Chapter 6: Day 3 — By Leaps and Bounds

Vegeta awoke to the dark, but his body said it was time to get up. Confused, he hopped down and walked out of camera view before flying up above the canopy. The sun was half way up in the east.

"Jet lag must be finally wearing off," he thought. "Back at good old 6 a.m." He dropped down, did his morning business, and came back into camp. He had lost a full day, and at some point today, there was going to be that contest, so he didn't have much time. "Let's see what I can get done with no one looking."

On his way to the stream, Vegeta grabbed two branches. He followed the ATV ruts that had been dug into the soil down to the main path. He broke one in half, then made an arrow and walked in the direction of the red beach.

When Vegeta had first walked here, he was watching the stream. There was a place where the stream widened into a relatively slower pool and had more fish than he saw elsewhere.

When he got there, he went to its exit where the stream narrowed again and began gathering large river stones. Vegeta began walling it off.

Vegeta had gotten the third row finished when several ATVs went riding past. One stopped, with a very angry looking woman climbing off the ATV.

"Crap… this was faster than I thought."

"Really, Vegeta? You need to wait for us!" Leticia scolded.

"How was I supposed to know when you would show up?" Vegeta said not looking up from placing the river stones.

"Hold up," the cameraman ordered. "I need to film this."

"The challenge is today. No time."

"Gathering starts at noon," Leticia said. "Hold up. We need to interview you to tell us what you're doing and why then you can start up again."

"Fine…" Vegeta carefully waded to the bank and climbed out.

After about 15 minutes, the crew was ready to film.

"Ok, go!" he said.

Vegeta stood there visibly soaked with his arms crossed. He winced at the bright light in his face.

"Alright, Vegeta. Tell us what you are doing," Leticia said.

"I'm building a fish pond. I noticed a bunch of fish in this specific location. I'm building a wall to corral the fish. Once I get it a few feet tall, I'm going to top it off with bamboo grates. Let the water flow while trapping the fish. I don't want to aggravate any flooding issues at the red beach."

"Why are you doing this?"

Vegeta gave her an are-you-stupid look. "For food?"

"Elaborate, Vegeta."

He sighed. "It's a cow pen, but for fish. Personally, I don't need this shit. But I'm doing prep work for the other players so when I get voted out the first chance people get; they can have an easier time." Vegeta gave a taunting grin and leaned forward, "Unfortunately for you guys, I don't give a fuck about winning, but my wife ordered me to take care of my teammates. So I'm not playing any of your mind games." Vegeta then stood straight and slipped back into the stream.

While lifting rocks, he disturbed a lot of smaller fish and even some tiny lobster things. After watching the animals scramble under other rocks, Vegeta began taking off his blue, long-sleeve turtleneck.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Don't take your shirt off! We can't show your scars on TV!"

Vegeta stopped after slipping it over his head, "Are you fucking serious?"

"You were told that during orientation when everyone got their competition clothes."

Vegeta growled like a large predator before slipping his shirt back on.

"Why were you even taking it off?" the cameraman asked.

"To catch all the little fuckers scattering when I move the rocks!"

"You have a fishing net…" he said returning the are-you-stupid look from before.

"Pom dengu tambor seek!" Vegeta screamed enraged. He got out of the water and stormed off towards his camp.


Vegeta stomped into camp and went over to where the net and stone dagger had been thrown the day before. He dragged out a section of the net. It was single strand plastic with holes about the size of his palm. It was definitely meant for big ocean fish and not the smaller stream ones. If he wanted to use it, he would need to double it up, probably even triple it up, maybe use small sticks to make sure the holes don't overlap.

Vegeta sighed frustrated. He was REALLY starting to hate it here. He just wanted to go home and hit the GR. Even watching TV with Panchy or ignoring Trunks while sleeping in the…

"The hammock…" he whispered.

"What did you say? We didn't catch that," the cameraman said.

Vegeta presses his hand into the netting. It was strong by human standards, but definitely would not be comfortable for laying in.

Vegeta took the entire net and laid it straight. It stretched far past the clearing he had made. He pulled out the net until it hit the first tangled bundle. He knelt down, but it became clear very quickly that this was going to be impossible, or at least take weeks he did not have or care to spend. Vegeta stood up and grabbed his dagger.

"What are you going to do?" the cameraman asked.

"I'm taking the Alexander the Great approach." Vegeta said, getting on his knees. He made a show of raising it high above his head and stabbing it into the knot. But like with the bamboo, he was using his energy by holding it underneath with his left hand. He divided the tangle in two "cuts", one vertical and a second from the side.

It took thirty minutes to finish. Vegeta took the strip he cut out and began to tear it apart. He made strips 2 lines thick, then took three and hooked the first cell on a branch. He then took a stick and a couple feet away slipped it in a cell in the first strip and began to spin.

"What are you doing?" Leticia asked.

"Making string."

"Wait, how the hell do you know how to do this?" she demanded.

Vegeta looked at her and the rest of the crew, "Do you have any idea how many places my wife dragged me to with homes made of mud and the closest thing to plumbing is a bush? I know everything. I've seen everything. You picked the wrong family if you thought we were just spoiled rich brats that think they are dying because of a hangnail." Vegeta turned back and began spinning the next line.

"So, you visiting these places really makes you an expert?" the technician asked, "Monkey see, monkey do?"

Vegeta twitched at the unintentional insult. "No," he said, barely containing his temper, "but it's more than enough to last the next few weeks."

He chuckled. "Ok, hotshot. I dare you to make the largest thing you've ever seen made from bamboo with no metal tools."

Vegeta smirked and looked at him. "Was already planning on it. But ARE you really sure about that? If this show makes it another season, it will REALLY break the game," he taunted. "This won't be some engineering masterpiece like the tree house. ANY future team could do this."

"I'd like to see that," he said.

"Do I have permission from my supreme babysitter?" Vegeta said, turning to Leticia, this time with a huge grin on his face.

She sighed, "What even is it?"

"A three-story house made of bamboo. Saw one being built in Africa."

"You cannot make a three-story house with stone tools and bamboo," the technician said firmly.

"The anthropologist who translated for us would beg to differ."

"If you want to waste time building a three-story house, I'm not going to stop you," Leticia said.

Vegeta smiled, turning back to his cordage, "One Neolithic skyscraper coming up after I finish this."


Meanwhile, on Samundra…

"We got mail!" Jerry shouted, holding up a scroll. He walked up to the group preparing breakfast. He handed off the canteen and Jessica filled the pot to boil the rice. "Here," he tossed it at Bob and it bounced off the side of his head.

"Hey, watch it," Bob said, catching the rebound. "It's too early for that crap."

Jerry looked up at the sun, "It's at least 10, dude…"

Bob grimaced as he moved. "Not like any of us slept well…" he said putting his hand on his lower back.

"Seriously, have a little sympathy in the morning," Vickie said, still on her back.

"Oh, we're practically the same age and I'm perfectly fine," Jerry said, putting his hands on his hips.

"Age has nothing to do with it," Casey said, also putting her hands on her lower back and stretching. "Sand is surprisingly hard…"

Jessica sighed. "I'll try and get better mats started after I finish the clothes…" she said watching the water boil.

"No, there's more important things to work on like a couple more baskets and trying to figure out the stream fishing." Bob said, unrolling the scroll. "Ok, let's see…"

"The SCRAMBLE for food… with scramble in caps… is a terrible thing modern man rarely faces. The CRAWLING IN DESPERATION, also in caps, across SHADOWLESS SAND, caps, is a humorous parody today. The RACE, caps, to feed our families by REACHING HAND OVER FIST AGAINST OTHERS, caps, is fortunately only experienced in the most dire situations of SURVIVAL, caps." He rolled it back up, "and that's it."

"Obstacle course for the food reward it is," Daisuke said. "Tomorrow is the last day of rice."

"Shadowless sand probably means around noon," Jessica said, putting the rice in the water. "That's when a sundial shadow disappears on the equator."

Jerry put his hand over top of his eyes looking at the sun, "So… two-three hours?"

"Ok," Bob ordered, "let's just eat, rest and get the clothes finished."

Jerry saluted, "Yes Sir, Captain Obvious!"

"Insert Trivago joke here," Jamal said.

Casey laughed.


Meanwhile, on Berapi…

The roar of the ATVs stirred everyone at dawn. While everyone else rolled back asleep, Hassim crawled out and headed over to the fire.

"Hey! What did we tell you about touching the fire yesterday!" one of the crewmembers shouted.

"I'm not!" Hassim shouted back. He quickly pulled a ball of coconut fluff and dry palm leaf fragments from his pocket and shoved it in the ashes before anyone noticed. He stood and stretched, then walked towards the crews.

"Waiting on you guys to pray," he waved at them as he cut across and leaned against a tree. Hassim glanced over at the camp. Ichiro's eyes were open watching the crews, waiting on the cameras to pounce on the fire.

Hassim looked over at Sugar Petal. He stood straight, recognizing she was far more soaking wet that she was the night before. He glanced back at the shelter. Michael was still asleep, but he decided to ignore her for now. Hassim couldn't risk escalation from last night. He needed to keep his distance from her.

Hassim clinched his fists realizing that is exactly what Michael wanted. He was isolating her, but without any cameras to film overnight, he was stuck. There would be no proof they planned together to ruin him.

His reputation. His honor. That 150 million zeni fine if kicked off the show. That fine suddenly went from an abstract to feeling like a noose around his neck. To get on the show as his family visitor, his wife had to cosign making her responsible for any civil penalties as well.

Hassim sighed, leaned back against the tree, and turned his head away.

"Michael can have her," he thought. "She's not worth my family."

Suddenly a wave of guilt ripped through him. He tensed every muscle in his body trying to drive it away.

"Are you ok, Hassim?"

Hassim opened his eyes. His vision was blurry from squeezing them shut so hard. His jaw ached, his teeth hurt, and the ringing in his ears almost drowned out the rest of the world.

"Hassim?" asked his field producer.

"Yes. I'm fine," he said, uncrossing his arms. "Let's go."


The last of the western horizon had finally turned bright blue when Sugar Petal woke up to sand being kicked in her face. She raised her hands to try and guard herself while trying to peek through her fingers.

It was Becky.

"About time you woke up bitch! We're out of firewood!" This time instead of kicking sand, she kicked her in the face.

Sugar Petal rolled over screaming. Lisa glanced over, but quickly turned her back.

"Whoops, I missed," Becky said nonchalantly, before winding her leg up and kicking her full force in the butt. "Now get up you lazy bitch!"

Sugar Petal was gripping her face. She pulled her hands away to look. There was no blood on them from her nose. The teeth impressions on the back of her right hand were not bleeding either.

"I said get up, you lazy bitch!" Becky grabbed her hair again and began to drag her towards the water. "Maybe some water to your face will wake you up."

"I'm awake! I'm awake!" she screamed over and over again.

"Not even close," she said, grabbing the other pigtail at the base.

Becky struggled somewhat getting Sugar Petal's 80-odd pounds into the water, but after stomping hard on her hands when they managed to dig into the sand, she stopped fighting and just screamed for help. She quickly got her into the water after that, but instead of pressing her face down, she dunked her face up repeatedly with her knee on her stomach holding her in place in the shallow water.


"You hear that?" Sam asked.

He, Michael, Hassim and Ichiro had just arrived at the water well.

"I don't hear anything," Michael said. He glared at Hassim.

"I didn't hear anything either," Hassim said as well.

"Let's just focus on the water, please," Ichiro said, lifting the wooden lid off the well, "So we don't drop this."

"Right," Sam said.

The two grabbed the handle, lifted the heavy pot out of the wooden well and set it on the ground.

"Whoops, looks like we got mail as well," Michael said as he hopped over. He took out the scroll and unrolled it.

"Seems we got a challenge today." He paused before reading it out loud.

"The scramble for food is a terrible thing modern man rarely faces. The crawling in desperation across shadowless sand is a humorous parody today. The race to feed our families by reaching hand over fist against others is fortunately only experienced in the most dire situations of survival."

Michael rolled it up and handed it to Ichiro, "Here, see for yourself."

Ichiro took it, unrolled it, and read it. "Sounds like an obstacle course to me for more rice."

"Let me see," Sam said.

Ichiro handed it to him unrolled.

"That's what it looks like to me too," Sam said. He offered it to Hassim.

"No, I'm good," he answered. "Let's get the water back to camp."

Michael glared at him.


The group came onto the beach. Sam and Ichiro were struggling to carry the water bucket when Sam saw something pink in the corner of his eye. He stopped and turned, yanking on the handle.

"Sam!" Ichiro shouted.

"Sorry!"

The group arrived at camp.

"Down," Ichiro ordered.

The two set it down.

"What the hell is with the water today?" he said, lifting the lid. His face dropped. "There's bricks in here…"

"You're kidding?" Michael leaned over. "No shit…" he stood up. "Well… guess we get free bricks." He took a deep breath and held it. "Ok… I got nothing," he sighed. "Anyone have any idea what we can do with four bricks?"

"Weeeeell," Lisa crossed her arms, "The first thing we COULD do is get the bricks out before it turns our water into mud."

Ichiro reached in and took out the bricks.

"Where is Sugar Petal?" Sam said, looking around. Was that her I sa— What happened to the big pile of wood?!" He turned around, "It's not on the fire."

Becky sputtered and waved dismissively. "Oh don't worry about that," she laughed. "I got rid of it to mess with her! She ran into the woods crying. It was hilarious!"

"Becky! That wasn't nice stashing it back in the woods."

"Why would I make things easy on her like that? I threw it in the ocean!"

"Becky, we have a challenge today! We can't have her exhausted before the race! The note said it's going to be an obstacle course of some kind."

"I'll go grab her," Michael sighed frustrated. He began to walk off.

"Wait a moment," Lisa said catching up with him. She slipped her hand through his crossed arms and locked elbows. "I owe her an apology for going back to sleep and not watching Becky."

Becky pointed at her, "Hey! Don't throw me under the bus here! It was your idea to gaslight her instead of—"

"Alright that's enough!" Michael removed his arm from Lisa. "I am disgusted by the both of you," he sneered before stomping off.

Lisa glared at her, "You didn't have to do that! We're all in on the plan to force her to overwork herself."

"Oh… yeah…" she said remembering. Becky stiffened and pointed again. "But you were totally going to throw me under the bus!"

"I WAS going to warn Michael we said there never was any wood to begin with," Lisa said through gritted teeth.

"You girls are awful!" Sam shouted. "Delilahs and Jezebels! Both of you!" he threw his hands in the air and turned to walk after Michael.

"Don't," Ichiro gripped his arm, "Even think about it."

"Owe! Watch it, that's going to bruise."

"Sugar Petal is Michael's responsibility and his responsibility alone," Ichiro said clinching harder. "Don't mess this up."


Michael searched for a while and eventually stumbled upon the stream. He was at the hook in the stream and saw how the water had scored a deep gash in the earth coming off the waterfall to his left. The bank was wet and he saw the groundwater pooling into mosquito ponds. He clenched his fists.

"God damn him… so this is what the little troll was worried about…"

He then relaxed and closed his eyes. "But it's the dry season. Even if there's some quick thunderstorms, it's not going to jump the banks."

Michael laughed.

"What's so funny?" his field producer asked.

Michael gestured to the stream. "This," he chuckled, "If this is all Vegeta was worried about, then he's a bigger idiot than I thought."

Michael then moved on.

Sugar Petal peaked out from behind a fallen tree. She sighed and ducked back down. "Thank you", she said softly.

"This is what we're paid for," the cameraman said, getting up from his stomach to his knees. The crew gets to their feet. The cameraman balances the camera on his shoulder, "Ok, get up."

Sugar Petal stood up, holding two soda cans that had their tops crushed open in her hands.

"Where did you find those?" her producer asked surprised.

"In the ocean last night," she said softly. "You didn't clean very well. There is still trash if you look."

"So these washed up last night?"

"No, in the reef past the sandbanks. They sparkled in the moonlight."

"Wait… You opened your eyes, in the salt water?" her producer said shocked. "Didn't that hurt?"

"I've felt worse," she said looking behind her, "Is up there ok?"

The producer pulled out his phone. "Just barely," he said. "The boundary isn't very far past the waterfall."

She nodded.

Sugar Petal circled the last of the swampy ground and headed to the gully carved by the waterfall. Here she found a natural staircase caused by the roots of the trees growing out of the steep hillside and walked up without difficulty. She followed the stream to a slow pond area behind the waterfall. The proximity alarm began to go off.

"Don't go any further," he ordered. "We're near the end of the game zone."

She nodded, then placed the cans in the water before walking back the way they came.


Michael was backtracking when he finally spotted Sugar Petal dragging a large branch through the woods. It was a good six inches thick and its offshoots and sticks were pulling the ground debris with it.

"Sugar Petal!" he shouted. "There you are!"

Sugar Petal looked at him and he winced. She was newly bruised and a bit swollen.

"What the hell happened to your face?!" he said, running up.

"Becky's foot," she said as he arrived.

"I see," he said, clenching his fists. "What happened?"

"She kicked me in the face to wake me up," she answered. She started crying, "Then she dragged me into the water and kept forcing my head under! She's so fat I couldn't get from under her!" she dropped the log and clasped her hands over her chest. "Lisa said it was my fault for forgetting the wood. But there was a big pile last night! You saw it! You made me bring it!"

Michael crossed his arms, "I never said those things. And we had barely enough wood to get the fire up this morning. Maybe you're confusing it the first night?" he ran the back of his two fingers down the side of her bruise under her chin. "Now did Becky really hold you underwater? Or was that a nightmare?" he lifted her chin. He smiled down at her, "You're also at least 80 pounds, I just can't see a fat lazy blob like Becky being able to lift you."

"Yes," she whimpered. "It was real."

"Like the missing wood was real? You did say Lisa was there the whole time, wouldn't she had saved you if Becky really dragged you into the water?" he let go of her chin and patted her head. "I have no doubt Becky kicked you in the face, but I think that hit your head harder than you think." He then picked up the branch, "The tree mail today makes it sound like there will be an obstacle course today. Let's just rest until they take us."

He picked up the branch, "I got this. You need to lie down if you can't tell the difference between a dream and reality."


The two came out of the trees, Michael dragging the large branch and Sugar Petal carrying smaller sticks she grabbed on the way.

They spot everyone sitting around the fire as Lisa hands out the rice.

"This is so ridiculous," Becky said, stuffing her face. "All she does is smile and nod. I bet she would even smile if we pushed her in the fire."

"Becky, that's completely inappropriate," Hassim said.

"Seriously, Becky. That's not funny," Sam agreed.

Becky looked at Sam and pointed at Hassim. "Why are you agreeing with the rag head."

"Well you reek so horrible you could really use a rag on your head too!"

Becky's jaw hung open as Hassim leaned over slightly as he sputtered like a trumpet. He bit his lip trying not to laugh.

Hassim held up his palm to Sam.

Sam looked at it.

"High five," Hassim said.

Sam's eye's dart back and forth.

Ichiro raised his hand, "I'll take that high five."

Hassim claps his hand and Ichiro joins him in suppressed chuckling.

Michael turned his head briefly hearing Sugar Petal giggle behind him. He turned back around.

"Hey! Save some for me!" Michael shouted.

Everyone looked as Michael finished walking over and tossed the branch down. Sugar Petal dropped her sticks next to the larger branch.

"Sugar Petal! What the hell?!" Sam shouted. "What happened?"

"Becky decided to wake her up with her foot," Michael said angrily.

"What?!" Sam shouted. Hassim and Ichiro also said it, but not at the top of their lungs.

"I turned around to the scream," Lisa said. "Nothing I could do. She had already kicked her."

"Sugar Petal," Michael said sternly, "Will not be working the rest of the morning." He sat down and held his hand out.

Lisa handed him his bowl.

"Hassim, have you eaten yours yet?" Michael asked, watching Lisa's and Becky's faces intently. "If not, let's switch."

"Already switched with Ichiro," Hassim said. "But thank you."

Becky started cackling, "I heard you two whispering about switching when the crews came. So I pissed in Ichiro's bowl instead!"

"What?!" Michael, Sam and Ichiro shouted.

Hassim threw his bowl at Becky's feet, "Oh come on!" He stood and stomped off.

"Lisa!" Michael shouted.

"I was with the bowls all morning!"

"Oh I did it in the shelter," she said, gripping her sides.

"Where did you dump it?!" Michael shouted.

She waved dismissively, "I dug a deep hole under the mats. Don't worry. Not like none of you smelled it while you were all sleeping."

"Alright!" Michael stood. "From now on all bowls are randomized. No possession!" He ran after Hassim.

Becky suddenly turned off the laughter like a switch. "So Sugar Piss," she said with a sickly sweet voice. "Why don't you sing for us? Since Michael won't let you work, we can't have you being dead weight."

"You mean like you?" Lisa sneered.

"Lisa?! What the fuck?! You're supposed to be on my side!"

"You kicked her in the face! How am I supposed to defend that!"

Sugar Petal tilted her head and smiled. "I can sing. What would you like?"

Becky pointed at her. "Anything NOT from whatever decade that other song was from," she said with venom.

Sugar Petal stood there smiling for a while, looking unblinkingly at Becky.

"How about the Rolling Stones?"

Becky's face twisted in confusion, "They sound… vaguely familiar…"

"Seriously Becky?" Sam said. "They and the Beatles are like… the entire 60s." He looked up, "You like old American music?"

She nodded. "My Grandmother would always sing it. She said American music was life, like the air. You would die without it."

Sam smiled, "Is she who you learned English from?"

"Oh no," she shook her head, "She never learned English. She just sang."

"Oh…" Sam said.

Becky started to laugh, "Now that's just stupid!"

"No it's not," Sam said firmly. "Don't you ever listen to Spanish music?"

"Of course not," Becky said.

"Then what do you listen to?"

"Latin."

Sam's face dropped, "As in Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico?"

"Yeah Latin," she said arrogantly, looking at him like he was stupid.

Sam turned to Sugar Petal, "Please… sing."


Michael finds Hassim with his face buried in a tree trunk. His arms hiding the sides of his face.

"Hassim?"

He was gasping and shivering.

"Hassim? I know it's too late, but I've ordered that no one owns anything anymore. That way Becky can't do this again." Michael walked over and touched his shoulder. "Hassim? Talk to me?"

"Get her out…" Hassim said.

"What did you say?" he asked.

"Get her out," Hassim said again. "I'll be your fourth vote, just… please…"

"You mean vote her out first?" Michael said.

"Yeah…"

"I'll talk to—"

Suddenly they heard Becky scream in rage. They turned and saw her lunging at Sugar Petal.

When they got there, Ichiro had Becky pinned to the ground with Sam standing in front of Sugar Petal with his arm outstretched behind him. Lisa was standing in between glancing between the two groups.

"What happened this time?!"

"She was making fun of me again!" Becky shouted foaming at the mouth.

Michael looked towards Sam and Sugar Petal. "What did you do now?" he asked exasperated.

"Becky asked me to sing," she answered. "So I sang a song from the Rolling Stones with her approval."

"A song with the chorus of 'Get off my cloud.' after what happened yesterday," Lisa said, also exasperated.

Michael crossed his arms, "As much as I enjoy a little passive aggressive sass from a woman, please don't antagonize Becky."

He moved in next to Lisa and looked at Ichiro, "Let her up."

Ichiro got off of Becky. She stood fuming.

"Becky," Michael ordered, "With me. Lisa too."

Michael walked out of camp. Lisa grabbed Becky's arm and followed. After he was sure he was out of earshot, he turned around. "Ok, first," he pointed at Becky, "NEVER go after Hassim again. This isn't funny. And second. Becky, did you really carry Sugar Petal into the water this morning?"

Becky put her hands on her hips, "Of course not. You really think I could drag that ass into the water?" She slapped Lisa's arm, "Back me up here."

Lisa ran her thumb to tuck loose hair behind her left ear. "The only screaming I heard was when she kicked her in the face and stomped on her hand before I could get over there."

Michael sighed. "That's what I thought…" He clapped his hands once, "Ok. Sugar Petal is still convinced that happened. Lisa, you really need to crack down on that not happening and she's probably confused from a dream because Becky kicked her in the head."

Lisa nodded, "Of course."

He looked back at Becky. "Becky. You are destabilizing this alliance. Hassim was begging to vote you off, and with Sam and Sugar Petal, all they need is to talk with Vegeta for just a few seconds and you and him are in a fire making duel for elimination at our first Final Fire."

She put her hands on her hips and leaned in. "If Sugar Petal even makes it that far," she said smugly.

"Look!" Michael shouted. "Go finish off your sunburn and stay away from Hassim from now on, got it?! We'll talk more tonight!"

Becky sauntered off, trying to look sexy with each step.

Lisa looked at Michael, "Do you really—"

Michael put his hand up. "Ah buh buh buh. Shush. Shush. We will talk tonight. Let's just survive today."


Meanwhile, later with Samundra…

Jessica finished tying the final knots on a shirt, "Ok everyone! Let's get dressed and show everyone how Samundra rocks The Last Survivor!"

Everyone grabbed their hats as Jamal, Daisuke and now the shirtless Jerry lined up and Jessica got to work. First, she tied the skirts she made for Jamal and Daisuke. While mostly woven palm leaf ropes, there were small woven panels along the sides of the legs. The shirts themselves were three panels tied together with cords also made from palm leaves, the back and two front pieces. Jessica tied the sides together to make a custom fit before tying them up in the front. Then she tied the sleeves on, a woven panel and more cords like the skirts.

Once Jamal was finished, he began moving side to side and spinning. "Oh boy. This is great. Just like the old shoulder pads."

"I was going to say Samurai armor," Daisuke said as Jessica tied his sleeves on.

"I was going to say the Roman legion," Jerry said, "But you're right. Samurai are cooler." Then he smiled, "Hey Daisuke? What is a group of Samurai called? You know, like a legion?"

"I honestly don't know. I teach karate, not bushido."

Jerry's face dropped in disappointment, "Well… so much for my cool battle cry idea."

Bob put his hand on Jerry's shoulder. "We'll think of a unit cry for the next challenge."

"Boats are coming in!" Nick said pointing out at the ocean.


The boats pulled in at the edge of the Berapi's reef.

"Ok everyone, head to the boats," the team's lead field producer ordered.

As the group began to walk over, they noticed someone was missing.

"Where's Sugar Petal?" Michael said, looking around.

"We'll get her," the lead said, "Just get in the boats." He got his radio out. "Red 7, the boats have arrived. Please escort Sugar Petal to the beach."

In the trees, Sugar Petal is doing a handstand.

*fuzz* … the boats have arrived. Please escort Sugar Petal to the beach. *fuzz*

Her field producer took his radio out. "We'll be right there."

He put it back on his belt, "Ok, Sugar Petal. You can stop stretching. It's time to go."

Sugar Petal stood straight. "Ok," she said chipperly.


*fuzz* Red 9. Come in. Over. *fuzz* Leticia, you there? *fuzz*

Leticia took her radio out. "This is Leticia. Over."

*fuzz* Red team has been transported to the game beach. It's time to take Vegeta to the challenge. Second boat is waiting. *fuzz*

"Fucking shit!" Vegeta turned around from drilling a hole in a piece of bamboo.

Tired of the tangle he was making behind him, he had stopped to make an ad hoc peg loom. After a lot of screaming, the crew had stopped pressing him about where he saw this from and accepted that he thought this solution up himself. After all, he did say he copied the bow drill he made.

"Is it noon already?"

"Yes, it's time to leave," Leticia said, putting her radio away.

Vegeta growled and turned back to the bamboo and began spinning the bow drill so quickly the bamboo started to smoke.

*Snap*

The staff broke, but not before it broke through the bottom. He pulled it out and looked at the tip. The stone shard was busted, but he did expect a one-time use. Vegeta took the small stick beside him and pushed it into the hole before standing and walking to the two Y-branches in the dirt.

He placed it across then took the 3 strings he had begun and hooked the beginning back around the starting branch before winding each of the ends he was working on around one of the ten pegs.

Vegeta looked over his work, mentally mapping out what his next steps were. "Ok," he sighed. "Let's get the fuck out of here."


Samundra arrived on the game beach and immediately saw an obstacle course extending far out into the water on floating platforms.

"Well, this looks fun…" Nick deadpanned.

"There's climbing ropes with bells at the top," Bob said. "I hope those numbers on the equipment mean this is a relay and not each of us doing the whole thing."

Casey heard panting and turned to see Vickie starting to hyperventilate. She walked over and put her hand on her shoulder. "Hey… Hey, everything is going to be alright. Breath. Just Breath."

This caught everyone's attention and they turned to her.

"Take a deep breath," Casey continued. "Come on. Take a deep breath. Hold it… Now let it out. Good. Now again, Deep breath…"

Seeing Casey had Vickie covered, the other teammates turned their gazes elsewhere.

"Look," Jamal pointed. "Here comes the red team… what are they called again?"

"Berapi," Jessica answered.

The red team disembarked, with Sam and Hassim supporting Sugar Petal out of the boat.

"Oh, god." Bob said, "What happened to her face?"

"It almost looked like she got punched," Daisuke said.

"She's in rough shape," Jamal said. "Her turn will be a good time to gain time against them."

"Where's that other guy with the spiky hair?" Jerry said, "I… I want to say Vegetable but I know that's not it."

"It's Vegeta," Bob said. "And here he comes on a different boat."

They watched Vegeta get off the boat. He and the other red team members glared at each other. Becky gave him the middle finger. Vegeta returned in kind with both hands and walked away to find his own spot on the beach. He sat down next to the separation rope.

"I'm going to go talk to him," Bob said.

He walked over to the rope. "Hello Vegeta, how are you?"

"Fine," Vegeta said staring ahead, "Mostly busy building my own camp."

"You have your own camp? As in separate from the rest of your team?"

"Hey, stop talking," a staff member came over, "Break it up you two."

"Ok. Ok." Bob said backing up, "I'm gone."

Bob returned to the group.

"So?" Daisuke asked.

"Vegeta has made his own camp separate from the others. That's all I got before we were separated."

"Really?" Jerry said. "That's basically suicide in this game."

Jessica watched the other team. "Something is very wrong with that team," she said, taking a step back on her heel. "Their energy is all wrong," she said, putting her arm defensively over her chest. "Dark. Twisted. Suffering."

"As if the middle fingers exchanged didn't hint that off," Vickie said, still having breathing problems.

"The chubby woman with the sunburn. She hit Sugar Petal. That's her bruise."

"Stop with the psychic stuff," Bob said. "Now's not the time for accusations like that."

Everyone then noticed how the camera crews were hurrying into position. And the camera drone pilot landed his large, six-bladed behemoth.

Suddenly a helicopter flew over the course. The downdraft kicking up the sand and waves.

A man descended on a rope.

"That's not Bobby," Bob said.

The man, a Caucasian man with reddish blond hair, was dropped down onto a platform at the beginning of the course. He took his foot out of the stirrup and unhooked his harness. The helicopter retracted the rope and flew off.

Once the wind and noise had died down, the drone pilot launched his drone again.

After everything was in position, the man spoke.

"Everyone! Come over to the stage!"

Both teams walked forward. Vegeta stood back and crossed his arms.

"Everyone! I am Conner O'Malley. I'm normally the host of Britain's The Last Survivor. I will be taking over for Bobby as host for the rest of the show."

"What happened to Bobby?" Bob shouted.

"A situation arose and he needed to return to the western sector, I cannot say any more than that. But know that he and his family are well and that was not the iss…ue…" He craned his neck. "Vegeta Brief? That you?"

"Do I know you?" Vegeta called out.

"You accompanied your wife Bulma to a couple charity events last year, right?"

"I have made every effort to expunge those disasters from my memory. So I don't know who the fucking hell you are. And I don't give a fucking crap either."

Connor awkwardly smiled putting his hands on his hips. "Yeah… you're definitely Bulma's husband." The then clapped his hands. "Alright everyone! Blue team! You look awesome. Those outfits are the most survivory thing I've seen in my decade on this show."

The Blue team cheered, clapped and hooted.

Conner put his fist in the air, "Huzzah! That's the spirit!" He then turned to the red team and became visibly subdued. "Red team. I've heard you've had a harrowing few days. You must be Sugar Petal there in the anime school uniform.

Sugar Petal did a spin and then formed a heart with her hands next to her face. "Yep! That's me."

"I was told you and Becky had some sort of altercation this morning. How are you feeling?"

The blue team all jerked their heads to look at the red team before glancing at Jessica.

"Nothing is the matter," Sugar Petal gave a quick bow, "Everything is perfect."

Conner nodded, "I'm glad you are in high spirits despite everything." He looked at Michael, "And you must be Michael. I recognize you from your time on Lover's Oasis. I'm told Vegeta has built a separate camp after a disagreement with you."

"He tried to kill me!" he pointed back at Vegeta standing by himself.

"I only pinned you," Vegeta said, raising his voice, but not fully shouting. "You're only pissed you waisted money on an incompetent defense trainer." He then smirked, uncrossed his arms and held them up in a shrug. "Not that anyone could do anything against me. I'd put them down the same as you." He recrossed his arms.

Michael's face turned bright red.

Conner put his hands up, "Alright! Alright! We're here to compete, not to fight.

Vegeta turned back to the stage. Michael was slow to turn back to Conner, looking over his shoulder until the last moment.

Conner raised his arms in the air. "Welcome to today's challenge! An obstacle course relay race. Everyone, step up to your team's color bags one at a time and pull out your ball and call out your number. Blue team, get in line and draw your numbers!"

The team got in line. Bob drew first. "Two!"

Jamal was next, "Eight!"

Vickie, "Six!"

Casey, "Three!"

Daisuke, "One!"

Jerry walked up, pulled his ball, but instead of holding it up, wound up and pantomimed a golf swing. "Four!" He laughed as he jogged over to the others to the side.

Nick, "Seven."

Jessica finished the line, "Five."

"Alright!" Conner called out. "Red team! Come on up!"

Everyone lined up, except for Vegeta who stayed back.

Michael drew first, "Five."

Lisa, "Two."

Becky, "One."

Sam, "Seven."

Sugar Petal drew next. She did a spin, raised her hand in a victory sign while holding the ball. "Eight!"

The red team all groaned. "She's climbing the rope?" "Shit…" were audible among the murmurs.

Hassim came up next, "Three!"

Ichiro, "Four!"

Everyone looked at Vegeta. He casually walked up to the bag and drew the final ball. "Six," he said without lifting it up, but instead tossed it over his shoulder. He walked back to where he was.

A helicopter drone dropped down to the back left of Conner.

"And now, let's look at today's challenge!" Conner said, turning for the front cameras to the drone. The drone then rose and gave a wide shot of the course.

"Today's challenge is a full football field length obstacle course over the water! And I have been informed this is American football and not the proper football.

"Boo!" Jamal could be heard in the background.

"The first leg is a giant rope tangle. If any part of your body touches the water, you have to swim back and start again!

"Next stage is two consecutive eight-foot rock walls, with an added twist! Divers!"

Four people grabbed and pulled at each corner of the platforms and began rocking them in all directions.

"You will be climbing a bucking bronco. Once you climb a wall you will slide down the other side then must jump across to the next. Again, do not touch the water or you will be forced to start again.

"The third stage is, after climbing a platform, leaping across four red spinning balls." The four red padded balls about 5 feet above the water began to spin.

"After jumping down and tagging their teammate, the next stage is a stick climb. Each player will have two hand sticks and two peg boots. Put the sticks into the holes and climb up the incline.

"Stage five is a metal zip line! Players will take the wheel, place it on the wire and hold onto the handles for dear life. Now every three feet is a knob to try and knock you off. If you fall in the water, you need to start again. If you lose the wheel in the water, you will need to dive down and find it. You will not be helped or given another.

"And the next leg will be the only time you will be allowed to touch the water, because you will be swimming.

"The second to last is a balance beam." Suddenly two, three-legged wheels began to rotate. "While dodging the rotating bars trying to sweep you off!

"The final leg has two parts. One! Getting across the greased monkey bars. Two! Use the trampoline to reach the final rope to ring the bell! If you fall off the bars you start again. If you fall off the rope, you only need to reclimb the rope!"

Conner turned back to the beach. "Players! Head to the boats to get in place and we can begin!"

Vegeta stayed behind.

"Vegeta, head to the boat," Conner said.

"I'll wait for the second trip!" he called out.

Soon the players were in place, and Vegeta was brought out to his section.

The first thing he noticed was Vickie hyperventilating.

"Woman, this pad is far too narrow to feint on. Pull it together. Focus on the other side. One minute and you're done. The faster the better."

"Ready?! "Go!" They heard Conner shout. Then an air horn sounded.

Vickie screamed and jumped.

Vegeta rolled his eyes.

Becky and Daisuke ran up the steps and climbed into the ropes.

"And Becky and Daisuke are off like a shot," Conner spectated. "Seems Daisuke is climbing high into the ropes while Becky is staying low near the bottom."

Daisuke reached the top, only to discover a clear plastic net.

"And Daisuke has run into the plastic mesh. There is no going over the top."

Daisuke changed direction but continued to stay high in the ropes.

Becky grabbed a rope, but the rope was not tight. It slacked sharply and Becky shouted as she fell.

"And Becky's foot has touched the water! She needs to swim back and start again!"

"What?! This isn't my fault! You're stupid thing isn't built right! This could have killed me!"

"BECKY SHUT UP AND GET BACK THERE IF YOU WANT FOOD!" Michael screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Becky, just do it! Please!" Lisa shouted.

Becky cursed everyone and their unborn child's pet goldfish as she dropped into the chest deep water and stomped back to the steps.

"And that is going to be beeped for broadcast," Conner commented.

Daisuke grabbed his own loose rope and became tangled upside down.

"And Daisuke is left dangling just about the water! A few more inches and there would be diver intervention." Conner looked to the side as someone called him over to the edge. "What do you mean there would be no intervention? So what, you'd let him drown?"

The man shrugged.

Conner stood back up.

"And Daisuke has now touched the water trying to free himself. He will need to head back once he's free."

Becky's foot slipped on another loose rope. She plunged butt first into the water. She screamed.

"And Becky is fuming as she lands in the water… And Daisuke is finally free as he joins Becky in the race to the stairs!"

Becky and Daisuke reentered the ropes.

"Seems once bitten, twice shy. Both Becky and Daisuke are tugging on the ropes before committing their weight to it."

After several minutes of struggle, Daisuke made it out first.

"And Daisuke tags Bob as Becky is still halfway through the ropes."

"Hurry up Becky!" Lisa shouted.

Bob leaped to the first bucking platform. He grabbed the first holds and instantly recoiled. Bob fell backwards into the water.

"By the way, the handholds are greased!" Conner called out.

Becky finally made it through.

"And Lisa is off like a shot. And she is not hesitating as the Vaseline oozes all over her hands and feet. Oops, Lisa is down but not in the water as she tries to regain her footholds… And Bob is back and climbing the first wall!"

Bob and Lisa made it to the top.

"And a huge buck sends Bob sideways into the water while Lisa barely stays dry! She is off to the second wall!"

While Lisa was topping the second wall, a large buck caught her in the butt and sent her flying.

"And Lisa is sent flying as Bob makes it to the second wall! But there goes Bob," Conner said disappointed, "Now they are both back at the beginning."

"Come on Bob!" Casey shouted.

"Lisa, hurry up!" Michael shouted.

"Neither of them are flinching as they round the first wall and attack the second! … And they are over the top! And there goes Casey and Hassi— And they both bound across the first try and there goes Jerry and Ichiro!"

Jerry and Ichiro slipped on the boots and wrapped the Velcro around before grabbing the sticks.

"They have hit the incline at the same time... Seems they are both struggling with the footholds…"

Both men looked underneath them and focused on inserting the pegs into the holes.

"Looks like slow and steady wins the race. No one will be making up time on this leg."

"You're going pretty slow for someone who constantly handles his wood," Jerry said.

"I'm a pitcher," Ichiro said, ignoring the banter.

"Woosh," Jerry said.

"And Jerry has a slight lead as they near the top!"

Jerry got over the platform, placed his right foot down and tagged Jessica.

"And Jessica is tagged first! She picks up the wheel and heads to the wir— And here comes Michael!"

Jessica shoved the handle of the wheel down her front as she jumped up putting both hands on the wire.

"It looks like Jessica is wrapping her legs around the wire!"

Michael was about to slide down when he heard Conner and looked over at Jessica.

"It seems Michael is now changing tactics and is clamping the handle in his teeth as he throws his legs over as well!"

Jessica and Michael begin sliding down, slowly.

"Safety first comes to mind as both Jessica and Michael gingerly make their way across the first bump. It's clear both have traded not falling in the water for speed!"

Vegeta watched the two make their way down. The blue team's woman was a few moments ahead.

"And Vicki is off first!"

Vegeta watched how Vickie jumped in by sitting and slipping off gently in the water. Michael grabbed his hand and Vegeta copied the motion.

"And Vegeta has joined Vicki in the water, they are neck and neck!"

Vegeta swam slowly, constantly keeping an eye on her. About half way across, he lost sight of her for several strokes. He stopped and looked behind him.

Vickie was floundering in the water struggling to keep her head up.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" Michael shouted. "Keep going!"

Vegeta ignored him and kept watching.

"Seems Vegeta is more worried about Vickie than giving his team the lead," Conner said.

"If you're worried, at least tag me then go back to her!" Sam shouted.

Vegeta continued to ignore them as the chorus grew and became louder.

"And Vegeta continues to ignore his team's pleading for him to continue," Conner commented.

Vickie finally lost her struggle at the surface and Vegeta dove. He discovered the divide wasn't just a rope but a net that was weighted to the bottom. He sliced through it with his ki blade and grabbed Vickie.

She gasped as they broke the surface. Even with one hand and a flailing 100 plus pound weight, Vegeta suddenly became an Olympic swimmer and reached the other side in a few moments. He pushed her onto the next platform and Nick took off after she was safely on.

"And there goes Nick off like a shot," Conner said.

Vegeta then reached over the rope and tagged Sam.

"And there goes Sam!"

"You just fucking cost us the chance to take the lead!" Michael shouted.

"My contract says I can't finish before my opponent or I get kicked off!" Vegeta shouted at the top of his lungs. "So fuck off!"

"Oh… Vegeta's revealing some of the metagame here. I don't know if that's true or not." Conner leaned over and put his hand over his microphone. "Is that true?" he asked a camera crew at the first obstacle. Conner stood straight. "I was just told that it's true. Vegeta is deliberately being held back by the producers for some reas— And Nick and Sam are in the water! Wait, Nick is in the water while Sam is clinging to the rod being spun around!"

"Sam get off of there!" Michael shouted.

"No! Don't!" Sugar Petal shouted. "Crawl to the end then grab the beam then!"

"Nick is on his second attempt, and into the water again for Nick!" Conner called out.

"Ok, I'll try," Sam said. He began inching forward.

"And Nick cartwheels into the water after a second impact to the head. Is… is he ok? He's just floating on his back."

"Nick!" Jamal shouted. "Come on Nick!"

"Nick starts to move, slowly pawing his way to the ladder… And Sam is still clinging to the spinning rods. He's almost to the end!"

"Ok… Ok, Sam you can do this…" he muttered. "One… Two… Three!" Sam dropped his left arm and leg and they impacted the beam dragging him off. He quickly clung tight as the rest of his body came crashing down.

"And Sam is back on the beam! Oh… Padded or not that's got to hurt as he's pummeled by the rods. And Nick is climbing the ladder!"

"Sam! Hurry!" Sugar Petal she leaned forward keeping her feet behind the line.

Sam quickly crawled out of the way of the rods.

"And Sam is clear of the rods! And is rushing towards the platform… Oh Nick is psyching himself up for another run… Sam is climbing on the platform! And there goes Nick!"

Sam and Nick both slapped their teammates hands at the same time.

"And the red and blue teams are tied again as Jamal and Sugar Petal hit the greased monkey bars. Jamal has an early— Sugar Petal has climbed on top and is running across a side beam!"

"What?!" Jamal said, jerking his head to look. He slipped and fell in the water.

"And Jamal has fallen. He needs to start again!"

Vegeta was out of the water and got as much of a side view as he could. Sugar Petal had determination in her face as she leaned forward and raised her arms in front of her.

"And Sugar Petal has leapt from the top and is twisting in the air like a gymnast! She crossed the entire platform and landed perfectly on the trampoline. She's managed to grab the rope half way up and is quickly climbing despite it swinging uncontrollably.

"And here comes Jamal! Trying to make up time!"

Sugar Petal reaches the top and wildly starts ringing the bell.

"And Sugar Petal is first to the bell! And Jamal hasn't given up… And Jamal rings the bell!"

"There's no way that's fucking allowed!" Jamal bellowed from the top. "Berapi needs to be disqualified!"

"Rules only said we needed to cross, not how," Sugar Petal said to him. "You're just mad you didn't think of it."

"All right, everyone," Conner shouted with both hands flanking his mouth, "Come back to the beach."

Sugar Petal climbed down and hopped in the arriving boat. It picked up Sam next.

"Are you a gymnast too, Sugar Petal?" Sam asked. "That was a perfect dismount."

"Very little," she said softly.

The boat did not stop for Vegeta and went to pick up Michael instead. He watched her sway beyond what the boat was causing the others as they continued up the line. After dropping everyone off, it came back for him.

It was pandemonium on the beach when he arrived.

The Samundra men were agitated at the staff with Jamal beginning to shout. The women were surrounding Vickie who was sprawled in the sand but was not receiving any medical attention.

Berapi was no better.

Becky was probably spitting in Sugar Petal's face, she was so close. Sam was trying to get in between them which started a short tussle with Ichiro as he easily overpowered Sam and pulled him away as Lisa and Michael moved in to join the tirade. It reminded Vegeta of a school of sharks coming in to devour the lure bait. Hassim was off to the side like a tourist in a cage. He looked extremely concerned but was not moving.

Sugar Petal stood there, unflinching to the abuse. But that could easily be from her glazed over eyes.

"She's going down any second," Vegeta thought as he walked past the mayhem to his spot.

Conner suddenly came up from under the stage and raised an air horn.

"Everyone! Just calm down! We will sort this out!" he shouted after everyone began recovering from the painful blast.

"Ok! Producer's Huddle!" Conner yelled as he jumped from the stage. He jogged up the beach and joined six other people around a cooler in the tree line.

"So what do you want to do about what Sugar did?" Conner asked.

"You're the producer now," one said, "It's your call."

"I'm just the host," Connor said. "I'm not in charge of anything."

"Seriously?" two others say at once.

"Do we call Reynolds?" a fourth said, panicking.

"This will probably cost me my job," the fifth said, "But rats from a sinking ship. Nothing in the rules say how you cross the bars. So running along the top is just as valid as hanging underneath. And what she did was just plain epic."

"Call Reynolds. Call Reynolds. Call Reynolds," the fourth kept repeating. She was trembling like a maraca.

"Fine… Fine…" the fifth said, pulling his radio out.

"Is Reynolds available? We need a referee."

*fuzz* This is Reynolds. What did Vegeta do now? *fuzz*

"It's not Vegeta. It was Sugar Petal. She just came in clutch and won for Berapi. But Samundra is claiming foul."

*fuzz* What did she do? *fuzz*

"She crossed the monkey bars by running across the top banister instead of swinging underneath."

*fuzz* What?! Ha- How did she pull that off without falling? That tubing was greased too, right? *fuzz*

"Yes, everything was greased. But she managed to run across the pipe anyway. But what she did technically didn't break any rules, even if it broke the spirit of them."

Conner leaned in. "This is Conner. I know I don't have any say here. But I think what she did was much more impressive and difficult than crossing normally. And it's not against the rules. All it says is to cross the bars without saying it has to be done by swinging underneath."

*fuzz* Give it to her. It's too early in the game to deal with this shit. *fuzz*

Conner nodded and ran back to the stage. He climbed up. "Everyone!" He paused for effect. "The ruling on the field is… What Sugar Petal did…" He raised his fist in the air. "Is completely allowed! Red team wins!"

"Oh come on!" Jamal shouted.

"Just let it go," Bob said, putting his hand on his shoulder as Berapi cheered.

"You did it!" Sam managed to run up, put his hands on her shoulders and started jumping. "You did it! You did it! You did it!"

Sugar Petal giggled and her head swayed, "I did it…"

Sugar Petal collapsed like a rag doll.

Sam caught her as she fell. "Sugar? Sugar?"

She dangled limply in his arms, like every bone in her body was removed.

"Help! Help!" Sam hollered.

"Get her down," Hassim said, grabbing her from behind.

The two set her down.

Hassim supported her head as he checked her pulse on her neck. "It's really light, MEDIC!"

"Make a wall!" the lead medic shouted. "Get everyone back!"

Conner sat down on the edge of the stage. As the medic crews push the team back and encircle Sugar Petal, Vegeta walks over to his boat.

"Well," he said, placing his foot on the rim of the boat, "Now is as good a time as any."

"Not yet," the security at the boats said. "Conner still has announcements."

Vegeta shrugged and looked back. Any staff member that was not filming had formed a wall. He could not see any of the other players. The medics had formed a second ring, he could not see Sugar Petal either. But he could hear.

"Shouldn't we be doing something?"

"Timer's not down yet. Need to see if she wakes up on her own first… Ok she's moaning before the time limit. No intervention. Just get the smelling salts to speed this up."

*Cough* *Cough*

"There you go. Welcome back Sugar Petal. You left us for a little bit. Do you remember where you are?"

There was a long pause.

"On a beach?" she said softly. Vegeta could barely hear her.

"Yes you are, but where is this beach?"

"On TV?"

"Yes, you are on a TV show, but where?"

"I rang a bell."

The man talking sighed. "Sugar Petal, do you think you can roll over and sit up?"

"Ok…"

"Ok, that's good. Roll over, get your arms under you."

Vegeta saw a man he did not see before stand up in the circle. He raised his thumb in the air. "She's ok!"

The ring breaks up as the wall of people return to wherever they stood before.

Sugar Petal was left sitting wobbly in the sand. The rest of Berapi gathered around. Sam knelt next to her while Hassim stood looking over her.

"Ok everyone!" Conner said walking to center stage. "Come forward. I have an announcement concerning the rest of the game."

Everyone walked towards the stage, except for Sam and Hassim who stayed with Sugar Petal. Vegeta continued to watch from a distance.

Conner noticed Vegeta standing to the side. "Vegeta, come stand with the group," he waved him in, "You're out of camera shot."

Vegeta growled a sigh and walked over. He stood behind the group.

Conner nodded to him and turned to the others. "Everyone! The wording of today's message made you conclude today's challenge was a reward challenge, correct?"

"Oh no…" Casey said under her breath.

"Well, I'm sorry to inform you that there will be no food today. Because today was an elimination challenge!" Conner turned to the blue team. "Blue team, you will be joining me for the Final Fire at sunset."

"But we're out of rice!" Becky shouted, stomping her feet. "We won! Where is our rice?!"

"There is no rice. There never was any."

Lisa and Michael stopped Becky as she tried to take her sandal off to throw at him.

Conner watched the brief struggle before looking back at the group at large.

"This is the 300th season of The Last Survivor. And you will be SURVIVING. These next three days both teams will be living off the land and taste true hunger. From then on, whichever team loses the reward challenges will continue in hunger until the next opportunity to win rice arises. From now on take nothing for granted! The old patterns of how things were done in the past mean nothing! Like the boiling waters and rock explosions that happen when lava meets the ocean, this season will be one of change and chaos building a new future. Now return to your camps!"

The security that had been stationed at the boats moved in to herd the players. While the blue team was ushered away, the security held the red team back while Vegeta was whisked away first.


Vegeta was brought back to the narrow beach. Leticia and her crew were waiting for him. Vegeta hopped off into the water and the boat sped off.

Vegeta blew air out of his cheeks and walked out of the knee-deep water.

"So, ready for your post-game interview?" Leticia smiled.

Vegeta's eye twitched recognizing the very familiar human female expression for forcing a man to do something he did not want to do. He gave a growling sigh, "Fine…"

"Ok, let's head over to your rock before the other boat gets here."

They walked over and Leticia positioned Vegeta with his back towards the beaches to hide him from sight.

"So, what do you think of what just happened with the challenge?"

Vegeta crossed his arms. "You'll need to be more specific. MULTIPLE things happened at the challenge."

"What about the surprise twist at the end that it was an elimination and not a reward challenge?"

"I'm not surprised. Like I said at the party, the goal of all you assholes is to torture us as much as possible within the letter of the law. Deliberately making everyone starve is par for the course."

"That was very nice of you to help Vickie out of the water like that…"

"Would you rather I watch her drown? This Conner may have sympathies, but he has no power." Vegeta smirked, "I'm sure I pissed off a lot of people by robbing them of such a perfect opportunity for ratings."

"Do you really hold such a poor view of the staff?"

Vegeta's voice rose as he spoke. "It is the personal interest of every member of staff to cause as much suffering as possible to the contestants. Jobs. Long term carrier in the industry. Money to support self and family. This show is dying, and the core of this show is inflicting suffering. And between dumping drunk and passed out people in the middle of the ocean, letting someone on this show who can't swim, allowing me to stay after dropping Michael, AND WARNING me that they told that girl where my camp was FOR HER OWN SAFETY FROM HER OWN TEAMMATES, give me one reason why my analysis of this situation is false?"

Laticia made a squeak to try to say something but it died in her throat. The other two crewmembers were no better.

Vegeta leaned forward slightly, "That's what I thought." He turned and walked into the woods as Berapi's boat pulled up into the sand.


Meanwhile, on Berapi,

The boat pulled in and everyone exited the boat. Sam and Hassim were helping Sugar Petal, who was still visibly pale through her bruises and wobbly on her feet.

"Ok…" Michael sighed as they arrived in camp. "We're going to need to find coconuts for the next few days. Go throw Sugar Petal in the shade, and we'll go from there."

Sam nodded. He looked at Sugar Petal, "Come on. Let's get you in the shade."

While he and Hassim headed to the tree line, the others plopped down in the cool sand. Michael extended his arm and snapped his fingers. "Canteen."

Ichiro headed into the shelter and pulled both out. Michael took a long swig of his while Ichiro passed the other to Lisa.

"So, what are we going to do with Sugar Petal?" Lisa said unscrewing the lid. "Yes we won on technicality, but she could have lost it for us too."

"We were going to lose anyway," Michael said, "It was a calculated risk she took." He took another swig.

Becky looked over watching Hassim and Sam gently lower her to the sand. "So we are just going to let her get away with sleeping?" she sneered.

"Becky," Michael said firmly, "Put your fangs away. She's earned it."

Becky stuck out her tongue.


Meanwhile, with Samundra…

"I can't believe they did that!" Nick said plopping down at the shelter.

"Yeah, giving that to Berapi was jack," Jamal said sitting next to him."

"No taking the food away!" Nick said.

"Yeah… that was a nasty bait and switch," Jerry said. "But honestly, what were you expecting, a buffet?"

"We still have rice and plenty of coconuts," Jessica said.

"There's supposed to be banana trees in the forest too," Casey said.

"Sounds like the red team is hurting hard," Bob said.

"Becky is out of control," Jerry said. "I wonder if her middle name is Karen?"

"She kicked that little girl in the face then tried to throw her shoe at the new host," Vickie said. "Then that man and Michael got into a physical confrontation too."

"That… was surprising…" Bob said. "Neither of them seemed the violent type."

"Becky probably started it and it got out of hand," Jerry said. "Michael didn't have a scratch on him, so I believe Vegeta? I think it's pronounced, that it was a take down. I wonder if he was a bouncer too." He looked to his left, "Hey Jamal. You spent the night at his table. What's he like?"

"He didn't talk too much, unless he was trying to one up Michael. Seems Michael's an ex to his wife."

"Oh, that's never a good sign," Vickie said. "I could smell the testosterone off of them all night and now I know why."

"That must be why Vegeta left to make his own camp," Bob said. "At least he's being the adult in the room and walked away. Money isn't worth something like that." He then smiled. "I sort of got the feeling he was ex-military on the boat. If he was confident enough to pull it off, he's probably had survival training of some kind."

While everyone was talking, Jason's face was visibly turning red and his knuckles white.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to be stuck on a team with any of my wife's exes either," Jerry chuckled awkwardly.

"And he's already one of the richest men on the planet," Vickie said. "He probably wipes his ass with thousand-zeni bills."

Vickie began coughing again.

Everyone glanced awkwardly at her.

"So… Jessica, you want to go look for those coconuts I saw yesterday? You said after they sprout their insides turn to marshmallows?"

"Yep, it's called seembu in India."

"Well," he said standing back up, "I'll eat anything once."

"I'll come too," Vickie said standing.

Bob immediately stood. "Vickie stop," he pushed in between the two and her. "We all know what you are doing and there is no point. Just rest until you're taken back to the resort tonight."

"Just because you're voting me off doesn't mean everyone else will!"

"Vickie," Casey said "We all agreed to this yesterday even before you almost drowned a SECOND time. Now sit down," she hit her hand on the sand a couple times. "You got water in your lungs again."

Vickie looked around, "All you too?"

Nick hesitantly raised his hand like in school. The remaining members followed.

Vickie turned with tears in her eyes and headed down the beach before ducking into the trees.

After watching her crew race after her, Bob sighed tilting his head up. "Ok," he said looking back down, "Do whatever needs to be done like normal until they take us to the voting." He looked at Casey, "But stay here until she comes back."

Casey nodded.


Meanwhile, with Vegeta…

Vegeta walked into camp and immediately headed back to the loom. He began braiding the three strings together making a cord slightly thicker than a shoelace. After pulling each braid as tight as he dared, he put a small stick he had split one end of making a wooden clap and went back to spinning each string. Vegeta's hands blurred as he spun each stick until the string was long enough to wrap around the peg before moving on to the next. After the braid reached the pegs, he clapped it off and removed it. Then put three fresh sections of net on the hook.

"Would you like to explain what you're doing for the audience?" the cameraman asked.

"I've already said I'm making rope," Vegeta said, not taking his eyes off the strings. "Or is your memory so bad you can't remember three hours ago?"

"But what are you going to make with that rope?"

"Rope is rope."

"But you still have massive coils of vines? What is your plan for the plastic rope you're making?"

Vegeta stopped spinning the stick and looked up at them. "I'm making shit! What does it look like to you?!"

Leticia rubbed her temples, "Will you be more reasonable. All the footage we have is either you screaming or dead silence."

Vegeta looked down and started spinning again. "Sounds about right. That's me in a nutshell, so get used to it."

"How did someone stand you long enough to make a kid?" the technician mumbled.

"Because we don't bug each other WHEN WE'RE WORKING!"

Vegeta remained silent and focused on his work the rest of the day.


Meanwhile, on Berapi…

The sun was getting closer to the horizon, and the Berapi had settled in for a siesta. Becky was sleeping in the sun impersonating a baked potato. Michael and Lisa were sleeping in the shelter, he with his arm around her and her head on his chest. Ichiro was outside but still in the shade of the shelter. Sam was awake and adjusted his belt and pants after watering what had become the communal tree. He passed Sugar Petal, who he did not notice had stirred since he first checked her on the way in.

Sam came softly to the shelter. Hassim was gone, but he thought he was probably off praying. He reached in to grab the machete sitting in between Michael and Ichiro.

Suddenly Ichiro's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist.

"What… do you think you're doing?"

"I…"

"Michael has the machete…"

"I was j-just going to go get coconuts," he stuttered.

"You don't need the machete for that…" Ichiro said, flicking Sam's hand away.

"I-I was going to look for queen's bread coconuts," he said, rubbing his wrist. "You can't tell if a coconut is good after sprouting without cutting it open first."

"Then don't bother with that and just get normal coconuts…"

"Ok. Ok," he said, backing up slowly. "I will. I will."

Sugar Petal dipped her head and closed her eyes as he passed.

After he disappeared, she looked up and saw Ichiro had turned his head. She slowly crawled up the tree and made her way into the woods.


Sugar Petal was looking around. She needed to know where the wood was for on the way back.

"There is food no one wants, I need to find it," she thought.

Her head swam, but she did not remember seeing a baby coconut tree where she normally hunted sticks. So she headed towards the narrow beach and the entrance to the ATV track.

"I can't do this. I just can't do this," she heard through the trees.

She followed the voices and found Hassim sitting leaning back against a tree with his back to her. She hid behind a tree. She waved behind her back and her crew hid as well.

"I can't ignore Sugar Petal. I can't…" Hassim almost sounded like he was sobbing into his palms. "I know I need to. My family needs me to… but I can't…"

"Why does your family depend on ignoring Sugar Petal?" his producer asked.

Judging by his elbows, Hassim just shook his head. "I can't say. I can't say. I can't say…"

Sugar Petal slipped off her shoes, slowly knelt down to pick them up, then backed away.


Some distance away, Sugar Petal stopped and slipped her shoes back on.

"Why did you take your shoes off?" her producer asked.

"It's quieter," she answered.

"What do you think Hassim was talking about?"

Sugar Petal took an overly cute pose, putting her hands together next to her cheek and tilting her head. "I have no idea what you are talking about." she answered robotically. "Nothing is the matter. Everything is perfect."

All three members of her crew sighed at once. Everyone knew what happened yesterday.

Sugar Petal turned and went back the way they came. Her facial expression did not change. An unnatural smile and it almost looked like she was walking with her eyes closed. Her arms were in front of her with her hands criss crossed before interlacing her fingers.

She did not raise her feet, even though she was kicking the underlayer and risking tripping over sticks and fallen palm leaves. Her knees refused to raise any higher. There was no deviation to the left or right. The care she had for noise had completely vanished. She was unnatural, unhuman, and the deepening uncanny valley was tainting her crews' faces green. There was a lot of gossip about "the Stepford wife switch" her guards had witnessed, and it was as creepy as everyone said. When she began picking up sticks, they realized whatever she had been planning was out the window. She was in animatronic mode and there was no night shift.


Sugar Petal came out on the beach with an armful of sticks.

"Sugar Petal, there you are," Sam said, standing over a pile of coconuts with Hassim. "We were about to go look for you."

She dropped her sticks in the usual location, "Nothing is the matter. Everything is perfect."

"Sugar, you should really—" Hassim began.

"Oh, if the bitch says she's fine. She's fine," Becky said, walking over stretching her arms above her head. She lowered them. "Let's get these coconuts open so we can eat."

"Then you awaken the tiger," Sugar Petal said smiling. "I will go back for more wood. I am not needed here."

"And what the hell do you mean by that?" Becky pointed her finger up at her.

"If you are not eating or sleeping, then you must work. Work until your hands and feet bleed or your back bleeds, my teachers would say."

Becky waved her finger, "Nah uh. You are not sneaking off. You are going sit down where everyone can see you."

Sugar Petal sat down next to the wood pile.

"And stop smiling like an idiot!"

Sugar Petal tilted her head adorably, "But I am an idiot."

Becky was briefly flustered, but recovered quickly. "Good you realize that." She went over and hit the top of the shelter. "Hey! Get up! We got food!"

"Yes… we heard all the screaming," Michael said, opening one of his eyes, "Mostly yours."

Lisa got off of him as Ichiro pushed himself off his stomach and sat up on his knees.

Michael grabbed the machete and followed Ichiro out of the shelter. "Ok… let's try and crack these open."


Meanwhile, with Vegeta…

Vegeta lit the fire in silence. Darkness had come to the trees and the only sounds the microphones picked up were the insects. Vegeta had not made a sound in three hours, ignoring every taunt and threat the crew could throw at him.

At this point it was very clear Vegeta was making something. He had braided a large rope the diameter of his fist, but after about eight feet, he divided them out again by three until he got to the shoelace cords and was now working on tying his ninth row of webbing. Unlike before, he was leaving a great deal of slack in the string between knots. After the ninth run was finished, he stretched it out to see how wide it had become. Then he turned his back to the loom and stretched it out again.

"Oh my god, you're making a hammock," the cameraman said.

Vegeta actually showed a reaction this time. He turned towards them and nodded before going back to knotting.

"And you'll be finishing after we leave, of course," Leticia said, annoyed.

Vegeta pointed at a tiki mask before going back to knotting.

"The night vision doesn't give the same quality as an actual broadcast camera."

"My phone shoots in 4k at night and they're telling me the cameras in those huge masks can't match that…" he thought.

"Do you want me to change projects and save this for tomorrow?" Vegeta spoke suddenly.

"What do you want to do?"

"Cut bamboo on the other side."

Leticia looked at her watch. "Hour and a half until we leave."

Vegeta nodded and lifted the mesh and placed the final row on the pegs. He then walked past them down towards the stream. He smashed a rock to get a new set of hand axes and the crew followed him across.

Vegeta went after the medium size bamboo, measuring their diameter by wrapping his hands around them and seeing if his fingers and thumbs would touch. He chopped cluster after cluster in silence, using his energy to speed things along where he thought he could get away with it.

"What are you going to do? Cut down the whole mountain?" the cameraman asked.

"Just about," Vegeta said.

"This is for that skyscraper, isn't it? I didn't think you were serious," the technician said.

"I'm always serious," he answered in an icy tone that sent chills up the crew's backs.

Leticia caught her breath and looked at her watch. "15 minutes till 7. If you want to legally carry these to camp, you should start now."

Vegeta nodded.


Vegeta dumped the last bundle on the ground with the others. Eleven bundles of five to ten stalks each, over 30 feet tall.

"Ok. Stop filming. We're packing up." Leticia ordered.

The cameraman tilted his camera down as Vegeta cut the vines on the bundle and separated a stalk out.

"Wait until we get out of frame to start, since we can't stop you from working overnight," Leticia scolded Vegeta.

Vegeta rolled his eyes and ignored her as he began to cut it.

Leticia shook her head and turned to follow the others out of camp.

Once they were gone, Vegeta picked up the pace. He grooved the stalk and snapped it at the line. Then he cut another line only half way around and split the end up to that line and snapped it off. He used his energy to sharpen the end, then did the same to poke a hand hold half way up.

Armed with his new shovel, he walked to the middle of the clearing and dug a small hole. He then put a stick in it and tied a long vine. He walked out over 15 feet and scratched a perfect circle with the tip of the shovel.

Vegeta tossed the vine aside and dug into the line.


Meanwhile, back with Berapi…

"Man, I'm stuffed," Becky said. "Why didn't we do this before?" She crawled towards the shelter, "Move over. I'm going to sleep."

Michael looked over at the packing television crews. "Don't get too comfortable, Becky." Michael said. "We still need to talk."

"About what?" she said, frustrated.

"You know what," Lisa said.

Michael watched the crews drive away. "Ok. We're clear," he said standing, "Get your ass out of there, Becky."

"No."

"Fine," Lisa said leaning in. "I guess you wouldn't mind all of us talking about you behind your back? She looked back out, "Ichiro? Do you want to talk about buses?"

"Alright! Alright! I'm coming." Becky pushed past Lisa and exited the shelter.

"Actually, that was a good idea." Michael said. "Ichiro, why don't you come with us?"

He nodded and stood.

"We'll be right back," Michael said as the four walked off.

Hassim sighed after they were out of earshot. "Well, we know their alliance now…"

"I wouldn't go that far," Sam said. "Ichiro is the muscle in the group," he said, rubbing the bruise on his arm. "If Becky keeps pulling shit, he's the sheriff in town."

"Did he give you that mark?" Hassim asked.

"Yeah…" he said. He looked over his shoulder at Sugar Petal stacking the fire. Sam looked back out at the ocean. "I wanted to borrow the machete to test cut some of the coconuts before I bought them back."

"You tried to take the machete while Michael was asleep?" Hassim chuckled in disbelief. "You're nuts."

He rubbed his arm, "Tell me about it." He sighed. "I wish I could remember how to open coconuts without a machete… My family went to Hawaii when I was 11." He shook his head, "I wish I'd paid more attention to a lot of things…"

"You know I'm from London, right?" Hassim asked suddenly.

"Yeah? Why?"

"Then why the bloody hell do you think I give an arse about what you do at your capital?" Hassim smiled. "Seriously, whatever misgivings you have, I don't care what you do for a living. Tory, Labor, Socialist, Conservative, Liberal, as long as you don't diss my football team, you could be an axe murderer like Vegeta is apparently and I wouldn't care." He shook his head, "Ichiro can't keep his stories straight…"

"Retired classified agent with PTSD," Sam said slowly. "That's what they told us yesterday. He's… definitely killed people. Undercover or a flipped source, like Ichiro's first story," he sighed. "It's really scary if you think about it too long…"

Hassim looked over at the others who had finally stopped walking. "I'm starting to see a pattern for the people on this team, and I don't like it."

"Makes you wonder about what they saw in us?" Sam said.

"Every carriage needs a horse to be beaten even long after it's dead," Sugar Petal said suddenly, causing the men to look at her.

"Oh no… We're the goats…" Sam moaned, leaning back in the sand.

"Don't give up yet. It's only day three," Hassim casually pointed at the group. "Michael is a piece of shit. Lisa is his pirate wench. And Becky is their goat. None of them are winning this game. Now you, me, and Sugar; that's three as well."

"Leaving Ichiro and Vegeta…" Sam said. He looked away, "I… can see your math, but…" He suddenly stood up, "They are coming back." "Headed to the tree!" he called out before shuffling off.


"Ok," Michael said, "We should be more than enough away." He turned to Becky. "So about you holding Sugar Petal underwater this morning."

"Wait what?! When?" Ichiro said.

"While we were getting the mail. That was Sugar Petal's screaming we heard."

"We already talked about this this morning," Becky said pointing underhanded at him. "And Lisa confirmed it."

"I've known Michael for over a decade," Lisa said. "We know each other's body language. My mouth said one thing for the cameras but I told him the truth."

"You—"

Michael raised his palm. "Not in trouble, Becky. Stop shouting."

Ichiro looked at Michael surprised.

"But holding her underwater like that is a risky move."

"Spps. I'm not going to drown her," she said dismissively.

"Ok, one," Michael started, "We walked out as Sugar Petal ran past us. That timing was too close. I've been able to keep Sam and Hassim separated. But they are united on her. If Sam gets his Christian morals up his ass because he catches you holding her under, he could care less about loosing his job for being seen befriending a Muslim." He held up two fingers, "Two. Don't catch me off guard like that again. Do you know how BAD I'm going to look now when she comes crying to me? I'm either dangerously naïve of your depravity or I'm deliberately gaslighting her into thinking it didn't happen. I'll deal with the naiveté, but the hell I'm getting called out for gaslighting her on something this serious. Give us alibis, damn it. I don't need another PR nightmare from another reality show."

"Seriously Becky," Lisa said, "You really hurt us today. The reputations we gain from this will haunt us for a lifetime. You might not care about yours, but don't drag us down with you."

"So… basically… you're saying you want me to only hold her under when no one is around?"

He raised his hands to either side of his head in frustration. "Don't make this a habit, but yes. Just, just give it a few days to cool down before you do something remotely this serious again," Michael said.

Becky leaned forward. "Fine," she snarled, before walking off.

"So why did you include me in this?" Ichiro demanded.

"You're going to need to shepherd Sam and Hassim away from Sugar Petal," Lisa said. "But if Becky screws this up again, we need you."

"Physically if necessary," Michael said. "And you've already thrown her down. And Ichiro, you need a major lesson in subtlety. Shepherding doesn't just mean getting in the way. Like this morning. Rolling up the mail before passing it on bought us the seconds for Sugar Petal to leave the beach. If you had done that, Sam wouldn't have known at all and Becky would have gotten away cleanly. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah… but really dunking her underwater is too far for me."

"Becky is a bully," Lisa said. "And bullies dunk their victims when they get caught in the pool together."

"Yeah and when I was 10 and someone did that to my little brother I took my metal bat and hit a home run on a completely different ball."

"And where were you prince charming when I was growing up?" Lisa said. "I would have loved my cousins getting smacked with a metal bat."

Michael chuckled. "All right, I get it. This is emotional for both of you. But there's nothing to do at this point," Michael said. "Becky promised not to go after her in the water for a couple days. We'll talk to her later when she's not so defensive." He looked at Ichiro, "Just keep the men away and be ready to clear our names when Becky opens her goddamn mouth again trying to take all of us down with her."

"Alright, I'll do it…" Ichiro said, turning and walking away.

Once out of earshot, Michael turned to Lisa. "I thought both your parents were only children?" he half whispered.

Lisa smiled, "They are. But he doesn't know that."

Michael smirked.


Sunset had come, and the blue team was led through the bright lights to the voting set.

They sat down on the chairs at one side of the fire.

"Hello, Samundra," Conner said walking onto the set. He stood behind the podium and placed his hands on the edges. "So, it has been an eventful day. What…" he yawned, "Oh, excuse me. Forgive me, like I said at the challenge, I was literally tossed on the helicopter after getting off the plane," he put his hand to his mouth again. "God bless Indonesian coffee," he said, placing his hand down.

Conner clapped his hand and rubbed them together. "Let's try this again. So what did you think of today's twist? Switching the reward and elimination challenge?"

"Well," Bob began, "We're still decent on food. I don't see us having an issue. But it looks like the red team has eaten everything and aren't foraging. Sugar Petal looked like she hasn't eaten this whole time."

"Speaking of Sugar Petal, what do you think of what she did? Jamal, you were very vocal at the time."

"I GET," Jamal jerked his head in a short nod, "That she didn't break any rules, but still." He shook his head, "It was a cheap shot."

"I see a couple eye rolls," Conner said. "Care to share?"

"Well," Jerry said, "You said so yourself, this season is meant to be chaos. And I think the fact you're keeping to your promise of allowing physical violence means anything is up for grabs. Bobby said at the boat party we were being grouped based on a personality test. Looks like the fire team is full of hot heads, pushovers and bully victims like a bad high school flick." He glared around at the staff before looking back at Conner. "But this isn't a flick and we aren't actors," he said with his first serious tone of the game.

"You have to respect Vegeta walking away," Bob said. "He's basically on his own with nothing but the clothes on his back."

"But why is he not being allowed to compete like the rest of us?" Nick asked, looking at Conner. "I'm not going to argue about the advantage you've given us. It basically gives us a one player advantage in challenges, but it doesn't make sense handicapping them like that."

"I truly don't know," Conner answered. "I just got here," he held up a pile of paper, "And this is all I got."

Conner moved the top paper to the back as he set them down. So, Vickie. It says here you're a triathlete and held records for competitive swimming all through high school and college." He looked up, "What happened today?"

Vickie sobbed, leaned forward and began crying into her hands. Jessica leaned over and hugged her, placing her head on her shoulder.

"We were all dumped mid ocean and forced to swim to the beach," Daisuke said looking at Vickie. "After a night of unlimited alcohol and no sleep."

"They physically prevented us from sleeping," Bob added. "Vegeta predicted what was going on, but no one really took him seriously. Most of us had drunk too much already with some people like Vickie were blacked out drunk by the time the party boat pulled back in and we were told to change into our competition clothes and head for the beaches."

Daisuke put his hand over his face pointing out his bruise. "Even without Vickie's flailing almost drowning half of us, it was a looong swim."

"Vegeta managed to sleep," Nick said. "Part way through the night all the staff started to act like he was about to murder them and gave him run of the boat. He climbed on the roof and got a few good hours."

"The red team were all smashed hard," Jerry said shaking his head, "With how hard we had it, it's a miracle they all made it in one piece."

"We seem to be talking a lot about Berapi," Conner tried to redirect the conversation. "What has been going on with you?"

"Other than Vickie being sick," Casey said. "Everything has been pretty smooth. With Jessica having lived in India, she knows just about everything."

"Jessica, that is a good segue to you," Conner said. "Says here in my notes that you're a yoga instructor that studied in India. How has that helped you here?"

Jessica sat straight but kept her arm around Vickie. "I saw how to do a lot of things visiting rural villages on pilgrimage, even though I spent most of my time in prayer and meditation. But it's been my time back in the western sector living," she briefly glanced at Bob, "in what Bob calls a hippy commune that really gave me the hands-on work I never got in India. Weaving, pottery, basket making, stuff like that."

Connor nodded, "Sounds like your team is lucky to have you… Well, time has come for the inevitable." He pointed behind him, "Head over to the jar and make your votes."

One by one they stood up and walked to the voting booth. Vickie was last to go.

Jessica resumed her hug when Vickie returned.

"Ok, time to read the votes," Conner said before fetching the jar. "Now, let's see who is going home," he said, reaching his arm in.

"One for Vickie… Two for Vickie… Three for Vickie…" He looked at the next one and chuckled. He held it for the cameras. "Whoever's idea it was to throw drunk people in the ocean," he placed it with the others. "I think we know who wrote that… Four for Vickie… Five for Vickie… Six for Vickie… And the final vote is," he turned it to the cameras, "for Vickie."

Conner set it down with the rest of the papers. "I'm sorry, Vickie, but tonight is your final fire. Say your goodbyes."

Casey walked over and hugged Vickie. Vickie started sobbing again.

"Ok everyone, group hug," Bob ordered.

Everyone crowded around her.

"I'm sorry, Vickie," Bob said. "We all know this isn't fair."

"Yeah," Jerry said. "Go have a nice long bubble bath and eat enough French fries for all of us."

Vickie chuckled through her sobbing. "Ok… Just… Just don't let those monster's win, ok?"

"We won't," Bob said. "And there is no way in hell we will ever sink to their level."

"Vickie…" Conner said. "It's time to go."

The group broke up and Vickie walked out. Conner put his arm around her shoulders and gently guided the sobbing woman down the correct path. As she walked into the darkness, Conner returned.

"Well, we have all had an eventful day and have learned some valuable information about each other. Samundra," he gestured to the path they came from, "it's time for you to return to camp."

After they all funneled out, Conner lost his smile. "Ok what the hell is going on with this show?" he demanded loudly.


Later at the resort...

The crews all gathered in one of the cafes and were eating their one huge meal of the day as the editors began their long night going over the raw footage.

"So he really didn't talk for 3 hours?"

Leticia rolled her eyes, "You have no idea what a huge pain in the ass he's being, Sarah." She rubs her forehead, "I wish we could drink. It's only been two days and I need a beer dealing with his ass."

"And this is going to be an XL season, too," Sarah said.

"Please don't remind me…"

A cameraman in a blue shirt at the table leans in, "I'd rather have him than Jason. He's on a fucking power trip being made Samundra lead field producer. It's been two days and he's driving everyone nuts."

"I can't believe Nathan got fired," Jackie said. "Vegeta was acting concerned about him when we took over from them. I bet Jason was behind it."

"Jason was originally assigned to be Vegeta's follow-along," Sarah said, "Don't know what happened," she pointed at Yamcha, "But the guy they brought in made Bobby switch him out." She sighed. "I can't believe Bobby is gone… I know he shouldn't have said that, but it would have never come out of his mouth if it wasn't for that man."

"Bobby always did have a potty mouth when he got mad," Leticia said. "Even as a teenager interning under his dad." She shook her head, "Show's over. Been here 15 years and it ends like this."

"I know this is only my second year, so I'm not as close to Bobby as the rest of you," Jackie said. She shook her head slightly, "I just can't blame Vegeta for it. He's a jackass, but is he really any worse than any of the other jerks that have been on the show? He hasn't really done anything. He's more physically capable than anyone we've ever had, but he hasn't broken any rules."

"He's run off more than once," Letica said, annoyed.

Sarah's eyes widened. "Oh no… I never gave Vegeta his racial sensitivity talk…"

"Well that explains a lot…" Leticia grumbled.

"No. No. Vegeta asked me for help after he said he offended you."

It was Leticia's turn for wide eyes. "He was worried about offending someone?"

"He's an arrogant jerk, but I can see a prince treating that as a serious screw up," Jackie said.

Leticia jerked to look at her. "Prince?"

Conner had been walking around introducing himself to the staff at different tables. He stopped his conversation, stood straight and looked in their direction.

"You didn't know?" Sarah asked.

"He said he gave up ruling the galaxy to run off with Bulma Brief," Jackie said. "It was really grinding his gears he had to be here. I don't know what Jason did to him, but he was boiling over about him after the switch."

The Samundra crew member leaned back, blowing air out his lips. "Woo... Wow. Power tripping Jason and a take's no shit prince. They must have been at each other's throats all day."

Jackie looked at him. "Vegeta called him racist."

"I believe it. He's been calling him 'the Predator' and looked like he was going to murder the cast when they were saying nice things about him after the challenge."

"Hello," Conner said, "Sorry to impose." He held out his hand generally so anyone could take it. "I'm Conner O'Malley."

Sarah shook it, "Sarah Williams, drone filming director."

He took the spare chair, spun it around and sat placing his arms on the back of the chair. "Sorry I haven't had a chance to meet up with everyone. I literally jumped off the helicopter from the airport onto the set. …But did I just overhear you saying one of our contestants is royalty?"

"You haven't been told yet?" Sarah asked, surprised.

Conner shook his head, "I haven't been officially briefed on any contestants yet other than my summary on the helicopter. I'm still trying to figure out how this production works."

The crew member chuckled, "Well you stepped into a hornet's nest. We only found out Vegeta was an alien prince and one of the aliens who destroyed East City after filming started."

"Was that some kind of bad joke?"

The four shook their heads.

"That guy in the Producer's assistant shirt with the scar is Yamcha," Sarah said pointing, "He's an envoy from the Earth Special Forces and is getting paid as a consultant..."

Connor turned to look.

Sarah continued, "Vegeta has a pardon and has become a Special Forces member according to him. Vegeta entered this as the mystery husband of Bulma Brief, so Bobby jumped on choosing him."

"Yeah… I know him as the husband of Bulma Brief, too," Conner said, turning back around.

"You know him?" the Samundra crewmember said.

"I've seen him around some private charity dinners," Conner said, rubbing his mouth with his hand, "Ended up in conversations that included him. Stuck me as a nervous man who never wanted to be there in the first place. Was like pulling teeth trying to get any words from him and was always looking for a chance to excuse himself. Mrs. Bulma and Mrs. Panchy intervened once. They ran up, Bulma hooked her arm into his and the two took over the conversation for him until Bulma asked her mother to leave." Conner moved his hand over his eyes, "But… But is that really him? All this time?"

"If you mean East City," Sarah said, "Yamcha said he was the commanding officer for the invasion, but the destruction of the city was against orders and he executed the man who did it."

"Did you know people there?" the crewmember asked.

"I was there," Conner said. He pressed the tips of his fingers and thumbs together and rested his face in the gap, "I was trapped in an elevator until early morning. We thought some bomb shook the building until we got out and saw…" Conner sniffed. "I'm so glad I didn't shake the hand of the bastard who did that," his voice cracked with emotion as he lowered his arms.

"It's… odd…" Sarah said. "There's such a disconnect between knowing he was one of those aliens and the embarrassed and nervous man I met yesterday. Even after seeing him faceplant Michael… you just seem to forget. Maybe it's because he looks so human. But he's here, and an Earth's Special Forces member. I guess we just need to trust the government."

"Earth's Special Forces," Conner mouthed silently. He reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone and began typing.

"How do you still have that?" Leticia asked.

"No, mine's been switched out. I just switched my phone case," he answered, not looking up from his screen. After several moments, Conner had a smile on his face.

"Just looking at a photo," he said, putting his phone away. He seemed suddenly happy.

"So," Conner looked at the group, "Vegeta has been struggling trying to communicate?"

"His English seems fine to me," Sarah said. "But socially he has no clue. Leticia can confirm that."

"I don't even trust his English," Leticia sighed, shaking her head. "And when he does talk it's usually condescending and angry." She adjusted her position in the chair. "He's been very hostile. Today he explained his view that our jobs depend on inflicting as much suffering as possible on contestants. So we are trying to actively hurt him." She shook her head, "I was so shocked I sputtered. He has no concept of human decency."

"Well technically he's not human," the crewmember smiled.

"You know what I mean," Leticia glared at him.

He chuckled nervously, "Just trying to lighten the mood."

"That… isn't entirely wrong," Connor said, laying his arms back down on the chair back, "even with the cultural context. And from everything I've heard about Berapi, we don't even have that leg to stand on with him."

"Yeah," the crewmember said, "I heard from the video editors that the hidden cameras caught the team planning to starve Sugar Petal into a medevac then Reynolds ordered the medical staff not to intervene with her. He even yelled at them for using smelling salts today."

"What?" Conner asked angrily.

"First I'm hearing this?" Leticia said, looking at him.

"I've heard about it, too," Sarah said. "Reynolds was flown in a couple days ago, but he doesn't seem the type of guy to do that. Unless the decision goes above him… but I can't imagine the execs trying to get Vegeta to curb stomp his teammates after seeing what Yamcha did."

"What did he do?"

The crewmember pulls out an irregular shaped piece of green glass tied as a pendant from under his shirt. "Oh, you don't have your souvenir necklace yet, do you?"

On the other side of the room, Leticia's technician was on his computer.. "Oh my god…" he said, looking at his laptop.

"What is it?" the girl next to him asked.

"Vegeta wasn't pulling that three-story bamboo house out of his ass. There's a video on YouTube. Look." He turned around his laptop for the others at the table.

"Wait, Vegeta's building a three-story house?" the crewman sitting behind the technician at another table asked, turning around.

"Yeah, he said he saw it in Africa. This vid is from Ethiopia."

Yamcha leaned back in his chair to get a better view, "They went to Ethiopia last summer. Vegeta copying something he saw there?"

"Yeah! A three-story house!"

This caught the attention of everyone at the nearby tables who stood to watch, causing a domino effect through the dining room. Yamcha is in the back smiling at the amazement of the staff at the video and their desire to see it in person.

"Sounds like Vegeta is doing pretty good despite Ichiro spilling the beans," he smiled to himself.

Mr. Reynolds walked into the room from the video editing hall. "What's going on here?"

"Ted found a video of something Vegeta is trying to make on YouTube!" someone called out. "It's a three-story bamboo house!"

"What?! Let me see. Move!"

The room fell silent at the sudden outburst and part ways.

Mr. Reynolds loomed over the little 13 inch and restarted the video. He doesn't watch it long, as the entire village was nothing but these houses of various heights and ages of decay. There was nothing to them, basically giant hollow upside-down baskets. He didn't know or care why these people removed the internal scaffolding, but it was obvious Vegeta would keep the inner floors.

He paused it and stood straight. He looked around before zeroing in on Leticia. Mr. Reynolds pointed towards the door he entered from. "Leticia! Now!"

Leticia, surprised, stood up. The others at her table began standing as well.

"Leticia only," Mr. Reynolds ordered.

They sat back down.

All the eyes in the room followed the two as they walked out of the room. Once they were gone, first Conner then Yamcha followed. They hid in the doorway to eavesdrop.


Mr. Reynolds led Leticia into the video editing room. The people on the computers looked up, then immediately ducked down behind their monitors.

Mr. Reynolds stopped walking and turned around. "What the hell happened today with Vegeta! Hours and hours of pure silence! How are we supposed to use that?"

"Vegeta refused to talk—"

"Bobby moved you to him because you're the most experienced field producer here after Jason. Why didn't you order him?! Force him?! Threaten him?!"

"I did. But PRINCE Vegeta," Leticia emphasized. She counts off on her fingers, "does not take orders, cannot be forced, and cannot be threatened." She lowered her arm, "He clearly does not want to be here, doesn't give a damn, and he's so rich the 150 million penalty this year doesn't even make him blink."

Mr. Reynolds briefly broke eye contact as he thought. "No…" he said looking back at her. "There is something he cares about. Next time he acts out, remind him that Sugar Petal's wellbeing depends on his obedience. That he is the only thing standing between her and serious inj—"

"Are you insane?!" Yamcha shouted.

Everyone turned as Yamcha came out from behind the door and marched over. He pointed at Mr. Reynolds. "You are cornering a member of Earth Special Forces into a hostage situation? And Vegeta on top of that?" He stopped in front of him, "Vegeta was given as a political hostage as a boy to ensure his planet's loyalty to a galactic emperor and his home planet was destroyed anyway. He DOES NOT think like the rest of us. He is from a military state. Cog in the machine. Brick in the wall. Any deviation means death. Vegeta is still trying to wrap his head around the simplest things like having a conversation without the subtext that one of the participants is about to be EXECUTED. DO. NOT. Under any circumstances play into that."

Mr. Reynolds turned his glare to him. "So what? What will he do? Kill everyone here?"

"I doubt he'll turn the entire area into a giant crater, but I won't put a few dead bodies past him if he gets riled up into that state."

"And what? Ruin his pardon? Completely destroy his life and expose his family?" Mr. Reynolds got in his face. "You BOTH need to understand who is actually in charge here— Me."

Yamcha sighed. "Let me talk with Vegeta then. When he loses his shit, he won't have the instant reaction of putting his fist through the back of my skull."

Mr. Reynolds went to say something when his attention was drawn to the door. Conner had stepped out from behind the door frame and was walking over.

"What do you want, Conner?"

"I want to talk about Sugar Petal. And this is as good a time as any." Conner arrived at the group. "What the hell, Reynolds! What the hell! First you order the medics to ignore one contestant physically harming another. And now you're using that fact to blackmail a third? What the hell!"

Mr. Reynolds crossed his arms. "Corporate doesn't want to kick off Vegeta. His 15 minutes of fame with the whale has made him a focal point—"

"I'm asking about Sugar Petal! Not Vegeta."

"The corporate board has personally decided that the answer to Sugar Petal's problem was to tell her the location of Vegeta's camp. If she doesn't go, that's her decision and what the wrongful injury and death clauses are for."

"That doesn't explain your order to the medics?!"

"Do you think I like this?! Berapi was purposely put together for something like this to happen. It's in the script. And it's my job is to keep everyone to it! Little Sugar Petal is going to be abused until people's consciences catch up to them. Who knows! Maybe a small group of them will follow Vegeta's example and we'll need to find crew for a fourth camp. And speaking of staying on script…"

Mr. Reynolds turned his glare back to Leticia, who had taken a couple steps back when the argument broke out. "… Why the hell did you approve him to make that three-story basket teepee?"

"There aren't even any rules about building shelter's this season," she answered.

Mr. Reynolds closed his right hand and put his index and thumb together. He jerked it forward and back in front of her face. "Field producer's discretion. Field producer's discretion, Leticia. And it's becoming obvious I can't trust yours."

"And what are you going to do?" Conner interjected. "Order Vegeta's camp burned to the ground? If your sector's version of the show is on the brink of being canceled, giving your viral sensation some wiggle room seems prudent."

"Shut up, Conner. You have no authority here."

"I could resign," Conner said. "First Bobby is fired then I quit in less than 12 hours? Even if I don't say a word to break my NDA, this season will look like it's falling apart."

"You were hired in secret and flown in."

"Ever heard of social media? Everyone is swarming all the other hosts then I go radio silent on my twitter? Everyone under 35 already knows I'm here and everyone over that will know it when the supermarkets open and see the tabloid covers."

Mr. Reynolds face turned bright red and Yamcha thought he could hear the hiss of steam coming from his ears.

Yamcha put his hands up, "Hey. Hey. Let's just calm down and take a deep breath. This isn't going to solve anything. This is how Bobby got fired after all."

Mr. Reynolds looked at Yamcha, then took a deep breath. "Conceal and contain. Everything containing even the slightest inference about something being abnormal about him from either team has been and will be destroyed before it ever leaves this building." He turned to Leticia, "That's why you can't allow Vegeta to do anything, and I repeat ANYTHING, outside of precedent. We need him as boring as beige."

Conner put his hands on his hips, "So you're taking the porn approach to the rules? I can't describe it but I know it when I see it?"

"What else can we do? It's not like," he pointed at Yamcha, "our military consultant is any help."

"I think Vegeta has a very good handle on the situation and honestly is acting like any other special forces member would be subjected to this 'script'," Yamcha said, "I'm surprised and proud of the bastard."

"If you're surprised, then you're useless. You—"

Connor throws his hand in front of Yamcha. "If you fire him, I walk!"

"Let's just calm down," Yamcha tried again. He raised his palms. "Once everyone takes a chance to breathe, we can decide what I need to tell Vegeta then I can fly over."

"Fly?" the three people said almost simultaneously.

Yamcha floated a few feet into the air.

After a few moments, they took their jaws off the floor. "That's a trick," they said simultaneously.

Yamcha landed. "You mean like that hole I made yesterday?"

"… Touché," Mr. Reynolds said.

"What hole?" Connor asked.

"Leticia, why don't you show Conner," Yamcha said, walking over and putting his hand on Mr. Reynolds' shoulder, who was still too in shock to react. "I'll finish talking with Mr. Reynolds."

Conner nodded and took Leticia's arm and quickly guided her from the room.


Leticia walked Conner around the long way instead of cutting through the dining room to the other side of the resort.

"That's definitely a hole," Conner said looking through it. "Looks like a giant laser or something." He looked at Leticia, "Yamcha do this? Why?"

"Apparently Vegeta tackled Michael. Vegeta was going to get kicked off until Yamcha did this showing the hand gesture Michael made at Sugar Petal does this," she knocked on the rock, "so he jumped on instinct."

"So he saved her life? Wait… How was he getting kicked off? That's impossible to do."

"I'm told Vegeta blacked out and almost suffocated him in the wet sand before he snapped out of it. Fell under deliberate murder attempt."

"You weren't there?"

"Nope. I missed the fun."

Conner put his hands on his hips and stared at the hole thinking. Then he pulled out his phone.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm just calling a company number," he said. He put it to his ear.

"Good Morning Mr. Terrance. This is Conner O'Malley over on The Last Survivor. You gave me your private number if anything came up."

"Bill Terrance? As in the CEO Bill Terrance?" Leticia thought as she lost color in her face.

"Yes, I have some concerns about how Prince Vegeta's footage is being handled. Did you tell Reynolds that any footage that didn't downplay Vegeta and make him 'boring as beige' needs to be destroyed on site and never logged?

"… Yeah that's what I thought," Conner began to pace. "I just came across Reynolds screaming at his assigned field producer saying there is no usable footage for him today. …No, Vegeta isn't breaking any rules, far from it. From what I've been hearing from the staff he's being quite clever and innovative, but it's nothing that outs him as an alien. Everything he's done has been sourced to Earth. He's just making them from bamboo. I was watching a YouTube video with the staff that showed how to make his latest project, it's a large multi-story shelter. … Yes. Apparently, Provost never considered the fact the Briefs often do their third-world charity work in person. Vegeta has named every place he saw how to make something and like I said, everything has checked out.

"… Yes, it's my understanding that all his footage and any related conversations from both teams have been destroyed because it doesn't match the 'boring as beige' theme he's looking for and he's already starting to fire people. A man named Nathan has been fired and he was just threatening Leticia, um" He turned to Leticia, "Hey, what's your last name? … Yes, sir. She is right here. …Reynolds is with Yamcha in another room. He was almost just fired as well but I threatened to walk if he did. …Yes I am sir. This is completely unprofessional and honestly T-boning one of the few bright lights in this cast before he even has the chance to pull out of his driveway. He's a complete novelty in thought, motive and behavior and any concerning mentions should be cut around in production and not during in-field processing.

"…Yes Sir, I can put her on now." Connor hands her the phone, "Here."

Leticia shakily takes it and puts it to her ear, "Hello?"

"This is Bill Terrance, CEO of Global Broadcast Stations. Am I talking to Ms. Leticia?"

"Yes, Sir! Thi… This is.. I… um…" she hyperventilates.

"There is no need to be intimidated here. Just take a few breaths. It's my understanding you are the field producer in charge of him? I need you to tell me what has been going on with Vegeta."

"Well… um… I only had him two days. Jason was his original but was removed."

"Yes, I am aware of that. Continue."

"Well, he's rather moody and hostile, one of the worst I've seen in 15 years. The issues I've had with him are ignoring directions and just the silence. He doesn't talk much unless he's arguing with us or giving short, annoyed answers. There's also definitely a culture and language barrier. When I arrived, he said something racist and sexist and was completely confused why I didn't take it as a compliment and couldn't understand the explanations people were giving him while the others were calming me down."

"Reynolds has not reported this incident," Mr. Terrance said, audibly swallowing his anger. "Is this known to him?"

"Yes."

"And other witnesses?"

"My team Ted and Freddy and there was a crew overnight led by a new hire named Jacky. I don't know her crew's names off the top of my head, they are all new interns this year. Also, I was talking to the drone director, Sarah Williams, over dinner. She is also Black and said Vegeta approached her sometime yesterday asking what he did wrong with me. I don't know anything else about that because Mr. Reynolds came in."

"Alright. This is what I'm about to do. I'm about to appoint Conner O'Malley as co-producer alongside Reynolds. He will be interviewing you and the other witnesses on camera and sending us a report. Give him back his phone."

Leticia nodded and held out the phone, "Here."

Conner took it back. "Yes sir? … Co-producer?! Thank you, sir. …A huh… Yes, I'll start interviewing them straight away. …Yes? Rehire the person fired. Yes, sir. I'll find him. And thank you, sir."

Conner lowered the phone from his ear and hung up. He took a deep breath and blew it out his lips. "Ok. First, I need to find this guy then I'll start interviewing you guys, ok?"

Leticia nodded.


Back inside, Mr. Reynolds had regained his composure and was again screaming at Yamcha when his phone rang. After the third ring, Reynolds pulled it from his pocket and blanched, seeing the number. He immediately put it to his ear.

"Mr. Terrance, Sir! Sorry for the delay. What seems to be the problem?"

Mr. Reynolds pulled it away from his ear as he started to scream.

"Reynolds! What's this I'm hearing from O'Malley about you deleting footage about Vegeta to the point you have nothing to use?"

"O'Malley, sir?"

"We merged with Doggerland Isles Media three years ago! You think he didn't have my number? Stop acting like a lawyer by destroying evidence and remember we have a television series to make! I'm making Conner O'Malley co-producer with you effective immediately. He will be writing an independent assessment and rehiring the people you've fired. And he better find that missing footage somewhere. We can clamp down hard on post-production later. Those decisions are not made on site!" *Hang up buzzing noise*

Yamcha put his hands up defensively and backed away a few steps. "I'm just going to go," he said before he vanished in a puff of wind.

Mr. Reynolds' right arm hung limply as he rubbed his face with his left hand.


Meanwhile, out above the jungle…

Yamcha was flying over the trees. He knew Vegeta's camp was half way between the two camps, but he just couldn't spot the third fire. Then he saw a new glow appear.

"There!" Yamcha dropped down.


Down below, Vegeta had just lit a fire in the banana grove.

Yamcha landed behind Vegeta, "Hey Vegeta."

Vegeta shouted, spun around and raised his hand with a ki ball. He saw Yamcha cowering and dropped his arm, "Don't sneak up on me like that."

"Since when are you so jumpy?" Yamcha said, dropping his arms from in front of his face.

Vegeta sputtered a few seconds before turning his back. "What the hell are you doing here anyway?" he asked in his normal disinterested tone.

"You mean the chaos you're causing in the staff? It's a mess."

Vegeta chuckled, "You're here to deliver a warning then?"

"I snuck out before one could be finalized when shit hit the fan." Yamcha put his hand behind his head and gave a nervous laugh, "The CEO of the TV channel called Mr. Reynolds and was just screaming over the phone."

While he was talking, Vegeta went back to work throwing the dead and rotting banana waste into the fire. "A huh… and?" he asked, annoyed.

"Yeah…" Yamcha dropped his arm, "I can see why you're rubbing everyone the wrong way."

"And their opinions of me matter why? This is reality tv and this is reality. They don't like it, tough shit."

"Even if it's not word for word, there is apparently a loose script of what they want to happen and are trying to shape events to get that response."

"But I'm not a native, so they can't predict my behavior. Unless they go nuclear." Vegeta stopped throwing things into the fire, "To use the Earth phrase." He turned around, "The message being crafted was blackmailing my behavior with Sugar Petal's life, wasn't it?"

Yamcha chuckled again, "He He He… um… yeah, actually. You think of everything don't you?"

"Some thought processes exist across ra— species," Vegeta changed the word half way.

"Wow," Yamcha thought, "Whatever happened yesterday shook him."

"Vegeta," Yamcha said, "I know we're not exactly close. But for the next couple weeks I'm all you got."

"What is your species' obsession with talking?!" Vegeta snapped. "Talking! Talking! Talking!" He threw his hands in the air as he turned around. "Even when there is no point to it! No information to be conveyed. Narrating clearly visible actions like everyone is fucking blind. You're fucking species is so scared of silence you bleat like animals!"

Vegeta turned around and began working again, then Yamcha noticed that he wasn't using his energy.

"No energy?" he asked, surprised. "This is the perfect opportunity?"

Vegeta turned to his left and pointed. Yamcha looked and noticed two tiki masks in the banana trees.

"Wow, they put some all the way out here?"

"No," Vegeta said going back to work, "I moved them. They are secret cameras."

"So, you're filming yourself?"

"Noooooo, I'm live streaming the bananas growing… Of course I'm filming myself!"

Yamcha raised his hands defensively, "Ok. Ok. Put the sarcasm daggers away. I get it."

Vegeta growled when he looked back over his shoulders at Yamcha. "Tell whoever the fearless leader is when you get back that their battle plan of blackmailing me has been predicted and has already been thoroughly countered beyond their wildest imagination."

"Yeah ok…" Yamcha turned to fly off. "Wait. Fearless leader? Where did you hear that?"

"Do you not know of Moose and Squirrel?" Vegeta says in a perfect bad cartoony accent.

Yamcha put his hand behind his head and chuckled nervously. "Oh yea. Bulma did say you're playing with Trunks now. That's from one of his little kiddie shows, right?"

Vegeta fully turned around and raised his fist, "No! That's from one of the Doc's shows! Now unless you want to know what a flying frog feels like I suggest you go fuck off!"

Yamcha floated up in the air. "Ok. Ok." He flew off.


Yamcha landed back at the island resort and walked inside. Most of the film crews had already gone up the elevators to bed, but the editors and other staff were still going strong.

"There you are, Yamcha," a security guard said, spotting him. He jogged over, "Conner has been looking for you. Come with me."

Yamcha nodded.

The guard grabbed his handset as he began walking away. "Just found Yamcha. Heading over to room 208."

After riding up the elevator, the guard guided him to one of the smaller conference rooms/lounges. Yamcha spotted Leticia coming out the glass door.

"Hey, Leticia," Yamcha raised his hand. "Hold up a sec."

"Yamcha, it's past 10 and I have to be up before 5," she said, walking past him without stopping.

"Yamcha! There you are," Conner said, hanging out the door. "Get in here a sec."

Yamcha turned from watching Leticia walk away and came into the room.

"Where were you?" Conner said, sitting down at the table.

"I flew to talk with Vegeta," he said sitting across from him.

"What did you say and what was his response?" he asked.

"I asked him to tone down his Vegeta-ness a little," Yamcha shrugged. "He's such a jackass I'm surprised his paternity test didn't come back saying he was a donkey."

"So you told him what's been happening tonight?" He sounded disapproving.

"Just that his behavior was causing problems. But he said this is reality TV and this is reality." Yamcha sighed. "He also said he's already been expecting you guys to blackmail him into obedience threatening Sugar Petal's life and it's not going to work."

"You told him?" Conner asked angrily.

"No," Yamcha said firmly. "He brought it up on his own."

"I know you said he has experience as a hostage, but why would something like that even come into his head for a TV show?"

"Vegeta's paranoid. I mean, where he came from that kept him alive 30 years, but like I said to Mr. Reynolds, Vegeta is having trouble relaxing on Earth and you guys are playing into his worst instincts." Yamcha lowered his eyebrows, "Vegeta was jumpy tonight. I've never seen that before. He's either completely apathetic or aggressively trying to take command of a situation." He scratched his nose, "Maybe Bulma has seen him like that before, but I haven't."

"Do you think he's a physical danger?" Conner asked seriously.

"No."

Conner thought Yamcha's tone wasn't as convincing as he would have liked. "Is there anything else before I send you off?"

"Can you deliver a message to Leticia? She wouldn't talk to me in the hall."

"What is it?"

"I don't know the details about what happened between them, but he was really jittery and second guessing his words as he was speaking. He also surprised me that he had taken the hidden cameras with him and was filming himself working outside camp. She's gotten under his skin, but until that settles in, he's going to be explosive the next few days." Yamcha paused. "… I guess the easiest way to explain it would be to share this story:

Bulma asked Vegeta to take out the garbage. He got in her face and they screamed at each other for over 30 minutes before Vegeta stormed off. And for the rest of the day when they ran into each other Vegeta reopened the fight. Vegeta slept on the couch that night. But the next morning, the trash was on the curb. When no one fessed up to it, she checked the security cameras and saw Vegeta did it in the middle of the night. She tried to thank him, but he absolutely exploded denying it. When Bulma pressed, he said something like 'I'll show you how much I care about the damn trash!', raised his hand and fired a blast in the general direction of the driveway. He incinerated the trash… But also set fire to the house.

"Whatever Vegeta is doing tonight, Leticia can't in any way acknowledge it. Just let it drop and move forward. I also told Bobby this. Vegeta's pride is everything. He's compromising his dignity by doing these things. Even if he wants to do something, he can't do it directly. Like doing stuff in the middle of the night and pretending he had nothing to do with it. It's nonsensical and convoluted to the rest of us, but it makes sense to him. And you really just have to deal with it and work within his limits to get things done."

"He set his own house on fire and you expect me to tell my staff he's not dangerous?"

Yamcha raised his hands defensively and chuckled nervously. "Hee… hee… hee… He hasn't done anything like that since Trunks was a baby. He's not going to light the forest on fire over something small like that. Just let him be his weird self and everything will be fine. The more you stress him out the more he's going to fall into his old ways of thinking, that's all."

Conner looked down at his hand as he tapped the table thinking. "I guess the fact he even thought we would hold someone's life hostage says a lot about his mindset right now... but I can't argue with it considering what's been going on…" He looked up, "But if he's already coldly calculated that we would pull that stunt, he won't be leaving a handful of bodies like you threatened."

Yamcha paused. He always had a bad habit of speaking the truth, now he had to lie without a sliver of truth to work with. Or maybe he did…

"It would depend on her injuries or even death."

"You mean the resurrection after the Cell Games?"

Yamcha's eyes widened. "Wha-Wha-Wha Why do you think that?" He then nervously smiled, "That's an unbelievably big leap here."

Conner pulled out his phone and pulled up a picture of Vegeta. "Wikipedia," he said, putting the phone on the table. "Honestly I'm surprised no one else has figured it out yet. Who else could the group of strangers who all flew in together be other than the people whose job it is to kill aliens like Cell after the main army's defeat? I googled it the second I heard he WAS Earth Special Forces, not just a random military unit. You've been muddling that up on purpose? Or do you just use that as a short hand since you don't have a name like Seals or Rangers?"

Yamcha stood. "I can't… I can't… I can't…"

Conner saw Yamcha begin sweating as he turned, put his hands over his mouth and continued to mutter.

"How?" Yamcha said, pulling his hands away from his mouth. He slammed his hands onto the table making everything jump. "How?! How the hell did you figure that out? It's been three years. Eight years since he first landed. You're the only person to figure this out."

"What about Ichiro?"

"I told him. He was my best friend at the time."

"You told a civilian what I assume was classified information?"

Yamcha looked away and scratched the back of his head. "Bulma may have been cheating on me with Vegeta at the time and there was alcohol involved." He dropped his hand and looked back at Conner, "But still, how did you figure this out?"

"Like I said, I thought it was completely obvious. I don't know why everyone hasn't recognized him yet."

"Then what is special about you?" Yamcha demanded. "You obviously don't think like everyone else since you're the first person to recognize him ever."

Conner shrugged his shoulders.

"Kami…" Yamcha said softly, running his hand down his face.

"Now that that is over, I need a favor from you."

"What?" Yamcha said, frustrated.

"I need you to head to Jakarta Airport and intercept an intern named Nathan Bentley. He's being rehired because he got along well with Vegeta. Luckily the flight has been delayed because of the massive storm over there, but that can change at any moment. Gate 3, to South City."

"All right," Yamcha said, "I'll go." He walked from the room.


An hour and a half later, Conner was teleconferencing with the board of directors.

"Seems your report does not differ too greatly from what Reynolds submitted yesterday," Mr. Terrence said, "But are you positive that Vegeta is one of the golden fighters from the Cell Games?"

"Yes," he answered firmly, "I included the links to my sources."

"We haven't looked at them yet," Mr. Terrence said, "We wanted to speak to you immediately." He looks down at his tablet and swipes across the screen. "Now you had a scathing review of Yamcha?"

"Yes. He can't keep his mouth shut and the more he tries to defend Vegeta the more dangerous he makes him sound. I can't speak to the thought process of the military, but I can't believe he hasn't been court martialed yet."

"We actually have an update on that. We contacted the military and after some confusion it turns out the Earth Special Forces are paramilitary, completely civilian."

"Civilian?" Conner said surprised.

Mr. Terrence nodded. He looked down at his tablet, "But the statement was very ambiguous. Their exact words were, 'paramilitary in relation to terrestrial governments'."

"So, what? The Earth Special Forces is the army of some alien government that controls Earth?" he said in disbelief. Suddenly his face fell as a thought dawned in his eyes. "… That… actually explains so many things. Now that I think about it…" Conner said looking down, "So many things…"

"As tempting as it is to speculate on that," Mr. Terrence said, holding up his palm, "it is not germane to the immediate situation with Vegeta. Now you said in your opinion that you have met him previously and that weighed your conclusions?"

"Yes. I've encountered him at several charity events. He's rather rude and unpleasant but when not in the company of his wife or in-laws he takes on a deer-in-the-headlights look until one of his family intervenes and takes over the conversation. With the racial incident with Leticia and Sarah, it's obvious there was no malice in it and immediately asked for clarification on the situation. I agree with Sarah's initial assessment that there are cultural barriers tainting his verbal interactions, but the totality of his physical actions shows he cares for the wellbeing of the other players. But I also can't rule out another violent response to situations involving Sugar Petal or to any self-sabotaging."

"Yes… the anecdote of him setting the trash on fire was worrying. But after review, we still conclude it is best for Vegeta to remain. Removing him would only shine an unwanted spotlight on this entire debacle. Giving him that wiggle room you suggested seems to be the best course of action to keep this situation under wraps."

"Now, about the situation with Sugar Petal. I—"

Mr. Terrence raises his hand, "Conner. Stop. Just, just stop." He put his arm down, "I know about all the irregularities, to be generous, of her being on the show. It was not our call. One of the deals with the buyout last year was her getting on the show or the conglomerate was going to fully merge with us and fire most of our employees…" He sighed, carefully choosing his next words. "Conner. One life is not worth the jobs of almost 60,000 people. For everyone's wellbeing, just let this drop. But back to Vegeta, you obviously trust Vegeta at a fundamental level despite some misgivings. I would continue to do so if I was in your shoes. Good night, Conner."

The screen went black.

Conner leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling.

"But why IS Sugar Petal worth 60,000 jobs?" the thought came to him. "Why The Last Survivor? If she is a direct plant from above…"

Conner suddenly sat up straight and began typing on his laptop. "Ok internet, what can you tell me about why Bobby was given the green light to make that little girl suffer."

Immediately after typing "Sugar Petal" into a public search engine, the screen glitched and went dark. Then smoke rose from the keyboard.

"Shit!" Connor grabbed the laptop and darted into the bathroom. He had just tossed it into the shower and shut the glass door when it exploded.

"Damn battery… That was close." Conner said, panting.


The moon has come over the tops of the trees. It was nearly full, but whether it was coming or going she did not know. But she did know it set while the sky was still black. She needed to be done by then.

First thing she did was take off her shoes, then silently walked over towards the camp. They had just thrown the bricks aside near the trees. She took her shirt off. She had a bikini top, but it was only for decency. She had nothing to support other than her exposed ribs. Her back was a latticework of long scars in various stages of fading. She wrapped the brinks in her shirt to cut down on the noise and scurried back to her shoes before disappearing into the trees.

She climbed by the waterfall and made her way up to the cliff overlooking the ocean. She set the bricks there. She then went to the stream.

The moonlight was bright and she quickly found the two cans she left. She wiped the insides clean with her bra, then risked and took a sip from each before spitting it out.

"No salt," she thought.

She took one of the cans with her back down the path and came back into the camp. Slipping her shoes off again she came to the fire and stole flaming charcoal from the bottom before racing off again.

She came back to her spot and used it to start a small fire in the bricks. Sugar then returned to the stream to rinse and refill the can with water. She left it to boil and grabbed the second can. She came down the hill and returned to the fallen tree. She began digging though the rotten trunk and began picking up grubs.

"Ewe, did you really eat these, grandma?" she remembered a conversation from a long time ago. She was sitting at a table looking at a science book with an old woman. She could no longer remember her face, other than her eyepatch that almost covered half of it.

"Yes. When you are alone, hiding in the woods. It's good to know what you can eat."

"Will I ever be alone in China hiding from scary men?"

She remembered being kissed on the head. "No. There is no north or south anymore. But just because that has happened doesn't mean we should forget that it did and what people like me went through. Now, no telling your parents. They think you're too young for scary stories. But you are brave, like a flower blooming in the snow."

Sugar Petal came back up the hill and took the boiling water off the fire and put the can filled with bugs that now had water in it as well on the fire. She watched them squirm and kept poking them back in. It didn't look quite right, but she was never told exactly how to eat them.

Eventually they stopped moving. Not long after they devolved into a gooey mess and she realized boiling was probably not how it was done.

She tied it anyway. It was a struggle to keep it down. A struggle she finally lost. She ran deeper into the trees along the cliff hoping to get out of earshot of the beach before it came up. Sugar Petal threw up near the stream, then washed her mouth out without swallowing. She looked at the moon. It was edging closer to the horizon. She did not have long.

"I don't have time to keep trying the bugs tonight," she thought. Then she remembered the queen's coconut.

Sugar Petal was running through the palms. Dizzy and borderline delirious, she was more continuously falling forward than running.

Finally, she stumbles into a tree. Sugar Petal slid down the trunk onto her knees. She looked around as she tried to muster the strength to get up again. To her left was an old coconut tree, bent from being knocked over and regrown upwards at some point in its life. Under it was a litter of coconuts.

With at least three small trees growing from the pile.

She got up and ran over.

These coconuts were very old. The smell of rot almost made her heave again. But she dug. She eventually pulled out nine coconuts that had little trees poking out of them. She took her shirt off again and tied the sleeves and neck shut. She stuffed four into her makeshift bag, carried two that had the longest sprouts by the stem, and juggled the rest as she carefully made her way back.

"I can't get these all up there at once," Sugar Petal thought, looking up at the waterfall. She dropped off the ones she was juggling at the fallen tree, and carried her shirt up the path.

She got to her camp and dumped the coconuts on the ground. She looked back at the moon. It was on the horizon. She was out of time. She went to the stream and searched through the rocks to find one that was as close to an edge as she could. As she searched farther and farther up the bank, she found a huge culvert with a road above.

She was definitely outside the game zone now. She climbed up the bank and saw a large metal tower at the end of the road. There was a wooden shack there with a metal roof.

With its door wide open.

She peeked inside.

It was full of metal boxes and lights.

"Probably all the controls," she thought.

Then she saw a duffle bag. She opened it and found lots of electrical tools, ropes and pulleys. She riffled through it until she pulled out an item about the size of her palm. She pulled out some of the metal bars folded in the handle.

Among the various tools was a large knife.

She folded them back up and stumbled-ran away with her prize.


Sugar Petal threw more wood on the fire as the moon began disappearing over the horizon. She then attacked the coconut with her swiss army knife like a serial killer out for blood. After stripping it bare and cracking it open, she found a giant ball of fluff inside instead of the water and mush she had seen the others eat.

It broke off like a lump of foam and she put it in her mouth. After some initial crunchiness, it melted away like cotton candy in her mouth.

"This is really royalty," she thought as she inhaled it.

Afterwards, she ran her finger over the thin remaining white ring. It was oily to the touch. She tasted it.

"Coconut oil… Wait, Oil!"

Sugar Petal grabbed a large nearby leaf and disappeared down the hill.

20 minutes later, she was enjoying her queen's bread, boiled water, and coconut oil fried grubs with a pair of chopsticks she carved watching the moon disappear into the darkness.

"All I need now is a mat…" she thought. Then she remembered Hassim. "Mat…"