Sole Survivor
Day Thirty-Four
We're heading away from camp early this morning for the reward challenge, with barely enough time to make and eat a hearty breakfast of rice. Pete takes the lead, stalking off through the underbrush to the challenge site. I hold back with Malfoy, who is still feigning a light limp from yesterday's foot stomping incident. Even with everything I've learned about him this last month, it's still very weird to see him not only showing weakness, but faking a weakness for dramatic purposes.
Marcus is waiting for us at the largest challenge beach, standing in front of several large structures. "So, you're now down to five. And with only five days left of the game, this is the last reward challenge. You may recognize some of the equipment behind me – this challenge is going to be a combination of several challenges from earlier in the game."
He beckons for us to follow, and we trail along behind him as he walks along the side of the challenge area.
"You'll start with a small ropes and obstacle course, which you may remember from your very first immunity challenge. After passing through that, you'll come to a puzzle. The pieces are buried in a four-foot by four-foot plot of sand. You must dig up all of the pieces and put the puzzle together correctly. Once you're cleared on that, you'll move on to archery. You must get two arrows to stick in the target. Then you'll move on to the final part, a small maze. There is a flag attached to a key for each of you. Bring that flag and key out, and you've won reward." He pauses for a moment, smiling at us. "Want to know what you're playing for?"
Of course we do. Marcus leads us around to the back side of the maze. "The key you bring out will fit in this." We stop in front of a very large sport utility vehicle. Everyone seems very excited as Marcus explains the make and model – one of the newest and largest SUVs this year. I can't help but think that if I won it I would sell it. My very small car is much better suited to city driving, and my old Stargazer 600 broom is perfect for everything else. Marcus also takes a moment to remind us that they give away a car every year on the show, and so far, not a single person who has won the car has also won the game. It certainly doesn't give me an urge to fight for the car.
We randomly draw for our positions along the starting line. I draw red, right in the middle. I take my place behind the line, and can see all my red straight ahead. Red ropes, a red board for assembling what's sure to be a red puzzle, a red archery target. On my left it's Kiki with yellow and Malfoy with blue on the end, and on my right is Pete with green and Ellen on the end with purple. I'm a little apprehensive about racing next to Pete, but hopefully he wants to win an enormous car more than he wants to sabotage me.
I glance over at Malfoy, who winks at me and then jerks his chin toward Pete. I don't know what to make of that. Either Malfoy is still determined to beat Pete fair and square in a challenge, or he has something planned that I probably don't want to know about. Before I have time to figure it out, Marcus starts the challenge.
I remember the ropes course as I climb through it. A three-dimensional tangle of ropes that must be climbed over and through. Fortunately, I'm pretty small and can squeeze almost straight through the gaps in the ropes. I pull myself out from the end, and see that Kiki and Ellen are both pretty close to me. Pete and Malfoy are both having more troubles, since they're both larger and not able to squeeze through as many tight spots. We ladies move on to the puzzle, the guys just a few moments behind. I'm looking for my pieces with just enough speed to avoid suspicion, but I'm not exactly rushing. Ellen and Kiki are stacking up their puzzle pieces much faster than I am. In the sandbox next to me, Pete is throwing up huge clouds of sand in his usual rushing manner. If a bull running through a china shop could be translated evenly to a man digging through the sand, it would be Pete. All rush and no grace. I get my last puzzle piece and take them all to my board. A quick glance shows Kiki and Ellen already working on their puzzles, and Malfoy just starting on his.
I could use a spell to put my puzzle together, but it's actually nice to put it together using my own brainpower. Even without the help of magic, I still manage to make up some lost time behind Kiki and Ellen. I move on to the archery station just moments after they both do. I shoot a few arrows at my target and manage to get one to stick. Ellen and Kiki aren't having much luck – Ellen sat out the first time we did this challenge because she was such a terrible shot during practice. Malfoy moves into the archery area, and I hear Pete shout behind me for Marcus to look at his completed puzzle. The thought crosses my mind that Pete just doesn't deserve to win a new car. I really don't want it, and Malfoy won't need it either, so I whisper a quick spell at Ellen and Kiki. Both of their next two arrows hit their targets, and they're off to the maze.
Malfoy hits the target twice, and I get my second arrow in. Pete rushes up, misses with his first arrow, then hits the target with the next two. The three of us move to the maze at nearly the same time, but we're all a good minute behind Ellen and Kiki. I take a left turn, but both Malfoy and Pete continue on past me. I wander around down a corridor, find a dead end, backtrack. I'm almost back to the main entrance when I first hear a man shout off to my left, then see Ellen run by, a purple flag clutched in her hand. She rushes out the maze entrance and around the side, and a moment later Marcus declares the challenge over. I leave the maze and wait for the rest of the players to come out. Kiki is first, a dejected look on her face and a yellow flag with a key attached clutched in her hand. Pete is next, flinging his green flag down with disgust. And last is Malfoy, with empty hands but a big grin on his face.
Marcus gathers us all around Ellen's new car. She has a huge smile on her face, and tells Marcus that she's never owned a brand new car in her life.
Marcus smiles. "Not only have you won the car, you've also won an additional prize." Ellen actually gasps. "You can drive your new car down the beach, where we have a gourmet lunch waiting for you. And since lunch is no fun alone, you may choose one of your teammates to go with you."
Ellen looks around at all of us, and then points at Kiki. Not a surprising choice, since Kiki is probably the person Ellen considers her closest friend out of those of us left in the game. Marcus dismisses the rest of us back to camp, then climbs in the backseat. Ellen and Kiki get into the front, and they drive off down the beach.
Leaving me with Malfoy and Pete.
Thank goodness there are so many cameramen around. If not, things could get ugly.
Pete glares around at everyone, then quickly takes off toward camp. Malfoy and I saunter back, losing sight of Pete ahead of us. But even though we can't see him up ahead, it's impossible to miss the sound of him furiously crashing his way through the underbrush. By the time we make it back to camp, we can see a tiny silhouette of Pete far down the beach.
"Well, I guess he's not going to share a gourmet lunch with us." Malfoy smiles. "Want to go get some fish?"
I agree, and we set out in the tiny fishing boat. Malfoy paddles us out far enough that we can easily see both our camp and Pete's solitary figure down the beach. I drop the net into the water and turn to him.
"So, anything exciting happen back there in the maze?"
"Hmm." He closes his eyes and relaxes in the sun. "Pete had a little mishap."
"Such as?"
"Well, from where I was standing, it looked like he was running straight at Ellen. But since it's against the rules to interfere with other players during a challenge," he opens one eye lazily, then closes it again, "I'm sure he wasn't actually going to push her or trip her or anything."
"So what happened?"
"I don't know," he says with a lazy smile, "it's like Pete just tripped over his own feet. He went facedown in the sand, and Ellen had to practically jump over him on her way to the exit."
"Interesting. Just tripped over his own feet, hmm?"
"What can I say, Pete seems very accident-prone when it comes to these maze challenges. Accidentally ran into me in that first one, and now this." Malfoy sits up and looks toward Pete, far away on the shore. "Unfortunately, right after he fell, he saw me looking at him."
I poke his foot with mine, down in the bottom of the boat where the cameras can't see. "So what, it's not like you could make him trip when you were nowhere near him. That would take some kind of magic."
He raises an eyebrow, smiles and plays footsie back. "Yeah, but who knows what conclusions the unstable mind can come to."
After a while, we head back in with two small fish. I worry about sharing lunch with Pete, but he's apparently planning on spending the afternoon in solitude. We can see him far down the beach, wandering between the palm trees and the waterline, sometimes spending quite a while just sitting or standing, looking out to sea.
It's very unnerving. I'd much rather have him here at camp throwing insults around, instead of spending all that time stewing and thinking by himself.
Kiki and Ellen come back in the late afternoon, bearing some leftover food and tales of a lovely lunch together. Pete eventually comes back for a while, but he doesn't say much over dinner and wanders off again afterward. The four of us sit around the fire and watch as he trudges off down the beach.
"I told Kiki, but I'll tell you guys too," Ellen says. "When we were in that maze ... Pete came at me, and I thought for a minute he was going to hurt me."
I nod. "Draco told me that he tripped and fell, though."
"Yeah, he did. But I was really scared for a minute." Ellen looks genuinely concerned, and I can understand what it must have been like, having been on the receiving end of Pete's anger before.
Malfoy clears his throat. "The most important thing is that we can't let him win immunity next." We all nod. "No matter who else wins it, he needs to leave in two days."
The discussion changes to lighter topics, and after a while we all head to the shelter for the night. With only four of us in there, it feels incredibly roomy. By the time I drift off to sleep, Pete still hasn't come back.
Day Thirty-Four
We're heading away from camp early this morning for the reward challenge, with barely enough time to make and eat a hearty breakfast of rice. Pete takes the lead, stalking off through the underbrush to the challenge site. I hold back with Malfoy, who is still feigning a light limp from yesterday's foot stomping incident. Even with everything I've learned about him this last month, it's still very weird to see him not only showing weakness, but faking a weakness for dramatic purposes.
Marcus is waiting for us at the largest challenge beach, standing in front of several large structures. "So, you're now down to five. And with only five days left of the game, this is the last reward challenge. You may recognize some of the equipment behind me – this challenge is going to be a combination of several challenges from earlier in the game."
He beckons for us to follow, and we trail along behind him as he walks along the side of the challenge area.
"You'll start with a small ropes and obstacle course, which you may remember from your very first immunity challenge. After passing through that, you'll come to a puzzle. The pieces are buried in a four-foot by four-foot plot of sand. You must dig up all of the pieces and put the puzzle together correctly. Once you're cleared on that, you'll move on to archery. You must get two arrows to stick in the target. Then you'll move on to the final part, a small maze. There is a flag attached to a key for each of you. Bring that flag and key out, and you've won reward." He pauses for a moment, smiling at us. "Want to know what you're playing for?"
Of course we do. Marcus leads us around to the back side of the maze. "The key you bring out will fit in this." We stop in front of a very large sport utility vehicle. Everyone seems very excited as Marcus explains the make and model – one of the newest and largest SUVs this year. I can't help but think that if I won it I would sell it. My very small car is much better suited to city driving, and my old Stargazer 600 broom is perfect for everything else. Marcus also takes a moment to remind us that they give away a car every year on the show, and so far, not a single person who has won the car has also won the game. It certainly doesn't give me an urge to fight for the car.
We randomly draw for our positions along the starting line. I draw red, right in the middle. I take my place behind the line, and can see all my red straight ahead. Red ropes, a red board for assembling what's sure to be a red puzzle, a red archery target. On my left it's Kiki with yellow and Malfoy with blue on the end, and on my right is Pete with green and Ellen on the end with purple. I'm a little apprehensive about racing next to Pete, but hopefully he wants to win an enormous car more than he wants to sabotage me.
I glance over at Malfoy, who winks at me and then jerks his chin toward Pete. I don't know what to make of that. Either Malfoy is still determined to beat Pete fair and square in a challenge, or he has something planned that I probably don't want to know about. Before I have time to figure it out, Marcus starts the challenge.
I remember the ropes course as I climb through it. A three-dimensional tangle of ropes that must be climbed over and through. Fortunately, I'm pretty small and can squeeze almost straight through the gaps in the ropes. I pull myself out from the end, and see that Kiki and Ellen are both pretty close to me. Pete and Malfoy are both having more troubles, since they're both larger and not able to squeeze through as many tight spots. We ladies move on to the puzzle, the guys just a few moments behind. I'm looking for my pieces with just enough speed to avoid suspicion, but I'm not exactly rushing. Ellen and Kiki are stacking up their puzzle pieces much faster than I am. In the sandbox next to me, Pete is throwing up huge clouds of sand in his usual rushing manner. If a bull running through a china shop could be translated evenly to a man digging through the sand, it would be Pete. All rush and no grace. I get my last puzzle piece and take them all to my board. A quick glance shows Kiki and Ellen already working on their puzzles, and Malfoy just starting on his.
I could use a spell to put my puzzle together, but it's actually nice to put it together using my own brainpower. Even without the help of magic, I still manage to make up some lost time behind Kiki and Ellen. I move on to the archery station just moments after they both do. I shoot a few arrows at my target and manage to get one to stick. Ellen and Kiki aren't having much luck – Ellen sat out the first time we did this challenge because she was such a terrible shot during practice. Malfoy moves into the archery area, and I hear Pete shout behind me for Marcus to look at his completed puzzle. The thought crosses my mind that Pete just doesn't deserve to win a new car. I really don't want it, and Malfoy won't need it either, so I whisper a quick spell at Ellen and Kiki. Both of their next two arrows hit their targets, and they're off to the maze.
Malfoy hits the target twice, and I get my second arrow in. Pete rushes up, misses with his first arrow, then hits the target with the next two. The three of us move to the maze at nearly the same time, but we're all a good minute behind Ellen and Kiki. I take a left turn, but both Malfoy and Pete continue on past me. I wander around down a corridor, find a dead end, backtrack. I'm almost back to the main entrance when I first hear a man shout off to my left, then see Ellen run by, a purple flag clutched in her hand. She rushes out the maze entrance and around the side, and a moment later Marcus declares the challenge over. I leave the maze and wait for the rest of the players to come out. Kiki is first, a dejected look on her face and a yellow flag with a key attached clutched in her hand. Pete is next, flinging his green flag down with disgust. And last is Malfoy, with empty hands but a big grin on his face.
Marcus gathers us all around Ellen's new car. She has a huge smile on her face, and tells Marcus that she's never owned a brand new car in her life.
Marcus smiles. "Not only have you won the car, you've also won an additional prize." Ellen actually gasps. "You can drive your new car down the beach, where we have a gourmet lunch waiting for you. And since lunch is no fun alone, you may choose one of your teammates to go with you."
Ellen looks around at all of us, and then points at Kiki. Not a surprising choice, since Kiki is probably the person Ellen considers her closest friend out of those of us left in the game. Marcus dismisses the rest of us back to camp, then climbs in the backseat. Ellen and Kiki get into the front, and they drive off down the beach.
Leaving me with Malfoy and Pete.
Thank goodness there are so many cameramen around. If not, things could get ugly.
Pete glares around at everyone, then quickly takes off toward camp. Malfoy and I saunter back, losing sight of Pete ahead of us. But even though we can't see him up ahead, it's impossible to miss the sound of him furiously crashing his way through the underbrush. By the time we make it back to camp, we can see a tiny silhouette of Pete far down the beach.
"Well, I guess he's not going to share a gourmet lunch with us." Malfoy smiles. "Want to go get some fish?"
I agree, and we set out in the tiny fishing boat. Malfoy paddles us out far enough that we can easily see both our camp and Pete's solitary figure down the beach. I drop the net into the water and turn to him.
"So, anything exciting happen back there in the maze?"
"Hmm." He closes his eyes and relaxes in the sun. "Pete had a little mishap."
"Such as?"
"Well, from where I was standing, it looked like he was running straight at Ellen. But since it's against the rules to interfere with other players during a challenge," he opens one eye lazily, then closes it again, "I'm sure he wasn't actually going to push her or trip her or anything."
"So what happened?"
"I don't know," he says with a lazy smile, "it's like Pete just tripped over his own feet. He went facedown in the sand, and Ellen had to practically jump over him on her way to the exit."
"Interesting. Just tripped over his own feet, hmm?"
"What can I say, Pete seems very accident-prone when it comes to these maze challenges. Accidentally ran into me in that first one, and now this." Malfoy sits up and looks toward Pete, far away on the shore. "Unfortunately, right after he fell, he saw me looking at him."
I poke his foot with mine, down in the bottom of the boat where the cameras can't see. "So what, it's not like you could make him trip when you were nowhere near him. That would take some kind of magic."
He raises an eyebrow, smiles and plays footsie back. "Yeah, but who knows what conclusions the unstable mind can come to."
After a while, we head back in with two small fish. I worry about sharing lunch with Pete, but he's apparently planning on spending the afternoon in solitude. We can see him far down the beach, wandering between the palm trees and the waterline, sometimes spending quite a while just sitting or standing, looking out to sea.
It's very unnerving. I'd much rather have him here at camp throwing insults around, instead of spending all that time stewing and thinking by himself.
Kiki and Ellen come back in the late afternoon, bearing some leftover food and tales of a lovely lunch together. Pete eventually comes back for a while, but he doesn't say much over dinner and wanders off again afterward. The four of us sit around the fire and watch as he trudges off down the beach.
"I told Kiki, but I'll tell you guys too," Ellen says. "When we were in that maze ... Pete came at me, and I thought for a minute he was going to hurt me."
I nod. "Draco told me that he tripped and fell, though."
"Yeah, he did. But I was really scared for a minute." Ellen looks genuinely concerned, and I can understand what it must have been like, having been on the receiving end of Pete's anger before.
Malfoy clears his throat. "The most important thing is that we can't let him win immunity next." We all nod. "No matter who else wins it, he needs to leave in two days."
The discussion changes to lighter topics, and after a while we all head to the shelter for the night. With only four of us in there, it feels incredibly roomy. By the time I drift off to sleep, Pete still hasn't come back.