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For a few moments the eleven cavers had been relieved to be in a comfortable environment, away
from the multitude of bugs and other irritating aspects of the jungle. Upon the reappearance of Anthony with their
rope, the pleasure was quickly replaced with disbelief, then panic, and finally acceptance. Fortunately, they had
a good supply of essential batteries, lights, food, iodine tablets, and survey gear between them.
George seized the awkward situation for a stab at ill humor: "What goes up must come down; but I guess we
did it backwards!" to which Anthony shouted "Let's go that way!" as he stood up and started down
a passage. "Sientese!" shouted little Maria, a command to "sit" that Anthony did not understand
but it made him stop to listen. Julie calmly advised that a few minutes of thought and planning were in order,
and reminded them that they needed survey the cave from the starting point; and that they had already forgotten
the first station at the top of the pit. Tobias offered that it was a straight drop, and that they could examine
the used portion of the rope to estimate the depth of the pit and the location of the first station. Carl added
"I respect and support your right to that valid viewpoint on that issue," a statement with such little
substance that even the philosophical Siu winced with questioning disapproval.
"Let's form our groups and start surveying our way out of here," suggested Cassie. Roger promptly pulled
out a hand-held PDA and started to create a spreadsheet while Sally and Jennifer immediately set about quarreling
about who was going be in their group. Julie and Cassie ascertained that they could make use of Roger for record
keeping, so they approached him and offered an invitation, which he politely accepted. The move did not escape
Sally and Jennifer, who had not even considered Roger yet, but perceived that they were missing an opportunity;
so they surrounded and tried to distract him from his record keeping with affectionate nudges and an artificial
interest in his work. However, it was a fruitless effort; Roger had assigned Julie and Cassie's names to his document
and was already constructing a survey database.
Maria declared that she could not stand to work with Anthony, and turned to George, saying "but
you're kind of funny; you want to work together?" Sally and Jennifer, anxious over another potentially lost
opportunity, rushed to George and agreed, "yeah, you're so fun to be with (giggle)…" George was beside
himself with his newfound fan club, and he grinned from ear to ear. Tobias and Siu joined Carl and Anthony, thus
giving Anthony an underserved but highly supportive team.
Naturally, Anthony bolted ahead to find the third survey station while Tobias and Siu scrambled to identify and
document the first and second stations. George followed, spurred on by the attention from his newfound fan club.
Julie's group proceeded methodically after the others had moved on, preferring to work without the commotion.
Anthony, obnoxious as he was, had a talent for forging ahead and finding passages with boundless energy. His ability
was surprising since all he talked about was the thought of a cold case of beer waiting on the surface. He forged
ahead, marking survey stations and calling out data too fast for Tobias and Siu, who struggled with unfamiliar
caving moves as they tried to record the data. "On Station…Left-zero-Right-two-Up-two-Down-zero…pull the tape…Got
it? Let's go!" he hollered in one breath. "Hey, buddy," called Tobias, "please slow it down.
Siu barely understands English, and on top of that she has an ear full of mud…" "They have a valid point,"
Carl meekly offered. "On Station…Left-two…" Anthony continued.
Further back, Sally and Jennifer were quarreling over discrepancies between front and back sights.
George quipped "you two are determined to be 180 degrees apart on everything, aren't you?" and Maria
smartly criticized "We're not the CRF, and this isn't Mammoth Cave, you know… whoever said we needed back
sights anyway?" "I like your back sight," George gleefully replied, for which he got a muddy slap
in the face. "You're not so funny anymore" Maria said, punching a hole in George's balloon, but causing
him to proceed with more attention to his sketching.
The survey crews continued to survey for eight hours, and only Anthony's group was surprised to find themselves
back where they started. The other groups had kept track of their data and deduced that they were circling back
to their starting point. Most of them dropped exhausted to the floor, but George started to sing "we have
all been here before…" in a high nasal voice, an old Crosby Stills Nash & Young song recognized (but not
appreciated) only by Tobias.
Then the lights came on. George was silenced, Anthony yelled "S#!^" and all shielded their dark-adapted
eyes to the blinding lights. "Let's have your survey data," commanded the TV host in front of the cameras.
Julie calmly handed their group's sheet in first, followed by Tobias and George. After a quick computer evaluation
of the data, the host announced "Julie's group has earned immunity from the first elimination, since they
achieved closure within two inches on their survey data." The voting then proceeded, and Carl was eliminated
with three votes. Ironically, the votes came from opposing personalities: Anthony, Maria, and Julie, who all stated
that Carl was very agreeable but of no practical use to anyone. Carl initially responded "Hooray! I got the
most votes!" but when he was informed that he was voted out and not in, he demanded a re-count. The request
was denied in the interest of time, and another episode was closed.
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