearly cried. They divided up the rest and put the pots with the others. The blankets were a welcome sight as were the clothes. The paracord was put to use as was the netting. Grey was in such a good mood that he put in a hammock for Mark with the new paracord and netting. He had a cotton blanket so it wasn't so important for him to have a rabbit fur one, but he was still drying his furs so that he could make one.
And so it was that on the sixteenth of June they had a steak apiece with fruit and water. Their bellies full they sat around the fires and talked about their home lives. Mark gave verbal jabs to his brother in his telling of their home life. Grey couldn't understand why a set of identical twins couldn't get along. But it was like pulling teeth to get Mark to say anything positive about Mike. Mike usually just ignored Mark, but that night they had it out.
"Mom and Dad always take your side," Mark said in an elevated voice. "Even when it was your fault they blamed me."
"That's not true," Mike said. "You're the one who wrecked Dad's car, and you're the one who stole Mom's diamonds to feed your drug habit. If you hadn't come to the island you'd be in rehab."
"I wasn't addicted," shouted Mark. "And thank you very much for outing me to the camp. I needed that. Like they don't already dislike me enough."
"They dislike you because for most of your stay on this island you've been a burden to everyone," snapped Mike. "You have nothing but contempt for me, you talk about everyone like they're your servants, and you constantly have lewd comments for Lacy who wouldn't give you the time of day if you were Brad Pitt's look alike and walked on water."
The truth of the matter was that Lacy only had eyes for Tommy, but she wasn't going to say that. It wasn't that the dark haired, dark eyed, perfectly tanned twins weren't attractive. Mike was right about Mark and his lewd comments which turned her off completely, but it was Tommy's hammock she'd slept in until Kevin had offered her half of his shelter because he didn't want to sleep alone. It was Tommy who had picked fruit for her when she was tired and who had helped her get her snares right the first time.
Grey knew this, too. He also knew that he was tired of Mark's outbursts and not surprised to learn the boy had been on drugs before he came here. He was thankful that he didn't have to detox when he got here because that would have been a nightmare. The fact of the matter was, Grey didn't like Mark. Mark had only started to pull his weight when they had all stopped helping him. If they hadn't stopped he'd have gone on letting them do things for him all of the time. Grey didn't like people who didn't look out for themselves. He'd learned a long time ago to be his own hero.
"And it isn't my fault that you failed out of college," Mike said. "That was the drugs at work there. You pissed away the money that Mom and Dad sent you and demanded more. That's why they cut you off."
"Oh, shut up with that shit," Mark said. "I've heard that shit from Mom and Dad. They always had their golden boy. That was you. Its always been you. You shit gold as far as they're concerned and it hasn't changed since we were six."
"Well with you it was always one disappointment or another," Mike snapped. "You flunked second grade because you wouldn't do your homework, you broke Andy's arm because he wouldn't do things for you anymore, and you're the one who nearly came up on sexual assault charges over Tiffany Fielding."
This was much more than sibling rivalry. It sounded like Mark had always been a monster. Who in their right mind had thought sending them to this island would solve the problems between them. With Grey it had always been that Tommy was jealous. Once he'd set him straight on a few things their relationship was fixed. Of course the near treacherous experience they were both facing had a lot to do with it, but they'd learned to respect each other out here. It didn't look like Mike and Mark were going to learn anything when it came to each other. Mike had his past to look at to know that Mark wasn't changing. If anything he was getting far worse with time. So what if he was feeding himself and had built his own shelter. Grey had still been the one to make his hammock out of the kindness of his heart. Listening to him now would change that though.
"Why don't you just drop dead, Mike?" Mark snapped.
"Because I wouldn't give you the satisfaction," Mike snapped back.
Mark went to his shelter after that and the fight ended. Mike looked at them all embarrassed by what had just happened, but no one said a word about it. Everyone just kept eating their steaks.