PART ELEVEN (The Epilogue)

THE MESS HALL 7:00 AM

The morning was bright and peaceful at the tiny campgrounds, nearly erasing all signs of the turbulent night before. Boisterous commotion echoed from within the walls of the Mess Hall where the twelve campers were requested to meet. Surprisingly, a delectable buffet of pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage and toast (that most doubted Chef had any hand in preparing) awaited them.

Most of the teens were greedily enjoying the "real" breakfast after the heart-stopping six-hour ordeal they'd endured. Owen's tray was of course, piled the highest, but each teen was equally as ravenous in eating. Beyond an array of bruises, cuts and traumatized minds, all the campers were alive, in one piece and in relatively good spirits.

Between the two tables, in a red directors chair sat Chris Maclean, who was equally high-spirited this morning. He was currently engaged in examining the footage of the night's events on a silver laptop. The computer rested gingerly on his left leg, which in turn was propped up by a bench. A large ice bag rested on his knee indicating an injury that most of the campers were not privy too. More glaringly was the large bruise shinning on his right eye that graciously did not diminish his good looks.

"Congratulations teams," he announced over the din. A lone cameraman zoomed in on Chris's face as he spoke, but the egotistical host greeted the camera with a hard scowl. Knowingly the cameraman backed away the focus from his face to the entire dinning hall. Satisfied, Chris continued to the assembly of teens, "I have to say you were all really awesome in this challenge. I mean, talk about drama and raw human emotion! You were all really good sports."

The group grumbled lowly at the compliment, especially Bridgette who glanced down at her scraps and bruises. Even Lindsay and DJ tenderly rubbed the respective lumps on their heads, slightly chagrined about sportsmanship. However, their complaints were cut short when the door swung open, and Heather entered. Even though she was cleaned up, she still looked terrible with the bandages wrapped around the length of her skull. She tenderly felt her broken jaw, afraid her teeth may still fall from that punch Courtney had delivered.

The raven hair teen hesitated at the door when she realized her peers were watching her with cold, disapproving stares. Even Lindsay, who considered Heather her best friend, didn't look pleased to see her. A booming echo interrupted the silence as Trent, Gwen, Leshawna and Owen rose up with their trays and defected to the Bass table. A second later, Lindsay saw she was alone and quickly grabbed her plate to join her team. Fortunately, the Bass gladly made room for their peers, to which Heather rolled her eyes and plopped down alone at the Gopher table. She didn't voice a complaint or concern though since it honestly hurt too much even to scowl.

"Harsh," Chris chuckled, observing Chef entering the hall. He tried to peer around the large man to see if any other stranglers would enter, specifically Courtney and Duncan. Chef knew the question and shook his head gravely, "I don't think they feel like eating right now."

"Eh," Chris shrugged, "Can't blame 'em. So, while I'm sure you're all eager to find out who won this challenge… I thought we'd recap some of the elimination highlights first."

"Wait… this was a challenge?" Lindsay piped in, her blue eyes reflecting her confusion. Everyone was dumbfounded that, even though she was eliminated early on, she still hadn't realized it was a challenge. Chris just looked annoyed with the blonde as he reiterated, "Yes Lindsay, this was a challenge. We were originally planning a game of extreme tag, but that seemed boring, and a little birdie gave me a better idea."

"Tag?" Gwen interrupted, raising an eyebrow, "You threw us blindly into a challenge with no goal and no direction… and it was a game of tag? That doesn't even make any sense, who thinks of this shit? Tag has rules and a safe zone and no one dies. Where was the safe zone?"

"The north dock," their host explained with a frown, "I don't even know why you're complaining, you and Trent made it."

"Oh," the goth smiled, remembering that she and Trent had discovered the "safe zone" and made it there unharmed before anyone else. The duo had a relatively uneventful experience throughout the challenge, to which they should both be grateful. Likewise that meant that Gopher team was the only one to achieve the goal and surprisingly Lindsay picked up that, "So, that's means we won!"

"Lindsay!" Chris pointed at the bubbly teen when she stood up triumphantly, "I'm not there yet, sit down."

"But I wanna know what we won," she pouted, propping her head in her hands. Harold snorted towards the Gopher's, gloating confidently, "I knew it was a challenge before any of you did."

"Is that so?" Bridgette doubted.

"And y'all couldn't have filled any of us in… because… why?" DJ frowned too, being the first player to be eliminated. The entire table focused on the paling red head and he more humbly admitted, "Okay I didn't know right away. Remember how I said you could make fake blood with strawberry Quik? Well it was red syrup on Bunny's fur, not blood, but it was really late in the game when I figured it out."

In reality, Harold chose not to inform his teammates of the challenge. Mostly because of Duncan, who he thought could use a little scare put into him. But that was on a need to know basis, and Harold was the only one who needed to know. Geoff pondered the teen's words, reaching to scratch under his hat when he remembered, "Bunny?"

Swiftly removing the tan cowboy hat from his head, he revealed said fluffy grey fuzz ball resting in a nest of blonde hair. Gently he scoped the tiny rabbit up and gently passed it to the awaiting arms of his teammate DJ.

"Bunny!" DJ cried in joy as he began to cuddle the soft rabbit to his cheek, "I thought he was gone for good."

"Nope, we kept him safe for you dude," Geoff exuberantly raised two thumbs up.

"Thanks man," the gentle giant sniveled as he snuggled his beloved pet.

"That's so cute," Chris sneered, "Are you guys going to let me do this or not?"

"Sorry," a few of the campers apologized.

"Go ahead Chris, reveal all," Trent encouraged, gesturing towards the host.

"Yeah, explain how you pulled this all off." Gwen added waving her fork stabbed sausage, "You convinced all of us that you and Chef were dead. You couldn't have done this alone."

"I didn't. Heather was in on it too," Chris chuckled indicating the Asian teen attempting to hide from any more attention. Harsh glares focused on her again and she mumbled through her injury, "Oh get over it people."

"And my associate who happens to be an outstanding stage technician, costume and makeup artist, martial arts expert and part time self defense instructor."

"That's a hell of a resume," DJ noted dipping a napkin in water to clean off Bunny. Chris happily indicated the kitchen doors, "Everyone, this is Tony!"

The kitchen doors burst open, startling the unsuspecting teens as the masked killer leapt in holding a roaring weed-wacker above his head. Expectedly all the campers, but Heather, screamed at the sight of their nemesis's violent entrance. Harold dove under the table in a heartbeat while Geoff and DJ scrambled away, hugging each other behind the Gopher table. Bridgette seeing that she'd been abandoned for the second time, ignored her jolting fear and crossed her arms in frustration. Lindsay attempted to shield herself behind her arms while Trent fell backwards off the bench, knocking his head against the floor. Owen began to choke on his mouthful of food and Gwen repeatedly slapped the rotund teen on the back. Leshawna sighed, seeing Chris doubled over laughing and lazily propped her head in her hands.

Effectively scaring the campers one last time, the masked assailant lowered his weapon and lifted the mask from his face. A sigh of relief filled the room when Tony revealed himself to be a rather jolly looking balding man with glasses. He really did look like a self defense instructor by the protective headgear he wore. Regardless of safety precautions, the tiny man sported a number of injuries on his face, and a bloodied lip.

"Tony here helped stage many of the 'incidences' you campers experienced last night," the host explained as his colleague moved to stand beside him, "Obviously, he played the part of the killer, costarring myself and Chef when necessary. Chef's main responsibility was to help coordinate us and monitor you guys."

"So all of you were 'the killer'," Gwen reminisced, "That's why we couldn't find your body, because you were out there terrorizing us. That's so… proactive of you Chris."

"I'm still confused," the blonde Gopher expressed again.

"Shocker," Chris replied sarcastically, "Anyway! I got Tony involved because I wanted to make this challenge really extreme and knew he could take it there. Our plan got a little too elaborate though and we realized we needed to have at least one camper in on the challenge. It had to be someone devious enough to play the part, be credible to you guys, and not give the challenge away. That of course was Heather. She was all too happy to help move along this whole "murder mystery," plus, I promised her invincibility if she helped."

The room instantly filled with moans and complaints at the news of Heather being protected from being voted off again. Smugly she stuck her nose in the air, crossing her arms and legs, but mercifully remained mute. Once more Lindsay perked up to share her thoughts with the whole group, "If Heather has invincibility, than that means we won?"

"Yeah… no," Chris frowned again, holding a remote up in his fist. The blonde sunk into her seat again to poke at her food, complaining softly, "But I wanna know what we win."

"Not until I embarrass everyone by showing off how you were caught. This is to help you guys decide who walks the dock of shame later tonight. The winning 'team' is decided by who had the most members left at the end of the game. But first…"

Turning in his seat, Chris pointed towards the hearth where Chef had just finished pushing a large projector screen. He switched off the overhead lights while Chris lightly tapped the touchpad on the laptop. A still image appeared on the screen of DJ, Bridgette and Geoff outside the bathhouse in green tinted night vision.

All heads turned to the screen as Gwen bemoaned, "Terrific, a slideshow."

"Hush," Chris warned, not wanting to be interrupted again, "Showing all the footage would take too long. Anyway, here we have our first victim, DJ. The Bass broke every rule in the book by separating the minute they got here. There's three stalls in there guys, you could have all stayed together."

"He's right," blurted Geoff, "We could have all gone inside!"

The other two Bass team members glared at Geoff's revelation while Chris pressed on in his explanation. Another snapshot flashed across the screen of the Clown Killer lingering behind DJ as he waited alone. In sequence, the next frame showed the masked clown riding him like a bucking bronco and than by him bopping DJ over the head with a frying pan. A few giggles filled the room at the absurdity of the brick-house being knocked out in such a slapstick fashion. The killer than proceeded to splatter fake blood from the canister he carried over the ground, accidentally splashing Bunny in the process. The mishap with the furry pet worked out quite nicely in retrospect after DJ was dragged off into the underbrush.

The next frame revealed Heather, Lindsay and Owen arriving at Chris's cabin, to which their host became a bit more somber in describing, "Yeah, we almost lost it here. We kind of let Heather do her own thing and could have never guessed she was going to bring you guys to the cabin. Chef was staked out there and he was not ready for anyone to get there that early in the game."

"Chef had no idea that they were even in the cabin until he came out to get a snack from the kitchen and saw Owen," the frame changed to a shot of Owen's oblivious face from in the pantry while Chef looked utterly horrified from the outside, "Chef turned off the lights and shut him into the pantry. It was hilarious because he couldn't get out! Chef had to signal Heather to take out Lindsay somehow while he got in costume. She threw a blanket over her head and knocked her out with a vase."

The host began to laugh while the blonde rubbed her head, scowling, "Ow. That really hurt by the way."

"Oh yeah, Heather, you owe me for that vase," the host added to the lone girl.

"And Owen," Chris continued eyeing the jovial boy, "Dude you passed out after seeing the killer. Pretty lame man."

"I was trying to protect you Lindsay," Heather insisted against the annoyed stare of her alliance member. Seeing her obvious doubt, she explained, "I was planning to keep you two safe from elimination in the cabin. Honestly, I no idea Chef was there and maybe if someone had told me…"

Heather attempted to shift the blame off her to Chris, but he easily ignored her and flipped the image. The image revealed Leshawna in night vision wandering off into the woods along. He explained how they'd reorganized after almost mishap and gotten Heather in on the coordination. She agreed to help take out Leshawna and lure her away from the others. Although for Heather this task wasn't in her best interest, since her teammates were quickly dropping like flies from the challenge.

"Oh, I see how it is," Leshawna snapped, shifting her head from side to side, "backstabbing little…"

"I was just playing the game!" Heather shot back, holding her jaw in pain from yelling.

"Ladies!" Chris refereed, "So after Leshawna backed right into the killer, Leshawna tried to make a run for it and fell right over Heather. Too bad Heather screamed when it happened."

"It hurt!" The Asian defended, remembering what happened next, "You'd scream too if a 500 pound whale fell on you."

"What'd y'all call me?" Leshawna shot up from her seat fist raised. Trent and Gwen each hooked one of Leshawna's arms to hold her back while Heather childishly made faces. The outspoken woman decided that Courtney hadn't punched Heather hard enough since she retained the ability to open her annoying mouth. The slide show snapped again to show Heather and Leshawna facing off after she'd tripped onto of the slender girl. Any element of surprise was lost in that moment and the killer had to calmly explain to the teen that they were in a challenge.

"Leshawna reacted pretty well to the news it was a challenge and was a good sport about staying quiet while Trent and Gwen came looking for her." Chris complimented than lifted up the blooded severed arm that the two Gophers had believed belonged to their teammate. Upon closer inspection, the appendage was clearly a badly painted prop.

"Yeah, we were really lucky none of you guys checked any of the bodies. If any of you guys had, you would have seen that they were all fakes."

"Lesson learned," Geoff agreed, "Check the body."

"And don't believe Heather," Gwen grinned. A close-up of Gwen and Trent's horrified faces when they confronted the killer for the first time blinked onto the screen next. Trent was quick to remind their host, "We didn't get caught by killer."

"I know," Chris snickered, "I just love your faces there."

Both the teens groaned at his amusement as he went to the next shot of Geoff running into the forest after Bunny. Chris laughed even harder when he revealed that Geoff actually asked the killer if he'd seen, "a little furry dude hopping around." The party boy just shrugged, unfazed by the next slide of him being karate flipped to the ground.

The next frame showed Bridgette running through the forest and Chris briefly explained, "And than we caught Bridgette."

"Hold on a second," Bridgette protested as the image quickly changed to Courtney's terrified flight through the forest. Everyone watched her in anticipation as she stood tall and pointed to Chris, "I think it would be unfair to everyone to skip this."

"Um… yeah, I'm just trying to get through this," the host claimed slightly nervous, but Leshawna stood next, hands firmly on her hip, "No, what Chris is really trying to say is, he doesn't want anyone to see how Bridgette kicked his ass. His bum knee and black eye are courtesy of our girl here, and let me tell you, it was pretty awesome girlfriend. "

Chris began to look annoyed and impatient as the teens continued gloating on Bridgette's behalf. Anyone who had been eliminated prior was able to witness the rest of the nights events unfold and Leshawna gladly narrated, "That was Chris behind the mask y'all and just when he thought he had her… she kicked him where the sun don't shine. Than when he was all bent over in pain she kneed him in the face until man cried uncle."

Amused looks watched Chris who was still attempting to remain cool and unscathed, "I had no idea she was going to fight back like that. Otherwise I would have sent Chef chasing after her."

"Bridgette's a tough cookie," Geoff beamed, putting an arm around her while she shyly grinned to herself.

"Oh, oh," Leshawna mirthfully pleaded, "as long as we're on ass kickin', let's watch my favorite scene. The one where Courtney kicked Heather's ass. Just a shame that I wasn't able to help."

"I know," Gwen joined, "I so wanted to get in on that fight."

The two girls maliciously glared at Heather who answered with an equally hateful look. Granting their request, Chris flipped through various slides until he reached said catfight between Courtney and Heather. Mortified, Heather sunk down into her seat, knowing she'd never hear the end of it. Playful chatter filled the room again and Chris cleared his throat to gain their drifting attention, "Well, since the only clips left are of Heather's not-so-brilliant tactics, and I don't think you guys can castrate her anymore than you already have… I guess this is as good of a time as any to tell you guys the winner."

He hesitated for a moment to soak up the anticipation in the room. Heather looked quite confident again, while Lindsay looked like the wait was going to killer her. Smiling deviously, Chris motioned towards the Bass table, "The Killer Bass!"

"What?" Heather shot up from her seat enraged, crying over the din of cheers. She winced a little from her injury, "The Bass could not have won. I did everything I was supposed to do! You said the team with the most players left was the winner and we had three!"

"You don't counter Heather."

"Fine, two and they never got caught. Besides, I technically caught Duncan so there was only one 'little fishy' left. I was allowed to do whatever it took and did what it took. One against two, we win!"

"Actually," their host drew out the last syllable, "There were three."

"Three?"

"Yep, Harold," Chris glanced over at the awkward geek a little embarrassed to admit, "We couldn't find him."

"What do you mean you couldn't find him?"

"Yeah, he's a quick little guy. We lost him like five minutes into the chase. Chef couldn't even find him with the cameras."

"I have the mad skills like that," Harold wheezed as his grateful teammate gave him a round of high fives. Even the Gophers were pleased and congratulated them on the win, simply to spite Heather.

"And," Chris continued, "You blew your cover."

"When?" she challenged him.

"Yeah, let me think… how did it go?" Chris rolled his eyes sarcastically.

"When the crazy white girl screamed 'she wouldn't loose'? Or went all psycho with a knife?" Leshawna offered. Chris didn't smile at Leshawna's snide help though, clicking forwards to a still shot of Heather swinging the knife at Duncan.

"You really blew it this time Heather, and you forfeited the challenge when you pulled that stunt. The insurance company is going to be all over my ass."

The raven-haired girl paled a little before slumping back onto the bench. In a much calmer voice, she looked to her host with pleading eyes, "Wait, that doesn't mean?"

"That our little invincibility deal is off? You'll just have to go to the bonfire ceremony tonight to find out, won't ya?" Chris cunningly smiled at the teen while her peers frowned. She knew there was no saving herself if she had no invincibility, her vengeful teammates would be sure of it. Not even Lindsay would stand up for her this time and even if she did, it wouldn't be enough to protect her anyway. Heather was certain this was her last night on Total Drama Island.

While the campers plotted Heather's end, Bridgette quietly stood, taking another tray at the buffet line. DJ noted an unusual choice of seconds, recalling her claims of being a vegetarian, "I thought you didn't eat sausage."

"I don't. I thought I'd go take some food the Duncan and Courtney. See how they're doing."

"Lemme help ya then," DJ offered, standing along with Geoff to check on their fellow team members.

THE INFIRMARY - 7:42 AM

Nine campers proceeded towards the infirmary tent carrying well wishes and food for their friends. Bridgette and DJ lead the procession, both holding a tray with each type of breakfast food, since they weren't sure what to choose. Heather was the only one not making an appearance, well aware that the infirmary was the last place she was welcome.

It didn't take long before the group arrived at the off green tent.

Bridgette and DJ lifted the flap of the tent first, DJ announcing their presence, "Hey guys. Though you might be…"

"Oh," Bridgette gasped as the others gathered around behind her. The teens curiously peeked within, witnessing what had startled Bridgette. A mix of shocked and delighted whispers erupted amidst the teens, to which Bridgette quickly motioned for their silence.

At the back of the tent, on a single cot lay Duncan and Courtney snuggled up to each other fast asleep. The night had obviously taken its toll on them and they looked awkwardly comfortably curled up together. Leshawna began to usher the campers away, deciding that there was no reason to linger about ogling. Besides, they could all use some rest after the challenge. Gone as quickly as they came, neither teen knew anyone had come to see them. It did not matter though as Duncan pulled Courtney a little closer in deep slumber.

A/N: That's the end. This "epilogue" got longer and longer as I went… really is more like Chapter 11, than epilogue. I mean, seriously, the last scene is an epilogue. I hope I did a good enough job of wrapping this up, explaining all the loose ends and making light of the whole thing. A lot of this was just scenes edited out of the original chapters anyway.

I went back and forth so many times about revealing the challenge earlier on, but it never felt right… it took away the "drama". I even went so far to plan out an ending where it really was real and everyone died. Not very TDI-ish though.

And the two questions I predict will be asked - Will Heather be voted off? What did they win? It doesn't matter. This is an AU type story and Heather's fate in this will not affect anything else I write. And I never thought of a prize… I tried, but nothing came to mind. This story is over 20,000 words long and my brain is tired. Hope you enjoyed the ride.