The Suvivor - Twenty (963 hits)
Category: GeneralLabels: The_Survivor
Rating: 2 on 17 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by <brdn_nkd.at.yahoo.com> (View user info) at 2004-10-25 11:58:31 EDT
Part 1 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/47397
Part 2 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/47534
Part 3 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/47688
Part 4 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/47784
Part 5 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/47955
Part 6 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/48120
Part 7/8 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/48263
Part 9 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/48399
Part 10/11 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/48513
Part 12/13 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/48700
Part 14/15 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/48779
Part 16-18 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/48915
Part 19 - http://www.ubersite.com/m/49334
The next few days were mostly uneventful. Amy stayed curled up in her cot, besides the scrape on her forehead she looked okay but she slept almost constantly. We worked on cleaning up camp, gathering all the deadfall to be used for our fires and clearing the rest of the debris away from our clearing. Watching our food supplies dwindle we began working on keeping ourselves fed when they ran out later. Todd had woven a net from the vines hanging from the trees and was beginning to get the hang of using it to catch fish. We built a rack from some of the loose wood so we could try drying some of the fish we were catching. Several of us went to the beach and found clams and we even caught a couple of crabs that were walking around on the beach. Food would definitely not be a problem.
Four days after the storm blew over we found tree mail again.
"The last challenge you bested with ease
you're well fed and rested and should be quite pleased
the next is quite simple and requires naught but sheer strength
putting Sisyphus' burden in it's final resting place"
A couple of us knew the myth of Sisyphus so we could guess that we would have to move a boulder up to the top of a hill but beyond that we had no idea what was in store for us. Jeff came to our camp not more than hour after we discovered this new riddle and led us to the base of the peak in the middle of the island. Jeff walked into a clearing and stood next to a very large boulder, it was about three feet in diameter and looked perfectly round.
"Sisyphus was condemned by the gods to push a boulder up a hill for eternity. You will not have as much time to complete this challenge. If the boulder that I am standing next to is not on top of the hill by sunset tonight then, not only will you not receive a reward, but you will also be forced to continue your efforts until the task is complete with only fifteen-minute breaks. If at any time no one is working toward the solution for more than fifteen minutes at a time you will be required to vote someone off the island. Good luck"
With that Jeff withdrew and sat down to watch us. Dane, Todd, and I walked over to the boulder and tried to push it. It was with great effort that we were able to make it move it was incredibly heavy. After our experimental push we decided to put some thought into it before we began our toil, we sat down and began discussing the task. Dane again suggested we refuse but given the armed crew around us the rest of us decided that that was not an option available to us, besides, "vote someone off the island" could not mean that that person would be leaving in good health. Amy was nearly asleep again so she obviously would not be of much use in this endeavor, and offhand we did not see an easier way to move the boulder. We sent Gina and Rachel to the top of the hill to scout out a route and see if there was anything we might be able to use to move the boulder. While they were away Todd, Dane, Chris, Denny, and I began pushing, we were only a little way up the hill before the boulder slipped on us and began to come back at us. As hard as we tried we weren't able to keep it from rolling back down the hill and by the time it was done rolling it was easily another twenty feet further from our goal.
Gina and Rachel came from behind us then and said they'd found a path had been cut to the top but it was about forty yards away from where we were. What it came down to was push the boulder around to the path, or try to manhandle it straight up the side, working against vegetation, loose soil and rocks, and deadfall. We asked Gina and Rachel if the path looked any easier than the incline in front of us and whether or not it was mostly clear of obstruction but they were not able to answer either question satisfactorily so we decided to split into two groups, one would survey the path and the route to get to it and the other would survey the climb straight up the side. Gina sat next to our burden.
My group began our climb straight up the hill, as we walked we cleared bigger obstacles from our path, tree branches, rocks, etc. it was a fairly steep incline but looked like a feasible route to get to the top. There was a large depression about halfway up the hill and we thought if we could get it that far we could rest the boulder there to rest. As we looked at this pothole we saw the other group nearing and noticed that the path ran right past this. They met up with us and once again we discussed our alternatives. The other group said the path looked like it would be pretty "easy" to move the boulder up, the incline wasn't as steep and it was free from obstacles, getting he boulder there would be the problem. There was no direct route to the path and the undergrowth between where the boulder was and the path was very thick so we decided that we would try to get the boulder this far and then move onto the path.
We all walked down to the boulder together to find Amy passed out beside it. We didn't try to long or hard to wake her, just mover her aside so that we could begin our work. We had Gina and Rachel spot for us, guide us, and clear any obstructions we'd missed. The rest of us, excluding Amy, got to push.
I looked at my watch, 3:35, and figured we had about five and a half hours to get the boulder up the hill, and so we started. Being only three feet high it was hard to get a good grip on the boulder or get low enough to get leverage to move it; the loose soil under our feet didn't help matters. There was only a brief scary moment before reaching our first goal, the pothole, that we thought we were going to lose it. Denny's hands slipped and the boulder's weight bore on the rest of us, Gina quickly ran back and put her back against the boulder and I'm convinced she kept us from starting over that time. When we finally settled the boulder in the pothole and sat to take a break it was already nearing six P.M. and we were only about a third the way up the hill. We had to hope the path would make things easier or we were going to fail.
There was another frightful moment when we tried to start again when we couldn't seem to rock the boulder out of the pothole we rested it in. It was on our fourth attempt to get it going again, this time with Gina and Rachel pushing too that we were able to get it out, when it popped out it almost took off on us and we were just able to stop it from rolling down the hill again. We began pushing again.
Gina and Rachel started taking turns so that we wouldn't wear out. We were now about halfway up the hill and already each of us could feel the effort we'd already put forth. There really was nothing else to it but to continue toiling to the top so we kept on rolling until the sun set on us.
The light had begun to seep out of our surroundings as we toiled up that hill and though each of us felt a desperate need to push harder, faster, none of us could do it. We made the top of the hill that night well after dark. We had overcome the challenge but did not win the race against the sun. Jeff came and offered congratulations and then sent us back to our camp. We trudged back, supporting Amy between Denny and I, feeling as though we'd been run over by a steamroller. If we knew what was coming we might have chosen to forfeit and vote someone off the island, unfortunately as you no doubt know, only hindsight is twenty-twenty.
User Reviews
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2007-09-22 11:13:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2006-04-19 06:14:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
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Submitted by Davros (user info) at 2005-12-15 17:36:33 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
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Submitted by RyuFu (user info) at 2005-11-04 11:12:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Sissyfas, mm hmm.
Submitted by Wrightcopy (user info) at 2005-09-08 14:01:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
That would be a cool challenge for one of those shows, if it wasn't a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Greek myths are cool. Good job, as usual.
Submitted by mikethescottish (user info) at 2005-03-01 17:18:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Ed_0150 (user info) at 2005-01-20 23:37:12 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by jack11058 (user info) at 2004-11-26 12:09:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by JinkyWilliams (user info) at 2004-11-02 14:49:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Stay orange.
--JW
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2004-10-25 16:25:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Thanks Adam and Zoid!
Submitted by Zoidberg (user info) at 2004-10-25 15:43:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I need to learn how to do serial form. These long ones I bust out are killing my hit count
Submitted by Adamdidit2u (user info) at 2004-10-25 14:14:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Great as usual
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2004-10-25 13:21:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Thanks for reading!
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2004-10-25 12:40:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I've got to catch up on these.
Submitted by wookie (user info) at 2004-10-25 12:28:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by zakalwe (user info) at 2004-10-25 12:17:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Must start working Greek legends into my posts. Great idea.
Submitted by yermom (user info) at 2004-10-25 12:13:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
cool