Saturday, July 17, 2010. Local time: 7:54 AM

Jennifer, Manny, and Bernie had been hiding in the library on the northeast shore of the island. The large and decrepit library shared a courtyard with the church, so they had clearly heard Daniel's attack on Quinn and Elizabeth. While Manny and Bernie had wanted to act, Jennifer said that, as awful as it was, they couldn't risk Daniel finding them too. They were all somewhat relieved, however, when they saw Quinn somehow manage to escape.

"That was a brutal fall," Bernie said, "I hope she was all right."

"Well," Jennifer replied somberly, "she was limping after the fall, so she may have sprained her ankle."

"But," Manny jumped in, sounding somewhat panicky, "we did the right thing right? Well, okay, 'right' probably isn't the best word, but we were better off saving ourselves from dying too, right?" Manny was clearly desperate for some form of justification; he truly felt bad about leaving her out there alone to deal with the clearly-deranged Daniel.

"It hurts," Jennifer said, "but sometimes, you need to think about the big picture: is it worth dying to save someone else from it? It was tough for me; Quinn and I were both on the field hockey team and the girl's lacrosse team. She's a nice girl, and I felt terrible about it, but in this situation, there's one goal: survive."

"Then why did you save us?" Manny asked; Bernie looked at Jennifer with an "I-gots-ta-know" face.

Jennifer smirked. "Have you guys ever just sat in the mall, or stood on the sidewalk, and people-watched?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Bernie asked, completely lost.

Jennifer continued, "I like to look at people, and guess what they are really like just by looking at them. You gotta look in their eyes, at their body movement, the expression on their face, even what they're wearing and how they're acting with the people they're with." She paused for a moment to take a deep breath. "I do it in school pretty much every minute of every day. I've watched Daniel before, and he seems like a genuinely disturbed person. But Vicky was different. She only wanted to be a tough girl, but wasn't truly genuine."

"And how do you know that?" Manny asked, intrigued.

Jennifer grinned. "If she was as tough as she wanted to be, she would've shot you both immediately."

The boys both felt a chill run down their spines.

Jennifer continued, "That also goes to show that her survival instincts were virtually non-existent. She was so preoccupied with trying to prove to herself that she could kill someone, she let her guard down, which you should never do in the wild. And it doesn't get much wilder than this."

"Well," Bernie began, "I for one won't let my guard down, because I'm optimistic that we can get out of this."

"How exactly will that work?" Jennifer asked with a raised eyebrow.

Bernie paused, and said, "I don't know."

Manny rolled his eyes, while Jennifer just looked at the ground.

"But," Bernie continued, "I'm gonna keep thinking. There has to be SOMEthing."

"Yeah, you do that," Manny said sarcastically.

Changing the subject, Jennifer said "I think we should check this library out. This island is pretty old, there could be some unique history here." She titled her head up to look around, which led to Bernie noticing something odd on her collar. It was a small, rectangular hole at the top of the collar directly under her chin.

He looked at Manny's collar, and found the same thing. Then he realized something. Something that hit him like a ton of bricks: it was a microphone.

It had to be. There was no other way the men in charge could have monitored the game. It made perfect sense!

By this time, Manny and Jennifer were looking at him like he had three heads. "What's wrong with you?" Manny asked.

Bernie quickly reached into his bag and pulled out his map and pen. He began writing something on the back. Manny and Jennifer looked on intently.

They're listening, Bernie wrote.

Manny and Jennifer looked at him, silently but curiously. He started writing again.

There are microphones on our collars

A pause, then he continued.

If there's any hope of escape, we can't talk about it

Jennifer took his pen, and started writing herself.

R U sure? how do you know?

Bernie then pointed at the hole on Manny's collar. Manny then looked at Jennifer's to see if she had it too. She did. Then Manny pulled his pen out of his bag and started writing.

Are you sure its a microphone though?

Bernie took his pen back and started writing again.

What else could it be? Manny and Jennifer nodded, then Bernie continued.

We look for matereals, and do it quietly (Bernie was never particularly good at spelling.)

Manny wrote, like what?

Bernie replied with I dont know, but keep an eye out.

Jennifer smiled, and then finally spoke again. "So what do you think? Think these books could help?" she said with a wink.

Bernie smiled, getting her double meaning. "Sure. They could help a lot."

Manny was confused. He figured Jennifer meant something by what she said, but he didn't get it. He pulled his pen back out and wrote again.

I don't get it, what does she mean by that?

He showed it to Bernie, and Bernie wrote one final thing.

There's only so much room to write on our maps...get it?

Manny smirked, and nodded. Then the guys joined Jennifer's hunt for books that could "help".

…

Quinn was now walking with a large branch she found in the woods to help support her sprained ankle. She was moving as fast as she could, but she was still having trouble keeping up with her new and unexpected ally, the faux-goth Zachary.

Zachary wanted to move faster, but he couldn't leave her no matter how slow she was. He made sure he was never too far away from her.

After they had traveled roughly three quarters of a mile, Quinn began to break down. She started to cry.

"What's wrong?" Zachary asked as she collapsed to her knees.

"I can't do this!" she screamed through tears. "I can't keep moving like this! I'm in pain, my friends are dead, I'm slowing you down...just fucking leave me here!"

Zachary bent down and said calmly but assertively, "I know it's tough, I know you're upset and in pain, and I won't leave you, but you have got to be quiet. If Daniel hears us, or someone else with a gun, we're gonna be in serious trouble."

Quinn looked at him in disbelief. "Are you kidding me right now? I'm in agony, and you're telling me to shut up? FUCK YOU!"

"Please Quinn, I'm begging you-"

"I never asked you to save me! You could have left me to die, I'd be better off dead anyway-"

Before she could scream any louder, Zachary ran to her and covered her mouth.

"Please Quinn. I'm begging you. Shut the hell up!" Zachary knew he was being harsh, but he had no other choice. Quinn looked up at him with fear in her eyes.

"I'm gonna take my hand away now, and you're gonna be quiet. Do you understand me?" Zachary was afraid of himself at this moment.

Quinn nodded, and he moved his hand away from her mouth.

After an awkward pause, he said flatly but sincerely, "sorry."

"It's okay," Quinn said, much calmer. "I needed that."

"Here, let me help you up." Zachary extended his hand, and helped Quinn back to her feet. He then picked up her walking stick and handed it to her.

Suddenly, he heard something. Quinn's tracker was beeping. He glanced behind Quinn, and noticed someone standing nearby. He quickly grabbed the handle of his shotgun and took its strap off of his shoulder, and kept it in hand.

"What's going on?" Quinn asked nervously.

"Get behind me," Zachary said quietly but sternly. He then turned his attention to the figure standing about forty feet away, and said, "who is that? Don't try anything, or I swear I'll shoot."

Suddenly, the figure raised an object. Zachary wasn't sure at first, but he realized what it was at the last second: a crossbow.

Then, Tommy fired a bolt in their direction.

"DUCK!" He and Quinn hit the ground, but if Tommy's aim had been better, Zachary would have been too late. The bolt whizzed by, and got impaled in a tree about fifteen feet away from Zachary and Quinn.

He didn't want to do it, but he had no choice if he wanted to survive. He got on his knees and pulled the trigger. The blast was loud and ear-blistering, and effective: Tommy took the shot in his lower abdomen and fell to the ground. Zachary was in shock. Quinn lifted her head from the ground and looked over at Tommy's still-writhing body.

Zachary looked over at Quinn to make sure she was okay, when he suddenly heard Tommy's voice.

"Zachary?" Tommy said in obvious agony. He sounded like he was crying. "P-please Zachary, come here. I n-need you to do s-something for m-me."

Zachary cocked his shotgun in case Tommy tried anything, and walked over to him.

"What do you want?" Zachary tried everything he could to not look in his eyes; he had heard that one should never look into the eyes of someone he/she kills.

"Find B-becky Hall. T-tell her that I deeply c-cared for h-her. Please."

Zachary nodded. "I can do that, man. I'll find her."

"T-take the crossbow. If sh-she has a bad weapon, g-give it to her."

"I will. You have my word."

"Z-zachary?"

"What?"

"I'm s-sorry. I d-did it for her. It w-wasn't p-personal."

"It's okay. I'm sorry too."

"F-find her, and w-we'll call it e-even."

"Okay."

Then, Tommy closed his eyes, and died.

Zachary stared at his body for a minute, still in shock at what he'd done, then Quinn snapped him out of it.

"Time to turn the tables a little," she said. "Now I need you to get moving. Someone might have heard the shot."

Zachary stood up. "You're right, let's go." He picked up Tommy's crossbow and put it in his bag, and pulled the previously fired bolt out of the tree and threw it in as well, and he and Quinn continued moving south.

Dead

Boys

#14, #15, #18, #17, #10

Girls

#17, #5, #19, #21, #14

Eliminated

Tommy Ellis

32 Contestants Remaining