Duncan growled as he was shackled to Cody. "Great! As if I didn't already feel like I'm in prison! Now I'm shackled to a freaking warden!"
"Hey, this is no picnic for me, either," the Warden replied as they made their way to the starting line. "I'm attached to a low-life criminal!"
Duncan's eyes glazed over with anger. "Why, you son of a –"
"On your marks!" they heard over the loudspeaker. "Get set! GO!!"
And the racers were off! …Well, most of them. Chef and Trent were dragging their shackle-buddy, which caused them to be much slower than the rest. Duncan and Cody, however, didn't even move from the starting line (even though the criminal was trying really hard to move forward – Cody's feet were firmly planted into the ground).
"Come on, Cody! If we're going to win this stupid thing, you have to run, too!" Duncan explained.
Cody held up a gloved hand to Duncan's face. "Relax, Duncan. I have an Ace up my sleeve." After he said that, he pulled an Ace of Spades out of his sleeve. "See?"
Duncan slapped himself in the forehead.
-X-
"Izzy! Slow down! I can't run that fast!"
"C'mon, slowpoke! We're in first place! We have to keep this lead!"
"Izzy, everyone else… has to… at least… be a mile… behind us!"
-X-
Trent and Chef were still struggling with their shackle-buddies. Jared was attempting to run back to the starting line because he wanted to get away from Chef, and Lindsay had absolutely no idea what was going on.
"Uhhhhh… What's going on?"
"This! This is insane! I gotta get outta here!"
"Shut up, Maggot! And quit trying to chew your ankle off!"
-X-
"Well… I hope your Ace in the hole is a good one," Duncan sighed, "because I think we're going to lose now."
Cody wrapped an arm around Duncan… three times. "Chill, Duncan. Just watch." Then, he held out his free leg, which began to stretch forward.
And stretch…
And stretch…
And stretch…
-X-
Trent finally stopped. "It's no use. We're too far behind." Chef must've agreed because he stopped, too.
Suddenly, something purple appeared beside them.
"What the heck is that?" Trent gasped.
Jared gave it a close look. "I think… it's the Warden's leg!"
"…Wait, you mean Cody?" the musician asked, startled by the rubber-like limb.
"Yeah."
Suddenly, the leg disappeared as two figures zipped by them.
"He's using his leg like a retracting tape measure!" Jared explained.
"This is crazy!" Trent said in disbelief. He heard an "I know, riiiiiiight?" behind him.
Cody and Duncan continued to zip past the other racers. Eventually, they hit the place where the Warden's foot was embedded into the ground. Their momentum sent them flying toward Izzy and Noah.
Duncan shouted and braced for impact.
Luckily, the Warden was too smart for that. He rolled himself into a ball (which caused Duncan to do so as well, or else he'd be dragged and tumbled painfully across the ground), knocked over Izzy and Noah like bowling pins, and spun his way to the finish line.
When Duncan regained his composure, he realized what happened. "We… We won!"
Cody smirked. "Of course we did. I told you I had an Ace up my sleeve."
Duncan nodded and smiled at Cody. "You know, you're alright… for a warden…"
Cody took no offense. "And you're alright… for a criminal."
Duncan almost took offense, but shrugged it off. He knew he walked right into that one.
Izzy and Noah were next to cross the finish line. As Noah took out his inhaler to catch his breath, Izzy waved at the Warden. "Whoa! That was awesome, Cody! I am sooooooooooooo honored to have known you before you became this AWESOME!!!"
Duncan chuckled. "Looks like you have a fan there, Warden."
Cody chuckled back. "Well… I've always considered myself a role-model…"
-X-
"Congratulations, Cody and Duncan, for such an awesome win!" Chris exclaimed once everyone completed the race. "I wish we would have had a worthwhile prize for you, but I guess these marshmallows will have to do."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Owen cried in sadness.
Cody and Duncan gladly accepted their marshmallows. "So, does this mean we won't be getting voted off tonight?" Duncan asked jokingly.
Someone suddenly tapped the Warden on the shoulder. He turned around, expecting to see Jared on stilts. Instead, he saw a brunette woman.
"Hey. Remember me?"
The Warden felt awkward. He recognized Chris, Chef, Duncan, Owen, and… pretty much everyone else, but he couldn't remember another brown-haired girl being on the show besides Beth and Courtney, and he was pretty sure she wasn't either of them.
"It's me. Gwen."
His eyes widened in surprise. She looked nothing like the Gwen he remembered…
Then again, he changed a lot, too.
"Gwen! You look… different…"
"You should talk, Willy Wonka," Gwen retaliated with a smirk.
Cody blushed. No matter how much either of them had changed, she still seemed to have an effect on him. "Uh… so… What's up? Are you and Trent still…?"
Gwen rolled her eyes. "If you must know, no. We kinda… grew apart. He has his music biz, and I have my art. We just… didn't have a lot of time for each other."
"Oh… That's too bad…"
"Yeah… So, what about you? Do you have a girl? I mean, how can you not when you're dressed like that?"
The Warden was taken back for a second, but then he puffed out his chest. "Oh, you know me: the ladies' man. I can't just settle down with a girl."
Jared couldn't help but overhear. He walked up behind the Warden. "What about Alice?"
Cody wheezed and slumped.
Gwen gave him a sly grin. "Oh, and who is this 'Alice?' How come I've never heard of her yet?"
Cody sighed and handed her a picture of Alice. Gwen's eyes widened, yet her pupils shrunk in terror. "…This is a girl?"
Cody nodded.
"…Okay… Well, I'm not one to judge…"
"Yeah… but something tells me she doesn't like me back. I must be cursed or something… Never to find the right girl… Ah well," the Warden said, his expression changing dramatically. "I still have Superjail, so it's all good."
Gwen, however, did not share his enthusiasm. "Uh…yeah…" She kinda felt bad for him. She had once considered him to be one of the few sane people she met on the island, but now… he seemed to have taken a nose-dive off the sanity ladder. Hell, even Izzy looked up to him.
Suddenly, a horrible thought developed in her mind.
'Did I make him this way…?'