Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! They keep me going to finish this.

Disclaimer: You know the deal. I do not own The Mole or The Office.

Episode Eight - The Simple Life

Part Two - I Wish for an Exemption

After the experience with the bushmen, the group woke up refreshed in the morning, ready for their thirtieth day in the game. As they were preparing for the day with their usual routines, Oscar was scribbling in his journal, already good to go for today's events.

"Before Stanley was executed, my journal was taken away from me," Oscar reminded the audience in his talking head. "I'm trying to remember everything I wrote down, but it's been very difficult."

Jim noticed Oscar scribbling and said to him, "Trying to catch up?"

Oscar nodded, still transfixed on getting all of his notes transcribed into the new journal. "This sucks," he lamented.

"I can see Oscar being executed next because he doesn't have a journal," Jim said in his talking head. "But I could also be going next because I'm in the same boat."

"Hey, Pam," Jim approached his girlfriend while she was heading out the door to the dining room for breakfast.

"Hey," she smiled. "Need something?"

"I was wondering if you'd let me look at your journal," he asked her. "Mine was taken away from me, so maybe I could use some information from you so we can stick together."

Pam contemplated that for a moment. "Does that mean we're in a coalition?"

Jim gave his signature goofy smile and replied, "I thought we already were in one." Pam raised an eyebrow, leading Jim's smile to slowly fall from his face. "We're not in a coalition together?"

"Of course we are," Pam assured him, giving him some much needed relief. "After the mission, okay?"

"Deal, coalition partner," Jim stuck his hand out.

Pam shook it and held onto it as they walked together to the dining room. They arrived to find the other three just about to be seated and for Jon to enter the room, cutting the light atmosphere of the meal short.

"Hello again, players," Jon greeted them. "Have a seat, I'm hungry."

The players reluctantly did so, wondering what exactly was going on. Jon entertained the players with light conversation, not at all concerned with the game at the moment.

"Something was definitely up with Jon," Phyllis said in her talking head. "He was actually being kind to us."

After minutes of eating and conversation, Jon brought up a new topic for them to discuss. "Before we begin the day, I need to know something from you all," he told them. He pointed at the person to his left, which was Pam, and asked, "What do you want in this game?"

With only a couple seconds of thought she answered, "The identity of the Mole."

"Good answer," he said. Jon went down the line, asking the same question to all of them. "Jim? What do you want in this game?"

"My old journal," Jim answered.

"Oscar?"

"Same as Jim," Oscar answered.

Jon tilted his head at Phyllis who answered, "To win the game."

"Don't we all," Jon commented. "Dwight?"

"I wish for an exemption," Dwight answered truthfully. "Even if I do not need it."

"Then congratulations, Dwight," Jon stuck his hand out to the assistant to the regional manager. "You will be the only one competing for an exemption in this next mission since you were the only one who said they wanted one."

In her talking head, Pam's jaw was to the ground. "I was furious that Dwight had the chance at an exemption. It's not right."

"Dwight, I will need you to stay behind," Jon ordered him. "For the rest of you, head out into the van where you will drive to your next mission. Good luck."

Jim, Oscar, Pam and Phyllis all glared at Dwight as they left him with the host, angry that they were not allowed the opportunity for an exemption because they never said it. Dwight stared at Jon, waiting for further instruction. "What is the meaning of keeping me behind?"

Jon smiled devilishly and answered, "Just giving you the information that you will need for your mission for an exemption."

"My mission is to win money for the pot," Dwight restated what he believed in.

"So you don't want an exemption?" the host asked the suspect.

"I do not need it, for I know who the Mole is," Dwight answered.

Jon shrugged his shoulders. "You could still be wrong though."

"I am never wrong," he shot back, sure of himself.

"All right, all right," the host held up his hands, backing off from suggesting Dwight was wrong. "But you will need to know this unless you change your mind."

Dwight looked away as if the fruit bowl at the center of the breakfast table was the most fascinating thing in the world before looking back at the host, paying close attention to what he had to say.

As the group sans Dwight drove in a van with Oscar at the wheel, Jon explained to Dwight in a voiceover the nature of the mission.

"The team is currently driving towards the Okavango Delta," Jon explained in a voiceover as the van drove down a lonely road. Green vegetation began to pop up along the side of the road as well as ponds and lakes of water. "The Okavango Delta is the world's largest inland delta and at this current time, it is at its largest."

"The Okavango Delta is diverse in wildlife," Jon elaborated. "There are over four hundred species of birds that call the delta home, and it also houses the lechwe antelope, the most populous animal here at the delta."

"Look, look," Pam pointed out the window to Jim, who was sitting next to her in the van. Jim looked outside the window to find a male lechwe antelope jumping over a small rivulet in a single bound.

"Very cool," Jim grinned. "Our first animal sighting here in Botswana."

The van continued to drive down the road as Dwight said to Jon in a voiceover, "Why are you telling me this nonsense?"

Annoyed, Jon answered, "Because that's where they will be stranded."

"Stranded?"

At that moment, the van Oscar was driving began to sputter. Smoke began to billow out from the cracks of the hood and little by little the van began to slow down. "Oh no," Oscar said once the van began to break down. "Oh no, oh no, oh no."

"Somewhere in the Okavango Delta, your friends-" Jon saw the look on Dwight's face and changed his word choice, "Colleagues."

"There you go."

"Will be stranded in the Okavango Delta. Your job will be to find them."

The group got out of the van and coughed as the smoke from the hood began to impede on their breathing. Waving the smoke away briefly, Oscar approached the hood of the car and popped it open. "Does anyone know how to fix a vehicle?" he asked them.

"You'd think production would spring for a van that wouldn't break down," Jim joked. He looked at the ltwo cameraman with them and could tell they were scowling at that comment. "Sorry."

"Guys, are we stranded out here?" Phyllis asked her three current companions.

None of them answered her question, unsure themselves of the correct answer.

"I can easily accomplish this mission," Dwight told Jon. "I work search and rescue as a volunteer sheriff's deputy all the time."

"See, that's the thing," Jon pointed to him. "You will be given a map to drive out to their location. Indicated on that map are two options, clearly marked with what lies at the end of the trail. At one end are your colleagues and $30,000. At the other end is an exemption. It's your choice which you value more."

"What happens if I took the exemption?" Dwight asked, briefly entertaining the notion of taking the free pass.

Jon grinned. "They'll stay stranded out there for the night. They will return tomorrow for the next quiz and execution. The car is waiting out there for you." Jon tossed Dwight the car key. The player caught it and heard Jon say, "Choose wisely. You have thirty minutes."

Dwight walked out of the hotel and to the parked car outside and got in. He didn't hesitate to turn the key and start the car up, his decision seemingly already made up.

Back at the Okavango Delta, deep in the world's largest inland delta, the four stranded players were trying to find the problems that they needed to fix. "A tire's flat," Phyllis pointed out.

"That's just great," Oscar sighed as he was helping Jim look under the hood. "Find a jack and a spare."

"I know that," Phyllis rolled her eyes and went to the back of the van to the trunk to see if a spare and a jack was there for her to use.

Pam stood on the sidelines, watching Jim and Oscar work on the car. The sun beating down on her, she said, "I'm just going to get in the car real quick."

"Okay," Jim agreed.

Pam got into the passenger's seat and reclined the seat back, relaxing. Phyllis noticed this and said, "Hey, Pam?" The receptionist looked behind her to see Phyllis's face and was asked, "Can you look up there to see if there's a spare tire or a jack for me?"

"Sure," she agreed. She scanned the floor of the van and found nothing Phyllis requested. On a whim, she opened the glove box to see if for some reason a jack was inside and only found a sealed envelope with the logo for the show printed on the front. "Hey guys," she called out to the toiling Jim and Oscar. "I found something."

"A cell phone so we can call for help?" Jim wisecracked.

"No," she answered, taking the envelope out and getting out of the car. "I think it's from Jon."

Their interests piqued, Oscar, Jim and Phyllis joined Pam at her side as she opened the envelope. She pulled out the letter and read aloud, "'Good day, players. At the moment, you are stranded in the Okavango Delta and your van has died down. Luckily for you, one among you has not been stranded with you. Like you've heard earlier, Dwight has been given a chance at an exemption. I might have neglected to tell him this little piece of information; you can impede on it. Right now, there are four main problems to the vehicle that plagues you from returning back to the hotel. Leaving it to Dwight to save you can cost you money and the game. Completely fix the car and make your way back to the hotel to take away Dwight's exemption and earn yourselves $30,000 for the pot.'"

"Well what are we waiting for?" Phyllis jumped everyone into action. "Let's get this van fixed."

Jim, Oscar and Pam looked over the vehicle to see anything out of the ordinary while Phyllis began to look closer at the back of the van for a spare tire and jack. By lifting up a secret compartment in the back, Phyllis found a tire and jack waiting for him. "Found the tire and jack!" Phyllis called out to them, earning help from Oscar. They both began to change the flat tire and crossed off one item on the metaphorical list that they needed to complete.

"We'll have to focus at the hood of the car," Pam pointed out to them. "What's wrong there?"

"I don't know," Jim admitted, walking with Pam to the hood of the car so he could get a closer look at it. "I think the car was overheated before."

"Well how do we cool it down?" she asked him.

Jim tried to recall what his father taught him about fixing cars and said, "Pam, I need you to find me some coolant."

"Coolant?"

"Yeah. That might fix the problem," Jim told her.

"All right," she shrugged her shoulders, not looking into the van for coolant.

"Did anyone check to how much gas we had?" Oscar asked Phyllis once they had finished changing the tire.

Phyllis shrugged her shoulders. "You think we might need to fill it?"

Oscar peered into the window to check to see that they did in fact need more gasoline. "Yeah, we need it. Hopefully someone will pass us soon and we can get some gas from them."

"Or we have a canister," Phyllis pointed out. "We'll have to look for it."

Oscar looked up at the hood of the car to find Jim inspecting it. Not wanting to intrude, he followed Phyllis's instruction to find a plastic gas canister full of fuel that they could use.

Meanwhile, out on the road, Dwight followed the map out deep into the Okavango Delta, not taking notice of the wildlife and diversity around him. It reminded him of a marshier and wetter beet farm. Nothing spectacular about it.

Dwight could see the fork in the round approach him and he stopped right in the middle of the road. He looked one more time at the map, making sure he was orientated enough to make the decision he wanted. He discerned the correct result he would have if he went left and the same with the right. But now that the decision was right in front of him, he began to waver. "Wavering is for the weak," he said aloud, but not necessarily believing in it.

Changing his mind, he turned right and never looked back.

At the stranded van, progress had been made. Two objectives were now completed; Pam had found the coolant and given it to Jim, who had used it to stop the vehicle from overheating. Just as Jim finished completing the second task, Phyllis found a canister of gasoline, hiding underneath one of the seats. "I found it, Oscar," she told him, getting out of the car with canister in hand. "You go help Jim."

Nodding his head, Oscar went to the hood to help the assistant regional manager while Phyllis began to pour the fuel inside the canister into the tank of the van. Victory in sight, Jim was eager to find the final task they needed to check off their list.

"What about the air conditioning?" Pam asked him.

"What about it?" Jim said back.

"Is it broken?"

"I don't know. We just had our windows down when we were driving out here," Jim recalled. He and Oscar began to poke at the interior of the car, trying to figure out how one would fix the air conditioning under the hood of the car. For minutes they searched until Jim gave up. "I don't think it's the air conditioning."

"Well it's something," Pam insisted. "We might not have long to figure it out."

"The oil," Phyllis snapped her fingers, a sudden burst of inspiration. "Check to see if we're low on it."

Jim used a dipstick to gauge how much oil the van had and saw that they were in fact low on it. "Guys, we need to find the oil. Now."

"Actually, I don't think we have to," Oscar pointed out to the group.

The group followed Oscar's outstretched finger as he pointed to a speck of black on the horizon. It grew with every passing second until it took the shape of a jeep. The windshield was blacked out, so no one could see who was inside. "It's Dwight!" Pam exclaimed, ecstatic. "I can't believe I'm so happy to see Dwight!"

"Same here, Beesley," Jim smiled.

The group cheered when the jeep came to a stop and the door on the driver's side opened up. A foot stuck out from under it and they wanted to know whose foot it was. The man behind the wheel got out of the car and slammed the door, revealing his identity to the group.

It was Jon.

"Jon?" Oscar asked, confused.

"What's going on? Where's Dwight?" Phyllis began to ask questions.

Jon held his hand up and began to explain, "You all remember the note in the glove box, right?" The group nodded their heads. "In order for you to win money and negate Dwight's exemption, you either had to fix the car yourself or have Dwight give up his exemption." They understood so far. "And I am here because Dwight decided to take the exemption."

In a split screen, Dwight stopped the vehicle he was driving in and got out. Right in the middle of the Okavango Delta was a table. On that table was an envelope, marked "exemption." Content with his decision, Dwight retrieved the envelope and read aloud, "'Congratulations, you have won the final exemption in the game. Enjoy your night at the hotel and being in the final four.'" A wry smile growing on his face, he pocketed his exemption and got back in the automobile to drive back to the hotel.

"That little-" Phyllis stopped herself from saying something she would regret.

Jon smiled at Phyllis's reaction. "Because Dwight took the exemption, the pot remains at $243,000, and you will remain stranded out here."

Jim did a double take. "Wait, what?"

"You're not," Pam gasped.

Jon grinned from ear to ear as he told them, "You will be picked up in the morning. Have fun."

"You son of a-" Phyllis stopped herself again, angry as hell at the turn of events.

"Bye," he waved as he got back into the jeep and made a U-turn to head back to the hotel, leaving the quartet in the middle of the Okavango Delta.

Addendum: Cruel? Funny? Awesome? Leave your comments in a review! Part Three will be up very soon.