Many of you guys have been noticing that Martin is up to something as of late. I can promise you that his silent scheming will be coming to a head during this chapter. Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama.
Chapter 11: The Military
What is true evil? To be honest, I find the term rather subjective. It can honestly mean any number of things, and come from just about any source. Every villain who has ever existed has some form of evil, whether it's evil for the sake of evil like the Joker, or evil for the greater good like Magneto. I've also noticed that everyone who is evil has some form of darkness. Dark does not immediately mean evil, not matter people say. That is because no matter how bright the light, it will also cast a shadow on something, and the day must eventually give way to night.
"Okay!," Harold called out, "Who's made s'mores out of my undies?!" There was some snickering from Duncan and Geoff, while Martin shook his head, a small smirk on his face. Harold pulled out one of the undies in disgust and threw it away. Unfortunately, it landed right in front of Courtney as she was walking by, causing her to give Harold an earful. The verbal lashing was interrupted by Chef coming on camp speakers, calling for the campers to line up at the docks. They were really surprised to see him there, dressed like a gunnery sergeant.
After a few seconds of making sure each camper was in proper military posture, Chef said, "Chris has put me in charge of today's challenge, which consists of a hardcore boot camp. My job is simple... Make sure all but one of you maggots drops out. The last camper remaining will win invincibility for their team. I have been given free reign to give you whatever tasks I can think of, within reason of course. If I feel one of you has been pushed too far, you will immediately be ejected. If you feel you have been pushed too far..." He pointed to a bell on the edge of the dock. "Simply ring this bell. Are these rules understood?"
"Sir, yes sir!," the campers all said in unison. "Very good," Chef said, "Now, I'd like to see if I can't get at least one person knocked off before lunchtime, so we'll get right into the first task." He marched the teams down to the beach where two canoes were waiting. "Each team will hold up one of these canoes. If any of you at any point removes your arms, you will be removed from the challenge. And another thing, you will not get your first meal until someone quits or is otherwise eliminated, do I make myself clear?" "Sir, yes sir!"
At first the challenge seemed easy, but after a few hours there were several sore arms and rumbling tummies. "I'll admit," Chef said, "I admire your dedication, though I was expecting at least one of you to get hungry enough to quit by now." Duncan took a quiet opportunity when Chef wasn't looking to use a fishing pole found in the canoe to give Harold a serious wedgie. Luckily, both of them were able to get their arms back on the canoe before Chef could notice.
Finally, night began to fall. "I never thought I'd see the day when I'd start to run out of stamina," Martin muttered. However, it wasn't him, but Lindsay who was the first to walk out. "Sorry guys, I have no more feeling in my arms." And with that, she used her head to ring the bell on the docks. "That's one down," Chef said, "You may now put those canoes down." Both teams dropped their canoes, and several of them started rubbing their arms. "Now, we make for the mess hall," Chef said, "This task ended just in time for dinner." "Finally!," Owen said in excitement.
The campers, save for Lindsay who was being allowed to rest in the cabins, were given ten minutes to eat. The food was nothing more than military rations, but most of the campers ate without complaints. "To be honest," Duncan said, "I've had worse." Afterwards, Chef had the campers follow him in a choreographed dance routine that seemed to last for at least an hour. Eventually, Duncan simply walked over and turned off the music. "What are you doing, Duncan?," Courtney asked. Duncan shrugged. "One camper drops out and we're done for the day, right?" "Did you hear me say that for this task?!," Chef said, "We are done when I say we're done! Now drop and give me twenty!"
Duncan rolled his eyes but got to it. Chef sighed. "Since the music's off anyway, anyone who needs to may take a bathroom break. No more than five minutes tops, understood?" Shortly thereafter, the campers were again inside the mess hall, a stack of papers in front of each of them. "Your next task," Chef said, "Will be a three-hundred word essay on the importance of discipline in one's daily life. Fall asleep or fail to complete this task within the hour, and you will be removed from the challenge. Now, begin!" By the end of it, several of the campers were already close to falling asleep, and in fact a few had.
Chef looked over the essays, and was surprised by Duncan's. "How on earth does a juvenile delinquent understand this much about military tactics?" Duncan shrugged. "Picked up a little from my old man." Chef scratched his head, but said nothing else. Trent and DJ had fallen asleep, and so got kicked out. Also, Megan had failed to complete the essay on time. "Get some sleep, troopers," Chef said, "We'll be doing your next task at o-five-hundred hours." "That gives us plenty of time to sleep," Owen said. "Not really," Martin said, "O-five-hundred hours means five o'clock in the morning." Several campers groaned.
At the appointed time, Chef brought the campers over to small obstacle course. "You will be running this obstacle course until you can all complete it in under a minute, possible quitters and eliminations excluded. Now get running!" The course had several points and was really muddy, much to Harold's chagrin. He took a nasty fall and got too much mud in his mouth. "We got a man down here sarge," Duncan called out. Chef sighed as he looked at Harold. "Go ahead and report to the infirmary, your tour of duty is officially finished." Martin then got a bad run himself, getting nicked by the swinging blades.
"Coulda sworn I had those higher," Chef said, "All right, you're off too. Head for the infirmary." As Martin got bandaged up, he looked over to Harold. "Hey, listen. I've been seeing you getting the worst of it from Duncan. I would have helped, but that's your team's business." "It's cool," Harold said, "I can handle bullies any day." "Sure," Martin said, "Bullies like Duncan. But there are all kinds of bullies. Like, for example, the ones who make other people do the bullying for them. Like Courtney for example." "Courtney?," Harold said, "There's no way she's a bully."
"Doesn't look like one on the surface, does she?," Martin said, "But me, Lindsay, and Heather are always keeping our eyes on the competition. And I've noticed Courtney giving Duncan a few orders. You know those two are tight, right?" Harold scratched his head. "But, those two are always fighting." Martin smiled. "Yeah, the sort of fighting that only two people who like each other would do. Trust me, there's more to them than just friendship. But if you get rid of Courtney during your team's next loss, you'll have an easier time against Duncan. Talk to the other Bass about it, without letting Courtney or Duncan know. Sarah and Megan will be on board, but you'll have to convince Geoff, Bridget, and possibly DJ." Harold though about it.
Meanwhile, Duncan had gotten in trouble with Chef again, to the point where he got one night of solitary confinement in the boathouse. Courtney, after arguing with Geoff about whether or not she liked him, went to go check on him. "Duncan?," she called out, "Are you in here?" She spotted Duncan sweeping the floor and whistling. "Well, well, this is a surprise. Courtney, the queen of by-the-book, breaking the basic rule of solitary confinement?" "Well," Courtney said, "I figured even you didn't deserve to starve out here." "It's not like I don't have food," Duncan said, pointing out the cleaned and preserved fish carcasses, "I kinda always wanted to try sushi."
Courtney couldn't help but giggle as she sat on a nearby box. "Why do you egg Chef on like that when you know you'll get in trouble?" "Force of habit mostly," Duncan said, "Let's just say not all my childhood was spent in juvie. I'd rather not go into too many details." He pointed out the camera in the boathouse. "But what about you? I mean, I get the idea behind following the rules, but you follow them so much it makes you seem uptight. Don't you know how to loosen up?" "Of course I do," Courtney said as she stood up, "And I am not uptight." "All right then," Duncan said, "Let's put that to the test. I happen to know where we can snag some peanut butter and jam for the others, plus some other goodies. Catch is, it will require breaking a few rules..."
He raised an eyebrow as he said this. Courtney thought about for it for a second, then said, "Okay, let's go for it." Duncan led Courtney to the craft service tent where Chef and Chris where enjoying dinner. After snagging a full bounty of food, Courtney left behind an actual bass fish in the fridge. The two of them then ran back to the cabins, where they shared the bounty with their fellow campers. As the gang feasted, Courtney met with Duncan outside the cabins. "Man, that was the most fun I've had in years," she said, "I won't make a habit of it, but it's just so relieving to cut loose every once in a while."
"What can I say?," Duncan said, "This is why is I like to mess with people like Chef. Believe it or not, I can follow the rules too, when I want to. But if you don't learn to have fun every once in a while, you'll only die from the stress." Courtney smiled at him. "I never thought I'd say this, but you're actually kinda sweet sometimes." Duncan raised an eyebrow in interest, before getting surprised by Courtney grabbing his head and kissing full on the lips. "You may not be my type," she said, "But you might just be my soul mate." Harold, who had seen the whole thing, gasped. "Martin was right about them..."
The next task had the remaining campers, Duncan, Courtney, Geoff, Owen, Heather, and Gwen, hanging upside down from their legs on the branches of a tree. "This last task," Chef said, "Is an ancient form of torture. By now, the blood has begun to rush to your heads. The next stage is nausea, followed by headaches and a flushed appearance as the blood begins to pool in your eyes. You may even have fainting spells..." As Chef said this last part, Duncan conked out and dropped. "Duncan!," Courtney called out in concern. Bridgette went to check on him. "He'll be fine! He just fainted!"
After a quick fart, Heather got grossed and fell on her own, followed quickly Owen. Unfortunately, Owen landed right on top of Heather. As Owen got up, Courtney laughed so hard she wound up dropping as well. "Well, that's a surprise," Chef said, "But anyway, it's down to one per team. It's all a question of who will drop first." Duncan, who had managed to recover, helped Courtney up. "It's all you Geoff," he said, "Go for it." "You got this Gwen?," Owen asked. "Oh yeah," Gwen replied, "I can hang here all day." "Right on sister!," Geoff said, "I live for the head rush..."
Unfortunately for Geoff, his head rush was too much and he wound up fainting, giving Gwen and the Gophers the win. "Great job Gophers," Chris said, "And Chef, thanks for taking charge of this challenge. Bass, I'll be seeing you guys at the campfire tonight." As the Gophers walked off to celebrate, Martin shot a glance at Harold, who nodded. "What was that all about?," Megan asked. Harold looked to make sure Duncan and Courtney were out of earshot. "We need to have a team meeting, without those two..."
At the bonfire, Courtney got a weird sense of foreboding. "Why were the rest of you meeting without me and Duncan?," she asked Geoff. "Harold was going about you two," Geoff explained, "Some craziness about you pulling Duncan's strings. I walked out shortly into it, so I don't know the full details." "If I may have everyone's attention," Chris said, "I will start calling out names. If you hear your name, come get a marshmallow. Geoff... DJ... Sarah... Duncan... Megan... Bridgette..." He looked at the two remaining campers before calling out, "Harold."
Courtney was flabbergasted. "What?! But how?! Why were the rest of you guys against me?!" "Not all of us were," Geoff said, "I know me and Duncan at least voted against Harold." "This is because of you making Duncan do all those nasty things to Harold," Bridgette said. Duncan shook his head in disbelief. "What?! I did all that on my own! And up until today, Courtney hated my guts! Who even said she was the one masterminding my schemes against Harold?!" "Well, Martin of course," Harold said, then became surprised when the rest of the team glared at him.
"Hold on," Sarah said, "Martin knows better than that. There's no way he'd pull this kind of crap." "But," Harold said, "We were in the infirmary together. He told me all of this." "Guys, guys," Chris said, "What does it matter? Courtney got voted off fair and square." Courtney sighed. "Chris is right." She turned to Duncan. "You make sure to win this for us both, okay?" Duncan nodded, and the two gave each other a farewell kiss. As the boat took off with Courtney on it, her hand glowed with an energy field that seemed to have mathematical equations running through it. "The odds of us falling in love were astronomical," she said, "But the odds of Harold getting kicked off next are not."
To be continued...
Yep, Martin played Harold like a two-dollar glockenspiel. But the question is, will this ploy work to the Gophers' benefit. Read and review.