Chapter 24: The Treasure Island Of Dr. McLean
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Teams:
Gophers: B, Beth, Brick, Heather, Jasmine, Katie, Sammy
Bass: Courtney, Lindsay, Scarlett, Scott, Topher, Tyler
Moose: Cameron, Harold, Leshawna, Lightning, Noah, Owen, Shawn
Badgers: Alejandro, Bridgette, Duncan, Geoff, Sky, Trent, Zoey
The sun was rising over the lake's horizon, and the loons crooned off-screen. Owen was shown sleeping peacefully on a raft, then the camera zoomed out to show his teammates in the same position. It then zoomed out further to show the other three teams, also on rafts.
An alarm clock tied to a lake buoy went off, waking the campers up. "Wha? Where are we?" Sky asked groggily.
"A raft, apparently," Alejandro said. "At a guess, I'd say that Chris drugged our dinner last night, given that I am unable to remember anything after dinner."
"Sounds like something he'd do," Duncan agreed. "So, what now?"
Over on his team's raft, Topher hmmed. "I don't know about this. Sure, this is a very Chris setup, but I feel like there's something we're missing."
Scott thought about what he could mean. "You don't think there are (gulp) sharks in the water, do you?"
Scarlett gave him a disappointed look. "Please, in water this filled with junk? Not a chance." Scott visibly relaxed, and the camera showed that indeed, the rafts were surrounded by assorted junk.
Confessional: Scott
"Scarlett thinks she's so smart. Well, we'll see who's laughing soon. If she was actually smart, she'd throw this challenge and get me voted out. It's what I'd do."
End confessional
Once Scott had finished his confessional, Chris and Chef, both wearing life jackets, zoomed up to the rafts on jet skis. "Morning, suckers! How'd you enjoy your turkey buttolini?"
Shawn shrugged in reply. "Eh, it was a little dry and kinda overseasoned. Could have used a bit more water and less seasoning." Upon seeing the confused looks he was receiving, he shrugged. "What? Just because I prefer to prepare for the zombie apocalypse doesn't mean I don't know how to cook."
"Well, be that as it may," Noah said, "Compared to the slop we have to eat most of the time, it might as well have been ambrosia."
Chef grunted.
Confessional: Chef
"Ungrateful wretches. I had to overseason that turkey to mask the taste of the knockout powder! You should be grateful that you get turkey at all!"
End confessional
Chris stood up on his jet ski. "First things first," he said. "This is your last challenge as the Gopher, Bass, Moose, and Badger teams."
Confessional: Topher
"Called it."
End confessional
"On an unrelated note," Chris continued, "the challenge itself.
"Your first challenge is racing to shore," the host continued, "by any means possible! The first team to get there wins immunity and doesn't have to take part in the second part, the second team wins a handy reward, the third team gets nothing, and the fourth team gets a heinous penalty before you embark on your quest to find buried treasure."
Heather scoffed at that last part. "I think our host is just trying to get us to do his work for him."
Chris frowned at her. "For your information, you are racing to Boney Island, not Wawanakwa. Meaning the only thing you can take is the stuff I put there in the first place. And even if it was Wawanakwa, why would anyone else hide treasure there?"
Heather conceded that last point. "True. No self-respecting criminal would ever hide their loot here."
"Anyway, more details at the beach. Game on!" Chris said, speeding toward the beach.
Bridgette saw some odds and ends in the water, including two kayak paddles, a wooden sign, and a pair of wooden planks. "One moment," she said, diving into the water to retrieve them.
Once she had, she said, "Okay, we have oars." She thought for a moment. "Sky, you and I don't really have that much upper body strength compared to our teammates. We can get in the water and kick from behind."
On the other side, Jasmine looked thoughtful. "Well, there are some loose planks in the water. We can use those as makeshift paddles. B, you and I can...B?"
B looked around at his surroundings, and seemed to have an idea. He used a nearby pole to direct a two-person motorboat with a broken engine over to their raft.
"Well, that's all well and good, Bev, but we can't all fit in that boat. And the motor is broken," Heather pointed out condescendingly.
B gave her an annoyed look, and took a wrench out of his coat.
From a bit further away, Scarlett observed the Gophers. "Well, while they're busy with that, we should focus on building as much of a lead as we can. Scott, Courtney, Tyler, you get in the water and kick from behind. Lindsay, Topher, and I will paddle with our hands."
"You know, it would probably be useful right about now to have two guys with huge, muscular builds right about now. Maybe one with orange hair and bad dentistry, and one with dark skin and a beard?" Scott said snidely.
"Not for me," Scarlett said quietly. More loudly, she said, "There's nothing to be done about it now. Right now, we just need to get to shore."
Seeing the Bass's system, Shawn hmmed. "Not a bad idea. Owen, Lightning, and I can push the raft from behind. Leshawna..." his eyes scanned their surroundings, until he saw an oar floating next to a life raft. He dove in, retrieved it, and gave it to her. He then pointed to Noah, Harold, and Cameron. "You three just, I don't know, paddle with your hands or something."
A short time later, after the other three teams had gotten a fair bit further ahead, B finished his repairs, having attached the motor to the raft. He turned it on, and it began running, and the raft started moving at a good pace. The others were impressed.
"Bev, I'm sorry I ever doubted you," Heather said sweetly. Even despite his annoyance at the nickname, B grinned and gave a thumbs-up.
"Even so, we shouldn't skip out just because we have a motor," Brick pointed out. "The other teams have a considerable lead. We should paddle as well."
Seeing the wisdom in this, the members of the team other than B all started paddling.
Further ahead, Owen started to panic. "Something just brushed past the underside of my belly!"
"It was probably just a fish," Shawn said dismissively. The camera showed a pair of eyestalks approaching the three from behind...until Owen farted, creating a large bubble that spanned the distance between himself and the eyestalks. After that, whatever was attached to the eyestalks swam away.
"Dude! Sha-sgusting!" Lightning shouted.
"Hey, it's a natural process," Owen defended.
"Dude, there ain't nothing natural about that stank," Lightning told him.
The eyestalks came up behind the Bass instead, who were a bit further ahead, but still behind the Badgers, and the gophers had almost caught up with them. Tyler, for once in a way that couldn't be attributed to his clumsiness, kicked them both by accident a few times. Angered, tentacles started to rise from the water.
"Giant squid!" Topher shouted, prompting his three teammates in the water to scramble back up onto the raft.
"Odd, most cephalopods do not have eyestalks," Scarlett mused. "Perhaps this species belongs to a different family, or even class?"
"Not the time, Scarlett!" Courtney shouted.
Lindsay shivered. "I don't like these things!"
"Relax, I have this well in hand," Scarlett said dismissively. She then ushered her teammates to the back of the raft, took Scott's whittling knife (prompting a "Hey!" from the farm boy), stood on the front of the raft, and threw the knife at the squid. It scratched the squid, angering it. The squid brought down a tentacle to crush her, but she quickly ran back, and the tentacle launched the six of them toward the island.
Five of them came up a bit short, but were able to swim the brief remaining distance ahead of the others. Tyler, by contrast, made a hard landing on the beach, right next to Chris. Next to the host were Chef, several interns with boxes, and a TV screen, and Chris was holding a bag.
The host laughed. "That was awesome!"
Topher grinned. "Well done, Scarlett! I'd say you qualify for MVP status this round for sure."
"Yeah, thanks, Scarlett! That sea monster was so scary, but you beat it!" Lindsay agreed.
Scott rolled his eyes. "Fine. You handled that situation well. Happy?"
Scarlett smiled smugly. "Quite."
"I'm never eating calamari again," Courtney said.
Just as that exchange went down, the Gophers reached the beach. Heather harrumphed. "They just got lucky."
"Well, you got second place, at least. For this challenge and this challenge only, that's pretty good, right?" Chris said.
"True enough. Good on ya, B," Jasmine said.
"Anyway, here's your reward," Chris said, giving Beth a compass and map.
"How are the other teams going to find their way?" Beth asked.
"Good question," Chris answered. "Oh, you get this, too," he said, handing her a Ziploc bag containing chocolate chip cookies. Beth passed them out to her teammates.
The Badgers reached the beach next. "Aaaaah! End the suffering!" Geoff shouted, dropping the plank showing multiple splinters in his hands.
"Whiner," Chef said, but he got to work on his hands with a pair of tweezers anyway.
"Dude, you sticking with it was hardcore," Duncan commented. He had taken off his shirt and was using it to protect his hands from his plank. Zoey and Trent were holding the actual paddles, and Alejandro had the sign.
The last to arrive were the Moose. "Ooh, not so good," Chris commented.
"Well, the challenge ain't over yet," Leshawna said. "We can still pull ahead."
"You can," Chris conceded. "But it won't be easy with these," he said as Chef and a few interns placed heavy, weighted belts on the Moose players, with handcuffs on the sides. Cameron fell over, the weight making it hard to stand.
"Ooh, I would not want to be those guys!" Topher said.
"I know, right? Those belts don't go with any of their outfits," Lindsay commented.
Chris looked at the Bass, now holding a remote. "Why are you still here? Just get on the boat. Me, Chef, and the interns will join you in a moment." He pointed to a boat parked about fifty feet down the beach.
"Anyway, as for the second part of today's challenge. It started out as a prank involving our previous contestant, Gwen, but it's turned into more of a rescue mission." He pressed the button on the remote, and the TV showed Gwen rubbing her head while in a wooden box.
"What the," she stuttered, looking increasingly panicked. "I'm buried alive? Again? Chris!" She pounded a fist on one of the walls.
"Gwen!" Trent shouted, panicking. He tapped his rabbit's foot against his forehead. "One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine. One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine." Once he had calmed down slightly, he shouted, "We have to save her!"
Sky glared at the host as well. "Burying someone alive is not cool, Chris!"
"Relax, she's fine. I gave her enough air for a few hours," Chris assured Trent. "And don't worry. I wouldn't leave her down there alone." The monitor showed Jo and Eva, also in boxes of their own. Eva was only just beginning to wake up, while Jo was still fast asleep. Chris chuckled. "I can't wait for them to wake up, realize their walkie-talkies are set to the same frequency, and they can't change it. The fireworks will be a spectacle!"
"You put Eva in there?" Cameron asked. "I mean, she's scary, but I kinda feel bad for her."
"Yeah, she wasn't that bad," Noah agreed. "Jo on the other hand...would it be okay if we just left her there?"
"No, it would not," Chris said. "I think it would be funny, but the lawyers wouldn't like it. Oh, and one more thing." He attached a metal detector to Lightning's back.
"A metal detector won't help us find a wooden chest! Gosh!" Harold said.
"No, but you'll be glad you have it later. Now, go, go go!"
Taken aback by the sudden shouting, the three remaining teams got moving.
Above the ground where Gwen, Jo, and Eva were buried, the audience was shown where the chests were located, and the mic picked up on Gwen's pounding on the chest.
"Ugh, where's my-" Gwen stopped muttering as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. "No service. Figures." She found a walkie-talkie in the chest with her. "Chris, if you're there, you have gone too far!"
Jo's voice came back over the walkie-talkie. "Ugh, cut it with all the noise, Astronema!"
"Astronema?" asked Gwen, confused.
"Power Rangers reference. Anyway, keep it down!"
Eva's voice joined the conversation. "She's not hurting anyone, Jo!"
"Well, if you're going to make noise, don't do it on my walkie-talkie!" Jo demanded. "Change the frequency or something!"
"I don't think these change...wait, where's my MP3 player?"
"Suck it up! You're a big girl, Eva. You can go without music for a few hours!"
The camera cut away from the split-screen, sparing the audience the ensuing shouting match.
Confessional: Chris
"Eh, I'm sure they'll work themselves out."
End confessional
The Badgers skidded to a stop in front of a swamp.
"Ugh, this place smells worse than my ex's room the one time I visited and he forgot to clean up," Sky commented.
"Okay, so, now where do we go?" Alejandro asked Trent.
"We-well, we..." Trent said nervously.
"You don't know, do you?"
"No..." Trent admitted.
Confessional: Trent
"I was panicking! Can you blame me?"
End confessional
"Well, no matter," Alejandro said. "We can just backtrack, and find the Gophers' trail. They have a map, so we can follow them. All that matters is that we dig up one of the chests before one of the other teams."
The camera cut to the Moose, sans Shawn, who were following closely behind the Gophers, just out of sight.
"I think I found my center of balance," Cameron piped up.
"Wait, where's Shawn?" Owen asked.
"Probably 'practicing handcuffed forest stealth,' or something," Noah answered. "Don't worry about him."
"But what if he's in trouble?"
"If he's in trouble, what would we even do about it?"
"...Good point."
Shawn was in the trees, separated from his team. He had managed to free his hands from the cuffs on the penalty belt.
Confessional: Shawn
"I thought I saw a zombie in the trees and went to kill it before it attacked us. I normally wouldn't take that risk because zombies travel in hordes, but a horde wouldn't last on this island. Anyway, good thing that I remembered how to dislocate my thumbs." He demonstrated by bending his thumb at an angle that it shouldn't bend, then popping it back into place.
End confessional
Shawn saw a silhouette of a person, and attacked. "Die, zombie!"
"Hey, stop that!" came a voice. Shawn stopped his assault to look at the person he had attacked.
The person was a young man with shoulder-length red hair, wearing a dirty and torn intern uniform (with a few blood stains on it).
"I'm just an intern that got left behind after the nighttime scavenger hunt!" the man protested.
"Oh, sorry. I thought you were a zombie for a minute there," Shawn said.
The "intern" laughed. "Well, that's a new one."
"Was that funny? It wasn't meant to be," Shawn asked.
The "intern" thought for a moment. "Probably not. I'm just really relieved to see a human on this island. I'm tired of only having prehistoric beasts for company. I'm Nimbus, by the way."
"Shawn. I can lead you to where the boat to take us back to camp should be," Shawn offered.
"Please, lead the way."
Shawn took a few steps, but then stopped to examine the decomposing carcass of a velociraptor. Behind him, Nimbus's eyes turned red, and he grinned, revealing fangs.
The vampire snuck up behind Shawn, intending to bite him, only to get water splashed in his face. Where the water hit him, his face burned, as if the water had been boiling oil.
"I knew it!" Shawn shouted, holding up one of the raptor's claws and attempting to finish Nimbus off, but the vampire escaped.
Confessional: Shawn
"It was the teeth that gave Nimbus away. Nobody's teeth could be that white after two days without brushing. Also, the bite marks on the raptor confirmed it. Anyway, now that I know vampires exist, I'm going to have to add UV lights to my zombie bunker. I won't keep them running all the time, but, you know, just to make sure that any stranger I decide to shelter in my bunker isn't a vampire in disguise. I don't want to be safe from the zombies only to get my blood drained by an opportunistic blood-sucker."
End confessional
The camera cut to the Gophers, who were making their way across the island, when the map directed them into a swamp. In their path was a very large alligator. The alligator roared at them, causing several of the Gophers to flinch back.
Not Jasmine. "You beauty!" she whispered. then she charged it and shouted, "I'll handle the gator! You get across!" As she charged, she took off her belt, then looped it around the alligator's snout with one hand. She used the other to grab its waist and hoist it out of the water.
Confessional: Jasmine
"I've always wanted to do that!"
End confessional
While Jasmine had the alligator under control, the Gophers forded cross the swamp, and the Moose took the opportunity to follow. Jasmine was surprised, but she held onto the alligator.
Once the Moose had all forded across, Jasmine let the alligator go and joined the two teams on the other side. When she looked at the other team, she saw only six people. "Where's Shawn?" she asked.
"We got separated," Cameron told her.
Just then, Shawn ran up to the other side of the swamp. He looked at the alligator for a few seconds, then took a running leap, landing on its back. He used it as a makeshift bridge, then leaped from it to the other side of the swamp. Not wishing to be bothered any longer, the gator swam away.
"Sick, mate," Jasmine said, impressed.
"How did you get out of your cuffs?" Harold asked.
"Oh, I just dislocated my thumbs, slid them out, then popped them back in," Shawn said.
"Awesome," Harold said.
"Well, we should get moving," Sammy said. "Gwen, Jo, and Eva are still buried."
Confessional: Heather
"I wanted to tell them to find their own map, but they probably would just have hidden ahead of us, waited, and then followed us again. I guess it doesn't matter, because person for person, we can dig faster than them."
End confessional
The camera cut back to the split-screen of the three girls in the chests. Jo and Eva were shouting at each other, while Gwen was looking more and more annoyed.
"And you call yourself tough! You can't even be within ten feet of a bat without freaking out!"
"Well, I don't spend every waking hour barking orders at people!"
"Well, I didn't get suckered by a weaselly little blackmailer!"
"No, you got voted out because of your own incompetence as a leader! That's not better!"
"Take. That. Back."
"Can't. Wouldn't."
"You know, I elected myself leader because I know how to motivate people. But that doesn't mean I don't know how to crush them."
"Your threats don't scare me. Not when I know what you're really like."
"Oh, for Heaven's sake, both of you shut up!" Gwen shouted.
Confessional: Gwen
"Those two just wouldn't stop fighting! I even tried taking the batteries out of my walkie-talkie, but it had one of those panels held in place by a tiny screw, and I didn't have a tiny screwdriver. Somehow, I got buried alive-my worst fear-and they managed to be the worst part of the experience!"
End confessional
Up above ground, the Gopher and Moose teams were just arriving in the clearing under which the three were buried. Brick held a number of thorny vines out of the way of the teams as they ran in.
"Gee, thanks, Brick!" Katie said.
"No problem, just...taking one for the team," Brick said, obviously in pain.
"You know, we could have just gone around," Noah told him.
"And make the girls Chris buried wait longer?" Brick asked. Nobody really felt like arguing with him.
"Where sha-are they buried?" Lightning wondered.
"More importantly, how are we supposed to dig with these belts on, unless...the metal detector! We're supposed to use it to find the key!" Cameron realized.
While the Moose searched for the key, the Gophers searched for the chests. "How are we supposed to find them?" Sammy asked.
Heather had an idea. Facing the ground, she shouted as loudly as possible, "THE OLYMPICS ARE FOR SUCKERS WHO SUFFER FROM CRIPPLING OVERSPECIALIZATION!"
"HEY!" Two voices shouted from different places in the ground. A third shouted, "WE'RE SAVED!"
The nearest was one of the ones who took offense, and the seven members of the Gophers started digging. Meanwhile, the Moose had found a key ring with two keys on it. "What do you think the big one is for?" Cameron asked.
"Probably the chest. Now take these belts off of us!" Leshawna said. Shawn proceeded to do so, and they started digging up the chest that probably contained Gwen.
At the same time, the Badgers arrived. "Where's Gwen?" Trent panicked.
"Don't worry," Alejandro told him. "Spread out and search, and do it fast."
The Gophers managed to dig the chest they had found up first, only to find that it was locked. Wasting no time, B retrieved a small toolkit from inside his coat.
"I found something!" Sky said, leading her team to a spot in the sand. Her teammates all immediately started digging.
Confessional: Noah
"I knew they would be able to dig faster than us. Everyone left on the Badgers has more athletic ability than me, Cameron, or Harold. And then I had a moment of brilliant inspiration.
"Though I did momentarily forget that we were the ones with the key. Ah well, it helped me avoid manual labor. That's what really matters."
End confessional
"Don't worry, Gwen, we'll get you out of there!" Noah shouted.
"Gwen!" Hearing Noah's words, Trent abandoned his team and started helping the Moose dig.
"Trent, what are you doing?" Duncan shouted. "Get back here!"
Meanwhile, B finished picking the lock on the chest, and Eva got out. "You're a dead man, McLean! I will find you, and they will never be able to identify what's left of you!"
Confessional: Chris
"Better not make threats like that on TV."
End confessional
Even with Trent helping the Moose instead of his own team, the two teams both uncovered the treasure chests at about the same time. However, the Badgers found that they couldn't open theirs. "It's locked!"
Shawn unlocked the chest that his team (plus Trent) had dug up, and Trent helped Gwen out. "Gwen, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, no thanks to Chris," she said.
"Trent!" Duncan shouted at him while attempting to use his pocket knife to pick the lock. "You just cost us the challenge!"
"Let me try," Alejandro offered, taking a pin out of his hair. After about a minute, he finished picking the lock. A very angry Jo burst out of the chest.
"It's about time! Where is McLean? I'm gonna tear him limb from limb!"
Chris, on the barge that he had use to transport the campers two episodes ago, pulled up to the beach, and the interns let down the gangplank.
"You're going to pay!" Eva shouted, and she and Jo charged toward the boat, only for them to be stopped in their tracks by tranquilizer darts.
"Am I going to have to tranq you too?" Chris asked Gwen, who just glared and shook her head in response.
"Okay then. All aboard! And Badgers, I will see you at elimination.
That night at the elimination ceremony, Chris said, "Okay, time to send one of you packing, for good. I have preparations for the merge to make, so let's make this Campfire Ceremony a quick one. Marshmallows go to Bridgette, Duncan, Sky, Geoff, Alejandro, and Zoey.
"What can I say, Trent? Maybe if you had used your brain today just a bit, instead of acting on impulse, you wouldn't be in this position.
"I mean, it only took about a minute for Alejandro to pick that lock, and the Moose aren't nearly as athletic on average as your team, so even with the Moose having the key, if you had concentrated on digging with your team, you could have opened your treasure chest first.
"Then there's you getting your team lost in the beginning to consider-"
"I get it!" Trent shouted. Then he turned to his team. "Sorry, guys."
"We forgive you," Alejandro told him. "Your lapse in judgement is perfectly understandable. Still, you understand we had to vote you out."
"Yeah, if we're being honest, I voted for myself too," Trent said. "I let you guys down."
He then walked down the Dock of Shame, and onto the Boat of Losers.
Chris turned to the others. "The rest of you are safe. For tonight."
Confessional: Topher
"And we have reached our halfway point. Twenty-six campers have been eliminated, twenty-six remain. Who will thrive, and who will fall victim to the merge? Find out next time, on Total. Drama. Island!"
Chris poked his head into the confessional. "What are you doing?"
"Practicing my hosting skills?"
"Well, don't. You don't have what it takes." He then exited and slammed the door.
Topher rolled his eyes. "Well, what does he know?"
End confessional
I'm sorry it took so long to update, but between school and a general lack of inspiration for this chapter in particular, this just wasn't coming together. The next chapter should be updated sooner, I promise.
As for my thoughts on Trent, I'm sorry, but I just don't like the guy. I don't exactly hate him; as bland as he is, he's still not on the level of atrocious writing that Devin and Carrie represent. But honestly, he was so little of a character in his own right that I thought his characterization in Action was an improvement.
Anyway, please leave reviews; they give me motivation to continue working on this fic. And I don't want to be guilty of asking too much, but I might find the motivation to work on this more often if it had, say, a TVTropes page?
I'm just kidding. But...
Elimination order:
52: Dave, the Germaphobe
51: Staci, the Compulsive Liar
50: Dakota, the Fame-Monger
49: Sugar, the Pageant Queen
48: Amy, the Evil Twin
47: Leonard, the LARPer
46: Anne Maria, the Jersey Shore Reject
45: Izzy, the Psycho Hose Beast (still out there)
44: Rodney, the Lovesick Farm Boy
43: Max, the Super-Villain Wannabe
42: Jo, the Take-No-Prisoners Jockette
41: Ezekiel, the Homeschooled Guy
38 (Tie): Gwen, the Loner
38 (Tie): Dawn, the Moonchild
38 (Tie): Eva, the Hothead
37: Ella, the Fairytale Princess
36: Justin, the Eye Candy
35: Cody, the Flirty Geek
33 (tie): Mike, the Introspective
33 (tie): Aiden, the OC Hate Sink
32: Sadie, the other BFFFL
31: Beardo, the Human Soundboard
30: Sam, the Gamer
29: Sierra, the Super-fan
28: DJ, the Brickhouse with Heart
27: Trent, the Musician
