Author's Note: Okay, so, this is almost a week later than I promised... heh. My bad. On the plus side though, this chapter is at least twice the length of a usual chapter, so I figure that that kind of makes up for it, right? Anyway, on with the chapter, and be sure to review!
"Good morning Wawanakwa!" Chris blared loudly as he met his contestants for the day's challenge between their cabins. Wally, Geoff and Cody moving slowly from their cabin with fresh, if irritated, faces whilst the girls emerged bleary eyed from theirs'.
"Alright, first thing's first," the host began graciously, "I want to congratulate you all for making it to the Final Six. Over the past six weeks, you've endured the poisonous bugs and the life threatening weather patterns. You've survived each of the challenges we've put before you. You've survived Chef's cooking! Man, if that's not determination then I don't know what is..."
"Anyway," Chris continued. "You've survived all of these and have managed to avoid being stabbed in the back by your fellow contestants... instead, some of you managed to stab them first. Hence why the six of you are here today, rather than them, which, I for one believe is a testament to both your personal integrity and your value to me as ratings bait."
Chris's audience of campers grew grumpier with each sentence (not that he minded all that much), but he figured he only had another minute or so left to explain the day's challenge if he wanted to keep the episode within the allotted time frame.
"Now, for today's challenge, we'll be doing something a little bit differently," Chris delighted in the way that the teens groaned at the word 'differently'. They'd long since noted that whenever their host used a new adjective, it inevitably meant more pain. "For one thing, in today's challenge, there will be two washouts climbing aboard the Boat of Losers."
"You're finally leaving the show?" Heather asked innocuously, the remainder of her fellow contestants chuckled, deeply wishing it were true as Chris's expression momentarily soured.
"No..." he grumbled, before snapping back with his usual aplomb. "Today will also see the formation of three teams of two who will be running the Tri-Armed Triathlon! A race of endurance... strength... speed... and a few other things that have absolutely nothing to do with running an actual triathlon! The winning team will both be granted the coveted invincibility at tonight's Bonfire Ceromony, where two losers will be voted off of Total Drama Island and will be forced to walk the Dock of Shame and catch the aforementioned Boat of Losers."
As Chris finished his explanation, pausing to allow for applause that only he could hear, he inadvertently gave the campers a brief moment to dwell on the immediate situation. Glances were shared between ally and foe alike as an unprecedented urgency for victory engulfed them. Two eliminations in one day? Their odds of survival had just taken an unparalleled turn for the worse... and the challenge hadn't even started yet!
"So..." Cody asked cautiously, "What do we have to do?"
Chris's grin brightened with genuine joy as he pulled a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket. "I'm so glad you asked, Codester."
As one, the Final Six took a nervous step back, gulping audibly as true fear began to flow through their veins.
"There will be three challenges for the triathlon, but we'll get to those in a minute," Chris grinned brightly, motioning towards Chef behind him, inviting him to bring forth the things that would make the challenge... interesting.
From Chef's hands dangled three pairs of handcuffs.
"Geoff and Leshawna, please step forward," Chris demanded happily.
The party dude and the girl with the 'tude stepped forward reluctantly. Very reluctantly.
Once they got within reach, Chef gruffly grabbed Geoff's right arm, trapping it in the handcuffs before attaching the other end to Leshawna's left wrist.
Leshawna eyed the chains disdainfully, before glancing wearily at Geoff, who was scrutinizing the cuffs mournfully.
Seeing confirmation of what was in store for them, both Wally and Cody took an unconscious step towards Bridgette in the hopes of avoiding the sure to be fatal fate of being chained to Heather.
"Bridgette and Cody," Chris called forth, smirking slightly as Cody released a hushed cheer that wasn't so hushed and Wally cursed under his breath.
"Excuse me?" Heather cleared her throat loudly as Cody laughingly thanked his lucky stars as he pulled Bridgette along with him to get their handcuffs, even as the surfer girl offered Wally an apologetic glance. The season's unequalled villain eyed Wally with disdain at the implication that she was anything less than the ideal partner. "Like you could've done better."
Wally raised an eyebrow in disbelief, preparing to argue the point when Chris chirpily called their names, forcing them to step forward and receive their chains.
Wally met Chris's gaze seriously while Chef attached the cuffs to his right arm, "What do I have to do to get out of these things?"
Chris grinned serenely, "Chef? If you would please..."
"Yeah yeah," he muttered irritably, before producing a trio of hooks, latching each of them to one of the chains binding the three teams to one another before turning around and walking in the direction of the main lodge, effortlessly dragging the six teens along with him even as they struggled and debated the legality of the action.
The first challenge was an odd one, even for McLean.
"It's all pretty simple," Chris explained smugly, his contestants seated at a trio of desks, upon which sat individual piles of intricate wooden carvings of 'Total Drama Island's' eliminated contestants. "All you losers have to do is arrange these losers in the order they got kicked off the show to create a camp totem pole of loserdom! Sounds fun, right? Right! Now get started already! We're wasting precious screen time!"
With Chris's signal, Heather immediately dove upon the pile before her. With one arm restrained, she had to make due with only her right arm, grabbing for the small statue of Beth's head.
"Okay, so Braceface was definitely the first to go," she stated confidently. "Pssh, not that she didn't deserve it. Little coward couldn't even jump."
Anchoring the carving to the thoughtfully provided peg in the center of the table, Heather started scanning the remaining lumps of wood for her next target.
"That homeschool kid was next to go, right?" She asked idly, looking for the distinct, and incredibly tacky, headwear the should signal Ezekiel. When her supposed partner did not immediately respond, Heather momentarily paused in her search to glance in his direction.
"Wow," Wally was muttering under his breath as he examined Izzy's wooden replica. "These things are seriously detailed. You can even make out the maniacal gleam in her eyes."
"Hey!" Heather snapped at him. "Trying to win a challenge here! Stop mooning over your girlfriend and help me!"
"I'm pretty sure these are oak too!" Wally continued, soundly ignoring the woman chained to his arm as he tapped the wood with his knuckles. "How the heck does a show with a budget that can't even afford a decent caterer manage to get props like these?"
"Does it matter?!" Heather practically screamed in his ear. In her peripheral vision, she could plainly see that both other partnerships were already producing growing totem poles. "This is a race, remember?"
"Yeah..." Wally drawled out the word for as long as he could, completely ignoring his usual instincts, turning back to meet Heather's gaze lazily. "Don't care."
"What?" Heather seethed, eyes promising bloody death in a manner that had sent grown men screaming.
Wally yawned, before returning to examining various carvings, still marveling over how incredibly detailed the things were.
Heather looked about ready to explode.
"Listen, loser," she hissed viciously. "In case you didn't notice, I happen to like having invincibility. So you are going to help me get it, or so help me-"
"And Cody and Bridgette take the lead with their completed Tower of Losers!" Chris announced proudly, drawing Wally and Heather's attention to the totem pole of eliminated contestants as the geek boy and surfer girl used their free hands to happily high five one another. "With one point for Team Codette, our other partnerships had better get their asses into gear."
Heather's head snapped back to Wally, who had the sheer gall to lean back in his seat actually smile at the fact that he had just lost a challenge.
Stepping back suddenly, drawing her left hand with her powerfully, the handcuff tugged on Wally's right arm, pulling him off balance and sending him stumbling after her.
Barely managing to stop himself before an otherwise imminent collision, Heather stated calmly in a tone that promised retribution if the only resulting action was not unquestioning obedience, "We are going to win the next part of the challenge, or I am going to force feed you your own arm. Got it?"
Wally would never admit it, and the vast majority of people would never be able to tell, but those who knew him best would made numerous copies of the resulting image of the speedster's face as proof that he had once been scared shitless by a girl with nothing more than a glare in her eye and a Queen B attitude.
Heather's prediction/order concerning the next challenge invariably proved prophetic when Chris unveiled the eating competition, much to the frustrated groans of the other contestants.
No matter how often it was proven to him that there would be no doubt of the victor, Chris continued to insist that the audience loved to watch them force the most disgusting 'foods' he could find down their throats.
He was right, of course. It was almost disturbing how much the audience loved it. But the contestants didn't know that. Nor did they particularly care at this point.
Either way, though at first Wally maintained a dismissive attitude towards Heather and the clear intent to not consume a single bite (giving hope to the remaining participants), once Leshawna had managed to get almost half of Geoff's 'meal' into his gullet, Heather got desperate.
Losing patience and very much not liking the idea of being left vulnerable to elimination, Heather promptly grabbed a fistful of food and forcefully crammed it into Wally's mouth, using her remaining hand to try and keep his head in place, even if Wally's own flailing arm's threatened to dislodge it at any moment.
Eyes wide and lungs desperate for air, Wally swallowed, opening his mouth for a deep breath an instant later, only for Heather to take the opportunity to force more and more down his very much resisting throat.
Now, Wally generally ate with a speed that managed to outpace even Owen. Fighting to free up his airways for precious oxygen, this speed was doubled, with Heather only barely managing to keep up as she repeatedly shoved more and more food between Wally's teeth.
This frantic pace, combined with the fact that Cody, Bridgette, Leshawna and Geoff were unable to keep themselves from becoming entranced by the horrific display, allowed the very much resisting partnership to catch up and overtake the previous leaders of the challenge.
"And Team Weather takes challenge number two!" The host proclaimed happily. "Heather, nice work with the force feeding!"
"Happy to do it," she replied, smiling smugly as Wally choked and wheezed beside her, trying to clear his trachea of more than one morsel of food that had done it's best to lodge itself in his throat.
"...you...witch..." he wheezed pitifully, his face red enough that his freckles had faded from his skin.
"On to challenge number three!"
Heather had put her rage on hold whilst Chef dragged the trio of chained partnerships along to the coast, whistling as he dumped each team into a canoe and, dusting his hands cheerfully, walked off.
"Thank you Chef," Chris said as the considerably larger man waved idly over his shoulder, never once looking back, satisfied as he was that his work for the day was done. "Now, for the third challenge in our Tri-Armed Triathlon, you will need to guide your canoes to the nearest point of Bony Island."
"..."
There was a pregnant pause as the teenagers waited for Chris to continue with a heavy 'and' that would speak of ludicrous expectations and unimaginable pain.
When it didn't come, however, Cody was the first to question hopefully, "Is that it?"
"No," Chris grinned happily. "I'll be giving you further instructions once you get there. Now let's get this thing moving! I've got a massage scheduled in two hours and I will not be happy if I have to postpone it!"
"All this harsh living is seriously stressing me out," he continued, rubbing at the skin of his cheek absently. "If I don't relax soon, I swear I'm gonna start getting wrinkles."
"Start?" Heather raised an eyebrow critically as she muttered derisively under her breath.
"Anyway, enough about me," Chris said modestly. Choosing to ignore the spiteful lies of what was clearly a bitter and jealous teenager. "We can save that for later. For now, get your butts into gear!"
The unlikely partnerships of Cody & Bridgette and Geoff & Leshawna quickly began to paddle as best they could, hindered as they were by the fact that each contestant had only a single arm with which to hold and wield their respective oars, but quickly began to make some degree of shaky progress as they managed to cast out from the shore.
Heather, meanwhile, was stuck with a far more awkward situation when it became abundantly clear that Wally was not going to even give off the appearance of making an effort.
"Do you maybe want to actually help me?" She said scathingly, struggling to paddle with a single oar held in only one hand whilst Wally made no attempt to hide the fact that he was lounging behind her.
Ahead of them, she could see that Geoff and Leshawna were paddling in a manner that was sending their canoe spiraling, but Cody and Bridgette seemed to be getting the hang of it.
"Pass," Wally told her offhandedly, bringing a hand to his brow to block out the glare of the sun as he watched Chris's helicopter take off behind them, already on its way to meet the contestants on Bony Island in a way that required absolutely zero effort from the host. "I like my plan better."
"Oh? You have a plan?" Heater asked incredulously, having seen no evidence of such a thing. "Well, please. Enlighten me."
Wally shrugged carelessly, "We continue to sit here for the next hour or so. Either Cody and Bridgette win themselves invincibility or Geoff and Leshawna manage to make for a three-way tie I make sure that we lose the tiebreaker. Either way, you wind up on the chopping block tonight."
Heater's eyebrow twitched. She had seriously been hoping for something more intelligent from the person who, it seemed, had the best chance of kicking her off the show.
"And what about you?" She asked pointedly. "Without invincibility, you'll be on the chopping block too."
"Technically," Wally acknowledged with a bow of his head. "But we both know that the executioner's axe will swing for you first."
"And who do you think he'll swing for next?" Heather asked sharply, now physically restraining herself from attempting to throttle her so called 'teammate'. "Today's a double elimination, remember?"
Wally blinked oddly, as though this thought hadn't really occurred to him, before he shrugged obliviously and went back to his lounging. "Who'd want to vote me off?"
Heather stared at him, mouth agape. She was going to lose the hundred thousand dollar prize because of an idiot.
"EVERYONE!" She screeched, the sheer volume, combined with the unexpected nature of the verbal assault, easily being enough to jolt Wally into terrified attention. "Dear God, you can't possibly be this stupid?!"
"Whoa-whoa-whoa!" Wally tried to calm her, hands held in surrender. "What are you talking about? I'm a freaking genius. I've got a certificate and everything!"
"There is no way that you could possibly be so stupid as to think you can actually survive this round without invincibility," Heather seethed. Frankly, Wally was just thankful she wasn't shouting anymore. The damage to his pride may be greater, but at least he wouldn't need hearing aids later in life.
"Again with the 'hey'," he replied irritably, still having absolutely no clue what the girl was talking about.
"Think about it, moron!" She demanded. "Let's say that you and your little blonde buddies team up and vote me off. That still leaves three votes that you can't control... at least one of which will damn sure be aimed at you now!"
Wally, who had been before preparing a defense, shut his trap for a brief moment in sheer surprise, giving Heather the chance to continue on her bulldozing course.
"As for Cody and Leshawna? Who do you think they'll vote for, huh?" Heather crossed her arms across her chest as she demanded an answer. "Bridgette and Geoff may both be athletic and way too nice for their own good, but you combine all that by actually being smart, though I'm sure as hell not seeing any evidence of that right now!"
Wally blinked as Heather took a deep breath before shouting directly in her 'partner's' face...
"WE FORGED AN ALLIANCE AGAINST YOU TWO CHALLENGES AGO!"
Wally's jaw dropped in singled minded shock as his mind took this unexpected information and performed the most basic of calculations.
At the end of the day there would be a Bonfire Ceremony in which two contestants would be sent home.
Six votes would be deciding the losers' fates.
Between himself, Bridgette and Geoff, there were three votes, a full half of the total, against Heather. Without invincibility, she was leaving the island.
Between Heather, Cody and Leshawna, there were apparently three votes for him.
Wally gulped audibly. He'd be right there with her.
He looked out over the water, seeing that Geoff and Leshawna had finally found their rhythm and were well over half way to Bony Island. Cody and Bridgette were just about to dock.
He turned back to Heather, her chest heaving, her face red and her body shaking with barely repressed rage.
"What are you waiting for?!" He demanded, grabbing wildly for his oar. "Sit your ass down and get that oar in the water!"
Under different circumstances, Heather would have fought against the order, if only to establish who was really in charge. But she had no time for such trivialities at this stage in the game. Right now they both needed to work together if they wanted any chance at that hundred thousand dollar prize money.
She promptly sat her ass down and put her oar in the water, calling out behind her to Wally to 'stroke goddammit', sending their canoe to careening forwards through the water.
They'd lose the first half of this challenge, there was no doubt about that. But if luck (and Chris) were on their side, then they still had a chance to survive this thing.
Judging by the design of the challenge, Chris may have been on their side, but luck sure as hell wasn't.
They had arrived at Bony Island at breakneck speed, not even waiting for the canoe to come to a complete stop on the beach before they jumped into the shallow waves and dashed for the host who waited impatiently for them on the sand.
Chris had given them the same exposition he had the others (though with far less patience than he had for the earlier teams).
The keys to their handcuffs hung in a cave on the far side of the island that was marked for them on their map. The challenge was to be the first team to get to the cave.
"But..." Chris added impishly, just as Heather and Wally prepared to sprint full pelt through across the landscape. "One of you has to ride on the other one's back."
Heater began a tirade of protest that was cutoff before the air even left her mouth when Wally promptly span in a tight circle, his arm, still chained to hers, dragging her in the sudden loop before she somehow found herself riding piggyback atop the redhead.
Chris, a little disappointed by the lack of drama, simply watched silently when Wally then promptly began to sprint inland, idly noticing that the redhead was maintaining an impressive speed even for someone without all the extra cargo.
Still, never one to pass up a joke, he promptly turned to the cameraman, who was, more often than not by this point, completely ignored by the contestants in encounters such as these.
"Hey, Artemis," he said cheekily, jerking a thumb at the duo still visible in the distance behind him. "Check out who's riding your boyfriend. Might want to keep an eye on that in the future."
Smiling satisfactorily to himself as the cameraman confirmed the take, Chris congratulated himself on the joke. It was adult enough to get a few laughs from the older audiences, but it wasn't so explicit that the censors would bug him about it.
Chris sighed happily to himself as he reminded himself of the earlier Heather-Wally blowout in the canoe and the ratings that it would pull in. Not to mention tonight's elimination ceremony.
Some days, it was just plain swell to be him.
Geoff, in terms of build, did not possess a body built for speed. Broad shoulders gifted by nature and bulging biceps earned through a heavy exercise regime had granted him impressive strength, enabling to at least carry his admittedly not small teammate.
But he could only go so fast, and was slowed considerably by Leshawna's weight. As a result, the best he could manage was a walking speed that felt a fair bit faster than it actually was.
In all honesty, he didn't really expect to win this challenge. Leshawna still had hopes of earning a three-way tie and getting a chance at invincibility through a tie-breaker, but Geoff was well aware that Cody and Bridgette just had too much of a lead on them at this point.
He didn't mind all that much though. Losing a challenge was no big. At least so long as he had awesome friends like Wally and Bridge backing him up. After all, they had an alliance.
What possible reason would he have for worrying?
Geoff was brought out of his musings when he felt Leshawna's head twist above him, looking back in the direction they had came, where he could now hear the sounds of grunting getting closer and closer.
"Giddyup Cowboy!" Leshawna immediately commanded, bringing a hand down hard on his shoulder to get his attention. "We've got White Boy and the Queen B incoming!"
Geoff grunted heavily as he automatically poured a little extra strength into his tired limbs, managing to pick up his pace by a fraction, but the grunts of exertion only got closer and closer until Wally was right up alongside him, staring determinedly at the trail ahead and never even slowing from his jog as Heather rode atop him.
Wally passed without a comment, with Heather only bothering to spare them a mocking glance as they raced ahead.
Geoff, unable to match the other boy's pace, let them go, the duo soon disappearing from sight.
"Ooh," Leshawna muttered above him. "It is not gonna be good if they win. What on earth is that girl thinking?"
"No kidding," Geoff agreed, not picking up on Leshawna's descriptors. What was Wally thinking? If he won... then that meant that Heather got invincibility too! "Dude must've finally lost it, stuck with her so long."
Leshawna, caught up in her own musings, completely missed Geoff's comment.
She simply did her best to urge her partner onwards, still hoping that a few unlucky accidents might get in the way of the current frontrunners.
Cody was exhausted. Despite whatever he may have wished, his was not a body that was built for strength or stamina. Quick bursts of speed and dexterity, sure. But not strength. And definitely not for this long.
Granted, Bridgette had been perfectly willing to carry him when it became painfully obvious that Cody couldn't keep up a piggyback ride for than five minutes or so at a time. And she had, in fact, when Cody's aching muscles finally mutinied against him to beat the ever-living crap out of whatever machoism remained in his body.
But Bridgette had soon run into the same problem. She had a swimmer's build which, again, simply was not conductive to hauling weights around for long periods of time. And it wasn't like Cody was that much smaller than her.
So they'd come to the conclusion that they'd carry each other in shifts of five minutes or so, giving the other a chance to rest and recuperate whilst the other put in a bit of legwork.
It worked for them, keeping them both fresh enough that they were able to maintain a pretty decent speed throughout the challenge.
And, considering the lead they'd managed to pull back with the canoes, they didn't see much reason to worry at this point.
It was nearing the end of Cody's turn to carry when they finally reached the clearing and saw it. There, on the far end, just at the base of the cliff... was the cave. Within it hanging so tantalizingly the keys to their chains and the coveted invincibility.
So close... just a little bit further...
And then he heard it. Harsh grunts of exertion, coming from somewhere behind him. And getting closer with every second.
The mind of a mathlete ran through calculations in seconds, determining his unseen opponent's speed from the narrowly spaced sounds of the grunts and comparing it to his own to see that... he wouldn't make it in time. Not at this speed.
Cody didn't turn his head to see who his opponent was. At this point it didn't matter and he didn't have the time to spare besides. All that mattered was that he had to summon every last measure of strength that lay dormant within his scrawny frame and he had precious little time to do it in.
His steps, tired and uneven by this point in the challenge, quickly turned stronger and more sure, his pace quickening as he somehow managed to push himself into a jog, feeling Bridgette flop uncomfortably against his back with each impact of his foot to the ground, each step threatening to unbalance him and his rider and send them crashing to the dirt.
He imagined that the grunts behind him were those of every bully who'd ever tormented him throughout his academic career. Every schoolyard thug who'd ever given him a swirly or stolen his homework.
He imagined that cave as the safety of the classroom, granting invincibility in the form of a crowd of witnesses and a teacher.
As the grunts grew nearer, Cody felt Bridgette turn awkwardly to glance back.
Already halfway across the clearing, the opening of the cave so tantalizingly close, he heard Bridgette's warning that they were closing in.
Doubled over to try and keep his balance, Bridgette flat against his back, Cody used up whatever strength he had left in one final push, sending himself hurtling forward, completely out of control and driven largely by sheer momentum as he tried desperately to move his legs fast enough to keep them beneath him.
He succeeded for all of three steps, before he and his partner were sent careening into the dirt... just inside the lip of the cave.
At the exact same moment that Wally and Heather sprinted through.
"NOW THAT'S GONNA BE A PHOTO FINISH!" Chris hollered from above, shouting through a megaphone outside the window of his helicopter.
Hours later at the Bonfire Ceremony, with the embers and mosquitos flying around them in the dark of the night, the six remaining contestants of Total Drama Island sat, waiting desperately for the verdict.
Chris stood before them, a monitor at his side showing an image of the cave which had previously served as the Tri-Armed Triathlon's finish line.
"I know you're all wondering 'who gets invincibility this week'," Chris told them placatingly, the remote control in his hand as he idly fingered the 'Play' button. "And the answer to your question is on this monitor. A video replay of the finish."
"Who will earn safety from the elimination?" He pondered for the camera. "Who will be guaranteed a place in the Final Four? And who will be cast out in the cold, the risk of ejection from the island hanging over their heads?"
"Will you just play the freaking clip already?!"
Chris frowned at Heather's outburst, grumbling and crossing his arms defensively across his chest. "Sheesh, sorry for trying to add a little drama to Total Drama Island. It's what the fans want!"
He was met with six deadly glares.
"No appreciation," he pouted as he wilted, finally relenting and pressing 'Play'. "I tell ya I get no respect around here."
The clip began, and twelve eager eyes watched hungrily as Cody and Bridgette appeared on the screen, their pace hastening for the cave. As they neared, picking up speed all the while, Wally and Heather appeared behind them, moving at a steady near sprint as they made for the finish line.
And then, when Wally was just on the verge of Cody's heels, the smaller boy gave one last push, sending himself stumbling forwards under his own momentum, even as Wally put on a final burst of speed that put the two neck and neck.
Chris paused the video suddenly, the image freezing in place, before he began to play it frame by frame.
There on the screen, clear as day, one of the boy's heads crossed the lip of the cave just milliseconds before the other followed.
"And, in the twist of the century," Chris announced. "Invincibility this week goes to... Cody and Bridgette!"
The host allowed a brief moment for the surfer girl and geek boy to loudly celebrate, even as Heather let out a screech that could give Black Canary a run for her money and Wally dropped his head in defeat.
Beaten in a footrace on international T.V... even more than losing the hundred thousand dollar prize, he'd never live this down.
Chris sent them into the Confessional Can/Voting Booth after a few more minutes to regain their bearings.
The votes were gathered and tallied by the host, who then attempted to generate untold quantities of drama by prolonging the giving of the marshmallows for as long as he could.
Thankfully, they were almost out of screen time, so Chris didn't get much chance to stall. Handing out Cody and Bridgette's hard earned marshmallows reluctantly, he then turned to the rest of them.
"Today, two of you will be leaving the island forever," he told the four remaining contestants solemnly. "And in a rather unshocking turn of events only two people were actually voted for. What is shocking (to everyone but me that is) is that this is, hilariously, the result of two alliances backfiring horribly upon their primary conspirators."
"Heather. Wally," Chris said simply, tossing the marshmallows absently towards Geoff and Leshawna. "The Boat of Losers awaits."
Heather fumed silently, refusing to scream or curse or otherwise turn her elimination into a spectacle for the viewing pleasure of the wider world.
Wally stood solemnly. It had been too late to stop the others, but Heather had desperately tried to arrange for a temporary alliance against the contestant of his choosing, creating a three-way tie for elimination that could hopefully save at least one of them in a tiebreaker, but he'd refused. He couldn't give Heather a chance to weasel her way back onto the show, even if it cost him the opportunity himself.
After all, the way she played, she was the least deserving contestant on the whole island.
No. Wally had been eliminated fair and square. He'd take his lumps and, frankly, he was kind of glad to be going home.
He and Heather both walked silently towards the Dock of Shame, the other contestants following uncertainly.
Heather boarded the Boat of Losers without a word, leaving Wally standing at the end of the dock.
"Sorry man," Cody offered sincerely.
"I'm not," Leshawna immediately told him, before softening. "But I am still gonna miss you, White Boy."
Wally smiled despite himself and gave a shrug, "Don't worry about it. I probably would've done the same to you guys once Heather was out of the way."
The two cracked an odd mix of smiles and smirks, but nodded in agreement. That was just the way the game was played.
Turning to Geoff and Bridgette, Wally smiled genuinely.
"Y'know, it's funny," he told them, his eyes sweeping over the landscape behind them. "When I first got here, the only thing I wanted to do was leave. Frankly, if it hadn't been for Zeke's big mouth, I would've gotten myself eliminated in that Awake-a-thon thing just so I could go back home and punch Dick right in his ruggedly handsome jaw."
Bridgette snorted at Wally's description. It'd been a while now since she'd even heard mention of the mysterious 'Dick' who'd landed Wally here in the first place, but she couldn't help but wish she could thank him.
"And now, I don't know, I..." Wally turned from Bridgette to Geoff, realizing that he was about to get seriously mushy. He cut himself off, shaking his head with a chuckle. "Man, I'm just seriously gonna miss you guys."
"Hey, don't worry about it, dude," Geoff told him. "After I win the prize money, I'm totally gonna throw us all a wicked celebratory bash."
"Hey!" Bridgette objected humorously, nudging the raging party animal in the ribs. "And what if I win?"
"Okay," Geoff shrugged acceptingly with an easy smile. "Then you can throw the wicked celebratory bash. Probably wouldn't be as righteous as mine would'a been, but I'm sure it'd still be pretty rad."
Wally grinned. "I'd like that guys."
Geoff held out a hand and Wally grabbed it, both of them getting a grip on the other's forearms as they pulled each other in for a bro-hug.
"Make sure you kiss her when one of you wins," Wally whispered as he clapped his friend's back.
"No problems, dude," he promised in turn, clapping Wally's back enthusiastically before speaking normally. "Good luck with Izzy, man. Hopefully she won't do anything too crazy to you when you get back to the mainland."
"Yeah," Bridgette agreed, bringing Wally in for a hug. "I hope you two still manage to be friends."
"Yeah," Wally said honestly, returning the embrace. "Me too. And not just because she knows how to make C4 and almost certainly has the means to put it in my bedroom."
"It'll all work out," Bridgette promised, letting him go. "And make sure you bring Artemis to the party."
"As if she'd let me leave her behind," Wally grinned, before reluctantly stepping back to board the Boat of Losers himself.
"But, seriously, it'll be great," he promised, as Chef started the boat's motor and slowly began to peel away from the docks. "We can all double date."
"..."
Wally would forever treasure the image of Geoff and Bridgette on the end of the docks, the both of them with their usually sun-kissed skin blushing a bright red neon.
The fact that the cameras caught it too was just a bonus really.
And so, however reluctantly, Wally settled down in the boat, just across from the still glowering Heather, as Chef took them back to civilization.
Or... so they thought at least.