Chapter 22: Decision.

Despite me feeling at my peak from the merge announcement, not everyone was as satisfied as I was. "We really had to wake up for that?" Topher argued with McLean, "I mean, you'd get more action if we were awake. Host fail!"

"Hey, if you don't want the midnight merger meal, then fine!" McLean responded. "Just go back to bed." McLean's eyes and words said something different. His words enticed us to stay up for the buffet waiting behind us, and something told me that there was a challenge behind that curtain too.

My best guess was to try and force the words out of him before I said or did anything, but that needed some spark. "You've never done a thing for us," I argued, "you even went out of your way to make me miserable by bringing her back." I pointed at Samey, who didn't cower in fear like I was expecting. Huh. "What gives?"

McLean's eye twitched, before spilling. Easy. "Fine! The lawyers called to say that feeding one team every couple of days is technically, 'starvation'. So, this is a legally enforced team merger celebration dinner." As he finished those words, the curtains raised to show the table and chairs I had seen before in the warehouse. I was still taken aback at not only how great it looked, but also how out of place it looked on the island's surface.

Well, at the very least, that was pleasing to me. Everyone else cheered, so I figured they were pretty happy about it as well. Then, McLean started speaking again. "It was gonna be pizza, bison burgers, and sweet potato fries." Sweet potato? Lame. "But, silk tablecloth and silver candles put us way over budget." Of course it did. "So, tonight, you'll be eating...Juggy Chunks!" What?

McLean lifted the lid on the platter next to him, and revealed what I could only say was the most repulsive and disgusting thing I had ever seen. Everyone gasped when we watched the disgusting green...let's call it a liquid, bubble and gurgle like it was expired milk. Well, everyone did except for Sugar. She cheered. "Is this Thanksgiving?" she asked in celebration.

Max was also concerned at the frothing green stuff. "I've never heard of these...Juggy Chunks."

Sugar, all excited in a very concerning way, bounced over to him. "Come on, you've seen the commercials! They've got that catchy jingle, and it ends with the cartoon horse that goes 'I've never won a race, but I'm still delicious!" She then started going all nuts with her horse impression. It was...hard to watch.

Shawn raised an eyebrow at the fat girl. "How does a horse give a thumbs up?" He asked her suspiciously.

Sugar waved her arm out. "Cartoon horses always give a thumbs up. Otherwise they get mistaken for real horses." This conversation was getting out of hand quickly. I wanted out.

Unfortunately for me that wasn't an option, but at least McLean decided to end the discussion on some stupid horse. "Okay," he told us, "save some wonderful truisms for your spin-off show, Sugar," he mocked. Heh. Of course, Sugar instantly thought she was going to get her own show, brainless idiot. "Relax, I'm kidding," McLean reminded her, "television broadcast standards could never sink that low." Heh.

We all began taking our seats as Chef began dealing out the green gunk. I took a seat on the second from the right, and Topher took the end seat. It was looking good until Samey sat on the other. I didn't know what her game plan was to try and beat me, but it probably stank. "The first player to finish their Juggy Chunks will be safe from elimination." Wait, just like that? I wasn't going to eat it before, but there was no way I was going to let Sugar get off for free.

"Everyone, grab some chunks!" McLean cheered. Chef whispered something to McLean that I just barely couldn't hear. How annoying. "Ready, set, enjoy!" He blew the horn, and the first merge challenge was officially upon us.

I took a whiff of the concoction before sipping it, which was a mistake. If it looked like death, it smelled even worse. I took a look over to the other end, and Sugar was so delighted that she was playing with the chunks. Awesome, I had some time.

My thought process was stopped when I looked over and saw Samey beginning to drink the stuff. Oh, no. I was not going to let her steal immunity from me. I began chugging the stuff, knowing that I'd regret it instantly in a few hours, maybe a few minutes. I might've dropped dead in seconds after I finished, but I didn't care. I wasn't going to let her take one more thing from me.

There was a lot going on around me, but I couldn't hear any of it. All I heard was the tension itself building up between Spare-mey and myself. I wasn't going to let her win, but for some stupid reason, she thought she had a chance. I had to crush that dream right where it stood. Eventually, I started blacking out. I couldn't hear anything anymore except for slurping. I eventually came to my senses when I heard "Amy, Samey, you girls can stop. Hello?" That told me Samey wasn't stopping, so I wasn't either.

I kept going, putting myself in pain just to stop her from winning. Is that what I wanted? Of course, she had to lose. Putting myself in harm's way was natural for that, right? It didn't matter anymore. I slurped again, but this time, nothing came out. I had finished. "Done!" I shouted, slamming the glass down onto the table, cracking it on the metal table under the 'silk' tablecloth. "I...beat...you," I said to Samey slowly as the repulsive gunk I had just drank began fighting back.

My eyes popped open when I realized Samey had stopped a while ago. "Sure," she said to me, clearly not as affected as I was. She still had about a third of her drink left. "Was it worth it?" she asked me. "You beat me. Great." What.

I went through all that effort, and I honestly heard her going at it with me the whole time. Did I make that up myself? Did I really just imagine Samey trying to beat me the whole time? That couldn't possibly be right. "But, you...no wait-"

"Okay," McLean said, interrupting me, "time to introduce our nighttime challenge. Hide and group seek." That was easy...probably. I couldn't think as straight thanks to the chunks, but I was able enough to go find somewhere to hide. That was when I caught Sugar standing by McLean. Wait...I didn't even get first. I started way before her, thought. There was no way she finished that fast. Ew. "Sugar won immunity so she will be it." Sugar jumped up in a cheer.

"Everyone will be given a head start to go and hide," McLean told us, "and Sugar will come and hunt you down. Each person Sugar finds and tags joins up and looks for the others. You hunt together. No splitting up. Anyone tagged before sunrise will be on the chopping block at elimination. Anyone not tagged by then will also have immunity."

I had to find somewhere good that also didn't stink. That was how hiding worked. I would be fine as long as I didn't pass out before the game ended. Suddenly I heard a horn after some muffled voices. That was annoying. I thought we were already doing a challenge. Why would he do another one right...after the...

I woke up in more or less a daze. "Oh, finally, you're up," I heard a familiar voice say to me. When I opened my eyes, Topher was more or less hovering over me. "Sorry about her," he said, pointing over to Samey, who was leaning against...something. I couldn't make it out quite yet. At least I was able to think straight now though. "She insisted on coming along."

"This cave should be fine for now," Samey said, stumbling around a bit. "But we need to go up higher than the ground in my opinion."

I shook my head. "Why is she here?" I asked from Topher, "she should be alone, without anybody. That was the whole point of eliminating Jasmine."

Topher sighed. "She felt bad after figuring she was the reason you downed about a gallon of thirty-year-old poison." Well, that would explain me passing out. I guess I was still in the challenge, though. Nice of Topher to carry me along.

I began getting up and walk around. "Watch where you step," Samey said groggily, "there's a lot of...um, puke." Yeah, there sure was. "Anyway, we should go in a tree or something. That would be safer."

"I agree with her," Topher said. "We need to get out of here now. They're probably coming."

I had no choice but to agree with them. They were lucky enough to throw up their Juggy Chunks, so at least they had their head on better than I did. We began running around the forest, and eventually, Topher pointed up at a tree. "That's the tallest one I see," he shouted. "That's our chance." We began climbing, and while I thought Topher was going to end up struggling, he was able to stay on pace with Samey and me.

Once we got to a spot, we began to relax. "We should stay quiet," I muttered, "Sugar's too stupid to catch us up here."

"That's good," Topher muttered. "That stuff was disgusting. I bet some people like Sugar got actual food poisoning." He turned to me. "Why on Earth did you drink all that? We thought you were a goner."

I paused. Okay, sure, I wasn't going to try and drink the whole thing. I just didn't want Samey to win. Was that so bad? What was wrong with wanting to be on top? I was so close before, and when it got stolen, I came here and worked my way up. There was nothing wrong with that...right? Wait a minute, he kept saying 'we' the whole time. Samey didn't take him from me, right? "I just wanted to win," I said confidently, "no reason for that to be a problem."

"You were passed out the instant the challenge started!" Samey yelled at me. "You nearly got caught right at the start. You were nowhere near winning!" I didn't want to admit it, but she had a point. I couldn't win if I passed out. But, that didn't matter now. I was still in the game. I had no clue how close we were to sunrise, though. It could have been hours still.

I scoffed at her. "So what was different, then?" I asked her. "Why are you so caring now, when you've left me in the dust in the past?" Samey was taken aback for only a second, she clearly had an answer prepared for that, like she knew I was going to ask it.

"Because I made a mistake!" she shouted back at me. "I should have said something, but I was too nervous about ruining my shot with Trevor or being humiliated. I didn't think about what it would do to you to see such a betrayal, and I never admitted it to you or myself, but I knew what I did was wrong." Was...what? She sighed. "I wanted to fix things. I didn't care about the money, I came back in the game after Chris asked because I wanted to talk to you. I figured since the merge was coming I just had to last one or two challenges to get that chance."

I paused. I wasn't expecting her to admit a mistake. That surprised me. She always defended that decision with her life, telling me how it got me in a better place, or how I would have dug my own hole anyway. I had no clue that she felt bad about that decision the whole time. That had to be why she was always so timid around me. She probably couldn't bring herself to face me because of it. Ugh! What was this feeling? I'm not supposed to feel bad for her! I'm supposed to hate her! She...she took everything away from me.

Right?

"W-well," I stammered, "well I didn't know that!" It was a weak reply, but at least I got words out. I had a clear enough head at this point to realize that the way that stupid chicken was used might have been bogus, but it may have not been wrong. I don't hate Samey the most. It was Melissa's fault. It was always her fault. She couldn't even tell us apart, despite me being by her side for years. Samey purposefully copied my style because she wanted me to feel included.

God, I felt like such an idiot.

"How touching," I heard from somewhere nearby. It was a male voice, but it wasn't Topher's. The three of us looked over and saw Shawn in a tree next to us. "Too bad I'm about to end your game." He looked down below us, where we saw the other contestants. Topher was right, they definitely had food poisoning. Their movements were slowed but they could think still. "Hey, you guys!" Shawn shouted. "There's three of them up there!" The green-looking contestants all began climbing up the tree.

"Oh, man, we're done," Topher said, "there's nowhere to run." The others kept climbing, and we began going higher in the tree to try and keep ourselves safe.

Samey then got a glimpse of light in her eye. "Look!" she shouted, pointing out toward the lake, "the sun! We just need to last a couple more minutes!"

A couple more minutes wasn't going to happen. They were slow, but they'd reach us in time, and Shawn would have immunity with Sugar, putting a giant wrench in my plans. I was planning on getting rid of Shawn too, what a shame. Wait, no Samey. I wanted to get rid of Samey...but not really. She could stay for now.

"I'm on it," Topher said, straightening out his hair. "You guys recruit Max or someone for the vote. We need to drop down and stop them."

My eyes widened. "Wait, you're not going to-" I grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "You don't know what you're doing!"

"And you do?" Topher shot back, "you two are in trouble if you don't win."

...I was okay with that. I had a plan. I always did. I jumped down a branch further than him. "What do you think you're doing?" Topher yelled, "you're asking to get voted off!"

"I'm protecting my sister!" I shouted at him, jumping off the branch I was on and kicking Sugar in the head, who was the highest up in the tree. We fell together, collecting the rest of them as we fell. I landed on top of the pile of them, and it became apparent that I was tagged. Just when that happened, it began raining again, and the sun disappeared. But that was okay, we won. She was okay.

"Game over!" McLean said, "Samey and Shawn have also won immunity!"

"Wait!" I shouted, "what about Topher?"

McLean laughed at me, "oh, Amy, always quick to pick a fight but never to notice your surroundings." I looked around, and noticed Topher on the ground with me. That made a bit more sense on how I was able to knock everyone down. That also meant I didn't let go of him before jumping. Oops. "Now, back to the meeting area," McLean told us, "we need to pump your stomachs." He then took the green looking losers to go get some help.

We didn't have time to meet at all before voting, which meant no one had time to conspire or do anything of that sort we were all at the will of whoever was targeting someone else. McLean came at us, and then pointed to me. "Amy, you're up. Happy merge!"

"It's anything but," I told him, "that stuff was nasty!"

He laughed at me and shrugged it off. "You didn't have to drink all of it," he reminded me. I walked off in the rain to the confessional, and sat down, leaning my head against the wall.

"Alright, so Samey's not a waste of space," I admitted finally. "But I have to vote tonight, and I have a plan that I would really like to stick to." I began writing her name down, and eventually stopped. "No. I need to think about this. Scarlett is the only person I know who is guaranteed to vote for someone. I have to be safe." I wrote Max's name down.

Then, I turned to the camera. "That's a purely strategic decision!" I shouted at the camera. "I'm not getting soft or anything. I saved her once, she owes me! Plus, I couldn't vote for her anyway, which I totally remembered." I got up before the toilet made me confess more things. It really was something else in that space.

When I sat down, McLean pointed to Max, and he got up to go vote too. As I watched everyone go, I had no clue who was going tonight, which really hurt my chances. I was definitely a prime target, but hopefully I could survive just one more challenge. After that, I'd pretty much be unstoppable.

Topher sat down last, which marked the end of the voting. "Sugar, Shawn, and Samey won their immunity, which really limited your options. After the voting, Scarlett and Amy are also safe!" McLean tossed out the five marshmallows to the people he had called out.

"What?" Max shouted, "how could this be?"

"Don't be so shocked Max," McLean said with a laugh, "you've been Scarlett's dead weight the whole time. That's why you keep ending up here." Scarlett chuckled, which meant my assumption was true that she voted for him. I just hoped that the other two chose Max as well. "And, Topher. Such a shame your talent went on trying to usurp me," he said. I let out a gasp. "Oh, don't sound so surprised. Nowhere is really secure on this island." Ugh, that brat. "Good thing you didn't do anything extreme, I had some tricks ready for that phone thing you suggested a while back."

"That was...a good joke!" Topher said nervously with a laugh, "haha?" I was more annoyed that McLean now knew my entire mental dilemma going on. That was not his information! I couldn't wait to make him pay for it.

"I didn't really get the joke," McLean told Topher, "but it seems the others didn't either. You're going home!" Are you kidding me?

I let out a growl. "You people got rid of Topher?" I asked, "what gives?"

"It was him or you," Shawn said, "but I decided since you got rid of Jasmine, I'd get rid of your love interest!" Pfft. Well, I guess I needed to take what I could get. The ruse worked for me. It was a shame he was the one who came up with it, though.

"Keep the ruse up," Topher whispered to me, getting up. "It worked." Huh? Did he intentionally save me? What was the point in that? Wasn't he supposed to topple McLean or something?

Well, I needed to keep it going. "Ugh!" I shouted at them. "I'll get you all back for that!" I sat down and turned away from everyone with a huff. From there, I caught Samey looking at me, interested in what I was doing. I suppose I could let her in on it if she didn't know. Maybe.

Only the two of us walked down to see Topher get shot out. "Any last words from either of you?" McLean asked Samey and me.

"Bye," I said angrily. "You shouldn't have let that happen." What an idiot.

"Um," Samey began, "actually, never mind. You can launch him." What was she going to say? Eh, I didn't care. McLean shrugged, sending Topher away. "You okay?" she asked me, "I know he was um, a big part of your game."

I turned away from her. "I'm fine. I don't care." That was a lie. Topher was the only one who listened to me throughout this game, and the only one who even cared. He didn't even seem that fazed when he got booted. What a crazy kid. Too bad I didn't have his vote anymore. I'd really need to get someone else on my side, and it'd probably have to be Samey.

I turned to my sister, who was staring up at the sky, watching the snow fall.

Wait, hold on-