Psychological Control

Chapter 42

"You haven't even been in the water for ten minutes!!!" Austin exclaimed with an exaggerated expression, "My goodness, we never expected to catch a fish this big!"

Mario's expression was also one of amazement and I could feel his eyes glinting as he reassessed me once more. Then he smiled and said, "Thanks to you, Brian! It looks like our tribe won't go hungry anymore. Mind you, Austin and I didn't even put the bait on."

As Austin took the harpoon from my hand and took the big fish down into the net, I rested my arm on the edge of the boat, my feet gently beating the water under the surface.

"You look like one of those mermaids from Pirates of the Caribbean that would drag a sailor down to the bottom." Austin joked as he handed the harpoon back.

"After Poseidon Oz in season thirteen, will our tribe have a Siren?" Tossing the baited line into the sea, Mario interjected with a grin as well.

I swam slowly backwards with my harpoon in my hand, leaning backwards in front of the camera of the boat's cameraman. "For the tribe, my pleasure." I smiled and raised the harpoon in my hand as I sank back down to the surface.

The day's fishing was bountiful, and in two hours we had harvested three large fish and six small ones. All three big fish were actually my work, as the big fish in the shallows were largely roaming the bottom. After that I ran out of energy and went back to the boat to rest.

After a good night of eating and drinking, the next day it was back to the immunity scramble.

"I hear the beauty tribe had a big meal yesterday?" Jeff said in the opening moments before the race. "And you guys gave Brian the nickname Siren?"

Before I could think of what response to make, Carmelita snapped up, "Brian is just amazing! I heard Mario and Austin say that he speared a huge fish less than ten minutes after he got in the water! It was as long as my arm!"

She acted like she was on good terms with me and I didn't show anything, just waved a slight smile on my face and said, "I learned a lot before I came here so I could eat properly. Mario and the boys caught a lot of fish too."

"That's impressive," Jeff nodded with a smile and turned to the Wisdom Tribe, who had gotten a second prize item at the awards tournament yesterday, and asked, "How are you guys doing, Wisdom Tribe? Did you get a big meal too?"

After feeling the focus of everyone's eyes shift away from me, I sighed in relief and turned my head to look at Ryder's side of the table. Only to see that the atmosphere in the Wisdom Tribe was less than stellar.

Cathy, the lawyer, spoke up, "No... our tribe obviously doesn't have any good fishermen, so we'll have to eat rice. Luckily it's only day four and we're not tired of rice yet." She had to smile and spread her hands.

"Okay, so now let's have a second tribal immunity contest!" Jeff smirked as he slowly began to spell out the rules of the tournament.

It was much the same as the first match, without the favouritism given to the female and wise tribes in the prize match. The Power Tribe, who had been humiliated in the prize competition, came out on top this time. The Beauty tribe followed in second.

The Wisdom tribe, who had lost their tribal immunity once again, had everyone's face in a state of mourning. Ryder's eyes fell on me with pity. Apparently he remembered the absolute hellish punishment of spending the previous day alone on an isolated island with a photographer.

I returned an apologetic look, as the beauty tribe that had won second this time was unable to decide who to send to Exile Island. After a discussion between the Power Tribe at Jeff's request, they decided to go with Ryder after all.