“It’s late,” River said. “We’re cold, we’re tired. We should sleep and talk about this in the morning.”
Cam pointed at Trip. “I’m not going to sleep until he taps out.”
Trip barked out a laugh. “That’s not happening, sweetheart.”
Cam glared. “Call me sweetheart again.”
“Oh, come on!” Trip said, throwing his hands in the air.
Cam didn’t really care what he called her, but Liza’s lips had pursed when he’d said princess before, and Cam figured she could use that.
River ran a hand across his cheek. “I don’t think he needs to tap out.”
“Why not?” Liza said. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve been starving. He’s been out here with secret gummy worms. It’s not fair.”
River scuffed his boots in the dirt. “I mean, yeah. It doesn’t seem fair . . .”
Of course River would have a finely tuned sense of fairness. Cam lowered her voice as if she were speaking only to him. “And what if he wins the whole thing? That wouldn’t be right.”
“I don’t know . . .”
“C’mon, buddy, don’t be like that,” Trip said, and suddenly all eyes landed on River, looking to him as if he were the final arbiter of rules.
“Hey,” Liza said. “We shouldn’t put this all on River.”
River sagged gratefully. “Like I said, let’s sleep. We’ll figure out what to do in the morning.”
Cam couldn’t see any benefit in arguing further. By morning, Trip would have shared his juice boxes and what remained of his food, been his friendly self, and they’d all be over it. River and Liza already acted like Cam was some kind of mean girl, bullying Trip into tapping out, and since she couldn’t afford to be cast like that, she let it go.
It was too cold to sleep, however, so instead of lying down they ended up crowding as close to the fire as they could. They were soaked and shivering, suspicion hovering over them like a fog, but still they sat close for warmth.
Liza sighed heavily. “I’ll never be able to sleep. It’s freezing. And God, I’m bored.”
Trip fidgeted, his feet tapping a steady rhythm in the dirt.
Cam scowled at him. “Do you mind?”
Trip tapped faster, giving her a look that said, Deal with it.
Liza sighed again. “It’s cold.”
“No shit,” Cam said.
“You know,” Trip started, jabbing a finger at Cam. “Maybe if you—”
“Anyone play cards?” River said, interrupting Trip. He pulled a deck from a waterproof plastic bag in his pack, and began shuffling.
Cam rolled her eyes. “What, like Go Fish?” She’d been lonely all these days in the woods, but somehow, now that she was surrounded by people, she was determined to act like a jerk. She knew why, of course. If she was friendly, they might think she was weak. Whatever happened, no way she would let them think they could beat her.
“Sure,” River said, undisturbed by her sarcasm. The cards bridged in his hands and flipped together again. “Or rummy, or poker.”
“We don’t have anything to bet,” Liza said.
River fanned the deck and held it out to Cam. “Pick one.”
“You’re serious?”
He waited placidly for her to choose.
She drew a card. The four of hearts.
He took her card and reshuffled it into the deck.
“You remember what it was?”
She nodded.
With one hand, he split the top of the deck away from the bottom, rotated it, and then slid the two halves together again. He coaxed a card from the center with a crooked finger.
“This your card?”
It was the ten of spades. Cam shook her head, and Trip tittered.
River eyed the deck, acting perplexed. “Huh.” He pulled another card, the queen of diamonds. “Is this it?”
Cam shook her head, not sure whether to be unimpressed or wait for the trick that was obviously coming. Still holding the queen of diamonds up to them, he flicked the back with his finger, and with a snap the queen turned into her card, the four of hearts.
Trip jumped to his feet. “Show me how you did that!”
Liza’s mouth dropped open.
“That’s my card,” Cam said, pleased despite herself.
They spent the next hour with River showing them tricks. It was only later, as they lay down to sleep, that Cam realized what he’d done. They’d been bored, irritable, and ready to start fighting again. River had distracted them, redirecting their thoughts just like he’d shuffled that deck of cards. He wasn’t as incapable of duplicity as she’d originally thought. And he’d been friendly, brought them all together, and somehow done it without seeming weak. The realization brought back all her irritation. He’d managed to pull off what she never could.
Trip and River slept back to back, and Liza slipped in next to River, her head resting on his outstretched arm. Cam found herself imagining how it might feel to lay her head against his chest. It was a diverting distraction from the pocket of cold air she slept in three feet away, but her distance from them made it easier to slip outside before daylight.
First she grounded all the Skyms. What she needed to do required privacy. They were allowed to disable their Skyms for things like bathing or going to the bathroom. The producers wouldn’t like that she was doing it for this, but the machines could still record inside the shelter even if they couldn’t follow her outside. She felt her way in the dark to a rock a short distance away. The lingering wetness of the earlier rain made the chill in the air worse.
Cam perched on the rock, ignoring the dampness and cold seeping through her cargo pants, and took out the phone. The case was brown and waterproof, clearly meant to blend in with the surroundings, except in one corner Trip had placed a tiny sticker of Spider-Man. It peeled at the edges, worn by the harsh conditions outside.
She pressed the power button and waited while the screen booted up. A breeze lifted from the water and rustled the leaves. She tilted her head at the sound, muttering branches rubbing against one another, leaves fluttering in the dark. The more she listened, the more it sounded like voices, that whisper-whisper-whisper again, like the trees telling hushed secrets to one another.
Cam, Cam, Cam, and now sometimes she heard, Where are you?
After being alone for so long, she was probably losing it.
The phone lit up gray and then brightened to white as the home screen flashed into view. She smiled. This little bit of civilization let her push away the superstitious unease of being in the woods.
She’d been able to tell by Trip’s desperation to have the phone that it wasn’t actually dead, just powered down. She checked for a signal, but there was nothing. No bars, not even the empty signal of the bars. She checked the browser, but the spinning icon didn’t stop churning. She went back to the home screen and was searching through the open apps when Trip emerged from the shelter.
“Spider-Man?” Cam said, indicating the sticker. “I thought you hated spiders.”
He gave her a withering look. “That’s Spider-Man. He’s not an actual spider. Also, that’s my phone. It’s private.”
Cam didn’t look up. She flipped through Trip’s apps and e-mails. “I can see why.”