I finally got to meet Sid Moreau the next morning and quickly identified him as the narrator of the program. There were five of us together, standing at our start point, and he stood in front of us. The hunters were over to the left, cordoned off behind a section of paper tape while another staffer went over the rules with them as Sid was doing with us.

“Remember, you can use whatever is at your disposal and in the environment, including to fashion weapons. You can’t kill someone, and you can’t cause grievous bodily harm, but everything else goes.” He looked at us expectantly, and several women around me nodded, so I did the same. “Also remember there are no safe words, and anything else goes. There are cameras everywhere, so we’ll be able to monitor you at all times. You each have dedicated camera people tracking your every move to ensure your safety throughout the process. You might not walk away without pain this weekend, but you will walk away. That’s my personal guarantee to each one of you.”

I tried to take some comfort in that, along with the knowledge the show had been taping for three years, and no one had ever been seriously injured. This was all about living out a fantasy, and while some of the participants probably had quite violent fantasies to fulfill, it was reassuring to know the staff was available and watching everything to make sure they didn’t go too far.

“Hannah’s currently handing around backpacks for you. You’ll find a few survival-type items inside, along with food and water. Use the contents however you wish, but don’t forget to strategize. You want to make the hunt last as long as possible, both for entertainment value and to diminish the time the hunters have if they claim you. Have fun and stay focused, ladies. Good luck.” The black-haired man took a step back, signaling the end of his speech, and joined Hannah in passing out the backpacks.

When I received mine, I shrugged it on and stared at the apparatus in my palm Hannah had also handed me. “What is this?”

“It’s your head cam.” Hannah, the girl who’d greeted me last night in the makeup room, took it from me and clipped it into my hair.

It was no heavier than an average barrette, and I reached up to touch it. “It doesn’t seem very sturdy.”

She just shrugged. “It’s tougher than it looks. Just don’t take it off if you can help it. It’s one of the primary ways we track you.”

With a nod, I joined the other women who were already geared up and waiting, standing at the starting line. My stomach was a bundle of nerves, and I shifted restlessly in my running shoes. I’d brought a familiar pair from home that were broken in, but only one other woman seemed to have planned ahead and done the same. She was a tall Asian girl on my left, and we exchanged brief smiles, but nothing more.

The other three women wore the new white tennis shoes issued to them by the staff of the show. We all wore sturdy jeans and long-sleeved T-shirts with “The Island” logo, along with light windbreakers. Mine was currently tied around my waist, and most of the others either carried them or had stuffed them in their backpacks.

It was a sweltering day already, though the canopy of the forest would protect us from the worst of the sunlight. We were in a clearing, so I could feel it beating down on me at the moment, but was certain it would be much cooler once the race began, and I was in the shade.

“The timer’s about to start, and you have a thirty-minute head start,” said Sid once more. “Run like hell, ladies.”

At that moment, a shrill alarm sounded, and I recognized it from viewing the last episode. I started to run, as did the women beside me. From the corner of my eye, I saw two of them slip off together, but I scattered independently, as did the Asian girl beside me, and petite blonde on my other side.

At first, I just crashed through the jungle without a plan in mind. I was still riding high on adrenaline and fear, so it took me a few minutes to really slow down and look around properly, to evaluate the environment.

There was a profusion of foliage, along with twigs and vines. I found a sturdy-looking branch that could double either as a walking stick or perhaps a blunt object if used for a weapon. I tested it experimentally, and it seemed kind of brittle. When I slammed it against a nearby tree, the branch shattered. I cursed and kept looking.

The canopy provided the sunlight protection I’d expected, but also made it gloomier as well. I paused for a second to open my backpack, searching to see what we’d been given. I didn’t want to waste my thirty-minute head start, but I also had to know what was at my disposal.

The food was mostly protein bars and bottles of water, along with a couple of MREs and a mess kit with silverware, a plate, and a mug. There was also something labeled as a survival kit. I looked through it and found matches, an emergency blanket, a compass, and what looked like a small shovel along with a roll of toilet paper. There was also a mallet with a blunted ax on the back of it, and the handle was no longer than my forearm. As a weapon, it wouldn’t do much. However, it would probably help cut and sharpen sticks for starting a fire.

I also found a headlamp that I fastened on my forehead, careful not to displace the camera. It had an LED light that provided more illumination than expected for its small size, and I was soon underway again.

I kept running, trying to maintain a steady speed that wouldn’t exhaust me, but wanting to get as far away as possible before the hunters started. I knew I hadn’t been running for thirty minutes when I heard the second alarm. It was more like ten minutes, though I didn’t have a watch at my disposal.

“You lying bastards.” I didn’t shout it, not wanting to give away my position, but certain someone somewhere recorded that on camera. They hadn’t given us thirty minutes at all. They had lied and let the hunters come much sooner. If they lied about that, what else had they lied about?

Suddenly, I was a little less secure in my safety as I moved on, trying to increase my pace. It was difficult to run too fast, because there were no cleared paths. There were dead leaves and vines all over the forest floor, along with fallen logs and other debris. Twice, I startled small animals that scurried away.

I tried to split my time between looking down at my feet and looking straight ahead, but was making horrible progress. According to the compass I had strapped to my wrist, I had veered to the west instead of going straight. I guessed it didn’t matter, since I wasn’t certain where was safe, if anywhere.

I plunged on ahead, going faster than was wise and paying for it when I hit a fallen log and went flying. I landed hard on my hands and knees and couldn’t seem to get myself moving for a moment. My ears were ringing, though I hadn’t hit my head, and I was still trying to absorb the shock of the fall when something heavy moved behind me and on top of me. I instantly recognized it as a body and started struggling.

“I was hoping to catch you.” The voice was gruff and sounded older, and his hands weren’t gentle as they tugged at my clothes. I was trying to get away, but he had me trapped. Tears came to my eyes, but I had no clue how to escape.

Suddenly, the weight on me went slack before growing heavier and forcing me closer to the jungle floor. I sobbed and tried to wriggle away, finding it easier than expected despite the burden of the added weight atop me.

When I rolled over and looked up, I saw the Asian girl standing above me, holding out a hand. In her other one, she held a heavy branch that she had clearly wielded to the upside of the man’s head.

I took her hand and got to my feet, glancing briefly at the man who tried to capture me. He was the old man who’d leered at me last night, and I shuddered as I realized how close I came to being his captive. He might still catch me, which was a nauseating thought.

“Come on. We need to move.” She had a surprisingly dulcet voice that didn’t match her rougher-looking exterior. She was big and strong, with bulging muscles and wore a scowl. I wasn’t certain if that was her resting bitch face, or if she was just responding to the circumstances.

I started jogging along beside her. “Thank you.”

She lifted a shoulder and shrugged. “I couldn’t see letting him take you down when I was right there.”

“I’m Anya.” I didn’t give her my last name, because we were forbidden to exchange contact information with our fellow contestants or the hunters pursuing us. First names were it.

“Daiyu, but most people just call me Dai.”

“That’s a pretty name.”

“It’s Chinese and means black jade.” She gave me a very brief smile. “My mother tells me she knew I would live up to the name the moment she held me.”

“You do seem to know what you’re doing.” I let her lead the way as I ran beside her.

She shrugged again. “I was in the military for a while. Two tours in Afghanistan taught me a few things.”

“That was desert and not the jungle, right?”

Once again, she shrugged. “It doesn’t matter so much about the terrain. The enemy’s all the same.”

I drew my brows together as I frowned. “The hunters aren’t really the enemy though, are they?”

She paused long enough to give me a look of disbelief. “You know what they’ll do if they catch you, right? I consider that pretty fucking hostile, which makes them the enemy in my book. I’m not going to let them take me easily.”

I nodded, finally grasping what she meant. “I agree with you. I don’t want them to catch me at all. I can certainly use that million dollars.” I didn’t say for what.

“Yeah, me too, but the hundred-kay is enough for now. That’ll buy my mom a new house and help ease some of her troubles.”

I smiled at her. “You’re doing this for your mom?”

This time when she shrugged, she looked embarrassed. “Yeah, I guess.” Her response was unenthusiastic, and she seemed uncomfortable with the answer. I didn’t pry about her mother’s circumstances, and I didn’t linger on the topic.

Instead, I ran with her. There was a stitch in my side, and I was already feeling breathless, but still I ran. I wasn’t going down without a fight, and the best way to avoid the fight was to evade being captured to start with. Maybe with Dai at my side, I had a chance of lasting longer than twenty minutes.