The nature challenge

“What took you so long?” Jessica asked, standing outside impatiently. She was already in her one piece bathing suit with a cardigan over it. “You’re not even dressed!”

“Jessica,” Wes answered formally, “I feel as though you have no faith in me as a camper!”

“Well, you’ve never done it before, you don’t like physical activity, you’re not particularly handy with outdoor things…” Jessica started to rattle off.

Wes held his hand up for her to stop. “Ok, ok, you’ve made your points. But, I want to prove to you that I CAN cut it out here and do all these things!”

Jessica raised an eyebrow, “What are you proposing?”

“I am going to live the real outdoors life. No tent, no food, no bag full of supplies!” he announced with conviction. Inside, Wes was feeling uneasy about the whole thing. Melanie had instructed him to put up this whole charade. He wasn’t even sure what was the end game; he was just told to convince Jess that he was going to live out in the woods by himself and actually go out there!

“That’s crazy!” Jessica said, mimicking his thoughts. “You won’t last a day!”

“I can and I will,” Wes responded, with waning enthusiasm for this venture. “I’m going to prove to you that I can survive out here, just like you!”

Jessica rolled her eyes, “Is this some macho bullshit you’re pulling, Wes?” It appeared she was not taking this outburst well. She tsked, “I thought you were beyond this sort of thing!”

Wes wanted to cry out that this didn’t have anything to do with his ego, but according to his instructions, he had to act as if it did. He gruffly announced, “I will be back in 24 hours and you will see a new man!”

“Twenty four hours, huh?” Jessica replied incredulously. She opened her palm and waved him off in a pushing motion. “Alright then. Good luck! You go do your thing for the day and I’ll do mine for the day.”

“R...Really?” Wes said. He was half thinking this would end with her convincing him to stay by putting out. Sadly, this was the opposite. If he came crawling back now, he’d never get her respect. He slowly turned toward the trees and said, “Well… I’ll just do that… I’ll head off on my own… probably get lost in the woods… maybe never find my way back…”

Jessica sighed, “Wait.”

Wes turned to her, hopefully.

“Take a radio with you in case you get into trouble,” Jess said before fetching a two way walkie talkie.

“Oh. Yeah. Ok.” Wes said, staring at the device. At least it was a safety line of sorts. He turned again to the forest and started to walk. He would turn to look every few paces. Jessica stood steadfastly, watching him go for the first fifty yards, but had walked off after that. Wes hiked on for another long trek.

The camp was out of sight and Wesley was beginning to feel panic. He was on his own in a strange land with no skills to call on for his survival. He tried to reassure himself. One day is not that bad. He’d spent that long on gaming sessions.

Only, the difference was that he was outside, **** to the wrath of nature. Any manner of beast could walk up and pick him off for a hearty meal. He could lose his way and become lost for way longer than a day. Then what would he do for food? He took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to calm himself. He looked up towards the sun, radiating warmly in the sky. At least it wasn’t raining. The terrain was fairly level where he was traveling, so he wouldn’t have to worry about tripping over roots and breaking an ankle.

It still bothered him that his only instructions were to declare that he would camp on his own and storm off. He checked his phone to see if he was messaged again by Melanie. There was a note to head for a spot on a map. Wesley used his GPS to direct him there.

It was a clearing similar to the one he and Jessica had set base camp at. Another tent was hitched there, much larger than theirs. When he peeked inside he found Melanie with a group of her friends. They were stationed by laptops and other electronics as if this were a research camp. Melanie noticed Wesley come in and smiled, “Ah! You made it!”

“What are you doing out here?!” Wesley asked.

“Keeping tabs on the operation,” Melanie stated simply.

“You were spying on us?”

“Well, things never go as planned, so I usually need to be onsite to course correct. So far things are going smoothly though. You’ve gotten yourself into a row with your girlfriend, you’ve temporarily separated to cool off…”

“Hold on, this little exercise of yours is threatening my relationship!”

“You did want to take your relationship to the next level, no?” Melanie asked with

“Yeah, but..”

“Well, things can get rocky when they are about to change. I’m just giving it a little shove. Trust me, when this is over you’ll thank me!” The hookup artist sounded confident in her assessment which put Wes at ease for the time being.

“So… what’s the next step?” Wesley asked.

“The next step!” Melanie declared.