Sorry it took so long, but I didn't realize how long it had been, and this chapter is over 4,500 words long, so I'm pretty sure it's my longest chapter yet. And, it was fun to write at times. Anyway, I'll try to be a little faster in the future.

Dawn of the Dumb

"I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the next to go," Todd said to Brooke as they were sitting by the waterfall, their feet cooling in the water.

"Why's that?" Brooke asked, even though she had the same feeling.

"Well, Rufus, Nessa, and Walter, I'm pretty sure, are in an alliance together," Todd said. "Rufus, more or less, controls Jamie... and Nessa likes you, so you won't be voted against."

"Just make sure you get immunity," Brooke said.

"That would leave you open," Todd said.

"Not if Nessa convinces them not to vote against me," Brooke reminded him.

Todd smirked. "True, I guess."

Brooke looked up and grabbed Todd's arm. "Come on, let's catch the sunset today."

Todd smiled and ran with her down the path to the west part of the island.

Confession Cam:

(Rufus) "Now, with ease, Todd is going. There are six of us left, and four of us are voting for Todd. After that, well, Nessa and I have this worked out that we get rid of Walter, because he could prove to be a competitor. After that, Brooke. Then I just have Jamie and Nessa to deal with for the last two challenges, and I know I can beat them at whatever Chris might try."

(Nessa) "I'm just counting down until Rufus turns on me, but he knows he needs me to get rid of Todd. I know I'm safe for now, but once Todd is gone, well, I'll be Rufus's only real competition."

(Jamie) "It's awesome! Chris just announced that it's movie night! I'm so excited. It's this old slasher flick where the dead come back to life and go after the people, because they're being controlled by the killer. Of course, the main good guy's girl is one of the back from the dead people, and he ends up saving the day because his love for her breaks the spell..."

"That's just gross," Brooke said.

"Yeah, because one person's body obviously has that much blood," Walter drawled as gallons of blood spurted from one screaming victim's neck.

"No, it's getting to the romantic part," Jamie said.

"There's no possible way this could be considered romantic," Nessa said. "I would know, I'm a girl."

"Like that's really what matters," Rufus said. "Guys can be just as romantic as girls. More so because we're the ones that have to do the things that awe the girls."

"Yeah, because I suspect that it was romantic wooing that helped you get Madison out of her bra, huh?" Nessa asked.

"You got cowgirl to take off her bra for you?" Walter asked. "Nice!"

"I suspect you're just jealous because Manny didn't even go for yours," Rufus said.

"Well, excuse me if some guys think with their higher head," Nessa said. Todd and Walter both snickered while Brooke frowned.

"Even though you're disgusting and maggots are chewing through your skin," Jamie's voice, in sync with the main character's, broke through the tension. "And your heart is no longer beating, I still love you. Nothing you do to me will make me ever stop. Even if you do rip my throat out and gut me and wear my intestine as jewelry, I will still love you, even after my heart is as still as yours."

"That's disturbing," Walter said.

"How many times have you seen this movie?" Todd asked.

"Shh," Jamie said. "She's remembering her love for him."

"She's a Zombie!" Nessa said. "She doesn't even have a brain. Didn't the slasher guy rip her heart out and eat it?"

"No, that was the busty blonde girl," Walter said. "He put her heart in a jar as a trophy."

"Whatever," Nessa said. "She's dead, she can't love any more."

"Love knows no bounds," Jamie claimed loudly.

"I guess it is a little sweet," Brooke said quietly. She looked at Todd, "Right?"

"Not sure if sweet is the term I would pick..." Todd said.

"Would creepy and disgusting better cover your ideas of this movie?" Nessa asked. "Because that's certainly how I would classify this movie."

"I would say it's just plain bad," Rufus said.

Once the credits began rolling, the six remaining campers turned to return to the boat for dinner, only it looked different. It looked creepier.

"Chris?" Brooke called out. "Chef?"

"Hey, um, we all saw last season, we know that Chef is going to pretend to be a killer or a zombie or whatever," Rufus yelled.

"Oh My God!" Nessa shrieked when she pushed the kitchen door open a bit to peek inside. She jumped back and slammed into Walter who was right behind her. She was so freaked, she didn't even realize he had accidently copped a feel. "I don't think Chef's going to be coming after us..."

Rufus stepped in front of her and pushed the door open again with Todd, Jamie, and Walter all looking on. Blood was all over the floor, and covered in it in the center was Chef, or what was left of him. Strips of skin were torn off, whole bites of him seemed to have been eaten, and the smell, it was horrible. However, it was definitely Chef.

Or so they thought. Situated on a boat just out of the camper's view, Chef and Chris were snickering as they watched the disgusted campers. Brooke even began to cry when she peeked in.

"They really think you're dead," Chris said.

"Oh, and look, she misses me... I'll have to give her a slice of cake after this is through. If she can stomach it."

"Okay, we have got to get out of here," Todd said. "We have the boat, lets get off this island."

"What if whoever did that is still on the boat?" Jamie asked. "Then we'd be stuck out in the middle of the ocean with a killer."

"What do you mean, whoever?" Nessa asked. "It looks like there was a Panther in there!"

"And none of you mentioned that we have no idea where the closest island is..." Walter said.

"Seriously, this is just some cheap prop that Chris set up," Rufus said. "This probably isn't even real blood. I'll bet it's ketchup."

"Looks real enough to me," Brooke said.

"Watch," he said. He bent down and dipped his finger in the blood. He then stuck it in his mouth, at which point, his face turned green.

"Is it real?" Brooke asked.

Rufus slowly nodded. "Yeah, that's blood alright."

"This is so not happening!" Nessa said. "I'm too pretty to die!"

"First, we have to figure out what did this," Walter said. "Whatever it was, Chris probably had more than one in the storage, so let's start down there."

The six campers walked down to the lower deck slowly, flicking on the light when they were down a bit. There weren't any crates, but there was a cage with the door open. In the cage, there was one thing that freaked them all out.

"Who's finger is that?" Todd asked.

"Well, it looks like a girl's finger," Jamie said.

"That rules out Chris and Chef," Nessa said.

"Either of you missing a finger?" Walter asked looking at the two girls and snickering.

"I'll show you a finger," Nessa said flipping him off.

"This is seriously freaking me out," Brooke said. "Can we just go?"

"I'm still not entirely sure this isn't a challenge," Rufus said. "A very elaborate challenge, albeit a challenge nevertheless."

"Anyone notice what's missing?" Walter asked.

"Um... besides the rest of the body?" Todd asked.

"The rocking of the boat," Brooke said. "Why isn't the boat moving at all?"

The six raced up and saw that the boat was now pulled entirely on the shore.

"The hell!" Rufus growled. "How did we..." he stopped when he heard a familiar voice, but one that didn't belong to any of the six, Chris, or even Chef. They all heard the groaning voice and turned away. Standing behind them, one leg clearly bearing the most weight, only one eye open, and way too pallor to be living, not to mention the huge gaping wounds, stood Christie.

"Fresh," she moaned. They all took a few steps back, until Brooke tripped on the rail at the edge of the boat. She almost fell, but Todd caught her and held her close. Their eyes were no longer fixed on Christie, but the much worse looking Erik and Ashlynn below, eating what appeared to be flesh off of a dead Chris.

"Let's get out of here and somewhere safe," Todd finally managed to choke out.

"Right," Jamie said. "Follow me." He ran to the stern of the boat that had a small bit of a ladder that was used to lower into the water. There were no zombie ex-campers there yet. Jamie scurried down the ladder quickly, jumping when he ran out of ladder and landing on his feet.

"Brooke, then Nessa," Todd said, helping Brooke turn around and start climbing. Jamie helped to catch her once she was most of the way down. Nessa wasn't far behind.

"We don't exactly have time to wait," Rufus said when Walter began to lower himself. Another zombie, this time Alex, appeared in the trees, and Christie was making her limping way toward them.

Once Walter was on the ground, both Todd and Rufus went for the ladder. They glared at one another for a moment, then Todd allowed Rufus to go first. "Hurry up," Nessa snapped when Rufus was seemingly taking his time.

"Nevermind," Todd said and climbed over the rail and jumped, skillfully landing safely on his feet. Rufus finished quickly after that.

"Where now?" Nessa asked.

A high-pitched barking told them that Russell was farther down the shore one way, so they ran through the water on the other side of the boat, under the Dock of Shame, and began away from camp.

After about ten minutes, and only seeing one more Zombie (this time it was Zak, who they had quickly lost), they finally stopped and looked into a circle to speak.

"What the hell is going on here?" Rufus asked.

"Well, I'm saying all our ex-campmates got turned into zombies," Nessa said.

"How? Why?" Brooke was hyperventilating. "It's not physically possible."

"I'm still convinced this is a challenge," Rufus said. "It's easy to put on zombie make-up. Just white face paint, black around the eyes, take some crumbled paper, or even something like oats and stick it to the face with liquid latex, add fake blood to those areas... fake cuts, seriously, not that hard."

"Fresh flesh," a moan was heard and Bex emerged from the trees. They all took another step back, but Jamie gasped.

"B-Bex?" he questioned. "Is that you?"

"Jamie, don't be stupid," Walter said.

"No, she'll recognize me, I know it," he said. "Bex, it's me, Jamie... your boyfriend."

"Flesh..."

"I know you're in there, Bex," he said. "I know you can hear me..."

"He's probably going to get himself killed someday," Walter said.

"I love you, Bex..."

Bex's unfocused eyes turned to Jamie specifically. "Jamie...?" she drawled in her scratchy voice.

"Yeah, it's Jamie," he said and walked all the way up to her. "You recognize me."

"Did he actually break the spell or whatever?" Todd asked.

Jamie wrapped his arms around Bex, but suddenly, felt her teeth clamp down on his shoulder.

"Holy crap!" Walter yelled, seeing blood spurt from where Bex was biting Jamie. He screamed, but not nearly as loudly as Brooke and Nessa, who both took off, in different directions down the beach. Todd didn't wait to follow Brooke, and Walter and Rufus were not far behind Nessa.

Bex finally released, then spit out blood, or what appeared to be fake blood. "That stuff tastes pretty shitty," she said and spit out again.

"You bit me!"

"Duh," Bex said. "I'm a Zombie. Hello!"

"But..."

"Jamie, seriously," Bex said.

"You bit me," he repeated.

"Not like I even broke the skin," she said. She reached into her mouth and pulled out a small, broken packet of fake blood, then spit out again. Jamie was still shocked. "You know, you really shouldn't have tried to make me come to my senses."

"But, now you're better?" Jamie asked.

Bex rolled her eyes, then rubbed at her forehead, revealing that it was just indeed paint on her skin. "I'm not really a zombie."

"She bit him," Brooke said while sobbing when Todd finally caught her. He noticed how she was a lot faster when she was freaked out than she usually was. "I can't believe that she actually bit him. She's really a zombie. Did you see the blood?"

"Yes, I was there," Todd said agreeing with her. "I saw. I'm just as freaked out as you are."

"Bu-but... she bit him," Brooke couldn't control herself and began shuddering.

Todd wrapped his arms around her and held her close. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Nothing will hurt you, not without getting past me."

As Nessa was running, zombie Paige walked out from behind a rock, blood dripping from her mouth. Nessa stopped so suddenly that she slipped in the sand and fell back, only to be caught by Rufus.

"What are you doing?" Nessa asked in a high, panicked voice when Rufus grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the trees.

"Trying to save your damn life," Rufus said in his normal voice. "Now shut up. They still have ears."

"Where are the others?" Nessa was quieter.

"Walter fell behind," he said. "Brooke and Todd went the other way."

Nessa nodded, as if everything was beginning to make sense. Then she began shaking her head. "This cannot be happening! Physically, these things don't happen in real life!"

Walter, after losing Nessa and Rufus, stopped and decided that he was going to investigate. He slipped into the trees and carefully made his way across the grounds, avoiding any signs of life... or after life, he supposed. Finally, he made it back to the campgrounds and didn't see any zombies. He crept across the sand, stepping in old footprints until he got back to the boat and managed to jump enough to grab the ladder that they had climbed off the boat with. He slipped back into the storage of the boat, and went to examine the finger.

"This has got to be the grossest thing I've ever done," he said. He picked it up and examined it closely. The nail was a little chipped, but the cuticles were pristine... almost too much so. He then turned it around and immediately felt like an idiot. "There's no fingerprint!"

Confession Cam:

(Walter) "Chopped off or not, a real finger would still have the lines of a finger print. This thing," he held it up, "nothing. It's real enough that in a panicked state, we wouldn't notice that even if we picked it up. But, since I was a firm believer that there couldn't be zombies, I kept my cool and uncovered Chris's plan."

He turned back out and went to find the others. Though, he wanted to know how Bex had managed to get the blood to squirt so perfectly from Jamie's neck. He took the shortest route, through the forest, to where Jamie had been 'bitten.' There, on the ground, was Jamie's 'body.' A lot of the skin seemed to have been torn off, and it wasn't moving. Walter knelt by it, slightly concerned that it wasn't even breathing. However, when he felt it, he laughed.

"I know it's you, Chris," he called out. "It's all make-up and fake blood... or animal blood or whatever! But, this body is too cold to really be Jamie's. Jamie's would still have a little lingering heat, but this it cold from being stored in a freezer, or whatever you stored these fake bodies in. In this heat, it wouldn't get that cold!"

"Boo," Phoebe said walking out of the trees. "You're boring."

"You're allowed to talk to me normally now?" Walter asked.

"Well, you just won yourself immunity," Phoebe said.

"By figuring it out?"

"Yep," Phoebe said.

"What other ways are there to win immunity?" Walter asked.

"Survive until the sun comes up," Phoebe said. "Which isn't for several more hours."

Walter smirked. "Got any more make up?"

"Why?"

"Oh, come on, I can mess with their minds, like the rest of you, I am so taking advantage of it. Let's give me a few fake wounds."

Todd tightened his grip on the branch he held, and Brooke gripped his shoulders. They were both crouched behind a bush, watching as Autumn passed. Once she was out of sight, they moved out from their spot. They figured it would be safest near the top of the waterfall until the sun came up. From there, they could jump into the lake if they needed to escape, and the clearing was big enough that they would have plenty of warning if a zombie did find them... well, more like when.

"Come on," Todd whispered, seeing the spot they were heading toward above them. Just a short climb away.

And then they saw Gail up there, someone behind her had their arms wrapped around her waist and was either biting or kissing her neck. They turned a little and the other zombie was identified as Alex.

"That's almost cute," Brooke whispered. "They're still into one another, even in death."

"You're sounding like Jamie," Todd said. "And, they've just ruined our only good plan."

Alex's head snapped up, a little blood dripping from the side of his mouth. He spotted them and released Gail. She looked down and spotted them as well.

"And time to run," Todd said, grabbing Brooke's hand as he began running, along the stream, crossing through it was it was shallow enough. They seemed to have lost Alex and Gail quickly, but before they could stop running, the high pitched barking of a dog warned them that Russell was after them.

Suddenly, Brooke stopped, digging her feet into the ground.

"Brookworm, what are you doing?" Todd asked, trying to pull her along.

"I want to see that dog," Brooke said. "It want to see if it's a zombie."

"And if it is, then what?"

"Then we run again," Brooke said. "But it sure sounds alive."

Mr. Muggles came running into view, looking as groomed and pristine as ever. "There's no way that dog is dead," Brooke said.

"Your point?"

"Why wouldn't Russell have turned it as well," Brooke asked. "If he's really a zombie, he would have probably eaten his dog."

Todd blinked, then his eyes brightened. "That sounds so obvious," he said. The dog was now at their feet, and Todd bent down, pushing it away.

"Keep your filthy paw off my pooch!" Russell's voice yelled.

"Wow, really good speech for a zombie," Todd said.

"I... uh.. flesh, yum..." Russell tried to recover.

"Whatever," Brooke said. "You're not really a zombie."

"Dang it!" Russell growled and stomped a foot. "How'd you find out?"

"Well, now you just confirmed it," Brooke said, a smile crawling onto her face. "But, otherwise, because Mr. Muggles is still alive."

Confession Cam:

(Brooke) "I won't lie, I'm more relieved that I have immunity than the fact that there are no real zombies and my life was never in danger... well, not during this challenge..."

(Todd) "I don't think she was completely sure until Russell actually admitted that he wasn't a zombie... she could have gotten us killed. Damn, Brookworm, you're going to get me kill one day, I bet. But I still love you."

"Hold still," Rufus said to Nessa as they were traveling through the forest.

"Why?" she asked in an almost silent whisper.

"I think I heard something," Rufus said.

Nessa held her breath as Rufus stood tall and looked around. She screamed when someone came stumbling through some bushes and fell at their feet. She screamed and ran again.

Rufus looked at the person who fell and was surprised to see Walter, a few scratches on his face and with what looked like bite marks on his arm, one that he was clutching to slow the bleeding.

"What the hell happened to you?" Rufus said, jumping back.

"I was ambushed," Walter said. "Out of breath and got caught. If it had been someone like Erik or Vinson, I'd be dead. Luckily, it was Eddie and Phoebe, so I was able to beat them off me and then ran with what little strength I had."

Rufus frowned, and noticed that Nessa was gone. "Great, now we've lost Nessa..." He looked at Walter. "You were bitten, weren't you."

"Considering they were trying to eat me!" Walter raised his voice.

"Not so loud," Rufus hissed. "Do you want to be found again?" He shook his head. "I'm not sure what about zombies is true, but if those bites make you turn into a zombie, I will not hesitate to kill you."

"I had better not turn into one," Walter said. "And it's not that bad. Plus, we're dealing with zombies, not werewolves." He sighed and leaned back. "I found Jamie's body. He's dead."

Rufus swore again. "Let's find Nessa. If worse comes to worse, we can always shove her at the zombies."

"She's too jumpy," Walter said. "If she screams every time we run into one, we'll be caught for sure sooner or later."

Rufus nodded. "Okay then, opposite direction."

Nessa was crouched under a large rock and sobbing. She seriously thought she was going to die. She didn't really care that she was making noise and smearing her make-up. She was about to die, her corpse never to be found or totally mutilated... or more likely both.

Her breath hitched when she heard a branch crack. She held her breath and prayed that whoever it was would pass. But the footsteps only drew closer, until whoever it was was on top of the rock she was hidden under. And there, the person remained. Finally, Nessa couldn't take it any more and peeked up to see who it was that was probably going to eat her. In the darkness of the night, she could only see the shadow of the face and a flash of the dark brown eyes as the stars reflected off the water, but she gasped, recognizing the creature that was crouched at the edge of the rock.

"M-Manny?" Nessa gasped.

He crawled off the rock in a very animalistic way and grabbed her shoulders, pulling her out. Nessa began to cry again as Manny went straight for her face. However, a moment later, she felt his lips instead of teeth on her cheek. He pulled her a little closer and whispered in her ear, "You're dead."

Nessa's eyes shot open and she pulled back. "You mean.... it's not real?"

Manny shook his head, laughing a bit. She smacked his shoulder. "I just lost a chance at immunity, didn't I?"

"Yeah, I did," he said. He grabbed her wrist when she tried to stomp off. "But, now, you have to wait on the rap until Rufus dies or gets immunity," he said as a raft floated up to shore. Jamie was in it, looking rather annoyed. A few interns jumped off and pulled a fake Nessa body, lying it on the ground.

"What about Walter, Brooke, and Todd?" Nessa asked.

"They all earned immunity," one intern said.

"They figured it out," Jamie said.

Rufus and Walter were running down a path, suddenly, Walter fell. "Help me!" he called, but Rufus didn't stop. He kept running. He could still hear someone pursuing him. However, he skidded to a halt when he saw the next zombie.

"Madison," he said quietly. Behind her stood Misty, streaks of blood musing up her usually sleek coat. The zombie cowgirl and her horse both took a step forward. When Rufus took a step backward, he felt two strong arms wrap across his chest, pinning his arms to his side.

Rufus looked as best he could at who it was holding him, and seeing the dark face, despite being a zombie, he knew it was Vinson. "Let me go, damnit!" he yelled, but it did not difference. Madison came closer and Rufus tried to break out of Vinson's hold, but couldn't. Finally, Madison was right in front of him. She was about to bite him, until she giggled.

Rufus frowned. "You're about to kill me and you're laughing!"

"You're dead anyway," Vinson said, letting him go. Rufus looked between the two, then saw that he was completely surrounded but all the zombies. Walter, Todd, and Brooke were also in the circle, all three laughing. Todd and Walter shared a high-five.

"And you only had to last ten more minutes!" Chris said, breaking through the circle, Chef, Jamie, and Nessa in tow. "Let's have a hand for our wonderful zombie cast, and Walter, who volunteered to act as though he had been attacked, even after he won himself immunity."

"What!" Rufus yelled. "This really was just a challenge?"

"Yep," Ashlynn said with a wide smile. Almost everyone was glad to see Rufus almost die, and not have immunity.

"Now, the six of you left, cast your votes for Jamie, Nessa, or Rufus, while the rest of you return to the boat.

"But, wait!" Rufus yelled. "The blood in the kitchen."

"Was pigs blood," Chris said.

"And Bex biting Jamie?"

"Fake blood packet," Bex said. "Observe Madison."

Madison held up a tiny packet of blood, then stuck it in her mouth and bit down, which caused blood to spurt out.

"The finger?"

"Didn't even have fingerprints," Walter said, tossing it to him.

"Now, let's move out!"

The sun was coming up when the six remaining campers were sitting around a campfire. Chris appeared with five marshmallows. "There are six of you before me this morning," he said.

"Too tired for your speeches," Walter said. "Just hand them out.

Chris frowned. "Walter, Brooke, Todd," he said toss out three. "Good job figuring it out. Nessa, you're safe as well..."

Confession Cam (ten minutes earlier):

(Rufus) "Well, keeping good with the deal I made with Nessa, I'm voting off Jamie."

(Todd) "No doubt about it, Rufus is going home! I know Brooke is on my side. And I think I convinced Walter as well."

(Nessa) "Jamie."

(Brooke) Her eyes are squeezed shut and she has her fingers crossed. "Rufus, Rufus, Rufus!"

(Walter) There's just a smirk on his face, and he laughs.

(Jamie) "Well, I guess this is a difficult decision to make, because I don't want to go home..."

"And the final marshmallow goes to... Rufus!"

Todd and Brooke both groan and Jamie's face drops. Rufus takes his marshmallow and just smirks. "Looks like it's the end of the line for you, Jamie."

"But, I thought that we were voting off Nessa," Jamie said.

"I just told you that so you wouldn't vote off me," Rufus said.

Todd looks at Walter. "You said you were gonna..."

"I lied," Walter said. "Hey, I chose the one that wouldn't annoy me as much to the end. All Jamie does is talk about anime and whine over Bex. But, hey, Jamie, you get to rejoin your undead girlfriend."

Brooke and Todd both groan, then turned and returned to their tents. When Nessa returned to the camp, she found her stuff had been shoved out of her tent with Brooke.

"Uh, Brooke, what's this about?"

"You, Rufus, and Walter can have your little alliance meetings in the other tent," Brooke said. "Unless you promise to vote off Rufus next challenge."

"What if he gets immunity?" Nessa asked.

Brooke just zipped up the tent.

"Is Todd in there with you?"

"We each have our own sleeping bag," Todd said. "Keep your mind out of the gutter."