Episode 20: Stranded
"Last time on Total Drama Island: The seven finalists had to go one an animal safari, and try to bring their animal in first. Matthew was seen to remain truly loyal to his alliance members by helping them catch their various animals. But despite his efforts, Peter won Invincibility by bringing in his animal first.
"In the end, it was down to Jeremy and Isaiah. Jeremy was the last to bring in his catch, while Isaiah didn't bring in his animal at all. So goodbye, Isaiah!
"With six campers left, we enter one of our most daring and brutal challenges EVER! You won't want to miss a single second of this brand new episode of Total…Drama…Island!"
Camp Wawanakwa, 8:00 A.M…
All the campers were in the main lodge, (not) eating their breakfast when Jeremy burst through the door. His eyes were bloodshot, and his arms were dangling like ropes. His hair was crazy and frizzled. He was covered in dust, and had a cobweb in his hair. He looked like he had gone an entire week without sleep.
And he hadn't.
He slowly walked up to a seat, scuffing his feet along the hard wooden floor, and plopped down on the seat.
"Can't stand sleeping in that Boathouse, huh?" Peter asked with a stupid grin on his face.
Jeremy mumbled, "Homaschufa."
"I said…"
"WAAAUUUGGGHHH!!!" Jeremy screamed. Everyone nearly fell out of their seats. "Th…the…they're out…to get me!!!"
"Whoa! Calm down there!" said Matthew. He, Mark, and Violet raced over to him. Before they reached him, he threw himself out of his seat and onto the floor, twitching.
"Hor…horrible. Everywhere…shadows…darting all over…the place!"
"You must've been seeing things, man." Mark said.
"Everywhere…spiders…rats…ghosts!"
" 'Ghosts'? MAN this guy is weird!" Peter laughed.
"There's no such thing as ghosts." Violet said.
"No…no…no sleep. Not at all…not even a moment!"
"Wow. A whole week of no sleep?" Matthew said. "That's longer than the Awake-a-thon from last season!"
He and Mark helped the twitching, mumbling wreck of a teenager to his feet.
"They…ARGH!"
"Poor guy." Matthew said.
Then Chris walked in.
"Hello, campers! I see that Jeremy has (heh, heh) enjoyed his week of sleeping in the Boathouse."
Jeremy apparently heard that, as he slowly cranked his head sideways to look at Chris, then said, "Drop…dead!"
"Anyway. This week's challenge is going to be something a little more civil: A fishing trip!"
"Thank goodness!" Matthew sighed.
"Hold on." Mark said. "With this show, even a fishing trip could be deadly! Remember the challenge two episodes ago?"
"Oh, yeah."
"Don't worry, campers. This is gonna be totally different. Come with me to the Dock of Shame."
He walked out of the lodge, followed by the five campers, and Jeremy lagging behind.
When they arrived, there were two boats sitting there, bobbing up and down on the water. They looked like the fishing boat from Jaws.
"Here are your vessels. The supplies necessary for fishing are onboard. Your goal is to sail out there and catch as many fish as possible."
"Sounds simple."
"Now I'll divide you into two teams of three. Team One: Matthew, Peter, and Jennifer. Team Two: Mark, Violet, and Jeremy. Now get into your boats. Bon voyage, and good fishing!" Chris said.
The two teams got into their respective boats and cast off, sailing away towards the open ocean. Chef walked up and stood next to Chris.
"This is gonna be fun." The mountain of a man said.
"You got that right. Come on, I'll head back to the technical tent, and prepare the 'hurricane'. While you get over to that island and suit up. Time to test these campers' survival skills!"
Two hours later…
The Team One boat was drifting calmly in the water. Jen was at the wheel, and Matthew and Peter were down at the stern, each holding fishing poles.
"I…am…so…bored!" Jen declared. "We've been out here for two hours and haven't gotten a single nibble!"
"What are we gonna do?" Matthew asked. "I'll bet the other team's really bringing in the fish!"
Meanwhile…
On Team Two's boat, Mark said, "I'll bet that other team is catching fish by the dozens! What are we gonna do?"
Jeremy said nothing, and had said nothing for all two hours. He was in the cabin, taking a nap.
Violet set down her fishing pole. She turned to look at Mark, and saw something behind him. Her eyes widened.
"Should we go back?"
"I don't know. Did Chris say that there was a time limit?"
"No. That's not what I meant."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, we should go back because of that!" She pointed at something off the starboard-bow. Mark turned and looked.
Clouds.
Dark clouds. Pitch black clouds.
Lightning. Flashes of white-yellow in the distance. They could see rain falling, and hear thunder booming.
"Uh-oh."
"We need to go back, NOW!"
"Right!" Mark yelled and dashed up the ladder to the wheel. He started the engine.
Back at Camp Wawanakwa…
"Kill the engine!" Chris said in the technical tent.
Meanwhile…
A special device Chris had back at the island immediately shut down Team Two's boat for good. So when Mark tried to start it, there was nothing but a cough and sputter.
"Oh NO!!!!"
"What is it?!"
"THE ENGINE WON'T START!!!!!!"
Then, before they knew it, the storm was upon them. The waves, the clouds, the rain, the thunder, and the lightning. The weather started getting rough. The tiny boat was tossed. The boat was almost lost.
Mark and Violet ran for cover inside the cabin. Mark slammed the door shut behind him. They hid under the small table. Jeremy was still lying down.
"Jeremy!" Violet yelled. "JEREMY!!"
He stirred.
"Huh? Whazat?"
"There's a storm! Wake up!"
"Whuh…a storm…?" He tried to lift his head, but a large wave crashed into the boat, and Jeremy was thrown forward. His head banged against the table, knocking him out.
"Oh, come on!!"
Then Violet and Mark blacked out.
A few hours later…
Mark awoke, not knowing where he was. His eyes opened to the sight of the ceiling of the boat's cabin. He sat up and looked around. The cabin appeared to be in good condition. He saw Violet sprawled out on the wooden floor next to him. He shook her shoulder.
"Violet? Violet!"
She stirred and also awoke.
"Huh? Where are we?"
"That's what I wanna know." Mark got up and walked over to the cabin door. He slowly opened it and took a step forward…
…only to fall off the boat and into sand.
"Oof!" He grunted as he landed. He lifted his head and spit some sand out of his mouth.
"Mark?"
"I'm OK." He got to his feet and looked around. The stern half of the boat had been ripped off, explaining how he had fallen right onto the sand.
Sand?
He looked around some more. The wrecked boat was on a beach! He stood straight up.
"We've been beached!" Violet realized.
"But where?"
"I'll wake up Jeremy." Violet turned and went back into the cabin, and crouched down next to the unconscious Jeremy.
"Jeremy, wake up!"
He slowly fluttered his eyes and squinted at her.
"V…Veronica?"
"It's Violet."
"Oh, right…"
He was clearly still tired and dizzy from the Boathouse thing.
"Come on, we've got to go."
She helped him to his feet and towards the door.
"Oh, and watch your…"
"Whoa!"
Jeremy fell several feet to the sand below, just as Mark had.
"…step."
Mark turned and helped Jeremy stand up.
"Oooooh."
"Still dizzy from sleeping in the Boathouse?" He said to Violet.
She nodded. "Apparently."
"Goodness, it could take days for him to regain his sanity."
"Let's focus on the real issue right now." Violet said. "Where are we?"
"On some island."
"But where? Camp Wawanakwa, or another island?"
"There are many islands in this area."
"Well, it doesn't matter where we are. We need a plan to get rescued."
"Right."
Meanwhile…
Matthew woke up and looked around. He was on the stern deck of the boat. All he remembered of last night was that a massive storm had hit, and he tried to get into the cabin.
"Have a nice nap, Sleeping Beauty?"
Matthew rubbed his head and looked at the criminal who was slicing the paint off the wood of the gunwale with his knife.
"What happened?"
"You tried to get inside with me and Jen, and a wave knocked you over and slammed you head-first into the wall. Does that answer your question?"
"Um, I guess so."
"We're stuck on an island." Jen said. Matthew turned and saw her sitting on the gunwale, arms folded.
"Say what?" Matthew stood up and looked around. Sure enough, they were on a beach, and trees were nearby.
"That storm did a number to this boat." Jen said.
"That was one heck of a storm." Peter said. "But I've seen worse."
There was only one thing that Matthew could think about.
Were the others caught in the storm, too? Oh, I hope Violet's OK…
"We've gotta think of something! I suggest we move further inland and see if there's any civilization on this rock!"
"I hate to say it, but I agree with Peter." Jen said.
"F-fine. Let's move."
They all jumped down off of the boat and walked into the woods.
"So, what if we don't find anything?"
"We look for some kind of shelter, genius. And maybe something to eat."
At that moment, Matthew's stomach growled. "Yeah, you're right."
Meanwhile…
Mark, Violet, and Jeremy were also walking through the woods. They had come to the same conclusion, and walked (or in the case of Jeremy, was dragged) inland, leaving the wrecked boat behind.
As they came further in, they found a cave.
"Hey! This looks like it could be a good shelter."
"I don't know. What if something's living in there already?" Violet asked.
"It's as good a place as any. Let's go see."
Mark walked in, and after a moment, Violet followed, dragging in Jeremy. They could hear the sound of water dripping as they moved further in.
"This place gives me the creeps." Violet said to herself. Her voice instantly echoed through the cave.
Then they saw a skeleton.
Violet screamed and jumped back when she stumbled across it. It had ragged, torn clothes still on it: a brown, torn shirt with holes in it and missing a sleeve; torn jeans; and only one shoe. The main thing that freaked her out was that the head had been separated from the rest of the body, and there was a huge hole in the skull.
"Oh my…" Violet clutched at her mouth and ran behind a large rock to throw up. Mark looked at the skeleton.
"My gosh."
"There's (blech) something in here alright!" Violet said as she puked.
"You're right. We need to leave!"
Suddenly, there was a massive roar that echoed through the cave and blasted their ears. Even Jeremy seemed to notice it.
"And that's out cue to leave!" Violet yelled. She dashed towards the entrance, while Mark grabbed Jeremy and followed. They could hear loud, booming footsteps behind them.
"Run, run, run! RUN!"
"What do you think I'm doing!?" Violet yelled back.
"Jeremy, you've got to use your feet, man! I can't carry you!"
Jeremy was still zoned out, as drowsy as ever.
"Give me a break!"
They burst out of the cave and into the sunlight, racing through the trees and heading back to the beach.
Mark looked back once at the cave and saw a pair of ghastly green eyes looking at him from the cave, just outside the reach of the light.
Meanwhile…
Matthew, Jen, and Peter were walking through the woods.
"Man! There's nothing here! No buildings, no people, no nothing! This is practically Gilligan's Island" Peter declared, frustrated.
"There has to be something." Matthew said.
Then they saw a large, dark object in the distance.
"What the…?" Then, without warning, Peter dashed towards it.
"Whoa, wait up!" Matthew yelled. He and Jennifer ran after him. When they got closer, they couldn't believe their eyes.
It was a plane.
The plane was missing one wing (torn off at about the halfway point). Most of its windows were broken. It was covered in vines and weeds. It was so rusty that it appeared more brown than the white it used to be.
"Oh my gosh!" Matthew said.
"Hey, look at this!" Jen said, pointing to something written on the side of the plane.
The rust just barely covered up the word ANAWAKWAW AIRLINES written in black on the side of it.
"Geez."
Meanwhile…
Back at Camp Wawanakwa, Chris smiled his evil smile.
"I see they've found our plane. That scores extra points for Team One!"
Meanwhile…
"Let's take a look inside." Peter said.
"How's that? The door's closed, and that rust has probably sealed it so hard that…" Matthew's sentence was cut short as Peter grabbed the door and tore it off its weak, old hinges.
"O…K…"
"Now, let's see what's inside!"
The three of them walked in. The only light inside the plane shined through the broken windows. The leather seats were still lined up in rows, although some of them were torn and had the stuffing sticking out, and a couple were missing altogether. Several of the overhead compartment doors were wide open, most were closed. Matthew walked up to the front of the plane, where the controls were. The chairs appeared empty from behind. Matthew turned one to face him.
There was a skeleton in it, wearing a pilot's outfit and headphones.
"EEEYYYAAAA!!!" Matthew screamed and stumbled back.
"What is it?" Jen asked.
"Skeleton!" He pointed at the chair and its occupant.
"Skeleton?" Peter scoffed. "I've seen worse." He then brushed past it and looked at the controls. Several small screens were broken. There were wires hanging out of holes in the dashboard. The massive window, surprisingly, wasn't broken, but there was a massive spider web crack on it, nearly covering the entire window.
"Hey!" Jen yelled from the rear of the plane. "Look at this!" She pulled out a rusty food cart. It had several rusty bottles and dirty bags.
"I'll be darned!" Matthew exclaimed.
"What makes you think that any of that is still good?"
"Well, let's see." Jen then took a dirty bag of potato chips, tore it open, and ate one.
"Tastes fine to me."
"Let me try." Matthew took a small, wrapped-up fortune cookie and ate it.
"Yeah, it tastes like it was made yesterday!"
"Well, let's grab as much as we can!" Jen and Matthew instantly started pocketing as much wrapped food and bottled drinks as they could.
While they were, Matthew looked at the message from the fortune cookie he just ate.
" 'You are about to go batty'."
" 'Batty'?" Peter repeated. "What the heck does that…"
Meanwhile…
"Cue the bats!"
Meanwhile…
Then the three teens heard a squeak, followed by a flapping of wings.
"Oh no."
Then, before they knew it, they were swarmed by dozens of bats.
"EEEEEEK!!" Jen screamed and flailed her arms around wildly, swiping at any bat that was unfortunate enough to come near her.
"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!!!!" Matthew yelled.
The three of them raced out of the plane, and the bats flew up and into the sky.
Meanwhile…
The other group was walking around aimlessly on the island. They were hungry, tired, and Jeremy was just dead weight. He was still delirious, dizzy, and more tired than the others.
"This is hopeless!" Violet exclaimed. "What are we gonna do? We need to find something to eat, or else we could starve!"
"Chill out, Violet. We're not gonna die. Look, either Chris and Chef have sent out a search party or something to find us, or this is part of our next challenge!"
"Chris said that fishing was the challenge!"
"Hmm, well, I don't know. But if we need to find some food or something, maybe there's some coconut trees around here."
"Coconut trees? I'm sorry, Mark, but you don't know your regional smarts, do you?"
Mark just shrugged.
"We in Canada. Coconut trees don't grow in Canada. If we were in Hawaii, then yes, we'd have enough coconuts to last us two lifetimes. But here, no."
Meanwhile…
Back at Camp Wawanakwa, Chris smiled. "She's right, of course."
Back at the desert island…
"Darn it. Well then I suggest we go back to the boat. That's the only real shelter there is on this island."
"I agree. But…"
"But what?"
"Do you even know what direction the beach is? I feel like we've been walking around in circles for hours!"
"Of course I know where it is!" Mark chuckled. "It's right…um…wait. Where was it?"
"I thought so. We pretty much lost track of what direction we were going after the cave incident."
"Which reminds me: What do you think that thing was?"
"I don't know. Probably not a bear. Bears don't roar like that, or have green eyes like that."
"So what could it be then?"
"Look, can we just forget about that for the moment? Right now, we just need to find some kind of…"
Hiss!
"AAAAUUUGGGHHH!!" Violet screamed when she saw the massive pink snake before them.
"Whoa! Look at the size of that thing!!" Mark yelped.
"And it's coming right at us!"
The snake slithered forward.
"Uh…uh…" Mark looked around frantically. Then he saw a tall tree several yards away.
"Over there! In the tree!"
Violet saw it, and they ran over to it and started climbing. But Violet turned and looked back at the snake.
What she saw horrified her.
The snake was inches from Jeremy, who was still in a dazed stupor. He barely even saw it.
"JEREMY!!!" She ran towards him and grabbed him by the arm, forcefully yanking him away just as the snake's mouth snapped at the air where he was just moments earlier.
She dragged the half-awake boy over to the tree.
"Mark! Help me get him up!"
Mark reached down and grabbed his wrist. He pulled as hard as he could. Violet grabbed his legs and shoved him up towards Mark with all her strength.
The snake drew closer.
"Mark!"
"I'm…trying!"
He then managed to pull Jeremy up to where he could sling him over a branch.
"Violet! Give me your hand!"
Violet stretched out her hand, and Mark grabbed it. He managed to pull her to safety just as the snake lunged at the tree trunk.
Violet sat down on a large branch next to Mark, hanging onto the trunk of the great tree as if her life still depended on it.
"That…was horrifying!"
"Tell me about it. We have GOT to get Jeremy to wake up more! He nearly got us killed!" Violet said with a hint of anger in her voice.
"Can you really blame him? He had to stay in the old Boathouse for a week. He didn't get any sleep, and he always thought that there was something in there with him."
"At least it wasn't something that could kill him! Seriously, if he's not more alert, we're all going to die!"
"Look, just forget about that for now. We need to focus on the big issue: what we're going to do about that snake!"
Meanwhile…
Matthew, Peter, and Jennifer reached the beach, and found their boat in only fifteen minutes. They stored all the provisions in the cabin, then Matthew suggested that they build a signal fire.
They put the massive fire together by gathering all kinds of dry branches, pieces of wood from the boat, and leaves from trees, then put it all into one big pile on the beach. As they lit the fire, which quickly burst into an inferno, Matthew said, "Seriously, I can't believe how well we're doing!"
"What do you mean?" Jen asked.
"I mean, we're up to our elbows in provisions to last us for a month or two, we've got a sturdy structure to stay in during that time, and we've already got a good signal fire going! Our time here may not be so bad after all."
A massive roar responded, causing all three of them, even Peter, to jump.
"Wh-what was that?" Jen asked.
"It sounded huge!" Matthew exclaimed.
It roared again. Many birds took off and flew away into the distance.
"We're gonna need a bigger boat." Matthew said, trying to bring some humor into the situation.
No such luck.
Meanwhile…
"Did you hear that?!" Mark yelled.
"Who didn't?" Violet asked.
They looked down at the snake, who, after the roar, instantly scurried off into the bushes.
"Well, whatever it is, it scared away the snake."
"Yeah. Let's get out of this tree."
The two of them helped Jeremy down out of the tree first, then jumped down themselves.
"Well, the snake's gone. What do we do now?" Mark asked.
"Head for the beach."
"Btu we don't know where…"
"This is an island! It doesn't matter whether or not we know where it is! We just walk in one direction and we'll get there!"
"Oh! OK, let's go!"
Just then, they heard the familiar booming footsteps.
"Uh-oh." Mark whimpered.
"We've gotta go!" Violet declared.
Mark picked up Jeremy and flung him over his shoulder. The two of them ran off just as the source of the roar and footsteps emerged from the woods. It saw them racing off, and it quickly gave chase.
The two of them ran screaming through the woods. Every time they looked back, they could barely see the huge thing chasing after them. A clear view of it was impossible due to all the trees and vines. The only thing they really knew about it was that it was freakishly tall, and it was NOT friendly.
Then, the two of them cleared the woods and emerged on the beach…
…right next to the boat of Team One!
They all turned, and were shocked to see them.
"Guys?!"
Mark and Violet didn't even notice them, as they were too busy running. So the two of them ran right into the other three campers, and they all fell to the sand in a great big heap. They all groaned. Then Matthew looked up.
"What the heck is THAT?!!?"
The dark shape drew closer, pushing through the trees. They could see its glowing green eyes. It burst through the woods and stood in plain sight before them on the beach. They all gasped in absolute shock.
It was Chef. And he was wearing night-vision goggles.
"CHEF?!! What are you doing here?!?!"
Before he could answer, they heard the sound of a massive propeller blade and a loud engine. They all looked up to see a red helicopter race through the air above them. Then they heard the familiar voice.
"Alright, campers! That's the end of the task!"
"Task?!" They all asked simultaneously.
The helicopter's blades slowed down and stopped, and the engine died down. Chris stepped out onto the sand y beach and explained.
"See, this was all part of your next challenge! The whole 'fishing trip' thing was just a set-up! We rigged a storm to happen, and we meant for you to crash onto this 'uncharted desert island'! It was a test of survival! We split you into two teams, and whichever team did better would win Invincibility."
"So we were never in any danger?" Violet asked.
"Not really. The storm was moderately safe. And we pretended for there to be a 'monster' here just to scare you. It was just Chef. And the night-vision goggles were an added bonus to make his eyes look green."
"What about the snake?" Mark asked.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. That. Well, I guess you weren't too safe around that."
"HUH?" Mark and Violet simultaneously asked.
"Anyway. We were monitoring you back at Camp Wawanakwa. So if you were in any real danger, we'd know about it right away."
"And the plane?" Peter asked.
"We also placed the plane here for you to find. Whoever found it, and the provisions, would get extra points."
"Plane?" Mark asked. "What plane?"
"Team One will have to tell you about that later. Anyways, so as I said before, the goal was to do the best to try and survive. We judged you on your performance, and I think it's unanimous that Team One wins! Matthew, Peter, and Jennifer, you all win Invincibility!"
"Yes!" They all cheered. Jen and Matthew hi-fived. Peter was doing his usual celebration for whenever he won Invincibility.
"Oh, yeah! Uh-huh! I'm good, they're not! Ha, ha, ha!"
"The six of you take can ride these canoes…" Chris gestured to two red canoes on the beach behind him, oars and everything. "…back to Camp Wawanakwa."
"Wait, how will we know where to go?"
"It's not that hard. Ironically, this island has been close to Camp Wawanakwa all along!"
"It has?!" They all asked.
"That's right! See that island over there?" He pointed to an island that looked to be less than two miles away. Everyone could see it clearly.
"That's Camp Wawanakwa."
"Are you serious!? How did we miss that?!" Jen asked.
"I don't know. As I was saying: so just head in that direction, and you'll be back in your nice, warm lodges in no time!" Chris then turned to the losers and shook his head. "Mark, Violet, and Jeremy. You have lost. Now one of you will be sent home tonight."
Chris and Chef got into the helicopter and started to take off.
"See you all at the Bonfire!" Chris yelled before he flew off.
As the six teens got into the canoes and started to row back to the island, Mark and Violet glared at the still zoned-out Jeremy, sitting in the back of the canoe and not rowing.
To be continued…
Author's Note: Thank you all SO much for sending in challenge ideas! Fedora Kid really appreciates it. And special thanks to Cam for the idea of the Survival Challenge used in this chapter!