Wally wasn't entirely sure how it happened, but, the night of Sadie's elimination from the Screaming Gophers, the entire remaining cast of Total Drama Island wound up hanging out together at the campfire pit.

This was a fairly unusual happening by its lonesome, given that, due to the competition, the teams rarely mingled, even when they weren't competing in Chris's insane challenges. It was made even stranger, however, when the discussion managed to turn to a share-fest of everyone's worst nightmares.

"My worst fear?" Gwen contemplated the question when it finally reached her, "I guess... being buried alive."

"Oh, right there with ya," Wally agreed, failing to suppress a shiver, "I'm majorly claustrophobic. Being trapped underground... no room to move... I'd go nuts."

"Walking through a minefield," Lindsay stated matter-of-factly, before shuddering in fear, "Wearing heels."

It went on from there, with Owen and Izzy admitting to a shared fear of flying, Geoff fearing hail, Cody having a recurring nightmare where he was forced to defuse a time bomb under pressure... so on and so forth. It seemed that every contestant had a nightmare waiting for them in the shadows. It's a pity that they forgot the cameras, watching and recording them, giving their host everything he needed to make those nightmares a reality.

Wally spent much of the next morning in surprisingly good cheer. He laughed as Leshawna ran past him, screaming in terror as she fled from Chef, who was dressed in one of the sorriest spider costumes Wally had ever seen (and, in his line of work, he'd actually seen quite a few). He chuckled when Izzy and Owen were dragged aboard a (mostly) perfectly functional plane for takeoff. He guffawed when DJ ran away from the world's tiniest snake.

Then Chris dragged him down to the beach and reminded him what he was afraid of.

"No way," he stated with finality, looking at the Plexiglas coffin with genuine fear in his eyes, "There is no way in hell that I'm getting in that thing and letting you bury me alive!"

Chris merely smiled serenely, "Does that mean you're gonna chicken out?"

"Ye-"

"May I remind you that the Killer Bass are currently down 3-1?" He smirked, interrupting Wally's attempts to back out, "And you're already on thin ice if it comes down to an elimination?"

"..." Wally wilted, looking at the freshly dug hole with terror, before Gwen hesitantly placed a hand comfortingly upon his shoulder.

"If it makes you feel any better," she offered nervously, "I'm going down there right after you."

"Actually," Chris corrected pointedly, "We're kinda on a schedule here, this is a 30 minute show after all, so we thought we'd just do your challenges together."

Gwen looked around confusedly, before raising a hand, "Uh, but there's only one box."

Chris grinned, "I know."

Wally's eyes darted from the coffin to Gwen to his own body, his mind making a few quick calculations as to volume. He started hyperventilating.

Gwen was frighteningly close to mimicking him.

"C'mon people," Chris rushed, "We've got a schedule to keep! Are you chickening out or not?"

"We'll do it!" Gwen answered for the both of them, as Wally squeaked.

The goth girl took the lead, dragging an unhelpful but unresisting Wally behind her as she took the final steps to the hole, directing the boy to get into the box.

Wally, taking some very shallow breaths and with great reluctance, lay down in the transparent tomb, his heart racing like a steam engine.

"Your turn, Gwen," Chris said cheekily, watching sadistically as the girl began to lower herself in, clearly intending to have her feet at Wally's head, "Uh-uh. Other way."

"Why?" Gwen demanded.

"We want you to be as cramped and uncomfortable as we can manage," he smiled impishly, "Makes the whole thing more interesting. Plus, I made a bet that you two'd make out. Can't do that if the only part of each other your lips can reach is the other's feet."

Both Gwen and Wally leveled some rather impressive death glares at their host as Gwen reluctantly maneuvered herself to lay down partially atop Wally's chest, both of them shifting a fair amount to try and get comfortable while Chris began to lower the lid.

"Now, we were going to give you a walkie talkie so you could communicate with the outside world," he explained through the small window on the roof, "But, since we've got two of you down there..."

With that, he slammed shut the small window and began using his shovel to pile the sand on top of them, soon blocking out the sky and the light as they were completely buried.

Trapped in the darkness, the only sounds heard being the beating of their own hearts and their harsh, shallow breaths, both teens wished frantically to have been absolutely anywhere else in the world.

Under normal circumstances, were Wally to be in his current position, that being cuddling with a hot goth, he would be experiencing certain... problems. Both physical reactions and the mental screaming that would quickly remind him of Artemis (specifically, the many unpleasant things that the archer would do to him when she found out).

However, seeing as he was currently buried three feet below ground and trapped in an incredibly cramped coffin... his mind was a little more preoccupied, racing a mile a minute with scenarios, each more horrifying then the next, of Chris forgetting to dig them out. One of these scenarios involved being discovered and enslaved by mole people below the ground.

And then he felt Gwen shudder in his grip, definitely suppressing a sob, and he managed to think about something else.

'Don't think about the walls closing in on you,' he thought frantically, feeling Gwen shivering in his grip, clearly terrified even more than he was, 'Don't think about the stale air or the fact that it's going to run out in half an hour if Chris doesn't dig us back up! Just think about her! She's a civilian. She's probably never been in this kind of situation before. She needs help and you are damn well going to give it to her!'

"It's okay," he whispered, one arm pulling her tighter against his chest, "We'll be fine."

"How can you say that?" She hissed, "We're buried alive!"

"They're gonna dig us right back up in a few minutes," he reminded her, sounding infinitely more confident than he felt, "And then you and I can hunt down Chris, shove him down here and see how he feels."

That got a small snort, Wally felt Gwen's hair brush up against his face as her head shifted slightly, "And then we can throw him into the lake with the sharks."

Wally grinned in triumph as he felt her shudders begin to subside, adding to the list that was distracting the both of them, "Screw that, we'll give him to my aunt. He'll be wishing for the sharks."

Gwen actually giggled, "Not a big Chris Mclean fan?"

"More like a serious case of Mama Bear Syndrome," Wally chuckled, "You shoulda seen what she did to my eighth grade P.E. teacher after he tried to fail me."

"Where were your parents?" She asked, still giggling, "Bitching out your Maths instructor?"

"No..." Wally said, switching from cheerful to bleak in less than a moment, pausing for half a second before explaining evasively, "My parents weren't around."

"Oh... I'm sorry," Gwen offered, not really knowing what she was apologizing for, but Wally refused to hear it.

"Don't be," he told her, suddenly turning cheerful again, "C'mon. What else do you want to do to Chris when we get out of here?"

Perhaps, if it were someone else, she might have pushed. But Gwen recognized Wally's tone. So, instead, she grinned to herself as her mind thought up ways to torture a certain TV host, soon coming up with the penultimate torment for him to suffer.

"We could steal his hair gel?"

Wally shifted as he suppressed a snort, bumping Gwen playfully, "Now that's one to remember. Can you imagine? He'd go insane without his hair all styled and crap! And he'd never leave his cabin until they flew out another shipment! We'd be free!"

For a few minutes more, the buried duo talked and laughed as best they could, using any topic they could think of to distract themselves from their growing apprehension until, finally, they heard the glorious sounds of digging above, almost immediately combined with the sharp pinpoints of beautiful sunlight streaming in through the gaps in the sand.

Within moments, Chris Mclean's handsome face was looking down at the two contestants. He did not look happy.

"Damn it," he cursed, almost whining as he opened the lid to the coffin, "You two didn't make out. Now I owe Chef a hundred bucks!"

"Sorry about that," Gwen commented with biting sarcasm, "Do you want to dump the sand back on us and give us a few more minutes?"

"I would very much love that," Chris told her with honest cheer, before his gaze hardened, "And I heard what you said down there, so don't tempt me."

With both the lid and Chris's threat open, both goth and geek almost leapt from the hole, to the cheering of several of their teammates.

"By the way," Chris added darkly as an afterthought, "If I find out any of you have touched my hair gel I can promise you that you'll live to regret it."

By the time of the last challenge, the score was 5-6 in favor of the Gophers, with only Leshawna and Justin failing to confront their biggest fears, a giant spider and mediocrity respectively. Of the Bass, Bridgette, DJ and Geoff were similarly unsuccessful, leaving the fate of the game in Tyler's hands.

If he lost, then the Gopher's won. But if Tyler managed to conquer his fear of chickens, then at least the Bass would have a chance in the tiebreaker.

Unfortunately for the Bass, and for Tyler specifically, the athlete was too chicken to face the chooks, costing his team the day's challenge and getting himself voted off that very night.

Perhaps, his former teammates would later admit, it was a tad unreasonable to blame the loss of the entire team on a single individual. DJ, Bridgette and Geoff had all failed in their challenges after all, so it wasn't like the blame rested entirely at Tyler's shoulders.

However... someone had to go, and, in all honesty, Tyler spent more time making out with Lindsay than he did focussing on whatever challenges they were facing.

Also, as Duncan unabashedly put it... 'better him than someone I actually like'.

"Hey man," Geoff greeted as he casually sidled up to his red headed teammate, looping an arm around the slightly shorter boy's shoulders, "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

Cocking an eyebrow at the party dude, Wally reluctantly agreed, allowing Geoff to steer him away from the cabins.

"What's up?" He soon asked, once Geoff stopped them just at the edge of the woods, releasing his bromantic grip and dropping his cheery exterior to reveal a considerably more nervous individual.

"It's Bridgette," Geoff bemoaned loudly, "I can't stop thinking about her, man, but she won't look twice at me! I need some advice, dude."

Wally blinked at the absurdity of the request, "And you thought that I'd be the one to ask?"

"Well you managed to get Izzy all crazy for ya," Geoff pointed out, "And you seemed pretty cozy with Gwen back in that last challenge."

"Gwen and I were buried alive in a coffin that would barely fit one of us," Wally exclaimed, "And Izzy's crazy towards everyone!"

"Right," he scoffed, eyeing his friend critically, "Are you gonna help me out or not?"

"...look," Wally eventually sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose carefully, "I've got a girlfriend back home, and one thing that Artemis has taught me is that I know absolutely nothing about girls."

"I'm sorry," he continued genuinely, "But I honestly don't know what to tell you besides the classic 'be yourself' bit."

"Well being myself hasn't gotten her attention," Geoff whined, "So I need to try something."

"What are you talking about?" Wally questioned honestly, "Dude, I've seen Bridgette looking at you the same way that you look at her. Trust me, being yourself is working out fine. Just... do whatever comes naturally. And try not to screw up."

"You're a real help, you know that?" Geoff sighed, "I should have asked DJ."

"C'mon, dude," Wally offered consolingly, "We'll work on getting you and Bridge together in the next challenge... just don't do anything huge without running it by me or DJ first."

The Boney Island challenge occurred the day after that conversation, a full three days after Tyler's elimination, and Wally, along with DJ, did their best to help Geoff out.

The unlikely matchmaking duo ran interference for the rest of the Killer Bass, DJ inviting Gwen to join him in his canoe and Wally snagging Izzy, shoving Duncan into Eva to ensure that Geoff and Bridgette went across the lake together and, when Geoff 'sprained' his ankle fleeing from the wooly beavers, DJ and Wally helped him to exaggerate it, even going so far as to carry him atop their canoe as they made their way to the far side of the island.

And, so far at least, it was working fine. The canoe trip had given the future lovebirds a chance to talk and get to know each other, whilst Geoff's accentuated 'injury' tapped into Bridgette's nurturing nature.

"Ten bucks says they're making out by the end of the week," Wally whispered sidelong to a grinning DJ.

Watching as the surfer chick did all she could to make Geoff's position as a temporary invalid more comfortable, DJ chuckled, confidently giving his answer.

"No contest."

"Do you two maybe wanna quit chatting and help us?" Duncan demanded, noticing their lack of motion.

The boys casually raised an eyebrow apiece at the punk, casting a glance from the Killer Bass fire, which was already lit and roaring courtesy of Duncan's handy dandy lighter, to the Screaming Gophers', who were struggling to get so much as a spark with sticks and stones.

"I think we're okay to take a quick break," Wally informed him, before his eyes were drawn to Izzy, carefully scanning her for any more tree sap based explosives that he might have to confiscate. "This contest's in the bag."

"I AGREE, WALLY," Chris screamed down at them from his helicopter, holding a megaphone to his lips as he hung out the side, "SCREAMING GOPHERS! YOU'RE TAKING WAY TOO LONG, SO THE KILLER BASS WIN THIS ROUND!"

There was a brief moment of silence from Chris, as the teams on the ground either groaned or cheered.

"NOW HURRY UP AND GET BACK TO CAMP," he reminded them, "FIRST TEAM BACK WINS INVINCIBILITY!"

And so began the mad scramble to the canoes, a scramble that was ultimately won by the Killer Bass.

That night, the Screaming Gophers said goodbye to Justin, which seemed an odd choice to Wally. After all, the guy was certainly fit and he hadn't exactly done anything that had worsened the Gopher's odds. It seemed that Katie, who still spent most of her time whining about missing Sadie, would have been a better choice.

So, Wally did what he often did when he was confused. He bugged people until he got an answer that satisfied him.

After questioning a few of the Gophers, he noted that only Cody had voted for the model, muttering something about 'competition'. Owen and Trent had seemed somewhat eager to rid themselves of Katie's wailing.

Leshawna hadn't been eager to speak with 'the enemy', but had reluctantly admitted that she'd voted for Heather.

The next person he went to, Lindsay, only told him that Heather had asked her and Katie to vote off Justin. Wally decided that he should probably take his question to the Queen Bee rather than try and draw any more answers out of the kindhearted, but extremely absentminded, girl.

"Cody may be worthless in the physical challenges," Heather told him blatantly, once he'd caught up to the most outspoken Gopher outside the main lodge, "But when he pulls his head out of his ass and stops hitting on anything with breasts he's probably the smartest contestant we've got. And Owen may stink like a pig on a hot summer's day, but he and Trent can do any of the physical challenges Justin can, only they don't whine about it nearly as much."

"What about the girls?" Wally pressed curiously.

Heather shrugged, "Nothing really, I just didn't want to hand the boys the power to vote off whoever they wanted. Now, can I go and eat? Or do you have any more pointless questions?"

"Nah," he waved her off, content with the explanation he'd been given, "I'm good. Thanks, though. I owe you one."

"I'll remember that," she told him, "Assuming you survive long enough for me to need a favor."

Wally gave a brief pause as Heather turned to walk away. He wasn't sure he liked the sound of that.