Along Came Joe
by Marie Ferrarella
In need of cash to save the family ranch, single dad Joe competes in a reality television show!
Unfortunately, beautiful Theresa Knight is just as determined to win...
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£2.71 
£2.71Chapter Four
“You made it!” Jesse squealed when he returned with his grandmother later that evening to pick up his father.
Joe lowered himself into the passenger seat, waving his mother back when she began to vacate the driver’s side. “You drive. I’m too tired. If I drive, we’ll wind up in an accident. I don’t have enough energy to lift my foot from the gas to the brake.”
Elaine looked concerned as she watched her son strap in. “Joe, what did they have you doing?”
“Everything,” he groaned.
Joe leaned back against the seat, trying to absorb the comfort. On the verge of collapsing, it was still hard for his body to relax.He felt as if he’d been folded, spindled and mutilated.
“We were competing for most of the day. Running, swimming, weight training - you name it, we did it. Over and over again. Did it until we dropped and they made their choices.”
Jesse grabbed the back of his father’s seat. “But you didn’t drop, did you, Dad?”
Joe exhaled deeply. “No, but I sure wanted to.”
Jesse was fairly bouncing in his seat. “And you won, right, Dad?”
“Not yet,” Joe reminded him. “But I’m one of the twenty who can.”
It had been round after round of disqualifications all day long. There were times when he thought he wasn’t going to make it, but somehow he always managed to qualify. In the end, there were just twenty of them left. Five women and fifteen men. It didn’t surprise him that Theresa with her can-do/go-to-hell attitude had wound up being one of the final contestants. What did surprise him was that a part of him had been rooting her on.
The next week was going to be really interesting, he decided.
The competition was to last as long as it took one of them to reach destination’s end, the center of a ghost town accessible only over rough terrain. By the producers’ estimates, The Journey would most likely take at least the next week. And every step of the way was going to be immortalized on tape. The footage would then be edited and ultimately shown over five weeks, one hour a week.
They had all been required to bring in signed statements from their doctors, testifying that they were in good health and could withstand a rigorous regimen. They were required to sign pledges of secrecy, saying that they would not disclose to anyone which of them had not made it to journey’s end until after the final show was broadcast. They would have no contact with friends or family while filming the show either, which Joe knew would be the hardest part for him.
Joe packed a suitcase, and his doubts, two days after he’d tried out for the program and got on a plane bound for California, along with the other nineteen contestants. They were taken out on the town for one last night in “civilization,” told to “eat, drink and be merry,” because on the morn, all bets were off.
Being “merry” included capping the evening off with dancing. He’d meant to only be an observer, but no one was allowed to stand on the sidelines, so he asked Theresa for a dance. It was the end of the evening, and the dance was a slow one. He was surprised by how easily she fit into his arms.
She seemed to read his mind. “Don’t get too close to anyone,” she advised.
“I’m game. Why?”
She looked up at him. “Because you might have to double-cross them in the end.”
She was putting him on notice, he thought. Amused, he smiled at her. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Theresa lay her head against his shoulder. A ripple went through him as he felt her breath slowly penetrate through his shirt and warm his skin.
At the crack of dawn, they were all driven to the Colorado River, which boasted rapids the caliber the producers were looking for.
“Okay, let’s go over the rules,” Benjamin Reed, the head producer, announced. At five-four he looked like a modern-day Napoleon as he moved amid the contestants, his hands clasped behind his back, his expression intense. “You and your team are to cross the rapids, climb up the side of Mt. Evans, hike through the forest and reach Cimarron, a ghost town located smack in the middle of nowhere.
“The journey is roughly — and I do mean roughly — two hundred fifty miles of utterly inhospitable terrain.” His intense blue eyes took in every face around him one at a time. “You can only accept help from your team, no one else. Something goes wrong and one of the camera personnel or health facilitators are called into action, you’re disqualified.
“You lose your rations, your tent, you’re out unless one of your team members steps in and shares theirs with you. As you approach the end of the journey, I want you all to start thinking for yourselves about yourselves. Any friendships you’ve formed are only going to work against you as you reach the ghost town. First one into the town’s square wins.” He paused dramatically as he looked at each one of them again. “And there’s only going to be one winner. Understood?”
A smattering of low voices gave him the answer he expected.
Joe looked at Theresa. She, along with three other men, a salesman, a premed student and an unemployed engineer, made up his team. “Doesn’t exactly breed brotherly love, does he?”
Theresa looked at him with a shake of her head. Still the innocent. How could a grown man not know any better? Still, in an odd way, there was something gallant about that. She shut the thought away. “That’s not the object of the game, now is it?”
It seemed more like cutthroat competition than a game to him, Joe thought, but he kept his opinion to himself.
Reed continued talking. The roar of the rapids in the distance seemed to underscore his words. “Okay, that said, if you get into trouble, signal.” It was an order, not a suggestion. “We’re not looking to have anyone get hurt or killed here. It’s a friendly game,” he reminded them. “You’ve got cameras in your gear, cameras trained on you at all times no matter where you go. We’ll be there faster than your next thought if something goes wrong.”
“Those cameras on us, um, does that include, um, nature breaks?” one of the women asked nervously. Reed grinned. “You can turn the camera off then. But only then.” He addressed the rest of them. “Now I want you to go out there and remember, have fun.”
“Is that before or after we beat out everyone?” Theresa wanted to know.
Reed made eye contact with her. Joe watched the exchange and wondered if the two had known each other before The Journey’s talent scouts had descended on the city. There seemed to be something familiar passing between them.
“Before if you want,” Reed answered. “Definitely after.”
The four teams moved to the side, getting out of the camera crew’s way as the latter group set up for the initial shot. In the background, a helicopter crew was ready to take off to capture the aerial shots.
Joe was aware of Theresa standing next to him. She seemed so charged with energy, if she were a firecracker, he was positive she’d already be shooting out beams of lights from her fingertips.
The thought that had occurred to him last night on the dance floor made a reappearance. She was a stunningly beautiful woman. But he reminded himself that he was a man whose soul had been burned away, so whether or not she was beautiful was supposed to hold very little meaning for him.
Still, she was easy on the eyes.
“Okay, we’ve divided you into teams, trying to balance out all four groups.” Rafts were being set up on the ground in front of each set of five. “Good luck,” Reed told them. “And may the best man — or woman — win.”
Raising the starter pistol over his head, he squeezed the trigger. The sound was absorbed by the roar of the distant rapids.
Five teams grabbed hold of their rafts and ran for the river amid shouts of “Geronimo” and similar cries to battle.
