Below is the beginning of another novel I've been working on. It's in a very rough form right now, but I think it has many possibilities...
Death Quotient
Synopsis
A reality show like no other has aired all across the country. What makes this particular show unique? Its contestants are unwilling participants, a group of citizens kidnapped from their daily lives and forced to be the stars of the show. And now it is up to the voters to determine which contestant should die each week and how their lives should be ended. It is up to the other contestants to enforce the punishment that the voters decide, or they shall pay the consequences.
.
PART ONE – The Tragedy at Limelight Bay
Chapter One
“I just can’t do this anymore!” a tearful blonde said as she hovered for a moment of privacy in her tent. Her face flushed redder than her persistent sunburn, and she wiped at her eyes with shame. The more she tried to stop the steady flow, the harder her tears fell.
She tried to control her breathing, repeating the same mantra to herself over and over. “This will be over soon. You can do it. This will be over soon. You can do it.” The more she told herself this, the insipid self-doubt that was always lurking beneath her confident facade denied her the ability to calm down. Instead, she grew more agitated.
The sound of a zipper startled her, and suddenly a head of dirty red curls appeared through the opening. Janine, her tent-mate, instantly noticed the tears and gave her a nasty smirk. “What’s the matter now, Blondie? Didn’t get enough airtime in the last challenge?”
Janine pushed past her and grabbed a towel from her side of the tent, wiping sweat from her brow. Her muscled physique bordered on masculine, and she didn’t seem to be aware they were on camera most of the time. Liann hadn’t seen a hairbrush or ounce of makeup all this time in her tent-mate’s possession, and she doubted the girl even owned those items in the real world.
Liann ignored the question, instead pushing herself up to escape to somewhere quiet. She heard Janine laugh behind her, but she kept walking, wondering where she could have some time to collect herself out of the view of the ever-present cameras.
She heard a crunching sound behind her, and she spun around to find Janine in pursuit. “Where are you going, Blondie? We have to meet the team to prepare for the next challenge now.”
Liann turned away, continuing toward the forest where she remembered there was a secluded spot on a rock in a thatch of tall grass, but she felt a rough hand on her shoulder. Janine spun her around forcefully to face her, and although Liann tried to turn away, Janine held her in place with just one hand. She was the strongest of all the women still in the competition, and probably some of the men too.
“I was talking to you. Are you deaf now? Or just stupid?” The athletic redhead glared at her, waiting for an answer.
“I heard you,” Liann finally said, her voice embarrassingly squeaky and a few octaves higher than normal. She did not care for confrontations, but apparently, this woman would not let her avoid one. “I just need a minute to myself. Do you mind?”
“Well, yes, actually I do. Did you not just hear me? We have a meeting now to get ready for the challenge. We know you’re the weakest link on the team, so you’ve gotta practice more than the rest of us. You can’t just take off whenever you feel like it and let us down. Remember, we’re competing for a week’s supply of real food this time. I don’t know about you, but I want it real bad.”
Liann sighed. “Yes, I understand. I wouldn’t mind something more to eat too. I just need a minute to myself. So, if you’d kindly take your grubby hands off of me, I’ll be down there at the crest in a few minutes.”
Janine’s jaw dropped slightly. She quickly recovered, grasping Liann’s upper arm more firmly and trying to lead her toward the crest. “There’s time for that later,” she said, pulling roughly.
Liann pulled the other way, but it was futile against the other girl’s strength. She tripped on a root in the ground and fell to one knee, skinning it slightly and hearing a disturbing crunch of something she hoped wasn’t bone. “Let me go, you freakin’ psycho!” she screamed, but the other woman kept moving forward, causing her other knee to buckle and skin. She felt her arm lurch, her elbow hyperextend, and she let out a cry. Just then, she felt her arm being released and she fell forward onto her chest hard, knocking the wind out of her lungs.
Liann gasped for air, trying to make sense of what was happening. She felt the presence of someone else there, but when she looked toward Janine, her eyes blurred and all she could see was a tangle of dirty legs. She heard raised voices, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. Suddenly, she felt arms scooping her up and dragging her to a nearby patch of grass.
“What the hell is going on?” a loud voice boomed, and Liann winced at the forcefulness of it. Definitely Meredith’s voice. She dreamt about the producer’s voice almost every night because all day, every day, that voice went on and on, ordering them all around like they were dogs. She was a lot to put up with, and Liann imagined she would be terrorized by that voice for a long time after the stupid show ended.
The rustling noise she’d been hearing for a few seconds abruptly stopped. Silence loomed for a few seconds more. She heard the rolling wheels she was now so familiar with, the wheels that carted the cameras to almost everywhere she was. Everywhere each contestant was except when they were peeing or sleeping.
“Get those cameras on!” Meredith barked, and Liann heard several people around her springing into action.
Liann looked up then, with some difficulty because her head felt unusually heavy, and she saw Janine standing there, hands on her hips, glaring at Sabrina. Josh, one of the older men, held Sabrina back as she tried to lunge for Janine’s throat.
“Again, ladies, what’s going on here?” Meredith’s brow crinkled in an exaggerated frown as she awaited her answer.
“That bitch be roughing my girl up!” Sabrina said, lurching again toward the angry redhead.
Meredith looked toward Janine, but the she did not return eye contact. She instead looked at Sabrina like she was tonight’s dinner.
Josh shrugged. “I can’t say either way. I just came down here and saw these two fighting and Liann on the ground bleeding and dazed.”
Jessica, another contestant, was doing a good show of patting Liann’s head and comforting her, making sure the cameras saw all of her efforts. “She seems ok,” she called out, flashing a dazzling smile for America
Meredith pursed her lips, sighing louder than was necessary. “Well, whatever this was, let’s not let it happen again. Now, get to your team meetings because the challenge is starting in less than an hour.”
Meredith stumbled away on broken twigs, but the cameras remained on the group, hoping to catch more cat-fighting and other possible confrontation.
After a pause to make sure Meredith was out of earshot, Sabrina pointed her finger at Janine. Josh held her tighter. “Don’t you mess with my girl ever again, bitch!”
Janine spat on the ground very close to Sabrina’s feet and sneered. “Whatever!” She ambled away through the trees to the crest, and the cameras returned to Sabrina.
She pushed Josh away from her and made her way over to Liann. Before she checked on her only friend on the island, she glared at the cameramen. “Can you give us a sec? Go get some steak for lunch or something!”
The crew did not move.
“I’m serious, guys. Get out of my face!”
Sabrina stood her ground, and the crew eventually got bored with her and turned away to find something else interesting to tape.
By then, Liann was sitting up. Jessica finally let go of her and patted her on the head. “I really hope you feel better. I wouldn’t want you to miss the challenge when we kick your team’s ass.” She smiled sweetly, then pranced off, adjusting her cleavage in her extra-small tank top as she wiggled through the brush.
Sabrina hovered overhead, her short afro blocking the sun from Liann’s eyes. “Thanks,” Liann managed, a smile slowly spreading to her lips. “Nice to know I have one person on my side here.”
“Likewise,” Sabrina said, sitting cross-legged next to her. “So, what’s going on with you today?”
“This just sucks, ya know? It’s nothing like I thought. I really didn’t expect them to starve us like this, or force us to do all these challenges and live in this place. I thought it was all for show, but that we’d really get decent food and beds and stuff.”
“We’ve been over this. We both agree it sucks big time. We’ve been talking about this for weeks. Why you so wigged out today?”
“It’s this whole thing with Jeremy. It’s just too damn much. Meredith wants me to do a sex scene tonight with him after lights out.”
“What’s the big deal? You won’t really have to have sex with the guy. You’ll wear a bikini or something. So you have to pretend you’re having a fling with him. So what? Pretend it’s a role you’re playing in a movie.”
“I try to. It’s just not too easy having to kiss him all the damn time.”
“Yeah, I can imagine. Hey, I wouldn’t want to either, with what he’s been doing with that mouth of his.” Sabrina shuddered at the thought.
Liann held her stomach, feeling nauseated. The most attractive contestant of all, Jeremy Lundgren, was an instant heartthrob across the country. The cameras were on him more than anyone, and he seemed to bask in their glow, naturally seducing every woman and girl in the country. When they weren’t on him, however, he and Luke, another male contestant, were always in Luke’s tent, doing who knew what. From the second show on, Meredith insisted a major story line in the “reality” show they were participating in was going to be a love triangle between Liann, Jeremy and Yun Kim, the only Asian contestant that season. At first, Liann was thrilled to get extra air time, believing that the more exposure she got on the show, the better her chances would be to get noticed in Hollywood Hollywood
Liann groaned. “Hopefully, I get booted off tomorrow night. Then, I can just go back to being me. Clean and well-fed.”
“Look, girl. I feel you on that. But you just gotta’ hang in there. You’ve already made it this far. You can’t turn back now. I’m here for you, and you’re here for me, right?”
“Yeah, I got your back. That, you don’t have to worry about. I just don’t want to be here at all. I hate this whole thing. I don’t even know if I want to be an actress anymore, now that I’ve had my taste of show business.”
“I’m sure it’s not all like this. This is pretty extreme.”
“Yeah, but it’s all very cutthroat, I would imagine. I’m just not that type of girl, ya know? I’m not competitive, I don’t stab people in the back, and I don’t sleep around.”
“Yeah. I know. You’re just a shy, retiring girl from Oklahoma
“Hardly. But, just the same, this is not for me. This experience has convinced me of that.” The two young women sat in silence a moment longer, then made their way down to the crest to meet their team.
No comments:
Post a Comment