The Challenge

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"You want to finish as quickly as possible because however long it takes you to complete this check point, will be added to your time. And there will not be a time maxed out after so long. So, if you take five hours, that's five hours added to your total time at the end. Get this done quick and efficiently," TJ firmly demands as all the contestants take their seats. "You may begin."

Emma quickly pulls the top off one plate to discover a mound of crickets that already has her gagging. She peeks over at Killian to find that he has a plate of pond snails and she much rather shove crickets down her throat than snails that look like they were just scooped out of a dirty river. She closes her eyes, grabs a handful and stuffs them into her mouth. And yes, her eyes are closed and she's thinking about Cheetos but her mind knows damn well what she's consuming.

She gags again, but she forces herself to chew which only makes matters worse because it's a horrible combination of crunchy and gooey from their bodies exploding in her mouth. Swallow, swallow, swallow, she repeats over and over in her mind but her throat refuses to allow such nastiness into her stomach.

Not even a full two minutes into this challenge and someone is violently vomiting. She squeezes her eyes closed, painfully tight and pleads with herself to ignore the noises and just fucking swallow.

"Mate, you're still on your first bite, just swallow it down and move on," Killian encourages just before he shoves another snail into his mouth.

"I'm trying," she whines as someone else begins throwing up.

And then it's like a damn train, one by one, everyone seems to be puking their guts out and they have only just begun.

"Oh god," Neal groans, his voice trembling, "what the hell is in here?"

Emma snaps to attention and while she observes Neal, her throat finally cooperates and she swallows the crickets. Without ever looking back at the plate, she snatches another fistful and shoves them down her throat. Except, she watches as Neal pulls the drink from his lips and there is a damn fish skeleton hanging from the corner of his mouth.

Neal reacts instantly, doubling over and grabbing his bucket but he's vomiting so much that most of his bile sprays outside of the bucket. Emma doesn't even have time to reach her bucket, she just leans to her right and projectile vomits all over her shoes.

"Shake it off, Swan. You've got this," Killian encourages but the last thing she wants to do right now is put another fucking thing in her mouth.

She peeks through her lashes, down the row of tables to where Regina is. She looks so focused and so damn determined. She's not even sitting down, she's standing behind her table, bouncing around on her tiptoes as a distraction as she pounds down handfuls of crickets. What the hell?

A burning desire to keep up with Regina ignites in Emma's soul. She quickly stands as well, stares aimlessly up at the sky and stuffs more crickets down her throat.

"That's it! Let's go!" Killian cheers, leaping to his feet as well and slamming his one complete plate over. He swiftly snatches up a nasty drink and then pauses. "Be a dear, Swan, and plug my nose?"

Emma laughs, grabbing another handful of crickets and pushing them into her mouth before she pinches her partner's nose to help dull the taste. She catches a glimpse of Regina out of her peripheral flipping one plate over and that fuels Emma's fire.

"I can't. I-please, David," Mary Margaret cries, "please eat these for me."

"Babe, I can't eat everything."

"Please!"

Emma flips over her empty plate and quickly checks on the royal blue team. David's eyes are bloodshot from puking so much and Mary Margaret's are wet from not wanting to eat. This is where they can make up time and catch up to them, because she knows the blue team are in first place right now.