Chapter 21 - Boiling Point

Great. Just great. I had just fished out another familiar piece of rolled up paper inside the wooden bucket that had just been lowered to the ground. I started off with reading the paper assiduously because I knew that Mark had addressed me on the paper and that I was voted to do another trial, but I soon resulted in scanning it cursorily because I discovered that Mark's words were the exact same as last time, except that he had changed the name of the trial and the place where I was obliged to meet him.

"Oh, brother. Here we go again." I said to myself.

"Ludwig, what's wrong?" Jack asked from his bed. "Do you have to do another trial?"

I slowly turned round with the bluntest look on my face and nodded. "Yes. My fourth one so far." When I had finished talking, I noticed that Gracie was sitting on a log near the fire and she looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh. I raised an eyebrow mockingly. "Hey, what are you laughing at?" I asked, smiling.

Gracie snickered and looked up, putting a hand up to her mouth. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be laughing, but…it's just the fact that you've been voted for three trials now. It's ridiculous but so funny!" Gracie continued to giggle, the sound almost appearing to me as music and it made it practically impossible for me not to laugh along with her.

"Yeah, yeah, okay." I said, still chuckling. "But trust me, you'll be laughing even harder when you find out that I've won all ten stars."

Gracie smiled at me as I turned round to gather all of my things together to take with me to the trial, making sure I put everything in the right place so the essentials I needed were at the top of my bag. I took a few swigs of my water before zipping up my bag and swinging it on my back. However, just before I was about to leave, Jack suddenly caught me by the arm, a look of suspicion on his face. He got up in my face and whispered in my ear, "What's been going on with you and Gracie?"

Instantly, I tensed up. Oh no. I was only planning on keeping this little secret to myself and to not share it with anybody else, but it seemed like I had let my feelings slip a little bit to the extent that my campmates were spotting quite a few things wrong with my attitude and body language. "Um…nothing, why?"

A small smile formed in the cracks of Jack's mouth. "Come on, Luddy Boy, don't lie now. I know full well what's been going on with you guys."

"Well why did you bother asking then? Have you been thinking that we've been flirting? Because we haven't, we're just trying to get to know each other."

Jack nodded, an uncertain look adorning his face. "Yes, because getting to know each other is the exact same as stuttering on every word and going red in the face."

I took a moment to consider what Jack had just said. Eh… To be fair, I actually had been stuttering a lot and going a little red whilst talking to Gracie, which probably gave her the sign that I loved her as well. Oh god… At last, I sighed and gave myself up. "All right, fine." I got closer to Jack, the terrifying thought of Gracie discovering that I loved her becoming more and more strong as I did and I started whispering as well. "You don't know this, but…I have a massive crush on Gracie. I know what you're thinking, Ludwig, you're such a numpty, why didn't you bring this to my attention sooner? But the thing is…I just have the anxiety that people are going to laugh at me no matter what I say!"

I suddenly noticed that I had sounded a little aggravated there and I bit my lip as Jack stared back at me with the look that said, "What the hell did I do?" and I instantly felt bad. "Sorry Jack. I didn't mean to sound like that. I'm just a little stressed."

Now Jack looked empathetic and he put a hand on my shoulder. "That's okay. I get that everyone can feel a little anxious when they're revealing the fact that they like someone to someone else, and that's another thing. I'm not one of those people who'll pick on you and shame you for liking a girl. It's completely normal and it's the most natural thing in the world, and besides, I don't do that kind of thing. If you love Gracie, you love Gracie. Period."

I stared back at Jack in disbelief, for I actually had expected him to make a joke and create tons of banter due to the simple crime of being in love, which was what some, no, most of what the kids at school did, so I was super relieved that Jack wasn't like that. If I thought about it much further, why didn't I discover that fact right when the show started? I had no clue. Perhaps it was just my silly little mind trying to play around with me. But nevertheless, I was relieved that I felt like I wasn't put into mental danger anymore, so I thanked Jack, said goodbye to all my campmates and made my way through the trees towards the open tree area where Mark had asked me to meet him.

Despite the fact that I had been in the jungle for nearly three weeks already, I still found myself staring around the different clearings in wonder. Whether it was a surrounding of trees, plains or flowers, I was grateful to be there; it made me feel like I was living in a completely different world where it was all quiet, approachable and tranquil, which was just the way I liked it. Yes, I was enjoying being comforted by this beautiful atmosphere and I was starting to feel like I could get used to living in the silent environment I deserved, but there was just this one thing that was really bothering me. I had thought about it when I had discovered that I was going to be working through my fourth trial during these three weeks and it had just been eating away at my brain ever since then.

What made matters worse was that it got me thinking about the worst case scenarios, those being, did the public not like me so they thought it would be a good decision if they voted for me to do lots of trials? Were they laughing at me behind their TV screens and making fun of me without knowing I was causing them to? Oh, that scenario would be even worse if I thought about some of my classmates doing exactly that. Much worse. I felt myself making vivid pictures in my mind of how all of this was playing out and as the aspect of all my classmates laughing in my face at how bad I was doing swam round and round in my head, I felt my breathing beginning to grow a little heavier than normal, but luckily, the nurturing air around me seemed to blow around me and stroke my hair in a way to help me calm down.

At last, I emerged from the trees and the first thing I saw was what looked like a small warehouse with a metal roof that was almost more rust than metal with a wooden door that seemed like it was spray painted to make it look abandoned and ancient, but I could've been wrong. I swiped the tree branches out the way before walking further into the clearing and spotting Mark and a few rangers standing by the door of the warehouse with their backs to me. However, I must've made quite a lot of rustling that they all turned around as I walked up to them.

"Hey, Ludwig!" Mark exclaimed upon seeing me. "How are you today?"

I smiled nervously and bit my lip. "Would you like me to be honest or just give a casual reply?"

Mark looked back at me as if no other contestant he had ever met had approached him with this question before, but soon, he put on a friendly smile. "Of course you can be honest with me." He turned to all the cameramen posed behind the cameras. "Cameras off please, lads; Ludwig's probably not going to like it if this conversation is broadcasted to the actual show." Then he turned back round to face me with a concerned expression. "Now, what is it that you want to talk about? What's going on?"

I took a deep breath before replying. "To be honest, I'm all over the place at the minute. One minute, I'm feeling happy and loving, one minute I'm feeling annoyed because this is my fourth trial so far, and one minute I'm feeling…sort of sad and useless."

Mark furrowed his brow and went to put a hand on my shoulder. "Why's that? Is there something on your mind?"

I nodded. "Yeah. You might think that I'm absolutely insane by saying this, but I don't really want to go home because…well…this may be inappropriate to say, but I'm in love."

"Oh…who with?"

"Gracie. I don't know how to feel right now because…yes I really like her, but I feel like there's no point because we've only got another couple of days here before we leave. At the same time though, I really want to confess my feelings to her, which is why I don't really want to go home. If she accepts my proposal, then I want to stay with her forever, but I know I can't because we're only here for a certain amount of time." I bit my lip and shook my head. "I really don't know what to do."

Mark nodded sympathetically. "I can imagine that you don't, but all that we can really advise you to do is go on and try and ask Gracie if she wants to be your girlfriend. I mean, sure, what you've said is true. When the show ends, you will go your separate ways, but there are chances that you could see her again someday. Now, tell me why you're feeling useless…what's made you think that?"

I sighed. "Well, I feel useless because when I'm coming back to Camp after doing a trial, it's only Jack, Lily and Gracie who congratulate me greatly, but Cleo and Will don't really say all that much. I mean, yes, they're nice to me now, but the fact that they don't congratulate me much is a little degrading and it brings me down a bit. Also, I think the reason why I've been voted to do so many trials is because…the public hate me and they want to see me suffer. I don't know why they would do that sort of thing though because I don't know what I'm doing that causes them to, and the fact that it's all happening while I'm completely oblivious to it is just really stressful." I suddenly stopped talking to realise that I had inadvertently waffled on for longer than I needed to. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put that all on you."

I chewed on the inside of my mouth as Mark put a hand on my shoulder. "That's perfectly okay, I don't mind. After all, there's nobody that you can really talk to here, and to be honest, many contestants have come to me with problems of their own, which makes me relieved that you're one to come to me when you're having issues. I may not fix them immediately, but I can at least try. Anyway, all I can say in this situation is to just be yourself. Don't care about what the public thinks. Just completely be yourself because it's really difficult trying to be someone you're not."

I took a few moments to process what Mark had just said before putting a hand to my chin and letting out a few thoughtful noises. "Hmm… I-I guess you're right. Maybe I should stop thinking so much about what the public are thinking about me and just get on with my trials without imagining that they're judging me. I mean, at least I'm earning stars for all my campmates."

Mark chuckled. "Attaboy! Now you're getting it! Do you feel better after just…getting it all off your chest?"

At last, I smiled broadly and nodded. "Yeah. Now I feel…much stronger and up for doing this trial." I walked over to the wooden door, half signalling for Mark to explain what I had to do since I just wanted it to be over with sooner, but for some reason, he didn't explain what I had to do fully.

"All you basically have to do during 'Boiling Point' is to not do anything until I tell you to. I mean, obviously you can move and walk around but this trial is quite complicated in terms of where you need to go, so don't walk through a door or climb down a hole unless I tell you to, I will talk to you about the pathways you need to take as you go. Now, you have ten minutes to retrieve all ten stars for Camp and you will start on the sound of the klaxon."

For about ten seconds, I stood there staring at the door and it only just came to me that the interior of the warehouse was going to be more or less disgusting and vile than that of the exterior, which caused a shiver to crawl down my spine. I didn't know what to expect, but all I knew was that it was not going to be a comforting place to be in anyway whatsoever. It was going to be full of dull colours, bugs and most likely, inchoate paintwork all over the walls. Well, I suppose that was a thing that I just had to deal with. Suddenly, I heard the klaxon sound and I panicked for a split second because I had been so lost in thought that the noise had startled me out of my skin and I had to take a moment to get myself together and prepare for what I was about to walk into.

Finally, with a heavy heart, I entered through the rusty metal doors and found myself in a cold, damp room which smelled of mildew, mould, and clove oil all at once. The door clanged shut behind me and that was when I knew that I was trapped in here; the only way out was to find all ten stars in ten minutes. I frantically stared around the room before deciding that panicking and getting all worked up was not the answer to this problem. I just had to take deep breaths (obviously not so much that I would inhale all the unpleasant smells in the air) and focus on finding all the stars.

"Right, Ludwig, you need a spanner to get the two stars that are in this room." Mark explained. "There are metal shelves in front of you and you need to reach up right to the top shelf. A keyring with some spanners will be there and once you get them, you need to find out which one fits the pattern of the nuts holding the two stars to the wall."

I summoned up all of my strength, stood up on tiptoe to the best of my ability and reached up as far as I could with my hand. Luckily, I touched the top shelf and along with that, the spanners Mark had spoken of. Looping the keyring round my finger, I brought the spanners down from the shelf and found the one which had three grooves in it, which meant that it fitted both of the nuts tethering the two stars to the wall, so I instantly got to work trying to screw them off. When I finally did, I shoved the stars deep into my black bag and waited for Mark to say where I had to go next.

"That's great! Now, there is a trapdoor to your right and a ladder leading down from it. You have to climb down the ladder and I'll talk you through what you have to do once you're done." Mark explained, and with that, I did as I was told.

Once I did, I jumped down from the ladder and landed on what looked like a crash mat and a confined space. Surrounding me was a pool of…pinkish red slop and liquid and…oh god. The moment I took a breath in, I instantly regretted it, for a putrid, rancid odour filled my nose. I was almost sick. "Oh my god!" I covered my mouth with my hand. "What is that?!"

"That's fish guts and offal in there. Now, all you have to do here is feel around through all the gunk and you will find two stars on the end of a piece of string." Mark replied.

Grimacing, I stepped into the gunk, one foot at a time; I wanted to take things nice and slow if I were to be half as clean as somebody who would charge through it. As I felt around for the wooden stars Mark described, I found myself refraining from breathing through my nose; the smell in this cramped space was absolutely lethal and soon, I found myself starting to even taste it, which was more or less a hundred times worse. I let out a retch before spluttering, but I kept down the vomit that was threatening to rise up to my throat then bond with the other crap I was currently standing knee deep in. Just as I felt like giving up, I felt something pointy find its way into my hands. It was one of the stars!

Immediately, I began untying the string attached to the star, and I took my mind off my surroundings by thinking about the fact that I would be screwed if I didn't have nails because the string was tied really tightly, so luckily, I could pinch it and untie it easily. Soon, I had wriggled the star free of its string and I shoved it into my bag. Now, all I had to do was feel around some more and retrieve the second star. After a few seconds, I found the second star, my fingers working furiously as they tried to communicate with my brain, which was sharply demanding them to untie the star and fast.

"Mark! I have the two stars!" I called.

"That's great! You're doing well so far!" Mark replied. "Now, crawl along further once you get on the crash mat where you are now and stay there."

I did as I was told, but I sort of wished that I wasn't kneeling on knobbly wooden planks that dug into my knees. "Okay, now where do I-" but before I could finish my sentence, the floor gave way underneath me.

About a millisecond later, all I felt was cold. Freezing cold water, so much so that I thought I couldn't move a muscle. At last, I rose from the surface, coughing and spluttering, but soon, I really began to panic because the moment I did, my head hit a hard ceiling about inches from the surface of the water, leaving me with a ridiculously small space to breathe, which meant that I would possibly die. Well, that was if my body temperature was regained back to good order within the next minute. Was I going to get hypothermia? Would the level of the water rise higher, causing me to not have access to oxygen and then drown? Oh, surely the directors here had no plans to do this to me.

After all, if this sort of thing had been attempted and had succeeded before, the entire staff would've been behind bars. Once I caught my breath, I exclaimed, "Ah! Where the hell am I?"

"It's okay, Ludwig." Mark said in a calm tone. "You've fallen through a trapdoor and you're in the third part of the trial now. All you have to do is swim down to the bottom of the pool and use your fingers to screw the nuts off the two stars that are tethered to the floor. Take your time and remain calm. I know this is a very claustrophobic round, but please try and stay calm; we don't want anything happening to you."

"Okay." I said.

I took a deep breath before plunging myself underneath the surface and swimming right down to the bottom. Immediately, I got to work with trying to unscrew the nut freely, which at first was a little difficult because since I was in water, it was quite murky and my fingers kept slipping off it, but soon, it began to twist and in a few seconds, the star was in my hands and being shoved into my black bag. I shot up to the surface as fast as I could and gasped for air before dipping below, unscrewing the second star and retrieving it.

"Great job!" Mark exclaimed. "That's six stars now, you're doing great! Now, crawl out of the pool and once you do, you'll see some black curtains in front of you. Draw them back and you'll see a hole full of spiders and webs."

I did as I was told and for a moment, I felt as if I couldn't breathe without inhaling a few parts of the web, but I soon managed and I fully wriggled myself into the hole, reaching up as I untied the string that was holding my seventh star. Just as I was about to sigh with relief, I felt something light falling onto my head. Thinking that it was a spider, I let out a shriek before beginning to flail around, trying to whack it off my head, but I only resulted in getting webs tangled in my hair, which I was not happy about, but I soon stopped sulking after a I had untied the eighth star because I didn't think things could get any worse.

"Well done, Ludwig!" Mark said. "That's eight stars now! It's time for your two final stars. Just bear in mind for a sec that we have made this a little bit easy for this last push and once you crawl through that hole in front of you, you'll be joined by some little friends in there."

Little friends? What was Mark on about? If it was cockroaches…wait, no. They were not little friends, if anything they were lifelong enemies. Pulling a disgusted face, I plucked some of the web off my shirt between finger and thumb and simply dropped it on the floor beside me, acting as if it were nothing more than a gum wrapper that still had chewed up gum inside it. Once I was done, I crawled through the hole Mark had mentioned and I prepared myself what I was about to be met with.

After brushing more of the spider's webs out of my hair, the first thing I caught sight of was dozens of little rats, some of them all clumped together and some scampering around. At first, I felt really nervous because they were such cute creatures, even though some people referred to them as vermin and also, what if I tried to retrieve a star and I accidentally hurt a few of them. I wouldn't want that, so I carefully moved myself around them so that I could screw a star off the narrow ceiling, but as I did, I felt sudden tickles on my bare legs. I looked down to see all the rats crowding around me and sniffing me, curious to know who I was, why I was here, and why I was invading their personal space.

"It's all right, guys." I said to them as my fingers worked rapidly to unscrew the first star. "Don't worry about me, I'm nobody important, just carry on normally, I'll be out soon." and to my surprise, they left me alone to retrieve both stars and once I had done so, I let out a massive sigh of relief.

"He's done it!" Mark exclaimed. "Rangers, get him out of there!" and with that, I saw what looked like a stone slab being lifted up from above my head and everything was filled with light. Glorious light. I was so pleased with myself that I had succeeded with what seemed to be my most daring and nerve-wracking trial yet, that I reached down and stroked a few of the rats on their heads with my index finger before slowly climbing up from underground and standing up. "Wow, Ludwig…" Mark muttered, looking as if he was carefully examining my dishevelled appearance. "You really have been through a mess haven't you?" and when I nodded exhaustedly, he said, "You know, I know we're not really meant to do this, but you deserve to clean yourself up properly. We'll give you some hot water to wash yourself down with just this once, but don't tell your campmates."

I smiled. "Thanks. I really appreciate that and I really need a lie down right now…"

Mark put a hand on my shoulder. "That's okay. I don't blame you. Now, go on back to Camp and share what you've accomplished with your campmates. Take care, see you around!"

I sighed lethargically before turning round and walking back through the trees, ready to collapse onto my bed and fall into a deep sleep.