A/N- Okay, before anyone asks in the review section, what happened to Owen after retuning home will be announced in a later chapter, not now. Explaining what happened to him in sequenced format would be extremely tedious at this point. I don't want you guys to get bored. Don't worry, he will come back, and I may start again is little side plot up again depending on the consequences. All you need to know for now is that's he's in safe condition and at home. So, without further ado, let's get started with this chapter!
The next morning, everyone woke up dirtied due to lying on the grass. Staci finally woke up, and proved she was once again as chatty as ever, and Lightning began to twitch in his sleep slightly. Unfortunately, one of them even encountered alive beings as they stretched themselves.
"Dudes," Tyler spluttered, "I think they're something crawling on my arm, and I don't know what it is!"
He outstretched his arm forward, and pointed to a fairly large spider crawling up to his shoulder. Bridgette rubbed her eyes to get a closer look.
"Tyler, that's a spider," she yawned, "All you have to do is flick it off."
"How do you know that's a spider? It could be an alien trying to probe me for all we know!"
"It has eight legs, a narrow waist, large abdomen. It's a spider," Gwen told him.
"Order Aranea," Harold started, much to everyone else's annoyance. "The eight-legged arthropod with chelicerae fangs that inject venom into its victims bloodstream."
"Venom?!" Tyler panicked, waiving his arm around frantically. Luckily, the motion shook the spider off. The creature flew a few feet into the air before landing back in the grass. "Oh, phew. Glad that things gone. I hope it didn't bite me."
The other rolled their eyes and continued to stretch themselves.
"What's next?" Duncan asked, "If I remember correctly, we're going to be swinging on vines until we reach this plane crash site."
Dawn nodded. "Yes. I would suggest we walk, but vines would be much quicker, and less...dangerous. Don't forget that there are other wild animals around here another than spiders and Phineas."
"Sounds like fun. Now all I need is a large leopard print cloth and I can be the next Tarzan!" Scott chuckled, rolling his eyes. Dawn shot him a dirty glare.
Beth looked around. "So where are the vines We're supposed to swing on?"
"They're not to far away. I'm pretty sure they'd just beyond these trees," Dawn said cocking her head to the right, where the tree barrier was.
"Ooh! Ooh! Izzy is excited for this!" Izzy beamed. She leaped through the trees, and out of sight from the others before poking her head back out. "Last one to the lemur place is a rotten Sasquatchinakwa!"
The others followed her into the trees. Before them lay 37 bright green vines, all in a neat row. Izzy swung upside-down on one of them, gnawing on it fiercely.
"That's strange," Cameron commented, "You don't find natural objects placed like that very often, especially when you're in a place like Madagascar."
"Whatever," Anne Maria shrugged, "It makes it easier for all of us, so why wonder at it?"
"Because it's an oddity of nature!"
"Well, Cameron is right," Courtney added, "It is strange, but we have more important things to do. Come on!"
"Alright, eh! I'm ready to swing on some vines!" Ezekiel beamed. He grabbed a hold of one of them, and pushed himself forward, only to swing back after the vine traveled a few feet.
"I'll push him," Eva said. She walked up to the prairie boy and gave his back a shove, causing the vine to zip forward, leaving Zeke out of sight and earshot.
"That went well," Duncan said, grappling on to his own vine. "I'm out," if added before swinging away.
"Aww! But Izzy wanted to be first!" Izzy chirped. She latched on to one of the vines, and took off. "Whee!"
Noah sighed, holding one of the vines in his hands. He still had the duty if carrying Lightning, and traveling swinging on a vine with him would obviously not be easy. "Hey DJ, do you want to help me carry Lightning again?" he asked.
DJ crossed his arms, and shook his head, signaling to Noah that he didn't want any part in helping after crossing the river. It was quite hard for DJ considering that incited nice guy, and surprisingly wouldn't mind helping, but even he had his limits.
Noah, once again, slung Lightning over his shoulder and pushed off, clearly not in the best of moods. However, some others were.
Tyler, being the idiotic thrill-seeker he is, pushed himself off at an unnecessarily quick speed. Upon seeing that he was safely zipping along, he turned around. "Hey guys! I'm doing it! I'm not messing u-WOAH!" he stumbled. He pulled his vine to the left, thankfully missing a tree he almost banged into. "I'm okay! I didn't slam into anything! No need to worry!"
"He really does like being the center of attention," Zoey added.
"Yeah," Trent huffed, "It's a good thing he's not too arrogant about it. He's still a good guy."
"Agreed. Well, I probably should get going," she said, and released herself from the ground.
Trent turned towards Mike. "Hey dude, you're girlfriend just left. Don't you want to catch up to her?"
"Wait, Zoey left already? Aw shucks. I was going to carry her along while I levitate."
Trent chuckled, "That would make Dott."
Mike tapped his chin. "I never actually thought of that. Thanks for the notice!" he finished before carrying along with the vines. Trent followed close behind him.
Not long after, all but too disturbingly passionate BFFs left the trees. They were caught up in one of their silly antics.
"You go first. You deserve it!" Katie smiled.
"No, no. You go first. You're a lot sweeter than I am," Sadie replied, her dimples showing through her cheeks.
"You go first."
"No, you go first."
"No, you go."
"You go."
"You go."
"You go!"
"YOU GO!"
"FiNE!" Sadie shouted. "I'll go first if it makes you happy!"
"Oops...I didn't mean to upset you. How about we go at the same time?" Katie offered.
"Okay," Sadie sighed, "But don't cheat!"
"Cool! Let's go in three...two...one...NOW!" Katie shouted, and the two finally left the ground.
Meanwhile, everybody else was swinging along quite smoothly through the air.
"Be forewarned," Cameron said, "We may have to jump vines soon, considering how long these current vines are."
Cody briefly turned toward him. "What are you talking about? Usually, vines are never ending."
Cameron shook his head. "No, that's completely illogical."
"Cameron's right," Dawn added, "I feel as if you watch to many cartoons in your free time. Is that true?"
"What? No, no. I don't watch any cartoons. What am I? Six years old? Hehe."
Dawn and Cameron nodded curtly, and Cody closeted his face to the vine he was holding. "They know too much," he thought, "I guess I should just leave it to rest for the time being. I mean I do have to watch out for this vine, don't I?"
Just then, the vine Cody was holding snapped, sending him falling to the ground. However, he was quickly saved, or he lucked out if you will, by the vine Gwen was using.
"Well...hello," he greeted, "This is quite the awkward position we're in, but it would've been even more awkward if I were left behind in the ground. Thank you, the wonderful Gwen, for saving me."
"Cody! Either get off the vine, or we both go down," Gwen warned.
"Gee, what about 'you're welcome'?"
"CODY!"
"Okay, but I don't think I can get off this vine. I mean, there's no other vines around," he said, putting a sad expression on his face for sympathy. Gwen wasn't buying it, but she decided it was the best choice if he could hang on, considering that he was in her body, and losing him on the journey meant being stuck as Cody forever.
"Fine. If you can't get off this vine, you can climb on to my back."
"Really? YES! Er, I mean, thanks for giving me a hand."
"No problem," Gwen rolled her eyes. Cody held on to her from behind, causing a little bit of unwanted tension. "You know, I think that you make a pretty attractive me, if I do say so myself."
"And I'm starting to think that being stuck in your body for my entire life would be worth seeing you get lost in Madagascar."
"Okay, I'll stop. Sorry."
Sierra, upon seeing Cody latch on to Gwen's back, gasped. A deep scowl formed on her face. Without using anymore time to judge her actions, she launched herself forward to their vine. "Let go of my Codykins!" she screamed, whipping past them.
"Sierra! I'm not doing anything to get in the way of you and Cody's relationship! What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"What is the hell is wrong with you?! I mean, I didn't ever let Duncan ride on my back!"
"Duncan and I broke up last season! And why would I care? I'm just helping him!"
"Ladies, ladies," Cody interrupted, "There's no need to fight. Just relax."
"You're the one who decided to latch on to me with the risk of Scat chiseling in the first place!" Gwen snapped.
"Oh, that is it!" Sierra roared. She swung her vine back around, the vine moving at an even faster speed. This time, instead of missing, she knocked into Gwen and Cody, falling off of her vine, and on to theirs. Cody and Gwen luckily were ale to withstand their grips.
"Oops. I didn't think you could hold on. Thankfully, I can now physically pry your fingers apart," Sierra grinned.
"No! Sierra! Stop it!" Cody ordered. Serra turned toward him. "Look, I was not 'cheating' on you. I just needed some help. That's all. Now, can you please not make us, or Gwen, fall down, because that'd be pretty, um, bad."
Sierra sighed, "Fair enough, but I'm only sparing her because you told me too. Now, all I need is my...,"she paused, noticing that she lost her vine. "Vine..."
"Um, you can stay on to ours? Is that all right, Gwen?"
"As long as she doesn't kill me, I'm golden."
"Okay! Let's get moving again!"
Meanwhile, Duncan belt go of his last vine. The end of the vine path was a fairly large dusty circle surrounded by trees and other plants. He brushed off a few specks of dust from his pant leg. "I'm the first one here? Great, now I have to wait for everybody else. Hopefully, it doesn't take too long for them to get here."
Just then, Ezekiel swooped in and landed on top of Duncan, knocking the delinquent to the ground. "Woohoo! First one here! And I thought, I would be last again, eh."
Ezekiel, noticing that the 'ground' underneath him felt odd, looked down at Duncan. "Okay...well second place then."
Duncan pushed Ezekiel off of him, and stood up again. "Back from your coffee break, I see."
"What? No, no, eh. The Zeke is still taking a rest. It's just not typical that I arrive first in a race."
"This wasn't technically as race, Ezekiel."
"It isn't?"
"No."
"Aw, my almost victory was for nothing then."
"You'll be sure to achieve a victory at some point," Duncan rolled his eyes. "So, when do you think the others will be here?"
"Not too long, eh. Maybe even just seconds from now."
The two fell silent. A few seconds later, Duncan piped again. "I guess not. Any predictions of who will arrive next?"
"Er...I predict Harold will come next," he guessed. After he finished his sentence, Lindsay crashed through the trees, landing on her face. "Yes! It's Harold, eh!"
"Dude, I meant the actual Harold, not the person in Harold's body."
"Aww shucks."
"Wait, I'm in Harold's body?" Lindsay asked, suddenly confused.
Duncan slapped his forehead. "Yes Lindsay, you're in Harold's body. You've been in there for an entire week or so."
"Oh...," she realized, looking down at herself. "I forgot. I mean, it's almost like my body, except make-up doesn't look as pretty on me."
Ezekiel rubbed his chin. "Who do you think will be next? It's your turn, eh," he asked Duncan.
"Uh...I think Brick will be next. He'd probably enjoy swinging on the vines. Not as much as Izzy, but you know."
Jo then whipped through the leaves, landing perfectly on her feet. Duncan leaned close to Ezekiel. "Well, now I literally wish it was Brick," he whispered. Fortunately, Jo didn't hear the comment.
As each contestant landed in the circle, Duncan and Ezekiel kept guessing, unfortunately never making a correct prediction. They became less and less enthusiastic as their little game went on.
"Heather?" Duncan guessed. Alejandro arrived.
"Courtney?" Ezekiel predicted. Beth crashed in.
"Katie?" Duncan continued. Sadie finished first.
"Chef?" Ezekiel wondered.
Duncan gave him a light slap on the back of the head. "Why would you ever think Chef would arrive, when he didn't even travel with us?!"
"You don't know that, eh. He could've been following us this entire time. It's a completely adequate answer, eh."
"Chef may be a psychopath, but there's no way he would follow us. Chris probably wouldn't even allow him to do that. I mean, the guy's in the body of an egotistical bastard who asks needs fresh make-up every hour."
"Eh, good point," Ezekiel said. He flopped down to the dirt. "I'm tired of guessing, eh."
"Yeah, my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather in invented guessing. Before him, people didn't give a damn about unknown answer and just went with the flow," Staci lied.
"Fascinating," Noah groaned.
Duncan mimicked Ezekiel's flopping. "Me too. I'm pretty sure we're all here though. Are we?"
Everybody looked around. "I think we're missing three," Zoey said, "Gwen, Cody, and Sierra."
"AH!" three people yelled from outside if the circle. Coincidentally, these three were Gwen, Cody, and Sierra. They fell to the ground, struggling to regain their composure.
"I'm never riding on a vine AGAIN!" Gwen spat, "Or at least I'm not riding on a vine with two different people ever again!"
"Er, sorry," Cody apologized, rubbing his head.
"I'm not apologizing," Sierra clarified, "She knew that two other people would somehow hinder the ride."
"You'd kill me if I didn't let you ride with us!" Gwen retorted.
"Okay, that's true, but still!"
"Guys, guys. Chill out," Geoff said, "We don't need to fight."
"Party boy's right," Anne Maria added, "We don't need any arguments. All we need to do is find that lemur plane thingie and we're all set."
Mike looked around. "Where is that thing anyway?"
The contestant's all looked at each other puzzled for a moment, before Bridgette started scouting the trees. After a few minutes, her eyes widened greatly. "Guys, you should come over here," she beckoned.
Everybody walked to where she was standing. The surfer was clearly indicating a sight just outside of the back of the clearing. It was, of course, an abandoned plane site, with lemurs crawling all over it.