Chomp

The next morning, Wahoo wakes to find his father gone. He assumes that the episode will be cancelled due to Badger’s injury. He offers to let Tuna stay with them until her mother returns, but she refuses. She also turns down the offer of a plane ticket to Chicago, claiming, “I can deal with my dad until Mom gets home” (163). Mickey returns with a pair of rat snakes wrapped around his arms. Moments later, the airboat driver, Link, enters their camp in search of Badger, who is missing. They offer to help search for him. Despite the crew’s fears that Badger has become the victim of a wild animal, Mickey asserts that the star is simply hiding. As they spread out across the small, forested island, they suddenly hear the roar of an engine. Link’s boat has been taken.

Raven calls Gerry Germaine, the executive producer of Expedition Survival! To report Badger’s disappearance. Germaine, who is fed up with Badger’s ego trips and budget overruns, is not overly concerned. He would love to replace Badger with another actor for half the salary. As the crew breaks camp and returns to home base—the souvenir shop—they hire additional airboats and discuss a search strategy. Mickey prepares to leave, but Raven asks him to help with the search. He agrees, and Wahoo fetches Tuna in the souvenir shop. He notices something odd in her behavior, but she evades his questions.

The narrative shifts back in time to describe recent events. The infected bat bite leaves Badger delirious, and, with no clear plan in mind, he steals the airboat and flees into the Everglades. A fan of vampire movies, Badger imagines that he was attacked by a vampire bat and may now be transforming into a creature of the night. When the airboat crashes into another island, he is flung from his perch into a thicket of poison ivy. He hides under the boat to avoid sunlight—which is deadly to vampires—while his stomach rumbles with hunger.

Tuna’s father shows up at the souvenir shop looking for her. She called to tell him that she was in Aruba, but he traced the call there. Sickler, the owner, claims that he hasn’t seen Tuna; he has an intuition that he must keep this man away from the young girl. He promises to keep an eye out for her, and Tuna’s father eventually leaves.

After a day of searching, Badger is still missing. While the adults hold a strategy session, Wahoo and Tuna set up the tent. Afterward, they read through the rest of the script, which calls for Badger to carve a dugout canoe with a Swiss army knife and paddle through the Everglades until he is spotted by a plane. Despite Badger’s fakery and ego, Wahoo and Tuna both hope that he survives his current predicament.

Out in the Everglades, Badger eats a frog and snails and waits for signs of vampirism to emerge. He tries to record himself for the episode, but his swollen tongue precludes any dialogue. He tries to sleep on the boat as thoughts of malevolent transformation consume him.

Despite his dislike of Badger, Mickey is worried about the star’s safety and doubts his own ability to track the man through the wilderness. The crew prepares for another day of searching, but a lightning storm looms. Wahoo sees Tuna lingering near the parking lot. As he approaches her, she suddenly bolts toward him, her face “a gray mask of fear” (193).

Inside the shop, Tuna’s father, Jared, shows up again and demands to see his daughter. Sickler claims she’s not there, but just then, Mickey enters and offers to take Jared to Tuna, claiming that she is a long drive away. A suspicious Jared pulls out his revolver and threatens them, demanding that they take him to Tuna.

Meanwhile, Link, who is more concerned with the welfare of his boat than with Badger, is eager to begin the search. When Tuna runs toward him, frantically asking for help, Link, Tuna, and Wahoo hop aboard a rented airboat. As Link revs the engine, he feels a pain in his shoulder and sees a man on the dock pointing a gun at him. They speed away, and he realizes that he has been shot. His vision grows blurry, and he stops the boat while Tuna and Wahoo tend to his wound. With the bleeding staunched and the wound disinfected, they ponder their next move. Tuna doesn’t want to go back to the dock while her father is there. Soon, however, they hear another airboat approaching.