Hey guys!

Phew, finally finished this one. Was planning on completing it last night, but instead I was lying on the recliner with a migraine. It wasn't fun, I tell you that.

Anyway… this chapter, the six contestants in Toronto start their journeys to wherever they need to go, and the other guys… are mostly stuck where they are for now. And, like I said the previous chapter, not all mini-chapters will have happened in the same time frame. The third one is a good example of that, if anyone is wondering.

I don't own Total Drama, or any of its characters. I own any OCs mentioned here and there, and as always, they are in no way related to the contestants.

Chapter 3 – The Hunt Begins

Exactly two days had passed since the contestants were rescued. During those two days, everyone got a chance to rest up for the big challenge that lay ahead of them.

By seven o'clock on the following day, all six contestants – and Bridgette – were all gathered in the hotel lobby, carrying small backpacks over their shoulders. Chris and Chef were waiting at the front, each of them carrying an armful of tracking devices.

"So how do we get to… wherever we need to go?" Zoey asked, threading her left arm through the other strap on her bag.

"Eh, train, bus, whatever you can think of." Chris replied with a shrug.

"Wait, we can't fly there?" Heather exclaimed.

"Hey, neither of you are gonna have that kind of money. And I would put some towards it if I wanted to."

"Ugh, seriously…"

"Anyway, I guess I should hand these things out to you guys." Chris grabbed one of the tracking devices and threw it to Mike, then another each to Gwen and Alejandro. "Most of these guys are in groups at different locations, so find someone who's got the same location as you, I guess." He continued as Chef threw his to Zoey, Cameron, Heather and Bridgette.

"Uh, you said there were eight of these…?" Bridgette said slowly while examining the screen of her device.

"Yep – three people in one location." Chris looked at the last remaining device that he was holding. "Who's got one that's somewhere around San Diego?"

"Oh, I do!" Zoey hurriedly replied, looking up as the device was thrown to her. "Anyone else got the same location?"

"Um… yeah, I do." Heather said, walking over. "Great, how are we gonna get to the other side of the continent?"

Meanwhile, Alejandro stood on his own, looking slightly confused.

"Uh, Chris?" He called. "I think I'm the only one who has to go to New York…?"

"Oh yeah. There's one person all on their own." Chris chuckled. "Oh boy, that's gonna be a tough one, with just you doing it. Oh well!"

Alejandro frowned in annoyance and slowly walked off to the side, looking down at the device's screen.

"Can we go now or do we still have to wait for a bit?" Bridgette asked as she walked over to Gwen.

"Not just yet." Chris replied, shaking his head. "Oh yeah, and there is a time limit on this."

"Time limit?" Cameron exclaimed.

"Yes, time limit. From the moment you step out of this hotel… you've got exactly one week to find everybody and get your butts back here. I've got a new season that I wanna start, but not until I know that I do not have to worry about lawsuits. Now-"

"Wait, do we get to go now or are we just standing around doing nothing?" Heather interrupted, sounding fairly impatient.

"Alright. Fine. You can all go!" Chris replied with an exasperated sigh. "One week! Remember that!"

The seven teens all ran for the door, tracking devices in hand and backpacks sitting safe and secure behind each of them.

It was to be a very challenging week ahead of them.

xx

Location: Central Park, NYC, New York
Contestants in area: Sierra

A small group of birds tweeted away merrily as they flew around the topmost branches of a tree. Down below, Sierra had just woken up, and yawned.

"Eeeeyaaaaahhh…" She said, stretching out her limbs. "Oh em gee, I totally need to find something to eat! I'm starving…"

The previous day, the park was fairly busy for no apparent reason. Whilst wandering around, Sierra stumbled across a mince pie sitting on a park bench, still in its unopened packaging. She broke it into two – eating one half right then, and saving the other for later. Fortunately for her, just half of that pie was quite filling.

But now there was, so far, no other food lying around, and groups of people were few and far between.

Sierra lay across a thick branch lengthwise, where she had a pretty good view of the park (well, what she could see of it). She watched the thinner branches slowly sway back and forth until a voice reached her ears, and she sat bolt upright.

"What do you mean by going out with another girl now? Erin, you know I'm not that low!" A male voice said from afar, sounding quite desperate, and coming closer. "Erin, please, she kissed me. I was sitting there minding my own business!"

Suddenly feeling excited, Sierra inched forward, eager to catch all the action she could.

"But it's Pia Sutherland. Queen of mean. Total fake. I'm not into those types of girls." The voice said again – it sounded like he was trying to reason with this Erin.

"Ooh, I love this!" Sierra whispered, grinning. "Oh, if only I had my smartphone…"

"Erin, no! Please, I'm begging you, it was nothing to do with me at all! Pia just decided to get the worst revenge on the stupidest thing. Oh man, I don't know what- NO! ERIN!"

Then, it all went quiet. So quiet it was almost deadly. A loud, heartbroken sob then echoed out.

"Oh man… no… WHY?" The voice cried.

Sierra felt a pang of sorrow in her heart and sighed. She knew that the guy – whoever he was – seemed to be telling the truth, and was trying his best to clear the air. Noticing that she couldn't see him, she tried repositioning herself, going slightly lower down.

"Huh… hey, who's up there?" The voice called out, causing Sierra to yelp in fright and swing round to the underside of the branch, her grasp then slipping and she tumbled down to the grass below.

"Ouch…" She moaned, now lying face up on the ground, the tree branch she was on not even moving – as if nothing had happened.

"Whoa, you alright?" The voice asked.

Dazed, Sierra looked up to see the face of a dark skinned guy hovering over her, looking quite concerned.

"Ergh… I don't know…" She slowly replied, bringing her hand to her forehead. "I guess so…"

"Uh, you sure? That was a pretty nasty fall. And… what's that on your ankle?"

"Yeah, I-" Sierra cut herself off and looked down at her feet. On her right ankle, an anklet-type brace was fastened there. "Oh… the trackers! Oh em gee, someone's probably out there to find me!" She squealed, sitting up.

"Trackers… huh?" The male repeated, sounding quite confused.

xx

Location: San Diego International Airport, San Diego, California
Contestants in area: Courtney, Lindsay, Scott

It was a picturesque day in San Diego – eighty degrees, cloudless sky, light breeze… it was perfect.

Not so much for some, however.

Courtney wandered aimlessly around a book store, stopping to look at a book or magazine every now and then.

"Ugh, this is so useless." She groaned, sighing.

Several hours ago, she, along with Lindsay and Scott, arrived in San Diego with no money and no intention of hanging around at an airport for a long time. But, that was exactly what had happened.

The young girl on the plane, Kara, had stuck with them throughout the whole flight, all the way through the arrival gates, until she had to go off and find her parents, and her brother Linus.

Right now, the three former contestants were… pretty much stranded. No money, no way to get home, and no one nearby that knew them.

Finding nothing that interesting, Courtney went outside and slumped onto the floor, feeling tired, hungry and bored out of her mind.

"Why did I agree to being put in a stupid balloon?" She grumbled. "In fact, why did I even sign up for that show? It was nothing but a waste of time… and now I'm stuck in San Diego. No thanks to Chris."

Meanwhile, Lindsay was seated at a small table, reading through a magazine that somebody had left behind.

"Oh my gosh, she totally shouldn't have broken up with him!" She muttered. "That's just like, so wrong. He doesn't deserve it."

She turned over to the next page, which was, in fact, the last page of the magazine. She shrugged and closed it, then standing up and looking around.

"Ooh… what do I do next?" She asked herself. "I don't like being stuck here…"

Turning around, Lindsay stared wistfully at the nearby café, wishing she had some form of money with her. She sighed and walked off, wondering about what else there was that she could do.

On the other side of the café, Scott was just sitting on a lone chair, a folded newspaper sitting on the table next to him.

"Stupid Chris McLean and his stupid balloons…" He grumbled, crossing his arms. "Now what am I supposed to do?"

Sniffing, he twisted round in his chair to look out the nearby window.

Planes were slowly coming and going, each of them varying in size and shape. Smaller luggage trucks were driving to and fro carrying large amounts of suitcases and other large bags.

Somewhat lost in watching the happenings outside, Scott was suddenly distracted as a fairly loud beep echoed out.

"What was that?" He muttered, looking around. "Wait…" His eyes widened in realization as he bent over and pulled up the leg of his trousers, exposing the tracker loosely clamped around his ankle and the red light on it flashing.

Back by the bookstore, Courtney was still slouched on the floor when Lindsay walked over, and she looked up.

"Um-" Lindsay began, but was cut off as two loud beeps sounded out. "Huh?"

"Hold on a second…" Courtney sat up and stretched her right leg out, then spotting the tracker on her ankle flashing madly. "Lindsay, take off your boot."

"Take off my boot?"

"Just do it!"

Raising an eyebrow, Lindsay slowly sat down and pulled her boot off. Sure enough, the tracker on her ankle was also flashing.

"Oh… my gosh…" She whispered. "Wait, what are these for again?"

xx

Location: Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Contestants in area: Duncan, Lightning

Most of the contestants had been staying a little while at wherever they were. But some moved off straight after they found each other.

Duncan wiped his brow with the back of his hand as he looked ahead at the sunrise. It wasn't exactly hot, but having been running and climbing for quite a while, it was enough to at least work up a sweat.

"Sha-come on!" Lightning called from ahead, stopping and looking over his shoulder. "Lightning ain't waitin' round for you to stop and rest!"

"Well you should slow down then." Duncan retorted, rolling his eyes as he continued on running. "Not everyone can have that much strength or speed."

Lightning looked up in thought for a few minutes as he waited for his former teammate to catch up.

"Huh, good point." He said simply, shrugging.

"Hold up, do you see that?"

"See what?"

"There's a heap of lights on the horizon."

Confused, Lightning strained his eyes to look ahead, eventually gasping in surprise as he noticed the small, clustered dots of light far away.

"Well I'll be sha-damned! There is!" He exclaimed. "Oh wait, you sayin' that there's a town or somethin' nearby?"

"Either that or it's a highway." Duncan replied as he finally caught up. "Town means we could find food and somewhere to at least sleep. Highway means we could possibly get a ride into the closest town. But right now, we just keep on heading towards it."

"Sha-got it, dude!" Lightning grinned, running off.

For the next hour or so, the two guys were just running, walking, climbing, doing whatever they were able to do in order to get closer to the light source. But, as the time went by, it slowly began to grow lighter, making the lights harder to see. Eventually, however, it was visible that it was a road of sorts. They followed the road for another half an hour until they came to a small country town.

"Well, there's not much to see here, but it's better than seeing nothing but grass and rocky hills." Duncan remarked, shrugging as he and Lightning stood at the edge of a gravelly road. "But first I wouldn't mind finding food somewhere."

"How're we gonna do that?" Lightning asked, raising a confused eyebrow.

"Unless some person rocks on up and takes us to their house, I have no idea in a place like this."

"Excuse me? Gentlemen?" An elderly voice called.

Duncan stepped back in surprise and looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. Peering over his shoulder, he saw a lady who looked to be in her seventies standing on the front porch of a long, yet small house.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" She asked, slowly walking down the steps and onto the grass. "I have savoury muffins cooking in the oven and two free bedrooms if you're looking for a place to stay."

"Oh, yeah! Yeah! I'll take a room!" Lightning eagerly replied.

Shrugging, Duncan nodded in agreement, before gasping slightly as something hit him.

"Crap." He muttered, looking down at his ankle, where a thin brace was, the red light on it flashing madly. "The trackers. Looks like help's on the way."

xx

Location: Little Rock, Arkansas
Contestants in area: Jo, Sam

"Well damn it, and damn it again." Jo grumbled, flopping onto the pavement. "Back to no money."

She and Sam had been slowly going around Little Rock, waiting on street corners in hopes of getting money from passer-byers, so that they could get a ride home on the train. But after managing to collect only twenty dollars in the space of two hours, they were both getting fairly hungry. So unfortunately, the money that had been collected so far was being used up for food.

Sam walked out of the supermarket across the road with a bag of various items. Jo looked up and quirked an eyebrow in surprise.

"How did you get that much?" She called, standing up.

"I thought that we'd better stock up, just in case." Sam replied as he crossed the road. "Still six dollars left though."

"Eh, that could either get a couple of pies," Jo jerked a thumb towards the bakery they were standing outside, "or be put aside for train money."

"Uh… maybe we could just buy one pie and… share it, or something. That'd save three dollars."

"Oh, I don't know. What's in the bag?"

Sam knelt down and slowly pulled out the contents of the bag. A sandwich. A box of muesli bars. Two large bottles of water.

"Why only one sandwich?" Jo asked, gesturing to the sandwich.

"Well… we want to save money, and sandwiches were four dollars. The muesli bars were eight, and the water bottles were… a dollar each."

"Right… that makes sense."

"Oh yeah, and I got this." Sam stuck a hand in his pocket and pulled out a folded-up brochure of some sort. He folded it out and put it on the ground.

"Wait… you got a train timetable?" Jo exclaimed as she got a closer look. "That should make it a lot easier once we get the money for a train."

"Yeah… you might wanna turn it over though."

Confused, Jo flipped the brochure over, and it showed a map of the USA (as well as the southern parts of Canada) and all the train routes.

"See, we'll need to catch a dark blue one or a turquoise one." Sam explained. "But… the only problem is, there's only one of each a day. Sometimes two with the turquoise lines."

"Oh…" Jo's voice fell flat as it trailed off. She continued looking at the map before noticing another problem. "Hey, which line are we supposed to take? There's trains to and from New York and Toronto, but to get there from here, we'd have to go through Chicago and Cleveland, end up at Washington DC, catch a red line train to New York, and then go from there."

"I dunno… huh, wonder if there's someone looking for us."

"Of course there won't- wait." Jo stopped herself as she looked to her feet, pulling up the leg of her sweatpants, exposing the tracker. "You know what? There might just be someone. Unless Chris McLame can't be bothered looking for us."

xx

There. Third chapter all done and dusted.

Next chapter should be up in two weeks' time, as per norm. Oh, and in the next few chapters, not everyone will be featured. Some chapters might just focus on three or four locations at one time. That does include the others (Heather, Zoey etc.) so… yeah, that's it, really.

Anyway, until next time!