Empire

Chapter eleven

We get most of the next day off and I spend it exploring the woods around our house and reading.
I talk with Kimi a while too, but we're both happy to have some time to ourselves.
After lunch we get on another plane this time to Australia. When we land it's dark already. The first thing I notice is how warm it is. Japan still felt like spring but here it feels like summer already.
As soon as I lay down in my bed I'm asleep.
I wake up during the night feeling terrible. I run to the bathroom and throw up in the sink, then run myself a bath. I've learned how to use a lot of things over the past few weeks.
I wake up again in the morning to Kimi knocking on the door. I must have fallen asleep in the bath. The water is cold and I feel clammy. I get out, get dressed, and open the door.
"Are you all right Susan? You look sick." Kimi says when she sees me.
"I think I am." I say and get back in bed.
A little later Maroon, Indigo, and Magenta walk in. They ask if I'm okay and then Magenta says she's going to get a doctor.
"I don't need a doctor!" I say "I'll be fine, but could you get me some tea?"
"I'll order some up," says Indigo "what kind do you want?"
"Chamomile."
When the tea comes I drink it and feel a lot better. I don't feel like eating though.
"Girls, we've reached the halfway point of the competition. Today they will announce the scores so far." Indigo says when they've finished breakfast.
"Do we have to go somewhere?" I ask.
"No, you can but you don't have to. They'll announce the scores on tv." Maroon says.
Kimi decides to go and Maroon says she'll stay with me.
When they leave she has me sit on the bed and she brushes out my hair. It feels very good and I fall asleep again.
Maroon wakes me up a few hours later and tells me that they are announcing the scores now. While they go over the formal stuff and recaps of other challenges I ask Maroon "Do you have a family in Emor?"
"Yes I have a five year old girl and a ten year old boy. My husband is an official. That's how I got my job."
"How old are you?" I ask.
"Thirty six." She says.
That's a few years younger than my mother.
"Do you miss your family?"
"Yes but I get to see them soon. The competition will only last a few more weeks and then we can all go home." she says.
Then they get to the scores. They try to explain it but it's rather confusing. Finally they show a list with the rankings on it.

Germany 🇩🇪: 420 points 1st place.
Nigeria 🇳🇬: 380 points 2nd place.
Great Britain 🇬🇧: 310 points 3rd place.
Denmark 🇩🇰: 300 points 4th place.
Russia 🇷🇺: 300 points 4th place.
Emor 🇮🇹: 240 points 5th place.
Canada 🇨🇦: 230 points 6th place.
Spain 🇪🇸: 220 points 7th place.
Japan 🇯🇵: 210 points 8th place.
India 🇮🇳: 180 points 9th place.
Jamaica 🇯🇲: 170 points 10th place.
Peru 🇵🇪: 170 points 10th place.
Australia 🇦🇺: 140 points 11th place.
Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦: 110 points 12th place.

We are in first place! And by forty points!
I guess we have placed pretty high in every challenge.
A little later the others come back and Flair is with them.
"Kimi told me you where sick so I wanted to come check on you." She says.
"Thank you," I say "I'm feeling a lot better already."
"Congratulations on getting first place! You and Tretan have a good chance of winning this. Oh by the way he asked if you where okay." Kimi says.
"I'm fine, thank you." I say
Flair tells me that before the announcements there where people who wanted to get their pictures taken with the contestants. Apparently people in Australia watch the show too. Although according to Maroon they think we volunteered.
She keeps talking about it and I don't really pay attention until she says "Zia and Edwin where playing the lover act today. It was really annoying."
"Zia and Edwin?" I ask.
"Ya they're pretending to be dating so that they'll be more popular. There's usually at least one 'couple' each year." she says.
So Zia agreed to it, of course she did. Anything that will raise her chance of winning.
Kimi says "Don't judge her too harshly, what would you do in her place?"
I know what I did, but if I hadn't been raised the way I was, would I have accepted?
"A few weeks a go I would have done the same thing. Although I wouldn't have picked Edwin." Flair admits.
"Who would you have picked?" Kimi asks with a smirk.
"Well Grey of course." she says laughing "Who would you choose?"
"Nobody here," says Kimi "what about you Susan?"
"I'd rather not say." I smile. But in my head I think if I had to pretend to be anyone's girlfriend it would be Tretan.
We talk longer and then someone comes to get Flair and we have to get dressed for the next challenge.
Indigo takes something out of the closet that she calls a jumpsuit. It's like pants and a shirt but it's connected. It's black with gold designs and the flag of Germany on each shoulder. Kimi has a similar one except it is white with red designs.
Maroon French braids my hair adding black, red, and yellow ribbons. She does the same to Kimi with red and white ribbons.
Then we go outside. We use the back door this time. In the back of the hotel we where staying in is a large area with five vehicles. Most of the other contestants are waiting there already.
Tretan is wearing an outfit that matches mine. All the contestants from different countries have their flag on their shoulders. Although some of the outfits are different.
We are told to get in the vehicles and each given a backpack. The vehicles fill up quickly. Kimi and I want to sit together and Tretan follows us. I avoid the one with Zia and Edwin already in it. The last vehicle has just the Australians, Noah and Zara, in it so we join them.
The vehicle doesn't have a roof and the back has very comfortable seats in it. I hear Noah call it a Jeep.
Once everyone is on board we set off driving out of the city. After the first hour or so we see more of the country. It's flat and open in this area. Occasionally there's patches of short trees but mostly it's even shorter grasses. The ground is very rocky and the sky is open and looks huge.
It's beautiful in its own way but not a place that I would choose to live. I guess that's just because I'm used to living in a forest.
After a while the heat and sun start getting to me and I feel like I'm going to throw up again. The driver notices and presses a button. A canvas roof comes out of the back and shades us and a little table comes out of the floor with water bottles on it. The drive is still uncomfortable and I try to sleep for some of it.
We drive till about six o'clock. Then we stop and the drivers and other show people set up a camp.
Wherever we're going it would be much easier to just fly there but I guess they think this is more interesting.
We spend the night and set off again in the morning. We drive all day only stopping for lunch.
Noah asks the driver "Why haven't you stopped for fuel?"
"We fuelled up this morning, we won't need to again till this evening" the driver says.
I wonder what fuel is and why the vehicle needs it.
Looking out the window I see a strange hopping creature.
"What's that?" I ask.
"That's a kangaroo." Zara says "have you never seen one before?"
"No."

That night we camp out again. A few different fires are set up where we can eat and talk. I realize that I have made a lot of friends here. There's the team I was with in Canada and Marisol and Simeon. Anaya and Song sit with us as well. I'm thankful for all of them. Most of all I'm thankful for Flair and Tretan.
Looking around I actually see Amandi smile, I notice that he has dimples, but then a cameraman walks by and he scowls again.

The next day we finally reach our destination, Kings canyon, around supper time. The challenge will begin for real tomorrow.
I feel very stiff and a bit weak but at least I'm not sick anymore.
Here we are allowed to change and wash up if we want in little houses set up for that purpose. The clothes we get are identical to the ones we where wearing before but they don't stink.
We go to sleep close to the entrance of the canyon. The walls of the canyon look huge.
I hope the next challenge doesn't have to do with climbing.
The next challenge is climbing.
I'm standing at the bottom of a three hundred foot cliff attached to the top by a harness. I'm attached to Tretan with another harness. The officials have explained the challenge and we're just waiting for them to tell us to start. They also told us that the winner gets fifty points.
This challenge is a relay race up the cliff. We'll be climbing in twenty five foot stretches. I'm going first.
Someone yells "Go!" And I start up the canyon wall.
So far it's not too hard, in places where there wasn't any footing camouflaged steps have been added. I climb all the way to a little platform. Here I take the harness that connects me to Tretan and hook it on the pulley system at the top of the platform. Then I start pulling him up. Because of the pulleys I'm only pulling about half of his weight.
It's still tiring.
It takes about a minute to get a rhythm going and after that it takes about five minutes to get him up. Once he is he unhooks the rope and starts climbing.
I get to rest on the platform for a while. Tretan is definitely better at this than I am. This challenge makes me think of my little sister Mina. She would love it, she's always tried to climb anything and everything. She was the best in our family. The funny thing was that she had a hard time getting down from wherever she had gotten to. Sometimes she ended up falling and other times dad or Stefan had to go get her.
I feel a tug at my harness. Tretan has reached the next platform already and has started pulling me up. He has to lift all of my weight. I'm not very heavy and he doesn't seem to strain at all to get me up.
Then it's my turn again. It takes me a bit longer this time and once I get stuck. When that happens I have to let myself drop just a little bit then I restart from where I was before I got stuck.
I reach the next platform and start pulling Tretan up. He seems heavier but that's just because I'm more tired.
I use the break to rest as much as I can and to look around. While I'm climbing I have to concentrate but here I can relax a bit.
The height is dizzying. I'm normally scared of heights but here I know I can't fall because of the harness. I can see the creek far below and if I look carefully I can see some of the other contestants. I spot the red, white, and blue of Australia just as they reach the top of their section. We need to speed up.
Then I'm being pulled up again. This platform has the hundred feet mark on it. We're a third of the way done.
This next part has a long crack that widens as it gets closer to the top. I use it to shimmy my way up. My arms and legs are already feeling the pain. At the next platform I only have to lift a third of his weight. Tretan still has to lift three quarters of mine.
At the two hundred foot mark I'm feeling exhausted. But we can't give up. I'm guessing we've been climbing for about forty five minutes. I can feel my stomach lurching and my head pounding but we're so close. The last hundred feet I'm lifting a quarter of his weight and he's lifting half of mine. I start off again to get to the two twenty five mark. After pulling Tretan up I vomit over the edge. If I look I can see it fall to the ground. I don't know if I can keep going. I only have to climb twenty five more feet but I'm still weak from being sick and stiff from sitting for two days.
"I'll do the rest." Tretan says.
I don't argue "thank you." I say relieved. I don't know if it's allowed but we do it anyway.
We finally reach the top. It took us about an hour and a half but we did it.
A car is waiting to take us back to camp and then we fly the rest of the way back to Sydney.
That evening I watch the results of the challenge. We're eighth place.